I haven’t seen too much discussion about this on the blogs, I guess people get tired of getting hate mail from the SS (Saffron Sympathizers). I am assuming most people have heard of the arrest of MS University Art student, Chandra Mohan who seems to have simultaneously offended the self-appointed protectors of Hindu and Christian sentiments, with his MFA thesis paintings:

A group of VHP activists led by Niraj Jain, an advocate and a local VHP leader, barged into the university campus at around 3.30 pm on Wednesday, when the internal evaluation of the student works was being held. They allegedly manhandled Mohan and hurled abuses at the faculty members and other students.

They had tipped off the local police who were soon at the spot and took Mohan into custody, as he was ‘a threat to the secular atmosphere of Baroda’.

Yes, you heard right, the saffron shirts barge into a university examination, not open to the public, rough up people, and the victim gets arrested.

The dean, Shivji Panniker would like to file a complaint against the attack, instead he has been suspended by the vice chancellor of the university who apparently apologized to the attacker. The students have responded by arranging an exhibition of religious art, and the faculty has released a press release in support of Chandra Mohan and the dean.

The latest news is that Chandra Mohan has been denied bail, and the Rev Immanuel Kant (does the man know he shares his name with an Enlightenment philosopher?) is planning a rally to protest Chandra Mohan’s depiction of Jesus.

I haven’t found any images of the offending paintings, but MS University has one of the top Art departments in the country, and from what I have seen of the work of their students and faculty, its a well deserved reputation. So its hard for me to believe that the student’s work is simply crude and aimed at being offensive.
Still, I would be willing to accommodate Jain’s assessment that these paintings are offensive if I could actually believe that the man is a competent art critic. But given similar brouhahas in the past, I am not so sure. Remember the whole anti-Hussein protest last year? Here is an example of one of the paintings that was being protested. The caption on the web page says: Goddess Durga in the nude having sexual intercourse with a tiger. I looked at this picture for a long time and just couldn’t see it as such, a rather tired reference to Cubism, but intercourse? Nope. I guess you need to have a dirty mind to see it. (See the whole series and what is supposedly objectionable about them here)

Update: The Fine Arts faculty at MS University has a blog with updates and links.

2nd Update: Here is a video of the incident (via Chapati Mystery)

I had blogged Lord Macauley’s birthday celebration a couple of days ago; An occasion where a portrait of Goddess English was unveiled. As a result of that post, the organizer, Chandrabhan Prasad very kindly e-mailed me an image of this fantastic portrait by Shant Swaroop Baudha.

In his e-mail Prasad said:

Will the future generations of Dalits/Adivasis fit into a world shaped by their own Goddess? The answer is a clear NO. The remedy for that NO is to accept the Goddess in Her entirety – and become English speaking at the earliest.

Goddess English is all about emancipation. Goddess English is a mass movement against the Caste Order, against linguistic evils such as Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telgu and Bangla for instance. Indian languages as more about prejudices, discrimination and hatred and less about expressions and communications.

I don’t know if I would characterize Hindi and Marathi as linguistic evils, but I couldn’t agree more about the importance of learning an international language.

Anything that will be a step towards stopping another Kherlanji from occurring again is welcome.

A rather vivid account of Lord Macauley’s 206th birthday celebration in the Indian Express. The event was organized by Dalit leader Chandrabhan Prasad, which included the unveiling of a portrait of English, the Mother Goddess:

Dalit poet Parak sang a couplet to the portrait - a refashioned Statue of Liberty, wearing a hippie hat, holding a massive pink pen, standing on a computer, with a blazing map of India in the background - Oh, Devi Ma/ Please Let us Learn English/ Even the dogs understand English, to cheers and laughter, even as Lord Macaulay’s portrait, looking the perfect English buccaneer, gazed below.

Alas, I haven’t been able to find an image of the portrait. Prasad’s reveres Macauley because:

…his insistence to teach the “natives” English broke the stranglehold of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic teaching, a privilege of only the elite castes and, he argued,for the European kind of modern education, with focus on modern sciences. “Imagine, if we had only followed indigenous study,’’ said Bhan, “we would be like Afghanistan or Nepal today.’’……“Today, English-speaking Dalits and Adivasis are less disrespected, therefore, empowered by Goddess English, Dalits can take their place in the new globalised world.’’

An interesting contrast to the view of Hindu Nationalists, for whom “Macaulay’s Children” is a favored insult for members of the English speaking Indian intelligentsia:

They are not real people, but zombies programmed by Macaulay to act like the Caliban, the slave.

Much as I enjoy the irony of using Shakespeare to advance the Hindutva agenda, I am much more inclined to sympathize with Ashis Nandy who seems to have had a jolly time at the party:

“I certainly do not agree with some of Bhan’s thesis,’’ said an aghast Nandy, “but I certainly support every oppressed community or individual’s right to pick up any weapon, be it political, academic or intellectual incorrectness, to fight the establishment. It’s the sheer audacity of it that makes it so forceful.’’

Filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo died at 86 in Rome on Thursday. Pontecorvo was the director of the amazing, Battle of Algiers, which is about a chapter in the Algerian war of independence from France. This film has a diverse audience (NYT):

“The Battle of Algiers” won the Golden Lion for best film at the 1966 Venice International Film Festival. (Mr. Pontecorvo directed the festival for four years, starting in 1992.) But its legend grew as it was used as a kind of training film by both urban guerrillas and the authorities trying to suppress them. The Black Panthers studied the film in the 1960’s, and in 2003, months after the war against Iraqi insurgents began, the Pentagon screened the film for military and civilian war planners.

Its been interesting looking at what is out there regarding this film. The American Conservative opines:

In Algeria, torture worked. What the film doesn’t show is that in France, though, the public started to lose the stomach for the “necessary consequences.” Alarmed that the politicians might throw away their fallen comrades’ sacrifices, the paratroopers threatened to drop on Paris in May 1958 unless Gen. Charles de Gaulle became France’s strong man.

Once in power, however, that great patriot resolved to cut and run. He had to weather two coup attempts and countless assassination plots, but, minus the Algerian tumor, long-suffering France emerged peaceful, prosperous, and democratic.

Sounds familiar! doesn’t it? Here is a link to Democracy Now’s take on the film and it’s implication for the current war and the role of torture. There is more extensive discussion of the Algerian Revolution and the film at the Monthly Review.

Most of the articles I read, are made uneasy by the fact that Pontecarvo was a member of the Italian Communist Party, and even if they like the film they have a queasy feeling about it. I think the film is a lot more complex and as such its difficult to co-opt it with complete ease by anyone who wants to draw easy lessons for our current dilemmas.

In 1941, 17 year old Diana Elias was among the 19,000 British civilians captured by the Japanese in Hong Kong for being British. She was interred in Stanley Camp, and was forced to work on the “Railway of Death” between Thailand and Burma.

In 2000, the UK Government announced a compensation of £10,000 to British civilians interred during the war, as a ‘debt of honor.’ However:

Several months after details of the scheme were published, the government decreed that claimants should show a ‘blood link’ with this country

Which disqualified the 83 year old Diana, because her parents are of Indian and Iraqi heritage and she was born in Hong Kong, . Apparently she was British enough to be interred, but not British enough to receive a ‘debt of honor.’ In 2005, she took her case to the Parliamentary Ombudsman and received her compensation. You can listen to Diana on BBC radio regarding the case.
Diana is now pursuing the case in court to get the Ministry of Defense to acknowledge that the blood-link rule is racist, and among other things apologize.

You can read parts of her witness statement here.

While the reservation debate simmers under the lid. This makes for some disturbing reading (from the Hindu):

SOME SCENES at a medical college:

a) A student with his friends stands at the door of a classroom and questions each student entering, “Are you a quota student?” While many say “no” to him, to some he says, “Hello! I know you are a quota student,” and all of them in the group laugh at that student.

b) A lecturer enters the classroom to find many students sporting a black band on their arms. He smiles at the students and says, “So you are protesting against quota? Well, you people can marry SCs/STs/OBCs and get a quota… So why don’t you try?” He smiles at the students sarcastically. Inspired by the “advice” of their lecturer, one student tells her neighbour (who is an ST student), “If you have a brother tell me, I will marry him and I will also get reservation.”

c) Many backward caste students are bombarded with humiliating mobile messages by their friends. Here is a sample: “From now onwards, if a SC/ST student scores 4 runs, it’s equal to 8 runs. If he scores 50 runs, it is considered a century…” Another SMS goes like this: “One doctor killed a patient though he was a qualified doctor, why? Because he was a non-meritorious reserved candidate! **** [expletive removed] reservation and reserved candidates” (Not to mention another SMS which made mockery of Arjun Singh in a most indecent way).

d) Students at the hostel decide to switch off their lights for five minutes to protest. But some students are not bothered. Now, other students start irritating these students by singing songs containing the words “quota” and “reservation.” Humiliated over this, these students decide to accompany other students the next day for their protest march.

e) Students get their test marks. One student looks at the marks of another student and comments: “Why did you score so high? You have quota… Don’t take the risk of scoring so much.”

Some day, some of these students at the receiving end of this daily humiliation might be in positions of power. I wonder how they’ll act. And what of those students who think its okay to treat their colleagues in this way? they are going to be in charge of taking care of human beings down the road, what sort of care can they provide when they have such disdain for a majority of the people in the country.

Did you know that Carbon Dioxide has been unfairly maligned? well, it was, till something called the Competitive Enterprise Institute came to the rescue. The CEI is a think-tank funded by the energy industry. In its attempt to help the deluded public regarding global warming, it has produced two television spots. Without so much as batting an eyelid, the ad declares, “They call it pollution, we call it life.” And there is no irony here people.

Watch the ads here. They also have some anti-An Inconvenient Truth ads, whose success (it is the top grossing independent film this week) must not be giving them too much comfort. The Intersection has a list of “We Call It Life” tag lines. Also see a script (via Cup of Java) for an alternative ad on Global Warming Watch.

After the enormous amount of tripe in the papers and blogosphere, the best thing I saw about the reservation brouhaha comes fromDilip D’Souza. Also see, How The Other Half Lives for “merit,” that thing that is supposed to be the arbiter of access to educational privileges. If you have been through the Indian educational system, with its requisite need for cram schools and extra coaching, “merit” seems like a bad joke that everyone agrees to go along with, well, only if they can pay the requisite tuition fees of course.

Reservation may or may not be the best policy to achieve social justice, but the debate around it is striking for its degraded tone.

Big news out of Nepal. After massive protests, the king was forced to reconvene parliament (the BBC has a summary analysis) in April. And yesterday, The Hindu reports:

The Nepal House of Representatives on Thursday passed a proclamation declaring itself the sovereign and supreme body of the country and massively cutting the king’s powers and privileges. It also declared the country a secular state and put the army under its control.

Hopefully this is a turning point for Nepal, which has bearing the brunt of poor governance for decades and a bloody rebellion in the last decade. However, the Asian Center for Human Rights points out that there are things to be concerned about, like, will the army be held responsible for human rights abuses.

….the SPA (Seven Party Alliance) government must not use the draconian preventive detention laws such as Public Offences Act and Public Safety Act, which have been consistently misused by the monarchy to suppress pro-democracy movements. One of the major failures of the 1990 pro-democracy movement was the failure of the democratic governments in Kathmandu to repeal these draconian laws. Before King Gyanendra took over absolute power, all the governments misused the Public Safety Act and Public Offences Act.

Other than the abysmal record of the government before the King dismissed the parliament, there is also the matter of the Maoists, and their human rights record, and whether it will be possible for them to enter the political mainstream, not only because of the difficulties of holding a fair election, but also will the world be willing to accept former rebels as the legitimate Government.

After seven weeks in India, its back to George Bush’s America. With its headlines about Bush vowing to overturn Roe v. Wade, and words like “freedom,” “truth” and “democracy” being hurled about like missiles. It occurs to me that no matter how bad things get in India it never feels quite this depressing. The Indian government would have to resign on charges much less serious than Abramoff, Katrina and of course the war.

I finally know I am home after reading our erstwhile neighbor, Joe Sacco’s documentary comic on the Rumsfeld case (Thank you Thom Powers). It makes for depressing reading, but its a fine piece of documentation, not the least because of what it has to say about the act of documenting atrocities.

Update: The link to the comic is a pdf download