JLF : “Stage by Stage”

  Stage by Stage : an event at the JaipurLiterature Festival (JLF) raised many question concerning the modern Indian theater. Among them, the one which particularly touched my conscience was: “why did the theater movement died in India post 1980s?”

 Girish Karnad was one of the speakers for this particular event and according to him the spread and reach of television and spatial disadvantage (location of theaters) were the main causes among many for the fall of theatre in India. I agree with his remark to the procedural failure of theater movement but at the same time I find myself confronting with the question of its continued absence in India. Can I find solace in putting all the blame on the apathy of Indian audience?

Sometime during the show Grisih Karnad agreed that Indian society failed to produce good play writers. Now if we juxtapose this absence of good play writers with the spatial disadvantage then we find that the contemporary Indian theatre is either mere improvisation of earlier Indian plays or repetition of western plays. Therefore it is not the apathy of Indian audience but a systemic failure to cultivate and nurture our heritage. 

Protected heritage in India is largely static and monolithic; therefore cultural practises such as, those practiced by tribal and rural people is left to be scavenged by either the cultural tourism or directionless development. The future of Indian theater depends on the survival of Indian culture (not the pseudo Indian Culture) because good plays always draw clues form cultural uniqueness.

Devra Destined to Doom

And we thought Delhi is the most unsafe place for females!!!

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There are just 13 girls in the village of Devra. A possible 14th could have been the victim of the widespread practice of female infanticide

In 1997, Devra village in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district reported the first marriage of a girl belonging to a local family in over 100 years. Jaswant Kanwar survived to reach marriageable age in a village where female infanticide was ritually and ruthlessly practiced. A newspaper article at the time stated that there were just two other little girls in the village. 

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Read more: InfoChange

APMC Act : part of the problem, part of the solution

  The sustained inflation in perishable food items for over a year is most debated and worrisome issue. The debate on this issue made us look at the wide range of solutions, ranging from opening up of FDI in retail to mega food park schemes. However, the solutions proposed appear partial as they either demand overhauling of the existing system or provide marginal solution. 

The solution of the ongoing phenomenon lies in focused intervention akin to cure of a disease in medicine. The solution of food inflation lies in overhauling of Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act. The APMC Act was instituted in 1960s to ensure farmers get the right price for their produce with immediate cash payment. With time, trading volumes have improved. Meanwhile, few vagaries have cropped up, traders who continue to hold licenses by default since generations have become a strong cartel. The Act discourages competition by limiting the number of players and naturally lends to the collusion. The multiple levels and taxes charged by different APMC and state level rules and regulation distort trade.

The APMC was supposed to provide efficient system of buying and selling of agricultural commodities. Ideally like an organic system APMC should have evolved but it defied principle of natural selection. The existence of this system in short run is essential to protect any systemic collapse. In this regard an attempt was made in 2002 through an amendment in Companies Act, the proposed amendment provides for Producer Company (different form a co-operative). 

The producer companies should undertake two primary functions: aggregation of local produce and information dissemination. The upcoming producer companies in perishables food items can take a leaf out of Amul and e-Choupal functioning. The other initiatives like FDI in supply chain and cold storage will supplement their functioning by further reducing the transaction costs. The collective bargaining power of producer companies will protect farmer’s interest from large retail houses.

The union budget 2011-12 has propounded to reform APMC Act but the unanimity on this subject will test political will of states as it is a subject of their purview. The reform would attempt to delist perishables from APMC Act.

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What are Producer Companies as per Companies Act 2002 ?

In a `Producer Company', only persons engaged in an activity connected with, or related to, primary produce can participate in the ownership. The members necessarily have to be `primary producers.' 

Primary produce has been defined as a produce of farmers arising from agriculture including animal husbandry, horticulture, floriculture, pisciculture, viticulture, forestry, forest products, re-vegetation, bee raising and farming plantation products: produce of persons engaged in handloom, handicraft and other cottage industries: by - products of such products; and products arising out of ancillary industries.

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Anupam Mishra: The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting

Has the time for Mumbai consensus arrived?

Globally in business world “the India way” is redefining management practice. Indian art of management is people centric it calls for holistic engagement with employees or employee’s first, customers second. This makes one ponder “is it right time to propagate the Idea of India”? The idea of India neither stands for emerging market nor desire to represent United Nations Security Council rather, it stands for secular, plural and inclusive democracy.

 

It is this idea that global community respects and values. The approach of connecting people to people of India is long lasting and humanistic. This approach is about shouldering responsibility and not shedding responsibility. The future of climate change negotiations is contingent upon the spread of the Mumbai consensus. The Mumbai consensus in political sphere draws its dimensions form the constitution of India. The idea of India is mother of Mumbai consensus.

An early offshoot of Mumbai consensus is reflected in the call from Muslim brotherhood party to India for helping Egyptians in establishing democratic institutions. 

On the other end of spectrum lies the Washington Consensus. Its failure in political sphere is evident in Iraq and Afghanistan. Any attempt to save it would be futile. As in a market a product thrives till it has critical mass of buyers else it dies down, the same holds true for an idea. Washington consensus no longer finds any buyers, it appears to have sunk in rubble of the crash of Wall Street in 2008-09. The revolution for democracy in West Asia and North African counties out-rightly discarded Washington consensus. 

The operation “Odyssey Dawn” is an attempt to resurrect Washington consensus. This operation will jeopardize democratic interest of Libyan people. Democracy can neither be exported nor can it be forced on people. The genesis of democracy lies in the fact that it derives its power form people. In Libya people had divisive opinion on this matter till UNSC imposed sanctions. Thus the military intervention in a volatile scenario is unjust and uncalled. Moreover, the selective approach of intervention adopted by west is against the spirit of human rights. 

Like Mumbai consensus there exists Beijing consensus but it is so fragile that even a call on twitter can evoke sensation in Beijing. The financial crisis has contested the India way and it stood ground firmly. The clash of Washington and Mumbai consensus is a hypothetical situation because India does not believe in exporting democracy unlike western nations.

The fragrance of Mumbai consensus will grow stronger in coming years and world will itself embrace it.

Revolution within revolution

Little did Peter Merholz (online journalist) knew when he took Jorn Brager’s word "Weblog" and splits it into the phrase "We blog". Two subtle things followed then, Blog soon become shorthand for weblog and people of least open societies became  largest bloggers.

China became the largest blogger's nation by virtue of its largest population. However, Iran becoming the third largest blogger's nation is by any standards a miracle. What is even more amazing about Iran is that it was Iranian Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi launched his own blog, well before many U.S. politicians catch on to the idea.The inherent desire of people to express has come out succinctly through Twitters and Blog-sphere. 

 

Source:Iran: A nation of bloggers from Mr.Aaron on Vimeo.

All honour to Mohun Bagan!!

 "All honour to Mohun Bagan!! Those eleven players are not only a glory to themselves and to their Club and to the great nation to which they belong; they are the glory to the game itself" - this was a line from a report in The Empire about the 1911 Mohun Bagan IFA Shield victory.  

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Egaro (The Eleven) is a celluloid tribute to the eleven players of Mohan Bagan who won the IFA Shield in the final match against East Yorkshire in 1911. This year marks the 100th year of that wonderful win. The Indian team was comprised of ill-equipped, under-nourished soldiers competing against eleven physically stronger and better prepared British footballers. Ten of the eleven members of the team played the match on bare feet. Only one of them, Rev. Sudhir Chatterjee (Chandan Bhattacharya), who was a professor of a noted college, wore boots. The opponents, East Yorkshire, were well-equipped with proper football gear. 

But the match had significance beyond the contest on the field, and that proved to be Bagan's strength. The game was played in the aftermath of Lord Curzon's engineered partition of Bengal in 1905, and the execution of Khudiram Bose for his attempt to murder Kingsford in 1908. Against this background, Mohun Bagan's victory against a team repesenting the rulers became a turning point in consolidating the discontentment and anger of Indians against the British administration. 

The battle spread out to the entire state of Bengal, with crowds of people thronging in to watch the match. The British side of the audience was just a trickle in comparison. And the eventual victory by the Indian side is said to have driven the British administration to shift its capital in India from Calcutta to Delhi the same year. 

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Source: India Together