Big Brother is watching you

In the year 2024, it’s indeed a surprise to describe the relevance of George Orwell as an author and as a cultural product. Orwell’s endearing fame as a writer and a thinker, and his critique of authoritarianism with the emphasis on disinformation, manifests itself in Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, two of his dystopian novels translated into an excess of 65 languages. Both books are on best-selling lists even now. Published within a gap of four years in 1945 and 1949, the language of both the novels continues to echo across politics and culture. The world that Orwell prophesied hasn’t come to pass, on the contrary, his words offer sharp lessons for the contemporary world, says Laura Beers in her new book, Orwell’s Ghosts (2024). In her Introduction, the British historian who teaches at American University writes that invocations of Orwell’s words have reached new heights, with both the right and the left appropriating them to suit their ends.

After the January 6, 2021 “insurrection” at Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., Republican senator Josh Hawley compared the cancellation of his book contract to life in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, notes Beers. The left too, she writes, has embraced the rhetoric of Orwellianism to depict either Donald Trump or Boris Johnson. The term, Orwellian, has been used to depict Vladimir Putin’s “attempts to manage information on the Ukraine war.”

She quotes the literary scholar John Rodden who in a study made a distinction between Orwell the man and “Orwell”, the cultural product, which offers a valuable lens for considering how both Orwell and his books have been repeatedly reappropriated for various political ends.

‘Big Brother’ is still a synonym for a totalitarian surveillance state, which has recently been co-opted as the title of a popular reality show. Orwell questioned the presence of the ‘big brother’ and the surveillance state, contending that both reflect the emergence of a fascist state. The Spanish Civil War was a crucial turning point in Orwell’s life; both the novels came after the civil war, and a newfound commitment to socialism. Had Spain not awakened Orwell to write these iconic books, he would not have championed individual liberty as a cause. Beers says Orwell was a “broad and deep thinker who opposed inequality as fervently as he opposed censorship and tyranny.”

“The real frightening thing about totalitarianism,” said Orwell, “is not that it commits ‘atrocities’ but that it attacks the concept of objective truth; it claims to control the past as well as the future.” The attack on truth and language makes atrocities possible. The atrocities are easy to commit, if truth has been silenced as the first victim. Once people are terrorized into silence, obedience, and lies, it becomes easier for an authoritarian administration to take the next steps. Beers shows why the present generation must value Orwell’s politics and what must be learnt from his thoughts. Although he died in 1950, when he was only 47, his life was full of eventful and interesting episodes. Orwell’s childhood seems to have been divided between the freedom and the pleasure of life outdoors, and the regimentation and misery of the schools he lived at from age eight to eighteen.

Beers says the question that bedeviled Orwell for the final dozen years of his life was whether and how a socialist society could be achieved that offered its citizens economic security and social equality without devolving into authoritarianism. She warns against replacing the complexity of his political thought with a two-dimensional caricature of Orwell as an anti-totalitarian prophet. In considering his writing, Beers draws attention to at least “one blind spot”, his inability to appreciate the negative impact of patriarchal structures on interwar women. “Orwell was a socialist, but decidedly not a feminist,” she notes.

Though he wasn’t exemplary, argues Rebecca Solnit, he was nevertheless courageous and committed. Orwell managed to love both Englishmen and loathe the British Empire, to be an advocate for underdogs and outsiders. “He was a rebel against his own biological condition, and he was a rebel against social conditions; the two were very closely linked together.” Solnit’s Orwell’s Roses challenges the conventional image of Orwell as a gloomy figure always fighting for a cause. The commitment to the things of this world could also be the focus of a spiritual discipline, a warmth he saw Gandhi was lacking. Our job is to make life worth living on this earth, Gandhi had said, because this is the only earth we have.

Orwell’s Ghosts and Orwell’s Roses are two contrasting studies. While the first explores his commitment to political liberty and economic justice, the second examines his aesthetics and ethics. If one were to count Orwell’s single achievement, it would be the fact that he named and described, as no one else had, the way that totalitarianism was a threat not just to liberty and human rights, but to language and consciousness as well. His essays laid the ground for his diverse political thoughts. Without doubt, Orwell is the perfect guide to our own age of upheaval.

Orwell’s sense of social justice was his most outstanding characteristic, his friends attest. In the nearly seventy-five years since his death, the emphasis of his political thought is well established. While we must stand up against oppressive regimes abroad, we must also take ownership of how and why similar populist and anti-democratic tendencies are corrupting our domestic political system. Orwell took a dim view of the role of religion in society; he believed it principally divided society. Revisiting Orwell is like visiting our recent pasts and our current upheaval. The work he did is everyone’s job now.

Orwell’s Roses

by Rebecca Solnit

Granta, London

Extent:308, Price: UK 9.99.

Orwell’s Ghosts

by Laura Beers

Hurst, London

Extent: 222, Price: Rs. 399.

First published at The Hindu, dated Oct 17, 2024.

Eat what is not (un)popular

Our choice of food is driven by our cultural standing and the social structure we belong to. What we eat must determine our social status, and it does so by telling us about our identity in the society. The dominant food is what is essentially elitist in its creation. The elitist menu is what each geographical region has on its range, guided primarily by what is hugely popular amongst the elite. What is palatable to the mainstream gets popular coverage and becomes the identity of the region itself. An individual’s eating practices play a vital role in determining social status, which is closely aligned with class divisions.

What the poor (or the Dalits) eat every day? The social walls of caste and class are so strong that the upper castes never get to know about the food culture of the lower castes. In other words, the food culture of the upper caste/class has been considered the food culture of the entire society. Come to think of it, the food culture of most marginalized social groups continues to get ignored. Written as a memoir with recipes, Shahu Patole's Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada explores the politics of food culture and how it reinforces social divisions. However, food also holds the transformative power to connect communities and preserve cultural identity.

Like the food culture of Punjab is narrowed down to makke-ki-roti and sarson-ka-saag, and the Konkan region gets distinction as a land for fish, curry, and crab, the Maharashtra as a whole is summed up into puran poli, aloo bonda, and kande poha. The identity of regions is equated to particular dishes, all belonging to the upper-class. In the process, a vast local biodiversity gets missed out. Many traditions and practices are equally lost, and so are essential components of the recipe. These recipes can’t be recreated as these are based on the local products, local practices, and local wisdom.

Dalit kitchens offer an exquisite culinary landscape. The wide variants of bhakri are in vogue but only the generic is commonly consumed - pithala bhakri (gram-flour and sorghum roti), khandeshi bhakri (mashed eggplant curry), varhadi bhakri (coarsely ground chillies and garlic) and many others are often ignored.

Food chronicler Shahu Patole has drawn the rich repository of dalit culinary traditions. Cooking is a time-consuming process, women being at the centre of what finally gets cooked. That is not all, cooking entails a great deal of attention to detail, and warmth and affection. Far from being documented, the cooking practice is only sustained through inter-generational transfer of recipe. What is ignored gets lost forever! Patole has made a pioneering effort to document dalit food culture and history, through the culinary practices of two communities – Mahar and Mang.

Why should the dalit kitchens get such a significance? Should the culinary skills of the poor be counted? What is its use in the social structure? They are probably so far in the social and cultural façade to deserve any attention. Yet, they deserve attention. For instance, many beans are best suited under dry situations and may have multiple usage under varying climatic conditions. As dalits use less oil for cooking, the recipe could be healthy. There could be numerous uses the dalit recipe can be put to, provided it gets systematically studied.

Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada is a book of culture and customs. It shows many culinary traditions as special dishes. There is something novel about their novel food culture. However, there is little doubt that dalit food culture was often ignored. Many dalits don’t acknowledge what their forefathers ate, the deep-rooted shame and guilt continue to disturb them. The process of erasing social history has already begun. It would be rather naïve to assume that the woke writers and bloggers are oblivious to this development.

Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada

by Shahu Patole

HarperCollins, New Delhi

Extent: 356, Price: Rs. 599.

Commissioned by the Hindustan Times, Printed on www.raagdelhi.com on Oct 8, 2024. 

Transition to a renewable economy

The good news is that many businesses have started seeing growth opportunities in the green economy, and the bad news is that the urgency of transiting to a renewable resource-based economy is still at a distance from making a credible impact. Given the current pace of transition to renewable economy, it may seem a matter of two steps forward and one step back.  But Steven Cohen remains optimistic about the glass getting full as the transition passes the tipping point of popular acceptance. Such is the urgency that politically polarized countries may have little reason to avoid a unified response. 

Environmentally Sustainable Growth focuses on how the maintenance of material wealth without jeopardizing natural ecosystems in the United States has run apace, as a model in ecological leadership for the developing countries. Quoting the environmental sustainability initiatives by over a hundred leading private companies, Cohen makes it clear that government’s proactive role is critical for on-the-ground action by the private sector. Can use of smartphone technologies to invent products that consume fewer resources than traditional business models be reason enough to be valued in this transition? Often discounted, wealth accumulation by the tech-giants rarely generates enough income opportunities for the society to actively contribute to the transition. This is likely to be a stumbling block in the proposed transition to the renewable economy.    

New technologies, new services, new knowledge and new jobs are emerging, but there remain plenty of unsustainable business practices in the world. And the people who benefit from those businesses do not shy about defending it. No wonder, therefore, that those whose jobs are under threat offer resistance to sustainability everywhere. Given the fact that the transition to renewable economy will mainly take place in the private sector, developing robust and non-partisan regulatory mechanism by the government is critical to ensure that the benefits get equitable shared across the society. Cohen describes a range of public policy and infrastructure initiatives that can encourage cleaner production but doesn’t emphasize its impact on socio-economic realities of the participating societies.

The director of the Earth Institute’s Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management at the Columbia University, Steven Cohen offers a pragmatic approach on how societies can transform themselves to become more sustainable. Written with rigor and concern, Cohen proposes a set of inter-related pragmatic responses to environmental challenges but cautions that the transition to environmental sustainability will only take place in stages. Optimistic expectations are that the transition in the United States will be well underway by 2030, and largely completed by mid-century. The book depicts an appealing and equitable future that assures quality of life while protecting the planet.

Environmentally Sustainable Growth is an ambitious and optimistic undertaking to trigger credible response from governments, institutions and the society to survive and thrive. Counting inherent goodness in people, Cohen lays stress on breaking through ignorance, blind ideology and misplaced priorities to make the planet a valuable habitat for all living creatures, now and in future. It is a multidisciplinary book that will be informative for students, practitioners, analysts, and academics whose work focuses on environmental sustainability.

Cohen counts environmental crises as an opportunity to forge our collective wisdom to transit into another way of living possibility.  

Environmentally Sustainable Growth 
by Steven Cohen

Columbia University Press, New York

Extent: 216 pages, Price: US$ 30 

First published in the Hindustan Times (Premium), Oct 8, 2024.

Unequal World

Professors of Economics at MIT and Stanford University respectively, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, are concerned and somewhat convinced that political power hasn’t leveraged industrial progress to usher prosperity for the teeming millions. If it was automated textile factories who left their workers oppressed at the cost of enriching the owners a century ago, it is now the turn of digital technologies to further widen the socio-economic gulf. The situation is unlikely to change, argue the authors, if the power to make all major decisions remain in the hands of autocratic regimes and a few hubristic tech leaders.

The authors revisit an age-old question: has technological progress meant prosperity for all? Assessing our thousand-year history, from the neolithic agricultural revolution to the ascent of artificial intelligence today, it becomes clear that the idea of shared prosperity continues to remain a distant dream. The geographical locations of technological changes contributed to the direction of technology and the type of progress in different parts of the world: western Europe and China became the centre for agriculture; Britain and the U.S. for the industrial revolution, and the U.S. and China for digital technologies. While different countries had different takes on technology adoption earlier on, its implication on the leading economies led to technologies being forced on the rest of the world subsequently. Such an approach remains far from inclusive as it broadly contributed to the wealth of those who pushed it.

What makes Power and Progress engrossing reading has much to do with the innumerable case stories that justify enthusiasm for technical change at the cost of crippling a large majority. Francis Bacon and the story of fire; Lesseps’ quest for building the Panama Canal; Stephenson’s wagon ways to move coal; McCormick’s machine tools for crop harvesting; and the techno-optimism of Bill Gates and Elon Musk shakes the reader to realize that across history it is the winner-take-technologies that has enforced more inequality and violence on global society. The realpolitik of technology for economic change is skewed, as there are two sides to technology. Acemoglu and Johnson give a large number of examples where progress in technology has led to huge gains for the rich at the expense of perceived recipients. That, according to them, is pretty much the history of the relationship between technological progress and people.

Technology is propagated for the promise it upholds but the benefits accrue after a very long time, and at times quite on the contrary. Better ships did help in trading, but it promoted slavery by shipping lakhs of black people. Back in 1871, Karl Marx had remarked that constant improvements in technology would create a vast reserve army of the unemployed. Over a century later, his words seem to be coming true as the promised transformation of life by artificial intelligence holds the possibility to make life worse for most people. John Keynes’ century-old lingering concerns about ‘technological unemployment’ are back in serious contention.

To reduce negative impacts on society, the authors suggest that debates on new technology ought to center not just on the brilliance of new products but also on whether they are working for the people or against people. To this end, Acemoglu and Johnson enlist a number of suggestions on what must be done to regulate privately-owned technologies that have inbuilt negative externalities for society.

Power and Progress is a fascinating narrative on technology and its effects through history and concludes that the “society and its powerful gatekeepers need to stop being mesmerized by tech billionaires and their agenda.” It is a must-read book that is revealing and reflective on progress that is never automatic unless society unites against the brute power of technology corporations. It is essential reading for everyone who not only cares about the present, but as much about the future of democracy to sustain society. 

Power and Progress 

by Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson 

Hachette, New Delhi

Extent:  Price: Rs. 899.

First published in The Hindu, Sept 06, 2024.

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The roadmap to virtuous existence

There has never been as much fear and stress in human life as today. The fear of having less and the greed for more have put most of our lives on edge. Medicines do help in addressing exigencies, but stress continues to brew insidiously. Rarely has any age in recent times escaped it as stress has become more of a norm than the exception in modern living.

Consequently, emotional bandwidth has shrunk, with people trying different mechanisms to expand it. In a world with an uncertain future, coping with stress has gained currency. Stress manifests in material gains but doesn’t guarantee contentment and peace.  Happiness without ‘desire’,and having without ‘want’ are hard to achieve, but remain quintessential elements for a stress-free existence. 

For this reason, the age-old Stoicism doctrine has regained popularity. It calls for accepting things as they are, without attempting to change them. In doing so, Epictetus (55-135 BC) is credited with making humans more resilient and more virtuous. Born a slave, he philosophized the concept of stoicism that was started in 300 BC by Zeno. In recent times, however, Ryan Holiday has made it relevant by giving the concept a local flavor by giving it a contemporary relevance.

We may have forgotten Harry Truman, the US President during the Second World War, but his words of wisdom continue to resonate: ‘The man who is capable to cultivate moderation, wisdom, justice and fortitude will remain happy’. Holiday draws upon the lives of contemporary heroes for reigniting stoicism. In his latest treatise ‘Right Thing, Right Now’, Holiday pulls real-life nuggets from the lives of activists, athletes, and diplomats to illustrate how life can be made more virtuous. 

Be it the lived experiences of the likes of tennis legend Arthur Ashe and investor Buckminster Fuller, Holiday makes the 2000-year-old philosophy come alive for the reader to draw a framework for living a content life. Short episodes from the lives of contemporaries provide what the reader must do in personal, communal, and social spheres. Becoming thoughtful observers is critical to identifying and locating the sources of distress and worries. The episodes are far from aspirational as Holiday adds value by analyzing them from a stoic lens.

As stoicism is about taking control of one’s thoughts and emotions, Holiday helps the reader for inspiration and the power that comes along as one is able to transform oneself. The book is about the ‘right things to be done right now’.

Right thing, right now

by Ryan Holiday

Profile books, UK

Extent: 229. Price: Rs. 399.

First published in www.raagdelhi.com on September 23, 2024.

Meditation in the wild

Ramana Maharshi’s observation, “silence is also conversation”, quoted in Narendra’s Landscapes of Wilderness, seems to be the guiding spirit of this meditative discourse on life among the adivasis. “Abujhmad [Bastar] seemed like a vast ancient silence of centuries; of stillness and its speechlessness.” Narendra spent three decades with the adivasis in Abujhmad, and came away with many observations, which he has compiled in this book.

There is an undercurrent of interconnectedness between the 39 short chapters in the book, which explore the abiding relationships and an “alikeness of rhythms, flows and paces” between humans and nature. It is not an easy read, but will leave the reader feeling sad about the society we have morphed into. Narendra laments the rapid shrinking of open spaces and forests that the adivasis call home. Much before it gets lost forever, the author documents the adivasi narratives that are invariably indeterminate but captivating no less. In the present when people often choose what is economically beneficial over what is morally right, Landscapes of Wilderness helps the reader escape from bewildering social spaces to be with one’s inner svabhav (temperament or disposition).

So lyrical is the prose that one reads the words slowly, savouring them and rolling them over in the mind. But for it to happen, the mind should be first decongested to allow such thoughts to find space. “The Adivasis only live in nature, not with nature but like nature, because they find any other way too material and municipal to live with.” Adivasi conversations are sprinkled with metaphors that leave the listener with suggestive meanings. Word in itself has no meaning other than what it is intended to convey. When dealing in nature, should words remain fixed and authoritarian?

Given the extensive time spent amidst the wilderness, the author is nostalgic about the quality time spent amid the adivasis and may seem to be over-glorifying some of it. Yet, the wilderness has clues for many of the civilisational challenges that a modern lifestyle confronts on a daily basis. The institutional arrangement of ghotul as a step towards a conjugal relationship has been widely written and talked about, but there is still much to learn from it as relationship break-ups become common. “Staying amongst trees, animals, insects, soil and sky, she and he remain gentle and generous human beings. When life is simple and bare,” concludes Narendra, “conflicts and issues become superfluous.”

There is little denying that there is life beyond the global grid of politico-economic and knowledge systems to which lives of innumerable others are tied to. Narendra’s third book looks at how landscapes in wilderness nurture wisdom even when the community under reference has no more than 500 words in its vocabulary and cannot count beyond five. The author contends that the book’s intention is not to critique modernity but to capture the silence in wilderness.

The book takes the reader into unchartered territory that functions as a mirror to our internal landscapes. Written with concern and compassion, it is a thought-provoking book that will appeal to anyone who is interested to look beyond the physicality of what is often referred to as ‘wild’.

Landscapes of Wilderness

by Narendra

HarperCollins, New Delhi

Extent: 229. Price: Rs. 399.

First published in The Hindu on August 16, 2024.

More than just a hot drink

What do you do when you are not doing anything? Drinking chai, what else! This is literally the case for many. Breaking for a cup of chai between tasks is considered a fundamental right at workplaces. Warm and comforting, it inspires feeling of relaxations and trust and fosters instant bonds among strangers. Indeed, drinking chai is synonymous with being Indian.

Is chai an addiction or can it best be described as a carefully considered compulsive habit? Whatever the case may be, it works in many amazing ways: if you are sleepy, you need a cup of tea; if you are cold, tea warms you; if you are restless, it will cool you; if you are depressed, it will cheer you up; and, if you are excited, it will calm you. No other beverage offers so much at such a low price. Unsurprisingly, India consumes some 1.2 billion kilograms of tea each year.

The Book of Chai is a celebration of the milky brew that’s an intrinsic part of the life of Indian communities worldwide. Each cup contains within it an interesting bit of history. This is true if you are slurping it at a roadside dhaba in Bhopal, a tiffin room in Chennai or at a café in Dehradun. And rarely do two cups taste alike.

Successful London-based tea entrepreneur Mira Manek whose love for chai led her to set up the Chai by Mira brand takes the reader on an enriching, even therapeutic, journey. In The Book of Chai, she blends 65 delicious tea recipes with personal chai memories to highlight the drink’s integral role in Indian life and culture.

The Chinese were drinking tea for over 2,000 years before the rest of the world woke up to its pleasures. It was only after tea plantation was established in Darjeeling in 1841, that cups of chai became ubiquitous in India. The untiring efforts of numerous people who pluck soft tea buds for further processing is what makes your morning cup reality. And the CTC (Crush, Tea, and Curl) process is what drove the massive growth in consumption that has led to 75 percent of the domestic crop, a little over 800 million kilograms, being consumed within India alone.

Chai is more than just a hot drink. Herbs and spices infuse it with delicious and distinctive flavors. From ginger and cinnamon to cardamon, cloves, lemongrass and nutmeg, any number of spicy chai variants are available on retail shelves. Mira Manek’s range of fragrant chai recipes to be enjoyed through the day include the familiar Ukaro and Kadha, and Saffron Chai Muesli and Pumpkin Chai Latte, among others.

As a student, this reviewer often consumed 17 cups a day. At a conservative estimate, that’s about 28,000 litres of chai in an active lifetime. Friends often wonder if chai flows in my veins. To which I retort with the response favored by the Japanese: “If a man has no chai in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty”. Chai connects the drinker with some of the great things in life. And unlike other beverages, a cup of chai in itself makes for good company. From the first sip to the last, the chai drinker is transported to tea gardens in the hills with their flowing streams, chirping birds, and hovering clouds. 

Most Indians simply cannot live without their cup. From keeping loneliness at bay to invoking freshness, chai does it all. It is an aggregate of many things poured into a cup; the aroma and flavor are just physical manifestations. Flip through The Book of Chai while you sip on a steaming cup of India’s favorite mood enhancer.

The Book of Chai
by Mira Manek
Hachette, New Delhi
Extent: 289, Price: Rs. 899.

First published in The Hindustan Times on June 4, 2024.

Will the Sun ever set on Coca Cola?

Cities across the world are suffering from a severe water crisis as climate change fears turn real; there’s also a huge pushback against the use of sugar with diabetes on the rise. Yet, travel to virtually any place on earth, and one is likely to find a bottle or can of Coca-Cola. How has this carbonated drink become ubiquitous across the water-stressed world, and whose primary constituent is locally sourced water only?

The story of Coca-Cola reflects the entrenched realities of globalization, development and capitalism, and Sara Byala’s Bottled tells it from the perspective of Africa where the sugary drink is available everywhere, when most life-saving medicines are not. “In its profound breadth and depth, Coca-Cola offers an unequalled lens onto modern Africa,” she writes.

Kola nut to Coke

Yet, as Byala points out, “there would be no Coca-Cola without the African kola nut”, and she begins her story with how America got enamored with the west African tree and its seed which has a caffeine-yielding stimulant. “In May 1886, as Europe was scrambling to carve up the African continent, John Pemberton [in Atlanta, America] created the earliest version of a beverage that would soon be called Coca-Cola, a drink whose name and whose origin, came in part, from Africa.”

Coca-Cola, says Byala, narrates its African story as one of “unstopped progress” that began with its first bottling in South Africa in 1928, and is now present in every African nation as the continent’s single largest private employer “with a multiplier effect”.

Byala, a senior lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, provides an in-depth assessment of how a global beverage brand adjusted its marketing strategy to the socio-political demands in conquering a continent. While she undertook fieldwork in eight countries, Egypt, Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, Byala guided research assistants to conduct interviews in several nations.

From Cape Town to Cairo — the accompanying illustrations and photographs, including one of a Coca-Cola stall in front of the Sphinx, Egypt tell a thousand words more — the company aligned with everything from education to the anti-apartheid struggle in locating the beverage in the lives of people. “The more I researched and spoke to people, the more the story of Coke appeared as a parable for late capitalism, full of both cause for concern and seeds of optimism,” she says.

Fringe Benefits

By 2020, more than three quarters of a million Africans were being supported by Coca-Cola, not to mention that 10-12 indirect jobs were being created in related industries. It is a familiar narrative on how corporations contribute to solutions while generating problems in the first place.

Coca-Cola’s sustainability initiatives around water, carbon use, and waste recycling have been talked about. The company promotes healthy, youthful, and active living in its marketing campaigns but never in its century-old history has it ever suggested how much of its intake will be enough for a healthy body.

Like elsewhere in the world, Coca-Cola’s century of existence in Africa is not without its fundamental share of contradictory compromises. While increased consumption of the global beverage is not without serious ecological and biological impacts, its missionary endeavor to plough back a small portion of its profit back into social emancipation is anything but greenwashing — justifying capitalism’s logic of insatiable growth against what the ecosystem can sustain.

Bottled is as much a social history of colonization by a beverage company as an expression of self-determination and acceptance of modernity by an unsuspecting mass of people across the continent. Byala highlights how Coca-Cola positioned itself differently in each country, bending to consumer power in generating a distinct narrative focused on its sale. While it does help enhance an understanding of a globalized and integrated world it also raises a critical question: at what cost can the planet and human body endure it?

Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African 
by Sara Byala 
Hurst, London
Extent: 366, Price: £30.

First published in The Hindu on June 2, 2024.

The existence under shadow

Much has been written about and much will get written about the generative artificial intelligence, or AI, that is fast revolutionizing the way we work, study, and consume. In this rapidly changing world of automated decision making that is influencing our behavior, what does it mean to be human hereon remains an impending question. Delighting us with the humanlike ability to write, visualize and talk back, AI has crunched large data to free us from our own actions. Come to think of it, machine is taking back our agency and self-respect.  

Proponents of AI may loathe at the idea of pinning down technology’s dramatic progress in its early days, however, the glaring fact is that limiting human ability to decide and direct its actions hold fundamental contradiction to our evolution as a species. Little is known about how machine-learning models draw statistical inference from volumes of data at its disposal. With quantum computing set to exponentially enhance machine’s ability to intuitively mimic processes, the advent of AI raises more questions than answers. 

Code Dependent is not about how technological infusion is empowering algorithms but how AI has insidiously entered our lives and altered the very experience of being human. With over a decade of experience in writing and reporting on AI for the Financial Times in London, Madhumita Murgia explores what the rise of AI means for us as a society. It is a story on AI with a human face, told through the lived realities of nine unrelated persons from across the world. The stories are chilling, calling for an urgency to act before AI takes over. What comes out is an absorbing and engaging narrative. 

These stories look at everyone from underpaid gig workers to an activist, a refugee, a single mother, a doctor, a bureaucrat, and a priest. Through these case stories, Murgia examines all the relevant facets of life, from livelihood to society and from freedom to future. What comes out clear is that ‘surveillance capitalism’ is the denominator which guides the business model that monetizes personal data. Amid all the hype and frenzy around AI, there is little denying that the prejudices of those who create it gets amplified. For instance, facial recognition camera is biased towards fair skin, religious minorities, migrant and refugees, and religious minorities. Backed by data colonialism by tech-giants, any scalable system under the capitalist economy is built to benefit large groups while excluding the other. This can only trigger exclusion and inequality.        

Each of the stories make it clear that AI is out to compromise our agency and shatter our illusion of free will. Data workers are as vulnerable as factory workers, they remain an undervalued bedrock of the AI industry. The algorithms that create deepfakes target women, who are hypersexualized by technology. Facial recognition has empowered police to exercise nuanced judgement, promoting widespread human rights abuses. In a world wherein AI promotes surveillance, censorship and control, freedom is the first that gets compromised with dissent becoming irrelevant. The stories in the volume are disturbing, exposing powerlessness and vulnerability in a world turbocharged by AI. 

Generative AI has raced through the economy without any of the compelling questions being addressed. Will so-called knowledge workers still have work in few years' times? Who owns the rights to all of humanity’s creative outputs? Will white collar jobs continue to exist as they are? How can a society be sustained without work? The trouble is that people – scientists, economists and politicians – who are supposed to have answers to such questions are as much in dark. In the post-truth era, controlling AI from producing false or biased contents will remain a challenge.

Murgia is clear thar AI is a way to augment human intelligence and solve impossible problems but has utility when it preserves human dignity. To preserve human agency, the author has drawn a checklist of guiding principles to ensure that algorithms are not without ‘algor-ethics’, a basic framework of human values to be agreed upon by multiple stakeholders around the world and implemented by machines. Written with empathy and deep concern about the future of mankind, Murgia raises question on the unrestricted idea of selling back our dreams repackaged as the products of machines. Code Dependent makes for compelling reading as it concerns everybody. It concerns the impact of AI on our collective future.  

Code Dependent 
by Madhumita Murgia
Picador India, New Delhi 
Extent: 311, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in Deccan Herald on May 26, 2024.

A lyricist who was a poet

“जो जाने-माने कवि और गीतकार आनंद बक्शी को नहीं जानता वो हिंदी सिनेजगत से वाकिफ नहीं है”, यह कहना है प्रसिद्ध कवि एवं गीतकार गुलज़ार का और उनका यह कथन हाल ही में पेंगुइन स्वदेश द्वारा प्रकाशित “मैं जादू हूँ चल जाऊंगा – आनंद बक्शी के अनसुने नग्मे” से लिया गया है। आनंद बक्शी के पुत्र राकेश (आनंद) बक्शी द्वारा संकलित एवं संपादित इस पुस्तक में नामी शायर एवं गीतकार जावेद अख्तर आनंद बक्शी के योगदान पर बात करते हुए कहते हैं कि वो दिन दूर नहीं जब आनंद बक्शी की काव्य रचनाओं पर विश्वविद्यालयों में पीएचडी की जाएगी। अपने करीब चार दशक लम्बे कैरियर में कवि एवं गीतकार बक्शी ने 4000 के आस-पास गीत लिखे और अगर आप हिन्दी फिल्मी गीतों के शौकीन हैं तो यह नहीं हो सकता कि आपका कोई दिन आनंद बक्शी का  कोई ना कोई गीत सुने बिना गुज़र जाए! उन्होंने हर मूड, हर इमोशन पर गीत लिखे हैं – गीत लिखने की उनकी रेंज बहुत ही बड़ी है। मन का ऐसा कौन-सा भाव है और दिन का कौन-सा लम्हा जिस पर उन्होंने गीत न लिखा हो – और उनके ये सभी गीत अत्यंत लोकप्रिय भी हुए हैं।  

पुस्तक में संकलित आनंद बक्शी का आत्मकथ्य पढ़ने से उनकी जद्दोजहद का अंदाज़ होता है।  गज़ब तो यह है कि नौसेना की नौकरी उनकी पहचान कभी न थी, उन्होंने खुद को अपनी कविता में ही पाया। मैं अक्सर अपने मित्रों से पूछता हूँ कि ‘तुम यह न होते तो क्या होते’ अर्थात ‘जो कर रहे हो वो अगर न कर पाते’।  अभी तक मुझे तो कोई ऐसा उत्तर नहीं मिला है जिस की  मैं आपसे चर्चा कर सकूं, क्योंकि जुनून ही किसी की भी सही पहचान होती है।  आनंद बक्शी ने अपने जुनून को साधने के लिए सब कुछ कुर्बान किया। उनके गीतों में उनके जीवन की पूरी झलक मिलती है. ‘तेरी कसम’ फिल्म के लिए अमित कुमार द्वारा गाये ‘मेरे गीतों में मेरी कहानियां हैं, कलियों का बचपन है, फूलों की जवानियाँ हैं’ हमें उनके जीवन-दर्शन की झलक तो मिल जाती है। बहरहाल, चर्चा हम कर रहे हैं उनके अनसुने नग्मों की।

राकेश आनंद बक्शी ने अपने पिता के अभी तक अनसुने नग्मों का यह जो संकलन तैयार किया है, यह इसलिए भी महत्वपूर्ण है कि इससे हमें आनंद बक्शी को और गहराई से जानने का अवसर मिला है। मुंबईया फिल्मी गीत लिखते समय गीतकार पर व्यावसायिक दबाव भी होते हैं लेकिन ‘मैं जादू हूँ चल जाऊँगा’ में संकलित रचनाएं हमें एक अलग रचनाकार से रु-ब-रु करवाती हैं जो एक भावना-प्रधान कवि भी है और कोमल हृदय से उपजी उनकी रचनाओं में निहित गंभीर जीवन दर्शन भी उमड़-उमड़ कर सामने आता है। आप कह सकते हैं कि शायद ये उनकी ज़िंदगी का फलसफा है जो उनकी रचनाओं में खिड़कियाँ बनाकर हमारे सामने आता रहता है। बक्शी जी ने अपने संघर्ष के शुरुआती सालों में बंबई के दादर रेलवे स्टेशन पर करीब तीन साल बिताये थे – है न कमाल की बात कि इतना दर्द पा कर भी कवि का ह्रदय प्रेम की बात ही करता रहा क्योंकि उसको भी एक अदद सहारा मिल ही गया था इन भावों को अलफ़ाज़ देने के लिए: 

मुक्क़दर साथ अगर देता सहारे भी कई मिलते
खुदा के नेक बन्दों में हमारे भी कई मिलते

वैसे तो बक्शी जी के लिए जज्बात के बाद ही तर्क की जगह आती थी और यही कारण है कि ‘चिंगारी कोई भड़के तो सावन उसे भुजाये, सावन जो अगन लगाए उसे कौन बुझाये’ की प्रश्नात्मक प्रस्तुति भुलाये नहीं भूलती। लगभग 70 अनसुने गीतों और कविताओं से सुसज्जित इस छोटी पुस्तक में भावनाओं का सैलाब है। जो यह कहते रहें है कि बक्शी जी सिचुएशंस पर ही गीत लिखा करते थे उनको यह इल्म हो जायेगा कि हर गीत में कवि का दिल भी बराबर धड़कता था। अब यह पंक्तियाँ देखिए :

नहीं कुछ फायदा दिल में हाले–दिल छुपाने से
जुबान पे बात आने दो भले लड़ना पड़े ज़माने से

मुझे लगता है कि बक्शी जी आम आदमी के कवि थे और उनके शब्दों में हमेशा एक ताज़गी रहा करती थी। इस ताज़गी को आप अपनी तरह इस अनूठी पुस्तक में जगह-जगह देख सकते हैं। राकेश बक्शी ने अपने मरहूम पिताजी की स्मृति को तो अपने इस प्रयास के जरिए सँजोया ही है, साथ ही उन्होंने बॉलीवुड के गीतों से मुहब्बत करने वालों पर भी यह एक बड़ा उपकार किया है। उन्होंने आनंद बक्शी के अनसुने गीतों को सामने लाकर बक्शी जी की पुरानी रचनाओं की भी याद ताज़ा कर दी है। कभी-कभी तो मैं बक्शी जी की रचनात्मकता के आगे नतमस्तक हो जाता हूँ। अगर आप ने देव आनंद की फिल्म ‘जानेमन’ का गीत सुना है तो आप यह बखूबी समझ जाएंगे जो मैं कहना चाह रहा हूँ. इस फिल्म के शीर्षक गीत ‘जानेमन, जानेमन किसी का नाम नहीं फिर भी यह नाम होंठों पे न हो ऐसी कोई सुबह नहीं शाम नहीं’ किसी के न होने का भी गज़ब अहसास देता है।    

अगर लेखक राकेश आनंद बक्शी मुझे इस पुस्तक का शीर्षक देने का मौका देते तो मैं कुछ यूँ लिखता ‘मैं शब्दों का जादूगर हूँ, जादू करता रहूँगा’।

Main Jadoo Hoon Chal Jaunga
by Rakesh Anand Bakshi

Penguin Swadesh, New Delhi

Extent: 196, Price: Rs. 211. 

First published in www.RaagDelhi.com on May 23, 2024.

The weapon that is also an idea

35 years ago, Iran's religious and political leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie in February 1989, ordering Muslims to kill him after being outraged by Rushdie's popular novel 'Satanic Verses'. And under the same fatwa, a 24-year-old man fatally attacked Rushdie with a knife during a public lecture in New York in August 2022.

The offensive comments raised on 'Satanic Verses' have their own history, but the unique thing is that it all happened a decade before the young man was born, and who had apparently read only two pages of the novel that led him to commit the crime. In this attack, Rushdie sustained 10-15 stab wounds on the shoulder, chest and face, and lost one of his eyes. Rushdie has compiled his grief and thoughts in a recently published book 'Knife - Meditations After an Attempted Murder'. 

Before discussing Rushdie's book, I think it is important to understand the difference between 'believing' and 'knowing'. Why did that young man 'believe' without 'knowing' that Rushdie had made derogatory comments against a particular religion in the book? But if you think a little deeper, this method was started by 'dharma' millennia ago, making followers 'believe' without 'knowing'. Let rituals justify the rest. It simply asks to 'accept' without 'knowing'. That young man who attacked Rushdie only carried out years of hatred 'accepted' and 'stored' by the society he claimed to represent. The hero of Dostoevsky's classic novel 'Crime and Punishment' too believed that some crimes are justified. It is another matter that after the murder, the protagonist remains a victim of delusion, paranoia, and hatred. A thought or feeling that one does not 'experience' oneself is not less than a crime.

In the hall where Salman Rushdie was attacked, the audience wondered why Rushdie didn't defend when he saw the attacker coming towards him with a knife. Rushdie says that violence has intense power to destroy reality in which rational thought finds no place. In the environment of fear and anxiety, right thinking disappears somewhere.

The same thing happened in that attack. By the time Rushdie could realize, the 'knife' had followed his religious diktat. It is amazing that the (knife) that personified hatred does not become a subject of hatred because if this knife were in the hands of a doctor, it would be a 'life saver' 'and not a 'killer'. Thoughts are converted into actions by the sequence of mind-word-action, and when the mind is filled with hatred, one can only imagine what the action could be. That young man could not extricate himself from the cycle of mind-word-action. 'Believing' so dominated 'knowing' that the knife did what it was told.

After losing an eye in this violent incident, Rushdie got a chance to re-understand the two-eyed society and he had the self-awareness to see and show the 'Knife' as an idea more than a weapon. In many ways Rushdie has written the autobiography of the knife – the knife is as much a 'weapon' as an 'idea'. The knife's 'closeness to the body' makes it a weapon of ideas.  A knife itself is not a piece of metal if there is no 'edge' in it. After this incident, Rushdie realized that he himself was using literature as a knife to cut across dogmas in society.

A knife cuts cakes and vegetables, opens bottles and bodies. 9/11 used the airplane like a knife to cut the twin towers. Anything can become a knife if the edge is sharp, but a knife is felt when it cuts what we often don't want to see cut. Language is also a knife that can cut ideologies without actually cutting anything. The knife is also a painful experience that brings life closer to new experiences. Knife has the power to take life, but it also has the amazing power to give life, as we have discussed that a knife in the hand of a doctor or a scythe knife in the hand of a farmer promote and sustain life. 

One thing is certain that the knife has given Salman Rushdie a new identity in which the knife plays a central role, and he will now have to live with this new identity. Knife is a challenge that will help Rushdie to stay relevant without repeating themselves! It was only a matter of a genius writer like Rushdie that he made positive use of this unfortunate murderous attack on him and took a deep look at the current trends in the present society using KNIFE as a psychological and philosophical tool!

Knife
by Salman Rushdie
Penguin, New Delhi
Extent: 209. Price: Rs. 699.

First published (as translation from the original in Hindi) in Outlook, on May 18, 2024.

Knife is as much a weapon as a thought

35 वर्ष पूर्व ईरान के धार्मिक और राजनीतिक नेता अयातुल्लाह ख़ुमैनी ने भारत में जन्मे ब्रिटिश लेखक सलमान रुश्दी के ख़िलाफ़ फ़रवरी 1989 में फतवा जारी किया था  जिसमें उन्होंने रुश्दी के बहुचर्चित उपन्यास ‘Satanic Verses’ से रुष्ट होकर मुसलमानों को उनकी हत्या करने का आदेश दिया था और उसी फतवे के तहत अगस्त 2022 को न्यूयॉर्क में एक पब्लिक लेक्चर के दौरान एक 24 वर्षीय युवक ने रुश्दी पर चाकू से कातिलाना हमला किया।  

‘Satanic Verses’ पर उठाई आपत्तिजनक टिप्पणी का अपना इतिहास रहा है, लेकिन अनूठी बात यह है यह सब कुछ युवक के जन्म से एक दशक पहले हुआ था और उसने वारदात को अंजाम देने के समय तक उक्त उपन्यास के शायद दो ही पृष्ठ पढ़े थे। इस हमले में रुश्दी ने कंधे, छाती और चेहरे पर चाकू के 10-15 वार झेले, और अपनी एक आंख गवाई। रुश्दी ने अपनी व्यथा और विचारों को हाल ही में प्रकाशित एक ख़ूबसूरत पुस्तक ‘Knife – Meditations After an Attempted Murder’ में संकलित किया है। यही इस आलेख का संदर्भ है और पाठकों को आगाह कर दूँ कि यह आलेख उपरोक्त पुस्तक की समीक्षा नहीं है।  

इस से पहले की रुश्दी की पुस्तक पर चर्चा करूँ, मुझे लगता है कि यह समझना ज़रूरी है कि ‘मानने’ और ‘जानने’ का अंतर क्या है। ऐसा क्यों हुआ कि उस युवक ने बिना ‘जाने’ ही यह ‘मान’ लिया कि रुश्दी ने पुस्तक में उनके धर्म के विरुद्ध अपमानजनक टिप्पणियाँ की हैं। आज तो खैर हम आसानी से ये कह देते हैं कि Whatsapp काल में बिना जाने सब कुछ माना जा रहा है। लेकिन थोड़ा गहराई से सोचें तो इस पद्धति की शुरुआत तो ‘धर्म’ ने सदियों पहले कर दी थी और सभी धर्मों में बिना जाने हुए मानना एक तरह का धार्मिक ‘रिचुअल’ जैसा बन गया था और आज भी है। रूढ़ियों को भी बिना ‘जाने’ बस ‘मान’ लेना इसी पद्धति का हिस्सा थी। रुश्दी पर हमला करने वाले उस युवक ने बरसों से समाज द्वारा ‘मानी’ और ‘संजोयी’ घृणा को केवल अंजाम दिया। दोस्तोवॉसकी के उत्कृष्ट उपन्यास ‘Crime and Punishment’ का नायक भी यही मानता रहा कि कुछ अपराध तो न्यायोचित होते हैं। यह और बात है कि क़त्ल के बाद नायक ताउम्र भ्रम, व्यामोह, और घृणा का शिकार रहा। जिस विचार या भावना की स्वयं अनुभूति न हो, उसे मानना खुद में किसी अपराध से कम नहीं।

जिस हॉल में सलमान रूशदी पर हमला हुआ, उस हाल में उपस्थित दर्शकों ने बाद में जो प्रश्न उठाया वो स्वयं रुश्दी ने भी खुद से पूछा है कि ऐसा क्या हुआ कि उस हमलावर को चाकू लेकर अपनी तरफ आते हुए देख भी लिया लेकिन फिर भी रुश्दी आत्मरक्षा में कुछ कर न पाये? रुश्दी कहते हैं कि हिंसा में वास्तविकता को नाश करने की वो तीव्र शक्ति है जिसमें  तर्कसंगत विचार की कोई जगह ही नहीं रहती। भय और चिंता के वातावरण में सही सोच या विवेक कहीं गायब हो जाता है।

उस हमले में भी यही हुआ था। जब तक होश संभलता ‘चाकू’ ने अपने धर्म का पालन कर दिया था। गज़ब है जो (चाकू) घृणा को अंजाम देता है वो घृणा का पात्र नहीं बनता, क्योंकि यही चाकू किसी चिकित्सक के हाथ होता तो ‘जानदेवा’ होता न कि ‘जानलेवा’, क्योंकि चिकित्सक की मन:स्थिति जीवनदान की होती है। मन-वचन-कर्म के तारतम्य से ही विचार कर्म में परिवर्तित होता है और जब मन घृणा से ओतप्रोत हो तो कर्म कैसा होगा, इसकी तो मात्र कल्पना ही की जा सकती है। वो युवक मन-वचन-कर्म के चक्रव्यूह से खुद को निकाल ही नहीं पाया। ‘मानना’ इस कदर ‘जानने’ पर हावी रहा कि चाकू ने वो ही किया जो उसे बताया गया।

इस हिंसक वारदात में एक आंख गंवाने के बाद रुश्दी को द्विचक्षु समाज को पुनः जानने-समझने का मौका मिला और उन्हें ‘Knife’ को एक हथियार से ज़्यादा एक विचार के रूप में देखने और दिखाने का आत्मबोध हुआ। कई मायनों में रुश्दी ने चाकू की आत्मकथा लिख डाली है – चाकू उतना ही ‘एक हथियार’ है जितना कि ‘एक विचार’।  चाकू की ‘शरीर से घनिष्टता’ ही उसके ‘अपने’ होने का अहसास दिलाती है। चाकू खुद में तो एक धातु का टुकड़ा भर ही है अगर उस में ‘धार’ न हो। इस हादसे के बाद रुश्दी को यह एहसास हुआ कि वह स्वयं भी साहित्य को एक तेज़ धार वाले चाकू की तरह ही तो इस्तेमाल कर रहे थे। इस दुर्घटना से ‘धार’ और ज़्यादा तेज़ और सार्थक ही होनी चाहिए,  इन संभावनाओं से इंकार नहीं किया जा सकता।

चाकू केक भी काटता है और सब्ज़ी भी, बोतल भी खोलता है और शरीर भी।  9/11 ने तो हवाई जहाज़ को एक चाकू की तरह इस्तेमाल किया ‘twin towers’ को काटने के लिए। धार तेज़ हो तो कोई भी चीज़ चाकू बन सकती है लेकिन चाकू के होने का अहसास तब होता है जब यह वो काटता है जो हम अक्सर कटा हुआ देखना नहीं चाहते। भाषा भी तो एक चाकू है जो बिना कुछ काटे वैचारिक काट-छांट कर सकती है। चाकू एक कष्टदायक अनुभव भी है जो जीवन को नये अनुभवों के करीब लाता है। चाकू में जीवन लेने की शक्ति तो है ही, जीवन देने की अद्भुत ताकत भी है जैसा कि हम चिकित्सक के हाथ के चाकू की चर्चा ऊपर कर चुके हैं और या फिर आप किसान की दराँती के चाकू को भी उसी श्रेणी में रख सकते हैं जो हमारी क्षुधा पूर्ति के लिए फसलें काटता है।    

एक बात तो तय है कि चाकू ने सलमान रुश्दी को एक नई अस्मिता दी है जिसमें चाकू केन्द्रीय भूमिका में है और उन्हें अब इसी नई अस्मिता के साथ जीना होगा। ‘Knife’ एक चुनौती तो रहा ही है लेकिन उनके पास एक मौका भी है अपने को दोहराये बिना सार्थक बनाये रखने का! यह रुश्दी जैसे प्रतिभाशाली लेखक के ही बस की बात थी कि उन्होंने अपने पर हुए इस दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण जानलेवा हमले का भी सकारात्मक इस्तेमाल किया और वर्तमान समाज में विद्यमान प्रवृत्तियों पर एक गहन दृष्टि डाली जिसे आप समाजशास्त्रीय या राजनीतिक दृष्टि भी कह सकते हैं और मनोवैज्ञानिक और दार्शनिक भी! 

Knife
by Salman Rushdie
Penguin, New Delhi
Extent: 209. Price: Rs. 699.

First published in www.RaagDelhi.com, uploaded on May 8, 2024. 

Much has changed but much remains the same

In the re-reading of history, Aurangzeb gets a chance to clarify his position.

It is said that things about history need to be read or understood in conjunction with the context and time. The context helps place historical events in right perspective. Else, history passing through opinion(s) over time distorts facts to suit ideological predisposition. It is another matter that the subject of history has been a casualty of ideological biases in recent times. The one who has seemingly suffered the most from such biases has been Aurangzeb, the longest serving emperor of the Mughal dynasty. Should the trend persist, his half-a-century of rule will remain fodder for promoting divisive ideologies for several more centuries.  

Despite being known to have built temples for the Hindus, Aurangzeb continues to be discredited for destroying temples only. Vilified for taxing people to amass wealth, that Aurangzeb lived off the prayer caps he sold is willfully allowed to pass. Such has been the tirade against him that even Francis Bernier’s impressions that ‘the king governed his subjects with equity and impartiality’ doesn’t value any bit. Given the tumultuous years of his half a century of rule, Aurangzeb must have evolved from an aggressive king to a pragmatic ruler. Much has been written on him but nowhere the possible transformation of a ruler ever been thought about, much less considered.

History is always written by the victor, but the case of Aurangzeb is quite in contrast. With a city and many roads named after the king already erased from the map, efforts to annul his name from the history books is a work in progress. Had it not been for his long stint as an Emperor, Aurangzeb would have been relegated as a fringe ruler many centuries ago. While most only see an antagonist in him, but it is often ignored that Aurangzeb too may have been affected by the circumstances and legacy which were nowhere under his control. Conversations with Aurangzeb allows the long-dead Mughal emperor to clear several misconceptions about him. 

Based on historical facts but written as a genre-bending novel, the narrative positions history to counter ideological impulses of the time. Translated from the Tamil, it is a distinct form of telling a story that is funny and witty but reflective and entertaining. An Aghori summons into his body the spirit of Aurangzeb to speak to the interlocutor. Once the spirit manifests in the body, it introduces itself: “I, Alamgir, born Aurangzeb, have come before you.’ There is much misinformation in history about me, the spirit argues, that I wish to clarify and set aside.

Aurangzeb makes it clear upfront that he was not cast in stone. He lets it be known that his life had three distinct sections in accordance with his age – forty to fifty, fifty to eighty-five, and eighty-five to ninety. Each section reflected different persona. One can easily be anguished by what he did and be as painful for being victimized for something he was trapped into. Without any exception, he was certainly not secular in those times. The era might have changed but not the time – isn’t deep religious portrayal a social and political virtue now? 

Such is the narrative strength of the fact-filled story that neither will it find favor with the chest-thumping right wing not with the self-proclaimed liberals. Aurangzeb puts in right perspective the things reader believes because s/he wants to believe. In saying so, the spirit concurs with noted historian Jadunath Sarkar that Aurangzeb’s life was a Greek tragedy. In making a case for and drawing lessons from his tragic life, the spirit invokes the reader to connect the past with the present in unbiased assessment of the history that has been misinterpreted.  

Conversations with Aurangzeb is an interesting way of re-reading history. It is a groundbreaking book that rekindles interest on the life of an Emperor that has seemingly been long dusted. By drawing and equating the past with the present, the narrative at places could be alarming and frightening too. It places the past under tight scrutiny without drawing any conclusions. However, the spirit doesn’t shy away from admitting that it had sinned a great deal in its ninety years on earth. In doing so, the spirit also holds a mirror to the justifications unleashed by us to in favor of our own wrong doings, both socially and politically. If lust for power is what Aurangzeb has been accused for, the spirit questions if lust for money, lust for power, and lust for blood any less prevalent now. 

Charu Nivedita’s novel is a complicated but interesting and amusing undertaking to dispassionately view the subject that has been grossly misunderstood. It is part historical and part fiction but a satire, nonetheless. It is cult Tamil writer’s contribution in understanding history that is as much a biting commentary on our times.

Conversations with Aurangzeb
by Charu Nivedita
Translated by Nandini Krishnan
HarperCollins, New Delhi
Extent: 355, Price: Rs. 599.

First published in the Hindustan Times on April 27, 2024.

It may indeed be cheaper to save the world.

Have capitalists woken up to both the cost of inaction and the opportunity of action? 

Modern economic growth and rising demand for goods at relatively lower prices has led to inevitable exploitation of nature, and consequent climate change. There is no denying that unfettered capitalism has contributed to over extraction of natural resources and increasing emission of greenhouse gases. Should uncontrolled capitalism persist till 2050, the aim of restricting average global temperature within 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels may remain a pipe dream. Emitting billions of tons of carbon dioxide will see continued climate extremes leading to the loss of lives and livelihoods. No wonder, climate emergencies have become frequent.  

Many environmentalists believe that the long-term solution to tackling climate crises is to uproot capitalism because ‘we cannot solve the problem by what caused it’. It is argued that tackling the climate crises without replacing an economic system that is partially responsible for the excess greenhouse gases stuck in the atmosphere may remain elusive. General consensus is that without ensuring nature’s well-being, human well-being is unlikely to be achieved. However, with only few decades at hand in averting catastrophic climate change, the possibility of putting a new economic system in place may seem improbable. 

Despite capitalism being well entrenched, reforming capitalism seems the only practical way to avoid the system from collapsing. Passionate capitalists fear that policy reforms may kill the market. But policy shifts in favor of climate-oriented technologies and investments have created new business opportunities. Whether such efforts add up to make an impact at global scale has yet to be fully ascertained. Some trends are noticeable, the UK economy grew by 60 percent between 1990 and 2017 while its carbon emissions declined by 40 percent. The task lies in replicating and escalating such transformative processes and practices. Although climate financing may have been slow, the Paris Agreement has triggered a process of change. 

Climate Capitalism is about how to transform world’s dominant economic system while ensuring that the wheels of progress don’t come to a halt. From renewable power to green cement, from electric cars to carbon capture – emission-reducing technologies have tossed new opportunities for private capital and government regulations to work in tandem. The process to harness the forces of capitalism to achieve zero emissions has already begun. Although these are still early days for capitalism to wear a natural look for addressing impending climatic concerns, a faint ray of optimism seems to have been generated. 

It has been over two decades that industrial capitalism has been critiqued for neither pricing nor accounting its negative externalities. It liquidates natural capital and calls it profit, undervaluing both natural resources and living systems. Akshat Rathi chronicles the political maneuverings that made possible China’s lead in building fleet of electric cars, India’s success in promoting solar power, America’s success with reversing climate damages in the oil industry, and the Danish quest for pushing wind turbines. All such initiatives combined; it has been estimated that 2% of global GDP is enough to make the carbon dioxide problem go away! Far from being linear, however, there are disruptive elements that play upon power politics to brittle the path to zero emissions. Politics, technology and finance would need to align in the right direction. 

With climate emergencies threatening life, public perception on the global climatic accords and green initiatives remains grossly skeptical. Holding an optimist position, Akshit argues that we cannot insulate ourselves from the transformation - from fossil fuels to clean energy – coming our way. From the bureaucrats to the billionaires, and from the doers to the enforcers, there are multiple actors on the capitalist platform who would need to merge differences in reforming the economic system towards shaping a climate-conducive capitalism.

Climate Capitalism conveys optimistic narrative which contends that it’s cheaper to save the world than destroy it. It goes without saying that the time for uncontrolled capitalism is long over. What kindles a ray of hope is that capitalists themselves have woken up to both the cost of inaction and the opportunity of action. 

Climate Capitalism 
by Akshat Rathi
John Murray/Hachette, London
Extent: 260, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in The Hindu on April 19, 2024.

No iffs, only butts

We are humans, thanks to our butts. 

Rarely is the derriere taken seriously enough to be written about, but there have never been any ifs about butts. People with big butts are as worried as those with small, as both want to suit the size they deem fit. The entire health industry with its gadgets and diet plans is geared to fulfil such body-reshaping desires. But a butt always remains what it is. If it were not butts, evolutionary biologists explain, humans would neither have traversed long distances nor escaped predation. ‘We are humans, thanks to our butts’. Butts: A Backstory traces the evolutionary biology and cultural relevance of this enigmatic body part.

Cheeky and entertaining, Heather Radke presents the cultural history of a body part that has long been perceived as an indicator of women’s nature – from femineity to morality. It offers a perspective-shifting reading on a body part, from mania for Sarah Baartman’s butts during 18th century to fetish for Kim Kardashian’s backsides in the 21st. The deeply researched narrative examines society’s obsession with derrieres and elaborates what butts are and what butts mean.  Within butts’ cultural histories are embedded stories of tragedy, anger, obsession, lust, and joy. It turns out to be an absorbing reading on a subject so familiar as to be practically invisible. 

The objectification and commodification of butts has remained a work in progress. Fascinating is the fact that all throughout modern history women have found their butts under influence of male gaze. No wonder, Kate Moss’ small butts were once the gold standard in femineity and few years later big butts of Jennifer Lopez were glorified. The story of butts is all about male fascination and obsession for a body part that female have continued to pay dearly to avoid being shamed for carrying the size and shape not in vogue. The book makes significant contribution to the complicated discussion around women’s bodies.  

Radke raises question on why have women been enamored by male gaze to take evolution into their own hands - by hiding, accentuating, ignoring or sculpting their butts. ‘In the process, not only do women harm others, but harm themselves by never really understanding where the shame comes from.’ Butts are essential for being human, but during last two centuries women’s butts have been talked around the ideas of race, gender, fitness, fashion, and market. No wonder, feelings about butts are trapped in ideas and prejudices. 

The cheeky peach emoji on the cover may hold a sales-pitch but the book is a curious but intelligent peep into the world around butts. The narrative offers more than what any reader may have expected, raising empathy on physical suffering butts were once subjected through bustles and corsets. Such stuff has long been dusted but fashion freedom has now subjected women to wear the flapper dress to demonstrate masochistic ‘self-control, or even self-harm.’ Plastic surgery is for those who wish to burn their butts to conform to new body shape.  

Butts: A Backstory chronicles each change in social consciousness around butts that drove the market for women in the last three centuries. It is intriguing how this human body part came to be on the receiving end of so much attention. Placing her own body in the center, the award-winning essayist and journalist concludes that howsoever women may have treated their butts, our bodies have their own agenda not to obey us. Whether one wants it big or small, a butt always remains what it is. The human body stubbornly refuses to oblige. 

Deeply researched and ingeniously written, Radke argues that the cultural history of butts has a enduring message for everyone to not only understand past mechanisms on body-shaming but develop new meanings on how our bodies ought to be seen. The author leaves reader with the answer she offers those who ask ‘your butt is too big’ – compared to what?  

Butts: A Backstory
by Heather Radke
Simon&Schuster, London
Extent: 310, Price: Rs. 599.

First published in Deccan Herald on April 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.