Lefty Prof's List: India

• The most notable shift in the Hindi film song perhaps is that it has receded to the background of the Hindi film over the course of the past few decades. There was a time when a Hindi movie would not shy away from telling the story at hand through song and dance, amongst other narrative devices. The song used to be a scene of the movie, like in Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool or Vijay Anand’s Guide, carrying the narrative forward and adding to the characterisation. And this is a very Indian way of telling a story, as Salman Rushdie, one of India’s literary icons, reminds us.
• Rushdie once talked about a way of telling a story – the tradition of oral storytelling – that is still prevalent and popular in India. “The storyteller,” he said in his talk at the University of Vermont, “would begin a story, digress and tell a related story, break into a song and dance routine, tell a few jokes about nothing in particular, and return to the original thread again. The storyteller would have three or four performative threads co-existing and intertwining and the genius of the storyteller is that he keeps all the balls juggling in the air.”
• The Hindi film, along with other cinemas of India, had became a visual equivalent of a quintessentially Indian way of telling a story.
• The lip-sync song helped add lyricism and depth to the characters that these actors portrayed.
• The argument is that we must not forget or underestimate the roots and influences of a musical performance in our movies and of lip-syncing a song,
• we must not bare ignorance and an inferiority complex by looking at our own heritage and artistic productions through the ‘modern’, western glasses of what we think rules and moves the world.
• You put four maulas in a song and call it a Sufi song!”
• The progression of the Hindi film song, across almost a century now, is more than just a nostalgic, romantic yaadon ki baraat. On a deeper level, they stand testimony to and are imbibers of the big political and social changes that have shaped the country.
• The heady idealism of the post-independence India from the early 1950s to the late 1960s made it possible for the filmmakers at the time to attempt to realise some of these ideals, mixed in with their own renewed romanticisms and artistic endeavours, in their movies and songs. It was the age of dropping the bitterness and burdens of the past and embarking upon a new journey, as depicted in the timeless Chhodo kal ki baatein, kal ki baat puraani; naye daur mein likhenge hum milkar nayi kahaani…Hum Hindustani. But it was also the age that made it possible for a Madhubala to play a Muslim courtesan and dance to a Krishna–bhajan in Emperor Akbar’s court in Mughal–E–Azam, portraying an incredible (and uncommon) combination of devotion and sensuality, of prayer and romantic love, in Mohe panghat pe nandlal chhed gayo re to the wild, wide acclaim of a largely Hindu audience.
• The 1970s saw the beginnings of counter-culture, and of rage and colour and of unbridled, daring emotions. The Hindi film song was still memorable and melodious, but there was a visible shift in its vocabulary and values. Gone were the days of shy restraint, or of laid-back elegance and gentleness. It was the time, instead, of Indira Gandhi and of breaking the Zanjeer and playing with Sholay. It was the epoch of a great Aandhi both in Indian politics and society.
• In Modi’s India, a Padmavati couldn’t dance and express her desires with the flaming sensuality and unfettered abandon of an Anarkali in Nehru’s India. Or the angry young man (still committed to the ideals of democracy and social justice) of Indira Gandhi’s infamous Emergency wouldn’t know what to make of the toxic bigotry and hate induced by the new elite

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• As per the Punjab Village Common Lands Act, 1961, Dalits have ownership rights over one-third of common land or panchayat land.

   

  “However, the Act has not been implemented in large parts of Punjab, except pockets in Sangrur district. There is a lot of resistance, and in many cases the upper caste landlords make bids on behalf of the Dalits and till the land themselves,” said Lachhman Singh Sewewala, state general secretary of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union.
• At the protests, there are farmers whose produce ensures their subsistence. “I own one-acre land. There is no question of selling produce in my case. Our hut is also on the same parcel of land,” said Kulwinder Singh from Sangur, father of a 9-year-old, who runs a milk trade to support his family. His brother runs a combined harvester on someone else’s land.

• Randeep Madokke, a Punjab-based filmmaker who has documented the plight of the landless in the state, said a large number of the landless are actively participating in the protests happening within Punjab.

   

  “Most of them cannot afford to spend even a day without earning. So they are taking part in protests in and around their sources of livelihood. It is a fact that Dalits come into conflict with the landed in Punjab over land, which often turns violent or leads to social boycotts. Over the years, unions have stood up for the cause of Dalits, and they are also realising the value of unity, which also explains their presence at the protests,” said Madokke, who was also born into a landless family.

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• Feb 18, 2019
• On the evening of February 14, Syed Musail, a former student of DBIT took to Facebook to make incendiary comments about the Pulwama attack. Musail, who was allegedly rusticated from college long before this incident (NewsCentral24x7 has not yet been able to ascertain why he was rusticated), also posted photos of the Pulwama terror attack with insensitive captions.
• Speaking to NewsCentral24x7, Saurav Rajvanshi, an administrative employee at DBIT denied any incident taking place on the campus at all.
• Vikas Verma, the Bajrang Dal convenor in Dehradun, admitted that students from Kashmir have been subjected to violence and took responsibility for the same. “Yes, they are our targets. They have been celebrating the Pulwama attacks. They have been chanting pro-Pakistan slogans. We feed them, we keep them in our homes, and this is how they pay us back. We will teach them a lesson,” he said. Verma added that the group has warned landlords to evict tenants of Kashmiri origin.
• Jaamil*, another Kashmiri student from DBIT said that an angry mob had gathered outside the Bhauwala mosque and disturbed namaz. After hiding in the mosque for a few hours, Jaamil left. He and his friends are now lying low in a small apartment, too scared to step out.

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• Indians are a many-sided people: they are entrepreneurial, curious, cultured, open-minded, adventurous. They have great writers, scientists, businessmen; they have Gandhi. They’re also great migrants: they’ve gone to and worked and settled in every part of the world. They know the pain of discrimination and upheaval intimately. In this context, the fraught rhetoric surrounding the NRC, where “illegal migrant” is time and again conflated with “Muslim”, and “Muslim” with “foreigner”, shows a disconnect between what Indians have historically known, felt and achieved as migrants, despite hostility and opposition, and how, at home, they perceive those they suddenly decide are the “other”.

• The armed forces currently have over 200 drones with the bulk of them imported from Israel.

• We lie to ourselves when we say that the majority of Kashmiris want peace. Of course, the majority of Kashmiris want peace, but not the peace of the graveyard that we are giving them.
• The two retired diplomats were working on a formula which envisaged creating regional self-governing councils in all the five regions of Kashmir — Jammu, the Valley and Ladakh in India; PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan.
• this was the only time in recent history when the three stakeholders, India, people of Kashmir and Pakistan were on the same page.
• we continue to ignore all the reports they have produced and wrung our collective hands in anguish, wondering what Kashmiris want. Obviously, if we choose not to hear them, we will not hear them.
• a political resolution.
• The harder we hit them, the less peace there will be. Less peace there will be, lesser would be the tourists. And lesser would be their appreciation of us – harmless, friendly people that we are.
• Do we really care for Kashmir, or do we care for the idea of Kashmir as an integral part of India?
• Remember, we dismembered Pakistan in 1971. Yet, have we been able to win peace in Kashmir?

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• India has been expressing concern over China’s infrastructure projects linked to its One Belt One Road initiative as it has passed through Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to challenge India’s regional influence.

   

  India imports over 70 per cent of its oil through the Indian Ocean region from the Gulf region while it conducts 40 per cent of its trade with littoral states along the Indian Ocean Rim.

• Indian security experts also expressed concern over the construction of a submarine base being built by the Bangladesh navy with Chinese technical assistance.

   

  Also almost 90 per cent of Bangladesh’s military hardware is sourced from China.

   

  To reduce the Chinese influence on Bangladesh India has offered a US $500 million loan for buying military equipment from that country under suppliers’ credit system as per a memorandum of understanding signed in 2017.

   

  But the Bangladesh Army is yet to utilise the loan.

• Dalit activism's superior creativity, humane organizational functioning, freedom from bureaucratization, decency in mostly avoiding and occasionally conducting in-fighting without any communist-style waste of energies in maligning similar and fellow organizations
• Dalit activism's basic target of struggle is neither Capitalism nor Indian state but Hinduism and non-Dalit society.
• In fact, sometimes we find the first two less antagonistic to our lives, goals and politics than the latter and, in some conditions, as useful for us against the first pair.
• the philistine Teltumbde
• Another predictable danger in this attempted Hindu colonization of Dalit activism through communist bait is, turning our sphere of work from humanizing Hindu society to fighting faceless capitalism/globalization, forfeiting the Dalit-specific rights and concerns, in favor of building the so-called unity of people.
• Then, isn’t it the time for us to come together, close the ranks and fight fascism? Dalits must reject this communist colonization precisely because of the fundamentally irreconcilable approaches to Hindutva fascism.
• Hindu Communists are not against Hinduism but only against Hindutva version of it. We reject both. We consider that Hindutva poses immediate and pressing deadly threat but Hinduism is more pernicious, though a deeper yet long-term problem. This tricky but deadly difference requires us to respond to Hindutva without delay but treat Hinduism as the main and ultimate enemy.
• For Hindu Communists, Hindutva is a problem of Capitalism. For us, it is only one of the many avatars of Hinduism. Hindutva is, from our perspective, a Hinduism which takes its own religious core very seriously. For Hindu Communists, Hindutva is a perversion of Hinduism. For us, Hindutva is more honest and authentic version of Hinduism. It represents the extension of what old Hinduism does to Dalits round-the-clock in all walks of life to new victims: Christians and Muslims. While old Hinduism's killings of Dalits are to set examples, Hindutva's inexorable dynamic is to eliminate its new victims.
• Hindu Communists believe that Hindutva is divisive. We point out that what they are doing is unification of a religion and a nation. We say that unifying, ‘uniforming’ drive of Hindutva can only be combated by inherently divisive, conflictive force of caste. They reject both caste-based mobilizations and religion-based mobilizations. We charge that they not only fail to stop Hindutva (they helped them come to power in the first place, but that is a different story), they successfully discredit and preclude the only possible opposition, the Muslim and lower-caste combined mobilization against Hindutva, thus helping fascists.

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• Defence projects worth a whopping Rs 80,000 crore were on Saturday cleared by the government which decided that six submarines will be made indigenously and over 8,000 Israeli antitank guided missiles and 12 upgraded Dornier surveillance aircraft will be purchased.
• The big ticket step was the decision to build six submarines in India at a cost of about Rs 50,000 crore rather than source it from outside.
• The other major decision was to purchase 8,356 antitank guided missile of Israel worth Rs 3,200 crore rather than the US' Javelin missile for the Indian Army. The Army will also purchase 321 launchers for the missile.
• The Navy currently has 13 operational submarines and the target set in 1999 was to have 24 by 2030.

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• The first positive response to Mr. Naidu’s call for reconstruction came from the industry — over 27 firms under the banner of Industrial Development Forum (IDF) came up with investment proposals estimated at Rs. 5,600 crore in different sectors.

• Investors are looking at Visakhapatnam, Kurnool, Anantapur and Vijayawada to set up firms in pharma and IT sectors, he added.

  The proposed 1,600-acre Dindi Pharma Chemical Park near Guntur, about 20 km from Vijayawada, has been given environmental clearances and is expected to attract investments of Rs. 3,000 crore, say industry sources.
• projects such as the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) and IT Investment Region (ITIR) in Visakhapatnam; the National Technology Corridor along Vizag, Rajahmundry and Vijayawada and connecting to Chennai; and new seaports and airports and a national waterway. Several agri-processing initiatives are on the anvil.
• On the academic front, as per the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act-2014, over Rs. 10,000 crore will be spent on development of educational institutions in the State. The plan includes an Indian Institute of Technology, a National Institute of Technology, an Indian Institute of Management, an Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, and an Indian Institute of Information Technology, besides a Central university, a petroleum university, an agricultural university and a tribal university.
• While the total estimated investment expected in the Andhra coastline is over Rs.3.3 lakh crore, a consortium led by infrastructure company GMR has already submitted a proposal for Rs. 33,000 crore.
• “Land acquisition is under way along the coastline near the Kakinada port and other places. The project is likely to pick up pace very soon,” said a source at GMR. The project, spread across 640 square kilometres, is located close to the rich oil and natural gas resources in the Krishna Godavari (KG) Basin.
• Many industries in sectors such as petroleum, plastic, chemical, printing etc. are expected to come up along the coastal belt. The total employment potential is estimated to be close to 12 lakh, half of them indirectly.
• The BJP says it is determined to develop the 971-km Buckingham canal which flows through Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The canal, built in 1809, had been a major driver in terms of promoting affordable local trade. It is currently nothing but a drainage canal.
• most of the infrastructure projects can be brought in via Public Private Partnership (PPP) which means almost no financial burden on the State. A sizeable part of the Central grants, which are expected soon, need not be re-paid. The expected tax breaks and other sops from the Centre will invariably attract a lot of investment into public infrastructure and Mr. Naidu is apparently banking on such brownies.
• The immediate job could be getting the Central grant to support salaries of government employees as the State finances are in deficit of over Rs. 10,000 crore.

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• Our first lesson, however, should be drawn not from what they can or cannot do to the social fabric. It should rather be drawn from what they can or cannot do to the state and its structures.
• Indian state sits in the lap of a society that can, at times, enthrone men who would like to take the fascist-dictatorial path. Fortunately they will not be able do so despite their desires and ideologies. They may not even try because they can read the writing on the wall.
• One ought to notice that the society gives rise to savage forces and entrusts them with state power, but the state compels the savages to become civil and act in accordance with the constitutional framework.
• the political structure is fairly secure.
• One should think very hard before drawing him and his forces on the street for a political fight. That will have to be done another day. For now it is more likely, and wiser too, that the leftists would defend themselves within the existing political framework – in the parliament, assemblies, courts and other institutions while taking help of the Constitution and the laws. One should not forget that the courageous fight of a Mukul Sinha or a Teesta Setalvad on behalf of the victims of Gujarat 2002 has happened mostly in the courts and not on the streets of Ahmedabad or Gandhinagar.
• The third major lesson has to be about our approach to the programmes and policies of the bourgeois state. This should not be confused with the strategic goal of bringing about socialism which can be accomplished only by replacing the bourgeois state by a socialist state. However, the struggle around the programmes and policies of the present state remains a matter of critical importance. It affects people’s lives now while it also feeds into the prospects of advancing the struggle for socialism.
• Indian capitalism is in a particularly rapacious stage. Capital here is like a hungry beast with a prey in sight that it can pounce upon in just one leap. In such a stage, capitalist growth is rapid on account of two major factors – one, abundantly available cheap labour and second, the fact that most natural resources, such as forests and mines, and most of the small assets so ubiquitous in the entire economy, such as the land of small landholders, are yet to be turned into capital. Cheap labour is always a condition for good profits, but grabbing resources and assets for a song is a real windfall. Such a prospect makes the beast real hungry and desperately impatient. Capital always plays a big role in bourgeois elections, but this time it had a far more pressing reason to play this role more aggressively than ever.
• The most effective way to resist this plunder – if one has to do that within the bounds of bourgeois democracy – is to fight for two things. First, one must fight for a welfare state that would collect adequate revenues from enhanced taxation of profits and other higher incomes and take full responsibility of the basic needs and services such as food, shelter, health, education, water, and all other civil services for every citizen. The second fight should be for a legal framework that would prevent capitalization of natural resources and dispossession of small asset-holders unless the state in the first case and asset-holders in the second are made permanent share-holders in the upcoming enterprises.
• Dogmatism also prevents the left from presenting the outline of a socialist future that can supersede the capitalist present not only on the criteria of equality and justice but also on those of productivity, creativity, prosperity and freedom. Despite the fact that many talks and articles of some of the tallest ideologues contain phrases like “Future Socialism” or “Twenty-first Century Socialism”, they are not able to free themselves from the grip of the view that holds Twentieth Century Socialism as the canonical model of socialism. The failure to present socialism as a viable and superior alternative has gravely negative political implications for the entire left.
• On the left side one comes across celebrated theoreticians and scholars who still talk nostalgically about nationalist period and about the Gandhian-communitarian ethos when the communist party was so organically linked with the peasantry. Such an attitude puts all the blame for left’s failure on the severing of links with the masses. No one can claim that delinking with the masses is not a serious problem. But if one elevates it to being the only problem and advocates steps aimed solely at establishing this link, one would not be prepared to face the full challenge confronting the left.
• Realization for a comprehensive and well-orchestrated fight for welfare state and regulation of capital has been waylaid in more recent times by the populist anti-corruption movement and by the subsequent emergence of the AAP phenomenon.
• It is often claimed that rigorously organized political movements led by tightly structured parties are a thing of the past. They have been superseded for all times to come by the spontaneous and loosely organized social movements. It is this view that needs to be brought under scrutiny. New Social Movements are not so new any longer.

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