Thursday, March 7, 2024

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

Ric Elias was one amongst 155 passengers on the US Airways flight that had emergency landed in the Hudson River during the month of January 2009. None of the passengers had any hope of surviving but for the pilot who single-mindedly tried to avert the disaster, and eventually saved everyone on the ill-fated flight. Ric’s outlook on longevity changed that day as he realized that, like the courageous and skillful pilot, all it needs is to think about what lies ahead at any moment in time. Ric later remarked, ‘I think people get old when they stop thinking about the future.’ The quest for longevity is when people think about their dreams, their aspirations, and what they still look forward to – they are young. Simply put, overcoming fear of dying is longevity. 

Then there is a centimillionaire tech entrepreneur named Johnson, 46, who has spent most of the last three years in pursuit of deflecting death. Over $4 million has been spent by him on a life-extension system called Blueprint, aimed at vanquishing the ravages of time on his body. A team of doctors enforce a strict health regimen that includes gulping 111 pills a day to deaccelerate any act of ageing. Johnson’s quest is to turn his whole body over to an anti-aging algorithm. He believes death is optional, and he is not opting for it. The data compiled thus far suggests that Blueprint has been successful as it has given him the bones of a 30-year-old, and the heart of a 37-year-old. Only time will tell how far longevity experiment takes him to counter the popular adage that a man who has a long life has not lived enough.

With average life expectancy well into the late seventies, interest in prolonging life has provoked a new way of thinking. However, quest for increasing lifespan does not run concurrently to improving health span. Notching more and more birthdays while nursing an ageing life is a grim reminder of a hapless mythical Greek named Tithonus, who asked the gods for eternal life but forgot seeking eternal youth as well. The subject of longevity is undoubtedly complex, and there is no single pathway to achieving such an ambitious goal. Yet there is a sizeable number who have hit a century of survival, but for a vast majority living longer and living better continues to remain a distant dream. Longevity has puzzled humankind for millennia.            

Taking a deep dive into the world of longevity, longtime physician and surgical oncologist at the National Cancer Institute Dr Peter Attia has kept in view the Horsemen diseases viz., cancer, diabetes, heart and neurogenerative diseases. The very process of aging itself is what makes us vulnerable to these diseases, while also affecting our health span. Invariably, one has to pass through the valleys of cognitive, physical, or emotional destruction while negotiating old age. However, these are preventable provided proper tactics is applied in the early years. ‘The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining’. 

What makes this definitive enquiry that merges health span with lifespan in creating an interesting narrative on longevity is the openness with which both professional expertise and personal experience has been taken into account. Attia refers to Medicine 2.0 as a quick-fix mentality, short-term fixes for immediate problems like an infection or a broken bone. Sticking with this mentality can make one go only thus far and no further, leaving one on forever the merry-go-round of fad diets, trendy workouts, and miracle supplements. A shift in mindset to Medicine 3.0 requires an entirely different strategy.

Outlive provides an update on how far Medicine 2.0 has gone in addressing the Horseman diseases, which has supplanted fast death with slow death by adding few more years to life. Quoting innumerable studies and surveys, Attia explores the science of not just prolonging life but extending aliveness. It is in this respect that sleeping and emotional health gets prominence as performance-enhancing substance, not only physically but cognitively. Not without reason evolution has made both of these non-negotiable. Attia seems to have missed out on including the science and art of correct breathing in impacting both health span and lifespan.

Attia enlists five broad domains in Medicine 3.0: exercise, nutrition, sleep, emotional health, and health supplements. His Medicine 3.0 thesis is that if we address our emotional health, and do so early on, we will have a better chance of avoiding clinical mental health issues, and our overall health will benefit a great deal. However, dealing with emotional health is harder than physical health. The trouble is that people are often less able to recognize the need for emotional health, as there are unrecognizable signs and symptoms reflecting their condition. Antidepressants and mood stabilizers can often deploy, but mindfulness meditation is what can make all the difference.

Outlive is a tool book on how to live a long, meaningful, and fulfilling life. It is a groundbreaking manifesto on staying young, even as we grow older. Much of the source of our condition is in our own head, the impact of our own unguarded thoughts. In the first century AD, Seneca had expressed it a bit differently: ‘we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.’ Attia provokes his reader.to consider that there is no pharmacological magic bullet to treat all the scary stuff that we often talk about. Medicine 2.0 is relevant, but it doesn’t tell us everything we need to know about bodily processes that takes decades to unfold. Having tread long years in the world of medicine, Attia foray into the world of Medicine 3.0 is as ingenius so reflective in making a strong case for not only living longer but living better too. Attia leaves the reader to resolve if life is better lived as cool-headed Ric Elias or an agitated Johnson.        

Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity
by Dr Peter Attia
Vermilion/Penguin, London
Extent: 482, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in the Hindustan Times, March 7, 2024.        

Monday, February 19, 2024

The cow’s status doesn’t protect her

A senior lecturer at Deakin University in Australia, Yamini Narayanan exposes how the cow has been exploited to promote casteism and communalism. In an interview, she responds to questions that emerge from her ground-breaking book Mother Cow, Mother India. Edited excerpts.

Its political connotation notwithstanding, does cow vigilantism hold the ‘cow’ as a cultural symbol to promote vegetarianism? Why is she vulnerable to being a dairy or milch cow?

India is overwhelmingly and emphatically a non-vegetarian country, and cow vigilantes are not to be confused with animal activism whose overarching priority is usually veganism, a rejection of the consumption of all animal-derived products, including dairy and eggs, which are part of a vegetarian diet. Cow vigilantism is a mode of remaking the cow as a ‘Hindu’ body, and more specifically, as representing a Hindu state. And it is precisely the sacrality imposed on the cow that makes her vulnerable to being a ‘dairy’ or a ‘milch’ cow.

The need is to understand the politics of cow protectionism differently when we place the lived realities of cows and their infants at the center. Cows are bred for dairying in India, but the extreme and unfathomable violence inherent in dairying is linked with slaughter. Cows who are infertile, diseased, male etc. must be necessarily sent to slaughter.

The public meta-narrative is that cows are either abandoned on the road or sent to gaushalas, but the cold reality of dairy economics is animals bred and exploited for dairy must be eventually slaughtered when no longer producing lactate. This happens underground in India. However, framing the cow as ‘mother’ or ‘goddess’ is basically a gaslighting tactic that blurs the cold reality that the cow is a milk-producing resource and economics demands that the unproductive resources be treated — and disposed of — as such. In masking this reality, the cow’s sacred status intensifies her vulnerability to being used for dairy — it does not protect her or her calf.

Hasn’t the ‘cow’ been consciously used as a political tool to promote identity? Is the idea of a nation-state (around ‘cow’) aimed at political control over the population at the cost of perpetuating social and economic inequality?

In India, cows have been made a ‘Hindu animal’ — and as ostensibly representing a Hindu state. Cows are of course, not naturally Hindu (or of any other religion), which are anthropocentric identifiers of the human self and human others. However, making cows Hindu and banning their slaughter as protection for ‘Hindu animals’, serves a divisive purpose in an aspirational Hindu state. My book, however, exposes the inherent contradiction — and impossibility — of banning cow slaughter in a state that heavily promotes and subsidizes dairying. Dairy is a slaughter industry, so a cow slaughter ban is a plain economic impossibility.

Animal slaughter in any country is usually undertaken by some of the poorest, and most socially vulnerable communities. In India, it is some of the poorest engaging in slaughter, usually of the Dalit and Muslim communities, and who are at enormous risk of getting lynched, raped and killed, for essentially supporting the dairy industry which is both state-supported, and indeed, constitutive of the Hindu identity itself. No Hindu ritual is conducted without milk, ghee and butter, which all require cow slaughter.

Could a parallel be drawn between how we treat the Ganges and a cow?

Absolutely this parallel can and must be drawn. What both the Ganga and the cow demonstrate, is the harm that has been done to both, in the name of their sacralization. Sacralization is a form of objectification, and any objectification that is non-consensual, is profoundly harmful to the one being sacralized. The Ganga and the cow have both been harmed — precisely in the name of being sacred — quite literally to their deaths.

Why is it that protectionism pertains to just one of the dairy animals (i.e. cow), and neither to its progeny nor its male co-genitor?

Vegetarianism is as violent as carnivorism, as vegetarianism involves the consumption of dairy and eggs, which are both deeply violent, extractive industries, that ultimately require slaughter of the animals. The fact that vegetarianism is also violent is universally blurred.

How does a society accommodate in daily life the binary of the ‘cow as a sacred animal’ and the ‘cow roaming the streets’ as a symbol of neglect?

Yamini Narayanan
In Indian society, we have come to normalize a huge spectrum of violence against animals. Cows, and indeed pigs, dogs, cats, pigeons, donkeys and so many others, eking out a bare existence by foraging in toxic rubbish dumps, is just one of them. What animals on the street embody, is a chronic state of raving hunger and disease, and also often a fear of human cruelty and violence, especially mothers seeking to feed and protect their newborns and infants. The scale of global animal hunger is scarcely understood and cannot be underestimated. Animals overwhelmingly live, exist and are born into states of chronic hunger — and hunger is something we consider to be one of the most elemental states of suffering when it comes to the members of our own species.

We need to broaden the conversation from fetishizing the cow as the exclusive concern. We need a clear-sighted animal politics that goes beyond cow politics — and radically expands our concern for animals beyond fascist, religious, or cultural politics around one species.

Can cow protectionism stand the test of its contribution to global warming through methane gas emission?

Cow protectionism’s sole objective is to perpetuate the idea of India as a Hindu state. It has never claimed to do anything else. It certainly has no role in mitigating climate change — it can intensify it however, if it allows the reckless breeding of cows to support dairy consumption, while pretending that dairy has nothing to do with cow slaughter.

First published in The Hindu on Feb 11, 2024.

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Road building has a never-ending future

For Gandhi, roads were an instrument of oppression.

Road building has caught peoples’ imagination as a harbinger of change, and nothing suits any politician better than to turn it into a reality. No wonder, roadbuilding has been naturalized to the point of common sense in recent times, integrating roadbuilding into a system of governance as part of the development imperative that promotes politics of power. Modern roads are paved versions of age-old pathways which are being promoted and sold to people like any other commodity. Roads have turned out to be an enchanted form of infrastructure that is celebrated to the extent that there is no room for asking dissenting questions. 

Social anthropologist Edward Simpson, a professor at the University of London, has taken on the road to ask discomforting questions on roadbuilding to the roadmen of South Asia. Exploring the political economy of road building, the author questions: Why are so many roads being built in an era of human-induced climate change? What do the roadmen think about their work and the future of the planet? And how did these become central to the region's nationalist and developmental agenda in the first place? Answers aren’t easy to come by, but it is certain that the project of road building is a sure way to win currency and power. 

Roads do transform ways of life and are therefore a self-reproducing system that demands expansion and growth all the time. Consequently, roads have become important sites for inauguration ceremonies and campaign trails. Combining the politics and poetics of road infrastructure, Simpson follows the money to provide a geopolitical narrative that puts road building as a never-ending future. Such is the desire to stay connected that the uncomfortable complicities of roads to impact climate change holds little relevance. Road building from the realm of ideas, discourse, and rhetoric presents an interesting, but controversial story.

Highways to the End of the World digs into the history of road building, how it passed through technological phases and became part of ideological projects. What makes this book absorbing reading is the ethnographic account of the road as a way of telling a story, that cuts a route through landscapes, lives and times. ‘I was interested in learning what people say when they look at road’, quips Simpson, ‘as roads raise fundamental questions about the world and the way we relate to one another’. Gandhi had described roads as instruments of oppression, while for Nehru roads evoked modern amenities and methods. However, over the years roads have become comparative national identity projects in both India and Pakistan, giving birth to political strategies of none other than Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif and India’s Nitin Gadkari. It is hard not to agree with the author’s contention that both of them exploited the moral and anticipatory potential of roads for their popularity and electoral success.    

The ethnographic account on roads is illustrative of the broader processes and thought politics that promote a form of market that positions roads as a commodity. Isn’t road part of the economy of elite? Hasn’t levels of corruption in road building been something of a national joke? Despite John Kennedy’s claim that ‘America is rich because American roads are good’, the roadbuilding in the US is not without its share of criticism. Picking up on his longer-term critique of planned obsolesce in his book ‘A Nation of Strangers’, journalist Vance Packard has stated that ‘the mobility enabled by roads and cars is the root of social isolation and loneliness.’ Eventually roads are part of a Faustian bargain, the sacrifice of everything to satisfy desire. 

Simpson’s multi-layered assessment of roads helps realize that road building is more than just the cost of land, working manpower, and inert materials. The narrative on roads asserts that there is nothing better as roads are the only way to address gross inequality and support common responsibility for the future. Travelling across highways in the sub-continent, Simpson found much to the contrary with the highways facilitating drug trafficking, encouraging sex trade, and for connecting land mafia. Not without reason had Gandhi found that the road and its machines enslave people, not only by exploiting their labor but also by binding them to particular forms of consumption. One might wonder if roads contribute to the long-term betterment of the world.

Highways to the End of the World provides a panoramic but contentious view on road building. It is an important anthropological study that examines history, sociology, economy and ecology of road building. It is an inter-disciplinary scrutiny on the process of road building that runs through an unequal world in which scale, friction and speed take the reader along invisible routes ridden with global debt, money laundering, and political conspiracy. It is a must-read book for those who consider road building as a burden on the economy and ecology.   

Highways To the End of The World
by Edward Simpson
Hurst, London
Extent: 351, Price: Rs. 3052.

First published in the Hindustan Times on Feb 5, 2024.

Saturday, February 3, 2024

A pop star's raw and stinging honesty

Much is known about the tortuous life of award-winner pop icon, but fighting to take control of life back from patriarchal exploitation and control deserves to be read as an honest autobiography about motherhood, freedom, and hope. Born into a disturbed childhood, Britney was a little girl with big dreams who only wanted her dad to stop drinking, and her mom to stop yelling. None of it worked her way, instead she was precocious to drinking, smoking and boys at an early age. Losing control over oneself at an early age made her guilty conscience with a lot of shame, with the family considering her to be plain bad. Admitting to her own bad deeds, Britney believed in karma catching up with her.

The Woman in Me tells a focused story of a teenager who learnt too early in her life that the music industry, or for that matter the whole world, is set up more for men.  Britney’s career was not spared, she was subjected to disempowering narratives. Conservatorship was legally thrust on her, which is usually served on people who lack mental capacity to do anything for themselves.  Considered as a teenager corrupting the youth, she was perceived as dangerous for the society. To get her back on track, her father was entrusted with conservatorship to control Britney and her resources. She was literally treated as if she was a criminal or predator by her own parents.

What made the state of California pursue the conservatorship upon Britney? Why the court-appointed lawyer didn’t help her? And, why a man like her father – an alcoholic, a failed businessman, and an abusive parent – was allowed to be her legal guardian to control everything she had? Britney’s freedom was curtailed while her earnings were siphoned to help their cash flow. Neither could she contact her kids nor was allowed access to her mobile phone. Such indignation persisted for no less than thirteen years. 

Anyone in such situation would have been pushed to a breaking point. But not Britney, who reflected the enduring power of music and singing. ‘Singing takes me to a mystical place where anything is possible’. As a teenage pop star, she was eyeballed as a pretty sex object, a double denim-wearing singer. On top, the conservatorship tenure left her with a mix of shock and sadness. She was literally exiled from herself for over a decade. Out of the inordinate ordeal, she now wants not to be someone who other people want but to actually find herself. 

The Woman in Me is an honest reflection on what others thought about the pop star, and how she was subjected to constant bullying and relentless abuse for not confirming to the template. Success has a cost that the pop star had to bear for being half herself and half fictional. Britney confesses that fame is real for those who know how to make fame work for them. For her, there was an essence of real life missing from it. Perhaps, the reason for her to be rebellious and shave her head in public in 2007 to demonstrate it. 

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Britney reveals all that she went through her momentous but disturbing career. Without doubt, she could not have been anything but a singer which helped her express herself exactly as she wanted to be seen and heard. ‘Singing took me into the presence of divine.’ Multiplatinum Grammy awards, and more than 100 million records sold worldwide bear testimony to her fledgling singing career. What comes out clear is that the world is rarely kind to successful women. 

It is hard to imagine what all a carefree popstar had to endure; for being lonely at the top. It is hard to fathom that someone who could perform for thousands at a time could backstage be gripped with panic. She has come out stronger to tell her story. ‘You have to speak that you are feeling even if it scares you.’ Freedom for Britney means being goofy and silly, being able to make mistakes, and learn from them. From being passive and pleasing, Britney has come out being a strong and confident woman. The story is indeed inspiring.

The Woman in Me conveys optimistic narrative for women to stand for what they are, or what they intend to become. What kindles a ray of hope is that women themselves have woken up to the cost of being subjugated to the opportunity of asserting their identity. 

The Woman in Me 
by Britney Spears
Simon & Schuster, London
Extent: 275, Price: Rs. 999.

First published in Deccan Herald on Feb 4, 2024.

Thursday, January 11, 2024

2023: The world in non-fiction

Even in the US (world’s richest country) one in seven persons continue to live below the poverty line which hasn’t shifted in the last five decades. Leading expert on poverty and homelessness and a Professor of Sociology at the Princeton, Mathew Desmond argues that to understand the causes of poverty the need is to look beyond the poor. More than the lack of monetary resources, poverty manifests itself as constant fear, persistent trauma, sustained instability, and social exclusion for the teeming millions. More than new policies, suggests Desmond, the rich need to put themselves back in the narrative to become poverty abolitionists, refusing to live as unwitting enemies of the poor to counter the of repeated adage ‘the poor you have always with you’. Poverty, by America (Allen Lane, Rs 1399) is an essential reading by a Pulitzer awarded writer.  

Emperor of Rome (Profile/Hachette, Rs. 1599) is a fascinating account of the social and political world of almost thirty Roman Emperors for 221 years – from Julius Caesar to Alexander Severus. Delving into the lives of the richest, most luxuries, most extreme, most powerful, and most deadly who ruled Rome till 235 CE, Cambridge Professor of Classics Mary Beard not only helps in understanding ancient political culture better but opens our own eyes to the politics of the modern world too. As in the past, autocracy continues to upturn the natural order of things by replacing reality with sham, undermining our trust in what we think we see. 

Divorce has become more of a norm than exception, with any number of subjective interpretations on offer to explain this growing trend. Having gone through it, Shasvathi Siva concludes that divorce in itself is not a bad marriage. Instead, it serves a savior not only for estranged couples but their respective families too. But it leaves the couple stamped and branded, leaving behind feelings of constant ebb and flow. However, one would need to work through such feelings and come out with the head held high. Divorce Is Normal (Penguin, Rs 399) is an invaluable companion for anyone on the verge of taking a call on separation and divorce. 

Women need inspiration and resilience to overcome patriarchal tyranny and religious bigotry. Feminist Noorjahan Bose’s compelling memoir presents a story of courage and
determination in Daughter of the Agunmukha (Hurst, Rs. 2021), which reflects author’s affinity with the fiery spirit of a deltaic river in Bangladesh. Despite being abused by male relatives with persistent social inequalities, Bose worked her way through all odds to emerge a leading feminist campaigner. It is a moving account of her personal triumph to piece together shattered life that exposes regional and religious parameters of subjugated identity thrust on women. Only fiery spirit could break such a social construct. 

Oprah Winfrey has witnessed abundant happiness in her long-running television show and Harvard University Professor Arthur Brooks has researched the meaning of happiness in his distinguished academic career to brew together an emotional caffeine to turn meaningful ideas into doable experiences towards mainstreaming happiness all across. Build the Life You Want (Ebury, Rs 799) brings together the art and science of living in the present moment while disabling the entrenched human ability to rerun past events and pre-run future scenarios. It is a meditative experience on getting ready to rebuild life which is both self-serving and valuable to others. 

Aryans (Hachette, Rs. 799) is timely research on the reality of a major movement of
people into India over three millennia ago, the historical evidence of which has been conveniently appropriated by the overwhelming politico-religious ascendency despite the historical, linguistic and paleogenetic evidence. Being a part of popular imagination, the book adds possible and probable layers of complexity to the narrative. A product of a meticulous scholarship, Charles Allen concludes that the idea of a pure ‘Aryan race’ has no scientific meaning. The book makes an interesting reading, helping the reader to see how absorbing history can be.       

Horses may have reduced presence due to increased automation, but it is the horse that takes us through the rich history of India. An interesting tour de force, The Tale of the Horse (Pan MacMillan, Rs.599) is an absorbing and entertaining mix of stories and histories which reflect the lived reality of the horse across cultural, social and political landscape. From the kings and traders to grooms and bandits, the horse has been instrumental in shaping sub-continent’s cultural and political history. Yashaswini Chandra has brought to light a relatively unexplored subject that provides a fascinating perspective on the horse as a ‘sentient being’. 

Domestication of cats in India may have been a recent phenomenon but cats have
been present in our art, literature and speech for aeons. Cats are considered clever and cunning but have been showered with affection and admiration in stories, poetry and proverbs. Renowned art historian B N Goswamy has presented a delightful picture of The Indian Cat (Aleph, Rs.1299), as evident in our written and oral literatures. It is an immensely readable book with stories on cats drawn from Jataka Tales and Panchtantra which justify the reason for the feline addressed as a close relation with affection.   

First published in Deccan Herald on Jan 1, 2024. 

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Towards net zero emission

Over reliance on coal as a source of energy and commitment to attain net zero emission by 2070 is delivering contradicting picture.

India’s environmental crises remains unaddressed partly because the expanding middle class focuses on search for private solutions that are at a cost to the environment, and the poor. For a majority of them, diesel generators secure reliable source of energy; groundwater pumps ensure water supply; air purifiers counter air pollution, and air conditioners work against summer heat. The prevalence of these market-led private solutions reduces political pressure to act. No surprise, the institutions that govern environmental matters continue to remain weak. The fact that a growing economy with the world’s largest population has yet to square up with global per capita energy use, which when achieved will have unimaginable impact on carbon budget and consequent climate change. Should that be the likely scenario, India would be both a major contributor to and a potential victim of climate change. This the world would not desire the most populous country to stand out for. Replacing the vicious cycle with a virtuous one may not be easy though. 

India’s energy consumption pattern is no longer a domestic issue, it has implications far and wide at the global level. Its over reliance on coal as a source of energy and its commitment to attain net zero emission by 2070 deliver contradicting picture. Transition from a coal-based power sector to a renewables-based energy sector is both feasible and desirable to mitigate climate change while delivering energy security and reducing air pollution. However, regional variations in energy production and consumption are too huge to provide a clear response. Johannes Urpelainen, a Professor of Energy, Resources, and Environment at the John Hopkins School of Advanced Internation Studies, draws a comprehensive picture on country’s complicated environmental situation to assert that only by reinforcing current policies can sizeable gains be reaped by 2030. Curiously and somewhat paradoxically, India has laws but lacks order to implement them.     

India has started on a low-carbon pathway but any approach to accelerate it at the cost of economic development is off the table. In this thin volume, Urpelainen has painted the complex environmental scenario of a country that is both full of potential as well as is afflicted by greater problems. However, within it lies the scope for the country to claim leadership role in global environmental politics. For such a distinction to be achieved, the country will need to ensure that its reduced water and carbon footprints become the guiding spirit of sustainable development, with a strong equity focus.  

Energy and Environment in India is an excellent reference book, that has profound reflections to trigger fresh debate on the subject. Urpelainen wonders if there are easy answers to most entrenched social and environmental challenges. What he instead does is to present possible qualitative scenarios. The first may see India as a giant with clay feet governed by authoritarian populism, wherein disappointing economic growth and environmental destruction drives a billion people into despair. The second and most likely scenario may be that the country charts an unabated economic growth that fuels inequality but lacks much-needed investments in climate-proofing. The third scenario is utopian that strikes a balance between poverty reduction, climate adaptation, and reduction in environmental footprints of the economy. Each of the three scenarios are discussed in detail for their potentials and possibilities. What comes clear is the compelling need for the political leadership to formulate effective policies, and to resist the temptation to exempt the mighty corporations from strict environmental rules.

What makes this volume distinct is its assessment of the energy and environmental problems from within the complex social, political, and historical settings. The book convincingly argues that to produce fair, equitable, and sustainable outcomes for almost two billion argumentative Indians, the country must strive for a sustainable future through democratic norms. Rarely have democracy and environment being dealt with in the same breath.  

Energy and Environment in India
by Johannes Urpelainen
Columbia University Press, New York
Extent: 220, Price: US$ 30.

First published in The Hindu on Dec 17, 2023.

Saturday, December 16, 2023

AI : Where is the control key

The proliferation of technology in waves has been the story, but what if the wave turns out to be a tsunami?

As has been during the previous technological waves – the steam, mechanical and fuel automation - there remains both denial and stoicism for the coming wave of artificial intelligence, A.I. Will the new wave be useful or dangerous, or both. While there are skeptics who argue that the power of AI. has been overestimated, there are others who believe it will accelerate unprecedented human progress. Geoffrey Hinton, known as the father of AI, is worried that artificial brains may indeed transcend human limits. As the boundaries between the real and the virtual are fast disappearing, technology is indeed expanding what it means to be human. 

Each technological wave in the last 100 years did change the world despite Luddite protests, named after a mythical figure, called Ned Ludd, that had challenged automation of textile manufacturing to begin with. Their pain and disruption were real, but so have been the improvements in living standards that we enjoy unthinkably till today. The proliferation of technology in waves has been the story of Homo technologicus ever since, but Sulayman’s concern is what if the wave turns out to be a tsunami? With AI fast outperforming all human cognitive abilities, the unprecedented opportunities on offer hold dangerous consequences too. 

The basic premise for any technological progress is to enrich our lives, and that has broadly been the case with it thus far. However, artificial intelligence and synthetic biology are two general purpose technologies whose scope of impact still remains understated. Given that these technologies hyper-evolve with an increasingly autonomous asymmetric impact, it generates powerful incentives for geopolitical competition with massive financial rewards but without a strong regulatory mechanism. The consequences of AI powered automated wars, bio-engineered pandemics, and technological authoritarianism have already been put to practice. A founder of two AI companies, Sulayman stresses the compelling need for ‘containing’ uncontainable technologies because our species is not wired to grapple with technological transformation at this scale, let alone the potential of technology to belittle and fail us.   

The Coming Wave is absolutely clear, seamlessly compassionate, and immensely powerful listing of the most consequential issues of our times. Behind technological breakthroughs have been people but not anymore as AI has taken over people in the present scheme of things. Think of Open AI’s GPT models which are brain like as they involve billions of artificial neurons, profoundly different from human brain. The artificial neural nets don’t acquire knowledge organically as humans do, by having experiences and reality, but use a combination of data immortality and computing replicability to take over biological intelligence. 

There is no denying the fact that AI and immersive media will permeate society, blurring the boundaries between the real and the virtual while unleashing significant new risks to our privacy, autonomy, and even our identity. Not far is the time when the majority of our daily interactions will not be with other people but with AI, if not already there. While unfolding significant features of the technological wave of intelligence, Suleyman enlists several critical aspects that hold the potential to amplify fragility of human survival – with a power to destroy us as well. In saying so, however, the techpreneur author remains optimist.

Global living conditions may be better today than at any time in the past, yet there is lot yet to be achieved.  The Coming Wave cautions that even in best-case scenarios the coming wave will be an immense shock to the systems governing societies. The question worth exploring is whether the nation-states are in any shape to meet the challenges ahead? Declining public trust, rising inequality, and a warming climate is unlikely to absorb the destabilizing force of the wave. The essential challenge, the author argues, is to maintain control over powerful technologies.  

AI is not only a technology but a way of future life that is hard to imagine and comprehend. No wonder, following the release of GPT-4, thousands of AI scientists called for a six-month moratorium on further research on the most powerful AI models. Despite debates and discussions on the emerging possibilities of AI, rarely anything is heard about containing it. Suleman makes a compelling case for policy makers and security experts to address the ‘containment challenge’ by developing regulatory framework for AI that works well in places as diverse as the Netherlands and Nicaragua, New Zealand and Nigeria. The Coming Wave provides a much-needed narrative on the potentially anticipated and yet disastrous consequences of AI. The easy-to-read book provides a persuasive roadmap for containing the technology rather than to be contained in it. 

The Coming Wave 
by Mustafa Suleyman 
Bodley Head/Penguin RandomHouse, New Delhi
Extent: 332, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in Deccan Herald on Dec 10, 2023.

Friday, December 1, 2023

Life amidst the dead

The theatre of death has remained a burning spectacle.  

The ceaselessly burning pyre at Manikarnika Ghat in Banaras is a living spectacle, where death asserts itself as the last witness to life. That cremation along the banks of the sacred Ganges on the steps of this ghat alone can liberate one’s soul from the endless cycle of death and rebirth is entrenched in the Hindu psyche. It is at Manikarnika Ghat that Lord Shiva whispers the ferryboat mantra into the ears of the dead before escorting their souls to heaven. So enduring is this belief that countless Hindu families prefer to have their loved ones cremated at this ghat. On this belief rests the ritual of sending off the departed from this ghat. 

The sacred fire at Manikarnika is what makes this place special. It is unclear when and how the sacred fire was first lit. It is used to set dead bodies alight. It is believed that, without this, the soul may not achieve moksha. Lighting each pyre with the sacred fire is considered both auspicious and crucial. The sacred flame has been burning for centuries and this has made Manikarnika ghat the unofficial headquarters of the corpse-burning business. No wonder then that mourners queue to give their loved ones a spiritually dignified send-off at this specific ghat. For others, the theatre of death remains a burning spectacle.  

Manikarnika ghat is perceived as a place for the dead; but it is a place for the living too. Fire on the Ganges portrays the lives of the Dalit community entrusted by Hindu society to perform its ancient funeral services. The Doms are keepers of the sacred flame. They are also untouchables, who lead a life that is often crueler than death itself. Bound by traditions, this Dalit community lights funeral pyres and carries the stench of death back in their daily lives. Their essential traditional role in cremation notwithstanding, the community has not been spared caste prejudice.      

Poor and socially neglected, the Doms face persistent acts of oppression by the upper castes, who have an overpowering hold on their lives. They give the dead a respectable send-off, but their lives remain at a mercy. By studying the lives of some three dozen inter-related individuals from the community, the author Radhika Iyengar pieces together a narrative about their struggles for self-respect and growth. The stories of those whose livelihoods depend on the dead are heartbreaking and uplifting too. Clearly, the voice of the voiceless is worth listening to.    

Why don't they escape their circumstances, you ask. To venture out in search of another job is a nightmare for the Doms. “People still consider us untouchables, if inadvertently touched they immediately run off to take a bath,” says one. Consequently, the idea of seeking a job outside remains an alien concept. An inward-looking community, it continues to align itself to the diktats of orthodoxy and to practices imposed by the caste system.

Fire on the Ganges is possibly the first attempt to chronicle the lives of those who give the dead an essential send-off. Banares may have got a facelift in recent times, but the burning pyres still obscure the lives of the community engaged in putting the dead to rest. The corpse burners toil in a debilitating work environment; Community children scavenge unburnt firewood at the pyres for domestic use and the young steal and resell good-quality shrouds. Survival amidst the dead remains a daily reality.

Can they ever escape the caste system that has forced them to burn corpses, even if the task has been glorified for centuries as the only way of providing moksha? Iyengar gives voice to the feeling and concerns of community members, many of whom are trying to free themselves from this doomed existence. While some are moving out in search of education and jobs, others are following their hearts and pursuing love interests from different castes. Yet, escape is no less an ordeal. What eventually emerges is the sociocultural irony that allows little scope for Doms to escape the ordeal of corpse burning.

Written with empathy and concern, Iyengar presents lived reality and compels the reader not just to acknowledge the plight of the Doms but also confront their own complicity. She presents some difficult questions too: since the Doms are doomed to burn the dead, shouldn't they be given an economically and socially respectable position in society? This is especially pertinent given that no upper caste Hindu would ever take on the task of burning corpses even though it has been glorified for centuries as the only way for the deceased individual to attain salvation. Fire on the Ganges makes for interesting reading. It draws attention to an essential social act that doesn’t get the attention it deserves while also helping shape our collective understanding of India.  

Fire on the Ganges: Life among the dead in Banaras
by Radhika Iyengar
HarperCollins, New Delhi
Extent: 482, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in Hindustan Times on Dec 2, 2023.

Thursday, November 9, 2023

A Walk Among the Shadows

The stark fact is that traditions are so deep-rooted in the minds of people that reform becomes difficult.

Driven by journalistic trademark sense of curiosity and determination to unveil onerous social beliefs, Arun investigates how the banned devadasi (meaning ‘female slave of God’) system has continued illegally with its roots firmly entrenched in the social milieu of caste-based discrimination in the country. Much has been written on the age-old tradition of devadasi but the shocking fact is that the lethal combination of poverty, patriarchy and discrimination continues to exploit women behind the religious dogma. Banned across many states, the devadasi system may have lost its traditional status but that it persists as prostitution and slavery is both shocking and disgusting. Sacred Sins is unseen and untold account of the lives of those women who are the unfortunate discards of our society.

Winner of the 2019 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, the translation of Visudhapapangalude India unearths the religious subjugation and consequent sexual exploitation of women buried beneath multi-layered narratives of faith and history. What began as a short report on the closing of dance bars in Mangalore turned into an extensive investigation spanning seven states, connecting the intricate web of old beliefs with new-age oppression against women. From Uchangi in Karnataka to Peddapuram in Andhra, and from Puri in Odisha to Jalangi in Bengal, and from Vindavan in Uttar Pradesh to Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Arun found the cross-cutting organic link in the artful exploitation of women who bear the brunt of society’s failings. ‘The stark fact is that traditions are so deep-rooted in the minds of people that reform becomes difficult’.

Not much seems to have changed ever since Amrapali was declared Nagarvadhu (royal courtesan) during the time of Buddha. The practice of dedicating women to a particular deity or royalty has continued ever since, as the society has been found wanting on questioning the age-old practice. The practice of freeing a woman eternally from widowhood by marrying her to a God is beset with deep discrimination and potential abuse in a male-dominated society. Written with deep empathy and social concern, Arun questions if legal provisions alone can uproot a social evil without addressing the core issues of income inequality and gender justice. No surprise, the devadasi practice has continued covertly despite a ban since 1982.

Sacred Sins makes disturbing reading about the tradition that has continued illegally even after the ban. Subsequent to the ban, the government claims to have secured pensions and other benefits for devadasis. However, the disturbing news is that the actual number of devadasis is more than what the government survey reveals. It is so because to avail pension a woman ought to be a devdasi first! Is it a well-thought-out provision? Further, the government and society have yet to show commitment to rehabilitate those marginalized by the new law.

The heart-wrenching stories and shocking revelations would lead discerning readers to question the logic of parents’ dedicating young girls to temples, knowing well that they would end-up as mistresses of upper-caste men and abandoned once they are older. Can the government prohibit divine customs which the orthodox hold sacrosanct and believe that if discontinued the entire village of theirs will plunge into destruction. ‘Right and wrong are always relative based on the traditions held close by the society.’      

Arun concludes that the element of caste and socioeconomic background are two fundamental aspects that must be taken into account because these factors, strictly interwoven, contribute to keeping this age-old practice of devadasi alive. Further, the patriarchal values are held firm by religious ideas and practices, which impose controls over woman by patronizing such traditions. More than enforcing the law to transform the plight of women, the author suggests, the need is to focus on transforming the economic situation of vulnerable households to avoid falling into the traditional trap. There is more to life than falling into the ritualistic display of grief.

The strong historical lineage of devadasi institution may have undergone many changes, but it continues to remain an integral part of the temple organization. The challenge is to examine and strengthen the reformist agenda for abolition Ing the tradition under the prevailing political environment. While presenting a shocking, empathetic, and hopeful picture on devadasis, Sacred Sins may help readers become more understanding of the social evil that need to be abandoned. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception.

Sacred Sins: Devadasis in Contemporary India
by Arun Ezhuthachan
Hachette, New Delhi
Extent: 482, Price: Rs. 799. 

First published in Deccan Herald on Nov 5, 2023.

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Search for Buddhist Heritage

Buddha was a master teacher who catered his message for different audiences—different strokes for different folks.

Shortlisted for the $75,000 Cundill History Prize, Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India offers a new perspective on the history and revival of Buddhism in India. In an interview, Douglas Ober, an honorary research associate in the Centre for India and South Asia Research at the University of British Columbia, captures the contemporary relevance of the Buddha. 

Won't you agree that Buddhism as a religion may have been rediscovered, but its universal values and morals have remained integral to the country's culture? Isn't acknowledgement and acceptance of such values across other religions more important than the spread of Buddhism?     

Buddhism doesn’t possess a monopoly on universal values -- but I am skeptical of the narrative that justifies Buddhism’s historical erasure by arguing that it does not matter because its system of values and morals were purportedly carried on elsewhere. Gandhi and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had argued in various ways that as a branch of Hinduism, Buddhism didn’t offer anything different than what ‘reformed’ Hinduism already possessed. But by adopting this view we end up denying Buddhist traditions and practices, their intrinsic identity and autonomy, in effect falsifying and erasing their distinctive histories and pathways. Understanding Buddhism as just a series of values, which secular modernists have been trying to do to Buddhism for the past 150 years, turns it into something that is incidental and can be just as easily sought elsewhere.

Didn't Buddha attack popular religion for its ceremonial superstitions by laying emphasis on logic, reason and experience? Did he do so to create another religion, or the essence of his teachings was to inspire and educate society to rise above prevailing religious dogmas?   

That is the classic modernist review of the Buddha. The truth, however, is that even our most nuanced understandings of the Buddha paint a somewhat contradictory picture. Trying to locate the Buddha in history and separate him from what the earliest records stress is a bit like trying to separate a flower from its scent. There is a serious debate about whether the Buddha actually lived in a Brahamnised-context. If he didn’t then many of the later anti-Brahmanical and anti-Vedic elements contained in the earliest suttas/sutras could be later interpolations. So, was the Buddha anti-ritual? The suttas reveal that he was a critic of certain types of priestcraft and societal constraints. But the prevalence of ritual practice and animist cults evidenced among even the earliest Buddhist communities suggests that reason and rationality coincided with the ethereal and mystical. Perhaps there was a kind of cognitive dissonance or perhaps there were tensions with regard to these differences. But if we accept the argument of early Buddhists, then we must also remember that the Buddha was a master teacher who catered his message for different audiences—different strokes for different folks.

You assert that Buddhism has been an emerging phenomenon, but the numbers don't add up to show that Buddhism as a religion has gained deeper roots. As per 2011 Census the total Buddhist population in India is less than 0.5 percent. Should numbers be important or the actual acceptance of values?  

There are different ways of understanding Buddhism’s influence and growth. Leaving aside Census figures, the fact that there are some 8 million Buddhists in India today, compared to the roughly 200,000 listed in the first Census after Independence is remarkable. These numbers also point to a contradiction. Less than one percent of the populace formally identifies as Buddhist but then Buddhism plays an immense role in modern India’s foreign policies and national representation. India’s Buddhist heritage has played a critical role in its foreign diplomacy, from the political left to the political right, from Nehru’s bodhi-tree diplomacy of the 1950s to Modi’s social media campaigns with Chinese and Japanese heads of state. Clearly, the government recognizes Buddhism as a source of social and political capital. Statistics don’t offer a snapshot on cultural influences.

Hasn’t the anti-caste activism (by Ambedkar) isolated those who converted to Buddhism, and led to mischaracterization of the radical remodeling of Buddhism? Rather than cutting across castes, has this not ended up creating an outward identity without transforming the social realities for those who joined it?    

You’re certainly right. It has certainly alienated a lot of people and many wrongly (I think) saw Ambedkar’s Buddhism as something of a deviant sect. It faced criticism from many different quarters. Some of the skepticism is borne out of political differences, including caste-based tensions; some stems from his hermeneutical strategies and disregard for other Buddhist traditions. As for the historical moment in which Ambedkar operated, his Buddhism wasn’t all that radical, but the anti-caste activism alienated many Buddhists, both Indians and non-Indians. The Buddhist element to his politics also sits uneasily with many people otherwise committed to Ambedkar. But I think the return to Buddhism was not merely about creating an outward identity. The act of conversion was symbolic but also had practical significance. It was a way to assert one’s self-worth and dignity. It provided a sense of solidarity and belonging for those who had long been ostracized and oppressed. While the conversion may not have immediately transformed the social realities of those who joined, it initiated a process of challenging caste practices, even as it heightened some caste divisions. It is true that Ambedkar’s vision of Buddhism becoming the dominant faith of India never materialized so his revolution remains incomplete. Over time, the impact of these efforts may become more evident. After all, Rome wasn’t built overnight.

Do you foresee any possibility of an intersectional relationship between Buddhism and Sanatan? 

I think history shows that there are real possibilities for a relationship to emerge. One has to remember that the president of the All-India Hindu Mahasabha in 1935 was a Buddhist monk! While the Hindu Mahasabha was far more than a Sanatani Dharma organization at the time and represented many liberal and reforming Hindu elements, there is this long tradition of Buddhists and Sanatan Dharma Hindus working alongside one another in the past century. But now, I see less possibility of a Sanatani-Buddhist relationship forming. There is a deep-seated lack of trust on both sides and it would take a profoundly charismatic leader to reconcile that.

Hasn’t Buddha’s meditation practice (Vipasana) done better than Buddhism as a religion in engaging millions to lead a fuller life away from religious dogmas? Should Buddha and Buddhism be seen differently? 

The question of whether Buddha and Buddhism should be seen differently is complex. In ways, the quest to grasp the historical Buddha (like the quest for the historical Jesus) and understand his ‘inherent mission’ says as much about our modern predicament as it does about the Buddha himself. Much of our understanding of the Buddha is inextricably linked and reliant upon what other Buddhists (and their antagonists) believed about him. So, I think we have to admit that at many levels, the Buddha and Buddhism are different facets of the same gem. Vipassana is just one of the most valuable tools to understanding and experiencing the Buddha’s teachings. Vipassana isn’t just about managing stress, anxiety and psychotherapy. Even if you complete one of Goenka’s Vipassana retreats—which are among the secularized interpretations of Vipassana—his indebtedness to Buddhism as a profound spiritual tradition is clear.

Will following the ethical values of Buddha help create a new world in which peace and tranquility prevails?

I wish I were more optimistic on this front, but I’m not. Conflict often emerges when individuals become entangled in the web of their own self-interest and forget the interconnectedness of all existence (what Buddhists call dependent origination). But just like the rest of us, Buddhists are human and often fail to uphold these insights, let alone the values of compassion and loving-kindness. One needs to only look at the way Buddhism is deployed by some Buddhists in places like Myanmar and Sri Lanka to see that it is not a panacea for our 21st century conflicts.

Dust on the Throne
by Douglas Ober
Navayana, New Delhi
Extent: ₹699

First published in The Hindu dated Nov 5, 2023.

Saturday, October 28, 2023

The little piece of life

Aisha Sarwari debut is a patterned, protean narrative that is tragic, painful and yet inspiring. It astonishes and overwhelms.

Heart Tantrums
, an exceptional memoir, is both a story of lived reality and a meditation on grief, isolation, and consolation, evoking the profundities of human endurance amidst adversities. The degree of difficulty in writing a book of this sort – with its characters still fluttering in the open – must have been hugely challenging and disruptive. But a life that continuously oscillates between being a good girl and a bad woman, disruption has been at the core of the life lived. Deliriously inventive and viscerally moving, Aisha Sarwari debut is a patterned, protean narrative that is tragic, painful and yet inspiring. It is a beautiful, worded memoir that astonishes and overwhelms.

This is the memoir of an immigrant girl who considers her teen years to be the worst in the universe, as she didn’t get the desired emotional protection of her ami (mother) when she deserved it the most. The twists and travails of her momentous journey transformed a socially and physically battered young woman into a formidable feminist voice in Pakistan. The protagonist endured systematic family oppression all through, her husband’s contribution being a broken tooth, broken jaw, and broken hip. Confused and anguished at her condition, she instead steers away to stay sane, stay employed, and stay a mom to two beautiful girls. Forgiveness remains her stellar character. 

Heart Tantrums is a moving, immersive and nuanced portrait of a tight-knit social world whose ill-perceived values promote oppressive behavior from its dominant constituents. Such behaviors are gendered from an early age, young girls are made to clench their urethral sphincter so that their pee doesn’t generate loud noise; taught to walk noiselessly without dragging their feet, told to avoid loud gulp when drinking water; and farts were wholly taboo. Forced to settle into strict a gender role, women are made to play performance monkeys. The book rejects the idea that gendered role and domestic servitude can save the day. 

In this multilayered memoir, Aisha reconstructs her world piece by piece to showcase its glaring cracks and deep crevices. ‘I was deeply unsafe in my own home, away from my family and very coercively controlled in my day-to-day life’. Much of what she experienced in life not only settled in her milk teeth but revealed in her permanent teeth as well.  Pain ought to be fought through with more teeth, she declares, else victimhood becomes a dwelling. All she wanted was to be wanted without being needed, being happy in her own terms and because of herself as an individual. One might wonder if a perceptive and aspiring person is seeking more than her genuine share of identity from the society? 

Aisha comes out as a writer who uses power of words to narrate vicissitudes of her life – on losing her father at an early age in Uganda; compromising freedom under an extended household in Kenya; and. trying to fit into a completely different culture in Pakistan. On top, the trauma of losing a man she loved to a personality-altering brain tumor was overwhelming. It is an honest, but haunting memoir for the immediate family members. But all that the writer is asking of them is to try again because life isn’t as perfect as a movie. 

Heart Tantrums is a beautifully crafted memoir, worth reading for the manner in which it is narrated with honesty, clarity, and purpose. Such is the power of the narrative that somewhere in her world of hits and misses, there remains a small opening for everyone to reflect upon. At the end of the day, there are more questions in real life than shinily packaged answers. Struggle is supposed to build character.

Heart Tantrums
by Aisha Sarwari
Penguin, New Delhi
Extent: 479, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in Deccan Herald on Oct 29, 2023.

Saturday, October 7, 2023

Cracking a quicksilver crime

Corporate claims are often beyond public scrutiny as the regulatory regime is known to give them the convenience of safe passage.

Back in 1888, the Glass Thermometer Company was set up in Watertown - a US town which owes both its birth and its name to the Black River. Its proximity to the cities of New York and Washington, and with the emerging Canadian market just across Lake Ontario, there was no better choice than Watertown for the factory. Easy availability of water to run its operations, and the convenience of discharging mercury waste in the Black River offered a win-win situation. Following the tightening of environmental regulations in the US, however, the company relocated its operations to Kodaikanal in 1983, and by 1988 it had become part of Unilever. 

Pollution control laws were in its infancy during the 80’s in India which had helped Hindustan Lever register itself as a ‘glass manufacturing unit’ rather than one dealing in hazardous metal like mercury. Two decades later, the procedural omissions proved fatal for the workers and costly for the company. An independent public hearing conducted a year after the closure of the factory in 2002 had documented at least two dozen cases of acute illnesses and deaths among the ex-workers of the factory. Corporate crime was indeed committed, resulting in an out-of-court settlement of undisclosed amount for some 600 of its ex-workers.

Heavy Metal is an in-depth account of how a multinational company disregarded human and natural welfare at the cost of making profit which led to fatalities of its workers and irreversible poisoning of the pristine ecosystem. The Minamata Bay episode of mercury poisoning of the 50’s in Japan had indeed repeated itself. No lessons seemed to have been learnt as the horrible dangers of mercury remained systematically underestimated and ignored in the developing world. On top, the company had claimed its ‘highest standards of corporate behavior towards employees, consumers and the societies'.

Corporate claims are often beyond public scrutiny as the regulatory regime is known to give them the convenience of safe passage. It continues to perpetuate itself in the name of progress and growth, eco-disasters of the kind being one-off aberration in the scheme of things. With public memory short-lived and the court proceedings ever-lasting, corporate crimes end-up being a tiny blotch in the environmental history as curious cases of avoidable tragedies.         

The Kodaikanal tragedy could have been avoided had due diligence been in vogue at all stages – from citing the industry to administering workers safety, and from adhering to waste-disposal guidelines to adoption of environmental norms. Instead, the company had violated all acceptable guidelines for toxic waste disposal measures, causing grievous harm to all life forms. Ameer Shahul, a journalist turned public policy crusader, has weaved a tragic story of greed, deceit and deception for which a heavy price has been paid by nature and local communities. Had there not been environment watchdogs, both alert individuals and committed organizations, the disaster would have gone unreported. Heavy Metal is an absorbing narrative on how collective endeavor by civil society actors had forced the corporate bull to bite the dust.   

It was indeed more than just the story of a company closing its shop for violating all acceptable norms. Never before a developing country had sent back a consignment of waste material to a developed country. The case of ‘reverse dumping’, a term coined to express the new phenomenon, was not easy to execute. Greenpeace, a global environment watchdog, had facilitated shipping of 1416 drums filled with 290 tons of hazardous mercury waste from the Kodaikanal thermometer factory to its final destination in Pennsylvania. As a Greenpeace campaigner, Shahul was in the thick of all the actions that had made lighter the task of dealing with a heavy metal. Unprecedented victory notwithstanding, the turn of events in recent times have forced leading environment watchdog(s) to close shop. 

Heavy Metal reads like a biography of mercury, the only liquid metal that exists at room temperature. It is extensively used in electronic and medical applications, but safe disposal of mercury waste has yet to be satisfactorily resolved. As a result, in recent times the US and many European countries have phased out the use of mercury. As non-mercury alternatives are expensive, dependence on devices using mercury continue to be produced and marketed in many Asian countries. Though mercury has a short half-life (the time required for one-half of the substance to decay), its exposure and impact on the flora and fauna has not be extensively studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, the full impact of Kodaikanal disaster on the entire ecological system may remain speculative.  

Written with passion and clarity, the book raises many compelling questions. Has the disaster made environmental regulatory process more potent and effective? Has corporate negligence been made accountable under law? Have enough measures adopted to help avoid such future disasters? Have protocols for research to gather scientific evidence been any better today?  Have remediation measures been developed to detoxify the contaminated sites? Each of these and related questions are begging for credible answers. 

Heavy Metal recounts the struggle for environmental justice in India and how elusive it is despite decades of social activism. With activism having been throttled in recent times, corporate negligence of environmental regulations may remain lax. Through compelling storytelling of an environmental disaster, Shahul invokes the reader to be vigilant in capturing corporate maneuvering of the system to escape from its environmental obligations.

Without doubt, this terrifying cautionary tale of corporate negligence is essential reading. However, deft editing could have sustained readers uninterrupted engagement no less.    

Heavy Metal 
by Ameer Shahul
Pan MacMillan, New Delhi 
Extent: 396, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in the Hindustan Times on Oct 7, 2023. 

Sunday, October 1, 2023

Don't take it for granted.

With nature coming full throttle to assert its immense power in recent times, there is an urgent need to return to the spiritual traditions of treating nature with reverence.

The impact of mindless development has come knocking on our doors. Floods, heat waves, and wildfires have made the summer 2023 with some of the most extreme events on record. Nature has shown to be fierce and awe-inspiring, mysterium tremendum et fascinans (a mystery that both repels and attracts). What is clear now is that given the fearful reality of the climate crisis, homo sapiens alone have to change not only their lifestyle but the entire belief system too. 

Once a nun, and now an accomplished commentator on transcultural understanding, Karen Armstrong has written a timely treatise, Sacred Nature, on reconnecting with nature to rekindle our sense of the sacred. As a child we do have a silent receptiveness of the natural world but with age a sense of superiority takes over. “Our all-absorbing technological living has alienated us from nature,” laments Armstrong. “Even in a place of extreme natural beauty we talk on our mobiles or scroll through social media: we are present, yet fundamentally absent.” Unless nature finds an intimate place in our minds and hearts, humans will continue to remain isolated from it.

Through the reading of ancient texts and scriptures, Armstrong reminds us that myths introduced our forebearers to deeper truths by directing their attention to the eternal and universal. It is, however, another matter that with the astonishing success in science and technology during the 18th century, myths were discounted as false and primitive.

Sacred Nature explores religious practices and philosophical ideas that were fundamental to the way people experienced nature in the past, and how myths, rituals, poetry, and music had a profound effect on their mental life. With nature coming full throttle to assert its immense power in recent times, there is an urgent need to return to the spiritual traditions of treating nature with reverence which gave birth to Confucianism and Taoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, as well as rationalism in Greece. The classic expression of the Greeks called kenosis, personified by Mahatma Gandhi as 'emptying of the self,' helps liberate us from the destructive strictures and egotism. It opens up a new understanding of ourselves and a fresh perception of the world around us. Needless to say, application of such thoughts, perceptions and practices have much to offer.

Even for those who may not like hymns of devotion, Armstrong’s subtle exploration of the sacredness of nature can push them into thinking about reconnecting with nature. In a world where nature is rapidly receding from everyday life, there is a need to bring nature back into our collective consciousness.

Armstrong suggests a completely new worldview, a belief in nature’s innate power to redeem itself. Unless we develop an aesthetic appreciation of nature and devise an ethical program to guide our thoughts and behavior, we will soon run out of time for ourselves. The threats are indeed looming large and are quite often irreversible. There is a need to evoke the romanticism of Wordsworth and Keats to incorporate into human lives insights and practices that will help in meeting today’s serious challenges because nature’s processes are dynamic, ephemeral, and their origins are hidden from view.

Pulling central themes from the world’s religious traditions – from gratitude to compassion, and from non-violence to sacrifice – Armstrong offers practical steps to develop a new mindset to rekindle the sense of the sacred. Reflective and insightful, the book is a primer on how environmental science need to be redesigned as a subject. In such times of climate change when icecaps are melting, wildfires are raging and floods are rampant, there is no time for partying anymore.

Sacred Nature
by Karen Armstrong
Bodley Head, London
Extent: 239, Price: Rs. 999.

First published in The Hindu on Oct 1, 2023.