[sacw] sacw dispatch (30 May 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch
30 May 2000

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#1. Left behind from years of civil strife in Sri Lank
#2. Kargil In The Kashmiri Soul
#3. India: History rewritten: Muslims, Christians & Parsis termed foreigner=
s

__________________________

#1.

Asiaweek magazine
JUNE 2, 2000 VOL. 28 NO. 21 |

The Forgotten Left behind from years of civil strife in Sri Lanka
By TODD CROWELL Sri Lanka's president, Chandrika Kumaratunga,
issued a Churchillian call on national television as rebel troops
closed in on Jaffna: "People of Sri Lanka in their entirety are
today facing a most decisive moment in their history." The Indian
navy mobilized for possible duty evacuating government troops and
civilians from Jaffna. But it was all distant thunder to the
thousands of Tamil refugees in the dozen or so camps scattered around the
northern city of Vavuniya. A news blackout is in force throughout the
country, but even without it little real information filters into
the camps. There are few if any TV sets, or much of anything else
for that matter, save a simple tent or hut to keep the rain out.
"Most refugees don't care who wins the war," says S. Paliniswami,
whose home 12 km to the north was razed by gunfire. "All we want is
peace." In any case, they've heard it before. Many of the
refugees have been living in camps there since 1996. Some were
displaced from homes in southern Sri Lanka during an uprising by the
socialist JVP a decade ago and resettled in the north. Then they
found themselves forced to flee again - from fighting between the
government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels. At least
they have a roof over their heads and some support (roughly 45 cents
a day per person) from the government. But the new fighting will bring
even more refugees to the camps around Vavuniya - a never-ending cycle of
violence and despair

________

#2.

The Telegraph
29 May 2000

KARGIL IN THE KASHMIRI SOUL FROM SANKARSHAN THAKUR Drass, May 28 If
this frontier and its flank, that beauteous piece of dispute known as
Kashmir, are about possession, India=92s must at best be a half and half
story. It holds Kashmir=92s physical contours but not its heart and soul. It=
s
forces have now established supremacy over the frontlines, snatched back
and fenced territory that had been invaded last summer, but the battle for
the Kashmiri heartland itself remains lost.
This despatch could have been written from the valley, and probably with
greater impress for it is the valley where greyness most afflicts big words
like patriotism and loyalty, but there is a reason it is being filed from
Drass, from a little room in the semi-abandoned tourist bungalow in Drass.
The story of victory and defeat and possession and the lack of it is all
here in this cold, unlit room. The great victories are framed in this
room=92s window. Last summer=92s trophies are arranged left to right, as if
posing for an album picture: Tiger Hill, Tololing, Peak 5140 and Peak 4950.
The defeat lies scripted in the weather-beaten bungalow register where all
visitors must make entries at arrival and departure. There are few Indians
listed in this voluminous register; and it is not as if it is replete with
names from far and away. Foreigners don=92t often come to Drass and if they
do it is only on their way to Kargil and Leh and back. Most entries in this
book are of names that prefer to call themselves Kashmiri =97 Nationality:
Kashmiri. These people, those who choose to call their nationality
Kashmiri, are not terrorists or militants or hardcore Pakistan
sympathisers, mind you, most of them are officials in the employ of the
state government =97 engineers, block development officers, members of board=
s
and corporations, government-affiliated contractors, clerks, court
officials, policemen, the kind of people you would find anywhere and
everywhere. But they are loathe to call themselves Indians.
Each one of them, column after column, page after page is a Kashmiri as
opposed to an Indian. Why is a question that is key to achieving that
other, greater, victory in Kashmir, over its heart and soul. This is not a
question that will be resolved by subsidies and grants, which, in any case,
rarely filter down to the people of Kashmir. This is not a question that
will get resolved by lipservicing Kashmir=92s beauty =97 puerile and rather
perverse slogans like =93India is a bouquet, Kashmir a rose in it=94 emblazo=
ned
everywhere.
This is not a question that will be resolved by breastbeating about export
of terror in international forums or by repetition of lies about the return
to normalcy.
What is normal in Kashmir? In the heart of Srinagar town, army garrisons
are hemmed by concertina fences on which hang live grenades; disturb the
fencing and the grenades will blow in your face. The grenades are meant as
protection against terrorist attacks but any child could go and playfully
shake the fence, any old person could collapse against it.
The security forces live within walls and fences and bulletproof sheeting;
the people they are meant to protect are left to themselves. They are
harassed for food and money and more by the officially patronised
surrendered militants, they cower in fear of pro-Pakistan militants who are
everywhere and who are striking at will. A minister one day, the Assembly
building another. That is the normalcy of Kashmir.
The question will also not get resolved by talking to the Hurriyat. Who are
they? And where do they get their sustenance from? They are placards being
waved by hands from across the border; the moment they try talking with New
Delhi, they will be shredded and another placard will be up.
If the talk of talks with the Hurriyat is New Delhi=92s way of discrediting
them, then another question must bob up to the surface: then what? Where
and how do they establish bridges with the common people of Kashmir and ask
them why is it that they don=92t like calling themselves Indian? Ask them
what is it that they want?
At the moment the only talking in Kashmir is being done by the gun. Which
is perhaps why slogans of "Mera Bharat Mahan" are painted only on
paramilitary bunkers and need to be guarded all the time from hands that
will grab the first opportunity to obliterate them.
Perhaps the question needs to be asked why Kashmiri hands want to wipe
those slogans and not paint them. And why this register in Drass says what
it does. =20
________

#3.

Deccan Chronicle
30 May 2000

History rewritten: Muslims, Christians and Parsis termed foreigners

New Delhi, May 29: The Union Human Resources Development ministry's
refusal to look into the distorted and divisive history being taught in
schools and colleges in States on the plea that education is a State
subject and, therefore, it cannot interfere with their curriculum has
created a piquant situation.
Social Studies textbooks for Class 10 students in Gujarat present a
frighteningly uncritical picture of Fascism and Nazism; class 9 text of
the same State terms Muslims, Christians and Parsis as foreigners.

Recommended texts at the graduation level in Maharashtra say Islam
teaches only atrocities; Class 9 and 10 history books in Assam are full
of communal distortions and discuss the question of Assamese language in
an extremely chauvinistic way and, according to class 12 textbooks in
Tamil Nadu, Emperor Akbar passed several ordinances against Islam, kept
swine and dogs in his harem, prohibited Ramzan and the pilgrimage to
Mecca and made the study of Arabic a crime.

When his attention was drawn to these distortions by members of the HRD
Ministry's standing committee, among others, Union HRD Minister Murli
Manohar Joshi said he does not have the power to interfere with
textbooks issued by the States.

The Minister showed no interest even in setting up a national steering
committee to evaluate the textbooks in States. In the past, the Union
government from time to time set up committees to evaluate textbooks to
ensure that objectionable material is removed.

The State governments have always paid attention to the "advice,"
"suggestions" or "recommendations" of the Union government in these
matters. The contents of textbooks have never been entirely left to the
State governments.

But the present HRD Minister does not seem interested in improving the
quality of education in States. Joshi, in fact, refused to extend the
term of the Bipin Chandra Committee set up to evaluate the State
textbooks and, thereby, prevented it from making full and final
recommendations.

Members of opposition who are part of the HRD standing committee said
that they are not putting pressure on the HRD Minister for setting up an
evaluation committee as, "The Minister would pack such a committee with
communal elements who would be vulnerable to government pressure."
______________________________________________
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