[sacw] sacw dispatch #2 (13 June 00)

Harsh Kapoor aiindex@mnet.fr
Tue, 13 Jun 2000 19:41:35 +0200


South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #2
13 June 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

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#1. The Pakistani Inquisition
#2. Politics of Nationalist Historiography in India & Pakistan
#3. India: Insaaf & PUCL statement on attcaks on Christians
#4. India: Unlearnt lessons of the Emergency
#5. India: Bajrang Dal sees red over `Rangeela Re'
__________________________

#1.

The News International / News on Sunday
11 June 2000

THE PAKISTANI INQUISITION
The price of intolerence is stagnation

"The progressive intellegentisa need to get as organized as their opponents
are and take their battle of ideas into the realm of practical struggle to
change the very foundations of our social and political existence. After
all it is the outcome of this struggle on which the fate of our
intellectuals and of the whole society depends". Political Economy takes
sides with enlightenment in the struggle against obscurantism

Zain UI Abedin

(Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Daste-Saba)

O judgement,thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason!

(Mark Antony in Shakespear's Julius Caesar)

The "Grand Inquisitor" is an interesting and thought-provoking story by
Dostovysky. Long after the Crucifixion, Chirist returns to earth from his
heavenly abode, and is shocked by the sight of innocent victims of the
Roman Inquisition being brutally mutilated and burnt at the stakes on
account of being "heretics", under the supervision of a Roman Catholic
cardinal. Angered by Christ's protest at this inhumanity, the cardinal has
him arrested and locked up in a dark cell. Later he gives a long lecture to
Christ on how to deal with heretics and orders him to go back to heaven,
never to return again. He threatens Christ with another crusifixion if he
dares interfere again in Church matters. The self proclaimed custodians of
state and religion in Pakistan and the defenders of our ideological
boundaries are as committed to the task of eliminating dissent and fanning
frenzy as the cardinal in Dostovysky's story. They abuse venomously, they
lie and distort facts shamelessly, the have raised hypocracy to an art form.

The recent vilification campaign by the right wing and its gutter press in
Islamabad against Professor Dr Abdul Hameed Nayyar of Quaid-e-azam
University is a case in point. Dr. Nayyar is respected in the academic
world as a conscientious physicist and is known for his unflinching
commitment to spreading anti-nuclear consciousness around the world. He is
one of the very few people who have the courage to talk sense in a society
which abounds with creatures least amenable to reason. This is not the
first time Dr. Nayyar is being targeted for his views. In the turbulant
days of 1968 Dr. Nayyar was sacked from the University of Karachi . In
1998, after the May nuclear explosions Dr. Nayyar, Pervaiz Hoodbhoy and
Late Eqbal Ahmed were attacked by the right wing goons during a press
conference explaining the disastrous impact of nuclear arms race and a
possible war between India and Pakistan.

This time he is being targeted by the right wing because he dared utter
some words of wisdom at a place supposed to be a centre of learning.

Persectution of intellegentisa for holding nonconformist views is not new
in Islamic History. Much romanticism is built around the fact that once
there was a galaxy of Moslem thinkers and scientists who contributed
greatly towards various fields of learning. No one bothers to ask the
question as to why this glorious intellectual tradition became extinct. It
certainly did not vanish into thin air. It was ruthlessly destroyed by
obscurantists. To quote a few examples, Averroes (Ibne-Rushd) of Spain was
thrown out of the mosque while offering his prayers and later exiled,
Avicenna (Ibne-Sena) was condemned as a heretic, al-Kandi at the age of
sixty, was lashed in public and his personal library containing thousands
of books was burned down, Al-Razi's head was struck with his book so many
times that he went blind. We can find similar instances of ruthless
suppression of dissent in western history. Galalio was put on trial by the
church, Roger Bacon had to spend ten years in prison,John Huss and Giondeno
Bruno were burnt alive and so was Michael Servetus along with his
controversial book.These are but a few examples from a long history of
brutal oppression by state and organized relegion.

One thing common about the persecuted intellegentsia both of Europe and the
Muslim world is that they spoke of reason and rationality and stood for
freedom of expression and freedom of thought.They became victims of state
and organised religion, represented by the feudal monarchy, aristocracy and
religious orthodoxy.The difference between the West and the Muslim world is
that in Europe at last, the commercial and industrial classes overthrew the
forces of status quo and reorganised the society on a radically new basis.
No such development took place in the Muslim world. It remained a close
society with no windows. Opinions not congenial to the rulers and orthodoxy
were supressed with force. And as late sibte-Hasan put it: "No community
however virile and creative can progress under the fear of death,
persecution, punishment, isolations and ostracism" The result was the
mental and intellectual enslavement of the Moslem world by the west-by
those who once lived in the "dark ages".

The bigots and fanatics of today have zealously kept the torch of
obscurantism burning. They want to eleminate every trace of reason and
rationality from our lives and make every effort to arouse the savage in
us. They madly attack ideas that smack of humanism and in this, they are
directly inspired by their predecessors. Our society with its moral and
material backwardness is a breeding ground for these enemies of all that is
good and beautiful in life. In order to realize their reactionary agenda
they resort to violence against and persecution of the weakest sections of
society,e-g women,religious minorities, secular and enlightened
intellectuals. The objectives they aim to achieve through violence,
vilification and witch hunting are (a) a general atmosphere of hatred and
intolerance (b) emotional mobilisation of the people away from their real
problems (c) creation of consent within the society on a large scale for
their reactionary agenda.
What Dr Nayyar said in his lecture was bold and needed to be said loud and
clear. But was the well-organized reaction of the right wing faced and
fought in an equally organised manner? Is it enough being enlightened? Is
it possible to counter the right wing propaganda against an individual or a
minority by individual actions,e-g newspaper letters, articles and
speeches? No doubt the courage shown by Dr Nayyar while speaking at the
institute of Psychology is laudable. . The religious right is organised,
trained and perhaps the only developing political tendency in Pakistan .It
has now even learned how to use the press to propagate its antihuman
dogmas, breed intolerance and run hate-campaigns. If there can be Dr Nayyar
at QAU then it is possible to have a section of teachers and a mass of
students challenging the ideas of the right wing.

The question that finally needs to be asked is: are the progressive
elements of our society doomed forever to remain impotant in the face of
obscurantism or there is a hope of change? If there is, then how to go
about realising it?. In reviewing historically the conflict between
progressvise thinking and obscruntaism in the West, I mentioned that the
reactionaries were overthrown by classes whose interests and world view ran
directly counter to the Establishment of those days. It was not the
intellectual vigor of the intellengtsia that changed the society but the
fact that during an open class struggles the ideas of the progressive
intellegentisa were owned and used against the status quo by the classes in
whose interest it was to overthrow the then prevailing order.The ideas and
visions of our progressive thinkers and enlightened scientists will remain
only ideas unless they become part of the understanding of the world, of a
class who has the capacity and need to change the reality that surrounds
us. The progressive intellegentisa need to get as organized as their
opponents are and take their battle of ideas into the realm of practical
struggle to change the very foundations of our social and political
existence. After all it is the outcome of this struggle on which the fate
of our intellectuals and of the whole society depends

_______

#2.

An excellent article by Rajeev Bhargava on Politics of Nationalist
Historiography in India and Pakistan (Economic and Political Weekly, 22
January 2000)
is available at: http://www.epw.org.in/35-4/sa1.pdf
_______

#3.

13 June 2000

Please feel free to print, publish or circulate for wider circulation.

We are working on a silent peace march on this issue on eve of 15.8.00. I am
conducting meetings with different groups and parties to seek their
participation in the march. We will soon announce it. We will also be giving
call to other groups to have similar march in other cities and states. I
shall keep you informed about development on this. I also request you for
any ideas and suggestions in regards to the march.

Vineeta

Joint statement

of Insaaf International (II) and People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL),
Punjab, India

13.7.00

The increase in violence against Christians, religious activities in
government machinery, influencing the history syllabus of the educational
institutions, provocation of communal violence, promotion of 'Hindutava'
agenda, since 1997- 98 has forced us to broach once again, the issue of a
secret circular purported to be of R.S.S.

We received a document in October 1998 with heading "Secret Circular of
R.S.S". It has 34 points, addressed to the "local leaders" as "Instructions
to the RSS- officials to harass the origins among the supresses-Adivasis,
OBC, Muslims and Christians". It contains highly provocative matter. We
immediately sent letters to The Prime Minister, Home Minister, Punjab Chief
Minister and department of C.B.I demanding immediate inquiry into the said
circular and source of its origin. We also sent representation to the leader
of opposition to pursue this matter of serious implications. Till date we
have not heard from any one of them. The non-reaction from any of the
government machinery has cast a shadow of doubt on the role and stand of
government in dealing with the menace of communal violence.

The total absence of effective measures to stop these actions against
minority community and to punish the guilty has pulled down the mask of
secularism from the ruling political party. In last more than two years
since we reported the matter of secret circular; the happenings all over in
India are resonant of what is written in the circular.

There is sharp escalation in violence against minority community. In 1996
there were seven cases of anti-Christian violence, 24 in 1997 and 120 in
1998. In last six months, there have been at least 35 attacks on Christian
institutions and individuals. There have been several acts of burning of
religious literature, attacks on missionary institutions, priests and nuns.
Yesterday a priest was killed in Jullandhar. Four bomb blasts targeting
churches took place in various parts of the country in a day. It is
certainly not `isolated criminal incidents' as the government has tried to
project, but a thought out plan against the minority community.

Literature promoting religious fanaticism and intolerance, hatred among
different communities and violence on name of religion, is being openly
circulated in various parts of India by fundamentalist organizations without
any fear of the government.

=46undamental rights of Freedom of religion and right to life guaranteed by
the Constitution are being denied to the citizens of our country. It is a
very dangerous development. Today a Secular, Democratic and United India is
being put to the test by communal and fundamentalist forces.

We strongly condemn the failure of the government to provide protection to
its citizens and ensure their freedom of religion. We also protest against
the patronizing of the criminal element involved in such acts by the
government officials and ministers.

We call upon all the political leaders, democratic and secular
organizations, and right thinking people to fight collectively to defeat the
nefarious element spreading hatred and killing innocent people on the name
of religion. If strong steps are not taken immediately to combat this hate
war, it will weigh heavily on secularity, sovereignty and unity of our
Country.

Dr. Vineeta Gupta

General Secretary, Insaaf International
Phone 91-164-215400, Fax 91-164-214500
Email insaaf@g... ,Website: www.geocities.com/insaafin

Ved Parkash Gupta
General secretary
PUCL (Punjab Branch)
Phone - 0164- 253903

_______

#4.

The Hindu
13 June 2000
Op-Ed.
http://www.the-hindu.com/stories/05132524.htm

UNLEARNT LESSONS OF THE EMERGENCY
By Subramanian Swamy
When attempts at seeking homogeneity of Indian society are carried
beyond a point, it is dangerous for democracy... Those of us who can stand
up, must do so now.
FOR TWO distinct reasons, it is ludicrous for the BJP to declare that
it will hold meetings to remember the declaration of Emergency,
whose 25th anniversary falls on June 26 this year. For one, during that
1975-77 period, most of the leaders of the BJP/RSS had betrayed the
struggle against the Emergency. It is on the record in the Maharashtra
Assembly proceedings that the then RSS chief, Balasaheb Deoras, wrote
several apology letters to Indira Gandhi from inside the
Yerawada jail in Pune disassociating the RSS from the JP-led
movement and offering to work for the infamous 20-point programme. She
did not reply to any of his letters. Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee also
wrote apology letters to Indira Gandhi, and she had obliged him. In
fact for most of the 20-month Emergency, Mr. Vajpayee was out on
parole after having given a written assurance that he would not
participate in any programmes against the Government. The vivid
description of other erstwhile Jana Sangh worthies who chose to walk
out of prison on promise of good behaviour is given in a book written
by the Akali leader, Mr. Surjit Singh Barnala.
Some of us vigorously opposed the Emergency in our own ways. The full
credit for inspiring the struggle must, however, first go to Morarji
Desai, who was 78 years old and kept in solitary confinement, and
to Jayaprakash Narayan who lay in Jaslok Hospital after both his
kidneys were mysteriously made to fail in Chandigarh jail. More
significantly, JP's heart had been broken when he saw an India utterly
passive to the death of democracy, while those who had earlier egged him
on e.g., the RSS, were now repudiating him and offering to work for the
nation's tormentors. But JP never gave up. He sent me a message where I
was hiding just after he had reached the hospital in August 1975, that
I should escape abroad and campaign from there. But he warned me that
the struggle may be ``life long''. Morarji, however, was completely
unyielding and sanguine. When Indira Gandhi offered him parole on
promise of good behaviour, he told the emissary who had come to visit him
in jail that no sooner was he out he would start the struggle again. His
daughter-in-law, Padma, had wept copiously and implored him to agree
because of his age but he told her that death was a better option.
I must add that not all in the RSS were in a surrender mode. The
exceptions were Madhavrao Muley, Dattopant Thengadi and Moropant Pingle.
Muley had taken a tremendous liking to me. He supported me fully while I
was abroad, and while I was hiding in India. But a tearful Muley told me
in early November 1976 and I had better escape abroad again since the
RSS had finalised the document of surrender to be signed in end January
of 1977, and that on Mr. Vajpayee's insistence I would be sacrificed to
appease an irate Indira and a fulminating Sanjay whose names I had
successfully blackened abroad by my campaign. I asked him about the
struggle, and he said that in the country everyone had become reconciled
to the 42nd Amendment, and democracy as we had known it was over.
Democracy was over for the RSS but not for all others. A few weeks
later general elections to the Lok Sabha were declared. No one quite
understood then what had made Indira Gandhi do that. But as a
consequence, the RSS luckily did not need to sign the document of
surrender.
It was an uncoordinated combination of forces that made Indira Gandhi
declare elections, and the demise of the Emergency. My intensive
campaign abroad and access to the American intellectuals had
attracted the attention of the authorities, and especially the
newly-elected President of the U.S., Mr. Jimmy Carter, who even before
taking oath of office began to breathe down the Indian Government's neck
about human rights, which quite unsettled Indira Gandhi. Then there was
the unsung hero, Jiddu Krishnamurti, who was motivating her to withdraw
the Emergency and acknowledge to her inner self that she had done
wrong in imposing it. More pain came to Indira Gandhi when she
prostrated before Sri Chandrashekhara Saraswati, the Kanchi
Math Paramacharya, for 90 minutes but he had refused to even look at
her, making it known that he thoroughly disapproved of the
Emergency. And finally she had to contend with an unyielding Morarji
Desai as head of the Lok Sangharsh Samiti who refused to withdraw the
struggle or even acknowledge any good had come from the Emergency, which
Indira Gandhi's emissaries implored him to say as a gesture. In other
words, these moral and spiritual personages refused to legitimise the
state of Emergency, the infamous 42nd Amendment to the Constitution,
and accept a highly- shackled democracy as normal for India. Instead, they
all held that the Emergency was subversion of the Constitution and
viewed Indira Gandhi as the usurper.It was thus the sustained non-
violent and moral approach that won the day, and not a foreign- financed
terror. A violent resistance suited the advocates of the Emergency for
justifying it, but that resistance had mercifully fizzled out early.
When Indira Gandhi called for elections, those who had failed in their
violent resistance wanted to boycott the polls on the grounds that
the Opposition parties had no chance in the circumstances since
the illiterate masses would not be moved by the issue of democracy, and
thus the polls would legitimise the Emergency. But Morarji and Charan
Singh would have none of it. Obviously they had more faith in the Indian
people than those who demagogically spoke in the name of the people.
It was the plurality and heterogeneity of Indian society that made
people revolt against the authoritarian order. This is the crux of the
Indian democratic paradigm. India is a democratic society in form
because of the mutual gravitational pull of disparate sections that
make the whole. Therefore, the lesson to be learnt from the Emergency
is that as long as the composite nature of Indian society survives,
Indian democracy will survive. Hence, when attempts at seeking homogeneity
of Indian society are carried beyond a point, it is dangerous for
democracy, at least till we have reached a level of education when good
men and women will dare to struggle for fundamental rights.
Edmund Burke had said: ``For evil to triumph, good men must do
nothing''. India has to progress considerably before we can confront
evil in our society head on. During the Emergency, those who were in a
position to fight, with notable exceptions, did not. But, today we do
not even have giants like JP and Morarji to defend civil liberty. Mr. H.
R. Khanna chose to forego his Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court
rather than undermine judicially the concept of fundamental rights. Does
anyone remember him? Further, luck too was on India's side then because
Indira Gandhi decided to go for the polls. Had she not done so, it may
have taken us a long time to unwind the Emergency.
Today, we are in a much weaker position than in 1975-77 to defend
democracy. One reason is that the tall caste-neutral leaders of the
=46reedom Struggle are no more. Another reason is that a cadre- based fascis=
t
organisation is in control of the levers of power. This organisation has
spawned lumpen front organisations, that do not hesitate to kill even
defenceless missionaries of religion. Worse, there is every indication
that institutions are being undermined by a creeping Emergency. This is
the second reason why the BJP plan to celebrate the struggle against the
Emergency is ludicrous. The BJP has set into motion the overhaul of
the Constitution not just a mere amendment to it. It has commenced the
rewriting of history. Its sister front organisations such as the VHP
and the Bajrang Dal are already unleashing eerie and shadowy terror
at the micro level of society. How can the BJP then speak of defending
democracy?
Thus, 25 years later we still cannot take democracy for granted nor
put the challenge to it behind us. It is today invisibly under siege.
``Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty'' said the American
revolutionary Patrick Henry. Thus, those of us who can stand up, must
do so now. That sums up the lesson of the Emergency in retrospect.
_______

#5.

The Times of India
Tuesday 13 June 2000

BAJRANG DAL SEES RED OVER `RANGEELA RE'

The Times of India News Service
RAJKOT: Three decades ago, Waheeda Rehman sang Rangeela Re to Dev Anand on
screen and nobody raised an eyebrow. In fact, the S D Burman number from
Prem Pujari went on to become a classic - a must in any vintage collection
of Hindi film songs. Strangely, the same song, sung on a small stage by a
local group, caused unprecedented scenes of violence on Sunday. Reason?
Bajrang Dal activists found the performance vulgar and could not bear to
see Bharatiya sanskriti (Indian culture) being sullied.
About 15 Bajrang Dal activists ransacked Hemu Gadhvi Natyagruh, the
auditorium where the dance number was being staged during a cultural
programme. They broke window panes, stormed the stage to disrupt the dance
sequence, assaulted the artistes and damaged their musical instruments.
According to the auditorium managers, a programme, Saat Saheliyan (Seven
Women Friends) was in progress -- with the number from the Dev
Anand-Waheeda starrer being staged -- when the Bajrang Dal men went on a
rampage. They thought that the song was ``vulgar'' and should not be staged.
Chaos reigned for almost 30 minutes, with the spectators and artistes
running around. Taken aback by the commotion, the security personnel
remained mere spectators as the rampage continued. The local police, when
they arrived later, also chose to remain mere spectators to the entire
drama. When contacted, the police told TOINS that no complaint had been
lodged as the ``matter had been sorted out.''
Last month, the Bajrang Dal workers had tried to sabotage a children's
programme, Bachho Ki Duniya (Children's World). But their efforts were
foiled by a determined audience and the Dal workers were pushed out by
irritated parents. Locals said the Dal workers were waiting for an
opportunity to strike back.
While the auditorium managers are bewildered as to how the dance could be
called vulgar, the Bajrang Dal maintains there was nothing wrong in their
reaction. ``There was nothing wrong in what happened on Sunday night. We
want to protect the Indian culture at all costs and will not allow any
obscenity anywhere,'' senior Bajrang Dal office-bearer Kishore Patel said.
When it was pointed out to him that the song was an old classic, he
replied: ``There was nothing wrong in the song... but the manner in which
it was presented was objectionable. The action of the artistes was vulgar.
And that is something we will never allow to happen.''
______________________________________________
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