Saturday, February 21, 2015

A TRIP TO ALLEPEY: VENICE OF THE EAST

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Alapuzha or Allepey is sometimes called Venice of the East. It was an important port from where spices were exported to all parts of the world in the medieval period. To facilitate the movement of spices, canals were constructed on which the typical long boats of Kerala used to ply. The beautiful Vembanar Lake, a large water body forms a breath taking and a scenic backdrop to this beautiful city. I had reasons to visit this city recently as I was invited by a student of mine to deliver the keynote address for a National Seminar in a College there. We spent three wonderful days and I want to share my experience with my readers> Here goes:                                                    
Norton Church
The Lighthouse
The Spice Warehouse
A House by the Canal
The Rajarajesvari Temple
A Beautiful Lamp
The Mullaly Market
The Sunset on the beach
Saint Joseph's College for Women which is doing a splendid job in educating girls
The Ambalapuzha Temple
The same Temple
An excellent place to get snacks by the Boat Jetty

The first Protestant Church built in 1816
The Altar of the Church
A view of the canal

Our trip to Allepey was wonderful and will remain in our mind for a long long time. Well worth a visit.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

One Part Woman: Perumal Murugan and his novel of Misrepresentation

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Tamil literary scene is said to be vibrant and the recent novel by Perumal Murugan, One Part Woman is touted as an example of a renaissance in Tamil Literature. Caste is always simmering under the surface of Tamil society and the Dravidian Movement has made caste the central icon of Tamil identity and politics which valorizes a politicized linguistic consciousness. The Brahmin was the focus of much of the venom unleashed by the Dravidian Movement and even E V Ramaswamy Nayakkar or Periyar as he is fondly called made Brahmin bashing an acceptable part of Tamil public behaviour. Today when  brahmins has been driven out of Tamil Nadu and the intermediate castes which inherited the spoils of the Dravidian Movement and its politics are busy fighting among themselves and are united only against the dalit population. The ugly reality of Tamil society today is that caste is the only theme which writers want to explore. Murugan, a teacher of Tamil at Namakkal has published a novel which the intermediate landed caste of the Konku region, the Konku Vellalars, find extremely offensive. The novel, One Part Woman is set in the Konku region around the town of Tiruchengode, a taluq headquarters in Salem district.

Konku which consists of the hilly tracts of the Western Ghats was the last frontier of Tamil society and throughout its long history was bone of contention between powerful neighbours. The Pandyas, the Cholas and the Hoysalas all contested for supremacy over this region. Obviously the area has a violent and turbulent past which can be dealt with in a fairly interesting and engaging manner. However we do not find this novel doing either.

There has been outrage in Tamil Nadu against this novel. The writer/novelist in a dramatic facebook post declared that the novelist Murugan is dead and only a "stupid teacher" Murugan  is alive. This provided the signal for all the usual suspects of the Tamil Literary scene, N Ram, A R Venkatachalapathy, Meena, Chandru and others to rally in support of the author on the ground that his artistic freedom has been curtailed by the forces of "cultural fascism". Nothing can be more untrue than this. A conspiracy theory was floated that because the Vellalar Gounders are running Teaching shops in the form of cram schools in Namakkal that community is funding the anti Murugan agitation and the author played along by pretending to be a martyr to the cause of freedom.

There is a great deal of ethnographic information available about the Konku region and there is no material which supports the central theme of the novel that the Ardhanarisvara Temple situated atop a hillock near Tiruchengode was ever the site of the seedy scene that Murugan describes. He argues that women visited this temple to beget children and were impregnated by men who were not their husbands. Obviously the Konku Vellalar community is up in arms against the depiction of their women as unchaste and more pertinently, causing a veil of suspicion to fall on the  ancestry of the community. The Konku Vellalars are divided into 24 territorially  segmented nadu grouping as suggested by the ethnographic research of Brenda Beck. Under these circumstances it would be impossible for such a custom to be even plausible. A false and contrived social custom is sought to be foisted on to the Konku Gounder community. There is no historical or ethnographic material to even remotely suggest the existence of the surrogate impregnation that Perumal Murugan has described in his book. I do not contest his right to write rubbish, but let him not say that he has written a piece of social history in the form of a novel.

The language used in the book is vulgar and tasteless. Kinship is respected in Tamil society and the elder brother's wife is called anni. It is not possible for a brother to say in the context of Tamil society' "Just find out and let me know if my sisters-in-law will take care of that" (86). The context of this quote is so tasteless and vulgar that I have refrained from quoting it in full. And there are many such instances of vulgar, tasteless language.

On page 98 Perumal Murugan writes: At the peak of the celebrations all rules were relaxed. The night bore witness to that".

This book does not deserve the attention it has received. Of course, I do not say that it should be banned. It is just a piece of trash thta deserves to be ignored.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

AAM ADMI PARTY VICTORY IN DELHI, FEB 2015

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

The victory of the AAP in the recently concluded polls came as a complete shock to many of us. While the victory of the AAP was predicted the scale of the victory was unprecedented to say the least. The BJP had won all 7 Lok Sabha seats in the May 2014 General Election with a vote share of 37.5%. There has been a slight fall in the vote share  but the BJP won only 3 seats leaving 67 seats to the AAP. What explains this debacle?

1 It is now clear that the projection of Kiran Bedi as the Chief Ministerial candidate mid way through the polls was a flawed strategy and doubly so because that move was not welcomed by the grass root workers of the party. Her high handed conduct alienated party workers and the net result she lost the Krishna Nagar seat, a safe constituency of the BJP.

2 The BJP went into the elections without a Manifesto and that meant that the people of Delhi did not know what to expect from the Party. The Vision Document released was largely a symbolic statement huge on rhetoric but short on specifics. Now in retrospect that was  a factor.

3 The BJP was on a roll winning state after state and had become used to the habit of winning and assumed that Delhi would be a piece of cake. The AAP has built a good net work of supporters in different localities and had the city well covered. A committed band of volunteers worked night and day to make the victory possible. The AAP was able to tap the misguided idealism of the youth who believe that the AAP brand of politics will augur change in India.

4 The BJP under the State President Shri Satish Upadhya was handicapped by the lack of support from the top duo of the Party, Modi and Shah. Satish Upadhya himself was denied a ticket to fight the Polls while defectors like Krishna Tirath were given tickets. The ticket distribution was faulty and there were far too many para troopers wafting from above queering the pitch.

5 The perceived "negative campaign" of the BJP against the much vaunted financial and ethical probity of the AAP is also touted as a reason. The fact is that the AAP is guilty of using shady and dubious finances during the campaign but turned its own misdeeds against the BJP. The AAP is very good at turning all criticism against its conduct as a trial between the forces of good and the forces of evil a kind of eschatology which may lead to short term gains but not long lasting results.

6 The BJP has lost and like a mature political party has started introspecting. The first clear indication of change is the reluctance to enter the dirty cess  pool of Bihar politics. The BPJ will  learn its lessons and get its house in order before the Bihar polls later this year.