SacredspaceCreative Potential
It is the natural instinct of a child to work from within
outwards; First
I think, and then I draw mythink. But we teach the child
to stop thinking, and only to observe!
Ananda K Coomaraswamy
After 29 days, 42 pool matches and some unexpected
results,crickets World Cup has finally entered its business end.
Amonth ago few would have expected that Dhonis Team Indiawould be
standing at this stage with New Zealand, as one of the tournaments
only two unbeaten teams. Indias bowlers who coulddo nothing right
for two months in Australia before the World Cup have emerged as
their surprise trump cards, bowling out the opposition in every
single game.
Combined with the resurgence of Shikhar Dhawan, the big-match
temperament of Virat Kohli and the rediscovery of MahendraSingh
Dhonis touch as the games best finisher alongside, of course,his
ice-cool captaincy, India enter the quarter-finals as one of the
fa-
vourites and with the momentum of anunprecedented winning
streak. Indiawill be wary of taking Bangladeshs giant-killing
tigers lightly, given thenew-found effervescence and self-belief in
Mashrafe Murtazas team.But few would deny that current oddsare on a
possible semi-final matchupwith Australia in Sydney on March
26.
Judging by how teams have playedso far Australia remains the
most com-plete all-round unit; New Zealand a
major favourite, with its fearsome swing bowlers; and Sri
Lankasold guard, led by the marvellous Kumara Sangakkara, have
givennotice that they can chase anything. South Africa, despite
playingsome blinders, have so far justified their tag of chokers;
West Indies,held together by a young captain, have just about
managed to hangon; and Pakistan, powered by their pace battery,
have regained someof their verve. Bangladesh, for the first time,
look like they are morethan just a one-match wonder. Their spirited
challenge to New Zealand showed that Sunil Gavaskar may have been
right that England would have been easier quarter-final opponents
for India.
With more 350 plus scores in group stages than any other
WorldCup so far, batsmen-friendly tracks and field restrictions
have fundamentally skewed the balance between batsmen and
bowlers.Only the most exceptional bowlers have prospered. But it
will be adifferent ball game as teams look to lift their intensity
in the knock-out matches. Dhoni will be hoping to capitalise on
Team Indias perfect start. But hes also aware that the only thing
more difficultthan winning a World Cup is defending it.
Cup For India?Teams resurgence and batsmen-favouring rulesstand
out as World Cup enters knockout rounds
When it comes to women, Indian male politicians, particularlythe
subaltern netajis from the north, dont believe in votebanks. They
may cultivate the Yadav votebank, Muslim votebank, mahadalit
votebank but the women votebank?Nope, gender justice is bad
politics in the Hindi heartland.
Sharad Yadavs party believes in Bihari asmita but heclearly
doesnt believe in womens asmita. His ideological ancestor Ram
Manohar Lohia strove all his life for gender equality but Sharad
prefers bahusand betis, dubbing all other women as parkati mahila
and thus signallingthat hes a proud hater of modern women.
But why is Sharadji now fantasising about dark South Indian
women andtheir bodies? Is the Ganga not curvaceous enough in Bihar
or are Bihari ladiessimply not eating enough sattu? Or does the
Yadav stalwart fancy doing a flute-playing Kanhaiya act in his 67th
year surrounded by dancing South Indian gopis? No wonder all
gathered male MPs in Parliament laughed along.
A woman is raped in India every 20 minutes but Sharad has a
36-24-36 vision.But why blame him alone? None other than the
presidents son, Abhijit Mukher-jee, believes dented and painted
women have no right to protest against rape.
And hadnt Mulayam Singh Yadav once thundered that rape
victimswould be given jobs because after all rapists will always be
rapists?
The Yadav parivar has its own methods of enfranchising
women:give election tickets to their wives and daughters and ensure
they keep
their mouths shut in Parliament. Except for a single
statistics-laden diatribe oncrimes against women, Dimple Yadav, MP
from Kannauj and daughter-in-law ofMulayam, wife of Akhilesh, has
kept mostly quiet. The milky complexionedDimple may not meet the
approval of Sharad Yadav though, whose favouritesong is gori
(chamri) pe itna gumaan na kar. And what would the
pale-skinnedJayalalithaa say to his characterising all South Indian
women as dark?
During the rape law debate in Parliament, turning a deaf ear to
Nirbhayaprotestors, Sharad had asked which man had not chased and
followed a woman?Shunning caste and region, clearly Sharad would
opt to chase bharatanatyamdancers beyond the Vindhyas (only if they
had achche bodies of course) ratherthan follow the nearest Gangetic
bombshell. But why worry? After all, when theBihari makes a clean
breast of turning his gaze southwards we know the causeof national
integration is in safe hands and the body politic holds firm.
Sharads body blow
[email protected]
Netajis and their 36-24-36 vision of national unity
Afailure to come to termswith history weighs onall the important
bilater-al relationships in Asia.As the 70th anniversaryof the end
of World War II
approaches, some Asian nations are resurrecting the ghosts of
history.
China, for example, is planning agrand military parade in
Beijing on Sep-tember 3 to commemorate what it callsVictory over
Japan Day. The Commu-nist Party mouthpiece Peoples Dailysaid the
parade will display Chinas mili-tary prowess and make Japan
tremble.
An increasingly muscular China,however, is rattling not only
Japan but al-so its other neighbours. How diplomaticrelationships
are held hostage to historyis best exemplified by the strained
tiesbetween Americas closest regional allies South Korea and
Japan.
These two countries face a starkchoice today: Find ways to stem
the recrudescence of bitter disputes overhistory or stay frozen in
a political rela-tionship that plays into Chinas hands.
No country loves to play the historycard more than China, as
illustrated by itsrecent declaration of two new nationaldays to
remember Japanese aggression.But what if the victims of Chinas
aggres-sion since the communist revolution,such as India and
Vietnam, dedicated daysto commemorate Chinese attacks on them?
Although history is never an objectivechronicle, it greatly
shapes national nar-ratives. In Asia, the history problemhas
spurred a resurgence of competingand mutually reinforcing
nationalisms.
Indeed, several Asian states use historyselectively to promote
national agendasgeared towards whitewashing their pastaggressions
or reinforcing their victim-hood narrative. Squabbles over
historyand remembrance remain the principalobstacle to political
reconciliation in Asia,reinforcing negative stereotypes of
rivalnations and helping to rationalise claimsto territories long
held by other nations.
Honouring one countrys heroes andhistory can be done without
seeking to
alienate, provoke or rub salt in thewounds of another nation. In
an econom-ically booming but politically divisiveAsia, however,
relations between nationsremain trapped in a mutually
reinforcingloop: Poor political relations help magni-fy and
accentuate the history problem,thus chaining diplomatic ties to
history.
Breaking out of this vicious circle demands forward thinking. At
present,though, attempts to rewrite or sugarcoathistory, including
by revising textbooksor erecting memorials to newfound heroes, are
inciting greater regionalrancour and recrimination.
South Korean-Japanese and Chi-nese-Japanese disputes over
territories,war memorials, textbooks and naturalresources are tied
to an entangled histo-ry. The Sino-Indian relationship is also
aprisoner of the past, especially Chinaselimination of the
historical buffer Ti-bet and its subsequent attack on India.
Even the Chinese-Korean relation-ship carries the baggage of
history, as un-
derscored by Chinas revisionist claim tothe ancient kingdom of
Koguryo.
The recent commitment of US President Barack Obama and
PrimeMinister Narendra Modi to work with likeminded states to build
power equi-librium in Asia can make little headwayif history
continues to hinder relationseven between democracies.
Take Japan and South Korea: As export-oriented powerhouses
with
traditionally close cultural ties, the twoshare many values. But
resurgent historyissues between them have dimmed hopesof a concert
of democracies to rein in Chinas assertiveness.
The century-old case of Korean activistAhn Jung-geun illustrates
historys divi-sive hold. Considered a terrorist in Japan,where he
was hanged, but a hero in SouthKorea, Ahn assassinated four-time
Japa-nese Prime Minister and the first Resident-General of Korea
Hirobumi Ito in 1909 at the Harbin railway station in China.
The case resurfaced after Chinaopened a memorial hall in Harbin
in January 2014 commemorating Ahn,prompting Japan to denounce China
forglorifying a terrorist. That memorial built at South Korean
President ParkGeun-hyes request has been likened bysome to building
a statute in Dallas to JohnF Kennedys killer, Lee Harvey
Oswald.
South Korea, a hyper-nationalisticstate, has eliminated the last
vestiges of Ja-panese colonial rule. But not all Asianstates seek
to obliterate their colonial past.
India continues to transact much ofits key government business
from British-era edifices, and some of its major criminal and civil
laws date fromthe colonial period. Taiwan a formerJapanese colony
also has a tolerantview of its period of subjugation.
Many nations, however, blend histor-ical fact with myth. For
example, China,as the fairy-tale Middle Kingdom, claimsto be the
mother of all civilisations,weaving legend with history to foster
achauvinistic Han culture centred on regaining lost glory, or what
President Xi Jinping calls the Chinese dream.
The Communist Party projects great-power status as Chinas
historical entitle-ment. Meanwhile, harmful historical lega-cies
are creating serious impediments torational policy choices. Park,
for example,seeks closer ties with China when SouthKoreas natural
regional partner is Japan.
Asian states cannot change their pastbut they can strive to
shape a more coop-erative future. As a Russian proverb putsit
pithily, Forget the past and lose an eye;dwell on the past and lose
both eyes.
The writer is a geostrategist
History Holds Asia HostageSquabbles over remembrance remain the
principal obstacle to reconciliation
Brahma Chellaney
Take Japan and South Korea:As export-orientedpowerhouses, they
sharemany values. But resurgenthistory issues between themhave
dimmed hopes of aconcert of democracies torein in Chinas
assertiveness
Winding up his Indian Ocean tour, Prime Minister NarendraModi
announced a slew of pacts to boost ties between India and Sri
Lanka. Modis bilateral visit to the island nation the first by an
Indian PM in 28 years comes within a monthof Lankan President
Maithripala Sirisenas visit to New Delhi. Theback to back trips
exemplify a new synergy between the two sides after Sirisena swept
to power in January elections, defeating long-time strongman
Mahinda Rajapaksa. This has now yielded fouragreements on customs,
visa, youth development and building a Tagore memorial in Sri
Lanka.
But more than the promise of developing Trincomalee as a
petro-leum hub and extending a new $318 million lineof credit for
Lankan railways, its Modis pitchthats interesting. Emphasising
issues of di-versity and his own governments attempts atpromoting
cooperative federalism, Modi urgedthe Lankan leadership to
operationalise the13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitutionand
devolve powers to provinces. Simultane-ously, he assured the Lankan
business commu-
nity that New Delhi was ready to address trade imbalances and
thatIndias vast market was available for mutual economic
benefits.
All of this suggests a shift in Indias neighbourhood strategy.
For fartoo long Indian foreign policy has been defined by
defensiveness, con-scious more of dangers than of opportunities
abroad. Refreshingly, theModi government appears to favour a more
robust approach that includes projecting India as a force for
stability and development. Itsprecisely for this reason that Modis
trip to Sri Lanka and Mauritiusand Seychelles earlier is more than
just an exercise to counter Chi-nas growing influence in the
region. A conscious Indian Ocean policyfinally appears to be New
Delhis priority. Instead of shying away fromgeopolitical realities,
India should leverage its economic and soft power in the Indian
Ocean Rim to further its strategic objectives.
Strategic ShiftModis Indian Ocean tour marks a refreshingly
robust approach to foreign policy
THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABADMONDAY, MARCH 16, 201514 THE TIMES
OF IDEAS
Mahatma Gandhis statue, created bysculptor Philip Jackson, has
been unveiled outside the British Parliament.The bronze sculpture
has faced popularsupport and controversy, propelled by donations to
the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust reaching over one million pounds.
Speaking with RohitE David, Jackson discussed the relevance of
Mahatma Gandhi inhistory and today, sculpture versus images or
words andwhat hed say to those oppos-ing Gandhis statue in
Britainand British statues in India:
Compared to sculpting amythical figure, what doesan icons statue
convey?
An iconic sculpture is onethat encompasses the spiritand essence
of the subject and becomes identified with thecountry it is sited
in. Dont such statues run therisk of becoming banal, eventu-ally
part of the background?
No, sculptures do not become banal. They are a nations history,
inthe street for all to see.
For those that pass them everyday, they may become part of the
background but for those that journey to visit them, they become a
focus of admira-tion, devotion or memory. What does a statue
convey
over say, words or pictures?A sculpture is a
three-dimensional
portrait that can be viewed close to and at a distance. It can
be touched and seen in all light conditions
and weathers no words orpainting can do this.
A sculpture truly standsin the architectural environ-ment that
the viewer inhabits.
Statues also face criticism.Certain groups in Britaincampaigned
against thisstatue, citing Gandhijispersonal life yourthoughts on
this?
Public sculptures gen-erally always portray people that have
done greatthings or effected greatchanges. There will alwaysbe
people who oppose whatthey have done or whatthey stand for and
will
try to discredit them inwhatever way they can.
In India, certaingroups cam-
paigned to re-move statues
from colonialtimes yourwords tothem?
You can-not changehistory by
removing evidence of the past. What statue in the world movesyou
most?
The Artillery Monument at HydePark Corner, London, sculpted
byCharles Sargeant Jagger. Of all your works, which is really
special to you?
The Korean War Memorial,which is a bronze statue of a British
soldier, made by me. Its just round thecorner from the Houses of
Parliamentbut the Gandhi sculpture is my first opposite the British
Parliament. Can you tell us about the process ofsculpting Mahatma
Gandhis image?
Well, i wanted to get into the sculpture his compassion, his
thought-fulness, courage and determination. Ittook me months of
intensive work and iworked on it alone.
The statue itself shows Gandhi ashe appeared in 1931, when he
visitedLondon and then Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. So, it
depictsGandhi in England. What does Mahatma Gandhi represent to you
and many in the UK?
I think Gandhi proved great thingscan be achieved without
violence apowerful lesson for todays world.
Placing Gandhi in ParliamentSquare is also a great compliment,
agesture of friendship and affection towards India.
It shows the esteem Mahatma Gandhi is held in by the people of
Britain.
Gandhi won great things without violence i wanted to depict his
determined courage
Q&A
Much has been written aboutblessing, but something wedont think
much about isblessing oneself. Earlier, it was thoughtthat only
older people, teachers or gurus could give blessings. It has
nowbecome more widely accepted that anyone can give or offer a
blessing, spoken out or unspoken. While manynow are comfortable
with blessing others, sharing the idea of blessingoneself always
brings on thatWhaaaat? look whenever i mention it.
The act of blessing whether forothers or oneself interrupts the
habitual way we see, feel and thinkabout things, the shift allowing
us toexperience things differently than wenormally would. One
example that ifind inspiring is about a woman whotold me that she
had to undergo surgery of her leg at a very young age.Many years
later she began to havenightmares about not knowing what
had been done to the limb that hadbeen removed during surgery.
When i spoke of blessing oneself, she wondered if she could bless
that partof her which was no longer there, andbegan to do so. As
she did this not onlywas she able to first get in touch withher
buried deep anger about not beingtold much about it by
eitherparents or doctors, but shewas able to work through
heremotions. The nightmaresstopped. And now she blessesher
prosthesis each time sheuses it.
Blessing oneself helpswhen you might be weigheddown by negative
self-talk.So many people deplete theirenergy by constantly
evaluat-ing, comparing and condemn-ing themselves or by being angry
for things they have done orhave not done, or feeling like they
arenot good enough.
Whenever you bless something, it
what you know, because of what youdont know. Bless what is and
what hasto change in you or for you.
Bless yourself for those you havehelped or inspired; some you
may beaware of, some you may not. It hardlymatters if they bless
you or not. Blessyour own good intentions.
Bless yourself for what you havebeen open to learn; bless
yourself forwhat you have taught. Bless what yousee as your
failures, not just your successes. You might find you havelearnt
more from the former than thelatter. Bless your needs and also
yourgreeds! You are human after all.
Bless your humanness, your intelligence and those moments
youhave used it as well as those times youhave not. Bless your
fears, at least you have acknowledged them, and cannow work on
them. Bless your willing-ness to bless yourself, even if at
firstyou thought it was a bit strange!
Follow Marguerite Theophil atspeakingtree.in
brings you into a state of love and gratitude. This changes your
frame ofmind, perception and energy from anegative state to a more
positive one.You can begin to shift a pattern ofcriticism and
negative evaluation by blessing both the positive and nega-tive
aspects and being grateful for who
you are on a daily basis.You can bless your
past, even if it has large chapters of pain or sorrow;it made
you who you are to-day. Then when you clearlyand compassionately
seehow you are today, that inturn will help shape you into who you
want to be.
Today, bless yourself forjust being you.
Bless your own part inyour relationships, whether
you consider them good or bad. This is how you are in the
relationship because of circumstances, because ofresponses from the
other, because of
Feel Free To Shower Blessings On YourselfMarguerite Theophil
thespeaking
tree
dilbert
theysaidit
This kind of political espionage and snooping
into political opponents lifemay be Gujarat model but not Indian
model
Abhishek Singhvi
Everyone says now thatwe have won Delhi we
will win other states aswell. Are we aNapoleon on thevictory
march?
Why dont Britishers setup a statue in London of
those who genuinelyfought against them, likeBhagat Singh, Azad,
Rajguru, Bismil, etc.?
Arvind Kejriwal
Markandey Katju
Winning isnt everything but wanting to win is
VINCE LOMBARDI, US football player
A thought for today
