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The Hindu
10-05-2025
- General
- The Hindu
A WW-II air raid shelter in Hyderabad that is now a library
It is a library with a difference. A large cool airy room for students and children preparing for competitive exams to sit down and read through the day. The difference lies beneath it in the bunker which is the genesis of Bharat Gunavardhak Sanstha library in Shalibanda. 'It was built as an air raid shelter before the outbreak of hostilities during the Second World War. After the war, my father Rai Mahbub Narayan went around asking his friends who were leaving for Pakistant to leave the books with him. Every Hyderabadi had at that time had a library. Within no time, my father collected 50,000 books,' informs Oudesh Rani Bawa who grew up in Gowliguda area near Shahalibanda. This collection of books led to the creation of a group of people who pooled their ideas and resources. 'The library was named Bharat Gunavardhak Sanstha by polyglot scholar Gunde Rao Harkare. Mr. Harkare retired as a session judge of Wanaparthy and donated a copy of Sirr-e-Akbar, that is a translation of Upanishad from Sanskrit to Persian. As it was a priceless manuscript it was sent to Khuda Baksh Oriental Library in Patna,' informs Ms. Oudesh. Engineer Malliah executed the project which was a two-storey structure on top of the bunker without taking any remuneration on a 471 square yard plot taken on a 100 year lease. It had two rooms for scholars, one room for a watchman, a stock room and a reading room. Now, the air raid bunker has been turned into a storage room for chairs and tables. 'We don't have the stuff to run a separate newspaper section. The sanctioned staff strength is 14 but we have only two staffers,' informed an official of the library. The dusty room with rows of chairs remains locked up. But it is a better fate than most other air raid shelters in Hyderabad that were built around that time. 'The air raid shelter in the Bella Vista (Administrative Staff College of India) is still intact, as is the one in the premises of College of Community Science where it is camouflaged by a lone palm tree,' informs Anuradha Reddy of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. In 1941, while the war in Europe was raging, there was a threat perception about India's eastern coast. This led to the Nizam's Public Works Department stepping in and building Air Raid Protection Shelters for the nobility. Five of them were built — one at the King Kothi Palace, another at Bella Vista, another one Hill Fort Palace, the residence of Nawab Basalat Jah Bahadur and one more at the security chamber at King Kothi Palace for Nizam Osman Ali Khan. While the Bella Vista air raid shelter has survived, the fate of others is not known. Other noblemen also built air raid shelters for their own safety, including Salar Jung III. 'It was there till early 60s and was to the right side of the entrance to the palace complex,' informs Ms. Oudesh. Nothing remains of it. One more air-raid bunker was built by Nasir Nawaz Jung of the Vicar-ul-Umra family on top of the Jubilee Hills property. 'It is still there and is a shelter for roosting bats. We don't try to enter that area,' says Raunaq Yar Jung, a descendant of Nasir Jung.
Hans India
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Making ethical sense of moral values
Ethical and moral values vary sharply, across religions, regions, cultures and over time. Abortion, for example, is prohibited for Catholic Christians, but the law permits it in India, no matter what religion one is professing. Morality is the standard by which we judge other people - Oscar Wilde. My association with the areas of ethics and morals, especially in the domain of governance, began with a request by K. Padmanabhaiah, a retired civil servant, now serving as the Chairman of the Court of Governors of the Administrative Staff College of India, to take lessons for civil service aspirants. After having taken some classes, I realised how difficult it was for students, to put the material together. I hit upon the idea of compiling my lessons into a book. That is how my book (Ethics in Governance – Resolution of Dilemmas with Case Studies) came to be published. Sometime later, I was invited by Dr. B. Somaraju, eminent cardiologist, to become a Member of the Ethics Committee of the CARE Foundation, set up by CARE Hospital, where he was working. I accepted and had firsthand exposure to the field of professional ethics and morals vis-à-vis practice of medicine, and the manufacture, and marketing, of drugs and pharmaceuticals. The Chairman was a former High Court Judge and the members brought to the table rich experience from different fields of expertise in medicine. The deliberations in the meetings were lively, animated and informative. It was a truly eye opening experience for someone new to the subject. Ethics, whose dictionary meaning is the philosophical study of moral values and rules relating to what is right and what is wrong, is clearly an abstract discipline, its precepts not amenable to verification/validation by the scientific tools of experiment, observation and inference, as first postulated by Sir Francis Bacon. It may also be defined as a field that deals with questions of organizing one's thoughts, words and deeds in a manner that conforms to the settled norms of societal values. Easily the most interesting of the activities I have undertaken after superannuating from service, has been lecturing on the subject of ethics in governance to various groups, including those preparing for Civil Services examinations. Recently, while preparing material for a lecture on the subject to a group of officials from different departments of the government of Gujarat, I looked at the question, of the application of the values of ethics and morals, to two issues; namely, the tariff war declared by US President Donald Trump, and the terrorist attack at Pahalgam. The aggressive tariff war triggered by Trump's decisions has sent shock waves through global markets, triggering panic among businesses and consumers, and escalating trade tensions between the US, Canada, Mexico, China, and even Europe. Quite obviously, domestic industries in the US are full of praise for what has been done since most of their products stand to benefit with foreign brands of the same products becoming more expensive. The move is also expected to raise over $ one trillion in revenue over the next decade for the country, leading to a spurt in domestic investments. On the other hand, there are experts who argue that prices of a range of imported goods will go up, from clothing and coffee to alcohol and electronics, pointing out that import of such goods may decline, increasing the cost of domestic products in the same areas. While that may be the scene within the US, as far as India is concerned, it is believed that sectors such as IT and software, pharma, textiles, automobile industry, and agriculture may be hit adversely. Clearly, so far as President Trump is concerned, at least in his own belief, his country and its citizens stand to benefit from his initiatives. That there are those, who believe quite the opposite, is another matter altogether. And if industries, workers, and consumers, in other countries suffer, it has to be accepted as a fallout that was inevitable. Evidently, the ethical implications of Trump's action are a function of the persuasion of those analysing them. Coming to the Pahalgam incidents, terrorism is generally considered morally wrong, as civilians are often indiscriminately targeted and fear and violence are used as instruments for the achievement of political goals. There are, on the other hand, those who argue that terrorism can be justified in specific circumstances, such as weak minorities being oppressed and ill-treated by a tyrannical majority. Another significant aspect of ethical and moral values is that they vary sharply, across religions, regions, cultures and over time. Abortion, for example, is prohibited for Catholic Christians, but the law permits it in India, no matter what religion one is professing. Likewise, a Muslim can take more than one wife, while polygamy is not permissible under the Hindu law in India. Another example is that of prohibition of the possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages. It was illegal for a short while in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. But, today, it is not so in either Andhra Pradesh or Telangana. Even at the time when prohibition was imposed in the first instance in Andhra Pradesh, it was not in force in the neighbouring Karnataka. Drinking or possessing liquor, therefore, can be legal or otherwise, depending on the time and place. Clearly, as the saying goes, what is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander. In daily life, white colour has customarily been associated with knowledge, purity, good and right. And, black, on the other hand, with ignorance, contamination, bad and wrong. Most day-to-day experiences in life, however, lie in the area between the two extremes, namely, the grey area. There is no such thing as pure white or pure black. The same is the case, for example, with probity, and competence. They usually coexist in most people. We often find that thoroughly honest people are incompetent. And very efficient people are persons of doubtful integrity. While on the subject, I recall the case of a senior officer who was intending to suspend a Tahsildar. When a friend asked him why he intended to punish a person who was obviously very clean and honest, the officer's reply was that the Tahsildar was so incompetent, that his entire salary was illegal gratification! A somewhat similar approach is called for towards the impact of development effort on natural resources. Development activities, such as transport, industry, and agriculture invariably impact adversely upon the quantity and quality of natural resources such as land, water and air. We cannot abandon such imperatives in order to preserve natural resources. On the other hand, it is our duty to future generations, and posterity, to defend, protect, and preserve those resources. The grey area again! It demands a sensible and wise balance between use of resources and their preservation. To end this rather serious discussion on a lighter note, here is what I heard about the Professor of Ethics telling the student of Art. 'You have to draw the line somewhere!' (The writer was formerly Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)
