What If Jasmine Loses Its Fragrance? Could Poetry, Nay Life Itself, Ever Be The Same?

by Dr P S Sahni

“Flowers may be losing their diverse and delicious fragrances, thanks to increasing temperatures associated with global climate change, scientists say.”The research was published in the journal Plant, Cell and Environment.

The ideal temperature required for cultivation of flowers – 28 degrees and 18 degrees respectively for day and night – is not available anymore, not even during winter.Due to climate change summer jasmine has been reported to be flowering at Christmas in a South London garden.

I am aware of the debate and consequences of climate change but never got to be actively associated with the issue at heart. I am aware of glaciers and polar ice sheets melting leading to rise in sea level; coastal flooding ensues; droughts and wild fires appear with greater intensity; human life is thrown out of balance; there is the issue of food and drinking water insecurity; health issues like asthma and heat stroke deaths and other extreme weather events.

While climate change may ensure the wiping out of life from planet earth in a few decades or a century or perhaps earlier or later than this but the simple fact that disappearance of fragrance of just a jasmine flower could have mind boggling effects on life itself is frightening. It is this simple learning alone which has made me sit up and be alive to the consequences that face human kind. I have a jasmine plant extending over ten feet in height and spread over ten feet in width at my home garden. I have been tending to it for the last twenty years. In earlier years its fragrance could reach and percolate down several houses away. Not so any longer. Yet the fragrance has been permeating our house every morning for over two decades. I have been gently plucking about a hundred jasmine flowers every day for about five months a year i.e. the summer months for two decades; the constant companion which keeps on whispering sweet nothings into my ears is the red vented bulbul which sits atop the main power supply line to the house right from 4 a.m. onwards even before crows and sparrows (before they disappeared from our area) make their presence felt. The red vented bulbul would momentarily halt even as it gets replies from other bulbuls across the road perching on branches of trees.

About two months ago when I first realized that the jasmine flower is not as fragrant as before I started despairing about life itself and that set me of in little steps to enquire how peoples’ lives would change much before the doomsday which global warming may bring.

Jasmine flower is intertwined in the social, cultural, economic and political life of communities across continents over the millennia. A few random examples are worth recapitulating.

i.

Jasmine is called by different names in different parts of India e.g. Motia; Chameli; Juhi; Mogra; Jaati; Mallige; MalliPuvvu. Over the past century poets, theatre activists and artists of Karnataka have extolled the “Mysore Mallige”; it was immortalized by the late K.S. Narasimhaswamy, the MalligeKavi. His poetry collection (1942) is considered one of the best literary works in the Kannada language. It has inspired the movie made by T.S. Nagabharana and also a musical play by Kalagangothri. Interestingly the MalligeKavi wrote of romance and relationship within the marital life. It is ironic that translation of his poems in English is virtually impossible.

ii

The beautiful, heart moving poem titled Nila, NilaOdiVaa (Moon, Moon Come Running to Me) is a popular children’s song in Chennai, South India.

Moon, Moon, come running to me.
Don’t stop while you run.
Climb over the mountain and,
Bring a Jasmine Flower when you come to me.

(translated from Tamil to English)

This poem is sung by mothers to small children and acts as a lullaby.

iii.

A new kind of love poetry sung mostly by women had emerged in Kashmir. HabbaKhatoon (1551-1606) and Aarnimal (late eighteenth century) were the ruling ladies of this genre of mellifluous verses:

Although a garden jasmine I,
in the very prime of bloom,
yet waste I as the snow in June.
Come in the garden, Love,
Come and enjoy the jasmine bloom;
It blooms for you.

–HabbaKhatoon

iv.

Jasmine garlands and the enchanting mushairas

Urdu – the language of love and poetry – is arguably the most romantic language of the Indian subcontinent. Urdu poetry or shairi has within it ghazal which literally means to talk to/about women. Traditionally ghazals mainly deal with the topic of love – more specifically unattainable love. Mughal emperors had cultured courtesan poetesses to enchant Mughal mushaira, a poetic symposium. The setting of the enchanting mushaira included row upon row of jasmine garlands hung from the centre of the roof of the house. Umrao Jan is amongst the most well known courtesan poetess and the 1899 novel Umrao Jan Ada was made into a movie (UmraoJaan, 1981).

v.

Algeria, the land of jasmine

The Algerian poetess AmelTafsout (means hopes of spring) a master dance artist, choreographer, language and dance instructor, frame drummer, singer, wrote poignantly in the poem ALGERIAwritten a few years after the Algerian civil war of the 1990s:

Algeria
Land of sunshine and jasmine
Land of love and scents
What have you done with your own children? …

Algeria
Land of dreams and beauty
Land of happy occasions and joy
Why this terrible fate? …

vi.

Giovanni Pascoli, the greatest Italian poet and classical scholar writing at the beginning of the twentieth century (1855-1912) reminded that one yearns for the beloved at the very hour the jasmine flower opens.

Night-Blooming Jasmine

And the night-blooming flowers open,
open in the same hour I remember those I love.
In the middle of the viburnums
the twilight butterflies have appeared. …

The whole night exhales
a scent that disappears in the wind. …

vii.

The Jasmine Revolutions

The jasmine flower song, Moo Li Hua (Jasmine flower) is a classic popular Chinese folk song dating back to eighteenth century. Any Chinese person would be able to sing it. It is indisputably the unofficial national anthem for China. The song is just seven lines long.

Flower of jasmine, so fair!
Flower of jasmine, so fair!
Budding and blooming here and there,
Pure and fragrant all do declare.
Let me pick you with tender care,
Sweetness for all to share.
Jasmine fair, oh Jasmine fair.

However the song’s fate was sealed with the populist movements reshaping the Arab world. “Jasmine revolutions” suddenly threw from power or shook the all-powerful and firmly entrenched leaders in their palaces. During the 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests the songbecame associated with the Jasmine Revolution; the song was placed on authorities’ list of online censored materials.

viii.

The Palestinian Struggle

Mahmoud Darwish, poet of Palestine and the world as the most important Arabic poet wrote a 1999 poem titled “We Were Without a Present”:

“We gnawed on stones, to open a space for jasmine.”

“The image is gruesome … of occupation but is in pursuit of “opening a space” for not just any flower, but jasmine, at once the most ordinary and yet the sweetest scented of free-growing vines. … Years of hope and history in a single line.”

ix.

Sentenced to life imprisonment for jasmine poem

Life sentence was handed to a Qatari poet, Mohammed al-Ajami on charges of trying to overthrow the ruling system. He was arrested in November 2011 following the publication of his “jasmine poem” which broadly criticized governments across the gulf region.  Later the sentence was reduced to fifteen years – for a flower – and eventually given freedom in March 2016.

Abu-Zeid’s translation:

Jasmine Revolution Poem

… All of us are Tunisia
in the face of these oppressors.
The Arab regimes and those who rule them
are all, without exception,
without a single exception,
shameful, thieves.
This question that keeps you up at night—
its answer won’t be found
on any of the official channels…
Why, why do these regimes
import everything from the West—
everything but the rule of law, that is,
and everything but freedom?

x.

Sensuousness and jasmine

UsefKomunyakaa was born in 1947 in Louisiana, USA where he was brought up during the early years of the civil rights movement. He started writing poetry in 1973. In his poem Jasminehe talks of:

… The blonde, the brunette –
whichone is scented with jasmine?
… The blonde
hasher eyes closed, & the brunette
is looking at me. Our bodies
sway to each riff, the jasmine
rising from a valley somewhere
in Egypt, …

Once the jasmine eventually fades away due to climate change the jasmine cottage industry in Chennai, South India would suffer reverses; households dependant on it would lose their livelihood. Girls and women wear garlands of jasmine around their hair bun or have it simply tied to the hair. These are worn on a daily basis and more particularly during traditional occasions, festivals and wedding ceremonies. Jasmine has been in use in aroma therapy for ever since; recently scientists have confirmed the tranquilizing or the sleep inducing power of the jasmine fragrance. Major problem facing the perfume industry is the difficulty in obtaining regular supply of the natural ingredients.

The Chinese, Japanese and the Vietnamese would have to forsake jasmine tea – scented with aroma from jasmine blossoms. The jasmine plant is said to have been introduced into China from Persia via India during 206 BC to 200AD. Would the people of Thailand, Cambodia and other parts of Southeast Asia miss out on jasmine scented rice? This is a long grain variety of rice that has a subtle floral aromaviz a distinctive jasmine scent, though it is not artificially infused with the essence of jasmine blossoms. These rice grains have a shiny translucence and are white like jasmine blossoms.

So what would happen if jasmine loses its fragrance? Poet-lyricist Gulzar’s two lines penned in another context apply to the jasmine flower:

“Without you, there is no complaint against lifeSince without you, life actually is not life.”

This article was first published in Countercurrents.org on 29 July, 2016.

Plebiscite, Now! Kashmir Belongs To Kashmiris!

Dr P S Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal

The Kashmiris were promised a plebiscite after India’s independence but it has never come about. There is a U.N. resolution to this effect but it has been given a silent burial. All assurances given to the people of Kashmir by the Government of India and the ruling class parties in India have been flagrantly violated. There are between seven hundred thousand to a million strong army men based in Kashmir; the Kashmiris see this as an army of occupation. Draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act ensure a state of continued emergency.

The current situation is triggered by the killing on 8 July, 2016 of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the 21 year old commander of Hizbul Mujahideen from Tral, Kashmir during a brief ‘encounter’ with the Indian security forces in South Kashmir’s Kokernag. He had joined the ranks of militancy openly when he was 15 years old. He had advocated freedom of Kashmir from India. The Tribune dated July 10, 2016 reported that two lakh people across valley attended Burhan Wani’s funeral. This is an indication of his popularity and the cause he espoused. Despite the fact that an indefinite curfew had been imposed at that time; that mobile internet services had been blocked and all efforts had been made by the administration to stop the people traversing the roads within Pulaama to Tral; still a sea of humanity converged to the burial site. On the way the locals had arranged for water and snacks for those coming to attend the funeral. In the process many people had been severely beaten and sent back by the police, paramilitary and military personnel. Yet people risked being killed, injured or blinded by bullets and the rubber pellets used to disperse the crowd.

A quick research into the number of people attending the funerals of establishment leaders in India and Kashmir reveal that around two million people attended Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral when he was shot dead by right wingers; that around ten lakh people attended the funeral of the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who died in harness; that around two to three lakh people attended the funeral of Indira Gandhi the then Prime Minister of India when she was assassinated by her security guards; that tens of thousands of people attended the funeral of Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India, when he was killed by militants; that about ten thousand people attended the funeral of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first home minister of India; that the funeral procession of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the first Prime Minister of Kashmir – who stood for Kashmir’s freedom and was in jail for about 11 years and prolonged periods of exile and house detentions – was miles long and the largest in living memory of Kashmiris, the number of people said to have attended was over a million; there was a poor attendance of people during the funeral of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Patron, Peoples Democratic Party and Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir; a few thousand had attended Mufti’s burial. In all fairness, funerals of establishment leaders ensure attendance by all concerned; the entire state machinery is geared into action to get the masses lined up for the funeral procession. In the case of revolutionaries dubbed as terrorists by the rulers the state machinery is used to ensure that as few people as possible attend the funeral procession. During the British rule in India, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death and executed clandestinely. These three had been dubbed as terrorists by the British government. Though they were brave revolutionaries who wanted complete freedom for all Indians, all three of these revolutionaries like Burhan Wani were in the age group of 22-24 years – not much different from that of Wani’s. Such was their popularity that upon their execution people in many states in India forsook their meal that day.

Since it is generally assumed that the number of people attending the funeral of leaders gives an idea of their popularity and the cause for which they stood, it should be applicable to all of the above people. In a sense the number represents a mini referendum on the leader and the cause espoused by him or her. It is just as well to add that no present day parliamentarian in India can hope to have a funeral attended by lakhs of people – whether he/she dies an accidental death or death due to natural cause or otherwise.

A disturbing report appeared in the Times of India dated 16 July, 2016 to the effect that in Kashmir:

“Locals alleged that an army helicopter fired at them and lobbed shells. They alleged that forces smashed window panes of houses in Drugmulla.”

There has so far been no denial by the Indian army. In view of the complete clampdown on the media including print media, people will be left to draw their own conclusions including whether war has been declared on Kashmir; in which case the United Nations and International Red Cross Society would have to move into action.

The only question foremost in freedom-loving people’s mind has been articulated by Shobhaa De in a weekly column in the Times of India dated 17 July, 2016 to wit:

“Let’s see if the present government has the guts to go ahead with a referendum to resolve the Kashmir crises once and for all. Let’s end the lingering pain in the region and allow Kashmiris live in peace with the dignity and harmony they are entitled to.”

But would the Indian Government follow suit? Doubts linger in the minds of all freedom lovers since the Indian state is perceived to be more colonial in orientation than the erstwhile British Indian rulers. Besides, the so called national press in India – both the print as well as the television channels – cover the Kashmir issue including the Azadi movement in a manner which is no different from the coverage by the embedded American journalists who travel with the U.S. army into its umpteen forays and wars. In both the situation the casualty is the truth. The truth is that the truth about the demands of Kashmiris has never been truthfully reported. The Indian press and the mainstream leaders never tire of raising the issue of radicalization of militants in Kashmir aided and abetted by the religious fervour as if this is a negative for the freedom fighters. Juxtapose this with the open declaration of support for the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Buddhists who reached India during the reign of Jawaharlal Nehru. They are treated as refugees – a euphemism for state guests. They have formed a government in exile in India. The Dalai Lama by all accounts is the head of the religious spiritual order of the Tibetan Buddhists clamouring for an independent Tibet to be carved out of a sovereign country like China. The Indian state cannot be seen to be not raising the issue of religious fervour inherent in the demand for an independent Tibet; yet make an issue of religious fervour in the context of Kashmir.

Undisputably Kashmir belongs to Kashmiris who alone have the right to decide their future.

This article was first published in Countercurrents.org on 20 July, 2016.