the moral discourse

जेव्हा विचाराचा दिवा वीझतो तेव्हा वर्तन आंधळे होते। When the light of reason extinguishes, conduct becomes blind.

i had written in my earlier post about a set of vartaphalaks which espouse on the 'good ways', 'ideal behaviour' and overall laud a moral life...here is a sample to give you an idea of the content and the rhetoric that goes into this moral discourse...

तुमचे विचार जर शुद्ध असतील तर आपल्याला जे वाटते अ फेव मोरे जर जे बोलतो ते करणे सोपे जाते। If your thoughts are pure then it is easy to say what you feel and do what you say।
साई सेवा प्रतिष्ठान, गुरुवार पेठ

a few more...

जर एखादा समाज आपली नीतीमूल्ये गमवील तर तो सर्वस्व गमवील । If a society loses its values, then it will lose everything. sai seva pratishthaan

सामर्थ्य...महत्वाकांक्षा...निर्भयता...अभिमान आणि औदारय या सदगुणांचा सुरेख संगम तरूणाईत असला पाहिजे!
Youth should be a beautiful combination of the virtues of capability…ambition…fearlessness…pride and generosity! muktai प्रतिष्ठान

यशस्वी माणसं स्वप्न डोल्यासमोर ठेवून काम करतात। अयाशस्वी माणसं केवळ कागदी घोड़े नाचावतात। यशस्वी माणसं आपल्या बरोबर इतरान्नाही यश प्राप्ति होईल या विचाराने काम करतात। यशस्वी माणूस वचनबद्ध असतो। अयाशस्वी माणूस फक्त आश्वासाने देतो।

Successful people have their dreams in front of them while working towards them. Unsuccessful people merely build castles in the air. Successful people think about how others would also benefit along with their own selves, while working. A successful person is bound by a promise given. The unsuccessful person merely gives false assurance. kumthekar road sarvaajanik vachanalay

Sarai Post # 3

Its time for the third posting and I hope to give you a glimpse into the profile of some of the people whom I interviewed for the study. I conducted three interviews with persons who write messages on the
vartaphalak. It is interesting to see how these three interviews represent three diverse discourses, which have influenced the lives of these interviewees to a large extent.

Mr. Anil Aagavane, Sadashiv Peth

Anil Agavane runs a sarvajanik vachanalay (public reading space) on Kumthekar Road in Sadashiv Peth. The first image above shows the location of his sarvajanik vachanalay. He works as a librarian in a local college, though I later came to know that this seems to be just one of the many designations that he holds. He is a local BJP activist, deputy chairman of his caste association (Charmakar caste), on the Shaniwarwada Mahotsav board (a local annual cultural festival), and member of 3 other civil society bodies.

I met him early in the morning to catch him writing the board at Kumthekar Road, so that I could take some pictures of his writing the board. He swept the area first and then fetched the board from somewhere where he must be leaving it at night. The board was meticulously cleaned, before writing the thought for the day. On the day, he elaborated upon the definition of ‘suvichaar’ (good thought): a suvichaar enriches us, elevates us to a higher level, helps in destroying all temptations and purifies our soul.

This was followed by an elaborate, almost ritualistic procedure of stamping and stapling the newspapers, folding them and putting them in their designated racks. The photographs of Ganapati and Laxmi put up just above the newspaper racks were cleaned, the old garland was changed, and incense was lit.

The rhetoric of ‘social commitment’ and ‘social service’ was all pervasive in Mr. Agavane’s basic outlook. According to him, the main thing which motivated him to write the vartaphalak was his staunch belief that every individual owes a debt to the society (samaajala dena lagane). Two things which have influenced him and led him to take up this current work has been his work in the education sector and his work as a BJP activist. He said that this work made him realize that he is the part of a larger whole and that he owed the society something.

He described this activity as being ‘dyaandaan’: giving away knowledge as charity. He claimed that dyaandaan in our context was even ranked higher than annadaan. He saw himself as a part of the larger society and hence this sense of social awareness (samajik bandhilki) was extremely strong in him, motivating him to do this activity. The notion of ‘welfare’ as contributing to the process of nation building came across prominently in his narrative. Thus such vachanalayas and vartaphalaks had a role to play in rashtrakarya, according to Agavane; newspapers have the unique status of being a people’s medium (lokamadhyam), due to which they form the pillar of democracy.

Mr. Agavane strongly felt that it was not correct to express one’s ideology through the vartaphalak. According to him, if one is doing a kind of social service, then one cannot look at one’s own selfish interests; one has to think of what is in the interest of the larger society. Incidentally, in our first conversation, Agavane had proudly mentioned that though he was a BJP party member, he had never let his political ideology come out through his vartaphalak messages.

Anil Agavane writes his vartaphalak in Sadashiv Peth area, which is predominantly a Brahmin area. According to Agavane this area was inhabited by uchhaprabhu (well-educated) people. According to him, there were at least two graduates per each family, which testified to their highly educated status. He mentioned that since all of them were highly educated, they were much more critical and he had to be very careful when writing his board. One could not afford to go wrong, the content had to be grammatically correct.

I had met Mr. Agavane once before the interview as well, when we talked in detail about his work. He had then offered to show me all the letters that he had written to the newspapers about various issues. Most of these letters were concerned with civic problems, problems in the local area or the city at large. This included a wide range like: problem of statues in the city, unsafe bridge without railings, how citizens should drive carefully in the monsoons, how Kumthekar road (where his ‘vachanalay’ is located) needs to be repaired urgently, how the ordinary tax-paying citizens should vote proactively, how politics has become business, that women should not be objectified, there should be steps taken to halt the obscene activities going on at a city bridge etc. A lot of these issues had themselves been a matter of great debate in the local newspapers at specific points of time, and it was obvious that Mr. Agavane had participated in these print debates with gusto.

I was also shown a few hundred photographs which featured Agavane in assorted programmes ranging from AIDS awareness lecture to distribution of notebooks to poor students. It was notable that while showing me these photographs, where he could be even amongst one in the crowd, he was mentioning names fast and furious. These were obviously names which mattered in the local political scene. (Though the names of the other interviewees have been changed to protect their identity, Mr. Agavane's name has been retained on his request)

Mrs. N, Guruwar Peth

Mrs. N is 66 years old and lives in a traditional waada in Guruwar Peth. She is a member of Sanatan Sanstha (SS), a religious organization and writes on 3-4 vartaphalaks in her area as a part of her SS activities. The second image in the post is a photograph of the vartaphalak written by Mrs.N, explaining the ideal way to perform an aarti.

She is a matriculate and had been working as an assembly line technician in an electrical goods’ company for almost 33 years. N mentioned that she came to be associated with SS around 8 years ago, when she joined the organization seeking mental peace in the face of her unhappy domestic situation. After practicing namahsmaran and involving herself in spiritual pursuits, she actually started benefiting from her activities in the organization. Even though her domestic situation remained unchanged, she said that now she got the strength to cope with her situation. She started involving herself more and more in their activities. After she quit her job, she also got more time, which she then began devoting to SS activities.

She defined the organization’s objective as preaching spirituality in the society and working towards turning the society towards spiritual endeavors. According to her, Hindu religious practice has deteriorated of late and hence their organization attempted to make people aware of their religious practices and heritage. At the same time, she also mentioned that SS also worked towards raising a voice against deshdrohi (anti- national) and dharmadrohi (anti-religion) elements in the society.

Writing on the vartaphalak constituted one of the many activities prescribed to SS members as a part of pursuing their sadhana. N mentioned that since all the sadhaks are supposed to do it as a part of their sadhana, they are never felicitated or praised for this work. The ego (aham) of a person inflates because of such praise, hence this policy. I also happened to meet a senior person of the organization at a later date who also introduced another interesting aspect to this. According to him, insisting that all the members write vartaphalak as a part of their sadhana, had another objective behind it. This was to help them get over their aham (ego). Writing in a completely public space makes you feel humble, since you are writing before the entire crowd. He gave an illustration of an extremely rich, old sadhak who used to go in his car to one the vartaphalaks and write on the board as a part of his sadhana. I thought this was an extremely interesting angle of looking at vartaphalak as a public space and how this Sanstha, which had a large middle class base, looked at using this space as a way to get over their egos, to be humble. Implicit in this is the assumption that using this kind of public space is something that people like us would avoid, we would be embarrassed by it, our egos would not allow it.

The sadhaks had been instructed by the organization to obtain permission to write on as many such vartaphalaks as possible in order to reach out to a maximum number of people. She mentioned that at this point they write on about 500 vartaphalaks in Pune city and that they are doing this work on a war-footing (yudhapataliwar).She admitted that she initially felt a bit embarrassed (sankoch) about going and writing on a vartaphalak in the neighbourhood. Also when she first went to write on a board in a Muslim area, a few men questioned her, accusing her that SS wrote anti-Muslim matter. But according to N, she was convinced that she was doing God’s work and that they needed to pass on this heritage to the younger generation.

The content of the vartaphalaks is ready made, provided in small booklets brought out by the SS. N decides what kind of matter she wants to write; for instance, if any festival is coming up then she would probably choose something which explains the importance of that festival and details of how to perform specific rituals on that day. SS brings out a daily newspaper called ‘Dainik Sanatan’ which runs a special column everyday titled, ‘Vartaphalak prasiddhisathi’ (for writing on vartaphalak). The messages are clearly anti-Christian or anti-Muslim in nature, drawing people’s attention towards the various anti-national or anti-(Hindu) religious activities that these communities were engaged in. Interestingly, N mentioned, because of the high presence of other religions in her area, she did not feel comfortable writing dharmavirodhi matter. She said that SS notice boards in Kasba Peth, Tambdi Jogeshwari wrote a lot of dharmavirodhi stuff, but they can get away with it. In her area there were also a large OBC population. Given this variety, one had to write what is acceptable to all, according to her. However she protested against this, since she thought that was nothing wrong in bringing to light the reality, if certain bad elements indulging in wrong doing.

She contended that while most notice boards catered to the specific issues of that area or the collective, SS work catered to the larger public; it is addressed to all and is not limited to certain areas only. Responding to why vartaphalaks are largely to be found in the older parts of the city only she opined that newer areas are largely dominated by the ‘flat-system’, where people are self-centered, where they don’t come together. In Peth areas, people still retain that sense of community (ekatrit, sanghatit). According to her, people in newer areas do not probably need a vartaphalak.

The amount of initiative taken by the organization in meeting me and orienting me towards their work was remarkable. I got to meet two of their senior members, was invited to their monthly meetings and satsangs right away.

Mr. R, Sadashiv Peth

Mr. R is a 67 year old retired advocate, who owns a Ram Mandir in the heart of Sadashiv Peth. Incidentally, the vartaphalak in this temple area is also written on by a member of Sanatan Sanstha. However, in my first meeting with Mr. R, he mentioned that he used to regularly write on the vartaphalak a few years ago. He is a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and told me that he was actively writing on the board for 3-4 months especially in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. I have interviewed him as a key informant for this study, since he represented someone who has used the vartaphalak towards a very specific political agenda.

He right away launched into what he thought was the ideal vartaphalak practice. Vartaphalak according to Rahalkar, is a good medium for raising awareness (lokjagrutiche changle maadhyam). According to him, the vartaphalak is a cheap, cost-effective medium to reach out to people. The writer here has full freedom to express his opinion. One can write one’s opinions to the newspaper, but that need not necessarily be published by the newspapers.

He was of the opinion that a vartaphalak should not reflect merely what is reported in the newspaper. The writer has to include one’s own comments on that matter to make it more interesting. Also certain things which are hidden by government or political parties should be revealed by these boards. It was clear that for Rahalkar, the boards were clearly political in nature. They have to be aggressive for people to take notice, according to him. He mentioned that rhetoric was extremely important while writing the vartaphalak. At the same time he was clear that vartaphalaks should be within the framework of law.

Vartaphalaks reflect the existing social and political environment or reflect certain contentious issues; according to him, people are generally not very interested in reading about adhyatma (spirituality) (he was probably referring to many boards written by Sanatan Sanstha, which focus almost exclusively on issues of spirituality).

He was extremely dismissive about the existent vartaphalak culture in Pune city, which according him, only reflected local issues: of someone’s death, some programme being organized, some meeting, good thoughts etc. But that’s futile use of this space. Vartaphalaks, according to him, should reflect vaicharik issues (intellectual issues). His contempt for this practice was obvious as he commented as to how there is no point in having vartaphalaks which limit themselves to extremely local or exclusively spiritual issues.

He also proceeded then to give me a few samplers of his messages. Most of them were very specific to a typical Maharashtrian upper caste cultural background: use of Marathi bhavgeete (a specific genre of popular music in Marathi), of Sanskrit shlokas and so on. For instance:

Dona aaplya bhinna aakruti, antaraat punha ekach preeti (though our silhouettes are two distinct ones, we are unified in one love internally). He had written this in order to express what is necessary in order to really achieve national integration. It would not be achieved through simply faking unity, but that feeling of unity should be inherent.

In another quote he had made use of the fact that most of Hindu deities are shown to be carrying different types of weapons and Hindus worship deities which bear arms:
Asha shastra-astranchya devdevtanchi puja karnare Hindu, itke shandha kase? (How come Hindus, who worship Gods bearing arms and weapons, are so impotent?)

There was a definite sense of pride in how, he being an advocate, he had always managed to express what he wanted on his vartaphalaks, within the legal framework.

I stop here for the time being. The profiles have turned out to be rather lengthy, but I also think the detailed context was necessary to see the various strands of discourses that might be operating behind the vartaphalak writing activity. Till the next posting then…

लोकल वार्ता

आपल्या चौकातील जेष्ठ नागरिक रामभाऊ गरूड़ यांचे आज दुपारी अल्पशः आजाराने निधन झाले। इश्वर त्यांच्या म्रुतात्म्यास शांती देवो । अंत्ययात्रा सायांकाळी ७ वाजता निघेल

senior citizen of our locality Rambhau Garud expired today afternoon after a short illness. may his soul rest in peace. the funeral procession will leave at 7 in the evening.

लोकल वार्ता

एस एस सी परिक्षेस बसलेल्या विद्यार्थी व विद्यार्थिनिंना हार्दिक शुभेछा

best wishes to all the students appearing for S.S.C. examination

हिंदून्नो!

हिंदून्नो, ख्रिस्त्यांची राक्षसी धार्मिक महत्वाकांक्षा जाणा!
दक्षिण भारतात २००४ साली सुनामिने घातलेल्या थैमानानांतर कार्यरत zaalelya ख्रिस्ती मिशनरयांनी सुनामिचा फटका बसलेल्या गरिबांना भावानिक व प्रसंगी आर्थिक मदत करून त्यांचे धर्मांतर घडवून आणले, असे एका आन्तार्रष्ट्रिया संस्थेने केलेल्या सर्वेक्षणात उघड झाले आहे.

Hindus!! Know the monstrous religious ambitions of Christians!
It has been revealed in a survey conducted by an international organization that the Christian Missionaries who were working in South India in the wake of the Tsunami in 2004, converted the poor people affected by Tsunami by helping them emotionally and at times financially.

vartaphalak run by Shri Bhavani Pratishthaan, Sadashiv Peth

I Am Sorry..

Indian Civil Service - This was never Indian, even more, it was never civil or a service. What does IAS mean? The right to say I Am Sorry. I openly claim that Indian Civil Service today has deteriorated to the level of prostitution: Former Chief Election Commissioner, T.N. Seshan
Mahatma Phule Autorickshaw Sanghatna vartaphalak is never blank. From local civic elections to bad roads to the definition of politics, this vartaphalak keeps the torch burning so to say...

स्वातान्त्र्याशिवाय जीवन जगणे म्हणजे मूर्ति शिवाय मंदिर होय ...

Life without freedom is like a temple without an idol...

Koutuk Autorickshaw Sanghatana, Ghorpade Peth, celebrates Republic Day.

Sarai Post # 2

Hi all! Am just managing to put in my second posting before my designated week gets over. I’m beginning to think this practice is nice though…gives you a chance to stop and look back on where your work is going. And this is how and where my work is going:

By now I have a fairly concrete idea of what is the pattern of content of the notice boards (vartaphalak) I’ve been covering in different areas. To give a crude categorization, here are the ‘types’ of content that are put up in the vartaphalak:

Pertaining to religion: There are actually three broad categories in this type. The first one concerns overtly technical information about religious practices (in the context of Hindu religion of course). Very pedagogic in nature, these are small tips on how to perform puja, where to place ritual objects, how to make a ritual offering, what is the significance of a particular festival and so on. The language used is extremely formal, some of the words almost alien to everyday language. These boards are homogenous since they are ‘adopted’ by a local organization ‘Sanatan Sanstha’, whose volunteers write these messages on the various vartaphalak. I’m not yet completely sure what the organization is all about, whether it is affiliated to the political Hindu right and so on. More on this in the next posting definitely!

The second type is again related to religious teachings, but which are largely couched in a spiritual-moral discourse. The 3-4 Muslim boards included in this study fall in this category. For instance, some of the messages generally revolve around extolling the virtues of Khwaja Garib Nawaaz or explaining the generosity of a particular pir.

Lastly, there are the overtly Hindu fundamentalist vartaphalaks, which have a specific agenda of consistently spewing forth hatred against Muslims and Christians. The content here is acidic, the rhetoric strongly communal. It is not a surprise that these 3 vartaphalak are to be found in the Sadashiv Peth-Narayan Peth areas, which are almost exclusively Brahmin populated.

The moral discourse: I have given this title to this category for the want of a better term. But I’ll try and explain what exactly it entails. There are 3-4 such vartaphalaks, wherein a ‘Suvichar’ (Thought for the day) is written everyday. There is a strong rhetoric of morality, ‘good’ behaviour, ethics, values like humanism, benevolence, courage that is reflected in these messages. They present an archetype of ‘ideal’ citizen, who is moral, ethical and patriotic in his outlook.

Political commentaries: This is an interesting category. There are 2 vartaphalaks which constantly engage in commenting on the recent political happenings, at the local as well as the national level. Both the boards use an irreverent, satirical style while critiquing the happenings around them.

I will try and give a sample of a few messages of each category the next time.

I have also realized that the frequency of these messages tends to be pretty inconsistent, barring a few. So some boards that regularly used to change their content, have now hardly anything new to say. In such cases, I’ve been confused as to whether to include these in the study or omit them.

By now I have almost close to 300 photographs, since a photoessay is also one of the outcomes of this study. It’s a shame one cannot put up images on the reader-list, otherwise it would have given everyone a greater sense of what I was saying.

That’s all for now. Waiting for some feedback, comments, whatever.

Sarai Post # 1

This study revolves around a particular ‘genre’ of public space that is a result of a popular practice among the various collectives in Pune city. The practice is that of putting up ‘vartaphalak’ or notice boards which serve as visual markers of the collective that exists in the precincts of that notice board. In many cases, these notice boards are not ‘stand alone’ markers, but are a part of an entire set of accoutrements, which the collective uses to declare its presence in that space. Most commonly, the additional accoutrements are in the form of a small covered space, like a bus stop, which serves as a place where people can sit and read daily newspapers provided in a rack. Or there could be a couple of benches, adjacent to the notice board, again meant for sitting. Sometimes there is an additional provision of space where drinking water is made available to the pedestrians during summers in huge earthen pots (pan poi). It is also not uncommon to find a small temple in this same space.

These notice boards are put up by collectives which are constituted by political as well as non-political organizations in the city, including local, branches of all the political parties, collectives like Ganesh mandals, ‘Yuva mitra mandals’, residential collectives, auto rickshaw drivers’ unions etc. The content of the notice boards ranges from local, collective-specific concerns to commentary on current regional or national issues. These spaces become the centre point around which many local celebrations like ‘Satyanarayan Puja’, Ganesh festival, Independence Day and so on are organized.

The remarkable feature of these spaces is that they have extremely rich visual content. Firstly, there are the various comments, notices, announcements written on the boards for local community members to read. Examples of this include notice offering condolences to the family of the deceased, who was the local resident, announcement of a blood donation camp organized in the locality, congratulatory message on the occasion of Independence Day, comments on some current issue, like the financial budget or Samjhauta blasts and so on.

At the same time, the various symbols and imagery that is inscribed in and around these spaces, though ubiquitous, are significant visual markers of identity, local, regional or even national. These range from the symbols of political parties, displayed prominently on the boards or the newspaper stands, colour of the newspaper stand itself, photographs or pictures of prominent national leaders/ icons like Gandhi, Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, Shivaji etc. Similarly, the content of the boards itself also is a clear indicator of the political/ ideological alignments of the collective that the boards represent. These identity signifiers are particularly underlined during a local celebration, which centers around that space. In many places occasions like Gudi Padwaa, Ambedkar Jayanti, and Independence Day are celebrated with great pomp, with the enthusiastic participation of the local community members in the organization of the events.

These hubs thus serve to weave in multiple levels of concerns for the local community members. By reflecting interests and happenings within the local community, it serves to consolidate the local communal fabric. At the same time, articulation of the regional or national identity makes it possible to extend and strengthen this sense of solidarity to include the larger regional or national ‘community’. Identity building and consolidation of the same is a major area of study in the context of these spaces.

As already mentioned, several of the notice board spaces are sponsored by local branches of political parties. Notably, all of the newspaper racks are also financed by various corporators’ ward development funds. The political link is obvious in many places, while it is obscured, though present in several others. Based upon the assumption that these spaces do play a considerable role in strengthening community identities through activities couched in religious or social service sphere, they also become a convenient strategy for political mobilization and political activity in the local areas. In this light, what kind of population are these spaces aimed at, would be another point of inquiry. Who makes use of these spaces, who takes initiative in maintenance and organization of the spaces and celebrations around it, what is the class, gender, and age profile of people who access these spaces; these are some of the questions that the study would seek to explore.

Another significant aspect of the ‘varta phalak’ culture is the spatial distribution of these hubs in the city. One can safely say that the network of the hubs is definitely denser in the older parts (peths) of the city than those which have been recently developed. This is not a coincidence, given the fact that it is largely the older parts of the city which participate in the political identity formation of the city. A crude caste-based division is evident across the older peths as some areas have a predominantly lower caste/ artisan caste populations as opposed to some others, which are inhabited by upper caste populace, notably Brahmins. The question is whether there is a difference in the rhetoric used in the notice-boards here, based upon the differential caste population in the respective peths. A primary level hypothesis is that the rhetoric used in the areas inhabited by lower/ artisan castes is directed more towards strengthening local level community and regional identity, while the rhetoric used in upper caste areas is at a different level, appealing to identity linked to cultural heritage and nationalism.

Given the nature of these spaces, the study would be inadequate without a gender analysis of the same. Analyzing the users as well as the composition of these spaces from a gender point of view would be interesting, especially since these spaces constitute sites for articulation and consolidation of identities as well as political mobilization. I plan to construct a photo-essay comprising of maximum 35 photographs, covering the above issues. The outcome of the study also includes a review paper exploring these issues in detail; it would be based upon the fieldwork done during this study as well as a review of literature in the area of public spaces, visual culture and identity formation.

Work completed till now
I’ve managed to finalize my ‘field areas’ so to say, as well the specific vartaphalak in those locations. I would be including a maximum of 15 such vartaphalaks, spanning the four areas of Sadashiv Peth, Narayan Peth, Guruwar Peth and Ghorpade Peth. The first two areas are almost exclusively Brahmin populated areas, while the latter two display a high proportion of lower caste communities and Muslim population. The vartaphalaks belong to a variety of collectives, including political parties, local yuva mandals or ‘friend circles’ and religious trusts. Majority of them are Hindu collectives, though there are two Muslim collectives from Guruwar and Ghorpade Peth.

The exercise of building rapport with people who are associated with these spaces was a huge learning, to say the least. Let me locate myself as a researcher here: I’m a middle class Maharashtrian Brahmin woman, who has always inhabited the ‘progressive’ ‘modern’ part of the city. Sadashiv Peth and Narayan Peth are the kind of areas with which I’m familiar; but in my growing years, areas like Guruwar and Ghorpade Peth, people there, were definitely the ‘other’: lower middle class, non-Brahmin communities. This study gives me the opportunity to deconstruct my own notions of class and community as I interact with this very group of people to understand what these spaces mean to them. Till now I have gotten an enthusiastic response to my venture, with members of local collectives promising earnest co-operation.

My brief interaction with people who actually write the content on the varaphalak led me to concretize my intention to profile these persons, their backgrounds and their political aspirations. But it’s hardly a homogenous group and developing some kind of an interview guide requires much thinking through and some more interaction, I think.

Brevity was never a skill with me, as is obvious now. But any comments, questions and feedback on the study is most welcome!