The Real Mata Hari

Mata Hari

In July 1917, at the height of the First World War, Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, alias Mata Hari, went on trial for her life before a military tribunal in Paris. She was accused of having passed French military secrets to the German enemy - secrets so vital they had cost no less than 50,000 French lives, the prosecutor claimed. As a sensational tale of sex and espionage unfolded before the court. Margaretha's anguished declarations of innocence fell on deaf ears. The tribunal had no hesitation in pronouncing her guilty and sentencing her to death by firing squad.

Dancing into danger

Yet the facts of Margaretha's life suggest she was more a harmless, bewildered victim of circumstance than a dangerous secret agent. Born in the Netherlands in 1876, she married a Dutch Army officer when she was 19 and lived for a time in Java and Sumatra. In 1905, back in Europe and separated from her husband, she embarked on a career as an oriental dancer, first under the name of Lady MacLeod and then as Mata Hari - a Malay expression meaning 'the eye of the day'.

Mata Hari was soon famous throughout the continent, not so much for the quality of her dancing as for her readiness to perform virtually naked on the stage. She acquired a string of lovers of various nationalities in the highest military and political circles, including Crown Prince Wilhelm, heir to the German throne.

After the First World War broke out in 1914, her international contacts made her a tempting target for spymasters looking to recruit agents. By this time down on her luck, she accepted money from both the German and French intelligence services. But she proved a hopeless secret agent. There is no evidence that either side ever got any worthwhile information out of her. Eventually, tired of paying money for nothing, the Germans deliberately allowed the French to discover her duplicity.

Although some of France's most influential men - many of whom were Margaretha's ex-lovers - appealed on her behalf, she was executed at Vincennes on October 15, 1917. Her unconcerned behaviour in the face of death fed the Mata Hari myth. Salacious journalists dwelt upon the black silk stockings and fur-trimmed cloak she insisted on wearing for the execution. As she courageously refused to be blindfolded, the story was put about that she believed on of her high placed lovers had ordered the rifles to be loaded with blanks.

(Image Source: britannica.com)

Crime Free Village in India

At a time when spiralling crime graph is a matter of concern for the Uttar Pradesh -a province of India - Police, a small village on the Bhadohi - Varanasi Road here has set a record of sorts by not reporting even a single case of crime in the past 50 years.

Residents of Chandi-Sona village leave their houses unlocked while going out or even during nights.

According to Chauri police station, about two km from the village, there is little to worry about the village having a population of about 1500, as no case has been reported from there in the past over 50 years.

Village head (Gram Pradhan in Hindi) Chinta Devi said, "There is absolute 'Ram Rajya' in the village where people of different castes and creeds live in peace and tranquility.

"The only concern for us is to guard our belongings from stray animals," Chinta Devi said, adding all residents were by and large dependent on agriculture and happy with their lives.

The villagers thank the Gram Devi (village goddess) installed just outside the village for the peace prevailing in Chandi-Sona.

Seventy-year old Shitla Prasad of the village claim that, "Once thieves, who had struck at some houses kept moving about the village all through the night but failed to find the way out and were nabbed in the morning".