[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 23 Sept. 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
23 September 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

#1. Pakistan: Intellectuals & activists demand investigation on the
killings during army operations in 1971 at the seminar 'Hamoodur Rehman
Commission report - right of information to the people'
#2. Who will Reform Pakistan? (Mubarak Ali)
#3. Article in 'The Nation' on Vajpayee's trip to the US (Praful Bidwai)
#4. India: On the Manufacture of "appropriate" Hindu practices in Kerala
(Paul Zackaria)
#5. India: Hindu Supremacists & their upcomimg temple Ayodhya=20
#6. Indian Artists, Bureaucracy Lock Horns Over Controversial Painting
#7. India Pakistan Arms Race & Militarisation Watch #22
=20
-----------------------------------

#1.

The News International
23 September 2000

HIGH-POWERED PROBE INTO EAST PAKISTAN DEBACLE DEMANDED

By our correspondent

KARACHI: Intellectuals, writers, columnists and journalists h=
ave
demanded of the government to appoint a high-powered tribunal
for
investigation into the killings during army operations in the
country,
particularly the East Pakistan debacle.

They also demanded of the government to make public the Hamoo=
dur
Rehman Commission report, Ojhri Camp blast, and all other
commissions'
reports. They made this demand at a seminar, titled,
'Hamoodur Rehman
Commission report - right of information to the people',
organised by the
Social Democratic Movement (SDM) at a local hall on Friday.

As a gesture of reconciliation, the participants of the
seminar expressed
rose, and apologised to the Bengalis over killings,
disrespect of women
and inhuman attitude of the then rulers. The participants als=
o
condemned those writers, intellectuals, poets and journalists
who were
supporting the army action in East Pakistan in 1971 and those
who
remained silent over the army action.

The seminar demanded of the government to arrest the responsi=
ble
officials identified in the Hamoodur Rehman Commission report
and punish
them. The participants also condemned the army operation in
Balochistan, Sindh, and Karachi.

Speakers said that the ethnic and cultural superiority
complex and the
narrow-minded elite of the West Pakistan was responsible for
the East
Pakistan debacle as they considered the Eastern half of the
country a
colony of West Pakistan.

They also held responsible all adult citizens of the West
Pakistan who
kept silent over the operation in East Pakistan. Speakers
urged the
government to apologise to the Bengalis, otherwise they would
have to
face embarrassment if the Bengalis filed the case in the
International
Court of Justice against Pakistan.=20

The speakers pointed out that it was a moral and human
responsibility of
Pakistan to repatriate the stranded Pakistanis. It was also t=
he
responsibility of the state to help those women who had
deflowered
during the operation and those thousands of children whose
fathers
returned to Pakistan after completing Operation Clean-Up in
the former
East Pakistan.

The speakers pointed out that the same situation was now
prevailing in
Pakistan due to the repeated interruption of the
civil-democratic set-up.
They further said that the rulers still used the same methods
used in
East Pakistan against the people and were treating all those
who talked
of democracy and civil rights as anti-state elements. Those
who spoke
included Kaiser Bengali, Karamat Ali, Zahida Hina, Rashid
Rehman and
Baseer Naved.

_____

#2.

[recieved from the author on 22nd September 2000]

WHO WILL REFORM PAKISTAN?

by Mubarak Ali

In 1620s and 1630s there was a discussion in England among the Puritan
dissenters that as a result of their persecution by the king and the church
of England should they emigrate the New world or to stay and struggle to
reform the immoral and corrupt society. Majority decided to stay and, in
spite of all hardships and problems, resisted and struggled to change the
society. As a result of their efforts, the society became tolerant towards
other religious minorities and transformed as an enlightened and liberal
one. The minority that immigrated to America and settled over there and
kept their memories with the motherland for a time and then forgot it. They
became a part of the new society. It is evident from history that the
decision of majority to stay, sacrifice, change and reform the society was
correct. It saved the society from total choas and ultimate decline.

In another case, when East India Company became a political power in India,
there was a discussion in the Company's circles and among the thinkers and
politicians of England that how to rule India? James Mill, a Utilitarian
thinker, outlined his views about the concept of governance in his book
The History of British India . He writes:
"=85in a state of extreme poverty, the motives which usually restrain from
transgression; respect for the laws, dread of the laws, desire of the
esteem and affection, dread of the contempt and abhorrence of mankind,
sympathy with the pains and pleasures of our fellow creatures, lose their
influence upon the human mind, while many of the appetites which prompt to
wickedness acquired additional strength. If, therefore, the government of
India would lessen the tendency to crime, which is manifested among its
subjects to so extraordinary a degree, it must lessen the poverty which
prevails among them to so extraordinary degree=85Take little from them in t=
he
way of taxes; prevent them from injuring one another; and make no absurd
laws, to restrain them in the harmless disposal of their property and
labour. Light taxes and good laws; nothing more is wanting for national and
individual prosperity all over the globe."
=20
In the first case, Pakistan is facing the phenomenon of emigration on a
wider scale. Not only unskilled and illiterate workers are finding ways and
means to leave the country in a hope to have a good life, but educated and
professional young people finding no scope and space in the country,
leaving it and settling in the developed countries to secure their future.
Unfortunately, there is no discussion in our society on the question of
emigration as a solution of all problems or staying and reforming the
society from within. There is such pessimism that majority of them think
that it is a waste of time to make any attempt to reform it. In the opinion
of the majority of people it is a hopeless case. As professional and
educated class decides to leave the country, it creates a vacuum that
cannot be filled. Resultantly, the society is becoming more backward and
underdeveloped. That is why from time to time our government, finding no
professional or experts, asks expatriates to come for a time being and
rescue the country from crises.
=20
The expatriates, who have settled abroad, still have some memories and
linkage to the motherland. Sometimes they have identity crisis or hunger
for their own culture. To satiate the cultural hunger, they, frequently,
invite poets, musicians, and entertainers to relieve them form alienation
of their adopted countries. The other group, which visits, is professional
ulama who are invited to revive and strengthen their religious identity.
Those expatriates who are eager to change and reform Pakistan from outside,
to them, the agents of change are ulama and religious parties of
Pakistan.That is why they generously donate them huge funds and strengthen
the orthodox and fanatic elements in the country. Even living in a modern
democratic, secular, and liberal society, they fail to change their outlook
about the failure of politicizing religion. Helping, patronizing, and
financing the religious elements, they are playing very active role to keep
Pakistan backward. Sadly, neither within the country nor abroad, the
professional, intellectuals, and educated classes are contributing to
change the out dated and corrupt system. To them, the only solution is
either to become a part of the system or take benefit of it or emigrate and
support the fundamentalism and extremism as a solution of political,
social, and economic ills. This leaves no room for change or reform the
society from within or from outside.

In case of governance, those who are wielding power and authority in the
country have no vision how to alleviate sufferings and hardships of people.
Their only interest is to levy more taxes and collect more money. Not
realizing that unjust levying taxes either results in revolution or choas.
For example, in England the main conflict between King and the Parliament
was that who had the right to levy tax. In the end King lost this privilege
and the Parliament became a powerful institution. When the English
Parliament imposed taxes in the American colonies, they raised the slogan
"No taxation without representation". They fought and won their
independence. In France, the Revolution of 1789 occurred because of the
disparity between privileged and unprivileged classes. The nobility was
exempted from taxation while people had to pay all kinds of taxes. Liberty,
equality, and fraternity were the slogan of the French revolutionaries. It
was a bloody revolution, but it changed the course of history.

What James Mill wrote in the 19th century, provides a solution: not
alleviation but abolition of poverty and lessening the burden of taxation.
When the state appears as an enemy of the people, exploit and fleece them
from their hard -earned money and deprive them of their livelihood, in this
case people either become helpless and apathetic or revolt against the
system. Our rulers, perhaps, are lucky that the people of Pakistan are
feeling themselves helpless and for a time having no urge to revolt. How
long it will go; it is difficult to say.=20=20

______

#3.

"The Nation" (New York)=20
Oct 2 issue

www.thenation.com

THROUGH =91HINDU=92 EYES

New Delhi
When India=92s Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee addresses a joint sessio=
n
of Congress on September 14 and meets President Clinton at length the next
day, it=92s a safe bet that few US leaders or reporters will be aware of t=
he
views Vajpayee represents. In some ways, his hard-right Hindu-sectarian
Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People=92s Party) is not very different from
Georg Haider=92s deceptively named Freedom Party in Austria, which also rul=
es
in a multiparty coalition. Both derive their inspiration from racial/ethnic
nativism and from European fascism of the twenties and thirties. Their
ideological gurus share the same predilection for a fiercely exclusionist
nationalism. On September 9, addressing Hindu-supremacist groups in Staten
Island, Vajpayee strongly reaffirmed his allegiance to the BJP=92s =93mothe=
r=94
organization and ideological master, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National
Volunteer Corps)=97an all-male secret society=ADtype brotherhood that, with
other groups, provided the ideological inspiration for Mahatma Gandhi=92s
assassination.

The BJP and Freedom Party are different, of course. The Freedom Party is
largely concerned with downplaying Hitler=92s evil, and restricting Third
World immigration into today=92s Austria. The BJP promotes what it calls
Hindutva (Hinduness) or =93cultural nationalism,=94 i.e., establishing the
primacy of India=92s Hindus within an emerging militarily powerful and
hegemonistic state, while culturally and politically disfranchising its
numerous religious minorities, as well as its poor majority. The two evoke
different responses too. The EU responded to the Freedom Party=92s ascendan=
cy
to power by imposing sanctions eight months ago, although it seems poised
now to lift them, against a degree of left-wing opposition. India under the
BJP is declared a great democracy with a magnificent future in the
Clinton-Vajpayee joint =93Vision Statement=94 issued this past March during
Clinton=92s first-ever visit to India. This statement describes India and t=
he
United States as world leaders and shapers of global destiny=97in =93a natu=
ral
partnership of shared endeavors.=94

The Clinton Administration has coddled Vajpayee=92s right-wing regime despi=
te
its May 1998 nuclear tests, its worsening human rights record and the
continuing Hindutva attacks on religious minorities, especially the 12
percent who are Muslims and, increasingly, the 2.3 percent who are
Christians. (There have been fifty-eight attacks, including lynchings,
against Christians since the year began and a total of more than 400 since
January 1998). Washington has lifted more than 90 percent of the sanctions
it imposed in the wake of the tests, even though DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE
Strobe Talbot failed to secure a commitment on nuclear restraint in
thirteen rounds of talks with Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh. Although
India=92s progressives reject Washington=92s claim to morally police the wo=
rld
or impose sanctions, they believe that its softness toward India derives
from altogether amoral considerations.

The biggest is that Vajpayee has opened up India to predatory globalization
with unprecedented zeal, favoring US agribusiness, energy and financial
interests. Just before Clinton=92s visit, India unilaterally lifted import
restrictions on 1,400 commodities, including grain and milk products before
being required to do so by World Trade Organization agreements. US
multinationals, in insurance, telecommunications or automobiles, now
suddenly find a restricted market of a billion people =93freed.=94 US busin=
ess
has also discovered the =93other=94 India=97luring its computer software
whiz-kids to Silicon Valley. Their success has had little impact at home,
with fewer than two Internet connections per 1,000 people. Encouraged by
this interest, Vajpayee is pushing for neoliberal policies calculated to
benefit India=92s 40 million-strong =93middle class=94 elite, but harsh on =
its
500 million-plus wretchedly poor.

Washington also finds a willing strategic partner in once-non-aligned
India. With India=92s cultural and economic rightward shift, New Delhi is
eager to join the Western camp. Various other factors=97including a
Sinophobic calculation of a useful long-term alliance against China and
Pakistan=92s economic collapse amid exaggerated fears of Islamic
fundamentalism=97have fueled the closest-ever India-US relationship. But th=
e
relationship is skewed and awkward. At its core is Washington=92s acceptanc=
e
of India as a de facto nuclear power. Indeed, the United States is
initiating India into the Nuclear Club as a junior member in return for a
promise to behave =93responsibly=94 as an ally.

India=92s and Pakistan=92s nuclearization has exacerbated mutual tensions a=
nd
suspicions while stoking adventurism and dangerous complacency. The two
exchanged grave nuclear threats no fewer than thirteen times during their
seven-week war last year. The United States, India and Pakistan are locked
in an asymmetrical, delicate triangle. By tilting toward India, however
tentatively, Washington has made a bad bargain, inadvertently strengthening
Pakistan=92s Islamicist right and legitimizing India=92s Hindu-supremacists
while encouraging the pursuit of nuclear weapons in both countries. This
won=92t change unless Washington adopts a balanced economic and strategic
approach to South Asia and sets an example by giving up its own nuclear
addiction.

Praful Bidwai=20

Praful Bidwai is a New Delhi-based political analyst and columnist. His
latest book, written with Achin Vanaik, is New Nukes: India, Pakistan
and Global Nuclear Disarmament (Interlink www.interlinkbooks.com).

______

#4.

Tehelka.com

NOTES FROM DEEP SOUTH
by Paul Zacharia

Acerbic, whimsical, meditative =96 noted Malayalee writer Paul Zacharia
serves up
the south in a weekly despatch

ONAM - PARADISE EVOKED

To open one's mouth in Kerala in
August/September, and not mention Onam is hard-core sacrilege as far as
Malayalis are concerned. Because, lots of Malayalis are still sentimental
about Onam, and lots more make a lot of money from the so-called festive
season. Onam has become an excellent marketing 'opportunity', a time when
Malayalis spend feverishly on fickle things. Like, this Onam, someone set
up a huge pavillion in Thiruvananthapuram selling some 30 types of dosa -
all of them mediocre and highly uninspiring. But the feeling of Onam makes
everyone go across and have a bite and regret it.

What is it that makes the hardened Malayali soft enough to invest on bad
dosa at Onam? Maybe that Onam is a simple remembrance of a mythical time
when Kerala was a paradise, under a great king called Mahabali. As the old
and famous Onam song states:

"When Mahabali ruled, All people were equal. There were no thieves, No
fraudulent weights And measures=85" etc. etc.

Onam, according to Malayalis, is the annual occasion when old man Mahabali
makes a sentimental journey back to his lost kingdom to see how it fares

The story is that Mahabali was so just, truthful and righteous a ruler, and
the wretched place Kerala had become so wonderful a land under his rule,
that his fame spread to heaven and even the gods felt jealous -- and
threatened. Therefore, none other than Shri Mahavishnu took avatar as a
short-statured Brahmin called Vamanan, and went to Mahabali with the clear
intention of taking him for a ride. Mahabali, poor god-fearing man, was a
sitting duck all too willing to take the ride, if one may mix metaphors.
Vamanan asked Mahabali for alms - he just wanted three footprints-wide
land, which, as any one can see, is nothing for a king. Mahabali, being
very un-Malayali in everything, doesn't suspect foul play and agrees, and
asks Vamanan to measure out the land right away. It appears Vamanan's first
step covered the whole world, the second covered the heavens. Ready to put
his foot down for the last time, he asked Mahabali where to place it.
Mahabali bent low and said,'Please put it on my head. That's all there is
left.' Vishnu did exactly that and what's more pressed Mahabali down till
the earth parted and he went down to 'paathalam', the netherworld. Thus
came to an end the first and last golden age of the Malayali tribe. It must
be after this bad experience that Malayalis became cunning and calculating
- so some people say.

Anyway, the gods lived happily ever after. Onam, according to Malayalis, is
the annual occasion when old man Mahabali makes a sentimental journey back
to his lost kingdom to see how it fares. As is well-known, it fares so
poorly, that the general belief is that Mahabali returns in disgust, vowing
never to come back. But like all those millions of Malayalis who have
pitched their tent all over the world, he too, it seems, gets the
irrefutable itch to experience Kerala occasionally with all its badness. If
there is one sure value in Keralaite genes, it's nostalgia, carried to
absurd limits. In Malayalam patio they call it 'senti', short for shameless
sentimentalism.

What makes Mahabali an original Malayali is that he is the original NRK -
Non-resident Keralite - of which category there are a few million scattered
all over the world, including an improbable place like Tromso in Norway,
the last city inside the arctic circle before you hit the North Pole, where
this writer was shocked to run into two of them.

The Sangh Parivar is trying hard to make Onam a 'Hindu' festival, though it
had been a festival of all faiths for centuries. But then, that's what
'families' are all about. Did I read somewhere that the meaning of the word
'mafia' too is 'family'?

RELIGIOUS CLEANSING AT GURUVAYOOR

The temple of Krishna at Guruvayoor is
perhaps the most popular temple in Kerala, Sabarimala notwithstanding. Sri
Ayyappan of Sabarimala has a much bigger all-India constituency, but
Krishna at Guruvayoor is an intimate god of the Malayalis, celebrated in
literature and lore.

Guruvayoor is also obstreperously and obstinately orthodox and backward in
its ritualistic religiosity. It still holds the firm view that if a
non-Hindu has darshan of that great Playboy of the Yadava World, Krishna,
the temple will be polluted, and Krishna will need to take several baths.
Of course, no Kerala temple permits entry for non-Hindus, despite the
modernity, education, revolution, etc. Malayalis babble about. But given
Guruvayoor's special place in Malayali hearts irrespective of caste or
creed, it would have been in the realm of probability that it should show
greater humanism as Sabarimala does in a glowing manner.

Hence, the raging controversy in Kerala today about the Guruvayoor thanthri
(poojari} conducting a 'punyaham' or cleansing pooja after prominent
Congress leader Vayalar Ravi's son's marriage was conducted there. Ravi is
an Ezhava, in official terms an OBC Hindu, belonging to the great tradition
of the reformer Sri Narayana Guru. His wife Mercy, also a Congress worker,
apart from being a writer of smart columns, was born a Christian. Their
children have been brought up as Hindus. But, for Guruvayoor Devaswam, that
was not being pure enough. Also, Mercy Ravi, born to Christian parents, had
got into the temple for the ceremony. Guruvayoor, so used to caving in to
VIP bhaktas who lord it over the lord and the managers of the lord, did not
dare say no to the wedding and to the presence of Mercy Ravi, but did the
next best thing: clean up after the act.

Ravi has questioned the punyaham and its theological logic. He has said it
is a prurient display of the untouchability principle, and an insult to him
and the society as a whole. The temple authorities are unruffled, and say
that punyahams keep being conducted and no one need get worked up. One can
see the logic of that, since the Guruvayoor Devaswam is so corrupt that
unless you cleanse the lord every day with special spiritual detergents, he
may cease to be himself, overwhelmed by the pollution of greed.

But this note is to describe a lovely experience this writer had at a small
temple in the agraharam ( residential area of Tamil Brahmins} sector of
Thiruvananthapuram. Under the advice of my astrological friend I went there
to make 'danam' - charitable give-away - to five Brahmins before my
oncoming trip to Africa, which is expected to last about five months. We
had decided that, Africa currently being a place of armed men who have gone
wild, and madcap dictators, no amount of divine protection can be
considered too much. Thus, along with my friend Ravi, who as a Hindu had
accompanied me to offer moral support in case of eviction, I reached the
small, gracious, quiet temple, completely unpretentious in its bearing. We
were taken directly in, the only rigor we had to undergo being the removal
of our shirts.

My Christian name was treated like any other name; and while the 'danam'
preparations were going on, we went and bowed our heads before the four
presiding deities. And lo! Five cheerful Brahmins were waiting to receive
the 'alms' from me ( the contents of which it is prohibited to reveal).
Then the poojari told me who they were. They were all retired senior
officials, one being the former principal of a major college. What I was
offering them had no material value for these gentlemen who had come
driving their own cars from their own comfortable homes. They were there to
fulfil what they believed was a duty. By receiving alms from me, an
unbeliever, they were enabling me to make my pact with God, and they would
do it for any one. I was deeply moved.

Of course, none of them was a Malayali Brahmin. They were Tamil Brahmins
whose ancestors had been brought to Thiruvananthapuram centuries back by
the Maharajas. Withstanding the corruption of Kerala' Brahminical
orthodoxy, they had continued to entertain the universal spirituality of
the Tamil Hindu: a temple is for all to visit God, not for pre-stamped and
certified believers only.

I thank the old kings for being so thoughtful. In the middle of all the
decadent conservatism of the upper crust of Kerala upper castes, the
unassuming Tamil Brahmin has created little islands of sanity. And, in the
king's own temple, Sri Padmanabha, no non-Hindu can enter to this day -
except, of course, white tourists, for whom the king's poojaris have kept
dhotis and sarees ready for instant camouflage, and their holy palms ready
to be greased.

_____

#5.

India Abroad
22 Sept. 2000

VHP TO INSTALL TEMPLE MODEL IN AYODHYA=20

by Shubhangi Khapre

New Delhi: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
will begin its campaign to install a model of the proposed Ram temple at
the disputed Babri mosque site at Ayodhya even as top leaders of the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) meet here next week to discuss how to widen
the party's base to include Muslims.

The 11-foot-high model would be brought over from Jaipur, where it is
currently being put together. It would be installed to give Hindu devotees
an idea of how the actual temple, 10 times bigger than the model, would
look, VHP vice president Giriraj Kishore told India Abroad News Service.

Later in the month, on October 18-19, senior VHP leaders would meet in Goa
to fix a date to begin actual construction of the temple, he added.

But even as the VHP says it would construct the Ayodhya temple irrespective
of the fact that the ownership of the site is still disputed and is under
judicial review, the BJP is keen to emphasize there is no merit in
sustaining the issue any more.

"Ayodhya is no longer an issue because a temple already exists there," BJP
vice president Pyarelal Khandelwal told IANS, referring to the make-shift,
temporary shrine that came up overnight on December 6, 1992, after Hindu
zealots razed the 16th century Babri mosque earlier that day.

Kishore, however, said, "It may not be an issue for them but it is our main
agenda. We are committed to its construction as we have made a promise to
the people."

Both the BJP and the VHP had teamed up and jointly led the highly charged
Ram temple campaign in the late 1980s. But though the VHP has been
steadfast that the temple must come up in its place, the BJP has moved
ahead in politics, leading a coalition government with partners who do not
share the view.

When asked whether it would be proper for the VHP to begin work since the
matter was still under judicial review, Kishore said, "The court's consent
was not sought by those who demolished the original Ram temple." He was
referring to the belief that the 16th century Mughal emperor Babur
demolished a temple and built a mosque in its place.

No court could give a verdict which "goes against the people" as the Ram
temple's was a "peoples' movement", Kishore said. "In any case," he added,
"half the rights are established as we are in possession of the site."

The VHP leader stressed once again that the VHP's commitment to building a
Ram temple in place of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya was not linked to the
fate of the BJP- led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Asked if the VHP stand was an irritant for Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee's coalition government that had already said the Ram temple was
not on the government's agenda, Kishore said, "It is for Vajpayee to
resolve the matter."

Admitting that the VHP was unhappy with Vajpayee's government, Kishore
said, "They could do much better in every area... Vajpayee is leading a
captive life, caught among his co-partners in the NDA."

Kishore also ruled out any apprehension in the VHP that the move to install
the Ram temple's model could lead to a backlash from Muslim organizations
that want the mosque to be rebuilt. "If there is any problem, the
government should take appropriate action," he said.

Kishore was emphatic that the VHP would not bow to any pressure from the
BJP to keep the temple construction proposal at the backburner for a while.
"Why should we come under pressure? We have the right to take an
independent decision. We will soon press for starting the temple
construction," he added.

Based on an internal assessment, Kishore said nearly 40 percent of the
construction work, which was being done offline, was already complete.
While a workshop at Ayodhya had been in operation since 1990, another had
been working for the last four years in Rajasthan. "There's no secret. We
have the entire structure plans," he said.

Made of sandstone mined in Rajasthan, the 128-foot-high, double-storeyed
temple would be 21 feet in length and 140 feet in width. While the deity
would be placed on the ground floor, each of the 106 pillars around the
temple would also have 16 idols carved on it. There would be a total of 24
doors in the temple, the VHP leader disclosed.

_____

#6.

(recieved via Frederic Noronha)

INDIAN ARTISTS, BUREAUCRACY LOCK HORNS OVER CONTROVERSIAL PAINTING

from India Abroad News Service

New Delhi, Sep 20 - The eternal struggle for artistic freedom has reared it=
s
head once again, with many prominent Indian artists demanding the removal o=
f
the head of a premier modern art museum here over the "arbitrary" withdrawa=
l
of a controversial painting.

Artists from all over India are carrying out a signature campaign and have
decided to petition the president and the prime minister against what they
call the highhandedness of Mukta Nidhi Samnotra, the director of the
National Gallery of Modern Arts (NGMA).

About 100 of them had observed a black day on Tuesday against the
director's decision to pull out Baroda-based painter Surendran Nair's work
from an exhibition a fortnight ago. Those protesting included prominent
names like Manjit Bawa, Vivan Sundaram, Shukla Sawant and Probir Gupta.

Nair's painting, titled 'An Actor Rehearsing the Interior Monologue of
Icarus', depicting the Greek mythological character Icarus standing atop th=
e
Ashoka Pillar -- India's national emblem -- was to be part of an exhibition
this month called 'Combine - Voices for the New Century.'

But despite being cleared by an NGMA advisory committee, the work was pulle=
d
out by Samnotra on September 2 on the grounds that it would hurt national
sentiments. The artist fraternity, however, thought otherwise and all the
participating artists pulled out of the show en masse.

Calling their agitation a 'protest against bureaucracy' they have demanded
that Samnotra be removed from the NGMA and all cultural bodies be headed by
an artist or an art historian. They have also demanded that the show be put
up again without any exclusions.

Artists say they are opposed to the bureaucracy acting autocratically in
matters of art which limit their creativity. They allege that Samnotra did
not even consult NGMA's advisory committee comprising well-known names like
Gulammohammed Sheikh and Kanchan Chander.

Sheikh in fact resigned and stated in his letter: "The unilateral decision
to remove a painting from an approved and authorised show on unsubstantiate=
d
legal, moral or aesthetic grounds indicates an unfortunate absence of
sensitivity to artistic vocabulary."

Samnotra, who received a protest letter from artists on Tuesday, stated
through her office that the decision now lies with the Ministry of Culture.
When contacted by IANS she refused to comment saying, "I am not talking to
the press." Secretary of Culture R.V. Vaidyanatha Ayyar also refused to
comment on the controversy.

_____

#7.
=20
INDIA PAKISTAN ARMS RACE & MILITARISATION WATCH #22=20
(19 September 2000)

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