[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 22 Aug. 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
22 August 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

#1. Pakistan: Citizens Seminar on Hamood ur Rehman report
#2. Pakistan: How Many Qassims, Ghaznvis, & Ghoris Do We Need?
#3. Pakistan: Unjustified Generalizations & Misconceptions about Punjabis
#4. India: 'The Making of History', a tribute to Irfan Habib
#5. India: Tourists Defy Kashmir War

#6. 53 yrs on in secular India: Hostel Ends Years of Religious Bias

_____________________

#1.

22 August 2000

JOINT ACTION COMMITTEE FOR PEOPLES RIGHTS DEMANDS A FORMAL APOLOGY FROM
[PAKISTAN STATE TOWARDS]
BANGLADESHI MASSES AND FORMATION OF A COMMISSION ON KARGIL AND OJRI CAMP

Report by Farooq Sulehria

Joint Action Committee For Peoples Rights Lahore has demanded from the
military government to formally [seek] apologies from the Bangladeshi
masses. This is
to accept the atrocities committed by the Pakistani military officials duri=
ng
Bangladeshi independence struggle. A resolution in this regard was unanimou=
sly
approved by over 200 activists present in a seminar held at Lahore Press Cl=
ub
on the theme of 'Hamood-u-Rehman Report and Tasks for Justice' on 21st Augu=
st.
Speakers included SM Masood a formal law minister under Bhotto, Asma Jehang=
ir,
ex chairperson of Human Right Commission of Pakistan, IA Rehman and Hina
Jilani of HRCP, prominent intellectual Dr. Mahdi Hasan, Farooq Tariq genera=
l
secretary Labour Party Pakistan, Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan president of
Democratic Women Association and Liaqat Ali advocate.

Speaking on the occasion, Tahira Mazhar Ali said that there were only six
women in Lahore during 1971 war who were opposed to the military interventi=
on
in East Pakistan and were brave enough to demonstrate on the main Mall Road=
of
Lahore. She reminded the audience of the need for democracy in Pakistan.

Farooq Tariq said that it is not important how the report has reached in In=
dia
and printed in India Today. The content of the report has brought for the
first time the real nature of the military atrocities committed against the
Bangladeshi masses during their independent struggle. It is clear that
military officials carried out looting and plundering of the state assets o=
f
unprecedented level during their stay. The rape cases have brought the real
shame for the military generals. Farooq Tariq said that the truth has at la=
st
come out through he official media. The facts known to people has now been
formally accepted in this report. He condemned the so-called democratic
governments during the last 26 years who were unable to print and act upon =
the
findings of the report.

Dr. Mahdi Hasan said that if PPP government in the seventies had printed th=
e
report, there would have not been the military coup of General Zia ul Haq. =
He
said many more reports have been kept secret so for. He cited that the enqu=
iry
report of the murder of Liaqat Ali Khan, the Ojri Camp report, The Afghan
intervention report and many more has been still state secrets. He said in
this modern era of information technology, nothing could be kept secret.

Mr. IA Rehman told the seminar that we demand the printing of the Hamood ur
Rehman in full. He said that those involved in different crimes should be
brought to justice through courts. Rehman Sahib said that we have been
demanding for long time for the printing of this report, as this was very
crucial democratic life of Pakistan. He said we want to end paying for
Mujahideen who are based in Afghanistan but are paid by the Pakistani state=
.

Hina Jilani, general secretary HRCP and newly appointed of special
representative of UNO general secretary Kofi Annan, said the publication of
the report marks the end of armies attempt to keep the truth secret from th=
e
people. The truth has come out and cannot be any more used to protect those
who had committed cruelties. She demanded that those who have been blamed
should be brought to the courts for justice. She said that it should be
enquired how a professional army laid down the arms in only 13 days of war
with India.

Mr. S M Masood advocate told the audience that he had heard General Ayub Kh=
an
saying at Lahore Governor house as early as 1960 that we should get rid of
East Pakistan. He said a national army committing heinous crime against its
own people couldn=EDt be regarded as a national army. He said the army in E=
ast
Pakistan had already decided to hand over the arms to India before Bhotto w=
as
able to reach UNO during 1971 war. He agreed with an earlier speaker that P=
PP
should have public ally printed the report and taken action against those
responsible for the crimes.

Asma Jehangir told the motivated audience that it is the duty of progressiv=
e
forces to demand that justice to be done. It is late but still those who ha=
d
raped the Bangladeshi women should be brought to the court of justice. She
said that one general Rahim has made public statement that his name should =
be
cleared. She said that he has the right but give us the permission to bring
those raped women to Pakistan as witness and they will recognize the animal=
s.
She said that we want to know the real facts.

She said if the politician had nominated as the military officers have been=
,
the military would have made them a humiliating example. They have hanged a=
n
elected prime minister and the other is in jail at present. Why the militar=
y
general are above the rule of law, she questioned. Asma Jehangir demanded a=
n
immediate formation of a commission to judge the responsibilities of the
Kargil war. She said many soldiers have been given their life in Kargil But
why this war was started, people want to know. They want to know if Mujahid=
een
has started the war or the regular army was involved.

During the question time, Umer Baluch, LPP Sind Secretary wanted to know wh=
o
has helped to form the Lashkar Tiyabba and MQM in Sind. He said the militar=
y
generals has promoted religious fundamentalism in Pakistan and around the
borders. He said now once again, the people of Sind have been pushed to the
wall and attempts have been made to build the controversial Kalabagh Dam. H=
e
said once again the situation of Bengal is going to be repeated by the
military government. He urged the Punjabi masses to arise in favor of
exploited nationalities.

Two unanimous resolutions demanded enquiries about Kargil War and Ojri Camp
incident of 1988. Also the government to the Bangladeshi masses has demande=
d
an open apology. All the speakers urged to strengthen to struggle for
democracy in Pakistan

Note: Joint Action Committee For Peoples Rights is an action alliance of 36
NGO's and political parties based in Lahore. It was established in 1992 and
since then has been in the forefront of the struggle for a progressive agen=
da
for Pakistan.

______

#2.

21 August 2000

HOW MANY QASSIMS, GHAZNVIS, AND GHORIS DO WE NEED?

by Mubarak Ali

Last week when I was passing through the Lahore Mall, I saw a banner
flattering with a bold headline 'We welcome Parvez Musharraf as a modern
Muhammad bin Qasim'. The banner was manifest of historical consciousness of
our society. I started wondering why our nation always thinks in terms of a
strong man as a deliverer? Why do we construct a past that entirely belongs
to the conquerors and invaders? Why do we remember Mahmud of Ghazna and not
al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, or Firdusi? This attitude and approach to cognate
history is reflective of the psyche of our people shaped by continuous
manipulation of history by the state.

Political history, as a major discipline, dominates our history textbooks.
Popular history fiction by writers like Sharar or Nasim Hijazi contains
Muslim heroic figures who embody the essentials of a brave hero to crush
the enemy and manifest courage, magnanimity, and tolerance towards the
oppressed. Such qualities, by the end of the narrative, are rewarded by way
of marrying the hero off to a beautiful woman, who is generally non-Muslim.

Equally fascinating is the play of historical films that heighten the drama
of war and conquest to popularise the past events that gratify the sense of
history in popular consciousness. Naturally such commercial ventures fetch
enormous amount of money to producers and film industry at large.

Muhammad b. Qasim, Mahmud of Ghazna, and Shihabuddin Ghori emerged as
powerful symbols in Muslim politics in the context of the 1930s' communal
atmosphere in India. Interestingly they continue to be used as symbols of
perfect Muslim heroes who have the ability to restore peace and order
through their belligerence. Such manipulation is of course suitable to
those rulers who seize power by force. They legitimate their rule by
manipulating figures of war and power from our past. The grave impact of
which is that our past, not just in popular consciousness, but in academics
and school education, is reduced to the past of conquerors and aggressors.
Not surprisingly then it has the strongest appeal to the people. Such a
version of history gives our society a temporary sense of pride and a
satisfaction in bygone greatness nurtures self-delusion and escape in the
past that lives no more.

18th Century was the turning point in the history of the Muslim societies.
Owing to the process of colonization the Safavi, the Mughal, and the
Ottomons were on the decline. Having lost the power and prestige, Muslim
societies harked back to their past glories to find images of victors and
conquerors who had built great empires. Such imagination was a kind of
redemption from colonial bondage, and a source of hope that such heroic
personas would redeem them from political enslavement, social and cultural
decay.

The Indian Muslims imagined the Ottoman Empire to be a powerful constant.
Undoubtedly it had projected power during the time of Sultan Muhammad Fateh
and Sulaiman the Magnificent, but its position in the political world in
the twentieth century had changed. Not recognizing such a change, the
Indian Muslims acclaimed the Ottoman Caliph as their protector. During the
Balkan wars in 1912-13, Maulana Azad's paper al-Hilal started to publish
the heroic encounters of the Turkish generals who fought against the
Christians. It served as an inspiration to the Muslim community in India.
However, the defeat and surrender of the Caliph in the First World War
greatly disappointed them.

In an atmosphere of loss and grief when Ghazi Anwar Pasha got killed in his
mission to unite all the Turkish speaking people in Central Asia, the
Indian Muslims turned him in to a mujahid and later martry. The other hero
that emerged as victor was Mustafa Kamal who restored the lost dignity of
the Turkish nation by defending his country against the allied invasion.
Both Pasha and Kamal, despite their antithetical views, became the heroes
of the Muslims of the subcontinent. Out of the two, Mustafa Kamal continues
to be a model for Muslim rulers and leaders. Riza Shah, the founder of
Pahlawi dynasty of Iran, and Amir Habibullah of Afghanistan, had the
aspiration to emulate him to modernize their countries but circumvented the
process of modernization due to their involvement in corruption. Similarly
Jinnah, Ayub, and now Paervez Musharraf aspire to espouse the values of
Ataturk, the great man and hero.

Ataturk, however, is viewed as a destroyer of religion and tradition by the
religious extremists. His endeavour to secularize and modernize Turkey is
anathema to the bearers of religious extremism. The religious extremist
parties have rejected Ataturk as their hero and take pride in the figures
of Muhammad b. Qasim, Mahmud of Ghazna, and Shihabuddin Ghori.They also
became relevant in the context of Indian-Pakistani conflict: the conquerors
who defeated the Hindus and propagated and established Islam in the Indian
subcontinent. This also shows that the historical consciousness of our
people is still tilted towards the belief in physical power, not realising
that the days of physical power are over and intellectual creativeness and
technological innovation reign supreme.

The consequences of hero worship have resulted in disaster for Pakistan.
Following the footsteps of the conquerors, the rulers of Pakistan treated
it as a conquered country and, therefore, legitimated plunder and loot of
its wealth and resources. The only difference between them and the model
conquerors is that in the past the wealth was taken away from India and
deposited in the state treasuries of Damascus, Bhagdad, and Ghaznin. Now
the Swiss banks or American and Western countries provide safe haven to the
plundered wealth. How can we condemn the modern heroes when we admire the
ones of the past on the same deeds? If we justify hero worship, then we
have to condone not only their plunder but also endure their rule and
sacrifice each and everything to make them great and powerful.
______

#3.

Pakistan Voice
August 21, 2000

UNJUSTIFIED GENERALIZATIONS AND MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT A PUNJABI MAN

by Dr. Manzur Ejaz

Khalid Ahmed's article in the Friday Times "Transformation of Punjabi
man" is based on old cliches, unfounded generalizations and weak
conjectures. He argues that the Punjabi man is passive, devoid of
business ethics, loves Pakhtun domination, and suffers from a
personality disorder. In addition according to Mr. Khalid Ahmed the
Punjabi man has given up his own mother tongue and does not think
critically because of his domineering ideological position in Pakistani
state. Mr. Khalid Ahmed's arguments do not hold when evaluated from a
historical angle.
Mr. Khalid Ahmed has reiterated an old cliche according to which
Punjabis have been welcoming invaders from the north: Afghan and Turks
from Central Asia have been overrunning Punjab for centuries. On face
this is true but who could stop these invaders once they conquered
Punjab, as our friend and Punjabi scholar Shafqat Tanveer Mirza has been
arguing. After putting down resistance in Punjab all the invaders would
run through the rest of the Northern India like a knife through butter.
Furthermore, it was the first Punjabi empire established by Ranjeet Singh
which put an end to these invaders and reversed the trend. Moreover, it
should not be forgotten that Punjab was the last to fall in the British
hands. Such historical facts prove that the Punjabi man had no special
love for the northern invaders and put an end to it as soon as Punjabi
nationalism accumulated a critical mass.
Probably, Khalid Ahmed has not given much thought about anyone
else but the Lahori elite known to him. His description of folk Punjabi
characters also reveals he has heard tit bits from here and there and has
not spent his time reading Heer Waris Shah. His approach to the whole
subject is based on limited empirical observations of a certain area of
Punjab and historical period of Punjabi Muslim history. He has tried to
create a semblance of analysis with the weak and far fetched conjectures
between shallow appearances. His article not only fails in defining the
Punjabi man' but also falls short of showing etiological links in his
subject matter.
Most importantly, Mr. Khalid Ahmed does not make it clear whether
he is writing about a Punjabi Muslim man' or a Punjabi man'. Punjabis are
comprised of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs with most common characteristics
that differentiate them from the rest of ethnic groups of India. In his
article he refers to Hindu business ethics without specifying the
ethnicity of his imaginary Hindu. Punjabi Hindu is very different from
southern Hindu. However, it is commonly observed that Punjabi Hindu
merchants had (and has) strong business ethics while rural Hindu of
Bihar had no such traits.
Most of the business and industry was run by Hindus in Punjab.
Among Punjabi Muslims a small community of Chaniotis and Khojas were
known for their business acueman. These traditional business classes
(including Punjabi traders) developed rules of business conduct over the
centuries. However, after the partition, Punjab Hindu business elite left
for India and was largely replaced by petty peasants turned merchants and
traders. This class had no experience of business. They had come to urban
centers with all the anarchic attitudes and other shortcomings of a petty
small land-owning peasant class. Therefore, the question arises if the
lack of business ethics among Punjabis should be addressed in the context
of transformation of new classes in history or should it be explained
away by simplistic notions like the ones Khalid Ahmed has presented.
If Punjabis, as an ethnic group, have no business ethics then
Punjabi Hindus should not have any either. Or is it a religious trait
then every Hindu should be epitome of business ethics. But this is
against common observations. As a matter of fact if the issue is viewed
in historical context then one will see the outcomes in other societies
where peasantry has transformed into merchant trading class in a short
span of time. Many examples from African countries shows a similar
pattern of absence of business ethics after the colonialists departed and
left a void in the urban centers.
Khalid Ahmed presents a simplistic description (not explanation)
about Pakhtunization of Punjab and spread of religious fundamentalism in
Punjab. Again it is a specific phenomenon of Pakistani Punjab or malaise
of religious fundamentalism that is polluting the entire Northern India.
Emergence of BJP among North Indian Hindus and Khalistan movement in East
Punjab shows that the phenomenon is widespread in the entire region. Of
course there must be differences among fundamentalism of different groups
but the resemblance is so much overwhelming that a social historian will
more likely study it as a unified/common phenomenon. In this backdrop,
Mr. Khalid Ahmed's assertions do not go very far to enlighten us.
Similarly, Mr. Khalid Ahmed has portrayed the Punjabi man as
passive, lethargic and foolhardy through its folk literature. In his view
Ranjha is a passive character in Heer Waris Shah. Probably, this is the
crudest misconception on the part of those who have never read Waris
Shah's text and have formed their views from Punjabi films. Waris Shah
recreated the character of Ranjha as an activist intellectual who
confronts major institutions of the society and exposes them.
Waris Shah wanted to critique the major social institutions of
his time through Ranjha. If Khalid Ahmed had read the Punjabi text (like
he reads English Urdu books every week) he would have known that a
passive or a coward could not speak bluntly with a Mullah in a strange
village like Ranjha does. I can go into every detail of Heer Waris Shah
and show how Waris Shah's Ranjha is a fearless intellectual leader. Heer
has her own rebellious traits but it is Ranjha who provides leadership.
Khalid Ahmed's depiction of other Punjabi folk characters also
shows that he has scant knowledge in this regard. I agree with Khalid
Ahmed when he says that abandonment of mother tongue by Punjabis must
have left "a wound in his [Punjabi man] psyche." Nevertheless, I want to
add that abandonment of mother tongue has left Punjabis less enlightened
and literate. They constitute an alienated elite even when they are very
educated.
Khalid Ahmed's conjecture (it is hard to call them
interpretations) about history of contemporary and ancient Punjab
presents a distorted view. For example, Punjabi masses have been
mesmerized by only one leader, Z.A. Bhutto, who was a Sindhi and not a
Pakhtoon. As a matter of fact no Pukhtoon leader has been popular among
masses in Punjab in the last 53 years. Khalid Ahmed's article is ridden
with inaccuracies but several columns are needed to explain them.
Nonetheless, Khalid Ahmed's characterization has pointed out some
interesting characteristics of a certain segment of the ruling feudal
class of Punjab.

______

#4.

Outlook
August 28, 2000

PROFILE: IRFAN HABIB

The Past Master
Irfan Habib's intellectual honesty has won him as many friends as it has
enemies

By sheela reddy in Aligarh

August 12: About 200 social scientists gather in Delhi to release 'The
Making of History', a tribute to Irfan Habib, and to rally against the
Hindutva attack on history.

Four years after he was unceremoniously thrown out of Aligarh Muslim
University (amu), 69-year-old Irfan Habib cannot stay away from the
red-bricked campus of fairy-tale towers even on holidays and Sundays. Every
morning he sets out on his bicycle down the tree-lined drive of his
gracefully-ageing mansion with a preppy satchel slung on his back. He is
headed for the department his father, Mohammad Habib, helped set up but
which Irfan has turned into the world's most exciting and exacting centre
for research on medieval India.

"It=92s the books," says Habib, a little sheepishly. Although he is not
permitted to borrow from amu=92s vast and invaluable collection of historic=
al
texts and documents, "I have friends who borrow books for me," he says.
Considering that Habib is something of a landmark in amu-everyone, from the
students to rickshaw-pullers to the chaiwallahs, knows "Habib Saab,"
favourite professor, generous colleague, union leader, cricket fan-he is
not short of friends.

He isn=92t short of detractors, either. Flung out by the ear from amu,
accused of pilfering ichr funds, roughed up at the Indian History Congress
in 1994 for his resolution condemning the destruction of historic
monuments, his research dismissed as "lies of that Marxist bunch", Habib
remains coolly amused. "Can you call it a blow to science when a hooligan
beats up a scientist?" he counters, refusing to take umbrage at Hindu
extremist efforts to rewrite history.

"You can argue with them if they were serious historians," he says, "but
how do you argue with these tabalchis?" Ancient Indian history, says Habib,
may be weak on dates ("the textual use of eras") but there's no dearth of
epigraphic and other evidence, including the genealogical tables in the
puranas, Kalhan's Rajatarangini and accounts of Arab chroniclers. In fact,
says Habib, barring Iraq, Palestine and Turkey, which had written records
from 3000 BC, dates are a problem with all early history. But there are
well-defined ways to establish dates fairly accurately, including
linguistic analysis. The problem with current historical controversies, he
says is that there's nothing to argue with except "stupid propaganda".

"The problem isn=92t with historians or the Indian people but with modern
political mythology," he says. The great Aryan debate now, for instance, is
but an attempt to establish that Aryans weren=92t migrants but indigenous
people who spread their civilisation westwards. "It is very anti-Dravidian.
They want to push back the Aryan migration from 1400 BC to 5000 BC," he
says, explaining that by pushing the Aryan civilisation back another 3,500
years, the Hindutva intellectuals are trying to lay claim to being the
originators of Indo-European languages. "How nice to call ourselves the
parents of the English language," he muses. "It must come from an
inferiority complex-the English have no problem admitting they owe their
language and civilisation to the Germans."

"But no serious historian is prepared to invent facts for their benefit,"
points out Habib. "Even R.C. Majumdar, who sympathised with their
viewpoint, was unwilling to associate himself with their stupidity. When
the Organiser published an article claiming the Taj Mahal or Red Fort, I
forget which, was originally a Hindu monument, he stopped writing for them,
he was so disgusted. And when D.C. Sarkar was under pressure to reduce the
date of artefacts, he refused to invent facts. Marxist historians could
argue with Majumdar because he used the same historical methods. But how do
you argue with all this rot now being spread in the name of history? They
don=92t even have their geography right. This great Indus-Saraswati
civilisation, for instance, which they want to invent. The Saraswati was
only a little stream, in its later stretch it becomes Jhaneswar, then
Ghaggar, and Hakra, which flows, rather unpatriotically, into Pakistan! So
the attack on historians isn't aimed at Marxists alone, but all historians,
including nationalists like Jawaharlal Nehru and on those who wrote on Tipu
Sultan," states Habib.

Habib=92s contempt for Hindutva distortion of history has not endeared him,
as one would expect, to Islamic fundamentalists. "Enemy of Islam" is what
he=92s often been called. "They don=92t like me," he says simply. The Islam=
ic
trend in history nowadays, feels Habib, is being set by Edward Said=92s
orientalism, which he takes to mean that history can=92t question Islam=92s
basic tenets. "My professor, a very logical man, used to say every history
of Islam logically has to have four versions: the Islamic, the Jewish, the
Christian and the kafir versions. The fifth version is the madhouse."

But Islamic historians face a problem, he points out a little gleefully:
"They've too many written records to work around. What can you do with a
text which states, 'Jews went bravely to their death'? The early
chroniclers didn=92t realise the Jews weren't Arabs like themselves." The
only difference between Islamic and Hindu fundamentalists, he says, is that
while Islamic historians want to impose religious values into history, the
Hindus want to create a fiction.

Habib=92s relentless pursuit of unprejudiced history has always been
unstoppable. For instance, when Habib joined the Communists, his most
serious difference with them was their historical perception of Gandhi. As
the grandson of Gandhi=92s trusted lieutenant, Abbas Tyabji, who grew up wi=
th
a father who reprimanded his children when they called him Gandhiji,
insisting they call him Mahatmaji, Habib was deeply troubled when he was
expected to disown Gandhi after joining the party. In his meticulous
fashion, he then wrote a paper which effectively appropriated Gandhi for
Marxism and was later published in the party organ, Social Scientist.

Perhaps Habib's greatest asset as a historian is an admirable sense of
proportion, whether in his personal or professional life. When, for
instance, Arun Shourie declared in his column that Habib had
misappropriated Rs 27,000 from the ichr by not delivering the research he'd
been commissioned to do, Habib didn=92t bother to contradict him. "That gra=
nt
was sanctioned all right, but I never drew it out because the project fell
through. The necessary documents were lying in Rajasthan's archives, and
they refused to part with them." Contradicting these lies, says Habib, is a
waste of time. "I'd rather spend the few years I have left doing my
research."

Similarly, when amu threw him out, Habib didn=92t bother to stay and fight,
despite many years as a leader of the university employees=92 union. He sti=
ll
misses the teaching ("Some of my best ideas came to me while I was teaching
BA students or correcting their papers") but has too much on his plate to
pine for the past. The project is as ambitious and exciting as those early
papers which, as social scientist Prabhat Patnaik puts it, "we used to look
forward to as much as Satyajit Ray=92s next film". Habib has embarked on a
people=92s history of India, from earliest times to 1947. It=92s an attempt=
to
restate history, providing information on ordinary things of life like
average age at death, prevalent diseases, diet ("They ate all sorts of
beasts, including cows and tigers"), houses, art, symbols, funerals and the
position of women. "Did you know that the earliest ornaments were worn by
men, not women, and with the progress of civilisation the jewellery moved
from the men to the women?" he queries, adding deprecatingly: "Such little
things interest me."

There are other little things that excite him: Brian Lara making a century,
for instance, or the sports minister=92s "knee-jerk reaction to the
match-fixing scandal". But most of all, Habib, an avid cricket fan, is
troubled by the banning of India-Pakistan cricket matches. "Why can=92t we
follow the Sri Lankan example? Despite the LTTE, they keep (Muthiah)
Muralitharan on the team. Cricket matches are the best way to keep
people-to-people contact with Pakistan."

Historians may feel they are viewed "like a dinosaur", as Romila Thapar
recently complained, but for this unwitting lodestar of a profession that
shuns stardom, life-both present and past-is too exciting to waste on
stupidities.

"You can argue theories with serious historians, but how do you argue with
these 'tabalchis'?"

"Some of my best ideas came to me when I was teaching my BA students or
correcting their papers."

=A9 Copyright Outlook 2000

______

#5.

The Independent (UK)

TOURISTS DEFY KASHMIR WAR

By Peter Popham in Srinagar

20 August 2000

In Kashmir, it's mayhem as usual. After a brief ceasefire in July, the
Valley has gone back to its normal diet of bombs, grenades and cross-border
shelling. A series of massacres at the beginning of the month claimed the
lives of more than 100 people. A car bomb in central Srinagar on 10 August
killed 11 and injured dozens more. Tension remains high. As ever, the city
looks like an enormous armed camp.

But the khaki and the grey are relieved once in a while by a flash of
colour, an improbably fashionable cut of clothing. Despite it all, the
foreign tourists will not be kept away.

A group of Italians in their 20s and 30s stand outside a long-shut carpet
shop in the city's northern reaches, waiting for instructions. "Is it
dangerous?" one woman asks, her eyes widening. "We didn't know about the
problems. We've been trekking for 11 days and had no information."

Other visitors know but affect not to care. Roee from Haifa strolls along
Boulevard Road with her boyfriend Liron, between well-manned bunkers of the
Border Security Force. "In Israel, too, there is army everywhere, so we are
used to it," she says.

And others such as Offie, 30, from Jersey, have been travelling around
India long enough to make a shrewd calculation: some tension, a lot of guns
and uniforms, but in exchange an amazing travel bargain.

Until the uprising against the Indian government that broke out in Kashmir
in 1989, this was the most popular destination in the subcontinent. In 1989
more than 700,000 tourists came to the Valley, including 67,000 foreigners.
The following year there were none; the Valley's most important industry
closed down overnight.

But Kashmir remains as enchanting as ever. Ten years of stagnation have
had the good effect, from the visitor's point of view, of stalling
development. Kashmir has been spared the mad proliferation of souvenir
shops and internet cafes that has transformed places like Kathmandu.

For anyone trying to stretch a small budget, Kashmir is hard to resist.
Offie =96 full name Adrian Osborne =96 is staying with friends in a nicely
furnished houseboat called Morning Star on Dal Lake, a placid 10-minute
ride in a shikara, the local flat-bottomed boat, from the centre of town.
"In the lake here," says Shibir, one of the owners, "there is no touch of
the road. It's a place where you feel yourself very peace and very quiet."
The cost this summer: 150 rupees per person per night, a little over =A32,
which includes bed, breakfast and a solid Kashmiri dinner. "The best food
in India," says Offie.

Srinagar is a fascinating city. As well as the Mughal gardens on the
outskirts, the enormous lake with its boats and the half-timbered
Tudoresque architecture of the Old Town, it also houses one of the most
curious must-sees in Asia: the grave of Jesus Christ. According to several
books citing ancient sources, Jesus' life on earth did not end in
Palestine: after his resurrection he travelled across central Asia, dying
in Srinagar in 109AD at the age of 103. A well-maintained shrine in the Old
Town contains a huge catafalque, supposedly containing the remains of Yuz
Asaph, as Jesus was called in Kashmir, or so we are told. Pious local
people still visit and offer prayers.

But whatever the attraction, foreign tourists on the whole keep away. Last
year, the best since 1989, only 17,000 foreigners visited. "Good-class
tourists are only coming from south-east Asia," says Mohammed Ashraf,
director general of the tourism department. "The large figures in the past
were possible due to group tourism. And the groups don't come because they
can't get insurance, on account of the travel advice issued by Western
governments. These are so scary I'd be scared to come myself."

The British counsel is unambiguous. "We advise against travel to all parts
of the state ... apart from Ladakh," it begins. And it continues with
"serious incidence of military ... a number of land-mine explosions ...
risk of kidnapping".

Mr Ashraf is doing all he can to get the British advice toned down, but
events conspire against him. In July a German hitch-hiker was reportedly
killed by militants after unluckily witnessing a shootout in the Zanskar
mountains. A week ago two Hungarian women were slightly hurt when a grenade
exploded on Srinagar's outskirts.

But Offie and his friend are little troubled. No foreigners have been
taken hostage since the still unresolved capture of five trekkers in 1995.
Foreign tourists are not among the militants' targets.

On Thursday, the pair left Srinagar on a "water trek", being paddled
gently down the River Jhelum to Wular Lake and back again. Cost per person
for the four-night expedition: 750 rupees =96 about =A311.

=A9 2000 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd.

______

#6.

South China Morning Post
August 21, 2000
=20=09=09=20
HOSTEL ENDS YEARS OF RELIGIOUS BIAS

INDIA by S. N. M. ABDI in New Delhi
A government-run university college hostel in Calcutta has
thrown open its doors to Muslims, ending years of religious discrimination.

Presidency College has also removed the religion column from admission
forms under pressure from the left-wing students' union. The college's
Hindu Hostel, built by a religious trust for "high-caste Hindu boarders",
was taken over by the Government in 1896 but the ban on Muslims continued
until last week.

Many generations of Muslim students tamely accepted the situation. Matters
came to a head last October when a first-year Muslim student insisted on
having a berth. Rooms were available but Shamim Asghar Ali was refused
accommodation.

The union took up Mr Ali's cause, but college authorities said it was up
to the state Government to drop the discriminatory clause. The union's
campaign was supported by all major political parties in West Bengal except
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules India at the national level.

Mr Ali was spending six hours a day on trains between Presidency College
and his home. Tired of waiting, union leaders one day smuggled Mr Ali into
the hostel. When nobody objected, they started sneaking him in every
evening. Friends took it in turn to share their rooms with him.

The union's campaign bore fruit last week when the new college prospectus
dropped three words - "only for Hindus" - from a guide to getting a room in
the Hindu Hostel.

"It marks a big victory for secularism over sectarianism," said Mrinal
Sen, film director-turned member of Parliament. "The communists ruling West
Bengal since 1977 should have revoked the outrageous clause long ago." Mr
Sen also praised the college authorities for deleting the religion column
from the new admission forms.

Indians are required to specify their religion on most school, college and
hospital admission forms and in all legal documents.

______________________________
South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch (SACW) is an
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run by South Asia Citizens Web (http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex)
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by joining the ACT list run by SACW. To subscribe send
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