Lifting the Veil – Canada, France and India

Indian Muslims truly deserve appreciation for showing a tendency to move with the needs of democracy and for interpreting Islam in consonance with the needs of the times. The positive response of the Muslim population of India to the recent ruling by the Supreme Court regarding the veil is one more example of this. Muslims everywhere in the world are not so understanding and accommodative of democratic norms.

Of late, the veil has taken the centrestage of controversy in many countries. In 2007, the polling officials in Quebec in Canada (see report) wanted the veiled Muslim women to remove their face-veil before casting their vote. This demand was legitimate, since veil made it difficult to identify the woman who went to vote. This resulted in strong protests from the Muslim groups, who threatened violence against the polling officials. It generated a debate that went to absurd levels, in which it was even argued that a child in veil should be allowed to play soccer! So strong was the protest of the Muslims who were not willing to accommodate the democratic process that finally the Quebec Premier had to take back his move to support this decision of women removing their face-veil during voting. The Muslims of Quebec were simply not willing to understand that the democratic process requires the society to make certain kinds of reforms in their traditional systems. There is no point in having democracy in the first place if one is not willing to move away from the traditional practices which are not democratic in nature. In a sense, it was a failure of the Quebec democracy in conceding ground to a practice such as veiling in the polling process.

Recently, France has generated a storm by considering the option of making the legislation against Burqa in public places. The detractors of this proposal have argued that this is a political gimmick to win the right-wing votes. On the other hand, the counter-argument has asserted that the immigrant population should adjust itself to the host culture in public places. They have the right to practice their traditional culture only as long as it doesn’t disturb the basic democratic fabric of the host society. There is also an unfounded Islamophobia prevailing over the Western world which has brought forward this proposal. Again in France, there have been large-scale protests from the Muslims – which interestingly, include educated Muslim women’s groups, who advocate the practice of Burqa (see report).

Now the Supreme Court of India has ruled that Muslim women must remove their veil while voting and they have to get themselves photographed without a veil for getting a voters’ ID-Card. They need not vote if they do not want to remove their veil while voting (see report). This is a legitimate ruling since it has been passed in the light of the identification of the person required during voting. The intention is not to prohibit these women from practicing veiling. It is interesting to note that this plea was lodged not by a Muslim woman but by Ajmal Khan, a man from Madurai in Tamil Nadu. It shows how much a veil can be a tool in the hands of men rather than a privilege of women.

The most important part here is the response of Indian Muslims who, in contrast to the violent actions shown by Muslims in other countries, have supported the ruling by the Supreme Court. Amongst the prominent Muslim men who have issued a statement of support to the verdict are Kamal Faruqui, Chairman of the Delhi Minority Commission, who said that if they can get themselves photographed while going for Haj, they can do so even for voting, Islamic religious scholars like Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who said veiling the face is unislamic and academician Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer (see his biography), who said the veil is a mediaeval practice which is reflective of feudal and patriarchal mindset and has no place in the modern democratic society. They have urged the Muslim population of India not to oppose the Supreme Court’s verdict. It is certainly commendable that the prominent Muslims have upheld this verdict and have urged the Muslim community not to go against it since it hinders the democratic process.

Perhaps the democratic governments and the Muslims of other countries can take notes from the judiciary and the Muslims of India.

As an Indian I am comfortable seeing Muslim women in Burqa and this has never been an issue for me. I believe that the women should wear what they feel like wearing, without any compulsion of any kind from anyone. Thus, I am neither against the Burqa nor against any revealing modern dresses. However, I feel there does seem some validity in the argument that tradition should not encroach upon the democratic fabric of a society. If we practise this mindless support to tradition in India, then there is no need to argue for abolishing of caste and social equality. There is no need to argue against dowry. These will have to be allowed in the name of the right to traditional practice. Hence, it is important to see how far tradition has to be allowed and at what stage it begins to interfere with the democratic process, where democracy must precede over tradition. I am not arguing that Muslim women should not wear the Burqa, but I do feel that during events such as polling, academic sessions and official meetings a Burqa is out of place.

From “Servant” to the “Custodian” of the Two Holy Shrines

Mecca and Medinah are the holiest places for Islam. They house the two most important mosques of the religion, apart from the Kaaba, which serves as the reference point for about a billion Muslims across the world, who face the Kaaba during their prayer. They also venerate the Black Stone installed into this sanctuary during, Haj, their pilgrimage which is one of the 5 essentials duties of Islam for those Muslims who can afford a trip to the Mecca.

Located in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi King holds a special place in his kingdom as the Saudi monarchy projects itself as the protector of these two holy shrines. However, there is a difference in the way the Saudi King has been perceived in the Arabic-speaking world and in the West in this regard. And this difference has more to do with political economy of the region than with religion.

The Saudi King is often referred to as the “Custodian of the Two Shrines” in the West. This is coupled with the American policy of treating Saudi Arabia as the spiritual leader of the Islamic world. But this view is grossly misplaced. In fact, in the Arabic language, the Saudi King is referred to as Khadim al-Haram-ain. This phrase means “Servant of the Two Shrines.” The transformation of the servant into a custodian is actually closely interlinked with the status of the King and the strategic importance of Saudi Arabia for the West. The Saudi monarchy projected itself as the servant of the two holy shrines in order to emphasise upon the Islāmic religious state it was building by moulding the kingdom on the Islāmic rule. The king as the servant of the two holy shrines is thus, one who follows the Islāmic law to govern his kingdom.

The US since the catastrophe of 9/11 has been devising an Islāmic policy to speak to the Muslim community throughout the world and has decided to use its strategic ally Saudi Arabia as the spiritual spokesperson for the Islāmic community. This policy as resulted in transforming the servant to the custodian of the two holy shrines. This misplaced definition places Saudi Arabia in a superior role as compared to the other Islāmic countries and also to other Muslim societies. Indeed, Western converts to Islam often want to move to Saudi Arabia as they see it as the Islāmic Holy Land.

In fact, in history there was not always a tendency to look for a spiritual spokesperson for Islam. In India, the Mughals separated themselves from the Arab Caliphate and got the Khutba read in their own name. Even during the freedom struggle of India, Sir Saiyyad Ahmad Khan and his supporters had clearly said that they didn’t want to follow the Arab Caliphate as Indian Muslims’ issues were different from those of the Arab world. The Muslims in every country are more concerned with their surrounding population and with the policies of its own country’s government. Saudi Arabia does not have much value for them apart from Haj, which not every Muslim is able to perform ultimately for economic or other reasons. This US policy in fact overlooks the fact that the Muslims across the world may not be looking towards Saudi Arabia as their leader and their myriads versions of Islam are in fact are very different from the Saudi version. It’s also worth noting that majority of the Muslim population does not live in the Arab world (see map by clicking here), but outside it and this majority does not follow the Saudi version of Islam. It is highly undemocratic and unfair to marginalise the perceptions of the majority of practitioners of Islam by devising this kind of policy.

There is a reason Saudi Arabia has been given so much of prominence by the US. Of course, we all know about the oil reserves of the country and the US is its biggest buyer of oil. Besides, Saudi Arabia has a strategic location in the West Asian region. By making it their ally, the Americans can use its air-space to control the entire region and Saudi Arabia accommodates this need of the US.

One doesn’t expect Saudi Arabia to be so naïve as to be unaware of the fact that the majority of Muslims in the world don’t necessarily look upon it as their religious leader. It appears that this is a strategy of the Saudi Arabia to establish itself as the religious leader of the Islāmic world by using its oil and strategic power and it is trying to achieve its aim by aligning itself to the US and using the American might for its own religious ambitions. Hence, this appears to be a bilateral policy of the US and Saudi Arabia, not only a one-sided one.

That the US is clearly helping Saudi Arabia to achieve its aim was seen last year in the President Obama’s bowful respect to the Saudi King during the G-20 Conference in London. According to the US military protocol, the US President is not supposed to bow to any other head of state and Obama’s action came under severe criticism. The White House tried to cover up Obama’s action by saying he was not really bowing. But this video shows Obama clearly bowing to the Saudi King, thus symbolically accepting the Saudi leadership in the world.

The real losers in this game are the hundreds of Millions of Muslims outside the Arab world, who don’t follow that version of Islam, on whom an alien Saudi Islam is being imposed and whose own voices are becoming suppressed because of this kind of political economy that uses religion as its tool.

I would appreciate comments from the visitors to this page.

CHURCHES IN MALAYSIA

Malaysia’s religious demography is closely linked to its ethnic profile. The 60.2% of total population is Malay and Muslim. The remaining 40% of the total population consists of Hindus of Indian origin (6.3%), Buddhists of Chinese origins (19.2%) and Christians of indigenous groups (comprising of 9.1% of the total population) and the rest include Confucian, Taoism, Tribal and folk religions and some follow no faith. The non-Muslims can convert to Islam but the Muslims can not convert out of Islam. Considering this, the claims made by the fanatic groups in Malaysia involved in the series of carnage, attacking churches were absolutely fallacious that the Church was using the term “Allah” to convert the Muslims into Christianity. The truth is that the Malay translation of the Bible had used the term “Allah” for God for centuries, without anyone having any problems with it. In any case, there can be only one Supreme Divine Power, no matter by what name people choose to call this power, so this entire argument is absurd and smacks of political opportunism.

I call this political opportunism because there were signs that the right-wing ruling party there had lost popularity in some parts of Malaysia and hence, decided to resort to gain political mileage by fanning popular sentiments, at the cost of harming the communal fabric of the society. Indian readers of this page can easily relate this to the RSS ideology at home.

Even more serious is the statement made by the Malaysian Prime Minister during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, where he had the audacity to call this communal carnage in his country as “minor aberration” and called for a positive portrayal of Islam in collaboration with the Saudi King. It must be noted that the Saudi King has a dubious record in his own country to set straight and Saudi Arabia is in fact involved in exporting an orthodox, intolerant version of Islam to the world, which attempts to wipe out the more tolerant versions being practised outside the Arab world. Malaysian PM owes an apology to the world for this violence, he has to repair the damaged churches and rather than collaborating with the orthodox Saudi version, he has to align with the more tolerant versions of Islam being practised in other parts of the world. Without this, his statement is nothing but a political rhetoric, calculated to pay a servile lip service to the Saudi King.

For those who haven’t seen the churches in Malaysia, here is a visual feast, which shows how rich a tradition Malaysia has in church architecture which this dangerous political policy is trying to wipe out -

St. Paul’s Church in the World Heritage City of Malacca is one of the historical churches of Malaysia.

Above is the Church of Visitation, Seremban. The placard shows a verse from the Bible in Malay saying “Allah” for God (first line).

St. Francis Xavier, at Malacca, exterior with lighting and interior.

St. Anne’s Church in Penang is an old church built amidst picturesque surroundings. Below that, you can see its expanded modern portion.

Penang has some more styles of Church architecture. For example, St. Joseph’s Novitiate (above) is made out of bamboo poles in the indigenous architecture of Malaysia. On the other hand, Cathedral of Assumption shows European architecture (below St. Joseph’s above).

Kualalumpur, the Malaysian capital has this majestic Holy Rosary Cathedral (above), as also the St. John’s (below) and the St. Aloysious Mantin at Negeri Sambilan nearby (shown below St. John’s, below).

Below is the Metro tabernacle Church in the suburb of Kualalumpur, that was torched and badly damaged in the violent attacks and bombings.

Plight of South Asian Workers in Saudi Arabia

A lot of workers from South Asian countries go to West Asia, whose oil economy has circulated stories about their fabled wealth. Hence, these countries provide a venue for the South Asians for earning good income for their skilled or unskilled work that they do – or so they imagine till they reach there.

Amongst the West Asian countries, Saudi Arabia earns the maximum revenue from its vast oil reserves – which have only recently become second to Russia in the world. This revenue has turned an erstwhile poor country into a wealthy land which can provide good income for the skilled and unskilled labour from poorer countries like those from South Asia. The workers who go there are from both the categories and usually they stay there for a while, earn some money and come back.

However, the plight of many workers who go there, especially those who go for low-class unskilled jobs like household workers, drivers, construction labourers etc. is highly deplorable. Saudi Arabia – as also other West Asian countries – offer good working conditions only on paper. In reality, these workers are exploited, coerced into living in abominable conditions, abused, discriminated against in a shocking manner which surpasses all norms of human rights around the world.

Some of the common situations arising from this labour market are – their passports are illegally confiscated by the employers so that the workers can’t return home, they are paid lower wages than agreed upon, they are forced to work in jobs other than what they signed for, they are mistreated, abused physically, verbally, psychologically, in case of housemaids, they may be raped, forced into illegal prostitution, their movements curtailed – the list is endless.

They also have to live in shabby “Third World Like ghettos” in this fabulously wealthy land, as this image on the left shows. Besides, South Asian Muslims are not treated as fellow Muslims by the Arabs, who think of themselves as superior to everyone else and show a highly abusive behaviour towards the South Asians.

This is despite the fact that Indian investments in Saudi Business exceeds $1 Billion.

Only two examples are of these news reports which show how these two Indian maids have been exploited and abused and the seven Indian taxi drivers have been forced to work for lower wages and in jobs different from what they came to work for.

The Western world as well as the parent countries of these workers, including India, refuse to raise their voice against these exploitations of the workers, as their oil and business interests in Saudi Arabia will get hurt if they speak against the Saudi exploitations. Just because the West Asia exports oil to the world, it can hold the world to ransom and do whatever it likes to its foreign visitors, without getting any criticism from any quarter. And Saudi Arabia heads the list of these nations.

I welcome the visitors of this page to freely express their comments and discuss this problem.

Ban on Islamic Minarets in Switzerland

The popular vote in favour of banning the minarets in the mosques of Switzerland has raised an uproar from the democratic world as well as the Islamic groups. The former sees it as an encroachment upon the religious freedom, which is against the principles of democracy, while the latter see it as a repression of their religion, an unwelcome host country for the Muslim immigrants and are using the plea of democracy to oppose this ban. On the other hand, there are also people who feel this shows essentially a growing Islamophobia brought about by the extremists in recent times. The ban is especially significant because the Swiss society has always been perceived as a highly tolerant and democratic society. If they show this kind of fear, what about the others?

Amongst the first to carry out a report on this, as always, was the BBC, which also brought about issues such as the tension growing in Switzerland as a result of increasing immigrants and also on the ban as mainly a political symbol. The latter is the case because minarets are really decorative architectural features in today’s world. Originally they were used to spread the azan to a great distance, but now they are almost never used for this purpose – azan is called over loudspeakers while minarets are retained in a mosque as traditional decorative features. There are many architectural styles of building the minarets and it is a highly sophisticated art as well as the science of building construction. Since the minarets are no longer used for calling the azan, the ban on the minarets is really a political symbol, declaring that the practice of Islam is not banned, but the visible assertion of this religion is not welcome. The Swiss Government has reiterated that the Muslims are still allowed to practise Islam, only the minarets are not allowed in the mosque. However, others have argued that Switzerland is violating the Human Rights Convention of the UN, of which it’s a signatory.

Fears have also been raised that this ban on minarets is likely to affect the Swiss business in West Asia (and perhaps also their oil imports – though it has not been said so far?). There is a demand that this voting should be overturned. But on an interview with Al-Jazeera, a Swiss minister justified it as a democratic opinion of the people and said that they are not banning the mosques, so it’s not undemocratic.

In all this web of arguments, there is also a voice of the people in the West, who feel that the ban is justified because after all the Islamic countries do not follow the democratic norms. There is a ban on building all religious structures in these countries except the mosque and there is a ban on practise of all religions in these countries except Islam. Moreover, countries like the Saudi Arabia brutally impose the Islamic laws even on non-Muslim visitors to the country. The argument runs, if that is so, then what legitimate right do the Muslim populations have to talk about religious encroachments on Islam in other countries, if they don’t condemn the human rights violations in Islamic countries?

In contrast to the many representations of this ban detailed above, there is this report which emphasises that the voice of the Swiss people is being misunderstood by those who oppose the ban. According to this writer, they are not against Islam, but rather, they are against religious extremism – this ban is symbolic of that. It is indeed remarkable to note that the writer of this report carries an Islamic-sounding name and works for an Arab Network! Coming from that background, it’s commendable that he can place things in perspective without playing up Islamic emotions.

So I ask the visitors of this page here – reading all this, what do YOU think? I would welcome everyone’s expressive opinion to this query and really look forward to it.

Parvati’s Marriage to Shiva in Mithila Cultural Expressions

Shiva one of the greatest Hindu deities has multiple images, often conflicting with each other – he is the ultimate ascetic, begging for food, having no proper place to live, smearing his body with ashes from the cremation ground, having cobras crawling over his body and engaging in meditation most of the time. He is also the destroyer of the universe before it is re-created by Brahma in the Hindu cosmology that follows a cyclic notion of time. He destroys Kama the god of eroticism. At the same time, he is the ultimate householder, loving his wife Parvati, sharing his half body with her, benevolent to his devotees and granting them all the materialistic happiness. Shiva means “auspicious”, hence, Shiva brings auspiciousness to his devotees. Parvati is his second wife – his first wife Sati ignored his advice and went to her father’s sacrificial ceremony, where her father didn’t extend her a respectful welcome because he didn’t like Shiva’s ways. Seeing this, Sati was enraged and threw herself into the sacrificial fire. Shiva sent his violent manifestation Virabhadra to destroy the sacrifice and went around the earth carrying Sati’s body. Decaying parts of her body fell in various places and these centres grew as important centres for Goddess worship. It is said that Sati was reborn as Parvati, the daughter of the king of the Himalayas and did severe penance to get Shiva as her husband – this time she became the benign wife of Shiva and an embodyment of marital happiness.

Because of the contrasting images of Shiva and Parvati – one an ascetic beggar, smeared with ashes and cobras crawling over him and the other a gentle and beautiful princess, their marriage has evoked strong emotions in Hindu mythology and other cultural forms in India. The Sanskrit literature talks about Parvati receiving the boon after her penance that Shiva would get married to her. She came back to her palace and announced this to her parents. When Shiva came in the marriage procession, people were frightened to see his appearance. His marriage procession was also not a usual one – consisting of all the gods and spirits, ghosts and semi-divine and fearsome attendants of Shiva. On Vishnu’s advice, Shiva changed his appearance and looked like a handsome young prince, adorned with ornaments instead of snakes and wearing silken garments instead of tiger-skin. His attendants also aquired a pleasant appearance and thus Shiva married Parvati.

This theme has given rise to various forms of folklore in India. In Mithila region in Eastern India, there are numerous folk songs in Maithili, sung at the time of a woman’s marriage, which describe the fearful marriage procession of Shiva and his appearance. Unlike the Sanskrit text, which makes Vishnu’s advice an important element in changing Shiva’s appearance, Maithili songs stress the pathos and sadness felt by Parvati’s mother Mena – called Manain in Maithili songs – who refuses to welcome this groom and rather wants to keep her daughter unmarried. She doesn’t want the marriage ceremony to go forward and in some songs, she even expresses her anger at such a bad groom – aged, beggar and fearful – brought for her young and beautiful daughter. She says in one song that she will drive this marriage party away, will snatch the drum and the rosary beads-garlands of Shiva and will not allow him to enter into her house and if this marriage happens she will not live in this house. Unlike the Sanskrit text, which resolves the issue right in the beginning by bringing Vishnu into picture, Maithili songs are quite frank about a mother’s love for her daughter and the unhappiness and anger she felt on seeing such a mismatched groom for her daughter, for whom she could have got a handsome husband. These songs also show the extent to which women hold power in the ritual space in Eastern India, where they can even stall a marriage ceremony in the last moment if they don’t like the groom for their daughter.

These songs were composed by the great Maithili poet Vidyapati, who is believed to have lived sometime around 14th-15th century and composed a lot of songs in honour of different deities, largest number being in honour of the powerful Goddess, the patron deity of Mithila. The power of a woman’s voice is expressed very clearly in these songs. Finally, Vidyapati resolves this conflict in the story by suggesting to Mena that this Shiva who looks like an ascetic beggar is in fact the lord of the three worlds and the cause of auspicious life of all beings. Therefore, she should give her daughter in marriage to him since there is no one greater than him. He also says that it was ordained by the writer of Destiny that Parvati should get this ascetic husband and hence, writing of destiny can not be erased. It is remarkable that the more famous lines from the Ramacharitamanas of Tulasidas, which also talk about the hand of destiny in this marriage, were in fact composed about two centuries later than Vidyapati’s songs. Tulasidas lived in 16th century CE. In this manner, it is ultimately the revelation of Shiva’s identity as a great god and the destiny’s decision to marry Parvati to this great god that paves the way for Parvati’s marriage to Shiva.

Parvati is the patron deity of marital bliss and the marriage ceremony in Mithila involves worship rituals to her, so that the couple continue to live together in a happy manner. Moreover, Shiva and Parvati are always cited as examples of an ideal couple in Maithili folklore, never Rama and Sita, because Shiva keeps Parvati on half of his body, while Sita the princess of Mithila never lived comfortably after getting married to Rama. However, the folk songs of Mithila always describe Rama as a handsome groom, seeing whom Sita’s mother became happy, while Parvati’s mother didn’t want to get her daughter married to Shiva and agreed only after he was described to her as a powerful god. Somehow, the paintings of Rama and Sita’s marriage are also much more numerous than the paintings of Shiva and Parvati’s marriage in the now fabled Mithila painting tradition.

Mithila’s folklore thus, assert the emotions of a bride’s mother and the women in general in many ways. They show the aspirations that a mother has for her daughter’s marriage and the forceful ways in which she can express them. At the same time, there is a strong notion in the popular psyche about how a husband should treat his wife and moreover, what kind of a groom the women desire to come to their house. The popularity of one Hindu divine couple over the other in song and painting is guided by this choice.

DARK FACES OF POLICE AND MEDIA

   The incident in JNU Campus in New Delhi on the night of 22nd of November showed how meaningless the state apparatus can be in defending the public – even protecting the culprit against the interests of the public and to make matters worse, media can play second fiddle to the corrupt State apparatus to only help it in keeping the culprits active in their activities.

   JNU Campus has security at its front gate, to check the vehicles that go in so that rowdy elements can be kept out. In the past, some miscreants had been using the free atmosphere of the university to their own advantage. To stop such elements, security was installed at the gate a few years ago. On 22nd of November, four youths came in a car in a drunken state and when they were stopped by the security they showed the guards a revolver. They also passed lewd remarks at a woman student who was passing by – a highly objectionable act in this campus, where such actions are not tolerated.

   Quite naturally, this enraged the students who were around, and soon hundreds – perhaps a thousand of them – gathered there. They broke the car of the miscreants, pulled the man out and punched him. Meanwhile, the police were called – who came in thousands, filled in buses and trucks. At this point, it turned out that the youth with the revolver was the son of a senior police officer. Hence, the students surrounded the vehicle he was kept in by the police and they objected to him being taken to the police station. It’s anyone’s guess, that his father would have used his influence to get him out of the police station in no time. Hence, the students wanted some action to be taken against the miscreants in the campus itself, by the university’s involvement. They refused to budge and kept the vigil till about 10pm, demanding justice against a senior police officer’s son who indulged in criminal activities.

   When the police saw they couldn’t take the youths out of the campus, they began Lathi charge, sprayed tear gas and even climbed on top of roof of the security check-post and began to throw bricks and stones on the gathering below – which included some teachers and other staff by now. The gathering couldn’t stand this barbaric assault and began to disperse, thus making way for the police to take the youths away. Many students, teachers and staff were badly hurt.

   This incident shows that the security at the JNU gate is really meaningless – anyone can show a revolver and get into the campus to do whatever they like.

   This entire shameful incident shows the degradation to which our administration has set in. The police, supposed to protect the people, was defending the culprit because he happened to be a senior police officer’s son. They didn’t abstain from dispersing the demand for justice by resorting to violence against unarmed students. It also throws light on the kind of people who reach the senior position in the police - who can’t raise their own children into good citizens are expected to protect the citizens.

   Equally deplorable was the role of media in entirely misrepresenting this incident. Their focus was on defending the state machinery because the reporters may have had their own selfish interests to serve. It was advantageous for them to help the corrupt and degenerate state machinery in maligning the students who were demanding justice and in suppressing the facts of the incidents. The way this incident was reported in the popular media is shocking – the fact that the culprit was a police officer’s son having illegal weapons on his person and that the police were trying to defend him is not brought into light. Rather, the media reports have placed the burden of crime on the students, by stating that the students were refusing to let the police do their job! This kind of reporting is obviously done to appease the corrupt state machinery and to hide the facts from the public. Students have no power, so they can be made the scapegoats in such cases.

   How much lower does this country have to sink before everyone realises it’s high time to wake up?

Religion and Erotics in Traditional India

It is a common perception of the Indians and of the outsiders that Indian society is very traditional and explicit references and expressions of erotic imageries in words or visual form are against the norm of “Indian tradition.” Seeing the majority of places in India today, it in fact seems to be true. Indian society is not a touching society ie, couples don’t touch each other in public and revealing clothes are still frowned upon in most places. More serious are the orthodox, politicised reaction of the Hindutva forces against any explicit expressions of eroticism in art forms. Their violent opposition to the paintings of MF Hussain and Shivaji Panikkar are well-known by now. The truth however is, that the pre-modern India had no hangups about explicit representations of erotics in art and literature in public spaces. Too often the mention has been made of Khajuraho in this context. But this culture of accepting explicit eroticism as “normal” goes back to the Harappa civilisation ie, the earliest phase of Indian history. We have numerous figurines from this civilisation, including the famous and much-published “dancing girl,” which are sculpted in the nude. In the early historical period and later, we also have the cult images of Lajja Gauri (also called Aditi, Renuka and Adya Shakti), which shows a headless nude goddess in birth-giving posture with a blooming lotus on her neck. This is thought to be a form of the Goddess related to the fertility cult. Then we have the famous and beautiful Sanchi and Barhut Yakshis and the numerous nude women sculpted on temple walls and painted in Rajput miniatures. A very popular representation was that of a woman drying herself after bath in complete nude state and a figure of a prince secretly watching the scene from a hidden spot in the panel. And let’s not forget the Kamasutra.

Those who think that this explicit eroticism is “anti-Indian,” don’t know the history of their civilisation well. In fact, ths eroticism also forms the basis behind many devotional cultic idioms that focus on the union between the divine and the devotee by using these explicit erotic imageries in their thought and expression.

The Krishna cult especially lends itself to the culture of expressive eroticism. numerous poetic texts were composed and painted, describing the love-play between Radha and Krishna, which was also symbolic of the union betwen the devotee and the deity. This was perhaps most beautifully and sensitively expressed in Gita Govinda – a 12th century poetic text composed by the Oriya poet Jaidev in beautiful lyrical Sanskrit. In its 24 eight-stanza poems called Ashtapadi, this text beautifully and explicitly captures the love-making of Radha and Krishna. This text has also been the backbone of the exquisite classical dance form of Orissa called Odissi – also describd as lyrical sculpture in movement because of the poses it uses from temple iconography. The poetry from Gita Govinda that is sung with this dance expressively talks about the amorous exploits of Radha and Krishna and the dancer enacts these on stage through beautiful, stylised dance poses, gestures and emotional expressions. If one can understand what is being sung with the dance, the emotional enjoyment of this dance form by the viewer reaches its zenith. For example, following is an excerpt from a dance recital from an Ashtapadi from Gita Govinda, which shows Radha narrating her first love-making with Krishna and her desire to unite with him – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W52DuhqBRo

In fact, the entire pre-modern tradition laid a lot of stress on developing the Sringara Rasa in poetry, fine arts and classical dance and theatre forms of India and anyone familiar with these forms of cultural expressions is so well-aware with the explicit eroticism in these forms that often one doesn’t even notice the “explicitness” of eroticism there because one gets so used to it – and it was considered to be normal in pre-modern times, no one really objecting to it. I didn’t realise this myself, so used to I have been of continuously seeing these explicitly expressive images that this normal acceptance of these images in pre-modern India has come to the West only after radical intellectual movements there. This dawned upon me one day when I was teaching about the Goddess cult in class including some students fom Europe and North America, when one student exclaimed at the following image I showed them – “but she is almost naked”! I had seen the photograph of this beautiful 8th century sculpture from Aihole in Karnataka hundreds of times, never once thinking she was “almost naked”!

I looked back at the slide show on the screen and said in a natural voice – “Yes, so what?” I didn’t realise this was any unusual aspect to be pointed out – I took it as normal – and I saw the look of bewilderment on these students’ faces. Then suddenly it occurred to me – these students, coming from a culture that has traditionally liked to show a woman almost completely covered, were not familiar with the idea that a pre-modern image could have shown a woman’s body not really covered – this was a feature of modernity for them, a sign of women’s liberation and for us, it was tradional normalcy, nothing special! And this image is not even as explicit as many other images from pre-modern India. Then I decided to give them a lecture on this theme, how erotic and explicit cultural expression had been a common feature in India, till the colonial norms changed everything. And they really liked this lecture – even wrote and discussed about it in their assignments.

What is of importance here is that these expressions were not only accepted in pre-modern India, they were part of the devotional religiosity of this country. And no one raised an eyebrow over them. We wouldn’t have had such a rich cultural tradition if people had gone around destroying all such expressions, beautifully and emotionally composed, painted, sculpted and enacted.

The biggest irony is that the negative association with the explicit eroticism started in the Colonal period when India received the Victorian norms of behaviour as “ideal” from Europe. The first Europeans who came in contact with the erotic expressiveness in India thought these were obscene and tried to mould the cultural expression of India according to their then prevailing norms. Indians in response, attempted to modify their normative expressions to suit the “ideal” that was placed before them – and hence, this entire discourse on the erotic expression as objectionable evolved. Till then, erotic expression in India had always been beautiful. Today, those who don’t understand this history react against the erotic expressiveness in India as “anti-Indian”! Another irony is that Europe itself has moved away from those Victorian norms today and India has kind of institutionalised them in the form of “Indian tradition”!

Chana-ni-Dal-ma-Gosht – A Parsi Dish

Roasted meat in gram (yellow chickpeas) lentils is a dish from the Parsi cuisine from the Western coast of India. Parsis are Zoroastrians who fled to the Western coast of India from Persia when Persia adopted Islam 1300 years ago. They inhabited Gujarat and Maharashtra and today have their maximum concentration in Bombay. Parsi is the smallest community in the multi-religious country of India, though they have contributed immensely towards the making of the modern Indian nation – right from participation in and giving the direction to the India’s freedom struggle against the Colonial rule, establishing the first steel industry in the country, expanding into other industrial ventures, contributing to the enrichment of Indian art and culture in theatre, film, dance, and to the development of science and technology, this small community’s contribution to Indian development is monumental. Even since the time they came to India, they played a significant role in India’s trade and commerce in and outside the region.

Parsis have kept their identity alive through all these centuries and their culture reflects their interaction with the Gujarati community. Their vegetarian food is a mix of Gujarati and Persian cuisine, while their non-vegetarian fare is mostly Persian, but uses Indian spices. An important characheristic of their food is that it uses mild spicing and sometimes sweet, sour and hot flavours are blended together to produce a unique taste.

Chana ni Dal ma Gosht is a dish that cooks roasted meat with gram lentils, using Indian spices in small quantities and raw mango is added to the mix to give it a unique sour taste. The dish is garnished with coriander leaves and lemon pieces to add more flavours. Interestingly enough, another version of this dish is also used in north India and Pakistan, only raw mango is not used in that version and cream is added to the fare, making it quite mild. They can also use potatoes and diced vegetables in the mix. But the Parsi version retains the tangy flavour of raw mango in this dish. One of the websites that gives the recipe for this dish is http://www.parsicuisine.com/chana.htm

Sambar-Sadam - Sambar Rice Dish from South India

   Sambhar and rice are the ubiquitous foods of South India; people eating them on a daily basis. Hence, Sambar-Sadam, a dish originating in Tamil Nadu is only naturally popular in South India. It basically involves rice, dal and vegetables together with all the spices of Sambar and also with tamarind juice, which is an essential ingredient of Sambar. Hence, in principle, the cooking of Sambar-Sadam is the same as the principle of cooking Khichdi as it is done in the Eastern India – rice, Dal and vegetables are cooked together. The diffrence is that the Khichdi uses mild spices and not many of them, while Sambar-Sadam uses full range of Sambar spices. Moreover, tamarind juice is not used in Khichdi. Another difference is that Moong dal is used for Khichdi, while Sambar-Sadam uses Tur dal.

   I had the first occasion to taste Sambar-Sadam at my professor’s house, who was from Tamil Nadu and had trained her Bengali maid expertly to cook authentic South Indian food! Since then, I have enjoyed this dish very much, but the taste from my Professor’s kitchen has never been matched.

   The best website I have come across so far for its recipe is http://solaiachiskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/11/sambar-sadam-bisibelabath.html, eventhough Bisi Bele Bhat mentioned there is really a spicy rice and dal dish from Karnataka – another rice and dal dish I like very much, but is different from Sambar-Sadam. Moreover, Sambar-Sadam tastes much better without dry fruits garnishing as shown in this picture. And, just like Khichdi, it tastes good with a spoonful of pure ghee or clarified butter on top! Because it is easy to cook, with all the ingredients being cooked together, it is quite popular as an easy to cook and tasty to eat traditional dish, without having to go for unhealthy fast food.