Dealing With Our Icons: Stephen Hawking, The Theory Of Everything, and the “Soft Biopic”

Kanishk Devgan, Class of 2020

What is the biggest sin a biographical film can commit? Not capturing the uglier parts of an icon’s life, or not being able to capture their greatness. Stephen Hawking’s recent demise, and more importantly, our reactions to it recall the highly acclaimed film The Theory of Everything. Hawking’s movie, unfortunately, falls into a long line of prestigious biopics that manage to commit both these sins, and thereby feed the public ignorance that surrounds the lives of many icons, perpetrating some problematic narratives. For example, in our glorification of genius, do we stop to note what our reaction might be if someone else was described by their wife as “…sometimes spending the whole weekend in his wheelchair, thinking, without taking any notice of her or the children”; as someone who made their wife “drained” and “desperate”? Considering that The Theory of Everything is, for most, the only narrative they have seen about the life of Stephen Hawking, its commitment to watering down a more complex reality is all the more troubling. It feeds a dangerous, and almost synonymous, duo of public ignorance and lack of engagement regarding the people we talk about so much. The case of Hawking is significant: he was a cultural icon emblematic of science, time and space theories, overarching brilliance, and unimaginable perseverance. Many have recognised him as an “eternal figure” of sorts: someone who was always around, and always would be. We owe it to his memory to better integrate our understanding of icons with our attitudes and values.

Theatrical release poster for the movie | Source: A Collective Mind WordPress

The Theory of Everything tries to tell us more about Hawking by focusing on his marriage. It carves out its own story, with chisel and mallet, to be as neat and suited to dramatic conventions as possible, whilst dusting off complexities that may scare away a casual viewer. The film is unfaithful to the story of Hawking’s life, or even to its source material — Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen; it actively dodges elements that could be essential to the story, particularly to Jane Hawking’s story. We often see major female figures ignored in these narratives of genius, like Joanna Hoffman in most Steve Jobs related media, but The Theory Of Everything does worse by pretending to be about, and I quote the film’s poster, “The extraordinary story of Jane and Stephen Hawking” while fictionalising the details of their relationship to an unfair extent. It plays down the brunt of emotional labour taken on by Jane, as an article by The Guardian points out:

The movie presents the demise of their relationship as a beautiful, tear-soaked, mutually respectful conversation. Of course that didn’t actually happen either. Jane’s book describes a protracted breakup that comes to a head in a screaming fight on vacation. She also described devastation when Hawking announced by letter he was leaving her for his second wife, Elaine Mason.

It is nothing more than a cheap trick to show Jane’s commitment to Hawking without revealing all that such a commitment entailed. In the display of their domestic frustrations the film wants you to feel a struggle — but not too much; it wants you to experience the rocking of a boat down a bittersweet river under a blue sky without the constant fear of the waterfall at the end. Make no mistake — the end of their relationship was nothing less than a waterfall. For years, Jane dealt with Hawking’s refusal for outside help, which forced her to wash, cloth, and feed him while raising three children, in effect, by herself. Even worse is how the film — endorsed by Hawking — goes all the way to show that Stephen told his wife that he would understand if she needed outside help. Other instances of belittlement, and Jane’s eventual depression primarily due to the marriage she was trapped in, reveal themselves throughout her memoir.

The frustration caused by the ‘creative’ decisions in the adaption of Jane’s memoirs are manifold: a complex female character, and her real life counterpart are both discounted; the artistic integrity of the project is compromised when the filmmakers are afraid to take the most basic of risks to possibly pander to their audiences; the very basic objective of filmmaking, that is, to tell a story well, is ignored by changing the story to tell it as easily as possible. Lastly, we, as an audience, don’t have to give the slightest bit of attention to the ugly sides of their relationship. Hawking is exempt from the typical outrage or analysis that another famous figure would have received.

The question is whether this is because of our collective decision to make Hawking an exemption, the lack of a popular narrative, or our failure to call people out when it doesn’t suit us. For all our commitment to principles and ideals, we often take the easy route, masquerading it as an act of courage. In our refusal to engage with these questions, we propagate a binary of celebration and condemnation. If we don’t completely condemn a celebrity, we don’t condemn them at all. If we celebrate an icon, we can’t accept or acknowledge their flaws. The various trickle-down effects of this simplification manifest themselves readily: when the supposedly brilliant scientists in the hit sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, repeatedly indulge in sexist jokes and remarks, they are forgiven. We accept them as brilliant but socially dysfunctional and extend that blanket of courtesy to cover any questions about their behaviour.

Creators of art and media are encouraged to present us with simpler, more convenient stories that we find easy to digest. These narratives do not show us the complete picture and which we then use to fuel our personal tendency to not think enough when the questions start getting tough, thereby giving feedback to the creators about our apathy-laced fear of engagement with these personalities. Keeping aside our lack of desire to search for the truth in these narratives ourselves, we like to think that this feedback is misleading, for if this cycle were corrected, and we were rid of the information asymmetry, then the apathy would decrease. However, we can see that it is not a question of information asymmetry but a very real attitude of apathy that gives birth to this information asymmetry that then furthers the very same attitude and so on.

For instance, amongst the benefits of the #MeToo and #Time’sUp movements, is the newfound freedom to openly talk about and fearlessly condemn famous personalities who could earlier use their status to evade scrutiny. The same population, with the same principles and the same consciousness, failed to respond to some of these cases that were known earlier, as they are doing now. The best illustration of this is the case of Johnny Depp whose domestic abuse allegations were known in 2016, well before this movement started. This is different from the other #Time’sUp cases as these allegations were not suppressed and there was no outright fear of Depp that prevented Amber Heard from registering a complaint. However, our reaction to this case in light of the movement is what speaks volumes. At the time, he was the centre of the marketing plan for movie after movie, most notably the fifth film in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and we all rushed to the halls to watch him don his many colourful costumes. Depp’s first film released during the midst of the#MeToo movement, where he plays the eponymous character in The Crimes of Grindelwald, has featured mere seconds of him in the trailer and has still been subject to major outrage, with J.K. Rowling herself responding to the criticism and defending Depp’s casting. Why the outrage now? Did we forget about the domestic abuse allegations against Depp when other projects featuring him were released? Did our public consciousness grow; our notions of morality sharpen? Or did we just decide to condemn Depp when it was easy for us, under the guise of a strong, principled stance? That is not to say that all those who are against his casting in the film do not believe in the principles that they espouse. Rather, many of us feel compelled to join the seemingly principle-based condemnation in the backdrop of greater social movements. It is this very need for coercion to rise to action that defines our apathy. The cases of Hawking and Depp show that it is, in fact, our apathy that contributes majorly to the propagation of simplified narratives. These narratives ease the erosion of our principles and their selective, misleading application.

To move past this problem of only dealing with easily digestible narratives, we must still engage with the revolutionary achievements of these icons. After all, stripping away our ignorance does not just mean examining all the possibly controversial threads we can find and putting them under a microscope, but also addressing our over-simplification of appreciation. The Theory of Everything briefly shows us Hawking coming about his doctoral thesis, a sharp rise to world-renowned physicist, and the success of his international bestseller, A Brief History Of Time. It may not have been the filmmakers’ responsibility to explain the nature of his achievements if they chose to tell the story of Hawking’s personal life, but it is ours if we want to celebrate it. In fact, one of the biggest reasons of Hawking’s celebrity was his decision to write several books for wider audiences to understand his work. We can attempt to understand Hawking Radiation or, at least, what its acceptance meant for the scientific community; explore how Hawking began to question everything including the Big Bang itself; understand why he defended the “Information Paradox” for thirty years before retracting it. Ask yourselves: what actually was the “Theory of Everything”?

The author is an Arts & Culture staff writer at The Edict.

The Creators | Purvai Aranya

Payal Nagpal, Class of 2019

The Creators is a fortnightly series of artist profiles of Ashokans who are actively involved in different creative fields including music, photography, creative writing, and visual or performing arts.

Purvai is an ASP student at Ashoka, set to graduate this year with an advanced major in Literature, a minor in Creative Writing, and a concentration in Philosophy. She is pursuing writing further at University of Minnesota this fall, where she will be doing an MFA in Poetry. She has been writing for as long as she can remember, and her recent work can be seen on her personal blog, where she displays not just her writing, but also her photography and art. She was longlisted for the Toto Funds the Arts Creative Writing Prize 2018.

Purvai spoke about her writing in an interview with Payal Nagpal for the Edict.

Payal: How did you become a writer, and when did you realise that writing is something you want to pursue?

Purvai: I feel like, in some sense, I was always a writer. Everybody is a writer to some degree, but for me, words always brought comfort and joy. My earliest memories include reading books and having them affect me very deeply. I would get confused between reality and the things that I have read in books. I sometimes didn’t know whether my memories were my own, or whether they were things characters in books had experienced. My earliest memories also have to do with writing — I remember the first poem I wrote, walking down the stairs in my school, a rhyming poem about a magician. Writing has always been a part of my life.

So, then, taking your writing further and doing an MFA, was a no-brainer? Or was it a difficult decision?

It took me a long time to decide to do an MFA, especially because when it comes to things like writing, it seems like everyone can do it. So what makes me think I can do it more than other people? It’s a difficult decision to take it forward and study it as an artistic form. I honestly didn’t think I would do an MFA at all, or continue writing, mostly because I love academics and academia. I’ve always wanted to do academia, and I still want to. But because recently I’ve been taking Creative Writing classes in college and getting encouraging responses about my work, I decided to push myself to work on my poetry for the next few years. Not at all in the sense of ‘becoming a writer’ because I don’t think anyone can every truly ‘become’ a writer. I am not even sure if I want to publish after the MFA. I don’t want to become a full-time writer. I’m doing this to focus on my writing and become better at my craft, and an MFA seems like a good way to do that.

A snippet from Purvai’s blog: an intimate space

You talk about taking your writing further, but how did you get to this point, stylistically? Naturally, your poetry has changed over the years. Was it a natural process?

It’s really complicated when it comes to poetry because my relationship with poetry has changed so much over time. When I was younger, I used to write lots of rhyming poems. I’d really enjoy the music of that. Then I discovered free-verse and dived into that. Every time I read a book of poetry, or a book about poetry, or just a poem, it totally shifts the way that I look at my own language. So it’s very difficult to figure out a sort of stable voice of my own. I’d like to cultivate that during the next few years. I want to be able to move between genres and styles, but also not be totally shifted or swayed.

Do you have a favourite style of poetry?

No, not at all. I have really come to respect all forms of poetry.

Purvai also does creative journal work | Source: an intimate space

How about a favourite poet?

No, there are so many poets that have influenced me, and I don’t think I should choose one. Though, right now, if I was forced to think of one, it would probably be Anne Carson.

Finally, can you share who your biggest cheerleaders and biggest critics are?

Well, my biggest cheerleaders and critics tend to be the same people. Right now, Professor Janice and Professor Sumana are working very closely with me and helping me edit my poetry. That involves them sometimes saying, ‘hey, this is not working, and it just needs to go.’ They’re able to say that because they want my work to be the best it can be.

Know Your Professor: Gurbachan Singh

The Finance professor who spent most of his student life with Economics, and keeps interest in Sociology, Psychology and Education.

Pallavi Agrawal and Aashay Verma, Class of 2019

Coming from a well-to-do business family, college education wasn’t a natural path for Professor Gurbachan Singh. His family didn’t place much merit behind it. He says that this shaped his attitude towards college- he never took any of his exams seriously. He spent that time instead on reading, not necessarily what was prescribed for his course, though. After he finished his bachelor’s degree, his family wanted him to join the business. He warded this off, convincing them to let him pursue a master’s degree. He says that they let him carry on only because the subject was economics- that was a “respite” for them.

Having finished his master’s degree, Professor was all set to join the business, and join he did: he went on business trips to a few countries before he realized that this wasn’t his true calling. One day after he had returned from his business trip, his friend came to seek his advice on investing in the stock market. Surely, having completed his master’s degree, our professor would’ve hit this one out of the park: except he didn’t. The question drew him a blank- our Professor didn’t have any idea of the stock market. He was embarrassed for a while, but only till he drove back home- he soon forgot about it.

Professor Singh then started teaching a course in Macroeconomics early days at Hindu College, University of Delhi, and being the avid reader that he was, kept abreast with world affairs. A number of events in the world of finance at the time caught his attention: in 1987, when US financial markets fell by 20%, in the 1990s, when liberalization in India had caused a boom in the financial market, and in 1991, when the Iraq war had caused financial markets to fall by 50%; the last one intriguing him the most. However, as an instructor, his course had little to do with any of this, so he never probed further.

Then, one day he came across an article on Efficient Market Hypothesis, a concept in finance. Just reading half a page on it piqued his curiosity. He immediately contacted a few of his friends for advice and tried his hand at investing in the stock market for the first time- and he made some money! This is where the seeds of finance were sown for him. Having profited from investing, he continued, albeit cautiously, to invest as a “saver”. Eager to do something with his new-found interest, he decided to pursue his PhD. His thesis, after “making a compromise” with his adviser, was something to do with banking crises. As the day of submitting his PhD came closer, our Professor was sitting in the university library when he came across a paper on finance. He started reading it, only to realize that he couldn’t make head or tail of what was written. While he understood the technicalities of the paper, he was not able to understand the overall message it was trying to put across. Naturally, being so close to completing his PhD, this irritated him a little and got him worried. Again and again he would go back to the paper to try to understand its crux. After several attempts, he succeeded in cracking it, but only after making the grave realization that whatever he had covered in his PhD was not enough.

Immediately after earning his doctorate, he started teaching at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, where they wanted him to teach a course that included stability in financial markets – something he hadn’t covered directly in his PhD. As a result, Professor Gurbachan taught himself the concept while teaching his class, which caused him to struggle initially. Today, he takes the same course under the name of “Theory of Finance II” at ISI, and has developed mastery over the subject, having taught it so many times. He stopped being a professor in a regular position in 2010 when he left JNU and has only taken visiting (but full time) roles since then.

Professor Singh isn’t the all-work-no-fun type, though. He is a huge fan and a close follower of cinema — both Bollywood and Hollywood. As an undergraduate student he only watched commercial films, but over the years he has begun to appreciate art films as well. While some all-time favourites are Aakrosh, Gaman and Muzaffar Ali, he doesn’t let himself miss movies like Black Panther. When we asked him what he looks for in a film, he clarified by saying that he doesn’t watch cinema for entertainment. Cinema for our Professor is a means to observe other people’s behaviour and habits.

It was only later, however, that our Professor realized that these interests are often called psychology and sociology.

Films by Gulzar are what he marks as the break of the commercial and art film dichotomy in Bollywood; he believes that they managed to get brilliant traction while being a little of both genres. In Hollywood, the film that had caught his attention the most, and which he considers both art and commercial, is Godfather. He can also recite dialogues from multiple movies, Sholay being among the famous ones.

While cinema is an interest our Professor pursues, he is extremely passionate about education as well. Our Professor traces this interest in education back to his schooldays. He was forced to write an article for his school magazine and decided to talk about the introduction of the 10+2 system in India. Even at an early age, our Professor knew that while this move might benefit, its effects were not strong enough to tackle the growing problem of quality education in India. In his college days, this interest continued and the first article he wrote, “Economics of Education”, was picked up by a Journal and published. After becoming a Professor, he tried his best to make his classroom as conducive to learning as possible. He runs a joke that with stereotype questions on a given pattern, there is hardly a need for a leak of question paper. When we asked him what he felt was the problem with the Indian Education system, he said that it was a multitude of problems: Apart from insufficient government funding, he believes that institutions are often run by those who have minimal, if not zero experience in academics or education, which sometimes leads to profitability becoming a higher priority. He says that the rather unique set-up of Ashoka University in the sphere of education is what encouraged him to begin teaching here.

Professor Singh is an ardent believer in the quote “Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever.” For him, it summarises his philosophy of life and learning. He enjoys the small things in life — a hot meal in the mess even if it isn’t the tastiest or watching Tour de France on the Television (his window to traveling the world). For him, it’s more important to relate what one learns in the classroom to the world around, and he recommends this to all his students in the long run as well.

Favourite movie — Godfather
Favourite book — The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Recommended Finance Book — Irrational Exuberance by Robert J. Shiller
Favourite Newspapers — The Indian Express, Mint, Business Standard

Professor Gurbachan Singh is a Visiting Professor of Finance at Ashoka University. He has taken the first half of the FIN101-Introduction to Finance course for the last two years in the Spring semester.

Artists at Banjaara: Taru Dalmia and the Return of Anti-establishment music

Kartik Sundar, Class of 2020

Taru Dalmia, the Delhi-based artist popularly known as Delhi Sultanate, is one of the most outspoken musicians in the country today. Unapologetically opinionated, Taru uses his art to fight against injustice, often saying things that, if heard by certain individuals, might result in dire consequences for him. A poet, academic historian, and social activist, his talents and interests extend above and beyond the musical realm. His performance at this year’s Banjaara’s festival was shocking — both for the statements he made as well as the way he seamlessly fused elements of reggae and dancehall with music from indigenous artists.

Taru Dalmia AKA Delhi Sultanate and Samara Chopra AKA Begum X at Banjaara 2.0 | Photography by Shrishti Agarwal, Class of 2020

Although his music incorporates a plethora of styles, reggae forms the primary foundation. The genre has been historically associated with revolution and emancipation from repression. From Bob Marley’s “emancipate yourself from mental slavery” to Taru’s “VHP/ RSS/ BJP is here, sound the alarm!” it’s always put the fight to power. By building his brand and sound around reggae culture, Taru embodies what it means to be anti-establishment. A large portion of his music is political in nature, often critiquing those in power. Even the idea behind his music system came from these sentiments. The Bass Foundation Roots (BFR) Sound System allows him to perform shows with organisers who might not have been able to afford expensive sound equipment, since the system is entirely independent of outside requirements.

Taru has attacked everyone from PM Modi to Arnab Goswami, criticising them for curbing free speech and spreading lies. His other project, The Ska Vengers, released a video called “Modi, A Message To You”, which had lyrics like “Stop your fooling around / Messing up our future / Time to straighten right out / You should have wound up in jail”. In another interview with Luis Eslava and Sundhya Pahuja for Critical Legal Thinking, Taru expressed his distrust for and discontent with the present state of Indian media. He criticised Arnab Goswami’s role in shaping discourse that legitimised police and mob violence directed at Jawaharlal Nehru University students in 2016 for supposed ‘anti-national’ activity. Fearless and articulate, few musicians in the country today represent as much as Taru Dalmia.

Post his performance at Banjaara, Taru answered a questionnaire we sent to him about his music and its interaction with his politics.

Your sound derives influences from reggae, ska, punk, and a diverse collection of native Indian sounds. What are the influences that got you to the unique sound you have right now?

Taru: You already mentioned most of my musical influences. I came of age in the 90’s and was heavily influenced by both 90’s Hip Hop and 90’s Dancehall Reggae. Lucky for me, that was the golden era of both genres.

When I was very young I started listening to Ice T, Public Enemy, and NWA. Later, I discovered reggae and started listening to artists like Buju Banton, Sizzla and Capleton among others, and singers like Dennis Brown, Cocoa Tea, Garnett Silk and Luciano. I actually discovered some of the older genres that I now like to play (roots reggae and ska) much later in life. I have three musical outfits, and the inspiration for these — while broadly speaking all of them are influenced by reggae — and their orientation is a bit different. As an act, The Ska Vengers is more stage show and album-oriented; we play music festivals and venues and tour abroad regularly. It’s a band. For BFR Sound System, the inspiration comes directly from Jamaican sound system culture. Word Sound Power is an attempt to build a connection to revolutionary singers and protest movements in India. Whereas BFR Sound System is more performance-oriented, with Word Sound Power the focus at present is more on collaborative production and film.

Is reggae important to you because of its traditional political roots?

I love reggae because it’s amazing music, but you cannot separate the politics and philosophy of the music from the sound. In many ways, reggae music is the conscience-keeper of the colonised world. It reminds us of a history that is often whitewashed, suppressed, or mentioned only in passing. But this history lies at the heart of understanding the world in which we live in today. Emancipation from mental slavery is an important concept. This involves understanding how society is organised and what your position is within this system. I love that reggae music deals with these concerns while at the same time being uplifting.

Through reggae music ideas of negritude by the philosopher Aime Cesaire or the thought of Marcus Garvey were made popular and accessible to the masses. Reggae music also has had a sort of reverse colonising power. It’s the only music from one of the former colonies that has this sort of subject matter while at the same time being immensely popular and influential. While a lot of popular culture and entertainment is based on whiteness, reggae made the world recognise and orient itself towards blackness. You have people from Japan to Sweden studying reggae music and learning to speak Patois. While there are constant risks of appropriation, there is also a lot to celebrate; and there is no denying that the small, former slave plantation of Jamaica is a cultural superpower in the world today, and I am proud to be an ambassador of this music in India.

Your music is reggae at heart, but incorporates a great deal of other genres. What kind of artists do you like sampling/working with the most?

This question is more relevant to the other musical projects I’m involved in, The Ska Vengers or Word Sound Power, since they are more geared towards producing original music. And, specially in the case of Word Sound Power, the project is centred around collaboration with Indian musicians. The artists we have worked with so far have been deeply rooted in socio-cultural resistance movements. Whether it be the fight against mining companies and state security forces in Odisha, or Gaddar in Telangana. In both cases we learnt a lot. Gaddar or Bhagwan Majhi are leaders and spokespeople in a way that we could never be; observing and learning from their relationship to music and performance has been humbling and instructive. We are otherwise surrounded by a music industry that is constantly preoccupied with marketing and publicity, playing yet bigger stages, etc.

Team Banjaara with Delhi Sultanate and Begum X

You spoke about having five-hour-long events that are often held in secrecy; what’s the idea behind the length and secrecy of these shows?

When you do a long sound system session, you have enough time for people to connect with each other and to the music without rush. You have time to form what in reggae we call the ‘massive’ meaning — the crowd or collective audience. You can come to the session with your friends, have a dance, go outside and have a conversation, come back into the session; it becomes more of a community event. Don’t forget, outside of this we are used to playing club nights in the gig circuit where there is very little time. Venues in most Indian cities have to shut at 12:30, sometimes earlier. Often, this leaves you with a situation where there is basically one hour for the DJ to kill it, for the venue owner to maximise alcohol sales and for people who have stressful lives during the week to get hammered and lose themselves to the music. I found that often this forced and rushed euphoria of club nights can be frustrating, and I feel it leaves a lot to be desired. In an ideal world, I’d like to do all night dances every now and then, start in the afternoon and stop when dawn breaks.

There is another factor that has to do with the physics of how sound affects the body. Why do we play vinyl records and put so much emphasis on playing on our own custom, hand-built system? When you listen to mp3s on your average club systems, sonic fatigue sets in after perhaps an hour or two. The effect on the body when listening to vinyl or uncompressed wav files is very different. The scholar Julien Henriques often uses this analogy: when you listen to music over headphones, you put sound into bodies; with a powerful sound system, it’s the opposite. You’re placing bodies into sound. The bass vibrates your whole body, not just your ear drums. When listening to vinyl records over a couple of hours, it can create a feeling of physical well-being in the body. This has nothing to do with our performance but more with the technology that we use. For this to take place, you also need time.

As far as secrecy is concerned, this is just a question of convenience. I prefer to hold public sessions that are accessible and inclusive. However, at times it can be very difficult to organise these shows. We live in a very corrupt country and, in many respects, there is little freedom. We always have to pay off police and our last venue ended up getting too much unwanted attention. We might hold the March session at a public place in which case it won’t be secret, but there are times when we have to organise shows in a hidden place and be a bit discreet.

As a social activist and an academic historian, what drives you to use music as your platform to get your messages across?

Nowadays, I’m much less of a social activist than I would like to be, and there is no great design behind using music as a means to express a message. I’m troubled by what I see happening around me and feel the need to connect with people who feel the same and build networks of solidarity. I happen to know how to play reggae music. If I don’t express myself at least to some extent through the music, then I get depressed.

Saying something like Arnab Goswami is “Judas” might be dangerous thing. Do you feel that we should all be as outspoken as you are? Do you feel the need to do so?

I do feel that this culture of fear has to be resisted because it affects everyone — from writers and academics, professors and students to journalists and ordinary citizens. Most of our media is so corrupt and compromised that information is actually being kept from people and the relevant debates are just not taking place. Students and thinkers are being persecuted and institutions are going through what I would compare to a process of Gleichschaltung — across the board, the prime cultural and educational institutions of our country are being staffed with people who are ideologically aligned to the regime, if they are not outright RSS members. Perhaps you can broadly divide people into three categories. Those whose livelihoods are being crushed, and who experience the brutality of the system on their own bodies. They have no choice but to be politicised and to fight. Those who benefit from the system have the choice to acknowledge and engage with what is happening, or to ignore and concern themselves primarily with their own comforts.

To what extent people should speak or not speak out is not for me to prescribe but I do feel there is a time where silence makes you complicit. It’s like living in Apartheid South Africa as a white person and benefiting from the system while ignoring the brutal nature of it. Too much moral compromise will dull your soul.

What do you see as the major problems this country face? Where do you see your activism at its strongest?

The main problems facing not just India but the world at the moment is the unquestioned pursuit of unbridled growth that is fuelled by extractive and destructive industries, toxic nationalism, and bigotry. Someone called this “Necro-capitalism” and I find the term is quite apt.

I think from an activist’s point of view, what we do is pretty weak. At the moment, at most we can contribute the sound system performance to a protest space and thereby try to energise people and give the whole thing an atmosphere of celebration. This can be important I think because it’s important to celebrate each other, to celebrate solidarity and unified struggle. On the other hand, reggae music is very niche in India, and what we do is not at all the most effective way to spread a progressive message to a large number of people. Perhaps our activism was stronger with Word Sound Power. We would visit a conflict area and record and collaborate with singers that have revolutionary songs. This could enable conversation, perhaps raise awareness. We had just begun on this work when, due to personal reasons, we had to scale down. I hope in the future to be able to reactivate Word Sound Power, to work more aggressively on producing and performing music like the Blood Earth project. With the sound system we could be able to travel, to take music to schools for instance and establish our own touring circuit.

What event drove you to being the kind of social activist you are now?

No single event drove me. As a youth, I listened to reggae music and hip hop which politicised me to a degree. I also grew up in Europe, and, as kids, we faced some racism and police harassment, which tends to teach you at a young age to be a bit suspicious of authority and the state’s monopoly on the use of violence. When I was a bit older I started reading Frantz Fanon and the likes, and things began to make sense historically. When I moved back to India, it took me some time to discern what was happening here, but, after a while, the violence and destruction that the present system are based on became inescapable. We have a civil war in the country and the level of state terror and brutality of security forces in the mineral rich forests is unfathomable. There is a dangerous nexus between state and corporate forces, between paramilitary and police forces and powerful extractive industries…like Vedanta, Aditya Birla, your Adanis, and what have you. Their smooth PR campaigns are a smokescreens that mask violent and destructive campaigns against the indigenous population of those areas and the environment. All in the name of very thinly constructed arguments of ‘greater common good’ and ‘development’ that do not hold up to closer scrutiny.

What was the idea behind the BFR Sound System. What makes it special?

My inspiration comes directly from Jamaican sound system culture. The music we produce for BFR Sound System is not really for release but just to be played during sound system sessions. The system was built so that: a) I can play the music I love with the required power and sound quality, and b) to free us from dependence on conventional music venue spaces. With the sound system, we can travel to different parts of the country and organise our own shows. We usually don’t set up a stage; in sound system sessions it’s important for everyone to be level and to experience the music together. Rather than being oriented towards a stage, we want people to face each other and to dance with their friends, those who are interested to see what we’re doing can position themselves around the DJ table. Some people like to be right in front of the sound system, where the bass vibrations are the strongest. The performance is in classic sound system show format. Play tunes, talk to people in-between. Singing and MCing is more impromptu in a sound system session. Most of the 7” records (45 rpm singles) contain the instrumental on the B side, and it’s not uncommon to turn the record over and sing over the B side instrumental. A lot of time we also open the mic up to singers or rappers in the audience and have spontaneous cyphers. Apart from vinyl records, I also record a lot of “dubplates” or exclusives that we record with Jamaican artists. These will be customised versions of reggae songs that you cannot hear anywhere else. In addition to Jamaican artists, we’ve also started voicing rappers or folk singers from India on reggae or hip hop instrumentals. Again, the idea is that these are not songs that you can buy in a store or listen to on YouTube or Spotify. If you want to hear these tunes, you have to come to a sound system session and experience them together with everyone.

Taru Dalmia AKA Delhi Sultanate at Banjaara 2.0 | Photograph by Shrishti Agarwal, Class of 2020

Do you care about mainstream success in order to get your message across more? Or do you see these smaller gigs and sticking to your unique political reggae style as more important?

I’m not indifferent to mainstream success, and I think with The Ska Vengers especially, we operate within the music industry. We play festivals, release albums and music videos and tour abroad. However, over the years I found that mainstream success and the music industry in India come with their own caveats. Often times, corporate sponsored events are very impersonal. Being in the industry involves constant publicity, projecting an image, getting marketed, etc. For mainstream success there is inevitably a certain amount of you playing the game.

With The Ska Vengers, we’ve played to large audiences of maybe twenty thousand people. This can be exhilarating and has its own validity, but there is something I enjoy immensely about the intimacy of sound system sessions. It’s more personal, less constructed, and I feel has more potential to contribute something positive to community formation.

Delhi Sultunate will be holding a BFR Sound System session on 25th march (Sunday) at the Rotary Habitat Centre, Saket, New Delhi. You can find more information at the Facebook event page.

Walmart weds Flipkart

Walmart’s multi billion-dollar deal with Flipkart

Aditya Pantham, Class of 2019

E-commerce in among the most competitive and fastest-growing industries in India today. Anyone with basic access to the internet has most likely used it, whether for buying a last-minute present for someone or desperately searching for the 10 different textbooks their teacher said are “compulsory” for a course. Regardless, there is a huge market for this industry, and the big firms are always looking to dominate, such as the foreign e-commerce giant Amazon, which arrived on India’s shores back in 2012 to give competition to our homegrown business Flipkart. Since 2016 it has been known that Walmart was in talks with Flipkart to invest several billion dollars. It is now being said that the $7 billion will close later this month, and also a much-needed push to compete against the also aggressively expanding Amazon.

Earlier this year, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and world’s richest man had pledged to invest $5.5 billion in Amazon India, allowing the company to expand its online presence significantly. It has already entered in the food retailing business, offering its customers groceries through Amazon Pantry. At present, Flipkart controls nearly 40% of India’s online retail market, staying ahead of Amazon, and Walmart’s cash injection is sure to help maintain that position. Flipkart is the world’s third most privately-funded start-up, with companies like Tencent, Microsoft, eBay, and Softbank investing in it, with a valuation of $14.2 billion as of August last year.

Let’s try to understand the possible effects of such major investment. After raising funds from Tencent as well, the primary investment in Flipkart will have had a 100% increase from $10.2 billion to $20–22 billion. This will make Flipkart the fourth most valued start-up in the world with a valuation over $20 billion, behind Uber, Airbnb, and WeWork. Walmart’s negotiations with some of the other investors, such as South African media giant Naspers, and the New York-based Tiger Global for secondary share purchases will cause the latter to either lower their share or completely exit, making these exits among of the largest India’s start-up industry has ever seen.

For years, Walmart has tried to gain a proper foothold in India: even with tough restrictions on foreign investment, it has been able to operate 21 stores here. Back at home in the United States, Walmart has also been fighting a losing battle against Amazon, so it appears it is trying to fight back on the global scene. Talks have been going on about Flipkart since February and it has been a shaky negotiation due to stake distribution issues with Flipkart’s current major investor, Softbank, who own 23–24% of the business. Recently however, negotiations have finally reached a turning point, with Softbank agreeing to partly sell some of its stake, allowing Walmart to own the majority stake. With Walmart in the business, it is possible for Flipkart to expand its offline presence in response to Amazon’s increase in online presence.

This investment will also be a major step in working against Amazon having total market dominance on the international e-commerce scene. Walmart did not have much choice here as the only alternatives to Flipkart were Amazon and Alibaba. Walmart and Flipkart’s alliance will allow them the best of both the online and offline worlds, with Walmart holding immense experience being one of the world’s largest retailers, and Flipkart allowing them a large entrance into the online industry. Previously, Walmart lobbied for the Indian government to give an open market for foreign retailers, but was met with limited success. Amazon, on the other hand, wants to lead the Indian retail industry, which is expected to reach a $1.1 trillion valuation by 2020.

Perhaps the most important aspect for us buyers is that the Indian e-commerce industry will receive a boom, with this deal being of the largest global funding till date. Competition between the e-commerce companies will provoke development of the industry as they fight for market dominance. Buyers can also expect improved offline presence due to Walmart’s involvement. Overall, Walmart’s investment is sure to bring about big changes.

The Zuptas’ influence on South Africa’s Economy

Gahena Gambani, Class of 2020

On One Family and its Adventures in South Africa

On 14th February 2018, Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa since 2004, resigned amid repeated allegations of corruption and bribery because of his family’s close ties with the Gupta family. The Guptas, also known as the “Zuptas of South Africa”, are business giants who have been accused of influencing the running of the government for the duration of Zuma’s presidency and ruining a few things for the country in the process. Zuma was was replaced as President by Cyril Ramaphosa.

What is the current situation of the South African economy?

As it stands today, South Africa’s GDP growth rate is at 2%, a drop from the 2.8% of the previous quarter. The unemployment rate stands at 26.7%, a slight improvement from the previous 27.7%. The inflation is at 4.4% and poverty rate 55%, as of 2015. These indicators give important signals about the strength of a country and South Africa’s picture looks bleak. 27 years after the end of apartheid in the country, the inequality is abysmally high. Today, the majority of the population lives in poverty and is most discriminated against in the community historically. Most important corporate and bureaucratic positions are still held by white people, a significant exception being the office of the President, among few others. However, the aftermath of colonisation isn’t the only reason behind this pitiable condition of the economy.

South Africa’s ex-President, Jacob Zuma. Source: BBC

How did it come to be this way?

In 1993, a seemingly harmless family from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, the Guptas, came to live in South Africa and soon made it their home. This was two years after the abolishment of apartheid rule and a year after Nelson Mandela had been elected as the country’s first democratically elected leader. Taking advantage of the nascent economy, the Guptas laid the foundations of their empire of the future — computers, media, mining, technology and engineering. Their relationship with Jacob Zuma and his family began way back in 2003, when their company Sahara Computers was still growing, and Zuma was vice-president. It was through this close equation that after 2009, when Zuma became President, the Guptas started interfering in the running of the South African government. Right from influencing the hiring and firing of minsters to demanding diplomatic passports, this was one corporate family with enormous political power. Several objections were also raised when the Guptas’ wedding guests were flown in for the Sun City affair in a chartered Airbus A330 that landed on a military base, permission for which had been allegedly granted by President Zuma. While the family has constantly denied all allegations, members of the Zuma family holding important positions in several Gupta family ventures further raised suspicion. In 2016, Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas claimed that a member of the family had offered him a promotion in exchange for political support. In May 2017, a string of leaked emails confirmed the close links between the government and the Guptas.

How did this impact the economy?

Corruption that touches all levels of the government and society does not bode well for any economy, and South Africa is no exception. With the increasing amount of red tape in the country, business confidence in Africa’s most industrialised state has started falling. The focus of the South African economy since 1994 has been on imports, something that led to a vicious cycle of a deteriorating currency, failing exports and increasing dependence on imports. It is also important to note that South Africa has one of the largest dual economies in the world — the gap in equality is so high that the poorest 20% of the population consumes less than 3% of the expenditure while the wealthiest 20% consumes 65%. As far as unemployment goes, South Africa is caught in the middle-income trap, having reached a stagnation of sorts.

What is going to happen in the near future?

With the appointment of Cyril Ramaphosa, the attitude towards the economy has improved even if marginally; people seem to have certain expectations for Nelson Mandela’s preferred successor. However, whether he will be able to deliver on this hope remains to be seen. The first step hasn’t been the most promising, with the Budget for 2018, delivered by Malusi Gigaba, having received a lukewarm response. Most experts agree that structural changes in the educational system are most needed, along with a focus on supporting SMEs; however, these are long-term plans and what South Africa desperately needs at this point are some definitive short-term actions along the lines of increasing investor confidence in the economy; with the current deficit of R4.82bn ($400mn), this is imperative. Tapping into the country’s potential of mining, agriculture and tourism can have a significant impact on correcting the export crisis being faced currently. Projecting a promising future for the South African economy will play a key role in bagging some of the promising investments from countries like China that are currently making their way to Africa.

There was a time when South Africa was the strongest economy in the continent, but things have gone quite downhill since then. With a new President at the helm of things and an outraged public in the country, it will be interesting to follow how far the country can go in regaining its lost status. As Michael Power put very aptly, solving South Africa’s problem lies in understanding the economy — ‘the core works but cannot grow; the periphery subsists and hence prevents the core from growing.’

Fake Lies | NOT-SO-SECRET SOCIETIES

Rohan Parikh (Junior Correspondent at Free Press Pvt. Ltd.)

Fake Lies is a satire series about Ashokan life and culture (or lack thereof).

There is a great upheaval at Hoshak University. It has recently come to light that there exist more secret societies on campus than do clubs, (including the inactive ones — so that’s a lot). We have discovered, not only do these subalterns speak; they prefer to shout, rave and scream. These exclusive fraternities stand to change student dynamics on campus forever.

The great unveiling began last Sunday with the expose of the Hoshakan Intellectual Secret Society (HISS). The leaked manifesto proclaimed that members of HISS have superior intellectual prowess and that they get laid a lot. Understandably, the Hoshakan community flipped out, but it is not yet known which of the two claims they have taken more offense to.

The hate directed at HISS ended up giving it a lot of attention, giving it something of a cult status. Their name was on everyone’s lips. Other secret societies, while valuing their anonymity, did not like all the attention HISS was getting. As a result, more than a dozen secret societies have made their existence public, hoping to catch some attention. Yet, the result is not entirely what was expected.

Illustration by Arushi Jain, Batch of 2018

This development has created a great amount of mistrust among students. Friendships are turning sour, lovers suddenly find themselves unable to trust their partners, and public places like the mess and the library are swarming with people on the lookout for double agents.

The liberal spotlight is glaring down on the societies and their members. Yet it is unclear who gets to take the moral high ground of inclusivity since almost everyone seems to have been involved. No one knows who belongs to what society; all everyone is sure of is that they all have an ‘underground’ life, and the chief worry is that someone else’s society is more secretive than theirs.

The induction process for secret societies is as varied as it is inventive. Typically, societies pick individual with certain ‘key characteristics’ which are ‘prerequisites for membership’ to their community. In other words, existing members get to handpick their friends for membership. We found that Hoshak’s Administration team has been a great source of inspiration for the manner in which induction processes are conducted in these societies. The Administration denied comment.

Of course, several tangible criteria also exist for determining worthy candidates. Based on several anonymous reports and interviews, we have managed to compile information about the induction criteria of some of the societies at Hoshak:

Sophists International (SI) shows a bias for people who are metro-bred, drink alcohol from a cup, can do a compelling boogie-woogie, and wear kurtas at least twice a week. Freshmen Solidarity Against Indifferent Seniors (FSAIS) are biased towards people who are from metros, but only from the northern part of the country, drink alcohol directly from the bottle, can do a boogie-woogie and also rap, and can pull off a punk attire. Best of Hoshak (BoH) prefers people who are metro-bred, but have shoulder length hair, can drink alcohol from a cup or a person’s navel equally well, can do a boogie-woogie while rapping, and have blond highlights in their hair. Sortition Love (SL), on the other hand, prefers — as the name suggests — a randomized lottery for inducting members. But the other societies are outraged at this prospect. After all, what kind of an arbitrary criterion is that?

Secret rituals — activities that define the ‘spirit of the community’ — are practiced with great rigor. Some rituals act as a rite of passage to the inner echelons of the society. Mass email spamming, demanding extra ketchup sachets at the popular food joint Beetlenut, and publishing a rant on topics like inclusivity in the college newspaper, Predict, are some of the rituals conducted by HISS, as declared in their manifesto. Other activities like never eating at the mess, feeding puppies outside campus, and fighting elections are also rumored to be rituals conducted by various other societies.

Earlier, people performing these rituals would be labeled as a person’s eccentricities and ignored. But now, everyone is on the lookout for suspicious activity — every movement is a potential clue to busting a secret society. Sometimes, this obsessive hunt takes a turn for the worse.

Two nights ago a student was seen singing Christmas carols in front of the Vitruvian Man near the library. A passerby was suspicious. Upon apprehending the individual, he found she was drunk. Unwittingly, he assumed that too was part of the ritual. The situation spiraled into a brawl and ended with a third student intervening in the nick of time. Passers-by who noticed the drama from afar later confided their observations to one another and to us — they had just seen three people performing an obscure ritual. It is, they believe, the key to decoding their identity.

While each secret society, in their zeal to feel like a secret society, has gone to great lengths to draw up manifestos, create extensive rituals, and conduct laborious induction processes — create a brand, basically — they are at a loss to show how exactly it is different from a private party where some people are invited, and others aren’t. The Administration believes the students find solace in the feeling of ‘community’, since it’s a great escape from Hoshak’s suffocating narrative of inclusivity. At least in their respective secret societies, people can say out loud what they all feel: everyone is equal, but they are more equal than the others.

We spoke to a third-year undergraduate who has defected to more than five secret societies in the past year. “It’s always the same thing with these societies,” she quipped, “they always break down into smaller circles — communities within communities. And soon no one can trust one another. Relations between society members inevitably become nasty, brutish and short.”

These prophetic words, however, do not seem to echo the larger sentiment. Hoshakans seem to be too busy chasing their own tails, not realizing they have come full circle. At this point, the Free Press can’t care enough.

Tennis At Ashoka – The Court is Finally Here

Ishaan Banerji, Class of 2019

The new tennis court at Ashoka was inaugurated on 26th February, 2018. The initial struggles of Ashoka’s tennis players and courts alike, however, must not be forgotten. Here is a timeline to trace the path of tennis at Ashoka.

When the current third years joined Ashoka, there were two functional tennis courts, at the corner between the Sports block and the residences. However, as the courts were built on agricultural ground, they began to sink, much like the hopes for a thriving tennis culture. The courts became dangerous, and subsequently unusable. In the monsoon semester of the 2015–16 academic year, the players were told that the courts would be repaired in a matter of months. However, that never came to pass, and there was no lack of bewilderment when someone unearthed that the area had become a construction site.

For the rest of the year, no arrangement could be brought about, so most of the people who played tennis shifted sports for (at least) the year. However, beginning last year (2016–17 session), a conversation with the Motilal Nehru School of Sports (Rai) meant that players from Ashoka could use the courts at MNSS, a few kilometers away from our college. This arrangement, while definitely a step-up from the no-tennis situation of the last year, wasn’t a very organised situation. People would go on random days as there was no regular schedule, the number of people willing to go tended to vary a lot, transport issues would pop up once in a while, all of which meant that the experience for the players wasn’t very smooth, making it difficult to practice meaningfully and improve.

A certain incident occurred however, when one of our female players was reprimanded for wearing tennis shorts, and was forbidden from entering the MNSS complex. The matter escalated as the other players around her tried to convince the MNSS guards that she had done nothing wrong, and should be allowed in, ultimately leading to the end of that particular arrangement.

The end of one arrangement was quickly followed by the availability of a new option- OP Jindal’s courts. Once the squash courts were built last year, Jindal players began to come here to make use of them. Seeing this, some enterprising players decided to see if it was possible to in turn go to the Jindal campus and use their courts once or twice a week. Like the MNSS arrangement, going to Jindal wasn’t a regular occurrence, and the people who went kept changing.

It was also not the most flexible option, as Jindal itself needed the courts on certain days and during certain times. This system wasn’t fulfilling for the players either. For persons who had come into college expecting to continue with their beloved sport, and hopefully move on to greater things, having such limited access to tennis courts restricted their enthusiasm and hope for the sport as well. However, things were not all bad, as the players who went to Jindal had the opportunity to feast on cheese pizzas and rolls and fries.

But on the brighter side, parched for the taste of a racket swing, innovation erupted. There were multiple 2nd v 3rd year matches near the lift space on the 4th floor of SH-2, where many a rivalry flourished. People played for hours on the basketball courts, at the risk of looking blissfully stupid in the eyes of our Ashokan colleagues. People played on the volleyball courts, in their rooms and even in the balconies for wall practice. The passion to play is clearly there. In the humble opinion of Jatin Bhatnagar, the games that were invented with the tennis racket represent some of the best original work this University has ever produced, academic or otherwise.

While all this was taking place, a court was on the verge of being constructed near the Faculty Residence, and as hopes rose again, they were dashed, when for the second time in two years, the tennis court space became construction space.

In October 2017, when the new Pro-VC Sankar Krishnan joined, Dhruv Agarwal corresponded with him about the lack of meaningful facilities for tennis players at Ashoka, which led to a conversation about a whole new court. However, as it tends to happen, the construction of the new court(near the Dhaba), was pushed back multiple times. Initially said to be ready by the 10th of January, the deadline kept getting pushed due to issues with the vendor, before finally opening on the 26th of February.

Coaching at the new court will take place on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, a beginner’s batch from 6:30 to 7:45, and an advanced batch from 7:45 to 9. The coach is the same as the one who took lessons during the monsoon semester of the 2015–16 session. The court will remain open 24×7, for anyone who may want to play, and balls are available at the Sports block. University rackets will be acquired soon. The court itself is an 8-layer synthetic, floodlit, doubles court. Given that most courts in India have just two layers, it is a top-level court, that will provide reliable spin and outstanding playing quality.

Despite the many issues faced by tennis players in Ashoka in the last few years, Ashoka has done commendably well at tournaments, winning 6 medals at the AIIMS tournament and the women’s gold medal at the IIT Delhi tournament in the last academic year.

There have been glimpses of poor planning in the way that tennis courts have been promised to players, almost constructed, but never opened, until now. One may expect, that now that a court is finally available, the tennis culture will take off like Roger Federer’s career in the last year.

Ishaan Banerji is the Managing Editor of the Sports column for The Edict.

Psychology Student at Ashoka Asks — Can Fish Do Math?

Shashwat Goyal, Class of 2020, from the BioSoc

The recent introduction of Biology in the Ashokan curriculum might indicate that it’s the new kid in the playground, but that’s not exactly true. Research in bio-psychology or more commonly, cognition, is already a part of Ashoka’s research culture. For his research proposal, Dhairyya Singh, a fourth-year psychology major, has dared to ask the question — Can zebrafish do math?

His thesis proposal asks, “Do zebrafish have the ability to learn how to count small numbers based on associative learning?” Put in simple language, his experiment attempts to explore the possibility of zebrafish being able to count small quantities (viz 1, 2, 3, 4) using a technique that teaches the subject that if two things occur together, they are associated.

A larval zebrafish scan in action (Source — scivis)

Dhairyya’s experiment will use a method in which the fish earn rewards for learning the association between the number of food pellets and the number of vertical lines. The fish will “choose” one of the two groups of lines . Two groups of one and two lines will be displayed to the fish on opposite sides of a T-shaped tank. Which arm displays how many lines will be randomized using a computer program. The fish will get food pellets equal to the number of lines displayed in the arm it swims into; the fish choosing one of the two groups of lines is indicated by where it chooses to be in the tank.

The idea is that if trained enough, the fish will learn that the number of lines equal the number of pellets given to them. Then they will be shown three and four lines on opposite sides of the T-shaped tank. If they have basic counting cognition, then they will choose the side with four lines significantly more than the side with three lines, having learnt that four lines means more food than three lines.

While this experiment may seem very simple on the face of it, it actually requires extensive setups and protocols in place. The fish must be given 40 minutes to get acclimatized to the T-shaped testing tank and the rectangular housing tank. They must be switched between tanks with a hasty disposition, as any amount of time out of water causes risks of brain damage. This will cause reduced cognitive ability and hence confound the results of the experiment. Their appetite must be measured, to ensure that they don’t resist eating the pellets during the experiment due to lack of hunger.

One might ask how he chose to research such an obscure topic and what we gain from researching it. Well, it’s not as obscure a topic as it may seem. As Dhairyya puts it, “My main reasons for choosing to look at this question include the fact that we know very little about the numerical abilities of most organisms, and we know especially little about how the brain generates the ability to do math. Exploring the question of whether zebrafish can count allows us to get a foothold into this problem”

Furthermore, research in the cognitive abilities of teleost fish (a group of fish to which the zebrafish belongs), conducted in the past, showed that four out the five species tested have the ability to discriminate between two groups of objects, up to a ratio limit of 0.67 (for example 2 v. 3 objects). The only species which didn’t show this ability, however, was the zebrafish. The researchers stated the results are not because of the fish’s lack of ability but rather the incompatibility of experimental conditions and tasks with the fish. This means that we still know very little about the numerical abilities of zebrafish, and they are open for exploration.

Another advantage of working with zebrafish is that it is easy to image their neural tissue. Larval zebrafish have transparent heads and this allows for the non-invasive mapping of their neural tissue (that’s fancy talk for brain scans) when there is brain activity. This kind of neural imaging will throw light not only on the evolution of mathematical ability in animals (including us), but perhaps, intelligence in general.

This experiment very clearly shows that Biology as a subject is already alive and kicking on our campus. However, with the official establishment of Biology as a subject in the curriculum, there’s no doubt that students can look forward to more serious and interesting research.

The Ripples of Black Panther

Srishti Agarwal, Class of 2019

(Spoiler warning for the links: they analyse the movie more extensively)

Another grand Marvel venture, and one of their most successful yet. With lower estimates predicting a gross of over one billion US dollars worldwide, Black Panther seems to be breaking all myths about ‘black films not travelling’. At its heart, this movie is a simple endeavour in superhero storytelling, because the crux of the story is a Lion King-esqe origin story. Black Panther is about T’Challa’s claim to the throne of the fictional province of Wakanda after the unexpected death of his father. On this quest with him are his ex-girlfriend, a very Nala-like Nakia; a Sarabi-like Queen Mother; and, as a spiritual guide, a Rafiki-like Zuri. Seriously, some of the parallels are uncanny.

Uncanny, scene-by-scene parallels | Source: Twitter

The simple basis that forms the plot line is but a scratch on the surface of what the movie brings to the table. The story is complicated by questions of loyalty and belonging, making the turmoils for the throne much more powerful. The setting of Wakanda, constructed by stunning visual effects that only Marvel Studios can have the budget for, creates a sense of awe and bewilderment in the audience. The appealing natural scenery is contrasted with, and yet complemented by, the high-tech cityscape. These elements lie on a foundation of beautifully written, strong, and empathy-evoking characters, who are crucial to and inextricable from the story. From the brilliant Shuri (who all of Tumblr has sworn to stan forever) to the ‘villain’, Killmonger (who truly is the hero of his own story), these characters build the narrative of the movie. The multifaceted relationships that develop between them are captivating because of how natural and well-crafted they are. To me, Shuri and T’Challa’s banter made their relationship one of the best sibling relationships in superhero movie history. I could honestly keep talking about the characters — the varied definitions of loyalty they represent, the ways in which they grow in the span of 135 minutes, and more.

Also, Okoye using her wig as a weapon was everything.

I find myself at a loss when it comes to praising the movie for the culturally sensitive depictions it has received so much attention for, simply because I lack knowledge about the issues. Despite this, I am in constant awe of the conversations the movie has given rise to; the ways in which this movie is resonating with people is astounding. For example, this Twitter thread, contains truly heartwarming stories of people reaching out to buy tickets to the movie for those who can’t afford to see it, because representation matters. This movie gets many things wonderfully right, especially in its depiction of strong women. All the women in the film are strong characters in their own rights, just as they are in real life. Whether it is through the portrayal of Shuri’s ability as a scientist, or Okoye’s capabilities as a General, this movie definitely passes the Bechdel Test and more.

I have witnessed this movie spark serious conversations even in a place that seems so removed from these situations. For example, this (kind of problematic) political analysis of the ways in which Wakanda has manifested in Asia, and the consequences of the actions that are taken by those who sit on these thrones offers an interesting perspective.

There are a few things that people seem to dislike about the movie that make for extremely interesting and insightful discussions. The fact that the only main character who was shown to be African-American was the main villain, didn’t sit well with a lot of people. This revived a lot of discussion surrounding the diasporic existence of being African-American and how T’Challa represents a privilege that they don’t have; Chadwick Boseman, who plays T’Challa, acknowledged this issue. But, in a lot of ways the identification with Killmonger that is caused by his position as an African-American is where the complexities of the political ideology presented by the film come from. Some white Americans reported being attacked at Black Panther screenings, a claim quickly debunked by extensive research. This kind of trolling, while not unexpected, generated unnecessary negativity.

A promotional poster for Black Panther | Source: NewStatesman

While I can’t say that the movie impacted me as profoundly as it did others, I really enjoyed Black Panther: both as a superhero movie and a politically-charged conversation. It’s definitely a movie that leaves an impression, in terms of proving the power of representation, as well as in taking forward diversity in phase four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (beginning 2019). Moreover, it serves as a reminder for how superhero movies create role models you can look up to — especially when they look like you.