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Date:25/03/2007 URL:

http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2007/03/25/stories/2007032500300700.htm
Magazine

CELEBRATING SUMMER

Ode to the mango

RUPA GOPAL

The mango reigns supreme in the kitchen and our cultural imagination.
Photo: Rupa Gopal

Reigning supreme: The ripe fruit has inspired weavers and jewellers.

Mangifera indica is a national treasure. The mango, as it is commonly known, is India's


national fruit, and the king among fruits all over the world. First mentioned in Hindu
scriptures around 4,000 B.C., the wild mango grew at the foothills of the Himalayas,
extending into present-day Myanmar. By 200 B.C., this venerable tree became a
cultivated species.

The great Indian poet Kalidas penned lyrical praises about the mango, Alexander relished
it, Hieun Tsang loved it, and took it with him to China in the seventh century A.D. The
great Mughal Akbar planted 1,00,000 mango trees in Darbhanga, calling the estate
Lakhibag.

The Caliph of Baghdad, in the seventh century A.D. brewed a mango liqueur that took six
to 12 months to ferment. The tree went from Persia to Africa around 1000 A.D. Buddhist
monks brought the mango to Malaysia and East Asia. It is said that the Portuguese even
fought a war, incited by the mango.

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Indian legend states that Suryabai was the daughter of the fiery Sun. She transformed
herself into a golden lotus to evade an evil sorcerer. The lotus entranced a king. The
angry sorcerer burnt the lotus but a mango tree emerged from the ashes.

The tree is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. Buddha was gifted a mango grove to
rest in. Thus the Buddhists hold the tree to be holy, capable of granting wishes. The
Hindus too consider it to be a kalpavriksha, or giver of boons.

Indeed, the holy mango tree in Kanchipuram, at the Ekambareswar temple, is said to be
3,500 years old. Its branches yield four different types of fruit, and women who want
children are said to eat the fruit. Parvati did penance under this tree to marry Shiva who
came to earth to wed her.

Legends galore

The maankani thirunaal is another legend associated with the mango. Karaikal
Ammaiyar, a staunch devotee of Shiva, is said to have offered curd rice and mangoes to
the Lord on a full moon day. This custom is followed every year in the temple at
Karaikal, Tamil Nadu. And most people know the story of the fruit of dissension between
Muruga and Ganesha in which the divine brothers had to circle the earth and come back
to Parvati for a prize of a single ripe mango. While Muruga earnestly flew round the
world on his peacock, Ganesha mischievously circled his parents, who meant the entire
world to him, and bore away the prized fruit. The offended Muruga retreated to Palani
Hills, now one the most sacred of Muruga shrines.

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With such delectable legends, it is natural that the fruit is also extraordinary. The golden
fruit has peels of varying thickness and the pulp has a hint of turpentine about it. Some
varieties can be very fibrous, while others are so smooth as to simply melt. The milky sap
gives most people a skin allergy but can easily avoided with a little careful handling.

A mature mango tree yields fruit for about 40 years. Its spreading branches burst into
tender leaf, described by Kalidas as similar to a young maiden's lips. The combination of
the tender leaf's red and green has been immortalised in South Indian silk as the
"maanthulir". The tree breaks into flower by end-Feburary. Soon the tree is covered with
tiny green mangoes — some varieties hang in bunches, some individually.

Sweet mangoes attract insects, even in the flowering stage. The insect sits on the flower,
and the fruit grows around it. The insect, trapped alive inside, has already feasted on the
mango even before it ripens.

Plucking the mangoes is a big event. The elders in the family sit in the shade, and
supervise. A professional is brought in to climb the high branches. Each mango is caught
in a large net,attached to a long stick. A deft flick of the hand and the mango stalk is cut
with a small sharp blade attached to the end of the stick. The netted mangoes are lowered
safely to the ground and laid out on a sack. It's a day of great excitement for young ones,
quick to pounce in on the raw mangoes, adding to the melee amidst the debris of fallen
leaves and twigs. The mango was actually one of the great unifiers in a family, with most
adults having fond memories of large family homes, huge fruit trees, and simple
contentment.

Health benefits

The mango is many healthy benefits. Its papain-like enzyme is good for digestion and
purifies the intestines. It's an antioxidant, and also good for cardiovascular conditions.
Many Indians consider the mango to be a blood builder, and good for anaemia due to its

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high iron content. It is also said to be good for alleviating menstrual and muscular
cramps. The fruit has a high potassium and magnesium content.

Mango juice has also been proven to kill certain viruses. It also has good fibre, beta-
carotene, vitamins C, B1, B2, B3, B6, zinc and calcium. The fruit is also effective in
cooking as a meat tenderiser and flavour enhancer.

Mango wood makes good furniture and handicrafts, and villagers are known to use its
tender twigs as toothbrushes.

The mango is an auspicious tree to have in one's garden. Its leaves are used to decorate
doorways, as a toranam, or a string of tied leaves, to symbolise divinity. The leaves are
used in worship also. The fruit has long been considered a sacred symbol of fertility and
the yellow-orange colour of the ripe fruit is an auspicious shade for saris and garments.
Jewellery too has made use of the mango, with traditional gold and diamond ornaments
made with the mango motif — the maangai maalai (mango necklace) is a must in every
bride's jewel box. Silk saris have always used traditional motifs and the mango is a time-
honoured one, woven intricately in gold or silver thread, into sensuous silks. Weddings
too have been held in mango orchards, designer weddings with the blessings of the boon-
giving tree.

The mango reigns supreme in the kitchen too. Pickle making is an adventure by itself,
taking up the better part of a morning. Tongue-tickling pickles, hot and sweet, dry and
oily, fresh and preserved, are made from the mango as perfect tart accompaniments to
Indian meals. Jams and jellies, chutneys and salads go well with western dishes too.

Indeed, an abiding memory of Thailand for me is its Floating Market near Ratchaburi.
The ladies on the tiny boats sell such sumptuous hot food prepared in a jiffy. One of the

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most popular dishes is that of fried snake fish heaped with a delectable salad — slices of
fresh raw mango mixed with fish sauce, lime juice, peanuts, red chilly hand pounded
roughly, sugar, fresh coriander leaves and fresh onion shoots. The taste lingers in my
memory, even years later.

Infinite variety

Mango kulfi, lassi, mango sandesh, aam ras eaten with hot puris, rasayana (mango kheer
in Karnataka), fresh fruit salad, the superb aam papad of North India, aamchur powder
(dry mango powder) added to dishes, mango toast, mango burfi, mango cooler made from
raw mango, crushed and mixed with sugar syrup, cardamom and saffron, mango pulav,
murabba — it's all simply too much for the palate.

The roads are piled with ripe fruit — Sindura, Banganapalli, Neelam, Javadu, Malgoa,
Kadir, Daseri, and the heavenly Alphonso, the king of mangoes, grown chiefly in
Maharashtra and Salem, in Tamil Nadu. It was to see the monsoon rains, and taste the
Alphonso that the newly petro-rich Arabs came to Bombay, in the early 1970s. Ever
since, it is the Indian's grouse that Bombay's Crawford Market has no Alphonsos to sell to
the Indians, as the Arabs take it all. The Malgoa too is an outstanding fruit, with a unique
flavour and texture.

Pickle mangoes too are heaped on pavements and in markets — small round ones for
vadumaangai and big firm ones for aavakkai. The seller also handily chops the hard raw
fruit, with kernel, for pickling.

The trees have become personal symbols, reminding descendants of loved old family
members, providing solace and enjoyment in the most beautiful way.

© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu

5
Date:25/03/2007 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2007/03/25/stories/2007032500160500.htm

Magazine

IN CONVERSATION

Brothers in music

K. K. GOPALAKRISHNAN

Dhrupad vocalists Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha on the ancient art form that they are
working to preserve.

Photo: K.K. Goplakrishnan

Veteran Duo: Brilliant performers.

DHRUPAD is an ancient style of Hindustani classical music that has survived in its
original form. The nature of Dhrupad is spiritual. For the audience, it induces a feeling of
peace and contemplation.

As an art form, Dhrupad is more disciplined and conservative. The Mughal period is
considered as the golden era of Dhrupad music.

Development

The word Dhrupad is derived from dhruva, the steadfast evening star, and pada meaning
poetry. It is a form of devotional music that traces its origin to the ancient text of Sama
Veda. Gradually this developed into other vocal styles called Chanda and Prabandha
with the introduction of verse and metre. The fusion of these two elements led to the
emergence of Dhrupad. Every gharana of Hindustani music inherited or imbibed some
aspects from Dhrupad.

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Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha, popularly known as the Gundecha Brothers, are
synonymous with Dhrupad. Today they are rated among the most brilliant Dhrupad
performers.

Born in Ujjain in Central India, the duo was pushed into music by their parents. "In fact,
we do not belong to a musical family. But our father's passion for classical arts landed us
in the music field. He always wanted us to be Dhrupad singers," they smile.

The brothers did their M.A. in Hindustani music and "realised that the true essence of our
music lies in Dhrupad, which is the oldest classical tradition. So we started learning
Dhrupad in 1981, with a general background in Hindustani music since 1969."

The brothers always learned and performed together. Their first formal performance was
in May 1985 at the "Uttaradhikar" festival.

Training

Their initiation to Dhrupad was under the renowned vocalist Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar
and Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar (Rudra Veena) in Dhrupad Kendra Bhopal.

The late Keshav Kothari identified them, in 1983, as "promising Dhrupad singers" and
later promoted them at the national level. Today they are rated as the best representatives
of the Dagar tradition of Dhrupad.

"The Dagars is the most respected family in music world. They have devoted many
generations to protect and preserve this most ancient rivulet of music," the duo says
reverently. And did the illustrious Dagar brothers inspire them? "Yes, of course. We were
very fortunate to hear Ustad Nasir Moinuddian Dagar and Ustad Nasir Aminuddin Dagar
several times before our initiation to Dhrupad style."

Is there a reason behind both of them being known as "Gundecha brothers" or did it just
happened? "We grew up together right from our childhood and both of us wanted to sing.
So the situation was to our benefit."

Differences

How is Dhrupad different from Hindustani music? "The fundamental theory behind both
is the same. Dhrupad has a contemplative nature and is a medium of prayer. Khayal came
later with a romantic inclination. A long and elaborate alaap has a significant role in
unfolding the raga in Dhrupad but not in Khayal. The tabla is the accompanying
instrument for Khayal while in Dhrupad it is pakhawaj," they explain. When Dhrupad
was evolving, the tabla did not exist. There was only the pakhawaj as a traditional
percussion.

Akhilesh Gundecha, their youngest brother and a disciple of Pandit Shrikant Mishra and
Raja Chhatrapati Singh Ju Deo, accompanies them on the pakhawaj.

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How did he become their accompanist? "He is a post-graduate in vocal music and has a
good sense of music and rhythm. But since there were not many pakhawaj players, we
thought that he could support us. Above all, it was a good chance for all of us to be
together," is the answer.

The future

What do they think of the future of Dhrupad? "It is growing and will keep growing. We
see many promising students learning Dhrupad," comment the brothers, adding, "Any art
form not keeping up with the times will not sustain itself. When one turns professional
and makes a living from concerts, one has to make compromises."

They believe that the stylisation of music is about 100 to 200 years old. "There was a
traditional belief that only men should sing Dhrupad in public and that is why there are
no female Dhrupad singers; the Dagars were very conservative," they explain.

Breaking this belief, the Gundechas taught six girls and one of them, Amita Sinha
Mohapatra, is a promising singer. Dhrupad is also becoming popular in Pakistan through
Aliya Rasheed, who is based in Lahore.

Collaborations

Even though they follow an ancient lineage, their collaboration with the trailblazing
Indian contemporary dancer, the late Chandralekha, for some of her later innovative
choreographies was well known.

"It was a great honour for us to work with Chandralekha. She invited us in 1999 to
compose music for her choreography. Her creative urge was immense. We still perform
the music of `Sharira' to keep her memory alive," say the brothers.

In 1999, the Gundechas founded a Dhrupad institute in Bhopal, to formally groom a band
of disciples.

"At present we have 15 serious students learning Dhrupad full time. We have residential
facility in a campus of three-acre land in the out skirts of Bhopal. It is the first gurukul
with residential facility for Dhrupad," they say proudly.

© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu

8
Date:25/03/2007 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2007/03/25/stories/2007032500150500.htm

Magazine

Recognition too late

SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY

Assamese filmmaker, Arup Manna, talks about his film on Aideu Handique, the first
Assamese woman to act in films.

Not a regular film: Arup Manna

TIME, they say, is the biggest healer. But time can be a tormentor too. Moving with the
times, we learn to forget. And yet, time teaches us to recall moments.

The story of Aideu Handique, the first Assamese woman to act in films, is trapped
somewhere in between. If in her later days, time taught her to forgive (she couldn't quite
forget); at age 14, fresh from enacting the lead in the first Assamese feature film,
"Joymoti", Aideu tried to fight the times.

Ostracised

In Assam of the 1930s, Aideu was ostracised. The times didn't allow a girl from a
respectable family to perform before camera. Worse, in the film, she addressed a stranger

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(her co-actor) as bangahar deu, a term married women used to address their husbands in
the Ahom community. So her maiden status was questioned. Explicitly.

As a punishment, the village panchayat debarred her from entering her house. So, the
family erected a rickety outhouse for her. The village pond, the main source of water, was
also out of her bounds. Aideu had to tread miles to get water for her daily use. Living in
an outhouse, with no one to talk to, parents and three brothers helplessly gazing at her
from a distance, she remained unmarried. Aideu died unsung on December 17, 2002. She
was 82.

Almost five years after her death, a young Assamese filmmaker, Arup Manna, has just
completed a feature film on Aideu. "Not because her story has a lot of drama" but
because he wanted to pay obeisance. "Aideu: Behind The Scenes" was screened at the
Mumbai International Film Festival, but is not being released in the theatres because it is
not a "regular" film. Manna elaborates, "The film doesn't have a producer. I couldn't find
any. Because it doesn't have dance sequences and songs, something that the producers
feel will attract audience to the halls."

Dire straits

The Assamese film industry is in dire straits. Halls are closing down and who will take
the risk of screening a film without any entertainment value? Even if the film is about a
person who faced the social mores of her time to make an outstanding contribution to the
medium.

So Manna decided to mortgage his house in Nagaon to complete the film under his own
banner, Trinayan Productions. It took him five years. "Besides funds, I looked for the
right faces. All the 43 artistes are new to cinema. I wanted that raw energy of the 1930s."

Inputs from Aideu

With not much written material available, Manna had to get his inputs straight from the
subject. "She was bed-ridden then but was so excited that someone was willing to speak
to her about her life. I can't forget the sparkling eyes in that frail frame when my camera
threw light on her for the first time," he recalls. His film ends rather poignantly with a
close shot of "those sparkling eyes in that frail frame". With silence, she seems to ask a
question about a right lost, the right to live her life.

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A scene from "Aideu: Behind The Scenes".

Manna feels he too had failed her in a way. "Like her director, Jyotiprasad Aggarwala.
Looking back, it seems strange that Aggarwala never thought of finding out what
happened to her after she did `Joymoti'. After all, he knew the times. After struggling for
months to find an actress, he met Aideu. A villager had lured her to his Tezpur residence
with the excuse of taking her on a ferry ride on the Brahmaputra, a novelty then.
Aggarwala convinced her father to let her play the role. Yet, when she struggled against
society, he didn't look back," points out Manna. Aggarwala, an eminent name in
Assamese literature, made other films later but never thought of casting Aideu again.
Why?"

Manna couldn't visit Aideu in her last days, as he was busy "running around to finish the
film". He recalls, "I remember vividly my last moments with her. Touching her hand, I
told her that I am leaving as the shooting is over. She looked at me, and said, Now that
your work is over, you too will not look back. Every director is the same'." Six months
after that fateful farewell "one day I heard that she is gone. I had a dream of bringing her
to Delhi and screening the film in her presence. But... ." he rues.

Last days

Aideu, during her last days, stayed with her nephew in a village near Kamargaon in
Golaghat district. As a symbol of recognition for her contribution, The East Indian
Motion Picture Association had gifted Aideu a wheelchair. By then, she was too weak to
sit up.

The Assam Government, much later, gave her Rs.1,500 a month as pension. It also
recommended her name for Padmashri. "She was denied the award because she had done
only one film. If this is not irony, then what is" asks Manna?

© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu

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Date:01/04/2007 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2007/04/01/stories/2007040100210700.htm

Magazine

CULTURE

New urbanscapes

A. SRIVATHSAN

Cultural festivals like Mumbai's Kala Ghoda and the Bangalore Habba, held outside the
coercive eyes of commerce and consumption, are welcome attempts at redefining the
nature of urban spaces.
These events are pushing the idea of public spaces, hitherto limited to parks, towards
something more multipurpose and more public. They are not there yet, but certainly
culture is getting spatialised.
PHOTO: RAJTILAK NAIK

PARTICIPATORY SPACE: The Goa Carnaval.

EUROPEAN cities now vie with each other to be nominated as cultural capitals. What
started, in 1985, as a small attempt to bring together the European Union countries has
grown into a severe competition. It has almost become like bidding for Olympics. Each
city makes a well-crafted presentation and promises a large investment in cultural
facilities. The prestigious winners this year are the Luxembourg City and Sibu in
Romania. Luxembourg has pledged 56 million Euros solely for the purpose of

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functioning as the cultural capital of Europe. Sibu, a small-fortified town, has also
vouched for a grand investment plan.

Culture is now a serious business and has become a route for urban regeneration. Such
nominations not only promote tourism but also opens large sponsorships for the city
facilities. The story of Glasgow city vouches for this success.

Successful model
PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

A clssical music performance by Hariprasad Chaurasia at the Bangalore Habba.

Glasgow surprised many when it was declared as the European capital of culture in 2000.
It was an unlikely choice and unlikely centre for culture. Precisely for this reason it won
the award from the European Union. The city of Glasgow convinced the Jury that it
intends to invest heavily in cultural facilities and make the city an attractive destination
not only for tourists but also to promote the city as a place for good living and
investment. It won the nomination and realised its objectives. Glasgow gained a net
economic benefit of about 47 million Euros through this exercise. Today, many cities
aspire to do this cultural turn and the model has spread to American and Arabian cities.

This process turns around the traditional approach to city building. Earlier, cities took the
utilitarian route where the economic and industrial activities were strengthened and the
surplus produced was invested in cultural facilities. What we now witness is a role
reversal. Culture holds the key in making a city desirable for living and thus improved
economic activity. The base-superstructure relation between economy and culture looks
inverted.

What is happening in Asia, especially Indian cities, is very different. The cities are
promoted not on their cultural strengths but as sites of low total cost. They are cheaper
places if not anything else. Culture is more relegated to tourism and its promotion. In

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India, cultural events such as the Khajuraho, Puri and Mahabalipuram dance festivals are
primarily promotional activities and stand-alone events. The place and monuments stand
as mere backdrops. Culture is more a part of the exotic and historical and never seen as a
part of the place.

However, outside this tourism-cultural nexus, there is a tradition of cultural events that
have evolved from within. The Carnival in Goa and the Thiruvaiyaru music festival are
some of the examples. They are loosely organised and held for a few days in a year. Even
their connections with the place are momentary or short term and do not greatly
contribute to the place in terms of development. Though these cities lend a credible
ambience, help legitimise and add to the symbolic capital of the festival, the festival does
not give much to the place in return.

Redefining spaces
PHOTO: A. SRIVATHSAN

A Chennai Sangamam show.

In the recent past, Indian place entrepreneurs (a borrowed phrase) have tried to work with
or developed local events that are actively integrated with the urban spaces. Kala Ghoda
in Mumbai and Chennai Sangamam are interesting cases in point. These events are
organised not necessarily to attract investments or make the city great destinations. They
are more about restating the public nature of the cities and its spaces and discovering the
usefulness of urban spectacle. In the process, they have seriously challenged the blurring
of boundaries between consumption and culture. Increasingly, eating-places, coffee shops
and malls are promoted as the new cultural and public spaces. Cities, by staging a wide
variety of events in the public of public spaces, offer a powerful counter point. Now,
entertainment can exist outside the coercive eyes of commerce. The events also point to
the emergence of the confident urban, which seeks to create its own festivals and
spectacles. But how inclusive are they?

Expanding boundaries

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PHOTO: K. MURALI KUMAR

A stall selling handmade dolls as part of the Habba

Cultural festivals and investments have often been criticised to favour a few and include
only a particular set of practices. However, festivals like Chennai Sangamam have
carefully considered this. The definition of culture is now broadened and subaltern
cultural practices are included. Urban is not seen as mutually exclusive of the rural. The
city's complex interconnection with the rural in the form of migration, history and
economic flows are implicitly acknowledged. Any urban event in an Indian city has to be
compulsorily cosmopolitan. Instead of locating the events in secluded and exclusive
spaces, they have to be spread out and held at places of congregation, including busy
streets. While all these have been achieved through a single event, what remains to be
explored is how to improve the cultural infrastructure of the city and what it would mean
to the public domain of the city.

Increasingly many Indian cities are discovering the usefulness of cultural festivals and the
likes of Bangalore Habba and Japiur Kitab festival are getting more visible. These events
are pushing the idea of public spaces, hitherto limited to parks, towards something more
multipurpose and more public. They are not there yet, but certainly culture is getting
spatialised. Such events need not be mobilised only for investment reasons. A cultural
turn may do good to rediscover the collective nature of streets and urban spaces and also
help reassert the democratic practices that are part of city living.

© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu

15
EDUCATION

In the name of culture

T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
in Delhi
A few State governments ban the Adolescence Education Programme for its
“objectionable content” and force a review.
V.V. KRISHNAN

The nationwide Adolescence Education Programme (AEP), conceived by the Union


Ministry of Human Resource Development and the National AIDS Control
Organisation (NACO), is under review following protests from some State
governments. The AEP was meant to be implemented in the States through the
departments of education in collaboration with the State AIDS Control Societies
(SACS). Its main objective was to enable students in classes IX and XI to get
adequate knowledge about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the context
of acquiring life skills. The AEP sessions, which were to be conducted by nodal
teachers for a minimum of 16 hours in an academic year, are on growing up,
adolescence, reproductive tract and sexually transmitted infections, and HIV and
AIDS.

The review was necessitated after several States, mostly those ruled by the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), objected to what they felt was explicit content in the
flip chart and the teachers’ workbook. The “objectionable content” included pictures
of male and female reproductive systems and those depicting physical changes in
boys and girls, diagrams explaining conception and contraception, and the language
used in some exercises.

The State governments that objected to specific illustrations and exercises in the AEP
are Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra and

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Rajasthan. In Orissa, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT)
threw up its hands following protests over the “explicit” content and decided that
only teachers and not students would be given exercises designed to teach
reproductive changes. There were random protests in Jharkhand by the Islamic
Students Organisation of India and in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir’s capital, by a
women’s separatist outfit, Dukhtaran-i-Milat. The Jammu and Kashmir government,
however, told a news agency that it did not have any proposal to introduce the
programme.

Finally, education being a State subject, it was left to the respective State
governments to utilise the AEP tool kit in the manner they deemed fit. Despite this
understanding, a few States decided to ban the programme in its existing form citing
several reasons, culture being the most prominent of them.

In a letter to the HRD Ministry, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan
said “the Union government had devaluated Indian culture and its values.” He wrote:
“I believe that the text material on the subject was not submitted before you in a
proper manner or else you would not have approved it. Instead the younger
generation should be taught about yoga, Indian culture and its values.” Interestingly,
the controversy was kick-started by the Opposition Congress in the State; the ruling
party took up the issue only later.

Rajasthan Education Minister Ghanshyam Tiwari noted that the course material was
disgraceful and capable of corrupting young minds. Speaking at a press conference,
Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said that sex education may have an
adverse effect on young minds.

Though critics of the programme use the term “sex education”, nowhere has it been
used in the flip chart or in the facilitators’ handbook for trainers. In fact, the rationale
for the AEP was many. According to the latest Behavioural Surveillance Survey by
NACO, nearly 8 per cent of those in the 15-24 age group had experimented with sex
either before marriage or outside marriage. Nearly half of the new HIV infections
were in this age group and 36 per cent of the total reported AIDS cases were among
those under 29.

Even though HIV was the immediate factor behind the launch of the AEP, the other
rationale for the programme was the 2007 study on child abuse by the Ministry of
Women and Child Development. It suggested that nearly 53 per cent of the children
reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse; in 50 per cent of the
cases the abusers were known to the children or were in a position of trust and
responsibility and most children did not disclose the matter to anyone. It was also
estimated that each year, 10 million adolescents dropped out of secondary school, ill-
equipped to handle life skills and situations.

Nearly 89 per cent of the adolescent girls and 67 per cent of the adolescent boys
were found anaemic. Adolescent malnutrition was also found to be a growing
challenge that led to higher maternal mortality and had an inter-generational impact.
At present, adolescents (10-19 age group) constitute more than one-fifth of the
population in the country.

The Kerala government decided to use the AEP tool kit with modifications, but most
other States decided to ban the AEP following pressure as in the case of

17
Maharashtra, where it came mainly from the Shiv Sena. Significantly, except for
some political outfits and educational fronts such as the Shiksha Bachao Andolan
Samiti, no parent or teacher had made any complaint against the AEP. In Delhi, the
SCERT got applications under the Right to Information Act demanding information
about the content of YUVA, the school adolescence education programme for classes
VI to IX.

The Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti and organisations such as the Bharatiya Lok
Sansthan staged protests in Delhi, with former Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar
Joshi throwing his weight behind them. The Samiti’s national convener, Dina Nath
Batra, warned of a countrywide agitation against sex education and the “distortion in
history textbooks” by the United Progressive Alliance government. The organisation
describes itself as a forum of nationalist historians committed to protecting the
country against “conspiratorial forces” represented by the followers of Marx and
Wahabism. In its website, it recalls the glorious path carved by the previous National
Democratic Alliance government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) criticised the Shiksha Bachao
Andolan Samiti. In a statement issued on July 18, AIDWA said: “At a time when
more and more facts are coming to light about sexual attacks of various kinds faced
by adolescents at home, in schools and in the public sphere, the need for them to be
given the requisite knowledge to recognise and ward off such advances is very
necessary. It is also essential for young people to have access to knowledge about
their own bodies and reproductive processes in a society where this may not be
available to them in their own homes… By reacting to sex education as if it were
some kind of pornography that would corrupt society and by not accepting social
realities that are the real obscenities, the Samiti is only strengthening the status
quo.”

Review committee

However, the HRD Ministry succumbed to the resistance and constituted a national-
level tool kit review committee to make necessary modifications. This committee,
comprising educationists, doctors, child psychologists, interfaith coalition members
and communication experts, held its first meeting on August 8. It is reliably learnt
that the committee has decided to review the tool kit drastically.

Earlier, in a last-ditch attempt to get the State governments to accept the tool kit in
principle, NACO, in consultation with the HRD Ministry, had written to the Chief
Ministers of States where the programme had been totally suspended, requesting
them to constitute similar committees with teachers and parents to review the
material. But as the protests continued relentlessly, the Union Health and HRD
Ministries stepped in to salvage the situation.

Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha in May, the HRD Ministry clarified that
there was no proposal to include sex education in the Central Board of Secondary
Education (CBSE) curriculum and that the AEP had been launched for secondary and
higher secondary classes in order to empower the adolescent population to develop
life skills for addressing psychological, social and health concerns.

The controversial tool kit, which was removed from public circulation following the
brouhaha, had been primarily designed for the educators and for raising relevant

18
“growing up” issues with adolescents. The material was prepared by NACO and the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Frontline obtained access to the tool kit and found that the graphics and illustrations
in it were no more explicit than what was printed in biology textbooks. The language
of the tool kit was also sensitively designed for adolescents in order to dispel
stereotypes and distorted images of “growing up”.

In a note for educators, the tool kit says: “Growing up doesn’t mean preparing
yourself for wifely/husbandly roles and for fatherhood or motherhood only. Nor does
femininity mean being always shy and silent, in the same way masculinity does not
mean that you have to be tough and invalidate the feelings of the opposite sex.”

There are key messages in every section, such as: “Adolescence is a normal process
– it is not just you, everyone goes through it; be comfortable with yourself and your
sexuality; learn to respect your body; do not be afraid to ask questions to parents,
teachers or someone you trust.”

The session on “Growing Up” was meant to be conducted separately for boys and
girls with a male teacher for boys and a female teacher for girls. One of the key
messages to the educators while discussing contraception goes thus: “It is extremely
important when discussing birth control to make it clear that we are not assuming
that the students are, or should be, sexually active…. Be sure to adequately discuss
abstinence as a birth control option.”

Both the handbook for refresher teachers’ training and the controversial flip chart
have the saying “Knowledge is power” on the cover. The cover illustration is that of a
co-educational classroom with a student and a teacher in discussion in front of a
blackboard where the aphorism has been scribbled even as the rest of the class looks
on.

The only thing perhaps remotely erroneous about the concept is that while
adolescence education is the leitmotif of the tool kit, the immediate reason cited for
imparting such education is to educate children about HIV and AIDS. A few
educationists and counsellors in the SCERT, Delhi, told Frontline that the prevention
of HIV and AIDS was behind the conception of the AEP and the component of HIV
and AIDS was bound to be present in the programme as funds came from NACO. It
appeared that the State Councils had little choice in the matter though they felt that
adolescence education could have been imparted without the thrust on HIV and
AIDS.

Interestingly, the programme was conceptualised as early as 1993 when a “Learning


for Life” module was developed by the Department of Education and NACO in
collaboration with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT),
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and
UNICEF; the HIV and AIDS component did not form a part of it then. In 1993, NACO
implemented the School AIDS Education Programme in collaboration with the
education departments in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Before that, in 1980, the Ministry of HRD implemented the National Population
Education Project across several States through the NCERT. In 1993, the Adolescent
Reproductive and Sexual Health programme in schools was implemented with

19
support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in several States. The
current controversial tool kit was also prepared by the HRD Ministry, NACO and
UNICEF in collaboration with the State departments of education and State AIDS
Control Societies. The content was based on State-level material, which was field
tested and thoroughly vetted by the NCERT.

A lot of preparation had gone into the formulation of the AEP. The process began in
October 2004 after an inter-ministerial meeting representing six Ministries decided
that education on HIV prevention would be introduced as a co-curricular programme
in 1.5 lakh schools within the overall health education package. Meetings were held
throughout 2004-05 and it was decided that the HRD Ministry would be the lead
agency in implementing the programme with financial and technical support from
NACO, UNICEF and UNFPA.

Eight regional workshops were held in 2005, and the AEP tool kit was designed
through a consultative process involving State governments. It was decided that
each State would have a State Core Committee under the chairmanship of the State
Education Secretary. The AEP tool kit was shared with all the State partners for their
review and feedback. It was further decided that the States would adapt the AEP tool
kit to their local contexts before printing. However, a common minimum content for
HIV prevention was suggested within the framework of adolescence education.

In 2006, the existing school textbooks were analysed by the NCERT – the nodal
agency within the HRD Ministry coordinating the AEP – to see if adolescence
education components were adequately weaved into the curriculum. It was found
that in 1,957 textbooks taken from 19 States, the quality and quantity of
adolescence education was not enough. Therefore, in March 2007, the NCERT was
mandated to do a mapping for adolescence education in collaboration with the
States.

It now remains to be seen what the outcome of the review and its consequences for
adolescence education will be. If, succumbing to pressures from self-styled
custodians of Indian culture, the new avatar of the AEP sanitises the complex issues
confronting adolescents, the objective of addressing this sensitive age group in the
best scientific manner possible will not be achieved.

20
MEDIA

Question of ethics

PURNIMA S. TRIPATHI
A landmark court judgment in Lucknow and a fake sting operation in Delhi
highlight the importance of media ethics.
MUSTAFA QURAISHI/AP

THERE WERE PROTESTS outside the Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Delhi


after a television sting operation claimed one of its teachers was luring
students into prostitution.

FAKE sting operations, concocted interviews and distorted presentation of facts are
the stuff of “yellow journalism”. Some recent events have highlighted this fact,
forcing media professionals to think about a code of ethics for all sections of the
media. Although such a code exists for the print media, it has not always been
followed by journalists. A recent court order in Lucknow, awarding one year’s
rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs.5,000 to a reporter and six months’ rigorous
imprisonment and a fine of Rs.5,000 to the editor and printer\publisher of a
prominent daily, could become a deterrent to irresponsible journalism.

The order was passed by Chief Judicial Magistrate Suresh Chandra in Lucknow on
September 3 against a reporter and the editor and printer\publisher of The Pioneer
and Swatantra Bharat newspapers for publishing a concocted and defamatory
interview of the then District Magistrate of Muzaffarnagar, A.K. Singh.

The two newspapers published the “interview” after the firing, on October 2, 1994,
on people who were on their way to New Delhi for a demonstration demanding a
separate State of Uttarakhand. The demonstrators were stopped by the police at
Rampur Tiraha and several people died in the firing that followed. There were also
allegations of rape of some of the women activists by policemen. Reporter Raman
Kirpal’s interview of the District Magistrate quoted him as saying: “You see, it is
human tendency when a woman is seen at a lonely place in jungle, any man will be
inclined to rape her.”

This comment drew sharp criticism from many quarters. A.K. Singh, however, denied
having said this and said he had not given any interview to Kirpal. His denial,
however, was not given due coverage by the two newspapers. He then complained to
the Press Council of India on October 17, 1994, and on October 24, 1994. The Press

21
Council, then headed by Justice P.B. Sawant, found that the interview was concocted
and concluded that it was defamatory. On March 25, 1996, it admonished the two
newspapers for publishing it.

In 1997, A.K. Singh filed a criminal case under Sections 500 and 501 of the Indian
Penal Code against Raman Kirpal; A.K. Bhattacharya, the then editor of The Pioneer,
Lucknow and Delhi; Ghanshyam Pankaj, editor of the Hindi daily Swatantra Bharat;
and Sanjiv Kanwar and Dipak Mukherjee, printer\publisher of The Pioneer and
Swatantra Bharat, respectively.

After a 10-year-long trial, Chief Judicial Magistrate Suresh Chandra pronounced his
judgment on September 3, 2007, holding the reporter and the other accused guilty.
The Judge said in his order that it had been established that the interview published
by the accused was concocted and defamatory. He also said that the accused
persons had failed to prove that the reporter had actually taken the interview.

This judgment, however, has not grabbed the kind of media space that it should
have. Senior editors, including those who were not associated with the case in any
way, refused to comment, saying that the matter should be left alone since an appeal
was pending in the High Court.

Media-watchers say this tendency to avoid introspection on the part of the media is
assuming serious proportions. There are also apprehensions that if this trend
continues, there might arise the question of intervention by “outside agencies”, which
could bring undesirable consequences. “Self-criticism and self-censorship are the
only things that can sustain responsible and honest journalism over a period of time.
If I were an editor today, I would have given enough prominence to this news,” said
Hiranmay Karlekar, member of the Press Council of India and a veteran journalist
who quit Hindustan Times as editor owing to differences with the then management
during the Emergency.

Electronic media

The print media, at least, have a watchdog in the form of the Press Council of India,
which may not have punitive powers but can censure and admonish erring media
professionals. There is, however, no such watchdog for the electronic media. Hence
the surfeit of “sting operations”, not all of which are genuine, as the recent case of
Uma Khurana showed.

Uma Khurana, a mathematics teacher at Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Delhi’s


Daryaganj, lost her job, had to face a violent mob, and spent a week in jail after a
“sting operation” claimed she was luring students into the flesh trade. It now appears
that she was framed and the two men who organised the “sting” are in police
custody.

The police registered a case against Uma Khurana under the Immoral Trafficking
Prevention Act after the “sting” was aired by a TV channel on the morning of August
30. Soon afterwards, there were protests outside the school and a mob forced its
way into the premises and attacked the teacher, who was escorted away by the
police.

22
Later the Delhi government declared that Uma Khurana had been suspended and
that a probe had been ordered. On September 10, a Delhi court granted her bail,
saying she was not an accused but a victim .

The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate said that it now appeared that she had
no role to play in the alleged prostitution racket. Investigations have reportedly
shown that the two men now in police custody for organising the sting, Prakash
Singh and Virender Arora, wanted to settle an old score with Uma Khurana: she
apparently owed Virender money. The Delhi High Court has since asked the
government to reinstate her in her old job.

Whatever the reparations that follow, Uma Khurana has already suffered enough. “I
want my life back,” said the distraught teacher. Besides, the inquiry that will precede
her reinstatement may take a long time.

“It is a pity that we cannot do anything in this case. The electronic media are outside
our jurisdiction,” Hiranmay Karlekar said. The Editors’ Guild of India now realises that
there is a need for a watchdog for the electronic media. A sub-committee set up by
the Guild to consider the draft Broadcast Services Regulation Bill and content code
for the electronic media, with Q.W. Naqwi of Aaj Tak and K.S. Sachidananda Murthy
of Malayala Manorama as members besides Karlekar, has come up with the
suggestion for a code of ethics for news and current affairs channels.

The code should be self-regulatory and should be evolved by the news and current
affairs channels through the News Broadcasters Association and with help from the
Editors’ Guild of India, the sub-committee says, insisting that there should be no
government control. It says that there should be specific dos and don’ts for the
content of TV channels and suggests that the model of the Press Council can be
followed for the electronic media as well. One suggestion is that the Press Council of
India could be converted into a Media Council with separate mechanisms to deal with
the print and electronic media.

The Press Council, which will meet in Goa on October 3, 4 and 5, may come up with
a formal proposal on the matter. “Even though we have no control over the electronic
media, we will certainly take a view on fake sting operations. The time has come for
us to take a look inward and come up with remedial measures,” said Sachidananda
Murthy.

It is high time they did so.

23
COLUMNVol. 24 :: No. 21
Oct 20 - Nov 02, 2007
FRONTLINE
Spirit of unity

BHASKAR GHOSE
The systems of governance prevail and are seen as enduring, to be looked up
to for redress in times of chaos in the country.
MOHAMMED YOUSUF

Mohammed Bin Salem, a sweet-maker in Hyderabad known for preparing


laddus for Vinayaka Chathurthi, claims to have sold over 200 kg this year.

THERE is something very touching about the way the media and to some extent
people in general, particularly the middle class in the country, react when there is a
bomb blast in which a number of people die or are injured – some horribly, losing
their eyes or limbs or being maimed or disfigured for the rest of their lives. Once the
horror and shock have been overcome, there is a sense of something akin to
achievement when the incident does not cause – indeed no incident in recent years
has caused – any spread of communal passions or hatred that can lead to orgies of
killing or looting and arson, as if that is something for which we need to congratulate
ourselves.

There was, of course, one exception, which was the reaction to the killings in Godhra
railway station, but that was orchestrated and organised partly by the forces of the
state, something that the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, does not even
bother to deny now, though the coming elections have made his reactions less
arrogantly dismissive and more evasive.

If this orchestrated violence is discounted, the attacks and bombings in Ayodhya,


Varanasi, Delhi, Malegaon, Mumbai, Hyderabad and now Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan

24
do underscore the refusal, almost, of people to react to these incidents with violence
and communal passion.

This is, rightly, lauded and given prominence by the media; not only are the people
complimented for their refusal to be provoked, but the stoic spirit of the common
man in the street, and the heroism of some, are featured for a long time after the
incidents are over.

It remains, nonetheless, a curious phenomenon. The pre-Independence days, and


the early decades after it, witnessed communal violence almost all over the country.
It was as if the two communities – Hindu and Muslim – barely tolerated each other,
and it required a trivial incident to spark off riots that on some occasions lasted for
days.

What has happened to change that, to bring about an atmosphere where the two
communities not only co-exist, but mingle without any of the earlier prejudices and
hostility? One reads almost every day of gangs of toughs, car thieves and the like,
being caught, and they belong to both communities; political demonstrations have
people from the two communities who are equally vocal and, unfortunately, equally
violent when these demonstrations turn ugly.

If one looks at the supporters of the Trinamul Congress and the Communist Party of
India (Marxist) during the violent incidents that took place at Singur and Nandigram
in West Bengal not so long ago – in fact, the violence in Nandigram has not yet died
down – one will find an equal number of Muslims and Hindus among them.
Arguments that the residents of those areas are both Muslim and Hindu will not
wash. What gives members of the minority community the confidence to take to
violence with members from the other community when some two or three decades
ago that confidence was conspicuous by its absence?

Political parties will have their own, and usually facile arguments that will ultimately
be statements replete with their stock arguments and a great deal of casuistry.
Scholars may well have very complicated answers to this particular trait in people all
over the country, but it is perhaps possible for laymen to identify two factors, and a
third that is related to the other two only by marriage, so to speak. There is also the
fact that all types of activity – economic and even criminal, as we have seen – have
begun to include everyone, as the quest for prosperity transcends other
considerations. But even this is based on the two tacit assumptions or traits that one
can see around one today.

One is the fact that people belong to different communities. Perhaps, this is to state
the obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs to be stated. In the often bewildering
diversity of India, these communities often seek to stress their special identities –
the Himachali, the Keralite, the Bengali and the Maharashtrian, all want to establish
their particular identity through their dress, cuisine, customs, language (but
naturally) and other ways. Special days are set aside to observe Maharashtra Day, or
Assam Day, for instance. In this effort the religious differences are not as important,
unless of course it is linked to something like cuisine – Andhra Pradesh is as proud of
its Hyderabadi cuisine as it is of its Telugu dishes.

The other is that, given the huge transformation in our means of communication,
religions, at least the two main religions, spread through the whole of the country

25
and act as a common factor among believers. Television plays a crucial role here;
there are a number of channels that are entirely given over to religions of different
kinds. This factor is not at variance with the first, but is just another factor that
shares the same characteristic – it brings people of one kind or another together. So
it is that pilgrims go from all over the country to Vaishnodevi or Tirupati, and also to
the dargahs of Ajmer Sharif and Nizamuddin Auliya.

The third element is a little less distinct, but it exists, nonetheless, and in a very real
sense. Over the years our systems of governance – the legislatures, courts and the
State and Central governments – have become a part of everyone’s existence,
possibly in a manner in which they were not before Independence. It is a different
matter that our legislators behave in strange ways, but the fact is that the systems
function, after a fashion, and are the subject of much interest to people in general.
One has only to open a newspaper to see what kind of stories are on the front
pages; a sizable number of them will have to do with ministerial pronouncements,
laws passed by or disturbances in, legislatures and orders passed by courts.

The point is the systems are what are of common interest. Not leaders anymore. It is
usual to hear people bemoan the fact that there are no “tall leaders” left. Perhaps,
that is not such a bad thing after all; tall leaders tend to dwarf institutions. Very few
great leaders have actually helped build systems and institutions as Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru did. He could have, given his stature after Independence, reduced
Parliament and even the courts to insignificant and irrelevant institutions, and used
his massive hold over the people to do so. That, after all, is what Hitler did. But
Jawaharlal Nehru was the exception. Most “tall” leaders have trivialised the
institutions that they have seen as standing between them and power.

Thus, in our time, it is perhaps not such a bad thing that we have small men as
leaders and the primacy of our institutions, with all their failings, remains
unquestioned. To paraphrase William Shakespeare a little, our institutions “bestride
the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men… peep about to find ourselves
dishonourable graves”. “Petty men” meaning, naturally, those who style themselves
as our leaders. The systems prevail and are seen as enduring, to be looked up to for
redress in times of trouble.

These factors may be why we, as ordinary people, have stopped reacting with the
earlier hatred and passion to bomb blasts and other outrages. But, the weave of the
fabric of our unity is very strong. Those who plan the killings and blasts still, clearly,
have the old, outdated beliefs, that such incidents will cause chaos in the country.
They will not, as the warp of our communities and the weft of our religions holds us
together in a manner that makes such beliefs rather ridiculous.

The tragedy is that the cost of our ability to endure and accept, of the fabric of unity
we have woven, is paid for by some innocent people, sometimes children, and the
price is a terrible one for anyone to pay.•

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