Li Wenliang, Corona virus patient is dead. Long live, Li Wenling, the medical doctor and whistle blower of the Corona Virus.

Li Wenliang, Corona virus patient is dead. Long live, Li Wenling, the medical doctor and whistle blower of the Corona Virus.

What a travesty of justice it is that Dr Li Wenliang, who is primarily responsible for raising an alarm against a possible outbreak of a new virus, whose symptoms ‘resembled the deadly SARS virus pandemic of 2003’ in the Wuhan region, succumbed to the very disease, on the 6th of February. His mortal remains may have been buried but his contributions in raising an alarm against the Corona virus will remain eternally etched in the annals of history and the global health community will remain grateful to Dr Li for his exemplary services in combating the Corona virus outbreak.

Li Wenliang, aged 34, the Corona virus whistle blower doctor, was among the first to raise concerns - on December 30 - about the possible spread of a new virus, in the city of Wuhan. An ophthalmologist by profession, Dr Li had posted a social message in a chat group for his fellow Doctors about his experience of attending to a series of patients with flu-like symptoms that resembled SARS at his hospital. He had  urged his group members (mostly doctors) to wear protective clothing, while at work, to protect themselves from a possible virus attack. As luck would have it Dr Li’s message went viral. He thus became the whistleblower in the case of reporting the virus epidemic, which later came to be known as the  novel Corona virus (nCoV), which the world is now talking about. Until then the Chinese authorities had concealed the spread of this virus in Wuhan, from the public and also from the international community.

On 30 December, much before the world came to know of the Corona virus, Dr Li sent a message to his fellow doctors, in their social chat group, warning them to wear protective clothing to avoid SARS like infection, which he suspected had struck the city of Wuhan. Fortunately for the world and unfortunately for Doctor Li, his message became viral and just four days later, Dr Li was summoned by the Chinese authorities - who had hidden the news of patients reporting in various hospitals in Wuhan with flu like symptoms to the Public - and was asked to sign a letter in which he admitted to “making false comments" that had "severely disturbed the social order". He was one of eight people who the Chinese police  accused for "spreading rumours". Fortunately the Supreme Court of China intervened and the Chinese health officials realised the seriousness of the issue and very soon admitted to the presence of nCoV epidemic in the city of Wuhan. The local authorities, later, apologised to Dr Li for accusing him of making false comments, rumour mongering and for disturbing the social order in the city and for the unwanted treatment meted out to him. 

Subsequently, Dr Li while operating a woman with glaucoma, without realising that she too was a coronavirus victim, appears to have been infected by the Corona virus. In his Weibo post, Dr Li  described how on 10 January, 2020, he started exhibiting symptoms like coughing and fever which are indicative of the Corona virus. Dr Li was admitted in hospital on the 13th January and was officially diagnosed with the coronavirus on 30 January and within the next week, that is on 6 February, Dr Li was declared dead by the local hospital authorities in Wuhan. Thus ending a bright future of an young Doctor who was the first to publicly post about the attack of this virus in the city of Wuhan.

Scientists and health authorities around the world are now racing to arrest and halt the spread of the Corona Virus, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan some time in December 2019 and has now become a global epidemic. The virus, known as 2019 novel Corona Virus (nCoV), about which I had written earlier in my blog on the 24th of January, causes serious respiratory illness and has so far infected more than 28000 people in China and has taken away the lives of nearly 600 people including most unfortunately Dr Li Wenling the whistle blower of this virus. In the modern connected world in which hundreds of thousands of passengers travel every day from one city to another and from one country to another, including the epicentre - Wuhan - in thousands of airlines, it is no wonder that the nCoV has spread so rapidly, more so since there appeared to be some delay on the part of the Chinese authorities in reporting it in time. The virus has now spread to other countries making the calamity a global epidemic. WHO and international community have joined hands with China in the endeavour to stop the Corona virus menace as early as possible. As things stand today the virus has spread its tentacles beyond the borders of China to 29 other countries including India where three cases have already been confirmed and some more cases have been screened and few people have been isolated/quarantined for further assessment. 

The nCoV originated in a food market in the Chinese city of Wuhan consequently the city was locked down with travel into and out of the city restricted ever since January 23. The Chinese authorities have shown remarkable importance to this issue and are making all possible efforts, including building new hospitals in unbelievable record time, to contain this deadly virus. Among the people stranded in the epicentre of the virus were several Indian students and visitors. Based on the appeal of the stranded Indians, the Indian Government has already flown two special Indian airlines - jumbo Boeing -  and have airlifted more than 600 plus Indians back to India from the locked down city of Wuhan, with support from the Chinese authorities.

Although the virus has taken a pandemic proportion,  it is not the time for blame game to finger point the Chinese or others for the global spread of the virus, which in the modern connected world is an absolute certainty. Moreover, the Chinese authorities are doing an extraordinary job in combating this global pandemic by taking all possible timely actions. It is therefore hoped that the efforts taken by the Chinese authorities, with support from international community, is likely to impact the arrest of the virus very soon. Experts believe that timely collective efforts of the global community, led by the Chinese, in arresting the spread of the virus will start kicking in and in the best case scenario, the virus will only infect few more people. However there are also others who feel that it may be too early to pass judgement, whether efforts to sanitise places and quarantine people, including advocating use of widespread face masks, will at all have their effect that will start arresting the rapid spread of the virus. Scientists have also suggested that the incubation period for the Corona virus (up to 14 days) is relatively longer than most other viruses and therefore the control measures must keep this in mind before deciding on the measures to arrest the spread of this virus. There are also pessimists who believe that the virus has got out of hand in China, spread too far, too quickly to really be contained. Some of them going to the extremes of predicting a worst case scenario, often referring to the Spanish Flu epidemic a century ago, which killed an estimated 12 million people including some 5 millions in India, and believe that (based on a prediction model) some 190,000 people have already been infected in Wuhan, and that it may be just a matter of time that this number could increase exponentially and spread globally. Whatever be the situation, optimistic or pessimistic, one thing is for sure, we all must be better informed to effectively tackle this infectious disease and play our small role in supporting the global health workers in combating this issue.

Just a week back, on 30th, January, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared this outbreak a ‘public health emergency of international concern’ - an alarm it reserves for events that pose a risk to multiple countries and which requires a coordinated international response. The pace at which the virus is spreading has caught the attention of health workers across the globe, who are unitedly trying to contain this pandemic. Unfortunately, notwithstanding the extraordinary developments in our understanding of diseases, crucial  biological information about the Corona virus and how it spreads are yet to be understood completely. Medical experts are addressing this issue keeping in mind our previous experiences of best- and worst-case scenarios of earlier virus epidemics and what scientists already know.

Based on past experience health workers, with support from scientists, have managed to control certain viruses that cause diseases like chicken pox and influenza, which are endemic in many countries including India, through vaccination and confining people at home when they are ill. One big question is, whether the coronavirus will become endemic and is here to stay? If efforts to contain it fail, there is a high chance that it will become endemic. This could mean that like the chickenpox and influenza, which are caused by a virus, the Corona virus may also continue to circulate every year and lead to some deaths making it necessary for development of a vaccine for the Corona virus. If the virus can be spread by people who are infected but don’t have symptoms, it will be more difficult to control its spread, making it more likely that the virus will become endemic. In which case we are possibly looking at a virus that’s going to be with us for a long time and therefore scientists must work towards developing a vaccine for this virus. Although it is now fairly well established that the Spanish Flu - a global Outbreak - a century ago (1908), had affected close to 50 million people with an estimated 10 to 15 million deaths including an estimated 5 million deaths in India, the current era of medical advances and so also the economic conditions of the people with much better cleanliness and sanitation, we are better prepared to address outbreaks. Take for example the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). There was a global outbreak of this virus in 2002–03, which also emanated from. Hina but was very effectively addressed by the global community and once the outbreaks in hospitals were brought under control, SARS was contained and now there is hardly any evidence to suggest that the SARS virus is still circulating in humans. So we can be optimistic and we must trust our authorities and must avoid panic and spread of rumours about the Corona virus, which will make it more difficult for the health workers to address this issue. Looking at the way the Chinese and the global community are addressing this issue with WHO putting in their might, and also considering the fact that the control measures are effective, and the virus transmission has started showing signs of slowing down, which means that each infected person infects no more than one other person, the nCoV outbreak will very soon fizzle out. 

There are however some worries about the possible mutation of the virus. Some researchers are concerned that as the China coronavirus spreads, the pathogen could mutate so it can spread more efficiently, or become more likely to cause disease in young people. Currently, the virus has caused severe illness, and death, mainly in older people, particularly those with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Although Dr Li died of this virus at age 34 it is still not clear whether he had any pre-existing health conditions.

The escalating outbreak has prompted a flurry of research activity on the coronavirus, which emerged in humans in December and is new to science. Researchers have shared dozens of genetic sequences from strains of the new Corona virus and a steady supply of those sequences will reveal genetic changes as the outbreak progresses, which will help in the future development of an effective vaccine against this virus. As of 30 January, at least 54 English-language papers on the coronavirus have been published.  More than 30 papers are on preprint servers, and a handful have also appeared in peer-reviewed journals, like The Lancet and the Journal of Medical Virology. There will also be papers published in other languages including Chinese, which will help in better understanding this virus for an early vaccine development for arresting this virus. There are also some studies which have focused  on the virus’s structure or genetic make-up — information that could be used to identify drug targets or develop a vaccine. Researchers have also published genomic data on the virus on online platforms such as GenBank, which will go a long way in helping scientists and pharmacists to develop drugs for this disease to help patients suffering from this disease. Interestingly enough although most media are talking about this virus outbreak, it is seen from the statistics that the proportion of infected people who die with Corona virus attack is relatively very small in comparison with earlier virus attacks like the SARS. With some 590 deaths so far out of nearly 28000 plus infections, the new coronavirus has a death rate of 2%. This is significantly lower than SARS, which killed around 10% of the people it infected. There is currently no effective drugs against the Corona virus. Two HIV drugs thought to target a protein that helps coronaviruses to replicate are being tested as a treatment. Scientists have also identified other existing medications that target this function, and several international research groups are working on a vaccine for the Corona virus. Hopefully as statistics and data suggest the spread of the virus seems to have slowed down a bit and sooner than later it will completely be removed from human society. 

The most worrying part now is how one can and must control spread of this virus in towns and villages particularly in south East Asian countries and the African countries, which do not have adequate health safety measures in place nor do they have the resources that the Chinese authorities had at their disposal. Addressing the press and declaring a global health emergency, the WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said his main concern was that the outbreak could spread to countries with fragile health systems. If the virus spreads throughout the world, the number of deaths could be substantial. The current death rate of 2%, while not as high as for SARS,it is still quite high for an infectious disease.

Let us hope that the global efforts on all fronts will effectively take on this virus and defeat it at the earliest. 

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