SACW | 16 July, 2003
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Wed Jul 16 15:40:17 CDT 2003
South Asia Citizens Wire | 16 July, 2003
[1.] Pakistan: The Quetta carnage (Rashed Rahman)
[2.] Durand Line Hunt: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uncle Sam (M.B. Naqvi)
[3.] India: Muslims and the democratic process (Imtiaz Ahmad)
[4.] India: Justice Aborted in Gujarat (Asghar Ali Engineer)
[5.] India - Gujarat: Our best bet (Abhishek Singhvi)
[6.] [Hindutva's Arms ] Training camps worrying India's minorities
By Prajnan Bhattacharya
[7.] Call For Papers: Conflict, Peace and Development in South Asia
(January, 2004, Colombo)
[8.] Call For Papers: Peoples, Populations, Citizens in South Asia -
A Subaltern Studies Conference (Jan 2004, New Delhi)
--------------
[1.]
The News International (Pakistan)
July 15, 2003
The Quetta carnage
Rashed Rahman
For the second time in a month, sectarian terrorists have struck
Quetta. On June 8, they ambushed and killed 13 police recruits. All
of them were Hazaras, a minority Shia community. On July 4, the
sectarian terrorists struck again at an imambargah, killing 53 and
wounding about the same number. For Balochistan, sectarian violence
is new. The province is well known for its religious tolerance till
now. Even the Zikris, a minority sect considered by orthodox ulema as
being outside the pale of Islam, are protected in Balochistan and
free to practice their faith, including their annual pilgrimage to
Koh Murad. For such a province to be wracked by the kind of targeted
sectarian killings that Quetta has now twice witnessed within the
space of a month is something the residents of the city or the
province could hardly have imagined in their wildest dreams.
Why has this hydra of sectarianism suddenly reared its ugly head in a
province free of such conflict till now? Is it because of what Prime
Minister Zafarullah Jamali has pointed to -- the ubiquitous 'foreign
hand'? Or is it, as some press reports quoting intelligence sources
claim, the result of an "Indo-Afghan nexus"? The prime minister has
ascribed motives to the perpetrators of these bloody acts ranging
from an attempt to put a pall on President General Pervez Musharraf's
'triumphant' foreign tour, all the way to undoing the wonderful
development work the Balochistan government is bringing to the poor
and neglected citizens of our most immiserated province. The latter
reports trot out the moth-eaten theory of the Indian intelligence
organisation RAW colluding with elements of the Northern Alliance in
the Kabul government to destabilise Pakistan.
While these speculations may be interesting to the conspiracy theory
school, we still await details from the interrogation of 19 suspects
apprehended so far as well as the findings of the investigation team
headed by a Major General of the army (a demand of the aggrieved
Hazara community, the concession of which puts the police and
intelligence agencies in a deservedly poor light). Undoubtedly, in an
investigation of this sort, no possibility can be overlooked. But
what often transpires here is that the obvious cast of suspects
escapes the attention of the authorities. Who fits the bill in this
regard? Circumstantial evidence suggests we should be taking a closer
look at the situation in Afghanistan, as well as its spill over
effects in Pakistan.
The Taliban and al-Qaeda, despite help from Gulbaddin Hekmatyar and
their almost daily attacks on the American and other foreign and
local Afghan government forces in Afghanistan, may be reaching the
conclusion that they need to do something more spectacular to turn
the tide in their favour. Not so long ago, they bombed a bus carrying
German troops of the ISAF in Kabul to show they had expanded their
operational network to the capital. It is arguable though, that
despite their success in mounting a resistance against the Kabul
government and its foreign backers, the fundamentalist forces in
Afghanistan do not see a bright future for themselves unless they can
do more than the pinprick daily attacks on their enemy. The
Americans, despite their difficulties on the ground, show no signs of
abandoning the Karzai regime. If at all they are contemplating
reducing their presence in the country, it will only be when Nato
troops replace their own personnel. In Pakistan too, despite two
provincial governments in NWFP and Balochistan with perceived
sympathies for the overthrown Taliban, the fundamentalists
occasionally exhibit signs of desperation, as though sensing that in
the sweep of history, their day may be drawing to a close.
This turn of events owes a great deal to the about turn President
General Musharraf took in the aftermath of September 11, abandoning a
30-year old policy of the military establishment to seek maximally a
pliant government, and at the very minimum a friendly government in
Kabul. What followed the fall of the Taliban as a result of the US
invasion and occupation of Afghanistan two years ago was an
American-inspired but flawed political process at the Bonn
conference. This process set up the Karzai regime, in which the
triumphant Northern Alliance inevitably held a dominant position.
Thus ended in bitter ignominy the dream of GHQ of 'strategic depth'
in Afghanistan. The military establishment felt it had little choice
but to accept the humiliating terms on which the Americans
'engineered' the post-Taliban order, in the process leaving the
Pushtuns of Afghanistan with merely a token share of power in the
Centre. Local warlords and recalcitrant elements like Hekmatyar saw a
golden opportunity in this denial of the Pushtuns' claim to a
dominant share of power. The resistance snapping at the heels of the
American and Karzai forces rose out of the chinks in the Bonn
arrangements.
Meanwhile in Pakistan, as a logical consequence of the Musharraf
policy turn after September 11, 2001, the residual Taliban and
al-Qaeda sought both sanctuary and a theatre of operations on
Pakistani soil. The contradiction between these two goals brought
setbacks in the shape of the series of arrests of al-Qaeda (about
500) and Taliban (about nine) elements inside Pakistan, promptly
handed over to the Americans. Their Pakistani sympathisers and
collaborators, principally the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba and
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, now came into play. These are virulently anti-Shia
groups, as their track record in Pakistan and in the heyday of the
Taliban in Afghanistan shows. It is a relatively low cost strategy to
hit the Musharraf setup, seen as the main strategic and tactical
backer of the American aims in Afghanistan, in its own backyard in a
fashion that threatens to re-ignite sectarian passions throughout the
country and bring into the picture regional powers such as Iran in
defence of the Shias.
The government is barking up the wrong tree if it thinks that by
pointing the finger of suspicion at the cast of usual suspects
(foreign hand, RAW, Northern Alliance, etc), it will reassure the
people of Pakistan that it is on top of the emerging threat from
within. Nor can the wholesale reshuffle of police and administration
officials or tried and failed traditional police methods achieve the
desired result of smashing the sectarian terrorists. To get at these
elements in an effective manner, the authorities have to take some
fundamental decisions.
First and foremost, they have to cut the roots from which such
sectarian terrorism finds sustenance. The climate of support to, and
even encouragement of, religious fundamentalism that has reduced the
polity to a hostage in the hands of obscurantist since the dark days
of General Ziaul Haq has to be abandoned and demolished. If that
means the president and the military establishment have to rethink
their overt and covert support to the rise of religious political
alliances such as the MMA, then that is the inescapable logic of the
policy turn after September 11. When the soil in which such religious
extremism flourishes is cleansed, it will prove relatively easier to
isolate, identify, and smash the sectarian terrorists and all the
fundamentalist militants of various shades and hues. The military
establishment has to gear itself up to purge the polity of the forces
it is responsible for nurturing for thirty years. Only then will it
be possible to construct the moderate Muslim state the president is
fond of describing Pakistan to be. That will not be merely a
rhetorical flourish, but an actuality that is undeniable and
unassailable, even by those in the West and at home who still harbour
lingering suspicions about the historical nexus of fundamentalism and
the military establishment.
_____
[2.]
[15 July 2003, Karachi]
Durand Line: Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US
by M.B. Naqvi
Although Islamabad's desire to involve the US in the Pakistan-India
dispute over Kashmir remains unfulfilled or is not wholly realised,
it has happened in another dispute with another neighbour. A
Tripartite Commission was scheduled to meet on Tuesday July 15 in
Kabul in which representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US
were to defuse the heightened tensions between the Afghans and
Pakistan Army over the exact location of the famous, but
controversial, Boundary Line drawn by Sir Mortimer Durand in 1892.
There have been repeated armed clashes between what are described as
Afghan troops and Pakistan Army’s soldiers over several places and
casualties have resulted. There was a violent demonstration outside
Pakistan embassy in Kabul in recent days, forcing it to close down.
It has not reopened till this Tuesday, though it soon may. There were
reports that the Deputy Governor of the newly created Central Bank of
Afghanistan was leading the demonstrators. Other demonstrations have
been reported from Qandhar and one other place. Although the Afghan
President Hamid Karzai has apologised for the embassy attack, the
tensions have not eased.
The US interest is clear which has taken this initiative: it does not
want the Afghans and Pakistanis to be deflected from their “main
duties” in fighting the remnants of Taliban, al Qaeda and Osama bin
Laden’s men who are said to have regrouped in Pakistan and joined by
the “forces” of once powerful Afghan leader Engineer Gulbadin
Hekmatyar. Should the clashes between Pakistan and the
American–formed and –led Afghan forces (or even the American-bribed
tribal warlords), tensions are likely to continue to mount. The
‘vital task’ of capturing or killing the ex-Taliban and their
comrades will suffer. That is not acceptable to the Americans. Hence
their initiative in forming a Trilateral Commission that first met in
Islamabad on June 17 last. It was meant to hold regular meetings to
sort out differences between two allies of the US in the War against
Terror.
Trouble arose out of the first ever Pakistan Army’s deployment in the
remote and less accessible Mohmand Agency, a part of Pakistan,
through which passes the Durand Line, dividing the Mohmands into two
nationalities --- a division that Afghanistan and most tribes astride
Durand Line have continued to reject for 111 years. This was why
Afghanistan had voted against the admission of Pakistan in the UN in
1947 --- an event that still rankles Pakistani hearts.
It is necessary to remember that Pakistan sent its troops into the
Mohmand Agency on the insistence of the Americans who thought that
the border in that zone is too porous and the al Qaeda and Taliban
remnants can utilise it in crossing the border as well as for taking
refuge. Pakistan obliged the US at heavy political cost to itself.
The Mohmand tribe is now said to be split right down the middle among
those who welcome Pakistan troops’ deployment because this would
bring some development --- roads, a dispensary and maybe a school ---
and those who do not want to compromise their time-honoured
independence. Let it be said that all regard themselves as Afghans
and all the areas up to river Indus are regarded by them as
Afghanistan which the British stole from them.
This is the basis of long-standing Pakistan-Afghanistan dispute over
Durand Line. This border was recognised by no Afghan government,
whether Zahir Shah’s or even the Pakistan-imposed regimes of
Professors Mujaddadi or Burhanuddin Rabbani. Not even the Taliban
regime, for all its Pakistani origins, ever recognised this British
drawn line. Only President Sardar Mohammad Daud, in 1976, putatively
came close to doing so as a result of Iranian Shah’s promise of $ 2
billion in aid. But he was speedily overthrown before he could act.
Durand Line, as most Afghan diplomats used to say, is an extinct
volcano: it will cause no war or large-scale fracas. But not even the
weakest Afghan government can survive after recognising it. That was
the traditional Afghan position off the record, as your correspondent
can attest. But does that position hold today? Ordinarily there
should be no doubt about it. Today Afghanistan does not really exist
as an independent state; it is an occupied territory ruled by the
nominees and friends of the US. Now, if you posit that US and
Pakistan are old friends and allies there should be no threat from a
basically America-run Afghan government. Is that really so?
No clear answer emerges. There are Pakistani commentators who hold
that, looking in a historic perspective, the US is doing to Pakistan
now what it used to do to India during the cold war: use Pakistan to
pressurise India. The US may be doing the same to Pakistan through
Afghanistan today. Some think that the kind of mob that attacked the
Pakistan embassy recently did not comprise the lumpen proletariat
alone; it had some well connected officials too who led the attack,
as reports in Pakistani press indicate. Anyway this violent demo
could not have assembled if America’s cherry-picked men in Kabul
weren’t buoyed up by the knowledge that they have the Yanks behind
them.
The Americans are deeply troubled about Pakistan. Not that they have
any doubts about the intention of the government run by Gen. Pervez
Musharraf. But there are plenty of doubts about his ability to
control all that goes on in Pakistan. It is rather a chaotic
situation from the American viewpoint. No matter how much do the
official publicists assert, there is no danger of nuclear weapons
falling into undesirable hands or about the ability of the government
to control Islamic extremists, the US experts remain wary. They
cannot but note that the religious parties, their own long-time
friends no doubt, have now secured one-third of the Pakistan
Parliament and control two provinces bordering on Afghanistan. They
feel they are close to the point when they can make a direct bid for
power.
Also the way that Gen. Musharraf has not been able to implement in
full all that he promised vis-à-vis Jihad in Indian-controlled
Kashmir has had some cost. That failure remains to be explained. That
is what makes the Americans wary a lot more about what may be gong on
inside Musharraf’s own constituency. Anyway, the Americans are not
novices; they have played such games for long. They mean to fight to
keep Pakistan away from the grasp of Islamic extremists --- may be to
the last Pakistani. It may be an elaborate charade that they are
playing out in and about Pakistan and Afghanistan through their
facilitation. Ends.
_____
[3.]
The Hindu (India)
July 16, 2003
Muslims and the democratic process [in India]
By Imtiaz Ahmad
Any resolution of the (Ayodhya) tangle could not have been thrashed
out outside the democratic political framework of the state.
http://www.thehindu.com/2003/07/16/stories/2003071600611000.htm
_____
[4.]
Secular Perspective (India), July 16-31, 2003
JUSTICE ABORTED IN GUJARAT
Asghar Ali Engineer
The judgment delivered by Justice H.H.Mahida about the Best Bakery
case in Vadodra in which 14 persons were killed on first March 2002
in the post-Godhra carnage in Gujarat shocked the country. Justice
Mahida acquitted all the 21 accused in the case. The main witnesses
like Zahira Sheikh and others turned hostile and that was the main
reason for acquittal of the 21 accused.
This was not altogether unexpected. The human rights activists and
other concerned citizens had expressed their apprehensions much
before the cases were heard by the fast track courts set up for the
purpose. It was feared that justice may not be done to the victims of
riots within Gujarat and that these cases may be tried outside
Gujarat. As such the rate of acquittal in the communal riot cases has
been notoriously high for long in India. This writer has followed
such cases in many riots in post-independence India and found that
the rate of acquittal is more than 90%.
The Hashimpura case in Meerut riots of 1987 is quite glaring in this
respect. Some 23 Muslim youth were dragged out of their houses on
23rd May 1987, loaded on trucks, taken near a canal outside the city
and shot dead by the PAC and their bodies thrown into the canal. Two
of them survived to tell the story of this bestiality. The PAC
commandant and others who committed the heinous crime were identified
but no action was taken. After many years when Mulayamsingh Yadav
came to power in U.P. that these persons were served with summons and
yet no case has been filed against them, much less prosecuted.
In Gujarat things are even worse. The administration was actively
involved in the carnage. The chief minister Narendra Modi himself
justified the carnage saying it was reaction to the action (i.e. what
happened in Godhra on 27th February 2002). Also, the police played
highly partisan role actively helping the rioters and some ministers
of Modi Cabinet were also allegedly leading the rioting mobs.
Doubts were expressed even about the impartiality of the Commission
headed by Justice Nanavati, a retired Supreme Court Judge appointed
to investigate into the Godhra incident of burning S-6 coach of
Sabarmati Express and the following carnage in Gujarat. The
apprehensions were not quite unjustified as became evident from the
pre-mature statement given by Justice Nanavati absolving the role of
the police much before the inquiry was over.
The acquittal of the accused in the Best Bakery case further
confirmed the doubts. Though it was supposed to be fast track court
even then it took more than an year to decide the case. It gave
enough time to the VHP-BJP people to work on the witnesses to turn
them hostile. No security was provided to these witnesses specially
to Zahira Sheikh, the main witness whose family owned the Best Bakery
and whose father was killed when mob set fire to the bakery.
All press persons saw that after her turning hostile in the court she
was accompanied by the local BJP MLA Madhu Shrivastava and he did not
even allow media persons to talk to her. Thereafter she disappeared
and was not available to anyone. MLAs cousin the Congress councilor
was also allegedly involved in making Zahira Sheikh change her
statement in the court though the MLA as well as the Municipal
Councilor both have denied the allegation.
Though Zahira Sheikh turned hostile and said these 21 persons were
not among those who killed 14 persons on 1st March she admitted later
in the press conference in Mumbai that she turned hostile under
duress and that she had received threats to her and her family's life
and no one, not even Muslims and members of relief committee came to
her rescue. What alone she could have done?
Zahira Sheikh and her mother Sehrunnisa both were main witnesses in
the case. Sehrunnisa, 50, also turned hostile for the same reasons.
She told the Press persons later I lied to the court "trembling with
fear for her life." Those 14 persons killed in the incident most of
them were her relatives.
It is obvious that both mother and daughter turned hostile for fear
of their life. They must have received threats. It was feared even
before the case went for trial. The Sangh Parivar is trying to
sabotage justice in cases related to Gujarat carnage. Why otherwise
the main complainants in the Best Bakery case should turn hostile?
They had lost everything, a husband, a father and several other
relatives.
The Human rights activists are worried about other cases i.e. Naroda
Patia and Gulbarga Society cases in Ahmedabad as well as other cases
of massacres in Mehsana and several other districts of Gujarat. Even
National Human Rights Commission is concerned. Its Chairman Justice
A.S.Anand said that he believed that the acquittal of all the 21
accused in the Best Bakery case in Vadodra by a special court was
prima facie a "miscarriage of justice." And State Government must
appeal against the verdict.
A team of national Human Rights Commission also visited Vadodra to
examine the case papers and meet witnesses. However, for fear of life
main witnesses did not appear before it except only one who himself
is allegedly involved in threatening Zahira Sheikh and her mother.
The team is expected to submit the report within a week's time. The
Commission also requested the Acting Chef Justice of Gujarat High
Court, the trial court and Government of Gujarat to cooperate with
the team.
Though the Gujarat Government is apparently examining the trail court
verdict the Home Minister Amit Shah did not give any assurance
whether the Government will appeal against the verdict. It is
interesting to note that just before the Best Bakery case the NHRC
had asked the Gujarat Police Director General asking him to protect
the fear-stricken victims and witnesses who were to appear before the
trial courts. But obviously the Police did not nor the Gujarat
Government cared for such instructions.
As the Best Bakery case was more important involving 14 lives the
other case in Gandhinagar went unnoticed in the media. Same day i.e.
on 27th June the district court in Gnadhinagar acquitted all 22
accused in a riot and plunder incident. The main complainant was
police on behalf of the State Government.
The incident had occurred between February 28 and March in Pimplaj
Village of the Dehgam Taluka last year where a mosque was destroyed
and a farm house owned by a Muslim family plundered and farm
implements were stolen. Exposing lapses in the investigation, the
judgment noted that the investigating agency had not been able to
recover the arms believed to have been brandished by the mob.
The additional session's judge Mr. Ramesh Bateriwala noted that
"there was no attempt made by the investigating officers to parade
the accused for identification." This is part of the more clinching
evidence since the identification is carried out in the presence of
magistrate.
These are the things happened in the Best Bakery case too. The Police
did not carry out careful investigation nor did it frame proper
charges. This was further helped by making witnesses turn hostile for
fear of their lives. All this obviously is part of the game plan.
Unless proper steps are taken by the Gujarat Government - and no one
can be sure the Gujarat Government will ever do - other riot cases
particularly those of Naroda Patia and Gulbarga Society wherein more
than 1000 people were brutally killed are likely to go the Best
Bakery way.
Justice Mahida of the Vadodra trial case who acquitted all the 21
accused rightly remarked that "Today when economic scams surfaced
daily and abductors exhort money, it seems Churchill's words that
India had passed into the hands of 'thugs' are coming true." The BJP
had promised the people of India that it will provide clean
governance and this is what we are experiencing at the hands of BJP
Government. Its slogan of 'justice for all and discrimination against
none" also sounds hollow. It is discriminating between culprits
involved in Godhra arresting them under POTA and refusing them bail
and the culprits involved in the post-Godhra carnage allowing them to
be released on bail and terrorising the victims.
The Police is also deeply infected with communal virus and is
deliberately not investigating properly. The legal experts have
opined that Best Bakery case and its fall out is a classic example of
the shoddy and careless investigation with the sole motive to ensure
acquittal of the accused in one of the most barbarous crimes in the
post-independence India.
There is strong case for the Supreme Court to intervene suo moto and
see that other cases, particularly those of Naroda Patia and Gulbarga
Society which were even more ghastly and involving killing of 1000
persons do not go Best Bakery way. Many legal experts and human
rights activists feel that these cases should be tried outside
Gujarat to ensure safety of witnesses. One can hardly rely on
partisan police of Gujarat and anti-minority attitude of the Gujarat
Government displayed in practice. One can only hope that judiciary
will save the situation.
(Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Mumbai:- 400 055. E-mail: <mailto:csss at vsnl.com>csss at vsnl.com )
_____
[5.]
The Hindustan Times (India)
July 16, 2003
CANDID CORNER: Our best bet
Abhishek Singhvi
Apart from the host of human, social, political and legal issues
thrown up by the Best Bakery case, the age-old issue of 'who will
guard the guardians' arises again.
What happens when the primary guardian of law - the state government
- is prima facie guilty of collusive prosecution? Or, at the very
least, of criminally negligent conduct of a case? Or, equally likely,
of either positively intimidating and suborning witnesses or failing
to provide them security and protection? Not to speak of prima facie
involvement of one of the MLAs of the ruling party.
Add to that the fact that the secondary custodian of public interest
and of equal application of the law - the central government - shares
the philosophy, ideology and perception of the state government and
is unwilling to act except to bandy clichés like 'state subject'.
What happens when the central government gets into the business of
protecting the state government instead of the law of the land?
Yes, there are institutions like the NHRC which can and do generate
public opinion. They are empowered, and should increasingly adopt an
interventionist role. But, as Justice Verma's report during the
Godhra riots showed, at the end of the day, the NHRC remains
toothless and powerless as far as striking where it hurts is
concerned.
There are the super central agencies like the CBI and the CVC. The
latter is only concerned with bureaucratic corruption and the former
suffers from two serious limitations: it is under de jure and de
facto central control and influence and can normally intervene only
upon a state's request or at least with its consent.
That leaves us with two of the biggest myths of Indian polity. First,
the independent public prosecutor (PP), who conducts the prosecution
for the State which, incidentally, is legally given the sole monopoly
to conduct prosecutions with an extremely limited and circumscribed
role for any private complainant. Idealistic paeans of praise have
been showered on the office of the public prosecutor by the apex
court in the celebrated Paswan case relating to withdrawal of
prosecution qua Jagannath Mishra of Bihar. In reality, the actual
functioning of the office of the PP is in inverse proportion to its
majestic origin and glorious conception. Rarely has any other office
or institution been so debased and devalued over the decades.
The second myth relates to the constitutional principle of political
accountability of the executive government (central or state), which,
it is said, must retain ultimate control over all agencies (like
prosecution departments) since they are accountable and answerable to
the people. Well, we all know the truth as far as the operational
reality on that issue is concerned.
Consequently, in extreme situations where there is deliberate
subversion of the law by the guardians themselves one must begin to
think of an independent directorate of public prosecution (DPP) based
on the British model. To make it effective and real, we should
seriously consider giving it a constitutional status and emulate, as
closely as possible, the model of the Election Commission (EC). The
Indian EC, by and large, has acquitted itself well and, indeed, been
the envy of the world. Just as the sine qua non of a functioning
democracy is a constitutionally insulated body like the EC, imbued
with the qualities of objectivity, independence and fairness, a
constitutional DPP would go a long way in achieving the other
significant virtue of a functioning democracy, viz fair and impartial
application of the criminal law.
Such a DPP would have the same security of tenure as the EC and be
answerable only to the Constitution through Parliament. It need not
be entrusted with routine prosecutions but only with situations like
the Best Bakery, one where the normal agencies of the state are prima
facie perceived to have failed. Upon such a prime facie finding of
default by the DPP, it should have the power of assuming charge of
the prosecution, including transfer of the case from the local to
another court in the same state or outside. There's no reason why
this limited role in cases be not entrusted to an independent
constitutional body.
_____
[6.]
Los Angeles Daily News (USA)
July 12, 2003
Training camps worrying India's minorities
By Prajnan Bhattacharya , Associated Press
KANPUR, India -- At her summer camp, 10-year-old Stuti Gupta is
learning to use guns, leap through rings of fire and fight with
knives and wooden truncheons -- skills India's most powerful Hindu
nationalist group tells her she needs to protect her faith.
The women's wing of the World Hindu Council is holding training camps
in several parts of India, where girls learn martial arts and are
"ordained" with metal tridents, the symbol of Shiva, the Hindu god of
destruction.
But in a modern nation built on principles of tolerance and equality,
such camps don't just deepen Hindus' faith. They create cauldrons of
hostility and inject hatred against Muslims and Christian minorities,
critics say.
"Such trends are inconsistent with prosperity, development and
modernization. They are completely antithetical to the modern project
of nation building," said Mushirul Hasan, a Muslim who is a professor
of modern Indian history.
"If the government wants to create a modern state, it must call the
bluff of the Hindu fundamentalists and show the danger they pose to
the country."
Stuti, a fourth-grader, traveled 170 miles from her native Banda to
attend the camp in the northern industrial city of Kanpur. Both
cities are in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state.
"This training will prepare me to fight the odds in the society
confidently. They are killing Hindus everywhere to reduce us to a
minority and this would help me to face that challenge," the girl
said.
The World Hindu Council's main target is Muslims, who make up more
than 12 percent of the country's 1.02 billion people. Some 84 percent
of India's citizens are Hindus, and the Hindu nationalists often warn
of what they say are the growing militant ambitions of Muslims.
While the camps for girls are a relatively new phenomenon, the
nationalist group has long held camps for boys, who attend them by
the thousands.
"The camps are not only organized to impart arms training and
physical education, but also to give them an in-depth knowledge of
Indian culture and traditions," said Hari Agarwal of the camp in
Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh.
But Muslims are alarmed. In a rare move, a Muslim organization in
Uttar Pradesh has announced it would distribute 5,000 tridents to
Muslims next week to counter what they see as a growing threat.
In the western state of Gujarat, several summer camps are under way
for hundreds of young women. Gujarat was the scene of Hindu-Muslim
riots last year that claimed over 1,000 lives, most of them Muslims.
The riots began after Muslims burned a train car, killing 60 Hindus.
"These camps are being run across the state without any ban from the
government," said Ataullah Khan, a Gujarati industrialist and
organizer of a relief camp for Muslims whose homes were burned in the
riots.
"If tomorrow, Muslims start organizing such camps in the name of
their religion, and the same with Christians and Buddhists, would the
state government permit them to do so?" he asked.
The Gujarat state government, widely accused last year of doing
little to stop the anti-Muslim violence, has not taken a stand on the
camps.
Kalpana Vyas, a senior Hindu Council leader who is supervising the
camps in Gujarat, said they were meant to aid girls in "physical,
mental and spiritual development."
"Learning how to use firearms is not illegal and it is not meant to
kill anyone without provocation," she said. "Muslims also organize
such camps in Pakistan to train people how to handle deadly weapons."
The Hindu Council campaign has been bolstered by the 13-year Islamic
insurgency in the disputed Himalayan province of Kashmir. India has
long accused Pakistan of supporting the militants, a claim Islamabad
denies.
The Hindu Council, an ideological affiliate of India's ruling
Baharatiya Janata Party, has used the Kashmir insurgency to push its
hard-line brand of Hinduism, traditionally a peace-loving religion.
Minorities throughout India and those who defend the country's
secular constitution say training young Hindus how to use weapons is
neither patriotic nor religious.
"These camps are being organized to scare the minorities," said
Sharif Khan Pathan, secretary of the Citizens Relief Service in
Gujarat. "We understand that the state government is a sponsor of
such activities, but the (federal government) should ban such
training camps, as ultimately it is the Muslims who will suffer."
_____
[7.]
CALL FOR PAPERS
International Conference
Conflict, Peace and Development in South Asia
Colombo, Sri Lanka
(January 8-10, 2004)
In cooperation with Internationa Center for Conflict Prevention and
Management, Sydney - Australia
and some universities, private and public organisations in the United
States, South Asia and elsewhere
Although the focus of the meeting will be on political, ethnic,
religious and regional conflicts within and between countries of
South Asia, papers related to Peace Economic and Peace Science;
conflicting issues in environment, natural resources, health care and
development in general are also welcome. Some of the suggested topics
specifically related to South Asia are:
- Conflict and Peace Science Theory
- Defence and Peace Economics
- Nuclear Proliferation
- Arms Spending and Trade
- Peace Keeping
- Trade and Conflict
- Economic Conversion
- Democracy and Conflict
- Ethnic and Religious Conflict
- Small Arms and Terrorism
- Security and Disaster Management
Prospective participants are requested to register as soon as
possible. Persons desiring to present a paper are advised to send a
one page abstract. The deadline for registration is september 19th
2003.
For further information contact :
Prof. Manas Chatterji,
School of Management, Binghampton University, Binghampton, NY 13902. [USA]
E-mail: <mchatter at binghampton.edu>
_____
[8.]
CALL FOR PAPERS
LIVES OF DEMOCRACY:
Peoples, Populations, Citizens in South Asia
A Subaltern Studies Conference
It has been acknowledged in recent times that the actual practices of
democracy and political mobilization are closely linked to and influenced
by the ways in which governmental practices define and classify populations
as targets of their policies. It has also been argued that political
mobilizations based on such identification and classifications have
promoted identity politics, with movements increasingly organized along
caste, tribe, language, gender, religion, ethnicity etc. On the other hand,
the workings of democracy have opened up new arena of mass politics that
often acquire their own logic and rhythm, producing outcomes that were
unanticipated by elite and governmental designs. The entry of untutored
masses into the democratic political arena thus opens up a whole series of
questions about the relationship between the institutional practices of
democratic governance and the 'people'. It is said that these movements
undermine the classical idea of democracy as the political participation of
citizens - as individuals or in the collective form of a people. Is this
charge correct? Is there a tension between the institutional practices of
democracy and popular politics, nurtured within a different set of beliefs?
Do identity-based mobilizations also carry the moral imprint of movements
of the people? Can popular democratic aspirations be pursued through the
politics of identity?
The Seventh Subaltern Studies Conference, to be held at the Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies [CSDS], Delhi, on January 6,7, 8 and 9, 2004,
will be concerned with these issues. The conference is being organized
jointly by Lokniti, CSDS, and the Subaltern Studies Collective. Besides the
members of the Subaltern Studies Collective, about 15 scholars will be
invited to present their papers on the basis of their abstract. Students
and scholars without any institutional affiliation are also welcome to
submit an abstract. Papers may address the theme of the conference in
historical, theoretical or contemporary modes and may relate to the
national, the regional or the local. The abstract should not be more than
500-600 words and should be submitted by August 15, 2003 to Aditya Nigam,
CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054 India. Email: aditya at sarai.net. Scholars
invited to present papers should submit their final papers by November 15,
2003. The invited South Asian scholars will be paid their travel expenses
and provided accommodation and local hospitality for attending the
conference.
Aditya Nigam
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road,
Delhi-110054
Tel: 2250 2784 (R), 2394 2199, 2395 1190 (O)
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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