India Today 25 Sept 2023

FROM THE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
n September 1, Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the plains it with his usual elan. ‘India’ has as much antiquity and de-
O Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), made a rives from the original name of the Indus river—Sindhu—via the
statement in Guwahati that got less play than what Persian rendition. And if that route makes it illegitimate, it would
followed. He called upon the people of the coun- also debar other proper nouns like ‘Hindu’, which derive from
try to stop using the name ‘India’ and switch to the same etymology. Moreover, unlike ‘Bharat’, it does not sound
‘Bharat’. No one may have noticed because it was hardly a novel like an explicitly Hindi word—Indian languages that adopted the
remark. Right from its inception nearly a century ago, the RSS name during the freedom struggle render it in variations such as
has made no secret of its preference. But even some of its adher- ‘Bharatham’. But Tharoor, too, harks back to the Constitution to
ents may have been surprised at the alacrity with which the Modi write: “Reconciling irreconcilables is a great Indian virtue.”
government took the cue. Two days later, a formal dinner invite
from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to G20 guests described Droupadi
Murmu as the ‘President of Bharat’. Then, at the summit events, O ther columnists open up many layers of questions. The law
expert Arvind P. Datar tells us how the historical elements
informed the choice of the Constitution-makers. Former diplomat
Prime Minister Narendra Modi very conspicuously sat behind a
placard that read ‘Bharat’ instead of ‘India’. Though no official an- Pavan K. Varma reveals a few delicious nuggets while citing the
nouncement was made, the government was clearly intent on re- stability ‘India’ has had historically across the globe. Historian
viving an old debate about India’s name, that too at a global public G. Arunima provides a Southern perspective, revealing the first
event. Rumours soon swirled around that the special Parliament Malayalam use of ‘India’ in an 18th century travelogue, with
session called on September 18-22, for unstated reasons, would ‘Bharat’ popping up only two centuries later. Dalit scholar Kancha
see a bill to erase ‘India’ from the formal nomenclature. Opinions Ilaiah Shepherd writes why the very Vedic/ Pauranic basis of
filled the air, with the Opposition calling it a diversionary tactic. A ‘Bharat’ and its Kshatriya source-myths make it problematic for
full-blown controversy had crept into the public discourse. the vast majority of Indians, from the non-privileged castes and
India or Bharat? There are cogent arguments for both. For other religions. ‘India’, he writes, is by definition more neutral and
our readers to get a better understanding, inclusive, besides reflecting the depth of the
what we have done in this issue is to present a country’s pre-Aryan legacy from the Harap-
set of columns from eminent writers who set pan times. Academic Ravinder Kaur, who
out views from across the gamut of political has authored a book on the role ‘branding’
positions and historical interpretations. It’s has played in the evolution of contemporary
akin to the ancient Buddhist parable of seven India, examines the consequences of a name-
blind men and an elephant: an attempt to change. Film critic Baradwaj Rangan takes a
present the truth in all its totality. light-hearted look at one of the most unify-
The question could have become a cantan- ing cultural streams of modern times, the
kerous debate right upon the birth of the cinema, and sees a conflation of India, Hind/
modern republic. Both ‘India’ and ‘Bharat’ Hindustani and Bharat. And Seshadri Chari
have a long genealogy spanning millennia, brings the RSS perspective forcefully.
and both had strong adherents at that formative time. But the The other big issue is the timing. Critics say that if renaming
Constitution-makers, in their wisdom, resorted to an ingenious the country was a matter of utter urgency, the BJP would have
formula to settle the question peacefully. Article 1 of the Consti- done it during A.B. Vajpayee’s tenure or when PM Modi took
tution starts with an equation: “India, that is Bharat....” What office in 2014. That it chose this late hour leaves open the conclu-
they abolished with that was the idea of one being ‘versus’ the sion that it had something to do with the Opposition alliance
other. Instead of seeing it as an either/or question, they decided naming itself ‘INDIA’ and the fact that five state elections are just
that there was space for both realities to coexist. Both names weeks away and it could be a handy distraction.
were deemed acceptable and were granted equal status. ‘India’, The rich cultural diversity of India/ Bharat is one of our great-
being the one used and recognised universally, within India and est assets, spectacularly showcased to the world in the recent G20.
far beyond, was not discarded. Nor was ‘Bharat’. We pray to many gods, converse in many languages and tolerance
This judicious way of thinking was in line with the ethos that coupled with accommodation is part of our ethos. Several cou-
had always governed this civilisation. Interestingly, a reflection ntries have different nomenclatures. Japan is also Nippon. The
of that comes through even in columns from opposite sides of the United Kingdom is often referred to as Great Britain, not to speak
fence in this issue. As a brief backgrounder, the BJP and those of the near-equivalence we give to ‘England’. Perhaps, the India/
close to it feel ‘Bharat’ is a more appropriate choice because it is Bharat controversy is much ado about nothing. I say, take your
a native name with a great deal of antiquity, going back to the pick—Bharat or India—and let’s move on. We have many more
Vedas. The economist Sanjeev Sanyal, whose popular writings on serious issues that affect the lives of Indians/ Bharatiyas.
history lean towards the conservative right, captures that argu-
ment in his column—referencing the famous Rigvedic story of the
Battle of the Ten Kings that the ‘Bharata’ clan fought. But as he
writes, even the gradual adoption of that name for a larger entity (Aroon Purie)
rested on a process of accommodation of multiple tribes and their
gods. Not imposition or conquest. ‘India’, according to this view, is Last week, one of our dearest former colleagues, the cartoonist
a name that is less preferable because foreigners gave it to us. Ajit Ninan, passed away. With his wicked and subtle humour,
Those who disagree with this line of thinking point to an he adorned these pages for 16 years. His passing is a great loss to
essential flaw in that preference. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor ex- Indian journalism. I will also miss him as a human being.
Illustration by NILANJAN DAS

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POWER STRUGGLE DROUGHT WITHOUT
PG 14 RELIEF PG 16
FIRE STARTER DMK’s

Udhayanidhi Stalin
ANI
S A N ATA N A D H A R M A C O N T ROV E R S Y
FAITH ACCOMPLI By Amarnath K. Menon
I
t’s a complex phrase whose mean- remark comparing ‘Sanatana dharma’ ers in Chennai on September 2. The
ing can change depending on to “dengue, malaria or corona” and symposium, incidentally, was on the
who you ask. It is variously seen calling for its eradication has sparked ‘Abolition of Sanatana’. That’s evidently
as denoting: 1) the Hindu code a major row. “In certain matters, mere in line with the third definition above—
of life, 2) the entirety of Hinduism, opposition isn’t enough, we should work the interpretation preferred within the
expressed in the only way it refers to to end it”—that was Tamil Nadu youth anti-Brahminist Dravidian movement.
itself in the classical texts, or 3) merely welfare and sports minister Udhayani- But the BJP and the Sangh Parivar
its more orthodox Brahminical strand, dhi Stalin before he launched into the have not taken kindly to his words, and
aloof from the devotional practices of controversial statements at a conference parse it to mean an attack on the whole
the common people. But an incendiary of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writ- of Hinduism—a call for “genocide”, as a
8 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3
UPFRONT SANATANA DHAR
Ô The expression ‘dharmah

sanatanah’, which loosely
party spokesman tweeted. Soon, cases translates to an ‘eternal religious
were being registered against Udhaya- code’, finds mention in the ancient
nidhi, who’s the son of Tamil Nadu chief Sanskrit text Manusmriti
minister M.K. Stalin, in far-flung Uttar
Pradesh and Maharashtra. A sadhu in Ô The word ‘Hindu’ has its roots in
‘Sindhu’, and was originally used
Ayodhya put a Rs 10 crore bounty on
by the Persians to denote the
his head and Union ministers and BJP people linked to that geography.
leaders like Amit Shah and Rajnath “ The Congress and It gradually came to refer to the
Singh condemned the remarks. Even I.N.D.I alliance must religion. The use of ‘Hinduism’ for
the Prime Minister’s Office weighed the collection of diverse practices
clarify whether and beliefs distinct from other
in, saying Stalin Jr’s statement needed
the Constitution codified religions was formalised in
a befitting reply. Stepping up the heat,
the BJP on September 5 likened the
gives the right to the late 19th century
comments to Hitler’s rants on the Jews. make objectionable

Ô The term ‘Sanatana dharma’ too
“Uday Stalin’s meditated comment is statements about gained some currency in the late
unadulterated hate speech,” the BJP’s any religion…. Why 19th century as a substitute for
official handle tweeted on X, deploring is hatred against ‘Hinduism’, partly because of its
the support offered by the Congress and Sanatana Dharma
the INDIA bloc for “Stalin’s bile”. being sold in the
n response, the 45-year-old scion of
name of mohabbat
I the ruling DMK (Dravida Mun-

netra Kazhagam) accused critics
of distorting facts, especially with the
ki dukan ? ”
— Tweet by J.P. Nadda,
Tamil Nadu. Udhayanidhi clearly
sees himself in that lineage. “When-
ever he talks about religion, this has
genocide barb. In a tweet, he called San- National President, BJP been his line, though this is possibly
atana dharma “a principle that divides the first time he has referenced Sana-
people in the name of caste and religion” tana dharma,” says political com-
and said “uprooting” it is tantamount mentator N. Sathiya Moorthy. “Left
to “upholding humanity and human to itself, Periyar’s anti-Brahminism
equality”. And dug in his heels with the was dying a natural death, the idea
words: “I stand firmly by every word I having outlived its political, ideologi-
said. I spoke on behalf of the oppressed cal and, at times, emotional utility.
and the marginalised.” As the heat rose, So, when GenNext Hindutva groups
Udhayanidhi started breathing more began talking about the concept of
fire. On September 10, he described the Sanatana dharma, there was bound
BJP as “a poisonous snake that needs to to be a reaction. This is a relatively
be chased out of Tamil Nadu”. Hitting “ While the prime new foe for Dravidian ideology.”
out at his party’s state rival AIADMK— All the talk of Sanatana dharma,
the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
minister remains analysts point out, is interpreted as
Kazhagam—he likened it to “a garbage silent on everyday a revival of ‘Brahmin hegemony’ in
heap that shelters the snake”. “To elimi- issues impacting the Dravidian circles, keeping it dis-
nate the snake, we must get rid of the common man, his tinct from ‘Hinduism’ as a faith and
garbage. The people must be ready to cabinet focuses on religious persuasion. The families of
remove the BJP and the AIADMK from #SanatanaDharma many DMK and AIADMK leaders,
Tamil Nadu in 2024.” by spreading false including Udhayanidhi’s, pursue the
Making bile-soaked comments Hindu faith in private while often
narratives.... I urge
against believers, especially Hindus, is professing to be atheists in public.
not new for DMK leaders. It has been
our DMK leaders and His mother, Durga, is a staunch
part and parcel of the Dravidian move- cadre not to react believer who maintains a huge puja
ment since the days of its guiding spirit, to such diversion room at home, and visits temples big
E.V. Ramasamy ‘Periyar’ (1879-1973), tactics... ” and small, inside and outside Tamil
who spun his politics around vehement Nadu, whether or not the DMK is in
opposition to Brahminical dominance —M.K. Stalin, Chief Minister, power. That said, many DMK lead-
and gender and caste inequality in Tamil Nadu, on X ers have come out of the Periyar-era
MA VS HINDUISM
native origins, but also to counter

and distinguish its mainstream
from Arya Samaj and other socio- at a public rally in Tiruchi before the will give an invisible handle against the
religious reform movements 2019 Lok Sabha election. RSS and BJP to several parties, like the
But he says he chose the issue RJD and the Samajwadi Party in the
Ô As such, the term never caught
to side-step the problem of being north. In the south, the BJP will have
on in south India, where ‘Hindu’
and ‘Hinduism’ remained the described as anti-Hindu. “When we to be more defensive and cautious.
common terms, just like they did attack Hindutva, they twist it around Udhayanidhi’s comments may
with the bulk of its adherents to make it seem like we are speaking have been glossed over, at least in
elsewhere. It even birthed the against ordinary Hindus, with their Tamil Nadu, had not the BJP made it
term ‘Hindutva’ beliefs in the gods and the Puranas,” a national issue. It has good reasons
says the VCK chief. “To me, Sanatana to do so. There is concern within the
Ô In the south, Sanatana dharma dharma is the basic concept of an DMK as the BJP tries to widen its
is often seen as synonymous Aryan religion. Inequality is at the core reach. Firebrand state unit chief K.
with ‘Brahminical hegemony’, as
of it, creating differences and social Annamalai is currently on a state-wide
distinct from common people’s
faith. Even Udhayanidhi Stalin hierarchy based on birth.” He believes tour, trying to swell the saffron ranks
said as much, asserting he had the BJP wants to further the Sanatana in the run-up to the general election.
not spoken about Hindus, only dharma concept in the state. Tagging Udhayanidhi on X, he said,
“evil practices and inequality” “You and your father have a bought-out
R
eligion has never been an elec- idea from Christian missionaries” and
tion issue in TN, says Moorthy. implied they were propagators of that
“It was a political talking point, “malicious ideology”.
but the voter left it at that. Else, the Evidently, Sanatana dharma is
closet in the past two decades and Justice Party first, and the DMK later, creating new meanings in political
now seldom hide their beliefs. would not have come to power.” So, discourse—it’s even being used as an
So, has the arrival of self-pro- what will be the outcome of the current all-encompassing term for religious
fessed Sanatana adherents revived controversy? “On the surface, the BJP and spiritual traditions of pre-Islamic
a moribund political pitch? Thol. will gain traction, but caste ques- India. “These overarching usages are
Thirumavalavan, founder of the tions will haunt the party as it goes new,” says singer-writer-activist T.M.
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (for- into election mode. Even the INDIA Krishna. “That these have been propa-
merely known as the Dalit Panthers), bloc will play it both ways, remaining gated mainly by Brahminical sections
an electoral ally of the DMK, is not neutral but welcoming the poten- is undeniable. So, the general usage of
surprised. He was one of the first to tial for engagement with new caste this term as a synonym for Hinduism is
target Sanatana dharma in the Tamil mobilisations,” says political analyst duplicitous.” For politicians, though, it
Nadu political discourse, beginning Ramu Manivannan. He believes this is a handy slogan in election season.
A N DH R A PR A DE SH
T
he arrest and 14-day judicial remand of Telugu Desam
Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu in an election
Naidu in
year is a severe setback to the main Opposition party in
Andhra Pradesh. Naidu is accused of being the ‘prin-
cipal conspirator’ in a case of fraudulent misappropriation of ap-
proximately Rs 371 crore belonging to the Andhra Pradesh State
a Tight
Skills Development Corporation (APSSDC). Set up in 2014 during
Naidu’s tenure as chief minister (2014 to 2019), the APSSDC
initiated a project to help unemployed youth by providing them
skill training. The allegation is that it was used to siphon off funds
Corner from the state exchequer. The Andhra Pradesh Crime Investiga-
tion Department (APCID), after an extensive probe, has report-
edly discovered that Naidu was in the know of the project from the
conceptual stage and had a role in the irregularities.
By Amarnath K. Menon However, the timing of the arrest early on September 9, when

UPFRONT
Naidu was travelling in Nandyal, and

the way he was presented at daybreak
the next day before a magistrate for
judicial remand has raised eyebrows.
The APCID, presenting the remand
report, argued there is prima facie ev-
idence that Naidu—he was arraigned
in the FIR as the 37th accused—was
the chief architect of the offence. It
alleged that Naidu and the TDP were
the ultimate beneficiaries.
T
he APSSDC was formed
without getting the approval
of the state cabinet, say inves-
tigators. They allege that it was kept
under the control of the state higher
education department with an inten-
tion to misappropriate funds under
cover of the skill development project,
with then minister K. Atchannaidu,
now the TDP Andhra Pradesh unit
MOHAMMED ALEEMUDDIN
president, and others allegedly in

charge. The APCID says that these
men colluded with Soumyadri Shekar
Bose, managing director, Siemens
Industry Software (India), and Vikas
Vinayak Khanvelkar, managing
director, Design Tech, Pune, who
parked the stash. The two entities
were tasked to develop six centres of
excellence for skill development.
NAIDU IS UNDER THE NET
The APCID probe has revealed ACCUSED OF TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu
being taken to prison, Sept. 10
several irregularities, including no BEING THE MAIN
project approval from the state cabi-
net, absence of a tendering process ARCHITECT and the imposition of Section 144 of
and the siphoning of funds allocated IN THE SKILL the Criminal Procedure Code curbed
for the project into shell compa- their mobility. Anticipating trouble
nies. The investigation so far has
DEVELOPMENT during the statewide bandh called
established that the total cost of the SCAM by the TDP on September 11, many
project, excluding taxes, was falsely state- and district-level TDP leaders,
projected at Rs 3, 281 crore. including 21 of its MLAs, were put
Furthermore, it has been found under house arrest.
that before any expenditure was political vendetta and alleged that Naidu has had the TDP firmly
incurred by the two firms—they were the whole affair was cooked up at the under his control ever since he
to bear 90 per cent of the project behest of Andhra chief minister Y.S. upstaged his father-in-law, party-
cost—the state government, through Jagan Mohan Reddy for political gains founder N.T. Rama Rao, to become
APSSDC, advanced them an amount in the run-up to the 2024 assem- CM for the first time in 1995. In re-
of Rs 370.78 crore, accounting for the bly polls. If Naidu does not get bail cent years, his biggest challenge has
entire 10 per cent to be provided by anytime soon, it might demoralise the been to offset the debacle the ruling
the state. Most of the advance amount TDP, which has no leader of compa- TDP faced in the 2019 assembly and
was allegedly diverted to shell comparable stature. Protests by the TDP rank parliamentary polls. Jagan Reddy’s
nies through fake invoices. and file also couldn’t gather momen- Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress
Expectedly, the TDP has cried tum, as large-scale police deployment Party (YSRCP) achieved a landslide
win in 2019, securing 151 of the 175 However, he has gained some traction is Chandrababu Naidu’s sister-in-law.
assembly seats (the TDP got 23) and 22 with voters and party members during Both the state BJP and JSP vocifer-
of the 25 Lok Sabha seats. his ongoing Yuva Galam march. ously protested Naidu’s arrest.
Defection by four TDP Rajya Sabha On being asked who would support Kalyan is striving to bring together
members to the BJP in 2019 consider- him in leading the party after Naidu the TDP and the BJP in a quest to
ably weakened the party, while concen- was sent to the Rajamahendravaram build an alliance against the YSRCP.
tration of power in the hands of a few Central Prison, the TDP scion men- But if Naidu’s detention is a long
has led to widespread disillusionment in tioned prospective ally Pawan Kalyan one, the prospects of a meticulously
party rank and file. The prominent role of the Jana Sena Party (JSP), rather organised electoral battle that Naidu is
played by Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh, the than point to party leaders. Lokesh known for are bleak. The only person
national general secretary of the TDP, expects support from the JSP and the who will gain if this comes to pass is
is decried by senior leaders in private. BJP. State BJP chief D. Purandeswari Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
CUR R ENCY
CAN THE
E-RUPEE
WORK?
SHUTTERSTOCK
By M.G. Arun
L
ast year, India joined a grow- e-rupee) is India’s version of a central circulation stood at Rs 16.4 crore as of
ing list of countries exploring bank digital currency (CBDC). March 31, 2023, of which Rs 5.7 crore
digital versions of their cur- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was in the retail segment. Since it is a
rencies. It is now planning to launched the digital rupee as a pilot pilot project, it is not strictly comparable
broaden the scope of its pilot project project in the wholesale segment on with the total value of banknotes in circu-
in the digital rupee. According to the November 1, 2022, for use in the set- lation, which stood at Rs 33.5 lakh crore,
US-based think-tank Atlantic Council, tlement of secondary market trans- and coins at Rs 30,242 crore.
as many as 130 countries, represent- actions in government securities. A
ing 98 per cent of the global economy, secondary market is one where finan- How does the digital rupee work?
are now exploring digital versions of cial instruments like bonds are traded. In the retail segment, the digital rupee
their currencies, with almost half in The pilot project in the retail seg- is being distributed through banks as
advanced development, pilot or launch ment was launched on December 1 a pilot project. RBI has created tokens
stages. Where does India stand on its the same year for use within a closed- that have been issued to banks selected
pilot programme and what are the ben- user group comprising participating for the pilot programme. Starting with
efits of the digital rupee? A few FAQs: customers and merchants. four banks and four locations, the retail
pilot is now operationalised by 13 banks
What is the digital rupee and when What is the volume of digital across 26 locations. The banks have
was it launched? rupees in circulation? distributed the tokens to some custom-
The digital rupee (also referred to as The total value of the digital rupee in ers, who need to store them in a digital
SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 1 3
UPFRONT
wallet using an app, and use them in digital rupee?

transactions. Transactions can be As the next step, the RBI is planning
both person-to-person and person- to introduce the wholesale version
to-merchant, by scanning a QR code. of the digital rupee in the interbank
borrowing or the call money market
What are the advantages of the by October. The interbank call money
digital rupee? market is a short-term money market
Compared to physical currency, that allows for large financial institu-
CBDC is expected to bring substan- tions to borrow and lend money at
tial efficiencies in the costs related interbank rates (the rate of interest
to printing, storage and distribution. that banks charge when they borrow
Further, CBDC will allow seamless funds from each other).
withdrawal and deposit of currency In the retail segment, the RBI is
from/ to bank accounts. slowly and steadily expanding the
Using CBDC as a funding asset digital rupee pilots to more banks,
removes the settlement risk and obvi- cities, people and use cases.
ates the need for any central coun-
terparty. Settlement in central bank How are digital rupee transac-
money would thus reduce transactions different from UPI ones?
tion costs. The digital rupee offers The UPI is a simple and fast way of
features of physical cash like trust, transacting with another person or
a merchant, where money is directly
debited from one’s account linked to By Moazum Mohammad
THE DIGITAL RUPEE the UPI. This is a reason for its huge
RETAIL PILOT
T
success as a payment method. In
PROJECT IS NOW FY23, the UPI platform processed he installation of smart
a total of 83.8 billion transactions electricity meters in Jammu
OPERATIONALISED & Kashmir has become an
aggregating to Rs 139 lakh crore.
BY 13 BANKS ACROSS At present, transactions are car- uphill task for the Lieuten-
26 LOCATIONS ried out in the e-rupee just as they ant Governor Manoj Sinha-led
are done through UPI, by scanning administration with public resent-
safety and settlement finality. a QR code using a smartphone, but ment growing against the move,
CBDCs can help ‘programme’ RBI says the CBDC will also have an especially in Hindu-dominated
or target the end use of money. For offline feature ideal in remote loca- Jammu region. A day-long shut-
example, agriculture credit by banks tions when electrical power or mobile down on August 26 to press for the
can be programmed to ensure that it network is not available. withdrawal of smart meters was
is used only at input store outlets. RBI is exploring the use of an followed by a blockade on Septem-
But these are largely benefits offline feature for the digital rupee. ber 1—this time for the removal of a
in the ‘wholesale’ segment. In retail, As part of HaRBInger 2023 (RBI’s toll plaza on the Jammu-Pathankot
there is still not much evidence to Hackathon), it is seeking solutions highway. The protests, led by the
show that the digital rupee offers from across the globe for the offline
region’s apex trade body Jammu
more ease than online transfers feature. Multiple technologies will
Chamber of Commerce and Indus-
made through the Unified Payments be tested before arriving at the final
try (JCCI), along with civil society
Interface (UPI) platform using a host architecture that can address the
groups, lawyers and political
of payment service providers such as concerns of those living in areas with
GPay or Paytm. limited or no internet connectivity.
parties, disrupted life in Bharatiya
Solutions that are workable for fea- Janata Party (BJP) strongholds
How is it different from ture phones will also be explored. of the Jammu, Samba, Kathua,
cryptocurrencies? Udhampur and Reasi districts.
Unlike cryptocurrencies, which do How many countries use digital These street protests, say ob-
not have an underlying guarantee, the currencies? servers, have the potential to upset
value of a CBDC is fixed by a coun- As of June this year, 11 countries have the saffron applecart in J&K, if and
try’s central bank and is equivalent to already launched CBDCs, while pilot when it goes to the polls again. In
the currency of that country. testing in China reached 260 million the last elections held to the then
people. Brazil has plans to launch a 87-seat state assembly in 2014, the
What is the present status of the digital currency next year. BJP bagged a record 25 seats—all
INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3
pilferage, transmission and distribu-
tion losses (57 per cent, highest in the
country), and a mounting revenue
deficit amid a rising power purchase
from outside (16.2 billion units in
FY22, up from 13.3 billion in FY20).
In Kashmir valley alone, peak power
demand surges to 2,400 megawatt
(MW) in winters, double the 1,200
MW in summers. But the supply could
touch just 1,850 MW last year, leading
to long power cuts due to transform-
ers getting damaged by overloading
or discom-enforced load-shedding.
But Javed Yousuf Dar, chief engi-
POWERING DISCONTENT neer, Kashmir Power Development
People protesting against the Corporation, is hopeful the situation
installation of smart electricity will improve once 100 per cent smart
meters in Jammu, Aug. 26 meter installation is achieved by 2025.
AP
It was the then Mufti Moham-
mad Sayeed-led People’s Democratic
JA MMU & K ASHMIR Party (PDP) government that had
made the first attempt to regularise
A DIFFERENT
power supply in J&K with the instal-
lation of electricity meters in 2005.
But a majority of about 2.2 million
connections remain unmetered,
POWER STRUGGLE
and the consumers continue to pay
nominal charges. In Jammu, for
instance, against an expenditure of
Rs 3,600 crore last fiscal, the power
utility could generate just Rs 2,100
from the Jammu region—with the Electricity is the most talked crore revenue, a whopping 42 per
highest-ever vote share of 23 per cent. about issue in J&K, particularly in cent deficit. To curb these losses, the
The annulment of Article 370 and winters when the demand for power J&K administration in 2022 told
creation of the two Union Territories increases to run heaters, geysers, power utilities in both provinces to
of J&K and Ladakh in August 2019 radiators and crude boilers amid sub- roll out smart metering—a part of the
was overwhelmingly welcomed in the zero temperatures in many parts. Till nationwide Revamped Distribution
Jammu region, further widening its the early ’90s, the government used to Sector Scheme to improve the quality
rift with Muslim-majority Kashmir. supply firewood to households ahead and reliability of power supply.
But with the reorganisation usher- of winters, but the practice has since Smart meters allow consum-
ing in reforms in almost all sectors, been abandoned, leading to a spike ers to check their daily power usage
including power, the region is now in power demand. There are other and charges, allowing them to plan
seeing unease. “The prepaid smart factors, too, that have contributed to consumption as per their needs and
meters are not acceptable to us,” says this persistent power crisis: unabated resources. The prepaid system, mean-
JCCI president Arun Gupta. “People while, improves revenue collection as
are getting inflated bills because most payment is done before consumption,
meters are running fast and showing avoiding arrears and defaults. The
excessive readings.” The trade body, THE INSTALLATION OF system, explains Dar, brings in trans-
unsatisfied by the verbal assurances SMART POWER METERS parency by doing away with manual
given by the authorities during a RAISES TEMPERS IN meter readers, thus curbing pilferage.
meeting on August 8, has sought them In the first phase, 600,000 meters are
“in writing” and could intensify the BJP STRONGHOLDS OF to be installed in J&K—250,000 in
protests after the festive season. JAMMU REGION Jammu and 350,000 in urban pock-
UPFRONT
FOR BETTER
SERVICE, PEOPLE HAVE
TO PAY POWER TARIFF
AS PER THEIR USAGE.
NO EXCUSES WILL BE
ENTERTAINED
—MANOJ SINHA
Lieutenant Governor, J&K
ets of Kashmir. Official data shows

that, so far, about 200,000 and
190,000 meters have been installed
in the two regions, respectively. In the
Valley, any protest—mostly minor—
was dealt with by snapping the power
supply to those areas. In Jammu,
however, amid a rising resentment, K A R N ATA K A
the authorities appointed 15 nodal
officers to address the complaints.
“We tested 5,000 meters in front of
consumers,” says Shiv Anant Tayal,
A DROUGHT
managing director, Jammu Power
Development Corporation, “and
found that none was running fast.”
WITHOUT RELIEF
There were some software errors and By Ajay Sukumaran
they were rectified, he adds, but “no
case of inflated bills was found”.
D
Despite these measures and istress is mounting in the overcast sky in his Ambale vil-
assurances, consumers in Jammu Karnataka’s farmlands. lage. It can’t save Manjunath’s crop.
are not ready to give up. Finding Pointing to his two-acre The dry spell in August, the
the BJP cornered over the issue, its plot where his maize crop worst in 123 years, has dealt a lethal
general secretary, Vibodh Gupta, led continues to wither, A. Manjunath, blow to Karnataka’s farmers. “About
a party delegation to meet Sinha at a farmer, laments that whatever 50-75 per cent of the standing crop
Raj Bhawan on August 19, demand- harvest he gets will be fit only for is gone,” says Badagalapura Na-
ing a rollback. “We will meet the L-G fodder now. In July, when an er- gendra, leader of Karnataka Rajya
again and press for it,” he says, while ratic Southwest monsoon picked Raitha Sangha, a farmer’s body.
blaming the National Conference and up in the hinterlands of Mysuru, “Some horticulture crops survived
PDP for “misleading” people. L-G it had brought hopes of raising a only because the groundwater level
Sinha, however, has maintained that normal crop. Preparing the farm had improved in the last few years.”
those with resources will have to pay and sowing it had cost Manjunath Karnataka last faced a wide-
power tariff as per their usage while Rs 15,000 an acre. If things had spread drought in 2018. The next
the “poor will be taken care of by the gone well, he could have grown 15 four years brought plentiful rain,
administration”. “No excuses will be quintals of corn per acre. “It’d have but things have turned grim again
entertained,” he says. “To get better fetched nothing less than Rs 25,000 this season. About 79 per cent of the
service, people have to pay their bills.” an acre. Now, I won’t even get Rs state’s arable land is drought-prone.
With a stalemate at hand, the issue is 5,000.” Ironically, even as he says In fact, Karnataka has the second-
likely to raise further tempers. this, a faint drizzle descends from largest area of dry land in the coun-
WATER WORRIES
The Krishnaraja Sagara dam,
where the water level has
dropped sharply during the
dry spell this year
line of the Cauvery basin, says with crop

damage already imminent, the next
concern is drinking water now. “With
the current state of affairs, we won’t be
able to last long,” he says, adding that
the inflow into the Cauvery won’t suffice
for even Bengaluru’s needs, let alone
those of other districts in the basin.
Last month, Tamil Nadu took the
water-sharing issue to the Supreme
Court. While Karnataka complied with
the orders of the Cauvery Water Man-
agement Authority (CWMA) to release
water until September 12, it told the
court that releasing more water may not
be feasible. A political blame-game has
MADHUSUDHAN SR
ensued on this as well, with the BJP ac-
cusing the government of mishandling
the matter from the beginning, and the
ruling Congress, in turn, blaming the
BJP for politicising the issue despite
extending its support at an all-party
meet last month. On September 13,
try after Rajasthan. Over the past two daramaiah said in a letter in August to Siddaramaiah urgently convened a
decades, says Nagendra, the state has Union agriculture minister Narendra second all-party meeting soon after a
seen 11 drought and four flood years. Singh Tomar. He sought a review of recommendation by the Cauvery Water
Kurubur Shanthakumar, president the current parameters, arguing that Regulation Committee (which assists
of the Karnataka Sugarcane Growers each of Karnataka’s 14 agro-climatic the CWMA) to release 5,000 cusecs of
Association, is reminded of the severe zones faced distinct challenges, requir- water daily for another 15 days. Vari-
drought of 2002-2003. “This year ing region-specific criteria. The CM ous legal options were discussed in the
could be just as intensive, or worse,” he has said the government will likely meeting, including appealing to the
says. According to officials, as many as take a decision on declaring drought committee to reconsider its recommen-
62 taluks were drought-stricken by the this week after taking into account dation or taking an all-party delegation
third week of August. By September, updated ground reports. of MPs to the prime minister.
joint surveys were being conducted in Pressure is mounting on an- Between June 1 and September 11
136 to ascertain the ground situation. other front: farmers’ protests over the this year, Karnataka released 37.7 TMC
“For August, the drought was severe release of Cauvery water into Tamil of water into Tamil Nadu, as against
and had a terminal effect on crops,” Nadu. Sarvodaya Karnataka Party’s 99.8 TMC in a normal year. The inflow
says Karnataka revenue minister Darshan Puttanaiah, whose assembly into the Cauvery, it says, was 54 per
Krishna Byregowda. constituency Melukote lies along the cent lower than the 30-year aver-
The crisis has led to a political Krishnaraja Sagara reservoir, the life- age. Consequently, the live storage in
tussle, with the opposition Bharatiya Karnataka’s four reservoirs in the river
Janata Party (BJP) accusing the govern- basin stands at 53.3 TMC, as against
ment of dragging its feet over formally 103.3 TMC last year. And the total wa-
declaring drought-hit taluks. In turn, THE DROUGHT ter needed for drinking, irrigation and
chief minister Siddaramaiah has industries between now and July 2024
blamed the updated 2020 Manual for
SITUATION IN is estimated to be 106.2 TMC, says Sid-
Drought Management, whose ‘one-size- KARNATAKA HAS daramaiah, explaining the state’s pre-
fits-all approach’, he said, was proving dicament. “We are not in a position to
onerous. “Despite drought-like condi- REIGNITED THE release water to Tamil Nadu according
tions in several taluks, we haven’t been CONTENTIOUS to the SC orders,” he told reporters after
able to meet the existing parameters for the all-party meeting. While Karnataka
declaring drought, which is leaving our CAUVERY ISSUE mulls its options, the matter is expected
farmers without critical support,” Sid- to come up in the SC next week now.
GL ASSHOUSE
UPFRONT
GOOD LORD!
A Close
Watch
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

S enior Karnataka Congress
leader B.K. Hariprasad
was slapped with a show-
cause notice by the party’s
disciplinary panel as he
took another dig at Chief
Minister Siddaramaiah, his
second such outburst in as
many months after being
left out of the state cabinet.
“Wearing a Hublot watch and
a panche (dhoti) with khaki
shorts inside doesn’t make
B
ritish prime minister Rishi Sunak’s romantic photograph with wife Akshata Murthy one a socialist,” Hariprasad
notwithstanding, the couple’s visit to the Swaminarayan Akshardham temple said at a public meeting,
in Delhi led to a furore in Gujarat. Reason: the couple chose to pay obeisance to without naming anyone. But
Swaminarayan, a 19th-century ascetic believed by his followers to be a manifestation the Hublot wristwatch was
of Krishna, instead of Hindu deities worshipped for centuries. The sect is already in an obvious reference to the
a face-off with other Sanatana Dharma sages, who had earlier protested against a controversial gift the CM
plaque installed at a temple in Gujarat’s Botad, which showed Hanuman bowing down to declared as a state asset
Swaminarayan. The plaque was removed, but the duel continues. during his first term in 2016.
Reclaiming Her ACT OF ATONEMENT?

Constituency R ashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu
Yadav and wife Rabri Devi flew to
Deoghar in Jharkhand to offer prayers at
he newly appointed Andhra
T Pradesh state BJP president
the Baidyanath Dham on September 11, just
a week after worshipping the Shivling at
T WITTER@LALUPRASADRJD
D. Purandeswari has put paid to the
Harihar Nath Mandir in Bihar’s Sonepur. While
plan of another party leader, Rajya
Lalu is a self-confessed Shiva bhakt, political
Sabha member G.V.L. Narasimha
circles in Patna are abuzz with speculations
Rao, who had set his eyes on the
if the RJD boss is seeking penance or trying
Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat,
to neutralise the Bharatiya Janata Party’s
nurturing it for over two years. Then
criticism after his video of cooking mutton
with the Congress, Purandeswari
with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the
won the Visakhapatnam seat in
pious Hindu month of Shravan went viral.
2009. After defecting to the BJP, she
lost two successive elections from
Rajampet (2014) and
Visakhapatnam
(2019), but
Son vs Son-in-law sought to highlight it as another case
of ‘son-rise’, leader of Opposition V.D.
now seems to he victory of Congress leader Satheesan alleged that a son-in-law
have edged out T Chandy Oommen, son
of the late Oommen Chandy,
was emerging as a power centre
in the Left Democratic Front
Rao in the fight
for the party in the Puthuppally bypoll, regime too. The reference was
ticket from her has kicked off a debate over to minister Mohammed Riyas—
traditional nepotism in Kerala politics. son-in-law of Chief Minister
seat. When Congress’s rivals Pinarayi Vijayan.
Kaushik Deka with Jumana Shah, Ajay Sukumaran, Amitabh Srivastava, Amarnath K. Menon and Jeemon Jacob
UPFRONT
I N D I A N N AV Y
GENDER
NEUTRAL
FROM
TOPMAST PRIDE OF PLACE
By Pradip R. Sagar Indian Navy officers
on the flight deck
of INS Vikrant
EQUALITY ABOARD
A
fter opening its doors to with a detailed communiqué. Other
women on warships and countries’ navies, too, have been seeing
its combat units—first as a change in this regard. In August From now on, gender-privileged
officers and then as sailors/ 2020, the Canadian navy intro- terms are jettisoned from the Indian
other ranks—the Indian Navy is now duced gender-neutral designations Navy’s lexicon. More gender-equal
sailing towards reducing ‘gender ste- in an effort to be more inclusive, and terms are in
reotyping’ by adopting gender-neutral replaced ‘seaman’ with ‘sailor’ over all OLD NEW
language in its official communication. ranks. Thus, former designations like
Manning Plan Staffing Plan
The navy believes that after the induc- Leading Seaman and Master Seaman
tion of women in all its branches, both were changed to Sailor First Class and Action Manning Action Staffing
as officers and as Agniveers, there is a Master Sailor, respectively. Manholes Maintenance holes
requirement for adopting gender-neu- From now on, the Indian Navy, the
tral language in all official correspon- world’s sixth-largest naval force, will Messman Mess Staff
dence, policy documents and internal use such gender-neutral titles as ‘Mess Yeoman (Trade) Assistant: for
communication. According to figures Staff’, ‘Service Person’ and ‘Naviga- example, Navigator’s
provided by the ministry of defence in tor’s/ Gunner’s/ Communication As- Assistant, Gunner’s
Parliament, 7,093 women personnel sistant’ in lieu of the older ‘Messman’, Assistant, Communi-
are serving in the Indian Army at pres- ‘Serviceman’ and ‘Yeoman’, respec- cation Assistant
ent, followed by 1,636 in the Indian Air tively. In addition, they will follow Serviceman Service person
Force and 748 in the Navy. other neutral words gradually gaining Ex-serviceman Veteran/ Ex-service
Taking a cue from the European ground in civil society, like ‘humanity’ person
Parliament’s guidelines for gender- for ‘mankind’ and ‘actor’ for ‘actress’. Manpower Workforce or Human
neutral language in 2008 and 2018, The navy believes that the purpose Capital
the naval headquarters has come out of gender-neutral language is to avoid Chairman Chairperson or Chair
Spokesman Spokesperson
O N E Y E A R O F P RO J E C T C H E E TA H
AFP
crucial enabler of inclusivity in the
navy—firstly, to challenge subcon-
MIXED BAG
scious bias against stereotypical By Rahul Noronha
gender roles; secondly, to lay the
foundation for greater gender equal-
P
ity and thirdly, to develop cognisance roject Cheetah, dubbed as the
of how language affects behaviours first intercontinental translo-
and attitudes. cation of a large wild carni-
As per the communiqué issued by vore, completes one year on
Rear Admiral Rahul Vilas Gokhale, September 17. It was on this day in 2022
the navy believes that the advance- that Prime Minister Narendra Modi
ment of gender equality by migrating released eight African cheetahs flown in
to a gender-neutral language does from Namibia into enclosures at Kuno
not require significant resources or National Park in Madhya Pradesh—
investment. However, it is definitely marking the culmination of decades-
a starting point towards creating long efforts that saw much deliberation
a work culture of inclusivity that and judicial interventions. The past one
fosters greater participation and co- year, however, has only triggered fur-
hesiveness in the service. “Conscious ther debate over whether the ambitious
project is a success or a failure.
Reason: the cheetah fatalities. Of
THE NAVY SAYS the 20 big cats translocated so far—12
GENDER-NEUTRAL were brought from South Africa in
February—six died between March 27
LANGUAGE IS
and August 2. The cause of death ranges
ESSENTIAL TOWARDS from renal or cardio-pulmonary failure
ENSURING THAT NO to neck injuries (due to radio collars)
GENDER IS PRIVILEGED resulting in septicemia. On August 13,
all 14 surviving cheetahs were captured
and brought back to the enclosures,
word choices that may be inter- efforts by all personnel would go a pending release after the monsoon.
preted as biased, discriminatory long way in promoting gender-neu- Per S.P. Yadav, member secretary,
or demeaning by implying that the tral language,” Rear Admiral Gokhle National Tiger Conservation Authority,
prevailing social gender—gender- stated in his communiqué. the Cheetah Action Plan, prepared be-
specific behaviour and attitudes The Navy has also advised the fore the big cats were released at Kuno,
considered appropriate—is the use of passive or imperative statem- set six benchmarks for the project’s
norm. It believes that using gender- ents like ‘incoming formalities are short-term success. “Four have been
fair and inclusive language helps re- to be completed by all officers with- met,” he says. For instance, one of the
duce gender stereotyping, promotes in two weeks’ in lieu of earlier ones benchmarks was the survival of at least
social change and contributes to like ‘every officer must complete his 50 per cent of the cheetahs in the first
achieving gender equality. incoming formalities within two year. Going by that, the project can be
The navy accepts that lan- weeks’. However, age-old words termed a success, as six, or 75 per cent,
guage is a powerful medium that like ‘master’ and ‘mate’ are deemed of the eight Namibian cheetahs have
directly influences the perceptions to be of neutral usage that do not survived. (Among those brought from
and behaviours of individuals and always connote the male gender. South Africa, the survival rate is 67 per
organisations. Embracing gender- Accordingly, ‘quartermaster’ and cent as of now.)
neutral language is more than just a ‘boatswain’s mate’ are assessed as By far, the biggest success is the will
matter of political correctness; it is gender-neutral terms too. The navy shown by African cheetahs to adapt to
essential towards ensuring that no has decided to replace terms like their new home, hunting animals like
gender is privileged, and preju- ‘manpower’ with ‘workforce’ or ‘hu- sambar and cheetal that they had not
dices against any gender are not man capital’, ‘chairman’ with ‘chair- even seen before. The cheetahs also suc-
perpetuated. Naval HQ maintains person’ or the ‘chair’, ‘manning plan’ cessfully bred on the Indian soil, as a lit-
that imbuing gender-neutrality with ‘staffing plan’ and ‘serviceman’ ter of four cubs was delivered in March
in correspondence would act as a with ‘service person’. even if only one survived. “Community

20
Cheetahs UPFRONT
translocated
14
Animals that
By Dhaval Kulkarni
survived
M
arking the end of an
era, the last of the
4
Cubs born; only
four iconic diesel-run
double-decker buses in
1 survived the fleet of the Brihanmumbai Elec-
tricity Supply and Transport Under-
taking, or BEST, will be scrapped
mid-September, after completing
15 years of service. Similarly, the
three open-deck ‘Nilambari’ buses
that were used for sightseeing will
be retiring by October 5. In place of
these old buses, the Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run
road transport undertaking plans
support,” says Yadav, “has ensured to introduce 900 battery-operated,
that no cheetah has died from hunt- THOUGH SURVIVAL RATE air-conditioned (AC) double-
ing, accident or retaliation.”
ABOVE 50% CAN BE deckers, with 12 already added to its
The Union government has fleet this year and eight more to be
shown resolve in continuing with
TERMED A SUCCESS, MOST inducted soon.
the project even when it met with FATALITIES COULD HAVE Born as Bombay Electric Supply
setbacks, says Dr M.K. Ranjitsinh, BEEN AVOIDED and Tramways Company in 1905,
who headed the Supreme Court-ap- BEST started its bus service in 1926.
pointed expert committee on chee- The double-decker buses, which
tahs. “This is a positive develop- to manage the cheetahs—in the were introduced in 1937, remained a
ment,” he adds, “given the naysayers aftermath of the deaths, the ‘head- major draw for daily commuters due
who condemned the project when less’ CTF was replaced by a steer- to their utility, and also a tourist at-
the mortalities occurred.” The wild- ing committee in May. Meanwhile, traction due to the thrill of travelling
life expert, however, concedes that international experts engaged by on their upper deck. The Nilambari
most deaths—involving a ‘violent the Centre complained about not buses, which were introduced in 1997
mating interaction’ and infection being consulted. in collaboration with the Maharash-
caused by radio collars—could have The fatalities have also put paid tra Tourism Development Corpora-
been avoided with “better monitor- to the plan to develop the region tion, ferried over 15,300 tourists on
ing and management”. MP’s chief as a major tourist attraction and heritage tours this August.
wildlife warden Aseem Shrivastava, generate jobs for locals. To make “The double-deckers had a
however, reasons that “the SC in its matters worse, on September 5, a higher passenger-carrying capacity
order had termed the project as an Bharatiya Janata Party yatra in than normal buses, and hence were
experiment” and the department MP’s Neemuch district was pelted used for traffic clearance outside
has learnt a lot in the first year. “All with stones by irate villagers busy railway stations during rush
these takeaways will be put into protesting the acquisition of land hour,” shares a senior official of the
practice,” he says, “to ensure the for the second phase of Project BEST traffic division, who does not
setbacks are not repeated.” Cheetah proposed at Gandhi Sagar
Among the issues that cropped Sanctuary. So, a potential man-
up in the past one year was the lack animal conflict cannot be ruled
of coherence between the Centre out. While a team is attached with
and the MP government—the each cheetah released into the STEEP
state’s demand to shift some big wild, monitoring becomes difficult OPERATIONAL
cats to Mukundara Park in Rajas- once the big cat wanders beyond COSTS AND
than, for instance, was overlooked the reserve’s open boundaries that
by the Union government despite it shares with a large number of
GROWTH IN
being ratified by the Cheetah Task villages. As the project enters its TRAFFIC MADE
Force (CTF). Then, there was con- second year, there’s much scope for DOUBLE-DECKERS
fusion over committees constituted course correction. A LIABILITY
ANI
ALL THE BEST
(Clockwise from left) An old diesel-run
double-decker bus in Mumbai; a new
battery-operated AC double-decker
points.” These battery-operated buses

will not only reduce BEST’s carbon
footprint, but will also be more cost-
effective compared to the diesel-guz-
zling double-deckers. “BEST plans to
deploy the next lot of 10 buses,” adds
Vaidya, “in the city’s northern sub-
urbs. The minimum fare will be Rs 6,
as against Rs 5 for normal buses.”
The new buses are being inducted
on a ‘wet lease’ basis from private op-
erators, who will control part of the
operations like maintenance and pro-
viding drivers. BEST has also decided
to purchase new open deck buses for
the ‘Mumbai Darshan’ tourist circuit
to replace the Nilambari buses that
are being scrapped. For the time
NIRAV DAVE
being, five AC double-deckers will be

deployed on these routes.
But bus and public transport
enthusiasts lament that despite the
air-conditioned comfort that they
MUMBA I’S DOUBLE-DECKERS promise, the new buses lack the thrill
and grace of the old buses. “The old
double-deckers were on the lines of
INTO THE SUNSET the London buses…very spacious

and attractive,” says Mumbai-based
historian Deepak Rao. “The buses
had a wide entrance at the rear, al-
wish to be named. Around 1997-98, the growth in vehicular traffic also af- lowing around four to five people to
BEST had around 900 double- fected the ability to manoeuvre these board them at a time. The youngsters
deckers in service, but the numbers buses on Mumbai’s busy roads. would immediately rush to the upper
gradually dwindled as old vehicles The double-deckers in their new deck, which offered a panoramic view
went out of service and no fresh e-avatar promise to address a lot of of the city.” Ganacharya, meanwhile,
additions were made. “The double- these issues. “These AC buses will feels BEST should have inducted
deckers had steeper operational costs provide a comfortable and safe travel the old, non-AC double-deckers to
due to higher fuel consumption and experience,” says Sunil Vaidya, senior continue with this tradition. Or,
required two conductors, including administrative officer, PRO depart- at least, he says, the BMC should
one for the upper deck,” says Sunil ment, BEST. “They will have two entry provide grants to BEST to maintain
Ganacharya, a former member of and exit points (the old buses had just some of these old buses for the sake
the BEST committee, adding that one at the rear), CCTVs and charging of nostalgia.

OBITUARY: AJIT NINAN (1955-2023)
The Mogul of Mirth

A genie who lit up our pages, and our lives, with pure levity—and a keen vision
By Amarnath K. Menon
A
n eye for the quirky and the sublimely ridiculous.
To be able to pluck that out from a sea of banality,
and strip reality down to a kind of cosmic comedy
of errors—that is the natural province of every
cartoonist. And Ajit Ninan owned that territory
as much as any other in his peerage. Choruses of
pure, uncanned laughter from across the land attest to that fact;
that he, too, ruled as one of the most illustrious ones in that dynas-
tic roll-call. One among the Moguls of Mirth—a Jehangir of Jest,
perhaps?—wearing his crown at a jaunty angle all through, and
tickling us with his royal fly-whisk, for over four decades uninter-
rupted. There are, literally, millions of Indians whose lives were
lightened by his levity. And the products that leapt out from his
laboratory like runaway genies. From Detective Moochwala, that
Tintinesque apparition complete with the pooch, to the political
caricature woven of unalloyed delight.
But mere laughter does not describe his kingdom fully. Anyone
familiar with his bustling, energetic tangle of lines knows that the His humour never strayed
artist in him necessarily included but also exceeded that. Some
of us were fortunate enough to see the laboratory from the inside,
towards combative anger or
as it were, and figure out why. He was one of our colleagues in the darker tones of cynicism—
the early days of INDIA TODAY—and he made it his habitat for 16 in real life or in his cartoons
years, in two stints beginning 1980, honing his craft as cartoon-
2 4 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3
ist, illustrator and graphic designer,
transitioning seamlessly through
technological changes.
What that gave us was a master-
ful visual complement to textual
journalism. With a strain of humour
that never strayed towards combative
anger or the darker tones of cyni-
cism, either in his personality or in his
cartooning, what we got was astute
political commentary—in real life
March 15, 1986 and on page. If he kept a straight face
when amidst colleagues, and not ab-
sorbed in his craft, it was only the tautness of a joke about to be
told. His single images were often all that needed to be said on
the subject—for proof, see only the March 15, 1986, cover in our
collage, the price graph piercing the common man’s derriere. But
where he truly excelled was in the sprawling canvas, the mise en
scène that contained a chronicle of our follies in every tiny detail.
“Leaders make for great cartoons. I don’t know what that says
about the country, but it makes my job much easier and lots of
fun,” Ninan said once. Those who take themselves too seriously
tend to become balloons for his darts. Gods better watch out. ■
COVER STORY INDIA BHARAT
FROM BHARAT
THAT IS INDIA TO
BHARAT VS INDIA?
By KAI FRIESE
hat’s in a name? When it comes fresh official document describing Narendra Modi as ‘Prime
W
to our argumentative republic, you Minister of Bharat’ was released, and various government and
know the answer will be a deafen- opposition leaders made the statements you’d expect.
ing cacophony. The ongoing con- Now, several days into the controversy, there’s no evidence
troversy over the putative plot to that the government has immediate plans to officially drop the
dispense with ‘India’ as one of the name ‘India’ from the Constitution and all that follows (or what
two official names of our country this would involve). But there is some reason to believe that they
has led to and been amplified by may enforce the practice of using only ‘Bharat’ to refer to the
significant social (and mainstream) media chatter and prompt- country in official documents and parlance, whether in Hindi,
ed widespread speculation, mirthful memes, rancour and, of English or other languages.
course, colourful conspiracy theories. The immediate back- Could this just be an aggressive surrender to counter the
story, most people would agree, extends to the acronym for the Opposition’s ‘appropriation’ of India? Is it merely the latest
opposition alliance, announced in July. That sleight of brand example of the politics of distraction and narrative disruption
did seem to rattle the ruling party, provoking a number of ri- in the run-up to the national election next year? The politics
postes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who reminded his of ‘Bharat vs India’ has been a longer-running theme in the
backbenchers that even the East India Company and the Indian BJP camp. However, it seemed to have become the particular
Mujahideen claimed ‘India’, before going on to pepper the new province of the new anglophone intellectuals associated with
alliance with ‘dots’ in Parliament itself. More recently, there was the government. Ironically, it is this cohort who have lately bur-
the statement by the RSS chief, urging ‘people’ to “stop using nished the locutions ‘Indic’ and ‘Indic civilisation’ to promote
the word ‘India’ and start using ‘Bharat’.” Given that this state- a piously majoritarian cult of national antiquity. No less ironi-
ment was broadcast a couple of days cally, some liberal historians have as-
after the government’s announcement sailed the tragic erasure of ‘Hindustan’
of a special session of Parliament to be by a colonially-conceived Hindu ‘India’.
convened for five days in September, a To answer such conundrums, we
rumour soon spread connecting these
COULD THIS BE have resorted to the anciently indig-
two newsbites. JUST AN AGGRESSIVE enous but globally popular parable of
Such wild surmise became the stuff
of TV debate the next day as the news
SURRENDER TO the ‘wise men of Hindustan’ (a.k.a. the
Blind Men of Indostan), and gathered
cycle spun off a tweet by BJP chief J.P. COUNTER THE an assembly of eminent academic, le-
Nadda, with a picture of an invitation
from the ‘President of Bharat’ for a OPPOSITION’S gal, cultural, administrative and po-
litical opinion to address the elephant
formal dinner at Rashtrapati Bhavan APPROPRIATION in the room. Read on and you will be
on September 9. The stream of memes rewarded with the diversity of opin-
(including jokes about the fate of this OF INDIA? ion you should expect of this country,
magazine’s masthead) thickened, a whatever you call it.
2 8 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3
COVER STORY INDIA BHARAT POLITICS
AN ACRONYM
AND A COUNTER
AS THE RULING BJP’S ‘BHARAT’ MOVE CROSSES SWORDS WITH
THE OPPOSITION’S ‘INDIA’ ALLIANCE, ALL EYES ARE ON THE BIG
PRIZE—THE 2024 GENERAL ELECTION
By KAUSHIK DEKA with ANILESH S. MAHAJAN
n September 5, an invitation leaders of the BJP and its ideological fountainhead, the Rash-
O
went out for an official G20 sum- triya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS has tagged the
mit dinner hosted by President term Bharat into the title of many of its affiliates and two days
Droupadi Murmu where she was before the president’s dinner invite, its chief Mohan Bhagwat
described as the ‘President of Bharat’ reiterated the same at a meeting in Guwahati. He called on
instead of the ‘President of India’. the people to stop using the name India and switch to Bharat.
The same day, a government leaflet The Opposition leaders claim the recent emphasis of the
on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s saffron camp on using ‘Bharat’ to describe the country has been
visit to the 20th summit of the As- triggered by the formation of the 26-party anti-BJP alliance,
sociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance).
referred to him as the Prime Minister of Bharat. At the sum- “Maybe we irritated the government a little because we named
mit, too, he talked about Bharat’s connect with Asia. our coalition INDIA and that got them all heated up. So now
Even at the G20 summit, Modi sat behind a placard that they’ve decided to change the name of the country,” Congress
read Bharat. A government booklet brought out for the event, leader Rahul Gandhi said in a video posted on social media.
titled ‘Bharat—The Mother of Democracy’, read: ‘In Bharat that The Opposition parties believe the BJP camp, with its
is India, the view or the will of the people in governance has ability to package and promote any message, has successfully
been a central part of life since earliest recorded history.’ This used the emotional appeal of nationalism to build a narrative in
description was the inverse of what Article 1 of the Constitution which the saffron camp remains the sole custodian of national
states: ‘India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.’ interest and its rivals are labelled anti-national. The proposal
These developments sparked off a war of words between the to call the alliance INDIA was a counter to such a narrative.
ruling BJP and Opposition parties amid speculation that the When Assam chief minister and BJP leader Himanta
Centre was planning to change the official name of the coun- Biswa Sarma pooh-poohed the acronym, saying India was
try from India to Bharat. That the government has convened a name given by the British, team INDIA added a tagline,
a special session of Parliament (September 18-22) without ‘Jeetega Bharat’, to blunt the attack. They also did not forget
announcing the agenda added fuel to the speculation. Govern- to remind the BJP that Rahul’s five-month-long walkathon
ment sources, though, have dismissed such “rumours”. from Kanyakumari to Kashmir was called ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
But the rumours had their roots in a narrative set by the The Opposition camp has carefully avoided taking a hos-
per cent population living in the villages,
this India vs Bharat discourse is certain-
ly aimed at adding another front to the
BJP’s nationalistic discourse. “When you
say Bharat, it evokes a sense, a meaning
and a connotation,” external affairs min-
ister S. Jaishankar said in an interview.
The BJP is hoping the debate will di-
lute the advantage the Opposition par-
ties seek to gain with INDIA in 2024.
The proponents of Bharat, a Sanskrit
word that finds mention in Hindu myth-
ological texts, lost no time in labelling the
INDIA block anti-Hindu when two lead-
ers of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(DMK), including party chief and Tamil
Nadu CM M.K. Stalin’s son Udayanidhi,
made unsavoury comments on Sanatana
dharma (an alternative name for Hindu-
ism). “INDIA has been formed to attack
Hinduism,” former Union minister and
senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad
remarked. What also makes things dif-
ficult for the INDIA block is that some of
its members have earlier demanded the
BJP LEADERS REFUTE THE CHARGE THAT name change to Bharat. In 2012, former
THE‘BHARAT NARRATIVE’ IS POLITICALLY Congress MP from Goa Shantaram Naik
had moved a bill in the Rajya Sabha to
MOTIVATED AND ARGUE THAT ‘INDIA’ IS A make changes to that effect. In 2004,
RELIC FROM THE NATION’S COLONIAL PAST Samajwadi Party chief and then Uttar
Pradesh CM, the late Mulayam Singh
Yadav, had passed a resolution in the as-
sembly to replace the phrase ‘India that is
Bharat’ with ‘Bharat that is India’.
tile stand against the Bharat commentary but is also unwilling However, the Bharat move may not happen right now,
to let go of the advantage of their INDIA acronym. Saying that according to BJP insiders. On September 11, when the Union
both names are mentioned in the Constitution and are perfectly government hosted Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed
acceptable, Rahul described the India vs Bharat debate as bin Salman, the communique went back to ‘Republic of India’.
“distraction tactics” and a sign of the BJP’s “fear” ahead of the That said, legal experts say the name change can be executed
2024 Lok Sabha polls. Other leaders such as West Bengal CM through a constitutional amendment, but it would require it
Mamata Banerjee and her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, to be passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parlia-
too, have called the ‘Bharat narrative’ politically motivated. ment and ratification by at least half of the states.
BJP leaders refute the allegation and argue that ‘India’ is a While the spin doctors on both sides are raising the roof on
relic from the nation’s colonial past. If Uttarakhand CM Push- the debate, for the last half a century, both India and Bharat
kar Singh Dhami hails the turn to Bharat as “another blow to have been used interchangeably by the governments of the day
the slavery mentality”, Union education minister Dharmendra sans any conflict. Which is possibly why the Supreme Court
Pradhan calls it the biggest blow to the “colonial mindset”. rejected two appeals—by individual petitioners in 2016 and
Bharat and India have often also been used to denote the 2020—seeking a name change for the country. The current
two Indias—one un-anglicised, poor and living in the villages confrontation, therefore, is most likely a storm in a teacup,
and the other an upwardly mobile urban population. With 65 perhaps with an electoral motive.

COVER STORY INDIA BHARAT By SHASHI
THAROOR
INDIA
WE SHOULD CONTINUE TO USE BOTH INDIA AND BHARAT
RATHER THAN RELINQUISH OUR CLAIM TO A NAME REDOLENT OF
HISTORY, A NAME THAT IS RECOGNISED AROUND THE WORLD
econciling irreconcilables is a necessary. Why tamper with an arrangement that was
R
great Indian virtue. When the Constit- working perfectly satisfactorily? As the Americans like
uent Assembly was divided over whether to say, “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?”
to call our country ‘India’ or ‘Bharat’, our We know what the ruling party’s defenders are say-
founding fathers and mothers found the ing: that ‘India’ is a colonial imposition and that revert-
perfect compromise in drafting the Re- ing to an ancient, historically sanctified name is a way
public’s foundational document, referring of rejecting the “colonisation of the mind” that the name
to “India, that is Bharat” and making both sides happy. The India implies. They are wrong, and even if they were
Preamble speaks of “We, the People of India” in English, and right, dropping ‘India’ would still be a bad idea.
“Bharat ke log” in Hindi. Article 52 declares, in English, that Why are they wrong? Because the name India has
“There shall be a President of India”, and in Hindi calls the posi- nothing to do with British colonialism: it predates the
tion “Bharat ke Rashtrapati”. A simple, uncomplicated practice British presence in India by nearly two millennia. The
followed from all this: in English, and therefore internationally, ancient Greeks and Persians used the term ‘India’ for
our country was referred to as ‘India’; in Hindi and other Indian the land beyond the river Sindhu, or ‘Indus’, well before
languages, ‘Bharat’ was our country’s name. the Christian era. The ancient historians Herodotus and
It worked, just as the country known in English as ‘Germany’ Megasthenes wrote of India in the 5th and 4th centuries
is Deutschland at home and to all who speak Deutsch (the lan-
guage we refer to as ‘German’). Nobody in that proud country,
whose nationalism was at one time far more ferocious than ours,
insisted that English speakers had to call them Deutschland too.
But what has worked for 76 years, and for a few millennia THE NAME INDIA HAS
before that, is apparently not good enough for our government.
The sudden unsettling decision to have the President of India
NOTHING TO DO WITH
issue formal invitations as “the President of Bharat” and for the BRITISH RAJ, PREDATING
prime minister to sit behind a name-plate at the G20 summit
saying ‘Bharat’ in the Roman script, rather than ‘India’, has
IT BY TWO MILLENNIA
sparked off a controversy that is both pointless and totally un-
Illustration by NILANJAN DAS SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 33

BCE. The term India existed in Old United Nations and the League of Na- our claim to a name redolent of history,
English (5th century CE) and features tions. By retaining India, he ensured a name that is recognised around the
in the King James Bible. And the word that Pakistan was just a seceding state, world. Of course, ultimately the only
isn’t just in English. The Dutch East In- which had to apply afresh for interna- real guarantee of any brand’s contin-
dia Company was established in 1602, tional recognition. ued worth is the actual performance of
at about the same time as the British There is also the undoubted fact that the product or service it stands for. But
one in 1599. Their colonisation of the the name India has incalculable brand why be so foolish as to relinquish all
‘East Indies’ gave Indonesia its name. value built up over centuries. When a the benefits of the India brand globally
As a name for our subcontinent, ‘India’ brand is mentioned, it carries with it a when we can enjoy them without giving
long precedes the British Raj. whole series of associations in the public up the strength of “Bharat” at home?
But even if, for argument’s sake, the mind, as well as expectations of how it The final clincher: Since our neigh-
natives were right that ‘India’ came with will perform. A country isn’t a soft drink bours, the Arabs and the Persians, pro-
the British, it would still be wrong to or a cigarette, but its very name can con- nounced ‘s’ as ‘h’, it is also they who called
dump it in favour of the desi ‘Bharat’. It jure certain associations in the minds of the people across the Sindhu the ‘Hin-
was Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the found- others. This is why ‘India’ had value in dus’. So if the BJP rejects the name India,
er of Pakistan, who wanted our country the eyes of the world: it was a fabled and they will have to reject the name ‘Hindu’
named either Bharat or Hindustan, to exotic land, much sought after by travel- by the same logic, since that is equally
deny it any right to claim the storied lers and traders for centuries, the “jewel of foreign origin. No longer will they be
legacy of the name India, to which he in the crown” of Her Britannic Majesty able to demand of us all, “Garv se kaho ki
felt his own state had equal claim. At Victoria, whose proudest title was that hum Hindu hain”. Etymologically, that
the same time, our first prime minister, of “Empress of India”. Nehru wanted is just the same as declaiming “Garv se
Jawaharlal Nehru, insisted on retaining people to understand that the India he kaho ki hum Indian hain”! Which all
the name ‘India’ for the newly indepen- was leading was heir to that precious of us have been for too long, really, to
dent country, in the face of resistance heritage. He wanted, in other words, to waste any more time debating this ut-
from nativists who wanted it renamed hold on to the brand, though it was not terly fatuous and juvenile proposition.
‘Bharat’, in order to ensure that we were a term he was likely to have employed.
seen as the successor state to the India This is why we should continue to — Shashi Tharoor is an author and a
that had enjoyed membership of the use both words rather than relinquish Lok Sabha MP of the Congress
By SANJEEV
SANYAL
THE MAKING OF
BHARATAVARSHA
THE RIG VEDA TELLS US HOW THE BHARATA TRIBE BUILT
INDIA’S FIRST KNOWN EMPIRE AND CREATED A MODEL OF
ASSIMILATION RATHER THAN IMPOSITION. THUS, THEY CAME TO
LEND THEIR NAME TO A WHOLE CIVILISATION
first known empire, and Sudas became
the first ‘chakravartin’ or universal
monarch. The symbol of the chakravar-
tin is a wheel, and the Mauryan version
is today in our national flag. However,
the real importance of the Bharatas
derives less from conquest and more
from what they did next.
Instead of imposing their gods on
the vanquished tribes, they invited all
the defeated tribes, and other neigh-
bouring clans, to contribute their ideas,
rituals and gods to a common pool that
we know as the Vedas. Many of the
important composers of Vedic hymns,
Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

such as the Bhrigu clan, were on the
losing side in the battle!
The last hymn of the Rig Veda
explicitly states a “contract” whereby
all the tribes accept each other’s gods:
“Assemble, speak together: let our minds
be all of one accord,
Let all the ancient Gods take their right-
ful place around the sacrificial fire,
The place is common, common the
assembly,
Common our mind, let our thoughts
be united.”
The idea of assimilation, as op-
T
his country has posed to imposition, must have been
been known as THE WORD ‘INDIA’, quite attractive because this frame-
Bharat or Bharat- work came to be accepted across the
avar s ha fo r a THOUGH OLD, IS subcontinent as more and more people
very long time. THE RESULT added their gods to the pool. Thus, by
The span litera lly the Iron Age, we can see that the Land
ranges across thou- OF SERIAL of Seven Rivers has expanded to in-
sands of years. The name has two origin MISPRONOUNCING clude virtually all of India. This is re-
stories: an older Vedic one and a flected in a hymn chanted commonly
later Pauranic/Jain one. Interest- BY ANCIENT even today for ritual bathing:
ingly, the orig ins of the names Bharat FOREIGNERS “O Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saras-
and India are also closely linked. wati, Narmada, Sindhu, Kaveri!
The Rig Veda, an early Bronze May all your waters come together to
Age text (more than 5,000 years old), purify me.”
mentions a tribe called Bharata (also chieftain Sudas and Rishi Vashishtha, Similarly, almost all the Puranas
Trutsu) that lived on the banks of the the Bharata army crossed the Saras- clearly state that the land south of the
Saraswati river in what is modern-day wati and headed out to meet the enemy. Himalayas, and north of the ocean,
Haryana. They called their homeland In the Battle of Ten Kings, on the banks is inhabited by the Bharata people.
Sapta Sindhu or the Land of Seven of the Parushni river (now Ravi), the There are also detailed lists of rivers
Rivers. These seven rivers relate to the Bharatas defeated the coalition; there and mountain ranges as well as neigh-
Saraswati and its system of tributaries, are descriptions of how the fleeing ene- bouring people such as the Kiratas
and should not be confused with those my soldiers drowned in the river. Sudas (Tibeto-Burmans).
that gave their name to Panjab. now turned eastwards and defeated Nevertheless, the Puranas and Jain
The Rig Veda tells us that the another chieftain called Bheda on the texts (about 2,500 years old) mention
Bharatas were attacked by a coalition banks of the Yamuna. an origin story for Bharatavarsha that
of 10 tribes from the West. Led by their Thus, the Bharatas created India’s is different from the Vedic version.
According to it, there was a great king

named Nabhi who had a son, Rishabh.
After ruling for a while, Rishabh would
become an ascetic (in the Jain tradition,
he is the founder, the first tirthankara)
and handed over his throne to his son
Bharat. As it turned out, Bharat would
conquer the whole subcontinent and
become a chakravartin. Thus, the coun-
try comes to be known as the Land of
INDIA
Bharat or Bharatavarsha. The link with
the older Vedic story is unclear and one
could speculate that Bharat’s conquest
is a distant memory of that of Sudas. Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
Also unclear is the link to a later story
about another all-conquering King
Bharat, son of King Dushyant and
Shakuntala.
Meanwhile, the ancient Avestan
Persians would come to use the term
Hapta Hindu, derived from Sapta Sind-
hu, through the phonetic shift of ‘s’ to ‘h’.
The Avestans seem to have some dispute
with the Vedic Indians as the Vendidad
text mentions that Hapta Hindu had
been taken over by evil gods (devas).
Notice that the very first use of the
he spectacular success of the G20 summit
T
word Hindu is mentioned as part of the
name of a land and is not derived from has done India proud. But the dinner hosted by the
the river Sindhu as commonly assumed. ‘President of Bharat’ and the use of Bharat (instead
The Middle East would continue to of India) on the invite has triggered a controversy on
use ‘Hindu’ but the word would evolve to whether this was proper and whether the word India
‘India’ as it went further west. Thus, the will soon have an expiry date.
name ‘India’ is the result of serial mis- On September 18, 1949, the Constituent Assembly
pronunciation by ancient foreigners. In debated on what the name of the new republic would be. The initial
contrast, the word ‘Bharat’ would travel draft of Article 1 read: India shall be a Union of States. There was no
to Southeast Asia where it survives in reference to Bharat. H.V. Kamat and others suggested replacing India
Indonesian and Malaysian Bahasa as with Bharat, Bharatvarsha, Hind or Hindusthan. This proposal was
‘Barat’, meaning west! put to vote and defeated. The amended and final version read: India,
As one can see, this country has been that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States. The lengthy debate led an
indigenously called Bharat for thou- exasperated Ambedkar to plead that as the word ‘Bharat’ was accepted,
sands of years, and the name is com- they should move on to bigger issues.
monly used in Indian languages. The use The word India occurs more than 550 times in the English ver-
of India, however, is also very old. Many sion of the Constitution and, likewise, the word Bharat occurs more
other countries have embraced exter- than 550 times in the Hindi version. ‘Bharat’ occurs only once in the
nal and internal names: Germany and English version, and the word ‘इंिडया’ occurs only once in the Hindi ver-
Deutschland, Japan and Nippon. This is sion. The Tamil and Malayalam versions use the word ‘Bharatham’.
why the Indian Constitution begins with Indeed, most of us use Bharat when speaking in the vernacular, except
the words: “India, that is Bharat...” in some southern states. The sudden use of Bharat was thus surpris-
ing and baffling.
— Sanjeev Sanyal is a writer and It would have been perfectly appropriate for the President to use
economist who currently serves as ‘Bharat ke Rashtrapati’ and send the cards in Hindi. The use of the
member, Prime Minister’s Economic hybrid version, ‘Republic of Bharat’, is constitutionally improper. Japan
Advisory Council is the English name for ‘Nihon’ or ‘Nippon’. Similarly, the German name
By ARVIND
P.DATAR
A QUESTION OF
BHARAT PROPRIETY
THE USE OF BHARAT AT THE G20 SUMMIT
OUGHT NOT TO HAVE BEEN DONE WHEN
OUR CONSTITUTIONAL ENGLISH NAME
CONTINUES TO BE INDIA
of Germany is Deutschland. It will be ritory and the people who lived to the India never had a common ruler who
strange and improper if an invitation in west and to the east of the river Sindhu. identified the peninsula with either
English is issued by the Emperor of Nip- Kane points out that the word Sindhu Bharat or India.
pon or the Chancellor of Deutschland. occurs more than 200 times in the Rig Constitutionally, the preamble to
Indeed, India is the name that has to Veda. He points out that the Puranas the Government of India Act, 1800,
be used when the communication is in refer to Bharatvarsha, which has the noted that the “territorial possession of
English and in international meetings. same extent as modern India and the the United Company of Merchants of
It is necessary to trace the historical name is attributed to Bharata, the son England trading to the East Indies, in
and constitutional origins of the word of Dushyant and Shakuntala. However, the peninsula of India, have become so
India. In the History of Dharmashas- the Greeks referred to the people in the much extended” that there was a need
tra by Dr P.V. Kane (who was awarded same region as Indoi, from which came to make regulations for due government
the Bharat Ratna for this monumental the word Indian (see volume V, Part II, and better administration of justice. A
work), it is stated that the word Hindu pp. 1,613-1,614). Thus, the name ‘India’ series of similar acts finally ended with
or Hidu was first applied by the Per- has a Greek origin and has nothing to the Government of India Act, 1935, and
sian emperors Darius (522-486 BC) do with any colonial legacy. Indeed, un- Section 5 proclaimed that there shall
and Xerxes (486-465 BC) to the ter- til the British consolidated their power, be a united Federation of India, con-
sisting of the governors’ provinces, the
chief commissioners’ provinces and the
Indian (princely) states which had ac-
IN THE PAST, SEVERAL CITIES HAVE BEEN ceded to the federation. The Federation
of India later became the Union of India
RENAMED. BUT THESE WERE ONLY excluding, of course, the territories that
became Pakistan.
SYMBOLIC AND NOT A SUBSTITUTE It is possible to amend the Consti-
FOR REAL AND SUBSTANTIAL CHANGE tution of India and change ‘India, that
is Bharat’ to ‘Bharat, that is India’. Al-
ternatively, we can eliminate India al-
together and redraft Article 1 to read: improving civic amenities. An unfortu- help us become a five trillion-dollar
‘Bharat shall be a Union of States’. The nate example of the increasing resort to economy or resolve major problems
use of Bharat at the G20 summit was symbolism is the proposed replacement facing the nation. The cost of replacing
clearly an impropriety and ought not to of the Indian Penal Code with Bharati- India with Bharat will be huge with no
have been done when our constitutional ya Nyay Sanhita Bill, 2023. Nothing corresponding benefit. Sadly, replac-
English name continues to be India. significant will be achieved unless we ing India with Bharat only symbolises
In the past, several cities have been focus on improving the criminal justice a special type of nationalism that may
renamed. But these were only symbolic system, particularly when half a million pay political dividends but will cost the
and not a substitute for real and sub- of our citizens languish as undertrials. country dear.
stantial change. Our national fervour India rightly aspires to be a great
came to the fore when removing Eng- economic power and changing our — Arvind P. Datar is a senior
lish names, but there was no fervour in identity to Bharat will not in the least advocate at the Supreme Court
By PAVAN K.
VARMA
CALL ME
ones were what they were always referred to
by most locals. To that extent, the reversal was
relevant. Countries, too, have changed their
names. To cite a few examples, Turkey in 2021
BY BOTH
renamed itself as Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, Re-
public of Türkiye. Interestingly, one of the rea-
sons was that a Google search invariably also
showed Turkey as the bird eaten in the West on
Christmas, and in America also on Thanksgiv-
NAMES ing! Earlier, in 1972, the British colonial name

of Ceylon was changed to Sri Lanka; in 1980,
Rhodesia rejected its British name to become
Zimbabwe; and in 1989, Burma jettisoned its
colonial baggage by renaming itself Myanmar.
‘INDIA’, ‘BHARAT’ AND ‘HINDUSTAN’ HAVE FOR But in the new controversy about the gov-
LONG BEEN USED INTERCHANGEABLY AND ernment’s alleged intention to change the name
HAVE A LONGER HISTORY THAN ANYONE CAN of India to Bharat, the key question is: what
are we reclaiming to throw out the other? Was
REMEMBER. WHY RAKE UP THE MATTER NOW? India the name given to us by our British mas-
ters? The historical evidence would indicate
otherwise. Noted historian Dr Upinder Singh,
in her magnum opus, A History of Ancient and
Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th
T
he iconic writer from Karnataka, U.R. Anan- Century, writes that the words ‘India’, ‘Hindu’
thamurthy (1932-2014), whom I had the great privilege and ‘Hindustan’ originate from the river In-
of knowing, once quipped to me that the entire controversy dus or Sindhu. Ancient Chinese sources refer
over renaming Bangalore to Bengaluru—which he had to the land of ‘Shen-tu’; Greek texts, starting
proposed in 2006—was amusingly inane since for ordinary with Megasthenes, who visited the court of
Kannadigas, Bangalore had always been Bengaluru. I sup- Chandragupta Maurya in fourth century BCE,
pose the same irrefutable logic would apply to the name changes of Calcutta refer to the entire subcontinent as ‘India’, Per-
to Kolkata, Madras to Chennai, and Cawnpore to Kanpur. sian inscriptions of the same vintage use the
The earlier names of these cities were given by the British, and the new word ‘Hindu’ as one of the subject countries of
varsha connects it with the Bharata

people, descendants of the legendary
IN THE NEW CONTROVERSY, THE KEY king Bharata, son of Dushyant and
QUESTION IS: WHAT ARE WE RECLAIMING Shakuntala. Cosmography blends with
TO THROW OUT THE OTHER? INDIA WAS NOT geography in the Puranas, which were
committed to writing around 300 CE.
A NAME GIVEN TO US BY THE BRITISH Bharatvarsha is said to consist of nine
divisions (khandas), separated from
one another by seas. But the mention
of its mountains, rivers and places—
some of which can be identified—sug-
the Achaemenid king Darius; and for Sindhu is a Sanskrit word from the Ve- gests that the composers of such texts
the Arabs (after the eighth century), das), originated far before British rule. were familiar with various areas of the
those who lived beyond the Indus were However, the name Bharat is also both subcontinent, and perceived them as
Al-Hind. established and ancient, and objective part of a larger cultural whole’ (em-
It would appear, therefore, that the historians are willing to accept this phasis mine).
name India or its variants, all derived reality. Upinder writes: ‘One of sev- Bharata is also mentioned in the
from the river Indus or Sindhu, (and eral explanations of the name Bharat- Mahabharata (circa 5th century BCE),

and an oft-quoted Sanskrit verse says:

‘Uttaramyatsamudrasyahimadresha-
chaivadakshinamvarshamtadbha-
ratamnamabharati yatra santatiha
(The country (varsham) that lies north
of the oceans and south of the snowy
mountains is called Bharatam, the de-
scendants of Bharata).’
Our Constitution-makers, realis-
ing the historical validity of both In-
dia and Bharat, debated at length on
which one to adopt, and finally came
up with a solution that retained both.
Article 1 of the Constitution, which was
originally drafted in English, states:
‘India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union
of states’. The version in Hindi repli-
cates this, but puts Bharat first in the
translation: ‘Bharat, arthartha India,
rajyon ka sanghhoga’. Does this mean
that in English ‘India’ had primacy,
and in Hindi ‘Bharat’? Frankly, I doubt
it. Language was not the decisive fac-
tor (since Hindi is the dominant lan-
guage primarily only in parts of north
India). The truth appears to be that
our founding fathers (and mothers)
wanted Brand India to be ours (against
the protests of Jinnah), and made a
compromise to reconcile votaries of By G. ARUNIMA
either one name or the other. In fact,
the Constitution on the whole is a
remarkable and commendable exer-
cise of enlightened compromises, to
avoid division and retain the unity of
the country.
Interestingly, in 2004, when the
Mulayam Singh Yadav government in
the Uttar Pradesh assemblypassed a
INDIA, AS
resolution to rename India as Bharat,
the BJP walked out in protest. Is it now
reversing its stand because the opposi-
tion alliance is called INDIA? Or is it a
SPOKEN ON
symbol of cultural reclamation, at the
cost of eliminating another equally val-
id and indigenous narrative of history?
Either way, Ananthamurthy’s logic was
right: ordinary Indians have long hap-
ITS EDGES
‘INDIA’ TAPS INTO A MUCH OLDER STRAND
pily accepted both Bharat and India,
and also, incidentally, Hindustan. Why IN MALAYALAM. IT’S ONLY WELL INTO THE
reopen this matter? 20TH CENTURY THAT ‘BHARATHAM’
CAME INTO FORMAL USE. EVEN NOW,
Pavan K. Varma is an author,
former diplomat and ex-MP
IT’S NOT QUITE PART OF COMMON SPEECH
of the Rajya Sabha
nor nation, let alone the far more relevant
category of region, are settled issues.
The formation of linguistic states did
not offer a resolution or even a closure to the
language question, and at least one of the
reasons for this is that what can be seen as
regional features of the Indian subcontinent
do not fold neatly into the boundaries that
have been demarcated for different states.
The spillover can have different manifesta-
tions, with greater overlaps between certain
parts of the broader region. For instance,

Kasargod district in Kerala is culturally
closer to parts of southern, coastal Karna-
taka than to, say, Palakkad, which in many
ways bears greater affinity to Tamil Nadu.
Malayalam, with its Dravidian base and
strong overlay of Indo-Aryan elements
from Prakrit and Sanskrit, and with a re-
markable number of loan words that are
routinely used as part of its vocabulary, has
never been straitjacketed into bland ho-
mogeneity. In fact, from the latter half of
the 19th century, debates about language
use, origins and form have raged in Kerala.
Earlier arguments were closer to the issue of
O
ne of the earliest references in Malay- Malayalam’s linguistic origins—usually, if
alam to the term ‘India’ that I have seen is in imprecisely, posed via the question ‘Sanskrit
the late 18th century travelogue Varthamana- or Tamil?’ By the latter half of the 20th cen-
pustakam. Written by the priest Paremakkal tury, both scholarly writing that opened up
Thoma Kathanar, it is a detailed account of an ways to understand the complex structure
eight-year-long journey from Kerala to Rome, of Malayalam, and the pushback from so-
via a variety of places, including Portugal. What cial reform movements led by the oppressed
is striking in that text is that there is a clear un- castes (the demand for recognition of ‘Dalit
derstanding that the entirety of the geographical mozhi’) meant that Malayalam—and lan-
region which traded with the countries of the West like Portugal was guage itself—needed to be understood as
‘India’, especially as there are astute observations about the terms and internally variegated and possessing formal
conditions that bound commercial activities of the time, regulating rela- properties that have changed over time. In
tions between countries. fact, anyone who knows Kerala will know
A century later, we find multiple references to ‘India’ in O. Chandu
Menon’s Indulekha, a text that is often hailed as the first modern Malay-
alam novel. In contrast, it is relevant that while there is no mention at all
of ‘Bharat’ or ‘Bharatham’ in the Varthamanapustakam, the few occasions
when Bharatham is mentioned in Indulekha, it refers to the Mahabharata,
which is usually referred to as such in Malayalam. It is very likely that it was
IT IS LIKELY THAT
in the nationalist, and humanist, poet Vallathol Narayana Menon’s 1921 THE WORDS ‘INDIA’
poem Pora Pora that one sees a clear first reference to India as ‘Bharatha
Devi’, though the earlier poem Mathrubhumiyodu (1917) weaves in a ma-
AND ‘INDIAN’ ARE
ternal metaphor, imagining the nation as mother. Subsequently, while one FAR MORE
sees the occasional use of the term ‘Bharatham’ in Malayalam to refer to
India, it is by no means used generally in speech even today.
INDIGENISED IN
Apropos the recent controversy stirred up by the ruling dispensation MALAYALAM THAN
in the country, we are returned once again to a situation where linguistic
purity and authenticity are represented as the cornerstones of an authentic
IS BHARATH(AM)
national identity. Yet as we know from Indian history, neither language

that spoken Malayalam, including has the best explorations of such in- in Kerala, off and on, I would say that
many terms and usages, change from ternal differentiation in the language. most people of the state would be more
district to district, making these in- So, who amongst this densely popu- likely to use the term ‘Indiakkar’ (people
comprehensible to those from other lated state with its myriad internal dif- of India) than ‘Bharathiyar’. The latter is
parts of even that small state. Similar ferences would refer to India as Bharat restricted to stiff formal usage.
language differences can be seen across or Bharatham? Indeed, to whom would Keralites have travelled outside the
caste and religious communities. Con- this even be of significance? As a Malay- state, and country, for work for a very
temporary Malayalam cinema perhaps alam speaker who has lived and worked long time, a trend that has been on the
By KANCHA ILAIAH
SHEPHERD
BHARAT, SYMBOL
OF BRUTE POWER
‘INDIA’, AN INCLUSIVE TERM, EMBODIES OUR SOCIAL, SPIRITUAL AND
CIVILISATIONAL ROOTS. ‘BHARAT’ HAS DRUNK DEEPLY OF
SANATAN DHARMA’S BRUTAL BREW OF CASTE, RACE AND
MASCULINITY. DALITS/ ADIVASIS MUST OPPOSE ITS ADOPTION
fter opposition parties adopted the acronym tions. The name of the subcontinent, India,
A
INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Al- is more acceptable as it mirrors our most
liance), Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP ancient advancement. It unites all under a
leaders attacked it as an indication of the Opposition’s common identity—Dravidian, Aryan and
colonial mindset. Followed by RSS sarsanghchalak Mo- Mongoloid races and the teeming agrar-
han Bhagwat, they asked people to use “Bharat instead of ian productive masses. Most such produc-
India” to instil a sense of “national pride”. Thus started the tive masses exist now in social categories
name-change game plan of the RSS/ BJP. They are now trying to project it as like Shudra (OBC), Dalit and Adivasis. The
part of their decolonisation agenda. Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s final adoption of the name of this country must reflect their con-
name ‘India’ in the Preamble of the Constitution—“We the people of India”— tribution too. ‘Bharat’ has no such civilisa-
has priority over the way it was used in Article 1: “India, that is Bharat”. Why tional significance; it does not encompass
did he prioritise India over Bharat as the name of the country, though both the long-existing productive civilisation of
were used in the Constitution? this subcontinent.
The oppressed castes of India were starting to be conscious of their rights The name India indicates the subcon-
by the time the Constitution was adopted in 1950. The name Bharat stemmed tinent’s social, spiritual, cultural and civili-
from the Sanatan heritage in post-Vedic times and has caste/ racial connota- sational roots, not just of the present land
increase in the past 50 years. Their and ‘Indian’ are far more indigenised in millions of Indians rather than waste
sense of self as Indians derives not only Malayalam than is Bharat(ham). time on semantic oneupmanship!
from some heightened sense of patrio- In any case, B.R. Ambedkar settled
tism, but also from the practical experi- the matter by starting Article 1 of the — G. Arunima is professor of
ence of being Indian passport holders. Constitution with the words “India, Women’s Studies at Jawaharlal
The expatriate experience, then, syncs that is Bharat….” Personally, I feel that Nehru University, and is director
with the everyday native life, making should satisfy all Indians, so that we of the Kerala Council for Historical
it far more likely that the words ‘India’ can address the real problems faced by Research, Trivandrum

T
mass of the nation-state. It encom- name Hindustan. That name incor-
passes the Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Mus- porates both religion (‘Hindu’) and
lim, Christian and Vedic religions. land (‘sthaan’).
‘Bharat’, whether it originated The use of ‘Hinduism’ should thus
from Dasaratha’s Kshatriya dynas- be relinquished by the RSS/ BJP forc-
ty in the Ramayana or Dushyanta’s es to oppose both Muslim and Brit-
Kshatriya dynasty of the Mahabah- ish rule. An ideal nationalist name The G20 dinner invitation
rata, has its roots in male dynastic for their religion could be ‘Sanatan’. sent out by the President’s
upper-caste rulers. Why should it Then the Shudras/ Dalits/ Adivasis office mentioned only Bharat
be acceptable to women, apart from can draw a clear line between them (President of Bharat), and has fu-
Shudras/ Dalits/ Adivasis, who all and Sanatans. The concept of Sana- elled a fierce debate. The name-
have problems with the Kshatriyan- tan stands for varna dharma. Dr plate in front of the Prime Minister
ess of the name? It symbolises monar- Ambedkar and E.V. Ramasamy ‘Peri- at the G20 summit also proudly
chical brute power, not our ancient yar’ have written about the close ties displayed the name Bharat in-
republican heritage. between caste and Sanatan Dharma. stead of the usual India. Since the
The Indus civilisation, from The BJP in general and Narendra Constitution assures that India
which the name India emerged Modi in particular keep on attacking is Bharat, the President and the
through several—Greek, Latin, Per- the dynastic rule of the Nehru family. Prime Minister of Bharat are on
the right side of protocol or rather
erred on the right side. While the
government is not offering any rea-
soning for the name change, the
IF DYNASTIC RULE IS SUCH AN ANATHEMA Opposition seems to have been
TO MODI AND THE BJP, HOW COME THEY caught on the wrong foot.
NOW WANT A KSHATRIYA DYNASTIC NAME

FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTRY ITSELF?
sian etc.—twists and turns, reflects How come the same BJP/ RSS forces
collective labour power, as well as the now prefer a Kshatriya dynastic name
science and technology devised by our for the country itself? The PM’s air-
ancestors from pre-patriarchal Vedic craft already has ‘Bharat’ written in
times. The Indus source is a secular Hindi. The government used ‘Bharat’
one; it does not hark back to our reli- at the G-20 summit. If the country’s
gious/ caste roots. name is changed to Bharat during the
If colonial use of ‘India’ is the Modi regime, all the PM’s speeches
main cause for changing it, the term against dynastic rule boil down to
‘Hinduism’, which was popularised hypocrisy.
and used widely in colonial times, Ambedkar had an idea that a
also needs to be dropped. Before name like India shall reflect his vision
colonialism, all extant records have where there should not be oppression
‘Hindoo’ or ‘Hindu’, while the Brah- of caste, religion, class or gender. He
manical religion was referred to as rejected many Sanatanists’ demands
‘Sanatan Dharma’. Muslim rulers in the Constituent Assembly that In-
and the East India Company coined dia should be named Bharat, not In-
‘Hinduism’ to mean the Sanatan dia. If ‘India’ is dropped by this gov-
Dharma. The name Hinduism for ernment, Shudras/ Dalits/ Adivasis of
that religion did not exist in any India must oppose the move with all
written text—either in Sanskrit or the might at their command.
regional languages—before Muslim
and British rulers used it. Muslim — Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a po-
rulers did not use ‘India’, but the litical theorist, activist and author
By no stretch of the imagination is the Modi
government the first to use the name Bharat in-
stead of India. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
By SESHADRI (RSS) has been traditionally using Bharat in its
CHARI narrative and ends the official prayer with the
‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogan. The Sarsanghcha-
lak of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, recently stated
UNANIMITY
that proper nouns cannot be translated and hence
urged the use of Bharat “in all fields to see the
change it would bring”. The Modi government
ON ‘BHARAT’
began using Bharat in the G20 summit and is wait-
ing to see the change. While the world appears to
have taken the change in its stride, a section of the
Opposition is not too happy with it.
IS KEY NOW
Even before the RSS, there have been instances
of political parties, especially the Congress and
others, suggesting the use of Bharat officially.
Shantaram Naik, a Congress MP from Goa,
BY NO STRETCH OF IMAGINATION IS THE introduced a private member bill, not once but
MODI GOVERNMENT THE FIRST TO USE twice, in the Rajya Sabha seeking an amendment
to Article 1 of the Constitution which mentions
THE NAME BHARAT INSTEAD OF INDIA
“India that is Bharat”. His Bill basically sought
three important changes: substituting the word
India with the word Bharat in the Preamble of
the Constitution, use of the word Bharat only in
place of ‘India that is Bharat’ and thirdly, that
wherever the word India appears in the Consti-
tution, it should be replaced with Bharat. Citing
the popular song ‘Jahan daal daal par sone ki
chidiya karti hai basera, woh Bharat desh hai
mera” for generating a sense of patriotism, the
Congress MP pleaded for Bharat.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) carried the patri-
otic logic further and connected it with “swadeshi
economic policies”, rejecting Western consumer-
ism by substituting the word India with Bharat in
the Constitution. In April 2004, the SP proposed
to use only ‘Bharat’ in the Constitution “as a step
to protect the identity of the country”, to “ban
the import of luxury goods” and “to take other
suitable economic and political measures to end
the cultural degeneration being encouraged by
the Western consumerist lifestyle”. Whatever the
logic of the BJP, it appears to pale into insignifi-
cance before the spirited defence of Bharat by the
Congress and SP. Not to be outdone, BJP veteran
and former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediy-
urappa suggested an amendment to the Constitu-
tion to rename India as ‘Bharat’, and linked the
name change to Kannada pride. So, Bharat has a
southern touch too.
Indologist John Muir, whose main work was
Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History
of the People of India, their Religion and Institu-
tions (1852–1870), put forward two findings. One
COVER STORY INDIA BHARAT WHILE THE
GOVERNMENT IS
NOT OFFERING ANY
was in 1858, in the first volume of his gument that India’s foundational princi-
work, where he wrote on the origin of ples will change if its name is changed to REASONING FOR THE
caste, an inquiry intended to show that Bharat is as irrational an argument as it NAME CHANGE,
it did not exist in the Vedic age. In this is absurd. The name Bharat is enshrined
volume, he also wrote extensively on the in the Constitution clearly and all the THE OPPOSITION
origin and history of the people of India attributes of India apply to Bharat also. SEEMS TO HAVE
while describing the geographical con- Perhaps no one could have argued
ceptions of the Puranas and equated for Bharat more vehemently than BEEN CAUGHT ON
‘Bharatavarsa’ with India. This was
probably one of the earliest arguments
veteran Congress leader Kamala-
pati Tripathi who declared that, “I
THE WRONG FOOT
on Bharat by a British Indologist. am enamoured of the historic name
About 35 years later, German Ori- of ‘Bharat’… Even after thousands of
entalist Gustav Oppert went a step fur- years, our country is still known as
ther in 1893 and forcefully argued that ‘Bharat’. Since Vedic times, this name party during the Constituent Assem-
‘Bharatavarsa’ was the “only relevant na- has been appearing in our literature. bly debates, they seem to have a much
tional designation for India”. He argued Our Puranas have all through eulo- greater stake in the name Bharat being
that the name Bharat alone is capable gised the name of Bharat.” adopted unanimously.
of bridging the divide between what he The ‘Bharat’ debate that began on The issue is not who gets the credit
classified as ‘Aryan’ and ‘Dravidian’. September 18, 1949, in the Constitu- but how soon and how unanimously we
Incidentally, ‘Bharat’ was consid- ent Assembly has been revived after 74 can adopt the name Bharat as envisaged
ered to be an idea that connects every years. It would be in the best interests by the framers of the Constitution.
‘Bharatiya’ and gives him or her an iden- of the country to debate the issue fur-
tity that is unique and has deep roots in ther. Considering the arguments put — Seshadri Chari is a former
tradition and cultural moorings. The ar- forward by the veterans of the Congress editor of Organiser
By RAVINDER
KAUR
n September 5,
BRAND O
2023, #Bharat was
the most tweeted and the
longest-trending topic on
Indian social media. The
NEW INDIA
day began with intense
speculation that the Modi
government was about to cancel one of the two
constitutional names of the country, India,
to privilege the other, Bharat. But what was
hailed as a gesture of decolonisation, a return
FROM INCREDIBLE INDIA IN 2002 TO
to authentic naming traditions, soon took an
DIGITAL INDIA NOW, BRAND INDIA unexpected turn: a speculative suggestion sur-
EMERGED AS AN INFLUENTIAL faced that Pakistan may claim the name ‘India’
if India chooses to abandon it.
LOCUS OF INTERACTION WITH
This mere whiff of a rumour was enough
THE WORLD AND THE NATION to spark mirthful internet memes laced with
disbelief in equal measure. Why would India’s
neighbour and foe court an identity it had once
rejected? It was indeed an improbable opened up its economy to the world, it inscribed through the brand, to become
scenario, a satirical conjecture of what could also boast of being the “world’s inseparable from its commodity form.
would be one of the greatest turnabouts largest free-market democracy”. Thus, A telling example of how Brand In-
of history. But this ironic twist in the tale Brand India came to cohere both lib- dia joined the past and the future is an
also revealed something else: the endur- eral politics and a liberal economy, an India Shining global campaign adver-
ing allure of the name India, a coveted entity whose emergence was celebrated tisement. It nudged global visitors to
geographical marker in antiquity—In- and consecrated through mass publicity set “sail for our beautiful shores”. The
dica, Indies, Hind, Hindustan, and campaigns. From the iconic Incredible image featured an artistic depiction
India, cognates of the Sanskrit Sindhu India campaign launched in 2002, In- of Columbus’s arrival on the Ameri-
river—repackaged into Brand India in dia Shining 2003-4, India Everywhere can continent and bold text that read
the 21st-century world economy. 2006, Davos, to Lead India 2007, and “The last time we held so much prom-
Brand India came into its own at from Skill India, Clean India to Digital ise, Columbus discovered America”.
the turn of the millennium, its global India, Brand India emerged as an in- The smaller text beneath explains that
Indian identity reified as a precious re- fluential locus of interaction with the “when Columbus set sail to find the rich
source that could be refashioned into a world and the nation. It projected a lib- spices of our land, destiny had other
desirable commodity brand in the world eral personality of the nation even as it plans. Instead of finding us, he discov-
economy. What had begun in the mid- mediated the nation’s resources: natu- ered America. Years later, modern-day
’90s as a bid to promote ‘Made in In- ral landscapes, people, and cultures. explorers have got our Incredible land
dia’ products would eventually become The Incredible India images are espe- back on their maps”. The allusion was
‘Make in India’, the nation as a manu- cially noteworthy in how natural—the to the story of Christopher Columbus’s
facturing hub, about three decades later. mountains, deserts, forests, rivers and search for the legendary India that had
Yet, unlike China, India had not only oceans—and cultural elements are re- long existed in European imagination

as the land of abundance. As is well

known, Columbus failed in his origi-
nal mission and never reached India.
This story is invoked not only to re- By BARADWAJ
mind modern investors and explorers RANGAN
of the fabled attractions of India, but
also to assure them of safe naviga-
tion to India. In a reversal of role, this
WHAT’S IN
time it is India inviting the world to
its shores, to partake in its capitalist
growth story. Witness, too, how In-
dia’s past encounters with the world
were deployed in an unusual way to
bolster its brand in the 21st century.
It is, perhaps, therefore, the hy-
pothetical availability of the domain
name that India has drawn forth old,
forgotten historical bitterness over
A NAME?
how the two successor states of Brit-
HAD INDIA’S BIGGEST UNITERS—FILMS
ish India ought to have been named. AND FILM MUSIC—FANCIED ONE NAME
Many recalled how Jinnah was re- OVER THE OTHER, WHAT WOULD
ported to have been left disappointed
when Nehru chose to retain the name
BECOME OF MOTHER INDIA, OR RAJA
India. He is said to have expected in- HINDUSTANI, OR BHARAT EK KHOJ?
dependent India to be called Hindu-
stan or Bharat to signal a break from
colonialism. Instead, the makers of
modern India had taken possession
of an established name, variations
of which had existed since antiquity,
and fused it together with Bharat to
inscribe a double name ‘India, that is
Bharat’ in the Constitution. The new
nomenclature not only harnessed a
widely recognised name but also be-
came a mark of historical continu-
ity that wove together the many old
Indias to the new postcolonial state.
If Bharat addressed an internal con-
stituency, especially the consumers
of Hindu identity, the familiar sign of
India became the cosmopolitan inter-
face between the nation and the world.
Seen through the logic of the brand,
what allows Bharat to become visible
in the world is Brand India. The can-
cellation of India is a narrow, partisan
move, one that accrues losses to both
Bharat and India.
— Ravinder Kaur is the author of

Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams
and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-
First-Century India
W
hat do you call Shyam Benegal’s series eschewed the “woh Bharat desh hai mera” (that is
this country of English title of the book that it was my Bharat). Indian cinema is not ex-
Amars, Akbars based on (The Discovery of India) actly known for historical accuracy,
and Anthonys and called itself Bharat Ek Khoj. but let’s take this song at face value.
(or, if you want the And the title of Episode 1? ‘Long In 326 BC, ‘Bharat’ was what the
Tamil equivalent, Live Mother India’. Nargis’s iconic country was called. Drag the timeline
Shankars, Salims representation of the resilience of our all the way to the modern day, to the
and Simons)? Ask director Shankar, women came in a film named Mother computer era, in Subhash Ghai’s NRI
and he’d say… what’s in a name! His India (1957). The Malayalam actor saga Pardes (1997), and we get a song
1996 blockbuster was called Indian Gopy, after receiving the National with the chorus “I love my India”.
in Tamil, Hindustani in its Hindi Award for Best Actor, was rechris- But perhaps things have been
avatar, and in Telugu, it became Bha- tened Bharat Gopy because it was changing of late. Look at Mahesh
rateeyudu. Most of Indian cinema popularly called the ‘Bharat’ award. Babu in Koratala Siva’s 2018 film
would agree with Shankar that the Amitabh Bachchan debuted in a film about the commencement of acche
state matters, not the name. Shah about the exploits of seven Indians: din for the Telugu states. He is named
Rukh Khan makes a Chak De! India Saat Hindustani (1969). Bharat Ram (the name of the country,
(2007). He also made a Phir Bhi Dil Sivaji Ganesan’s 1973 feature and the name of one of its most re-
Hai Hindustani (2000). Aamir Khan about a building that housed people vered rulers/ gods), and the film itself
became Raja Hindustani (1996), from all states was titled Bharatha Vi- is titled Bharat Ane Nenu (I, Bharat).
while Lagaan (2001) had an extended las, while its most famous song went And in Hindi, Salman Khan’s Bharat
title of ‘Once Upon a Time in India’, “Indiya naadu en veedu, Indian en- (2019) is the first big post-2014 film
and another period epic called itself badhu en paeru…” (India is my home, that can be used to make the case
Thugs of Hindostan (2018). and I call myself an Indian). Why, that ‘Bharat’ is going to be privileged
Anil Kapoor’s invisible superhero then, the title of Bharatha Vilas? Per- over other names. In an early scene,
was called Mr. India (1987), while haps because the term ‘India’ doesn’t the eponymous protagonist meets
around the same time, on television, sit easily in the vernacular, despite a broker who wants him to sell his
that song. Take the Tamil nationalist small shop to developers with ‘for-
poet, Subrahmanya Bharathi. In his eign’ interests. The man is literally
poem ‘Velli panimalayin…’ (referring hung from a noose, and when you see
to the Himalayas), the chorus says the name of the shop, you see why.
that we will pride ourselves on call- How can any self-respecting son of
ing it part of our “Bharatha desam”, Bharat—especially one named after
our country Bharat. the country—tolerate this attempt to
Let’s delve a little more into film sell out… “Hind Ration Store”?
songs. A very popular number in Son of Note, a lso, Ur i: The Surg i-
India (1962) had the chorus ‘Jai Hind’. cal Strike (2019). True, the Paresh
We keep seeing this over and over, this Rawal character, while referring
conflation of India and Hind/Hindu- to the valorous new nation (as op-
stani and Bharat. In the most famous posed to the apparently timid older
song in Purab Aur Paschim (1970), Mr one), does not use the name ‘Bharat’,
Bharat, a.k.a. Manoj Kumar, said he but he doesn’t use ‘India’ either. In-
was a resident of Bharat, and he spoke stead, he remarks, “Yeh naya Hindu-
about all things Bharat (Bharat ka stan hai. Yeh Hindustan ghar mein
rehne wala hoon, Bharat ki baat su- ghusega. Aur maarega bhi” (This is
nata hoon). So, at least from a cultural a new Hindustan. It won’t hesitate
standpoint, we can presume the name to kill). And how can the modern Mr
of the country does not matter. Be- Bharat—namely, Akshay Kumar—be
cause one of our biggest uniters—films, far behind? His upcoming Mission
film music—has never discriminated Raniganj: The Great Indian Rescue
between the various names. has been renamed Mission Raniganj:
And this, apparently, is across The Great Bharat Rescue. A sign of the
ages. In Sikandar-e-Azam (1965), times? Time will tell.
the story of Porus and Alexander, we
have the hit “Jahaan daal daal par — Baradwaj Rangan is a film
sone ki chidiya”, with the chorus, critic and writer

THE EMERGING
GLOBAL ORDER
THE INDIAN G20 PRESIDENCY SCORED IN SYMBOLISM AND IN SUBSTANCE
BY BECOMING THE EMPHATIC VOICE OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH. DESPITE
THE GEOPOLITICAL DIVIDE, PUSHING FOR THE GLOBAL COMMON GOOD TO
ACHIEVE OUTCOMES IS THE WAY FORWARD
BY R A J C H E N G A PPA
T HE BI G S T O RY
come groups and development indices. home the point that the consequences
The cleavages were deep and glaringly of even a year of continuing anarchy
stark. But amidst all this gloom and and vacillation resulting from a lack of
doom, the most powerful grouping of consensus in the G20 would be akin to
world leaders had a choice. To para- the outbreak of World War 3. Amitabh
phrase the Bard, taken at the flood, it Kant, India’s Sherpa for the G20, who
could pull the world towards harmony, led the negotiations, said, “We told the
healing, hope and prosperity. If not, members that instead of the warpath,
then with the Russian president Vladi- the G20 should focus on the economic
mir Putin and his Chinese counterpart growth path, which was why it was
Xi Jinping deciding to skip the sum- formed in the first place. It cannot be
mit, the Indian presidency of the G20 preoccupied with the Ukraine war and
would have faced the grave prospect of bring the world to a standstill. Now
omitting a consensus declaration from 80 per cent of the global growth was
the leaders. That would have signalled coming from the emerging economies,
a failure and cheered India’s detrac- including India, and six of the 12 fast-
tors but led to greater global strife est-growing economies in the world
and misery. are in the Global South. So the G20
It would be India’s moment, must prioritise their concerns.” But the
though, when Prime Minister Naren- consensus on Ukraine came about pri-
dra Modi interrupted the proceedings marily because of PM Modi’s personal
of the G20 to announce dramatically interactions with key G20 leaders not
that the New Delhi Declaration had just in Delhi but also when he attended
SETTING the approval of its members. Banging the BRICS summit in Johannesburg
THE TONE
down the gavel decisively, he declared and the East Asia meet in Jakarta just
Prime Minister
that it had been adopted, to cheers not prior to the Delhi summit.
Narendra Modi
announcing just from Team India that had worked The Delhi Declaration was a win-
the Delhi hard to achieve it but also the assem- win for India and the world for several
Declaration, bled world leaders. If there was ever a reasons. For one, by admitting the Af-
Sept. 9 turning point in recent history, then the rican Union, which has 55 members,
one witnessed in the Bharat Manda- it made G20 far more inclusive, apart
pam on the afternoon of September 9, from acknowledging the growing sa-
2023 would be among the top contend-
ers. For over 100 nations (including the
African Union that was admitted to the
G20 earlier that morning, thanks to
India’s persistence) that accounted for
three-fourths of the world’s GDP dem-
onstrated they could sink their enor-
mous differences and together work for
the “global public good”.
This was truly a ‘woke’ G20. Every- “INDIA TOLD THE
one agreed that war, including the one
in Ukraine, caused “immense human WORLD THAT INSTEAD
suffering” and must be ended, as the OF THE WARPATH
Before the G20 summit in New New Delhi Declaration stated, but there IT SHOULD GO ON
Delhi began, there was, as Shakespeare were many more pressing concerns, in-
THE GROWTH PATH.
put it, a tide in the affairs of men. The cluding tackling global recession, lift-
global order lay fractured. Divided by ing millions of people who had slipped THIS G20 BROUGHT
the Ukraine War. Split over how to tackle below the poverty line after Covid’s MULTILATERALISM
the adverse impact of climate change. devastating impact apart from arrest- TO CENTRE STAGE”
Torn asunder by a pandemic that ravaged ing the alarming and relentless march
AMITABH KANT
lives and economies. Disunited on how to of climate change that was threaten-
India’s G20 Sherpa
conduct world trade. Bisected by the tech ing humanity’s very existence. Indian
haves and have-nots. Dissected into in- negotiators and their allies hammered

INDIA G20 THE BIG
The G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration
achieved consensus on a wide variety of issues.
Though admission of the African Union as a
permanent member and consensus on the
BREAKTHROUGHS
Ukraine conflict are being talked about the most,
73 outcomes were unanimously approved. In
addition, India produced 39 presidency
documents that became part of the annexures
ONE EARTH
LIFESTYLES FOR
SUSTAINABLE CLIMATE
DEVELOPMENT (LIFE) ACTION +
PRINCIPLES & FINANCE
CIRCULAR ECONOMY G20 members to work for
tripling global renewable energy
These are to
capacity by 2030, cut CO2
create an
emissions by 7 billion tonnes,
enabling policy
curb greenhouse gas emissions,
environment to
provide access to low-cost
promote
financing to developing cou-
lifestyles that
ntries from ‘billions to trillions’
would lead to sustainable
development through adherence Developing nations require
to G20 High Level Principles $5.9 trillion in the pre-2030
(HLPs) period besides $4 trillion
annually for clean energy
A circular economy entails
technologies by 2030 to reach
decoupling economic growth
net zero emissions by 2050
from environmental degradation,
enhance responsible
consumption and production GANDHINAGAR
ROADMAP,
FIGHTING PLASTIC
BLUE OCEAN POLLUTION
ECONOMY
Agreement on
Adoption of building disaster-
the Chennai resistant infrastructure,
HLP to reducing land degradation
conserve, by 50 per cent by 2040—the
protect, restore and sustainably Gandhinagar Implementa-
use the world’s oceans and tion Roadmap—and ending
marine ecosystems plastic pollution
ONE FAMILY
GLOBAL VALUE
CHAINS
To create D4D, DECCAN
inclusive global HLPs, ONE
value chains, HEALTH
helping developing Plan to harness Data
nations to move for Development (D4D)
up the chain G20 Deccan HLPs on
G20 nations concurred on food security, research
GENDER inclusive FDIs, agreed that start- SUSTAINABLE on millets
EQUALITY ups and MSMEs are engines of DEVELOPMENT GOALS Global medical
Agreement to close growth; Jaipur Call for Action to Endorsement of the multi-year countermeasures
gender gaps, promote enhance MSMEs G20 Technical Assistance Action platform to enable
equal, effective and Need expressed for inclusive Plan (TAAP) to overcome data- affordable access to
meaningful participation cities of the future related barriers to climate vaccines, adoption of
of women in the economy HLPs on anti-corruption: investments One Health approach
through women’s food integrity of public bodies, Asset Action plan to speed up Development of
security, empowerment Recovery Mechanisms, Law progress on SDGs, G20 climate-resistant, low
Closing the digital divide Enforcement Mechanisms Sustainable Finance Roadmap carbon health systems

ONE FUTURE
T HE BI G S T O RY
ECONOMIC FORUM
Statement that though G20 is lience of developing countries. Here too,
a forum for economic matters much of the credit should go to PM Modi,
and not for solving geopolitical who led from the front. Xi must have regret-
issues, security matters do ted not attending because Modi emerged as
impact world economy the unchallenged voice of the Global South.
CONSENSUS ON Condemnation of terrorism, Another feather in the cap came from the
UKRAINE support to FATFs to target Green Pact to tackle the threat of climate
The most notable terrorism financing, safe havens change. Instead of just 100 billion dollars
achievement of Indian that the developed world had committed
diplomats at the summit was
annually under the Paris Climate Change
to make the statement on
Ukraine palatable to all agreement, the G20 pushed for a more re-
Without naming Russia, and
alistic $6 trillion by 2030 to keep global
judiciously using words like temperatures below danger levels. An ac-
the war ‘in’ (and not ‘against’) tion plan to accelerate the progress in imple-
Ukraine, the Delhi Declaration menting the sustainable development goals
mentioned the UN Charter, (SDGs) was chalked out. A road map for
and said that “states must MEMBERSHIP OF the much-needed revamp of Multinational
refrain from threat or use of
THE AFRICAN UNION Development Banks (MDB) like the World
force to seek territorial acqui-
sition against the territorial As the avowed voice of the Bank also met approval and a Capital Ad-
integrity…of any state” Global South, the Delhi G20 equacy Framework (CAF) was set, which
provided smaller nations pushed the banks’ lending headroom to
unprecedented chance to $200 billion.
voice their opinion
A
Under India’s presidency, s important was that the G20
55-nation African Union
brought Digital Public Infra-
granted full G20 membership
structure or DPI as an integral
Commitment to support
part of financial inclusion.
CRYPTO migrants/ refugees
India’s achievements on this front were
CURRENCY lauded and an action plan for DPI imple-
Endorsement of Financial mentation in developing countries in the
Stability Board’s advice on next four years was approved. Apart from
regulation of crypto curren-
gender empowerment, the New Delhi G20
cies, crucial meeting in
Oct. 2023 summit also pushed for a more balanced
Implementation of Crypto
Asset Reporting Framework
MULTILATERAL
INSTITUTIONS
Call for reform of Multilateral
Development Banks to
maximise their beneficial
impact on the Global South
A strong IMF at the centre of “PM MODI WAS CLEAR
the global financial safety net THAT INDIA’S G20
Additional $200 billion for SHOULD RESULT
DIGITAL lending in next decade
INFRASTRUCTURE Commitment to WTO reforms
IN ACTIONABLE
G20 Financial Inclusion OUTCOMES AND THAT
Action Plan for 2024-26 INDIA SHOULD LEAVE A
shaped under India’s presi-
dency will build a secure, LASTING LEGACY. WE
inclusive digital public ARE PUSHING FOR THEIR
infrastructure and enable a
safe digital economy IMPLEMENTATION”
G20 toolkit on cyber P.K. MISHRA
education; plan to Principal Secretary to the PM
harness AI responsibly
Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
AFP
T HE BI G S T O RY
and regulated approach towards dealing

with cryptocurrency (see graphic India
G20: The Big Breakthroughs). The In-
dian G20 resulted in 73 action-oriented
outcomes, double the number under the
Indonesian presidency in 2022 or the
Italian helmsmanship the year before.
“Prime Minister Modi was clear that In-
dia’s G20 presidency should result in ac-
tionable outcomes and that India should
leave a lasting legacy, particularly for
the development of the Global South,”
says Dr Pramod K. Mishra, principal
secretary to the prime minister. LEADING THE WAY
PM Modi with world leaders at the Gandhi Memorial at Raj Ghat, Sept. 10
L
ed by the PMO, review meet-
ings have been called for all the
respective ministries involved which had expanded the BRICS and ter Rishi Sunak faced criticism from Op-
in dealing with the outcomes. SCO grouping to counter the West. So, position MPs for allowing a “weakened”
The prime minister has also called for the Western nations found a technical statement on Ukraine as did some other
a virtual summit of G20 leaders in No- fix to the language in the declaration and Western leaders when they returned
vember to review the progress made be- decided they would live to fight another home. French president Emmanuel
fore India hands over the presidency to day or in another forum.” Akbaruddin Macron defensively pointed out that the
Brazil for 2024. That will be the tough- points out that the G20 is not structured G20 was not primarily meant to sort
est part. The G20 functions more like a to be an implementation body and In- out geopolitical issues. Many experts
club of nations than an executive organ- dia would have to travel considerable said that the G20 has dropped several
isation. It is a normative body with prob- distance to have the agenda set in New notches in status by downplaying geo-
ably the biggest achievement coming Delhi put into action. political issues. John Bolton, a former
only way back in 2008 when it moved Expectedly, Ukraine expressed its US national security adviser, called for
to sort out the global financial meltdown deep disappointment with what it per- G20 to be disbanded altogether. Writing
caused by the collapse of the Lehman ceived as Russia having its way and the in the Washington Post, Bolton argued,
Brothers. It was around this time that it West capitulating to Indian pressure to “Mountains of final communiques, joint
was elevated from a financial ministers’ reach a consensus. British prime minis- statements and outcome documents
meet to the heads of government level have contributed to global deforesta-
to make it more decisive. Earlier G20 tion and nothing else.” Bolton cryptically
meetings were dominated by the agenda observed that the Delhi Declaration con-
set by the G7 grouping of powerful na- tained only “an anodyne comment on
tions. But India during its presidency, Russia’s unprovoked aggression, even
along with other emerging nations such weaker than its 2022 (Bali) statement”.
as Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia, Kant denies the charge and asserts
worked in tandem to give the G20 a that the New Delhi Declaration was a
development agenda that reflected the hard-fought consensus that not only
aspirations of the Global South. “THE G20 HAS reiterated what Bali said but was much
Syed Akbaruddin, India’s former CONTRIBUTED TO stronger with a clear message to Russia
permanent representative to the UN, and other countries to not transgress
says, “If the Western countries led by the
MAKING INDIA on territorial sovereignty. Kant says,
US agreed to a less aggressive formu- WORLD-READY “What we achieved is moderating the
lation of the Ukraine war than that of AND THE WORLD geopolitical voice. We cooled down tem-
Bali by not naming and shaming Russia INDIA-READY” peratures and pushed for a diplomatic
directly, it was because they realised they settlement to the Ukraine War.” A host
would undermine India’s stature if there S. JAISHANKAR of foreign policy experts agree that In-
Union Minister for External Affairs
was no Delhi Declaration. Also, it could dia’s G20 presidency was an unquali-
end up giving the upper hand to China, fied success. Not only because of the
“THE MANNER IN WHICH GLOBAL for Modi’s leadership.
PUBLIC GOOD IS BEING TAKEN India itself has the task of playing a
trapeze artist on the international stage.
FORWARD HAS THE IMPRIMATUR OF To do so, even while moving closer to the
THE GLOBAL SOUTH. AND INDIA HAS US to counter the Chinese challenge, In-
THE MANTLE OF THAT LEADERSHIP” dia has maintained relations with Russia.
It has also succeeded in engaging West
D.B. VENKATESH VARMA
Former Indian ambassador to Russia Asia, particularly Saudi Arabia and the
UAE, as demonstrated by the signing of
the groundbreaking India-Middle East-
Europe Economic Corridor for economic
“IT IS THE LILLIPUTIANS OF THE integration on the sidelines of the sum-
DEVELOPING WORLD WHO ARE mit. By succeeding in getting the African
NOW TYING UP GULLIVER AND Union into the G20, India has burnished
its image of being a leader of the Global
GETTING HIM TO DEAL WITH South. On foreign policy, the Modi gov-
THEIR ISSUES FIRST” ernment played its cards well despite
SYED AKBARUDDIN Former Permanent suffering serious setbacks in its relations
Representative of India to the UN with China. Addressing the B20 leaders’
summit, Jaishankar pointed out that the
reason for the sharp focus on the Global
South is that these societies are under
excellent logistics and arrangements ing global order. The past decade saw exceptional stress, especially after the
made for the summit, which the PMO global disorder peak and a breakdown Covid pandemic. It had seriously dam-
headed by Mishra oversaw, but also of the Washington consensus for free aged their economies and disrupted
because India steered the G20 away markets, privatisation and globalisa- trade, all of which was exacerbated by
from being derailed on the Ukraine tion. Today, the world is beset with such the fuel and fertiliser shortages caused
issue and the great power games over issues as deglobalisation, American by the Ukraine war. Jaishankar warned,
it. D.B. Venkatesh Varma, a former withdrawal, growing protectionism, “If unaddressed, it will become a serious
Indian ambassador to Russia, points a hostile China and wars over trade, drag on the global economy. Do consider
out, “Both in symbolism and in sub- technology, terror and Ukraine. Na- what the implications are for all of us—
stance, the Delhi G20 is a spectacular tions are realising that this dangerous North or South—of a slowdown in nu-
success for India and Prime Minister instability in international affairs has trition, health, education, employment
Modi. At a time when there was in- to be moderated. or even security. And indeed, when the
tense flux in the international system, promise of digitisation, connectivity and
M
India succeeded in hammering out a eanwhile, China has technology falls short.”
consensus on a range of major global emerge d a s a major The Delhi G20 summit saw India
issues. It was a power test that India global major power and coalescing the Global South’s efforts to
passed with flying colours, which has is challenging the hege- bring the issues that matter the most
put the country in the top league, and mony of the US. The Ukraine war and to them to the forefront. Varma says,
all this on its own strength. The G20 the Covid pandemic has seen the rise of “The content and the manner in which
has been transformed to ref lect the a multipolar world, with America still global public good is being taken for-
aspirations of the Global South and all-powerful but China using its rapid ward increasingly has the imprimatur of
India has taken on the mantle of that economic growth to expand its influ- the Global South and India has played a
leadership.” Varma points out that this ence across continents. While China major role in that. There is a G20 before
is both an opportunity and a challenge remains a regional military power, eco- Delhi and there is a G20 after Delhi.”
for India to keep up not only the conver- nomically, it has become a superpower Akbaruddin agrees. “It’s the Lilliputians
gence that it has achieved but its ability and challenged American dominance. that are now tying up Gulliver and get-
to withstand the pressure from great The US has worked towards tying up ting him to deal with their issues first.”
powers as was demonstrated during the a host of groupings that could contain Kant has a point when he says, “What
G20. For that, Indian diplomacy will be China, with India being an integral India has done with the G20 is bring
severely tested in the coming years. As part of the plan. US President Joe Biden multilateralism to the centre stage,” he
S. Jaishankar, the minister for external has invested enormous political capital says. It’s too early to say how the emerg-
affairs, put it, “The G20 has contrib- by hosting PM Modi in June, including world order will shape up, but what
uted to making India world-ready and ing selling hi-tech military-ware that it India has done is succeeded in uniting
the world India-ready.” doesn’t offer even to some of its closest them in pursuit of the global public
What the Delhi G20 has also done allies. Even at the G20 summit, the two good. In the long run, that is a greater
is to set in motion a new and evolv- held a bilateral and Biden was all praise binding force than power and pelf.
THE NATION
RAJASTHAN
GEHLOT’S LESSONS
IN PROFLIGACY
Thousands of crores have been spent on cosmetic touches in Rajasthan’s Kota. A
chic new riverfront is the latest addition to that frenzied beautification, though it has
landed in a controversy over allegedly flouting environmental norms. Amid criticism,
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot decided to distance himself from the inauguration. But
can he justify the wanton spending on other projects?
By Rohit Parihar
BILL OF DEVELOPMENT
The beautified Chambal
riverfront in Kota
parts of the riverbed, let alone Corridor and the Sabarmati

a scrap of greenery. In its place riverfront and take Kota right
have come up 26 spanking new into the elite club of Paris and
ghats strung along imitation London. Dumb-struck critics
Rajputana architectural chic. call it the “world’s only copycat
Turrets and chhatris in the local heritage waterfront”.
Hadauti style. An army of giant The state government, keen
statues, one of which, a 25-feet to eke out any form of publicity in
Yogimudra, vanishes when the run-up to the assembly elec-
you see it straight on. Another tion, has already spent over Rs
curiosity is both visible and 1,400 crore on the project, and
audible: the world’s largest bell another Rs 1,200 crore has been
whose boom, they say, can be planned for its second phase.
heard eight kilometres away and, This despite recent allegations
coming in at 82 tonnes on the that Kota’s Urban Improve-
scale, is no bantamweight either. ment Trust and the state urban
Goddess Chambal, a deity who’s development department did not
considered cursed and hence is obtain the necessary environ-
rarely worshipped, also gets a mental clearances for the project,
242-feet-high statue of Vietnam- which falls within the eco-sen-
helical clover bridge ese marble here. The riverfront is sitive zone (ESZ) of the National
sounds like a sleek thing studded liberally with repli- Chambal Ghariyal Sanctuary. In
right out of some First cas that stand like displaced fact, a July letter from the Centre
World xanadu. This one, metaphors, such as a highrise to the Rajasthan government,
built at a cost of Rs 42 Red Fort or the Chinese Pagoda. which was brought to light by
crore, is in Rajasthan’s Add a proposed boat cruise, a ex-MLA Prahlad Gunjal a day
Kota, but it soars and water park, a train on tyres, golf before the inauguration, had
twists balletically too, carts, skating area, the world’s asked the state to take necessary
for about a kilometre, ex- second-largest musical fountain, action. Amid these storm signals,
cept that it lands a few metres from where it started. cafes, restaurants, a commercial Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot
Even more mystifyingly, it soars over nothing: there’s complex… in short, it’s the full announced hours before the riv-
no crossing or rail track or any form of obstruction fairground cornucopia. Kota erfront’s unveiling that he would
underneath. Just a few minutes away, along the (North) MLA and Rajasthan not be attending the inaugura-
Chambal, a new riverfront was inaugurated with urban development minister tion ceremony.
great pomp on September 12—a costly façade laid Shanti Dhariwal, whose brain- But the Chambal riverfront is
end-to-end over three kilometres of natural rock child this frenzied beautification not the only project over which
and soil like a pink stone shroud, leaving not even is, wanted to outdo the Kashi money has been spent like water.

THE NATION
RAJASTHAN
Elsewhere in this kerchief-sized city,

there are more kitschy statuary and heri-
tage dupes. As far back as in 2013, the
city had got a park—one of Dhariwal’s
first pet projects—that boasted replicas
of the seven wonders in the world (there’s
1
a similar one in Ajmer, by the way, which
now faces the risk of demolition after
a rap by the National Green Tribunal).
There’s an old bronze of Maharana
Pratap, and Vivekananda, Gandhi,
2
Nehru, Patel and Indira Gandhi duly
get their pride of place too. Tall ‘rocket
launchers’ worth Rs 38 crore adorn the
Aerodrome Circle. A 21-metre-long ship
replica is docked at the Thermal Cross-
ing. A 65,000 sq. ft artificial hill is being
built somewhere, with a glass restaurant
on top. At a congested junction stands
a 22-metre-tall—that is, a full-sized
model—of the Kirti Stambh of Chit-
torgarh Fort. Two huge sculptures loom
menacingly at underpasses elsewhere in 3 4
the city.
W
elcome to the new Kota,
the coaching city that’s economy,” he says. That argument isn’t “THE CRORES BEING
imparting new lessons in exactly new, many cities have seen
SPENT ON COSMETIC
profligacy, which has cost lavish makeovers in recent years aimed
the government Rs 5,200 crore in total at boosting their tourism potential. Ex-
EFFECTS IN KOTA ARE
so far. Somewhere on the riverfront cept, in the case of Kota, logic seems to AT THE COST OF BASIC
is a huge Nehru face, into which you have been thrown out the window. The INFRASTRUCTURE
can climb to look out through his eyes. first phase of the Sabarmati Riverfront ELSEWHERE,” SAYS
If those who executed this expensive, project, for instance, which roughly CONGRESS’S OSIAN
controversial spectacle had actually cost Rs 1,000 crore, was publicly
MLA DIVYA MADERNA
done that, they may have seen their own discussed when it was conceived 50
grave folly. For, no meaningful objective years ago, and the Gujarat government
is tied to this ‘renovation’ extravaganza. has a strategy in place to recover that
No vision for job creation accompanies cost. No such plans seem to vindicate “If replicas could attract tourists, there
it, no long-term view on environmen- the overall spending in Kota. The Rs would be a Taj in every town.”
tal renewal dignifies it. The anguish is 900 crore Kashi-Vishwanath Dham Many others point to the neglect of
palpable among those who live by the project, too, passes muster in terms of existing structures. Says Kota-based
river. Most don’t have access to a proper practicality—Kashi, or Varanasi, has historian Firoz Ahmed: “It’s tragic to
sewage system. It was routine for their its unique place on India’s tourism see such spending on replicas when the
vehicles to get stuck in open drains; now map given its significance as one of the government does not conserve original
some of these are choked due to the proj- most important pilgrimage cities. Kota monuments, like our Garh palace.” In
ect debris. Dirty water seeps through on the other hand, lying on Rajast- fact, if anything, the riverfront con-
their floors and floods lanes. The only han’s eastern fringes, isn’t exactly on struction has worsened things, damag-
solace—the river and its breeze—is anyone’s list except the annual stream ing the naturally rocky riverside and its
now blocked by stone. All this while an of some 150,000 coaching students. ecology, say activists. An artificial water
agency will be paid nearly Rs 150 crore It does not have a five-star hotel. An body on the riverfront is already seeing
for the riverfront’s upkeep for five years. airport has been pending for years. signs of water hyacinth, an invasive
Dhariwal argues that it’s all for “Kota is not Kashi,” says a state min- plant species. There’s no meat waste dis-
Kota’s progress. “The entire project is ister who raised the issue in various posal system for around 300 butchers
aimed at making it a tourist destina- cabinet meetings. And environmental- living in the neighbourhood. Krishna
tion, which will help boost the city’s ist Ravindra Singh Tomar says, acidly, Dutt Sharma, 40, a fruit seller near the
VANITY FARE
(1, 2, 4) A water park, the Chambal Mata
statue and a Jawaharlal Nehru mask at
the Chambal riverfront; (3) the Maharana
Pratap flyover, and (5) a ship replica in Kota
reasons. The coaching industry in Kota

is synonymous with 24 student suicides
till August this year—the highest for
any year in under eight months. Kota’s
medical facilities are breathtakingly
bad. In June this year, a lawyer, for want
of a wheelchair, drove a scooter right
through hospital corridors all the way
5 to the third floor, with his son, left leg
plastered, riding pillion. The city often
comes in third after Mumbai’s Mazgaon
and Delhi’s ITO for the worst air quality.
Once an industrial hub, nearly all major
firms have shut their units in Kota in the
last two decades.
Circling out beyond town, the gloom
deepens. Nearly 10 per cent of about a
thousand government schools in the
Kota district are in a dilapidated condi-
tion. Of the 1,246 anganwadis in the
district, 709 have no electricity. All this
riverfront, is one of the many who fear your own mega projects. Take the without even venturing into Rajasthan’s
that they will be displaced to make way Kota works, with its plethora of non- ‘BIMARU’ status on other counts. That’s
for Dhariwal’s plaster-of-Paris Kota. scheduled items bought at exorbitant why the political criticism of Dhariwal’s
Union minister Gajendra Singh rates. The project was the vision of a dream project has been quite biparti-
Shekhawat is even-handed in his private engineering consultant, who san, not least for the fact that most of
critique. Last year, at a city college worn had been named by the Central Bureau it has been confined to a small part of
down by neglect, he said: “It’s sad to see of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforce- Kota city that falls in his constituency.
a city that has no rooms for students ment Directorate (ED) in the alleged “The thousands of crores being spent
spending on statues of elephants and Syndicate Bank fraud case and has on cosmetic effects in Kota are at the
horses.” The aforementioned state harsh comments from the Rajasthan cost of basic infrastructure elsewhere,”
minister is equally trenchant. “Even a HC and the Supreme Court embellish- Congress’s Osian MLA Divya Maderna
king would have thought twice before ing his resume. Some engineers who told INDIA TODAY.
spending so much on cosmetic ef- were part of the project say there should Forget the consequences of bad plan-
fects.... It’s feudal raj at its best.” He have been a public debate on all aspects ning on urban life. In the long term, the
also cites questionable expenditure before work started. Not easy. Last year, environmental damage will be irrevers-
in Jaipur—say, a luxurious, 24-storey Kota collector Harimohan Meena was ible. Rajendra Singh Sisodia, Magsaysay
indoor patient facility being built for Rs removed unceremoniously, reportedly winner and founder of the NGO Tarun
700 crore. But it’s Kota that takes the for referring an expenditure that was 50 Bharat Sangh, says the riverfront project
cake, and at a time when Rajasthan isn’t per cent above scheduled rates to a com- is mere cosmetic surgery. “They have
exactly awash in bread. mittee rather than approving it quickly. killed the natural river’s beauty by con-
Rajasthan has a history of letting In such a scenario, governments happily verting it into a channel. I wish they had
things go to waste, whether crumbling go on indulging their penchant for developed green corridors to strengthen
heritage structures or mega projects like expenditure. Tacky statues whose limbs the banks instead.” The People’s World
the Dravyavati river restoration. The get stolen. Underpasses that flood dur- Commission on Flood and Drought, in
operative credo here can be expressed ing rains—like the one at the Gobriya turn, points to the pollutants released
via a rhetorical question: suppose you, Bawri circle in Kota. Foot overbridges in the Chambal during the riverfront
as a government, put in honest money used rarely by people but which come in works, including by a foundry that’s
into something begun by a different handy for advertising signages. making the huge bell. In a sense, that
regime…who gets the credit? It’s a no- All this is happening in a city that bell tolls ominously for every living form
brainer. It’s more lucrative to launch keeps making news for all the wrong there: a city, a river and a people.

T H E N AT I O N
MAHARASHTRA
PTI
A QUOTA
even years after the
dominant Maratha
community first
launched a series
WAR
of silent morchas
(protest marches) for
their demands like
reservations in jobs
REIGNITES
and education, the
issue has returned
to haunt politics in Maharashtra. Since 2016,
around 58 ‘Maratha Kranti Morchas’—some of
them having hundreds of thousands of people
joining them—were organised in Maharashtra
The Maratha demand for and neighbouring states. The agitation turned
reservations in jobs and education violent in 2018, further beleaguering the then
Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party
returns to roil the state’s politics (BJP)-Shiv Sena coalition. There was specula-
tion that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP),
By DHAVAL KULKARNI which has a strong base among the Marathas
and was then in the Opposition, had fuelled these
protests to corner Fadnavis, a Brahmin. How-
reacted by shunting out senior police
officers from Jalna. Later, on September
THE MAHA 11, three officials were suspended.
CASTE MATRIX Police officials said that the forces
were stoned and injured when they
went to the site to evacuate Jarange-
Patil and take him to the hospital for a
52.1% check-up and treatment considering his
OBCs*
failing health. This had prompted the
lathi-charge. Leaders like NCP presi-
dent Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (Uddhav
Balasaheb Thackeray) chief Uddhav
Thackeray and others went to Antarwa-
43.6% li-Sarati to express solidarity.
Hindus
On September 4, deputy chief
minister Fadnavis apologised to the
31.5% “innocents who had been injured due to
Marathas
8.4% and the use of force”. He denied the Opposi-
Non-Hindus Kunbis tion's allegations that the state govern-
ment had issued the lathi-charge orders.
*OBCs are comprised of
400 classes and castes, Fadnavis said concessions for which
including the Kunbis OBCs were eligible, like scholarships,
hostels and coaching for competitive
examinations, had been extended to the
58
Marathas. Shinde said they were trying
to ensure that any affirmative action for
BURNING FURY Maratha Kranti
Marathas stood the legal test.
No. of Maratha Kranti Morchas Putting the state government in
Morcha members block the Pune-
that have been organised a bind, Jarange-Patil has stuck to his
Solapur Highway to protest the
lathi-charge on their cohort in
in Maharashtra and its guns and declared that he will withdraw
Jalna district, Sept. 6 neighbouring states since 2016 his fast only after the state government
decides to allow Marathas to get caste
certificates as Kunbis. Jarange-Patil
has pointed to how the Marathas in
Marathwada, which Jalna falls under,
ever, the Maratha protests saw counter- 16 per cent ring-fenced quotas in were part of the backwards list since the
mobilisation by the non-Marathas, education and jobs. The Bombay High days of the Nizam of Hyderabad.
especially by the upwardly mobile other Court upheld the constitutional valid- The state government issued a
backward classes (OBCs), who felt that ity of the law but trimmed the quota government resolution (GR) to allow
the Marathas would eventually eat into to 12 per cent in education and 13 per Marathas to get Kunbi caste certificates
their 27 per cent share of reservations. cent in jobs. In 2021, the Supreme if they had the supporting documents.
These groups organised ‘Bahujan Kranti Court struck down the law. However, A committee under Justice Sandeep
Morchas’ across the state on similar lines. some Maratha groups persisted with Shinde (retd), which will include of-
The Marathas (Kshatriyas or war- their demand and organised sporadic ficials like the additional chief secretary
riors) and Kunbis (peasants or tillers) agitations. (revenue), will examine if the Marathas
are said to account for 31.5 per cent The agitations, however, acquired could get caste certificates as Kun-
of Maharashtra’s population, while a life of their own after the police on bis and submit its report in a month.
the OBCs are said to be over 52 per September 1 lathi-charged a protesting Despite this and hectic parleys between
cent. However, the Kunbis, who have crowd at the Antarwali-Sarati village the government’s representatives and
significant numbers in the Konkan and in Jalna district. This led to more Jarange-Patil, the stalemate continued,
Vidarbha regions, where they may not protests and bandh calls by Marathas with the latter rejecting the GR.
be endogamous with the Marathas, are across the state. Maratha activist The government on September 11
already in the OBC category. Manoj Jarange-Patil has launched a convened an all-party meeting, which
Much water has flown under the fast unto death in the village located unanimously approved a resolution
bridge since the first Maratha morcha in over 400 km from Mumbai since Au- requesting the activist to withdraw
2016. The Fadnavis government in 2018 gust 29. Facing the heat from Maratha his protest considering the action
approved a bill to grant the Marathas groups, the Eknath Shinde government the government had taken. The state

T H E N AT I O N
MAHARASHTRA
MARATHA QUOTA:
A TIMELINE Mar. 1982: Jun. 2004: Based on May 2021: The
A brief history of the political Annasaheb Justice S.N. Khatri (retd) SC junks the
war over Maratha Patil, legislator and an commission’s report, Maratha quota law,
reservation iconic leader of the Maratha-Kunbis and calls it unconstitu-
Mathadi (head load) work- Kunbi-Marathas are tional. It holds that
ers, organises a protest in added to the OBC cat- the Marathas are
1902: Mumbai seeking quota on egory. This is in addition not socially and
Chhatrapati economic status. When to the Kunbis, already educationally
‘Rajarshi’ Shahu his demands are unmet, categorised as OBCs backward,
Maharaj launches he fulfils his suicide threat and hence
2014: Congress not eli-
affirmative action measures in
minister Narayan gible for
his princely state of Kolhapur,
1980: The B.P. Mandal Rane-led committee affirma-
reserves 50 per cent jobs for
Commission submits its recommends quotas tive action
those who are not Brahmins,
report, which estimates for the Marathas; later,
Shenvis (Saraswats), Prabhus
52 per cent of India’s the Congress-NCP
and Parsis
population across 3,743 government approves Nov. 2018: The
classes as backward 16 per cent quotas for Devendra Fadna-
1930s: The erstwhile and excludes Marathas. them and 5 per cent for
Bombay government declares vis government
It is implemented by the Muslims. The Bombay approves 16 per
228 communities, including the V.P. Singh government a HC stays the move
Marathas, as intermediate and cent quotas for
decade later Marathas in jobs
backward classes and grants 2018: The state back-
political quotas and education. The
ward classes com-
Apr. 1965: Maharashtra bill is unanimously
mission led by Justice
1955: Report of the first na- brings 10 per cent quota approved by the
M.G. Gaikwad (retd)
tional backward classes for backward classes and state legislature.
classifies the Marathas
commission led by 4 per cent for de-notified Later, the Bombay
as backward. Ear-
Gandhian Kakasa- and nomadic tribes in HC upholds the law,
lier, three panels had
heb Kalelkar jobs based on the B.D. but slashes the quo-
rejected the demand as
identifies 2,399 Deshmukh panel report. tas to 13 per cent
had the National Com-
backward com- This was in addition to the and 12 per cent in
mission for Backward
munities 13 per cent for SCs and 7 jobs and education,
Classes in 2000
per cent for STs respectively
government is working on filing a cura- completing their farming duties were

tive petition in the apex court. Shinde called Marathas and gradually became
said they will work to ensure that the generals and noblemen,” adds Gaikwad.
quota was restored and the Marathas He notes that it was not possible for the
secured these benefits without eating THE MARATHAS HOLD Marathas to get ring-fenced quotas for
into the OBC share. He also said the POLITICAL POWER. one caste alone, and hence, they could
government will withdraw police cases THE POOR FROM THE secure quota benefits either as Kunbis
against the protesters. On September 12, COMMUNITY CAN GET or from the economically weaker section
Jarange-Patil said he will continue with (EWS) category.
QUOTAS THROUGH THE
his hunger strike till Shinde, Fadnavis On June 1, 2004, the state back-
and Pawar, and Chhatrapati Udayanraje
EWS CATEGORY ward classes commission, under Justice
Bhosale and Chhatrapati Sambhajiraje, SHABBIR AHMED ANSARI S.N. Khatri (retired), had approved the
the descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji Founder-president, All India demand to add Maratha-Kunbis and
Maharaj, met him. The protest will, how- Muslim OBC Organisation Kunbi-Marathas to the OBC category.
ever, continue for a month. “This means that Marathas and Kunbis
Maratha leaders claim that are one,” he argued. Gaikwad adds that
Jarange-Patil’s demand is realistic Marathas.... The ones who stay in Marathas were gradually getting caste
as the Marathas and Kunbis are the Maharashtra are Marathas… caste certificates as Kunbis.
same. Pravin Gaikwad of the Sambhaji locations were decided based on oc- The Sir William Wilson Hunter
Brigade says that in historical records, cupations. Kunbis were marginal, statistical commission in the late 19th
the Marathas have been referred to as rain-fed farmers; those among them century had said that Chhatrapati Shivaji
Kunbis. “There is no caste called the who took to a martial way of life after Maharaj was Kunbi and the Rajas of
T H E N AT I O N
MAHARASHTRA
Gwalior and Baroda were said to be- 2000. “The government will regret counter-protests. Babanrao Taywade of
long to the same race. A three-volume any such decision (to categorise the the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh wants
history of the ‘Kshatriya Maratha Marathas and Kunbis as one),” warns the Union government to amend the
Samaj’ by Keshavrao Bapu Deshmukh Vishwanath Patil of the Kunbi Sena, law and the Constitution to do away
had also drawn a similar inference, an association of the Kunbis, while with any cap on quotas to ensure that
Gaikwad says. threatening a protest. the Marathas get reservations.
A senior BJP legislator says the Shabbir Ahmed Ansari, the Shravan Deore, founder-president
party and the ruling coalition are in founder-president of the All India of the OBC Rajkiya Aghadi, questions
a quandary over the demand. The Muslim OBC Organisation, and one how the government could “succumb
previous Maratha morchas, which of the veterans of the OBC movement, to the protests by a handful of people”
were seen to have the NCP’s sup- says the Maratha groups resented the and says that the apex court’s 2021
port, had led to a section of the OBCs rise of the other backwards and hence judgment striking down the Maratha
coalescing behind the BJP, and the wanted to get into the category. “The quota had effectively granted a sense of
party cannot risk antagonising them Constitution says that reservations closure to the demand. He warns of re-
by including the Marathas in this have been granted based on educa- prisals by the OBCs in the 2024 election
category. However, the deputy CM Ajit tional and social backwardness…, (but) if the Marathas are clubbed with them.
Pawar-led NCP faction has to cater to the Marathas hold political power. The Congress leader and leader of the
its core constituency of the Marathas. poor from the community can get quo- Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, also
There is a risk that like in 2016, the tas through the EWS category,” he says. an OBC leader, has said that if the
protests could acquire larger hues. The Marathas now want to get into the Marathas are to be included in the OBC
category, the reservations for the other
backwards must be increased from
THERE IS NO CASTE CALLED the present 27 per cent (19 per cent for
THE MARATHAS...KUNBIS WERE OBCs and 11 per cent for the Vimukta
MARGINAL, RAIN-FED FARMERS; Jatis and Nomadic Tribes) so that the
OBCs are not deprived.
THOSE AMONG THEM WHO TOOK The Maratha quota demand has
TO A MARTIAL WAY OF LIFE AFTER opened a veritable Pandora’s box with
COMPLETING THEIR FARMING DUTIES more such demands coming forth from
WERE CALLED MARATHAS other social groups. For instance, the
Dhangar (shepherd) community, which
PRAVIN GAIKWAD Head, Sambhaji Brigade
includes both pastoralists and settled
farmers, wants to be included in the
scheduled tribes (ST) category, some-
“The fresh agitations are a result of the OBC category to enjoy these benefits, thing that the tribals resist.
government launching recruitments he charges, while warning of protests if Despite the caste cauldron being on
for vacant posts,” says the legisator. these demands were heeded. the boil over quota demands, there is no
“Maratha youngsters feel that a quota The Marathas are traditionally scientific measurement of caste num-
will improve their chances of making it seen as the ruling class and account for bers, leading to exaggerated claims and
into government employment.” a majority of the state’s chief ministers demands. For instance, while the OBCs
The backwards, though, resent the and legislators. They have a strong grip are seen to be leading at over 52 per
Maratha demand to be categorised as on the levers of power. However, a sig- cent, a commission under former chief
OBCs. They are a diverse mix of around nificant number of Marathas remain secretary J.K. Banthia had assessed
400 classes and castes across the reli- outside these exalted circles of power. their population at 37 per cent. The
gious divide (43.7 per cent are Hindus Maharashtra’s arid dust bowl of Marathas, too, may be around 12 to 16
and 8.4 per cent non-Hindus). The Marathwada is one of the epicentres of per cent, if you exclude the Kunbis. The
OBCs, who compete with Marathas the Maratha quota agitation. Politi- last caste-based census had taken place
for control of local power structures, cal analysts link these protests to the in 1931 in British India. The decennial
think that including the numerically growing agrarian distress coupled census exercise collects data only for
significant Marathas in the category with fragmentation of land and lack of scheduled castes and STs.
will deprive them of quota benefits, remunerative pricing for agricultural In 2021, the Maharashtra State
including political reservations. Earlier, produce, which makes farming unvi- Commission for Backward Classes
three commissions had rejected the able. They note that the political class (MSCBC) had submitted a proposal of
demand of the Marathas to be classi- has managed to wrongly market reser- around Rs 435 crore to the state gov-
fied as backwards as had the National vations as a ‘garibi hatao’ programme. ernment for a caste census. Sadly, it has
Commission for Backward Classes in OBC groups have retaliated with yet to see the light of day. ■
UNLOCK SUCCESS
HOW TO
INVEST
LIKE
A PRO
NEED TO KNOW MUTUAL FUNDS LEARNING CENTRE

PURE TERM POLICIES ARE MULTI-ASSET REDUCING HEALTH
EXEMPT FROM TAX FUNDS FOR YOU? INSURANCE PREMIUM

COVER STORY
INVEST THE WAY

SUCCESSFUL
INVESTORS DO
Admiring and drawing inspiration from heroes
can be productive, especially when it comes to
investing in the stock markets
By Narayan Krishnamurthy
W
e all have heroes we look up to. Inadver- While one could laugh at an investor could take, the
tently, we start to imitate them—the way him for his naïve behaviour, strategy could be conserva-
they dress, their mannerisms, behaviour the lesson for you could be to tive or aggressive. It also
and so on. There is nothing wrong in invest in sectors even when depends on the investment
aspiring to be successful or to take inspi- you don’t understand them goal an individual has, the
ration to grow like successful people. There is a lot that one but see potential in them. He time frame to achieve the
could learn from observing others so that they do not com- has also openly talked of his goal and the risk one can
mit mistakes that some of these successful people may have investment failures as much take to achieve it.
committed. When it comes to investing, there is a lot that as his successes which form An investment style can
new as well as seasoned investors could learn from stalwarts lessons for investors in subse- be broadly defined by the
who have been successful investors. quent generations. The thing emphasis a manager’s invest-
with following the formula ment process places on the
Copycat or coattail have formulated their suc- of successful investors is like characteristics of the stocks
investing is well known. It is cess formula often have learning classical music from purchased for portfolios.
the strategy of replicating the succeeded in a market other a particular school or region. With proper knowledge
investment ideas of success- than India and there are The fundamentals strength- and guidance, you can gain
ful and famous investors references from a different en your hold on the subject, confidence in managing
or investment managers. era. For instance, the most which once it is honed well your portfolio. Remember,
However, following the often referred and revered allows you to develop to suit the fundamental principles
investment strategy adopted investment guru Warren your capacity, understanding of investing such as asset
by a famous investor need Buffet has been an investor and ability. allocation, risk management,
not necessarily result in suc- for most of his life and many When it comes to market timing and rebalanc-
cess for every investor, but of his investments have been investing, it is not just about ing are taken into account
the chances of succeeding held by him for decades! growth. There is a lot that is when following any invest-
go up. What you could learn At the same time, he has often understated about the ment style.
as an investor is to focus on missed several opportuni- risk associated with invest-
the principles and thoughts ties as well—such as the tech ing. Over time, investment Ô ESSENTIAL
that go into formulating an boom and investing in tech- strategies have emerged that INVESTMENT STYLES
investment strategy, under- nology companies early on— are followed by individuals as Before getting further, it is
stand it and adapt it to suit simply because he stated well as professionals to cre- important to know that no
your individual needs. that he did not understand ate and manage portfolios. investment strategy is likely
Many investors who their business. Depending on the risk that to produce market-beating
Illustrations by SIDDHANT JUMDE
returns year after year and it works the best. Remember, livering high levels of profit ahead of them. Because
none are immune from the in a bull run, many stocks growth. Growth investing of this desirable potential,
risk of losing money. Our perform exceedingly well on strategy centres on choos- and the unusually strong
intent is to make you aware sentiments and not necessar- ing stocks of companies that success the business has had
of the different potential ily any fundamentals. have significant growth in recent years, a growth
strategies and how they potential. These stocks may stock is generally priced at
could be useful for you to Growth investing be of companies that do not a premium that reflects the
build wealth and create a One invests in stocks to have an established history optimism investors have
more diversified portfolio earn returns and growth of strong earnings growth. in the company. Take Pearl
to achieve your financial stocks represent companies Often, growth stocks Global Industries, which fits
goals. It would help to know that have demonstrated tend to hold promising the growth stock category;
what each investment style better-than-average gains in positions in emerging it is an end-to-end clothing
or strategy does and the earnings in recent years and industry niches that feature vendor and supplier with a
circumstances within which are expected to continue de- long runways for expansion presence across the globe. It
provides complete apparel
solutions to leading fashion
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES OF brands across categories.
SOUND INVESTMENT SHOULD NOT ALTER A growth company or
FROM DECADE TO DECADE, BUT THE growth stock typically rein-
APPLICATION OF THESE PRINCIPLES MUST vests most or all of its profits
BE ADAPTED TO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN into expansion. While some
BENJAMIN THE FINANCIAL MECHANISMS AND CLIMATE” growth companies do pay
GRAHAM dividends, it is rare. You can
COVER STORY
find growth stocks in virtu- Thinking of value

ally every stock market sec- GROWTH INVESTMENT investing is like looking for
tor, though you may be more INDICATORS a sale; the price of the stock
likely to come across them is at a discount and value

in sectors that are highly Faster increase investors take advantage
innovative. Technology and in earnings per share of this mispricing in the
healthcare, for example, are growth compared market and invest. The hope
constantly evolving offer- to their peers is for the stock price or the
ing opportunities for new Growth companies company’s real potential
companies to claim a share report above-average to be realised over the next
of the market. profits compared to couple of years and make
Welspun Enterprises is their peers a gain from the price rise
another example of a growth They have a strong and pocket a handsome
stock which draws strength historical growth in profit or gain. In terms of
as an infrastructure devel- revenues and sales risk factors, value stocks
oper in the roads and water are referred to as low-risk
Good return on
sector. The company has its equity indicates sound investments as investors
business in the niche infra- management tend to purchase mature,
structure space of construct- of operations profitable and dividend-
ing expressway and bridges paying businesses.
over rivers. The company has Value investing involves
a strong balance sheet, good ticed by Warren Buffet who researching and digging
credit ratings and an asset- focuses on the true potential through the company data
light strategy. With a focus and stability of a company, and stock information to
on high-value-added project looking at its overall busi- find stocks trading below
management, it has success- ness and operations rather their fair or intrinsic value.
fully aligned its infrastruc- than just the stock price. The fair value or intrinsic
ture focus with initiatives Think of these as stocks value of any business or
by the government such as of companies that may have company is computed tak-
expressways or wastewater a short-term hiccup that ing into account various
treatment facilities. impacts their share price parameters like the growth
in the interim, but over the potential of the industry to
Value Investing long and at times very long which the business be-
Value Investing means term, it has all that it takes longs, business model and
identifying and investing to reflect its true worth. strategy, and track record
in companies which are Take Coal India, which is the of the management. Value
trading at a discount to the single largest coal producer
fair value and are available in the world. The company
at cheaper valuations. This has 322 mines (as of April
investment strategy bets on 1, 2023), but its share price VALUE INVESTMENT INDICATORS
the value of the company and has been subdued in recent
not its growth potential. As times after the government Check the price-to- Free cash flow
much as it seems easy and decided to reduce its stake. book (P/B) as it indicates indicates how much
how much a business cash the business can
simple, following it is not The news doesn’t have any
is worth in terms of its generate
as straightforward. A value impact on the functioning financial accounting
investing strategy is based or potential of the company. records Earnings before
on buying into strong com- The need and usage of coal interests, taxes,
panies that will maintain is the same and will stay the Check price-to- depreciation, and
earnings (P/E) which amortisation indicate
their success and that will same. Several investors see indicates whether operational efficiency;
eventually have their intrin- the value of the company, stocks are overvalued or higher the ratio, the
sic worth recognised by the and could consider invest- undervalued better it is for investors
markets. This is a strategy ing in it for the real value to
that has been long prac- emerge and play.
VALUE VS GROWTH
Companies that are Companies that have

undervalued by the What do the potential to grow
market and will bounce they buy? further and generate
back when their true superior long-term
value is realised earnings growth
Seek to identify com-

panies that may have How
Place greater emphasis
experienced a specific do they
on projected growth
issue such as a decline identify
rates in sales, earnings
in market share lead- opportu-
and market share
ing to negative market nities?
sentiment
Valuation metrics are

Valuation metrics like
higher than the market
price-to-earnings, How
average as the market
sales and book value are they
is willing to pay more
that are lower than the valued?
for higher growth
market average
potential
is because a crowd is chasing

the stock. In the momentum
effect that pushes the stock
WARREN BUFFETT price up, often the stock
price keeps soaring for no
THE MOST IMPORTANT clear reason.
QUALITY FOR AN INVESTOR IS This could be a highly
TEMPERAMENT, NOT successful strategy because
INTELLECT. YOU NEED A just like trends, no matter
TEMPERAMENT THAT NEITHER how unjustified they seem,
DERIVES GREAT PLEASURE they could keep going for
FROM BEING WITH THE CROWD far longer than you might
OR AGAINST THE CROWD” expect. Sometimes sectors or
markets can keep rising for
years. Or as John Maynard
Keynes put it, “The market
can stay irrational for longer
investing requires a fair ly due to its poor prospects to until it's acted upon by an than you can remain sol-
degree of understanding of be valued. While the rewards external force. The momen- vent.” All the good with this
the business of the company can be huge, buying low and tum investing strategy is no strategy also comes with the
and how it’s functioning. selling high isn’t as easy as different with the expecta- plausible risk that trends of-
One should also be able it sounds. Remember when tion of the stock price to ten end abruptly, and in case
to understand corporate gov- it comes to value invest- keep going up for a period of of a broad market correction,
ernance practices followed ing, you may never get the time. This strategy doesn’t the momentum stock may
by the company, financial opportunity to ‘sell high’, as follow any fundamentals fall drastically taking a toll
statements, competitive in- your investments could easily or dive deep into company on its price.
tensity and various valuation remain stuck at the bottom. data. In a lot of ways, it is Often one mistakes
methodologies. Do not make all about tezi in the market. momentum investing
the mistake of looking at the Momentum Investing It is a strategy which often with the core of investing
cheap price of a company’s In physics, an object in borders on trading, and a lot principle—buy low, sell high.
stock which may be genuine- motion will stay in motion of the run in the stock price Momentum investing differs
COVER STORY
because often the entry price Income Investing stocks that pay dividends panies declare dividends at
is not low, because the belief Although investing is mostly regularly, you need to look their board meetings, and
is that the price of the stock for growth, there is also a at the dividend per share the shareholders’ approval is
will keep soaring. This is a chance of using investments that certain companies pay a must for dividend declara-
risky investment strategy to create an income. Income out. The dividend yield of a tion. Generally, almost all
and is often used by investors investing entails building stock is a factor to consider listed PSUs that are profit-
who have positions in broad an investment portfolio that when looking to follow an able tend to pay dividends.
indices instead of select allocates some, or all, of the income-investing strategy. You could look up the
stocks to take advantage of portfolio to investments But first, a dividend is a dividend yield of a company
the index movement on their that generate a regular, share of the profit that a or its stock and filter your
portfolios. New investors are consistent stream of income. listed company earns and search to invest in it based on
cautioned from following Income investors are more pays out to shareholders. your need and risk tolerance.
this strategy and even experi- focused on generating ongo- Generally, a profit-making Income investing is seen
enced investors need to pay ing cash flow from their company has the option to as a relatively low-risk strat-
attention to the volatility of investments rather than retain the profits to utilise it egy as it focuses on locking
the stock price or the index generating income by way of for growth prospects. It also in income and doesn’t so
when following this strategy. selling their investments. has the option to pay the much depend on capital
Moreover, momentum fol- Dividend-paying stocks profits in full or partially to gains. As high dividend
lowers use some form or the are the foundation of fol- shareholders. yields can be a sign that a
other of risk management to lowing the income invest- Dividends can be paid stock is undervalued, in-
minimise possible losses. ing strategy. To identify in cash or stock and com- come investing is also often
EVOLVING STRATEGIES
There are many other strategies that have evolved in recent times to capture
trends as well as new developments. Some of these are yet to pass the test of time
QUANT INVESTING: Quant investing the possibility to work in the future. of tobacco or alcohol or of impacting
is the use of data and quantitative These are also good to arrive at a uni- the environment.
models to arrive at a computer- verse of stocks based on the models
screening process to select stocks developed to then use the human CONTRARIAN: Investors following
based on a model that has worked experience to make the final invest- this strategy assume the market is
based on past data. These are gener- ment decision. usually wrong at both its extreme
ally back-tested on available market lows and highs, selling into rallies and
and stock data, and are purely data- ESG INVESTING: Environmental, buying when markets tumble. So,
driven. Quant models could be a social and governance (ESG) invest- when the markets are going up, this
mix of value, growth or momentum ing is all about choosing investments strategy takes a pessimistic view
filters to pick stocks. As economic based on sustainability, commitment and bets against it and when the
and market information changes to furthering social causes and good markets are down, investments are
with time and what worked in the corporate governance. There are fac- optimistic. Contrarian views set in
past may not necessarily work in tors that have social responsibility based on news and events.
the future, this strategy has its share also thrown in by certain models that For instance, when the Maggi
of risks. follow ESG investing. Basically, one controversy dented the share price
Where quant investing helps invests in only companies that have of Nestle, a contrarian investor would
most is to take the emotions out an ESG model in place. bet on the company. This strategy
of investing. The success of quant Such investments are mostly doesn’t look at stocks that are trad-
investing is as good as the model a choice that individual investors ing cheap; it looks for valuation dips
it follows and the filters it has set may have, even at the expense of because of market reaction to nega-
based on past market information. losing out on growth through other tive events. It is a risky strategy and
These models are good for institu- models. It could be treated as follow- something that one should consider
tions that wish to take advantage of ing an ethical form of investing. For only if they can take risks or are
models that have been rigorously instance, one may not wish to invest highly convinced about the veracity
back-tested and may demonstrate in companies that are in the business of the news.
deemed to be a type of value it mirrors and doesn’t try to
investing. Remember, com- ACTIVE VERSUS PASSIVE INVESTING outperform the index.
panies that pay dividends This is a very useful
are typically quite profitable. An active investing In contrast, passive investment strategy for new
style is one where investing is all about
Moreover, companies are not and risk-averse investors who
investment managers invest and forget.
mandated to pay dividends select specific stocks Diversified portfolios can are looking for returns in the
and it is a voluntary choice and try to time the market be created and left for long run with low volatility. It
made by the company and to seek better returns a longer time to ride the follows the buy-and-hold phi-
its board of directors to pay for investors. Actively market. Passive investing, losophy which avoids frequent
managed funds typically especially through ETFs,
dividends. So, when invest- buying and selling and seeks
charge higher fees than costs less compared
ing for income, make sure passively managed funds. to active investing and to invest in securities likely to
that you are buying into a So, if you are comfortable justifies a role in a portfolio grow over the long term. Pas-
company that has a policy for with more investment for long-term investing. sive investors bet on steady
paying out dividends. risk and have a long time Moreover, if you have less market increases which are
until you need to use the comfort with investment
opposite to what active in-
invested money, active risk, passive investing may
Small-cap Investing investing may be for you. be for you. vesting is all about—beating
Similar to growth stocks, the index.
small-cap stocks focus on
companies that have smaller Ô A GAME PLAN
market capitalisation than several years, making it downturns. However, the FOR SUCCESSFUL
most stocks but have the difficult to choose a small- potential for growth in INVESTING
potential of a company to cap stock. small-cap is also greater due It is rare to embark on a major
show major growth. Think These have all the traits to a lower base of revenues task without a degree of plan-
of it as investing in youth, as of a growth company, bar- and profits. Due to these ning. Investing is no differ-
many small-cap companies ring its market capitalisa- factors, share prices of ent and successful investing
have recent businesses that tion. Moreover, revenues small-cap companies tend requires adopting long-term
have the potential to become and profits of small-cap to be more volatile. Hence, strategies that have withstood
a large-cap in the future. companies tend to fluctuate select a company wisely and the test of time. We often take
These are companies with more than those of mid- or harvest growth over time. the plunge without any real
a market capitalisation of large-cap companies due to grasp of the investment strat-
less than Rs 700 crore and a lower ability to withstand Passive Investing egy that’s most likely to align
account for a significant major market or economic Passive investing involves with our current circumstances
number of listed entities. putting money in indices and future needs. Eventually,
Think of them as companies through ETFs (exchange- every investor has to find their
beyond the top 250 by way traded funds) or available own personal stock investment
of market capitalisation. index funds through the strategies that best suit their
Naturally, the invest- mutual fund route. It is individual wants or needs.
ment risk is high with these a long-term investment The investing strategy
companies and investors strategy that is based on the or strategies you employ will
must be prepared to face PETER LYNCH fact that in the long run, the often change during the
volatility when investing broad index outperforms se- course of your life as your
in these and should be pre- IF YOU DON’T lect stocks and mutual funds. financial situation and goals
pared for long holding peri- STUDY ANY It is a long-term investment shift. What is important is to
ods compared to large and COMPANIES, YOU strategy for building wealth have an investment strategy.
mid-cap space. Likewise, HAVE THE SAME by buying securities that It will help you from hold-
there is often little research SUCCESS BUYING mirror stock market indexes ing on to poor portfolios and
done on these companies STOCKS AS YOU and holding them. These developing efficient ones
in public space, making DO IN A POKER are low-risk, because the to increase the chances of
information-gathering not GAME IF YOU BET investment is in an index investing success. Having the
that easy. As these take a WITHOUT that mirrors select stocks or a right investment strategy, the
longer time to unleash their LOOKING AT YOUR sector and not an individual one that’s right for you, will
potential, chances are that CARDS” stock. It basically replicates significantly improve your
many may not perform for the returns of an index that chances of success.

NEED TO KNOW
PURE TERM
POLICIES
TAX-EXEMPT
The Central Board of Direct Taxes has
clarified pure term insurance policies are
still exempted from taxation irrespective of
their premium amount
T
here is something to explain how this change
about income tax will come into effect and EXCEPTIONS TO KNOW
savings and life what kind of non-ULIP life
insurance. The two insurance policies will be af-
have been synonymous for fected. Pure term insurance
decades to the extent that policies will be exempted
scores of income taxpayers from taxation irrespective The tax No tax No tax on The
have for generations looked of their premium amount. rule is not when policy premiums cumulative
applicable pay-out when premium
at life insurance as a tax- Also, premiums paid toward
on policies is on the policy is limit doesn’t
saving instrument. The gov- pure term policies will not issued death of the pure term include
ernment has in recent years be included in calculating before April insured GST
worked towards addressing the total premium amount 1, 2023
this anomaly by curtailing for taxation purposes. This,
the tax-free status enjoyed however, excludes term plans
by policyholders on the ma- that repay the premiums
turity of insurance policies. on maturity. Likewise, the SMART WAYS TO SKIRT TAX
In 2021, high-value ULIPs CBDT also clarified that the
were made taxable and GST component would not
Treat life insurance will add up in case
earlier this year, the budget be included for the purpose
as a risk protection of multiple policies,
proposal indicated similar of calculating premiums for tool and go for only especially where policy
restrictions in tax-free status taxation purposes. pure term plans tenures are variable
for non-ULIP life insurance
If you do take savings ULIPs and life
products. However, the de- Ô WHAT’S NEW?
and investment type policies with savings
tail lacked clarity on how to The Income Tax Act’s Sec- life policies, limit the and investment
view this aspect of taxation tion 10 (10) provides exclu- total annual premium components are
on insurance policies. sions for specific amounts outgo under Rs 5 lakh treated differently for
In August, the CBDT acquired through life taxation; use them
Check how premiums effectively
(Central Board of Direct Tax- insurance policies, includ-
es) issued a 17-page guideline ing those received as bonus.
of any pay-out made on the which is set to change
death of the policyholder to the way ATMs have been
the beneficiaries. functioning by providing
quick access to cash even in
Ô INSIDE THE UPI-ATM remote areas and without
It is a well-known fact the need for a physical debit
that the Unified Payments or credit card that is typi-
Interface (UPI) is the cally used at ATMs.
fastest-growing payment Although one can access
mode in the country which ATMs for cash withdrawals
accounts for over 50 per without a card even now,
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE cent of digital transaction the process depends on a
volumes. Since its inception, registered mobile number
UPI has transformed the and works with an OTP.
payment system and now it The UPI-based withdrawals
is all set to change the role work on a QR code-based
of ATMs. The UPI-ATM system that UPI users can
will seamlessly integrate the use if they have the UPI ap-
convenience and security of plication installed on their
UPI into traditional ATMs, smartphones. The facility
has been introduced by Hita-
chi Payment Services, which
These exemptions will cease Rs 5 lakh and ULIP with a STEPS TO USE has launched the White
to be valid under the new premium amount of up to UPI-ATM FOR CASH Label ATM in association
CBDT guideline which Rs 2.50 lakh. The overall WITHDRAWAL with the National Payments
clarifies how premiums will premium paid towards Corporation of India.
be calculated as taxable and whole life, money back and At present, the UPI-
STEP 1
non-taxable. From April 1, endowment or any policy ATM has a limit of Rs
Enter the designated
2023, the government has with maturity benefits will ATM and opt for UPI 10,000 per transaction,
done away with the tax-free be considered to arrive at cash withdrawal which is part of the existing
maturity proceeds on high- the total tax payment. To UPI per day limit and as per
value insurance policies. ensure there are no slip-ups, STEP 2 the limits set by the issuer
You will be prompted
Policyholders paying a the calculations will be bank for UPI-ATM transac-
to enter the desired
premium of over Rs 5 lakh linked to the PAN of the withdrawal amount tions. This is yet another fea-
to buy life insurance poli- taxpayer. ture of digital banking which
cies other than ULIPs and Moreover, the CBDT STEP 3 could fill the gap for bank
term insurance will have to clarified that the ma- A single-use dynamic customers who do not wish
QR code will be
pay tax on their maturity turity proceeds from to carry their cards to access
displayed on the
proceeds. However, if such policies issued after April ATM screen ATMs for cash withdrawal.
a policyholder dies then the 1, 2023, will be taxed if At the same time, the UPI-
maturity proceeds for the the aggregate premium STEP 4 ATM makes the payment
nominee will be tax-free, amount exceeds Rs 5 lakh. Scan the QR code system complete by disburs-
using any UPI app
clarified the government. However, not all maturity ing cash which was the one
and authorise the
In the case of maturity proceeds will be taxed. The transaction with a feature that could make UPI
proceeds from ULIPs, tax is tax scenario will change if UPI PIN on the usage only go up. The facility
exempted if the premium is an exemption is claimed in mobile (UPI app) also does away with the need
up to Rs 2.50 lakh in a year. the previous year and differ for bank-specific ATMs,
STEP 5
So, a policyholder can still in case of multiple policies, which could help scores of
The cash is
claim tax exemption if they said CBDT. Importantly, disbursed through Indians who have limited
buy traditional policies with these provisions will not the ATM access to ATMs.
a premium amount of up to be applicable in the event — Narayan Krishnamurthy
MUTUAL FUNDS
ARE MULTI-
ASSET FUNDS
FOR YOU?
Consider them if you wish to
allocate in commodities in the
hybrid fund space beyond the
usual equity and debt Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
T
here was a time when it witnessed the high-
when one visited the est inflows of Rs 1,711.4 crore
neighbourhood doc- in December 2022, accord-
tor for any health ing to the Association of Mu-
scare. These doctors knew tual Funds in India. Multi-
generations of family mem- asset funds aren’t new; these
bers and their health issues. are a type of hybrid funds
This helped them in treating that have been around ever
those sick. Investing was no since market regulator SEBI THOSE WHO CAN TAKE RISKS CAN
different, with mutual funds re-categorised mutual funds, INVEST IN MULTI-ASSET FUNDS
donning the hat of doctors. providing a clearer scope for AT ANY TIME TO TAKE ADVANTAGE
As most investors either what multi-asset funds could OF THE DIVERSIFICATION ACROSS
sought wealth-creation or do. Investors have been using ASSET CLASSES THIS FUND OFFERS
income-generation, the funds to split between equi-
schemes offered solutions ties and debt for a long time
considering the risk investors and it is still a very popular
could take. With time, mutu- way of investing. optimise investment returns 43 per cent. The next year,
al funds have evolved to cater by managing investment-re- equity was up 28 per cent,
to unique investment needs Ô MULTI-ASSET lated risks. Given the paucity debt 14 per cent and gold
to provide specialised solu- FUND POSITIONING of time and lack of expertise, 18 per cent. What investors
tions. There are several types The virtues of asset alloca- investments in mutual funds could learn from such mixed
of equity and debt schemes tion are well documented are suited for most investors performance by asset classes
and many hybrid funds have and get reinforced once looking to take advantage of is that they need to follow as-
emerged over time to meet every few years owing to asset allocation principles. set allocation, and they need
investor needs based on the events that remind us that, An investment mix with to know how much of their
risks involved. ultimately, investing is allocation to equity, debt and monies to allocate across
The multi-asset fund cat- all about asset allocation. gold could provide better asset classes to get the best
egory has caught the fancy Predicting asset class returns diversification. For instance, bang for their bucks.
of investors in recent times. is a futile exercise and it is in 2011, equities were down Ideally, these funds are
Some of it perhaps also has best to spread your invest- 25 per cent, debt was up 4 suitable for investors who
to do with the news it made ments across asset classes to per cent and gold was up can stomach risk and have
Q&A
years. We regularly meet

High Potential to discuss asset positions
in the fund and base our
Presence across asset classes is favourable for strategy according to pre-
investment performance, says Ihab Dalwai, fund vailing market conditions
manager, ICICI Prudential AMC, who co-manages and how it would impact
the largest multi-asset fund in India the fund’s performance
in the future. There are
also instances when we
Q. COULD YOU TELL US do have fund managers
WHAT’S THE NEED FOR bringing in their views in
A MULTI-ASSET FUND? a strong way...needing
Asset allocation is the rethinking and change in
bedrock of success- allocation. We endeavour
ful long-term investing, to follow the investment
and the more the variety mandate by sticking to
of assets that go into an equity-oriented fund,
your investments, the with tactical positioning
better the chances for in debt and commodities.
wealth creation. In our It has worked well in the
fund, apart from equity long run.
and debt, we have room
for allocation to com- Q. WHAT’S YOUR
modities. The choice to in the potential of equi- ADVICE TO INVESTORS?
invest across three asset ties and increased their WHO SHOULD INVEST IN
classes provides us with allocation. For investors, IT AND FOR HOW LONG?
a good mix, which can it is not easy to anticipate Within our offerings,
be used depending on changes in the market this is a riskier fund than
the prevailing market and change the alloca- the balanced advantage
conditions. tion to assets in their fund. Having said that,
portfolio. Moreover, they investors could look for
Q. HOW DOES would also be impacted a three-to-five-year
THIS FUND HELP by taxes if they were investment window when
INVESTORS? to move across asset investing in this scheme
They get access to a classes by selling and and should prefer lump-
well-balanced asset buying them. The multi- sum over SIPs. Given the
an investment window of
allocation that has the asset fund is tax-efficient choice of asset classes
over three-five years. Invest- to invest in and dynamic
potential to perform well in that manner.
ments in these funds need during all market condi- fund management, this
not be necessarily through tions. We actively man- Q. THIS FUND HAS is a hybrid fund that
SIPs; one could also invest in age allocation across THREE MANAGERS. could weather all mar-
lump sum. Unlike the BAF asset classes based on DOESN’T IT LEAD TO ket conditions. As it is
(balanced advantage funds) our research and insight, CONFLICT OVER THE an equity-oriented fund,
and other hybrid funds that giving investors access ASSETS TO CHOOSE? investments are treated
follow a well-defined asset to this expertise. For Each of us is backed by like equity funds, which
allocation model, multi- instance, during Covid, a team of researchers investors could consider
when equities were out and market insights that for long-term wealth
asset funds have a fair bit
of favour, we factored we have gained over the creation.
of investment freedom that
fund managers rely on. It
is for this reason that these
funds are risky compared Do explore funds that have a favours these funds is the is treated as a non-equity
to BAF or conservative longer performance history. tax treatment, with most category and investors are
hybrid funds. However, in Check the basis of asset al- funds in this category fol- taxed accordingly at the
terms of suitability, these are location principles followed lowing the equity category time of redemption. Choose
all-weather funds in which by specific fund schemes to of funds with a minimum 65 a multi-asset allocation fund
one can invest at any point know what you are getting per cent exposure to equi- for wider asset allocation
in time to take advantage into. It is like opting for a ties. However, if the equity choice and wealth-creation
of the diversification across specialist doctor. allocation is below 65 per in the long run.
asset classes this fund offers. Another aspect that cent, the multi-asset fund —Narayan Krishnamurthy
LEARNING CENTRE
HOW TO REDUCE HEALTH

INSURANCE PREMIUM
By opting for the
co-pay facility, you
agree to bear a specific
portion of your medical
expenses and thereby
reduce the premiums on
health insurance

W
ith increasing
healthcare
expenses, the
cost of health
insurance is also on the rise
and can impact your financ-
es even if you have health
insurance. There are several
aspects of health insurance
that one needs to understand co-pay of Rs 5,000 on your rising cost of health insur-
to utilise the policy to its ADVANTAGE treatment expenses and the ance premiums, co-pay is a
fullest. One such key feature OF CO-PAY claim works out to Rs 12,000, way to reduce the premium
is the co-pay facility in medi- you will be required to pay outgo. At the same time, for
cal insurance. Co-pay is a Rs 5,000 towards your treat- senior citizens, who may find
The insurer
proportion of the allowable bears a signifi- ment, while the remaining health insurance costs high,
claim amount that you, as a cant part of Rs 7,000 is to be covered by especially if they have exist-
policyholder, bear at the time the claim the insurer. Co-pay could ing medical conditions, the
of a health insurance claim also be as a proportion of the co-pay facility provides
settlement. Think of it as You pay for an claim you raise; 10 per cent of them with an option to re-
your contribution each time agreed fixed part the total claim means that on duce their premiums.
of every claim
you face a health insurance a claim of Rs 1 lakh, you will There are many forms of
claim. Co-payment varies pay Rs 10,000 and the bal- co-pay options available these
Co-pay is fixed
depending on the health at the time of ance is paid by the insurer. days which are based on the
insurance plan and the type taking the policy Depending on the nature age of the policyholder, the
of services you receive as part of the claim—cashless or location where the treatment
of the policy you have. A lower co- reimbursement—the man- is undertaken, the type of
When you opt for co-pay, payment means ner in which the co-pay is illness resulting in the claim
you bear a fixed part of the higher premium adjusted will be different. For and so on. Just because co-
payment
expenses towards medical instance, in case of cashless pay is a way to reduce your
treatment, while the rest is claims, you will need to pay insurance premium, doesn’t
Co-pay could
borne by the insurer. This be useful in case the agreed co-pay component mean you go for it blindly.
can either be as a fixed of health insur- on claims; for reimburse- Opt for co-pay after under-
amount or a fixed percent- ance for senior ment, the insurer will settle standing the benefit and how
age of the treatment costs. citizens the claim sum after adjust- it works for you.
For instance, if you opt for a ing for the co-pay. Given the -Narayan Krishnamurthy
NEXT TIME: What is deductible

76 INDIA TODAY SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 in general insurance?
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IRS 2019 Q4 (TR)
TRINETRA GUMMARAJU: KAY KAY MENON:
BREAKING BARRIERS MAXIMUM DRAMA
PG 81 PG 83
GARY MEHIGAN: Q&A WITH

CELEBRATING INDIA NEERAJ CHOPRA
PG 85 PG 86
E N T E R TA I N M E N T
A PART
PLAYED
WELL
Sushmita Sen
shines in her portrayal
of transgender activist
Shreegauri Sawant in the
JioCinema series Taali

Photograph by MILIND SHELTE

LEISURE
On her part, Sen knew that she ity, so we decided to stay away from
wanted to do the role the minute prosthetics.” The team instead relied
she read the script, especially when on hair and make-up to get the look
National Award-winning filmmaker as close as possible. During the entire
Ravi Jadhav came on board to direct shooting, Sen remained invested in
the series. But it took the actor almost getting the little details right, like
six months to sign on the dotted line, capturing the exact reaction of a man
time that she took to memorise the who just underwent a sex operation
screenplay inside out and extensively and wears a bra for the first time.
Three years ago, when Sushmita Sen research about Sawant to absorb the As challenging as the three-year-
signed on to headline the first season weight of the character. “I believe long journey to make the show was,
of Ram Madhvani’s Aarya, she was two things are of utmost importance the prep stopped feeling challeng-
stepping in front of the camera after when I choose to sign on any proj- ing to Sen once she met Sawant in
five years. Playing a mother holding ect—substance and authenticity. And person. “When we first met, I knew
her family together in the wake of a it only makes sense for a character to we would connect instantly,” she says.
family tragedy in her web series debut have that as well. Stories like Taali “We had so many things in com-
demanded that the actress tower over make you reflect on your individual mon—our journey, our values and
everyone else. Looking at the show, choices and give you assurance [as an opinions and, more importantly, the
it would be hard to discern that the actor],” Sen tells INDIA TODAY.
actor had been away for all these Once the actor was on board, Jad-
years—Sen turned in a career-defin- hav and she were certain about one n
es, i
ing performance as Aarya Sareen, thing—they didn’t want Sen’s portray-
a li r evolv round
Ta y s, a t’s
straddling the varying facets of the al of Sawant to be played up to a point y wa wan
man auri Sa y—her
female identity with clarity and con- that it felt like she was mimicking her. eg lit
Shre persona eter-
viction. At the time, Aarya felt like “We wanted to maintain authentic- u l t of i ll e dd er
c lso h
ng -w
a long overdue course correction for s tr o o n b u t a i t y
ti in
the acting prowess of Sushmita Sen, mina tle femin
ge n
an actor who has remained underuti-
lised by Hindi cinema for decades.
In 2023, Sen returned with her
second web series that seems to
underline that Aarya might have just
been the start. There is no Taali, the
six-episode biographical series about
Shreegauri Sawant, the transgender
activist and petitioner in the land-
mark 2014 case where the Supreme
Court declared transgender as the
third gender, without Sushmita Sen.
The show revolves, in many ways,
around Sawant’s cult of personal-
ity—her strong-willed determination
but also her gentle femininity. It’s
the exact reason that Arjun Singgh
Baran and Kartk D. Nishandar, the
show’s creators, thought of Sen for the
role. They were certain that the actor
would bring a certain authority to
the role without losing the essence of
Sawant’s womanhood. It helped that
like Sen, Sawant is a single mother
too—the first transgender woman to
adopt a child in India.
BREAKING
fact that both of us are uncon- BARRIERS
ventional mothers.” The meet- MEET TRANS DOCTOR-TURNED-
ing made the actor doubly ACTOR TRINETRA HALDAR
determined to deliver with her GUMMARAJU, WHO
performance. Sen’s command PLAYS THE ROLE OF MEHER
over the character is visible CHAUDHRY IN THE SECOND
throughout the six episodes. SEASON OF MADE IN HEAVEN
Even when the screenplay
E
or the direction dips, Sen’s ver since its re-
expressive emotional language lease on Amazon
holds it together. Prime, Made in
Sen’s commitment to the Heaven S2 has courted
role spilled offscreen too. controversy for several
reasons—from misrep-
Before directing her in Taali,
resentation of facts to
Jadhav admits that he har-
breach of faith. However, araju
boured misconceptions about the show created by film- Gumm or Made
n f
e d
auditio aven S2 in
SUNNY CHOTHANI
Sen’s cachet as a Bollywood makers Zoya Akhtar and in He er 2020
star. He came out of the show b
Reema Kagti has also re- Decem l interning
til
bowled over by her profes- ceived appreciation for while s ospital in
sionalism. “Usually, actors showcasing the reality of a t a h t a ka
Karna
take about four or five takes big fat Indian weddings
to get a scene right, because beyond their glamour and
every take acts as a rehearsal opulence. The second in-
for them. But Sushmita Sen stalment also has a new get brownie points for es- tribulations, particularly
addition—trans doctor, saying trans characters,” while navigating romantic
is one of the rare actors I have
content creator and now she reiterates. relationships. With more
worked with who comes to a actor, Trinetra Haldar Calling it a “dream conversation around
set fully prepared. She only Gummaraju. come true”, Gummaraju sexuality and gender
needs one take. In fact, 90 On being asked how auditioned for Made in today, is there receptiv-
per cent of the scenes you see it feels to play herself on Heaven S2 in December ity towards dating a trans
of her in the show are actually screen, the debutante 2020 while still interning woman? “Understanding
from her first take.” has a quick rebuttal. “We at a hospital in Karnataka. of trans identity is re-
Given that Taali chroni- don’t tell heroes they play It was her popularity on stricted largely to upper
cles the full extent of Sawant’s themselves just because Instagram that led to her middle class and urban
life, right from her childhood they play men. Meher is discovery by the Made circles, so penetrating
calm, introverted and in Heaven team. “When through all tiers of so-
and her surgery to mother-
reserved. Her politics is the audition worked out, ciety will take time. This
hood and the legal battle, the
put across with a very it was reassuring that I is where entertainment
actor sees her performance understated dignity,” had something unique to becomes a powerful tool
as a tribute to Sawant’s says Gummaraju. “In real offer. I was essentially a to start conversations,”
strength. To her, the fact that life, I am far more vocal sleepless intern and had believes Gummaraju. In
Sawant entrusted her with about my identity. Meher nothing to lose,” she says. her personal experience,
the honour of showcasing her isn’t necessarily known The transition people have become
journey onscreen is the icing to everyone as trans, to acting happened more aware and accept-
on the cake. while I am.” fairly abruptly, but acting ing, but there’s a long
Irrespective of the scope of While Bollywood has coach Puja Sarup played way to go.
future projects, the 47-year- previously attempted a huge role in giving Gum- With Meher’s char-
making queer-focused maraju the basic tools to acter being applauded by
old is certain about where she
films, the treatment has play the character. “The the masses, what’s next
stands as an actor. “I want to been far from appropri- responsibility to correctly on the cards? “A single
represent a story that has the ate. Gummaraju calls her represent a community great role doesn’t neces-
power to move you from the character a big win on can be tough. I placed sarily mean an entire ca-
core and stir a wave of change. the representation front, my trust entirely in the reer. One has to keep at it
That is what I look for in since trans people never writing of this character and continue auditioning,
everything I do.” ■ get to play any role. “Cis as human first and trans and hope that wonderful
Poulomi Das actors get the opportu- later,” says Gummaraju. characters are written,”
nity to play a very diverse The show portrays concludes Gummaraju. ■
range of roles and often Meher’s trials and Geetika Sachdev
THE DARK SIDE

Director Bejoy Nambiar is back with Kaala, a richly layered
series that is so much more than an action thriller
TWISTED
TALES
A still from
Kaala and
(bottom)
Bejoy
Nambiar
B
By now, filmmaker Bejoy
is on paper a thriller but
one that has multiple tracks
going on—there’s a cat-and-
mouse game between an
Intelligence Bureau officer
too. “There are more layers
to it,” he adds. “It delves into
many more aspects.” The
long-form storytelling in
web series enables creators
them that manifests and
creates havoc”, he notes. If
season one is received well,
Nambiar already has a story
in place to dig deeper into
Nambiar is all too familiar (Avinash Tiwary) and a busi- like Nambiar to do so with the Kaala world.
with what clicks and doesn’t nessman (Taher Shabbir) a wide range of characters As much as Nambiar
on streaming platforms. He accused of money launder- and various subplots. The has enjoyed his exploits on
has made a short for an an- ing; there’s a father-son eight-episode series also fea- streaming, he is looking
thology (Netflix’s Navarasa), tale; there’s an unresolved, tures Rohan Vinod Mehra, to get back to features. It’s
co-directed two series (The traumatic event from the Nivetha Pethuraj, Hiten after all what put him on the
Fame Game, Sweet Kaaram past whose tremors are still Tejwani, Mini Mathur, map, with his debut Shaitan
Coffee) and had one direct- felt in the present; power Shruti Seth, among others, (2011) followed by David
to-digital film release (Taish games and there’s action too. but the plot primarily pivots (2013) demonstrating a
on ZEE5). “Those were like “When we were [initially] around three men who all cinematic flair that saw him
my baby steps towards how writing it, there was very have “darkness in each of package his indie sensi-
long format works,” he says. little action planned,” says bilities into a commercial
For Kaala, his second series Nambiar. “But, as we started format. Nambiar adopts that
of 2023, which released on developing it further, we saw formula again in his next, a
September 15 on Disney+ pockets available where we Hindi-Tamil bilingual, also
Hotstar, he found himself would try to do [an action] produced by T-Series, shot
performing the additional set piece without it hamper- with two different sets of
roles of showrunner, co- ing the story.” actors. Just don’t ask him
writer and producer. The For Nambiar, Kaala is if his allegiance lies with
volume of work, he says, took
Kaala’s plot pivots
essentially a show where films or series. His answer is
around three men
its toll. “But, eventually, it is there’s more than what’s diplomatic: “Wherever I get
who have “darkness
all worth it,” adds Nambiar. on the surface. It’s big on to showcase the best version
in each of them
Marking audio label scale like The Fame Game of my story is where I will
that manifests and
and film producer T-Series’ (2022), but given the genre, gravitate towards.”
creates havoc”, says
foray into web series, Kaala there’s plenty of spectacle Bejoy Nambiar Suhani Singh
LEISURE
MAXIMUM
quietly listens to Tiwary’s fanboy talk.
Menon is an anomaly in many ways.
He studied physics, earned an MBA
degree and worked in advertising
DRAMA
before realising in his mid-20s that
acting was his “swadharma”—his
“calling”. Unlike many of his peers,
Menon doesn’t have a manager or a
publicist. “I like to live life on my own
terms,” he says. “There’s a certain
was late March 2020 thing called instinct, when a third per-
Starring KAY KAY
MENON, web series
Bambai Meri Jaan—
It with India in lockdown
when Kay Kay Menon
son comes and tries to convince you,
it gets lost somewhere. I have ended
up in situations where it’s not been a
suddenly saw his social
which just released on media handles spring to life. It was happy journey. For me, the moment
adulation pouring in for his work in the project is over, I am dispassionate
Amazon Prime Video— about it. I don’t hang on to its fate.”
the web series Special Ops which
is a family drama set had back then released on Disney+ With the proliferation of stream-
against the backdrop of Hotstar. “Youngsters were messag- ing platforms, Menon joins a niche,
Mumbai’s underworld ing me saying ‘You have potential’,” esteemed legion of 50-something
says the 56-year-old actor with a actors like Suvinder Vicky (Kohrra),
smile. “They didn’t know of my exis- Manoj Bajpayee (The Family Man),
tence [prior to it]. I can’t blame them and Pawan Malhotra (Tabbar) whose
as they hadn’t seen my films.” The thespian careers have seen a renais-
Gen Z audience soon saw more of sance. Experiencing the “transfor-
that ‘potential’ in acclaimed films mative” powers of streaming
like Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi, has been both a blessing
Shaurya, Gulaal and Haider. and a bane. With OTT
After featuring in Raj & rms , platforms, “there
T platfo
DK’s Farzi earlier this With OT ins a legion of are certain things
jo
year, Menon will look Menon ething actors from the past that
50-som der Vicky, come to haunt you
to wow them again in
like Suv ajpayee and or glorify you”, he
in Bambai Meri Jaan, ano j B h ose
M aw
Malhotr says.
also on Amazon Prime Pawan pian careers
Video. He had much thes en a Going by the
have se nce
a first three episodes
earlier made an impres- renaiss
sion on his millennial co-star of Bambai Meri Jaan,
Avinash Tiwary (Laila Majnu, Menon should rest easy.
Khakee: The Bihar Chapter) who plays Based on S. Hussain Zaidi’s
the gangster son, Dara, to Menon’s Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the
police officer, Ismail, in Bambai Meri Mumbai Mafia, the show is a return
Jaan, a family drama set against the to narratives about gangsters, which
backdrop of Mumbai’s burgeoning were a staple in Hindi cinema of the
underworld. “There is a certain inten- late 1990s and 2000s. Says Menon,
sity [to him] which manifests in this “Films are limited by time; in series,
aura [he has],” says Tiwary, who was you see the inner workings of the
inspired by Menon’s work in Gulaal. human being. You can feel and smell
“While shooting [Bambai Meri Jaan] individuals in the story.” One can cer-
this feeling of looking up to him, and tainly feel for Ismail Kadri, the good
the fear of not wanting to do wrong cop who takes on forces mightier
helped me create this rela- than him. Menon’s nuanced perfor-
tionship between Dara mance showcases Ismail’s moral
and Ismail.” Seated at dilemmas and his inner demons to
the JW Marriott Hotel evoke empathy for the character.
in Mumbai, the ‘aura’ It’s a meaty role that the young ones
is felt as Menon would say taps into his ‘potential’. ■
Suhani Singh

LEISURE
BOOKS
Culinary Tour de Force

FROM ESSENTIAL KITCHEN INGREDIENTS TO REGIONAL CUISINES, COOKING METHODS,
PERSONALITIES AND A LOT MORE, THE BLOOMSBURY HANDBOOK OF INDIAN CUISINE IS
THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO INDIA’S RICH FOOD CULTURE
Page 258. Nigella, as it turned out, is

known by many misleading names such
as kala jeera, black onion seeds or black
sesame, which have no bearing on its ori-
gin or properties.
The short entry on nigella prompted
me to check out the ‘Spice Box’ entry that
detailed the Bengali five-spice mixture
panch phoron, of which nigella is a key
component. This nine-pager entry, in turn,
took me on a deep dive of the incredible
world of Indian spice mixes that vary not
just from one state to another, but also
THE BLOOMSBURY from one household to the other—from
HANDBOOK OF the ubiquitous garam masala to popular
INDIAN CUISINE achari, tandoori and sambar spice mixes
Edited by Colleen Taylor to hyperlocal Mangalorean meet mirsang
Sen, Sourish Bhattacharya and Lucknow’s lazzat-e-tam. ‘Spice Box’
& Helen Saberi has managed to summarise in one entry
BLOOMSBURY what easily warrants an entire book!
`1,599; 448 pages
Therein lies the beauty and brilliance
of this handy handbook—that it not only
offers insight on your subject of interest,
he aroma of nigella seeds crackling in but also urges you to explore the stag-
hot mustard oil wafted in from the kitchen geringly rich and diverse landscape of
as my cook prepared the tampering for masoor Indian cuisine. With over 260 entries on
dal. Sitting at my work desk, leafing through everything from kitchen ingredients to
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Cuisine, regional foods and cooking methods, to
it piqued my curiosity to know more about prominent personalities who’ve influenced
this essential spice in every Bengali kitchen. India’s culinary scene, this is the only
Glancing through the alphabetically arranged book compiled of this scope since the late
‘List of Entries’, I found it indexed as Entry#175, K.T. Achaya’s comprehensive guide on
DESI PLATTER Three books on the complex historical and contemporary nature of Indian food
W hen Indian Accent

opened in 2009,
Manish Mehrotra’s
A fter the success of
Tiffin comes Sonal
Ved’s new book that
pathbreaking approach aims to trace how and
to Indian food became an what we eat today. The
overnight sensation. In this book discusses histori-
INDIAN ACCENT
new edition of the coffee cal spice trading routes
WHOSE SAMOSA IS ON THE CURRY TRAIL
RESTAURANT table book, Indian Accent IT ANYWAY? The Story
and ancient travel texts; Chasing the Flavor That
COOKBOOK brings to its patrons the of Where ‘Indian’ Food the everchanging rules Seduced the World
by Manish Mehrotra magic of its menu—with Really Came From of vegetarianism; the by Raghavan Iyer
HACHETTE INDIA photographs by Rohit by Sonal Ved delightful versatility and WORKMAN PUBLISHING
`1,899; Chawla—to be recreated PENGUIN VIKING uniqueness of the Tagore COMPANY
204 pages in home kitchens. `399; 256 pages kitchen, and much more. `2,490; 208 pages
FOOD
CELEBRATING INDIA
Australian chef Gary Mehigan is back on TV with
National Geographic’s India’s Mega Festivals
Indian food history published three
decades ago. et set to see Australian followed in the past 12 years. “Since
Much of the daunting task of
condensing the insurmountable
amount of information into one
G chef, restaurateur, and TV
personality Gary Mehigan
then, I prefer parantha, or idiyappam,
or Naga pork, because it’s so much
volume was taken on by the three
as you’ve never seen him more than that menu of 12 dishes that
eminent food writers and editors before. Whether he’s donning a mundu most people probably think Indian
who brought this book to life. But the to row in a Kerala boat race during food’s all about.”
Handbook also draws on the exper- Onam or joining the Sumi tribals of Some of the experiences while
tise of other leading food writers, Nagaland in a war dance during the filming the show were truly transfor-
who bring their own unique expertise Hornbill Festival, he’s building bonds mative, says Mehigan, describing the
and voice to their subjects. The entry and understanding the deep connec- Onam Sadhya at the Vamana Moor-
on ‘Alcohol’, for instance, is written
tions between the flavours and fervour thy Temple at Thrikkakkara in Kerala
by historian and researcher Prasun
Chatterjee, who traces the evolution of the various momentous occasions served to over 30,000 people. “Not
of the drinking culture in India from that make our country special. As the only seeing the food being prepared
ancient to colonial times, with fas- peripatetic presenter of National Geo- and served, but the feeling and the
cinating references from scriptures graphic India’s brand new series In- sense of community and love and de-
and mythologies. Journalist and food dia’s Mega Festivals, Mehigan brings
writer Hoihnu Hauzel’s dominant his incredible energy and irascible wit
voice on Northeastern cuisines is to the screen in an explosion of colour
reflected in her entries on Meghalaya
and culture.
and Nagaland, while cultural
researcher Priya Mani’s entry on The first season, which premiered
the unique vegetarian cuisine of the on September 6, features six festi-
Palghat Iyers is based partly on oral vals—Onam, Holi, Hornbill, Eid,
interviews conducted by the author. Durga Puja and Ganesh Chaturthi—
The Handbook is fairly easy while he and the team are already
to navigate; you can flit in and out working on season two. Criss-
as you please. The entries are crossing the country, spending at
detailed, with cross references and
least a week per episode, often
suggestions for further reading. The
shooting round the clock, IRST
only dampener to this otherwise THE F India’s
brilliant attempt are the poorly they have managed to pack o n o f votion and charity,
se as estivals
printed black and white illustrations the fast-paced series with Mega F nam, Holi, all of these things
sO
accompanying some of the entries— interviews, insights, and include l, Eid, Durga make Sadhya for
il
they take away rather than add to Mehigan’s entertaining Hornb d Ganesh me now a different
n
Puja a tur thi
the text. That said, this book is a shenanigans. thing,” he explains.
must-have for any enthusiast or Cha
What Mehigan has re- His tastes have
connoisseur of Indian cuisine. ■
ally learnt to appreciate while changed, Mehigan
Satarupa Paul
travelling so widely with National admits. In his own home, he
Geographic India is the diversity of now uses a wet grinder, his last meal
the country. “You can say the word, was dal-chawal, and his 22-year-old
but it doesn’t really mean anything daughter Jenna loves spices just as
until you’ve experienced it. And now I much as he does. The Indian grocer
find myself correcting Indian friends in the neighbourhood knows him well
that haven’t been to Nagaland, or and anticipates his kitchen adventures.
T he late Raghavan Iyer, in his final
book, set out to educate and guide
readers through the complex history of
Ladakh or Tamil Nadu or those who This is what he hopes India’s Mega
know only one recipe for medu vada Festivals will do for others, especially if
the unique curries that can be found all while I know 10!” he chuckles. it’s picked up by National Geographic
over the globe. Iyer delves into cuisines
That’s a long way from his early all over the world. “I think then the
across the continents through lore,
anecdotes, interpretations and history, encounters with what was considered broad brushstroke that everybody
embracing the flavours of curry and Indian cuisine while he was growing slaps across Indian food will start to
highlighting 50 irresistible recipes. The up in the UK. “From the ever-popular change. When people will go, ‘Where
acclaimed Indian cooking advocate chicken tikka masala to dal makhani are you from?’ And you say, ‘Kerala’
leaves behind a rich legacy, and all and rogan josh and butter chicken, all and they go ‘Ah, the home of the’…even
Indian food enthusiasts must add this of those things were my first experi- if it’s ‘the coconut’, it’s enough.” ■
book to their Iyer collection.
ences,” he says. Several visits to India Priya Pathiyan
by Sharmistha Chaudhuri
Q. There were three Indians
Q A in the javelin throw finals at
the recently concluded World
AIMING
Athletics Championships in
Budapest. What made India a
leading contender?
I am just reiterating what other
athletes have said, that the mental
barrier that we had went away
HIGH
after my victory in Tokyo 2020.
Back then, I felt that we can
now compete with the best and
win. Everyone works hard, but
being mentally tough is also
important.... With international
exposure, we have seen how
training is done abroad and are
implementing the same plan.
For Neeraj Chopra,
it’s all about training
consistency and keeping
Q. There’s a healthy rivalry
the sporting spirit alive between you and Pakistan’s
Arshad Nadeem, which will
carry forward to the Asian
Games. How do you keep the
India vs Pak noise aside?
You compete together and,
of course, you push to take
your country to the top.
But after that, you should
appreciate each other.
Q. At 25, you have reached Arshad congratulated me
the pinnacle of your sport, after my victory and it’s
from winning an Olympic my responsibility to do the
gold to being a World same. We should respect
Champion. What motivates all athletes irrespective
you the most? of the country.
For me, the most enjoyable
part of my life as an athlete is
the daily training. I like the rou-
tine of it. I focus on it and try to Q. Can we have multiple
improve my lifts and jumps and medallists in javelin at the
eat healthier. As you train, you Asian Games?
understand your body better. There will be two athletes at
Even if you feel like having the Asian Games, so one can
a cheat day, you think of hope for it. I was the happiest
all the work that’s gone that three Indians were in the
into attaining your level of top six at the World Athletics
fitness. And I haven’t had Championships finals. Ev-
one in a while now. eryone noticed how javelin
in India is booming. As we
become a powerhouse, one
can hope for more podium
finishes.
with
Suhani
Singh
GETTY IMAGES
86 Volume 48-Number 39; For the week September 19-25, 2023, published on every Friday Total number of pages 88 (including cover pages)

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FROM THE

Illustration by NILANJAN DAS

www.indiatoday.in ANDHRA PRADESH: Q&A WITH

SENIOR ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER (IMPACT)

Illustration by NILANJAN DAS

OBIT G20 R AJASTH AN

Volume 48-Number 39; For the week

All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of SCAN HERE TO

J&K: A DIFFERENT KARNATAKA: A

FIRE STARTER DMK’s

FAITH ACCOMPLI By Amarnath K. Menon

Ô The expression ‘dharmah

comments to Hitler’s rants on the Jews. make objectionable

I the ruling DMK (Dravida Mun-

native origins, but also to counter

SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 11

Naidu was travelling in Nandyal, and

president, and others allegedly in

wallet using an app, and use them in digital rupee?

ets of Kashmir. Official data shows

line of the Cauvery basin, says with crop

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

Reclaiming Her ACT OF ATONEMENT?

SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 21

points.” These battery-operated buses

being, ﬁve AC double-deckers will be

INTO THE SUNSET the London buses…very spacious

The Mogul of Mirth

By KAUSHIK DEKA with ANILESH S. MAHAJAN

SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 31

econciling irreconcilables is a necessary. Why tamper with an arrangement that was

Illustration by NILANJAN DAS SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 33

Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

According to it, there was a great king

NAMES ing! Earlier, in 1972, the British colonial name

varsha connects it with the Bharata

SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 39

and an oft-quoted Sanskrit verse says:

Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 41

Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

NOW WANT A KSHATRIYA DYNASTIC NAME

SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 47

as the land of abundance. As is well

— Ravinder Kaur is the author of

SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 49

SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 51

and regulated approach towards dealing

parts of the riverbed, let alone Corridor and the Sabarmati

SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 57

Elsewhere in this kerchief-sized city,

reasons. The coaching industry in Kota

SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 59

SE P T E M BE R 2 5, 2 02 3 INDIA TODAY 61

government is working on ﬁling a cura- completing their farming duties were

NEED TO KNOW MUTUAL FUNDS LEARNING CENTRE

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

INVEST THE WAY

find growth stocks in virtu- Thinking of value

Companies that are Companies that have

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