Novel Corona Virus (nCoV) : Epidemics in a Connected World.

Novel Corona Virus (nCoV) : Epidemics in a Connected World.

This day - 25th January - is special for the Chinese, for it happens to be their Lunar New Year and is also known as Spring Festival, a grandest festival in China, with a 7-day long holiday. The Chinese Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year is the most colorful annual event, celebrated across the country with traditional new year celebrations, which lasts up to two weeks and this year it is scheduled to last until 8th February. The Chinese New Year is internationally known for its iconic red lanterns, loud fireworks, massive banquets and parades, and the festival even triggers exuberant celebrations across the globe and therefore it is no wonder that many international tourists visit China during this celebratory period. 

Most unfortunately, this years Chinese New Year celebration has been muted by the novel Corona Virus, which has struck the city of Wuhan in central China, the spread of this virus has been declared as a health emergency in China by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The past few days, most news headlines across the world, including India, have front paged the news of the novel Corona Virus (nCoV), which has wreaked havoc in the city of Wuhan, China, bringing it to a eerie silence. The fear of the virus and its spread is so severe that the Chinese Government has restricted the movement of nearly 40 million people and an unprecedented and indefinite lockdown has been imposed in 13 cities in central China, aimed at arresting the spread of this virus. The resultant travel lockdown, just ahead China’s Lunar New Year holiday, the busiest travel season, has effected not just China but the whole of the global community, including India. The severity of the fear of the spread of the nCoV has drawn the attention of the World Health Organisation, who has declared it a health emergency in China and just stopping from calling it a global epidemic. Although there was no unanimity among the WHO, while debating on the issue for declaring it as a global outbreak, yet there was one certainty, the seriousness of the issue. The total deaths reported by the Chinese health authorities has already touched 41 with at least 15 new deaths reported in Wuhan, the epicentre of this deadly virus, just yesterday. The virus is now no longer confined just to China. It has spread to other countries as well with a second case confirmed in the United States and three cases confirmed in France. Health officials across the globe are preparing for an outbreak that could last months.

The novel Corona Virus was first identified in Wuhan, China in a market selling live poultry, seafood and wild animals. Now the virus has spread to South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam and the United States. Investigators in other countries, including Mexico and Saudi Arabia, are evaluating possible cases. As soon as the news of nCoV spread broke out, the Indian Government too has initiated measures to contain its spread in our country. Passengers flying into India from affected areas in China and other countries are being examined and as many as 20,844 passengers, from 96 flights, have been screened for nCoV symptoms in India,  as of January 24, as per the statement issued from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Just yesterday, the health ministry said , 4,082 passengers were screened in 19 flights  and a travel advisory has been extended to 12 more airports in addition to the current seven. Fortunately for us, the Health Ministry statement said that no case of novel coronavirus (nCoV) has been detected in the country so far. The health Ministry has also identified different labs across India which can screen for the nCoV and the National Institute of Virology, an ICMR lab, has confirmed that none of the samples screened so far from passengers who have flown into India from affected areas have shown positive and therefore it is sign for some relief as of now. However a news has now confirmed that the first known Indian national, Preeti Maheshwari, who is afflicted with the Corona virus is battling for life in a hospital in China. Maheshwari, a primary art school teacher at the International School of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, who suffered a coronavirus pneumonia attack leading to respiratory failure is now suspected of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and has gone into a septic shock and is undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit at Shekou Hospital in Shenzhen, China. Therefore, in the connected world we now live in, it is absolutely essential that the government and all health workers must remain on high alert to combat the spread of this menace.

Virus, such as the Corona viruses, are highly contagious and spread rapidly. The Corona virus is named so due to the spikes that protrude from their membranes, which resemble the sun’s corona. The current virus China dubbed the novel Corona virus nCoV, can infect both animals and people, and can cause illnesses of the respiratory tract, ranging from the common cold to severe conditions like the SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - which had earlier affected thousands of people around the world and killed nearly a thousand people during its 2003 outbreak. The Chinese researchers earlier had announced that the mysterious illness that had sickened 59 people in the city of Wuhan, with 11 million population, in central China was because of the novel Corona Virus nCoV. These cases were linked to workers at a market that sold live fish, animals and birds. This market was later shut down and disinfected by the Chinese authorities. It is therefore certain that animals are the most likely primary source of the outbreak of nCoV, but unfortunately which animals are responsible for this virus is not certain. Our experience has shown that the past virus outbreaks of similar illnesses, including SARS, also are believed to have emerged from live animal markets. It is also now fairly well known that one form of coronavirus causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, which is transmitted to humans by camels. The current nCoV, the Chinese health officials believe, can also be transmitted from person to person and a growing number of people, including medical staff caring for patients, have become infected in Wuhan, and it has therefore made containment of the spread of this virus more difficult. Scientists researching on the nCoV are still not sure how exactly the virus spreads. However it is certain that the nCoV it can be transmitted from one person to another, which makes it a bigger risk than if it were carried only from animals to humans. The virus most likely gets transmitted through coughing and sneezing, as is the case with influenza and other respiratory viruses, which are highly infectious.

The best selling book “The World is Flat : A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century." by Thomas Friedman, New York Times, columnist, uses a metaphor -World is Flat- to describe the 21st century’s connected world (inspired by Nandan Nilekani), which offers a level playing field for commerce to the global community, destined to economically benefit countries like India. But then this very advantageous level playing field -of a connected world- comes with spread of viruses such as the current nCoV, and its consequences. We must therefore be prepared to face such consequences by reminding ourselves of the 1918 pandemic Spanish Flu, which had killed more than 75 million people across the globe including in India. 

The year 2018, marked the centenary of the 1918 pandemic -the Spanish Flu Outbreak-which rampaged the world and killed 75/to 100 million people an estimated 5 percent of the world’s population. India too has paid a heavy price during this outbreak, resulting in an estimated 17 million deaths, in two waves of this deadly flu that swept India in May and October of that year (1918). A hundred years later, scientists know much more about how to prevent and treat such diseases. But the threat of a global outbreak, like the current nCoV is now far greater than ever. Understanding what happened during this major health crisis is therefore important, particularly in the current connected world and an era of humanity’s growing population and its ever continuing drift to crowded cities across the globe and the resulting cohabitation of limited space with animal kingdom, which aid in spreading of diseases. All it takes now is one plane ride for a few localized cases of a disease to become an epidemic.

In order to create an understanding of the importance of such epidemics and their impact among the public, in the year 2018, the Nehru Science Centre, (NCSM), Ministry of Culture, Government of India, had organised an exhibition “Outbreak  : An Epidemic in a Connected World”, which was developed by the National Museum of Natural History, a Smithsonian Institution, to commemorate the centenary of the Spanish Flu. This exhibition was brought to our centre with support from the Harvard Global Health Institute. 

TB, Malaria, Dengue, Influenza, and such other diseases like AIDS, Ebola, Cholera, Plague, Nipah, Zika etc. terrorise our country and kill thousands every year. If this is not scary the modern lifestyles in a connected world and ever increasing migration from villages and smaller towns to larger metropolitans and to global cities, with ever shrinking space, and inadequate hygiene is sure shot recipe for disaster and the best way to arrest this is creating awareness on infectious diseases and outbreaks. Therefore the Nehru Science Centres in its continuing efforts to create public awareness on these issues organises exhibitions on such topics from time to time and even the current on going exhibition ‘Superbugs : Is it the end of Antibiotics?, about which I have already posted earlier is also aimed at creating public awareness on health issues. 

I do hope that the earlier exhibition’Outbreak, and the current exhibition Superbugs, help in sowing a seed of public awareness with a hope that it will result in changing behaviour on an individual and community level to bring about the much needed difference. This awareness, we hope, will go a long way in lowering the pandemic risk of spread of infectious diseases like the nCoV which the world is now facing. 

VIGYAN SAMAGAM: Pushing the Frontiers of Science

VIGYAN SAMAGAM: Pushing the Frontiers of Science in its final leg at the National Science Centre Delhi.

After its successful showing in our centre the Nehru Science Mumbai, where it all began on 17th May, 2019, Visvesvaraya Museum, Bangalore and Science City, Kolkata, the Vigyan Samagam exhibition, which show cases India’s first-ever, global Mega-Science Projects on one single platform, finally arrived on its last leg in Delhi. This exhibition, a joint collaborative effort of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), was inaugurated on the 21st January, 2020, by Dr Jitendra Singh, Hon’ble Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region; Minister of State, Prime Minister’s Office; Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy (DAE); and Department of Space, in the August presence of several distinguished scientists from India and abroad including Dr R Chidambaram, Secretary DAE and DST and others. 

 “Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to the progress in science”. This statement, by Bertrand Russell, succinctly describes the importance of science for human society. The Vigyan Samagam exhibition that has been opened at the National Science Centre, Delhi, which presents the frontiers of science research in seven mega global science projects, in which India is a partner,  is aimed at creating an awareness about the frontiers of science research and the cutting edge technology that is used in these research projects among the public in general and students in particular. This exhibition presents in layman’s language, what these projects are and how are they likely to shape and benefit human society.

The mysteries of our universe stretches from an extreme unseen universe of subatomic particles - quarks, muons, positrons, Higgs Bosons (god particle, discovered at the LHC, at CERN, Geneva) etc. - to the extreme, beyond the observable, unseen macroscopic universe. The quest for study and understanding of such extreme scales of universe and its nature has become a necessity for scientists in their endeavour to collectively aim at pushing the frontiers of science. For eons we have taken science for granted. Notwithstanding the fact that technologies - the application of science - are inextricably linked to our day today lives, we hardly ever try to hazard a guess to even remotely understand from where do these benefits come from and who sowed the seeds of science for unravelling the secrets of nature at its deepest and farthest, to shape our understanding of nature’s marvels to harvest its technological applications for benefitting human society. A look at the history of science reveals that giant leap towards modern society was shaped by human understanding of the universe and its governance. 

The need for research on pushing the frontiers of science has led to international collaboration in pooling of men and material resources and establishing global partnerships. And the resultant outcome is the Global Mega Science Projects, in which India is also a partner. To show case the significance of such Mega Science Projects, particularly the Indian contributions in these projects, three Government of India institutions; Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Science and Technology and the National Council of Science Museums, have joined hands to present the first ever “VIGYAN SAMAGAM”, an exhibition of seven mega science projects and a plethora of events, panel discussions, debates, programmes etc. involving the best of scientists from India and abroad and other stakeholders in the field, including industry. The exhibition is aimed at creating interest in science among the public particularly among the students.

 From the dim millennium of prehistory science has been central to human progress and civilisations across the globe including majorly ancient civilisations like India have benefited from scientific pursuits. The progress towards harvesting scientific knowledge for modern society was kick started when Galileo aimed his telescope to look beyond our Earth and Newton began to unlock the secrets of the gravitational force that govern our universe at the macro level. Ever since, scientists have continued to strive to provide answers to many of the mysteries of the universe, and with that knowledge the human race has achieved incredible benefits. All of this has underpinned our technological adventure into the 20th Century. Our understanding of the building blocks of matter – atoms – brought about the next technological age - the computer age, undoubtedly the most impactful invention from this science was the Nobel prize winning discovery of the humble transistor in the middle of the 20th century. Transistors shaped the Silicon Valley and without the transistors it perhaps would have been impossible for us to have computers, smartphones or any electronic devices, which we see all around us today. The digital technologies, which are an offshoot of fundamental research at the quantum level have ushered in modern technologies that can assist in further unravelling the mystery of the universe at its deepest and farthest, which the seven mega science projects featured in the Vigyan Samagam exhibitions are set out to achieve and India is privileged to be a major partner in each of these global mega science projects.

From powering the industrial revolution to sparking the digital and information era and unlocking the secrets of the stars, researching and pushing the frontiers of science has underpinned our technological adventure into the 21st Century. Now that we are at the cusp of entering the third decade of this century it is befitting that global partnerships, with India as one of the partner, have been cemented to further push the frontiers of science. The Vigyan Samagam, ongoing exhibition at the National Science Centre, Delhi, showcases seven mega-science projects, which are pushing the frontiers of science and in each of these projects India is collaborating with other international scientific bodies. These projects include, Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), Square Kilometer Array (SKA), Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). In the years and decade/s to come, these projects and the research findings from them are sure to bring about a paradigm shift in our understanding of our universe and in the process this understanding could further benefit human society and help us in achieving the much awaited sustainable and millennium development goals, which have been set by the U.N.

The primary objective of this mega event is to spread a message that all developments in science and fundamental research in basic sciences leads to new knowledge and will hopefully provide scientific capital. The mega science projects create an opportunity from which the practical applications of knowledge can be drawn for the benefit of society, this is all the more relevant today than ever before and history has shown that basic research is the pacemaker of technological progress.’

The Vigyan Samagam exhibition is supplemented by unprecedented number of lectures from the best of scientists, other outreach educational activities, demonstrations and quizzes. For details of the exhibition and the ongoing lectures and events please see;

www.vigyansamagam.in

Jai Vigyan, Jai Hind

Rao Bahadur Mahadev Vishwanath Dhurandhar : The Romantic Realist.

Rao Bahadur Mahadev Vishwanath Dhurandhar : Tribute to the Romantic Realist on his death anniversary.

The year 2017 marked the sesquicentennial year of the birth of one of the legendary painters of Mumbai, Rao Bahadur Mahadev Vishwanath Dhurandhar (1857 - 1944). Dhurandhar was hugely successful in his lifetime and his works covered all known genres of realistic art - portraits, landscapes, episodes from history and mythology, as well as mappings of social life, rendered by way of oil paintings, watercolours, drawings, sketches - most of which were also commercially popular as posters, postcards, book covers and illustrations, as well as oleographs. To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the artist, the NGMA Mumbai, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, of which I was holding the charge as its Director (February 2013 to October 2018), decided to organise a befitting sesquicentennial retrospective exhibition as a tribute to this great artist from Mumbai (Bombay during the times of Dhurandhar) at the NGMA. 

Considering the mammoth task involved in researching and identifying the works of the artist, which could be assembled to feature in the sesquicentennial tribute exhibition, we decided to constitute ‘Dhurandhar sesquicentennial exhibition organising committee’, which consisted of eminent artists and art connoisseurs that included Dr. Pheroza Godrej, Shri Suhas Bahulkar, Shri Adwaita Gadanayak, Mr Rajan Jaykar, Shri Tejas Garge, Prof. Rajeev Mishra, Prof. Vishwanath Dr. Sable, Ms Brinda Miller and Shri Bharat Tripathi. I had the honour to be the member secretary of the committee. Mr Suhas Bahulkar, with whose scholarship, mentoring, erudition, untiring hard work and research this exhibition was made possible, helped team NGMA Mumbai to curate the exhibition with major support coming from DAG.

The exhibition titled ‘Rao Bahadur Mahadev Vishwanath Dhurandhar : The Romantic Realist’, for the first time ever presented an extensive collection of Dhurandhar’s works that were sourced from across the country and from innumerable sources and collectors - both governmental and non governmental sources. Primary lenders of paintings and archival material for the exhibition include Mr Ashish Anand, DAG, who also funded the exhibition, Mr Jagdish Kumar Agarwal of Swaraj Art Archives, Mr Rajan Jaykar, Government of Maharashtra, Sir J J School of Art and the NGMA. The organising committee overwhelmingly supported us not just with their guidance but also helped us to reach most private collectors from whom the works could be collected for the exhibition. Suhas Bahulkar was the prime mover for the exhibition and he beautifully blended the paintings in the exhibition with some of the very rare original archival materials including Dhurandhar’s gold medals, his sketchbooks, book illustrations, photographs and other ephemera. These works were painstakingly identified and collected from various sources primarily from the extraordinary collections of DAG and Swaraj Art Foundation. The Government of Maharashtra, for the very first time opened up their collections in their museums and some of the most spectacular works of Dhurandhar, which are in their collections were shared for the exhibition. Mr Bhushan Gagrani  and Tejas Garge came out of the way to help us in finding ways and means to wade through those difficult governmental procedures to sign the agreement between NGMA Mumbai and Government of Maharashtra for transporting the extraordinary paintings from different museums in Maharashtra to NGMA Mumbai for the exhibition. Dhurandhar was a voracious painter and the copious amount of work that he has left behind and it’s quality makes him the second most popular Indian artist - second only to the one and only Raja Ravi Varma - in the first half of the 19th century. Dhurandhar works include, among others, the Indian mythological and historical subjects. He was an extraordinarily gifted, preeminent commercial artist whose paintings are also seen in the form of oleographs, calendars and posters. Dhurandhar was a master observer and a compulsive sketcher, which helped him to render minute details of his subjects that were used as illustrations in various books, which were published by scholars and stalwarts like C.A. Kincaid, Otto Rothfield, S. M. Edwards, Seth Purshotam Vishram Mawjee, A. K. Priyolkar among others. Dhurandhar was among the first painter who started working for Industry by way of illustrations, advertisement and posters - in Bombay province -  in the early twentieth century. What is more interesting is that his name, as the illustrator in the book, received the same significance as that of the author of the book, exemplifying his stature.

Dhurandhar’s paintings on Mythological and historical subjects, became very popular and were printed in Oleograph technique that became the pride collection of people, temples and public places. His paintings have  ade their way as far as the Buckingham Palace, UK, and across many different palaces in India ; Gwalior, Chota Udaipur, Baroda, Mysore and others. Like the Gods and goddesses oleographs of Raja Ravi Verma, which adorn the worship places in most South Indian homes, Dhurandhar’s  paintings have found a place in most homes and public space particularly in Maharashtra. Dhurandhar’s paintings reveal his mastery in using light and shadow and crowding his paintings with people, each with distinct features and body language. Among the most popular paintings of Dhurandhar are those that chronicle the coronation story of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The highlight of these paintings include depths and realism, which are depicted in painting that shows the procession at the time of Shivaji’s coronation. Shivaji was the leitmotif of the Dhurandhar family. His grand father was the first man to speak English in Kolhapur and worked in the court of King Shivaji Maharaj’s descendent. Other paintings which vividly and realistically describe the events include his painting of a scene from a Hindu wedding, portraits of a woman labourer and that of a Parsi priest among others. He was one of the most prolific painter of his time who handled almost all subjects of painting that included portrait, landscape, figure compositions and murals, which  were considered as important subjects of his period. He contributed in various branches of painting like portraiture, landscapes, posters, book-illustrations, genre, literature on art and a copious amount of black & white sketches and drawings.

Dhurandhar was born in a respected family ( to Vishwanath Krishnaji and Narmadabai) in Phanaswadi, on 18th March, 1867. He was brought up in Kolhapur, where his parents enjoyed an important social status. He studied at Rajaram High School, Kolhapur, and it is here that his interest in art took root. He was fascinated by what he saw around him in Kolhapur, particularly the sculptures at the Mahalakshmi temple, and the paintings done by traditional painters. He was inspired by Abalall Rahiman, his senior at school. Abalall would go on to join Sir J. J. School of Art, and Dhurandhar reminiscences in his autobiography that he would often watch Abalall paint on the banks of Rankala lake, particularly in the summer of 1887 when Abalall was on his summer break from JJ School of Art. During those days Bombay was the o KY place from where you could appear for the matriculation. In the year 1887, MV Dhurandhar travelled all the way from Kolhapur to Pune by bullock cart and from Pune he went to Bombay by train for writing his matriculation exam. Fortuitously it was during this visit to Bombay that he had an opportunity to meet Abalall at the Sir J J School of Art and the rest is history. He was completely inspired by the ambience of the JJ School of Arts. In the very next year 1888, the Bombay Art Society was established by a Britisher at Bombay to promote art, and an annual art exhibition was organised by them which was mostly restricted to the British artists. 

Dhurandhar dreamed of joining the JJ School of Arts. On his return from Bombay he soon learnt that his idol Abalall has got an extraordinary recognition from society. The very next year - 1888, Abalall was awarded a gold medal at the industrial exhibition, sponsored by the British in Poona (now Pune). This acclaim made Abalall a household name in his home-town of Kolhapur. Dhurandhar was motivated to emulate Abalall and he tried to follow him in his foot steps and accordingly Dhurandhar joined the famed art college, the Sir J J School of Art. Dhurandhar studied at the JJ School of Art from 1890-95. It was at the JJ school that he honed his painting skills and learnt a lot of professional skills about paintings from his teachers and fellow artists. The Director of the J J School of Arts was Mr Griffith, who was very quick to notice the talents of Dhurandhar.

Dhurandhar was a great observer and most of his sketches are based on his observations of day today activities of people, including household works of women.  He was such a compulsive sketcher that even the most mundane and rituals of daily chores of men and women did not miss his attention and all this is evidenced in his hundreds of sketches,  which formed part of  the exhibition. During his college days, in the JJ School of Art, he came across an advertisement - February 1892 - that appeared in the Times of India, which carried an announcement regarding the fourth edition of the exhibition of The Bombay Art Society (BAS; established in 1888). Incidentally the NGMA Mumbai had earlier organised an exhibition of the Bombay Art Society, which was curated by Suhas Bahulkar, and this exhibition too was presented at NGMA when I was the Director. In the last decade of the nineteenth century the Bombay Art Society exhibition attracted quite a lot of interest from artists and the 1992 edition of the exhibition was no different. Artists from across the country were invited to send in their entries—paintings and sculptures. Dhurandhar, who was then studying at the Sir J. J. School of Art also learnt of this exhibition and decided to participate in the exhibition. However he noticed that the participation was only for the British. The Bombay Art Society exhibitions were a major social events and they  attracted quite a large number of people including those from the higher echelons of society and many Britishers. The Bombay Art Society exhibition, which was just in its fourth edition, had attracted a lot of attention of British artists and art connoisseurs. Dhurandhar was then a junior student at JJ School of Art and sought permission from the vice principal, E. Greenwood, to submit his works for the exhibition. He submitted two works and both of his works were executed in charcoal but one was a detailed drawing using powder shading while the other was an example of figure composition of two women chatting while working on their daily chores - one chopping potatoes, the other picking gravel out of rice.

Dhurandhar’s works were immediately noticed by Greenwood who was happy to oblige him to frame his works at the JJ School and submit his works as  student entries. The 4th edition of the BAS exhibition was held in February 1892 at the Secretariat. The Governor of Bombay Presidency (as the region was then called) inaugurated the exhibition. The atmosphere at the exhibition was electric. Crowds of people, painters, sculptors, students of JJ School and the general public gathered at the Secretariat to enjoy the experience. Dhurandhar, JJ student, was in the crowd and was quite nervous about how his artworks would fare against those of other artists, most of who were older and more experienced. Dhurandhar’s work was not only selected for the coveted prize but he also received an award of Rs 50, instituted by JN Tata. It was the first time ever that an Indian painter had won this award at the Bombay Art Society exhibition. Just one year later in the year 1893, both his parents died. In order to support his family Dhurandhar had to take up a job at the Alexandra Girls School as a drawing teacher. A year later he was awarded the Lord Mayo Medal for his consistent progress and good records at the JJ School. In the same year he also received the Bombay Art Society’s award for his painting ‘ Music Lesson’, which interested Raja Ravi Verma so much that he brought this painting. One of his drawings of Pots was chosen by the Principal of JJ School for an article that Griffith wrote for the Indian Art Journal in England. In the year 1995 he married his first wife Bapubai. Unfortunately she could not survive for long and dies during the famous Bombay plague in 1897. Since plague was considered as a deadly infectious diseases not many people could come to see his wife. He was so obsessively involved with his paintings that he drew a painting of his dead wife and titled it she is dead. He was then married to his second wife Gangubai. His artist daughter Ambika was born in the year 1912. It was during this period that he also started doing illustrations for Seth Puroshottam’s Suvarnamala magazine, which became a household name for his illustration. 

Dhurandhar after he completed his studies at the JJ School, he worked for the college and was appointed as the head master in 1910. He was associated with the Sir JJ School of Art for more than four decades. During the initial period of his service at the JJ School, Dhurandhar was compelled by his brother to apply for the post of Draftsman with the Railways. This was one post which carried quite a handsome salary and more over during this period it was fairly well established practice and norm that whatever advice senior members of the family made, that was to be followed. Dhurandhar too had to follow the instructions of his brother who had forwarded him the application of Railways and wanted Dhurandhar to apply for post. Fortunately the application reached the table of Mr Griffith, the Director of Sir JJ School of Art, who was expected to forward the application to the Railways. Griffith called Dhurandhar and explained to him that he will not forward his application to Railways and advised him that he must and should make a career at the JJ School and he also informed him that if he continues to work with the same passion and commitment at the College, one day he can occupy the charge of Director Sir JJ School of Art, which he will never be able to head in Railways. Thus Railways loss became a boon for Sir JJ School of Art and Dhurandhar true to the prophetic vision of Mr Griffith went on to become the first non white Director of the institution before his retirement from the college.  Before becoming the Director of the institution he served under various British principals at the Sir JJ School of Art.  Dhurandhar was a loyal servant of the Raj. He painted the King and Queen receiving obeisance from their Indian subjects and also decorated the Imperial Secretariat.  with his murals representing the laws of the land. One can observe that even the gods and goddesses, which he painted, often were western in their features.

Dhurandhar’s paintings mostly consisted of important incidents from Indian history, narratives from mythology, as well as social themes, which he painted with great felicity. His works included street scenes, wedding feasts, court room dramas, royal visits, pilgrimages and so on. He was such a prolific painter that he even painted his wife who had died due to plague. Dhurandhar belonged to the Pathare Prabhu community and chronicled his community in his paintings. He also worked on portraying the life styles of Maharashtrian society to which he belonged, and of the Presidency of which Bombay was a part. He was therefore also referred to as a  painter of the soil. Dhurandhar can be considered as one of the most significant artists of his time, yet the legacy of M. V. Dhurandhar has not been sufficiently explored despite his prolific body of work and his own memoirs published in Marathi. Befittingly the title of Rao Bahadur was given to him in 1927. He embodied — in his career, as in his life — the best that both Britain and India offered. He also ensured that his daughter Ambika Dhurandhar followed his footsteps to be a painter. Incidentally Dhurandhar took her an extensive European tour,  just before the second world commenced, during which Dhurandhar and his daughter Ambika visited almost all the best of museums in Europe and this visit served his daughter very well in helping her improve her painting skills.

Dhurandhar had to take care of his family and therefore work for him was of paramount importance. He was absolutely sure that his works of art must not be confined only to the drawing rooms and display boards in rich society and palaces but that his works should also find a place in the hearts and minds of common people. Breaking boundaries between high and low, Dhurandhar took his art to the masses through his posters, magazine and book illustrations. His postcards are miniature comic gems that take us on a voyage to old Bombay and this can be seen in the excellent dioramas that are now part of the exhibition at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum. Although he was hugely successful in the early 20th century, M.V. Dhurandhar most unfortunately was a forgotten figure, which may perhaps be because of his position as a member of the colonial establishment and because his style of paintings fell out of favour with the advent of Indian modernism. Dhurandhar, by the time of his death in 1944, became hugely successful and his works covered all known genres of realistic art. Dhurandhar wrote an autobiography titled ‘ Kala Mandiratil Ekachalise Varsha’ which describes his life and works at the Sir JJ School of Art from 1890 to 1931. He also prepared an unique album ‘My Wife an Art’ which consists of 175 sketches drawn by Dhurandhar of his two wives, which he completed at the age of 75. Just before his death he made illustrations for the famous book ‘ The Peoples of Bombay’, a original copy of the book was also displayed in the exhibition. His other major works include the four large murals which he was asked to make and commission at the Imperial Secretariat in Delhi. At the age of 77 years Dhurandhar passed away on the first of June 1944, at his residence in Khar - Amba Sadan.

The sesquicentennial retrospective exhibition at NGMA for the first time ever exhibited some of the best of paintings from the collections of different Museums in Maharashtra namely from Kolhapur, Aundh, Sangli, and also from the collection of Sir J. J. School of Art, the credit for which must go to the Government of Maharashtra for their overwhelming support in helping us in transport of these works from their museums for the exhibition. Most of the other works for the exhibition came primarily from two major sources the DAG and Swaraj Art Archive, among other private galleries.

The exhibition was majorly supported by Mr Ashish Anand of DAG, who also helped us in bringing out an outstanding exhibition catalogue, which documents all the works which were on display at the exhibition in some fair amount of documentation which is sure to help the future generation. 

Some of the high resolution images of the works of Dhurandhar, whose photo documentation has been done in the exhibition catalogue, have been used in this article and the credit for these images go to NGMA Mumbai, and to DAG. 

May the spirit of one of the best painter of all times Dhurandhar continue to spread and may he continue to inspire hundreds of more artist ad scientists from Mumbai.

AUSTRALIA TOURS INDIA : Reminiscing the first 1935-36 tour

AUSTRALIA TOURS INDIA : Reminiscing the first 1935-36 tour.

(Images courtesy : Bradman Foundation)

The touring Australian team, under the captaincy of Aaron Finch, began their 2020 three match ODI series against the hosts, with an emphatic win in the opening ODI, which was played in Mumbai. Indians were given a crushing ten wicket defeat. The Australians chased down a modest Indian score in no time with both the openers David Warner and Aaron Finch scoring magnificent centuries to win the game for Australia. It was a horrendous start for team India.  As always India, Australia cricket matches have always been of great interest for the cricket crazy fans in India and this brief sojourn will be no different. The hype created by the Indian media building upto the opening ODI game in Mumbai indicated that matches are going to be a close contest between the two strong teams with Kohli’s men having an edge. But that was not to be and the visitors proved to be far superior in the opening game in Mumbai. Let us hope that India will bounce back in the next game in Rajkot tomorrow and the decider in Bangalore will be blockbuster match. 

This years three ODI series tour of Australia to India, reminds me of the inaugural cricket tour that Australia undertook to India in 1935-36. This tour has largely been ignored due to its unofficial status and lack of stars that constituted the Australian team. During the course of developing an exhibition “Cricket Connects : India Australia”, which I had the honour to curate and exhibit at the Sydney Cricket Grounds in the October, 2016, I had covered this Australian inaugural tour to India in greater detail with some of None the less the inaugural Australian tour to India was a historic tour. The success of this tour is indebted to the financial patronage £10,000, given by the Maharajah Bhupinder Singh, who lavishly financed the inaugural Australian tour to India.

The Maharaja Bhupinder Singh was motivated by his passion and love for cricket, his political and economic aspirations, and the recognition of the game of Cricket as a symbol of allegiance to the British. He envisaged  that his support for the tour will leave a legacy as the guardian of the game and in the process he will get that much more closer to the colonial rulers. The Maharajah was supported by his able lieutenant, Frank Tarrant. The relationship between Tarrant and the Maharajah was mutually beneficial to each other and contravened the imperial constraints of interracial collaborations. Tarrant promised the Australian players an unforgettable adventure: tigers to shoot, gala events to attend and lavish parties amongst the decadence of the Indian nobility. 

Australian-born cricketer, all-rounder Frank Tarrant (1880–1951) had played a major role in the development of the formative years of Indian colonial cricket, particularly because of an unique collaboration that he had with the Maharaja Bhupinder Singh (1891–1938), the sovereign ruler of the wealthy princely state of Patiala in the state of undivided Punjab. Frank Tarrant had moved to the sub continent and became associated with Indian cricket, eventuated through his friendship with the Indian born British cricketer, Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji (Ranji). Tarrant flourished in this new environment. He was paid handsomely for his services and moved permanently to India in 1914, severing his ties with the Middlesex County Cricket Club.

There was lot of resistance and apprehension to the inaugural Australian tour to India. The Australian board was anxious that the tour could jeopardise the coinciding Test tour to South Africa and the domestic Shefeld Shield competition. The Board therefore insisted that the touring party was not an ofcial Australian XI and the matches played in India could not be called as Test matches. This decision of the board may also have been more to do with the highly lucrative financial reward that went into this tour, with each team member receiving £300 and £3 spending money per week. For these Australian cricketers, in the post-Depression era, this was a signicant amount of money and no doubt a highly attractive offer to participate in the tour.

On October 9, 1935 the Australian cricket team of excited cricketers departed from Port Melbourne on the inaugural tour of India with Frank Tarrant employed as the team manager. Aboard the SS Mongolia, the team captained by veteran Jack Ryder, were captivated by tour manager Frank Tarrant’s glamorous tales of life in colonial India and sanguine stories of the Indian cricket in its infancy. The team was looking forward to seeing the country, which was famously portrayed in the fable stories of Rudyard Kipling’, the poet of the Empire, who lived in India. With the unprecedented restrictions and conditions that were laid on the team by the Australian Cricket Board, it was no wonder that the team that was chosen to tour Indian comprised a mixed bag of players: some veteran greats, well past their prime, and some promising debutants. The age of the players ranged from the grand daddy of the tour, Bert Ironmonger aged 53, to young Ron Morrisbey, who was to celebrate his 21st birthday during the tour to India. The team was described in the Sporting Globe as 'veterans and colts as happy as schoolboys'.

Billed as the Maharajah's team, the Australians played four unofficial test matches in Bombay, Calcutta, Lahore and Chennai besides playing other matches over four months during this historic tour to India. The Maharajah himself, sometimes, played in the Australian team with his cricket attire, which was complemented by the flamboyant earrings that glittered in the sun. The schedule was gruelling. The team had to play 23 games that involved exhaustive commuting by train across the country, sometimes the same ground frequently being covered multiple times. This grueling tour was marred by illness and injury to the team. Arthur Allsopp, Lisle Nagel and Bert Ironmonger acquired enteric fever. Allsopp was lucky to survive and spent three months in Bombay's St George Hospital, where only European patients were admitted. Luckily for Allsopp, the Maharajah picked up the bill for his internment. Charles Macartney and Ron Oxenham incurred debilitating leg injuries. Wendell Bill's jaw was broken by the pacy Mohammad Nissar. Leather returned home having acquired pyorrhoea, inammation of the teeth sockets, resulting in the loss of his teeth. At times the team was so depleted that the call went out for available players and Australian tourists Joe Davis, Frank Warne, Frank Tarrant and his son Bert made up the numbers.

Despite the gruelling schedule, the Australians embraced their role as cricket educators and goodwill ambassadors enthusiastically. The camaraderie of the tour was evident with players of both teams mixing not just on the field but also in the playgrounds and palaces. On the teams return to Perth on the Strathnaver, an article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled Tour a Great Success claimed:

“The Captain Jack Ryder said that the tour had been a great success in every way. The Australians had left a wonderful impression behind them of skill, sportsmanship and good companionship. Cricket in India was booming. It was played everywhere. The smallest crowd at the team's matches was 5000 and at the big centres there were daily attendances of more than 20,000”. 

This section of the exhibition was covered with some of the rarest archival photographs and other materials some of which were shared for the exhibition by the Bradman Foundation to us. 

May the best team win the current three day ODI series between India and Australia 

The Seventieth year of our Republic and our Constitution

We are inching towards the historic seventieth Republic Day of India - 26th January 2020. It was on this very day - 26th January - in 1950, that post ‘our tryst with destiny’, we gave ourselves an extraordinary gift - the  Constitution of India. While wishing all my fellow countrymen and friends a very happy 70th Republic Day in advance, I wish to take this momentous occasion to write about the beauty of our artistically elegant Indian Constitution, the only one of its kind with such an artistic elegance, which has served us very well for all of seven decades and will continue to do so for eons, notwithstanding our vastly diverse and quite complex nature of our country and its citizens. It is therefore no wonder that the Indian constitution not only continues to intrigue and impress people across the world but also inspires national and international constitutional experts. 

The original Constitution is now safely and securely stored within a vault like room in the Library of the Parliament of India in New Delhi. It is housed inside a helium filled case which measures 30x21x9 inches in size. The storage maintains the exacting standards of the climate control, which are used in most museums. The temperature is maintained at 20° C (+/- 2°C) and the relative humidity is maintained at 30%(+/-5%), throughout the year. Inside this climate controlled nitrogen laden case lies our original Indian Constitution which is a 251 pages long manuscript. It weights around 3.75 Kgs. 

The Indian constitution with some 90,000 odd words, is the longest constitution of any sovereign nation in the world. The original constitution of India, which is stored in the library of the Parliament of India is made of 22 parts, 395 articles and eight schedules. The beauty of this original constitution is its aesthetics, which is sure to mesmerize anyone’s eyes. Each of the letters, quotation marks, parentheses and the numbers are all so perfectly hand written with artistic elegance of calligraphy and not one word is misspelled, and not one blotch of ink is seen any where. The perfection of the calligraphy and the italics are so immaculately penned that it is almost impossible to surmise that the constitution has actually been hand written by a man named Prem Behari Narain Raizada(Saxena). Our Constitution  is the longest hand written Constitution of any country in the world. 

It provides a comprehensive framework for guiding and governing our vast country with much greater diversity. Our constitution has been framed keeping in mind our social, cultural,  religious, linguistic and innumerable other diversities, which are integral to India. The opening and last sentences of the preamble of our constitution - “ We, the people... adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution” - signify that the power to govern our nation lies in the hands of we the people of this great country. The objectives specified in the preamble constitutes the basic structure of our Constitution, which cannot be amended and therefore we the people of this country will continue to be central to the governance of India.

The Constitution of the Republic of India was approved by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949 and our Constitution came into effect two months later on 26th January, 1950. Ever since, this day is being celebrated all across the country as the Republic Day. The inaugural Republic day (26th Jan 1950) celebrations began in Delhi with the 34th and last Governor-General of British India, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, reading out a proclamation announcing the birth of the Republic of India. The new President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, was then sworn as the first President of India. Rajendra Prasad began his address to the nation by stating “today for the first time in our long and chequered history, we find the whole of this vast land ..... brought together under the jurisdiction of one constitution and one Union, which takes over the responsibility for the welfare of more than 320 million men and women.”

Although we achieved our independence from Britain on August 15, 1947, yet, for the first two years and few months thereafter, we continued to be largely governed by the colonial Government of India Act of 1935. However, shortly after independence was declared, the Indian constituent assembly - elected by the then provincial assemblies - took upon itself the responsibility of preparation of a constitution for us that would govern our new independent nation. The farmers of our constitution, headed by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, after elaborate research, consultation and discussions - that spanned more than two years - prepared a final draft of the constitution. This was approved by the constituent assembly on 26th November 1949, post a healthy discussion in the assembly. However, January 26 was chosen as the official constitution enactment date primarily because it was on this very day - January, 26, 1930 - that the Indian National Congress, who were spearheading the freedom movement for India,  had announced Purna Swaraj (complete self-rule) and Declaration of Independence. 

Subsequent to the adoption of our  constitution, we officially came to be  known as the Republic of India, a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic that secures all its citizens; justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity, according to its preamble. The original text of our constitution was made up of 395 articles in 22 parts and eight schedules. The Indian constitution is not cast in die and continues to evolve and has been amended more than 100 times including some of the recent amendments.  Our constitution is the mother of all other laws of the country and it is one reverence on which the four arms of our democracy -  legislature, judiciary, executive and the media - swear. Every single law enacted by the Government has to be in conformity with our constitution. 

The beauty of our constitution lies in the fact that the policy makers and the framers of Indian constitution took cognizance of the multivalent diversity of India and deliberated on a framework that would provide for a unified but culturally diverse nation-state. It is with this objective that the Indian constitution was framed and adopted.  Our Constitution, though influenced by Euro-American constitutions, is absolutely Indian in its spirit and  is embodied in the form of fundamental rights, directive principles of state policy and fundamental duties.

"We, the People of India” - the very phrase with which our constitution begins, signifies the very idea of India - unity in diversity. India is a land of diversities in every sense of the term. The phrase कोस-कोस पर बदले पानी, चार कोस पर वाणी…, symbolises the diversity of India in terms of language. Hundreds of languages are spoken across India, which have different dialects. India is also a country of divergent races, where one race is altogether different from the other in its language, culture, food habits etc. In terms of culture, heterogeneity reaches its climax. Indian state has different cultures within the same area and among the people of different castes, religious groups and tribal affiliations. Religion-wise, Indian state remains heterogeneous in the context of presence of different dominant religious groups within the country.  Diversity within a religion reaches its climax among Hindus to the extent that so many scholars, including our Supreme Court, have said that - Hinduism is not a religion, but a common-wealth of the faiths that originated from the sub-continent. Keeping in view this diversity, the founding fathers of the Indian constitution made unity in diversity the bed- rock of its foundation. 

Our constitution is not framed for any single community of persons but for all the citizens inhabiting this vast country, irrespective of caste, creed, race or religion, implying the notion of multiple identities belonging to different cultural markers. This feeling of oneness is further exemplified with the insertion of the words 'Fraternity',  'unity and integrity' involving a spirit of brotherhood and harmony amongst all the people. Our constitution makes it evident that the framers made a very judicious choice of words of brotherhood, particularly because during the period of framing of the Constitution, India was passing through a critical juncture of partition. The country had just been partitioned on the grounds of religion and the framers of the constitution had to be very cautious not to hurt the sentiments of any of the different religious communities. Since independence, the framers of our constitution knew it very well that unless and until the diverse entities are given proper constitutional recognition, India will not be able to preserve its hard-earned unity. Our constitution is central to the unprecedented success and glory of India. It has helped our ruling class to keep two things going at the same time- infinite variety and unity in that variety.

The Constitution of India stands out as a fascinating piece of art, which is written in both Hindi and English languages. It took almost 3 years to create this extraordinary piece of art. The calligraphy of this handwritten and handmade constitution book is credited to Prem Behari Narain Raizada, and the book is richly illustrated in miniature style drawings and paintings by one of the best artists of the time, Nandalal Bose and his students. It is signed by the framers of the constitution, most of whom are regarded as the founders of the Republic of India. The original copy of the Indian Constitution is preserved safely in a special helium filled case in the Parliament Museum, which incidentally was developed by Dr Saroj Ghose, the first Director General of NCSM - our council.

The founding fathers of our nation wished that the Constitution of India, should not just be a governing document, but it should also represent the rich heritage of India. Their vision became a reality and our constitution is the only Constitution in the world, which is handwritten and richly illustrated with drawings and motifs that have been inspired by the murals of the famous Ajanta caves & the miniature paintings. It is this artistic elegance and handwritten calligraphy that makes the Indian constitution stand out in comparison with others.  When the Indian Constitution was being drafted, the members of Constituent Assembly thought it would be appropriate, if the document could somehow represent India’s historic journey and heritage. The Congress entrusted one of the leading artists of the country -  Nandlal Bose - with the task of illustrating the pages of our constitution. Bose selected a team of artists from Shanti Niketan, who made 22 images for the manuscript of the Indian Constitution.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, is very well known as its architect, but unfortunately very little is known about the man who literally penned the Constitution nor the artists who richly illustrated this document. When the draft of the Constitution of India was ready to be printed, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted it to be handwritten in a flowing italic style. He therefore approached the renowned calligrapher Prem Behari Raizada with the proposal of handwriting the entire Constitution in calligraphy.

Prem Behari, born in 1901, came from a family of traditional calligraphists and his grandfather, Ram Parshad Saxena, was a scholar in Persian and also a highly accomplished calligrapher. He taught Prem Behari calligraphy, which is an art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering with a pen or brush. When Pandit Nehru requested Raizada, to write the constitution, he accepted the honour but refused to accept any remuneration for his hard and patient work. In return for his labour of love, Behari Ji requested Pandit ji that he be allowed to write his name on every page of the Constitution and on the last page, he be permitted to write his name along with that of his grandfather’s name. Pandit ji agreed to his request and entrusted Prem Behari the prestigious yet an onerous task of writing the Indian Constitution in beautiful hand calligraphy. Prem Behari was allotted a room in the Constitution Hall - which later came to be known as Constitution Club - for writing the Indian Constitution. The original manuscript of the Constitution was written on parchment sheets measuring 16X22 inches, which will have a lifespan of a thousand years. The finished manuscript consisted of 251 pages and weighed 3.75 kg. Records reveal that in all, 432 pen holder nibs were used by Prem Behari for this calligraphy-writing of the entire Indian Constitution.

Since the members of the Constituent Assembly had envisaged that it would be appropriate if the Constitution could represent India’s journey and heritage in artistic styles, the Congress, who by then had seen the extraordinary work of art by Nandlal Bose, particularly those posters that he had designed for the congress meetings, entrusted the task of artistically illustrating the pages of the Constitution to depict the journey of India to Nandlal Bose. Nandlal Bose, gladly accepted this task as a nations calling and carefully selected a team of artists (Biswarup, Gouri, Jamuna, Perumal, Kripal Singh and other students of Kala Bhavana) who would help him depict a fragment of India’s vast historical and cultural heritage.  Nandlal Bose and his team created chronological illustrations, which narrate the story of India, using indigenous techniques of applying gold-leaf and stone colours. They designed the borders of every page and adorned them with beautiful art pieces, in the miniature style. The “Preamble” page was done by Beohar Rammanohar Sinha. Nandlal and his team of artists created scenes from our national history. For example the Vedic period is represented by a scene of Gurukula, and the epic period by a visual of Ram, Sita and Lakshman returning home and another of Krishna propounding the Gita to Arjuna on the battlefield. There is a beautiful line drawing of Nataraja, as depicted in the Chola Bronze tradition. Then there are depictions of the lives of the Buddha and Mahavira, followed by scenes from the courts of Ashoka and Vikramaditya. Other great figures of our history who are represented include Emperors Akbar, Shivaji, Guru Gobind Singh. The Freedom Struggle is depicted by a series of heroes starting with Rani Lakshmibai, Tipu Sultan to Gandhi’s Dandi March. It also takes into account his tour of Noakhali as the great peacemaker. Subhash Chandra Bose also finds a place in one of the artwork, which has been dedicated to him in the Constitution. As can be seen in the Constitution, Nandlal Bose not only used narratives from ancient Vedas, Mahabharata and Ramayana but he also depicted the contributions of modern and contemporary freedom fighters that included tales of Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The section on fundamental rights, which often comes during discussion, features a scene from Ramayana. Gandhi ji’s Dandi March is depicted in the section on official language. In part XIX, Subhash Chandra Bose is seen saluting the flag ; a painting of Tipu Sultan is seen in part XVI, King Ashoka the Great is seen propagating Buddhism in part VII, while ocean waves can be seen in part XXII. 

The preamble page of our constitution was created by Beohar Rammanohar Sinha, a Jabalpur native who also studied art in Shantiniketan. Sinha extensively studied the art and aesthetics of Ajanta and Ellora Caves, Sanchi, Sarnath and Mahabalipuram and used traditional motifs such as Padma, Nandi, Airavata,Vyaghra, Ashwa, Hans and Mayur to pictorially convey the very essence of Indian Constitution. 

Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India became the first person to sign the Constitution of India on 24th January 1950 while Feroze Gandhi, who was then the President of the Constituent Assembly, was the last one to sign this constitution. 

The Constitution of India, is like the Gita, Bible or Quran for governance of our country and it  has a rich and artistically elegant  wonderful story to tell of we the people of India. Although it is often stated that our constitution is framed from the borrowings from other countries but what it does not borrow from anyone in the world is it’s rich artistic heritage, which has been captured in this document by artist Nandalal Bose and his fellow artists.

During my tenure as the Director of NGMA, Mumbai I was privileged to see one of the copies of the Indian Constitution, which is also in the collections of Delhi and I also had the honour to see several works of Nandlal Bose which are also in the collections of NGMA Delhi. 

Once again wishing you all a very happy 70th Republic Day in advance and I join all Indians from across the world in praying for our motherland. 

Jai Hind.