[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 16 Oct 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
16 October 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

*********************************

#1. A Report of Restore Democracy Conference in Pakistan
#2.'Christianity no longer a religion, it is more politics': RSS chief
#3. Epic Crimes and Hindutwa
#4. Festival of films on the themes of communal harmony
#5. The Rise of Modern Hindu Self-Assertion & the Harappan Past:
#6. Media Release re: 'Dust on the road' Exhibit

*********************************

#1.

14 October

Restore Democracy Conference

Report by

Farooq Sulehria

=ECRestore Democracy Conference=EE held on 12th October in Lahore was a mas=
sive
success. Over 30 political parties participated in the conference including
the two main parties Peoples Party and Muslim League. The main organizatio=
n
of the nationalist parties POUNEM (Pakistan Movement of Oppressed Nation)
convener and several nationalist parties were also present. Almost all the
Left parties were also represented including Labour Party Pakistan, Communi=
st
Party and National Workers Party.

Some of the trade unions leaders, Non government organizations and peasant
organization also participated.

Over 700 political activists jam-packed the Lahore Press Club building. A
close circuit TV helped to keep the crowed outside the main hall. Many had =
to
go back as they could not get in. But it was the Pakistan Peoples Party and
Labour Party Pakistan activists who made the majority of the participants.
Loud slogan in favor of both the parties made the whole event very live. Re=
d
flags of LPP around the building of press club and the stickers against the
military regime printed by the LPP made the presence of the Red forces quit
strong. Many banners of LPP and a massive mural against the military regime
inside the hall made many to believe that this event is organized by LPP.

=ECCommittee for Restoration of Democracy Conference=EE organized the
conference. CRD was made up of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, LPP,
Social Democratic Movement and Saraiki National Party leaders. But many Urd=
u
national dailies reported wrongly that the conference was organized by LPP.=
It
has a massive national front-page coverage by almost every daily. Some of t=
he
speakers said that even a very ad democracy is better than military
dictatorship was commented upon by General Musharaf himself today in the pr=
ess
that he does not share these ideas as this theme is against the national
interests.

The conference became the most important successful event on the day when
military took over a year before on 12th October. A call by Muslim League t=
o
observe the day as Black Day was suppressed by the regime as many dozens of=
ML
activists were arrested including the wife of ex Prime Minister Nawaz Shari=
f.
But the military regime decided not to attack this even so many political
activists turned up to listen what the political parties had to say. Many
speakers against the regime adopted a very sharp tone.

Those who spoke at the conference for the restoration of democracy are the
followings.

Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, Head of Pakistan Democratic Party and president o=
f
Pakistan Grand democratic Alliance

Afsand Yar Wali Khan, president Awami National Party

Afzal Kahn president Pakhtoonkhawa milli Party and convener POUNUM

Tehmina Doultana vice president Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz Group

Professor Ijaz Husain general secretary Pakistan Peoples Party Punjab

Shoaib Bhatti, chairman Labour Party Pakistan

Abdul MaJeed Kanjo president Saraiki National Party

Hammed Asghar Shaheen, Presidnt Saraiki National Movement

Maula Bakhs Khaskheli, general secretary Communist Party Pakistan

Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan, vice president National Workers Party

Malik Jaffar Hussain, president Kissan Raj Committee (Peasant Committee)

Jehangir Akhtar President Awam Dost Mehaz (Peoples Friendly Front) Rawalpin=
di

Saifu Rehman secretary Railways Workers Union

Abid Saqi secretary Lahore High Court bar association

Khawar Mehmood member Punjab Bar Council

Asma Jehngir former chairperson Rights Commission of Pakistan Human (HRCP)

I.A. Rehman, director HRCP

Dr. Qaiser Bengali president Social Democratic Movement

Rashid Rehman conducted the conference and I. A. Rehman chaired the meeting=
.

_____

#2.

[Recieved via Frederick Noronha]

'Christianity no longer a religion, it is more politics': RSS chief

by Shubhangi Khapre, India Abroad News Service

Agra, Oct 15 - Christianity is no longer a religion, it has become more of
politics, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief K. S. Sudarshan said on
the concluding day of the organisation's three-day convention here Sunday.

He was addressing the 75,000 cadres who participated in the meet coinciding
with the 75th anniversary of the organization, the thrust of which,
according to him, was the "Indianization of Christians and Muslims."

He urged the cadres to be "extra vigilant to the threats to the nation from
both internal as well as external forces." He also presented a new
definition of national security, the theme of the event. "The Christian
churches and missionaries indulging in the conversions pose an equal danger
to the integrity of the country," he said.

The RSS espouses a Hindu cultural renaissance. Sudarshan had created a stor=
m
last week when he called on Indian Christians to sever links with foreign
missionaries and create a 'swadeshi (self-reliant)' church.

Home Minister L. K. Advani, whose Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the
political arm of the RSS, was among those who attended the concluding
function. He did not wear the RSS uniform - white shirt, khaki shorts,
black cap and black shoes - but participated in the traditional prayers,
even as he maintained a low profile through the ceremony.

Sharing the podium with him were R. A. Mashelkar, the director general of
the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), actor Nitish
Bharadwaj who played Krishna in the tele-series Mahabharat and other RSS
functionaries.

Ministers from Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP heads a coalition government,
were out in strength - in RSS uniforms. In fact, the separate camp for RSS
dignitaries was the hub of activity all day as cadres streamed in to pay
obeisance to the leaders, whose tents were as austere as those of the
cadres.

There was a minor hiccup at the beginning of the ceremony when the RSS flag
refused to unfurl. An RSS worker immediately clambered atop the 30-foot pol=
e
to untie the knot. It prompted a political observer to comment: "It's not a
good omen. The knot between the RSS and the BJP-led government is getting
more complicated."

Sudarshan refrained from any direct references to the federal government bu=
t
sent across a powerful message when he said, "there is no point in saying
our hands are tied and take a beating from our enemies. You may be carrying
weapons in both hands. But when somebody slaps you, there is no point sayin=
g
'What could I do, my hands were tied,'" he said, in an apparent reference t=
o
cross-border terrorism.

This is being viewed as a call to RSS cadres "to awaken and strengthen
yourself and the nation," observers said.

Launching a scathing attack on the Western economic model, he said, "India
will have to devise its own economic path keeping in mind the ground
realities."

In what is being viewed as a virtual rejection of the economic policies of
the federal government, he said the "Western concept of development cannot
be the role model for Indian development. We will have to evolve a new
economic path which will address our basic problems."

He pointed out that "in America, the percentage of farmers is only one (to
the rest of the population) whereas in India 75 per cent of the rural
population is engaged in the farming sector."

"We believe in an economy which will provide work to every hand and water t=
o
every field," he said. The RSS, it is learnt, plans to bring together
well-known economists and scientists and chalk out a policy based on
'swadeshi'.

Sudarshan also emphasized the economic policies advocated by Mahatma Gandhi=
.
This surprised many since the RSS has not been known for its advocacy of
Gandhian philosophy. Countered Sudarshan: "We have always revered Gandhi."

On the contrary, he said, India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had
never accepted Gandhi's economic philosophy, which had focused on the
development of rural India.

There were initial references at the convention to the Kashmir issue and th=
e
problems created from across the borders by Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) agency. But these were overshadowed by the dilemma withi=
n
the RSS on whether to open its doors to all sections. And, having skirted
the issue of constructing a Ram temple at the spot in Ayodhya where the
Babri mosque once stood - apparently to avoid a fresh controversy with the
government - the RSS is now bringing Christianity on to the center stage of
its agenda. At the same time, what it says on the Muslims was mild compared
to that on the Christians.

As Sudarshan said, "we urge Muslims to integrate into Indian life. The
Muslims of India should adopt Indian ways."

Speaking to the media later, Sudarshan claimed, "the churches and
missionaries working in the country for past several decades have a larger
design to divide the nation through mass conversions."

He said that in the name of charity, missionaries had been "working
silently" to change the demographic pattern of Hindu majority states to
"establish its own authority." Speaking about the northeastern states he
said, "the real purpose of the churches is to create unrest by dividing the
region."

Sudarshan said the RSS was not asking Indian Christians to worship Indian
gods. He said Christians, as also Muslims should accept Lord Rama and
Krishna as their 'forefathers.'

_____

#3.

Epic Crimes and Hindutwa

by I.K.Shukla

A troglodyte of RSS has shown once again that he suffers from visions.
Beginning with his call for an epic war, like Mahabharata, against
non-Hindus, he has gone on progressively becoming soft in the brain. Now he
has given a brutal call for the dismemberment of Pakistan. Too, he enjoined
New Delhi to ask the Christian missionaries " to pack up and go". He
ordered Christians to have a national church as in the post-Revolution
China. He would have "history of India rewritten to incorporate its Vedic
lineage". And, this fabricated history, he decreed, would be the basis of
"value" education, in the country, to spread which, he would unleash on the
nation the RSS hordes. That is, majoritarian gangsterism, hatred and
hubris, thought police, Hindu hegemony, heinous hierarchy, massive
deprivation and economic disparities will be maintained and enforced and
hold sway. No dent in this divine dispensation will be allowed or brooked.

The grand vision-of a bloody-fiery millennium that RSS would usher in
Bharat. This grandiose project of Akhand Bharat is, unfortunately, too
bloody, and alas, too stupid. Its incoherence is colossal. After Pakistan
is dismembered, and implicitly, absorbed in Bharat, RSS, consistent with
its agenda and ideology, will issue the ukase for Muslims "to pack up and
go". And, if Muslims refuse to oblige? If Christians reject the demand?
Then, why load Mother India with a "national church" at all? Do Bharatis
have anything to learn from the Chinese, our Enemy No.1? Why would not the
Western nations give the order of the boot to the immigrant Swamis and
Hindus? And, would Vedic overlay of our projected history advocate
reversion to the primitive mode of life prevalent in those pristine times?
If not, why? If yes, bravo.

This Neanderthal's rodomontade on Oct. 3 in a Delhi jamboree of 21,000 RSS
men, is significant for several reasons. The elections to the state
assemblies are approaching. Some winning gambits have to be invented. To
that end some slogans are necessary to fire the mobs and enlist the
lumpens. Therefore, missionaries must pack up, Pakistan must be
disappeared, and history must go Vedic. This is calculated to render
Bharat "pure" by avenging "wrongs of the past". Quite appealing, quite
inebriating for mob mobilization. The recent setback to Hindutwa in the
Gujarat elections adds urgency to the chorister's call to the faithful. He
is angry and anxious: why have Indian people in districts, talukas, and
municipalities, started thinking and asserting their will? Can a fascist
and totalitarian Hindutwa let this virus of democratic sanity become
nationally pervasive? Fat chance.

As for tricks and ploys, it is their season. The Oct.13 siege of Agra
(Fatehpur Sikri, Taj Mahal, and Mathura mosque) by 75,000 RSS cadres in a
three-day coven, ostensibly to discuss "national security", is Kargil
redux. Since Kargil cannot be repeated and cashed in short order, and
elections are distressingly so close, Agra will be a declamatory Kargil.
Call from here will go to the "cultural nationalists" and "patriots" for
the annihilation of our Enemy No.1 (China), demolition of Pakistan (that
symbolically began in Ayodhya eight years ago), liquidation of ISI (Indian
Muslims, and all dissenters), and elimination of "foreigners" (Christians,
and progressives).These are long-range plans. Their immediate dress
rehearsals, cued in the parentheses above, are in order for the immediate
gains in the electoral arena. (A democratic government in New Delhi would
have arrested him and his cohorts for sedition, as it would have clamped
President's Rule in Gujarat which has been gripped by carnage and anomie
for so long).

There is too much brouhaha these days over countering terrorism. India is
entering international arrangements to meet the menace. But the Hindutwa
terrorism laying waste to the nation, rampaging with impunity with the
connivance of the state, making mince meat of human rights, alienating
millions upon millions with its tribal blood lust, seems not to have
bothered the "civil society" or the media at all. That the parochial and
sectarian saffronites call themselves nationalists (and obediently, the
media acquiescing) is the most egregious oxymoron of our times. Anti-social
and anti-national, they pose a serious threat to national unity and
national security. With them on the prowl all over India, ISI can relax.
Sanghis are wedded to dismembering India. Their bid to communally hack
Kashmir in three parts is in line with their old ideology. And, adept at
creating communal flashpoints, they would have the sub-continent burn
permanently. They, as "volunteers" of the imperialists past and present,
are pledged to destroying the historical India.

Why have Muslims suddenly been discovered to be "flesh of our flesh" by
the BJP president? He coyly admitted, because of vote bank politics. And,
he invited them to join the BJP. This is an invitation from the shark to
the sardines. Sardines are small, but are they stupid too? The stick
didn't deliver. Now try the carrot. Demolition of Babri Masjid, Rakt Yatra
of AdVani heralding it, ethnocide in 92-93 Bombay, and in Maliana-Meerut-
Hashimpura-Surat, battering of students in Jamia Millia, mayhem in Shibli
College (Azamgarh), atrocities and lawlessness in Orissa-Gujarat,
destruction of property-arson-rape-murder, denial of jobs in proportion to
their numerical strength, oppression and torture through the corrupt and
communalized administrative apparatus, ghettoization and massive terrorism
(the stick)-proved less effective than planned and desired. Hence, now the
carrot: "blood of our blood". But when did carrot become the staple food
of Muslims?

While the caveman puffed "no one religion for all", in the next sentence he
hectored Hindutwa was the sole religion for all humanity. While denouncing
imperialists, the West, and Marxists for the Aryan invasion theory, he
obsequiously quoted the Westerners in support of his position. This urge
for validation from the West seems pitiable and servile, betraying low
self-esteem and feebleness of mind, at odds with the fervid tone and tenor
of the shrill war cry the belligerent Sanghi screamed against the "aliens".
He again alluded to Western scientists, on DNA, to the effect that there
is no similarity in the genes of the Indians and Europeans. He didn't name
the scientists. By naming DNA he was pretending that Hindutwa is not
autistic and retarded. However, he is totally false, as the following from
the New York Times/Aug. 22 would show:
Scientists have long suspected that the racial categories recognized by
society are not reflected on the genetic level. Most researchers are
convinced that the standard labels used to distinguish people by "race"
have little or no biological meaning.
While it may seem easy to tell at a glance whether a person is Caucasian,
African or Asian, the ease dissolves when one probes beneath surface
characteristics and scans the genome for DNA hallmarks of "race".
"Race is a social concept, not a scientific one," said Dr J.Craig
Venter, head of the Celera Genomics Corporation in Rockville, MD."We all
evolved in the last 100,000 years from the same small number of tribes
that migrated out of Africa and colonized the world."

Traits most commonly used to distinguish one race from another, like skin
and eye color, or the width of the nose, are traits controlled by a
relatively few number of genes, and thus have been able to change
rapidly in response to extreme environmental pressures during the short
course of Homo sapiens' history. So, equatorial populations evolved dark
skin, presumably to protect against ultraviolet radiation. Traits like
intelligence, artistic talent and social skills are likely to be shaped by
thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so genes in the human
genome, all working in complex combinatorial fashion.

The possibility of such gene networks shifting their interrelationships
wholesale in the course of humanity's brief foray across the globe, and
being skewed in significant ways according to "race" is a bogus idea.",
said Dr Aravinda Chakravarti, a geneticist.

But such facts or findings don't faze the H-warriors. Nor are they deterred
even by Veda. Releasing on the occasion a book on the Atharva Veda's
Prithivi Sukta, a neo-Hindu gave it a meaning totally contrary to its
immanent message. The Sukta, well known for its poetic charm, has been
called by Bloomfield "one of the most attractive and characteristic of the
Atharvan":
Janam vibhrati bahudhaa vivaachasam naanaa dharmaanam prithivi yathoukasam
[The earth holds]( people professing many religions, speaking many
languages, like those living in a house).
Read with Kalidasa's first verse in Kumara Sambhava, in which he calls
Himalaya "the measure of the earth", not Bharat, (sthitah prithivyaa iva
maan dandah)" it constitutes a paradigm, both grand and noble, which
hasn't been equalled anywhere in reference to humanity at large. RSS and
its tribal kin repudiate this paradigm. Their rejection of everything
noble, viable, humane, rational, and authentically and anciently Indian,
began with their assassination of Gandhi, and continues with the serial
assassination of all those he is deemed to have embraced-Muslims,
Christians, Dalits. That is, the murder of the Gandhian paradigm, and that
of the Prithivi Sukta.

These enemies of reason pose the greatest danger to our polity, our
society, and universal humanity. The fascist monster's bellicose bark is
relentlessly piercing the eardrums, its blood-soaked claws tearing up the
horizon of the sub-continent. It must be exorcised forthwith before it
devours India. Let the Left wake up.

Oct.7, 2000

(Not to be reproduced without the author's permission)

______

#4

14 Oct 2000

Message From Bharat Bhatt

Dear Friends,

This is to solicit your support/ association and participation in the
forthcoming Festival of films on the themes of communal harmony
provisionally titled, "Harmony 2000". This festivals aims to bring all
time classics which have unraveled the deeper dynamics of inter-community
relationships. These films have a powerful message and they operate at the
level of reason and emotion. This attempt is the first step in taking up
these endeavors at broader level and in due course trying to lay the
foundation of a cultural movement, which will incorporate different art
forms and will attempt to address the average people in Bastis and also
the academic community and the college students.

The dates of the festival are from 27th Nov. to 3rd Dec., place is Nehru
Center, Worli (Small auditorium with the capacity of around 100 people).
The films will be screened in the evenings. On one of the days we will
also have a play by Ramu Ramnathan. The screening will be preceded by a
small introduction by someone associated with making of the film and will
be followed by a discussion.
This is being sponsored by Center for Study of Society and Secularism.

Lists of Films (Provisional)

1.Garam Hava
2. Salim Langade Pe Mat Ro
3. Mammo
4. Tamas
5. Zakhm
6. Padosi (V. Shantaram-1946 or so)
7.Life is Beautiful

It is proposed that after the festival the films will be taken to
different colleges for screening.

Those of the groups who will like to endorse and help in this effort,
please indicate at the earliest. We propose to send the first invitation
sometime middle of next week and put the brochure for printing sometime
late next week. We wish to carry the names in the invitation and the
brochure. Please do respond to Ram <bmrrpia@c...> or myself.

Looking forward to your comments and early response.

Fraternally

Bharat Bhatt

(For Center For Study of Society and Secularism)

_____

#5.

The Rise of Modern Hindu Self-Assertion and the Harappan Past:
A Contemporary Indian Socio-Political Perception
of their Proto-Historic"

=A9 Geoffrey Cook

"...archaeology has by its very nature
an unavoidable political dimension..."
Neil Asher Silberman(1995:249)

Last October at the Madison South Asia Conference I mentioned to Jim
Shafter, whose questioning and reevaluation of the Harappan past has been
scholarly relevant to my own work, that a certain Hinduva-oriented writer w=
as
using his scholarship inappropriately to back up that individual's politica=
l
ideology. Jim's response was that I just do my research, and I cannot
control what others do or make of it.

Our views of the Harappan past are going through a tremendous and
exciting reevaluation at the moment. Most of us in this room are inspired
by such rapid change in a South Asian field. Yet, at the same time, becaus=
e
of the social and political turmoil presently occurring on the subcontinent
as a result of globalization and Post-Modernism in general, a great deal of
revisionism is being superimposed on the Indus proto-historic.
For the sake of this paper "reevaluation" is a process of objective
questioning based on scientifically controlled principles. And it is
undeniable that reevaluation is desperately needed when the New York Times
reviewer of the present show at the Asia Society can state "...The Indus
culture...has long suffered in comparison with its more illustrious
contemporaries to the west..."(2-10-98:Wilford:1, internet edition), or,
further, "...the civilization did not so much collapse as
disintegrate..."(ibid.:5).
Revisionism, though, is a process of looking at past phenomena through
the eyes of political, social and/or economic criteria and/or goals. As
Bhagwan Singh disturbingly states in Vedic Aryans "...Proto-European is not=
a
fact but an idea floated in order to displace Sanskrit from the centre of
discussion ...created for projecting the white man's superiority..." (Singh=
:
:1996:4). This is a political statement, and, as such, is a dramatic examp=
le
of revisionism.
Professor Bruce G. Trigger in his essay "Romanticism, Nationalism, and
Archaeology" articulates that such uses of "... the history of archaeology
reveals that political uses that have been made of that discipline findings
have promoted bigotry, violence and destruction..." as well as social
justice(Kohl & Fawcett, ed.:1995:265-266). Millions of Hindus are not
interested in the evidence of a largely academic debate on (proto-)history,
but it has been subsumed into their political controversies. (see Chalmers,
India News Service, 1-20-98). Dr. Silberman insists, though, that "...If
archaeologic interpretation is a form of political discourse, it should be
subjected to the same standards of public accountability as other forms of
public expression..." (Kolh & Fawcett:1995:250) which, I believe, has
relevance to Jim Shafter's statement.
This paper derives from an earlier exercise which will be appearing in
its original but shorter version in The South Asia Review #14. This
investigation is founded on that study. A short summarization of that
discourse follows:
In the Aristotelian sense, (proto) history as text is a literary genre.
Therefore, in this current consideration the contemporary South Asian
perception of their ancient past can be ascertained through a sampling of t=
he
popular literature on their proto-historic. The small sampling of texts,
backed up by several academic theoretic and methodological essays on the
relationship between archaeology and politics, are from journalism or
publications with pretensions to the high brow. It is important to note th=
at
the Indian data derived are not from scholarly publications. Only one of t=
he
articles under consideration exists solely in print form, two of the articl=
es
appeared in print and, also, on the internet, and the remaining seven
articles exist only as the electronic media.
Most of these texts, when decoded, say more about contemporary sociolog=
y
and political science than the Harappan past addressed. "...Reading[and,
thereby, writing] is not an innocent activity. It is charged with
artifice..."(Culler:1975:129). The current popular understanding of Harapp=
a
is parallel to contemporary ideologies and societal anxieties within
subcontinental societies. Or, as Raj Chengappa moralistically concludes hi=
s
India Today article: "...a dire warning to modern India of the catastrophe
of an errant population."(1-26-98:10, internet ed.)
The literature of proto-history often creates mythic systems which
reduplicate themselves. In a review of Navarana Rajram's The Politics of
History: Aryan Invasion Theory and The Subversion of Scholarship, the
reviewer claims that the end of the Harappan period was the beginning of th=
e
Kali Yuga!(Wallia:1996:6-7). Definitely, a traditional Hindu mythic
structure has been superimposed over the Indus culture integrating it into
the world view of contemporaneous Hindu self-confidence. Here it is easy t=
o
perceive how a cultural mythic understanding is associated with
archaeological ruins for unrelated social and political ends within the
modern world.
There is a certain scholarly sloppiness in many of these articles as
claiming that Brahmi is the basis of alphabetic writing(Singh:1997:2-3)
whereas it is largely syllabic, and undeniably had more influence within
later India than in the Middle East and Southeastern Europe. Jaspal Singh'=
s
argument that it was Harappan "Aryans" who "invented" settled agriculture i=
s
questionable when there were substantial agricultural settlements in other
parts of the world considerably before verifiable agricultural settlements =
in
the Indus and other parts of South Asia. Indo-European theory was never
based on an invasion from Europe as C.J. Wallia insists(1996:4), but rather
>from a theoretical homeland probably somewhere between Europe and India.
Such inaccuracies make me uneasy about even arguments that do have merit.
An important assertion in many of these texts is that the primordial ho=
me
of the Indo-Europeans is India, and the proof of this lies within the
Puranas. From the subcontinent they spread outward. Again, even to get a
sketchy "history" from the Puranas requires extreme and questionable
decoding. Further, Kak in his solo essay is employing the linguistic term
"Indo-European" as a racial and ethnic designation(although he admits its
spread might have been through osmosis and contact). National Socialism
proved to modern history that confusing language with race could be
disastrous, for, to quote Bruce Trigger "Nationalist archaeology[and
linguistics] has been an accomplice in inflicting a vast amount of sufferin=
g
on human beings..."
The background of these writers -- political and otherwise -- is
instructive. Subash Kak is a professor of electrical engineering at
Louisiana State University. He is a Kashmiri Pundit who was given a
traditional education as a youth. He is a broad and varied intellect who h=
as
much to add to the current re-valuation, and, because of the tragedy of
Kashmir, has become an effective spokesman for his community in crisis. In
fact, having published a history of Kashmir from the Pundit perspective.
Kak's considerable Vedic scholarship has influenced by his political
commitment which has, also, thrown him down into the more popular level of
the debate.
Neil Silberman in his academic essay stresses that the criticism of
proto-history can be a hidden criticism of the state(Kohl & Fawcett:258).
C.J. Wallia, the Non-Resident Indian editor of the Internet journal
IndiaStar, where several of these internet articles and book reviews have
appeared, writes an attack on the memory of Mahatma Gandhi for "whitewashin=
g"
the Muslims. Although he claims to be a secular humanist, he attacks Nehru=
's
JNU as a "communist think thank". Concluding "...Where is the Hindu
Holocaust Museum?" Wall's editorial agenda in commissioning these
revisionist reviews and articles on Harappan and Aryan questions is very mu=
ch
within the modern Hindu Nationalist project(Wallia:1998;3-5 & 8).
It's been remarked that two of our subjects are NRI's, but
Euro-Americans from Canada and the United States have become involved in
these revisionist debates. David Frawley, the director of the American
Institute of Vedic Studies, is an ayurvedic doctor. Silberman, again,
highlights the reoccurring relationship of the present to the "Golden
Age"(Kohl & Fawcett:1995:257). Frawley makes the statement that Harappa is
the "Spiritual" origin of mankind(Feurstein, Frawley & Kak:1992:102) which
argument is very similar to the essentialist principles that have been in
disrepute since Coomaraswamy last enunciated them.
The borders of the nation-state can influence the appropriation of the
history & proto-history of Others who may have inhabited that territory
either in reality or mythologically before or even parallel to the hegemoni=
c
groups of today.
Harappan sites were mainly known to exist in modern Pakistan till
recently. But lately, a great number of sites -- most to be excavated --
have been found along the ancient Saraswati River -- now submerged -- which
runs parallel to the modern Indus only on the Indian side of the Partition =
of
the subcontinent. Both Subash Kak(Wallia.1997:4) and India Today(Chengappa=
,
1-26-98, internet, ed.) argue that the name for the culture be changed to t=
he
Saraswati Civilization from the Indus Civilization. Intrinsically, this is
an Indian appropriation of the previous territorial pre-eminence of the
Pakistani state to this antiquity. And, in the charged and often acrimonio=
us
competition between these two neighbors, this new competing claim is quite
poignant.
India Today describes both India and Pakistan to be "feverishly hunting=
"
for sites. The debate over the geographical center of the civilization has
become a subcontinental turf battle. And this is an important quest for
India, and India Today proffers considerable statistical proofs to argue th=
at
the modern Indian state contains the territorial bulk of this ancient
culture(Chengappa:1998:2-26-98, interet ed:2 & 4).
Further, Raj Chengappa's article is instructive in that it presents an
alternative to a BJP-propelled ideology for Harappa. For Chengappa, along
with the editorial biases of his employers, Harappa projects the "myth" of
the Indian liberal state. This "empire" was ruled like a "democracy"
although what he describes is more of a plutocracy(Chengappa:2-26-98,
internet ed.:2, 5 & 7.)
Very clearly archaeology is a tool in the construction of modern Hindu
nationalism(see Kohl & Fawcett:4). In the modern Indian state the element =
of
"nationalism" dominates the discourse over "Hinduism", or, as a Mohahammad
Ansari, who has filed litigation in relation to the Ayodhya incident states=
:
"This is not a religious battle. It's a political battle."(Chalmers: India
News Service: 1-20-98). So, the question on whether the ancient and still
quite mysterious Harappans were Dravidans, Aryans, a mixture or something
else has become quite charged in the popular mind of modern India, and has
entered the realm of the political and social -- especially as to primordia=
l
rights to the modern Indian state and its territory.
Professors Philip Kohl and Clare Fawcett warn that archaeological "tale=
s"
can fuel ethnic pride and conflict(Kohl & Fawcet:5), and this is very true
within the political ferment of India.
As I said in my earlier paper there is a great deal of manipulation of
our work and the subjects we study towards political ends with which many o=
f
us would feel uncomfortable (Cook, forthcoming).
But what are we as archaeologists, art historians, historians and South
Asian regional specialists to do during this period of exhilarating
re-evaluation? Are we to become ostriches, and refuse to debate and publis=
h
in fear that it will be misconstrued by the popular mind? Definitely not.
We must resist political and social pressure on our debate. It must be we =
as
scholars that propel the deliberations, and not the politicians and
popularizers who desire to force the facts -- whatever they may be -- into
their preconceived mold.
As Bruce Trigger underlines it is the archaeologists' moral duty(and th=
e
rest of ours, too) to challenge misinterpreted data. Re-evaluation, yes!
Revisionism, no!

______

#6.

MEDIA RELEASE

dust on the road
an initiative of Hoopoe Curatorial
Canadian Artists in Dialogue with SAHMAT
National exhibition addresses activism and human rights at Galleries @
Galleria

October 14 to November 25, 2000

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 14, 2-5 pm
Opening Remarks: Patricia Deadman, co-curator, London, dust on the road;
Peter White, Hoopoe Curatorial, Montreal; Dolores Chew, member of CERAS
(Centre d=92etudes et ressources sur l=92asie sud/South Asia Studies and
Resource Centre) and a member of SAHMAT, Montreal; Aparna Sundar, South
Asian Left Democratic Alliance, Toronto.

LONDON, Ontario, October 14, 2000=96Touring to cities throughout Canada, du=
st
on the road is an exhibition of the works of the Delhi-based activist and
arts organization called SAHMAT (whose name means agreement in Hindi).
Wildly successful in Toronto, the exhibition hit the news when the High
Commissioner of India, Rajanikanta Verma interfered with the exhibition and
pressured the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute of Calgary, a funder of the
project, to withdraw funds from the exhibition. Well received in Toronto,
more than 10,000 people visited the exhibition during the summer run at the
York Quay Gallery, Harbourfront Centre. The exhibition opens in London on
Saturday, October 14, 2000 at the Galleries @ Galleria.

A memorial tribute will be presented in honour of Daryl Chrisjohn, Oneida
of the Thames. Daryl, from the Oneida Settlement in Southwestern Ontario,
died at the age of 44 on September 12, 2000. Works by Daryl presented in
co-operation with Eula Chrisjohn and the N=92Amerind (London) Friendship
Centre.

Works by London and area artists: Carl Beam, Sheila Butler, Kul Bhatia,
David Bobier, Kelly Greene, Farhang Jalali, David Merritt, Laura Millard,
Jack Niven, Bill Powless, Jan Shepherd, Aidan Urquhart, Anne Walk and
Jennie White are included with the Toronto and area artists: Stephen
Andrews, Shelly Bahl, Michael Belmore, Millie Chen, Carole Cond=E9 and Karl
Beveridge, Stan Denniston, Richard Fung, Amelia Jim=E9nez and Arthur Renwic=
k
and are joined with a survey from SAHMAT exhibitions and community projects
in India.

This presentation of SAHMAT in Canada, examines important issues of
everyday activism and human rights that concern both Indians and Canadians.
Human rights are not aspirational in nature, they are not privileges and
they should never be the =91trickle-down=92 effect of international trade..
Human rights are actual legal rights that nations are bound to support at
home and promote internationally, over other interests.
=96Warren Allmand, Rights and Democracy, Montreal

SAHMAT was formed in response to the murder of Indian street activist
Safdar Hashmi. The work of SAHMAT(Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust) has made
the domain of culture one of the primary forums in India for responding to
the issues of social justice.

Curators for the London venue of dust on the road: Canadian Artists in
Dialogue with SAHMAT are London artists Ron Benner and Patricia Deadman.
Members of Hoopoe Curatorial are Peter White, an independent curator from
Montreal and Vancouver; Phinder Dulai, author of Ragas from Peripheries
(Arsenal Pulp Press, 1995), Basmati Brown (Nightwood Editions) and Jamelie
Hassan, London -dust on the road is part of a four-year initiative intended
to create an awareness of issues shared by artists in Canada and India.

The exhibition is a co-presentation of Hoopoe Curatorial, the McIntosh
Gallery and the Visual Arts Department at The University of Western
Ontario, the London Regional Art & Historical Museum with support from The
Canada Council for the Arts and London Community Foundation.

On view at the Galleries @ Galleria in Galleria Mall, 355 Wellington
Street, London from October 14 to November 25, 2000. Hours: All week 12-5
pm, Thursday & Friday until 9 pm.

For more information call Patricia Deadman @ 672-4580 x266 or Ron Benner @
673-5000

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