[sacw] [ACT] sacw dispatch (25 March 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
25 March 2000
___________________________
#1. The mysterious foreign hand that haunts India and Pak
#2. Appeal for Funds from Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace & Democra=
cy
#2. Report on 2nd International Conference on Indian Labour History
#3. April: Harvard Symposium on Indian Law
___________________________

#1.
The Asian Age
25 March 2000
Op-Ed.

The mysterious foreign hand that haunts India and Pak

By Omar Kureishi
Karachi

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who in 1904 was awarded
the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine for his classical experiments
on the regulation of the digestive glands by conditioned reflexes of the
nervous system.

The best known experiment was to find that saliva and gastric juices
were secreted by the experimental dogs not only when food was introduced
into the mouth, but also at the sight of food, at the sound of the
footsteps of the person doing the feeding, and at the rattling of dishes
in the preparation of food. Hence the conditioned reflex or Pavlovian
response.

I write this not to demonstrate how learned I am, I got the above
information from an encyclopaedia, but to make the point that whenever
there is a high-profile murder or a bomb blast our first instincts are
to look for a foreign hand and a wider conspiracy. This has the added
advantage of absolving our own police and other agencies of any
dereliction of duty and also of finding the culprits.

It is more than possible that a foreign hand may be involved but in
crime detection one does not shut out other options, one eliminates
them, one by one, after thorough investigation. One does not pre-empt
the investigation. In the cold-blooded murder of the lawyer, Iqbal Raad,
a murder carried out in broad daylight and with no attempt by the gunmen
to conceal their identities by wearing masks, one will have to admit
that the timing is most suspicious and intriguing, if one can use such a
word.

Mr Iqbal Raad was a senior defence counsel in the Nawaz Sharif trial and
it would not be illogical to suspect that there could be a connection.
Then there is the visit of President Clinton and it was no secret that
the Indian government was making a concerted effort to have his visit
called off and to have Pakistan declared a "terrorist state." And if one
was to apply the principle of who benefits, which is usually a starting
point in establishing motives, the probability of a foreign hand or to
be more explicit, RAW, being involved is not far-fetched.

During the Cold War, the CIA and the KGB held sway and they were the
predominant trouble-makers and if the leaves of a tree stirred when
there was not a breath of breeze, it was confidently assumed that one of
the two had caused it. Indeed the CIA and KGB were so high-profile even
their "dirty tricks" or covert operations became an open secret and
their activities became a source of entertainment. RAW and our own ISI
are achieving the same status in the limited context of Indo-Pak
relations.

We see RAW everywhere and the Indians see ISI and they have become the
usual suspects. As a matter of routine, diplomats from the respective
embassies are declared persona non grata and expelled and sometimes
beaten up before being unceremoniously packed off. Both these agencies
appear to operate with impunity.

Whether or not these agencies are master-minding every act of public
violence in the two countries is arguable but it has become convenient
to blame them. In Karachi, we have lived with a break-down of law and
order that had become institutionalised and we had learnt to accept it.

On a rough estimate, 50 per cent of my columns dealt with this, its
varied forms and manifold manifestations. There were the "phantom"
killers who would appear from out of nowhere on motorcycles and then
cars, make the kill or killings and simply disappear into thin air. To
the best of my knowledge, the "mystery" of these phantom killers was
never solved and not one of them was ever caught.

Then too we were told that there was a "foreign" hand and to which, our
response, the response of columnists like myself that the "foreign" hand
did not enjoy any sort of immunity and there was no reason why he should
not be caught. Then the killings were described as "political" and it
was said that the assailants were getting protection from influential
people.

Again, we wanted to know who these influential people were. What had
happened was that crime had been politicised and politics criminalised.
I remember writing a column and wondering what had happened to the
honest-to-goodness criminal, the one who believed in crime for crime's
sake. There were kidnappings for ransom but this too was given a
political flavouring. Gangs roamed the streets, shaking-down shopkeepers
and terrorising the citizens. Dacoities and break-ins were common.

What was common too was that nobody ever got caught, leave alone
punished. Car-snatching took on an epidemic form and it soon became
obvious that it had become an industry. We were told that these snatched
cars were being taken to Balochistan or Afghanistan. Even today,
newspapers report on a daily basis an average of 10 to 15 cars snatched
at gunpoint. It cannot be described as a sick industry.

We are living in a revolutionary technological age. Everywhere else in
the world, crime detection has taken giant strides. Guess work has been
taken out. At the same time, no country is that proud that it will not
call upon expertise from other countries.

Even in cricket, foreign coaches and physios are being employed.

Either we are self-sufficient and confident about our own abilities or
we should not hesitate to bring in experts from Scotland Yard or the FBI
to try and nab these "foreign" hands. We simply cannot afford to allow
murderers to go free, more so if they are "enemy" agents.

Whenever there is a high-profile murder, there is a flurry of activity
and there are statements that no effort will be spared to apprehend the
killers and even a time-frame is announced by when these killers should
be caught. This soon dies down, the bang turning into a whimper and the
whimper dying out into silence, until the next murder and it starts all
over again. This has become a much travelled road. The time has come to
take the less travelled one.

By arrangement with Dawn

________

#2.

Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy
K-14 (First Floor), Green Park Extension,
New Delhi-110 016, India.
Tel : +91-11-6163830/6196640
=46ax : +91-11-6198042

I am writing this appeal to seek your support for "Pakistan-India Peoples
- Forum for Peace and Democracy', =1D in my capacity as a Member of the
National Committee of the Forum's India Chapter.
As you know, towards the end of 1994 (September - December) some of us in
India and Pakistan found ourselves in agreement that nearly 5 decades of
strained relations between our two countries had only served to inflict
severe damage both to our Peoples. The social and economic indicators of
both India and Pakistan tell their own story. Both countries have steadily
fallen in their international rankings, mainly due to their excessive and
avoidable expenditure on militarisation and nuclearisation. Since our
respective ruling elites seem unwilling to move away from their mindsets
we feel that the only available course is for the people to assert
themselves in favour of peace and friendship. If such long standing
problems between blacks and whites in South Africa, the Palestinians and
the Israelis, Northern Ireland and Indonesia and East Timor and others can
come to settlement, why should we Indians and Pakistanis also not bury our
hatchet and live in peace with each other?
Towards this we first organised a meeting in Lahore in September 1994,
where the Peoples Forum was formally set up. It was agreed there that the
political issues that had be-deviled relations between the two countries
should be the prime focus of this Forum. Further, it was felt that the
voices of people would carry to the decision makers only if there is
responsive democracy in both countries. Consequently, the peace and
democracy has become inseparable in our objectives. The Lahore declaration
a copy of which is attached herewith states the basic formulations to
which all of us who participate in the Forum's activities subscribe.
=46our such Conventions have now been held. The first in Delhi in February
1995, in Lahore the following November, in Calcutta in December 1996 and
in Peshawar in November 1998. So far over a thousand or so participants in
these meetings from the 2 countries came to unanimous conclusions on many
contentious issues. We mention a few of this by way of sample: (i)there
should be no resort to war, force levels should be reduced to both sides
by 25 per cent, simultaneously curtailing military spending. Both States
should stay away from nuclear disaster. (ii)Kashmir is not merely a
territorial dispute between India and Pakistan, it concerns the lives and
aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir on both sides of the Line
of Control. What is required is a peaceful democratic solution which also
involves the people of Jammu and Kashmir. (iii)Both countries must reduce
oppressive rule and that the Forum would promote democratic governance and
protect common citizens. (iv)Both countries must aim to build more
tolerant and just societies. (v)Trade relations must also be formally
recognised and enhanced. (vi)Both governments must lift visa restrictions
so that citizens of both countries can travel freely.
The Four Conventions held so far have already spread a message of peace
and democracy in both the countries. Regional groups on both sides have
been busy organising local meetings which have received a very encouraging
response. The India Chapter of the Forum has held National Conferences in
the last 3 years all of which have been well attended. Several Colloquium
and Seminars on important issues concerning the relationship between both
the countries have also been organised. What began as a small meeting in
Lahore in 1994 is now on the way to becoming a Peoples =19 Movement It is
our firm conviction that common people on both sides earnestly want peace.
They have to unite in raising their voice so that the ruling elites pay
heed to their views.
The Indian Chapter of the Forum is organising a Joint Convention in
Bangalore on 6th, 7th & 8th of April 2000. It is expected to be attended
by about 250 delegates each from both India and Pakistan. We expect the
forthcoming convention will generate further support for the Forum =19s
objectives, and hopefully influence the policies of the two governments
towards peace and democracy.
Needless to say that the conduct of this Joint Convention in Bangalore
will mean a sizeable budget outlay. Our Forum is wholly a civil society
initiative, and is funded entirely by contributions from its members and
sympathisers. Its accounts are regularly maintained and audited. We need
your support and help once again to make the forthcoming convention a real
success. Please donate as generously.
We remember your timely help and support provided to the Forum atleast on
two occasions earlier.
Since we are not in a position to receive funds directly as we do not have
=46CRA, we request you to kindly send it to an organization in Bangalore,
the director of which is the Convenor of the local organizing committee of
the ensuing Joint Convention. The details are as under :
Name of organisation :
Visthar
Name of Director/Chief functionary : David
Selvaraj
Profile of organisation :
Trust
=
=20
Registration No: 81-89/90
=
=20
=46CRA No: 094420589
Account number : CNI 92
Bank Details =20
: =20
State Bank of Travancore 8/1 Gover Road, Cox Town Branch
Bangalore - 560 005
Managed by :
Board of Trustees
=
=20
Chairperson: Dr. K.C. Abraham
=20
: Advisory Council
=
=20
Chairperson: Dr. C.T. Kurien
Located at: Organization is ten years old and currently located at :
Dodda Gubbi Post
=
=20
Bangalore - 562 149 With regards, Yours Sincerely,
E. Deenadayalan Member, National Committee
_______

#3.

Conference Report:
Second International Conference on Indian Labour History
Noida, March 16-18, 2000

by Marcel van der Linden

On 16, 17 and 18 March the Second International Conference on
Indian Labour History was held in Noida, near New Delhi. The
meeting was hosted by the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute and
partly subsidised by the International Labour Office. While at the
first conference of this kind (in March 1998) some twenty-five
papers were presented mainly by scholars from the Delhi area, this
second conference had 32 papers and included contributors from
Mumbai (Bombay), Calcutta and the Southern part of India
as well.

This progress reflects the growth and consolidation of the
Association of Indian Labour Historians (AILH), the organisation
that was founded in December 1996 and whose Executive
Committee (especially Drs. Prabhu Mohapatra and Rana Behal)
organised the event.
The Conference started with a short commemoration of two
outstanding labour historians who have recently passed away,
Ranajit Das Gupta and Partha S. Gupta.

The following papers were presented and discussed:

Session I: The Structure of Labour and the Control of Work

* Jan Breman (CASA, Amsterdam): "Systems of Labour Bondage
in the Past and Present"
* Tony Cox (Trinity College, Cambridge): "Paternal Despotism, the
Bengal Jute Industry and the Scottish Empire"
* Amal Das (Univ. of Kalyani): "Employers=A5 Strategies of Labour
Control in Jute Mills ) The Reactions of the Labourers ) Late 19th
and Early 20th Centuries Bengal"
* Rana P. Behal (Deshbandu College, New Delhi): "Wage
Structure and Labour: Assam Valley Tea Plantations 1900-1947"
* Robert Castle and Jim Hagan (paper with Andrew Wells) (Univ. of
Wollongong): "Labour Relations in the Rubber Plantations of
Indochina, 1910-1940"
* Normichi Narita (JNU, New Delhi): "Capital, State and Labour:
Reaction to State Intervention in Bombay and Bengal in the 1930s"

Session II: Housing the Working Poor

* Ravi Ahuja (Fernuniversit=94t Hagen): "Expropriating the Poor:
Urban Land Control and Colonial Administration in Late Eighteenth-
Century Madras"
* Prashant Kidambi (Wolfson College, Oxford): "Housing the Poor
in Colonial Bombay ) The City Improvement Trust 1898-1918" *
Krishna Jha (Achyta Menon Foundation, New Delhi): "Slums in
Transition: Reflections on Delhi Slums"

Session III: Workers and the Politics of Identity

* Dilip Simeon (Oxfam, New Delhi): "Strike-Breaking or the Refusal
of Subalternaty? An Essay on Ethnicity, Class and Gender in
Chota Nagpur"
* Kaushik Gosh (CSSS, Calcutta): "Labor and Ethnicity: The
Question of the Adivasi"
* Gautam Sen (paper with Kunal Chattopadhyay) (Calcutta): "Case
Studies Towards Class Identity of White Collar Employees"
* Shashi Bhushan Upadhyay: "Dalits in the Literature of
Premchand"

Session IV: Informalisation of Labour

* Babu P. Ramesh (New Delhi): "Dialectics of Organisation and
Disorganisation: Trade Unions, Cooperatives and Weavers in
Kancheepuram, 1940s-1990s"
* Neetha N. (New Delhi): "Labour Relations under Subcontracting in
the Tirupur Knitwear Industry"
* C.S.K. Singh (NLI, Noida): "Labour Chowks: The Dynamics of the
Daily Labour Market in Delhi"

Session V: Gender Issues in Labour History

* Susan Vishvanathan: "A Critique of Capitalism: Comparing the
Lives of Wives of Syrian Christian Merchants and Fishermen in
Kerala"
* Chitra Joshi (JNU, New Delhi): "Making Spaces: Questions of
Gender and Domesticity"
* Manju Chattopadhyay (Calcutta): "They Rose from the Ranks )
Dukhmat and Sukumari"

Session VI: Workers on Strike: Politics and Representations

* Sabyasachi Bhattacharya (JNU, New Delhi): "The Strike as
Metaphor: Bombay in the 1920s"
* Vijay Prashad (Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.): "Citizens on
Strike, c. 1957"
* Prabhu P. Mohapatra (CLARA and NLI, New Delhi): "`... All Our
=46leece Was Dry=A5 ) The TISCO Strike of 1958 and the
Question of Representation"
* Anil Rajamwale: "The Railway Strike of 9 March 1949"
* Deep Kanta Lahiri Choudhury (Hughes Hall, Cambridge):
"Government and the Telegraph Workers Strike of 1908: Sedition
versus Mutiny"

Session VII: Recovering the Past ) Memories and Resources

* Mukul Mangalik (New Delhi): "Voices from a Strike: Listening to
Workers During the Bombay Textile Strike, 1982-83"
* Hemant Babu: "Voices from the Past: Beyond Conditioned
Responses to the Mumbai Textile Strike"
* Satyajit Das Gupta (SEPHIS, Calcutta): "Documenting Memories
of Marginalization: Life-Stories of `Unprotected=A5 Workers in
Postcolonial Calcutta"

In addition, three special sessions were held. The first one
discussed the book by authors Jan Breman, Arvind Das and
photographer Ravi Agarwal "Down and Out: Labouring under Global
Capitalism" (Oxford and Amsterdam University Presses, 2000) ) a
critical documentation of work and exploitation in South Gujarat.
The discussion was introduced by Sudhasattwa and Jibesh Bagch.
The second special session dealt with international labour
networks on the basis of papers by Jan Elliott and
Marcel van der Linden. And the third special session, with papers
by Shankar Ramaswamy and Shekhar Krishnan, focused mainly
on conceptual problems of labour historiography (and more
specifically the notion of proletarian "dignity"). During the
concluding session (which was chaired by AILH President Prof. S.
Bhattacharya) the Indian Secretary of Labour Dr. Lakshimidhar
Mishra expressed his support for AILH=A5s activities.

The AILH has the following coordinates:
Archives of Indian Labour
V.V. Giri National Labour Institute
Noida, Sector 24
Uttar Pradesh, 201301
India

E-mail: shram@n...
=46ax: -91-118-532974/535174
Phone: -91-118-532968
________

#4.
A ONE DAY SYMPOSIUM ON THE THEME:
HUMAN RIGHTS AND INDIAN JUDICIARY'S CONSTITUTIONAL
JURISPRUDENCE

Saturday, 15th April 2000
Venue: Vorenberg Classroom, Harvard Law School

PROGRAM
Inauguration
9. 30 A.M: Welcome Address:
Professor Robert C. Clark, Dean, Harvard Law School
9. 45 A.M: Introductory Remarks: Professor Henry J. Steiner,
Director, Human Rights Program, HLS

=46irst Session: 10 A.M
Chair, Professor Frank I. Michelman, Robert Walmsley University
Professor, Harvard Law School
CONSTITUTIONALISM, CONSTITUTIONAL JUSTICE & HUMAN RIGHTS -
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
1. Indian Constitution, Indian Judiciary and Human Rights -
A Historical and Contemporary Perspective
Professor Granville Austin, Author of the book,
"The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation"

2. Constitutional protection of Human Rights in the context of abuse of
power - Judicial achievements and failures
Mr. Ram Jethmalani,
Minister for Law, Justice & Company Affairs, Government of India

3. Little Injustices: Access to Justice for everyday problems in India
Professor Marc Galanter,
Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin at Madison

4. Indian Constitution and Judicial enforcement of Human Rights -
A critical perspective
Hon'ble Mr. Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer,
Former Judge, Supreme Court of India

Lunch Break: Between 12.30 P.M. and 1.30 P.M.

Second Session: 1.30 P.M.
Chair, Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter, J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of
International, Foreign, and Comparative Law, Harvard Law School
HUMAN RIGHTS: JUDICIAL ENFORCEMENT, INSTITUTIONS
& ATTITUDES
COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

1. Judicial activism and public interest litigation in pursuit of Human
Rights - Indian Context
Mr. Soli J. Sorabjee, Attorney General of India

2. Constitutional Lawyering - Human Rights challenges during Emergencies
and Emergency-type situations
Mr. Arun Jaitley,
Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Government of India

3. Judicial enforcement of Human Rights -
Constitutional checks and balances
Professor Upendra Baxi,
Professor of Law, University of Warwick School of Law, England

4. Perception of the Judicial enforcement of human rights on the civil
society - Its actual impact on the Indian citizenry
Mr. N. Ravi, Editor, The Hindu (Indian National Daily)

Tea Break: Between 3. 45 P.M. and 4.00 P.M.

Third Session: 4 P.M.
Chair, Professor John H. Mansfield,
John H. Watson, Jr. Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

EQUALITY, DISCRIMINATION & JUDICIAL REMEDIES -
CONSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVES
1. Protective discrimination and affirmative action in India -
Constitutional mechanisms and Judicial enforcement
Professor Mahendra P. Singh, Professor of Law, University of Delhi

2. Judicial enforcement of Women's Rights in India -
A critical perspective
Ms. Indira Jaising, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India

3. Child labor & bonded labor problem in India -
Judicial remedies and Human Rights issues
Professor B. B. Pande, Professor of Law, University of Delhi

4. Ms. Smita Narula, Researcher, Asia Division,
Human Rights Watch, New York

6. 15 P.M.: Concluding Remarks: Mr. Peter Rosenblum,
Associate Director, Human Rights Program, HLS

Sponsored by: Harvard University Indian Human Rights Group
in close collaboration with the Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School;
Graduate Program, Harvard Law School;
Satyam Computer Services Ltd., by its Director, Dr. Mangalam Srinivasan,
Harvard University Committee on Environment

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO PUBLIC INCLUDING THE LUNCH

Contacts for Registration/Information
Mr. C. Raj Kumar, LL.M. Candidate
Harvard Law School; Tel: (617) 493-9188
Email: crajkumar4@y...

Ms. Pratibha Jain, LL.M. Candidate
Harvard Law School; Tel: (617) 493-9267
Email: <jainpratibha@h...

_________________________________________
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