During her remarkable career as press photographer, she chronicled India’s march toward independence.

Along the way she photographed many world figures: Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama and Lord Mountbatten to name a few, as well as American presidents and First ladies.

Anchor Marco Werman speaks to biographer and filmmaker Sabeena Gadihoke about this pioneering photojournalist.

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman: You may not have heard of Homai Vyarawalla, who passed away last month at age 98, but you’ve likely seen her black and white photographs. The photojournalist’s career was focused on chronicling India’s march toward independence, and she photographed many notable figures, Mahtama Gandhi, the Dalai Lama as well as Lord Mountbatten and a number of American presidents. Sabeena Gadihoke was a friend and has written a biography of Homai Vyarawalla. Sabeena, tell us why you see her as a pioneer.

Sabeena Gadihoke: Well, you know, she was actually the only woman press photographer in her time. It was quite an incredible achievement for an Iva (?). You have to remember that she photographed during an extremely tumultuous time in India’s independence. These were the events leading up to India’s independence, these were the elite ’30s and the elite ’40s. In fact, the only other woman that we saw in India photographing at this time was Margaret Burkwhite; we were actually watching an American woman photographing, and then there was Homai Vyarawalla. The other part of the story is that she was also quite an incredible photographer. Her photographs are quite incredibly striking and many of the images, iconic images, of Indian independence, of events leading up to partition, Gandhi’s funeral, famous images of Nehru, other statesmen, you know, events to do with nation building are actually images taken by Homai Vyarawalla.

Werman: Well, tell me about a couple of your favorite photographs where you know, that artistic skill and history kind of merged.

Gadihoke: When I first got to know Homai’s work I learned to recognize many of her very powerful and famous images. So for instance, one of her most iconic images is Nehru smiling and standing next to a board saying, “photography prohibited.” He was her favorite subject. You know, you always have this completely public figure, but always posing for the camera, so you see him hugging his sister. You have a photograph of him lighting up a cigarette for a beautiful woman who’s actually the wife of the Deputy High Commissioner of Britain. You know, you don’t see those kinds of images in public in India. But I would say that later when I got to know her work better my more favorite images are the quieter images, which were not images of public figures, but those were images that she had taken in the ’30s when she was not very well known as a political photographer, but she was just roaming the streets of Mumbai and she was photographing ordinary, everyday life. She was photographing young women on the streets in Mumbai. She was photographing a quiet moment for instance, at a railway station where she picked out just a young woman waiting with her 10 trunks at a railway station. You know, those are the kinds of pictures that are my favorite.

Werman: You know, we think of the world of photo journalism and how competitive it is today, paparazzi clamoring for access, how did Vyarawalla gain access with some of these you know, leaders?

Gadihoke: As far as being the only woman photographing all these politicians was concerned, I think it also worked to her advantage sometimes because she was the only woman in a crowd of men. Now, you can imagine, that when she’s standing in a crowd of photographers, you know, the figure, the public figure being photographed, it’s quite natural that people would turn to look at her. And she’d get an interesting picture as a result of that. She was also very a patient photographer and she talks about how when everybody would be scrambling to get that picture she’d just step away and wait. And she’d wait until everybody stopped taking pictures and then she’d step forward and get that wonderful picture.

Werman: That’s a great bit of guidance for young photojournalists.

Gadihoke: Mm-hm.

Werman: But she also hustled, let’s make no mistake, I mean I gather she often rode a bicycle through the streets of New Delhi to assignments, her sari flapping behind her in the breeze.

Gadihoke: She did. You can imagine how wearing the sari and with two heavy cameras — remember that in those days the lighter cameras were actually pretty heavy, they were medium formats, speed graphics and reflex with a huge reflector and a huge big flash, you know, box of flash bulbs, each of them the size of a household bulb. You know, so bags, one bag containing used bulbs and another with new ones, and a wooden tripod and all of that on a bicycle.

Werman: What do you hope students of media will take away first and foremost about her life as a photojournalist?

Gadihoke: For me as a biographer, what I think is very interesting about her life is that here’s an incredible life of a woman who lived through almost a century of history, so for me as a biographer it’s also about telling her story as a pioneering woman who lived through a century of history. But as far as students of the media are concerned there are all these different things that Homai believed in. And one of the most important things that she believed in was the dignity of the subject and I think for students of media today, I think that’s one of the most important things to take away. Here was somebody who if you asked her what, you know, even today when people would turn around and say to her, what would you know, what would she have to say to people today? And that’s the most important thing that she would say to people, “Keep the dignity of your subject in mind.”

Werman: Sabeena Gadhioke teaches video and TV production at Jamia University in New Delhi. Very good to speak with you and thanks for telling us about the life of Homai Vyarawalla.

Gadihoke: Thank you very much.

Werman: Keep the dignity of your subject in mind. Judge for yourself. We’ve got a slide show of Homai Vyarawalla’s black and white photos at theworld.org.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Meet the Elite Football League of India.

It’s India’s first professional American-style football league, funded by a long list of Indian and US investors, including former NFL player and coach Mike Ditka, and former Green Bay Packers linebacker Brandon O’Neil Chillar.

The league has a lot of work to do before the official kick-off in November. For one thing, most of the players and coaches have to learn the sport. Some had never even heard of American football before.

On the field, coach JJ Lawson tells the aspiring players that guards have to be big, strong, and fast. Lawson is a big man, who coached high school football in Louisiana for 15 years. Now he is here training Indian players and coaches.

Lawson said that to play high level football, you need great athletes and that requires a large population.

“India is such a large country that I just feel like it’s a great place for it,” Lawson said.

So far, about 400 players have been recruited from all over India. They come to Pune for boot camp.

They look more like high school players than their beefy NFL counterparts. But they all have an athletic background.

Rajeev Dev Goel, head coach of the Pune Blacktigers, helped with the recruiting.

“We went to boxing clubs, we went to wrestlers, we went to judo places,” Goel said. “We even went to volleyball and basketball because we need some tall boys to collect the ball as wide receivers.”

Goel learned about football when he lived in the US, and that’s true for some of the players as well. Sameer Tejani studied at Temple University in Philadelphia, and he became an avid fan there.

“I’ve always been passionate for sports. But I never really got an opportunity to play a sport or represent a city or a country or even a club,” Tejani said. “So I thought, let me just give it a shot with American football.”

Tejani helps run his family’s business; he’s taking a break now from that. But most of the players come from poor villages where few people have seen football.

For Dinesh, who plays for the Chennai Swarm, the chance to try a new sport wasn’t his only motivation.

He said he’s making enough to send home 12,000 rupees a month, about $230 dollars, and the money will help with his sister’s wedding.

Dinesh showed his family some football on YouTube, and he said that it scared them at first, but they’re excited now. He said he’s sure other Indians will want to watch football on TV.

That’s what Kevin Dieball, in Arizona, wants to hear. As one of the league’s investors, he said India’s booming economy means football has huge potential in here — even though cricket has been India’s sport of choice since the British Raj.

“I just think [football’s] more of a thrilling game and the physical aspect of it is really big,” Dieball said. “As the culture shifts towards that, I think that’s how we can be as successful, or more successful, than cricket in that country.”

Dieball and his fellow investors ultimately hope to sell the teams to companies and wealthy individuals in India. They’re banking on the players becoming superstars, like Bollywood actors and cricketers.

That could take some time. For now, Ashutosh Rathod, the quarterback for the Mumbai Gladiators, said when he puts on the uniform, he feels transformed.

“It feels really good because it’s new, and if somewhere history will be written, our names will be there,” Rathod said, “because we started it.”

A man smokes in front of a closed shop displaying the Loop mobile logo on its shutter in Mumbai. (Photo: REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui)

From our colleagues at the BBC:

India’s Supreme Court has canceled 122 telecommunications licenses awarded to companies in 2008.

The licenses were issued by former minister A Raja, who is accused of mis-selling bandwidth in what has been called India’s biggest corruption scandal. Mr Raja denies wrongdoing.

Government auditors say the scandal cost the country about $40bn (£24.5bn).

The judges also ordered a court to decide whether Home Minister P Chidambaram should be investigated.

Opposition MPs accuse Mr Chidambaram of failing to prevent the scandal when he was finance minister. He denies any wrongdoing.

Mr Raja is currently on trial for fraud.

The ruling is the latest chapter in a long-running drama about corruption in India. The country is one of the world’s fastest growing markets for mobile telephones with just under 900 million connections. The sale of these telecoms licenses had therefore provoked outrage in certain quarters of the Indian media for years.

Such public criticism and suspicion provided much of the impetus for the recent anti-corruption protests led by civil society activist Anna Hazare and yoga guru Baba Ramdev.

We’ve been covering those protests for a while, including Hazare’s public fast in December.

Here’s more on the implications of the telecoms ruling from Alam Srinivas, author of The Indian Consumer:

The Supreme Court order will have significant implications.

It will affect the millions of subscribers of the companies whose licenses have been revoked. The consumers will need to change their service providers, or wait for new licenses to be issued.

Well-known global telecom firms like SingTel and Docomo, which bought stakes in Indian companies after paying a massive premium, will need to rethink their India strategy and look for legal ways to recover their existing investments.

Sentiments among the domestic and foreign community about doing business in India will turn negative.

Indian banks, which gave huge loans to the new licence holders, will have to show more bad loans, or non-performing assets, on their balance sheets.

The good news: the government can now hold an auction for fresh licenses which may result in huge revenues that can positively impact the fiscal deficit in 2011-12.

Needless to say, some of the Indian telecoms firms that bought licenses in 2008 are deeply unhappy at this ruling. More from the BBC story:

Uninor, the Indian joint venture of Norway’s Telenor, said it had been “unfairly treated” and “was shocked” by the court verdict.

Telenor President Jon Fredrik Baksaas told the BBC that the ruling was “extraordinary”.

“There’s frustration we are not seeing a regulatory framework with some nuts and bolts so it justifies the numerous investments that we and others have made,” he said.

Telenor has 30 million customers in India who face losing their connection in four months, Mr Baksaas said.

“If the worst comes to worst, it will be the end of Telenor’s business in India,” he added.

A lot of investors will soon be scrambling to pick up some shares.

The social media giant has hundreds of millions of users around the globe.

But for our Geo Quiz we are looking for Facebook’s fastest growing markets.

In other words, we want to know which countries are experiencing an explosive growth of Facebook users?

Brazil and India are the answers to the Geo Quiz.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to Zeynep Tufekci, professor at the University of North Carolina. Tufekci teaches the social impacts of technology at the University.

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Many Muslims called the novel blasphemous.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death.

That sent Rushdie into hiding for years.

Now, there is a new conflict over Rushdie in India, where he was burn.

The British author was scheduled to speak this weekend at India’s largest literary festival organized in the northwestern city of Jaipur.

But Rushdie canceled after police warned him of a threat against his life.

The organizers tried to have Rushdie appear by video-link, but the owner of the hotel where the festival was held canceled the video link Tuesday, just minutes before Rushdie was scheduled to appear.

The "Angry Brides" application is aimed at discouraging people from taking dowry. (Photo: facebook.com/shaadicom)

The game called “Angry Brides” is designed to raise awareness about the problem of dowry in India.

Dowry was outlawed in India decades ago, but some grooms’ families still demand the payments illicitly.

So, for the Geo Quiz we are looking for the city where the creators of the game, at India’s largest dating website “shaadi.com” are based.

It is the capital of the western Indian state of Maharashtra and with 20 million residents, ranks as one of the most populated cities on the planet.

Mumbai is the answer to the Geo Quiz.

Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Shaadi.com spokesperson Ram Bhamidi about the new app, which is designed to discourage the practice of exacting dowry from brides’ families.

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Indian school children (Photo: Elliot Hannon)

Across India, education is seen as the key to continuing the country’s economic rise, and including more people in the newfound boom. India is known for turning out doctors and engineers, and opportunities abound for educated job-seekers. But for many in India, getting a quality education — or any education at all — remains a challenge. In fact, nearly half of India’s children don’t get past primary school.

There are many reasons for the high-dropout rate, according to Sujata Khanna of Butterflies, an educational NGO.

“Many of these children are working, whether it’s working within their household, taking care of a sibling while their parents are out, or working outside and earning money for their family,” Khanna said. “Or it could be that the school is too far away for them to walk.”

To get kids back in school, Butterflies decided to bring the classroom directly to areas with the highest dropout rates.

The group gutted a bright yellow school bus and remade it into a mobile classroom, called the Chalta Firta School. It’s equipped with a small library of books, and shelves of crayons and toys, everything a teacher might need to run a classroom.

On hot days, and when attendance overcrowds the school bus classroom, class is held outside. In one class, two teachers circle a group of 30 children, ranging in age from 6 to 14. The teachers go through a condensed lesson plan aimed at getting children ready to enroll in a formal school. They cover everything from math and science to English and yoga.

Anchan, who’s 10 years old, has never been to school before. She said she likes to study in the bus. “I want my dreams to come true,” she said. “I want to go to school.”

Many of the families of these students have migrated from other parts of India. They work as day laborers or run small roadside tea stalls. To scratch out a living, the entire family often has to help.

Sundri and her husband came to New Delhi with their three children several years ago because there were no jobs at in their village, 50 miles from Delhi. Despite the meager living conditions, their new home is an improvement, especially for her three children, and she’s looking to the mobile classroom to make sure her children won’t have to do the same thing.

“My husband and I couldn’t become anything,” Sundri said, “but I really want my children to become something, anything. Make them anything you wish, but make sure they become something” – and that, she said, starts with going to school.

It’s worrisome news, to be sure, but you can’t say it’s unexpected. The world has been headed in this direction for quite some time.

TB is an ancient disease (formerly called consumption) that, for most of human history, was untreatable by drugs. Humans gained the upper hand, beginning in the 1940’s, with a raft of effective antibiotics: streptomycin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, rifampin, and others.

The misuse and overuse of these drugs, however, can cause them to lose their potency, and that’s what’s been happening – leading to an ominous progression of acronyms:

MDR-TB (multidrug-resistant tuberculosis) showed up in the 1990’s. These strains resist the two most common TB drugs.

XDR-TB (extensively drug-resistant) was first seen in the 2000’s. These strains also resist some of the more expensive, second-line drugs.

The strain in India seems to have reached the logical endpoint. Doctors call it TDR-TB – totally drug-resistant.

“This is entirely predictable,” says Dr. Paul Nunn of the World Health Organization’s Stop TB Department. In fact, he says, a handful of cases of TDR-TB have been reported before, in Italy, Germany, and Iran.

Nunn holds out hope that even TDR-TB may turn out to be treatable with some especially esoteric drugs. TDR-TB “hasn’t been tested against every drug there is,” he says.

But Nunn and others are worried. They’re keeping a close eye on India to see if this isolated handful of cases grows and spreads, moving into the community at large.

Silkworm farmer H. B. Manjunath talks with a solar technician about the solar panel installed on his rooftop. (Photo: Sonia Narang)

Sonia Narang reports from southern India on the growth of solar power in rural parts of the country. Small loans have made solar panels available to homes and businesses that otherwise suffer from India’s severe electricity shortage.

In Chemangala village in southern India, silk farmer H.B. Manjunath walks into a back room of a dark thatched roof cabin, flips on a light switch and watches as the cool light from the lamp illuminates hundreds of milky white silkworms crawling in a wooden box full of mulberry leaves. The worms need the crispy leaves to survive and spin their silk cocoons, but they’ll only do it when there’s continuous light. And Manjunath says that used to be very hard to come by.

“We had four or five hours of unscheduled power cuts everyday,” Manjunath says. “Sometimes, we would not have it at all.”

But that changed when Manjunath took out a small loan from his local bank to pay for a single solar panel and batteries to store the electricity. The 120 watt system generates enough power to illuminate the silkworms for three hours a day.

Now, Manjunath says, he’s not worried even if he doesn’t have grid power for 24 hours. “The solar works for us,” he says.

Manjunath’s bank loan was part of an effort in the southern state of Karnataka to promote affordable solar lighting in rural areas, an effort that’s in turn part of a national trend. India’s central government hopes to boost renewable sources of energy and install 20,000 megawatts of solar generating capacity over the next decade, to help fill a huge power gap in the country.

Five hundred million people today do not have electricity in the country. That’s nearly half the population. And even places that are hooked up to the grid can face daily blackouts.

Dr. Harish Hande, founder of the Bangalore-based solar company SELCO, says the need for energy is urgent, and not just so people can run their businesses or light their homes.

“It’s very important from a governance point of view, India’s social stability point of view, that we need to provide basic needs,” Hande says.

India’s economy is booming, but conventional sources of electricity just haven’t been able to keep up with the growth in demand in India. That’s one reason Hande spent years trying to convince local banks in Karnataka to offer small loans to rural families for renewable energy systems. In recognition of his efforts, Hande recently was awarded the prestigious Magsaysay Award, sometimes called the Asian Nobel prize.

Hande says solar lighting can have a profound emotional impact on the poor.

“A day laborer once told me that you would not understand what it actually means after a hard day’s work coming back to a house which is dimly lit,” Hande says. “The mood which is already down goes down deeper. Once you see bright light, it’s a different feeling. It’s a different way of life where you look forward to tomorrow. He says ‘I’m willing to pay for that.’”

Hande says many rural Indians are willing and able to pay for solar and other renewable sources of energy, if the cost can be spread out over time. That’s where the bank loans come in. Silk farmer Manjunath’s solar system cost $400 to install. That’s more than he would have been able to afford at once, but with the loan, he pays less than $7 a month.

Dr. Ashok Gadgil, an Indian physicist who’s now director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California, says India’s critical shortage of conventional electricity has created a big niche for solar power.

“Acute electricity shortage means blackouts, and blackouts mean lost income and lost business,” Gadgil says. “So there are many, many opportunities where photovoltaic electricity for economically productive uses is viable in India even at the current prices.”

And the technology is starting to catch on in Karnataka. Silk farmer Manjunath says he was one of the first in his neighborhood to install the panels, but that word travels fast here, and more than 100 households have followed suit.

And the electricity isn’t just benefiting local businesses.

On a recent afternoon a group of energetic teenage boys gathered around the solar panel on Manjunath’s roof after school. The boys say they stick around Manjunath’s house during the evening hours to finish up their homework under the lamps.

“With solar power,” says one of the boys, “I can study continuously without stopping. And it doesn’t matter if there’s a power cut at night.”

The lawmakers had to act after months of public demonstrations brought thousands of Indians into the streets to protest government graft.

Meanwhile anti-corruption activist in India, Anna Hazare began a three-day hunger strike, his third this year. He has been campaigning for a stronger law to check corruption than the one being debated in India’s parliament.

Anchor Lisa Mullins talks to Vikas Bajaj, a New York Times correspondent who was present at a rally in Mumbai Tuesday. He tells why this is such an emotive issue in the country.

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World, a coproduction of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH in Boston. The lower house of the Indian parliament passed a bill today to create and anti-corruption ombudsman. The lawmakers pretty much had to act after months of public demonstrations brought tens of thousands of Indians onto the streets to protest government graft. Meanwhile a prominent opponent of the bill began a three-day fast in Mumbai. Anna Hazare is demanding much tougher legislation. New York Times Mumbai correspondent Vikas Bajaj was at the protest rally that Hazare organized. What is the nature of the protests that pressured the government?

Vikas Bajaj: The nature of the protests is rallies around Mr. Hazare when he’s fasting. There are also rallies in the streets from time to time. It’s not you know, it’s nothing compared to what we saw in the Arab Spring, but there have been many instances now this year of people coming out into the streets and thousands to protest corruption. Indians see corruption sort of in their everyday lives, although it’s unclear whether that’s what’s motivating them or whether it’s the large corruption scandals that have been uncovered this year related to telecom licenses and the Commonwealth Games that were held last year.

Mullins: Describe both of those for us. What happened on a mega level and then what’s happening individually in terms of people’s lives and that’s certainly not new.

Bajaj: At the mega level there were these telecom licenses that were given out in 2008 and a government audit found that perhaps as much as $40 billion in revenues was lost because the licenses were given out in a first come, first served basis, rather than being auctioned as they would’ve been say in the United States. The assumption is many officials were paid off to rid the licenses in such a way that certain favored companies got them. In the Commonwealth Games, this was the big games held last year, that a lot of equipment and construction was done at really inflated prices. And there are people in jail in both of these scandals who are awaiting trial.

Mullins: How about on the micro level, how corruption still reaches down to the people?

Bajaj: So the micro level, you know, the corruption that most people are really upset about is the corruption that involves police officers for instance, you know, you have to bribe them when they stop you for traffic infractions, or you have to bribe them to register a complaint. If you want to get what’s called a ration card, which is a card that essentially allows you to buy food at a subsidized rate you have to pay somebody off. If you want to get a passport you have to pay usually the passport office and then the police officer who comes to check.

Mullins: So, this activist is as you said on his third hunger strike of the year, Anna Hazare, how is he doing physically by the way?

Bajaj: His aids say that he is ill. He’s got a virus infection, and they say that he already hasn’t been eating for two days, and he’s been on medication. One of them when I was there at the rally today said that he asked him to at least have some fruit so that he’d recover some strength, but he appears not to heed that advice.

Mullins: Vikas Bajaj of the New York Times in Mumbai, thank you very much.

Bajaj: Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

What made it distinctly Indian was one of the figures at the center of the protest: a bare-chested yoga guru named Baba Ramdev who undertook a public fast. (The other central figure was–and remains–the social activist Anna Hazare.)

These days stories from India tend to be about the country’s technology-driven charge into the 21st century, powered by an army of web gurus.

In contrast, the notion of spiritual gurus conjures the image of hermits living in the mountains, or bearded sages from the sixties living in remote ashrams.

So how did they become some of India’s most powerful figures?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is one of India’s most visible gurus. He displays all the hallmarks of the Indian guru: He’s childlike, he giggles; there’s flowing hair and simple robes.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Photo: Alex Gallafent)

Don’t confuse Sri Sri Ravi Shankar with Ravi Shankar the sitar player. This one leads an international non-profit organization called The Art of Living: it aims to create a world free from violence by eliminating stress.

But the guru says he’s also obliged to speak out on Indian politics, for instance corruption. “Spiritual leaders cannot sit back and say this is not my area. They have to take action. They have the role of reformers, not rulers, but they will have to have a say.”

They already do have a say.

When Baba Ramdev arrived for his anti-corruption fast in Delhi, Indian government ministers took the time to meet him at the airport. That’s a lot of political bowing and scraping for someone unelected. And it provoked a degree of soul-searching in the Indian media.

On Indian TV commentators wondered if the likes of Baba Ramdev were indeed more like politicians than gurus. Was it, they asked, for him to be weighing in on complicated national issues such as corruption?

The consensus is that spiritual leaders like Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar have managed to do what India’s political leaders have so far not: capture the hearts and minds of many in India’s growing middle-class.

Ramnath Narayanswamy is a professor of management at a Bangalore business college. He teaches a course called ‘Spirituality for Global Managers’.

“I think India’s unique contribution to world civilization is precisely what we call in Sanskrit a ‘guru shishya parampara’, the relationship between a master and his disciple” he says.

Ramnath Narayanswamy's ring bears the image of his guru (Photo: Alex Gallafent)

That master-disciple relationship still resonates throughout Indian society–from the office to the school to the ashram. Pair a genuine teacher with a committed student and knowledge will flow.

Narayanswamy met his own guru on July 28th, 2007.

“It was an enormous outpouring of love,” he remembers.

Narayanswamy says his guru has spiritual powers beyond rational understanding.

“As soon as I approached he seemed to know everything about me. In about three minutes he told me my whole life. He knew everything. If there’s a scratch on your body, he’d know about it. And he’s never wrong.”

But millions of Indians–especially young Indians–aren’t so comfortable with that degree of belief.

Young professionals like Nandini Rao are members of the secular global community. She’s a brand manager for an IT company in Bangalore. But she’s also Indian.

“At one level we feel very educated, all of us are traveling across the globe,” she says.

“But at the same time there is a conflict.. How much of a connection should I have to my Indian roots?”

The problem is that, as India’s middle class has grown, its Indian roots have become harder to grasp.

In a city like Bangalore, people don’t know their neighbors any more. They’re unhappy with their careers, or their appearance. They’re money-conscious and time-poor.

So what do you do?

Well therapy’s out, says Sumit Acharya, another IT worker. This is India, after all.

“If somebody wants to go and talk to a psychologist it will be considered a negative in the society,” he argues.

“But if somebody goes and meets the gurus, [it] will be considered a very positive step forward.”

So you’ve got a growing Indian middle class that’s feeling cut off from its roots. And you’ve got this cultural ideal of the master-disciple relationship. Put the two together and you get some pretty fertile soil for an enterprising guru.

A bearded sage by the name of Sadhguru appears on giant billboards throughout Bangalore. He’s developed a philosophy designed to appeal to tech-savvy Indians. It’s called ‘Inner Engineering’.

A Bangalore billboard promoting 'Inner Engineering' (Photo: Alex Gallafent)

Sadhguru is a kind of life coach as much as anything else.

“Engineering fundamentally means to create situations the way we want it. But our inner situations are not the way we want it.”

He sells DVDs and self-help books alongside his Inner Engineering course. The profits, his foundation says, help fund charitable projects in rural India.

But even if the motives of Sadhguru and others are humanitarian, the sheer scale of their operations makes others uneasy. Ramachandra Guha is a well-known Indian author and columnist.

“Historically and traditionally, spirituality has been associated with solitude, with a retreat from the world,” he says.

“It’s rather difficult for someone like me to think of such a guru who’s interested in brand strategy and brand marketing and expanding his empire. But that’s how many Indian gurus are today.”

Some say many of today’s gurus are something else: corrupt.

Sathya Sai Baba, who died earlier this year, was one of India’s most powerful and revered spiritual leaders.

He built schools, hospitals, and transformed his own village into a thriving city. But over the years, he was also publicly accused of money-laundering, fraud and sexual abuse–charges he always denied. And after his death, large amounts of cash, gold and silver were found in his private quarters.

For Ranji David, an IT training manager, he was just one of many gurus who didn’t live up to their billing.

“What makes it frustrating for the urban youth is that every time these babajis come it’s good work and you know packaged really well. But somewhere down the line they get exposed.”

So how can Indians today tell the difference between the fraud and the teacher worth following? It’s an important question, not just for India’s spiritual life, but for its political future too.

One straightforward answer came from, as it happened, another guru–a clean-shaven man named Eswaran. He lives with his wife in a small apartment near the center of Bangalore.

Vedanta guru Eswaran at home in Bangalore (Photo: Alex Gallafent)

“When it comes to the teaching of the master, you [must] go extremely critical,” he says.

“You’ve got to be doubting, doubting, questioning, questioning, questioning.”

In other words, don’t forget to use your brain.

“God has given intellect to human being[s], right. For what? To think.”

Good advice in any age.

Owner Elias Josephai is better known around here as Babu, and his well-organized store is a sanctuary from the sensory overload of the surrounding market. But little do most of Babu’s customers know that the heavy teak doors at the back of the store open into a different kind of sanctuary: the Kadavumbhagum Synagogue.

Babu is one of about 30 remaining members of the Malabari Jewish community. They’ve lived here, on the Malabar Coast in the south Indian state of Kerala, for generations. In 1948, the State of Israel was established, and within five years, all but 100 of Kerala’s 2,400 Malabari Jews had emigrated there. Babu himself tried to go. But there were other reasons to stay in Kerala.

“My family wouldn’t allow me,” says Babu. “My grandmother said that there wouldn’t be anyone for Friday prayer services if I left. I was about to go to Israel but God kept me over here.”

Ernakulam’s Kadavumbhagum Synagogue was likely built in the 16th or 17th century. It’s been closed since 1972 because there haven’t been enough congregants to keep it operating. But the synagogue’s earlier grandeur is readily apparent.

A rainbow array of glass lamps hangs near the entrance, and overhead, scores of hand carved and painted wooden lotuses decorate the two-story ceiling. The ten large windows are said to represent the Ten Commandments. And an intricate red and gold Torah ark stands at one end of the room. But like most of the Jewish residents of this area, the Torah that once stood in the ark now resides in Israel.

For centuries, Kerala’s Jewish minority lived in harmony among Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. Ironically – but perhaps not surprisingly, says Babu – the real conflict was with another group of Jews.

“It happens, all over the world,” says Babu. “Five Jews with six views.”

In the 16th century, Jews from Europe and the Middle East arrived in what is now Kerala and came to be known as Paradesis, a word that means “foreigner” in several Indian languages. A power struggle soon ensued between the lighter skinned Paradesi Jews and the darker skinned Malabari Jews as each group sought to establish itself as the first Jewish settlers in the region in order to claim certain privileges from local rulers.

Today, as Kerala’s young Jews emigrate to Israel and the elderly stay behind, these two communities now share a new commonality: both may soon be part of Kerala’s history.

In addition to the 30 Malabari Jews left in Kerala, there are only nine Paradesi Jews, making the Paradesi the smallest Jewish community in the world. According to Shalva Weil, a professor of anthropology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a leading authority on the Jews of India, this makes the Paradesi the smallest Jewish community in the world. In fact, as Weil points out, there are actually too few Paradesis to even be called a community.

“According to Jewish tradition,” says Weil, “you have to have 10 men to be part of the minyan, which is a quorum, so there are not 10 Jewish men living there. And even if you add one or two Malabari Jews who might come occasionally, you still haven’t got ten men. Therefore, it’s really the end of a community from the point of view of the Jews.”

Babu plans to live out his days in Kerala. But he expects his younger daughter, 20-year-old Leya, to join her older sister, who has already moved to Israel. Leya, has mixed feelings.

“When I touched the Wailing Wall, it was, like, a totally different experience,” says Leya. “I felt proud to be a Jew. I cried, I had tears in my eyes.”

“If I leave India, I’ll surely miss my friends and the culture here,” she adds. “The culture here is different, no wall between Hindu, Muslims or Christians. There, you can see Muslims walking on one side and Jews walking on other side. Yeah, I will surely miss India.”

The Kadavumbhagam Synagogue has been closed since 1972 (Photo: Kavita Pillay)

“This is a holy land,” says Babu, offering a variation on a term traditionally reserved for Israel. “India is a holy land because of acceptance toward all the religions. This is my motherland, and I call Israel as a fatherland. But for the Jews, there is no life over here.”

This week, for the first time since the synagogue closed in 1972, the remaining Malabari Jews of Kerala will open the doors of the Kadavumbhagam Synagogue and light the menorah for Hanukah. For a dwindling community with an uncertain future, it’s also a chance to recall a moment in which abundance arose out of scarcity.

In the Maldives’ capital, Male’, there’s a new embassy in town. China is the first and only country outside of South Asia with a delegation in the country.

With fewer than 400,000 people, the Maldives ranks just 179th in the world for GDP. But the Chinese love it. For a variety of reasons.

The Chinese now makeup the biggest segment of tourists in the Maldives, where almost 30% of the economy depends on tourism. But the country’s beautiful beaches aren’t the only draw for the Chinese.”

The opening of the Chinese Embassy came just two days before the Maldives hosted a gathering of the eight South Asian leaders last month.

For the next year, Nasheed will head SAARC – short for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

“I believe that Asia, and South Asia in particular, is becoming more powerful and more prominent than at any time in our history. I believe the future is ours to shape,” declared President Nasheed to loud applause.

That’s heady talk.

But SAARC isn’t talked about much in the rest of the world. Even here, some people question its effectiveness as a forum for its members. In theory, SAARC works somewhat like the European Union, facilitating cooperation on issues like security, trade and development.

It’s not always easy with rivals like India and Pakistan in the same room. So it was no small feat when China was added to the mix as an observer 5 years ago.

In a short address at the end of the gathering, China’s Vice Foreign Minister reminded his neighbors of their historical connection:

“China and South Asian countries have been long linked through a common destiny and stood together through thick and thin,” he said. “Friendly contacts date back nearly 2000 years.”

Some experts say China has its eye on the Maldives as it tries to gain improved access to SAARC.

D.S. Rajan at the Chennai Center for China Studies said China’s interest in the Maldives is tied to the tiny country’s location. China wants to protect its goods as they pass through the Indian ocean.

But the Maldives’ leadership of SAARC might also play a role.

“SAARC has got the potential to grow, in spite of tensions,” said Rajan. “I personally believe that maybe China’s game is to improve its influence in SAARC through Maldives, possibly, being nice to Maldives.”

China’s reported efforts to be upgraded to “dialogue partner” have so far failed and experts say India has a lot to do with that.

India considers South Asia its turf. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made that clear during a state visit to the Maldives just after the SAARC summit.

“This is our extended neighborhood,” Singh said. “We wish to work with the Maldives and other like-minded countries to ensure peace and prosperity in the Indian Ocean region.”

Mr. Singh’s visit was the first by an Indian premier in nearly a decade. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director of the Center for Policy Alternatives in Sri Lanka, said India wants to create a buffer against rising Chinese influence in the region.

“The Indians want to remind the Chinese that they’re the preeminent regional power,” Saravanamuttu said. “And they’ll lose no time in asserting that they are the power to be reckoned with.”

The Maldives is reaping the benefits of this rivalry.

Prime Minister Singh promised a $ 100 million line of credit. The two countries also signed a security pact.

It’s a possible dig at other countries in the region, like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which have taken significant Chinese loans, especially for the building of new ports.

Saravanamuttu said India suspects China of investing their way into the region in an attempt to envelop India, economically and maybe more.

“The worst Indian fears are the Chinese are trying to establish a military presence in South Asia and using these ports as military ports in all of the countries which will constitute a string of pearls to contain India. So it is a new balance of power emerging with India and the U.S. on one side and china on the other.”

Although no Indian ports are planned in the Maldives, more cooperation with India is in the works, including a literal link – a ferry service between the two countries.

The Maldives might be small – but this vacation destination is making the most of its time in the sun.

Inside of a Wal-Mart in Miami, Florida. (Photo: GeneralCheese/Wikipedia)

The plan, announced just two weeks ago, would have allowed foreign companies to own up to 51 percent of local retail share. But fierce opposition has now forced the government to put it on hold.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to Sagarika Ghose who is a senior editor with CNN-IBN television in New Delhi.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. The Indian government did an about face today. It suspended its plan to allow retail giants like Wal-mart to operate in India. The plan, announced just two weeks ago, would have allowed foreign companies to own up to 51% of local retailers but fierce opposition has now forced the government to put it on hold. Sagarika Ghose is a senior editor with CNN-IBN television in Delhi. So this is a stunning reversal, Sagarika. Why is India rejecting what many see as a huge business opportunity?

Sagarika Ghose: Big setback for the government. The government certainly has egg on its face on this one. Well basically the government had no choice but to suspend this particular policy because of the enormous opposition that was mounted by the left parties, the communists parties, as well as the right wing BGB parties. They put an enormous amount of pressure on the government. The left in India, as you know, hates anything to do with America and they literally see red. The BGB, the right wing party, also opposed it for an incomprehensible reason because they are actually in favor of reform. They are actually in favor of foreign direct investment but on this particular issue they bowed down to their vote bank which is the Indian trader, the Indian corner shop, or the mom and pop shop which they felt would be in danger. That is a big constituency for them which is why the government literally had no choice. Parliament was stalled for seven days and has had to back down now.

Werman: How big an investment were we talking about?

Ghose: Marco, it’s a big investment. It would have meant 51% of foreign direct investment in Indian retail which would have made a huge difference to Indian farmers, to Indian consumers, to making the market much more competitive. We’re looking at really a sea change in the way buying and selling is done in India. A tremendous measure of economic reform, one that is necessary to open up India’s market. But sadly the government was not able to push it through.

Werman: Despite the potential of billions of dollars of investment and revenue, it looks like the mom and pop stores, the little guy who we often think as powerless, won. I mean that’s pretty astounding.

Ghose: Absolutely, Marco, because that is a huge constituency for the BGB right wing party as well as for the communist party. They actually donate to both parties. But I think the government mismanaged this, was not able to sell retail probably. The government couldn’t retail retail properly actually. It should have actually gone out there and convinced people why the mom and pop store was not in danger and they failed to create the political constituency needed for reform.

Werman: How will this affect the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?

Ghose: Big loss of face. He is a prime minister who has made economic reform his cornerstone and this is one big reform which has come after months, years of policy paralysis in the government. Even on this one he has had to back down so this is a big embarrassment I would say for Manmohan Singh and the government has lost a lot of credibility.

Werman: Sagarika Ghose; Senior Editor for CNN-IBN television in Delhi. Thanks so much for speaking with us.

Ghose: Thank you very much.

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