The Signs They Are Achanging

Coincident with Indias fiftieth year of independence, the issue discusses topics ranging from the relevance of Gandhi, to the cricket World Cup, and the feminist response to beauty contests. There are also items about the advances in communications, with a laymans guide to Hindi cinema thrown in free of charge. All isolated glimpses at the what, where and how of India at the fag end of the 20th Century.

As each new generation pushes its way into prominence, the generations before them are elbowed out. The previous generation is driven into heated movement, the whole process not unlike tectonic plates pressing against each other. Like the push and shove of continental drift, the generation game is one where whole eras are shouldered aside some revisited when brought back into fashion, but most rendered obsolete. The new generation then patronises the one they replace with a That was then not now attitude. Each generation is guilty of intolerance towards the change wrought by progress.

 

In the first article, The power of representation, S Balaram relates Gandhi to Lord Krishna. In his superb article later in the journal, Shiv Visvanathan does a gentle debunking of the great man. The photograph of Gandhi used in the journal is priceless Gandhi, with `jughead ears and Mohawk, looks every inch a punk rocker.

Inside and outside of India, Gandhi has sadly become a sign of times passed, like last years hit parade. Intellectually it is terribly nice to place icons like Gandhi on pedestals. But when scam-tainted cheats and crooks venerate him as their guru, theres something amiss. Fifty years on, the image of Gandhi has become progressively devalued it is hard to pretend otherwise. A worthy man, but does he have relevance in modern, urban India? One may, of course, choose to differ.

When Rita Faria won the Miss World title in 1967, she was a revelation for being more than just a good looking piece of fluff. She was a great ambassadress for India, looking and acting her part with a grace and elegance rarely seen before or since. When India wiped the board in 1994 it was a one in ten million chance. But then both Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai would have won any contest, any time, anywhere: the fact they had dead-heated in the Miss India contest shortly before was somehow apt.

Rita Manchanda in her entertaining polemic, especially in the light of the upcoming Miss World contest in Bangalore, writes: ...in the other India where a Dalit woman is stripped naked by uppercaste men to teach her community a lesson. What does the world of Bhanwari Devis have in common with that of the Sushmitas? They may both feature in the glossy upmarket womens magazines; but the chasm between them is widening. The emergence of the Sushmita icon, which attracts the new confident breed of cosmopolitan middle class women, in fact highlights the chasm between the `international look of Indian women elites, and the mass of oppressed women.

In most parts of India a woman is still a second class citizen. Rai and Sen may not be role models, but confidence can be infectious, as it comes from self belief and thats one thing they have a lot of. That beauty contests are little more than cattle shows with the object of making money for sponsors and organisers is understood by all but the very naive, but then again, doesnt everyone like a nice pair of legs?

Mike Marqusee, in his piece Nothing official about it, puts his finger on the pulse of the recently concluded cricket World Cup. The real challenge, over and above the call of mere sport, was the advertising battle between the two biggest fizzy sponsors in the world. Pepsi and Coke have probably rotted more teeth in the subcontinent than the thrills generated by the Sri Lankan opening bat Jayasuriya (and that is a lot of thrills unless you support the opposition that is, in which case change thrills to heart attacks). The World Cup came second to the cola cup which ended in a dishonourable draw. Marqusee is in good form describing the fizzling in and out of the drinks as well as the teams.

Dont be put off by the stuffy IIC image. This is a genuinely entertaining compilation and, well, theres something efficient about it!