[sacw] SACW | 16 March 03

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  |  16 March,  2003


#1. Slouching toward fanaticism in Pakistan (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
#2. [General Musharraf's Pakistan] The Colour Khaki (Tariq Ali)
#3. The Perils of Partition (Christopher Hitchens)
#4. Swimming against the tide of war in Sri Lanka (Tom Plate)
#5. The elusive Pakistan-India dialogue (Abbas Rashid)
#6. India: How carpet-bombing bombed (Praful Bidwai)
#7. Hooligans of the Hindu Right Fan the Flames of Hate around 
India-Pakistan World Cup Match : A personal account from Delhi 
(Dhananjai Joshi)
#8. Restore India's Secular Political Culture (Smita Narula)
#9. India: On the anniversary of the ethnic violence in Gujarat, the 
state's militant chief minister is both unrepentant and possibly a 
harbinger of India's political future (Carla Power)
#10. India: Catch Them Young : The Case of the Baby Terrorist (Rakesh Shukla=
)
#11. India: POTA's new victims: Kashmiri students, ostracised, watched in UP
(Kavita Chowdhury )
#12. Text of Letter to the Deputy Prime Minister of India Re: The 
Iftikar Gilani Case and the Official Secrets Act, 1923 by 50 
prominent members of [Indian] Parliament
#13. India: Repackaging the RSS (Manini Chatterjee)
#14. The resolutions from the first national conference of South 
Asian women in Britain
#15.  Book Review:  Shards of Memory: Woven - Lives in Four 
Generations by Parita Mukta (reviewed by Rajeswari Sunder Rajan)
#16. Publication Announcement: We The Billion - A Social 
Psychological Perspective on India's Population by Ragini Sen

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


#1.

The Korea Herald
March 10, 2003

Slouching toward fanaticism in Pakistan
By Pervez Hoodbhoy

President Bush's comparison of the capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed 
(reputed to have planned the attacks on the World Trade Center and 
the Pentagon) to the liberation of Paris in 1944 was certainly 
hyperbolic, but the arrest was a political blessing for the U.S. 
president all the same. For Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharaf, 
Mohammed's apprehension is a mixed bag: It gained a pat on the back 
from Bush but simultaneously revealed the falsity of Musharaf's 
claims that Pakistan is largely al-Qaida free. Indeed, it is now 
starkly apparent that much of al-Qaida and its top leadership prefer 
refuge in Pakistan to any other place.

The reason would be obvious to anyone who witnessed the recent 
"million man march" in Karachi organized by Pakistan's newly formed 
coalition of religious parties, known as the MMA. Called to protest 
America's impending attack on Iraq, marchers set effigies of George 
W. Bush and Tony Blair on fire as smiling portraits of Osama bin 
Laden, draped with fresh flowers, looked on. Speaker after speaker 
accused Musharaf's government of treachery and denounced its 
cooperation with the FBI in nabbing al-Qaida members.

Before the terrorist attacks on America and the ouster of the Taliban 
in next-door Afghanistan, Pakistan's religious parties had few seats 
in either the federal or provincial assemblies. Resentment against 
the United States after the bombing of Afghanistan rocketed the 
religious alliance's popularity sky-high. The religious alliance has 
now formed governments in two of Pakistan's four provinces, the 
=46rontier and Baluchistan, and openly declares its intent to shatter 
Pakistan's pro-American policy.

The rise of the MMA is sure to make a fundamental change upon not 
only Pakistani foreign policy but also upon the country's society and 
culture. Almost immediately after assuming office, the new 
governments ordered an end to music in public transport, required 
public buses to stand still for the five daily prayers, and closed 
down video shops and cinema houses. Folk singers have been 
threatened, abducted, and forbidden to perform in public. Cable 
television operators see their premises ransacked.

More of this awaits. New laws, expected to be passed by the Frontier 
Assembly soon, follow the lead of Afghanistan's former Taliban 
government. For example, women without "hijab" and a chaperone may 
not leave their homes; shops shall not advertise the sale of sanitary 
pads or undergarments; hair-removing creams and lotions may not be 
sold; use of perfume and makeup will be banned; women will not be 
allowed to use male tailors; male doctors may not treat women 
patients; women guests at hotels will not be allowed in the swimming 
pool; coeducation has been identified as a cause of fornication and 
is to be phased out; family planning shall be declared un-Islamic, 
and the sale of contraceptives banned.

Driven by its compulsion to make war on Iraq at all costs, Washington 
has shown little inclination to consider the war's long-term impact 
on countries lying at the periphery of the war zone. In a special 
trip to Islamabad, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca 
sought to reassure a visibly nervous Pakistani government that the 
war would be "quick and short."

Even if Rocca is right, the anger flowing in Pakistan's streets will 
drastically weaken moderate opinion while further radicalizing 
Islamic groups. However, if the war drags on, if Baghdad comes under 
siege with heavy civilian casualties - or if weapons of mass 
destruction are actually used - all bets could be off. Mounting anger 
within the Pakistan army, whose soldiers exchanged fire with American 
troops two months ago, would make Musharaf's isolation total, perhaps 
forcing him to abandon the American-led coalition.

To appease radical opinion, Islamic militant leaders who were jailed 
a year ago are now operating freely again. A taped speech by the 
released head of the Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Hafiz Saeed, was played on 
Kashmir Day at mosques in Rawalpindi. Lashing out at India and 
America, the firebrand cleric rhetorically asked: "Allah has told us 
to make atom bombs. America is telling us not to. O Muslims, to whom 
shall we listen, Allah or America?"

Meanwhile, across the border in Afghanistan, U.S. forces are 
experiencing frequent ambushes and rocket attacks upon their bases. 
This has led to aggressive U.S. army sweeps, backed in some cases by 
heavy bombers.

The heightened activity, much of it concentrated along the Pakistani 
border, suggests that some of Pakistan's army intelligence officers 
have resumed their support of the Taliban and its friends. Waiting 
for spring to come is ex-mujahideen commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar - a 
former favorite of the CIA and Pakistan's ISI during the Soviet 
occupation of Afghanistan. He is massing his forces and weapons for a 
determined strike against American forces. Hekmatyar and al-Qaida 
expect their task to be easier since the enemy is likely to have its 
attention focused on Iraq.

=46ighting terror backed by radical Islam requires a sophisticated 
understanding of its political and economic roots. America's plan to 
liberate Iraq with cruise missiles betrays not only crude ignorance, 
but also a lack of will to try and deal with the causes of terrorism. 
America's strategic myopia may well provide bin Laden and his kind 
with a fresh flood of recruits and make Pakistan, the Islamic world's 
only nuclear-armed state, ungovernable.

Pervez Hoodbhoy, one of Pakistan's leading pro-democracy advocates, 
teaches physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. - Ed.

(Copyright: Project Syndicate)

2003.03.11

______


#2.


New Left Review 19, January-February 2003

[General Musharraf's Pakistan] The Colour Khaki
by Tariq Ali

http://www.newleftreview.net/PDFarticles/NLR25301.pdf

[ All interested in receiving full text of the above paper should 
send a request to <aiindex@mnet.fr>

______


#3.

The Atlantic Monthly
March 2003
Books & Critics

The Perils of Partition
Our author examines the political--and literary--legacy of Britain's
policy of "divide and quit"

by Christopher Hitchens

=46ULL TEXT AT:
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/03/hitchens.htm

______


#4.

ONE PLACE WHERE PEACE IS GETTING A CHANCE

By Tom Plate

Swimming against the tide of war in Sri Lanka

(C) 2003 Asia Pacific Media Network

LOS ANGELES -- Even on the eve of a major war, diplomacy can find a
useful niche, however lesser the stakes. Consider the unheralded
efforts of the Norwegian and Japanese governments to help reverse
decades of vicious civil war on the island nation of Sri Lanka. Their
relatively selfless diplomacy deserves a moment at center stage for
the world to appreciate, before all hell breaks loose over Iraq --
and perhaps North Korea -- and the guns of war drown out everything
else.

Progress is being achieved, ever so slowly, by a selfless Norwegian
government that has fostered confidential peace talks between the
country's perennially warring parties -- the majority Sinhalese
government and the Northeastern minority Tamils. Those talks are to
continue next week (March 18-21) in Tokyo, where a helpful Koizumi
government has been offering not only direct aid to Sri Lanka but
also the intermediation of a veteran foreign ministry diplomat.

Yasushi Akashi, former U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian
affairs, has been shuttling back and forth to Colombo, the capital of
the country formerly known as Ceylon. In addition, Tokyo plans to
host an international economic aid conference for Sri Lanka in June,
which top-level players -- from the World Bank to the European Union
to the U.S. government -- are planning to attend. This is a lot of
diplomatic activity for ordinarily low-profile Japan.

At stake is not only the future of 19 million people in a nation
that's half the size of Alabama but the stability of the South Asian
region as well. Countless minority Tamils live in south India: Years
ago a top Indian political figure was murdered by assassins from the
Tamil Tigers -- freedom fighters to some in their homeland but to the
Bush administration common terrorists and infamous entries on
its "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" roster. India, facing serious
security problems in Kashmir, would be well pleased were Oslo and
Tokyo to transform the temporary cease-fire on Sri Lanka, which over
the years has begun to look more like an Asian Northern Ireland than
anything else, into permanent peace.

Many interested parties in the United States would applaud as well.
On the U.S. West Coast, the Sri Lankan diaspora is huge. Immigrants
from the country's besieged northeast, thriving in Silicon Valley,
have formed a group that hopes to establish a software industry in a
reunited Sri Lanka. In Southern California, another outfit, called
Veahavta, works with thousands of ethnic Tamils to help widows and
orphan casualties of the civil war back home.

The Bush administration, with other weighty issues on its mind, is
happy that Tokyo is taking the quiet lead in the peace process. The
Japanese, who painstakingly helped give birth to the Kyoto protocol,
only to have it iced by the Bush administration, all but jumped at
the opportunity. "To put it simply," said one Tokyo-based
diplomat, "we ourselves have become weary of being perceived as just
a generous donor playing but a minor role in the actual processes of
peace." Under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in fact, Japan has
overall stepped things up considerably, accepting potentially risky
diplomatic and political duties, especially in Indonesia, Afghanistan
and Iraq, at least to the extent its constitution and culture permit.

"This may be a key moment," agrees U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage, who has called on both the government in Colombo to
negotiate in good faith with the Tamils and on the Tamil Tigers in
the northeast to make "hard choices and compromises ... if they want
to meet their ambitions for international support." Such high-level
statements are quite helpful, of course; but so would a ban on the
cycle-and-counter-cycle sales of tanks to the government and then
anti-tank weapons to the rebels by Western arms merchants.

This lucrative but immoral game by the defense industry has been in
no small measure responsible over the years for the incredible human
carnage of at least 60,000 people killed. Even now, after decades of
fighting, the Sri Lankan peace process is unstable, jeopardized daily
by dreary political infighting in Colombo between the president and
the prime minister -- and up north by counter-productive anti-Colombo
violence from the Tamil Tigers.

Worse yet, the Koizumi government is acutely aware that the Bush
administration is otherwise wholly preoccupied with Saddam Hussein --
and now, increasingly, with Kim Jong Ill. It privately worries that
this month's peace talks and the June aid conference could well prove
casualties of the Iraq war, which could wind up putting on hold
virtually everything of major moment in the region. Says Japan's
Akashi: "A lot depends on the outcome of the war, which many people,
including myself, feel is likely to occur." It is the unanticipated
consequences of war that can sometimes hurt the most.


The above weekly column has just appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser,
The South China Morning Post and The Straits Times of Singapore. The
author, Tom Plate, is a regular columnist at these three papers. The
column also appears in other world newspapers, including The San
=46rancisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, The Japan Times and The Korea
Times. Email him at: tplate@u...


Bio Remarks: Tom Plate is a professor of Policy and Communication
Studies at UCLA where he founded the Asia Pacific Media Network. He
is a regular columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate
International, the South China Morning Post, The Straits Times and
the Honolulu Advertiser. He is a member of the World Economic Forum,
the Pacific Council on International policy and the author of five
books. He has worked at TIME, the Los Angeles Times and the Daily
Mail of London.

______


#5.


The Daily Times, March 16, 2003

The elusive Pakistan-India dialogue
by Abbas Rashid
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=3Dstory_16-3-2003_pg3_4

______


#6.

The Hindustan Times, March 7, 2003
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_206308,00120002.htm

How carpet-bombing bombed
Praful Bidwai

The BJP isn't a party that can take criticism, defeat or failure with 
equanimity or rationality, leave alone grace. It always blames the 
umpire, and maligns or simply shoots, the messenger. Thus, its first, 
instinctive reaction last June to J.M. Lyngdoh's refusal to be 
stampeded into an immediate poll in Gujarat was to accuse him of an 
'anti-Hindu' bias and of acting at Sonia Gandhi's behest by virtue of 
their shared(!) Christian parentage.

Whenever people disagree with the BJP, say, on its portrayal of 
Savarkar as a 'national hero' (read, father of the two-nation 
theory), or 'Vedic mathematics' as an ancient 'achievement' (in 
reality, a 20th century fabrication), it assassinates their character.

The BJP is incurably paranoid. For ages, it believed it was denied 
its rightful place in politics, mainly by the English-language media. 
It has since infiltrated this institution, and yet added another 3Ms 
to its list of diabolical enemies: Marx, Macaulay and Muslims!

It's no surprise, therefore, that the BJP looks for scapegoats for 
its humiliating defeat in Himachal, where it desperately tried to 
'repeat the Gujarat experiment'. It has found two scapegoats: 
factionalism and 'anti-incumbency'.

Both are laughable as explanations. Factionalism in the BJP was no 
worse than in the always-divided, chaotic, flophouse called the 
Congress. Virbhadra Singh did his utmost to exclude and defeat the 
rival faction's candidates. Even his election as CM-designate wasn't 
a foregone conclusion.

Yet, the BJP was reduced to half its seat tally. The Congress won 40 
of the 65 seats counted.

If the 'rebels' are added, its total tally exceeds two-thirds.Again, 
factionalism can never be severed from party policy, performance or 
leadership. Factions are formed over a division of the spoils, and 
caste or regional differences, and a party's inability to subordinate 
them to a larger coherent purpose. Lack of purpose or meaningful 
policies speaks poorly of parties. BJP factionalism in Himachal is a 
damning comment on the party's national leaders. They, led by 
Vajpayee himself, ran a full-throttle campaign.

'Anti-incumbency' is no law of nature, no inevitability. Rather, it's 
a crude quasi-statistical rule-of-thumb within that dubious science 
called psephology. It isn't some political-electoral constant 
detached from governance and performance. Or else, we wouldn't have 
seen the Left Front holding power for a quarter-century in West 
Bengal or the reelection of the TDP and RJD, or the Congress in 
Madhya Pradesh. 'Anti-incumbency' can't explain why the BJP was 
re-elected in Gujarat despite organising independent India's worst 
pogrom.

Such vacuous explanations don't even serve as good pep-talk for party 
cadres who were confidently told that the BJP would romp home to 
victory on what was deliberately termed 'carpet-bombing' - bombarding 
the electorate to saturation with campaigning by the party's top 
guns. BJP strategists roped in not just the 'stars', including 
Vajpayee, but even Narendra Modi, ebullient from his Gujarat victory. 
They assumed that a charged campaign in which Ayodhya, cow slaughter 
and terrorism figure prominently, would unite the Hindus as Hindus, 
cutting across caste, class and regional divides. That would produce 
a near-magical victory for the BJP, paint the Himalayas saffron and 
announce India's decisive passage into conservative, religion-based 
politics.

With a BJP victory in Himachal, Hindutva's triumphant march through 
the entire Hindi belt would become unstoppable. It would signify that 
Gujarat can be repeated endlessly - because a paradigm shift has 
occurred, in which Hindu identity-centred revanchist politics becomes 
India's 'natural' mainstream or terrain on which the biggest 
contestations take place, while secularism and social justice agendas 
are reduced to mere sidestreams.

After all, aren't even the Congress chief ministers fooling with 'cow 
politics' and declaring 'soft-Hindutva' integral to the party?

In the event, 'carpet-bombing', quite simply, bombed. The electorate 
severely punished the BJP in Himachal and denied it a presence in 
Tripura and Meghalaya (despite the salience of the BJP's favourite 
Bangladesh 'infiltration' issue in these border states). The BJP and 
allies also lost all seven assembly by-elections. It's only in 
Nagaland that the BJP gained.

It may appear impressive, yet paradoxical, that the Hindu sectarian 
party opened its account in this predominantly Christian state even 
as it lost in the overwhelmingly Hindu-majority Himachal. But the BJP 
simply piggybacked on the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) 
opposition to the Congress. The DAN won because the National 
Socialist Council of Nagaland (I-M) quietly campaigned against the 
Congress, which it regards as a local stumbling block to the peace 
process.

So the BJP has become an unintended beneficiary of the Naga peace 
process, which predates its own rise to power. Even dummies would 
have won had they contested under the DAN's banner.

The short point is, the BJP's attempt, serious and focused as it is, 
to polarise politics along religious-communal lines hasn't succeeded 
outside Gujarat. The Gujarat election was an aberration - just as the 
long-communalised situation there, further inflamed by Godhra and the 
butchery of Muslims, was exceptional.

The lesson from these elections is almost as important - and more 
trend-setting - as from Gujarat. Gujarat showed that communalism pays 
- in exceptional circumstances, if you brazenly equate all Muslims 
with 'Miyan Musharraf' and hysterically whip up the basest of 
majoritarian and hegemonistic emotions.

The latest elections show that communalism doesn't pay; that agendas 
relevant to the people - minimum needs, transparency, participatory 
democracy, peace, communal harmony and social justice - are alive and 
kicking. They're only waiting to be fleshed out and animated.

It's imperative that the secular parties absorb this lesson. They 
must stop flirting with 'cow worship', resist jingoism and hysteria 
over 'terrorism', and return to the real issues of popular 
empowerment and social transformation while combatively challenging 
Hindutva ideologically and politically.

______



#7.

[The following personal account was written on the morrow of the 
India Pakistan cricket match. The questions that emerge from this are 
a source of deep concern for all secular Indians.]

o o o

Hooligans of the Hindu Right Fan the Flames of Hate around 
India-Pakistan World Cup Match : An account from Delhi
by Dhananjai Joshi * [March 1, 2003]

Why must celebration demand pain and ill will on
another? Is'nt there something sick about a
nationalism that exults in hatred and venom, the
destruction of the other? March 1'st 2003, Shivratri,
India and Pakstian were playing a cricket match . I
was with my friend Ditee at our place in Vijay Nagar
in North Delhi. We went to our landlord's place to
watch the match on T.V. Our landlord informed us that
a private Dog Clinic owner had put up a screen and
sound system on the road, and the match was been
projected in the open. Ditee refused to go, but I went
out to see what was happening.

When I reached there, I was shocked. More than a
thousand people  with banners reading "Best of luck
India", had blocked the road to watch the match. They
were shouting slogans like; "Jeetega bhai Jeetega,
Hindustan Jeetega!", "Pakistan hai hai!", "Hindustan
zindabad!-Pakistan murdabad!". I began feeling uneasy.
Suddenly  my landlord walked up to me and said, "We
must go to the Jama Masjid area to see the muslims
crying". I got angry and asked,  "Why? Aren't they
Indians? India is winning, why would they cry?". He
replied, "No, you are a Hindu and that is why they
show they are pro India. Actually all 'Katuas' are
anti-India". For a moment I felt like confornting him.
But then I felt scared. I didn't have the courage to
tell him that I am not a Hindu, I am an Indian, a
human being, a middle class college student, an
atheist. I felt I was in the middle of a mob, and to
stay with them I 'd have to become someone else. I
felt claustrophobic, I walked off. A hundred yards or
so and I calm down. I decided to stand at a distance
and watch the crowd. Towards the end of the match it
got more agressive. Slogans rent the air, "Bharat Mata
ki jai!","mullon ko hara do!". Fortunately the police
came and dispersed the mob. People started running. It
was a riot like situation. But within five minutes as
the crowd lessened the screening started again. I
began
walking back home and on my way I heard, "Jeet gaye!
Jeet gaye!"; India had won the match.

Ditee was waiting for me on the balcony. I was
telling her what I had seen on the streets. Crackers
started bursting and the sky lit up with fire works.
The victory of the Indian team was being celebrated.
Peole spread out across Vijay Nagar, Model Town,
Kingsway Camp area. Processions covered the street,
slogans once again rent the air, "Pakistan Hai Hai!",
"Bharat Mata ki jai!", "Hara diya!, Mullon ko hara
diya!", "Katuon ko maro!". Ditee and I were watching
the procession from above. Suddenly  I spotted a boy
of six or seven shouting, " oye  Katue haar gaye!". I
was zapped at the boy's language and size. I remember
what I had seen one year ago in Gujarat. But the sense
of security which  I was ashamed of didn't exist this
time. My 'brahman' surname was no more a social
security. Ditee clutched me as if the mob was
physically attacking us. We ran inside the room and
called up my teacher and friend Mukul. Just a day
before we'd been remembering the Gujarat genocide.

I went back to the chowk of the mohalla and they were
there again, an agressively violent mob of youngster
with the national and saffron flag, shouting, "Maro!
Maro! Katuon ko Maro!", "Jai Shree Ram!",  "Shiv-Ratri
rang layee hai!". The youngest boy may have been ten
years old. They were stopping every passing car and
congratulating the passengers. I started to run back
home. A large number of scooterist overtook me. The
riders and pillions were wearing saffron headbands,
the last one carrying a 'dholak'. These were followed
by 'nagaras' of the Shiv Sena. When I reached back
Ditee refused to stand and watch these 'celebration'.
We went inside and she said,"I was wondering, how
would
we give birth to children in this environment?". I had
no answer.

That night we didn't eat dinner and talked till 2:30
wandering what was happening to the world around us.
Celebrations like this didn't reflect only joy and
happiness. These mobs were dancing on  democracy's
funeral. I wasn't in a position to even clap on the
victory of my country's team because this too become
an excuse to show hatred, to me it felt as if I'd lost
the battle to communalism. Crackers and abuses, flags
and communal slogans, what kind of nationalism is
this? Is this 'cultural' nationalism? If yes, which
culture is this?

* (Student of History, Delhi University)

______


#8.

The Asian Wall Street Journal
Thursday, February 27, 2003

Restore India's Secular Political Culture

By Smita Narula   (*)

"They keep going on about Muslim terrorists, but who are the 
terrorists? Those who torture Muslims so much should be punished a 
bit. In a family of nine, I am the only survivor. Whom should I live 
for now?"
-- a survivor of the communal violence in Gujarat, India.

As the world deliberates a U.S.-led war in Iraq and braces for more 
terrorist attacks, the international community has turned a blind eye 
to the killing of thousands of Muslims in India in the name of 
fighting terrorism.

A year ago today, a Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu 
activists in Godhra in the western state of Gujarat. Fifty-eight 
people were killed. In the days that followed, Hindus killed more 
than 2,000 Muslims throughout the state. Muslims were branded as 
terrorists while armed gangs set out to systematically destroy Muslim 
homes, businesses and places of worship. Scores of Muslim women and 
girls were gang-raped before being mutilated and burnt to death.

Collectively, Hindu nationalist groups are known as the sangh 
parivar. They exert considerable influence over India's social, 
educational and defense policies, including the country's decision to 
test nuclear weapons in 1998. Investigations by Human Rights Watch 
and numerous Indian human-rights groups revealed that attacks on 
Muslims were planned well in advance of the Godhra massacre. Mobs in 
Ahmedabad, for example, were guided by computer printouts listing the 
addresses of Muslim families and their properties, information they 
had been collecting over several months.

The attacks and other activities benefited the Bharatiya Janata Party 
by consolidating the Hindu vote-bank and ultimately securing victory. 
In December last year, the BJP won by a landslide in state elections 
in Gujarat. Using posters and videotapes of the Godhra massacre, and 
rhetoric that depicted Muslims as terrorists intent on destroying the 
Hindu community, the party gained the most seats in areas affected by 
communal violence.

The Hindus killed in Godhra were returning from Ayodhya in Uttar 
Pradesh, the site of a campaign led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, 
also known as the World Hindu Council, to construct a temple 
dedicated to Lord Ram on the site of a mosque destroyed by Hindu 
militants in 1992. Riots in Bombay in 1992 and 1993 following the 
destruction of the mosque claimed hundreds of lives, mostly Muslim. 
The BJP recently determined that the construction of the Ram temple, 
and the fight against terrorism, would form a core part of its 
electoral platform. Soon after their Gujarat win, BJP and VHP 
officials declared that the strategy used in Gujarat would be 
repeated all over India, raising concerns of further violence.

In states that go to the polls this year, such as Rajasthan and 
Madhya Pradesh, campaigns are already in full swing. As in Gujarat, 
members of the VHP are busy distributing literature in Rajasthan 
depicting Muslims as sexual deviants and terrorists. Members of both 
communities live in fear that a simple altercation could become the 
pretext for large-scale violence. In Madhya Pradesh, members of the 
Hindu Jagran Manch, a sangh parivar member, staged violent protests 
last week demanding unfettered access to an 11th century monument 
they claim is a temple and that Muslims have been using as a mosque. 
Two people were killed in the rioting that ensued.

The international community must put pressure on the Indian 
government to stop supporting communally divisive policies and end 
ongoing impunity for campaigns of orchestrated violence. One year 
since the beginning of the violence in Gujarat, there have been no 
convictions of those responsible. The machinery of justice in Gujarat 
has effectively been stacked against Muslims. Eyewitnesses have 
bartered their security and the security of their loved ones in 
exchange for turning "hostile" as prosecution witnesses, or simply 
not showing up when a case goes to trial.

Ongoing impunity also sows seeds for further violence. On Sept. 24 
last year, two gunmen attacked a Hindu temple in Gandhinagar in 
Gujarat, killing 32 people. Handwritten notes found in the gunmen's 
pockets identified the attackers as members of a "movement for 
revenge," presumably for the violence against Muslims in the state.

The violence in Gujarat displaced more than 100,000 people. For 
months they resided in makeshift relief camps, afraid to return to 
what was left of their homes in Hindu-dominated neighborhoods. But 
between July and October, the government forcibly closed the camps. 
The onus of providing much needed relief and reconstruction has 
fallen largely on the Muslim community. Unlike the response to the 
devastating January 2001 earthquake in the state, funds from affluent 
Indians abroad have not been forthcoming. However, overseas Indians 
are funding VHP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer 
Corps) organizations abroad that represent themselves as cultural, 
educational or humanitarian groups.

Unbeknown to charitable Indians who have donated millions, some of 
their money may be redirected for violent and sectarian purposes. 
Concerned about allegations linking charitable groups to violence, 
the U.K. Charities Commission is now investigating two RSS affiliates 
and is considering an inquiry into the VHP.

Indians living abroad must also demand accountability from these 
organizations. In so doing, they would be supporting the protests of 
many within India against the ongoing assault on India's proud 
tradition as a secular democracy, and against divisive political and 
economic power games fought in the name of promoting a Hindu state.

=46or now, Gujarat does not represent India. However, if the activities 
of some groups remain unchecked, violence could spread to other parts 
of the country and threaten the security of the subcontinent as a 
whole.

*Ms. Narula is senior researcher for South Asia at Human Rights Watch 
and the author of the group's report on the Gujarat violence, "We 
Have No Orders to Save You."

______


#9.

Newsweek International
March 3, 2003

Modi's Moment

On the anniversary of the ethnic violence in Gujarat, the state's 
militant chief minister is both unrepentant and possibly a harbinger 
of India's political future

By Carla Power
http://www.msnbc.com/news/876156.asp

______


#10.

[27 February, 2003]

Catch Them Young : The Case of the Baby Terrorist
by Rakesh Shukla

At the last count, a posse of policemen led by the renowned ACP 
Mukhbir Singh of the Special Cell with countless notches on his belt, 
were seen outside the Labour Ward of the G.T.B. Hospital ready to 
arrest the baby on arrival into the world under the Prevention of 
Terrorist Act, 2003, affectionately referred to as POTA.
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/2002/RakeshShuklaFeb03.html

______


#11.

The Indian Express
Saturday, March 15, 2003

POTA's new victims: Kashmiri students, ostracised, watched
Two agriculture students picked up under Act in UP, others terrorised
Kavita Chowdhury
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=3D20223

______


#12.

Text of Letter to the Deputy Prime Minister of India Re: The Iftikar 
Gilani Case and the Official Secrets Act, 1923 by 50 prominent 
members of [Indian] Parliament [March 10, 2003]
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/2002/FaleiroMarch03.html

_____


#13.

The Indian Express, March 16, 2003

Repackaging the RSS
Last week in Nagpur, the RSS inducted new faces in a bid to 
invigorate its organisational muscle. But it may not be easy to 
insulate the shakha from the real world, says Manini Chatterjee
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=3D20250


_____


#14.

The first national conference of South Asian women in Britain - 
Dreams, Questions and Struggles - Sapne, Sawal aur Larai was held in 
London on 7,8 and 9th March 2003. Organised by a coalition of Asian 
women's groups - Asian Women Unite! it brought together more 200 
South Asian women from across the country. The resolutions passed 
were as follows:

THE WAR

We condemn Bush and Blair's drive to war on Iraq - we know that it 
will have a devastating effect on women in Iraq who have already 
faced the onslaught of ten years of sanctions and undeclared war. We 
also condemn the government's use of the so-called war on terror to 
legitimise an upsurge in state racism. We resolve to build Asian 
women's participation in the Anti-War movement and to send delegates 
to the Stop the War People's Assembly on 12 March..

SOUTH ASIA

We condemn the activities of communal, sectarian and fascist forces 
which are fomenting hatred and violence in the countries of South 
Asia and dividing our communities here. We resolve to oppose all 
fundraising in Britain for such forces. We support the demands of 
women's organisations in India campaigning to bring the perpetrators 
of the Gujarat genocide to justice and for safety, security and legal 
redress for the victims. We are extremely concerned that funds raised 
in this country are being channelled to organisations in India which 
are orchestrating communal violence (as was exposed in a Channel 4 
News Report on 12/12/02). We resolve to campaign for the 
derecognition of the HSS/ Sewa International and VHP(UK) as 
registered charities and expose the communal and anti-women 
activities of these organisations.

=46UNDING OF ASIAN WOMEN=92S GROUPS

We are deeply concerned about the withdrawal of funds of a number of 
women's organisations and resolve to collectively lobby for the 
support of these organisations.

EDUCATION

We demand well-funded comprehensive education for our children which 
is equal both at the point of access and the point of delivery and 
does not involve selection. We are extremely concerned about the 
level of racism in schools; at present the rise of anti-Muslim racism 
is particularly disturbing. We resolve to campaign for the 
development and implementation of anti-racist policies which tackle 
institutionalised racism.

We distrust the government's proposals on increasing the number of 
single faith schools and are particularly concerned about the way 
these will reinforce patriarchal power in our communities and 
transfer control over education to religious institutions and bodies.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND NO RECOURSE TO PUB:IC FUNDS

Although we welcome the relaxation of the standard of proof of 
domestic violence in cases of women migrating to live with partners 
settled in the UK, the probationary period tips the balance of power 
in marriages against the women and their children making them more 
vulnerable to intimidation and violence. Women (and their children) 
are under tremendous pressure because of the probationary period to 
remain in violent marriages, and violence in such relationships is 
known to escalate with time. We demand that the probationary period 
be abolished and women be informed about their rights. We demand that 
the names, addresses and telephone numbers of organisations they can 
contact if they face domestic violence or abuse should be given to 
them when they first enter the UK to join their partners.

Women who try to leave violent and life-threatening relationships are 
often forced back into them because they have no recourse to public 
funds. This makes them destitute in the period when they try to claim 
the right of appeal against deportation which the state guarantees. 
This is both discriminatory and inconsistent and we demand a repeal 
of the rules on 'no recourse to public funds'. And we demand that 
this is applied to women without children as well as those with 
children.

Interim measures:

We resolve to lobby Women's Aid to make it a rule that every refuge 
must take at least one 'no recourse to public funds' case.

The current policy of classifying as 'overstayers' those women who 
are unable to regularise their position immediately after the 
probationary period ends is unjust and is in effect 'punishing the 
victim'. We demand that women in this position be allowed to appeal 
under the conditions of the November 2002 Domestic Violence Rule.

Many Social Services Departments across the country have excluded 
children from their rights under the Children Act or interpreted the 
Act to the detriment of children=92s welfare. We demand that the 
government draws up guidelines for Social Services departments on 
this issue.

We demand that the Supporting People Initiative recognises women with 
no recourse to public funds.

MENTAL HEALTH

We resolve to share experiences and instances of good practice and 
further early interventative and preventative work as a means to 
empowering, educating and supporting young women.

We resolve to set up a network of Asian women taking up mental health 
issues which will include users and survivors, practitioners and 
workers in Asian women's support organisations. We will work towards 
a day of action, communication and publicity on World Mental Health 
Day in October 2003 to raise awareness of these issues

CUSTODY LAW

The legal system lacks an analysis of race and cultural issues. It 
claims an awareness of race and culture but this is being used to 
support Asian men's access to parental contact. More damage is being 
done by 'cultural awareness'. We need to confront this.

The women's movement needs a network in every town and city and 
access to feminist barristers. We resolve to build this network.

Women need to arm themselves with knowledge of their rights in the 
context of family law. We resolve to produce and distribute materials 
to this end.

WORK

Women lack knowledge of their rights at work. This information must 
be made available to workers in their own languages. We resolve to 
distribute a rights leaflet in places of work and have discussions 
with workers. We will collate a dossier on incidents where 
representative bodies like Unions/ CREs have failed Asian women 
workers.

We resolve to publicise Asian women workers=92 struggles which are 
going on. We will set up a network of Asian women taking up issues in 
employment.

We resolve to pressurise the unions to disseminate information about 
rights at work to Asian women workers and to have more representation 
for Asian women

We resolve to access the policy action infrastructure via the notion 
of social exclusion. We resolve to lobby for more positive action 
programmes enabling Asian women to access employment

=46ORTHCOMING EVENT

We resolve to organise a one day conference on the British state's 
interventions in our lives, focussing particularly on the no recourse 
to public funds legislation and the interventions in the context of 
'forced marriages' and single faith schools. The conference would 
also provide a space for us to exchange ideas on how we see women's 
oppression. It would be held in the first week of July, in Manchester 
or Sheffield


_____


#15.


Himal
March 2003

REVIEW
Umbilical chords and family ideologies
=46our generations of Indian women in Kenya and Britain, in a history 
of mixed genres and shifting
emotional registers which hums like a wire stretched taut

reviewed by Rajeswari Sunder Rajan

Shards of Memory: Woven
Lives in Four Generations
by Parita Mukta
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 2002
=A316.99, pp 214

[Full Text at : http://www.himalmag.com/2003/march/review.htm ]

_____


#16.


WE THE BILLION
A Social Psychological Perspective on India's Population
RAGINI SEN
     
Published in: 2003
Pages: 328
Imprint: Sage India
ISBN:
Cloth: 0761996818

   Contents	Preface / Introduction: Population Explosion: The 
Neglected Malaise in India / The Futile Long March: Government and 
Political Approach / Two Perspectives: Socio-Cultural vs Empirical / 
'Representations Sociale': A Composite Approach / The Holy Trinity / 
'Thinking Minorities': Common Sense and Communication / Uttar 
Pradesh: The Fertile Womb of India / Exhume the Killing Fields / 
Being Pragmatic and Successful / Conclusion / Appendices / References 
and Select Bibliography / Index

To order this book in the U.S.A. and Canada contact: www.sagepub.com
To order this book in the U.K., Europe, Latin America, Africa, 
Australia and East Asia contact: www.sagepub.co.uk

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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South Asia Citizens Web (www.mnet.fr/aiindex).

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.