[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 28 July 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
28 July 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

#1. Bangladesh as Transit Point for Arms Smuggling
#2. How nationalism destabilises the state (by a leading Pakistani comentat=
or)
#3. India: Blowing the whistle on the moral police
#4. India: UP govt. doles out land to Hindu Right outfit for a song
#5. Hindu Right to watch Muslims going to Pak, West Asia
#6. Book Review: Issues in Modern Indian History
_____________________

#1.

The Dainik Janakantha in Bengali (Bangladesh)
16 Jul 2000
p 3

BANGLADESH AS TRANSIT POINT FOR ARMS SMUGGLING

Dhaka
[By Staff Reporter ]

Bangladesh is being used as a transit route by the smugglers of arms,
ammunition and explosives. Various underground organizations including the
Taleban, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam [LTTE], the United Liberation
Front of Assam [ULFA], and the Mujahid Bahini [Islamic fundamentalist
forces] amass arms, ammunition and explosives from international smugglers
based in Bangladesh.

Innumerable types of weapons of various caliber, mark, and capacity
including AK-47s, anti-personnel mines, grenades, modern revolvers, and RDX
[Rapid Detonating Explosives] explosives, reach organized Bangladeshi
terrorist groups via these international smugglers. There are over 100,000
weapons, unauthorized, the most modern, and illegal in the possession of
extremists and terrorists in the country. The recent killing of eight
persons, including six leaders of the Bangladesh Chatra League, the student
front of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League, reportedly by cadres of the
Chatra Shibir, the student front of the Jamaat-i-Islami, is the latest proo=
f
of the abundant supply of modern arms, ammunition, and explosives.

These modern arms, ammunition, and explosives are scattered all over the
country. Even petty thieves are able to get their hand on them. Police says
arms and ammunition are also given out on a rental basis and even sold.
Members of the Chatra Shibir allegedly brush fired and killed Chatra League
leaders in broad daylight in densely populated Chittagong, the second
biggest city of Bangladesh.

Police headquarter sources indicate that a nationwide operation will soon b=
e
launched to recover these unauthorized weapons. This will be a drive to
recover illegal arms and ammunition. None will be spared, police sources
said .

The Chittagong International seaport and the coast of Cox's Bazaar are the
main sea routes for shipment and transshipment of weapons by international
smugglers. They are the major points through which huge consignments enter
and leave the country. The smuggled arms, ammunition, and explosives are
supplied to the rebels of the northeastern Indian states of Assam and
Meghalay, the belligerent Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam of Sri Lanka=
,
and the rebels of Burma. A big chunk of these is left inside Bangladesh and
sent to various places, including the deep forest camps in the border
districts of Cox's Bazaar and Bandarban.

There are reports of the existence of secret training camps of
fundamentalists in the deep forests of Bandarban and Cox's Bazaar. The
followers of the ideology of the Taleban and Usama Bin Ladin run these
camps. Weapons training and lessons on their ideology are provided to cadre=
s
of the fundamentalists by local and foreign instructors.

National dailies have carried many reports on clandestine organizations
providing arms training and indoctrination to the cadres of the
fundamentalists. A foreign intelligence agency also funds these
organizations, and weapons training to the cadres.

Sources close to the policy-making level say the present government, after
coming to power in the mid-nineties, has kept a watchful eye on the influx
of foreign elements and arms in the deep forest of Cox's Bazaar and
Bandarban. The government is cautious on the entry of smuggled arms and the
training provided to the fundamentalist cadres by foreign nationals in Cox'=
s
Bazaar and Bandarban districts, the sources said. The two places have becom=
e
hideouts for these armed cadres during the past two governments. Then, the
activities of foreign rebel and clandestine organizations had increased. Du=
e
to the watchful eye and strict measures of the present government, these
activities have significantly declined.

Recently, large shipments of arms are reaching the country through the
coastline, the Chittagong seaport, and coastal pockets along Cox's Bazaar
shore. These arms are sent to Cox's Bazaar and Bandarban districts along th=
e
borders of Burma and the northeastern India's Mizoram State. The student
front of the Jamaat-i-Islami has become very active since they received
these arms. Now equipped, the cadres of the Chatra Shibir brush fired the
Chatra League leaders in broad daylight .

Large consignments of firearms and explosives enter Bangladesh through 30
unauthorized border points. These firearms are bought and sold through
various secret centers. These arms rotate and change ownership among
hardcore terrorists. These unauthorized firearms are used for various crime=
s
like terrorism, rioting, murder, toll collection, extortion, robbery and fo=
r
suppressing political opponents. Political differences particularly among
the major political parties have of late degenerated into violent criminal
feuds. Armed confrontations among supporters of major political parties are
now common in rural areas. The central leaders of these parties play the
role of the criminal godfather by providing shelters to criminals. In order
to increase their muscle, these godfathers patronize terrorists and
extremists.

Reports say that unauthorized firearms, bombs, and bomb-making materials
also enter the country from India through the norther borders districts of
Bangladesh including Rajshahi, Dinajpur, and Joypurhat. Illegal arms dealer=
s
are now very active in creating anarchy in the country. They have formed a
large network and with their help have built up a huge stock of arms and
ammunition. In the process of stockpiling unauthorized arms, they have
raised a large gang of agents along the borders, as well as in the
countryside. On a regional basis, some district border towns have been
selected and transformed into crime zones. Terrorists in these towns are
equipped with modern firearms. A permanent link between terrorists, the
agents of smugglers, and godfathers has been established. These agents have
connections to big underworld criminals. On advance payment, the godfathers
will take orders to supply arms on a commission basis. These illegal
firearms are to a great extent responsible for Bangladesh's deteriorating
law and order. The way in which firearms are entering the country and are
being stockpiled, gives an indication that an unholy conspiracy has been
hatched to create lawlessness. Terrorists are now equipped with deadly
weapons.

The authorities know that huge quantities of firearms and explosives are
entering the country through the northern borders and the coast in the
southeast. Police have recovered only a small fraction of these weapons. In
the last one year, police recovered 400 firearms from 16 districts under th=
e
Rajshahi division. These included a foreign-made revolver, pistol,
(?shatter) gun, pipegun and rifle. In addition, some revolvers and pistols
made illegally have also been recovered. These arms are believed to have
been secretly made by using lathes. In fact, a huge quantity of arms and
ammunitions are entering the country through the border. Among them are the
most modern of firearms. The firearms seized by the police include the
modern .38 bore revolvers. However, the terrorists seem to have more
powerful weapons.

All the revolvers recovered by the Detective Branch of the police in the
northwestern Bangladeshi district of Joypurhat were made in Germany,
Britain, Japan, and the United States. Police believe that members of
intelligence agencies operating across the border in India supplied these
arms to the smugglers. These arms pass from one hand to another and finally
reach the interior regions of the country.

Agents who negotiate the transfer of arms have easy access to both sides of
the border. It is learned that Dhaka terrorists, who have taken shelter in
various parts of India, particularly Calcutta after committing crimes in
Bangladesh, have begun to move to safer places after the arrest of Imon, a
top terrorist of Dhaka, in Calcutta. They are now on the run. A large numbe=
r
of them have also returned to the country.

It is learned that a section of these terrorists are also associated with
arms smuggling. This arms trade is taking place in 10 different border
points in the northern districts of Bangladesh including Hilli of Dinajpur,
Panchbibi of Joypurhat, Godagari of Rajshahi and Dhamuirhat of Noagaon
districts. These are the centers where arms are being bought and sold.

It is learned that a large area under Murshidabad District of the Indian
state of West Bengal across the border has been turned into a camp for
smugglers and a center for arms, ammunition, and explosives. There are arms
manufacturing factories in Islampur, Aurongabad, Dhulian, Raghunathganj,
Bhagabangola, and Lalgola of Murshidabad District, and also at Engrajbazaar=
,
Kaliachak, Habibpur, Bhagabanpur, Bamangola and Naophul of Malda District o=
f
West Bengal. These places have naturally become a popular resort for
smugglers and for the arms trade. These places in India are located across
Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Nowgaon districts of Bangladesh. Huge
quantities of explosives allocated for the purpose of demolishing hills,
hillocks and mountains in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are
sent to Murshidabad and Malda. In due course, these explosives are smuggled
into Bangladesh.

Arms are also being dispatched from Monghyr of Bihar to Malda of West
Bengal. There are hideouts and secret warehouses for storing unauthorized
arms, explosives, and materials to make bombs in the Indian side of the
border, very close to Bangladesh.

After the recent massacre of eight persons, including six leaders of the
Chatra League in Chittagong, the government has felt the need to launch a
drive to recover unauthorized arms. [...] .

______

#2.

The Friday Times (Pakistan)
28 July 2000

HOW NATIONALISM DESTABILISES THE STATE

by Khaled Ahmed

Nationalism is a great force in the third world. Leaders control states
on the basis of their appeal to nationalism. States fight wars on the
basis of national honour. Nationalism in these states is a collective
passion. New leaders bring new nationalisms, forcing the state to adopt
it as a mode of behaviour. The strategies that underpin nationalism are
not always honourable. They seek to bring a certain leadership to power
by mobilising collective emotion. No nationalism stands up to scrutiny.
The 'thesis' behind it is always riven with contradictions.

In two years, India has assaulted its Christians 300 times, destroyed
churches and killed their priests under the spur of Hindu nationalism.
In Pakistan, the nationalists vow to come to the help of innocent
Christians in India but will not give joint electorates to Christians in
Pakistan and will allow abuse of the blasphemy law to victimise them.
While Hindu nationalism excludes non-Hindus in India, Fijian nationalism
excludes Hindus in Fiji after repudiating a constitution that allowed
equal status to over 40 percent Hindus. In Nigeria, the nationalism of
the Shariah has caused the states to persecute non-Muslims and force
them into migration. In Zimbabwe, Shona leader Mugabe first excluded the
Mtabele from power, then got his Shona warriors to attack the white
farmers even after land reforms were agreed. This has happened after the
great Serb leader Milosevic had caused the slaughter of thousands of
Muslims in Kosovo in the Serb nationalist cause.

State as basis of nationalism: The most 'harmless' definition of a
nation is the people who live in a demarcated state. When states decide
to join together, these nations start looking for a new continental
identity, as is happening in Europe. Does that mean that the state is
the basis of nationalism? Any people who have lived together in history
start feeling that they are a nation. But in the case of the United
Kingdom, this does not hold strictly true. The people of Scotland have
always felt themselves a nation apart, but have stuck to the UK for
economic reasons, and are now looking forward to becoming a part of the
new European nation within the European Union. The Soviet Union was a
state but it never succeeded in evolving a Soviet nation. After the
break-up in 1991, the nation should have held together, but not even the
Russian Federation is able to persuade its various nationalities to feel
Russian. In fact what were nationalities before 1991 are now inclined to
become nations looking for new states.

Does nation precede the state? Can nationalism be based on nation rather
than the state? Pakistan's ideology is that its nation was formed first,
which then demanded a state for itself. In India, there were two
nations. According to this theory, if there is a nation it must be given
a separate state to live in because two nations cannot live in one
state. After Pakistan became state for this new nation, East Pakistan
felt that it was a nation apart and could not live with West Pakistan,
and that it needed a new state to live in. The two-nation theory was
applied to undivided India. It should have been set aside after 1947,
but it was kept alive to exclude the non-Muslims of Pakistan. New
nationalism in Pakistan sought to exclude the non-Muslims, thus creating
grounds for the dynamic of yet another new state. The Shariah because of
its abhorrence of state-based nationalism has become an element of a new
nationalism that endangers the existence of the nation-state.

Pluralism as enemy of nationalism: India opposed the two-nation theory
by embracing pluralism as the basis of its nationalism. This made it
popular with the West where the nation-state was being secured against
dispersal through the adoption of pluralism. After fifty years, India is
no longer happy with pluralism. Its Hindu majority now elects parties
that criticise the 'pampering' of the minority communities under
pluralism. The majoritarian passions of the BJP and its Sangh Pariwar
cause the killing of Christian missionaries since proselytisation
threatens the new majority-based nationalism. India has begun to
repudiate the nationalism it had adopted in 1947. As soon as one starts
arriving at a firm definition of nationalism it is destroyed by new
contradictions. Can one accept nationalism as a positive force in the
state? Nations who adopt new collective passions believe in them as
nationalism, but can one get the world to recognise it? In Fiji, the
Fijians believe they have arrived at the nationalism they had always
wanted, but the world is put off by it.

Obsolescence of constitutions: The content of nationalism keeps
changing. It changes so fast that state constitutions can't keep up with
it. This is because the state wants permanence through the immutability
of its constitution. Constitutions are therefore made difficult to
amend. That is why nationalism tends to make the constitution obsolete.
When obsolescence accumulates and the constitution is seen as being
completely outdated, it is threatened with collective rejection. At this
point, nations either advance to new nationalist targets without
constitutional legitimation or cause drastic overhaul of the
constitution to legitimise nationalism. A revolution or a charismatic
leader is required to effect this overhaul. General Zia was such a
leader. Many Pakistanis think that he did it on his own volition, but
objectively he seems to have legitimised the new content in Pakistan's
nationalism. In India, the BJP has advanced new nationalism without
constitutional legitimation. The constitution is therefore in the
process of accumulating obsolescence. Obsolescence happens under
democracy. The system that nationalism aspires to therefore is not
democracy but charismatic despotism.

India's changing nationalism: India's early nationalism was based on the
struggle for freedom from the British. This basis sought to keep all the
Indian communities bound together. After 1947, it was a response to
Pakistan's two-nation theory. During the cold war, this basis was broade
ned to include anti-Americanism and perceived capitalist trespasses into
India's socialist economy. Wars with China and Pakistan added another
dimension to India's nationalism. India's survival was at stake. The
security of the motherland was being threatened by two enemies in
league, with America at their back. A small blip during India-China war
of 1962, when America sided with India, was easily ignored in the
context of the cold war. America was firmly entrenched as a negative
counter in Indian nationalism. This nationalism is now in the process of
being superseded.

Nationalism of the Shariah: Pakistan's nationalism was India-based. The
security of the motherland was threatened by a powerful neighbouring
state that never accepted its existence. The world was seen through the
distorting prism of Pakistan's view of India. Pakistan's ideology, as e
xplained through the Penal Code, was Indo-centric. The Shariah became
the apex of nationalism in the middle years and began putting pressure
on the constitution. This pressure was first sought to be averted by
including the Objectives Resolution prescribing Islamic laws in the
constitution as a preamble. But nationalism was still a few paces ahead.
Finally, the Objectives Resolution was made an integral part of the
constitution. The Shariah nationalism, because of its utopian content,
always kept ahead of the constitutional amendments. Today, the
enemy-India-friendly-China construct remains the driving force of
Pakistani nationalism, but a new dimension of anti-Westernism has been
added to it. The new nationalism engages collective emotion in relation
to other lands as well, which brings the friendly-China part of it under
pressure. The anti-India pillar is now religion-based rather than
politics-based. The state is unable so far to define itself in relation
to this nationalism and needs another charismatic leader to transform it
further. Pakistan's instability is owed to this mismatch of the state
with nationalism; India's instability is likewise owed to a
constitutional mismatch with BJP's new Hindu nationalism.

On what should nationalism be based? On ethnicity, like Turkey and
Germany? On religion, like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran? No criterion
seems to stand up to scrutiny. In Afghanistan, the state is based on
religion which must foster new religious nationalism, but events have
taken the state to the ethnic pole. Jehad, which was once directed at
the infidel, is now directed at fellow-Muslims with a different
ethnicity. Religion as a base for nationalism soon atomises into a
sectarian yardstick because it first must cleanse the state of heresy.
Because it is based on takfir (apostatisation), it cannot be steadily
applied as a criterion. In Iran and Afghanistan, the minority sects are
either under pressure or not given proper citizenship rights. In
Pakistan, nationalism of the Shariah is incomplete until the cleansing
process is brought to its logical conclusion. Religion as a universal
criterion has been thwarted by nationalisms that still carry the
determinant of ethnicity. An Arab Muslim will not link his nationalism
with an Iranian Muslim's nationalism. Religious nationalism also
threatens the nation-state by violating the state frontiers. This
anomaly is reflected in the Pakistani nationalist's vision beyond
Pakistan's borders and the state's denial of it. Afghanistan as a state
has adjusted to this nationalism, but Pakistan is still somewhere in the
middle of this transition.

[...]
.
______

#3.

The Indian Express
28 July 2000
Editorial

BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON THE MORAL POLICE

Moral issues are always far more comfortable to espouse and get agitated
over than real issues. That's why you find sundry individuals and
organisations rushing to impose their own dress codes on the
unsuspecting. Some weeks ago, the Delhi Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee
ruled that women visiting its houses of worship must be decently clad
and should, on no account, be seen in skirts. The order was promptly
criticised by the SPGC authorities who held that such strictures had no
religious sanction. More recently, Baroda's well-known Maharaj Sayajirao
University witnessed some ugly scenes, with representatives of one
faction of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) insisting that
the university authorities impose a dress code on women students. They
argued that wearing mini skirts and other ``explicit dresses'' invites
``eve-teasing''.

This is a perverse and dangerous argument if ever there was one. It
neatly transfers the onus of the crime of sexual harassment on to the
woman who happens to be the target of such behaviour, rather than on the
perpetrator himself. This, incidentally, is by no means the first time
that such busy bodies have raised their voices on campus. Only this
February, the Kanpur University Students' Union as well as a group
claiming allegiance to the ABVP went berserk over the Valentine Day
celebrations in Lucknow and Kanpur, roughing up couples, blackening
their faces and warning parents that if they did not rein in their
daughters they would be punished. Their misplaced zeal created quite a
sense of outrage but the university authorities preferred to take a
lenient attitude to the young goons. Fortunately, vice-chancellor of MS
University Anil Kane had the good sense to be more focused in his
responses. Not only did he state that girls on the campus are free to
wear what they like and the university cannot impose aparticular dress
code, he also indicated that police action would follow swiftly and
efficiently if student activists took law into their own hands.

Could it be suggested to these misguided elements that they would be far
more effective in fighting sexual crime on the campus if they worked
towards creating an ambience where women are respected, starting of
course with themselves. This also means that they recognise their rights
and among these is the right of women to dress as they wish and go where
they choose, at all times of day or night, without fear of being
whistled at, hounded or mauled. Some years ago, the Gender Study Group
of Delhi University conducted an investigation into sexual harassment on
the Delhi campus and argued that students need to strategise about their
safety instead of simply opting out of going out late. This could be
done, it felt, by raising general awareness through public campaigns and
workshops, conducting self-defence classes, and constantly monitoring
incidents of such crime and ensuring that the culprits are brought to
book. The university community as a whole must address this problem in a
rational manner. Imposingarbitrary dress codes is not the answer.

Copyright =A9 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

_______

#4.

The Times of India
28 July 2000

UP DOLES OUT LAND TO SANGH OUTFIT FOR A SONG

LUCKNOW: Close on the heels of the controversy over allotment of 45
acres of prime land in Mathura to Sadhavi Rithambara's Param Shakti
Peeth, the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet has decided to allot 5,000 sq metres of
land worth Rs 1 crore for just a token fee of Re 1 to a wing of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The Cabinet on Wednesday decided to allot the land adjacent to the
prestigious Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute for Medical Sciences
on A 30-year lease to Bhaurao Deoras Nyas, named after the RSS founder
in UP, for getting a rest house constructed for attendants of patients,
an official spokesman said.

The decision drew immediate flak from Opposition parties.

The Samajwadi Party and the Congress said they would vehemently oppose
the trend of handing over of precious government land to "communal
organisations under the garb of social welfare organisations".

"The issue will not be allowed to go unnoticed and the Samajwadi Party
will raise it in the state legislature," SP state unit chief Ram Saran
Das said.

Referring to reported opposition on allotment of the parcel of land to
the Nyas in the Cabinet, he asked "conscientious ministers to go public
on the issue and expose communal designs of BJP in the state".

"The state is facing one of its worst economic crises and the government
is busy alloting valuable government land to communal organisations,"
Congress spokesman Akhilesh Singh said.
[...]" (PTI)

______

#5.

The Asian Age
28 July 2000

BAJRANG TO WATCH MUSLIMS GOING TO PAK, WEST ASIA

By Amita Verma

Lucknow, July 27
The Bajrang Dal in Uttar Pradesh will now keep an eye on Muslims who
travel frequently to West Asia and Pakistan. Its activities will monitor
public telephone booths from where maximum calls are made to countries
with a sizeable Muslim population and hotels owned by Muslims will also
be periodically checked.

The Bajrang Dal it seems has taken it upon itself to check minority
activities in the state because it finds the Ram Prakash Gupta
government "ineffective." Mr Ramesh Mani Dixit, state convener of the
Bajrang Dal in UP, said on Thursday that his organisation would
constitute zila suraksha samitis in all districts by December and these
samitis would keep an eye on activities of Muslim.

"Uttar Pradesh has become the centre for anti-national Muslims and
activities that aim at dividing the nation are being encouraged by the
Tableeg. Along the UP-Nepal border, the madrasas are being used for
activities other than education and red flags are being hoisted on
mazars to call for jihad," he said.

Citing a report prepared by the Union home ministry, Mr Dixit claimed
that during the past decade 20,000 AK-47s had been recovered and 56,000
kg of RDX had been seized in the country. He stated that 51,000
terrorists trained in Pakistan were currently operating in India and
32,000 Hindus had been killed by them.

The Bajrang Dal leader said that 11,000 foreign nationals were illegally
staying in India and 80 per cent of these were Muslims. "Is this not
reason enough for us to declare a virtual war against those who are
destroying our nation?"

Replying to a question, the Bajrang Dal leader said that the BJP
government in Uttar Pradesh had proved completely ineffective in
protecting Hindus. "When even BJP workers are being killed throughout
the state, what can one expect from this government that has
demonstrated the difference between its words and actions. Our activists
were safer during the Mulayam Singh regime but this government has
failed to protect us," he said.

The Bajrang Dal leader warned that any efforts to prevent its workers
from "weeding out" anti-national Muslims would have serious
consequences. "We will not harm national Muslims but we will certainly
target those who are indulging in anti-national activities," he said.

______

#6.

The Telegraph
28 July 2000

UNEASY TRYST WITH MODERNITY/BOOK REVIEW=20
=20=20=09=20
BY ARNAB BHATTACHARYA
=20
Issues in Modern Indian History (For Sumit Sarkar)
Edited by Biswamoy Pati,
Popular, Rs 400

Going by the notion of neo-historicism, history is not merely a
concatenation of events, nor a value-neutral representation of authentic
facts. Neo-historicists proclaim history to be a cultural discourse
which, very much like literature, depends upon some linguistic and
cultural variables operative within the power relations of the society
that it seeks to represent. It follows from this argument that history,
in its attempt to construct reality, deconstructs itself, and that an
attentive reader of history should be perceptive to both the processes
at a time.

This trend of thought is evident in some of the 12 essays in Issues in
Modern Indian History, dedicated to Sumit Sarkar. The only essay whose
approach seems to be incompatible with the rest is Srimanjari's "War,
famine and popular perceptions in Bengali literature, 1939-1945".
Despite its efficient analysis of Bengali literature as recording the r
eactions of Bengali middle class intellectuals to the social crises of
the period, the essay relegates history to the background.

The essays deal with wide-ranging "issues". The distinction between the
words, "modern" and "contemporary" also becomes important, though a
little more clarification would have helped the lay reader.

David Arnold's "Disease, resistance and India's ecological frontier,
1770-1947" is an intriguing delineation of "social history of disease
and ecology", which is germane to the theme of anti-colonial struggle in
the "jungle mahals" of western Bengal, Khandesh and the hill tracts in
the northern Circars of Madras. Arnold studies how the tribals' supposed
immunity to a deadly and "hyperendemic" disease like malaria created the
colonial perception of the historical division between "the
tribal/forest and plains/agrarian" society. It is this perception which
substantially contributed to the British theory of Indian "wilderness"
and the adoption of special imperialist strategies. Arnold presents the
malaria syndrome as a key factor in sustaining the tribal's ecological
cum political resistance against colonial forces during the period
between 1770 and 1946-47 and also highlights its role in "bringing about
new patterns of social, economic and epidemiological integration."

In "Slave-queen, waif-prince: slavery and social poverty in eighteenth
century India", Indrani Chatterjee and Sumit Guha refute the matrilineal
bent of Indian historiography which undermines the dominant tradition of
slave-matriarchy in Marathi history as embodied in the persona of
Virubai, the slave-woman.

Amiya Sen, in his essay on Sri Ramakrishna's Kathamrita as a typical
late 19th century middle class discourse, refuses to endorse the views
expressed by Partha Chatterjee and Sumit Sarkar, which emphasize the
manipulative "appropriation" of the hagiographic text by the 19th
century Bengali bhadralok community to profitably construct an
anti-colonial discourse. Devesh Vijay, in "Ideology, culture and
ethnicity" highlights the shifting focus of leftist writing on
contemporary Indian politics.

Most of the essays merit separate reviews, based as they are on longer
theses by the writers. The editing, though, leaves much to be desired.
However, the book can be easily recommended on the merit of its
contents.=20=20=20

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