[sacw] sacw dispatch #1 (31 May 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #1
31 May 2000

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#1. India: BJP and its twenty years
#2. A visit to Wagah [Indo Pak Border]
#3. De-Sanskritization Of Names In Bangladesh

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#1.

THE BJP AND ITS TWENTY YEARS

by Asghar Ali Engineer

(Secular Perspective May, 16-31, 20000)

The BJP has just completed twenty years of its existence. It was founded
in 1980 after the fall of the Janta government led by Morarji Desai. The
fall of the Janta government in 1979 was quite dramatic. It fell on the
question of the duel membership controversy raised by the socialists like
Madhu Limaye, Raj Narain and others. In fact the Janata Party was formed at
the instance of Jai Prakash Narayan by merging parties like the Congress
(O), the Lohiaite Socialist party and the then Jan Sangh. The Jan Sangh, an
avowedly communal outfit, not only agreed to merge with other parties in
order to defeat the Congress (I) at the hustings but also agreed to adopt
secularism and Gandhian socialism as its credo. Not only that it took
pledge to the effect at the Gandhiji Samadhi in Delhi on the insistence of
Jai Prakash Narayan. How far it adhered to its pledge, is a different
story.

Symbolic of the change in its credo, the BJP, as it was renamed now,
made Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee as its president since Vajpayee has a
moderate image.But this moderate phase of the BJP was short lived. The
rapid political developments did not allow the BJP to adhere to its new
fangled ideology and it soon began to race back to its original positions.
Apart from the breath taking development which were taking place on
political scene, the RSS did not permit it to severe its umbilical chord.
In fact the duel membership controversy became cause of fall of the Janata
party government precisely because the RSS would not permit the Jan Sangh
members to give up their RSS membership.

At that time all top ranking members of the Jan Sangh were invariably the
members of the RSS. When the Socialist members questioned the members from
the Jan Sangh stream as to
why they were maintaining dual membership (i.e. of the Janata Party and
that of the RSS) after their pledge to adopt secularism and Gandhian
socialism, the Jan Sangh members had no answer. Moreover the RSS put its
foot down and did not allow them to resign from the RSS. Thus in the end
they preferred to resign from the Janta party bringing down its government
rather than resign from the RSS.

Thus the RSS factor weighed upon it right from beginning.
The BJP apparently retained secularism and Gandhian
socialism as its political ideology in the beginning. But needless to say
the RSS had its strong reservation about this. But since the Jan Sangh
members had taken pledge to that effect they could not have renounced it so
soon. They waited for further developments. The RSS, however, was very
clear about its ideology of Hindu Rashtra. It considered secularism and
socialism as alien ideologies not suited to India.

The RSS never compromised on this, not even today when the BJP is in power
at the Centre
in alliance with several other secular parties.Mrs. Gandhi who had lost
the post-emergency 1977 election came back to power in 1980 election
although with reduced majority compared to pre-emergency elections. She had
lost the 1977 general election primarily because of alienation of the
Muslim voters from her. And she came back to power with the reduced
majority in 1980 elections also because the Muslim voters had not
completely reconciled with her.

She, therefore, reoriented her political policy towards the Hindus and
began to court them to make up for the deficiency in the Muslim votes. This
was more than clear from her several
elections and other speeches. She even tried to court the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, a RSS front, which had become politically quite active after
conversion of a few Dalit families to Islam in Meenakshipuram district of
Tamil Nadu. She had even planned to inaugurate the Bharat Mata temple
constructed by the VHP in Mathura but prevented by sane advice.This
became a big challenge for the BJP. Now Mrs.Gandhi was operating on its own
terrain. She also tried to use the Punjab problem to her own advantage.
Thus competitive communalism aggravated the political scene.

Mrs.Gandhi became victim of her own policies and was assassinated by her
own Sikh body
guard for ordering the Blue Star operation. Her martyrdom weighed with the
electorate and the Congress (I) won the post-assassination election with
two=A9third majority. The BJP got only two seats in the 1984 elections. This
was taken as a proof that moderate policy of Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee would
not work and secularism and Gandhian socialism were not a political
'mantras' for it. The RSS also stressed its hegemony at this hour of crisis
in the BJP. The BJP now totally reversed its policy adopted in 1980 and
reverted to its original communal ideology. Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was
replaced by Mr. Lal Krishna Advani who adopted militant attitude and
retrieved the original Jan Sangh political discourse. The BJP bosses were
convinced that they could win the hearts of hard core Hindus.

Thus the BJP put question mark on the Nehruvian concept of secularism under =
the
leadership of Mr. Advani. Who maintained that the Nehruvian secularism was
not only influenced by the Western concepts but also amounted to
appeasement of minorities. While rejecting the Nehruvian concept of
secularism, Mr. Advani propounded his own concept, the 'positive'
secularism, and he defined 'positive' secularism as justice for all and
discrimination against none.The political developments during mid
eighties won the BJP popularity among the Hindu upper castes.

It would be interesting to note that the Muslim League in pre-partition
days and the BJP in the post partition India have lot of similarities. Both
these parties catered to the same upper class base. The Muslim League was
the party of upper class, 'ashraf' Muslims, mainly Zamindars and their
scions, and of upper echelons of bureaucracy, police and army. The latter
have been categorised as the salariat class by the noted sociologist of
Pakistan Hamza Alavi. It is this 'salariat' class which provided full
backing to the Muslim League and the League in turn catered to its
aspirations.

Pakistan ultimately came into existence to cater to the aspirations of
these classes.The BJP also was catering to the aspirations of upper caste
middle class Hindus with aspirations for higher economic positions and
jobs. The Muslim League used Islamic rhetoric and designed its political
discourse accordingly. The BJP also used Hindutva rhetoric under the
leadership of Mr. L.K.Advani and aroused the feelings of these classes
against so called over-privileged minorities specially the Muslims. It
greatly pleased the Hindu ashraf.

Various developments were exploited to the hilt by the BJP. The Shah Bano
controversy and Ramjanmabhoomi controversy proved to be godsends for it.
The Muslim leaders exploited the Shah Bano controversy for their own
political needs and to negotiate their own political course. They mobilised
the Muslim masses taking full advantage of their sense of insecurity
created by the BJP Hindutva rhetoric, on one hand, and, by the occurrence
of several major riots since early years of eighties, on the other.

These riots and high pitched Hindutva propaganda had made the Muslim masses
terribly insecure and the ground was ripe for a section of the North based
Muslim leadership to exploit the prevalent sense of insecurity among the
Muslim masses. More the Muslim leaders adopted confrontationist posture,
more the BJP benefited from it. Absurd though it might appear, the BJP even
convinced its followers that the majority community had been encircled in
its own country by the militant minorities. Many middle class Hindus
seriously believed in those days in this theory of encirclement. A BJP
supporter journalist even went to the extent of writing a letter to the
Bombay based English daily that the best solution to the communal problem
would be to disenfranchise the minorities for the next ten years to begin
with.

The BJP leadership further intensified the confrontation on the issue of
Babri masjid- Ramjanambhoomi controversy in the post-Shah Bano agitation
period. The controversy was fully exploited to consolidate the Hindu votes.
In 1989 general election the BJP reaped the harvest by capturing 89 Lok
Sabha seats as against mere two seats in 1984 elections. It is true it was
partly the result of the seat adjustment with the Janata Dal worked out at
the instance of Mr. V.P.Singh to bring down the Congress government under
Rajiv Gandhi. Mr. V.P.Singh, at that time was so obsessed with bringing
down the Congress government that he did not mind seat adjustments with the
militant BJP advocating the Hindutva political discourse.

Mr. V.P.Singh formed the government with the support of BJP in 1989 and
announced the implementation of Mandal Commission Report on 8th August
1990. That posed once again a serious challenge to the Hindutva forces
which had tried to build its political fortunes by mobilising and
consolidating the Hindu votes. The BJP tried to meet the challenge by
further intensifying the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation and Mr. Advani announced
his 'Rath yatra' which, the Times of India described as blood-yatra as
more than 300 small and big riots took place during its course. Advani was
then arrested in Bihar by the government of Laloo Yadav at the instance of
Mr. V.P.Singh and as a result his government fell.

The blackest day in the history of the BJP since its formation was the
demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6th December 1992, followed by the Bombay
riots of December 1992 and January 1993. The BJP demolished the mosque
despite its assurances to the contrary in the National Integration Council
and its affidavit to the Supreme Court that 'kar seva' would not amount to
demolition of the mosque. But these were hazards of such confrontationist
and communal politics. But the BJP was determined to capture political
power whatever the cost, and it did though ultimately it had to do that by
tempering its confrontationist posture.

The BJP could come to power at the Centre ironically by abandoning its
Hindutva agenda and forming alliance with secular parties. The way the BJP
adopted Hindutva agenda to come to power (after pledging itself to
secularism and Gandhian socialism) and the way it abandoned it without
batting an eyelid again in order to come to power shows the hazards of
democratic politics in a multi - religious country like India. The great
national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul
Kalam Azad tried to use multi religiosity for India's strength by adopting
secularism as its political philosophy. But the BJP thought that the multi
religiosity of India was its weakness and rejected the concept of
secularism.

India has been oscillating between these two extremes ever since. But a
stable democratic polity can be ensured only through secular and tolerant
outlook. The communal challenge can be met only through secular values.
Neither common civil code, nor deletion of article 370 of the Constitution
nor the building of Ram temple can strengthen our unity. Our unity can be
ensured through respect for all religions and a united endeavour to build
our nation.

*****
(Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai.)
________

#2.

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Editorial
31 May 2000

A visit to Wagah
by J. L. Gupta
THE year 1941 of the Christian era. My father along with the other
members of the family had gone to Rawalpindi to attend his cousin=92=
s
wedding. His maternal uncle had given him a gift. A small clock.
Till recently, it had been always there on the mantle. A few months
older than me, the little timekeeper was a constant reminder of the
fact that Rawalpindi was once an integral part of India.

At that time, we were slaves. Of the English. But, the country was
one. We were one people. All Indians. Living together. As one
nation. We had fought together. Against the foreign ruler. For
the independence of the country. A large number of persons had
courted arrest. Suffered imprisonment. Even beating and bullets.
Also insult and torture. And the sacrifices were not in vain. We
had succeeded. The year 1947 had brought independence. We had
become a free country. That was good. But, India was partitioned. A
part of it was severed. That was sad. In fact, very painful.

A man-made border separated the two people. Just the small,
lifeless pillars of brick and mortar. Raised along an invisible
boundary line. And then the barbed wire fence. The iron gates. All
to ensure that men, women and children do not cross from one side
to the other. And these barriers exist at different places. Wagah
is one of the many. At a distance of about 30 km. From Amritsar.
The pillars and gates symbolise the division of one country into
two. The separation of people who were born and brought up
together.

What did Wagah look like? I did not know. I had heard stories but
not seen the place. Despite the fact that I am a born Punjabi. I
was curious too. Finally, the holidays, an almost permanent feature
in our country, provided the opportunity. The family was together.
The children and grandchildren too. We made a trip. And what a
sight! Just two gates. Separated by a narrow strip of road. The two
flags flying. As the sunset draws close, the men on both sides get
ready to beat the retreat. They are smart, young and handsome. They
go through the motions. There are large number of people watching.
On both sides. They clap to applaud the smart turnout of the
officers. Each side taking some pride in its men.

We watch. There are many with cameras. They are busy recording
every moment and movement. The people on both sides look alike.
They see each other and smile. All speak the same language. Eat
and enjoy the same food. Man to man, they like each other. Some
amongst them have fond memories of good moments. Spent together.
And then, both are poor. Both depend on foreign aid. Yet, both
sides are spending more on arms to fight than on food to feed the
poor and needy. Both utilise the aid to arm the armies. At the end
of each day, both are left with men without arms. Sad and
handicapped.
The faint childhood memories come back. I recall the day when a
young and goodlooking lady who lived next door had come to say
goodbye to my mother. The two had hugged each other. Then, they had
actually cried. Audibly. As if two dear ones were parting company.
Both were sad. But soon, the two people who had worked together,
were at war with each other. And since then we have continued to
fight. Almost continuously. We have been at war. With each other.
At what cost? To what end? Each day, both are left with the
cripples and widows. They have their own tales of woe to tell. We
can only hear and cry.
What has man done to man? Will this generation ever realise the
folly? Before it gets too late? Why can the two people not bury the
barrier? before it gets too late? Is somebody listening? Please!
________

#3.

News from Bangladesh
31 May 2000

Rife De-Sanskritization Of Names In Bangladesh

by A.H. Jaffor Ullah

"The history is not static and docile; it is rather dynamic. Have you
noticed - one religion never stays for too long in this turbulent land -
the Bengal. It is very possible that modern technology will takes its toll
on organized religion all over the world. And when that happens, who is
going to protect the Muslims of Bangladesh?"

One of my articles in NFB (May 24) "Sylhet or Sri Hatta?" seems to have
taken certain section of the readers by storm. On Memorial Day, NFB
Readers' Opinion section had three bumptious entries (NFB, May 29) that
were very critical of my Sri Hatta essay. Needless to say, not a single of
those impugners had shown even an ounce of bonhomie when they wrote their
retorts. However, this is swell with this scribe. Any writer's dream is to
set the agenda for discussion. This is what this writer is doing in NFB
since early 1997. The proof of the pudding is quite evident here.
When I started writing the Sri Hatta article, I did realize that my
write-up is going to open a can of worms. And that is what it exactly did!
In this article, I will chronicle more of the same, i.e., show that in
Muslim Bengal (read Bangladesh) the people who were in the power did their
level best to remove the vestiges of Sanskritized names. Naming of Sylhet
is just one of the glaring examples. Many more are yet to come.
Take for example the name of the second most populous city in Bangladesh -
the Chittagong. This name is the Anglicized version of the Bangla name
Chotto Gram. The local people used to call it Chat Ga. Perhaps hundreds of
years ago, this place was only a village or Gram. Thus, there was nothing
wrong when someone called it Chotto Gram. However, the commonality among
all these names, i.e., Chittagong, Chotto Gram, Chat Ga, is the word
Chotto. It turns out that the ancient Indic name of present day Chittagong
is Chattal. Both the ancient Indic and Buddhist literature have copious
references about a place in Samatata region of Northeast India call
Chattal. The South Eastern part of Bengal through which most big rivers of
Eastern India flowed into Bay of Bengal was known in ancient time as
Samatata. Chattal was a big part of it.
During pre-partition Bengal, Chittagong was widely known as Chotto Gram.
Nevertheless, somehow, the name Chittagong got stuck. Of course, very few
people would call this day Chittagong as Chattal. Is there any thing wrong
in reverting the name of Chittagong to Chattal? Mind you, the British
people have left Bengal over half a century. The Anglicized name such as
Chittagong is just a reminder that once English people used to rule this
place. Wouldn't it be proper to efface the vestiges of colonial name? What
is so wrong in the old name of Chittagong - the Chattal? Does it smell too
much like a Sanskritized name? You bet, it does! That is where folks the
problem lies. Our civic leaders in Bangladesh would be overjoyed renaming a
place a la Arabic name. I will give some examples later in my write-up to
bolster my claim. However, the readers may have witnessed this charade
already when they visit every nook and corner of Bangladesh finding new
Muslim names replacing the old Indic names.
Eastern Bengal was a citadel of Hinduism for a long time. This predates
the invasion of Bengal by early Muslim missionaries in thirteenth and
fourteenth century. Eastern part of Bengal was always home to Sens,
Chakravartys, Senguptas, Dasguptas, Barmans, Basus, and a host other
Bangalee Hindus. Chattal was no exception. Like Sri Hatta, Chattal had a
rich history. In Chattal is located the holy temple of Sita Kundu. Near the
temple, one could find some geothermal activity, which had caused warm
spring or geyser like activity. From ancient time, Hindus all over Bengal
would go for a Tirtha (pilgrimage) to visit Sita Kundu. All of these
indicate that Chattal had thriving Hindu communities. But where have they
gone? After the ghastly riots of the 1940s, which inspired such rebel yell
as "Naray-e-Takbir," tells me which Hindu would stay in Chattal or Sri
Hatta. The riots of the 1940s brought consternation among Hindu folks in
East Bengal. Out of sheer fear, they packed up their small belongings and
disbursed their properties at a ridiculously low price to their Muslim
neighbors. They had no choice really. The neighbors would have purloined
the properties, anyway. Finally, they set sail for West Bengal. The
present-day Chittagong like most other places in Bangladesh became a Muslim
dominated region by this process.
Sri Hatta and Chattal were Hindu dominated regions of East Bengal. But
now, it is a different story. By visiting the countryside of these two
districts, one would come across Sanskrit names right and left. In Sri
Hatta, one would find names such as Sri Mangal, Bishwa Nath. The local
people call Bishwa Nath - Bisnaat. Such is the vagary of life!
In the heartland of East Bengal - the Dhaka, we have veritable evidence
that Hinduism was flourishing all around Dhaka. The Dhakeshwari Mandir of
Dhaka, according to some scholars, may have engendered the name Dhaka. The
Bikrampur region, which is south of Old Dhaka, was one of the strongholds
of Hindus. However, we encounter names like Munshiganj in the heartland of
Bikrampur. Who knows when that name was given to that town?
North of Dhaka lays a place call Joydebpur. This place was Hindu dominated
during the turn of the past century. The Maharajah of Joydebpur was a Hindu
person. After Bangladesh was established in 1971 December, the city of
Dhaka was encroaching to the North. Bangladesh government established their
Rice Research Institute in Joydebpur area. My friends, who worked there as
researchers, used to call it Jodebpur'er Research Farm. But now, it is a
different story. Everyone calls it Gazipur'er Research Institute (BRRI). I
became very confused over the name change. Then I asked someone what is the
difference between these two research institutes. It turns out that people
over there in Joydebpur have slowly begun to call their town as Gazipur. In
Arab world, folks who fight Jihad are call Gazi or Ghazi, which means war
hero (one who fights against infidels). Thus, it is very clear from the
connotation that folks from Joydebpur have deliberately changed the name of
that place to Gazipur or Ghazipur.
In the 1960s, I used to frequently ride a day-train to go from Dhaka to
Mymensingh. There was a small railway station call Kaliganj near Gafargaon.
After the disastrous war of 1965, there was a rise in the communalism in
East Pakistan. One day, I saw that the railway people whitewashed the name
post of Kaliganj railway station and just scribbled the name Aliganj in its
place. The former name Kaliganj was still visible in the name post. The
entire Bengal was a stronghold of Shakti branch of Shivaism. Ma Kali being
the supreme goddess of Shakti school of Shivaism her name adorned so many
different places in Bengal. How many Kaliganjs would have to be renamed
Aliganj to remove the vestiges of Hinduism from Bangladesh? The way this
renaming galore is happening in Bangladesh, soon the popular names like
Bhairav Bazaar, Ishwardi, Sita Kundu, Borab Kundu, Sri Mangal, Thakurgaon,
etc. will be replaced by names like Alipur, Gazipur, Mohammadpur, etc.
Those Sanskritized names must be eyesores to the God-fearing Muslims of
Bangladesh!
During Pakistani rule in present-day Bangladesh, some people in Mymensingh
tried their best to rename Mymensingh to more Islamic Momenshahi. They
started writing this meaningless name Momenshahi in Bangla books and
newspapers. Thus, there is this conscious effort on the part of some
religiously bent people in Bangladesh to efface all the Sanskritized name
to make Bangladesh more Islamic. They must have opined that the good old
name Mymensingh sounds more hinduized thus there are all the more reasons
to change the name.
The name of present-day Comilla district in Bangladesh was Tripura or
T-para before mid 1950s. Comilla was the name of one of the major towns in
Tripura. However, when East Pakistan was formed in 1947 a part of Tripura
was given to East Pakistan. The Pakistani officials could not handle the
name Tripura. It sounded almost like a Sanskrit name, which it was.
Nevertheless, in the early fifties the district was called Tripura. Later,
they named the entire administrative district as Comilla. They must have
heaved a great sigh of relief to get rid off that Sanskrit name as quickly
as possible.
In Tripura district there was a very cultured place call Brahmanbaria (the
abode of Brahmin). Lot of good scholars, artisans, musicians, etc., came
out of this place. As the name signifies, this was too a Hindu dominated
place. However, it was too difficult to change the name of this place. In
the first place, the name was too long and nothing would rhyme with it.
Therefore, it was an impossible task to efface this Sanskritized name.
=46inally, in the 1960s someone came up with an ingenious idea. They propose=
d
to shorten the name of Brahmanbaria to B'baria. This clever name change
reminded me an old Bangla phrase - "Shaap O Morlo, Athocho Lathita Bhanglo
Na!" ("The snake was killed, but we still have the intact stick")
The above ones are just some concrete examples to point out that the
spirit of communalism is at play in eastern Bengal to efface the vestiges
of Hinduism. Some folks in Bangladesh even today are bent on
de-Sanskritization the names of places that reminds them that East Bengal
was home to many indigenous Hindus. Some people in Bangladesh think that
Bangladesh's story started in earnest in 1947 when Jinnah Shaheb helped
them to eradicate Bhadralocks (gentle class) from East Pakistan.
The story of old Bengal is too old and complicated. Bengal was a
stronghold of Buddhism two thousand years ago. In the vicissitudes of
times, Buddhism exited about seven or eight hundred years ago and was
replaced by Hinduism. The Muslims then followed couple of centuries later.
The history is not static and docile; it is rather dynamic. Have you
noticed - one religion never stays for too long in this turbulent land -
the Bengal. It is very possible that modern technology will takes its toll
on organized religion all over the world. And when that happens, who is
going to protect the Muslims of Bangladesh? In the meantime, the name
change exercise will continue in Bangladesh unabated. More Kaliganjs will
become Aliganjs. More Gazipur would spring up here and there a la
mushrooms. Meanwhile, the religious minded folks in Bangladesh would feel
great about it opining that all is Allah's Khela (God's whim).
[A.H. Jaffor Ullah writes from New Orleans, Louisiana, USA]
______________________________________________
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