[sacw] SACW | 18 Jan. 03

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 18 January 2003

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#1. Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (Rozina Visram)
#2. South Asia: Sagarmatha Declaration and Programme of Action (Kathmandu)
#3. The Scandalous ways of the Indian State: Imprisonment and release 
of Iftikhar Gilani
- Rousing welcome for Gilani
-Gilani calls for debate on OSA
- Notes from prison (Iftikhar Gilani)
#4. India: The enemy within (Saba Naqvi)
#5. India: Communal Riots 2002 (Asghar Ali Engineer)
#6. India: Alienating minorities Putting Hindutva in place (Editorial 
, The Statesman)
#7. In the name of the Lord : A sordid mixture of crime and moral 
decay covers the face of mystic India
(Ajay Uprety/Chitrakoot Kanhaiah Bhelari)
#8. Hindutva at Work: Stories - India, US, UK
#9. Low caste leader's high-cost party (Edward Luce)

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#1.

ASIANS IN BRITAIN: 400 Years of History
Rozina Visram

2002/04 / 504pp
ISBN: 0745313736
Pluto Press
345 Archway Road
London N6 5AA
U.K.
http://www.plutobooks.com/

'A lively - and timely - survey of British Indian history.' Salman 
Rushdie / 'Rozina Visram's excellent book does a great deal to 
explain how the idea of white supremacy lingers.' Hanif Kureishi, The 
Observer / 'Painstakingly researched, scholarly, succinct and 
gripping to read.' Dilip Hiro, TLS / 'A compelling book ... should be 
essential reading.' Farrukh Dhondy, The Guardian / This is a classic 
account of Indians in Britain and draws on Visram's earlier and much 
lauded study, Ayahs, Lascars and Princes. Spanning three centuries, 
it tells the history of the Indian community in Britain, from the 
indentured servants of the seventeenth century to the princes, 
professionals, students, conscript soldiers and refugees of the 
twentieth century. Drawing on recently declassified government 
documents, Visram examines the nature of Asian migration; official 
attitudes towards the immigrant community; the reactions and 
perceptions of the British people; and the social, cultural and 
political lives of the Asians themselves. This new edition of 
Visram's earlier study has been thoroughly revised, significantly 
expanded and completely updated. It remains an invaluable 
contribution to our understanding of the origins of the multicultural 
communities that play such an important part in Britain today.

Rozina Visram is an independent scholar working on multiculturalism 
and education.

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#2.

SAGARMATHA DECLARATION AND PROGRAMME OF ACTION
Adopted at the International Consultation on Water Resource Development in
South Asia and the Report of the World Commission on Dams 8-10 December 2002,
Kathmandu, Nepal

We, the participants from the countries of South Asia, namely, Nepal, India,
Pakistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have gathered together with our allies and
friends in Kathmandu, Nepal to review water resource policies and projects
relating to water and hydropower, to assert the inalienable rights of the
people of South Asia over the resources of our lands, and to ensure
people-centered development as well as justice and peace among all
communities and people in South Asia. [...]

http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/2002/EngineerJan03.html

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#3.

Press Club of India, Delhi Union of Journalists and Indian Women 
Press Corps organised a meeting on January 17, at 4.30pm at the 
Press Club of India, Raisina Road to felicitate Iftikhar Gilani.

See report:
The Hindustan Times, January 18, 2003
Rousing welcome for Gilani
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printedition/180103/detCIT12.shtml

o o o

The Hindu
Saturday, Jan 18, 2003

Gilani calls for debate on OSA
By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 17. The Kashmir Times journalist, Ifthikar Gilani, 
today called for a debate on the Official Secrets Act, sections of 
which were contrary to the provisions of the Freedom of Information 
Act passed by Parliament recently. He said that a debate on the OSA, 
an act created in 1923 by a colonial regime, would be the ``greatest 
compensation'' for the seven months he spent in jail.

Mr. Gilani said he believed that it was because he was a journalist 
that his case got so much attention leading to its withdrawal. There 
were, however, tens of people languishing in jail for offences under 
the OSA, many of whom like him had committed no crime.

Mr. Gilani's lawyer, V. K. Ohri, drew attention to the fact that 
while there had been just 60 cases filed under the OSA in 25 years, 
in a fraction of that time, one police department - Delhi Police's 
Special Cell - had filed seven cases under the Act. Mr. Ohri said 
that the OSA was an anachronism and should be amended keeping in view 
the access to information that technological advances allowed.

Mr. Gilani also called on the press not to play into the hands of an 
establishment which thrived on mis-reporting. The coverage of the 
early weeks of his case, he said were ``a lesson to all journalists, 
particularly my younger colleagues'', on how not to report.

Describing the 18-hour-long Income-Tax raid on his home, during which 
he was locked inside a room for hours, he said he was amazed to find 
television channels reporting variously that he was absconding or 
that his wife was absconding. After he was formally charged, 
newspapers reported that he had confessed to being an ISI agent, 
while what he had told the court - that the charges were frivolous 
and that the so-called secret document was published - were never 
recorded.

o o o

The Hindustan Times, 18 January 2003
Notes from prison
Iftikhar Gilani
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printedition/180103/detIDE01.shtml

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#4.

Al-Ahram Weekly
16 - 22 January 2003
Issue No. 621

The enemy within
Hindu nationalists have formulated a new ideological platform centred 
around fighting terrorism that could spell disaster for India's 
Muslim community, reports Saba Naqvi from New Delhi

PHOTO caption : Indian soldiers roll out Pritivi missiles during a 
full dress rehersal for the 15 January Army Day

The Hindu nationalist Bharitiya Janat Party (BJP), which leads 
India's coalition government, has a new found ideology to fight a 
series of state elections in 2003, before national polls slated for 
October 2004. The party's top strategists now say fighting terrorism 
is, "our new ideological plank". On the face of it, this is no 
different from the resolve of several nations across the world. But 
in the Indian context it has worrying implications, particularly for 
the country's 140 million Muslims.

The landslide victory of the BJP in Gujarat last month came after a 
series of humiliating reverses in election contests in crucial states 
like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. The party managed to retain power in 
Gujarat by running a campaign more vicious than any seen in India 
before. The controversial chief minister, Narendra Modi, openly 
targeted the state's Muslims in his speeches and public rallies. His 
message was crude and simple. Terrorism equals Muslims. Muslims equal 
terrorism. He effectively manipulated emotions in the aftermath of 11 
September to magnify incidents like the burning of a train in 
Gujarat, that claimed the lives of over 50 Hindu pilgrims and a 
terrorist attack on a Hindu temple in the state capital, to demonise 
an entire community.

Mass hysteria often turns the truth on its head. In the Gujarat riots 
in February and March 2002, triggered by the train attack, the 
minority Muslim community bore the brunt of the violence. At least 
2,000 were killed, women were brutally raped and babies burned alive. 
Civil society groups are still calculating the other costs of the 
worst ever pogrom in independent India: 300 Sufi shrines demolished, 
entire neighbourhoods incinerated, and the economic might of the 
Muslim community completely destroyed. Yet, barely 10 months on, the 
BJP and its allies managed to run a remarkable election campaign 
where the electorate were told that Muslims, just 10 per cent of 
Gujarat's population, are a threat to the security of the Hindu 
majority.

Chief Minister Modi has made a fine art of exploiting the fear of the 
unknown terrorist. Terrorism, in his vocabulary, does not come from 
Pakistan alone. The enemy, he repeatedly implied, lies within. Indian 
Muslims equal Pakistanis equal terrorists. Gujarat, with its long 
history of communal clashes, has long been viewed as a laboratory of 
the Hindu right. It is a border state and in no other part of the 
country has the BJP repeatedly won elections with such huge 
majorities. Even BJP ideologues doubt whether the "Gujarat-line" can 
be transplanted to other states. But this will not stop them from 
trying. Essentially, this means that continued "low-level" terrorism 
actually suits the BJP's domestic agenda. Some months ago the 
national press tore apart the government version of a so- called 
strike by two terrorists in a Delhi shopping mall, alleging that it 
was stage-managed.

The BJP exploded on the national scene just over a decade ago, when 
it called for the demolition of a mosque in the northern Indian town 
of Ayodhya, allegedly built over the ruins of a temple marking the 
birthplace of the Hindu god, Ram. Since then the party's ideology has 
been defined by three major demands: The construction of a temple on 
the site of the demolished mosque; abolition of a separate personal 
law for the Muslim community; and abolition of Article 370 of the 
Indian constitution which gives special status to Kashmir and 
prevents Indians from buying land there. Indeed, extremists of the 
Hindu right argue that the problem of Muslim majority Kashmir would 
be solved overnight if India would follow Israel's example and set up 
settlements in the troubled state.

Even though the party has been at the head of a national coalition 
since 1998 it has not been able to deliver on any of these demands. 
Instead, it has had to drop them to forge alliances with smaller 
parties. While the temple dispute is now under the purview of the 
courts, there is no hope of ever changing the laws governing Muslims 
or Kashmir. To do so would require constitutional amendments, only 
possible if the BJP were to win large majorities in both houses of 
parliament. This is becoming increasingly difficult in an era of 
coalitions where regional-based parties increasingly hold the balance 
of power in their hands.

Post-Gujarat, the BJP modified its ideological position, saying the 
fight against terrorism is even more important than building the 
temple. Most countries view terrorism as a security problem. India 
too has been fighting terrorism for years in Punjab, Kashmir and the 
North-Eastern states. That said, this is the first time terrorism has 
been turned into an ideological platform by a cadre-based party. 
Sociologist Dipankar Gupta has analysed the BJP's success in 
generating hysteria over terrorism. "This illustrates that the fears 
of a collapse of the Indian state are very strong. After all, our 
country is defined by Partition and the creation of Muslim Pakistan. 
The West sees terrorism as a security or law and order problem. But 
with our history the issue of sovereignty gets involved."

It is no coincidence that many luminaries from the Hindu right are 
refugees from Pakistan. They see no reason why India should give 
special rights to a community they hold responsible for historical 
injustices. They openly complain of the country's "pampering of 
Muslims".

Narendra Modi is representative of this new breed, which has no use 
for secular rhetoric. Modi arrived in Delhi last week to hold his 
first press conference in the nation's capital since his victory last 
month. He began by telling the national press, largely opposed to 
him, that "you've all had the mickey taken out of you." He refused to 
offer any apologies for the horrific violence his state has witnessed 
or give any assurance guaranteeing the security of its Muslims. 
Described as "the hero of hatred" he was triumphant and unrepentant. 
A scribe commented that even Hitler had been elected democratically.

In 1947, when India attained Independence from British rule in the 
midst of horrific Hindu-Muslim bloodletting, Jawaharlal Nehru and 
Mahatma Gandhi expended most of their energy rushing to Muslim 
localities to assure the community that they would be safe in secular 
India. Narendra Modi is the latest and most vicious in the line of 
BJP leaders who are undermining the great ideas that governed the 
creation of this vast nation.

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#5.

[January 17, 2003]

India: Communal Riots 2002
by Asghar Ali Engineer

India could not free itself of curse of communalism even more than 
fifty years after independence. If anything it has been getting worse 
year after year. There has been not a single year in 
post-independence period, which has been free of communal violence 
though number of incidents may vary. The year 2002 has been one of 
the worst years in this matter [...]

{ READ FULL TEXT AT : http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/2002/EngineerJan03.html }

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#6.

The Statesman (Caluctta)
January 18,2003
Editorial

Alienating minorities Putting Hindutva in place

Buoyed by his win at the hustings, Narendra Modi now seeks to 
implement the manifesto on which he managed to come to power - 
Hindutva. To him it means putting minorities in their place. He is 
already planning a Bill to ban "forced" conversions and look into 
reforming madrasas. Judging by the past record of dealing with 
minorities both steps are worrying. Christians in Gujarat have faced 
the largest number of attacks on churches, priests and nuns by the 
VHP lumpen in the last few years than anywhere else in the country - 
all ostensibly to discourage conversions. Proof of the "force" 
alleged is never provided. The Bill will ensure that harassment of 
Christians will no longer be surreptitious under the VHP banner; it 
will happen openly by enforcers of the law. Modi's police will 
complete what the VHP started. Modi cites similar legislation in 
Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu as precedents but these have 
not been a cause for worry; in the Gujarat laboratory the story will 
be different.
As for the plight of Gujarat's other minority, the wounds inflicted 
during the pogrom last year still hurt. Effects of the worst communal 
carnage in post-independent India are still visible. Minorities feel 
helpless and dejected, outcasts in a system where they can expect no 
justice. Every day so-called "sporadic" incidents are reported where 
houses or business are set on fire and people killed or injured. The 
incidents have become commonplace are hardly noticed. Easy targets 
are mosques and dargahs. The 150-year-old Giban Shah Pir Dargah and 
the dargah of the Sufi saint Imam Shah in Pirana were both scenes of 
violence recently. The majority of devotees at both dargahs are 
Hindus as are the trustees. Ironically they epitomise the communal 
harmony that prevailed in Gujarat before the VHP began to change 
things. In order to try and wean Hindu devotees away, they are being 
told by the Hindutva brigade that these pirs or saints were 
foreigners and should not be revered. They were venerated for 
generations because of their good deeds among the community in which 
they lived. But overnight they have become foreigners. Whatever 
little interaction there is left between the majority and minorities 
in Gujarat is being threatened. Does anybody care?

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#7.

The Week
Jan 19, 2003
CoverStory/Investigation

In the name of the Lord
A sordid mixture of crime and moral decay covers the face of mystic India

By Ajay Uprety/Chitrakoot & Ayodhya and
Kanhaiah Bhelari/Varanasi & Gaya

Talk about karma. Divyanand Maharaj believes in here and now, rather 
than in kingdom come. The spiritual head of Swargashram Pilikothi, 
who lords over a 1,000-acre agricultural and commercial estate in 
Chitrakoot and more than 250 ashrams worth Rs 100 crore in different 
places of India, has hired private security guards to protect his 
life and property. "There are people who have an eye on the land," 
says the mahant who has an ever-present ring of gun-toting men around 
him. "They only understand the language of the gun."

"There are people who have an eye on the land,"
says Divyanand Maharaj (left) of Chitrakoot.

Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh
Famous as: The place of Lord Ram's 14-year exile
Infamous for: Gun culture, land grab; 2,000 gun licences issued in two years

Guns speak louder than words in Chitrakoot, where Lord Ram lived in 
exile. Prime property in this Madhya Pradesh town, on the border of 
Uttar Pradesh, costs Rs 30 lakh a bigha (8,000 sq. feet), much more 
than in big cities in the state. Some 30 lakh pilgrims visit the 500 
temples and mutts here every year, filling their coffers with liberal 
offerings. To safeguard their temporal powers, many sanyasis and 
priests carry firearms; the district administration has issued more 
than 2,000 gun licences in the last two years alone.

Shooting swamis (not flying ones), muscle power (not mind power) and 
market logic (not maya)-these are the new traits of mystic India. In 
Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Ram in Uttar Pradesh, where there are 
no fewer than 8,000 mutts, 109 swamis stand accused of crimes ranging 
from gun-running to murder. Sadhus in Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh 
are engaged in holy wars with one rival sect or the other to grab 
land.

It is in the name of God that Anoopdas Maharaj, mahant of Khaki 
Akhara in Chitrakoot, carries a revolver and bullets round his waist. 
"What's wrong, even Parasuram carried arms," he says, referring to 
the Brahmin sage who avenged his father's slayers.

Puroshottam Narain Sharan, a doctor-turned-sadhu who has been in 
Chitrakoot since 1978, says he would have no compunction in taking up 
arms. "You have to protect your house from someone who enters it. It 
is the same with ashrams," he says. "It is better that you protect it 
than turn to the police."

The battle of sanyasis in Ayodhya caught national attention on May 
29, 2001, with the attack on mahant Nritya Gopal Das, the deputy 
chief of Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, a trust for building the controversial 
Ram temple. Das had apparently played an active role in removing 
Devramdas Vedanti as mahant of the prestigious Ramvallabha Kunj 
temple and enthroning Ram Shanker.

In 1998, saffron-clad sadhus opened fire on the residents of Guptar 
Ghat, 10 km from Ayodhya, killing four. The sadhus, said to be the 
disciples of Mohan Das alias Mauni Baba, mahant of Yagya Shala 
Ashram, did it to scare local people away to grab land. In another 
gruesome incident 10 years ago, the 70-year-old mahant of Jankighat 
temple was strangled by three sadhus to gain control of the temple 
whose property was worth Rs 15 crore.

Criminal swamis became a problem in Ayodhya three decades ago when 
lawbreakers from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh started taking 
shelter in temples there to escape the police. One of them, Kamdev 
Singh, died in a shootout with the police.

One for the soul: Swamis in Ayodhya sharing a bottle of rum
Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh
Famous as: Birthplace of Ram
Infamous for: Gun culture, land grab-109 swamis face criminal 
charges; 40% of 6,000 temples involved in land or power dispute

The bloody clashes became common when Ram Kripal Das from Munger in 
Bihar took refuge in Ayodhya in the 80s after killing a politician. 
He virtually ruled over Ayodhya for a decade till his own accomplices 
killed him. He had two dozen cases against him, including the murder 
of Mahanand Jha, head of Sanatan temple. Harbhajan Das, mahant of 
Hanuman Garhi, who sneaked into Ayodhya in the 60s, had links with 
dacoits of Chambal. He, too, fell to the guns of his accomplices in 
1984.

"Mutts of Ayodhya have become a safe haven for criminals," admits 
Gyan Das, the mahant of Sagaria Patti. Capturing a temple fetches a 
lot of money and power, and it is done by influential mahants of the 
city. In April 1999, alleges Kripal Das, mahant of Bhakt Mal Bhavan, 
an influential mahant in Ayodhya incited a mob to capture his land. A 
case in this connection is on in the district court of Faizabad.

About 40 per cent of the 6,000 temples in the city are involved in 
disputes regarding land or seat of power. For instance, the dispute 
about the 128-year-old Lakshman Quila temple built by the raja of 
Rewa, Raghu Raj Singh, revolved round the seat of the mahant. Three 
years ago, Maithali Shankaracharya, one of the claimants, was hurt in 
a bomb attack allegedly at the behest of his rival, Sanjay Jha alias 
Maithali Ram Sharan. The dispute was sorted out following the 
intervention of the chief minister.

"The police remain spectators because of the immense political 
connections of the sadhus," says a senior police officer. Four years 
ago, the Ayodhya police tried to identify the criminal sadhus but 
politicians thwarted the attempt. It is difficult to trace criminals 
in ashrams because every sanyasi sheds his past identity and takes a 
new name.

ODE TO MORTALITY: The Ganga is dying of pollution from burnt bodies and wastes

Politicians use the mutts and mahants to widen their support base by 
splitting the sadhus and devotees. One of the fights is over 
Amarkantak, which sits atop the Maikal ranges from which the Narmada 
originates. Amarkantak remained a part of Madhya Pradesh when the 
state was bifurcated in November 2000, but Chattisgarh Assembly 
Speaker Rajendra Prasad Shukla, who hails from the region, will not 
let it be. In the fight for the Jaleswar temple complex, he has 
allegedly pitted Mahant Naresh Giri against Mahant Kamal Giri, who 
has the support of the Madhya Pradesh government. Land grabbing is a 
mantra for many sadhus in Amarkantak's 40 ashrams, of which only 
seven are registered under the Madhya Pradesh Societies Registration 
Act. Last year, Swami Sukdevananda, who has a palatial ashram and 
temple, allegedly asked his men to shoot Swami Prakashananda 
following a property dispute. Prakashananda took the bullets in his 
arm, but died a few months later. Sukdevananda has fled the scene.

Crime in Gaya, unlike in other parts of Bihar, is under control. The 
holy city where Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment, however, is 
often tense with fights between Hindu and Buddhist priests for 
supremacy. "Even the deities of the two religions must be ashamed of 
the behaviour of their devotees," says a local leader.

At times, the fight among sadhus can be over something as trivial as 
sharing water from a tap. Once, a sadhu in Amarkantak had a scuffle 
with a truck driver who did not give way. Without batting an eyelid, 
he whipped out his gun and shot at the tyres of the truck, leaving 
the driver shell-shocked.

Pilgrims are too numb to react to the volley of questions that greets 
them at Pehowa, where the Pandavas performed obsequies for the 18 
lakh soldiers who died in the epic battlefield in Kurukshetra, in 
Haryana. The Pandavas got peace, but today pilgrims who come for 
post-cremation rituals get fleeced.

A few inquiries, and the rituals begin. The items for puja-coconuts, 
fruits, cloth, lamps, ghee-all come from a little sack for which the 
person pays with just a raised eyebrow. The puja over, all the 
materials go back to the sack till the next mourner pays for them. 
And when it comes to the offerings, you have to shell out almost five 
times the amount you initially had in mind.

Paying for your sins: At Pehowa pilgrims have to meet priests' 
exorbitant demands

Pehowa, Haryana
Famous as: Place where the Pandavas performed obsequies for those 
killed in Kurukshetra
Infamous for: People who come for post-cremation rituals get fleeced

For the priest it is a means to sustain tradition! "It is difficult 
to get our children to do this," says a priest. "If these traditions 
have to live on, the offering must be enough for them to live on." 
But in the name of ritual, the priest demands everything a person 
requires for six months, a year, five years or ten-whatever he can 
squeeze out of the mourner. The list includes cash, cot, mattress, 
quilts, bedsheets, pillows, food and even things like a torch or 
hurricane lantern, a walking-stick, clothes, utensils or a hand fan, 
if not an electric one! These too, are kept ready and all that a 
mourner has to do is pay the cost. They are then ready to be recycled.

In August, Maharashtra Minister of State Digambar Bagal bore the 
brunt of arrogance and exploitation of priests at the temple town of 
Pandharpur. Fresh after his induction as minister, Bagal went to pay 
obeisance to Lord Vithoba, one of the most revered deities in 
Maharashtra. After the puja, the priest, Balasaheb Ramchandra Badve, 
demanded Rs 500 in addition to what Bagal had offered. The priest was 
arrested under the Temples Act, 1980, and later released on bail, but 
exploitation of devotees has hardly stopped.

"Pay the Badves (priests) and they will ensure that you get a long 
enough darshan," says an official of the temple trust. There have 
been cases of the priests actually taking back the prasad when 
devotees failed to pay the amount they demanded.

To break the stranglehold of the priests, the trust allowed a 
separate darshan for those who donated Rs 100 or more. The decision 
was implemented on November 22, with the district collector becoming 
the first donor, but the trust annulled it on December 28. By then, 
more than Rs 3 lakh had been added to the coffers.

In temple towns of Tirupati, Palani and Puri it is trade of a 
different kind-flesh. A study commissioned by the National Commission 
for Women a few years ago, on the status of widows in religious 
places, noted that the flesh trade was flourishing in Vrindavan and 
Mathura with the full knowledge of the police, administration, holy 
men and politicians. There are 3,500 widows in Vrindavan and Mathura, 
according to the human resource development ministry.

Pandharpur, Maharashtra
Famous as: Temple of Lord Vithoba, one of the most revered deities in 
Maharashtra
Infamous for: Exploitation by priests

The plight of the widows of Varanasi-the plot of Deepa Mehta's Water, 
which invited protests from Hindu zealots-are deplorable. Shunned by 
their families and society, they live in shelters waiting for death 
to liberate them. Most of the women are too old to work, but still do 
as domestic helps to survive. Others beg on the steps leading to the 
river. They remember having filled up forms to receive widow pension 
from the government (Rs 400 a month), but no money has reached them.

The young widows are exploited by organised crime syndicates, with 
the blessings of corrupt officials and politicians. In 1998, on the 
complaint of a girl, the police raided a house at Sejopuri locality 
and arrested a few people. The girls told the police that they were 
being supplied to a number of influential leaders and officials. The 
CBI is probing the case.

A meeting in 2001 of the National Human Rights Commission and the 
department of women and child development, and governments of Uttar 
Pradesh and West Bengal (from where most widows come), highlighted 
the need to carry out rehabilitation programmes.

TEMPORAL POWER: A sadhu in Bihar with private security guards

Gaya, Bihar
Famous as: Place of Gautama Buddha's enlightenment
Infamous for: Fight between Buddhist monks and swamis for power

D. Ramakrishna, who tries to rehabilitate sex workers through his 
NGO, Rural Institute for Social Education in Tirupati, says that 
age-old systems like Devadasis, Joginis and Mathammas had given 
religious sanction to prostitution. When the government banned these, 
survival of these temple courtesans became an issue, and prostitution 
seemed to be the only way out. But the sex workers do not have to 
work in the railway stations or streets anymore in Tirupati. With an 
inflow of 65,000 visitors daily and more than a lakh on special 
occasions, customers seek them out.

Prostitution and crime around temples may seem incongruous, but 
paradoxes are what hold fascination for the foreign tourist. It is 
not uncommon to see a foreigner watching the 'spectacle' of a 
cremation at Varanasi on the banks of the Ganga where mortality and 
immortality, as Gita Mehta writes in Karma Cola, are laid out in 
perfect sequence. The Ganga itself is dying of pollution, thanks to 
religious tourism. Travellers throw garlands and ash covered in 
plastic bags into the river already polluted by half-burnt corpses 
and industrial wastes.

Waiting for death: A widow in Varanasi, one of many who lead a 
pitiable existence

Countless residents of Varanasi share the view that the city has 
become a hideout for criminals. Police records show that in the last 
three years, 211 persons were done to death and 58 women raped. 
According to S.S. Solanki, a local crime reporter, Varanasi has 163 
hardcore criminals carrying rewards on their heads.

In the last ten years, over two dozen foreign tourists have become 
victims of crime. On July 15, 2001, a German woman was raped by two 
persons including the owner of the guest house she was staying in. 
The police are yet to crack the cases involving the mysterious deaths 
of four foreigners in the last two years.
The most heinous crime on a foreigner was the gang rape and murder of 
one Diana of Switzerland in 1998. Six months later, the police 
arrested the killers and recovered her decomposed body.

Most cases of rape go unreported or are even suppressed by higher 
officials to save the city's reputation. Says a police officer: 
"Three months ago, the head priest of a mutt raped a tourist. But the 
victim was persuaded to withdraw her complaint as the priest was very 
powerful."

A few sociologists may argue that the sordid mixture of crime and 
decay has been there in the west as well. Money has been the moving 
force in any established religion and a cause of conflict; the 
history of the Christian church has always been one of revolt when 
matters temporal supplanted the spiritual. The history of holy places 
of other religions, too, has not been without aberrations. But this 
is no argument to justify the festering sores of holy India.

Blame it on kalyug, the age where dharma-the moral order of the 
world-is precariously balanced between imperfection and perfection, 
darkness and light. Or just maya.
With Vijaya Pushkarna/Pehowa, Deepak Tiwari/Amarkantak, Dnyanesh 
Jathar/Pandharpur &
Lalita Iyer/Hyderabad

_____

#8.

Hindutva at Work:

Outlook India, India - 17 Jan 2003
Himachal VHP asks parties to include its demands in manifestos
http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=112490

Sify, India - 17 Jan 2003
Stand up for self, VHP to US Hindus
http://news.sify.com/cgi-bin/sifynews/news/content/news_fullstory_v2.jsp?article_oid=12532382&category_oid=-20612&page_no=1

Pakistan News Service, Pakistan - 12 Jan 2003
Hindu Extremists Use British Indians Charity
http://www.paknews.com/flash.php?id=5&date1=2003-01-13

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#9.

Financial Times
January 15 2003

Low caste leader's high-cost party
By Edward Luce

Residents of Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh, India's largest 
state with 170m people, on Wednesday played host to one of the most 
brazen displays of personality cult India has seen.

Mayawati, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, and leader of a party that 
represents India's Dalit, or untouchable, caste, celebrated her 47th 
birthday in a style redolent of Imelda Marcos, widow of the former 
dictator of the Philippines.

Ms Mayawati, who, like many of her caste, has no second name, invited 
25,000 guests to enjoy, at the state government's expense, a lavish 
reception against the backdrop of a specially designed Bollywood film 
set.

More than 200,000 laddoos - north Indian sweets - were baked as well 
as a 50kg birthday cake. An exhibition of the life and times of Ms 
Mayawati was on display, all at the taxpayers' expense. Estimates of 
the cost ranged from $2m to $5m - in a state with a per capita income 
of less than $300 compared with the national average of $500.

India's estimated 200m untouchables - about a fifth of the population 
- have become increasingly assertive over the past decade in spite of 
continued widespread discrimination against them, especially in rural 
India. Untouchable and lower caste parties, led by Ms Mayawati and 
others, have come to power in several of the country's populous 
states.

The performance of untouchables in office has, however, been mixed. 
Udit Raj, an untouchable leader who opposes Ms Mayawati, says: 
"Mayawati has taken personality politics to an obscene level. She is 
supposed to represent the poorest and most downtrodden in society but 
she is dining openly at their expense."

Opponents of Ms Mayawati's capricious leadership style on 
Wednesday contrasted her celebrations with the fate of many of the 
state's poorest villagers who are suffering from one of north India's 
coldest snaps in years. Almost 400 have died from hypothermia in the 
past three days.

Since taking power in March in an unlikely coalition with India's 
ruling Hindu nationalist BJP, dominated by upper caste Brahmins, Ms 
Mayawati has ignored the conventional objectives of government. Her 
administration has focused on symbolic gestures such as pouring state 
funds into the creation of an urban park dedicated to B.R. Ambedkar, 
post-colonial Dalit leader.

She has acquired notoriety for frequently transferring mostly upper 
caste civil servants from post to post for no discernible reason. 
Last year the World Bank complained to her that this severely 
undermined the development projects it was funding.

Yogendra Yadav, a political scientist, says: "Mayawati appears to 
delight in the politics of the whimsical at the expense of more 
serious development goals. The fact she is in coalition with the 
upper caste BJP - traditional enemies of the Dalits - shows there is 
really no ideology left at all."

On a visit to Bilamburpurawa, a village 30km north of Lucknow, Mr Raj 
yesterday steered well clear of the chief minister's birthday bash. 
The village, in which five Dalits were recently attacked by upper 
caste neighbours, who threw acid into their eyes, is typical of the 
impoverished Hindi belt in northern India.

The assailants believed the five men, owing to their untouchable 
status, would have polluted the water of a pond in which they had 
been fishing. The culprits were released after six months in 
detention. The victims are hideously scarred. Mr Raj asks: "How can 
you live with Hinduism when it defines some people as sub- human? He 
left his job as a senior tax official in New Delhi to convert Dalits 
to Buddhism. "We have no choice but convert if we want to regain our 
dignity."

Mr Raj says he has converted 400,000 Dalits to Buddhism, most notably 
in November 2001 when 150,000 people took part in a mass conversion 
rally in New Delhi. On Wednesday Mr Raj won over 50 more people in a 
ceremony staged just outside the state's legislative assembly. 
"Anything is better than Hinduism - even Islam," he says. "Islam at 
least accepts in theory that all people are equal before God."

Leaders of the western state of Gujarat, where the BJP last month won 
a landslide election victory following India's worst Hindu-Muslim 
riots in a decade, have taken note of Mr Raj's "anti-Hindu" activism.

Narendra Modi, controversial chief minister of Gujarat, who allegedly 
helped orchestrate the anti-Muslim riots in February, plans to enact 
an anti-conversion bill.

Mr Modi's hardline election campaign was aided by Ms Mayawati's support.

Mr Raj says: "Ms Mayawati has completely sold out to the forces of 
Hindu nationalism. How can you complain about being a Dalit when you 
are in alliance with Brahmin chauvinists?"

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