Enchanting notes of love By Randeep Wadehra

Love and music are part of a Punjabi’s bloodstream. In the countryside you can hear a rustic warble a soulful ballad, or croon a naughty number while attending to his chores. And in towns one often comes across youngsters humming a Gurdas/Harbhajan Mann or Jazzy B song. How deeply entrenched is the love-music combo in our collective psyche becomes manifest when one listens to music albums flooding the market. Quality compositions, though a treat, are rare however. Some really enchanting albums have been recently released by Saregama (formerly The Gramophone Co.). These take us on a musical journey fragrant with scents of the earth, the fields and the hearths of Punjabi villages even as it vibrates with the throbbing city sounds and lights.

Gulzar Singh is a trained classical singer who has chosen pop music as his profession. After the success of his debut album Rab to Mangiya Karo in 2006, he sang a number for the Hindi flick Hat Trick. Now Saregama has come up with his latest, Rab Diyan Likhiyan. It is a combination of Punjabi folk including bhangra beats, salsa and various disco rhythms. The theme of love with Heer motif predominates although there is a macho number too. Teenagers are going to enjoy this album, particularly the crossover rendition of Heer. One won’t be off the mark if one says that majority of us may not understand music but we do enjoy the noise it makes. And, it is this combination of love for music and ignorance of its rudiments that gives boost to the pop music market. No sir, we may not know that a melody consists of a succession of notes in a specific métier or that harmony is achieved by the simultaneous play of musical notes. Most of us really don’t care for the mechanics of beats and rhythms but invariably break into a spontaneous twirl on hearing a melodic yodel or a dhol’s beats. And, if it is a video-graphed composition and youngsters are around then it does not take long for a Punjabi drawing room to turn into a dance-floor.

After listening to Gulzar’s robust renderings the sedate notes of Ishq Jinha Diyan Haddin Rachia and Dard Kain Darvesh give you the experience of a gentle breeze wafting through your soul. The theme is, you guessed it, love – both spiritual (ruhani) and temporal (haqeequi). Ishq Jinha… transports you to the passionate world of Kaamdev wherein the lovelorn articulate their yearnings even as the star-crossed lovers Sohni-Mahiwal, Mirza Sahiban and Heer Ranjha play out the tragedies through soulful renderings by such great singers of yore like Jagmohan Kaur, Swarn Lata, Fakir Mohammad, Prakash Chand Chaman and others. On the other hand …Darvesh is suffused with the sublimated sentiments of love that give Sufi poetry and music an irresistible charm. Surinder Kaur, Asa Singh Mastana, the Wadali brothers, Hans Raj Hans and other singer-icons give us an elevated experience of love.

PS: - Although Shafaq ke rang (colours of the horizon) is an Urdu album, it is being mentioned here as an example of how, when meaningful lyrics are married to virtuoso singing, a magical spell is cast. Its eight ghazals and two nazms, penned by Indira Verma, dwell upon love, longing and heartbreak. The imagery-rich lyrics and the voices of Rekha Bharadwaj and Sudeep Bannerjee keep you enthralled long after the music system is switched off.

THE TRIBUNE

Corruption, business and good conduct By Randeep Wadehra

Decentralisation, corruption and social capital by Sten Widmalm

Sage. Pages: 229. Price: Rs. 495/-.

Corruption, which is rampant in developing countries like India, poses a serious challenge to all developmental activities. It mars governance, stunts growth and obstructs democratic functioning. According to received wisdom centralization encourages corruption; therefore decentralization can be an effective antidote. Widmalm points out that there is not enough data available to validate or debunk this proposition. In fact there are powerful arguments linking spread of corruption with decentralization processes. In this respect the ongoing Panchayati Raj experiment is of particular interest. Would the grassroots level democratization and decentralization eradicate or encourage corruption? What will be its impact on the quality of governance, including economic growth?

This book seeks to examine the factors that may make a crucial difference to the quality of governance in contexts that are democratic but where the institutional and socio-economic environment is quite challenging. For this purpose Kerala and Madhya Pradesh have been chosen for the purpose of collecting and analyzing empirical data. And it comes up with findings that do not hold corruption as the only constraint on development. Political apathy and lack of strong and enlightened public opinion are among the other daunting factors. If you are a student of developmental economics or involved in aid-related activities you will find this tome invaluable. Our opinion makers and ruling elite too may find it a rewarding read.

When the going gets tough by VG Patel

Tata McGraw-Hill. Pages: xviii+156. Price: not mentioned.

In a market-driven liberalized economy it has become far easier to set up business than it was during the good old days of mixed-economy-marinated-in-socialism. At the same time it has become tough for start-up ventures to survive the competition, which comes both from local rivals as well as global business houses. The commercial-industrial environment too is changing thanks to GATT & WTO. Then there are challenges emanating from the fast and continuously evolving technologies, the highly volatile capital market and increased mobility of other factors of production. The beginning stages of a venture are invariably beset with various perils. This book points out that nearly half of all new businesses fail within first four years of inception. Patel has enumerated seven crises that can derail an enterprise, viz., Starting, Cash, Delegation, Leadership, Financial, Prosperity and Management-succession crises. He has also suggested ways and means of avoiding and/or resolving these crises. If you are a management student or a budding tycoon this tome ought to be on your book-shelf.

Pave your way to good conduct and happiness by BD Dhawan

Pages: xxii+213. Price: Rs. 130/-

This book contains articles on different aspects of virtuous living. Sanskrit texts, along with their English translations, from various scriptures like Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagwad Gita and Valmiki Ramayan have been used to explain the process of attaining happiness through spiritual and ethical living. For example, in the chapter Character of Sita the author has depicted how she, along with Rama and Lakshman, managed to lead a happy life (before her abduction by Ravan) despite dangers and deprivations. Her joy in discovering local flora and fauna is vividly described by Valmiki. Similarly the chapters Mysticism in the Taittiriya Aranyaka and Ethics in Aitareya and Taittiriya Aranyakas are insightful and thought provoking. Despite the title, this book enriches our thought processes without being didactic.

THE TRIBUNE

Shades of Love by Randeep Wadehra

For some, love is a luxury that only the rich can afford. Anyway, the ugliness of poverty precludes any possibility of the blooming of such a delicate sentiment. Love needs to be nurtured with beautiful thoughts and surroundings that only money can buy.

LOVE is perhaps the only creed that is not normative — its followers make and observe their own norms. Love is a feeling that numbs all senses. It is an experience that heightens sensibilities. Love is a chemical reaction that involves pheromones. It is a spiritual function. Love is blind. It opens one’s eyes to an entirely different world. Love is profane — a thoughtless consummation of carnal desires — an all-consuming passion. Love is sublime — it prompts one to sacrifice one’s all without expecting anything in return — it is tranquillity personified. Confused? Not surprising, really. It is a phenomenon involving curious contradictions. It has not been demystified despite the best, or is it the worst, efforts of poets, philosophers, scientists and ordinary folks.

Is love a function of the eye or the mind? One must first see the cherished ‘object’. If it matches the image that one carries in the mind, one is in love! Or at least that is what one believes. Now, if love is merely a function of pheromones, how does one explain one-sided love? And what about platonic love? Moreover, what prompts one to give up all worldly pursuits for one’s beloved? For example, the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated his throne in 1936, proclaimed, "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love." Is that a mere chemical reaction?

While one pines for a glimpse of the beloved, the latter behaves as heartlessly as la belle dame sans merci. Surely chemical reactions are not selective to such a severe extent. Perhaps physical attraction has something to do with the crude sense of aesthetics, where the bodily aspect alone counts. Perhaps the Canadian economist and humorist Stephen Leacock is right in pointing out that men in love with a dimple often make the mistake of marrying the whole girl. American writer Helen Rowland’s remarks highlight a mother’s despair, "It takes a woman twenty years to make a man of her son, and another woman twenty minutes to make a fool of him." And then the ‘fool’ goes ahead and gets married, for is it not said that love ends where marriage begins? Not really, says the Swedish writer Ellen Key because love is moral even without legal marriage, but marriage is immoral without love.

Marital love has spawned its own brand of humour. One can quote from British writer Jennie Jerome Churchill’s His Borrowed Plumes:

"ALMA. I rather suspect her of being in love with him.

MARTIN. Her own husband? Monstrous! What a selfish woman!"

Oscar Wilde has this to say, "The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public." Of course, it is not impossible to write a tome on marital (in)fidelity.

‘Love’ oozes out of classrooms and spills all over the campus lawns. It springs forth in chic discos and gushes through lonely lanes, finding consummation in a car’s backseat. That is when the Lothario quotes Robert Burns, ‘Green grow the rashes O, / Green grow the rashes; O, / The sweetest hours that e’er I spend, / Are spent among the lasses O!’ The comeuppance comes later of course. But love cannot be ugly! Wanton carnality can be. Gratification of one’s senses is a gross subversion of an essentially ethereal experience. I am sure you are familiar with these lines from Merchant of Venice: "But love is blind, and lovers cannot see/ The pretty follies that themselves commit".

For some, love is a luxury that only the rich can afford. Anyway, the ugliness of poverty precludes any possibility of the blooming of such a delicate sentiment. Love needs to be nurtured with beautiful thoughts and surroundings that only money can buy. But John Keats considers love in palaces more grievous than a hermit’s fast. There are others who believe in the universality of this fine emotion. Italian writer and poet Giovanni Boccaccio belongs to this school of thought, "Although love dwells in gorgeous palaces, and sumptuous apartments more willingly than in miserable and desolate cottages, it cannot be denied but that he sometimes causes his power to be felt in the gloomy recesses of forests, among the most bleak and rugged mountains, and in the dreary caves of a desert...."

Is love real? Countless skeptics will trot out convincing arguments against the possible existence of real love. Like the US writer, Dorothy Parker, who comes up with this shard: By the time you swear you’re his/ Shivering and sighing/ And he vows his passion is/ Infinite, undying —/ Lady, make a note of this: / One of you is lying. The French dramatist, Jean Anouilh, however, tries to assure us with "Oh, love is real enough, you will find it someday, but it has one arch-enemy — and that is life." If life is the arch-enemy of love, things could get pretty rough for the lovelorn. His own compatriot Denis Diderot retorts, "It has been said that love robs those who have it of their wit, and gives it to those who have none." But, perhaps Osho has the last word, “… when there is love it is always true love. There is nothing like false love… Love is or it is not; the question of test does not arise… you know it when love happens…”

According to William Shakespeare, love is unalterable, "an ever-fixed mark, that looks on tempests and is never shaken." But some consider love as a passing fad; something to be displayed or indulged in just because it is fashionable to do so. If you consider love as a form of friendship, remember what the French writer Duc de la Rochefoucauld had observed. "If one judges love by its visible effects, it looks more like hatred than like friendship." Kahlil Gibran, however, looks upon love as akin to friendship and asserts that every two souls are absolutely different. In friendship or in love, the two side by side raise hands together to find what one cannot reach alone. Says Osho, “You love a person and soon the body disappears and the spirit becomes visible.”

There are others who take love for granted, while still others echo D.H. Lawrence’s sentiments. "I’m not sure if a mental relation with a woman doesn’t make it impossible to love her. To know the mind of a woman is to end in hating her. Love means the pre-cognitive flow... it is the honest state before the apple." Sometimes one takes one’s partner so much for granted that the relationship reaches a breaking point. Then there are others who belittle love. At least this is the impression given by British dramatist George Colman, the Elder, when he remarks, "Love and a cottage! Eh, Fanny! Ah, give me indifference and a coach and six!" Gibran counters such cynical self-indulgence, "Everyone has experienced that truth: that love, like a running brook, is disregarded, taken for granted; but when the brook freezes over, then people begin to remember how it was when it ran, and they want it to run again." Often it is too late.

But, one might well ask, what sort of love freezes over? And, is love subjected to the law of diminishing returns? According to Osho, “When love comes, it comes at its pinnacle. There is no other state of love, it is always the highest. There are no degrees of love… (it) is never less than the whole. A little love has no meaning. Either there is love or there is not.”

If Tennyson thinks it better to love and lose than not to have loved at all, there are others who prefer to agree with British poet John Donne when he exclaims, "I am two fools, I know,/ For loving, and for saying so/ In whining Poetry."

THE TRIBUNE

China and India: different routes, same destination By Randeep

India and China: comparing the incomparable by Vishnu Saraf

Macmillan India. Pages: xxiii+157. Price: Rs. 385/-.

For the past about two decades India and China, (often described as unidentical twins), have been coming under the scanners of a growing number of analysts. And for good reason too. There has been a remarkable transformation in their respective economic profiles. From being pathetic laggards they have turned into two of the fastest growing economies in the world. What is interesting is that each has adopted a different growth model – top-down by China and bottom-up by India. And, at least for now, both are working. Saraf’s comparative study takes a close look at the achievements, failures, strengths, weaknesses and pitfalls in the growth-routes chosen by two economies.

China scores over India in almost all macro-economic indicators. Its GDP is nearly thrice and per capita income more than twice of India’s. It attracts vastly more foreign direct investments (FDIs) – until 2006 $700 billion were invested in China compared to $68 billion in India. India’s exports are only a fraction of China’s. The Dragon is years ahead in development of hard infrastructure like buildings, highways, ports, power plants etc. In manufacturing capacity and output India is nowhere near China. The latter’s spanking new cities are world class with nary a hint of slums. Contrast this with the overwhelmingly filthy shanty towns in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and elsewhere in India.

For all this there are justifications too. China began experimenting with liberal economic regime in 1978 while India started the process of integration with global economy only in 1991. China, being a totalitarian state, has the advantage of taking quick decisions and implementing them without fear of adverse public reaction or legal intervention. India, on the other hand, has to use slow democratic processes to arrive at decisions and, while implementing them has to contend with various interest groups and lobbies, not to mention a pro-active judiciary and a rather shrill press.

But this tome is not a litany of excuses for India’s relatively modest showing. On the one hand it enumerates India’s strengths – successes in the fields of software and service industries, a comparatively better skilled pool of engineers and workers, a sophisticated and efficient banking system, a vibrant well-entrenched private sector and a well developed ‘soft hardware’ like our judiciary, capital markets, free press, democratic institutions etc. Another long term advantage for India is its younger population and better tertiary education – although its primary education scenario is worrisome.

China’s overdependence on state owned enterprises, over-investment in the manufacturing sector, a profligate and inefficient banking system and the official tendency to fudge facts and figures may cost it dearly in the long term.

Among the common drawbacks for both countries corruption ranks rather high, although China is relatively free of red tape. But, it is the challenge to sustain high growth rates in the foreseeable future that appears to be rather daunting. Pointedly making a distinction between growth and development the author rightly avers that a growing GDP becomes meaningless if the distribution of benefits is skewed. However, India’s healthier micro-economic fundamentals – its institutions, innovative acumen, market efficiency etc – promise rich rewards in the long term.

This extremely readable, well researched and cogently argued dissertation is certainly a valuable addition to one’s bookshelf. However, its scope has been limited to only certain aspects of the comparative study. Saraf has ignored certain significant aspects of the Sino-Indian rivalry (although he eschews this term and prefers China and India to China versus India). With the strengthening of their respective economic sinews both the Asian giants are bound to seek more prominent roles in international affairs. What effect would it have on the global geo-strategic scenario? Already Chinese military is making its presence felt in our backyard. Attempts are also being made to browbeat India. Moreover, since China, in its quest for rapid industrialization and low costs of production, has blatantly ignored environment related issues, how would it be made to fall in line? China’s aggressive acquisition of various sources of energy and raw materials in different parts of the world – ranging from Australia to Africa, Latin America and Central Asia – is bound to have repercussions on the efforts of other developing nations to achieve economic security. A brief analysis of these issues would have placed the phenomenon of resurgent Asian economies in perspective. After all you cannot separate economics from geo-politics.

Say ‘no’ to beauty contests By Randeep Wadehra

RITA FAREIRA was the first Indian woman to be crowned Miss World. Since then we have had quite a few girls wearing the ‘crowns’ of Miss World, Miss Universe and Miss Earth (formerly Asia Pacific), viz., Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Duttta and Diya Mirza. Some consider this as a matter of national pride. Others look upon the ‘crowns’ as tribute to the Indian womanhood. But...

Every time a woman is crowned a "beauty queen” one reaches for the salt cellar — not for a pinch but fistfuls of it. Is this lass, preening in the limelight, really the most beautiful in the world? Yes? Oh come on, what about those who do not bother to enter such contests and may well be more deserving of the title? Moreover, since when has beauty become normative? Aren’t we mistaking glamour for beauty? After all glamour is the facade that either enhances the essence of beauty or, as is generally the case, hides its absence. Glamour dazzles and blinds us to the drawbacks in the person who is being evaluated. Moreover, it provokes and disturbs the onlooker. Beauty, on the other hand, is sublime — it soothes one’s senses and reassures with its serene presence. Unlike glamour that needs repeated affirmation, beauty needs no articulation.

For some women beauty pageants are a means of climbing up the social ladder. The opening up of opportunities for instant worldwide publicity and riches have made these cut-throat competitions enticing. What exactly do the contestants display at such contests? Certainly, physical attributes get prime attention. Otherwise how does one account for such rounds as Miss Photogenic, Miss Beautiful Eyes, Miss Catwalk, Miss 10 etc wherein skimpily clad candidates strike provocative poses for the benefit of the judges?

"But there is the Talent Round too in which the girls show their intellectual prowess," protest the apologists. If yodeling raunchy numbers and shouting profanities — as was done by a couple of contestants some time back — or adlibbing somebody else’s thoughts are instances of intellectual accomplishments then they speak volumes for the calibre of the organisers of such shows. Some even describe the beauty queens as our roving ambassadors. A dubious distinction that. I don’t think these decked-up dolls add anything positive to the country’s image. If one recalls the embarrassment that India’s first Miss World had caused to the nation, the point will become clear. Rita Fareira was fulfilling her contractual obligations by entertaining US troops in Vietnam even when our government was vociferously condemning the inhumane carpet bombing to which the hapless North Vietnamese civilians were being subjected to.

Coming back to the point, what exactly is evaluated at such pageants? Yes, it is charisma — a concept quite different from beauty. Painted faces and skimpily clad bodies paraded in an alluring manner may be deemed glamorous but certainly not beautiful. One feels sickened by the very idea of pretty girls being made mere instruments of commerce by the sponsoring corporate bosses who calculate the chances of multiplying their trillions if a particular face is launched in the ad market. What’s a beauty queen but a glorified salesgirl selling everything from soap-cakes to airlines? But even a salesgirl has to have wit and intelligence backed by honest labour to sell products; and do not forget — she is answerable to customers for the products’ quality too.

True beauty, on the other hand, defies definition. It can be found in the most unglamorous of persons, places and things. It can neither be made nor unmade; and is certainly not at the mercy of the beholder’s eye. It is a state of mind that manifests itself in a myriad ways.

To understand beauty one must have a look at its flip side — ugliness. In the novel, The Bluest Eye, author Toni Morrison creates a family called the Breedloves, and tells us that Pecola, her brother Sammy, father Cholly and mother Pauline had convinced themselves of their unremitting ugliness: "No one could have convinced them that they were not relentlessly ugly ... You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realised it came from conviction, their conviction."

The same can be said of beauty where one’s conviction is vital too. If you feel you are beautiful, you are beautiful. Beauty has the power to transcend all physical drawbacks. To paraphrase Morrison — beauty is not something to behold; it is something one can do. Why should beauty not be taken for granted? Why does it need public adulation to exist?

THE TRUBUNE

Drugs, teenage crime and the society by Randeep Wadehra

The menace of drug addiction cannot be over emphasized. What had started as a fad amongst the well healed is now a staple for the poor, and an indispensable means of killing time amongst teenagers. Teenage crime and the rising domestic violence can be directly linked to drugs. India has become one of the most favored transit routes for drug traffickers. This has resulted in the rather easy availability of hard drugs both in our cities and the countryside.

Sometime back, at Patiala, I came across a youth who is typical of our neo-rich drug addicts. He has plenty of pocket money at his disposal with no compulsion for accounting to anybody regarding its disposal. At an age when kids normally find life wonderful and thrilling he has already become bored with such mundane activities like school going, sports and ‘silly hobbies’. Let us call him Tubby. His father is employed in a multinational company in Saudi Arabia while his mother is a regular at kitty parties.

Tubby was packed off to an expensive school in New Delhi. During the impressionable age an adolescent needs parental guidance the most. Any carelessness on the parents’ part could lead to disastrous consequences. He began drifting into bad company.

He had his first smoke at sixteen, courtesy one of his filthy rich classmates. Tubby joined the kids who smoked marijuana, gambled and generally wasted their time, energy and money. Thanks to his father’s liberal attitude, Tubby could afford all these 'fashionable' dos. It was not long before Tubby was on to the hard drugs like heroin, brown sugar and later on smack.

“That was the turning point when the real problem started.” Recounts Tubby ruefully, “despite the liberal allowance I started falling short of money. That’s when I committed my first theft. We, that is my roommates, and I unbolted the wheels of a parked Mercedes Benz and sold them off in the chor bazaar for a pittance. Since we did not get caught we felt emboldened to try more daring escapades.”

Theft became a child’s play for Tubby and his gang. Soon they attempted a highway robbery on the Delhi-UP border. Their fluent English, ‘sophisticated’ manners and cherubic looks helped them ensnare their victims and escape the police. However, nemesis caught up with them soon enough. Their hostel warden was already suspicious about their nocturnal activities. Their class teachers too started reporting against their increasing indiscipline, bordering on violence.

“In fact it was my room mate who betrayed us. He was a coward, who believed in a bland life.” There was a tinge of contempt in Tubby’s voice, “Fearing that he too might have to face the consequences of our actions he revealed the details of our activities to the warden. One night there was a surprise police raid and we were all nabbed. We had loads of the stuff in our cupboards, there was no way we could bluff our way out of the trouble.”

After a stint in the reformatory his parents brought Tubby home. Now he is a regular at a de-addiction center in Patiala. He does not seem very repentant. I ask, “Tubby, after you get rid of this habit what do you intend to do?” The kid looks at me, gives an elaborate shrug and remarks wryly, “I don’t know. Dad will go back to Saudi Arabia to earn more lucre, ma will return to her kitty parties and I…” he lets the answer hanging in mid air.

This problem is not Tubby’s alone. Our society is in a state of flux. The joint family system, with all its drawbacks did have its plus points. It provided emotional security to the impressionable and vulnerable kids. Today the rat race up the corporate ladder, the get-rich-quick culture and the fast disappearing traditional family structure is extracting a price that may well prove to be our undoing as a society.

An Officer and a Lady By Amar Nath Wadehra

Woman–soldier… is that an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms? No doubt, the idea of women soldiers runs counter to our society’s traditional perception of gender roles. On the other hand, the world is changing rapidly and traditional perceptions are challenged every minute of every day.

Sometime back, when it was decided to induct women into the Indian Armed Forces combat units, there was a big fuss – both in the media and among traditional military men – over its advisability. Several questions were asked. Are men not good enough for the job? There may be a shortage of men for the job in the West or in Israel, but surely India faces no shortage of men to serve in its Armed Forces. Where then is the compulsion to expose the tender gender to the harsh life that a soldier’s profession demands?

These objections missed the point: the issue is not male versus female, but of suitability. Women form 50 per cent of our population. Why not draw the requisite talent from this half too? For that matter, there is a shortage: it is well known that the Army alone needs some eighteen thousand more officers. If women can fill this chink in our armour why should they not be allowed… or indeed, encouraged to come forward?

Time and again women have displayed rare courage and martial prowess under adverse circumstances. Joan of Arc led the armies of France to victory over the English; Rani Laxmi Bai took up the sword in 1857, and her bravery was duly acknowledged even by her foe Hugh Rose. Razia Sultan too had proved that valour was no male monopoly.

Mother Nature has shown no gender bias while distributing qualities of head and heart. Florence Nightingale had proved how compassion and courage can combine to produce unique strength – both moral and physical – and that too in a war situation. That’s right. The ‘Lady with the Lamp’ was right behind the front lines when Britain faced the Turks in the Crimean War.

In the mid 1950s when Flight Lieutenant Dr. Gunwant Kaur Mahal joined as medical officer in the Indian Air Force Station, Jodhpur, she used to attend to both men and their families. There were no problems. Her subordinates obeyed her as they would any other officer. In those days it was not usual for women to take up jobs – that too in the defence forces where supposedly hard drinking, hard-fighting males could daunt the stoutest of hearts. But, the reality was, and still is, that the Indian soldier respected his officers – be they male or female.

Today women are working in administrative, accounting, engineering, medical and nursing branches of the Indian Air Force, and in the Army too. It is a universal truth that if one is good at one’s job and sincere to one’s calling one earns the colleagues’ respect as a matter of course.

By all accounts, women are proving to be better in some respects as confirmed by the pilot-instructors of the IAF Station Yehlanka, near Bangalore. However, the skeptics point out that that while the peacetime atmosphere may suit the female temperament, war is a different game altogether. They quote, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”, implying that the women are nowhere near as tough as men are. It is said that a man is by nature aggressive, able to keep his cool under trying circumstances and therefore adept at executing military strategies. Women are believed to be prone to panic in the face of aggression or sustained hostility. But are these beliefs founded on fact, or are they simply old prejudices, or reflections of traditional patterns of socialization?

Tarabai, wife of Shivaji’s son, Rajaram, masterminded many a military campaign. Ahilyabai Holkar, another Maratha queen, confronted the powerful besieging army of Raghunath Rao. The queen sent a message to Rao saying that if Rao won it would bring no glory to him; and in case she routed his forces, it would be to his eternal shame. Rao took the hint and withdrew. Who can say that woman is unable to stand steadfast in the face of danger? That she is unable to outsmart the foe as well as any man?

Who can forget Kiran Bedi fighting duels with swordsmen armed merely with a lathi in the national capital’s streets? Certainly, women soldiers in the American and Israeli forces exemplify women’s competence in matters military.

Are women tough enough? Well, in the late 1950s there was Flight Lieutenant Dr. Geeta Chanda. Apart from her medical profession she excelled as an expert parachute jumper and the Indian air Force appointed her as an instructor for para-troopers. She would take the boys for the mandatory twenty-kilometre cross-country, and woe to the man who fell or faltered on the way. Not only would he get an earful of the choicest, she was also known to pull them up by the collar. She was especially tough on the officers who lagged behind in the course.

During off-duty hours men consciously avoided crossing her path, yet it was the very same men who later gratefully acknowledged that her ‘recipe’ had stood them in good stead in battle and other emergencies.

In recent years women have been joining the military. We know they are there, that they are being required to perform the same kind of duties expected of their male counterparts. In time they will rise to higher ranks, they will be visible; they will demand their due. Women Air Force pilots have already died in service – although not yet in combat situations. If there are women Defence personnel, then a day will surely come when some of them will make the ultimate sacrifice for their country. I personally believe that women Defence officers will be a credit to India.

There will be problems too…some of them rather comical. Will we live to see the day when the Army Wives’ Association has to change its name to the Army Spouses’ Association? No doubt, a good many of those time-honoured mess protocols will also have to be modified to suit the presence of women officers. In short, the presence of women officers is likely to speed up the evolution of social processes within the military.

As for their ability to do the job. Here too, we must remember that “the job” itself is changing. Modern warfare is highly technological, requiring much more of brains and much less of brawn. When battles were fought with clubs and swords, victory was on the side of the man with the strongest arm. It takes no inordinate strength to pilot a plane; missiles are launched with the push of a button.

Inferior physical strength no longer makes women unfit for the military. If they are able to grasp situations quickly, make the right decision in the shortest possible time, hold out in the face of pressure and carry through until the goal is reached, then they fill the requirements of today’s soldier or airman.

As we prepare for the Navratras, our annual celebration of the victory of Goddess Durga, let us also prepare ourselves mentally to accept a new role for women in the military. Could there be a better tribute to nari shakti?