[sacw] sacw dispatch (17 May 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch
17 May 2000
________________________________
#1. Sri Lanka: Discovering A War-Torn Conscience
#2. India: Jamia Milia Islamia : a Symbol of Syncretism
#3. India: Letter to Chief Minister of West Bengal re: proposed Nuclear
Power Plant
________________________________

#1.

25th April, 2000.
www.west.asu.edu/kyapa

DISCOVERING A WAR-TORN CONSCIENCE [IN SRI LANKA]

By

Kashyapa A. S. Yapa

Heading towards Batticaloa, the capital of eastern Sri Lanka, Kamal and I
were approaching a huge cobweb of barbed wire. Dozens of barrels of tar,
already caught in the web, littered the road forcing the traffic to slow
down. Rolling forward, I noticed the sandbag-walled hide out, with mortal
AK-47 stingers lurking behind. We braced ourselves for some rigorous
searches and harsh questioning.

Supposedly controlled by the government forces, Batticaloa is trapped deep
in the ever-expanding web of Sri Lanka's ethno-political frenzy. The
ruthlessly violent conflict between the country's two largest ethnic
groups, Sinhalese and Tamil, finds root in occasional skirmishes from the
mid-century over issues of discrimination against the minority Tamils. The
conflict intensified in mid 1980's as the tightening economic noose lured
opportunistic politicians to employ "divide and conquer" tactics for
short-term gains. Their actions boomeranged, literally pulverizing many of
them. The na=D4ve public, riled up by clannish myths and lies and used as
cannon fodder by the same politicians, also maimed and perished by hundreds
of thousands. A pain-stricken overseas spectator of this theatrical carnage
during the last decade and a half, I was determined to use my month-long
vacation to feel the pulse of the surviving cast. My cousin, Kamal, a
government officer living in the relative safety of the border town Ampara,
had volunteered to accompany me through the hit-and-run war zone of
Batticaloa, predisposed to brave the risks.

The army, dressed in olive greens with guns slung over their shoulders,
advanced, grinning and offering trays of cookies and soft drinks! Instead
of growling "where are you going?" they cajoled us, "take more, sir, take
more." I pulled out my camera, still hesitant, but they posed happily for
me-guns, trays and all. Finally it dawned on Kamal. "Oh, it's Vesak
Poya"-the most important religious day of Buddhists. This
cookies-and-drinks spectacle, unfolding repeatedly at military barricades
along the way, perplexed us.

During Vesak Poya, many social organizations and well-off individuals set
up colorful decorations and propped-up murals (Pandals) depicting religious
stories, drawing thousands of people to the streets. Following the Buddhist
tradition of free giving to accumulate good karma, many businesses and
youth groups give away free food and beverages to the passers-by. The
war-weary military of Batticaloa, mainly Sinhalese Buddhists, probably
wanted to surprise the Hindu Tamils, the dominant ethnic group in the area,
with this altruist tradition.

On any other day, the military would have confiscated my camera and jailed
me for attempting to photograph security installations. A simple baggage
search at check-points can turn into a major hassle if the military officer
cannot easily read identification papers, or if he is merely having a bad
day. On the way to Ampara, I became exasperated at their efforts to make me
pull out every piece of clothing from my bags at the barricades, set up
mostly every 10 miles. My slide projector contributed to the problem too,
as I had wrapped it in a blanket to cushion it from the jolts when the bus
rocketed over huge holes in the road. Noticing the curious-looking gadget,
the military wanted to check whatever else lay hiding in my luggage.

Violence has no deep roots in Sri Lankan society. Only 30 years ago, an
afternoon newspaper that headlined violent crimes went swiftly into decline
for the lack of both interest and material. The Sri Lankans, well known for
their hospitality, would extend a generous hand even to a complete
stranger, as I found out in my wanderings throughout the island during late
`70s and early `80s. Once a Tamil fishing village fed and housed our
starved and fatigued hiking group of mainly Sinhalese. On another day, a
group of poor plantation workers came rushing up a steep trail, carrying a
thermos flask, because they felt obliged to provide us, the accidental
over-night campers by their village, the morning tea!

Such whole-hearted generosity began to suffer as the ethnic conflict
escalated. Around then, some peasant villagers in the central hills forced
me and my colleagues to march to the community center. Only after
establishing the identity of a mutual acquaintance would they boil the rice
and dust-off the makeshift beds. In 1990, soon after the bloodiest youth
uprising in southern Sri Lanka, I made a short-hop home after 5-years
abroad and tried in vain to learn why the South had exploded. These
Southerners, who in the past would lay out their philosophy of life on a
bus, in a coffee shop or even under a coconut tree, had their mouths under
lock and key: shell-shocked. Later, while visiting a friend in the US, I
cringed listening to his mother, who had just arrived from Sri Lanka,
describing dry-eyed the beating death of a close relative, supposedly
linked to the southern uprising. The "death squad" had pulled him away from
his wailing wife and son, exploded his head with a stick and then dragged
the unconscious man away to further mutilate his body. Hearing the story
exactly as it happened, a cold shock ran down my spine, but telling it so
seemed to help cleanse her mind.

During the recent trip home in 1999, I noticed that the culture of violence
had exploded island-wide. The proliferation of arms and the presence of
thousands of military and paramilitary fugitives, combined with high
unemployment, harsh economic pressures, and the roiling vengeance had
created a market ripe for cheap, trigger-happy mercenaries. Those without
the will to take revenge on others turn it back upon themselves. Sri Lanka
has recently registered the highest suicide rate in the world-a symptom of
the rapid devalution of human life.

Yet, my childhood in a small southern town of Sri Lanka brings to my mind
very different images. I remember white-clad school children lining up the
roads, waiting for buses or walking towards schools; City streets congested
with pedestrians, bicycles, bullock-carts and a few vehicles; Women
balancing parasols and grocery bags, struggling to wipe off the pouring
sweat with their tiny handkerchiefs; Men juggling the traffic, doubled
under the weight of bulky sacks on their heads or shoulders.

Such a tranquil history probably accounts for the current lack of security
consciousness in Sri Lankan society. Upon my arrival at the international
airport, I had "orders" to pick up a refrigerator and a microwave for some
relatives from the duty-free shop. Luckily, my brother came in a van to
pick me up. Tired and sleepy, I dreaded traveling in the wee hours of the
morning, suspecting further delays by military inspections of my over-sized
luggage. "Don't worry, they won't bother us at this hour" my brother knew
the subterfuges of Sri Lankan military better. We drove non-stop through
the heart of the capital, Colombo, to my hometown 100 miles away. The logic
is that a person planning to blow up something would do so only among heavy
traffic. Therefore, the military does not bother checking late at night!

Now, no place in Sri Lanka is safe, despite the verwhelming presence of
the military. The Tamil guerilla group, fighting the civil war in the North
and the East, can strike at will upon the military and the civilians, rich
or poor, men or women, young or aged. The mercenaries neither give a hoot:
they would eliminate whoever in the list of political or personal enemies
of their clients with scant regard to others around. The wave of explosions
that welcomed the year 2000 was planned deliberately to cause maximum
havoc, targeting mainly the public buses and crowded gatherings. Equally
bloody were the end-of-Presidential-election revenge attacks against media
personnel and at times against entire villages-alleged political opponents
of the winner. Nobody has the monopoly on cruelty.

Encouraged by the lax security in Batticaloa, Kamal picked up two local
Tamil friends to guide us. Signs of normal life were still rare. Seeing a
school of fishermen in canoes, netting shrimp under the heavily fortified
bridge of the "Singing Fish," I jumped out with my camera ready. I had
miscalculated. "Stop right there!" a long black tube took aim at me. Even
before my startled cousin could step out of the car, our Tamil friends ran
towards the soldier to plead my case. Surprised, and probably confused by
the act of the Tamils, the Sinhalese officer let me fool around. A few
minutes later, on the other side of the lagoon, I tried to shoot the
"shrimpers" again, this time by edging closer to the thatched huts by the
beach. "Pleeease, no!" the faces of our Tamil friends drained white. "The
military does not hang around here. So?" I insisted. "That's exactly why."
They would not let me move an inch towards the village. The complexity of
life in the war zone muffled me. Were they afraid of me falling into the
hands of the guerillas? Or rather feared being seen guiding two Sinhalese
around?

Back again in the government controlled area, our guides took us to the
edge of a high security zone, where no civilians are allowed. "But why?
Here I see nothing but these artificial-looking lagoons." I always look for
reasons. "They really are worth millions, in terms of artificial shrimp.
High level naval officers own these ponds. Once they declare the zone `high
security' they can run the business as they please, at tax-payers' expense!"

We dropped our guides and reached Ampara an hour later, when the security
forces clamped down suddenly, jeeps flying around sirens blaring,
reactivating the barricades. We called our friends in Batticaloa.
"Remember the street corner where we showed you a burned telecom box? Right
there, a suicide bomber blew up a high ranking government supporter a
little while ago!"
_________

#2.

[ On Sunday, 9 April 2000, perhaps one of the worst ever incidents of
police terror against students (since the Emergency) took place in Jamia
Millia Islamia University ( New Delhi). One of the enduring traumas caused
by the attack derives from the communal remarks made by the police against
the students which would surely leave a scar that will last far longer than
their other wounds.
The following websites provide information about the recent incidents at
Jamia.
http://jamia.way.to
http://members.tripod.com/jamiamilliaislamia/

Posted below is an article by one of India's best known historians who has
had a long association with the Jamia Milia Islamia ]
---

Indian Express
17 May 2000
Op-Ed.

A SYMBOL OF SYNCRETISM
by Mushirul Hasan

=46ew institutions have succeeded in retaining for long the impress of the
ideal that gave them birth. They tend to become humdrum affairs, perhaps
a little more efficient, but without the enthusiasm that gives life. The
Jamia Millia Islamia retained some of the old inspiration and enthusiasm
(Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1948).

Visiting the Dar al-ulum at Deoband last year, we found the atmosphere
tense. Students and teachers alike were stricken with fear due to police
harassment. One teacher told us, ``in the past we were aligned with the
Congress and spearheaded the campaign against the Muslim League. Today,
we are targeted as pro-Pakistan agents. This is free India's reward to
our sacrifices during the liberation struggle.'' Likewise, the Nadwat al
ulama in Lucknow, another Muslim centre with impeccable credentials, has
been targeted, more recently by Bajrang Dal activists. Some years ago,
the police raided its premises: the mission was to flush out suspected
Kashmiris holding Pakistani passport. And now it is the turn of the
Jamia, ``a lusty child of the non-cooperation'' (Nehru).

Innocent students have been brutally assaulted by the police and
stigmatised as `ISI agents', `Pakistanis', `anti-nation.' They were
rounded up and put in Tihar jail. How can one remind the cops lodged in
Shrinivaspuri and Lajpat Nagar thanas of Jamia's nationalist record and
its contribution to the freedom struggle? Who is there to tell them that
Gandhi, the father of the nation, was one of its founders? Who will list
its innumerable architects Ajmal Khan, M.A. Ansari, Devdas Gandhi, A. M.
Khwaja, Zakir Husain and A.J. Kidwai? Finally, how can one communicate
the significance of the following verse to them?:

Come along, I will show you what remains in the city's slaughter
houseThese are the shrines of the pious, and here the graves of those
with honesty and conviction.

When founded in October 1920 during the heady days of the Khilafat and
non-cooperation days, the Jamia encapsulated two dominant trends. One
was reflected in the anti-colonial activism of Muslim theologians; the
other stream represented the politically radical segments of the
western-educated intelligentsia. They were the ones who rejected the
Aligarh Muslim University's pro-British proclivities and gravitated
towards Gandhi and the Congress. In 1935, the Turkish author, Halide
Edib, visited the campus in Okhla. Do you know what she found? She
noticed the Jamia to be much nearer to the Gandhian movement than any
other Muslim institution. She was spot on.

Do you know what the vice-chancellor, Mohammad Mujeeb, told the
chairperson of that meeting, Mohammad Iqbal? The Muslims, he stated,
must live and work with non-Muslims to realise common ideals of
citizenship and culture. This has been the quintessential aspect of
Indian nationalism.

Jamia's raison d'tre was to promote cultural integration, foster
composite and syncretic values, and strengthen inter-community ties. As
the first chancellor, Ajmal Khan, expected the students to know each
other's culture: ``the firm foundation of a united Indian nationhood
depends on this mutual understanding''. Dr Ansari, Congress president in
1927 and Jamia's chancellor for many years, often said that the future
of India must be a field of co-operation between the followers of
different faiths. He considered the brotherhood of man as the only real
tie, and partition based on religion was, to his mind, artificial and
arbitrary. This is the essence of what Gandhi, Nehru and S.C. Bose stood
for. The fact is that the Jamia community, spearheaded by Zakir Husain,
Mujeeb and Abid Husain, was convinced of its quintessential role as a
national educational centre that had a critical part to play in the
service of and in the shaping of a free and modern nation. The political
landscape of many universities haschanged in recent years; the
Jawaharlal Nehru University is no longer the left bastion. The Vishwa
Bharati is not what it was during the days of Tagore.

The Jamia, in search of moral and political support after independence,
could have turned into a quasi-religious or quasi-communal institution.
But it remained secular and nationalist to the core. ``I look on this,''
claimed Mujeeb proudly, ``as a secular school.'' Over the decades,
Jamia's essential character and orientation have remained intact despite
the recent fundamentalist murmuring. As a central university, the Jamia
adheres to the guidelines of the UGC in matters of recruitment and
admission. Engineering, law, art, education, mass communication and
scores of other disciplines are taught there. We, too, have our share of
modern and traditional scholars.

Therefore, please don't conjure up the image of an Islamic institution
where purdah is prescribed and theology is thrust down everybody's
throat. Who knows, such images may have led the policedepartment and its
managers in the Home Ministry to treat the Jamia students differently
and to use the big lathi more freely.

Although persecuted and my entry to the university `banned' for almost
four years by religious zealots, I find most colleagues and students
ideologically no different from their counterparts in other centres of
learning. There are right wing as well as liberal and left elements;
there is space for `modernists' as well as traditionalists. This being
the case, the Delhi police and its patrons in the political
establishment will not succeed in their ill-conceived design to destroy
the moral of the Jamia biradari (community). Remember, Jamia countered
the Muslim League campaign and remained firmly anchored in the Indian
educational and intellectual traditions. Remember, too, that Jamia
withstood the fury of the angry mobs in 1947. That is why Gandhi
described it ``like an oasis in the Sahara.'' Given this record, Jamia
will doubtless overcome the present crisis. True, it will probably take
a while for the wounds to be healed. Yet this is not the time to pay
heed to the communal rhetoric. This is surely not theoccasion to allow
unscrupulous politicians to dirty their hands in the muddy waters. Let
the new vice-chancellor, an experienced administrator, settle in and
pursue his intellectual agenda. Let him raise the university's academic
profile, an agenda neglected by some of his predecessors. For this, he
will need everybody's support and cooperation. In the long run, the fate
of an institution will depend on how well its faculty negotiates with
world-wide currents of intellectual development. As somebody who has a
stake in the future of the institution, I hasten to add that the Jamia
must therefore remain part of and not isolated from the intellectual
mainstream.

Copyright =A9 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
_______

#3.

Pakistan India Peoples Forum For Peace and Democracy
K-14, (First Floor), Green Park Extension, New Delhi - 110 016. Tel:
+91-11-616 3830/619 6640. Fax: + 91-11-619 8042
WEST BENGAL CHAPTER, 21-A, HAJI MD. MOHSIN SQUARE, CALCUTTA =13 700
016. TEL: 244 4876

13th May,2000

Shri Jyoti Basu
Chief Minister of West Bengal
Writers Buildings Calcutta 700 001

Honourable Sir,

RE : PROPOSED NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN WEST BENGAL

We feel deeply concerned at the move by the West Bengal Government and
Government of India to build a nuclear power plant in West Bengal in the
Sunderbans or any of the five districts the North and South 24-Parganas,
Purulia, Bankura and Darjeeling to be selected from according to the
central government guidelines. We understand that the state power
department has been designated as the nodal agency for its implementation
and a committee has been set up with the chief secretary as chairman.
The aftermath of Chernobyl accident on 26 April, 1986 is still fresh in
our mind. Premier science journals of the world report that thousands had
died as a result of radioactive contamination. FOURTEEN YEARS AFTER THE
CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER, THE BAD NEWS IS STILL COMING IN. AS A NEW
ESTIMATE SHOWS, IT MAY HAVE CLAIMED THE LIVES OF A STAGGERING ONE MILLION
INFANTS IN INDIA ALONE ! We will not know for many years how many people
will suffer ill-health and will die later from the effects of the
fallout.The Sunderbans are the world's largest mangrove reserves and
Darjeeling is a delicate Himalayan hill district. While a nuclear power
anywhere is potentially disastrous, the magnitude such disaster can reach
in any of these ecologically fragile zones is unthinkable.
We are opposed to nuclear power plants everywhere ( all over the
subcontinent and the world ) since Nuclear Science could not give any clear
cut positive answers to the following questions till date :
* How safe is the nuclear power generation process?* How safe are the
nuclear plants?* When will we have the right solutions of the problem of
safe disposal of nuclear wastes?
We therefore urge upon you to say no to nuclear power and dissuade your
Government from going ahead with the proposed nuclear power project in
West Bengal.
Sincerely yours,
( Amit Chakraborty
Joint Secretary
PIPFPD, West Bengal Chapter.
Copy of this appeal also forwarded to:

Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee
Prime Minister of India South Block
New Delhi 110 004
and
Shri R. Chidambaram Chairman, Department of Atomic Energy Government of Indi=
a
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