[sacw] SACW | 8 Sept. 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 8 September 2002

[ Please Note: The article 'Breeding Little Fascists' by Sudhanva=20
Deshpande which appeared in SACW of 7 Sept. is not yet published,=20
and therefore should not be quoted from without the consent of the=20
author. Sudhanva Deshpande can be reached at <deshsud@r...>]

__________________________

#1. Ruling fuels India wife burning row (BBC)
#2. Sahir Raza's Exhibition of photographs on the pogrom in Gujarat=20
(8 Sept., Laguna Niguel, CA)
#3. September 11, One Year On - New Wars to Fight (Ahmed Rashid)
#4. India's Sleazy sell-outs (Praful Bidwai)
#5. India: L.K. Advani the Maun Mushtanda: The Strong, Silent Man (Mukul Du=
be)
#6. India: The HSTP Debate Continues - Reflection In Media
#7. Parita Mukta's memoir, Shards of Memory, captures the migrant=20
experience among Gujarat's Hindu diaspora

__________________________

#1.

BBC News
Friday, 6 September, 2002, 14:54 GMT 15:54 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2241437.stm

Ruling fuels India wife burning row

Sati was widely practised in some Indian regions

Women's groups in the Indian state of Rajasthan are protesting=20
against a court ruling allowing devotees to offer prayers at temples=20
dedicated to women who were burnt alive on their husbands' funeral=20
pyres.

The practice, known as sati, was banned in India in 1829.

Rights activists say the court order is glorifying the ancient Hindu custom=
.

Cases of sati are now rare in India, but temples commemorating the=20
act still draw huge crowds of devotees in many rural areas.

Sati worship

Several of the women's rights groups said they plan to challenge the=20
ruling in the country's Supreme Court.

"It is an effort to revive the practice in the name of worshipping",=20
said Kavita Srivastava of the People's Union for Civil Liberties.

She said the temple managers wanted to see the prayer ban lifted so=20
they could gain huge amount of money in offerings.

Sati worship was banned across India about 15 years ago.

But the state high court allowed devotees to offer prayers at two=20
such temples in Rajasthan on Friday.

Outrage

The order came following petitions by temple managements.

One temple manager said they moved the court to protect the rights of=20
the devotees.

Sati cases have sparked national and international outrage.

The latest incident was reported last month in the central Indian=20
state of Madhya Pradesh where a 65-year-old woman burned to death on=20
her husband's funeral pyre.

An investigation is on and 15 people have been arrested for abetting the ac=
t.

______

#2.

THE SOUTH ASIA FORUM
COALITION FOR AN EGALITARIAN AND PLURALISTIC INDIA
&
INDIAN MUSLIM RELIEF COMMITTEE
Present

"AND THEY KILLED HIM AGAIN"
An Exhibition of 100 photographs on the pogrom in Gujarat February 2002

By SAHIR RAZA

On Sunday, September 8, 2002
10:30 am onwards until 6 pm
Shepherd of the Hills Church
30121 Niguel Road,
Laguna Niguel,
CA 92677
Phone: (949) 495-1310

Sahir Raza, a 15-year-old high school student from Delhi traveled all the
way to Gujarat to capture images of insanity on his camera. An exhibition o=
f
these disturbing pictures eloquently titled "And They Killed Him Again" a
reminder of Mahatma Gandhi, who gave his life for Hindu Muslim unity was
killed again several times after his death in the last few months in his
home state of Gujarat.

Raza=92s exhibition was first displayed at Press Club of India in New Delhi
and drew much critical acclaim and has since been displayed all over India
and in several US cities.

Directions:
=B7 From N. Orange County & Los Angeles: 405 South, exit on Crown Valley
Parkway and make a right and go about two miles and make a left on Niguel
and the Church parking lot will be on your right.
=B7 From San Diego: 405 North, exit on Crown Valley Parkway and make a left
and go about two miles and make a left on Niguel and the Church parking lot
will be on your right.

For more information please contact:
Robin Khundkar (714) 895-5048 or rkhundkar@e...
<rkhundkar@e...>
I K Shukla (310) 514-2934 or <ikshukla@h...>
Rev. Huw Anwyl (949) 493-4525 or <shanwyl@c...>
S R Mahdi (310)748-9369 or <srmahdi@y...>
Asad Zaidi (714)313-2703 or <asadzee@h...>

______

#3.

Far Eastern Economic Review
Issue cover-dated September 12, 2002

SEPTEMBER 11, ONE YEAR ON
New Wars to Fight
One year after the September 11 attacks, domestic conditions in most=20
of Central and South Asia continue to make the region a fertile=20
breeding ground for terrorists. America's mission now depends more on=20
building better governments than destroying Al Qaeda

By Ahmed Rashid/WASHINGTON
http://www.feer.com/articles/2002/0209_12/p014region.html

______

#4.

The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, September 7, 2002

Privatising profitable oil-sector PSUs is nothing but robbery of=20
national assets

Sleazy sell-outs

By PRAFUL BIDWAI

All those who think petroleum is just another commodity like=20
chocolate, toothpaste or hotels, and not a strategically vital=20
resource and an increasingly scarce raw material, will do well to see=20
L'affaire Mattei by the illustrious director Francesco Rossi.

The film provides compelling, meticulous documentation of the=20
herculean efforts of Enrico Mattei to establish an indigenous oil=20
industry in post-war Italy by bypassing US oil majors. It speaks of=20
his spectacular success, and of his equally awe-inspiring killing.

Mattei was assassinated, Rossi subtly suggests, by thugs hired by his=20
American rivals. The film provides only one of countless=20
illustrations of a stark, simple, lesson: it has never been easy=20
anywhere, not even in "market-friendly" Western Europe, to establish=20
an independent hydrocarbons industry to achieve a degree of energy=20
autonomy from transnational giants wielding enormous power.

The "Seven Sisters" (the title of Anthony Sampson's classic book on=20
US-dominated international petroleum oligopolies) have always done=20
their bloodiest to sabotage such efforts. The world's first great oil=20
cartel was not OPEC, but the "Seven Sisters", which later coopted=20
Europe's Shell, BP, Total-Fina, etc.

For decades, they fixed the price of crude at a vicious=20
under-one-dollar-a-barrel, including transportation around the Cape=20
of Good Hope. The cartel remains intact; it has long been the main=20
beneficiary of OPEC's pricing too!

This predatory global cabal has never hesitated to use coercive=20
methods to earn super-profits. Oil has literally launched a thousand=20
warships, including, mostly recently, in Suez, the 1991 Gulf War, and=20
the New Great Game being played all the way from the Caspian Basin,=20
through Afghanistan, to the Gulf-including the US' present plans to=20
invade Iraq.

Oil has launched a thousand other, less obvious, wars too-against the=20
indigenous peoples of Latin America and Africa (most violently in=20
Nigeria, at Shell's behest), the already battered tribals of=20
Afghanistan (where Unocal almost succeeded in getting the US to=20
recognise the Taliban regime in return for a pipeline), against the=20
impoverished peasants of Burma (drafted into forced labour to build a=20
pipeline to Thailand), and against the fragile Arctic eco-system (the=20
gigantic Exxon-Valdez oil-spill)=8A

Behind the violence is a no-holds-barred struggle to tightly=20
monopolise Black Gold and control the arteries of key national=20
economies and international sea-lanes.

India is one of the world's few countries to have successfully=20
created a broad-based indigenous hydrocarbons capacity-from=20
exploration, production, refining, to transportation and downstream=20
industries-against the global cartel's resistance.

Thanks to Nehru and K.D. Malaviya's efforts to establish ONGC, India=20
could find and produce hundreds of million of tonnes of oil onland=20
and offshore which, the Seven Sisters had repeatedly declared, did=20
not exist in economically exploitable quantities. But for Bombay=20
High's discovery by ONGC, the Indian economy would have collapsed=20
under the oil convulsion of the 1970s and 1980s.

Indigenous oil has saved India something like the equivalent of three=20
times the cumulative FDI flow, to attract a fraction of which our=20
leaders expend incredible energies.

It is precisely because of oil's strategic-economic importance that=20
India's policy-makers-then inspired by a long-term institutional=20
vision rather than by market fundamentalism-nationalised=20
Burmah-Shell, Esso and Caltex after the 1965 and 1971 wars-during=20
which they played an uncooperative role. They also created the Oil=20
Coordination Committee, cross-subsidised the Oil Pool, and promoted=20
energy conservation.

Pivotal among them were the highly gifted, intensely practical,=20
Lovraj Kumar-a former Shell executive, who "defected" to public=20
service-, V.B. Easwaran and G.V. Ramakrishna, who later headed SEBI=20
and the Disinvestment Commission whose reports the privatisers=20
selectively use today, but which never recommended oil company=20
privatisation.

The NDA government is about to liquidate the gains from all these=20
painstaking efforts of 45 years-and sell precious hydrocarbons=20
assets. There is, can be, no economic rationale for this. The oil and=20
gas companies-and related downstream units like IPCL-are highly=20
profitable, reasonably well-managed, technologically capable, and=20
competitive by international standards. Indeed, BPCL, HPCL and=20
IndianOil have respectively beaten Shell, Esso and Caltex hollow in=20
the sale of lubricants, which was unfairly thrust on them at their=20
own retail outlets, thanks to a shameful compromise in the mid-1990s!

Earlier governments milked the public oil companies to finance=20
profligacy, paying them a fifth of the international crude price,=20
pocketing enormous dividends, interfering with their day-to-day=20
working, and forcing them to sell oilfields (e.g. Ravva, Mukta and=20
Panna) they discovered at huge costs, for exploitation by private=20
Indian and foreign companies.

That was bad enough. But instead of reforming the oil companies, this=20
regime is set to sell these navaratnas outright-to (ouch!)=20
"strategic" partners.

Such a policy can only be founded upon a political-ideological (as=20
distinct from economic) premise: all that's public is bad,=20
inefficient, corrupt; all that's private is good, efficient, clean.=20
Theoretically, this neo-liberal premise flows from Chicago-style=20
voodoo economics. Practically, it has generated utterly disastrous=20
results. This is what has led former World Bank chief economist and=20
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz to term privatisation "robberisation".

Consider this. Western Europe has for decades run an efficient,=20
profitable, competitive public sector, which until recently accounted=20
for 30, often 50 percent, of industry, a much higher proportion than=20
in India. This was a distinctive feature of the "Golden Age of=20
Capitalism", the most sustained 40-year-long period of growth and=20
generalised prosperity in the West. Japan, S Korea, Taiwan and=20
Singapore have similarly industrialised under state-directed=20
investment, also establishing a distinctly different model from the=20
American one.

Even today, public services in industrialised societies which are run=20
along non-American models are distinctly superior to those in "free=20
market" America. Britain and France are now discovering the virtues=20
of re-nationalising the railways, water and telecom. Public-funded=20
Airbus Industrie has stood its ground against Boeing, while=20
McDonnell-Douglas and numerous other private firms have collapsed.

To cite China as privatisation's "success story" is to miss the=20
point. Most of China's "miraculous" growth and poverty reduction=20
occurred because of land reforms, "town and village enterprises", and=20
state-directed public and private investment, long before the recent=20
privatisation drive, which is producing explosive inequalities,=20
painful unemployment, and massive impoverishment.

In India, those who rant about the 100-odd loss-making Central public=20
sector units turn a blind eye to the clear majority of PSUs that are=20
profitable (with over 100 percent return on equity over seven years),=20
and the three lakh-plus private units that have gone kaput, including=20
249,630 small-scale industries (source: Planning Commission). Central=20
PSUs collectively have a respectable 8-10 percent=20
profit-after-tax-to-net-worth ratio, and a 14 to 16 percent=20
gross-profits-to-capital ratio.

The closed private units' burden on the banking system alone=20
(accounting for much of its Rs 65,000-to-100,000 crores=20
non-performing assets) is several times higher than the Rs 2,500=20
crores average annual loss from all the loss-making PSUs together=20
(excluding the profitable majority). A Standing Committee on Public=20
Enterprises study shows that the top 50 PSUs perform better than the=20
top 50 private companies.

These are the very PSUs the government wants to sell off-after=20
undervaluing their true worth. The greatest perversity here is that=20
the government persists with its dogma-driven plans after the=20
post-Enron global crisis of capital has ruthlessly exposed the=20
irrationality and destructive potential of the neo-liberal=20
"free-market" model, highlighting the sewers of sleaze, bribery and=20
corruption that fuel American corporate operations.

India's policy-makers must emerge from their cuckoo world of=20
neo-liberal economics and corporate-driven politics. They should=20
produce a comprehensive White Paper on disinvestment for serious,=20
open debate before selling a single sou of public assets.-end-

______

#5.

[Published in: Mainstream, vol. xl, no. 37, 31 August 2002.]

Maun Mushtanda: The Strong, Silent Man

Mukul Dube

Mr. Lal K. Advani, Home Minister and now Deputy Prime Minister of the=20
Republic of India, is for the most part a silent man. His statements=20
are few and far between. The hush which follows them, which often=20
engulfs even our otherwise increasingly noisy media, suggests that=20
they are The Law. It suggests that Mr. Advani is a Strong Man.=20
Therefore his pronouncements are anxiously awaited. They are widely=20
taken to be barometer and windsock.

To the simple mind, the Home Minister is meant to look to affairs=20
within the country. In recent months hundreds, even thousands, of=20
Bharatiya nagariks have died in Gujarat. The figures are disputed=20
(Government of Gujarat vs. Rest of the World), but one thing is=20
beyond dispute. It is that the aforesaid Lal K. Advani has been very=20
coy indeed about visiting Gujarat, indisputably a part of India and=20
thus within the jagir of the grihamantri - who, we should also note,=20
owes his seat in Parliament to Gandhinagar in the same province.

Why did Mr. Advani not go and camp in Gujarat after the burning of=20
kar sevaks at Godhra? An event of that nature and magnitude fell=20
squarely in the lap of the Home Minister. Why did the HM not go and=20
tangibly demonstrate his concern and ensure that investigations were=20
launched?

I believe that the answer lies in the safety which distance affords,=20
the safety of silence. Mr. Narendra Modi's mar sevaks in Gujarat had=20
for long been ideologically primed and physically armed to massacre=20
Muslims. To the safai karmacharis, as these faithful are also called=20
- because the safaya of non-Hindus is their purpose in life, their=20
divinely ordained mission - Godhra was a godsend. Their impatience=20
may have become difficult to control had they been kept waiting much=20
longer. Hungry hyenas can attack one another, and even the Head Hyena=20
is not safe.

The possibility is now being examined that Godhra was not a mere=20
godsend, that it was the work of "human" agency; but that is not a=20
matter which we shall discuss here, beyond saying that if the people=20
in the burning carriage really were sacrificed - or sacrificed=20
themselves - then never in history can there have been a more=20
dishonourable cause.

It is true, of course, that the butchery, rape and burning which=20
followed Godhra chronologically, because it was almost entirely of=20
Muslims, did not cause the Hon'ble Home Minister to leave his=20
important work of running the country. To the nikkardhari, a Muslim=20
can be neither Indian nor even human: so Mr. Advani, whose closets=20
and mind are brimful with the nikkars of Hindutva, would have had no=20
reason to visit Gujarat just because several hundred Muslims' lives=20
had been snuffed out. There would be time enough later to celebrate=20
the gaurav which came of that extermination of vermin.

Besides, the grihamantri's boys in Gujarat were doing good work and=20
needed encouragement. His comments from the citadel of Indraprastha=20
were really the praise of a fan-financier-coach for his Dream Team -=20
restrained praise, to be sure, but then the boys will have known that=20
there were too many of the "pseudo-secular" enemy about to permit=20
open speech and the public issuance of instructions.

Let us rapidly recount what was said and what was not done.

On 28 February, at 1605 I.S.T., Mr. Advani was reported as saying in=20
Parliament that the Centre was "in touch" with the Gujarat government=20
to find out if Godhra was what it seemed to be "or there was any=20
other angle to it" [Rediff.com]. It does not seem to have occurred to=20
the Hon'ble Home Minister that the burning alive of Hindu religious=20
militants could have unpleasant consequences in a province in which=20
many Muslims lived. It was Opposition members who warned of the=20
danger. What became of their warning? "The home minister then said=20
that he was in touch with the chief minister and would ensure that=20
necessary measures were taken to maintain communal harmony."=20
[Rediff.com]

The precise means by which Mr. Advani kept in touch with the Chief=20
Minister of Gujarat - whether a Communion of Souls or a mundane=20
procedure - are not known. What is known is that nothing whatsoever=20
was done to "maintain communal harmony". On the contrary, the=20
cell-phone-carrying, sword-wielding maniacs of Hindutva were left=20
free to maraud, kill, maim, rape, burn at will - and, as some have=20
suggested quite seriously, State apparatus was allowed or ordered to=20
stand by and watch, and also to lend a hand, or a rifle shot, when=20
that seemed advisable.

On 1 March, in seeking to establish that State machinery had not been=20
a mute witness or worse, Mr. Advani cited the 77 deaths which had=20
occurred due to firing by the police [several published sources]. He=20
did not say that of the 40 people thus killed in the first two days,=20
36 were Muslims. Had he been pressed, perhaps he would have explained=20
away the four tragic deaths as unfortunate accidents of the kind=20
which happen because innocent bystanders always suffer.

On 3 March, Mr. Advani pronounced that Godhra was a "pre-meditated=20
attack", while what happened later was "nothing but communal=20
violence" [several published sources]. In the months since, the=20
Hon'ble Home Minister has produced no evidence to substantiate his=20
claim of premeditation. Nor has he done anything to counter the=20
charge levelled by various individuals and groups that the violence=20
against Muslims was genocide meticulously planned and carried out=20
with the passive and active connivance of State machinery.

On 13 April in Goa, while the National Poet-Statesman Shri Atal B.=20
Vajpayee, he of the trembling knees, fulminated, though in prose,=20
against Muslims the world over, Mr. Lal K. Advani said that the BJP=20
should not be apologetic about its agenda and about Hindutva [several=20
published sources]. It should not be surprising if his mar sevaks=20
took this to be praise of their mayhem-as-nationalism approach to the=20
greater glory of Ramji.

On 1 May, Mr. Advani opined, as always suavely and sagely, that it=20
was the responsibility of the Gujarat administration to restore peace=20
and communal harmony [Hindustan Times, 2 May]. Law and order is a=20
state subject, after all. This was said in the course of denying any=20
need for intervention by the Union Government. He was in fact saying,=20
"My boys are in full control" - and so they were, of course they=20
were. He had to concede that there had been "administrative and=20
police lapses" [Indian Express, 2 May], but the implication was that=20
these were of the order of minor clerical errors, petty bungling=20
which the majestic ship of Hindu Rashtra need not trouble with.

On 16 June in Ahmedabad, Mr. Advani said, "The government's efforts=20
for rehabilitation is [sic] satisfactory." However, there was a need=20
for the building of "harmony, amity and trust." That same day, by a=20
strange coincidence, the Qaumi Relief Committee of that same city=20
spoke of "broken promises and unfulfilled assurances" and announced=20
that it planned a dharna for the next day [Hindu, 17 June]. Clearly,=20
that Committee was far from satisfied.

But Mr. Advani had said that he was satisfied. He may be a man easy=20
to satisfy: or else he may have been too busy with weighty matters to=20
notice. For example, there was a Tuberculosis Research Bhavan and=20
ayurvedic hospital to be inaugurated, no doubt to bring secular=20
relief to Hindu lungs damaged by the toxic fumes of burning Muslims.

In an interview given to a troublesome U.S. magazine shortly before=20
this, Mr. Advani had said that it had given him "satisfaction that=20
the government took action against the wrongdoers" [Time, 17 June].=20
Why, then, are Gujarat's Muslims still afraid to venture out on to=20
the streets, afraid even to return to their own homes? What was the=20
action taken? That we do not know: the strong, silent man never=20
amplifies. It is enough that the world will have read that this had=20
been said by an important man who will have been presumed to be=20
honest and truthful. The honour of Brutus?

But one editorial has described Mr. Advani's expressing satisfaction=20
with largely or entirely imaginary rehabilitation measures as rubbing=20
salt in the wounds of the victims, nearly all of whom are Muslims=20
[Hindu, 21 June].

And how did the Government of Gujarat propose to spread the message=20
of communal amity, how would it have applied the "healing touch"?=20
Through ratha yatras, of course, that splendidly martial symbol of=20
Hindu religious pacifism and good will towards all. And what of the=20
pride and glory born of these, their gaurav? Hindutva is full of it.

Should we think it a coincidence that the Maun Mushtanda is the=20
Original Latter-Day Maharathi, the noise alone of whose Ratha Yatra=20
in 1990 struck terror in the hearts of so many - including, despite=20
his eminently Hindu name, the present writer?

______

#6.

From: Eklavya (Madhya Pradesh, India)
Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 7:53 PM
Subject: HSTP - Update 24

September 6, 2002

HSTP UPDATE - 24
THE HSTP DEBATE CONTINUES - REFLECTION IN MEDIA

There have been another spate of articles and news-reports during the=20
last fortnight. In addition to providing the references we are also=20
attaching these for ready reference.

1. Latest issue of frontline carries an article by R Ramchandran=20
- Axing a science teaching programme Source:=20
<http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1918/19180860.htm>http://www.frontlineonne=
t.com/fl1918/19180860.htm=20
Volume 19 - Issue 18, Aug 31 - Sept 13, 2002. Also attaching the=20
article.
2. Press statement was issued by 13 eminent Indian scientists=20
which was carried in a number of newspapers on 3rd and 4th September.=20
Statement and list of signatories attached.
3. Prof PM Bhargava, founding director of CCMB, Hyderabad=20
addressed a press conference and issued the statement by scientists=20
in Bhopal on 3rd September.
4. Latest issue of EPW published a letter by Shri Manu Kulkarni=20
responding to the editorial published in EPW on 25.06.02 - Dead hand=20
of obscurantism. In-between another letter was also published in EPW=20
on 03.08.02 - Eklavya closure notice - announcing the state govt's=20
final decision to close the HSTP and the Social Science programme of=20
Eklavya. Attaching the letter. Do respond to the issues raised in=20
these letters to EPW at <mailto:epw@v...>epw@v... and=20
<mailto:edit@e...>edit@e...
5. Shikshantar has posted Prof Ramakant Agnihotri's article on=20
there web-magazine. You can give a link on the HSTP site. It's on=20
their message board.=20
<http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar>www.swaraj.org/shikshantar Article=20
attached.
6. Rashtriya Sahara carried an article by KR Sharma on the edit=20
page on 23rd August.

We do have a number of unpublished articles in English and Hindi. If=20
you have any suggestions on how and where these could be used do let=20
us know.

Most of the articles in English are also available on the HSTP site=20
developed by the Columbia University Asha chapter. The site has=20
become an extensive documentation ground for the current debate but=20
it also has a number of other important HSTP documents as well. Do=20
visit this site and sign the Online petition if you haven't managed=20
to do that till now.

<http://www.cisl.columbia.edu/grads/presi/EKLAVYA/>http://www.cisl.columbia=
.edu/grads/presi/EKLAVYA/
It has link to a new petition also:
<http://www.PetitionOnline.com/forhstp/petition.html>http://www.PetitionOnl=
ine.com/forhstp/petition.html

In the meanwhile the state government has issued another press=20
statement on 2nd September in response to the Scientists appeal.=20
While this statement is quite conciliatory in tone it does not=20
address / concretise any of the questions that Eklavya had raised in=20
its last letter to the CM on 7th August. There has been no response=20
to the letter till date. We will focus on this aspect in the next=20
update.

Do circulate the updates to the others - relevant egroups,=20
list-servers etc as we aren't being able to reach all those who might=20
be interested in this issue.

Rajesh Khindri, Kamal Mahendroo, Tultul Biswas, and others
For HSTP and Eklavya

_____

#7.

The Guardian
Saturday July 13, 2002

Siddhartha Deb on Parita Mukta's memoir, Shards of Memory, that=20
captures the migrant experience among Gujarat's Hindu diaspora

Shards of Memory: Woven Lives in Four Generations
by Parita Mukta
214pp, Weidenfeld, =A316.99

Gujarat, home to a culture of seafaring and trading that long=20
preceded colonialism and globalisation, is now remarkable for the=20
manner in which its elite has acted during the recent riots. Leaving=20
the advance guard of the lumpenproletariat to carry out mass=20
slaughter and rape of Muslims, the middle class of the cities arrived=20
in Maruti cars to pick apart Muslim-owned shops, using cellphones to=20
inform each other of the best targets.

Parita Mukta's memoir, Shards of Memory, has its locus in Gujarat,=20
and the diasporic community it describes is usually understood to be=20
among the foremost supporters of the Hindu right. What we encounter,=20
however, is an expansive and accommodating vision that engages with=20
the challenges of making oneself at home in a wider world. Spanning a=20
period from the 1920s to the present, the book details the lives of=20
Mukta's family as they struggle to orient themselves along a=20
migratory route that leads from India to Kenya to England.

This is a trail dominated, Mukta writes, "by the figure of a South=20
Asian (usually male) migrant for whom making a fast buck is the=20
be-all and end-all of life"; the people depicted here, in contrast,=20
negotiate a more complex relationship with society, best captured by=20
a Stuart Hall quotation Mukta uses frequently: "Do not go out and eat=20
this world."

Mukta, a sociology lecturer at Warwick University, divides her book=20
into sections organised around four individuals, using the personal=20
stories and reminiscences as staging posts from which to engage with=20
the long march of history. In telling us about her remarkable=20
grandmother Ba, who joined her husband in Nairobi at 15 and brought=20
up nine children, Mukta also traces the contours of widowhood and=20
hunger in a scattered Hindu community, using oral history, family=20
anecdotes and accounts of 19th-century reform movements. Written by a=20
less certain hand, these layers of analysis could have obscured the=20
human figure; in this case they dissolve the distinction between=20
public and private.

Mukta's encyclopaedic intention does not always have the best of=20
effects. There is a glut of not-particularly-relevant information,=20
and the scholarly scaffolding of footnotes fairly creaks. Instead,=20
one would prefer a more thorough exploration of the issues. Mukta,=20
writing of herself in the third person, merely alludes to the=20
circumstances of a rift with her father, who, "raw from the injuries=20
inflicted on him by a privileged race, rejected his daughter's=20
choice, for the partner was a member of that race".

One also wants the author to examine the groundswell of support for=20
the Hindu rightwing among her relatives and acquaintances over the=20
demolition of India's Babri Mosque in 1992: "The poison spread to the=20
diaspora - indeed, the antagonism was in large part fuelled there,"=20
she writes.

Mukta's book is meant to be an antidote to that poison, with its=20
account of people who would not go out and eat the world. But 10=20
years after the demolition of the Babri Mosque, it has become more=20
important than ever to engage directly with those who will go out and=20
eat the world, and are doing so even now.

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