January 27, 2021
In the absence of Karunanidhi’s hardnosed pragmatism
I use the term "unlikely†because someone born in Mustafabad, and raised in the
Urdu ambience of Lucknow, would generally be expected to expire from culture
shock in the four-storeyed office in which every forehead was decorated with
vertical, horizontal even circular designs. One set of Ayyangars (Vaisnavites)
called Vadagalai insisted on the U-design. Meanwhile, the AIADMK without
Jayalalithaa and MGR is also something of a headless chicken. Annadurai, had an
amusing take on "namamsâ€. In his gruff, theatrical voice what he had drawn my
attention to was a 200-year-old litigation on what should be the shape of the
"namam†on the forehead of the elephant at the Kanchipuram (Devarajaswamy)
temple. Karunanidhi’s much greater organisational control was being undermined
by MGR’s cinematic glamour. He gestured that I sit on the sofa beside him. When
industrialist Ramakrishna Dalmia set up his cement factory, he sought to change
the name of the town to Dalmianagar. Not only was Karunanidhi more
intellectually agile, he had his feet firmly on the ground. And yet, by every
yardstick, he had shot into the charismatic stratosphere by projecting an
inexplicable persona.The MGR-Jayalalithaa charisma had obscured the Dravida
movement’s earlier anti-Hindi, anti-north and anti-brahmin edge. But the
transition may still be problematic. Ramachandran were strained ever since
Anna’s death in 1969.For me, raised on different aesthetics, MGR remained an
enigma.K. "Aastha†is "aasthaâ€, after all.
But with journalists MGR was both
inaccessible and vindictive, if crossed. The journalist in me will be propelled
in that direction 30 years after I bade goodbye to Chennai. Eventually, the
matter went to the Privy Council in London, which in the days of the British Raj
was the highest authority to which appeals could be made.Karunanidhi put his
finger on the pulse. The things that he felt strongly about he proceeded to take
up as themes around which he wove his transformational politics. Students led by
Karunanidhi came out in large numbers, and the town reverted to its original
name Kallakudi. If the lower court permitted one design, the opposite side would
throw a ginger fit. The "manthanâ€, or the churning, will be within both parties,
the DMK and AIADMK. So long as the brahmins were busy with the shape of "namamsâ€
on the forehead of the temple elephants, the Dravida movement had nothing to
worry about. The interior of his chinese fabric manufacturer house was
a series of criss-crossing, cavernous passages until you came to what in racing
terms is called the "straightâ€, a 30-foot dimly-lit narrow hall, at the end of
which, like a deity, sat MGR, with his trademark cap and dark
glasses.K.Relations between Karunanidhi and M. Alagiri has already given notice
of turbulent times ahead. It was a riot of vermillion, ashen and turmeric.It was
only proper that he should have found a resting place beside his mentor "Annaâ€.
M. The cadres are in place. The strain on Centre-state relations will be
considerable and might reach breaking point as the new players jockey to inherit
the Dravida mantle.We have seen the mess in the AIADMK that these two
charismatic leaders mindlessly left behind. The DMK, however, has always more
real in its politics. But the Thengalai sect would invite the elephant to walk
over them unless it was of the Y-design.G. The next line of leadership, (Stalin,
for instance) have been in the drill for quite some time. Meeting him, however,
was both, a gastronomical treat and psychedelic show.
In the absence of
Karunanidhi’s hardnosed pragmatism, however, the second line of leadership may
fall back on more radical regionalism, possibly even parochialism, to score
points over each other. Suddenly a trolley materialised, which heralded the
beginning of elaborate hospitality, an endless procession of delicacies which
served a twin purpose — they titillated the palate and discouraged
conversation.N. The case zig zagged from one court to the next, but it was not
resolved.If both sides were defying court orders, why were they or their
office-bearers not sent to jail? As Charles de Gaulle told the French Cabinet as
it was considering sedition charges against Jean-Paul Sartre for supporting the
freedom fighters in Algeria: "Noâ€, boomed De Gaulle, "you don’t send Voltaire to
jailâ€.I never got to know either well — my inability with Tamil stood in the
way. Two year later, the DMK came to power and soon abolished the three-language
formula — in the state, Tamil and English would suffice. Jayalalithaa performed
the impossible — she amplified charisma, which had already reached the nether
regions. First each will churn separately, but eventually the overarching
Dravida movement will have to accommodate the cadres and loyalists of both.
Playwright Brian Friel had written Translations, a powerful play on a similar
situation in Ireland in the 19th century.Karunanidhi’s passing away has brought
back disparate images of my five unlikely years in Chennai as regional editor of
the Indian Express. Ramaswamy Periyar and C.For Karunanidhi, all of this would
be amusing.Tamil Nadu is in for interesting times. The way Karunanidhi burst
upon the political scene in 1953 required political imagination. Stalin was
always going to be a pipedream. How can anyone complain against the UP police
for showering rose petals on the rioting kawarias.Karunanidhi, an atheist like
his gurus, E. The sight stoked my curiosity, but it did not repel me.This
agitation set the scene for the much bigger agitation in 1965 against the
imposition of Hindi.
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January 21, 2021
Analysts explained that it was a vote for status quo
Analysts explained that it was a vote for status quo, for efficiency, or a slap
in the face ofthe rampaging BJP. As a 21-year-old working in television there,
I’d been molested, swindled, stalked, and nearly killed (with a karai – honest).
Priti hates the marginalised, the sick and the poor, and in pole position to
help them all in shiny new Brexit Britain, she delights in making their lives a
misery instead. With love so unexpectedly given precedence, it was no wonder
that Delhi went on to democratically sweep out hate.Nor will I hear a word
against Pakistanis. Especially the kind that glower at you from behind the
steering wheel till you bring up biryani. Yet, look into your past and see if
you can’t find people who were ostracised when they first arrived, but through
industry and the occasional opportunity sparked by the kindness of strangers,
worked their way to where YOU are now. But I’d like to think it was a vote for
solidarity. His incumbent party had swept the Delhi state elections, winning 62
seats to the ruling party’s paltry eight. Delhi = Love?? Pull the other one!
That’s not an emotion we associate with our cut-throat capital, accounting for
40 per cent of rapes and 33 per cent of all crimes against women in India. And
we both guffaw.Of course, if British Indians were celebrating the appointment of
an apparently normal desi to the Cabinet, they were right, as the other two are
Priti Patel and Cruella, sorry, Suella Braverman. Especially chuffed that he’d
replaced Pakistani-origin Sajid Javid as Chancellor of the Exchequer, it only
dawned on desis later that Rishi is as much of a
privileged-and-not-parting-with-it toff as farcically malevolent Jacob
Rees-Mogg. But he might win Hair of The Year yet and make us proud. You may
never hear me say that again!P. Its true self? Prove us wrong, Delhi.S. For
love. Then burrrrn ‘em with your democratic rights.Do as Delhi did. Briefly.
March. Vote. As it turns out, you really won’t hear that from me again. It had
been a good month — he’d felt the love.Four thousand, five hundred and fifty
miles away in Delhi, so had chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Panic-stricken, I
began to call one barely known Facebook friend after another to see who might
assist. Rise again.
That might make educational institutions think twice before
humiliating harmlessly ovulating students again, but will it make even a dent on
the taboo around menstruation? Not while "godmen†like Swami Krushnaswarup get
away with decreeing that menstruating women who cook will be reborn as dogs, and
the men who eat their cooking, as bullocks. When they failed to compensate or
help, I turned to the peeps who’d invited me over, to find them as perverse.
Subcontinental taxi drivers, with whom I have a heart-to-heart on every trip out
of the Sherwoods, are my Best Ever Friends (not counting squirrels).How was it
for you? This last month of love? I sat on my soapbox in Sherwood Forest and
asked the squirrels gathering around me. The word you want is the British
"pillockâ€, Dasji; many muck heaps worse than a harmless bovine, and the perfect
name for brain-dead bigots like you. "Hah! What about yours?†I reply. Nor
government largesse to the 15 million living in poverty in the UK. Speak
up.Twenty years later, in 2016, I returned to Delhi to further disasters when
the hotel fried my electronic devices to a crisp, barring me from both my money
and contacts. Two days after I submitted my paean to Delhi’s love and kindness,
it has descended into a hell of rioting and murder, and its worst self. Not with
satin hearts and red velvet cupcakes, but with blood. Fan the flames of your
rage at the fundamentalists, the brutish politicians and their circles of
greed.So, if in these weeks of love, you didn’t feel it in the air, if your town
was painted the wrong sorta red, have I got the month for you! For this is the
month of warlike Mars, for the Ides of March, when warp knitting fabric factory
the self-serving get their comeuppance.
From one brown gal to another, Priti,
I’m not gonna beseech you to look into your heart, because you don’t have one.
Cook up revenge all this month with a, er, vengeance, and don’t wait to serve it
cold. "You’re calling me at seven in the morning? Jaante hain main kaun
hoon?â€one huffed. She ordered 68 of them to strip to prove their period-free
status. The one that appeared to be sweeping the forest floors in search of
nuts, with a dark ring of fur round his neck that could have been a muffler, and
whiskers like a little black tache, nodded vigorously..Talking of British
pillocks, BoJo lulled Brit-Indians into thinking they were feeling the lurrvvve
when he scooped Narayana Murthy’s son-in-law Rishi Sunak into the blubbery
bearhug of his Cabinet. The students complained and the enforcers were arrested.
With his pots of money and perfect coiffure, I cannot see Rishi generously
doling out love. Remember, pretty please, and consider paying it forward. Before
long I had a host of offers from unexpected quarters of their company, cars and
phones!If the kindness of strangers saved my bacon, it was also this generosity
that led Delhi’ites in their thousands to turn out in support of the protesting
women of tenacious Shaheen Bagh, and JNU and Jamia students, under attack from
right-wing goons.A college in Kutch too was painting the town red. The principal
of this Hindu sectarian institution, which prohibited menstruating women from
participating in regular activities, suspected a large percentage of her
students of lying to her so they could study unhindered (the gall! the
depravity!). "What on earth is going on in your country?†they cry
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