Month: November 2019

As many as 15 of the world’s most air polluted cities are in India. Together, these cities are home to more than 700 million people who are exposed to the ill effects of bad air. But what is the economic impact of the deteriorating air quality that afflicts India’s cities? The most recent assessment of that relates to 2013. A World Bank study shows that in just that one year, India lost more than 8.5% of its GDP owing to pollution.

More recent studies have shown that if India could manage to cut the level of pollution, its economy could benefit by many billions. An Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) study says if pollution is brought down to levels where it is not a health hazard, the economy could benefit by $300-400 billion a year. India wants to be a five-trillion-dollar economy in the next few years but reaching that target could be slowed down because of many economic factors but also the environmental crisis that the country faces.

The problem is pollution levels spike to alarmingly hazardous levels during the colder months in India when suspended particulate matter tends to remain in the air close to the ground. The outrage, shock, and protests also spike seasonally. But when things get better as the warmer months approach, all the noise winds down and the concerns about pollution get dissipated.

Air pollution in India ought not to be viewed as an environmental problem. It is an economic problem that comes with huge costs—both in terms of health as well as economic efficiencies. China, another huge country with a large population and densely inhabited cities, has had severe pollution problems but it has coped with them far more sensibly. That is because China looks at tackling pollution as a national economic problem and not merely one that is environmental. India must do the same.

Let’s take Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) as an example. Every year, the NCR has notoriously high levels of pollution in the winter months. Air Quality Indices shoot through the roof; respiratory ailments among its population reach nearly epidemic proportions; dense smog leads to vehicular and air traffic snarl-ups; and, consequently, economic losses mount.

Delhi and the NCR region is home to more than 25 million people. Vehicular emissions, and emissions from power plants and other factories contribute to Delhi’s poor air quality. But so does the practice of stubble burning by farmers in the adjoining states of Punjab and Haryana. Farmers prefer to burn the post-harvest stubble of crops as they see it as a cost efficient way of preparing the land for re-planting of crops. The problem is the smoke and emissions from burning blow into the NCR zone, spiking pollution levels.

Many attempts have been made to find alternative solutions for farmers and to educate and make them aware about the hazardous consequence of stubble burning. Unfortunately, none of these has made significant impact in curbing the practice. The reason is that many of the alternative approaches to getting rid of crop stubble are expensive.

But there is hope. Scientists at the National Centre of Organic Farming have reportedly found that “waste decomposing” could be a reasonably priced option for farmers to get rid of the stubble without the pollution hazards that burning leads to. According to media reports, for as little as Rs 20 per acre, stubble can be decomposed without toxic side effects. What is more, the organic decomposer is also believed to enhance the soil fertility of the land on which it is used. It also increases the level of organic carbon in soil and, may even have benefits to fight some pests.

At least one state—Haryana—has been offering subsidies to farmers to encourage them to adopt the waste decomposer and there has been some encouraging response from them to do so. Such innovations need to be introduced in other states, notably Punjab, too. However, there are other problems. Agriculture accounts for the livelihood of nearly three-quarters of India’s population of 1.3 billion. It is also a political sensitive arena. India’s farmers have been facing a crisis in recent years. Farm produce prices do not compensate them enough. Farm holdings are predominantly of small sizes and small and medium farmers have been burdened by debt.

Political parties, particularly in the more agrarian states do not think it is wise to meddle with farm practices that have traditionally been in use for decades if not centuries. Farmers are a huge vote bank for most parties and political motives come in the way of persuading them to adopt new practices that are sometimes perceived by them to be alien. That has to change with the times and as the pollution problem aggravates, there are few alternatives than to usher in practices that are more environment friendly.

Crop stubble burning, however, is just one of many new practices that have to be adopted by India. Vehicular emissions can be controlled by stricter norms on vehicle operation. Delhi has tried the “odd-even system” of allowing cars and other vehicles on its roads. Under that system, on alternate days vehicles with odd and even numbered registration plates are allowed to ply. That met with protests and had to be canned.

The NCR area is also largely free of restrictive zones for manufacturing industries that emit toxic particles. Strict enforcement of zones to ensure that residential areas and industrial areas do not conflate and that factories are pushed outside of the urban areas have to be adopted. Governments have to realise that fight against pollution is an all-round, all-year fight and not one that causes concern only in the winter months when air quality levels become hazardous.

Why talk of a film made 60 years ago that was a super-flop?

Because it would be trite to measure a world classic in terms of the revenue earned.

Kaagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers) was released in August 1959. With all its flaws — and they were many — it remains one of the most admired and discussed in Indian cinema.

In 2002, Sight and Sound, the venerable magazine of the British Film Institute, ranked Kaagaz… 160th among the greatest films ever made. Some others have ranked it higher. In Bollywood, it turns up on all lists as one of the best Hindi films of all time, among the top 10 if not the top five.

It was removed after a week or two after its release in the few theatres it was shown. Impatient viewers, the story goes, pelted the screen with stones in New Delhi’s (now closed down) Regal theatre.

Yet, it is talked about with the same enthusiasm as Mughal-e-Azam, made a year later, the magnificent 16th century love story of Akbar the Great, his rebellious son Salim and the latter’s love Anarkali, a court retainer.

As a student, I repeated seeing ‘Kaagaz…’ within 24 hours, spending meagre pocket money. I remember selling some old books and magazines to pay for a third viewing.

Regarded by many as India’s equivalent of Sunset Boulevard, Kaagaz… became a commercial hit, not when released, not at home, but at its 1984 re-release in Germany, France and Japan.

By that time Guru Dutt, the protagonist and others who had put life into the movie, had passed away. Waheeda Rehman, whom Dutt turns into a star but courts controversy, is the only key player alive. 

Dutt acted, produced, wrote the story and directed it. It is a long flashback about a famous film director, Suresh Sinha. He meets Shanti, played by Waheeda, on a rainy night. By a stroke of creative inspiration, he makes her the heroine in his next film. Shanti becomes a star.

Their proximity causes gossip. Scandalised at school, Suresh’s daughter confronts Shanti. Heartbroken, she abandons her career.

His personal life is a mess since he married above his station. His wife and her aristocratic family of British India’s civil service are contemptuous of his profession.

Suresh turns to alcohol, loses everything. “Self-respect is the only thing I am left with,” he tells Shanti who entreats him to return to film-making. Suresh returns to the grand studio, only to sit on the Director’s chair and die.

I think the film was ahead of its time. Its theme was too radical for the Indian audiences of the 1950s, used to simpler plots and storylines. The underlying tones of the film were complex.

A wife being the villain seemed unacceptable when ‘Kaagaz…’ was widely viewed as autobiographical. Reel life and real life got mixed up in public mind. Dutt’s real-life wife Geeta, a renowned singer and a picture of grace and beauty, received much unsought-for sympathy.

It was a technological landmark, the first to be shot in 70mm CinemaScope. But that was also its undoing. India then had less than 10 theatres with wide screen. With such constraints, commercial failure was foregone. Yet, it was critically acclaimed and won several awards.

In that era of black-and-white posters, it had the two lead actors together, with a rose in red.

Ironically, 51 years after filming Kaagaz… in 2010, the long-forgotten Murthy, at 86, was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. This was after film analyst Gautam Kaul projected him as a freedom fighter who had gone to jail before joining films. Murthy remains the only ‘technical’ man to win a Phalke.  

His black-and-white photography wove Kaifi Azmi’s lyrics into sheer poetry. S D Burman’s music, capturing the pathos, was sublime.

Many I know came out of the theatre crying. Six decades on, the impact on one’s sensitivities is the same. Songs “Bichhde sabhi baari baari” and “Waqt ne diya” are timeless.

In the post-War II era of Indian cinema, when stars called the shots, Guru Dutt, like Raj Kapoor, was an actor-director. Ironically, both Kapoor and Dutt, when they made autobiographicals, failed to woo audiences. Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker and Dutt’s Kaagaz… were super-flops initially. Yet, they remain among the most debated films.

Although Hollywood’s impact was huge, Kaagaz… remains essentially Indian. It was unique in an era when, to the world outside, Indian cinema was more about mythology, of endless songs and dances and about social issues for which the West had neither knowledge, nor patience to comprehend.

His transparent concern about his creativity and his total honesty in narrating his personal traumas make his films unique.

Alas, Dutt’s master-touch was missing in its screenplay. Kaagaz… dragged. Late film historian Firoze Rangoonwalla records: “It was shot very lovingly. But the subject and its treatment made it a dismal failure.”

Dutt was so shattered at the failure of his opus that he lost the appetite for experimentation.

His next film, Chaudahavin Ka Chand, was a love triangle in the north Indian Muslim milieu, though alluring, was ‘safe’.

Distributors who had lost money on ‘Kaagaz…” refused to release the new film unless Dutt made advance payments. This hurt him.

A story goes that when he was haggling with them, a telegram arrived from Los Angeles. A copy of ‘Kaagaz’ had been taken to Hollywood by Dutt’s cinematographer V.K. Murthy, who had earlier worked there and earned credits for, among other films, Karl Foreman’s The Guns of Navarone.

Murthy showed Kaagaz… to a select audience that included the legendary Cecil B. DeMille, maker of The Ten Commandments.

On receiving DeMille’s congratulatory telegram, Dutt, defying his financiers, sold the film to a new set of distributors. It was a super-hit that made Dutt solvent again. But he could not salvage Kaagaz.

Abrar Alvi, who scripted both films, called Dutt “the Hamlet of Indian Cinema, a restless man but genuine and sincere to the core”.

Dutt made outstanding films. But after Kaagaz, he did not take chances with technology and themes and did not take the directorial credit.

He died young, at 39, his many dreams unfulfilled, leaving behind the image of a tormented soul, on and off the screen.

Kaagaz… may not move the average present-day audiences used to fast-paced cinema with loud music. But it would strike a chord among the discerning of all ages, particularly the university-going young. It’s a cult film.

Dutt remains an inspiration for many contemporary filmmakers who combine creativity with commercialism and meet the demands of a busy, impatient and demanding audience exposed to world cinema that flocks to the multiplex theatres.

They do make good films today. But minus Dutt’s passion and sensitivities, whether they can make another ‘Kaagaz…’ is doubtful.

The writer can be reached at mahendraved07@gmail.com

“Before you talk about ease of doing business, please do something about ease of living”, this comment on twitter aptly sums up the plight of Delhi residents who have been exposed to a serious public health crisis in the Capital with the air quality touching dangerously high levels of toxicity in recent days.

The Indian Capital and its surrounding areas are enveloped in a blanket of thick smog every year. But the situation has been getting progressively worse. This year, pollution levels hit a three-year-high, converting the Capital into a veritable gas chamber.

The smog in Delhi starts thickening around Diwali time when the lingering smoke from the firecrackers burst during the festivities, local emissions, and stubble burning in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana contributes to the worsening air quality. It is estimated that as many as 25,000 fires are lit by farmers in a short span of a fortnight in Delhi’s two neighbouring states who are in a rush to destroy the straw on their fields so that they can prepare for the next sowing season. This results in the emission of carbon monoxide and other such deadly and poisonous gases.

This season, the air quality indices hit a three-year high. Exposure to this polluted air left Delhi residents wheezing, choking and sneezing. After a days of battling highly toxic air, there was some respite on November 4 but the damage wrought over the past ten days could not be undone. Doctors estimated that there has been a 25 percent increase in the number of patients suffering from respiratory problems during this period. This forced the government to declare a public health emergency and shut schools so that young children were not exposed to the spiking pollution levels.

On November 4, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government introduced its odd-even scheme for vehicles, hoping that its decision will help improve the Capital’s air quality as vehicular emissions are also a major contributor to the rising pollution levels. However, there is all-round skepticism that this move will have any major impact as two-wheelers, a major source of vehicular pollution, have been exempted from this scheme. Kejriwal’s announcement is, at best, being viewed as a gimmick in the run-up to next February’s Delhi assembly elections.

The Indian media, which is normally fixated on Kashmir and Pakistan, has been forced to take note of this serious health crisis. There has been extensive coverage about the pollution menace but surprisingly, the people have not reacted as strongly as they would be expected to in view of the enormity of the problem. It is true more people are buying investing in air purifiers while many more are seen wearing protective masks but the city, by and large, appears to have accepted the high pollution high levels as an annual feature and a passing phase.

It is primarily because of this lack of urgency or anger displayed by the people that the political class has not dealt with this problem with the seriousness it deserves. The truth is that political parties will not be pushed into taking note of a public health issue like air pollution unless it can win or lose them an election.

Consequently, politicians have been making bizarre statements which only reflects their insensitivity to this pressing issue. While health minister Harshvardhan has suggested that people eat more carrots to fortify themselves against the debilitating effects of poor air quality, an Uttar Pradesh minister has advised Delhi residents to organize yagnas to clear the air.

Politicians have also been busy indulging in a blame game. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal first charged that the Punjab and Haryana governments had not taken sufficient measures to put an end to stubble burning in their states but subsequently shifted the blame to the Modi government, saying it should step in at the earliest to deal with this the problem as it involves several states.

A defensive Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh started off by accusing Kejriwal of spreading lies about Punjab being responsible for the spike in pollution levels in Delhi but, later in a letter to the Centre, admitted that stubble burning in Punjab had led to the smoggy conditions in the Capital. However, he asked the Modi government to come up with a permanent solution to this problem in consultation with the concerned state governments, stating that the Centre had not accepted his government’s proposal to provision for a bonus to farmers for stubble management.

“Is it not your government’s task, Mr. Prime Minister, to search for that permanent solution, in consultation with all the other stakeholders, including Punjab, Delhi and Haryana?” Singh asked.

While Amarinder Singh may have shifted the blame to the Modi government, it is now an accepted fact that the changing sowing and harvesting patterns in Punjab are the root cause of growing pollution levels in Delhi. Farmers have gone in for large-scale cultivation of paddy which consumes huge amounts of water, resulting in the depletion of the state’s underground water levels.

In an attempt to arrest this the alarming decline in its water table, the Punjab government passed a law in 2009 banning the sowing and transplanting of paddy from May-June to later so that the irrigation needs of the farmers are met by the monsoon rains. This means that farmers now burn the paddy stubble in late October and early November when wind speeds in Delhi are slow and the noxious gases get trapped in the atmosphere.

This is not a new revelation and has been known to the Centre and the state governments but neither has initiated any steps to deal with this issue seriously as no political party wants to be on the wrong sides of the farming community. It was after a lot of prodding that the Cabinet secretary Rajeev Gauba conferred with officials from the Punjab and Haryana governments last week but these deliberations ended by merely asking the states to monitor the situation. Meanwhile, it was left to the Supreme Court to intervene in the matter. Describing the Delhi condition worse than an “emergency”, the apex court asked the concerned state governments to put an immediate end to stubble burning and warned that those who violate this direction will be hauled up.