SACW | 12 May 03
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex@mnet.fr
Mon, 12 May 2003 04:49:50 +0100
South Asia Citizens Wire | 12 May, 2003
Action Alert : In Defence of the Indian Historian Romila Thapar
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/Alerts/IDRT300403.html
---------------
#1. Insights that made sense (Adam and Arlie Hochschild)
#2. The US and our South Asian saga (Asma Jahangir)
#3. It's time to rethink Kashmir (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
#4. India-Pakistan: Shall We Step Out of The Box? Into a box that
Works? (Rinku Dutta)
#5. Fluttering of the hawks in India
#6. Invitation to discussion and question - answer session with the
visiting Pakistani MPs. (Bengal chapter of Pakistan India People's
Forum for Peace and Democracy) [May 14, Calcutta]
#7. Invitation to Eqbal Ahmad Distinguished Lectures 2003 (May
14,Lahore / May 15, Islamabad / May 17, Karachi)
#8. 'Confronting Constructionism: Ending India's Naga War' by Sanjib Baruah
#9. Monsoon Risings: Resistance in the Narmada Valley [interview with
] Chittaroopa Palit
#10. Investigative documentary on Godhra train burning.
#11. VHP's Changing Agenda a book review by Christophe Jaffrelot
--------------
#1.
DAWN, 11 May 2003
Insights that made sense
By Adam and Arlie Hochschild
We have missed Eqbal Ahmad sorely since his passing, and many events
of the last year and a half - the 9/11 attacks, and the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq - have made his wisdom seem more prescient than
ever.
"You are creating a monster here," he used to tell his American
friends, speaking of CIA support for the anti-Soviet guerrillas in
Afghanistan. "It will come back to haunt you." And of course it did,
in the dramatic attack on New York, the city Eqbal loved and lived in
for so many years.
In a much broader way, as well, the insights of his last years help
make sense of the world since then. We are thinking particularly of a
series of three articles he wrote not long before he died, about the
commonalities among the fundamentalist versions of Islam,
Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism.
He pointed out how, in all four cases, this fundamentalism arises
when a rigid, pastoral, patriarchal tradition encounters the
anxieties and complexities of the modern world. The response is to
idealize a mythical past (the Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski calls
this "The Great Yesterday"), and to see the world in bipolar terms:
good and evil, friend and foe. Eqbal pointed out how in the west the
word "fundamentalist" is applied only to Muslims, whereas
similarly-minded Christians are called "right-wingers", Jews
"settlers", and Hindus "nationalists".
Sadly, all four fundamentalisms have only grown stronger since his
death. Although Americans tend to fret most about the Islamic
variety, these last few years have also seen the horrendous massacres
of Muslims by Hindu fundamentalists in India and the movement of
still more Jewish fundamentalists to the West Bank - making yet more
difficult any prospect of the equitable peace with justice in the
Middle East that was so dear to Eqbal's heart. Perhaps happily, he
was spared the chance to see George W. Bush become president of the
United States. Has there ever been a more fundamentalist occupant of
the White House?
Of all the possible lenses through which to look at the world of this
past year and a half, none seem more useful to us than Eqbal's way of
looking at fundamentalisms. And, of course, as fundamentalisms clash,
they strengthen each other. That is the great danger we now live
with, all of us. It is a danger exacerbated by the fact that the
means of one or another fundamentalism waging war - whether by
unconventional means, as on September 11, or high-tech conventional
battle, as in the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq - have become more
sophisticated and more deadly.
The only answer to that vicious spiral is to affirm more vigorously
than ever the values of human rights and of social and economic
justice for all peoples of this earth, and to affirm not just the
right to exist of cultures and religions other than one's own, but
the marvelous, fragile diversity of the world we live in. In a human
society that the fundamentalists want to divide into black and white,
heathen and believer, Eqbal Ahmad beheld celebrated a far richer and
more complex tapestry, like that of the Persian rugs he collected and
loved.Arlie Hochschild is professor of sociology at the University of
California, Berkeley.
Adam Hochschild is a journalist and has authored several books.
_____
#2.
The Daily Times , May 12, 2003
The US and our South Asian saga
Asma Jahangir
Mr Armitage expressed confidence in President Musharraf, calling him
"a man of his word". Who will believe this assertion? The General is
known for going back on his word time and again
The United States has a legacy of making strange bedfellows, but at
least in the past it refrained from applauding them in public and
making them out be angels. Not so any more. The US has become more
blatant in its praise, oblivious to the fact that its hollow words
not only offend the victims of their newfound friends, but also make
oppressors more self-assured. Take an example: the US Deputy
Secretary of State Richard Armitage and National Security Advisor
Condoleeza Rice have described Pakistan's ISI and other
law-enforcement agencies in superlative terms. But the policy of
fooling into obedience comes right from the top. Not too long ago,
President George Bush was pleased to call
General Pervez Musharraf "a true democrat".
Mr Armitage and Ms Rice are fortunate that they do not live in the
backwaters of Pakistan or have had to oppose the ruling clique as a
citizen. Had they experienced such a misfortune they may not have
been so enthusiastic or brazen in applauding Pakistan's security and
intelligence agencies. Have they glanced through their own State
Department report on human rights? According to that report, torture
is endemic and government agents in Pakistan carry out extra-judicial
killings with impunity. Reports of rape, torture and abuse by the
security forces of Pakistan appear regularly in the press. The Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan reported 154 extra-judicial killings in
2002 alone. Deaths in custody and torture of women and children were
reported in a number of instances.
As for the ISI, the agency virtually runs the country. A number of
politicians have confirmed that they were offered bribes by the ISI
and former army chief Aslam Beg to rig elections. These allegations
are on record and have not been denied by anyone. One case is still
pending at the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Political adversaries and
journalists are threatened, picked up and forced to give up their
anti-government positions. So when the US praises the ISI, it is like
rubbing salt in the wounds of the democratic forces in Pakistan.
Undoubtedly our police forces have apprehended Al Qaeda "folks" which
has pleased the US administration. They should express gratitude for
it but with caution, especially when it is suspected that many of the
arrests were carried out through illegal use of force and procedures.
Such highhandedness should not be condoned even in the case of the
so-called terrorists or Al Qaeda.
Needless to say support for such behaviour will only encourage more
torture and greater abuse of authority. Pakistanis, by and large, do
not support terrorism despite the tall claims made by the US and
efforts by the ISI in the past to legitimise terrorist groups as
genuine jihadis. But they want the terrorists to be brought to
justice through legal means.
Terrorists must surely give up their tactics but the US too must
abandon its policy of applying "double standards" if it wants to be
respected by the people rather than being feasted by oppressors and
despots.
Mr. Armitage expressed confidence in President Musharraf, calling him
"a man of his word". Who will believe this assertion? The General is
known for going back on his word time and again. From his initial
promises of restoring "true democracy" to bringing the corrupt to
accountability, his words turned out to be empty assurances. Except
the US administration, nobody is keeping up the pretence of believing
him.
Pakistanis are witness to a series of events where the General has
acted contrary to his word. In the name of accountability former
prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was banished from the country. The
promised "purified" parliament of graduates and saints has darker
sides to it. Alleged rapists have been appointed ministers with the
blessing of the military junta. Those accused of corruption and
murders are being wooed and rewarded.
We are supposed to believe that the recent developments in Indo-Pak
relations have come about without any external pressure; that a deep
sense of anguish for the poor of the subcontinent has moved the
leaders to give peace and friendship another chance. Suddenly
Pakistan's custodians of nuclear weapons are willing to bury their
"baby" with their own hands if India follows suit, all for the sake
of "peace". Even the ideologues are "threatening" to lead a peace
march to Wagha!
Such complete and sudden change of heart is usually only viewed in
Indian and Pakistani films. But now it seems to have afflicted the
governments and semi-official hard-liners as well. Hopefully the saga
will end happily. So far the theme seems unreal and the actors have
overplayed their part.
Those who follow political events have reason to believe that
something more sinister is being played out. Normalisation of
Indo-Pak relations is crucial for ensuring freedom and prosperity for
the people of the two countries. But it is equally critical to
address the issue of the political freedoms of the Pakistanis. This
can never be achieved under military rule supported by the mighty
Bush administration. It is therefore clear that the US interest in
India-Pakistan relations is not for a quest for freedom but to extend
some hidden US agenda. Mr. Armitage's words have a deeper meaning to
them. He cannot be as simple as his appearance. The Bush
administration may have managed to dupe our leaders to believe they
are God-sent but they cannot fool all the people all the times.
Asma Jahangir is a human rights activist and former chairperson of
the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
_____
#3.
DAWN, May 11, 2003
It's time to rethink Kashmir
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
Kashmir does not have any military solution - the last decade of
unremitting conflict proves this fact. Pakistan lacks the muscle to
wrest Kashmir from illegitimate Indian rule, and India cannot win
decisively over Pakistan in the difficult, mountainous terrains. This
remains as true today as in 1989 when New Delhi's unconscionable
manipulation of Kashmiri politics, and its monumental administrative
incompetence, led to a popular uprising. Pakistan was quick to
translate India's losses into its gains.
The Afghan war was over, fighters were aplenty, and large numbers of
Kashmiri refugees flowed onto the Pakistani side. Thus the
bleed-India-through-jihad policy, to be simultaneously accompanied by
denials of involvement, was born. This was a supposedly low-cost
option that Pakistan's military establishment imagined would lead to
eventual victory, a means to change an otherwise unchangeable
status-quo.
Post-Iraq - and 70,000 Kashmiri, Pakistani, and Indian lives later -
it is time to ask whether Pakistan is gaining or losing by
single-mindedly pursuing this path. Has this "low-cost" covert war
brought Kashmir any closer to liberation? Without serious and
scrupulously honest introspection, a wise future course cannot be
charted for our nation. Pakistan must now decide whether it can
afford the next decade to look like the previous one. With Prime
Minister Vajpayee's forthcoming visit, which he dramatically
describes as the "third and last" peace effort of his lifetime, it is
essential to see how yet another failure can be averted. Rethinking
Kashmir is now essential for both sides.
Pakistan's rationale for covert war in Kashmir was two-fold. The
first objective was to bleed India into a state of abject weakness
after which it would presumably quit Kashmir. But this goal was never
met. Indian forces, both regular and paramilitary, did sustain high
losses in Kashmir and the cost of maintaining large contingents
remains considerable. But no evidence suggests any real weakening of
Indian resolve or strength. On the contrary, as particularly
evidenced during the Kargil war, an unprecedented show of national
unity emerged in India. The rise of virulent Hindutva forces can be
traced directly to anti-Pakistan feelings and the Kashmir situation.
More significantly, contrary to the expectation of Pakistani
strategists, India's economy did not collapse but, instead, boomed.
Indian foreign exchange reserves currently stand at over $70 billion
and IT companies alone earn India a solid $10 billion a year, more
than Pakistan's total foreign exchange holdings. This figure is
expected to double in the next two-three years. Indian scientific
institutions are now being counted among the world's best. Pakistan's
re-born economy, on the other hand, owes more to General Musharraf's
adroit handling of the 9/11 attack than to any inner strength. Its
industry is barely crawling while education and scientific research
seem incurably ill. In a technologically driven world, this is a
devastating weakness.
The second Pakistani rationale was, and is, to keep Kashmir in the
news. The implicit hope is that a high level of tension between two
nuclear-armed states will eventually alarm the international
community - most particularly the United States - and so force a
recalcitrant India to see reason. To raise fear levels Pakistani
leaders sometimes deliberately worked to cultivate an image of
Pakistan as a defiant, nuclear-armed state ready to commit suicide.
But, at other moments, they sought to project an image of being calm,
assured, and responsible. Though confusing, such signals made the
threat of nuclear apocalypse sufficiently real to keep a steady
stream of western leaders coming to Islamabad and Delhi at the peak
of the tensions last year. Pakistan felt pleased - the world was now
not forgetting Kashmir and would rush to solve the dispute.
This turned out to be a fatal miscalculation. In fact, the principal
alarm evidenced by the world in general, and the US in particular,
has been in relation to the Kashmiri Mujahideen and Pakistani nuclear
weapons. This attitude preceded the 9/11 attack, but now dominates
all thinking.
The US State Department's recent declaration of 30 jihadist
organizations as terrorist includes the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, the
largest Mujahideen group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, with no
history of attacking US interests. This sends a clear message to
Pakistan that violence in Kashmir, whether caused by indigenous
groups or by Pakistani-supported militants, will boomerang. In the
international press Pakistan now frequently stands accused of
inciting violence, and of using the nuclear card to provoke fear,
while India is blamed less frequently now than in the past. To be in
the news is now no longer a good thing. Are Pakistani strategists
ready to accept this hard fact?
The consequence of waging covert war has been a steady loss of
international support for the Kashmiri struggle. This fact is known
to all Pakistani diplomats who represent Pakistan's position in the
world's capitals, including those of Muslim countries. The moral high
ground - the most potent weapon of the weak - erodes ever more
sharply after every massacre of Hindu civilians in Kashmir. This has
led many Mujahideen groups to sharply condemn these incidents and to
blame Indian security forces, but these denials and condemnations
receive little acceptance. On the other hand, India, the occupying
power in Kashmir, has successfully portrayed itself as a victim of
covert terror.
These damning facts call for a rethink. One wonders if Pakistan has
any coherent game plan for Kashmir, or any kind of time-frame. There
is little evidence of this. Resistance to change has many sources - a
possible backlash from the religious parties and extreme elements
within the military, a large standing army that needs an enemy, and
sheer intellectual laziness. Inertia, default, and ad hocism dominate
planning and design. As the late Eqbal Ahmad passionately argued,
although India's leaders bear much responsibility for Kashmir's
tragedy, Pakistan's defective Kashmir policy had repeatedly "managed
to rescue defeat from the jaws of victory".
Where should new directions point? Surely, any significant change
will require a spirit of compromise as a prerequisite, which in turn
requires recognition that a military solution is impossible. If so,
principles and pragmatism can then march together, and the two
countries can abandon positions fixed half a century ago. The
your-loss-is-my-gain mentality must be exchanged for one that values
economic prosperity and social stability. On our side, the slogan
"Pakistan First" recently offered by President Musharraf and Prime
Minister Jamali offers rich potentialities. Suitably interpreted,
this requires Pakistan to live up to its officially stated position -
Pakistan shall provide only moral, diplomatic, and political support
to Kashmiris struggling against India but no more. Indeed, this is
exactly what reason, logic, strategic sense, and new geo-political
realities require of Pakistan.
If Pakistan should offer a strategic pause then India must respond
positively. But what reasons could motivate India, and what forms
could the response take? The undeniable fact is that India is morally
isolated from the Kashmiri people and incurs the very considerable
costs of an occupying power. Its industry, capable of double-digit
growth, needs stability for this to happen. And, of no small
importance, Indian soldiers do not want to die in Kashmir. By
acknowledging Kashmir as a problem that needs a solution, releasing
political prisoners from Kashmiri jails, and agreeing to a mutual
reduction of hostile state-sponsored propaganda, India would
appropriately acknowledge its part of the deal.
Logic and pragmatism require India and Pakistan to explore
non-maximalist solutions. Minus the two obvious ones, Kashmir
watchers have counted over 30 possibilities. One, that makes
particular sense, envisages two reconstituted Kashmiri entities
possibly straddling the Line of Control with their own respective
governments and constitutions. These two non-hostile entities, one
associated with Pakistan and the other India, would have soft borders
allowing for easy transit of people and goods. The details need to be
worked out by all three parties: Kashmiris, Pakistanis, and Indians.
The United States could serve as a facilitator. The road to peace is
open - if there is willingness to travel.
The writer teaches at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.
_____
#4.
[9 May 2003]
India-Pakistan: Shall We Step Out of The Box?
Into a box that Works?
By Rinku Dutta
"So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not
a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let
both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those
problems which divide us." ---JFK
Think OIL. Think NATURAL GAS. Think INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.
Think POST-IRAQ ECONOMY.
Think POST-IRAQ REGIONAL SOLIDARITY.
Think SOUTH ASIA.
South Asia will not be made all at once, or according to a single
plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first
create a de facto solidarity. The coming together of the nations
of South Asia requires the elimination of the age-old opposition of
India and Pakistan. Any action taken must in the first place concern
these two countries.
With this aim in view, I propose that we follow the Schuman (and Jean
Monnet) Declaration (1950) that laid the foundation of the European
Union, and prescribe that we act immediately on one limited but
decisive point:
I propose that Indian-Pakistani Production and Procurement of Oil and
Natural Gas as a whole be placed under a common Authority, within the
framework of an organisation open to the participation of the other
countries of South Asia.
Pakistan is a modest producer of oil and gas. However, pipelines
leading from the oil and gas deposits in Iran, Turkmenistan and
Kazakhstan, across Afghanistan, to Pakistan, and, eventually, to the
enormous Indian market could provide Pakistan with a much-needed
injection of cash in transport fees (see REFERENCES)
The pooling of oil and natural gas production and procurement should
immediately provide for the setting up of common foundations for
economic development as a first step in the Federation of South Asia,
and will change the destinies of these regions which have long been
devoted to the manufacture of munitions of war, of which they have
been the most constant victims.
The solidarity in production thus established will make it plain that
any war between India and Pakistan becomes not merely unthinkable,
but materially impossible. The setting up of this powerful productive
unit, open to all countries willing to take part and bound ultimately
to provide all the member countries with the Basic Elements of
Industrial Production on the Same Terms, will lay a True Foundation
for Their Economic Unification.
This will lay the corner stone to the foundation of the Federation of
South Asia.
(Worth keeping in mind THAT ONLY Six countries originally rallied to
the concept of a united Europe; now there are 15, while more than 10
others feel drawn towards that ideal and have applied to join the
European Union.)
REFERENCES:
What's at stake for whom
http://www.worldpress.org/specials/pp/pak.htm
Caspian Sea Region: Reserves and Pipelines Tables
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/caspgrph.html>http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/caspgrph.html
India Oil and Natural Gas
http://www.indianchild.com/india_oil_and_natural_gas.htm
<http://www.robert-schuman.org/anglais/robert-schuman/declaration.htm>http://www.robert-schuman.org/anglais/robert-schuman/declaration.htm
http://europa.eu.int/abc/obj/chrono/40years/7days/en.htm
_____
#5.
Fluttering of the hawks in India (May 11 | The Hindustan Times)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_251279,0012.htm
_____
#6.
May 8, 2003
Dear Friend,
Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPPD) is a
citizen- to- citizen group. The Bengal chapter of the Forum is
hosting members of a Parliamentary delegation from Pakistan in
Kolkata.
The Forum takes the pleasure to invite you to a discussion and
question-and- answer session with the visiting Pakistani MPs.
Venue: Yuva Kendra, Moulali [Calcutta]
Date : May 14, 2003
Time: 5 pm.
The Pakistani MPs who will be participating are:
1. Member of National Assembly Ishaq Khan Khakwani, the group
coordinator. He is an electrical engineer, progressive farmer and
former president of the Lahore Polo Club. He is the current
Ambassador Federation of International Polo.
2. Senator Ms Roshan Barucha. She is the former minister,
Baluchistan cabinet and from a non-Muslim constituency. Well-known
social worker.
3.Senator Dr Shuja -ul-Mulk Pakistan People's party (Sherpao),
businessman, scion of the old family of Khudai Khidmatgars of Khan
Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Hails from Swat (North West Frontier Province).
4. Senator Dr Khalid Ranjah. Former president, Lahore High Court Bar
Association. Former Law Minister, Pakistan and later, Panjab.
5. Member of National Assembly MP Bhandara. Writer, columnist and
industrialist. Many times elected member of Parliament.
(Amit Chakraborty)
Joint Secretary, West Bengal Chapter
Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy
_____
#7.
You are cordially invited to the Eqbal Ahmad Distinguished Lectures 2003
by:
TARIQ ALI
Noted activist, journalist and novelist.
Schedule of Lectures:
Lahore: Wednesday, 14th May 2003, 3:30 pm at Shalimar Hall, Pearl
Continental Hotel, "Infinite War And The American Empire".
Islamabad: Thursday, 15th May 2003, 4:00 pm at National Library
Auditorium, "The Future Of South Asia After The Iraq War".
Karachi: Saturday, 17th May 2003, 5:30 pm at Hotel Regent Plaza,
Shahrah-e-Faisal, "United States and Europe - A Breaking Partnership".
-------------------------------------------------
Sponsored by the Eqbal Ahmad Foundation in association with the Daily
Times and Badalti Duniya.
Punctuality essential. Refreshments will be served after the lecture.
Please bring a printout of this email invitation. Thank you.
RSVP: Najam Sethi [The Daily Times ]
Hidayat Husain [ Badalti Duniya, monthly ]
Pervez Hoodbhoy [ Eqbal Ahmad Foundation ]
______
#8.
Sanjib Baruah, 2003. 'Confronting Constructionism: Ending India's
Naga War', Journal of Peace Research 40(3) May 2003.
One of the worlds oldest continuing armed conflicts is also one of
the least known: the conflict between the government of India and
the Nagas. Since 1997, there has been a ceasefire between the Indian
government and Naga militants, and there have been intermittent
talks to end the conflict. Naga leaders appear to be willing to make
concessions on their main demand of independence. But the peace
process has stumbled on an unexpected hurdle: the Naga aspiration to
the unification of all Naga-inhabited areas. Whether or not some
people included in the Naga category should indeed be considered
Nagas is in fact a highly contested matter. Since it is impossible to
agree on who is a Naga and who is not, it has been difficult to
decide what the Naga-inhabited areas are. The issue has generated
some new conflicts in the region. As in all ethno-national conflicts,
the politics of recognition is an underlying theme in the Naga
conflict. But projects about recognition are also projects about
constructing identities. The notion of bounded collectivities living
in national homelands relies on a very different spatial discourse
from the one of overlapping frontiers and hierarchical polities that
precedes it. The article argues that the historical relations
between hill peoples and the lowland states in this frontier region
were premised on an especially complex spatial, cultural, and
political dynamic. Saving the faltering Naga peace process will
require confronting the constructionism of modern identities by the
political actors themselves.
[ INTERESTED PEOPLE CAN OBTAIN A FULL TEXT ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE
ABOVE ARTICLE, BY SENDING A REQUEST TO <aiindex@mnet.fr> ]
______
#9.
New Left Review 21, May-June 2003
Monsoon Risings: Mega-Dam Resistance in the Narmada Valley
[An interview with ] Chittaroopa Palit
http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR25504.shtml
[[ A FULL TEXT ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE CAN BE
OBTAINED , BY SENDING A REQUEST TO <aiindex@mnet.fr> ]
______
#10.
May 11, 2003
I am an independent documentary filmmaker based in New Delhi.
Recently I made an investigative documentary on Godhra train
burning. Godhra Tak: The terror trail is the name and is the
first one of its kind because nothing exclusive is available on Godhra
train incident on video.
On 27 Feb last year a bogey full of karsevaks were burnt at
Godhra railway station and later the incident was used to create riots
in Gujarat in which 3500 Muslim were killed. In this documentary we
tried to follow the entire route of the first batch of karsevaks
from Gujarat to Ayodhya and back. We documented the terror
unleashed by the Karsevaks on their rout and the incidents at
Godhra railway station on 27 Feb 2002. With the help of a lawyer
Mr Mukul Sinha who is appearing in the Godhra inquiry commission
constituted by the Gujarat government and Dr. V. N. Shegal
former director Central Forensic Science Laboratory and member Interpol
we tried to find out the merits of the conspiracy theory given by
the prosecution and VHP alike.
This one-hour film is a balanced one and gives representation to
the views of the both sides. We interviewed Praven Bhai Togadia
(International General Secretary, VHP), Vinay Katiyar ( UP BJP
president) and Dr. Jaydeep Patel (General Secretary, VHP Gujarat)
and Karsevaks to give their version of the incident. We also
interviewed passengers who actually booked their tickets in S6
and victims of violence by Karsevaks from various places.
This film is having much exclusive stuff and can be used to
counter the communal propaganda. The film is not formally
released. I am waiting for BBC to commission it. Meanwhile I
want to sell and distribute copies of my film in VCD and VHS format.
I am writing to know whether your organization is willing to buy
some copies or not. You can also let me know about the your
interest in buying the rights for UK and US.
Regards
Shubhradeep Chakravorty
91-11-26602264
E-mail-shubhradeep@rediffmail.com
_____
#11.
Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay)
May 3, 2003
Book Review
VHP's Changing Agenda
Vishva Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics by Manjari Katju; Orient
Longman, Hyderabad, 2003; pp viii + 186, Rs 350.
Christophe Jaffrelot
This book, which is organised in a chronological order, argues that
the Vishva Hindu Parishad has shifted to a different, more political
agenda in the 1980s whereas, "its only aim was to do social spadework
towards a non-Congress and non-communist political alternative"
during what she calls the 'Pre-Hindutva Phase' before the VHP's
'Transition to Mass Activism'. Though it is not entirely wrong, this
approach misses three important points.
First, the VHP was created with the support of the RSS in order to
federate the innumerable sects of Hinduism because this division into
so many religious currents appeared as a source of weakness,
especially vis-a-vis Christianity. The latter was perceived as posing
a major threat to Hinduism because of its proselytising capacity. The
VHP was precisely launched in reaction to the Pope's visit to Bombay
in 1964. Not only does the author ignore this point - as many other
historical data - she doe not pay enough attention to the VHP's
obsession with the organisation of the Hindus and the way it led the
movement to emulate the centralised structure of the Catholic church.
The architects of the VHP wanted it to be the apex body of Hinduism.
Katju should have pondered upon the extent to which this objective
had been fulfilled. Interestingly, the efforts of the VHP to attract
the most prestigious religious leaders - for instance the
Shankaracharyas - have remained largely inconclusive. The movement
has mainly recruited among the modern gurus who had founded their
ashram and missed a large following, something the VHP was supposed
to give them. The book should have provided us with a sociology of
the sadhus attracted by the VHP.
Second, the author overestimates what she calls "a genuine passion
for reform" that the VHP allegedly embodied in the beginning of its
existence. The VHP has never been in the forefront of social reform
campaigns. At most, it would have criticised untouchability in order
to fight, indirectly, against the conversions of dalits to more
egalitarian religions like Christianity. But even such a rationale
became more prominent after the conversion of 1981 in Meenakshipuram
than in the 1960s.
Third, the VHP played a part in the politics of "mass activism" as
early as 1966, two years after its inception. It was the architect of
the anti-cow slaughter agitation (a major episode of populist
politics) which was intended to mobilise Hindus in favour of the Jan
Sangh just before the 1967 elections. At that time, already, a
division of labour operated between the VHP and the political party
of the Sangh parivar, the former laying itself to be instrumentalised
by the latter because of the mobilisation capability of the VHP's
sadhus, a point the author has missed. The movement became more and
more politicised in the course of time, but it was not that
apolitical in the 1960s.
When and why did this shift take place, by the way? Katju does not
give any clear answer, unfortunately. My own research led me to
conclude that the RSS started to promote the VHP in the political
arena after the Jan Sangh leaders, who were locked into the dual
membership controversy, seemed to be prepared to shun their
affiliation with the Sangh and, more explicitly when they formed the
BJP, with 'positive secularism' and 'Gandhian socialism' as its
mottos.
Manjari Katju is at her best when she analyses the Ayodhya movement,
not so much in the sections chronicling in a very descriptive way
events which are fairly well known, but in those where she shows in
operation the division of labour within the Sangh parivar, between
the VHP (agitational), the BJP (electoral) and the RSS
(organisational); and within the VHP, between the Bajrang Dal - the
youth wing and muscle power - and the Durga Vahini - the feminine
branch. Both organisations reflect the promotion within the Hindutva
movement of lumpen elements from the lower castes on the one hand,
and of young women who had not been given such an easy access to the
public sphere till the Ayodhya movement legitimised their going out.
The interviews reproduced by the author in large numbers also show
that the VHP could woo people who would have stayed aloof from the
paramilitary style of the RSS but felt attracted by the religious
flavour of this offshoot of the Sangha. These interviews are also
revealing of the deeply ingrained feeling that the proponents of
secularism have pampered the minorities at the expense of the Hindus.
The most commonplace discourse of the VHP leaders tends to make true
the clash of civilisations theory. One sentence by Togadia in
one of the interviews conducted by the author deserves a special
mention: "In this world except the Jews no one has suffered as many
attacks as the Hindus". And, naturally, their enemies were the same -
like in the case of the American Christians who died on 9/11. Ergo:
Hindus, Jews and Christians now have the same enemy, Islam and
therefore the VHP, logically enough, was in favour of India joining
the US and Britain in their war in Iraq.
Last but not least, the second appendix of the book on 'The Vishva
Hindu Parishad Abroad' prepares the ground for further research on a
major issue: the connection between the Hindu nationalist NRIs and
the Sangh parivar. According to Katju the success of the VHP in the
US and in Britain is largely due to the need of the second (or third)
generations of immigrants to regain their Hindu culture. The VHP
tackles this issue in order to strengthen the migrants' self-esteem,
but tries also to prevent conversions to Islam and Christianity and
to improve the image of the diaspora in the media and that of the
Hindus in academia. But is it also a case of 'long-distance
nationalism', to use Anderson's phrase, and how much resources is the
Sangh parivar tapping from the diaspora via the VHP?
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