India Perspectives July 2010

Vol 24 No. 3/2010

ISSN 0970 5074

India
Perspectives

VOL 24 NO. 3/2010

Sketch of India House, London by Sir Herbert Baker, July 1930

Editor

Navdeep Suri
Assistant Editor

Neelu Rohra
India Perspectives is published in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Sinhala, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish and Urdu. Views expressed in the articles are those of the contributors and not necessarily of India Perspectives. All original articles, other than reprints published in India Perspectives, may be freely reproduced with acknowledgement. Editorial contributions and letters should be addressed to the Editor, India Perspectives, 140 ‘A’ Wing, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi-110001. Telephones: +91-11-23389471, 23388873, Fax: +91-11-23385549 E-mail: [email protected], Website: http://www.meaindia.nic.in For obtaining a copy of India Perspectives, please contact the Indian Diplomatic Mission in your country. This edition is published for the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi by Navdeep Suri, Joint Secretary, Public Diplomacy Division. Designed and printed by Ajanta Offset & Packagings Ltd., Delhi.

Editorial
I want to start by expressing our sincere gratitude to all our readers for their enthusiastic response to the last issue of India Perspectives which was dedicated to Rabindranath Tagore. Your letters of appreciation are still pouring in and they motivate us to do better. Taking advantage of emerging tools, we have placed the Special Issue dedicated to Tagore on our new website www.indiandiplomacy.in in a much more reader-friendly format. We have also uploaded it on Scribd, at http://www.scribd.com/doc/34044322/India-PerspectivesSpecial-Issue-on-Rabindranath-Tagore to make it accessible to new audiences. In this issue, we bring you a glimpse of the cultural extravaganza that is being put together as part of the programme for the Commonwealth Games that are being hosted in Delhi this October. From a travel perspective, the easy accessibility and grandeur of the Neemrana Fort-Palace not only makes it a touristic delight but also a venue for high-profile conferences. An article on the Inns of Goa, in a similar vein, brings out the quaint charm of a bygone era. The extra-ordinary Daksha Sheth needs no introduction. A purist who has never been afraid to experiment, her passion for dance is shared by her daughter Isha Sharvani, who has wowed audiences with her gravity-defying performances while suspended on a single rope. A different perspective of innovation in art is provided by the feature on Dadi Pudumjee, whose Ishara Puppet Theatre has introduced an entirely new dimension to an ancient art form. On the business side is a profile of Amul, which started as a humble cooperative of dairy farmers and has now grown into a household name for its full range of dairy products. A feature on India’s burgeoning pharmaceuticals industry highlights the growing importance of biotechnology with an interview with one of the pioneers in this sector. A separate report outlines the plans being put in place for India to reach the ambitious target of producing 20,000 MW of solar energy by 2022. We pay tribute to one of India’s greatest musicians, Ustad Bismillah Khan, whose lifelong association with the holy city of Benaras brings out the best of India’s secular ethos. And we have engaging articles on Raj Kapoor’s iconic film Awaara, on Kantha embroidery and on the art of India House, London. For all our readers, thank you once again for your support an and valuable feedback!
Navdeep Suri

Amul
A Brand that Nourishes and Empowers
R.K. MISHRA

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Pharmacy to the World
N.B. RAO

Tapping the Sun
Solar Energy for 20,000 MW of Power
JOYDEEP GUPTA

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Bismillah & Benaras
JUHI SINHA

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National Institute of Design Neemrana
Reliving History
SANDEEP SILAS

Changing with the Times
MADHUSREE CHATTERJEE

Mother and Daughter

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Where Dance is Life
LEELA VENKATARAMAN

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The Old Inns
A Journey Through a Slice of Goan Heritage
RAMCHANDER PENTUKER

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Kantha
An Artistic Stitchcraft
BIMLA VERMA

The Art of India House, London

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ASOKE MUKERJI

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India-Africa
A New Business Chemistry
MANISH CHAND

Revisiting Awaara

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SURESH KOHLI

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Puppetry Today
Dreaming a New Future
CHANDANA DUTTA

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Commonwealth Games
A Cultural Extravaganza
MADHUSREE CHATTERJEE & PRAGYA TIWARI

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Cover: A contemporary dance and puppetry collaboration on three characters from the Mahabharata – Krishna/puppet, Gandhari and the Dead. Photograph: Vipul Sangoi.

Neemrana
Reliving History
Text & Photographs: SANDEEP SILAS

he Fort-Palace of Neemrana is about 125 km from Delhi, on the road to Jaipur. As you keep traveling on the highway, you would never get to know that such a fabulous experience lies not far away. Past a sign, a dusty branch road, a sleepy village down a small incline, and you come to an impressive brass studded gateway. The unexpected grandiose structure of this 15th century Fort-Palace comes as a surprise. The ruins restored to their original resplendent glory and shape by design simulation and careful restructuring, become a most gratifying experience for surprised visitors to Neemrana. Though the place appears small, it is a destination in itself. The place was built as a fort and since it was the abode of the descendants of Prithviraj Chauhan III, who fled Delhi in 1192 A.D. after being defeated at the hands of Muhammad Ghori; it is palatial. In fact, the legend of Prithviraj Chauhan and Sanyogita’s famous and heroic “swayamvara” from history lessons is still fresh in
Restored grandeur – Neemrana today
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our memories. But, I had often been left wondering about the fate of the vanquished Hindu Kings of Delhi after the establishment of the Sultanate of Delhi, under Qutub-ud-din Aibak in 1192 A.D. It is unfortunate that historic tales follow only the victors leaving out the vanquished! Looking at Neemrana you get a feeling that even in defeat there is a sense of pride that one did not compromise on traditions

and ethical values. Each stone of Neemrana speaks of a lineage of Kings who remained unconquered. They lost their Kingdom, but not their honour. Their riches and palaces were snatched away from them but not their fate. Their crown was taken away but they did not bow their head. They kept on holding to a tale in ruins, till it became difficult to literally plaster the façade. This place of glorious history, would have gone unnoticed had not

imagination and determination stepped in. In 1986 the ruins were acquired for restoration and by 1991 the fort-palace was resplendent and majestic once again. The fort-palace retains its charm and the names given to its rooms, open spaces and gates by the first royal occupants. I could not restrain myself and immediately set out to re-discover the palace. The check-in formalities and
Steps to Mahal (right) and view through the arches (below).

Hawa Chhat (Airy Rooftop)

welcome drink over, I moved to the dining area past an open courtyard. This has open arches all around and a breathtaking view of the fields, the village, and the forest hill. One is treated like royalty in this place, with an assortment of teas spread before one – just for a sip. The Nazara Bagh is a small, terraced garden but with a view across the fort and behind it is the Holikund. I could imagine the thrill, the gaiety, and the splash of colour at this place during festival times. The Kachcha Chowk, as suggested

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by its name, is an open earthen courtyard in front of Chandan Mahal. The arched step door soon became a favoured photo opportunity, as it comes close to giving one the feeling of being a famous model at a grandiose location. My lodging was at Moonga Mahal, which surrounds another square Chowk. Fortunately, the restoration has not tampered or altered any original design feature, not even windows and doors.
Royal Descent (facing page); the Kachcha Chowk arched step door (right) and Hanging Gardens (below).

Some windows are really tiny, allowing one to only peep out, to observe what is happening outside. Just outside my Mahal, ie; palace (I can be presumptuous here to say that) was a Shivalingam reverently placed in an arch and another close by under a canopy. The choice of the room was not mine, but I remembered that wherever I went, a Shivalingam somehow managed to surface near me. This has happened so many times – in the mountains, on forest roads, and amidst ruins; that it appears to me a mystic sign of the Creator!

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Incidentally, the Shivalingam represents the Hindu Lord Shiva who is regarded as both the god of Creation and Destruction! Glancing out of my window I found an amazingly beautiful swimming pool surrounded by some more luxurious Mahals. This high in the midst of a labyrinth of alleys leading to Mahals, with stairs opening in courtyards, hidden passageways, and then suddenly this pool, is like the truth dawning upon the mind that the body needs rejuvenation and relaxation in water. Above is the Mukut Bagh, another garden affording privacy and exclusivity. Some more renovation work is going on at the area called Unchha Bagh (High Garden). Surely,
Unchha Bagh area (right) and the Shivalingam at an arch temple (below).

this would become the highest placed garden, by virtue of its placement in the fort-palace. The title Hawa Chhat (Airy Rooftop) attracts me and I move to sit there for a while under a canopy. A lovely breeze brushes me and I almost feel I could be a kite in the sky with just a little more wind. The vista below overlooks a garden called the Hanging Gardens. Rows of palms at the edges and luxurious green plants in
Fresco of a fish-maiden (right) and Dining in style (below).

this garden present a striking contrast to the color of the stones used to build the palace. An Amphitheater catches my attention. I find that at the far end, the Amphitheater is almost like the one I saw in the city of Bath, built by the Romans. This one is albeit bigger and more elaborate having been built much later. Caravans passing by into the desert terrain of Rajasthan, once used a nine-storey Stepwell situated in the vicinity. The

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Flying Fox, a zipline experience, sadly was not operational during my visit. It is a thrilling experience, from the heights soaring above trees and the crags of Neemrana and its environment. Today Neemrana has also become a hot spot for hosting cultural performances by maestros and weddings like the erstwhile royalty! The day had become warm. Watching the sunset from the palace was most unusually romantic. With my camera lens I balanced the Sun on the tip of

a stone spear-like projection on the fort ramparts in my frame. Perhaps, I held its march for a fraction of a second! With dusk I moved to the Shatranj Terrace and Shatranj Bagh (Shatranj is Hindi for Chess). An old cart rests here, having played its role in this fort once upon a time. I took some pictures of the brightly lit up palace in the twilight. The approach of dusk has always appealed to me in such surroundings. Somehow, the beauty of monuments

is greatly enhanced and the scene becomes very powerful. It is a moment when time gets suspended in between the realm of the real and the ethereal. Nightfall was not far away and the sky grew darker. In contrast the lights of the palace appeared to become brighter, till the whole palace glowed like a spotlight in the night. It was a night of wakeful splendour and joy. There was
Pool at Neemrana (facing page); Sunset Arch (right) and Twilight view (below).

so much beauty spread around yet the eyes longed for more. Listening to peacock calls, looking at pigeons, doves, red-breasted bulbuls, squirrels, I was transported to the world and voices of the past and I composed a song dedicated to Neemrana in the early hours of the morning. There is purity of life felt in such moments and this is a cherished memory that I shall treasure till long after.

◆ The author is a senior bureaucrat and travel writer.

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A Journey Through a Slice of Goan Heritage
Text & Photographs: RAMCHANDER PENTUKER

The Old Inns

o most people visiting the former Portuguese colony of Goa, its very name suggests palm-lined seaside avenues, lovely beaches, pleasure boats, pubs, casinos, outdoor cafes, seafood, port wine and so on. No doubt, there is all that for one to explore in this evergreen province. However, just a few intrepid travelers know that, beyond these well-trodden paths, there are also some places which are of great antiquity and historical value. A small area in Panjim, marked as the Old Latin Quarter – known as Fontainhas – is one such place. It is the historical heart of Goa. In this charming old neighbourhood of Panjim you can discover a whole town, where the Portuguese built their homes and lived until as late as the 1960s. Panjim, the headquarters of Goa is a city of gardens, with beautiful red-tile roof buildings, tree-lined avenues, temples,
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Siddharth Khandelwal

your attention as you stroll through the cobbled streets of the Latin Quarters. It would not be surprising to say that some of the inns have become recognized landmarks in the town and continue to influence and enrich the history and romance of this place. History attributes Goa’s founding to the Portuguese seafarers in the year 1510, after Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India in 1498. That was the period when the Portuguese became one of the world’s chief maritime powers,

when her seafarers set sail making a series of discoveries. They were the first European voyagers to set foot on the west coast of India, followed by the French, Dutch and later the English. The Portuguese voyager-poet, Luis Camoes in his epic, Os Lusiadas, which he is said to have composed some 70 years after Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India, immortalized Portugal’s great period of discovery and colonization of Goa. One can see this poet’s mammoth statue now standing

Siddharth Khandelwal

churches and statues, situated on the banks of the river Mandovi. The Old Latin Quarter is a maze of narrow alleys lined with dozens of quaint little homes, villas and business apartments. It lies close to the left bank of Ourem Creek, within walkable distance from the city centre. Inherited from the Portuguese, many of the buildings here, including those belonging to the direct descendants of the Portuguese (as some of them still live here) have now been converted to an appealing potpourri of colorful, stylized inns and restaurants, offering tourists the best of Goan hospitality. Most of these heritage inns look simple in their form, built in typical Portuguese style, with shuttered windows and
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overhanging balconies. Even their interiors exhibit little or no extravagance. However, since the old ways always interest people, they attract quite a few guests daily. It is because, as one German traveler remarked, “I feel a certain nostalgia for its past significance, that I come here everyday for my meal”. What impressed me most about these inns, is the colour. Each and every building here is painted with an exultant clash of eye-catching hues – ranging from the traditional red-ochre to deep yellow, purple, green, blue; almost any colour under the sun for that matter, which is because of the tradition that all the buildings should be colour-washed every year after the monsoon. The brilliance of these colours is what rivets
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Siddharth Khandelwal

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in the main hall of the museum, in old Goa. The colonization of Goa by the Portuguese continued for almost four and a half centuries, until the liberation of Goa in 1961. It is because of their long presence that the Portuguese could influence Goa’s social and religious life and nowhere else is this impact more clearly visible than in the Latin quarters, where several homes and churches built during their colonization still retain

the reminiscences of the past. Not just that, the enduring Portuguese influence is reflected even in the contemporary language the people speak here and the way some women wear their party dress. The name “Fontainhas” apparently of Portuguese origin, probably derived from the name of a similar place existing in Lisbon, here means “place of small fountains” or public faucets, that the Portuguese built there. Since there was no

piped water supply in those days, women mostly depended on these fountains to fill their water pots. As the town grew, many of these fountains – except the one that I could locate later at a small square near a school, gradually disappeared. All the heritage inns of Latin Quarters are of the same genesis and are conserved by

Siddharth Khandelwal

Panjim Inn with its traditional decor, with a picture of its original Portuguese owner hanging at its entrance (below).

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the sustained efforts of their owners. Perhaps it is for their picturesque aspect or for their historical association that these inns are well preserved. The innkeepers are fully aware of the substantial advantage they derive by preserving the antique character and ambience of their premises to reflect the atmosphere of the old days. The finest example in this aspect is Panjim Inn, one of the most recognized landmarks in the town, situated on the Ourem Creek road, facing an arched walkover bridge. The red-ochre pigmented Panjim Inn retains much of its ancient character and traditional Goan ambience. Its kitchen serves both local and continental cuisine at its vintage verandah restaurant. Built in 1880, this elegant structure was home to an elite Hindu household. It also served as a school for some time, before being converted into a hotel. Not all the inns are as big and reputed as Panjim Inn. There are also some smaller ones, noisy and bustling with the locals sipping the local beverage ‘Fenni.’ While on my way back to my hotel, I paused at another small square near the St. Sebastian chapel. The Afonso Guest
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of the chapel. Named after Portugal’s first king, Afonso Henriques, Afonso is owned by Mrs Jeanette Afonso who claims to be a direct descendant. These heritage inns may not be of the glamorous type, but still you can be certain about the real homely comfort they offer; and no doubt, some of them are scrupulously clean and green. While trudging along the alleys of the Old Latin Quarters, the desire to discover the charm of a bygone era is strong. It is like taking a step back in time and reminds one of what the place was like in the olden days. Why do old ways interest people more? This, one will understand only when one has taken a leisurely stroll through this old part of the town.

Statue of Portuguese voyager-poet Luis Camoes in the hall of old Goa Museum

House, standing right under the shadow of this chapel is an interesting structure. Painted in deep yellow, it stands in striking contrast to the pearly white
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◆ The author is a noted writer and lensman.

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A New Business Chemistry
MANISH CHAND

India-Africa

defied the global recession to continue their upward economic trajectory. Driving this new business synergy are India’s apex business body, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and EXIM Bank, who joined hands to craft a pioneering initiative, called “The India-Africa Project Partnership Conclave,” in 2005. The conclave, supported by India’s External Affairs and Commerce Ministries, has now become a much-awaited event, epitomizing the economic surge of an old trusted relationship that harks back to the shared legacy of the anti-colonial struggle and the idealism of

non-alignment and Afro-Asian solidarity. One could see this business chemistry at work at the 6th India-Africa conclave held in mid-March that saw participation from 34 African countries. Around 1,000 Indian and African businessmen, political leaders, bankers and policymakers descended on the Indian capital to mine the new business alchemy between two of the regions in the world which have continued to grow amid the meltdown. The stakes were huge: projects worth $10.06 billion were on the table. They were in areas ranging from power, fertilizers
Audience at the inaugural session of the Conclave

n May, India’s telecom giant Bharti Airtel acquired the African assets of Kuwait’s Zain at a whopping $10.7 billion, marking a new high in blossoming business ties between India and Africa. The largest overseas acquisition of assets in the continent by an Indian company has shifted the spotlight to Africa’s booming middle class market and the

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growing win-win partnership between the world’s second fastest growing economy and the resource-rich 53-nation African continent. The deal, which made headlines in India and the international media, capped years of steady cumulative growth in trade and investment between India and Africa, both of which have

and agriculture to education, small and medium industries and telecommunications but the tension that goes with dealmaking was missing. Instead, the businessmen chatted amiably, cracked jokes and, yes, shared ideas and talked business. When business combines with a sense of camaraderie and ideological kinship, one gets more than deals. “It’s a sustainable partnership with a long-term future,” said H.E. John Dramani Mahama, Vice President, Republic of Ghana and the Guest of Honour at the Partnership Conclave. “In such a positive ambience, there are no hurdles

Mr. S.M. Krishna, Minister for External Affairs Government of India; H.E. Mr. John Dramani Mahama, Vice President, Republic of Ghana and Mr. Anand Sharma, Minister for Commerce & Industry, Government of India at the inaugural of the 6th Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership (on 15 March 2010).

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Above: Mr. Jonathan Wutawunashe, Dean of the Diplomatic Corp & Ambassador of Zimbabwe to India; Mr. Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman, CII Africa Committee; Mr. S.M. Krishna, Minister for External Affairs, Government of India; Mr. John Dramani Mahama, Vice President, Republic of Ghana; Mr. Anand Sharma, Minister for Commerce & Industry, Government of India and Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII. Right: Mr. Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman, CII Africa Committee & Chairman, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd; Mr. Vivek Katju, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India; S.E.M. Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo, Prime Minister, Republic of Togo and Mr. Syamal Gupta, Chairman Emeritus, CII Africa Committee & Chairman, TCE Ltd.

Mr. Jardine Omar, Counsellor (Economic), High Commission of South Africa in India; Mr. Jose Maria Morais, High Commissioner of Mozambique to India; Ms. Maria Gustava, Director for Asia & Oceania, Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation; Mr. Robert Appelbaum, Director, Edward Nathan Sonnenburg, South Africa; Mr. Sumanta Chaudhuri, Joint Secretary, Dept of Commerce & Industry and Ms. Donnée Kruger Manager, Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal.

to the enhancement of business and entrepreneurship,” said Mr. S.M. Krishna, Minister for External Affairs, Government of India. He lauded the private sector for expanding their profile in the continent and sought to distinguish the
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Indian investment approach by focusing on capacity building and skills training that could spur the development of Africa. “The India-Africa relationship has evolved and matured into a vibrant one. In many parts of Africa we see Indian investors and businessmen enhancing trade, capacity building and contribution to the development goals of our African partners in a visible manner,” he said.
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Sanjay Kirloskar, an industrialist with diverse investments in Africa and Chairman of the CII Africa Committee, placed the relationship in the larger context of the shifting geography of economic power from the West to the East. “This conclave presents a great opportunity for us all to explore the infinite possibilities of India-Africa cooperation, strengthen the synergistic partnerships and develop a new vision statement for long-term India-Africa engagements, the likes of which will determine the course of South-South Cooperation.” The conclave identified four key areas to take India-Africa economic ties to new heights:
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(i) strengthening of the special relationships between India and Africa; (ii) development of our rural economies; (iii) promotion of skills development and capacity building for Africa tomorrow; and (iv) driving the green agenda. Led by the private sector, with a “Focus Africa” policy of the Indian Government, bilateral trade has grown to $39 billion, an over ten-fold increase in the last 15 years. Almost every week, an Indian firm announces a new business venture in an African country. Tata buses and the Kirloskar pump, made by Indian companies, have become iconic brand names in many African countries. Jonathan

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Wutawunashe, Ambassador of Zimbabwe to India, is fond of telling everyone that if someone loses his way in the African villages, he is told to go to the Kirloskar pump and find his way! Adi Godrej, a top Indian industrialist, is the latest to join the African dream of the Indian corporate world, with his eponymous company recently buying Nigeria’s Tura Group. Africa is “the continent of the future,” says Godrej, encapsulating the mood

of optimism among Indian entrepreneurs towards investing in Africa. There is now virtually a scramble to invest in Africa, with big Indian companies leading the charge. The Essar Group has invested $100 million in Essar Telecom Kenya Holdings. Essar’s Yu brand has 400,000 telecom subscribers in Kenya. It has a 50 per cent stake in Kenya Petroleum Refineries where it plans to invest $300 million. Tata Steel KZN has acquired

Right: South African Cricketer Jonty Rhodes addressing the Conclave. Below: Signing of Exim Bank LOC with Government of Senegal: seen in the picture Hon. Karim Wade, Minister for International Cooperation, Infrastructure, Land Development and Air Transport, Government of Senegal and Ms Ravneet Kaur, CMD, Exim Bank of India.

$120 million in a Greenfield ferrochrome venture in South Africa. The Vedanta Group has spawned 55 learning centres to train 28,500 learners each year, and has trained nearly 150,000 students since 1997. ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of India’s oil major Oil and Natural Gas Commission, operates $2.1 billion oil assets in Libya, Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire and Egypt, making it India’s biggest investor in Africa. Although the Indian private sector has been in the forefront,

MOU signing during the 6th Conclave between BEDIA, Botswana & CII, India

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terrific example Africa can learn from the trajectory of development in India and the Indian experience,” says Prime Minister Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo, Republic of Togo and Guest of Honour at the conclave. Says former President of Ghana John Agyekum Kufuor: “If India’s experience is married to Africa’s vast resources, it will result in the accelerated development of Africa.” This symbiosis opens up limitless possibilities of engagement in areas ranging from agriculture, food security, infrastructure and hydrocarbons to IT and frontier

areas of human knowledge. With India increasingly seen as a source of triple A, appropriate, affordable and adaptable technologies, New Delhi is increasingly seen as providing a viable alternative to the traditional dependence of Africa on Western sources of technology, products and services. “Africans gain from the transfer of technologies by India,” Hannah Tetteh, Trade and Industry Minister, Republic of Ghana said in an interview. President Jacob Zuma, Republic of South Africa who came on a three-day state visit to India in June with over 200 top
Exhibition during the Conclave

businessmen from his country, is upbeat about this emerging India-Africa business alchemy. Pointing to wider horizons, he said India and Africa can collaborate to develop Africa as the next economic powerhouse, just a day after the two sides launched the India-South Africa Chief Executives’ Forum in Mumbai. “India and South Africa could both make a significant contribution to the establishment of Africa as the next global growth centre,” President Zuma told top Indian business chambers in New Delhi. There are mutual gains for both as India can help Africa move

Delegates from Africa and India discuss business at the Conclave

the Indian Government, too, has shown the way by forging a proactive Africa policy and offering incentives to spur two-way trade and investment. Outlining India’s approach towards the African continent focused on the triple Ts – Trade, Technology and Training, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a slew of measures at the maiden IndiaAfrica Forum Summit in April, 2008 that included granting preferential market access to 34 least developed African countries. He also announced doubling of the lines of credit to $5.4 billion and pledged over $500 million in capacity building and human resource development projects. The market access is expected to boost African exports ranging from cotton, cocoa and
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aluminium to copper ore and cashew nuts. The fundamentals of India’s development-centric engagement with Africa have been reinforced by the joint action plan India and Africa launched early March this year. The action plan envisages India setting up 19 institutions in Africa with the African Union Commission and member states in areas of diamond polishing, IT, vocational education and foreign trade. The action plan builds on such pioneering initiatives like the India-aided Pan-Africa e-network project that seeks to bring tele-education and tele-medicine to the African people by bridging the digital divide across the continent. African leaders have responded enthusiastically. “India is a

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up the value chain with skills and technology transfer. A new report by international investor McKinsey, fittingly called “Lions on the Move,” says economic growth accelerated in 27 of the continent’s 30 largest economies, resource-rich and resource-poor alike. The number of cell phone subscribers has gone up to 316 million, more than the entire population of the USA. Bucking global recession, India, too, is resurgent and is confident of achieving 8.2 per cent GDP growth in 2010-11. This economic surge, animated by a larger strategic vision of seeking a bigger role in international affairs, including seats in the UN Security Council, is set to drive the two sides closer to create the century of Asia and Africa. “India wishes to be a partner in Africa’s resurgence. Working together, the two billion people of Asia and Africa can set an example of fruitful cooperation in the developing world,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh memorably at the 2008 summit.
◆ The author is Editor, Africa Quarterly published by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi.

A cultural evening during the Conclave
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Commonwealth Games
A Cultural Extravaganza
Text: MADHUSREE CHATTERJEE & PRAGYA TIWARI Photographs: DEEPAK MUDGAL

The inaugural exposition that officials describe as “the muchawaited prelude to the Games” will feature dance choreography by Geeta Chandran, Shovana Narayan and Astad Deboo – three leading Indian dancers. The spotlight will be on group recitals. Chandran and her troupe will stage an hour-long dance drama, “Ananya”, at the 16th century Purana Qila (Old Fort) in the heart of the capital, the venue of the cultural event.
The Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi will focus on Indian culture for nearly a fortnight. Shovana Narayan will present Bharatanatyam and Kathak traditions (right) and a group dance recital (below).

The danseuse said the choreography will document the ancient cultures of India that have inspired the myriad classical dance forms – dictating both content, styles and evolution. Eminent dancer Shovana Narayan is working on a group show drawing from Bharatanatyam and Kathak traditions to trace the movements of Indian dance forms and the influences it has assimilated over the years. Veteran contemporary dancer Astad Deboo and his troupe will stage a dance opera that will narrate stories from ancient

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colourful showcase of Indian culture will occupy pride of place at the Commonwealth Games to project India’s soft power to the world at the 19th edition of the quadrennial sporting event from October 3-14 that will see 8,000 athletes from 71 countries and territories competing in 17 disciplines. The cultural extravaganza that is the heart of a mammoth Commonwealth tourism initiative to position India as a culture and sports tourism destination will be spread over nearly a fortnight. It will be a collaboration between the Delhi government and the Commonwealth Games 2010 Organising Committee led by Suresh Kalmadi.
Shera – the mascot joins in a dance performance

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Indian texts placed in modern contexts. The music will be essentially classical, with maestros coming together to pool their talent in a mega opening vocal and instrumental concert. “But keeping in mind the fact that the bulk of the Commonwealth audience will be young – below the age of 35 – we have invited fusion troupes from across the country
The India Gate memorial to the Unknown Soldiers (facing page); 16th century Purana Qila (old fort) – the venue of the cultural events (right) and Astad Deboo, the veteran contemporary dancer will perform with his troupe during the Games (below).

to bring out the new multi-racial ethos sweeping through the country’s cultural mosaic,” an official said. The government has selected 15 venues across the city for the cultural festival from Oct 3-14. “The programmes have been selected carefully as we want spectators to treasure the memories of the events for a long time,” the official said. Theatre director Amir Raza Hussain will stage a play at Red Fort and at Quli Khan’s fort in Mehrauli, two important historical monuments. The 45-minute multi-media capsule

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will augment the capital’s period appeal with special sound and light shows encapsulating the history of Delhi for visitors during the Games. The show at Mehrauli, titled Dastaan-e-Dilli, will narrate the “Dilli story” from its royal heydays to becoming independent India’s centre of power. A movie production company is designing an elaborate soundand-light show at the Red Fort chronicling its history from Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s seat of power to a military hub during the British Raj and
The towering Qutub Minar (right) and the Humayun’s Tomb (below).

currently one of the capital’s most popular archaeological sites that attracts thousands of visitors every day. It is also from the Red Fort that the Prime Minister of India addresses the nation on Independence Day, August 15. Children from more than 2,000 schools will take part in an art competition, “My Dream Sport”, to bring arts and sports on a common platform and promote new talent to mark the inclusive nature of the Games. A group of free-wheeling artists are painting walls across the capital to capture the colours of the Commonwealth and to beautify the capital on the eve

of the Games as part of a series, the Wall Project. In March, leading contemporary artists began to colour a 200-ft canvas as part of a relay Commonwealth art project. The art initiatives will culminate in a grand finale at a travelling exhibition in mid-September that will touch the venue of the Games. The cultural aspects apart, the Commonwealth Games will enable the Indian capital to showcase itself as a major global sporting destination and not surprisingly, a sense of excitement and urgency pervades New Delhi as an army of officials work at a frenetic pace to ensure that everything is shipshape for the event. In the process, and with the government spending a whopping Rs.150 billion ($3 billion), the capital has undergone a complete transformation, what with six venue clusters and five standalone stadiums being renovated with state-of-theart facilities, the Metro Rail spreading its wings, shopping complexes being upgraded, tourist spots being developed, flyovers being built to ease traffic, major thoroughfares being streetscaped and a gleaming fleet of commuter
Geeta Chandran (left) will stage a dance drama, Ananya, at the Purana Qila.

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buses making travel in the city a lot more comfortable. A spiffy Games village is coming up over 63.5 hectares near the bank of the river Yamuna that cuts through the capital. The village has 34 towers with 1,168 apartments, each disabled-friendly and equipped with latest technology from flat screen television sets to well-equipped kitchenettes. The new facilities have tempted Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit to proudly term the national capital an Olympic city. And so moved is veteran sports

administrator Randhir Singh that he has suggested that the next stop could be the Asian Games, of which India has hosted two editions, and even the Olympics. “The Commonwealth Games will act as a springboard for hosting the Olympics. With the present infrastructure, we can bid for the Asian Games,” Randhir Singh, Vice Chairman of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee and the Secretary General of the Indian Olympic Association, said.

A traditional welcome given by water cannons on arrival of the first international flight and the immigration counters at the newly inaugurated Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi (facing page) and Delhi Metro Rail – the lifeline for Delhi (below).

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Almost all the stadiums have been tested even as they were being given the finishing touches. Heightened security arrangements were also in place for the test events. On their part, Delhi Police say they are well prepared for the Games and all necessary security arrangements have been made. “Our ongoing security survey, checks and upgradation are well on track. We have a regular anti-sabotage search. Our security personnel are always alert and vigilant,” Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal said, adding: “We are planning a safe and secure Commonwealth Games.” Delhi’s civic infrastructure is also undergoing a massive overhaul. This is evident from the fact that Rs.3 billion ($64 million) has been allocated for the beautification of the city, the money being spent on building new flyovers, over-bridges, roads, footpaths, providing better street furniture and cleaning up the city. The city will also get a dedicated Metro line from the airport to Connaught Place, the central business district and Delhi’s main shopping area that is going through a facelift. Rajpath, the grand two-anda-half km long boulevard in central Delhi that stretches
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from the Rashtrapati Bhavan (the official residence of the President), to the India Gate memorial to the Unknown Soldier, is being revamped. The city’s monuments, an integral part of its rich heritage, are being cleaned and restored. As part of this Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb and Purana Qila (Old Fort) will get swish cafes for visitors. Some 25,000 rooms will be made available to accommodate the huge influx of domestic and foreign visitors. It is estimated that 11,028 rooms will be available at licensed lodges and this will be supplemented by a “Bed and Breakfast Scheme” launched by the Delhi government by roping in the owners of private houses and apartments. The government has also sanctioned Rs.700 million (Rs.15 million) for developing tourist destinations around the national capital. Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal, and Jaipur are the two cities identified for this purpose. In tourism parlance, Delhi, Agra and Jaipur are referred to as the “golden triangle”. Then, the Commonwealth Games promise to leave behind a whole new concept - that of volunteering, what with a staggering 22,000 men and women signing up for a three-tier training programme

Athletes and sports enthusiasts with the Queen’s Baton 2010 Delhi

that focuses on basic etiquette to venue specific and safety training. “Volunteering as a concept was more or less unknown to India. It is for the first time that so many people are being trained for an event,” said Devya Patney, the head of the Games organising committee looking after the training of volunteers. “Commonwealth Games 2010 will leave behind a long lasting legacy not only in the form of infrastructure and sports venues but also in the way we develop the skill of our human resources,” Pandey added. Come October, and Delhi will be dotted with a uniformed, well-behaved and informative army of men and women, ready to show the world the face of Indian hospitality.
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And, like Beijing did for the 2008 Olympics, Delhi is using modern technology to make the city pollution free during the Games and for long after. Given all this, the optimism of the Indian Olympic Association’s Randhir Singh on the capital’s ability to host the Olympics is not misplaced. But then, the earliest that can happen is 2020, because the 2012 edition has been allotted to London and the 2016 edition Rio de Janerio.

◆ (The authors are IANS journalists)

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A Brand that Nourishes and Empowers
R.K. MISHRA

Amul

Even so, nothing could change what destiny had in store for Dr. Verghese Kurien – whose efforts towards the white revolution earned him the World Food Prize and the Magsaysay Award, apart from numerous other recognitions within and outside India. A Syrian Christian born in southern Kerala, Kurien moved to the dusty town of Anand to set up a milk cooperative and his achievement made people revere him as the milkman of India. The best testimony to his work, perhaps, is the varied range of products that now line shelves in shops all over India and abroad – going way beyond just milk to pasteurised butter, cheese, ice creams, chocolates, clarified butter, sweets and other products, including probiotic milk and sugar-free ice cream. So much so that this brand name, along with its iconic mascot – a cute little girl in polka-dot skirt and catchy slogans – has even

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hat started as a small cooperative movement over six decades ago in a mid-sized town in the western state of Gujarat has now become an icon of rural empowerment, fashioning in the process what is called the ‘white revolution’ to catapult India as the world’s largest producer of milk. In 1946 a bright youth was sent to study Dairy Engineering at the Michigan State University on government scholarship but he came back with a Masters in Metallurgy and Nuclear Physics instead.

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IANS

tumultuous days before India’s independence when the dairy cooperative was set up under the directions of Vallabhbhai Patel, the then Congress leader who went on to become India’s first home minister. Two years later, Kurien returned from the US and in 1949 left his government job to help the newly-formed cooperative, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union.
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cooperative, the triumph of indigenous technology, the marketing savvy of a farmers’ organisation, a proven model of dairy development, high quality products at reasonable prices - to sum it all up, a confident nation on the move.” According to Shri Ramsinh Parmar, Chairman, Kaira District Milk Union, the first effort to organize dairy cooperatives had actually started after the enactment of the Cooperative Societies Act, 1912. “But it was in the 1940s that farmers of Kaira district organised themselves into a dairy cooperative and decided to process and sell milk directly after collecting it from its own members,” Parmar said. The birth of Amul at Anand provided the impetus to the cooperative dairy movement in

Dr. Verghese Kurien

overtaken its parent, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, in terms of both name and fame. “Amul is the brand name of nearly three million farmers, members of 15,300 village dairy cooperative societies throughout Gujarat. This is the heart of
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Amul,” said Kurien, who has since retired. “This is what gives strength to Amul, and this is what is so special about the Amul saga.” Drawn from the Sanskrit word “amulya”, or priceless, the Amul journey began in the

This led to the birth of Amul – the rest, as is often said, is history. In 1946, Amul procured just 1,000 litres of milk a day, but today this has gone up to as much as 9.3 million litres. The $1.7 billion cooperative has 15,300 village societies as members, covering 2.9 million milk producers.

In the financial year 2010-11, the cooperative is expected to log sales turnover in excess of $2.2 billion. “Amul is the symbol of the achievements of dairy cooperatives over the last 65 years,” said B.M. Vyas, former Managing Director of the cooperative. “Simply put, Amul symbolises the genesis of a vast
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the country. This was possible due to the dedicated and committed leadership of the founder Chairman of Amul, Tribhuvandas Patel and the vision and professionalism of the father of the White Revolution, Dr. Verghese Kurien who worked as a professional manager at Amul. Statistics show that though steps to improve the quality of milch cattle began in the 1st Five Year Plan (1951 to 1956), the absence of a stable and remunerative market for milk saw production stagnate. Between 1951 and 1970, milk production grew by barely one percent annually while in fact per capita availability declined by an equivalent amount. Then came “Operation Flood”. “It was Operation Flood, implemented for the National Dairy Development Board from 1970 to 1996 by founderchairman Dr. Kurien, who had an uninterrupted spell of 33 years, that radically transformed dairy development in India,” said his close aide. This programme ensured milk producers’ cooperatives get well

Marginal landholdings make up 57 percent of rural households in India and thanks to such cooperatives dairying is a viable option even for the landless. Nearly 70 million Indian households hold a total of 98 million cows and buffaloes. A majority of milk producers have one or two milch animals and these small producers account for some 70 percent of the milk production. On an average, 22.5 percent of the income of rural households is contributed by milk. “Operation Flood essentially replicated the Anand pattern countrywide, joining villagelevel cooperatives to form district-level unions, which in turn joined in state-level marketing federations,” said P.A. Joseph. “The primary milk producer thus governs this entire federal cooperative structure.” The dairy major has also emerged as a role model of sorts, which many developing nations want to emulate. Earlier this year, high level delegations from Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda visited Amul and expressed a desire to replicate the white

revolution using the same model in their country. Even the World Bank has announced ‘South-South Experience Exchange Facility’ for replication of the Amul model of dairy development in Africa. The cooperative dairy movement is impacting lives in many other ways as well. The Banas dairy, for example, a member of the Amul cooperative, started a unique initiative called the Internet Sewa Project in Banaskantha district in Gujarat. This is a village-level effort at bridging the digital divide by providing information kiosks at the village cooperative level. Official forms, educational applications and local market prices are provided at the information kiosk so that people do not have to travel all the way to the district headquarters for this information.
Amul known for its topical humour in advertising takes a dig at Paul the Octopus during the FIFA World Cup 2010.

From Banaskantha to IT capital Bangalore, Amul has branded itself on the lives of every Indian. The range of Amul products includes milk and pasteurised butter, curd, cheese, chocolate and ice-cream. It’s all about Amul, and also about India. As Kurien put it: “Amul’s mission was the development of farmers, nutrition to the nation and, heart in heart, the real development of India.” Amul cannot be viewed simply as a business enterprise. It is an institution created by the milk producers themselves to primarily safeguard their interest economically, socially as well as democratically. In the case of Amul, the surplus profits earned are ploughed back to farmers. This circulation of capital with value addition within the structure not only benefits the final beneficiary – the farmer – but eventually contributes to the development of the village community. This is the most significant contribution of the Amul Model cooperatives. Today Amul is a symbol of many things; of high-quality products sold at reasonable prices, of a vast co-operative network, of the triumph of indigenous technology, of the marketing savvy of a farmers’ organisation. Above all, it has emerged as the most successful model of rural development.
◆ The author is a journalist. Photographs: Courtesy Amul
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entrenched in villages and made modern technology available to them. It also increased milk production and augmented rural incomes, which went to the milk producer and not the middlemen. More importantly, the programme empowered small rural producers, providing them with employment opportunities at their homes with steady returns.
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drug – which earned Bristol Meyer Squibb more than US$ 6.1 billion in sales in 2009 – will lose patent protection in 2012. The drug is being comarketed by Sanofi-Aventis. GSK, which earns US$ 4 billion from its asthma treatment drug, Seretide/Advair, will see its patent expire in 2010. But non-branded (or generic) drugs are expected to continue going strong over the coming years. According to IMS data, global prescription sales growth of generic drugs was up by
Clinigene, a subsidiary of Biocon, is a world-class Clinical Research Organisation.

IMS Health expects the global pharmaceuticals market to grow by four to six per cent in 2010, exceeding total sales of US$ 825 billion. Last year, global generic products accounted for sales of less than US$ 85 billion. The US consulting firm predicts global pharma market sales to grow at a four to seven per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2013, with the value of the global pharmaceuticals market expected to expand to nearly US$ 1 trillion in three years. 7.7 per cent for the 12-months ending September 2009, as against 3.6 per cent in 2008. India features among the seven ‘pharmerging’ markets – along with the other BRIC nations

PHARMACY TO THE WORLD
N.B. RAO

ndia is fast emerging as the pharmacy to the world, with domestic and international drug producers investing huge sums in setting up manufacturing units, research and development laboratories and other related facilities. The international pharmaceuticals industry is undergoing dramatic changes, with governments – both in the developed and developing world – focussing on slashing their ballooning healthcare budgets. With a growing number of popular drugs going off-patent over the coming years, many countries would be opting for generic products that would be available at far lower prices, to save on costs.
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IMS Health, the US-based global healthcare information and consulting firm, estimates that during the next five years, products that currently generate an unprecedented US$ 137 billion in sales are expected to face generic competition. These products include blockbuster drugs (each with annual sales of more than US$ 1 billion) such as Lipitor (manufactured by Pfizer, one of the largest pharma companies in the world), Plavix (Bristol Meyer Squibb, SanofiAventis) and Seretide/Advair (GlaxoSmithKline – GSK). Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering drug, fetched US$ 12 billion in sales for Pfizer last year, but faces generic competition from 2011. Plavix, an anti-clotting
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‘Indian pharma companies can look forward to a significant spurt in growth’
An interview with Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon Ltd, India’s leading integrated healthcare company.
How do you view the prospects for the Indian pharma sector over the next few years, especially with billions of dollars worth of drugs likely to go off-patent? Indian pharmaceutical companies are well-positioned to leverage the opportunity provided by blockbuster drugs going off-patent over the next few years. Not only do Indian pharma players have a US Food and Drug Administration-approved pipeline, but they are also equipped with a strong, cost-effective production ecosystem. Indian generics manufacturers can make huge gains with the US, the world’s largest pharma market, turning to generics to decrease pressure on the healthcare budget costs and the pipeline of new drugs in the US drying up as the FDA becomes cautious in granting approvals. India’s growing middle-class. So, overall Indian pharma companies can look forward to a significant spurt in growth. Do you see multi-national companies (MNCs) taking advantage of this trend and setting up research and development (R&D) facilities, manufacturing plants and distribution networks in India? Moreover, global companies are adopting cost-cutting strategies to increase margins after the economic meltdown. They are striving to discover and develop drugs at lower costs by embracing outsourcing and contract research, which will help India’s price-competitive clinical research and manufacturing activities thrive. Apart from exports, the domestic consumption of medicines is slated to increase with rising income levels of I see more partnerships and alliances on the generics front like those forged between Pfizer and Aurobindo, Claris and Strides, and GlaxoSmithKline and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. I do not envisage the need for MNCs to set up R&D or manufacturing facilities in India for generics since they already have the marketing infrastructure, which they may use to roll out generics. Emerging markets such as India are certainly a large

generics opportunity which MNCs are keenly eyeing. Collaborative partnerships with Indian companies are a win-win for both parties and give MNCs a cost-effective entry point through their existing marketing network. What about exports of Indian pharma products? Are you bullish about Indian companies expanding their overseas presence? As I said, Indian pharma exports are going to scale new heights in the next few years. Indian companies already have a substantial presence in the United States, the biggest pharmaceuticals market in the world, and in several European countries. We also enjoy a favourable presence in emerging markets like Russia, Latin America and Africa, which are also critical for growth. The pharmaceuticals sector has seen increased volume of exports in recent years. Indian companies and their subsidiaries have also secured approvals for several Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDAs) in the US. Do you expect Indian pharma companies to step up their

international presence, continuing with acquisitions abroad? Even as MNCs enter into tieups with Indian companies for our domestic market, Indian players are likely to continue expanding their global foot-print through mergers and acquisitions (M&As). These acquisitions may not be transformational – instead, they will add to strategic capabilities by helping the player gain intellectual property assets or access to marketing and distribution networks. A good example is Biocon’s acquisition of our partner, Nobex Corporation, an intellectual property (IP) company in the US. The acquisition provided us a valuable IP platform as well as ownership of our oral insulin and oral brain-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) programmes for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. What are the global trends you perceive in the international pharma business? What is the impact of bio-technology likely to be on the sector? There are four clear trends, which indicate that the industry is recalibrating to

the present-day challenges of poor R&D productivity and emerging market opportunities by opting for strategies that involve: • Portfolio diversification to include products with shorter regulatory timelines. For example, diagnostics, devices, new drug delivery systems, vaccines, generics, bio-similars, etc • Focusing on emerging markets to deliver top line growth • Acquisition of late stage R&D assets to fill depleting R&D pipelines with programmes that can accelerate time to market • Reducing the risk and cost of R&D with new models of risk sharing, co-development programs and outsourced research services.

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including Brazil, Russia and China, besides Turkey, South Korea and Mexico – which are expected to drive growth of the global pharmaceutical industry in the coming years. Interestingly, the Indian pharma market is expected to grow at a much faster pace. International consultancy firm, McKinsey & Company, estimates that the domestic market will grow at between 10 and 14 per cent annually, with total revenues topping US$ 20 billion by 2015. The overall pharma sector in India – including domestic sales, exports, off-shoring by global

firms, contract manufacturing and R&D – is also expected to double to US$ 40 billion by 2015. Leading Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers including Cipla Ltd, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Lupin Ltd, Piramal Healthcare, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Jubilant Organosys Ltd are among the companies that are expected to gain significantly because of the switchover to generic drugs over the coming years. Indian drug manufacturers export their products to more

than 200 countries around the globe including regulated markets of the US, western Europe, Japan and Australia. The growing presence of Indian drug-makers in the US has resulted in the US Food and Drug Administration approving about 175 pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in India. The US FDA has also opened offices in New Delhi and Mumbai to coordinate its activities in the country. Indian pharma companies today have a significant and growing presence in the USA. In 2009, for instance, of the 483

generic products approved by the US FDA, Indian companies accounted for 138 abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs). International drug companies are also expanding their presence in India, seeking to leverage the R&D skills and the expertise of Indian scientists and technicians. With India being a signatory to the TradeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights-compliant patent regime, international pharmaceutical companies are enhancing their presence. India is indeed emerging as a major healthcare market,
Manufacturing facilities at Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd

especially with the rapid rollout of medical insurance and the proliferation of top-class tertiary-care facilities in many cities. The healthy growth of the pharmaceuticals sector in India will continue to attract huge investments, both from international and domestic players, over the coming years. And the world will increasingly come to depend on India as a major source for affordable and quality drugs.
◆ (Source: IBEF)

The Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Unit of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories

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SOLAR ENERGY FOR 20,000 MW OF POWER
JOYDEEP GUPTA

TAPPING THE SUN

n ancient civilisation like India has always worshipped the sun as the god who bestows life and sustains it. And, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put it: “It is to this source of energy that humankind must turn to meet the twin challenge of energy security and climate change.” Towards this end, India has drawn up ambitious plans to generate a staggering 20,000 MW of solar energy by 2022, a hundredfold increase over the next 12 years. This makes it the world’s biggest solar energy project.

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Asserting that India has started moving forward in utilising solar energy with the launch of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission by the Prime Minister earlier this year under the brand name Solar India, Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah, says that about 1,000 MW of power would be generated through hundreds of solar power plants across the country over the next three years. “In the second phase, we intend to generate an additional 2,000 MW by 2015 and strive to achieve the target of 20,000 MW by 2022. As more and more

players enter the field, the upfront cost of setting up a power plant will reduce to make its energy affordable to all,” Abdullah says. Solar energy can transform India in so many ways. As the Prime Minister said at the launch, it could be the country’s next scientific and technological frontier after the atomic energy, space and information technology revolutions. The mission’s success “has the potential of transforming India’s energy prospects, and contributing also to national as well as global efforts to combat climate change”. The target of building 20,000 MW of solar generating capacity by 2022 was “no doubt ambitious”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted, “but I do sincerely believe that the target is doable and that we should work singlemindedly to achieve it as a priority national endeavour”.

With its abundant sunshine for most of the year, India is in a particularly advantageous position to develop solar power. The country gets about 5,000 trillion kWh per year over its land area with most parts receiving 4-7 kWh per sq m per day. The major problem with the rapid roll-out of solar power is its high cost compared to other sources of power such as coal. Current industry estimates are that it will cost Rs.17.50 to produce a unit of solar power, well over double the cost of production through coal. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the nodal Ministry for Solar India, says the objective of the mission “is to create conditions, through rapid scale-up of capacity and technological innovation, to drive down costs towards grid parity”. “The mission anticipates achieving grid parity by 2022
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and parity with coal-based thermal power by 2030,” says MNRE’s mission document. The economics of solar power looks better as the price of electricity generated from other sources goes up. The price of electricity traded internally has already touched Rs.7 per unit for base loads and around Rs.8.50 per unit during peak periods. This will rise further as the country moves towards imported coal to meet its energy demand. The price of power will have to factor in the availability of coal in international markets and the cost of developing import infrastructure. It is also evident that as the cost of environmental degradation is factored into the mining of coal, as it must, the price of this raw material will increase. With energy shortages biting harder, India is increasing the

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diode) lamps are extensively used for street-lighting, government offices, commercial establishments and households to reduce use of conventional bulbs and compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) that are less efficient and power consuming,” Minister for New & Renewable Energy, Farooq Abdullah says. “We are planning to install solar panels at about 200,00 mobile towers across the country in place of diesel gen-sets used to operate them and check their fallout on environment,” he also notes. use of diesel-based electricity, which is both expensive – costs as high as Rs.15 per unit. It is in this situation that the solar imperative is both urgent and feasible to enable the country to meet long-term energy needs. The Solar India mission will adopt a three-phase approach, spanning the remaining period of the 11th Five Year Plan and the first year of the 12th Plan (up to 2012-13) as Phase 1, the remaining four years of the 12th Plan (2013-17) as Phase 2 and the 13th Plan (2017-22) as Phase 3. The MNRE says the first phase will focus on capturing the easy options in solar thermal; on promoting off-grid systems to serve populations without access to commercial energy and modest capacity addition in grid-based systems. In the second phase, after taking into account the experience of the initial years, capacity will be aggressively ramped up to create conditions for up scaled and competitive solar energy production in the country. This, MNRE says, will be achieved by creating 15 million square meters of solar thermal collector area by 2017 and 20 million square metres by 2022. “The ambitious target for 2022 of 20,000 MW or more will be dependent on the learning of the first two phases, which if successful, could lead to conditions of grid-competitive solar power,” says the mission document. The authorities will make solar heaters mandatory by changing building by-laws, and ensure the introduction of effective
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mechanisms for certification and rating of manufacturers of solar thermal applications. The mission will facilitate promotion of these individual devices through local agencies and power utilities, and support the upgrading of technologies and manufacturing capacities through soft loans. As the Prime Minister put it, “technological innovation will be a key factor in ensuring the success of this mission”. “We will need to find ways of reducing the space intensity of current solar applications, including through the use of nano-technology. Cost-effective and convenient storage of solar energy beyond daylight hours will be critical to its emergence as a mainstream source of power. In the meantime, we

may need to explore hybrid solutions, combining solar power generation with gas, biomass or even coal-based power,” he said. Indian industry will obviously have to play a key role in ensuring the success of the mission, and for this it should set up “Solar Valleys” across the country along the lines of the “Silicon Valleys” that have been set up, according to the Prime Minister. “These valleys will become hubs for solar science, solar engineering and solar research, fabrication and manufacturing. I urge Indian industry to see the national solar mission as the huge business opportunity that it is going to be.” On his part, Minister Abdullah admits that the upfront cost of setting up a solar power plant is high – Rs.15 crore for 1 MW – but says in the long-term, electricity from such a clean and inexhaustible energy source would be rewarding in more ways than from fossil fuels and conventional sources. “Efforts should also be made to ensure LED (light emitting
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To reduce use of firewood and cooking gas in preparing mid-day meals for school-going children and at mass feeding centres at religious and other gatherings, Abdullah advocates increasing use of solar cookers and solar heaters. “Solar cookers are being extensively used at Shirdi in Maharashtra, Mount Abu in Rajasthan and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh to prepare meals for about 20,000-25,000 people a day. This should be promoted in a big way to conserve natural resources and decrease dependence on the import of fossil fuels,” he says.
◆ The author is a freelance journalist. Photographs: Courtesy Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Government of India.

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The Institute, as its charter of objectives says, was intended to pioneer industrial and scientific design in the country in the 1960s, when the growth model espoused by the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru zeroed in on industrial hardware. It was modelled on the Bauhaus and Ulm Schools of Design in Germany. But globalisation and the growth of the secondary and tertiary industrial sectors that are soft and design-driven have compelled the institute

to reorient its educational and outreach policy. The increasing concern about the environment and rising costs have prompted the school to mull on more sustainable and eco-friendly future programmes. “The NID is focusing on design programmes that are more inclusive, eco-friendly, responsible and sustainable with a global perspective,” its Director, Pradyumna Vyas, said. Vyas, who is spearheading the new education module at the NID, however, made it clear

that “while trying to chart a more global course in creative designing, the institute is also maintaining its identity and systems of traditional culture”. “We are trying to take stock of the courses and revamp the design education system and infrastructure so that it can sustain itself for the next 50 years,” the institute head said. A major component of NID’s new design module is a catalytic intervention and outreach programme in the public and private industrial sectors. It is in consonance with the National

National Institute of Design
Changing with the Times
MADHUSREE CHATTERJEE

he National Institute of Design (NID) situated in the textile and business town of Ahmedabad in Gujarat on the western seaboard of the country, will step into its 50th year in 2011. The Institute, which functions as an autonomous body under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is listed as one of the top 25 Design Schools in Asia and Europe. It is often described as the country’s design backbone, spearheading the design movement over the decades. In the run-up to its 50th birthday celebrations, NID has
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unveiled a yearlong bouquet of events that will run through the year to culminate in a glittering finale in December 2011. At the heart of the golden jubilee calendar, however, is a core shift in the design policy of the Institute, which is now promoting a more inclusive and green approach to design, unlike the last four decades – when it channelled creative energy to build a dynamic army of designers who could shape the temples of a developing India in three eventful decades with their specialised education. The Institute’s area of expertise lies in product, textile, graphic, automation, transport and interior designs.
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Design Policy announced in 2007 that seeks to strategically consolidate the importance of design in societal, industrial and economic development to improve the quality of products and services; and position India as a viable international design brand globally. The NID’s new Design Clinic, started at an estimated cost of Rs.730 million ($15 million), is an unique intervention programme for the country’s thriving micro, small and medium scale enterprises under the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme.

The programme, conceived and conducted by NID in collaboration with the government, will help the country’s micro, small and medium industry sectors move up the value chain by helping them include design as a mandatory head in the industrial production process. Most micro, small and medium industries in India still do not realise the importance of design in their output processes and packaging – thus losing out in the global markets, Vyas said. The clinics will reach out to 200 micro, medium and small

enterprises through workshops, sensitisation seminars and direct interventions over a period of two-and-half years. The school is also helping the government develop a G-Mark, a design standard like the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) certification to ensure qualitative uniformity in designs. “These are the areas where the NID can play the most decisive role in helping India map a sustainable, eco-friendly and market-oriented design course,” Vyas said.

The scheme, though futuristic, fits within the ambit of the institute’s conceptual motto of a multi-disciplinary design programme – both in terms of education and outreach, Vyas said. In a preparatory study in 1958, titled the “India Report” by American industrial designers Charles and Ray Eames, the duo stressed the need to “bring together all the disciplines that have appeared in our time – sociology, engineering, philosophy, architecture, economics, communications, physics, psychology, history,

painting, anthropology” to evolve modern production designs. “The growing speed of production and training cries out for some sober unit of informed concern sufficiently insulated to act as a steering device in terms of direction, quality and ultimate values,” the Eames couple said. The couple, who came to India on a Ford Foundation Scholarship, was approached by the government to assess the need for product and industrial designs in India in the 1960s.

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The overall structure of NID’s programme is a combination of theory, skills, design projects and field experiences, supported by cutting-edge design studios, skills and innovation labs and knowledge management centres. Interdisciplinary design studies in science and liberal arts widen the students’ perspectives. The Institute is trying to cash in on the boom in design as a sought-after career choice. Earlier this year, it set up the India Design Council led by industrialist Anand Mahindra, to act as a regulatory body for design education, prepare a data base of design institutes and to guide students and parents in helping them choose the best design programmes. The Council is looking at tax benefits for design investment in industry, research organisations and institutions. To make itself more socially relevant as part of its greater outreach efforts, the NID is working with the International Institute of Information Design in Japan to evolve design-related developments and changes in the lifestyles of communities across India, as also improve healthcare delivery.

The report, a carry-forward of the concerns and strategies that arose from India’s 1953 Industrial Policy Resolution, further stated: “...We recommend an institute of design, research and service which would be an advanced training medium. It would be connected with the Ministry of Commerce and industry – but should retain enough autonomy to protect its prime objective from bureaucratic disintegration.” The report formed the basis for the creation of the NID. The NID has three campuses, a post-graduate facility under construction at Gandhinagar in Gujarat and a Research and Development hub in Bengaluru and the primary learning centre in Ahmedabad.
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It offers professional education programmes at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels with five faculty streams and 16 diverse design domains. It has established exchange programmes and pedagogic relationships with over 35 overseas institutions. It reserves 10 percent of its seats for overseas students. The Institute is ready to expand its footprint to four more locations across India in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. “The new campuses will be independent like the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) in their operations, but NIDAhmedabad will structure their strategies, curriculum and infrastructure development,” the NID Director said.
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◆ The author is a journalist.

Photographs: Courtesy NID.

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Heritage Craft

An Artistic Stitchcraft
Dr. BIMLA VERMA

Kantha

K

Since ages hand embroidery has been used to decorate textiles

In India every region has its distinctive style of embroidery.

Dilip Banerjee

Dilip Banerjee

anthas are essentially made from layers of old materials, sarees etc and embroidered in running stitch. It has a number of traditional patterns based on religious symbols, tales from epics, scenes from villages, flowers, birds, animals and plants in enchanting colour schemes.

and garments. Excavations have revealed bronze embroidery needles dating back to 23001500 B.C. as also figurines wearing embroidered drapes. Similar embroidered textiles can also be seen in the Buddhist sculptures of the second and first century B.C; Kushan sculptures and the frescos of Ajanta.

The most popular Indian hand embroideries are Phulkari of Punjab, Chikankari of Lucknow, Kasauti of Karnataka, Toda embroidery of Tamil Nadu, Mirror work of Gujarat and Rajasthan, Kasida of Kashmir, Chamba embroidery of Himachal Pradesh, Appliqué work of Orissa, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu and Kantha of West Bengal. Kantha was essentially worked by women and it is still carried out only by the women folk of Bengal. Women work on Kantha in their leisure time. A number of worn-out and old

sarees are layered and sewn together. To keep the layers uniform and straight, weights are placed on the four corners and the layers sewn together using close running stitches. There are a variety of Kanthas to serve different purposes. Rumal is a handkerchief. Rumals generally have a lotus design in the centre with other motifs around it. Arshilata in Bengali means a wrap which is used for wrapping ceremonial books, valuables etc. It is square in shape, with wide borders of rows of figures, of humans and animals with a lotus in the

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centre and floral patterns in the corners. They also prepare specially designed pillowcases which have longitudinal patterns of straight lines, conventional trees and birds. Besides these they prepare a most decorated Sujni, used as a bedspread. It is rectangular in shape and has a variety of designs and borders. In the Sujni design a lotus in the middle is surrounded by a variety of motifs of creepers, animals, birds, flowers etc. Sometimes the embroidery is worked right through with cotton yarn, the ornamentation done in chain stitch while

the background is filled with running stitch in a scale pattern. Quilt is also just like Sujni but it is always padded and thick, well designed and decorated with many colours. It is just like a blanket and is used in the winter season. Sujni and Quilt give full freedom to embroiderers to utilise their skill in using motifs, making patterns and the selection of colour schemes. If the embroiderers wish to have a traditional design, then the motifs are traced on the surface. The ground of the motifs is filled up with close,

Dr. Bimla Verma

Dr. Bimla Verma

Dr. Bimla Verma

Dilip Banerjee

Dilip Banerjee

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long and short running stitches, using thread drawn out from the border of the old sarees. Here I wish to mention that Bengali cotton sarees have beautiful borders in many colours. Kantha embroiderers are very fond of motifs of lotus, animals – especially elephants and horses, birds – particularly

peacocks, flowers – lotus from five petals to hundred petals. They love to make a variety of designs with the help of plants and flowers. They also make patterns on popular themes such as wedding scenes, an entourage of musicians, harvest scenes, bullock carts, hunting scenes, and scenes from the

Dr. Bimla Verma

Dilip Banerjee

Dilip Banerjee

Dr. Bimla Verma

Dilip Banerjee

Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Hindu epics. Sacred symbols such as fish, conch, shell, lotus flower, tree of life, mandala and kalash are also widely used. In general, embroiderers take full liberty to introduce innovation in design. Though Kanthas have endless motifs and designs but the “Mandala” and “Kalash” designs are especially made on festive occasions in fulfilment of certain vows. Whenever the embroiderers use the motif of a lotus, they always

start from the centre and work round in a circular shape. In other designs, it starts from the corners, like the tree of life and reaches towards the centre. At times, the stitches are made so cleverly that the design appears the same on both sides and it is almost impossible to distinguish the right side from the reverse. The most popular colours are blue, yellow, red, black or brown and white. Nowadays embroiderers are using many colours on different coloured backgrounds. Traditionally they used only white or off white
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old cotton sarees. Many Kantha items are now prepared with cotton, silk, tussar, monga silk, cambric, semi cotton materials, terry cotton and even synthetic fabrics in many beautiful artistic colour schemes. Embroiderers use both traditional and modern designs. Many fashion designers are also using Kantha embroidery with a combination of mirror or sequin work.

Dr. Bimla Verma

◆ The author is a freelance writer and photographer.

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Dilip Banerjee

Dilip Banerjee

Book Review

REVISITING AWAARA
Text: SURESH KOHLI Photographs: S.M.M. AUSAJA

“I really don’t think Raj Kapoor has made a better film than Awaara. I have probably seen it a hundred times. In addition to all the deserved praise heaped on the film’s many aspects, Raj Kapoor also made history by featuring four generations of our family of actors – from my greatgrandfather, grandfather, father, uncle and finally to me,” says Randhir Kapoor in his Foreword to The Dialogue of Awaara by Nasreen Munni Kabir (Niyogi Books). But before one talks about the import of this threein-one language script edition (Hindi, Urdu and Roman) in preserving or reinventing immortal Bollywood movie lore, or the elegance and aesthetic production values, it is important to recall a little bit of the film’s pre-production history. Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, a well-known Urdu writer, and a journalist in the 1950s first wrote a short story about heredity and environment that had been culled out of a real life incident from the illustrious family’s history. The poet Maulana Hali was Abbas’s great grandfather. But this story was related to his deceased uncle, a Sessions Court Judge who strongly believed in genetic nobility,

until one day much to his shock and dismay, his own wayward son was booked for robbery. The story dealt with the theme but limited itself to a father-son conflict. Abbas narrated the story to his publicist friend, and collaborator, V.P. Sathe and converted it into a screenplay keeping in mind the casting of Prithviraj Kapoor, and his rising actor son, Raj Kapoor. The idea of this casting coup came from the Prithvi Theatre production Pathan in which the father-son duo had first worked together. When Mehboob Khan, basking in the glory and success of Andaz, heard the story he wanted to take it up as his
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next production. But when Abbas insisted on the casting condition, Mehboob Khan backed out. He did not mind casting Prithviraj but not his son who had given him a run for his money during the making of Andaz. Instead, he wanted to cast his favourite, Dilip Kumar. When Raj Kapoor heard of the incident, he approached Abbas for a narration, and on the spot bought the script by giving him and Sathe One rupee as the signing amount. There is also then the tale of how the giant Pathan, Prithviraj Kapoor was roped in through clever word-play to essay the role of a father at a time when he had been essaying the roles of the leading man. The prime reasons for the longevity and magic of Awaara were the novelty of theme, casting, taut script, simple, meaningful dialogue and imaginative direction. In Abbas’s own words: “Raj Kapoor took two years to produce Awaara. It was a unique production – it had all my scenes and dialogue, but it was embellished by Raj Kapoor’s own comedy touches, songs and dances which Raj made pertinent to the story – specially the reel-song ‘dream sequence’.” And before

during the making of Aag and Barsaat had realised the importance of a trustworthy team for converting his fantasies into reality, and how he went about his mission. So when Jal Mistry refused to come on board, preferring to remain a freelance cinematographer, Raj Kapoor brought in Radhu Karmakar. Next, he lured in a reluctant M.R. Archekar “skilled in photography, lithography, portrait painting and draughtsmanship” to the world of arc lights; Shankar and Jaikishen, assistants to composer Ram Ganguly, had already redeemed themselves with the music of Barsaat. A bus conductor doubling up as a poet, Hasrat Jaipuri, whom he met at a mushaira and was impressed by his lyric Jiya bekaraar hai and the Marxist railway employee, Shailendra were the next inducts. Some others were brought up from the Prithvi Theatre staple to complete the back-up team. With a dotting heroine, Nargis and a committed writer in Abbas, Raj Kapoor was destined to scale great heights of success to be eventually called ‘the Great Showman’. “Following an intense year of pre-production, the filming of Awaara began on Raj Kapoor’s twenty-fifth birthday (14 December 1949) at Rang Mahal Studio in Dadar. The entire Kapoor family was present to

the paying-public pronounced it a hit, the industry folk had declared it a flop on the night of the film’s premiere – though it was not the first or the last time the box office returns vindicated the maker’s faith in his product – or even vice versa. The Dialogue of Awaara is an elegantly produced profusely illustrated coffee table book, the stills from the film literally

flashbacking on the mind’s screen the visual interpretation of the screenplay, and the subtle touches that, according to Abbas, Raj Kapoor introduces without compromising the narrative structure. In the introductory chapter appropriately called ‘The Road to Awaara’, Nasreen Munni Kabir brings alive the evolution of the quick-learner Raj Kapoor as a complete film maker who
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see him film the mahurat shot of Prithviraj offering prayers,” notes Kabir and goes on to state that the “biggest challenge Raj Kapoor faced was in bringing alive the dream sequence which was always part of the original screenplay. R K Studio was still under construction in those days, but Raj Kapoor wanted the dream sequence to be the first scene filmed there – even if it meant building the sets on a roofless stage.” The famous nine-minute song sequence was choreographed by Madame Simkie, a French dancer who had worked with Uday Shankar. The title song Awaara Hoon “remains by far the most famous Indian song in the world.” Kabir best reconstructs the story thus: “On trial for the attempted

murder of Judge Raghunath (the excellent Prithiviraj Kapoor), the thief Raj (Raj Kapoor) has for his defence lawyer the love of his life, Rita (Nargis), who also happens to be Raghunath’s ward. Following Rita’s interrogation, both Raghunath and Raj are forced to reveal past events. The story unfolds in two flashbacks: the first shows how Raghunath came to abandon his wife (Leela Chitnis) and their unborn child who turns out to be Raj – a fact both father and son are unaware of (‘Kya aap bata sakte hai aap ne kyon aur kis haal mein apni patni ko ghar se bahar nikala’ in Nargis’s shrill voice still reverberates in memory). The second reveals how the ten-year old Raj, under the influence of the bandit Jagga (K.N. Singh),

takes to crime (the bandit had kidnapped the pregnant wife of the Judge Raghunath to avenge his punishment at the hands of Raghunath).” The purpose behind the book is to bring alive for posterity and preserve in permanent form the wonderful screenplay and dialogue by K.A. Abbas – based on a story by Abbas and Sathe (it should have been the other way round, Nasreen!). The Hindustani (a mix of Urdu and Hindi) dialogue is smart, witty, full of irony and abounding with an elegant use of language… The dialogue also has an early use in Hindi cinema of a character catchphrase which later “became hugely popular in Hindi films and the dialogue of many films are remembered thanks to a catchphrase.” The book has “meticulously transcribed the entire dialogue and song lyrics of the original

soundtrack and reproduced it in Hindi, Urdu and Romanised Hindi while the English translation attempts to retain the intelligent layering of the original” it “also includes extensive endnotes that provide information and commentary.” Nothing gets left out as the original narrative unfolds itself script and dialogue wise while the photographs provide the visual graph in the absence of actual footage. The colour photographs of the R K Studio by New York based Adam Bortos not only lend credence to the legacy of Raj Kapoor but also to the immortality of his cinema. Raj Kapoor had himself conducted the first tour of the complex, and the Sanctum Sanctorum for the benefit of the present writer way back in the mid-seventies, memories of which still sometimes return to haunt one. Flashbacking, certain similarities stare one in the face. The
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◆ The author is a documentary film maker.

original screenplay of Henna, for the launch of which Raj Kapoor had done all the paperwork, had again been Abbas’s brainchild (though not acknowledged in the credit titles of the film) though its direction by Randhir Kapoor after his father’s death left a lot to be desired). The K.A. Abbas-Raj Kapoor team lasted four decades. The coincidence of their deaths, (as if their souls were to meet again in heaven), being separated by exactly one year – Abbas breathed his last in a suburban Mumbai nursing home on 1 June 1987, and Kapoor’s still body was shifted from a New Delhi hospital to the R K Studios on 2 June 1988. Abbas died at the age of 73 while Raj Kapoor met his end at 63 – both in a semi-comatose state.

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Puppetry Today
Dreaming a New Future
CHANDANA DUTTA

t was almost thirty years back when I first read an article on puppetry in Target – a popular children’s magazine. My interest stemmed from the fact that it featured my brother and some of his friends, receiving hands-on training on making puppets from the renowned and iconic puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee. Though I was overwhelmed by the joy of sibling celebrity, the field of puppetry held immense interest for me even in those early days. With time, I have come to know the art form and its pioneering practitioner
Masked figures (below) and a contemporary dance and puppetry collaboration on three characters from the Mahabharata – Krishna/puppet, Gandhari and the dead.

I

Dadi Pudumjee

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Vipul Sangoi

better. What follows is a brief overview of a form which has deep roots in the narrative traditions of this country, which has seen far-reaching transformations over time and which has managed to overcome a phase of dormancy to reinstate itself afresh in popular public taste and elicit appreciation that continues to increase. Puppetry is an art form and Dadi Pudumjee firmly believes in its divine origins. He says, for a child, a puppet could be a plaything, for an adult perhaps an intriguing mirror

that portrays life and for the scholar a never-ending source of tales and images linking and stimulating our subconscious. But, for the puppeteer, it is a sacred image that should not be taken in jest as just another inanimate object that is temporarily brought to life, a trap that one often falls into in modern times. For him, very much in keeping with the traditionalist notion, the eyes of the puppets are the focus and the main feature. In India, most puppeteers and puppet makers will, even today, paint in the eye at the very end of completing the figures, thus

Kalpataru – a shadow puppet, object and movement piece based on The Giving Tree.

Satya ke Pratirup (Images of Truth) – a performance on the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

infusing them with life. In many of our languages, therefore, for example in Hindi, Sanskrit and Bangla, the word for a puppet is putli or putul, panchalika, puttikaa or putulika, all of which share a double meaning – of the pupil of the eye and that of a puppet. Many other languages have similar sounding variations as well. In fact, the English word puppet derives from the Latin Pupa or Pupula, which describes equally well a little girl and a doll. Pupula also means the pupil of the eye. In German the word is Puppe, while the French one is Poupee. These words ascribe to the puppets a quality of observation, of being able to look back into the past as well as of possessing the ability to see into the future, that makes the art form at once traditional

as well as contemporary. For Dadi, and perhaps for many other practitioners as well, this is also what holds the key to making puppetry a global form, one that originates across countries in individual ways but which also has a deep-rooted shared history and import. Dadi Pudumjee entered the field as a young enthusiast in 1958. Today he is well known and established as a pioneer of modern puppetry in India, but by his own confession, in his early days in Pune he treated puppetry mainly as a hobby, playing around mostly with string puppets. He had very little information on the subject and the knowledge that he possessed was limited to the puppets of Rajasthan. It was only later at the Darpana
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Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad that he encountered the vast gamut of techniques and styles of Indian puppetry under the late Meher R. Contractor. Later, in the mid-seventies in Sweden under Michael Meschke of the Swedish Marionette Theatre Institute he began to understand and appreciate what the form was really all about. Meschke’s outlook to puppetry was radically different, incorporating ideas from various other art forms and transforming puppetry into a means to something and a form that did not simply remain an end. This philosophy had a tremendous influence on Dadi. In fact, Dadi has always valued the inherent similarities of puppetry around the world and still acknowledges the power of the form he witnessed in certain other traditions such as the Bunraku of Japan and the puppet styles of the erstwhile socialist block which have had a lasting influence on the conceptualization and creation of his own characters. Looking back anew at his first creative phase, he says, “My first job at ISRO SAC in Ahmedabad was with the serial Hun and Hann where I used modern puppets for TV. At the time it possibly was the first puppet serial made for TV using puppet-characters specially made and scripted for

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts

Dadi Pudumjee

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that medium and not theatre puppets shot for it.” Reflecting on the traditional-modern mix then and now, he finds that the traditional forms are rarely stagnant and where they haven’t died out, they have surely changed, some for the better and others not so. In all, he considers that puppetry in India has used its time very well, with the art form having had a successful stint and a winning revival. As a puppeteer he is joyous, glad to have made his hobby into a profession after having studied it in Ahmedabad and Sweden. And it is no mean moment for India to have him for the last two years as a proud first non-European President in the eighty-year old history of the world body UNIMA, which is the world’s first registered international puppet-theatre organisation (www.unima.org). To celebrate this feat in its true spirit, one has to be aware not only of India and its varied local traditions but of some sixty-four worldwide national centres involved in working with puppet traditions, their aspirations and the problems they encounter, and their efforts to continuously overcome them. It is essential as a puppeteer to be aware of the terminologies and ideas of the west which can
S. Thyagarajan

Dhola Maru – based on the Gatha Dhola Maru from Rajasthan, performed with large masked figures, actors, puppeteers and traditional Rajasthani kathputlis.
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sometimes greatly differ from those of the east and near east. As Dadi sees it, in India there was a traditional phase, followed by a modern one which saw many changes made to the older forms. Then there was a cohesive phase, where a balance was worked out between the two major phases, especially in terms of their content and expression. Today, there are many young artistes who are carving a niche for themselves within the field. However, some others are stuck in the past or in the beginnings

Transposition – based on a Vikram Betal story and Thomas Mann’s Transposed Heads, performed with dancers, puppets and masks (right & below).

Giant processional puppets for Commonwealth Youth Games, Pune

Dadi Pudumjee

Dadi Pudumjee

of the early nineteenth century. In terms of an actual palpable shift in the form, content, story, import, and so on, between the old and the new, between the first crop of modern puppeteers and the younger ones today, the major changes, rather work, seems to be happening mostly in the urban pockets. There seems to be a far greater need for exposure for many groups to modern and contemporary trends that are also continuously evolving. There is an urgency to create our own, individualistic vocabularies, contexts and

themes while simultaneously addressing these areas in a fresh manner. The first schools and trends of modern Indian puppetry were chiefly from Kolkata and Ahmedabad, but today many young puppeteers have taken these ideas and evolved new expressions of their own. For Dadi the fear also is that puppeteers today seem to be getting obsessed with technique to look “modern” while overlooking the essence of the art form.

Dadi also happens to be the Founder-Director of the Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust, started in 1986 to acquaint people with puppetry. After several successful years and growth, the team thought of the Annual Ishara Festival, now in its eighth year. This has grown tremendously in scale with major support from the Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust, helped by Teamwork Productions, and some support from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Centre for Performing Arts and the Ford Foundation. Besides its

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Sanjoy Roy

own productions, the Ishara Trust has been working with collaborators and agencies, producing puppets and masks for various TV and video programmes and events. It has spread the use of Muppets and Marrots in education through folk tales and satires. Ishara also conducts workshops in various forms of puppetry, for children, adults and theatre groups. Dadi’s ultimate ambition is to modernize the art to a degree when puppet theatre can become an acceptable medium of education by itself.

After much hard work, puppetry now seems indeed to have managed to “break even,” with its audience willing to pay to enjoy themselves. It seems, therefore, well on its way to being a commercially sustainable art form. Having witnessed eight years of encouragement from audiences in Delhi and Gurgaon, the team at Ishara was encouraged to extend the Festival to Mumbai
Haran Kumar

Simple Dreams – a visual poem on life and nature (left) and Chunouti (The Challenge) – a performance to create awareness against HIV and Substance abuse (below).

in the last two years where too it has seen great success. Now Dadi is working hard on a plan to take it around other cities of India. The Ishara Festival has definitely created a platform for puppeteers to showcase their work in India but the puppeteers are sure that they will still need support from government authorities, cultural organizations, corporate houses, and other suchlike institutions in order to ensure a fulfilling future and a worldclass presence for a form that

has languished unnoticed for many years. There are, of course, some cautionary points, the most important perhaps being to come to a happy balance between the modern and the traditional. Though the modern successes of puppetry have given a boost and focus in some ways to the traditional styles and artistes in India, certain practitioners take recourse to the very strong techniques of the older ways

Giant Puppets in a dance and performance piece

Dadi Pudumjee

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Dadi Pudumjee

Dadi Pudumjee with old man Parsee puppet (left) and in a contemporary dance & puppetry collaboration

Dadi D. Pudumjee, Managing Trustee and Artistic Director of the Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust, is currently the President of UNIMA. He trained in Visual Communication from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and subsequently in puppet theatre from the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Ahmedabad, the Marionette Theatre Institute Stockholm, Sweden and the Vår Theatre Stockholm, Sweden. Among his numerous professional positions have been Guest Director, Puppen Theatre, Berlin; Pedagogue at Vår Theater Stockholm, Sweden;

Artistic Director and Founder of Sutradhar Puppet Theatre, Shri Ram Center for Art and Culture, New Delhi; Curator of Man, Mask and Mind Exhibition of Masks, IGNCA, New Delhi and Festival Director, Sangeet Natak Akademi, National Puppet Festival in March 2003. He has received the Sangeet Natak Akademi National Award for work in puppetry, the Sanskriti Pratisthan Award for Puppetry, the Delhi Natya Sangh Award for Puppetry and the Delhi Parsee Anjuman Cultural Award. He has worked and collaborated with several individuals and organizations

in the use of puppetry for education and entertainment, both in India and abroad. His performances and workshops have taken him to Europe, USA, Russia, Japan, Canada, Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, Singapore, Brazil, Australia, UK, Sri Lanka and China amongst others. Considered one of India’s most creative and modern puppeteers, he combines puppetry with dance, theatre and the allied arts. He works with socially relevant themes using puppetry and object theatre and has been commended for the creative synthesis of the medium and the message.

Vipul Sangoi

Anay Mann

Nukad Natak (Neighbourhood Drama) – a masked performance to create awareness against HIV and Substance abuse (above); Ishara Workshop – giving life to the puppet (right) and masked figures (right below).

without giving credit to it. This displaces the respect due to each style. At the same time, traditional puppeteers also need to understand that times are changing and they need to be conscious enough to evolve their styles, techniques of production, the quality of manipulation and storytelling to fit in with audience tastes. It is urgent, therefore, for all those involved with the form to grasp well the language of puppetry as well as the vocabulary of the times.

It may be apt to conclude with Dadi’s own words on what puppetry means to him as an art form. “I consider myself to be at par with a painter, writer or dramatist who uses new techniques in a given context to elevate his work to universal and contemporary levels of acceptability. If this art form remains static it will definitely lose its audience.” And it is this stasis that he is trying to work against.

Dadi Pudumjee

◆ The author has worked as Assistant Director for the publishing wing of Katha, a pioneering non-profit venture in the field of translations, set up the publishing outfit Indialog of which she was the Chief Editor, and has also been Editor, Indian Horizons, a quarterly journal on art and culture published by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi.

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Tribute

Bismillah & Benaras
JUHI SINHA

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y team and I had been in Benaras for the last seven days, of which two, had been spent waiting to meet Ustad Bismillah Khan. Our shooting of Benaras town, river, the ghats and the Ramnagar fort was over, but our meeting with Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan was still pending, and I could not leave Benaras, without meeting, its most famous personage, Bismillah Khan. Finally, when I had almost given up hope, I got a call to say that I had an

Juhi Sinha

Benaras: Temples, Mosque and Ghats.
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appointment with Khan Sahib at eleven the following morning. Born on the 21st of March 1916, in the small town of Dumraon, in Bihar, in Eastern India, Bismillah’s father and grandfather before him were Shehnai players at the court of the ruler of Dumraon. When Bismillah Khan was four, he, his mother, and elder brother, Shamsuddin moved to Benaras to live with Bismillah’s maternal grandfather and his family. Bismillah’s father, Paighamber Bux felt that Benaras, as a major centre of music and the arts would offer better opportunities for his sons. Moreover, their uncles in Benaras were well known Shehnai players and could guide the two brothers in the world of music. On my way to meet Bismillah Khan, I travelled down the narrow road in Benia Bazar, which led to an unpretentious house that looked at least a hundred years old, which in fact it was. In the living room, I was greeted by Khan Sahib’s son-inlaw and secretary Javed, and the second of his five sons – Nayyar Hussain. The room was cold, and I was glad to learn that Bismillah Khan was upstairs on the rooftop terrace. My team and I, were taken upstairs to meet Khan Sahib. He lived in the single room on the terrace, as moving up and down the narrow old fashioned stairs, was difficult for his arthritic knees.

power. His advice to his grandson was simple – “No health, no breath, no music.” Thus began Bismillah’s strict regimen of exercise on the banks of the Ganga. ‘Kushti’ or wrestling was an ancient practice of Benaras, and Bismillah made it a part of his daily routine; after hours of music practice, exercise, a bath in the river he then headed home for another round of ‘riyaz’. On his way home, Khan Sahib passed through Dal Mandi, a locality famous for its singers. The women here entertained
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men at evening soirees and some of India’s most talented singers hailed from Dal Mandi. Fascinated by the snatches of music that wafted out from their homes, Bismillah narrated how he would pause outside each home, enjoying the songs and their distinctive melodies. In later years, many of these became a permanent part of his repertoire, and he played them even at formal concerts. It was during his walk through Dal Mandi that Bismillah Khan smoked his first surreptitious cigarette “A Wills!” he said, his eyes sparkling with remembered glee.

He was, after all, eighty-seven years old. The first thing that struck me about Khan Sahib was his smile – it was warm, spontaneous and creased the corners of his eyes, in genuine amusement. Soon my camera began to roll and Khan Sahib began to talk. It was immediately obvious that he was a born raconteur – he loved telling a story – from mischievous anecdotes of his childhood, to his days of adolescence, his spiritual experiences along the banks of the Ganga, his forthright views on music and his conviction of its divinity. “Music, Sur, Namaz – they are all the same. They all lead to Allah!” Khan Sahib’s guru and mentor was his maternal uncle, Ustad
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Ali Baksh, a skilled Shehnai player who played regularly at the Vishwanath Temple. As was the custom, the deities of many temples in Benaras were ‘awakened’ at dawn, by the auspicious music of the Shehnai. Ali Baksh took his nephew under his wing, and introduced him not only to music, but to the many culinary delights of Benaras. The town was famous for its sweets, and Bismillah loved the many delicacies that the city offered. Uncle and nephew specially enjoyed ‘mallaiya’, a light frothy concoction of cream. But on a visit to Dumraon, Bismillah’s grandfather, Rasool Bux warned him of the pitfalls of over indulgence, more so since Shennai playing demanded tremendous lung
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As Khan Sahib grew into his teens, he, like his ‘Mamu’ (maternal uncle) before him, would get up at 4-30 a.m., walk to a small room high above the banks of the Ganga, and start his daily practice. “On one side was the temple of Balaji, on the other the Mangala Maiyya temple. There was Gangaji flowing below, and, in between all these sacred sites, I practiced my Shehnai every morning in the pre-dawn quiet.” And it was here that Khan Sahib had his first, and most unforgettable spiritual experience. He saw an apparition – ‘more beautiful than

anything he had ever seen – Baba Vishwanath’ standing tall beside his Shehnai – he asked Khan Sahib to play for him, but the terrified young boy could not. The apparition laughed and blessed Khan Sahib telling him that he would enjoy life. Throughout his life, Bismillah Khan believed that it was the blessings of Baba Vishwanath that he had received. And blessings or ‘dua’ was the most precious thing a man could have, which “not even a thousand men” could take away. Benaras gave India many great artists – but only a few chose to live there throughout their

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh releasing the commemorative postage stamp on Ustad Bismillah Khan in New Delhi on August 21, 2008. The Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Shri A. Raja and the Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology, Shri Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia are also seen in the picture.

lives. But Bismillah’s attachment to the town and to the river Ganga, was such a strong emotional bond, that for him to leave Benaras was unthinkable. Many cities beckoned but his heart remained firmly anchored in Benaras. Once on a visit to the United States of America, a wealthy admirer asked Bismillah Khan to live in the USA permanently. Anything that Bismillah could want would be provided for, he promised. Bismillah then asked him, if he could bring Gangaji, the Shiva temple and his mosque to the USA? If not, then nothing could persuade him to leave Benaras, for wherever he traveled in the world, he said, his heart was always in Benaras.

My meeting with Bismillah Khan was over, and as I left I knew that I would always feel privileged that I had met, not only one of the greatest artists that India had, but a man of such extraordinary and disarming simplicity. His monumental stature as an artist, his enormous success in the world of music, was at complete variance with his persona and lifestyle. He won every national award, including the country’s highest civilian award the Bharat Ratna, and every concert earned him large sums. Yet his own needs were minimal. His earnings supported not only his large, immediate family but many other deprived families in the neighbourhood.
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◆ The author is a documentary film maker.

On 21st of August 2006, Bismillah Khan passed away. The nation mourned the loss of one of the greatest artists of India. He was honoured by a 21-gun salute and the Indian flag flew at half mast. Tributes poured in from across the world, and all the television channels carried live coverage from Benaras. I, too, shared the outpouring of grief, but somehow my enduring memory of Bismillah Khan was of the man I had met in Benaras, a man who had lived a full life, and at nearly ninety, could still smile at the vagaries of life and the world.

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Mother and Daughter
Where Dance is Life
LEELA VENKATARAMAN

n exceptionally talented mother-daughter combination, Daksha Sheth and Isha, while sharing the same burning passion for dance are refreshingly different, each a very distinctive personality. Daksha has an established reputation as choreographer/dancer with expertise in Kathak, Mayurbhanj Chhau and Kalarippayattu. Young Isha, is an expert in fencing and Kalarippayattu, is a dancer, a theatre and film actor as well as an aerialist, adept at Kerala’s Mallakhamb rope balancing technique. One may be fooled by Daksha Sheth’s casual, unpretentious exterior, However, it takes very little to discover that this slender, quiet figure, hides a mind of steely resolve, of a person who has
Daksha and Isha in the green room

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lived life on her own terms, undaunted by its vicissitudes. “Destiny wove my fate with Dance. Otherwise, how does one explain the happenstance of my mother, who was furiously looking around for a good Kathak teacher for me, in far off Ahmedabad, (where even the word Kathak was unknown), suddenly ran into Kumud Behen (Kumudini Lakhia, renowned Kathak choreographer/teacher), who having just married a Gujarati, had come to Ahmedabad to settle down!” Her primary Kathak Guru, Kumudini Lakhia, (to whom the dancer owes her regal carriage, holding the

body proudly erect and moving with a queenly gait) adds, “Her mother brought her to me as a little girl. Seeing her shoes resting on the shoe rack tilted, due to more wear and tear on the one side, I decided that the initial emphasis had to be on training her to balance her body weight equally, on the full feet. Today I can say, she is one of the best artists I have helped mould.” Indeed, Daksha on the stage, is a transformed presence, every move of hers, potent with dramatic power and stillness
Isha (left) and Daksha (below) in captivating poses.

Devissaro

Subi Samuel

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Dhiraj Chawla

– qualities that a dancer striving for years may not acquire. With her superbly balanced body, she is a natural for Mayurbhanj Chhau, with its elaborate leg sweeps in the air, with just one foot grounded. Even while performing in a group, she always stands out from the rest of the dancers. It was in the early 1980’s during the prestigious Kathak Mahotsav, mounted by the Kathak Kendra, that this dancer in her solo presentation offered “The Seasons”, her choreography of chaste Kathak movements, matched to legendary western composer Vivaldi’s score. Even as traditional eyebrows shot up in mingled disbelief and disapproval, most of the younger generation of Kathak performers surrounded her backstage with ecstatic cheers. “Creating my own Toda, Tukda or Tihai was for me a matter of great pride and satisfaction. Isn’t that the best gift a disciple can present to her guru? It is like parents who feel proud when their children outgrow them and prosper. This way of bringing freshness into one’s own art and adding to what a teacher like “Kummiben” and Maharajji had given me, was soul filling.” Ask Daksha why she sought training under Pandit Birju Maharaj, after so many fruitful years evolving an innovative mind, under Kumudini Lakhia, she is quick to reply, “To
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Daksha with Devissaro (above) and in Search for my Tongue (facing page).

understand the depths of tradition. I did not seek new choreographies from Maharajji. He is a ‘gharanedar’, (from the tradition), I went to him to get fresh insights into the secrets of tradition, and he gave that in ample measure.” But Daksha’s insatiable hunger for dance experience, despite all that Pandit Birju Maharaj and Kumudini Lakhia had bequeathed, led her to Mayurbhanj Chhau, after she witnessed Guru Krishnachandra Nayak during classes at Bharatiya Kala Kendra. It was also here at the much sought after restaurant on the premises, that she ran into the footloose and fancy-free Australian Devissaro, destined to become her life partner. Sharing a room with a disciple of Dhrupad Fahimuddin Dagar, Devissaro, sold out on Dhrupad, had an amazingly profound knowledge of Indian music. Like-minded in their independent ways, not intimidated by society
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and its conventions, Daksha and Devissaro were soon inseparable companions, Daksha going to the extent (even surprising Devissaro) of trusting herself to hitchhike rides perched on the backseat of Devissaro’s much repaired bicycle, its various parts calibrated many times. A juicy twosome for gossip mongers at a time, when girls riding pillion with boys was unthinkable, the couple decided to get married. Daksha’s parents (father a businessman, of comfortable means) were not a bit amused, when she showed them a photograph of Devissaro in his Yogic garb (one of the phases in his life), confirming their fears about their daughter having made a weird choice. A telegram about her mother being sick, meant to wean Daksha away from Devissaro’s presence, only elicited Daksha’s calm reply, that there were four other siblings at home, to attend to mother if need be. But with time and closer interactions, her parents soon changed their mind and, to quote Devissaro, “After the initial reluctance, my parents-in-law have been most sweet and cooperative.” Defying her Kathak gurus, Daksha went to Baripada (in Orissa), the home of Mayurbhanj Chhau. Sticking it out in the district town, despite its deep caste divisions (dancers regarded highly were

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Daksha in different compositions (above and facing page)

on one side of the river nearer the palace, separated from the lower castes on the other side), she ignored disapproving elders, asking her to return, since Chhau was an all male discipline and not meant for a ‘high caste girl’. Learning much from persons like Lal Mohan Patro, a musician who knew a lot about the dance, Krishnachandra Sen and others, Daksha mastered plenty of compositions – an American friend’s tape recorder helping her to record all the songs. “Chhau changed my perception and opened many doors for me, for I had always been fascinated by the idea of aerial movements with the legs, contrasting with the completely grounded strength
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of Kathak. With its delightful aerial leg sweeps, Chhau gave me just the right balanced vocabulary to work with.” After marrying, the couple shifted to Brindavan. “I have always taken intuitive decisions, never bothered about the pros and cons. And Brindavan with an octogenarian poet Kavi Kalyan Sharma, became a haven of opportunities with his incredible sung verses. Claiming Vallabhacharya as his family guru, Dhrupad, Dhamar, the entire Ashtachhap poet collection, became available through him. “I had a wonderful singer from Barsana, and Kalyanji rewrote his own composition
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Govindlila, to make it suitable for dance. We were exposed to some of the oldest poetic treasures of this area. When I choreographed Kathak dance to these compositions, audiences loved it and soon temples like Radha Raman, Banke Bihari, Govindlila – all started inviting me to perform Kathak as an offering to the God. What an unforgettable experience – for when dance becomes an offering, (nritya-seva), its tone is indescribably beautiful. It was just the dance and me, with the God in front. “We made a strange sight, for by that time I had had both children and Isha six years old and Tao a toddler would pile

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Isha in Sarpa-gati (facing page) and in Bhukham

in, with both of us into one rickshaw, while the musicians followed in another. We became a strange roving, performing troupe – the people giving us the greatest encouragement. But those magical years abruptly ended when Kalyanji who was a terminal tuberculosis patient (we never knew) passed away, and living in Brindavan became difficult. We decided to leave”. Then, the family started on another adventure moving to Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) in Kerala, where after the initial difficult years, the couple established a beautiful campus. The four of
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them moving around, for years, in a two-wheeler vehicle was no picnic and they all escaped serious injury, in an accident. Daksha’s father promptly sent them his car saying, “Use this. No more two-wheelers for I am not prepared to hear about any mishap.” Establishing themselves in this land of Kathakali and Kalarippayattu, was never going to be easy. Though misfits, they acquired a few eager stragglers as disciples, “who were on our pay role for learning and being part of the troupe. I think we were the only example of teachers paying the students
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who came to learn, instead of being paid for teaching. But despite very difficult times, the quality of our work and the invitations to perform outside the country, sustained us. Our professionalism, our lighting, our impeccable organizing skills were appreciated.” The troupe is booked to perform at the Kennedy Centre in New York next year. Having traveled to several countries, Daksha says performing for Indonesian audiences has been her best experience “though we get standing ovations everywhere.” That the heart is where the home is, is apparent from how

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the couple talks about their home. “We have planted 600 trees on our campus. We share the beautiful land with a family of dogs and cats – not forgetting cobras which often visit us in the studio during rehearsals. We slowly shoo them away and they quietly leave, and we carry on with the work. Everybody knows that here no one can kill any living creature. We must share this earth,” says Devissaro decidedly.

With its blend of what Daksha has imbibed from Kathak, from Kalarippayattu, from Chhau and her own movement inventions, her works have a unique flavour – of the traditional and the contemporary mingling in a new garb. ‘Sarpa-gati’ in 1996, with Isha and her male partner doing Mallakhamb, slithering up and down the ropes hanging from the ceiling like graceful snakes, now entwined and now unentangled, had the audience

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Daksha in a striking posture

in awe. Mahishasura-mardini, Bhukham, Kal Chakra, Vastra (work in progress), Silence is a Rhythm, Govindlila, Ashtayam, Yagna , Chhaya, Time Piece, – Daksha’s works are in many different manifestations. It is as if the vitality and rawness of folk idioms vibes with the sophistication of classical forms. In Search for my Tongue dancer Daksha suddenly emerged from under a mound of dry leaves in a dramatic move. Period costume, lights, music conceptualization and aural direction come from Devissaro. Calling herself a gambler by nature, Daksha admits to being comfortable with uncertainty. “I enjoy success, but I do not fear failure”. The children of a couple, so strongly different from the usual artist world, had to be individuals in their own right. And they are. Son Tao, a rhythm machine when barely two years old, comfortable with playing 7,9, and 11 matras when he had barely begun to talk, is now a wizard on all types of percussion instruments. Ask Isha, if you can get a moment with her, amidst her punishing grind of rehearsing from 6-30 a.m. to 8-30 p.m. every single day of the week, if she regards herself as an actor, who also dances or a dancer who occasionally acts, and pat
Rope duet in Sarpa-gati

vegetables – sharing our land with creatures, working at our productions for hours each day, eating satvik food. It is not just Yoga as an exercise but leading a yogic life. My brother who is part of a Band, and great at rhythm, and I, love this life.” How does it compare with a film career? “So different” she laughs. “In my studio I would not think twice about taking a broom and cleaning up the dance floor. I can’t do that while rehearsing for a film. But I do not care for glamour like that. Life is too short. I want to live it fully – the more skills I gather, the better. I give my best to whatever I am doing.” What about romantic engagements? “Nothing so far. I am too happy just doing what I want to do. I do not want to do commercials, I am not making any statement. Being myself is important.” Daksha sums up her career. “For me working is life. I am not bothered about how one calls it – success, failure. I am never after a fashionable wardrobe or gorgeous clothes. I am what I am. The joy is in the journey itself, not in reaching some imagined end. Happiness lies in the quest itself.”

comes the reply “I think of myself as belonging to only one category – that of a performing artist. And my mother has planned my career that way – so that I can be ready with any skill wanted in a role at any time. I do Yoga too, and that is what sustains me through such heavy schedules of work.” “What do you regard as your greatest achievement in life so far?” “For all times, I value the satvik life style, in my Kerala home, that my parents have drilled into me. We work close to the earth, loving its flavours, growing our own food and
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◆ The author is a dance critic and has written a number of books on Indian classical dance.

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The Art of India House, London
ASOKE MUKERJI

was opened officially on July 8, 1930 by King George V, and was completed in January 1932. The most striking feature of the art of India House is its organic link with contemporary movements in Indian art, especially the Bengal School. This was due in no small measure to the vision of Rothenstein, who had been active in the Royal Society of Arts, London. Along with Ernest Binfield Havell (1861-1934), the former Principal of the Government School of Art in Calcutta from 1896 to 1905, Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947), Lady Christiana Herringham (1852-1947), and Thomas Arnold, among others, Rothenstein founded the India Society on 13 January, 1910 in order to encourage an appreciation of Indian fine art. It was Coomaraswamy who introduced Rothenstein to the works of one of the leading artists of the “Calcutta” school, Abanindranath Tagore. Rothenstein recounts in his essay, “An Indian Pilgrimage”, how his decision to travel to India in 1910 to see Indian art for himself was due to Lady Herringham. Prior to his visit to India, Rothenstein had
The Eastern Quadrant was painted by Lalit Mohan Sen

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hen Sir Herbert Baker designed the new building of the High Commission of India (India House) in London in the 1920s, he provided high vaulted ceilings on the ground floor, as well as a huge central dome, as readily available spaces for decoration. India’s High Commissioner, Sir Atul Chatterjee, who had proposed the building of India House in 1925, was persuaded by Sir William Rothenstein (1872-1945), the Principal of the Royal College of Art in London, to select artists from India to paint these vacant spaces in the reception areas of the new building. The actual painting of the murals began only after the building

The western Quadrant painted by Sudhansu Sekhar Choudhury

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Childhood (Balyavastha) by Dhirendra Krishna Deb Barman

Work (Karma) by Dhirendra Krishna Deb Barman

been warned by Sir Richmond Ritchie, Secretary in the Political and Secret Department at the India Office, that his “sympathy for Indians and for things Indian would encourage the Nationalists” but he did not heed this advice. Rothenstein’s visit to Benaras left vivid impressions on him, “the crowded, coloured, agitated scene” reminding him of “a classical city; of Corinth or of Carthage; and again, in the densely packed streets, of medieval Rome”. His painting “Sunset at Benaras” was presented to India House after the building was opened in 1930, and hangs in the Nehru Hall of the building today. When he reached Calcutta, Rothenstein was met by Abanindranath Tagore, along with his brother Goganendranath, who took him to their family home, Jorasanko. Rothenstein interacted with the artists of the Indian Society of Oriental Art in Calcutta. Apart from Abanindranath and Goganendranath Tagore, this group included Nandalal Bose and Asit Halder. Abanindranath and his contemporaries had popularized their contemporary art movement,
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which became known as the “Bengal School”. They looked to ancient murals and medieval Indian miniatures for inspiration in their choice of subject matter and in the use of materials such as tempera. Significantly, these styles and influences were to find exquisite expression in the art of India House twenty years later. It was at Jorasanko, in February 1911, that Rothenstein first met Abanindranath’s uncle, Rabindranath Tagore, Rothenstein was deeply impressed by Rabindranath, whom he described as “one of the most remarkable men of this time”. The meeting between the Indian poet and the British artist was to prove significant in propagating the appeal and creativity of Indian nationalist thought in the West. Rabindranath visited England during 1912 and 1913. On board the ship, he took up the poems of his Gitanjali, filling up a notebook with translations of the collection from the original Bengali into English. Soon after his arrival on June 16, 1912 Tagore sought out Rothenstein, who took the notebook of English-language translations of poems from Tagore and had copies
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Each of the artists was relatively unknown, yet their paintings were imbued with the spirit of contemporary Indian art and technique. Lalit Mohan Sen, born in the town of Nadia in Bengal in 1898, had moved to Lucknow in 1912. After studying mural art at the Royal College of Art, London, in 1926, he had returned to Lucknow to work as Superintendent, Drawing and Teacher’s Training Class in 1929. That same year, Sen had been chosen to decorate the Viceroy’s House – today, Rashtrapati Bhawan – in New Delhi, subsequently appearing in the competition for painting murals in India House. Ranada Charan Ukil was the youngest of the famous Ukil brothers. Sarada Ukil (1889-1940), had been an early student of Abanindranath Tagore, coming to Delhi in 1918 as the first Arts teacher of Modern School, located at 24, Daryaganj and run by Sarada’s friend Lala Raghubir Singh. The Sarada Ukil School of Art was established in Delhi, in 1926. Two years later, through the “active and keen initiative of the illustrious Ukil brothers, Sarada, Barada and Ranada”, the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS) was founded in New Delhi, to “propagate art and culture in India and abroad, and to look after the upliftment of artists in India in particular”. Dhirendra Krishna Deb Barman, born in 1903, studied art at Santiniketan under Nandalal Bose between 1919 and 1928. He went on to specialize in mural painting at the Royal College of Art in London. After working on his project in India House, he was appointed Principal of the Kala Bhawan at Santiniketan.
The floor of the entrance hall has twelve beautifully inlaid symbols of the provinces of India

The magnificent Central Dome

typed. On July 7, 1912 Rothenstein arranged for the poems to be read at his rented house in Hampstead by the poet W.B. Yeats. On November 1, 1912 the India Society published a limited edition (750 copies, of which 500 were for its members and 250 for general sale) of Gitanjali: Song Offerings containing English translations of 103 poems, with an introduction by Yeats and a pencil-sketch of Tagore by Rothenstein. Gitanjali won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Tagore dedicated the publication to Rothenstein. High Commissioner Sir Atul Chatterjee referred the proposal for painting the interiors of India House to the Government of India. The Chief Commissioner of Delhi, Sir John Perronet Thomson, chaired a high-powered committee that selected four artists from the eighty who applied. The successful artists were Lalit Mohan Sen (Lucknow), Ranada Charan Ukil (Delhi), Dhirendra Krishna Deb Barman (Santiniketan) and Sudhansu Sekhar Choudhury (Calcutta), and they travelled to England to be further trained at the Royal College of Art under Rothenstein.
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Sudhansu Sekhar Choudhury, born in 1903, studied under Abanindranath and Gogendranath Tagore at the Indian Society of Oriental Arts, Calcutta. He visited Thailand and Cambodia in 1928, appearing in the competition to select artists for the murals of India House a year later. Choudhury, who lived in England between 1929 and 1932, had a solo exhibition at London’s prestigious Fine Arts Society on New Bond Street. After his return to India, Choudhury painted murals in various cinema halls in northern India. The four young artists were sent to London on scholarships in August 1929. They visited Florence, Rome and other European cities to study the technique of painting on plaster. On completion of their training the artists were employed for the decoration of India House. They started preparatory work in a temporary studio set up in a room (with a skylight) on the top floor of India House. It took them approximately ten months to finish their preparations. On April 9, 1931 the artists began painting. Technical reasons prompted their decision to use egg-tempera – made by mixing powdered pigments with yolk of egg and water – instead of oil. In the tradition of the Bengal School, Indian mythology and Indian history provided their thematic inspiration.

Roza (The Fast) by R. Ukil (facing page) and Buddha with his disciples by Lalit Mohan Sen (below).

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Varsha (monsoon, July/August)

Sheet (winter, December/January)

In the Entrance Hall, two of the artists, Ukil and Choudhury, painted eight sections of pendentives depicting India’s six seasons, and dusk and dawn. The delicate brushwork in the choice of theme was beautifully worked around the poet Kalidasa’s lyrical poem Ritusamhara, or “The Pageant of Seasons”. The seasons were Grishm, (summer, May/June); Varsha (monsoon, July/August); Sharad (early autumn, September/October); Hemant (late autumn, November/

December); Sheet (winter, December/January) and Basant (spring, March/April). In the lunettes of the Visitor’s Room/Reading Room on the ground floor there is the poignant legend of Anarkali, as well as the theme of Shasti Puja (worship of the folk-goddess of fertility) painted by Choudhury. The other two lunettes, the End of Roza (The Fast) and the theme of Todi Ragini, were painted by Ukil.
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On the first floor lobby, Barman painted a set of eight pendentives to represent the eight phases of life: Birth (Janma), Childhood (Balyavastha), Student Days (Vidyarthi Jeewan), Love (Prem), family life (Grahstha), work (Karma), renunciation (Vanprastha), and finally Nirvana. In the Library Hall where King George V formally inaugurated the new building of India House in July 1930, Sen painted the lunette Buddha with his Disciples.
Shasti Puja (worship of the folk-goddess of fertility) painted by Choudhury

The full splendor of the murals of India House is most visible in the magnificent Central Dome, which is by far the most dominant feature of the building. The murals on the dome merge together harmoniously, depicting four rulers from the history of India. All four artists laboured over a period of ten months to transform spectacular historical events into richly coloured murals; 24-carat gold leaves were used for the gold background at the then staggering cost of nearly a thousand rupees. The soft, impressionable metal allowed for impregnation with various tints and tones, combining beautifully to create the rich effect visible in the dome of India House.

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The Southern Quadrant was painted by Ukil, portraying the scene in which Alexander the Great saluted the chivalry of the Indian King Porus after the latter’s defeat in the Battle of the Hydaspes (today Jhelum) River in 326 BC. The western Quadrant was painted by Choudhury, showing the Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, who acceded to the throne of Magadha in 322 BC, acknowledging a morning salute from his bodyguard of women soldiers. Deb Barman painted the Northern Quadrant visualizing the Emperor Ashoka (304 BC-232 BC) sending his daughter Sanghamitra to Sri Lanka to propagate the teachings of Buddha. The Eastern Quadrant was painted by Sen, depicting the Mughal Emperor Akbar (1542-1605) and his architect, discussing plans for the new capital Fatehpur Sikri. Both Ukil and Choudhury painted “Sky and Birds (Balaka)” on the coved ring above the dome and the dome and the ceiling at the base of the hanging lantern. These are in a series of eight panels, worked in light pastel colours, portraying birds in fight in a sky of clouds. Fittingly, Rabindranath Tagore visited India House in 1931 with Rothenstein to meet the artists. He was delighted to discover that all the subjects and themes selected for the murals were typically Indian. The painting of all the murals was completed in January 1932. The spirit of Indian nationalism had found creative expression in the heart of London.
◆ The author has served as Deputy High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom.

“Sunset at Benaras” by Sir William Rothenstein (below) and Todi Ragini by Ukil (facing page)

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