AN ARTICLE HOW AWARDS WERE VIEWED BY ANOTHER India’s civilian awards, a visual history
By Harry Stevens & Aparna Alluri September 15th, 2016 Hindustan times Since 1954, the Indian government has been conferring its highest honours — from the venerable Padma Shri to the exclusive Bharat Ratna — on bureaucrats, artists, scientists, engineers, sporting heroes, and political icons. Taken together, the 4,329 awards paint a picture of India’s recent history and tell a story about the country’s values and priorities. Delhiites have received the most awards, followed by Maharashtrians. With 797 awards, the national capital has bagged more honours than any other state. Only Maharashtra, at 756, comes close to Delhi’s tally. Next in line is Tamil Nadu, but it’s farther behind with 391 awards. Delhi and Maharashtra have also dominated the honours rather consistently (hover over each colour to find out how many states won awards in a given year). There were no awards given out in six years: 1978, 1979 and from 1993-1996. It’s likely the aftermath of the Emergency interrupted the awards in the late 70s. In the mid-90s, it could have been a preoccupied minority government that was busy pushing for economic reforms to stave off bankruptcy. India awards foreigners, too. Americans have gotten more awards than any foreign nationality, followed by Britons. The number of non-Indian awardees began to climb after 1995, possibly because opening up India’s economy signalled a new era of diplomacy. Foreign winners include Nelson Mandela and Pashtun political activist Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Richard Attenborough and Ben Kingsley both won Padma awards after the release of the film Gandhi. Many of these awards were also given to people of Indian origin. Most of the awards have gone to men. Of the 4,329 honours, men have won 3,689 awards while women got 631 awards, which is just less than 15 percent. This isn’t surprising, given India’s wide gaps in gender equality. There are far fewer women than men in public life, from politics to academia. India ranks 130th of 155 countries on the UN Development Programme’s Gender Inequality Index. The arts are a favourite. Actors, musicians and artists got the most awards (930), followed closely by writers and educators (852). Awarding great artists is not just good sense, it’s good politics, too: for a sitting politician, it never hurts to be associated with popular cultural icons. The arts list includes Western classical conductor Zubin Mehta, sarod virtuoso Amjad Ali Khan, filmmakers Mehboob Khan and Satyajit Ray, Indian classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai, Carnatic musicians D.K. Pattamal, and actors Smita Patil, Aamir Khan and K. Chiranjeevi. Kannada novelist and playwright Dr. Kuppali Puttappa, poet Jayanta Mahapatra, and Urdu writer Ismat Chughtai are among the writers who won. Home to Bollywood, a robust theatre scene, and a rich classical music tradition, Maharashtra fares the best in this category. Tamil Nadu, known for its successful film industry and Carnatic music legends, isn’t far behind. The wildly popular, actor-turned politician M. G. Ramachandran is amongst the winners. Women do better in the arts than in other fields. In the arts, the gender distribution is more equal, a reflection of the greater role women play in the arts than in other areas of public life. From the 1950s, when Carnatic vocalist M.S. Subbalakshmi and actor Nargis were given Padma awards, until 2016 when Girija Devi was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, women have won 235 of the 930 arts awards. Only five women — Subbalakshmi, Lata Mangeshkar, Aruna Asaf Ali, Indira Gandhi, and Mother Teresa — have been awarded a Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor. With some of the country’s leading colleges for science, such as St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai and Fergusson College in Pune, Maharashtra has long produced some of India’s best scientists and engineers. In recent years, scientists from Karnataka have begun to receive more awards. This year, for instance, V.K. Aatre, former head of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, won his second Padma award. Women fare the worst in science. Hardly any women have won awards for scientific achievement in the last 60 years; by contrast, as many as 22 men have won awards for science or engineering in a single year. Whether because of expectations from their families or concerns about their safety, girls continue to miss out on educational opportunities. Some notable female winners in the science and engineering category are gynecologist Indira Hinduja, Biocon Limited chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, and parasitologist Veena Tandon, who received the Padma Shri this year. Civil Service Civil service awards used to be far more common. In 1972, the Indian government distributed 52 awards for civil service. That’s more than all of the civil service awards given out since the year 2000. Civil servants just don’t get the recognition they used to. It’s hard to say why this has happened, but it’s possible that a burgeoning private sector has reduced the role of the bureaucracy in India. Source: Ministry of Home Affairs ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Chittanandam V R <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2024 at 08:11 Subject: Fwd: Sujatha - Film Award Functions To: ஃபிலிம்ஃபேர் அவார்டு நிகழ்ச்சிகளை நடுராத்திரி வரை டிவியில் பார்த்த பாக்கியசாலிகளுள் நானும் ஒருவன். இந்த மாதிரி விழாக்களில் ஒரு pattern இருப்பதை ஓர் எளிய குக்கூ மூளையால்கூட கவனிக்கமுடியும். விழாவுக்கு 'வருகைதருபவர்கள்' மூன்று வகைப்படுவார்கள். விருது பெறுபவர்கள். புது நடிகைகள். வேடிக்கை பார்க்க வந்த ரசிகர் மன்றர்கள். விருது அறிவிக்கும்போது விருது பெறுபவர்கள் ஆச்சரியப்பட்டது போல் நடிக்கவேண்டும். மேடையைத் தொட்டுக் கும்பிடலாம். பெண்கள் அத்தனை பேரும் கட்டாயமாகத் தலை விரித்துக்கொண்டு அவ்வப்போது தள்ளி விட்டுக்கொள்ளவேண்டும். ஆண்கள் எப்படி வேண்டுமானாலும் வரலாம். கைதட்டல் ஆரவாரம் எல்லாம் பிற்பாடு டிஜிட்டலாகச் சேர்க்கப்படும். கலந்து கொள்பவர்கள் அனைவருக்கும் பஸ் சார்ஜிலிருந்து ஏரோப்ளேன் சார்ஜ் வரைக்கும் சில்லரை உண்டு. ஃபிலிம்ஃபேர் விழாவில் மட்டுமல்ல. கோலிவுட், பாலிவுட் சம்பந்தப்பட்ட அனைத்து விழாக்களிலும் தொன்றுதொட்டு அனுசரிக்கப்படும் பழக்க வழக்கங்கள் இவை. இதன் ஒரிஜினல் ஆஸ்கர் விருது வழங்கும் விழாவிலிருந்து வருகிறது. வாழ்க்கையின் வெறுமை அலுத்துப்போன மக்களுக்கு புதிய தற்காலிகத் தெம்புகள் தேவைப்படும்போதெல்லாம் இம்மாதிரி விழாக்கள் தெம்பு தரும். இவை சிங்கப்பூர், கோலாலம்பூர், துபாய் என்று பரதேசம் போவதும் உண்டு. யாராவது சமூகவியலாளர் சினிமா விருது விழாக்களில் 'குழூஉக்குறிகள்' என்று ஆராய்ச்சிக் கட்டுரை எழுதலாம். சைக்காலஜிஸ்டுகள் 'Conditioned reflexes in Film Award Functions' என்று கட்டுரை எழுதலாம். *-- சுஜாதா * ********************** *சித்தானந்தம் * -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZorqdbZDt9iLnSipFwhnKPnM-Eb6tjPDoWtRdKSyB9RDbQ%40mail.gmail.com.
