[sacw] SACW #2 | 11 Feb. 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire - Dispatch #2 | 11 February 2002

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

#1. Pakistan : Do it right, do it quick ( M. B. Naqvi)
#2. India: Poll Smut (John Dayal)
#3. India: In Bombay, Public Indignity Is Poverty's Partner (SOMINI SENGUPT=
A)
#4. Book Review: A Biography of The Indian Nation - 1947-1997: Ranabir Sama=
ddar
________________________

#1.

Mon, 11 Feb 2002

Do it right, do it quick

By M. B. Naqvi

There are no easy options for President Pervez Musharraf, who should be
discussing things, among them Kashmir rather importantly, with the US
President George W. Bush today. He will have to accept what economic
package the US government has already prepared for Pakistan. Real
significance attaches to the US mediatory role in Kashmir desired by
Pakistan. What are the chances?

Few surprises are in store, as the US position is more or less an open
book. In deference to Pakistani wishes, and in pursuance of its own
responsibility, the US is trying to make India relent over de-escalating
the tension on the borders by starting to thin out and eventually
withdraw its troops. Pakistan will happily follow, if only India begins
the process. But the Indians have dug their heels in and are demanding,
as a condition, that Pakistan has to prove that it has changed its
Kashmir policy by stopping what it calls cross-border terrorism or the
proxy war. Who is to judge that this condition has been met? Why, India
itself --- and not the US or international community.

There can be no two opinions about the priority of this de-escalation;
it overrides other matters. At issue is war or peace in South Asia ---
because an easily-possible war can quickly escalate into a nuclear
exchange, even if it does not start as a nuclear war properly socalled,
as this writer believes may now have become =91logical=92 in the given
circumstances. Happily the fear of consequences has forced both sides to
shrink back from a =91massive=92 preemptive nuclear strike. But pride and
prejudice --- the driving force of realpolitik in the Sub-continent ---
prevents the logic of this true military deadlock being translated into
doing what is unavoidable: to deescalate, mutual withdrawals and a
return to whatever degree of normalcy may be possible between such
hostile neighbours --- and bilateral negotiations.

Two points need being made on this all-important issue. First is about
the war itself: recent history proves that neither India nor Pakistan
can go to war so long as they retain sanity, including the ability to
react rationally to what the outside world says. The crucial fact is
that (a) no Indian leader or general can wait for the enemy (Pakistan)
to make a preemptive nuclear strike first and then react with an atomic
riposte. (b) Pakistan, so long as sanity prevails, cannot make the
initial, preemptive strike because it can neither cripple all the Indian
capability to reply in kind nor can it contemplate with equanimity the
size of the inevitable Indian reply: India can destroy all the major
industrial-urban centres of Pakistan. Thus, the fear of Pakistani
nuclear strike preventing a conventional war seamlessly graduates into
the position where war ceases to be an option for either side.

The second point is that both countries, and their sane and peace-loving
citizens, have to clearly realise and emphasise that war is not an
option and have to make policies accordingly outside the government
sphere. Look at what has been happening over the recent years. The
political classes that have ruled New Delhi and Islamabad have been
primarily --- as a first priority --- preparing for another war over
Kashmir. For, all Pakistani governments in recent years have proved by
their actions that they will not sit idle and will continue making the
life difficult for India so long as it keeps the Kashmir Valley under
its control. After gaining the nuclear capability in the middle 1980s,
it acquired a parallel arrogance of its own. The Indians, possessing as
great, if not greater, capability see no reason for accommodating
Pakistan. Politics of each ruling set of elites is based on the hatred
of the other and both sets of them have flourished.

A third point merits consideration by Pakistani establishment which has
been keen on third party mediation, mainly by the US. Mediation is done
by a neutral party, if its own interests are not involved on the
crucially important issue and if the other side agrees to it. The US has
its interests throughout Asia; with India it is building a strategic
consensus that is much wider in scope than what it might agree upon with
Pakistan. Moreover on the issue of =93cross-border-terrorism=94 itself,
listen to the US Secretary of State Colin Powell telling the US
Congress:

=94(apropos the Jan 12 speech by Gen. Musharraf) it sent a clear message
to Pakistanis that terrorism must end if Pakistan has to enter the 21st
century with expectations of progress and decent life for its people.
President Musharraf showed great courage and foresight in sending such a
decisive message to his country and by extension to the Islamic world at
large. Now he must show equal courage in implementing his concept in
Pakistan.=94

What was Powell driving at? Musharraf must courageously implement his
anti-terrorism concept in Pakistan --- and by extension in Kashmir. If
there ever was diplomatic endorsement of Indian demand of the stoppage
of cross-border-terrorism it was this, though it is not to be confused
with the American drive to have the religious extremism extirpated from
Pakistan. This last is important for the US and is a commonality of
purpose with India. Even otherwise, the post 9/11 policy U turn on
Afghanistan by President Musharraf led logically and relentlessly ---
for the sake of the survival of Musharraf Presidency --- to Jan 12
policy shift. Now, the same logic unfailingly and no less rigorously
leads to the stoppage of whatever insurgency or violence in Kashmir is
taking place from Pakistani and Azad Kashmir territories. It is right.
And this needs to be done expeditiously. The US will not formally
mediate. And to the extent it is prepared to go, it is already doing so
--- as an ally of India.

Let no Pakistani supporter of Jihad in Kashmir forget that the sole
basis of insurgency in Kashmir was Pakistan=92s nuclear deterrent:
impossibility for India of going to war. The post-Dec 13 Crisis shows
that India has actually threatened war, or at least creating a near-war
situation that will arguably hurt Pakistan more than it does India, as
some say. It is threatening in fact a proper war despite the risk of
nuclear exchange. In other words, being sure that Pakistan dare not use
its nuclear weapons for fear of a reply in kind, Indian government is
ready to fight a conventional war in which it thinks it has an edge over
Pakistan. Does it suit Pakistan to fight such a war? No it does not. In
fact there should be no war at all; why should common people suffer for
the sake of the elites=92 pride and prejudice.

The situation since Dec 13 attack on Indian Parliament shows that it is
an unsustainable situation for both sides, certainly for Pakistan which
is suffering unacceptable financial losses. Politically too it is
unmanageable. At the very least, the Crisis signals a new phase of cold
war with covert subversion as the main instrument; it may be beginning
or might. It is simply too stupid: neither state can be defeated in this
way while it makes common people suffer needless losses and, above all,
it degrades the quality of public life and culture in both countries.

Therefore President Musharraf will do well to accept the Kashmir part of
American advice --- for want of any alternative --- just as he is likely
to find that there is not much scope for enlargement in the package of
economic aid. Musharraf certainly needs peace to restructure the
governing processes for remaining in power for five more years after Oct
2002. And ordinary Pakistanis need peace (even simple absence of war) to
rebuild their political parties with a view to creating an eventual
democratic dispensation.
______

#2.

10 February 2002

POLL SMUT

Sycophants have raised him to the stature of a Shakespeare, or at=20
least an e e cummins, but the language that Prime Minister Atal=20
Behari Vajpayee is using in his campaign tours in the on going=20
assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, where his ally the=20
Akali Dal and his party the Bharatiya Janata party, are losing their=20
confidence and their vote percentage with equal speed, have shown the=20
great man to have feet of clay, and a tongue as foul as that of=20
Sadhvi Rithambara.

By John Dayal

It is a moot question if contempt of court has been committed. Last=20
year, dismissing a writ, the courts had ruled that Sonia Gandhi was=20
an Indian citizen by virtue of having made an application for=20
citizenship in the Nineteen Eighties and having been duly granted=20
citizenship of the Republic of India by duly constituted authority.

To quote the Pioneer newspaper, one of India=92s oldest English=20
language dailies -- which had as its war correspondent the budding=20
politician and later British Prime Minister Winston Churchill =96 and=20
is very well disposed towards the Bharatiya Janata party, on 6th=20
February 2002 during a campaign speech in Pathankot =93Prime Minister=20
Atal Behari Vajpayee told a well attended and responsive crowd (in=20
Hindi0 Main Soniaji ka samman karta hoon. Veih Mahila hein. Videshi=20
mahila hein. Aur Veh jaisa bhashan kartin hain, main apna maatha thok=20
leta hoon=94. Pioneer=92s correspondent translated Vajpayee=92s Hindi as =
=93I=20
respect Sonia. She is a foreigner lady. But her speeches fill me with=20
despair=94. The correspondent missed out on the nuances. What Vajpayee=20
did say was far more pungent. He was commenting on Sonia=92s Italian=20
origins, her accent=85 and implying even more.

Former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma, who once thought he was Prime=20
Minister material and turned against Sonia when he found that a=20
Speaker with a sense of humour and a larger sense of his own=20
importance would not automatically get the political support of his=20
party and of other groups, has made a laughing stock of himself in=20
Indian politics with his one man campaign against `Foreigner Sonia=94,=20
still maintaining that the issue, dismissed by the election=20
commission and by the electorate, still guides his Nationalist=20
Congress Party. But Sangma may be dismissed as a loner, a maverick in=20
the political firmament. Atal Behari Vajpayee as the reigning Prime=20
Minister and leader of the ruling coalition is another cup of tea, if=20
one may put it this way. And it leaves a very bitter taste in the=20
mouth even of those who are slowly getting less and less disgusted by=20
the fecal matter that floats in the Indian political sea.

The Prime Minister errs on many counts of fan.

Compared to certain politicians who shouted =93Ek dhakka aur (one more=20
push) as hoodlums of the Sangh Parivar demolished the Babri Mosque,=20
or those who exhorted the Sangh men to show their virility by=20
smashing other places of worship, Sonia certainly is very much a=20
lady. And her language in the campaign, sharp in political rhetoric=20
but maintaining a decorum of discourse that is considerate towards=20
those senior in age and rank, can hardly be faulted. But under law,=20
she is no foreigner. Of foreign origin, certainly, for no one can=20
disown, or erase, either parentage, or ethnic roots and place of=20
birth. Those elements are not of one=92s choosing. But after signing=20
documentation of citizenship =96 and getting her name in the electoral=20
rolls over two decades, she is as much an Indian as Mr. Vajpayee, or=20
for that matter, the Karachi-born Mr. Lal Krishna Advani, currently=20
India=92s minister for home affairs. It is for this reason that the=20
Delhi born Pervez Musharraf is not contesting the Indian elections=20
but has to be content with his citizenship as a Pakistani and his=20
position as the President of Pakistan. That is the difference between=20
origin and citizenship. And surely Mr. Vajpayee knows it.

But he was not making a position of fact. Stung to the quick with the=20
indefensible racket of the military coffins, he had to counter the=20
attack. Pathankot, as the doorway to the extreme northwestern sector,=20
almost wrung the pungent statement out of the man who should have=20
taken care to speak like a statesman that many want him to be.

Vajpayee=92s apology the next day has not made worthwhile amends. If=20
anything, it has aggravated the situation. The Prime Minister insists=20
he meant no disrespect to her and his criticism, to quote the report=20
in the respectable and dependable newspaper The Hindu, was =93political=20
and not personal. =93In referring to Ms Sonia Gandhi as a videshi in my=20
speech, I meant no disrespect to her. On the contrary, my personal=20
references to her were respectful.=94 If these be words of respect, we=20
sincerely hope we are within earshot when the Prime Minister is=20
speaking about persons to whom he does not want to show respect.

The Congress surely has pulled down the Prime Minister from the high=20
moral ground that he so desperately wants to hold, and to which his=20
spin-doctors and speechwriters try so hard to keep him rooted.=20
Mercifully, so far the Congress has not stooped to the same level. No=20
irrepressive Congressman has mocked Vajpayee=92s heavily accented=20
English, his long pauses, and his theatrics.

The tragedy is that Mr. Vajpayee has slipped in trying to defend=20
people and parties he should well have left to their own devices.=20
Defence minister George Fernandes and his Samta party will eventually=20
pay the price they must for their role not only in initially washing=20
n the communal and neo fascist Sangh Parivar of its blood stained=20
escutcheon. The scams in the Defence ministry, even apart from the=20
misdemeanors and criminal lapses as shown in the Kargil security=20
debacle on 2000, have been more than topped by the profiteering in=20
the purchase of air tight coffins to transport home the bodies of all=20
those young warriors, the teen aged jawans and twenty four year old=20
lieutenants who die alternate days on the ice of the Siachin glacier.

The Akali Dal, still ruling in Punjab, makes for even a more weak=20
candidate for his loyal support. Reducing Punjab to India=92s one and=20
only theocratic state with its complicated relationship with the=20
religious clergy, the Akali Dal=92s has been a saga of misrule,=20
cronyism, crime and nepotism. Mr. Prakash Singh Badal, the chief=20
minister, dotes on his progeny and is willing to pay the price for=20
his passion. His party candidates include the standard set of thugs=20
and crooks, and also includes a woman who once was almost a high=20
priestess or at least the chair of the congregation, and is today an=20
accused in the murder of her own pregnant daughter who married=20
outside the faith, for love. The party, controlled by the richest=20
landlords in Punjab, is among the richest in the country, partly=20
because its leadership conveniently pays no tax on their vast=20
agricultural income.

______

#3.

The New York Times
February 10, 2002

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/10/international/asia/10BOMB.html

In Bombay, Public Indignity Is Poverty's Partner

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

BOMBAY, Feb. 9 =97 To be poor and female on the streets of India's=20
largest city is to exact a punishing daily self-discipline: to=20
relieve yourself only before sunrise and after sunset.

For Selvi, a mother of four who lives in a shantytown on the banks of=20
the railroad tracks here, that means rising at 4 a.m., the only time=20
water flows bountifully through a jury- rigged pipe. She fills her=20
small plastic bucket and wanders in search of a private spot on the=20
tracks where she can hoist her sari and squat in peace.

The rest of the day she is out of luck. She has no bathroom at home.=20
The nearest public toilet is in the slum next door, and to go there,=20
which she does only in emergencies, is to risk being accosted as an=20
interloper. Along the tracks that serve as her community's front=20
yard, garbage dump and lavatory, the Central Line trains roar by all=20
day long, daily commuters dangling from its crowded cars.

"We are women; how can we go in broad daylight?" asked Selvi, who=20
uses just one name, as she sat in the two-foot-wide corridor in front=20
of her house, combing her daughter's hair. "In the nighttime no one=20
can see us. In the daytime, trains are going by."

For Bombay, the capital of India's financial services sector and the=20
enduring symbol of the country's ambition and pluck, supporting the=20
basic human needs of its citizens is a challenge of mammoth=20
proportions.

According to the 2001 census, 11.9 million people live within the=20
city limits, which include a finger-shaped island built on reclaimed=20
marshland. Nearly five million more live in the suburbs that have=20
spread to the north and east, in what makes up the Bombay=20
metropolitan region. By 2015, this is projected to be what=20
demographers inelegantly but accurately call the largest "urban=20
agglomeration" in the world, with about 28 million people.

Bombay's trains ferry seven million commuters a day, several times=20
their capacity. Fatal accidents are so frequent that there are=20
insurance policies for daily commuters. The blare of horns from=20
scooters, cars and buses form a wall of sound interrupted only=20
occasionally by crows. The sidewalks, where they are not chewed up by=20
roadwork, are thick with vendors doing brisk business in everything=20
from pulp fiction to feather dusters to figs.

According to a widely cited 1995 estimate from the government, an=20
astonishing 58 percent of Bombay's population =97 more than 6.7 million=20
men, women and children =97 live in slums.

In the dearth of toilet facilities for these slum dwellers lies the=20
most revolting and most unhealthy sign of Bombay's housing crisis =97=20
and the most vivid indignity of being poor here. People relieve=20
themselves wherever they can =97 in open fields, on the seaside during=20
low tide and along railroad tracks and gutters. It is virtually=20
impossible for the rest of the city to ignore it.

In Selvi's community, it is common to hear of someone who was run=20
over by a speeding train while trying to sprint across the tracks=20
with a water bucket in hand. Even in Dharavi, believed to be among=20
the world's largest sums and this city's most established settlement,=20
there is one public toilet seat for every 800 people. Theoretically,=20
that means waiting in line for a week to use the facilities.

"If you really look at it, that's the most, most important=20
infrastructural need =97 the toilet," said Jockin Arputham, Bombay's=20
best-known advocate for the poor and the president of the National=20
Slum Dwellers Federation.

A municipal experiment is under way to address that need. About 400=20
public toilet complexes are under construction in slums across the=20
city, financed by the World Bank and the city and carried out by=20
nongovernmental organizations led by Mr. Arputham's. Each complex=20
will have 40 toilets, and they will be equipped with water storage=20
tanks, a luxury that most municipal toilets currently do not have,=20
making it impossible to maintain even a semblance of cleanliness.

The users of each toilet block are to pay a monthly fee for its=20
upkeep. Identity cards are to be issued to those who pay: 100 rupees,=20
or $2.50, per adult toward construction costs, plus another 10 rupees=20
a month for maintenance.

"If it works," said V. N. Pathak, chief planner for the Mumbai=20
Metropolitan Regional Development Authority, a government agency, "it=20
will make a big difference in public hygiene."

Bombay's crumbling infrastructure has not left better-off residents=20
untouched, either.

Frustrated with the inability of city officials to satisfy their=20
quality- of-life needs, an increasingly vocal band of middle-class=20
residents has taken matters into its own hands. A movement against=20
noise pollution has led to an unprecedented ordinance, a 10 p.m.=20
curfew on amplified sound =97 a concept once unthinkable in a city=20
known for its late-night, sometimes all-night, weddings, concerts and=20
religious celebrations. Private security guards have been hired to=20
patrol the streets of some prosperous neighborhoods. Street vendors=20
have been cleared in a handful of areas.

"The rich and elite have realized that in sheer numbers, the urban=20
poor outnumber them," said Kalpana Sharma, an urban affairs=20
journalist at the newspaper The Hindu.

"It's not possible to travel from one part of the city to another=20
without coming face to face with urban poverty," said Ms. Sharma, who=20
has written a book about the Dharavi slum. "It's actually led to a=20
hardening of attitudes and intolerance and a delusion, where you=20
refuse to accept that the poor are as much a part of the city as the=20
rich. You can't block it out visually, so you block it out mentally."

Bombay's slums are on the banks of the sea, in national parkland,=20
around old salt pans. They include dwellings made of blue tarp and=20
gunny sacks and two-story concrete and brick homes, furnished with=20
cable television and altars draped with blinking lights. The "pukka"=20
houses, as the latter are called, are bought, sold and rented in the=20
underground economy. Some of the shanties are brand new. Some are=20
more than 100 years old. Some have been blessed with a water=20
connection or electricity by a local politician trawling for votes at=20
election time.

Many of the slums hum with commerce. Inside their clogged, twisting=20
streets, leather jackets are sewn. "Papads," the spicy wafers that=20
are commonly found on the tables of Manhattan's Indian restaurants,=20
are rolled and sun-dried in the courtyards.

The slums here are home to doctors and social workers, as well as the=20
multitudes of maids, gardeners and other laborers that sustain=20
Bombay. More than 80 percent of Bombay's slum dwellers are literate,=20
according to a recent government- sponsored study.

What the slums do not have are the basics of human hygiene. At the=20
Bharat Nagar colony, where Selvi's family lives, the older residents=20
talk wistfully about a time when it was not such a bad place. Most=20
had come from villages down south and had built huts near the=20
factories where they found work amid the woods that once lined the=20
railroad tracks. The trees, as in their villages, offered privacy. A=20
small boulder created a natural divide between the men's and women's=20
toilets.

In the last 40 years, though, the colony's population has exploded,=20
with migrants from near and far. The one-room shacks are packed=20
tightly against one another with narrow passages for roads and the=20
roar and whistle of trains all day long. The tracks out front, the=20
road above, is all there is now. If the children have to go, the=20
mothers have to chase after them.

It is not exactly what Selvi, as a teenager in a village in Tamil=20
Nadu, had in mind when she was married off to a man in the big city.=20
But that was 17 years ago. There is no going back now.

"We came to Bombay," Selvi said with a shrug and offered a jutting=20
chin toward the railroad lines out front. "We have to go there, on=20
the tracks."

______

#4.

The Hindu
Tuesday, Feb 05, 2002

Book Review

Rainbow or scene of 'broken mirrors'?

A BIOGRAPHY OF THE INDIAN NATION - 1947-1997: Ranabir Samaddar; Sage=20
Publications Pvt. Ltd., M-32 Market, Greater Kailash, Part I, New=20
Delhi-110048. Rs. 495.

THOUGH THE author, who is the Director of Peace Studies Programme at=20
the South Asia Forum for Human Rights in Kathmandu does not spell out=20
so very clearly, it would appear that his disillusionment with the=20
record of democracy in India arises from its successive elections=20
having entrenched only the parties which could come to power and make=20
them wholly irrelevant to the voting but suffering millions.

The demands made by him on the reader's tenacity to go through his=20
book should perhaps be seen as the heights of obtuseness, which the=20
``intellectuals'' could reach with the excesses they commit on the=20
English language.

Writing with a wholly unemotional intellectualism, the author=20
presents a scenario of ``the state's silent political victory over=20
the citizen through various institutional mechanisms''. He looks at=20
the popularised slogan of "Jai jawan, jai kisan" as a brilliant=20
rechristening of ``peasant and the raj'', which speaks of a lumpenied=20
form of peasant nationalism". The rare, readily intelligible writing=20
which one comes across in the book is the readable chapter on the=20
role played by women in the reformist and freedom movement in India=20
and their longings for empowerment which is very much in the=20
headlines today.

The record of Bengal in having thrown up intellectuals and=20
revolutionaries makes it the ideal location for the author to start=20
with his dissection. The unrest which the Indian sub-continent is=20
witnessing at the end of a post-colonial half-a-century is that it=20
has only left India and Pakistan with having to pacify their=20
alienated, stateless people - the Bihari Mujahirs in Karachi, the=20
uprooted Hindus from Bangladesh and an eternally restive Nagas, Mizos=20
and others. Those who had witnessed and even participated in the mass=20
movements must have been aghast when they saw that the=20
"revolutionaries" were becoming part of the establishment and=20
sticking to the status quo. This could be seen both in Bengal and=20
Kerala, which had voted to power both the Communist Parties. The=20
Dravidian parties which have reduced the Congress Party to total=20
irrelevance since they were overthrown after a long rule in Tamil=20
Nadu in 1967, in spite of whatever achievements for which they could=20
take credit, have left the electorate disillusioned. The saddest part=20
of it is that the electorate has also become cynical and is accepting=20
non-performance and corruption as something, which could not be=20
helped. On which side the author ranges himself when he charges the=20
Left with having failed to "mobilise the moderate religious leaders=20
of various Hindu cults and other eminent personalities and offer a=20
peaceful moral barricade to Mr. Advani's march" to Ayodhya. He sees=20
only the emergence of a resurgent New Right in India drawn from the=20
100 million strong Hindu middle classes, the technocracy and the=20
better off among the farmers.

Whoever had believed that history was always going ahead in a=20
straight line from a predatory past to a future of emancipation were=20
going to discover that it was either stuck or moving in a circle with=20
a renewal of the strength of the ruling classes and with the state=20
becoming more secure for the return of the market ideology. This has=20
left India in a "governability crisis" which fills the politicians in=20
power and their bureaucrats with despair.

The author sees the post-colonial political system revealing itself=20
in "the emasculation of the principle of representation and=20
representativeness and its relative ineffectiveness in settling those=20
conflicts in society which are bound to arise in the wake of reforms"=20
especially when the reforms could only entrench the privileged=20
classes and throw up the likes of Harshad Mehta. The reforms could=20
only help "financiers from abroad buying up companies, football clubs=20
and race horses".

The author looks at it as a scenario of "national inadequacy" which=20
defied even the Naxalites, driven almost by an ecclesiastic frenzy to=20
re-order everything. He also mentions how the hopes about such=20
reordering receded elsewhere in the world while writing about the=20
disillusionment of the French anarchist student leader, Daniel=20
Cohn-Bendt, with the working class because of its having become=20
corrupt and part of bourgeois status quo.

His disillusionment with the educated middle classes of Bengal - his=20
spectrum ranges from the gentle Vidya Sagar of a much earlier era to=20
the fierce Naxalite, Charu Mazumdar - becomes very obvious when he=20
writes about their having become "well-established and naturalised to=20
an extent beyond historical and political enquiry". India's=20
idealists, he says, continue to remain "unhomed" as they had been=20
during British rule as there was no question of their settling down=20
on the jobs they could get or the businesses they could run. The=20
street was still calling them out.

Part of the strategy of India's new ruling class for "silencing" the=20
rural masses was the Central Government-aided National Rural=20
Employment Programme, the Rural Labour Employment Guarantee Programme=20
etc., all of which were nothing more than crumbs for imparting a=20
lasting stability for the Indian bourgeois. The movement during the=20
1960s by the well-educated young student leaders who came mostly from=20
the middle classes was aimed at "declassing" themselves to erase=20
their social divisiveness which would have made them suspect among=20
the rural poor they were trying to organise. But, writes the author,=20
"it was a theatre of impossibility, vanguardism engaged in the most=20
self-deluding act".

His perception of history seems to suggest that its unfolding could=20
be wholly unrelated to those who endeavour to draft it to their=20
liking and this is perhaps borne out by the events which led to the=20
Partition of India in 1947 resulting from the Muslim longings for a=20
separate state. Here is an example of the rarefied writing which he=20
throws at us when he tells us about the "exclusionary framing and=20
premature narrative closure" which the freedom fighters striving for=20
a united, secular India did not realise. What was required for=20
changing the course of history which led to Partition was=20
"liminality" which, he explains, is a "a moment in which the=20
possibility existing of standing aside not only from one's own social=20
position but from all social positions of formulating a potentially=20
unlimited series of alternative social arrangements". The alienation=20
of large sections of disillusioned people in the sub-continent has=20
made it a "life of dealing in broken mirrors".

The "Rainbow" politics of the country brought about by the endless=20
proliferation of parties based on claims relating to backwardness=20
entitled for exclusive privileges continues to break up the mirrors=20
further. The secularists of India failed because they did not take=20
into account the "otherisation" - and that is another illustration of=20
the liberties which writers like him take with the English language -=20
in undivided, pre-Independent India.

The colossal deception which all parties without exception were=20
resorting to would seem to have been facilitated by the "ideological=20
amorphousness as the screen behind which multiple social layers could=20
pursue their distinctive ambitions" which baffled even Jayaprakash=20
Narayan's determined efforts for bringing about a total revolution.

While proceeding to examine whether the voter has lived up to such=20
expectations, he would seem to credit the voter with a maturity by=20
pointing out that he or she has not voted either as a Hindu or a=20
Muslim but as an Indian.

If the CPI (M) raised expectations that it would ring out the old and=20
ring in the new in the Indian political scene, it has wholly failed.

It has stuck to the same path of "developmentalism" of the other=20
parties and fought the elections with a record of its achievements in=20
rural electrification, anti-poverty programme, the giving of patta to=20
landless labourers, etc., and was making only political capital out=20
of "developmental arithmetic". It is an illustration of even=20
uncompromising left radicalism eventually getting mellowed to settle=20
down as Establishments.

The book is a long screed of disappointment and anger against gods=20
who were trusted but had failed.

CVG

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--=20