Soupçon, In Memoriam series, IV.vi

                             Soupçon III                                                          In Memoriam Series                                                         IV.vi                                 International Year of the Woman Farmer

As we continue our analysis of the theme, let us begin the discussion this week with three references in English literature to women farmers. 

The first is a poem, much loved even by school kids as it is much anthologised. Yes, I am referring to "The Solitary Reaper", while Wordsworth's "Lucy" poems, too, have farming images. 

As for a tale, we have Willa Cather's "O, Pioneers." In these pages, we meet Alexandra whose vision and grit change the hereditary land in to a successful farm. 

As for an autobiography, we have Rigoberta Menchu's 1983 'testimonio' which presents the harsh seasonal labour on the 'finchas' where punishing nature, backbreaking work, and toxic pesticides make life utmost miserable for women farmhands. 

In other words, be it the pages of a literary work or be it the terra firna, tough is the life of a woman as the farmer. Tomorrow we shall look at some Indian writings, and then get back yet again to the brief theoretical analyses. 

Pratima Agnihotri

Tit(ter) for tat(tle)!

 Currently, the ideological and political battle'ground' in our country is indeed unceasingly but increasingly interesting. Sure I like it because it is such a sincere battle wherein ideological differences are getting weaponised, and trendy politicking is getting uniquely exposed by genuine conceptualisation!

Yes, I am referring to the student protest in Jharkhand. What a perfect contrast to the Delhi dhamaka! Truly organic it is. Nobody is funding it hugely. None is feeding the students here heavily. 

Most importantly, for exactly similar demands, these mostly middle class students are waging a protest that has been peaceful, disciplined, and without any ugly sloganeering. In a way, that could be the difference between propaganda n politicking bred on entitlement and a grassroots movement born out of genuine anguish. 

The differences do not stop there. No celebrated student leader nor their pater(nalistic) politicians, sugar Daddies or 'honey' sweet mommies bothered to visit the Jharkhand protesters despite earnest appeals. As for the so-called radical etc etc intellectuals, they seem to have donned the avatars of Gandhiji's three monkeys!

 They cannot see the proper protest, nor do they hear the genuine grievances! How can they talk, and what? Here the protesting students suffered not only water cannons but firing as well. But the cat seems to have gotten n eaten their wagging, wriggling, wrathful tongues! 

It is hence that the majority does not seem to have any truck with the 'urban naxal' types who lorded it at Jantar Mantar. Rather, they seem to bond with the Prime Minister who not only forgave the atrocious, vulgar and crooked comments, but also attended the Convocation Ceremony at the prestigious Delhi IIT, had a fun, heart to heart chat with the truly creamy layer intellectually! 

In brief, the tattle at Delhi and the titter it generated, when contrasted with the Jharkhand protests, show up the pretences of the petty of every variety! 

Pratima@ The hypocrisies of Dipke, Das and their supporters from all strata bring a very bad name to poor Bhagat Singh as well as to the theoretical analysis by Marx! That is the real tragedy! 

Quote of the day:                                                          "History repeats itself,"  wrote Marx in his 1852 treatise, 'The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte' "the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce". The process is reversed in the case of  the Delhi-Jharkhand protests! 

Word of the day: organic protest                             An organic protest is a grassroots movement that arises spontaneously from regular citizens, students, or workers responding to local grievances without centralized political planning, external funding, or formal organisational control. 

Framing FCRA

 Currently the Indian media is literally on the boil. Look up the news channels or listen in to the social media network. The theme of the day is no longer whether or not the parliament will yet again be adjourned. Hardly a novelty the ruckus is these days, right? 

Well, the debate of the day is whether the government will introduce the amended FCRA. Okay, let us define FCRA first. The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) is an Indian law administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and it governs how domestic associations, groups, and NGOs receive and use funds from outside India.

Fair enough! Why the raging debate then? Let us look at the history of the debate first. Actually, it was during the Emergency that the FCRA was  first introduced. The first amendment was as early as 1984. It has been re(de)fined in 2010 and 2020.

Since 1976, donations by foreign funds have been looked at with suspicion. National sovereignty and national security can comfortably and subtly be undermined by an apparently innocent donation, is the basic argument.

Now with the unmistakable Deep State by hook or by crook 'manufacturing consent' (to borrow Noam Chomsky's title), not to forget the rather obvious proselytising proclivities, such donations appear deceptively dangerous, though the garb be of minority rights and civil society securities . Hence the heated debates!

For a literature student like me, with deep interest in the declining humanities, the debates surrounding the FCRA are absolute intellectual pyrotechnics, be it channels such as "Times Now", "Wion", "The Republic" or the "NDTV", the "CNN", and others of their ilk. 

It is on the social media, however, that most interesting discussions emerge. This very evening, on this day which is the World Tribal day, just a day after the 'Quit India' movement anniversary, I listened to Pathikrit Payne analyse the contours of the issue on Karan Verma's channel.

 Honestly, one never noticed how an hour or so flew by! Some proof such discussions are that awareness is afloat in the ambience, however much Meta's of the world may manage the data or the flow thereof! 

Pratima@ The FCRA debates forever remind me of the "Ministry of Truth" and its "Thought Police" and their axioms in "1984" by George Orwell. Indeed a technologically abled 'Brave New World' ushering in fierce fears!

Quote of the day:                                                            "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes," argues Mark Twain. 

Word of the day: Proselytising                                     Proselytising is the act of trying to convince someone to change their religious faith, political party, or core way of life to match your own. It means actively working to recruit new people into a specific belief system or cause, often through lures such as money, jobs or a comfortable life. 

B(re)aking a book

 Does the title of our blog surprise you? Well, the current practice of writing (and publishing) a book deserves it! Without any doubt whatsoever! 

Yes, we live in a democracy. True, just as everybody has a right to express an(y) opinion, everyone (can) enjoy the gumption to write a book. Fair enough! 

How does one go about writing a book? One chooses a theme. Even if it is a non-research type, one reads up a few well-known titles in the related area. Next gets ready a rough outline. However good an author you may be, sure there is at least one draft. 

If you are a committed, genuine type, you let the rough draft rest for a week, and then you re-look at it. You might tweak a few sentences in a chapter, you might add content in the second, while you might re-write entirely one of the chapters. 

Next, the publisher/editor might make a few replenishing suggestions. Both of you carefully re-read the draft before it goes for the final print. A process that would require a trimester at least!

Now no such writer's 'blocks', that is, in the sense of the stages of processing the text! As for the proverbial 'writer-ly block', the question simply does not pop up because most books are ghost-written, and with the help of the AI! 

People whose conversation is as banal as can be, people whose simplistic status-es would have basic errors, people whose opinions on any and every topic are utmost typical to say the least are thus authors overnight! 

There are any number of fly-by-night publishers available on the internet! Why, you can publish your own book. There are countless online tricks to make it appear a "number one bestseller!" 

It is all a matter of monies. For a certain amount, you can thus be an author! Dole out a few more thousands, and you can get a paid reviewer to declare that your ghost-written and AI-enabled book published overnight is a 'gem'!

Yet who is deceiving whom in this entire 'pricey' game of 'b(re)aking' or is it (w)recking a book? Only the so-called author, I suppose! There is no knowing though!

Such 'contributions' (in every sense of this term) may be used to hype up the c.v. which lands plum(p) positions to such deco'rated' author(itie)s! Well, do not they say, everything is for sale for those who lack honesty, authenticity and integrity!

Pratima@I have often wondered what Alexander Pope (who mocked poetasters in his "Letter to Dr. Arbuthnot" ) or Jonathan Swift (who criticised the modern noise-making wordsmiths in "A Battle of Books") would have said to such b(re)aked books!?!

Quote of the day:                                                            "A dose of poison can do its work but once. A bad book can go on poisoning minds for generations," argues William Murray.

Word of the day:  author                                           An author is a person who creates or writes a book, article, poem, play, or a scholarly text. (S)He is the creator, originator, or planner of a(ny) project, idea, or an organization of meaning in a novel way!

Soupçon III, In Memorial, IV. v

                          Soupçon III                                                          In Memoriam Series                                                         IV.v                                  International Year of the Woman Farmer

Given the disadvantages a woman farmer inevitably faces, especially if she, as is most often the case, belongs to the lower socio-economic strata, are there any support systems? 

Undoubtedly, there are a few schemes. The Indian Government has floated the MKSP scheme which works for the upliftment of the downtrodden female field workers. There is an attempt to enable them by training them to use modern gadgets such as the drone mechanism. 

The "Drone Didis" operate high-tech remote-controlled drones for precision farming. Under the Indian government's 'Namo Drone Didi Scheme', trained rural women pilot these devices across crop fields to spray liquid fertilizers, nano-urea, and pesticides as a paid service to local farmers, for instance. 

Similarly, at the state level, there is a conscious official attempt to encourage joint land titling for the couple. As for funding so as to avoid the "sahukar" (money lender) forcing families in to bonded labour for generations, attempts are afloat to develop structured credit systems that help individual women and/or women's self help groups. 

On Monday, we shall look a few theoretical analyses of this issue 

Pratima Agnihotri 

Soulful Weaves

 Handloom cloth(e)s are unique. They are indeed special. Each piece of cloth has a similar weave. Not a single one, however, is just the same. Each piece is distinct, individual, special. 

India indeed has a unique tradition of handloom weaves. Remember the Dhaka tanchoi silks? They were literally poetry in weft n weave. Full six feet could be so folded that a matchbox could contain a saree. 

Apparently, there were complaints in Greek households that wives were wasting money on Indian muslins! One thread of India's rich heritage was the handlooms, a subtle, lyrical but solid pillar of the ancient Indian trade overseas.

We need to preserve that tradition. That is how the highly gifted weavers would continue to weave these dreams!  In a way, it could be argued that Gandhiji's 'charkha' was a call back to this self-sufficiency. In brief, handloom is varied, handloom is beautiful, handloom is the soul of India. Buy handloom, let the Indian tradition have a (heir)(b)loom! 

Pratima@ These beauties are sturdy. Their handmade dyes are enviornment friendly. They last a lifetime, nay, are a family treasure across generations.

Quote of the day:                                                           "My closet is filled with tales woven with deft hands of un-named artisans. Because I only wear handloom," asserts Diti Swain. 

Word of the day: handloom                                         A handloom is a simple, non-electric machine operated entirely by hand or foot power to weave thread into cloth. The weaver uses pedals to lift vertical threads and a hand-thrown shuttle to pass horizontal threads through, creating unique, breathable, and high-quality fabrics without factory machinery. 

Soupçon III, In Memoriam Series, IV.iv

                            Soupçon III                                                          In Memoriam Series                                                         IV.iv                                    International Year of the Woman Farmer  

As the issue of women farmers is related to the concept of inclusive growth, how about looking at some facts? In IV. iii, we mentioned the percentage of land holding when it comes to women farmers. 

It is indeed a sad ratio because in India, women form forty percent of the agricultural workforce, while they undertake minimum eighty per cent of the farm related labour!

The situation is now much worse because of the huge explosion of men's migration, given the rapid rise in urbanisation. As a result, there is a feminisation of the agricultural sector. That is to say, women, often elderly, even senior citizens, look after agriculture which gets reduced to non-paid family work! 

Even as farm hands, there is, despite the scarcity, huge disparity in wages when it comes to women and agriculture. Women as farm hands get at least thirty per cent less than their make counterparts! 

In IV.v of our series, we shall look at a few more problems women face in the agricultural sector. We shall also look at some schemes floated by the State Government.

Pratima Agnihotri