SPHEEHA's academic activist Shabd Mishra said: "Libraries and bookshops across the city are witnessing fewer footfalls. The habit of reading itself is going out of fashion either because people, especially the youth, are too engrossed in WhatsApping and taking selfies or they prefer to spend time and money on clothing and food. All this in a region that produced literary giants like Amir Khusrau, Mirza Ghalib, Surdas and Mir Taqi Mir."

The event began with a talk on Urdu Literature of Braj region by eminent scholar Nasreen Begum who invoked the greats of Urdu language like Amir Khusro, Shah Nizamuddin, Nazir Akbarabaadi and others in her presentation.

Dr Shashi Tiwari, while talking of Hindi literary scene in Braj, lamented the state of literary activities in Agra and suggested that instead of aping the West, we should copy the way they promote their literature.

Agra Municipal Corporation Commissioner Indra Vikram Singh said it was encouraging to see non-literary people of Agra taking the initiative in organising literary events.

Meanwhile, along with the 10-day cultural extravaganza Taj Mahotsava for tourists, the city will hold a high-profile Taj Literature Festival from Friday.

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Agra, Feb 23 (IANS) The library of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan's eldest son Dara Shikoh was once a popular meeting point of scholars, writers and religious leaders and stands as a testimony to the high level of intellectualism and academic excellence that existed in those times, experts said here on Tuesday.

Cultural activists, conservationists and book lovers gathered at the library complex on Tuesday to debate on "Tehzeeb-e-Agra" (culture of Agra) as part of the third edition of the Taj Literature Festival that begins on February 26.

The speakers were on the opinion that though Agra's socio-cultural profile was cosmopolitan, modern and secular during the Mughal period, the Taj city lost its sheen and stature after independence.

A recent survey by journalism students of the Central Hindi Institute on the 'tehzeeb' of Agra revealed that the city was now considered synonymous with foul language, dirt and squalor, crime, and poor civic sense.

"The linguistic vulgarisation is clearly reflected in the obscenities and abuses mouthed by commoners," said Maark Jaat, one of the members of the group that conducted the survey.

Some of the experts spoke on Dara Shikoh's unique contribution to scholarship.

"His library was the centre of scholarship and excellence. Sufi saints regularly met to discuss mysticism and theology, with Dara Shikoh himself initiating the discussions," said conservationist and writer Rajiv Saxena.

Zed Hasan, who wrote the book "Dara Shikoh: Sufi Mystic scholar", was also present.

Dara Shikoh (1615-1659) was Shah Jahan's eldest son and would have succeeded him. But he was defeated in battle and subsequently assassinated by his brother Aurangzeb.

Dara Shikoh, whose name in Persian means "possessing such magnificence as Darius", set up libraries in many places, including one in Delhi.

The best known one in Agra, also called his haveli, was taken over by the British in 1881 to be converted into the Town Hall, according to the 1921 Agra Gazetteer.

Dara Shikoh was a great scholar of Persian and Sanskrit. Despite the ravages of wars and his involvement in political crises, he still found time to translate and write books.

"His chief mission was to explore the commonality between Hinduism and Islam and how the gap could be bridged," said Ashok Jain, director of the Taj Literature Festival.

Several important works including the Upanishads were translated into Persian during his time.

The library had enclosures for book binders, painters and translators.

Dara Shikoh also brought thousands of books from Europe for this library, according to Syed Jafri, director of the Mirza Ghalib Research Academy.

"This structure does not boast of power or royalty but symbolises the spirit of Sulah Kul, Din-e-Ilahi and the later day secularism. The library stands as a testimony to the high level of intellectualism and recognition of academic excellence. It should, therefore, be included in the tourist circuit for visitors," said Surendra Sharma.

The red sandstone building is now in the possession of the Agra Municipal Corporation.

Some parts of the complex have been encroached upon, but in its heyday, the building had a scholarly ambience.

The central hall with highly decorative painted windows, stone-carved shelves with proper ventilation and air passages and natural light filters speak of the taste and passion of Dara Shikoh.

In course of time, the library lost its patrons. During the British period, it was briefly used as a court and later for government offices and for the civic body.

Taj Literature Festival organising committee chairman Har Vijay Bahia said there was a need to highlight Dara Shikoh's contribution and inform the younger generation about his work.

Dara Shikoh's library testimony to intellectualism: Experts

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The overwhelming popularity of the fair more than suggest that people still have a deep love for books, with paper, ink and covers, rather than their modern-day digital counterparts.

Many of those attending the fair have said they feel a profound sense of happiness and nostalgia as they inhale the fragrance of a newly-printed book.

The Amar Ekushey Boi Mela, which literally means "Immortal Twenty First Book Fair," has been held since February 1 in Dhaka's Bangla Academy premises and its adjacent Suhrawardy Udyan (garden), in commemoration of those who died fighting for Bengali language on February 21, 1952.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the month-long book fair. This year, a total of 651 stalls were allocated to 402 organisations, with the holiday weekend seeing a huge spike in book lovers rushing to the event.

On Friday evening, the Academy was packed with tens of thousands of book lovers.

The impressive foot flow was evidenced by the hundreds of visitors who were waiting in long queues to enter Bangladesh's largest annual book fair, eager to buy books and other published materials.

The crowds were a testament to the ongoing romantic appeal of traditional books and other printed materials.

Rezauddin Stalin, a poet and and a television personality, strongly believes that digital books could never replace the appeal of printed books.

"Books are something primitive and natural, like a footpath. Books can be touched and read whilst lying on bed. Books will continue to lead the way in establishing a true knowledge-based society," he said.

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Title: Storm the Norm; Editor: Anisha Motwani; Publisher: Rupa; Pages: 283; Price: Rs.500

Branding is the biggest buzzword for any product to thrive, or even survive. But how does one create a successful brand?

For Anisha Motwani, the idea for the book began with a simple question: How is it that in a diverse, challenging and often predictable market like India, a handful of companies are doing an excellent job of attracting consumers and creating business value for themselves?

To answer this she began digging deeper. "I realised that most of the (successful) companies have done something out of the ordinary and, in the process, they have stormed and shaken up the market, transforming stale categories into vibrant ones."

Motwani, a business strategist, speaker and columnist, developed that simple question into a book from which people could benefit. As she put it: "This book... create(s) a reservoir of success stories that can benefit others who are equally hungry for knowledge."

The book has categorised companies into three parts -- entrepreneur, challenger and legacy.

It has included brands like PVR, MakeMyTrip, Radio Mirchi, Real, Tata Tea, Sprite, Axis Bank, XUV500, Kurkure, Honda Motors, Sensodyne, Idea Cellular, Ford EcoSport, Fiama Di Wills, Cadbury, Kissan, MTR, Raymond, Saffola and The Times of India.

The book, however, does not mention any technology brand.

It also talks about the whole gamut of challenges the companies face, both internal and external which often become stumbling blocks to growth.

"I felt that if the wisdom of this handful of companies could be made available to a wider public, it would help many more people, in turn, become winners in their own spheres," she said.

While going through the chosen companies, she discovered that it was possible to put a method on how to learn from these brands, how, as she puts it, one can storm the norm.

"I was clear that each brand story had to be authored by the people who were behind the wheels of the business, the people who conceptualised and executed game-changing strategies."

The examples given in the book are business stories which were tried and tested. The narrative is not templated and typecast in a rigid format. "Since the individual stories have been crafted by different people, it was felt that the flavour needed to be retained in the final output."

(Aparajita Gupta can be contacted at aparajita.g@ians.in)

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The book which talks about reopening the case and documents the legal struggle faced by the survivors has been written by five women writers - Samreen Mushtaq, Ifrah Butt, Essar Batool, Natasha Rather and Munaza Rashid.

By Shamshad Ali

New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS) Two contiguous north Kashmir villages, Kunan and Poshpora, became part of Jammu and Kashmir's complex tale of misery on the night of February 23, 1991. But it also got caught in the vortice of allegations and counter-claims so common to many events in the state.

On that night, troops of 4 Rajputana Rifles had cordoned off the twin villages for carrying out a search operation to locate militants there.

The militants were never found, but the Valley raged the next morning with allegations that the army personnel had raped 32 women.

The Army and state authorities denied the allegations.

A team of the Press Council of India, led by journalist B.G. Verghese, which had been asked to investigate said in its report that the "Kunan rape story on close examination turns out to be a massive hoax, orchestrated by militant groups and their sympathizers and mentors in Kashmir and abroad as part of a sustained and cleverly contrived strategy of psychological warfare."

The report came under massive criticism from human rights organisations and others, both national and international for having sought to whitewash the incident.

The villages are still fighting for justice in different courts of the state.

Now, five Kashmiri women have taken up the incident to pen down a book titled "Do you Remember Kunan-Poshpora?" (Zubaan Books; pp : 180; Rs.395)

The book talks about reopening the case and documents the legal struggle faced by the survivors. The five authors are Samreen Mushtaq, Ifrah Butt, Essar Batool, Natasha Rather and Munaza Rashid.

In 2013, a group of 50 women, consisting of teachers, students, journalists, human rights workers, lawyers, and other professionals filed a public interest litigation (PIL) before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court seeking to reopen the Kunan Poshpora case.

"The aim behind filing the PIL was to make the Indian Army answerable and to disclose their real identity in Kashmir. The book came later as part of the battle that the survivors of Kunan Poshpora are fighting and so that we don't forget the allegations of the rapes of Kashmiri women," co-author Essar Batool told IANS in an email interview from Srinagar.

Although the high court rejected the petition after three hearings, the legal battle was restated with a series of fresh petitions.

"The cover-ups, distortions in the case by the state and the humiliation of the survivors is enough reason to bring forth this case into the public domain to show how the armed forces enjoy complete freedom and are allowed to roam around freely. It is this freedom that we are challenging," Batool added.

The book was officially released at the Jaipur Literature Festival last month. It focuses on the torture of the women from the villages, some 130 km northwest of Srinagar city.

The book has been divided into seven chapters: "Kashmiri Women and Resilience", "Sexual Violence and Impunity in Kashmir", "The Night in Kunan Poshpora", "Life in Kunan Poshpora", "Inquiries and Impunities", "People Who Remember" and "The Legal Battle".

Batool said they had taken up the Kunan Poshpora case because "it is one of the biggest incidents in the history of sexual violence in probably the whole of south Asia," adding she was inspired when a group of Manipuri women protested naked outside an army facility in Imphal more than a decade ago daring the soldiers to rape them too.

Asked, about the most difficult part to recount while writing the book, Batool said: "Having the survivors recount the horrors of that night has always been hard, because talking about it would send them back to that horrific night."

She said though they had to travel long distances to Kunan Poshpora and the Kupwara court, the hardest part was to include everything and not leave even an ounce of evidence out. "This is the documentation of the bravery of the women and men of Kunan Poshpora, of their strength, she said.

Co-author Samreen Mushtaq said it had been a struggle to document all of that "to change the stereotype of their being victims to telling the world that they are fighters" .

The writers argue the book is not fiction, but based on truth and was written irrespective of people's opinion.

"Honestly we did not write the book for acceptance. Truth is spoken not keeping in mind whether or not people will accept it. Truth should be said especially when the other side has been propagating lies for years together. And when you are speaking the truth, confidence comes naturally," Mushtaq said.

"People who have been part of cover ups and distortion of facts should worry about how they will sound," Batool said.

"As women, we know how the threat of rape feels, but it is a patriarchal notion that women should not talk about rape since we have attached honour to women. It is this patriarchal notion that has been taken advantage of by the armed forces to use rape as a tool of punishment and reprisal, she added.

"The shame," Batool said, "is for the perpetrators of rape not for the victims or for those who write about it or speak against it."

(Shamshad Ali can be contacted at shamshad.a@ians.in)

25 years later, five Kashmiri women bring back focus on Kunan-Poshpora incident

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (File Photo: IANS/PIB)

New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS) Prime Minster Narendra Modi on Monday paid tributes to the mystic poet, Sant Ravidas on the occasion of Ravidas Jayanti, the birth anniversary of the Bhakti Movement saint.

Modi, who is in his constituency Varanasi, tweeted: "I bow to Guru Ravidas ji on his Jayanti. His thoughts and emphasis on social reform and equality transformed our society and enriched it greatly."

Revered in Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism, the 14th century Sant Ravidas was born in Varanasi and was a leading figure in the Bhakti Movement.

Sant Ravidas left behind a great legacy and a 21st-century cult called Ravidassia follows his teachings.

Modi pays tribute to Sant Ravidas on his jayanti

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By Vikas Datta

Title: Understanding the Founding Fathers - An Enquiry into the Indian Republic's Beginnings; Author: Rajmohan Gandhi; Publisher: Aleph Book Company; Pages: 160; Price: Rs.299

Political leaders are never fated to be left in peace, especially if they are among those involved in ensuring a country's independence or charting its future course. Decades hence, there will still be critics questioning their capabilities, motivations, and achievements in tones ranging from mild criticism to angry polemic, or believing others, usually their favourites, could have done better. India's founding fathers are no exception.

In the Indian context, these could entail the prospects that could have ensued if Vallabhbhai Patel had been free India's first prime minister instead of Jawaharlal Nehru, or if Subhas Chandra Bose had stayed in India during World War and led the freedom struggle and/or independent India.

Then how about if B.R. Ambedkar had not left Nehru's cabinet, or going back a bit, the leadership of a united India had been given to Mohammed Ali Jinnah?

But as author Rajmohan Gandhi observes, "these questions may usually be dismissed as being purely hypothetical but a related question makes practical sense. Are our present-day discontents of recent origin or connected to the beginnings of the Indian republic? Were crucial mistakes made in the 1947-50 period?"

It is an attempt to answer these questions that led to this work whose small size does not reflect its weighty and reasoned erudition but he admits its aims were first more limited - "merely wanting to address sweeping criticisms of (Mahatma) Gandhi and Nehru levelled by two interesting men - a swami from Gujarat and a professor from America", both of who he only came to know about in early 2015.

Swami Sachidanand of Gujarat blames Mahatma Gandhi, for weakening India by his espousal of 'ahimsa', leading to the ignominious defeat to the Chinese in 1962 , as well as the Hindu community, by failing to understanding "two things: the value of the sword, and the danger from Islam.

On the other, American 'Marxist' scholar Perry Anderson, in "The Indian Ideology" (2014), charges the Mahatma with being "anti-Muslim, that he forced Pakistan on an unwilling Jinnah, that he helped fashion a Hindu state where Muslims would remain subordinate, a state which had enslaved the people of Kashmir", and prescribes Indians banish Gandhi, Nehru and Patel and others and "all they represent".

With "the Swami and the Professor were in essence cancelling each other's charges against Gandhi, a reply would merely require quoting each to the other" but the author, despite a part of him encouraging this response, holds the issue is greater - for there are are many Hindus who believe or led to believe what the Swami thinks contentions, and likewise, many Muslims in both countries about the stand most lately expressed by Anderson, "and if facts and reasons could clarify a few minds, an effort to supply them might be worthwhile".

He begins with his rebuttals of both Sachidanand and Anderson, by extensively citing their criticism and inferences and countering it through Mahatma's recorded writings, statements and actions - and simple logic.

The next chapter does the same for Nehru and the fourth deals with Jinnah, Bose and Ambedkar, who have all been praised by Anderson, laying out a tantalising premise of whether they could have "joined hands to give India and Pakistan an alternative history, free of Partition and its killings and perhaps free also of the injustices and inequalities that have scarred the subcontinent?"

It is a thought-provoking work that the author, a grandson of the Mahatma, has penned and despite his relationship, he is quite balanced and freely acknowledges his grandfather's shortcomings and mistakes. And there is something new that most of us will find, though it may not be very salutary, eg. What ex-INA men ended up doing.

But the real value of this book is that icons are humans and not infallible or beyond debate, and issues of disagreements, or any perceived dishonours, can be discussed peacefully and logically, without sending oneself into paroxysms of rage and needing coercive action or bans to assuage.

(22.02.2016 - Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

Revisiting the legacy of free India's founding fathers

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Harper Lee's iconic lawyer character Atticus Finch

By Vikas Datta

Besides that both were authors, and both died in the last couple of days, there seems nothing common between a reclusive American and an outgoing Italian philosopher. What connects Harper Lee and Umberto Eco however are the main characters they created in their first fictional work - a decent, tolerant lawyer who combats prejudice and vigilantism and a rational, tolerant monk who solves mysteries. As recent events in India show, both are much needed as role models.

Atticus Finch of "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960) set in segregationist American south in the 1930s and Brother William of Baskerville of "The Name of the Rose" (1980) taking place in superstition- and schism-ridden northern Italy in the 14th century are not only models for emulation but the authors' abiding contribution towards the goals of human dignity, equity, tolerance and reason. Remembering them is the best tribute we can pay to their creators.

Both works have been made into acclaimed films, with the parts played memorably by Gregory Peck and Sean Connery respectively (and earning them an Oscar and a BAFTA for best actor). Most of us would have read the books and/or seen the films but for those who might not have, or forgotten, the characters can be introduced again.

Like their creators, the middle-aged, widowed lawyer and the Franciscan monk are both disparate characters, not only in time and space but nature too though they have certain points of resemblance. Apart from being "moral compasses" and morally and personally courageous, they are caring father figures - Finch to his children (six-year-old Jean-Louise "Scout" and 10 year-old Jeremy "Jem") and William to companion, novice Adso.

"To Kill a Mockingbird", based on Lee's own reminiscences (Finch turned out to be based on her own father) and incorporating some contemporary racial issues, is set in a small town in Alabama during the Great Depression. Finch is asked to defend a young black man, Tom Robbins, accused of raping a white woman, and agrees despite public disapproval. Not only does he defend his charge the best he can, he also protects him from a lynch mob. He is however unable to get Robbins off despite demolishing the prosecution case, and learns later that he has been shot "while trying to escape".

But despite the outcome, it is the qualities Finch embodies - decent, fair treatment to all people, not to respond to violence with violence, to stand for what you believe and not force it on others - that make him relevant for any time.

A quote from the book - also used in the film - is illustrative. As he advises his daughter: "If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."

"To Kill a Mockingbird" was Lee's sole work. "Go Set a Watchman" (2015), set some years in the future and presenting a Finch who is not so heroic, is touted as a sequel but as per detailed examination is deemed to be an earlier draft.

Eco, apart from being a best-selling novelist, was an academician with significant contributions to semiotics or study of human signs and symbols and their interpretation, aesthetics, literary theory, media culture and philosophy and it shows in "The Name of the Rose".

William and Adso reach a northern Italian monastery to attend a theological disputation, but all is not calm there. First there is a suicide and then several other mysterious deaths, and William is asked to probe but there is labyrinthine library whose mysteries have to be solved, some secrets that the abbot is unwilling to divulge and the Inquisition is also present.

With his name commemorating a medieval philosopher and the area of a famous detective's most celebrated exploits, the character's inspiration is obvious. William of Ockham's philosophical technique "Ockham's Razor" advised that the simplest explanation accounting for all the facts should always be accepted as most likely mirrors Holmes' dictum "that when one has eliminated the impossible, whatever remains - however improbable - must be the truth".

William also looks and behaves like Holmes, being tall, so thin that he appears taller, with sharp and piercing eyes, a thin, sharp nose and a prominent chin, is capable of most intense activity but curiously still when not intellectually stimulated, and has the same sharp intellect and deduction powers. Unlike Holmes, his skills were not very welcome in his era but he didn't let it deter him.

When brute prejudice reigns, unthinking conformity imposed and dissent deemed criminal, such models are more than necessary. But will we - and especially those demeaning these professions - only let them remain fictional archetypes?

(21.02.2016 - Vikas Datta is an Associate Editor at IANS. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in )

Harper Lee, Umberto Eco and their heroes' relevance for India

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London, Feb 20 (IANS) Italian academician-cum-bestselling novelist Umberto Eco, best known for acclaimed novels "The Name of the Rose" and "Foucault's Pendulum", has died, reports said on Saturday. He was 84.

His family announced he had passed away at home late Friday but gave no further details, BBC reported.

Born in Alessandria in northern Italy on January 5, 1932, Eco combined his academic life in which he made significant contributions to semiotics or study of human signs and symbols and their use and interpretation, aesthetics, literary theory, media culture and anthropology with at least half-a-dozen novels, marked by their subtle references to literature and history and exhibiting the inter-connectedness of all literary works.

He himself admitted to being inspired by Irish author James Joyce and Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.

His first novel was "The Name of the Rose" (1980), which combined a medieval murder mystery with semiotics, scriptural analysis and debate, and literary theory.It was made into a film in 1989 starring Sean Connery as the principal protagonist, English Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (a homage to both renowned philosopher William of Ockham and Sherlock Holmes, through the Baskerville reference) and Christian Slater.

His other most famous work is "Foucault's Pendulum" (1988), on the dangers of conspiracy theories. It is about three friends amusing themselves by inventing a grand conspiracy theory about an immense and intricate plot to take over the world by a secret order descended from the Knights Templar. They slowly become overly obsessed with it while the venture turns dangerous and tragic when some fanatics learn of it and come to believe that the trio has discovered the secret to the location of some lost treasure.

Apart from five other novels including "Numero Zero" (2015) which satirises Italy's kickback and bribery culture and legacy of Fascism, he is known for his collection of incisive essays including "Faith in Fakes: Travels in Hyperreality" (1986) on the modern world's, especially America, obsession with simulated reality and a method of countering mainstream media culture, "Six Walks in the Fictional Woods" (1994) on techniques of fiction and narration, and "How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays" (1998), on various aspects and complexities of of modern culture including topics like how not to use a cellular phone and recognising porn movies.

Other prominent works were "Kant and the Platypus : Essays on Language and Cognition" (1999), "Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism" (2007), which takes the examples of the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to examine the reversal of history exemplified by revival of topics like the Islam-Christianity clash, the anti-Darwin debate, the "Yellow Peril" or the fear that East Asians were a threat and so on, and "Inventing the Enemy" (2012) in which among his take on censorship and Wikileaks, he contends that that every country needs an enemy, and if it doesn't have one, than it must create one.

He also wrote a few books for children.

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Washington, Feb 19 (IANS) Harper Lee, the author of the acclaimed "To Kill A Mockingbird" about racial injustice in a small town in the American south, died on Friday, reports said. She was 89.

The mayor's office in Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama and her publisher, Harper Collins announced she was dead.

Born Nelle Harper Lee on April 38, 1926, her first book "To Kill A Mockingbird" came out in 1960 and was a huge critical and commercial success. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was adapted into a film starring Gregory Peck.

Lee did not release another novel until last year, when "Go Set A Watchman", which purports to be a sequel, but has its iconic characters in atypical representations. Research had showed it was actually a first draft.

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Kwame Anthony Appiah. (Princeton University)

By Vikas Datta

New Delhi, Feb 18 (IANS) Honour differs from morality in not being intrinsically good or bad but can create a sense of shame which lead to positive outcomes like an end to slavery and colonialism, but also to negative phenomenon such as "honour" killings, says Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah.

"Honour is different from morality. Morality is what holds you responsible and honour is something other people have a stake in... it has its bad side which we cannot get rid of, but it can be a force, or a tool, for good too," Appiah, a professor of law and philosophy at the New York University, told IANS in an interview.

"Concern over national honour can lead to changing a country or society for the better," said the author of "The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen" which deals majorly with three changes -- the ends of foot-binding in China, the slavery trade in the Western world and duelling in England -- that came through moral shifts.

Appiah, who was here for the Jaipur Literature Festival, argues that it was a "sense of shame" at sullying of national honour that brought an end to these practices like foot-binding, or extremely tight binding of young girls' feet to prevent further growth as a sign of "beauty" and "high status", when the Chinese found what other people thought about it.

"Then it was the British who ran the slave trade but attitudes towards it were changing. During the American Revolution, when the colonists said they were asking for freedom, the British retorted by asking them about the slaves they had and the question of their freedom," he said, noting both sides sought to "shame each other".

Appiah, whose maternal grandfather was leading British statesman Sir Stafford Cripps of the Labour Party, contends it was a "sense of honour" that made Britain stop the slave trade. "The honour of the British was at stake after people like (abolitionist William) Wilberforce called it a national shame and disgrace... they stopped the slave trade (in early 1800s) and then abolished slavery altogether (in the 1830s)."

But in America, it took a longer time though many people had begun to think that slavery and racial discrimination were wrong, he said. "Slave-owners had sought to cover up by claiming how happy their slaves were."

Appiah also says it was this "shame" that helped end colonialism, which entailed a "psychology of dishonour" for the colonial subject.

"It was a psychology of dishonour for the inhabitants of the colonised countries who lost respect in their own countries. There was a social order of respect which changed to another order in which they were looked with contempt," he said.

In the case of British India, this was true for Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Jawaharlal Nehru despite all their achievements, and in the case of his Ghana, it was the question of aboriginal rights.

Appiah, whose focus is on moral revolutions, notes that revolutions, in the classic sense entailing a big change in a small time, related to political revolutions like the French Revolution but moral and lifestyle revolutions were different, especially in their time frames.

The difference is that lifestyle revolutions encompass new ideas and/or a big leap in morality while moral ones, like gender equality and abolition of slavery, have arguments already in place, and the issue is not about changing minds but changing habits, he said.

On the flip side, Appiah says that honour can be against morality and can lead to acts like "honour killings" despite the perpetrators knowing their actions are morally wrong.

"Honour killings", a feature of patriarchial societies, are resorted to by those who are morally weak and the motivation for it is shame, which stems from honour, rather than guilt, which is moral, he said.

Appiah however said that despite being seen most in the Middle East and South Asia, it was important not to dismiss it as a "Muslim, or Arab thing". He added that it was also seen in modern Europe, including a "weird" case in Italy in the 1960s though it had not involved killing.

He said laws were needed against this phenomenon, but the real deterrent was only moral change.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

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New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS) Debates on the British Empire's legacy gets sidetracked on whether it was "good" or "bad", instead of focussing on its enduring effects such as shaping many vibrant cities across the world that are still major drivers of global commerce and interaction, says British MP and historian Tristram Hunt.

"It is interesting that the British Empire encompassed many cities that are now the hubs of global trade, of global interactions.

"Cities like Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai - all have a British connection... with British colonialism and were developed in connection or in partnership with the British," Hunt, whose most recent book "Ten Cities That Made an Empire" presents the imperial story through an urban prism, told IANS in an interview.

The Labour MP from Stoke-on-Trent Central, who was in India to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival, contends that the empire's history should not be seen as simply "good or bad" or as he stresses in his book as "the simple binary of the ruler and ruled" but through its still existing phenomena, such as "the chain of former colonial cities dotted across the globe".

His work thus seeks to chronicle the imperial adventure through its "urban form and material culture" as seen from these cities which "chart the changing character of British imperialism". "And it is the very complexity of this urban past which allows to go beyond the 'good' and 'bad' of this cul-de-sac of so much imperial debate. The history of colonialism covered in this study suggests a more diffuse process of exchange, interaction and adaptation," he maintains.

Hunt told IANS that he was drawn to this aspect while working on his book "Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City" (2004), an account of the evolution of British cities such as London, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds and others during the 19th century.

"I was working on a history of the British cities and appreciated that you couldn't understand these cities unless in a global context.. the context of the empire. You can't understand a city like Dundee without Calcutta, Manchester without Bombay, London without Delhi. I decided to tell a history of the empire through these cities around the world," he said.

It is a wide spectrum, across time and space, of cities that Hunt chose - Boston (from Britain's first empire), Cape Town (South Africa), Hong Kong while "jewel in the crown", India bags three spots - for Calcutta, Bombay and Delhi. The others are Dublin (Ireland), Melbourne (Australia) and Bridgetown (Barbados), while the only British city is Liverpool - whose rise and fall mirrors that of the empire.

"Each city tells a particular story of the empire," said Hunt, who makes a compelling case how the city was influenced by the era's ideology and economic considerations, shifting between mercantilism and free trade, or "righteous exploitation" as in slave trade/a selfless crusade for liberty (and after its abolition).

The Indian cities mark the Raj's varying stages, with New Delhi - being completed at the time of its decline but still an outstanding example of imperial hubris, notes Hunt, pointing out the bells on its imposing official buildings were set in stone so they would never have to toll at the passing of the empire.

On why he had left out cities from Scotland, despite the Scots' major role in developing, expanding and administering the British empire, he said the choice of an Irish city was more apt.

"The Irish case was more interesting.. they were both colonised and part of the colonial system... under which they prospered too," he said, adding the Scottish influence was paramount in the rise of Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Singapore was left out due to inclusion of Hong Kong as they "tell a similar story - the rise of the British empire through free trade" and Melbourne was chosen over Sydney, founded earlier, as more representative of the times.

Hunt who has also written a biography of Karl Marx's collaborator Friedrich Engels, said the colonial legacy differs - admired and still used in some places (India) or demolished elsewhere (Dublin) - but he favours looking at it as a part of history.

"I believe in adding to history, not taking away," he said.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

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New Delhi: Eminent writers attends the Sahitya Akademi Award 2015 in New Delhi on Feb 16, 2016. (Photo: IANS)

New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) Twenty-four eminent authors writing in as many Indian languages were felicitated today by the Sahitya Akademi at its annual Festival of Letters.

The recipients were awarded a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh each for their "outstanding books of literary merit".

Urging authors from across the country to write extensively in various regional languages, Akademi President Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari said that Indian writing faces a threat from the effect of colonial thinking.

"Indian literature is under threat. Colonial thinking has belittled our literature and languages and we have come to believe in that," Tiwari said at the award ceremony.

The awarded literary works have been written in 24 Indian languages, including English, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Sanskrit, Bodo, Kashmiri, Manipuri, Nepali among others.

Pointing out how British historian Thomas Macaulay quantified Indian literature to a handful of books that would fit into a single drawer, Tiwari emphasised that the country's literature is vast and has been denied its due importance.

"India has a vast store of its own literature but the media and other countries that are considered superior to us have not given it the importance it deserves," he said.

He also said that Indian literature has perennially been written under the fearful shadow of western literature.

"All literature in Indian languages has been written under the fear of T S Eliot and Sigmund Freud. And this fear surfaces in the writing as well," he said.

Encouraging the authors, Tiwari said it was imperative for writers to free themselves from the fear of "colonial thinking" and write uninhibitedly in their respective languages.

"We need to be free from this feeling and we should write without any fear," he said.

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New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) Former Delhi University lecturer SAR Geelani was arrested today on sedition and other charges in connection with an event here in which anti-India slogans were raised, police said.

"Geelani was arrested around 3 AM at the Parliament Street police station under IPC sections 124A (sedition), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 149 (unlawful assembly)," DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said.

Geelani was called to the police station last night where he was detained and questioned for several hours, and later arrested. After his arrest, he was taken to RML Hospital for a medical examination, he said.

His arrest comes amid the raging row over the arrest of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar over sedition charges in connection with an event on February 9 against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

At a Press Club event on February 10, in which Geelani was present on the dais along with three other speakers, a group allegedly had shouted slogans hailing Afzal Guru. Taking suo motu cognisance of the matter, the police registered a case against Geelani and other unnamed persons on February 12.

Police had claimed that Geelani was booked as he is presumed to be the "main organiser" of the event.

"Request for booking a hall at the Press Club was done through Geelani's e-mail and the nature of the event was proposed to be a public meeting, which did not turn out to be so," a senior official had said.

Following the registration of the FIR, the police questioned for two consecutive days DU professor Ali Javed, a Press Club member, under whose membership number the hall for the event was booked.

In 2001, Geelani was arrested by Delhi Police in connection with the Parliament attack case but acquitted for "need of evidence" by the Delhi High Court in October 2003, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in August 2005, which at the same time had observed that the needle of suspicion pointed towards him.

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By Arun Kumar

Washington, Feb 14 (IANS) An Indian-American author of a new novel about a former spy-turned-politician has a piece of advice for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump: "Veer to the centre, and pick a positive, uplifting message."

"Fear-mongering can only take you so far," says T. Dasu, by day a research scientist working on problems in statistics, stream mining, and machine learning, and author of "The Perfect Candidate", the second in her "Spy, Interrupted" trilogy.

"Also, pick a smart woman as a running mate," she says on behalf of the campaign team of her novel's hero, a former CIA operative with an Indian-American wife, running for a US Senate seat.

"No, not Carly Fiorina. Nikki Haley?" she asks, referring to former HP CEO, who has quit the presidential race, and the Indian-American governor of South Carolina.

"Intolerance of any kind should be rejected forcefully, particularly when it is institutionalized and turned on those least able to fight it," Dasu told IANS in an email interview.

"Politicians will say and do anything to get elected," she said when asked about the intolerance debate in India and the kind of rhetoric heard on the US presidential campaign trail.

"And very often the media fans the fire by amplifying and repeating the most obnoxious and heinous words," Dasu said.

"That's why it was important to me that the hero, Stephen James, should have no part in it; his intolerance is turned towards people's behaviour - for example, terrorist acts."

In Dasu's opinion, "there is no perfect candidate in the presidential race at the moment, not counting her fictional hero Stephen James, who "is principled, fearless and wants to save the world".

Among the Democrats, Bernie Sanders "is impractical and too focussed on one issue, (Hillary) Clinton has a credibility problem, and the Republicans all want to take us back to medieval times".

She, however, believes that Hillary Clinton is the most qualified and capable candidate in the field.

Dasu said she was inspired to write spy novels as "I have always been a fan of literary espionage, starting with Graham Greene's 'Our Man in Havana', and the early works of John le Carre, particularly the Karla trilogy".

"The focus is on characters and their motivation rather than pure plot developments," she said. "And being a spy is such a rich and complex human condition - to deceive in order to defend."

Dasu said her novels had more romance and social drama than spy craft because "I am curious about the lives of spies rather than their deeds or craft".

"How do they relate to the people around them? How do their significant others ever trust them? What do they need to do in order to keep their professional habits from seeping into their personal interactions?"

"I wanted to write about the spy as seen through the eyes of the people close to them," Dasu said. "And, I have to admit, I love Jane Austen as much as I love literary espionage."

"So, romance and social drama and other situations faced by every thinking woman naturally creep into my writing."

But she disagreed "strongly that the South Asian characters in the book are stereotypical".

"First of all, most South Asian characters and writing focus on immigrant angst and adjustment issues - Jhumpa Lahiri, Chitra Divakaruni - the whole culture clash between Western and Indian values."

Most of the South Asian characters in her book, she acknowledged, are "very well adjusted and happy, to the point of perfection".

But the last book in her trilogy "is very different from the first two books," she said. "It has a unique setting and an unusual story arc."

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

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Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 13 (IANS)

Popularly known as O.N.V., he was suffering from age-related illness.

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New Delhi, Feb 6 (IANS) Well-known cartoonist Sudhir Tailang, who was suffering from a brain tumour passed away on Saturday, his family said. He would have turned 56 on February 26.

Tailang's daughter Aditi told IANS that he breathed his last at 12.30 p.m. He would be cremated at 2 p.m. on Sunday at Lodhi road crematorium.

Tailang was under treatment for the last two years. He was in hospital for more than a month before he was brought home after doctors had given up all hopes of his recovery.

Tailang, who was suffering from GBM-4 stage brain tumour, had undergone two surgeries and chemotherapy during the course of his treatment over two years, Aditi said.

He worked with almost all the well-known banners including Hindustan Times, Times of India, Indian Express. His last assignment was with the Asian Age.

Late prime minister Indira Gandhi was the first prey of Tailang's pen.

Thereafter, there was hardly any known personality in political world or other sphere of life who could escape his brush.

He was awarded Padma Shri in 2004 for his contribution to the art of cartooning.

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 EPA/HO

Brasilia, Feb 4 (IANS) A Brazilian judge has banned the publication of Adolf Hitler's autobiography 'Mein Kampf' (My Struggle), ruling that it "incites intolerant practices" of social and religious groups against the Jews.

Alberto Salomao Junior, judge from Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice, on Wednesday said in the ruling that the book, instigating racism and discrimination, was against the law of Brazil, Xinhua news agency reported citing a press release.

According to the ruling, any publishing house violating the verdict will be fined 5,000 reals ($1,280) for each day the book reaches the public.

However,the judge granted a five-day period for book shops and their legal representatives to consider whether to lodge an appeal before the ruling becomes permanent. Even after it becomes permanent, the ruling is applicable only in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

'Mein Kampf', written by Adolf Hitler in 1925, elaborates on the ideology which he used to rule Nazi Germany. The notorious book attracted public attention at the end of 2015, when it was published in Germany for the first time since the end of Second World War.

Two Brazilian publishing houses have decided to publish a new version of the controversial book, which has already hit book shelves in the South American country.

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Kolkata, Feb 3 (IANS)

The Society for Natural Language Technology Research (SNLTR), which is designing the software, is showcasing its Bengali software and keyboard at the 40th International Kolkata Book Fair here.

According to an official at the SNLTR stall at the fair, the software developed in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, will be introduced later this year.

"The demand for Bengali software is high. The Oi-Chiki (Santhali language) and Odia keyboards are also good. We are hoping to get bulk orders for the Nepali one," the SNLTR official told IANS.

A complete Bangla unit comprising the software CD, keyboard along with a spell-checker software sells for Rs.750, he said.

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Johannesburg, Jan 31 (PTI) Former President APJ Abdul Kalam's book 'Transcendence' was launched here with religious leaders, politicians, diplomats and businessmen from all communities sharing the lessons from the book based on his spiritual experiences with Pramukh Swami Maharaj.

The book, in which Kalam details his experiences with Pramukh Swami Maharaj, leader of the global Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), was lauded by speakers who said they had benefited from the advice and wisdom of both the leaders.

During the book launch on Saturday night, Provincial Transport Minister Ismail Vadi said the lessons of Transcendence could be well utilised by leaders and citizens of South Africa to address the social crises facing the country such as corruption, poverty and unemployment.

"From their very first meeting in 2001, until his very last day for a period of 15 years, Dr Kalam was inspired by the spiritual messages and saintly life of Pramukh Swami Maharaj. Transcendence records this," said Jaydev Thaker of the Johannesburg BAPS.

Prof Arun Tiwari, who co-authored the book with Kalam, said the friendship between the two leaders, one a highly-acclaimed scientist and the other a spiritual leader, showed that setting aside religious and cultural differences could lead to a better world for all.

"It is important that India and Africa join hands together not just for business, but for compassion - for providing solutions which are good for the majority of its peoples," Tiwari said.

"This can only be done by the fusion of science and technology and through using the teachings of leaders like Dr Kalam, Pramukh Swami Maharaj and Nelson Mandela," Tiwari added.

Keynote speaker Pujya Bramavihari Swami explained how Kalam told Pramukh Swami about plans that he and 500 top thinkers of India had worked on to develop India through health, education, agriculture, information and communications, infrastructure and critical technology.

"Pramukhswami very gently said to Kalam that there was something missing (and asked him) to add a sixth dimension, faith in God," Bramavihari Swami said.

On Kalam's query about how faith in God could develop a country, Pramukh Swami explained that a country with ethics and morality would only come about if this was added to the plan.

Kalam was a practising, profound Muslim, so he went back and undertook the 'Istikhara' designed to seek guidance from Allah about whether what Pramukh Swami had said was true and was convinced after that, the Swami said.

Bramavihari also cited Kalam writing of his meeting with former South African President Nelson Mandela as one of the inspirations to urge all people to share forgiveness and love to become stronger from within to influence everyone to be stronger outside as well.

Kalam had enquired what Mandela's first thought was when he was leaving the prison after 27 years of confinement for his political beliefs.

"I thought that if I did not leave behind my bitterness and hatred, I would still be in a jail all my life," Mandela had told Kalam.

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Hyderabad, Jan 29 (IANS) The chief editor and owner of a publications house has been arrested for hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims, police said on Friday.

Bandla Sai Babu of Bandla Publications Private Limited has been arrested for publishing derogatory information and an imaginary photo of Prophet Mohammed, police said.

Babu is the chief editor of Vijeta competition book for Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) exams.

Police took the action following a complaint lodged by Mohammed Arshad Ali, secretary of Majlise Tahaffuze Khatme Nubuwwat Trust.

A case under section 295 (A) of Indian Penal Code was registered at Mirchowk police station in the old city of Hyderabad.

Deputy Commissioner of Police V. Satyanarayana said all offices and establishments of the book were sealed and all books seized.

He said that police will deal firmly with any person knowingly or unknowingly hurt the religious sentiments of any community.

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Cairo, Jan 27 (IANS/AKI) An Egyptian court has sentenced secular writer Fatima Naoot to three years in prison and a fine of $2,550 after being found guilty of insulting Islam, daily Al-Ahram reported.

Naoot, a former parliament candidate, is the second public figure to receive a jail term in less than a month for charges related to blasphemy, the paper said.

The jail sentence is effective immediately, although Naoot will be able to lodge an appeal from behind bars.

In October, she described in a post on her Facebook account Eid Al-Adha's tradition of slaughtering sheep as the "greatest massacre committed by human beings".

Naoot also wrote in an article in Egyptian daily El-Masry El-Youm criticizing the traditional slaughter of sheep during Eid, the Islamic festival of sacrifice and one of the main Muslim religious holidays worldwide.

During questioning, Naoot admitted writing the Facebook post but denied that her aim was to insult Islam, Al-Ahram said.

Naoot argued that humans justified their lust for killing and enjoying the smell of cooking game by attempting to bestow a divine meaning to their actions.

Egyptian authorities put TV host Islam Behery in prison in December after a court reduced to one year an earlier five-year sentence against him for "contempt of religion" over comments he made questioning the credibility of some sayings of the Prophet Mohammed on his now-suspended TV programme.

El-Beheiry is appealing against his prison sentence. His trial sparked public controversy and he got the support of many journalists, writers, scholars and human rights activists.

El-Beheiry and Naoot's convictions come amid public debate over freedom of speech in Egypt.

The nascent Egyptian Secularist Party launched a campaign in November calling for the repeal of an Egyptian law punishing contempt of religion with up to five years in prison, Daily News Egypt reported.

--IANS/AKI
mr/

( 309 Words)

2016-01-27-14:21:34

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Jaipur, Jan 26 (IANS) Its demise was predicted as far as back as the 1930s but it endured, and even in our day, despite the internet and Google Maps allowing us to access any part of the world virtually on our devices, travel writing will stay as the best window into other cultures, says a panel of travelogue writers.

Travel writing "is one of the most ancient forms of literature, predating the novel by thousands of years and a form that has appeared simultaneously and independently throughout the world", said writer William Dalrymple as he kicked off "The Travel Session", featuring legendary travel writer Colin Thubron, Anthony Sattin, and Gerard Russell among others, at the final day of the Jaipur Literature Festival on Monday.

Thubron, who has over half a century experience of travel to exotic and rarely-frequented (then) places across Europe and Asia after chronicling his first journey in "Mirror to Damascus" (1967) - the one such work on the Syrian capital in over a 100 years, contended that the end of travel writing was predicted in the 1930s, but "it refused to die".

Internet, Google Maps may have allowed people to virtually plot the entire globe and view from the comforts of one's home, but he maintained that "the feeling of being in the place is different to seeing it on the desktop" and expressed confidence that although different generations might approach travel differently, the impulse for adventure remained the same.

"One must dare to do something special, as it always yields into something great," said Thubron, whose other works include "Among the Russians" (1983), "Behind the Wall: A Journey through China" (1987), "The Lost Heart of Asia" (1994), "In Siberia" (1999), and "To a Mountain in Tibet" (2011).

British journalist and writer Sattin, who read from his book "The Pharaoh's Shadow: Travels in Ancient and Modern Egypt", a nuanced and evocative journey in time and space through the country's past to its conflicted present, said his experience showed him that the way ancient Egyptians lived thousands of years ago continues to define existence there even today.

Indian journalist Salil Tripathi, who has been to over 50 countries, said he likes looking at places "through their literature or their people or their history", while American writer and journalist Alex Shoumatoff noted how adventures can be inspired from the strangest of places.

In his case, it was a piece about India's northeastern state Mizoram, "wedged between Myanmar and Bangladesh", in a Canadian newspaper and he was so interested in it "decided to investigate, and ended up writing an article about the rat infestation in the bamboo plants in the region, and its affect on the locals".

Despite visiting and writing about several unique places in her "Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands" (2008), British journalist and author Christina Lamb, who quipped that she felt she was there on false pretenses since she was at the festival as The Sunday Times foreign correspondent, not as a conventional travel writer.

Reading from "Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous Place", she mentioned her experience of visiting Guantanamo Bay, which she described as "the strangest place" she had ever been to, where she saw instances of inhumane treatment, but also such a "complex toilet flushing system was so complex that she had to receive a military briefing on it" and how "people seemed more worried about bumping into iguanas than the human rights violations going on".

Russell, a former British diplomat, mentioned some experiences of encountering several unique but obscure and dying religions he had encountered in the Middle East including the Mandeans, Yazidis and Samaritans, which he had described in "Heirs to a Forgotten Kingdom", and maintains are the last surviving examples of the curious, hidden links between today's religions.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

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Jaipur, Jan 25 (IANS) The rise of the Islamic State is among the attempts by Sunni hardliners to reverse Shia Iran's gains in Iraq, and comes paradoxically at a time when Iran, long seen by the western world as the source of instability in the Middle East, is now being needed to manage the same instability, says regional expert Vali Nasr.

He also noted that a move towards increased fundamentalism by Sunni powers of the area, such as Saudi Arabia, which is refusing to engage with Iran, now back out of the cold after the nuclear pact, is not a very "strategic" option since their economic power from oil production is lessening (especially the US due to shale gas), these states are vulnerable themselves, and it sets them on a collision course with the West due to the terrorist attacks by IS.

At a session titled "The Shia Revival", named after his 2006 book, at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Monday, he said all this was part of the conflict in the Middle East between Shias and Sunnis, which dates back to a millennium but had risen in the present as a proxy war after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and more recently after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"Shias and Sunnis look on the post-2003 politics of Iraq differently," he said, noting while the former see it as the first modern Shia Arab state, the latter were disturbed at a state that contained the Shia "threat" had been changed adversely - and by the US, seen as their reliable ally against Iran after 1979.

Nasr, the dean of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a former foreign policy advisor to the Barack Obama regime, contended that Sunni Muslims are "extra sensitive to political developments" and quick to discern anything that can change the balance of power.

The Iranian revolution had raised the prospects of a Shia threat and Sunni powers, especially Saudi Arabia which has had a relationship with the US which even predates the US-Israel alliance, had feared Iran because of two factors - first the prospects of Shia predominance, and secondly because it was anti-monarchial in nature.

However, the fear did not abate even though all the efforts of Ayatollah Khomeini's regime to export the Islamic revolution eventually failed to go beyond Shia Iran, despite they having "doubled down as the most anti-US/anti-Western" power possible which made the world see Iran and its proxies like the Hezbollah as the bad guys. This perception of being "messianic lunatics", as host Jonathan Shainin noted, lasted till 9/11.

"Incidentally, the Hezbollah has been the only Arab army to have defeated Israel," he noted.

Nasr holds that the matters complicated due to regime change in Iraq were further complicated by the Arab Spring " which did to several Arab states what the US Army had done to Iraq - broke down the state".

The Arab Spring saw an implosion in several authoritarian (Sunni) states, and taken to its logical conclusion -- of democracy and elections -- would have disturbing consequences for Sunnis, especially in states like Bahrain where Shias are in the majority, given the example of Iraq.

"That is why the IS with its goal of a Sunni caliphate, has struck a political resonance," he said, adding it is trying to roll back the Iranian gains in Iraq, as well as wrest Syria for the Sunnis.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

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Jaipur, Jan 25 (IANS) How should we view the British Empire and its legacy for its former colonies? Was it one of the world's greatest modernising forces, as some historians claim, or was it only a destructive bane? The latter, says Congress politician Shashi Tharoor who maintains the only two benefits for India were cricket and the English language.

Tharoor contested the contentions of co-panellist, British historian, author and MP Tristram Hunt, that the benefits included rule of law and an effective parliamentary system, saying he was not sure how good the latter has been for India.

"The system of governance of a small island nation was sought to be transplanted to a nation where there were not only ideological differences, but a bewildering range of diversities," he said, at a session titled "Empire" at the Jaipur Literature Festival here on Monday.

On the idea of rule of law, Tharoor contended it was part of the normal evolution of society and India could have achieved it for itself.

"You don't need foreigners to come and oppress you for benefit of development," he asserted.

"(Historian) Niall Ferguson (who has termed the British Empire a great modernising force) has not questioned for whose benefit it was done. I only accept cricket and the English language," said Tharoor.

Hunt, who had stepped in for Ferguson who wasn't able to make it for the event, contended that there was renewed interest in the Empire in his country -- where it had been absent for years from the school curriculum -- as Britain took decisions on its place in the world.

The author of "Ten Cities that Made an Empire", which seeks to chart the changing nature of the British Empire through 10 (formerly) imperial cities spread though out the world, Hunt said the empire had had an influence on his country too -- and still has.

"British politics are becoming like Indian politics. The centralised system is shifting to a more federal system... we are willing to take coalition partners," he said.

On the question of financial compensation for the damages to the former colonies' social and economic fabric, Tharoor, who had made headlines by making the demand at a debate in Oxford, said it should be a token amount, say a pound for every year of rule, rather than a ridiculous amount as had been calculated and would be "an exercise in absurdity and futility", could never be paid and besides, "India couldn't even know what to do with all that money".

Hunt noted that such a demand was more advanced in the former Caribbean colonies, but they instead of money, had sought help in education and development.

On whether bygones should be bygones, Tharoor said he agreed. "History cannot be undone. But it haunts our past and affects the future. By all means let bygones be bygones, but never forget it... we must remember it."

Hunt said he agreed. "We must interrogate, analyse and reinterpret the bygones," he said, adding he was quite sceptical of official apologies for historical wrongs.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

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Jaipur: Author Ruskin Bond with Penguin Marketing Head Himali Sodhi during a session of Jaipur Literature Festival 2016 at Diggi Palace in Jaipur, on Jan 22, 2016. (Photo: Ravi Shankar Vyas/IANS)

Kolkata, Jan 25 (IANS) Wary of controversies celebrated author Ruskin Bond who recently joined micro-blogging platform Twitter says he will be "very careful" while tweeting.

"Yes, definitely. I shall be very careful," Bond told IANS here. "I will tweet maybe only once a year," he added in humor.

The 81-year-old author, who has written over 500 short stories, essays and novellas and more than 40 books for children, says he was busy writing and had not given much thought to social media all these years.

"I was busy (penning autobiography). Twitter takes up time. I have always given priority to writing books and stories. I have never really given much thought to Twitter but my publishers have been asking me to tweet," Bond said on the sidelines of the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet.

With his tweet, "Hello, the world. Delighted to be on Twitter", Bond forayed into the world of social media on January 22. He has so far garnered 5,301 followers.

Conceding that he avoids controversies, the Mussoorie-based writer recalled he courted controversy once during the 1970s when he wrote an erotic story "The Sensualist" for a Mumbai-based magazine.

And a charge of obscenity was brought against him, said Bond.

"We didn't have TV. The media was restricted in certain ways. Today, it would have got far more attention. Today, controversies do get far more attention. This is the age of controversies," said "The Room on The Roof" author.

"The competition between media channels etc. is so great that we are looking for controversies. Otherwise, I avoid controversies."

The Sahitya Akademi winner has refused to join the 'award wapsi' campaign and return his award in protest against what other authors like Nayantara Sahgal have called "growing intolerance" in the country.

"Someone of them are taking their awards back again. They shouldn't be given to them back again. When you have given it... it's gone. You can't have your cake and eat it too," observed Bond.

However, he conceded that "real issues" on intolerance have always been there but three decades ago, there was no media coverage.

"Real issues are there... always have been. A lot of unpleasant things would have happened, did happen, but we didn't hear about it. Because in pre-television days or even in the days of early television, you didn't get this coverage. It wasn't presented before the public.

"You wouldn't know, the atrocities that had happened... took place in some town in UP or MP. It was a local issue and didn't get into the headlines. So now, when a student commits suicide, it's presented in all its horror before the public. People do get upset about it and very naturally so and it will continue to happen," added the Padma Bhushan recipient.

(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at sahana.g@ians.in)

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Jaipur, Jan 25 (IANS) The West is relinquishing its predominant role in global politics and economics to the East - Asia spreading from the Middle to the Far East - in this century and the significance of the ancient "Silk Roads", which were once the hub of commerce, culture and knowledge, is slowly getting restored, says a historian.

The Silk Roads area will shape the next century as it plays a significant role in the hydrocarbon economy, and in one sense, the terrorist outrages taking place in the European capitals and elsewhere arise from the Middle East, which is its significant part, said Oxford academician Peter Frankopan at a session titled "The Silk Roads" at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday.

"Control over networks was the story of the 19th century, the 20th century and will be the story of the 21st century but now Eastern nations like India and China will be resuming eminence," he contended.

Frankopan, who in his new book "The Silk Roads: A New History of the World" seeks to reassess the role of the east where civilization itself began and the world's great religions were born and flourished but was eclipsed by the advent of colonialism from the western hemisphere from around the 15th century, says the East's role in shaping the world has not been sufficiently known.

Confessing himself influenced by Luke Skywalker, Alexander the Great and Indiana Jones, he said that he is in his book had sought to address the deficiency of the role of East.

Legendary travel writer Colin Thubron, who has travelled most of the Silk Roads region and described his adventures in a series of inimitable travelogues, noted Frankopan's book takes history back from the West and was an awesome feat of scholarship and the range of sources that had been consulted would need one knowing 15 to 16 languages.

Frankopan also sought to clarify that there was no such thing as a single Silk Road but rather a series of Silk Roads or networks that linked continents and oceans together, and "along which flowed ideas, goods, disease and death and empires were won and lost".

And in the contemporary world, the patterns of exchange are mirroring those that were seen in the Silk Roads, as his book says.

On the significance of the area, he said it represented three things were the best of the human species - the willingness and ability to communicate, the ability to cooperate and curiousity.

"This is what brings me and you all to the Jaipur Literature Festival," he noted, adding it was along the Silk Roads that the goods and ideas that have shaped and influenced the world flowed till nearly half a millenia ago, when the focus shifted to the western hemisphere and colonialism which was based on unequal relationships and duplicity.

He noted that in the era that the Silk Roads set the pattern for the world and Europe didn't figure into it, since it never had any resources thad could be traded, while there were more Christians in Asia then that had been in Europe till at least the 13th century

On the role of India vis-a-vis China in the new order he sketches, Frankopan quipped he was a "historian, not a prophet", but noted from what he understood India and China had been in competition for several centuries now for the leadership of neighbouring areas.

Stressing that regional cooperation was important, he said he got the impression that India was disengaging itself from the region.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

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Jaipur, Jan 24 (IANS) He is widely recognised as English's most significant writer and it is a measure of William Shakespeare's eternal appeal and legacy that his plays can serve to unforgettably present a prism to view disparate societies widely dispersed in time and space -- even the astonishingly diverse "melting pot" that is America.

Till date, Shakespeare is frequently used to depict various human situations through his works which deal with among others with young, innocent lovers from families which are implacable enemies, of ceaseless ambition advanced by evil counsel, of fatal jealousies that ruins several lives, of twins mistaken for each other, shrewish wives, and so on, which also help in evaluating and re-evaluating him. So what is different about America?

This is the contention of Shakespearean scholar, James Shapiro, a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and author of "Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare", "1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare" and the "The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606", who throws new light on him, using his works as a tool to examine crucial American issues like slavery, revolution, and social justice.

"Shakespeare allows for the possibility of transcending that which divides us," he said at a session titled "Shakespeare in America" at the Jaipur Literature Festival here on Sunday.

Noting it was a "strange experience" to be talking about the "truly global relevance of English Shakespeare in America, whilst sitting in Jaipur", he discussed an America history when homosexuals and coloured people were forbidden from performing in enactments of Shakespeare's plays.

"The first great Black Othello was an American in the 1820s. But it was the age of slavery, so he was not allowed to perform in America, touring Europe for four decades. Such a thing didn't happen there until the 1940s," he said.

Citing other examples of gender and colour-based oppression in American society, he noted its history of sexual and racial discrimination could very simply be understood by looking at who got to play Shakespearean characters.

Shapiro praised the playwright's gift for bringing to the fore "uncomfortable" issues in society, such as racism, homophobia and capitalism, and given their relevance, called for a greater access to Shakespeare's plays.

"Does Shakespeare only belong to those who can afford to buy tickets to the Broadway? Take him to groups of people who have had no access to his work, people like prison inmates," he said, citing a funny experience of about a Shakespearean enactment at an American jail, where most could not grasp the idea of an acting.

"There were scenes where a character would faint, and six guys would jump up to lift him. They couldn't accept it when a character would turn his back on a fight. But they loved the play," he said, noting they were not educated but Shakespeare was still meaningful to them.

He acknowledged the role of cinema as one of the best media for carrying forward Shakespeare's legacy, but was incredulous at the relative "inability" of the English and Americans to produce good adaptations, while the Japanese and Indians had succeeded in doing so.

Shapiro particularly commended Bollywood movies like Vishal Bhardwaj's "Maqbool", "Omkara" and "Haidar", based on Macbeth, Othello and Hamlet, respectively.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

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Jaipur: Author Ruskin Bond with Penguin Marketing Head Himali Sodhi during a session of Jaipur Literature Festival 2016 at Diggi Palace in Jaipur, on Jan 22, 2016. (Photo: Ravi Shankar Vyas/IANS)

Kolkata, Jan 24 (PTI) Amidst the debate over rising intolerance in the country, celebrated author Ruskin Bond today said the world has always been full of intolerance.

"The world has always been a world full of intolerance.

So all I can say is that if you are tolerant towards others they will be tolerant towards you," Bond said while interacting with readers at the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet here.

He said, "Just as intolerance breeds intolerance, tolerance also breeds tolerance."

Bond was asked to comment by a reader on how books on children should have much needed values like tolerance.

"If its a work of fiction, it has to be imaginative. You can always weave into your stories the message you want to give to the world, but don't make it too obvious," the 81-year-old said.

Bond, who has penned over 500 short stories, essays and novels, has already refused to join the 'Award Wapasi' campaign and return his Sahitya Akademi Award to protest against the alleged rising intolerance in the country.

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Mumbai: Author Amish Tripathi during the launch of his book Scion of Ikshvaku in Mumbai, on June 22, 2015.(Photo: IANS)

Kolkata, Jan 24 (IANS) As India battles the widespread anger following a Dalit research scholar's suicide, best-selling author Amish Tripathi is trying to drive home the message that in ancient India the caste system was not rigid and was not attributed to one's birth.

Tripathi, who deftly weaves in threads on women's empowerment and the caste system in his interpretations of Indian mythologies, prefers to reserve his judgement on the Hyderabad University issue since it's under investigation.

But he concedes that oppression continues despite the progress the country has made in the last almost 70 years since independence.

Rohith Vemula's death on January 17 in Hyderabad University after being suspended for allegedly assaulting an ABVP leader has resulted in mass protests across India.

"As far as specific incidents are concerned, learning from the Delhi church attacks and Ranaghat nun rape case (In West Bengal), it turned out the incidents were not how they were portrayed; so we should stay calm and wait for investigation to conclude.

"At a broader level, there is no doubt oppression does take place. We have made improvements in the last 70 years but there is still a long way to go," Tripathi, who burst on to the scene in 2010 with the popular Shiva trilogy, told IANS in an interview here during the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet.

The banker-turned-writer penned the hugely successful "The Immortals of Meluha", "The Secret of the Nagas" and "The Oath of the Vayuputras" novels of the Shiva trilogy. His latest "Scion of Ikshvaku" is the first book in the Ram Chandra series - his take on the Indian epic Ramayana. The second book is in progress and talks are on for movie adaptations.

"In my books, I actually speak about the caste system. If you see the genetic research that is coming out, it's very clear the caste system was not based on birth. In ancient times it was not rigid," the 41 year-old IIM-Calcutta alumnus contended.

As examples, he says Maharishi Valmiki who wrote the Valmiki Ramayana was not born a Brahmin.

"The Maharishi who composed the Mahabharata, who compiled the Vedas, was not born a Brahmin, he was born to a fisherwoman. He became a Brahmin... not just a Brahmin... he became a rishi (sage)," Tripathi underlined.

In addition to the textual proof, he also lays strong emphasis on current genetic research.

"Research shows till around 1,900 to 2,000 years ago, there was heavy intermingling in India between all groups. That's the first sign of caste system... there is no inter-marrying. Something happened between 1,500 to 2,000 years ago when the inter-marrying stopped. So some people assume that is when the caste system became rigid.

"In ancient times, most of the evidence points to the fact that the caste system was actually not rigid and that is what I am trying to bring out in my books. It was not based on birth. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna clearly says: I created the four varnas based on 'guna' and 'karma' based on your attributes and on your karma, not on birth."

Ascribing his knowledge of mythology and scriptures to his family (his paternal grandfather was a pandit and taught at Banaras Hindu University, his maternal grandmother was also a teacher), Tripathi says his love for India doesn't mean he can turn a blind eye to issues that need to be dealt with.

"I am a deep patriot. I love my country but I also believe patriotism should not blind us to the things that need to be improved and of course one doesn't like to be told about our country by Westerners, most of them likely have no love for our country; they just want to come and judge us.

"There's a difference in the attitude of someone who deeply loves his or her own country and there are things which he feels needs to improve," Tripathi signed off.

(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at sahana.g@ians.in)

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Pakistani historian Ayesha Jalal, who has written a biography of her grand uncle and Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto

Jaipur, Jan 23 (IANS) Writers, like Saadat Hasan Manto, brought out the horrors of Partition much more vividly than historians, but the need now is to go beyond the horrors to healing, says Pakistani-American historian Ayesha Jalal.

Jalal, the grandniece of the famed Urdu writer who passed away at the age of 43 in 1955, however, also stressed that fiction cannot and should not be allowed to replace history.

"Manto's short stories can embellish history but fiction cannot replace history," she said at a session titled "The Pity of Partition: Manto's Life, Times and Work Across the India-Pakistan Divide" (the title of her 2013 biography on her granduncle) at the Jaipur Literature Festival here on Saturday.

She maintained Manto's legacy survives and is more relevant now because of his type of thinking, of his approach which was to question everything.

"People don't think, they go with perceived wisdom. He questioned it, raised uncomfortable issues especially of human bestiality in his stories of Partition," she said.

On Manto becoming a bone of contention in the subcontinent amidst the tide of "intolerance", Jalal said there was always some intolerance here but now it was growing throughout the world, but a writer like Manto is often invoked by the youth as a form of protest.

She also noted that if intolerance is growing, so is the opposition to it.

But like interest in his works in India, there was also a lot of interest in Pakistan, she said, but added that this was not any form of competition. "Celebrate it and him in your way," she said.

On how she came to write his biography, Jalal said it was his centenary, there were accounts by some of his close friends, which are insightful but her 2013 work also has memories of his family, which did not see him very positively - and for good reason.

"There were many troubles he caused, he left his family destitute, and his alcoholism was seen most negatively," she said.

She confessed she had herself fallen under his spell quite early having heard his stories from her cousins and others and "could recite the doggerel used by the mental patient in 'Toba Tek Singh' even before she could recite the kalma".

And then, she had come across letters to Manto from his mother and others, which formed an archive. She noted he seemed to have a sense of history for when he left the then Bombay for Pakistan, he had taken all his letters along.

But above all, her rationale was that the "microcosm of Manto's life connects to the macrocosm of the Partition" for he he was one of its most celebrated victims.

"Manto was non-political, writing film scripts in Bombay, was not a Muslim League supporter though being anti-colonial and for him the 'batwara' was not necessary. Bombay gave him a sense of himself. Partition, in a sense, made Manto, but it also destroyed him," said Jalal.

She said that while in Bombay, he had close friends like actors Ashok Kumar and Shyam, and there was no Hindu-Muslim feeling in him, and he in fact made fun of it, like in his story "Dhobi" which was a real incident, though partly fictionalised.

"He had no enthusiasm in going to Pakistan, there were no complicated political reasons but there were family reasons. His wife went to Lahore where her family was and didn't want to come back, so he also moved despite pleas by friends like Ashok Kumar and Shyam to return.

"But Pakistan never proved conducive to Manto. He had an ambiguous relationship with the authorities, quickly became disillusioned, turned to drinking more, and the lack of recognition killed him," she said, adding that while he had been a heavy drinker in Delhi and Bombay, he became an alcoholic there, though he never wrote under the influence of drink.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

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Jaipur, Jan 22 (PTI) Noted writer Nand Bharadwaj, who had returned his Sahitya Akademi award last year in protest against alleged intolerance in the country, has decided to take back the award.

Rajasthani and Hindi writer Bharadwaj said he agreed to take back the award as he is now convinced by the Akademi, which held an executive meeting to condemn the killing of rationalists.

"It was a different situation in the country when the authors returned the award.

"Some time back, the Akademi held a meeting and took a positive decision following which I have decided to take back the award," he told reporters at the Jaipur Literature Festival here.

Bharadwaj said he wrote two days back to the Akademi declaring his decision.

The writer had in October last year returned the award, which he had received in 2004, to protest against alleged intolerance and killing of rationalists.

He, however, said that he "would continue to oppose the issue of intolerance whenever required and at every level".

"Intolerance issue has not subsided," he said.

Earlier today, Sahitya Akademi said that some of the writers, including Nayantara Sahgal, have agreed to take back the awards they had returned citing 'growing intolerance' in the country.

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Author Vedica Kant, American historian Ronald Grigor Suny, Canadian historian Margaret Macmillan, British author Anthony Sattin and British historian Eugene Rogan discuss the fall-out of World War I

Jaipur, Jan 22 (IANS) Nationalism got a fillip in the aftermath of World War I as several empires disintegrated and new nations were born, but an unfortunate fallout was the terrifying rise of ethnic nationalism that led to many tragedies and still destabilizes parts of the world, especially the Middle East, experts said on Friday.

Termed the war to end wars or the Great War, the First World War (1914-18) did solve some of the issues for which the conflict was fought but gave rise to new ones too such as competing ideas on the course of the world affairs, which are still playing out, said a panel of prominent historians at a session titled "The Peace to End All Peace" at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

These were whether the right of self-determination, as propounded by then US President Woodrow Wilson, should be be paramount, or whether Western powers should control the world as "their responsibility and right" given that they were powerful, advanced and civilised, said Canadian historian Margaret Macmillan.

"These are clashing principles still in play now," said Macmillan, an Oxford University professor and author of "Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World" and "The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914".

On the impact of the war, she said it was tumultuous and "literally a watershed" for the modern world as empires, including the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman, were destroyed and Western society shaken as long-suppressed desires for nationhood surfaced.

One of the key areas in this respect were the territories of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East, on which both Britain and France were casting covetous eyes, and determined that the other should not gain.

Meanwhile, among the Arabs, there were competing choices - some remained faithful to the Ottoman Empire but wanted it to become an Arab-Turkish empire, some wanted independence and were fearful of European designs, and some heeded the call by the British to revolt, said Eugene Rogan, a professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford.

British journalist and author Anthony Sattin contended that the Middle East was the area where the ideas of empires and nation came into conflict and where British duplicity was its highest, but American historian Ronald Grigor Suny cautioned against getting into the trap of seeing nationalism bigger than what it was.

"I'm no Lenininist but I can call it a war between imperial powers, and empires stoked nationalism, which has been given an exaggerated role, but was stoked, utilised then...

"The name of the game then was nation - a very new and subversive idea, which could question the legitimacy of empires."

"It also resulted in the philosophy that the nation and state can be synonymous, which was bad for minorities and led to genocides in the 20th century," said Suny, director of the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Michigan and author of books on the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Armenian genocide.

Macmillan also noted ethnic nationalism was a terrifying idea as against civic patriotism and that President Wilson had regretted supporting self-determination for nations when he realised how many there were.

On the current Middle East, Sattin said the appearance of Israel had been the most traumatic for the region till the arrival of the Islamic State, which was not overturning old imperial settlements but filling the power vacuum in Syria and Iraq while Suny said that one of the greatest problems left unsolved was that of the Kurds, whose right to statehood was not recognized but who are now eagerly sought as allies against the IS.

Rogan said the future of the Middle East appeared bleak as most of the revolutions that overthrew autocrats had left dangerous power vacuums utilised by groups like the IS. A little glimmer of hope was the return of Iran to global affairs after the nuclear deal.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

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