SACW | 13 June, 2003
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex@mnet.fr
Fri, 13 Jun 2003 02:21:38 +0100
South Asia Citizens Wire | 13 June, 2003
#1. Letter to respondents of appeal for Tribunal on US war crimes in
Iraq and on suggested follow up actions (11 South Asian Human Rights
activists)
#2. Sri Lanka: Negotiation crisis : mapping a way out (Jayadeva Uyangoda)
#3. The Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding story on South Asia, 2003
by the South Asia Journalists Association
#4. Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson and CIA Money for Afghanistan
via Pakistan (George Crile)
#5. India's Great power delusions (Praful Bidwai)
#6. India: The Emergency and the Sangh (Arvind Rajagopal)
#7. India: Development Man and Iron Man (Manas Chakravarty)
#8. Indian Historian and a prominent voice for secularism
Prof.K.N.Panikkar in the US from August 15 on.
#9. India: Request for help for the Raigad School that has adopted
Gujarat genocide affected children
#10. Book Review: Celebrating Shared Traditions (Ram Puniyani)
#11. India: Surveys and interrogations of the Chrisitian community
have become a permanant feature in the State of Gujarat (Shabnam
Hashmi / ANHAD)
--------------
#1.
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 11:08:58 +0530
Organization: SAFHR
Letter to respondents of our appeal for Tribunal on US war crimes in
Iraq and to many other colleagues on suggested follow up actions
Dear Friends,
1. This is letter of follow up on our original letter of appeal to
the Secretary General of Amnesty International requesting the AI to
lead the international human rights and peace community against US
war crimes in Iraq. The letter was sent to the Amnesty on April 17,
2003 and released to the public on April 18, 2003. Some of you may
have already received a copy of that letter from us or from other
friends. That letter is enclosed here again as attachment.
2. We are writing this follow up letter in order to request to you to
consider the ideas and plans for future action briefly outlined at
the end, join us in this initiative, and support the work in ways
suggested by us or by any other manner you think fit. We are
committed to working together and we look forward to your ideas,
suggestions and contributions.
3. Since the publication of the open letter on April 18, 2003, we
have received encouraging responses from many peace and human rights
activists, jurists, academics, medical practitioners, media persons
and political workers. Almost every one agrees that an independent
war crimes tribunal on Iraq must be constituted, and towards that we
have to take preparatory steps. Most of the respondents also agree
that the lead has to come from the people of the once colonized
countries, while the support of anti-war activists from the countries
of the West and the examples set by them remain valuable and as
inspiring as ever.
4. This war, more than any other in recent times, has shown
the difference between the colonisers and the colonised and the
semi-colonised. The experience of the colonised and the
semi-colonised people is different from that of the colonisers. It is
we, the people of the once colonised and semi-colonised countries,
who have witnessed the manipulation of our history, denigration of
our culture, destruction and looting of our heritage, wealth and
resources. In all these, the so-called international human rights and
humanitarian laws and institutions have proved ineffective. For
instance the Geneva Conventions failed to come to the aid of the
invaded people of Iraq. We also see how some of the states who
remained silent or had mildly opposed the American war on Iraq, are
now trying to get the lucrative contracts for Iraq's re-construction.
There is already talk, that the cost of the war and the
reconstruction will be taken out of the oil wealth of Iraq, and that
the United States, the occupation power, and its allies will control
that wealth. It is clear that the disagreement between the American
led junta and several other states as to who will "control" Iraq's
oil wealth will be soon over.
5. The Geneva Conventions contain clear provisions about the
responsibility of the occupying forces to prevent pillage and
looting. It enjoins on the occupying force the responsibility of
protecting all the civilian infrastructures and heritage sites. Yet,
after taking over Baghdad the US forces allowed the looting and
destruction of the precious heritage of humankind, stored in the
National Museum of Baghdad; one of the oldest collection of Koranic
texts dating back to the 16th century was deliberately burnt; and
there is evidence that many of the ancient artefacts from the
National Museum of Baghdad have already reached European and American
cities for sale. Many reports have reached us to the effect that the
Coalition troops also allowed the burning and looting of offices of
the ministries dealing with the vital infrastructure of Iraq -
health, education, transport and communications, power and food
supply, which were necessary for the reconstruction of the war
ravaged country. For obvious reasons the occupying army protected the
ministries of petroleum and interior. The Iraqi peoples, their
national heritage, cultural, religious and social heritage and
resources have been deliberately destroyed.
6. As is already evident, people of Iraq are resisting the
illegal American and British occupation of their land. The occupying
powers assisted by sections of the western media are trying to
project the just resistance of the people of Iraq as terrorist
activities of the "remnants" of the old Saddam regime. Iraq which
until recently was one of the most secular societies of the Arab
world, had high level of literacy, a comprehensive health service and
a large number of highly trained persons in all fields of technology
and learning is now slowly and deliberately being pushed into the
maws of obscurantism and religious fanaticism. This is being done not
only to prove the bogus theory of "clash of civilisations", but also
to deny the oppressed people their right to resist and revolt against
oppression, a right enshrined in the now defunct Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
7. We need to start working on the question of crimes committed by
the Coalition forces immediately. This is part of the
internationalist agenda of the peace and human rights movement, which
must untie itself from the agenda of some human rights organisations
in the United States and United Kingdom, who are turning a blind eye
to the crimes being committed on the ex-colonial countries by the two
powers. Several friends have suggested that we develop a step-by-
step strategy in this regard. We agree with their suggestions. Based
of their comments and suggestions we have developed the
following four-part plan of action.
Preparing an exhaustive dossier on the crimes perpetrated on Iraq by
the occupying states since 1991. This dossier will also contain facts
on what the UN and other agencies did and did not do when they had
information about the massive suffering in Iraq during the period of
sanctions, particularly the oil for food programme. The dossier will
be prepared on the basis of already available and published
information. We need to immediately put one or two persons on this
task. This research and writing of the dossier might take about 3 to
4 months. This dossier must be published and circulated as widely as
possible. A desk needs to be constituted for that.
The other important segment of this dossier will be local
information, which now has to be collected immediately on case or
selected basis, of reported events of war crimes - indeed before the
occupying powers mange to erase evidence and traces of their crimes.
The dossier will contain other evidences and testimonies, which can
act as the first information report on Iraq, on the basis of which
the international human rights community can move ahead.
On the basis of the dossier prepared by an Iraq Desk through various
ways of collecting facts (archival and library work, collection and
selection of reports, first hand inquiry into crimes and cases of
massive abuses), we should constitute an International Commission.
The work of constituting the Commission can proceed simultaneously
with the work of conducting the primary inquiry. The Commission will
study the dossier and select between 10 to 15 specific cases. The
commission will send about 5 investigators to Iraq to make as
extensive an investigation as possible into all the selected
cases/charges. They will collect information, evidence and witnesses
for these cases.
On the basis of the Commission's report, an International Tribunal
may be set up. The tribunal will comprise eminent judges drawn from
the countries colonised and semi-colonised in the past, and other
international jurists committed to human rights and peace. The cases
investigated by the Commission and its investigators will be
presented before this International Tribunal. The Tribunal will frame
charges and these will be given wide publicity through media
and various alternative networks. The public trial of the war
criminals will be held in open court and it will follow
the internationally established norms and procedure for such trials -
the laws, norms and institutions, which the US and its allies had
violated and tried to destroy.
8. Obviously the all-powerful "accused" will ignore the public
tribunal and will not appear before it. The tribunal will not be able
to "punish" them. But the public trial of these accused will
hopefully achieve the following objectives.
First it will demonstrate to the world public in general and to the
people of the ex-colonial countries in particular the nature and the
dimensions of the crimes against humanity that these greedy
power-maddened states have committed even according to the
"international law and norms" that these very states claim to have
created.
It will also demonstrate the solidarity of the colonised people of
this world and their deep commitment to an international order based
on law, equity, justice and freedom. By exposing crimes, lies and the
greed of the American junta we shall be able to counter their
attempts to de-legitimise the resistance of the Iraqi people and
their just struggle for liberation of their country from the clutches
of the occupying forces.
Through the report and recommendations of this Tribunal, we the
people of the "once colonised countries" shall present to the world a
set of concrete measures in law and practices which will not allow
any state, howsoever powerful it might be, to declare war on any
other country at its will and in clear violation of international
opinion.
9. In this proposed plan of action and through this, we want to
develop a perspective, a shared perspective that can counter the "New
Empire". In inquiring into the war crimes, we shall not exclude
crimes committed by any side. The idea is to develop a shared
perspective on this very important development of our time, and in
that task limiting the inquiry and the accompanying document to
crimes committed by any particular party will not help. The focus in
our work will be formed by the context in the backdrop of which the
goals of the proposed inquiry have to be seen. The self-destructive
dynamics of the region is linked to a paradigm of neo-colonial
political and strategic control, which was imposed on Iraq and the
entire region much more than a decade ago, indeed long back, and
therefore all crimes of war and crimes against humanity will be seen
and placed within that context. In that perspective, it is still
possible to suggest, at least as a supposition for scrutiny, that
making the region safe for Israeli hegemony and breaking the backbone
of Arab resistance was one of the motives behind the war. If that is
so, and that will have to be reasonably established, the coalition
forces are committing crimes of greater magnitude and implications.
10. The points of mandate or the terms of reference of the proposed
inquiry and the dossier have to be stated clearly, so that you know
what perspective has impelled our appeal before you decide to support
it. These terms of reference briefly are:
We are inquiring a decade long war and not a less-than-a month war.
As explained in our original letter of appeal, the war on Iraq was by
no means a short duration war that we were witness to. This war was a
decade long war in which many actors played the role of aggressor or
silent spectator. These actors include the global media giants, which
bayed for blood of the Iraqi people, and even the UN Security
Council, which imposed strict economic blockade on the country and
disarmed the country completely thereby rendering Iraq defenceless in
face of the impending aggression. The examination of this proposition
should form part of the dossier. The part played by men like
Wolfowitz and a dozen or so lobbyists over the last 10 years or so,
and even before 11 September, in indefatigably pressing the case for
war on Iraq should by no means be excluded from examination. The need
to examine the dynamics of the appearance of the "New Empire" is
great.
We are inquiring the ambitious, aggressive, the far-reaching
interventionism of the "New Empire", which is the political face of
the extreme right wing form of globalisation, and is based on
neo-colonial methods and strategies, is today the root cause of
tensions and war, and therefore must be subjected to interrogation by
the peace and human rights movement. The interventionism, which we
witness today, is apparently new and points to the success of those
who have been lobbying for the last decade for wars everywhere. It
may not be easy to reconstruct the sequence of decision-making,
discern the true reasons that tipped the scales, pinpoint the actual
characters who carried the day. But there is the record of public
debate and the dominant voices in it, easy to access. We are calling
for the examination of the dominant voices, voices of men like
Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Ari Fleischer, James
Wolfensohn, Robert Kagan, Martin Pertz, Morton Zuckerman, Newt
Gingrich and a score of others, and an examination of what has made
them to be so influential and powerful. It would be possible to
demonstrate that the success of this lobby comprises in something
more fundamental than being able to place the USA into an aggressive
gear. The process started long back - a little after the WW II. Since
then a Westerner, even half-way literate, press-reading, TV watching,
who reaches adulthood, has been subjected to hundreds of thousands of
pro-Israel stimuli; hammered in at school, work, home, entertainment,
cultural life, everywhere, year in year out - that any opposition to
American, Israel, and Christian values and actions is heinous, the
ultimate crime, and is anti-Semitism that must be rooted out. In the
beginning, this ideological dominance relied on a massive sense of
remorse in western societies. But soon it turned into something more
solid and durable: an entrenched system of values and
representations, with "plus" or "minus" tags firmly attached to all
items in the moral and ideological landscape.
We are inquiring the true power base of the global war lobby which
appears to have shifted from banking and academia to the media and
twilight institutions like the think-tanks, filled by glib, shallow,
but also smart enough, cunning, arrogant, and increasingly
power-intoxicated intellectuals who set the trends and position
themselves at the hub of the American system, coordinating and
mediating between the executive power, the lobbies, the Pentagon, the
Intelligence community, the diplomatic corps, big business, and the
media; giving the administration ideological guidelines, supplying
"intellectually challenged politicians" like Bush with private
advisers, coaches, speech-writers etc; and feeding the nation as a
whole with ready-made ideas. The unquestioned US support for Israel,
with all its costs also for "buying" compliance of countries, for
instance of Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen, etc.,
would not have happened if Americans had not been brainwashed into
viewing Israel as something of a sister country: another pioneer
nation, a melting-pot like them, a carrier of democracy like them,
gallantly battling terrorism, a country as obviously chosen in its
way as the USA in its. The result is that grotesque alliance between
the entire Protestant fundamentalist constituency that give the Bush
administration the "moral sustenance" and the Israeli constituency.
Of course, the Protestant fundamentalists are temperamentally and
intellectually far removed from the Israeli mind-set. And, few things
traditionally infuriate the Zionists hard-core than having Christian
interpretations put on their history and destinies. But all strategic
and tactical alliances are two-way processes of give and take. Since
the Protestant fundamentalist constituency has come round to the view
that rebirth and consolidation of Israel is part of some divine
scheme -- something to be encouraged and fostered, the Zionist
constituency has to make its compromises too. In this grotesque
alliance behind the "New Empire", intellectuals like Samuel
Huntington, R. Scott Appleby, Daniel Pipe, Bernard Lewis, and others,
are just private recruit.
We are thus calling for an examination of the role of media giants
also, engaged in supporting the New Empire, such as the CNN or the
BBC in inciting war, mass murders, and destruction of states and
countries.
In all these, we are calling back to memory the colonial times when
wars of intervention, financial wars, and wars of aggression started
at least in the modern age - the colonial wars and genocides. Crimes
against humanity started then and still continue, and this explains
the relative ineffectiveness of the humanitarian laws and the human
rights laws when they are to be applied on the great power, which is
the victor.
In this enterprise, the rules of inquiry will be thus designed by
these specific terms of reference, specific aims, specific norms to
decide the quantum of punishment, and most important, the roll-call
of the accused.
10. We are aware that this is a very big task, beyond a small group's
means and capacity. It will require a lot of effort, coordination,
and resource. We should make serious effort to do this to counter the
re-colonization of the world. Kindly comment on these suggestions;
give your suggestions, and contribute to our efforts. These
contributions can be done in the following ways:
You can use part of your time or part of the human resources of your
institution towards collecting information, gathering relevant
commentaries, and related facts. We can at the end of three months
gather all information to be integrated in a dossier. We can, if you
want, indicate the areas in which the facts have to be collected and
collated. In any case, our original letter of appeal and this one
indicate the areas and issues on which the dossier is to be made. We
can have a monthly update on the material we are collecting.
You can volunteer or send a volunteer to take part in the inquiry
team, and it is good if you know Arabic language or can send an
Arabic language knowing volunteer, or have a translator as your
colleague on whom we can rely.
On behalf of the team we shall set up a separate fund for the entire
work and shall maintain a separate account. We have no money to begin
with. If you can, please send us a donation of minimum US $ 100/-
towards establishing an Iraq desk. Depending on the availability of
volunteers and the amount of contribution gathered, we shall decide
the location and the nature of the desk.
We shall prepare a brochure to begin the work. We can send you the
English-language material in print ready form, you can then print it
in order to circulate it as widely as possible, translate in
different languages and publish them.
Finally, if you know of other institutions ready to assist and
sponsor this cause, please bring the programme to their notice, and
urge upon them to support us.
We look forward to your response
In solidarity
Paula Banerjee (University of Calcutta, Calcutta)
Tapan K. Bose (South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Kathmandu)
Meghna Guhathakurta (University of Dhaka, Dhaka)
Ram Narayan Kumar (Committee for Informatin and Initiative on Punjab,
Chandigarh)
Rita Manchanda (South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Kathmandu)
Dinesh Mohan (Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi)
Gautam Navlakha (Pakistan India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy, India)
Subodh raj Pyakurel (INSEC, Kathmandu)
Sushil Pyakurel (National Human Rights Commission, Nepal, Kathmandu)
I.A. Rehman (Human Rights Commission of Pakistan)
Ranabir Samaddar (South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Kathmandu)
______
#2.
Daily News (Colombo)
Negotiation crisis : mapping a way out
by Jayadeva Uyangoda
With the negotiations between the Government and the LTTE in crisis,
there are some who probably feel vindicated that their predictions of
negotiation collapse, made at the very beginning of the peace
process, might even be proved prophetic. Indeed, when the UNF-LTTE
political engagement began in December 2001, there were very few
analysts who could point to any significantly positive outcome.[...].
http://www.dailynews.lk/2003/06/13/fea01.html
______
#3.
[The following report from has been selected for Awards Category The
Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding story on South Asia, 2003 by the
South Asia Journalists Association]
o o o
FORTUNE, April 29, 2002
PAKISTAN
Kidnapped Nation
Welcome to Pakistan, America's frontline ally in the war on terror,
where culture and economy conspire against even the best intentions.
By Richard Behar
Flies are landing on Abdul Khaliq Siddiqi's body. But the
secretary-general of Sipah-e-Sahaba--one of the deadliest terror
groups in Pakistan--is very much alive and doesn't notice. "We were
worried about the World Trade Center families that were destroyed,"
Siddiqi says, sitting in a circle with fellow militants, cross-legged
and sipping black tea, at the group's office in Quetta. "But after
the U.S. attacked Afghanistan, it is our commitment that they are
great men who destroyed the World Trade Center." Shaking his fist,
FORTUNE's host slips into a 20-minute diatribe, saying that Sept. 11
was "all the fault of Jews," vowing that "God will destroy Bush,"
blaming President Pervez Musharraf for the Taliban's defeat, and
providing details about the cash, supplies, and soldiers Sipah had
slipped across the porous border to aid the Taliban. "God willing,
that day is not far when the Islamic flag will be hoisted at the top
of America's buildings."
Across town, the scene is just as chilling at Al-Badar Mujahideen's
"House of Martyrs," where a visitor is expected to remove his shoes
on one of three flags taped to the floor--U.S., Israeli, and Indian.
"You're the only American we've allowed inside," says Umer Inqlabi,
the 36-year-old bearded commander, as he invites a FORTUNE reporter
to eat curry with fellow guerrillas and watch a video of the group's
violent escapades in Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Chechnya. "Today you
are my guest--my brother! But you belong to the enemy side. If I see
you at the war field, I will just kill you."
[...].
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,369584,00.html
______
#4.
Financial Times (London,UK)
Charlie did it
By George Crile
Published: June 6 2003 19:13
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1054416441044
______
#5.
The Hindustan Times (New Delhi), June 13, 2003
Great power delusions
By Praful Bidwai
So India has at last arrived at the threshold of great power status
in the world, if not crossed it! So our courtier-reporters tell us.
[...].
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printedition/130603/detIDE01.shtml
______
#6.
The Hindu (Chennai [Madras]) , June 13, 2003
The Emergency and the Sangh
By Arvind Rajagopal
The Emergency rendered the Jana Sangh, the BJP's predecessor,
respectable, and paved the way for it to enter the mainstream of
Indian politics.
AS THE 28th anniversary of the Emergency arrives, we can expect the
BJP and its allies to reminisce about the loss of civil liberties
under Indira Gandhi, and compliment themselves on overthrowing her
despotic rule. It is ironic that a party with a deplorable record of
human rights violations gets this annual opportunity to boast about
its involvement in a nationwide struggle for democracy. But it should
be remembered that the RSS was marginal at best during the
anti-colonial struggle. The main focus of the Sangh was on
"organising Hindu society" - against Muslims, Christians and
communists, but not against the British Raj. Hence, the Emergency is
its better-late-than-never event, and its substitute for the
independence movement.
Indeed, the RSS literature describes the Emergency as the "second
freedom struggle", with the Sangh at the head of it. The struggle of
others in opposing the Emergency, in this account, was a mere
indulgence on the part of the Sangh; it was the RSS that saved
democracy. The role of peoples' movements is erased here; the Sangh
itself is the people, instead. This claim deserves attention.
The Emergency is a frequently-invoked, but little-examined period of
Indian history. Most discussions of it centre on Indira Gandhi's
authoritarian personality and the damage to democratic institutions
at that time. Of course, the Congress was voted out of office in
1977, and this is rightly taken as proof that voters will not
tolerate prolonged abuse of power. But the RSS now declares that it
was responsible for this democratic upsurge. The Emergency, in fact,
rendered the Jana Sangh, the BJP's predecessor, respectable, and
paved the way for it to enter the mainstream of Indian politics. In
L.K. Advani's words, it changed what he called the "untouchable"
status of the Jana Sangh in politics.
What changed? It is helpful briefly to recollect the immediate events
that led to the Emergency. On June 12, 1975, the Allahabad High Court
ruled in favour of Raj Narain and against Indira Gandhi, declaring
her 1971 parliamentary election in Rae Bareilly null and void because
of electoral malpractice. Meanwhile, the ABVP-led Nav Nirman movement
in Gujarat and the Sampoorna Kranti agitation led by Jayaprakash
Narayan (J.P.) in Bihar had made an impact in those States. Indira
Gandhi appealed to the Supreme Courtfor an absolute stay order
against the High Court judgment. On June 24, the Supreme Court
granted her a conditional stay, depriving her of voting rights in the
Lok Sabha, but allowing her to continue as Prime Minister. On June
25, J.P. and other Opposition leaders, including Morarji Desai, held
a public rally at the Ram Lila grounds in Delhi where they declared
that Indira Gandhi should resign; they urged the people to join them
in a non-cooperation movement. The following morning, Indira Gandhi
announced a national Emergency assumed in view of "threats to
national security". The Nav Nirman and the J.P. movements were
described as among the threats to national stability, though these
movements might, in fact, have already peaked by April or May 1975.
Opposition leaders were arrested, censorship was imposed, and a ban
was soon announced on grassroots organisations, including the RSS and
13 of its cover organisations.
In the propaganda accompanying the Emergency, secularism and
socialism were the watchwords of Indira Gandhi's Government. It was
at this time that India came to be declared as a sovereign,
socialist, secular, democratic republic, with `socialist' and
`secular' being added by her. Campaigns for discipline and
productivity were instituted, including Indira Gandhi's 20-point
programme, but what became most controversial was Sanjay Gandhi's
five-point programme. Two of those five points were mainly pursued,
namely, sterilisation campaigns, aimed disproportionately at Muslims,
and urban "beautification" drives beginning at settlements in the
Jama Masjid area in Delhi. The backlash against these campaigns was
widespread. Not surprisingly, after the Emergency, both ruling and
opposition parties increasingly came to distance themselves from
using the word `secularism,' regardless of who was in power. Indira
Gandhi herself, when she returned to power in 1980, began to
cultivate the Hindu vote. She herself accepted the invitation to
launch the VHP's `Ekatmata Yatra', also called the `Ganga jal yatra',
in 1983; this was the VHP's first mass contact programme, and
confirmed that Hindu ritual and symbolism could be effectively
utilised for popular mobilisation. It was following the success of
this campaign that the VHP launched the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation.
The importance of the Emergency in the growth of the RSS needs to be
emphasised because it helps place Hindutva in a wider historical
process rather than in a timeless world of fanaticism. With the
Opposition leaders in jail (and a section of the parliamentary Left
supporting the Emergency), the RSS was, besides the CPI (M), one of
the major grassroots organisations with a national reach. Among other
things, it played a significant role in the production and
distribution of underground literature. An all-India weekly news
bulletin, Lok Sangharsh, in English and Hindi, and another local
bulletin, Jana Vani, began to be produced in mid-July 1975. It was
duplicated in ten centres in Delhi and distributed in the thousands
in adjoining States. Opposition members' speeches in the emergency
session of Parliament in July 1975 were printed in Hindi and English,
as well as pamphlets about the RSS' role in the Opposition. The Delhi
News Bulletin, started by the RSS a few months after the Emergency,
was sent to all State capitals, and this process was repeated at the
district levels.
Complicating this elaborate documentation of the RSS'
counter-propaganda work, however, was the abject attitude of the RSS
chief, Balasaheb Deoras, in his letters to Indira Gandhi from
Yeravada Jail. Deoras promised that his organisation would be at the
disposal of the Government "for national uplift" if the ban on the
RSS were lifted and its members freed from jail. How is it that the
leader of the "second freedom struggle" seemed prepared to betray the
people for so small a price as his release? Again, the RSS literature
makes it clear that it did not even want to ask for lifting of the
ban because "it could put off Indira (and) make her refuse all other
demands as well, thus closing all avenues to a solution". Is it
possible to imagine such an organisation at the head of a democratic
struggle?
In the RSS' own account of the Emergency, Apatkaleen Mein Sangharsh
Gatha (1978), translated into English in 1991, although there are
numerous anecdotes about covert encounters between underground
activists, and literature circulated, there is a striking paucity of
signs of a movement in conventional terms - large gatherings,
collective action, clashes with police, specific advances made, etc.
As per existing records, RSS activists spent the time of the
Emergency networking with each other and with other activists, and
publishing counter-propaganda. This is now taken as representing the
nation itself, in a "second freedom struggle". We have nothing
approaching a comprehensive history of the Emergency, but what the
above suggests is that the RSS is trying to fabricate an account of
democratic struggle that exists mainly in its own records. But as a
matter of its own orientation, the impact on the RSS was
considerable. From being a deeply self-absorbed organisation focussed
mainly on `shakha' and character-building, the RSS began to realise
that popular mobilisation was a short-cut to political power. Among
other things, this reflected the reality after independence: with the
taint of the Gandhi assassination, the RSS was truly a political
outcaste. But after the Emergency, acquiring political power came
within reach. The rest, as they say, is history.
(The writer teaches anthropology at the New York University.)
______
#7.
Business Standard (New Delhi), June 12, 2003
WATCHWORD
Development Man and Iron Man
Manas Chakravarty
Published : June 10, 2003
May 30, 2003, The Hindu: The BJP would project the Prime Minister,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as 'vikas purush' (development man), the Deputy
Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, as 'loha purush' (iron man)...
New Delhi, June 9, 3003: Anthropologists are all agog with excitement
at the discovery of not one, but two new types of hominid fossil
remains in the ancient Indian capital of New Delhi.
Researchers working at the site have confirmed that recent evidence
suggests that in the early years of the 21st century, the country was
inhabited by two new types of early man - Development Man and Iron
Man.
"This is an absolutely amazing discovery, it's phenomenal," said the
chief anthropologist at the site. He pointed out that for centuries
anthropologists have been trying to find the 'missing link', the
elusive creature that marked the bridge between man and the great
apes. "Who knows", he bubbled enthusiastically, "this might be that
fabled missing link."
The curator at the National Museum of Anthropology pointed out the
breathtaking significance of the discovery. "So far," he said, "there
was a clear line of descent from Homo Habilis, or Handy Man, which
stands for primitive men who knew how to use their hands for
tool-making, to Homo Erectus, which does not mean what you think it
means, but actually signifies a creature who walked erect on two
feet, to Homo Sapiens, which means, wrongly as it turned out, Wise
Man.
But this is the first time that we've ever heard of Iron Man or
Development Man. What lends added credence to the entire exercise is
that written as well as electronic records of the period also refer
to the existence of these new types of 'Man'."
Scientists at the site have said that preliminary studies show that
Development Man was large-brained, quite capable of spouting poetry.
His gait was heavy and measured, but this could be due to the age of
the specimen rather than a family trait.
>From a detailed appraisal of the historical record, it appears that
>while Development Man was intellectually above average, his speech
>was marked by long and frequent pauses. Others point out, however,
>that this was due to Development Man's fondness for reporters, and
>he spoke slowly so that they could write down all he had to say.
Not much is known about Iron Man, although the presence of a large
dome-like forehead seems to show a well-developed intellectual
ability. Researchers have also drawn attention to a curious
similarity between the two types, suggesting a common origin.
Indeed, the more heretical researchers have gone so far as to club
them both together under a new catch-all term 'Political Man'. These
extremists point to the partiality for reporters as being a
distinguishing trait among the species.
There are, however, dissenting voices. A professor of cultural
history at the National Museum told this correspondent that the term
Iron Man was an old one, spotted in records of the Nehruvian era,
when the species had first been sighted.
Interestingly, both sightings are from the part of the country that
used to be known as Gujarat. Others believe that Iron Man does not
stand in the line of descent to Homo Sapiens at all, but instead
belongs to a collateral, and more belligerent branch of the hominid
family.
Going by this theory, Iron Man is closely related to, or believed
that he was closely related to, Super man, Batman, Spiderman, and
other such creatures. Luridly illustrated records of the 20th and
21st centuries, known in technical literature as 'comics' prove the
existence of these types of hominids. 'He-man' is yet another example
of the breed.
While the ancestry of Iron Man may be the subject of debate,
Development Man seems to be a rare and unique find. Researchers are
unsure about the significance of the name, although some declare the
term is a variant of Economic Man, or Homo Economicus.
The professor of economic history at the National University, a
supporter of the Political Man thesis, points out that development
was a big vote-catcher in those days, with most Indians barely able
to make both ends meet.
All this fuss about the new types of Man has created a lot of
resentment among feminists. "Were there no women in India during the
period?" asked one of them. Anthropologists say that they are
mistaken, and specimens of powerful and well-known female hominids
too have been found.
"One of them, in north India, was linked to Development Man, and she
developed the art of filing FIRs in bulk. She apparently went by the
name of Maya Woman. The name of another one, down in the south, has
been lost in the mists of antiquity. We call her simply Fat Woman".
manas@business-standard.com
______
#8.
The well known Indian Historian Prof.K.N.Panikkar will be in USA for
a month from 15 August 2003. He can be contacted on E-Mail:
<knp8@rediffmail.com>.
On telephone (R)091-0484-2604624 or 2607747. (O)091-0484-2463580 or 2463380
_____
#9.
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2003 17:44:07 +0530 (IST)
From: "Shiva Shankar" <sshankar@cmi.ac.in>
Subject: Request for help for the Raigad School that has adopted Gujarat
genocide affected children
Dear Friends,
I am writing to you again about the Undre School (run by Dr. and Mrs.
Undre) at Raigad, which has adopted 130 children affected by the genocide in
Gujarat last year. These children come from very humble families, and
arrived at the school with just the clothes they were wearing. The school
has provided them with a complete kit as it were (clothes, bedding, books
etc), hostel accomodation, wholesome food and education. Most important is
that the school is a haven and a refuge for these children (some of them as
young as 5 years old) who have seen their parents/siblings brutalised and
murdered, and whose families have been rendered homeless and unemployed.
The Undres with uncommon generosity have committed themselves to helping
these children right through their school years. I therefore request your
sustained help for many years.
I was to visit the Undre School in the last week of May, but
by the time I
got to Bombay, the children had been sent to Ahmedabad to visit their
families for a brief vacation before the start of the next term. Many of my
friends did go to Raigad (Professor M. G. Nadkarni, former head of the
mathematics dept, Bombay university, Professor V. R. Sule of IIT, Bombay,
Jogesh Motwani, Lakshmi Rangaraj, ...). I also met Zia Hajeebhoy and Amit
Upadhyay, who together with Monica Wahi and Charu Kasturi initiated this
effort (more about them below). Talking to these people it is clear that the
Undres have initiated a great and heroic effort. As I see it, it is our duty
now to help sustain it, and to broaden its scope. Thus not only do we
solicit your support for these 130 children over many years, but also your
help to locate other schools willing to provide similar support (there are
over 50,000 children who suffered in the genocide).
The idea to relocate these children seems to have been the
brainchild of
four remarkable people, Monica Wahi, Amit Upadhyay, Charu Kasturi and Zia
Hajeebhoy. Monica is a Delhi based film maker (she has collaborated with
Anand Patwardhan in the making of "War and Peace"), Amit a Rhodes scholar at
Oxford University, and Charu a 2nd year BSc physics student at St.
Stephen's. When the genocide began unfolding they simply dropped everything
they were doing to rush down to Gujarat to help! They have been in
Ahmedabad ever since, living and working in the relief camps till their
forced closure by the state govt. They got in touch with Zia who lives in
Bombay and who in turn talked to the Undres. Extraordinary times throws up
extraordinary people, but it is now our duty to step in and help so that
these young people can go back to their work and studies.
For too long have we relied on corrupt and self-serving
governments. Our
only hope is civil society, i.e. the citizens of this country, if we are to
arrest this descent into the heart of darkness that Gujarat has so starkly
come to symbolise. Monica, Amit, Charu, Zia, The Undres, and many others
have shown us the way. We only have to follow them.
I would be eternally grateful to you if you could pass on
this appeal to
your friends. Please contact me, Zia Hajeebhoy, or Monica Wahi [
e-mail addresses : <sshankar@cmi.ac.in>,
<monicawahi@rediffmail.com>, <hajeebhoyzia@yahoo.com>] for any other
information or clarifications
that you might need.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Shiva Shankar.
(Chennai Mathematical Institute)
Please send your contribution to:
Cheque in the name of ROYAL EDUCATION SOCIETY
Address:
C/o S R Kudrolli
2J Calcot House, 2nd Floor
8 M P Shetty Marg
Fort, Mumbai-400 023
Ph: :91 22 22046911
Draft Details
Name: Royal Educational Society
Kokan Mercantile Co-op. Bank Ltd
Shriwardhan Branch, Dist. Raigad
Account No: 2819
(Your contributions are eligible for tax exemption under section 80G)
_____
#10.
From Milli Gazette (India) June 1-15
--
Celebrating Shared Traditions
Ram Puniyani
(Book Review, Book Reviewed: Sacred Spaces, Exploring Traditions of Shared
Faith in India by Yoginder Sikand, Penguin, Delhi, 2003, Pages 273,
Rs.250)
Last decade and a half has seen violence in the name of religion bursting
to the seems. Horrendous acts of inhumanity are being passed off as a
glory to the religion. What dominates the social scene is the focus on
differences between religions, the exclusivity of different norms of
religions. In this scenario the book under review comes as a breath of
fresh air. This moving account of different shrines written as a
travelogue highlights the deep meaning of the syncretic traditions of
these sacred spaces. One wonders how can such contrast exist in society,
on one hand a divisive presentation of religion and on the other religious
symbols fusing themselves effortlessly in the practices of the average
people. In these sacred spaces what matters is not the origin or the
affiliation but the mere fact that some rishi or pir exists who is
benevolent. The same place will have Shrine of a Hindu god while the holy
person from a Mosque will be blessing them on the way. Many an
interactions have become so mixed up in the popular memory that it is
difficult to determine the religion of the seer as such. Sikand has
presented the descriptions in a lucid and captivating style, avoiding the
preaching style he has let the traditions speak for their own beauty and
appeal and that is no mean achievement by itself.
This travelogue cum work of scholarship on syncretic culture of India is
amongst the few works of its type. Sikand deserves all the praise for
taking up this subject for detailed attention. His methodology of
understanding, which he generously shares with the readers, is very
simple. Join the group of devotees traveling to the sacred shrine, mix
with theme, talk to many identify the knowledgeable amongst the devotees
for the details of the place. His empathy with humanism ingrained in these
places makes his job easier and he is able to extract the best from the
sources who are in full and authentic know of the past. He does supplement
it with the available material on the place and also gleans from the
available scholarly works to make the thorough presentation of the
particular shrine. Despite the meticulous approach to a particular place
the logic of selection of these is missing. No doubt he has selected the
most prominent ones, the ones which have been in news or have been drawing
hoards of devotees. He does pick up Baba Budan Giri, Charar-e-Sharif,
Deendar Channabaseshwara, which have been in news for wrong reasons and
also picks up Ayyappa shrine and Shirdi, which are extremely popular
currently. But surely the omissions like Haji Malang, or Haji Ali have
their own story to tell, which gets missed out in Sikands otherwise
comprehensive presentation.
Sikand makes a very significant observation, Scores of communities
scattered across this vast subcontinent still refuse to be neatly
categorized as Hindu or Muslim or whatever, freely borrowing from diverse
traditions to create their own way of understanding the world. (P. 3) This
debunks the base of Religion based politics for which theses two are
monolithic communities in constant antagonism to each other. This
observation of his also explains as to how the people from both these
communities can throng the same place of worship. It is interesting to
note that as conversions to Islam took place mainly from the low caste,
they brought along with them many of the traditions to Islam. Two
traditions of religion, the elite, centered around the Brahmin and Mullahs
and in turn close to the landlords on one hand and the traditions of Kabir
and Naank who were close to the down trodden on the other, emerges from
the understanding of the shared traditions. Kabir and Nanak, both insisted
that they are neither Hindu nor Muslim. This tradition defied the
authority of Mullah and Brahmin both without negating the humanism
ingrained in the respective religions. These Bhakti and Sufi saints
transcended the man made differences of caste and community, challenged
the thesis of Hindu-Muslim rivalry and shared a new cultural synthesis.
This explains the mass popularity of such shared sacred spaces.
With time many a traditions are going on with some modifications while in
some of these the communal influence is seeping in. While the places like
Ayyappa temple of Sabrimala and Blessed Virgin Mary of Vialakanni remain
marginally affected, the places like Baba Budan Giri in Karnataka gets
politicized and efforts are on to convert it into Ayodhya of the south.
While the Shrine Siababa of Shirdi is getting subtly brahminised, the Nund
Rishi Dargah (Charar-e-Sharif) has faced the cross fire between the
Kashmiri militants and the Indian army. Communal politics has not left
these spiritually pure places unaffected. This may be one of the weak
points of the book. The book of this nature should have specifically
brought out the point about the effect of rising sectarianism on the
syncretic traditions. Also a book dealing with this could not have
afforded to omit the selective targeting of Dargahs by Hindutva goons in
Gujarat carnage. Why more of such places came under the battering ram of
the onslaught of Moditva needed to be recounted. That also reminds one of
the tombs of Wali Dakani (Gujarati) in Ahmadabad that needed an obituary
in the work of this type.
As such Sikand is at his brilliant best in recounting his experiences with
the pirs and devotees. He is meticulous in his observations and nothing
escapes his minute attention, be it the Swami prefix to the Muslim Waver
at Ayyapa shrine or the architectural strengths of some of these places,
or the meaning of very nomenclature of the places, they all find a
suitable elaboration. In the current scenario where one is groping to find
the mechanisms to create bridges between communities as a guarantee to
prevent sectarian violence, the foundations of shared traditions may be a
beacon light. The challenge is to preserve the syncretic nature of these
places and also to nurture the core humanism ingrained in these traditions
which may help in laying the foundations of harmony in society.
_____
#11.
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 17:07:09 +0100 (BST)
From: Shabnam Hashmi <anhadinfo@yahoo.co.in>
STATE OF GUJARAT
Surveys and interrogations of the Chrisitian community have become a
permanant feature in the State of Gujarat.
In 1999 when the State Intelligence Department conduct a census on
the Christian and Muslim Communities, a suo moto judgment by Justice
M. R. Calla of the Gujarat High Court put the State on the defensive
. After some rounds of hearings and after having admitted that this
census was being conducted, the Additional Advocate General of
Gujarat is on record saying that the census was stopped.
In February / March 2003, these interrogations began once again. The
members of the police department have kept knocking on the doors of
institutions and families asking all kinds of questions and some very
obnoxious ones. The Home Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Amit Shah
himself admitted that such a census was being conducted because they
had to provide some information to Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan who had
tabled a question in Parliament. Mr.Paswan himself denied ever asking
such a question through various press releases .
Around midnight of May 24th / 25th 2003, a pose of policemen headed
by Sub Inspector A. H. Jardosh of Patan jumped over a locked gate
into the premises of Catholic Ashram, Patan, insisted that the two
Priests, Fr. A. Moonnu and Fr. G.Prasad be woken up immediately; and
interrogated them without any written warrant and without any
justifiable reason whatsoever. Moreover, an extremely miniscule
minority of Christians who live in villages around Patan are now
terrorized day-in and day-out either by the police or by anti-social
elements belonging to
Hindu fundamentalist groups. To top it all, programmes are being
planned over the next few days in some of these villages which will
definitely indulge in Christian and other Minority bashing .
Today (12th June 2003), at 12.15 pm. The police from Dakor went to
interrogate Fr. Thomas Chalissery of Don Bosco, Dakor. Apparently,
they had received orders from their higher-ups. Fr. Thomas said he
was unable to give any answers until they furnished their questions
in writing. They did so with great reluctance but put down just a
few of those that they were actually asking .
The National Minority Commission just decided "that the Gujarat
Government was not conducting any surveys/interrogations on the
Christians". It is unfortunate, that an institution that is meant to
protect and safeguard the interests of the minorities takes such a
blatantly biased position .
These interrogations on the Christian community are a clear violation
of the fundamental human rights of any citizen. They are neither
warranted nor justified. It only heightens the fear and insecurity
that has gripped the minority community of this State for a long time
now.
o o o
[See Related News report]
Christians surveyed again in Gujarat
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_279260,000900040003.htm
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