Z-Open Magazine 21 November 2016

THE AMERICAN DREAM 2016
w w w. o p e n t h e m a g a z i n e .c o m
2 1 n ov e m b e r 2 0 1 6 / r S 4 0
THE MOMENT TUNKU VARADARAJAN

WHY THEY HATE HILLARY JAMES ASTILL
THE DONALD IN HISTORY SUNANDA K DATTA-RAY
IMPACT ON INDIA MICHAEL KUGELMAN & BHARAT KARNAD
THE IDEA OF CHANGE S PRASANNARAJAN
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contents
21 november 2016
10
46
indrAPrAsthA
the JeJU Jig
By Virendra Kapoor
The possibilities of this

South Korean island range
from dormant volcanoes to the
kinkiest of adult parks
12
By Lhendup G Bhutia
40
the lAst White

bAcklAsh
62
With his flaxen mop and

delicately gesticulating
hands, Trump put his money
on India long before the
Republican Hindu Coalition
discovered him
AUdAcioUs Acts
This years Prithvi festival saw

both masters and amateurs at their
experimental best
16
By Divya Unny
By Sunanda K Datta-Ray
54
16
A WAr in memory
the AmericAn dreAm 2016
A debut novelist from Sri Lanka

returns to war-torn Jaffna in search
of questions history has not resolved
By S Prasannarajan
By Nandini Nair
20
59
into the UnknoWn

By Tunku Varadarajan
28
A mAtter of life
42
50
Why do they hAte her?
Stop fighting your medicines,

fight your maladies
By Dr Ambrish Mithal
62
The failures and fall of

Hillary Clinton
the UnderrAted
modernist
By James Astill
Always loyal to the figurative,

Krishen Khanna still retains the
lyrical possibilities of his lines
33
46
trUst in trUmP
A hard bargain,
but good for India
50
54
By Rosalyn DMello
66
By Bharat Karnad
not PeoPle like Us
36
modis friend? WAit.
40
42
the hills Are dying
Trump will be fully capable of

managing the India-US relationship
during its good times. A natural
ally will have to do more
the money trAP
Narendra Modi has

declared war on black
money. And how
Why nobody cares

for Wayanad,
Keralas enduring
environmental tragedy
By Michael Kugelman
By Siddharth Singh
By Shahina KK
21 november 2016
Daddy cool
By Rajeev Masand
Cover photograph by
Getty Images
Cover by
Saurabh Singh
www.openthemagazine.com 3
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letteR of the week
What is most striking about Akhilesh Yadavs

makeover is the role he has allotted various
family members. As mentioned in The Son
Supremacy (November 14th, 2016), his wife
Dimple is doing more than what one would
expect of the wife of an Uttar Pradesh
politician. Since womens empowerment is
gaining prominence in India, Akhilesh has
made an extremely wise decision by bringing
in his wife to lend support to his campaign.
Dimple standing up for him in an otherwise
male-dominated political scenario also
gives his speeches an air of modernity and
respectability. It is equally interesting to
note the differences and similarities between
father and son, and how Akhilesh has finally
succeeded in creating both a name and
position for himself within the party and
state. One waits to find out the next steps he
will take to boost his public image, especially
to address the charges being made of widespread corruption and political thuggery in
the state. Akhilesh, one can be sure, wont stop
fighting for the crown till the very end.
Gautam Joshi
Sharad tailang
chiEf dESignEr-marKEting
champak bhattacharjee
cfo anil bisht
hEad-it hamendra Singh
chiEf ExEcutivE & PubliShEr
manas mohan
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volume 8 issue 46
for the week 15-21 november 2016
total no. of pages 68
Right oR wRong?
In the interests of the Tata

Group (Who Will Win
Tatas Trust?, November
14th, 2016) and its shareholders, the removal
of Cyrus Mistry as its
chairman was the right
decision. Mistry should
have gracefully accepted
the decision of the board.
Ratan Tata is a man with a
mission and unquestionable credentials. He has an
excellent track record as a
business leader and has the
acumen that Mistry sadly
lacked. Had this decision
not been taken now, the
Group would have suffered
more losses across business
sectors and the formidable
Tata reputation would have
suffered. Mistry should
accept his fate in a professional and cordial manner
instead of playing a never

ending blame game.
Mahesh Kumar
It is the first time in Tatas

history, if not in Indian
corporate history, that
such dirty linen has been
washed in public. Though
the mutual finger-pointing
between Cyrus Mistry and
Ratan Tata will continue
for quite some time, it
seems, the least that Tata
Sons board could have
done was give the ousted
chairman a fair chance
to present his case before
deciding his fate. With
Mistry having been ejected
from office, it will be very
difficult to find a successor, especially given the
huge internal and external
mess that has been left for
the new appointee to clean
up. Sadly, no matter who

the Groups next chief is,
there will always be some
questions left unanswered.
If Mistry felt he was a mere
lame duck, for example,
then why did he not resign
the job in the first place?
No doubt, this episode has
hurt the Groups reputation to an extent, which
has otherwise been largely
good in spite of the Radia
Tapes controversy.
Bal Govind
daRk days ahead
This refers to the Open

Essay, Behind Gods
Wars by Shiraz Maher
(November 14th, 2016). It is
frightening to learn about
how committed and dangerous Islamist militant
groups have been in the
past. There is little reason
to doubt that the present
Islamic State will be any
different. If the world does
not step up and take action
against such extremism,
it will be too late. Given
this groups recent
activities and record of
unspeakable violence and
human rights violations,
one can safely predict that
there are dark days ahead
for the Middle East.
Manish Dhingra
21 november 2016
get ty images
openings
NOTEBOOK
Trump Towers over IndIa
ack in 1979, when Donald Trump inspected a

model of what would come to be his famed Trump
Tower on new Yorks Fifth avenue, he is believed
to have been dismayed to find the General Motors
building a few blocks away to be 41 feet higher. Trumps highrise, which now serves as his residence and the headquarters of
his organisation, apart from housing several other commercial
establishments and residences, had been planned as the citys
first super-luxury high rise.
according to The New York Times, he told the model makers
assistant norman Brosterman, My building looks a little small.
and later, can you make my building taller? When told
no, he asked, Well, can you make the GM building shorter?
Trump is believed to have used a pencil to mark out his preferred
height of the GM building. and Brosterman had to saw off the
top third of the GM building model, leaving Trump Tower, at
least in the scale model, the tallest in the neighbourhood.
6
it took a few decades and a growing class with deep pockets

and a taste for the ultra-luxurious to bring the Trump real estate
brand to india. after the 2010-proposed Trump Tower in South
Mumbai with developers Rohan Lifescape failed to take off, the
Trump Organization tied up with local developers to build two
projects, one in Mumbai and the other in Pune. at last count,
226 of the 396 apartments being built in the under-construction
75 storeyed-Trump Tower in Mumbais Worli area had already
been sold, according to an official spokesperson of the Lodha
Group, which is developing the project. Media reports claim half
of the 46 apartments in the two 23-storeyed Trump Towers in
Pune have already been sold. Three more Trump Tower projects
will reportedly come up next year. These reportedly include a
luxury residential project and an office project in Gurgaon and a
luxury housing project in kolkata. Tribeca Developers, Trump
Organizations exclusive representative in india, declined to
comment for the article. But in the past, they have claimed that
21 november 2016
india probably has the highest number of Trump-branded real

estate projects outside north america.
according to Lodha Groups spokesperson, residents of
the Trump Tower in Mumbai will have a private jet facility at
their disposal, apart from Trumps famed white-glove service
and special services and benefits of Trump Hotel collection,
among other amenities. Trump Tower Mumbai is one of the
most sought after real estate projects in the country. The enthusiasm and trust in the Trump brand has been well reflected
with premiums as high as 30 per cent generated over other
projects in the vicinity From the initial sales window opened
in 2014 until the latest in June 2016, we have successfully sold
over 50 per cent of the residences, says the spokesperson.
The Trump Tower in Mumbai currently sells for Rs 45,000 per
square foot, a premium of around 30 per cent over other towers
in the same complex. The Trump Tower in Pune, according to
reports, costs about Rs 25,000 per square foot, compared to about
Rs 15,000 per square foot for a comparable project in a nearby
location. according to Pune Mirror, two of the flats in Pune,
owned by the father-son duo Rishi and Ranbir kapoor, have now
been given out on rent for Rs 4 lakh and Rs 5 lakh per month, the
highest that any apartment in the city has ever commanded.
ashwinder Raj Singh, cEO, residential services, at Jones
Lang LaSalle india, the indian unit of the international property consultant, says with Trump now being elected to office,
the perceived value of properties bearing his name will see
a spike. i think it will be a positive thing for Trump Towers,
definitely. He is the US president, all said and done, he says.
These are marquee branded properties. and whenever there is
a branded property, there will be a premium. Because it comes
with a related cost. They will have their own amenities, and the
quality of construction and other features [will be better]. Thats
why the brand is the brand.
no real estate developer has loomed as large as Trump in
public consciousness within and now outside the US. He gets
paid to have buildings named after him. The Lodha Group, for
instance, pays a royalty for the usage of his name.
Back in 1979, when the original Trump Tower in new York
was being built, Trump could not bring the GM buildings
height down. What he instead did was have his 58-storied-building skip 10 stories. after the 19 commercial floors at the bottom,
he had the first residential floor listed as the 30th floor in the
elevator. Fifty-eight floors thus became 68. Similarly, as the New
York Times reported, 43 floors of the Trump SoHo on new Yorks
Spring Street became 46 floors. and the 44 floors of the Trump
international Hotel and Tower became 52 floors.
When Trump came to Mumbai in 2014 to launch the
Trump Towers project in the city, he claimed this was his kind
of place. calling the Mumbai luxury realty market the cheapest
in the world, he said at the press conference, id like to invest
a lot of money in india. When asked how much, he replied,
i dont know. i have a lot. n
By Lhendup g Bhutia
21 november 2016
AFTERTHOUGHT
scientific
error
The us has bared the failings of
politicial science as a discipline
OnaLD TRUMPS UnPREDicTaBLE

victory has taken a toll on many things. His rival,
Hillary clinton, the favourite to win the US
election, has lost. So have a host of other people
who predicted a win for herpollsters, pundits, statisticians and others who rooted for clinton. But there is
another bunch of people, tucked away from sight, whose
reputations have also taken a hit: political scientists.
One may wonder how thisrather low-key group
of peoplehas joined the list of losers. Unlike the past,
journalists have become increasingly reliant on political
scientists for understanding big elections and events. The
latter, in turn, make ample use of theoretical models and data
to figure political change. in the US, the favourite model to
understand presidential electionsall the way from initial
forays by prospective candidates to their nomination and
finally the resultswas forged by four young political scientists. Formally described in a book titled The Party Decides,
their argument was simple: it is the partyDemocratic or
Republicanthat selects a candidate and then nudges the
electorate to pick its nominee. That it is finally the entire
electorate which decides the fate of a candidate, however, is
often forgotten at the time of the selection.
Trumps win has turned the model on its head. not only
did the tycoon defy his party and simply seize the nomination, but proved almost everyonewho had any say in
predicting an outcomewrong. How this happened will
be a topic of many scholarly studies ahead.
Here, two points are worth noting. One, Political Science
has joined the ranks of Economics in its inability to predict
an event where theres plenty of data available for analysis
and understanding whats going on. Something similar
struck economists in 2008 when an economic crisis hit the
world. no one had an answer because their pet theory was
that markets correct themselves and seldom fail. Two, this is
not the first time such a failure has occurred. in 1964, when
another insurgent candidate Barry Goldwater managed to
seize the Republican nomination in the teeth of his partys
opposition, many models went bust. So it is, again.
The trouble with Political Science is that it is unable
to make sense of right-wing phenomena in general and
their electoral aspects in particular. Trump will remain a
reminder of that failure. n
oPenings
PORTRAIT
AmericAs model
Will Melania Trump be the new Jacqueline?
N 1993, WHEN Hillary Clinton strode in as First Lady into the White
House with President Bill Clinton in tow, everyone was clear that this
was a partnership of political equals. Melania Trump is certainly not in the
same mould. Even her consent to Trump contesting was given with reservation. In an interview to GQ, one of the rare ones that she gave, she spoke
of telling him to go ahead only if he was sure about it because it would
change their lives. When the campaign became vicious with tapes of lewd
talk and allegations against him of sexual advances, Melania again gave one
of her rare TV interviews to defend him. If anyone is feeling sorry for me,
dont, she told journalist Anderson Cooper in her halting accented style,
a combative moment signalling that she might be a model who married a
billionaire and president-aspirant but she was no suffering trophy wife.
Will Melania be a Jacqueline Onassis, who was apolitical but as John Ken-
nedys First lady left an imprint of class on the White

House that is even remembered today? Or a Michelle
Obama who by dint of her personality matched her
husbands popularity even while restricting herself
to the First Ladys traditional role of a social and
cultural icon? If her own record is any indication,
Melania will keep a low profile but the only course
not open to her is to remain invisiblethe First
Ladys position is also a public office.
The new queen of the United States has been a
citizen of the country for just 10 years and only after
her marriage. Born in Slovenia in 1970, Communist
Yugoslavia then, she is technically a migrant. That
Trump got his initial political momentum by railing
against migrants is an irony, but like many contradictions about his election, it did not matter. She started
modelling in her native country, then in the fashion
capitals of Milan and Paris before moving to New
York. A Washington Post profile speaks of her always
being a homebody. It quoted fashion photographer
Antoine Verglas who was working with both Melania and Carla Bruni, wife of the French President
If her own record is any

indication, Melania
will keep a low profile but
the only course not open to
her is to remain invisible
Nicolas Sarkozy: He described the two models, who
are about the same age and both married into presidential politics, as very different. Gregarious Bruni
dated one famous man after another, including Mick
Jagger and Eric Claptonbut Melania stayed away
from the scene, hung out in her modest apartment
and had no history of boyfriends in New York,
Verglas said. And that was very unusual in our
business. Trump, 24 years older, met her at a party,
developed an instant liking and started courting
even though she initially refused to give him her
telephone number. Her personality is antithetical to
his. She is introverted, he is gregarious. He is bombastic, she is measured with an innate stability. He
draws energy in the public eye, she stays out of it.
We will see a lot of Donald Trump in the next
four years and probably very little of her. Maybe
opposites do attract, a reason why their marriage is
so successful. n
By Madhavankutty Pillai
8
21 november 2016
IdEAs
ANGLE
The B FacTor
The underrated power of boredom among
the reasons for Trumps victory
By Madhavankutty Pillai
HE DAY BEFOrE the US

election, as your columnist, who
stood among the rank and file of the
wise men certain about human reason,
meditated on the victory of Hillary
Clinton, it occurred to him that this
election could be about the arrival of
the womens vote, given how much
it was believed to have swung away
from Donald Trump. As is evident now,
women did vote a little more for Hillary
but it was of no consequence.
There are reasons why events that
would destroy a regular politician did
not make the slightest dent on Trump,
but who can now say with any
certainty what they are. Theories on
why Trump won are being floated by
the same pundits who were clueless
about what was changing under their
feet all this while. Nicholas Nassim
Taleb, author of The Black Swan and to
his credit someone who was disdainful
of all the polls that showed Hillary
Clinton winning, has long believed
that a category of people he calls
Intellectual Yet Idiot have no conception of the real world and yet have the
hubris to decide its course. That what
is happening everywhere is a rebellion
against the phony intelligentsia who
flounder in bewilderment at events
like the Trump victory.
But even that is a theory like any
other. Some liberals in the United
States expected that the election would
be a referendum on racial hierarchy
with White Americans wanting to
21 november 2016
turn back the tide of them losing

their place at the top. Others lean on
the economic argument, the security
of the majority, which is made up of the
White working- and retiree middleclass. Or the trust deficit that Clinton
had, the lack of enthusiasm among
Blacks and Hispanics even though the
majority of the minority were behind
her. Deconstructing the collective
wisdom of a people is difficult but
there is one factor which is inevitably
present in every election, and that
is boredom.
Pollsters can give it the fancy name
of anti-incumbency, but boredom is
all that it means. Some societies get
bored fast. Like Kerala, where they
change governments like clockwork
with every election. Or Tamil Nadu,
where Jayalalithaa managed to bribe
the voter out of this trend. You can
see it when Uttar Pradesh removes a
Mayawati, who was firm on law and
order, to bring in a party that had a
history of goonda raj .
In the US in recent times, eight
years is what they gave every president
before changing parties. In the last 35
years, there was one exception to this.
Against an entertainer like Trump, the
predictable Hillary promised four
more years of exactly what Americans
had been living under. A citizenry also
wants excitement from its politics.
Boredom isnt the only reason, but it
provides the fodder that showmen like
Trump feed off. n
CELEbRITy WORshIP
Donald Trumps victory has shown

that the culture of celebrity worship,
which has been gradually taking
over modern civilisation, has finally
reached a tipping point. The rich and
the famous used to influence lives;
now one of them, a rank outsider,
will actually dictate the politics of
the world, as President of the United
States when he takes over from Barack
Obama in January. Trumps great
following has its roots in the reality
show The Apprentice that made him
more than just another billionaire
and brought him to the homes of
ordinary Americans. In the show,
contestants take part in a series of
challenges in order to get a chance
to work as an apprentice for Trump.
How reasonable is it to expect someone who owes his position to being a
celebrity to change the way he plays
the game after becoming President of
the free world? n
WORds WORTh
Part of the beauty

of me is that I am
very rich
DonalD Trump
INDRAPRASTHA
virendra kapoor
nd they said Arun Jaitley cannot keep a secret. But

he did, didnt he?
The decision to scrap the two big currency notes, hitherto the
darling of tax-evaders, was taken well over six months ago. At
one stage, Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Jaitley had
toyed with the idea of doing so at the time of the annual Budget.
The ongoing schemes to mop up black money, however, came
in the way.
Aside from Modi and Jaitley, the only other people in the
loop were a couple of bureaucrats. Of course, former RBI
Governor Raghuram Rajan and his successor Urjit Patel were in
on the plan right from the beginning. It is a tribute to the integrity of the system that till the Prime Minister made his stunning
broadcast on the night of November 8th, no one had a clue
about the surgical strike against the huge parallel economy.
Yes, not even senior members of the Union Cabinet. Late on
November 8th, as they assembled for an extraordinary Cabinet
meeting, everyone was in the dark
about the agenda since no papers had
been distributed beforehand, as is the
norm. With Modi still recording his
television address, anxious ministers
whispered aloud what urgent concern
might have dragged them there.
Total secrecy being a prerequisite for
the efficacy of such once-in-a-lifetime
measuresand also to prevent illicit
gains from prior leakagethe Modi
team kept the abolition of Rs 500 and Rs
1,000 notes under wraps. Hats off to the
top guns of the Government. Given the
will, it can work and work well.
Of course, the hard part begins now.
The success of this assault on black money crucially depends
not only on how much of it is flushed out by business and
industry, but also by the political class. Modi, we suspect, has
not endeared himself to the Mayawatis and Jayalalithaas,
Mulayams, etcetera. The scrapping of big notes may well impact
the coming polls in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Rajiv Nayar, one of the most successful lawyers of the Delhi High
Court. Invitations had been sent out weeks in advance for what
promised to be a gala, fun-filled evening at a top five-star hotel in
the capital. But Modi injected himself into the revelries unannounced. The whos who from the world of business, industry
and law, plus a few from the world of politics, had gathered to
felicitate Rajiv, the younger son of veteran journalist Kuldip
Nayar. But the mood turned distinctly sombre thanks to the
Modi bombshell. It drove away all concerns that evening about
the faraway tussle between Trump and Hillary or the coming
electoral battles in the United States. Everyone had but one
thing uppermost in his mind: the scrapping of the high-value
currency notes and how to extricate oneself from a sticky
situation. Sticky it was since top lawyers outnumbered everyone else in the gathering.
On being ribbed, someone disclosed he had a couple of lakhs
in cash for running expenses, while a colleague muttered under
the breath not lakhs but crores. Modis
surgical strike seemed to have hit its target. Despite attempts at usual conviviality, there were quite a few who seemed
preoccupied with thoughts of converting black into white. But being very
good lawyers, they will survive this
unexpected blow unscathed.
Jaitley did put in an

appearance despite the
momentousness of the
decision earlier that
evening. And, as always,
knots of people talking
around soon dissolved to
crowd around his table
rban indians might come to remember November

8th just as older generations remember the day Kennedy
was shot or the day New Yorks Twin Towers were felled. For,
demonetisation does not happen every other day. As for us, we
were scheduled to partake in the 60th birthday celebrations of
10
inance Minister Arun

Jaitley and Attorney General Mukul
Rohatgi had been friends of the birthday
boy from the time they all began practice back in the 80s. They were expected
to join the celebrations. Rohtagi, one
of the countrys top grossing lawyers
till the call to national duty more than two years ago, came
early. And was happy to note that he would be least affected by
demonetisation. As AG, he was on subsistence pay, you see. Yes,
it may have mattered were he still a private lawyer.
Jaitley did put in an appearance despite the momentousness of
the decision earlier that evening. And, as always, knots of people
talking around soon dissolved to crowd around his table. It was
his wife Sangeeta who confided to an old woman friend how she
learnt of the bombshell from the PMs broadcast. As for Jaitley,
well, despite attempts to draw him out, he was a picture of circumspection, refusing to give away anything aside from iterating
Modis words on the unflinching war against black money. n
21 november 2016
open essay
By SUNANDA K DATTA-RAY
The LAST WhiTe

BAcKLASh
With his flaxen mop and delicately gesticulating hands, Trump put his
money on India long before the Republican Hindu Coalition discovered him
atching DonalD John trump graciously promise to be president for

all americans as he showered generous compliments on the defeated hillary
rodham clinton recalled ronald reagans reply when asked, how could an
actor become president?: how can a president not be an actor? he retorted.
But the most important job in the world would collapse in a terrible fiasco if the
incumbent excelled only in dazzling deception. the secret of success lies in the
ability to transform theatre into reality so that the hopes and dreams that resulted
in this weeks historic triumph are fleshed out on the stage of everyday life.
india should be especially joyful, for the White house will for the first time
ever have an incumbent with a personal stake in this countrys stability and
prosperity. i have big jobs going up in india india is doing great, says the
70-year-old real estate billionaire who has never held public office before but
who has his eye on pune, mumbai and other indian cities. a strong india that can
resist challenges from china and pakistan could take his private fortune to new
heights. So, when Salman Khurshid, indias former External affairs minister, told georgetown university students that he thought
india would be very, very worried if trump became uS president, he was speaking as a fashionable left-of-centre idealist or as
spokesman for nris divorced from indias national interest. the reasons why some americans, even in trumps own republican
party, criticise him have little resonance in bilateral relations.
trump is an exception in the Washington Beltway, far more an outsider than narendra modi claims to be in Delhi. Few american politicians have much interest in or knowledge of the vast unknown beyond their shores teeming with foreigners. John Fitzgerald Kennedy thought he knew enough to compare robert clives rule in india with oliver cromwells in ireland. Jimmy carter
12
21 november 2016
pored over the Bhagavad gita before visiting india. richard

nixon, the president indians loved to hate, was probably the
best informed. he was only 17 when his Quaker grandmother
gave him a life of mahatma gandhi which he read over and
over again. he visited india 16 years before becoming president
and came to two memorable conclusions which dont seem
irrelevant today. First, he thought the wonder was not that
india was badly governed but that it was governed at all.
Second, nixon was convinced that Jawaharlal nehru sought to
influence if not control all of asia and africa.
ronald reagan, whose term witnessed the first thaw in
a frozen relationship and whom trump resembles in some
ways, never came to india. But as he confessed, at least i slept a
few moments in india when his flight from taipei to london,
England made a late night refuelling halt in new Delhi. But it
was the unlikely 43rd president that india fell in love with, who
seemed to exemplify Blaise pascals much-quoted line, the
heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of. george
W Bush Jrs reason lay in an astute assessment of american
national interest which is why its essential today to look for
logic beyond trumps eccentricities.
Bush, governor of texas, was an even more unexpected
champion. he had set foot
outside his country only
three times in his 54 years.
he thought grecians lived
in greece. he stared blankly
when a Glamour magazine
journalist uttered the word
taliban in a rorschach
test; enlightened about the
taliban, he replied, oh,
i thought you said some
band. the cartoon that
showed him wondering
why india and pakistan
should quarrel over a
sweater (cashmere) was
not too far off the mark. he
didnt know who governed
chechnya, pakistan or
india. But it didnt matter.
as Bushs communications director said, For the
american people, the relevant question is not how
many names a candidate
has memorised but does
he have the strategic vision
to lead and can he protect
american interests.
the 45th president Elect
certainly nurses a robust vision of his countrys future.
Some of his rhetoric holds the bombastic ring of speeches by

Britains nigel Farage or Frances marine le pen. But that is the
mast to which american voters who face economic distress
and political uncertainty, who fear their global leadership is
slipping and their country being taken over by Black, Brown,
Yellow and off-White races, have nailed their colours. they
believe him when he vows to make america great again. it
does not occur to them to ask when he promises to reclaim his
countrys destiny who has stolen it. he has promised to restore
the infrastructure, create jobs and harness creative talent. the
multitude wants no more.
With his flaxen mop and delicately gesticulating hands,
trump put his money on india long before the republican
hindu coalition discovered him. politicians gamble with
their countrys destiny, but businessmen dont lightly risk
goodwill. true, he hasnt invested his own money here. But he
has invested his reputation in two ambitious projects through licensees. that makes him a stakeholder in our prosperity. it has
been my desire for many years to be involved in a great project in
mumbai, and it is my honour to bring the trump lifestyles to the
citizens of this truly global metropolis, he was quoted saying.
a 2010 attempt fizzled out, but in 2012, panchshil realty announced the trump towap
ers pune luxury residential
property. it features two
striking glass faade towers
of 23 storeys each, offering
46 spectacular single-floor
residences. the lodha
groups trump tower
mumbai will be an 800-ft
75-storey skyscraper in
Worli with gold and glass
three- and four-bedroom
apartments of over 2,000
sq ft each with indoor jacuzzis, poggenpohl kitchen
cabinets, automatic toilets
and everything else that the
well-heeled arriviste craves.
Flat prices range from $1.6
million up. clearly, trump
understands the ostentatious tastes of rich indians,
especially in mumbai.
perhaps there is a
connection between the
business opportunities he
seeks and the compliments
he showers on india. india
is doing great, he says.
recognising the responsibility that goes with
size, population, a stable
Trump is an exception in the

Washington Beltway, far more
an outsider than Narendra Modi
claims to be in Delhi. Few American
politicians have much interest in
or knowledge of the vast unknown
beyond their shores teeming
with foreigners
21 november 2016
open essay
democracy and economic potential, he sees india as the check

to pakistan which is probably the most dangerous country in
the world. india has its own nukes and a very powerful army.
its not necessary for india to toe trumps harder line on china
but that, too, is an invitation to play a positive role in holding
the peace in asia.
personal factors are, of course, of limited relevance in foreign
policy where palmerstons iron dictum about countries having
no eternal allies or perpetual enemiesonly interests that
are eternal and perpetualstill rules. Even without trumps
special interest, india would have to make the best of whoever occupied the White house. its something we have done
before. indira gandhis press adviser, hY Sharada prasad, never
forgot how her fist was clenched on the telephone receiver, the
knuckles showing white, as she appealed to lyndon B Johnson
to save india from famine. She spoke with sweet politeness
get ty images
Indira Gandhis press adviser,

HY Sharada Prasad, never forgot
how her fist was clenched on the
telephone receiver, the knuckles
showing white, as she appealed to
Lyndon B Johnson to save India
from famine. She spoke with
sweet politeness but once the
conversation was over, exploded
angrily, I dont ever want us ever
to have to beg for food again.
Hence the Green Revolution
14
but once the conversation was over, exploded angrily, i dont

ever want us ever to have to beg for food again. hence the
green revolution.
later, Johnson took a shine to her, unexpectedly staying on
for dinner after the indian ambassadors reception during her
1966 visit and throwing the seating arrangements into disorder
until parmeshwar narayan haksar gallantly withdrew. Johnson tried to persuade mrs gandhi to dance at the White house
party until she explained that while she had no personal objection to taking the floor, it might be misunderstood in india. he
sent for BK nehru, indias ambassador, and jovially offered to
attack india if it would help her win the elections.
trump dwelt in his victory speech on the length of the
election campaignwhich he called a movement on the
republican sideand how hard hillary clinton had worked
at it. that was, of course, a way of drawing attention to his own
al amy
Richard Nixon, the president

Indians loved to hate, was
probably the best informed. He
was only 17 when his Quaker
grandmother gave him a life of
Mahatma Gandhi which he
read over and over again.
He visited India 16 years
before becoming president
and came to two memorable
conclusions which dont seem
irrelevant today
21 november 2016
spectacular success. But theres no denying its been a long,

nasty and brutish campaign that might leave behind a trail of
bitterness and enmity. common sense suggests that many of
americas 200 million voters might have become disgusted at
the invectives hurled about.
But, as Deep K Datta-ray argued in The Telegraph, perhaps,
even the ugliness served a purpose. the defining features of
the campaign are the best, and arguably the worst, of the uS
democracy and, ironically, vacuous entertainment, or what has
been derided this year as trivial campaigning. his point is that
the insults and the abuse also provided detailed insights into
the thinking, attitudes and actions of the candidates strengthening the core idea of openness and accountability. it enables
american voters to choose between candidates who have been
stripped bare of all posturing. Since uS presidents have an
impact far beyond native shores, this exposure also enables foreign countriesindia, for instanceto shape their strategies
for the next five years.
What modi has to remember is that its not trump alone.
republicans have also secured majorities in the house of
representatives, the Senate and will probably get to reappoint
a fifth republican nominee to the Supreme court. that would
leave the new presidentan inexperienced outsiderwith
few checks and balances. little wonder investors reeled from
the prospect of a victory that would reverberate around the
world and futures markets pointed to a fall of nearly 600 points
in the Dow Jones industrial average. clintons refusal to make
the customary concession speech right after the result cannot
have relieved the deep dejection many americans feel at the
shattering defeat the Democrats suffered.
it would be a disgrace if new Delhi judges trumps presidency only by his earlier comments on h-1B visas and jobs lost
to india. it was shaming when modi, who is so high on make
in india patriotism, in effect begged obama for jobs for people
our government has spent a fortune on training but cannot employ because frivolities like cow protection, chants of Bharat
Mata ki jai and anti-pakistan triumphalism take precedence
over the nuts and bolts of economic growth. this dependence
on the uS is a worrying factor of contemporary life. Writing of
immigration and innovation, Vivek Wadhwa, then a senior
research associate at the harvard law School, called the exit of
indians when their non-immigration transitional h-1B visas
expired the first brain drain in [uS] history. his boasts of the
immigrant contribution to uS prosperity may be justified but
not the claim that america is no longer the only land of opportunity for these foreign-born workers because theres another,
increasingly promising, destination: home.
that may be true of the chinese; it emphatically isnt of
indians for two reasons. First, home is very far from being
sufficiently developed to offer comparable facilities and opportunities. Second, possibly because of two centuries of colonial
indoctrination, the Wests lifestyle is so much more attractive
for most middle-class indians that they are anxious to work in
the uS even for less than american wages. ultra-patriotic pon21 november 2016
get ty images
Ronald Reagan, whose term

witnessed the first thaw in a frozen
relationship and whom Trump
resembles in some ways, never
came to India. But as he confessed,
at least I slept a few moments in
India when his flight from Taipei
to London, England made a late
night refuelling halt in New Delhi
tification on india is some compensation for that lowly status.

the clamour for h-1B visas, whose holders have been
compared to indentured labourers, underlines that dichotomy.
india cant complain if indian software companies which
grabbed 86 per cent of the total h-1B visas in 2014 (china,
accounting for the third largest immigrant group in the uS,
after mexico and india, took only 5 per cent), have to pay higher
fees or suffer restrictions. Employment permits are not a right.
Emigration is the index of domestic failure.
the most significant lesson of trumps victory is a deep antiestablishment anger among american voters. they didnt want
a dynasty. With two Bush presidents, a second clinton would
have been too much. and so Ab ki baar, Trump sarkar starts a
journey into the political unknown that might include a
non-White majority uS by the middle of this century. if so,
the trump vote could be the White majoritys backlash against
the inevitability of demography as destiny. n
Sunanda K Datta-Ray is a journalist and author
of several books. He is an open contributor
get ty images
The AmericAn DreAm
2016
Now it is time
for America
to bind the
wounds of
division. I
pledge to every
citizen of our
land that I will
be President for
all Americans
By S PRASANNARAJAN
Once upon a time in the

United States of America, there
was a billionaire businessman
called Donald John Trump,
whose ambition was as towering as the buildings he built.

It was an era of disillusion and anger, and the impatience
of the silent majority, White and working class, remained
invisible to media elites and the political establishment. It
was a time when the highest echelons of power were steeped in a cosy
consensus, unaware of the resentment seething beneath, and with no access
to the deepest recesses of the popular mind, scarred and ripe for revolt. Then
the Donald happened, as an unlikely pretender to the throne. First they tried
to laugh him off. Then they recoiled at his vulgarism, his ignorance, his sexism,
his racism, his very idea of Americaand he always played the part to horrifying perfection. Abandoned by the priesthood of his own party, rattled at every
stage by the campaign machine of his opponent, ridiculed by columnists, the
Donald refused to step aside and make way for the entitled and the enlightened.
In the year of 2016, in November, after a scandalous campaign, the Donald
stormed the White House, shattered the last certainties of conventional politics.
He reaped the fears of a lost people and promised greatnessand happiness.
He won the argument for change, and history shifted. The remains of that victory, which defied both
psephology and op-ed sociology, even after all these years, continue to determine the political choices of
America, the freedom of which still allows many variations of Trump to play rebel and redeemer, usurper and
saviouror the revolutionary who descends from a marbled penthouse in Manhattan to the consciousness of
the ghettoised middle America. It was a long time ago.
This fable is inevitable in the future of politicsand of the United States of America. For beyond the algorithms
that misread the mood and the punditry that was more about demonising than deciphering, lie the new terms of
political engagement in a world more polarised than ever before. On November 8th, America became the
pivot of that world, and ironists are likely to call it a well-deserved honour for the only superpower with global
influence. This honour, the pessimists and shell-shocked liberals may argue, only brings out the innate
18
21 november 2016
The AmericAn DreAm
inauthenticity of popular wisdom, the shattering crudity of the

visceral vote, the tragedy of democracy itself. It is something
else, raw and volatile. It is a force from below, from the farthest
regions of disenchantment where ideologies have lost their
relevance, and where the politically dispossessed have made
the old division of Left and Right redundant. Trumps moment
is something more than a Republican victory (in spite of the
conservative Brahmins and even the right wing media) or
Democratic defeat (in spite of mass endorsement for being
anti-Trump). It is politics reborn in the ruins of the old party
apparatus. The Trump constituency of what Hillary had
famously dismissed as the basket of deplorables, ideally,
should have been her own partys basket of dependables. In the
familiar media narrative, these nameless legion, semi-literate
provincials left behind by the march of capitalism, are easy
prey for any demagogue selling heaven in the retail market
of realpolitik. They are the nativists fed on paranoia, robbed
by immigrants in a country with
porous borders. Its into this realm of
fear and foreboding that the outsider
enters, talking about the future in
a language that they understand
instantly. The formulaic politics
of American bipolarity cannot
comprehend this subversive lingua.
As Trump looms, politics as we
know diesslowly, steadily.
The new politicians calling card
is anti-politics. He is not necessarily
the apolitical politician in the mould
of, say, Vclav Havel, a dissident
living in truth. The new one could
be a beer-swigging Englishman or a
priapic American, and we call him
outsider, Establishment-slayer, a
kitschy neophyte, or a fantasy peddler in the unreported swamplands
of globalisation. When he made an
appearance in places such as Greece
and Spain, we didnt pay much
attention. We thought he was just
an ideological extremist. In the last
English summer, from my London bubble, I saw the countryside erupting to his call for freedom and greatness, and Brexit
was a daring repudiation of the intrusive otherand the
restoration of a perfumed past. Still, it was not as elemental
as Trumpistan; it enjoyed a certain amount of blue-blooded
conservative support. It was, in the end, more than a Farage or a
Johnson. Trump, the man who took the American Dream from
21 november 2016
2016
the gilded palace to the ghettoes, unlike any one of his usurper
colleagues elsewhere, is an amazing individual story that
has broken every moral tenet in the book. His vulgarism, his
soundbites of hate, his misogyny (read the papers and you will
get more), even as they added to his unpresidential qualities on
the stump, were the pardonable frailties of being human in the
eyes of his people. He built an alternative, no matter whether
it was simulated reality, while his opponent, with the weary
prosaicness of a policy wonk, could only offer the solace of the
status quo. In the age of pluralismpolitical, cultural, racial
he has brought individual exceptionalism centre stage, and
that is what nativists and rearmed nationalists do in a world
where blurred identities are seen as virtues of globalisation.
A Greater America, a fortified America, is also an exclusivist
America, a place somewhere in the dream of the abandoned.
Trump promises to empower them. He wants to return
America to the Americans who couldnt afford the dream. Its
the nationalist, not the socialist, who
leads the new class war.
And no war unites. Wars make
the division starker, the chasm deeper.
Eight years ago in another November,
it was revolution time in America
when change was pure poetry, and as a
journalist assigned to cover the event,
I remember listening to Barack
Obama, invoking Martin Luther King,
giving his victory speech. If there
is anyone out there who still doubts
America is a place where all things
are possible, who still wonders if the
dream of our founders are alive in
our time, who still questions the
power of our democracy, tonight is
our answer, said Americas first
African American elected to the
White House. Then he was the
change America sought, the dream
America dreamt, and he, ever the
prophet of reconciliation, promised
get ty images
there would be no red America or
blue America but only the United
States of America. Eight years on, after the poetry of Candidate
Obama turned into the tentative prose of President Obama,
reconciliation remains a distant piece of stump flourish. The
cruellest of ironies on Americas election night was that a
Trump was all that was left of Obamas legacy. The newest fairy
tale of democracy carries within it the ominous iconography of
change. So even Trump will pass. n
The AmericAn DreAm
2016
Ive spent my entire life in busi

potential in projects and in
That is now what I want
ness, looking at the untapped

people all over the world.
to do for our country
photos get ty images
The AmericAn DreAm
2016
By Tunku Varadarajan in new York
In
the weird and startling hours after it became clear that donald
trump had won the presidential election, a most lovely thing befell
the United States: an outbreak of courtesy. in addressing his supporters at a Manhattan hotel, a triumphant trump had a tone so courtly
and said such sweet things about hillary Clinton that one wondered
whether his hitherto acrid soul had been captured by a benevolent
force eager to spare the nation from any more political conflict.
at around noon on the day after the election, hillary herself
appeared in public before bedraggled and shell-shocked supporters
to concede defeat to trump, and to wish him every success as president. it was an elegant, even handsome, speech of concession, and
one marvelled at the poise of this relentlessly accomplished woman
whod had her ambitions dashed with such cosmic brutality.
theres more. a couple of hours before her speech, President
Obama had wished trump a happy presidency. he did so in that
eloquent way of his that has filled his supporters with admiration
and his detractors with rage during his eight years in office. (there is
no man more infuriating in politics than a silver-tongued adversary.)
But as Obama spoke, america took note of the absence of partisan
rancour, as it did when George hw Bushfather of Jebcalled the
president-elect, his beloved sons tormentor in the republican primaries, to offer his congratulations. the two men spoke for ten minutes,
it was reported; ten precious minutes of american political civility.
this was american politics at its finest. i say this without a
smudge of irony. the worlds oldest democracy has many flaws
including, youd think, a system by which the candidate who wins
a majority of votes cast doesnt necessarily win the presidency, as
is the case this year with hillary (and was the case with al Gore,
in 2000). But a peaceful transition from one president to the next,
comprising a concession by the loser and its gracious acceptance
22
Donald Trump is
followed by members
of his family as he
arrives to address
supporters in
Manhattan, New York,
on November 9th
21 november 2016
by the winner, is never in doubt. which is why trumps earlier

refusal to commit to accepting the results of the election if they
went against him had caused such torrid gasps of disbelief across
america. Of all the things trump had said in his campaign, that
was the most un-american.
Mercifully, we never got to test trumps willingness to concede.
O hOw did trump win? in the most basic terms of electoral

arithmetic,hewonbecausehillarygotmanyfewervotes6.6
million to be precisethan Obama did in his re-election in
november 2012. that isnt a mere fall, its a bungee jump (without reliable elastic). Yes, trump, too, got fewer votes this year
than the republican Mitt romney did in 2012, but only by 1.8
million. Crucially, for a candidate who was spoken of as a party
renegade and spoilerand to whom the republican establishment offered only lukewarm support, at besttrump polled
90 per cent of republican voters, almost as many as romney did
in 2012. there was no defection of republican voters to hillary.
By contrast, there was a relative failure of democrats to come out
to bat for hillary. She took 89 per cent of democrats to Obamas
93 per cent in 2012. that four-per-cent erosion may have cost her
the white house.
21 november 2016
as amy walter has pointed out in her blog for the Cook Political Report, the famed Obama Coalition let hillary down: young
people and minorities voted for her in notably smaller numbers
than they did for Obama in 2012. She got only 55 per cent of the
young vote to Obamas 60 per cent; 88 per cent of african americans to Obamas 93 per cent; 65 per cent of asian americans to
Obamas 73 per cent; and, most strikingly, only 65 per cent of Latinos to Obamas 71 per cent. this last statistic is one that will haunt
her. how could she not pick up more than 65 per cent of the vote
from a community that was the explicit target of trumps most
negative campaign rhetoric. So hostile was he to undocumented
aliens in the US (the majority of whom are Latino), so adamant
was he on the theme of curtailing immigration (a policy area dear
to Latino voters hearts), and so abusive was he of Mexicans, that
most analysts were speaking of a hispanic/Latino wave in her
favour that would match the african-american wave for Obama
in 2012. instead, she barely got a Latino ripple.
So there was nothing in hillarys armoury to counter the
energised white turnout for trump, particularly the 72 per cent
of non-college-educated, working-class whites who voted for
him. in 2008 and 2012, Obama got a 36 per cent and 40 per cent
share of this groups vote, respectively. hillary got a piddling 28
per cent. Particularly galling for the woman who would have
The AmericAn DreAm
2016
been americas first female president was trumps margin of victory over non-college-educated white womenthe waitress
moms in pollsters parlance. trump romped home among this
cohort by 62 per cent to hillarys 34 per cent. the visceral tug of
the blue collar was stronger than any notional aversion to a glass
ceiling. it didnt help hillary with these white women when she
referred to the class from which they come as deplorables, an
elitist put-down that inflamed thousands of proud working-class
families now fallen on straitened times.
it didnt help, also, that hillarys campaign headquarters were
in Brooklyn heights, one of the priciest zip codes in america. i
thought at the time at which she set up camp there that this was
a classic hillary miscalculation. why didnt she go to gritty Bushwick or Crown heights, if it had to be in Brooklyn? Or harlem or
the Bronx? Or Staten island? that last place was the only new
York borough where a majority voted for trump. had hillary
parked her entourage there, im sure the (blue-collar, white) natives would have been kinder to her at the polls (if only because
of the late-night pizza business from a bustling campaign office).
the bitter truth, for hillary, is that there was no real gender
to the white house. whereas there was passion for trumpall

of it raucous, so much of it distastefulthere was very, very little
of it for hillary. those enthused by her candidacy were egged on
by a noble ideato have a woman in the white houseand a
suffragette aspiration updated for the 21st century. But it was an
idea that failed spectacularly to ignite the imagination of women
who werent educated, liberal, and urban. as the pollster John
Zogby said the day after the election, hillary was the wrong
woman at the wrong time.
OGBY iS a maverick pollster, a man i know personally and

admire. the day before the election, when the Los Angeles
Times had published its jaw-droppingly blousy prediction that
hillary would win 372 electoral College votes (she got 228), Zogby
had warned that polls giving the election to hillary could all be
quite wrong. writing after her defeat, he described some of the
reasons why she lost. She was, he said, the perfect foil for someone
running an anti-establishment campaign. She embodies that
establishment, the permanent government, the elite. She also
a triumphant Trump had a tone so courtly that one wondered whether

his hitherto acrid soul had been captured by a benevolent force eager to
spare the nation from any more political conflict
dividend for her among women voters. all told, they voted for
her over trump by 54 per cent to 42 per cent, hardly a thumping
endorsement. John McCain and romney polled only slightly better among women than trump in their respective runs, in 2008
and 2012, both of which were elections in which Obama (at 55
per cent and 56 per cent, respectively) took a higher female voteshare than hillary in 2016. in other words, a candidate running
to be the first female president of america, and running against
a blowhard sexist whose misogyny has been on spectacular public display, could do no better among women than Obama did
against a crotchety old Senate warhorse and an uncharismatic,
plain-vanilla Mormon. Youd think hillary would wipe the floor
with trump on the womens vote; but nothing of the sort happened. in fact, if there was a gender dividend in this election, it
was of men for trump; or better put, of men against hillary.
this seeming vote misogyny was most sadly apparent in the
african american numbers. as CBS News has reported, her fall in
the share of the black vote compared with Obama in 2012 is due
entirely to her loss of the Black-male vote-share. She won Black
women by 93 per cent to 4 per cent; she won Black men by 80 per
cent to 13 per cent. Ouch.
Poor hillary. the truth is that no one likes her all that much.
not even Obama, whose popularity is at an impressive high for a
president who has made so many mistakes in office, could coax a
larger flocking to the polls out of the eager groups that sent him
24
embodies a singular lack of authenticity that votersespecially

younger onesjust could not handle.
the most acute political noses smelled a kill in the offing
when polls in the weeks before the election showed that more
than 50 per cent of americans thought hillary was corrupt. its
a perceived flaw that trump tapped into, like an expert fracker
in search of gas. its why i tweeted, on the morning after she lost,
that Biden must feel sick to his stomach right now. were going
to have to wait for his memoirs to know the deeper truth, but the
american vice-president barely got a chance to contemplate a run
for presidentlost as he was in the despondency that follows a
sons untimely death. By the reckoning of many, and with the
generous help of hindsight, hed have made a better presidential
opponent for trump than hillary. i say this without getting into
the question of whether Bernie Sanders, hillarys democratic primary opponent, could have beaten trump. we will never know,
but i suspect Bernie wouldnt have thrown his hat into the ring if
Biden had been the anointed democrat. there is something ineffably macho about old man Sanders. he couldnt abide hillary.
theres no doubt that hillary was flawed to the core. as
Zogby wrote, any other democrat would have won handily. Mrs.
Clinton was not done in by her emails, or by FBi director James
Comey. She made them all possible. there would have been no
Comey had there not been questions. and there would not have
been questions if she wasnt always trying to bend the rules in her
21 november 2016
Donald Trump greets

supporters in New York
own favour. they were the result of her own actions. even those
who voted for her acknowledge this. take ann Marlowe, a new
York-based journalist who has written extensively about postGaddafi Libya, where the killing of the american ambassador
when hillary was Secretary of State led to a long-festering crisis.
On her Facebook page, she posted: i did vote for hillary, but i have
no sympathy for her loss, and i refuse to accept her as the best of
american womanhood. She lost because she has a sketchy ethical record and bad judgment and stale policies. a better woman
candidate would have won.
rUMP waS nOt, of course, a more worthy candidate than

hillary. not by any stretch of rational imagination. Yet he
won, because hillary failed to pull off a win against the most politically incendiary, intellectually unprepared, socially offensive, offensively masculine candidate ever to run for presidential office.
But Candidate trump is now President-elect trump. in January, he will be president. the weeks between now and then are
weeks in which he will put together a team, consolidate his
policies, and seek to reassure a palpitating world that the United
States will not become a horror show. he is, in many respects,
a blank slate. we know that he wants to make america great
againand who doesnt want to do that, except Vladimir Putin
and Xi Jinping?but were not sure how he will pull that off. the
measures he promised while in his campaign do not fill us, even
remotely, with any confidence for a better tomorrow.
the republican Party, to which he belongsand whose establishment has rushed to embrace him after his electionis
showing a jaunty (and unseemly) enthusiasm for the immediate
future. they are like water-buffalos wallowing in an unexpected
gift of abundant and gorgeous mud. thanks to trump, and to the
anti-establishment rage that brought him to the white house,
26
the party has control of Congress. they can get a conservative

back on the Supreme Court to replace the late antonin Scalia.
and they can repeal the affordable Care actObamacare
which probably did as much, along with that unsavoury bluecollar white rage against a globally waning america under a
Black president, to make possible a trump presidency.
But there will be no irrefutable republican monolith in washington of the kind there would have been if Marco rubio had
won the presidency with a full congressional flush. the party
doesnt trust the president-elect. it doesnt want to cede power
to trump, to become the Party of trump. there is gratitude, for
sure, for securing political power, but also no desire to hand over a
storied party to a loose-cannon arriviste with no credible policies.
the party establishment will want to ensure that trump does
not wreck free trade or natO, or antagonise allies like Japan and
South Korea. the world does not know what to make of trump,
although hindu india seems to enjoy his favour. Prime Minister Modi could find himself playing host to the 45th american
president sometime in the early part of 2017.
a republican Party that was so disoriented that trump was able
to muscle to the front of 15 others in the primaries is now unexpectedly revived. the next step is to ensure that trump works for the
party,notviceversa.thatwillbethe americanbattle royalein 2017.
apart, that is, from the one that will be fought outside the frame of
conventional politicsby the many women and men who voted
againsttrump,whowillwanttomakesurethattheirvigilantopposition stops an uncouth president from buggering up what is still a great and classy country. n
Tunku Varadarajan is the Virginia Hobbs
Carpenter Fellow in Journalism at the Hoover
Institution at Stanford University. He is an
Open contributor
21 november 2016
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The AmericAn DreAm
2016
Why Do
They Hate
Her?
The failures and fall of Hillary Clinton
By James astill in Washington DC
ACK in June, shortly after she had

secured the Democratic presidential
nomination, Hillary Clinton recalled
her adored mother, Dorothy Rodham,
who had died in 2011. She taught
me so much in my life, including
how to stand up to bullies, which
apparently is going to be very much in demand in the
upcoming campaign.
not even Clinton, whose defeat by Donald Trump on
november 8th has, among much worse things, dashed
hopes for Americas first women president, could have
imagined how prescient that would prove. She had been
expected to beat Trump with ease. Opinion polls had put
her around four percentage points ahead; betting markets
gave her around an 80 per cent chance of victory. That she
failed is terrifying for America and the world.
Clintons failure has sent a know-nothing demagogue,
who argues that the secret to managing nuclear weapons
is unpredictability, to the White House. it has also been
calamitous for her party. under Obama, the Democrats
pieced together a coalition of non-Whites, younger and
well-educated voters whichbecause America is getting
28
more diverse and better-educatedlooked able to keep

them in power indefinitely. Yet they have now lost the
White House, failed to recapture the Senate and House
of Representatives, and face the prospect of Trump dismantling much of Barack Obamas legacy. That, if the reality television star is to be believed, will include Obamas
healthcare reform, which has provided health insurance
to 20 million previously uninsured people, his environmental protections, including Americas participation
in the international Paris Agreement to cut greenhousegas emissions, and an agreement to prevent iran getting
nuclear weapons: Trump has promised to scrap them all.
His triumph was founded on several things. After eight
years of Democratic government, coinciding with a tough
economy and gridlock imposed by a hostile Republicancontrolled Congress, voters wanted change. Only 30 per
cent say America is on the right track.To some degree,
Obamas enduring popularity has kept that dissatisfaction in check, but, despite campaigning hard for Clinton
in the campaigns closing stages, he could not infuse
her with it. Clinton underperformed Obama with every
part of the Democratic coalition, and by 7 million votes
overall. She won non-Whites and young votes by around
21 november 2016
21 november 2016
get ty images
The AmericAn DreAm
2016
50 percentage pointsbut that was around 10 points less than

he had, and, as it turned out, not enough. Cool doesnt transfer,
American campaign strategists like to say.
Trumps success at ginning up angry working-class White
voters, made anxious and resentful by economic duress and
the demographic change that Obama has come to symbolise,
was another big reason for his success. The racist dog-whistling,
xenophobia and excessive miserabilism that marked Trumps
campaign were all designed to this end. Depressingly, the plan
worked; White voters without a college degree backed Trump
over Clinton by 39 points. They were in fact the only group where
Trump performed well; the winner in 2016, he got 2 million votes
less than his defeated Republican predecessor, Mitt Romney, collected in 2012. He even trailed Clinton in the popular vote. Yet
because the reality television stars gains were efficiently concentrated in a trio of states, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,
which Clinton had been expected to win but which instead took
him to the 270 electoral college votes needed for victory, their
effect was devastating.
A third reason for Trumps success was the weakness of his
Democratic rival. And he can also take much credit for that.
During the past five months, the first woman nominee of either
major American party has been accused of a possible murder, of
facilitating sexual harassment by her husband and of being maybe
the most corrupt person ever to run for the presidencyand that
was just by Trump. He also predicted she would be imprisoned and
possibly assassinated. But his followers said much worse.
At Trumps rallies, which i attended over a dozen of, it was
commonplace to hear people say they would like to see Clinton
dead. early on in the campaign, they used to chant, Lock her
up! By the end, this was mingled with shouts of Kill her! and
Burn her at the stake! Trumps fans wore t-shirts reading Hillary
sucks but not like Monica, a reference to Clintons infidelity in the
White House, and i wish Hillary had married OJ, a reference to
the murderedwife of the disgraced former American football star,
OJ Simpson. i have reported on elections in scores of countries, in
europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle east, including many, such
as Afghanistan Congo, iraq and Pakistan, where violence is common. i never before heard such consistently murderous political
language as Trump and his supporters used in any of those places.
ATReD Of CLinTOn went way beyond the Trumpkins

too. Heading into the election, about half of Americans said
they disliked her and almost 70 per cent that they did not trust her.
Her hopes of victory rested principally on the fact that Trump was
hated even more. But, when it came to it, voters found Trumps odiousness easier to forgive than Clinton. it was depressing, given its
consequences, but also because it is by no means clear why Clinton
is so hated. After all, she has not actually done anything to deserve it.
Trump supporters, seething, point to Clintons embroilment in scandals. The most damaging to her candidacy was an
undying kerfuffle over her use of a private internet server for
her emails as secretary of state. Another, which exercises right30
Hillary delivers
her concession
speech in New
York flanked by
Bill Clinton and
Tim Kaine
wingers especially, is her alleged responsibility, again as secretary

of state, for the deaths of four Americans at the hands of islamist
fanatics in Benghazi in 2012. A third scandal concerns alleged
breaches of propriety at the Clinton foundation, a philanthropic
organisation run by both Clintons, which has raised a small portion of its $2 billion from foreign governments, including some,
such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with allegedly more interest in
currying favour with Americas premier power couple than funding anti-AiDS programmes in central Africa.
ThereareafewthingstocriticiseClintonhere.Shehasapredilection for secrecy and a history of pushing the rules to breaking-point,
and sometimes a little bit further. But at the heart of her scandals
are errors and evasions nothing like as serious as a casual observer
would suppose after a day spent flicking through American news
channelsmuch less after attending a Trump rally. Clinton ignored her departments rules by using a personal email for routine official business; she shouldnt have done that. But it was not
corrupt or criminal, as was shown when the fBi ended a year-long
probe of the affair in July, after concluding Clintons error was not
close to indictablea conclusion the fBis director, James Comey,
reaffirmed two days before the election. in the history of political
scandals, it is hard to think of half as much fuss being made over
something so piffling as Clintons historic emails arrangements.
Accepting money from foreign governments for her family
21 november 2016
ReuteRs
charitable foundation was similarly politically dunderheaded.

But if indeed some of the donors hoped to buy influence with
Clinton, there is no evidence they succeeded. As for her alleged
guilty role in the Benghazi killings, this is risible; it is a nonscandal that has been investigated by seven official enquiries, at
a cost of millions of dollars of public money, mostly by partisan
Republicans, who have succeeded in finding nothing to incriminate Clinton with. There is a livid Benghazi conspiracy theory
concerning Clinton; but, as it is nonsense, no actual Benghazi
scandal. So why the hatred?
Here are three reasons. first, it is because Clinton is a woman
and a lot of American men simply dont want to be governed by
one. Oh, yeah? Where is the evidence for that? Trump fans ask.
Well, in the sense of straightforward polling numbers, there isnt
any. The working-class White men who flocked to Trump dont
tell pollsters they hate Clinton because she is a woman any more
than they said they hated Obama because he was Black, though
many do. But, in both cases, their chauvinism leaves a trail.
Half of Republicans tell pollsters

they believe Obama is Musliman
accepted proxy for racist hostility to
Americas first non-White president.
Similarly, 42 per cent of Americans say
they believe America has become too
soft and feminine. Also, merely consider
the way Clintons enemies speak of her.
This goes beyond the misogynistic abuse
Trump and his followers hurl. ever since
Clinton emerged to public view, she has
been pilloried for being ambitious and
shrillcharges that most American
males would accept as a compliment,
but which, when directed at a woman,
many uS voters find reprehensible.
The historic cleaving of the electorate
along gender lines offers another indicator of the sexism that helped scupper
her. exit polls suggest Clinton won 54
per cent of women but only 41 per cent
of men. The 13 per cent gender gap that
implies would be the biggest since 1972,
indicating deep male resentment of
Clinton, the only woman politician to
have threatened the glass ceiling that
has shut American women out of power
far more effectively than it has in almost
any european or South Asian country.
Hillary Clinton is consistently treated
differently than just about any other candidate, said Obama, as
he threw himself into last-ditch campaigning for his former rival
after the polls tightened late in the campaign. Theres a reason
we havent had a woman president.
Clinton had experienced some of the same hostility during
her losing tussle with Obama for the Democratic presidential
nomination in 2008. A popular new York senator when she embarked on that campaignshe had won re-election the previous
year with 67 per cent of the voteshe ended it deeply unpopular.
Yet she then recovered her public standing, not least by knuckling down to support Obama as a competent secretary of state.
By the time she left the State Department in 2013, she was one of
Americas most admired public figures, with an approval rating
of around 65 per cent. That Clinton was hated even more fiercely
this time arounddespite that recent popularitywas most obviously because of the unprecedented anti-establishment feeling
in the electorate. This is the second reason for her unpopularity
and Trumpism is another symptom of it.
Clinton has been pilloried for being ambitious and shrill, charges that most
american males would accept as a compliment, but which, when directed at
a woman, many Us voters find reprehensible
The AmericAn DreAm
2016
ap
Trust in the federal government is at an historic

details and cliches, which makes them uninspiring
Hillary Clinton is
joined on stage by
low. Trust in almost every institutionCongress, the
to read, and worse to hear.
Michelle Obama,
media, the churchis similarly below water. And
By most accounts, she is a more appealing figure
Barack Obama,
the most mistrustful and pessimistic Americans are
in private. indeed, i can to some degree vouch for
Chelsea Clinton
the White working-class men who are Trumps bigthat. On the only occasion i have interviewed her,
and Bill Clinton in
gest supportersand who also tend to hate Clinton
after button-holing her at a conference in Munich
Philadelphia on
most. Why vote for Trump? i asked a carpenter in
a decade ago, she was pleasant and thoughtful. (My
election eve
Youngstown, Ohio, whose unionised status gave him
wife, i might add, has an even sunnier view of Clinevery incentive to vote Democratic. Because im not
tons character, having once, with a baby in her arms,
voting for the cunt, he said. nothing seemed to encapsulate the
bumped into her while shopping in a Delhi market; the then
sexism, foulness and self-righteous rage that Trumpism has enSecretary of State paused, in sight of no camera, to coo-coo with
gendered in American politics half so well.
my baby son.) even so, Clintons failings as a retail politician
Contrary to what many Americans believe, Clinton is not a
damaged her badly. The fact that the best her husband could
killer, not a criminal, not thoroughly corrupt. Yet she did not lose
come up with to elucidate the particular point of her candidacy
only because she was traduced.
was a belief that Clinton just makes things better was illustrait was remarkable, for such a front-rank politicianone who
tive of the problem. if that was all the Democrats explainer-inmade her first major speech as an 18-year-old student at Wellesley
Chief and Clintons partner of four decades could come up with,
College half a century agoto see how bad she is at campaigning.
it was no wonder not many Americans, including Democrats,
in fact, listen to that Wellesley speech, delivered at her commencewere enthusiastic about her.
ment ceremony in 1968 (and handily available on YouTube) to
it is tragic indeed. Clinton is a flawed politician, painfully illappreciate quite what a turn-off on the stump Clinton is. Her
suited to Americas public mood, but she is gifted, well-intentioned
student address was, to be sure, too clever-by-half, full of teenage
and would probably have made a fine president.
theorising, and rather irritating. But Clintons youthful voice is
She was slandered, and America and the world
strikingly, almost painfully, that of someone living urgently in the
must now pay the cost. Love trumps hate was
moment, who believes passionately in what she is saying. Only
her cheeky campaign slogan. it didnt. n
rarely these days, as when she spoke of her adored mother after
James Astill is the Washington correspondent of
she won the new York primary in April, does she sound half so huThe economist and a contributor to Open
man in public. More often her speeches are packed with wonkish
32
21 november 2016
Trust in Trump
A hard bargain, but good for India
By BHARAT KARNAD
order within the ruling BJp headed by lal krishna advani, who
wanted to contest the top job one last time, and then comprehensively beating the two-term manmohan Singh-led congress party
Government at the hustings.
modi will, however, find Trump in the White House less socially convivial than Barack obama but politically more simpatico,
especially if the former plays the muslim card and gets the uS to
dump on pakistan. Indeed, Hindus residing in the uS, who arranged for a Bollywood-style event in new Jersey a fortnight back
in support of Trump, claim to have contributed millions of dollars to the republicans election campaign, delivered the pIo vote
to Trump in this state as also in Florida, and now hope to cash in
by shaping the prospective Trump administrations approach to
South asia. a member of this group, dharam dass, originally from
Trinidad & Tobago, called me from new York to say this group
get ty images
onald J Trump cocked a snook

at the political system, smashed the competition within his own party, alienated
just about every constituency in america,
rhetorically trampled on old shibboleths,
openly courted president Vladimir putin
and the countrys old cold War nemesis,
russia, even asking the kremlin to cyber-dabble to derail Hillary
clinton and the democratic party in the general election, waved
off the a-listers of his own republican party panel of policy experts who had disavowed him, trashed the political play-book,
and for his excesses was rewarded by the american voter with
the presidency of the united States.
Trumps ascent must remind prime minister narendra modi
of his own rather dramatic rise as an insurgent upsetting the old
Indian-Americans organised
an event to support Trump
21 NOVEMBER
2016
in New
Jersey
ThE AMERicAN DREAM
2016
would enlist the Trump regime in doing bad things to pakistan, a

for the relationship they want to have with the united States,
possibility some in the rSS and BJp may happily clutch at. Such ento continue to provide some means of security and stability in
thusiasms may get a leg up with the 58-year-old former uS army
the region or, in lieu of financial compensation, Washington,
he stated can put a different set of demands on these guys. our
lieutenant General michael Flynn advising Trump.
a paratrooper, Flynn served with the 82nd airborne division
conversations have been too polite. our conversations have been
and was the theatre intelligence chief during operation enduring
political conversations with political people who try to be politiFreedom in afghanistan, 2004-2007, and later partook of operacally correct and not with people who can say, okay, what is it
we want to have going forward? Such a demand could involve,
tion Iraqi Freedom. retired in 2014 after two years as pentagons
head spookdirector, uS defense Intelligence agency, he was
according to Flynn, the countries having to take verifiable steps
tapped for advice by a number of republican presidential hopeto cleanse their societies of the extremist virus.
fuls, among them carly Fiorina, Ted cruz and Trump, because
In this context, the problem for the modi Government may be
of his reputation as a hard-charging, no-nonsense, call-a -spade-athis: The pakistan army and political circles are past masters at
shovel kind of soldier who had run afoul of the obama adminisemptying american wallets while ostensibly fighting terrorists.
tration. They liked his pungent criticism of failed obama policies
Islamabad has benefitted from similar uS programmes of quid pro
in West asia and the maghreb, his attributing the intervention
quo in the ongoing uS war against the Taliban in afghanistan, for
in libya following the previous bad experience in Iraq and the
instance, that have generally ended up enriching and strengthennuclear deal with Iran to zero strategic
ing the traditional elites in that country.
thinking out of [the obama] White House
and messrs Trump and Flynn, consistent
and to a national security structure that
with their policy vis-a-vis naTo and West
Obviously, the
has lost its way when it comes to strategic
asia, may demand either that India pay
containment of
thinking and strategic decision-making.
in cash for the uS blunting the terrorist
In the event, Flynn ended up jointhreat emanating from pakistan, or pay
extremist Islamist
ing Trumps team at a time when better
in kind by fielding Indian army units
ideology in the Muslim
alongside uS Special Forces deployed in
known, more highly regarded defence
world, including
afghanistannot the sort of bargain new
intellectuals and military professionals
delhi may be looking for.
shied away from associating with the
Pakistan, could be
republican nominee. Trumps gratitude
russia, far from being a bugaboo for
a baseline for the
may translate into Flynns appointment
Trump, is a country the uS presidentas the next uS Secretary of defense, or naelect thinks he can do business with as
Modi Government
tional Security advisor.
long as the kremlin shows the uS, in
to egg on the Trump
So, what are Flynns beliefs that may
Flynns words, proper respect. china is
administration
resonate with the Hindu fringe? In an inanother matter. Sino-uS relations may be
terview published in the Washington Post
in for a bumpy ride because Trump will
on august 15th, 2016, he said that Islam
feel hard-pressed to deliver on his promis an ideology and theres a religious comise to correct the trade imbalance with
ponent to it thats radicalised and in some cases it masks itself
china, renegotiate new terms, or shut off chinese access to the
behind that religion, especially in our country, because of freedom
uS market, and thereby start a trade war. In either case, India is
of religion. He went on to say that extremism is in the nature of
in a position to exploit the uS fears of china, on the one hand,
Islam, asserting that theres a diseased component inside the
and to force Beijing to deliver on its infrastructure investment
Islamic world, the muslim world Its like a cancer and it has
promises and actually open up the chinese market to Indian
metastasized and grabbed hold in a much bigger way. There
goods, on the other hand.
is, he added, a problem in the Islamic ideology but that this
The core benefit to India (as argued in my Why Trump is
significant expansion of radical Islamism was not called out
Good for India, Open, July 29th, 2016) could be that it will cure
by a politically correct obama.
the Indian Government of perceiving the uS as the foreign policy
obviously, the containment of extremist Islamist ideology in
crutch of choice in the new millennium. For too long, new delhi
the muslim world, including pakistan, could be a baseline for the
has banked on outside powers to protect and advance its interests.
modi Government to egg on the Trump administration. Flynn
India will have to learn to rely on itself and its own resources as
also echoes Trumps sentiments about restricting the flow of
Trump presides over an america that cannot
muslim immigrants into the uS from, among other countries,
any more afford its own primacy. n
pakistan. In any case, Flynns clincher is in his extending Trumps
line on naTo states having to pay for the uS military presence
Bharat Karnad is professor in National Security
in europe to american client states in West asia and in the uS
Studies at the Centre for Policy Research, New
central command area (encompassing pakistan and afghaniDelhi. He is the author most recently of Why
stan). Wealthy countries in this region, he said, would have to pay
India is not a Great power (Yet).
34
21 NOVEMBER 2016
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The AmericAn DreAm
photo imaging by Saurabh Singh
2016
Modis Friend?
Wait.
Trump will be fully capable of managing
the India-US relationship during its good times.
A natural ally will have to do more
By Michael KugelMan
n OctOber 15th, Donald trump

spoke at a campaign event organised by
a group called the republican hindu coalition. It was held in new Jersey, a state
with one of the highest Indian-American
populations in the United States.
I am a big fan of India, trump declared.
he promised that if he became president, the United States
and India would be best friends and that there wont be any
relationship more important to us. he referred to India as a
natural ally of the United States, and described Prime Minister
narendra Modi as a great man.
And now, as America and the world struggle to make sense of
trumps stunning election triumph, he will have the opportunity
to demonstrate that hes willing and able to back up such rhetoric
with action and policy.
In the coming weeks, hundreds of questions will be posed
breathlessly about President elect trumpsome pertaining to
his character and capacity to lead, others pertaining to his possible
policies, and still others pertaining to the impact his presidency
will have on the world. Yet, once the dust settles, there will be
time to pose some deeper questions about foreign policy.
chief among them is this: can trump maintain the strong
momentum, set in motion most recently by barack Obama yet
21 nOVemBer 2016
also catalysed by the bill clinton and George W bush administrations, of a deepening US-India relationship? In effect, can trump
build on what US senior diplomat nicholas burns has described
as arguably one of the most important US foreign policy advances
in decades?
In a sense, this question is immaterial. the US-India relationship is in a good place these days, and it was bound to remain stable
regardless of the election outcome. this can be attributed not just
to deep repositories of goodwill and convergent interests, but also
to shared values and cultural affinitiesfundamental bonds that
top leaders in both countries have frequently showcased in recent
months. Witness Modis references to baseball, Star Wars, and Lincoln, and barack Obamas mentions of Gandhi, bhangra and yoga.
Additionally, as many members of the Washington foreign
policy elite have asserted in recent months, the US-India relationship is one of the few bilateral relationships to enjoy bipartisan
support in Washington. this is no small matter in a nation likely
to be poisoned by unprecedented levels of partisanship after a
particularly polarising presidential campaign.
And yet, trump may face an uphill battle convincing India that
hes a safe bet for US-India relations. In fact, hillary clinton, with
her proven track record of pro-India policies, would have been a
safer bet than trump, a wild card with a wholly unproven track
record. the Indian-American community, which numbers more
The AmericAn DreAm
2016
lamabad in 2011.
than 3 million and is Americas second-largest immigrant group,
may have reached a similar conclusion. According to a survey
encouraging Indias rise. Urging it to lead. Supporting a deeper
conducted in August and September, only 7 per cent of IndianUS-India partnership. criticising Pakistan, and harshly so. All of
Americans said they were likely to vote for trump.
this highlights how clinton is a proven friend, not a hardened
consider clintons record on India. She has travelled to the
foe, of India. US-India relations would have been in safe and supcountry for more than two decades. On her first trip, as First
portive hands under a clinton presidency.
Lady in 1995, she made a memorable impression when, during
And yet, instead we have President elect trump.
a speech in new Delhi, she read a moving poem penned by a stuOn some levels, trump will be just fine for US-India relations.
dent at Lady Shri ram college. Later, while serving in the US Sentrump, tellingly, rarely spoke ill of India on the campaign trail,
ate, she co-chaired the India caucus and supported the US-India
and he often praised its economic successes. his tough-on-terror
stance will go down well in India. It could bring the two countries
civil nuclear deal.
In 2007, when clinton was running for president the first time,
even closer together. trump is unlikely to discourage Indian coa certain opponent brought attention to her close connections
vert efforts to target anti-India terrorists on Pakistani soil. In due
to India. her financial ties to India and Indian-Americans (from
course, he may well even sign off on deals to provide US drones
investments in India to fundraising among Indian-Americans)
to Indiaan acquisition that would enhance Indias capacity to
prompted the presidential campaign of barack Obama to circucarry out limited cross-border strikes on militants.
late a memo (for which Obama later apologised) that described
that said, some of his campaign pledges, if translated into
her as a Democrat from Punjab.
actual policy, would be received much less positively in India and
During her visits to India as Secretary of State, clinton excould bode ill for bilateral ties.
pressed not only support for US-India relations, but also effusive
First, recall his offer to mediate India-Pakistan disputes. the
praise for the Indian people. In 2009, she eslast thing new Delhi wants is an outsider
tablished, with Indian counterpart SM Krishany outsider, and particularly one with zero
na, a new US-India Strategic Dialogue series.
diplomatic experience like trumpto
Trump may have
swoop in and seek to work out bilateral disnot surprisingly, the clinton campaigns
foreign policy advisers featured many strong
agreements, particularly because such a probeen kind to india
supporters of India and US-India relations.
cess would invariably invoke Kashmir, the
on the campaign
they included nicholas burns, who helped
intractable dispute that India has concluded
trail, but he wasnt
negotiate the US-India civil nuclear deal. In
is not up for negotiation.
June, he published an op-ed for the WashingSecond, trump has threatened to revisit
as kind to indians.
ton Post that called on Americas next presiWashingtons defence alliances in Asia. Any
Recall, for example,
dent to prioritise the US-India relationship.
American withdrawal from, or even a lighter
clintons statements about India throughfootprint in, the Indo-Pacific region would be
how he derided
out her years in public service have often exa bad thing for India, given its desire to coopindian call
pressed strong support for its rise. As Secreerate with the US in Asia to push back against
centre employees
tary of State, she consistently urged India to
the rising influence of china. On a related
become a regional leader. In fact, it was clinnote, trump has suggestedthough not
tonnot Modiwho first proposed an Act
clearly statedthat he would seek a reduced
east policy for India. three years before the
US military footprint overseas. this could,
Indian Prime Minister announced his Governments new Indoperhaps, entail accelerating the troop drawdown in Afghanistan.
If she were president, the more hawkish clinton, by contrast, may
Pacific strategy, clinton called on India not just to look east, but
to engage east and act east as well. consider as well clintons
have slowed if not halted the drawdown altogether. If trump indiviews on Pakistan. Within some Indian circles, she is regarded
cates a desire to expedite the withdrawal of US troops, this would
as hopelessly sympathetic to that country, and by implication,
send an alarming message not only to Afghanistan, but also to
not a true friend of India.
India, which in recent monthsconsider its decision to transfer
thats an inaccurate view. She is closely associated with the
several fighter helicopters to Afghanistanhas telegraphed a
unpopular drone war in Pakistan, which intensified when she
desire to deepen its footprint in that country.
took office. She also was Washingtons top diplomat when USthird, trumps vows to crack down on immigration cannot
Pakistan relations were in deep crisis in 2011 and 2012, making
possibly be seen as a good thing in new Delhigiven the impact
her a prime target of Pakistani ire.
this could have on the Indian-American community and on US
Its also worth recalling that it was clinton who coined the
visa policies that are already perceived as being discriminatory
now-famous metaphor that so vividly illustrates the dangers of
toward Indians. his specific views about Muslim immigration
Pakistans refusal to crack down on anti-India terrorists on its soil.
into the United States, while welcome perhaps to some hindu
You cant keep snakes in your backyard and only expect them
nationalists in India, would be both unsettling and worrisome
to bite your neighbours, she warned at a press conference in Isfor a nation with one of the worlds largest Muslim populations.
38
21 nOVemBer 2016
Ultimately, its impossible to predict what lies ahead for USlow on Washingtons overall hierarchy of foreign policy conIndia relations under an imminent trump administration.
cernsbelow crises in the Middle east, russia and europe. based
When it comes to foreign policy, trump is an utter wild card. he
on trumps fixation on these regions while on the campaign trail,
theres reason to believe that India will continue to be less than a
said relatively little about international affairs on the campaign
front-burner foreign policy issue in trumps Washington.
trailwith the exception of frequent comments about ISIS and
the third challenge confronting trump on US-India ties is
Syria. And though he generally didnt say negative things about
India, he also didnt say much about it on the whole. his speech to
how to address a major definitional disagreementand that is
the republican hindu coalition back in October provides the best
what exactly constitutes the US-India strategic partnership. both
window into his thinking and his possible policies toward India.
countries claim to want one, but without defining what it really
In that address, he spoke of pursuing strong commercial relations
means. this is a dilemma, given that each country has different
with India, and he highlighted the need for defence cooperation
expectations of what a strategic partnership generally entails.
For Washington, it means operational security cooperation. For
and intelligence sharing.
India, this type of cooperation is off the table, at least for now;
this suggests that trump may be prepared to push for closer
recall the negative reaction from officials in new Delhi when,
bilateral cooperation on counter-terrorism, an area where progress is already being made, and in bilateral trade, an area where
earlier this year, PAcOM commander harry harris proposed joint
cooperation has lagged. however, other areas of growing cooppatrols between the US and Indian navies in Asian waters. Indias
eration during the Obama administration may sufferand parnotion of a strategic partnership emphasises high levels of techticularly clean energy, an issue that appears to be of little interest
nology transfers and arms deals. For Washington, such transactions are essential, yet only part of a broader package. Failing to
to trump.
reconcile these differing conceptions of the partnership could
Another unknown about US-India relations under trump is
how new Delhi will approach Americas
well prevent bilateral security cooperation
new president. One can expect that Modi
from achieving its maximum potential.
will be more than willing to work with
Working through definitional disconTrumps vows to crack
trump, warts and all. Modi, after all, was
nects and policy disagreements will redetermined to make things work with
quire a delicate dance. So will managing
down on immigration
Obama despite the visa ban Washington
the US-India relationship on the whole.
cannot be seen as a
had imposed on him. new Delhis interIndeed, despite many recent injections of
good thing in new
ests are just as well-served as Washingtons
goodwill and trust, it retains some vestiges
by having a strong US-India rapport, and
Delhi, given the impact of the baggage and mistrust from the cold
Modi is likely to allow such strategic conWar era, when bilateral relations were
this could have on the
siderations, more so than concerns about
deeply dysfunctional.
personalities, to guide his thinking about
Is trump up for the task of navigating
uS visa policies that
this deepening yet complex partnership?
trump.
are already perceived as Only time will tell. What we do know is
And yet, at the same time, Modi, like
being discriminatory
that trump, unlike clinton, is not a seaall responsible world leaders, will need
soned diplomat or statesperson. he is a
to confront an uncomfortable question:
businessman, and arguably a very successhow much do you engage a figure who
has consistently made sexist, bigoted, and
ful one, but he is also a crude and controxenophobic remarks, even if he happens to be arguably the most
versial spotlight-seeking celebrity who becomes easily aggrieved
powerful person on the planet? trump may have been kind to
by the smallest of slights.
India on the campaign trail, but he wasnt as kind to Indians. reWhat this may mean is that trump would be fully capable of
managing a US-India relationship during its good timesand
call, for example, how he derided Indian call centre employees.
regardless of how all this plays out, trump will have his work
there will likely be many of them. And yet if the relationship needs
cut out for him with US-India relations. hell face major challenga jolt of momentum, or if it happens to plunge into crisis, trump
es, and three in particularall of which any new US president,
may struggle to steady the ship. thats an unsettling thought for
and not just trump, would have to confront.
a relationship that many top figuresincluding trumphave
First, he will inherit a laundry list of long-standing policy
described as natural.
disagreements that Obama and Modi, for all their camaraderie
Ultimately, the US-India relationship may
and great personal chemistry, proved unable to resolve. these
be destined to deepen, but with trump at the
range from US h1b visa policies and Indias position in global
helm, smooth sailing is far from inevitable. n
trade negotiations to Washingtons friendly relations with the
Pakistani military.
Michael Kugelman is senior associate for South
Second, hell have to find a way to better prioritise a relationAsia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center
ship that, despite its importance, continues to register relatively
for Scholars in Washington, DC
21 nOVemBer 2016
ecONOMY
The MONeY TRAP
Narendra Modi has declared war on black money. And how

By SiddhArth SiNgh
esperate times call for desperate measures,

if not tough ones. the current Government deserves
praise for doing more than mere lip service to fight
black moneywhich fuels, among other dangers,
terrorism. it was a move as bold as it was therapeutic to the countrys economy. With the neutralisation of existing rs 500 and
rs 1,000 currency notes, the modi Government has imposed
a huge wealth tax on the black economy. it will be some time,
perhaps some months, before a reliable estimate will be available of how many of these large value notes were blackunaccounted for. Not all persons and entities who have these notes
will exchange them for new ones; only those who have lawful
sources are likely to do so. Which explains why, in one fell swoop,
the existing stock of black money has been purged.
lets put the text in context. in theory, the demand for cash rises
in tandem with economic growth. that the need for holding cash
balances goes up as economic activity increases has been known
at least since the time of John maynard Keynes, if not earlier. the
indian economy is a good example of this process of change. One
decadeaftertheeconomicliberalisationthat
began in 1991, the circulation of high denomination notes took off. Data released by the reserve Bank of india
(rBi) shows this very clearly. For
example, in 2001, the share of
rs500notesasatotalofthe
currency in circulation
was 25 per cent; that
of rs 1,000 notes was
barely 1 per cent. in
contrast, the share
of rs 100 notes was close to
50 per cent. By 2015, the share of
rs 500 and rs 1,000 notes had risen
dramatically to 83 per cent, with that of
rs 100 notes falling to around 12 per cent.
among other factors, this had to do with
two important facts about the indian economy.
One, the growth in rural wages after 2006 steadily
raised the demand for cash as rural consumers began
chasing goods and services that had either been out of
their reach. two, over this period inflation also reduced the
40
21 november 2016
value of money, leading to greater demand for high-denomination

notes. these processes are natural in any developing country undergoing an economic transition.
But along with economic growth and rise in incomes came
another development: the spread of the underground (or black)
economy operating illegally. the spread of large-denomination
notes helped in its spread. a 2010 World Bank study of 151 countries found the size of this underground economy to be around
10 per cent of indias Gross Domestic product (GDp). a rough
estimate in 2014 pegged this number much higher. centred on
speculative investments in the real estate sector, this phenomenon corroded indian politics as well.
the use of huge sums of money to contest elections, in contrast with an earlier
era of indian politics (from 1970 to 1990)
has had a significant impact. in those decades, electoral violence and booth capturing were not only widespread but also
a regular feature. in states such as Bihar
and Uttar pradesh, violence was the currency that lubricated elections; in the next
25 years, it was actual paper currency that
moved electoral politics. One could say
the money substituted violence, but the
effect remained the same: the devaluation
of positive politics based on governance
achievements. in spite of vigorous efforts by the election commission to check the flow of large sums during elections, the process
has continued unabated. the ec can only check money at polling
sites; it cannot do anything if transactions take place elsewhere.
With the Governments dramatic announcement on November 8th, this is set to change. the criticism against the stepunfounded for the most parthas two parts. One, put forth rather
frivolously, is that it will mean hardship for people with a genuine need for holding large volumes of cashfor marriages, hospital expenses and other such uses. the Government has already
announced the steps it plans to take to prevent any such inconvenience. Barring panic reactions and related misgivings, the effect
on such spending is unlikely to be a serious matter of concern.
the second criticism, that the scheme will prove futile, is worth
considering, even if it too is unfounded. this claim rests on the
experience of the last demonetisation move made in india on January 16-17th, 1978. it has been argued that things soon returned to
business as usual with corruption fuelled by black money coming back with a bang in the years that followed. critics at that time
said that illegally-held money could over time be converted by
paid agents who would go and exchange the money tucked under pillowcases with legal tender. it was
also argued that people seldom keep illgotten money in the form of cash.
None of these criticisms hold water
in the india of 2016. For one, the Governments ability to track cash flows
through payment systems and channels
is far better than it was in the 1970s. the
combination of the paN, Know Your client (KYc) and aadhaar systems is like
a grid that fortifies the banking system
now. For another, several changes have
been made over time to create an ecosystem that makes it costly to keep black
money, thus steadily squeezing it.
consider the sequence of events over the past two years. First,
under the Jan Dhan scheme, a huge number of bank accounts
were opened for the poor, vastly expanding the network of banking. Unlike the 1970s, this is not pen and notebook banking: all
these accounts, down to the last account at the remotest bank
branch, are integrated via computer networks within the banking
system, and data can now be monitored as never before. second,
from June 1st to October 30th, the Government had announced
an amnesty scheme for tax evaders, the first since 1997. in repeated
messages put out by the Government and the prime minister himself, holders of black money were urged to pay up their share of
taxes. modis warning of no-amnesty after October 30th was apparently not enough for many shadow operators, inured as they
were to such threats (many made in the past had little credibility).
Finally, the demonetisation step of November 10thwhich
had been in the works for a long timewas implemented with
secrecy and ruthlessness unprecedented in modern indian history. Viewed in isolation, these three steps in themselves would
have been ineffective; in combination, they promise to be lethal.
the criticism that black money is being tackled but not the
process that creates it, too, loses some of its bite in this context.
Once the financial monitoring grid is fully in place and an
increasing number of indians are brought into it, killing the
existing stock of black money will definitely slow the process of
its generation. it takes a political leader with an unusual degree
of assurance and lan to take such a step. One does not recall the
last time when even a half-hearted attempt was made in india to
check black money and corruption. n
the government
deserves praise for doing
more than lip service to
fight black money. It
was a move as bold as it
was therapeutic to the
countrys economy
illustration by
saurabh singh
21 november 2016
dispatch
The hills
are dying
Why nobody cares for
Wayanad, Keralas enduring
environmental tragedy
By Shahina KK
ince 2005, RatnakaRan, a coffee grower in

Wayanad, has been using his own rain gauge to religiously record the rainfall. the data he has collected
shows a steady decline and unpredictable variation
across seasons. He has also been recording the atmospheric temperature daily using a thermometer, and that shows a consistent
increase. Wayanad is dying, he says, more a forecast than a farmers lament. today is the tenth of thulam (the Malayalam calendars third month), when there should be steady rain coupled
with mist and a shivering cold. But it is hot. So far we have not
had even a single day of rain.
Wayanad, a highland region on the north-east border of
kerala, is a biodiversity hotspot. touching tamil nadu as well as
karnataka, it sits where the western and eastern ghats converge,
bringing together elements of both systems to give it its unique
climate. its lofty undulating hills, one of the highest points facing
the southern end of the Deccan plateau, make Wayanad a tourist
favourite too. it is also home to keralas largest tribal settlement,
constituting 17.1 per cent of the districts population. Surrounded
by mountains, it is touted as a green paradise, the most salubrious
of keralas districts, but now replete with stories of man-animal
conflict, untimely rain, rising heat, vanishing mist, disappearing
birds, animals and dying rivers.
the reasons for this environmental crisis include the natural
forest being replaced with teak plantations, the introduction of
42
An unauthorised artificial
lake in Wayanad that has led
to water scarcity in the area
monoculture, unauthorised construction fuelled by a tourism

boom and the overuse of pesticides, apart from sand quarrying on
a massive scale. Ratnakarans father was also a farmer and he used
to cultivate paddy, a crop not grown anymore. it was a gradual decline. With rainfall declining and turning unseasonal, paddy became a gamble, he says, How can we insist that farmers continue
with an occupation that finally makes them commit suicide?
this is the time of the north-east Monsoons arrival, the
October-november rainfall that would give paddy crops the
water needed at this stage. it would also provide coffee plantations
favourable conditions for a good yield, come blossom time in
February. Ratnakaran, however, says this will be the most dreadful of all seasons in his memory. We are 70 per cent behind the
expected rain this year, he says.
Wayanad is classified as one of the four climate change hotspots
21 november 2016
of kerala (Palakkad,alappuzha and idukki are the other three). the

crisis here can be traced to the colonial period. the history of deforestation begins in 19th century. the British cleared off the forest in
some parts of the plateau and began the cultivation of tea and other
cash crops. the process of transforming the natural forest into teak
plantations also began simultaneously, says n Badusha, president
and founder of Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi (WPSS),
perhaps the oldest environmental movement in kerala.
the British needed lot of teakwood during World War ii to
build war ships. More than 100,000 acres of land in Wayanad was
under the occupation of an establishment called British Royal
Fund. the British Raj had distributed around 80,000 acres of it
to soldiers who participated in the war. On the rest, they began
the cultivation of coffee and tea. even so, Badusha holds the view
that they were not indiscriminate in clearing forests. in the main,
21 november 2016
they went after degenerated forest and non-forest land. the indiscriminate felling was started by our own governments, he
says. Replacing the natural forest with teak plantations started
on a massive scale under the first elected government in kerala
in 1957 for commercial operations.
the practice of monoculture had a huge impact on the biodiversity of the Western Ghats in Wayanad. Of the 110,000 hectares
of total forest area, teak plantations occupy 35,000 hectares. these
have no undergrowth and this eventually destroys the quality of
the soil and threatens the survival of wild animals. Microbial diversity and soil fertility is also seriously compromised by pesticides
and chemical fodders used in agriculture. We have not seen foxes
in Wayanad forests for 20 years, says Ratnakaran. We have been
witnessing not only the vanishing of certain species, but the entry
of new varieties of birds and animals seen only in warm weather.
dispatch
teak is not all that has taken over. Hundreds of acres have been
planted with mahogany, acacia and eucalyptus. We had bamboo
in abundance in our forests. it was rich in fibre and that was sufficient for elephants. as a result of monoculture plantations, natural bamboo growth was finished off, a major reason for elephants
to come out of the forest in search of food,says Ratnakaran.
the commercial supply of bamboo to a factory of Gwalior
Rayon in Mavoor on the banks of chaliyar River led to its growth
vanishing from Wayanad. Gwalior Rayon, established in 1963
for the production of pulp and fibre, was supplied bamboo at a
special price of Rs 1 per tonne by the kerala government for three
decades. this wiped out the bamboo forests.
Resistance against monoculture plantations has been gaining
ground in the district, thanks to the WPSS. in July this year, the
forest department tried to clear the natural forest on 200 acres in
the Perilya range to plant teak and mahagony, but locals rose in
protest against it. they are demanding a relook at the forest policy
and a phase-by-phase felling of teak and
other plantation trees so that they can
be replaced with a far wider variety. We
have to keep our eyes open 365 days, or
they will go ahead with clearing off naturally grown trees, says aji colonia, a photographer and WPSS activist.
environmental activists in Wayanad
warn that ecological degradation here is
likely to spill over to other regions. the
river kabani provides 100 tMc of water
to the cauvery every year. Farmers on the
karnataka border are also dependent on
the kabani.
With Wayanad becoming a weekend
destination for tourists from Bangalore
and other closeby cities, a new set of problems has cropped up.
concrete structures are being built on the top of Brahmagiri hills
(the origin of the kabani) that are falsely claimed to be temporary.
Private players in the tourism industry are adding to the ongoing
ecological crisis, says Badusha.
thirunelli. Many come here just to collect nests and sell them,
which environmentalists are afraid will lead to the elimination
of these birds from the region.
according to a kerala Forest Research institute study, the deterioration of the once contiguous and diverse forest ecosystem
of the Western Ghats was the result of deforestation that led to
habitat fragmentation into islands. this, in turn, affected the regions wildlife, especially its larger mammals. these islands have
suffered further degradation on account of encroachments, developmental programmes and unscientific land-use patterns. Many
plant species that used to be food for mammals disappeared from
the Ghats, resulting in increased man-animal conflict. crop raids
by elephants, for example, have become common in these parts.
Pepper, for which Wayanad was once known, is fast becoming
history. the pepper plant requires a long normal rainy season
and fairly high temperatures with partial shade for its best yield.
Low and erratic showers have had a devastating impact on pepper cultivation. in addition, there is quick
wilt disease brought on by a fungal attack
on the fibrous roots of the pepper vine.
Pepper is a past glory, says thomas Varghese, a farmer at Pulppalli who used to
cultivate the spice on four acres till 2012.
i had huge losses for three consecutive
years due to quick wilt. Why should i try
my luck again?
Farmers committing suicide is not
even news here anymore. it happens every year. Only large-scale coffee growers
are assured of a safe crop. a ride through
village roads reveals artificial showers
over banana plantations. Small-scale
farmers, however, cant afford such irrigation and simply wait for their plantations to die.
any solution for the crisis needs to start with a change in
attitude, according to Harish Vasudevan, an environmentalist
and lawyer. Forests and mountains are not moneymaking machines, he says, there is something called wildlife and we have
a responsibility towards it. Sadly, trustworthy information is
scarce. in 2014, Wayanad and idukki saw resistance to recommendations of the Madhav Gadgil committee, a panel of experts
on the Western Ghats ecology. Local farmers and villagers were
misinformed about their livelihood being affected by moves
which sought to protect the regions environment. according
to observers, outfits like the indian Farmers Movement played
a lead role in disseminating false information.
no lessons have been learnt from the alarming signs of climate
change all around, it seems. consider the proposal to build a forest tunnel connecting kozhikode and Wayanadu that will run
parallel to the thamarassery Ghats. in his answer to a question in
the state assembly on October 6th, 2016, G Sudhakaran, keralas
minister for public works, said that Rs 20 crore has been allocated
for preliminary work. there was no mention on whether the
government has sought an environmental clearance for it. n
The British needed

teakwood during
World War ii to build
war ships. More
than 100,000 acres
of land in Wayanad
was placed under the
British Royal Fund
RaHMaGiRi iS tHe highest Western Ghat hill in

Wayanad. a journey to its top reveals the extent of the
damage. You can see shaven slopes and vast tracts taken apart by
rock miners. it has even claimed the popular tourist attraction
Phantom Rock, a formation in the shape of a man. the rock mining around Phantom Rock has become a huge threat to this area,
says thomas ambalawayal.
the WPSS is also fighting against illegal construction in
Muneeswaram kunnu, a part of the Brahamgiri hills that is home
to rare species of wild birds and animals. edible-nest Swiftlet, a
small bird of the Swift family, is seen in plenty in Muneeswaram
kunnu. it uses it saliva to make nests, which have huge market
demand. it is used to make soup that is said to have medicinal
qualities, says Wilson kuriakose, a bird watcher and a native of
44
21 november 2016
Lhendup g Bhutia
travel
get ty images
Hyeopjae Beach,
on the western edges of
the island; (below)
Loveland, an outdoor
sex park featuring 140
sculptures of humans in
different sexual positions
46
21 november 2016
the Jeju Jig
the possibilities of this South Korean island

range from dormant volcanoes to hologram
concerts to the kinkiest of adult parks
By Lhendup G Bhutia
ointed out by monstrous penis structures,

some that seem to have erupted out of the ground
like huge mushrooms, and some, dressed in a bow
tie, hanging from a chain like a signpost in a medieval village, i move past shapes of stone men and
womenand occasionally animalsin various postures of
copulation, beyond a masturbation-cycle two women are daring each other to mount, to reach a shop at the edge of the park.
there is a gaggle of giggling girls and excitable men here. it
is night. outside, the dim lights seem more inclined to reveal
sexual devices and structures than the park itself. inside in the
shop, amidst bright lights, is a museum of sex toys and figurines.
there are ashtrays with men getting it on with women, blow up
crotch dolls, key chains, fridge magnets, beer openers and pen
stands of male and female private parts and suddenly, i feel
something large and tubular thrust into my hands. A middleaged bespectacled woman, the shopkeeper, has pushed it. And
she is switching something on. understanding, understanding,
she is saying. And even before i can resist, the thing comes alive.
it glows a phosphorescent orange and shakes wildly, as if it has
ingested a snake. the shopkeepers face is contorting into an expression, the most emotive i have so far encountered on a South
Korean face not being framed for a cellphone photograph. She is
smiling, i realise. understanding, understanding, she continues
to say. And then she pushes some hidden button. And the tubular
thing shakes more wildly. it is a dildo, i realise. you take, the
shopkeeper is saying in broken english, and you put it, okay,
you put it And i nod in embarrassment as she takes the next
several minutes to animatedly explain to me the use of a dildo.
i am at a sex park in the South Korean island of Jeju. this one,
called Lovelandthere are two more on this islandspread out
across an area that could easily fit two football stadiums, was once
dubbed by Huffington Post as the kinkiest theme park in the world.
And its evident why.
At the park entrance is a playpen where parents can drop their
children so they can experience the park unencumbered. but
tonight, at least one family has managed to smuggle their little
21 november 2016
ones in. they are climbing enormous sculptures of nude men

and women as their goading parents ask them to hold this piece
or that and pose for photographs.
Jeju is a beautiful semi-tropical island, some 714 sq m in all.
Located at the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula, it is about
three times the size of Seoul, yet has an estimated population of
only about 600,000 residents. i am here at the invitation of the
Korea tourism organization. Some 480 km west is the Chinese
coastline. Japan is even closer, just 177 km to the east.
often called the Hawaii of Korea, much of the island is made
of volcanic rock. unlike Seoul, which is said to be like any other
modern city, Jeju is full of natural attractions, from splendid hiking trails on coastal mountains to magnificent beaches. the island was recently crowned one of the new seven wonders of the
natural world. there are several dormant volcanoes here with
tourists milling around the crater rim to view, almost as though
it were a modern circular stadium, a variety of flowers and trees.
there are peaks that you climb endlessly only to discover at a sudden cliff that you have reached the eastern tip of South Korea.
And throughout the island you will see small mountains, many
of which have risen out of the sea because of underwater volcanic
eruptions thousands of years ago, rising above the most verdant
forests and pretty citrus orchards. the island has an immense
extinct volcano, Mount Halla, at its centre, and the worlds longest lava tunnel, a unesco World Heritage spot, that goes on for
several kilometres. you know only bats live here, but it is so dark,
cold and wet that when you walk alone, the myths of these being
the homes of fire-breathing dragons appear distinctly possible.
upon these natural beauties, men have built their own contributions. everywhere, there appears to be a museum. there
are museums dedicated to the weirdest fascinationsfrom sex,
chocolates, Hello Kitty merchandise, seashells, Greek mythology,
to even three museums dedicated to teddy bears. one popular
venue is a K-Pop arena, where an entire building is dedicated to
Korean pop culture. Here, inside a closed room with other visitors,
a very real life-like concert with holograms of pop stars like Psy is
recreated. Sometimes they will call you out on to the stage, select
get ty images
travel
accidents, leaving only women to fend for

themselves and their families. others say,
sometime in the 18th century, many men
began to quit fishing after the monarchy
in Korea began to impose high taxes on
abalone fishing, leaving only the women
to dive into the waters. the guide we are
travelling with, whose mother herself was
a haenyeo, has an easier explanation. He
gestures with his hands and says, Men
Haenyeo or female divers who can dive upto 30 metres without any breathing apparatus
only liked to sleep or drink.
these sea women dive as much as 30
an image of your face and cast it on another dancing hologram.
metres deep, and are said to be able to hold their breaths for as
long as three minutes. they do this, it is said, till the last day of
the island has unsurprisingly been the most popular domestic holiday destination for mainland Koreans, especially those
their pregnancy, and are back to work in less than three days after
on a honeymoon. in all, it is about three times the size of Phuket,
childbirth, earning them, in the Korean mainland, the reputation
of being very tough women.
and rivals or perhaps even beats it in sheer beauty, but it is said to
trekking up the Seonsang ilchulbong Peak at the eastern edge
attract just one-sixth its number of international tourists. in the
last few years, the government has tried to rectify that and begun
of the island, i notice along the waters below a group of five sea
to promote it as a holiday destination to the Chinese by allowing
women preparing for work. dressed in black rubber suits and
goggles, and carrying with them fish-nets tied to a bright orange
them to enter without a visa. With that push has come an influx
of Chinese, and the growing fear of being overrun by them. there
taewak or buoys, they walk over slippery rocks with a sure footedare now signs and posters in Mandarin asking people to follow
ness missing in others, until they eventually disappear into the
traffic rules and not litter or piss in public.
sea. it is a cold depressing day. Morning showers have cast the
the Koreans, at least the ones you come across in Jeju, are excepentire peak and the beautiful sea below into a sombre mood. At
tionally polite. bank tellers will rise from their seats to welcome
a distance, all you can see of the haenyeo are their bright orange
visitors. Many will speak often with their hands folded behind
taewaks, afloat on the surface like large Halloween pumpkins.
their backs. A driver will choose to wait for the driver in front to lift
About an hour later, they return. Stout and short, some of them
his eyes from his cellphone to see that the traffic signal has turned
whistling, the five haenyeo emerge from the water, carrying in
green instead of alerting him by a honk. i heard a driver honk only
their nets what little they have been able to catch today. it is only
once. And it had startled everyone, from fellow drivers at the traffic
when they remove their goggles that you realise that all of them
signal to pedestrians, all of whom turned to find behind the windare at well over 50 years old. one looks at least in her late sixties.
shield of the offending car two hands raised in apology. the fellows
turns out, this is a dying profession. With the tourism boom,
hands had slipped on the car-honk by mistake, it appeared.
younger women understandably prefer to work in hotels or tourCouples often match their clothes here. At restaurants, everyism offices instead of plunging into icy cold waters. on tourist
one from the waiters to servers have bluetooth earpieces plugged
requests, some of the haenyeo break into an old ballad that one
into their ears, looking quite like unsmiling characters out of a
local translates as, i dive with a coffin on the head.
Matrixfilm,sotheycanrelayorderswithoutjottinganythingdown.
one of the haenyeo, the oldest among them, is now resting at
Faces are rarely expressive, unless they are smiling for a cellphone
the shack. there all sorts of fishes, octopuses and crabs now held
photograph. Many of them carry toothbrushes with them as they
captive in a small tank of water. every few minutes, an order arrives
go about their day so they can brush after every meal. Cosmetic
from the cafe nearby, and the raw version of a requested delicacy is
surgery is supposedly big here, like the rest of South Korea. one
scooped out from the tank.
tour guide, examining a small scar in a travellers nose with
An order arrives, this one for a large octopus. When the two
practiced eyes, tells her, i know a good doctor. next visit, you call,
women try but fail to move it out, the old haenyeo rises, mutterhe will wipe it out.
ing something that sounds like a cuss word. She plunges her old
wrinkled hand into the tank, and in less than a minute, brings
out a large octopus, its eight tentacles tightly wrapped around her
eJu iS MoSt famous for its sea-women or haenyeo. For
hand. the two women bring out tongs and other similar looking
ages, women from the island have dived deep into the waimplements to wean the octopus off her hand.
ters of the Korea Strait, wearing only flippers and goggles and
but the ageing haenyeo is in no mood for indulgences today.
Signalling for them to back away, she gives her hand a hard shake
without any breathing apparatus, to scour the sea bottom for
abalone, conch and octopus. there are several stories about the
and a jerk, and the cephalopod is now magically transferred onto
origin of this tradition. Some say a significant number of men
a steel plate. Scooping out octopuses is tricky. Plating, it appears,
perished at sea centuries ago, either at wars or deep-sea fishing
is a cakewalk. n
48
21 november 2016
salon
art
the Underrated
Modernist
Always loyal to the
figurative, Krishen
Khanna still
retains the lyrical
possibilities of his
lines 62
rohit chawl a
50 | BOOKS 53 | HEALTH 59 | ART 62 | NOT PEOPLE LIKE US 66
Photograph by
THEATRE
THEATRE
audacious
acts
This years Prithvi festival saw both masters and

amateurs at their experimental best
By Divya Unny
a shish sharma
ts a cold morning in Haryanas Indri village. on a patch of dry

land next to the local school building, we see a small group of young
theatre practitioners trying to devise a
scene. Four of them are exploring their
bodies to communicate mans hunger
for intimacy. a few local inhabitants halt
their daily chores to watch them work.
In a dusty studio in suburban
Mumbai, 1,500 km away, another set of
performers share a joke over chai. the
studio walls are covered with a long
black cloth, which lets little light enter.
Before they start their rehearsal, their
director subtly drops a tip. Poetry is
never serious or heavy. We dont need
to play it like that, he says. after a split
second of silence, the female actors form
a diagonal line, stare into space pretending to be puppets around the men.
a lone journalist and boys who help
backstage watch silently.
a little further away, two performers
argue over the depiction of humour on
stage; one a veteran, the other a novice;
one a director and the other an actor; one a
father and the other his son. Very soon the
senior one gives up. Experience paves the
way for experimentation. the wife and
mother, also an actor, nods in amusement.
Jyoti Dogras Toye was

put together in a Haryana
village by a group of
Chandigarh theatre students
these are all vignettes from plays

performed at Mumbais theatre haven.
around this time every year, amidst all
the festivities, one corner of the citys
suburb of Juhu pulses with new energy
and newer stories. Performing artists
from across the country congregate to
create a hub of live art on Mumbais oldest stage, Prithvi theatre. From actors to
musicians, dancers to storytellers, they
gather under a roof of gleaming bulbs to
experience and critique a set of new plays
put together by old and young theatre
practitioners. despite the steep ticket
prices, it can safely be said that this is
probably the only time in the entire year
when movie-goers actually pay to watch
plays in the city. a legacy lasts a while,
but what keeps the Prithvi festival going
is the people who make the festival. Every
year, theres a new wave of ideas that are
presented in the form of plays, poetry
readings, concerts, etcetera, and thats
a culture that needs to keep growing,
says Kunal Kapoor, the man who helms
Prithvi currently.
this time though, amidst the smell of
Irish coffee and whiffs of maska on buns,
a group of stage artists broke boundaries.
like Jyoti dogra, who after nine years
of working in isolation came up with
Toye (sanskrit for water), a play devised
entirely in a Haryana village by a group
of chandigarh students doing Mas in
theatre. Before they got to Mumbai, the
sets of this play were transported on local buses from venue to venue, and their
lunch-breaks would typically include a
round of bhakri roti and sabzi.

I met them last year when I visited
their college as faculty and I asked them
to reach out to me if they had a piece
they wanted to work on. to my surprise,
in a year, they had something they
wanted me to direct, and due to a lack of
resources we worked out of Indri, which
was home to one of the actors and eventually became our home as well. We
practically had very little money. I was
living in the headmans house and it was
like 15 of us were adopted by the village
for two months. our food, costumes, our
set, everything [came from] the village
and its people who became part of our
process, she says.
dogra, last known for her spectacular
solo-piece, Notes on Chai, had little idea
what to expect when she decided to use
Girish Karnads mythological text Agni
aur Barkha as a starting point for their
exploration. the text is set in the time
of the Mahabharata and has very strong
Vedic elements to it. It is driven by a human beings insatiable hunger for power,
money, sex, knowledge and love against
a backdrop of famine. I wanted to depict
it through natural physical impulses and
by movements which are present in the
body, says dogra, whose play is a hardhitting wake-up call to humanity with its
performers using voice and movement
to drive home their point. the play had
a life of its own even before it came to
the festival, and that shows. Just a day
before, we performed it at the village for
the first time. some Rss activists came
I have never gone In

search of a scrIpt, I
belIeve that the scrIpts
have always found me.
leacocks works are a
comment on socIetys
ways and they hold
true even today
naseeruddIn shah
21 november 2016
THEATRE
and started questioning the theme of the

play, threatening to shut it down. What
was beautiful was that we went ahead
and premiered it in the village nevertheless, and with an audience that really
seemed to understand the root of the
play, she adds.
almost in stark contrast is Manav
Kauls Chuhal, a love-story of sorts, a jugalbandi between a free-thinking woman
and an ordinary man bound by shackles
of his own conditioning. this is Kauls
return to theatre after a decade. He had
almost renounced the medium with
which he started his career in the city. less
than a year ago, Kaul said he may never
return to theatre, but Chuhal changed his
mind. You always go back to where you
belong. My stories come alive nowhere
better than on the stage, though after this
play I may again vow to never return to
theatre. Its like a bad habit which I cannot
quit, says Kaul sipping black coffee outside his studio. For anyone who is familiar
with Kauls writings, its impossible to
escape a philosophical quality inherent in
his work that pushes one to question the
purpose of life.
Woh ek hoga jiske saath mein apna
poora jeevan bitaa doonga, pyaar hai nahin
kabhi bhi, woh hamesha hoga (there will
always be the one I will spend my life
with. love is never just present, it will
always happen) , his protagonist says in
Chuhal. I have always been fascinated by
a human beings need to be with someone. We are not conditioned to be single,
and it is now in todays urban and some
rural spaces that I see people making a
choice to be with themselves only. Men
have that luxury, but Chuhal is about a
woman who by choice wants to spend
her life with no one but herself, he says.
Women have been at the centre of his
stories in the past too, but here it is she
who drives the story. set in a contemporary context, Chuhal is purely the point
of view of an independent single woman
who is seeking love just to seek it, and not
to feel complete. I see married people
lonely as hell, and vice versa. But aarti in
my play is ready to take that chance. she
doesnt want to reach anywhere. shes
happy in her journey, he adds. Watching
52
ritesh ut tamchandani
Manav Kauls Chuhal is a conversation

between a free-thinking woman and
an ordinary man
the play, one sees poetry in its silences

and honesty in its impudence, and it
makes one want to take a chance with
life and love.
However, if one looks beyond experimentation in theatre and poetry in
motion, one sees a legacy that plays out
on stage, as if it always belonged there. It
was what made Naseeruddin shahs latest play, Riding Madly Off In All Directions,
a stand out. For the first time, we see the
entire shah family together on stage.
Naseeruddin shah, Ratna Pathak, Heeba,
Vivaan and Imaad sashayed to the prose
of popular humourist and canadian
writer stephen leacocksometimes
together, and sometimes alone.
Jokes about the futility of Xs and Ys in
math problems, or the drudgery of yet
another card trick or even mans incessant need to complain were depicted
with fine sarcasm, as the shahs played
off each other on stage. I have worked
with my family ever since I started doing
theatre, but to be on that stage with all
of them together was the best moment
of my life, says Vivaan shah who was
impressive in his comic timing and
candour. of course, with his father at
the helm, there was little he says that
couldve gone wrong. dad allows us to
experiment, but as long as it works within the periphery of the play. I never really
regretted not going to acting school,
because with mum and dad I really have
an entire school of experience to learn
from, he adds. this play diverges from
Motleys previous work, as it is less a play

and more sketches performed on stage.
However, apart from the thrill of two
generations coming together, it was the
experience of watching Naseeruddin
shah perform live that was special. the
play concludes with a piece where he is
transported into a world where death
has been defeated by humans, and men
become replicas of walking-talking
machines. I have never gone in search
of a script, I believe that the scripts have
always found me. leacocks works are
a comment on societys ways and they
hold true even today, he says.
For those who could not make it to
the many houseful shows at the festival,
the plays were brought live onto phone
screens through a virtual reality (VR) experience. It was brilliant to see how an
international production looks, that too
in 360 degrees. We have a very different
style of performance here in India, and
I think its imperative for artists toexpose themselves to such art for their personal growth, says ananya dasgupta, a
student of arts at st Xaviers college and
a Prithvi regular.
apart from the long queues, the overcrowded caf and the regular suspects
who never fail to participate, this years
was a festival of firsts. Be it dogras initiative in grooming amateurs and making
them create a bold piece, or Kauls poetic
genius brought alive by a group of fine
actors, or just the shahs doing what they
do best, it was a triumph of the arts. I
dont know what theatre is to me till
today because its a mystery to me even
now. after 20 years of doing this, it plays
me like Im a little child, and thats the
beauty of theatre, Kaul says. n
21 november 2016
books
Alone and Away
Taslima Nasrins unending search for home

By Urvashi Butalia
f youve followed Taslima

Nasrins life in recent years, Exile
will hold few surprises for you.
Somewhat reflective, but mostly simple
and direct in its narration, it tells you the
story of her backing and forthing in different countries of the world in search
of a home.
India looms large, Bangladesh, her
beloved native land, is mentioned but
almost cursorily, for the writer knows
that that is a lost battle, that ownership
and belonging of that particular land
are a thing of the past. India, however,
does not go awaywhether she is in
Harvard, or in Sweden or in Paris, or
anywhere else, it is in India, and more
specifically Kolkata, that she feels the
pull of a realisable home, a home that
still remains within a sort of almostgrasp, a home that still remains an
achievable horizon.
And yet the horizon, though close,
is almost always elusive. In Kolkata,
Nasrin if confronted with rumours and
advised to leave because people fear her
presence will cause a riot; in Hyderabad

it does and she has to escape through
the back door of the auditorium where
she is slated to speak; from Kolkata to
Jaipur and from Jaipur in the middle of
the night to an undisclosed location
she goes from pillar to post, bewildered,
hurt, uncomprehending. In a cruel
mirroring of what happened with the
Jagdalpur legal Aid group women in
Chhattisgarh, the final straw is when
her landlady asks her to leave, ostensibly
because shes getting a higher-paying
tenant, but the truth is evident to all.
Much of the time Nasrins prose has a
curious flatness in english. I dont think
this is a product of the translation, which
reads very fluently. Instead, I think this
is the way she describes things, without
hyperbole, and in somewhat deadpan
tones, perhaps to give herself some distance from what she is talking about.
Not surprisingly, the home, and
more specifically lived space, figures
prominently. In every country of which
she speaks, Nasrin lovingly describes the
Taslima Nasrin
get ty images
21 november 2016
ExilE: A MEMoir
Taslima Nasrin
Translated by
Maharghya Chakraborty
Hamish Hamilton
336 Pages | Rs 599
spaces within which she works, spaces

that for her will always remain temporary abodes, no matter how much she
tries to make them into homes.
In many ways this is a strange kind
of book to read: there is a sense of the familiar, if youve kept up with newspaper
reports on Nasrin, all the stories in here
will give the reader a sense of dj vu. The
difference is in the detail: media accounts
of her rejection by people she considered
her friendssuch as many writers in
Kolkataabout whom she wrote publicly, do not do justice to the anger and the
vitriol of those she targeted.
Here, Nasrin provides chapter and
verse, and while it should not be, and
yet it is, shocking to see how much of
the abuse is sexualprostitute, slut,
a woman of loose morals and more is
what she gets calledthe betrayal is
greater because such abuse comes to
her in a land she loves, and from people
she considers her own, and somewhere
perhaps from the realisation that if you
target people, they will target you back.
Exile is important to read not for
the incidents that Nasrin describes. Its
important for the deep sense of loneliness and alienation that underlies
Nasrins narrative. A woman of privilege
and some fame, she is still on the run,
without a place to call her own, and
facing rejection from all the places
and communities who could give her
sustenance. what are the rights of an
outsider in another land? who will be
held responsible for killing a writers
creativity? How must a constant refugee
feel? what does it mean to be in a
permanent state of exile, with no home
to call your own? These are some of the
questions that inform this narrative. n
books
A War in Memory
A debut novelist from Sri Lanka returns to war-torn Jaffna in

search of questions history has not resolved
By Nandini Nair
nuk ArudprAgAsAm
has a photo tacked on the
wall in front of him. It is of a
teenage boy bathing at a camp
(where people were interred for a year
or two after the war). The water cascades
down on him. It is a picture that travels
with him from his parental home in
Colombo to his university in new York,
and one that he pins from wall to wall.
For him, moving between Colombo and
new York is not shuttling between continents and countries. rather, it is like
moving between two rooms, he says.
Just as the photo finds a nook on different walls, so do his books, pots, pans, and
his curry leaves. Always the curry leaves.
But this one image of a boy bathing at
a camp is of particular importance to
the young author as it gave rise to his
debut novel The Story of a Brief Marriage
(Fourth Estate; rs 499; pages 193).
This pithy work is a political novel
set in Jaffna just before the end of the war
in 2009. While the setting is the conflict
that lasted 25 years and tore apart the
north and east of the country, it never
uses the word sri Lanka or LTTE or
Tigers. Jaffna is used only once. The
author chooses more context specific
words such as movement and cadres
and brings out the horrors of the war by
spooling a tale around its two principal
characters, dinesh and ganga.
speaking on the phone from Columbia university, where he is completing his
doctoral dissertation in philosophy, Arudpragasam explains this nameless quality
of the work: In India, or sri Lanka, when
readers read about such a conflict or
violence, the immediate response is to
understand it politically. How did this
happen? How did the government do
54
this? Who was responsible? How do we

punish them? By asking these questions,
you are not engaging with the human
situation. It is a way of avoiding the human situation. By not giving names or
specific details and a specific history, I was
trying to force myself and the reader to
really dwell on the immediate situation.
In the 12 hours that the novel spans,
dinesh, an evacuee, is approached by
a doctor to marry his daughter ganga
in a makeshift camp. Together dinesh
and ganga try to carve out a semblance
of normalcy even as shells fall around
them. Arudpragasam foregrounds the
human story in a war by doing away with
history and background and concentrating simply on the moment itself. Even
I Am not here to teAch

people A hIstory
lesson. I Am wrItIng
for people who Are
fAmIlIAr wIth the
context. It Is borIng
for me As A wrIter to
explAIn thIngs
Anuk ArudprAgAsAm
though he has been in the us for many

years, having completed his BA from
stanford university in 2010, he has no
wish to write for a Western audience.
He says, I am not here to teach people a
history lesson. If they want, they can go
read a Wikipage about it. I am writing for
people who are familiar with the context.
It also bores me. It is boring for me as a
writer to explain things.
This lack of explanation heightens
the human tragedy as it shows how
trauma alters the duration of time. suffering occurs in slow motion. mundane
moments become exalted into theatre.
The book opens with a blow-by-blow
account of the amputation of the right
arm of a young boy. In graphic detail, the
image of a doctor sawing through flesh
with a jagged motion comes vividly to
life. soon after, Arudpragasam describes
an attack with startling clarity: There
was, always, before the shelling, for the
slenderest moment before the earth began shaking, a faraway whispering, as of
air hurtling at high speed through a thin
tube, a whooshing, which turned, indiscernibly, into a whistling. This whistling
lasted for a while, and then, no matter
where you stood, there was a tremulous
vibration, the trembling of earth underfoot, followed by a blast of hot air against
the skin, and then finally the deafening
explosion. It was a loud, unbearably loud
explosion, followed immediately by others, so loud that as soon as the first one
came the rest could no longer be heard.
Thick descriptions such as this, where a
single moment is drawn into numerous
lines, allows the author to expand and
constrict time as he deems fit.
How does trauma alter time? Arudpragasam replies, Trauma forces one to
21 november 2016
be in the present, it forces an immediacy.

You are cut off from the past because of
what has happened. You are cut off from
memory, and the environments you associate with the past. On the other hand,
because there is so much violence and the
future is uncertain, you cannot think far
into the future. You cannot think of who
you used to be, or who you will become.
This submersion in the present, where

the fabric of ordinary life is rendered useless, is brought out expertly in The Story
of a Brief Marriage. Those in the camp do
not talk to each other simply because
there was no longer anything to say. The
trauma of the war effects them so deeply
that they are altogether unable to connect, at the most basic human level.
Anuk Arudpragasam
21 november 2016
For Arudpragasam, language itself is a

vehicle fraught with complexities. growing up in sri Lanka, his family and he
would travel to Tamil nadu every december. There he would revel in the sounds
of Tamil, a language which people back
home were afraid to speak. For him, the
cacophony of madras after the quiet of
Colombo was a symbol of freedom.
Today, he finds that he is reading and
writing more and more in Tamil. He has
not yet published in his mother tongue,
but he hopes to in the future. Educated
in English, he would talk in Tamil at
home. But the conversations around
serious topics such as the economy or
politics would happen in English even
at home. He says, At the end of the war,
I was quite politicised. When you see
so much killing and violence, you want
to understand it in a historic way And
you cant help but trace this violence to
colonialism and colonial institutions. It
really made me think why am I writing
in English I recognise the privileges the
English language gives me. But it is also a
mark of shame.
Arudpragasam realises he is writing
in English about people in his community who cannot read and write the language. He draws parallels between the
history that causes violence on the Tamil
people in sri Lanka and the violence that
urged him toward the study of English.
Arudpragasam wrote much of this
book in Colombo. But he is clear that
once he completes his doctorate, he
wishes to move to India and not sri
Lanka. India is a country close to his
heart; he lived in Chennai for a year after
completing university. And has spent
months in delhi as well.
For him, distance from the subject
matter is of little relevance. I am as
far from Vanni (the site of the war) in
Colombo as I am in new York. Anyone
writing on the war in Vanni is writing
from a position of distance. This novel
is not written as a representation of a
particular persons situation. It is written
as an interpretation of such a persons
situation from a distance.
It is this distance that allows for the
interpretation to be authentic. n
Books
The Forgotten Battle
Restoring the battle of Imphal to its rightful

place in the history of World War II
By Mark Tully
The BaTTlefields of imphal:

The second World War
and norTh easT india
hemant singh Katoch

Routledge India
202 Pages | Rs 650
he joint battles of imphal

and Kohima fought on the burma
border have been named by the
british national army Museum as
britains greatest battle and are seen as
one of the four turning point battles in
World War ii. Kohima is well remembered, in part because of the epic stage
in the siege when japanese and british
soldiers hurled hand-grenades at each
other across the lawn in the Deputy
Commissioners bungalow. but imphal
is not remembered much although it
was the japanese prime target because it
was the gateway to burma, and General
William slim commanding the 14th
army had chosen the imphal plain to
prepare his troops for the attempt to
recapture that country. indians should
particularly remember imphal because
it was primarily fought by indian and
Gurkha troops. hemant singh Katochs
book is a long overdue reminder of the
historic battle of imphal.
the imphal battle could well have
gone against the allied forces. Katoch
describes the japanese army as truly
formidable with the individual soldiers
unfailing determination and dedication
to the cause. at the same time he says
they had a disdain for the allied forces
they had defeated in burma which led
them to be over confident. their commander, General Mutaguchi, thought the

allied forces might well be defeated within three weeks and so he adopted risky
plans and failed to establish an adequate
supply line. General slim on the other
hand commanded an army in which
some of the units had taken part in the
humiliating retreat through burma. he
concentrated hard on raising the morale
of his troops and making them undergo
rigorous training producing, in Katochs
words, an army shades different from
the allied forces defeated in burma.
the third force at imphal was the
indian national army or ina. this was
the moment they had been waiting for,
the moment when if all went well they
would cross into indian territory and
start their march to Delhi. but the ina
contingent was just one tenth of the japanese army, badly trained and ill equipped.
as the battle wore on, the ina was not
always adequately supplied either, and
this, Katoch says, cost its men dearly.
eventually the allies won a resounding victory and the japanese were forced
to make what Katoch calls a disastrous
retreat. he also raises a fascinating
questionwas the japanese intention
to march into india or did they just plan
to secure burmas border and prevent the
Hemant SingH KatocH
The Japanese war memorial

at the foot of Red Hill
allies re-entering that country? according

to Katoch, the japanese imperial General headquarters merely gave orders to
occupy areas in the vicinity of imphal.
but General Mutaguchi had other ideas.
he saw the aim of the battle as going far
further than the capture of imphal.
Katoch revisits the battlefields of
imphal and describes how they look
today. he undertakes the difficult task
of describing the different battles fought
on them and relating them to each other.
so he gives a composite picture of the
complicated battle of imphal fought
between March and july 1944 over what
he describes as a wide range of locations
spread across the state, many clusters of
battlefields seemingly disconnected and
isolated from each other.
some of the most bitter battles he
describes were fought along the tiddim
Road which leads to the Chin hills of
burma. the nearest the japanese got
to imphal on that road was when they
established themselves on Red hill near
an allied divisional headquarters. it took
four attempts to dislodge them. Katoch
quotes slims tribute to the japanese soldiers determination to break through
the main defensive position further
down the road. he said he knew of no
army that could have equalled them.
Katochs thoroughly researched and
highly readable book restores the battle
of imphal to its rightful place in World
War ii history alongside the much better
known battle of Kohima. it is to be hoped
that the interest it arouses will put imphal
more firmly on the map of india by
attracting tourists to visit the battle fields
where soldiers of both sides fought with
what slim saw as unique gallantry, and
many of those soldiers were indians. n
21 november 2016
Darkness at Noon
When the state and individuals failed freedom

By Kekhrie Yhome
The emergency:
an unpopular hisTory
Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr
Har Anand Publications
178 Pages | Rs 495
he 19-Month emergency
imposed by indira Gandhi
remains highly controversial. no
commentator has risked asking whether indira Gandhi can be forgiven for it, or
seen it as an event that was inevitable for
a young democracys trial-and-error process, or suggested that it strengthened
the Government. the lessons learnt
have resulted in perpetual and adjectival
vilification of both indira Gandhi and
the event, giving the impression that the
bedrock of the worlds largest democracy had been shaken. Considering these
formidable positions, it is plausible that
any new or significant interpretation of
the emergency has to adjudge not only
the established trappings of politically
correct and righteous readings, but also
cautiously take an approach beyond
the argumentative.
Moving away from the usual rhetoric
of labelling, Parsa Venkateshwar Rao
jrs The Emergency: An Unpopular History
makes no claim to reinterpret history.
this sets it apart from other books on
the emergency. by allowing how the
actors of the emergency drama have
themselves spoken, the book appropriately offers both an archival perspective
on this phase of modern indian history
and a scathing affirmation of how
popular practices in indian politics
are complicit in statecraft and the
individual exercise of authority.
allahabad high Court justice sinhas
june 12th, 1975 quashing of indira Gandhis 1971 election, based on the election
petition of defeated socialist leader Raj
narain, is often seen as the main vector
for the declaration of emergency on
june 26th, 1975. the finer details of the
emergency are however not restricted
to this legal haggling alone, but also
include questions of constitutionality
and legislative propriety. by referring
21 november 2016
to emergency period narratives, Raos

Emergency brings to life the parliamentary debates on some of the most contentious issues that Gandhis Government
attempted to whitewash. similarly,
the selection of comments by many
parliamentarians representing different
parties ably encapsulates a huge corpus
of archival material, the authors main
reference source.
of interest here are some of the
debates around the amendments to the
Constitution or statutory acts or new
bills that were hastily initiated and hurriedly implemented during the emergency, particularly the 39th Constitution
amendment act and amendment to the
Representation of the People act, 1951.
the two amendments were aimed at
thwarting the nemesis of an electionpetition case and shielding Gandhi from
judicial preview. Rao cites various expert
opinions on the judiciary, putting the
legislative amendments in the context
of the election case. the problem of retrospective legislation prompts two observations. First, the emergency periods
get ty imageS
Indira Gandhi
motivated law-making initiated a litmus

test to evenly contest judicial intervention and constitutional validity. second,
the documented chagrin undeniably
highlights how robustly indian
democracy is rooted in parliamentary
civilities and rule of law.
Rao comfortingly passes no meditated judgement, nor lays claims to a
theoretical approach to history. but as it
is, this short comment on the emergency
and Gandhi is interesting. Reviewing her
as a pragmatist and realist, Rao comments that she carried the infuriating
tone of self-righteousness, where everyone else who differed with her and the
party could be painted as anti-national,
though she vehemently disavows the
intolerance which she and the [Congress]
party practise. her use of nationalism is
the usual ploy of a politician wanting to
outwit rivals and opponents. it does not
however mean that her nationalism was
not sincere or authentic. it was but it was
much too blinkered and narrow-minded
and it was simply irritating. nonetheless, it brings forth the twin questions of
how political leaders manipulate powers
to either stay in power or be re-elected,
and what leaders think of themselves. it
shouldnt surprise us. Rao notes that the
socialist rhetoric of Gandhi in the 1971
election was completely different from
the reflective tone of 1975.
Rao has masterfully resurrected the
ghost of an unpopular history, whose
political narrative still demands our
close attention to understand and
situate the perils and future of
democracy and also the abuse of the
system. as Rao concludes, individuals
err in their use of freedom, and states err
in trying to contain it. n
books
Free Spirit
A memoir that straddles the personal and the

political, the intimate and the public
I want to
Destroy Myself:
a MeMoIr
Malika Amar Shaikh
Translated from the Marathi version
by Jerry Pinto
By Chatura Rao
Want to Destroy Myself,

translated from the Marathi Mala
Udhhvasta Vhaychay, is an unusual
name for a memoir. It is also unusual
for its writer, Malika amar Shaikh, was
a young woman at the time she wrote
it. When asked why she was writing
her autobiography so early in life, Does
experience ask for your age before it
happens to you? she asked back.
Mala Udhhvasta Vhaychay caused
a sensation in Marathi literary circles
when it first released, but disappeared
after the first print run. acclaimed poet
and author Jerry Pinto, who has translated the book, in his foreword describes
his search for a copy of the original as
well as access to its reclusive writer. once
he did begin reading the book, he could
not put it down.
Malika amar Shaikhs tone is
conversational but what she is telling
you about straddles the personal and
the political, the intimate and the public,
the bedroom and the venereal disease
clinic, he writes.
Malika amar Shaikh is the daughter
of communist folk poet Shahir amar
Shaikh, and was the wife of the Marathi
revolutionary poet namdeo Dhasal
who died in 2014.
In the initial chapters, she recounts
her childhood and adolescent life in the
hallowed circles of art and activism of
the 1960s Mumbai. the warm, exciting
glow of her fathers social circle included
luminaries like actress Bhakti Barve and
social reformer-poet anna Bhau Sathe.
Barely out of school, Malika was
courted by namdeo Dhasal, a rising star
on the political horizon. He co-founded
the Dalit Panthers in 1972 and published
his first volume of poetry, Golpitha, the
same year. against her familys counsel,
Malika married the maverick namdeo.
58
the rest of the book recounts her

tumultuous years with him. the telling
is agonised, and searing in its honesty.
as its translator Jerry Pinto says, it is
a book hard to put down once youve
begun reading.
this is the portrait of a free soul
witnessing the crumbling of her own
psyche. She talks about not being able to
complete the courses shed start, the solo
late-night walks by the sea, and leaving
her only child ashu to try to live apart
when namdeos beatings got too severe.
She would return home, drawn by her
saurabh singh
love for the child. It is the portrait of an

abused woman who would not stop
asking difficult questions.
namdeo Dhasals and her life
together played out against the rise and
decay of the Dalit movement. Malika
rues that Dalits would not allow the
communists to be part of their journey,
almost a metaphor for namdeos and
her marriage. She was of communist
upbringing. When their son was born,
Malika came home from hospital to
Speaking Tiger
200 Pages | Rs 399
find her husband had changed he was

no longer her companion. Steadily, her
despair grew. His violence, womanising
and even political to-and-fro-ing took its
toll on her.
Just one of many moving passages:
I would wait, wondering where he had
gone, what he was doing. and the memories of old hurts would return to plague
me until he arrived. Slowly the night
would advance upon me, red in tooth
and claw. this endless waiting would
seem like the night had driven needles
into my chest... He felt nothing about
assuaging his desires in brothels as any
lecher might? all those fine words and
fine thoughtswhat right did people
like this have to make fine speeches?
this book is also a truly honest look
at womens lives: their strong desire
for a child, for a home, shocked me...
one needs a home, a caste, a religion, a
mahatma, a saint and a child. It seems
humanity looks for happiness in these
bonds. Why do we believe that happiness arises only out of stability, security
and commitment? It seems we are unable to rid ourselves of these archetypes.
and yet isnt the desire for freedom one
of the fundamental principles on which
our common humanity is based? How
do we forget this?
While the last couple of chapters
of I Want to Destroy Myself ramble
through incidents and characters, the
book redeems itself through passages like the ones above. Malika amar
Shaikhs forthright self-portraitand
Jerry Pintos translation that opens it to
non-Marathi readersis a disturbing
yet luminous read. n
21 november 2016
A MATTER OF LIFE
Dont Be Your Own Doctor

Stop fighting your medicines, fight your maladies
he quest for
better treatment for
diabetes, which affects more than 420 million
people worldwide, continues
to drive scientists and doctors
toward discovering new
drugs. Virtually every year, a
couple of new diabetes medications become available
for clinical use. In addition,
Dr Ambrish Mithal
a large number of drugs
more than for any other
conditionare in the
pipeline. A 2014 us report lists 182 drugs in development for
diabetes and its complications. Yet, despite the wide variety
of medications available, achieving sustained good control
remains a challenge for most people with type II diabetes.
the first drug discovered for treating diabetes was not an
oral agent, but insulin, in 1922, in Canada. Banting, a war hero,
tried setting up a practice on the outskirts of toronto, and in his
first year he saw a total of one patient, who came for an alcohol
prescriptionhe therefore decided to pursue academic medicine. Later Banting received the Nobel Prize for his discovery.
the first oral agents used for diabetes were biguanides
derived from a plant, the french Lilac, used to treat diabetes in
medieval europe. Metformin, the most popular and probably
safest anti-diabetic drug in use presently, comes from this
stable. the second group is the sulfonylureasdiscovered
in france in 1942 when treating typhoid patients with sulfa
drugs caused low blood sugar. sulfonylureas (glimepiride, gliclazide and glipizide) continue to be popular and inexpensive
agents, commonly used till date.
When I entered the field of endocrinology in 1980s, these were
the two groups of oral drugs that were available to treat diabetes.
It was still not established that tight glucose control mattered.
With landmark studies like the united Kingdom Prospective
Diabetes study, the importance of achieving better glucose
control without getting a low blood sugar
reaction (hypoglycemia) was underlined.
hypoglycemia, characterised by intense hunger, sweating, palpitations, and trembling,
sometimes with wooziness and loss of consciousness, can be dangerousparticularly
for the elderly or those with kidney or heart
conditions. Drug development in diabetes
21 november 2016
over the last two decades has therefore focused on reducing the
risk of low blood sugar reactions.
the first among newer drugs were glitazones, which arrived
with a bang in the late 1990s. More than a decade after they were
launched, glitazones went through a period of complete rejection because of the perceived increase in risk of heart attacks.
Weight loss is one of the major therapeutic approaches
to treat and sometimes even cure diabetes. however, many
diabetes medications (including sulfonylureas, insulin and
glitazones) can cause weight gain, which is counterproductive. Incretin-based therapies, approved by the fDA in 2006,
attempted to address this problem. Incretin based oral medications (DPP4 inhibitors- sitagliptin, vildagliptin, linagliptin,
saxagliptin and teneligliptin) rapidly became popular because
of the relative lack of side effects. of these, the first, sitagliptin,
has been proven to be safe for the heart in long term studies.
the gamechangers in this regard are the other group of
incretin based therapiesthe self-injectable GLP1 based drugs.
these drugs dont produce hypoglycemia and promote weight
loss. the popular daily injectable GLP1 agonist liraglutide has
recently been shown (in the LeADer study) to reduce the risk of
heart attacks and deaths. Another exciting development in this
group is the convenient once weekly injectable dulaglutide.
A new group of oral drugs, sGLt2 inhibitors (cangliflozin,
empagliflozin, dapagliflozin), that control diabetes by throwing out glucose through urine, has hit the headlines recently.
Like the GLP 1 therapies, these too, promote weight loss with
minimal risk of hypoglycemia. the recently released eMPAreG study showed reduction in risk of deaths and heart
failure when high cardiac risk patients were treated with the
sGLt2 inhibitor empagliflozin.
While lifestyle modification remains the pivot of diabetes
management, it is not sufficient to maintain glucose control in
most cases. LeADer and eMPAreG studies have paved the way
for an exciting new era in diabetes therapy. however, benefits
will accrue only if you adhere to medication schedules. Medications are our ally in the fight against diabetes. Do not fight your
medicines, fight your diabetes. so let your doctor choose for you;
understand the possible side effects and
monitor regularly. remember: the patient is
the key player in the diabetes management
team. If you dont take a drug, it wont work! n
Dr Ambrish Mithal is chairman and head,
Endocrinology and Diabetes Division
at Medanta, The Medicity, Gurgaon
NO ONE MAKES
AN ARGUMENT
BETTER THAN US.
TRY OPEN.
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ART
The
Underrated
Modernist
Always loyal to the figurative,
Krishen Khanna still retains the
lyrical possibilities of his lines
By Rosalyn DMello
Photograph by
Rohit Chawla
nlike his contemporaries Fn souza, mF

husain and Vs Gaitonde, for 14 years, artist krishen
khanna successfully juggled his art practice with a
career in banking as an employee of Grindlays. as the title of
richard Bartholomews 1957 piece in The Statesman suggests,
khannas identity was that of a Banker-painter, which meant
he was forced to paint at night, given he was moonlighting
as a professional artist and not a mere hobbyist. in 1949, hed
already shown as part of a significant group exhibition at the
Bombay art society organised by sB palsikar. his wife was on
a ship when shed met someone who knew palsikar who then
wrote a letter asking to see some of khannas work. one day,
palsikar just arrived at my place and took away a small canvas
that depicted crowds reading the newspaper after Gandhijis
assassination [news of Gandhijis Death, 1948] and put it up in
the exhibition, he said in an interview with journalist Vandana
kalra in 2015. it was only a matter of time before khanna was
inducted by husain into the progressive artists Group.
in 1953, khanna was posted in madras, where he continued to
burn the midnight oil, his process consisting of one long sitting,
from nine in the evening to three in the morning. i dont build
up my pictures from preliminary sketches. i work straight on the
canvas. Yes, from the mental notes i make, the now 91-year-old
artist told Bartholomew back in 1957, when he was 32. When i
smear the canvas or lay on the base paint, i make the first contact
with the new experience and the image grows. painting is really a
capacity for image-making.
khanna had considered being a full-time professional artist,
but the financial constraints it entailed made him shy away from
such a life. he settled for evening classes at mayo school of art,
and, for 14 years was relatively content with his bank job, until he
62
I used the monochrome not because I didnt
have paint. In fact, a lot of my friends thought I was a bit stupid; colour does sell
krishen khanna
ART
found it difficult to pursue both professions simultaneously.

in 1961, he quit Grindlays. on his last day at work, husain,
Gaitonde and Bal chhabda were at the door, waiting for him to
emerge. the moment i came out, Bal chhabda took my tie off,
saying i wont need it anymore. We went out, had tea together
to celebrate and then dinner at a place called the coronation
Durbar. raza threw a party in paris; they had all wanted me to
quit, khanna recounted in his interview with kalra, published
in The Indian Express. his savings, amounting to rs 25,000, held
him in good stead for a while, but khanna realised he had to
work harder than he did at the bank. Fifty-five years since, it is
safe to assume his decision to be a full-time painter reaped him
more than his expected share of dividends.
espite straininG ones ear, smart phone in hand,

one had to struggle to catch strains of krishen khannas
speech over the microphone that was muted by the madding
crowd. photographer ram rahman used his baritone voice to
shush the audience of khannas family, close friends, art world
cognoscenti and collectors who had all gathered for the preview of his exhibition of recent work that inaugurated auction
house saffronarts swank new gallery space at the claridges in
new Delhi on november 3rd. the nonagenarian cut a dapper
figure with his silk nehru jacket strapped over a prussian blue
shirt, his shock of silver hair the only indication of his age.
Unlike akbar padamsee or the recently deceased sh raza, his
speech was unassumingly sharp, punctuated by the long held
trace of an english accent, a remnant of his formative years
spent between 1938 and 1942 at the imperial services college
in Windsor before returning to pre-partition lahore to study at
the Government college of art (1942-44), where he apprenticed
with painter sheikh ahmed. the slight weariness that had accompanied his tone when id spoken to him in early september
was absent. it had been a case of bad timing; khanna couldnt
keep our date at his studio because he was too preoccupied
with completing the works for this show. around then, he was
also busy with saffronarts evening sale for which he had put
up padamsees 1960 painting, Greek Landscape that had been
in his possession since its creation as a prime lot. khanna had
acquired the painting for rs 1,000 through Bal chhabda. at the
time he even wrote a letter to padamsee confessing he was terribly envious that you had painted such a magnificent painting. khanna felt increasingly daunted by the logistics involved
in maintaining the painting, which impelled his decision to
place it on auction. Greek Landscape sold to an anonymous
bidder for a world auction record-breaking rs 19 crore, double
its estimate, making it the highest amount paid for a padamsee
work to date. it also reinforced khannas eminent role as an artist collector. his secure position at Grindlays afforded him the
means to acquire work by his contemporaries.
his collection boasts 16 early husains.
the 3,000-sq-ft gallery featured 31 recent works by khanna.
after ceo hugo Weihe announced the rationale behind the
64
relocation from the oberoi to the claridges, citing its central

location as the main impetus, he handed the floor to khanna,
who began by graciously quipping about how many present
seemed to like the work while many seemed to pretend to like
it, suggesting they could be lying. the modesty behind his jibe
was unmistakably remarkable and formed the undertone of the
rest of his brief speech. i used the monochrome not because i
didnt have paint, he said, in an attempt to explain the aesthetic
that marked all the work that hung around us. i had paint, in
fact, a lot of my friends thought i was a bit stupid; colour does
sell. it was a blink-and-miss kind of moment, captured by
many cell phones and cameras, accented in parts by enthusiastic applause. For the rest of the evening, khanna sat on a chair,
greeting friends and acquaintances. his sharp memory ensured
he was able to register each face. i knew better though than to try
my luck arranging for a studio visit now. it was too late, i had to
content myself with seeing the finished paintings first-hand and
not as works-in-progress. it was not an unhappy compromise.
it isnt too far-fetched to imagine if, through this new suite
of paintings, khanna was unconsciously circling back to the
aesthetic predisposition that marked his early works in monochrome, browns and blacks, as well as the subject of the aviary.
Bartholomew, in a seminal essay published in Lalit Kala Con-
An excellent example of Khannas

solid connection with form and
narrative content is the Untitled
work signed at the back as Draupati
Dragged by Dushashna to His Lap
from his mahabharata series
21 november 2016
courtesy saffronart
An untitled work depicting

temporary in 1978, titled attitudes to the social
image-making, whether in the sketches or in
an elephant choking a tiger
condition: notes on ram kumar, satish Gujral,
more grandiloquent work, like the Untitled
with his trunk
krishen khanna and a. ramachandran, wrote
acrylic and charcoal on canvas triptych depicteloquently about how khannas early works
ing an elephant choking a tiger with his trunk.
depended greatly on the verve of the line. i feel
khannas other recurring themethat of partinow that these early works with their emphasis
tionalso finds articulation in the show, with
on the suggestive power of the line and on the ambiguity delibertwo works depicting the movement along the border, towards
ately deployed to diffuse the image anticipate the effects achieved
east punjab in 1947. khannas memory of the gruesome price
in krishens most recent paintings, he wrote in parenthesis. in
paid for indian independence; the human cost he witnessed
these, the maze of the revealed lineachieved by emphatically
firsthand as he too was forced to leave lahore; moving with his
blocking out the images of the painting with staccato strokes
family to shimla, instructs his scenes that portray the horror.
suggest a presence while the broad mosaic of the blocked-out
in the two paintings in this show, the exodus of people and
areas recreates the essential rhythm of the latent age.
animals across rough terrain is voiced through a negative
the many pared-down drawings of imposing men confrontimage embedded in acrylic and charcoal on canvas; black
ing the viewers gaze, predatory bird in hand, revealed the same
shadowy bulls contrast against bleached-out human forms, as
certainty of line that has marked khannas vast oeuvre from its
if signifying an erasure of dignity.
very inception. Birds hovered in and out of khannas recent canUnlike padamsee, ram kumar and raza, khanna remained
vases like prescient, ominous beings; their formidable presence
furtively loyal to the figurative in all its lyrical possibilities,
established by their brilliant renderings in charcoal. animated
even in his sumi-e paintings in the mid-60s, done after a
through khannas gestural strokes, the perched hawks and
rockefeller fellowship to Japan, where the gestalt motif still
falcons seem to have posed for the artist on agreement of becomprises the figure. these new vignettes confirm that solid
ing depicted as occupying centre stage. their individuality is
connection with form and narrative content, an excellent
foregrounded by their poise, and yet, the conviviality they share
example being the Untitled work signed at the back as Drauwith their male counterparts forms the pretext of the painting.
pati Dragged by Dushashna to his lap from his mahabharata
any fragility that is inadvertently revealed is on the part of the
series, that hones in on Draupadis moment of shame, her hair
men upon whose fingers or shoulders or head they are perched.
hanging over her face like a veil, her hands holding her sighing
one mesmeric untitled drawing shows a crow-like bird
head, her toes clasped together as if echoing the bodys cringe.
suspended in ambiguous motion, either about to perch or havFor a generation such as mine that did not grow up exposed
ing just alighted, one set of feathers swooping down, the other
to khannas oeuvre, this exhibition offers an illuminating
ruffled by wind. By privileging the nakedly sketched line over
foray into the intensity of the modernist artists rigorous
paint, khanna allows us a ringside view of his technical prowmark-made form of line that is at once certain yet also poetic.
ess. perhaps knowing he has nothing left to prove (he took care
For the generations that came before me, the show reasserted
of that when he was commissioned to paint the dome at the
khannas reputation as an underrated master. n
itc maurya, new Delhi, resulting in the magnificent work, The
The exhibition will run till November 13th at Saffronart, Delhi
Great Procession), khanna concentrates squarely on dynamic
21 november 2016
NOT PEOPLE
LIKE US
RAJEEV MASAND
For the Love of Money
Its true what they saythere are no permanent friends

or enemies in Bollywood. The industry seems rather surprised that Sanjay Leela Bhansali has sought a partner in
Viacom18 Motion Pictures for his magnum opus Padmavati ,
despite the famously unpleasant experience both parties had
had while working together on Mary Kom, which Bhansali
produced and the studio financed a few years ago.
It is no secret that Bhansali and the studios top boss Ajit
Andhare could not see eye to eye on marketing and releaserelated matters. Things had reportedly gotten so sour between them that they even refused to take the stage together
at one of the films pre-release events.
It is widely believed that the thorn between both sides
stemmed from the fact that Bhansali was driving a hard bargain on the Priyanka Chopra starrer. According to
those in the know, he was pushing the studio
to agree to terms that were clearly tilted in his
own favour, and that left the studio to make little or no profit on its investment in the end.
The episode apparently drew a wedge between the two strong-headed men, and it
was more or less understood that future collaborations were very unlikely. But after Eros,
who had originally committed to bankrolling Padmavati, pulled out when the
budget became unmanageable, surprisingly it is Andhares studio that
has come to Bhansalis rescue.
While many in the industry
vehemently believe that no studio
or financier stands to make money
on a project that comes at a price tag
north of Rs 190 crore, insiders close
to the deal are saying that based on
the number of screens likely to be
added to the landscape in the year ahead, the
studio is optimistic that it can emerge smiling
in this partnership.
Daddy Cool
Saif Ali Khan has always had a wicked sense

of humour, but best of all, he can laugh at
66
himself. That makes him a creature as rare as the tyrannosaurus in an industry full of infamously fragile egos. Responding
to the growing media interest in his wife Kareena Kapoors
pregnancy, and addressing bizarre rumours surrounding his
as-yet-unborn baby some tabloids have reported that the
baby is already born, others have claimed the couple went in
for a sex determination test Saif put out a public statement
to clear things up.
But it was the last line of his statement that revealed just
how in on the joke Saif was willing to be. The name of the
child will definitely not be Saifeena, he declared cheekily,
referring to the nickname the media has given the pair.
Young and Restless
A relatively young actor whos been cast as one of two male

leads in a new film, currently shooting in north India, has
been giving its makers a hard time. The actor, who is also a
singer, reportedly tried every trick in the book to get the
producers to change their mind about casting a
talented young art-house favourite actor as the
parallel male lead in the film. Put it down to insecurity (because frankly theres no other logical
reason for his behaviour). The actor-singer
threw tantrums and even mildly threatened to leave the project himself, but
the makers were adamant on their
casting decision.
A source with knowledge of the
goings-on points out that the actorsinger was obviously concerned
about being overshadowed by his
co-star, who for all practical purposes is regarded as one of the
most talented young actors in
the country. Plus, the films best
role belongs to the female lead
anyway. A pretty upcoming actress has snagged that part hoping to prove shes got the acting
chops to match the looks. n
Rajeev Masand is entertainment editor and film
critic at CNN-NEWS18
21 november 2016

Z-Open Magazine 21 November 2016

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Z-Open Magazine 21 November 2016

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