SACW | 7 June, 2003
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex@mnet.fr
Sat, 7 Jun 2003 02:50:48 +0100
South Asia Citizens Wire | 7 June, 2003
---------------
#1.Sri Lanka:
- On the Brink in Sri Lanka
- The ill-fated interim administration of 1987 (D.B.S. Jeyaraj)
#2. Pakistan - India: At last, a cross-border film! (Praful Bidwai)
#3. India: A Time to Reflect. (Bina Sarkar Ellias)
#4. India: History of Women's Rights: A Non-Historicist Reading
(Rochona Majumdar)
#5. India: At a Hindutva factory (Dionne Bunsha)
#6. India: Film premiere: 'Hunger In The Time of Plenty' directed by
Sagari Chhabra (20th June '03, New Delhi)
#7. India: Narendra Damodardas Modi (New Internationalist)
#8. India: Invitation to Press Conference about Censor Board
Refusing Censor certificate to "Chords on the Richter
Scale"=96 a Film on Kutch Earthquake January 2001 (Bombay, June 7)
#9. "Identity, Rights, and Justice" Association for Punjab Studies,
United Kingdom
Summer Conference (28th June, 2003 | Oxford)
--------------
#1.
=46rontline
June 07 - 20, 2003
EDITORIAL
On the Brink in Sri Lanka
THE euphoria generated by an extended spell of non-fighting, which
was widely welcomed in Sri Lanka and abroad, has been eroded by the
happenings of the past few months. There can be little doubt that the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is both author and architect of this
erosion. Had the LTTE behaved in any manner other than as an
unreconstructed extremist, Pol Potist organisation, the present
domestic and international circumstances might have led to a genuine
breakthrough. Since the LTTE has behaved entirely in character, Sri
Lanka's peace process finds itself not just in an impasse, but,
possibly, on the brink of collapse.
To recognise the LTTE's authorship of this crisis is not to gloss
over the complications and difficulties inherent in the exercise, or
the negative contributions made, now and in the past, by competitive
political chauvinism in the South of the island. Basically, the LTTE,
having set up an all-too-accommodating United National Front
government for a risky ride, is now seeking - through its actions and
politico-military demands - to rewrite the agenda to suit its
extremist interests and objectives.
Six rounds of talks (`facilitated' by Norway) have been held in the
fifteen months since the Ceasefire Agreement was forged. The bonhomie
on view did not seem warranted by anything accomplished on the
ground, other than the substantial ground yielded to the LTTE by the
Sri Lankan government in the face of strong criticism by the
executive President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, and leading opposition
parties. Meanwhile, the LTTE has gone about steadily taking out
political opponents and `police informers'; smuggling in weapons by
sea; training and recruiting fighters, including children; building
up military strength under the guise of maintaining its `bargaining
power'; intimidating other Tamil parties and Muslims in the
North-East; extorting contributions in the name of `taxes'; operating
kangaroo courts; and generally behaving like an organisation
operating "a de facto administration of its own in vast tracts of
territories under its control in the North-East" (to quote from
Balasingham's most recent letter to the Sri Lankan Prime Minister).
As for the economy operated in the LTTE-held areas, all that is known
suggests an unsavoury picture of oppression, inefficiencies and
stagnation.
No one who has had knowledge of the LTTE's character and ways and
done a reality check on the Sri Lankan peace process should have been
surprised when, in April 2003, the organisation decided it was time
to deal a strong blow to the hopes building up in Sri Lanka and
elsewhere of an enduring peace. It switched, quite predictably, from
a mode of apparent accommodation and conciliation to incrementally
hawkish non-cooperation.
The LTTE suspended its participation in the `peace talks' and
announced boycott of the June 2003 donor conference in Japan. In
recent weeks, its expressions of no confidence in the Ranil
Wickremasinghe government's ability to deliver anything substantial
have alternated with shrill attacks on the Sri Lankan political
system, the 1978 Constitution and the executive President. It has
imperiously demanded a major share of the cake promised for the
North-East by both the government and international donors. It has
complained against the setting up of "a grand international `safety
net'... of formidable international forces" to "bring undue pressure
on the freedom of our people to determine their political status and
destiny." It has revived the demand (highlighted by V. Prabakaran in
his April 2002 press conference and then apparently sidelined for
several months) for an `interim administration' for the North-East,
controlled by the LTTE as "the sole representative of the Sri Lankan
Tamil people." It has even suggested that since a final political
settlement was nowhere in sight, the Sri Lankan government should go
beyond the Constitution to put an LTTE-controlled interim
administration in place.
All this fits into the well-known LTTE model of political behaviour,
which has been in operation for the past decade and a half. The model
seems to have predictive value and has worked roughly like this. The
LTTE is uncompromisingly committed to the strategic goal of Tamil
Eelam, to be established through armed struggle. This means the
organisation's basic mode of existence is war through all means. At
the Prabakaran level, the organisation has never indicated that it
will decisively settle for anything less than a separate Pol Potist
state. In fact, in his April 2002 press conference, the LTTE supremo
light-heartedly confirmed that his `instruction' to his cadres to
shoot him dead if he reneged on the demand for Tamil Eelam remained
live.
The LTTE will simply not be persuaded or pressured to make concrete
proposals for any political solution short of Eelam. But from time to
time, for tactical purposes and to demonstrate its peaceableness, the
organisation will go in for ceasefires and `talks about talks'. It
will express willingness to consider reasonable
constitutional-political proposals made by the Sri Lankan government,
or by third parties. In each round of `peace talks', the organisation
will start out by being apparently accommodative and conciliatory,
raising hopes all round. It will go along with vague proposals - such
as President Premadasa's "ellam except Eelam" ("everything except
Eelam") slogan, or a final "solution founded on the principle of
internal self-determination in areas of historical habitation of the
Tamil-speaking peoples, based on a federal structure within a united
Sri Lanka" (unveiled, with mesmerising vagueness, in Oslo in December
2002 and hailed internationally as a `breakthrough'). In the right
season, the LTTE will even sing the praises of a particular Sri
Lankan President or Prime Minister, playing her or him against the
Sinhala competition.
Meanwhile, the LTTE's de facto state apparatus and military machine
will go into higher gear to stock up and expand the gains to be made
from a temporary cessation of hostilities. Soon enough, patience will
grow into impatience and there will be public expressions of
frustration, increasingly bitter complaints and harsh accusations
concerning the sincerity, capability and good faith of the other
side. Demands, old and new, will be orchestrated in the name of the
Tamil people and the `liberation' cause - setting the stage for a
resumption of war, for which the other side will invariably be blamed.
Will it be any different this time? The key question today is: does
the present international and regional climate allow the LTTE a real
choice? Or is it free to follow the model and return to war? Recent
developments do not suggest that the model has been rendered obsolete.
o o o
[related material:]
The Sunday Leader
1st June 2003,
The ill-fated interim administration of 1987
By D.B.S. Jeyaraj
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20030601/politics-1.htm
______
#2.
"The News International", Pakistan, June 5, 2003
At last, a cross-border film!
Praful Bidwai
Language, music and film are three components of culture that the
Indian and Pakistani peoples share so intimately with each other that
it is astonishing, indeed shocking, that there hasn't been a rich
history of exchange of cultural products and artefacts and free
movement of artistes and writers between them for over half a century.
Music admittedly appears a bit of an exception here. And yet, barring
Pakistani singers such as Abida Parveen, Mehdi Hasan and the Sabri
Brothers, who have regularly performed to large audiences in Indian
cities, there are few musicians who frequently visit each other's
countries, including an amazingly inspiring group like "Junoon",
which would cause a riot in every big Indian city. (Some Indian
ghazal and bhajan singers complain that they rarely get reciprocal
visas to perform in Pakistan. But that's another matter.)
At the level of classical music, nothing matches the phenomenon of
the sixties and seventies, when Salamat Ali and Nazakat Ali took
India's connoisseur audiences by storm with the sheer suppleness of
their voices.
Similarly, since Faiz Ahmad Faiz's death, there haven't been nearly
enough literary encounters or mushairas in Urdu/Hindustani/Hindi,
involving writers, poets and critics from both countries---although
there are distinguished writers of Urdu in India, many of them Hindus
and Sikhs, including Gopichand Narang, who is currently president of
India's prestigious Sahitya (literary) Akademi. In fact,
Urdu/Hindustani/Khadi Boli, that beautiful common language of
undivided North India now itself stands partitioned with a highly
Sanskritised Hindi currently dominant in India, and an increasingly
Arabised Urdu taking hold in Pakistan.
Take books. There is very little Pakistan-India co-publishing or
official trade in books, even textbooks, where the scope is immense
in "non-controversial" subjects like the natural sciences. An
agreement in principle to free the trade in books was more or less
reached, but the relevant protocol has been hanging fire for three
years.
There are a few honourable exceptions though, such as a short list of
books by "international" publishers like Oxford University Press
(including my own "South Asia on a Short Fuse", co-authored with
Achin Vanaik, OUP-Karachi).
Even more significant is the recent publication in India of the
legendary singer Malka Pukhraj's memoir, "Songs Sung True", by that
remarkable feminist press, Kali for Women. This book would have
probably run into serious legal hurdles had it been published in
Pakistan because it contains a good deal of material about the
pre-Partition period, including Pukhraj's appointment to the Court of
Jammu and Kashmir.
This is a worthy example of citizens' mutual "cross-border" defence.
But the overall scenario is dismal.
As far as films go, video-copies of the latest Bollywood releases
reach shop-shelves in Pakistan within days, sometimes before they are
premiered in India. (The reverse process once operated in respect of
plays on Pakistan TV). Audience interest and taste in the two
countries are similar, as are "formulas" for successful films.
And yet, there hasn't been a joint India-Pakistan cinematic venture
for a long time, to the best of my knowledge. True, some directors
have explored themes like Partition, Hindu-Muslim tensions,
terrorism, Kashmir, espionage, etc.
However, barring directors like Shyam Benegal in "parallel cinema"
(sub-mainstream, low-budget films), who made the remarkable "Mammo"
in 1995, few filmmakers have questioned state-promoted stereotypes of
Pakistan-India hostility. Recent Bombay "formula" hits like "Hero" --
the most expensive Hindi movie ever made -- and "Sarfarosh" and a
slew of other films do just the opposite, say people far more
knowledgeable about commercial cinema than me. There is little room
for a people-centred film on India-Pakistan issues in the 200 movies
Bombay churns out every year.
This void is about to be filled by Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt,
who is planning to make what he calls an "audacious" film on
Partition's trauma. Bhatt, who courts political controversy as easily
as he scores commercial success, says his project is essentially a
"South Asian Schindler's List", centred on a Muslim who saved Hindus
during the communal carnage of 1947. (Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's
List" is the story of a German businessman who saved 1,000 Jews by
employing them in an armaments factory.)
Bhatt told me he believes that Spielberg, who has directed
blockbusters like "Jaws", is an excellent model to follow: "World
audiences were exposed to hundreds of films which portrayed Germans
as demons. Finally came a film which depicted a German with a golden
heart. That made the world weep". Bhatt wants to do the same to the
predominant stereotype of the Pakistani prevalent among Indians.
"My story dares not to demonise my brother, at whom I have been told
to look ... as an enemy for half a century", says Bhatt. The
inspiration for the plot came to Bhatt from an account he stumbled
upon while reading a range of books on Partition, which he describes
as a "gash" across Northern India, "which ripped apart people who
belonged to the same racial stock".
This account is the story of an anonymous courageous Muslim policeman
who prevented a mob from killing over 200 Sikhs locked in a home. To
Bhatt, this offered an opportunity to look "affectionately" at a
people whom we have systematically "demonised in our movies."
The film's plot is fictionalised around very different characters,
though: a Hindu Maharaja from the North-West Frontier Province and
his massive entourage travelling on a royal train through Northern
Punjab to Amritsar to marry a beautiful young girl, Chandini, his
26th wife. Also travelling with him are his pet horses and two
stable-boys, Imraan and Asif. Imraan and Chandini find themselves
thrown together and develop strong mutual attraction.
Partition is announced just as the train stops to refuel. Riots have
broken out and incensed Muslim mobs are looking for "revenge" in
Punjab for crimes committed by Hindus in UP. Imraan saves Chandini
from them, while proclaiming that his religion compels him to protect
the oppressed from the oppressors. Asif, always the purist
disapproving of mixed liaisons, joins the mob, but Imraan has already
spirited Chandini to safety. The mob ultimately kills Imraan.
Bhatt feels it's a Bollywood-style plot, but a powerful one. He wants
to shoot the film in Pakistan and hopes to get some help from some of
the 13 Pakistani MNAs and Senators who recently visited India,
besides Sevy Ali, a Pakistan-born UK-based producer.
One fervently hopes that Bhatt will be permitted to shoot the film in
Pakistan-unlike Deepa Mehta who wanted to do a part of "Earth" there.
Such cooperation could kickstart greater cultural exchanges between
the two countries, or rather peoples.
It is simply impossible to sustain mutual hostility and inimical
stereotypes without erecting barriers and preventing exchanges.
Bhatt's film could catalyse a wholly new phenomenon in Bollywood,
where a kind of Pakistan-bashing fatigue seems to be setting
in--going by the reception the MNA-Senators got from the Mumbai film
industry. There may well be a commercial reason for this
friendliness. Some estimates suggest that Indian movies could earn
$35 million a year from Pakistan.
Whatever the motives, films like Bhatt's will serve to transform
perceptions, smash stereotypes, and alter mindsets. Nothing could be
more welcome than this as India and Pakistan move towards a
long-overdue thaw. Nothing could accelerate the normalisation process
better.
______
#3.
The Hindu. June 1 2003
A Time to Reflect.
Bina Sarkar Ellias
The wheels turned. A split-seconds' decision found my companion and me
quickly boarding the unreserved third class ladies compartment of the
Bombay-Lucknow Express as it lurched out of the station. Not having made it
past the wait-list in the air-conditioned sleeper, it seemed the only option
to not missing the women's conference we were heading for in Lucknow.
The tiny compartment teemed with women and children all of whom talked in
the same pitch. Looking visually incongruous and bewildered as we did, we
were offered 10 inches of space each, as a concession for being such a rare
species in their midst. While my companion shrank into her nook and shut out
the displacement with a book, I surveyed the scene which crackled with a
sense of adventure.and promise.
The family of a large woman, an old granny and a brood of kids were from
the slums in Dharavi. They were Muslim. A middle-aged woman seated on a
trunk near my seat, was Leelaben, a Gujarati Hindu woman who ran a beauty
parlour in Jogeshwari. She was to regale us with stories of havaldars who
visited in search of hafta and happily settled for a
nubile beautician. And the aisle all the way to the door bustled with
Adivasi vegetable vendors who squatted with their baskets shifting and
moving till they found a comfort zone. This was secular India,
cheek-to-jowl in merry co-existence.
Beyond sat a young woman and child and with them was a man in army fatigue!
A man? In a woman's compartment? Shripal Singh had made his peace with the
angry enquiring women before the train had left and seemed now at ease with
his sublime situation. At my questioning glance, he offered, "Main Jawan
hoon. I am with my family as my wife is young and unable to care for the
child alone on a journey. I'm also afraid for their safety," he said, waving
his arm in the general direction of the raucous bunch of harmless women.
Besides, I'm a Jawan." I was to understand it gave him special privileges.
It was post-Kargil, a belligerent and unnecessary war involving the tragic
deaths of hundreds of innocents on both sides of the LOC. We were still
watching the funerals of young soldiers whose lives were dispensable for our
respective governments. I looked at the callow youthfulness of the young
Jawan playing with his child. He was returning from a long stint at the
Cutch border and looked forward to visiting his parent's home in a village
outside Lucknow. What did he think of the war?
"Kargil?" said Shripal Singh. "The Pakistanis deserved it" His soft face
hardened as he continued as if by rote,. They are a community known for
butchering. They killed thousands of Hindus during Partition. If a thief
enters your house, must you not defend it? I had heard echoes of this very
statement among the educated and privileged.
Did Hindus not kill as well? "But that was self-defence." he exclaimed. Is
it not true, I asked, that violence inhabits all of us, not one particular
community? That it is capable of manifesting itself in people of any
religion, community or tribe? As an Indian Hindu soldier, did he not kill?
Is it not true that he, as an Indian soldier had been trained to believe
that the Pakistani soldier/civilian is an enemy who threatens his home and
nation just as a Pakistani soldier is similarly programmed? And if he did
not believe that, he would not be able to kill the innocent soldier in
combat with him? If he did not hate him, would he be able to riddle his
body with bullets?
An enemy is created and wars engineered for the benefit and whims of a
privileged few. They invoke religion and nationalism for their crimes and
clearly believe that many lies become a dubious truth. And people can be
bought with that dubious truth. They invoke religion and nationalism so they
may sleep at night and not have their bloodletting haunt them. Those who
engineer wars remain untouched by the brutality and suffering of war.
Does he realize that he is trained to hate so he may kill? That the foot
soldier is merely a dispensable pawn? Sripal Singh's face softened again. He
sat still for a long time. Then, he said, "What you say is true. Nobody has
talked with me about these things. And we soldiers do not think too much. We
do what we are destined to do. Kill or die at war." Then he dropped his
voice and said, "The truth is, I have killed. And I have killed needlessly.
Recently, we had captured five Pakistani men who had strayed into our
territory. We captured them and kept them in custody for five days. After
which, we had orders to take them into a barren area and kill them." They
were innocent. They were probably herdsmen. Our officer had no reason to
kill them. "Bus, yoon hi," he said as I looked at him with alarm, "The
officer was bored and ordered us to kill. I had wiped this off my mind but
you have made me think about it. Now I realize that we are also butchers."
He seemed shaken.
Echoes of this encounter still reverberate. In Iraq, the shreds of a forced,
mindless and brutal invasion by Bush and his allies are now being tacked
together in clumsy resignation, we must consider, nearer home, our own
reality. Ayodhya '93, Bombay riots '93-94, Kargil '99, and Gujarat '02 As
illegitimate and brutal as the aggression on Iraq. And all of them State or
government-sponsored. In fact, today, even as Togadia publicly claims
responsibility for the '93 Ayodhya demolition and for the Gujarat riots in
'02, he remains unpenalised as do all those who were involved in its
planning and execution. Our governments have presided over major
aggressions on our own people in our own land.
Even as India and Pakistan are once more negotiating peace, we must not
forget the needless violence we have inflicted on each other, the loss of
innocent lives on both sides and the fact that we are capable of sliding
into a morass of unreason at the drop of a rhetoric. Above all, we must
ensure that, like the young jawan, as citizens, we do not suspend our sense
of reason.
______
#4.
The Economic and Political Weekly, May 31, 2003
History of Women's Rights: A Non-Historicist Reading
This essay revisits the history of the rhetoric of women's agency and
rights in colonial and postcolonial India in which debates around
liberalism were often played out by mobilising the language of
self-sacrifice to oppose the language of self-interest. The focus is
on the debates around the Hindu Code Bill, 1955-56 which gave Hindu
women the right to inherit paternal property and to institute divorce
proceedings.
Rochona Majumdar
http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=3D2003&leaf=3D05&filename=3D5874=
&filetype=3Dhtml
_____
#5.
=46rontline, June 07 - 20, 2003
COMMUNALISM
At a Hindutva factory
DIONNE BUNSHA
in Ahmedabad
An account of a visit to a training camp run by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
PICTURES: DIONNE BUNSHA
Rifle training in progress at the VHP training camp in Patan, northern Gujar=
at.
THE gates to the empty school were wide open. But inside there was a
bamboo barricade. Two rifle-toting Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
workers, in trademark khaki shorts, patrolled the entrance.
The sound of gunshots greeted us as we drove in. Rifle training was under wa=
y.
I asked if I could take some photographs. That enthused the
instructors. Suddenly, they stood steady and shouted instructions in
a more authoritative manner. But soon the `seniors' intervened. "Why
do you want to take pictures?" asked one of the organisers, whose
hair and moustache were cropped close, in military style. "All you
people from the English press want to give us a bad name. Next, you
will publish these pictures and say we are running a terrorist camp,"
he said. My denial fell on deaf ears. "It is girls like you from the
English press who have made us notorious. Except some, others have
short hair, and are very modern. They don't respect Bharatiya
culture. Show me your visiting card. I want to know where you are
coming from," he said.
He was a bit perplexed when he saw "The Hindu" written on the card.
"See, we are on the same side," I joked. But he was not convinced.
"Who is your editor?" he demanded.
"His name is N. Ram. Dekho, hum dono Ram ki seva karte hain (Both of
us are working in the name of Ram)," I told him. Finally, he smiled,
and said: "Come, meet our leader."
I was ushered in to meet `the leader' from Delhi, Surendra Jain. "So,
you are from The Hindu. We have asked that newspaper to change its
name. It always criticises us," he said. Immediately, the others were
on guard. "Let them keep writing. It's good to know what our
detractors think. The more they write, the more we go forward," he
boasted. "It's thanks to the bashing that Modi won the Gujarat
elections. People felt that it wasn't correct. We reacted in such a
quiet way. Yet, we got so many abuses," he continued.
I changed the topic and tried to get some information about the
camps. "For the past 13 years, we have been running these camps. The
basic aim is to prepare workers who are `desh bhakts', to organise
the youth to protect the country and the religion. This summer, such
camps are being run in 35 places across the country," Surendra Jain
explained. "It's not the duty of just the state to protect the
country. It's also the duty of all citizens. No one looks at all the
social work we do. We did rehabilitation work during the Kutch
earthquake. We have opened cow shelters all over the country. We are
not anti-Muslim. We are the enemy of any person who hates India," he
asserted.
After that, `the leader' spoke to the young trainees on "the
uniqueness of the Hindu religion". A good part of his speech was
composed of put-downs of other religions.
"We know that Christianity started around 2,000 years ago. We can
trace the birth of Islam to around 1,400 years back. But no one knows
when Hinduism was born. The first person on earth was born in the
form of a Hindu. The history of Hinduism is as old as humanity
itself," Surendra Jain revealed. Some of his insights would startle
both historians and theologians. Yet, they might well be in
tomorrow's textbooks.
An instructor demonstrates lathi-wielding skills at the training camp.
"Christians and Muslims have killed crores of people and destroyed
cultures in the name of religion. The history of their religions is
tainted with blood. Hinduism is the only tolerant religion. Both
Christianity and Islam say that non-believers have no right to live.
They can launch jehad against them. Finish them off," he said.
Then came the call for action. "In Gujarat, you have shown the way
forward to the rest of the world. You have shown us the path to deal
with jehadis. It was a victory of our religion," he said. "The
concept of `ahimsa' has been interpreted wrongly. It doesn't mean
cowardice. It doesn't mean we don't respond when attacked. To bear
injustices is not written in the Hindu religion... We are the ones
who believe in the immortality of the soul. Yet, we are the ones most
afraid of death. The jehadis have no fear of death. They learn this
at an early age in the madarassas [religious schools]. We must also
end our fear of death."
His speech reached a frenzied pitch. It got progressively shriller as
he tried to mesmerise his audience. The speech was followed by a
lunch break, when no one was allowed to speak. Finally, I got a
chance to speak to the participants. Who are these boys? Where do
they come from? What draws them to the camp?
Prajapati Hargovandas (20) joined the camp after a colleague
introduced him into the Bajrang Dal. An engineering student,
Prajapati works in Gandhinagar in a company that manufactures
weighing scales. His father is a farmer-cum-moneylender. "After
attending this camp, I feel all Hindus should sign up to protect our
religion against Muslims. I will go back to my village and invite the
Bajrang Dal to do a trishul distribution ceremony there," he said.
But what is the need for a trishul?
"We should have weapons to protect our religion and our country.
Muslims should be removed. They are spreading terrorism, communal
violence and anti-social activities."
What did he learn at the camp?
"We learn yoga, judo, karate, obstacle courses. There are discussions
on religion and national issues. We are taught how to protect our
country, and if there is a conflict between Hindus and Muslims, on
how to deal with it. How to respect elders. What to do in a mandir.
What to do if an earthquake strikes."
But what is the need to learn rifle shooting, judo?
"It is necessary for self-defence. If there is a riot, and if the
Bajrang Dal sends us to fight terrorists, we should know how to fight
and use weapons."
Said Manubhai Satvara (26), a marginal farmer and casual labourer
from Sami in Patan district: "In our village, some Muslim boys teased
a Hindu boy while he was praying in school. A fight broke out. After
that, I was told to join the Bajrang Dal. All Hindus should unite -
whether they are Patels, Thakurs or any other caste."
There is little doubt that it is a feeling of belonging that attracts
many to the Sangh Parivar. "I am handicapped. But after joining this
camp, I don't feel so. Everyone works together. My self-confidence
has increased," said Bharatbhai Vadher (25), a farmer. "When I was a
young boy, I remember how one of the girls in our village was taken
away by a Muslim boy. No one spoke out against this. That memory
still haunts me. I will unite all Hindus in my village to see that
something similar doesn't happen again," Bharatbhai said.
Some of the camp trainers are full-time VHP members. They live in the
local shakha and work without any pay. The Sangh looks after their
basic needs such as food and shelter. "I live in the shakha
headquarters and travel in surrounding villages to recruit new
members," says Devraj Desai (22), a rifle-training instructor, from
Dhansura village in Sabarkantha district. "I was in the Army for one
year. One of my uncles died while serving in the Army and another
lost his leg. After that, my family asked me to leave the Army. I
always wanted to work for the nation, so I joined the Bajrang Dal in
1999," Devraj recalled.
=46or many, Hindutva is a family tradition. "I was in the RSS
[Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh] since I was 10 years old. My entire
family is part of it," says Ashok Vaghela (30), the lathi instructor,
who is a small trader from Ahmedabad. "The Bajrang Dal teaches you
more about security work compared to the RSS. But both have the same
goals - to create a Hindu Rashtra. The Islamic and Catholic movements
are a threat to our country. Islam is spreading terrorism. Christians
are converting poor Hindus," Vaghela asserts.
Both instructors and participants recite the same lines. Their
education is complete. So is the military-like discipline. "We can't
talk to you until our senior gives us permission," the instructors
said. All interviews were conducted under the close supervision of
the camp organiser, who prompted the participants when necessary. As
soon as the whistle blew, a young boy who was being interviewed
jumped up and said he wanted to leave.
The boys had to sit through another `knowledge' session, which I was
not allowed to attend. I tried to listen, catch snatches of the
enlightened discourse. The speaker was telling the boys how to
prepare for emergencies such as a riot or an earthquake. One of the
organisers observed that I was listening. "He is telling them what
they should do in case there is any civil disturbance," he said.
The organisers told me that they had changed their plans. Instead of
the evening physical training session, there would be a march through
the town to make people aware of the VHP's public demonstration and
trishul distribution ceremony the next day. Soon, I was asked to
leave. "We have let you stay here for long enough. It is time that
you left," said the organiser, who had initially interrogated me.
After being treated to such a generous helping of VHP-style Bharatiya
culture, I did not persist. I left immediately. As we drove out, the
guards at the gate had put down their rifles and were taking a nap,
oblivious of the `awakening' that was happening within.
_____
#6.
'Hunger In The Time of Plenty' directed by Sagari Chhabra will
premiere on Friday, 20th June '03 at 7:00 pm Gulmohar Hall, India
Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
Shot in the interiors of Orissa and Rajasthan as well as Delhi,
the film examines starvation deaths and hunger at the time of surplus
food stocks. This is in the context of the Right To Food petition
filed by the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties in the Supreme Court.
The film will be followed by a discussion. The director will be
present and every one is invited.
______
#7.
=46rom New Internationalist, May 2003
Worldbeaters Taking aim at the rich and the powerful
On the election trail he was at his crude best, combining gutter
politics with a tirade of hate. He cast himself as the only one who
could prevent Muslim wrath from boomeranging on the state. Asked what
could be done the Muslims rendered penniless by last year's orgy of
violence, he jeered: 'What should we do? Run relief camps for them?'
Narendra Damodardas Modi
Some people call him the 'butcher of Gujarat'. To others he's India's
homegrown Hitler. Whatever the label, there is little doubt that
Narendra Damodardas Modi, the hate-mongering Chief Minister of
Gujarat, was deeply implicated in the murder of hundreds of Muslims
in his home state last year.
India is no stranger to communal violence: the subcontinent has seen
its share of religious riots and horrendous brutality. But not
cold-blooded genocide on this scale.
It started on 27 February 2002 when a train carrying pilgrims to
Ayodhya, birthplace of the Hindu God Ram, stopped at the station in
the small city of Godhra. There had been sporadic fighting between
Hindus and Muslims in the town for several months, sparked by the
refusal of militant Hindus to pay for food and drink bought from
Muslim vendors. But this time the fighting got out of hand and
quickly grew ugly. The train full of pilgrims was pillaged by Muslim
men who set fire to two compartments, burning to death innocent Hindu
women, children and old people. It was an unpardonable crime. But one
punishable by law.
Instead a campaign of hate and provocative lies was launched by
Hindu-controlled newspapers and distributed overnight to thousands of
Hindu villages. The Modi Government then jumped into the fray with an
unofficial call to arms. Hindu men were asked to =91avenge=92 the
killings at Godhra. Armies of men swarmed the town=92s streets with
knives, trishuls (tridents) and swords.
'Every action'=92 the Chief Minister reportedly said, quoting Isaac
Newton, 'has an equal and opposite reaction'. The police were
instructed not to interfere with marauding mobs during the long night
of terror. Government ministers had a hotline to police control
rooms. Desperate Muslims who phoned for help were told 'we have no
orders to save you'. The few extraordinary police officers who defied
orders were later reprimanded and transferred.
Women and young girls were raped and set aflame in front of their
families. Men were slashed, then burnt alive. The Gujarat Government
later estimated that nearly 1,000 Muslims were murdered in the
attacks. The unofficial count was closer to 2,000. Practically every
Muslim shop and business was burnt to a cinder.
Less than a year after Narendra Modi masterminded the murderous
attack in Godhra the electorate voted him back to power in a sweeping
victory. In fundamentalist circles there was jubiliation; in the rest
of the country, sweeping gloom.
The 53-year-old politician grew up in Vadnagar, a poor backwater in
northern Gujarat. After obtaining a masters degree in political
science, he migrated to Ahmedabad and joined the Hindu nationalist
movement, soon plunging into active politics. He took charge of the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat in October 2001, thanks
mostly to the lacklustre leadership of then Chief Minister Keshubhai
Patel. He hasn=92t looked back.
On the election trail he was at his crude best, combining gutter
politics with a tirade of hate. He cast himself as the only one who
could prevent Muslim wrath from boomeranging on the state. Asked what
could be done the Muslims rendered penniless by last year=92s orgy of
violence, he jeered: =91What should we do? Run relief camps for them?=92
Lately, Modi=92s boosters have begun to project him as a future Prime
Minister a bearded f=FChrer come to lift the country to new heights.
Narendra Modi is happy to co-operate; he plays to the gallery. Riding
on his recent electoral victory, he boasts: 'I sway the masses, the
masses don't sway me.' At the same time, he cultivates a 'Mr
Simplicity=92 pose. He always dresses in homespun kurtas and claims his
favourite food is khichdi (a dal rice mixture) simple peasant fare.
Modi lives an austere life, in a spartan bungalow. There is no hint
of corruption or bribe taking. He touches the feet of his elders and
the powerful, such as the Prime Minister, in the deeply traditional,
old-fashioned way. His public image is of a simple bachelor with a
monk-like devotion to his work. (His ex-wife currently works as a
schoolteacher in a poor Muslim area close to Ahmedabad, something
he's not keen to publicize.)
Mr Simplicity wears designer spectacles and is a self-confessed gizmo
freak. 'One of the first users of email in India'=92 he admits. During
the recent election he systematically compiled his own database and
fed it into an IBM laptop. The same painstaking planning was evident
in the Gujarat carnage. Mobs moved from one house to another with
computer printouts of voter lists, easily identifying the Muslims who
had to be eliminated. New technology in action.
The Indian media has not been kind to Modi. His role in the rampage
last year was widely reported. After the bloodbath he was featured on
the front page of virtually every newspaper as the mastermind of the
pogrom. But in spite of detailed evidence indicting Modi and his
cronies there have been no legal proceedings against him in the
country. British Muslims have filed an appeal to extradite and try
him in The Hague. But that=92s it. It would be better by far for
India=92s leaders to clamp down immediately on this demented
race-warrior before his lunacy spreads.
=46rom the hip: 'Those elements which failed opposing [the] Narmada
Project now try to portray Gujaratis as rapists to the rest of the
world. Those who nurture such elements insulted 50 million
Gujaratis=85Not a single hour passes in the Lok Sabha (Indian
Parliament) without an attempt being made to malign Gujarat=85Look at
the poverty of their thought and the peak of their hatred towards
Gujarat!'
Sense of humour: 'One big newspaper reported that I quoted Newton's
law of every action having an equal and opposite reaction. I have
never quoted Newton since I left school. I cannot help if people
allow themselves to be guided by their predilections and fantasies.'
_____
#8.
Sub: Invitation to Press Conference about Censor Board
Refusing Censor certificate to "Chords on the Richter
Scale"=96 a Film on Kutch Earthquake January 2001.
Dear Sir/Madam,
"Chords on the Richter Scale" a 45 minute film on post
Earthquake situation in Kutch District, Gujarat state
of India. Central Board of Film Certification, Mumbai
has refused Censor certificate to the Film and banned
the film for public exhibition a Press Conference is
organized to give background of the film. And to
condemn the Censor Boards decision. Film Maker -
Shyam Ranjankar and co =96 producer, Geeta Chawda and
Ramesh Pimple will speak to the Press and Film will be
screened to the press. Film maker Anand Patwardhan and
noted sociologist Dr Uday Mehta will also speak to
press
Date : 7th June 2003. ( Saturday)
Time : 3:00 p.m.
Venue : Press Club
Near Azad Maidan, Opp. Municipal Corporation Mumbai =96
400 001.
Contact Nos. : (022) 26358301-02 =96 Ms Rumana
Mobile: 9821109295 =96 Ramesh Pimple
Mobile: 9892399597 =96 Shyam Ranjankar
You are requested to kindly attend the press
conference.
Thanking you,
=46or People's Media Initiative
Rumana
______
#9.
Association for Punjab Studies, United Kingdom
June 3, 2003
Greetings!
We write to invite you to attend the Summer Conference of the
Association for Punjab Studies, UK. The conference will take place on
Saturday, June 28, at Oxford Brookes University, and the theme will
be "Identity, Rights, and Justice." At this year's conference, we are
very fortunate to hear presentations from prominent scholars based in
India, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Their diverse work
includes studies of human rights violations and mysterious
disappearances in Punjab, Sikh gender politics, and issues of
policing and punishment in colonial Punjab, among other topics. A
complete program is attached and contains full details of the day's
events. Headington Hill Hall, the conference venue, is an 18th
Century period house which was formerly home to Robert Maxwell. The
Hall is set in 14 acres of landscape grounds. It has three beautiful
rooms (including the Music Room booked for the conference)
overlooking the gardens and a view of Oxford. There are also adequate
free car parking facilities available for the conference participants.
This interdisciplinary conference is open to anyone with an interest
in Punjab Studies, including community members, students, and
professors. Registration for the conference consists of a small fee.
Conference fees differ and are listed below. The number of
participants for the conference is limited to 50 people, and
registration will be completed on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Once your cheque has been received, you will receive email
notification confirming your participation in the conference. Please
fill out and enclose the attached registration form when you send
your cheque.
The conference fees are as follows:
Institutionally sponsored participants: 50 pounds
Individuals (full time employees): 25 pounds
Students; low wage: 12 pounds
Note: The conference fee does not include the cost of dinner at the conferen=
ce.
Please send cheques payable to Association for Punjab Studies, UK to
Sunita Puri at:
Sunita Puri
C/o St Antony's College
Oxford, OX2 6JF
If you have any questions, please direct your enquiries as far as
possible to Sunita Puri.
Thank you for your continued interest in and support of Punjab
Studies. We look forward to seeing you at the conference!
Sincerely,
Pritam Singh Sunita Puri
Oxford Brookes University Business School St
Antony's College
Oxford, OX33 1HX
Oxford OX2 6JF Tel: 01865-485875
Tel: 07769-647-645
=46ax: 01865-485830
sunita.puri@sant.ox.ac.uk
Email: psingh@brookes.ac.uk
*Note: If you will require accommodations for the night of the 27th
and/or 28th, there are a limited number of rooms available in
Worcester College, a beautiful college with a lake inside. If you are
interested, please contact Nighat at Nighat.Malik@Worcester.ox.ac.uk
as soon as possible.
Association for Punjab Studies, United Kingdom
Summer Conference, 28th June, 2003
Headington Hill Campus, Music Room
Oxford Brookes University
Identity, Rights, and Justice
9:30-10: Registration, Tea/Coffee
10-10:05: Introduction
10:05-10:50: Nikky G. Kaur Singh, Colby College, USA
Sikh Gender Politics in the
Modern Wes
10:50-11:15: Tea/Coffee
Break
11:15-13:00: Shivdeep Grewal, University of Essex
Southall, Capital of the 1970s: Of Community
Resistance and the Conjuncture of
April 23, 1979
Pramod Kumar, Institute of Development and
Communication, Chandigarh
Sikh Identity Politics? Changing Contours of
the Akali Party
13:00-14:00: Lunch Break
14:00-15:45: Dara M. Price, Balliol College, Oxford
A Sufficient and Adequate Deterrent? Criminal
Punishment in Nineteenth Century
British Punjab
Ram Narayan Kumar, South Asia Forum for
Human Rights, Kathmandu, Nepal and
Committee for Information and Initiative On
Punjab, Delhi
Documenting Human Rights Violations in
Punjab: Some Lessons
15:45-16:15: Tea/Coffee Break
16:15-17:00: A. Singh ,Chandigarh
Caste in
Sikhism: Myth and Reality
17:00: Business Meeting
17:30: Conference Ends
17:30-19:00: Punting, Weather permitting
19:00: Dinner (Optional) at Local
Indian Restaurant
19:00: Oxford Chamber Music Concert (Optional)
( For
details on this, contact Pratima Mitchell at
pratima_mitchell@hotmail.com)
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