[sacw] SACW #1 | 19 Sept. 02

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire #1 | 19 September 2002

__________________________

#1. Indian and Pakistan - Diplomacy by mud-slinging (Praful Bidwai)
#2. Interim Report of the Phase I of Assembly Elections (J&K)=20
(Coalition of Civil Society
(J&K and India)
#3. Rotten roots (Ashok Mitra)
#4. Supreme Court Verdict on Curriculum Framework
and the Challenge of Communalism (V.K.Tripathi)
#5. Hostage to Fascists! (C R Irani)
__________________________

#1.

The News International (Pakistan)
September 19, 2002

Diplomacy by mud-slinging

Praful Bidwai

The unseemly conduct of Indian and Pakistani leaders at the ritual=20
annual inaugural session of the United Nations General Assembly has=20
become so utterly predictable that the ordinary citizen must ask if=20
they should be allowed to burn millions of rupees of his/her money to=20
hurl foul abuse at each other, which they might as well do from New=20
Delhi and Islamabad.

After all, the leaders' target audiences are not in New York, but=20
here in the subcontinent. The larger world ignores the details of=20
their mutual diatribes except by way of vicarious (at times,=20
prurient) interest in their sordid mud-slinging. The only people who=20
get worked up about the contents of their UN speeches are=20
super-patriotic sections of the accompanying press corps, which=20
faithfully-meals, beverages and accommodation duly covered-tell their=20
domestic audiences how the Prime Minister/President delivered each=20
other a brilliant repartee, rude rebuff or outright insult.

Even so, what transpired last week should shock us for the sheer=20
crassness of the language used first by President Musharraf and then=20
by Prime Minister Vajpayee. Musharraf's fire-and-brimstone speech=20
attacked New Delhi's policies, intentions and plans, and the very=20
legitimacy of Indian democracy. Vajpayee's tirade matched the General=20
word for word, and parodied his right to criticise India.

In the process, both leaders lost an opportunity to engage with=20
important international developments, including the United States'=20
ill-conceived plans to invade Iraq. Both emerged looking self- (and=20
mutually) obsessed-and politically mauled.

Yet, on sober reflection, many of the uncomplimentary things=20
Musharraf and Vajpayee said about each other appear dismayingly TRUE=20
and VALID. Musharraf was right in saying that India's "threatening"=20
border posture upped the ante, that New Delhi wants "crisis=20
management" (through J&K elections) to "become a substitute for=20
conflict resolution" (of Kashmir), and that "there is need to redress=20
the root-causes of terrorism..."

One can question Musharraf's motive in raising the Gujarat issue. But=20
it is absolutely true that 2000 Muslims were massacred there "with=20
the complicity of BJP state leaders".

Similarly, Vajpayee was right in accusing Musharraf of manipulating=20
"voting and counting procedures to win a referendum" and achieving=20
"constitutional authority by the simple expedient" of writing his own=20
Constitution. Vajpayee cannot be faulted for underscoring the dangers=20
of "nuclear blackmail" (which Pakistan and India have both=20
practised). And he was right to say it requires "legal acrobatics to=20
believe that the carnage of innocents is an instrument of freedom and=20
elections are a symbol of deception ..."

These propositions reflect the terrible realities amidst which the=20
peoples of India and Pakistan live, and which their leaders=20
rationalise through sophistry and low-level demagoguery.

However, equally distressing are those parts of Musharraf's and=20
Vajpayee's addresses which are UNTRUE and INVALID. Musharraf was=20
plain wrong in characterising the Kashmir militancy as a "freedom=20
struggle" being waged by the Kashmiri people without external=20
interference, and in dismissing the J&K elections, "under Indian=20
occupation", as an exercise that will "not help peace", but might=20
"set it back".

There is not one movement, but two, in progress in Kashmir. One is=20
centred on azadi (whose precise meaning remains undefined, but which=20
encompasses everything from autonomy within, to full independence,=20
from India). This enjoys overwhelming popular support.

The other movement is driven by violent orthodox-Wahhabi=20
secessionism, sponsored by foreign secret agencies. Popular support=20
for it has eroded considerably. As argued last week, the elections=20
are proving to be no farce. After Mushtaq Lone's killing, there is=20
fear and insecurity in the Valley. The militants' guns have depressed=20
the polling rate, but failed to enforce a boycott.

For his part, Vajpayee was wrong to characterise as "patently false=20
and self-serving" Musharraf's claim that India's religious minorities=20
are the "Hindu extremists'" targets. The extremists, whose tribe=20
Vajpayee himself sympathises with, indeed want a state based on Hindu=20
primacy.

Vajpayee claimed: "We are proud of the multi-religious character of=20
our society"; secularism "is the signature tune of India's=20
civilisation and culture". But secularism is definitely NOT the=20
signature tune of Hindutva.

Nor was the Gujarat pogrom an "aberration", as Vajpayee claimed=20
elsewhere in New York. Gujarat was of course unprecedented for the=20
scale of violence and for state collusion in a large-scale pogrom.=20
But it is by no means an "aberration" for the political course that=20
Hindutva has taken. Gujarat was Hindutva's greatest "laboratory". As=20
the VHP's Ashok Singhal puts it, the pogrom was a "successful=20
experiment".

The real import of Vajpayee's rhetoric became clear through his=20
freewheeling remarks at a September 14 meeting of non-resident=20
Indians. Vajpayee not only accused Musharraf of "lying beyond=20
limits"; he was back to his familiar Hindutva theme-there is nothing=20
wrong in the "saffronisation" of education, education cannot be=20
divorced from "culture", etc.

Vajpayee accused the pre-Partition Muslim League of not participating=20
in the Freedom Struggle. An amazing-and untrue-remark from a member=20
of the sangh parivar, which notoriously collaborated with the=20
colonial state. (Vajpayee himself pledged loyalty to the British to=20
secure his release from jail in 1942!)

The combination of truth and falsehood, and lofty rhetoric and crude=20
slander, involved in such mutual vilification is clearly the result=20
both of domestic politics in India and Pakistan, and the two states'=20
competition for Washington's affections. The exercise only locks them=20
and the US into an even-more-rigid unequal triangular relationship,=20
in which America towers over the shaky base formed by the=20
subcontinental rivals.

A year after September 11, our rulers have comprehensively failed to=20
understand that their rivalry for pre-eminence within Washington's=20
scheme of things, to each other's exclusion, is essentially futile.

The US has upgraded India, but it has also given an important place=20
to Islamabad-not entirely because of "negative" short-term factors=20
like Pakistan's proximity to Afghanistan and mujahideen links with=20
Al-Qaeda, but also as a staging-post and ally in future American=20
plans for West and Central Asia.

Similarly, India is significant for the US as an Emerging Market,=20
source of cheap labour and skill-based services, a long-term counter=20
to China, a loyal ally that "escorts" US warships to the Straits of=20
Malacca-and possibly, even as a once-Non-Aligned Third World sidekick.

However, by zealously courting the US for an "exclusive"=20
relationship, India and Pakistan are missing the multilateral bus.=20
One of the greatest threats facing the world today is the undermining=20
of the structure of multilateralism and international institutions=20
built brick-by-brick over two centuries. The US seems bent upon=20
pulling down the edifice. Iraq is the test case. Washington has=20
arrogantly told the UN: support our attack on Iraq, or else ...

To their utter disgrace, India and Pakistan had nothing to say in New=20
York on Iraq or on multilateralism. Vajpayee carefully avoided any=20
reference to Iraq. And Musharraf said Pakistan has too much on its=20
plate to get involved in the Middle East.

Such pusillanimity speaks poorly of our leaders in the face of the=20
likelihood of a patently illegal, unilateralist, unprovoked, military=20
action against a Third World country that has suffered the death of=20
half a million children and countless other ignominies under the=20
world's toughest-yet, arbitrary-sanctions. Unfettered unilateralism=20
could open the floodgates to international brigandage-to our=20
collective horror.

______

#2.

Coalition of Civil Society
(J&K and India)

Interim Report of the Phase I of Assembly Elections (J&K)

As members of the civil society we were to observe the conduct of the=20
elections for the J&K State Legislative Assembly. The group=B9s terms=20
of reference were: -

1. Use of coercion
2. Interaction with electorate to find out why they participated or abstain=
ed

In this endeavour we formed joint teams comprising of people from=20
Jammu and Kashmir and different parts of India. Four teams =AD between=20
them =AD covered two districts and around 100 polling stations. We=20
travelled mostly to the polling booths in the rural areas and some in=20
the towns. While our final report with complete documentary evidence=20
would be made available after the completion of the elections, we are=20
releasing an interim report of the first phase.=A0

The Coalition observed Phase I of the 2002 J& K Assembly elections in=20
the two districts of Baramulla and Kupwara on 16 September. Twenty=20
one volunteers from all over India and J&K divided into 4 groups and=20
toured the two districts for the following constituencies.

1. Pattan, Sopore, Bandipora and Sonawari
2. Sangrama, Baramulla and Rafiabad
3. Kupwara, Handwara and Langate

The Coalition found that contrary to the impression sought to be=20
created by the government there was widespread coercion by the=20
security forces on the people to cast their vote. The main agencies=20
responsible were the Rashtriya Rifles and the Border Security Force,=20
although there were instance involving other para-military forces,=20
along with the renegades. Instances observed by the team are detailed=20
below. It is not clear whether the initiative for coercion came from=20
field commanders at the local level or whether there was pressure=20
from higher levels to push up the voter participation rate. Whatever=20
the case, it is reprehensible that coercion occurred in the face of=20
clear instructions from the Election Commission.

There were a variety of forms of coercion and other malpractices used=20
in the areas visited by our teams. In many instances, announcements=20
were made from the village mosques- at the insistence of the Security=20
Forces - asking people to go and cast their votes. In some cases this=20
was accompanied by implicit and explicit threats. In any case, given=20
the overwhelming presence of the security forces, the fear is=20
palpable. In many areas villagers complained of being instructed at=20
early hours of 16th September, by the Security Force personnel to go=20
and cast their votes. In several polling stations, there were=20
complaints of people being denied their right to vote either because=20
their names were not there in the electoral rolls or because somebody=20
else had already cast his/her vote. There were also instances of=20
women in Burqa (not from the electoral rolls of the locality- as=20
testified by villagers) visiting the polling booth in turns casting=20
vote again and again. In this particular instance the female voters=20
were four times that of male voters and there were no women cops to=20
verify the identity of women voters.

Instances of Coercion=A0

We cite the following instances to illustrate the above:

1. Uchar (Handwara constituency) - Coercion was more frequent in=20
villages off the main roads that remained unvisited by the mainstream=20
media and international observers. An example is the village of Uchar=20
about 2.5 km along a kacha road from the polling station at Magam,=20
Handwara constituency, which personnel of the 24 RR led by a major,=20
accompanied by Ikhwanis, visited early in the morning. Reportedly,=20
they pulled people out of their houses, beat some of them up, and=20
herded them in a large group like "bhed bakris" down to the polling=20
station. The villagers were not willing to vote as in previous=20
elections, but had their ID cards impounded and were told these would=20
not be returned until they had cast their votes. Apparently a fracas=20
then occurred and there was firing in the air. Team 1 reached Magam=20
at about 3 pm and on being stopped by a large number of excited=20
villagers, visited Uchar where they started checking with the few=20
persons left behind in the village, mostly women. Within moments a=20
team of 7 Ikhwanis in full uniform with guns and ammunition belts=20
walked into the village from the opposite direction. Realizing the=20
villagers would no longer be able to talk freely, the team returned=20
to Magam where it tried to contact the 24 RR. It noticed RR personnel=20
walking out of the polling station compound at about 4 pm. One of=20
them told the team to contact the Commanding Officer in Drugmulla,=20
but refused to disclose his own identity (and was wearing no insignia=20
of rank) or to discuss the incident. Uchar residents, who showed the=20
team fresh injuries, begged the team not to report any names since=20
they would have absolutely no redress in the event of a "crackdown"=20
as retaliation for having spoken to the team. Some of them had voted=20
but were still awaiting the return of their ID cards. This is the=20
atmosphere of intimidation in which the election was carried out in a=20
large number of remoter villages.

2. In Ara Mohalla and Bhat Mohalla of the Pattan constituency, at=20
around 9:15 a.m, team members, witnessed RR soldiers knocking at=20
doors, ordering people to come out of their homes and go to the=20
polling booth. On seeing the team the soldiers first ran away, then=20
took positions (as if some attack was happening) and asked the team=20
to leave.

3. In village Ajas, Bandipora constituency, team-3 arrived at 3 p.m.=20
to find to find that personnel of 33 RR had just beaten up two=20
civilians, Mohammad Ashraf Lone and Mustafa Wani, of whom one had=20
sustained a head injury. The team had to take them to the local=20
hospital.

4. In village Kehnusa (first polling booth of the Bandipora=20
constituency where the team arrived at 1 p.m.) the polling officer=20
reported to the team that people went up to him pleading him to put=20
the ink mark on their fingers- so that they could avoid the wrath of=20
the Army personnel - at the same time refusing to vote. In another=20
instance recorded by the team, a BSF officer told the team how he and=20
his troops managed to herd a huge crowd of voters, when a major=20
electronic news channel was visiting the booth.

5. In village Trissa of Sonawari constituency, villagers were waiting=20
for the army personnel at 5 pm on the road side, to show the finger=20
ink evidence of their having cast their votes.

These are only very few of the cases of coercion combined with=20
electoral malpractices performed in the districts which our teams=20
visited.

The Coalition urges all Indians to recognize the complexity and=20
variety of motivations and intentions that lay behind the vote. Most=20
Kashmiris in previous elections exercised their democratic right not=20
to vote. This was to protest the failure of the Government of India=20
to address the demand of the people to decide their own destiny and=20
those who cast their vote did so in order to improve the quality and=20
responsiveness of state and local governance and administration. It=20
would be a grave mistake however to see it as a vindication of=20
policies followed so far. A large number of those who voted told=20
members of the team that they did so with absolutely no prejudice to=20
their respective positions on the way forward to seeking a just=20
solution to the future of Kashmir.

The EC is responsible for the conduct of elections. From time to time=20
the CEC had announced that:
- The Security Forces are not to coerce people to cast their vote and
- Armed renegades were prohibited from being present in the areas=20
where polling was to take place.

Both these orders of the CEC stand flouted in the First Phase of=20
elections held for the J&K State Assembly.

_____

#3.

Communalism Combat (Mumbai, India) September 2002
Year 9 No.80

Rotten roots
The crisis the country is facing today has a most respectable=20
genesis; it is intricately linked to the history of the movement for=20
Independence

BY ASHOK MITRA

To be less than blunt will be altogether pointless. The crisis the=20
country is facing has a most respectable genesis; it is intricately=20
linked to the history of the movement for independence. Mahatma=20
Gandhi, whom we love to describe as the Father of the Nation, was the=20
indisputable leader of that movement in the early decades of the last=20
century. He was in search of a paradigm which could capture the=20
imagination of the innocent, illiterate, ill-fed, ill=ADclad masses and=20
inspire them to be active participants in the great endeavour to=20
liberate the nation from foreign subjection. Religiosity, he=20
concluded, held the answer.

His ceaseless pontification has a single message: freedom would bring=20
back the Ram Rajya of Puranic times; in Ram Rajya, justice and=20
fairplay prevailed in all seasons, nobody exploited anybody else and=20
people lived happily together under the benign rule of Lord Rama.=20
Whether Lord Rama=B9s treatment of his consort, Sita was impeccably=20
correct was an issue that was conveniently brushed aside. Rama was=20
the embodiment of all virtues, and once the country was rid of=20
foreign rule, equity and manna would begin to drop from heaven.

The dream of Ram Rajya, the just kingdom, was the incitement Gandhiji=20
provided his people. The paradigm, however, was sectarian to begin=20
with. It was a Hindu paradigm; to the innocent masses, who=20
overwhelmingly belonged to the Hindu community, the liberated land=20
would be another Ram Rajya all right, but one the denominational=20
identity of which could hardly remain vague. The Ram Rajya was a=20
Hindu concept, post=ADliberation India would ipso facto be a Hindu=20
domain.

The other communities were excluded. The problem lay with the=20
Gandhian model. A subterranean attitude of the mind was=20
simultaneously pervasive after all: we have made a gift of Pakistan=20
to the Muslims; the rest of the great Indian subcontinent naturally=20
belongs to us, the Hindus. It did not matter what the sophisticated=20
thin stratum at the top thought or felt; for the nation=B9s multitude,=20
the imagery of India was that of a basically Hindu land. That imagery=20
has not weakened in the course of the past half a century and more.

The sojourn from Gandhiji=B9s Ram Rajya to the Ram Rajya of the Ram=20
Rajya Parishad and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad was therefore not=20
particularly arduous. The Parishad could claim to be the sincerest=20
followers of the Gandhian path. And it should not be much of a=20
surprise that the medieval savagery the country has witnessed this=20
year had Gandhiji=B9s very own Gujarat as its venue. The current=20
thought of a considerable number of Gujarati Hindus bears traces of=20
Gandhiji=B9s ideological baggage. What is true for Gujarat is equally=20
true for the rest of the country. It is not for nothing that the=20
offspring of such eminent Congress leaders as Pandit Govind Vallabh=20
Pant and Lal Bahadur Shastri are distinguished members of the top=20
hierarchy of Bhartiya Janata Party leadership.

The poison tree that has impeccable roots has made nonsense of the=20
Indian Constitution=B9s secular pretensions. Jawaharlal Nehru, free=20
India=B9s first prime minister, was unable to conceal his emotions in=20
those heady days: no fooling, he was going to preside over a secular=20
India. Nehru had a noble mind. Unfortunately, it was also a flawed=20
mind. A secular republic, Nehru thought, is one whose government=20
tends to be equally sympathetic to all religions and communities. He=20
would accordingly hop from temple to temple and satisfy his secular=20
conscience by visiting mosques, gurdwaras, churches and synagogues=20
with equal gusto. Since the number of Hindu temples in the country=20
far exceeded the number of religious sites identifiable with other=20
faiths, it was his visits to the Hindu institutions which caught the=20
attention of the media and therefore of the general public.

The malady spread, and with rapidity, following Nehru=B9s departure=20
from the scene. India Gandhi=B9s persona was an enigma: she was a=20
modern woman par excellence; however, she had a religious streak in=20
her, laced with strong superstitious beliefs. Sadhus and fakes of the=20
Hindu denomination were constantly visible in her neighbourhood. Her=20
elder son, who too became prime minister, was born of a Parsi father=20
and wedded to a Catholic wife.

Democracy is a mug=B9s game though, and one must flaunt one=B9s=20
denominational credentials if the prime object is the garnering of=20
votes. Photographs exist of the young prime minister of India bowing=20
down, bare bodied, before Hindu priests while visiting holy Hindu=20
temples and seeking benediction. These pictures were regularly=20
flashed across newspaper pages. The subconscious Hindu mind, nestling=20
in the bodies of millions of honest, innocent Indians, could not but=20
take the hint.

Soon the electronic media was drawn in. The great Puranic epics, the=20
Ramayana and the Mahabharata, were serialised for years on end under=20
government auspices on the Doordarshan screen. The Hindu epics were=20
government=ADsponsored epics; by inference, the government had to be=20
Hindu. For a few weeks, as a balancing stratagem, those in authority=20
with some leftover conscience tried to run a serial on Tipu Sultan.=20
That proved to be extremely disappointing and was abandoned pronto.

The Republic of India continued to be nominally secular, but it was=20
Hindu secular. Hindu secularism defined itself as one which does not=20
mind the powers that be to patronise occasionally other denominations=20
as well. There is a catch though: others are tolerated, Hindus are=20
the dominant entity.

The rest of the grisly story is easily summed up. The practice of=20
Vast Pug persists in all construction activities in the public=20
sector. A boat, built in a government workshop and owned by a=20
government company, cannot be floated into the waters without the=20
crushing of a coconut. Hindu totems choke public offices. You should=20
not be surprised to find incense burning before the picture of a=20
Hindu deity when you step into the lift in a government building or=20
take a ride in a government car.

Secularism has lost its way. It has come to be defined as a state of=20
existence where the government is equally chummy, at least on paper,=20
with all religions; in reality, it is much more chummy with Hindu=20
ascriptions. The awareness that genuine secularism is something else=20
=8B a condition of being where the State is equi-distant from all=20
religions, is indifferent to all of them and keeps all of them at=20
arm=B9s length =8B has in the present circumstances, ceased to exist.

Competitive democracy, besides, has its own rules and an infectious=20
disease is an infectious disease. For his sins, the present writer=20
was once a minister in a state government which was immensely proud=20
of its Left radical credentials. One of his most shameful memories of=20
that tenure concerns a cabinet decision to declare a public holiday=20
on the occasion of a solar eclipse; some eminent astrologers had=20
predicted the end of the world on that day and the state government=20
did not want to go against the general sentiments of the people: is=20
it not a reasonable proposition that, on the last day of human=20
existence, one should be in the midst of one=B9s near and dear ones and=20
not be attending office?

It is going to be a long, long haul before the parameters of this=20
society could be totally overhauled. And that will remain a very dim=20
possibility as long as the present political establishment, infested=20
by crooks and hypocrites and devoid of all scruples and moral=20
compunctions, monopolises the proceedings.

(The writer, a columnist was formerly minister in the Left Front=20
government in West Bengal).

_____

#4.

Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 11:53:14 +0530 (IST)

Supreme Court Verdict on Curriculum Framework
and the Challenge of Communalism

V.K.Tripathi
The Supreme Court, on September 12, 2002, has given its verdict on PIL
filed by Aruna Roy and others on NCERT's document National Curricular
Framework (NCF)-2000. The Supreme Court had a limited issue before it,
viz., to examine whether the NCF violates secular character of our
Constitution or not. It has ruled that the NCF proposal on value education
does not violate it. The judges, however, have issued a word of caution
that the program be implemented in the spirit of equal respect for all
religions. It implies that the prescription of value education has the
danger of getting misused for reinforcing sectarianism.

The court cannot decide what form of value education would counter
communalism. Gujarat has posed the most serious challenge before
secularism. We require an equally powerful prescription to clear our minds
of prejudice and preparing us to resist onslaught on lives and dignity of
innocent brethren without the distinction of religion. Merely telling the
students that all religions are equal or giving them a superficial
exposure of various religions, is not going to help. The existing school
books already have lessons on Buddha, Kabir, Rahim, Nanak, Tulsi, Mira,
Gandhi, and others who represent the best of Indian spiritual philosophy
and tradition. Then we have religious practices and preachings in the
family, and discourses at religious shrines, congregations, ashrams and on
television. All these have a cumulative effect on our thinking and
behavior. Any more emphasis on them will be futile.

Communalism attacks the very right of people to live in the motherland,
branding them aliens. It distorts the perception to the extent that
educated and affluent people start seeing the images of past rulers in
poverty stricken masses and seek to take revenge from them. They continue
to draw their privileges on sweat and blood of these poor masses yet
rejoice their killings. During the temple movement, the slogan that caught
their imagination, ranging from criminals to sadhus and NRIs, was "Babur
ki auladon se badla lenge", forgetting that the forefathers of these poor
Muslims were exploited laborers at the time of Babur too. After the
Bhagalpur riots in 1989 I met scientists at NIH, USA. They would talk
about Mehmood Ghaznavi and say that the present killings were merely a
reaction. In April 2002, I visited Panderwada (Panchmahal, Gujarat) where
27 Muslims were killed and 112 families were totally devastated by a
mob of five thousand people. They were living in a relief camp at
Lunawada. I talked to influential people of the village whom these victims
had served for ages as laborers. Sensitivity towards the victims was
missing. One person even said, "Muslims are anti-nationals. When they were
getting killed and were asked to say Jai Shri Ram, they said Jai
Pakistan." He could not see the cruelty of the killers who were forcing
the man breathing his last to say Jai Shri Ram and was carried away
by a blatant lie. Over and above this they were saying, "Hindus are
nonviolent". At the height of Gujarat violence Togadia said on TV that
Hindus are nonviolent people, as if killing Muslims in mass numbers in a
gruesome manner was no violence. They also say that Hindus believe in
Sarva Dharma Sambhav but others do not. Another dangerous aspect of
communalism is its economic fall out. After every major riot, the victim
community loses significant fraction of business ownership to others. In
high ranking jobs and professional courses the representation of various
communities continues to be highly uneven. The worst form of communalism
appears in the form of partisan response of police and State that
jeopardizes the security of people to blatant form of violence.

In this context a genuine need is self enquiry, to turn students into
thinking persons. The students must observe their own minds, their envy,
greed, hatred, arrogance, and the tendency of mind to build images to
escape these realities. They must also see at whose cost their comforts
are sustained. This shall bring in clarity of perception whereby they
could see the agony of fellow beings without the prejudice of caste,
religion or nationality. Teachers fired with the agony of the masses alone
can help students in self enquiry through dialogue and personal touch.

The proponents of value education have no concern for self enquiry or for
liberating human mind of prejudice and conditioning. They are driven by
the complex that ancient Indian culture is superior to all other cultures
and students must have pride in it. The changes in social sciences
curricula are driven by the same complex. This is fallacious on
two counts. First, pride is a function of authority. Seventy percent of
our countrymen live a life of hardship and economic subjugation. They can
not feel pride merely because their religion had great scriptures or
culture. Only the rich do so, without bothering to practice the divine
message in their lives, to perpetuate their superiority, breeding
exploitation, inequality, and violence. Second, pride is not conducive to
understanding and enlightenment. These come through self enquiry and
sensitivity towards others. The worst hit by pride mindset is History.

History is meant to serve two purposes: i) to develop an objective
understanding of the processes that determine social and political
dynamics, and ii) to make us realize the fundamental contradictions that
lie between the masses and the ruling classes. History then becomes a
liberating force from myth, prejudice and oppression. The new syllabi of
the two history books for class XI, one on Ancient India and the other on
Medieval India, are, however, just an antidote to it. The emphasis is on
glorifying the ancient past and suppressing the in-built
contradictions. The caste, for instance, has been a dominant factor in
India's polity and social dynamics over millennia, and continues to be so
even today, yet it finds only a marginal mention in the syllabus. There
are special units on Vedic culture and philosophy of Upnishads but very
little mention of the Sufi-Saint movement that influenced Indian social
life so immensely for centuries, bringing religion to the door steps of
the masses, taking people to unprecedented spiritual heights, loosening
caste prejudices and laying the foundation for nonviolent resistance by
which unarmed masses in the twentieth century defied the mightiest
colonial power on the earth. Sufis and saints developed an extraordinary
culture of synthesis of Hinduism and Islam. Kabir Vaani, Granth Sahib and
other texts are as divine and revealing as Vedas and Upnishads. Our
present day culture and social life has most dominant influences of Sufi
Saint movement. Ignoring this vital life line, and other historical
processes, is to ignore the masses of the country, the dalits, the women,
the Muslims, the Sikhs, the Christians, the tribals.

The preamble to the new syllabus says that its focus shall not be on the
rulers but the syllabus for "Medieval India" has nothing but the
rulers. The blend of topics presents only invasions by Turks, Arabs,
Mughals and other Muslim rulers, and the rise of rebellion against
them as the dominant history of that period. When coupled with total
silence on Muslim artisans, faqirs, sufis, and synthesizing forces,
these syllabi would strengthen the myth that Muslims are aliens,
oppressive and violent. Nothing can be farther from truth when an
overwhelming majority of Muslims, despite hard work and truthful life,
are drowned in poverty and are exploited like their Hindu brethren. It
would be detrimental for the unity of the nation. The design to project
the minorities as aliens and Hindus as the true natives is manifest in
introducing the controversial connection between the Harappan civilization
and Vedic culture.

However, the most serious drawback of the NCF and other MHRD initiatives
has been their neglect of genuine educational needs of students. The ratio
of number of students in primary and upper primary schools to the total
relevant age group population has declined in the last seven
years. Seventy percent children drop out from schools at or before
8th grade. High school result in many government schools is below 20%. One
major cause for this, besides the dismal teacher to student ratio and
poverty of the parents, is that the language of the text books is
terse, their context has no relevance to their present day living and the
contents are burdened with many irrelevant topics. The new syllabi are
unconcerned about these issues. Work education is the only area where
NCERT has made a positive beginning. It would do a great service to nation
by focusing on work education and initiating a fresh debate on curricula
without a pride mindset.

______

#5.

The Statesman
Hostage to Fascists!
Caveat
By C R IRANI
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php3?id=3D2421&type=3DPageone&theme=
=3DA

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