The compound has a canteen that a number of us frequent at lunch times. It gives you a chance to get out of the office, have a bit of a gasbag about life in India, watch the chipmunk creatures running around the place & catch one of the Andrews (apparently there are two with the long tails) strutting their stuff.
One of the things that seem to provide a constant source of amusement is: exactly what is it we are eating ??
The menu options are somewhat limited: vegetarian or non-vegetarian.
The non-vegetarian menu will either be chicken or mutton. We, however, like to call it ‘surprise chicken” or “mystery mutton”. The meat generally is “swimming” in an oil slick (or “Xeon Valdez” as we call it).
The cut of meat is surprisingly bad & questions have been raised about the particular species we are eating and at the number of peacocks currently roaming the compound. There have also been questions about the number of the chipmunk creatures but who knows !!!
One of the usual lunch crowd (let’s call him “J”) has this amazing knack of coming up with the funniest descriptions for the food.
His comments about the “Spine Stew” (I think he meant the "surprise chicken" dish) had us in hysterics.
He outdid himself last Friday.
Fridays are normally Biryani chicken which is okay & something a little different to the usual chicken curries. So....”J” was tucking in to his Biryani chicken when he stops to pull out a bit of bone. He stares at it intently & says to everyone, “I think they’ve given me a piece of skull !!” “J” also thinks that the chef has it in for him.
From that moment on, the dish became known as “Hyderabadi Brain Biryani.”
Classic !!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Not your average sort of hoarding
There have been a number of stories recently about this temple in the south of India. From the Telegraph (UK):
Gold and gems worth up to £14 billion unearthed from Indian temple
A treasure trove of gold, diamonds and precious stones worth billions of pounds has been recovered from secret underground chambers beneath a 16th century Indian temple.
Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum, South India Photo: ALAMY
By Rahul Bedi, New Delhi
11:24PM BST 04 Jul 2011
The dazzling hoard – which includes coins minted when the East India Company dominated trade with the sub-continent – has lain untouched for nearly 140 years.
The value of the collection has been estimated at up to £14 billion, with new discoveries still to be catalogued. Antiquarians described the treasure's worth as "astronomical".
Highlights include gold and silver bullion dating back to the Napoleonic era, precious stones wrapped in silk bundles, thousands of intricate pieces of diamond and emerald-studded jewellery.
The treasure is currently being retrieved from chambers beneath the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Hindu temple in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of the southern state of Kerala – which was formerly the feudal state of Travancore.
According to locals, generations of rich Travancore maharajas who built the temple more than four centuries ago secreted immense riches within six of its thick underground stone vaults, three of which had not been opened since 1872.
All were located deep in the recesses of the temple at the end of a dark and dangerously steep flight of stairs.
The chambers have now been illuminated and pumped full of oxygen to aid the seven-member excavating team which includes local religious officials, archaeologists and a representative of the current Travencore Maharaja, who is the temple's caretaker.
Officials involved in the recovery operation indicated that many items in the precious hoard were offerings made by devotees to the royal family.
They estimate the treasure to be worth about £10-£14 billion, but a detailed inventory was far from complete yesterday as new findings continued to surface.
Antiquarians said it would take much longer to conclusively evaluate the treasure as the historical value of the objects recovered would need to be assessed along with their "astronomical" intrinsic value.
Accounts state that besides more than 2,500lb of gold coins and precious stones, the booty recovered from vault 'A' included gold ropes; a 3ft 6in idol of the Hindu god Vishnu embedded with diamonds, emeralds and rubies, and an 18ft-long gold chain weighing more than 75lb to adorn it.
Official sources said vaults 'B' and 'E' remain to be opened and are expected to disgorge many more royal treasures.
This article is from the Independent (UK):
Two more rooms of treasure found in Indian temple
Associated Press
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
A vast treasure trove of gold coins, jewellery and precious stones unearthed at a Hindu temple in India and valued in the billions was expected to grow in value yesterday as experts opened two more secret vaults sealed for nearly 150 years.
The discovery has turned the 16th-century Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple into one of the country's wealthiest religious institutions and prompted a big increase in security at the site.
The four vaults opened in recent days at the temple in Trivandrum, the capital of the southern state of Kerala, held a vast bounty estimated at £13.7bn. Treasures unearthed so far include solid gold statues of gods and goddesses, studded with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. There are so many gold and silver coins that investigators are weighing them by the sackful, rather than counting them.
Gold and gems worth up to £14 billion unearthed from Indian temple
A treasure trove of gold, diamonds and precious stones worth billions of pounds has been recovered from secret underground chambers beneath a 16th century Indian temple.
Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum, South India Photo: ALAMY
By Rahul Bedi, New Delhi
11:24PM BST 04 Jul 2011
The dazzling hoard – which includes coins minted when the East India Company dominated trade with the sub-continent – has lain untouched for nearly 140 years.
The value of the collection has been estimated at up to £14 billion, with new discoveries still to be catalogued. Antiquarians described the treasure's worth as "astronomical".
Highlights include gold and silver bullion dating back to the Napoleonic era, precious stones wrapped in silk bundles, thousands of intricate pieces of diamond and emerald-studded jewellery.
The treasure is currently being retrieved from chambers beneath the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Hindu temple in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of the southern state of Kerala – which was formerly the feudal state of Travancore.
According to locals, generations of rich Travancore maharajas who built the temple more than four centuries ago secreted immense riches within six of its thick underground stone vaults, three of which had not been opened since 1872.
All were located deep in the recesses of the temple at the end of a dark and dangerously steep flight of stairs.
The chambers have now been illuminated and pumped full of oxygen to aid the seven-member excavating team which includes local religious officials, archaeologists and a representative of the current Travencore Maharaja, who is the temple's caretaker.
Officials involved in the recovery operation indicated that many items in the precious hoard were offerings made by devotees to the royal family.
They estimate the treasure to be worth about £10-£14 billion, but a detailed inventory was far from complete yesterday as new findings continued to surface.
Antiquarians said it would take much longer to conclusively evaluate the treasure as the historical value of the objects recovered would need to be assessed along with their "astronomical" intrinsic value.
Accounts state that besides more than 2,500lb of gold coins and precious stones, the booty recovered from vault 'A' included gold ropes; a 3ft 6in idol of the Hindu god Vishnu embedded with diamonds, emeralds and rubies, and an 18ft-long gold chain weighing more than 75lb to adorn it.
Official sources said vaults 'B' and 'E' remain to be opened and are expected to disgorge many more royal treasures.
This article is from the Independent (UK):
Two more rooms of treasure found in Indian temple
Associated Press
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
A vast treasure trove of gold coins, jewellery and precious stones unearthed at a Hindu temple in India and valued in the billions was expected to grow in value yesterday as experts opened two more secret vaults sealed for nearly 150 years.
The discovery has turned the 16th-century Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple into one of the country's wealthiest religious institutions and prompted a big increase in security at the site.
The four vaults opened in recent days at the temple in Trivandrum, the capital of the southern state of Kerala, held a vast bounty estimated at £13.7bn. Treasures unearthed so far include solid gold statues of gods and goddesses, studded with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. There are so many gold and silver coins that investigators are weighing them by the sackful, rather than counting them.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
A recent article from the UK Telegraph newspaper
Indians pay surgeons to turn girls into boys
Indian doctors have been accused of conducting sex change operations on young girls whose parents want son to improve the family's income prospects.
There are now seven million more boys than girls aged under six in the country Photo: ALAMY
By Dean Nelson, New Delhi
9:30PM BST 27 Jun 2011
Madhya Pradesh state government is investigating claims that up to 300 girls were surgically turned into boys in one city after their parents paid about £2,000 each for the operations.
Women's and children's rights campaigners denounced the practice as a "social madness" that made a "mockery of women in India".
India's gender balance has already been tilted in favour of boys by female foeticide – sex selection abortions - by families who fear the high marriage costs and dowries they may have to pay. There are now seven million more boys than girls aged under six in the country.
Campaigners said the use of surgery meant that girls were no longer safe even after birth.
The row emerged after newspapers disclosed children from throughout India were being operated on by doctors in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
Doctors confronted in the investigation claimed that girls with genital abnormalities were being sent to the city's clinics to be "surgically corrected" and that only children born with both male and female sexual characteristics were eligible for the procedure. But campaigners said the parents and doctors were misindentifying the children's conditions to turn girls into boys.
The surgery, known as genitoplasty, fashions a penis from female organs, with the child being injected with male hormones to create a boy.
Dr V P Goswami, the president of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics in Indore, described the disclosures as shocking and warned parents that the procedure would leave their child impotent and infertile in adulthood.
"Genitoplasty is possible on a normal baby of both the sexes but later on these organs will not grow with the hormonal influence and this will lead to their infertility as well as their impotency. It is shocking news and we will be looking into it and taking corrective measures," he said. "Parents have to consider the social as well as the psychological impact of such procedures on the child."
India's National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights ordered the Madhya Pradesh government to investigate the claims and produce its findings within 15 days.
Ranjana Kumari, of the Centre for Social Research and one of India's leading campaigners against female foeticide, said the surgical transformation of girls into boys without their informed consent was a sign of India's growing "social madness".
She said she despaired that education had failed to stop the growing rejection of baby girls in India.
"The figures are getting worse. In 2001 there were 886 girls born to every 1,000 boys in Delhi. Today there are only 866. The more educated and rich you are, the more there is killing of girls," she said.
"People don't want to share their property or invest in girls' education or pay dowries.
It's the greedy middle classes running after money. It is just so shocking and an outright violation of children's rights."
The government needed to address the problem by stressing the spiritual value a girl or woman brought a household in Hindu culture. "In India we say God resides in that house where there's a woman but that has evaporated because of all this greed. We need to emphasise the spiritual wealth a girl brings to a family, but we also need to support them with financial subsidies and jobs," she added.
Indian doctors have been accused of conducting sex change operations on young girls whose parents want son to improve the family's income prospects.
There are now seven million more boys than girls aged under six in the country Photo: ALAMY
By Dean Nelson, New Delhi
9:30PM BST 27 Jun 2011
Madhya Pradesh state government is investigating claims that up to 300 girls were surgically turned into boys in one city after their parents paid about £2,000 each for the operations.
Women's and children's rights campaigners denounced the practice as a "social madness" that made a "mockery of women in India".
India's gender balance has already been tilted in favour of boys by female foeticide – sex selection abortions - by families who fear the high marriage costs and dowries they may have to pay. There are now seven million more boys than girls aged under six in the country.
Campaigners said the use of surgery meant that girls were no longer safe even after birth.
The row emerged after newspapers disclosed children from throughout India were being operated on by doctors in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
Doctors confronted in the investigation claimed that girls with genital abnormalities were being sent to the city's clinics to be "surgically corrected" and that only children born with both male and female sexual characteristics were eligible for the procedure. But campaigners said the parents and doctors were misindentifying the children's conditions to turn girls into boys.
The surgery, known as genitoplasty, fashions a penis from female organs, with the child being injected with male hormones to create a boy.
Dr V P Goswami, the president of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics in Indore, described the disclosures as shocking and warned parents that the procedure would leave their child impotent and infertile in adulthood.
"Genitoplasty is possible on a normal baby of both the sexes but later on these organs will not grow with the hormonal influence and this will lead to their infertility as well as their impotency. It is shocking news and we will be looking into it and taking corrective measures," he said. "Parents have to consider the social as well as the psychological impact of such procedures on the child."
India's National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights ordered the Madhya Pradesh government to investigate the claims and produce its findings within 15 days.
Ranjana Kumari, of the Centre for Social Research and one of India's leading campaigners against female foeticide, said the surgical transformation of girls into boys without their informed consent was a sign of India's growing "social madness".
She said she despaired that education had failed to stop the growing rejection of baby girls in India.
"The figures are getting worse. In 2001 there were 886 girls born to every 1,000 boys in Delhi. Today there are only 866. The more educated and rich you are, the more there is killing of girls," she said.
"People don't want to share their property or invest in girls' education or pay dowries.
It's the greedy middle classes running after money. It is just so shocking and an outright violation of children's rights."
The government needed to address the problem by stressing the spiritual value a girl or woman brought a household in Hindu culture. "In India we say God resides in that house where there's a woman but that has evaporated because of all this greed. We need to emphasise the spiritual wealth a girl brings to a family, but we also need to support them with financial subsidies and jobs," she added.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
A lunch at Gunpowder restaurant
On the weekend, a group of us went to lunch at this place called “Gunpowder” in Hauz Khas Village.
The place is small (only about 30 covers) & a bit hard to locate: down a few alleyways & up three flights of narrow stairs.
The food is southern Indian.
The booking originally started as a table of two, then three, by the time we sat down, it had grown to five & by the time everyone had arrived, it was now six. The staff were very accommodating in re-arranging the tables.
We ordered a selection from the menu which proved to be more than enough for all of us:
Iddiki Sweet & sour pork curry
Mushroom Curry
Vegetable Korma
Eggplant chutney (with tomatoes & onions)
Mango chutney
Lime & green chilli chutney
Tamarind Rice
Tomato Papu
They served this lovely, fluffy & light bread (whose name escapes me) that was very tasty.
My favourite dish was the Iddiki pork curry. The pork was covered in this caramelised sauce which had a bit of a kick to it.
The tamarind rice worked very well with the dishes. It too, had a bit of a kick, especially when you ate a bit of the dried chilli. The eggplant chutney was quite sweet & didn’t really taste of the eggplant but more of the caramelised onions.
Everyone loved the meal & it only ended up costing us a grand total of INR2600 ($AUD56).
The place is small (only about 30 covers) & a bit hard to locate: down a few alleyways & up three flights of narrow stairs.
The food is southern Indian.
The booking originally started as a table of two, then three, by the time we sat down, it had grown to five & by the time everyone had arrived, it was now six. The staff were very accommodating in re-arranging the tables.
We ordered a selection from the menu which proved to be more than enough for all of us:
Iddiki Sweet & sour pork curry
Mushroom Curry
Vegetable Korma
Eggplant chutney (with tomatoes & onions)
Mango chutney
Lime & green chilli chutney
Tamarind Rice
Tomato Papu
They served this lovely, fluffy & light bread (whose name escapes me) that was very tasty.
My favourite dish was the Iddiki pork curry. The pork was covered in this caramelised sauce which had a bit of a kick to it.
The tamarind rice worked very well with the dishes. It too, had a bit of a kick, especially when you ate a bit of the dried chilli. The eggplant chutney was quite sweet & didn’t really taste of the eggplant but more of the caramelised onions.
Everyone loved the meal & it only ended up costing us a grand total of INR2600 ($AUD56).
Friday, June 24, 2011
Recently overhead
The question "What does India stand for?" was recently overhead.
The answer? I'll Never Do It Again.
The answer? I'll Never Do It Again.
An article showing how India & Pakistan see things different
Here's a recent article from the Los Angeles Times regarding the recently announced troop withdrawl from Afghanistan. It highlights how Pakistan & India can look at the same event & see things different:
latimes.com
Pakistan, India assess U.S. withdrawal plans
For neighbor Pakistan, the unexpectedly larger and faster planned troop pullout from Afghanistan is welcome, but for India, which has been cultivating ties with Kabul, any increased instability bodes ill.
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
June 24, 2011
Reporting from New Delhi
President Obama's announcement that the United States will pull 33,000 troops out of Afghanistan by the end of next summer was met with muted concern Thursday in India and Pakistan as analysts, policymakers and military brass scrambled to assess the implications for their respective nations.
Though Washington had telegraphed the troop reduction for months, it was larger and faster than many had expected.
In Pakistan, the news was generally applauded. The South Asian nation has bridled at U.S. regional influence, CIA drones in its airspace and what it saw as the American intrusion on its sovereignty in May in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the city of Abbottabad.
It shows that America is committed to withdrawing, said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani lieutenant general and now a military analyst. "That's welcome in Pakistan. A gradual withdrawal will be helpful for the region."
A reduced U.S. footprint in the region might allow Islamabad to expand its influence in Afghanistan. It also probably would reduce U.S. pressure on Pakistan to sever links between its security forces and homegrown militant groups, some of whom are viewed by Pakistanis as freedom fighters useful in countering neighbor and longtime rival India.
Many in India, on the other hand, expressed concern that the relatively sharp U.S. withdrawal would raise uncertainty in the region, increasing the risk that militancy in Pakistan and Afghanistan would spill across India's borders.
India is confident its relations with Afghanistan are solid, and the countries share a distrust of Pakistan's motives and its bid for enhanced influence in war-torn Afghanistan.
Pakistan will want to ensure that India doesn't align with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, a political rival to tribal groups allied with Islamabad, analysts said. It is also wary of India forming links with groups in southern Afghanistan that might ally with and embolden neighboring Baluch tribesmen seeking independence for Pakistan's Baluchistan province.
However, India's ability to counter Pakistani ambitions or otherwise exert its muscle in Afghanistan as U.S. troop numbers decline is severely limited by geography: Pakistan borders Afghanistan; India does not.
Pakistan controls the main road and port access to landlocked Afghanistan, limiting Indian trade links. And Pakistan can block energy pipeline routes to India from Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations.
"There is a limit on what India can do to influence Pakistani-Afghan relations," said Dipankar Banerjee, a former major general in the Indian army and director of New Delhi's Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. "And India has to accept those limitations."
India and Pakistan share an interest in a gradual, measured U.S. withdrawal that gives the region time to adjust and fill the vacuum in an orderly fashion, analysts said. A full-on civil war in Afghanistan would hurt everyone. Nor would Afghans fleeing any such meltdown be as welcome in Pakistan as they were during the 1980s fight against the Soviets, given Pakistan's economic troubles and domestic terrorism problems.
India and Pakistan also share an interest in limiting the rise of the Afghan Taliban, albeit for different reasons. India is wary of increased Islamic extremism in the neighborhood that could spark another attack like the terrorist assault on the city of Mumbai in 2008, for which it holds Pakistan at least partly responsible. And Pakistan is concerned that a revitalized Afghan Taliban could embolden its home grown Taliban movement, further complicating its security issues.
mark.magnier@latimes.com
Anshul Rana in The Times' New Delhi bureau contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
latimes.com
Pakistan, India assess U.S. withdrawal plans
For neighbor Pakistan, the unexpectedly larger and faster planned troop pullout from Afghanistan is welcome, but for India, which has been cultivating ties with Kabul, any increased instability bodes ill.
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
June 24, 2011
Reporting from New Delhi
President Obama's announcement that the United States will pull 33,000 troops out of Afghanistan by the end of next summer was met with muted concern Thursday in India and Pakistan as analysts, policymakers and military brass scrambled to assess the implications for their respective nations.
Though Washington had telegraphed the troop reduction for months, it was larger and faster than many had expected.
In Pakistan, the news was generally applauded. The South Asian nation has bridled at U.S. regional influence, CIA drones in its airspace and what it saw as the American intrusion on its sovereignty in May in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the city of Abbottabad.
It shows that America is committed to withdrawing, said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani lieutenant general and now a military analyst. "That's welcome in Pakistan. A gradual withdrawal will be helpful for the region."
A reduced U.S. footprint in the region might allow Islamabad to expand its influence in Afghanistan. It also probably would reduce U.S. pressure on Pakistan to sever links between its security forces and homegrown militant groups, some of whom are viewed by Pakistanis as freedom fighters useful in countering neighbor and longtime rival India.
Many in India, on the other hand, expressed concern that the relatively sharp U.S. withdrawal would raise uncertainty in the region, increasing the risk that militancy in Pakistan and Afghanistan would spill across India's borders.
India is confident its relations with Afghanistan are solid, and the countries share a distrust of Pakistan's motives and its bid for enhanced influence in war-torn Afghanistan.
Pakistan will want to ensure that India doesn't align with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, a political rival to tribal groups allied with Islamabad, analysts said. It is also wary of India forming links with groups in southern Afghanistan that might ally with and embolden neighboring Baluch tribesmen seeking independence for Pakistan's Baluchistan province.
However, India's ability to counter Pakistani ambitions or otherwise exert its muscle in Afghanistan as U.S. troop numbers decline is severely limited by geography: Pakistan borders Afghanistan; India does not.
Pakistan controls the main road and port access to landlocked Afghanistan, limiting Indian trade links. And Pakistan can block energy pipeline routes to India from Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations.
"There is a limit on what India can do to influence Pakistani-Afghan relations," said Dipankar Banerjee, a former major general in the Indian army and director of New Delhi's Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. "And India has to accept those limitations."
India and Pakistan share an interest in a gradual, measured U.S. withdrawal that gives the region time to adjust and fill the vacuum in an orderly fashion, analysts said. A full-on civil war in Afghanistan would hurt everyone. Nor would Afghans fleeing any such meltdown be as welcome in Pakistan as they were during the 1980s fight against the Soviets, given Pakistan's economic troubles and domestic terrorism problems.
India and Pakistan also share an interest in limiting the rise of the Afghan Taliban, albeit for different reasons. India is wary of increased Islamic extremism in the neighborhood that could spark another attack like the terrorist assault on the city of Mumbai in 2008, for which it holds Pakistan at least partly responsible. And Pakistan is concerned that a revitalized Afghan Taliban could embolden its home grown Taliban movement, further complicating its security issues.
mark.magnier@latimes.com
Anshul Rana in The Times' New Delhi bureau contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
Is there a ban on reporting bad news from India?
A recent article from the Independent paper:
Is there a ban on reporting bad news from India?
• By Andrew Buncombe
• The Foreign Desk
• Wednesday, 22 June 2011 at 6:41 am
It was the writer and activist Arundhati Roy who set foreign journalists in India busily chattering recently. In an interview with Stephen Moss in the Guardian, Ms Roy was discussing the Maoist and Adavasi “resistance” to encroachment on tribal lands. Mr Moss, asked her why, “we in the West don’t hear about these mini-wars?”.
Ms Roy replied: “I have been told quite openly by several correspondents of international newspapers, that they have instructions – ‘No negative news from India’ – because it’s an investment destination. So you don’t hear about it. But there is an insurrection, and it’s not just a Maoist insurrection. Everywhere in the country, people are fighting.”
Mr Moss’s response was: “I find the suggestion that such an injunction exists – or that self-respecting journalists would accept it – ridiculous. Foreign reporting of India might well be lazy or myopic, [Thanks Stephen, that's very decent of you.] but I don’t believe it’s corrupt.”
I’ve been thinking about what both of them said, and discussing the matter with some colleagues based in India. I’ve never received a “no bad news” order from London and the colleagues I spoke with insisted that neither had they. Several things struck me:
In the last decade or so India has certainly been successful in re-branding its international image. Where once it was seen as a hopeless, overwhelmingly poor country, there has instead been focus on a newly aspirational middle-class and economic progress, the new “Shining India”. As a result, there are fewer stories about malnutrition (which still haunts huge numbers of Indians) but more about new airlines, coffee shops, call centres, the World Is Flat, eight per cent growth and the attendant changing structure of society, especially in urban India. Though things have probably shifted too much, the change in focus is understandable enough; the media is always looking for something new, something different, to report on. I also think that in India – as elsewhere in the world – the priorities of Western corporations sometimes find their way into the news agenda; every month or so, some article will ask when India will finally allow the likes of Wal-Mart and Tesco to operate here.
At the same time, does this stop “bad news” about India being broadcast or published? In the time I’ve been here, I’ve written about insurgencies, caste, poverty, farmer suicides, religious violence, killings in Kashmir, Hindu terror cells, corruption (a number of times), honour killings, slums, land battles and homelessness. In the last 18 months, The Independent has published three substantial pieces on the Maoists. My colleagues have done the same, travelling to Nyamgiri to write about the tribal people’s fight against mining company Vedanta, to the Maoist “infested” areas of Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, to Srinagar and Bihar, or working in Delhi where they highlighted the corruption and mis-management surrounding the Commonweath Games or else illegal child labour involved in the textile industry.
None of these issues could be considered positive for India’s image, and it’s true they are controversial. Invariably, articles that focus on such issues will be met by a barrage of condemnation on the web, usually from upper middle-class Indians who choose to believe the country has moved on from such things or else those living overseas. With some ugly and unhealthy exceptions, it must be said there is usually little interference from the Indian authorities.
I emailed Ms Roy, who I respect and admire even if I believe her analysis on some key issues is in need of some nuance, to ask if she had been misquoted and, if not, whether she could reveal the individuals labouring under the “no bad news” directive. She replied to say she had indeed been quoted correctly in the Guardian but that the correspondents she referred to had spoken to her “confidentially”. She said there had been two people who had told her this, which is a little different to “several” as she initially remarked.
Perhaps Mr Moss bears some of the blame for his question. Knowing that he was interviewing a leading Indian social activist, he might have spent a little more time researching the issues she has been writing about. He could have done little better than reading his own paper. In 2006, its correspondent spent several days travelling with the Maoists for a lengthy feature, while more recently, the paper has reported from the insurgent heartlands of West Bengal.
Perhaps the truth is that we’re all just too busy, or too lazy, to keep up with the news of any particular place, unless we make a conscious effort to do so. I chuckle, thinking that before moving to India four years ago, I had never heard of Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan (left). It now seems inconceivable that the man whose beaming face and bouffant hair greet me every day, from the Page 3 gossip stories to virtually every other television advert, was ever off the map.
UPDATE:
Since writing this, I’ve been contacted by a colleague who said they cannot interest their “editors in anything but stories of shiny new India”. When this person “pitches stories on issues of poverty, development, or those being left out of the Great Indian Miracle”, they are told it’s “old news”. The appetite of their desk is entirely for stories of growth and positive change.
This journalist says they did not speak to Ms Roy. Furthermore, this journalist said they had been told by a colleague who works for another international publication of an “identical problem”. The correspondent said their colleague was told by their desk: “Report the news. It is not news that there are poor people in India.”
@independent.co.uk
Is there a ban on reporting bad news from India?
• By Andrew Buncombe
• The Foreign Desk
• Wednesday, 22 June 2011 at 6:41 am
It was the writer and activist Arundhati Roy who set foreign journalists in India busily chattering recently. In an interview with Stephen Moss in the Guardian, Ms Roy was discussing the Maoist and Adavasi “resistance” to encroachment on tribal lands. Mr Moss, asked her why, “we in the West don’t hear about these mini-wars?”.
Ms Roy replied: “I have been told quite openly by several correspondents of international newspapers, that they have instructions – ‘No negative news from India’ – because it’s an investment destination. So you don’t hear about it. But there is an insurrection, and it’s not just a Maoist insurrection. Everywhere in the country, people are fighting.”
Mr Moss’s response was: “I find the suggestion that such an injunction exists – or that self-respecting journalists would accept it – ridiculous. Foreign reporting of India might well be lazy or myopic, [Thanks Stephen, that's very decent of you.] but I don’t believe it’s corrupt.”
I’ve been thinking about what both of them said, and discussing the matter with some colleagues based in India. I’ve never received a “no bad news” order from London and the colleagues I spoke with insisted that neither had they. Several things struck me:
In the last decade or so India has certainly been successful in re-branding its international image. Where once it was seen as a hopeless, overwhelmingly poor country, there has instead been focus on a newly aspirational middle-class and economic progress, the new “Shining India”. As a result, there are fewer stories about malnutrition (which still haunts huge numbers of Indians) but more about new airlines, coffee shops, call centres, the World Is Flat, eight per cent growth and the attendant changing structure of society, especially in urban India. Though things have probably shifted too much, the change in focus is understandable enough; the media is always looking for something new, something different, to report on. I also think that in India – as elsewhere in the world – the priorities of Western corporations sometimes find their way into the news agenda; every month or so, some article will ask when India will finally allow the likes of Wal-Mart and Tesco to operate here.
At the same time, does this stop “bad news” about India being broadcast or published? In the time I’ve been here, I’ve written about insurgencies, caste, poverty, farmer suicides, religious violence, killings in Kashmir, Hindu terror cells, corruption (a number of times), honour killings, slums, land battles and homelessness. In the last 18 months, The Independent has published three substantial pieces on the Maoists. My colleagues have done the same, travelling to Nyamgiri to write about the tribal people’s fight against mining company Vedanta, to the Maoist “infested” areas of Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, to Srinagar and Bihar, or working in Delhi where they highlighted the corruption and mis-management surrounding the Commonweath Games or else illegal child labour involved in the textile industry.
None of these issues could be considered positive for India’s image, and it’s true they are controversial. Invariably, articles that focus on such issues will be met by a barrage of condemnation on the web, usually from upper middle-class Indians who choose to believe the country has moved on from such things or else those living overseas. With some ugly and unhealthy exceptions, it must be said there is usually little interference from the Indian authorities.
I emailed Ms Roy, who I respect and admire even if I believe her analysis on some key issues is in need of some nuance, to ask if she had been misquoted and, if not, whether she could reveal the individuals labouring under the “no bad news” directive. She replied to say she had indeed been quoted correctly in the Guardian but that the correspondents she referred to had spoken to her “confidentially”. She said there had been two people who had told her this, which is a little different to “several” as she initially remarked.
Perhaps Mr Moss bears some of the blame for his question. Knowing that he was interviewing a leading Indian social activist, he might have spent a little more time researching the issues she has been writing about. He could have done little better than reading his own paper. In 2006, its correspondent spent several days travelling with the Maoists for a lengthy feature, while more recently, the paper has reported from the insurgent heartlands of West Bengal.
Perhaps the truth is that we’re all just too busy, or too lazy, to keep up with the news of any particular place, unless we make a conscious effort to do so. I chuckle, thinking that before moving to India four years ago, I had never heard of Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan (left). It now seems inconceivable that the man whose beaming face and bouffant hair greet me every day, from the Page 3 gossip stories to virtually every other television advert, was ever off the map.
UPDATE:
Since writing this, I’ve been contacted by a colleague who said they cannot interest their “editors in anything but stories of shiny new India”. When this person “pitches stories on issues of poverty, development, or those being left out of the Great Indian Miracle”, they are told it’s “old news”. The appetite of their desk is entirely for stories of growth and positive change.
This journalist says they did not speak to Ms Roy. Furthermore, this journalist said they had been told by a colleague who works for another international publication of an “identical problem”. The correspondent said their colleague was told by their desk: “Report the news. It is not news that there are poor people in India.”
@independent.co.uk
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