The Caravan - June 2022

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Founder: Vishva Nath (1917-2002) VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 6
Editor-in-Chief, Publisher & Printer: Paresh Nath JUNE 2022
cover story / film

28
The Warrior Queen

Kangana Ranaut’s role in the
BJP’s battle for Bollywood
aathira konikkara
Kangana Ranaut’s journey from Bollywood outsider to liberal

icon to her present avatar as Hindutva warrior queen has been a
dramatic one. The hyper-nationalist themes of her films are a recent
phenomenon, and her public expressions of Hindu nationalism have
become exponentially venomous. Her vitriol against other actors,
as well as those outside the industry, has often descended into petty
name-calling. The battles that Ranaut has jumped into—and, in
many cases, instigated—have taken many forms. They have earned
her the moniker the “mad queen of Bollywood.” But more troubling
has been her role in advancing the Hindu Right’s agenda through
incendiary statements, often on social-media platforms. Though this
has allowed her to gain a lot of followers and media attention, her
notoriety has not translated into actual success for her recent films.
perspectives
28
12
politics
12 Silent Spring
The Sri Lanka protests fail to reconcile with
the country’s past or present
viruben nandakumar
politics
18 Slow Boil
Patterns in everyday acts of public violence in
46 56 Modi’s India
vedika inamdar and pooja george
politics conflict caste

46 Marooned 56 False Flags 22 Fighting for Fair
Praful Patel’s war on The Indian Army’s secretive Landmark victories show the growing strength
Lakshadweep role in hyper-nationalist of the movement for caste equity in the United
m rajshekhar protests in Kashmir States
shahid tantray thenmozhi soundararajan
JUNE 2022 3
the lede
66
photo essay / communities

8 66 March Past
Memory and mourning in
Lahore’s Shia processions
gender nad-e-ali
8 Abducted Voices
Afghan women fight the Taliban despite
threats and forced detention
deepa parent
books
98
history
84 Statue of Impunity
Monumentalisation under Modi
rahul rao
the bookshelf 96
84
editor’s pick 98
4 THE CARAVAN
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editor Anant Nath
executive editor Vinod K Jose
political editor Hartosh Singh Bal
senior editor Roman Gautam
books editor Maya Palit
creative director Sukruti Anah Staneley
associate editor Puja Sen
web editor Surabhi Kanga
contributors senior assistant editor
Ajachi Chakrabarti
assistant editors Akash Poyam, Tusha
THE LEDE 8 Deepa Parent is an independent journalist who covers conflict and its consequences on
Mittal, Amrita Singh and Abhay Regi
human rights. assistant editor (hindi) Vishnu Sharma
staff writers Sagar, Nileena MS,
PERSPECTIVES 12 Viruben Nandakumar is an editor at the Tamil Guardian, focussing on Sri Lanka and human Aathira Konikkara and Sunil Kashyap
rights. contributing writers Dhirendra K Jha,
Prabhjit Singh, Jatinder Kaur Tur and
18 Vedika Inamdar is a researcher at The Polis Project, a hybrid research and journalism Nikita Saxena
collective, where she co-founded Watch the State, an initiative that documents and analyses editorial fellow (health)
state violence in India. She also writes on development-related policy and programmes in Nayantara Narayanan
India. reporting fellow (health) Chahat Rana
Pooja George is a researcher at The Polis Project and a co-founder of Watch the State. editorial fellow (tech) Mehak Mahajan
reporting fellow (tech) Rachna Khaira
22 Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit-American author, activist and artist. She is a co-founder reporting fellows Sujatha Sivagnanam
and the executive director of Equality Labs. and Eram Agha
multimedia producer CK Vijayakumar
REPORTAGE 28 Aathira Konikkara is a staff writer at The Caravan. multimedia reporter Shahid Tantray
multimedia editor Nabeela Paniyath
AND ESSAYS 46 M Rajshekhar is a journalist who writes on energy, environment, oligarchy and Indian fact-checker Ahan Penkar
democracy. His book Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down and How They Cope social media and audience editor
was published in 2021 by Westland. Anandita Chandra
56 Shahid Tantray is a multimedia reporter at The Caravan. senior software engineer
Anjaneya Sivan
photo researcher Utkarsh
PHOTO ESSAY 66 Nad-e-Ali is a photographer based in Pakistan. senior graphic designer
Utkarsh is the photo researcher at The Caravan. Paramjeet Singh
junior graphic designer
Shagnik Chakraborty
BOOKS 84 Rahul Rao is a fellow in humanities and social sciences at the Netherlands Institute for hindi translator Parijat P
Advanced Study and a lecturer in international political thought at the University of St trainee journalist (hindi)
Andrews. He is currently writing a book about statues. Ankita Chauhan
editorial manager Haripriya KM
contributing editors Deborah Baker,
COVER Photo: Stringer / AFP / Getty Images
Fatima Bhutto, Chandrahas Choudhury,
Siddhartha Deb, Sadanand Dhume,
Siddharth Dube, Christophe Jaffrelot,
Mira Kamdar, Miranda Kennedy,
Amitava Kumar, Basharat Peer, Samanth
Subramanian and Salil Tripathi
editorial interns Rahul Raj and
Vishnu Prasad KP
graphic design intern Varsha Govil
photo intern Vinati Sehgal
Correction:
Akash Poyam’s “Identity Theft,” published last month, incorrectly stated that the mother of the kidnapped girl in SS
Rajamouli’s RRR had been killed by a British soldier. The woman is shown to be alive during the film’s final musical
sequence.
Due to a translation error, an earlier version of Yashica Dutt’s “The Tussle for Representation” mistakenly quoted
editor.thecaravan@delhipress.in
Khabar Lahariya as stating that the protagonists of Writing with Fire were shown the film in December 2020. The
quote has been corrected to state that Khabar Lahariya’s management was first shown the film in December 2020.
The Caravan regrets the errors. It has been corrected online. facebook.com/TheCaravanMagazine
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6 THE CARAVAN
THE LEDE
Abducted Voices
Afghan women fight the Taliban despite
threats and forced detention / Gender
/ deepa parent other. I won’t reveal it, but, when we marches. She was at the forefront of one
receive a text like this, we know.” protest in Kabul, on 7 September, when
“Salaam, Hello, Are you there?” “Are Months earlier, on 15 August, as the Taliban members armed with batons at-
we meeting for the protest today?” press officer was getting ready for work, tacked them. She rushed home, packed
“Where?” These were some of the mes- she scrolled through news flashes about her bags and fled the capital with her
sages a 25-year-old press officer for an the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul. “My fam- family. They moved from one relative’s
international company woke up to on ily was worried for me because they knew house to another. A Taliban officer
a January morning in Mazar-i-Sharif, I was outspoken about Taliban’s takeover called her brother, she said, threatening
the fourth largest city in Afghanistan. of other cities, like Ghazni and Kanda- violence if she kept protesting. “I kept
She had spent the past few months in a har,” she said. “They were scared. I had a low profile for a few days and then, by
safe house with other Afghan wom- worked with a company that was essen- the first week of November, I re-joined
en, making placards and mobilising tially run by the former government.” the protests.” Other protesters soon be-
for protests against the Taliban. She The family’s fear was not unfounded. gan disappearing.
wondered who had sent these messag- Since the takeover, journalists, activists On 2 October, Alia Azizi, a member of
es. Puzzled and scared, she called her and former security personnel have the Hazara community who managed a
friends to check if they had received been arrested. In some cases, the Tali- women’s prison in Herat, left home for
similar messages. Some had, others ban return only the bodies of those de- work. She has not been heard from since.
had not, but the question remained. tained to their families. Human Rights Her family believes that she was abduct-
How did the sender know they were Watch reported, in November, that over ed by the Taliban. On 19 January this
secretly planning an indoor protest a hundred security personnel had been year, armed men forcibly entered the
that noon? killed or forcibly disappeared in the past homes of Tamana Paryani and Parwana
As they regroup to resist the Taliban three months. Ibrahimkhel, who had participated in
regime, which seized power in August Amid the uncertainty of the capture an anti-Taliban protest at Kabul Univer-
last year, Afghan women activists have of Kabul, the press officer’s family ini- sity three days earlier. The two women,
been vetting everyone holding a placard tially forbade her from stepping out of as well as Paryani’s three sisters, were
next to them. Threats and violence en- their home. For the next few days, she abducted, as were two others from their
sured that the activists moved the pro- received messages from other Afghan network. Two weeks later, Zahra Mo-
tests indoors and before they knew it, activists who planned protests. They hammadi, who had organised an indoor
the Taliban was trying to infiltrate their wanted to make it clear that the country protest demanding the release of the two
WhatsApp groups. By November 2021, would not backslide to a place where women, and Mursal Ayar, a journalist
the Taliban knew the names and phone voices were silenced and freedoms and activist, also went missing.
numbers of every protester. curbed. Within ten days, the Taliban The press officer told me that she and
The messages from the unknown made its positions clear. Women were others on a Whatsapp group that had
number kept the press officer awake at barred from leaving their homes with- included several of the arrested activists
nights. “I know from my heart that it out a male guardian, stopped from promptly deleted their messages of dis-
was the Taliban,” she told me. “They working and studying. When they sent and addresses for indoor protests,
had started confiscating phones during crossed checkpoints, they were often and changed their profile pictures. “I
protests and have been trying to break asked to show if they were wearing high even changed the names on my friends’
into secret message groups to abduct heels or nail polish. contact numbers and of the brave pro-
us, silence us. They message in Pashto, Women-led protests soon erupted in testers who were abducted,” she said.
in Farsi and in one-liners or send di- Kabul, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif over The United Nations and several hu-
rect questions. They try to trick us into the next month. The press officer—who, man-rights groups called upon the Tal-
believing they are one of you. We girls like many in her generation, had never iban to release the activists. However,
have a code, a way to recognise each lived under the Taliban—joined the in an interview with the BBC, Suhail
8 THE CARAVAN
the lede
marcus yam / los angeles times / getty images
Shaheen, the regime’s nominee for Afghan ambas- wasn’t her, because she doesn’t speak in this tone above: Taliban
sador to the United Nations, denied reports that or message about her prayers. A lot about what she fighters try to
the Taliban had abducted the women. He accused texted was completely made up. I could tell.” stop the advance
of protesters
the protesters of faking their abductions in order Khamosh added that the activists had been
in Kabul, on 8
to seek asylum in the West. made to sign guarantees to the Taliban—likely September 2021.
When a Taliban delegation led by the acting undertaking not to participate in any further pro- Afghan women
foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, visited tests. She had not been able to contact them or find activists want to
Oslo in February, the journalist and activist Hoda out what the guarantees stipulated. “They were so make it clear that
Khamosh was one of six Afghan women selected shaken and worried for their lives that they have the country will
not backslide to a
to attend the talks. “The moment I was told that I kept this a secret,” she told me. Azizi still remains
place where voices
would be representing Afghan women in front of missing. Even as the four women were released, a are silenced and
the Taliban, I knew I had to demand the release of US envoy in Afghanistan tweeted that the Taliban freedoms curbed.
arrested Afghan women activists,” she told me. At had detained 29 other protesters and their fami-
the meeting, Khamosh shocked Muttaqi by hold- lies. More reports of forced detentions have been
ing up photographs of Paryani and Ibrahimkhel. “I piling up on Khamosh’s desk. Girls are still banned
shouted at him to pick up the phone right now and from higher secondary schools, and most women
call for their release,” she said. “I wasn’t fearful, are out of work.
nor do I fear them now.” The press officer told me that she has been
Amid mounting international pressure and approved for evacuation to a European Union
despite its repeated denials, the Taliban released country. However, evacuation officials have told
Ibrahimkhel, Mohammadi, Ayar, Paryani and her her they cannot rescue her from Kabul. She has
sisters a few days later. But Khamosh told me she been advised to cross the border into Pakistan.
felt something was amiss. “A few days before their “I’m running out of time,” she said. “My passport
release was announced, I received messages from expires in a few months, and each morning I wake
the mobile number of one of the abducted activists up to threatening messages on my phone. It’s only
who said she’s being treated by the Taliban with a matter of time till they come knocking on my
dignity,” she said. “She also mentioned that she’s doors. I haven’t even revealed to my closest friends
happy and was praying five times a day. I knew this that I’m leaving soon. I feel terribly about it.” s
JUNE 2022 9
The CaravanԝƹɨȈȶǼɰ
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caravanmagazine.in/caravan-columns
PERSPECTIVES
Silent Spring
The Sri Lanka protests fail to reconcile with
the country’s past or present / Politics
/ viruben nandakumar a commanding influence in the country’s elec-

toral politics since the mid 2000s. The majority
On 4 May, a crowd of Tamils gathered in a small of international reporting about the protests has
tent by the roadside in Vavuniya, a city in Sri pointed to them being sparked by the family’s
Lanka’s Northern Province. Behind them was a grip over a failing economy and the country’s
wall plastered with the photos of family members history of corruption. The reporting also seems to
who were last seen in the custody of the Sri Lanka emphasise the increasing presence of China in Sri
Army. Many held up photos of those forcibly Lanka’s ballooning international debt, as well as
disappeared, not only as reminders of their loved the government’s decisions to cut taxes and switch
ones but in the hopes of being reunited with them. to organic farming, with little emphasis given to
It was a sombre demonstration that garnered the hollowing out of social programmes to fund a
minimal international coverage. They had been burgeoning military budget.
protesting for almost two thousand days and had This simplistic notion of pragmatic unity in in-
received little attention, and much scorn, from the ternational coverage is one that many Tamils view
Sri Lankan government. with scepticism. The very display of the Sri Lank-
Meanwhile, on Galle Face, an oceanside urban an flag throughout the demonstrations was deeply
park in Colombo, a very different protest was discomforting for those who see it as a symbol of
taking place. The sound of trumpets and drums Sinhala supremacy. While some demonstrators
blared into the night as Sri Lankans chanted, “Go engaged in modest displays of solidarity with
Home Gota.” They hoisted the country’s flag, em- Tamils, the demands raised by the wider move-
blazoned with the Sinhala lion, as a sign of what ment ignored their long-standing grievances.
they believed was national unity. The Guardian The protests have invited a diverse array of indi-
reported that people were describing the moment viduals from across the south—from civil-society
as “Sri Lanka’s Arab Spring.” Jehan Perera, the activists to politicians—but there has also been the
executive director of the National Peace Council troubling presence of notoriously racist figures.
of Sri Lanka—a Colombo-based NGO—told the These include extremist Buddhist monks from the
newspaper that “people from all communities are Jathika Hela Urumaya, a hyper-nationalist polit-
coming out onto the streets, I have never seen it ical party. Many of the demonstrators admitted
before.” One demonstrator told the BBC, “Look: to being former supporters of the president. “I
opposite page: the Muslims are here, the Hindus are here, the voted for Gota thinking he was a lion,” a Sinhala
A protest outside Catholics are here. All the same blood.” The same protester told The Guardian. “Now I can see that
the president’s
report quoted a Buddhist monk saying, “Sri Lanka he is worse than a dog.”
private residence,
on 31 March.
has become one united nation.” This is a division between the island’s Tamils
Sri Lanka has The Galle Face protest had begun on 9 April, and Sinhalese that can be tracked across the dias-
witnessed many after nearly two months of prolonged discontent, pora too. On 15 May, Australian Tamils attempted
such bloody cycles largely driven by severe uncontrolled inflation to join their Sinhala counterparts in protesting
chamila karunarathne /epa
of violence before. and a snowballing economic crisis. The crisis had the Rajapaksa administration by highlighting
Ethnic tensions run grown under the rule of the brothers Mahinda and the atrocities they suffered. They were quickly
deep in a country
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had been prime minister shouted down with chants of “We are united!” and
scarred by war and
unable to meet the and president, respectively, since November 2019. “Sri Lanka!” The narrative of unity is weaponised
demands of Tamils The Rajapaksa family, with a menagerie of cousins to censor Tamil voices, while the ethnonation-
and Muslims. and nephews leading various ministries, has held alist ideology underpinning much of Sri Lankan
12 THE CARAVAN
perspectives
politics remains unchallenged. The office, demanding his resignation. country,” one man said. “Don’t you re-
primary grievance is economic, not Events took a violent turn on 9 May. member the time of the war?” The mob
political, and takes a stridently myopic “Are you Tamil?” members of a pro-Ra- descended on the young woman, beating
view of the island’s troubled past. japaksa mob menacingly asked a young and kicking her. The police did nothing.
For 32 days, protesters peacefully female activist outside the presidential Elsewhere, anti-government pro-
demonstrated outside the president’s secretariat. “This is a Sinhala Buddhist testers boarded a bus in the capital,
JUNE 2022 13
silent spring · perspectives
searching for supporters of the Rajapaksas. The as a means to break the territorial contiguity of
houses of government-aligned politicians were the traditional Tamil homeland. This is most
set alight, reportedly in retaliation for the mob of clearly seen in the Gal Oya settlement scheme
government-backed thugs attacking protesters. near Batticaloa, a region in the Eastern Province
Among those targeted was the house of Sanath that has always had a predominantly Tamil and
Nishantha, a member of parliament who report- Muslim population. A hundred and sixty thou-
edly led a mob to attack the Galle Face protesters. sand square kilometres of land was acquired to
The BBC reported that “more than 50 houses be used for an irrigation system. Sinhala farmers
belonging to politicians” and “a controversial settled at the more productive headwaters of the
museum dedicated to the Rajapaksa family” Gal Oya tanks, while Tamils and Muslims were
were razed to the ground. On the same day, a located downstream. In the early 1960s, over
man suspected of being a Rajapaksa backer was fifteen thousand people, mostly Sinhalese, were
stripped of his clothes and tied to a pole. The permanently settled in the region, with seasonal
next day, anti-government mobs set up road- employment available for ten thousand addition-
blocks across Colombo, checking passing cars for al people. Amparai was carved out as a separate
local politicians trying to slip through their net. district from Batticaloa and has had a growing
The tinderbox had been lit, and clashes broke out Sinhala population.
across the south, with some semblance of order The Sinhala leadership has often been far from
only restored after Mahinda resigned and was secretive about the divisions on the island. In the
replaced by the opposition leader Ranil Wick- aftermath of the Black July pogroms of 1983, in
remesinghe. which over three thousand Tamils were slaugh-
tered, the Sri Lankan president, JR Jayewardene,
The Rajapaksa regime is in every told the Daily Telegraph that if his government
would “starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people
way a child of these decades of
will be happy.”
repression and conflict. During this era, Tamils would turn to non-vio-
ww lent satyagraha protests but be rebuked by Sinhala
mobs. In 1958, almost fifteen hundred Tamils were
killed as mobs roamed the streets of Colombo in
This episode of violence is not an aberration. scenes eerily similar to those of 9 May. Increas-
Sri Lanka has witnessed many such bloody cycles ingly disillusioned by the repeated failures to meet
of violence before. Ethnic tensions run deep in a the democratic aspiration of Tamils, as evidenced
country scarred by war and unable to meet the by the breakdown of the pacts between Sinhala
demands of Tamils and Muslims. Over a hundred and Tamil political parties in 1957 and 1965, Tamil
and fifty Tamils were killed, in 1956, by Sinhala youth took up arms. By the 1990s, the dominant
mobs as they demonstrated against the discrim- Tamil militant organisation was the Liberation
inatory Sinhala Only Act, which excluded Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which would engage in
from being a national language of the island. The decades of warfare, including hundreds of suicide
violence that the Sri Lankan state practised and bombings and several high-profile political assas-
perfected against the Tamils has, on occasion, sinations. The armed movement was inextricably
been brought to bear against Sinhala movements tied to Tamil demands for self-determination and
questioning state authority too. Between 1987 and an explicit demand for an independent state. It
1989, the government brutally cracked down on was viewed by many Tamils as a bulwark against
an uprising of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, state repression.
a largely Sinhala leftist organisation, killing an The conflict culminated in genocidal warfare
estimated sixty thousand people. But it would be against Tamils, as hospitals, food lines and no-fire
wrong to see these cycles as only a brutal state zones were repeatedly shelled. While the United
imposing itself on citizens, without the context of Nations estimates at least forty thousand people
ethnic relations in the country. were killed, the International Truth and Justice
For generations, Sinhala-led governments Project, a human-rights watchdog, notes the
have treated the island as two separate lands. figure could be as high as 169,796. Tamils attempt
Shortly after Sri Lankan independence, the state to commemorate this tragic loss every 18 May,
engaged in colonisation schemes that appro- decrying the events—which the Rajapaksas have
priated land from Tamils in the north-east and insisted on calling a “humanitarian mission”—as a
granted it to Sinhala settlers. This was osten- genocide.
sibly to alleviate the pressure on the overpop- Alongside the history of violence, the economic
ulated wetlands in the south, but ignored the malaise currently visible across the island is not
preferences of Tamils, many of whom saw this new to Tamils either. Over the course of the armed
14 THE CARAVAN
conflict, as Tamil schools and places of a pattern of Sinhala Buddhist nation- leaders have refused. In an August 2021
of worship were routinely bombed, alism that has become almost neces- interview with The Hindu, Milinda
the state engineered economic hard- sary for any political party to maintain Moragoda, Sri Lanka’s high commis-
ship in Tamil areas by imposing strict power in Colombo. That nationalism sioner to India, derided the provin-
embargoes, which included a wide relies on valorising the armed forces, cial-council system as “superfluous,
range of medical supplies. Even in the deferring to Buddhism as the island’s expensive, divisive” and “fraught with
aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, vital foremost religion and displaying a inefficiency.”
aid was prevented from entering the staunch loyalty to a united Sri Lanka by Gotabaya secured the presidency on
north-east and was instead redirected rejecting Tamil demands for self-de- this staunchly nationalist platform, in
to the south. This was coupled with a termination. During the 2019 elec- November 2019, with an overwhelming
tragic shortage of medical personnel tion campaign, the Rajapaksas railed Sinhala majority. He refused to concede
across the north-east. By 2005, the against the previous administration for to even the most basic of Tamil aspira-
central hospital of Kilinochchi, in the being too conciliatory towards Tamils tions, such as strengthening the weak
Northern Province, had only 15 doctors and slammed their main opposition structures of the provincial councils. In
and seven assistant doctors for a popu- party, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, for August 2020, he secured a two-thirds
lation of a hundred and fifty thousand, speaking of devolution and not using majority in parliament, again based on
compared to the Sri Lankan average of the phrase “unitary state” when de- Sinhala support.
fifty doctors per 100,000. It also had scribing the country. Mahinda warned Once in office, he ruled in accordance
only 20 nurses, a sixth of the required that the SJB would turn Sri Lanka into with this pervasive ideology of Sinhala
amount. As the government of Tamil “a loose federation of virtually indepen- nationalism by establishing three
Nadu sends shipments of essentials dent provincial units.” presidential task forces, exclusively
supplies to Sri Lanka today, there are For decades, Sri Lankan leaders have Sinhala in composition and including
fears amongst Tamils that this aid may historically opposed moves toward numerous military officials implicated
face the same fate. devolution, fearing the disintegration in human-rights violations during the
To this day, Tamils continue to suffer of the island. The only exception to this war. The first task force, dedicated to
racist discrimination. North-eastern was in July 1987, when Jayewardene “Archaeological Heritage Manage-
districts continue to face some of the and the Indian prime minister, Rajiv ment in the Eastern Province,” has
highest rates of poverty, while the Gandhi, attempted to broker an agree- enabled further state land grabs across
rupture in the social fabric has led to ment that would end the conflict. They the north-east under the pretext of
increasing rates of alcohol abuse and did so without consulting the LTTE or preserving archaeological sites, which
high unemployment. In recent months Tamil political leaders. After an armed the US state department called a form
alone, amid the worsening economic intervention in the form of the Indian of “religious intimidation.” The second
crisis, many Tamils have attempted to Peace Keeping Force—which, several task force, whose stated purpose is to
flee the island and seek asylum abroad, human-rights organisations note, raped “build a Secure Country, Disciplined,
much like countless Tamils throughout and killed many civilians—the agree- Virtuous and Lawful Society,” was
the armed conflict. ment led to the thirteenth amendment widely criticised for its vague language,
The violence has not ended, with to the Sri Lankan constitution. The such as its aim to “curb illegal activi-
arbitrary arrest and torture still prev- controversial amendment provided ties of social groups” and “take legal
alent, while the north-east remains for the establishment of provincial action against persons responsible for
occupied by a military that bombed and councils and some devolution of power. ... anti-social activities.” This raised
killed with impunity. The Adayaalam The Tamil leadership has consistent- concerns that it would grant Sri Lanka’s
Centre for Policy Research, a Jaff- ly rebuked this as a solution to their security forces the power to restrict the
na-based human-rights think tank, demands for self-determination, noting operation and actions of human-rights
found, for instance, that in regions such that provincial governors were kept organisations, as well as Tamil politi-
as Mullaitivu, there is one Sri Lankan subservient to Sri Lanka’s president cians and civil-society groups.
soldier for every two civilians. The and that key issues were reserved for The third task force focused on
military routinely surveys and harasses the central government. achieving “One Country, One Law.” It
Tamils daring to engage in protests or Yet, to this day, the Sri Lankan gov- was headed by the extremist Buddhist
commemorations for those killed in the ernment has failed to implement the monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara.
war. This is not to mention the numer- thirteenth amendment and, in 2007, the Prior to the anti-Muslim riots of June
ous reports of torture. Last September, Supreme Court of Sri Lanka weakened 2014, he told a cheering Sinhala na-
the ITJP released a damning report the amendment by breaking the territo- tionalist crowd in Aluthgama that “if
detailing the witness testimonies of 15 rial contiguity of the Tamil homeland, one marakkalaya”—a slur for Mus-
Tamils who had been tortured since demanding that the north and east be lims—“lays a hand on a Sinhalese, that
Gotabaya took office. demerged. Despite India’s repeated, but will be the end of all of them.” The re-
The Rajapaksa regime is in every way often weak, calls over the years to meet sulting violence killed four people and
a child of these decades of repression the democratic aspirations of Tamils injured eighty others, with hundreds
and conflict. It is only the most extreme through the amendment, Sri Lankan left homeless. Among the sites attacked
JUNE 2022 15
were mosques, Muslim homes and including a ban on the burqa, a policy of watch. Protesting is not new to us … it’s
businesses, and even a nursery. In June forced cremations and the proscription new to them.”
2020, Gnanasara threatened Tamils of hundreds of individuals and organi- “Our protest is not similar to yours,”
seeking devolution, telling a crowd, sations—one country and one law under Sarojini Shanmugampillai, a mother
“We will not allow the Tamils to find a one racist ideology. searching for her disappeared son,
solution through devolution. If they de- Throughout the initial years of Gota- told reporters at the Vavuniya protest.
mand a separate state again, a river of baya’s reign, despite the overt racism, Sasikumar Ranjanidevi, a Mullaitivu
blood will flow in the north and east.” human-rights abuses and rampant mil- resident whose husband and two broth-
What is perhaps most unnerving itarisation, there was little protest from ers were forcibly disappeared, told Vice
about the liberal calls for a “unified Sri his voter base in the south. Indeed, his that Tamils wanted economic relief,
Lanka” that have echoed in interna- two-thirds majority in parliament was like the Galle Face protesters, “but
tional reporting since the beginning of achieved almost a year into his term. also something more valuable: human
the protests is how such slogans mirror It is only in recent months, as the eco- lives.” There is an overwhelming sense
previous racist calls and their unstat- nomic crisis sharpened, that discontent of apathy towards the protests across
ed threats of violence. The country began to grow. the Tamil region, fuelled by a sense of
must be unified but only on the terms “Today, their activism feels farcical distrust. Anushani Alagarajah, a Jaff-
of the Sinhala polity, the protesters in my heart,” a student from Jaffna na-based civil-rights activist, told the
claim, echoing some of the slogans of posted on Facebook as the Galle Face BBC, “Can we feel safe in this protest
the regime they demonstrate against. protests took off. “During the five space if we start talking about justice
This is the logic behind the task force years I have studied here, we students and accountability?” Another Jaffna
for “One Country, One Law.” It is why have organised countless protests to resident told the Tamil Guardian, “The
the government imposed a number improve the welfare of our community. protestors will forget all about us if
of anti-Muslim laws under Gotabaya, They did not take part or even come to they get their bread and fuel. A change
16 THE CARAVAN
in government will only mean another set of Sin- Government initiatives such as the office opposite page:
hala chauvinists in power.” of missing persons were left toothless, while Tamil women hold
For Tamils, this outrage at the government is a regime officials continued to publicly defend the portraits of their
relatives who
temporary response to ongoing economic distress, armed forces from international criminal-justice
were forcefully
with little done to address the more systemic mechanisms. Talk of a new constitution turned disappeared, at a
problems on the island. Colombo’s demonstra- out to be just talk, with no concrete develop- protest in Colombo,
tors failed to accommodate Tamil demands for ments. And soon, the island found itself stuck in in February 2020.
demilitarisation and devolution in their propos- the same bureaucratic swamp it has been in for They have been
als. “Beyond Galle Face,” a recent set of demands decades, with almost no advances in accountabil- protesting for
over 1,900 days,
co-created by more than sixty organisations and ity, devolution or addressing the festering ethnic
and had received
two hundred activists at the protests, made no question. When in power, Sinhala liberals have little attention and
mention of the demilitarisation of the north- merely acted as pressure valves following periods much scorn from
east, answers for the families of those who were of grim authoritarian governance. They provide the Sri Lankan
forcibly disappeared or any attempt at justice for assurances to international partners that the is- government.
the genocide that occurred under the watch of the land can change, without actually doing anything
Rajapaksas. about it. They have showed the same callous
Indeed, many Tamils fear that a simple change disregard for Tamil voices as their nationalist
of regime would just be a facade papering over counterparts.
the country’s systemic issues. A similar move The two sides often work in direct collusion. In
happened in the 2015 presidential election, when October 2018, recognising the sinking popularity
Mahinda was defeated by Maithripala Sirisena. of his government, Sirisena attempted to replace
While the Sinhala south still voted in favour of the Wickremesinghe with Mahinda as his prime min-
Rajapaksas, an overwhelming rejection of the fam- ister. Now, facing growing public pressure, Gota-
baya has replaced Mahinda with Wickremesinghe.
When in power, Sinhala liberals This illustrates not only the permeable boundary
between liberals and nationalists in Sri Lanka
have merely acted as pressure
but also why many Tamils have lost faith in the
valves following periods of grim democratic system. Wickremesinghe is a famil-
authoritarian governance. iar figure on the island, having now assumed the
ww prime minister’s office for the sixth time. During
his previous term, he dismissed the families of the
disappeared, claiming that their loved ones were
ily by the Tamils and Muslims of the north-east “most likely dead.” He has repeatedly defend-
tipped Sirisena to victory. Sirisena’s first foreign ed the military, naming accused war criminals
minister, Mangala Samaraweera, wrote in The as “friends.” In 2015, he claimed to have “saved
Hindu that the election was a “rainbow revolu- Mahinda Rajapaksa from the electric chair.” Seven
tion” and the “beginning of a new era.” Wickrem- years later, the Rajapaksas have turned to him to
esinghe was appointed prime minister. Promises save them once more.
of transitional justice, reconciliation and even a For Sri Lanka’s protesters, there is much reck-
new constitution were made. oning still to do. They must firstly recognise that
In 2016, Tamil families of the disappeared millions of Sinhalese have backed the Rajapaksa
looked past previous broken promises and failed government, despite—and, in many cases, be-
commissions and engaged with a newly estab- cause of—the egregious crimes they committed
lished consultation task force, which promoted against Tamils. The calls of unity must be closely
itself as an independent civil-society body that scrutinised and examined through the lens of
would listen to those most affected by the war. those who have been oppressed by that term. Not
The task force endorsed a hybrid court, made recognising what calls for unity actually evoke
up of local and foreign judges, to prosecute tends to serve only as a means of suppressing
war crimes and promised to ensure that differ- the legitimate demands of the island’s Tamils
ent transitional-justice mechanisms would be and Muslims. If Sri Lanka is to have the revolu-
indunil usgoda arachchi / reuters
applied. These proposals were rejected by the tion it seeks, it is likelier to start along with the
Sirisena administration. In June 2016, Sirisena families of the disappeared on the roadside in
reassured families that he would request from Vavuniya, whose demands go to the core of Sri
the military a list of all those detained and the Lanka’s turbulent history. “We are not protest-
location of all secret detention centres. Five ing to obtain commodities,” Shanmugampillai
months later, when faced with mounting calls explained, as she reached out directly to the Galle
for answers, he rejected all the demands of the Face protesters. “You must join us to strengthen
families and stormed out of a meeting. our struggle.” s
JUNE 2022 17
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perspectives
Slow Boil
Patterns in everyday acts of public violence
in Modi’s India / Politics
sajjad hussain/afp / getty images
/ vedika inamdar and pooja george Taslim was granted bail around three and
a half months later. The Indore bench of the
On 22 August 2021, 25-year-old Taslim Ali was Madhya Pradesh High Court held that he had no
beaten up by Hindu vigilantes in Indore, Madhya “criminal antecedents” and posed no threat to
Pradesh. A viral video of the incident showed witnesses. His attackers were granted bail much
Taslim, a bangle seller from Uttar Pradesh’s before him. Taslim’s arrest left his family suf-
Hardoi district, weeping on the ground while fering economically and emotionally, and stoked
a mob assaulted him because of his Muslim fear among other economically disadvantaged
identity. Taslim managed to file a first-infor- Muslim bangle-sellers from his village, who were
mation report after much difficulty, and the afraid to venture out to work. Hindutva groups
accused were arrested. But, the next day, based and leaders have been calling for an economic
on the complaint of one of the accused’s minor boycott of Muslim businesses, including impov-
daughters, Taslim was arrested. He was charged erished vendors.
under various sections of the Indian Penal Code Taslim’s case is not an isolated instance. Public
that had to do with sexual harassment, forgery acts of violence by Hindutva vigilantes, against
and criminal intimidation, as well as sections of religious minorities, are no longer seemingly dispa-
the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences rate incidents but form a larger recurring pattern.
Act, 2012. The pretexts for vigilante violence can be many, in-
18 THE CARAVAN
perspectives
cluding allegations of forced religious conversion, On 28 September 2021, Arbaaz Aftab Mulla opposite page:
cow slaughter and love jihad—a conspiracy theory was found decapitated near the railway tracks in A Bajrang Dal
that accuses Muslim men of marrying Hindu wom- Karnataka’s Belagavi district. Aftab had been in activist shouts
slogan during a
en with the aim to convert them to Islam. interfaith relationship with a Hindu woman. The
protest in New
Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to woman’s parents, who were against the relation- Delhi in May 2017.
power in 2014, there has been a rise in vigilan- ship, approached members of the Sri Ram Sene, a The protest was
tism and lynchings, so much so that a Supreme violent right-wing Hindu outfit, and paid them to held to condemn an
Court judgment in 2018, noting the “sweeping assault Aftab. alleged attack on
phenomenon,” stated that vigilantism “cannot, Although testimony by Aftab’s family and the Indian soldiers and
protests by Kashmiri
by any stretch of imagination, be given room to chain of events indicate that this could have been
“stone pelters.”
take shape, for it is absolutely a perverse notion.” a well-planned criminal conspiracy, the police did Organisations like
Despite the apex court issuing guidelines to not initially invoke the relevant section of the IPC. the Bajrang Dal
curb the phenomenon, cases have continued to Instead, the FIR only mentioned sections meant were created to
increase. Official figures, though, are hard to for murder, destruction of evidence and common build up Hindu
come by. In 2019, the National Crimes Record intention. The police claimed that Aftab died by mobilisation and
to form “shock”
Bureau refused to publish data on lynching as a suicide, but pictures taken by his cousin painted
troops.
separate crime because, according to the min- a different picture. Members of the Sri Ram Sene
istry of home affairs, the data was “unreliable.” distanced themselves from Aftab’s death, although
Last December, the government told parliament two members have been accused of being involved
that the NCRB no longer maintains separate data in the murder. Finally, on 8 October, ten people
for lynchings. Independent attempts to track were arrested, including one Sri Ram Sene leader
hate crimes, such as the Hindustan Times’ “Hate and the woman’s parents. The police eventually
ruled out suicide in the case, and are pursuing a
communal angle.
Public acts of violence by Hindutva Using both legal and extra-legal measures,
vigilantes, against religious Hindu nationalist groups attempt to foil interfaith
minorities, are no longer seemingly relationships. Violence, threats, and manipula-
disparate incidents but form a tion are employed against women, and Hindutva
vigilantes often collaborate with the police to find
larger recurring pattern.
couples who run away together. For instance, in
ww April this year, Hindu Yuva Vahini members forc-
ibly stopped an interfaith couple who had turned
Tracker,” have been unexpectedly shut down. up to register their marriage at the Moradabad
Individual instances of violence typically enter district court in Uttar Pradesh and handed them
the news cycle briefly and get lost in a barrage to the police. The Muslim man was accused of
of other stories. Nevertheless, there are inde- “love jihad” and kidnapping the woman. No action
pendent studies that shed light on the pattern of was taken by the police against the assailants. A
vigilante violence in India. vast and well-connected surveillance network
Emboldened under legal acts, such as anti-con- ensures that women are forcefully brought back
version laws and bans on meat and liquor, vigilante to their parents, while the men are charged under
groups often take it upon themselves to be the anti-conversion laws or assaulted—and, in some
moral vanguards of society. When the rule of law is cases, murdered—by right-wing vigilantes.
ineffective and not guaranteed, it creates condi- The anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen
tions of impunity for vigilante violence and mob argues, in The Law of Force: The Violent Heart of
justice. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indian Politics, that violence in India has primar-
Home Minister Amit Shah have usually main- ily been associated with more dispersed forms
tained a studied silence about violence meted out of public violence, such as communal riots or
to minorities, BJP leaders have often demonstrated clashes between protesters and the police. Less
overt support for perpetrators of vigilante violence. noticed has been a steady increase in “routine”
Everyday acts of public violence have become a public violence. Hansen argues that this form of
crucial feature of Hindutva politics and public life. violence is increasingly a regular and integral
JUNE 2022 19
slow boil · perspectives
part of political life in India with its by cow vigilantes in Mathura, Uttar ed one of the attendees. Ironically,
many diverse publics. “Violence is a Pradesh, for carrying meat. The mem- an FIR was filed against the victims,
form of ultimate action that demands bers of the Gau Rakshak Dal went live based on a complaint accusing them of
attention, a form of experience that on Facebook for 16 minutes, recording forced conversions. The victims now
generates reaction,” he writes. “It is their assault—where the men were live in fear and in isolation. By Novem-
one of the most powerful forms of kicked and slapped repeatedly—and ber, according to a report by the Peo-
communication and a repertoire of asking viewers to share the video. At ple’s Union for Civil Liberties, there
public performance.” least fifteen people had gathered to were at least thirty-nine incidents
In Modi’s India, cow-related lynch- beat up the men. After the assault, the of hate crimes against Christians in
ings have become one of the most vigilantes handed over the two men Karnataka.
routine displays of brute violence and the driver of the vehicle, who was The RSS’s success is contingent on
against minorities. This has coincided identified as a Hindu, to the police. All its capacity to instigate and coordinate
with, and has been further enabled three men were arrested under the Ut- Hindu nationalist vigilante groups. In
by, the introduction of strict laws and tar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaugh- Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the
legislation in many states. Since Modi’s ter Act and various sections of the IPC Rise of Ethnic Democracy, the political
second term began in 2019, three to do with defiling a place of worship scientist Christophe Jaffrelot describes
states—Karnataka, Haryana, and Uttar and killing or maiming cattle. the rise of vigilante right-wing groups.
Pradesh—have made their cow protec- Extreme vulnerability and power- To act as a deterrent against the rising
tion laws stricter. All three states are lessness at the hands of the state and mobilisation and ascension of lower
BJP ruled. Laws protecting cows have Hindutva actors marks the position castes, the RSS sought to garner the
led to vigilantes taking matters into of minorities in India today. Attacks support of lower castes and urge them
their own hands. As a vivid spectacle against Christians on allegations to think of themselves as Hindus first,
and a form of public demonstration, of forced religious conversions by in opposition to a Muslim Other. This
lynching is used as a weapon against spawned the Bajrang Dal, whose mem-
Dalits and religious minorities by the Emboldened under bers were far removed from the up-
Hindu majoritarian community. per-caste echelons of the RSS, in 1984,
legal acts, such as anti-
According to the Armed Conflict to build up Hindu mobilisation and to
Location and Event Data Project, a US-
conversion laws and form shock troops. The use of shock
based disaggregated data collection and bans on meat and liquor, troops is almost identical to what the
crisis-mapping project, perpetrators in vigilante groups often take historian Arthur Rosenberg describes
several cases of lynching are reported it upon themselves to be the as a tactic peculiar to modern fascism.
to be members of Hindu nationalist moral vanguards of society. Stormtroopers, like shock troops, are
groups, such as the Rashtriya Swayam- an elite squad that storm the trench-
sevak Sangh, and its affiliates, the Hin- ww es of an invented enemy of the right
du Yuva Vahini, the Bajrang Dal and wing. The stormtroopers violate the
the Vishva Hindu Parishad. From 2016 Hindutva groups have also seen a rise. law and are part of counter-insurgency
until the end of 2020, over fifty fatali- Eleven states in India have enacted operations while enjoying impunity
ties were reported because of lynching anti-conversion statutes—although and favour with the ruling class, as the
or mob violence following suspected not all of them are laws yet—including historian Jairus Banaji describes it in
cow slaughter or trade. The victims of Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gu- his comparison of European and Indian
these attacks belonged mostly to Mus- jarat, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and fascism.
lim, Dalit or Adivasi communities that Karnataka. Dalits and Adivasis who The brutality of routine public vio-
have traditionally relied on the cattle, convert to Christianity are harassed lence and the spectacle that it presents
beef and leather industry for their live- and threatened. Here, too, in most cas- results in fear, humiliation, mental
lihoods. A 2017 report by IndiaSpend es, while the police are slow to file FIRs trauma and the alienation of victims
found that 97 percent of all cow-relat- against perpetrators, they are quick and communities. But anti-minority
ed violence in India happened after to file counter FIRs against victims of violence, along with the aggression and
Modi started his first term and that 84 violence. fear it generates, has immense electoral
percent of those killed were Muslims. On 3 October 2021, more than two benefits, as is evident in state and gen-
In 30 percent of the attacks, the police hundred people, some of whom were eral elections since 2014. The question
registered cases against victims. The members and supporters of the BJP, is not whether public violence is legal
data also showed that half the attacks the Bajrang Dal and the VHP, attacked or not. Violence is not an aberration
were based on rumours. a church during a Sunday service but, instead, structures the everyday
Another unique aspect of public vio- in Roorkee, Uttarakhand. The mob lives of marginalised communities in
lence in the age of cheap and accessible attacked those attending the church India. This violence is legitimised by
internet is the livestreaming of these service, seriously injuring one person the vocal support and actions of Hin-
events. For instance, in September and destroying church property. One dutva groups and the tacit complicity of
2021, two Muslim men were attacked of the attackers also sexually assault- the state. s
20 THE CARAVAN
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perspectives
Fighting for Fair

Landmark victories show the growing strength of the
movement for caste equity in the United States / Caste
/ thenmozhi soundararajan He was a father, a survivor and an Ambedkarite,

and he had a mission: caste abolition. That fateful
I remember my first Zoom call with Prem Pariyar meeting began a historic movement to institution-
in the summer of 2020. Ruvani Fonseka, one of his alise protections against caste discrimination at
professors at California State University, East Bay, the California State University system—the largest
had reached out on his behalf to Equality Labs, public university system in the United States, with
the Dalit civil-rights organisation that I run, to more than four hundred thousand students across
suggest we work together. Pariyar told his story its 23 campuses.
while his children giggled and played behind him. Pariyar came to the United States in 2015,
fleeing his home in Nepal after his family was
brutally assaulted for speaking out against the
discrimination they faced as Dalits. He hoped that
here, halfway across the world, he could live free
of caste, but this hope was soon shattered. Living
in the San Francisco Bay Area while waiting for
his asylum application to be processed, he expe-
rienced unspeakable untouchability from others
who had also come from his part of the world. His
voice cracked as he described how, as a restaurant
worker, he was forbidden to eat or sleep where his
fellow workers lived. He carries the shame of that
time even today.
After he was granted asylum, Pariyar enrolled at
Cal State East Bay for a graduate degree in social
work. He chose this career path because he knew
that newly immigrated Dalits needed an ally to
help them access services for housing, health and
employment, and also to help them escape such
things as domestic violence and landlord abuse.
But even as a student, he continued to face caste
stigma. Dominant-caste students targeted him
with slurs, refused to eat with him and bullied him
for speaking out against such treatment.
When the discrimination became too much to
bear, he struggled to find support. The CSU system
offered protection against discrimination on the
basis of race, sexuality, gender and more, but did
not have institutional mechanisms to support stu-
dents who faced discrimination based on caste. As
a result, many caste-oppressed students, faculty
and staff were silently enduring caste discrimina-
tion, including slurs and microaggressions, bias
in student housing and groups, and even gen-
illustration by shrujana n shridhar
der-based violence and sexual harassment. The

stress from such treatment creates many obstacles
to the success of oppressed-caste students, which
is why Pariyar and other Dalit students began to
mobilise. With support from Equality Labs, as well
as a growing coalition of other allies, Pariyar and
other Dalit students launched a campaign for caste
equity and right to dignity and success. As a CSU
22 THE CARAVAN
perspectives
student and later an alumnus, Pariyar advocated physical assault, one in three discrimination in
for change first in his academic department, then education, and two out of three discrimination in
across departments and finally across the CSU the workplace.
system as a whole. The work paid off this January, After Pariyar connected with Equality Labs,
when CSU’s board of trustees formally made caste he joined other anti-caste leaders in building
a protected category across all of the university’s wide-ranging networks of mutual support. He
campuses. also attended Equality Labs workshops with them
This achievement capped a year full of mile- on how to undo caste supremacy, and how to use
stones for caste equity at CSU and at other US practices of mindfulness to face, with courage
universities. The academic senate of Cal State and grace, the kinds of attacks directed at those
East Bay, the campus’s top faculty body, passed who fight caste. These efforts mirror the tactics of
a resolution in early 2021 supporting protections other American civil-rights movements. One in-
for members of the oppressed castes. The Cal spiration is the Highlander Folk School, a famous
State Student Association, representing students haven and training centre for anti-segregation
from all the CSU campuses, passed a similar res- leaders in the American South in the 1950s and
olution within a few months, and the California 1960s, whose alumni include Rosa Parks, John
Faculty Association, a union representing almost Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. Renamed the
thirty thousand faculty and staff across the CSU Highlander Research and Education Center, it
system, later followed suit. Elsewhere, Colby still continues to teach people how to deconstruct
College, Carleton University, Colorado College systems of oppression and take collective action
and the University of California, Davis, made
caste a protected category under their non-dis- The CSU system offered protection against
crimination policies, following the example first
discrimination on the basis of race, sexuality,
set in 2019 by Brandeis University. The Califor-
nia Democratic Party also took a similar step.
gender and more, but did not have institutional
Added to this was a lawsuit against the Hindu mechanisms to support students who faced
sect BAPS for allegedly exploiting Dalit workers discrimination based on caste.
in the construction of temples across the Unit-
ed States—a case that, like an ongoing lawsuit
ww
against the technology giant Cisco for the alleged
mistreatment of a Dalit engineer, promises to test against entrenched power. Other influences come
the boundaries of US law when it comes to caste from Black Buddhist thinkers such as Rhonda V
discrimination. Magee and Ruth King as well as somatic abo-
The victory was not Pariyar’s alone, though litionists such as Resmaa Menakem, who have
his commitment and charisma were vital. Like formulated individual, communal and institution-
all the milestones above, it was the result of a al processes to address polarisation around race
growing movement for caste equity in the United and help people heal from oppression. Another
States that is reaching more and more hearts and inspiring example comes from the cadre camps of
minds as well as institutions. The movement is BAMCEF—the All India Backward and Minority
inter-caste, inter-faith and multi-racial, with Dalit Communities Employees Federation—that were
Ambedkarite feminist activists at the core. Behind the seedbeds of the Bahujan movement in India
the success at CSU is a mobilisation by student under the leadership of Kanshi Ram. Bahujan
activists, faculty supporters, Dalit-rights organ- Americans now regularly organise such camps in
isers and labour groups that is unprecedented in the United States as well. Besides such ground-
its diversity and scale, and that shows the way work, the movement for caste equity has also
forward in larger battles to come. reached beyond the South Asian community to
This is because Pariyar’s story is indicative of forge networks of collective power with people
the larger experience of social exclusion faced by struggling against racial and gender injustice in
caste-oppressed Americans. In a 2018 survey of American policing, immigration and society at
Dalits in the United States by Equality Labs, one large—all causes that Ambedkarite Dalit femi-
in four respondents reported having experienced nists have supported for years.
JUNE 2022 23
fighting for fair · perspectives
All of this was important preparation for karite Feminist leaders such as Maya Kamble of
hearings in the CSU system on the need to add the AANA have, over many years, shepherded the
caste as a protected category. Pariyar and others slow process of building coalitions within and
shared testimony that made clear the specific beyond Ambedkarite circles. The struggle at CSU
kinds of harm faced by caste-oppressed students, was boosted by numerous people from the domi-
leaving no doubt that remedy was needed. They nant castes, some of them raised in families that
were highly organised and focused on maintain- are prominent in caste-bigoted and Hindu chau-
ing right conduct in response to provocative and vinist organisations in the United States—proof
false counter-arguments from dominant-caste that ideas of equity are gradually penetrating even
individuals, who claimed that caste discrimina- traditional strongholds of caste prejudice.
tion does not exist and that instituting protections While the struggle at CSU unfolded, numerous
against it would entail an attack on Hinduism and workers’ unions joined the movement for caste
Hindus. These claims were exposed by the fact equity. The Alphabet Workers Union, a pioneer-
that Pariyar is himself a practising Hindu, and by ing union for workers at the parent company of
numerous dominant-caste Hindus who came out Google, added caste as a protected category in
in support of caste-based protections. April last year, and demanded that Alphabet do
Students across the CSU system coordinat- so as well. This inspired the California Faculty
ed with each other and with established equity Association to demand that caste be included as
centres on their campuses—dedicated spaces for a protected category in their collective bargain-
marginalised students to come together and work ing agreement with CSU, and the union voted to
for social justice—to conduct focus groups and ratify the updated agreement this February. By
invite testimony. There were leaders such as M taking this groundbreaking step, the California
Bangar, a non-binary Dalit activist who activated Faculty Association reinforced the change in
many queer and Dalit allies across several CSU CSU’s non-discrimination policy by making caste
protections a mandatory part of the university’s
Unions’ recognition that caste discrimination is contracts with the union’s tens of thousands of
members. Just months earlier, in December, the
a workplace issue opens up a wide new front of
Harvard Graduate Student Union succeeded in its
struggle, setting the stage for a larger push to demand that Harvard University include pro-
bring caste equity to all the places where union tections against caste bias in the contracts of its
power operates. graduate students.
ww In the wake of the CFA’s step, two major labour
groups issued statements in the union’s support:
the California Trade Justice Coalition, which rep-
and University of California campuses. Bangar resents a coalition of unions in the state, and the
paid a price for this when dominant-caste bigots Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, an arm of
contacted their dean and supervisor to out them the American Federation of Labor and Congress of
as Dalit and non-binary, and to allege that Bangar Industrial Organizations—the biggest federation
was Hinduphobic, racist and unfit to represent of unions in the United States. These are all his-
the institution—typical tactics from opponents of toric firsts for Dalit, labour and civil rights in the
caste equity. Bangar endured an investigation and country. Unions’ recognition that caste discrim-
two months of uncertainty and shame, but contin- ination is a workplace issue opens up a wide new
ued to mobilise for the movement. front of struggle, setting the stage for a larger push
Allies from the dominant castes also joined the to bring caste equity to all the places where union
cause, as did people from beyond the South Asian power operates.
community and the Hindu faith. Manmit Singh, a This was the wide, diverse alliance that stood
student leader from the Jat Sikh community, rallied behind the change at CSU. But, inevitably, there
thousands of students through the Cal State Stu- was also an ugly reaction against it. More than
dent Association and pushed for the group’s resolu- eighty CSU faculty members submitted a letter
tion in favour of caste protections. Krystal Raynes, to the university to protest the protections
the student representative on the CSU board of against casteist discrimination that were now
trustees, facilitated engagement on the issue by the to be part of their contracts. They described
student body and the university administration. If the addition of these protections as “misguided
Pariyar lit the kindling, Bangar, Singh, Raynes and overreach without any evidence for its need” and
their colleagues nurtured the flame of the move- said that the move, “rather than redressing dis-
ment across the CSU system and beyond. crimination, will actually cause discrimination
In the background were also groups such as the by unconstitutionally singling out and targeting
Ambedkar Association of North America. Ambed- Hindu faculty of Indian and South Asian descent
24 THE CARAVAN
TOP WEB EXCLUSIVES AT
HINDI.CARAVANMAGAZINE.IN
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fighting for fair · perspectives
as members of a suspect class because trans individuals, who may be closeted category is lawful, and any institution
of deeply entrenched, false stereo- for their safety. not doing so is liable to fail in its duty
types about Indians, Hindus, and This was very much the case for Dalit to uphold the civil and human rights
caste.” This group was backed by the Americans when Equality Labs con- of vulnerable minorities. Anti-caste
Hindu American Foundation, an advo- ducted the survey, in 2018, in a radically measures do not infringe on religious
cacy organisation for dominant-caste different landscape for caste and social beliefs, but only on unacceptable
interests, which also submitted a justice in the United States. The culture discriminatory practices. The targets
letter of complaint to CSU. of silence and denial about caste that of caste equity policies are exclusively
The faculty members specifically still exists among South Asian Amer- those who discriminate against other
attacked the 2018 survey by Equality icans was even more rampant then. people due to their being born into
Labs, which had been cited in support Dalits were afraid of disclosing their certain castes.
of instituting caste protections at CSU. caste identity, afraid of the consequenc- HAF, the aggrieved CSU faculty and
They pointed to a study by the Carne- es if it was known. Snowball sampling others opposed to protections against
gie Endowment titled “Social Realities was the only way available to Equality caste discrimination are fighting a
of Indian Americans: Results From Labs to break the silence of the caste rising tide. The process of organisation
the 2020 Indian American Attitudes oppressed. While collecting data, our and struggle at CSU is being repli-
Survey,” claiming that it “not only surveyors faced instances of verbal cated on campuses across the United
negates all the flawed claims made by abuse from dominant-caste individu- States. Just towards the end of 2021,
Equality Labs, but specifically dismiss- als—a sign of the very prejudice the sur- to add to the landmark achievement
es the non-scientific and biased means vey would expose. When it came out, it of the graduate students at Harvard,
by which Equality Labs gathered and inspired a new wave of truth-telling to the ethnic-studies department at the
analyzed its purported data.” The HAF dismantle caste supremacy. University of California, San Diego,
letter also cited the Carnegie study to In essence, the footnote in the institutionalised caste protections. This
support a claim that “discrimination on Carnegie study was an opinion on years, Scripps College and Bryn Mawr
the basis of ethnicity and color is quite whether snowball sampling is sufficient College, part of the Claremont Colleges
common” in what it termed “the broad- to document caste bias in the Indian di- consortium, have done so too. At these
er realities of Indian Americans” but aspora. While the authors are entitled and other institutions, the struggle for
“discrimination on the basis of caste is to their opinion, the study has its own caste equity will only grow from here.
exceedingly rare.” flaws in how it inserted itself into the To me, one of the most resonant
The faculty members pointed spe- discussion around caste without having moments of the struggle at CSU came
cifically to a footnote in the report that any oppressed-caste scholars among when Neha Singh, a Dalit alumnus
noted the Equality Labs survey “relied its four co-writers. The study also did leader from Cal State Northridge, gave
on a nonrepresentative snowball sam- not consult a single Dalit civil-rights public testimony during the advocacy
pling method to recruit respondents” organisation in developing its meth- process. Singh studied at the same
and that “respondents who did not odology. The survey underlying the campus where Shiva G Bajpai spent
disclose a caste identity were dropped study only posed questions about caste many years as a professor of history.
from the data set,” making it “likely to Hindu respondents, ignoring that Bajpai was one of the architects of
that the sample does not fully represent caste is present in South Asian com- the controversy over the portrayal of
the South Asian American population munities across religions. Only around Hinduism in California textbooks that
and could skew in favor of those who one percent of the survey’s 1,200 began around 2005. He opposed the
have strong views about caste.” Indian Americans identified as Dalit or inclusion of the term “Dalit,” arguing
To weaponise this footnote to dis- Scheduled Caste. This suggests serious that there was nothing bad about the
miss the concerns of caste-oppressed underrepresentation of the community caste system and that, in any case,
people, as the faculty letter did, was most vulnerable to caste discrimina- caste did not exist in the diaspora.
an act of disinformation. The Carnegie tion, and responses from just a dozen or Concurrent with his professorship,
report did not refute the Equality Labs so caste-oppressed individuals are not Bajpai also chaired the board of the
survey, it simply indicated the need sufficient to establish anything about Brahman Samaj of North America, one
for more data and more wide-ranging caste in the diaspora. of the most powerful dominant-caste
studies. Moreover, snowball sampling— The HAF letter also questioned the organisations in the United States.
where initial respondents nominate legality of CSU and the CFA imple- It was profound and moving that, in
others from their social networks menting caste protections, and stated 2022, an Ambedkarite Dalit feminist
who meet a study’s specific eligibility that it is “assisting concerned faculty helped transform the entire CSU
criteria—is an established methodol- in exploring all legal avenues and system in favour of caste equity and
ogy for gathering information from a representation to help them protect justice. Here was a shining example of
population that is not always visible their state and federal rights, as well the legacy of BR Ambedkar—who, for a
to broader society and so is difficult to as contractual rights with CSU.” Here time, was also a Dalit in America, and
locate. It is also used with communities again, it was far off the mark. The re- in whose name we continue to fight for
at risk of violence, such as queer and ality is that adding caste as a protected our freedom. s
26 THE CARAVAN
reportage
28 THE CARAVAN
reportage
lakshmibai rides a horse into the com-

pound of a bungalow housing officers
of the East India Company, wearing a
heavily embroidered green sari. “You
cannot come inside without permis-
sion,” one officer tells her. “Didn’t
you see the board?” “Bloody Indians,”
another officer exclaims, while a third
asks,“Can’t you read English?” The
queen consort of the princely state of
Jhansi dismounts and walks up to the
THE
visibly smug officers. “I can read En-
glish,” she says. “It’s a mere language.
Just words. Words without culture
have no meaning.”
WARRIOR
This is a scene from the 2019 film
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi,
starring, and co-directed by, Kangana
Ranaut. Lakshmibai was a prominent
QUEEN
figure in the 1857 uprising against
the British and is often presented as a
nationalist symbol of strength and re-
sistance. The film’s politics are crystal
clear: the British epitomise evil, while
benevolent Indian royals are the sole
Kangana Ranaut’s role in the defenders of poor village folk against

the cruelty of foreign invaders.
BJP’s battle for Bollywood Lakshmibai is furious with the
officers because they are about to eat
steak, cooked from a calf they have
snatched from a farmer. “The earth you
stand on, learn to respect its people
and their feelings,” she tells them. “Our
mother tongue is akin to our mother.
And there can be just one.” She throws
a sword at a shed caging cows and goats
to free them. “From now on, all cattle
and goats are the personal property
of the king,” she decrees. “They have
been lent to the people for rearing. The
Company cannot touch them.” The offi-
cers accept this without protest. “Your
Majesty,” one of them says.
In a scene that lasts barely two min-
utes, Ranaut and her crew demonstrate
their affinity with causes espoused by
the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and
its parent organisation, the Rastriya
Swayamsevak Sangh. This includes
COVER STORY / FILM
reverence of the cow, the imposition of
AATHIRA KONIKKARA Hindi as India’s national language and
the promotion of revisionist history
that can be put in the service of the
RSS’s goal of a Hindu Rashtra.
Manikarnika and Ranaut are one in
their ideological position. In a recent
promotional event for her film Dhaakad,
bccl
which was released on 20 May, Ranaut
JUNE 2022 29
the warrior queen · reportage
spoke about the ongoing language de- promoted a communal narrative that civilisation. Ranaut’s tweet may have
bate. “No matter how dark the colonial claimed Hindu families who support- been a blot in the process. Follow-
history is, fortunately or unfortunately, ed the BJP were being specifically ing the tweet, Twitter permanently
English has become that link” of com- targeted by the TMC. “We need super suspended Ranaut’s account for her
munication, she said. “Should that be gundai”—thuggery—“to kill gundai,” frequent violation of its policies.
the link? If you ask my opinion, I think Ranaut tweeted, suggesting that the During Modi’s tenure as prime
that national language should be San- state’s chief minister, Mamata Baner- minister, there has been an increase
skrit, because Kannada, Tamil, Guja- jee, was “like an unleashed monster, to in production of propaganda films,
rati, Hindi have all originated from it.” tame her Modi ji please show your Virat such as Uri: The Surgical Strike and
When people of Tamil Nadu and Bengal roop from the early 2000s.” The Kashmir Files. Several members
reject Hindi as the national language, To most people on social media, of Bollywood have been co-opted into
she added, they are “denying Delhi be- this was immediately recognised as a the Hindu nationalist agenda and have
ing the centre of the government.” thinly-veiled reference to the anti-Mus- openly voiced their support for the
The hyper-nationalist themes of lim pogroms that took place in 2002, regime. Among them, however, Ranaut
Ranaut’s films are a recent phenome- during Narendra Modi’s tenure as has stood out as Modi’s most strident
non, and, over the years, her own public chief minister of Gujarat. “Virat roop” supporter—which is only one of her
expressions of nationalism have be- refers to the majestic form taken by the most recent avatars.
come exponentially venomous. In May Hindu god Krishna during the battle of Ranaut was once celebrated by the
2021, the Trinamool Congress swept Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata. Modi media as a feminist icon. Her journey as
the assembly election in West Bengal. distanced himself from the events of a self-made star and her sharp criticism
The BJP had fought a high-decibel 2002 as he rose to power in Delhi and of a male-dominated film industry
campaign. Right after the verdict, is studiously building an image as the delighted liberals. Over the years, she
BJP leaders such as Swapan Dasgupta irreproachable patriarch of a great has spoken extensively about being an
30 THE CARAVAN
outsider in the film industry, to emphasise that she was a powerful film producer, and his co-hosts, previous spread:
does not have the advantages enjoyed by her con- the actors Varun Dhawan and Saif Ali Khan—both Kangana Ranaut
temporaries from well established film families. sons of successful Bollywood figures—took a jibe attends the sixty-
seventh National
Her frankness in interviews was seen as refresh- at Ranaut. “Nepotism rocks!” they exclaimed
Film Awards. In
ing compared to other actors who tend to remain proudly in unison. After widespread criticism, the 2020, she was
tight-lipped about their profession. She was also three apologised to Ranaut. awarded Padma
one of the first to speak about the gendered pay Soon after, Khan, who comes from the aristocrat- Shri—India’s
gap in the Hindi film industry. ic Pataudi family, wrote an open letter remarkable fourth-highest
In February 2017, Ranaut appeared on the for its tone deafness. “Eugenics means well born civilian award—and
also became the
producer and director Karan Johar’s popular talk and in a movie context, the genes (the DNA we’re
first Bollywood
show Koffee with Karan, with the actor Saif Ali born with, not the blue trousers we wear) of, let’s actor to be accorded
Khan. The show is popular for how Johar is able say Dharmendra’s son or Amitabh Bachchan’s “Y-plus” security
to teasingly prod celebrities for gossip, most of son or Sharmila Tagore’s son come into play,” he by the central
whom he shares an easy familiarity with. Johar is wrote. It was a statement that revealed Bollywood’s government.
responsible for launching several acting careers— glaring detachment with India’s social realities.
opposite page:
most notably those of the children of star actors— Ranaut responded to these comments with another
Ranaut’s career was
and is considered one of Bollywood’s most promi- letter. “Are you implying that artistic skills, hard- fluctuating when
nent gatekeepers of Bollywood celebrityhood. work, experience, concentration spans, enthusiasm, the director Vikas
The episode created headlines. Ranaut spoke eagerness discipline and love can be inherited Bahl selected her
calmly about how Johar had belittled her for most through family genes?” she wrote. “If your point to play Rani, the
of her career. “If it wasn’t for all the rejections and was true, I would be a farmer back home.” lead character in
mocking, I wouldn’t have made it,” she said. She Ranaut, as it turned out, believed in purity of the 2013 film Queen.
The film established
called Johar the “flag-bearer of nepotism” in the genes in a different context. In 2021, the appar-
Ranaut’s credibility
el brand Manyavar released an advertisement as a performer.
Ranaut once said that there critiquing the Hindu ritual of kanyadan—the act of
“giving away” one’s daughter, as though she were
was “complex science” behind a commodity, to the patriarch of another family.
the practice of kanyadan, The Hindu Right panned the advertisement as dis-
respectful to religious traditions. Ranaut said that
which “woke dimwits” would there was “complex science” behind the practice
not understand. “Hinduism is of kanyadan, which “woke dimwits” would not
understand. “Hinduism is very sensitive and sci-
very sensitive and scientific entific when it comes to gene pools and bloodline,”
when it comes to gene pools she wrote. Ranaut added that a prospective bride
needed “not only her own father’s permission but
and bloodline,” she wrote. also of all forefathers and ancestors whose blood
flows in her veins.”
film industry and said that if she ever made a biop- It is difficult to say precisely when Ranaut’s
ic, he would be represented as “the movie mafia.” transformation into her new avatar as Hindutva
When Johar asked her which of the Khans—Sal- queen began, but industry insiders suggested to
man, Shahrukh and Aamir, Bollywood’s top three me that it was soon after an alleged affair with the
male actors—she would be interested in working actor Hrithik Roshan played out in the media, in
with, Ranaut replied, “None.” She said she would 2016. Her vitriol against other actors, as well as
not want to work on a film in which she would not those outside the industry, became sharper, often
have an equal share of screen time. descending into petty name-calling. She described
At the time, Ranaut was at the top of her game. the actor and Shiv Sena member Urmila Matond-
She had earned her name in the industry as a kar, who had criticised her comparison of Mumbai
talented actor who could carry movies on her with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, as a “soft porn
own shoulders, winning several awards. She star.” She referred to Tapsee Pannu and Swara
had massive box office hits under her belt, such Bhasker, who have expressed views opposed to the
as Queen and Tanu Weds Manu. Many of her Modi government, as “B grade actors.” During the
movies represented strong, individual, quirky investigation into the actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s
strdel / afp / getty images
leading women. Clearly, she had come a long way death, she called Sonam Kapoor a “mafia bimbo”
from being mocked for her accent and not being and Rhea Chakraborty a “small-time druggie.”
considered in the same league as actors such as These, along with other events, have earned her
Kareena Kapoor. the moniker the “mad queen of Bollywood.” But
Some months after the episode aired, at an more troubling has been her role in advancing the
award function in New York, Johar, whose father Hindu Right’s agenda.
JUNE 2022 31
Ranaut endorsed Modi for the first has reached this place because of his described the protestors as “Khalistani
time at the 2018 Rising India Summit, mother and father. He is the rightful terrorists,” called Rihanna a “porn
organised by the News18 media group. leader of the democracy.” singer” who was being paid R100 crore
Calling herself a “big Modi fan,” she In 2020, protests against the Modi for tweeting about the protests. The
said, “Whenever we have a PM who government’s new agricultural laws, same day, she called Thunberg a “dumb
is a chaiwallah, I always say that it which threatened to leave farmers at and a spoilt brat” who was being used
is not his victory but is the victory of the mercy of corporate giants, started by the “left lobby.”
my democracy.” Ranaut added that in Delhi and its surrounding areas. In a speech delivered after she
speaking about issues affecting the The year-long movement drew global received the Padma Shri—India’s
country had become a sign of low attention, and celebrities such as the fourth-highest civilian award—in
self-respect. “The young generation musician Rihanna and the climate 2020, Ranaut spoke about the various
is always complaining, saying there is activist Greta Thunberg voiced their decisions she had taken in her career,
no infrastructure, there’s no clean- support for farmers. In February 2021, including rejecting fairness advertise-
liness. This attitude is not okay.” Rihanna tweeted an article about the ments and item songs. “I made more en-
Her statement mirrored the state of protest, asking, “why aren’t we talking emies than money,” she said. “And then,
public discourse in the country, where about this?” Several Indian cricketers when I had more awareness about the
international criticism is discouraged, and movie stars quickly rallied around country, I raised my voice against those
on the pretext that it is meddling in the government and called the protests forces who attempt to break India,
India’s internal matters, and those “propaganda.” whether they are jihadis, Khalistanis
raising questions within the country Ranaut went a step further. “No one or enemy nations.” Soon after this, she
prodip guha / getty images
are told to “go to Pakistan.” is talking about it because they are said in a television interview that India
In the run-up to the 2019 general not farmers, they are terrorists who had won its real freedom in 2014, when
election, Ranaut endorsed Modi’s are trying to divide India,” she tweet- Modi was first elected prime minister,
re-election as prime minister. “He is ed. She alleged the protests were a and not 1947. The liberal Ranaut had
the most deserving candidate,” she told conspiracy to invade India and make it been completely replaced by the war-
the Hindustan Times. “It’s not like he “a Chinese colony much like USA.” She rior queen of Hindutva.
32 THE CARAVAN
“she was not this person at all,” a producer of the producer Mahesh Bhatt—who is political- opposite page:
Ranaut’s earlier films told me on condition of ly outspoken, and has often expressed critical In March 2019, the
anonymity. “She was a very genuine, real human views against the BJP government—on the sets entertainment
journalist Justin
being who was really hungry for good work, rec- of Gangster. Ranaut “would not participate in any
Rao asked Ranaut
ognition.” of those discussions,” he told me. “Her opinions, why her film had
Ranaut was born in Bhambla, in Himachal her rights and wrongs, she has acquired it over continued to run in
Pradesh’s Mandi district. The village, also known the years.” Pakistan despite the
as Surajpur, is named after her great grandfather Ranaut’s former producer emphasised that she Pulwama attack.
Sarju Singh Ranaut, a former Congress legislator. was not treated well in the industry. Her heavily She picked on him
four months later
Her grandfather was a bureaucrat. Her father is accented English was a constant butt of jokes,
at a promotional
a businessman, and her mother a schoolteacher. and she hired an English tutor to learn between event for her film
Ranaut has for long asserted her proud Rajput film shoots. None of this dimmed her enthusiasm. Judgementall Hai
identity—she claimed in an interview that she be- “This industry gives you a lot of freedom, unlike Kya.
longs to a royal lineage—but it became prominent- any other,” she said in a 2011 interview. “Here, you
ly visible when she played the lead in Manikarnika. can do what you want, be who you are, wear what
Ranaut’s family lives in a sprawling haveli and you want, say what you like and do what you like
owns several acres of land. She rarely mentions with your money. I don’t know why people are so
this wealth and privilege when casting herself as
an outsider in Bollywood.
Ranaut developed an interest in modelling and
Ranaut’s primary concern
films since her school years, much to the discom- was why she was “not being
fort of her family. They wanted her to become a accorded the same kind of
doctor. She has spoken many times about how
she defied societal expectations while growing awe and respect like the
up. “If my father would gift my brother a plastic other female superstars.”
gun and get a doll for me, I would not accept
that,” she said in an interview. “I questioned the The producer recalled
discrimination.” Ranaut asking, “Why don’t
Ranaut started her acting journey in theatre.
Her first play was Girish Karnad’s Taledanda,
people look at me the way
directed by Arvind Gaur. Originally written in they look at Kareena?”
Kannada, the play told the story of the rise of
Lingayatism, a twelfth-century religious reform scared of sending their girls to this industry. Like
movement. The progressive theme of her first play my parents were so sceptical.”
and the nationalist narratives of her recent films In 2010, while speaking to the film journalist
show that Ranaut’s vision and creative endeavours Anna Vetticad, Ranaut argued that it was a “good
have transformed drastically over the years. thing” that most major actors had powerful men-
Ranaut was 19 years old when she made her tors in the industry. She compared the preference
Bollywood debut in Gangster: A Love Story, a 2006 given to “star kids”to the quota she had benefit-
crime thriller, directed by Anurag Basu, about a bar ted from in pre-medical entrance exams, as the
dancer in an ill-fated relationship with a gangster. descendant of a freedom fighter. A decade later,
The film was produced by Vishesh Films, a produc- however, she argued that reservations guaran-
tion house headed by Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh teed by the Constitution for socially marginalised
Bhatt. “When you are an outsider, it’s not like you groups should be scrapped. “Caste system has
have a choice of scripts and roles,” she told the been rejected by modern Indians, in small towns
magazine Cosmopolitan, four years later. “You take everyone knows it’s not acceptable anymore by
what you get.” She won several awards for the role. law and order its nothing more than a sadistic
Basu told me about meeting Ranaut for the first pleasure for few, only our constitution is holding
time, when she came to his office for an audition. on to it in terms of reservations,” she tweeted,
“She was really upset and almost firing my assis- in August 2020. “Let go of it, let’s talk about it.”
tant that, you know, ‘I have been waiting for two Ranaut was reiterating the oft-propagated false-
hours and you are not taking my audition,’” Basu hood that affirmative action is responsible for the
said. “I needed that fire, actually. And it was there perpetuation of caste.
in her.” Basu went on to work with Ranaut on two Ranaut’s career was fluctuating when the direc-
more films. tor Vikas Bahl selected her to play Rani, the lead
“She is like a sponge,” he said. “She will listen character in the2013 film Queen. The film estab-
to people and imbibe. She has a keen eye for lished Ranaut’s credibility as a performer. “At that
learning.” He recalled discussing politics with time, her position was not very good,” her former
JUNE 2022 33
opposite page: producer told me. “She was waiting for one or two school where you are studying”—implying that
Hrithik Roshan films to come out. And she was really hungry for she knows more about feminism than the “libru
alleged in a 2016 something.” Ranaut had had a taste of commer- feminists” she was addressing.
complaint to
cial success with her 2011 film Tanu Weds Manu, To try and prove her nationalist credentials,
Mumbai police
that Ranaut had a romantic comedy directed by Aanand L Rai. Ranaut has gone after actors through Paki-
sent him over a The film was a hit and, four years later, its sequel stan-baiting. In February 2019, after the killings of
thousand emails, earned R50 crore in its first week. 40 Indian security personnel in a suicide bomb-
causing him mental After these successes, the producer said, ing in Pulwama, the actor Shabana Azmi and her
harassment. Ranaut’s primary concern was why she was “not husband, the lyricist Javed Akhtar, cancelled their
being accorded the same kind of awe and respect plans to attend the birth centenary celebrations of
like the other female superstars.” He recalled her father, the poet Kaifi Azmi, which was going
Ranaut asking, “Why don’t people look at me the to be held in Karachi. Ranaut would have none
way they look at Kareena?” He agreed that the of it. She called Azmi an “anti-national” and said
film industry accords higher star value to actors that people like her “promote Bharat Tere Tukde
with a lineage. “See, when she talks about nepo- Honge gangs.” Ranaut asked, “why did they organ-
tism, it is partially true. But this whole country ise an event in Karachi in the first place when Paki-
is built on nepotism, anywhere you go.” Ranaut stani artists have been banned after Uri attacks?”
had proven it was possible to succeed in Hindi The criticism was hypocritical at best. In Octo-
cinema despite being an outsider, he told me. ber 2018, Ranaut modelled for a bridal collection
Over the years, Ranaut’s battles have taken many created by the Pakistani fashion designer Saira
forms, and she has seemed more than ready Rizwan. Ranaut endorsed Rizwan’s collection in a
to jump into them—and, in many instances, to video, which the Karachi-based newspaper Dawn
instigate them. called “a very sweet gesture that most Indian
Manikarnika was slated for release in January celebrities refrain from making because they are
2019, but the Karni Sena, a militant Rajput organ- afraid of cross-border tensions.”
isation, threatened to stop its screening, alleging In March 2019, Ranaut’s statement on Azmi
that the film portrayed Lakshmibai having an came back to haunt her, at a press conference
affair with a British officer. Ranaut responded in during the promotion of Manikarnika. Justin Rao,
strong terms. “If they don’t stop, they should know an entertainment journalist with the Press Trust
I am also a Rajput and I will destroy each one of of India, asked Ranaut why her film had continued
them,” she said. This confrontation seems to have to run in Pakistan despite the Pulwama attack,
been forgotten two years later, when the Karni which occurred less than a month after the film’s
Sena extended support to Ranaut in her face-off release. Her defence was that the decision could
with the Maharashtra government. not be reversed since the film had already been
Ranaut continued to be hailed as someone who distributed. When Rao pressed further, asking
challenged sexist practices in the film industry, why the film had been screened in the first place,
despite her conflicting positions on feminism. given the prohibitions on cultural exchange with
“The term ‘feminism’ is misused,” she once said. Pakistan following the 2017 Uri attack, Ranaut
“I don’t go by the book definition of feminism. again blamed the distributors.
I made my own definition.” In February 2021, Ranaut retaliated against Rao four months later,
Ranaut tweeted a clip of her talking about sexual at a promotional event for her film Judgementall
harassment in the film industry on a popular show Hai Kya. “Justin, you have become my enemy,”
and wrote, “Watch this, it is many years ago in my she told him. “You are writing lowly things about
early twenties teaching feminism to Bullywood.” me. How can you have such lowly thinking?” Rao
She added, in Hindi, “I have been the principal of responded that he had only written the truth. She
accused him of calling her a “jingoistic woman”
for making Manikarnika. Rao denied the accusa-
“A lot of people say that she tion, saying he had never tweeted about her film.
manipulated the situation to “This is not the way, Kangana,” he said. “You
cannot intimidate a journalist because you are in a
her advantage because she was position of power here.”
close to Modi and she played The Entertainment Journalists’ Guild of India
extended its support to Rao and wrote to the film’s
with that in mind ki dikha producer Ekta Kapoor, who had hosted the event,
doongi inko”—I will show demanding an apology. The guild’s statement stat-
ed that they had “collectively decided to boycott
them—the screenwriter said. Ms Ranaut and not give her any media coverage.”
“It got worse as it went along.” While Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms issued an apology,
34 THE CARAVAN
Ranaut did not. Her sister and manag- at her after she rejected his proposal, “mullah” for Muslims. In April 2020,
er, Rangoli Chandel, tweeted that the causing severe injuries. She wrote her Twitter account was permanently
journalists had “asked for an apology that it was Ranaut, her parents and a suspended for violation for its policies.
from the wrong person” and described friend who later became her husband She had posted that a general election
them as deshdrohi—traitors. She sent a who “collectively breathed life” into in 2024 “will waste huge resources” as
legal notice to the guild, stating it had her. Her social-media profile is replete the Modi government would come to
no authority to ban coverage on Ranaut. with photographs of Ranaut being a power. In a different tweet, after the
On Instagram, Ranaut posted a video doting aunt to her son. She is effusive Tablighi Jamaat was accused of spread-
addressing Rao and Entertainment in her appreciation of Ranaut. In 2017, ing COVID-19, she called for the killing
Journalists’ Guild. “Please ban me,” she there were reports of a fallout between of Muslims and “secular media.”
said. “I don’t want to be the reason why the sisters. Chandel quickly dismissed The producer told me that Chan-
the stove in your house is burning. This them. “I have been by Kangana’s side del, like Ranaut, was well spoken and
is the biggest favour you can do for me.” ever since she started off as an actress,” friendly before the massive shift in
Chandel had risen to prominence she said. “She has not only supported us their public stance in recent years.
as Ranaut’s manager by aggressively but has also made our careers.” Though Chandel is Ranaut’s manager,
mitesh bhuvad / pti
defending her sister’s statements on While defending her sister on Twit- he said, “she has no say in anything.”
social media. She often spoke about ter, however, Chandel has routinely He added that Ranaut would sometimes
her struggle as a survivor of an acid made hyperbolic, charged statements— respond to emails sent to Chandel’s
attack. In 2006, a man had thrown acid often resorting to pejoratives, such as email address.
JUNE 2022 35
below: In January in march 2016, the actor Hrithik Roshan sent a In April 2017, Roshan’s
2021, Ranaut legal notice to Ranaut for defamation. The two
announced her had been co-stars in the films Krrish, Krrish 3 and lawyers filed another police
upcoming film on
the Kashmiri ruler
Kites. At a press conference, two months earlier, complaint, alleging that
Didda. Ranaut implied that the two had been in a relation-
ship. When asked whether she had been dropped Ranaut had sent sexually
opposite page: from a film at Roshan’s behest, Ranaut responded explicit emails to Roshan.
While Bal Thackeray in the affirmative. “I don’t know why exes do silly
never occupied an things to get your attention,” she said. In his legal
The BJP was in power in
electoral office,
he exerted an
notice, Roshan demanded a public apology and a Maharashtra at the time.
immense influence statement clarifying that they had never been in a
over Mumbai— relationship. On Twitter, he went so far as to sug- Roshan went up to Ranaut to congratulate her on
and, by extension, gest that he would rather date the pope. its success. The talk in the industry, the producer
Bollywood. Roshan eventually filed a complaint with the said, was that Ranaut harboured a fantasy of being
Mumbai police, alleging that someone had been in a relationship with a superstar. “The moment he
impersonating him to send emails to Ranaut. He saw Kangana, he was very loving and respectful,”
alleged in another complaint that Ranaut had sent he recalled. “Roshan said, ‘I am hearing such great
him over a thousand emails, causing him mental things about Queen. I believe you are so good in it. I
harassment. Ranaut’s lawyers responded to the am sorry I haven’t seen it yet.’” Ranaut replied that
allegations with a mathematical calculation. “Your Roshan had already told her he loved the film. He
client (Hrithik) has claimed to having received 50 denied this, asking her, “When did I tell you that?”
emails a day from the day Kangana got to know Ranaut said that she had received an email from
of the correct email id till the date of sending the him. When Roshan denied sending her any such
notice,” they wrote. “This totals to 601 days and email, Ranaut and Chandel walked out of the party.
therefore there should have been 30,000 mails as In response, Ranaut filed a complaint against
opposed to 1,439 mails claimed in the notice. This Roshan and said that he had shared his email
fact further proves the exaggeration and false address with her. However, Roshan insisted that
claims made by your client.” she was interacting with an impostor and was
The spat began when Ranaut and Roshan imagining their relationship. “A person can only
attended a party hosted by Karan Johar in 2014. imagine things when they do not have it,” Ranaut
Ranaut’s former producer was also at the party. said during a 2017 episode of the television show
He told me that Queen had just been released, and Aap Ki Adalat. “I was meeting him on set every
day, I knew him.” However, when the police visit-
ed Ranaut’s home to confiscate her computer, she
refused to submit her electronic devices, claiming
that her mobile phone was being repaired.
In October 2017, Republic TV’s editor-in-chief,
Arnab Goswami, questioned Roshan on the
subject. “There was no relationship? Nothing
remotely romantic?” Goswami asked repeatedly.
“I wonder if my need to please actors may have
led her on in some way,” Roshan replied. “I don’t
know… If she was doing a somersault on the beach
and if she managed to, in her training, do some-
thing amazing as a feat, she used to send that to
me, a video of that. And I used to compliment her.”
Goswami, who appreciated Roshan for refrain-
ing from making personal attacks, later became
Ranaut’s ally in accusing Bollywood of driving
Sushant Singh Rajput to his untimely death.
A screenwriter told me on condition of ano-
nymity that Ranaut resented the fact that no one
courtesy rupa publications
in Bollywood defended her stance questioning

Roshan’s story. An industry veteran also told me
that the “latent anger” in her, caused by her long
isolation in Bollywood, blew out of proportion and
siding with the political establishment became a
vehicle to plant this anger. He added that there
36 THE CARAVAN
kalpak pathak / hindustan times
have been many proponents of Hin- Chandel’s email response. She accused person and decided to ignore the entire
dutva who surfaced after Modi came Roshan “of having a relationship with issue,” the complaint stated.
to power, but no one had allowed it to her sister but also of hacking into Ms. I sent multiple interview requests
interfere with their public image the Ranaut’s account and forcing her to requests to Ranaut and Chandel, but
way Ranaut had. “A lot of people say take pictures and videos of herself.” these requests were declined. I sent a
that she manipulated the situation to The producer recalled that, when they list of detailed questions to Ranaut’s
her advantage because she was close were friends, Ranaut did not reveal manager and Chandel. After seeing the
to Modi and she played with that in any allegiance to the BJP or any other list of detailed questions, Chandel sent
mind ki dikha doongi inko”—I will show political party. “It all started when the a series of messages. “R u serious?? R u
them—the screenwriter said. “It got forensics went to her house,” he said. still in that that era ? Come one move
worse as it went along.” “It all has to do with her protecting on....” she said. “All these questions has
In April 2017, Roshan’s lawyers filed herself. She would have gone to jail.” been already answered !!! Long ago.”
another police complaint, alleging Roshan’s complaint also alluded to
that Ranaut had sent sexually explicit Chandel’s foul language. He was com- according to several of her colleagues,
emails to Roshan. The BJP was in pow- municating with her to clear the confu- Ranaut has become increasingly difficult
er in Maharashtra at the time. “Ranaut sion about the emails that Ranaut had to work with. “We had to send her every
had approached the state government allegedly received from Roshan. When single article that was written about her
to protect herself from the consequenc- he suggested that the original emails as early as 7 am each day,” an employee
es of the investigations,” her former from Ranaut’s laptop could help in at a company that was handling public-
producer told me. “Only the BJP could tracking the impostor, Chandel accused ity for Ranaut told me. She added that
have protected her. The emails have him of “emotionally and psychological- many colleagues had quit because meet-
extremely sensitive material. It has ly raping” her sister. “On receiving such ing Ranaut’s demands was too exhaust-
self-made nude videos. The emails have an absurd and misconceived email, ing. The publicist asked me to not reveal
enough evidence to put her in jail.” replete with false allegations, our client her identity or the name of the company
The complaint filed by Roshan, which decided that it was not worth his while she worked for. Her anxiety was not
was accessed by Republic TV, noted to deal with such an unreasonable misplaced. In June 2015, Ranaut sued
JUNE 2022 37
another PR firm for allegedly spreading Instagram. Dadu made a statement along approval, which is exhibited as proof
negative stories about her. similar lines, saying that it is “never too that the film is worth watching.
In July 2020, the filmmaker Anurag late to do the right thing.” Ekta Kapoor, who co-produced
Kashyap, who had described Ranaut as Despite Ranaut’s statements against Judgementall Hai Kya, has regularly
a “very good friend,” tweeted, “Her old religious minorities and her own fra- collaborated with Ranaut. She recently
directors who once appreciated Kanga- ternity, however, most major produc- produced the reality show Lock Up,
na now run far away from working with ers continue to work with her. Her up- with Ranaut as a host. In the show,
her.” In a long Twitter thread, Kashyap coming film Tejas, in which she plays Ranaut plays a jailer who has impris-
wrote that he does not recognise the an air force pilot, is being produced oned celebrities such as the wrestler
new Kangana. Two months later, the by RSVP Movies, a production house and BJP leader Babita Phogat, the co-
cinematographer PC Sreeram opted out owned by Ronnie Screwvala, who is median Munawar Faruqui and the en-
of a film because it had Ranaut as the among the biggest producers in the trepreneur Tehseen Poonawalla. When
lead. “Deep down I felt uneasy and ex- industry. In 2019, RSVP Movies pro- Ranaut was asked about working with
plained my stand to the makers and they duced Uri: The Surgical Strike, which Kapoor, who comes from a prominent
were understanding,” he tweeted. “Some was widely promoted by BJP leaders. film family—her father is Jeetendra,
times its only about what feels right.”In In the run-up to the filming of Tejas, a popular 1960s star and her mother,
May 2021, the fashion designers Anand Ranaut met the defence minister, Shobha, is the managing director of
Bhushan and Rimzim Dadu announced Rajnath Singh, and shared a script of Balaji Telefilms—her response was
that they were ending their collabora- the film with the Indian Air Force for that she was never against nepotism.
tions with Ranaut and would never work approval. Far from making films that “I never had a problem with nepotism.
with her again. “We as a brand do not critique the status quo, production I had a problem with ganging up on
pti
support hate speech,” Bhushan wrote on houses are now vying for the state’s outsiders because of nepotism. There
38 THE CARAVAN
is a difference.” She added that Kapoor had never with.” Manoj Jain, an astrologer, served as an opposite page:
been a part of a “bully gang.” intermediary. In October, on his insistence, Kaul The tensions
Ranaut’s disputes with colleagues have not al- wrote an email to Ranaut narrating Didda’s story. between Ranaut
and Shiv Sena
ways centred on politics. In 2017, the screenwriter He did not receive any response. Jain told him
reached a tipping
Apurva Asrani accused her of usurping the credit that Ranaut was excited and wished to meet Kaul, point when Ranaut
for writing the screenplay of Simran, in which she but that did not happen. The publisher eventually alleged that, after
played the leading role. “This completely discred- decided to go ahead with the book without the she provocatively
its me and my efforts, and I have to call out this lie foreword. Kaul thought this was the end of it. He compared Mumbai
at the cost of so many of her fans turning against was mistaken. When he was told about Ranaut’s with Pakistan-
occupied Kashmir,
me,” Asrani wrote in a Facebook post. announcement, he said, “My heart really missed a
the Shiv Sena leader
Two years later, Krish Jagarlamudi was re- beat.” He claimed that her tweet had reproduced Sanjay Raut had
moved as the director of Manikarnika after Ranaut the subject line of his email—she “had not even threatened that she
complained about other actors being given more changed a full stop or comma.” should not return to
prominent roles and the production resembling Kaul told me that his maternal grandmother the city.
“a Bhojpuri film.” Ranaut took over as director, traces her descent from Didda and that his book
reshooting several portions of the film. Her co- contains information that no other source can
star Sonu Sood soon walked out, alleging that provide. He clarified that he had no objection to
eighty percent of his scenes were deleted. “I never anybody making a film on Didda, but “I want peo-
thought I’ve to defend my ability of film making ple to stay away from my story, my work and my
based on the manipulations and lies of one per- narrative.” He argued that Ranaut and Kamal Jain
son,” Jagarlamudi tweeted. plagiarised his story on the assumption that Kaul’s
Accusations of stealing credits continued to writing could also be easily sourced on the inter-
follow Ranaut. In January 2021, Ranaut announced net. “They just thought Didda defeated Mahmoud
her upcoming film Manikarnika Returns: The Leg- Ghazni, what a great story.”
end of Didda—a biopic of a former Kashmiri ruler.
“It is an untold story of a queen of Kashmir who Krish Jagarlamudi was
defeated Mahmoud of Ghazni not once, but twice,”
she tweeted. Right after the film was announced, removed as the director of
Ashish Kaul, a former Zee executive and author of Manikarnika after Ranaut
Didda: The Warrior Queen of Kashmir, issued a legal
notice to Ranaut, Chandel and the film’s producer complained about other actors
Kamal Jain, accusing them of copyright infringe- being given more prominent
ment. Two months after the film’s announcement,
Kaul alleged that Ranaut’s tweet was directly lifted
roles and the production
from the subject line of an email he had sent to her. resembling “a Bhojpuri film.”
I met Kaul, in March this year, to hear his
account. He told me he had written the book with Two months later, Kaul sued Ranaut in a Mum-
the intention of making a film based on it. He had bai court. “When the case was submitted,” he told
even registered it as a script with the Film Writers’ me, “everyone was looking at me like, ‘Yeh Shiv
Association, in 2017, and was in talks with Reliance Sena ka hoga’”—he must be from the Shiv Sena.
and Disney to produce it. “I have a proper bible Ranaut was engaged in a heated confrontation
that I have created, right from character sketches with the party, which heads the state govern-
to locations,” he said. “I had worked very hard on ment, so any complaint against her was assumed
that.” Kaul, a Kashmiri Pandit, told me that he had to be politically motivated. “The police was not
come across Ranaut’s statement that she resonated taking it seriously,” Kaul said, adding that it did
with the plight of his community, but was sceptical not register a first-information report for a year.
of her sympathies. “I know when somebody takes a Finally in March this year, the Mumbai police
position and starts talking about Kashmiri Pandits, finally registered an FIR against Ranaut, Chandel
I know the extortionism in that,” he told me. and Akshit—Ranaut’s brother—and the producer
Amid the heated exchanges between the Shiv Kamal Jain, after a court order. Kaul noted that
Sena leaders and Ranaut, in late 2020, the pub- Ranaut’s fans were sharing the news of her film on
lishing house Prabhat was planning to release social media by circulating the cover of his book.
a Hindi translation of the book. The publisher “How stupid can you be?”
recommended that Kaul should approach Ranaut Ranaut’s interest in bringing Didda’s biography
to lend her name to the book’s foreword. “I was to the big screen is not surprising, especially when
okay with her name getting into the book,” he told the story has a Muslim antagonist. Under Modi’s
me. “I did not think much of it, because it came rule, nationalist films with a Muslim villain are
from a publisher who I have a good relationship easy commercial successes.
JUNE 2022 39
opposite page: bollywood has always had to negotiate a In 2008, Bollywood found itself embroiled in
Prime Minister relationship with ruling parties. Nearly three the Sena’s politics of Marathi pride. At a film pro-
Narendra Modi met decades ago, the director Mani Ratnam screened motion event, the actor Jaya Bachchan said,“We
Bollywood actors
his film Bombay before the Shiv Sena patriarch are from UP and we should only speak in Hin-
and filmmakers
at his residence in Bal Thackeray for his approval, so that it could di.” The Shiv Sena interpreted the statement as
October 2019 to safely be released in the city. The film told the a remark antagonising Maharashtra. “People of
mark the hundred story of a Hindu man and a Muslim woman in the Maharashtra will not tolerate such language,” the
and fiftieth birth 1992 communal violence in Mumbai and featured party spokesperson Sanjay Raut said. The Sena’s
anniversary of MK a character inspired by Thackeray. The film ideological position has insisted on gratitude from
Gandhi.
historian Gautam Chintamani writes that Thac- members of the Hindi film fraternity, most of
keray was unhappy after watching it and asked whom trace their roots elsewhere in the country.
Ratnam how he could “falsely ascribe emotions On a hot afternoon in March this year, I visited
like regret for inciting his followers in a certain the headquarters of the Shiv Sena to seek potential
direction during the riots when clearly it wasn’t sources for this story. As soon as I named my sub-
like that.” ject, a Sena official crinkled his nose. “Why should
In 1999, when the actor Dilip Kumar was award- we give her any importance?” he asked me.
ed the highest civilian honour in Pakistan, the Nis- Less than two years earlier, however, Ranaut
han-e-Imtiaz, the Kargil war had just broken out, had been the subject of press statements and
and denouncing Pakistan became the test to prove editorials in the party’s mouthpiece, Saamna, as
one’s patriotism. Thackeray asked Kumar to return well as angry protests led by party members. At
the award, but Kumar refused. The BJP govern- the time, even as India reeled under the multi-
ment in Delhi refrained from making a fuss over tudes of human tragedies caused by the COVID-19
the issue. Modi, who was the party’s general secre- pandemic and the Modi government’s failure to
tary at the time, said that returning the award was contain the catastrophe, the news cycle was rife
“best left to the wisdom of Dilip Kumar.” with conspiracy theories surrounding the death
While Thackeray never occupied an elector- of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, on 14 June 2020.
al office, he exerted an immense influence over Though initial reports stated that Rajput had died
Mumbai—and, by extension, Bollywood. Long by suicide after a long battle with depression, so-
before the BJP started taking control over cultural cial media and television channels began suggest-
spaces across the country, the Shiv Sena opposed ing that the young actor was driven to death by
nepotistic cliques in Bollywood.
During the promotion of Ranaut jumped into the fray. She posted a
video on Instagram a day after Rajput’s death,
her film Dhaakad, Ranaut dismissing any speculation about his battle with
suggested “if there are riots depression. “A man who was a rank-holder in the
engineering entrance exam at Stanford Univer-
happening in Rajasthan, bring sity, how can his mind be weak?” she asked. She
in a government that can pointed to Rajput’s last few posts on social media,
in which he was “begging” people to watch his
control the violence. Or we films. Ranaut equated her own situation with Ra-
can send bulldozers here.” jput’s, alleging that neither of them ever received
due recognition in the industry. “We don’t want
anything from you,” she said. “We don’t want your
Pakistani artists working in Mumbai and asked films. But why don’t you acknowledge the films
Indian Muslim actors to profess their loyalty to we do on our own? The super hit films that I have
the country. Nevertheless, the industry veter- directed are declared as flops.”
an told me, Bollywood always maintained good Following her endorsement of the BJP, Ranaut
relations with the party, neatly compartmentalis- was at odds with the Sena, which had, in 2019,
ing friendships and political views. “There was a formed a coalition government in the state with
very clear distinction which they made,” he said. the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party.
“When the Shiv Sena held a function, the film In September 2020, Ranaut accused the police
industry stars would go in droves. They would all commissioner of Mumbai, Param Bir Singh, of
build a good relationship because there was power “liking” a tweet that compared her to a manhole.
there.” However, he added, before the BJP came to “Liking derogatory tweets about people who are
power, groups that obstructed a film’s release were fighting against the murderers of Sushant, instead
largely dismissed as fringe elements. “You could of condemning public teasing and bullying like this
still go to court. You could still go to the police and @CPMumbaiPolice is encouraging it, @Mum-
get some kind of relief.” baiPolice has hit all time low ... SHAME !!” she
40 THE CARAVAN
tweeted. The Mumbai Police Twitter accused the chief minister, Uddhav clear of commenting on the politics
account promptly issued a denial. Thackeray, of conniving with the “film of this country. For instance, it has
The tensions reached a tipping mafia” to extract revenge on her. “I introduced films raising awareness on
point when Ranaut alleged that, after knew what the Kashmiri Pandits must issues such as sperm donation (Vicky
she provocatively compared Mumbai have gone through,” she said. “Now, I Donor), fat-shaming (Dum Laga Ke Hai-
with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, have experienced it.” That week, she sha), sanitation (Toilet: Ek Prem Katha)
the Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had became the first Bollywood actor to and homophobia (Badhaai Do). These
threatened that she should not return be accorded “Y-plus” security by the films, however, do not critique the
to the city. Calling Ranaut a “mental central government. It was the BJP’s government or challenge the excesses
case,” Raut said that “she is spitting in approval of her battle against the Shiv of Hindutva.
the plate she eats from.” Subsequently, Sena, its friend-turned-foe. According to the industry veteran,
protests broke out in different parts of Her fury at the BMC bulldozers Bollywood’s present capitulation to the
Mumbai, at which Shiv Sena workers was soon revealed as more hypocri- state results from its longstanding apo-
burnt her effigies, and the party filed sy. In April this year, when the Delhi litical nature. “It doesn’t matter what
a complaint against her on charges of Municipal Corporation demolished the morality of the politics of the pow-
sedition. Muslim-majority settlements in erful force was,” he said. In its early
On 9 September, a week after her Jahangirpuri, Ranaut mocked those years, he said, Bollywood often aligned
tweets about the police, bulldozers who had lost their homes. A couple of with secular and socialist values. “Bi-
from the Brihanmumbai Municipal weeks later, communal tensions seized mal Roy, Mehboob Khan or Raj Kapoor,
Corporation, which is controlled by Jodhpur’s Jalori Gate region. During they were personally secular, they
the Shiv Sena, demolished portions of the promotion of her film Dhaakad, she personally believed that they should
her office. In an affidavit, the corpo- suggested “if there are riots happening participate in nation-building.” These
ration claimed that the property had in Rajasthan, bring in a government politics unravelled, he added, with the
several alterations which had not been that can control the violence. Or we can liberalisation reforms introduced in
sanctioned in the building plan. Ranaut send bulldozers here.” 1991, “as a result of which the whole
swiftly secured a stay on the demolition focus became more on market economy.
and alleged that this was part of the over the past decade, the Hindi And there was a depoliticisation which
Maharashtra government’s vendetta film industry has kept up a veneer of began to take place of the younger gen-
against her. In an Instagram video, she progressiveness while largely steering eration, where they grew up, not with a
JUNE 2022 41
political ideology but with a consumer- Central Board of Film Certification, the that is allowed, she said, “is any-
ist ideology.” Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax thing that demonises the Congress.”
Filmmakers such as Karan Johar Department and the Central Bureau of Screwvala’s RSVP Films has been
and Aditya Chopra were becoming Investigation. As a result, filmmakers working on a biopic of the lawyer Ram
the rising stars of the industry. “These have refrained from producing films Jethmalani, significant portions of
people had grown up without any that would critique the government. “If which dwell on his equation with the
political anchors, any political roots, there was any borderline inclination to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
so they aligned themselves with the take a view which is either irreverent The screenwriter told me that one of
affluent, upper class, educated genera- or critical of either fundamentalism or the film’s producer summoned the
tion,” the industry veteran said. Their even a critique of the political situation, writer working on the screenplay and
films had English-speaking, foreign-ed- it has stopped,” the veteran said. “They complained that Gandhi had not been
ucated characters who appeared more find themselves vulnerable.” He added vilified enough, saying, “Yeh lekar jao
amlan dutta / hindustan times
liberated than their parents, but were that even international platforms such aur Rajiv Gandhi ko villain banake
portrayed as upholders of, rather than as Netflix and Amazon Prime have lao”—Take this away and make Rajiv
challengers to, patriarchal traditions. come under threat. Gandhi the villain.
The Modi government exerts far The screenwriter told me that there The screenwriter recalled being
more power over the industry than is “a very clear diktat” against films asked to write a film like Uri. Produc-
any of its predecessors, using every that “can challenge the regime in tion houses are distancing themselves
institution at its disposal—including the any way.” The only political content from writers who are vocally critical
42 THE CARAVAN
of the Modi government, she said, and many con- “It’s not that people don’t have a voice,” the opposite page:
tracts now have a clause against stating political screenwriter said. “Look at the repercussions. Kangana Ranaut
opinions. There is no space for nuanced charac- Look at what it costs us. Look at what happened with her mother
and siblings,
ters in this climate, she added. It was expected of to Shahrukh Khan.” One of the most promi-
Akshit and Rangoli
filmmakers that, just as the Congress had to be the nent Muslim icons in Hindi cinema, Khan has Chandel. Chandel
villain in films about party politics, in war films, it refrained from expressing controversial polit- works as her
had to be the Pakistanis. ical opinions but has not been as willing as his manager and Akshit
The industry is a very confusing place, the colleagues to praise the Modi government. When is in charge of her
screenwriter told me. “We don’t know if these Mamata Banerjee appointed him a brand ambas- company’s legal and
finance department.
people were always bigotry-enablers,” she said, sador of West Bengal, the BJP’s state president,
adding that even Ranaut’s politics were suspect. “I Dilip Ghosh, retorted, “We all know you need a
wouldn’t be surprised if, in a few years, Kanga- Khan for electoral politics.” In October last year,
na will be cast in a Dharma film which Anurag the Narcotics Control Bureau arrested his son
Kashyap is going to direct. And Shahrukh will Aryan after a raid on a cruise ship. Aryan spent
play a cameo in it. And Ambanis will come and about a month in custody on charges of consum-
clap. And Jio is going to sponsor the film.” ing and selling drugs. A special investigation
“A lot of people would not want to take a stand team of the NCB eventually concluded that no
openly against anything,” Ranaut’s former produc- drugs had been recovered from Aryan and that
er said. The film fraternity, he added, “is too soft to there were several irregularities in the manner in
push back against the BJP’s efforts to enforce its which the raid was conducted.
grip over the movie making business. In between Another Muslim icon, Aamir Khan, faced mas-
them, there are people like Anupam Kher who are sive backlash in 2015 after criticising the lynching
total opportunists who will go any which way the of Mohammed Akhlaq. At an awards function,
power is.” Kher, whose wife is a BJP MP, has been he recounted that his partner at the time, the
exceptionally vocal in his support for the Modi filmmaker Kiran Rao, had expressed fear for their
government, for which he has been rewarded with family’s safety. Khan, who was the brand am-
a Padma Bhushan and a controversial tenure as bassador of the government’s tourism campaign
chairperson of the Film and Television Institute Incredible India, was accused of defaming the
of India. Earlier this year, he was one of the lead
actors in Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files,
a film based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits Even as the government
that vilifies Muslims. News reports from across promotes the production
the country showed that slogans such as “Jai Shri
Ram” and “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maro salon of films that pander to its
ko”—shoot the traitors—were raised during the politics, it has used its various
screening of the film.
Predictably, Ranaut applauded the film. In an
agencies as a deterrent against
Instagram post, she wrote, “Desh badlega toh potential criticism.
filmein bhi badlengi”—if the country changes,
its films will also change. She accused the film country. The government did not renew his con-
industry of deliberately staying quiet on the film’s tract. Two years later, he attended a private dinner
success. “The whole world is watching them but hosted by Modi, in Mumbai, after the launch of
they won’t say a word,” she wrote, describing the the Make in India initiative. Ranaut was also pres-
industry as “Bullydawood”—a reference to the ent, as were prominent politicians, diplomats and
gangster Dawood Ibrahim. In another Instagram business tycoons.
post, she said that the success of the film signals Even as the government promotes the produc-
that “the conscience of India is finally awakening.” tion of films that pander to its politics, it has used
The Kashmir Files was enormously successful its various agencies as a deterrent against poten-
at the box office, becoming the first Hindi film tial criticism. Last year, Anurag Kashyap, who
since the COVID-19 pandemic to gross over R250 routinely criticises the government, and the actor
crore. Like Uri, which was based on the “surgical Tapsee Pannu, a vocal supporter of the farmers’
strike” against Pakistan-based militants that the protests, were raided by tax authorities. Sushant
Modi government claimed to have carried out Singh Rajput’s partner, Rhea Chakraborty, was
in 2017, the film was granted a tax exemption by investigated by the NCB, the CBI and the En-
several BJP-ruled state governments. The BJP forcement Directorate. The NCB also questioned
has demonstrated that it will offer exemptions to the actors Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan and
films that will align with its politics, a reward for Shraddha Kapoor. Ranaut acted as a cheerleader
producers in a heavily taxed film industry. for all these investigations.
JUNE 2022 43
right: Posters of Ranaut’s denunciation of her colleagues, the Basu said that, when he meets Ranaut in person,
films are displayed industry veteran told me, will do nothing to stop she is “the same Kangana” he met many years
inside the National producers from working with her. “This film in- ago. He suggested that her private persona is
Museum of Indian
dustry is so goddamned star-dependent that they poles apart from how she showcases herself to the
Cinema in Mumbai.
The over hundred will agree to everything,” he said. “Conviction is world. “I don’t see a change in her personally,” he
year’s history of not a factor in decision-making in this industry at said. “But when I see her in interviews, her views,
Indian cinema has all. They have always been very happy to be on the that Kangana, I don’t see her when I meet her
gone through many side of power.” personally.” He theorised that “whatever she is
changes. In its early In an Instagram post last November, at the
years, its members
height of the farmers’ protests, Ranaut plugged
often aligned with
secular and socialist her upcoming film Emergency, in which she plays
values. Now, many the former prime minister Indira Gandhi. Describ-
have been co-opted ing the protesters as “Khalistani terrorists,” she
into the Hindu lauded Gandhi for having crushed Sikh militants
nationalist agenda. “like mosquitos at the cost of her own life.” She
doubled down on her description of the protesters
as terrorists. “Why would farmers be against laws
which are revolutionary for their well-being,” she
asked on Twitter.
Such statements have routinely generated con-
troversy, and shut her out of Twitter, but Ranaut’s
social-media following has increased by the year.
She has 7.8 million followers on Facebook and 9.6
million followers on Instagram. However, her huge
social-media following no longer seems to trans-
late to actual success for her recent films, which
have not approached the critical and commercial
success of Queen and the Tanu Weds Manu fran-
chise. According to some reports, there were fewer
than ten people at some screenings of Dhaakad.
ranaut has created a safety net of financial

resources to protect her against her diminishing
stature as an actor. She owns the production house
Manikarnika Films, established in 2012. Her
brother Akshit is in charge of the company’s legal
and finance departments.
Her former producer insisted that Ranaut still re-
tains “a box-office pull.” Basu agreed that Ranaut’s
recent statements had not derailed her career.
“There is a general perception that she is taking
panga with”—challenging—“so many people, so she
is not getting work,” he told me. “But I don’t see
it happening because she is doing quite well. Her
hands are full. She is making film after film.”
Ranaut has 7.8 million

followers on Facebook and
indranil mukherjee / afp / getty images
9.6 million followers on

Instagram. However,her
huge social-media following
no longer seems to translate
to actual success for her
recent films.
44 THE CARAVAN
doing is to carve her own niche in the films, how will they be good?” he said. remains in power. “Kangana is not
industry, which is very tough.” “All her directors leave, everybody very different from a Ravi Kishan or
“She was such a great representative leaves. Her films are bad. It doesn’t a Kapil Mishra or people who have
of outsider female star,” the producer make her a bad actress. She is still one switched over. They all have this sense
said. “We were all very proud and hap- of the finest actresses there is.” He of power. They will do anything to
py for her success.” Her frequent clash- added that Ranaut now has “a sense survive. If this government goes, they
es with colleagues had changed this, of power” and knows that nobody will also go and one doesn’t know what will
however. “If she starts controlling her touch her as long as this government happen to them.” s
JUNE 2022 45
reportage
Marooned
Praful Patel’s war on Lakshadweep
REPORTAGE / POLITICS
M RAJSHEKHAR
46 THE CARAVAN
reportage
on the phone, Muhammad, a shopkeeper from

Minicoy, the southern-most coral atoll in the
Lakshadweep islands, sounded worried. Sales at
his provisions-and-stationery shop had crashed.
By March 2022, his monthly income had dropped
from up to R60,000, to down to as low as R10,000.
“Buying has come down. Everyone is facing a
problem in their business,” he told me. He had had
to dismiss a couple of his employees. “There is no
work.”
The story is the same on all the other islands,
a resident of Kavaratti—Lakshadweep’s capital,
located around two hundred and fifty kilometres
north of Minicoy—who keenly tracks government
data told me on condition of anonymity. Busi-
nesses had recovered from the economic shocks
of demonetisation and the COVID-19 pandemic
fairly quickly, he said, but this time was different.
“Every shopkeeper I have spoken to, including
those running medical shops, cites at least a seven-
ty-percent drop in sales in the past few months.”
Locals in Lakshadweep linked the trigger for
the slowdown with the islands’ administrator, the
politician Praful Khoda Patel, a former Guja-
rat cabinet minister, who was appointed to the
archipelago in December 2020. Residents I spoke
to said that Patel’s economic and administrative
decisions have choked almost all local economic
activity. To cite just two instances, Patel’s admin-
istration reduced the number of ships ferrying
freight to the archipelago from seven to two and
cut budgetary support to panchayats and coop-
left: Prime Minister erative societies. A bigger blow, however, came
Narendra Modi from his orders to fire as many as three thousand
along with Praful temporary and casual government workers. As
Khoda Patel (third the state is the biggest employer in these la-
from left) at the
goon-fringed atolls, and the local economy is too
inauguration
ceremony of several
small to absorb most of the terminated employees,
development those who have been laid off have been unable to
projects, in Dadra find jobs. As these households tighten their belts,
and Nagar Haveli’s the island economy of shops, hotels and other
Silvassa city, on businesses has tanked.
19 January 2019. Patel came to Lakshadweep after a controversial
Patel’s tenure as the
and tumultuous stint in the union territories of
administrator of the
union territory has Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. His
been marked by a appointment to the Muslim-majority Lakshad-
pib
construction boom. weep was received with immense trepidation from
JUNE 2022 47
marooned · reportage
below: On 14 June the locals, given Patel’s close links with the Hin- lakshadweep is one of the smallest administra-
2021, residents of du-nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The tive provinces in India. The 2011 census pegged
the Lakshadweep residents’ fears seem to have foreshadowed Patel’s its population at just 64,473—around sixteen
archipelago held
actions. Over the course of his tenure, the islands thousand families. Although its name translates
a protest to “Save
Lakshadweep.” have witnessed protests, clampdowns, arbitrary to a hundred thousand islands, it is made up of 36
Locals say the policy changes, unprecedented economic hardship atolls, of which only ten have human habitation.
administrator and a near breakdown of the compact between the Historically, the islands’ economy rested on trad-
Praful Patel’s policy state and the citizens. ing. Residents sold the local bounty of coconut and
decisions have But the unrest in the islands has created not fish in mainland ports like Mangaluru in Karna-
wreaked havoc on
even a ripple at the centre. Arjun Modhwadia, a taka and Beypore in Kerala. A part of that cash
the economy.
Congress leader from Gujarat, told me that Patel went back to the atolls as currency. The rest was
owed his political career to Prime Minister Nar- swapped for goods to be sold back home.
endra Modi. Patel first rose to prominence in 2010, Post-Independence, the state started playing
when Modi, who was chief minister of Gujarat at a bigger role. As the local administration be-
the time, appointed him minister of state for home gan hiring islanders, their wages became a new
affairs. “RSS wali kattarta hai uski soch mein,” source of currency. Not only were government
Modhwadia said. “Cruel decisions le sakta hai”— jobs, which offered stable incomes and access to
He subscribes to the RSS’s hardline ideology and power, more attractive to the residents, the local
has the capability to take cruel decisions. administration expanded into profitable economic
48 THE CARAVAN
niches like tourism, remaking them on 28 april 2021, Patel’s administration Patel also ordered the closure of the
into state-run spaces. Even today, all released the Lakshadweep Develop- government dairy. “There were about
tourism on the islands is managed by ment Authority Regulation, a sweeping thirty or forty cows and about twenty
a government-run organisation called legislation that takes away panchayats’ to twenty-five local employees, most
The Society for Promotion of Nature role in local development and vests it of whom had been working there for
Tourism and Sports. The state also with a town-planning body dominated twenty to twenty-five years,” a Mini-
introduced cooperative societies to the by administration officials. The LDAR coy-based doctor told me. He, too, did
islands. Started by former adminis- draft was released without any mean- not want to be named. “The permanent
trator Moorkoth Ramunni in the late ingful public consultation. Residents staff has been redeployed. The contract
sixties, these were meant to empower were given less than three weeks to staff has been laid off.” Patel also shut
people and promote the cooperative send in their comments at a time when down the entire veterinary depart-
movement in the islands. As of today, the second wave of COVID-19 was ment and the agriculture department’s
the islands have ten cooperative soci- spreading through the islands. This demonstration plots. The doctor said
eties and a federation of those cooper- transfer of authority would come to there are no more veterinarians in the
ative societies called the Lakshadweep highlight a pattern in Patel’s gover- islands. “The agriculture department
Cooperative Marketing Federation. nance style in the islands and the other runs demonstration units in each
For a few decades after Indepen- union territories—the accumulation and island,” he added. “Each island had an
dence, government and traditional jobs centralisation of power, a pattern that agriculture officer with employees re-
remained divided equally among the gained steam in the ensuing months. porting to him. Now, the entire unit has
islanders. Gradually, traditional occu- been closed. The permanent staff have
pations shrank in importance. Salaries For a few decades been redeployed. Some agriculture
of government employees became the officers have ended up in the fisheries
biggest source of money for the local after Independence, department. As for the casual workers,
economy. As of January 2021, according government and they have lost their jobs.”
to a local government document, 8,761 The full extent of the job losses is
residents were employed by the local traditional jobs remained still unclear. In the September 2021
administration, in a mix of permanent, divided equally among document, titled “50 Action Taken
casual and contractual posts. Report/Status,” the administration
The Kavaratti resident told me that
the islanders. Gradually, writes: “As part of rationalization of
permanent government employees traditional occupations staff, the existing staff strength of
spend most of their money in Kerala, UTL has been reduced from 8761 to
and so, Lakshadweep’s local economy
shrank in importance. 6608 over the period of last six months
is sustained primarily by the salaries Salaries of government i.e. upto July 2021.” The document
of contractual labourers and dai- employees became the also states that in August 2021, staff
ly-wage employees. “Almost ninety strength was further reduced by 204
to hundred percent of their salaries biggest source of money to 6404, taking the total number to job
are spent in the local economy,” the for the local economy. cuts to 2,371. The data does not specify
resident said. He added that the econ- how many of those who were laid off
omy of all ten inhabited islands in the were permanent or casual employees.
archipelago is driven by this money, Soon after, on 5 May, Lakshadweep’s In the months since, more people have
which further supports the remaining panchayats department issued a notifi- been laid off.
households engaged in agriculture, cation transferring powers and func- However, according to the May 2021
fishing or shopkeeping, and replaces tions related to agriculture, animal hus- report in The News Minute, a gov-
the money Lakshadweep loses each bandry, fisheries, education and health ernment employee pegged the total
year. “If a local buys a soap worth ten from panchayats to directorates in the number of staff at 9,600, of which
rupees in Lakshadweep, the money administration. In tandem came the job 4,100 were casual or contractual. The
remaining in Lakshadweep will be cuts. Among the first to be let go were resident of Kavaratti estimated that, in
less than a rupee,” he explained. “The members of an anti-poaching squad set all, around three thousand government
remaining amount will be paid to the up by the environment department to employees lost their jobs, most of them
wholesaler, manufacturer, et cetera, in guard local marine life. Also axed that daily-wage workers. Questions sent to
the mainland. Hence, the consistent month, a government employee told The the administration went unanswered.
infusion of money into the market News Minute, were “197 additional la- The economic consequences are
every year is needed to avoid economic bourers in the Society for Promotion of stark. In a recent letter sent to the
ani / hindustan times
slowdown.” Nature Tourism and Sports (SPORTS), National Commission for Sched-
Successive administrations had cre- 30 contract surveyors in the Revenue uled Tribes, Mohammed Faizal,
ated an economy in which locals relied Department and scores of others from the member of parliament from
on the government for sustenance. the Women and Child Development Lakshadweep, who hails from the
Then came Patel. Department and Health Department.” Nationalist Congress Party, writes
JUNE 2022 49
opposite page: that the administration says it has “saved nearly The funds needed for the running and mainte-
Rajnath Singh, the two and a half crores of rupees every month to nance of the ships are not being sanctioned, Faizal
union minister for the exchequer.” That figure works out to R30 wrote in his letter. One ship, the MV Kavaratti,
defence, unveils
crore a year—that is how much spending power caught fire last November. “Its maintenance has
a statue of MK
Gandhi, on the Lakshadweep has lost. not started till date,” the Kavaratti resident told
occasion of Gandhi This drop in economic activity has been com- me. Freight rates, too, have been hiked. “We
Jayanti, in Kavaratti, pounded by other decisions made by Patel. District used to pay R37 for shipping a 25-kilogram bag,”
the capital of panchayat and cooperative societies are another Muhammad said. “That number has been doubled
Lakshadweep, source of local employment and funds that drive to R65 now. On anything we sell at MRP, we get
on 2 October
the local economy. Over the last year, both have nothing.”
2021. According
to a resident, the struggled due to various administrative actions. With fewer ships plying between the mainland
administration The Kavaratti resident estimated that, as of and the islands, fishermen have found themselves
spent almost one September 2021, only six percent of the total funds in a bind as well. Exporting fish is not easy now. At
crore rupees on allocated to panchayats for the year had been the same time, with local spending power drop-
the statue and released, almost ninety-five percent of which had
accompanying
gone to the medical department. The lack of funds Even as the administration
celebrations.
has crippled the panchayats’ ability to initiate eco-
nomic activity in lieu of the state. Their function- launched job cuts, it began
ing, too, has suffered. For instance, before Patel, splurging elsewhere, with a
the district panchayat used to employ sanitation
workers. Last March, this function was annexed dominant focus on construction
by the administration and given to contractors. projects. Instead of taking
Payments were now to be made not by the pancha-
yats, but the administration. And then, the doctor
commercial flights, Patel has
at Minicoy said, those payments were not made, been using chartered planes.
and the contractors went to court. As garbage
piled up, he said, the administration blamed the
panchayats. “But we have no funds or crew. What ping, the prices they can get in the local market
can we do?” have fallen as well.
Meanwhile, the cooperative societies are also in Each of these decisions were a financial blow to
the doldrums. The local administration financially the islands, the job cuts being the final straw. Cu-
aided the societies. Consequently, the Kavaratti mulatively, they constituted an economic shock.
resident said, the administration “controlled the Patel’s administration defended the job cuts
operation of the societies by appointing secretaries citing losses to the exchequer. The administrator
above the elected board. The elected board had no defended his actions in the islands, like the LDAR,
role. Locals stayed away.” Today, he said, individ- as “developmentalist.” Take the dairy farms, for
uals hold less than ten percent of the cooperatives’ instance. In its response to the Kerala High Court,
total capital. This dependence on the administra- the administration claimed that it was losing more
tion has now come home to roost. On 22 January than R90 lakh every year running them. And yet,
2022, the state withdrew all budgetary support, the administration was not merely shuttering
which means that not only are the cooperatives’ loss-making farms. It also slashed a wider array
economic activities in jeopardy but their employ- of expenditure across departments crucial to the
ees, estimated at over two hundred, are facing the functioning of the islands. Despite claiming to
threat of unemployment. push tourism, for instance, the state axed garbage
That is not all. The islands receive most of their collection and deep-sea divers.
supplies by ship. Muhammad told me that ships This was not all. Even as the administration
used to dock at Lakshadweep as many as thirteen launched job cuts, it began splurging elsewhere,
times a month. Ships now dock just twice or thrice with a dominant focus on construction projects.
a month. Shipping between the islands and the Instead of taking commercial flights, Patel has
mainland is managed by the Lakshadweep Devel- been using chartered planes. That was just the
opment Corporation, which is owned by the local start. In 2021, the Kavaratti resident said, the
administration. Before Patel took charge, as many administration spent R1 crore on Gandhi Jayanti
as seven ships used to ply between the islands and celebrations, including the construction of a Gand-
the mainland. Only two do so now. “Once a ship hi statue. In October, Patel announced that a new
comes, the next one doesn’t come for as long as district jail would be built in Kavaratti at the cost
twelve, fifteen, twenty days,” Muhammad said. of R26.27 crore—the figure was later revised to
“Even when we have customers asking for prod- R15.17 crore—even though Lakshadweep has low
ucts, we don’t have stocks.” rates of crime and prison occupancy. His admin-
50 THE CARAVAN
istration also sanctioned R8.63 crore each of them involves land acquisition. tectural firms. A series of questions
for building a new residence for the However, the home ministry is yet to sent to Patel and several departments
administrator, set aside R9.28 crore for approve the LDAR that Patel’s admin- under his administration, regarding the
renovating its building in Delhi, invited istration has sent over. Till the LDAR construction projects, remained unan-
bids for new residential quarters for gets passed, Patel will need pancha- swered at the time of publishing.
government officers and announced yat permission to acquire land. “It’s
plans to build wide roads on islands not easy to acquire land through that until his decisions in Lakshadweep
that are no more than five kilometres route,” the doctor said. And yet, Patel’s made headlines last year, Patel was
long. Last year, the administration also administration is floating tenders known mostly in Gujarat. Hailing from
floated a tender worth R150 crore, seek- replete with design specifications and Himmatnagar, a town in the state’s arid
ing ideas on what more could be built. architectural drawings. In other words, Sabarkantha district, he has long-run-
These projects raise several ques- even before knowing whether work can ning links with the RSS. His father,
tions. Not only are they being launched begin on a project, the administration Khodabhai Ranchhodbhai Patel, was an
by an administration cutting jobs, is commissioning—and paying—archi- RSS member and state treasurer of the
Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the farmers’
organisation of the Sangh. According to
Modhwadia, the Congress leader, the
family knew Modi from his days in the
Sangh.
Patel’s political career was slow to
take off. Born in 1957, he earned a di-
ploma in civil engineering and started
a small partnership firm called Sabar
Construction in Himmatnagar. The
firm built roads for the state govern-
ment. According to Modhwadia, when
Dilip Patel became the MLA from
Anand, Patel worked as his personal as-
sistant. At the age of fifty, he was given
the MLA ticket from Sabarkantha, and
won. “He got the ticket due to Modi’s
orders,” Modhwadia told me last year.
Even after becoming an MLA, Patel
continued to be a minor regional figure.
In January 2010, he was appointed the
president of the BJP unit in Sabar-
kantha district. And then, everything
changed. In August that year, after
Amit Shah was arrested over the extra-
judicial killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh,
Modi asked Patel to take over eight
of Shah’s ten portfolios in the Gujarat
government—including that of minister
of state for home affairs.
Patel was the junior home minister
in November 2011 when, as recorded
by the senior police officer GL Singhal,
senior functionaries in the Gujarat gov-
ernment met in the office of the advo-
cate general, Kamal Trivedi, allegedly
to discuss how to derail investigations
in the Ishrat Jahan fake-encounter
case. Several senior officials from the
state police, including Singhal, and
the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau of
Ahmedabad were among the accused.
Singhal, as The Hindu later reported,
pib
“too had participated in the meeting
JUNE 2022 51
and is an accused among seven offi- industrialised states, both union terri- “He took away powers, be it funds
cials in this case.” Not only was Patel tories have used low tax rates and lax or functionaries, from all of them.”
amongst those who attended this meet- environmental monitoring to attract Modhwadia said that MPs had no local
ing, a transcript published by India To- investment. Apart from conglomerates power under Patel. “They only go to the
day suggests that he met Satish Verma, such as Reliance and Sterlite, several Lok Sabha. The administration takes
a member of the special investigation industries have their manufactur- orders from him.”
team probing the encounter. Patel was ing plants here, chief among them Next, Patel began bringing his own
subsequently chastised by the Gujarat the pharmaceutical sector. The local people into the local administration.
High Court for not complying with its tourism sector is thriving—prohibition This included DA Satya, a retired bu-
order to transfer three police officers in Gujarat and high alcohol taxes in reaucrat who worked as Patel’s person-
who were suspects in the case. Maharashtra attract residents of the al secretary; VK Das, who headed the
Patel stayed minister of state until neighbouring states. Vinoba Bhave hospital in Silvassa and
2012. That was as high as his politi- For long now, local strongmen have is the director for medical and health
cal graph soared. He lost in the 2012 held the reins of politics in the two services; AU Jadeja, a former Gujarat
elections, and never got back into the union territories. “There are three police officer who was brought in to
state cabinet. “He has never been a thousand industrial units in Daman run the local anti-corruption bureau;
powerful political figure in the state,” and Diu alone,” Modhwadia told me. BC Warli, brought in as chief engineer
an Ahmedabad-based sociologist told “It’s a very rich and very corrupt place. of the local public-works department;
me on condition of anonymity. “He has Whether BJP or Congress, no one and HM Chavda, who was made chief
fallen out of favour or is seen as ambi- spends less than R30 crore on elections executive of the district panchayat.
tious and, therefore, been sidelined by here.” A Congress leader in Silvassa, These lateral appointments raised
others.” Modhwadia agreed with the the capital of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, eyebrows. “If Patel was dissatisfied
sociologist’s assessment. “He is not corroborated this. “Politicians here with the quality of officials at the
a popular figure, not even in his own extort money from companies,” he said local PWD department, he should
block,” he said. on condition of anonymity. “They buy have asked for PWD officials from the
A marginal reprieve came, again Central Public Works Department,” the
from Modi, in 2016, when Patel was Modhwadia said that local bureaucrat said. “What he did in-
appointed administrator of Daman and stead was get officials from the Gujarat
Diu. This was a break from tradition, MPs had no local power administration.” Warli, for instance,
since administrators of union territo- under Patel. “They only was from the Gujarat Industrial Devel-
ries have usually been bureaucrats. It opment Corporation. What the union
was also an underwhelming position. go to the Lok Sabha. The territories have seen since is a massive
Daman and Diu’s population, accord- administration takes civil-construction push—highways,
ing to the 2011 census, was less than a roads, revamps of government build-
quarter million—making it one of the
orders from him.” ings, new buildings—counterbalanced
country’s smallest administrative sine- by a dislike of any criticism.
cures—leading to fresh speculation that land from tribals at low rates—it is the This focus on civil construction
Patel’s political career was over. Four proverbial tale of cash and a gun being needs to be understood. Patel took away
years later, he was given additional put in front of a tribal—and then sell planning, construction and moni-
charge of Dadra and Nagar Haveli with it at high rates to companies. Many toring functions away from the local
its similarly tiny population of three bureaucrats from these settlements go PWD and gave them to private firms,
hundred and forty thousand. It is from back rich by the time they retire.” arguing they were more professional
these union territories, and now Lak- At the time Patel reached the twin and worked faster. This was not simply
shadweep, that Patel has been trying to union territories, the satrap in Dadra a question of the PWD tendering out
rebuild his political salience. and Nagar Haveli was Mohan Delkar. each stage. As I reported for The Wire,
A seven-time member of parliament, in December 2021, a parallel system
diu stands on the southern coast Delkar was variously an independent, was created. The administration em-
of Saurashtra, to the south-east of with the BJP and the Congress, and panelled architectural consultants. The
Junagadh. Daman is located on the was the biggest leader in the UT. administration chose one architect for
other side of the Gulf of Khambhat, a After taking charge, Patel began a project from these firms, without hav-
hundred and twenty kilometres south centralising power. He started by ing to post a fresh tender. The architect,
of Surat. In Daman, as in Diu, fishing taking power away from elected bodies. in line with industry practice, drew
is the major activity. Dadra and Nagar “When Patel reached the UT, he found up the qualifying parameters for the
Haveli, on the other hand, is inland. himself surrounded by multiple power building contractor.
Just over half the population here hails centres—the local MP, the municipality, Patel also introduced a third-party
from Scheduled Tribes. panchayats,” a local bureaucrat, who inspector to monitor construction
Sandwiched between Gujarat and did not want to be named, had told me work. With the architect, inspector and
Maharashtra, two of the country’s most when I was working on an earlier story. contractor taking over most process-
52 THE CARAVAN
es, the PWD’s role shrank to just clearing bills. tels in the real-estate sector are deepening. Sharik
Contrary to claims by Patel’s administration, this Laliwala, a researcher working on the politics and
approach has not yielded better results than the history of Gujarat told me, for my article in The
older system run by the PWD. Residents of the Wire, that Patel’s actions suggested that “he might
union territories called some projects useless. “He not be wooing anybody, except for social network
proposed a four-lane highway in a place where perspective and to stay relevant in Gujarat politics
not even a cycle plies,” the local bureaucrat told to re-enter at some point.”
me. With tender sizes rising beyond what local As he would in Lakshadweep, Patel fired hun-
contractors could manage, a handful of firms from dreds of casual workers. “He thinks all of them got
Gujarat began bagging most of the contracts, even their jobs through nepotism,” the local bureaucrat
when they bid well over the tender value. Some said. As I reported in another piece for The Wire,
projects were delayed; others faced complaints in May last year, “Overnight, he fired 560 mem-
about poor quality. bers of tribal communities from the public works
In August last year, the first-floor slab of the department.”
Namo Medical Education and Research Centre, The union territories also began to see arbitrary
being built at Silvassa by Patel’s administration, uses of power. In early 2021, the administration
collapsed. It had been designed by the Guja- called for a review of all bar licenses. A local
rat-based firm HCP Design, Planning and Man- businessman said that they “were told those with
agement, led by Bimal Patel, and was being built chawls within a hundred metres wouldn’t get
by Ahmedabad-based Shanti Procon LLP. Patel’s their licenses renewed. But, in several cases, the
HCP Design also won the contract for Modi’s am- chawls have come up later. Hotels that came up
bitious R25,000 crore-plus Central Vista project in twenty to thirty years ago are being threatened
Delhi, along with other pet projects of the prime with closure using a law passed in 2021.” Patel also
minister. began pushing his cultural mores onto the local
Patel seemed to be re-enacting an arrangement population, removing eggs from anganwadi menus
applicable to much of the Gujarat BJP—bonds and handing over contracts for school meals to the
between builders and politicians. Handing out Akshaya Patra Foundation, which is well known
projects is one way to consolidate support within for its opposition to serving eggs.
the builders who predominantly come from the Patel also tried to stamp out dissent. His ad-
Patel community. As described by the Indian ministration extended the Gujarat Prevention
Express, even as leaders in the Gujarat BJP battle of Anti-Social Activities Act, 1985, to the union
rural disenchantment, their links with urban Pa- territories. It prohibited democratic protests near
JUNE 2022 53
opposite page: the secretariat. When locals protested against not below the rank of deputy collector. Alongside,
Praful Patel on demolitions, the police arrested so many that two on 1 January, trade licenses, which were under
an “Island Visit” government high schools had to be used as tempo- panchayat regulation, were taken over by the
program in the
rary detention centres. Relatives of those opposing administration. The doctor from Minicoy told me
Lakshadweep
archipelago, weeks the administration were handed punitive trans- that the administration is now eyeing all pandaram
after he took over fers, while several activists were jailed. land—village commons. “It’s also claiming all pan-
as the administrator These actions created a palpable sense of daram lands—commons where people have their
of the islands. dread. The battle for dominance got so vicious shops, etc—as government land,” he said.
that Delkar took his own life, naming Patel in The administration does not like any criticism.
his suicide note. The pressure to favour firms In May 2021, the department of communications
got so intense, locals alleged, that SS Bhoya, a blocked a report by the local news portal Dweep
respected PWD official, killed himself as well. Diary, about a song exhorting locals to resist the
When I reported on Patel’s administration last “administration’s anti-people policies.” When
year, most people in the two union territories Hussain Manikfan, an assistant director of tourism
were unwilling to speak on the record. “They in the administration, posted on Facebook about
will talk only after he leaves,” a Congress mem- the ship shortage, he was arrested at midnight. The
ber told me. district court at Kavaratti later granted him bail.
Others who protested against the administrator or
And yet, the ongoing events local officials have been arrested as well.
in Lakshadweep cannot be at one level, a design flaw is revealing itself. In

reduced to the whims of one the union territories, the highest point is the
administrator. “In the past, mid-level IAS officials
individual. The really striking were posted as administrators,” the local bureau-
aspect of Patel’s stint is that his crat told me. “At the most, they were at the level of
an additional secretary. There was always a higher
administration’s transgressions bureaucracy above them. Not so with Patel. He
go unchallenged by the centre. finds himself the unquestioned king of this area.”
What compounds this is Patel’s own personality.
“He doesn’t realise there are second-, third- and
Since December 2020, Patel has reprised several fourth-level reactions to decisions,” the bureaucrat
of these processes in Lakshadweep. He brought said. “He thinks orders should just be obeyed.”
in several of his trusted people, such as Satya and And yet, the ongoing events in Lakshadweep
Warli. Civil-construction contracts began going cannot be reduced to the whims of one individual.
to firms that had worked with him in his previous The really striking aspect of Patel’s stint is that
post. Despite the collapsed slab, HCP has been his administration’s transgressions go unchal-
empanelled, says the “50 Action Taken Report/ lenged by the centre. Take the chartered flights.
Status” document, as an architect with the admin- Last year, I reported for The Wire that just one
istration, while Shanti Procon has bagged a work chartered flight taken by Patel, a round trip from
order to build the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Daman to Agatti on 21 February 2021, cost more
Military Academy Project. than the entire annual amount earmarked for
The administration has passed harsh orders on the administrator’s domestic travel expenses.
the local population. Those with more than two The administration had paid for the flight using
children are now ineligible for panchayat positions. funds allocated for other administrative expenses,
Non-vegetarian items have been struck off school which would require parliamentary approval. No
menus. Those who protested against the Citizen- action was taken against Patel.
ship (Amendment) Act and the National Register Similar questions can be raised about the job
of Citizens faced police intimidation. Fishermen’s cuts as well. The members of the anti-poaching
sheds have been demolished. Overriding commu- squad had been recruited under a central-gov-
nity sentiments, the administration wants to lift ernment scheme, and funds for their salaries had
prohibition. It has also proposed the Lakshadweep already reached the administration. The Kavaratti
Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Regulation. resident noted that other retrenched employees
Patel has also expanded his administration’s were also meant to be paid from sums allocated by
control over local economic activity. In January the union government. Redeploying these funds
this year, the administration released the Lakshad- would again require parliamentary approval.
weep Tenancy Regulation, which states that any The tourism push is another aspect. The vision
rental agreement on the islands has to be submit- trotted out for the islands, by the NITI Aayog,
ted to the “rent authority”—in this case, a person countless union ministers and Patel himself, is
54 THE CARAVAN
the Maldives model of luxury beach is going about its implementation is what is the nature of the state under
tourism, in which islands are given going unchallenged as well. In the mid- an apparatchik like Praful Patel? Its
to private operators and locals are dle of last year, after a pre-bid meeting actions are not developmentalist. It
denied access. In 2018, the NITI Aayog for the Bangaram resort, a clutch of does not show fiscal prudence. If any-
announced it was considering a tourism hoteliers, including those running thing, Patel’s economic decisions show
push on ten islands, of which just three luxury chains such as Amritara and a degraded social contract between the
were uninhabited. Since then, a clutch CGH Earth Experience, decided to not people and his administration. As the
of state-funded carrying capacity stud- participate in further tenders floated by local bureaucrat told me last year, in
ies have suggested a big tourism push is Patel’s administration. Dadra and Nagar Haveli, “elevated plat-
sustainable. There were multiple disagreements. forms with one chair had to be set up
However, unlike the Maldives, which Gurmeet Uberai, who runs the Am- for him, where he is the king and others
has 1,192 islands—two hundred of ritara hotel chain, told me at the time are the praja”—subjects.
them inhabited and about eighty with that “answers to the questions asked by This is a colonial administration
resorts—Lakshadweep has 36 atolls, the participants have to be circulated that brooks no opposition. When this
with no more than ten capable of sup- to everyone” when the administration article was being written, the atolls
porting a human population through issues a request for proposals. “That saw a flurry of land acquisition notices.
the year. The administration is pushing was not done.” When CGH Earth Ex- “Minicoy is 4.8 square kilometres in
size,” the doctor said. “He has de-
cided 2.5 square kilometres will be
acquired for tourism.” In its entirety,
spanning inhabited and uninhabited
atolls, Lakshadweep spans no more
than thirty-two square kilometres. The
land acquisition notices sent out by the
administration, the doctor said, add up
to nearly 5.2 square kilometres, or one-
sixth of the land.
Faizal, the MP, also raised this issue
in his letter. “The unprecedented and
ut administration of lakshadweep
massive land acquisition notices now

being issued by the district collector
during the last few months,” he wrote,
“are several times more than the total
land acquired by the administration
for various developmental activities
including tourism projects for last 75
years.” It remains to be seen who gets
these tenders. That is one way to see
for intensive tourism on islands already perience asked to visit the resort site, who this administration serves.
struggling with water shortages and company executives told me, they did In response, Faizal had called for
waste disposal. In Bangaram, for in- not get a response from the adminis- a “protest march” on 21 March at
stance, a 2019 study funded by the NITI tration. The bidders also said that the Kavaratti and the other nine inhabited
Aayog said the island could support tender requirements were unreason- islands. A day before the march, the
168 keys, or hotel rooms. “Back in the able and unrealistic. “They wanted us district magistrate, Asker Ali, who is
1980s, the Island Development Agency to start running the resort a month also the collector, imposed an order
had concluded Bangaram could handle after the agreement was signed—with under Section 144 of the Indian Penal
a hundred bodies, in terms of sewage, all the clearances—which is impos- Code, prohibiting a public gathering
energy and water,” a senior executive sible,” Uberai said. In addition, bid anywhere in the islands. “How can one
at CGH Earth Experience, which used documents did not have a draft copy Asker Ali or one Praful Patel do what-
to operate the famed Bangaram resort, of the agreement to be signed, and the ever they want?” the doctor asked.
told me on condition of anonymity. administration subsequently dropped For now, the residents of Lakshad-
“That translated to sixty guests and a clause allowing consortiums to bid. weep see no end to their troubles.
thirty staff members. Now, they are One of the hoteliers even asked in the “In the name of development, this is
talking about a hundred and fifty keys. second meeting if the administration harassment,” the doctor said. “All these
That is three hundred guests. Above had already earmarked Bangaram for measures have been taken so that the
two hundred staff. That is impossible.” someone. Eventually, the bid response economy of the local people is broken.
Not only is the luxury tourism model was so tepid that the administration ex- Only by agreeing with his demands can
unsuitable for the islands, the way Patel tended the deadline for a third time. we all live in peace.” s
JUNE 2022 55
reportage
False
Flags
The Indian Army’s secretive
role in hyper-nationalist
protests in Kashmir
REPORTAGE / CONFLICT
SHAHID TANTRAY
on the cold evening of 23 december 2021, about

twenty Kashmiris gathered in Srinagar’s Pratap
Park for a protest. Two army trucks soon ar-
rived at the nearby Regal Chowk, and dozens
of soldiers cordoned off the park. Some were in
civilian clothes—two of them confirmed to me that
they were with the Indian Army. The protesters
seemed unperturbed, however. This was unusual,
given how the army normally interacts with pro-
testers in the Kashmir Valley.
A few minutes later, two uniformed soldiers
brought a hoarding out of the truck and handed
it over to two plain-clothed personnel inside the
park. The billboard had three bold words, Aakhir
Kab Tak—how much longer—against a background
of spilt blood. Below, amid a sea of loud hashtags,
including #VoiceAgainstTerrorism, #StopKilling-
shahid tantray for the caravan
Kashmiris, #KashmirBadalRahaHai and #Kash-

mirForTiranga, the banner advised, “Kashmir let
us unite.”
Fifteen minutes after the soldiers hoisted the
hoarding and lit a row of candles in front of it, the
who’s who of the protest arrived: a politician be-
longing to the Bharatiya Janata Party and others
56 THE CARAVAN
reportage
JUNE 2022 57
false flags · reportage
from minor groups, retired civil ser- voice whenever there is a killing or hand usually found on the posters of
vants known for their less-than-stellar injustice,” she said. “The BJP has con- the APDP and placed it right alongside
service records and a couple of people trolled the situation in Kashmir, and I messages of support for the armed
who sat on the fence between journal- am thankful to them for stopping the forces.
ism and hyper-nationalist bombast. An killings here. Development is coming to The Aakhir Kab Tak protests seemed
army officer, who identified himself Kashmir.” The whole affair was over in to re-interpret the history of Kashmir’s
to me as Colonel Sanjay Bhalay—from under half an hour. The candles were relationship with the Indian security
the 125th battalion of the Territorial put out with only a quarter of their services. My conversations with its
Army—lit a tiki torch and handed such wicks burnt. The media hurriedly left. organisers suggested that the army is
torches to the most vocal of the protest- Three soldiers in mufti brought down trying to establish a new generation of
ers. The group shouted a few slogans the hoarding and safely stored it in a politicians and power-brokers in the
against terrorism and called for the nearby army truck. valley, tied indivisibly with the BJP’s
destruction of Pakistan for less than The event seemed to be a phony vision for the region, and project to an
five minutes before taking a break to re-enactment of the protests organ- international audience that normalcy
provide sound bites to the expectant ised by the Association of Parents of has returned to the valley. The 23 De-
cameras of Doordarshan, Asian News Disappeared Persons. For over three cember protest, and others like it, are
International, Asian News Network decades, the half-widows and mothers, also being used to strategically project
yawar nazir / getty images
and a handful of local web portals. of thousands of young Kashmiris who blame away from the armed forces
The first speech was delivered by had been disappeared, gathered on the when bloodshed occurs, occasionally
Shaheena Bhat, an elected member tenth of every month at Pratap Park to even against other wings of the security
of the Srinagar Municipal Corpora- remember their loss and demand an- services. National-security experts as
tion, who had personally been handed swers from the state. The Aakhir Kab well as retired members of the military
a torch by the colonel. “We raise our Tak protest used the same bloodied establishment warned me that this ap-
58 THE CARAVAN
parent coalescing of the army’s functioning with Bhat told me. “The army even has their own previous spread:
the political interests of the BJP is a dangerous cameraperson.” Indian Army troops
precedent that could lead to dire consequences for The Aakhir Kab Tak campaign was not the first unload an Aakhir
Kab Tak banner
Indian democracy. time the army had worked closely with politicians
from an army truck
to organise such protests, Bhat said. She recalled before a protest on
bhat was elected as a corporator in the infa- that, on Republic Day in 2021, she was one of five 23 December 2021.
mous municipal elections of 2018. The Jammu and corporators who joined Vishwasrao in hoisting the National-security
Kashmir National Conference and the People’s national flag at the M5 military camp on Gupkar experts as well as
Democratic Party, the two biggest political parties road, adjoining the Badami Bagh cantonment. “We retired members
of the military
in the erstwhile state, had boycotted the polls, had a proper protocol and security given by the
establishment
which recorded one of the lowest turnouts in the army,” she told me. “Then we went to Char Chinar, warned that
region’s history—four percent. Besides the tight which is located at the centre of Dal Lake. Later, this apparent
security, a usual feature of elections in Kashmir, we went to the Shankaracharya temple and burst coalescing of the
the 2018 polls were conducted while keeping the firecrackers worth thirty thousand rupees.” army’s functioning
locations of polling booths, and even the identities Bhat recently joined the Jammu and Kashmir with the political
interests of the
of the contestants, secret. Apni Party, which is led by Altaf Bukhari and
BJP is a dangerous
When I met Bhat at her office on 12 January this Ghulam Hassan Mir. The latter has been known precedent that
year, she was far less secretive. “Whenever there’s to be particularly close to the army. In 2013, could lead to dire
any scheduled Aakhir Kab Tak programme army when Mir was agriculture minister in the Omar consequences for
officials ring me and I join the event along with Abdullah-led NC government, the army conducted Indian democracy.
others,” she told me. She said that the protest- an inquiry into the misuse of secret funds by its
intelligence wing. It reportedly found that Mir opposite page:
Relatives of missing
had received R1.19 crore to engineer a change of
persons attend a sit
Conversations with the government in the state, under orders from the in organised by the
organisers of the events former army chief VK Singh, who would join the APDP to mark World
BJP the following year. Human Rights Day,
suggest that the army is trying Another attendee to be handed a flaming torch in December 2013.
The Aakhir Kab
to establish a new generation at the 23 December protest was 32-year-old Javed
Tak protest used
Beigh, a former public-relations officer for Omar
of politicians and power- Abdullah and the current general secretary of the
the same bloodied
hand usually found
brokers in the valley, tied People’s Democratic Front (Secular)—a marginal on the posters
political party led by the former minister Hakeem of the APDP and
indivisibly with the BJP’s Yasin. After the abrogation of Article 370, in Au- placed it right
vision for the region. gust 2019, Beigh was booked under the draconian alongside messages
of support for the
Public Safety Act and incarcerated in Varanasi. He
armed forces.
ers usually gathered at prominent locations in told me that a local official in Kashmir who want-
Srinagar, such as Lal Chowk, Press Enclave, the ed to settle scores with him had fabricated the
old Zero Bridge and Dal Lake, burning candles case. In jail, Beigh said, the authorities called him
and waving the tricolour. “The banner, candles, a terrorist. He was kept in a dark cell, six feet by
torches and other items are provided by the army, six feet, for three months. Following his release,
as we can’t get those things from our own pock- he unsuccessfully contested the elections for the
ets,” Bhat explained. “At the protest, we take flags district development council in December 2020.
in our hands just to send the message that we are His consolation, he said with a laugh, was the
Indian and we will die as Indians peacefully. We defeat of the candidate for the People’s Alliance
will not allow Pakistan’s dirty tactics here and we for the Gupkar Declaration—an alliance calling for
will raise our voice.” the restoration of regional autonomy and Jammu
Bhat told me that Major General SPS Vish- and Kashmir’s special status.
wasrao of the army’s XV Corps—responsible Beigh claimed that Aakhir Kab Tak was entirely
for military operations in the valley—oversees his own initiative. “The army only provides se-
the Aakhir Kab Tak campaign. A mid-ranking curity,” he assured me. However, almost all the
official in the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s intel- protests have occurred in Srinagar’s most fortified
ligence wing told me, on the condition of ano- areas, which are under intense surveillance and
nymity, that the specific units involved were the have a heavy deployment of troops around the
Territorial Army’s 125 Infantry Battalion, based clock. Beigh said that the idea for Aakhir Kab Tak
in Haft Chinar—infamous as a torture site—and had come to him in February 2021, following the
the 105 Rashtriya Rifles, based in Badami Bagh. killing of Aakash Mehra, the 22-year-old son of a
“General Vishwasrao also comes to protest but he popular restaurateur. It was the second militant
is always in civvies, along with other officials,” attack on non-Kashmiris after the government
JUNE 2022 59
opposite page: imposed new laws allowing any Indian citizen to said, Renzushah had shared the dais with Azad,
Several protestors become a domicile of the region, fanning fears of who told him, “They are taking my photos, but
including Shaheena demographic change. only yours are getting published.”
Bhat, at an Aakhir
“Peace is a luxury in Kashmir,” Beigh told me, Renzushah claims to be the descendant of a
Kab Tak event at
the Old Zero Bridge adding that the movement merely sought ac- Muslim king who once ruled over the valley.
in Srinagar, on 30 countability for the killings. “As a member of this After his retirement, in 2013, he went on to lead
January. The Aakhir society, I believe that we have to build the narra- a hodgepodge of pressure groups, including the
Kab Tak protests tive that we condemn the killings, stand with the Kashmir Sufi Society, Kashmir Society Inter-
attempt to present victims.” However, when I asked him about the national, the Jamaat Aitqaad International, the
an alternative
killing of Shahid Aijaz, an 18-year-old who had Hazrat Bulbulshah International Spiritual Board
picture of Kashmir
as a Potemkin been shot by the Central Reserve Police Force and the Kashmir Development Front. His recent
village of pro-India three months earlier, his answer was cagey. activities, which include furthering Hindu-nation-
citizens who are The CRPF initially claimed that Aijaz—who was alist pseudo-history, have often led to tumult and
fiercely loyal to the returning from Shopian, where he was working on division among religious sects in Kashmir. The
army. the apple harvest—was killed after unknown mili- author of eleven books claims to be a scholar of
tants opened fire at a nearby paramilitary camp. Sufism but often uses sectarian slurs for follow-
It later said that he had been shot for trespass- ers of other Islamic sects. In 2007, when he was
ing, after the vehicle he was in did not stop at a the deputy commissioner of Budgam, Renzushah
checkpoint. Neither the CRPF nor the Jammu and claimed that the Hindu deity Ram had stayed in
Kashmir police responded to an emailed question- the village of Suthaharan during his exile from
naire about the incident. Ayodhya. He promptly ordered the renaming of
“I believe the institutions of the government,” the village to Sitaharan in all official records.
Beigh told me. “Government is a big institution
and, as a citizen, we have to believe what the The who’s who of the protest
government says. There is no alternative.” He said
that, for him, the army and the police are sacred arrived: a politician belonging
institutions. “I can’t raise fingers about them. I to the BJP and others from
can raise fingers to individuals. There might be in-
dividuals who have committed mistakes, but that minor groups, retired civil
doesn’t mean we raise fingers and start doubting servants known for their less-
these institutions. It’s better that Kashmir should
learn to live with union of India. We have 25 crore
than-stellar service records
Muslims across the country.” He claimed igno- and a couple of people who
rance when I asked him about the various attacks
on Muslims in other parts of the country over the
sat on the fence between
last few years. journalism and hyper-
Muhammad Aaqib Renzushah, another corpo-
rator, seemed equally excited to take full credit for
nationalist bombast.
starting the Aakhir Kab Tak protests. In Octo-
ber 2021, he told me, a similar candlelight vigil, Renzushah also demanded that Srinagar’s famous
prominently featuring the slogan, was organised Nehru park be renamed after GM Guru, a lo-
at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to commemorate the mi- cal who had died while rescuing tourists in the
gration of Kashmiri Pandits in the early 1990s. “I river Jhelum. In April 2021, the Anti-Corruption
was amazed when that protest was covered in the Bureau booked Renzushah in a disproportionate-
international press,” he said. “It was a victory for assets case. He soon became a usual at the Aakhir
me when my idea was picked up by everyone. Pro- Kab Tak protests. Renzushah did not respond to
grammes like these help India to project globally a detailed questionnaire about his involvement in
that Kashmiris are happy with New Delhi’s rule.” the protests.
Present at an earlier Aakhir Kab Tak protest, on Sajid Yousuf was another frequent face at
9 November, was the former bureaucrat Khawaja the protests. Yousuf’s life has been a hopscotch
Farooq Renzushah. A former director of informa- routine between journalism and army and police
shahid tantray for the caravan
tion in the Ghulam Nabi Azad government, he propaganda. He began his career working with
has extensive links with various sections of the the BJP leader Sheikh Khalid Jehangir. (On 3
Kashmiri media. A senior journalist told me that March, Jehangir’s book Why Article 370 Had to Go
Renzushah had procured several cameras for the was released by Lieutenant General DP Pandey,
information department and ensured that the the senior-most army official in Kashmir at the
press painted him as an almost messianic figure in time. At the event, Pandey shared a brief of his
the valley. At a 2007 public function, the journalist speech to the media, which laid out his goals,
60 THE CARAVAN
including the “return of Kashmiri Hin- told the press at an Aakhir Kab Tak Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. He said
dus.) Yousuf briefly worked at Kashmir protest on 15 June 2021. Like other the army only provided security for the
Thunder, a Srinagar-based daily that is prominent attendees, he had partici- protests.
owned by Renzushah’s son Danish, be- pated in his share of publicity stunts Media coverage of Aakhir Kab Tak
fore becoming a frequent participant in closely linked to the army. On Republic has, for the most part, been generous
television debates criticising Pakistan. Day this year, he hoisted the national and uncritical. Saleem Pandit of the
In 2019, he started the news portal Real flag on the famous clock tower at Lal Times of India has often reported on
Kashmir News, which was recently Chowk. Footage of the event, shot using the protests, without mentioning the
acquired by ITV Network, which also a drone, was later uploaded on the XV army’s involvement and with a very
owns NewsX and a number of regional Corps’ official Twitter handle. Drones loose commitment to journalistic ac-
channels. Yana Mirchandani, the had been banned in the valley since curacy. A 10 March report by Pandit,
editor-in-chief of Real Kashmir News, July 2021. In response to an emailed for instance, called one Lal Chowk
became visible in Kashmir during the questionnaire Yousuf said that he was vigil “the first time in over three de-
BJP-PDP coalition government and not regular attendee at the Aakhir Kab cades” that “Kashmiris from all walks
later changed her name to Yana Mir. Tak events and that flag hoisting on of life” had come together to protest.
After the abrogation of Article 370 she Republic Day was an idea that he and Pandit participated in the takeover of
became a regular participant in Indian his friend Sahil Bashir Bhat had had. the Kashmir Press Club, in January
news panel shows about the region. “We were planning for it since long this year, following which the Jammu
She is also a regular participant at the because we thought message from and Kashmir administration cancelled
Aakhir Kab Tak events. Lal Chowk should go throughout the its registration. He has frequently
“Pakistan is killing people in Kash- world that there are silent majority of referred to critics of his takeover as
mir for the past thirty years,” Yousuf Kashmiris who support idea of India in Pakistani agents.
JUNE 2022 61
kamal kishore / pti
Even some respected Srinagar-based “Whenever there is a protest, they what led to the planning of the Aakhir
publications have left out the army’s pay us five hundred rupees to cover Kab Tak protests.
role while reporting on Aakhir Kab Tak. it,” a local journalist told me on the For this, the army needs to maintain
Emaad Makhdoomi, a political com- condition of anonymity, adding that an air of plausible deniability in the pro-
mentator who often amplifies positions the payments were made through tests, visible in another event I attended
taken by the security establishment, intermediaries. “These local corpora- in December 2021. After India’s first
frequents these protests and army func- tors call us with a list of scripted ques- chief of defence staff, Bipin Rawat, died
tions. On 9 May, Makhdoomi took over tions to ask. It’s almost like a stage, in a helicopter crash on 9 December,
as consulting editor of Greater Kashmir, with its own actors and directors. Aakhir Kab Tak campaigners joined a
five days after meeting lieutenant-gov- The army set the stage and direct the vigil in Lal Chowk. Pandey soon arrived
ernor Manoj Sinha. In those five days, local corporators to act according to at the scene and told the waiting media
Greater Kashmir, which had not received how they want. The aim is to portray that he was glad to see the support for
government advertising since 2019, a positive picture of Kashmir, and the the troops among the people of Kash-
suddenly began receiving government army here.” mir. He said that he had felt compelled
advertisements again. Its editorial line to come pay his respects after seeing
has seen a major shift following Makh- the aakhir kab tak protests attempt media coverage of the vigil and that the
doomi’s hiring. A week after he joined, to present an alternative picture of number of condolence messages he had
Greater Kashmir made a large spread in Kashmir, as a Potemkin village of pro- received indicated the affection Kash-
their front page about a few small-time India citizens who are fiercely loyal to miris had for Rawat. He made no men-
BJP leaders meeting Sinha with three the army. This has been particularly tion of the fact that the vigil had been
column pictures. On the same day, news important for the army, given the un- organised by his own men in civilian
of Sinha’s meeting with a delegation of precedented international condemna- clothes. The media at the event seemed
the Gupkar alliance, a major regional tion India received after the abrogation uninterested in asking Pandey about his
political force with three former chief of Article 370, and the lockdown and unit’s involvement in the protest.
ministers and several former legislators, communication blackout that followed. When The Caravan messaged Pandey
was only given a small column. Nei- The necessity for a civilian face to mask about sending him a detailed ques-
ther Makhdoomi nor Greater Kashmir the army’s increased role in the politi- tionnaire about his involvement in
responded to questions. cal management of the region is likely the Aakhir Kab Tak events, Roopesh
62 THE CARAVAN
Mehta, a brigadier at Pandey’s former XV Corp who soon left in a huff. On 25 December, I met the opposite page:
redirected us to the Indian Army’s Additional Di- corporator, who wished to remain anonymous, Army Chief Bipin
rector General of Public Information. Neither the and asked him why he had left the venue. He told Rawat meets
students from
ADGPI, nor Emron Musavi, the army’s public-re- me Vishwasrao had, “asked me to blame police.”
Jammu and
lations officer for Kashmir and Ladakh, responded He told me Vishwasrao had asked him to tell the Kashmir, who
to questions about the army’s role in the Aakhir crowd that the police had not followed the proper came on a tour
Kab Tak events. SOP during that gunfight. “Why would I blame the under Operation
A civilian front to the protest also seems to allow police when the army was also involved in the op- Sadbhavana, in
the army to apportion blame as it sees fit following eration? I left because I didn’t want to go against December 2018.
The project to “win
violent clashes in the valley. On 17 November, the the police,” the corporator said. Vishwasrao did
hearts and minds”
army, the CRPF and the Srinagar police launched not respond to multiple messages or calls from The remains operational
a military operation in Hyderpora, which led to Caravan. even today, with
the death of four men. The army initially claimed The roping in of small-time corporators and the army spending
that the four men were militants, but the families BJP politicians into the protest is a result of the crores of rupees
of three of the victims denied this. Protests soon Indian government’s delegitimisation of the on organising
everything from
broke out across Kashmir. The largest of these was region’s dominant political parties. Over the past
iftar parties to
a silent sit-in in Srinagar, on 18 November, which seventy years, the Indian government and army all-India tours
included most of the region’s major politicians, cultivated close relationships with key members for students and
including Omar Abdullah. The protesters demand- of both the NC and the PDP. These parties walked junkets for select
a fine line between appeasing the army’s demands local contacts.
and ensuring that the Kashmiri population felt at
The Aakhir Kab Tak least partially represented in India’s democratic
protests attempt to present structure. However, after the abrogation of Article
370, senior leaders of both parties were put under
an alternative picture of house arrest and the media was instructed to stop
Kashmir, as a Potemkin village publishing their comments. The complete disem-
powerment and silencing of politicians who could
of pro-India citizens who are occasionally back the government’s position has
fiercely loyal to the army. led to the rise of a new brand of public representa-
tives in the valley. These representatives, freed
from the pressures of having to seek local support,
ed that the bodies of the slain civilians should be can devote themselves to furthering the narrative
exhumed and returned to the families and that a of the Indian government and its armed forces.
magisterial inquiry be conducted. “Basically, post August 2019, the government
The next day, another strange instalment of of India tried to invent a narrative here and they
Aakhir Kab Tak took place in Srinagar. “Whoever wanted people to believe that mainstream politics,
conducted these killings, they should face justice, more importantly the National Conference and
be it the police, army or the terrorists,” Bhat, who other regional parties, have lost their relevance,”
was leading the vigil, said, despite the near-uni- Imran Nabi Dar, the NC’s state spokesperson, told
versal consensus that the four men had been shot me. “We have seen it a number of times that people
by the police and the army. Beigh’s statement at from here begin speaking the language of the BJP
the protest was equally convoluted. He demanded on television channels. They want to set up the
that the prime minister organise an investigation narrative that local politics in Kashmir is over.”
into the incident, because details of what occurred Najmu Saqib, an additional spokesperson of the
were still unclear, but maintained that the army PDP, agreed. “The cultivation of these hirelings
should not shoulder any responsibility for the is a two-pronged message,” he told me. “One, it is
incident. “The army and police are sacred institu- warning that, if popular mainstream parties don’t
tions,” he said, “but there are black sheep within fall in line, an alternative is already being culti-
who need to be identified and brought to their vated. And the second is to parade to the world that
logical end.” Unlike Beigh, Bhat seemed to more Kashmir is in a state of normalcy.” He told me that
pointedly blame the police. “We are warning the the army’s role in the protests was common knowl-
police,” she said, “if there was an encounter there edge in the valley. “It’s very evident where their
why didn’t you arrest them? If they were terror- funding comes from, how they operate and what
ists, then they should have been arrested.” is their brief,” he said. “The idea behind propping
It soon became clear why the protesters were these individuals with questionable pasts is to hol-
questioning the police while barely mentioning low out the last remnants of democracy. By dipping
the army. I had seen Vishwasrao hanging around their feet in the political waters, these national
the fringes of the protest talking to a corporator institutions are treading a precarious path.”
JUNE 2022 63
opposite page: Several defence analysts and former members seemed overtly political. “When I was in Kash-
Lieutenant Generals of India’s intelligence community were equally mir, I had never seen these kinds of things,” he
DP Pandey and wary of the army’s direct involvement in the val- said when I asked about Aakhir Kab Tak. “I have
MV Suchindra lead
ley’s politics. “The army’s simple job is to defend heard that this is happening from my colleagues,
the “Dhruva Kargil
Ride” celebrating the borders and to be in aid of civil authorities,” and it is very sad. These things are not required.
22 years of the Pravin Sawhney, the editor of FORCE, a magazine These things will weaken and compromise the
Kargil war, in July on national security and defence, told me. “So, army from their real purpose and role.” He said
2021. Pandey has whatever has to be done with regard to intel has that nothing like this level of collusion between
faced criticism, even to be done by the civil authority. The army is only the armed forces and political parties had previ-
from within the
to provide support to them. They can’t be at the ously happened in Kashmir, either overtly or
armed forces, for
his blurring of lines forefront of these things. It is obvious then that covertly. Before I left our meeting, he warned me
between civilian the army is not doing its job, it is doing somebody about the long-term implications the army’s role
political life and else’s job. If you do somebody else’s job, then you in civilian life could have, not just for Kashmir
troops under his are politicised.” but for India as a whole. “These things shouldn’t
command. Sawhney told me that, in an upcoming book, happen, because there will be no control on the
he argues that the 2016 surgical strikes against army,” he said. “In India, there has been no prime
targets in Pakistan and the army’s response to the minister who wants the army to rule the coun-
2019 Balakot attack were primarily motivated by try or establish martial law. We don’t want to
the BJP’s political interest and not military tactics. become Pakistan, do we?”
He added that he was particularly worried about The army’s involvement in politics in the valley
the involvement of the army in propping up BJP also raises questions about its role in the admin-
politicians in Kashmir. “To help a party is not a istration’s ongoing crackdown on journalists and
legitimate task for the army. India is not the BJP.” human-rights activists in the region. This seemed
A retired officer who held one of India’s senior-
most intelligence offices told me that the army “These things shouldn’t
in Kashmir was not entirely a stranger to par-
ticipating in civilian affairs. “I am aware about happen, because there will
programmes like Sadbhavana,” he said. In 1997, be no control on the army.
after years of subjecting civilians to brutal and in-
discriminate anti-militancy operations, the army We don’t want to become
launched Operation Sadbhavana, a counter-insur- Pakistan, do we?”
gency mission, which involved building schools
and distributing free food to civilians. Inspired
by a failed US model in West Asia, the project to clear from several conversations I had with the
“win hearts and minds” remains operational even usual attendees at the Aakhir Kab Tak protests.
today, with the army spending crores of rupees “If there’s a killing in Kashmir by terrorists, we
on organising everything from iftar parties to are bound to do a protest to send the message,”
all-India tours for students and junkets for select Bhat told me. “Why should a policeman get killed
local contacts. According to a report by Observer for performing his duty? It’s painful for us when a
Research Foundation—a Delhi-based think tank— policeman is killed.” She said that the main threat
Sadbhavana’s annual budget, which was initially to Kashmir were “white-collar terrorists,” a dog
R4 crore, had increased to R550 crore by 2020. whistle used by both the army and government-
Sadbhavana has proven to be as much a failure aligned journalists to attack human-rights activ-
as its US counterpart. The districts of Shopian, ists and journalists who cover the targeting of
Pulwama, Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora, Kashmiri civilians.
where Sadbhavana programmes were most active, The army, the police and the BJP seemed to
have seen the fiercest militancy in the past five have worked together to crystallise a political
years. For example, after the Hizbul Mujahideen strategy around the term. At an event organised
commander Burhan Wani was killed in 2016, by the Army Management Studies Board, in
sparking massive protests across the valley, his January, which was attended by Pandey as well
home district of Anantnag saw only 14 fatalities of as by Dilbagh Singh—the director general of
armed forces, civilians and militants. Meanwhile, police—and Subrata Saha—a retired army officer
35 people were killed in Pulwama, 85 in Kupwara and BJP politician—the speakers frequently
and 62 in Baramulla, according to the South Asia referred to white-collar terrorists rather than
Terrorism Portal. “overground workers,” the term previously pre-
The former intelligence officer told me that, ferred by the army.
while the army did participate in civilian affairs, Journalists such as Pandit have also done their
pti
it had previously tried to steer clear of things that part. On 3 March, much of the senior army leader-
64 THE CARAVAN
ship in Kashmir attended a conference not respond to a questionnaire from to bring them back from the brink” and
organised at Badami Bagh by the XV The Caravan. “ignited minds to think beyond ‘Prob-
Corps and the International Centre for lems in Kashmir.’”
Peace Studies. An officer introduced on 9 may, Pandey’s last day in charge There were also photo shoots with
Pandit as an editor beloved by the army of the XV Corps, the army organised a nearly all the regulars of the Aakhir
for exposing the “hidden agendas of gala unparalleled in its history in Kash- Kab Tak protests. In a garden at Bad-
the separatist lobby.” In a rambling mir. Throughout the day, he posed for ami Bagh, Beigh draped a shawl around
speech, Pandit frequently mentioned photographs, both in uniform and in a him. In the most photographed moment
“white-collar terrorists,” who, he ar- well-tailored Nehru jacket, with those of the day’s celebrations, Pandey rode
gued, had been tasked by the country’s whom he wanted to be remembered in a flower-festooned army jeep that
enemies “to create trouble and turbu- as inspiring and those whose relation- was dragged by several army officers,
lence” by distorting “the images of the ships with him were best left hidden. as well as Beigh and Yousuf. The event
institutions by using the social media.” There were photos of him with young was widely criticised by other officers.
His thesis boiled down to the claim students, a demographic he talked ex- “Never seen civilians before in what is a
that independent journalism was the tensively about in his farewell speech. purely military send off,” BS Dhanoa, a
“new phase” of terrorism in the valley. “It is time for you to take charge and retired major general, tweeted.
This does not augur well for an already sow the seeds of success, love and Two days earlier, Ghulam Hassan
embattled group of journalists and happiness for the generations of the Dar, a police constable, had been shot
activists trying to unveil the everyday future,” he said. “You are that hope, dead by militants in Srinagar. With a
violence that has been carefully mani- my dear young friends, and I wish you majority of the supporting cast busy
cured out of existence by those that well.” Greater Kashmir heaped praise bidding adieu to the general, they did
organise, and uncritically report on, on how he “strongly propounded for a not attend the small event that was held
events like Aakhir Kab Tak. Pandit did second chance to the misguided youth to protest Dar’s killing. s
JUNE 2022 65
this spread: A head mask for a
Zuljinah at Haveli Bilo Shah, in
2018. The mask is adorned with
a mirror in the center. The fish
figurines that hang from the
headdress represent water and
freedom of movement.
PHOTO ESSAY / COMMUNITIES
PHOTOGRAPHS BY NAD-E-ALI
TEXT BY UTKARSH
March
Past
Memory and mourning in
Lahore’s Shia processions
above: A Zuljinah trains
for a procession inside the
premises of the Karbala
Gamay Shah, in 2015.
a torrent of bodies dressed in black, with indiscern-
ible faces and flailing arms, surges towards a centre
that is bruised red. Enveloped by a warm tungsten
hue, the crowd pours through a narrow alley and into
a large open space. Its seething movement creates a
seamlessness that lends a sense of duration to an oth-
erwise static frame. The focus of the image, and the
crowd, is the undefined centre: a barely visible horse
draped in a bright red cloth.
The image belongs to the Pakistani photographer
Nad-e-Ali’s ongoing photo series “The Other Horses,”
which documents Lahore’s annual Shabih-e-Zuljinah
processions. Held during the month of Muharram,
the Shia mourning processions commemorate the
death of Hussain ibn Ali, a grandson of the prophet
Muhammad, in the seventh-century Battle of Karbala.
The Shia–Sunni rift, which dates back to the death of
Muhammad, in 632, is said to have intensified after
the battle. The horses at these processions, called the
Zuljinahs, represent Murtajiz, the loyal stallion that
Hussain rode into battle. Legend has it that Murtajiz
refused to leave his master’s side after his death, only
to return to camp, covered in blood, to deliver the
news of the killing.
Each year, on the ninth day of Muharram, several
Shabih-e-Zuljinah processions begin in Lahore, as
well as in other parts of South Asia. They end the next
day, with the commemoration of Ashura. Thousands
participate in these processions, wailing and beating
themselves in mourning, while clearing the path for
the Zuljinah to peacefully pass. A number of horses
play the role of Zuljinah and complete the journey in
relays. While there are variations in all processions,
Nad describes how the Zuljinah is always covered
with a white sheet splattered with red, to symbolise
the blood of its master. One of the most prominent
processions that Nad has been documenting for the
past eight years leaves the Nisar Haveli at Lahore’s
Mochi Gate, passes through prominent mosques and
bazaars of the walled city and culminates at the Kar-
bala Gamay Shah, a famous imambargah, or congrega-
tional hall.
While “The Other Horses” draws an ethereal
portrait of the processions, delving into subjects of
mourning, memory and loss, its narrative predomi-
nantly revolves around the horses. All across Lahore,
Nad told me, one can spot horses lugging carts, per-
forming at weddings or being kept at military stables.
But what the series captures is an exception, since the
Zuljinahs have “a dedication to the sacred.”
The Zuljinah is often a white stallion that takes on
the appearance of a cavalry horse.
As the horses are being dressed, the azaan and the
iqama—calls to prayer—are recited into its ears. It is
then shown a mirror to remind it of its rider. Caretak-
ers of the Zuljinah and locals have claimed that the
body language of the horse changes after the ritual—it
behaves as if carrying the weight of an invisible rider.
69
below: A zegha at a preparation The Zuljinahs are selected when they are still
ceremony before a procession, in young. They are never ridden or made to labour, as
2018. The zegha is an important they are considered shrines to their true master,
embellishment worn on top of
Hussain. Their caretakers, who consider them-
the head mask. It is acquired
from the Manchar Lake in Sindh selves to be in Hussain’s service, live with the
and is made from the feathers horses and meet their individual needs. As the
of a migratory bird from Siberia, processions can be intense and taxing affairs, the
locally known as gul nari. caretakers accompany them to ensure their well-
being and security.
In Sunni-majority Pakistan, Shias often bear
the brunt of sectarian violence. “Something or
the other happens in every year,” Nad said. “As
Muharram and Ashura draw closer, expression
of anti-Shia sentiment becomes more active.” He
explained how cities like Lahore “have histori-
cally well-entrenched procession routes” and are
thus far less prone to resistance. However, when
something does happen, it tends to be much more
violent, he added, citing the serial blasts during
the 2010 Ashura procession, which killed around
forty people. In smaller cities, he said, processions
are often stopped by sections of the majority com-
munity. “A Zuljinah being shot down or poisoned
is not unheard of.”
right: Kashif Shah, who works as

a caretaker for a Zuljinah, holds
stirrups during a preparatory
ceremony at Haveli Bilo Shah, in
2018. While a Zuljinah wears the
saddle during the procession, no
one is allowed to ride it.
above: A Zuljinah ready for the
procession at the Imam Bargah
Aliya Khatoon, in 2018.
Nad said that growing up as a Shia Muslim, “Growing up,” Nad said, “I had absorbed
he often had to defend and explain his beliefs the images of the Zuljinah and those of Bu-
to others, and be confronted by school text- raq”—the chimeral creature believed to have
books that present “an imposed version of his- carried Muhammad to the heavens. “In po-
tory and religious doctrine.” He remembered etry and descriptions surrounding them, as
the underlying fear of sectarian violence he well as the kitsch religious artwork depicting
felt even during the Zuljinah processions of them, they seemed to herald the figure associ-
his childhood. ated with them.” Since visual representations
Nad’s images occupy varying vantage of Muhammad and Hussain are prohibited, he
points, swinging and swaying, to turn the added, “their steed became a symbol for their
spectacle of the procession into a medley of presence.” The horses in the series constantly
movement and light, where the Zuljinah oc- confront the viewer with the duality of their
cupies the central point of focus. This grants own identity—one that is both corporeal and
the series the undulating topography of his divine. These conflicting perceptions create
earliest memories of the processions. He re- parallel narratives throughout the series.
called how, as a child, he would sit atop his The Zuljinah and the mourners find them-
father’s shoulders in the thick of the crowd, selves in shifting planes of temporality, as the
and stretch his arms to touch the Zuljinah’s procession is both a re-enactment as well as
forehead, as participants often do. remembrance of Karbala. The mourners are
opposite page: A Shabih-e-
Zuljinah procession in Krishan
Nagar, in 2017.
above: Mourners during the

Shabih-e-Zuljinah procession at
Mochi Gate, in 2017.
below: A security check at the opposite page: A poster on a wall
procession in Krishan Nagar, in at Mochi Gate advertises various
2017. “As Muharram and Ashura Muharram events, in 2021.
draw closer, expression of anti-
Shia sentiment becomes more
active,” Nad said, adding that
“riots are common, and a Zuljinah
being shot down or poisoned is
not unheard of.”
aware of the physical limitations of the horse and the toll it
endures during its march. “Yet, what his exhaustion brings to
my mind is the exhaustion of a horse on the field of Karbala,
and that is exactly your purpose in leading the horse through
the procession,” Nad said. “Deep on the eve of Ashura, in
the streets of Lahore, the horse both is and is not Sardar
Badshah”—a famed Zuljinah of Lahore—“both is and is not
Hussain’s Murtajiz. Does the time for him remain Ashura of
2021 AD? Or is it Ashura in 61 Hijri?”—the year of the battle,
according to the Islamic calendar. “Or some other plane in
between or beyond?”
To Nad, the procession feels almost like a transfiguration.
“The participant takes part in the experience of the people
accompanying Hussain in Karbala,” he said. “They are not
saints, but bring themselves to touch the experience of the
saints in the story.”
These considerations allow the series to retain an expan-
sive scope and give it a rather amorphous form that allows
for a variety of approaches for image-making. Nad maintains
an intuitive approach while employing both analogue and
this spread: Sardar Badshah,
a famous Zuljinah who is now
dead, at Nisar Haveli, in 2014. He
participated in the processions for
the final time in 2016.
opposite page: Mourners await the
Zuljinah at the Mochi Gate, in 2021.
opposite page: Participants of the

procession reach out to touch the
Zuljinah at Mochi Gate, in 2014.
below: A ziyarat—shrine—for
Hussain’s son Qasim, inside an
imambargah near Gawalmandi,
in 2021.
right: A ziyarat for Hussain’s

youngest son, Abd Allah, who also
died at Karbala, at the Bhatti Gate,
in 2021.
digital processes. Likewise, he switches between colour and
black-and-white. “My choice for the palette was a matter of
intuiting what fit the subject,” he said. “Some specific colours
with symbolic meanings and values, such as red or green, are
used as highlights on the general predominance of black.”
This flexibility is evident in the series, as is the choice to limit
the images to more monochromatic palettes with varying
degrees of black—associated with mourning rituals, as well as
a symbol for god in Sufi iconography.
The act of mourning is a “beautiful thing,” according to
Nad. “It is a process of collective catharsis, where you go
out of your own self and its interests to mourn the loss of
someone else,” he said. “This act of associating with the loss
of someone else, who is other than yourself and everybody
around you, leaves you with a sense for living compassionate-
ly and humanely in the rest of your life.”
above: Mourners beat their chests

at the Bhatti Gate, in 2021.
this spread: A kafani, a white
sheet splattered with red that
covers the body of the Zuljinah
during the procession, at the
Haveli Bil0 Shah, in 2018. The
red on the sheet symbolises
the blood of Hussain.
BOOKS
84 THE CARAVAN
books
Statue of
Impunity
Monumentalisation under Modi
/ HISTORY
RAHUL RAO
one night in january, I found myself taurants and hotels catering to a variety
strolling through gardens enclosed of budgets. That this is more than sim-
with white picket fences, in which vari- ply a place to have fun is underscored
left: The head of
ous objects made of plastic and fibre- by the names of all these attractions.
the Statue of Unity,
currently the tallest glass were lit up in bright colours. Co- Tourists can visit the Ekta Nursery—
statue in the world, conut palms, mushrooms, deer, swans, which describes itself as producing
commemorates horses, crescent moons, reindeer, gi- “Plants of Unity”—take an Ekta Cruise
Vallabhbhai Patel raffes, giant sunflowers and tulips, rab- on a boat named Unity, shop at the Ekta
principally for his bits and flamingos, interspersed with Mall, eat at the Ekta Food Court or soak
role in creating
LED fountains, produced a neon-lit in the delights of the newly named Ekta
the Indian state.
Conceptualised
landscape. I was at the Unity Glow Gar- Nagar, the nocturnal highlight of which
by Narendra Modi den, which is part of the Kevadia Tour- is the Unity Glow Garden.
in his tenth year ism Circuit, newly instituted by the At the heart of the circuit is the
veera sj / wikimedia commons
as chief minister Gujarat government around the Sardar Statue of Unity, currently the tallest
of Gujarat, it was Sarovar dam. The circuit currently statue in the world, built to commemo-
inaugurated in comprises 35 destinations and experi- rate Vallabhbhai Patel—India’s first
October 2018,
ences, including a number of parks and home minister and a leading figure
when Modi began
campaigning for gardens, a zoo and jungle safari, a river of the freedom struggle. As the name
a second term as cruise, adventure-sports facilities for of the statue indicates, Patel is com-
prime minister. rafting and cycling, shops, malls, res- memorated principally for his role in
JUNE 2022 85
statue of impunity · books
creating the Indian state by persuading undemocratic, dictatorial and unethical princely states, he may have been ca-
over five hundred princely states to join intervention, and Nehru, through his pable of a great deal more. For Patel’s
the Indian Union after Independence. greed and ambition for the top position, votaries, India would have been spared
Conceptualised by Narendra Modi in deprived Sardar Patel of his position the scourges of Nehruvian socialism
his tenth year as chief minister of Gu- as the first Prime Minister of India,” and secularism if their man had been at
jarat, in 2010, the Statue of Unity began Rajnikant Puranik writes in Sardar the nation’s helm in its formative years.
to take shape with a foundation-laying Patel: The Best PM India Never Had. Those who are keen to rescue Patel
ceremony on 31 October 2013—Pa- Puranik, who describes himself as a from what they see as his misappro-
tel’s birth anniversary—just as Modi physicist, banker and software profes- priation by the Hindu Right describe
was about to begin his campaign as sional, seems to have made a career out him as tough but even-handed in his
the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime- of publishing books critical of Nehru criticism of both Hindu and Muslim
ministerial candidate for the following and Gandhi, with titles such as Nehru’s chauvinists. The historian Bhupen-
year’s general election. It was inaugu- 97 Major Blunders. dra Yadav draws attention to Patel’s
rated on 31 October 2018, when Modi In an earlier scholarly biography of championing of minority rights—in his
began campaigning for a second term Patel, the historian Rajmohan Gandhi capacity as chairperson of the Con-
as prime minister. A day before the speculates that his grandfather chose stituent Assembly’s advisory committee
inauguration, nearly three hundred on minorities—including the right to
activists, many of whom were Adivasi In recent years, propagate religion and the cultural and
farmers, were detained to pre-empt a educational rights that were enshrined
massive protest against the statue, the a smattering of in Articles 25, 29 and 30 of the Con-
construction of which had resulted in biographies, two of stitution. Several commentators have
the expropriation of their land. noted the alacrity with which Patel
Because the Hindu Right’s ideologi- which were published banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
cal forerunners lack a substantial pres- in the year that the Sangh after Gandhi’s assassination,
ence in the pantheon of leaders of the disturbed as he was by its secretive,
freedom struggle, the BJP has taken to
Statue of Unity was paramilitary dimension and the cult of
appropriating figures from within the inaugurated, have mined violence that it encouraged. The ban on
Congress fold, such as Patel and Subhas the RSS, between February 1948 and
Chandra Bose, who disagreed at vari-
a rich vein of grievance July 1949, was lifted after it promised
ous junctures with positions advocated on Patel’s behalf. to adopt and publish a written constitu-
by Jawaharlal Nehru and MK Gandhi. tion, restrict itself to cultural activities,
In recent years, a smattering of biog- Nehru as his political heir on account abjure violence and secrecy, profess
raphies by amateur historians, two of of his age, his appeal to younger vot- loyalty to the Indian flag and Constitu-
which were published in the year that ers, Muslims and socialists, his in- tion, and commit itself to democratic
the Statue of Unity was inaugurated, ternational experience and profile, organisation. Despite their agreement
have mined a rich vein of grievance on and, somewhat ironically, his greater on the government’s policy towards the
Patel’s behalf. Based less on his writ- anglicisation, which, in Gandhi’s view, RSS, the fundamentally contrasting
ings—of which there are few in com- made him a better interlocutor with the attitudes of Nehru and Patel towards
parison with those left behind by the British. In addition, confident of Pa- the organisation illuminate why the
more prolific Gandhi and Nehru—and tel’s absolute loyalty to himself and to Hindu Right has been able to affiliate
more on an imagined sense of what the party, Gandhi worried that Nehru itself with the latter. Writing to Patel in
Patel might have done were he not to might have drifted away leftwards October 1948, Nehru worried that lift-
have played second fiddle, these works from the Congress if he were not given ing the ban on the RSS “will be widely
seem driven by an ambition to tell his the top job. Indignant on their subject’s interpreted as our encouraging certain
“side” of the story and to restore him behalf, Patel’s more recent biographers fascist elements in India,” though he
to his rightful place in history. High disagree with some of these reasons conceded that the ban and detention
on the list of complaints is Gandhi and pointedly mobilise others to make without trial of thousands of RSS mem-
anointing Nehru, rather than Patel, the case for their candidate. The jour- bers could not continue indefinitely.
as Congress president on no less than nalist Hindol Sengupta points out in Patel, meanwhile, saw RSS members as
three occasions: in 1929, 1937, and 1946, The Man Who Saved India: Sardar Patel patriotic but misguided “brethren,” and
when presidency of the Congress also and his Idea of India that many Con- hoped to channel their enthusiasm and
brought with it leadership of the in- gress presidents had been older than discipline into the Congress.
terim government and, ultimately, the Patel was when he was first passed Biographers across the ideological
position of first prime minister. On the over in 1929. And, while accepting that spectrum converge in their admiration
last of these instances, Gandhi’s prefer- Patel was in poor health at the time of for Patel’s success in integrating the
ence overrode the nomination of Patel Independence, Sengupta insists that, if princely states into independent India
by 12 of the 15 provincial Congress Patel had had the strength to complete through a canny mixture of flattery,
committees. “Gandhiji, through his the challenging task of integrating the bargaining and, where necessary, force.
86 THE CARAVAN
stringer / reuters
Yet, even here, there are discernible variations in history that brought Muslim rule over a Hindu above: The Sardar
emphasis. Voices on the Right, such as Puranik majority to an end. Of this process and the facts Sarovar dam has
and Sengupta, applaud Patel’s decisiveness in of its culmination and his central role, Vallab- been controversial
from its very
ordering the army to repulse Pakistan-backed hai was fully aware. This knowledge made him
inception, not least
tribesmen in Kashmir in October 1947. They la- not vain or nervous but proud. We see a touch on account of its
ment that the state might have been more fully of this pride in his encounter with the Nizam: size. The world’s
integrated into India if Nehru had not insisted here Patel squares, on behalf of Hindus, an an- second-largest
on taking personal charge of its accession and cient account with the Muslims. In righting the concrete gravity
agreed to a premature ceasefire while also inter- Delhi-Hyderabad equation, he has also righted dam by volume, it
is a key element
nationalising the issue by referring it to the United the Hindu-Muslim one.
in one of the most
Nations. Such decisiveness is seen to be fully on ambitious river
display in Patel’s dealings with the nizam of Hy- Given the other ways in which this event might valley projects ever
derabad, whose bid for independence was swiftly have been understood—as the triumph of bour- conceived.
thwarted by the army over five days in September geois democracy over feudalism, for example—the
1948. The politico-religious dynamics of these ter- Hindu–Muslim framing of it by this resolutely
ritories—Kashmir was a Muslim-majority state secular historian betrays his sense, derived from
with a Hindu ruler, while Hyderabad was a Hin- an even-handed engagement with his subject’s
du-majority state with a Muslim ruler—freighted life, that Patel’s worldview was such that the com-
them with symbolic significance for the new coun- munal connotations of the moment would not have
try that was coming into being. Commenting on escaped him. There was undoubtedly a more prag-
the moment when the vanquished nizam greeted matic dimension to his political thinking. This is
the victorious Patel with folded hands and bowed evident, for example, in his early willingness to
head at Begumpet airport after Hyderabad’s sur- barter Kashmir for Hyderabad or in his substantial
render, Rajmohan Gandhi notes: role in drafting the constitutional provision guar-
anteeing autonomy to Kashmir—Article 370—that
The climax of Patel’s striving, the Nizam’s de- so antagonised the Hindu Right. Yet, whatever the
feat, was also the culmination of a process of actual biographical complexities, there is mate-
JUNE 2022 87
savita kirloskar / reuters
above: Women rial enough in his story for the construction of a census and the introduction of limited forms of
in the village of revisionist caricature of a leader prepared to use representative democracy, different social groups
Parthrad protest force, particularly against Muslim antagonists, in came to a new consciousness of themselves as
against dam-
the tasks of state- and nation-building, from whom “communities.” The realisation that numbers
building on the
Narmada river, in contemporary authoritarians can claim descent conferred power in the new structures of political
July 1999. By 1988, and draw inspiration. modernity that were coming into being, such as
several activist parties and elections, brought with it a heightened
groups had come the statue of unity will not be the tallest statue sensitivity to notions of majority and minority.
together to form in the world forever, perhaps not even for long. It Central among the various conflicts that this
the Narmada
is set to be surpassed by a 212-metre statue of the generated was the attempt of caste Hindus to
Bachao Andolan.
Viewing the state Maratha warrior king Shivaji, being constructed achieve dominance, in part by thwarting the ef-
as insincere in by the government of Maharashtra off the coast forts of oppressed castes to secure separate politi-
its promise of of Mumbai, which is projected to be completed in cal representation, abolish caste and pursue a life
“land for land” October 2022. The government of Uttar Pradesh outside Hinduism. Dominant-caste Hindus re-
compensation, the has also approved the construction of a 251-metre sponded to oppressed-caste assertion in ways that
NBA shifted from a
statue of the Hindu deity Ram, on a hundred-acre sought to accommodate some demands without
position advocating
well-managed
site in Ayodhya. dismantling the caste system. Visual practices of
resettlement to In her recent book Gods in the Time of Democ- iconography—or what Jain calls “iconopraxis”—
a call for all work racy, Kajri Jain offers the most comprehensive were central to the often deeply mimetic processes
on dams in the account to date of why monumental statues are through which community consciousness was
Narmada valley enjoying a resurgence in contemporary India and consolidated. Partly in response to oppressed-
to be stopped till among the Indian diaspora, and especially of why caste demands for entry into Hindu temples from
the project was
the Hindu Right is so deeply invested in building which they had been barred, Hindu nationalists
comprehensively
re-evaluated. them. Her story has multiple points of origin, but brought icons out of the sancta sanctorum of tem-
two in particular seem crucial. First, during the ples, carrying them in processions in community
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as festivals such as Ganapati Utsav and Durga Puja,
a result of colonial state interventions such as the both of which involve the construction, worship
88 THE CARAVAN
and immersion of large temporary facilitate the forging of useful links mental statues and religious theme
statues. In doing so, they created new between local communities and Dalit parks join technology and industrial
public spheres centred on the icon elites in the state apparatus. Even “parks”; fancy gated residential com-
and constituted by its devotees. (The as Dalit statue-building went viral, plexes; shoddy housing projects for
Ganapati festival itself mimicked Mu- achieving scale through number, a re- those displaced from urban slums; gi-
harram processions in which, Jain vival in Hindu statues seeking suprem- gantic malls with multiplex cinemas;
points out, Hindus had also partici- acy through height began to be visible private schools and hospitals; offices
pated until nationalist leaders including in the 1980s and 1990s. This coincided and hotels; spiritual and wellness
Bal Gangadhar Tilak explicitly encour- with the BJP’s rise to prominence on complexes; sylvan wedding “palaces”;
aged them to discontinue this practice the back of campaigns for the construc- memorials; ceremonial gateways,
in an effort to delineate a Hindu public tion of the Ram temple at Ayodhya including gateways between towns
sphere.) Bahujans resisted caste Hindu and the mobilisation of caste Hindus and highways; leisure and amuse-
attempts at hegemonic inclusion, forg- against the expansion of reservations ment parks including “eco-parks”;
ing counter-publics around their icons proposed by the Mandal commission. and, of course, yet more roads for the
but sometimes in ways that betrayed continuing deluge of cars.
a shared iconopraxis. Jain argues that
this was because their co-constitution In her recent book, Jain cites numerous instances in
as communities in the political sphere Kajri Jain offers the which the construction of statues as-
was achieved partly through icono- sists in the process of territorial enclo-
graphic strategies that were addressed most comprehensive sure, transforming the rural into the
“not only to their own constituencies, account to date of why peri-urban in aggressive real-estate
but also simultaneously to all the others and urban-development schemes, the
within a polity that recognized itself as monumental statues are visible presence of Hindu gods making
plural.” Thus, Dalit icons were also car- enjoying a resurgence land that was previously regarded as
ried in processions in the 1920s and the wilderness habitable for caste Hindus.
1930s. In beginning her story where she
in contemporary India Not coincidentally, several of these are
does, Jain makes clear that competitive and why the Hindu Right in mineral-rich areas—giant Shivas,
iconopraxis has been a central feature Sai Babas and Hanumans can be seen
of political modernity in India from its
is deeply invested in in Jabalpur, Sagar and Shahdol, and
very inception. building them. India’s largest statue of Jesus is located
Arguably the most original and at Khajuria Guru, near Sagar. The Ben-
subversive development in Dalit icono- In 2002, the BJP’s Yogesh Patel became galuru-based sculptor Sridhar, com-
praxis has been the iconisation of BR the first politician to erect a religious missioned to produce many of these
Ambedkar after his death in 1956. statue—one of Shiva in Vadodara’s statues, explains that they were built
From the late 1960s, Dalit activists Sursagar Lake—marking the party’s to ward off the evil spirits thought to
began to install Ambedkar statues consolidation of power in Gujarat in the frequent “uninhabited” spaces. Statues
across cities and towns in north India. very year of the infamous anti-Muslim can be understood here as the advance
By 1997, the Bahujan Samaj Party had pogrom that convulsed the state. guard of accumulation by disposses-
installed fifteen thousand statues of Yet Hindu nationalism and commu- sion, signs of a kind of frontier capital-
Ambedkar in Uttar Pradesh alone. Oc- nal rivalry were not the only drivers of ism. The Statue of Unity may be the
cupying space in a social context in monumental statue-building, which, most spectacular instance of this phe-
which segregation and exclusion from Jain argues, was also propelled by nomenon, even if it is the triumphant
public space have long marked the economic liberalisation from the 1980s capstone of a process of dispossession
Dalit condition, Ambedkar statues are onwards. In her reading, liberalisation that has been underway long before it
powerful symbols of Dalit pride. Yet, unleashed new wealth in sectors such was conceived.
as the anthropologist Nicolas Jaoul as construction, real estate and, espe- A particular provocation for the
demonstrates, there are also significant cially, automobiles, all of which found recent, turbocharged nature of Hindu
material issues at stake in the construc- uses for statues. statue-building may be the exponential
tion of these statues. The erection of scaling up of Dalit iconography particu-
an Ambedkar statue typically requires iconic statues and religious theme larly under Mayawati, the four-time
mobilisation, organisation and unity. parks come—quite literally—into the Dalit chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
The statues are often installed to make picture as new media that are vis- Between 2007 and 2012, she presided
claims on communal land, the use of ible to mobile viewers from the cars over the construction of lavish memori-
which Dalits are constantly in danger and roads that open up space for als in Lucknow to Ambedkar and her
of losing to dominant landed castes. construction on the urban peripher- mentor, the BSP founder Kanshi Ram.
And the official inauguration ceremo- ies and between urban concentra- Thanks to the patronage of the Dalit-
nies, in which the statues are typically tions—that is, at the frontiers of controlled state, these structures are
unveiled with much fanfare, can often development. At this frontier, monu- grander in scale, design, location and
JUNE 2022 89
below: People sit quality of material than the statues erected by in a manner that, for the first and only time in the
atop a tractor as grassroots Ambedkarites. They have come in for history of the Indian subcontinent, monumental-
they prepare to severe criticism from caste Hindus across the ide- ised the Dalit presence in urban space, which is
move out of the
ological spectrum, ostensibly on account of how everywhere produced on the backs of Dalit labour
town of Harsud, in
June 2004. With much they cost: R2,600 crore, by some estimates. but nowhere accords them a place of honour.
their town slated Moralistic savarna disapproval has not inhibited Moreover, the grandeur of her projects can be
to be submerged the BJP from surpassing these expenditures. The understood as a kind of insurance, future-proofing
by the Narmada Statue of Unity cost an estimated R2,989 crore, sites of Dalit memorialisation against their possi-
Sagar dam, they with around R250 crore controversially drawn ble removal or vandalisation by political rivals. As
had been asked by
out of the corporate social responsibility funds of Jain observes, and as the art historian Melia Belli
the government to
vacate and relocate. state-owned oil companies. According to a report also notes in an article on Mayawati’s memorials
of the comptroller and auditor general, the ex- in Lucknow, these concerns are indexed in the
penditure was improperly justified as being for the architect Jai Kaktikar’s use of thicker-than-usual
“protection of national heritage,” despite the fact slabs of stone and the sculptors Ram and Anil
that a new structure such as the statue could not Sutar’s preference for extra-thick bronze over con-
be considered a heritage asset. crete for the casting of statues and friezes. That
Amidst these rival, mimetic, costly and some- apprehensions about durability are not exagger-
times violent projects of statue-building, the his- ated is amply demonstrated by the fate that small-
torian and public intellectual Ramachandra Guha er-scale Ambedkar memorials routinely suffer. So
has called for a moratorium on the installation frequent are instances of desecration that, in many
of statues. Such a stance seems to posit a moral places, Ambedkar statues are locked in cages—os-
equivalence between radically dissimilar projects, tensibly for their own protection, although such
as if constructing a statue to make a claim on re- moves can also be read as symbolic attempts at
sources that one has wrongfully been denied were enclosure and containment. Moral and political
the same as constructing a statue to symbolise judgments about who deserves statues and who
a stranglehold on resources seized from others. does not are undoubtedly difficult to make. Yet the
Even Mayawati’s statue-building seemed under- disinclination to make them is an abdication of
pinned by an anxiety to exploit a narrow window the responsibility of interpretation—what else are
of opportunity to remake the built environment public intellectuals for?—and expresses a satisfac-
prakash hatvalne / ap
90 THE CARAVAN
tion with the status quo that only the who were displaced by the dam, around valley to be stopped till the project was
privileged can afford. 60 percent were Adivasis, according comprehensively re-evaluated. Thus
to the researcher Judith Whitehead. began a second period of delay, during
the statue of unity stands on the Worse, several categories of people ad- which the NBA carried out lobbying
island of Sadhu Bet in the Narmada versely affected by activities ancillary and dialogue with the state, mass ral-
River, facing the Sardar Sarovar dam, to the dam were never recognised as lies, long marches, hunger strikes and
which is three kilometres downstream. entitled to compensation. They include the particularly dramatic action of jal
Named in honour of Patel in a nod to people who have lost land to the canal samarpan—water sacrifice—in which
his role in conceptualising it in 1946, network that distributes the Narmada’s oustees stand in sometimes neck-deep
the dam was inaugurated by Nehru in waters, to compensatory afforestation water to demonstrate their willingness
1961. Nehru’s enthusiasm for big dams projects and to sites for the dam’s pro- to drown rather than leave their land
as harbingers of India’s development is ject offices and support infrastructure, in the face of the rising waters. In 1991,
well known. Inaugurating the Bhakra on which the Statue of Unity itself now the World Bank commissioned an in-
Nangal dam in 1954, he famously re- stands. dependent review of the project, whose
marked: Given the immensity of the stakes, devastating indictment compelled it
the project stalled for long periods in to impose additional conditions on the
As I walked around the site, I three distinct phases. First, the ripar- project authorities. Unwilling to com-
thought that these days the biggest ian states of Madhya Pradesh, Maha- ply, the Indian government requested it
temple and mosque and gurudwara rashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan were to withdraw from the project in 1993.
is the place where man works for the unable to agree on how to share the With the withdrawal of the World
good of mankind. Which place can costs and benefits of the project. This Bank and in the face of the state’s in-
be greater than this, this Bhakra- necessitated the establishment, in 1969, transigence, the NBA turned to the
Nangal, where thousands and lakhs of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribu- Supreme Court, pleading for a cessation
of men have worked, have shed their nal, which took ten years to deliver an and review of the Sardar Sarovar pro-
blood and sweat and laid down their award. ject with the full participation of those
lives as well? Where can be a holier When the World Bank sanctioned affected by the project. The court halt-
place than this, which we can regard a $450 million loan for the project in ed construction on the dam between
as higher?’ 1985—before it had been given envi- 1995 and 2000 while it considered the
ronmental clearance—activists began issues, prompting the third major delay
Sardar Sarovar has been controver- in the life of the project. Its October
sial from its very inception, not least Hindu nationalism 2000 judgment permitted the resump-
on account of its size. The world’s tion of construction, which was com-
second-largest concrete gravity dam and communal rivalry pleted only in 2017. Offering a ringing
by volume, it is a key element in one of were not the only ideological endorsement of big dams as
the most ambitious river valley projects indispensable for national welfare, the
ever conceived, one that comprises drivers of monumental court ruled that displacement by itself
more than three thousand dams across statue-building, which, did not violate fundamental rights if
the Narmada. The Sardar Sarovar dam the people affected were better off after
creates a 214-kilometre-long reservoir, Jain argues, was also rehabilitation. Indeed, it declared that
which submerges 37,533 hectares of propelled by economic this was a virtual inevitability. The re-
land and displaces 245 villages. Sup- habilitation-and-resettlement packages
porters hail it as “Gujarat ni jivadori”—
liberalisation from the promised by the riparian states, espe-
the lifeline of Gujarat—that will bring 1980s onwards. cially Gujarat, “are such that the living
water to its most parched districts in conditions of the oustees will be much
Kachchh and Saurashtra, irrigate a fifth better than what they had in their
of its cultivable land, generate hydro- to organise people at risk of displace- tribal hamlets,” the future chief justice
electricity and facilitate flood control. ment to enable them to make informed BN Kirpal ruled. “Gradual assimilation
Critics argue that its benefits have been decisions about resettlement and re- in the main stream of society will lead
overestimated and will flow primarily habilitation. By the time construction to betterment and progress.”
to industrial consumers and wealthy on the Sardar Sarovar dam began in The Gujarat government responded
sugarcane farmers in the districts of earnest, in 1988, several of the activist to the NBA with a countermovement of
Bharuch, Vadodara and Ahmedabad, groups had come together to form the its own, known as the Narmada Abhi-
which are closer to the dam. Converse- Narmada Bachao Andolan. Viewing yan. The political scientist Mona Mehta
ly, they argue, the economic, environ- the state as insincere in its promise argues that this movement, while or-
mental and existential costs of the dam of “land for land” compensation, the ganised and facilitated by the govern-
have been underestimated and are dis- NBA shifted from a position advocat- ment of Gujarat, drew on the support of
proportionately borne by the poorest. ing well-managed resettlement to a call a wide swathe of civil society, including
Of the two hundred thousand people for all work on dams in the Narmada trade unions, business associations,
JUNE 2022 91
professional and bar associations, civil- by the Narmada Abhiyan in crafting Sarovar Punarvast Agency (SSPA) has
rights organisations, caste associations, their response. Once again, Gujarat aimed at rebuilding lives of thousands
religious groups, youth wings of politi- and Gujaratis—read exclusively as Hin- of displaced families according to their
cal parties, residents’ associations and dus—were portrayed as victims of an aspirations and has demonstrated an
NGOs. The Gujarat State Cooperative international conspiracy. In her politi- exemplary model to the world that in-
Bank ran full-page newspaper adver- cal biography of Gujarat, Nikita Sud voluntary displacement can be turned
tisements urging readers to “Oppose persuasively argues, at a more general into prosperity.” Echoing the language
those who are coming to break the Nar- level, that Modi has intensified rather of the Supreme Court judgment, it
mada project—the lifeline of Gujarat, than invented many of the key ingredi- claims that “the SSPA’s Resettlement
those who are jealous of Gujarat and ents of the authoritarian populism that and Rehabilitation process ensured that
those who are virulently anti-Gujarat. is now so closely associated with him. people would be smoothly assimilated
Do not allow these people to enter the Given the centrality of contention over into the mainstream.” The text is ac-
territory of Gujarat.” In a rare display of the Sardar Sarovar project in shaping companied by images of apparently
unanimity across party lines, members these ingredients, we might read the contented people embracing “a new
of the legislative assembly passed a Statue of Unity as being situated at a life”: women carrying children, boys
resolution criticising the World Bank’s kind of ground zero for authoritarian sitting in front of computers, men at a
review of the Sardar Sarovar project rule in India today. political meeting, smiling farmers on
as an infringement of state sovereignty tractors and in cotton fields.
and resolved to proceed with the pro- Moral and political Recent analyses of resettlement are
ject irrespective of the bank’s back- as ideologically polarised as argu-
ing. Mehta suggests that the Narmada judgments about ments about the dam were. Reporting
Abhiyan produced a consensus around who deserves statues the results of a survey conducted in
the necessity for the Sardar Sarovar 2017, which compared living condi-
project by portraying the various im- and who does not are tions of resettled persons with those
pediments to it as victimising Gujarat. undoubtedly difficult still living in semi-evacuated vil-
This consensus was all the stronger in lages near the submergence zone, the
emanating from grassroots organisa- to make. Yet the economists Swaminathan Aiyar and
tions and in sharing the very idioms of disinclination to make Neeraj Kaushal argued that resettled
Gandhian protest that its opponents in villagers are “better off.” They arrived
the NBA also mobilised. The movement
them is an abdication at this conclusion by mapping and
coincided with a series of mobilisations of the responsibility of measuring a series of variables across
in Gujarat and elsewhere towards the the two groups including ownership
construction of a Ram temple in Ayod-
interpretation. of assets (such as vehicles, radios and
hya on the site of the Babri Masjid. In televisions, cable and gas connections,
Mehta’s reading, the pro-dam move- a visit to the statue of unity typi- sewing machines, mobile phones and
ment played a catalytic role in consoli- cally begins in the exhibition hall di- bank accounts), residence in brick and
dating Hindutva in Gujarat because it rectly beneath the statue’s feet. With cement structures, land ownership,
supplanted the traditional Right/Left its glossy marble floors and industrial- participation in commercial agricul-
axis of conflict that typically marked chic lighting, it feels like the lounge of ture, access to government facilities
development discourses with a Gujarati a hotel or airport. Half the exhibition (such as irrigation, schools, hospitals
nativism structured around the bina- is devoted to an account of Patel’s life, and community centres) and changes
ries of insider/outsider and friend/en- his contribution to the freedom strug- in social views.
emy. As she puts it, “the discursive and gle and his role in the making of mod- The former NBA activists Shripad
institutional structures made available ern India. The other half is about the Dharmadhikary and Nandini Oza criti-
by the Narmada Movement were ever Sardar Sarovar dam, its conceptualisa- cised the survey for evaluating quality
present and handy for Hindu national- tion and history as well as the many of life in terms of parameters that are
ist politics to effectively latch onto.” benefits that it is said to have brought. biased in favour of urban, monetised
These structures were in place more Betraying an anxiety about the trench- economies, thereby predisposing the
than a decade before Modi became ant critique that still hangs over it, one study to conclude that resettled per-
chief minister and at a time when the display claims that the “displacement sons are “better off.” In addition, they
Congress and Janata Dal ruled the of people in the course of the Sardar pointed out that the fact that resettled
state. When Modi became the target of Sarovar project was neither a forced persons have better access to govern-
vociferous domestic and international eviction nor an arbitrary ouster. It was ment facilities only highlights the
criticism early in his first term as chief in consonance with resettlement on gross failure of government services
minister, as a result of his government’s generous terms, which was judicially to reach Adivasi communities in the
complicity in the 2002 anti-Muslim determined, closely supervised and forest and cannot be used as a justifica-
pogroms, he and his followers were based on choice.” Another boasts that, tion for their displacement. Ironically,
able to draw from a playbook scripted “since its inception in 1992, the Sardar Aiyar and Kaushal revealed that, on
92 THE CARAVAN
the crucial question of whether resettled villag- dismantled, but instead of being returned to the
ers would prefer to go back to their old villages oustees, the land on which it once stood was
with the same land they had earlier, a majority of turned over to tourism.
the survey’s respondents, across age groups, re- The nature of this tourism is also rich in irony. A
sponded in the affirmative. Yet, they immediately different display in the exhibition hall speaks of a
circumscribed the significance of this finding by commitment to “eco tourism,” which it describes
attributing it to “nostalgia and attachment to the as “a form of tourism involving fragile, pristine,
land of ancestors and sacred forest sites” while and relatively undisturbed natural areas, intended
continuing to insist that the respondents were bet- as a low-impact and often small scale alternative
ter off in “material terms.” Meanwhile, anecdotal to standard commercial mass tourism. Eco Tour-
journalistic accounts, including those previously ism focuses on socially responsible travel, per-
carried in this magazine, continue to report prob- sonal growth, and environmental sustainability.”
lems with resettlement and rehabilitation such as Even if the Sardar Sarovar dam and its submerg-
delays, incompleteness and shoddiness of resettle- ing of thirteen thousand hectares of forest land is
ment facilities and corruption in the disbursement meant to be bracketed as old news, it is difficult
of compensation. to square the reference to eco-tourism with what
The cruellest irony of the Statue of Unity’s is unfolding in Kevadia today. Its seven “theme
claims on behalf of the resettlement programme based gardens” are notable for their incongru-
is that the very land on which the statue stands ity—manicured topographies with park benches,
was appropriated by the state without compensa- asphalted walkways and ponds, some stocked with
tion. Oza, who is currently the president of the fake birds, dropped into the wild beauty of the
Oral History Association of India, has chronicled Narmada Valley, inviting city dwellers from neigh-
the history of this site, drawing on extensive in- bouring Vadodara and Ahmedabad for weekends
terviews with the Tadvi community, who live in to a landscape into which they might not other-
the area. As she explains, the agricultural lands of wise have willingly or easily ventured.
Adivasis in six villages—Navagam, Gora, Limbdi, Yet another irony is evident in the vision of
Vaghadia, Kothi and Kevadia—were acquired in national identity that the landscape, with its end-
1961 to build the support infrastructure necessary less paeans to unity, seeks to evoke. In the hands
for the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam, of Kevadia’s developers, this seems to entail the
what would become Kevadia Colony. The land was disappearance of the indigenous and the importa-
acquired by the state in the “public interest,” but tion of the exotic across its human, animal and
those from whom it had been seized were never plant realms. Visitors to the Ekta Nursery are
considered “project affected persons” for pur- invited to examine a “tribal hut,” offering “a real
poses of resettlement and rehabilitation. While life depiction of tribal way of living along with
the project was delayed, she writes, the displaced household articles.” Paintings by Varali artists
families were allowed to cultivate what had been adorn the walls of the “hut,” while the floor is
their land but had to pay rent to the government covered with vessels and implements used in the
for the privilege of doing so. making of food and clothes. The silent stasis of
When construction began, they were forced to the display conveys the sense of a life that is very
make way for warehouses, offices, labour hous- firmly in the past. Yet the new tourist infrastruc-
ing, access roads and parking areas, helipads and ture relies on Adivasi labour and makes a virtue
a range of other infrastructure needed to build out of this necessity by advertising this fact and its
the dam. Deprived of their livelihood, many were supposed contribution to their welfare. Like many
forced to work as labour on the dam site or as of the other tourist spots in the area, the nursery
domestic servants in the homes of the dam build- describes itself as offering employment oppor-
ers. Most refused the meagre cash compensation tunities to local women organised in “self-help”
that they were offered by the Gujarat government groups. A sign hanging in its café reads: “Helping
under World Bank pressure in the 1990s, arguing others is an act of kindness. Making them ‘help
that they ought to have been treated on par with themselves’ is what we call an art.”
those displaced by the dam itself. The NBA took These mystifying claims hold little water with
up these issues when it approached the Supreme some of the local residents. Speaking to Scroll,
Court, arguing also that the land could not be used Lakhan Musafir, one of the activists detained at
for tourism as envisioned by the government in its the time of the Statue of Unity’s inauguration,
plans for the site after completion of the dam. In said that the project “has no benefit whatsoever
dismissing the case, the court made no provision for the people living here. Even the little employ-
for those displaced by Kevadia Colony. When con- ment they are promising to give locals will be on a
struction on the dam was completed, the support contract basis. The government is only concerned
infrastructure—including the local hospital—was about tourism profit, but shouldn’t a tourism pro-
JUNE 2022 93
ject involve participation of the local debeest and oryxes, and transporting tallest statue in the world, a process that
people? Modi is doing this for himself, 155 animals from other parts of India seems to necessitate bringing the world,
for his own immortality so that he can to the site. In March 2022, it admitted quite literally, to Kevadia.
tell people that he built the biggest that 36 percent of the imported animals It is surprisingly difficult to look at
statue in the world. And he is doing it and 24 percent of those brought from the Statue of Unity. If you are too close
for the big companies.” other zoos in India had died because to it, you can only really appreciate
One corner of the Ekta Nursery is they could not adjust to their new its gigantic feet, where visitors enjoy
given over to a display of Japanese bon- environment or had not received ap- sizing themselves up against Patel’s
sai. At the Cactus Garden, another stop propriate care. During the same period, boulder-like toes and too-perfect nails.
on the circuit, among the first plants 194 crocodiles were trapped in cages If you are far enough to see the whole
that visitors encounter is Pachypodium and removed from the lake near the statue, you cannot clearly see the lines
geayi, a cactus-like palm tree that is na- Statue of Unity to make the water safer in Patel’s face or the folds of his dhoti
tive to Madagascar. A large greenhouse for tourists on boat rides as well as for that Ram and Anil Sutar have etched
displays an impressive range of cacti those using the new seaplane service into their monumental creation. For
from all over the world. The Jungle Sa- between Ahmedabad and Kevadia. many visitors, the literal and meta-
fari boasts of being home to almost two Signs around the lake continue to warn phorical highpoint of their visit to the
hundred species of fauna drawn from visitors against entering the water. The statue comes when they take the eleva-
all the continents except Antarctica. relentless implantation of the exotic, tor to the viewing gallery, located in
Between 2019 and 2021, the Gujarat successfully or not, and eviction of Patel’s chest, at a height of 153 metres.
government spent R5.47 crore in import- the native gives tourism in Kevadia a Offering spectacular views from both
ing 22 animals from South America, distinctly settler colonial feel. Much of the front and back of the statue, the
Africa and Australia, including giraffes, this is justified through the rhetoric of viewer’s gaze is nonetheless focused
pib
zebras, alpacas, llamas, wallabies, wil- providing “world class” facilities at the on one target—the Sardar Sarovar dam,
94 THE CARAVAN
which is perfectly framed by the gallery’s latticed public parks, and the best schools. The police opposite page:
grill frontage. Suddenly, the chief purpose of the were drawn from their ranks, and the courts de- Narendra Modi
statue becomes clear. This is not a statue to look at pendent upon their votes, treated them with such releases butterflies
at the Butterfly
but one to look from. leniency as to encourage lawlessness. Their vote
Park, in Kevadia,
Scholars of Hinduism have frequently noted the selected public officials, and while this had small in September
importance of “darshan” in its practices of venera- effect upon the economic situation, it had great 2019. Kevadia’s
tion and worship. “The central act of Hindu wor- effect upon their personal treatment and the seven “theme
ship, from the point of view of the lay person, is deference shown to them … On the other hand, based gardens”
to stand in the presence of the deity and to behold in the same way, the Negro was subject to public are notable for
their incongruity—
the image with one’s own eyes, to see and be seen insult; was afraid of mobs; was liable to the jibes
manicured
by the deity,” Diana Eck writes. This act is typical- of children and the unreasoning fears of white topographies with
ly spoken of as an exchange, evident in the Hindi women; and was compelled almost continuously park benches,
expressions describing how the deity gives and to submit to various badges of inferiority. The asphalted walkways
the devotee takes darshan. Sumathi Ramaswamy result of this was that the wages of both classes and ponds, some
argues that, through seeing and being seen, “re- could be kept low, the whites fearing to be sup- stocked with fake
birds, dropped into
gimes of allegiance and devotion, even intimacy, planted by Negro labor, the Negroes always being
the wild beauty of
are constituted between the divine image and its threatened by the substitution of white labor. the Narmada Valley.
worshipper.” Even if the Sardar
Visitors are offered a plethora of opportunities One element in the “public and psychological Sarovar dam and
for darshan of the Sardar Sarovar dam. Gone are wage” paid to white labour was the rash of stat- its submerging of
the days when dams bristled with “photography ues honouring white-supremacist figures who forest land is meant
strictly prohibited” signage: today they come fit- had fought to uphold slavery in the Civil War that to be bracketed
as old news, it is
ted with selfie points, even if state anxiety about came to pockmark the former Confederate states
difficult to square
their potential vulnerability to sabotage has never in the early decades of the twentieth century. the references to
gone away. I went to take a final look at the dam on Together with the other non-monetary “benefits” eco-tourism in the
my last night in Kevadia. As I walked towards it, that Du Bois identifies, they operated to stymie the exhibition hall
the first strains of AR Rahman’s version of “Vande development of class consciousness amongst white under the Statue
Mataram” rent the air. The dam was bathed in labour by offering visual proof in the built envi- of Unity with what
is unfolding in
light, its crest fitted with strobe lights and laser ronment of their racial supremacy.
Kevadia today.
beams that stretched far into the night sky. The The electoral strategy of the BJP has long rested
tricolour of the national flag alternated with other on two planks: the material wage offered by the
colours and patterns that flashed and danced in promise of “vikas”—development—and the psycho-
time to the music. I tried to conjure up the images logical wage of Hindutva. Recognising that people
of struggle that I had come to associate with the do not live by bread alone, the psychological wage
dam in all the time that I had read about it. But responds to a complex and confusing amalgam
they were edged out by the sheer sound and fury of psychic needs, both legitimate and not, such
of the spectacle I was witnessing. as dignity, recognition, the desire to recuperate a
lost or failed masculinity and the glory of a Vedic
what do statues do for those whom they speak Golden Age. It is disbursed through a now familiar
to? Although Jain does not engage in much com- array of mechanisms and campaigns that end-
parative analysis of statue-building in other parts lessly reiterate Hindu supremacy, including the
of the world, it is instructive to turn to the United construction of temples and statues, the lynching
States, where Black Lives Matter has placed stat- of minorities and the increasingly stringent polic-
ues of white supremacists under the spotlight, ing of whom one can love, where one can live, and
and especially to the work of the great sociolo- what one can eat, wear, read and say. Crucially, as
gist WEB Du Bois. Preoccupied, like Marx and Du Bois points out, the psychological wage does
Ambedkar, with the question of why class revolu- not simply supplement the material wage but also
tion was unlikely to materialise in sharply divided supplants it, perhaps even blinding its beneficiar-
societies, Du Bois offers the following analysis of ies to the ways in which their material interests
why white labour was more likely to identify with remain unsatisfied while binding them to their
white elites than with the Black working class: better-off racial, religious and caste brethren. In
this sense, it also operates as a bulwark, protect-
the white group of laborers, while they received a ing the party against the flood of rage that might
low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of otherwise engulf it as those drawn into its elec-
public and psychological wage. They were given toral coalition find themselves disappointed by the
public deference and titles of courtesy because hollow slogans and jobless growth that it delivers.
they were white. They were admitted freely with Dams remain temples in contemporary India, but
all classes of white people to public functions, statues and temples have also become dams. s
JUNE 2022 95
THE BOOKSHELF
A SMALL STEP IN PERIOD MATTERS

A LONG JOURNEY MENSTRUATION IN
SOUTH ASIA
Akkai Padmashali
As told to Gowri Edited by
Vijayakumar Farah Ahamed
A memoir by the trans-rights activist, poet and writer Akkai A collection of work from across South Asia exploring
Padmashali that recounts her battle to establish her identity, menstruation and menstrual health, including essays, stories,
and the many challenges, solidarity, work and joy she en- artwork and poetry that provide a range of perspectives on
countered along the way. the subject.
zubaan, S495, 244 pages pan macmillan india, S599, 336 pages
I AM ONIR SPIRIT NIGHTS

AND I AM GAY
Easterine Kire
Onir with Irene
Dhar Malik
In the author and poet Easterine Kire’s retelling of a story

inspired by accounts from the Chang Naga tribe, darkness
A memoir by the filmmaker Onir (written with his sister), descends at noon and shrouds several villages for days, until
which recalls his childhood in Bhutan, his entrance into the their inhabitants reckon with a taboo that has been violated
Hindi film industry and his efforts to provoke conversations in the spirit world.
about identity and LGBT representation in cinema.
penguin viking, S599, 288 pages simon and schuster, S599, 200 pages
96 THE CARAVAN
THE BOOKSHELF
VIOLETS THE WAIT

AND OTHER STORIES
Kyung-Sook Shin
Damodar Mauzos
Set in 1990s Korea and revolving around 22-year-old San, In this collection of stories, most of which are set in Goa, the
who stumbles across a job at a flower shop one summer in Konkani writer Damodar Mauzo explores remorse, regret,
Seoul, the novel explores violence, grief, love, longing and desire, religious polarisation and more through a dizzying cast
social isolation. of characters.
hachette india, S699, 224 pages penguin, vintage books, S499, 256 pages
CITIZENSHIP NIREESWARAN
REGIMES, LAW,
AND BELONGING VJ James
THE CAA AND Translated by
THE NRC Ministhy S
Anupama Roy
This book considers at length the history behind citizenship In this satirical novel on faith and society, three atheists,
laws in India, arguing for an analysis of the ideological prac- Antony, Sahir, and Bhaskaran, attempt to establish that god is
tices behind them and an exploration of ideas of belonging a superstition but their plan is thwarted by the people around
based on descent and exclusionary nationhood. them, leading to new dilemmas about belief.
oxford university press, S1,495, 288 pages penguin, vintage books, S599, 320 pages
JUNE 2022 97
Editor’s Pick
ap
on 18 june 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Isma’il, sold this stake to the British of foreign troops was a major bone of
the head of the Egyptian government, government. The following year, an contention for Egyptian nationalists,
attends a ceremony at Port Said to mark Anglo-French commission appointed who launched several fidayeen attacks
the withdrawal of British forces from to manage Egyptian finances man- on British bases along the canal. In
the Suez Canal. The canal, which links dated that Isma’il sell off his right to 1954, Nasser’s government negoti-
the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea 15 percent of the canal’s profits to a ated an agreement that included the
and is one of the busiest shipping lanes French bank. In 1882, following a na- withdrawal of all British soldiers. After
in the world, was inaugurated in 1869. tionalist uprising against Isma’il’s son the World Bank denied funding for
It was constructed by a French compa- Tewfik—who was seen as a European the construction of the Aswan Dam,
ny on land provided by Mohamed Sa’id, puppet—the British occupied Egypt. in July 1956, Nasser announced the
the viceroy of Egypt and Sudan under The Convention of Constantinople, nationalisation of the Suez Canal—with
the Ottoman Empire. signed by the Ottomans and several its revenues to be used to build the
Sa’id granted the company a lease European states in 1888, established dam. British, French and Israeli troops
to operate the canal for 99 years. He the canal as a neutral zone under Brit- invaded in October but, following po-
retained 44 percent of the company’s ish protection. litical pressure from the United States
shares but, during a financial crisis Nasser came to power following a and the Soviet Union, the canal was
in 1875, his nephew and successor, military coup, in 1952. The presence returned to Egypt.
98 THE CARAVAN
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दै निक जागरण, राजस्थाि पत्रिका, दै निक भास्कर, ह द
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cover story / film

The Warrior Queen

Kangana Ranaut’s journey from Bollywood outsider to liberal

politics conflict caste

photo essay / communities

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Fighting for Fair

/ thenmozhi soundararajan He was a father, a survivor and an Ambedkarite,

der-based violence and sexual harassment. The

lakshmibai rides a horse into the com-

Kangana Ranaut’s role in the defenders of poor village folk against

which was released on 20 May, Ranaut

in Bollywood defended her stance questioning

kalpak pathak / hindustan times

ranaut has created a safety net of ﬁnancial

Ranaut has 7.8 million

9.6 million followers on

on the phone, Muhammad, a shopkeeper from

construction boom. weep was received with immense trepidation from

“too had participated in the meeting

in Lakshadweep cannot be at one level, a design ﬂaw is revealing itself. In

massive land acquisition notices now

on the cold evening of 23 december 2021, about

Kashmiris, #KashmirBadalRahaHai and #Kash-

right: Kashif Shah, who works as

above: Mourners during the

opposite page: Participants of the

right: A ziyarat for Hussain’s

above: Mourners beat their chests

A SMALL STEP IN PERIOD MATTERS

I AM ONIR SPIRIT NIGHTS

In the author and poet Easterine Kire’s retelling of a story

VIOLETS THE WAIT

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