1.
FESTIVALS: Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights: Nariman
House lights up, dispels 26/11 darkness. “It's always been a place of
hospitality," said preschool teacher Menuhah Peters as she took a bite of
the sufganiyah. "But after the attacks six years ago, it's also become a
place where we come to pay our respects and remember that light always
dispels darkness. What better time than Hanukkah for that?"
It was a little after 9pm on
December 16 at Colaba's Nariman House at Mumbai and the room was packed.
Young and old members of the Jewish community, from Mumbai, Israel,
US and Australia,
milled around. Platters of potato latkes (pancakes), sufganiyah
(jelly-filled doughnuts) and the flaky rugelach, bursting with chocolate,
made their way out of the kitchen and waited on the long tables for guests
to dig in. One of the targets in the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai,
the building had been left bullet-ridden and bereft of its directors Rabbi
Gavriel Holtzberg and wife Rivky who died in the siege.
"But today we send the message
that goodness and light cannot be defeated by those committing such acts of
terror," said Elena Winchester, who is visiting from the US on
a volunteering programme. "Nariman House will continue to be a haven for
Jews from across the world." Her sentiments were echoed by the others led by
new rabbi Israel Kozlovsky and his wife Chaya, sang blessings, met old
friends, and made new ones.
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2. BHARAT RATNA
FOR VAJPAYEE, MALAVIYA: Former
Pradhan Mantri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a charismatic personality who crafted
consensual politics that found acceptability across the political spectrum,
has been chosen for the country’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna along
with educationist and freedom fighter Pt Madan Mohan Malviya ( posthumously
), a press communiqué from Rashtrapati Bhavan on 24th December
said. .
Vajpayee, Prime Minister from
1998 to 2004, has been credited with taking bold initiatives, notable being
the attempt to bridge Bharat-Pak differences.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said
the conferment of Bharat Ratna on Malviya and Vajpayee was a “fitting
recognition” of the services of the “illustrious stalwarts” to the nation.
An educationist with a vision,
Malviya’s main achievement was the establishment of the Banaras HinduUniversity.
He was the President of Congress, in 1909 and 1918 and is remembered for his
stellar role in theIndependence movement
and his espousal of Hindu nationalism.
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3.
BHARAT IS HINDU RASHTRA: MOHAN BHAGWAT: Describing
Bharat as a Hindu rashtra and making a strong pitch for Hindu awakening,
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarasanghachalak Mohan Bhagwat on December 20
said, “There is no need to fear. A Hindu will not leave his land. What we
have lost in the past, we will try to bring it back. No one should be afraid
of Hindus rising.”
Speaking at a Hindu Sammelan as
part of Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s golden jubilee celebrations at Kolkatta ,
Bhagwat said Hindus do not convert, so nobody should try to convert Hindus
to other religions. “We are trying to create a strong Hindu society. Those
who strayed, were lured away. They were looted from us. The world knows. Ab
agar mera maal wapas aata hai, to kaunsi badi baat hai? (If now we are
taking back our property, then what’s the big deal?),” Bhagwat told the
20,000-strong crowd.
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4. VANVASI RAKSHA
PARIWAR KUMBHA 2014 was
held in Delhi on December 21 in which 40,000 people including leading
saints, NGO representatives, tribals and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and RSS
karyakartas participated. An exhibition held on the occasion showcased the
unique heritage, ethnic diversity, rich natural resources, socio-cultural
traditions of the tribals. Tribal Artists form West Bengal presented
Mahishasur Mardani while the children of Bhatnagar International School captivated
the audience with the group dance performance.
Ashok Singhal, Patron, VHP talked
of the Vanvasis of Bharat in terms of population statistics. A large part of
the country’s population lives in the forests. Out of the grand 125 crores
population, 18 crores are vanvasis who live in isolated, deep forests and
villages. Swami Satyamitranand, founder Bharat Mata Mandir gave a heart
wrenching talk on the historical importance of the Vanvasis, right from the
Vedic Age.
Addressing the mammoth gathering,
Dr. Mohan Rao Bhagwat emphasised on the ideal of providing protection to the
tribals who are our own kith and kin. Their glorious lineage must not only
be recognised and respected, but also spread throughout the country. Swami
Anubhutanand Giri, Sadhvi Ritambhara, Swami Ramdev, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das,
Dr. Pranav Pandya, Dr. Praveenbhai Togadia, Dr. Bajranglal Gupta, Smt.
Sumitra Mahajan, Dr.Raman Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Amit Shah and Sushma Swaraj
graced the ocasion.
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5. ‘OUR TIME HAS
COME’: Towns and
villages in Punjab along the border with Pakistan — from Bhikhiwind to
Khemkaran to Pahuwind – have been waking up every morning to the sights and
sounds of RSS shakhas in parks and grounds. College student Sunil Kumar,
shakha in-charge at Bhikhiwind, ensures that 40 boys gather every morning at
a school ground. “School and college students, mostly from the weaker
sections, come here. Others have begun taking interest after we organised a
big function on Dussehra,” he said.
Brigadier (retired) J K Gagneja,
RSS sahprant sanghachalak, said there are 795 shakhas across Punjab,
up from 200 a few years ago, and the focus now is on the border areas. The
youth, he said, comprise 60 per cent of their workforce and are spearheading
most activities. Ekal Foundation runs 1,050 single-teacher schools in the
border districts. Brig Gagneja believes that as a result of these efforts,
the RSS has managed to establish a presence in 50 per cent of the border
districts and 25 per cent in other districts.
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6.
CHANGE IN POWER HAS INCREASED EXPECTATIONS FROM BHARAT: BHAGWAT: "This
is the right time for the country. The expectations of the world from the
country are growing. We feel that the country has now started working
towards making everyone capable of fulfilling these expectations," Bhagwat
told a gathering in Panaji at the inauguration of 40th convention of social
service organisation Giants International on December 19.This change in the
country is happening "because there is a change in power," he said during
his 50-minute speech."The ultimate change is possible only when people see
examples and imitate them. People believe in what they see," he said.
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7.
IDEAS GALORE: India Ideas
Conclave was held in Goa from
19 to 21 of December the first-of-its-kind attempt to bring global leaders
and visionaries from diverse fields to join hands to take forward the agenda
of “Integral Human Development”. The brainchild of India Foundation, a
Delhi-based think tank that undertakes analysis, advocacy and awareness of
key national and international issues, the 3-day conclave saw a range of
eclectic and thought provoking issues deliberated upon threadbare, in order
to arrive at ways and means of putting into practice the ‘pro-people’ agenda
of Integral Human Development as espoused by Deendayal Upadhyay half a
century ago, the contemporary relevance and reverberations of which run
through the fabric of nations - big and small.
The Conclave was inaugurated by
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Sri Sri urged Bharat to reclaim its lead role in areas
of its core competence like spirituality and alternate forms of healing,
among many others. The Inaugural session was followed by a special plenary
session bringing face-to-face Union Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitaraman from
Bharat and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard from the US.
The experience sharing of the two women was interesting and insightful.
There were 6 more plenary sessions and 10 parallel sessions across a span of
2 days and 70 speakers, each a living legend and an expert in his or her own
right, covering topics ranging from economics, culture, religion, gender,
justice, democracy, energy, education and entrepreneurship. The valedictory
session titled ‘Development Mantra for India’
saw Governor of Goa, Smt. Mridula Sinha, and Union Minister for External
Affairs, Ms. Sushma Swaraj and Swami Dayananad Saraswati share the dias.
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8. ISRO BLASTS
BHARAT’S BIGGEST ROCKET INTO SPACE: Bharat
successfully launched its biggest ever rocket on December 18 carrying an
unmanned capsule that could one day send astronauts into space, as the
country ramps up its ambitious space programme. The Bharat-made capsule is
designed to carry up to three astronauts into space. The rocket, designed to
carry heavier communication and other satellites into higher orbit, blasted
off from Sriharikota in a test mission costing nearly $25m (£16m).
“This was a very significant day
in the history of Bharatiya space programme,” Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) chairman KS Radhakrishnan said from mission control as
fellow scientists clapped and cheered. The new rocket, weighing 630 tonnes
and capable of carrying a payload of four tonnes, is a boost for Bharat’s
attempts to grab a greater slice of the $300bn global space market. ISRO
said that the crew capsule project would take at least another seven years
to reach the point where an astronaut could be put into space.
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9. 500
YEAR OLD WATER STRUCTURE IN RAMESHWARAM REDISCOVERED: The
word ‘Theertham’ literally means ‘water’ but in Hindu tradition, it is
usually the physical holy water body associated with a temple or deity.
Rameshwaram has 64 such theerthams. 22 of these are believed to be sacred
and are within the premises of the Sri Ramanathaswamy temple.
Bathing in these theerthams is
considered equivalent to doing some form of penance. But all the theerthams
were not so lucky; the ones outside the temple premises were abandoned over
the years. Most of them were polluted and poorly maintained, with broken
bottles and garbage frequently found at the sites.
Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari,
has been working on renovating the theerthams across Rameswaram. The ‘Green
Rameswaram Pilgrimage’ project was inaugurated as part of the Natural
Resource Development Programme or VK-NARDEP in January on the 150th birth
anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. The project aims to work in the areas of
Archeology, Biodiversity, Natural Resources and Eco-tourism.
A part of the Green Rameswaram
project is the renovation of the abandoned Theerthams in and around
Rameswaram. The aim is to fully restore these water bodies to their working
condition in the hope that rainwater will help replenish them to their lost
glory. Renovation work has begun in all of these theerthams but it is a long
and tedious process involving weeks of clean up, excavation, construction
and painting.
500 year old Dharmar Theertham
rediscovered!
People at Vivekananda Kendra
believe that aged people living in Rameswaram are familiar with various
beliefs and urban legends from stories they might have heard in the early
days. During the search for the Dharmar Theertham, along with the map
provided by temple authorities, they heeded to the advice of aged people
living near Ramar Padham (Bhagwan Rama’s feet), which is the highest
altitude of the island of Rameswaram. They were led to an area of a large
sand dune. These sand dunes have been built by strong winds over the years.
They began excavation on September 1st 2014, when at some point they hit the
walls of the ancient structure. This structure, found after more than 60
years, is believed to be at least 500 years old.
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10. DRDO CHIEF
INVOKES VEDAS TO EXPLAIN INTEL IMPORTANCE: The
country’s scientist and Defence Research Development Organisation chief
Avinash Chander on December 23 invoked mythology to explain the importance
of intelligence network. Chander, the man behind the Agni series missiles,
while addressing the Intelligence Bureau sleuths said “information gathering
and intelligence have been emphasised even in Vedas and Puranas”, and
invoked “Rig Veda and Atharva Veda” to send across his point that
intelligence gathering had to be abreast with technology.NSA Ajit Doval, new
IB chief Dineshwar Sharma and outgoing IB chief Syed Asif Ibrahim were
present.
Delivering the 27th Intelligence
Bureau Centenary Endowment Lecture, Chander, an IIT graduate who is also the
scientific advisor to the Defence Minister, said, “Information gathering and
intelligence have been emphasised even in Vedas and Puranas. We find the
invocations in Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, where it talks how the spies of
Agni came down from the sky with thousands of eyes. The son of Brahaspati,
teacher of gods, Kaccha was sent as a spy to Sukracharya to know the
Sanjeevani mantra as explained in Matsyapurana.”
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11. FIRST HINDU US CONGRESSWOMAN
TULSI GABBARD INTERACTS WITH BENGALOREANS: Tulsi
Gabbard, the first Hindu member of the United States Congress was in
Bengaluru for an interaction with citizens a function jointly organised by
City based intellectual forum ‘Manthana’ and Indic research organisation
‘Mythic Society’. She started her speech with Aloha and Jai Shri Krishna.
The excited Bengaluru crowd joined her in Jai Shri Krishna loudly. She
stressed gracefully on the Hawaiian welcome Aloha and its deep philosophical
meaning quite similar to Hindu Namaste. Tulsi dwelled into the dilemma she
faced in 2004 when she stared at an easy reelection to Hawaii legislature
while 3,000 of her fellow home guard people were going to Iraq.
She made a tough decision to quit her lucrative political position, and to
go serve the war against Islamic terrorism.
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12.
4,000-YEAR-OLD HOUSE AT BAGHPAT OFFERS RARE CLUE TO HARAPPAN HABITATION: The
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), in excavations carried out at Chandyan
village in Baghpat, has found remnants of a house that corresponds to the
late Harappan period. The discovery is important since, according to
archaeologists, this is the first time evidence of habitation pertaining to
that period has been found in the Upper Doab region between Ganga and
Yamuna. The late Harappan phase pertains to the period starting around
1900-1800 BC when the Indus Valley Civilization, popularly known as the
Harappan Culture, began to decline. The civilization, which is known for its
superior urban planning, is believed to have flourished in the period
between 3,300 BC to 1,300 BC in what is today Pakistan,
northwest and parts ofAfghanistan and
Balochistan.
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13. DR. VIVEK
MURTHY IS FIRST PIO SURGEON GENERAL OF USA: Dr.
Vivek Hallegere Murthy (37) is an American physician who is the 19th Surgeon
General of the United
States, a position often called America’s
Doctor. Murthy is co-founder of Doctors for America (formerly
Doctor for Obama) and succeeded Surgeon General Boris D. Lushniak. He is the
first and the yongest Bharatiya American or the person of Indian origin (PIO)
to hold the position. He was confirmed by a 51-43 vote in the US Congress.
In U.S. surgeon
general does not set any government policy but is an advocate for the
people’s health.
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14.
ISRO's RADHAKRISHNAN
IN NATURE JOURNAL'S TOP TEN LIST: Dr.
K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the ISRO is one of the 2014 top ten scientists
chosen by the prestigious journal Nature. This is the first time in the
recent past that the journal has chosen a Bharatiya working in Bharat. He is
listed along with other people like Andrea Accomazzo, the Rosetta flight
operations director, European Space Agency.
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15. BUDDHIST
SCULPTURES, KUSHAN-ERA COINS FOUND AT PAKISTAN SITE: Archaeologists
have discovered Buddhist sculptures and coins dating back to the 2nd to 5th
centuries during ongoing excavation at the site of an ancient Buddhist Stupa
in northwest Pakistan. Director of Archaeology and Museums, Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, Abdul Samad said that sculptures and heads dating from 2nd to
5th centuries have been discovered during excavation, initiated at the
Bhamala Buddhist complex. During excavation, precious coins of Kushan period
were also unearthed around the Stupa. Bhamala archaeological site has ruins
of the Buddhist Stupa dating back to 4th century
C.E. and is declared as a National and World Heritage Site.
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16. BHARATIYA-ORIGIN
VASAN SRINIVASAN INDUCTED IN AUSTRALIA NATIONAL
BODY: Vasan Srinivasan
has been included in the six-member Australian Multicultural Council (AMC).
Srinivasan, currently the Chair of Confederation of Indian Australian
Associations, was former president of Federation of Indian Associations of
Victoria and also the founding member of Federation of Indian Multi-Faith
Organisations of Victoria (FIMO). Expressing his gratitude, Srinivasan said
his new role was an opportunity to represent the Australian Bharatiya
community. The council's role is to offer advice to the government on ways
to sustain and support social cohesion within communities, to ensure all
Australians have the opportunity to participate and contribute to Australian
life.
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17. BHARATIYA-ORIGIN
RESEARCHERS: NEW ‘THINKING’ ROBOTIC SEA TURTLE DEVELOPED: Bharatiya-origin
researchers have developed a next-generation ‘thinking’ robotic sea turtle
capable of performing complicated tasks such as surveillance and energy
harvesting. In the underwater robotic world, turtle robots are among the
most manoeuvrable, researchers said. The National University of Singapore (NUS)
team’s turtle robot can also go about determinedly performing what it is set
out to do, while being able to react to exigencies and obstacles. The team
led by Associate Professor S K Panda is putting the final touches to a
robotic sea turtle which could move about underwater, including diving to
deeper depths vertically, like a real turtle, by just using its front and
hind limb gait movements.
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18. BHARAT
GIFTS BANGLA PREZ AIR RECORDS OF LIBERATION SAGA: Bangladesh President
Abdul Hamid, in the country for a six-day visit, was gifted a piece of
shared history by Bharat. On the request of President Pranab Mukherjee, All
India Radio (AIR) culled out rare speeches given by former PM Indira Gandhi
andBangladesh PM
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during the country's liberation movement. This
includes the public address given by Sheikh Rahman in January 1972,
interviews and speeches on the surrender of the Pakistani forces on December
16, 1971 and other programmes.
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19. KAILAS
MANSAROVAR: A PILGRIM’S ODYSSEY: Chinese
edition of "An Odyssey in Tibet—A
Pilgrimage to Kailas Mansarovar" authored by BJP MP Tarun Vijay and
published by the South Asian Study Centre of Sichuan University was
presented at Rashtrapati Bhawan. The President noted that the book will be
the first in a series called "Understanding India". Dignitries present were
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and RSS
Sah Sarkarwah, Dattatrey Hosbale and Chinese Ambassador, Le Yucheng, and a
delegation from the university.
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20. AMIT
PRIPYAVADAN MEHTA CONFIRMED AS A FEDERAL JUDGE: Bharatiya-American
Amit Priyavadan Mehta has been confirmed by the US Senate as a Federal judge
in the District
of Columbia, becoming the first Asian Pacific American to occupy
this vital position. Nominated by the US President,
Barack Obama in July this year, Mehta has been a partner at Zuckerman
Spaeder since 2010, where he represents clients in civil and criminal
matters before the State and Federal courts.
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21.
15 MUSLIM PRISONERS OF SABARMATI JAIL LEARN SANSKRIT: At
least 15 Muslim prisoners and a few Christian inmates at Sabarmati Central
Jail have voluntarily opted for a short-term course to learn Sanskrit as a
language. Besides top cops D G Vanzara and P P Pandey who are lodged in the
jail, 250 prisoners — including Muslim and Christian inmates — attended a
10-day crash course in Sanskrit organized by Sanskrit Bharati, a city-based
NGO.
"We did not teach shlokas to the
prisoners. Sanskrit was taught as a language to enable all to learn it
without any barrier of religion," said Sukumar Trivedi, coordinator of the
NGO.
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22.
SANSKRITI SANGAM – V: 5th conference
of people of ancient traditions and cultures will be held at Ganapati
Sacchidananda Math, Mysuru – Karnataka during January 31st to
February 5th. People from about 50 traditions across the globe
are expected to participate in the conference. For more info please see
www.iccsglobal.org
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23. SHRI
VISHWA NIKETAN: Pravas: Dr.
Yashwnt Pathak, ICCS reached Bharat for ICCS conference in Feb.Visitors: Dr.
Bheeshma Agnihoti, Balkrishna Shastry – USA, Bhagwan Athwani – Poland, Vipin
Mishra - Germany, Abhijit Bhide and family – Australia
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: “There
is but one God. True is His Name, creative His personality and immortal His
form. He is without fear sans enmity, unborn and self-illumined. By the
Guru's grace He is obtained.” – Guru
Nanak
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MAHABHARAT TAKES INDONESIA
BY STORM
Pallavi Aiyar
On a Saturday afternoon in late
September, gaggles of hijab-clad women, many with young children in tow,
swarmed outside the closed gates of an auditorium in Taman Mini, a popular
recreational park in eastJakarta. A brawny,
black-maned figure wielding a bow and arrow pouted suggestively from a
phalanx of promotional banners that lined the street, with the title Panah
Asmara Arjuna — Arjuna’s Arrow of Love — printed above. Inside, a stage
featuring two giant gilt thrones was being readied. Strobe lights criss-crossed
the auditorium, and an overwrought score thundered from the sound system.
This was the set for the live broadcast of Panah Asmara Arjuna’s second
weekly elimination round.
Advertised as a “maha reality
show”, the Indonesian series follows a familiar trope: 15 young women start
out sharing a house, and compete in daily challenges as they vie for the
attention of a desirable hero. But in this case the hero happens to be
someone who speaks no Indonesian, and had only been in the country for about
a month when the show started: the Indian actor Shaheer Sheikh, who played
Arjuna in the 2013 television series Mahabharat, an extravagant adaptation
of the mythological epic by Star Plus. Every Saturday, the women line up on
a stage, dubbed the “bharata yudha” zone, and Sheikh sends one of them home.
The winner, who will be announced at the end of December, will travel with
Sheikh to India.
The Indonesian channel ANTV bought the rights to Mahabharat from Star Plus,
and started airing a dubbed version of the show this March.
I first came across this Bahasa
Indonesia Mahabharat in June, when I began to tune into ANTV every evening
for its exclusive regional broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup. Mahabharat was
aired just prior to each day’s opening matches. As I waited for well- built
men to take to the football field, I ended up watching well-built men in
faux-gold jewellery fighting with magical weapons instead. ANTV soon
discovered that the ratings for the mythological series were higher than
those for the football. At its peak, the show reached 7.6 per cent ofIndonesia’s
television viewership; the World Cup final reached only 6.2 per cent.
I met with Kelly da Cunha, ANTV’s
general manager of production, in a boxy backstage room a few hours before
filming for the Panah elimination round was to begin. Middle-aged and
portly, da Cunha chuckled compulsively while recounting the numbers. “With
these kinds of ratings, we decided to go further,” he explained. Early this
October, ANTV brought seven Mahabharat cast members over from India to
perform in a live, three-hour stage show in Jakarta.
The programme consisted of interviews and assorted histrionics — such as the
five Pandavas and their arch-enemies, Duryodhana and Karna, gyrating to
music that, though loud, could not drown out the ululations of the
hundreds-strong, largely female audience.
The popularity of a show based
on the Mahabharata in Muslim-majority Indonesia might
seem surprising, but da Cunha explained that Hindu epics are part of the
country’s culture. For centuries, many parts of the Indonesian archipelago
were majority-Hindu. By the 7th century CE, Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms
dominated both Java and Sumatra — Indonesia’s
two most populous islands. Ever since, Hindu cultural norms have infused
indigenous mores, even after large-scale conversion to Islam in the 16th
century. References to the epics are everywhere in Java — the language, the
street signs, the political commentary. In Jakarta,
many buses are painted with lurid advertisements for an energy drink called
Kuku Bima, which promises Bhima-like endurance. An enormous statue of Krishna leading
Arjun into battle dominates the roundabout in front of the Monas, the
country’s main nationalist monument. There is a nationwide charitable
foundation for twins named the Nakula and Sadewa Society. And one of the
country’s bestselling novels, Amba, uses the story of Bhishma and Shikhandi
(a later incarnation of Amba) to talk about Indonesia’s
purges of communists in the mid 1960s. Wayang kulit, a form of shadow-puppet
theatre that features tales from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, can draw
tens of thousands to performances in rural Java.
Indonesians feel a real sense of
ownership over the epics. In the mid-19th century, Ronggowarsito, a poet
from a royal court in central Java, wrote an apocryphal history that traced
the lineage of the Javanese kings back to the Pandavas. Eventually, many
Indonesians came to believe that the Mahabharata was set in Java rather than India.
But India still
has special appeal. Da Cunha said that after ANTV aired the Star Plus
Mahabharat, a rival channel began to broadcast an all-Indonesian version of
the epic, Ksatria Pandawa Lima, whose title translates to “Five Pandava
Knights.” The show flopped. The reason, da Cunha claimed, was that a local
“copy” could not compare to the “Indian original”.
Da Cunha added that stories from
the Hindu epics are not really associated with religion by Indonesian
audiences. Instead, they are understood as morality tales that happen to be
embedded in the local culture. “Even Shaheer is a Muslim,” he pointed out,
“so there is nothing religious here.” I heard much the same thing when, last
year, I met Ki Purbo Asmoro, one of Indonesia’s
most celebrated wayang kulit masters, or dalang. Like most dalang, and most
wayang kulit audiences, Purbo Asmoro is Muslim. “These stories are
allegorical,” he told me. “None of us take them as the literal truth.” He
also said the Hindu epics promote values — for instance, the loyalty,
courage and integrity of characters such as Ghatotkach and Bhima — that are
affirmed by Islam. But those parallels aren’t essential; for many
Indonesians, the Mahabharat is pure entertainment, akin to shows such as the
hit HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones except with greater cultural
resonance.
Backstage on the Panah set, I
also met Mahabharat actors Vin Rana and Lavanya Bharadwaj, who played,
respectively, the twins Nakula and Sahadeva. Following the Jakarta stage
show in October, in which they both took part, ANTV took the cast to Bali,
the only island in Indonesia that
remains predominantly Hindu today. They were met in person, the actors told
me, by the Raja of Ubud, a Balinese town. Bharadwaj, a youngster from Meerut,
recalled a Balinese fan ferreting away in her handbag, as though it were a
treasure, an apple that he had half eaten. Rana, formerly a heavy-machinery
parts importer from Pitampura in Delhi,
spoke of a woman fainting when she saw him in the flesh. “They respect us so
much over here,” Rana said solemnly. “Respect or desire?” I asked. He
giggled nervously. Acquiring sex-symbol status by playing demigods has put
the television Pandavas on awkward terrain.
A picture of the reality show
where Arjuna selects the winner from 14 beautiful women Meanwhile, “Arjuna”
was gearing up for the stage. Sheikh listened intently, through an
interpreter, to a headscarved young woman running him through the evening.
Dressed casually, in sports clothes stretched tight across his muscular
torso, he swatted with impressive accuracy at mosquitos buzzing around the
room. With his shoulder-length hair and well-defined six-pack, it was easy
to see why the Jammu-born actor is the most popular member of the Mahabharat
cast in Indonesia.
Sheikh boasts 262,000 Twitter followers, the vast majority of whom, he said,
are Indonesian. On the first day the dubbed Mahabharat was broadcast in the
Twitter-mad country, he said, his following jumped by 30,000.
Sheikh explained that when he was
first approached to play the role of Arjuna, he had been reluctant, in part
because his Hindi was poor. Once he accepted, he spent months in
preparation, taking lessons in Hindi diction, learning to ride horses and
handle weapons. He feels the role has changed him. Studying the Bhagwad Gita,
he said, has been crucial in helping him make difficult choices. But it was
unlikely to help with the toughest choice he faced that evening: which young
woman to eliminate from the show.
In the broadcast, Sheikh was
confronted by 14 contestants, or dewis, resplendent in anarkali-style kurtas.
Over almost two and a half hours of high drama occasionally punctuated by
dancing, he whittled the group down to five candidates for elimination. The
girl he eventually sent away managed a wan smile when Sheikh pressed a
locket he was wearing upon her as a keepsake. The episode concluded with
“Arjuna” and the dewis dancing to the Bollywood hit “London thumakda”.
ANTV hopes to cash in even
further on the Mahabharat craze. It intends to broadcast another live stage
show from Jakarta this
month, with an expanded cast including the Mahabharat characters of Bhishma,
Draupadi, Shakuni and Kunti in addition to the five Pandavas. In a bit of
cross-epic fertilisation, the channel also plans to invite the actors who
played Rama, Sita and Hanuman in Zee TV’s 2012 Ramayana (which ANTV dubbed
and aired earlier this year as well). Da Cuhna told me he believes the “soft
power” of Indian pop culture has great potential in Indonesia.
A year ago the craze was for Korean pop and culture, he said, but “at ANTV
we want to replace that with Indian pop”. The channel plans to market Indian
fashion accessories, clothes and music in addition to airing imported
television serials. Da Cunha, who has made a career of spotting cultural
trends, was bullish: “India is
going to be the new Korea of
culture.”(Business Standard, December 20, 2014)
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