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Art and the State Art is often seen as existing outside the state. In Europe this concept emerged with   the Impressionist Movement of the 19 C which introduced the role of art for objective observation rather than a visual expression of the religious, social or political values of a society. In South Asia, art separated from the state when the post 1857 British occupiers of the Mughal court dismissed the many artists on the court payroll. All the rulers of India patronized the arts reaching a high point with the Mughals. Not only did they gather together the best artists, many acquired creative skills, from Akbar who was taught   drawing as a child by the miniature painter Khwaja   Abdus   Samad,    to Aurangzeb who learnt calligraphy from Syed Ali Tabrizi.   Women of the palace, courtiers and rulers of smaller kingdoms   took a   keen interest in architecture, garden design, crafts and clothing design.    The artist was integral to all societies from the earliest recor

Groupthink and Outliers How often have we sat in on meetings, or in social gatherings and felt pressured to agree with the majority? Or fallen silent on social media when we disagree with the tirade of shared accusations? This holds true for government policy or national security meetings, corporate board meetings, academic institutions, trade unions, political parties, drawing room conversations and of course social media. This phenomenon has come to be known as Groupthink.   The term “Groupthink” first appeared in a 1952 Fortune magazine article by social analyst, William H Whyte, a concept expanded by psychologist Irving L. Janis in his book   “Victims of Groupthink” . While consensus is important for implementation of any form of progress in state, community or family matters, Groupthink refers specifically to the priority given to maintaining unity for emotional rather than rational reasons. Groupthinkers   feel morally right, foster an “us versus them” attitude. It

Superheroes and Vigilantes Marvel is planning to release 3 to 4 superhero movies a year, with possibly 23 in the pipeline .   Solo superhero movies   – Superman, Spiderman, Hulk, Iron Man,   seeming inadequate as evil   grows, gives way to collective forces -    X Men, Transformers, Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers . What has created this obsessive need for Superheroes?   From the earliest recorded literature, the gods, angels and heroes were always invoked at times of war or natural disasters.   Gilgamesh, Odysseus, the Knights of the Round Table or Rustum have epitomized courage facing fierce opponents and supernatural beings.   We all have a deep-seated need to be taken care of – by a parent, a teacher, a friend, a spouse or a government.   The perceived powerlessness of governments and their justice systems is compensated by the fantasy of heroes with extraordinary powers who can protect us. Psychologists suggest that superheroes validate the collective mor

Age Matters If the stern majesty of Queen Victoria   defined   the 19 th Century, the   20 th Century   royal icon was   the captivating youth and fragility of Princess Diana. Youth was not a subject of social concern before the 20 th Century.   The term “teenage years” did not make an appearance till 1941. Today one could say the hourglass has reversed and it is old age that has receded into the shadows. Old age once associated with wisdom and power, is today seen as a disability. The stereotype of an older person as passive, insulated from the everyday demands of life, is reinforced in popular culture, advertising, the fashion industry, and television dramas. The workplace, education, even the art world, place faith exclusively in the under 35s. In 1992 the advertising mogul, Charles Saatchi and his brother Maurice, began promoting young artists, an influence that spread across the art world. It is difficult to imagine a Rembrandt   today, making   more than ninety self

Heaven and Hell The three major religions with the most similar concepts of heaven and hell are Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam.   In Eastern religions, heaven is not a place but freedom from rebirth – moksha or Nirvana when the soul is reunited with the Maker. The most visually developed imagery of Heaven is that of Islam with luxurious peaceful gardens with 8 gates described in elaborate detail. Although Hell is described as a place of great suffering, Muslims   prefer to focus on the promise of Heaven, and have a deep-seated belief that even those Muslims who are sent to Hell will eventually be allowed to enter Heaven. The longing for Heaven or Jannah   has inspired the designs of gardens , carpets, architecture,   and devotional songs such as qawali and naats and, controversially, jihad. Earning sawab ( reward) rather than avoiding damnation is the great motivator. Most Muslims avoid discussing or even thinking about the sufferings of the spiritual underworld or t

Curbing Cultural Exchange   There are 195 countries in the world today. There was a time when the word “country” meant the countryside, the area surrounding a walled city. Civilization and Empire are words used to describe those political and cultural identities whose expanses of power or authority had ever changing boundaries.   Today’s “Country” is a political term used to describe a territory with well-defined and heavily protected borders. Countries or nation states, emerged with the growth of capitalist economies, the Age of Discovery when the competition between monarchs for discovering new lands and trade rights, led to the formal demarcation of kingdoms and realms. As Ali Khan writes in his paper “Extinction of Nation States”, the King of the French became King of France.   In the 16 C the Dutch jurist, Hugo Grotius, developed the idea of territorial sovereignty which became the framework for the modern nation state.   Eurocentric colonialism and global economic

Back to Nature In 1933 at an ICI lab in Norwich, England ,two scientists, Eric Fawcett and Reginald Gibson, accidentally created polythene.   In 1965, a Swedish engineer   patented   the one piece   shopping bag. Today 500 billion disposable plastic bags are used worldwide each year, usually for an average time of 12 minutes before being discarded.   In 1997 Charles Moore, a sailor and researcher, found the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest of several floating garbage   ‘islands’ on our oceans.   The world was shocked. In 2018 UNEP established the Global Plastics Platform to reduce plastic pollution. However, with a market worth expected to be $654.38 Billion by 2020, the focus is less on elimination, but on redesign to include re use and compostability. Overall consumer wastage has led to a growing movement for “upcycling” or creative reuse where discarded materials and objects are transformed into new products. It is something commonly practiced in countries lik

The Zen of Making How can we be creative everyday?   In reality, many of us use extraordinary skills on a daily basis. A panwala   swaying slowly while his quicksilver hands wrap a pan into a gilori with mesmerizing elegance, a carpenter who brings a plank of wood he is planing, to eye level to check its perfect,   a potter who centres a wad of clay and then effortlessly lifts it into a symmetrical pot, a surgeon who closes up a cut in a rhythm of knotted stitches, a cook slicing onions into uniform rings, a hairdresser whose scissors deftly style a mop into a sculpted   form. The list seems endless.   It’s the “without realizing” that prevents us from feeling creative. One of the ways in which objects or actions are valued is by the naming of them. The hand gestures or mudras of classical kathak dance each have very specific names. Buying a paan called “un se na kehna”    (don’t tell my partner) from the famous PIDC paan shop in Karachi added fun to the experience. laga