The Path to Change

Title: The Path to Change - Thoughts on Politics and Society

Author: Pope Francis with Dominique Wolton

Publisher: BlueBird, 2018 (First published 2017)

ISBN: 9781529002294

Pages: 311

Last month, Pope Francis astonished the world with a simple, yet powerful gesture. During a talk with the leaders of war-torn South Sudan, he suddenly stooped and kissed the feet of the awed leader, imploring him to keep peace at all costs. Francis is a man who lives up to his own ideal that humility is the key that opens the door of communication and also of Christ’s teaching that those who humble himself will be exalted (Matt 23:12).Jorge Mario Bergoglio, then Archbishop of Buenos Aires in Argentina, became Pope in March 2013 when Benedict XVI abdicated. He was the first Jesuit and non-European pope of the Catholic Church, though he is of Italian ethnicity. He is said to be socially a bit of a Franciscan, intellectually a bit of a Dominican and politically a bit of a Jesuit. With his deep and gentle gaze and benevolent demeanour, believers accepted him as their High Pontiff at first sight when he appeared on the balcony of Saint Peter's. Here, he is in conversation with Dominique Wolton, who is a French academician who specialises in media, public space and political communication. His research contributes to promoting a conception of communication that privileges man and democracy rather than technique and economics.

This book is based on a few interviews conducted in 2016. What appeals most to readers in this exercise is Francis’ candidness. A pope who can laugh at his childhood misbelief that all Protestants went to hell is sure to contribute his strong influence in recognising ecumenical diversity. To engage in an inter-religious dialogue, one must be sure of his own identity as a starting point. He displays his firm roots of belief with this caveat. He is firm when the need arises as seen by his stopping the habit of watching television in the 1990s as a vow to the Virgin. Francis’ immense knowledge of Church literature and ancient fathers is more than amply proven by the many references he makes about them in conversations. And no, this is not something we can naturally assume in an elected leader. In politics, this is comparable to the case of having a prime minister whois also a constitutional expert.

Several passages in the text indicate that Pope Francis expresses radically different opinions even on some ecclesiastical matters. But on closer inspection, they seem to be heavily qualified with a doctrinal disclaimer. For example, the Pope claims that when the church adopts an attitude that is not just, it proselytizes and proselytism is not very Catholic. Moreover, proselytism destroys unity. He adds that homogenisation is never fruitful and it always leads to sterility. This may seem like a turning away from the logic of operating mass conversion factories in Third World countries. But don't be misled by such lofty rhetoric! A few pages later, we see him claiming that evangelization is not the same as proselytising and that the Church grows through attraction. Further, he asserts that in paganism and its traditions, there is cruelty and an evil God (p. 211).The question on where God was in Auschwitz, he replies that it was the handiwork of a godless people. He extols the second century document Epistle to Diognetus as representing the spirit of modernity in Church. But this is in fact a letter from an anonymous Christian author to a high-ranking pagan named Diognetus. This letter is a clear case of proselytism in which pagan rituals like Idol worship are denounced in very harsh words. Francis appeals for building bridges across faiths and not to create walls. Interreligious dialogue does not mean making everyone agree to what you say. It means walking together. These dialogues are not to argue and win, but to learn and let learn from the Other.

Francis wants to engage the Church in vastly bigger issues than it traditionally used to. He was instrumental in the adoption of the AparecidaDocument in 2007 which emphasized the power of prayer and concern for the environment. This socially committed Pope is looking forward to involve more in big politics and he has eminent company among his predecessors. Pope Paul VI and Pius XI once remarked that big politics is charity, because it is oriented towards the common good of all. However, he wants the Church not to intervene in party politics. Dialogue with Muslims and Jews are finding utmost interest in the Pope’s mind. A major problem associated with the interreligious dialogue with Muslims is that the Church is not getting reciprocity in Saudi Arabia and many Muslim countries where Christians are still subjected to large-scale violence. They should engage in a critical study of the Quran, like the Christians’ study of Scriptures, in order to have any chance of going forward. Herecommends the historical and critical method of interpretation as helpful tools. Francis’ boldness in confessing previous errors of the Church is commendable. The death penalty and slavery were once acceptable to the Church, but not anymore. In the case of same sex marriages, he is not forthright. Marriage can be solemnized only between a man and a woman. Same sex marriages can only be termed civil unions.

The Pope somewhat boils over when the issue of the media is discussed. He accuses them of harbouring four cardinal vices – disinformation, slander, defamation and coprophilia. In fact, it makes him sad even to utter the fourth term. Having made his point, he compliments them for writing the first draft of history. A new beginning with the atheists is evident when the Pope comments on their lack of the gift of faith. Even then he concedes that if you don't have that gift, God will save you in a different way (p. 152).But on another occasion, he blurts out that a man without God is capable of doing monstrosities (p. 210).The sexual escapades of the clergy are not addressed in the book, but the Pope accepts that Catholic priests represent more or lesstwo per cent of paedophiles (p. 158).The Pope’s opinions are tinged with inconsistency on occasions. This may be because the reform process could just be budding. This whole scenecan also be compared to a book in which all objectionable terms are replaced from the table of contents with new ones, but the old material still remain in the body of the main text, which we find on opening that page. His style may also be thought a trifle formulaic,like endlessly repeating the need to build bridges and tear down walls.

The book is divided into eight chapters that are assembled from twelve conversations in 2016-17. It is complemented with extracts from sixteen speeches delivered at important gatherings since he assumed the papacy on March 13, 2013. Wolton appears to be starry-eyed at first as he wants to pinch himself to accept that he was having a conversation with the Pope(p. 119), but he recovers his composure towards the end. This book does not include any references to political and institutional conflicts within the Church. The author’s interview with Francis wasa tedious affair as he spoke French and the Pope Spanish. The communication was made through a translator, but it was eminently enhanced by the priceless language of the eyes, of gestures and behaviour. Francis’ sense of humour is excellent as shown in the hilarious jokes he share about the pomposity of Argentines, his compatriots!One of them runs like this: “Look how humble the Pope is! Even though he is an Argentinian, he chose to call himself Francis and not Jesus II”

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Gene Machine

Title: Gene Machine – The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome

Author: Venki Ramakrishnan

Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2018 (First)

ISBN: 9789353023232

Pages: 272

Sometimes, the simplest questions are the most difficult to answer. One such is that of how many Indians have won the Nobel Prize so far. The figure can be as high as twelve, if you count Ronald Ross, Rudyard Kipling, Dalai Lama, V S Naipaul and Mother Teresa. Some or of Indian origin, or been born in India or left India too early in their career. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was a graduate of Physics from Baroda but immediately migrated to the US for further studies. He won the Nobel in Chemistry in 2009 for ribosome research along with two others. Ramakrishnan’s research strengthened our understanding of the fundamental processes of life and provided a clue to the evolution of modern species of life. This book is a combination of popular science and an autobiography with a seamless blending of the two. His life is devoted to research and learning.

We know that our genetic material is locked up in a structure called DNA inside the nucleus of each of our cells. Apart from heredity, these contain recipes for building proteins which are essential for life. Insulin, adrenaline and albumin are all proteins required to sustain the organism. What makes these proteins inside a cell is a molecular gene-machine called ribosome. This machine reads the component list from data derived from the DNA and assembles the protein using amino acids just like a production line. The critical nature of the process need not be emphasized further, as the animal will soon be dead if the pathways are somehow clogged. Virtually every molecule in every cell in every form of life is either made by the ribosome or made by enzymes that are themselves made by ribosomes. Discovery of ribosomes and its role in making protein is the culmination of one of the great triumphs in modern biology. This was by no means easy as the ribosome is not a simple molecule like DNA. It was enormous and complex. The attempt to decipher it was taken up by Crick and Watson, who found the structure of DNA but was abandoned in despair.

Ramakrishnan was attracted to ribosomes by an article in the magazine Scientific American. He knew practically nothing of biology which he made up through courses studied part-time. Thus we have a physicist who studied the structure of a crucial biological unit being awarded with a Nobel in chemistry! He attempted to solve the ribosome structure first by neutron scattering which was eventually proved ineffective but was well understood by people with a physics background. The author dwells at length on the step by step progress in revealing the structure and the race with other scientists doing similar work, but this is not in a form that can be easily digested by ordinary readers. I found it extremely tedious especially after reading Siddhartha Mukherjee’s great book ‘The Gene - An Intimate History’ a few weeks before. Of course, you cannot expect such lucidity from a Nobel laureate, but the pertinent fact is that almost all of the readers are not Nobel laureates themselves. It is only during the autobiographical passages that the book becomes even slightly interesting.

Study of ribosomes is important in learning how medicines cure us of diseases. Some antibiotics work by blocking the protein creation function of bacterial ribosomes. This is done by binding to a vulnerable location in its structure. Since bacterial and human ribosomes are very different, humans will not be adversely affected by the mechanism of its action. This study also casts light on the dark alleyways of early evolution. Building blocks of RNA can be made from simple chemicals that could have been around in the earth billions of years ago. It may be possible that life emerged with lots of randomly made RNA molecules until some of them could reproduce entirely by themselves. RNA could also preserve heredity between generations.

This book presents some valid advice to novices in scientific research. The author asks them not to be hesitant to ask questions, however basic it might be. He justifies it by claiming that no question is too stupid to ask if you want to know the answer. It is also a bare necessity for present-day researchers to belong to the top-line institutes and laboratories. Advanced science has now become a team effort transcending national frontiers and continental boundaries. The members of the theoretical and testing facilities should be known to each other, otherwise it would be difficult to obtain and manage precious time allocated for using sophisticated machines.

The author makes a short but pointed criticism of the Nobel award conventions. There is a ‘Rule of Three’ in force. This means that the award, if shared, shall not be divided into more than three parts. This criterion is claimed to be impractical now. When the prize started in 1901, scientists worked in relative isolation and met only once every few years. By the time they announced their results, there was no question of who had discovered what. In the current world, an idea quickly spreads and a lot of people contribute to it in various measures and capacities. And it is not always clear whether the original idea or a later contribution was the truly ground breaking advance. It is a difficult task to select three people from a crowd of somewhat equal contributors without causing resentment or heartburn.

Ramakrishnan left India very early and harbours no soft spots in his mind for the mother country. Ignorant of his real feelings, thousands of naïve Indians sent congratulatory emails to him upon winning the Nobel. This clogged his inbox and they received a curt reminder that ‘nationality was an accident of birth’ and by corollary, he does not attach much importance to it. This is a clear case of brain drain.

The narrative about the role and secrets of ribosomes is disappointingly matter-of-fact. The author has failed to share the awe he might have felt in revealing the heretofore hidden details. The scientist’s idea of a paper for publishing in a journal is too far away from an ordinary reader’s preference of what is interesting. The book is a veritable Who’s Who of the rapidly growing field of structural biology in general and ribosomes in particular. The author has had a great collaboration with like-minded scholars from across the globe. There are many photographs of co-workers and even rivals. The illustrations given as part of the description are not at all helpful. Relevance has not been a parameter for inclusion as we even see a conceptual diagram of a four-stroke internal combustion engine as part of the narrative.

The book is recommended only to serious readers.

Rating: 2 Star

The Pen as My Sword

Title: The Pen as My Sword – Memoirs of a Journalist

Author: K Rama Rao

Publisher: Anamika Publishers, 2015 (First published 1965)

ISBN: 9788179756447

Pages: 424

We have seen many accounts of India's freedom struggle. Politicians are the most ideal to pen down their thoughts and feelings while actually steering the course of events. Administrators and writers too come out with their own versions of the story. A journalistic perspective of things would be different, but it has the potential to bring out the true story since they are forced by profession to watch the events as they unfold. Kotamaraju Rama Rao was an eminent Indian journalist who hailed from present day Andhra Pradesh and worked in many big and small newspapers in British India. His stint in Nehru’s National Herald is noted for his close association with India's first prime minister and to the Indian National Congress. He was briefly incarcerated on a suit of libel. He was appointed to the Rajya Sabha after independence and later joined the government as the in-charge of Five-Year Plan publicity. Rao is associated by kinship and profession to very eminent personalities. Pattabhi Sitaramayya was his uncle. Swami Chinmayananda once worked as a sub editor under him and the former Prime Minister of Nepal, Girija Prasad Koirala, reported to him. This book is the narrative of Rao’s heroic struggles against British authoritarianism and the redeeming of national pride.

Even though there are instances of arbitrariness, Britain allowed press freedom to a large extent in its colonies, which was a replica of the liberties in its homeland. This came in handy when Sir John Simon threatened to punish the Indian newspapers for revealing the secrets of the Commission’s work as it was going around India. A royal commission was indeed bestowed with such powers. But the unperturbed Indian papers casually retorted, citing the example of British newspapers which everyday reveal the secrets of the Cabinet, a much more important body than Simon’s itinerant circus. Except in times of national turmoil, the newspapers were by and large free from the frowns and favours of a foreign power. Things usually took a turn for the worse when protestors resorted to violence, for which no quarter was ceded. Violence provided a perceptible streak in the trajectory of freedom fighting, whatever be the vociferous protestations of ahimsa. Even the author, who is a diehard follower of the official line of the Congress, heaps tribute on the violent protests and goes so far as to remark that it was only the moral or the physical coward who withheld approval of these acts and admiration of the courage of those who perpetrated it.

Reading between the lines, we get a glimpse of the privileged position Congress and its organs enjoyed from the British. This is seen in the case of National Herald founded by Jawaharlal Nehru with public funds as an unofficial mouthpiece of himself and the Congress. Gandhi announced the Quit India Movement in August 1942 and exhorted the people to ‘Do or Die’. That is, either they should expel the British from the country or otherwise die in that effort. He also declared that violence is not taboo when performed in self-defence. The nation erupted into an orgy of violence immediately after the call. The Congress leaders – all of them – were summarily packed off to jails, but the party had not made any provision to maintain a chain of command to guide the agitation from underground. The leaderless masses turned into deadly mobs and indulged in widespread violence like cutting off telephone lines, wrecking railroads, attacks on government buildings and individuals. Memories of the 1857 Mutiny were conveniently re-lived by the regime in administering a brutal clampdown on the populace. Even in the midst of such mayhem, the author’s National Herald continued its circulation with an occasional brush with the authorities who took a lenient view of the whole matter. While other papers in a similar predicament had to close down, National Herald was allowed to function by paying a higher security deposit. The paper could easily do this by inviting contributions from its well-wishers who made money flow like water. Rama Rao mentions that often the collected amount was so many times more than the required figure that the paper could meet its other expenses with the surplus. Even in 1942, when the paper in fact downed its shutters, it was the decision of the management to go into hibernation for a while as Nehru was in jail and Rama Rao was convicted in a libel suit for six months. The paper received wholehearted help and insider information from sympathetic government officials all the time.

Gandhi was well known for the poverty in which he supposedly lived. Sarojini Naidu once wondered at the huge cost incurred by the Congress Party for keeping Gandhi in outward appearances of poverty. But the strange fact was that beneath the veneer of indigence, he commanded immense riches and the most influential people at his beck and call. This book presents two such incidents. Gandhi visited London to attend the Second Round Table Conference and noted thinker George Bernard Shaw called upon him. After the interview, Shaw was driven back home in the private car of an Indian Prince. When he reached home, he was about to show the customary appreciation of a tip to the driver. This was declined by the driver, who was no chauffeur, but the king of a Kathiawar state! Such was Gandhi’s power to summon people from the highest circles of society. Another incident is from 1944 after he was released from prison. It was the 75th birth anniversary and a grand function was organised at Wardha, in which a birthday present of Rs. 75 crores was gifted to him by the disciples, at the rate of one crore rupee for each year. Now, if you convert 75 crores in 1944 to today's money, even the most conservative estimates would indicate Rs. 6000 crores! And such a man always made a fuss of travelling in third class on train journeys.

Rao changed jobs many, many times that his tenure in a paper were sometimes as short as a few weeks. He worked in about 25 journals throughout his career. Even with this wealth of varied experience, his prediction on the future of English dailies was wide off the mark. Rao thinks that except in the port towns and in Delhi there will not be any English newspaper after twenty years of independence. The author did not pick up Hindi even after residing in various towns of the north for about 25 years. This is inconceivable in a person who is in harmony with his surroundings and neighbours. The book sports a foreword by Nehru penned in his final days of earthly life. It also contains a rich reminiscence by the author’s son who was also his private secretary in the early days.

Rao follows a deferential line towards Nehru and exhibits an adoration of Gandhi akin to divinity. Most of the book is the hagiography of these two. Not a trace of scepticism or criticism can be seen in this book. This is understandable as the author could obtain a seat in Parliament and a sinecure in government based on his good relations with Nehru, who in fact seems to have hypnotized our other. Nehru made his first American visit as prime minister in 1949. The Americans soon cut Nehru down to size, but Rao is amazed of their inability to see the truth in foreign policy. Showing off his socialist bent of mind, he declared that the Americans are dangerously immature politically, almost adolescent. This intellectual servitude limits the purpose of the book. The author is not forthcoming and in some areas it looks as if written by a civil servant having a vow of secrecy to honour. The structure of the book is like a journal with a disappointing focus on short-term events. Most parts of the book were orally dictated on the spur of the moment. This leads to shortage of valuable reference links. It has also included a few tips and tricks of the trade for journalists.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star