The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
War of Words
Chetan Bhagat finds himself in a plagiarism row
HIS HEART was in textile,” says veteran designer Ritu Kumar about Martand Singh — the man who sowed the seeds of textile revival in India. Fondly known as Mapu, he brought to life a part of Indian heritage that had lost all hope, and inspired an entire generation of fashion designers and textile artists. “In the colonial period, a lot of Indian textiles were not being woven, they were vanishing. Post-independence, in the late ’60s, Mapu began the process of reviving these textiles from every part of the country. He began working on the Vishwakarma exhibition in the ’80s, which put the spotlight on Indian textiles. He took a part of it to London and Paris as well,” remembers Kumar, a close associate of Singh.
On Tuesday morning, Singh passed away, aged 70, at a hospital in Delhi, after battling pancreatic cancer. A protege of cultural activist Pupul Jayakar, Singh designed the landmark exhibition Vishwakarma – Master Weavers in 1982, was appointed chairman of INTACH (UK) Trust in 1993, and was art consultant to the United Nations Development Programme in 1995. Apart from this, he was also appointed trustee of the Mehrangarh Fort Museum Trust, Jodhpur, in 1993, and was Director of the Calico Museum of Textiles for more than ten years. He also served on several boards and committees, such as the All India Handicraft and Handlooms Board, the Handicrafts and Handloom Export Corporation, and the Crafts Museum.
Asian Heritage Foundation founder Rajeev Sethi, who was Singh’s junior at Delhi’s St Stephen’s College, remembers him for his “pehchan, the elegance of positioning. He could see who has potential, polish it and put it on a pedestal. He provided the vital fuel for Indian textiles.”
Thirty years ago, designer Anju Modi held an exhibition, one of her firsts, which was attended by Singh, and that’s how Modi met her mentor. “I had worked with weavers from Kutch for this particular show, and when I met him, I asked what I should do next, where I should go and study. He simply said, ‘you already have the best teachers, these weavers’. I was a nobody back then and I was lost, and Mapu mentored me with such honesty,” says Modi, “I was enamoured by his knowledge, intellect and passion. He gave me real insight into the world of textiles.”
Born into the Kapurthala royal family, Singh moved to Mussoorie a decade ago, and would visit the Capital in the winter. “In his last days, he was studying the history of jewels. He had fine taste and constantly wanted to do more,” says textile designer Tushar Kumar.
Singh also wrote and edited books, one of them being Saris of India, along with fellow textile revivalist Rta Kapur Chishti. Textile artist Priya Ravish Mehra, who researched on the book with the two, says, “Under his mentorship, we researched on the textiles of Gujarat and Bihar for Saris of India. He knew the pulse of the country and was truly a visionary. Working with him was an eye-opener and a life-changing experience for me as he was so well-versed with all the aspects of textiles,” says Mehra.
Varanasi-based designer Hemang Agarwal refers to him as his “grand guru, as he was Rahul Jain, my guru’s guru. In an industry which doesn’t present itself as it really is, with Mapu, you could just be yourself. Every person who is now working in textiles was under his tutelage once. For someone who was not a textile designer or technician, it was magic that he brought to the table. For anybody who knew him, there is a part of Mapu in that person.” ON A day when his book, Five Point Someone (2004), was included in the syllabus of Delhi University’s English Literature programme as part of the Popular Fiction section, writer Chetan Bhagat found himself in the middle of a plagiarism row. Bengaluru-based writer Anvita Bajpai accused Bhagat of lifting the “characters, places and emotional flow” of his One Indian Girl (2016, Rupa Publications) from her short story Drawing Parallels, from the book Life, Odds & Ends (2014, Lifi Publications).
In her Facebook post, Bajpai, an IIT Madras-iim Bangalore alumnus, wrote, that in 2014, when Bhagat had come to Bengaluru for BLF’14, she had given him a copy of her book for writing a review. She writes, “... though he denied the notice sent by Anvita Bajpai alleging that One Indian Girl published in the year 2016 is nothing but a copy of Drawing Parallels and the theme of her story has been intelligently copied”.
In February this year, Bajpai served Bhagat a legal notice, asking him to withdraw the book and to pay a sum of Rs 5 lakh as compensation. Bhagat responded a month later, denying all charges. Bajpai then approached the civil court seeking permanent injunction to restrain Bhagat and his publisher from selling the book. “The Hon’ble Court, after hearing the advocate for Mrs. Anvita Bajpai, has granted temporary injunction till the next of hearing, restraining Mr. Chetan Bhagat and the publisher from selling the Book .The injunction order came to be passed on 19th April, 2017,” Bajpai writes in the post. She has also claimed Rs 1 lakh as compensation.
Bhagat responded to Bajpai’s Facebook post with one of his own. In it, he says, “This is deeply unfortunate. This is, for one, an absolute surprise for me as I have never read any of this author’s works. My stories are always original — including One Indian Girl — and it is unthinkable for me to do anything like what is suggested. Surely, alleging anything like this in the current digital age is strange. I write universal stories about everyday issues. This could be a misunderstanding and am sure will be clarified as what is being suggested is baseless. My publisher’s legal team will be taking appropriate steps.”
When contacted, Bajpai, 40, said she had sent copies of her book to many writers, including Bhagat, seeking their opinion on her work. “I knew of him as an immensely popular writer, but I have never read his books or followed him on social media. I have watched films based on his books, though. I only came to read One Indian Girl recently when many people told me how similar Radhika’s character was to my protagonist,” she says. One Indian Girl is Bhagat’s sixth book and it features his first female protagonist, investment banker Radhika Mehta, who has to choose between the three men in her life. In Bajpai’s short story, her young protagonist Aliya is also a modern, working woman, who constantly compares her husband Mark with her first boyfriend, Krishna. Like One Indian Girl, it’s also about who she eventually ends up with. “Of course, mine is a short story and his is a novel, so he has had the chance to expand on many issues and introduce diversions, but, can make-up take away from how a woman really looks? The stories are too similar to be a mere coincidence,” she says.
A spokesperson from Rupa Publications refused to comment on the case. Calls and messages to Bhagat’s assistant went unanswered. The next hearing of the case will be in June.