stories combined

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Agriculture as a

By K R Ranjith, K P Jayakumar

Who says money does not grow on trees?” Geetha Pandey of the BBC couldn't have concluded her story on the unique saga of Vanilla in India better. She was all praise for the new crop which she termed as the 'discovery of a new gold' by the villagers of Kerala. National and international

media were upbeat over the spread of Vanilla (Vanilla Planifolia) in the peninsular India. Success stories of smart farmers-turned-rupee-millionaires became the staple diet for the media from the '90s through the early years of the new millennia.

Distress of spices

speculative misadventureThe tragedy of vanilla in IndiaVanilla, known as the queen of spices and the scent of love, has earned a dubious fame among the farmers of South India who were cajoled in to one of the most vulnerable speculative agricultural misadventure. The introduction of the new crop in to the communities in Kerala also brought in some interesting (and disturbing) socio-economic changes.

Nobody cared a revisit to the villages once hailed as the model Vanilla

villages and no one seemed to care for those who were left high and dry by the magic crop that lost its spell.

A f e w w e e k s b a c k , w e v i s i t e d Ramamangalam, a small agricultural village 35 km from Kochi, touted as the first model vanilla village in India by the Spices Board in 1991. The village had more than 500 vanilla farmers, the highest number of vanilla cultivators in the country making it the biggest producer and supplier of natural vanilla at the national level. When the whole national production of vanilla recorded 200 tonnes, Ramamangalam's share in it was a whopping 120 tonnes. “Where vanilla is there is the smell of money,” The Hindu once exulted in the glory of the exotic orchid. “Ramamangalam is today perhaps the only village in the country where vanilla, the aromatic cash crop, is being cultivated in an organised, scientific manner,” the news paper known for its sober treatment, wrote excitedly overwhelmed by the success of the village. By 2003, the village had 75 hectares of vanilla while the total vanilla cultivated land in India was only 500 hectares. This included all the vanilla groves in Kerala, Tamilnadu, Tripura and Gujarat put together. But the story changed so fast and so worse that you will have a real tough time searching for a vanilla farmer in the village now. They have found it more scientific and economical

to remove the crop from their land and we must add, however, that they've done it in an organised manner.

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31

spices in the foreign market. The settlers were told that they should go for intensified and profit oriented agricultural methods instead of unscientif ic ways. Agricultural department and agri-development banks supported the cause and people started to move away from farming in the forest and semi-forest lands and Idukki saw the advent of mono culture. Big pepper farms and cardamom plantations replaced forest-cultivation. Cash crops decimated paddy and food crops. But the nemesis reached sooner than expected. An intensive shift in to cash crops made the farmers highly dependent on the foreign market and vulnerable to the volatile foreign trade. Meanwhile the monoculture experiment was taking its toll on the very basics of farming in the high ranges. Once the forest cover was removed, the sun reached directly in to the soil resulting in elementary changes that would eventually prove detrimental to the vegetation. Intensified production practices and

excessive use of plant protection chemicals over the past few decades have set in adverse impact on the ecology, production cost, soil health and sustainability of production.

Once thickly forested high ranges began to experience draught. Pepper plantations in the region were plagued by fatal infections and crops failed miserably. Cardomom also suffered consecutive droughts. Low yield and low price made the livelihood distressful.thickly forested high ranges began to expe r i ence d raugh t . Pepper plantations in the region were plagued by fatal infections and crops failed miserably. Cardomom also suffered consecutive droughts. Low yield and low price made the livelihood distressful.

Cover Story

contemporary masters

Samira Makhmalbaf

Harrowing Metaphors,Enticing Blasphemies

K.R. Ranjith

“Is there anybody who wants to be the president?” asked SamiraMakmalbaf confronting a group of women during her run up toshoot At Five in the Afternoon.The question would rather have gone ridiculously blunt or just amundane gag had it not been placed before a group of Afghanwomen gathered in a school and who had just started learningafter being denied primary education for long. It was post-Taliban(?) Afghanistan but the ideological strings of the dogmatic regimewere still strong and binding. The question meant just as a teasewas not with out some piercing connotations in the Afghancontext. Samira Makhmalbaf was desperately seeking a girl to dothe central role in her third feature film At five in the Afternoon, atask she realised as most difficult to accomplish as no one seemedto risk being cast in a film. Once filmed, it would turn out to bethe first foreign film made in Kabul after the collapse of theTaliban regime.

The Girl in the film, Noqreh, has her own dreams and in herdreams she dares to be the President of Afghanistan, an ambitionthat is outrageously blasphemous. The ambitious Noqreh is pittedagainst her deeply religious father who has internalized the Talibanideologies and who finds suddenly powerless after the fall of theTaliban. She has a pair of sleek, white, western shoes that shewears whenever her father is out. Wearing the shoes in her father’sabsence gives her a sense of liberty and while on her high-heeledshe feels that she’s a few more steps closer to attain her greatambition!

By portraying the rebel Noqreh alongside her zealot father whobelieves that women wearing western shoes are doomed to hell,Samira makes an apparent statement about the new Afghanistanand the chaos within. But layers down, lay the deeper issues ofthe victim and the victimized, of the captive and captor and thecomplex spiral of power that construct and dominate the relationbetween the two. For instance, the relations between the fatherand daughter in the film can not be determined by the usualdualism of the oppressor and the oppressed and hence, we arenot at liberty to draw obvious parallels from it to a tyrannicalstate/religious power centres and a subjugated citizenry. Despite

Two-Legged Horse (2008)At Five in the Afternoon (2003)11 September: God, Construction,Destruction (2002)Blackboards (2000)The Apple (1998)

their diametrically opposed ambitions and values, the fatherand daughter in the film are mutually dependent and treateach other with tact and affection. It’s been observed thatthough samira is uncompromising in her tirade againstreligious fundamentals, (Samira has famously said thatTaliban is not just an external wound that can be dressedbut a cancer spread to the marrow.) she ‘refuses to demonisethe religious fundamentalists who rendered women almostinvisible in Afghanistan. Instead, she strives to understandthem.’

In Two Legged Horse, her latest film, Samira once againdelves in to the controversial subject of victimization, takingit in to a different plane though. The title suggests adistressing metaphor and equally troubling is the themeabout the abuses meted out between seeming equals: peoplefrom the same environment, and in this instance, the sameage and sex. A destitute young boy is hired to take care of aseverely disabled boy who treats the former mercilessly.The poor boy is treated like an animal in every sense of theterm. The question of victimisation is disturbingly poisedas Samira is unflinching in her portrayal of the reality.

The film is set in Afghanistan and was shot there since theIranian Government did not give permission to shoot inIran. The shooting was once temporarily disrupted asterrorists threw bomb at the crew badly injuring sixmembers. However, Samira resolutely followed the scheduleand completed filming in Afghanistan. The process of filmingTwo legged Horse, the training of the non-professional actorsand the bombing incident were filmed by Hana, her sister,who made a 52 minute documentary titled Samira andnon-professional actors.The Apple, Samira’s debut feature was shown in the officialsection at Cannes in 1998, making her the youngest directorin the history of the festival to get an official selection.Samira was only 17 then. Her film next year, The BlackBoard which tells the story of a group of Kurd teachersseeking students on the border between Iraq and Iran,carrying black boards on their shoulders like the cross onJesus, won the Special Jury Award at Cannes. At five in theAfternoon followed suit and won Special Jury Award.

Filmography

Francesco Rosi

Politicaland Personal

We continue to hear from the Neapolitan Camorra- the omnipotent mafiathat exercise and execute power more professionally than any other urban-mafia in the world. The Camorra has successfully created a system ofviolence, fear and corruption, so that everything would fall in line withoutresistance making the whole society subservient and susceptible. A failedpolitical system and a highly vitiated civic society mark the contemporaryNaples controlled by 100 camorra clans that deal in women, drugs, cocaine,weapons and waste. And every third day a man is killed in the city.1 Sicilyis no different story. When Francesco Rosi made his first film (The Challenge)in 1958, things were no better. The camorra was reigning strong and wasspreading across the entire system. The film, dealing with the life of acamorra chieftain, created quite a stir with its palpable allusions to thepolitical-mafia nexus.

The formative influence of these two cities- Naples and Sicily- on FrancescoRosi, who’s once referred to as the ‘heavy consciousness of Italian cinema’is undisputedly evident in his films. The Challenge, his first individualfeature film attempt was about a Neapolitan mafia don Pasquale Simonetti.Salvatore Guilano, his 1962 film mixes Italian neo-realism and Hollywoodcrime thriller genre to make a near documentary exploration in to thecareer and downfall of Sicilian camorra boss of the same name, whosefigure assumed legendary proportions after his violent death in 1950.

Francesco Rosi hails from Naples where the culture of corruption andviolence has long been embedded in to the system and hence, his thrust onthe private and public responses to the social and political maladies thatinfest the society as a whole. The primary concern of most of his films isthe corruption and violence in the Southern Italy because he thought the“South, was not other than Italy but the place where the nation’s problemsoutcropped most painfully.” Born in Naples in 1922, Francesco Rosi grewup in the city as the country went through the most troubling times inhistory. Fascism was on the ascent and the ensuing wars continuallydisrupted his studies.

Rosi inherited a liking for the medium from his father, an ardent cineaste,who used to make super 8 mm shorts. Though studied law in the early 40s,Rosi would soon find himself in the company of established directors ofthe time.

He was hired by one of the masters of neo-realism, Luchino Visconti inthe late 1940s. The first brush with Visconti was in La terra trema, aunique experiment in neo realism. The film so realistically captured thelife of Sicilian fishermen and the fidelity to their local dialect was soflawless that the other Italian audience found it difficult to comprehend.Forced to make an ‘Italian’ sound track for the film, Visconti entrustedthe job with Rosi that proved a great formative experience for the newcomer.Quite deservedly Rosi considers Visconti as his mentor. “I learnedeverything from him. I became the director I became because of Visconti,”Rosi told Eric J. Lyman2 “The kind of neo-realism that he helped popularizealong with Roberto Rossellini had a big impact on me.”

K.R. Ranjith

through a cinemathat attempts as much

as possible to rubshoulderswith the

truth and with

the real values of life,one can succeed in

conveying theurgency of respecting

human dignity.

147

Later he worked an assistant to a number of Italian bigwigslike Matarazzo, Emmer, Antonioni, Monicelli and Alessandrini.Brought up in the company of masters, Rosi decided to go italone in 1957 with The Challenge. The film tells the story of ayoung and enterprising Neapolitan who try to sneak his way into the thriving business of fruits and vegetables in the Centralmarket of the city which is controlled by the mafia. Rosicontinued to make socially engaged films through out his longcareer and especially in the 60s as he produced some of themost politically-courageous, socially-committed and formally-innovative films that earned him the title, ‘the poet of civiccourage’. Though he had expressed dislike for the term‘engaged film making’, the explicit reference to politicalincidents and the unambiguous allusions to grievous politicalsituation in the Italian South remained the defining focus ofhis early films. “ I believe that through an engaged cinema (alabel which, by the way, I do not like very much), through acinema that attempts as much as possible to rub shoulderswith the truth and with the real values of life, one can succeedin conveying the urgency of respecting human dignity.” Rosisaid in an interview. “Many times the respect for human dignityis even more important than the respect for human life itself.”3

Rosi’s films directly alluded to incidents of political excess ashe boldly welded his camera in a daring effort to expose them.At the same time he ostensibly distanced himself from beingjudgemental, by leaving questions unanswered and by remainingsilent thus allowing the audience to reach their ownconclusions; letting the movie continue in the mind of theviewers. He strongly believed that to be effective, ‘the questionsthe film asks must continue to live in the viewer even after thefilm is over’ and in an overtly symbolic move, he stoppedputting ‘the end’ to his films.

The sorry state of affairs in the Southern Italy repeatedlydiscussed in his films had an urgency of addressing issues relatedto development, corruption and social change of the South ascompared to an Italy that was moving fast-forward toindustrialisation. A neglected impoverished south, he believedwas the root cause of the problems that accumulated in thecramped cities. His first three movies – The Challenge, TheWeavers and Salvatore Giuliano- reveal the squalid underbellyof the cities of the discarded south and how power exercises inthe life (and death) of people involved. The Weavers directly

addresses the immigrant question and the travails for survival inthe south.

In what was later termed as the second face of neo-realism, Rosiexperimented with form and content in his study in to the deathof Salvatore Giulano and explored the various versions of thecontroversial death of the don which was officially proclaimed asan encounter killing. Using local non professional actors andcombining extensive historical research, official court records,journalistic and eye witness accounts Rosi worked his way up tocreate an unambiguous confusion from which the audience couldreach their own inferences.

The problem of the Italian South was also the problem ofindustrialisation and of the resultant economic divide. The life,politics and economy of the cities were changing fast and thepower centres were shifting. “Rosi’s films are perhaps above allthe films of an industrialising Italy,” observes Vernia Glaessner,“the Italy of Fiat, that exists dialectically with that of the peasantSouth.” The urban aspirations juxtaposed to the rural helplessnessplayed out in the troubled post-WWII found a tragic expressionin the Moment of Truth (1965). The film is about a peasant youthwho abandon his simple agrarian life to seek fortune in the city.Mired in the complex relations of the city, he ends up a bullfighterwith a brief success and an abrupt tragic finish. Hands over the city(1963) focuses on the shady deals and speculation in the realestate business that brought in drastic economic imbalance andstrengthened the hold of mafia in the urban centres. The collapseof an old building and the resultant human casualties fuels aninquiry in to disaster which reveals the hand of an influentialpolitical leader and his real estate interests behind the incident.But the clear links to implicate him are buried amidst the powerbargain in the city council.

It’s observed that his later works, especially the Three Brothers(1981) show a shift from a politically-inspired cinema towardsan investigation of private spheres of experience.4 But his filmsdo record the troubled times of a society as they quizzically andclinically explore a system changing and shaping itself. Politicaland social commitment to the times and an intense urge toremain true to the medium make Rosi one of the masters ofcinema. 85 year old Francesco Rosi and his 50 year long careerwere honoured with a Golden Bear for lifetime achievement atBerlin International film festival, 2008.

1 Naples- City of the Camorra, Petra Reski, Geo, October-2008, p.138-157.2 Rosi’s interview with Eric J. Lyman, The Hollywood Reporter,Vol 77; No. 9, February, 20083 Carlo Testa (ed.), Poet of Civic Courage: The Films of Francesco Rosi, Wiltshire, England, Flicks Books, 1996.4 Gino Moliterno, Senses of Cinema, March 2003

FilmographyRed Shirts (1952), The Challenge (1958)The Weavers (1959), Salvatore Giuliano (1961)Hands Over the City (1963), The Moment ofTruth (1964), Once Upon a Time (1967)Uomini contro (1970), The Mattei Affair (1972)Lucky Luciano (1973), Illustrious Corpses (1976)Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979),ThreeBrothers (1981), Carmen (1984)Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987), To ForgetPalermo (1990), Neapolitan Diary (1992)The Truce (1996)

BiographySon of an ardent film buff, little Francesco Rosi started his filmic career at theage of four in the super-8mm films his father shot. Born in Naples in 1922 Rosistudied law at the insistence of his father but entered the film industry as anassistant to Luchino Visconti in the 1940s. When the Goffredo Alessandrinibacked off from the production, he took the mantle of the director to completeRed Shirt in 1952. His full directorial attempt was in 1958 with The Challenge.Salvatore Giuliano (1962) won him the Silver Bear award for Best Director atthe Berlin International Film Festival in 1962. Mattei Affair, bagged the Palmed’Or at Cannes Film Festival ten years later. He received the Golden Bear forLifetime Achievement in 2008 at the Berlin international film festival.

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K R Ranjith

Kerala Law reforms commission's r e c o m m e n d a t i o n t o l e g a l i s e euthanasia sparks off right-to- die debate. In a country where people die in protest demanding their right to live, the endless debate on euthanasia curiously mix with religion, ethics, human dignity and politics finally reaching a

WHOSE CHOICE IS IT, ANYWAY?

{{{talian society suddenly locked in a heated debate over a fresh case of euthanasia while the world is talking I

away the worst economic crisis in history . The life and death row has further widened the rift between the Premier Silvio Berlusconi and President Giorgio Napolitano. The centre of the debate is Eluana Englara, a 38 year old woman who had been comatose for 17 years after a traffic accident. In a fiercely disputed case that polarised the Italian society, the leftist president backed a court order to allow doctors to remove her feeding tubes. But the centre right conservative prime minister and the Vatican vehemently opposed what they termed as an 'abominable assassination' attempt.

ELuana's father had been leading a protracted legal battle since the tragedy in 1992 to disconnect her feeding tubes which he finally won a few months back. But the Burlusconi government hurriedly passed a law not to allow doctors to remove the life support system. Defying the Prime minister, the President sat on the emergency decree eventually allowing doctors to assist Eluana in death. She died in a private hospital (the government had asked all the state run hospitals to provide life support system to Eluana in case she

was admitted there.) in the first week of February shortly after the feeding tubes were removed.

The death ignited a fresh round of controversy. Burlusconi accused the President of 'Murder'. “Eluana did not die a natural death, she was killed,” He said. The after-tremors of the death have not died down yet. The fact that Burlusconi set aside the woes of a devastating financial turmoil the country is trapped in, to debate an emotional issue with strong religious undertones, have not gone unnoticed though.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy has had to face the same question during the first phase of his presidency. He was suave enough to keep a moderate double stand not to upset religious sentiments. Though he personally supported the plea of the 52 year old school teacher Chantal Sebire, suffering from a rare malignant neoplasm of the nasal vault, to subject her to an assisted suicide, Sarkozhy said that it was not in his capacity to change the laws for that matter. The debate on euthanasia, it seems, would go on endlessly as ever and forever.Back home, the life-and-death debate got a fresh lease in Kerala recently as the Law Reforms Commision constituted by the state government mooted a law

the Law Reforms Commis ion constituted by the state government mooted a law amendment to allow euthanasia. The committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge Justice V R Krishna Aiyer have a few radical recommendations that would give the conservative brigade an opportunity to hit the streets The news of the draft recommendations has already upset the religious corners, especially the Church. While the law and medical experts point to the extremely complex issues that arise out of legalising the right to die.

An Indian's right to death

The pro-euthanasia discourses in India got a fillip as the National Law Commision suggested 'the government repeal Section 309 of the IPC' to make an attempt to suicide not a crime. This is an indication of a growing legal tolerance towards suicide and assisted suicide. However, abetment of suicide remains an offence punishable under Sections 305and 306 of the Indian Penal Code and euthanasia or mercy killing under whatever circumstances in which is effected is considered as homicide in the country. In this context, the Kerala Law Reforms commission recommendations gain significance as the first expert legal committee to state mendations seriously and make the next move in right earnest,

it in clear unambiguous terms. If the government take the recommendations seriously and make the next move in right earnest, which would be a very tough call given the socio-religious equations in the state, Kerala would become the first Indian state to legalise euthanasia.

A heart-breaking plea by the mother of a former chess champion K Venkitesh of Andhrapradesh had brought the Indian legal experts to consider mercy killing as a benevolent option to give long suffering patients a right to die with dignity. 25 year old Venkitesh had been on a ventilator for long after suffering a severe attack of muscular dystrophy. His mother, Sujatha moved to the Andhrapradesh HC requesting to allow euthanasia in order to fulfil her son's last wish to donate his organs. After suffering long and fighting an equally painful legal battle, Venkitesh succumbed to his fate in December 2004 with out fulfilling his death-wish.

[N a t i o n a l ]

How did Pope John Paul II Die?

A heated euthanasia debate raged in the USA after the death of Terry Schiavo in 2005. Her husband wanted to put an end to her hopeless vegetative existence while her parents refused a proposal to remove her feeding tubes. The case was debated in the congress and also reached at the Supreme Court. The pro-life activists and the Vatican condemned the death as 'arbitrarily hastened' and described the removal of her feeding tubes as 'a violation of principles of Christianity and civilization.'

But the Vatican was took by surprise when Dr. Lina Pavanelli, head of the anesthesiology and intensive care therapy school at the University of Ferrara, in a highly provocative article, argued that the death of Pope John Paul II was caused by what the Catholic Church i t se l f would cons ider euthanasia. Dr. Lina, strictly examining the final days of John Paul II, found that the doctors had not addressed his incapacity to swallow and erry Schiavo. The delay in putting feeding assistance to John Paul II was against the Church's

had not inserted a feeding tube until just a few days before he died, presumably because of his refusal to take the tubes. John Paul himself had opposed pulling the feeding tubes in case of Terry Schiavo. The delay in putting feeding assistance to John Paul II was against the Church's dictum to 'use all modern means possible to prolong life.'

In her article titled 'The Sweet Death of Karol Wojtyla' appeared in an Italian periodical Micromega, she wrote that the Pope had died for reasons that were clearly not mentioned. “Of all the problems of the complicated clinical picture of the patient, the acute respiratory insufficiency was not the principal threat to the life of the patient. The Pope was dying from another consequence of the effects on the [throat] muscles from his Parkinson's Disease... not treated: the incapacity to swallow." In response to the damaging revelations, the Vatican insisted that the ailing Pope's 'treatment was not interrupted' and that he was provided feeding tubes three days before his death. But the Vatican evaded an explanation to the crucial point in Dr. Lina's argument that the Pope needed feeding assistance weeks before his demise. The debates on legalizing euthanasia usually evoke the same responses by the two sides fighting endlessly over God,

A Global Dilemmausually evoke the same responses by the two sides fighting endlessly over God, ethics and morality and finally reaching

a dead end. But a few countries have managed to overcome the ethics-mongers and to formulate a medical and legal frame work to allow long suffering patients to end their trauma by choice. The Northern Territory of Australia was the only place where active euthanasia (administration of drugs by a doctor to end life) had a legal approval. But the Northern Territory Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995 was nullified by the Australian senate in 1997. Netherlands legalized euthanasia in 2002, making it the first country on earth to do so. Some US states allow/do not criminalise assisted suicides by law. The state of Oregon had legalised physician-assisted suicides in a 1994 referendum while the states of North Carolina, Utah and Wyoming have no statutes criminalising assisted suicides. An SC verdict in Ohio State in 1996 held that assisted suicide is not a crime.

The history of euthanasia dates back to ancient Greece and Rome where physician assisted suicides were widespread until the advent of Hippocratic School of medicine who pledged "never (to) give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor make a suggestion to this effect." The spread of Christianity and the acceptance of the 'supreme values of suffering' that would be rewarded later in heaven, made suicide and assisted suicide a grave sin. The Nazi euthanasia drive to eliminate terminally ill patients and children with genetic disorders brought anti-euthanasia brigade to silence voices in favour.

out 'the danger lurking behind mercy' and provided a powerful argument for anti-euthanasia brigade to silence voices in favour. Apart from a conservative ethical point of view, the legal and medical experts also points to some valid points to check the slope side of legalising euthanasia. The major fear is that allowing active euthanasia can degrade the whole medical profession and it might be difficult to check the criminal use of euthanasia in organ trade. Legalising euthanasia is likely to put a mental pressure on terminally ill patients to 'volunteer' for death instead of being a burden to their close relatives. The major argument against euthanasia is that it is a product of social Darwinism and that it would gradually undermine the very dignity of human life. Apart from all these things, it is pointed out that in the absence of a strong and credible legal, medical and social mechanism to decide on each case of euthanasia applications, things can turn extremely wrong.

An academic exercise

The Law Reforms Commission Recommendations are not made with out strong resentments with in. Dr. Sebastian Paul MP, a member of the commission, has registered his note of difference in the draft. “My difference

is based on ethical grounds. Only a few countries and territories have legalised mercy killing and the rest of the world is resisting it on ethical grounds,” Dr.Paul said. “The commission argues that the mercy killing should be subjected to the consent and request of the patient. But the contentious issue is how can we define and determine the consent in a given case.

There can be incidents where the patient is forced to give consent/request. I believe that the society is responsible to save and retain life until death.”But with the remarkable technological advances in the medical sciences, life has become more of a technical term which can be extended/retained for long with the help of mechanical support devices.

So the exhortation to 'use all modern means possible to prolong life' becomes by affecting fundamental amendments in the Indian Penal Code which criminalises homicide and suicide and a state government can only pass the recommendations to the centre for consideration.

problematic.Legal experts also points out that the recommendations can not be implemented even if the state government decides to take the plunge. Legalising euthanasia can only be made possible by affecting fundamental amendments in the Indian Penal Code which criminalises homicide and suicide and a state government can only pass the recommendations to the centre for consideration.

H e n c e t h e c o m m i s s i o n ' s recommendations can only generate academic interest at the best and cause political stunts at the worst. Similarly, the proposals to end polygamy, to appoint lower caste priests in temples and to bring the assets of Catholic Church under a trust can send conservative hot heads to the streets and allow them to hold the society to ransom.

P.J. Mehta

&

Associates

C O V E R S T O R Y

Artful And Implausible

amously known as the art of the impossible, politics often skilfully hide paradoxes and F

contradictions behind the thick of the myriad nuances of the epithet. When it comes to the Indian Politics the art of the impossible becomes a carnival of sorts. 1027 odd political parties scramble for their share of the Roti (and dal, of

Since there are no proven relation between the mandate and the manifesto, the finely written pieces of political rhetoric

called manifestos have a very low life expectancy by birth. At best the manifestos remain ideal prose of political fairness and

are rarely discussed during or after the elections. So, some sure bait is out in the bazaar. 25Kg. rice per month to all BPL families at Rs.3/kg, Smart phones for the poor, Digital Gram

Sadak Yojana to bring broadband to remotest villages, colour TV sets to the needy, monthly grant of Rs.2000 to the poorest families through ATMs, cooking gas for Rs.100 and plenty of enticing sops. The aam admi had never been pampered like

course) with 'stratagems and follies' no one else on earth can match. Just above half of the 71crore voters turn out, most of them being coaxed by cash and caste, sharaab and saree- many of whom still believing that the British are in power and the more knowledgeable of the lot still vote for Indiraaji. The Rs.16, 000crore affair taking place at regular

intervals is termed as the biggest democratic exercise in the whole world or as the Great Indian Thamasa at times. The political jamboree of a vast pluralistic democracy, still struggling hard to come to terms with coalition regime, cannot be but a feast of shards- a spicy mix of sweet and sour. Of

K R RANJITH, K P JAYAKUMAR

35APRIL 2009 INDIAN AGE

[C o v e r s t o r y]

bitterness and excess. Of hullabaloo and harmony. Of contradictions and paradoxes. ('In life and in politics, paradoxes often solve contradictions' said Jaswant Singh, BJP's master diplomat in the late 1990s.) And the great street parade is on; the cheering game should start now.

Going by the ritual, most of the political formations have come up with wonderfully worded manifestos. Some have waited for the new allies to fall in line while others chose to wait for some bed-fellows to leave the camp. Nonetheless, it's the most lukewarm part of the elections, the manifestos. One may exclaim like a Bernard Shaw hero (replacing a few words, though): 'A MANIFESTO! A list full of promises?!' A few think-tanks at the party offices would brainstorm for days and nights, cram their heads with foreign policy, economic issues, popular sentiments, communal nerves and finally come out with a finely written piece of literature, delicately balanced, well-thought-out politically correct statements full of hyperbole. The 21 strong Congress manifesto committee for example was a league of big shots like Pranab Mukerjee, Arjun Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Mani Shankar Aiyer and Jairam Ramesh and was formed way back in July 2008. This time, the congress roped in some experts in respective fields to put together their list full of promises. But

Advaniji presents highlights of the IT Vision

sadly, the poor guys' work often goes wasted, as the prose remains in the shelves and nobody really care to leaf through till the next round of elections come by. Those who lose the elections often recycle their older manifestos, rehash them, replace a few hackneyed phrases and promises and come up anew. The incumbent will always have promises to keep forever. Rhyming, alluring slogans and coinages had always set the mood of the elections and manifestos often rings in the right rhythm. From 'Gareebi

Mayawati presents BSP’s manifesto

Hattavo' of the Indira era to 'Ram, Roti or Insaf' of the BJP, to the India Shining from the corporate campaign disaster of last elections to Jai Ho of today; the slogan-makers are busy as ever. The 2004 manifesto of the BJP exulted in the reverie that the “Congress era in Indian politics is over. The era of the BJP has begun” and asked the electorate to give them another chance to make a 'Shakthisaali Bharat'(Strong India). In 2004, The INC and the Left Parties fought on their own manifestos and

36 APRIL 2009 INDIAN AGE

formed a coalition to reach the power (to keep the communal forces at bay is the euphemism to be used.) after the elections. Respective manifestos were conveniently shelved and they charted a Common Minimum Programme of Governance which too had the same fate of the manifestos. The left pulled the plugs off crying foul that the UPA Govt had breached the CMP.

The Women's Reservation Bill had been in the manifestos of almost all major political formations in 2004 and it's likely to remain in the respected plane this time also. The concerted moves of the women members of both the treasury benches and of the opposition to get the bill passed were thwarted by reasons nobody really know till now. The invisible hands of some unknown male-chauvinist super spirit were always present at the parliament to snatch the bill in to pieces whenever it came up. The strongly worded manifestos couldn't ward off the evil t h a t l u r k e d b e h i n d Wo m e n ' s Reservation Bill. In the 543 strong lower house, the representation of women

The Women's Reservation Bill had been in the manifestos of almost all major political formations in 2004 and it's likely to remain in the respected plane this time also. The concerted moves of the women members of both the treasury benches and of the opposition to get the bill passed were thwarted by reasons nobody really know till


[C o v e r s t o r y]

remains poor between 8-9 % for the past few decades. In the first LS, it was only 4.4% and the highest number of women was recorded in 13th LS with 9.2% (49 members). In the 14th LS polls the share dipped to 8.29%. The Congress once again promises to get the bill passed next time and re-assures that the 16th LS will have one third reservation for women. The party also commits itself to reserve a third of all govt. jobs for women. There were hopes that the Congress will extend SC-ST reservation in private sector too. The party president Sonia Gandhi had mooted the point on many occasions. But the party manifesto prefers to be vague on the issue. The party “is deeply committed to pursuing affirmative action for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the private sector,” says the manifesto. Note that the term 'reservation' is conspicuously absent for reasons not so ambiguous. The raise in the public health expenditure remains as low as 1.5 percent of the GDP as against the promised hike of 2-3 percent. Similarly the CMP promised to boost up public expenditure on education to 6 per cent of the GDP, today it stands at 2.84 per cent while the defense allocation almost doubled from Rs.77 billion to Rs.141billion. This is likely to be increased as every party will have to ensure protection of every Indian citizen in the back-drop of 'terror attacks from outside.'The Congress manifesto pledges to carry forward the Rs.24,000 c r o r e d e f e n s e m o d e r n i z a t i o n programme to equip the forces to meet the new challenges. The party, instead of

committing itself on the public spending in education, prefers to “make quality education affordable to every one,” and will profusely allow loans to students. The shift from the usual “education to all” slogan to “education affordable to every one” re-iterates the neo-liberal shift in the approach to education. But the UPA and the Congress haven't forgotten their manifesto altogether. They have Right to Information Bill and Rural Employment Guarantee Act to their credit and some hugely hyped loan waver allocations that are still to reach the farmers. “Government announced a package of Rs. 70,000 cores to help indebted farmers; even then more than 5,000 farmers committed suicide after this,” criticises the CPI manifesto.

The Aam Admi pops out of cartoon columns and takes a centre-stage in the manifestos. 'Aam Aadmi Ke Badhte Kadam/Har Kadam Par Bharat Buland,'is one of Congress slogans. There were speculations that the Congress will play down the Aam Aadmi slogans this time. A congress leader was quoted as saying, “How can you move forward without aam aadmi? But things have changed since 2004. There are different pockets of aam aadmi rural and urban. We will go for micro management of aam aadmi.” But the CPI(M) that released its manifesto early in the campaign takes a dig at the Aam Admi rhetoric of the Congress. “For all its supposed concern for the

Micro-management of Aam Aadmi

aam admi, the UPA government worked overtime to pamper the super rich,” the manifesto said. The CPI (M) manifesto points to some disturbing statistics: 230 million people are undernourished (in India); more than half of India's women are anaemic; 40 per cent of children under three years are underweight; 2,19,000 habitations have no access to clean drinking water; 39 per cent of adult population is illiterate; 77 per cent of the population spends less than Rs. 20 a day and the share of wages in the organised industrial sector is among the lowest in the world.

The Congress though committed to economic reforms, have opted for 'kinder reforms' in the manifesto, realising that global recession have r e n d e r e d r e f o r m s u n p o p u l a r . Interestingly, the party has backed off (at least in the manifesto) from its earlier commitment to privatise the insurance, banking and telecom sectors. The financial sector and public sector enterprises in manufacturing like telecom, energy and transport will remain in public domain, the manifesto asserts. But the Congress believes that “the Indian people have every right to own part of the shares of public sector companies.”

The very statement stands witness to the fact that the manifesto committee have toiled long at the desk editing and re-editing the language. Look at the way 'allowing private investment in PSUs' are sugar-coated and presented as the right of the Indian citizen! It's learned that many controversial issues including pension reforms, amendment of labour laws, FDI in retail sector were either erased or toned-down from the draft manifesto. Rendering industry status to retail sector and lifting the curbs on FDI in the sector were removed from the draft. Removing specific details on FDI, the manifesto cautiously makes a policy statement pregnant with jargons: “The emphasis in all foreign investment policies will be maximization of local value-addition and export potential.” (ie.: keep guessing we'll show you once we get the mandate!)

In the telecom sector, the Congress will


[N a t i o n a l ]

K R RANJITH

Kerala has the highest number of captive elephants in the country and has fan clubs for jumbo-heroes. Apart from the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972, Kerala has promulgated Captive Elephants (Management and Maintenance) Rules in 2003. Elephants of the state have gone high-tech with microchips inserted in their body! They are both worshiped and tortured simultaneously as elephant trade thrives on a peculiar mix of culture. Despite all these, the plight of the biggest pets on earth remains

Why ‘Rajan’ shouldn't go to Kerala?

Save him; don't send him to Kerala.' The people at the Barefoot resort in Havelock, Andamans, do not want '

Rajan to be sold and transported to Kerala. They have set up donation boxes in an attempt to free Rajan, the 58 year old tusker. It's not an easy task they know. They will have to gather a 'mountainous amount' of US$ 70,000 to

keep Rajan in the Islands. They also know that letting him go to mainland Kerala would be next to shipping him to the hell.

If their claims are to be believed, Rajan is the only ocean-swimming elephant in the sub continent. An ex-employee of the logging industry, Rajan lived on

displaying his swimming talents before the tourists ever since logging was banned in the islands. The snorkelling giant, the star tourist attraction of the island, shot in to international fame with National Geographic making a documentary on him. But his stardom was not enough to keep him to the islands and his owners decided to put him to work in Kerala. Most of his fellow pachyderms had already been shipped to Kerala and are making huge sums while Rajan just survived on his aqua-tactics. And finally, they have come for him too!

Well, this story is not a call to join the save Rajan campaign. And definitely not about his amazing underwater stunts. But why they are afraid of sending him to Kerala is no happy story either.

Kerala has the highest number of captive elephant population in India. The official figures say that the state has 800-900 of captive elephants. This may go up to 1200 if a strict census is done. Only 20% of these can claim the sons-of-the-soil status. The rest come from the North and North-Eastern forests. Every year Sonepur in Bihar will see buyers and middlemen from Kerala flocking the annual live-stock festival to have a hard bargain over the biggest pet on the earth. Sonepur on the banks of the River Ganga will turn to a big animal fair during Budhapurnima and it remains the biggest market of captive elephants. Though trading in elephants is prohibited under Wild Life Protection Act-1972, hundreds of elephants would be put on auction at Sonepur and nobody seems to care the least. Buyers from Kerala are always willing to spend any money on tuskers with 'auspicious signs' and good temperament. Kerala is perhaps the only place where elephants are still in demand due to cultural reasons. People from the other states scornfully complain that the Kerala merchants have brought in an unhealthy competition at the Sonepur and elephants are no longer cheap there. Elephants come under the section-I of the Wild Life Protection Act that stipulates stringent regulations on the inter-state and inter-district transport of captive elephants. Nevertheless, the


[ w i l d l i fe ]

Presence of elephants in temple festivals was limited to the central districts of Kerala a decade back. Traditional and ethnic rituals are increasingly being replaced by uniform Brahminical practices and rites and the change is reflected in festivals too. The concerted efforts to replace local deities with Hindu Gods and Goddesses have

Photo - K.R.Ranjith

pachyderms are shipped even from the far off islands of Andamans. 'The Islands had no elephant population in the wild and all of them were transported to work in the logging fields. Now the logging has stopped and elephants are cheap in the Andamans,' said a middleman from Palakkad on condition of anonymity. He himself has offloaded eight of them in to the mainland. 'Now, there are only few elephants left in the Islands and almost all have reached Kerala.'

The demand for elephants in the timber yards and logging grounds has waned, but the big black heroes are still in demand as a symbol of wealth and pomp. And an elephant at your gate is a statement in itself for the new elite who want to bask in the feudal glory.

Hindu revivalism and an appropriation of Brahminical values in to the public domain have also contributed to the increase in the demand for elephants. Elephants have become indispensable component of temple rituals and festivals irrespective of caste, region and tradition. Presence of elephants in temple festivals was limited to the central districts of Kerala a decade back.

Traditional and ethnic rituals are increasingly being replaced by uniform Brahminical practices and rites and the change is reflected in festivals too. The concerted efforts to replace local deities with Hindu Gods and Goddesses have gathered momentum across Kerala in recent years. This entails a deliberate attempt to replace the ethnic Dravidian festival rites and practices with that of newly designed uniform Hindu festivals tha t a re bas ica l ly feudal and Brahminical in nature. Decorated elephants are introduced everywhere the new practices are adopted. The stature

Caste and Class of Jumbo Gods

of elephants in the social milieu of the state has grown bigger than that of a status symbol to a cultural signifier of great import. Interestingly, all the elephants in Kerala are named after Hindu Gods irrespective of the owner's religion.

Aspirations of an emerging upper class to woo elitism and a social psyche that gradually becoming tolerant to Hindu revivalism are working together to bring in an interesting effect (in fact a detrimental impact) on the biggest mammal on ear th . Whi le the introduction of cranes and other mechanical devises have significantly reduced the demand for elephants elsewhere in the world, Kerala is perhaps the only place on earth where they are still in demand. When machines replaced elephants from timber yards and logging grounds, they were assigned new roles in the changing cultural space and work was replaced

with worship.

Four years back a Thrissur based businessman, Sunder Menon bought Thiruvambaadi Sivasundar, a super-tusker with a huge fan following all over the state for Rs. 28 lakh and donated him to the famous Thiruvambadi temple. That was the biggest purchase of an elephant in the state till then. The elephant market has grown bigger now and the stakes even bigger. The state has fan clubs for elephants of repute and they compete to put up huge flex boards of their favourite tuskers. E-4 Elephant, a hugely popular weekly documentary series on the life story of elephants in Kerala has crossed 200 episodes now. Many popular elephants have Orkut communities with thousands of fans joining in. Temple committees take it as an issue of their prestige to bring the 'best and biggest' heroes in to their festival. The spirited competition for the favourite elephants often becomes an


. Many IPL heroes may look lesser beings when compared to these 'wild-but-tamed' heroes. Two years back a temple committee spent Rs. 2.27 lakhs to get Guruvayoor Padmanabhan, the super-tusker in Kerala, to participate in

Photo - K.R.Ranjith

informal auction ensuring big returns to the owners.

The rates are determined by the size and majesty of the elephant. Many IPL heroes may look lesser beings when compared to these 'wild-but-tamed' heroes. Two years back a temple committee spent Rs. 2.27 lakhs to get Guruvayoor Padmanabhan, the super-tusker in Kerala, to participate in a day long pooram festival. The lesser specimens fetch Rs.50, 000 to Rs. 60,000 on a festival day. The number of elephants participating in a pooram festival varies from 3 to 110 and the pomp of the festival is measured in the number and fame of the elephants. The elephant mania has crept in to the non-Hindu festivals too with Muslim and Christian communities coming out with their own versions of pooram with the usual line up of majestic elephants and pompous processions.

The obsessive love affair with the

elephants rarely translates in to sympathetic treatment towards these silent creatures. Not many obey existing rules and regulations of bringing elephants for festivals. Festival committees are often wary of the regulations and openly flout most of them leading to recurrent mishaps.

Kerala Captive Elephants (Man-agement and Maintenance) Rules 2003, stipulate many stringent measures to prevent abuse of elephants and resultant accidents. But these measures are seldom enforced and whenever the authorities are forced to act strict, the communal elements whip up sentiments to defend themselves. Last year, the festival organisers of the world renowned Thrissur Pooram threatened to call off the ancient fete if the government didn't back off from enforcing the rules aimed at the safety of both the animal and thousands of people who gather there for the festival.

Lifetime Torture

Domesticating the wild elephant and keeping it meek and tamed is a brutal process and since the animal can not fully shed its wild nature, a captive elephant will have to suffer lifelong tortures. Besides the horrendous lessons in the early days of captivity, the pachyderm is subjected to recurrent bouts of torture all along its lifespan. Every now and then a new mahout takes charge and each time the animal will have to unlearn what the former mahouts taught him and start learning the commandments of the new master. Each lesson is taught with the accompaniment of pitiless torture.

In Kerala this process of teaching is known as 'Kettiyazhikkal' and is taught during nights. The new mahout will stand in front of his new disciple and spell out his commands. Men standing around the elephant would keep thrusting and piercing the animals' hind legs with long sharp steel pegs. The night-long torture will continue till the disciple become fully compliant to the orders.

Large body, black skin that absorbs heat and the absence of sweat glands make the animal host i le to the hot environments. But a festival means long hours in the scorching sun with out water and fodder, long procession among jeering crowds and blaring instruments. Continuous exposure to the Sun upsets the thermoregulatory mechanism of the animal and standing in stressed conditions often makes them lose their temper. The first victims of the irate animals would be the mahouts. At least 15 people were gored to death in this festival season so far and nine of them were mahouts. Over 70 mahouts have lost their lives in the attack in the last three years. There were nearly 1000 cases of elephants running amok in the last three years causing death, injury and public destruction.

On 6th February, a stressed elephant ran wild during a heavily attended temple festival within the city limits of Kochi, goring to death a woman and injuring at


28Indian AGE

Cover story

November 2008

They are already here, the corporates!

Gangster guys who muscle in on to the happy home of the native film industry or just the benevolent aliens who posses' a magic touch. Opinion differs, but smack of scepticism is rather strong . Will there be a sunny finish?

Enter the corporates and the scenario reaches a turbulent peak. Fear grips the older pack; some see a sea of opportunities while the others

remain confused. The house is divided and the chinks in the wall are there for every one to see.

Everything started with the big corporations began pumping money in to the South Indian Film industry. With Pyramid Saimira, Adlabs, Ayngaran, Eros, UTV, Moser Baer, Eros Entertainment, Ashtavinayak and Warner Bros venturing out in to the South, the largely unorganised film industry with its own rules, conventions, precedence and hierar-

chy evolved over decades, was initiated in to the new era of corporate control of film making, distribution and exhibition. When they come, they come with that killer instinct which the home industry fears would tear down the whole fabric of the existing industry relations and culture.

Just as in the case of corpo-ratisation of retail sector, the traditi-onal film industry is apprehensive of the fallout of the corporate inter-ventions in the segment. The Tamil-

CORPORATE ECLIPSE Over Liberalised economy tethered several indegenous businesses with sure money to huge corporate players . Now Film industry is taking the essential (fated) step causing the opening up of a multi million and multi level native film industry to big time players . K R Ranjith and

KP Jaykumar on its pros and cons.

29Indian AGE

COVER STROY

November 2008

nadu Film Producers Council Presi-dent S Ramanarayan has come out in the open criticising the initial tendencies of corporate culture of film making. He said the entry of the Mumbai corporate world had rendered star prices beyond the reach of hardworking entertainment companies of the state. He alleged that the companies are offering 20 percent commission to the stars to get a foothold in the industry.

It is not just Mumbai corpor-ates or the North eyeing on the South, the stakes go further as Warner Bros and Walt Disney enter the fray tying up with Superstars Rajni Kant and Kamal Hasan. The traditional producers would be the first victims of the new corporate wave. They would be forced to pursue their careers as line producers under the bigger production companies. This change is

already visible in the Kollywood. The other language industries would follow suit.

Global net, local catch

The corporate interest in the South Indian screens were fuelled by the box office success of the tamil flicks like Sivaji that bagged more than 180 crores in India and abroad, cutting across language barriers. Seven hundred films out of the 1,200 films made in India, are regional language films. “If you look at the overseas audience for regional language films, their recovery is huge and they do good business,” says Rajesh Sawhney, president Reliance Big Entertainment. During the Cannes Film festival this year the company formally announced its plans to pump in a whopping one

billion US$ in to producing regional Indian films with in a time span of 15 months. (At present the whole film industry in India put together is only

US$ 1.5 billion )The Indian corporate interests

in the entertainment industry are not restricted to the subcontinent only. Times have changed since Amit Khanna introduced the first corporate production venture Plus Channel in

The SUNSHINE INDUSTRY

During the Cannes Film festival this year the company

formally announced its plans to pump in a whopping one billion

US$ in to producing regional Indian films with in a time span

of 15 months.

30Indian AGE

COVER STROY

November 2008

Bollywood, a flawed beginning with Big B's ABCL towing the same line. But the big fall of these two ventures, to go by the cliché, were the stepping stones for the bigger ones followed. With Bollywood and Kollywood films releasing all over the world and with Indian companies joining the Hollywood league, business interests have now gone truly global. Wall Street Journal recently reported that Reliance would invest $500 million and provide another $700 million in debt through JPMorgan Chase & Co for production of about half a dozen Hollywood films. The journal also said that the company has inked a deal with the famous director Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks SKG to produce films jointly. The Indian corporate interests are leaving nothing unturned. They have expressed their motive loud and clear: they are going global even as they intensify the trawl in the local market. Net the maximum profit, no matter how big/small the market is.

The entry of the corporate players have had its repercussions in the Malayalam industry with a significant section of the Malayalam Cine Technicians Associat ion (MACTA) calling for a boycott of directors and stars who they alleged to have signed up with Reliance Entertainments. 'Some corporate

houses have signed up at least three top actors,' they said 'including Mamooty and Mohanlal, besides 10 reputed film directors, for their upcoming films.' They were also apprehensive of the entry of the corporates which they thought would destroy the regional cinema. The directors and actors have been 'bought' by the top companies, they said, to direct/act exclusively for the companies for the next five years. This will hit the ordinary film industry worker and destroy the trade union

movement, the activists of MACTA said. However the other section of the MACTA was quick to deny the allegations and to distance them from any corporate complicity. Famous south Indian director, Siddique speaking on behalf of the directors said neither he nor any other film directors had signed any such agreement.

Leaving the mudslinging aside, it's anybody's reading that corporate affiliation has already become despicable in the Malayalam industry. Though protests are aimed at all corporate interventions in general, one could see the main target is the Reliance Entertainments which has started f i lming in Malayalam with renowned director Shaji N Karun and super star Mammooty onboard. It is interesting to note that many Reliance Fresh outlets had to down shutters due to stiff anti-corporate protests in the state. In this political context, any move to intervene in the film segment would also attract protests in the state. The film industry in Kerala, still debating the significance of a trade union, has many concerns about the corporate interests in the sector and any aggressive corporate move will have to face stiff opposition at many levels. The problems in the MACTA Federation, a confederation of 18 trade unions and the formal announ-cement of AITUC (All India Trade Union Congress) of its intentions to float its own platform in the industry would fuel the debate on corporat-isation live and contentious for long.

In a largely unorganised industry, the corporate control will bring in a new sheen of meticulous corporate planning, behavioural changes, prompt proper planning and confer the standards the corporate culture would boast of. The traditional ways and practices would be at risk. The south Indian film economy with its status quoits approach and practices, cut off from the changes in the other industries will have to think anew and take a few tough lessons with the changing times and demands.

Monopoly and 'Monoculture'

The corporates would be aiming at the larger piece of the pie they could rip away. Integration -vertical and horizontal- is the name of the game: different segments with in the industry- production, distribution and projection- would be integrated and centrally controlled. And the very corporates would own or control other

The south Indian film economy with its status quoits approach and practices, cut off from the changes in the other industries

will have to think anew and take a few tough lessons with

the changing times and demands.

31Indian AGE November 2008

Multinationals like Reliance Big are eyeing on Malayalam film industry. Will this in anyway help directors like you? How will they affect the relatively small film industry of Kerala?

They are already here. Well

Small film makers like you finds it difficult to get the theatres to show your films. Wouldn't it be grimmer once the big multinationals enter the fray and bring the entire theatre network under their control?

In that case, we'll have other alternatives. We can go directly to the people with our films. For instance, when my first film was rejected by the theatres here, we conducted public shows in schools, play-grounds and community centres and the public response was tremendous. I could even manage to retrieve the money

spent on i ts making through the tiny little

c o n t r i b u t i o n s from the com-mon people. If the theatres a n d t h e

distribution net-works deny you,

you should see to it that people get a chance to watch your films. Alternatives ought to emerge, against all odds.

COVER STROY

Big Money Shall Have No Dominion

Priyanandanan, Director of the National award winning Pulijanmam (Life as a Tiger)

before we started worrying about their imminent entry, t h e y h a v e h a d t h e i r spadework finis-hed. It is like buying your vegetables from a super market with a flashy display of things; where as the local vendor would have the same for a lesser price but with an uninviting display. They both sell the same things grown by the same farmer. The branded se l l ing makes a l l the difference, leaving the poor local vendor a run for his money. Just

as it is famous told, we can afford to sit leisurely till the day they come for us!

But s t i l l I hope we'll overcome the onslaught at the end of the day, just as in the case of the British. They can never go unchallenged. Somebody will rise in protest and will leave their dominion in shatters.

The branded selling makes all the difference, leaving the poor local vendor a run for his money.

Just as it is famously told, We can afford to sit leisurely till the

day they come for us!

media in a process of systematic monopolisation. The corporates have coined wonderful euphemisms to desc r i be t he i r monopo l i s t i c intentions. Pyramid Saimira for example claims itself 'a holistic Indian multinational entertainment company ' whose 'd ivers i f ied businesses' include exhibition, film and television content production, distribution, hospitality, food & beverage, animation and gaming, cine advertising, etc., which the company claims to have 'propelled it to take the entertainment industry to the next level.' Just as in the case of cross media ownerships, the entire industry would be controlled by the corporates.

The big new players know well that the control of the distribution network and theatres are the key to the domination of the whole industry and are going all out to buy theatres across the country. South India becomes the focal point because 60% of 12,000 theatres in the country are in the South. In the exhibition sector Pyramid Saimira Theatres ltd. has 800 plus screens with 5,50,000 plus seats across India, Malaysia, Singapore and North America spread over 5 million sq.ft. By 2010, the Group plans to operate 2,000 screens in India alone (with 175 multiplexes and stand alone theatres). The other majors are also in the fray busy fixing their own theatre chains. Reliance

Entertainment's Adlabs Cinemas, which claims the first cinema chain to cross 100 theatres in India, has a sizeable presence in the overseas too. The company also boasts of p i o n e e r i n g t h e c o n c e p t o f Megaplexes in the country.

Multiplex theatres have come to stay and are spreading fast in to the semi-urban areas too. Kerala, a smaller market compared to the other South Indian states, is expected to have 40 multiplex theatres in two years from now. While the B and C-class theatres run for their money, multiplexes would bring in a change in the very class and nature of audiences. The change in the class character of the audience who would

32Indian AGE September 2008

COVER STROY

November 2008

throng these small cosy multiplex theatres would definitely have an affect on the themes and narration of the films we will have in future. Most of these corporate giants have high stakes in the small screen segment which would greatly complement the investments and interests in the big screen. The mainstream print and visual media is, predictably, gung ho about the corporatisation of film industry. There are clear indications that it is not going to stop at with the monopolisation of the film industry. The corporate invasion would be a pan media phenomenon which will see a vertical and horizontal integration of the whole entertainment industry.

Observers fear that the infamous Hollywood rat race of the twenties would be repeated in the largest film industry on earth. The fierce competition between big Hollywood studio companies and their attempt to win the theatre chains saw some of the worst ever market wars. It was with the intervention of Supreme Court in 1948 that the foul drive for monopolisation subsided. In India things will be even worse as we have only a tooth-less Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969, to deal with such practices. With out a proper regulatory mechanism put in place in advance, to check the onslaught of corporate competition, the local industry will have no time left to breathe before they find themselves ghettoized. It would be interesting to watch how the local industry which showed remarkable survival instinct resisting the Hollywood marketing strategies that wiped out mainstream cinema in most of the South American countries, would respond to the latest threat from within.

“In the absence of cross-m e d i a o w n e r s h i p l a w s , t h e corporatisation wave is only bound to cause waves o f un fa i r and monopolistic trade practices in the days to come. The emerging scenarios of corporatisation of Tamil film industry attest to the same.” Writes Gopalan Ravindran,Professor, Department of Mass Media and

Communication, University of Madras.

Famous director Shekhar Kapoor was one of the early birds who cried foul of the corporatisation of the film making on the ground that it would kill the very soul of it. Film making, he said, is ' the management of individuality,' and warned against 'going for models that are consistently associated with a culture very different from ours.' Film as a cultural product, has greater significance in what goes in to the making of it too. When the culture of making films change, there is every reason to believe that the change will be ref lected in the themes and presentation as well. In South India, especially in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, where the tinsel world have

umbilical relation with politics, this cultural change would be even more complex a phenomenon. Thematic and symbolic changes in the corporate era will effect serious changes in the popular culture too.

Convergence in the age of confusion

The pundits have long been thinking over the possible changes the era of media convergence would usher in. The effects of convergence are already visible in different segments of entertainment industry redrawing and extending the traditional boundary lines. This will effect changes in the size, character and tastes of the audience as well.

The traditional players in the industry have not yet woken up to the potential challenges and opportunities of it. Remaining ignorant of the changes on the ground would sway things in favour of the corporate players and gradually decimate the relatively small local players. Reliance Entertainment, for instance, promotes its films through its video on demand a n d D V D r e n ta l f o r m a t o n Bigflicks.com. All the films produced by RE would go on Bigflicks.com. It is a pity to watch the local film industry still crying for more stringent action a g a i n s t v i d e o p i r a c y, P 2 P transmissions etc, which they consider as the severest threats to the industry.

According to a FICCI - Price Waterhouse Coopers' report on the Indian entertainment and media sector, the industry would out perform the country's GDP growth each year till 2010 and would be worth Rs.83,740 crore by the end of this decade. Currently it hovers around Rs.35, 300 crores. Film sector alone, with an 18% growth rate is expected become a Rs.15, 300 crore segment by 2010 as against the present Rs.6,800 crore business. With the other media work in tandem and add up the revenue, the stakes would go further high.

“We have observed that as peop le s ta r t t o ea rn more , entertainment actually goes local, rather than turning towards the global English language.” Rajesh Sawhney of Reliance Big reveals. “So the economics of regional cinema business has become viable. We have even seen that 95% of the mobile phone downloads is regional.” There go the calculations. In a largely speculative business, the corporates have come with clear convictions and better mode of calculating things.

If desi capitalists come, can foreign biggies be far behind? With the 100 % FDI permitted in to the media and entertainment segment and our doors thrown open to the foreign capital, the local industry is better be well informed of the flashfloods and hurricanes in the years to come.

With out a proper regulatory mechanism put

in place in advance, to check the onslaught of

corporate competition, the local industry will have no time left to breathe before

they find themselves ghettoized.

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Lifestyle

Go to Page Number - 1 2 REQUIEM FOR A RIVER

Song of the river: Yesudas’ latest lilt

Veteran singer Padma Sri Dr K.J. Yesudas, recipient of seven national

awards and thirty three state awards for playback singing (23 Kerala

State awards, seven from Tamil Nadu and three from Andhra

Pradesh) is sixty-eight-years now and is still the most sought after

singer in South India. Yesudas wishes for the life of the poor on the

banks of River Periyar to improve. He advocates a proper sewage

system on the banks of the longest and the most polluted river in

Kerala to help matters.

ALWAYS in his immaculate white, Dr K.J. Yesudas is seldom seen without his brand of

captivating smile. But as he started to talk about the River Periyar, also known as

Aluvappuzha, one could see his face turns grim and a shade of gloom overpowering his

invincible smile. “Everything is in past tense for the River Periyar – the crystal clear waters;

the ever beautiful moon that shone on the romantic waterscapes, the beauty that inspired

many a bard like the legendary poet Vayalar Ramavarma. Sadly everything is lost… it is

almost a dead river now.” It is not a romantic hangover that makes him say so. The tragic

reality of the river is there for all to see.

Arguably the most popular voice of South India is visibly upset to witness the unenviable

state of things in Periyar, the longest and the filthiest river in Kerala. “They have smothered

every organic substance in the river by pumping down toxic pollutants directly into it. They

have desecrated the beauty and life of the waters in the rat race for profit.” He recollects,

“Years back, you could drink directly from the river. Now, if you try it, you are finished!” The

River Periyar, and its banks close to the Eloor Industrial Zone in the suburbs of Kochi, has

been identified by Green Peace as one of the toxic hotspots on earth. Dangerous amount of

toxic residues were found in breast milk samples and eggs collected from the locality. Water

quality in the river is at its worst and the river has hit headlines as the entire water has

turned red and left the people living on the banks panicking. The discolouration of the river,

the locals and the Greens alleged, was due to the industrial waste being drained in to the

river without any check. The state Pollution Control Board is yet to find the reason of

discolouration, whereas some quarters have come to the rescue of polluting industrial

bodies by blaming it on some unknown algae.

“However, people living on the banks are fortunate that they are free from the mosquito

menace that haunts the other parts of the city,” quips the singer with a nuanced smile.

“Even the parasites cannot survive in these highly polluted waters.” He adds, “The factories

on the banks do not even bother to treat the waste water they drain into the river. The

3/22/2010 The Sunday Indian - The Nation's Grea…

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process of treating the waste water, which is a primary legal obligation, does not cost them

much. In fact, compared to the profit they make out of it, treatment process is just peanuts

for them. The coming generations will hold them responsible for children born with genetic

disorders and for the innumerable misery caused by the toxins spread on earth and water. I

wonder why these industrialists don’t bother about the future generations. Time and

generations will never forgive them.”

“Take the case of asbestos,” Yesudas alludes to another grave health hazard many haven’t

even noticed. “It has long been banned in the United States and many other developed

countries, as it was found carcinogenic and causes asthma. But we are still producing it

unabatedly. Why are we so callous about public health? Why are we so happy to receive

things discarded by others?”

Yesudas has reasons to be disturbed at the river in distress, for he is the only one alive in

the trio (Vayalar Ramavarma, Devarajan, the master composer and Yesudas) that produced

the super hit Malayalam song of all times “aayiram padasarangal kilukki aaluvappuzha

pinneyum ozhuki” (with the music of a thousand anklets/river Periyar flows again). Shaken

by the bad shape of his beloved river, the singer who lent his voice to the ever green

musical tribute to Periyar, says he was forced to amend the lyrics now, with apologies to

Vayalar who wrote those beautiful lines. And he wails ‘Will the river ever flow again with its

thousand anklets?’

Padma Sri K.J. Yesudas, however, is not the one to sit at home and sing alone. Once, when

Kerala, known for its religious amity and harmony, showed signs of communal unrest,

Yesudas was quick to respond. He visited the affected areas and entreated good sense to

prevail. He was instrumental in bringing together many artists, writers and celebrities to

work for peace. Incidentally, his debut song as a playback singer was a four-liner written by

poet saint Sree Narayana Guru, which underscored the need for religious unity and

fraternity.

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Lifestyle

Go to Page Number - 1 2 REQUIEM FOR A RIVER

Song of the river: Yesudas’ latest lilt

In the case of the River Periyar, Yesudas understands that industrial pollution is only one

face of the problem. Sewage and human waste from the local residential areas add to the

misery of the river. “We will put pressure on the government to look in to the matter and

provide sustainable sanitation facilities to the poor people on the banks, so that they don’t

have to pollute the river anymore. Eco-friendly toilets for the poor, proper drainage system

and a mechanism to check waste water from entering the river will solve the problem to a

very great extent. If the government is not willing to take up the case, we will try and find


F:/ranjith full/…/storyd.asp2.htm 1/3

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The webpage at http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-7554919035538970&dt=126might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new webaddress.

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very great extent. If the government is not willing to take up the case, we will try and find

resources of our own,” Yesudas is confident. “I have requested the construction company of

which I am the brand ambassador to provide basic infrastructural facilities for the poor living

on the banks and they have gladly promised to do so.” Accorded the title of ‘Gaana

Gandharvan’ (king of voice), this legendary paragon of secularist beliefs reminds us, “I could

have sat comfortably at home and enjoyed simple pleasures of family. But I have a

commitment; an obligation to mother earth, to the rivers, to fresh unpolluted air and to the

generations to come.”

Whenever Yesudas stepped out of the stage and took up a common cause, speculations

were rife that he is planning to make a political entry. But he laughs at those rumours. “I

will never enter politics. These endeavours have no hidden agenda. I will never be a

politician or a minister. Once the song of the river is back, and the river is back to its purest

best, these detractors will know the real meaning of my words.” Words that will warm the

heart of Mother Nature...

K.R.Ranjit

Back Go to Page Number - 1 2


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On Saturday, August 2, three days before the Mumbai High court dismissed the petition filed by the Bhayantar based couples, Niketa and Haresh Mehta seeking permission to abort a 26 month old embryo which they detected of having serious heart problems, Vincent and his family of 10 took out a protest march in Thrissur, Kerala. They carried placards saying “it's the God's will and we've no right to say no!” A devout catholic, Vincent, seemed to have had no say over the divine call to 'go forth and multiply' , eight of his children stood strong by his side vindicating his undaunting commitment!

The family was protesting the draft recommendations of the State Law Reforms Commission (LRC) headed by Justice V R Krishna Aiyer that mooted legal restrictions on the number of children a family can have and a penalty on families having more than two off springs.

As the family-protest moved around the city, with full police protection, a bemused public had a fun time and the media wiggled sensing the chance of a Sunday human-interest item. Forty six year old Vincent, who runs a way-side eatery at Mundur, half an hour drive from the city, said, though he was poor, he could manage his big family with the help of good Samaritans around, whenever the average family budget of Rs.5000 went beyond his capacity. And his 44 year old wife, Lily, mother of five boys and three girls stated on record that she was ready to beget again if that was His will!

For the activists of the catholic Pro-Life movement, of which Vincent is a State Ministry member, the protest was the beginning of a state-wide campaign by the church against the recommendations of the LRC. Kerala Catholic Youth Movement (KCYM) had organised a meeting in support of the march, attended by its state leaders and political activists including a District Panchayath Council Member. On August 2, the Thrissur Arch Diocese issued a press note strongly condemning the LRC recommendations and Vicar General Mon. Rafael Thattil said the Church will put up stiff resistance if the g o v e r n m e n t a c c e p t e d t h e recommendations.

“Go Forth and -

Multiply” !Church's Bypass Towards

a Larger Christian Family

By K R Ranjith, K P Jayakumar

The political and communal implications of the new population drive by the Catholic

Church in Kerala.

NATIONAL

The protest march by the family follows age old strictures of the Church but the apparent political script of the street drama finds its thread in the eventful stand off between the Church and the CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. The left govt. had always been under attack by the Catholic Church. It had took to the streets the educational reforms mooted by the ministry and admonished its followers to resist the 'anti-minority' stance.

The state saw a spate of protests as the Church called for a second v imochana samaram (liberation struggle), a throw back to the violent protests at the aegis of the church in 1957 that toppled the first democratically elected communist government on earth. The catholic clergy again gone belligerent organising state wide protest s demanding the withdrawal of a text book which they alleged to have anti-religious content - sharing a common platform along with the BJP and the United Democratic Front led by the congress. As the dust and heat is about to settle, the State Women's Commission headed by Justice D.Sreedevi, set the church again on war path by issuing a statement that the commission would press for a ban on girls below 18 years from becoming nuns but she had to soften stand under heavy pressure from the Catholic brigade.

As the church fought the LRC recommendations by tooth and nail, grass root level campaigns are on among the Catholics to beget more, and in fact the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Conference (KCBC), an umbrella of 29 dioceses belonging to the three Catholic rites, have publicly announced incentives to Christian families with more than two kids, which many believe to have send communal signals across the society with far reaching political and policy impacts , as the country struggle hard to provide for a 1.1billion strong population.

The Catholic Church had a lways been c r i t i ca l o f the Government sponsored family planning schemes and the objections had been of moral and theological ground. Though the church was

Gifted Children

against family planning in principle, it was left to the individuals to take the call. But the KCBC action plan to increase the birth rate among Christian families is seen as an ambitious shift from its earlier principled-but-passive stand and follow a studied project with attractive perks. The package has smart baits from financial assistance for poor families with more kids , perks for those who conduc t reve rse s ter i l i sa t ion surgery to f ree admissions to the self financing professional colleges - a lottery worth a few millions at the current market rate, which many would find difficult to resist. All hospitals run by the Church w i l l no t conduc t p regnancy termination/sterilisation surgeries in future neither they will be referred to other hospitals. Public functions would be arranged at different levels to honour parents who produce more than two children and will ensure special care for pregnant ladies. "Our men and women had got good education and this had contributed hugely to the shrinkage of the population. We have to re-educate them to have more children," an official of the Bishops council told.

KCBC defends its campaign for larger Christian family in the context of the 'alarming decline in the birth rate' among Christians.

According to the last census, the decadal population growth rate among Christians has come down to 19.2 per cent from the previous 22 per cent. As per the 2001figures, 19 per cent of the total population of Kerala is Christian. While Muslims account for 23 per cent and Hindus make for 57 per cent.

Fr.Paul Thelakkat, Chief Editor, Sathyadeepam, a prominent catholic magazine, and spokesperson of Syro Malabar Synod, says that “there is a kind of Parsi syndrome across the Christian Community in Kerala.” Though he is in no position to state on the national figures to substantiate the apprehensions, Fr. Thelakkatt asserts that his personal survey in the Ernakulam Basilica was a perfect sample. “I studied the ratio of marriages and baptisms in the Basilica and it were just 1:0.9 in comparison with the 1:3 ratio twenty

Parsi Syndrome or Party Syndrome?

five years back. There is a sharp and steady decline.” The Marthoma and Cyrian churches suffered most by the declining birth rates, he said, and the community might soon go complete grey.A m o n g t h e c h i e f s e v e n denominations of the Christian Church in Kerala, Syrian Christians, who constitute 80% of the total Christian population, are the most concerned about this fal l in population. Theire population, which stood at 9.7% of the population just a year ago, the church fears, could plummet to a mere 8% in another ten years. According to unofficial figures the children-per-couple status among Syrian catholics is less than 1.7.

Though the church denies any communal implications in the KCBC move, the saffron brigade was quick to take the lead, but they have a surprisingly different reading to it. They feel, it has vindicated their earlier position to have larger Hindu family to take on the widening Muslim population!! “Though Hindus are unaware of the growing menace of Jihadi Population growth in Kerala, Christian Community blew the whistle and came up with a set of guidelines to compete with Jihadi growth of populat ion in Kerala.” wrote Haindavakeralam, an ultra right website “The special privileges enjoyed by Muslims in Kerala under various schemes like Sachar and Paloli report (a Kerala version of Sachar recommendations), subsidy to Haj pilgrimage, the increase in number of Muslim members in Kerala assembly and Lok Sabha etc are viewed as a threat by the Christians in Kerala.” However, many are critical of the KCBC for taking the issue of population along communal lines and fears that this would further worsen the larger menace of population expansion in the years to come.

Given the growing communal influence over families cutting across religions, things are going to be tough ahead for the family planning endeavours initiated by government departments. Once different religious organizations start investing on increasing their numbers, the state sponsored family planning exercises and the mammoth institutional

Response of the suffron brigade


NATIONAL


support mechanism which consumes a big chunk of budgetary spending, would be left to the mercy of these communal forces. Religious groups had always been critical of the measures to contain population growth on various grounds. The Catholic Church saw it as an intervention opposite to the plan of god, the Muslim clergy held birth control projects as covert attempts to keep their growth in check and the Hindu communal forces of ten complained about the dwindling numbers.

Interestingly, the saffron tribe and the Catholic Church seem to share similar apprehensions about what they fear as the 'menace of growing Muslim population'. Steve Jalsevac in an article written in 'lifesitenews', a catholic website has quoted Fr.Mathew, assistant pastor at St.Sebastian Syro Malabar Catholic Church, Thodupuzha “The Muslim community of India has their Pan Islamic slogan, 'We will overpower you by outgrowing you'. Within 20 years they will overpower all other communities. They will not respond to the call of the national edicts. Predictably, the population debate is getting murkier with the Catholic Church’s stance which has had a sober image of not spilling it s communal agendas in the public

The religious group s and communal formations are not only

By multiplying, they produce

opposed to the population control measures, but also have started teaching their followers to produce more children. The 'small family-happy family' a widely propagated family planning slogan now gets a new public relations challenge from the 'more children, more security' jingle coined by the church.

The catholic clergy even dismiss the fears of population explosion as a myth. “We've long been hearing that the population bomb is about to explode. It is just a false scare aimed at sending panic signals among people and to force them to use birth control measures,” says Fr.Paul Thelakkatt.

“We are concerned about forests and plants but what is the purpose of having flora and fauna if there are no humans on earth?” Fr.Thelakkat airs his concern. “The earth has enough and more resources to provide for a double or more of people than it has now. We must use science and technology to improve the living conditions and to produce more food. It is possible.” And he has ready solutions for the problem of housing and habitation of t h e i n c r e a s i n g p o p u l a t i o n . “Continents like Australia are sparsely populated and there are still to be explored areas for the multiplying population. We must look in a global perspective and should not limit ourselves to political boundaries. That is exactly what the term Catholic means.”

Fr.Mathew, assistant pastor at St.sebastian Syro Malabar Catholic

Church, Thodupuzha is quoted to have accused Keralites of resorting to 'any savage method to limit children'. The pastor said, “How will the population explode? It will never explode because it is a human resource. It will multiply and whenever they multiply they will produce something.”

The Catholic Church has a long h i s t o r y o f o p p o s i n g t h e contraceptives and abortions leading to the accusations that it was not only opposed to ending unwanted pregnancies, it was also against preventing them. With the advent of liberal theology and modernism, non-fundamentalist protestant churches s h e d t h e i r o p p o s i t i o n t o

thcontraceptives in the 20 century. But the Catholic Church remained strict on 'anything which is intrinsically against nature' and stood strong by the dictum exhorted by Pope Pius XI, in Casti Connubii (1930) 'Since, (…) the conjugal act is designed primarily by nature for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural power and purposely sin against nature and commit a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious.'

The dogmatic adherence to these scriptures to prevent any 'sin against nature' has resulted in doing more harm to the very nature itself. T h e a v e r s i o n o f c h u r c h t o contraception and to the use of condoms have had diverse impacts

on the third world population and critics say that the church is partly responsible for the spread of HIV AIDS by blindly rejecting the use of condoms. In 1916, the Vatican declared that if the husband uses condom, the wife must resist him "as she would a rapist." And this stand was reasserted by Pope John Paul II, who stated during the International Congress of Moral Theologians in Rome in 1988 that in a given situation a hemophiliac with AIDS cannot use condoms in an intercourse with his wife as Condom is a method of contraception and "no reason, however grave" will allow its use.

Contempt of Condom

NATIONAL

Rajiv Gandhi (24) is a wage-labourer like most of his peers in Marayur, a rain-shadow region two hours from Munnar, Kerala. He works in the sugar cane farms and occasionally joins the Forest Protection Group, a voluntary troop that helps the authorities to nab the sandal wood smugglers from the forests around. Born to a poor tribal family in the Marayur Gramam, Rajiv Gandhi's secondary school certificate clearly states that he belongs to Malavedan (a scheduled tribe) and hence eligible for reservation and educational allowances demarcated for the ST students. But like all other students from his community, who passed class X, Rajiv Gandhi also

thcouldn't resume his studies after 10 standard for quite plain a reason: He couldn't file his community certificate, because the revenue authorities were not allowed to issue one!

Rajiv Gandhi born to Eswari and Sankaran in 1984 belongs to the 'caste-less generation' in the community that inhabited the forest land for centuries on. The year which saw the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the coronation of Rajiv Gandhi in the national capital, mark a historic shift in the life of the tribal community down south who lead a life of destitution and deprivation. It was in 1984 the community was put under the scanner of anthropological scrutiny undertaken by KIRTADS (Kerala Institute for Research, Training and Development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) and consequently found 'a fake community' whose illicit claims, the study said, were aimed at enjoying the ST status illegitimately. The government stripped off their ST status and directed the concerned revenue officials to stop issuing Malavedan/Malayan certificates to the people belonging to the Gramam, as the tribal settlements are called in the locality. Interestingly, the government and various studies by KIRTADS failed to specify to which caste the Gramakkar (meaning 'the villagers'), as the tribal community is generally known in the region, belong to if they are not Malavedan tribals as 'proved' by the anthropology experts.

Thus, as per the official records, the Gramakkar remain 'casteless' for over two decades . “Th i s i s how progressive governments make the society casteless!” says Murukan of Koviloor Malayan Seva Sangham, with a straight face.

While the organised caste groups like Gujjars brought the entire state machinery to a stand-still demanding their inclusion in the ST list, the tribals put forth only a feeble

Gujjars and Gramakkar

f i g h t , t h o u g h t h e y w e r e unceremoniously thrown out of the scheduled list. The villagers just want the Government to decide up on which caste they belong to. But the signals from the of ficials are confusing. Since the tribals make only a small community of a few thousands and are scattered around in five settlements, a unified action to claim their caste remain a distant dream. Nor do they have the resources or political clout to put pressure on the mainstream political parties to take up their cause.

30Indian AGE October 2008

K R Ranjith &

K P Jayakumar

Out Casts!Once they touched milk and renounced their caste under unknown

compulsions deep in history. Being told that they were not the same caste they belonged to a few years back, now they don't have caste of

their own .Govt is yet to decide on it, subjecting them to insoluble problems of a caste imperative world.

State

Photo : K R Ranjith

The Gramakkar are settled in five closed community settlements across the region, known as Gramam. Since they are the traditional inhabitants of the region for centuries, the whole mountainous region is known as Anchu Gramangal (Five Villages) even in the colonial documents and revenue receipts. These five tribal villages are Marayur, Kanthallur, Keezhanthur and kovilur in the Kerala side of the border and Kottakkudi in Tamil Nadu. The hilly terrain and the distance between the settlements make it even difficult for the people to come together for their common cause.

One myth has it that they are descendents of those who were forced to leave Madurai when the city was set ablaze by Kannaki. Ousted from their native place, they reached

the thick forests of the Marayur region and assembled on a rocky mountain which they called Anchunattampara. There they decided to shed their different identities and dipped their hands in milk to pledge that they will be known as gramakkar irrespective of their castes. They also decided to form five settlements and formulated strict codes of conduct, of marriage and of relationships.

The Gramakkar are not the only group that claim their lineage to the legend of Kannaki. Muthuvan, a prominent tribal community in the forests of the region also have legends and lore related to Kannaki and the fire in Madurai.

“We've a close traditional links with the Muthuvan tribes.” Says Dhanushkodi of Marayur settlement. “We call Muthuvans as Uravukar (of

the same origin) and traditionally maintain a kind of barter between us. We give them rice and chilly and buy sweet potato and Ragi (finger millet) in return. And we've a number of similar customs and rituals.” For the past two decades the members of these poor communities were trying to convince the authorities about their tribal nature by reciting their songs, re-enacting their ways of life and marriage, displaying their ethnic culinary practices, ethnic wisdom of agriculture, their strict codes with in the community and all possible evidences they could gather from memory to prove their ethnicity. But every attempt just falls short of the evidences the anthropologists of KIRTADS would want them to produce and the poor people just don't understand the ways and means of


State

Photo : K R Ranjith

Marayur Village

32Indian AGE

producing the scientific proof of their very own existence.

Before the settlers from down stream Kerala and Tamilnadu discovered the Marayur planes, just a few decades back, the Marayur planes, known for its megalithic monuments and the sandal rich forests, were exclusive haven of tribal communities including the Malave-dans, Malayans, Malappulayans (Hill Pulayas), and Muthuvans. The Gramakkar depended on the forests and paddy for their existence. They cultivated rice in a primitive manner before the settlers came in and introduced modern ways of farming in the late sixties.

Gradually the ethnic popu-lation began to loose their land and means of living as it happened in almost all the tribal areas in Kerala; they lost their land to the settlers and became coolies in the land earlier belonged to them. The new settlers introduced sugar cane in place of paddy. And now the Marayur planes do not produce a single grain, seriously affecting the food chain of the ethnic population. Milk was part of the staple diet of the community and each family had dozens of cattle ensuring a regular supply. “Our cattle didn't have reins to control them.” Prahladan recalls the intimate bond with the animals “Oh.. is the signal to stop and OHO to make them turn round.” Maintaining cattle cost them little as the forests and fields down the planes provided natural fodder. The

change from rice to sugar cane made it difficult for them to maintain the sizeable livestock. To make things even worse, the strict enforcement of forest laws practically forced their cattle out of the forest limits. “We don't keep cattle now and we don't own the paddy we had once. We've nothing! ” Says Kadireshan an inhabitant of Marayur village. “We've lost our caste too...”

Confusion and conspiracy

Many of the tribal people of the village suspect a plot in raking up suspicion about their caste identity in the early 80s and in demanding an investigation in to the same. In 1984, when KIRTADS was summoned in to examine the anthropological lineage of the tribals, the settlers from outside had just started their land grab. The conspicuous link between the loss of land and the simultaneous loss of caste identity can never be easily ignored.

The tribal identity of the natives was a major impediment before land grabbers to have a complete take over. Once natives were removed from the list of the Scheduled Tribes, it became easier to oust them from their land. After two decades of the first KIR TADS intervention, now the people of Marayur Gramam, have only a few acres to boast of. The original inheritors of the land now sweat in the field for 60-100 Rupees a day. We asked the local correspondent of a major daily about the tribe, who said that they originally belonged to an upper class community called Vellala Pillai and all their claims were ill-founded. Lest he may seem prejudiced, he added that though their claims were false, the gramakkar now

October 2008

State

Garlic being dried in the kitchen

Photo : K R Ranjith

Photo : K R Ranjith


community who were able to get a temporary community certificate in 1988. So he could complete his studies and avail education grants for ST students. But by the time he finished his course, his community had been stripped off its caste and he could no longer apply for government jobs in the ST category. He got enlisted in five rank lists by Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) but didn't make it to the final lists as he couldn't furnish the community certificates. Now he works as a social worker on contract basis in the Eco Development Society, a wing of Kerala Forestry Project. “Since I could not furnish the community certificate, they didn't consider me in the ST category and because my Higher Secondary certificate states that I belong to Scheduled Tribe, they didn't consider me in the general category either.” complains Dhanushkodi. In response to a petition filed by him, Justice KS Radhakrishnan of Kerala High Court issued a verdict in November 8,1996 directing the authorities concerned to look in to the matter and issue community certificates with in two months. Dhanushkodi is still waiting for the certificate. K S Murukan of Koviloor Gramam also had to approach the HC (c.p.m. no. 27995) to get community certificate issued to him. The HC verdict in the petition to issue the certificates with in three months had the same fate. Many students who passed the Navodaya schools entrance examination had to give up their seats because of the same reason.

Since they no longer belonged to any caste groups, thousands of gramakkar fell far off the margins as the welfare measures for the deprived classes reached no where near these out-casts.

The KIRTADS submitted its report in 1986 recommending to the government and as per the report the government issued an order on April 1, 1987 which said that there were no Malayan, Malavedan or Malappan-daram tribes left in Devikulam Taluk, making it impossible for the tribals who earl ier belonged to the Malayavedan/Malayan community as per the official records. All the educational grants and social welfare

The legal entangle

measures were denied to them immediately after this government order. They approached the government to re-instate the welfare grants to which the government responded positively in November 13, 1987. The complainants asked how these communities could just disappear in a matter of five years. They pointed out the fact that the Malayan and Malavedan communi-ties existed in the census documents till 1981. The government threw the ball back in to KIRTADS and asked its director to look in to the issue and submit a fresh report.

In August 1987, former MP and former MLA, KK Madhavan filed a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) in the HC (c m p.886) in the issue. Justice P K Shamsuddeen in his judgement dated October 13, 1992, directed the government to study whether the tribal communities had vanished as discovered by the KIRTADS report and stayed the government order. Even after the HC order , the Government didn't take any action for two years. After repeated requests by the tribal group, a committee was formed in 1994 to look in to the matter. The f ive member commit tee consisted of the district collector of Idukky, Director of Scheduled caste/tribe development Department, and the Director and Deputy Director of KIRTADS, submitted a report which upheld the earlier KIRTADS study and used almost the same language to describe the community members. The report said the Gramakkar were trying to fabricate evidences to get the ST status.

And finally the anthropology experts came to a conclusion that the people of the village belong to Vellala Pillai, an upper caste in Tamil Nadu. Though the government accepted the report, it is yet to decide up on whether to allot Vellala Pillai certificates to the people of over there. “Vellazhar means farmer/agriculturalist in Tamil. We are vellazhars and not Vellalar / Vellalappilla. The committee seems to have mixed up things in a deliberate attempt to tarnish our community.” Says Murukan of Malayan Seva Sangham. He says the Sangham can not be taken for granted and it simply can not accept any caste bestowed up on them. “Caste is caste,” He asserts. “And no body can meddle with it.”

live in abject poverty and face a lot of problems due to the confusion of caste.

Marayur and other settlements of the tribe group have an ill-reputation for strictly adhering to their old tribal habits. Each settlement will have number of out-castes who were ex-communicated by the tribe for reasons ranging from cross-caste marriages to smuggling sandal wood. The dictums of the community are so strong that those who were ex-communicated remain out for years. They will not be allowed to enter the premises of the gramam or participate in community festivals and gather-ings. The community is often criticized by the media and public for these primitive and uncivilised practices. But when it comes to the caste identity of the tribe, the same public would turn against them and call them upper castes.

On the way to Karayur Gramam, we met Devarasan, a frail figure in his seventies. “I really don't know my caste.” he said “earlier we were Malavedans in our certificates. Now we've none. We being in the forests for centuries don't know what's happening around. We're illiterate.” Devarasan like many other members of the community we met had only one demand. “Any caste will do..” they say, “… so that our children could continue studies.” In all the “caste-less settlements” we could see hopeless youngsters who couldn't resume their studies after SSLC. The Marayur Gramam had only a few youngsters who had the opportunity to study further. Those who've completed graduation can scarcely be found and even if you manage to see one, he would be working in the cane fields as his family couldn't support his further studies. In the 170 families of the Keezhanthur village 80

thhave passed 10 standard. But only five of them managed to complete plus two. Those who manage to study further against all odds will have to face a whole lot of problems due to their caste-less identity. In the Mara-yur settlement, the number of people who made it to the pre-degree level is below 20. Only three have reached bachelor degree and one MSc graduate and no one made it to the government services. K. Dhanu-shkodi of Marayur Gramam has a Bachelor degree in Economics. He was one of the two students from the

State

stories combined

Documents

vanilla farmers

hectares of vanilla

vanilla groves

national production

model vanilla villages

supplier of natural

unique saga of vanilla

total vanilla cultivated