[sacw] sacw dispatch #1 (22 May 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch #1
22 May 2000
__________________________
#1. Kashmir: Paradise Lost, in the Name of God & Self-Determination
#2. Sri Lanka: Tamil rebels terrorize villagers in Jaffna province
#3. Pakistani women's peace delegation's visit to India
#4. India: Muslims weighed down by Hindu chauvinism
__________________________

#1.

Los Angeles Times
May 21, 2000
Opinion

Paradise Lost, in the Name of God and Self-Determination

India and Pakistan twist truth as they pour guns, money into the disputed
Himalayan region.

By MANSOOR IJAZ
Mansoor Ijaz, a nuclear physicist of Pakistani descent, is chairman of an
investment firm in New York
E-mail: mijaz@s...

When approaching Srinagar, capital of this disputed Himalayan state, one has
the unmistakable impression of coming to paradise on Earth. Buttressed by
jagged snow-capped mountains that have been called the roof of the world,
the Kashmir valley is a breathtaking mosaic of towering pines, glistening
lakes and flowing streams.
On the ground, however, reality is quite different. The dispute over Kashmir
always has boiled down to the fate of the people in its valley, controlled
by India. I went there this month as an American citizen to ask ordinary
Kashmiris why what had started 50 years ago as a principled fight for
self-determination had turned into the violent war of religious extremists.
What I found was disturbing, not only because the documented human rights
violations are real, but also because of the overwhelming evidence of lies
by both Pakistani and Indian authorities.

New Delhi, for example, would have the world believe that only a few
thousand troops are defending against foreign aggression on their soil. Yet
Indian security forces could be seen everywhere. The look and feel of a
police state was unambiguous. One Kashmiri official finally admitted that
the real figure for troops in the valley alone approached 150,000. And the
valley represents only a fraction of the total area in dispute in Kashmir.
Interestingly, local police and security forces commanders admitted that
their soldiers had been overzealous in expelling militants from local homes,
violating civil liberties in the process--contrition that may be part of an
organized campaign by New Delhi to lift the appearance of an oppressive
environment of rights abuses. Permitting foreigners like me to visit after
the abuses largely have stopped also may be part of the appeasement policy.

Yet perhaps the most compelling facet of India's win-at-all-costs strategy
in Kashmir is the evidence of the money being poured into the enclave to
secure a reconciliation between local Kashmiris and the motherland. New
construction and refurbishment of tourist hot spots can be seen everywhere.
One look at the homes in which Kashmiri separatist leaders and others in the
valley live, and the big business of war becomes humorously obvious.
Separatists get funding for insurgency operations from Pakistan's military
intelligence apparatus. Then India matches the grants to bring them back to
the Indian camp. It's the politics of war finance at its worst.

Pakistan's deceit was equally clear. Islamabad would have the world believe
that it does not provide official military support for militant groups
waging jihad, or holy war, and that the militants are indigenous Kashmiris
battling for their own freedom. Both claims strain credulity. I saw several
thousand weapons seized from insurgents in gun battles around the valley and
along the Line of Control--the unofficial border between Pakistan-controlled
and India-controlled Kashmir--everything from the latest AK-47 rifles to
sophisticated hand grenades to rocket launchers bearing the embossed logos
of Pakistan's official munitions factories. The fingerprints of Pakistani
army and intelligence support were unmistakable.

I reviewed identification cards taken from captured foreign moujahedeen
warriors. These cards were designed to notify families back home in the
event of combat death and to ensure war reparations would be properly
paid--hardly procedures for local sons of war. Receipt books for money
collected in the names of various Islamic charities to finance the purchase
of war supplies further evidenced the principal complaint that Kashmiris
repeatedly voiced to me: that their struggle to gain independence had turned
into someone else's war for the cause of pan-Arabism, pan-Islamism or
something other than Kashmiri freedom.

Stuck in the middle of these two egocentric forces are the Kashmiris,
perhaps the most docile people on Earth. Mentally, emotionally and
physically ravaged by a war that neither side seems able to win, they appear
on the verge of opting for peace with Hindu masters who offer economic
revitalization and peaceful coexistence rather than pressing on with Muslim
Pakistan, which offers little more than religious zealotry and violent
accession.

One Kashmiri elder who ran a pharmacy on the outskirts of Srinagar put it
most succinctly: "When the moujahedeen first came, we welcomed them into our
homes with open arms. Today, they come from far away and demand our food and
shelter for freeing us. Yet they show us their guns and we do not feel free.
When they leave, the security forces ransack our homes looking for them, and
the violence starts all over again. This type of freedom we do not wish for
our enemy."

Without an end to the violence that dominates the character of today's
freedom fighters, Pakistan is in danger of losing whatever moral authority
it once may have enjoyed in trying to liberate Kashmir. But India should be
clear that Pakistan will never go quietly. New Delhi can do a big-bucks deal
with native Kashmiris who are sick of war, but militants financed by
deep-pocketed zealots in far-off lands may escalate the stakes to an
unacceptable price for paradise on Earth.

________

#2.

Toronto Star
May 22, 2000

In Sri Lanka, Tigers rule the night Tamil rebels terrorize villagers in
Jaffna province
By Martin Regg Cohn Toronto Star Asia Bureau
MARTIN REGG COHN / TORONTO STAR ARMED GUARD: Protected by a
member of Sri Lanka's home guard, a young Sinhalese girl works in the rice
paddies raided last week by Tamil Tiger guerrillas.
KALYANAPURA, Sri Lanka - Emerging from their jungle hideouts at dusk,
armed guerrillas swept into the paddy fields as farmers harvested the
latest crop.
Moving silently, they captured four young farm hands, and killed
another on the spot. Then the rebels took their time setting fire to the
rice fields.
But before pulling out, the feared Tamil Tigers - fighting for an ethnic
homeland in Sri Lanka - left a message for the Sinhalese residents of this
isolated hamlet: Within a week, the village would be wiped out.
Every night since last week's attack, frightened families have been hiding
in the malarial jungle, sleeping on tattered mats. They return to their
mud-brick homes only at sunrise, when government soldiers return from
barracks to man daytime checkpoints.
After 17 years of bloody ethnic strife, the army works only the day shift
in Sri Lanka's remote areas. And the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) rule the night.
Now, Sri Lanka's civil war, which has left 60,000 dead, is reaching the
endgame. Tiger fighters have scored spectacular territorial gains in
recent months, sparking a desperate and highly publicized government
counter-attack in the northern Jaffna peninsula.
But if the Tigers complete their conquest of Jaffna - they penetrated
government defences earlier this month - the next battles will be here, in
the villages surrounding the historic port of Trincomalee, 180 kilometres
to the south.
Trincomalee has erected street banners proclaiming itself the ``City of
Peace,'' but humanitarian aid officials are updating their contingency
plans in anticipation of a massive refugee crisis if the fighting migrates
south.
The conventional warfare in the north has overshadowed the terrorism along
Sri Lanka's northeastern coast. Villagers speak of more than 30 kidnappings
and 15 deaths in recent years and they point to the destruction of
religious temples and schools as a mark of Tiger terrorism.
22 killed by guerrillas near a Buddhist temple last week In 1995, the
guerrillas destroyed a Buddhist temple in the hamlet of Kiwulakadawala,
which now marks the end of the road beyond which government soldiers will
not travel.
Last month, they bombed a large school building in Gomarankadawala,
leaving a shell of crumbling brick and twisted steel in their wake, and one
dead teenager.
The guerrillas struck hard again last Wednesday, killing 22 people near a
Buddhist temple in Batticaloa, 100 kilometres further south.
Fierce fighting raged in Jaffna Peninsula yesterday as a Norwegian
delegation headed for the war-torn island to help broker peace, Reuters
reports.
While diplomacy appeared to be on the move, the Sri Lankan army said it
was trying to beat back the rebels around Chavakachcheri, a strategic town
at the heart of the peninsula.
The LTTE said Saturday it had taken control of the town after heavily
armed commandos, backed by artillery and mortar fire launched a
multi-pronged attack at dawn and sent troops fleeing after 12 hours of
intense fighting.
Chavakachcheri lies some 15 kilometres east of Jaffna city, the cultural
capital of the Tamil homeland for which the LTTE has been fighting since
1983.
The loss of Chavakachcheri would put the rebels close to the last defence
lines of the army at Kodikamam, a short distance to the east. If that fell,
LTTE fighters could link up on the highway and squeeze the troops further
north.
The LTTE controls most of the area that lies toward the key Elephant Pass,
east of Kodikamam. The military last month lost their Elephant Pass base on
an isthmus linking the peninsula with the rest of Sri Lanka, opening the
possibility for them to recapture Jaffna city, which fell to the government
in 1995.
Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen was due to arrive in
Colombo today with special envoy Erik Solheim for three days of talks with
the country's leaders.
The battles and bombs, kidnappings and killings, have left deep
psychological wounds in the Kalyanapura port area, whose hardships are a
microcosm of Sri Lanka's strife. The Sinhalese make up more than 80 per
cent of Sri Lanka's population of 18 million people, but in this region
there is a mix of Sinhalese Buddhists and Tamils, both Hindu and Muslim,
living side by side in roughly equal numbers.
While ordinary people preach tolerance, the guerrillas resort to terrorism.
``We Sinhalese never want to harm anyone, we want to live peacefully, and
we invite Tamils to eat in our homes,'' says the area's chief monk, G.
Sumanasara, a sweet-faced man draped in the orange-red robes of a devout
Buddhist.
Sitting under the tin roof of the village's new temple, he beseeches a
visiting reporter: ``Please send a message to the LTTE not to harm innocent
farmers in this area.''
His plea for peace has been answered by the destruction of his historic
temple, and the bombing of the school where he is vice-principal. For other
villagers, the price has been even higher.
Kadirathage Rankeranhamy, 50, has a bloodied eye, a bruised forehead and
rope burns where rebels tied his hands after they invaded the paddy fields
last week. Now, he counts himself among one of the few survivors of the
Tigers' attacks.
`We want to live in peace with the Tamils' ``I told them, `We want to
live in peace with the Tamils, we are all brothers,' '' he recounted in an
interview under the shade of a jackfruit tree. ``Why are you doing this to
us?''
It was a dialogue of the deaf. The Tigers understand only Tamil, and
Rankeranhamy speaks only the language of the Sinhalese majority.
Ignoring his pleas, the guerrillas struck him across the forehead with a
rifle butt and bound him with his blue sarong. But a burst of gunfire
distracted the kidnappers, giving Rankeranhamy a chance to escape with his
life - though not that of his son, Vimal Chandrakumara, 21, who is still
missing and presumed dead.
Rankeranhamy's wife Vimalawathi sobs uncontrollably over the fate of their
son, and recalls the deaths of her parents 10 years ago. They fled the
village soon after, but returned because ``we were born here, this is our
ancestral home,'' Rankeranhamy says.
Now, they fear for the future of their village. ``Once the fighting over
there (in Jaffna) is finished, they will come here,'' Rankeranhamy frets.
Ethnic strife is a legacy of British rule, when the Hindu Tamil minority
occupied privileged positions in the colonial administration. After
independence in 1948, Sinhalese Buddhists retaliated by making their mother
tongue the sole official language, and reserving the best jobs for
themselves.
Tensions culminated in 1983, when Sinhalese mobs, enraged by the deaths of
13 soldiers in the north, launched a pogrom that killed nearly 2,000
Tamils. Many Tamils sought refuge abroad in subsequent years - including
more than 150,000 who came to Canada, which is now home to the largest
number of Sri Lankan =E9migr=E9s of Tamil descent.
Against that backdrop, high- school dropout Velupillai Prabhakaran founded
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, an obscure band of guerrillas which
set out in 1976 to demand a separate state for the 3.2 million Tamils.
For 17 years, the Tigers have mounted suicide bombings against Sinhalese
civilians, destroyed sacred temples and assassinated any of their more
moderate Tamil brethren who dared to defy their extremism. The group is
notorious for its recruitment of impressionable child soldiers and teenage
female fighters, and for ordering its cadres to swallow cyanide capsules if
captured.
``In the northern and eastern parts of the country, the LTTE has tortured,
killed and `disappeared' people it accused of being informers,'' New
York-based Human Rights Watch concluded in a bulletin last week. ``The
LTTE's use of child soldiers has caused many displaced persons to flee from
LTTE territory.''
`Ethnic cleansing started here in the early 1980s' Now, five years
after being pushed out of predominantly Tamil Jaffna, which they ruled as a
virtual state from 1990 to 1995, the Tigers have the government on the run
again. And they are flexing their muscle along the more ethnically mixed
northeast coastal areas.
``Ethnic cleansing - perhaps the West heard the words rather late,'' says
Asoka Jayawardhana, governor of Northern and Eastern provinces. ``Ethnic
cleansing started here in the early '80s.''
The guerrillas not only target innocent farmers but local politicians.
Though Sri Lanka has a robust democratic tradition, province-wide elections
have not been held here since 1988, nor municipal votes since 1994, because
the army cannot guarantee security.
Protected by a phalanx of security guards, Jayawardhana sips tea on the
veranda of his official residence overlooking Trincomalee's deep water
port, and cites the dozens of politicians who have been assassinated in
recent years. He admits his forces are overwhelmed by the task of
protecting politicians, let alone civilians.
``They have eliminated every type of opposition and there is a lot of fear
that if they get power, there will be a lot of massacring of their own
people,'' he says. ``We just don't have enough forces for the villages.''
It is a humbling admission from a retired army general, who boasts of
fighting in the jungles of Sri Lanka, but cannot make the temples or
schools safe. Even in so-called ``cleared areas'' supposedly under
government control, the Tigers come at night to extort money from
shopkeepers.
The governor's authority is even more feeble in so-called ``uncleared
areas'' where the Tigers rule unchallenged. Across these vast swaths of
territory, teachers and nurses get danger pay from the government, but
their working conditions are dictated by the Tigers.
In fact, the LTTE declared public holidays in the uncleared areas last
month to celebrate recent Tiger military victories in the Jaffna Peninsula.
Even the rare tourist must look over his shoulder. The guerrillas
routinely target the secluded Nilaveli Beach Resort, just north of
Trincomalee, which was built a quarter-century ago in anticipation of a
tourist boom, but which sits empty most nights.
On a recent raid, the Tigers jumped the spiked fences to steal food and
televisions from the luxury bungalows.
At the root of the conflict, the Tigers see the Sinhalese as settlers
trespassing on Tamil territory. Eighty years ago, the Sinhalese population
in Trincomale district was less than 5 per cent, and Tamils made up more
than 53 per cent. By 1981, the Sinhalese and Tamil Hindu communities were
roughly balanced with the Muslims.
_________

#3.

The News of Sunday
21 May 2000

Drive for peace
It is time for the women to repair what has already been damaged by
their men, to restore stability in a region which has already seen far
too much bloodshed. Amber Rahim reports on the Pakistani women's peace
delegation's visit to India
Crossing Wagha in the same bus that carried Vajpayee to our side of
the border, nineteen odd women joined a group that had already arrived
in Delhi amid fanfare and controversy a day earlier on May 2. Led by
Asma Jahangir, no stranger to spectacles and sceptics, the total of
sixty women were not visiting India for the Taj Mahal or to trace
ancestral roots, they were in India on a mission of peace. Forging
friendship between two quarrelsome states has traditionally been a
man's job, best left to the men who dominate the corridors of power where
decisions of peace and war -- i.e. life and death -- are made. Not so
thought a handful of social activists on both sides of the border, it
is time for the women to repair what has already been damaged by their
men, to restore stability in a region which has already seen far too
much bloodshed. Therefore as skirmishes disturbed the tranquility of
Kargil in the summer of 1999, a number of Indian women gathered the
courage to publicly demonstrate against war, in a country where
anti-Pakistan sentiment dominated in the media and the mood of its
people.
This led to the formation of a group, WIPSA or Women's Initiative for
Peace in South Asia, in August 1999 whose main goal is embodied in its
slogan 'Goli nahin boli'. WIPSA believes that ideological or
territorial conflicts can best be solved through dialogue rather than
war. That in one of the poorest and most over-populated regions of the
world "our countries can ill-afford the material resources sunk in
mutual destruction at the cost of human reconstruction" (WIPSA pledge,
August 6, 1999). On the 53rd anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing
(August 6, 1999), more than 150 women social activists from India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh gathered to sign a pledge committed to peace at the Gandhi
Smriti in Delhi, the place where Gandhi had been assassinated. Four days
later, a conference on 'Women's Vision: A Culture of Peace' was
attended by women from all walks of life, resulting in the idea of a
'bus of peace'. Later last year, on December 19, men and women all
over the major cities of the region were marshalled with the slogan
'peace for empowerment, empowerment for peace' to form human chains
for peace demanding a nuclear and war free South Asia.
On March 25, 2000, more than 30 Indian women travelled the 12-hour
journey from Delhi to spend a hectic week, meeting like-minded women
here and spreading their message of peace through songs, seminars,
banners and discussions. The highlight of their visit was a meeting
with General Musharraf who while supporting the idea of
people-to-people contacts to initiate the peace process, believed that
without a follow-up with talks at the governmental level, such contacts
could be rendered meaningless. As the Indian government dawdles over Gen.
Musharraf's offer of dialogue, sixty women chose to further WIPSA's cause
by paying an answering visit to Delhi. Perhaps one of the significant
hurdles to peace between the people of the two countries, if not their
respective governments, has been a campaign of disinformation or
selective information in the media. Focusing on issues of religious
and sectarian violence, repression and fragmentation, attention has
been deliberately shifted away from liberal voices concerned over the
conventional and nuclear arms race. Officially we revel in each
others' defeats and conversely, enjoy each others' music and culture
at the informal level.
The extent of malicious disinformation was apparent from Attari, the
entry point into India less than a minute's drive from Wagha. As the
customs officer checked our passports, he began to ask offensive
questions on purdah, implying that a poor law and order situation
rather than religion is the reason for women covering their heads. And
this was to remain one of the pet questions of many of the Indians
that we met there from rikshaw wallas to journalists, believing that
purdah is mandatory by law. The peace delegation comprised lawyers,
artists, journalists, educationists, doctors, political and social
activists, businesswomen, students and housewives -- a broad
cross-section of representative women from all over the country and of
various religions and sects -- was proof that a section of Pakistan's
women are progressive and educated. And that purdah need not
necessarily mean a lack thereof. Hence, this visit had also meant to
disassemble the mythical Pakistani woman, subservient to law and man,
without an opinion and career of her own.
Although the 'Sada-e-Sarhad' Friendship bus that brought the Indian
Prime Minister Vajpayee to Lahore might not have done much to improve
Indo-Pak relations, it has made traversing the border an easier
business for the common man. With cheaper rates as compared to
airfare, shorter travel-time and less delay-prone than the train,
exchanges such as these prove that it has become easier to cross
boundaries and remove misunderstandings at the grass-roots level, a
humanisation if you will. Therefore Indians will be able to see for
themselves that not all Pakistanis are Islamic fundamentalists, sword
in hand, ready to fight a jehad against all non-Muslims. As Asma
Jahangir said upon her arrival at the bus terminal in Delhi: "There is
no animosity among people. Open the Wagha border for a few days and
you will witness long queues of people wanting to cross".
The reception that the sixty women received in the three cities that
were scheduled for a visit (Delhi, Agra and Jaipur) was truly
overwhelming. Despite being a private initiative, many government and
ex-government dignitaries received, held receptions and dialogues with
the members of the delegation. An unscheduled meeting with Minister
for External Affairs Jaswant Singh, however, yielded little in terms
of the peace mission. He spoke of how India felt 'betrayed' after
Kargil and his reservations about having dialogue with Pakistan since
India did not recognise the legitimacy of the military regime. Jaswant
Singh also questioned Pakistan's continuing interest in Kashmir over
other 'rogue' states in India, completely overlooking the history of
the region in relation to Pakistan. Kashmir was, either deliberately
or inadvertently, avoided in all the peace rhetoric. Although it is
true that talking about Kashmir has not resulted in anything positive,
sidestepping the issue will not bury it or resolve that which is the
crux of the conflict between India and Pakistan. At a panel discussion
which involved Khushwant Singh, Kuldip Nayyar and Rajesh Pilot where
cross-border terrorism was discussed, Indian newspapers called it the
delegates' 'anti-India tirade' when Asma Jahangir spoke against the
atrocities committed by the Indian government in Kashmir.
Subsequent meetings played it safe with abstract and sentimental
speeches and discussions on peace with heavy doses of nostalgia. The
main theme of which was that where men have failed, women with their
compassion for human suffering need to step in and take charge. As an
Indian member of WIPSA, Syeda Hameed, said at one of the meetings: "We
have given 53 years to the menfolk to remove the tension between the
nations. Since they have failed, we have taken it upon ourselves to
renew the ties that we share over the centuries. Being women, we appreciate
pain, hunger and the value of life". As the women interacted with various
women's organisations, NGOs, educational institutions, writers,
industrialists and politicians, flashbulbs popped and reporters
feverishly scribbled notes everywhere they went. What surprised the
delegation was the extensive press coverage that was given. Although
most of it supported the peace movement, there was a section that
trivialised the mission with comments on Indian film-stars peppering
reports on peace, and an emphasis on the 'plight' of the Pakistani
woman. One Indian newspaper went so far as to give a headline: "Forgive
Pak. Govt., Asma tells Indians", taking her comments out of context.
It must be said, however, that the right-wing press in Pakistan too
reacted negatively to the peace mission.
There were rumbles of displeasure too within the High Commission of
Pakistan about the statements given to the press. As the Indians feted
the Pakistani women, officers in the High Commission spoke of how the
Indian group was briefed by the Indian Foreign Office prior to their
visit to Lahore. Perhaps this is a reflection of the mistrust that
exists between the two countries, and well-meaning as these missions
are, concrete action cannot be taken without the cooperation of the
two governments. However, missions such as these are needed to form a
lobby of public opinion which will push for easing visa restrictions
and allowing for a free exchange of newspapers, books and other printed
material. Small as these concessions are, they are a stepping-stone to
the broader issues of peace. According to a member of the Pakistani
delegation, Shahtaj Qizalbash: "It is hard to say what the immediate
effects of the mission will be. However, through pressure groups and
mobilising opinion, the Indian government would no longer have the
excuse that the Indian people want war".

_________

#4.

South China Morning Post
Monday, May 22, 2000
SOUTH ASIA TODAY
Muslims weighed down by Hindu chauvinism
RELIGION IN POLITICS

by S. N. M. ABDI in Calcutta
India's 150 million Muslims are more numerous than in either
Pakistan or Bangladesh, but are a minority in a country of one billion. And
with the growth of Hindu fundamentalism, they and their religious
institutions are under grave threat from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) and its hard-core allies like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS),
Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal.
A Hindu India is espoused, relegating Muslims, along with Christians and
Sikhs, to second-class citizenship. The RSS, ideological parent of the BJP,
openly advocates violence against Muslims and destruction of mosques to
build a "pure India". The BJP triggered a resurgence of Hindu chauvinism to
oust the Congress party from power, gaining from an aggressive and
reactionary Hinduism.
The BJP and its allies use Muslims as a foil for their chauvinism. One of
the myths perpetrated by the BJP is that Muslims are agents of Pakistan.
The truth is that most Indians caught spying for Pakistan, including senior
army officers, are Hindus. Another assiduously propagated myth is that
Muslims multiply faster than Hindus, cornering an undue share of the
country's shrinking resources.
Islam is projected as a threat to the majority community, which helps in
consolidating the reactionary forces of Hinduism.
Muslims are discriminated against in practically every sphere, from
education to jobs. A recent book by a senior police officer exposed the
religious bias of the men in uniform who systematically kill, torture and
rob Muslims at sectarian riots.
Several ministers in Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Government,
including Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani, take every opportunity to abuse
Muslims publicly. Mr Advani, along with six other top BJP leaders, was
present during the destruction of the 16th-century Babri Mosque by a Hindu
mob at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh in December 1992, which triggered bloody
communal riots nationwide.
The representation of Muslims in Parliament and state assemblies is
sharply declining. The Muslim community's long-standing demand for
proportional representation in legislatures has not been properly
addressed.
Successive Congress party regimes in India nursed an undeclared
anti-Muslim bias, but the BJP has now pulled out all the stops, projecting
Muslims as the root of the country's myriad problems. Muslim-bashing now
appears to be part of the BJP's state policy.
"The BJP has cut open the bile ducts," said commentator Praful Bidwai
recently. "The poison stored in our collective system for decades is now
flowing openly, dividing Indian society along religious lines as never
before."
______________________________________________
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