NEW DELHI, WEDNESDAY 08 SEPTEMBER 2021
VIJAYKUMAR HARBISHETTAR
A
ccording to a report by
World Health Organisation
( WHO), around 700,000
deaths occur by suicide
every year worldwide. In India, as per
the recent data from National Crime
Records Bureau (NCRB), the number
of suicides which was 1,13,914 in the
year 2005 had increased to 1,39,123
in 2019. The actual rates may be
higher as some deaths could be
inconclusive, still under investigation
or considered as accidental. Also, no
registry exists for attempted suicides,
however there could be as many as
25 suicide attempts for every suicide.
Any suicide including an attempted
one impacts family members emo-
tionally, of which some may even
need long term mental health care.
Most suicides are preventable though
the cause is multifactorial.
The states of Maharashtra, Tamil
Nadu, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh
and Karnataka together account for
half the number of suicides in India.
Suicides are more common in males
rather than females and are also
found in transgenders as mentioned
in the NCRB report. The proportion
of suicides in the age group 18 to 30
and 31 to 45 were 35 and 31 per cent
respectively. Breakdown of family
support systems, unemployment,
stress due to transition of job or
migration to different cities for work
or studies, failure in exams or failure
in general, breakdown of marriages
or relationship separation are some
of the factors.
The adolescent period is a tran-
sitional phase from being dependent
to becoming an adult with autono-
my and is usually a sensitive phase
in one’s life. All educational institu-
tions need to have trained counsel-
lors or clinical psychologists to pro-
vide support. All teachers must be
sensitised and trained to identify dif-
ficulties in students. There must be
counselling for choosing careers and
for exam preparation. Academies and
institutions mostly highlight the best
rank holders, but hardly anyone
comes forward to offer support to
students who have failed to achieve.
There need to be ongoing workshops
to equip youth to develop resilience
and tolerance to adversities in life. No
one teaches us how to face a difficult
situation and hardly anyone has a
Measuring progress through history
ADNAN ZILLUR MORSHED
F
or quite some time now, peo-
ple have been discussing if
there are more on-the-
ground, inclusive ways to
measure a country’s progress, rather
than supra-quantitative metrics like
GDP. So, what could be other possible
yardsticks? Earlier, I had proposed a
few “experiential indicators” of well-
being, such as the quality of public
transportation, walkability, waste
management, public spaces, and
internet accessibility.
Today, I would like to propose a
qualitative indicator of social
progress: the public consciousness of
history (PCH).
First, it would help to explain the
relationship between historical con-
sciousness and the idea of nation-
hood. One of the principal ways the
nation-state establishes its authority
is by demarcating a territory for the
nation. But geographic boundaries,
as Ernest Renan would say, are hardly
enough - nor are common languages,
religious beliefs, and ethnicities. A
historical consciousness of unity,
centring on both real and imaginary
events or places, is assumed to but-
tress the concept of nationhood.
Nation-states exploit this type of con-
sciousness rather conservatively, like
a canopy holding together different
ethnicities, political persuasions, reli-
gious beliefs, and economic condi-
tions under the banner of one nation.
Dominant groups often reinforce
and perpetuate this consciousness
on behalf of the state. For the French,
the French Revolution is sacrosanct.
For Bangladeshis, it is 1971. These are
part of macro-histories that are
expected to galvanise a people with a
common national purpose. How peo-
ple interpret and relate to these types
of macro-histories can determine the
CROSSWORD
07
Thoughts of suicide are
a medical emergency
contingency plan. Even friends of a
person with mental health difficul-
ties would not know how to help in a
crisis. Stigma has been a major hur-
dle in seeking professional mental
health help.
There were nearly 11,000 suicides
in the 60+ age group recorded in 2019.
Breakdown of family support, migra-
tion to cities for work, other social dif-
ficulties and illness may be the fac-
tors involved. There are instances
where older adults have gone miss-
ing, never returned and such events
may not have been reflected in the
data. Expressing ‘wanting to go far
away’ or ‘leave home for ever’ are also
to be considered as suicidal gestures.
Loneliness, lack of activities and mul-
tiple medical illnesses are factors that
need to be addressed. Greater recog-
nition to existing Senior Citizens’
Forums, support in funding to devel-
op Day Centres for the Elderly and
even creating helplines could help.
Awareness creation to ensure early
seeking of professional psychiatric
help is vital, as depression is one of
the treatable illnesses that can help
reduce risk of suicide. Media can
involve senior citizens, and there can
be a dedicated channel that runs pro-
grammes exclusively for them, like
those for students.
Natural disasters such as
drought and floods lead to crop fail-
ure in addition to the burden of debt
that a farmer may be carrying, with
perceived poor support or a reduced
support system. These can be factors
for farmers’ suicides. Agriculture offi-
cers and local health authorities
could collaborate to develop pro-
grammes such as one in Dharwad
called “raitha chetana”. Crisis
helplines aimed to support farmers
could also be useful.
As per the Mental Healthcare Act
of 2017, in any suicide attempt, an
underlying mental health problem
should be ruled out and therefore the
individual should seek psychiatric
care, without fear of prosecution
way they imagine their nationhood
and perceive themselves on the
world stage.
But PCH, I propose, is a differ-
ent kind of dynamic, fluid, and
organic micro-history that can shape
and condition the daily lives of peo-
ple on various scales. People may or
may not develop a meaningful con-
sciousness of micro-histories,
depending on how economy, society,
culture, and education percolate in
their imagination of themselves in
relation to their idea of the nation.
These types of histories can serve as
bottom-up strategies for people to
negotiate their immediate worlds,
their built environments, their nat-
ural ecosystems, etc. Are we talking
about a society and its general well-
being when we are discussing the
quality of its public awareness of
microhistories?
How, then, do we convincingly
measure the state of such an aware-
ness? For example, would assessing
how the Dhaka University communi-
ty reacts to the slated demolition of a
historically significant building com-
plex, like the TSC, reveal the state of
PCH in Bangladesh?
Does Bangladesh fare well in
PCH? Let us ask a few rhetorical
questions. Why does the public most-
ly remain silent when Chattogram’s
historic area - Central Railway Build-
ing (CRB, established in 1872), a rare
ecology of centuries-old trees and
hilly terrain - is chosen as the site for
a 500-bed hospital? How would the
ambulance sirens impact this area if
this hospital is built after all? Why is
there a blatant lack of public empa-
thy when government agencies cut
down “witness trees” (trees present
during the surrender of the Pakistan
Army) at Suhrawardy Udyan in the
name of developing the historic park?
Why are heritage buildings across the
YESTERDAY'S SOLUTION
NOTE: Figures in parentheses denote the number of letters in the words required. (By arrangement with The Independent, London)
under IPC Section 309. As per this
Act, the provision of mental health
care is to be made available to all.
Also, the Insurance Regulatory
Authority has issued a memorandum
that insurance is to be made avail-
able for mental illness like any other
medical illness. Some insurance
companies do not deny death cover
due to suicide if it is after a few years
of buying the insurance policy.
Most health promotion activities
talk about walking, exercise and curb-
ing a sedentary lifestyle to reduce risk
of heart disease, but there also needs
to be focus on activities to promote
mental health. Life skills training pro-
gramme was conducted in several
schools through NIMHANS in Banga-
lore with some success. Suicide pre-
vention is also part of the National
Mental Health Programme along with
Workplace stress management, coun-
selling in colleges and life skills pro-
gramme in schools. These need wider
implementation.
Health care workers need to be
trained to help people in crisis, the so-
country routinely torn down to devel-
op multi-storey flats or bland office
blocks? Why is there a boat club (now
infamous) built on vital wetlands
connected to the Turag River?
How does one reconcile
Bangladesh’s consistent economic
growth with a lack of broad public
awareness of both the built and nat-
ural environments? What is the
nature of the relation between eco-
nomic growth and a nation’s collec-
tive mental “evolution”?
If Bangladesh has a low level of
PCH, let us consider a few possible
reasons why. First is geography. The
deltaic Bengal’s geography - criss-
crossed by rivers and canals, always
changing course - is constantly shift-
ing, and does not allow any permanent
symbols, edifices, and allegiances. In
this process, as Akbar Ali Khan implies
in “Discovery of Bangladesh” (1996),
grassroots institutions that could foster
a consciousness of history could not
take hold in Bengal.
Second is East Bengal’s agrarian
past. As French sociologist Pierre
Bourdieu’s study of Algerian peasants
suggests, within subsistence agrari-
an economies, the repetitive basis of
agricultural activities follows Mother
Nature’s cycles. Such a similarity has
traditionally conditioned rural peo-
ple to conceive a very localised and
fatalistic notion of time. This pre-
industrial idea of cyclical temporality
is not conducive to a broader histori-
cal consciousness. In “Bangali Musol-
maner Mon” (“The Mind of Bengali
Muslims,” 1976), Ahmed Sofa exam-
ined the peculiar ahistoricity that
complicates - or rather simplifies -
the cultural imagination of Bengali
Muslims.
Third, the lack of stone in a
deltaic land failed to create an endur-
ing building culture around which
the agrarian people of Bengal could
ACROSS
1 Cash, perhaps invested in Wall
Street, originally – company starts
with lower deposits? (7)
5 Retrospectively, detective is filling
in a month-old document (7)
9 Deepest miner's not affected (9)
10 Oddly plants it on paved section
(5)
11 Swimmer's shy on the radio (3)
12 Separate spacemen to absorb
thrust and temperature, showing
application (11)
13/15 Jane maybe trying to pull – in
love with comedian (7,6)
17/18 Season meat for youngster
(6,7)
21 Vacuous Instagram is crashing
phone – daughter stopped (11)
23 Rubbish match official withdrawn
called psychological first aid. At least
one or two staff members, identified
in the casualty of each hospital,
should mandatorily receive so called
suicide gatekeeper training, so as to
confidently receive crisis calls and
offer help, like the cardio-pulmonary
resuscitation skills they are supposed
to have. Even if there is suspicion of
suicide threats as part of manipula-
tive behaviour or personality issues,
these issues can be dealt with at a later
stage. But gestures must be taken seri-
ously. An ambulance can be called to
transport a person with high risk of
suicide to hospitals as it is also a med-
ical emergency like chest pain for a
heart attack. There is no reason to
ignore mental health. After all, the
WHO says there is no health without
mental health.
Most suicides are preventable.
Health authorities need to focus more
on reducing mental health morbidity
in youth and at the same time imple-
ment programmes in schools, colleges
and the workplace. Collaborative work
is required for reducing farmers’ sui-
develop a particular historical con-
sciousness. Instead, Bengal’s tradi-
tional huts were built with perishable
materials like mud and bamboo. To
develop a dynamic sense of historical
awareness, people felt the need of
powerful, tangible, and time-defying
symbols with a lot of myths around
them. Bengal’s essential stories are
about the heroism and struggles of
the peasant, the boatman, the fish-
erman, and the rebellious yokel rising
against the village morol, not about
Kantaji Temple in Dinajpur or the 60-
Dome Mosque in Bagerhat. These
buildings are magnificent, but they
are not part of Bengal’s quintessen-
tial mental universe and did not
shape the worldviews of Bengal’s
agrarian society. When we think of
the archetypal Bengal, deep down it
is still the tranquil sweep of the green
paddy field, occasionally punctuated
by trees and the homestead. Howev-
er, it is slowly changing with the
chaotic urbanisation of rural
Bangladesh.
Bangladeshis have inherited the
burden of the ahistorical sensibility
of Bengal’s agrarian legacy. This is by
no means unique to Bangladesh.
Many countries with a strong agrari-
an past demonstrate similar national
attitudes. The problem is not with the
attitude itself, but being stagnant
about it.
We now live in a rapidly mod-
ernising, urbanising, and intercon-
nected world. How do we enrich our
agrarian inheritance with a modern
notion of historical consciousness (by
no means uncontested), one that
would compel the masses to share the
burden of debating history’s symbols,
contexts, and narratives that matter?
The first step should be to
reimagine history as a discipline from
primary school to the university level
with a new purpose and vigour. Both
for good (3)
24 Some foreign ufologists returning
to see black spots, say (5)
25 Moving bare hand to oil me up (9)
26 Eno mostly sings good, moving
standards (7)
27 Aged beef, say, Jamie ultimately
put out with refined wine (7)
DOWN
1 Cinders' – case of character
taking delight in conveying
panto's essence (7)
2 Winter nudism isn't initially going
badly – revealing organs? (4,11)
3 Be of one mind about boring
season (5)
4 Son with new cycle unused – it's
cold weather (8)
5 Discourages less direct courses
including English for home-study
cides; mere waiver of debts is not
enough. Every employing authority
should have a policy in place to
reduce mental health morbidity,
workplace stress and suicide preven-
tion as rates are high in early adult-
hood. A person who has attempted
suicides should have a mental health
assessment before leaving hospital, a
policy followed in many hospitals.
On the eve of World Suicide Pre-
vention Day (10 September), it is
important to emphasise that mental
health needs must get their due pri-
ority in health care. Crisis support
helplines through dedicated, trained
mental health professionals or coun-
sellors offering support, supervised by
the Departments of Psychiatry, could
generate a ray of hope, and many sui-
cides could be prevented. Every
thought of suicide must be considered
as a medical emergency. The cause for
the crisis must be identified early for
intervention.
The writer is a Bengaluru-based consultant
psychiatrist.
history and its contestations should
be part of a new curriculum. I recall
my own undergraduate years in
Dhaka during the 1980s. History stu-
dents were frequently ridiculed, as if
they could not find a more “useful”
subject to study. The pervasive
impression was that there were no
job prospects for a history major. But,
of course, the problem was not the
discipline itself, but how we as a peo-
ple imagine the humanities and their
values in society. Furthermore, how
history was taught as an uncontested
and linear chronicle was part of the
disciplinary failure.
I was browsing through the web-
site of the Department of History at
the University of Dhaka. Most full
professors have zero content under
their publication heading. There are
no hints at their disciplinary exper-
tise. Nor are there any syllabi, nor
content on recent doctoral work.
Across the website, there is no trace of
debating history’s disciplinary shifts
since the publication of EH Carr’s
“What is History?” (1961) and the
epistemological challenges of post-
modernism, postcolonialism, and
post-structuralism throughout the
last decades of the 20th century. The
quality of research and reputation
matter in the ranking of universities.
Let us end with an optimistic
note. As I have seen in Bangladesh in
recent times, the new generation of
students are hungry for knowledge
that empowers them to think, con-
test, and deliver. It is important that
we discover this hunger at every level
of learning as a national asset. We
must re-evaluate the very notion of
the “quality of higher education” to
create a history-conscious learning
community that feels the need to
continuously examine the complex
relationship between the past and
the future.
The writer is an architect, architectural
historian, and professor who teaches in
Washington, DC. The Daily Star/ANN.
NO 29027
specialists (6)
6 Go over part in Evita, with Paige's
focus, it's quite meaty (9)
7 Content for Tony Blackburn line
to be cut out after the TV show –
it's not a priority at this time
(2,3,4,6)
8 Occasionally hard for pothead to
be made one of the family? (7)
14 Honouring two Beatles, without
coverage, outside British Library (9)
16 Stupidly start to cycle – it's more
cold weather (3,5)
17 Ask if Fleabag contains music (7)
19 Harassed after deposing leaders,
one red fled (7)
20 Signal with Virgin was regularly
dropping out – phone company
see extra text drops off (6)
22 Meaning of God preceding schism
(5)
100 YEARS AGO
OCCASIONAL NOTE
A few years ago the doctor in charge of a
large sanatorium for tuberculosis cases in
Denmark published a paper which showed
that while the majority of his patients
increased in weight as the result of sanato-
rium treatment, the rate of increase was
not constant but varied with climatic con-
ditions, being greater in summer and less
in winter. It has occurred to the Superin-
tendent of the Union Mission Sanatorium
at Arogyavaram in South India to make an
investigation to see how these results com-
pare with those of sanatorium treatment
in India and he has published a pamphlet
giving an account of his observations on
over 900 cases. It is satisfactory to find, in
the first place, that judged by the very reli-
able test of increase in weight, the results of
sanatorium treatment are as favourable in
India as in Europe. The difference in aver-
age weight has to be taken into account,
and it is stated that the average weight of
an adult in South India is 25 per cent less
than that of an adult in Northern Europe.
When this difference is allowed for the
increase in weight from week to week and
month to month is about the same. A strik-
ing contrast, however, is afforded by the
influence of season and climate. In South
India it is the winter season that favours
increase in weight; the hot weather is
unfavourable, heat and sunshine having
opposite effects in this country from what
they have in Europe.
NEWS ITEMS
DACOIT GANG
ALARMS LUCKNOW
Lucknow, Sept 7
Several meetings have been held in Luc-
know since Sunday to consider what steps
should be taken to allay the panic caused
by the recent dacoities. It is stated that in
Narhai, even in the daytime, thieves go to
houses when the men are away and secure
valuables by threatening the women. The
merchants of Aminabad have resolved to
form themselves into patrol parties armed
with lathies. Mr. F. Sladen, Deputy Com-
missioner, states, there were three dacoities
in the city on successive nights at the end
of August and in all cases the dacoits were
armed with guns. A band of dacoits who
met a police patrol fired injuring two con-
stables but not seriously. Precautionary
steps taken include the deputing of armed
police, in addition to the civil police for
patrol work.
RELIGIOUS
INSTRUCTION IN
SCHOOLS
Madras, Sept 7
The Madras Government has issued a
communiqué on the subject of religious
instruction in schools, in which they
express the opinion that the time has now
arrived for a partial removal of the embargo
which has been placed hitherto on the
introduction of religious instruction in
publicly managed schools, and the com-
plete removal of minor restrictions which
at present are supposed to hamper such
instruction, so as to remove an impression
which is understood to exist that Govern-
ment are hostile to the encouragement of
religious instruction. The utilisation of
school premises for religious teaching or
simple prayers and deducting the time
spent by any boy on religious teaching or
observance from prescribed curriculum
period, preferably at the beginning or the
end of the school day.
LOOTING OF SHOPS
AT MEERUT
Lucknow, Sept 7
An altercation arose regarding short weight
in the mandi between a woman dealer and
two buyers. This attracted a sympathetic
crowd who laid hands on the buyers and
took them off to the tahsil, attracting many
followers on the way. The tahsildar tem-
porarily pacified the crowd and went to
report the circumstances to the District
Magistrate. The police immediately took
up an enquiry and challaned the buyers.
An armed guard was at once ordered to the
mandi as a precautionary measure, but
before it could arrive the disorderly ele-
ment started looting and a number of
shops were looted. On the arrival of the
police the crowd dispersed. Later they
attempted to loot Kaisergunj but succeed-
ed in looting only one mill. A large number
of arrests were made.
INDIAN MILL MADE
CLOTHES BANNED
On the occasion of Mr. Gandhi’s visit to
Barisal questions were addressed to him
by the District Propaganda Committee, and
answered by him in a public meeting. In
effect Mr. Gandhi strongly condemned the
conduct of the local N.C.O.s in organising
strikes, hartals, and boycotts, and insult-
ing law-abiding people. He said such
actions were a disgrace to his cause. He
maintained however that foreign cloth, and
even Indian mill made cloth, must be boy-
cotted, and that enough hand made cloth
could be produced to clothe everyone. He
strongly denounced the unmannerly
behaviour of some local N.C.O.s to Sir S.N.
Banerjea, and said that he had the highest
respect for Sir Surendra and paid a tribute
to the great services he had rendered to the
country.