SACW | 16 May 03

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 16 May,  2003

Action Alert: In Defence of the Indian Historian Romila Thapar
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/Alerts/IDRT300403.html

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

#1. An Indian filmmaker is seeking permission to shoot a Hindu-Muslim 
love story in Pakistan
#2. End state-run hate campaigns, urge Pak. MPs (Amit Baruah)
#3. The Boss Assumes Charge - Climbing down from the high horse will 
be embarrassing for India (Ashok Mitra)
#4. Pakistanis abroad trick daughters into marriage (Owais Tohid)
#5. Women's worst enemy  (Kumkum Chadha)
#6. Alternative as dilution (Brinda Karat)
#7. Trishuls, lathis and books (Kancha Ilaiah)
#8. A witch-hunt down generations: What is needed is not an apology 
from Indian Muslims but a check on communal forces that misuse 
history (Asghar Ali Engineer)
#9. NGO plans communal harmony workshops
#10. Screening of Anand Patwardhan's War and Peace / Jung Aur Aman 
(May 26, Bombay)
#11. Bhopal Survivors Confront Dow: They Say Dow Execs Lied to 
Shareholders (Helene Vosters)

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

#1.

Los Angeles Times
May 15, 2003

Filmmaker aims to unite enemies  
 From Reuters

An Indian filmmaker is seeking permission to shoot a Hindu-Muslim 
love story in Pakistan in a bid to build on the recent thaw between 
the nuclear rivals.

The film, yet to be named, is set a couple of months before the 
bloody partition of the subcontinent into Muslim Pakistan and 
predominantly Hindu India in 1947 and will have actors from both 
countries, said Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt.

"Indians and Pakistanis are still victims of the hatred that began 
with the partition. There's an urgent need to look at each other more 
positively. It can be done through films," Bhatt said.

______

#2.

The Hindu
Friday, May 16, 2003
http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003051604581100.htm

End state-run hate campaigns, urge Pak. MPs

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI MAY 15. A visiting Parliamentary delegation from Pakistan 
today called on both India and Pakistan to stop "all State-run hate 
campaigns", arguing that "much more is required" than normalising 
formal relations to ensure "goodwill and accommodation".

Reading out a prepared statement at a press conference this afternoon 
on behalf of the "goodwill mission", Ishaq Khan Khakwani, a member of 
the delegation, said: "Lessons have to be learnt from past failures 
and efforts made to build a sound edifice for a composite, meaningful 
and sustainable dialogue..."

The Parliamentarians, here at the invitation of the Pakistan-India 
People's Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFD), called for 
"debarring" the use of force by all actors, be they State or private 
parties, and rejected acts of terrorism against innocent people. The 
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), they said, 
should not be allowed to turn into a hostage to India-Pakistan 
differences. "As agreed at the 11th SAARC summit in Kathmandu, trade 
and economic cooperation should be allowed to take place..." Claiming 
that a degree of flexibility was "visible" on both sides, the 
Pakistani MPs quoted their Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, 
approvingly when he referred to the fact that the Pakistani Army was 
"fully on board" as far as the present initiative to restore ties 
with India was concerned.

Suggesting a "ceasefire" by all sides, they said that the "plan for 
talks" must involve the Kashmiris at "some stage" to resolve the 
Kashmir dispute without jeopardising the legitimate interests of 
India or Pakistan. "What is most important is that the rigid national 
consensus and officially stated positions on Kashmir should give way 
to openness and flexibility. And there are other issues too that 
should be given due importance such as nuclear stabilisation in the 
subcontinent." This nuclear proposal is broadly on the lines of the 
recent thinking of the Pakistani Government.

Calling for the "signature" of an "apparent agreement" on Siachen, 
the Parliamentarians suggested that the MoU on confidence-building 
measures agreed to in Lahore "be further improved and activated".

They suggested that people-to-people contact must be encouraged and 
''journalists allowed free movement across frontiers without visas". 
Both the MPs and their hosts, the PIPFD, said that nobody within the 
BJP or the Central Government had responded to their desire to meet 
them. However, both in Maharashtra and West Bengal, the MPs had met 
with Government representatives.

Asked whether the Shimla Agreement or the Lahore process should be 
the basis for dialogue between the two countries, Mr. Khakwani siad 
that the basis should be that India and Pakistan should keep talking. 
Another MP, Minoo Bhandara, said that terrorists were not just the 
enemies of India, but Pakistan as well.

Mr. Bhandara said at a previous CII interaction that rightwing 
religious parties were happy that India had broken off road, rail and 
air links with Pakistan. These groups were pleased that India was 
promoting "their agenda", he stressed.

Responding to a CII suggestion to send a CEOs mission to Pakistan and 
organise "India-Pakistan" trade shows in Karachi and Lahore, Mr. 
Bhandara suggested the idea of "tourism as business".

He also pointed to the benefit India and Pakistan would derive from 
oil and gas pipelines coming through Central Asia. For his part, Mr. 
Khakwani said he would take the proposals made by the CII to the 
"right quarters" in Pakistan. He stressed that they had simply come 
on a "goodwill mission" to break the stalemate between the two 
countries.

Pointing out that they had been well received in India, Mr. Khakwani 
said the Parliamentarians would take these "vibes" back with them to 
Pakistan. "Let us as individuals do something for the two 
countries... let's keep the ball rolling."

The delegation, which returns to Pakistan on Saturday, also met the 
Ram Jethmalani-led Kashmir Committee in the evening.

______

#3.

The Telegraph
Friday, May 16, 2003

THE BOSS ASSUMES CHARGE
- Climbing down from the high horse will be embarrassing for India
CUTTING CORNERS ASHOK MITRA
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030516/asp/opinion/story_1972122.asp


______


#4.

The Christian Science Monitor.
from the May 15, 2003 edition

Pakistanis abroad trick daughters into marriage
By Owais Tohid | Special to The Christian Science Monitor

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - When Neelum Aziz visited Kashmir for the first 
time last year, the young British girl couldn't wait to explore her 
family's home village. But her parents had something else in mind.

Two weeks after arriving in Kotli - in the Pakistan-administered part 
of the disputed territory - Ms. Aziz was told she had to marry her 
cousin.

"[My father and uncle] took away my [British] passport, money, and 
other belongings and locked me up," she says. "I screamed and shouted 
and kept on crying. My tears dried up, but my family elders did not 
listen to me and married me to a cousin of mine without my consent," 
she says.

Aziz's story is only the most recent example of hundreds of young 
girls who become victims of their families' desire to preserve an 
age-old tradition. According to human rights activists, 250 girls 
like Aziz - daughters of British citizens from Pakistan - were forced 
into marriages with relatives in 2002 alone.

For many Pakistanis living abroad, sending their child to marry in 
the home country is a sure way to preserve culture and lineage. But 
for many of the girls themselves, who chafe at harsh parental control 
after relishing freedom in their adopted country, this clash of 
cultures is a breach of fundamental human rights. It's a cultural 
clash that diplomats and law- enforcement officials find difficult to 
resolve, because it takes place in two separate countries and legal 
systems.

"[These Pakistanis] opt to live in the West but want to keep alive 
the traditions of the East which victimize women," says Zia Awan, the 
head of Madadgaar, a nongovernmental organization that provides legal 
aid and is a crisis center for women in Karachi, Pakistan. "Bringing 
the girls back to Pakistan makes coercion simpler and easier, as the 
young girls being brought up in the West are alienated from their 
known environment," he says.

Most of the reported cases are of British-born Pakistanis; about a 
million Pakistanis live in England. But activists say girls of 
Pakistani descent from Norway, the Netherlands, and Ireland have also 
been brought to Pakistan by their parents and forcibly married to 
relatives.

The practice is not new, but seemingly on the rise, according to Mr. 
Awan. "We are witnessing an extremist return to Islam, especially 
among Pakistanis living abroad. They perceive the changing policies 
of the West to combat terrorism as a direct hostility toward Muslims 
living in the West, and we believe that the rise in forced marriages 
is linked to the changing attitudes."

In Pakistan, forced marriages usually go uncontested. "Here girls are 
treated as animals. They are bought, sold and even bartered to settle 
the tribal feuds," says a well known, independent human rights 
activist in Karachi, Attiya Dawood. "The girl is a symbol of honor in 
our society and is targeted at every level." Her consent in a 
marriage has "no importance," she adds.

Some observers point out that forced marriages are a cultural, rather 
than religious, issue. Marriage in Islam is a civil contract, 
requiring that the woman vocally express her consent three times in 
front of witnesses.

"Islam is not a religion of extremism or coercion. It does not allow 
this practice," says Anis Ahmed, a professor of comparative religion 
at the Institute of Policy Studies in Islamabad. "There is a 
difference in the social and cultural ethos in civilization of the 
East and the West. Here girls have to take their families and parents 
into consideration while marrying, it is not just one person's 
decision. So there is a difference between the perception about 
marriage in the West and East."

Attempts by women to protest arranged marriages often backfire. In 
one widely reported case, Samia Sarwar was murdered at a women's 
shelter in Lahore in April 1999. A resident of Peshawar, she fled to 
Lahore seeking legal assistance to file for divorce from her abusive 
husband and to marry a man of her own choice. But, according to 
Amnesty International, Ms. Sarwar's educated and influential parents 
considered her request for divorce a dishonor and hired a hit man to 
shoot her during a meeting with her lawyers.

Five years ago, Rukhsana Naz, a British girl of Pakistani origin, was 
strangled to death by her brother in Britain. Her crime was that she 
had refused to stay in a marriage arranged when she was 16. A court 
in Britain sentenced Ms. Naz's brother and her mother - who assisted 
in the murder - to life in prison. The incident triggered a movement 
within the British community against this illegal practice of forced 
marriages, and a liaison was established by British and Pakistani 
authorities in Islamabad to help victims of forced marriages.

Aziz herself managed to escape her parents' decision, taking 
advantage of this liaison. When she refused to marry her cousin and 
threatened to return to Britain, Aziz says the family elders locked 
her in her room. "I was kept there and provided meals. My elders 
would ... try to convince me that it would be better for my family if 
I marry my cousin. It went on for almost 12 days, and then a cleric 
was called, and i was wedded to a person whom I did not want to spend 
the rest of my life with."

Eventually, Aziz sent a letter calling for help to the British High 
Commission in Islamabad. Within a few days, British officials learned 
that Aziz was already married and being detained against her will.

Aziz appeared in high court May 2 in Muzaffarabad, the capital city 
of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. With help from the British High 
Commission, the chief justice ordered her release. "If I am sent back 
to [Kashmir], I fear they will kill me," Ms Aziz told the court. "I 
am told not to speak the truth otherwise I will be shot,"

Last week, she returned to Britain. Her lawyer, Raja Shafqat Khan 
Abbasi, who handled 14 cases like hers within the past year, says she 
still fears for her life. But, he adds, "the best part is she is now 
in Britain, and she can live her life."

______


#5.

Hindustan Times  (INDIA)
Friday, May 16, 2003  
 	 
Women's worst enemy
Kumkum Chadha

  As a member of the National Expert Committee on Women Prisoners, I 
met Ahilyabai in a jail in UP. She was serving a life sentence for 
murder. Ahilyabai had, in a fit of rage, axed her husband's mistress. 
Rotting in prison for over ten years, she had been abandoned by her 
family and community.

Our brief was to make women convicts aware of their rights in prison 
- this included the provision for a few postcards and two saris a 
year and medical and legal aid. The superintendent had said that 
saris were out of stock. The doctor was too busy to visit them and 
legal aid was out of question. None of this, however, bothered 
Ahilyabai or her fellow prisoners. They had only one demand: tikli 
(vermilion), a symbol of marriage, which they wish to adorn even 
after being ostracised.

Years have passed since the committee submitted its report. Ahilyabai 
has probably served her sentence by now. Maybe saris are no longer in 
short supply. But the need for vermilion has not waned. Neither has 
the desire to take on the sins of men - husbands or sons - upon 
themselves.

According to a survey, six of the 30 women convicted for dowry deaths 
in Ludhiana jail shouldered the blame on the grounds that a male out 
of jail is more useful to the family than his female counterpart. The 
survey recorded the case of a 90-year old woman who had been 
persuaded by the sarpanch to take on the blame of her son's misdeeds 
on the grounds that she had "lived a full life". "[The son] would not 
only provide for the family but also protect it," she was told.

This mindset is only part of the problem. The more glaring fact is 
that women are partners with men in perpetuating gender disparities. 
The preference for a son is not necessarily male driven. Surveys 
substantiate that the desire for a male child is not confined to men. 
Women are known to consume ayurvedic medicines and perform rituals to 
make sure that the first-born is a son. In Punjab, 81 per cent of the 
respondents preferred a male child. Of this, the percentage of women 
was higher than that of the men - 84 per cent.

Women have also become indirect partners to female foeticide. In 
Punjab, 48.27 per cent of women feel that there is no harm in female 
foeticide. The Malwa region not only represents the most 'masculine 
sex ratios' but also the maximum number of wife-beating, bigamy and 
rape cases.

Studies carried out in some districts of Tamil Nadu indicate that 
women were willing to risk illness and death to avoid the birth of a 
girl child. Chief Minister Jayalalitha's 'Cradle baby scheme', which 
encourages parents to give away a girl child rather than to kill it, 
has not helped in curbing what is described as "pre-natal butchering 
of the female child". Schemes, seminars and protests may have drawn 
the attention of the government to this issue or given NGOs a valid 
reason to cry hoarse. But the truth is that in 2001, the girl-boy 
ratio touched an all time low at 939:1000.

Most worryingly, women are assuming a dual role in this campaign: 
while some carry banners decrying female foeticide, others go in for 
sex selective abortions. Easy access to technology is a major factor 
contributing to female foeticide. Except that, in most cases, it is 
used by women against women. Gynaecologists have sometimes forced 
sonography on expectant mothers keen on limiting their family size 
irrespective of the sex of the unborn. Yet, if the foetus is found to 
be male, then the initial decision to abort is replaced by a desire 
to go ahead with the pregnancy. In fact, it is the educated women who 
practise female foeticide most widely. Monica Das Gupta, in her book 
Women's Health in India: Risk and Vulnerability, states that educated 
women are aware of the importance of health facilities but extend 
these only to the "more valued male child".

Modern technology has often proved to be counter-productive and is 
seen as an important factor contributing to imbalances in sex ratios. 
There are enough studies to substantiate that when the female gender 
enjoys increasing equality on the parameters of development, female 
foeticide also increases. In Himachal Pradesh, for instance, a 
'masculinisation' of its child sex ratio was seen after it registered 
a substantial increase in its female literacy and female work 
participation rate. As against this, Chhattisgarh has an average 
female literacy level and yet it shows the best child sex ratio - 
975:1000. Jharkhand, too, is quite close with a 966:1000 ratio.

In these two states, the reasons are traced to the dominance of the 
tribal population where gender discrimination is less and foeticide 
uncommon. Women are an asset among tribals as they constitute the 
work force and are the earning members. Termed by Janice Raymond as 
'subtle killing', discrimination occurs in areas of food and medical 
care. Both are important factors explaining higher survival rates 
among boys than girls. From strangling a girl child to killing her by 
feeding excess salt, mothers now do not feed the baby at all. 
Consequently, in the long run, the baby dies due to malnutrition.

The much-trumpeted two-child norm is in reality an exercise in 
displacing the girl child. The pressure to maintain the ideal family 
size has seen no change in the preference for sons. Yet the issue at 
stake is a much larger one. It is one which needs to take stock of 
the Indian psyche and the mindset towards women - where even rebels 
like Ahilyabai yearn for vermilion or a 90-year old spends thankless 
years in prison for crimes committed by men.

______


#6.

The Hindu
  May 15, 2003
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/05/15/stories/2003051500371000.htm

Alternative as dilution
By Brinda Karat
To introduce reservation for women in party lists within the present 
system is a kind of tokenism that Indian women do not need.

______


#7.


The Hindu
Friday, May 16, 2003
http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003051600401000.htm


Trishuls, lathis and books

By Kancha Ilaiah

Without understanding the implications of the Hindutva project of 
weapon distribution other parties are aping it...These weapons can in 
no way empower the Dalit-Bahujans and the poor.

THE BASIC idea behind the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's campaign of 
distributing trishuls (tridents) is to send signals to intimidate the 
minorities. But there is a signal to other sections as well. The 
Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes who are 
trying to form alternative organisations and set alternative agendas 
are also warned.

As a response to this Hindutva agenda the Samajwadi Party in Uttar 
Pradesh started distributing swords and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in 
Bihar started distributing lathis.

Even before this competitive distribution of weapons began, we have 
been witness, every other day, to leaders of political parties being 
presented with swords - never with books - as a mark of victory or of 
the growing strength of their party.

Where does this celebration of lethal weapons in civil society and 
the construction of warring ideologies around them weapons lead to? 
When some organisations seek justifications on spiritual and social 
grounds for distributing weapons, others who cannot find suitable 
arguments in their traditions will be forced to distribute weapons 
covertly.

All this will only lead to an anarchic civil war. The change that 
people like the VHP leader, Praveen Togadia, and the RSS chief, K.S. 
Sudarshan, want will only see a lot of blood spilt without any 
socio-economic transformation. Any cornered community would resort to 
terrorism, as it finds no alternative for its survival.

The justification put out by the Hindutva forces for handing out 
trishuls is that they are `divine weapons' and therefore no legal 
hurdles should be created in their distribution. Similarly the RJD 
and the Samjwadi Party came up with their own socially sanctified 
alternatives. A point to note is that the youth to whom all these 
organisations and parties keep distributing weapons come from the 
Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Castes.

No English-educated child of the forward castes - Brahmin, Baniya, 
Kshatriya or neo-kshatriya - is willing to carry a trishul or a sword 
or a lathi in his or her hands. The political parties or 
organisations are not starting English medium schools for the 
children of the poor or distributing books that give them knowledge 
so that the youth coming from the Dalit-Bahujan communities could 
also compete with their own children.

Do the children of top leaders of RSS or VHP carry trishuls? Do the 
children of the Samajwadi Party leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav, or of 
the RJD chief, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, keep carrying swords and 
lathis? Mr. Mulayam Singh who opposed English all along got his son 
(now an MP) educated in English-medium schools.

How liberating is a spiritual and social tradition that hands down 
weapons but not books to its adherents? All the ancient Gods were war 
heroes. Except the Buddha, who was born in a ruling tribe and lived 
outside the fold of ancient Hindu thought, no prophetic figure could 
gain status and currency without holding weapons within the fold of 
ancient and medieval Hinduism.

No Hindu thinker could construct a spiritually democratic text that 
could be distributed among the youth belonging to all castes. Though 
in the modern period, the Bhagavad Gita was projected as the single 
spiritual book of Hinduism - on the lines of the Bible and the Quran 
- - the priestly class never believed in distributing even that book 
to the children of all castes and training them in its study.

The Arya Samajists claimed that Dayanand Saraswati's `Satyarth 
Prakash' is a great spiritual democratic book. But the mainstream 
Hindu Brahmin priests did not accept it as spiritual text to be used 
for prayer in the temples and also at the time of marriage and death. 
Neither did the Arya Samajists themselves distribute it to the 
children of all castes in the villages.

The VHP does not have a spiritual, democratic book to distribute, as 
opposed to the Bible and the Quran, in a context where many educated 
youth want to have such a reference point with which to attack 
untouchability, inequality and indignity of labour. Quite cleverly, 
therefore, it resorted to weapon distribution so that the Scheduled 
Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Caste youth could 
be involved in violence against the minorities. It is an attempt to 
build muscle power around the oppressed communities to use in the 
cause of Brahminism.

Without understanding the implications of the Hindutva project of 
weapon distribution other parties are aping it. Such an agenda will 
have long term negative impact on society. These weapons can in no 
way empower the Dalit-Bahujans and the poor. Obviously, the Hindutva 
forces have decided to waste the financial resources of the state. 
Even Mr. Laloo Prasad might justify the distribution of colourful 
lathis as a socially accepted weapon in the hands of lower castes or 
as he said "it was a weapon in the hands of Mahatma Gandhi too". But 
it is better to distribute books and not weapons of any kind.

Youth belonging to the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the 
Other Backward Castes have been brutalised, and their humanity 
suppressed, by their having been used as muscle power; considered 
good only for using weapons. All fascist forces had celebrated 
weapon-using youth within their organizations.

The spiritual-fascist tradition that handed down the tradition of 
weapon wielding and pushing people into bloody wars did not do this 
nation any good even before Islam and Christianity took root. The 
people fought among themselves. As a result this nation fell prey to 
any small invasion. We had trishuls, chakras, bows and arrows all 
around and yet the invaders walked over all these weapons.

The reason was that the people of this country were never unified on 
the basis of common book that a shoemaker, a pot-maker, a shepherd, a 
school teacher and a priest shared, debated and discussed. A weapon 
is not a source of knowledge or a social source of unity. Any war 
weapon is a source of division and destruction.

Let the Togadias distribute books among the Dalit-Bahujan youth. Let 
the VHP distribute one book that children of all castes could read 
with pride and let all these social forces teach the illiterate youth 
how to read those books. Let all of them stop distributing weapons.

_____


#8.

Deccan Herald, May 16, 2003
A witch-hunt down generations
What is needed is not an apology from Indian Muslims but a check on 
communal forces that misuse history
By Asghar Ali Engineer
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may16/edst.asp

_____


#9.

The Hindu, Friday, May 16, 2003
http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003051601131300.htm

NGO plans communal harmony workshops

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD May 15. Workshops to make people understand better the ways 
to fight fascism and communalism have been planned by a newly-formed 
voluntary organisation, ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy).

The Delhi-based organisation formed by Shabnam Hashmi, Shubha Mudgal, 
Harsh Mander, K. M. Pannikar and others, has planned to hold six 
five-day workshops in Gujarat, which faced the worst-ever communal 
riots last year. To be held in Surat, Godhra, Himmatnagar, 
Surendranagar, Kutch and Ahmedabad, the workshops will be attended by 
some 800 activists and young volunteers, who in turn would hold 
similar ones in other parts of the State.

According to Ms. Hashmi, workshops held in Rajasthan had proved to be 
a major success and the organisation now planned to organise similar 
ones in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, 
Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

"The endeavour will be to create a fraternity of secular communities 
for ensuring peace and social understanding. Each locality will have 
its own peculiarities in cultural practices and social relations, 
which will be given particular attention," she said.

 From each workshop, 15 of the most active volunteers would be 
selected for further training in street-plays, theatre, music and 
other cultural activities.

They would travel from village to village performing such shows to 
attract people, particularly the youth. Prominent filmmakers, 
cultural activists and secular leaders from all over the country 
would be holding the workshops, she said.

o o o

[SEE ALSO]
Indian Express, May 16, 2003
ANHAD to make people aware of their rights
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=52016

______


#10.

Prof Sudhir Yardi Memorial Trust

Invites you to screening of Anand Patwardhan's Award Winning Documentary

War and Peace / Jung Aur Aman

Day and Date: Monday, May 26, 2003

Time: 6 p.m.

Venue: Chavan Centre auditorium, Near Sachivalaya [Bombay]


_____


#11.

CorpWatch, May 15, 2003
Bhopal Survivors Confront Dow: They Say Dow Execs Lied to Shareholders
By Helene Vosters
http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=6748

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