ISLAMIC HERITAGE - PHOTO FEATURE

By M H Ahssan

From Kerala to Kashmir and from Tripura to Gujarat, India has a vast and rich heritage of Islamic architecture.



Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, 17th century.

India is an enchanting land watered by the streams of compassionate philosophies since ancient times. Flourishing communities of the Islamic, Christian, Zoroastrian and Jewish faiths exist here. The Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina and Sikh faiths were born here. It has a great cosmopolitan heritage of culture and art.



The best-recognised monument in the Indian subcontinent is the Taj Mahal, the tomb of Arjumand Banu Begum (also known as Mumtaz Mahal), wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. He was also later laid to rest here. The pearly clarity of the white marble structure acquires different hues with the changing colour of light, from sunrise to sunset.

Although Mughal architecture of north India is famous, the fascinating richness of Islamic architectural heritage in other parts of the country is not so well known. The vastness of India's Islamic architectural heritage is unbelievable. India has more beautiful medieval Islamic architectural heritage than any other country. This is a fact which neither Indians nor the rest of the world is fully aware of.



QUTB MINAR, DELHI, early 13th century. In 1206, Mohammed Ghori was assassinated and his realm was divided among his slaves. One of them, Qutbuddin Aibak, assumed control over Delhi. He built the Qutb Minar near the Quwwat-ul-Islam ("might of Islam") mosque. One of the world's tallest minarets, it is 72.5 metres high.

It is a known fact that the most famous Islamic monument of the world, the Taj Mahal, is in India. But what is not equally well known is that one of the oldest mosques in the world is also in India, in Kerala. In fact, India has a vast and rich Islamic architectural heritage, from Kerala in the south to Kashmir in the north, from Tripura in the east to Gujarat in the west.



AGRA FORT, UTTAR Pradesh, 16th-17th century. Akbar, one of the greatest Mughal emperors (reign 1556-1605), was a brilliant intellectual and ruler. A remarkable monarch whose empire rivalled that of Asoka, he built a network of fortresses and palaces between 1565 and 1571. The first of these was the fort at Agra. His successors Jahangir and Shah Jahan added many sections within the fort. Here is a part of the white marble section of Agra Fort, which was built during the reign of Shah Jahan.

Islamic architecture is characterised by a few visible symbols. One is the arch, which frames the space; the second symbol is the dome, which looms over the skyscape; and the third is the minaret, which pierces the skies. Minarets were actually symbols in the middle of deserts. They represented fire, which was lit atop them to guide travellers. The dome represents the infinite and also the sky. As tomb architecture represents both the finite and the infinite, the dome has a very important role to play.



GATEWAY OF AKBAR'S Tomb, Sikandra, near Agra, Uttar Pradesh, 17th century. The impressive structure was built by his son Jahangir, who closely supervised the work, which was completed in 1613. Akbar did not impose his faith on his subjects. He forged matrimonial ties with Rajput rulers. Some of his closest confidants and advisers followed faiths other than his own.

Islam did not come to India from the north as is commonly believed. It came through Arab traders to the Malabar region in Kerala, and Muslims flourished as a trading community there. You can still see traces of that community amongst the Moplas of Kerala, who trace their ancestry to the Arabs.



ZIARAT OF SHAH Hamadan, Srinagar, Kashmir. In the mountainous kingdom of Kashmir, Islamic architecture was heavily influenced by ancient Hindu and Buddhist stone architecture. Wood was used extensively in the mosques and tombs of the Kashmir Valley. Shah Hamadan from Persia is known to have laid the foundations of Islam in the Kashmir Valley. The saint is deeply revered by the people. Built on the bank of the river Jhelum in Srinagar, the ziarat is a beautiful example of Kashmiri wooden architecture. It is in the ziarats of the saints of Kashmir that the people of the valley worship. Over the centuries, both Hindus and Muslims have equally revered the ziarats.

Since ancient times, India has had considerable trade contact with the Arab world. In the 1st century A.D., the Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote about the existing routes to India and the July monsoon winds that traders used to catch to reach the Indian coast. He spoke about a ship that left the coast of Arabia and took 40 days to reach Muziris, which was then the name of present-day Kodungalloor.



GOL GUMBAZ, BIJAPUR, Karnataka, 17th century. The Gol Gumbaz, literally meaning "Round Dome", is one of the most impressive monuments in India. Built during the reign of Muhammad Adil Shah in the mid-17th century, it is the mausoleum of the ruler. It is one of the largest domes ever made in the world.

With the advent of Islam, Arab traders became the carriers of the new faith. The first mosque in India was built at Kodungalloor by the Chera King Cheraman Perumal in A.D. 629, within the lifetime of the Prophet. This is one of the oldest mosques in the world.



TOMB OF SHER Shah Suri, Sasaram, Bihar, 16th century. Sher Shah Suri (1486-1545) defeated the Mughal emperor Humayun in 1537 and created an empire. Even though he reigned only for five years, he laid the foundations of an Indian empire for later Mughal emperors. His lasting legacy is the Grand Trunk Road that he laid from Sonagarh in Bangladesh to Peshawar in Pakistan. Of Afghan origin, Sher Shah was born in Sasaram. His tomb is situated at the centre of an artificial lake. The location of the tomb in the middle of the water is a reference to Paradise with its plentiful waters, as described in the Quran.

Kayalpattnam is an ancient town about a kilometre from the mouth of the Tamiraparani river. Arab traders built the Kodiakarai Mosque here as early as Hijri 12, or A.D. 633. It is the first mosque to be built in Tamil Nadu and ranks among the oldest mosques in the world. Kayalpattnam has many other early mosques. In fact, Kerala on the west coast of India and Tamil Nadu on the east coast have numerous mosques, made through the ages. At Nagore, on the east coast, is one of the grandest dargahs ever made.



HUMAYUN'S TOMB, DELHI. It was built in the 16th century by Haji Begum, the emperor's eldest widow. It is closely related to the previous architecture of Delhi, of the 14th and 15th centuries.

Islam came to the north of India through different invasions, starting with the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni, who came as far as Gujarat. Thereafter, there was the peaceful contribution of different Sufi saints, traders and other individuals who moved to the northern region of India because of political instability or dynastic changes that were taking place in and around Central Asia and Afghanistan at that time. Gradually, a small community developed and increased its strength once Turkish rule was established in north India.


JAMI MASJID, CHAMPANER, Gujarat, 15th century. A new capital was built at Champaner by Sultan Mahmud Begarha towards the end of the 15th century. The Jami Masjid is one of the most striking buildings here. The symmetrical appearance of the whole is enhanced by the exquisite details of its parts. The surface is profusely decorated with fine carvings. It is one of the most exquisite monuments of Gujarat.

The Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque was the first mosque built in north India, in A.D. 1193. A number of Quranic verses are beautifully etched on the mosque. Some medieval writers say they are so beautifully carved that it looks as if they are written on wax.

MAHMUD GAWAN MADARSA, Bidar, Karnataka, 15th century. Founded in 1472 by Mahmud Gawan, the Persian minister of Muhammad Shah III, it was built by engineers and craftsmen from Gilan on the Caspian Sea. The structure closely resembles the madrassas of Persia and Uzbekistan.

The most impressive monument in the Qutb complex in present-day Delhi is the Qutb Minar itself. It was made in the early 13th century by Qutbuddin Aibak, the sultan of Delhi. At 72.5 metres, it is one of the tallest minarets in the world. The traveller Ibn Batuta, who came to India after journeying all over the Islamic empire, starting from Africa and covering Samarkand and Damascus, has recorded that nowhere in the world has there been a minaret as impressive as the Qutb Minar.



STONE JAALI, MOSQUE of Sidi Saiyyad, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, 16th century. One of the unique features of Islamic architecture in Gujarat is the use of intricate stone jaalis with exquisite carving. Naturalistic carvings of foliated designs with delicate leaves and shoots derive directly from earlier indigenous traditions.

Close to the Qutb complex is the tomb of Ghiyasuddin Balban, another 13th century ruler of Delhi. Balban ruled from 1266 to 1286. His tomb marks a very important development in the field of architecture. Before this tomb was built, a number of arches had been made in Indian Islamic buildings, but these were not “true arches”. In Balban's tomb, for the first time in India, a keystone, which is fundamental to the true load-bearing arch, was used at the top of the arch. Subsequently, the “true arch” began to be used in numerous structures across the country.



BIBI KA MAQBARA, Aurangabad, 17th century. The mausoleum of Emperor Aurangzeb's wife Rabia ul Daurani was built by her son Prince Azam Shah between 1651 and 1661. Set at the centre of a charbagh enclosure, the white marble mausoleum was inspired by the Taj Mahal. It is known as the `Taj Mahal of the Deccan'.

The Alai Darwaja was built by Allauddin Khilji as part of the extension of the Qutb complex in 1305. It is very fascinating from the point of view of architecture. In the 13th century, owing to Mongol attacks in West Asia and Central Asia, a large number of craftsmen had to flee from their lands. Many of them were given refuge in this part of India and were very fruitfully employed in the making of the Alai Darwaja. We see here the introduction of the horseshoe arch in Indian monuments.

The Deccan
Meanwhile, Islamic influence continued to grow further south, in the Deccan. The end of the 15th century saw the establishment of five sultanates in the Deccan: Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golconda, Bidar and Berar. The sultan of Bijapur was a descendant of the Ottoman dynasty of Istanbul. The sultan of Golconda was a Turkman prince who had taken refuge in India. The sultans were followers of the Shia sect of Islam and were close allies of the Safavid rulers of Iran. A distinct culture thus developed in the cosmopolitan community of the Deccan.


JAMA MASJID, JUNAGARH, Sourashtra, Gujarat, originally built in the 13th century. Junagarh is located at the foothills of the Girnar hills. The name literally means "old fort". The plan of this is in the Arab style, which was not repeated in Gujarat after its subsequent conquest by the Delhi Sultanate.
The streets of the Deccani sultanates were filled with Turks, Persians, Arabs and Africans. In India, the Deccan became the greatest centre of Arabic learning and literature. In fact, Iran and Central Asia only had single courts. If you were a soldier, a religious figure, an intellectual or an artistic person and you could not find a sponsor in what is now Iran or Uzbekistan, chances were that you could find some sort of patronage in the Deccan. Thus there was a continuous migration of people, ideas and artistic devices from the Near East to the Deccan.

A remarkable example of an architectural transplant from Central Asia is the madrassa of Mahmud Gawan, in Bidar, built at the end of the 15th century. It would be very hard to tell the difference between this and the madrassas of Uzbekistan or eastern Iran. The similarities between the two are not only in form or in other architectural elements such as corner minarets, the square courtyard in the middle and four great arched portals, but also in the decorations of the exterior with blue-and-white tiles.

Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II ruled Bijapur from 1580 to 1627. He was a contemporary of the Mughal emperor Akbar. A visit to his rauza, or tomb, is a pilgrimage for someone deeply interested in Indian art, for some of the finest miniature paintings ever made in India were made during his rule.



IBRAHIM RAUZA COMPLEX, Bijapur, Karnataka, 17th century. The monumental heritage of the Deccan is distinctive and quite different from that of the Mughals. The architectural styles that are seen in Bijapur, Bidar, Gulbarga and Hyderabad are closely related to those of Persia and Turkey. Ibrahim Adil Shah II ruled the kingdom of Bijapur from 1580 to 1627. He was one of the most humane and cosmopolitan kings in history. He was a magnanimous patron of the arts. Painting, poetry and music flourished during his reign. In his autobiography, the great sultan calls himself the "son of Ganesa", a Hindu deity.
The Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur is the tomb of Sultan Muhammad Adil Shah, who ruled from A.D. 1627 to 1657. This is the largest dome ever built in the Islamic world. It is the second largest dome in the world, after the one at Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. It measures 37.92 metres on the inside.

The massive Bidar fort was built in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is one of the most formidable forts in the country. It has walls that run for 5.5 km around. Inside, it has beautiful palaces, two mosques, a madrassa, ornamental gardens and hamams.



TURKISH MAHAL, BIDAR Fort, Karnataka, 15th-16th century.
Timur, when he came to India, was struck by the beauty of its historical cities. In his autobiography, Malfujaate Taimoori, he says, “I ordered that all the artisans and clever mechanics who are masters of their respective crafts should be picked out from among the prisoners and set aside. And accordingly some thousands of craftsmen were selected to await my command. I had determined to build a Masjid-e-Jami in Samarkand, the seat of my empire, which should be without rival in any country. So I ordered that all the builders and stonemasons of India should be set apart for my own special service.” In some other records it is said that he took about 3,000 artisans from India and employed them in the construction of the Jami Masjid at Samarkand.

Mughal architecture
The dynasty founded by Babur became one of the greatest the world had seen. It ruled a vast empire whose fame spread far and wide. The culture and the art it created helped shape future developments in all spheres of life in the Indian subcontinent.

Humayun's Tomb, which might be considered the first great masterpiece of the Mughals, is very much related to the previous architecture of Delhi. It is closely linked to the Lodhi and Tuglaq architectures of the 14th and 15th centuries. Mughal architecture presents us with a fusion of local elements, building techniques, styles and traditions with imported traditions and styles. The genius of Mughal architecture is that it sustained this incredibly rich mingling of different traditions throughout its history.

Agra was the imperial capital of Akbar in the mid-16th century. The fort here was one of the most powerful in north India. In 1565, Emperor Akbar ordered the reconstruction of the fort. The fort has palaces of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The most prominent among all the structures are the white marble buildings of Shah Jahan. The Khas Mahal, made of pure marble, is one of these elegant buildings. It is flanked by the palaces of Shah Jahan's daughters Roshanara and Jahanara.



THE BIDAR FORT is one of the most impressive forts in the country. Completed in 1532, it was the largest architectural undertaking of the Bahamanid dynasty. It has palaces, two mosques, a madrassa and many royal tombs inside.

In 1571, Emperor Akbar decided to build a new capital city. And a magnificent city was built at a site not very far from Agra. It was called Fatehpur Sikri. This was Akbar's most ambitious architectural project. By the end of the 16th century, there were a quarter of a million people living in the new city.

In the building of Fatehpur Sikri, no cost was too much, no effort too great, for Akbar. He wished to build the city true to his conception. As a matter of fact, miniature paintings of that period show the emperor amidst the workers, supervising the construction of the city himself. Fatehpur Sikri is one of the best ordered and symmetrically laid-out cities of the entire medieval world.

The world's best-known tomb stands testimony to a timeless love story. The Taj Mahal was built in 1648 by the Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife Arjumand Banu Begum, known to the world as Mumtaz Mahal. The construction of the Taj Mahal was a stupendous engineering feat. It is built of marble and is finely inlaid with semi-precious stones. As many as 20,000 workers and master craftsmen laboured for 17 years to erect this magnificent edifice. Several hundreds of mosques and Islamic tombs of great beauty are spread throughout India.

Coming to the west of the country, in Gujarat is the World Heritage Site of Champaner of the 15th century. In the east there is the impressive Nakhoda Masjid and several others in Kolkata. There are famous dargahs in Hajo and other places in Assam. In the north-eastern region of India, in Agartala in Tripura is the beautiful Gedu Mia Ki Masjid.

In the mountainous State of Kashmir, Islamic architecture was influenced by ancient Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The resultant form was combined with influences from Persia and Turkistan. Wood was used extensively in the mosques and tombs of Kashmir.

India has a vast, living heritage of Islamic architecture. These monuments are a great treasure of India's culture and many of them are recognised as World Heritage Monuments. We see in these the confluence of local talent and inspiration from Iran, Arabia and Central Asia. These mosques, tombs, madrassas, palaces and fortresses are a unique heritage of Islamic architecture.

Banding Together, for Their Rights

Tribal women in Uttarakhand are standing up for their community rights, and resisting the dispossession of their lands by a nexus between powerful landlords and the government machinery. PUJA AWASTHI reports.

One morning the pond named Haldubala was gone. It had turned into a slushy farm. Not that the residents of Khempur village (near the city of Sitarganj in Udham Singh Nagar) hadn't noticed what had been going on. Sardar Jangir Singh, a powerful member of the local Rai Sikh community, had been, bit by bit, filling up the pond (named after the spice turmeric, haldi) with earth, emptying it of water and increasing the boundaries of his farm, a few feet at a time. "Every six months he would drop in a few drums of mud. We had ignored it", says Kalawati Singh, a Tharu tribal.

In the foothills of the Himalayas, land and natural resources are increasingly turning into bitter subjects of feuds. And Kalawati Singh and others are mindful of a major change all around them - the dispossession of tribal land by non-tribals. The biggest victims are always the lower castes and the tribals. All sorts of ruses are resorted to in this land grab - offering tribals loans in lieu of land, marrying a tribal woman as a second wife to buy land in her name, employing tribals as servants and getting land registered in their name, etc.

The goal is always the same - to get control over land and natural resources to which tribals have enjoyed entitlement for ages. According to an independent study, in just the town of Khatima for instance, 8071 acres of land has been transferred from tribals to non tribals since the formation of the State of Uttarakhand.

But the women of Khempur were not willing to let their pond go. "There were four ponds around Khempur earlier. Three had already been lost to encroachments", says Kalawati.

The first instinct of the Tharus was to attempt to resolve the matter amicably. But when Jangir Singh threatened them, they decided to ask the administration for help. It was the women who took the lead. Among them Kalawati - the secretary of a local self help group (SHG) - and Pushpa Devi, treasurer of another SHG. Both are also part of the Khempur unit of the Bhoomi Adhikar Manch (BAM) a land rights forum. Both the SHGs and BAM are part of a five year development project called Bhoomi, funded by the British government's Department for International Development. Implemented by the Indian arm of Find Your Feet, UK, the project launched in 2007, addresses issues of poverty, lack of empowerment and denial of rights to 2580 tribals, mainly women, in 90 villages in Uttarakhand.

Four days after the pond had been taken over, 15 women and six men went to the panchayat in Dhusri (which covers six villages) to demand that the pond, a community resource, be returned to them. For a month nothing happened, despite Jangir Singh.s promise to the panchayat that he would return the land.

A month later the women again approached the Panchayat. A formal proposal for measuring the land and changing it back into a pond was passed. "Not all women joined in. They said the sardar was a dangerous man. We said, we are much more dangerous than him. And we told the women, if you won't help us now, we won't permit you to use the pond when we get it back", remembers Kalawati.

A day after the panchayat proposal, the women and some male BAM members demonstrated at the office of the sub divisional magistrate in Sitarganj and handed over the resolution. Fearing that there would be no action in the case, they once again marched to the SDM office after three days and issued an ultimatum to the officer. Within a week, block level officials were sent to Khempur for measuring the erstwhile pond and to mark the area.

Two days later the temporary wooden logs that served to mark the area were forcibly removed by Jangir Singh. More threats to the women followed.

Pushpa Devi says that act made the women even more determined to fight for the pond. "We heard the Rai Sikhs had been complaining among themselves that the women of Khempur talked too much and needed to be taught a lesson. But there was no way we could let go what belonged to us and our children. When the other ponds were lost, we did not know a community could own resources. Now we do."

Another demonstration at the SDM office followed and once again block level officials were sent to measure the land. Sensing the growing enormity of the situation, Jangir Singh backed off.

That is just one success story in a state where tribals are slowly realising their rights. Bhajan Singh Rana, president of the state-wide BAM says, "It is not that the tribal does not fight. But once defeated, he loses the courage to pursue the matter any further. Despite their large numbers (Tharus are the biggest tribal group in Uttarakhand) they lose because they are not well represented in government and politics. We are not in confrontation with the government. We are only asking for proper implementation of what has already been promised by the government."

In this case, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 which promises both individual and community rights to communities which have traditionally lived in or around forests and have drawn livelihood from the same.

Pushpa Devi says the land rights forum has a difficult task at hand. "If we announce a meeting, only a few villagers turn up. They think it is far better to earn a day's labour wages than invest in a meeting that might not yield any results. The emphasis is on enrolling more and more women because while men can be made aware of the issue, they do not feel the emotional connect that women have with land. Though we do not have land in our name, we are determined that our children not be deprived of their rights."

Thus it is unsurprising that in many villages it is the women who are drawing the men to join BAM.

Lal Singh Kopa in Udham Singh Nagar is another village under the project area where women are putting the power of the BAM to good use. Urmila Singh (30) recalls a time when the forest patrols would stop the village women from gathering firewood from the jungles. "I was returning from the jungle with my husband when the forest patrol stopped us and hit my husband. I took off my chappals and threatened to beat him up if he ever tried that again." What followed was a two month battle with the police and the forest department.

"Even BAM members who supported my fight, suggested a compromise to buy peace. I was unrelenting. I was fighting for my family's respect", says Singh. When the local media highlighted the issue, the department was forced to suspend the forest guard and later posted him in another village.

"I see this as a partial victory because the guard must be similarly harassing women elsewhere," says Singh. Thanks to her courage though, the women of Lal Singh Kopa have not faced any subsequent trouble during their daily forays into the forest. But they recognise that they will have to fight each step of the way for their rights - confronted by the might of the government machinery, the tribals of Uttarakhand will need many more Kalawatis, Pushpas and Urmilas.

A Man to Match his Mountains

Chandi Prasad Bhatt said that for him every river was a Ganga, a source of life and renewal, abused or ill-treated at one's peril. His work has been an education for others, writes RAMCHANDRA GUHA.

The importance of the India International Centre in New Delhi is gauged, in part, by the number of armed security men who pass through its portals. These come to accompany - and, one supposes, protect - the big shots, the fat cats, the ministers and MPs and ambassadors and generals who wish to be seen at a place located, in every sense, at the centre of power and influence. These dignitaries come to 'dignify' the talks and seminars and book releases that the IIC plays host to through the year.

 

Whether substantive or ceremonial, these meetings at the IIC are almost always in English. Very occasionally, however, one hears a talk in Hindi. Such was the case when the writer, Nirmal Varma, and the philosopher, Ramchandra Gandhi, were alive; both were regulars at the IIC bar and at the IIC's lecture podium. The memory of Ramu and Nirmal, of the exquisite Hindi they spoke and of the lack of ceremony that accompanied them, were revived in a function held recently in the IIC's auditorium.

The function was ostensibly a book release, to mark the appearance in print of a work entitled Parvat Parvat Basti Basti. But it turned into a celebration of the book's author, the great pioneering environmentalist, Chandi Prasad Bhatt. Bhatt is best known for having been (in the words of his fellow Gandhian from Garhwal, Sunderlal Bahuguna) the mukhya sanchalak, or chief organizer, of the Chipko movement. As the first major environmental initiative of the poor, the influence and impact of Chipko has resonated down the decades and across the oceans.

Yet Chandi Prasad Bhatt was, or is, more than the founder of Chipko. His contributions have been manifold. He both opposed deforestation and promoted afforestation, motivating women to revegetate hillsides made barren by the careless hand of man. He initiated producers' co-operatives, generating off-farm employment for peasants excessively dependent on the monsoon. He inspired young men and women in Uttarakhand, and beyond, to devote themselves to a life of service. All through, he has displayed a complete indifference to fame or monetary reward. In contemporary India, few people exemplify the Gandhian ideal of disinterested service as nobly as Chandi Prasad Bhatt.

That day at the IIC, Bhatt's example was spoken of by scholars and activists who had the privilege of knowing him over the years. The first speaker was the respected environmental writer, Anupam Mishra. Many decades before the publication of Parvat Parvat Basti Basti, said Mishra, Chandi Prasad Bhatt wrote a book which contained only one word with three syllables - Chipko. When Chipko started, in 1973, there were no 24/7 news channels. Even newspapers took three or four days to reach the interior of Garhwal. And yet the message of Chipko rapidly spread. The book of one word with three syllables written by Bhatt was to be inscribed across the hills and valleys of the Himalaya, across India, and across the world.

Mishra was followed by Ramesh Pahadi, a senior journalist based in Garhwal. Bhatt, said Pahadi, was generally praised for his work in the environmental field. Few knew, however, that he was a radical social reformer from long before he founded the Chipko movement. Born in an upper-caste home, into a family of temple priests, Bhatt was the first Brahmin in the locality to speak with and eat with Dalits.

The next speaker, Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment, recalled how she met Chandi Prasad Bhatt through her colleague, Anil Agarwal. Chandi Prasad taught Agarwal (and others) that Chipko was not just a fight for protecting forests and environment, but a struggle for protecting and renewing livelihoods. It was a fight for social dignity, and for political emancipation. The call of Chipko, said Sunita Narain, was relevant to the environmental and social conflicts of the present day, those stoked by controversial projects such as Posco and Vedanta.

In medieval times, Chandi Prasad Bhatt's native state of Uttarakhand was divided into the rival chiefdoms of Garhwal and Kumaun. Himself from Garhwal, Bhatt has had an enduring influence on the other side, as narrated by the celebrated Kumauni historian, Shekhar Pathak. In 1977, Pathak was jailed for his part in a student protest; not long after his release, Bhatt came knocking on his door. The younger man was then a Marxist firebrand, and suspicious of Gandhian social workers. He was quickly won over by Bhatt, who inspired him to set up a collective project of research and documentation that, in the years since, has produced a stream of valuable and often authoritative books and reports on the state - social and natural - of the Himalaya.

Pathak was taught by Bhatt to think of the Himalaya as being more than Mount Everest and Nanda Devi. The Himalaya was also the smaller peaks and hills, and the valleys and hills in between. In the same manner, Bhatt told his younger colleagues that the cadres and silent workers in a social movement were as important as the leaders. Pathak also spoke of Bhatt's wider, pan-Indian vision, as in his travels through Bastar in 1987, which resulted in a precocious warning, outlined in a long letter to the then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, that Maoists would gain in influence if tribal concerns were not attended to forthwith.

After his admirers had spoken, Bhatt was given the right of reply. He had, he said, been taught in the Sarvodaya movement that among the things to eschew, apart from drinks, drugs and so on, was the hearing of self-praise. Known now for founding a globally famous social movement, Bhatt recalled his first struggle, back in the late 1950s, which was to stop bus companies in Garhwal from extorting higher rates from pilgrims.

The conductors and drivers knew which passenger was from Garhwal and who was from the plains. The former were charged the standard rate; the latter, double or triple that. When Bhatt and his colleagues tried to stop this practice - or malpractice - the bus owners asked, why are you complaining, these passengers are from Kerala and Rajasthan, not from here. This then was his first struggle, a local and unglamorous struggle, albeit a struggle emphasizing his capacious, pan-Indian vision.

Parvat Parvat Basti Basti collects Bhatt's essays over four decades. There are essays here on Bastar, the Godavari basin, Arunachal, Kashmir, and the Andamans. There are accounts of his visits to Latur and Gujarat after the earthquakes in those places. These essays display his deep understanding of society and nature, and of the threats posed by more powerful interests to the lifestyles and environments of rural communities.

Speaking at the IIC, Bhatt said that for him every river was a Ganga, a source of life and renewal, abused or ill-treated at one's peril. His travels around India were for him the work of education (shiksha ka kaam). His own work has been an education for others. For in his own quiet, understated way, Chandi Prasad Bhatt has had a deep influence on very many scientists, scholars, journalists, forest officials, and, not least, younger social workers.

I myself first met Chandi Prasad Bhatt exactly 30 years ago. My encounters with him, and my studies of his work, have had a profound impact on my intellectual evolution. Because of what Bhatt has done, and because of what people like Bhatt (not least his namesake Ela of Ahmedabad) can do, I do not despair altogether of my country. Because of them I think India can, with the steady, patient work of selfless reformers, yet be made a nicer, or at least less brutal, place.

My own regard for Chandi Prasadji is conveyed in one simple fact - that when he calls and I recognize his number on my cell phone, I stand up immediately. I live in Bangalore, and he speaks from Garhwal. My gesture, a reflex action really, speaks of my reverence for him; as probably the most noble Indian I have known, and, with the exception only of the late Shivarama Karanth, also the most remarkable.

A Flawed Food Security System in India

The unseen impact of corruption on the millions of the deserving poor does not seem to affect our collective conscience. We are losing a great opportunity to show we care, writes R BALASUBRAMANIAN.

I have always believed that food security is one of the most important manifestations of development for any community. Food security is not something that happens as a stand-alone phenomenon. It reflects the priorities of people and their spending capacities, the availability of and access to food grains, agricultural yields of the land, the social policies of the State, and more importantly, societal commitment to ensure that no person goes to bed hungry.

It is with this understanding that I agreed to investigate the corruption and mal-administration in the Public Distribution System (PDS) when the (then) Lokayukta of Karnataka asked me to last year. Apart from my own stand against corruption, I also saw this as an opportunity to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in the state, and do my bit for the issue of food security to the citizenry, especially those living in rural areas.

Despite my previous experience in the office of the Lokayukta investigating allegations of corruption in the Health & Medical Education sectors, I must confess that I was not prepared for what I saw. India's PDS is the world's largest subsidised food distribution system, operating out of 500,000 Fair Price Shops (FPS). I am fascinated on why the planners named them 'Fair Price' shops! The very basis of my investigation is to see if they are really fair in letter and spirit.

I began the process many months ago in September 2010, by visiting a few shops in Heggadadevanakote Taluk of Mysore District. I was accompanied by the local officials, and went to a small village with a population of around 2000 and with a few tribal colonies surrounding it. The FPS in the village is run by the local Farmers'Society and I had heard of some irregularities there.

The shop was shabbily maintained, with food grains lying all around the place. The key person had done a disappearing act on hearing of our visit and had left his assistant to face the flak. People of the area were waiting for their rations to be given to them, and on casual enquiry I found that none of them were being given their rightful entitlement. People with the Antyodaya card, entitled to 29 kg of rice and 6 kg of wheat each month at Rs 3 and Rs 2 respectively, were only being given 25 kg of rice at Rs 3.25 and 3 kg of wheat at Rs 2.25.

People were not even aware of what they were supposed to get and at what rates. They simply took what was given at the price the shopkeeper told them. None of them realized that they weren't being given a receipt for the amount paid.

The local people got wind of my visit, and a small crowd had gathered outside the shop to relate their woes. An elderly and nearly-blind lady slowly and hesitatingly made her way towards me. She held my hands and pleaded to instruct the officials to issue her a card. She was a widow, more than 70 years old, and with no income, all of which would entitle her to get the Antyodaya card. The State has consciously created the Antyodaya system as a social security measure, specifically targeting the elderly, widows and the destitute.

I turned around and asked the concerned food inspector how was it that this deserving old woman was excluded? His immediate response was that she did not come to the Taluk Office to get herself registered. Oh, if only this old lady had the means to travel 20 km to reach the Taluk office, negotiate the corrupt system and get her rightful due, why would we even need a Social Security System then?

As I turned around and tried to give an answer to the lady, she very innocently asked me what else other than being poor, neglected and blind did she have to be to get her share of rations. I wish I could answer that!

This was not an isolated example. A few months later I had a similar experience in a poor neighbourhood within Gulbarga city. Another elderly lady aged around 70 years came to present her complaint to me. She too was a widow, with a mentally retarded son who was around 30 years of age. Having lost her husband 10 years ago, she was left with no social or economic support. All that she had was the sympathy and support of her friendly but equally poor neighbours. She came up to me with them asking for a BPL card.

It was evident that her poor friends were more socially conscious than our state and its huge machinery. I was painfully aware that she deserved a Anytodaya card and not just a BPL card. The system had completely ignored her because she was not loud enough or rich enough to bribe the concerned officials into giving her a card that she rightfully deserved.

Comparing these two incidents with another that I had in Hassan left me feeling angry and helpless. Angry that the system is so very irresponsive and irresponsible, and helpless that I could do nothing to help them. In Hassan I met a ration shop owner who had a 15-acre estate nearby and a huge palatial house but still carried a BPL card.

I know from my own investigations that the entire process of identifying the poor in the state is flawed and irrational. We not only have a huge number of rich people carrying a BPL card, but also some very genuine poor who do not have a card at all, or have an APL card. Who in the system should be held accountable for this state of affairs? Is it the politicians who think of eliminating poverty as mere schemes to be announced as electoral promises, or the bureaucracy which is caught up in the rules and regulations that they devise, or society itself which has forgotten that as citizens we not only deserve good governance but are also entitled to it?

It seems so paradoxical that the whole country is now obsessed with the scams that break out each day. It is as though one must siphon away millions of rupees to be noticed. The unseen and unheard impact of corruption on the millions of the deserving poor does not seem to affect the collective conscience of civil society or the administrators, and may not be important enough for the media to provide any space.

What we fail to notice is that these micro events are what truly impact poverty and we may be losing out on an extraordinary opportunity to demonstrate that we care.

Mobile Applications - A personalised approach to hotel marketing

Increased usage of smartphones has led to introduction of the mobile applications to the hospitality and travel sector. In fact, the platform is fast gaining popularity within the industry. But will they catch on enough to become part of consumer companies’ marketing budget? KEITH D'SOUZA explores the value of mobile applications to businesses.

Search giant Google reported last year that mobile searches for hotels had risen by an astonishing 7,000 per cent on a yearly basis. Here is another staggering figure: 11.3 million consumers accessed hospitality and travel services via mobile in EU5 countries (France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK) alone in February 2011, as reported by Jeremy Copp, Vice President, Mobile Europe, comScore. He shared this information at the recent EyeforTravel Summit, where the focus was on the growth of smartphones in the hospitality and travel industry.

Indeed, a quick trawl through hospitality and travel-related sites will present numerous write-ups and reports that feature incredible statistics that bring to light the amazingly fast growing mobile platform in the industry, with experts projecting that the mobile web will surpass the traditional web in size by 2013. The main reasons for hospitality, and on a larger-scale, travel brands and consumers alike to target mobile-based initiatives include location-based marketing, optimising consumer loyalty programmes and last minutes bookings. US-based Hilton Grand Vacations has stated that a study of their consumers’ research and planning habits show that 70 to 77 per cent of travellers book just a week prior to travel and 40 per cent on the day of travelling itself, numbers which were unheard of, just a few years ago.
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The combined revenues from applications funded by pay-per-download (PPD), value-added services (VAS, including freemium and subscription) and advertising is expected to rise from USD 10 billion in 2009 to USD 32 billion in 2015, based on the report published by Juniper Research.

For hoteliers and their consumers, mobile applications provide price ranges of nearby hotels, restaurant rates, as well as on-demand navigation. Mobile devices integrate various facets of customer service such as seamless exchange of information, payment of goods and services, check-in facilities and most notably, personalised marketing messages, through a simple swipe of a device against an interface. This not only brings about competence of mobile-based service but also is a viable option for personalised interaction with the supplier. In short, the mobile platform works as a connective tissue between the online and offline entities and rightly, should not be considered as a separate platform, necessitating a different marketing strategy. Instead, the platform should be used as a mean to bring together the brand experience, showcasing stability and uniformity to the consumer, as recommended by Google earlier.


With mobile usage outnumbering desktop computer usage world-wide, and particularly in the Asian countries, it is becoming imperative for companies to invest in smartphones and tablets. This trend is coupled with the fact that consumers are turning away from hotel chain websites, as reported in an eDigital Research study, adding to the importance of the mobile platform. The study reviewed hotel chains, agents airlines, holiday camps, self catering accommodation, cruises, tour operators and travel agencies. Citing insufficient accommodation and destination information and lack of customer feedback, hotel chain websites were deemed as ‘too corporate’ and thus, scored low for online customer usability.


Robert Dawson, Vice President, Internet Marketing & Web Development Services, Sabre Hospitality Solutions has offered an apt explanation for the popularity of the mobile platform. He stated, “The ability of the mobile device to pay for goods and services, coupled with the seamless exchange of information electronically, enabling payments, check-in and personalised marketing messages with a simple swipe of the device against an interface, provides for not just travel efficiency but new opportunities for personalised interaction with the travel provider.” However, mobile application usage is a modest concern in the Indian hospitality and travel market. According to Sunzay Passari, EVP - Telecom & VAS, AGC Networks Limited, “Actual bookings of hotels or flights through these applications are still very limited in India. The opportunities are quite promising. In our experience, the urban and semi urban consumer is already using mobile applications for information and as a discovery mechanism.”


Mobile applications for the hotel industry
For the above-mentioned reasons, it is not surprising that the hotel and travel brands across the board are launching mobile applications for their customers. For instance, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has launched iPhone booking applications for each of its seven brands in 2011– InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites. Moreover, in just over a year, IHG has seen a nearly 1,000 per cent increase in room night bookings from mobile devices. During the first five months of 2011, IHG has already surpassed its 2010 total number of room night bookings from mobile devices. The company also revealed that around 65 per cent of guests who book through a mobile device stay at IHG hotels the same night or within one day. Speaking about the company’s approach to social and mobile media, Del Ross, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, IHG said, “If it works, keep doing it big and bold as you can until it stops working.”


In India, Prologic First, an employee-owned software development and marketing company has launched a suite of applications for smartphones that hoteliers can use for efficient management. These applications are available on Apple’s iPhone4, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Blackberry Torch. “Mobile applications deliver tangible value. The future is about convenience, efficiency, speed and optimisation of revenue through effective processes,” said Amlan Ghose, Managing Director, Prologic First. India is seemingly a hot-bed for the development of travel and hospitality geared mobile applications. Bengaluru-based NIIT Technologies has developed Pegasus Solutions’ RezView Mobile product, a highly configurable hotel booking and reservation management application that is based on Pegasus’ RezView NG enterprise delivery platform. The application allows the company’s hotel customers to configure the application to meet their branding and display requirements, thus providing a consistent brand experience across different digital platforms, including both website and the mobile interfaces. It is available as a native application on the iPhone, the iPad and Android phones, and as a browser-based application for other mobile devices.


New Developments
Near Field Communications (NFC)
One of the most exciting innovations coming out of the mobile platform is Near Field Communications (NFC). This smartphone chipset is expected to revolutionise the way that the industry sells travel in the future, as stated by Dawson. He stated that NFC enabled phones can replace hotel room keys and guests can even undergo a fully self-serve hotel check-in process through the mobile device. Another advantage of NFC-enabled phones is the facility to interact with multiple items such as billboards and business cards. Thus, it could be leveraged to bring inanimate items throughout the hotel to life by providing real-time data and updates to a mobile device by simply swiping it through the NFC embedded items.


Augmented Reality (AR) Applications
Augmented Reality (AR) enables the merger of recorded and animated images that can be viewed in real time. Earlier, augmented reality applications were developed for purely entertainment purposes such as futuristic baseball cards. Now, the new applications have shifted their focus to a broader spectrum including supplying travellers with valuable information and solutions to their possible queries. Augmented Reality applications comprise diverse layers, such as museums, historic websites, dining, real estate and much more. The tourism layer is greatly utilised as it allows travellers to pick up considerable knowledge about their vacation destination prior to arrival. An example of a travel augmented reality application is the Wikitude World Browser that overlays the camera’s display and the objects that are viewed with additional interactive content and information. It was voted the ‘Best Augmented Reality Browser’ by Augmented Planet in 2010.

Quick Response Code
For small and independent hotel brands, a mobile application that has greater significance is Quick Response Code or QR Code. The specific matrix barcode consists of a two-dimensional matrix of black modules arranged within a square framework with a white background. It can carry business Uniform Resource Locators, discounts, promotions as text, images or embedded features. QR codes are placed on business cards or on traditional marketing materials such as brochures. The benefits of this application is two-fold as it allows the business to change what the consumers access through the QR code, such as a special discount, without having to change the non-digital marketing formats. It also provides consumers with a new mean of interacting with the business.


QR code applications are quickly gaining popularity in the Asian countries such as Japan, China and India. They are available for Androids, Blackberry and other leading mobile platforms while some mobile manufacturers offer native QR code reading software for mobile camera phones.


An emerging trend that has caught the attention of hotel and travel marketers is the daily consumption time in mobile applications in comparison to mobile web consumption. Studies from analytic experts such as Flurry Analytics, a provider of in-application analytics for mobile devices, indicate that daily time spent in mobile applications is for the first-time exceeding that of desktop and web consumption. This has lead to heated debate regarding the usability factor of the two devices. PhoCusWright reports indicate that 67 per cent of travellers and 77 per cent of frequent business travellers use mobile devices to find local services. The latest eMarketer survey (October 2010) also adds strength to the belief that consumers prefer mobile websites., thus compelling businesses to focus on a website-centric mobile strategy. The survey revealed that 81 per cent of consumers prefer mobile websites to mobile applications for research products and prices while 71 per cent prefer mobile websites for comparing products and prices. The survey also conducted a category-based analysis of mobile browsing vs mobile applications, as given in the above-mentioned table.


In every other category that pertains to travel research, planning and purchasing, mobile users prefer to browse or search relevant mobile website content. A recent EyeforTravel poll showed that 71 per cent of online travel companies do not have a mobile application. These figures compel businesses to focus on a website-based mobile strategy. In addition, small and independent hospitality and travel businesses cannot encompass the cost of mobile marketing into their budget.


According to Travel Distribution and Marketing Barometer report, May 2011, published by EyeforTravel, around 67 per cent of travel companies in the US with a marketing budget of less than USD 4,00,000 have found to be not tracking and recording traffic from mobile browsing or applications.


Convergence of social media and mobile platform
Despite the popularity of mobile applications, companies are not interested in investing capital into a new distribution and marketing channel. This raises the question of why is it that hotel and travel businesses are not waking up to the growing importance of mobile applications. Studies by The Knowledge Group, one of the largest data firms in the global meetings and convention industry, have shown that while most businesses consider mobile applications to be the wave of the future, only a handful have first-hand knowledge of them. As a result, they are not able to fully capitalise on the new technology. Passari advocates, “A multimedia rich campaign is most effective using modes like MMS for travel and hotel. There should be a digital cross platform campaigns. SMS may not be the effective channel for the purpose. A campaign with a call to action via voice based application for the process completion could result in business.”


However, the mobile platform is only going to grow and the rapid development of social networking sites will push new developments in the mobile platform to new heights. Hotels and travel businesses need to give importance to ‘Customer relationship management’ that encompasses digital marketing, brand connect, m-commerce and loyalty solutions. Convergence of the two platforms requires a combination of brand mobile sites, social network integrations, QR code promotions and tracking, coupons, product information, consumer reviews, locators, event based marketing, payment and white-label m-commerce platform. Thus, the key for effective incorporation of mobile applications into the mobile marketing strategy is functionality.

Hospitality Education: Whom to blame for declining demand?

Blame it on lack of awareness in the society about career prospects in service sector, the image of the hotel industry as a bad employer, or ambiguity in programme nomenclatures offered across different institutions, there is a declining demand towards tourism-related courses in India. With admissions round the corner, institutes outside the National Council ambit are really facing student crunch this year around. P KRISHNA KUMAR finds out.

It is admission time in universities and technical institutes across the country. There is a mad scramble among parents and their wards to gain admissions to their desired institutes and courses. Traditionally, a university degree is still the first priority after schooling in India. People who opt for vocational courses are still meagre two per cent in India, as per the government figures. Among the vocational courses, obviously, Engineering, Medicine, etc., score over other streams and then comes the management courses. Here, also, management courses in tourism-related streams are still the last option for an Indian student. This is notwithstanding the fact that tourism industry is one of the biggest employment generators in the world today. It is a fact that the number of institutions that offer tourism and hospitality courses in the country has increased manifold in the last one decade. But at the same time, the career opportunities in the tourism industry also increased proportionally. If the figures by Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Government of India, are to be believed, the country requires almost two lakh skilled manpower to service the demands of the industry on an annual basis. A survey conducted by an agency, under the aegis of MoT few years ago, pointed out a huge demand and supply gap in the skilled jobs segment in the travel and hospitality industry in the country. Kumari Selja, Union Minister of Tourism, has recently declared that her ministry aims to train five million people in tourism-related disciplines by 2022, looking at the demand in the industry. While there is no denying on the fact that career opportunities are abundant and varied for those who pursue management degree or skill-oriented courses in the travel and hospitality disciplines, the industry as a whole is yet to catch the imagination of the people as a career industry in the country. What is the reason for that? What are the trends, which are being witnessed vis-à-vis enrolment to these courses are concerned? Is the industry responsible for this negative image? What should the government agencies do? Trends There is a palpable decline in terms of the interests being shown towards tourism-related courses in recent years, feels people in the academic field. “It appears that the trend is on the decline. We participated in four education fairs and had very poor response for the hospitality industry as a career,” comments Virender Datta, Chairman, International Institute of Culinary Arts (IICA), New Delhi. He felt that there is a lack of awareness about various skill-oriented programmes, including Chef programmes in the society. “The craze is still for popular career of engineering, technology or regular BBA etc. The reason is primarily on the lack of awareness, poor starting salaries, attitude of the employer as expecting the most but wanting to pay the least,” he informed. Agrees R K Bhandari, Principal, Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology, Delhi, “The sheen and glory associated with the hotel management what used to be there in earlier days seems to be loosing fast.” Commenting on this year’s enrolment trends, S C Bagri, Director, Centre for Mountain Tourism & Hospitality Studies, HNB Garhwal University said that the response is ‘poor’. “In government institutes, there are smooth admission procedures but in private colleges, the interest of students is little bit declining. Some of the private institutes who have made intensive marketing are getting positive results. Certainly, there is a lack of interest among students to pursue career in hospitality courses,” he said. Although career opportunities are increasing in the hospitality and tourism industry, the interest towards hospitality and travel related programmes is going down, says Vaskar Sen Gupta, Director, IEC IHM, Greater Noida. He feels that the traditional mindset that hospitality degrees are just about hotel jobs is still high on people’s minds. However, K V Simon, Regional Vice President, American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI) has a different story to say. “I do not have authentic information or accurate statistics to confirm whether interest in hospitality and travel related courses is going up or down. One thing is for sure. Till nineties, the programmes were concentrated in cities. Now, we have an immense spread across the country, including rural areas. This to me is a good change,” he said analysing the trends. Simon refuses to accept that there is lack of interest towards these courses. “If at all there is, it is among the elite, educated, affluent class, which has far more other lucrative areas and opportunities. The poor and the needy will flock to hospitality, travel and tourism,” he argues. S K Saluja, Director, Amity School of Hospitality differs with the opinion that travel and hospitality related courses are not being preferred by people. The interest, according to Saluja, is ‘definitely up’. With the global economy opening up, people are looking at courses, which can fetch jobs in overseas markets. Hospitality courses are one of them, he contends. Whom to blame? Is industry the culprit? While we ponder the reasons, we must not ignore the feudal mindset of our society. We espouse the spirit of ‘Atiti Devo Bhava’ in public, at the same time, we look down upon the service sector, especially jobs in the hospitality sector. None other than Kapil Sibal, Union Human Resource Development Minister, said, “Our society still looks down upon people who opt for vocational courses. It is high time that we prepare our children for diversified occupations; everyone need not go to universities. Empowerment of children can come through vocational education as well,” he opines. People in the education sector blame it on the poor image of the industry for the ills. Long working hours, paltry salaries in the beginning, slow promotion avenues, etc. are cited as reasons. “The issue is students are getting disillusioned after passing out as they do not get the job they thought they shall be getting. This is leading to disillusionment and creating lesser intake of quality students into the industry,” observes Datta. The students are not fully conversant and aware about diverse opportunities in the hospitality sector. The reason for lack of interest can be low salary packages; long working hours and socially it is not considered as a respectable job, says Anand Kumar Singh, Director, MM Institute of Hotel Management, Mullana, Ambala. “No doubt, it is a largest employment generator, but, the industry opts for fresh graduates and trains them as per their needs. Even today, more than 50 per cent people in the industry are unskilled and without formal hospitality and tourism education,” he argues. “Certainly some of the archaic practices of the hospitality industry are detrimental to attracting the modern youth and the industry in general has a negative image from the point of being an employer of choice,” concedes Simon. The industry expects the institutes to supply fully trained personnel, but when it comes to salary and perks, it simply does not sync with what they spent to acquire the qualification. There is a huge mismatch between what the students aspire and what they get from the industry. This mismatch ultimately creates lot of disillusionment within a very short time after getting into the job. “Students are hardly getting the same what they have dreamt or learnt or what they should have got after graduating in Hospitality Management. What they are getting is nothing but situational exploitation which is due to non-uniform education, standards variation in curriculum standards and quality of education which creates large pool of mixed quality output and inefficient HR policies of some of the organisations,” Bhandari states. An ambiguous curriculum The ambiguity in terms of course curriculum is another major irritant in the travel and hospitality education. There are multiplicity of regulators and duplicity in relation to courses. Same courses are run under different nomenclatures across different institutions. While, there are only two formal programmes – one three-year degree programme approved by UGC and four-year degree programme by AICTE – the nomenclature of these programmes differ among institutes. Apart from these formal degrees, there are a number of other programmes in the country, run with affiliations from foreign universities as well as unapproved skill-oriented programmes run by end number of institutions. This, people in the educational sector feel, really creates confusion in the minds of the students and parents. There are voices that point fingers on the poor state of educational system in the country for the present state of affairs. Education has become a lucrative industry for investors, says Kapil Kumar, Chairperson, Faculty of History, School of Social Sciences, IGNOU. Lack of a single regulator is causing a lot of issues in the area of hospitality education. Institutes affiliated to AICTE are the real sufferers in the bargain. Questions are being raised on the folly of offering a four-year degree, when the same degree is offered by National Council and other universities across the country in three years. “There is no holistic view of the hospitality education across the county as a whole. Private colleges are the major sufferers since they are self financing institutions,” says Sen Gupta. Role of MoT While MoT is proactive in formulating policies to overcome the skill shortage in the tourism industry, these steps are more or less confined to institutes in the government sector. There is hardly anything being done to promote and streamline the hospitality education in the country by MoT. However, the recent initiative of the National Council for Hotel Management & Catering Technology (NCHMCT) to take the hospitality curriculum to the school level and the signing of the MoU with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been applauded by many. “MoT and its agency, the National Council has a vital role to play if the hospitality courses across the country are to be streamlined. The major problem lies in the fact that although they are considered as pioneers and regulatory authorities in hospitality, the interest shown is only towards the government institutions and state education bodies,” laments Sen Gupta. However, there are differing voices against any interference from the government to streamline the educational system. Instead of government interference, Simon argues for proper interaction between educational entrepreneurs and employer industry to create ‘anticipatory and market responsive’ courses for the industry.

Organic foods: Indians Slow to Harvest

Organic foods are well accepted in the Indian industry and market, but what cannot be ignored that their growth since introduction has been a slow process. MAANSI SHARMA traces the progress, advantages and challenges faced by the Indian organic food industry.

Organic foods are, as its name suggests, organic – right from the grass root level. They are cultivated without the use of preservatives, pesticides, insecticides or any other chemical components or synthetic substances. As a result, organic cuisine is healthy, safe and highly nutritious. Organic farming, for domestic consumption as well as exports, is one of the largest industries today.

Approximately 1.4 million farmers worldwide, with a total of 35 million hectare are engaged in organic farming. As on March 2010, India registered over 4.4 million hectares of organic farm land. In the early 1990s, a company called Organic India introduced organic farming methods to a set of farmers who had been witness to their crops falling prey to the adverse effects of chemicals used in the soil. Now India has over 44,000 certified farms that are reaping the benefits of the domestic, as well as export demand. In 2010, the organic market was estimated to be USD 129.3 million.


The first organic store Greenway opened at Mumbai in India in 1997 and started a trend that is here to stay. The domestic demand, followed by the export orders, for organic food continuously grew, and soon India became one of the largest markets for organic foods in the world.


“India has had organic food since the beginning of time. It only needs to be taken to a new level. Our regional Indian cuisine itself is a great unique selling proposition (USP), providing new options for the new generation. The customers are now more aware, more finicky and more health conscious, which automatically increases the demand for a healthier cuisine,” said Kamlesh Barot, Director, VIE Hospitality.


History
India has always been an agricultural land and organic farming has been in existence here for thousands of years. Traditionally, India used organic techniques for agriculture which served as the backbone for its economy before the British rule. In the 50s and 60s, when faced with famine, free India was forced to import food grains and increase food production as well. As a result, chemical farming came into existence in the country.


The increased dependence on chemicals eventually had its adverse effects on the land. It began losing its fertility, which led to an increased demand for synthetic fertilisers to keep the land reaping benefits. The increased costs that were a result of these necessities, leading to a gradual move back into organic farming.


The Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, instilled guidelines known as the ‘National Programme for Organic Production’ which provided schemes, assessments and certifications to ensure the genuineness of the products. Certification agencies were set up as well to monitor and supervise the producers and their farmlands to ensure their adherence to the set standards. They also provide easily identifiable logos that increase assurance among customers.


The challenges
“Organic food has all the advantages. As it is healthy and safe, people prefer to eat organic food, be it pulses, spices or vegetables. However, the cost factor does deter people from opting for it. Certified organic foods are more expensive by as much as 50 to 100 per cent. Another issue is credible certification. A lot of food is said to be organic, when it is not,” said Kamal Meattle, CEO, Paharpur Business Centre.


The last few years have seen a steady increase in demand for organic food, especially owing to a better-educated customer base that has understood and embraced a healthier lifestyle. However, the organic food market is still considered a very niche one. A few years ago, when India had registered 70,000 hectares of organic farm land, only one per cent of the Indian population were found consuming it. This may have been due to the price difference between organic and main stream cuisines or scepticism on the consumer’s part, as far as the genuineness of the product goes. Organic food is priced at nearly 25 per cent more than its non-organic equivalent. These prices are mainly owing to the process of acquiring the required certification for an organic farm to ensure its genuineness, along with years of intensive farming invested to convert the land to organic suitability. Additionally the labour, soil and care required to cultivate the organic crop, as well as the high price for the required certification, adds to the costs. The burden is borne by the customers.


Dismissing the common belief customers have about burdensome pricing on organic cuisine, Manjunath PR, Managing Director, Lumiere Organic Restaurant stated that the price difference between the organic and non-organic food may sound substantial when the numbers are shown individually but altogether a meal price difference is not as high as people believe it to be. “According to our logistics, the cost of most of the raw materials is 30 per cent, dry fruit 50 per cent, and pulses 10 to 20 per cent higher than their non-organic counterparts. However, if you consider one kilogram of organic rice, the cost price would be no more than Rs 10 higher, which for a family meal will not be much of a cost burden,” revealed Manjunath.


In 2010, the nation recorded 4.4 million hectare of certified organic farmland. In 2008-2009, 18.78 lakh tonnes of certified organic products were manufactured, of which 54,000 tonne food items were exported. In the domestic market, however, organic food demand is yet to reach these heights. Even the number of organic restaurants seems to have decreased over the years, although the cuisine entered the industry with a bang. Several organic restaurants have either switched to serving mainstream cuisine or stopped their services, including the much-praised organic restaurant Pure at Taj Lands End, Mumbai, a part of Indian Hotels Company (IHCL).


“ To execute an organic food operation in the hospitality industry is difficult in India, owing to the lack of easy availability, proper infrastructure and the customer’s trust in the product. While there are several certified organic farmers they are not geographically close to most big cities. There is also no proper infrastructure provided for the manufacturing of organic food products. In addition, customers are unable to put faith in the genuineness of the product or even in the genuineness of the certification for it. If these issues were solved it would have been easier and more profitable to run an organic restaurant and the popularity of the segment would have increased automatically with an increase in the available options for the cuisine,” added Manjunath.


Speaking on the topic, Amol Nirbhan, Business Development Manager, ECOCERT said, “The restaurants which claim to sell organic food must demonstrate that the raw materials procured are indeed certified organic, the menus they prepare should constitute the certified organic ingredients etc. Ecocert guidelines have been designed considering these important issues, but the response by this industry is still very low.”


“Although service is the main aim of the hospitality industry, profits are given equal attention. There is, thus, an evident lack of passion for organic food, possibly due to the fact that it is not yet as highly profitable as mainstream restaurants. There is also a difficulty in identifying genuine organic farmers and products, especially due to the lack of logistics for the same,” stated Manjunath.


Advantages and limitations of organic food industry

Advantages
•Health-consciousness and increased awareness among consumers
•Available government aid
•Large market for exports

Limitations
•High prices for products
•Difficulties and heavy costs incurred by farmers for cultivation and certification
•Lack of trust in authenticity of products


The market today
According to Nirbhan, “India is certainly emerging as both a producing and consuming country for organic foods. In the next five years, the population in major cities in India will have an easy access to certified organic fruits, vegetables, milk, ghee etc. at an affordable costs.”


“In India we have access to all the organic food raw materials, including spices and condiments, which takes our organic cuisine to a whole new level. At our establishment Revival Indian Thali in Mumbai, one of the most popular dishes is a basic khichdi, which shows that even the simplest meal is tasty in organic cuisine owing to its light weight and health benefits. Most of our customers are those who are aware of the benefits of organic foods, such as those who demand trans-fat free food to escape cholesterol-related problems etc. The industry is dependent on the suppliers of raw materials and since our market has those in abundance, there is an expected increase in demand as well,” added Barot.


According to Jackie Lobo, Executive, Down to Earth, an organic food store across India, there is a definite increase in the demand for organic food in the market. Customers are more aware and have more spending power, and these have overpowered the price difference between the organic and non-organic food items, which used to pose a problem in earlier years. Among the middle class and above segments of society, consumers are insisting on organic food materials, which is a definite indication of its gaining popularity.


Speaking about the future of the organic food industry Meattle opined, “According to newspaper reports, India currently exports an estimated USD 500 million worth of organic agricultural and horticulture produce and products. This can be increased several fold. The global organic food industry continues its unprecedented growth path with sales expected to cross USD 100 billion this year. As stated by experts, in the remote interior parts of rural India’s agricultural land is still untouched by the excesses of chemicals and fertilisers, because the poor and marginal farmers could not afford fertilisers. This has resulted in such land being untouched by pesticides and artificial fertilisers and can be channelised towards organic farming.”

Housekeeping Tech: Old Trade, New Tricks

Housekeeping is considered as the backbone of the hotel industry. The latest technological advancements has brought about a change in this department’s work system. SANJAY PATHAK finds out how modern technology is playing an important role.

Housekeeping services in a hotel is entrusted with maintaining a hygienic and clean environment. A decade ago, staff were involved in completing the paper work after their assigned job. Room checklist, lost and found, discrepancy report, vacant, dirty and occupied cabin list etc, were mandatory and was noted down manually.

Housekeeping department has large number of staff working right from the Executive Housekeeper (EHK) to housemen. Right from the EHK to housemen, everyone was responsible to finish their respective paper work. Most of the vacant space in the department was occupied by these paper sheet in the folder and were maintained for future references.

As time passed by, technology came into existence and the workload of paper and manual job was cut down to minimium but not completely. However, technology has improved the work efficiency and eliminated most of the time consuming work in the housekeeping department. With development in technology, the work pattern changed a lot in the housekeeping department, which resulted in reduction of manpower and time.



Prior housekeeping processes
Housekeeping job always being a physical work but at the same time it was also a clerical job for the housekeepers. Housekeeping department has large number of staff working right from the EHK to housemen. The supervisor used to note down all the occupied, vacant, dirty rooms of the day and send it to the EHK and the front office. This was done three times a day i.e. in the morning, afternoon and night. Supervisors were responsible for the inventory of the linen. A work list or maintenance slip was prepared for engineering departments for all maintenance work. The housekeeping staff had to undertake these things everyday. The above work was done manually on paper and used to consume a lot of time.


According to Meghana Tendulkar, Executive Housekeeper, Hotel Marine Plaza, “Previously there were a lot of things in the hotel, which were done manually, right from the room status to guest request. Supervisors used to check the room, come down, fill up the register and call up the front office or send a note stating which rooms were clear for business. Even the guest request was a time consuming process as it used to be directed from room maid to supervisor or desk and then again through the same channel to complete the request. The only way one could know that the request is completed was the guest request book at the desk.”



Echoing with the above statement, Rekha Mehta, Director Housekeeping, Intercontinental Marine Drive said, “Earlier we assigned one person to do all the paper work. He had to come down or call the desk to update the maintenance job or for any other work . Lost and found procedure was time consuming and sometimes there used to be discrepancy in room reports sent to the front office. There were no means of communication apart from the phone line at the desk and guest request used to take time to complete.”

Present Scenario
Today, technological evolution being the mantra globally, most of the hotels in the world have installed and applied various applications and software systems. This helped hotelier and also the staff to learn, understand and aware of the latest technology. Today, there are various technology solution company providing the application and services to the hotel industry in India.

“Housekeeping, though a core operational department for any hotel, has not seen many changes, as far as technology is concerned. A few PMS (property management systems) just brush through a small portion of the entire accommodations operations but do not provide a comprehensive solution to the host of activities. The technology at present is limited to majorly just two activities i.e. PMS - caters to the room status coordination between front desk and housekeeping and maintenance related coordination between engineering and housekeeping,” Manish Jain, Director, Kazzam- housekeeping solution company, said.

Developments in the industry - Benefits of technology
Since the inception of technology in the housekeeping department, work has become easier. “Previously, the housekeeping department was considered responsible only for maintaining basic cleanliness and upkeep of the property. Not much emphasis was laid on analysis-reports, software, training of staff related to the latest happening in field of housekeeping. However, in the last five years, trends have definitely changed with more focus on creativity, innovations, training, use of the latest equipments and technologies and software with new processes and standard operating procedure in place, said Mandeep Aasht, Executive Housekeeper, Jaypee Palace Hotel and Convention Centre, Agra.
According to Prem Samuel, Executive House Keeper, Vivanta by Taj, MG Road Bangalore, “Technology is being upgraded every single day and the housekeeping department has seen a sea of change when it comes to technology. Technology helps us in simplifying our work and brings more efficiency to the system. For example, personal digital assistant’s are being used by the supervisors to clear rooms, to get all the information and preferences of the guests and to update the same. In case the guest is checking in for the first time, preferences are taken from the Internet and social websites. Computers reduces the number of papers used thus reducing the impact on the environment. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) are being used in linen to track pilferage. Automatic chemical diluting machines are being used to get the right dilution thereby reducing wastage and increasing efficiency.”

Multiple Uses
PMS, iPads, smartphones, maintenance related coordination, inventory tracking system, RFID (a chip, created by linen technology tracking, are being sewn into anything made of cloth inside a hotel room where a sensor will go off to alert the hotel immediately while taking it) is an example of how technology has been applied in the housekeeping department.

Amlan Ghose, Managing Director, Prologic First informed, “We have offered features to update room status from guest room phones (Today, we enable the same through High Television also known as HITV). We were the first international vendors to introduce features for lost and found tracking and loaned items control. We were also the first to allow maintenance requests to be logged and monitored through the housekeeping software. Today, we offer guest response management system that registers all guest requests, assigns it to staff over mobile text messaging, monitors completion, escalates service delays and records cost of service failures.”

Another company which has been active in making housekeeping solution is IDS Softwares. Solomon James, Vice President, IDS Networks Group said, “The housekeeping department has always looked for, and in most cases adopted comprehensive technology solutions that enhance their overall efficiency, for example, iPads and smartphones with specific housekeeping applications on it, kiosk-based stations at floors and text message modules to address guest grievances rapidly. Numerous functions such as room cleaning, lost and found, housekeeping supplies and inventory, accessing the mini bar using telephones and other common housekeeping functions have been automated using smart applications. We at IDS NEXT constantly engage in research and involve our customers in the process to develop better software offerings especially targeted at addressing their pin-points.”

Overall Impact
The housekeeping department has always been criticised but usually has the least customer interaction. Now, it is fast becoming the most significant department with the management of rooms being high on the priority list.

Liz Moores, Director of Product, Quadriga Worldwide Ltd, UK said, “The industry has definitely made use of the new technology available to increase efficiency and standardise operations. Overall, hotels are using innovative technology within guest rooms to promote hotel facilities and drive revenue opportunities, in short, provide a better service and connect with the customer. Staff retention has also become a driving force in the adoption of new technology. Increased communication between housekeeping staff help to add value. The multiple language feature in technology also enables management to help staff understand fully what is expected in terms of room maintenance and stock control.”

“The largest expense on a hotel’s balance sheet is manpower, out of which 40 per cent is due to housekeeping. Hotels are now looking for solutions that enable them to optimise manpower through innovative means, which is why technology is vital to the housekeeping department,” added Jones.

With a similar view, Jain said, “Housekeeping is responsible for all-important first impressions (cleanliness, upkeep and maintenance). A successful team can influence the profit margins of the hotel than any other department. It is humanly impossible to keep a track of various activities and to remember how many rooms in a 400-room hotel need a room painting or out of 100-plus team members who is most weak in bed making. The worst comes when a housekepeer leaves and a new one joins with no clue of where the department is headed. So, the need to have technology assist in planning the departments progress synergised with the hotels vision is top priority.”


Future Technology
No one can predict the future and no one can say what could be the future in technology in coming years. However, there are individuals who are working and want to develop or want something with some more productivity, which can be useful to the housekeeping department in the near future.

According to Moores, “As innovations in the consumer electronics world evolve, this trend will undoubtedly influence what guests will come to expect during their stay. Travellers will be demanding access to more Internet-based content through the in-room television, acting as a digital concierge to access information. Internet applications on TV sets and 3D viewing and this will further influence consumer choices and the ability for the hotel to deliver the ‘complete experience.”

“The future technology for hospitality would be better sleep management system, innovative service designs for quicker and efficient service,” added Samuel.

However, India is fast catching up with the latest technology and in some areas are better than what the others can offer. It is time, which will decide the excellence of technology in India.