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Image of the Day: Oct.19

Artists put final touches on a clay model of a demon, that will be put up at a pandal, or idol display, during Durga Puja celebrations in New Delhi.Manish Swarup/Associated PressArtists put final touches on a clay model of a demon, that will be put up at a pandal, or idol display, during Durga Puja celebrations in New Delhi.

On Twitter, Videos and Photos of the Aftermath of the Beirut Bombing

A video by Hasan Shabaan from the scene of the bombing in central Beirut published by The Daily Star in Lebanon.

As our correspondent Anne Barnard reports from Beirut, a large bomb exploded in a mostly Christian area in the central part of the city, killing at least eight people and wounding many others, according to witnesses and civil defense officials in Lebanon.

Panic spread across the city as the bombing and neighboring conflict in Syria reminded people of sectarian violence from Lebanon's civil war. It is not yet confirmed if a political figure or a group was the target of the blast or connected to the growing violence in Syria.

Yorgo El-Bittar, a Lebanese journalist, was one of the first people at the scene and shared updates and photos on Twitter.

A reporter on the scene for Al Jazeera said in this video that the blast was so large that it might not have been a car bomb.

< div class="w480">A news report from Al Jazeera on the Friday bombing in Beirut.


Starbucks Opens in India With Pomp and Tempered Ambition

India's first Starbucks' coffee shop opened in Mumbai's upscale Horniman Circle.Punit Paranjpe/Agence France-Presse - Getty ImagesIndia's first Starbucks' coffee shop opened in Mumbai's upscale Horniman Circle.

MUMBAI â€" In January, executives at Starbucks and its Indian partner, the Tata Group, announced ambitious plans to open 50 stores in the country by the end of the year and speculated that they could one day have as many as 3,000 outlets here.

On Friday, the first of those stores â€" a 4,000-square-foot, two-level extravaganza filled with metal trunks, bright curtains and other Indian cornucopia - opened in south Mumbai off the historic Horniman Circle. But in a sign that India w ill prove to be a tougher market to crack than they had originally thought, executives from both companies seemed to walk back their lofty forecasts from 10 months earlier, saying that they would now open just two more locations in Mumbai this year and their first stores in New Delhi wouldn't be ready until early 2013.

Howard Schultz, the chairman and chief executive of  Starbucks, declined to answer questions about how many stores the company planned to open in India or how much money it would invest here. Krishna Kumar, the Tata executive, who offered the 3,000-store estimate in January, also declined to provide any details.

“We are coming here with humility,” Mr. Schultz told a throng of reporters, photographers and camera crews at a press conference Friday afternoon. Earlier, in front of a smaller group of reporters and editors, he said the company saw “a tremendous opportunity” in India.

The few details the company was willing to offer were limited to what it planned to sell in in its stores and for how much.

The coffee at Starbucks stores in India, unlike in other countries where it operates, will be from beans grown and roasted in the country, by Tata Coffee. Mr. Schultz said the company spent six months preparing a distinct Indian blend at its headquarters in Seattle.

The company will sell its beverages at lower prices than it does elsewhere and than many of its competitors do in India. A “short” black coffee, for instance, will sell for 85 rupees ($1.57), which, while more expensive than local chains like Café Coffee Day, is cheaper than comparable beverages at other foreign chains like Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. The company will also offer food items like a cardamom-flavored croissant and chicken tikka panini meant to appeal to Indian palates. The store will also offer free wireless Internet service.

But if Starbucks and Tata were light on details, they were c ertainly not scrimping on pomp and ceremony. After the press conference ended, the executives shuttled to the cavernous back room for a marathon series of interviews with TV channels. Waiters walked around serving vanilla lattes, frappuccinos and pastries but, oddly, no espressos or regular coffee to the reporters and camera crews waiting for their turn at an interview.

Outside the store, Tata officials had set up two large platforms facing each other on the street, blocking all but one lane of traffic. The stages and stacks of chairs waiting to be put out were meant for an 8 p.m. event â€" officials refused to say what kind of event â€" to mark the store's opening. A big black curtain blocked the view of the store's entrance except Starbucks's trademarked green siren logo.

After those festivities end, the store will be thrown open to the public at 10:30 p.m. It will be followed by openings of outlets at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Colaba and the Oberoi Mall in the northern suburb of Goregaon next week.

Mr. Schultz said he considered the opening of the Horniman Circle store to be more important than other openings in its history because it had been a long time in the making. The company has been looking to set up shop in India for five years and had several false starts. At first, it was unable to find the right partner. Later, it put India on the back burner to focus on the growth of its business in China. It again put its India plans on hold in 2007 and 2008 because of the global financial crisis.

“This is a major milestone for the company,” he said.



Rare Video of Pakistani Taliban\'s \'Radio Mullah,\' Blamed for Attack on Schoolgirl

A 2008 PBS “Frontline” video report on militants in Pakistan's Swat Valley included rare footage of Maulana Fazlullah, a leader of the Pakistani Taliban. (Warning: contains graphic images.)

As my colleague Declan Walsh reports, Pakistani security forces have detained relatives of a Taliban militant accused of shooting Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old schoolgirl who became an icon of resistance against Islamist fundamentalism in her native Swat Valley region.

The suspect, identified as a militant named Attaullah, is believed to have fled to eastern Afghanistan, where the leader of the Swat Taliban, Maulana Fazlullah, has be en based since his forces were routed in a Pakistan Army offensive to regain control of the valley. A spokesman for the Swat Taliban in Afghanistan, Sirajuddin Ahmed, told Reuters last week that Mr. Fazlullah had dispatched the two men who stopped Malala's school bus and shot her through the head, to silence her calls for the education of girls.

Although images of Mr. Fazlullah are rare, a few seconds of surreptitiously recorded video showing his face was included in a 2008 PBS report on the Swat Taliban, recorded before the Pakistani military drove the militants out of the valley. Azmat Khan, a Web producer for PBS's “Frontline,” pointed to the archival video in a blog post on Mr. Fazlullah this week.

The video of Mr. Fazlullah, and an example of one of his radio broadcasts, comes near the start of the report by David Montero, who met the militant leader in 2007, when he was reporting on the militants for The Christian Science Monitor.

More video of Mr. Fazlullah appeared in 2010 when a clip of him preaching to a group of men identified as suicide bombers was released to dispel rumors that he had been killed by in the Pakistani military offensive the previous year. That video was included in an Al Jazeera English report from Swat in July 2010.

Video said to show Maulana Fazlullah preaching to his followers was broacast by Al Jazeera English video in July 2010.

As Dana Priest reports in The Washington Post, Mr. Fazlullah “is also known as ‘Mullah Radio' for his use of a roving transmitter to broadcast lyrical rants against the central government in Pakistan, music, education and the polio vaccine.” In 2007, BBC News reported that Mr. Fazlullah helped to spread conspiracy theories about po lio vaccine in his broadcasts, telling listeners that the shot could cause impotency and was part of “a conspiracy of the Jews and Christians to stunt the population growth of Muslims.”

In late 2008, just before the military attack that drove the Taliban out of Swat began, another reporter, Nicholas Schmidle, visited Mr. Fazlullah's compound to “get a sense of what a Taliban-controlled area in Pakistan would be like.” Recounting the trip in an article for The New York Times Magazine, he wrote:

Fazlullah's base was a sprawling mosque and madrassa compound in the village of Imam Dehri, located across the Swat River from the city of Mingora. The entire Swat Valley is surrounded by mountains blanketed with pine forests. The river pours from the Hindu Kush Mountains and meanders through the valley, nourishing apple and persimmon orchards. During the summer, thousands of Pakistanis flock here for a break from the heat and humidity choking the lowlan ds. When I visited Swat in June, for example, still weeks before the Red Mosque assault began in Islamabad, I had trouble getting a room at the exclusive Serena Hotel. By the time I returned in October, I was the only guest. Almost immediately after arriving the second time around, I saw why: at the edge of town, Taliban rode around in flatbed trucks, pointing weapons in the air and ordering motorists to remove the tape decks from their cars. Fazlullah, like his Taliban predecessors in Afghanistan, deemed music - and anything that plays music - un-Islamic.

The following Friday, I went to Imam Dehri, where I met the commander of Fazlullah's militia, a man with glacier-blue eyes named Sirajuddin. (Fazlullah appeared briefly, but didn't stay long; he was observing aitekaaf, a meditation period that lasts 10 days at the end of Ramadan.) To get from Mingora to Imam Dehri, my Pashto interpreter and I boarded a small metal tram attached to a zip-line. Six other people piled i n. We got a light push to get moving, and then soared over the river. Sirajuddin waited on the other side, and he led us through a crowd of Fazlullah's supporters. The P.A. system blasted prerecorded jihadi poems while Taliban walked about with assault rifles slung over their shoulders.

“We are struggling for the enforcement of Shariah,” Sirajuddin told me inside a brick shed that was his office. “Twice, in 1994 and 1999, the government said it was committed to enforcing Shariah in this area, but it never did. The people here want Islam to be a way of life.” He added: “We are Muslims, but our legal system is based on English laws. Our movement wants to replace the English system with an Islamic one.”

Four Taliban sat in the room with us, watching me with dark, intent eyes. I asked one of them, a 32-year-old named Abdul Ghafoor, what he was fighting for. Islam? Revenge? “This is not personal revenge; this is our religious obligation,” he told me, s peaking Pashto through an interpreter. Ghafoor crouched on a low stool, a Kalashnikov resting on his lap. He said he was a recent graduate from the University of Peshawar with a master's degree in Islamic theology, and that he earned his living as a schoolteacher. Every day after school, and on holidays, he grabbed his gun and joined Fazlullah. He wore a long beard, a black turban, an ammunition vest stuffed with extra banana clips and pistols and Reebok high-tops with a Velcro strap. Messages crackled over the walkie-talkie attached to the collar of his vest. The Taliban were coordinating their movements.

Later, Ghafoor took me from Sirajuddin's office to a platform where some supposed criminals were scheduled to be lashed. About 15,000 men and boys, some sitting on picnic blankets, encircled the wooden platform, which was supported on drum barrels and had been erected by Fazlullah's group as a place for public punishments. The Taliban paraded three men, accused of ai ding kidnappers, before the crowd. Fazlullah's mujahedeen had caught the kidnappers as they were shuttling two women out of Swat. The Taliban sent the women back home and arrested everyone involved with the crime. Now the youngest of the criminals, who appeared to be still in his teens, scaled the steps to the platform. He looked as if he might collapse, legs wobbling with fear, as hundreds of heavily armed Taliban spread out around him. I stood among them, waiting to see the boy receive 15 lashings - the appropriate Islamic punishment, according to Fazlullah.

The boy lay face-down on the platform. Taliban held his arms and legs so he wouldn't flop around. Another jihadi, clutching a thick, leather whip, roughly two feet long, wore a camouflage shalwar kameez and a ski mask over his face. Every time the whip crashed on the boy's back, the crowd called out the corresponding number of lashes, as if counting the final seconds of a basketball game. The teenager's body conv ulsed under the crack and thud of each lash; when he finally stood up, he was shaking and drenched in tears.

“This punishment is permitted in Islam,” announced one of Fazlullah's deputies over a P.A. system fixed to a flatbed truck parked beside the platform. Along with the three accused men, who were lashed in turn, a dozen militants also stood on the platform, holding Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers. Another lay on his stomach on the roof of a nearby shed, his eyes lined up behind the sights of an automatic machine gun. Everyone knew that Fazlullah's decision to take the law into his own hands was in blatant defiance of the government's writ: the militants' job was to repel any sudden ambush by the Pakistani Army or paramilitary forces; the deputy on the P.A. system, meanwhile, had to persuade the people that the lashings accorded with Islamic law. “Even if there is no central Islamic government, these punishments are permitted in parts of the country if it c ontributes to maintaining peace,” the deputy explained, speaking in Pashto. “We have no intention to occupy the government or for any political authority. This is only for peace and security.”

Although Mr. Fazlullah is reportedly now a target for American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials have accused the Afghan intelligence services of quietly supporting him, to retaliate for Pakistan's refusal to crack down on members of the Afghan Taliban who take refuge on its side of the porous border between the two countries.



From India, Hoping to Find a U.S. College That \'Feels Right\'

Sush Krishnamoorthy, from New Delhi, is part of a “Choice” class that includes student-bloggers from Nairobi, Kenya; Topeka, Kan.; Seattle; Rogers, Ark.; Las Vegas; New York City; and Hunting Valley, Ohio. Her second post is below. - Tanya Abrams

I've been spending the past few weeks narrowing down the list of colleges to which I will apply.

My first parameters are the academic standard of the school and financial aid available for international students. The figures for average financial aid packages for individual colleges differ from Web site to Web site. Considering the information overload on the Internet, I have to search everything twice, just to confirm the credibility of my sources.

Apart from these factors, finding the colleges that fit me is important. But how do I know what is a good fit? Some people say that when they visited the camp us, it just felt right. Living in India, I can't visit college campuses in the United States to know how it feels to be there.

Rankings don't describe the housing standards at a college, how lively the social scene is or the level of support for international students. Deciphering the rankings is like trying to decode Mona Lisa's mysterious smile.

If I turn to the colleges' Web sites, all of them claim to have the best of everything. Deciding where to apply could not get harder.

I've visited online college guides like College Prowler, and it has come in very handy. It offers information about everything from housing, dining, classes, connectivity, safety, the town and surroundings, as well as student reviews on several topics. My concerns may seem trivial, but these are details that may matter to me in the next four years.

Most schools that are need-blind for international students and match all of my preferences are highly selective. College admissions blogs and advisers would say that my short list is not realistic, because I hardly have any “safe schools” in mind.

Now, I only know that I'm applying to Stanford University under single choice early action. Depending on my envelope from Stanford, I can modify my short list later if I have to. If I complete the Common App and one very demanding supplement for early action, applying to additional colleges later will not be as exacting as the first application.

I hope.

Ms. Krishnamoorthy, a student at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in New Delhi, is one of eight high school seniors around the world blogging about their college searches for The Choice. To comment on what she has written here, please use the comment box below.



India Puts Wal-Mart Deal With Retailer Under Scrutiny

India Puts Wal-Mart Deal With Retailer Under Scrutiny

MUMBAI - Indian regulators have begun an informal inquiry into allegations that Wal-Mart Stores violated rules restricting foreign investment in the country's fast-growing retailing industry.

Wal-Mart and Bharti operate 17 wholesale stores, and Wal-Mart provides services to Easyday stores like this one in Gurgaon.

The regulators are investigating an investment of nearly $100 million by Wal-Mart in an Indian company, Bharti Retail, which operates more than 200 supermarkets across India, at a time when India restricted foreign investments in retailing. The investment took the form of debt securities that paid no interest to Wal-Mart but could be converted into a 49 percent ownership stake in Bharti.

India long prohibited foreign equity investments in retail chains that sell more than one brand of products, known here as multibrand retail. It recently changed those rules to allow foreign companies to own up to 51 percent of such stores, but that change has faced stiff resistance from opposition political parties and even allies of the governing coalition.

Wal-Mart has long wanted to expand into India, where small, family-owned stores dominate a retail sales market worth about $500 billion annually. The company has a 50-50 venture with Bharti that operates 17 wholesale stores, and it provides logistics and management services to Bharti's Easyday retail stores.

The investigation into Wal-Mart's relationship with Bharti was prompted by a letter last month to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from a lawmaker representing the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which opposes foreign investment in retailing and many other sectors.

Wal-Mart and Bharti issued statements denying that they had violated Indian rules or laws.

“We are in complete compliance with India's F.D.I. laws,” the Indian unit of Wal-Mart said, referring to foreign direct investment. “All procedures and processes have been duly followed and details filed with relevant Indian government authorities including the Reserve Bank of India,” the central bank.

An Indian official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing government policy, said Mr. Singh's office had forwarded the letter to the Ministry of Commerce, which sent it to the central bank, which oversees foreign transactions involving Indian companies, to obtain more information. The official said the investigation was not yet a formal inquiry.

Wal-Mart's actions in overseas markets have come under scrutiny in the United States, where officials are investigating allegations of bribery at its Mexican subsidiary.

Officials want to determine if the loan from Wal-Mart to Bharti was intended to skirt the letter or the spirit of the foreign investment rules. Wal-Mart lent 4.56 billion rupees ($101 million at the time) to Cedar Support Services, the parent company of Bharti Retail, on March 29, 2010.

According to Cedar Support's latest annual report, the debentures would automatically convert into a 49 percent equity stake 30 months after they were issued. It is unclear if that conversion took place last month when the 30 months elapsed or if the companies extended that deadline.

The companies' opponents are expected to argue that the terms of the debentures violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the rules because the debt was to be automatically converted into equity. Critics say the plan was a clever legal maneuver to allow Wal-Mart to quickly enter the Indian market when policy makers relaxed the restrictions on foreigners, which happened last month.

“The tragedy is we are not monitoring the end use of F.D.I. in India,” said M. P. Achuthan, the lawmaker who wrote to the prime minister. “The government has to ensure that they monitor the F.D.I. coming to India is used” only in industries where it is allowed.

Bharti is a conglomerate that also controls Airtel, the largest cellphone company in India. In recent years it has expanded aggressively into retailing with help from Wal-Mart, which supplies its stores with produce and other goods, and offers training and management support.

The partners are expected to announce a venture soon to take advantage of the recent change in the investment rules, which grant each of India's 29 states the right to keep foreign retailers out of their regions. In a telephone interview last month, the top executive at Wal-Mart's Indian operation, Raj Jain, said the company would complete its plans in the next 45 days and could open its first stores in 18 months.

India has been seen as one of the last large untapped markets for the global retailing chains. Ikea, the Swedish furniture retailer, is expected to open stores in India soon, and Starbucks will open its first outlet in central Mumbai on Friday.

Heather Timmons contributed reporting from New Delhi.

A version of this article appeared in print on October 19, 2012, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: India Puts Wal-Mart Deal With Retailer Under Scrutiny.

Orient-Express Hotels Get Buyout Offer

6:00 p.m. | Updated
Shares of Orient-Express Hotels surged in trading on Thursday after the hotel arm of the Tata conglomerate of India made an offer for the rest of the company that it does not already own.

Orient-Express, based in Bermuda, is an owner, manager and investor in luxury hotels, tourist trains, river cruises and restaurants â€" including the 21 Club in Manhattan. It operates in 23 countries.

The bidder, the Indian Hotels Company, currently has a 6.9 percent stake in Orient-Express. The offer of $12.63 a share in cash represents a premium of 40 percent to the closing price of Orient-Express on Wednesday, and a premium of 45.2 percent to its 10-trading-day average. Indian Hotels said it would finance the buyout through a combination of borrowing and equity.

On Thursday, the stock price of Orient-Express jumped as much 38 percent, its sharpest intraday rise since the shares started trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 2000, according to Bloomberg News. By the close of trading, the shares ended at $11.05, up 22.5 percent on the day. With the gains, the market value of Orient-Express was $1.3 billion.

In a letter to Philip R. Mengel, the chief executive of Orient-Express, a director of Indian Hotels, R.K. Krishna Kumar, wrote: “While we are disappointed that your board of directors has indicated they would not be interested in exploring a transaction involving a significant equity investment by I.H.C.L., we continue to believe that a transaction between the two organizations is both financially and strategically compelling to our respective shareholders.”

In a statement, Orient-Express Hotels said that its board would “evaluate the proposal carefully and respond in due course.”

Indian Hotels had made an overture to Orient-Express in 2007 that was rebuffed. The luxury-hotel chain, popularly known as the Taj Group, is controlled by Tata Sons, India's largest business conglomerate. In recent years, its executives have sought to expand the company abroad primarily by buying, leasing or signing management contracts for marque hotels like the Pierre in New York, the Ritz Carlton in Boston and Compton Place in San Francisco.

Corporate legend has it that Jamsetji N. Tata built the first Taj hotel in Mumbai in 1903 because he was frustrated that he and other Indians were not allowed to enter British-only luxury hotels of the time. The company now has nearly 100 hotels in India, the United States, Australia and elsewhere.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the law firm Shearman & Sterling are advising Indian Hotels.

Vikas Bajaj contributed reporting.



Killings Thwart Grass-Roots Democracy in India

Killings Derail Effort at Grass-Roots Governance in India

Kuni Takahashi for The New York Times

Hajara Begum, the widow of a village official killed last month.

NOWPORA JAGIR, India - On the day he was killed, Mohammad Shafiq Teli was working on a new sewage drain, precisely the sort of unglamorous, if essential, project that village governance is supposed to provide. Except that, for more than three decades, there had been no local governments here in the villages of Kashmir, India's tinderbox.

Mohammad Abdulla Lone is among those who resigned after the killing.

Last year, despite a threat of violence, rural Kashmiris turned out in huge numbers to elect village councils, known as gram panchayats, in what became a victory for grass-roots democracy in a blood-soaked land. New officeholders like Mr. Teli set to work on long-neglected development projects.

But on Sept. 23, as he was walking to his mosque for evening prayers, Mr. Teli was shot and killed. His death followed by days the slaying of a panchayat leader in a nearby village. Posters mysteriously appeared in different villages, warning panchayat members to resign. Panicked, hundreds have since announced their resignations, and many of the new village councils have ceased to operate.

The intent of the killings seemed clear: Here in a district of Kashmir with a long history of bloodshed, someone wanted to derail the panchayats. But who? And why?

“There are forces that don't want to see the panchayats succeed,” said Mohammad Altaf Malik, a village leader. “The panchayat elections created tremendous hope among the people. Now that hope is slowly diminishing.”

Kashmir is the stubborn, unsolved riddle of South Asia, a mostly Muslim region of blue skies and snow-capped Himalayan peaks that once witnessed a bloody insurgency and is still claimed by both India and Pakistan, even as some Kashmiris aspire to outright independence. Hundreds of thousands of members of the Indian military and other security forces remain posted in Kashmir; the region went through angry summertime clashes between stone-throwing youths and soldiers as recently as 2010.

Last year, with tranquillity restored, the state government conducted the panchayat elections. Militant groups called for a boycott, but the turnout was overwhelming, estimated at 80 percent. Soon elected leaders like Mr. Teli began directing village projects. And then last month, he was murdered.

“There had been no threat against him,” said Parvena Begum, 35, a sister-in-law, as she sat on the floor of the family home with Mr. Teli's widow and two teenage daughters. “He had no idea he would be killed.”

Initially, state leaders blamed militant groups for the two killings. But in an interview last week, the state's chief minister, Omar Abdullah, offered a new twist: investigators had identified a militant as a suspect in Mr. Teli's killing but were investigating whether the motive might have been rooted in local rivalries, rather than a broader-based terrorism movement.

Panchayats have long existed elsewhere in India, but the absence of the system in Kashmir has meant that political power and patronage remained with state legislators and block-level administrators. The panchayats shook that political structure, especially when their elected leaders - known as sarpanches - began complaining that the established order was not devolving power and money, as required by law.

“Let's understand that you have not had a functioning panchayat system here for more than three decades,” Mr. Abdullah said. “So an entire generation of political and administrative leadership has grown up without having to work with this group of elective representatives. Clearly, they would much rather not have to deal with them.”

As investigators continue to look into the murders, different theories and accusations abound. Kashmiri separatist leaders have condemned the killings but say that the possibility of official involvement should not be discounted.

“Everybody will say the militants have killed them,” said Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, a moderate separatist leader. “But I think there is much more than meets the eye. We can't rule out that there are many agencies working at cross-purposes.”

Here in Nowpora Jagir, which sits at the edge of the Himalayas, the work of the panchayat ended abruptly after Mr. Teli's murder. Before then, elected officials - all ordinary villagers, some illiterate - were tackling a host of neglected projects, especially the piping of more drinking water into the village.

“It is the poor in the village who benefit from the panchayats,” said Mohammad Abdulla Lone, 40, who had been sarpanch before he posted his resignation in a local newspaper. “We have initiated lots of development work. But now everything has stopped. We don't know who killed them.”

The first killing was on Sept. 10 in nearby Palhallan, a village where militants are still thought to be active. The victim was the sarpanch, Ghulam Mohammad Yatoo, 59. That incited fears among other sarpanches, who resigned en masse. Less than two weeks later, Mr. Teli was killed. That prompted other panchayat members in the region to resign for fear of being the next target.

“Please tell people we have nothing to do with the panchayat,” said Dilshada Begum, 37, the wife of Mr. Lone, the sarpanch who resigned. “Please tell them. I have eight children, and he is the only wage earner. If something happens to him, what will I do?”

The killings and resignations have been largely centered on a region of Kashmir that has long endured militancy, violence and an oppressive military presence. In all, more than 900 panchayat members have tendered their resignations, either by posting notices in newspapers or making an announcement in their mosques.

Mr. Abdullah, the chief minister, points out that the majority of the panchayats across the state of Jammu and Kashmir continue to operate. He holds out hope that many of the people who resigned will change their minds, once the murders are solved. He said that the government had not accepted any of the resignations.

“These areas, especially where the attacks have taken place, are a little shaken up,” Mr. Abdullah said. “But I believe these panchayats will start functioning again.”

For the moment, though, fear remains. “I stay in my house at night,” said Mr. Lone, the resigned sarpanch of Nowpora Jagir. “Only Allah knows who comes, and who kills, and who goes.”

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

A version of this article appeared in print on October 19, 2012, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Killings Derail Effort at Grass-Roots Governance in India.

A Conversation With: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah

Omar Abdullah.Fayaz Kabli/ReutersOmar Abdullah.

The warm months are quickly coming to an end in Kashmir, with the leaves expected to soon change colors around Dal  Lake in Srinagar, signaling the onset of the cold Himalayan winter. This year, the Kashmir Valley enjoyed a second consecutive peaceful summer, following a turbulent period between 2008 and 2010 when stone-throwing protesters clashed with Indian security forces amid angry demonstrations for Kashmiri independence.

Last week at his residence in Srinagar, Omar Abdullah, the youthful chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, met with Jim Yardley and Hari Kumar for a wide-ranging discussion that touched on the bumpy introduction of gram panchay ats into the state; the current tranquility in the region; the political aspirations of the state; and the broader political calculations at play in India today.

Q.

In Baramulla District, a place with a long history of militancy and bloodshed, there have been two murders in recent weeks that have spread fear among the newly-elected members of the village gram panchayats. One victim was a deputy sarpanch in Nowpora Jagir. The other was the sarpanch in Palhallan. What is the state of the investigation?

A.

Our inquiries are pointing in a particular direction. What is becoming increasingly apparent is these were not militant attacks.

There seems to be more of a personal rivalry, for various reasons which at this point in time I can't go into.

Q.

Is that a change? Weren't you initially pointing at Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen?

A.

That's what it looked like initially, because our initial reaction was based on the fact that militant organizations rushed in to claim it.

Q.

Who claimed it, exactly?

A.

I think the Hizbul Mujahideen claimed one. The Lashker-e-Taiba has been involved in issuing threats in other areas. As the investigation has gone on, we've been able to establish links, in one case, to a surrendered, rather a released militant who had served  his term in jail and had certain linkages with the deputy sarpanch.

But as I said, the investigation is still ongoing.

Q.

The two killings are not connected?

A.

There is nothing to suggest the two killings are connected at this point.

Q.

Was the militant hired by a third party?

A.

We haven't been able to establish whether he was hired, or wh ether some inducements were offered or whether it was his own sort of initiative. But there has been involvement of a released militant and certain over-ground workers of the Hizbul Muhajideen group. But the motive doesn't seem to have been militancy. The motive is other than that.

If you put it into context, unfortunately everything that happens in Jammu and Kashmir gets, I mean it just looks much larger than anywhere else.

It is important to understand that there is a large section of people that don't want these panches and sarpanches to succeed. Among them, first and foremost, are the separatists, because they've made an issue out of elections in Jammu and Kashmir, across the board, whether Parliament or assembly or otherwise. The people who they defeated in the election obviously don't want to see them succeed. In fact, they would be more than happy to see them resign since there would be a by-election and they can probably come and try to win that seat.

The people who stayed away from the election process, out of fear or whatever other reason, would also not like to see these people succeed. There is a vested interest among the establishment that is also uneasy with this new class of public representatives.

Q.

Is that vested interest political or bureaucratic?

A.

Both. Both. Let's understand that you have not had a functioning panchayat system here for more than three decades. So an entire generation of political and administrative leadership has grown up without having to work with this group of elected representatives. Clearly, they would much rather not have to deal with them.

So when you factor all that in, yes, there will be efforts made to sort of intimidate and scare and stuff like that. Now how much of that is genuine militancy and how much of it is down to a vested interest from this section of people â€" that remains to be seen.

Q.

These elections were accompanied by much fanfare. It does seem like the political order is being shaken up. Many people have pointed out that this shake-up has nothing to do with the larger Kashmir problem. Why do they say that?

A.

We've always maintained that elections are not a substitute for the resolution of the problem of Jammu and Kashmir.

I have reservations and issues when the foreign minister stands up in the United Nations and says that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have time and time again shown which side they want to be on by participating in India's democratic process. You are in effect converting an election into a referendum, which strengthens the case of those people who want to see those elections boycotted.

The fact of the matter is that people participate in elections for, in this case, local self-government, or for the state government.

Q.

We noticed tangible p rogress in Nowpora Jagir, including new drains, water pumps and pipelines.

A.

Look, these areas, especially where the attacks have taken place, are a little shaken up. That is bound to be the case. But I believe these panchayats will start functioning again. That confidence is based on the fact that only 52 elected representatives have actually submitted a written resignation, in a formal manner, to the block development officer.

Everybody else has done it in a newspaper or standing up in a mosque. And let's face it: That doesn't count.

Q.

And if you add those informal gestures, how many representatives have submitted resignations?

A.

Nine hundred, plus.

Q.

That's out of…

A.

Thirty something thousand, or out of 13,000 in that exact region.

Q.

One woman we spoke to complained that the panchayats must pay a bribe to the block development officer in order to get access to funds for development projects.

A.

It's precisely to ensure that this sort of system gradually disappears that the third tier of governance was introduced into this state.

Let's face it, it's impossible to monitor every single project, even at the district level. That's why local stakeholdership was sought to be developed, by having panch and sarpanch elections.

It's unfortunate that this sort of corruption is built into the system. It will take a long time to weed it out. But I believe this is the model that has a maximum chance of success.

Q.

The last time the outside world was looking so intently at Kashmir was in 2010, when you were under a lot of criticism from Delhi. The entire city, the whole region was shut down. Today there are tourists everywhere.  What has changed?

A.

In 201 0, a series of events resulted in the sort of protests that you saw on the streets, and the origins of that lie in the fake encounter that took place on the line of control in North Kashmir in a place called Machil, where the army or a unit of the army took three people and killed them as terrorists, infiltrating the area, when they had absolutely nothing to do with that.

The three were from an area in Baramulla called Rafiabad and that provoked a lot of anger, which did not manifest itself on the streets immediately, it simmered under the surface. But what it did do was it allowed the separatist leadership, particularly Syed Ali Shah Geelani, to start a campaign of protests â€"  what he called the “Quit Kashmir” program. He started issuing calls for protest on Fridays after prayers. The intensity of the protests was not very large, but every Friday we had protesters coming out from the mosques and then engaging the security forces in stone-pelting sessions.

During the course of one of those protests, a tear smoke shell hit a young man. Now, the police continue to maintain that he was part of the protests. The general opinion is that he was an innocent bystander, but he died as result of the tear smoke shell.

During his burial, another youth was severely beaten by the CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force], he was in the hospital for a while and subsequently died in hospital. During his funeral, some youngsters tried to set a police vehicle on fire. To defend themselves, the security forces opened fire, then you had another death and basically that spiraled. So, every death resulted in more protests and more deaths and the area of protests just spread. You reached the point where virtually every corner of the valley was seeing protests on a regular basis.

To some extent these protests were sustained because we had the American president visiting that year in October, and I think there was this belief that if Kashmir is kept on the boil until such time, you could possibly see the American president making a statement about Kashmir that would be contrary to what India would have wanted to hear from him. That did not happen.

I think somewhere the realization dawned that - what are we protesting about, a hundred plus people have died, what has changed on the ground? We are no closer to the solution to what one calls the Kashmir issue.

A certain sort of agitation fatigue had also crept in.

Q.

Some of the separatists would argue that there is a sort of rage, which is different from the Pakistan-supported militancy of the past. It is a more of an indigenous anger with Delhi for not dealing with the situation.

A.

There is a desire for a political solution to the Kashmir problem -  it does not always manifest itself in an expression of rage. Sometimes circumstances arise that allow for the rage to build up and show up as it did in 2010.

But it is not constantly simmering under the surface. If it were, why is it not visible today? Why was it not visible last year?

We have still had incidents which have caused trouble. We have had situations where the security forces have made mistakes. You had incidents where either during a militant engagement there has been crossfire and innocent people have been killed. But it has not resulted in the sort of mass protests that we saw in 2010.

So I think it is very simplistic on the part of the separatists to suggest that this rage is constantly boiling under the surface.

Q.

Do you think the center has any interest in pursuing a meaningful effort to reach some sort of lasting solution on Kashmir?

A.

I do think they have the interest, I just don't think they have the political capital to do it right now. Any sort of political solution is going to involve some amount of give and tak e and I am not talking about territorial.

Q.

Who is the give and take with?

A.

Well obviously between the state and the center. Different parties have taken different positions vis-à-vis where they see the solution to this problem lie. The party I belong to says that your solution lies in the pre-1953 Kashmir Accord where the government of India was only responsible for currency, communication, defense and foreign affairs. Everything else was the domain of the state.

The Supreme Court of India had no jurisdiction over Jammu and Kashmir, the Election Commission of India , the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Indian Administrative Services, the Indian Police Services, none of these institutions had jurisdiction over Jammu and Kashmir.

Now â€" this is our point of view â€" clearly a solution will lie somewhere between what we are asking for and what exists today. I will be the first person to tell yo u that there are institutions that benefit the people of Jammu and Kashmir: the CAG, the election commission, the Supreme Court. So why deprive the people of those institutions?

Q.

Do we have any reason to believe that Pakistan is acting any differently? It seems that the militancy is pushed against the wall these days. Some say Pakistan is far less interested in stirring up Kashmir than in the recent past. Is that true?

A.

Well, they are keeping the pot boiling. Actually boiling would be too strong a word. They are keeping it simmering.

From time to time there are attempts to push people through. Infiltration is something we are continuing to deal with. So it is not as if they have completely given up, but are they making as much effort as they have in the past? Certainly not.

The army will tell you the intent is still there. It may possibly be the case, but are they acting on the intent, to the exten t that they used to? I don't believe that they are. How much of this is down to international pressure, how much is it down to their inability to do so because of the sort of measures we have taken on the line of control and how much of it is down to the fact that they just can't for various domestic reasons - I would not be able to apportion proportions to this. But I think it is a mix of all these factors.

Q.

Turning to national politics, we are seeing an era where regional leaders are taking on more and more power.  What is your take on the state of politics now? Is the rise of regional leaders a problematic trend?

A.

It is not a trend that bodes well for the country. Like it or not this country has done better when we have had a stable and stronger government at the center.

Our worst governments have been the governments made up of regional parties. So we have a situation where the Congress is at the re ceiving end of so much criticism. The BJP for its own reasons is unable to capitalize on the problems of the Congress. And the vacuum is being filled by regional parties, all of them with their own national ambitions. It does not bode well for a country that is dealing with the sort of problems we are dealing with.

One can only hope that the Congress is able to turn this around. We will continue to deal with coalitions, but it is in our interest to have coalitions which are not dependent on the whims and fancies of one ally.

Q.

Is the Congress Party going to make it to 2014?

A.

I believe so. Because at this point I can only think of two political parties that would probably be interested in an early election, the Samajwadi Party and the Trinamool Congress.

(Malavika Vyawahare transcribed the interview.)



Ancient Farmers\' Dances Threatened With Extinction

As globalization and urbanization push cultural change across India, many ancient art forms are dying out from lack of interest and funding.

Purulia Chhau, a form of masked dance performed by farmers in West Bengal to celebrate the harvest season, is one. A farmers' dance, Chhau is held during the three-month spring festival of Chaitra Parva to thank the gods for a good harvest before the next agricultural cycle.

Chhau, a vigorous masked dance with acrobatic and martial elements, performed to the beat of tribal drums, is at risk of becoming extinct. In the last five years, the number of Purulia Chhau troupes has dropped from 300 to 100 in West Bengal, due to a lack of funding and performance opportunities, as well as changing lifestyles in the region.

“India's tangible heritage, such as i ts monuments, paintings, artefacts, can be safeguarded within the four walls of museums,” said Shubha Srinivasan, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation Mumbai who is working to preserve India's declining local dance forms. “But intangible cultural heritage, such as performing arts or oral traditions, are harder to preserve or measure,” she said. “They are a way of life, really.”

A Purulia Chhau performer in West Bengal.Courtesy of Shubha Srinivasan.A Purulia Chhau performer in West Bengal.

In her recent book “Masked Identities: Safeguarding India's Intangible Cultural Heritage,” Ms. Srinivasan explores the Chhau dance form as well as Kutiyattam, a 2,000-year-old Sanskrit thea ter drama with origins in Kerala. She traveled across the country to write the book, meeting artists in West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Orissa.

Besides Purulia Chhau, which comes from the Purulia district of West Bengal, other forms of the dance include Seraikella Chhau, from Jharkhand, and Mayurbhanj Chhau, from Orissa.

Chhau dancers enact Indian mythological stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranas and the Rig Veda, focusing on the lesser-known subplots in these ancient tales. The dancers, typically males ranging in age from 9 to 65, wear intricately painted masks that depict different mythological characters, taking on the identity of the character as they dance.

The masks for Purulia Chhau are intricate and colorful, handmade by families that have been in the business for generations. They come from the village of Charida in West Bengal, where there are there are said to be 25 families of mask makers. Each mask maker has his ow n trademark, meaning no two masks are alike.

“Masks are such an integral part of the way of life in these parts,” Ms. Srinivasan said. “They define their agricultural cycles, their identities, their sense of belonging to the community.”

Elements of Chhau have changed to keep up with the times. The dances have become faster and more acrobatic, costumes jazzier and masks more dramatic. Older masters of the art complain that the dance has lost some of its subtlety in adapting to a younger generation influenced by popular media.

But the greatest threat to the dance is the dancers' economic reality, Ms. Srinivasan said.

“Purulia is one of the most impoverished parts of the country,” she said. “Families here cannot remember a time when they were not in the cycle of debt.”

Each year, farmers either tak e a loan or sell paddy to fund Chhau performances. A dancer makes about 120 rupees per performance, but by the end of the season he finds himself in debt again, she said.

The Indian government should do more to preserve and fund these art forms, Ms. Srinivasan said.

In 2003, India ratified a Unesco convention for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, but the government has yet to introduce any legislation for preserving art forms like Chhau. Ms. Srinivasan said China spends about $9 million on Peking Opera alone, the same amount India spends on preserving all of the art forms of the Northeast. She said China also has a television channel dedicated to traditional art forms, broadening their appeal to a younger generation.

What the dancers of Chhau lack in funding and infrastructure, they make up for in passion, Ms. Srinivasan said. Kirod Singh Munda, a 55-year-old Chhau dancer quoted in her book, finds it hard to imagine a time when the dance will not be a part of his community's life.

“Even if food is there or not, our house may need renovation, but the tradition of dancing Chhau cannot stop or become extinct, or we will become empty soulless people,” he said.



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