The Medieval Maratha Country

My love affair with the Maratha History continues with another addition to the collection on that subject. This time with a book by one A. R. Kulkarni titled The Medieval Maratha Country. The book was pointed out fondly by Panchita, even when she knew it will be an attention hog! The book contains a collection of essays that talk about Proselytization in Goa, the condition of women, fort structure and hierarchy of a fort administration, revenue and wealth of the fledgling empire, foreign relations – especially with the European powers etc. It largely revolves around Shivaji and his period with only little mention to the latter period of the polity dominated by the Peshwas. I have already started reading it…hopefully will do a good job at finishing off the book.

After this one, there are two books lined up already. And these days, Panchita is busy reading the old copy of the Marathi translation of Not Without My Daughter.

An Opinion on Opinion

Such are the times that everyone has an opinion on the Mumbai Attacks. Some of us lesser mortals just publish them on our blogs and are satisfied if a reader or two wander here. May be, leave a comment. Some are more privileged to get their opinions published in respected newspapers! But I have an opinion on the opinion.

In this Sunday’s Indian Express, Lord Meghnad Desai has berated the government for the attacks on Bombay – not Mumbai, because he apparently grew up in the city when it was known as Bombay. He also demands that Bombay be accorded statehood and somehow believes that that will solve the problems. Why? First off, it was Nehru’s wish that Bombay be a separate state and secondly, even though the Chief Minister and the Home Minister were asked to go, the punishment wasn’t enough, especially since both of them were not from Bombay and it somehow does not make them accountable.

In my opinion, this opinion itself is flawed. Lord Desai, what we are seeing here is the failure of the Westminster style democracy, which does seem to have worked well for countries like the UK. Let us flashback a little bit. 9/11/2001 – ghastly attacks struck New York City. Who sprang into action? The Mayor of New York City. Whatever political mileage and revenues from books Rudy Giuliani drove out of this event, he should be commended for his leadership in those difficult times. When President George W Bush went on TV, he talked of smoking the terrorists out of their holes alive or dead. He did not get into the bickering of petty politics and pushing blame around. No one, naively or not, believed that statehood to New York City would solve the problems.

Now flash forward. The real question is that in case of our hierarchy and various positions are we ourselves clear, who does what? The Home Minister is routinely in charge if internal security matters (strangely, the Federal or Union Home Minister is also in charge of the Border Security Force in peace times!). But then what happens to the Mayor of the city? What does the Municipal Commissioner do? Who does the Police Chief of a city report to? Aren’t the authorities like either the Municipal Commissioner or the Mayor of the City and the Police Chief of that city expected to be in charge of the general well-being of the city? Aren’t these guys more close to what is happening in the city and shouldn’t they be in touch with each other always? When broader help, like the NSG involvement is required, who is the liaison for the Intelligence Chiefs? What is the command structure like? We hear that the Intelligence Bureau had given some information to someone. Do we know who gave the information to whom? Do we know who is accountable to do what?

Now with this imbroglio, if Mumbai were to be renamed again as Bombay and were given statehood, how are all these problems going to be solved? Just because the Chief Minister will then be ‘local’ does not make him or her any more accountable. If the real hands behind the power are somebody else’s then how will it help? Are smaller states like Mizoram, Goa to name a few, happier because they are small and have local leaders? Would different departments, such as the intelligence guys and the defense guys and the internal security guys start coordinating better because the state is small?

Even more important, how many times has it happened that the leader was chosen through the voting of the elected members of the legislature? Would you not agree that every leader we have, including the prime minister himself, has been appointed? What are we going to do about the extra-constitutional remote controls like Sonia Gandhi et al. then? Does really unseating an MP or MLA make a difference? Our earlier Union Home Minster was such a guy, wasn’t he? He was unseated by his own folks in the Lok Sabha election, but rewarded for his loyalty to the Gandhi-clan by giving him what is considered an important post in the Cabinet. It is deplorable that RR Patil and Vilas Deshmukh are going to go unpunished; the only loss to them is no opportunity of hoarding money and power for the next year or so. But if anything, propose accountability here too…put these guys in jail for incompetence and let a justice system decide what to do with them. If we establish accountability like that, being local won’t matter. Is the question of accountability even valid in our context here?

Let us not rush into creating more states and adding more layers of bureaucracy unless we have answered these more important questions. And even more important, let us not divert attention from reforms and correcting past mistakes, if we ever get to that, to more politically motivated solutions like statehoods.

Punish the Real Culprits

No holds barred. Here’s what needs to happen, and now:

1. As a first step, Dr. Singh should fire his wimpy speech writer. When you are addressing the nation after such a shameful calamity, at least let there be some chest thumping while talking, all right; you are trying to motivate a billion plus horrified people here. Work can be outsourced to either McCain or Obama’s speech writer.

Convene an immediate session of the parliament. Following bills/ordinances/executive orders – whatever is the right thing need to be passed:
2. Repeal all alphabet category securities (and numeral and mathematical notations along with it) of everyone.
3. All the members of parliament and legislative assemblies all over India should be stripped off of their privileges. Live like common masses, may be the skin will not grow thick then.
4. Justice delayed is justice denied. If a case is open in the court (any court) for more than a year, the Judge should be publically lashed, Saudi Arabia style. And implement this ordinance immediately, for current open cases.
5. The chiefs of various intelligence bureaus and Coast Guard should be tried for treason. The only punishment should be death penalty.
6. If a policy maker/law maker is found guilty of misdemeanors for not doing his or her duty as policy maker/law maker of the land, he or she should be publically lashed, again Saudi Arabia style. This should be retroactively implemented and every sitting MP or MLA/MLC should be punished right away. They have taken things for granted for too long anyways.
7. Every case of corruption should be a punishable offence by death penalty only.

The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson

Is over, without the theatricals, of course.

Note: The title plagiarized from O Henry’s short story of the same name and same meaning, without the theatricals, of course.

General Knowledge

Now, I like to think that my GK is fairly good. I know the longest river in the world, the tallest mountain, the deepest trench and the Electoral College votes of Ohio that might swing the election. Heck, I even know what Electoral College means. But is that enough? Let me tell you, how yours truly was broadsided by a 100 feet wave in an 80 feet boat.

So this guy walks up to my desk. He is carrying a box of sweets and is wearing a patched t-shirt, which in a hurry he might have worn inside-out. No wait; it was made inside-out especially to irritate me. Now, if I were a loan officer, I thought, approving a loan to this guy was like triggering sub-prime crisis right there. He thrust a box of sweets in front of me asking me to partake a kaju-katlee or two. “What for?”, I asked out of habit. “I bought a unicorn.”

I was aghast. If this were a Disney cartoon, my face would have turned in to a question mark with a feeling that a horn is jutting out of that mal-formed question mark.

“I sold my pulsar” – he quipped.

Ever let your jaw drop when your face has already metamorphosed into a question mark? It is really painful.

I mean, how stupid do you have to be? Selling a celestial object that you can’t even fathom owning and buying a mythical creature, that does not even exist in story books these days! OMG!

Trying to remain as clam as possible, I started framing a sentence at the back of my mind - “son”, getting into a cocky Jack Nicholson style but being sympathetic at the same time, “you have been conned. Now, if you need help, I will offer everything. The first thing you might need to come to terms with this is psychiatric help. Now, don’t get me wrong…oh first sit down, calm down. Here, take a swig of water.”

None of this came out of my mouth. But he was quite chirpy. It appears the old pulsar was becoming creaky. Ya ha… may be after a billion years it started loosing its hydrogen – or whatever it is that powers the pulsar.

But then subtlety hit me on the forehead. These are bloody bikes that bother me so much on the Pune roads. And this bum had just exchanged one for the other and was offering me sweets for that. With a cheerful face, I took the sweet, congratulated him and was happy that none of the words came out of my mouth showing my ignorance.

Y'all

Is it that many Indians speaking in phony American accent have just inherited this phrase from the south of Mason-Dixon or do we, in a meeting, looking at a bunch of people we look for a plural of the pronoun you?

The Waree and the Warkaris – II

Being busy is just an excuse, but it took me really long time to pen this and put on the blog. As they say, better late than never.

So, what draws the warkaris to this spiritual madness? Yours truly tried to find that out this year. It all started with a good friend asking me, “we are joining the waree this year also; will you join us?” All we had to do was walk from close to Alandi up to Shivaji Nagar. I was skeptical at first. And I was assured that it has nothing to do with religion, being a believer or god-men and saints. Anyone is welcome to join in. You will not feel the distance or tiredness; you can stop at any time or just return from where you are, if you are tired. There are a lot of people around. Just walk for the experience…. It did not take a lot of cajoling. I know of a few friends and relatives who have done this, I knew of the history and the intense spiritual reckoning that was attached to it. So, I decided to take the plunge.

Initially, I was skeptical of not only the religiousness but also of the physical challenge, it presented. But it was a challenge worth accepting. So the plan was made – walk in the shoes that you are most comfortable in, carry a bottle of water, may be an umbrella and just be there at 4:15, at my apartment – so I was told.

4:15, you mean in the AM? Now, this was about to present another challenge. But it was necessary. As the warkaris start walking towards the city, many streets are closed and if you have to be part of the waree, it is better to be early than late. Sharp 3:20 AM, my alarm bell rang. I was up and ready to set out of the house at 4:00

At 6:00 AM, we were already on Alandi road, only 5 km from Alandi and waiting for the palkhi to arrive. It was nice – standing on the hillock, watching the sun rise; and watching the warkaris already set and walking towards Pandharpur. Despite of the crowd, there was no din. Everyone was walking in an orderly fashion, singing the hymns.

In the spare time, we were talking about the warkari sect, the management principles and experiences of other warkaris we know. We met two such groups – who walk from Alandi to Pandharpur every year. They were sharing their experiences – you forget the entire material world, no newspapers, no e-mails, no worries but for the strong urge to meet the lord. The waree embodies all the spiritual, management (in modern terms) and behavioral aspects. It changes you as a person; I was assured.

Eventually, the time came for the chariot carrying the palkhi to come. The sign of approaching chariot was the more organized dindis that started coming first. A dindi is simply a group of the like minded people, who register to walk together. Each dindi has a group of flag-bearers in the front, the devotees carrying tulsi plants and water, the group of devotees who are singing the hymns – they also carry cymbals and drums (mrudunga). The characteristic beat of cymbals and drums fills the air and gives a rhythm to the walk! These are followed by the participants of the dindi. A dindi-pramukh – the head of this group – walks beside the dindi and maintains order in his dindi.

As the devotees get engrossed in singing the hymns their cadence increases. So does the pace of walk and then the walk itself changes into a dance step that matches the rhythm of the hymn. The crescendo almost has the warkaris dancing without being aware of the world beside them. They play; they sing; they dance. Some just walk. They take breaks; after all, it is a long walk! People distribute food. The waree management also makes provisions of food of the warkaris; the organization takes care of the lodging arrangements. (The waree-management should be a topic for another post.) But meeting the lord is what drives them.

The rules of waree say, you either make your own food or sustain on charity, so a restaurant was out of question. We had our food at a charity in a temple. The afternoon sun was now taking its toll, but the enthusiasm had not waned.

And this continues for 22 long days before the waree reaches Pandharpur.

After saying good bye to the waree at Shivaji Nagar, we eventually returned home. Just a day’s walk of almost 15-16 km was killing the legs. A nice hot shower cured most of the pain. Thankfully, the next day was a weekend and enough time to rest. The waree also rested in Pune for two days before proceeding on its way forward.

Will I join the waree next year? The answer is yes. All I need extra is a little bit of sunscreen.

Careers Gone Awry?

The Government of India launched a population control program with the famous line, hum do, hamare do – we two, and ours two. The inverted triangle of “nirodh” implored people to not have more kids. The stick-figured happy family had two kids in tow with the parents – a daughter and a son. The daughter was always the elder one! With the “only two” becoming fashionable, the general families also decided their careers. The daughter would be a doctor, the son an engineer! The daughter would be married off into another family of “only two” and the happiness would extend to the next generation. So much was making the kids doctors or engineers ingrained in the fabric, the other careers were thought as taboos. Getting less marks in SSC or HSC, prohibiting admissions to the above two courses would immediately bring a funeral mood in many homes. Later on, “only two” fell out of fashion and “only one” took the stronger hold. Till then, doctors or engineers in industries except for IT had become passé. IT still had the luster! And everyone had a charted career path – SSC, HSC, BE and then into IT and off to the US of A!

Life was easy, until I realized something. How is it that we are rejecting sharp engineers (more or less) in interviews and here, we have:

1. An expert in Slavic languages, driving the project design


2. A Certified Financial Analyst, working in Microsoft Technologies


3. An Art Director, you know, the one who decides what music Steven Spielberg should choose for background kind (I am not kidding!) manages a large server farm in various technology flavors


4. A specialist in Psychology is an established consultant on Microsoft Technologies


5. A journalist hobnobbed with web development and went on to become a corporate strategist


6. A Marine, did his part for his country (USA) and now runs successful operations at a product based company

Is the trend changing? For a long time, the path of success was IITB and then IIMA. The rodent-derby (folks also call it rat-race) was yours to lose, as many tell Barack these days! But I think the trend is changing. Kids still have fascination for IT but also want to do something else…. Here’s what the next generation in my family is doing:

1. I am interested in animation only, if that is not the job I am getting, I won’t take some software engineer job at a multi-national, told one of my nephews to his frazzled father


2. Journalism! No, wait, IAS! Umm, no Journalism it is. “College in Chennai?” screamed my cousin, but the niece was steadfast


3. How’s your MBA coming along? Good. Barely a whisper and I thought I was laconic! So, how are campus placements coming along. I didn’t attend any, the sparkling diamond studded ear answered. What? Well, no, I want to do business, came a nonchalant reply.


May be some will go down the rut, may be some won’t. But it’s good, they are more likely to do something they like!

The Waree and the Warkaris

As a kid, I heard my grand mother talk of the stories of the panDharee chee waree. Vithoba-Rakhumai at the homestead devghar (temple) used to get extra offering on the aashaaDhee ekaadashee (the 11th day of the waxing period of moon in the month of aashaaDh). The weary call after asthma attach, by my grand mother usually was “vachav ray Panduranga, kiti anta baghashil” (Panduranga, have mercy).

So was Pandurang introduced to me; – the savior of the ordinary, the up lifter of the downtrodden, the helper of the weary, the chief protagonist of the bhakti-movement.

It may have started as a simple preaching in the form of folk music from the likes of Sant Namdev and the translation of Geeta by Sant Dnyaneshwar or the ovi-abhanga with loaded messages by the likes of Sant Tukaram, Sant Janabai, Gorha Kumbhar, et al. This avatar of Vishnu, worshipped mainly in Maharashtra and some portions of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh etc. has a huge following. The intellectuals and social-reformers of Maharashtra owe a lot to the bhakti-movement. The strong but spiritual revolt against the ills of caste system may have laid the foundation for the education and emancipation centuries later.

The bhakti-movement culminates into what’s known as a waree – a long march from Alandi and Dehu and many other places in Maharashtra that reach the deity at Pandharpur on aashaaDhee ekaadashee every year.

Every year, two palkhis – the carts – carrying the padukas of Tukaram Maharaj and Dynaneshwar Mauli start from Dehu and Alandi respectively. After a walk of more 250 km, over 22 days, these palkhis reach Pandharpur. Almost 1 – 1.2 million devotees participate in this long march. The devotion, teetering on the edge of madness, of these devotees is more than words can explain. People of all walks of life – the rich, the poor, the farmers, the workers, the young, the old, the men, the women, the rural folks, the urban folks – participate in this long march. No one invites them, no one, not even the deity gives them anything in physical form. The egoless and selfless march draws the warkaris to meet the big lord every year. But what draws the warkaris to this madness?

छोटा काटा तीन वर

पहिलीतल्या लहान मुलांची शाळा सकाळी का असते असे प्रश्न स्वाभाविक आहे. मी सकाळी डोळे चोळत का ऊठायचो? कुलाबा, चर्चगेट मध्ये काम करणारे आई-वडिल घराजवळची शाळा बरी असा विचार करायचे. मग सकाळी पावणे-सात ला अर्धवट आंधारात, थंडीत, पावसात माझी आणि बाबांची वरात निघायची. कधी-कधी भागशाळेतल्या मैदानामध्ये पाऊस नसतानासुद्धा पाणी (दव) कसं, रेडियोमधून आवाज कसा येतो, पाण्याच्या पंपाची मोटार फिरते म्हणजे काय आणि पाणी वरच्या टाकीत कसं जातं अश्या एक ना अनेक गोष्टी चालायच्या.

घरी परत आल्यावर आजी बरोबर नको-नको त्या वयात रडियोवर वनिता मंडळ सारखे कार्यक्रम का ऎकले ते मला महित नाही. मग आनंदी-गोपाळच अभिवाचन, लक्ष्मीबाई टिळकांच्या स्म्रुतीचित्रेच अभिवाचन, कामगारांचे प्रश्न (तेंव्हा गिरणी-कामगारांचा संप चालू होता), पावसाळ्यात किंवा ऊन्हाळ्यात होणारे सामान्य रोग वगैरेंनी माझ्या सामान्यग्यानात खूपच भर पडली. मग आजीची एक डुलकी व्हायची तेंव्हा रेडियोला जरा आराम मिळायचा. दुपारी चहा-दूधाची वेळ व्हायची तेंव्हा किती वाजले हा प्रश्न यायचा. गजर लावल्यासरखी आजी उठायची. रोज मी न चूकता छोटा काटा तीनजवळ आणि मोठा काटा आठवर अशी वेळ सांगायचो. दुपारी पावणेतीनला प्रदेशिक वार्तापत्र, दोन-पन्नासला संथगती ईंग्रजी बातमीपत्र असे कार्यक्रम रेडियोवर चालू व्हायचे. पण वेळ मात्र रोज तशीच. अजून शाळेत घड्याळ शिकवले नव्हते आणि रोज वेळ सांगून सुद्धा घड्याळ शिकायची माझी ईच्छा झाली नव्हती!

मग एक दिवस गम्मत झाली. शनिवारी बाबा घरी होते. सकाळभर सावंतकाका, पाटिलकाका, आण्णाकाका आश्या बाबांच्या मित्रांची वर्दळ झाली होती. दुपारी विश्रांतीसाठी बाबा जरा झोपले होते आणि माझ्या ऊगाचच काहीतरी टिवल्या-बावल्या चालू होत्या. त्यामुळे बहुदा बाबांची झोपमोड झाली होती. किती वाजले या प्रश्नाला ऊत्तर म्हणून मी काट्यांची पोझिशन सांगून मोकळा झालो. झोप मोड झाल्यामुळे नाहीतर रागानी बाबांचे डोळे लाल झालेत हे मला समजल नाही. आता एक थप्पड बसणार या आविर्भावात बाबा ऊठले...पण आजी मध्ये पडली.

मग एका जुन्या वहीच्या पुट्ठ्याचा एक गोल कापला गेला, १ ते १२ च्या पोझिशन्स लिहिल्या गेल्या, दोन पुट्ठ्याच्या तुकड्यांचे काटे बनले...आणि मग माझ्या घड्याळ शिक्षणाची सुरुवाता झाली, ओरडा खाऊन झाला. आता माझ्या बाबांची मनिषा माझ्या भाच्याला घड्याळ शिकवायची. त्याचीही घड्याळ सांगायची पद्धत काट्यांच्या पोझिशन प्रमाणेच आहे. "आहो तो लहान आहे अजून" असं मी सांगून बघितले, पण एकनाएक दिवस तोही घड्याळ शिकेल, कदाचित थोडा ओरडाही खाईल.

अजूनही माझा कधी-कधी वेळेचा गोंधळ होतो. मग आठवते ती दूपार - घड्याळ शिकलेली.

Gerrymandering Maharashtra

The Delimitation Report of the Election Commission has been approved by the President of India. So the news is abuzz with the redistricting of constituencies for the next Central as well as State elections. The delimitation has brought forward some interesting aspects of the redrawing of lines!

To begin with, Maharashtra State Legislature has 288 seats. The total number of seats has been retained and redrawing has happened based on population density. It was decided in 1976, that the total number of seats will not be reviewed until 2026! Go figure!

Major urban areas such as Suburban Mumbai district, neighboring Navi Mumbai, Thane, Panvel and Pune and Nasik have undergone significant change in redrawing. With the exception of Mumbai District, these areas have seen significant increase in the number of representatives.

Thane is up from 13 to 24, Pune from 18 to 21 and Greater Mumbai holds the same number of seats, but share of suburbs has gone up to 17 but the city lost 10 seats. Nasik and Nagpur have also made modest gains.

The redistribution could be hardly representative. The population of Maharashtra has gone up significantly, but the proportion of people to representatives hasn’t changed. Only now, the urban areas will have better say in the formation of governments.

As the gerrymandering can show, the redistricting has followed major population growth areas. The cities – Greater Mumbai (and adjoining metropolitan area), Pune, Nasik, Nagpur are bursting at seams. One look from the top of the suburban train bridge at any local station shows the overwhelming display of the sprawl and decay. For all the increase in population, if we are also going to get more number of representatives, then in a saner world, we would have called it as victory of democracy and more power to people and other such clichés. But reality is going to be different. More number of representatives would only mean more birthday celebrations, more money laundering and less work. Call me a negative thinker if you will.

Unfortunately, with gerrymandering or without gerrymandering, the problems persist. When the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement created the separate state, major political weight was distributed between Mumbai and six districts of Western Maharashtra. The Western Maharashtra has been able to retain control over the policies through their clout and has converted itself into big-moneyed politicians and sugar barons. For all the progress that Maharashtra has made, little has been contributed to urban development. In the past 47 odd years of state’s existence, only one Chief Minister was from Mumbai and he too did not do great things for the city. The visionaries like Yashwant Chavan and Vasant Naik may have inadvertently done more harm to Mumbai than anyone will agree.

The resurging development following the liberalization was rampant and unplanned. Now that the political weight is changing to urban areas, do we hope to see any respite?

p.s. Thane by election result is in. Anand Paranjape of Shiv Sena won the election, in which the voter turnout was dismal. It is shame that both the parties contesting this seat had to look for the sons of the politicians to contest the seat. In the area, what Shiv Sena considers as its stronghold, there was no second-level leader who could take Prakash Paranjape’s place after his death. That speaks for the party!

This Blog is just Moribund

Not entirely dead yet...

The Imbeciles

What is a couple of pages worth bad publicity to a big telecom company? Well, from their demeanor, nothing much I guess. So, let me spew….

The precise date that was a harbinger of the nightmare was 27-July, related to my home cell phone. Yeah, that far back. That afternoon, I got a call from Idea Call Center, have you paid your bill sir…. Umm, yes, actually I did. Cheque number XXXX27, dated 25-July. I have dropped a cheque in the same drop box that I have been dropping for past 10 months, so you should get it.

A few days later, again there was a call asking if I have paid the bill. And then a few days later, the outgoing service was simply cancelled. No more warnings or questions! After multiple calls, I found out that Idea still hadn’t got my cheque and were asking me again and again if I have paid…the tone of disbelief going up every time!

So someone had lost the cheque, but there was no admission of that. And for Idea’s error, my outgoing was withheld. In all this rigmarole, the bill for August arrived, with charges carried forward from July, late payment fees for non-payment of July bill and also August bill with an extra topping of barred outgoing calls. That was when I became angry. So, I called the call center number…. The first thing it announced was how good Idea solutions were in billing. Really – I screamed. Then, I was put on hold for all of 45 minutes…and frustrated of hearing the background music I hung up. Then I tried logging the complaint on the website. So, pat came a standard reply, please pay the bill and then we can talk. So, I paid, taking a moral stand that since Idea lost my cheque, I won’t pay the late payment fees.

I thought that all my worries were over…but then when September bill came, something was fishy…. It appeared as if I had been given a discount for all the hassle I had to go through in July and August. I dared not ask, for I had lost the patience to be on phone with the call center and wait for tens of minutes. And then Idea decided to drop the bomb. Without any warning, the outgoing stopped! Why? Apparently, I had written a bad cheque. Huh?

Well, as the story goes, Idea mysteriously found the cheque that they claimed was lost, deposited it in the bank and since there was a stop payment put on that cheque, they treated it as bounced. No one bothered to check the history as to why that may have happened. No one bothered to call me to update that the cheque was returned by the bank. It’s as if they were waiting for the cheque to be found. And not only was I charged late payment fees once again, but also bad-cheque fees.

It took umpteen efforts from my side – lot of clamoring, posturing, use of words like dissatisfied customer, just cancel my services etc. before the imbeciles understood why I was unhappy. Two shady looking guys from collection department came over to help me settle it. I am not running away from making payments, I told them, but you seriously need to get the systems working properly. Yes, they both assured…and then Idea just couldn’t help but wait for a final climax.

Once again, there were late payment charges on the bill. It appears the shady looking guys who assured me this is the last of my problems, and had waived certain amount on the bill, did not really correct the problem in the system. This time though I would have none of it…I put my literary skills to good use and wrote a letter to higher ups in Idea. Negative words like distress, disrespect, discontinue peppered the letter. No confidence was exhibited that Idea would care about solving the problem. That had an impact and the excess charges were reversed. But by then, they had lost it.

So, now as a customer, I have been trying to understand: How is it that

* No customer care executive at the call center is not available for the first 15-20 minutes when I call?
* Looking at my usage pattern, Idea is ready to take risk with a cash-cow customer?
* No one understands what the problem is when it is explained for the first time?
* I should suffer if the customer care and billing systems do not interface with each other?
* They expect me to hold every time for more than 15 minutes if I call the call center?
* I always have to deal with the person in the call center who does not have authority to take decisions?
* The manager is never available on the floor?
* The promise – my manager will certainly call you tomorrow before 12 PM (not noon, PM!) – is never kept?
* Idea is such a moron and I still do business with them?

I actually know the answer to that last question. Too many people know that Idea number for it to be disconnected at the drop of the hat. But this forced me to finally walkover to the BSNL office to get a landline. So, once the transition period is over, Idea will miss my bill. Either that or I will wait for the number portability. Now that’s an !dea that could change my life. But for the record, they were the ones who started it….

The New History of Marathas – Armies and Administration

Read part 3 here.

One of the characteristics of Shivaji’s army that greatly helped him and frustrated his enemies was the Guerilla Tactics of the warfare. The geography around Pune and the Maval area – where Shivaji started first – was of great help to him. The armies were broken into small battalions. The armies were fast moving, light and were able to seek shelter in the forts on treacherous cliffs of the Sahayadri Mountains after a raid. Shivaji and his commanders rarely faced the Bijapur, Ahmednagar or Moguls in open planes. His tactics mainly concentrated on small group of mounted soldiers fighting with nothing more than a sword and shield cornering an enemy in a narrow pass. His army was also known to frustrate a camp of the enemy by cutting supply lines or disrupting normal operations of the camp. The army was so agile that even the British, when establishing their corps, adopted the Maratha Light Infantry. Such was the fierce attack and sharp turnaround of campaigns organized by Shivaji’s armies that not only Aurangzeb but also many historians considered him a coward who would not face the enemy in open fields. But Shivaji’s tactics were hugely successful.

Compare this with the armies of the Moguls or the factions of the Bahamani Sultanate. These armies typically consisted of heavy cavalry, backed by large siege equipment and provisioning facilities. The troops were regularly paid from the government exchequer and by this virtue also showed better loyalty. Apart from the troops, these armies also carried a burden of large number of noncombatants like grooms and servants of the mounted soldiers, animals of burden to move the cavalry equipment, cooks, record keepers and dancing girls. The armies were trained for fighting in open planes or holding a siege. And such armies were not able to move large distances easily.

Unfortunately the lightness of the Maratha army also meant, it had to live off the land. This did not go well with the peasants! Such armies were also not equipped to carryout long campaigns or to move away from the base fort to geographically distant areas.

But it is only on the basis of these strategies of Guerilla Tactics that Shivaji defeated huge armies of Afzal Khan (Commander of Adil Shah) and Shaista Khan (Commander and relative of Aurangzeb). He was consistently able to baffle the enemy and also employed strategies such as raiding a different enemy area, forcing the enemy to chase him in a different terrain.

Later when Peshwa Bajirao I started a northward expansion of the empire, the armies had to move long distances to fight battles. The Moguls had become considerably weak in the Gujarat and Malwa areas by the time of Bajirao I. By then the size of army and the distance, it had to travel for the battlefield made the logistics complicated. The army could no longer live off the land. This however, helped immensely in creation of the banking system. The government regularly borrowed money from merchants and bankers to pay for the war and expenses of the army. By the time the third war of Panipat happened, Maratha army had grown into a characteristically slow moving army that needed strong supply lines and large noncombatant staff.

One of the problems with agile army was that such army was not able to provide protection or governmental support to the areas conquered. Also, since the army lived off of the land, it was seen as a burden. And even with a less agile army, this continued even up to Raghunathrao Peshwe’s campaign into Punjab, a few years before Panipat war. While establishing tribute rights, Raghunathrao did little to establish a governmental control or to ensure that the tribute was fairly collected. However, after the provincial governments of Baroda, Indore, Gwalior and Nagpur started taking bigger role in the administration, the scenario started changing.

According to Gordon, Shivaji’s administration was largely modeled on the basis set by Malik Shah Amber. The administration of Peshwa Balaji Bajirao (Nanasaheb) brought large reforms to this administration. All the peshwas ruled in the name of the Chhatrapati, Shivaji’s heirs. As the empire expanded, the provincial governments started taking a bigger role in the administration. Eventually, the Shindes of Gwalior collected tribute from the Moguls and Rajput areas. In the calm and peaceful time, the countryside started seeing much prosperity. Other industry and trade also improved.

Gordon points out that the nineteenth century British Administration broadly consolidated the powers of a kamvisdar and created a British District Officer. Many records were already available to the British to model a tax system.

The New History of Marathas – the unit – deshmukhi

Read about the Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Unlike other history books that usually follow the royal family, track the strategies of the sovereign and pay attention to wins and losses in a war, Stewart Gordon takes a different route. In an attempt to trace the social history and ‘know’ the people, he does not follow the royal families or the important stalwarts of the kingdom. The book follows the revenue generating units instead and the social fabric provides him with an opportunity to track not just the land holders but also the land managers. This unit is the system of deshmukhi found in one form or the other in Maharashtra and perhaps many other states in India.

The deshmukh and the patil

As Gordon points out, at one point in the time, Maharashtra was so sparsely populated that for a sovereign it became easy to group anywhere between 20 and 100 villages together to form a pargana. Each pargana was appointed a deshmukh to collect the revenues and a deshpande to keep records. These two entities worked together with their respective village level entities – a village headman – the patil and a village record keeper – a kulkarni.

(Incidentally, Deshmukh, Deshpande, Patil and Kulkarni are long standing last names of many people. Innumerable other last names have come from such professions.)

The elite families received about 15% of the government collection. Apart from collecting taxes, the patil and the deshmukh were also responsible for the well being of the population. The deshmukh was to remain loyal to the sovereign at all the times and his duties were laid out in a sanad and/or mansab – a contract between the right-holder and the government.

Both the patil and the deshmukh had rights to negotiate with the sovereign on tax collection and in case of famine or drought reassess the tax levels and collection. After assessing the tax, many times the deshmukh also paid the sovereign the money in lump sum and the collected it from the people later. The rights were also nested. In many cases, a deshmukh was also a patil for one or more villages in the pargana. The nested rights also included hereditary rights called watan and inam. In some cases, there are also examples of a deshmukh himself being landless, and making ends meet only based on the percentage of the collection received from the pargana. But such cases were exceptions.

One of the most important aspects of a deshmukhi was that a deshmukh could maintain an army. The main purpose of this army was to protect the people from dacoits or to deal with rouge villages that interfered in the official work.

In a way, a deshmukh was a governor of the pargana and his influence was more than the formal sanad of tax collection. A deshmukh would oversee adjudication and appeals, ritual leadership at various festivals and most importantly, development of cultivation and prosperity of his area. A deshmukh’s troops were also used by the sovereign for campaigns against kingdom’s enemies, other recalcitrant deshmukhs or even disloyal high ranking officials. Deshmukhs helping the sovereign were rewarded with honor robes at the court.

Malik Shah Amber, the head of Ahmednagar faction of the Bahamani Sultanate at the beginning of the 17th Century, is said to have brought reforms in the deshmukhi system by reviewing revenue settlement for each pargana. He also recruited many Marathas in this system and gave them important positions in the government and court. The deshmukhi system flourished and obtained more legitimacy during the Malik Shah Amber period making Marathas a hard to ignore faction in the politics of the era. This also made deshmukhi an important institution in itself.

More often than not deshmukhs showed wayward behavior. There are examples of many deshmukhs not submitting the revenue to the central government and the sovereign was forced to bring action to such deshmukhs. Since a deshmukh also maintained an army, the sovereign had to be careful before taking such a step. A sovereign would require help from other deshmukhs in such operations. And this perhaps cemented the in-fighting that plagued the polity all through its two-and-a-quarter century life. And this brings us to an important aspect of the kingdom – porous borders!

Invasion, Moving Armies and Porous Borders

The armies of Bahamani Sultanate, its factions and Moguls were typically slow moving. The armies were based on heavy cavalry requiring two or three horses to move one piece, grooms and servants for mounted fighters, elephants, treasury, cooks, dancing girls etc. in addition to the soldiers and commanders. The army bought provisions in camp bazaars. The entourage hardly moved more than 10 miles a day.

An invasion usually involved an army approaching and the highest ranking officer asking a deshmukh if he would align his loyalty to the new sovereign. If the deshmukh agreed, the pargana would naturally become part of a different kingdom. And hence, many wars were fought only at a deshmukhi level where depending on the circumstances the deshmukh just re-aligned his loyalty. The deshmukhs who capitulated to the invading king, were many times also quick to change their loyalty again making the invasion worthless.

Since the deshmukhs controlled the revenue and management of factions of troops, they became important to the sovereign. Shivaji’s father Shahaji also started as a deshmukh in the Pune and Supe parganas. Later he moved to Bangalore, and became an important officer in the Bijapur court. He left his wife Jijabai and son Shivaji in charge of the Pune and Supe areas. This inadvertently helped sow the seeds of ‘swaraj’ – self rule. Shivaji also faced problems with wayward deshmukhs as well as with deshmukhs who remained steadfastly loyal to Ahmednagar or Bijapur. In fact, the deshmukhi problem persisted as far later as Madharao Peshwa, with his own father-in-law, the Patwardhan family of Miraj, changing loyalties between the Peshwa and the Nizam. Gordon claims that Shivaji largely remained a sirdeshmukh – head of many deshmukhs – and not really a king.

In his book, Stewart Gordon, tracks the Mane family of Mhasvad and the Hingnikar Bhosale family as examples. Many more families also get tracked as a part of the polity. And their rise and fall is noted. Many families became Sardars in Shivaji’s court and were honored for their support. However, Shivaji realized the problems with the system and wanted to change it. But the circumstances did not allow him to do so. Once the control passed on to the Peshwas after the long succession battles between Shivaji’s heirs, the whole system got a shot in the arm to save the polity. But as the state formation continued, a lot had changed with maintaining the armies, collecting tributes and taxes. The state formation of conquered areas of Malwa and Khandesh after Aurangzebs’ death gave an opportunity to the Peshwas to exhibit more control of the central government rather than rely on a deshmukh family. An appointed officer, the kamvisdar, may have had powers similar to the deshmukh, but there was a tight control by the central government. A kamvisdar was not allowed to maintain an army but could ask the central government for help. His contracts were also performance based and did not have any hereditary rights to the land or collection. The results of this approach were also seen in the increase in prosperity of these areas. However, deshmukhi still remained an important institution and a basic building block of the polity.

Plurals and Bushes

Hear this:

During his first presidential campaign, Bush -- who promised to be the
"education president" -- once asked: "Is our children learning?"

and this:

"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when
standards are high and results are measured," he said.

and this too:

Just a day earlier, the White House inadvertently showed how it tries to
prevent Bush from making even more slips of the tongue than he already
does.
As Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, a marked-up
draft of his speech briefly popped up on the U.N. Web site, complete with a
phonetic pronunciation guide to get him past troublesome names of countries and
world leaders.

"Childrens do learn," Bush tells school kids

The New History of Marathas – Multiple Dimensions

Every Marathi child grows up listening to the stories of Shivaji and his glory. Every Marathi once in his or her lifetime goes through this phase: Who cares the condition today; we once collected tribute from Delhi and made the mighty Moguls rub their noses. I remember having been told stories of bravery of Baji Prabhu Deshpande and Netaji Palkar and astuteness of Mahadji Shinde and Nana Phadnavis. But what lies underneath?

In the beginning

Gordon points out that the attempts to write history are as old as the history itself. The documents he used for reference are known as bakhar. A bakhar is a document written by administrators/writers which serves as a chronology of events glorifying the sovereign or an important family or person. Though the bakhar is in important source of information, many times it ends up telling the story of only one side and tends to be adulatory. However, Gordon points out that the bakhars still are a good source of history and events and particularly refers to Sabhasadachi Bakhar and 91-Kalami Bakhar.

In more modern context, there are two distinct groups of historians in India. The first group believes, everything British is correct, the second group believes just the opposite of that. The conquering colonialists had to justify their conquest and prove everything native was sophistic. Stewart Gordon is presented this dilemma and delves deep in to the psyche of the British historians and Indian historians. The observations are poignant. Where as, British historians, like Grant Duff, were interested in showing the British supremacy, the Indian counterparts, like VK Rajwade et al, were trying to show the opposite.

History or Hagiography

The Maratha period happens at a very interesting time. It begins with the end of the Muslim/Mogul stronghold and ends with the beginning of British establishment. Many consider this period as ruled truly by the sons of the soil and hence swaraj! For some, Shivaji is a divine figure but for others nothing more than a glorified rebel.

After the defeat of the Marathas, the British administrators started writing the reports on the conquered territories and this slowly became the Maratha history. Grant Duff, the first administrator of conquered territories and Mountstuart Elphinstone, to whom the education system as we know today may be attributed, contributed to chronicling the history of the Marathas. Grant Duff writes three volumes long discourses on political affairs, wars, factions, wins and losses. But he does not spend any time on social or economic aspects. According to Gordon, he made every effort to highlight the smallest of the failures of the Marathas and celebrated the brave acts of the British. With this background, the Marathi intellect found it important to prove Grant Duff wrong. Gordon takes example of MG Ranade and VK Rajwade. Ranade, in his book the Rise of Maratha Power, established the “political, social and religious renaissance of the Marathas”. The nationalistic fervor was born out of the resistance to the “outsider” Muslim powers. Gordon observes that parallels to the emerging resistance to the British can be found in the movement of the seventeenth century (and apparently not the other way round)!

Even though the initial research has gone in to proving each other wrong, it led to considerable collection and analysis of documents not just from the central government and families but also from the regional governments and families ruling the provinces. However, Gordon points out that recently, the focus has shifted from proto-nationalism against Muslim rulers and British conquest to relationship between economic and political processes, trends and cycles. Historians today, are more interested in finding out the profound effect the Maratha “polity” had on revenue administration, law, education, trade patterns, migration and economic and social make up.

मराठ्यांच्या इतिहासाची (नविन) साधने - The New History of Marathas

About the title: A very renowned historian VK Rajwade wrote several books about the Indian and particularly the Maratha History. His book Marathyanchya Itihasaachee Sadhane (The History of the Marathas) is famous and considered a hallmark work, written after detailed and in depth research. The Cambridge University Press now publishes several volumes as the New Cambridge History of India because, to quote the editorial board, “the old history has inevitably been overtaken by the mass of new research published over the last fifty years.” So, the new books published surely tell us the New History. The word new in the title depicts this.

I do not remember how or why I bumped into a book titled the Marathas, Marauders and State Formation in the Eighteenth Century India by Stewart Gordon. I remember having driven all the way up to the Main Library and looked for the book in the History Section. Having not found it on the shelf, I gave the call number to the Librarian and patiently waited as she disappeared somewhere inside to pull this important book out for me. The trip was worth the while.

The book was refreshingly different from all other history books. For the first time, it sounded like the glorious (!?) Indian history battered by the British was finally coming out of the clouds. Gordon was very categorical in putting forward proofs against some of the long held views and the views that are still being taught in schools. I remember having studied – “Bentinck ended thugee”. Gordon was ready to go in the details of social background and find out what exactly Bentinck ended! He researched into the city planning (Pune) and trading places (Barhanpur) and also studied the elaborate tax and revenue systems put in place in the Central India and made a formidable case against the long held British justification of Indian conquest and thus reducing the white man’s burden. For a proud and often arrogant Indian, it may have been an “I told you so” moment. It was an eye opener nevertheless and huge knowledge base too! For all those proud of the ruins of Shanivar wada, how many actually know the architectural details? The grant to establish a planned township of Sadashiv Peth? And makes you ponder over the question Gordon asks – why is it that the British put aside the Peshwe Rumal (documents from the Peshwa Administration) and did not allow anyone to study this meticulous record?

Stewart Gordon, a Ph D from the University of Michigan, wrote the Marathas 1600-1818 after thorough research and it forms the Volume II, book 4 of the New History of India series by the Cambridge University Press. As the jacket of the book says, the Maratha Empire is one of the most colorful but least understood parts of the history. What Gordon uncovers can be surprising. The book hardly deals with a political discourse. The Third War of Panipat has been covered in mere three paragraphs, so is the show down between Shivaji and Afzal Khan and Ahilya Bai’s benevolent administration merits two pages. But Gordon covers in great details the tax system, the collection and tribute rights, the succession wars and loyalty disputes, the diplomacy and much more.

Pavarotti

My introduction and affection to Western Classical Music came through WGUC. From then on I went on buying sprees and borrowing from the public library the numerous CDs that would accompany me in the car and on the laptop and on the boom-box. How else would one spend time without TV?

The commentaries of Lisa Simeone and CD jackets made understanding the operas little easier…but Luciano Pavarotti needed no further introduction. Rest in peace o great tenor!

The Propaganda

Dear Prakash Karat and Medha Patkar et al,

Much is happening around the nuclear deal over the past few days. I am not qualified enough to comment on the complexities of the issues, especially when the headlines in two newspapers were diametrically opposite the day after the issue surfaced. (One claimed we can do the nuclear tests the other exactly opposite of that….)

But what has surprised me is the amount of dust this is raked up and how the Left is justifying its stance. Mr. Karat, Ms. Patkar et al, you have written articles on Rediff.com to educate the masses. But, if you would care to elucidate your stance and objectives more clearly, it would be of great help.

In the second paragraph of your article, Mr. Karat you state that

“It may be difficult for ordinary people to grasp the implications of the
nuclear agreement with all its technical aspects and intricacies. The supply of
nuclear fuel, the fuel cycle, the enrichment and reprocessing technologies and
the safeguards agreement are all not within the knowledge of lay people.”

Well, if you are above everyone’s intellect, Mr. Karat, why don’t you explain it to the lesser mortals? Instead of just shouting at the top of your voice, if you come up with a point-by-point list of objections and ask for a rebuttal from the government, wouldn’t it help you garner more support? Up till now, we have heard only vague objections and allegations from you. Besides, passing judgment on the intellectual capabilities of over a billion people by just a stroke of a pen is not only preposterous but also merits more explanation.

Reading your article does not make it clear whether you are in general against anything America or just this agreement. I am going by the assumption that you are against anything America. You state that, we will acquiesce our sovereignty if we sign this treaty; again, would you care to explain how. If the UPA government has been dealing with the Americans and has signed a 10-year Defense Framework, why did you not oppose that? We hear you talk about the Defense Framework only now! Was the Left-machinery sleeping when the comprehensive agreement was being worked? Didn’t the government need your support when this framework was being signed? How is it that signing a defense framework with one country puts our sovereignty at stake? Did this rule also apply when we signed a friendship pact with the Soviet Union? If so, did you object to that at that time or consider it as a mistake when you retrospect? Or let me ask a different question: would you have reacted in the same way, if we were signing something like this with the Soviet Union instead of the US?

You also mention the nuclear-Iran issue and your objection to Indian vote in the IAEA. How, in your opinion should India have voted? Agreed that the issue is being raked up by the US to serve hegemonistic principles of the Bush Administration and that Iran is still far away from developing nuclear weapons, but would you rather prefer a nuclear state right up India’s alley? You oppose the joint-defense exercises, but again without explaining why! Hyde Act is also a bone of contention, but if the US is smart enough to protect its interests and if India is not, it calls for a different discussion, scrapping the whole deal is not an answer to it. If you and your honored brethren in the Parliament (irrespective of the party-lines) allow logical, well conducted debate on such issues, may be, even India can come up with an Indian-Hyde Act of our own to counter the US Hyde Act. Would you concur with this less intellectual compatriot of yours, Mr. Karat?

And lastly, as Ratan Tata had said sometime back, it is the Common Minimum Program that you have signed with the UPA government. How about going above and beyond that for the betterment of the country? Where does the word “Maximum” find a place in your lexicon?

Now, Ms. Patkar et al, you started your article with a grand notion of amending the constitution. You had better stuck to it! Ever heard of deflective arguments – where, to make your point, you talk about everything else but the point. Your article is an example of this. The title of the article is really misleading. You start with the imbroglio of the UPA-Left, then strategic relationship with the US, your objection to capitalism in general, nuclear fuel and nuclear arms in particular. Then you talk about the renewable energy resources, US governmental and corporate control, Iraq war, BJP etc.

How are all these related to our constitution? You want to allow a public debate on the issue. So, isn’t this happening right now? You and Mr. Karat getting a chance to write articles, TV interviews, discussions, other specialists writing their opinions in the press and so on? If you meant a debate in the parliament, then, even that is happening right now (well, more in terms of shouting and disrupting). What you want to talk about is a ratification policy, right? Then why not state it as that? Allow every treaty to be ratified. Or are you thinking of general referendum for all treaties? Good suggestions both, but you need to make your case more intensely than just beating around the bush on various issues that are not related to amending the constitution.

What I would like to know, Ms. Patkar et al, is what your opinion was when the BJP government talked sometime back of a thorough review of the entire constitution. Would you support something like this? And if you are serious about amending the constitution, can we expect a follow up article from you on how, why etc.? A series of articles, perhaps?

Ms. Patkar, I believe you are one who belongs to the principled lot. So, all the disruption of the parliament, walkouts, shouting and heckling, do you not deplore this? If so, we never heard you talk about such things. You do have a voice in the society as a leader of several agitations. Would you write an article about what you, in your own words as the representatives of people’s movement, perceive a model code of conduct for the elected members?

Mr. Karat, Ms. Patkar, you claim to represent the good of India. Well, then just as you say, don’t believe the treaty is good only because Dr. Singh says so, you also need to come up with particular objections to the treaty. My problem isn’t that you are opposing the deal, it is the way you are doing it. Oppose anything America/Capitalism should not be the only underlying principle of your concerns. After all, the world of Foreign Policy has changed now…and approach that is more pragmatic is required to deal with the problems. Why my-way or hi-way attitude? If there are serious issues with the treaty, we would like to know exactly what they are. If you were only looking for arm-twisting the government and fifteen-minutes of fame, you already got that. So either move on or make your stand clear!

Any how, I ramble much…thanks.