Partition of India, 1947 - another look

For most persons in India over the age of 70 or 75, the Partition of India in 1947 was a traumatic experience. So many people in Bengal and Punjab lost a hearth and home or loss of livelihood or worst, a loved one. There have been many books, highlighting one aspect or the other of that tragic event. The "blame game" has been on now for the past 50 to 60 years; but "finger-pointing" has not helped the people of the sub-continent really to come to terms with the unfortunate developments. For that, perhaps a look inwards into ourselves, as we are with our respective identities, would help.

I have attempted this in my book , "A Partition in the Mind" (published by CinnamonTeal Design and Publishing). But identities do not develop overnight and I had to go back quite a good bit into time and into history of the sub-continent for this purpose. There were many strands of events and experiences to be followed up, some hardly ever thought to be even remotely associated with the Partition. There was, of course, a large "dramatis personae", ranging from social, political and religious reformers, British governors-general and vice-roys and officials, as well as politicians like Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah who played major roles at one point of time or the other.
An interesting aspect  of this work has been the repeated confrontation with "historiography": not only "who" said "what", but also "why".
I am particularly beholden to the many scholars whose prior work - over a 100 books are mentioned in the Bibliography - helped me to get closer to the subject matter in its many dimensions.  Hopefully, this book will interest others also to delve into their pioneering work.

Iran - I, National Museum, Tehran

Tehran is a large, cosmopolitan city with many fine buildings, grand boulevards, etc. It has many attractions for the tourists, one of the first being the National Museum of Iran. In the pre-Islamic Section of the Museum, there is a fine collection of  artifacts dating back to 5000 BC or even earlier. It is interesting that quite a number of Stone-Age tools are on display that are quite identical with stone tools that have been found in India, strongly suggesting that man, in those very early ages, had similar compulsions for food and shelter, across a wide part of the world. Then there is a wide collection of painted pottery-ware dating back to 4500/4000 BC that clearly indicate the time when pottery became widespread in Persia as also the prevailing level of cultural sophistication.

 

The above is a picture of a spouted vessel of 4500 BC

There are many interesting items of bronze and of stone, including an image of Cyrus the Great (559-530 BC) that show draping of clothes quite similar to that found on statues in Greece and well as in Gandharan art of India.

All in all, the National Museum is an excellent introduction to the history and culture of Iran. 

Iran - great country, beautiful people

My plans since 2011 to visit Iran finally worked in early October 2017. It was part of my desire to visit historic sites in the world that date back to about 500 BC. It was relatively easy in India with its numerous Indus Valley civilisation sites, and in Egypt, Turkey, Jordan (with its great Elamite site at Petra) and Greece.  It was only with some effort that I could locate and visit the Etruscan civilisation sites near Rome, that are quite out of the usual tourist circuit. That really left Iran, with its history and civilisation stretching back to about 2000 BC.
While it had all begun with the Elamites and the Medes expanding into Iran, the incursions by people from Central Asia,  speaking Indo-European languages,  began soon thereafter. Then came that great sage and preacher, Zarathustra, around 1730 BC or thereabouts, who told the world about the one God, Ahura Mazda, and recorded his thoughts in the "Zend Avesta", that is almost contemporaneous with the Rig Veda in India. By 560 BC, the Achaemedians had gained ascendancy and Cyrus the Great, followed by Darius the Great and Xerxes, extended their empire to the borders of Greece and India. They had left their their stamp in several places in Iran, the most notable being their capital, Persepolis, near Shiraz and the Behistun Inscription further north near Hamadan. With the sack of Persepolis by Alexander the Great around 330 BC, there came the Sassanians kings like Ardeshir and  Shapur around 240 CE who subdued the Roman emperor, Valerian,  in battle and ruled Iran with a firm hand.

(The above pictures are, respectively, of Nasir-ul-Mulk Mosque at Shiraz, a couple at the Siyasopol in Esfahan, and a bas-relief panel at Persepolis)

By the 6th century CE, Islam had emerged and swiftly extended its influence in the Middle East and north Africa and had entered Iran by 642 CE. This was the time of the Seljuk, Mongol and Saffavid kings (notably Shah Abbas the Great) who left their stamp and influence across Iran.
While Persepolis certainly attracts visitors with its antiquity (dating back to about 550 BC), and its excellent sculptures in bas-relief, the lofty columns and the iconic griffins, etc., the Saffavid architecture and art dating back to the 16th and 17th century CE are equally fascinating .Thus is especially true of the Imam Mosque and Sayid Lotfullah Mosque in Esfahan, Jameh Mosque at Yazd as also the Nasir-ul-Mulk Misque at Shiraz, although this is of a later date.  Also very enjoyable are the frescos at Chehel Sotun in Esfahan and at the Fin Garden in Kashan.
But what of the people at large? They are among the most courteous and   hospitable that I have so far encountered in my travels. They were curious to know about us, and at the word "Hind" or "Indians" their eyes would light  up and a broad smile would spread across their face, as if they had found a long-lost friend or relative. They would be only too happy to give a free cup of tea or a special discount on purchases (or even give something for free) or a free entry into a historic site. The fund of goodwill that they had for India has to be seen to be believed. It is my earnest wish that we should be able to reciprocate a little of this.

Bundi (Rajasthan) - A Good Place to go to

Rajasthan is the place to see forts and palaces to one's heart's content. Bundi, a quaint, small town in south-east Rajasthan has somethings more to offer. Made memorable by the poem "Nakal Garh" by the poet Rabindranath Tagore about Bundi's chivalrous past, but somewhat far from the "maddening crowds" the town trundles along carrying its considerable history without much ado. But within the fort walls, in the "Garh Palace", is one of the finest range of paintings that one could expect to find in the Rajasthani miniature style. In the "mahals" of the Garh Palace that rise tier upon tier clinging to the hill-side, these paintings take the place of the inlay work and the pilaster decoratives that one finds in other palaces elsewhere - and is the better for it. Going back 300 to 400 years, these paintings - though somewhat faded in some places with passage of time - still glow with a light and a life all their own. It is one of the finest and largest "art exhibitions" of its type one could expect to see anytime anywhere.

A view of the "Garh Palace", Bundi

 One of the many murals in the Rajasthani miniature style at Garh Palace

But where Bundi really scores over the others is in the wide range of "rock art" that have been found near and around by a local "aficionado", Om Prakash Sharma, popularly known as "Kukki-ji" in the locality. Single-handedly Kukki-ji has explored hillocks and stream-beds around Bundi and today he can rightly boast of having identified over 100 rock art sites within about 15 to 20 kms of the town. Thus with Kukki-ji as the guide, one can literally and metaphorically travel from enjoying 17th century miniature paintings in the Garh Palace to pre-historic paintings by early man in India, possibly 6000 to 7000 years old in the course of a day. It is not an experience easily to be had. It is perhaps not an exaggeration to consider that these 100 odd sites (and still counting) along about a 35 kms. stretch as discovered by Kukki-ji  near Bundi equal the famous assemblage of rock art at Bhimbhetka near Bhopal. 

"Kukki-ji" at one of the rock art sites

A rock art painting of a buffalo, made by early man

All in all, a visit to Bundi can be quite be quite satisfying. The local "kachouris" and "samosa"  are delicious add-ons. 

Folk Art - Madhubani

Folk art is a fascinating subject: how people of different cultures see themselves and their world in different ways - and yet with a good deal of similarity.
The folk art of Madhubani in North Bihar has been practised for generations by the womenfolk in painting the walls of their humble dwellings at times of seasonal festivities. But it is only in the last fifty or sixty years that Madhubani art has broken out of its regional limits and has come to be accepted all over India and the world as a most interesting art form.
Even today, it is the women  who mostly do the paintings - now done on handmade paper for easy access by all - poring over their work for days, first with the rough outline and then filling in all the imagined images of gods and goddesses that populate their belief systems.

Vibrant primary colours of blue, red, yellow mark out the Madhubani paintings as do the detailed ornamentation of their favourite, Lord Krishna, in his many moods,  at times playing his flute, at times herding cows, with Radha, his consort, waiting in a bower of flowering plants or on a swing. In the midst of the stylization, there are different visualizations, different moods, that makes Madhubani paintings so interesting.

Kolkata - College Street Coffee House

Coffee parlours are to be found in many places  in Kolkata, They offer a variety of flavours to match most tastes. But for the "regulars" - and   I mean regulars who would go to the same place day in and day out - it is the College Street Coffee House that stands out leagues ahead. Housed in what was once the Albert Hall (named after the Prince Consort to Queen Victoria) right in the middle of academia with the Sanskrit College on one side and the Presidency College on the other, with the Calcutta University and the Calcutta Medical College a short distance away, it was here that the students of all hues and interests thronged in their spare time away from the classes and library work.
Approached by an ancient winding staircase, the Coffee House became a focal point for informal debate, discussions, assignments for generations of students for the last eighty or ninety years. Completely unprepossessing, the drab and dingy place provided that essential ingredient for a vibrant student life - freedom: freedom to say what you like, as you like, feel what you like - provided you don't really hurt the feelings of some one else.

A bit of the Coffee House remains with one all the time, once one has sat at a table there, whether one is now working in Australia or in Canada, whether one is forty or seventy. For it is part of one's growing up.

Konarak Sun Temple in Odisha

Konarak, or more correctly, "Konark", or the Place of the Sun, in Odisha was one of the first places of historical interest  that I visited over the last fifty years or so.It was way back in 1967. There are three sun temples in India, these being Konarak near the temple town of Puri in Odisha, at Modhera in Gujarat and at Martand in Kashmir. The great Sun Temple at Konarak fascinated me not only for its great size but, equally, for the intricacy of its carvings. The marvelous sculpted wheels of the "Chariot of the Sun", as the temple resembles, are masterpieces, as are the finely carved figures of dancers.

But for an inveterate nature lover such as myself, it was the wondrous frieze of elephants right at the bottom of the structure that completely fascinated me. For possibly one hundred metres this frieze runs around the base of the Konarak temple, each metre depicting elephants in different poses and postures, in the most natural way that told of the long association of the sculptors with the elephants and their ways. It is not only great art, but a study in natural history. 

The "toy" train of Darjeeling

Some of the childhood memories and impressions stay on for ever. One such were the trips to Darjeeling in North Bengal in the 1950s, when the journey was quite difficult - certainly for a ten-year old child. One had then to proceed up to Sakrigali Ghat on the south bank of the Ganga (where it enters West Bengal from Bihar), go over by steamer from there to Manihari Ghat on the north bank of the river, board another (metre-gauge) train that would take one to Siliguri, reaching only early in the morning. But all that strain and hardship were forgotten as soon as one boarded the "toy" train, the narrow-gauge "Darjeeling Himalayan Railways".

Then one entered into a dreamland of sights and sounds: the child of the flat-lands of Calcutta was treated to great forested ridges, the "jhoras" or the leaping waterfalls that sprinkled water over the train coaches, and the chug-chug, chug-chug-chug of the engine as it struggled past the "zig-zags" and the loops, stations with names like Tung, Sonada,  Ghoom, and people jumping on and off the train as if  it was a tram-car, before the "toy train" chugged into the railway station at Darjeeling.

There was much fun, with hot water bottles under the rugs, sitting up in bed watching through the open window the morning sun light up peak after peak of the Kanchenjungha range, pony rides around the Mall, and the mist creeping up over the landscape. The sweet current buns from Glenaries and Plivas, would be a bonus.

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The Siberian Cranes at Bharatpur

For most bird-watchers the name Siberian Crane conjures up images of an elegant  snowy-white bird that never fails to fascinate amongst the rare species to watch out for. This opportunity came for me one morning in 1988 at the famous Keola Deo Ghana Sanctuary at Bharatpur. I was then walking down a "bund" near Sapan Mori and the trilling call of the cranes in flight reached my ears. Looking up I saw the cranes flying over, appearing brilliant white in the early morning sun. They circled down and landed quite close to the "bund" where I had taken cover behind an Acacia tree.

So, the dream of most bird-watchers happened, and Bharatpur Sanctuary gave me the Siberian Cranes to remember for all time to come.

The sad thing is that it does not happen nowadays - the cranes are no more to be seen.

Indian Wildlife in the 70s - The first tigers

For me, in the 1970s, "wildlife" began and ended with tigers. It became a passion to see tigers in the wild and I tramped for days on end in the Betla area of Palamau National Park to see a tiger in the wild. So many times one could see the tracks of a tiger on a game track or a nullah bed in Betla, but actual sightings by forest staff were few and far between, and for tourists even less. Even then, it was a great occasion that in April 1974 I saw my first tiger in the wild, sitting at the base of the Hathbajwa tower in Betla - it was a glorious sight. The experience will forever remain with me.

My next sighting of a tiger was more unusual - it was in a forest rest house! This was in 1976 and Simlipal National Park in Odisha had become well-known for the attempt being made by Mr. S.R. Choudhury, then the Field Director of Simlipal, to re-introduce a tigress cub  captured in the forest back to the wild. It was with a mixture of fear and wonder that I first saw Khairi, the tigress, who was more than one year old at the time at the Joshipur Forest Rest House, that also served as the residence of Mr. Choudhury. It is not easy to remain unmoved when there is a tiger sitting next to one at a distance of just two feet or so, with no fencing or bars to separate the two of us.  Khairi had a natural grace and dignity that accepted an unkempt nature lover from Calcutta without any concern. She was great friends with "Bagho", the pariah dog that Mr. Choudhury had at the time. The above picture shows Khairi in a typical pose with Bagho at Joshipur FRH. Khairi died in tragic circumstances a couple of years later. Simlipal was not the same after that.

Indian current affairs - the 7th Pay Commission, problems of economic choice, Goods and Service Tax

A market in Kolkata

The 7th Pay Commission

The TV and newspapers are full of reports and articles on the 7th Central Pay Commission recommendations that have been just accepted by the Government. The main points that stand out are (1) the minimum salary would be Rs. 32000 per month and the maximum  Rs. 2,50,000 per month and (2) that this would result in a pay-out by Government towards the revised salary and pensions to the tune of over Rs. 100,000 crores in a full year.
Starting with the 5th Pay Commission in 1996 that had a pay-out of about Rs. 35,000 crores in a full year, to the 6th Pay Commission that resulted in additional liabilities to Government of about Rs. 60,000 crs. in a year, we now have the 7th Pay Commission with its liability of about Rs. 100, 000 crores. The Hon'ble Finance Minister has been candid that this would impact the fiscal deficit position besides possibly adding to the current inflation rate.
Economic theory teaches that prices of any good or service are basically determined by supply and demand. This applies - with some "ifs" and "buts" - to price of labour, land or capital. In the non-government sector salaries and wages are usually determined by bilateral or trilateral negotiations on two major considerations: the demands by the labour and the "paying capacity" of the industry or service organisation. Government obviously is not bound over by any "paying capacity", because it can always raise taxes to pay this liability; or borrow or just print notes.
Straight-forward wage-fixation is supplemented by issues of allowances and perquisites (that is, non-monetary benefits, e.g. casual leave. special leave, leave without pay)  and by the work environment, job satisfaction and all that. Besides, there is also the element of "Minimum Assured Career Progression" that Pay Commission have recommended, which is really unknown in the non-government sector. And at the end of it all, comes the "deliverables" or the "output". In the case of products, this is simple enough; but for services, especially for public or government services, this is certainly difficult to define or quantify.
Any responsible government has also to factor in how this relates to the rest of the country, to the average Per Capita Income, to the Median Income, and so on in the rest of the economy, and to the output, the level of services, pattern of savings (including diversion of savings into real estate or gold), pattern of consumption at different income levels, and all that.
It is only then that major distortions in the economy may be avoided.


The 7th Central Pay Commission - "come-backs"
I have had some "come-backs" over e-mail that the original objectives that central pay commissions set out with - to bring about a degree of "parity" between government salaries and  private sector emoluments - has by now been turned on its head. Apparently there is greater resort than before in government in India - perhaps even more in state governments - to "out-sourcing" of services, be it through re-appointment on a contractual basis of a recently-retired employee or an outside "consultant" or a plain service agency, be it for car hire or for security or office maintenance.
Economics, it appears, has a habit of clawing its way back  unexpectedly.


A recent bank scam
A recent press has it that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in the Government of India has unearthed a Rs. 2240 crores scam under which certain subsidies were given to some exporters for non-existent exports, with the connivance of some bank officials. The question that immediately asks itself is that why the DRI had to find out about this wrong-doing. Is it that the rules and procedures in the banks are not good enough to track down such malfeasance? As some one pertinently put it, "Rules are made for gentlemen. They are meant to be broken by thieves". That brings to the fore some management issues: from which level in the banking system should accountability and vigilance start? Should it be at the level of the branch manager,  or the zonal manager, or where? Banks also have audit departments to do rigorous cross-checks. How do such misdealings escape their attention? It should be clear that someone somewhere is not doing his or her job.



The 7th Central Pay Commission -  A second view-point
Recent discussions with some retired central government officers reveal that they had started their career in a technical wing of government at a starting salary of Rs. 400 per month in 1958 and, with deductions for housing, provident fund, etc., their take-home pay was Rs. 340 per month. When they retired in 1994 at the level of a general manager with overall charge of about 4000 employees their gross salary was Rs. 6800 per month, with a pension of Rs.3400 p.m.
Seen in the perspective of salaries in the private sector in 1994, Rs. 6800 p.m. for a general manager in a government plant may be said to have been lower by at least 30 to 40%, or even more. Yes, they did enjoy some facilities such as subsidised housing, free car, subsidised medical assistance, but adding  these back to the salary still keeps it low relative to private sector, where also senior executives were provided free housing, free car, etc; although these were assessed for income tax as per the permissible limits. So, providing a pension of Rs. 50,000 p.m. to a government officer in 2016, when the price levels are at least  300% higher than they were in 1994 should not raise too many eyebrows. It should make one think.


"Jam today"  versus "Jam tomorrow"
This was one of the adages that was drilled into the minds of students of Economics in the 1950s and 1960s.The idea was that using up current income in extravagant consumption is not a good way to plan one's life and, that saving for the future is a good thing. Seldom did the factor of price inflation enter this discussion.How would Rs. 500 saved each month (that would be a big thing in the 1960s and 70s) at 10% annual interest end up after 10 years, given a 10% annual rate of inflation? Moreover, the inflation was at a Compounded Annual Rate without any remission. If one has it that death and taxes are the only certainties of life, one can safely add inflation as well.
Savings, in the physical sense of setting aside from current income and consumption, was considered to be only way of accruing capital and, with capital, one could obtain assets, be it a house, or a car, or a Frigidaire, or shares and bonds or gold. But most assets, whether a house or a car, depreciate over time and increasingly more has to be paid out for their maintenance.  Thus when bank savings are eroded by inflation, and most types of physical assets have a heavy maintenance cost, it makes eminent sense to transform the savings into land, shares and in gold, because it seems that over a long period, say, 25 to 30 years, they can help to beat the inflation.
Going beyond the level of the individual to the national plane, where investment in shares or gold are not practical solutions - though they have been tried out - investment in infrastructure (i.e. roads, railways, ports, power, tele-communications, etc.) that yield a stream of output over many years and thus generate additional income and employment would be a good thing. . Thus "jam tomorrow" seems more sensible at the national plane, but at the individual level seems to be hedged with many "ifs" and "buts".



The Integrated Goods and Services Tax
Politics and law-making is a funny thing: sometimes it is content just to make incremental changes, sometimes, possibly with a huge load of "incrementals", it attempts a paradigm shift. The Integrated Goods and Service Tax is something like the latter. For more than sixty years India lived with the Excise Duty on manufactured goods with its specific rates (to begin with) and moving on to ad valorem rates.Then came the MODVAT and VAT (with its set-off and set-on features) followed by Service Tax in 1994  as part of the "reforms" process, and now there is the Integrated Goods and Services Tax, which has yet to complete the legislative process.
Leaving aside the grumblings about what should be the basic rate of this tax - at 15% or 18% or 22% or whatever - it has the unique quality of attempting to create an Indian Common Market of 1.22 billion people with rising incomes and matching aspirations. It should surely energise the respective state governments to do their best to build on their "comparative advantages" in terms land, water, minerals, industry, agriculture,  manpower, skills, and so on. With 90% of the revenues of the Tax going to the states, they have to husband and utilise these resources in the best possible manner to grow, and create the base for further sustainable growth. That means a lot of hard work is left yet to be done.