[sacw] sacw dispatch (15 June 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch
15 June 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

__________________________

#1. India: 1975-77 Emergency was about coercion, & 25 years on coercion is
what
many Christians and Muslims seem to run into today

#2. Pakistan: Overhaul the school texts for sensible education of citizens
__________________________

#1.

The Hindustan Times
15 June 2000
Opinion

Opinion=20
=20

=46EAR IS THE KEY

(By Rajmohan Gandhi)

Twenty-five years after the Emergency, some of its victims govern India.
In 1975-77, A.B. Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, George Fernandes and numerous
others in the ruling National Democratic Alliance were in prison, sent
there, along with persons like Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai,
Charan Singh, Chandra Shekhar and Biju Patnaik, for "the nation's
safety". For Messrs Vajpayee, Advani, Fernandes and several others, it
was a foretaste of post-prison power, which they experienced first in
the Janata Party Government of 1977-79, and then in the BJP-led
Governments of 1996 and 1998-99.

I write this piece for these leaders, and for colleagues of theirs with
a similar history, and I write as one who too had opposed the Emergency
and paid a modest price for doing so. I want to ask whether they realise
that today, in the India they govern, quite a few experience the sort of
aches that were felt in 1975-77 by the Emergency's victims.

Are they aware of the fears and, let me use a strong but not
inapplicable word, humiliations felt today by many of India's Christians
and Muslims? Such reactions are ignored these days, when to "feel good"
is regarded as a desirable goal, personal and social, as well as an
economic imperative, and when "negative" observations are deplored.

Behind the Emergency lay the tragic insecurity of a woman of destiny who
only three years previously, in the subcontinental struggle that created
Bangladesh, had become a national heroine. Upset in April 1975 by an
unfavourable High Court judgment and feeling threatened within and
outside the Congress, which then enjoyed a large majority in Parliament,
Indira Gandhi imposed an Emergency, suspended fundamental rights,
enforced media censorship, jailed opposition politicians and activists,
and extended the life of Parliament. However, a democratic chink in her
armour produced the 1977 general elections which, to Indira Gandhi's
surprise, brought Messrs Desai, Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram, Vajpayee,
Advani, Fernandes and others to governmental or political power.

Behind the present-day tribulations of India's minorities lies an
insecurity pumped into the Hindu majority by a premeditated five-decade
campaign that portrayed Muslims and Christians as disloyal,
anti-national or criminal, and Hindus as having been enfeebled by the
tolerance preached by Mahatma Gandhi and others before him, and
implemented by Gandhi's sentimental heir, Jawaharlal Nehru.

Heeding a call continually pressed on them, several Hindus appear to
have decided to alter this supposed equation of history and teach the
"pampered" and "dangerous" minorities a lesson. As these restorers of
Hindu pride see it, Hindus have at last come into their own; the
minorities, if they wish to survive in India, must do, or undo, as the
champions of Hinduism direct. Hence the recent sequence, in different
parts of India, of brutal violence against Christians, pastors, nuns and
teachers, and of intimidation of Muslims and Christians, a sequence
unexplainable in any other way.

=46or this sequence to be arrested, can we hope for a chink of compassion
in the Hindutva armour of Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani, and a chunk of
compassion in Mr Fernandes' socialist repertoire? When, 18 months ago,
Graham Staines, the Australian missionary, was burnt alive with his
young sons in Orissa, Mr Vajpayee's reaction was to go on a 24-hour fast
of sympathy for the killed. As the day of fasting, he chose January 30,
the date when the Mahatma was assassinated.

There could not have been a sharper signal of where Mr Vajpayee stood.
Like Gandhi and Nehru, Mr Vajpayee seemed to stand for tolerance and for
equal rights for all Indians, and his fast seemed an appeal to Indian
society to work with the Indian state in order that all Indians,
whatever their religion, may enjoy the liberties of life, belief,
expression and movement.

Mr Vajpayee made the right appeal, but after 18 months those for whom it
was intended seem untouched. What is more, leaders of society and the
state's police often seem more concerned about allegations against the
victims of continuing violence than about the crimes of the attackers.
In places in Orissa, UP, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana, murder and
arson have been followed not by a firm restoration of law by agencies of
the state, but by aggressive processions by the attackers' supporters
demanding submission by the minorities or an end to "conversion".

Gujarat's climate is possibly the worst. A sought-after surgeon in
Ahmedabad cannot rent a flat when the landlord finds out that he is a
Muslim. Schools in Ahmedabad and Vadodara send children and parents away
when their religion is discovered. A Muslim child is taught in a Gujarat
school that there are two kinds of ants, black Hindu ants that do not
bite and red Muslim ants that do. Muslim traders in Gujarat's towns have
difficulty selling their goods even after under-pricing them.

Priests beaten up and at times killed, convents and Christian-run
hospitals vandalised and looted, Christian principals attacked or pinned
down with trumped-up charges, threat-backed demands that Christian
churches cede land for Hindu idols, and threats of legal or mob action
against priests, pastors and nuns for allegedly forcing or inducing
conversions - in India as a whole, this has been the picture of late.

Christian groups have supplied details to the Prime Minister and the
Home Minister, both of whom have assured investigation and action, but
anti-Christian violence and propaganda continue. The latter shamelessly
highlights survival-dictated statements by some Christians that they
were the victims of robbery, not of an anti-Christian animus.

The heart of the 1975-77 Emergency was coercion, and coercion is what
many Christians and Muslims seem to run into today. The Emergency that
Messrs Vajpayee, Advani and Fernandes had joined in fighting was in some
ways an easier foe to cope with. As the Emergency's opponents (and,
before them, those who fought for India's Independence) found out, they
were fighting a regime but not the society around them. Getting society
to recognise its prejudice(s) is probably tougher than bringing home to
rulers their unpopularity.

There is irony but not historical uniqueness in a majority lacking
confidence or feeling insecure. In recent times, the phenomenon was most
notoriously seen in Germany, whose people were persuaded by demagogues
named Hitler and Goebbels that they had been dangerously lenient towards
their country's Jewish minority. If the glory of Germany's Aryan race
was to be saved from extinction, the Jews had to be put in their place.
(Some had precise ideas of what this deserved place was.) Whereas Nehru,
Patel, Prasad, Rajagopalachari, Sarojini Naidu, Pant, B.G. Kher, Lal
Bahadur Shastri, Radhakrishnan, B.C. Roy, Jayaprakash Narayan and their
ilk, those who under Gandhi's inspiration guided the early decades of
independent India, injected confidence into Hindus, Hinduism's current
champions, espousing an agitated rather than a secure Hinduism, appear
to have two goals. The first is to frighten Hindus with horror stories
of what Muslims and Christians have done in the past and intend to do in
the future. The second is to demonstrate that anti-minority violence
invites no punishment.

To claim, as the RSS has done, that Pakistan's ISI is behind the rash of
anti-Christian violence in India is to accuse our Central and State
governments of criminal incompetence; but it would seem that this
embarrassment can be swallowed for the sake of a larger objective. This
is to identify Pakistan, and by association India's Muslims, as the
chief source of India's ills, and ascribe the remaining mischief to the
Christians. The offences of Pakistan's fundamentalists and of some of
its official agencies are ugly enough. If they hurt India, they hurt the
people of Pakistan even more. Yet, favourably comparing India with
Pakistan can be of little consolation to those who suffer in India.

Mr Vajpayee must ask himself whether the course of the ship he is
steering is to be set by happenings in Pakistan or by a deeper pull
exerted by India's conscience and by what the world in the new century
requires of India. He must ask himself whether those who raise the
spectre of evil or rakshasi minorities enhance the reputation either of
India or of Hinduism, and whether he can himself be at peace when some
of his compatriots across the land go to bed fearing an attack in the
night and harassment in the day to follow, if they are still there to
see it. That he and his colleagues have given assurances in Parliament
and instructions to State governments is not enough. Providing security
to the minorities has to become Mr Vajpayee's personal commitment and
that of his Government.

_______

#2.

DAWN
11 June 2000
Cowasjee Column

MISGUIDED ZEAL

By Ardeshir Cowasjee

"ALL bigotry is blind and stupid and savage. Sectarian bigotry is as bad
as inter-religious bigotry. Bigotry stifles reason and the bigot in his
frenzy is out to force all to believe what he believes."

This is what we were taught at school in Karachi not very long ago. But
then our teacher was not a preacher. He was a Dasturan Dastur, a
Shams-ul-Ulema, a Ph.D. from Colombia (1908), and in 1929 was given an
honorary D.Litt. from the same university when it celebrated its 175th
anniversary and honoured its alumni. His name was Maneckji Nusserwanjee
Dhalla. He died in May 1956.

To move on to what is being taught to the children of today in our
government schools and colleges and to quote from a recent report
entitled 'The Menace of Education' written by Pervez Hoodbhoy, a member
of the Education Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of Education, an
MIT man, who has managed to remain 'educated' in Pakistan. He teaches at
the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad and each year is invited to
lecture at MIT and the University of Maryland.

"So what are the values currently being transmitted and communicated in
Pakistan's schools? Obviously there is some variation across rich and
poor schools, between villages and cities, and across provinces. But the
basic road-map is provided by the school curriculum. Lest there be any
confusion the reader should know that, by an act of Parliament passed in
1976, there is one and only one allowed road-map, prepared by the
curriculim wing of the federal ministry of education, Government of
Pakistan.

"The usefulness of having a national curriculum was soon recognized by
Gen Zia-ul-Haq. In 1981 he decreed that henceforth Pakistani education
was to be totally redefined and history rewritten according to his
vision of Pakistan. From now on the struggle for Pakistan was no longer
to be shown as a victorious struggle for a Muslim homeland. Instead, it
was to be depicted as the movement for an Islamic state run according to
Islamic law. Even if it conflicted with reality, the heroes of the
Pakistan movement - Jinnah, Iqbal, Syed Ahmed Khan - were to be
projected as Islamic heroes. Furthermore all subjects, including the
sciences, were to be speedily Islamized."

Consider the impact of the national curriculum objectives on the mind of
a 12-year old child in his last year at primary school. He is not taught
to hope for a joyous future, a good life in a peace loving country in
which goodwill towards man and the well being of its citizens prevails.
The child is told that life is all about battling invisible enemies and
that fear is to be feared.

The kindergarten to class v curriculum adopted by the ministry of
education in 1995 is, to say the least, a bizarre piece of work. At the
completion of Class V the child has to be able to - 1) explain the
importance of the work of past heroes of Pakistan. 2) identify the great
personalities who contributed to the making of Pakistan. 3) demonstrate
an appreciation for the work of Muslim heroes. 4) demonstrate respect
and reverence for the founder of Pakistan. 5) demonstrate respect for
the leaders of Pakistan.

How is a child meant to do all this? In fact, how can any sensible adult
be expected to respect, lumped together, a group consisting of, inter
alia, Ghulam Mohammed, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Zia-ul-Haq, Nawaz Sharif,
Benazir Bhutto?

Amongst the objectives to be achieved is the ability to - 1) understand
the Hindu and Muslim differences and the resultant need for Pakistan; 2)
know all about India's evil designs against Pakistan; 3) acknowledge and
identify forces that may be working against Pakistan; 4) demonstrate by
actions a belief in the fear of Allah; 5) demonstrate the desire to
preserve the ideology, integrity and security of Pakistan; 6) make
speeches on jihad and shahadat; 7) guard against rumor mongers who
spread false news and to stage dramas signifying the evils of rumors; 8)
understand the Kashmir problem; 9) collect pictures of policemen,
soldiers and National Guards.

How can a child be expected to preserve ideology of Pakistan? And how on
earth is a 12-year old expected to understand and know all about the
'Kashmir problem'? As for the speechifying, one is rendered speechless.
He must also know - 1) the place of Pakistan in world affairs; 2) the
importance of the location of Pakistan in the world and specifically to
other Islamic countries; 3) the role of the Defence Forces of Pakistan;
4) the functions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; 5) the problems of
Pakistan.

He is expected to - 1) discuss electric load-shedding; 2) visit garbage
dumps and police stations [presumably to define the basic differences
between the two].

Now to quote from a textbook entitled 'Pakistan Studies' published by
the government to be taught in Classes IX and X : "After the death of
Aurangzeb Alamgir in 1707 AD his successors could not control the vast
Moghul Empire and as a result South Asia gradually fell prey to the
forces of anarchy." One reason given is "the spirit of holy struggle and
war (Jihad) which was the fountainhead of power of Muslim kingdoms faded
gradually. Thus the military power became weak. Ease and laziness
blunted the military prowess."

=46or some unknown reason, when the story of Pakistan catches up with the
20th century and the 1980s, there is a lacuna as to the departure of
Zia-ul-Haq from the national scene : "Unfortunately the Junejo
government was dismissed on May 29 1988 after it remained in power for
three years and two months. The National Assembly and the provincial
assemblies were dissolved by the president. In November 1988, general
elections were held on a party basis."

Discussing factors that lead to the high birth rate in Pakistan, the
book teaches that the primary factor is the "hot climate of the
country." And on the secession of East Pakistan, all that the book has
to say is : "Bangladesh was separated from Pakistan and became an
independent country in 1971."

Compulsory reading for BA, B.Com, MBBS, and B.Sc Engineering is another
book entitled 'Pakistan Studies' which attempts to explain the ideology
of Pakistan : "What does Pakistan mean? It means there is no God but
Allah." Dr Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi defines it further : "Thus the
Pakistan ideology is the guiding principle of the Muslim majority
regions of the South Asian subcontinent for obtaining an ideal Muslim
state, Pakistan which has been chosen as a keynote for passing life,
both individually and collectively, according to the Islamic conception
of life and for resurgence of Muslim society."

In the year 2000, we finally have a government which acknowledges that
education is a most vital sphere of national development : "A
comprehensive review of the education sector is in progress with the aim
of identifying specific strategies and actions to ensure fundamental and
purposeful improvements in every sector of this most vital sphere."
The Chief Executive, General Pervez Musharraf, has chosen well as far as
his education ministers are concerned. Dr Zubeida Jalal, the federal
minister of education, is a liberal well-qualified woman, approved of by
all our known and able educationists who in the past have had to cope
with men such as Ghous Ali Shah. Professor Anita Ghulam Ali, the
provincial minister in Sindh, has mobilized a team of twenty
English-speaking university teachers and engaged them in rewriting the
English text for the Sindh Textbook Board of books taught from Class I
to Class XII. The minister in Punjab, Akhtar Saeed, is also reputed to
be liberally educated as is the able and indefatigable literacy minister
Shaheen Attiqur Rahman. In Balochistan, Dr Razia Babar is a Ph.D. in
Geography; and in NWFP, we also have a liberal man in Imtiaz Gilani.
The six in charge of the country's education, with four women in the
majority, get on well and form a competent team. They are keen to revise
the curriculum and with the generals, the mullahs, and the politicians
busy elsewhere, they should be able to get on with the job undisturbed.
Cleaning up the curriculum is a must if there is to be any worthwhile
education imparted to our citizens of the future.

_______

#3.

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