[sacw] SACW Dispatch #1 | 4 Aug. 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #1.
4 August 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

#1. Bangladesh: Petition Drive on 71'War Crimes
#2. Sri Lanka: The sanctity of life - remembering Neelan Tiruchelvam
#3. Afghan refugees in Pakistan: Victims of faith lost in no man's land
#4 India: Secular Activists condemn Kashmir Killings
#5. India is no Germany [The Hindu Right's Model remains Nazi Germany]
#6. Book Review: 'India: New Millenium' Edited by Romila Thapar
_____________________

#1.

PETITION DRIVE ON 1971' WAR CRIMES

NOTE: This petition was sent to United States State Department, White
House, Representatives in Capitol Hill, Amnesty International, United
Nations Human Rights Commission and several other organisations.
Interestingly little has been heard from any quarters. Please distribute to
relevant agencies and organisations to raise support for investigation into
the war crimes, genocide, rape, crime against humanity and missing people
during Bangladesh war of independence in 1971. For any information, query
or development, please send mails to Dr M. A. Hasan, Convener War Crimes
Facts Finding Committee <gull@p...>

Dhaka: 23rd July, 2000

By Dr. M. A. Hasan

Dear Sir/Madam,

I introduce myself as Convener of War Crimes Facts Finding Committee,
Bangladesh and hope that you know much about War Crimes, Crimes against
Humanity, and Genocide's conducted by much hated Pakistanis in Bangladesh
during March 1971 to 30 January 1972. In connection to self revelation of
many mass graves in Bangladesh and unearthing of three of them with the
help of Bangladesh Army we formed the above War Crimes Facts Finding
Committee Bangladesh comprising Forensic Specialist, Anatomist,
Histopathologist, Criminologist, Historian, Liberation War Museum Head,
and Intellectuals of our country. We have already proceeded with our
mission to unearth the mass graves, exhume the remains, examine the
skeletons, perform the forensic test, DNA profiling & dating etc.

Newly unearthed Genocide spots in Muslim Bazar & Jalladkhana in Dhaka,
Kamantila, Patenga in Chittagong, revealed how our unarmed civilians women,
children, and our Mukti Bahini (liberation forces) were slaughtered on the
spot. It has revealed that many of them were butchered and hacked into
pieces, many were shot by bullets, killed by bayonets, some were stabbed to
death with utmost brutality.

The whole procedure not only unveiled the remains of the martyrs but also
revealed the evidence of brutality, crime & atrocities of Pakistanis and
their collaborators. If today your good self or your representatives look
into the matter and a committee or court of inquiry probe into the matter
they will see how mercilessly and savagely the so called Muslim Pakistanis
tried to annihilate a Nation just because they were Bangalees. Their
savage efforts and deeds surpassed all the brutalities in the world
including brutalities of Nazis and Chengis Khan. Your honor will be
surprised to note that there are evidences showing some of our people
were chopped into 2 to 6 inches pieces and some were skinned off and all
were done on living people. We have evidences to show that eyes of
captives were shoveled out breaking the floor or the orbit indicating
gouging of eyes of living persons. Even they chopped the head of dead men
with utter racial hatred.

There are records of tortures on women & children which will make the
whole civilized world ashamed. Some of our women were hanged upside down
and raped in some Pakistani camps. The pain, agony and torture made them
sweat and soiled. While they cried for help and drinking water they
poured excreta on their faces. The ghastly sadist torture continued until
their souls departed.

dear sir medam

Our intention is not to woe over past only but to uphold human
resistance against war crimes as it is performed through holocaust in
developed countries.

The war that Pakistan regime instituted in 1971 was no mere a civil war.
It was a deliberate act of genocide and a process of ethnic cleansing and
it was shame for our nation that this genocide went unpunished and
unrevealed to the international community. In fact Pakistanis were very
much similar to Nazis for their ideology. Infamous dictator Ayub Khan
used to think Bangalees are inferior race; unfit to enjoy any freedom,
Pakistanis had every right to rule over the defeated nation - Bangalees,
that was his point of view. (Massacre: Robert Pain Page 30).

Further proof of their activity has been revealed in one book written by
Pakistani army personnel Siddique Salek, According to his narration - after
the operation Search Light on 25th March 1971, one Captain Chowdhury of
Pakistan Army remarked - "Bengalees have been cleansed and selected
properly for at least one generation." Such attitude only parallels with
Nazi's philosophy about their supremacy over the Jewish.

To resist this facist Pakistan - million of Bangladeshi laid down their
lives and millions of innocents were killed in different genocide spots,
documents of which were not properly placed to the international community
to uplift the spirit of human right and justice. However, the sudden self
revelation of mass graves tells us the truth and righteous will, - will
prevail by any means. War Crimes Facts Finding Committee, Bangladesh has
taken a move to perform DNA profiling and dating of the bones and
matching it with tissues of the relations of the martyrs with the help of
advanced laboratory in abroad. The test and the legal procedure shall
enable the nation not only to recognize the missing martyrs but also
enable us to pay due respect to the souls of the deceased by putting
Pakistani war criminals and their collaborators in the proper court of
justice and clearly identify all the involved Pakistani civil and
military personnel as heinous as Nazis in the eyes of the world and
history.

This will set standard of justice & shall end awful paradox lying in it.
Example of justice may improve law and order in the country and shall
ensure hopes and peace in general in the context that no more Polpot or
Idi Amin of the future shall be able to escape without punishment.
Hon'ble Sir/Madam, I am a Specialist physician and Scientist; at the moment
running a private hospital and environmental health research institute in
Bangladesh and engaged in research work in environmental health. I am a
liberation war veteran. We not only dig the past but also, we do work for
the present and hope to make a better future for our people and the world
population.

In this connection considering you as the prime organization engaged in
safeguarding human rights and one of the greatest spokesman for human
rights we request your help and assistance to form a Court of Inquiry which
will bring those Pakistanis and their collaborators to justice who in the
past have escaped without punishment to ensure hopes for war victims of
Bangladesh.

Thanking you very much for you kind cooperation and wishing you good
health, long life, peace and happiness all along, I remain, With best
regards, Dr. M. A. Hasan

Convener
War Crimes Facts Finding Committee
23/1, Khiljee Road, Shyamoli,
Dhaka - 1207, Bangladesh
Tel: 88-02- 8914506, 8118905, 9115953
Fax : 88-02- 8913819
Email : gull@p...

______

#2.

The Island (Colombo)
Wednesday 02 August 2000

Cat's Eye

THE SANCTITY OF LIFE - REMEMBERING NEELAN

This past Saturday, July 29, 2000, marked the one year death anniversary of
Neelan Tiruchelvam. Neelan was killed by a suicide bomber on the corner of
Kynsey Road and Rosmead Place, just metres from his office. The site of the
tragedy has been transformed throughout the year as a public space for
mourning and remembrance.

Immediately after Neelan was killed untold numbers of the public came to
the corner to leave flowers, candles, religious icons, and other
remembrances. Throughout the past year, flowers have been kept at the spot
on the 29th of each month. The corner of Kynsey Road/Rosmead Place/Kynsey
Terrace has become an important site in the quest for peace, non-violence,
healing and reconciliation. It was only appropriate that it once again was
a site that brought friends, family and colleagues of Neelan's together on
Saturday morning to remember Neelan.

Artists for Peace made the occasion particularly moving with the opening of
their new flag exhibition. This exhibition was a joint effort by 22 Sri
Lankan artists. The exhibition was comprised of almost 50 original flags
and were displayed along Kynsey Road. The exhibition highlighted Neelan's
vision of and commitment to a vibrant civil society in which the arts play
a prominent role, not only as a means of expression, but also in the quest
for peace, justice and reconciliation.

The International Centre for Ethnic Studies, the Law and Society Trust and
Tiruchelvam Associates, with support from the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust,
organized a series of events to mark July 29th and to commemorate Neelan.

National Reconciliation-What Kids are Saying

The Law and Society Trust, with the support of the Neelan Tiruchelvam
Trust, organized an island-wide essay competition for the age group 15-19
to commemorate the one-year death anniversary of Neelan. The essay
competition was held in Sinhala, Tamil and English, with prizes given for
the top essay in language. The organizers of the competition were
encouraged by the response. The response was truly islandwide, with some
coming from the conflict areas. In fact the winning essay in the Tamil
language was by Thoufeek Thasneem Bhanu of Kinniya Muslim Girls'
Mahavidyalaya, Kinniya, Trincomalee. The winning essay in Sinhala was
written by Gaya Dinushi Wijesuriya of Saint Joseph's Balika Vidyalaya,
Nugegoda. The winning essay in English was written by Gayathri Daniel of
Ladies College, Colombo. All three top prizes were won by girls. Each
winning essay will be published in the newspapers and additionally, the
organizers hope to make the top essays, which included so many more than
merely the top three, widely available.

While politicians seem to get sidetracked by petty partisan politics,
reactionary communalism and competing agendas, the students have a very
practical and uncomplicated approach to peace and reconciliation. The
students all seemed to agree that peace should begin at school, which the
students believe should be de-communalized. Schools are the best places to
foster reconciliation and ethnic harmony. All children should have the
opportunity to mix with and be friends with children from other
communities. They should have the opportunity to learn the languages of
the other communities, and they should be encouraged, if not compelled as
some suggested, to do so. This, the students agreed, would engender
reconciliation between and across cultures in Sri Lanka.

The awards ceremony was a celebration of diversity and featured artists
from the different communities, including Ms. Nilukshi Jayaveerasingham,
the renowned dancer, Khema, the young and talented Taji Dias and the
popular theatre group "Malithi Batithi Lama Vedasatahan Ekakaya". The
keynote speech was given by the Chief Guest, the Minister of Justice,
Constitutional Affairs and National Integration, Prof. G. L. Pieris who
spoke about Neelan Tiruchelvam's important contributions to the promotion
of peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Prizes were given by the four
Guests of Honour, former cricketer Sidath Wettimuny; Head of UNHCR Janet
Limm; former Secretary-General of Amnesty International and the former
head of UN transitional operations in East Timor, Ian Martin, and Country
Director of the winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, Medicines Sans
Frontieres, Isabelle Simpson. The awards ceremony was attended by students
from all over the country.

The International Centre for Ethnic Studies hosted the Neelan Tiruchelvam
Memorial Lecture, which was delivered by Ian Martin, a long time human
rights practitioner. Martin has a distinguished background working in
post-conflict situations. He has most recently served as the Special
Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the East Timor Popular
Consultation and Head of the UN Mission in East Timor in 1999.

The lecture was entitled "Human Rights, Political Conflict and Compromise".
Mr. Martin made no pretentions about offering easy solutions to Sri Lanka's
ongoing political conflict. Instead, he drew from his many years of
experience in East Timor, Rwanda, Haiti and Bosnia and Herzogovina and
provided examples of strategies of compromise that have been utilized-and
in some cases abused- in seeking peace and reconciliation. Although the
message for Sri Lanka was not overt, it was nonetheless clear-peace
building is long and arduous process. Peace has not come easily to any of
these countries. It will not come easy to Sri Lanka.

According to Mr. Martin, "human rights violations are rarely gratuitous."
They arise out of specific and very real conflicts over resources and
power. These conflicts and contestations, as well as the violations of
human rights, must be addressed through processes of peace building and
reconciliation. In so doing, he highlighted three common dilemmas. The
first dilemma occurs at the point of conflict resolution. In order to end
conflict, it may be necessary and/or desirable to compromise principles of
accountability in order to end conflict. The question, though, becomes to
what extent can principles of accountability be sacrificed? In some cases,
such as in Haiti, amnesties have been instituted that are in clear
violation of international law. In addressing accountability, it is
imperative that principles of international humanitarian and human rights
law be upheld.

The second dilemma arises once the conflict has ended. During this
post-conflict era, the question must be asked, to what extent may it be
necessary and/or desirable to compromise accountability for the sake of
reconciliation. The South African example is perhaps, the most
illustrative. South Africa carefully crafted an arrangement that encourage
reconciliation through the truth telling process without fully
compromising justice. Thus, amnesty was given to human right violators who
voluntarily came forward and fully disclosed the abuses they were involved
in. However, prosecutions are underway for those who refused to reveal the
abuses.

The third dilemma also may arise during the period of transition to peace.
What happens if, in the aftermath of conflict, certain human rights are
found to be in conflict with each other. After the genocide was allowed to
occur in Rwanda, for example, the application of human rights principles
became virtually impossible due to the magnitude of the violations and the
number of violators. In crafting a solution and balancing the need for
amountability with the rights of the accused, it is the "least
unacceptable compromise" that must be sought.

In raising these dilemmas, Mr. Martin sought to highlight the complexities
of conflict resolution and peace building. In seeking solutions legal,
moral and practical considerations must play a role. Although he did not
presume to come with solutions for Sri Lanka's conflict, in posing these
questions Mr. Martin raised important warning signals. Peace is not easy.
Neither is justice. Nor reconciliation. The examples of Haiti, Rwanda,
Chile, and Sierra Leone raise important questions that need to be
addressed in any peace-building exercise, including in Sri Lanka.

Ian Martin is currently a visiting fellow of the International Peace
Academy, New York. He has had a long and prestigious career with the
United Nations. In addition to being Head of the UN Mission in East Timor
in 1999, he was Deputy High Representative for Human Rights in the Office
of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Road Painting Movement

Unbeknown to the original painters, August 29, 1999 would come to mark the
beginning of a quiet little movement for peace and non-violence that has
grown immeasurably since then. On that day, a flower of a different kind
bloomed brightly on Kynsey Road. In the middle of the road a huge five
petalled flower had been painted; each petal containing a different word
Peace. Human Rights. Justice. Love. Hope. These were the simple messages.
On October 29th, 1999- the three month death anniversary-a more elaborate
design and message appeared. The message, "secure the sanctity of life"
reportedly comes from Neelan Tiruchelvam's final speech in parliament.

The message is written in all three languages, surrounded by elaborate
images of peace doves, flowers, and butterflies. The mural has been there
ever since.

In March of this year, one week after the tragedy at Aruveydic Junction
during which more than 20 innocent civilians who were trapped in rush hour
traffic were caught in the cross fire of a reportedly botched LTTE attack,
another mural appeared. The symbols and the message was the same. "Secure
the sanctity of life." "Jeevithaye Shreshtathvaya Rakaganimu." "Vaalvin
Punithathai Urithipaduththuka." In the last few months, paintings have
continued to appear- in Ratmalana, Wattala, Town Hall, and Flower Road.

No one organization has taken credit for the painting. When asked by the
press, the response has been that they are a group of "peace loving
people" and some "peace loving artists". The group is constantly growing
and includes people from the areas where the bombings took place. The
painters admit that their objectives are simple. The painting is to
protest against the violent loss of life. It is to reclaim public
space-space in which people have been killed-in a non-violent way. It is an
effort to encourage a non-vindictive memory that allows for grieving and
expressions of pain and mourning. In so doing, the group hopes, in some
small way, to encourage reconciliation. An effort which would have had
Neelan's approval and encouragement.

______

#3.

The Sunday Times (UK)
August 3 2000
SOUTH ASIA

VICTIMS OF FAITH LOST IN NO MAN'S LAND

FROM STEPHEN FARRELL IN PESHAWAR

Five-year-old Atifa is one of the estimated two million Afghan refugees in
Pakistan
Photograph: STEVE FARRELL <news/pages/resources/aboutus1.n.html>=A9

THE tired little Afghan refugee girl clutching a bag of vegetables in the
Pakistan frontier town of Peshawar is being a nuisance.

Pakistan does not want her there because she is a drain on its economy. The
West does not want her there because she absorbs aid money that could be
spent elsewhere. Many of her neighbours in the shadow of the Khyber Pass do
not want her there because they have lost patience with a refugee community
that has lived among them for two decades.

Atifa's family know no other home than Peshawar and do not want to go back
to Afghanistan, where the Taleban Government forbids girls from attending
school, forces women to wear the all-enveloping burqa and threatens adult
men with conscription.

Atifa, who is 5, and her five brothers and sisters are, like many of the
estimated two million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, second generation
exiles. Her 24-year-old father Ainuddin was younger than she is now when
his parents fled 21 years ago during the Soviet invasion. His family's only
knowledge of their home country is war stories told by their grandfather in
their tiny home near one of Peshawar's canalside vegetable markets.

At least they have a home, while many of their countrymen live in refugee
camps on the outskirts of town that have grown into huge brick and mud
warrens. Boys play cricket using rocks as stumps or run through filthy
ditches waving toy guns as nonchalantly as their elders wield Kalashnikovs,
until recently sold for as little as =A350 in the lawless tribal areas nort=
h
of Peshawar.

Balancing his daughter on the handlebars of his bicycle beside the railway
line leading to the Khyber Pass, Ainuddin says that he wants to return to
his home in Laghman, northwest of Kabul, but he sees no prospect of doing
so. "There is no job for me in Afghanistan, and no money," he said. "Here
we live in a house and I work as a builder and painter."

As he insists that he will go back only when there is a "completely
Islamic government in Afghanistan" he stops, realising that he knows few of
the bearded strangers who have gathered.

Boys wave toy guns in the brick and mud camps
Photograph: STEVE FARRELL

Peshawar is home to scores of aid agencies dedicated to the welfare of
Afghans; refugees have ebbed and flowed into Pakistan and Iran in
successive waves as the Soviets, Mujahidin and Taleban struggled for
control of the country.

At its peak, the refugee community numbered between five and six million;
although many have gone back, the United Nations refugee agency does not
push the remainder to return to a country where there is fighting,
minefields and, recently, the worst drought in 30 years.

Many Afghans have done well in Pakistan, dominating the transport industry
and running wedding dress shops and caf=E9s. Local people, however, blame
them for crime, drugs and prostitution, and aid workers fear that the
vacuum created by a lack of education and jobs could be filled by the
fundamentalist Islamic schools, some of which offer Mujahidin
indoctrination alongside free education.

"There is very pronounced asylum fatigue here," one international worker
said. "Afghanistan has lost two generations. Taleban were the products of
these religious schools and you are going to have to provide at least
minimal education for these people if you want Afghanistan to become
anything more than a religious fortress. These people were hailed as heroes
of the West when they were the bulwark of the fight against communism. Now
they have been left high and dry."

______

#4.

[ The mindless recent killings in Kashmir of civilians who are being used
as pawns in this tit for tat between India and Pakistan have provoked
widespread reaction. The Hindu right wing activists have gone beserk in
reaction to these killings calling for work stopages, and calling for
revenge. Many secular Kashmiri actvists (e.g. those from JKNLF & some other
groups) have described the killings as unacceptable. Indian, Pakistani
Rights activists and democrats have also sharply condemned this killings.
Posted below is a Press statement from the Editors of Communalism Combat,
Bombay]

August 2, 2000

Press Statement

OUTRAGE IN THE NAME OF ISLAM

We strongly condemn the inhuman and shocking killing in Jammu & Kashmir
valley of innocent Hindu pilgrims on their way to the Amarnath Caves and
also of Hindus living in Doda district. Though claiming to be militants
fighting in the name of Islam and the Muslims of Kashmir, the perpetrators
of the ghastly crime are, in fact, nothing more than merciless butchers wit=
h
in insidious agenda -- to keep relations between India and Pakistan on a
constant boil and to spread communal hatred between Hindus and Muslims in
India.

We hope that the security forces in J & K will spare no effort in tracking
down the murderers masquerading as militants for a just cause. We call upon
all groups from within Kashmir who are agitating for autonomy or 'azaadi' t=
o
condemn the killing of innocents in unambiguous terms. And we demand that
the government of Pakistan launches an immediate crack down on all those
madrasas in Pakistan which are being misused as breeding grounds for
terrorism.

Javed Anand, Teesta Setalvad
Editors, Communalism Combat

______

#5.

Indian Express
4 August 2000
Opinion

India is no Germany

by V.N. Gadgil

Things German have always held a strange but strong fascination for the
Sangh Parivar. The RSS was patterned on the Nazi party. Its admiration
for Germany and the Fuehrer was not diminished by the atrocities
committed on Jews by Nazi stormtroopers. Indeed, Golwalkar wrote
approvingly of them, saying that India must learn from Germany that two
cultures cannot coexist in one nation. It should not have, therefore,
come as a surprise that the BJP which talks of Swadeshi all the time,
has thought of no model from the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata or
the Arthashastra, but puts its faith in the German model of
`constructive no-confidence motion'.

An essential feature of the British model we have adopted is that the
government is collectively answerable to the Lok Sabha. During the last
50 years, 25 no-confidence motions and nine confidence motions were
admitted for discussion. Twenty four no-confidence motions debated were
negatived and one led to the resignation of Morarji Desai. Five of the
confidence motions were adopted and four resulted in the fall of the
governments of Charan Singh, V.P. Singh, A.B. Vajpayee and H.D. Deve
Gowda.

Obviously, the main purpose of a no-confidence motion is not so much to
topple the government as to give the Opposition a chance to say what it
finds wrong with the official policies. The voters can, thus, see what
the alternative to the government is.

The machinery for a `constructive vote of no-confidence' is contained in
Article 67 of the German Constitution which reads: ``The Bundestag
(Parliament) may express lack of confidence in the Federal Chancellor
(Prime Minister) only by electing a successor with the majority of its
members and requesting the Federal President to dismiss the incumbent.
The Federal President must comply with the request and appoint the
person elected.''This article must be read along with Article 66 which
provides: ``Where a motion against the Federal Chancellor for a lack of
confidence is not carried by a majority of the members of the Bundestag,
the federal President may upon the proposal of Federal Chancellor
dissolve the Bundestag.''

The vote of no-confidence has been attempted twice and only once in the
last 50 has it succeeded. In April 1972, use was made of this proviso to
present a new government. However, the Opposition lacked two votes to
get its motion through. The proviso does not prevent defection because
abstention in such circumstances is nothing but defection.

The government that continued was a government paralysed because the
parliament had practically expressed no confidence in it. We had such a
non-government after the fall of Charan Singh and Vajpayee. A developing
country like India cannot afford paralysed governments. Article 66,
which provides for dissolution of the parliament if an alternative
chancellor has not been elected, has been misused. When the chancellor
desires dissolution of the parliament, he cannot get it done through the
president on his recommendation. All he has to do is to move a vote of
confidence and see that it is defeated.

The president would then have no option but to dissolve the parliament.
Thus political trickery is solemnly sanctioned by the constitution
itself. The only time the device succeeded was in 1976, not so much
because of Article 67 but because public opinion had gone against the
government on the issue of Ostpolitik, the policy of normalisation of
relations with the erstwhile Soviet Union and its allies.

There is a world of difference between German politics and Indian
politics. In Germany, the chancellor is elected by the parliament but
the other ministers are not. German public opinion does not like
single-party governments. Even when a single party obtained an absolute
majority in 1957, a coalition government was formed. Coalitions in
Germany are based on agreements between parties. These are in writing
and are published.

An important factor leading to political instability in a multi-party
system is the existence of a large number of small parties leading to
factionalism. The German system is plural but not multi-party because
the law provides that no political party is recognised in the parliament
with less than five per cent of the popular vote. India lacks all these
factors, particularly the political culture of coalitions.

The Sangh Parivar is obsessed with the problem of India's unity, and
rightly so. L.K. Advani assures us that no changes are necessary in our
Constitution for this. In his remarkable pamphlet, The Constitution of
India and National Unity, published by the BJP in 1997, he states that
if, after five decades, we find this unity gravely threatened by
separation, subversion and violence, the fault lies not with the
Constitution, but with the way those at the helm of affairs have been
operating the Constitution.

If these are the views of the Home Minister, why appoint a Constitution
Review Commission? The only possible answer is that the Parivar wants it
and neither Vajpayee nor Advani any longer represents the views of the
Parivar's younger generation. The hidden agenda is, therefore, to be
found in a pamphlet published by the ABVP, Constitution of Bharat.

The amendments proposed, some of which are very strange, include:
practical abolition of adult suffrage; deletion of the words `socialism'
and `secularism'; religious freedom to explicitly exclude freedom to
propagate religion; Parliament's empowerment to modify fundamental
rights; abolition of the Rajya Sabha and its replacement with a Guru
Sabha and creation of a new institution called the Raksha Sabha;
election of the vice-president by the Guru Sabha; appointment of the
Supreme Court and High Court judges by the vice-president; introduction
of all Bills including money Bills in the Guru Sabha; election of the
prime minister by the Lok Sabha; election of the 300 members of the Guru
Sabha by teachers right from the primary school to the university level;
the Raksha Sabha to consist of the chiefs of the Army, the Navy and the
Air Force and one person to be recommended by each of them; and the
president's empowerment to deal with defence matters in consultation
with the Raksha Sabha. The BJP-led governmentcannot get any of such a
hidden agenda passed. The Parivar needs time to gain the necessary
strength.

Its aim is not political stability but at least a 10-year stay in power.
Hence the proposals for a fixed Lok Sabha term, the `constructive vote
of no-confidence' and all manner of concessions to the BJP's allies.

-- The writer is a former union minister

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

#6.

Tehelka .com
Literary Review

INDIA: ANOTHER MILLENNIUM?
Edited by Romila Thapar
Viking | Price: Rs 395

by Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr.

Editors and authors of books marking the millennium are
caught in a dilemma. They are not sure whether they should look back a
1,000 years, or a 1,000 years ahead. Certainly it is much easier to write a
history of the last millennium. And it is not a bad idea to write the
history of India from 1000 AD to 1999 AD.

Of course, there is a clear danger there. The rightwing nationalists of the
Hinudtva variety will readily want to use the two dates to give a fanatical
twist: 1000 AD- the raids of Mahmud of Ghazni; 1999-the Kargil war. It
would be a populist distortion indeed.

But 1000 AD is significant for another reason. It wasin that year that
Alberuni wrote his famous Tarikh-I-Hind, and showed how inward-looking,
complacent and haughty the Brahmins were. It is interesting that many of
the observations he had made about Indians then still hold good after a
thousand years.

It would be better if the liberals take the bull by the horns rather than
duck the issue altogether. If one looks back into Indian history, every
millennium marked the entry of a new people into the country, which is what
makes India a unique place.

It is curious that around 100 BC, a Central Asian tribe called the
Yueh-Chi entered India, and set up the Kushana dynasty. Kanishka was the
greatest ruler of this dynasty and of this period. The forgotten
Indologist, Max Mueller, rightly refers to this incursion as the Turkish
one because of its Central Asian origins.

Around 400 AD, we get the Scythian invasion which shook the great Gupta
Empire. It is often forgotten that it is these Central Asian Huns and
Scythians who have been baptized as Rajputs around 800 AD. So the
Afghans and Turks who entered India in the last millennium were no
different from Yeuh-Chi, the Huns and the Scythians of the previous
thousand years. As a matter of fact, the Mughals and Rajputs were able to
strike a rapport because of their common ancestral roots in Central Asia.
The only people who failed to make an entry into India were the Mongols,
who were defeated by Alauddin Khilji in the 13th century. Alauddin Khilji
massacred the Mongols-about 20,000 of them-in Delhi at that time.

The question mark in the title of the book seems to denote surprise
that India has survived another millennium. It could also be
interpreted to refer to the daunting tasks lying ahead in the new
millennium. It has an ambiguous ring to it.

This was also the millennium that witnesses the rise of many of the
regional languages-Marathi, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali,
Assamese, Oriya, and Urdu. Only Tamil, among all the regional languages,
can claim to have a literature as ancient as that of Sanskrit.

In the first millennium AD, there emerged what was called by the old
historians as Greater India. It was basically the spread of Indian
influences through Buddhism and art through Central Asia to China, and from
there to Japan. At the same time, another Indian wave spread across
South-East Asia. But it is only at the beginning of the last millennium,
that the Shailendra dynasty (12th cenutryAD) in Indonesia flourishes for a
while before it disappears, as does the kingdom in Cambodia. The empires
have vanished. But the Indian cultural signs still permeate the artistic
and religious traditions of this region. There is no room for imperial
pride in looking back on this record, nor is there any need to disown it as
a shameful colonial entreprise. It was an interesting chapter, which has
not been fully documented.

But noted historian Romila Thapar, who has edited India Another
Millennium? and the publishers, Viking, seem to have decided to assess the
prospects of India at the turn of the millennium, rather than look back at
the last thousand years. But no such assessment can be done, unless we take
stock of the present, and of the recent past. Whether we like it or not, no
present moment is purely present. It carries with it traces of the past, at
least of the recent past. So what we have in the essays in this book is an
analysis of India as it is today, with all its problems, challenges and
achievements.

The question mark in the title of the book is quite interesting. It seems
to denote surprise that India has survived another millennium. It could
also be interpreted to refer to the daunting tasks lying ahead in the new
millennium. It has an ambiguous ring to it.

Thapar, in her introductory essay, seems pretty uncomfortable with the idea
of marking what is essentially a Christian millennium. In order to distance
herself from the particular connotation, she lets us know about the many
calendar eras that mark the Indian history, including the Hindu great cycle
of the mahayuga, comprising the Krita, Treta, Dvapara and Kali yugas. But
she does recognise the significance of the millennial concept: "The wish
for an ideal society has been a millennial dream for the last few centuries
in a variety of chiliastic movements. And dreams are in a sense our triumph
over time."

She finds a more comfortable note in the notion of an ideal society that
has moved away from the religious worldviews, and she places the discussion
of the ideas in the essays in the context of looking to an ideal society,
which the present generation can choose.

Thapar is worried by the rise of right-wing nationalism, and the domination
of its majoritarian assumptions in public discourse. It is clear that she
is for a humane, pluralistic society, and she is for the eradication of
social and economic inequalities. She makes it clear that mere
technological change does not guarantee a utopian society.

Her intellectual anxiety about the present state of affairs is quite
palpable, but she does not take up the historian's challenge of analysing
the causal chain that led to the present impasse.

copyright =A9 2000 tehelka.com
______________________________________________
South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch (SACW) is an
informal, independent & non-profit citizens wire service
run by South Asia Citizens Web (http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex)
since 1996. Dispatch archive from 1998 can be accessed
by joining the ACT list run by SACW. To subscribe send
a message to <act-subscribe@egroups.com>
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII=
IIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
[Disclaimer :
Opinions carried in the dispatches are not representative
of views of SACW compilers]