One one important concept we wish to explore is the
interplay of the two polarities of Indian Classical -one,ScholarshipaboutRaga, and two, the engagement of the auditory
and intellectual facultiesof
the Classical Music connoisseur...
An illustration of the supposed dichotomy between
theory and sensory felicity was presented thus, in the post ''Be a Good Listener",
"....(Pt.) Ratanjankar used to interview leading artistes as part of his mission,
documentation of Indian Classical, and sportingly courted the wrath of some of
the unpredictable geniuses. UstadAbdual Karim Khan roundly castigated Panditji thus: tubara swaranchekhokewajawnara, tumalakaaywichartotumhigujri todikashigaata', or something like that. That's the level of resistance to
documentation of any kind in our society..."[1]
Attention is again drawn to thefollowing passagein the post 'Fourth CommandmentZindabad'
where the great musical thinker Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan alludes to a
favourite she-r:
“This, we learn, is the custom of the School of
Romantic Love, and the School of Music- he who learnt his lesson well never got
a Day Off!" 'Study' is but 'Leisure' to the one who really
'ínternalised' the lesson... We suppose this aspect of universal Musical
Experience would bear introspection and will receive attention in some of
the coming posts,inshaallah.
So- what has all this to do with the title we give to today's
entry..."Importance of Being Malinitai"?- the World, if Missus, and
YT's intuition, are to be believed.
Listen to her Charukeshi:
At 2.03, 2.06, 2.08, 2.10 and 2.13, for instance, and at numerous other
'places' ('जागा' in Marathi) you'll
find 'lehak' discontinuities, which, given the auditory equivalent of 'persistence
of vision' applicable to Cinema, seek, possibly involuntarily, to
create a three-dimensional structure of the Raga, as against a
linear or two-dimensional one. It can also be likened to the trapeze act where the artiste abandons one swing and clutches the other...no safety net..Once we work out the notational structure in
association with Missus and Senior, we'll be able to assert
with greater authority, our shared belief, that Malinitai is THE
Thinker's Musician, or the Musician's Musician,blessed at the
same time, with consummate tonal felicity..
To elaborate the idea of a three dimensional presentation of say Charukeshi (is only an illustration, not from the clip), just see the figure to the left, which is, let's assume, Malinitai's recital. Two taans commence in your mind from the black dot, which is सा. The actual taan sung is the unbroken line, say SA RE GA MA PA MA GA RE. By means of an illusion, say a sort of ventriloquism, the unsung part of the previous taan say SA RE GA MAsimultaneously appears to fall on your ear in the shape of the dotted line, actually beginning from रे but seemingly interpolating to सा, thereby creating the illusion of a three dimensional structure of the recital. Mince that's our hypothesis हं,..
This phenomenon, which we call a three dimensional structure, was noted in the context of Hindustani vocal by the British musicologist Willard, who in 1834 AD, wrote the very second book in English on Indian Classical. He writes:
"When these flights are
more lengthened than a single appoggiatura (*) , the ad libitum movement runs
through the full time of a whole measure, or a certain number of measures,
reckoning from the instant of its adoption to that when it is dropped, taking up
the measure of the rhythm at the same foot where it was dropped, or if these
passages require more or less time than the complement of the measure requires,
allowance is made for it in re-joining the melody." (*) something like padding up a note.
By the way some other aspects of Tai's prowess have already been talked about by us in previous posts...as we wrote on another occasion, Malinitai was a Mathematics teacher in
the first place (as was the writer himself).
[1]translated:
you, who play that 12-note idiot-box, have the temerity of asking ME how I singGujri Todi...?
The principal merit and endowment of
Chandigarh lies in its location rather than its architecture. Limitless vistas to the traveler open up, once
she arrives there. Not just beautiful hill stations, but curiously curious spots as well.
Earlier this week we happened to
be in Chandigarh for a 2 hour Conference – ConclAv they call it now-, where in
an audience of 200 just 2 people argued with each other and finis! Flying from
Guwahati and back is a three day affair, bound to raise hackles- but not to the
Chandigarh-initiated, in which ranks CVB fancies himself…
The destination that suits our
taste best, if we have 4 hours on hand while in Chandigarh is Kasauli. As kids
we have visited the place a plenty of times, for our School Principal the Rev. Jim
Douglas Tytler had a Villa there, which would be the summer retreat of the
whole School. It was, isss, a little Church centered hill station, tucked westwards
behind the hills that led to Shimla or Simla. The solid Raj roads and railroad
took you there…
The moment the takraar alluded
to above ended, colleague Raj and YT took a bite of the excellent butter chicken-tandoori
roti combination that forms the backbone of a Punjabi meal, and jumped into
Bhag Singh’s Dzire, and yelled “Singh saab, Kasauleeee..”-before anyone could
spy us- for what we love to see is usually hatke fromaccepted norms.
Many a precious trip has foundered on the rocks of suum cuique…
One of the inherent strengths of
Kasauli- its métier- is its geography. In a space of 75 km., you ascend 6,000
ft. ! Just give an hour and a half, and you are upp there in the clouds savouring the
fragrances pervading endless pine-woods, admiring the expansive broad-shouldered
mountains, interspersed with supremely beautiful valleys …
The other two draws of Kasauli
are the Pedigree of the place, and last but not the least- Cheers! -the one and
only single Malt Whisky produced in Ancient India: Solan No. 1- from the highest
distillery in the world, the solvent of the 42.8 % alcohol being unadulterated
water from Himalayan springs.
But of course they’ll tell you it’s
no longer what it used to be- those shaalaa (minceশালা ) professional nostalgia seekers, nostalgia ke vyapari- the height
being “Owwwww…nostalgia is no longer what it used to be..ha,ha,ha..”
There were times when the whisky
was available only in Military stores. And boyyy…did the Generals swear by the Holy
Spirit! Once on a trip from nowhere to
nowhere we happened to befriend Brigadier Shamsher Singh (now retired) of
Signals, who promptly christened nacheez, chotte prah, and
naturally after a couple of pegs of Solan No. 1 we reciprocated by addressing
him as Veerji. The difference in our ages should have been around 125
years then, a century here or there... No Sticky Label, Walker-Shalker for me,
he used to say, “I am monogamous- one wife, one whisky…” –a General like which they don’t produce anymore…
As is known to anyone who has
tippled on occasion, the whiskies that go under the garb of IMFL are all
derived from molasses. The only ones which answer to the description of real
whisky are Solan No. 1 and possibly Amrut of Bangalore. Those are the only two
whiskies ever sighted on international turf, for instance Solan is reviewed by
Canadian Chip Dykstra on his site rumhowlerblog, which reputedly crossed
2 million hits last year…he rates the whisky at a respectable 84/100, which is
the highest end of cocktail whiskies and the lower end of the elite
independently consumable brands- according to Chips, that is...we’d give it a neat,
on-the-rocks 90. To give you an idea of
his exacting standards, Bacardi White Rum earns a mere 70/100 on Chip-scale.
This is the only whisky to figure in the Penguin title “Happy Hours: The Indian
Book of Cocktails” by Bhaichand Patel, and that, without any insult …!
Google Solan No. 1 and you’ll be startled by the fan following the brand
commands...
The brewery, at present known as
Mohun Meakins, was set up in 1860, in the foothills of Kasauli on the Solan spring, with
equipment imported from Scotland by Edward Dyer, the father of the infamous Brigadier
General Reginald Dyer, the perpetrator of the Jallianwala Massacre. Too bad…Reggie
did not stick to his dad’s venerable vocation…
The equipment of the distillery is
still the same, though the ownership has changed. The senior Mohun happens to
be a teetotaler and has never sought to hype the whisky from his side. On the
other hand, he has been contracting the production as the availability of Malt
and Himalayan water dwindles. Today one has to visit Kasauli to buy the
concoction, it is so scarce, and all we could lay our hand was a solitary
bottle. MRP? -only Rs. 280.00! Best things come for free nooo....?
RIDIN' INTO THE SUNSET
Having accomplished the prime
object of the Mission, we now trot around the hills, intending to bring friend Raj
face to face with the most celebrated hasti –personality- of Kasauli-
Sardar Khushwant Singh. But of course he is too old now to undertake the
journey to his home at Kasauli, they say, and the Khushwant Singh Festival of
2012 did not venture beyond the celebrated Kasauli Club. Anyhow, we get to
explore a bit, the precincts of the historic home where he did most of his writing. YT and his friend share a certain
warmth for Khushwant paaji if only because he calls himself a “simple-minded Sardarji”. Quite
endearing I sayyy…! Raj should be delighted to find that the estate is named
after him..Raj Villa… or the other way round. With some temerity, we complete a
pradakshina of the house-apparently at the other end is a sunset-point. “Whose
woods are there I think I know, his house is in the village though, he will not
see me stopping here..” there the analogy ends: snowfall ‘ardly ‘appens in
Kasauli, it happens in the leap years they used to say- ya- it did happen in
2012…We remember Miss Parks, our school-time old-flame, our chaperon, never
allowed us to go in the direction where Raj Villa lay, it was supposed to
abound in dangerous precipices...
As for the vastu- khandahar
batate hain - imarat kitni haseen thi… Here are the mandatory snaps:
ਸੱਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਏ : ਤੂ ਕੀ ਸੰਜੇਗਾ ਤੰਨੁ ਕੀ ਦੱਸਿਏ !
The first one is in rrrreallly
bad taste—baaad boys, but what better can you expect from a Rehgarpuria, aks the Dev
Nagaris and Karol Baghis I sayyy… Rehgarpura, a Karol Bagh
suburb where the outcastes used to live was our home till we were further
outcasted from there… to JJ Colony, Inderpuri, next door neighbors to, we boast,
the Rt. Hon. Mayawati, whom every Indian Politician aspires to emulate, but
lacks the gumption…
It was too tempting a photo-op,
and we’re sure Khushwant paaji will understand, large hearted that he
is…by the way Khushwant Singh was never a Solan No.1 enthusiast- he just
prefers the generic Scotch…The twain did not meet…alas…
May waheguru see Khushwant
paaji break the glass wall of the Century, and may the equivalent
of Thoreau’s Walden, or Poe’s Bronx and Maugham’s home at Cat Ferrat, light up
on 2nd February 2015 resplendent in glory!
And don’t you sneeze at the pains
we take for just a dekko at Raj Villa. Defined circuits of Great
Writers’ Homes form big-ticket tourism in the West.
Paparazzi gathered at the 99th
birthday celeb of Paaji.. Paparazzo condescendingly remarks “ SIRRRR, I
HOPE I’LL ATTEND YOUR CENTENARY CELEB NEXT
YEAR…”… “WHY NOT..?!” says Paaji, “ YOU LOOK QUITE HALE AND HEARTY,
CVB..!”
Our Nazareth home in Shillong happens to be an
‘Assam-type’ construction, as they say in the North East: the roofing made out
of modules of wedge shaped sections of corrugated galvanised sheets, put
together in permutations and combinations artistically….to best keep rain at
bay…
Around mid-night, that is at 8.00
PM IST, it starts raining and pelting-on-the-tin-roof, and we wonder how we are
to distinguish the night’s swaras,
given the fact that the only music available tonight is the feeble ipad so thoughtfully foisted upon us by our employer so that we remain online 24
hours..
Fortunately the rains recede,
clouds sinking into the darkening skies towards Rynjah…that’s where the
Bengalis and Dkhars live…Dkhar stands for a tribal outsider…Bengalis for Homo Bengalensis…
We are making the 27 Down journey again fro Guwahati to Shillong, strains of Jog kauns eddying around in Kuki's warhorse the Scorpio- Kala
Ramnath, Panditji, Khansaheb Vasantrao, wagairah
wagairah, and Jog kauns always puts
her to sleep, somehow, Missus alleges…and then if it's a composite raga, what's the space doing between the two ragas.? ...that she says after the first rushes of the Post are shown to her for UA certification, he, he, he...Touche...will remember
Jogkauns is quite interesting, we provoke her, the chalan spotlight flitting from the purvang pradhan Jog to the lilting uttrang pradhan Chandrakauns…it’s full
of odds and primes, if we were to talk in mathematical terms…no evens…Aeronsystems
has promised to send the frequency graph of BSJ’s Jogkauns…Pt. Jagannathbuwa Purohit (‘Gunidas’) was the inventor, we remind Missus, but she just nods groggily….
We drop the bomb-shell then- your
ancestors were also buwas, is it
not…that leaves her rubbing her eyes furiously-she has such a ‘thing’ for that beeee…word…you know…
We veer the topic downhill. From
a most interesting raga to a boring one…
…which is the most boring of ragas then, we
aks her…bilawal (unless sung by Pta Amonkar) see shays..mince she says…Bhupali and Pahadi says nacheez….aai shappath she says…do you know, if you sing Pahadi treating the pa as
sa you end up with Bhupali…Murchana...But Jyoti kalash
chalake is Bhupali …Missus muses absently...
Kya baat hai we say, but there isss a pucca artiste who corresponds to the Rama who liberated अहिल्या शिळा.....mince Rama of अहिल्या शिळा राघवे मुक्त केली, पदी लागतां दिव्य होवुनी गेली , where अहिल्या शिळा stands for the humbler raagas.....and that's the brilliant Indori- Jaori maestro Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan...
WHO'S THE HANDSOMEST OF THEM ALL?
Visit all Google addresses, scrounge Youtube, thorough the Psalms, ransack Rhythm House, you'll conclude Ustad plays only Chayanat, Jaijaiwanti, Jhinjhoti, Pahadi... some UFO ragas, the sexiest we could seek out is Bhairavi in Yehudi Menuhin...maybe Kirwani- no Malkauns or Bhairav, or Darbari for Ustadji... But, and a big BUTTT, a humble flower-girl becomes a Princess after she visits Ustad's studio at Bandra. Remember what Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma felt when one Bandra night the strains of Chayanat on sitar fell on his ears? haminasttt: justread the uploader's remarks in this Kirwani, in which the sitar complains plaintively about the neglect meted out to her by her sanwariya @ 0.25 to 0.30...
Khansahib plays the fairy who chaperons plain Jane Tilak Kamod to a beauty cavern, to transform her into the most ravishing maiden, plain as she remains at heart! YT nurses a collection of dainty single slippers dropped accidentally by such-like Cinderellas, hurriedly clambering onto pumpkin-carriages..where are the matching feet I sayyy...!.
But Latatai endures in the mind of Mrs. von 'Bailiff, and she returns to the मूळपद thus: but Jyoti kalash chalake is Bhupali …Missus muses absently...he, he, he...
That brings us to the most haunting interlude played in
the lifeof nacheez…and a billion others in the greater subcontinent…..the sun
and shade played by him or her with a haunting human voice ever since he was born or
unborn……maa Saraswati of Peddar Road…
We have travelled a thousand times, criss-crossing Prabhukunj, and not once have we failed
to fix our gaze on those balconies, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lata…ever so human…never did she mind stand
and be counted against the bridge maker syndicate…. ever so ethereal…[1]
Have you travelled from Chandigarh to Manali? One remembers, most of the time one is accompanied and
shepherded by the emerald waters of river Beas.
Lata is the voice which has stayed with Everybody of the sub-continent-with Humanity
if you permit,... condescend, like that crystal stream, abiding faithfully by the sides, in joy
and pain, in misery and revelry… . by its serene banks you laughed, or smiled,
or you wept or mourned, or splashed your face …the context is eternal and
universal, reminds you of
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Pta.
Lata were of course ardent admirers of each other. Remember Raam ka Gunagaan kariye…? Panditji once
remarked that by virtue of the divine quality of her voice and, her musical
genius, she ranks amongst music’s greatest prodigies, Taansen, Khusrau, or
Tyagaraja….Bhimanna, one may add…
Panditji if you recall, begged to
differ with the last High-priestess of Indian Classical, She of the raised eye-brow…Lata Mangeshkar who?....so said
the Pta KA, Hindustani counterpart of Bellatrix Lestrange, Rowling’s answer to our High-Priestess
…. Bellatrix… tell
us has Lata ever produced an imperfect or discordant note…Kambakhwqt kabhi sur se utarti nahi, said your Grand Dad Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan?... Geet Gaya Patharon ne hooooo…kal zamana kahega tab batana…agar koi pooche to…it's so forgettable ...how many peoples’
soul have you reached Amma…men and
women on the street I sayyy….Public at large was liable to be taken in by Bellatrix's diatribe, so also she...mince Lady Posterity... were it not for Panditji's kind intervention... Lata is for eternity…and Latabai
never deigned to pick on you…Pta KA, tut tut, or hapless tabalchis…infringement
of the canons of decency…
We always believed that an experience 'e' concerning music (or noise for that matter he, he, he) is a four dimensional supra-Cartesian entity, the directions or variables being- Substance (notably, raga), Technique, Emotion and an intangible called..called...called...maybe iota or 'under-root of mínus one' or a 'quark', or 'wild-card' or in plain Marathi- गंमत! fun!! e= (k*S)^p+(l*T)^q+(m*E)^r+(n*गंमत)^s...the equation translated into humanese being- a musical experience is the product of S,T,E and गंमत... series k.. representing the constant coefficient and series p, the exponent...there are a number of unknowns, say series p and series k, the only constants being the variablesS, T, E and गंमत ...whewww...we'll elaborate that some-day inshallah, but suffice it to posit that the supreme is E and the quotient thereof, which happen to be the haunt and preserve of Latadidi.....In plain language, the musical consummation comes from four features: contents (say vyakhya or vistara of the raga), technique, emotional content and गंमत, the significance of each variables changing with the artiste...the most important attribute according to IK is E or emotion...hence the supremacy of Pt. Bhimsen or Lata or Mukesh Mathur or KL Saigal...the summm has to be a subjective Resultant we suppose...! Unfortunately no critic will address the issue of Emotion Deficit or Emotion Surplus!
There is a very important ‘learning’ involved here …and that’s really the shadowy theme
of today’s post….All tunes are great, Ashok Razdan said… the point is that it
takes the voice of Lata to reveal the potentialities of, and dimensions hidden
in, a boring raga like Bhupali,
ahem…excuse us...She makes any tune ‘speak’ so to say…बोलक्या करतात मुक्यालाही लताबाई ….
VITTHALA CHE WARKARI:
The holy months of the
brotherhood are upon us. The warkaris
make way from Alandi and Dehu to Pandharpur, to keep their annual Ashaadi Ekadashi tryst with Vitthal, even as followers of the
Prophet eagerly await the Holy Ramzaan…
Dnyaneshwar Mauli hearkens to the sweet voice of the crow, a crow,
of all birds…Poe’s Raven….harbinger of Vitthal’s
arrival…even the agnostic in YT can feel the sweet pangs of divine
separation....it is in bairagi bhairav
they say…a classic..
पैलतोगेकाऊकोकताहे
शकुनहेमायेसांगताहे
पैलतोगेकाऊकोकताहे
A crow calls from
the yonder,
Maye, I know it is a good omen.
उडउडरेकाऊतुझेसोन्यानेमढवेनपाऊ ,
पाहुणेपंढरीरावघराकईनयेती
Fly away
and get the tidings thou crow,
And I
shall clad your feet in gold,
When the
visitor from Pandhari,
Comes
forth to my cottage.
दहीभाताचीउंडी, लावेनतुझेतोंडी,
जीवापडियेत्याचीगोडी, सांगवेगी,
Rice and
curd I shall feed thee,
Tell me
at once about the one dear to me.
दुधेभरुनेवाटी , लावूनतुझेओंठी ,
सत्यसांगेगोठी, विठूयेयिलकाहे
A bowl of
milk shall put to your lips ,
Tell
truly, will Vitthal grace my
threshold!
आंबेयाडहाळी,फळेचुंबीरासाळी ,
आजीचेरेकाळीशकुनसांगे
Savour all
the mangoes on the boughs,
But let
me hear what so impatiently I seek !,
(courtesy
SJisBack on Youtube)
The raga is said to be Bairagi. It is so similar to Gunkali,
Missus says S r M P d for Gunkali and S
r M P n for Bairagi. So few swaras- only 5.
Problem in recognizing raga in respect of Lata songs as
we mused, is this: if a boring raga sung by her becomes
evocative, in case of a Lata song, how are you to tell two closely
related ragas apart- so overwhelmed are you with the
voice persayyyy... [1] allusion from The Raven
The
literature on Indian Criminal Jurisprudence is remarkably rich in references to
"Confession", be it the Malimuth Commission or the Madras Torture
Commission 1858 or the body of TADA or POTA jurisprudence. We are concerned
mainly about the 'kind' of confession that can be used against the
confessor-or before what worthy can a legally valid confession be recorded-
etc. etc. A good 150 years ago the Madras Torture Commission concluded that Indian
policing and criminal justice is based on confessions by torture. Of
course the British then attributed it to the colour of our skin. That’s not fair
sir... You remember the Stalinist era joke, where the KGB makes the schoolboy
to confess having written the Hamlet? They are whites na bhaiyya..!
As a lay person one should be struck with the obsession of the police,
and the entire criminal jurisprudence, with the monstrosity called
"confession". Confession appears to be the staple weapon in the
police armory or the sole weapon -a creaky double barrel gun, not
graduated to the SLR ehhh... ?
What is
this bosss..? Confession, Confession, Confession? Is there no other form of
evidence for our police? And now-enter the sexy Narco Test! What is a narco
test but a form of confession in a pseudo forensic garb? Are we ever going to
get beyond basics? Or is there a hidden agenda involved...mince like Tendulkar imagined in Shantata...(mhanjye Vijay haan...)
Ah yes,
there isanother
smaller weapon: the "witness": In Mumbai a judge is reported to have
castigated the police for repeatedly producing the same witness, a gentleman
called Walya- for a Thane murder case, for a Colaba bank fraud case, for a
Byculla car theft, for an explosion in Mahim...The judge suggested the police
train and develop a cadre of witnesses for regular use. Remains a mystery...why
Walya's name wasn't 'tweaked' every time....we suppose KYC counts in Courts...
Testimony
is the final stage in establishing the charge, the first stage being a proper
investigation. Indian Policing is seemingly concerned with the end-product and
therefore would rather cook up a nice witness than waste effort on producing
sleuths! Kinda' imparts speed, hitherto missing, to the wheels of justice...you
know...
Contrast
that with the circumspection, and concern for technical rectitude, exhibited in
the West. The Boston Bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev was allegedly not read out the
Miranda Rights by the Police, and a furore followed, that’s a few months back.
The Miranda Warning is, so to say, the ‘operative arm’ of the Fifth Amendment
to the US Constitution which prohibits the act of self incrimination based on one's confession. Those under arrest in the United States have the
"right to remain silent" which cannot be held against them in a court
of law.
The
Miranda Rights emerged from the US Supreme Court judgement in the 1966 Miranda
vs. Arizona. The form varies from State to State, but the essence is:
You have the right to remain silent;
Anything you say can be used against you in a court
of law;
You have the right to consult with a lawyer and have
that lawyer present during the interrogation;
If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed
to represent you;
You can invoke your right to be silent before or
during an interrogation, and if you do so, the interrogation must stop.
You can invoke your right to have an attorney
present, and until your attorney is present, the interrogation must stop.
The
Police is required by law to obtain a signed copy from a crime suspect arrested
for interrogation.
In India this recourse to remain silent is not available, which simply derails the whole process- to escape the thrashing the accused confesses to whatever the police says (to be denied in Court), and field day for the next edition...Alexi Confesses Having Written Hamlet....headlines shriek...
There have
been attempts to dilute the provisions by the Obama Government which is
incensed with the licence it gives to terror suspects, some Supreme Court
verdicts questioning the liberties bestowed by Mirandaji. But for this writer, the recent straws in the wind only reinforce
his belief in the long term wisdom of the writers of the 1966 judgement.
The relevant judgments have frequently prevailed by a narrow 5-4 majority, the balance reportedly
being tilted by ‘swing vote’ of this-or-the-other Republican appointee. Anyway,
the concessions made to the alleged Conservative sensibilities appear so lame
to an Indian- almost ‘quibbling’... Only the ‘presumption’ and not the ‘right’
of the defendant has been questioned. US law enforcers appear to be
babes-in-the-woods compared to ours, and need a crash encounter with the IB,
he,he,he... This is what The Washington Post reported about the Hon. Court’s ‘concessions’:
1st
June 2010: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that suspects must tell
police explicitly that they want to be silent to invoke Miranda
protections during criminal interrogations, a decision one dissenting justice
said turns defendants’ rights “upside down.”
A right to
remain silent and a right to a lawyer are the first of the Miranda rights
warnings, which police recite to suspects during arrests and interrogations.
But the justices said in a 5-4 decision that suspects must tell police they are
going to remain silent to stop an interrogation, just as they must tell police
that they want a lawyer.
The
detailed report appearing in the New York Court Observer’s site is more racy:
Mirandatheme,Berghuis v. Thompkins, was
likewise a bitter, contentious, 5-4 decision.
May the police continue to interrogate a suspect, for 3 hours, after reciting
theMirandawarnings, but without first obtaining
the suspect's waiver of the right to remain silent? That's theThompkinscase.
Previously, theMirandasafeguards were understood to mean
that interrogationisnot permittedunless a suspect voluntarily and
knowinglywaivesthe right to remain silent. (And that
is exactly how the federal appeals court had ruled in this case.) But now,
after the Supreme Court's decision in Thompkins,
interrogationis permitted unless
the suspect clearlyinvokesthat right. The presumption of
interrogation validity has been reversed.
InThompkins,
the defendant was arrested for murder and questioned in jail by police
detectives for 3 hours. He was read theMiranda
warnings, including: "You have the right to remain silent. Anything
you say may and will be used against you in a court of law." The police
asked him to sign the form saying he waived his rights. He refused.
Nevertheless, the police proceeded to question the defendant for 3 hours. He
said virtually nothing in response. He answered only a few times, and then with
a single word. At the end of the 3 hours, the police asked the defendant about
his religion and, ultimately, if he prayed to God for forgiveness for the
murder. To that, he answered "Yes."
That one-word response was used against the defendant at trial, and he was
convicted. The federal appeals court, the 6th Circuit, reversed the conviction.
That court ruled that the defendant'sMirandarights were violated because the
police persisted in questioning him despite his refusal to waive those rights,
and despite his continued silence for nearly 3 hours.
The Supreme Court took a different view ofMirandarights--different than the federal
appeals court and different than its own previous decisions--and reinstated the
conviction. According to the bare majority, the defendant'sMirandarights were not violated. According to
them, theMirandasafeguards donotrequire an explicitwaiver by the defendant.
Theydorequire that the defendant
unambiguously invokehis
rights.
Stated otherwise, the police don't have
to obtain a defendant's clear waiver--i.e., his agreement to forgo his right to
silence and allow interrogation. Instead, the defendant must clearly invoke his
rights--i.e., expressly say he wants to remain silent or actually remain silent
throughout the questioning.
The
italicised ‘refinements’ permitted by the US Supreme Court are like a speck of
salt that might tilt the sensitive ‘chemical balance’ of Justice in the
respective country, but will hardly sway the crude balance- tarazu our Blind-folded Lady of Justice displays
in her august hands for the benefit of the citizens of India..
The crux
of the issue is this: the basic context in the two societies is so different-
the faithful ally of Confession is Torture, the acceptability of which is perhaps
spontaneous in our society. It’s of a piece with the Giffen’s Theory of
Complementary Goods we study in Economics. Hence the greater store we tend to
store by Confession.
One recalls what the bumbling Scotland
Yard detectives led by Lestrade intoned when Sherlock Holmes facilitated the
arrest of a suspect. As kids that was
our first introduction to Criminal Law Procedure, and thattt has put us on the wrong ‘libertine’ trail, we suppose. The
equivalent of Miranda Warning in England and Wales is something to the effect
that "you do not have to say
anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned
something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in
evidence."
