The Economist - USA (2019-07-13)

76 Books & arts The EconomistJuly 13th 2019

2

1

And, as you descend into them, what

mind-boggling structures these wells are.

Their early builders were capable of aston-

ishing feats of engineering. The Chand

Baori in Abhaneri, east of Jaipur (the capital

of Rajasthan), resembles an inverted ziggu-

rat. Its 13 storeys and 3,500 narrow steps

prefigure M.C. Escher’s “impossible ob-

jects” by centuries. The Panna Meena Ka

Kund stepwell (see below), also near Jaipur,

is another elaborate masterpiece. Hindu

embellishmentstobaolisincludedcovered

arcadesand pavilionsthatservedasref-

ugesfromtheheatandevenaslodgings.

Sculpturesandfriezeswerecrammedwith

gods, animals and humans. Spreading

Muslimruleintroducedamore austere,

thoughnolessimpressive,architectureof

archesandjaalis(stonelatticewindows).

Nota droptodrink

Butallthiswasabandoned.Thedeclineof

thestepwell beganwith theBritish raj,

whichinsistedbaoliswereunhygienicha-

vensofverminanddisease.Theycalledfor

themtobefilledinorbarricaded.Theraj’s

administratorswereblindtotheirrolein

socialisingandassubterraneancaravanse-

rais.IndependentIndia’sencouragement

ofdiesel-poweredborewellsprovedtobe

thebaoli’s death-knell.

Yettheseborewells’impactonthewater

table,plusuntrammelledurbandevelop-

ment,haveledtoa drasticdepletionofnat-

uralaquifersanda countrywidewatercri-

sis.Thatisonereasonwhytherestoration

effortsoftheaktcandlike-mindedgroups

havestrucka chord:moreIndiansarewon-

deringwhetherold-fashionedwater-con-

servationmethodshavelessonsfortoday.

At Nizamuddindargah, the trusthas

savedthebaoli. Itsworkersclearedthetank

oftonnesofsludge,andrelaidtheneigh-

bourhood’ssewagepipes.Marryingtradi-

tionalworkmanshipwithlaserscansand

ground-penetratingradar,thetrustrebuilt

the baoliin a form as close to the original as

possible. In the process, a subterranean

passage from the saint’s tomb to the tank

was uncovered, along with water springs

and the well’s wooden foundations.

Meanwhile, the trust also turned to the

adjacent, huge gardens belonging to Hu-

mayun’s tomb, a Mughal building of even

more breathtaking beauty than the Taj Ma-

hal. The lush grounds are covered in tanks

and wells that the trust is restoring. With

RatishNanda,theaktc’s enthusiastichead

inIndia,thiscorrespondentrecentlydes-

cendedtothebottomofabaolithatwasbe-

ing cleared of centuries of rubble and

sludge,bucketbylaboriousbucket.Two

weekslater,waterwasstartingtogushin.

Onefind,coveredoverbytheBritish,isa

16th-centurywellbuiltnottocapturewa-

ter,buttoensureitflowsbackintotheun-

derlyingaquifer.MrNandasaystheresto-

ration work has helped raisethe area’s

watertablebyseveralmetres.

Nextdoor,inSunderNursery,thetrust

has converted 90 acres (36 hectares) of

abandonedland into thesooty capital’s

firstnewparkinyears,laidoutasa classi-

calPersiangarden.Again,tanksandwells

areanessentialcomponent.“Delhineeded

a refuge,”saysMrNanda.Thegardenshave

becomeoneofthemostpopularspotsfor

thecity’sfamiliesandlovers.Theaktcis

nowtakingonthemostambitiousproject

yet:a106-acresiteinHyderabad,where

sevenstepwells werebuilt by the Qutb

Shabidynasty inornate, white-plastered

granite.Asbecameclearduringtherestora-

tion, theywere linked by underground

channelsthatalsoconnecttoaquifers.

Someoftheobstaclestothiseffortare

notphysicalbutpolitical.Tohelppayfor

itsconservationwork,thetrustseeksdo-

nationsfromIndiancompanies.Yetsup-

portersoftheHindu-nationalistgovern-

ment of Narendra Modi, the prime

minister,disliketheideaofa bodyheaded

by the Aga Khan, an Islamic leader, being

involved in Indian cultural work; besides,

the Hindutva agenda is to expunge Mughal

influence from Indian life, as if it were an

alien, Muslim carbuncle rather than an in-

trinsic part of the country’s inheritance.

They are said to have been leaning on com-

panies not to donate. That arid worldview

is refuted by the joyful families picnicking

in Sunder Nursery, and the devotion of pil-

grims at Nizamuddin baoli.^7

Still waters run deep

I

n august 1991 Marshal Sergei Akhro-

meyev, a former head of the Soviet armed

forces, hanged himself in his office, la-

menting a superpower’s end. During the

war in Cyprus in 1974, mothers told daugh-

ters how to electrocute themselves if Turk-

ish soldiers approached, to avert the pain

and shame of rape. For Japanese warriors,

self-disembowelment was not a forlorn act

but a way to regain their honour.

Among those facing defeat or humilia-

tion, suicide can arise from hopelessness,

defiance or calculation. In the many that

occurred in Germany during and immedi-

ately after the Nazi regime’s collapse in

1945, there was a broad range of motives

and methods—as Florian Huber, a German

writer and film-maker, shows in “Promise

Me You’ll Shoot Yourself”. A bestseller in

his homeland, it offers a grimly compelling

insight into the psychology of fanaticism.

The best-known acts are those of the

Nazi leaders. Adolf Hitler put an end to his

life in a bunker below Berlin on April 30th

1945, together with Eva Braun. A day later,

his propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels

killed himself with his wife Magda, who

procured cyanide pills for their six chil-

dren. But Mr Huber is more concerned with

the ordinary people who succumbed to ter-

ror or despair, in particular as the Red Army

approached Germany’s eastern lands.

He focuses on the town of Demmin,

where more than 1,000 people are thought

to have perished—the numbers are still

vague—out of a population of around

15,000. Dozens of bodies were extracted

from rivers and lakes in the vicinity, but

East German propaganda generally cov-

ered up the story, just as it concealed the

Soviet cruelties which pushed many to

self-annihilation. Whatever the technique

Death and dishonour

The only way out

Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself.By

Florian Huber. Allen Lane; 304 pages; £20.

To be published in America by Little, Brown

Spark in March; $14.99