[sacw] SACW (22 July 01)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire
22 July 2001
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

----------------------------------------

[1.] Where are our Voltaires? : Case for Indian Enlightenment
[2.] Evolution of Public Sphere in India
[3.] Media Revolution &"Hindu Politics"In North India, 1982-99
[4.] Holy Shit!
[5.] V P Singh Attacks Alterations In Syllabus

-----------------------------------------

#1.

Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay)
July 7, 2001
Special Articles

BREAKING THE SPELL OF DHARMA:
CASE FOR INDIAN ENLIGHTENMENT

by Meera Nanda

I
What Is Enlightenment?

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. I came across one=20
such picture recently that
speaks far more eloquently about the roots of the crisis of India's=20
secularism than many a learned
tome. I urge you, dear reader, to take a long hard look at this=20
picture - and weep.

It is a black and white wire photo, first printed in The Times of=20
India on September 14, 1987 and
reprinted in Lise McKean's recent book, The Divine Enterprise:=20
Gurus and the Hindu Nationalist
Movement. The picture shows a crude wooden platform, about five feet=20
high, with an emaciated,
half-naked and unkempt old man dangling one leg over the wall of the=20
platform. Underneath
stands a middle-aged man clad in all white, with his bowed head=20
touching the foot of that leg
dangling from the platform. The owner of the leg is a "holy man" by=20
the name of Sant Devraha
Baba of Vrindavan. The bowed head belongs to none other than Balram=20
Jakhar, former speaker
of the Lok Sabha. The representative-in-chief of the=20
house-of-the-people of this, the
secular-democratic Republic of India, touching the feet of an alleged=20
god-man with his forehead,
seeking his blessings.

This picture troubles me. I wince every time I see it. Why? Haven't I=20
seen it all before? Aren't utterly
humiliating, hierarchical and non-reciprocal gestures of=20
self-effacement before power - sacred and
profane, in private and in public institutions alike - a routine part=20
of social life in India? But the very
fact that such sights are so commonplace, and that we have continued=20
to accept them as facts of
life, is exactly what troubles me. Indeed, the banality, the utter=20
taken-for-grantedness of our
elected representatives, in their official capacities, bowing,=20
prostrating and in other ways displaying
their helplessness and inferiority before religious authorities ought=20
to trouble all secularists.

I read these displays of public religiosity as signs of a democracy=20
under the spell of dharma - a
democracy without democrats, a secularism without secularists.=20
Unfortunately, whatever little
discomfort we felt at such sights is fast disappearing: we do not=20
even play at being secularists any
more. Instead, elected representatives bowing before sadhu-sants is=20
being touted as the Hindu
ideal of 'dharma rajya', where "the Rishis, through the authority of=20
dharma, have the right to
remove a king who defaults on his duty", where "dharma is higher than=20
both the legislature and the
judiciary" [Upadhyay 1965]. Reality has caught up with our=20
schizophrenic national culture: we no
longer profess to be secular in public and intensely religious in our=20
private affairs; we now indulge
in conspicuous religiosity in both public and private spheres. What=20
is more, we claim that it is a
good thing too!1

Move now, for a moment, from late 20th century India to 18th century=20
Europe. In 1763, Geneva's
ecclesiastical assembly ordered one Robert Covelle to genuflect and=20
listen to a reprimand for
having fathered an illegitimate child. Covelle refused to kneel and=20
turned to Voltaire, the leading
light of the French Enlightenment, for help. Voltaire was outraged at=20
the idea of religious
authorities daring to make a citizen kneel: "An ecclesiastical=20
assembly that presumed to make a
citizen kneel would be playing the part of a pedant correcting=20
children, or of a tyrant punishing
slaves", Voltaire wrote in a pamphlet against genuflection. The rest=20
of the philosophes rallied
behind Voltaire, and after six years of agitation, succeeded in=20
having genuflection abolished in
Geneva [Gay 1959: 63].

It is of numerous such refusals to kneel before authority that a=20
public sphere worthy of a secular,
liberal democracy is created. Because the 'ecclesiastical authority'=20
is dispersed, localised and
self-enforced in our society, it calls for many more - not fewer -=20
refusals. Where are the million
mutinies that we need, every day, at every level to create a society=20
where no one can dare
demand, or expect, citizens, or citizens' representatives, to kneel?=20
Where is the outrage against
the everyday tyrannies, fears and inhibitions perpetrated in the name=20
of dharma that make our
social institutions unfit for a free, equal and democratic people?=20
Where are our Voltaires? Or is the
impulse that propelled Voltaire and the rest of the members of the=20
'Party of Humanity' to take up
the cause of critical reason in the service of an open society, a=20
'western' impulse, inapplicable to
India, where religion is a 'total way of life', a matter of=20
'innocent' faith that cannot be questioned
without losing the essence of being Indians?

A society where citizens do not kneel before the authority of the=20
church and the state2 did not
emerge in the west without a protracted struggle against the=20
cosmopolis sanctified by the church
and traditions. The secularist doctrines of separation of church and=20
state and the liberal idea of
'rights of man' did not suddenly appear in 17th and 18th century=20
Europe, fully formed, either as an
unintended "gift of Christianity", or as an expression of 'cultural=20
genes' coding some special
western propensity for freedom and individual conscience, as the=20
culturalist from both the west and
non-west alike like to claim. Nor was it an automatic unfolding of=20
universal law of progress, as
vulgar materialists would have it. Instead, secularism in the west=20
was an eminently political
achievement. The liberal idea of rights-bearing individuals,=20
including the right of conscience, had to
be fought for against the medieval cosmology of Christianity, against=20
all those institutions that
embodied that cosmology, and against the classes whose privileges=20
this world view legitimated. In
a sense, human rights, secularism and liberalism are=20
"post-traditional" for they are objects of active
effort and cannot be simply derived from any religious doctrine or metaphys=
ics.

Yet, while cultural essentialism is false, culture does matter.=20
Religious and cultural traditions - and
the metaphysics they are rooted in - are not irrelevant to the=20
content, breadth and depth of
acceptance of post-traditional norms. Where cultural traditions and=20
religion do make a difference is
how they either aid or impede the struggle for human liberty,=20
equality and fraternity. Religious
answers to questions of fundamental human importance - What the world=20
is like? How has it come
about? What makes us human? What is the goal of human life? How best=20
to attain these goals
and what errors to avoid? - constitute a kind of meta-reality or=20
world-image which guide the social
and ethical life of individuals, often at an unconscious level [Kakar=20
1981]. Different religious
traditions differ in those elements of the meta-reality which make=20
the idea of equal dignity of all
human beings in here-and-now more, rather than less, easily acceptable.

[...]

{Full text of the above article <126k> is available to all on=20
request. To recieve a copy via e-mail send your request before the=20
2nd of August 2001 to <aiindex@m...>; This important paper will=20
be accessible in the next 24 hours on the SACW website as part of a=20
permanent collection. }

________

2.

Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay)
June30, 2001
Special Articles

EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC SPHERE IN INDIA

by Amir Ali

The inability of the public sphere to reflect a plurality of cultures=20
has resulted in its inaccessibility for members of minority groups=20
and hence their exclusion from it. As a corollary to this inability=20
to adequately reflect cultural diversity, has been the fact of the=20
public sphere being defined and dominated by majoritarian values and=20
norms, which have been considered to be neutral. This particular=20
tendency has been further accentuated and exacerbated by the recent=20
rise in the Indian polity of the phenomenon of Hindutva or Hindu=20
nationalism.This particular phenomenon seeks to firmly entrench and=20
institutionalise the symbols, cultural norms, values and beliefs=20
cherished by it as the only legitimate ones capable of defining the=20
Indian state.
The first section of the article will look at the actual creation of=20
the public sphere under the influence of British colonial rule. For=20
the purposes of understanding the public sphere and its evolution in=20
India, the distinction that Sandria Freitag (1990) makes between=20
the public sphere of western Europe conceptualised by Habermas and=20
what she terms, as the 'public arena' in India will be closely=20
followed. It will be argued that the particular manner in which the=20
public sphere has evolved in India and hence the very nature that it=20
has acquired, has made it susceptible to the recent advance of=20
Hindutva. One of the major goals of Hindu nationalism today is to=20
create a public sphere that is completely defined by the symbols=20
cherished by it. This can be seen in the emphasis that is placed by=20
proponents of Hindutva on symbolic issues like the singing of 'Bande=20
Mataram' and the 'Saraswati Vandana'. It is on account of this very=20
reason that it has earlier been argued that the only way to stop the=20
continuous Hindutva advance is by emphasising a multiculturalism that=20
privileges the aspect of making the public sphere more conducive to=20
the expression of minority cultures [see Ali 2000: 1503-1505].

The second section of the article will look at the nature of the=20
public sphere that the national movement helped to configure. Here it=20
will be argued that it was in the ambiguities and anomalies of the=20
national movement, which were partly a result of nationalist=20
responses to colonial rule, that one can understand some of the=20
anomalies in the public sphere as it exists in India at present. In=20
any consideration of the public sphere its relation to the private=20
sphere cannot be neglected for it is in its relation to the private=20
sphere that the public is itself defined and given shape [Habermas=20
1989: 2]. Therefore, a large part of this article, especially the=20
third section, will refer to the nature of the private sphere and its=20
relation to the public. Further, it will be argued that the very idea=20
of institutionalising multiculturalism in the public sphere will=20
involve a renegotiation of the relationship between the two=20
spheres. The last section of the article is an attempt to look at=20
ways and means to actually recreate the public sphere so that it=20
adequately reflects the diversity of the country.

The idea, to put it briefly, is that colonial rule created a public=20
sphere but left the private sphere free for the native elites. There=20
was thus a very sharp distinction between the two spheres. The public=20
sphere was thus to be governed by British laws pertaining to areas of=20
life like land relations, criminal law, laws of contract and of=20
evidence. On the other hand, the colonial state was reluctant to=20
encroach upon the private spheres of the two major religious=20
communities. This reluctance can be seen in its policy of allowing=20
this sphere to be governed by Hindu and Muslim laws which were=20
defined as personal law and which dealt with areas of life that were=20
more intimate like family relationships, family property and=20
religious life [Sarkar 1993: 1871]. It is in this dichotomy between=20
the public and private spheres and the political jockeying that took=20
place among native elites for control and domination over the private=20
sphere that one can understand the particular institutionalisation of=20
the two spheres in the Indian polity. The fact that the nationalist=20
movement was to formulate a response to colonial rule that was very=20
closely tied with the private sphere has further influenced the shape=20
that the public and private spheres have taken.

[...] .

{ Full text of the above article <58k> is available to all on=20
request. To recieve a copy via e-mail send your request before the=20
2nd of August 2001 to <aiindex@m...>}

________

3.

Himal South Asian
July 2001

MEDIA REVOLUTION &"HINDU POLITICS"IN NORTH INDIA, 1982-99

by Robin Jeffrey

Since the early 1980s, two significant trends have confronted anyone=20
who deals with India's society and politics. The first is the media=20
revolution: newspapers in India's major languages have trebled their=20
penetration, and television has become a mass medium. Second, the=20
Bharatiya Janata Party, with its aim of making India a "Hindu state",=20
has trebled its vote in national elections and become the country's=20
governing party.=20=20

Can an explanatory bridge be built to connect these two phenomena? If=20
so, out of what? By mapping the media revolution and the growth of=20
BJP support, it is perhaps possible to try and gauge the connections=20
between them.
[...] .

{ Full text of the above article <48k> is available to all on=20
request. To recieve a copy via e-mail send your request before the=20
2nd of August 2001 to <aiindex@m...>}

________

4.

Little India
Feb 2001
(littleindia.com)

HOLY SHIT!

By Vijay Prashad

There is something wrong with an avoidance of the world of shit and=20
labor that makes us human after all.

Yudhisthira, in the Mahabharata, tells his brethren that 'I have=20
heard that cowdung is imbued with prosperity." Bhishmacharya, the=20
brave who would later be abandoned on the battlefield, recounted the=20
story of Shri (or Laxmi), the Goddess of Wealth. Shri wished to live=20
amongst a herd of cattle, but they rejected her. She persisted, "I=20
wish to live in any part of your bodies, however repulsive it may be.=20
Indeed I wish to live even in your rectum." The cattle, overwhelmed=20
by the goodness of the Goddess, replied that "O you of great fame. We=20
certainly wish to honor you. Live in our urine and faeces. Both of=20
these are sacred, O Goddess."
"By good fortune," Shri replied, "you have shown me great favor. Let=20
it be even as you say." (Mahabharata, Anushasana Parva, LXXXII,=20
21-25). Wealth, then, lived amongst faeces.
I'm reminded of this story as the furor over toilets interrupts the=20
wealthy pursuits of the NRI world. A misguided artist, Lamar Van=20
Dyke, created a company (Sittin' Pretty) that make, of all things,=20
toilet seats with the images of Ganesh and Kali on the bottom of the=20
lids. The Bharatiya Janata Party (in India) took the lead from their=20
Jung Parivar allies in the USA and condemned the toilet seats.=20
Pyarelal Khandelwal, of the BJP, said that Ms. Van Dyke has "done a=20
contemptible thing" and that it was a direct assault on the feelings=20
of a billion people. In the United States, the AHAD (or what had once=20
been the American Hindu Anti-Defamation Coalition) went on the attack=20
and Ms. Van Dyke received threats to her life.
Nirshan Perera, of rediff.com, did some savvy investigative work to=20
find that Ms. Van Dyke is not connected (as J. P. Mathur of the BJP=20
claimed) to any international "Christian conspiracy." Indeed, he=20
argued, that the "toilet hullabaloo is an empty house" (the title of=20
his article). Ms. Van Dyke is an artist who is not unlike so many=20
other purveyors of Indo-chic, from Madonna to the temporary tattoo=20
artists (who use henna). From lunch boxes with calendric art of Shiva=20
to yellow sleeveless shirts with "Ram" written in red - these are the=20
emblems of Indo-chic and they pervade our major cities.
There is much to be worried about here, and I'll get to that later.=20
But first to the AHAD. They appear periodically to make a stink about=20
some rather marginal phenomenon, to get their name in print as the=20
spokespersons of the "Hindus." In 1997 they went after Aerosmith's=20
Nine Lives album cover (on which an androgynous and feline Krishna),=20
who apologized for their lack of good judgment. And now this graphic=20
artist. The issues are less important than AHAD's claim that we, as=20
desis, have a primary identification as "Hindus" and that we can=20
respond politically as "Hindus." What kind of "Hinduism" do these=20
people champion? Is this the eclectic "Hinduism" of Yudhistira and=20
Bhishma, of Shri and the faeces of cattle, of that Vedic world which=20
was as yet not fully dominated by a Brahmin elite so that it could=20
revel in the dirt and shit of everyday life. My feeling is that AHAD=20
is not the representative of "Hindus" but of a weird kind of sanitary=20
Brahmanism. The Laws of Manu tell us that "an earthen vessel which=20
has touched wine, urine, faeces, spittle, pus or blood cannot be made=20
clean even by firing it again" (Manavadh-aramshastra, V, 123). Manu's=20
mission, in the post-Vedic era, was to ensure the dominance of=20
Brahmin men over women of all castes and over those who they deemed=20
not to be twice-born (dvijya), i.e. the Dalits and Shudras. The=20
Brahmins saw the Dalits and Shudras as the enemy and they claimed=20
that all befouling deeds must be done by them, notably sanitation of=20
the world of the Brahmin.
It is the Dalits who must remove the carcasses and the faeces, it is=20
the Dalits who must plough the land and temper the soil. While the=20
Brahmins enjoyed the solitude of study, the Dalits perforce worked=20
the land and kept the environment clean.
AHAD is the defender of a Brahmanical Hinduism, one that denies the=20
mythological world of the epics (Mahabharata and the Ramayana) and=20
the world inhabited by the Dalits and Shudras. Ganesh and Kali cannot=20
be on the toilet, for that is the domain where dirt is left to be=20
removed by the Dalits and Shudras. Is there no place for divinity in=20
the lavatory?
By the way, the Matsyapurana (CLIV, 500-505) tells us that Parvathi=20
(consort of Shiva) created Ganesha from the dirt of her skin or else=20
from her faeces (it is not clear). This is the complex "Hinduism" of=20
the Vedic world, something that the champions of 'NRI Hinduism' (what=20
Biju Mathew and I call Yankee Hindutva) cannot stomach.
I'm not sure that Ms. Van Dyke and the other merchants of Indo-chic=20
can walk away unscathed by the criticism. From the AHAD it is=20
misplaced, as it is from those who say that only Indians can use=20
Indian things. The latter, the cultural nationalists, are very=20
selective about what they think can and can't be adopted. We can wear=20
"western" clothes, but they can't wear henna. Or else, they can wear=20
henna, the nationalists say, "if they know what it means." As if we=20
know what everything desi we do means all the time.
But there are two problems for Ms. Van Dyke and others to address.=20
The first is what role Indo-chic plays in the lives of all those=20
white kids who appropriate Asian goods. I have a hunch that this has=20
to do with the suburbs. Our voracious economic machine absorbs all=20
cultural forms and empties them of meaning, makes life into the=20
SUBURB - the highest form of meaninglessness. Can there be a more=20
boring life than that of the suburban youth, filled with a life that=20
is dominated by the bureaucratic management of the schedule (soccer=20
practice at 3, then math tuition, then dinner, then computer class,=20
the horror, the horror). Most young people, white or otherwise, use=20
Indo-chic as a fantasy of being different, of having an experience.=20
For more on this, take a look at a new video called Yellow Apparel:=20
when the coolie becomes cool produced by University of California at=20
Berkeley undergraduates last year (and available for a small fee from=20
Anmol Chaddha who can be reached at chaddha@u...). So=20
Indo-chic is not about India at all, but it is one of the ways for=20
young people to escape from suburban boredom.

The second reason I'm troubled by Indo-chic and Ms. Van Dyke is the=20
economics of the whole thing. Sunaina Maira, who teaches Anthropology=20
at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, knows one or two things=20
about Indo-chic. In a fine academic paper ("Henna and Hip Hop: The=20
Politics of Cultural Production and the Work of Cultural Studies"=20
published in the Journal of Asian American Studies in October 2000),=20
Maira argues that India is not just a feeling, but also "a shop, in=20
some instances a global sweatshop, where American multinationals=20
browse for cheap labor, cheap goods and profitable market trend=20
ideas." So the produce of impoverished desis is transported to the=20
United States by clever merchants who make enormous profits that do=20
not travel back to the desh. AHAD is worried about the images that=20
seem inappropriate. It does nothing about the patterns of profit=20
taking that line the pockets of Madonna and the Henna firms, but do=20
little for the working poor in India.
Where is the AHAD, for instance, when the India Relief and Education=20
Fund (based in Fremont, Calif.) goes after Enron corporation? Just as=20
California faces a utilities rate hikes and power cuts (load shedding=20
in California!), Enron is once again trying to fleece the government=20
of Maharashtra for more profits in its natural gas deal there. If you=20
are interested in this issue, go IREF's website at=20
http://iref.homestead.com or email Maharaj Kaul at=20
maharaj.kaul@g... He'll be willing to help you get acquainted=20
with the problem.

Shri, the Goddess of Wealth, resides in cattle shit. This is a=20
fabulous allegory for our lives today, but in reverse. The dot.com=20
world today pretends that it is above shit, and leaves that part of=20
the universe to the exploited and the oppressed, to the Dalits of the=20
new century. They, the dot.com Yankee Hindus, want to rile us up=20
about images. But we should not be so easily misled. Sure there is=20
something wrong with the use of culture without care (as I've shown),=20
but there is also something wrong with an avoidance of the world of=20
shit and labor that makes us human after all. Send Anmol an email and=20
get his video; email Maharaj and get involved with the anti-Enron=20
fight.

________

5.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/02211609.htm

The Hindu
News Update as at 16.00 hrs (IST) on July 21, 2001
National

V P SINGH ATTACKS ALTERATIONS IN SYLLABUS

New Delhi, July 21. (PTI): Former Prime Minister V P Singh today=20
launched a veiled attack on the Vajpayee Government over the=20
alteration in some segments of educational curricula terming it as a=20
"threat" to India's secular character.

"Wrongs are being done in syllabus at several places," Singh said,=20
inaugurating a conference on "Saffronisation of Education" organised=20
by several Muslim organisations to voice protest against alterations=20
in some areas of syllabus of NCERT and UGC.

Viewing "saffronisation of education" as an "attempt to eliminate our=20
ancient asset", he said "a big threat is emerging and some middle=20
class youth have already come under its influence."

He said attempts were being made to create a "divide" between the=20
majority and minority communities and stressed that the Government=20
needed to be pressured against it.

Apparently referring to the changes being made in the NCERT history=20
text books, Singh said it was an effort to influence minds of young=20
generation as "it is easy to mould the minds of young children."

"The greatest power is not bombs or arms, but minds, thinking," he=20
said, adding, "it has been seen that all authoritarians capture minds=20
first, particularly through education and media."

"If you want to go back into history why the recent one and not=20
4000-5000 years?" he asked.

Copyrights =A9 2001, The Hindu

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