Monday, February 07, 2022
Statue of Equality
Key Points
- He will dedicate a 216-feet tall “statue of equality” to the nation, on this occasion.
- ‘Statue of equality’ commemorates the 11th century bhakti saint Sri Ramanujacharya. The saint promoted the idea of equality across all the aspects of living, including caste, creed and faith.
- Inauguration of the statue is part of ongoing 12-day celebrations of his 1000th birth anniversary.
About Statue of Equality
- The statue is made of ‘panchaloha’, which is a combination of five metals namely, gold, silver, copper, zinc and brass. It is one of the tallest metallic statues in sitting position worldwide.
- It is mounted on a 54-feet high base building named ‘Bhadra Vedi’.
- It comprises of:
- Floors, which is devoted for a vedic digital library & research centre,
- A Theatre
- Ancient Indian texts
- An educational gallery, detailing several works of Sri Ramanujacharya.
- Statue has been conceptualised by Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swami, from Sri Ramanujacharya Ashram.
3D presentation mapping
During the programme, a 3D presentation mapping on life journey and teachings of the saint Sri Ramanujacharya will be showcased. On the occasion, PM Modi will also visit the identical recreations of 108 ‘divya desams’ (ornately carved temples), surrounding the statue.
Inauguration of climate change research facility
During the visit, PM will also inaugurate ICRISAT’s climate change research facility on plant protection. He will also inaugurate ICRISAT’s rapid generation advancement facility. Both the facilities will be dedicated to smallholder farmers of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Logo of ICRISAT
PM Modi will also unveil a specially designed logo of ICRISAT. Commemorative stamp will also be issued on the occasion.
About ICRISAT
ICRISAT is an international organisation, involved in conducting agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The organisation helps farmers by providing them improved crop varieties and hybrids. It also helps smallholder farmers in drylands to fight against climate change.
Who was Sri Ramanujacharya?
Ramanujacharya was a Hindu theologian, Indian philosopher, social reformer, and an important exponent of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition. His philosophical foundations for devotionalism influenced the Bhakti movement. He worked for upliftment of people with the spirit of every human being equal regardless of caste, creed, gender, race and nationality.
Current Affairs- February 7, 2022
INDIA
– Playback legend Lata Mangeshkar dies in Mumbai at 92; awarded Bharat Ratna in 2001 and Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1989
ECONOMY & CORPORATE
– DCGI grants emergency use permission to single-dose Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine
WORLD
– Iconic tapestry of Pablo Picasso’s painting ‘Guernica’ is back at the UN in New York
– Madagascar battered by Cyclone Batsirai
– International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation observed on Feb 6
SPORTS
– India (178/4 in 28) defeat West Indies (176/43.5) by 6 wickets in first ODI of the three-match series at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad
– India (195/6 in 47.2) win Under-19 Cricket World Cup by defeating England (189 in 44.5) in the final played at North Sound, Antigua in West Indies
Current Affairs- February 6, 2022
INDIA
– PM kickstarts 50th Anniversary Celebrations of ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) in Hyderabad and inaugurates two research facilities
– PM inaugurates 216-foot statue of 11th century saint Sri Ramanujacharya in Hyderabad
– Fees of 50% seats in Private Medical Colleges to be at par with Government College: National Medical Commission
– Former BJP Lok Sabha MP from Telangana, Chandupatla Janga Reddy, dies at 87
ECONOMY & CORPORATE
– Foodgrains vessel leaves from Patna to Pandu in Assam via Bangladesh
– IIT Hyderabad to set up Suzuki Innovation Centre on its campus
WORLD
– NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to take over as Norway’s central bank Governor at the end of the year
– China, Pakistan ink new CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) agreement
– 7 killed when plane on Nazca lines tour crashes in Peru
Till the end, Lata Mangeshkar remained her own person
It would be wrong to pin her down to a single identity, of a grand dowager queen of music, all white sarees, and an isolation of fervent religiosity and meditational silences
“Like art, revolutions come from combining what exists into what has never existed before”: Gloria Steinem
Lata was one of the three daughters born to a well-known performer in Marathi theatre, Dinanath Mangeshkar. Her father recognised her talent early on, and began training her when she was only five. Her younger and very talented sister Asha Bhosle told the Dogri poet Padma Sachdev later how their lives changed when their father passed away suddenly. The eldest, Lata didi, was only 13. The family first went to stay with their mother’s family in Thalner village in Dhule, then moved to Mumbai to a small house in Nana Chowk. Lata ji’s initial years in the Mumbai film industry of the early ’40s were full of struggle. Music directors used to the loud and somewhat shrill and nasal voices of singing stars from courtesan families, were reluctant to give the frail teenager a chance for playback singing. They found her voice “too thin”.
A person less in need of money may have argued and told them that screen voices needed to be more natural and fluid in the age of the new recording technology. But Lata’s overwhelming need was to earn enough for her family of three siblings and a widowed mother. So she played Eliza Doolittle to their Professor Higgins for a while. Flexibility is something young fatherless children learn early on in life. Lata did too. But like a true singer, even as she adapted to the composers’ demands, she kept alive her classically trained real voice and soon rose to be the patron saint of the “new” female voice of independent India. With her first hit song Aayega aanewala, from Mahal, she was no longer the awkward in-between singer. Even the great Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sahib is reported to have said of her that ever since he heard her sing in Raga Yaman, he forgot his own rendering, and that the girl just never goes off-key (Jab se iss ladki ka Yaman kaan mein pada, main apna wala Yaman bhool gaya! Kambakht kabhi besuri hi nahin hoti!). Another great composer of film music, Naushad, wrote about her: Watch her voice leap up like a ball of fire (Shola sa lapak jaaye hai, awaaz tau dekho!).
In the ’50s, Lata Mangeshkar was an undisputed star singing for all renowned composers: Shankar-Jaikishan, Naushad, SD Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Hemant Kumar and Madan Mohan. She sang some of the biggest hits for Madhubala in Mughal-e-Azam, including the timeless, Mohey panghat pe Nandlal…. Her long and distinguished career is not a tragic tale of continuing to shoulder the burden of someone else’s idea of how a woman should sing. She was a genuinely many-voiced singer who considered it an asset to be able to sing for a Madhubala, a Jaya Bachchan and even a Preity Zinta. Hers was a voice of a simple but grand inheritance from Marathi theatre, also a realisation of the paternal dreams and aspirations she had imbibed as a young girl. She was a rock to her family till the end.
Still it would be wrong to pin her down to a single identity, of a grand dowager queen of music, all white sarees, and an isolation of fervent religiosity and meditational silences. True, as an individual, Lata ji remained fiercely protective of her private life. But she was very much her own person. She did not follow the usual pattern of marriage, children and the possibility of a life long contention with a male who felt his masculinity threatened by an eminent wife. She chose, instead, to sing as and when and how she wished, and maintain her personal relationships with various men and women she cared for. She had little interest in theatrics. Her love for all things, from diamond jewellery to devotional music, was not a put-on act. Those aesthetics came naturally to her like to so many of our great musicians. But one admires her for, even as she pursued her music, rightly demanding that musicians be paid royalties, not be sent off with a one-time payment. If this created some disaffection between her and a few big ticket male singers, so be it. Her innate understanding of her self worth remained subtle and capacious till the very end.
Another loveable part of Lata Mangeshkar’s life was her deep and genuine love for cricket. In the cricket establishment she found the action-man dimension perhaps of a father she had lost early in her life. Stories about her romantic dedication to one such legend were also rife over the years. But she chose not to marry for reasons we will never know. The truth or otherwise remained between them. She never cared to discuss it publicly and none of the columnists and society reporters dared ask her about it. She did make clear that she did not wish to be reborn. Ever. And that her favourite poet was Meera Bai who sang Mai mai, kaise jiyun ree (Oh my mother how can I survive)”. “One should gracefully accept sorrow like happiness”, she said in one of her last interviews to a Mumbai daily
Of late, one sees a sudden swell in those who claim to have known her over the years and emphasise how she sang because Veer Savarkar urged her to sing or that singing a song like, Ai mere watan ke logo… was an ideal public display of true rashtra bhakti. From what one gathers about this unusually gifted singer, she abhorred histrionics or public displays of love or hate. She was among those like George Bernard Shaw who believed that patriotism is basically a conviction that the best country is the one that one is born in.
Professionally and personally, the marvellous weight of the pleasure her singing gives embarrasses hyperbolic tributes. Certainly, obituaries will call her “the last of a kind”, the “Sur Saraswati” in Hindi film music or “the greatest female singer in the Bollywood firmament”. For once, they will not be soppy clichés, for once they will ring true.
Written by Mrinal Pande
Source: Indian Express, 7/02/22
The symbolism of inter-caste marriages
When countries worldwide are now integrating rapidly across color, racial, ethnic boundaries, the Indian government has to offer incentives for couples to marry outside rigid boundaries. Does inter-caste marriage then result in the anticipated social change and abolish untouchability?
Surrounding the anti-caste movement, a topic remains hotly contested. It is about inter-caste marriages as a way towards the annihilation of caste. Activists, thinkers and leaders are divided over this. Dr Ambedkar’s famous quote from Annihilation of Caste, wherein he stated that inter-caste marriages were “the real remedy for breaking caste”, is often cited. Ambedkar thought “fusion of blood” would create the feeling of kith and kin.
Ambedkar’s advice remains unheard. The Indian Human Development Survey reported that 95% of Indians still find partners within their subcastes. What is the situation of the rest 5%, who have braved the odds against tradition and caste? There isn’t data or satisfying coverage of them.
Many a time second- or third-generation educated Dalits who have managed to access quality education, and landed respectable (elite) jobs, find the prospects of marriage outside caste available to them. What then happens to their inter-caste marriages? Their union is unlike any other marriage. It is a political act — an achievement of love over caste. The Dalit person marrying outside caste, say to an upper caste, finds himself or herself duelling between the struggle of their community, and the culture of their spouses and in-laws. It’s akin to getting a good job in a company surrounded by oppressor castes. Rarely does one get a chance to balance both, and what is the outcome if they do?
The children of mixed-caste parents also grow up amidst profound misunderstanding of their complicated backgrounds. They are brought up in a caste-neutral or a-caste environment, which essentially means being subjected to the dominant caste parent’s identity. The closest they come to caste is while availing caste reservations or visiting their Dalit family. If they align themselves with the identity of the oppressed caste parent, which is need-based, they risk a backlash.
The Government of India launched a scheme in 2013 to encourage inter-caste marriages. It offers Rs 2.5 lakh if one of the partners is a Dalit. One of the requirements is a recommendation from a sitting MLA / MP and government officer concerned. The scheme wants to appreciate and promote the “socially bold step” of the couple. When countries worldwide are now integrating rapidly across color, racial, ethnic boundaries, the Indian government has to offer incentives for couples to marry outside rigid boundaries.
Does inter-caste marriage then result in the anticipated social change and abolish untouchability?
I can share my experiences. Of a savarna woman in the US who married a Dalit man and joined the Dalit community’s network. Often, during interactions, the savarna woman wouldn’t parse her background. The Dalit community’s culture, religion and festivals were different from hers. Unknowingly, the savarna woman would privilege her experiences. At some point, she forgot about her caste identity and started to claim Dalit identity passively. Since she was a student and an activist, she profited from the networks offered by her Dalit compatriots.
As she became more comfortable with the Dalit community, she began to take over leadership roles. She started to call out the Dalit leadership for their overrepresentation of males. Within a matter of a few months, she was representing Dalits at conferences and seminars.
What we see from the above anecdote is that the notion of inter-caste marriage has become a passport for those who have lived the life of oppressing Dalits directly or by virtue of their participation in anti-Dalit prejudices, to now suddenly assume the position of misrepresenting Dalits.
The second case is of a Dalit minister married to a Brahmin woman, who was asked about it on a Marathi talk show. He replied that it was because “Brahmin women are very good”, and appealed to all Dalit men to marry Brahmin women.
Coming back to Ambedkar’s speech quoted above, he further suggested that to break the caste system, it was pertinent to destroy religious notions, the sanctity of the Shastras on which caste was founded and not occasionally bring about “inter-caste dinner and inter-caste marriages, which were futile methods of achieving their ends”.
What Ambedkar is arguing is not against inter-caste marriage, but he is inviting us to go deeper, beyond social sanctions. He wants us to be participants in movements that would upend and eventually change mindsets.
Written by Suraj Yengde
Source: Indian Express, 6/02/22
Thursday, February 03, 2022
Quote of the Day February 3, 2022
“Always chase your dreams instead of running from your fears.”
Author Unknown
“डर से भागने की बजाय अपने सपनों को साकार करने के लिए हमेशा प्रतिबद्ध रहें।”
अज्ञात
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