tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/tamil-nadu-24643/articlesTamil Nadu – The Conversation2024-01-17T19:24:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2209022024-01-17T19:24:20Z2024-01-17T19:24:20ZIndia seeks stronger ties with South Asian governments, snubbing ethnic minorities again<p>India’s regional politics are shifting. It is seeking to strengthen ties with South Asian ruling elites, including in Nepal and Sri Lanka, while ignoring ongoing ethnic uprisings in those countries in the hopes of securing its geopolitical interests. </p>
<p>The Indian government’s opposition to ethnic rights within its own borders is well-documented. In 2019, for example, Narendra Modi’s government decided to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status as an autonomous region, a move <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/11/whats-article-370-what-to-know-about-india-top-court-verdict-on-kashmir">recently upheld by India’s Supreme Court</a>.</p>
<p>Jammu and Kashmir lost their constitution, flag and criminal code, and has been turned into <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/what-led-kashmir-decision-by-indias-top-court-2023-12-11/">two federally administered territories</a>. India <a href="https://minorityrights.org/2006/12/14/india-has-failed-to-replicate-success-in-tamil-nadu-to-halt-other-ethnic-conflicts/">has also failed</a> to manage ethnic conflicts in other territories, including Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Nagaland. </p>
<h2>Indian hypocrisy</h2>
<p>Ironically, the Indian government backs ethnic movements in other South Asian countries. It supports or has supported the <a href="https://elibrary.tucl.edu.np/handle/123456789/19418">Madheshi movement</a> in Nepal, the <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA624018">Bengali liberation war</a> in Pakistan and <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/world/indira-gandhi-helped-train-tamil-rebels-and-reaped-whirlwind-13913.html">Tamils in Sri Lanka</a>.</p>
<p>Because of its <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/us-report-lists-significant-human-rights-abuses-india-2023-03-20/">domestic record on ethnic rights</a>, however, India lacks any moral authority to support them elsewhere. Instead, it’s now pursuing a policy of pleasing the ruling elites in its neighbourhood, which it hopes will serve its national aspirations to become a regional powerhouse like China.</p>
<p>So far, that policy has had a limited payoff.</p>
<p>India has been making amends to Nepal since 2015, when it imposed a blockade and obstructed the transportation of petroleum products to Nepal. It wanted to force the Nepalese government to incorporate Madheshi demands in the Nepali constitution. </p>
<p>Nepal refused and, instead, tabled its constitution without addressing Madheshi concerns. It also signed trade and transit agreements with China to minimize Nepal’s dependence on India. </p>
<p>In response, India quietly withdrew its sanctions, and has <a href="https://thewire.in/external-affairs/madhes-violence-nepal-india">since
refrained</a> from pressuring Nepalese authorities. The ruling elites and Madheshi leaders <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2011.576099">were critical</a> of India’s interference.</p>
<p>In short, India paid a high <a href="https://elibrary.tucl.edu.np/handle/123456789/11340">strategic price</a> for the blockade.</p>
<h2>Past Indian missteps</h2>
<p>India has had similar missteps in the past. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/15718060120849189">It involved itself</a> in the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka in the early 1980s, irritating both government officials and insurgents. India ultimately stepped aside, and Sri Lanka overcame its ethnic strife with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0009445514523646">Chinese military and financial assistance</a>. </p>
<p>In 1971, India intervened in the ethnic conflict in Pakistan when Bengali Muslims pursued <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909609340062">independent statehood</a> to become modern-day Bangladesh. This support escalated already tense Indian-Pakistani relations. </p>
<p>Even after Bangladesh’s independence, ethnic tensions persisted. Jumma peoples fought against the Bangladesh government’s decision <a href="https://jnu.ac.bd/journal/assets/pdf/3_2_34.pdf">to transfer</a> Bengali Muslims to the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the contested homeland of Indigenous minorities. India supported their struggle by <a href="https://peaceaccords.nd.edu/provision/refugees-chittagong-hill-tracts-peace-accord-cht#:%7E:text=Approximately%2070%2C000%20indigenous%20people%20fled,internally%20displaced%20persons%20within%20Bangladesh.">providing refuge</a> to the displaced Jumma people in its Tripura state. </p>
<p>All of these efforts — past and present — to support ethnic movements in neighbouring countries have failed to help India achieve major player status in the region. Instead, they resulted in tense relations with ruling governments for years.</p>
<h2>Appeasement efforts</h2>
<p>That’s why India is in the process of mending ties with the ruling elites in South Asia. Its support for the governments of Sri Lanka and Nepal gives some hints about its future direction. </p>
<p>Sri Lanka has been facing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0043887119000182">global criticism</a> for failing to prosecute war crimes and human rights violations that occurred during 25 years of ethnic conflict. <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2023-0217/#:%7E:text=A%20report%20of%20the%20United,%2C%20reconciliation%20and%20human%20rights%E2%80%9D.">The United Nations Human Rights Council demanded</a> in 2023 that the government act promptly to address gross human rights violations. </p>
<p>While India supported previous UN resolutions on this issue in 2012 and 2013, it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09749284211068161">consecutively abstained</a> from supporting the last two resolutions, indicating a shift in the Indian approach towards Sri Lanka’s ethnic tensions.</p>
<p>Likewise, India has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968221135943">stayed silent</a> about the Madheshi demands in Nepal since 2015, and <a href="https://thewire.in/diplomacy/india-nepal-kalapani-dialogue-ultra-nationalism">Indian parliament has passed resolutions that focus on mending ties with Nepal</a>. </p>
<p>These gestures are part of an Indian policy to <a href="https://ecfr.eu/special/what_does_india_think/analysis/modis_approach_to_india_and_pakistan">prioritize the neighbourhood</a> in its foreign relations. Based on this policy, India can be expected to seek stronger ties with other neighbouring countries too.</p>
<h2>India’s gains, minorities’ losses?</h2>
<p>These initiatives may help India minimize China’s influence in the region, but minorities will lose global backing.</p>
<p>South Asian ethnic movements have not received significant international attention and support. </p>
<p>In the past, most of the support was coming from India. In the absence of Indian backing, ethnic minorities lack substantive global allies, which their governments can capitalize upon to further ignore or oppress them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hari Har Jnawali does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>India is pursuing a policy of pleasing the ruling elites in its neighbourhood, which it hopes will serve its national aspirations to become a regional powerhouse like China.Hari Har Jnawali, Instructor, Global Governance, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2121552023-12-03T13:27:34Z2023-12-03T13:27:34ZPayment controversy over ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ provokes questions about documentary storytelling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561956/original/file-20231127-24-i7re4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C38%2C2556%2C1398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'The Elephant Whisperers' dramatizes the emotional bond between an orphaned elephant, Raghu, and the couple who care for him. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Netflix)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/payment-controversy-over-the-elephant-whisperers-provokes-questions-about-documentary-storytelling" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Months after the Indian film <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23628262/">The Elephant Whisperers</a></em> won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short
at the Academy Awards this past March, the <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mahout">mahout</a> (elephant rider or caretaker) couple Bomman and Bellie at the centre of the film <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/bomman-bellie-send-legal-notice-asking-for-rs-2-crore-from-the-elephant-whisperers-director-8880259/">filed a legal notice</a>.</p>
<p>The notice from the Indigenous couple, who belong to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66458475">Kattunayakan community</a> in India’s Tamil Nadu province, demanded 20 million rupees (about $330,000) from the filmmaker <a href="http://www.kartikigonsalves.com/">Kartiki Gonsalves</a> and the film’s production house, Sikhya Entertainment, run by Guneet Monga. </p>
<p>The couple complained about being subjected to trying situations during the shoot and <a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/the-elephant-whisperers-couple-bomman-belli-accuses-the-makers-of-exploitation-and-non-payment-622872">the expenses</a> incurred to help execute scenes according to the filmmaker’s convenience. </p>
<p>In defence, the makers <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/the-elephant-whisperers-bomman-and-bellie-allege-exploitation-by-docu-makers-kartiki-gonsalves-calls-claims-untrue/article67161291.ece">issued a statement</a>. Though not responding to the allegations directly, it said the film created awareness about the mahout community and led to socioeconomic benefits for them. </p>
<p>They mentioned <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/tamil-nadu-cm-mk-stalin-congratulates-the-elephant-whisperers-caretakers-on-their-oscar-win-and-awards-cash-prizes/articleshow/98662130.cms">donations</a> from M.K. Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, towards assisting 91 elephant caretakers in the state’s two elephant camps. </p>
<p>Strangely, the controversy remained focused on the issue of financial compensation following the film’s success. It eclipsed the structural conditions in contemporary documentary filmmaking that likely affected this complication in the first place. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a0J0b_OVa9w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘The Elephant Whisperers’ trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The missing story</h2>
<p>Set in the Theppakadu Elephant Camp inside the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, <em>The Elephant Whisperers</em> dramatizes the emotional bond between the couple and an orphaned elephant, Raghu, whom they have nurtured since finding him as an infant dying of injuries. For the film’s 41-minute runtime, viewers witness idyllic moments of human-animal relationships that peak when the forest authorities eventually separate Raghu from the couple. </p>
<p>As the filmmaker notes, the short film is intended to <a href="http://www.kartikigonsalves.com/the-elephant-whisperers-thefilm">highlight “the beauty of the wild spaces in South India and the people and animals who share this space</a>.”
Yet, in this focus, it fails to generate a critical understanding of systemic problems hindering elephant conservation practices. </p>
<p>These include mahouts’ <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264850834_Daily_routine_of_captive_Asian_elephants_Elephas_maximus_in_three_management_systems_of_Tamil_Nadu_India_and_its_implications_for_elephant_welfare">underpaid contracts</a> with temples and the tourism industry, or as activists in Kerala have documented, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/indian-temple-captive-elephants-kerala-chained-beaten-whipped-died-modi-a8313696.html">abusive overworking</a> of captive mammals, leading to a high elephant mortality rate in that province. </p>
<p>Despite Bomman and Bellie hailing from the Kattunayakan tribe, the documentary ignores the forest department’s <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/mudumalai-adivasis---displaced-by-deceit/">deceitful resettlement of Kattunayakan, Paniyan and other Adivasi communities</a> from their ancestral hamlets in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve’s buffer zone. Nor does it dwell on the filmmakers’ navigation of the Indigenous environment and their framing <a href="https://www.cinemaexpress.com/tamil/interviews/2023/jan/25/the-elephant-whisperers-interview-we-wanted-the-indigenous-people-to-have-a-voice-39241.html">of the story as outsiders</a>. </p>
<h2>Preference for individual over social</h2>
<p>In her article, “<a href="https://worldrecordsjournal.org/how-does-it-end-story-and-the-property-form/">How Does it End? Story and the Property Form</a>” filmmaker and writer Brett Story critiques the conventional three-act story structure prevalent in contemporary non-fiction narratives. </p>
<p>Such narratives usually involve a main character with a heroic journey, a climax and a resolution. According to her, this story structure is considered universally valid and timeless. </p>
<p>But most importantly, this structure corresponds with the “property form” under capitalism. There is a bias for the individualism of the “hero” who owns the story — like property. As a result, documentary film markets tend to prioritize a “preference for the individual over the social, the ‘character’ over the condition, experience over consciousness.” </p>
<h2>Unpaid labour</h2>
<p>Concurrent with this preference for individual heroes is the unacknowledged labour of the documentary protagonist. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118884584.ch7">Media scholar Silke Panse argues</a> that “the work of the documentary protagonist cannot be seen separately from the aesthetics of the work.” She outlines the emotional and material labour involved when they perform for the documentary gaze. This labour co-creates the quality, form and nature of images. Therefore, in documentary realism, the “protagonists <em>are</em> the image.”</p>
<p>When the story becomes a marketable product, the production conditions, processes and relationships behind the storytelling are further obscured. It devalues the passage of negotiations and emotional investment that contribute to the filmmakers’ relationship with documentary subjects. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494231208501">Post-doctoral scholar Emily Coleman contends</a> that in this context, relationship-building between the maker and the subject should be understood as “a practice of creative labour.”</p>
<p>Independent filmmakers often begin by self-financing documentary projects, motivated by underlying feelings of responsibility toward concerned issues. About wildlife documentaries, film scholar <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90332-3">Alexa Weik von Mossner highlights the “altruistic motivation”</a> behind emotional animal stories that end up helping filmmakers connect their projects to specific conservation projects. </p>
<p>But, personal altruism potentially feeds into the power dynamics between the one who cares to represent and the other who needs representation.</p>
<h2>Market menace</h2>
<p>Project development support for creative non-fiction mostly comes through pitching sessions at documentary film forums like <a href="https://hotdocs.ca/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAsIGrBhAAEiwAEzMlCzQ4roBvwLKYE1D7hwwRmacYwFSkLQ7wv5umPFGibpjm44Bbg9QkHhoCaicQAvD_BwE">Hot Docs</a>, <a href="https://sheffdocfest.com/show/whickers-pitch">Sheffield DocFest</a>, the <a href="https://www.idfa.nl/en/">International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam</a> and so on.</p>
<p>These spaces facilitate a financial market for producers, commissioning editors, broadcasters, film festival scouts and related commercial agents. According to Francesco Ragazzi, associate professor of international relations at Leiden University, this <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Documenting-World-Politics-A-Critical-Companion-to-IR-and-Non-Fiction-Film/Munster-Sylvest/p/book/9781138208193">funding circuit exclusively relies on attracting profit and large audiences</a>. Filmmakers are pushed towards character-oriented narrative documentaries that are sellable to a broader demographic. </p>
<p>Ragazzi notes how typical pitching forum questions such as “Can your character hold 52 minutes?” or “What is the story arc of the film?” shape the values and aesthetics of contemporary documentary films. </p>
<p>With <em>The Elephant Whisperers</em>, after Gonsalves started an independent round of production in 2017, Netflix <a href="https://alphauniverse.com/stories/the-making-of-the-elephant-whisperers--and-the-power-of-story-to-change-minds/">accepted her promo pitch in 2020</a>. Producer Monga also joined the project following its preliminary development. More than <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/03/05/1160659634/the-elephant-whisperers-an-oscar-nominated-love-story-about-people-and-pachyderm">450 hours of footage filmed over five years was cut into the documentary short</a>.</p>
<h2>Re-evaluating terms of participation</h2>
<p>It is not surprising for contentious claims to emerge concerning the extensive labour hidden underneath compact, character-driven documentary stories once films have gained substantial success or cultural capital.</p>
<p>A source close to the production <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/07/indian-couple-who-starred-in-oscar-winning-film-say-director-backed-out-of-pay-promises">dispelled Bomman and Bellie’s allegation</a>, stating they got duly paid according to the documentary’s contract. </p>
<p>While production and distribution companies must compensate documentary subjects, it is equally necessary to re-evaluate the terms and conditions of people’s participation in creative non-fiction projects.</p>
<p>Market-driven motives of documentary storytelling reduce people to attention-holding characters and their lives to the service of dramaturgy. This extractive approach is characterized by transactional terms. Filmmakers and producers should acknowledge subjects as co-creative partners in production and distribution processes. For that, documentary storytelling needs to change first.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Santasil Mallik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A focus on financial compensation for subjects of ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ overshadowed the need to examine storytelling conventions and creative practices in contemporary documentary filmmaking.Santasil Mallik, PhD Student, Media Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1764182022-02-13T13:13:58Z2022-02-13T13:13:58ZTamil cinema’s breakup songs need a little more love<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444387/original/file-20220203-23-18qnm50.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=364%2C9%2C908%2C528&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tamil cinema's breakup songs favour men. Here Dhanush consoles Sivakarthikeyan in the 2013 film 'Ethir Neechal' ('Swimming Against the Tide'). </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Wunderbar Films)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Song-and-dance sequences are a staple feature of commercial cinema throughout India’s diverse film production regions. Where dialogue cannot express sexual desire or love, the hero and heroine often <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo12120811.html">celebrate their union through song and dance</a>.</p>
<p>A distinct style of songs also address feelings of loss and longing when love does not flourish as expected. In Tamil cinema, these breakup songs are known as “love-failure” songs. While both <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GezAVVPNdtg">female</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhQTg7MISQ4">male</a> characters sing and dance away their agony, a subset of love-failure songs give voice only to men who invariably go on a blaming spree, and attack women for breaking their hearts. </p>
<p>Sociologist <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429244025-9/misogyny-premalatha-karupiah">Premalatha Karupiah</a> has aptly identified the misogyny of these songs — while <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27807108">scholars</a> of other <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/mind-the-gap/is-indias-rape-culture-related-to-the-filthy-misogynist-songs-of-bollywood/">film industries in India</a> and globally have addressed similar issues in elements of film. </p>
<p>Beyond the misogyny of these love-failure songs from Tamil films, what is failing here is not just gender politics. The idea of love itself has been abandoned through the male protagonists’ self-serving preoccupation with their egos.</p>
<h2>Film formula</h2>
<p>Western audiences may typically associate the habit of breaking into song and dance with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bollywood-film-industry-India">Bollywood</a> — a globally-recognized cultural category that refers to the aesthetics of Hindi-language cinema emerging from Mumbai. But song-and-dance routines are common to other regional film industries as well. </p>
<p><a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/arts-and-culture/cinema/article30166705.ece">Although the first Tamil film, <em>Keechaka Vatham</em>,</a> was produced in the silent era, the first Tamil talkie, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258699/"><em>Kalidas</em></a>, released in 1931, featured <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4397432">50 songs</a>. </p>
<p>What began as an element of attraction, borrowed from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19472498.2020.1816414">old theatrical traditions</a>, has <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/History_Through_the_Lens.html?id=fNgqAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">since evolved</a> into a customary film formula. Each film contains a minimum of five to six songs to serve two main functions: to advertise the films within India and globally by promoting the film’s music, and to help punctuate the different emotions playing out in the film narrative.</p>
<h2>Blaming women for heartbreak</h2>
<p>The quintessential melodramatic account of “love failure” songs in Tamil is blame for a failed relationship, projected onto the figure of the woman. One of the earliest and striking instances where male romantic grief turns into an anxious, invective on women (and God who created them) is found in the song “Kadavaul Manithanaga Piraka Vendum” (“God must be born as human”) from the 1963 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8946526/"><em>Vanambadi</em> (<em>Skylark</em>)</a>.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Kadavaul Manithanaga Piraka Vendum’ from ‘Vanambadi.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through dramatic camera angles and movements combined with <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/Kannadasans-lyrics-held-a-mirror-to-life/article16076779.ece">lyrical prowess</a>, the male protagonist Sekar demands God to come down to earth and be born as a man to experience the suffering and betrayal of love at the hands of women. </p>
<p>Contemporary iterations of this accusatory approach are usually situated at a public place where a group of men gather to sing and dance their woes against women.</p>
<h2>Male bonding</h2>
<p>The Tamil song “Why this Kolaveri” <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/never-expected-kolaveri-di-to-become-a-rage/articleshow/10843744.cms?from=mdr">(Why this murderous rage), an international hit from</a> the 2012 film <em>Moonu</em> (<em>Three</em>), set the stage for the genre of “soup” or “flop” songs. The term <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/telugu/movies/news/kolaveri-di-phenomenon/articleshow/10839235.cms">“soup”</a>, coined by <em>Moonu’s</em> lead actor Dhanush, refers to the emotional state men find themselves in after being dumped.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ja168gMpb3o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Why this Kolaveri’ from ‘Moonu.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the song titled “Local boys” from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2877104/">2013’s <em>Ethir Neechal</em> (<em>Swimming Against the Tide</em>)</a> Dhanush makes a cameo appearance: he is seen consoling the hero who finds solidarity in strangers at a local bar. They come together because they claim to share the same fate with women and the same decision to drown their sorrows in booze. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0FsPYnmjkN4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Local boys,’ from ‘Ethir Neechal.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The song starts with the line “I honestly don’t need you,” and the lyrics go on to encourage men to shed their dependence on women and live freely without any worry. By interpreting rejection as women’s fault, these songs not only soothe the male ego but they also help grieving men bond through their identification as “soup boys.” </p>
<p>This cinematically induced identity has not only potentially helped to <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/a-song-infected-by-misogynist-undertone/article2651003.ece">legitimize stalking</a> and other dangerous and unethical modes of pursuing of women, but has also potentially galvanized narcissistic behaviour, something incompatible with love.</p>
<p>In an acknowledgement of his social responsibility, another director <a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/selvaraghavan-apologises-9-yr-old-adida-avala-song-time-kill-soup-song-101774">apologized for similar lyrics by Dhanush</a> for the 2011 film <em>Mayakkam Enna</em> (<em>What is This Illusion?</em>) in an interview with <em>Cinema Express</em>.</p>
<h2>Love has no ego</h2>
<p>In my preliminary research, I measure the philosophical durability of these songs. As lyrical expressions of personal failure, they reflect an excessive obsession with the self. The bereaved lover views his beloved as an investment that’s supposed to have returns. When love is not reciprocated, blame gets thrown on the woman. Both love and the woman are declined together</p>
<p>But what every soup-boy needs to learn is actually that love’s fundamental condition is the onset of a broken, fractured self, even before a breakup and even if the betrayal is real. Because the moment one is in love, there is actually no self to possess.</p>
<p>As the late French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy discussed, when we are in love, what we know and recognize as an <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-inoperative-community">“I” disintegrates into an ineffable connection with the other</a>. There is no ego in love. There is no property to own.</p>
<p>“I love you” truly means: I am fully exposed to you in all my vulnerabilities and peculiarities. I am bare in front of you; I am already <a href="https://euppublishingblog.com/2016/02/14/nancy-in-love/">shattered</a> in your presence.</p>
<h2>Drop the blame game</h2>
<p>In my opinion, to counter the misogyny of love-failure songs, instead of portraying the inverse, women drinking and singing of their troubles with men,
films should should experiment with poetic pronouncements of love’s true essence: how we risk everything when we love.</p>
<p>There are many examples of Tamil cinema exemplifying non-possessive ways of depicting love that “love failure” genres could build upon. In Rajiv Menon’s <a href="https://www.tiff.net/events/kandukondain-kandukondain">adaptation</a> of Jane Austen’s <em>Sense and Sensibility</em> (<em>Kandukondain Kandukondain</em>
(<em>I Have Seen It, I Have Seen It</em>)) Aishwarya Rai plays Meenakshi, based on Austen’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sense-and-Sensibility">Marianne Dashwood</a>, a girl who is in love with love.</p>
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<p>In the song “Enge ennathu Kavithai?” (“Where has my poem gone?”), Meenakshi discovers her lover is to marry someone else. She yearns for her lost love in a mise-en-scène of pouring rain and flooded streets. Blinded by dejection, she slips into an open manhole only to be saved by a good-natured and more trustworthy man, the one she falls in love with later. </p>
<p>The song does not resort to blaming anyone because in love there are no enemies. There is no “I” or “you” in love: only the cosmos that brings us together again and again.</p>
<p><em>This is a corrected version of a story originally published Feb. 13, 2022. The earlier story said ‘Moonu’s’ director apologized for lyrics by Dhanush, instead of saying the director of another film with lyrics by Dhanush apologized.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176418/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ganga Rudraiah receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>‘Soup songs,’ a genre of Tamil breakup songs, refer to a man’s emotional state after being dumped and are full of blame for women. A more nuanced approach to love would be better for everyone.Ganga Rudraiah, PhD Candidate, Cinema Studies Institute, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1722542021-12-15T12:38:15Z2021-12-15T12:38:15ZChennai’s floods: the city has learned nothing from the past – here’s what it can do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435638/original/file-20211203-21-cwu2q9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C0%2C5970%2C4007&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://webgate.epa.eu/?20370008538715063107&SCOPE=QUEUE&EVENT=DISPLAY&LIGHTBOX=11365">Idrees Mohammed/EPA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>November 2021 was a devastating month for flooding in the city of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu in southern India. With 1,000mm of rainfall in just four weeks, these were the worst rains since the <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/revisiting-the-2015-floods-in-chennai-images-from-the-hindu/article21248895.ece">devastating floods</a> of 2015 when it poured for 22 out of 30 days in December, setting a record of 1,049mm. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ndtv.com/chennai-news/2015-chennai-floods-a-man-made-disaster-says-cag-report-1881906">Then</a>, as <a href="https://www.cnbctv18.com/videos/india/is-unabated-urbanisation-to-be-blamed-for-chennai-floods-11512842.htm">now</a>, the flooding in Chennai was described as a man-made disaster, despite occurring during a storm called <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-55068379">Cyclone Nivar</a>. On both occasions, <a href="https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2021/nov/12/chennai-cries-rain-of-misery-as-floods-leave-behind-trails-of-devastation-2382478.html">death, disruption and destruction</a> was the result. India has faced more than <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/diu/story/300-disasters-80-000-deaths-100-crore-affected-india-s-two-decade-tryst-with-natural-calamities-1767202-2021-02-08">300 weather events</a> in the last two decades, resulting in over 79,000 deaths. </p>
<p>Tamil Nadu has long been known for its susceptibility to a long list of natural disasters: cyclones, storm surges, coastal flooding, torrential rainfall, earthquakes and tsunamis. <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-management-et-avenir-2009-7-page-174.htm">India accounts for 24%</a> of all disasters in Asia and Chennai ranks seventh in the list of India’s <a href="https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2021/oct/27/chennai-ranks-seventh-in-vulnerability-index-study-2376215.html">most vulnerable districts</a> to extreme flooding and cyclones.</p>
<p>The southern state’s 1,076km of coastline makes up more than 13% of the total Indian coastline, bordered by the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Indian Ocean in the south and the Arabian Sea in the west.</p>
<p>Cyclones need a lot of heat (at least 26°C) to form, and warm tropical sea beds provide this energy. The Bay of Bengal has a deep layer of warm water, which fuels the rapid formation of cyclones that gather force within a short period of time. </p>
<p>Since the catastrophic <a href="https://www.history.com/news/deadliest-tsunami-2004-indian-ocean#:%7E:text=At%207%3A59%20AM%2C%20a,in%20a%20matter%20of%20hours.">2004 Boxing Day tsunami</a> which <a href="http://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/RP/2006_Response_Recovery_EQSpectra.pdf">killed 10,000 people</a> in Tamil Nadu, there have been 14 cyclones and regular flooding in this area. Yet the preparation and response to these extreme events have been woefully inadequate over the last 15 years. </p>
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<h2>Why has nothing changed?</h2>
<p>The Indian Meteorological Department issued a red alert warning on November 12 2021. But 48 hours later Chennai had once again ground to a standstill due to heavy rainfall triggered by the north-east <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Indian-monsoon">monsoon season</a> which occurs between October-December annually. </p>
<p>Seventeen deaths were recorded, and power outages, submerged dams and underpasses hampered movement around the city, including rescue operations by the National Disaster Risk Force (NDRF). </p>
<p>As Tamil Nadu’s tech-hub “<a href="https://cscl.co.in/#:%7E:text=Smart%20City%20is%20an%20urban,opportunity%20to%20local%20decision%20makers.">smart city</a>”, Chennai has attracted newcomers with the prospect of good jobs, housing and amenities, swelling its population to just over <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/chennai-population">11m people</a>. This has put even more pressure on existing infrastructure and services.</p>
<p>Despite the continuous development and increasing population, nothing in the city’s disaster response has changed over the last 16 years, even after the devastating 2015 floods. Officials failed to take preventive measures and released dam water without announcement, over-filling the Chembarambakkam reservoir flooding the nearby areas. The city’s densely packed housing has only made preparation for any future extreme weather events more difficult.</p>
<h2>Gridlocked systems</h2>
<p>Most of Chennai’s <a href="https://www.cnbctv18.com/videos/india/is-unabated-urbanisation-to-be-blamed-for-chennai-floods-11512842.htm">problems</a> revolve around inadequate and poorly managed infrastructure, resulting in leaks, blocked drains and over-burdened sewage systems – problems that have existed in Chennai for decades. Bad planning is also an issue in the city, where the state government has allowed <a href="https://www.cnbctv18.com/videos/india/is-unabated-urbanisation-to-be-blamed-for-chennai-floods-11512842.htm">building and development</a> on marshlands and wetlands which would normally have soaked up floodwater. </p>
<p>The Cooum, which flows through the city, has slowly become a highly polluted, toxic river full of sewage. During the 2015 Chennai floods, it quickly became an open sewer as the city’s drains overflowed and the water submerged sewage systems.</p>
<p>One of the greatest problems the city faces is plastic pollution. Around <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/un-plans-to-drastically-expand-plastic-waste-management-in-india/article37818461.ece">3.4 million tonnes of plastic waste</a> are generated by India each year. Chennai <a href="https://tnpcb.gov.in/pdf_2019/AnnualRptPlasticwaste1920.pdf">ranks second</a> in the country for plastic waste, producing 429 tonnes a day. The plastic clogs up drains and sewers so that during heavy rainfall floodwater has nowhere to go, resulting in waterlogged streets. </p>
<p>Failure of policies and inadequate infrastructure coupled with excessive bureaucracy and inaction mean that every time there are heavy rains or storms, Chennai’s citizens face <a href="https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/tamil-nadu-rain-death-toll-rescue-operation-update-heavy-rainfall-warning-floods-chennai-rains-latest-news-746918">disruption, displacement and tragedy</a> as they did in November. It is essential that the city significantly reduces its plastic pollution, invests in proper floodwater drainage and continually re-assesses the changing risks and vulnerabilities to future flood scenarios. </p>
<p>Making the right decisions and implementing them may not be a straightforward process in a country like India because of widespread poverty, lack of planning, coordination and proper channelling of funding. Perhaps cities like Chennai need to adopt alternative approaches such as <a href="https://www.mei.edu/publications/2015-chennai-flood-case-developing-city-resilience-strategies">community-based flood management programmes</a>.</p>
<p>This would encourage communities to take responsibility and action, empowering the very people whom the flooding affects most. It would also help to dispel the dangerous sense of inevitability that pervades the city about flooding. </p>
<p>There are specific reasons Chennai floods so easily, but they can be addressed. Awareness of how plastic pollution contributes to the problem and what can be done about it at a local level would be a good place to start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anitha Karthik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In spite of monsoon season and cyclone Nivar, the most recent floods are largely man-made disasters.Anitha Karthik, PhD Candidate in Disaster Risk Reduction, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1346892020-03-26T14:43:53Z2020-03-26T14:43:53ZIndia’s coronavirus lockdown will hit women and migrant workers hardest<p>In Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, I woke up to an eerie silence yesterday. The night before, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced a <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-will-be-under-complete-lockdown-starting-midnight-narendra-modi/articleshow/74796908.cms">21-day national lockdown</a> would start at midnight. </p>
<p>The next morning there was no one on the street and the local tea shop where factory workers, security guards and auto-rickshaw drivers congregate was closed. Several van loads of workers had been moved out of the factory premises nearby before the lockdown started. Street vendors selling fruit, tea and snacks had all left. All I could see were the police barricades, with officers stopping and questioning any passer-by. </p>
<p>While schools and other educational and recreational institutions across India had already closed the previous week, the scale of the country’s coronavirus lockdown — of 1.3 billion people – is unprecedented.</p>
<p>India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has now <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/business/story/finance-minister-nirmala-sitharaman-live-updates-economic-relief-package-india-coronavirus-1659912-2020-03-26">announced</a> a range of measures including cash payment of R500 (£5) per month for three months to all women members of self-help groups and an increase in wages as part of India’s employment guarantee programme. </p>
<p>State governments in Tamil Nadu, alongside Kerala, Delhi, Rajasthan and West Bengal, have also expanded social protection measures during the crisis. In Tamil Nadu, factory workers – many of them migrants from other states, especially northern India – <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/covid-19-all-family-cardholders-in-tamil-nadu-to-get-rs-1000/articleshow/74787164.cms">will receive</a> rice, dal, oil and sugar free of charge, along with cash support of R1,000 (£11) to meet other urgent expenses for the next two months. Rickshaw and taxi drivers and construction workers will also have access to these measures. </p>
<p>Half of India’s 1.3 billion people are <a href="http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/faoitaly/documents/pdf/pdf_Food_Security_Cocept_Note.pdf">food insecure</a> which means they lack access to sufficient safe and nutritious food. <a href="https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR339/FR339.pdf">Around 60%</a> of the poorest people from India’s scheduled tribes and scheduled castes, are also anaemic. This means that a total lockdown, while it may help stop the spread of coronavirus, is likely to have a significant impact on food and nutrition. And while the initial reporting on the lockdown has been on cities and urban centres, where cases have been reported, little is known about the rural context. </p>
<h2>Women on the frontline</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-020-0059-0.epdf?author_access_token=cF0E8PU3n0lxOZwnce5k-NRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NgGPZkNEzFC_QQlK7eR3mpQ0xXx8JIVgjfuGI89dP7JzL3FQHuCjXHKpVU8AWMEGk2-pbCojw2O20GmfESHFm6ph0qrFAQETkVPxHXZgRZKw%3D%3D">paper in Nature Food</a>, I argue that while women form an integral part of the agricultural sector across South Asia, and often make up a majority of the agricultural workforce, they are often compelled to work for low or no wages and in poor conditions to meet their families’ basic needs.</p>
<p>While their contributions are seen as central to the food and nutrition security of households and communities, the work they do is rarely recognised by those in charge. For example, women’s agricultural work during peak planting and harvesting seasons makes them particularly time poor. This leaves them little time for domestic and care work, leading to inadequate childcare and poor health. </p>
<p>With this in mind, I have three main concerns about the lockdown and its possible impact on women in India. </p>
<p>First, women will continue to carry the primary responsibility for purchasing food, as well as preparing it for their households. It will be the responsibility of women to procure supplies from designated shops that supply rations. While it’s unclear what the practical difficulties will be in distributing free supplies, there is also a need for cooking fuel, some vegetables and spices, and money to pay household rents and bills.</p>
<p>Devi*, who cooks and cares for my elderly parents, asked urgently for a part of the monthly salary to be transferred to her son’s account. She wanted to purchase an LPG cylinder for cooking and some provisions before the lockdown. Both her sons, working as drivers, now have no work and no income, so she has become the sole provider, a cause for increased mental stress.</p>
<h2>Burden for migrant workers</h2>
<p>Second, in rural areas in the poorer states of northern and eastern India, most men migrate from around August to May after the monsoon planting season to earn a living in factories, construction sites and other businesses. They tend to head for the more developed states of southern and western India, including Kerala and Maharashtra, the two states worst affected by the pandemic so far. Apart from contributing to household food security, they try to save money to invest in their family farms. </p>
<p>In the Koraput district of the eastern state of Odisha, where my colleagues and I are conducting <a href="https://tigr2ess.globalfood.cam.ac.uk/">research</a> with tribal groups on sustainable food supplies and agriculture, the local project coordinator, Vikas*, told me that truckloads of people have returned in the past week from the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Kerala. Many of them were not paid their dues and will also not earn anything for the next few months. They could also be potential carriers of the virus. </p>
<p>Vikas and his group of youth volunteers are working to raise awareness, asking these returnee men to reduce interactions with other people in the village. But many of them live in one-room huts with their families and there are few places to self-quarantine. </p>
<p>It’s too soon to say what the extent of infection is likely to be. However, my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13545701.2019.1632470">previous research</a> in this area showed that due to strenuous work conditions, especially in brick kilns and construction sites in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, migrant men often return sick. Despite bringing home some money, women’s tasks as carers for them and their families get stretched. This is now likely to be further intensified. </p>
<p>For those men stuck in cities and unable to return home, there is a risk to their own food and health security. Ration cards are registered in their permanent rural residences and are usually in women’s names. Out of work and without an income, in the absence of these ration cards, humanitarian social assistance is their only hope.</p>
<h2>Food security threat</h2>
<p>Third, the general poverty and lack of income for many Indian women could hinder food and nutrition security during the lockdown, particularly for those whose partners have lost work. Kerala has <a href="https://citizenmatters.in/kerala-first-state-to-announce-%E2%82%B920000-cr-relief-package-16619">sought to involve</a> women’s self-help groups in food provisioning, especially the delivery of fresh, cooked meals, as part of its relief package.</p>
<p>But as well as ensuring food entitlements, it’s critical the authorities strengthen care services. Unfortunately, as my colleagues doing <a href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/research/about-uea-research/oda-research/grta/sustainable-food-systems">ongoing research</a> in southern Bihar have found, the primary health centres there are closed as a result of coronavirus and referral hospitals are ill-equipped. With childcare centres and schools also closed, there are no midday meals being served. As of March 25, take-home rations were not yet being distributed. </p>
<p>On the positive side, in the Koraput district of Odisha, our team did find some school authorities distributing the rations they held for midday meals to the households of children. The state has also begun paying state pensions for widows and disabled persons for three months in advance. </p>
<p>While these may be small measures, such innovations in state social protection need to be further strengthened to help women look after their families in rural areas, and to bear the new challenges posed by potentially infected men and institutional lockdown. Quick and effective delivery of support measures is now of utmost importance. The longer-term effects of the coronavirus pandemic in India could otherwise be even more severe and worsen food and nutrition insecurity for the poorest and most vulnerable.</p>
<p>* <em>Names have been changed to protect anonymity.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nitya Rao receives funding from UKRI's Global Challenges Research Fund. </span></em></p>With 1.3 billion people in India under lockdown, how will it affect women, particularly those in rural areas?Nitya Rao, Professor of Gender & Development, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1081942019-01-25T15:03:56Z2019-01-25T15:03:56ZLessons from Cyclone Gaja: how to limit the impact of extreme weather in developing countries<p>Taking up almost the entire southern tip of India, Tamil Nadu is the country’s <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/state-of-the-states-india-today-tamil-nadu-overall-most-improved-350680-2016-11-07">second-largest</a> economy. Its delta region is considered to be the “rice bowl” of the state, also producing coconuts, bananas, nuts, spices and sugar cane. On 16 November 2018, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/cyclone-gaja-news-update-status-death-toll-chennai-kerala-tamil-nadu-path-a8636796.html">Cyclone Gaja</a> struck Tamil Nadu’s coastal areas, devastating local agriculture and infrastructure, and destroying thousands of homes. </p>
<p>Despite the region being prone to extreme weather and residents receiving some advance warning, locals reported that emergency responders only managed to reach many of the remote villages a week later. Perhaps few in the West are aware of the extent of the damage and distress this violent cyclone caused. When it comes to major storms and environmental disasters, the world’s media tend to focus more keenly when developed countries are affected.</p>
<h2>Vulnerable coastal communities</h2>
<p>The devastation caused by extreme weather in Tamil Nadu remains a damning indictment on India’s ability to effectively address such emergencies, whether that be taking preventative measures or actually coping with the aftermath with a proper disaster management plan.</p>
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<p>Cyclone Gaja saw 45 deaths reported, crops destroyed and livestock killed. One farmer committed suicide after his small coconut plantation – his main source of income – was destroyed. People were traumatised in coastal districts that were unprepared for winds of speed of 160km/h – a category 2 tropical cyclone according to the <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php">Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale</a>. Millions of trees were uprooted, agricultural land devastated, transportation blocked by debris, communications downed and there were power outages for eight weeks. Three months on and there is still only a limited power supply to some remote areas.</p>
<p>It was this very same southern state which faced <a href="http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/The%20Cyclone%20Ockhi.pdf">Cyclone Ockhi</a> in 2017, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-38285564">Cyclone Vardah</a> in 2016, man-made <a href="http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Disaster%20in%20Chennai.pdf">flooding</a> in Chennai in 2015, and of course, the Boxing Day Indian Ocean <a href="http://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/RP/2006_Response_Recovery_EQSpectra.pdf">tsunami</a> in 2004.
Around 300 Tamil Nadu fishermen missing after Cyclone Ockhi have never been found.</p>
<p>India is part of the <a href="https://www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/sendai-framework">Sendai Framework</a>, an organisation that helps participating countries to adopt disaster risk reduction as a key goal in achieving a sustainable society. The country only released its first <a href="https://www.unisdr.org/archive/49068">national disaster management plan</a> in 2016, despite all of the states on the Bay of Bengal having a history of extreme weather events.</p>
<h2>Looking to the future</h2>
<p>Developing countries often faces barriers to creating a joined-up response between national, regional and local emergency plans. Tamil Nadu’s coastal areas are highly populated with people who depend on the sea for their living. Many live in small huts and makeshift houses that are easily destroyed. Often they are ill-informed about the hazards of living in places that are subject to volatile weather, but have nowhere else to go. On top of this, poor emergency planning and communications, insufficient coastal defence investment and failure to learn from previous cyclones have all led to a kind of paralysis in creating effective disaster response strategies.</p>
<p>Cyclone Gaja stands as a warning to international disaster organisations; they must prepare the countries they work with more thoroughly for future weather disasters. They need to make clear that taking measures to limit the extent of disaster cannot be voluntary, but mandatory.</p>
<p>It will take months to clear the debris and repair the infrastructure, and years to rehabilitate entire villages across Tamil Nadu. It is time to establish a proper framework that helps developing countries to facilitate an effective response to an emergency, crucially with the help of other, more developed nations. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255585/original/file-20190125-108358-t34ipm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255585/original/file-20190125-108358-t34ipm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255585/original/file-20190125-108358-t34ipm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255585/original/file-20190125-108358-t34ipm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255585/original/file-20190125-108358-t34ipm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255585/original/file-20190125-108358-t34ipm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255585/original/file-20190125-108358-t34ipm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A home destroyed by Clyclone Gaja in a remote area of Tamil Nadu.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>It’s also time to think about alternative options such as natural coastal defences and wetland adaption, such as creating salt marshes and growing mangrove trees and sea grasses which can diffuse the energy of coastal flooding caused by storm surges or flash floods. It’s 14 years since the 2004 tsunami struck this part of the country where <a href="http://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/RP/2006_Response_Recovery_EQSpectra.pdf">10,000 people</a> lost their lives, and there are still serious gaps in the region’s disaster response methods.</p>
<p>Developed countries should understand the need for developing countries to be economically and technologically equipped for extreme events. For many, the issue is lack of funding for investment in coastal defences, but the Indian government needs to make this a key priority. Such extreme weather phenomena are likely to intensify as the effects of climate change – global warming and rising sea levels for example – escalate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108194/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anitha Karthik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As global warming intensifies violent weather events, the most vulnerable countries affected need help to respond more effectively.Anitha Karthik, PhD Candidate, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1013662018-08-27T10:45:47Z2018-08-27T10:45:47ZIndia has a sexual assault problem that only women can fix<p>India is the most dangerous country for sexual violence against women, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation <a href="http://poll2018.trust.org/">2018 survey</a>.</p>
<p>The survey, which measures sexual and non-sexual violence, discrimination, cultural traditions, health care and human trafficking, has been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-42436817">criticized</a> for reflecting more perception than data. </p>
<p>But India barely fares better in other studies that rank its treatment of women. It placed 131st of 152 countries in the <a href="https://giwps.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/WPS-Country-Ranking.pdf">Georgetown Institute’s global ranking of women’s inclusion and well-being</a>. </p>
<p>India’s <a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/StatPublications/CII/CII2016/pdfs/NEWPDFs/Crime%20in%20India%20-%202016%20Complete%20PDF%20291117.pdf">National Crime Records Bureau</a> reported 338,954 crimes against women – including 38,947 rapes – in 2016, the most recent government data available. That’s up from <a href="http://ncrb.gov.in/">309,546 reported incidents of violence against women</a> in 2013. </p>
<p>High-profile attacks on Indian women have shocked this nation of 1.3 billion in recent years. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/03/five-years-after-gang-murder-jyoti-singh-how-has-delhi-changed">2012 gang rape</a> of a 23-year-old student in Delhi who died from her injuries caused public outrage. The incident helped spur an <a href="http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=91979">amendment to India’s criminal law</a>, which broadened the definition of sexual crimes against women to include stalking, acid attacks and voyeurism.</p>
<p>This year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued an executive order allowing the death penalty as a punishment for <a href="https://indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2079/1/201232.pdf">people convicted of sexually assaulting a child under 12</a>. </p>
<p>But stricter laws apparently did little to prevent 34 girls from being <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/i-am-gripped-with-a-sense-of-remorse-over-bihar-shelter-home-rape-cases-nitish-kumar/articleshow/65262219.cms">tortured and raped</a> at government-funded shelters in India’s Bihar state earlier this year.</p>
<h2>Women’s representation in India</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://works.bepress.com/nisha-bellinger/">research on diversity in government</a> suggests that one of the reasons India has not been able to effectively address crimes against women is the lack of women in national political office. </p>
<p>That’s because, <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1017/S002238160808033X">research shows</a>, having women in government can lead to more and better laws that safeguard women’s well-being.</p>
<p>India’s population is <a href="http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=world-development-indicators">48 percent</a> female. But women hold <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">just under 12 percent</a> of seats in the national legislature. </p>
<p>That falls well below the 30 percent “critical mass” that the <a href="http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr02-03/english/panels/ha/papers/ha0314cb2-1636-1e.pdf">United Nations Equal Opportunity Commission</a> believes is necessary for women lawmakers to be influential in policymaking. </p>
<p>Local governments in India actually have a quota system that ensures women hold <a href="https://thewire.in/gender/politics-womens-representation">one-third</a> of seats in rural and city councils. But female representation in India’s far more powerful national government remains comparable to countries like the Republic of Congo and Mauritius, where women hold about <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">11 percent</a> of legislative seats. </p>
<p>Rwanda, where <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">61 percent</a> of legislators are female, has the most women in government of any nation in the world, followed by Cuba, with <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">53 percent</a>. </p>
<p>These are not necessarily the safest places in the world for women. According to the <a href="https://giwps.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/WPS-Index-Report-2017-18.pdf">Georgetown Institute’s ranking of women’s well-being</a>, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Slovenia and Spain are some of the safest – all countries where women hold <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">over 30 percent of legislative seats</a>. </p>
<p>Political representation does not translate precisely, directly or immediately into physical security for a given population. But it’s a start. </p>
<h2>Women help women</h2>
<p>Research demonstrates that governments that include representatives from across society – that is, of different political parties, races, classes, genders, geographies and religions – produce better quality of life for citizens than less inclusive governments. </p>
<p>My latest <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-65391-4">book</a> shows that countries with a vibrant political party system enable diverse groups to influence decision-making. Because they are a product of deliberation and cooperation between politicians with divergent ideologies, policies formulated in such societies are more likely to reflect the needs of diverse groups.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1017/S002238160808033X">Scholarship</a> likewise indicates that women in office may prioritize different kinds of policies than men – including those that address the needs of women and children. </p>
<p>In New Zealand, where women hold <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">38 percent of parliamentary seats</a> and the prime minister is a woman, lawmakers recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/26/new-zealand-paid-domestic-violence-leave-jan-logie">guaranteed</a> paid leave for victims of domestic violence. That gives victims time to relocate, protecting themselves and their children from their abusers. </p>
<p>Women in the United States Congress have also proactively addressed sexual harassment inside government. </p>
<p>In March, female senators from both parties – who make up <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm">22 percent of the U.S. Senate</a> – pushed Senate leadership to call a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/women-senators-demand-vote-sexual-harassment-bill-n860706">vote on legislation</a> that would give legal representation to women who complain of sexual harassment on Capitol Hill and reduce barriers to filing a formal complaint. The bill <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/24/senate-harassment-bill-reaction-607731">passed</a> in May, and is currently being reconciled with the House’s version of a similar bill. </p>
<p>And it was the late chief minister of India’s Tamil Nadu state, J. Jayalalithaa, who in 2010 announced a <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/jayalalithaa-proposes-death-chemical-castration-for-rapists/article4261610.ece">13-point action plan</a> for the state to better protect sexual violence survivors. Her provisions, which have since been partially <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/22-more-courts-to-be-established-in-Tamil-Nadu/articleshow/49108500.cms">implemented</a>, included state-paid medical expenses after abuse, female investigating officers and fast-track courts for sexual violence cases. </p>
<p>India’s 2013 national legislation on sexual violence ignores many of these victims’ rights issues, as the human rights organizations <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/11/08/everyone-blames-me/barriers-justice-and-support-services-sexual-assault-survivors#290612">Human Rights Watch</a> and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2013/03/india-new-sexual-violence-law-has-both-positive-and-regressive-provisions-2/">Amnesty International</a> have pointed out. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232950/original/file-20180821-149463-8f7p06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Villagers gather near a crime scene in a field near Jewar, India, where a gang of highway robbers allegedly raped four women in May 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Gang-Rape/330196b821fb4df5b6749929bb3876f0/7/0">AP Photo/Altaf Qadri</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Getting women at the table</h2>
<p>India has contemplated the need for more women in public office. </p>
<p>In 2010, the upper house of its legislature voted on a <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pass-long-pending-women-reservation-bill-demand-women-organisations/articleshow/64980701.cms">bill</a> that would have designated one-third of seats in national and state legislative assemblies for women. Then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/mar/09/india-parliament-approves-female-quota">described</a> it as a “historic step forward toward emancipation of Indian womanhood.” </p>
<p>But the lower house never voted on the bill. And though Prime Minister Modi has expressed <a href="https://www.bjp.org/images/pdf_2014/full_manifesto_english_07.04.2014.pdf">support for a gender quota in Indian government</a>, he has made little effort to work with parliament to get the legislation passed. </p>
<p>Putting Indian women in positions of political power won’t solve a longstanding, pervasive and entrenched social issue like violence against women. </p>
<p>But evidence suggests that an Indian government with more women in it could better protect Indian women by passing comprehensive laws that defend women from abuse and help victims recover.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nisha Bellinger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>India is the most dangerous country for women in 2018, according to a new survey. Putting more women in government is a necessary first step in preventing rape and better protecting abuse survivors.Nisha Bellinger, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/710302017-02-03T07:46:51Z2017-02-03T07:46:51ZHow the Virgin Mary brings together different faiths in Pakistan and India<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153196/original/image-20170118-3914-15c8b5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mass inside the church dedicated to our Lady of Good Health in Valenkanni, Tamil Nadu.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">D.Fernandes</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Karachi is the <a href="http://crss.pk/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/CRSS-Security-Report-Q3-2016-Final.pdf">most violent city in Pakistan</a>. <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/1287126/karachi-still-violent-city-report">A total of 1,046 deaths</a> related to terror and militancy were reported there in 2016, and
nearly <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/1186638/growing-uncertainty-48-7-youth-karachi-want-leave-country/">50% of the city’s young people</a> want to leave Pakistan completely.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.researchcollective.org/Documents/Karachi_Violence_Duality_and_Negotiation.pdf">violence has various causes</a>, including divisions over <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/203433/political-violence-216-incidents-reported-in-three-months/">politics</a>, <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/1223201/national-highway-blocked-shia-groups-continue-protest-arrests-leaders">religion</a> and <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/583741/anp-mqm-clash-leaves-boy-dead">ethnicity</a>, as well as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/world/asia/29karachi.html">organised crime</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/721785/timeline-attacks-on-minorities">More than 70 Christians were killed</a> while celebrating Easter in a park in 2016. <a href="http://www.voanews.com/a/pakistan-hindus-protest-forced-conversions-girls-islam/3460692.html">The forced conversion</a> of Hindu girls and the marginalisation of community members have been among other factors fuelling feelings of insecurity and isolation for minorities. </p>
<p>For many members of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/malik-siraj-akbar/how-pakistan-abandoned-it_b_9001584.html">threatened minority communities</a>, places of worship offer solace. They also represent an important lesson for Paksitan’s fragmented society. This can most clearly be seen in <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/947318/the-power-of-faith-hindus-celebrate-the-lady-of-good-health-with-catholics">the religious crossover</a>, known as syncretism, between Hindus and Christians, who both venerate the Virgin Mary in Karachi. </p>
<p>It serves as a vital message of the need to co-exist and create structures that minimise discrimination. </p>
<h2>A look back in history</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://habib.edu.pk/HU-news/memory-tradition-community-walk-history-4th-annual-karachi-conference/">history</a> of Tamil and Goan Christian devotees in Karachi can be traced back to <a href="http://www.casas.org.uk/papers/pdfpapers/christiansinpakistan.pdf">nearly 50 years ago</a> when A M Anthony, a Tamil Christian, established Saint Anthony’s Club at his house on Somerset Street, in the town of Saddar, a neighbourhood of Karachi. </p>
<p>As described to me by his granddaughter, devotees would gather to recite <em>novena</em>, or nine-day, prayers to ask the Virgin Mary for blessings and good health. The Virgin Mary is known as Our Lady of Valenkanni, <a href="http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/vailankanni/">based on apparitions</a> she is believed to have made in the Indian town of Velankanni, in Tamil Nadu state, 2,000km south of Karachi.</p>
<p>After his landlord objected to the loud singing and recitation, Anthony and his fellow Christians, many of them immigrants from Chennai and Goa, were allowed a hall space in the premises of St. Anthony’s Church.</p>
<p>The Christian devotees then invited both Hindus and Zoroastrians to join them in asking for benediction. In this way, <em>novena</em> prayers to Our Lady of Valenkanni became a part of Catholic churches’ ceremonial activities across Karachi, and opened up the veneration of the Virgin Mary to new faiths.</p>
<p>For some Hindu devotees, Our Lady of Velankanni symbolises prosperity, aspirations, well-being, while providing answers to their prayers. </p>
<h2>The origins of Our Lady of Velankanni</h2>
<p>Of course, the home of Our Lady of Velankanni is in the town of Velankanni itself, which also demonstrates the intersection of Hindu and Catholic practices in contemporary religion. </p>
<p>The basilica attracts millions of devotees each year. As in Karachi, these include both Catholic and Hindu residents. Some Catholic devotees from Karachi embark on a spiritual journey to the basilica of Our Lady of Valenkanni to ask the Mother for favours and intercessory graces.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153075/original/image-20170117-21183-vi79i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153075/original/image-20170117-21183-vi79i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153075/original/image-20170117-21183-vi79i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153075/original/image-20170117-21183-vi79i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153075/original/image-20170117-21183-vi79i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153075/original/image-20170117-21183-vi79i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153075/original/image-20170117-21183-vi79i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Basilica Our Lady of Velankanni in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">D.Fernandes</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Three accounts of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Velankanni have <a href="http://www.velankannichurch.in/shrine-miracles.php">been documented</a> over the years, and subsequently narrated by her devotees. </p>
<p>The first story dates back to the end of the 16th century and is about a Hindu shepherd boy’s sighting the Virgin Mary by a pond. She asked the boy for milk for her son, Jesus. The boy readily offered the milk. Locals remain intrigued until the Mother appeared at the site again. Thereafter, the pond was known as “Matha Kulam” or “Our Lady’s Pond”. </p>
<p>The second event is said to have happened a few years later. A crippled boy in Nadu Thittu was apparently cured by the Virgin Mother after he offered her buttermilk. The Catholic residents of a nearby town then built a shrine in recognition of the healing.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.velankannichurch.com/pages/historyofvailankanni/historyofvailankanni.html">In the late 17th century</a>, Portuguese sailors transformed this early construction into a chapel, based on vows made during rough seas between China and Colombo on a merchant vessel. </p>
<p>Today, Our Lady of Valenkanni has special meaning for both Hindu and Christian devotees because of the miracles she is associated with, including the <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1227_041226_tsunami.html">2004 Boxing Day tsunami</a> which caused massive destruction in Tamil Nadu. Basilica officials were quick to report this as a miracle, as <a href="http://www.tfp.org/a-ray-of-hope-in-southern-asia/">2,000 pilgrims</a> were attending mass when the town of Valenkanni was hit. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4130129.stm">News sources</a> and <a href="http://www.who.int/hac/crises/international/asia_tsunami/sitrep/en">official disaster reports</a> showed that the basilica was the only building to escape this large-scale catastrophe.</p>
<h2>Acts of devotion</h2>
<p>Some devotees make offerings to the Virgin Mary through purchases of expensive fabric for a sari. This is associated with the historical and symbolic depiction of the <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/24764255?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Virgin Mary draped in a saffron sari</a>, a common garb across the subcontinent. There are others who make sari offerings to the poor upon fulfilment of their vows.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153213/original/image-20170118-3914-gvkyhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153213/original/image-20170118-3914-gvkyhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153213/original/image-20170118-3914-gvkyhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153213/original/image-20170118-3914-gvkyhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153213/original/image-20170118-3914-gvkyhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153213/original/image-20170118-3914-gvkyhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153213/original/image-20170118-3914-gvkyhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Virgin Mary wearing a sari in the Karachi church dedicated to her devotion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">D.Fernandes</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One woman I spoke to as part of my research, a Goan Christian born in Karachi, was taught devotion by her grandmother. In 2004 when she was visiting Valenkanni, she prayed to Our Lady of Good Health to be blessed with the gift of a child. </p>
<p>Nearly a year and half after her return to Karachi, she gave birth to a boy. A few years later, she and her family completed rituals to fulfil their vow. She cut off four inches of hair while her husband and son shaved their heads. They bathed in the sea as part of the ritual. These practices are <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0009640708002023">taken from the Hindu faith</a>, showing that interfaith exchanges go both ways.</p>
<p>Since then, the woman has worn a head-covering during prayer times as a lifelong promise to the mother for the graces received through her son. </p>
<p>I heard other tales of devotion from A M Anthony’s granddaughter: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There was a lady who would not wear shoes. She would be spotted even at weddings without shoes … Imagine going everywhere barefoot in Karachi’s heat. But that is how she fulfilled her vow and everyone knew about it.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Spirituality and togetherness</h2>
<p>Annually, <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/947318/the-power-of-faith-hindus-celebrate-the-lady-of-good-health-with-catholics/">hundreds of devotees</a> come together in the premises of churches across Karachi and in Tamil Nadu to hoist a flag bearing an image of Our Lady of Valenkanni and partake in a short prayer followed by other rituals including the distribution of blessed medals by a priest. </p>
<p>The ceremony devoted to Our Lady of Valenkanni occurs on September 8, marking the <a href="http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=357">birthday of the Virgin Mary</a>. </p>
<p>Each year, Our Lady of Valenkanni’s statue in Karachi is decorated with fresh flowers and streamers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153079/original/image-20170117-21172-w5l898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153079/original/image-20170117-21172-w5l898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153079/original/image-20170117-21172-w5l898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153079/original/image-20170117-21172-w5l898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153079/original/image-20170117-21172-w5l898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153079/original/image-20170117-21172-w5l898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153079/original/image-20170117-21172-w5l898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nativity prepared by devotees in Karachi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">D.Fernandes</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>This day sees some members from the Hindu, Zoroastrian, and Muslim communities all venerating the Virgin Mary. </p>
<p>As the parish priest told me, “Mary brings everyone together and it makes sense why you would see Muslims here who can tell you a lot about Surah Maryam.” Named after Virgin Mary, <a href="http://ahadees.com/english-surah-19.html">Surah Maryam</a> appears in the 19th chapter of the Qu’ran. </p>
<p>“Muslims do not partake in <em>novena</em> prayers, but on September 8, they come here to respect Mary as the Mother of Jesus”, Rodrigues said. </p>
<p>For believers, miracles are not just about healing of ailments and turning water into wine. They can be a way of dealing with the dominant, narrow and bigoted narrative prevalent in Pakistan’s society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71030/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donna Fernandes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A common place of worship in India and Pakistan offers solace and bonds religious minorities in Pakistan.Donna Fernandes, Researcher-Program coordinator, Habib UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/596322016-05-20T11:03:56Z2016-05-20T11:03:56ZIndian state elections give Modi a boost – but the country is fracturing<p>On the face of it, the results of elections in four important Indian states seem like an endorsement of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and his Baratiya Janata Party (BJP). But scratch the surface, and plenty of other forces are there: anti-incumbency feeling, the rise of Hindu political identity in general, and most importantly, the failure of other more established parties. </p>
<p>And while Modi and the BJP have plenty to celebrate, particularly their historic <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/assembly-polls-2016-counting-of-votes-today-will-it-be-advantage-bjp-1407730">victory in Assam</a>, they have conspicuously failed to make any inroads in other southern states.</p>
<h2>Assam: Hindu identity politics</h2>
<p>That’s not to downplay just how striking the party’s Assam victory is. This state has become the top battleground for the Hindu nationalist agenda, and after careful planning and execution, the BJP made a successful push to introduce its brand of communal politics, skilfully playing to anti-incumbency sentiment. </p>
<p>Playing to local issues such as a growing influx of <a href="http://qz.com/652033/ticking-time-bomb-in-assam-a-final-count-of-illegal-immigrants/">immigrants from Bangladesh</a> in the south and the long-running separatist insurgency in the north, the BJP successfully positioned itself as the only party that could address the state’s problems. It now controls 86 seats out of 126 in the Assam Assembly, putting an end to 15 years of rule by the Indian National Congress (commonly known as Congress), the country’s oldest political party.</p>
<p>The results have clearly shown that the BJP’s grassroots work, carried out through <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-the-origins-of-todays-hindu-nationalism-55092">its Hindutva organisations</a>, has paid off tremendously. The Hindu voters in Assam clearly made their choice to support BJP as the best defender of their rights. </p>
<p>But this exuberant campaign will come at a price, as the BJP will now have thoroughly alienated itself from southern Assam’s significant Muslim population. </p>
<h2>West Bengal: Congress in decline</h2>
<p>The ruling All India Trinamool Congress (TMC, not to be confused with Congress) has strengthened its hold on the state of West Bengal, but this says less about its success per se and more about the the decline of the state’s other main parties – Congress on the one hand, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on the other. </p>
<p>Left-wing parties ruled West Bengal for nearly three decades, backed up by some support from Congress. But ever since the TMC was formed in 1998, it has positioned itself as an authentic Bengali political party committed to development, and the shortsighted and opportunistic alliance between it and the leftist parties has fallen out of favour.</p>
<p>The BJP expended significant time and energy in this state, promising its followers that it would make strong inroads – but in the end, it garnered a fairly paltry 11% share of the vote. But it’s Congress who should be deeply worried: it’s gone from bad to worse in a state where it was expected to do well, and its decline has only given a lifeline to the leftists as they try to recover.</p>
<h2>Kerala: the left resurgent</h2>
<p>Kerala has long been a stronghold for Congress and a range of left-wing parties, offering them solace when they fall short in national parliamentary elections. For more than four decades, it was ruled alternately by two coalitions: the left-wing Left Democratic Front, led by communist parties, and the United Democratic Front, led by Congress.</p>
<p>While these coalitions battle it out fiercely in state elections, their fight over alternating success means that they’ve managed the state in more or less the same way. Kerala has a high literacy rate and large populations of Muslims and Christians, and religious tolerance and socialism have consistently been at the heart of its politics.</p>
<p>This picture was shaken up by the last round of parliamentary elections in 2011, when the BJP <a href="http://thewire.in/2016/05/18/bjp-wont-capture-kerala-yet-but-rss-culture-is-sweeping-the-state-36806/">increased its vote share to 16%</a>. The critical factor in Kerala this year was the movement of marginalised communities, tea estate workers and many minorities who showed their support for the parties on the left, due to the failure of Congress policies over the past five years. </p>
<h2>Tamil Nadu: success for the Amma (mother) of freebies</h2>
<p>Tamil Nadu is a very different affair. In no other state is the <a href="http://thewire.in/2015/12/31/new-fronts-are-taking-shape-in-tamil-nadu-but-the-dravidian-parties-are-still-on-top-18342/">growth of caste-based politics</a> so visible, and this year’s elections were marred by <a href="http://www.frontline.in/the-nation/the-m-factor/article8581108.ece?homepage=true">reports</a> of corruption and the handing out of “freebies” in exchange for votes. </p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_peoples">Dravidian</a> parties DMK and ADMK have survived primarily by appealing to various caste-based constituencies. This <a href="http://www.frontline.in/the-nation/complex-scene/article8581042.ece?homepage=true">helped to divide</a> voters in Tamil Nadu along caste lines, and the state’s political system has been greatly fragmented.</p>
<p>The DMK used to be the champion of Tamil and Dravidian identity, but it’s been rather marginalised by the growing political infighting among the two groups, and other political parties have been formed around Tamil identity. There are also new parties representing the Dalits and Vanniyars, among them the Dalit Panthers and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK). </p>
<p>But in the end, the state’s ADMK premier, <a href="http://www.financialexpress.com/article/india-news/tamil-nadu-election-results-2016-counting-of-votes-begin/259300/">Jeyalalitha Jayaram</a> ran a successful populist campaign, overcoming both the fragmentation of the vote and the anti-incumbency factor. Congress was almost wiped out in the state, and the BJP made significant inroads.</p>
<h2>Inching forward</h2>
<p>These elections show that for many Indians, regional issues still trump national ones. It seems Modi’s charm offensive and economic promises have not had much effect on many parts of the country. Still, the BJP is clearly getting the hang of state politics, and coming off 2015’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-regional-election-in-india-ends-in-a-damning-verdict-on-prime-minister-modi-50345">disastrous state elections in Bihar</a>, the party can take heart at its strong showings. </p>
<p>But the elections bode ill for the future of Indian politics. More and more people are apparently buying into the idea that the BJP is the rightful sole party of national government. The fragmentation of the political landscape along caste, religious and ideological lines is only helping the BJP consolidate its position, despite some of the disastrous events that have unfolded on its watch over the last two years. </p>
<p>There’s still plenty of disenchantment with the government, and many voters view Modi as anything but the superman of Indian politics. But nonetheless, he and the BJP continue to gain ground.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anderson Jeremiah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government can take heart, the political landscape is fragmenting along caste, religious and ideological lines.Anderson Jeremiah, Lecturer in the department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/544342016-02-09T14:13:47Z2016-02-09T14:13:47ZCould a meteorite really have killed a bus driver in India?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110805/original/image-20160209-12603-1geqymi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The destructive meteor trace that fell on Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">.Alex Alishevskikh/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is nothing more certain in life than death – a cheerful thought for a dismal February. Even though we are aware of that inevitability, we don’t expect death literally to strike out of an empty sky, which reportedly is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-35529752">what happened to Kamraj</a>, a bus driver in Vellore, a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.</p>
<p>Accounts of the event near the Bharathidasan Engineering College campus are fairly unanimous: there was a sudden explosion, a crater appeared, windows in surrounding buildings were blown out and flying debris struck several people in the vicinity, including Kamraj. At first, it was thought that the explosion was caused by the inadvertent detonation of material at a building site. But police later ruled that out, as they couldn’t find any traces of explosives.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110787/original/image-20160209-12616-vqvem9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110787/original/image-20160209-12616-vqvem9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110787/original/image-20160209-12616-vqvem9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110787/original/image-20160209-12616-vqvem9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110787/original/image-20160209-12616-vqvem9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110787/original/image-20160209-12616-vqvem9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110787/original/image-20160209-12616-vqvem9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cosmic dust grain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">e Donald E. Brownlee, University of Washington, Seattle, and Elmar Jessberger, Institut für Planetologie, Münster, Germany/wikimedia.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The report that something fell out of the sky has to be taken seriously. Meteorites do just randomly fall out of the sky all over the Earth’s surface, at a rate of about 40,000 tonnes of rock and metal each year. Admittedly, most of this material falls as <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-interplanetary-dust-and-can-it-spread-the-ingredients-of-life-50477">particles of dust</a> less than 100 micrometres across, but every year, about 5000 football-sized objects land. However, as the majority of our planet is actually uninhabited, most of these fall in the sea or in unpopulated regions, meaning we very <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-find-a-meteorite-thats-fallen-to-earth-52906">rarely see them</a>. </p>
<p>Spectacular events, such as at Chelyabinsk in Russia almost exactly three years ago, when a huge, bright fireball caused a blast that shook buildings, broke windows and injured over 1000 people, demonstrate the destructive power of a meteorite impact. The Chelyabinsk meteorite was much bigger than a football, and is the sort of event that occurs once in a century.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dpmXyJrs7iU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Meteorite hitting Chelyabinsk in 2013.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meteorites have been studied scientifically for around 200 years. There is an <a href="http://meteoriticalsociety.org/">international society</a> that keeps records of all meteorites and oversees their naming and where they were found (or seen to fall). There are approximately 50,000 known meteorites – and not one of them has been associated with a human fatality. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1567456/Killer-meteorite-up-for-auction-in-New-York.html">Cows – yes</a>, <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/one-hundred-years-ago-today-a-mars-meteorite-fell-in-a-blaze-23722099/?no-ist">dogs – possibly</a>, but so far no people. </p>
<h2>Was this a meteorite fall?</h2>
<p>As a professional meteoriticist who curated the UK’s national collection for over a decade, I read <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/astrophysicists-to-examine-meteoritelike-object/article8207711.ece?homepage=true?w=alstates">accounts of the Tamil Nadu fall</a> with great interest. But given the apparent noise that accompanied the explosion, and the extent of the damage, I am slightly surprised that there are no reports of a fireball, or even a bright light. Something travelling fast enough to make such a noise should have been visible as it plunged through the atmosphere, made incandescent by frictional heating.</p>
<p>If the explosion was not a meteorite, what might it have been? There has been speculation that it was “<a href="https://theconversation.com/space-junk-will-crash-back-to-earth-on-friday-the-13th-but-its-no-bad-omen-50611">space junk</a>” – a piece from a defunct satellite or failed rocket launch – hurtling back to Earth. Certainly there have been reports of such events happening, but we can track the largest such objects, the sort that might lead to explosive impacts, and <a href="http://www.space.com/30933-falling-space-junk-next-month.html">predict where they will fall</a>. So it is unlikely that we wouldn’t know about it. Could it have fallen from an aircraft? Again, it’s a possibility, as that does happen, but it seems unlikely that the aircraft wasn’t affected in the process.</p>
<p>Material has been recovered from the site, and there is a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-35529752">fuzzy picture</a> of a ten-gram sized stone. But reports state the object was recovered later from behind the college canteen, and that it looked like “eeyam” – which is tin or lead. From personal experience, I know that people looking for meteorite fragments tend to pick up metallic-looking objects, as that is what meteorites are often thought to be made from. </p>
<p>And that is true, but there are many more stony meteorites than there are metallic ones. The fragment is going to be analysed, so we should know soon if the material is natural or artificial. More definitive results might also come from the soil samples collected from the crater.</p>
<p>Whatever the origin of the crater, there is an outcome that must not be forgotten: Kamraj, an unfortunate bystander, was killed in the event. He may achieve notoriety as the first human fatality from a meteorite fall, or become a footnote in the history of space exploration. But to his family and friends, that is much less important than the fact they have lost a man they loved and valued.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54434/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monica Grady receives funding from the STFC and is a Trustee of Lunar Mission One. She was president of the Meteoritical Society from 2013-2014 and curated the UK national meteorite collection at the Natural History Museum in London from 1992-2005.
</span></em></p>A meteoriticist takes a look at the evidence surrounding a tragic death – and gives her verdict on whether it was caused by a meteorite.Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.