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a r t i c l e 3 7 0 W H at N e X t F O r J & K ?
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rni no. 28587/75

independence day special

patriotism
Prominent indians on what it means to them
GoPalkrishna Gandhi l lt. Gen. d.s. hooda l swaPan dasGuPta
alok rai l salman khurshid l arkotonG lonGkumer l t.m. krishna
rama BijaPurkar l amish l meGhna Gulzar l ruchir joshi
 DIGITAL EDITION

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A R T I C L E 3 7 0 W H AT N E X T F O R J & K ?
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AUGUST 19, 2019 `60

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ag
RNI NO. 28587/75

INDEPENDENCE DAY SPECIAL

_m
PATRIOTISM
PROMINENT INDIANS ON WHAT IT MEANS TO THEM
m
GOPALKRISHNA GANDHI z LT. GEN. D.S. HOODA z SWAPAN DASGUPTA
ALOK RAI z SALMAN KHURSHID z ARKOTONG LONGKUMER z T.M. KRISHNA
RAMA BIJAPURKAR z AMISH z MEGHNA GULZAR z RUCHIR JOSHI
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EXCLUSIVE MULTIMEDIA CONTENT

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ONLY FOR IPAD

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THE BIG STORY

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DOWNSIZING KASHMIR
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UPFRONT THE PEOPLE'S MINISTER

COVER STORY INDIA ON THE FIELD
COVER STORY SONGS OF FREEDOM
COVER STORY A NEW SORT OF FREEDOM
UPFRONT RATIONALISATION AT THE COST OF RIGHTS?

#PATRIOTISMTODAY
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FROM THE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
O
NE WOULD HAVE THOUGHT patriotism is
like motherhood. Not much to debate about.
Apparently that’s not true. It is in fact a many-
splendoured thing. Much like a rainbow but
with many shades of grey. I discovered this after
reading the brilliant essays in this issue written by an eclectic
group of 11 intellectuals. We invited them on the occasion of
Independence Day to consider the many meanings and con-
sequences of patriotism, for India today and indeed for India
of the past. By illuminating the many aspects and complexi-
ties of Indian patriotism, we hope to hold a mirror up to the
country at what feels like an inflection point in its history.
It is particularly relevant in today’s environment when
people are routinely being accused of being anti-national,
and nationalism is being confused with patriotism.
Also because we live in interesting times. Across the
world, we are witnessing the resurgence of strong national-
ist leaders who profess love for their country. Patriotism, we
nj
find, is now increasingly veering towards nationalism—an
ideology premised on an individual’s loyalty and devotion
e/
being above the interests and opinions of others.
.m
Patriotism has found a new meaning in India. We saw a
national election which foregrounded nationalism and the
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rise of a party. Love for one’s country is a concept that can
be deployed in many ways—to unite or divide, to celebrate
s:
or destroy. When does patriotism turn into nationalism and
tp
when does nationalism become jingoism?
Our Independence Day special, curated by Managing
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Editor Kai Friese, offers a salon of stellar writers. In the spirit
of a salon, we have divergent views on the changing nature of
patriotism. It has been looked at from the perspective of poli-
tics, films, cricket, the military, of marketing and of history.
Salman Khurshid, lawyer and politician, says national-
ism is devotion to your own—even sometimes to the detri-
ment of another—while patriotism is striving to uphold the
honour and respect of one’s country even in the face of pain
and deprivation. For filmmaker Meghna Gulzar, on the other
hand, patriotism is a personal emotion, like religion.
Former bureaucrat Gopalkrishna Gandhi elaborates
on why love for the country has a flip side—hate—and why
two emotions in one heart are an unnatural and unhealthy
state for a Republic to be in. Expounding on the nationalist
challenge mounted by the BJP and the invocation of Bharat
Mata, journalist-MP Swapan Dasgupta examines the equa-
tion of national unity with Hindu cultural nationalism.
For popular writer Amish, patriotism is civilisational, a
collective belief in an ancient civilisational way in which we
can imagine India . We are defined not by who we were, but
by who we are: inheritors of a great civilisation.
Marketing professional Rama Bijapurkar explores
how consumer brands continue to celebrate and recognise
Our Aug. 20, 2018 cover
India’s unity in diversity. Author Ruchir Joshi traces the
transformation of an Indian obsession—cricket—and won-
ders if the game now played by an aggressive, world-beating
side comes with political overtones.
Academic Alok Rai fears the nationalism of ‘New India’
must inevitably entail violence. Former Northern Army
Commander Lt General D.S. Hooda argues that while pa-
triotism is always present at the back of a soldier’s mind, it is
not considered a major factor with which you can motivate
men going into battle. He quotes writer George Orwell on
patriotism: “By patriotism, I mean devotion to a particular
z
place and particular way of life which I believe to be the best
ag
but have no wish to force on other people.”
_m Sociologist Arkotong Longkumer highlights the clash be-
tween the ethnic homeland politics of India’s Northeast and
the overarching ideology of Hindutva that professes a unitary
territorial reality at its core. Carnatic vocalist T.M. Krishna
m
explains why patriotism in its essence is not obedience or
faithfulness but the celebration of questioning and free will.
THE NUANCES OF PATRIOTISM and nationalism that
played out this week are a subtext in realpolitik. The NDA
government made an historic decision in dismantling Ar-
ticles 370 and 35A, and reducing the state to two Union ter-
ritories—Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. This is a seismic
shift in the political landscape of the country. Kashmir has
been a festering sore in Indian politics for the past 72 years.
Just about everything has been tried—from insaaniyat to
military force—but nothing has changed. The constitutional
legalities of this audacious act will continue to be debated,
but it has shifted the whole paradigm in this troubled state as
well as in our relationship with our neighbour.
The move is based on the premise that it will bring rapid
economic development to the state. J&K will now be better
integrated economically with the rest of India as previ-
ous restrictions will be lifted. I believe there is no better
integrator than markets. They will bring connectivity, em-
ployment and investment in social infrastructure; overall,
better lives for the citizens of the state. Had this been done
70 years ago, there would have been no Kashmir problem.
However, if the promise of economic growth is not fulfilled
now, we will not only be back to square one but worse. It
also marks a return to the question: what is the government
going to do for the rest of India’s sagging economy?
Enjoy reading this special issue which celebrates the
Indian spirit of inquiry and the freedom to do so. I wish you
all a Happy Independence Day.
(Aroon Purie)
 INSIDE
UPFRONT LEISURE
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GOPALKRISHNA GANDHI l LT. GEN. D.S. HOODA
s:

SWAPAN DASGUPTA l ALOK RAI l SALMAN KHURSHID

ARKOTONG LONGKUMER l RAMA BIJAPURKAR l AMISH
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T.M. KRISHNA l MEGHNA GULZAR l RUCHIR JOSHI

PLUS PHOTO FEATURE
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Volume XLIV Number 33; For the week

August 13-19, 2019, published on every Friday
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 UPFRONT
INDEX: VIOLENT
CRIMES AGAINST
WOMEN PG 5
OBIT: SUSHMA
SWARAJ
PG 8
s:
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RATIONALISATION AT THE
COST OF RIGHTS?
T
wo labour reform bills intro-
duced by the government in the
Lok Sabha on July 23 evoked
sharp reactions from various stakehold-
ers. While the Code on Wages Bill, 2019
was passed by Parliament, the other
bill—the Occupational Safety, Health
and Working Conditions (OSHWC)
Code, 2019—is still pending in the Lok
Sabha. On the face of it, the two bills
look designed to ensure worker welfare
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L A BOUR R EFOR M
By Kaushik Deka
as well as facilitate ease of business. The
Code on Wages Bill seeks to improve
the wage and bonus payments rules,
besides mandating a national minimum
wage, and the OSHWC aims to improve
working conditions. In November 2018,
the International Labour Organization
said that 31 per cent of Indian workers
were working in unhealthy conditions
while around 41 per cent of them said
they were poorly paid, giving India
NRC: WHO’S IN,
WHO’S OUT?
PART II PG 6
UAPA: WHO IS THE
REAL TERRORIST?
PG 1 0
a bottom-end rank of #19 among 22
countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
The bills are being marketed as
the government’s push to reform and
simplify the country’s complex labour
laws. For instance, ‘wages’ alone has 11
definitions under different laws. The
new proposed law will consolidate all
central laws into four codes—wages,
industrial relations, social security,
and industrial safety and welfare. The
Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
UPFRONT
Code on Wages Bill subsumes four
central labour laws—the Payment of
Wages Act 1936, the Minimum Wages
Act 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act
1965 and the Equal Remuneration
Act 1976. The OHSWC clubs together
13 laws, including the Factories Act,
the Contract Labour (Regulation and
Abolition) Act, the Interstate Migrant
Workmen Act and several other laws
specifically regulating beedi workers,
cinema workers, construction workers,
dock workers, plantation workers and
motor transport workers, sales promo-
tion employees and working journal-
ists. It reduces 622 sections in all the
laws to a total of 134.
I
ndustry watchers have hailed the
two bills as a positive step towards
increasing ease of business in
India. M.S. Unnikrishnan, chair-
man of the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) National Committee on
Industrial Relations, has said that the
new codes will help address violations
of minimum wage provisions and the
exploitation of labour. But the opposi-
tion, labour unions and some labour
law experts accuse the government of
diluting existing labour protections.
s:
They also dispute the government
claim that the Wage Code will impact
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the lives of 500 million workers,
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pointing out that the Code applies
only to establishments with 10 or
more employees, in effect neglecting
85 per cent of India’s labour market.
The bills also look to reduce safety
inspections for companies employ-
ing fewer than 500 people. And the
entire information technology sector,
governed by a separate act, is beyond
the purview of the bills.
Tapan Sen, former Rajya Sabha
member and general secretary of the
Left-backed Centre of Indian Trade
Unions (CITU), claims that the govern-
ment’s Code on Wages Bill has not laid
down any formula to determine mini-
mum wages, leaving the entire exercise
to the discretion of the central advi-
sory board. The government has also
rejected the recommendation to limit
the number of working hours in a day to
14 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
eight. He adds that certain provisions
of the bill dealing with minimum wages
only mention their applicability to
“employees” and not “workers”, who are
defined and treated as distinct. But Jeet
Singh Mann, a labour law expert who
teaches at the National Law University,
Delhi, argues that employers cannot
take advantage of such semantics.
“This is a drafting mistake,” he insists,
“and totally unwarranted. But the law
has been categorical about the rights
of the labourers and no worker will be
impacted because of this.”
Other experts have pointed out
loopholes in the bills, which tilt the bal-
ance in favour of employers rather than
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THE OPPOSITION,
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LABOUR UNIONS
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AND LABOUR LAW
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EXPERTS HAVE
.m
ACCUSED THE
GOVERNMENT OF
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DILUTING EXISTING
PROVISIONS
PROTECTING
WORKERS
those they are supposedly intended to
benefit. The Code on Wages insulates
the principal employer from liabilities
and shifts accountability, in the case
of irregularities, to contractors sup-
plying workers. “This will encourage
further contractualisation of labour,”
wrote Akriti Bhatia, a Ph.D. scholar
at the Delhi School of Economics, and
Chandan Kumar, who works with the
Working Peoples’ Charter collective.
Several additional provisions are
also seen as facilitating the exploi-
tation of workers. Apprentices, for
example, will no longer be consid-
ered employees though they often do
the work assigned to contractual or
permanent workers. Surprisingly, the
code mentions a provision on “employ-
ees below 15 years of age”. “This could
be seen as a step towards legalisation
of child labour,” say Bhatia and Kumar.
Experts have also criticised the in-
corporation of the draconian provision
of “recoverable advances”. It might lead
to distressed and vulnerable migrant
labourers employed in the informal sec-
tor, who are willing to accept advances,
becoming entrapped in bonded labour.
This also violates the Supreme Court’s
legal presumption that clearly links
advances to forced labour.
An even more striking blow in
favour of employers are provisions
that decriminalise the non-payment
of wages and reduce current penalties
in case of non-compliance. According
to Mann, it’s enormously “damaging
that there is no protection available to
an employee who may file a complaint
against his employer. The person
can be thrown out of work the next
day”. He adds that Section 20 of the
Code on Wages Bill, 2019 allows an
employer to deduct eight days of wages
if an employee stays absent without
notice for just one day. This provision,
he says, goes much further than ‘no
work, no pay’ by enabling employers to
effectively steal their workers’ wages,
permitting them to extract several
days of work for free.
The conversion of labour laws into
four codes was first mooted by the
UPA, but it didn’t have the numbers
in Parliament to forge ahead. This bill
was first introduced in the Lok Sabha
in August 2017 and was referred to the
Parliamentary Standing Committee,
which submitted its report in Decem-
ber 2018. The bill, however, lapsed after
the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.
The new bill incorporates some of the
recommendations of the standing com-
mittee. “There is no dearth of labour
laws in India,” says Mann. “What we
have not seen is proper implementa-
tion; that is where the problem lies.” It’s
a perennial complaint. n
 INDEX

Beti Bachao
The young woman who accused a BJP legislator in Uttar Pradesh of rape
and was critically injured in a car ‘accident’ has been moved to AIIMS,
Delhi, on the orders of the Supreme Court, which also directed that all
cases related to the Unnao rape be moved to Delhi and trials completed
within 45 days of the CBI completing its time-bound investigation. The
grisly circumstances surrounding the young woman’s rape, the physical
intimidation and suspicious deaths of her family members prompted
a UP schoolgirl to ask a senior state police officer, during a school
visit, how they could guarantee her safety should she be the victim of
“someone powerful”. The statistics are not reassuring. Data from the
National Crime Records Bureau for 2017 and 2018 has been delayed, for
unspecified reasons, but the 2016 numbers show a substantial rise in
crimes against women but a significant decrease in convictions.

z
ag
83% 39 38,947 _m
rise in crimes crimes against rapes reported
against women women per hour in India in 2016,
m
between 2007 in India (2016), up up from 36,735
and 2016, says from 21 (2007); (2014); 26.6%
nj

NCRB; 338,954 55.2 crimes per convictions in

cases reported 100,000 women in 2016, lower than
e/

in 2016 2016, 41.7 in 2012 in 2014 (34.5%)

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14.5%
s:
tp

of crimes against women

in 2016 recorded in UP,
ht

12.4% of rapes; 99.1%

of cases of sexual
violence against women
in UP estimated to go
unreported

36.7% 5.4% 22%

of “ever-married” women (15-49 Indian women
women in UP years) say their experienced
have experienced husbands have physical violence
spousal violence, used physical force only; 1% sexual
says National to have sexual violence only; 5%
Family Health intercourse against both; only 14%
Survey 4 (2015-16) their will (NFHS 4) seek help

24,212
FIRs relating to child rape filed
between Jan. 1 and June 30,
2019, says SC; Trial begun
in 6,449 cases (26.6%), 911
(3.8%) resolved
25
in MP given death sentence
since May 2018, when max.
punishment for “aggravated
penetrative sexual assault” of
children was amended

Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

UPFRONT
N RC
WHO’S IN,
WHO’S OUT
PART II
By Kaushik Deka
O
n August 3,
thousands of
people from
Assam whose
names had been included
in the state’s draft National
Register of Citizens (NRC)
published last year received
notices asking them to
appear before designated au-
thorities for re-verification—
in some cases, hundreds of
kilometres away from their
ht
homes—within two or three
days. For instance, some
residents of Sontoli village,
in Kamrup district, were
asked to appear for hearings
in Golaghat, some 450 km
away. As a result, these no-
tices caused panic among the
recipients—most of whom
were Muslim farmers and
daily-wage labourers.
The notices were in di-
rect contravention of an order
passed by the Supreme Court
on April 10, instructing NRC
authorities to ‘ensure that
no inconvenience is caused
to the persons required to
attend the hearing, and see
that they are not required
to travel long distances, if
16 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
VERIFICATION Officials check documents at an NRC office in Dhubri
possible’. The re-verification
procedure approved by the
Supreme Court also states
that authorities are to ‘ensure
nj
that the applicant is served
e/
the notice at least 15 days
prior to the hearing’.
.m
Questions have also
been raised about the tim-
//t
ing of these notices—they
s:
were issued just two days
after Assam’s minister of
tp
commerce and industry,
transport and parlia-
mentary affairs, Chandra
Mohan Patowary, ques-
tioned the efficiency of state
NRC coordinator Prateek
Hajela in the state assembly.
Patowary also revealed some
confidential numbers—the
Supreme Court had sought
this data from NRC authori-
ties in a sealed envelope—to
highlight anomalies in the
NRC update process.
However, what is most
curious about Hajela’s
decision to send out these
notices is that it contradicts
his own submission to the
apex court on July 23. At
the time, he had stated
that there was no need for
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ag
_m
further re-verification, as immigrants, and will [ask]
over 7.2 million people—27 the Supreme Court for close
m
per cent of those included in scrutiny [of this] in the next
the draft NRC—had been hearing, on August 7. The
re-verified already. “Perhaps verification must not be a
he wants to please someone. farce like the one conducted
He knows that such notices by Hajela,” says Abhijit
will create logistical issues, Sarma, head of Assam
which may help the NRC Public Works, an NGO, who
authorities exclude more had filed a PIL in the apex
names. However, I believe court in 2009 demanding
that this NRC includes [the an update of the NRC. (The
names of] many illegal current exercise is the conse-
INDEX
India’s Streaming
Wars
Netflix has blamed the first drop in its US subscriber
numbers since 2011 on price hikes announced in
January. In India, a huge and growing market for
Netflix, the streaming service has taken the opposite
tack—announcing a lower-price option for mobile
phone and tablet use only. In India, the company faces
stiff competition from Amazon Prime and local player
Hotstar, which dominates audience share, in large
part due to its live sport broadcasts. Netflix does earn
substantially more money per user. Accounting firm
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) estimates that India’s
video-streaming industry will be worth Rs 12,000
crore by 2023, recording the highest growth rates in the
country’s overall media and entertainment industry.
 The Supreme Court bench,
headed by Chief Justice of
India Ranjan Gogoi, rejected
the plea on the grounds of
Hajela’s submission that 27
On August 3, per cent of the names in the
thousands draft NRC had already been
examined. The court, how-
of Assam ever, extended the deadline
residents by a month—to August 31—
recieved to carry out quality checks
notifications and tie up loose ends. (The
BIJU BORO/GETTY IMAGES
percentage of names excluded
from the draft NRC is lower
in the Bangladesh border
districts compared to the rest
of the state,” says Patowary.
“Even Assamese people
have been excluded from the
NRC,” says state BJP presi-
dent Ranjeet Dass.
That is also why the BJP
is anxious to amend the
Citizenship Act, 1955, to

from the NRC final NRC was to have been
asking them published on July 31.)
The BJP’s discomfort is
to appear for somewhat understandable.
re-verification According to several NRC
officials, a large number of
provide a route to citizenship
for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist,
Jain, Parsi and Christian im-
migrants from Afghanistan,
Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Though the Citizenship

z
Hindus and tribals have been Amendment Bill, intro-

quence of that PIL.) is not happy with the current
And it’s not just Sarma state of the NRC in Assam.
who is unhappy. Though Bearing this out, the Assam
Union home minister and government and the Centre,
nj
ag
excluded from the register,
while most people from
_m
districts near the Bangladesh
border—which are perceived
m
as being dominated by illegal
Muslim immigrants—have
duced in the Lok Sabha in
2016, covers refugees from
the three nations, it was
primarily aimed at protect-
ing Bengali Hindu migrants
from Bangladesh. However,

BJP president Amit Shah both run by the BJP, had made their way into the as the Modi government
e/

has often said that the NRC requested an extension of register. For instance, the ex- could not get the bill passed
will be extended to all states the NRC deadline to carry clusion rate in South Salmara in the Rajya Sabha during
.m

in India—the Union home out a sample re-verification was 7.22 per cent, Dhubri its previous term, the bill
ministry has issued circulars of 20 per cent of the names 8.26 per cent and Karimganj lapsed. Prime Minister Modi
//t

to all state governments, in the register from districts 7.67 per cent, while the aver- and home minister Shah
s:

requiring them to build bordering Bangladesh, and age exclusion rate across the have, however, reiterated
detention centres to house a 10 per cent re-verification state is 12.15 per cent. “It is that the BJP is committed to
tp

illegal immigrants—the BJP from the remaining districts. a matter of concern that the having it passed. n
ht

25.3 MILLION `11,976 CRORE $2.28 54 MINUTES

viewers simultane- PwC’s estimate of Average revenue per is how long Indian
ously watched the the value of India’s user (on 50.8 million consumers spend
India-New Zealand video-streaming users) earned by each day watching
cricket World Cup industry by 2023. In streaming platforms online videos, says
semi-final. Some 2018, the industry in India in 2019. media agency
100 million watched was valued at Expected to decline Zenith. Up from 9.4
India beat Pakistan Rs 4,464 crore to $1.96 in 2023 minutes in 2013

300 MILLION $116 MILLION 100 MILLION 14%

monthly users for revenue in the Netflix’s goal for of Indian users
Hotstar. Dailyhunt Indian video Indian subscribers. would pay higher
has 190 million, streaming segment It currently has fees to stream
TikTok 129 million, in 2019. The US about 4.1 million, videos without ads,
with Amazon Prime leads at $11.4 billion; with a total of 148 says a research
and Netflix both China is second million globally, report from
below 15 million at $1.8 billion in 190 countries Brightcove Inc

Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

 REUBEN SINGH

UPFRONT

O B I T UA RY

The People’s
Minister
By Balbir Punj

I
n 1999, Sushma Swaraj
contested from Bellary,
Karnataka—this was
when the Bharatiya
contest. She stood from
Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh
and won. Though the party
suffered a scathing defeat,

z
Janata Party was not well winning just 116 seats, the

known in the state and no
one had heard of either the
BJP or Sushma Swaraj. The
battle was a tough one. She
was taking on Sonia Gandhi
of the well-entrenched
ag
BJP had come a long way, up
from just two members of
_m
Parliament in 1984. This was
partly because of the efforts
m
of the team, which included
Swaraj, picked by L.K. SUSHMA SWARAJ 1952-2019
nj

Congress party, but Swaraj Advani in the mid-1980s to

e/

was quick to embrace the build the BJP’s parliamen-

challenge. She engaged two tary strength to a target of
.m

tutors to teach her Kan- 200 MPs. The other mem- Sushma Swaraj a full-time external affairs
nada and, using all her bers were Narendra Modi,
played a crucial minister of India.
//t

skills and photographic Pramod Mahajan, Venkaiah As foreign minister,

role in building
s:

memory, within a fortnight Naidu, Arun Jaitley, Ananth she broke the mould. The
she was addressing rallies in Kumar and Govindacharya. the BJP, where profile does not entail any
tp

fluent Kannada. I person- She played a crucial role in she was widely interaction with people,
ht

ally checked with a few local

journalists on her Kannada
and everyone agreed that she
really did pull it off. Her dic-
tion and choice of words were
perfect. And though she lost
by just about 50,000 votes,
she won many hearts.
Swaraj took on every
role—parliamentarian,
party worker, minister—with
a dogged determination, per-
sistence and honesty which
was uniquely hers.
In 2009, the party
decided that Swaraj was
among the stalwarts who
would campaign but not
contest, but on this occasion
she made her preferences
clear and was allowed to
building the party where she
was widely regarded as an
indulgent ‘didi’.
The same year, Swaraj
also took charge as leader
of Opposition in the Lok
Sabha from Advani, fiercely
articulating their point of
view and holding the ruling
government accountable.
This was at a time when
several scandals, such as the
coal and telecom scams, were
rocking Parliament daily. A
gifted orator, particularly in
Hindi—considered by many
to be in the same league
as Atal Bihari Vajpayee—
Swaraj communicated the
party’s stance with precision.
In 1998, when Vajpayee
regarded as an
indulgent ‘didi’
asked her to take over as
the chief minister of Delhi,
Swaraj was reluctant to
move from national to state-
level politics, but took up the
challenge all the same.
Among the many ‘firsts’
to her credit, Swaraj had
the distinction of being the
youngest-ever minister at
25, the minimum prescribed
age. She was the first-ever
woman spokesperson of a
national party and the first
woman to be appointed as
but she changed that and
became the first minister
to use social media to make
herself more accessible. In-
dians from across the world
reached out to her and were
seldom disappointed.
Swaraj was Indian to
the core, but global in her
outlook. She was a full-time
politician and career woman
and also a family woman,
embodying Indian tradi-
tions and culture. Irreplace-
able, Swaraj will always be a
role model to all those who
wish to join public life. n
Balbir Punj is a
two-time MP and a former
colleague of Sushma Swaraj

18 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019

 TRANSFER
TALES
N CP and Congress leaders
who crossed over to the BJP
are having a rough time. Possibly
used to more easygoing chief
ministers who wouldn’t turn down
an official in matters of transfers
and postings, a senior Congress
leader, recently inducted as
minister in the Devendra

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

Fadnavis cabinet, was taken

z
by surprise when told that, once

ag
approved by the CM, the transfer
_m file could not be seen by anyone
else. Turns out, Fadnavis, like
Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
likes to keep a tight grip on
m
governance.
nj
e/

GL ASSHOUSE
.m

PMO CERTIFICATION NORMS

//t

SUBIR HALDER
s:

T
he Prime Minister’s Office, in Modi 2.0, is tightening its grip on the ministries.
tp

The buzz is that the PMO is rejecting ministers’ recommendations for office
staff, be it for personal secretaries or officers on special duty (OSDs). Even
ht

recommendations for renewal of tenure are being spiked. Pending recommendations

include those from the Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu, and senior cabinet
ministers Nitin Gadkari and Dharmendra Pradhan. Given the high rejection rate, the
Bs in Her Bonnet
PMO has now asked the department of personnel and training (DoPT) and ministers
to informally discuss the names before sending them up. The alternative on offer is
to choose from a PMO-approved list of officers.
W est Bengal chief minister
Mamata Banerjee ’s
suggestion to rename the state
‘Bangla’ in Bengali, ‘Bengal’ in
English and ‘Bangal’ in Hindi
was dismissed by the Centre.
She is now rooting for Bangla.
GURU TO ALL CMs It is, unfortunately, also Bengali

H yderabad-based godman Tridandi Chinna

Jeeyar seems to have made a hobby of collecting
chief ministers. In November 2016, Telangana
slang for country liquor. PM
Modi was non-committal when
the TMC raised the name issue
CM K. Chandrashekar Rao had invited him to in a recent meeting. The BJP
inaugurate his nine-acre office-cum-residence, wants to retain ‘West’ to remind
Pragati Bhavan. More recently, Andhra Pradesh CM people of the Partition, plus
Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy paid his respects to him, ‘Bangla’ could be confused with
while B.S. Yediyurappa, determined to complete a the neighbouring Bangladesh.
full term as Karnataka CM—having failed to do so With the BJP looking to unseat
thrice—made his way to Jeeyar’s ashram on August 1 the TMC in 2021, what the state
to spend a night there. unit says will carry weight.
P. ANIL KUMAR

—Sandeep Unnithan with Anilesh S. Mahajan, Amarnath K. Menon, Sahil Joshi and Romita Datta
 UPFRONT
POINT OF V IEW
WHO IS THE REAL
TERRORIST?
By Colin Gonsalves
O
n August 2, Parliament passed the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention)
Amendment Bill, (UAPA) 2019.
The amendment introduces, in an earlier
incarnation of the law—the UAPA 1967—a
small but venomous change, allowing for the
notification of individuals as ‘terrorists’; under
the earlier UAPA, only organisations, not
individuals, could be so notified. Unlike general
criminal law, the UAPA allows the State to keep
a person in custody for six months without a
_m
chargesheet, and the provisions for bail make
it near impossible for an accused person to
m
actually secure bail. UAPA prosecutions in the
country are based on tenuous evidence or none
nj
at all and often result in acquittals only after
e/
10 or so years of rotting in jail. A study of these
cases shows that the purpose of prosecution is
.m
not conviction but to keep political opponents,
against whom there is no evidence, in jail for
//t
as long as possible. Even though the trial may
s:
end in acquittal, from a policing point of view,
the purpose of the State is served by keeping
tp
intellectual adversaries incarcerated for
ht
indefinite periods, without the legal obligation
to show reasonable cause.
The amendments are unconstitutional
for the simple reason that they allow the State
to notify a person as a terrorist without a
The UAPA procedure established by law. For a law to be
amendments constitutional, it must not be arbitrary; adverse
are unconstitu- consequences can only be imposed on a person
tional for the through a lawful procedure. Not to give a
person notice of what s/he is being charged
simple reason with, and without giving the person a chance
that they allow to prove that s/he is not a terrorist, is patently
the State to unconstitutional, and will not stand up to
notify a person judicial scrutiny in Indian courts. The fact that
as a terrorist there is a post-stigmatising procedure for being
without a taken off the list has been held in law to be no
procedure remedy at all.
established What is crucial, however, is the
government’s stated intention of how this
by law amendment is proposed to be used. This is
where the terror of the State comes in. It is
to be used, in the words of the government,
to clamp down on “propaganda” and “urban
Maoists”, which generally means possession
of revolutionary literature. If the prosecutions
of the past one year are anything to go by,
those who made cartoons against government
officials, journalists like Kishore Chandra
Wangkhem, who used swear words against
z
his chief minister, and journalists on whose
ag
computers the works of, say, Mao Tse-tung
are found will all be prosecuted as terrorists
without ever throwing a bomb or firing a gun.
It’s time for civil society to challenge such
prosecutions in the High Courts and the
Supreme Court to put an end to such terrorist
activities perpetrated by the State. Starting
from the Constitution Bench decision in Kedar
Nath Singh, 1962 to Balwant Singh’s case from
Punjab (1995), only an overt act attracts the
charge of terrorism. The right to free (political)
speech is practically absolute. In the Balwant
Singh case, a young man came out on the streets
of Chandigarh and made a speech asking people
to take up arms and fight for Khalistan. He was
prosecuted and convicted. When the case came
up in the Supreme Court, the State was asked
whether the accused had, having made such
a speech, taken any further steps to realise his
passion for Khalistan. The answer was negative
and he was acquitted. In a similar case from
Srinagar, a young man exhorted the public to
take up arms against the State and fight for
Azad Kashmir, but did nothing more; that case
too ended in an acquittal.
The sweeping and indiscriminate use of
criminal law against persons who commit
no crimes except articulating a passionate
political opposition to the State is a modern
form of state terrorism. Those in positions of
power who speak against terrorism are often
themselves terrorists. n
Colin Gonsalves is a designated Senior
Advocate of the Supreme Court and founder of
the Human Rights Law Network
Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
ht
tp
s:
//t
.m
e/
nj
m
_m
ag
z
The Big Story / J&K

DOWNSIZIN
z
ag
_m
m
nj
e/
.m
//t
s:
tp
ht

HOMING IN
Amit Shah announces
scrapping of J&K’s
special status in
Parliament on August
5; being greeted by
PM Modi after the
passing of the bill
G KASHMIR THE MODI GOVERNMENT
‘DILUTES’ ARTICLE 370
TO STRIP KASHMIR OF
ITS SPECIAL STATUS
AND BIFURCATES
J&K INTO TWO UNION

z
TERRITORIES. WILL IT

ag
MAKE OR BREAK THE
_m
TROUBLED REGION?
m

By Uday Mahurkar and Kaushik Deka

nj

with Abhishek Bhalla in Srinagar

e/
.m
//t

O
n the morning of August 5, locals
s:

in Jammu and Kashmir woke up

to a communications blackout and
tp

a curfew. While they were asleep,

ht

signal bars on mobile phones van-

ished and the internet was turned
off. In a first in recent years, land-
lines too were severed. India’s
northernmost state, it seemed,
had travelled back in time. Thousands of paramilitary person-
nel, most of whom had been flown in on giant IAF C-17 heavy-
lift aircraft in several waves over the past few days, fanned out
into the streets to enforce the curfew. Ten days before the 72nd
anniversary of India’s midnight ‘Tryst with Destiny’, the stage
was being set for another tectonic shift: the ‘dilution’ of Article
370 of the Indian Constitution and the bifurcation of J&K to
create two Union territories—Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
The passage of the J&K Reorganisation Bill by Parliament on
August 6 means India now has 28 states and nine Union ter-
ritories. It is the first time a state in the country has been
turned into a Union territory.
Article 370 was a ‘temporary provision’ included in the
Constitution on October 17, 1949. It exempted J&K from
the Indian Constitution and permitted the state to draft its
own constitution. Its dilution has done away with all of the

AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 13

The Big Story / J&K
erstwhile state’s special powers, includ-
ing that of the state legislature to draft
its own laws on all subjects other than
communications, defence and foreign
affairs. Gone also are J&K’s own con-
stitution, flag and penal code.
The air had been thick with specu-
lation over the preceding days. On Au-
gust 4, the Amarnath Yatra was abruptly
called off and pilgrims and tourists told
to leave the Valley. The trigger was said
to be the discovery of a terrorist plot to
attack the pilgrimage. Journalists were
shown a US-made sniper rifle, an IED
and hand grenades as evidence of ma-
levolent intent. Firing resumed along
the Line of Control (LoC) with Paki-
stan, with the Indian Army using 155
mm Bofors howitzers—among the rare
instances of the use of this heavy calibre
along the LoC since the 1999 Kargil war.
There was also an encounter, with the
army claiming that five men of the Paki-
stan Border Action Team, or BAT, had
been shot dead in the Keran sector. They
wanted Pakistan to take the bodies back.
WhatsApp forwards filled the in-
formation vacuum—from messages
suggesting the possibility of a massive
s:
anti-terror operation to one coming
close enough by predicting that a tri-
tp
furcation of the state was on the cards.
ht
The government issued ultimatums to
tourists to leave Kashmir and police-
men visited hotels to ensure they com-
plied. Recalcitrant guests were asked
to report to Srinagar airport and some
were flown out in IAF transport.
On July 22, US president Donald
Trump had stunned New Delhi by
claiming Prime Minister Narendra
Modi had asked him to mediate in
Kashmir. The statement, made in the
presence of visiting Pakistan PM Im-
ran Khan, was immediately denied
by India’s ministry of external affairs
(MEA). The US, New Delhi suspects,
was playing the Kashmir card in lieu of
Pakistani assistance in getting its troops
out of Afghanistan before the US elec-
tions in November 2020. There was thus
a certain urgency within the government
to push the dilution through.
14 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
In the Rajya Sabha, the BJP might politics of Kashmiri leaders. “People are
have been eight seats short of a ma- confused right now. There is apprehen-
jority, but the House passed the J&K sion; nobody is sure what lies ahead,”
Reorganisation Bill with a two-thirds he says. The BJP, meanwhile, was in
majority. The BJP even had the sup- raptures. ‘Ab desh mein ek vidhaan, ek
port of hostile political parties such as samvidhaan aur ek nishaan (One leg-
the AAP, TDP and BSP. Ally JD(U) op- islation, one constitution and one flag
posed the bill, but by staging a walkout, in the country now)’ ran the slogan in
it indirectly helped the BJP. its party offices.
MISSION KASHMIR
W
hen the decision to scrap
J&K’s special status hit Soon after the Rajya Sabha passed the
the Valley, it was greet- J&K Reorganisation Bill, PM Modi
ed with befuddlement walked up to his home minister. Shah
and public anger over bowed reverentially and touched his
the abruptness of the move. Most peo- forehead to the PM’s hand. The PM pat-
z
ple, however, were simply confused.
ag
ted him twice on the back. It was public
“We just have to accept whatever has acknowledgement that Shah was the
happened. Time will tell what impact
_m author of this historic move.
this will have on the people of Kash- When it came to J&K, Shah was a
mir,” Rais Ahmed, a businessman in man with a plan. “The only solution to
m
Srinagar, said. the J&K problem,’’ he had told india
Within hours of Union home min-
nj
today in 2017, “is removal of [Article]
ister Amit Shah’s August 5 speech in 370. It will be one bitter dose, but it will
e/
Parliament, former chief ministers Meh- solve multiple problems in one stroke.”
booba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, who
.m
The BJP, he had then predicted, had
were under house arrest from the night the will to do it “in future”, conscious
before, were taken into custody. Muzaf-
//t
that the party was running a coalition
far Ahmad, who runs a shawl business, government in J&K with the Peoples
says the move has brought an end to the Democratic Party (PDP), which op-
ARTICLE 370
A CHEQUERED HISTORY
The various milestones in the journey of the constitutional
provision—from its creation to ‘dilution’
October 26, 1947 April 1948 October 17, 1949
The Maharaja of The United Nations Directed by Nehru,
Kashmir, Hari Singh, Security Council (UNSC) cabinet minister in-
signs the Instrument of calls for a plebiscite in charge of Kashmir, Sir
Accession with Prime Kashmir. Since Pakistan Gopalaswami Ayyangar,
Minister Jawaharlal refuses to withdraw drafts Article 370 since
Nehru whereby Kashmir troops, Kashmir is part- B.R. Ambedkar refuses
decides to join India. The itioned. Pakistan retains to do so. India adopts
first India-Pakistan war ‘Azad Kashmir’ as well as Article 370, conferring
breaks out Gilgit-Baltistan special status on J&K

TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/ GETTY IMAGES
The Centre’s jurisdiction is
restricted to key areas, such
as foreign affairs, defence
and communications
Sept.-Oct. 1951
First election held in J&K.
The Sheikh Abdullah-led
Jammu & Kashmir National
Conference (earlier Muslim
Conference) wins all 75
seats. UNSC declares that
elections cannot be a substi-
tute for plebiscite
February 1954
The Bakshi Ghulam Moham-
nj
e/
.m
//t
s:
tp
ht
mad-led regime in Srinagar
ratifies the Instrument of
Accession after Sheikh
Abdullah develops cold feet
and is incarcerated
November 17, 1956
The state adopts a constitu-
tion defining J&K as part of
India. It comes into effect
on January 26, 1957. Govind
Ballabh Pant, then Union
home minister, declares in
Srinagar, the capital city,
“Jammu and Kashmir is an
integral part of India”
z
ag
_m
m
1965
Pakistani militants begin
insurgency in the Kashmir
Valley. Maqbool Bhat and
Amanullah Khan launch a
plebiscite front—the Jammu
and Kashmir National Libera-
tion Front (NLF). Operation
codenamed Gibraltar by
Pakistani terrorists leads
to full-scale hostilities
between India and Pakistan.
In January 1966, a historic
agreement is signed in
Tashkent where both sides
agree to revert to the pre-
1965 position
AUGUST 19, 2 019
BATTLE
ZONE
Curfew imposed
in Srinagar on
August 5
1971
Third war between India
and Pakistan leads to the
liberation and creation of
Bangladesh (erstwhile East
Pakistan). Pakistan premier
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Indian
prime minister Indira Gandhi
sign the Simla Agreement
the following year, whereby
the Kashmir issue is to be
settled only bilaterally. The
ceasefire line is henceforth
to be treated as the Line of
Control (LoC)
INDIA TODAY 15
The Big Story / J&K
posed any such move.
The BJP’s 2015 pact with the PDP to
form a government was a halfway house.
Shah had already begun studying what
he saw as the problems faced by both
Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris due to the
controversial Article 370. Its abolition is
one of the three cornerstones of the RSS’s
core political ideology. The other two are a
uniform civil code in the country and the
construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The BJP has made a beginning on all three
issues in the first two months of its second
consecutive term at the Centre. Shah, who
took over as home minister on May 31, im-
mediately set down to work on Article 370.
For him, it was the only way to solve J&K’s
problems, be it terrorism or the state’s per-
ARTICLES 370 AND 35A
MYTHS AND FACTS
Q. Have Articles 370 and 35A to the Indian Constitution
been repealed? and fly the Indian flag.
A. Article 370 hasn’t been repealed;
a presidential order has ‘diluted’ its Q. Will J&K have a chief
scope, making the Indian Constitu- minister?
tion and laws passed by Parliament A. J&K is now a Union territory like
applicable in J&K. However, Article Delhi or Puducherry. It will have a
35A is now void—its provisions res- legislative assembly and the leader
of the single largest party or coali-
ted on the framework of Article 370.
tion will be chief minister. However,
policing will remain with the Union
Q. What is the current
government, and the Indian Penal
status of Article 370?
Code will replace the former state’s
A. It remains, but is toothless. One
Ranbir Penal Code.
if its own provisions—Clause 3—was
used to nullify it. Clause 3 allows
Q. Can outsiders now buy
the President of India to modify
property in J&K?
provisions of Article 370, provided
A. As it stands now, yes. Article
he has the consent of the Con-
35(A) ensured only “permanent

z
ceived backwardness. It reportedly took all stituent Assembly that drafted the
residents” are entitled to property

of Shah’s persuasive abilities to bring on
board the two most influential persons in
the government—PM Modi and defence
minister Rajnath Singh.
Shah felt the government had to strike
while the iron was still hot; the euphoria
ag
constitution of J&K. A presidential
rights, employment in state govern-
order on August 5 construed the
_m ment, scholarships and other social
reference to the Constituent Ass-
benefits. With the deletion of this
embly as the Legislative Assembly
article, any Indian citizen from any
of J&K; and as the legislative
part of the country will be able to
m
assembly is in suspension and J&K
buy property in J&K, take a state
is under central rule, Parliament
nj

over the BJP’s 303-seat victory in the Lok government job and enjoy state
is deemed to have assumed the
Sabha election was yet to subside. Ap- benefits such as scholarships.
e/

role of the legislative assembly. A

Children of a woman marrying
proval for the proposal rested on the home statutory resolution by Parliament
.m

outside Jammu and Kashmir will not

minister’s confidence and his assurance to
the PM that the consequences of the move
//t
recommended that the President
lose property rights. The Centre,
declare all clauses of Article 370
however, is believed to be contem-

could be handled. National Security Advi- inoperative in the state.

plating laws along the lines of those
sor (NSA) Ajit Doval and law and justice
s:

in hill states like Himachal Pradesh

minister Ravi Shankar Prasad were con- Q. Can J&K retain its consti-
limiting the types of land outsiders
tp

tution and flag?

sulted next. Shah wanted to know how the can purchase.
A. No. The state will now be subject
ht

government could go about it. B.V.R. Sub-

ramanyam, an IAS officer of the Chhat-

ARTICLE 370
A CHEQUERED HISTORY

February 1975 1989-90 Gawkadal. President’s rule Mohammed militants on the

Sheikh Abdullah returns as
CM and continues till 1982
1987
Massive rigging of state as-
sembly polls helps NC leader
Farooq Abdullah come to
power. It instigates an armed
insurgency, led by the Jammu
Kashmir Liberation Front
(JKLF) backed by Pakistan-
based terrorists
Militants take aim at anyone
close to the establishment;
Kashmiri Pandits bear the
brunt, over a 100 killed in
1990 alone. Next decade sees
exodus of 150,000 Pandits
January 1990
Farooq Abdullah resigns as
CM to protest against the
killing of Kashmiri demon-
strators by CRPF troops at
comes into force. The Centre
imposes Armed Forces
Special Powers Act (AFSPA)
under Governor Jagmohan
July 1999
Kargil war erupts follow-
ing infiltration by Pakistani
militants and soldiers
October 1, 2001
Suicide attack by Jaish-e-
legislative assembly in Sri-
nagar, followed by the attack
on Parliament on Dec. 13
February 10, 2013
The hanging of Afzal Guru for
his alleged role in the 2001
Parliament attack sparks
protests in the Valley
May 2014
PM Narendra Modi invites
tisgarh cadre, was another key person loop were the Union home secretary,
in the loop. He was posted as J&K chief chiefs of the Research and Analysis
secretary in June to conduct a ground Wing (R&AW) and IB, chiefs of the
assessment and send feedback about the three defence services, external affairs
probable implications. minister S. Jaishankar, the principal
The countdown to the dilution of secretary to the PM, the cabinet secre-
Article 370 began the day the govern- tary, the President of India as well as
ment began putting separatist lead- officials associated with the drafting of
ers under house arrest. However, the the bill and the resolution to be passed
house arrests of Hurriyat leader Mir- in Parliament.
waiz Umar Farooq and others on June Shah’s planning was meticulous.
22 were described as pre-emptive ac- As D-day drew closer, the Amarnath
tion ahead of the third anniversary of Yatra was truncated and pilgrims sent
the killing of mili- back on what now
tant Burhan Wani. appears to be a ruse.
Sources close to the The army said it had
establishment say The next step is unearthed a cross-
this wa s the star t likely to be border conspiracy to
into the Valley (the actual number is
thought to be much higher). They
joined the nearly 300,000 army per-
sonnel already posted there to guard
the borders with Pakistan and for
counter-terrorism operations. Advi-
sories issued to 12 states to keep an eye
on communally sensitive areas were
now extended to all states. Communal
hotspots in the Kashmir Valley were
put under drone surveillance.
Jaishankar briefed the envoys
of several nations on the proposed
move in J&K, to convince them of the
soundness of the Indian position. A
senior government official involved
in the strategy says the foreign policy
outreach was necessary. “The his-

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of the government’s delimitation of target the pilgrims. tory of the past 70 years shows that

ag
‘Mission Kashmir’.
the J&K legislative Shelling along the western nations and Islamic coun-
Given the Modi gov- LoC was stepped up. tries have often taken a pro-Pakistan
assembly, where the
ernment’s inscrutable
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Sources said keeping stand on J&K,” the official said. The
ways, no one knew for seats are heavily the LoC hot meant world was largely acquiescent and the
skewed in favour
m
sure what was going multiple things. One UAE, a prominent Organisation of
on. There were some of the Valley of them was to warn Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member,
nj

hints, though. On Pakistan against any called the move ‘an internal matter’
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July 20, a senior In- misadventure. An- of India. While Pakistan’s shrill re-
telligence Bureau (IB) other was to confuse sponse found no global echo, the UN
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official told an event organiser to drop the terrorists on Indian territory as well on August 6 urged both countries to
a proposed seminar on Kashmir’s prob- as the Pakistanis of India’s intent. It was exercise restraint. Pakistan PM Imran
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lems because “something was to happen unlikely India would simultaneously Khan warned of more Pulwama-like
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within a fortnight”. embark on attacking the LoC and take suicide attacks and an India-Pakistan
By late July, around the time the tough action in the Valley. war—a statement possibly aimed at
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government finalised its plan, the Doval played a pivotal role in what his domestic audience. On August 7,
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number of those in the know had was to happen next. Over 45,000 para- Pakistan announced it was suspend-
grown to nearly two dozen. In the military troopers were reportedly flown ing bilateral trade with India and re-
called its acting high commissioner
from New Delhi.

his Pakistani counter-
part Nawaz Sharif to his
swearing-in. Later, India
scraps talks with Pakistan
after its high commis-
sioner invites Hurriyat
separatists for consulta-
tions
2014-15
Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed becomes chief
minister in a PDP-BJP
alliance government
April 4, 2016
Mehbooba Mufti becomes
the state’s first woman
chief minister following
a delay of three months
after her father’s death
July 8, 2016
Hizbul commander Burhan
Wani is gunned down in an
encounter with the J&K
police, leading to violent
protests and the imposi-
tion of curfews
June 19, 2018
Mehbooba resigns as
chief minister, Governor’s
rule imposed
August 5, 2019
The Modi government
scraps J&K’s special
status granted under
Article 370 and bifurcates
the state into two Union
territories: Jammu &
Kashmir and Ladakh
—Ajit K. Jha
T
he Modi-Shah-Doval
trio planned for the
government to send
out pro-Kashmiri sig-
nals after the dilution
of Article 370. BJP and RSS leaders
were told to be restrained in their cel-
ebrations. The party line adopted was
to explain how Article 370 had stifled
Kashmir’s development, kept people
backward and only made certain po-
litical families prosperous. It’s worth
noting here that while economic
growth in the state has been fitful and
per capita income below the national
average, the poverty rate in J&K was

AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 17

CHANNI ANAND/ AP
s:
half the national average and the state’s
human development index was above
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the national average.
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During his 2017 visit to Jammu,
Shah had invoked the death of Bharati­
ya Jana Sangh (former avatar of the
BJP) founder Syama Prasad Mooker­
jee to justify the repeal of Article 370.
Mookerjee was arrested by the J&K
police in May 1953 while protesting
against the state’s special status. His
death in police custody a month later
still rankles with BJP leaders.
ROCKY ROAD AHEAD
Shah’s next step is delimitation of
the J&K legislative assembly, where the
number of seats is heavily skewed in
favour of the Valley despite the region
being smaller than Jammu in size and
population. The move, says a govern­
ment official, is to end the current prac­
tice of the single largest party, usually
18 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
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from the Valley, choosing a CM candi­
date. It will shift the focus towards the
Hindu­dominated Jammu region.
The Valley has been numbed by the
move and the presence of security forces
in such huge numbers. But is this the
lull before the storm? Security forces on
the ground in Kashmir fear a volcano is
waiting to erupt. “I won’t be surprised
if militancy gets a push in these cir­
cumstances,” says a young J&K police
constable on condition of anonymity.
“The people are feeling cheated. The
youth are vulnerable and can explode
anytime.” He points to how militancy
flared up in 2016 following the killing
of Wani. Between 2016 and 2019, sec­
urity forces killed 1,747 militants and
arrested over 6,000. Worryingly, over
80 per cent of the existing militants in
the Valley now are local youth.
“The dilution of Article 370 will be
a huge rallying point for the youth, who
sense this as a loss of identity,” says a
TWO WORLDS
(Left) BJP workers
celebrate in Jammu;
protesting PDP Rajya
Sabha MPs Mir Mohd
Fayaz and Nazir
Ahmad Laway
former IB official who did not want to
be named. The situation will become
clearer when prohibitory orders are lift­
ed around Eid next week. There are al­
ready reports that five hardened Jaish­
e­Mohammed terrorists infiltrated the
Valley a fortnight ago.
While the BJP has premised its
dilution of Article 370 on opening up
the state to settlers from outside and at­
tracting investments, there is little evi­
dence that either of these might happen
soon. As of now, all hill states maintain
restrictions on land ownership by out­
siders, so abolishing these protections in
J&K alone could open a Pandora’s box.
While businesses have so far been cit­
ing the bar on purchase of land by out­
siders and the security threat as major
deterrents, former J&K finance minister
Haseeb Drabu argues that the problem
has not been the contentious Articles
370 and 35A but Kashmir’s ‘disputed’
tag by the UN. Drabu also points to
 PANKAJ NANGIA/MAIL TODAY
The Big Story / J&K

giving the Valley’s economy a fillip. It

is crucial for the Modi government to
announce major projects for the region,
such as an IIT, IIM and a power plant,
as they can enthuse the private sector.
And despite the suspension of Art-
icle 370, security officials feel it will be
extremely difficult to resettle Kashmiri
Pandit refugees immediately in the Val-
ley, given the hostility and terrorists on
the loose. They will, at best, be able to
live in fenced ghettoes.
Beyond these technical changes,
what may alter J&K’s politics is the
government’s decision to set up a com-
mission to undertake the delimitation
exercise in J&K. Delimitation is the

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process of fixing limits or boundaries

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of constituencies based on changes in
_m demography. In 2002, the J&K as-
sembly passed a law putting a freeze
on fresh delimitation of seats till 2026.
m
Many believe the delimitation exercise
will increase the number of constitu-
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encies in the thickly populated and

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Hindu-dominated Jammu region,

which will benefit the BJP. “The gov-
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ernment of India’s intention is clear

and sinister. It wants to change the de-
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mography of the only Muslim-majority

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the near-absence of the Right to Informa- state in India, disempower Muslims to

central public sector Business houses tion (RTI) and reserva- the extent that they become second-
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enterprises (CPSEs) are likely to hold tions is no incentive for class citizens in their own state,” says
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in the state. “The rank businesses, the fact that ex-chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.
correlation between
back big-ticket Supreme Court rulings
CPSE investment and investments will now be applicable THE LEGAL
until there is a
TANGLE
level of development to Kashmir could be
of J&K is 0.87. Private definite sense of a source of comfort in
investments have pig- political stability terms of enforcement of Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu
gybacked on public in- contracts. There is talk Singhvi called the dilution of Article
vestment. Of the 339
in Kashmir of holding a business 370 “a legally f lawed but politically
CPSEs in India, with summit in October. astute move”. What the Modi-led BJP
investments worth Rs However, empir ical government has done is to use a ‘kill
23 lakh crore and 1.08 million employ- evidence suggests very little correla- switch’ in Article 370 to render it null
ees, only three are in J&K,” he says. The tion between what’s announced and and void. So on August 5, when home
three CPSEs in the state together have what finally gets implemented on the minister Shah rose in the Rajya Sabha
an investment of Rs 165 crore and em- ground—so the summit is likely to have to inflict the most decisive blow to the
ploy just 21 people, he adds. little bearing on grassroots economics. autonomy of J&K, he did not move any
While a slew of business leaders What will make a fundamental bill to amend the Constitution. Inst-
tweeted their support for the Cen- difference is the Union government ead, he achieved what he had set out
tre’s move, they are likely to hold back coming out with a big-ticket economic to through a presidential order—the
big-ticket investments until there is a package. The last time the central gov- Constitution (Application to Jammu
definite sense of political stability in ernment announced a big package for and Kashmir) Order, 2019, which sup-
Kashmir. While the applicability of Kashmir was under PM A.B. Vajpayee, ersedes the Constitution (Application

AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 19

The Big Story / J&K

to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954.
The presidential order, which comes
into effect immediately, has removed
the special status accorded to the state
of J&K under Article 370 in Part XXI
(Temporary, Transitional and Special
Provisions) of the Constitution of In­
dia. By extension, Article 35A has also
been repealed, as it stems from Article
370, having been introduced through a
presidential order in 1954.
But can Article 370, which has re­
mained the framework of legislative
and executive governance of J&K for
70 years, be made inoperative by just
a presidential order? The Modi gover­
n ment anticipated such a question
and the certainty of this promulgation
minister of state for the PMO. than anything relating to either Article
Constitutional experts are divided 370 or the bifurcation of the state of
over the legal validity of this manoeu­ Jammu and Kashmir, it is this move
vring. “It is utterly and palpably uncon­ that really seems to call the presidential
stitutional. After the dissolution of the notification into question and appears
Constituent Assembly in 1956, the pow­ to be the cardinal legal flaw. How can
er of abrogation of Article 370 vanished,” Article 367 be amended to include a
says A.G. Noorani. However, Supreme new provision without a constitutional
Court advocate Rakesh amendment?” asked
Dwivedi and Shreya Madhav Khosla, a ju­
Mishra, assistant pro­ nior fellow at the Har­
fessor of law at the Ma­ The biggest vard Society of Fellows,
harashtra National Law impact is likely in a column.
University, believe any The biggest impact,
plea against the gov­
to be on the law however, is likely to be
ernment’s decision will and order on the law and order sit­
not be successful as the situation in J&K uation of J&K as policing
presidential order does as policing goes goes to the Centre. With

z
getting challenged in court. It did its not have technical flaws. to the central the passage of the Un­

ag
homework before Shah moved this res­ Former secretary gen­ lawful Activities (Pre­
olution. The third clause of Article 370 eral of the Lok Sabha, _m government vention) Amendment
gave the President of India the power to Subhash Kashyap, too Bill, the central govern­
declare the article inoperative or opera­ subscribes to this view: ment will go for a mas­
m
tive with exceptions and modifications, “As the state is under central rule, Par­ sive crackdown on separatist elements,
subject to obtaining prior recommen­ liament can be interpreted as the legis­ who will no more have the cover of state
nj

dation of the Constituent Assembly of lature of Jammu and Kashmir. So, no laws. At the same time, Pakistan­spon­
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the state of J&K. The Constituent As­ concurrence is required from the state sored terror may seek to take advantage
sembly of J&K, after drafting the state’s government to make changes.” of the resentment of ordinary Kashmiris
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constitution, dissolved itself in 1956. Shah has also moved a statutory against the government’s move to strip
This led to the opinion that Article370 resolution in the Rajya Sabha recom­ them of their relative autonomy via the
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can never be repealed or modified as mending that the President issue a effective dilution of Article 370.
s:

the Constituent Assembly did not exist notification—using Clause 3 of Article In response to the opposition’s
anymore. The Supreme Court, in April 370—to declare that all clauses of Ar­ criticism that the move was against
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2018, said though the head­note used ticle 370 would cease to be operative the spirit of the Constitution and will
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the word ‘temporary’, Article 370 was
not temporary. In a 1969 case as well,
the apex court had refused to accept
Article 370 as temporary and said it
“has never ceased to be operative”.
To circumvent this roadblock, the
and that all provisions of the Indian
Constitution would apply to the state of
J&K. This, in effect, renders Article 370
null and void for all practical purposes,
even if it is not repealed.
fuel large­scale violence, Shah sought
to directly reach out to the youth of
Kashmir. “Give us five years, and we
will make Jammu and Kashmir the
most developed state in the country… I
want to tell the youth of Kashmir Val­

presidential order first adds a new clause
to Article 367, which deals with inter­
pretation in respect of J&K. It replaces
‘Constituent Assembly of the State’ with
‘Legislative Assembly of the State’. As
the assembly is in suspension, the order
says that any reference to the legislative
assembly will be construed to be a refer­
ence to the governor. The governor is an
appointee of the Centre and, therefore,
Parliament now stands for legislative as­
sembly. “Legal opinions were taken and
the process is in order. Currently, Parlia­
ment is performing the role of the state
assembly,” says Jitendra Singh, Union
W
hile the government
seems to have tackled
the ‘consent’ of the non­
existent Constituent
A ss embly of Jammu
and Kashmir, constitutional experts
have questioned the validity of inserting
a new clause in Article 367 as it amounts
to a constitutional amendment. It vio­
lates Article 368, which mentions that
an amendment to the Constitution can
be done by introducing a bill in Parlia­
ment and getting it passed in both the
houses by a majority of two­third of the
members present and voting. “Rather
ley: have faith in the Narendra Modi
government. Nothing negative will
happen,” he said in Parliament.
But convincing the people of Kash­
mir to trust the home minister’s words
will be no easy task. For now, given the
massive deployment of troops and the
incarceration of Kashmiri leaders, the
silence of the Valley is deafening. But
this enforced silence cannot be taken
as a given or eternal. August 5, 2019 is
a day that will live on in Indian history.
Exactly what it will be remembered for
remains to be seen. n
with Shwweta Punj

20 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019

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PATRIOTISM

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HAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN? A LOVE FOR YOUR
country, your nation, your homeland? At the risk of getting
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all tukde-tukde about it, we can’t really talk about patrio-

tism without splitting a few hairs. We asked a clutch of emi-
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nent citizens the question, and they all had very different
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answers. Or you could say they all agreed that it depends

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on who you are: a filmmaker or an author, a teacher or a sol-

dier, a singer or a diplomat. And though we are all Indians,
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perhaps it matters where you are from too: from the North
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or the South, from the Capital or the periphery, from Cal-

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cutta or Allahabad—Kolkata or Prayagraj. Or Kashmir.

Several of our contributors are at pains to point out that
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patriotism is something quite distinct from nationalism.

Something older, subtler and perhaps more authentic. For
others, the nation is the ancient, authentic source of our
identity. Is there a distinction between the topophilia we
feel in our ‘native place’ (or the place we actually live) and
the collective allegiance we share for a national abstrac-
tion? Or is this just a sentimental continuum? Similarly,
parochialism, prejudice and xenophobia shadow the love
of place and seem to scale up or down from the smallest
social unit to a subcontinent.
Indian patriotism has survived all these contradictions
and ironies—sometimes it seems that it thrives on them.
Once upon a time we were exhorted to see a singular per-
son, as the manifestation of India herself. It didn’t last long.
A billion patriots are unlikely to warm to a single slogan.
One more reason to celebrate Independence.

Illustration by NILANJAN DAS

 BY G O PA L K R I S HN A G A ND HI
IT’S ALL
ABOUT LOVE
FROM OUR BRAVE FREEDOM FIGHTERS TO MODERN INDIA’S
ARCHITECTS, PATRIOTISM HAS BEEN ABOUT LOVE—SIMPLE
LOVE—OF INDIA AND OF INDIANS’ ‘TRYST WITH DESTINY’
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OVE? SORRY, india today’s edito-
rial gaze will say. Very sorry, but no.
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Not love, please. Any word but love. It
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is too romantic, too evangelical, lifted
from a godman’s sack of stock words.
After love will come devotion, then
harmony, then peace, and… None of those marzipans, thank you.
This is about India’s Independence Day, its historical magnetism,
its political message. And we are not children.
Fair enough. Love is the kind of word that floats in and out of
assembly meetings in schools, pulpits, satsangs. It belongs to the
‘sacred’ columns of the newspaper-on-Sunday, family maga-
zines. It is weak, pale, anaemic as a description of our bonding
with India that is Bharat and also Hind, on Pandrah Agast.
Magical, that date is, marking our ‘stepping out from bondage,
stepping into freedom’. Something unfurling about that date,
something swirling, freeing, liberating, as with the tricolour that
swings out of its tightened knot at the tug of the lanyard.
As a definition of patriotism, love does not work. It has too
much of the roseate heart in it.
And yet, speaking for myself, I will say, emphatically, that I
believe patriotism is about love.
It is about love of our country that Bankim Chandra Chat-
topadhyay wrote, in a moment of rapture, in terms of our land
24 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
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being awash with clean and cleansing waters,
bearing fruit aplenty—sujalam, suphalam. It is
for our country, dearly beloved to us, that Rabin-
dranath Tagore incanted jaya he, jaya he, jaya he
and which Iqbal, immortally, hailed as Sare jahan
se achha, in whose lap play a thousand rivers,
as did Dwijendralal Roy in his Dhano dhanya
pushpa bhara, ‘with wealth and seed and blos-
som filled…’. These are celebratory songs, though
not without a hidden pang of anxiety about that
plenitude, that blessing coming under a cloud.
Nothing but love, pure and simple, unalloyed
and unquenchable, informs every word of another
composition, the fifth in that patriotic sequence,
which joins the other great four in the nation’s
repertory of patriotism—Kavi Pradeep’s 1962
outpouring Ae mere watan ke logon… It is soaked
in love that has had a twist, a throb of adversity,
through the fiery ordeal of a reversal in war.
Tipu Sultan, Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja,
Jagannatha Gajapati Narayana Deo II, the ruler
of Paralakhemundi in today’s Odisha, Rani Velu
Nachiyar of Sivaganga and Veerapandiya Kat-
tabomman of Panchalankurichi in Tamil Nadu,

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loved their land, saw themselves as its hand. They loved their
freedom, which they saw as a slice of the freedom of India.
tp
Like these braveheart freedom fighters of the 18th and
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19th centuries before them, the autumnal Dadabhai Naoroji,
who wrote with measured pain about Poverty and Un-British
Rule in India; the defiant Aurobindo Ghose, who made Bande
Mataram newspaper the nation’s masthead beyond the song;
the cerebral Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who worked till his body
collapsed for India’s right to self-rule; and the impassioned
Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who said, in a brilliant mix of
Sanskrit and Urdu, that Swaraj was his janmasiddha haq—his
birthright; the intrepid Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra
Pal, Tilak’s associates in the triumvirate of ‘Lal Bal Pal’, did
what they did because they loved India. Plain and simple. Each
of them loved fighting for her freedom. And were ready to die
fighting that fight.
“If I should die
By our Mother, let me die,
Fighting for my land…”
And then, with those friends, stopping near an armed
sentry, to hurl those lines with the greatest gusto at the man,
snapping tiny fingers at him and yelling and dancing in “can-
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Illustration by NILANJAN DAS
nibalistic exultation, with the poor fellow looking
on helplessly…”.
E.M.S. Namboodiripad, joining much older
people at the incredible age of 25, founded the
Congress Socialist Party in 1934 and the peasant
movement called Tebhaga Andolan of 1946-47
Bengal, commemorated in sketches by the re-
markable Somnath Hore, one of them of a woman
and child, Mother India at her most real. It was
about a passionate commitment to India’s great-
ness in justice. As was the dedication of a young
man who would enter patriotism’s pages, as from a
corner, a shy smile lighting his face as he famously
escaped from prison in the pitch of night, to be
hailed in time with ‘andhere mein ek prakash,
Jayaprakash, Jayaprakash’.
Each time it is recited, Tagore’s opening
words in ‘Where the mind is without fear and
the head is held high…’ raise goose-bumps. But
nowhere nearly as much as his Bengali original
does: Chitto jaetha bhaya-shunno… followed by
uchcho jetha shir…
The voiding of fear of the Raj was part of the
love for India. It held India’s and Indians’ heads
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 25
 TODAY, LOVE AND
HATE ARE TWO
SIDES OF THE
high. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were fearless because SAME COUNTRY.
of their love of India, of India’s self-respect, her dignity. When TWO FERVOURS
young Vinayak Damodar Savarkar slipped away from his boat
off Marseille to escape arrest for patriotic—read ‘seditious’—ac-
IN ONE VEIN, TWO
tivities; when Matangini Hazra fell, shot, not letting fall from EMOTIONS IN
her hand the tricolour of freedom she was holding, they were ONE HEART—A
powered by the same emotion. And we have Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose, the very personification of that patriotism of
MOST UNNATURAL
love. Sugata Bose tells in his biography of Netaji how the young AND UNHEALTHY
Subhas asked his mother: “…will not any son of Mother India, STATE FOR A
in total disregard of his selfish interest, dedicate his whole life
to the cause of the Mother?”
REPUBLIC TO BE IN
When the 24-year-old barrister, clutching his first-class
ticket, was thrown out of the train in Pietermaritzburg station,

z
a sense of his Indian-ness rose like a volcano in Mohandas’s

being. As the train, which had ejected its lawful occupant,
hissed out of that South African station, it did not realise that
_m
it had just begun another quick-moving train, a railgaadi that,
in Harindranath Chattopadhyay’s pulsating song, was going to
m
chhuk-chhuk-chhuk-chhuk a historic chain of movement after
movement—in Passive Resistance, Non-Cooperation, Civil
nj
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edly, at targets as ‘hard’ as state arsenals and as
soft as social carnivals. Nation-states have to
fight them with the speed of light. With nation-
society’s—our—understanding and backing of the
nation-state.
But suspicion, strife and hate within us have

Disobedience and, finally, Quit India, to be led by Mahatma morphed the legacy of our independence struggle
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Gandhi for Swaraj, and not just for that of India but for colo- into something altogether different. It has given
nised people across Asia and Africa. hate-lovers and love-haters a new vocation in life
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today, an ideological, intellectual, political, cultural
n that progression of the struggle grew a crucial, force. It types history, paints geography, sculpts
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defining nuance: the disobedience was to be civil, politics. It seeks and makes heroes, it needs and
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civilised and civilising. It was to be completely, even finds villains. And it is celebrating a new heroism—
self-denyingly, non-violent. And why so? For if it did from forest cell-hole, mosque and temple alike.
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not, it would corrode itself, invite counter-violence, Who is loved today, passionately, in the name
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end in the destruction of its body, mind and soul. of patriotism?

Today, we may well ask: Is our patriotism about love, simple The man who vows revenge.
love, of India and of Indians’ ‘tryst with destiny’? Without doubt, Who is hated today, passionately, in the name
it is. One glimpse of the pride with which India saw Chandra- of patriotism?
yaan-2 launched on July 22 will tell us that is exactly so. As will The person who speaks for humanity.
the landing around the moon’s ‘south pole’ on September 7. Who gains by this?
But is that love of India about a love that is whole, healing The terrorist, the house-divider, the nation-
and hateless? splitter, the power-hungry.
Now we can talk, a relieved india today may say to me. You What suffers?
are late to come to this question, but, yes, now we are on track. The Republic, as Ambedkar envisioned it.
Love with hate. Those two are today two sides of the same In his Kalinga Edict II, Asoka says: sa me
country. Two fervours in one vein, two emotions in one heart—a paja—all people are my children.
most unnatural and unhealthy state for a Republic to be in. Saffron and green were not divided but held
This is, of course, so not just in India, but in many countries. together by the white in our tiranga, with the blue
For the terrorist, love of ‘the cause’, hatred for ‘the cause’s en- of Asoka’s wheel of dhamma at its centre. Every
emy’ and vengeance are a creed. The men who flew their planes time Jawaharlal Nehru unfurled that flag on the
into New York on 9/11 and who sneaked death into Mumbai on Red Fort, he looked at its quickening flutter with
26/11 loved hate. As did, we may be sure, the young man who rapture and—love. Jai Hind!
blew himself up with 40 CRPF personnel in Pulwama.
Their types, medieval in brutality and modern in technol- Gopalkrishna Gandhi is a diplomat and
ogy, exist the world over. They can be expected to strike repeat- the former governor of West Bengal

26 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019


THE FAITH OF
A WARRIOR
IN TODAY’S WORLD, WHERE ‘PATRIOTISM’ AND
‘NATIONALISM’ ARE USED INTERCHANGEABLY, DEFINING
THESE TERMS IS NO LONGER A SIMPLE MATTER
O
_m
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NE MIGHT THINK THAT
EXPLAINING the concept and
//t
meaning of patriotism would
s:
come easy to a soldier. After all,
we are the most visible sym-
tp
bols of a group that displays
ht
its commitment towards the country by being forever ready
to sacrifice lives for the nation’s honour. However, in today’s
world, where ‘patriotism’ and ‘nationalism’ are often used
interchangeably—and the subject has acquired an emotive
character—defining patriotism is no longer simple. Personal
biases may also creep in, and it could be argued that my
perception of patriotism could be completely different from
another soldier’s.
A possible way around this predicament is to look at
the issue of patriotism from an organisational, rather than
individual, perspective. The military is not an ad hoc group
of people, but a profession with a unique and distinct char-
acter. Morris Janowitz, in his classic work, The Professional
Soldier, states, ‘[A] profession is more than a group with
special skills, acquired through intensive training. A profes-
sional group develops a sense of group identity and a system
of internal administration. Self administration… implies the
growth of a body of ethics and standards of performance.’
In a military, individual inclinations are subordinate to the
group identity and professional ethic of the organisation. It
is this professional ethic of the Indian military and its link to
BY LT. G E N. D. S . H O O D A
z
ag
patriotism that I will attempt to describe.
In the military, we are completely comfort-
able with displays of love for our country and our
flag. The Indian tricolour flies in every unit and
over each post on the border and drapes the cof-
fins of our martyrs. The national anthem plays
during all formal and informal events, and we
stand tall and proud. We are willing to lay down
our lives to defend India’s territorial integrity,
both from internal and external threats.
But we also do not see patriotism in
merely symbolic or geographic terms; it is
also in the promoting and defending of India’s
national values.
Walter Berns, in his book, Making Patriots,
defines patriotism as devotion not only to a
country but also to its principles and, equally
importantly, an understanding of these prin-
ciples. To this, I could add the practice of the
principles as enshrined in our Constitution; and
this is where the military stands out. Equality,
secularism and fraternity are essential parts
of the military’s culture, not merely because
they are morally desirable, but because they are
indispensable to our way of life.
All men in uniform are equal. There are
soldiers of all castes, creeds and colour; Jats,
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 27
 z
ag
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m
nj
e/

Illustration by NILANJAN DAS

.m
//t

EQUALITY, SECULARISM ammunition, water and food for the infantry sol-
s:

AND FRATERNITY ARE diers and brings back the wounded for treatment.
Victory depends on each and every person of a
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ESSENTIAL PARTS OF THE unit working together.

MILITARY’S CULTURE, NOT
ht

Within the military, there is an easy and equal

MERELY BECAUSE THEY acceptance of all religions. Religious practices are
encouraged and, in a single class unit, there is gen-
ARE MORALLY DESIRABLE erally a compulsory mandir, church or gurudwara
BUT BECAUSE THEY ARE function on Sunday mornings. As officers, we

INDISPENSABLE adopt the religion of the soldiers we command, and

Brahmins, Mahars, Sikhs, Muslims, Rajputs, Marathas and
Nagas play together and fight together. Whatever be the caste
equations back home, they are left behind when a soldier puts
on his uniform.
There are no more or less important jobs among soldiers.
In battle, infantry soldiers always lead the attack to rout the
enemy from their defensive positions. Behind the infantry is a
group of cleaners, barbers, drivers and cooks who constitute
the ‘immediate replenishment team’. After the objective is
captured, this team carries forward the essential resupplies of
it never conflicts with our own religious beliefs. In
units with a mixed religious composition, there is a
common prayer hall called the Sarv Dharam Sthal,
in which the statues of Lord Rama and Jesus, the
Guru Granth Sahibji and the photograph of Holy
Kaaba nestle under the same roof. This concept of
the Sarv Dharam Sthal has now found universal
acceptance throughout the army.
The Constitution promises each citizen
‘fraternity’ in assuring the dignity of the indi-
vidual, and the unity and integrity of the nation.
Fraternity is a sense of brotherhood among all
communities, and this concept has been well
known to soldiers throughout history. The mili-
tary is known as a band of brothers, a term used

28 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019

 PATRIOTISM IS NOT CONSIDERED A MAJOR
FACTOR BY WHICH ONE CAN MOTIVATE MEN
GOING INTO BATTLE; STUDIES ON WHAT
MAKES MEN WILLING TO WALK INTO A HAIL
OF GUNFIRE POINT TO UNIT COHESION AND
LEADERSHIP AS KEY DETERMINANTS
in Shakespeare’s Henry V, in which the king exhorts his soldiers
with these words before the battle of Agnicourt in 1415:
“From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother”
We are all brothers in uniform; status, community, wealth
_m
and background have no meaning. When I was attending the
Higher Command course, my list of good friends included
m
names like Xerxes Adrianwalla, Azad Sameer, Satya and
Chacko Ipe. We were all like one big family, celebrating each
nj
other’s successes and sharing moments of grief.
e/
You may well ask why I talk here about the Constitution of
India. It is because every officer and soldier, when they enter
.m
service, takes an oath swearing that they will “bear true faith and
allegiance to the Constitution of India, as by law established”. We
//t
also see the military as a microcosm of India, and we feel that it is
s:
our patriotic duty to promote, within our own organisation, the
values and principles on which this country was founded.
tp
W
ht
alter Berns has defined a patriot as being
“more than a citizen or mere inhabitant of
a nation; he has to be devoted to his nation
and be prepared to defend it”. As soldiers,
we are willing to lay down our lives in
defence of India and are thus automatically patriots. But we do
not flaunt this; in fact, any excessive display or talk of patrio-
tism is actually discouraged. One reason for this is that a debate
on patriotism could sometimes acquire a political colour, and
politics has generally been taboo as a subject of discussion.
T he second reason is more functional. Patriotism, while
always present at the back of your mind, is not considered a ma-
jor factor with which you can motivate men who are going into
battle. As S.L.A. Marshall points out in his well-known book,
Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command in Future
War, ‘It should not be expected that pride in a uniform or belief
in a national cause are of themselves sufficient to make a soldier
steadfast in danger…it is unworthy of the profession of arms to
base any policy upon exaggerated notions of man’s capacity to
endure and to sacrifice on behalf of ideals alone.’
There have been many studies on what makes men will-
ing to walk into a hail of gunfire, fully aware that
many of them will not be alive to see the next day.
Most of these studies point to unit cohesion and
the quality of leadership as key determinants of
success in battle. Military values like courage and
honour also have a powerful influence on how
soldiers act when facing imminent death. ‘When
z
rewards become meaningless and punishment
ag
ceases to deter, honour alone retains the power
to make men march into the muzzles of cannon
trained at them’, writes Martin Van Crevald in his
book, Transformation of War.
Therefore, the military focuses on provid-
ing good leadership and inculcating the values
of courage, loyalty, honour, integrity and unit
pride among its officers and men. A unit that can
perform competently in war would be best ac-
complishing the duty that a nation requires of it.
This was clearly reflected in the Kargil War, where
junior leadership and unit cohesion led to victory
against seemingly insurmountable odds.
There is a lot of debate these days on national-
ism versus patriotism, on symbolic patriotism ver-
sus blind patriotism. The arguments on both sides
are well known, and depending on which side of the
ideological divide you sit, you could easily defend
your viewpoint. However, what is important is that
nobody should be forced to adhere to somebody
else’s brand of patriotism. As George Orwell wrote
in his essay, ‘Notes on Nationalism’, ‘By ‘patriotism’
I mean devotion to a particular place and particular
way of life, which one believes to be the best in the
world but has no wish to force on other people.’
For those of us who are or were soldiers, true
patriotism lies in defending the integrity of the
nation and protecting the principles and values
on which our great country was founded. This is
demonstrated not only in the Indian military’s per-
formance in battle, but also in the character and
professional ethic of our organisation.
Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda is former
General Officer Commanding-in-Chief
of the Indian army’s Northern Command
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 29
ht
tp
s:
//t
.m
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nj
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ag
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THE LANGUAGE
OF BELONGING
IF PATRIOTISM IS A LOVE OF SOMETHING ONE IS
WILLING TO DIE FOR, NATIONALISM—PRIDE IN AN
ABSTRACT NOTION OF NATION—IS SOMETHING
ONE IS WILLING TO KILL FOR
ag
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I
nj
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//t
T IS A SIGN OF THE TIMES that Dr John-
s:
son’s lapidary utterance—“Patriotism is the last
refuge of a scoundrel”—is enjoying a sudden re-
tp
vival. This revival, however, is marked by some
ht
tweaks that might spring from ignorance, or
malice. Thus, someone was tempted to substi-
tute “liberalism” for Dr Johnson’s “patriotism”.
However, there is little room for ambiguity as
to the actual words uttered—Boswell was at hand—but there
is some ambiguity as to what he might have meant by it. Ap-
parently, there are local political resonances—as well as some
suggestion that what prompted the good doctor’s ire might have
been the “patriotism” of the American colonists, fighting for
freedom from England, who were happy to utter the high rheto-
ric enshrined in their Declaration of Independence—life, liberty
and all that stuff—with no consciousness of any contradiction
there with their status as white slaveholders.
However, irrespective of what Dr J might have meant, for
our present purposes, his words are insufficient. Patriotism is
altogether too mild, and it is nationalism that demands our
attention—for it is nationalism that is, pace Johnson, the first
refuge of the scoundrel. From Orban in Hungary to Netanyahu
in Israel, from Erdogan to Salvini to Trump to our own, home-
grown, self-proclaimed “nationalists”—clearly, nationalism
is the flavour of the time. And there is little that the “anti-
Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
BY A L O K R A I
z
national” “urban naxals” can do—when
they are not busy subverting the state and
bringing down the established order, that
is—except to suck on it. However, I have
no intention to dabble in such inflamma-
tory matters, so I will restrict myself to
a pedantic lexical exercise, exploring the
specificity, and the distinction, between
nationalism and patriotism.
Patriotism is by far the older idea—de-
riving as it does from “patria”, or father-
land. (Sorry, sisters, but “matriotism”
doesn’t have the same ring, does it?)
However, the crucial thing here is that pa-
triotism is understood typically under the
sign of love—love of one’s country, one’s
people, etc. And this “country” is certainly
not the “nation”. One classic expression of
this sentiment is Yeats’s poem, “An Irish
Airman Foresees his Death”:
...my country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor...
This enables us to remark another
characteristic of “patriotism”—that it is
a love of something that one is willing to
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 31
 THE ‘INDIA’ I FEEL PATRIOTIC ABOUT IS
INEXTRICABLY BOUND TO ITS CHAOTIC
HETEROGENEITY, PRODUCED BY THE
SETTLING TOGETHER OF DIVERSE
PEOPLES OVER THE MILLENNIA— QAFILE
BASTE GAYE, HINDOSTAN BANTA GAYA
die for—as in Horace’s famous utterance, which Wilfred Owen
mocked in his bitter World War One poem—Dulce et decorum
est, pro patria mori. Owen’s poem is an unblinking description
of a soldier choking to death in a mustard gas attack, and ends
with a bitterly ironic reference to Horace: it is sweet and beauti-
ful to die for one’s country.
The morbidity that shadows love in evocations of
“patriotism”—“the sands of the desert are sodden red, and what
have I done for thee England, my England”—is substituted by
rather different emotions when we enter the territory of “na-
_m
tionalism”. Here, instead of the love for particular things that
informs patriotism, nationalism is characterised by the emotion
m
of pride—pride in a somewhat abstract notion of the “nation”.
And, equally significantly, instead of the “dying” that seems to
nj
shadow patriotism, nationalism is something that one is will-
e/
ing, and perhaps required, to kill for. Patriotism is, essentially,
defensive, conservative; nationalism is, of its very nature, ag-
.m
gressive and aggrandising.
T
//t
here is a set of Hindi terms that captures, rather
s:
beautifully, the argument that I am trying to
make here. Thus, our best term for the “nation”
tp
in nationalism is rashtra—and, for me, the hard,
ht
syncopated consonants—shtr—tell me all that I
need to know about the emotions at play there. The term that
carries the sense of country is “desh”—but that final “sh” still
sounds too distant—and it is the folk “des” that seems attuned
to the necessary intimacy of patriotism. Kishori Amonkar’s
“aavo mhaaro des” would be all wrong with a terminal “desh”.
And there is a beautiful raga that I call Des—though I have
heard it called Desh, too. I wait with dread for what Raga Rash-
tra will sound like—drums, certainly. Massed voices, chanting
slogans. And sundry sounds—bones being broken, flesh pulped
with iron rods.... Very post-romantic.
Typically, in this kind of context, people invoke “the idea of
India”—which is, variously, affirmed, endangered, eulogised,
traduced. However, in light of the lexical distinction that I am
trying to explore, I propose that we work through “the feeling of
India” instead. I expect that very soon we will encounter the local
affinities that give patriotism their characteristic emotional tone.
Thus, the “India” I feel patriotic about is inextricably bound to
the specificity of my location in the heartland—with its chaotic
heterogeneity and its deep cosmopolitan culture, produced by
the settling together of diverse peoples over the millennia—qafile
32 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
baste gaye, Hindostan banta gaya. There is the
crush of humanity that assembles every winter, as
if by instinct, on the banks of the river. But there
is also the hot summer wind—the loo—against
which one huddles behind reed chiks—which
filter the harsh summer light, and are associated
with the snatched romantic moments of deeply
z
conservative societies. There is also the paradoxi-
ag
cal privacy of the mango orchard, the amraaee—
and the delicately erotic allure of the world
conjured in the music of the poorvi ang—the light
showers of saawan, the jhoolas: barsan laagi
kaari badariya / bagiyan mein jhoole pare....
Of course, the gardens are only an ever-distant
memory now, but this is the “India” that informs
my patriotism. But I suspect that the emotional
and visual content of the patriotisms of different
people—people from different parts of the coun-
try—will each be unique. And that is fine.
Nationalism, on the other hand, cannot, by
its very nature, accommodate this heterogene-
ity—and the attempt to fold it into some trium-
phant singularity—“New India”—must inevita-
bly entail violence. I hear sounds of the Rashtra
Raga starting up—it sounds like the stamp of
boots, entering the Valley—but meanwhile, the
image of the angry Hanuman that has sprouted
on a million car windows is future enough for
me. The image of Bharat Mata has undergone a
fascinating evolution, all the way from the fragile
maiden of the Abanindranath Tagore painting
to the flag-waving warrior-maiden image of the
Hindutva imaginary. I fear that the visual ana-
logue of the “India”, no longer Bharat, that we see
bellowing all around us—angry fists, pumping
the air—might no longer be containable within
any imagination of the “feminine”. Might I sug-
gest, in all humility, that our culture provides
us with a possible solution in the figure of the
Ardhanarishwara—an androgynous divinity
that is, after all, uniquely Indian?
Alok Rai was a professor of English
at the Delhi University
ht
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 BY S WA PA N D A S G U P TA

A NEW SORT
OF FREEDOM
NARENDRA MODI HAS TAKEN INDIAN NATIONALISM
TO THE 21ST CENTURY. HE HAS BUILT THE
BRIDGE BETWEEN THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE AND
CONTEMPORARY ASPIRATIONS

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A
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S A RULE, GENERALS ARE NOT

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MEANT TO AGONISE OVER

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THE NATURE of the war they

fight. In 1933, shortly after the
tp

bitter Civil Disobedience Move-

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ment launched by Mahatma Gan-

dhi had led to a complete break-
down of the relationship between the Congress-led nationalist
movement and the British Raj, Jawaharlal Nehru posed a
question which he left unanswered: “Whose freedom are we
particularly striving for, for nationalism covers many sins and
includes many conflicting elements?”
What prompted this self-doubt in the mind of one of the
foremost leaders of the Congress is not all that puzzling. In 1933,
Nehru was in the throes of his radical phase and deeply influ-
enced by the socialist currents in Europe. In all likelihood, he
perceived the struggle for Independence as part of a larger politi-
cal struggle against economic exploitation and imperialism. The
reality, however, was not as red as he may have desired. While
the Mahatma kept his gaze firmly on a just struggle for Ram
Rajya using non-violence, the message of nationalism translated
in unique ways at the grassroots. It was not merely a question of
whose freedom, but what sort of freedom.
To the masses, Gandhi was a saint who combined political
leadership with a moral force. He provided the symbolic leader-
ship. At the same time, the actual movement was viewed as a

34 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019

battle for the liberation of Bharat Mata from a thousand years
of slavery. The imagery of the nationalist movement—from
chants of ‘Vande Mataram’ to the twinning of Bharat Mata
with gau mata—was explicitly Hindu. This had been so since
the beginning of the 20th century, when Aurobindo equated
nationalism with the sanatan dharma and Lokmanya Tilak
twinned the celebrations of Ganesh and Shivaji into platforms
of self-rule. Religion, wrote historian William Gould in a study
of nationalist mobilisation in the 1930s and 1940s, “helped to
provide the necessary framework, space, discipline and mobili-
sation, and in the process the political meaning of ‘Hinduism’
was refined as an idea… (The) Hindu people were represented
as being coterminous with the Indian nation”.
This didn’t imply that India was perceived as a land for
Hindus—or what is now described as Indic religions. It meant
that the understanding of Indian as essentially Hindu—used in
the loosest and predominantly cultural sense—was part of the
national common sense.
It is pertinent to recall this facet of the Indian nationalist
legacy in the context of a raging debate since the 1990s. Con-
temporary ‘secular’ scholarship has attempted to demonstrate
_m
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nj
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.m
//t
s:
tp
ht
Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
that the assertive Hindu mobilisation that began
with the Ayodhya movement and which found
some reflection in the elections of 2014 and 2019
was a sharp break from the ‘idea of India’ that had
moulded India’s emergence as an independent
country. This is highly debatable.
In any case, the invocation of ‘idea’ in the sin-
gular is deeply problematic. In a country as large
and varied as India, there were multiple currents.
There were enlightened constitutionalists such as
Gopal Krishna Gokhale who felt that freedom had
to be preceded by social and political modernity.
They were wary of uncontrolled mass involvement
in politics. Then there was the poet Rabindranath
Tagore whose love for India’s folk traditions was
accompanied by his sharp rejection of national-
ism and endorsement of universal values. Some
Muslim activists had misgivings over both the
z
very idea of nationalism and even a united India.
ag
And finally, there were the likes of Periyar and B.R.
Ambedkar with a sharp focus on social liberation,
particularly the destruction of the caste system.
The India that regained its political sovereignty
in 1947 was not born of a single idea of nationhood.
It embraced many and, often contradictory, cur-
rents. The Nehruvian consensus that dominated
the intellectual space till the 1990s was one of the
important inputs. As was Hindu nationalism that,
in political terms, was a subterranean current
but held a greater sway over popular mentalities.
Gandhi recognised the importance of forging a
rainbow coalition and insisted that the first gov-
ernment of independent India should also include
non-Congress notables such as B.R. Ambedkar
and Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
In today’s India, the belief that Prime Min-
ister Narendra Modi is a political interloper who
has muscled his way to the centre stage taking
advantage of the venality and leadership short-
comings of the Congress and other ‘secular’ forces
is prevalent in some circles. It is based on two
questionable assumptions.
The first of these is the mistaken belief that the
terms of India’s post-Independence narrative were
set in stone and incorporated both the preference
for a ‘scientific temper’ and the constitutional
consensus. “The day of national cultures is rapidly
passing,” Nehru wrote with astonishing certitude
in his An Autobiography in 1936, “and the world
is becoming one cultural unit….” The real conflict
was between traditional cultures, often defined
by faith, and the “conquering scientific culture of
modern civilisation”. In practice, this implied that
India’s civilisational heritage, while important
as decorative trappings, was secondary in the
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 35

construction of a modern India. For Nehru, the big dams and
modern steel plants were the ‘temples’ of modern India whereas
the older temples of faith epitomised irrationality, superstition
and regressive beliefs. For the Nehruvian, the acceptable Hindu-
ism was abstruse spiritualism and high philosophy; the lived
Hindu faith centred on rituals and caste-determined customs
had no place in modern India’s public life. Indeed, the latter were
perceived as an impediment to progress.
There was an associated belief in what has subsequently
come to be known as ‘constitutional patriotism’. The idea, based
substantially on post-War German thought, sought to define
nationhood in terms of the Constitution. Rather than defining
the rules that governed the conduct of public life, the Constitu-
tion was elevated to the status of a philosophy for the nation.
In a curious sort of way, 1950 became India’s Year Zero. The
Indian nation that preceded the Constitution was sought to be
relegated to the archives. Instead, a modern India with only
_m
a tenuous link to the past was sought to be built. The second
belief that defined the pre-Modi consensus was the abhorrence
m
of Hindu ‘majoritarianism’. This meant that explicitly Hindu
impulses, particularly in politics, had to be kept firmly in check,
nj
not least with the invocation of other identities such as caste,
e/
class and region and, of course, the philosophy of secularism.
T
.m
he secularism that emerged in India was, how-
ever, unique. The constitutional guarantees for
//t
religious minorities were fetishised. In Nehru’s
s:
value system, according to his official biographer
S. Gopal, “the problem of minorities was basically
tp
one for the majority community to handle. The test of success
ht
was not what Hindus thought but how Muslims and other com-
munities felt…” As prime minister, Manmohan Singh further
refined this principle into the assertion that Muslims had “first
claim” on the resources of the state.
Since the mid-1980s, India has witnessed the development
of an alternative nationalism based on an explicit rejection of
these two pillars of the Congress consensus. The rapid growth of
the BJP began in 1989 but it was only under Modi that the party
reached a hegemonic status, winning a majority on its own in the
Lok Sabha in the elections of 2014 and 2019.
The nationalist challenge that Modi has mounted on the
earlier Congress consensus has, quite undeniably, a link with the
traditional Hindu nationalism of the RSS-BJP. The invocation
of Bharat Mata—implying the sacredness of India—and the
equation of national unity with a cultural nationalism whose
underpinnings are Hindu constitute the permanent back-
drops. Equally, there is the belief that a strong state must be
complemented by strong patriotic communities that combine
productive existence with adherence to robust family values
and samskaras. For the RSS-BJP, nationalism lay in the abil-
ity to articulate what Deendayal Upadhyaya described as the
36 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
THE NATIONALIST
CHALLENGE MODI
HAS MOUNTED NOW
HAS AS BACKDROP
THE INVOCATION
OF BHARAT MATA
AND THE EQUATION
OF NATIONAL
UNITY WITH
HINDU CULTURAL
NATIONALISM
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‘Bharatiya chiti’—loosely translated as the soul of
India. Its Hindutva is cultural and different from
the codified political Hindutva that V.D. Savarkar
advocated nearly 100 years ago.
Modi was a creation of this ecosystem but he
hasn’t stopped here. He has extended the appeal
of nationalism along the lines that Swami Vivek-
ananda advocated at the end of the 19th century.
First, he has linked nationalism with the notion of
daridranarayan through a welfare programme
that aims at delivering something tangible to the
poor—cash for houses, clean cooking gas, toilets
for every home, electricity connections in all vill-
ages and, now, a scheme to bring drinking water
to the doorstep. More important, he has sought to
instil this welfarist mission with a dose of efficiency
and financial integrity. He has successfully equat-
ed corruption with a crime against the nation.
This approach has been supplemented by a
single-minded pursuit of a modernist, techno-
logical vision. Nehru had this perspective too but
Modi has been able to take it beyond the elite and
link it to popular aspirations. Additionally, just as
Vivekananda sought to enhance Hindu pride by
reaching out to the West, Modi has sought to sell
India as an assertive but responsible global power.
As much as it has lifted India’s global image, it has
led to a soaring of India’s self-esteem at home.
Modi has taken Indian nationalism to the 21st
century. He has built the bridge between the free-
dom struggle and contemporary aspirations. The
soul of India that once took pride in the charkha is
now basking in the glory of a mission to the moon.
Swapan Dasgupta is a senior journalist
and Rajya Sabha member
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 BY S A L M A N K H U R S HID

OUR
INDEPENDENCE,
NOT YOURS?
INDIA’S SYNCRETIC ETHOS IS NOT AN

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ARTIFICIAL CONSTRUCT BUT A PRODUCT OF

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CENTURIES OF SHARED EXPERIENCES OF _m
HINDUS AND MUSLIMS. IT IS IN DANGER TODAY
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E LIVE IN THE AGE OF and its companions, self-professed virtue

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REBORN NATIONAL- and nationalism, are reconfiguring the

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ISM even as old dreams nation-state and global relations. Even

of an enlightened world
government fade. The
United Nations Organi-
zation (UN) just about
survives, though it is
difficult to imagine our
world without it. The wars that scorched the globe also gave the UN
its commitment to lasting peace. It is far from perfect, and yet we
have no better substitute. As time goes by, the agency’s imperfec-
tions are becoming more apparent but also the need to fortify the
platform where friends and foes gather to seek peace and accom-
modation, find difficult paths to contain bellicose elements and re-
duce the threat of a nuclear holocaust. But as the threat of a nuclear
winter recedes, the world encounters other unsettling issues such
as water scarcity, climate change, eco-degradation, terrorism and
migration. There are many who live on the edge.
It is no surprise then that having been unable to secure the
peace dividend, the countries of the world are retreating into the
past and the comfort zone of exclusivity. Sovereignty, long qualified
by the emerging global rule of law, is clawing back to dominance
as nature continues to define the global
village, its inhabitants are busy digging
moats and building walls of separation.
Our generation rejoiced at the fall of
the Berlin Wall and the reunification of
Vietnam. Our successors will watch in
confusion the building of the Mexico wall
and the dismantling of once promising
trade blocs, the loosening of the European
Union and god knows what.
As the new world order comes apart
or at least is stretched beyond safe limits,
what do we former world citizens turn
to—Americans, Europeans, South Asians,
Africans, Southeast Asians, former Soviet
Union comrades? To each his own; to each
for their own. Nations above interna-
tionalism. But what does it mean to be a
nationalist, particularly when the nation
you belong to is not under existential

38 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019


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Illustration by RAJ VERMA
threat? Is it different from being patriotic? I believe there is an
essential difference. Nationalism is devotion to your own even
to the sometimes detriment of another. Patriotism is striving to
uphold the honour and respect of one’s country even in the face
of pain and deprivation. The nationalism we have seen of late in
India seems premised on the alleged lack of it amongst others.
To hate, ridicule and denigrate other Indians to claim national-
ist fervour is the worst betrayal of a nation made up of people of
myriad faiths and feelings.
Anger and disgust about being let down are understandable
as long as there is consensus about expected conduct. An im-
position of unilateral expectations cannot be an acceptable test
of patriotism. But, sadly, that is becoming too prevalent in our
lives. Whatever happened to the oft-repeated words ascribed to
Voltaire: ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the
death your right to say it’?
India’s national landscape, going back
to 1857 and the first battles of the Indepen-
dence movement, is replete with patri-
otic fervour. The strains of ‘Aao bachchon
tumhe dikhayen jhanki Hindustan ki, iss
mitti se tilak karo ye dharti hai balidaan
ki’ or ‘Saare jahan se achha Hindostan
hamara’ were staples of our childhood. The
stories of Ashfaqullah and Bhagat Singh,
Maulana Azad and Sarojini Naidu, Khan
Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Vinoba Bhave,
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and thousands of freedom fighters light up
the firmament of our collective memory.
The poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar and
Mirza Ghalib continues to inspire modern
hearts and minds. Think of Partition, the
sad consequence of Independence and
you will find for each Jinnah and Liaquat
Ali, thousands of Zakir Husains and Sir
Syed Ahmed Khans. Yet narrow-minded
bigots seek certificates of allegiance to the
nation from compatriots who chose India
over calls of faith and family. The names
of martyrs and sufferers—innumerable
amongst them Muslims—remain etched
in stone in every town and village of India
and as much in the hearts of men and
women. There cannot be a greater insult to
the Indian psyche and betrayal of its con-
sciousness than to question the Indianness
of an Indian.
Suddenly, as every visible attribute of
a Muslim’s public personality, less so other
minorities, gets challenged and jingoism
gets into the political driving seat, the
community is being watched for conspicu-
ous signs of patriotism. If that was not
bad enough, unreasonable standards of
patriotism are being introduced into the
public discourse. Disagreement is promptly
branded as disloyalty. We might not be
alone in this—the world was witness to the
spectacle of US President Donald Trump
berating the ethnic background of Democ-
ratic Party Congresswomen who oppose
his brand of politics. Fortunately for India,
we have an enormous army of liberal Indi-
ans of all hues and religions who speak
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 39

up for the oppressed. Yet, self-consciousness and apprehension
among Muslims is inevitable. It’s no longer just the danger of be-
ing insulted, but an issue of personal safety. The demand doesn’t
stop at the visual affirmation of national aspirations and its
repeated endorsement; now religious slogans of the majoritar-
ian faith must be incanted submitting to the will of bullies.
But, truthfully, there are no issues of conflict between the
majority of Hindus and Muslims except, perhaps, on contested
claims like Ayodhya. Anyone familiar with the Bhakti move-
ment knows of its close interface with Sufism. Sant Kabir,
in his remarkable life as indeed even when his last rites were
performed at Maghar in Sant Kabir Nagar, left little scope for
disagreement between Islam and Hinduism. By any analysis,
India is culturally and spiritually a richer country by being
home to the world’s greatest religions and cultures. Muslims
and Hindus alike repudiated the two-nation theory in 1947.
_m
It would be tragic in the extreme if anyone seeks to revive that
thesis within independent India by creating a subjugated na-
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tion within. Those seeking affirmations of patriotism overlook
the sacrifice of Brig. Usman and Hav. Abdul Hameed, the
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prowess of cricketers like M.A.K. Pataudi and Mohammad
e/
Azharuddin, the wisdom of late president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
and former vice-president Hamid Ansari, the musical notes of
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Amjad Ali Khan and A.R. Rahman, the virtuoso performance
of Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari, the hockey dribbles of
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Aslam Sher Khan and Zafar Iqbal and an endless legacy that
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has enriched our home called India.
A
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sking a Muslim, Christian or Sikh to display
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proof of patriotism is the most unpatriotic act
anyone can indulge in. India, even as it is poised
for greatness in the world, must recognise its
unique greatness at home first. There is no prob-
lem in reaching out to the past to revive a sense of belonging
and self-esteem, but then the past cannot be chosen selectively.
Furthermore, to use the past for inspiration cannot be faulted
so long as it leads to noble dreams for the future. Learning from
the past is useful in looking ahead but getting preoccupied in
undoing part of the past can itself be severely counter-produc-
tive. When compassion is questioned for motives, and human
rights advocacy for sedition, we know the air is toxic.
India’s syncretic ethos is not an artificial construct but a
product of centuries of shared experiences of Hindus and Mus-
lims. It culminated in the most remarkable collaborative effort
during the Independence movement as millions of Muslims
and Hindus walked behind Mahatma Gandhi and a galaxy of
brilliant leaders, the likes of whom the world has seldom seen.
The refrain of ‘Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein
hai, dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e-qatil mein hai’ celebrated
the greatest non-violent movement in the world, turning the
40 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
THERE CANNOT BE A
GREATER INSULT TO
THE INDIAN PSYCHE
AND BETRAYAL OF
ITS CONSCIOUSNESS
THAN TO QUESTION
THE INDIANNESS
OF AN INDIAN
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belligerent and violent Pashtun people into peace-
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seeking khudai khidmatgars of Khan Abdul
Ghaffar Khan. A deliberate or ignorant oblitera-
tion of that glorious legacy to extract narrow
political advantage by polarising united India
is an affront to patriotism and a betrayal of the
nation. When self-professed pseudo-nationalists
undermine our national ethos, the response lies in
fortitude, patience, determination and foresight.
For the love of India, a love that we know surpass-
es all else, it is important that Indian Muslims do
not lose faith in the idea that we call our home.
We must continue to show our love as we feel,
neither forced nor contrived. Let us refresh our
rich history and recapture the public imagination.
The darkness cannot but give way to a new dawn.
If we do not despair and surrender, generations to
come will pause to hear us sing, ‘Ham laaye hain
toofan se kashti nikaal ke, iss desh ko rakhna
mere bachchon sambhaal ke.’
The Muslims of India must relive the glorious
moments of 1857 and 1947 in camaraderie with
our Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Jain, Parsi brothers
and sisters to keep India free of the darkness of
mistrust and division. Our success will be the
clarion call of our patriotism. The proof of our
patriotism must be given to our conscience, not
to those who know not what patriotism is. Our
reward will be when we pass the torch to a new
generation of Indians who will all cherish their
respective faiths and yet think of themselves as
one family. The acknowledgement of tomorrow’s
torch-bearers—that we kept the torch alive—will
be the lasting legacy of our patriotism.
Salman Khurshid is a senior advocate
and former Cabinet minister

OF INDIA,
BUT APART
PATRIOTISM FOR ONE’S COUNTRY IS NOT THE DEFAULT
SETTING IN THE NORTHEAST WHERE THE LANDSCAPE
HAS BEEN SCARRED BY TUMULTUOUS AND VIOLENT
HISTORIES AND CONFLICTING LOYALTIES
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HE YEAR IS 1948. ROBERT REID,
the ex-governor of the Northeast provin-
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ces, travels to the then Naga hills (now
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Nagaland) as India is newly indepen-
dent, where the events surrounding
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Partition, and the turmoil and trauma it
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brought about, are quickly unravelling.
There’s political uncertainty with regard to the Northeast provin-
ces: what is their future in this vast subcontinent? Amidst this
sensitive historical moment, Reid hears of the assassination of
M.K. Gandhi at the hands of Nathuram Godse, a staunch Hindu
nationalist. In his shock and grief, he tells his Naga host, the
Konyak chief Changrai, that Gandhi is dead. The historian Yas-
min Saikia, in her book on Assam, Fragmented Memories, cap-
tures this telling encounter between Reid and Changrai. Changrai
is baffled and says he does not know who Gandhi is. Reid explains
it was Gandhi who brought about Indian independence and is
the reason the British are leaving India. Changrai laconically
replies: ‘I see, it is he who has caused all this trouble for the Nagas.’
This moment captures a depth of irony over what Indian
independence and its promise of upholding the freedom of every
individual as an equal citizen has meant in a region that has
experienced injustice and indignation. For various indigenous
movements for sovereignty, such as the Naga National Council
(NNC), the Mizo National Front (MNF), the United Libera-
tion Front of Assam (ULFA) and the People’s Liberation Army
(PLA), that emerged all over the region as a result of India’s
BY A R KO T O N G
L O N G K U ME R
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independence, Changrai’s remarks make perfect
sense, for independence means different things to
different people. The Northeast quickly became
alienated by the intransigence of the Government
of India led by Jawaharlal Nehru’s Congress that
privileged national integration through systematic
military prowess over dialogue and accommoda-
tion of difference. It became clear that there was no
meeting of minds. They had to accept an imposed
Indian identity that refused to accommodate their
cultural and political uniqueness and aspirations.
The Indian state saw the region as a recalcitrant
periphery; they had to make it bend to their will.
Fast forward to 2019. The Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) have surpassed their electoral win
of five years ago and formed the government. In
India’s Northeast, they have formed governments
in Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal
Pradesh and built coalitions in Nagaland,
Meghalaya and Mizoram as part of the North-
East Democratic Alliance (NEDA). In a short
time, they have obliterated the Congress as the
dominant national party by utilising their key
electioneering ideology of a national party with a
regional outlook. But an existing tension cannot
be overlooked if we are to understand what hap-
pened. How can the BJP truly enfold a region into
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 41

a united India where much of the region has resisted this unity?
There are three ways of understanding these recent events.
First, it is obvious that the BJP’s strong nationalist agenda of
maintaining the territorial unity of India is non-negotiable.
When the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang
(NSCN-K) launched attacks against the Indian military in Ma-
nipur on June 4, 2015, killing 18 soldiers of the Dogra battalion,
Indian special forces responded by reportedly killing over 100
NSCN-K militants on June 10, 2015 at the Indo-Myanmar
border. Muscular nationalism had entered the fray.
T
he BJP’s position is also tempered by those willing to
sit across tables and chairs with them. The Frame-
work Agreement with the NSCN-Isak/Muivah
(NSCN-IM) on August 3, 2015 is seen as a ‘political’
document that assesses the ‘unique history of the
Nagas’, an acknowledgement first made in 2002 by BJP leader
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Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Framework Agreement lays out the
basis for the Government of India and the NSCN-IM to continue
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negotiations towards a final agreement on the Indo-Naga situa-
tion. Acknowledging the distinct Naga history upon which their
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struggle is articulated is a first step in mollifying their grievances.
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It remains uncertain, though, if the agreement is primarily
a way to prolong and tire the Naga leadership into submis-
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sion, or if Vajpayee’s acknowledgement of the ‘unique history
of the Nagas’ has been translated into political action. Various
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Sangh Parivar (family of Hindu nationalists including the BJP
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and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists I have
interacted with over the years acknowledge the historical hurt
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caused by the militarisation of the region and thus support the
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Framework Agreement, but simply as a peace settlement with-
out any talk of sovereignty. The territorial unity of India is too
high a price to sacrifice so easily. Whatever the decision may be,
it puts the spotlight on the Sangh Parivar. Either they suppress
the Naga movement through the machinations of state power
and enact what the political scientist James C. Scott calls Seeing
like a State, or they accommodate the Nagas’ vision of who they
are in an effort to win hearts and minds. Many Sangh Parivar
activists who work tirelessly doing seva (service) are the ones
exposed to the whims of the people on the ground, and it is they
who might bear the consequences of what is decided.
Second, accompanying the ascendancy of the BJP is the sin-
gular idea of Hindutva that has now become widespread. What
does this mean to a region that has resisted efforts to impose a
singular identity? Hindutva is jostling for space amidst the di-
versity of ethnic, religious and territorial affiliations by playing
the ‘indigenous’ card. The idea of indigeneity allows them firstly
to position themselves as ‘sons of the soil’, an idea that resonates
with many in the region whose own identities are rooted very
much in the land. It also allows Hindutva to make distinctions
between those who are ‘indigenous’ and those who are ‘foreign’.
42 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
MANY INDIGENOUS
NATIONAL MOVEMENTS
MAKE AN ASSERTION
OF HISTORICAL
DIFFERENCE. THE
BJP AND SANGH
PARIVAR FIND WAYS
TO DEMONSTRATE THE
REGION’S ETERNAL
CONNECTION
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Both Christianity and Islam are seen as foreign
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forces, which entered the country to dupe innocent
bystanders by accepting a way of life completely
alien to the geo-religious map of India. While it
seeks to de-indigenise these forces, Hindutva also
has to accommodate the way Christians in the
region, who have a large following, assert their
identity as a basis for their belonging, and thus by
extension, their sovereignty. As a way out of this
impasse, Hindutva summarily defines Christianity
as an inner activity that can co-exist with an exter-
nal patriotic national self (Hindu as a civilisational
force). They are, however, not always complemen-
tary or accommodative towards Muslims. One can
see this in the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill of 2016,
which has ignited protests all over the region, is
one example of the contested nature of belonging.
Those belonging to minority religions—which
include Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Sikhs
and even Christians—escaping persecution from
predominantly Muslim countries (Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Afghanistan) will be rehabili-
tated in India. If Muslims are the ‘other’ in the
larger Hindutva imagination, what place will
they have within the debate over the Citizenship
Amendment Bill or the National Register of Citi-
zens (NRC, in Assam)? Will such mechanisms
explicitly exclude them, even though many of their
homes are in India?
One can get a sense of these polarising debates
around citizenship. For the BJP, both the Citizen-
ship Amendment Bill and the NRC, according to
The Hindu, are understood as methods of ‘keep-
ing Muslims of Bangladeshi origin out of the state
historically allergic to migrants’. Amit Shah, the
then BJP president, is reported as saying that ‘the

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Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
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BJP felt the bill was necessary to prevent Assam from becoming
a Muslim-majority state like Kashmir’. The growing resurgence
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of indigenous politics all over the region based on exclusive
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territorial claims could align with these ideological designs
articulated by Shah.
Finally, the Sangh Parivar forces actively seek to assimilate
the region within the larger Hindutva universe. They have done so
in several ways. Many indigenous national movements make an
assertion of historical difference: that the region was never a part
of ‘India’. The BJP and the Sangh Parivar, therefore, find ways to
demonstrate the region’s eternal connection. Stories are a power-
ful way to evoke this sentiment. Let me give you one example.
O
n March 28, 2018, the chief ministers of Mani-
pur, Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat came to-
gether to celebrate the marriage of Lord Krishna
and Rukmini during the four-day Madhavpur
mela (fair) in Gujarat, a state in western India.
Thousands gathered at this mela from all over India, with around
150 cultural troupes from the Northeast as the bride’s represen-
tatives to celebrate the ‘immortal journey’ Rukmini undertook
from Arunachal Pradesh to Gujarat to marry Lord Krishna. The
coverage, broadcast on television and social media sites, demon-
strated colour, diversity and ‘unity’, the latter achieved through
bringing together the east and west under the
Union ministry for culture’s slogan of ‘Ek Bharat
Shreshtha Bharat’ (one India, great India). The
BJP-appointed governor of Arunachal Pradesh,
B.D. Mishra, captured the sentiment: “You are
here on the western border of India and we are
from the eastern border, 3,500 kilometres away.
But this distance has always remained connected.
If somebody from the other side of our border
claims that Arunachal belongs to them, they are
grossly wrong because if our princess could come
here 5,000 years ago and you could make her the
queen, it clearly means Arunachal has always been
with India and will continue to be so.”
This is a clear attempt to forge a common
history amid divergent voices arguing for the very
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opposite, leading to the fragmentation and dis-
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solution of the body politic of India.
What do these events mean in the face of Hin-
du nationalism, the celebration of Indian indepen-
dence and the accompanying feeling of patriotism?
Will Hindutva resurgence in the region reduce this
tension by promoting feelings of patriotism and
the celebration of ‘India’? Or will this simply make
the battle lines between ‘us’ and ‘them’ clearer for a
region that has seen violence in the past 70 years?
One could suggest that ethnic homeland poli-
tics all over the Northeast will have no place in the
overarching ideology of Hindutva that professes
a unitary territorial reality at its core. There is
no seamless narrative that tidies the edges and
smoothes the surface upon which history in the
Northeast is etched. Hindutva, like every modern
ideological force, will have to manage the complex
algorithms that characterise this mountain babel—
from the British, the American and Welsh mission-
aries, the Japanese and now the Indian state.
Yet, there is an interesting tension that goes to
the very heart of every nation-state. The stronger
the centrifugal force, the more adaptive the coun-
tervailing forces become. Patriotism for one’s coun-
try cannot simply be expected in a region where
the tumultuous and violent histories have scarred
the landscape, and where loyalties are distributed
amongst various entities. One can understand
Changrai’s reaction to Reid’s sentimentality upon
hearing of Gandhi’s assassination; perhaps it was
the beginning of all the trouble for the region and
its people. In Changrai’s honesty, there is an im-
portant truth that remains relevant even today.
Arkotong Longkumer is an anthropologist who
teaches at the University of Edinburgh, UK
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 43
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Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

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BY R A M A B I J A P U R K A R

THE BRANDS
OF POLITICS
IF BRAND-SPEAK REPRESENTS POPULAR CULTURE, WE HAVE
LESS TO WORRY ABOUT THAN SOME OF US MIGHT THINK
T HE GOOD NEWS IS THAT IN-
DIAN BRANDS unequivocally live
in the world of customers and the
people of India, and not in the world
of politicians. They speak to people,
mindful of commercial good sense,
by tapping into popular culture; the
good news is that they still see popular culture as being quite far
removed from the patriotic jingoism of today’s politics.
Every Independence Day and Republic Day, brands in India
do special campaigns—citizen brand talking to citizen consum-
er—and the conversation is quite revealing of the way business
thinks about the state of the nation. We haven’t yet seen what the
brand-speak for Independence Day 2019 will be, but it is a very
safe bet, based on recent trends, that most will neither echo nor
argue against the present political discourse on patriotism.
The politics of patriotism we saw during the recent elections
was distressing, to say the least, and has been carried over into
the post-election political space too. The BJP portrayed itself
as standing for a very muscular and authoritarian patriotism,
_m
replete with images of military and disciplinarian force. It chasti-
sed those who asked questions or expressed dissent, labelling
m
them as ‘disrespectful to the country’, ‘anti-national’, ‘pessimist’
and more. There hasn’t been an alternative sketch of patriotism
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offered by any other contestant in the political space, except
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for those who quibbled noisily about the use of military images
in political campaigns and questioned the officially declared
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numbers of casualties during the cross-border surgical strikes
conducted on terrorist camps. Media brands quickly dived in to
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take positions on the level of patriotism of those referred to in the
s:
election campaign as the ‘tukde tukde gang’, the ‘Khan Market
gang’ and the ‘JNU gang’, and also on the patriotism—or lack of
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it—of the ‘kitne aadmi thhe (how many men were there)?’ ques-
ht
tion, straight out of the movie Sholay, some political parties asked.
In this fraught atmosphere, non-media brands have thank-
fully decided to stay out of this arena and this tonality. No
commercial brand can be authoritarian and survive in this new
age of customer power, liberalisation and female empower-
ment. But is there no payoff for commercial brands that take a
stand on societal and political issues? Recent research in more
developed markets shows that customers want brands that
share their beliefs. Are there any brands in India that are taking
a stand and pushing back against this version of patriotism?
Among the established brands that made a clear statement
pushing back against the new politics of patriotism was one
of the big four of India’s business conglomerates. Last year, for
Independence Day, it ran a campaign showing India through the
eyes of truck drivers. After talking of the varied sights, sounds
and foods that they came across in their travels, one of the drivers
says, “yeh jo ghar mein baithe television mein dikhate hain, usse
bilkul alag hai mera desh (my country is different from what they
show on TV).” Another truck driver, from the northeast, says,
“Kabhi kabhi bataana padta hai ki main yahaan ka hoon, par
chalta hai, jaan boojh ke nahin poochhte hain (sometimes I have
THE POLITICS OF
PATRIOTISM WE
SAW DURING THE
RECENT ELECTIONS
WAS MUSCULAR AND
AUTHORITARIAN.
BRANDS HAVE
THANKFULLY STAYED
OUT OF THIS ARENA
AND TONALITY
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to tell people that I am from India, but that’s ok,
ag
they aren’t asking to offend).” Yet another declares
that “kuchh log ke chhote soch se desh chhota nahin
hota (the small-mindedness of a few people doesn’t
make the country small)”. The ad ends celebrating
the truck drivers’ perspective, and suggests that we
emulate their way of thinking.
Change in India comes slowly, one drop at a
time, until the tipping point of a pushback against
the prevailing political discourse is reached. Re-
cently, a food service delivery publicly denounced
a customer’s request for a Hindu delivery boy—
there has also been a similar request and a not-so-
public pushback from a cab service. Perhaps this
will give courage to younger, millennial and
Gen Z brands to stand up and say “we disagree
with and disapprove of such talk”.
How do Indian brands express patriotism, and
how has this changed over time? The safe, popular
and uncomplicated space that many have chosen
includes admiration for the country’s achieve-
ments, recaps of past and recent milestones and
salutes to the great scientists (while staying away
from politically charged figures). An evergreen
theme that many brands use to signal their iden-
tification with, and love for, the country is that of
celebrating and recognising her unity in diversity.
Varieties of food, customs, traditions, festivals,
sights, attire and musical instruments have been
used compellingly. Interestingly, this used to be the
official political discourse as well till not long ago,
best captured in the wonderful, heart-warming,
government-sponsored Doordarshan film Mile
sur mera tumhaara (1988), involving leading
musicians from around the country all singing
differently but in harmony. The film’s predecessor,
Spread the Light of Freedom, made around the
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 45

NIRMA, AND NOW PATANJALI,
ROSE ON AN ANTI-MNC
PLATFORM—BUT IT IS NOT
PATRIOTISM, BUT FAIR
PRICING, THAT IS THEIR
PROPOSITION
same time, had sportsmen and women from across the country
carrying a torch in relay—again, meant to celebrate diversity
and honour achievement in sports. There haven’t been similar
_m
campaigns from the government since 1991, when the focus
shifted from building society to building the nation’s economy.
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‘Jai Jawan (hail the soldier)’, saluting the armed forces is another
popular theme that still prevails, perhaps the only area where
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political and brand discourse overlap.
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Post 1991, for the next two decades, as India went from
strength to strength, the theme of ‘nation building’ became a
.m
favourite. Electrical brands, food brands, bank brands, business
conglomerates and large companies all vied with each other to
//t
present their nation-building credentials. The very old compa-
s:
nies chronicled their contribution from Independence onward,
while the new ones talked of their scope and scale and their
tp
recent achievements. Market leaders in every category tried to
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make themselves synonymous with India and to suggest that
they fuelled the flame of India’s diversity—‘the taste of India’,
‘banker to every Indian’, ‘the nation’s history is our history’ and
of course the most beloved ‘buland Bharat ki buland tasveer (a
bold image of bold India)’.
With the generational shift in companies and communica-
tors, how does young India think about such things? Are we see-
ing changes in the way brands approach patriotism, their role as
Indian citizens, or their Independence and Republic Day ads?
One segment of it—a large one—merely sees these ‘special
country days’ as a marketing opportunity. A hotel room aggrega-
tor exhorts people to take advantage of the long Independence
Day weekend and travel to various parts of the country; another
lot announces mega sales; yet another segment takes ‘freedom’
and ‘independence’ literally, promising freedom from cuts and
scratchy beards and slippery tyres and the like.
If we grant these businesses their perception of consumerism
as the highest altar at which to worship, there is still a clear seg-
ment of others who are not content with a mere chronicling and
celebration of diversity, but are using their brand platform to
‘help build a better India’—taking the nation-building theme to
46 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
the next level. If earlier the theme was translated
as ‘built factories, introduced new products, pro-
vided jobs, worked with all segments of society’, it
is now beginning to be translated as ‘promoting
desirable behaviours of a nation with a progres-
sive society’. There are ads around ‘soch badalna
hoga (ways of thinking need to change)’, ‘opportu-
nity for everyone to rise’, ‘what has education done
for you’ and so on. Women’s independence, safety
and freedom from social restraints is a popular
theme; environmental protection (not ‘Swachh
Bharat’ slogans) and freedom from plastic is
another; inclusion or the general ‘freedom to be’
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and equal rights for under-privileged sections is
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another; and a gentle and positive comment on
the move to a ‘no bribery and corruption/ fast
transactions’ environment from a digital payment
brand are all welcome indicators of what we will
see more of in the future.
R
ecent WhatsApp messages doing
the rounds talk of ‘swadeshi-
videshi (domestic-foreign)’ brands,
bemoaning how the behemoths
among US and Chinese brands
are taking over the Indian market and blaming
the government for not enabling the rise of Indian
brands. The Bombay Club of 1991 thinking back
again? No, that ship of patriotism has sailed. The
new theme around swadeshi-videshi is to get our
fair share of our own market by competing fair and
square and doing what China is doing—creating
local beaters of global champs.
Nirma, and now Patanjali, rose on an anti-
MNC platform. However, it is not patriotism but
fair pricing that is their proposition. The ‘made in
country X or Y’ national branding is now begin-
ning to lose all its previous perceptions as supply
chains have gone global. Orders from a website
in Asia go to a US address; the shipping is from
Europe, while the tag says ‘Made in India’.
If brand-speak represents popular culture, we
have less to worry about than some of us might
think! The days when brands kowtowed to politi-
cians are over. The days when they push back and
take a stand if needed are yet to come, but there are
definitely green shoots on the horizon.
Rama Bijapurkar is a leading Indian consultant
on market strategy and consumer behaviour
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BY T.M . K R I S H N A

SONGS OF
FREEDOM
TRUE PATRIOTISM SHOULD SUBVERT ALL FORMS OF
OPPRESSION AND IT MUST BE BOUND TO HUMANITY
RATHER THAN THE NATION-STATE

I
AM ATTEMPTING TO pen this piece on a day
when a lot that I believed in, as a citizen of India,
has been taken away. I thought the Constitution
is the one thing that gives us culture, records our
past and, at every turn, reimagines our present.
But on August 5, this tradition of respecting multiple cultures,
ideas, voices embodied in the spirit of our Constitution was torn
to bits. Dr B.R. Ambedkar had secured for us humanity, fairness
and ethics of living. But I fear we are witnessing the first step in a
series that will undo the dreams of India enshrined in that sacred
book, all those years ago. Our past has been far from clean and
many have repeatedly raised their voice at cardinal moments.
But what we are witnessing now is a drastically different kind of
_m
politics—a blaring siren that has killed any semblance of music.
Culture was forfeited and patriotism twisted and mutilated. The
m
5th of August 2019 will be remembered as the day when we, as a
country, trampled upon the Kashmiris’ right to redefine their re-
nj
lationship with the rest of India. We went back on our word and
e/
in the darkness of the night unleashed our machinery to mute an
entire region. If this is Indian culture, then I reject it once and for
.m
all. If I am considered patriotic only if I applaud this move, then
maybe I am not patriotic. But to many this was a patriotic act, a
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brave decision that unites the country, undoes a wrong and will
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make us stand together as one. But what is patriotism?
Over the past five-plus years, there has been a need to dif-
tp
ferentiate between patriotism and jingoism. But with all the
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rubbish that is thrown our way every day, do we really know or
even have the mind-space to seriously investigate this feeling?
A few years ago, as I was waiting in the green room getting
ready for my concert, the organiser informed me that since the
auditorium was owned by the state government, they insisted
on playing the national anthem before the concert began even
though this was not a government function. I refused to leave
the green room or get on stage until the anthem ended. Was I
unpatriotic not to participate in the celebration of the anthem?
What is the anthem itself? Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the former
governor of West Bengal, has often spoken of the word manas
in our anthem. This was Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s word
of hope. The word that symbolised the innate innocence within
everyone of us. Not the innocence of nativity, but the self that
is untainted by greed. The glimmer in a dewdrop that falls on
a leaf. He celebrated this possibility in every Indian and hoped
for a land where we held dewdrops in our palms in wonder. But
when this work of art, the national anthem, is thrust upon us as
a song of allegiance, that beautiful song turns into the trum-
peting of an authoritarian regime. I would also argue that, in
forcing its rendition before a celebration of a musical tradition,
Illustration by NILANJAN DAS
WHEN PEOPLE ARE
TODAY CALLED ANTI-
HINDU AND ANTI-
INDIAN, THE ACCUSER
IS COLLAPSING SOCIO-
RELIGIOUS IDENTITY
AND FAITHFULNESS
TO THE NATION-
STATE, NARROWING
OUR INDIAN-NESS TO
SPECIFIC COLOURS,
SYMBOLS AND RITUALS
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the symbol aesthetically distorted culture, art,
melody, rhythm and the profundity of the aes-
thetic experience.
If we were to listen to every song that was
sung, each poem that was recited, all the prose
that was published, the tunes that were hummed
or slogans that were chanted during the free-
dom struggle, we would know how they spoke
of justice, equality, fairness, democracy, rights
and freedom. We sought the emancipation of the
body and the mind. The British were the obvi-
ous oppressors, but the words were not limited
to pointing to their evilness. The cry for freedom
was as much about the people within, an appeal
for self-reflection, a movement for us to arise
from social slumber.
When Subramania Bharati asks, When will
our thirst for freedom be quenched? When will
our love for thraldom cease?, he is speaking of
the conditions under British rule, but he is also
speaking beyond his time, raising questions about
the human condition. He is speaking for the last
person standing and demanding change from the
privileged. Whether it was Bharati or Dwijendra-
lal Roy, they spoke of people, to people and for
people. We fought the British tooth and nail not
because they were outsiders but because of injus-
tice. Patriotism in its essence is not obedience or
faithfulness; it is the celebration of questioning
and free will. When D.K. Pattammal sang with
patriotic fervour, she hoped to nudge Indians to
express themselves fearlessly, to stand up for oth-
ers. Protected within those words and melodies
were the rights of every individual. Patriotic songs
were not composed to capture power, they were
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 49
 PATRIOTISM CANNOT BE REDUCED TO A
REAL-ESTATE BUSINESS OF ACQUIRING OR
SAFEGUARDING LAND. PATRIOTISM CANNOT
BE BOUND BY THE IDEA OF THE NATION.
PATRIOTS MUST HAVE THE COURAGE TO
NAME THEIR OWN COUNTRY AS THE
PERPETRATOR IF THAT IS THE TRUTH
sung to empower ourselves, to strengthen human rights and
challenge any power structure that diminishes us as people.
Patriotism is subversive; the subverter of the feudal, the uncar-
ing, the power-hungry and the dictatorial. It does not serve the
state and hence must, at all times, uphold the highest human
qualities. Only when the country listens and learns from the
patriot does
it remain alive.
Patriotism was not a majoritarian imposition; it was a caring
_m
song for all, especially for those whose songs are not heard. The
nation-state had and has very little to do with this patriotism.
m
When an entire people came together and stood together for
self-determination, they knew that the cause was human, not
nj
Indian. But like all idealisms, this too soon vanished into the
e/
shadows of community and religion. Patriotism becomes jingo-
istic the moment it loses its selfless nature, when it champions
.m
ownership, othering and criminalises those who are vulnerable.
W
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hat about that line we call our border, that
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which determines our sovereignty? Isn’t
patriotism vouching for that political line,
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protecting its convoluted shape across
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mountains, rivers, seas and forests? In 2010,
just after the civil war had ended in Sri Lanka, I performed in
Colombo in the memory of Neelan Tiruchelvam, the Tamil law-
yer, politician and academic who was assassinated by the LTTE.
He was a patriot who fought until the very end for dialogue and
process, and listened to every voice. For that concert, I rendered
a song written by a Tamil poet about whom very little is known—
Tara Bharati. He asks in his song:
Has any country stolen a river because it flowed across
the border?
Has anyone arrested the wind because it crossed the fence?
Have the border walls ever stopped the rain clouds from
coming down the hills after raining on the towns above?
Do we accuse a tree on the border of encroachment and cut its
roots because it drew water from the neighbouring country?
At the end, he asks people to awaken to the spirit of sharing.
Patriotism sprouts from this freedom, the sharing of human val-
ues. A bond that expands into a larger political construction that
we call country but can never be stopped by barriers or steeples.
50 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
The lines that we draw on a map are just markers
of this coming together amongst one set of people.
It does not mark the position of the outsider.
Patriotism, therefore, cannot be reduced to a real-
estate business of acquiring or safeguarding land
and neither is it about international contractual
z
agreements. Patriotism cannot and should not be
ag
bound by the idea of the nation. The nation needs
patriots and not the other way round. Patriots
must have the courage to name their own country
as the perpetrator if that is the truth. Patriotism
takes only the side of the just, not a nation-state.
Mythology and history, too, contribute to the
collapse of patriotism. No democratic country
came into being from vacuum, and this means
it carries within social, religious and political
practices the splendours and the grotesqueness
of the pre-democratic times. Bundled deep inside
those bedtime stories and lullabies are identity
markers that soon turn into tools of discrimina-
tion. When people are today called anti-Hindu
and anti-Indian, the accuser is, in one stroke,
collapsing socio-religious identity and faithful-
ness to the nation-state. In that masterstroke, he
rekindles the ruptures of the past and narrows
our Indian-ness to specific colours, symbols and
rituals. When that happens, even a beautiful song
of belonging turns violent. When the German
national anthem was rendered with gusto by Ger-
man supremacists under Adolf Hitler, it was an
unpatriotic, unmusical, inhuman act. Patriotism
loses its selflessness and morphs into a flag-wav-
ing, anthem-singing drill.
The patriot challenges culture, religion and
any social practice that is undemocratic. No saint,
elder, writer, painter, sculptor, philosopher or
singer is beyond the enquiry. The word of god is not
exempt from questioning and neither is the atheist
or rationalist absolute. The patriot is an artist,
a citizen, a sensitive human being who cares for
people and all that we treasure as this planet.
T.M. Krishna is a vocalist and author
 BY A MI S H

A GUARANTOR
OF LIBERALISM
A STRONG NATION-STATE, FOUNDED ON PATRIOTIC
BELIEF, IS THE SUREST DEFENCE OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

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among the global liberal elite is amount of ‘societal or activist’ interven-
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the demonisation of patriotism. tion can adequately compensate. Child

Often, extremist nationalist rights become theoretical in the absence
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groups of the 20th century, of a family that protects and supports

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such as the Nazis, or the Italian children. Recall the Rotherham sexual
Fascists, are used as examples abuses. Over a 20-year period beginning
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to try and make us wary of in the late 1990s, approximately 1,400

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patriotism and patriots. Of young, mostly white girls in this Brit-

course, the Nazis, Italian ish town experienced systematic rape,
Fascists and their ilk merit strong opprobrium. But using them abuse, violence and forced abortions at
repeatedly to tar patriotism itself is, honestly, unfortunate. What the hands of mostly Pakistani-British
would you call those who use the examples of Mao and Stalin—the men. It’s horrific. Such a large number
worst mass-murderers of the 20th century—to tar all Marxists, or of young, vulnerable girls, abused over
those who cite genocidal maniacs like Timur, Alauddin Khilji and such a long period. It is believed that
Aurangzeb to argue that all of Islam is fanatical? Patently biased, many in the local police and activist
right? Why is it different for patriotism? circles knew, but remained silent. They
One may argue—why bother with liberal harangues on patrio- feared being accused of racism, keeping
tism when liberalism itself seems to be losing the argument globally in mind the identity of the criminals.
and nationalists seem to be winning? Because in this age of global But the real shocker lies elsewhere—
information flows, high immigration and multi-cultural exchange, what were the families of these poor
liberalism is needed more than ever. And a democratic nation-state girls doing? Why didn’t they protect
is the best defender of liberalism in the present day. It is critical for their children? The first line of defence
liberals to realise that it is in their own selfish interest to defend of young, vulnerable children is their
patriotism as well as the nation-state. parents. But unfortunately, often in the
Why is the democratic nation-state important for liberalism? blind pursuit of individualism, fam-
Without the order enforced by a strong institution, the rights of ily structures have seen an erosion in
individuals become extremely difficult to uphold. Take child rights: so-called modern times. And as a result,
a child’s right to life, security, education, food and health. If the in- these children didn’t have the sanctuary

AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 51


THE NATION-STATE
IS IMPORTANT FOR
LIBERALISM BECAUSE
IN THE ABSENCE OF A
STRONG INSTITUTION TO
ENFORCE ORDER, THE
RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS
BECOME EXTREMELY
DIFFICULT TO UPHOLD
_m foreseeable future. That someday is heartbreak-
of home and family.
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Rights cannot survive in a vacuum. They need strong
institutions to protect them. And just like children need com-
nj
mitted parents, individual citizens need a strong nation-state
e/
to protect their rights.
It can be argued that not all parents are caring and protec-
.m
tive. But most parents are. And therefore, we would agree that a
strong family is good for a child. Similarly, there are authoritar-
//t
ian nation-states that oppress their citizens. But data indicates
s:
clearly that democratic nation-states, on average, protect the
individual rights of citizens. Institutions with the power, tools
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and motivation (driven by citizen votes and democratic protests)
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to guarantee individual rights are the basis for liberalism. A
modern democratic nation-state is the best example available
today of a political organisation that protects individual human
rights, as compared to any other form of government in history.
As Winston Churchill pithily remarked: “…democracy is the
worst form of Government except for all those other forms that
have been tried from time to time.”
If a democratic nation-state, imperfect as it is, is the best
guarantor for liberalism and individual rights, then how does
one build it? A nation-state, especially a democratic one, is
built on a social contract; on the collective belief of a sufficient-
ly large number of people that they are a nation.
So, what makes this collective belief possible? In one
simple word: Patriotism.
By providing the emotional energy for a nation-state,
patriotism also becomes a guarantor for the protection of
individual rights and liberalism.
Patriotism can be built on various models. The European
model is built on ethnicity, language and religion (different
versions of Christianity). The West Asian model is built on
a mix of authoritarianism (of a monarchy or the army) and
52 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
religion (Sunni or Shia Islam; though, admit-
tedly, some states, like Egypt, were secular till
some time ago). Nation-states, in the basic design
of their nationhood, are fundamentally exclu-
sionary. They define themselves by what they
are NOT. And this aspect, in the minds of most
liberals, makes the nation-state an enemy of liber-
alism. Many European states have, no doubt, be-
come far more inclusive over the recent decades.
But this shaking up of the basis of their nation-
hood, in terms of ethnicity, language and religion,
has also shaken their concept of nationhood
itself. Many among the modern global liberal elite
speak of a post-nationalism world. John Lennon
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“Imagine”d us living as one, some day. Beautiful.
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But, as yet, a dream that seems unrealisable in the
ingly far away. At this point in time, it seems that
liberalism and individual rights cannot exist
without the guarantee of a nation-state.
T
his is where the Indian model
appears very interesting. India
is one of the few countries in the
world—besides probably China and
Japan—that can lay claim to being
a ‘civilisational state’. This is a fundamentally
different model: a collective belief in an ancient
civilisational way in which we can imagine India.
Some deracinated Indians may believe that India
was created by the British, before which we didn’t
exist as a nation. This is an incomplete under-
standing of nation-building. Our nationhood is
not of the European or West-Asian exclusionary
style; and this is what gives strength to our model
in this modern, multi-cultural world. Our nation
is not defined by one language. It is not defined
by one religion. It is not defined by one ethnicity.
It is defined by a civilisation, in which multiple
languages, religions and ethnicities have lived
together for centuries—in some cases, for millen-
nia—developing bonds and a deep attachment to
this great land. We are not defined by who we are
NOT. We are defined by who we are: inheritors of
a great civilisation that is like our Mother.
This is what makes us, to use Nassim Nicho-
las Taleb’s term, an ‘anti fragile’ nation. We can
very easily adapt to the rapid pace of change that
is a given in these times, and yet keep our core
together. Our patriotism is not exclusionary. And
our belief in our nation is ancient. As the millen-
 z
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NATION-STATES, IN THEIR BASIC DESIGN, DEFINE

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THEMSELVES IN TERMS OF WHAT THEY ARE NOT.

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THIS, IN THE MINDS OF MOST LIBERALS, MAKES

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NATION-STATES AN ENEMY OF LIBERALISM

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nia-old Vishnu Purana has recorded so beautifully: ‘Uttaram
yat samudrasya himadreschaiva dakshinam. Varsham tad
bharatam nama bharati yatra santatih (North of the ocean,
and south of the Himalaya, lies the noble nation of Bharat, and
there live the descendants of Bharat)’.
Not only is the belief in our nationhood ancient, it is also
deeply liberal and inclusive. India has accepted refugees from
across the world. In ancient times, she gave refuge to the Par-
sees escaping Arab attacks and Jews fleeing Roman oppression.
Even today, Hindu pilgrims visit the Ajmer Sharif and Muslims
worship at the Venkateswara temple.
We are tough. Unlike many other ancient cultures that
died out over the last 2,000 years, we fought back brutal
invaders and stubbornly survived. We were also immensely
successful. As British economist Angus Maddison noted,
India’s GDP was the highest in the world for 15 of the past 20
centuries. India has more non-printing press manuscripts—3
million—than the rest of the ancient world combined; this is a
marker of the massive knowledge production of
the ancient Indians.
Armed with pride, powered with a rebellious
innovative spirit, and infused with the spirit of
patriotism, India can take its rightful place once
again in the comity of nations. And if our mother-
land prospers, so shall we. If we infuse ourselves
with positive patriotism, we will revive a society
that is liberal, powerful and inclusive.
A patriotic spirit towards our ancient moth-
erland is not only a sentimental position to take;
it is also the smart thing to do. It is not just my
heart that swells with pride—even my mind gets
focused when I say these beautiful words: Bharat
Mata ki Jai! Glory to Mother India!
Amish is the bestselling author of the Shiva trilogy,
the Ram Chandra series and Immortal India

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

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 ME G HN A G U L Z A R

TOWARDS
A QUIET
ALLEGIANCE
THE HUMAN SPIRIT TRIUMPHS

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IN A TRULY PATRIOTIC FILM, NOT

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ATRIOTISM, LIKE RELIGION, IS a personal emo-

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tion. It lends itself to very intimate interpretations,

and thus means different things to different people,
much like religion does. And like religion, it can get
inflammatory too. Patriotism is a delicate emotion
which, I believe, needs careful handling by cinema.
The first patriotic film I ever saw was Kranti
(1981). Strangely, it didn’t make me feel very
patriotic. I was too young at the time, and as children, I’d argue, we don’t watch
films to soak in philosophical concepts. Film-watching is more a visceral experi-
ence that impacts you later, perhaps when you are older. You react to films very
differently with time. When I was growing up, the texture of patriotism was very
different. Through much of our childhood, for instance, the villains of the piece
were our colonisers, either the Mughals or the British. At school and at the movies,
we’d learn the same things.
When I go back further and look at films of the ’50s and ’60s, I try and keep in
mind their context. We had just gained our independence. We were finding our feet
as a nation. Our economy was nascent, at the cusp of its birth. Songs like ‘Mere desh
ki dharti’ and ‘Ae mere watan ke logon’ found tremendous resonance with audiences
because they had been made with a specific intent—to instil a sense of self.
Movies have a very symbiotic relationship with society. There’s an osmosis that
happens. Films reflect our times, and society, in turn, absorbs from films too. So,

Illustration by RAJ VERMA


MY COUNTRY, FOR ME,
IS MY PEOPLE, MY CITY,
AND MY ENVIRONMENT.
IT IS CERTAINLY NOT
AN IDEOLOGY. I DO NOT
HAVE TO TATTOO THE
TRICOLOUR ON MY FACE
TO EXPRESS LOVE FOR
MY COUNTRY
_m tion, though, and she is again the antagonist.
when you had mill workers make headlines at the time of our
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economic development in the ’70s, Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘A n-
gry Young Man’ persona became popular. What films speak
nj
of is very connected to the time in which they’re made.
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Patriotism in cinema is also shaped in part by the
sensibility of a film and its maker. Take Lagaan (2001), for
.m
instance. While the British were the clear enemies, the film’s
villagers were also fighting poverty. They were also fighting
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drought. When they finally win the climactic cricket match,
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they aren’t just happy because they have defeated the British,
they have also defeated adversity. Their elation is that of the
tp
human spirit. Their accomplishment is that of an underdog
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getting its moment in the sun. Lagaan, for me, was not just
another patriotic film. It was a story of courage.
S
imilarly, when I took on Raazi (2018), and we
went through the usual processes of writing,
shooting, production and editing, it did not once
cross my mind that I was making a ‘patriotic
film’. For me, the film told a story of strength, of
that indomitable human spirit and of the futility of war. It
was only when we put together the first cut did we realise that
the film was talking about a lot more.
If you notice, you will not once see the Indian flag in
Raazi. Nowhere will you find the national anthem or a rendi-
tion of ‘Vande Mataram’ being used as a background theme.
To tell a story of true grit was my intent. I didn’t want to
impart a lesson on patriotism. What drew me to my protago-
nist, Sehmat (Alia Bhatt), was that someone like her once
existed. For me, the character was a role model, an inspira-
tion. Watching her can gratify and elevate you. Hers is the
real story I wanted to tell.
It was only incidental that when people started watching
56 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
the film, and when critics started writing
their review, did the film come to mean more
than what we had set out with. Here was a
film that looked at patriotism differently. It
showed you could be patriotic without having
to resort to jingoism.
When we were writing up the characters of
Sehmat’s Pakistani family, we, perhaps uncon-
sciously, ensured that nationalism didn’t condi-
tion their behaviour, their actions or decisions.
So, when you see these Pakistani characters in
relation to Sehmat, she seems the villain. She
is the one destroying an entire family. But then
you juxtapose that realisation with the reasons
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of why she is doing what she is doing, and sud-
ag
denly there is redemption. Remove her motiva-
Her Pakistani family is not. Humanising ‘the
enemy’, while keeping Sehmat’s moral compass
intact was a challenge. One little tip on either
side would have made the balance very murky.
Sentimentality doesn’t bother me so much,
but my alarms do go off when self-righteous-
ness parades as sentiment. If I am portraying
Sehmat’s patriotism in the film, I must also
speak of her husband Iqbal’s love for his country.
Why should one patriotism come at the cost of
another? If we have our patriotism, we ought to
let them have theirs. For me to love my country,
I don’t have to hate another.
In the end, it is always intent that matters
most. When we made Talvar (2015), we never
wanted to ride the wave of controversy. We
wanted to tell both sides of the story because the
reporting, we felt, had been skewed. We didn’t
have a solution to offer. We only wanted to put
all the information out there. It is that intent
which, I think, shows through. Portrayals of
patriotism are similar in that respect.
My depictions of patriotism, however
unconscious, are impacted by my intent. My
country, for me, is my people, my city, and my
environment. It’s certainly not an ideology. I
do not have to tattoo the tricolour on my face
to express love for my country. I believe that if
I immerse myself in work, I can come up with
a little something that might help make this
nation better.
Meghna Gulzar is a filmmaker.
As told to Shreevatsa Nevatia

INDIA ON
THE FIELD
IN INDIA, TRUE PATRIOTISM AND TRUE
SPORTING WEALTH WILL COME OF AGE ONLY
WHEN SPORTSPERSONS STOP PANDERING TO
STRONGMEN AND POLITICAL LEADERS
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OGETHER, INDIAN CRICKET
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AND ITS SUPPORTERS tell us
s:
a lot about the journey our society
has taken over the last hundred odd
tp
years. As Ramachandra Guha’s and
ht
Prashant Kidambi’s books on cricket
history tell us, in the late 19th century,
cricket was a scattered activity in different urban and mofussil
pockets of pre-Partition India. The first Indian clubs were formed
in Bombay, Karachi, Madras and Calcutta and they played among
themselves on inferior, bumpy maidans while the sahebs played in
a parallel world, on the other side of the fence on their (somewhat)
plush green grounds. Around the same time that various Indian
political groups began to challenge the Empire’s unquestioned he-
gemony, Indian teams began to have the occasional game against
the goras. At first the Indian teams usually lost, but gradually the
outcomes began to be less predictable. These matches would have
loud crowds of local janata supporting the native teams. A victory
could mean riotous celebrations and the defeat of a desi team, due
to what was perceived as biased umpiring, could lead to just plain
rioting. It was clear that the game was able to excite passions, even
among people who had no access to playing kits, cricketing skills or
proper grounds. Or, perhaps, the game worked like a magnifying
glass, focusing scattered passions into one flaming pinpoint.
The idea of a national team formed at roughly the same time as
the independence movement. The important difference was that
BY RU C HIR J O S HI
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while Gandhi and the Congress moved out of
their middle-class enclosures to connect with
the poorest sections of urban and rural India,
organised cricket in India kept looking to the
Maharajas and Nawabs for leadership. How-
ever, unsurprisingly, issues from the country’s
politics kept seeping into the sport. Could Hin-
dus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians play
in the same team? What would a team weighted
towards upper castes and classes do when the
talent of a player from (what one would now
call) a Dalit background made it impossible to
exclude him? Would the team travel together?
Would they eat together? Would they come
together only on the playing field?
By the end of World War II, there was a
large pool of seriously gifted players in the sub-
continent, a pool from which a properly selected
eleven could challenge any team in the world. A
WAG once said that the chief reason the English
made sure that India was partitioned was that
“a team from a united India would have spelt
the end of all meaningful competition in world
cricket”. Wistful exaggerations aside, cricketing
was among the many intricate networks that
Partition sundered, especially in the north and
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 57
 the west of the subcontinent. If the jute factories stayed in West
Bengal and the jute fields supplying to those factories went to
East Pakistan, people still argue that a bulk of the batting talent
stayed in India while almost the entire pace attack went to West
Pakistan. While this may be a gross simplification, the fact was
that Partition scattered things unevenly across India and the
two Pakistans.
Just as notions of patriotism had to be rejigged, being a
supporter of the Indian team meant different things before and
after August 1947. For our Test team, the multiple humiliations
and honourable draws we suffered in the first 20-odd years of
Independence were accompanied by the spread of the radio
network. The live cricket commentary coming in from grounds
across the world where India were playing left slight scars across
the addicted eardrums of Indian cricket fans who grew up in the
1950s and the 1960s, and yet the patriot-cum-cricket fan in us
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Illustration by RAJ VERMA
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never gave up, never stopped hoping.
Indian cricket went through two quantum
jumps, one at the beginning of the 1970s and one
just after the end of the decade. The unexpected
series wins in the West Indies and then England
in 1970-71 meant that expectations of the Indian
fans went up—we could win Test series, we will
keep winning; forget about counting staved off
defeats as substitute victories. 1983 meant some-
thing quite else—we could win even in this format
that was, till now, challenging for our slow-scor-
ing batsmen, Test-designed bowlers and sluggish
fielders. Earlier, we had won the odd series here
and there, most often at home, but this was a
World Cup where, in theory, we had been proven
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superior to every other cricket-playing country
ag

in the world. In the years immediately following our World
Cup triumph, this superiority waxed and waned, dimmed and
brightened, but the screaming, shouting, blue shirt-ripping
triumphalism did not waver over the next 30 years.
Of late, though, things have changed. With the Indian team
going from being underdogs to bullying overdogs, this trium-
phalism has transformed into something truly ugly. The final
stage of this mutation took place between 2001 and 2011 and
is related to, among other things, our improved game, the bur-
geoning of the Indian TV audience to mammoth proportions
and the huge sports industry the IPL has become.
Alongside this growth of economic clout is the increas-
ing display of aggression onfield by players. Around 2001 (or
possibly a little earlier) our players started becoming infected
by what one could call “Aussie-itis” or “Oz-itis”—the extreme
sledging and aggressive physical projections perfected into an
art form by Steve Waugh’s famous Australians. “Tit-for-Tat”,
“toe to toe”, “give as good as you get” and other such phrases
_m
became mantras in our press, with our players also spouting
these clichés in interviews and such. Some of the Indian team’s
m
retaliations worked, some didn’t. During the 2001 Test series,
Ganguly got up Waugh’s nose by making him wait for the toss,
nj
Dravid told three hulking Australians surrounding him to “F***
e/
off”, yielding desirable results. But then came the ridiculous
sight of Zaheer Khan trying to sledge Matthew Hayden in the
.m
2003 World Cup final in Johannesburg. Hayden was flaying
Zaheer’s bowling. Hayden was the master of sledging and this
//t
sort of a thing pumped him up; Zaheer, an amateur, struggled
s:
for an invective in a language not his own, but eventually got
carted across the ground, both verbally and cricket-wise.
tp
B
ht
y the time the next batch of young Indian men
put on the country’s colours, the sledging had
become as indispensable as batting, bowling and
fielding skills. When I bumped into one of these
young turks (now a waning senior of fluctuating
presence in the team) and suggested that he was being over-
aggressive, he snarled into the distance, ‘No, no, nutthhing!
Weeyyavtu givvidbag tudem!’
The Aussies infected us, but then we added our own strain
to the infection. The Aussies might be racist, macho and thug-
gish, they may also be cheats, but there is no trace of jingoism or
militarism in their presentation. Off the field, these Australian
men are seen looking after their small babies; even on-field,
if there is an addition to their cricketing clothes, it’s to sup-
port some cause, such as the fight against breast cancer; their
nationalism or political beliefs are kept well out of sight. We, on
the other hand, go from the absurd to the ridiculous. Our team
walks out wearing military caps in an international match to
“show support for our soldiers”; Mahendra Singh Dhoni tags his
regimental insignia on to his wicket-keeping gloves in a World
Cup; insisting we need to differentiate ourselves from England’s
FOLLOWING OUR
1983 WORLD CUP
TRIUMPH, INDIA'S
SUPERIORITY WAXED
AND WANED, BUT
THE SCREAMING,
SHOUTING, BLUE
SHIRT-RIPPING
TRIUMPHALISM DID
NOT WAVER OVER
THE NEXT 30 YEARS
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blue, we add one particular colour from our flag
to our altered kit and it just happens to be the
colour preferred by the ruling political party.
You understand what a really wealthy country
is when you see extremely well-to-do people hap-
pily taking trams to the supermarket. Similarly,
I understood something about a country that’s
really rich in sporting terms, when an Australian
cricket fan once told me, “I’m bloody bored of us
always winning like machines. I’d really like to see
this Ponting side get stuffed, I just don’t like their
style of cricket!” While sportsmen are notoriously
stupid politically and usually tend to veer towards
reactionary strongmen leaders (look at pictures
of Recep Erdogan attending Mesut Özil’s wed-
ding), there are also exceptions. Look at the major
American football stars refusing to stand for the
national anthem, choosing to kneel instead in
protest of US president Donald Trump’s policies,
or Megan Rapinoe showing Trump her middle
digit after winning the World Cup.
While we in India are very far from Australia’s
wide-ranging sporting success, we are the cricket-
ing world’s boorish nouveau riche and there was
some odd satisfaction in seeing the obnoxiously
cocky Indian team go down to New Zealand
(which would not have been there had we lost to
Pakistan, Australia or England) in the semi-
finals. As for protests, true independence and true
patriotism (and, yes, true sporting wealth) will be
evident when some internationally successful In-
dian sportswoman or sportsman fearlessly stands
up to an Indian government on a political issue.
Ruchir Joshi is a film-maker and writer
AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 59
 WHAT
PATRIOTISM
MEANS TO ME
CALL OF THE SOUL, LOVE OF THE HOMELAND,

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DEVOTION TO ONE’S WORK... IT MEANS DIFFERENT

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THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE
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MEGAN KACHARI, 52
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Poet, former publicity secretary of the

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United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA)

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“THE REVIVAL OF
REGRESSIVE FORCES
HAS THREATENED THE
EXISTENCE OF DALITS,
TRIBALS AND MINORITIES.
WITH SCANT RESPECT
FOR DEMOCRATIC
INSTITUTIONS AND THE
CONSTITUTION, THEY
SEEK TO IMPOSE A CRUDE
AND EXHIBITIONIST
FORM OF NATIONALISM.
PATRIOTISM IS EVERY
CITIZEN’S CALL OF
THE SOUL. IT’S NOT
IMPOSED, IT’S A NATURAL
INSTINCT.”
NILOTPAL BARUAH

60 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019

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KRISHNA SINGH
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KAMALA SHANKAR, 52
Musician

“Patriotism or national pride is the feeling of love, devotion and sense of

attachment to the homeland and with the citizens who share the same
sentiment. It is about taking pride in one’s origin and working for the prosperity
of the country. Being a musician, I feel music itself has the capability to influence
one’s mood and psychology and when we add the feeling of patriotism to it, the
results are overwhelming. Those songs can invoke awe and greatness. Indian
music has been an expression of patriotism right from the days of our freedom
struggle and Hindustani classical music is patriotic as it is Indian to the core. I
connect and influence the audience through my music played on my instrument,
the Shankar Veena. I enjoy the freedom to compose and perform for my country
and outside representing the country. That, for me, is patriotism.”

AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 61

 MANDAR DEODHAR

JHULAN GOSWAMI, 36
Former captain of Indian
women’s cricket team
SUBIR HALDER

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ag
_m
JOHN ABRAHAM, 46 “I consider myself lucky to be able to represent India in any
Actor capacity that I can. That I can wear the Indian jersey is a
m

big, yet humbling, thing for me. To me, patriotism means

nj

“There is a big difference between

patriotism and nationalism. I believe to honour, respect and live up to the trust the tricolour has
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a patriot loves his country responsibly

bestowed upon me. It means being responsible and dedicated
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whereas a nationalist loves his country

no matter what it does. It’s better to towards the work we do as individuals. In the 21st century,
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be a patriot than a nationalist. To be a patriotism means fighting against environmental issues that
s:

patriot, it’s important to be educated are making India and the world a difficult place to live in.”
tp

about the issues in the country. A lot

of us celebrities go overboard using
ht

powerful social media platforms to

profess our love for the nation without
understanding the issues that really HARSH GOENKA, 62 “For me, patriotism is
love that supersedes
affect it. For example, does anybody Chairman, RPG Enterprises any individual or vested
know what Articles 370 or 35A are? interest. It is the impulse
Or know what’s happening in Naga- to do the right, some-
land or Arunachal Pradesh? Does the times difficult, thing,
same article apply there too? We don’t for the country in the
know the facts and details and still face of hardships. In a
way, it is comparable
we choose to comment. If you want to to a mother’s love—un-
be a true patriot, understand that the conditional and sacred.
miracle of this country is its democra- During the pre-Inde-
cy. We need to know the history of this pendence era, the most
country, its geopolitical situations and obvious way to express
that love was by fighting
understand what it is going through
the colonial power, now
and what it is going to go through. we must love our coun-
Only then you can say that you are try and serve it however
India and India is you.” we can. Nation first.”

62 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019

 z
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RATHEESH SUNDARAM
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ADOOR GOPALAKRISHNAN, 78
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Filmmaker
s:

“I’m more concerned about

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what’s not patriotism than what

makes you patriotic. Recent
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incidents of humiliating Mahatma

Gandhi and celebrating his killer
Nathuram Godse prompted me to
think about what’s not patriotism.
To me, mob lynching or silencing
the victims of sexual violence or
suppressing voices of dissent is
unpatriotic. When we uphold and
validate our great Constitution
in every walk of life, we become
patriotic. Let our nation retain
its pluralistic essence and each
one of us give space to others to
live with their identity, then we
become truly patriotic.”
RAJWANT RAWAT
BOMAN IRANI, 59
Actor
“For me, patriotism is not just a feeling but an act as
well. It comes in many forms; from fighting a war for
the country to making a difference in society as an in-
dividual. For example, if I am incapable of cleaning my
city, then I will try not to dirty it. I may not be trained
to represent my country at the UN, but I can be its
best ambassador when I am a tourist. I am incapable
of many things, but ‘basic civility’ is a fine attempt at
being patriotic for me.”

AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 63

 HARNAM SINGH VERMA, 54
Organic farmer, Naubasta Kalan, Lucknow

“Patriotism is a feeling of love and devotion

towards one’s country and its people. We
can also serve our country through our
work. As a farmer, I try to produce crops
in a way that is good for the health of the
people of this country. I don’t use even one
drop of fertiliser; just cow dung. This helps
preserve all the nutrition in the food, mak-

MANEESH AGNIHOTRI
ing it healthy for consumption. And healthy

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people are the real assets of our country.

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To contribute to the health of the people
and therefore to the health of the nation, to
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my mind, is real patriotism.”
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DIVINE, 28
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Rapper
s:

“WE ARE A DIVERSE

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COUNTRY AND
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INDIA MEANS
DIFFERENT THINGS
TO DIFFERENT
PEOPLE. IF YOU LOVE
YOUR COUNTRY,
AND ALLOW OTHERS
TO ALSO EXPRESS
THEIR LOVE—EVEN
IF IT’S DIFFERENT
TO YOURS—THAT’S
PATRIOTIC TO ME.
THERE IS NO ONE
TEMPLATE FOR A
PATRIOTIC INDIAN.”

MANDAR DEODHAR

64 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019

 SUKET DHIR, 41 Fashion designer

“For me, patriotism is celebrating my Indianness...

my intrinsic personal connect with my culture
and country. It is in my memories—of growing
up with grandparents, our seasons, fruits...every
fragment that forms such experiences. Celebrations
of our similarities become the foundation for us to
celebrate our diversity.”

z
BANDEEP SINGH

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AUGUST 19, 2 019 INDIA TODAY 65


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BANDEEP SINGH
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ADIL HUSSAIN, 55
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Actor
s:
“I understand patriotism as the inner
tp
calling, or ‘swadharma’, of an indi-
ht
vidual born to or living in a specific geographical
area governed by a political boundary. My understand-
ing of swadharma has come from the Gita and the writ-
ings of Sri Aurobindo. This inner calling is something
a person intently feels will fulfill his or her higher and
creative aspiration. This aspiration could be farming or
protecting the nation on the frontier. However, it must
not be driven by selfish or economic interest. What you
do in life has to be your spiritual need. Not everyone in
this world is fortunate enough to follow their inner call-
ing, but even if those engaged in an activity which is not
their inner calling do it with sincerity and commitment,
it will be, I believe, a great service to the nation.
I wanted to become an actor perhaps because I
loved attention or wished to be popular, but now that
I have realised that aspiration, I must understand
and reflect on why I’m doing what I’m doing. I try to
understand the significance of my playing a role in
the context of a greater good. In that sense, my degree
66 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019
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of patriotism has increased. If my essaying a role can
make a person feel empathy for someone who is so-
cially, politically or economically different, I think I’m
being a dedicated patriot. In this sense, patriotism and
nationalism are no different.
These words of Sri Aurobindo, taken from the
article, ‘The Awakening of Gujarat’, published in Bande
Mataram magazine on December 22, 1907, have
become more contextual after a century: ‘Nationalism
depends for its success on the awakening and organis-
ing of the whole strength of the nation, it is therefore
vitally important for nationalism that the politically
backward classes should be awakened and brought into
the current of political life; the great mass of orthodox
Hinduism which was hardly ever touched by the old
Congress movement, the great slumbering mass of
Islam which has remained politically inert throughout
the last century, the shopkeepers, the artisan class, the
immense body of illiterate and ignorant peasantry, the
submerged classes, even the wild tribes and races still
outside the pale of Hindu civilisation, nationalism can
afford to neglect and omit none’.”
 RAVISH KUMAR, 44
Managing Editor, NDTV India, Magsaysay awardee

“PATRIOTISM FOR ME IS THE PURITY OF

INFORMATION AND THE RIGHT TO IT. THE
MORE ACCURATE AND CREDIBLE THE
INFORMATION, THE STRONGER WILL BE THE
TRUST BETWEEN PEOPLE… THE CREDIBILITY
OF INFORMATION HAS TO BE RESTORED.
INSTITUTIONS HAVE TO BE FAIR. INDIA
HAS BECOME A COUNTRY OF A ONE-PARTY
NARRATIVE. WHOEVER IS NOT SAYING
‘YES’ IS BEING LABELLED A TRAITOR. THIS
NARRATIVE OF NATIONALISM IS DANGEROUS.
IT DIVIDES PEOPLE. IT EXCLUDES. WE HAVE
TO STOP THIS LANGUAGE OF EXCLUSION.”

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BANDEEP SINGH
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ABHINA AHER, 43
Associate Director, gender sexuality
and rights, Alliance India
YASIR IQBAL
s:
tp
“Patriotism to me means
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respecting the productive
masses of my nation along
with their social cultures.
Our civilisation began with
the Harappans, not the
Rigveda. I am a descendant
of Harappans, not Aryans.
The same civilisation exists
in Indian villages and urban
centres today. In between came
the theories that God created us
unequal. Harappans believed
that food comes out of mud and
a baby comes out of a mother’s
amniotic fluids. Hence, for any
patriot, neither menstrual
blood nor Dalit leather work is
impure or untouchable.”
“Patriotism for me is
serving my motherland
beyond my gender, sexual-
ity and religion. Though
people do not understand
transgender persons and
transpeople are quite often
neglected in policies and
welfare, we never compro-
mise in our loyalty towards
the nation. India is a coun-
try that accords dignity to
transgenders by touching
their feet and seeking their
blessings. It is the first
country to acknowledge
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ag
transgender people as the
‘third gender’. It decriminal-
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ised same-sex behaviour
last year. Today, as Parlia-
m
ment talks about transgen-
der welfare and inclusiv-
nj
ity, I feel empowered and
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thankful to the amazing
ABDULLA MOLLAH, 50
.m
country I belong to.”
Class IV teacher at an unregistered
madrassa in Banglamore, South 24
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Parganas, West Bengal
“We have fought for the
KANCHA ILAIAH
independence of our country.
SHEPHERD, 66 So many people from our
Author and Dalit activist community, from Delhi to
Deoband, gave up their lives
fighting the British. This
country belongs to us as well.
To us, our country is like our
home. We will do whatever
is required to protect our
home against external
attacks—they could come
from anywhere in the world.
If our country demands our
blood, the way Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose did, we will
not hesitate. Jehad is not
any religious warfare, it is a
struggle for self-control and
self-betterment.”
BANDEEP SINGH
 SUBIR HALDER

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SUBIR HALDER

SUDIPTA BHATTACHARJEE, 50
Priest, Shiv Temple, Kolkata
“Love for the country is like loving your mother. I have
no objection to people chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ because,
as a priest, I preach to people to be religious and take the
name of god. Taking the name of god or Rama has been
happening for ages, so I see no wrong in uttering god’s
name. But at the same time I will ask people to love their
fellow people just like they love god and their country. No
one can love a country by hating its people. Patriotism is
as much love for the country as for the people living in it.”
—Compiled by Jeemon Jacob, Amitabh Srivastava, M.G. Arun, Bandeep Singh,
Ranjit Sahaya, Amarnath K. Menon, Kaushik Deka, Rohit Parihar, Ashis
Mishra, Chinki Sinha, Romita Datta, Rahul Noronha and Suhani Singh
ht
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 SMART EDUCATION

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NEW-AGE
CAREERS
JOBS AND SECTORS
OF THE FUTURE

CHARTING THEIR OWN PATH

(L-R) Karanvir Singh, Gayatri Gandhi, Ruchi Shah, Antara Ashra
 SMART EDUCATION FOCUS

THE
FUTURE
IS HERE _m
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Technology is fast
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restructuring jobs
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across industries,
opening up new
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sectors that require

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different skill sets.

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Are you ready?

tp
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Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

and tourism, ITeS, energy, logistics, artificial intelligence and machine-

TOP JOBS retail, financial and educational learning abilities.
BY NEETI SHARMA services, manufacturing and engineer-
ing will continue to witness positive Specialised sales managers
hiring trends. Here are some of the Sales is a complex profession. While

T
echnology is taking away many
low-skilled jobs. But it is also cre-
ating opportunities in the form of
new-age roles. Research shows 65 per
cent of the jobs that today’s school stu-
dents will take up may not exist in the
future. Due to technological changes
in virtualisation, artificial intelligence,
machine learning and robotics, indi-
viduals need to continuously upskill
to meet industry requirements. Travel
emerging jobs in 2019-2020:
Data analysts
Organisations are processing large
amounts of data; decision-making,
too, is more data-driven.
Key skills: Work on your critical
thinking faculties, problem-solving,
statistics, data management, analysis,
programming, understanding of busi-
ness, visualisation, communication,
it takes certain skills to excel, it also
involves interacting with people,
prospecting and researching about the
company. Specialised sales managers
are in high demand.
Key skills: An in-depth understand-
ing of new-age techniques. Aspirants
should also focus on communica-
tion, decision-making, perseverance,
problem-solving, product knowledge,
presentation and research.

1 72 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019

 TOP-PAYING SECTORS
BY SUNIL JOSE
Product managers
If traditionally they were into concep-
tualisation, testing and implementa-

A
tion of products, they are now also dvances in
involved in meeting growth targets robotics, artificial
and analysing market shares and intelligence (AI),
revenue. Various programmes, such and machine learn-
as CSPO (Certified Scrum Product ing are pushing the
Owner), PMI-ACP (PMI–Agile Certi- frontiers of technology.
fied Practitioner), CPM (Certified These newer generation
Product Manager) and CIL (Certified autonomous systems
Innovation Leader) are available. can perform a range of
Key skills: Problem-solving, analytical routine activities faster
abilities, innovation, research, col- and more economically
laboration, project management and than humans. Innovative
design, forecasting and data analytics companies are using
besides good communication. them to augment their
From banks using
anti-money laundering
algorithms as they filter
transactions to call
centre chatbots aug-
menting customer in-
teractions, companies
across industries are
using AI to make faster
and better informed
decisions. It will unlock
new opportunities for
humans and capable
machines to collabo-

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workforce, creating rate closely, enabling
Human resources and a demand for newly businesses to become
organisational development _m
skilled talent which can efficient and produc-
specialists
adapt to these changes. tive. Jobs are likely to
HR professionals are supposed to
Workforce development change and various
m
efficiently manage the hiring to exit
priorities and ap- roles and industries
process in organisations and retain
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proaches vary. Financial will be impacted. The

talent while organisational develop-
services and technol- revolution looks set to
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ment specialists help businesses and

organisations function better. ogy firms are the most also spawn new kinds
.m

Key skills: Both should have excellent forward-looking and of work that involve
analytical, interpersonal, communica- have progressed more creativity, collaboration
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tion and instructional skills besides than others on a number and complex problem-
s:

being adept at change management. of fronts. Consumer solving. Analytics, data

products and retail are sciences, sales and
tp

FinTech professionals lagging. Technology marketing jobs would

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According to Ernst & Young’s FinTech firms place greater be some of the promis-
Adoption Index, one third of consum- value on partnering ing job titles to be
ers globally are using more than two with workforce devel- offered across sectors.
fintech services. Many Indian start- opment programmes CEOs and business
ups are creating fintech platforms, and rolling out online have a role to play in
which are being adopted by financial training resources. helping people adapt to
companies. Right from payment apps the changing nature of
to complex applications using artificial Mean machine work by training them
intelligence and big data, fintech pro- As many as 375 million for the jobs of tomor-
fessionals continue to be in demand. workers globally are row, because success-
Key skills: To excel in the fintech
likely to require reskill- ful AI means enhancing
industry, one should be good in pro-
ing or make a transition and not replacing the
gramming, data analytics, artificial
to new occupational human workforce. n
intelligence, machine learning, deep
categories. Of all the
learning, blockchain development,
technologies that will The writer is senior
cyber security and have an under-
standing of finance and the overall influence the future vice-president and
financial services sector. n of work, AI will be the country leader,
most transformational. Salesforce India
The writer is senior vice-president,
TeamLease Services
 SMART EDUCATION FOCUS
Council (TSSC) esti- for skilled automobile
mates that 14.3 million professionals is expected
TOP high-value, tech-centric to rev up again in the
PLACEMENTS jobs will emerge in the later part of 2019.
BY ZAIRUS MASTER coming years. There
will be a huge demand Logistics and
for people familiar with supply chain
advanced technology. Automation and real-

T
echnology has far- ing e-commerce, will time data analytics are
reaching effects on register a phenomenal Automobile some of the major
jobs. It has not only growth within the next While the auto sector technologies driving
disrupted every major five years. Experts in is currently in a slump, the disruption in this
industry but also created digital tools, such as looking ahead, innova- space, propelling it to
new job roles. SEO and data analytics, tions in the sector are become a $30 billion
are the most sought. likely to eventually cre- market by the next half-
Information ate new jobs. Artificial decade. With machines
technology Financial services intelligence-centric fast replacing humans
The IT sector is expected With banks partnering high-concept innova- to perform repetitive
to more than double by with fintech firms and tions, such as connected tasks in the supply-

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2025, to stand at $435 digitising services, this mobility and self-driving chain management,

billion, according to a sector will grow phe-
recent McKinsey report. nomenally and be worth
The demand for IT $170 billion by 2025.
professionals carrying Banking professionals,
excellent technological too, need to keep their
skills has skyrocketed. skills up-to-date.
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cars, are technological the role of managing
marvels. Automobile
_m these advanced systems
manufacturers across has become one of the
the globe are focusing on fast-emerging and most
m
R&D to come up with in-demand job roles
greater products while available today.

bringing current high-

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E-commerce Telecom tech concepts to the The writer is CEO,

The retail sector, includ- The Telecom Sector Skill highways. The demand Shine.com
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B
usinesses are grappling with changes innovation, with organisations and individuals
BY PADMAJA ALAGANANDAN
TOP SKILLS

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caused by technological breakthroughs, racing to give consumers what they want. In

demographic trends, customer prefer-
ences, policy reforms and the long-term global
economic power shift. This is also leading to
a transformation in workplaces, investment
in talent and creating flexible and collabora-
tive ways of working. As organisations try to
become fit for the future, we have seen roles
go redundant and new ones emerge. Skill gap
remains a major concern for most CEOs. The
workforce, too, has evolved. Some appreciate
stability and structured growth while others
need constant change and new learning,
and there are still others for whom purpose
and sustainable choices come first. Our
‘Workforce of the future’ study looks at four
possible ‘Worlds of Work’ for 2030.
Survival of the skilled
The ‘Red’ world is a perfect incubator for
the ‘Blue’ world, capitalism reigns supreme, it’s
where bigger is better. Organisations see their
size and influence as the best way to protect
profit margins against intense competition.
The ‘Yellow’ world would be a networker’s
world where humans come first and skills
are organised in guild-like formations. The
‘Green’ world would be defined by sustainabil-
ity where care is central and individuals and
companies would be concerned about helping
solve problems. Each of these worlds will
attract different kinds of talent and engage
with them in different ways; full-time and
structured employment will be less common
in some. Individuals will need to improve digital
acumen and analytical skills, and the ability to
connect the dots as they gain experience. n
The writer is chief people officer, PwC India

1 74 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019

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 SMART EDUCATION T RE NDS

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Four changemakers who are following their hearts
talk of their unconventional careers

A Tidy
Occupation
GAYATRI GANDHI, 36
KonMari Certified Consultant,

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Founder, Joy Factory, Gurugram

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A
DELHI UNIVERSITY GRADUATE,
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Gayatri Gandhi worked with

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Discovery Channel for 10 years

before realising it wasn’t what she
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wanted to do. Then she came across

Marie Kondo’s book The Life Changing
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Magic of Tidying Up. “I started applying her

methods the very day I saw the KonMari
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videos,” Gayatri confesses. Little did she

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know the pursuit would end in her founding

her own clutter management company, the
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Joy Factory, in Gurugram.

Step by Step With no clutter mana­

gement course in India, Gayatri went to
New York in 2017 for a certification course.
“To do the course, you have to read Marie
Kondo’s books, apply her methods in your
home, take before and after pictures, apply
for the course which you can pursue only if
your pictures get accepted, submit reports
and take an online exam.” It took her seven
months to become a bronze­level KonMari
certified consultant.

Rising to the Challenge Friends and

family were initially sceptical, but Gayatri
has completed over 150 hours of tidying
Indian homes.
Where KonMari Consultants Certification
Course, US
—Harshita Das
RAJWANT RAWAT

1 76 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 19, 2 019


In Tune with Himself
KARANVIR SINGH, 28
Music artist, Founder, Kamp 1,
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USIC IS THE ONLY
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THING Karanvir Singh
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has been passionate
about since childhood.
He could play the drums
by the time he was four, and by 13,
he had ventured into song­writing.
Once he finished college, Karanvir
started producing and performing
music. By 2015, Kerano (his stage
name) had arrived. That was when
he launched his debut track, Here I
Stand, in collaboration with Polish
artist Tom Swoon.
Sound of Music Karanvir be­
lieves a career in any field is what
you make of it. “I could be a musi­
cian who is completely okay with
playing small shows and getting
paid the bare minimum or I could
be an IT professional working a
9 to 5 at a corporate firm. In an
ANAND MOHAPATRA
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Gurugram
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unconventional career, you need to
understand how to make it lucra­
tive, how to live off your passion.”
Creative Streak “I learnt
everything myself, whether it was
producing or mixing or master­
ing. When you can rely on your
own instincts and skills to create
a home­grown method of making
music, the process becomes easier
and fun,” he says. And it is this
home­grown method of making
music that Karanvir hopes to teach
aspiring musicians at the new­
age music school, Kamp 1, he has
launched in Gurugram.
Where Foundation and profession­
al courses in western vocals, music
production and sound engineer­
ing at The True School of Music,
Mumbai
—Harshita Das
 SMART EDUCATION T RE NDS

JIGNESH MISTRY

Drawing Her
Own Destiny
RUCHI SHAH, 36
Book illustrator, art
facilitator and wall artist,
Mumbai

FORMER UX (USER
experience) designer,
Ruchi’s creative journey
began in school itself
when she took art as

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a special subject. She also loved

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helping fellow students with
their projects and biology journal _m
sketches. Then, a master’s in
design from the Industrial Design
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Centre (IDC) at IIT Bombay and a
Charles Wallace scholarship with
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an additional master’s degree in

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Visual Arts (Illustration) from the

University of the Arts, London,
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honed her artistic drive enough

for her to quit her job at Yahoo.
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“While my corporate job was com-

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fortable, I missed the feel of paper,

materials and paint,” says Ruchi.
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Free Spirit “Art is not a typical

career. It is a calling,” she says. In
2013, she was invited to volunteer
as an art teacher in the remote
schools of Ladakh. The journey
helped her discover her passion for
telling stories through wall art.

For Art’s Sake The dearth of

good Indian illustrated stories,
and the need for current and re-
latable stories, gave Ruchi enough
material. “I like anything visual,
especially if it is well crafted.
Books became my playground
for experimenting with different
techniques to draw, paint and
print,” she says.
Where National Institute of De-
sign (NID), Ahmedabad
—Harshita Das

1 78 INDIA
ND TODAY
AY AUGUST 19, 2 019
Dance into the Future
ANTARA ASHRA, 29
Performing Artist; Entrepreneur, Founder, Future
School of Performing Arts, Mumbai

W
ORKING WITH STUDENTS AT a school in Mumbai’s Lalbaug where
she spent two years as part of the Teach for India programme,
Antara discovered scores of young people who were passionate
about western dance but had no opportunities to pursue a formal
education in it. So she set up the Future School of Performing Arts
in Mumbai in 2016. For the year-long course in western dance that teaches
students the history of various dance forms, anatomy, visual setting, personal
transformation and entrepreneurship, Antara worked with professionals from
the field to draw up a curriculum. “Performing arts isn’t a conventional course
but it requires the same talent, hard work and dedication as any other field,”

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says Antara, who studied at the United World College, Singapore, and the

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University of Toronto, Canada.
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Fresh Approach The growing interest among students to study dance
has prompted her to introduce a three-year intensive programme this year,
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which will train students to be teachers, performers and entrepreneurs in
the field of dance. Professionals from the city and a professor of dance from
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New York have helped design the programme which is set to open for
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admissions soon.
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Stand Out It is not easy convincing parents to let their children study
dance instead of a conventional college degree.
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Where Certificate courses at Indian School of Talent, Dehradun —Aditi Pai

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DANESH JASSAWALA
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SMART EDUCATION E X PE RT COL UMN

FROM PASSIVE TO ACTIVE LEARNING

Inattentive, unfocused minds in classrooms are nothing new.
The mindset needs to shift from how well teachers teach to how
well students learn to address this problem

BY JAMSHED BHARUCHA

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 Jamshed Bharucha
is Vice-Chancellor,
SRM Amaravati University

C
onsider a typical university class. Students
drift into the classroom. Some gravitate to the
front of the class, some wander towards the
back, and some do not attend. The professor
lectures for 45 minutes, taking a few ques-
tions. The class is adjourned and students
move to their next class. This daily pattern
repeats itself until a few weeks or days before
the exam when the students try to mug up
everything. This is passive learning because
students sit and receive information with
little active engagement.

WHAT’S WRONG HERE?
Until the exams, which could be
months away, there is hardly any
evidence of learning. How many
students have understood what was
presented in class? How many have
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signals that are either urgent or of learn to what they already know.
compelling interest. We can mandate
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attendance, but being present physi- No last-minute mugging
cally in class doesn’t mean You might ask, “Doesn’t the exam
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being present mentally. The class- measure learning, and why is it im-
room, therefore, must incorporate portant for students to be learning
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registered more than a few phrases, compelling external and internal continuously during the semester if
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and that too without comprehend- signals that engage the students’ they can quickly digest the material
ing? How many were tuned out minds involuntarily. just before the exam?” The answer is
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altogether? For those who took simple: learning that is jammed into
notes, were the notes imbued with THE STRATEGIES a short period just prior to an exam
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meaning or were they mere dicta- Real-time communication is quickly forgotten.

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tion? We kid ourselves as teachers Students should be able to articulate

if we think most of our students what they have learned in real time. Use it or lose it
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understand the lectures most of the In each class, all students must be The benefits of learning decays
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time. We all know how to nod as if
we are listening attentively. Howev-
er interesting we professors believe
our lectures are, it’s difficult to keep
the attention of emotion-laden ado-
lescents class after class, week after
week, month after month.
WHAT’S THE REMEDY?
In active learning, the student
participates in the learning process.
This engages the student’s brain so
that real learning can take place.
Engagement and focus are maxi-
mised when students are actively
involved rather than sitting quietly
in a classroom. This is the basis for
active learning; active participation
engages the mind, which in turn
promotes learning. Attention gets
focused automatically by external
called upon to apply what they have
learned and communicate their
responses orally. Nothing focuses the
mind than being called and asked to
say something coherent.
Flipped classroom
Students must acquire information
before the class and use the class-
room for interaction. Professors
can assign short, focused readings,
making it clear that students will be
asked to summarise what they read.
Application, not
just theory
For most students, learning abstract
theories without relating them to
tangible real-life examples or ap-
plications is folly. Active learning
entails connecting what students
unless what you learned is revisited
frequently. Curricula and
syllabi should be regularly revis-
ited, applied and connected to
what has previously been learned.
Exams, the mainstay of passive
learning, become powerful active
learning tools if they are adminis-
tered frequently during the semes-
ter rather than just once or twice.
Seven-minute rule
for lecturing
People can muster the self-control
necessary to focus on the lecture for
up to seven minutes. Beyond that,
they retreat to their inner mental
worlds. If the professor needs to
communicate to the students, it
should be done in packets of no
more than seven minutes. n

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

SMART EDUCATION
COUNT ON
TALENT
What is that special quality
that makes one land a job and
what do hiring heads look for in
candidates? Experts weigh in
“TECHNICAL SKILLS ARE
IMPORTANT BUT THEIR SHELF LIFE
IS DECREASING. THE INDUSTRY
VALUES A GROWTH MINDSET OPEN
TO LEARNING, WITH THE ABILITY TO
EMBRACE AND HANDLE CHANGE.”
CHAITANYA SREENIVAS,
HR Head, IBM India
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“Employers are looking for
innovation these days. Being
in the box is as important as
being outside the box.”
ANSHUL PUNHANI,
Chief Marketing Officer, Monster (APAC
and Middle East)
POIN T S OF V IE W
“With the evolution of digital
skills, businesses are looking
to hire talent skilled in new
technologies. Big data
analytics, Java full stack,
mobility, cloud computing
and DevOps are some of the
skills that are in demand.”
SAURABH GOVIL, President &
Chief HR Officer, Wipro
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“The workplace of the future
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is about continuous self-
development, innovation and
transformation. The ability to
learn and unlearn is critical
to staying relevant today.”
ANIL JALALI, Chief Human Resource
Officer (India), Capgemini
“BE AN ALL-ROUNDER WITH AN
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT. BE A
PART OF THE BIG IDEAS CROWD.”
RUBEN SELVADORAY,
Chief Human Resource Officer,
Bajaj Allianz Life
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 Q A
COLOUR
ME BAD
Though his characters such as
Chappan Tikli and Tapasvi Gunjal
could never quite redeem
themselves, Gulshan Grover has
set the record straight with his
autobiography, Bad Man

Q. You talk about how your villainous

image carries off-screen as well. Is it
satisfying or annoying?
When you play a villain, that image affects
you. Even very progressive ad filmmakers
rarely cast a villain to endorse a product.

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Q. Have you felt tra
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by that image?
I created the image myself
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in it—I wanted to build a

happy I did it, I’m not at all
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Q. Anything you would have done

differently when you tried moving to
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Hollywood in the nineties?

I think I did it at the right time. It was not
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just a personal triumph—I was able to

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expose them to wonderfully popular Indian

cinema, which they had not heard of.
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Q. How do you look back on

your work?
To be honest, as soon as I finish
start to find rough edges. I feel ‘A
I could have done it better’.

Q. Do you have any regrets about

anything you did as a villain
on-screen?
The disrespect to female characters
and the treating of them in a physically
humiliating way—I would say I played
those roles with tremendous grace,
but if I had a choice, I would have had
the filmmaker do much less of that.

—with Bhavya Dore

184 Volume XLIV Number 33; For the week August 13-19, 2019, published on every Friday Total number of pages 140 (including cover pages)
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