Chennai Express

The only time I have ever walked out of a film was 5 minutes into a Hindi film in Southall when I realised there were no subtitles. Luckily my Hindi speaking companion was sympathetic. Even now I am rather tense watching the first moments of a Hindi film until the subtitles appear on the screen. I bring this up because had Sue suggested we leave at the interval I would have been out of my seat like a shot. I think we stayed partially because we were already there and, for me, to see if the second half could be worse than the first.

Chennai Express is one of the fastest grossing Bollywood films of all time. It’s already a member of the 300 Crore Club ($48m) worldwide, one of only four films to do so, and broke box office records in the weekend of its release in India. While the public have flocked to the film the critics, both in India and abroad (the film was released worldwide almost simultaneously) have not been so impressed.

So to the movie: Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan (SRK)) is the scion of a well-to-do sweet seller’s family in Mumbai, raised by his grandparents after his parents’ deaths. After an indulgent and spoilt childhood Rahul (SRK) is seemingly prevented from meeting women because he’s so committed to his grandparents and the business. At the time of his grandfather’s death Rahul is planning a “boys’ “ weekend in Goa but plans are complicated by having to dispose of the ashes near Chennai. Getting on the Chennai Express Rahul helps a running woman, Meenamma (played by Deepika Padukone) onto the train, but finds she is pursued by a number of non-Hindi speaking brutish men. Then Rahul finds they are her father’s henchmen who have found her after she ran away. Some comedic moments follow with lyrics from songs from SRK’s films changed to confuse the Tamil speakers. But escape attempts are futile and they arrive at her father’s “territory” and Rahul finds he is a local underworld chief who has promised his daughter to a friend’s gigantic son, Thangaballi. Rahul and Meenamma escape spending time at another local village, are found and escape, but Rahul returns to the mafia village to fight the brutish Thangaballi. Rahul says he fights for the “common man”. Love conquers all and her father accepts Rahul as her husband.

The first half was fairly pacey establishing Rahul as restricted by family issues, a familiar theme in Bollywood. But that was just to set the scene. The “boys” again were just thrown in for effect. The Hindi songs bastardised on the train were an in-joke taken from SRK’s previous films – along with a number of other references to other Bollywood films (Dilwale Dulhania le Jayenge; My Name is Khan; Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara; Khabi Khushi Khabie Gham). But beyond that there was very little characterisation, particularly of Meenamma. There were hints of racism - Indians are racist too - in the portrayal of the darker South Indians as large unintelligent brutes. There were a couple of dance numbers in the first half but they were simplistic dances and songs, often childish and facile.

The second half was actually a bit better, but that’s not saying much. A couple of the dance numbers, particularly set on the South’s tea estates, were actually quite entertaining. A car chase followed but for someone raised on Bond and Bourne the chase was fairly tame. But then a quite brutal fight scene between Rahul and Thangaballi.

None of the characterisation was strong. Rahul’s invocation of the “common man” was quite unexpected, and the love between Rahul and Meenamma was just not believable, certainly not compared to some of the couples in SRK’s previous films.

The hints of racism were added to by confusion between Hindi and Tamil, and just made one very uncomfortable. In addition, a scene when Rahul is on the run and comes across a man with dwarfism and a speech impediment is meant as a comic interlude partially but is gratuitously exploiting a dwarf and added nothing to the plot. But the Hindi speaking families behind us found it quite amusing.

The film also featured pure unreconstructed sexism of the type ingrained in Indian culture, but also of the type you hoped an international Bollywood film might manage to transform a little. Instead, we had a fairly assertive Meenamma on the run from an arranged (perhaps forced) marriage to Thangaballi, being captured and brought back to her domineering father by his henchmen. She seems to have no choice but to go through with the marriage to her father’s chosen partner before Rahul comes to her rescue. Rahul eventually ‘wins’ and is granted his chosen bride by Meenamma’s father – but only after the classic punch-up between the two would-be grooms over who gets the ‘girl’. Despite her feistiness, and constant attempts to escape, Meenamma returns to the passive bystander while the men fight over who gets to marry her. Hardly a promising role model for a 21st century woman – one in control of her own destiny - in whatever country – or indeed for her father or potential husband.

Brought up on the best of modern Bollywood and starring SRK we were expecting a lot better both in terms of the plot, songs and dances. The racism, sexism and casual treatment of the dwarf detracted considerably from the film. We didn’t find the comedy scenes funny at all – perhaps something was lost in translation.  If the film was meant as a parody of your classic Bollywood romance or Tamil action movie, then it wasn't a very good one and the in-jokes and references may well have been lost on an international audience. We do wonder if Bollywood tries too hard to combine what would normally be separate genres in its films from rom-com, to thriller to social commentary, and this was just a step too far.

Sue and I both evinced some concern for SRK’s continuing career. As we have noted before despite the fact he is good shape he can’t continue to play action roles, dance, and play the romantic partner of an actress in her 20s. Bollywood doesn’t appear to have the range of genres and movies that would be available to a leading actor of SRK’s age in Hollywood. But with SRK’s star power he can surely mould the industry to suit himself. Perhaps his wife’s involvement as a producer of Chennai Express skewed his judgement. Almost incidentally SRK and Padukone appeared on breakfast television in the UK, Daybreak, to help publicise the film. But the appearance was cringeworthy; the presenter had no idea that she was in the presence of a movie superstar, nor about the Indian film industry.

Overall 1 out of 5 and that’s mainly for the rather expensive popcorn we devoured.

 

The Indian Economy: Hubris, Nemesis....but Redemption is many years away

It’s rather unusual, if not unprecedented, if in the same week India features on the front page of the Financial Times, and is the subject of a leader in The Times. Consider also these headlines this week in the Wall Street Journal about India: “Shoppers, Shopkeepers Worried About Prices”, “Rupee Decline Hits Study, Emigration Plans”, “Rupee Fall Damps Festival Gold Buying”. These headlines are not what India needed after it celebrated Independence Day, and launches of an aircraft carrier and a nuclear missile submarine. Although not directly related the price of onions rose to UK levels this week. Prices rose not just because of a drought in some states but because heavy rains rotted much of the crop in other states. It seems India cannot even ensure onions are kept dry.

So what has prompted these headlines and the perception of crisis? The Indian rupee fell 16% since May 2013 to Rs64 to the dollar and over Rs100 to the UK pound, great news for tourists buying clothes in FabIndia, but spelling disaster for the Indian economy with prices of imports rising considerably. The Mumbai stock index, Sensex, fell to its lowest level for a year. The Indian government claims that the crisis has been caused by a tightening of monetary policy in the US, with increased bond rates attracting global investors who feel the US is a far safer place for their money than India. This claim has a veneer of truth but if the Indian economy was in better shape then international investors would not have abandoned it.

The causes of the crisis are manifold but in short they include slower growth, perhaps 5% this year, down from highs of 9% recently, and a growing current account deficit which reached 4.8% of GDP in March. One major contributor to the increasing import bill has been the level of oil and coal imports. India continues to import coal despite it holding the third largest reserves in the world. The power industry in particular has demands which Indian coal producers are unable to meet in the short term and this will rise in the medium term until domestic coal producers increase production. India already suffers from power cuts and this coal crisis will further deter Indian and foreign investments in industry generally.

High interest rates have also deterred investments in the Indian economy. Rates of over 7% impeded investments that India badly needed, and now in the midst of this crisis a rise in interest rates cannot be ruled out to protect the value of the rupee. Conversely there is now no likelihood that lowering interest rates dramatically as in the UK will have any significant effects because of the deep structural issues that operate as a brake on the Indian economy.

India also has a high budget deficit of -5.1%, although this is, for example, lower than the UK’s -7.6%. But the most important thing is that the markets have faith in the UK’s measures to reduce this deficit and its overall public debt. Further problems will arise if India is unable to fund these deficits except at the cost of higher interest rates.

The Indian state also incurs huge costs in its subsidy programmes notably oil, its work programme (NREGA) and the new Food Security Act. Oil subsidies affect kerosene, cooking oil, power stations and motor cars. Earlier in the year the Indian government announced a reduction in the level of subsidies but the fall in the value of the rupee has wiped out any savings. It is estimated that each Rs1 fall against the dollar adds over $1b to the subsidy bill. Moody’s suggested that fuel subsidies could rise to $25b this year. Politically it would be difficult to reduce the prices that consumers pay.

In this context Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress, and the governing UPA coalition launched the food security programme this month which may cost $21b this year. The programme seeks to provide basic foodstuffs to up to 57% of India’s population. As an aside Sonia Gandhi said the programme would be “corruption free” although it’s unclear as to how she can make such a guarantee.

In addition, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) launched primarily as a work programme in 2005 and to improve rural infrastructure costs c$10b annually. Often the estimates for welfare expenditures bear no relation to the actual costs. While the aims of this welfare schemes are laudable they may foster an era of welfare dependency, and one cannot help thinking that the money would be better spent on infrastructure and education, in particular ensuring an educated workforce. But with an election due by May 2014 one cannot envisage the UPA coalition reducing welfare expenditure significantly because of the importance of the rural electorate.

The immediate responses to the rupee devaluation have been limited. Increased duty has been levied on gold and TVs imported as hold baggage. Apparently Indians import over 1 million TVs in this manner. Perhaps one should ask why India appears to be unable to produce TVs or build a strong domestic brand.

Dr Duvvuri Subbarao, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), whose lecture I attended at the LSE earlier in the year (link here), has been blamed for much of the crisis and, in particular, for keeping interest rates high. But it is difficult to allocate blame to Dr Subbarao when so many of the factors leading to the crisis have been outside his control: from poor infrastructure and education, budget and current account deficits, to excessive spending on welfare. Dr Subbarao did joke that the current global recession would end when he left office. With his term due to end in early September 2013 that is actually true for most of the developed world but it may be the beginning of a very difficult period for the Indian economy with the possibility that the fall in the value of the rupee may trigger a recession.

Dr Subbarao will be succeeded by Dr Raghuram Rajan whose credentials are impeccable apart from the fact that he has been an adviser to the Indian Finance Minister. Dr Rajan has been Chief Economist at the IMF, and before the global financial crisis of 2008 made a presentation foreseeing the crisis and blaming excessive risk-taking in the markets. He was dismissed as a Luddite by Larry Summers, formerly US Treasury Secretary. So, Dr Rajan can say the unpalatable, and this is going to be crucial attribute in the months and years to come.

The Indian state is riddled with nepotism, cronyism and corruption. As an example putative MPs take out large loans to cover their election expenses knowing that corrupt money will flow in to their personal coffers if they are elected. India needs to stop protecting its own industries and businesses as this hinders the development of the economy. For example, a few months ago a liberalisation of the retail sector was mooted but the conditions were so restrictive it seems Tesco and Wal-Mart amongst others do not want to invest. Overall India has grown as far as it can within its structural boundaries. Dramatic change is necessary.

India needs its Blackships moment; in the mid-nineteenth century the latest American warships arrived at Edo Harbour to force Japan to open itself to the wider world. Thus began Japan’s journey to a fully developed nation, although not without various issues. But the point being that an external shock is necessary for India.

A radical modernisation is necessary in education, infrastructure – Mumbai is only getting a metro system this year – in banking, and to enable foreign companies to invest without conditions. If present conditions continue the downturn will provoke civil unrest. One can only hope that the present crisis focuses the minds of the business elite, and they in turn pressurise future governments to modernise.

Kumbh Mela - the Greatest Show on Earth - BBC2

‘At the time of the Kumbh Mela, at the point of the confluence of the rivers, a space opens up between this world and the spiritual’.

This was the description of the Kumbh Mela put forward by Professor Chakravarti Ram-Prasad, of Lancaster University. I just love this kind of grand narrative, this birds-eye viewpoint of our tiny universe. It reminds me of the opening of the first chapter of the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra on the ‘Purification of the Buddha-Field’:

‘Reverence to all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Aryasravakas, and Pratyekabuddhas, in the past, the present and the future.

Thus have I heard at one time. The Lord Buddha was in residence in the garden of Amrapali, in the city of Vaisali, attended by a great gathering. Of bhiksus there were eight thousand, all saints. They were free from impurities and afflictions, and all had attained self-mastery. Their minds were entirely liberated by perfect knowledge. They were calm and dignified like royal elephants. They had accomplished their work, done what they had to do, cast off their burdens, attained their goals, and totally destroyed the bonds of existence. They all had attained the utmost perfection of every form of mind control.’ (1)

Fabulous stuff. And the reason why the Kumbh Mela is celebrated – again from Professor Chakravarti Ram-Prasad:

‘The nectar of immortality was found and fought over by the gods and demons. Some drops of it fell to earth and the places where it fell are the places where the Kumbh Mela is now celebrated’.

The drops fell to earth in Allahabad in February of this year, and the BBC was there to witness it. Over 100 million people were expected, over the course of 55 days to gather, worship the gods and purify themselves in the water of the Ganges. Apparently this year was a ‘Maha Kumbh’ – a ‘Great Kumbh’ which only happens every 144 years and always at Allahabad. Just as a comparison, the numbers at the annual Hajj in Mecca – the pilgrimage site of Muslims – average around the 2.5 – 3 million mark.

The BBC followed 4 British men and women attending the Kumbh Mela this year. There was Helen O’Hagan, an erstwhile business development manager at a London law firm, turned spiritual seeker in India, having spent the last 3 months at a yoga centre in India. At the age of 34 years, when her peers were getting married and starting families, she yearned for something more, for the spiritual – and made what she referred to as a ‘choiceless decision’ to pursue this yearning. You couldn’t help wondering if she had just read ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ – but nevertheless you had to have some sympathy with her quest. I think life in a City law firm would make me turn to God (or whatever) after a few years. And at least she was sincere, having found a guru and spent the previous 2 months on a silent retreat.

Then there was Shivali Bhammer – an economics graduate, former City trader – turned devotional Hindu singer, daughter of wealthy Indian business parents and brought up in Kensington. She was impeccably made up and even in India seemed to wear beautiful, designer clothes as she danced and searched for inspiration from the devotional singers present. ‘It looks like an extremely colourful refugee camp’ she remarked from her car, driving through the crowds. Then, bravely approaching a stark naked, ash covered sadhu, she said, ‘I think you are very beautiful’ – being very careful to look him directly in the face. ‘I don’t care about being beautiful – it’s got nothing to do with me’, he replied.

Kanan Thakerar was a business woman attending with Riya, her niece – also studying economics. Just to pause here for an aside: why does everyone seem to be studying economics now, or is an economics graduate, or working in finance or law? What happened to medicine or dentistry as the tried and tested route to financial stability and professional status in the UK? Even the hours for junior doctors are a bit more reasonable than they were – but maybe the lure of City salaries and bonuses beckon too much for the 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants from South Asia. Anyway, Kanan was in the process of setting up a consultancy advising businesses on setting up in an Indian market – but wanted to explore her Hindu roots further.

Finally there was Dr Manish Pankhania – known as ‘Roshan’, attending with his guru Swami Vishwananda.

For me though, the 2 most interesting people interviewed were an American-born sadhu called Baba Rampuri and Shaunaka Rishi Das – a Hindu, originally born an Irish Catholic.

Baba Rampuri, with the long beard and orange robes of an Indian sadhu, was from Beverley Hills, California. He left the US in 1969 at the age of 18, looking for ‘magic and mystery’ in India – found it, and stayed. It was 20 years, though, before he understood anything – as it was astoundingly complicated and sophisticated. He found the relationships among the ‘sadhu family’ in India as intricate as within any other family. Good on him, I thought, for going to India searching and staying the course. It would have been so easy to give up when the going (spiritually or materially) got tough and go back to consumer complacency back in the US like so many other people.

As with Shaunaka Rishi Das – now the Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. He joined a Hare Krishna ashram in Dublin in 1979, though his original desire was to be a Christian. Instead, he found Hindus ‘practising Christianity, but not calling it that’ (2) – and had to struggle with the fact of Christianity being practised to the highest standard, but by non-Christians. If only all of us followed through with our youthful idealism, instead of getting bogged down along the way with careers, families, consumer goods and frivolous wants and desires. ‘The meaning of the sadhu life is of sacrifice – it’s not a consumer thing,’ said Baba Rampuri. How true this is, but also how rare to find sacrifice and self discipline being upheld as a virtue in this post-modern, instant gratification society we have created.

My thoughts turn to Shivali’s devotional singing and You Tube videos. I find myself slightly troubled by Hindu devotional songs being packaged and promoted in this way. The perfection of Shivali’s make up and clothes, the carefully chosen settings for her songs and electronic modification of her voice – all sit uncomfortably for me with the true ascetics, the sadhus who leave behind family, belongings, clothes and status to venture into the spiritual unknown, with no guarantee of any results. The spiritual quest does not package up quite so easily for a capitalist market. Perhaps I am being a little harsh though, as she has indeed made the effort to travel to the Kumbh, and has had the courage to pursue something different – something that many millions of others wouldn’t even try to explore.

And so to the high point – 10 February and the main bathing day where an estimated 30 million people bathed in the Ganges to wash away their sins. Led by a huge procession of naked sadhus, it made an extraordinary sight. Roshan was pleased to be able to join the sadhu procession for the first time, as Hindus from the wider diaspora were recognised equally. There was another first as well – not touched on in the documentary. For the first time, Dalits (‘Untouchables’) were also allowed to bathe in the Ganges alongside Brahmins – which apparently ‘dissolved’ their ‘Untouchable’ status. Swami Vishwananda has commented, ‘….there are lots of profound changes taking place. Nobody knows why they are happening now. It is a Divine arrangement’. (3) Or perhaps it has nothing to do with the Divine but a growing realisation in India and Hinduism – and criticism from human rights campaigners outside - that defining millions of fellow human beings as somehow sub-human, destined to live on the margins of society, has absolutely no place in today’s world.

India really is such a country of contrasts – where conservative traditions still govern relationships between the sexes – especially outside the major urban centres – yet here thousands of completely naked men parade to bathe in the Ganges, alongside women. I did wonder where all the holy women were (sadhvis) and why they were not joining in (perhaps not naked) – it would have been good to see renunciate and ascetic women instead.

Meanwhile, Shivali takes a trip out in her own boat on the river, away from all the crowds. Her intention is to take a ritual dip too, but even away from all the others, she can’t bring herself to do it. Worried about pollution in the river, she just dips her hands in the water instead. 

1. Robert A.F.Thurman (translator), ‘The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti’. The Pennsylvania State University Press 1990 edition.

2. "Memories of a life less ordinary". Wexford People. April 8, 2009.

3. Bhakti Marga press release 18 March 2013.

Street Food - Roti Chai style

Roti Chai has been on our ‘to do’ list ever since it opened in 2011. Last Sunday lunchtime we finally got round to trying it out. I had voted for one of the Drummond Street Indian vegetarian buffets. Chutneys @ £6.95 / person would have fitted the bill – I think I was nostalgic for my early 20s and student days – but I was voted down. Or rather (as the voting was 1-1), persuaded down.

Roti Chai was started by Rohit Chugh, an ex-Goldman Sachs equities trader. This had actually put me off going for quite a while as I cynically thought it was just an investment venture, a commercial enterprise rather than being run for the love of good food (the two obviously not being mutually exclusive). Chugh, had, however, worked for the Cinnamon Club after leaving the City and then helped set up the Cinnamon Kitchen before starting Roti Chai – so he did come with some kind of food pedigree background. His father apparently is from Amritsar which helped to seal the authenticity of the venture.

The menu is divided into a street food menu and a more expensive dining room menu. We went for the street food, although I am not sure the dining room part was open on a Sunday.  The décor is simple, deliberately basic café-style seating with kitsch Indian adverts decorating the walls.  I know what Chugh was trying to achieve – a modern take on an Indian café theme, though it did feel slightly contrived, slightly too stylised. Reminiscent perhaps of Haldiram’s in India.  It was good to see quite a few Indian diners there.

The menu is short and fairly simple. For starters, we had the bhel puri and papri chat. Both were good and well presented – though nothing particularly out of the ordinary. I can probably get the equivalent for at least half the price at the stall in the Quality Foods supermarket in Hounslow. A few more fresh ingredients: onion, cucumber and fresh coriander might have been nice in the bhel puri.

For mains, I had the idli sambar - always keen to branch out from the usual North Indian food on offer. Susen had the chicken Manchurian – chosen because of its Bengali roots (of course!) Again, good food but nothing special. A thought did come into my mind, whilst eating my sambar, that it reminded me of a slightly spicy version of tinned Heinz lentil and vegetable casserole pureed baby food I used to eat well into my toddler years as I liked it so much. That thought didn’t help too much with the appreciation of any subtle sophisticated grown-up spicing that might have been going on in the dish.

Our meal was washed down with Mongoose beer – which is trying to rival Cobra in the Indian food market. Mongoose looked convincingly Indian in origin, until we saw that it was brewed in Bedford which didn’t have quite the same ring to it.

One good point is its location – tucked away behind Oxford Street, close to Marble Arch. Good, therefore for lunch or dinner away from the Oxford Street crowds - though why anyone actually wants to actually go shopping in Oxford Street is beyond me.

Our lunch came to £46.00 for the 2 of us (including 4 beers between us). You could probably get the same or better in Southall for quite a bit less – or any number of other urban Indian eateries in every major town. Probably around 6/10 rating overall.

Roti Chai – 3 Portman Mews South, London W1H 6HS

www.rotichai.com

Himalayan Tsunami

In mid June the Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand north of Delhi was devastated by floods killing thousands of people and making many more homeless. On the 9th July 2013 the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand said that at least 1,000 had died but that more than 4,000 were still missing. The causes were an early monsoon which caught out many pilgrims, the sheer weight of rainfall, and the unrestrained building that has taken place in recent years to cater to the influx of pilgrims. While some elements of the Indian state, such as the Indian Air Force, have acquitted themselves well, others such as disaster planning have not. The disaster also raises questions about governance and corruption.

The monsoon rains started on the 12th June, and then intensified on the 16th with the capital of Uttarakhand, Dehra Dun, recording in one night more than half the rainfall of Delhi in a year. This rain melted the snow on glaciers and the mountains. On the 17th Chorabari Lake, near the town of Kedarnath, burst its banks and water descended into the town along rivers, and took bankside buildings with it. It is thought the water levels rose by 10 metres. A number of smaller towns were almost completely overwhelmed by water. Refugees told of climbing onto the upper floors of a building and finding those on the lower floors were swept away. Landslides happened along the course of rivers in the area. Such was the force of the water that a town 250km from Kedarnath felt the effects. Parts of Delhi were also flooded as a result of the initial lake burst.

The state of Uttarakhand contains some of Hinduism’s most sacred sites including sources of the Ganges. Sites such as the Kedarnath Shrine are difficult to reach, either by trekking (it is 14km from the nearest bus-stop) or helicopter, but despite these logistical issues the number of pilgrims to this shrine increased from 87,000 in 1987 to 600,000 in 2012. More broadly it is believed 30 million pilgrims and tourists visited the four shrines in the area in the last year. These visitors put immense pressure on transport and hotels in particular. There have been suggestions that the numbers of visitors are limited but this has been rejected by local politicians who are conscious of the income that visitors bring.

Getting clarity on numbers has been difficult but it is believed that over 100,000 people were originally trapped. Many managed to get out by themselves, and perhaps 30,000 have been rescued by the Indian armed forces. The Indian Army had 8,500 soldiers involved in the operation and reportedly fed 10,000 people between 15 and 21 June. The Indian Air Force reported that they had flown 1,400 sorties, both helicopters and fixed-wing, dropped supplies and rescued more than 12,000 people. Two thousand vehicles were utilised in ferrying people to safety. Refugees waited at Dehra Dun Airport for information and their relatives. Google launched apps in both Hindi and English, and the state government its own website, to enable relatives to get in touch with those rescued.

Concerns have been raised about the conduct of the state government of Uttarakhand. The Comptroller and Auditor General reported in April 2013 that the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) had never met, had no dedicated funding, and had no plans in place despite there being numerous landslides in the past few years and it being mandatory under various legislation. There had been no analysis of previous disasters. It was also found that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), headed by the Prime Minister, had never followed up to ensure that India’s States were preparing disaster plans. There have been many complaints about the slow pace of the rescue and relief effort, and also the fact that many refugees had been gouged for water and food by local entrepreneurs. This ignores the fact that it should be the local and national authorities that provide basic supplies in this instance. The Home Minister admitted there had been issues in co-coordinating the different agencies.

It was revealed that the Geological Survey of India had identified over 100 villages as being vulnerable after a previous disaster but no action had been taken. Furthermore, the Ministry of Environment and Forests declared a 135km building free zone, which would ban new hotels and hydro projects alongside the main rivers in Uttarakhand. However, the Chief Minister made representations to the Indian Prime Minister and the ban was never enforced

The environmentally unsound development of the Uttarakhand region has been partially blamed for causing the disaster. These include deforestation, which denudes the river banks and enables soil to silt up the rivers, sand mining, stone quarrying, excessive construction, and dams. It is believed that more than 70 dams have been planned for the region. While it is recognised that some dams are necessary environmentalists in India complain that there is no clear strategy on the numbers and where they should be built.

Time and time again when referring to the government one comes across the phrases, themes, and terms “poor planning”, “lack of strategy”, “uncontrolled” and “corruption”. All of these elements come together. One does not pretend that everything in the West works well always. The poor disaster management response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans is one example, but the US appears to have learnt and there was seemingly little criticism of the authorities after the recent New Jersey hurricane. The politicians in India seem to make limited public pronouncements, information is difficult to come by, they impede the rescue efforts by making numerous VIP visits – various Chief Ministers visited and tried to get their own people out - and in their refusal to arrest development they may contribute to the disaster. “Development” means building new hotels and dams, from which politicians may get kick-backs, while schools are often decrepit and lack teachers.
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Postscript: While not directly related to the Uttarakhand disaster the case of Narayan Pergaein is instructive in how the Indian educated classes think. Pergaein was, repeat was, a TV reporter for a Hindi news channel, News Express. He was filmed reporting to camera sitting on the shoulders of a man in a flooded river in Uttarakhand. This incident outraged Twitter opinion in India and Pergaein was sacked. His “defence” was that the man had offered to hoist him on his shoulders and that Pergaein had given him 50 rupees. What is saddening is that the upper and middle classes expect that the lower classes (and castes) have no dignity and are there just to serve them. In “Days and Nights in Calcutta” it is said that a pilot was fired for not getting to work during a flood; the pilot’s response was that it was the airline’s fault for not sending a peon to carry him across the water.... plus ça change.