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Gautaman Bhaskaran

For Gautaman Bhaskaran's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Oct 27, 2009

India has enough food for those who can pay

CHENNAI, India — India is still hungry 62 years after it was freed from the British colonial yoke. The Global Hunger Index for 2009 places India at a low 65th, with the far more populous China doing much better. While China has reduced the number of "hungry" people by 58 million during the past decade, India's number has risen by 30 million since the mid-1990s.

COMMENTARY

Sep 13, 2009

Political fancies at the Venice Film Festival

VENICE — Often great films tell great political stories. Or, at least they unfold against the backdrop of tumultuous political events. "Gone with a Wind" would never let us forget the American Civil War. "Casablanca" was set against the exodus of hundreds of people fleeing Nazi tyranny to the New World.

COMMENTARY

Aug 28, 2009

American paranoia insults Muslims' dignity

CHENNAI, India — It did not come as a surprise recently when well-known Indian movie star Shahrukh Khan was detained at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Ironically, he had just finished shooting a film in the United States about racial profiling.

COMMENTARY

Jul 31, 2009

Gay ruling takes Delhi back to where it was

CHENNAI, India — The Delhi High Court's recent ruling that decriminalized sex between two consenting men or women is widely seen in India as a move toward a healthier sexual climate. Though confined to Delhi now, the law could eventually be adopted by the country's other regions.

COMMENTARY

Jul 7, 2009

Battles with racism in India's own backyard

CHENNAI, India — It has long been known that India has its own brand of racism, manifested in a number of ways. Largely out of sight from the rest of the world, the malaise needed the gutsy chief minister of India's northeastern state of Mizoram, Pu Lalthanhawla, to get dramatic exposure.

COMMENTARY

Jun 19, 2009

Poachers driving Indian tigers into oblivion

CHENNAI, India — Recently it was found that the Panna National Park in central India, one of the most prestigious tiger reserves, was bereft of the big cat. Only four years ago the park had 35 tigers. By mid-2008, only one male tiger was seen there, and two female cats introduced into Panna from neighboring national parks to increase the feline population had vanished. In 2006, Sariska National Park in western India lost all its 26 tigers.

COMMENTARY

May 5, 2009

Cannes set to sparkle in a depressing year

The Cannes Film Festival will unreel May 13, although the global recession has damped business at the picturesque French seaside resort renowned for its rich playboys and beautiful women.

COMMENTARY

Apr 6, 2009

Infrastructure shortcomings throttling India

CHENNAI, India — India's infrastructure presents a frightening scenario, and some feel it is at the breaking point. One reason for this is that the world's cheapest car is about to hit Indian roads. The Nano's most basic model is pegged at $2,600 — only a little more expensive than a motorcycle. It is aimed at capturing a significant part of the two-wheeler market, fulfilling the dreams and desires of those who want to travel in the comfort of a car.

COMMENTARY

Feb 27, 2009

Little reason for Indians to claim 'Slumdog'

CHENNAI, India — Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" may have walked away with eight of the 10 Oscars it was nominated for, including those for Best Picture and Best Director, but the euphoria it has created in India is clearly misplaced.

COMMENTARY

Feb 11, 2009

Casualties of mixing culture with politics

CHENNAI, India — Even in the best of times, politically, it is difficult to interpret Indian culture, which encompasses an ocean of thoughts and ideas and a river of traditions and beliefs. Yet, some rightwing political organizations have prepared their own treatises, or just about, on what the nation's culture really is or, better still, what it ought to be.

COMMENTARY

Jan 9, 2009

End in sight to Prabhakaran's warped war

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The 30-year-old ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka may well end this year. Thousands of people have been killed, and political leaders, including India's young and charismatic Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, assassinated in the war between majority Sinhala-speaking Buddhists and the largely Christian Tamils.

COMMENTARY

Dec 7, 2008

The message from the carnage in Mumbai

CHENNAI, India — Terror and Mumbai have become as inseparable as Siamese twins, at least since 1993, when 250 people died in bomb attacks carried out as a revenge for the demolition of the ancient Babri Mosque by Hindu fanatics.

COMMENTARY

Nov 5, 2008

Hindu fanatics threaten Indian secularism

MADRAS, India — India's secularism has gone up in smoke along with the festival of Diwali. Weeks preceding this joyous event — which nowadays has more noise and smoke brought about by unrelenting burst of crackers rather than light and luminosity — the rape and murder of Christianity in parts of the country seriously undermined the country's much-touted concept of secularism.

COMMENTARY

Sep 30, 2008

Education key to prevent 'honor killings'

The act of killing is not so surprising when senseless brutality, especially against women, engulfs a community. Thousands of women are murdered every year by their families in the name of "honor." This heinous crime cuts across continents, with most killings going unreported. When they are reported, the perpetrators are seldom punished, because the families or the society concerned may view the dead women as deserving of punishment.

COMMENTARY

Aug 29, 2008

Pioneers who pushed cinema into politics

MADRAS, India — When Indian Telugu film star K. Chiranjeevi entered politics recently in the south Indian state of Andhra, it merely affirmed a widely held belief that cinema and public affairs are firmly linked to each other. Chiranjeevi, who has acted in 138 movies, said it was the former state chief minister and highly popular Telugu actor, the late N.T. Rama Rao, who had inspired him to look beyond the glitzy world of make-believe.

COMMENTARY

Aug 1, 2008

Blasts in India elicit sense of vulnerability

MADRAS, India — The series of bomb explosions last week in Bangalore and Ahmedabad that killed and wounded scores of people shook the confidence of the nation, particularly after a plot to attack an important and crowded flyover in Madras was uncovered.

COMMENTARY

Jul 13, 2008

Cigarettes, lies and impressionable film fans

MADRAS, India — Humphrey Bogart used to seduce women through his smoke rings. In a movie like "Casablanca," much of this Hollywood star's playboy persona came from the cigarette he held between his fingers. That the tobacco stick finally finished him is something that all his fans, especially female, wish they could blow away. Bogart died of lung cancer and the world is much wiser today than it was then.

COMMENTARY

Jun 6, 2008

Nationalist alarm rousts India's ruling party

MADRAS, India — The Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sounded the alarm bell for the Congress party in India. The BJP's impressive win in recent Assembly elections in the southern Indian state of Karnataka has shaken the Congress, which heads the coalition government in New Delhi.

COMMENTARY

May 12, 2008

Neglect of sex education threatens Indians

MADRAS,, India — India is a land of strange contradictions. It is where the "Kama Sutra" was written centuries ago. It is also where some of world's most renowned erotic sculptures are found in sacred Hindu temples. Yet, kissing is frowned upon in cinema, and any form of man-woman intimacy is discouraged in public.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 1, 2008

At least India can look dissent in the eye

MADRAS, India — When I was at Deauville recently to cover the Asian Film Festival, I was surprised to see Tibetan protesters carrying placards urging independence for their homeland.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.

The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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