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Scroll.in
09-08-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
The Indian raja who gave away his powers to the praja
On August 11, 1940, Mahatma Gandhi wrote a short article in his weekly magazine Harijan, beginning it with high praise: 'Who does not know little Aundh? Little it is in size and income, but it has made itself great and famous by its Chief having bestowed, unasked, the boon of full self-government on his people.' Gandhi was referring to a remarkable decision by the Raja of the princely state of Aundh. In November 1938, the ruler, Bhawanrao Shrinivasrao Pant Pratinidhi – popularly known as Balasaheb Pant Pratinidhi – had granted 'full self-government to his subjects'. To implement this change, a state constitution for Aundh was drafted by Gandhi, Balasaheb's son Appasaheb Pant, and a mystic-engineer of Polish-Jewish origins, Maurice Frydman. It was enacted on January 14, 1939. Despite its size – it was about four pages long – the constitution was a deeply progressive document. It guaranteed people of Aundh freedoms of speech, press, assembly and worship besides promising them non-discrimination and universal and free primary education. Most importantly, it decentralised power. The state constitution established village democracy – a cause dear to Gandhi's heart – with a tiered governance system. It included five-member village panchayats, taluka panchayats, and an assembly made up of panchayat presidents, elected representatives and five nominees of the ruler. Gandhi admired this change, writing in Harijan magazine: 'This small State has always been progressive. The Ruler of Aundh has but anticipated the wants of his people and has even been in advance of them in social matters. The declaration of full responsibility was the natural result of the past acts of the Ruler.' Dramatic accession Balasaheb's accession in 1910 was unexpected. Aundh, a small state formed from the remnants of the Maratha kingdom, had come under British control in 1849 after the Peshwa's defeat. By the early 20th century, it was fragmented, with villages in Satara and Bijapur scattered among British-administered lands. In 1907, Balasaheb's uncle and then-ruler Gopalkrishnarao Parashuram (Nanasaheb) was implicated in a conspiracy to assassinate the British-appointed kharbari (prime minister), Jacob Bapuji. Two associates of the ruler and a prison warden were also accused. To add to the mystery, the investigating officer died of arsenic poisoning. Nanasaheb was forced to abdicate, and, after a two-year interregnum, Balasaheb, then 43, became the Pratinidhi or ruler. Educated at Deccan College, Poona, Balasaheb was among the few Indian princes with a degree. His teacher, the historian and reformer Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, left a lasting impression on him. At one of the first meetings of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Balasaheb donated Rs 1 lakh to produce a popular illustrated Mahabharata. This followed the 1916 publication of the Chitra Ramayana (Illustrated Ramayana), which was widely praised, especially for Balasaheb's colour illustrations in it. The Illustrated London News called it an ' ideal introduction ' to the epic for British readers: 'It has merits of extreme simplicity, and the authentic Indian atmosphere both in the illustrations and the narrative.' Charles Kincaid, a British administrator and an ally of Balasaheb, wrote in the preface: 'The Ramayana now comes to us in a new garb, helping us better to understand the influence of the dim past upon the India we know and love. This is exactly the kind of knowledge which is needed by all who are called upon to minister to the growing wants of her people. There is no true sympathy without understanding.' Radical offer The roots of representative government in Aundh go back to the 1920s. Appasaheb Pant, in his foreword to Indira Rothermund's The Aundh Experiment (1983), recalled how the raiyat sabha, a legislative council formed in 1923 to give advice to the king, was gradually empowered. By 1935, a member of the sabha had been appointed minister for primary education, health and agricultural reforms. In addition, he was made part of a three-member administrative team with the king and divan. In 1927, Balasaheb made a radical offer: he placed both the state and his personal budget under the council's control. The Daily Herald, a Chicago newspaper, reported that such a move, at a time when 'the huge private incomes and personal expenditures of many of the Indian princes' was widely criticised, made a strong public impression. Balasaheb was not just a progressive patron of the arts: he was forward-looking, encouraging local industries in line with his commitment to Swadeshi and self-sufficiency. He supported Laxmanrao Kirloskar in establishing a factory for iron ploughs despite early resistance from superstitious farmers. Kirloskar later helped Shripad Prabhakar Ogale and his brothers set up a glass works factory in Kirloskarwadi. Another friend of Balasaheb, Vajirao Ramrao Guttikar, invented a multi-dish cooker – an early version of the instant pot – to ease domestic work for women, though it never caught on. In 1932, the Chicago Tribune reported that Aundh had launched India's first Gliders Association, with Balasaheb donating the first eight motorless craft. Though a strong Swadeshi proponent, he and his associates celebrated modern innovation. The Kirloskar Khabar, in October 1927, featured a cartoon of 'Miss India' congratulating 'Uncle Sam' after Charles Lindbergh's historic transatlantic flight. Physical fitness In 1938, Balasaheb opened the Shree Bhavani Sangrahalaya, an art museum showcasing Indian and European works. That year also saw the fourth edition of his book on the Surya Namaskar – a ten-step yogic regimen – published by JM Dent in London. The foreword was written by journalist Louise Morgan, who took up the practice after meeting him. Morgan recalled her surprise at meeting Balasaheb. She was expecting a frail 70-year-old, but instead found 'a man with the agile, supple movements of youth, eyes shining like a boy's, strong, brilliantly white teeth, firm muscles, radiant smile, and а mind that worked like summer lightning'. Balasaheb promoted the Surya Namaskar in schools and among citizens, guided by Shripad Damodar Satvalekar, a Gandhian yoga scholar. The regimen was related to Balasaheb's larger vision to raise a physically and mentally self-reliant populace. Just as he wanted the people of Aundh to be physically fit, Balasaheb also wanted them to be aesthetically aware. His Shree Bhavani Sangrahalaya, according to historian Deepti Mulgund, fostered aesthetic awareness through its mix of Indian and Western art, including medieval miniatures, paintings from the Bengal school, as well as Western artefacts and casts. Notably, a Henry Moore sculpture – Mother and Child – was acquired by Appasaheb Pant when the artist was still relatively unknown. During a visit to Britain in 1936, Balasaheb promoted both the Surya Namaskar and the arts. He delivered lectures on art, toured industries that made agricultural and dairy equipment, and screened a film that showed his family and friends demonstrating the Surya Namaskar. A film of his visit survives and can still be seen on YouTube. The Sunday People on July 12, 1936, said about Balasaheb: 'The white-haired Raja of Aundh claims to have discovered the greatest of all secrets: eternal youth.' Some tongue-in-cheek accounts said the Raja left 'nothing undone to make converts to the habit of deep breathing,' practicing even in boats, trains, and cars. Play For nearly a decade, until it joined the Indian Union in 1947, Aundh governed itself according to its constitution. Balasaheb died in 1951, aged 84. His son, Appasaheb Pant – later a distinguished Indian diplomat – reflected on the enduring legacy of Aundh's experiment: 'By his renouncing power and possessions, the raja had 'constitutionally' become 'the first servant of the Aundh people' and keeper of their conscience. The relationship of the individual with authority, the hierarchy of power changed with this declaration; that was the key that unlocked the doors to a successful working of democracy in Aundh's villages. As long as there is fear of, or desire for, favour from authority, democracy cannot work: that is the message of the Aundh experiment.'
The Hindu
19-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?
In January 2024, South Africa initiated proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging that Israel's military campaign in Gaza amounted to genocide. The application was filed just over two months after the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. Although the court has not yet ruled on the merits of the charge, it has issued a series of binding provisional measures, including repeated directives to ensure the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza. These interim orders reflect the court's preliminary assessment that a 'plausible' risk of genocide exists. In the months since, conditions in Gaza have grown increasingly dire. In March, Israel violated a six-week ceasefire and resumed its assault on the besieged enclave. Entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble, families decimated, and access to food, water, and electricity remains critically limited. As the humanitarian crisis worsens, a global consensus is emerging. Heads of state, senior United Nations officials, and leading international jurists are increasingly characterising Israel's conduct in Gaza as genocidal. Defining genocide The term genocide was coined in 1944 by Polish-Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin and formally recognised as a crime under international law by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in 1946. In the aftermath of the horrors of the Holocaust, the UNGA unanimously adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) in 1948. The Convention defines genocide as acts committed with 'the intent to destroy, in whole or in substantial part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group'. It is considered the gravest of international crimes, and its prohibition constitutes a non-derogable peremptory norm (jus cogens) of international law. Because of its status as a jus cogens norm, the duty to prevent and punish genocide gives rise to an erga omnes obligation — one owed to the international community as a whole. This means that all states, regardless of their direct involvement in a conflict, are legally bound to act against genocide wherever it occurs. It is on this basis that South Africa, a party that is technically unrelated to the conflict in Gaza, claims standing to bring the case to the ICJ. Proving that genocide has occurred requires establishing two essential elements: the act itself and the intent behind it. The first element, known as actus reus, refers to one or more of five specific acts committed against a protected group. These include killing members of the group; causing them serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions intended to bring about the group's physical destruction; imposing measures to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children to another group. Equally critical is the mens rea, or mental element, which requires not just a general intent to carry out these acts, but a specific intent (dolus specialis) to destroy the group, in whole or in part. This rare intent is what sets genocide apart from other mass atrocities. While other crimes may involve the indiscriminate or deliberate killing of civilians as individuals, genocide is characterised by the targeting of individuals as members of a group, with the aim of annihilating the group's capacity to survive or reconstitute itself as a political, social, or cultural entity. Mounting evidence Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, told the Human Rights Council last year that there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel had crossed the threshold for committing genocide. In her report, she pointed to the systematic destruction not only of residential areas but also of critical infrastructure, including hospitals, universities, mosques, water systems, agricultural zones, and cultural heritage sites, as evidence of a policy aimed at making Palestinian life in Gaza unsustainable. Her assessment has been echoed by prominent rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. The scale of destruction appears to lend further credence to these claims. In June, a UN Commission of Inquiry found that Israeli air strikes, shelling, burning and controlled demolitions had destroyed more than 90% of schools and university buildings across the Gaza Strip. According to local health authorities, over 58,000 people have been killed, including more than 17,000 children. Gaza now reportedly has the highest per capita number of amputee children in the world. As the starvation crisis deepens, civilians have reportedly been shot while waiting in queues for food and essential supplies. In its submission to the ICJ, South Africa accused Israel of 'weaponising international humanitarian law' to shield its actions from accountability. Since the outset of the genocide proceedings, Israel has maintained that its military campaign targets Hamas and not civilians, who it claims are affected only as collateral damage. Ms. Albanese has described this approach as 'humanitarian camouflage,' arguing that Israel has systematically distorted key humanitarian norms, such as those on human shields, collateral damage, safe zones, evacuations, and medical protection, to blur the distinction between civilians and combatants. This strategy, she argues, not only obscures the real human cost of the conflict but also undermines the core tenets of international humanitarian law. Proving genocidal intent Establishing genocidal intent is notoriously difficult, as states rarely articulate such intent overtly. Accordingly, the ICJ has held that intent may be inferred from circumstantial evidence, such as the scale and nature of atrocities, patterns of conduct, and dehumanising rhetoric by state officials. In its submission to the ICJ, South Africa cited several statements by senior Israeli leaders as indicative of genocidal intent. For instance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the enemy would 'pay a huge price' and pledged to reduce parts of Gaza 'to rubble.' Other officials have referred to Palestinians as 'human animals' and called for their 'total annihilation.' However, the ICJ's evidentiary standard for proving genocidal intent remains stringent and has come under increasing criticism. In Croatia v. Serbia (2015), the court held that such intent could only be inferred from a pattern of conduct if 'this is the only inference that could be reasonably drawn' from the acts in question. This rigid standard effectively precludes a finding of genocide if any alternative motive appears plausible. In 2023, several states, including Canada, the Netherlands, the U.K., Germany, France, and Denmark, raised concerns over this high bar in a joint declaration filed in the genocide case instituted by Gambia against Myanmar. They cautioned that such a restrictive approach risks making genocide 'near-impossible' to prove. Instead, they proposed a 'balanced approach,' urging courts to weigh all available evidence and discard inferences that are clearly unreasonable. In other words, the presence of other conceivable motives should not automatically negate a finding of genocidal intent. This view is consistent with international criminal jurisprudence. Both the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) have recognised that genocidal intent can coexist with other motives. In Prosecutor v. Goran Jelisić (2001),the ICTY held that 'the existence of a personal motive does not preclude the perpetrator from also having the specific intent to commit genocide.' However, even under the ICJ's exacting standard, several experts believe that Israel's conduct fulfils the criteria for genocide. In November last year, Israeli genocide scholar Shmuel Lederman acknowledged that the operational patterns of the Israeli Defence Forces closely mirrored the incendiary rhetoric of senior officials. Similarly, Omer Bartov, a professor at Brown University and former Israeli soldier, recently wrote in The New York Times that both official rhetoric and developments on the ground had led him to the 'inescapable conclusion' that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. The road ahead A final verdict by the ICJ on South Africa's genocide allegations against Israel is likely to take years, as it must follow extensive hearings on jurisdiction and the merits of the case. By the time a judgment is rendered, the devastation in Gaza may already be irreversible, particularly in light of Israel's continued non-compliance with the court's binding provisional measures. As a result, the proceedings are increasingly being seen as a litmus test for the credibility of the so-called 'rules-based international order'. Within the UN framework, a strong case has emerged for suspending Israel from the UNGA, citing its persistent violations of the Charter and binding Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. Article 6 of the Charter permits the expulsion of a member state by the Assembly on the UNSC's recommendation if it consistently breaches the Charter's core principles. In 2024, the UNGA adopted a resolution calling for economic sanctions on Israel, including an arms embargo. Yet, major Western powers, including France, the U.K., Germany, and Canada, have confined their responses to muted diplomatic criticism, particularly following the collapse of the ceasefire in Gaza in March. The U.S., in particular, has continued to shield Israel from accountability by repeatedly vetoing most UNSC resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire. In the absence of decisive multilateral action, one can only hope that President Donald Trump may once again intervene and nudge Mr. Netanyahu to agree to a renewed ceasefire and bring an end to the ongoing bloodshed.
Spectator
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The mystifying cult status of Gertrude Stein
To most people, the salient qualities of Gertrude Stein are unreadability combined with monumental self-belief. This is the woman who once remarked that 'the Jews have produced only three original geniuses – Christ, Spinoza and myself'. Of the reading aloud of her works, Harold Acton complained: 'It was difficult not to fall into a trance.' Even if you are as good a writer as Francesca Wade, it is still difficult to avoid the influence of what she herself calls Stein's 'haze of words'. So the first half of this impressively researched biography is cerebral rather than colourful. Stein's writing career really began when, aged 28 (she was born in 1874), she lived alone in Bloomsbury and began to record in notebooks her thoughts, observations, descriptions of her surroundings and snatches of overheard conversations. In the spring of 1903 she joined her younger brother Leo in Paris, where the pair, supported by a monthly allowance from the family inheritance, lived simply – both always wearing plain brown corduroy suits. Under Leo's influence, they spent much of their allowance on works of art by emerging controversial painters. Their first major buy was a portrait by Henri Matisse that had been much mocked by the regular art crowd. Soon they were introduced to an unknown young Spaniard whom they were told was 'the real thing'. It was Picasso – so poor he had to share a mattress with a friend. As they bought from him, a friendship grew. In 1907 came Stein's seminal meeting with Alice B. (Babette) Toklas, herself of Polish-Jewish extraction.
Telegraph
07-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Pound shops are vanishing from the high street
Poundworld, Poundland, Poundstretcher – where does Britain's pound-shop obsession end? If you opened up a pound-shop empire today what would you call it – Poundtown? Pound Kingdom? Thankfully, it seems unlikely there will be further additions to the utterly saturated discount concept after the owner of Poundland raised the 'for sale' sign over the 825-store chain. How fitting if it lived up to its name right until the bitter end and was sold for a pound. But even that may be wishful thinking. With Pepco, its owner, only just beginning to look at what it calls 'all strategic options', it's early days in terms of what precisely the chain's fate will be, but it is probably fair to say that everything will be downhill from here, and not just for this version of the tired bargain-basement model. After the collapse of Wilko, and two profit warnings at B&M, the discount boom is surely over, meaning a welcome retreat for a phenomenon that is responsible for dragging the UK's broken high street to new lows in many places. It is a trend that started to take shape more than 30 years ago, before exploding during the austerity years that followed the financial crash. Along with the pound stores came the bargain chains – B&M, Home Bargains and The Range – all of them peddling more or less the same cheap wares to hard-up shoppers, just under a different name. It is no coincidence that many resemble little more than glorified jumble sales at times. Poundland was the trailblazer, founded in 1990 by Steven Smith, a former West Midlands market trader. The entrepreneur spotted an opportunity to cash in on the proliferation of pound coins in circulation. Still, a reckoning for an industry that has created countless copycats with very little to differentiate one from the other feels long overdue. In fact, the UK high street might feel like a slightly cheerier place with fewer of these soulless stores jostling for space, providing of course something better can replace them – a big 'if' in ghost town Britain. No doubt such an assessment sounds harsh – short-sighted, even. There is clearly a place for any establishment that sells genuinely affordable goods, especially at a time when inflation has been tearing through the economy, pushing up the cost of literally everything to unthinkable levels. It's probably not an overstatement to say that bargain shopping has been a genuine lifeline for really hard-up families in recent years. But surely there's a limit to how many pound shops and discount dens we are willing to put up with. Variety retail, as it was once known, has always existed in some form of course. Readers of a certain age will no doubt remember Woolworths fondly, while retail historians may recall that Marks & Spencer has its roots in a concept that began as Penny Bazaar in Leeds in the late 1800s. Set up by Michael Marks, a Polish-Jewish migrant, its catchy slogan was 'Don't ask the price, it's a penny'. Marks teamed up with Tom Spencer, a cashier at a local warehouse, and by the turn of the century they had nearly 40 outlets. The credit crunch unleashed a spectacular budget boom. Out went Woolies, and in swept a new generation of discount kings, many setting up in shops vacated by one of the pioneers of affordable shopping. These were the heroes of the post-banking crash recession. Now it's gone too far. Expansion has been utterly relentless. In the same way that the UK high street has become a sea of Turkish barbers, vape shops, and overpriced coffee chains, Britain is drowning in cut-price produce. Some retail parks can house three or four of the nationwide chains within spitting distance of each other. The truth is there is very little, if anything, to distinguish Poundland from Poundstretcher. Ditto Home Bargains and B&M. The experience is pretty much identical, in the same way that only the true nerds would differentiate between an Aldi or a Lidl. This is shopping with all the joy and pizazz sucked out of it and reduced to the absolute basics – goods piled high and sold in vast quantities, and aisle upon aisle stuffed full of drab soft furnishings, plastic tat from the Far East, and for reasons destined to forever remain unknown, a disproportionate selection of bird food. As shopping experiences go, it is about as miserable as it is possible to conceive of short of buying some stolen bacon out of a sports holdall from a scary man in the corner of your local pub. And perhaps that's the point: there are lots of people that don't care for any theatre or about the way in which the shelves are presented – they just want decent products at rock-bottom prices. Yet part of the problem is that you get what you pay for, and while it's hard to get a packet of KitKats or a bottle of Dove shower gel wrong, far too much of what you can find in the aisles of the discounters is of obviously dubious quality that has helped fuel today's throwaway culture. Besides, the industry is the architect of its own demise, brought down by the same basic mistakes that are the undoing of so many businesses. Blaming retail's favourite bogeyman Rachel Reeves certainly won't cut it. Sure, the Treasury's tax raid will 'add further pressure to Poundland's cost base' as Pepco puts it – but the key word in that sentence is 'further'. Viable retailers will be able to weather the financial hit. The industry's reversal has been brought about primarily by greed. The entrepreneurs that led the way are long gone, having made their fortune by selling out to private equity or bigger corporations obsessed with planting flags wherever there's a gap to be filled. The few that are left are plotting their escape too. The window for cashing in may close sooner than they anticipated.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Marian Turski, Auschwitz survivor who warned of danger of indifference, dies at 98
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Marian Turski, a Holocaust survivor who became a journalist and historian in postwar Poland and co-founded Warsaw's landmark Jewish history museum, died on Tuesday. He was 98. The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews announced his death, describing him as a person of exceptional moral and intellectual qualities who always stood on the side 'of minorities, the excluded, the wronged.' 'An authority of global importance, an advocate of Polish-Jewish understanding, a publicist, a historian. A Polish Jew. A person without whom our museum would not exist,' the museum director, Zygmunt Stępiński, wrote in a statement. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Turski survived the Lodz ghetto, where he and his family were forced to live, two death marches and imprisonment at the Nazi German concentration camps Buchenwald and Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was in German-occupied Poland. In all, he lost 39 relatives in the Holocaust. Unlike many Jewish survivors who left postwar Poland, Turski chose to remain. He was on the political left his entire life, and was a member of the communist party. He was among a dwindling number of Holocaust survivors and spoke during observances last month marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. However, it was a stark warning about the dangers of indifference at the anniversary five years earlier that brought him international attention and raised his moral profile among his supporters. Turski said at the time that the Holocaust did not 'fall from the sky' all at once but took hold step by step as society's acceptance of small acts of discrimination eventually led to ghettos and extermination camps. He also called on people to not remain indifferent when minorities are discriminated against, when history is distorted and when 'any authority violates the existing social contract.' Many in Poland interpreted his words as a critique of the right-wing government in power at the time. However, those on the political right criticized him for using the Auschwitz anniversary to comment on the political situation, and some even suggested that Turski lacked the moral authority for such a warning because he belonged to Poland's communist party before 1989. Citing the words of another survivor, Roman Kent, Turski described what should be the Eleventh Commandment of the Bible: 'Though shalt not be indifferent.' Poland's conservative President Andrzej Duda paid tribute to Turski, saying: 'He consistently spoke about the need to cultivate sensitivity to evil. May his memory be honored!' Turski was born on June 26, 1926, as Mosze Turbowicz, and spent his childhood and teenage years in Lodz, where he attended a Hebrew language school. In 1944, his parents and brother were deported to the German Nazi camp Auschwitz, and he arrived there two weeks later in one of the last transports. His father and brother died in the gas chambers, while his mother was sent to work at the Bergen Belsen camp in northern Germany, and Turski was dispatched to work on roads in the Auschwitz-Birkenau area before being sent on two death marches. He was liberated at Terezin close to death from exhaustion and typhus. In September 1945, he returned to Poland, a committed communist who rejected an offer to go to the West and wanted to help build a socialist Poland. He used his last time on the stage at last month's Auschwitz anniversary observance to warn of the dangers of hatred and to recall that the number of those murdered was always far greater than the smaller group of survivors. 'We have always been a tiny minority,' Turski said. 'And now only a handful remain.'
