SACW | 23 July, 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  23 July,  2003

[1.] Sri Lanka: Communal violence 20 years on...: The horror of July 
'83 (Cat's Eye)
[2.] Partition of 1947: The Necessity of Anti-Sentimentalism (Ananya 
Jahanara Kabir)
[3.] Contents of Indian Journal of Secularism - July - September 2003
[4.] Upcoming Meet on Pakistan, India conflict resolution
[5.] India Pakistan: 3 articles from 'The Week'
Indo-Pak Families : Ride to reunion - The renewed Delhi-Lahore bus 
service promises
to bring families together (Sandeep Phukan)
Reject the sense of injury (Kuldip Nayar)
[6.] India: Text of Proposed Letter to The Chairman National Human 
Rights Commission
[7.] India: Antony-Kerala's Terminator Seed? (Binu Mathew)
[8.] India: Rain - An exhibition of 33 contemporary artists on the 
release of Gallerie's July 2003 issue (Bombay)
[9.] India: A recent public event by lesbians (and bisexual women) of 
Calcutta to highlight their issues and concerns

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

[1.]

The Island [Sri Lanka] July 23, 2003

The horror of July '83
Cat's Eye

The 23rd of July 1983, this day twenty years ago, unleashed a chain 
of events which led to unprecedented violence against the Tamil. The 
killing of 13 Sinhala soldiers at Tinnaveli in Jaffna in an ambush 
laid by Tamil militants on the 23rd of June 1983 marked the beginning 
of the violence which took horrendous proportions as it became 
politically instigated and organised.

The report of the International Commission of Jurists, published in 
December 1983 was to record that "The impact of the communal violence 
on the Tamils was shattering..." It noted that "The evidence points 
clearly to the conclusion" that the violence against the Tamils 
"...amounted to Acts of Genocide."

The communal violence unleashed on the Tamil community was no doubt 
perpetrated by Sinhala rioters and mobs but it was not spontaneous in 
nature although it did inspire 'mob' reaction and momentum. There 
were many eye witness accounts of the 'organised' nature of the 
violence and the complicity of sections of the State in its 
perpetration. Tamil homes were carefully identified through voter 
registers and systematically attacked while Tamil people, with no 
protection, were ruthlessly massacred on the streets and in their 
homes.

The Civil Rights Movement of Sri Lanka made a statement at that time.

"The shock and horror of recent events when many Sri Lankans were 
hunted out, assaulted, killed their homes and possessions destroyed, 
and places of business burnt, for no other reason than that they 
belonged to the Tamil community, permeate our lives today and will 
continue to do so far a long time to come. CRM express grief and 
concern at the suffering which so many have undergone. The breakdown 
of law and order on certain days when armed mobs roamed the city 
entering houses in search of Tamils, stopping cars and forcibly 
extracting petrol with which to set alight buildings, and 
commandeering vehicles, imperiled the safety and shook to the core 
citizens of all communities."

The nature of the violence was recorded in report after report 
appearing in the international media where fleeing tourists and 
legions of journalists filed reports of the horrific events that 
spanned almost ten days.

"Motorists were dragged from their cars to be stoned and beaten with 
sticks... Others were cut down with knives and axes."

-London Daily Telegraph 26 July 1983

"Mobs of Sinhala youth rampaged through the streets, ransacking 
homes, shops and offices, looting them and setting them ablaze, as 
they sought out members of the Tamil ethnic minority."

- London Daily Telegraph 26 July 1983

In Pettah, the old commercial heart of the city, row after row of 
sari boutiques, electronic dealers, rice sellers, car parts stores, 
lie shattered and scarred... Government officials yesterday estimated 
20,000 businesses had been attacked in the city

-London Guardian 28 July 1983

The London based Minority Rights Group Report of September 1983 spoke 
about the fear and uncertainty experienced by the Tamil community and 
graphically described their desperate search for refuge in temples, 
airport hangers and many improvised camps.

India provided ships for the safe passage of Tamils to their villages 
and ancestral homes in the Northern province while hundreds of 
thousands fled overseas to India and to countries in Europe, North 
America and to Australia and New Zealand.

Although many Sinhlese were mobilised in the attacks and some joined 
in as the arson and looting progressed, thousands of Tamils were 
protected and sheltered by Sinhalese, Muslims, Burghers and others. 
Many Sinhalse turned their homes into shelters and hid Tamils in 
secret so as not to alert the mobs. Others ferried Tamil people from 
their homes to state or temple/kovil/church run shelters as some risk 
to their safety as well. Many were Sinhalese who were shocked and 
shamed by the events unfolding before them that they were unable to 
stop.

The Citizens Committees of the Centre for Society and Religion, the 
branches of the Movement for Inter Racial Justice and Equality and 
women's group in the Women's Action Committee were among some of the 
non governmental organizations that had been campaigning for inter 
racial harmony, the protection of the rights of Tamils, the repeal of 
the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the release of Political 
Prisoners in the years following the post election ethnic violence of 
1977. All they could do in the face of the magnitude and brutality of 
the violence in 1983 was to protect and shelter as many Tamil people 
as they could and help in the hastily established 'refugee camps' and 
help in the search for the missing.

As in all other situations of ethnic violence, women and children 
were the worst affected and as women concerned with bringing about 
ethnic reconciliation and peace we call on the State to acknowledge 
the violence of July 1983 and demand an official apology and 
reparation for the Tamil community. We also need to accept a moral 
responsibility for the events of 1983 and make every effort to ensure 
that the peace process will continue in its search for a lasting end 
to conflict and violence in this country. We also need to place on 
record the continued work of many women and men of all communities 
who have through the difficult times of the last two and a half 
decades sought to work across ethnic and language divides to bring 
about reconciliation and trust and friendship among the ethnic 
communities in this country. These are the men and women who spoke 
against the PTA, who helped protect Tamil neighbors in 1983 and who 
have carried on their activism over the years to bring the LTTE and 
the government to the peace table.

One of the women's coalitions doing such work the Women's Action 
Committee responding to the state and non state violence and 
disappearances in the south in the 1987-90 period transformed 
themselves into a wider network calling themselves 'Mothers and 
Daughters of Lanka'. Mandated to work against political violence and 
killings the network has since the 1990s worked for peace and at 
their 13th anniversary commemorations on the 20th of July 2003, began 
the proceedings with a remembrance of all those who lost their lives 
due to ethnic and political violence in this country and released a 
statement apologizing for the pogrom of July 1983.

The International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) is launching two 
publications connected with the 1983 riots. One is a special issue of 
Nethra and the other is a book of Jean Arasanayagam's poetry called 
Apocalypse '83 first published in 1984.

A press release by several women's groups states:

WOMEN APOLOGIZE FOR THE EVENTS OF JULY 1983

We recall with deep regret and remorse the tragic events of July 1983 
in which thousands of Tamil women, men and children lost their lives 
and homes due to politicized and organized ethnic violence.

We express our deep sadness at the bereavement, loss and grief 
suffered by families who lost loved ones, friends and cherished 
memories and acknowledge the wounding and scarring fear and trauma 
that has haunted the Tamil community since then.

We deeply regret the consequence of the violence that led to large 
scale displacement and forced thousands of Tamils to flee the country 
of their birth and seek refuge in countries across the world causing 
painful fragmentation of the Tamil community.

In this year which marks 20 years since the events of July 1983, one 
of the most horrendous ethnic pogroms of modern Sri Lanka, we wish to 
strongly condemn all the acts of commission and omission in July 1983 
and its aftermath. We also strongly condemn the two decades of 
official silence with no acknowledgement or reparation to the Tamil 
community. We wish as women who have been working for a peaceful and 
just political solution to Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict to apologize 
for the events of July 1983 and promise to make every effort to 
ensure that such a pogrom will never again be the fate of any ethnic 
community living in Sri Lanka.

It is our sincere hope that we, as women from all ethnic communities, 
can work together to sustain the current peace process and search for 
a lasting peace in our country which will protect the human and 
democratic rights of all our peoples. This is the real hope of the 
Sri Lankan Tamil community and all Sri Lankans who do not wish for a 
1983 to ever happen again.
MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS OF LANKA
WOMEN'S COALITION FOR PEACE
WOMEN'S FORUM FOR PEACE

_____


[2.]

[21 July 2003]

The Necessity of Anti-Sentimentalism
Ananya Jahanara Kabir

It is now widely accepted, in the academic domain, at least, that the 
Partition of India in 1947 was a traumatic event with continuing 
emotional and political repercussions on personal as well as 
collective levels of identity formation. Perhaps it is not too 
optimistic to observe scholarly responses to the Partition moving 
from a nostalgic, overwhelmingly sentimental phase towards more 
searching, self-reflexive acts of remembrance, recuperation and 
mourning. From 'merely remembering', the emphasis seems to have 
shifted to examining 'how we remember/ forget'.

Yet this awakening of interest in the memorial dimension of the 
Partition and its attendant complexities has been tied almost 
exclusively to the partition of Punjab and its impact on the North 
and Northwest of the Indian subcontinent. There are a number of 
reasons for this emphasis.

Most obviously, the magnitude of the violence in Punjab and the 
almost complete transfer of population along religious lines meant 
that, from the immediate aftermath of 1947 onwards, the horrors of 
the Punjab partition have become metonymic for Partition itself. 
Secondly, the violence against the Sikhs in 1984 catalysed a new 
urgency among (largely) Punjabi intellectual-activists to return to 
1947 and reassess the present inÝthe light of that past. Many of 
these efforts coalesced around the fiftieth anniversary of Indian and 
Pakistani independence to produce a critical mass of writing that 
memorialised the impact of Partition as the impact on Punjabi culture 
and identity.

One wonders what are the corresponding reasons for the relative 
absence of Bengal within this emerging discourse on Partition. 
Locating and historicising these reasons themselves should be the 
starting-point of a critical and collective discussion of the Bengal 
partition- aÝ discussion that should not be derivative of but at the 
very least parallel the discussion centring on the Punjab. After all, 
the history and politics of 'thrice-partitioned' Bengal present a 
picture dramatically divergent from post-Partition Punjab. Firstly, 
the very different patterns of migration and attendant violence meant 
that substantial minorities remain in both Bengals. Secondly, the 
successful post-Partition integration of Punjab on both sides of the 
border can be contrasted with Bengal's decline in South Asia, with 
West Bengal and East Pakistan having been marginalized vis-ý-vis 
their respective political centres-that, in the case of West Bengal, 
can be seen as part of the North-East's decline. Thirdly, the 
experience and memory of the Bengal partition has been vastly 
complicated, in ways totally different from the Punjab experience, by 
the creation of Bangladesh, a development with immense geopolitical 
impact. Finally, we must note the freighted cultural investment in 
Bengali language, literature and music, including the role it played 
in Bangladesh's independence movement.

Scholarship from different fields needs to come together to explain 
how and why the Bengal partition was experienced in such a unique 
way, andÝto factor these findings into explorations of trauma, memory 
and mourning with specific respect to Bengal, alongside radically 
imaginative work around the same issues. The first task in this 
regard, for both scholarship and art, is to move away from 
sentimentalism and melodrama.

As Dipesh Chakrabarty demonstrated in his discussion of 'Remembered 
Villages', Bengali Hindu memory of pre-Partition Bengal has tended 
too easily to slip into nostalgic evocations of rural innocence, theÝ 
'golden age' before rupture and reality. The recent, much-acclaimed 
documentary Abar Ashibo Firey by Supriyo Sen, demonstrates how this 
purely sentimental recreation evokes unmediated emotion and what I 
would term unhelpful nostalgia.

How can a film-maker, an artist, or a novelist for that matter, evoke 
'helpful' nostalgia, or avoid sentimentalism while paying homage to 
memory? This balancing act can be accomplished by paying attention 
toÝthe constructed nature of memory itself, as well as the 
impossibility ofÝ every journeying back. For instance, Ararat, by the 
Canadian-Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, responds to the Turkish 
forced expulsion of the ArmeniansÝof Anatolia in 1915 through frantic 
sequences of a film crew seeking to recreate an authentic narrative 
of the event. Through this film withinÝthe film, Egoyan points out 
the impossibility of narrativising trauma, with the desired whole 
always contaminated by actual holes- gaps and omissions that signify 
the fundamental difficulty of integrating traumatic into narrative 
memory.

Today, when all of us in South Asia, not merely the two Bengals, 
grapple with the ugly side of naturalised omissions and selections 
within collective memory projects, it becomes all the more necessary 
to complicate the process of remembering in order to reach a more 
searing level of honesty within ourselves as compromised subjects of 
a still-traumatic rupture.


Using artwork and analysis not merely to continue valorising some 
sitesÝof memory- such as the [east] Bengali village- but to unravel 
how those process shape the present, even by marginalizing other 
modes of remembering: this should be the collective endeavour of all 
those revisiting Bengal's traumas to learn constructively from the 
past.

o o o

[A recent article by the author of the above article may interest readers

Title: Subjectivities, memories, loss of pigskin bags, silver 
spittoons and the partition of India
Author(s): Ananya Jahanara Kabir
Source: Interventions: international journal of postcolonial studies 
Volume: 4 Number: 2 Page: 245 -- 264
DOI: 10.1080/13698010220144315
Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group
© 2003 Taylor & Francis ]

_____



[3.]

Indian Journal of Secularism
A Journal of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Vol. 7, No.2, July - September 2003

Contents

I.                   Articles

Communalism in India: Concept and Historical Perspective
-         Dr.S.K. Manak

Mobilising Muslims in Northern Indian Sub-Continent
-   Babasaheb Kazi

Minority Rights: Political Aspect
-   Justice R.A. Jahagirdar       

Why is Teaching 'Secularism' Essential in India?
-         Dr. Sunita Gangwal

  Inadequacy of the Nation-State Concept
-         Baren Ray

Looking at the Past: Perspective on Inter-Religious Cooperation in Asia
-         Naeem Shakir

Communalising Kerala
-         Prof. K.N. Pannikar

Dargah Verses Peeta" Hindutva's Politics of Appropriating Syncretic 
Culture in Karnataka
-         Dr.Muzaffar Assadi

II.      Book Review
Hinduism and Gender Justice: Transitions in Nineteenth Century Bengal - by
Tanika Sarkar
- Reviewed by Ram Puniyani
On Developing Theology of Peace in Islam - by Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer
- Reviewed by Yoginder Sikand

Subscribe today and read thought provoking articles
Subscription Rates

India                                                                Abroad
Single Issue                  - Rs.60/-                      Single 
Issue                  - US$40
Annual (individuals)       - Rs. 250/-                   Annual 
(Individual)        - US$60
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Libraries)           - Rs.400/-


For Copies Contact
The Circulation Manager,
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism,
9B, Himalaya Apts., 1st Floor,
6th Road, Santacruz (E),
Mumbai:- 400 055,
India.
E-mail:- <mailto:csss at vsnl.com>csss at vsnl.com

_____


[4.]

DAWN - 22 July 2003

Moot on Pakistan, India conflict resolution
By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, July 21: Parliamentarians, journalists and experts from 
Pakistan and India will assemble in Islamabad for a four-day 
conference being held on August 9-12 by the South Asia Free Media 
Association (SAFMA).
The conference titled 'Understanding, confidence-building and 
conflict resolution' aims at exploring ways to initiate a process of 
de-escalation, confidence-building and a sustained dialogue to 
resolve conflicts and to build bridges of cooperation between the two 
countries, said a news release issued here on Monday.
The event will be participated in by 45 Indians, including 
legislators, editors/columnists and civil society representatives as 
well as several Pakistanis.


_____

[5.]

The Week
July 27, 2003
COMMENT
Reject the sense of injury
By Kuldip Nayar


Indo-Pak Families : Ride to reunion
The renewed Delhi-Lahore bus service promises
to bring families together

By Sandeep Phukan

Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace.
John Lennon, Imagine (1971)

It is fine to imagine "all the people living life in peace" but the 
problem is that reality is only a distant cousin of imagination. Even 
the most ardent fan of the former Beatle would agree that universal 
peace is at best an elusive proposition. Nowhere is it truer than in 
the Indian subcontinent, where sparring between the neighbours is as 
permanent as the sunrises in the east.

Moment to cherish: Sultan Mehmood (in kurta) has come on the bus from 
Lahore to visit his wife's family in Delhi

Walk into any Muslim-dominated locality in Delhi and it is the stuffy 
air of fear and mistrust, not the cool breeze called peace, that 
smothers you. In the narrow lanes surrounding the historic Jama 
Masjid, people no longer trust strangers. Striking a conversation can 
be tough, tougher than you ever thought. Forget eliciting their views 
on the ever fluid Indo-Pak relationship. "Mind your own business as 
we mind ours," is the distinct message conveyed to an overtly 
inquisitive visitor, though he may not get to hear it in as many 
words.

A probing gaze tracks you the moment you are seen as someone 
loitering in the area. "The politicians are keeping people apart," 
says a man who cautiously adds that he does not want to be named or 
photographed. For Muslim families with relatives in Pakistan, the 
issue of identity shifts between familial ties and patriotism.

Zubeida Sultan, who married Pakistani Sultan Mehmood 12 years ago, 
was one of the 30 passengers who arrived in Delhi from Lahore on July 
11. Though she was delighted to visit her home in Shahzada Bagh in 
west Delhi after a gap of three years, she was nursing a sense of 
loss. "There have been three deaths in my family but I was not 
there," says Zubeida. She could not manage a visit even when her 
brother Abdul Haq passed away in Delhi last year. The experience of 
her mother, Rafiqan Bano, was no different: she could not attend her 
elder brother Rafiq Ahmed's funeral in Lahore three months ago. 
"Countries can decide to renew or snap ties with each other, but how 
can people?" asks Abdul Wahid Qureshi, Zubeida's younger brother.

It is really hot inside the house, but you cannot blame it on an 
atmosphere surcharged with emotions. "We have not had power since 
morning," says Mehmood, with a glint of mischief in his eyes. Abdul 
is game for his brother-in-law's playful taunt. "Usually, this does 
not happen here," he says. "Something must have gone awfully wrong 
today."

Missing them: Kanis Fatima (left) of Kolkata shows pictures of her 
siblings in Pakistan to her family

So how does Sultan feel to be in India after so much bitterness 
between the two countries? He is quick to respond: "Wonderful. It is 
a great feeling to be with one's own people." A resident of Lahore, 
Sultan is employed with an American company in Saudi Arabia. As he 
warms up to the media presence, Dr S.A. Qureshi, Abdul's neighbour, 
drops in to say hello.

Qureshi, who edits an Urdu magazine, uses the bus topic to break the 
ice. "Our bus reached Lahore on time but the Pakistani bus was late 
by an hour or so," he says. Sultan explains that they had indeed 
started late from Lahore. "Your bus is in a bad state but our bus 
looks new," he says, the look of mischief reappearing.

Qureshi is quick to return the compliment. "Forget buses, there is 
just one cycle manufacturer in Pakistan," he says. "My uncle had got 
me a government job there in 1979 but I turned down the offer. India 
is my home." According to Qureshi, normalcy in relations between the 
two countries will boost their economies. "One should look at what 
the people of the two countries want," he says. "They want peace."

Homecoming: A Pakistani woman hugs her grandson, who was born in India

Mehmood believes that relations will improve if there is more 
interaction between the people. He cites the example of young Noor 
Fatima, who had a heart surgery in Bangalore on July 15. "Her entire 
family will always be grateful to India," he says.

Sultan has a point there. Three years ago, the Peshawar-based Shertaj 
Khan's daughter Sonia was successfully treated for cancer in Chennai. 
Today, she is happily married. "Indian doctors changed her life and 
Shertaj keeps narrating it to others in Pakistan," says Aleemuddin 
Ahmed, Shertaj's friend and owner of the famous Karim chain of hotels 
in Delhi.

Such stories not only bring people closer but also make them eager to 
know each other better. Take the case of Aleemuddin's younger son 
Zaeemuddin, who is awaiting his visa to visit Lahore. "He was only 
six when he went there to see his maternal grandfather and uncle," 
says Aleemuddin, whose wife is a Pakistani. "There is no point in 
harping on history and keep committing the same mistakes. Politicians 
from either side must have better interaction among themselves for 
the people to follow them."

In her Central Kolkata home, 80-year-old Kanis Fatima sits with a 
grim face. Her brother Syed Numad Ahmed and sister Razia Khatun are 
in Pakistan and the last time she got to see them was in 1992, during 
the marriage of Razia's daughter. It is not that the family didn't 
try for a reunion. In 1995, when another member in the family was 
getting married, they tried for visa but in vain. "We spent 20 days 
in Delhi but were denied visa," says Syed Alauddin, Fatima's son.

"It is disgusting that we cannot visit our relatives," said Fatima. 
Alauddin's wife, Ismat Parveen, narrated how their nephew's marriage 
to a girl from Pakistan was cancelled at the last moment. "We decided 
against it because we felt that the girl would not be able to visit 
her family for a long time," she says.

Safia's family got her married to a Pakistani in 1960 and paid the 
price, so to say. "She has three sons and a daughter yet she could 
not be with her parents even once for delivery," says Sakina Lukhman, 
Safia's sister who has moved to Kolkata from Pune after marriage. 
"She could not attend my marriage and was not around when my parents 
died. She finally came to Mumbai in April, this year, and we all went 
there to see her. I hope the bus service will reunite us."

Hope is like a contagious disease. The separated families across the 
country cannot be faulted if they are seeing light at the end of the 
tunnel with the resumption of the Delhi-Lahore-Delhi bus service. 
Over to Lennon: "You may say I am dreamer, but I am not the only one. 
I hope some day you will join us and the world will live as one."
With Debapriya Ghosh/Kolkata

United in marriage
Yet many Muslims in Punjab's Malerkotla are divided by the border

By Vijaya Pushkarna/Malerkotla

The excited chatter in any women's get-together in Malerkotla 
nowadays is about who is coming from Pakistan and who is going. The 
resumption of the Delhi-Lahore bus service has raised the hopes of 
many people in this lower middle-class locality, 220 km from the 
Wagah border, about visiting their relatives on the other side of the 
fence.

Searching for roots: Shakila (with mother) is seeking a visa to go to Pakistan

Shahjehan Khan Sherwani's teenage daughter, Shakila, is seeking a 
visa to go to Pakistan in search of her father's relatives. Shahjehan 
was barely 14 when she married Mohammad Ahmad Khan of Lalamoosa near 
Rawalpindi. The marriage had been fixed in 1981 when Khan's maternal 
uncle visited his relatives in Malerkotla, a Muslim-dominated town in 
Sangrur district of Indian Punjab. But the rukhsati-the ceremony of 
bringing the bride home-took place three years later when she went to 
Pakistan on a three-month visa. Unable to extend her stay there, a 
pregnant Shahjehan returned to Malerkotla.

She tried to go again after Shakila's birth, but Indo-Pak relations 
had soured as Punjab was in turmoil, in the wake of Operation Blue 
Star. When Shakila was 18 months old, Shahjehan got a message that 
Khan was dead. "I could not be by his deathbed. I could not go to see 
his body," said Shahjehan, who has since been with her parents.

Almost every Muslim family in Malerkotla has relatives in Pakistan's 
Punjab: relatives who opted to migrate during Partition and people 
who became relatives by nikah. Punjabi Muslims avoid bringing home a 
bride from anywhere else in India. "People here don't think 
politically or nationally, they think and act culturally," said Mufti 
Fuzail-Ur-Rahman Hilal Usmani of the Darus Salam Islamic Centre. 
"Till 1971, nikah between Muslims of the two Punjabs was very 
common." Though the number dwindled, till about 15 years ago, many 
girls from Malerkotla went to make their homes in Pakistan and many 
from Lahore came here.

Protective: Rafia's grandmother Jafri does not want her to
marry anyone from across the border

Tasleem, a final-year graduate student of Government College, 
Malerkotla, has her entire maternal and a good part of her paternal 
family in Pakistan. "My mother, Akhtari, and father, Mohammad Anwar, 
are cousins. Ammi came here after her nikah," said Tasleem, who has 
visited her relatives in Pakistan a couple of times, the last when 
she was in the eighth standard. Akhtari made three trips thereafter, 
mostly to attend weddings. "When her sister died, she did not get a 
visa to go. I saw her cry that day," said the teenager. Anwar, who 
makes plastic components for refrigerators, avoids the hassles of the 
trip across, preferring to let Akhtari go.

Most of the 50 teenagers attending an art workshop at Malerkotla said 
they had gone to Pakistan when they were under 12. "My father's 
parents are here, but their brothers and sisters are all there," said 
Shabnam.

The great divide in their lives has made most people now rethink 
about trans-border nikahs. Rafia, who has just finished her matric, 
said that her parents thought of finding a match from Pakistan for 
her. She is ready to marry whoever her parents want her to. "Two of 
my mother's sisters are married in Pakistan. They are happy, so I 
don't see any problems," she said. But her grandmother Jafri is 
averse to any such idea. "I don't want to add to my sorrow," she 
said. "When I married my two daughters to their cousins in Pakistan, 
I didn't imagine that it would be so difficult to walk that one 
little step into Pakistan."

'There is pain, but no sorrow': Mohammad Shafi, 92

Ulfat, with eyes weary of waiting, is eager to make that small, yet 
difficult step. "Are they issuing visas easily? I heard they are," 
said the 65-year-old. "The day the medication for this cataract 
operation is over, I will run to Pakistan." Ulfat was born in 
Patiala; she migrated to Sargoda in Pakistan as a little girl in 
1947. Seven years later, she married Abdul Rahman of Malerkotla. 
Though she missed her brothers in Pakistan, she found solace in the 
presence of her sister Umri, who was also married in Malerkotla. Many 
times she wanted to go, but it was difficult to get a visa. When she 
could not go for a brother's funeral a few years ago, shecried 
unabashedly in front of her grandchildren.

Many more are just waiting for a chance to cross the border to see 
their relatives. Mohammad Idris, 28, and some of his friends have 
left for Delhi to apply for visas. His wife, who holds a Pakistani 
passport, went a few days earlier.

None of Malerkotla's Muslims had received relatives from across the 
border till July 15, but many were sure they would come soon. Sajida 
has two sisters-in-law in Pakistan. "They used to come every year 
till three years ago. Then there was not even a phone call," she 
said. "Last week one of them called to say they plan to come soon."

So near, yet so far: These girls in Malerkotla have relatives in Pakistan

"If there is a permanent opening of the borders, all our problems 
will be solved," said Mohammad Rafi, a professor at Government 
College. According to him, that will, however, not make educated 
young Muslims like him go for alliances across the border. "Pakistan 
is another country, just like the US or the UK," he said, adding that 
people had reconciled to the idea of marrying from Saharanpur or 
Muzaffarnagar.

Rafi's mother had gone to Pakistan in 1984 and she died there. "I 
have seen her suffer and would not like the younger generation to 
suffer that way," he said. His father, Mohammad Shafi, 92, is 
believed to be the oldest man now in Malerkotla. In 1947, Shafi's 
in-laws migrated to Pakistan. A brother-in-law has been inviting him 
till a few years ago to come over. "Now there is no communication 
between him and me," he said. "There is pain, but no sorrow."

COMMENT
Reject the sense of injury
By Kuldip Nayar

Nearly 56 years ago, I took a patchy road from Lahore to Amritsar. I 
was then a refugee. Last month I took the same route to Lahore. This 
time, my eight colleagues from Parliament were with me. It was an 
effort to reach out to people on the other side, a journey towards a 
better tomorrow.

After spending nine days in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi I came back 
convinced that it was possible to pick up the thread to sew the torn 
fabric of relationship between the two countries. Partition on the 
basis of religion could be given a new edge-that of pluralism and 
delivery. We are the same people with the same history, the same 
roots. Should we let mere geography make us enemies?

We should think of what Marcus Aurelius said in Meditation: "Reject 
your sense of injury and the injury disappears.

Take away your opinion and there is taken away the complaint.

Take away the complaint, 'I have been harmed' and the harm is taken away."

I remember reading an Indian correspondent's story from Sierra Leone 
that Pakistani soldiers and officers in the peacekeeping force 
preferred to work with Indian soldiers and officers there. The reason 
was that they had similar tastes and spoke the same language. If you 
looked at them working together, sharing a joke perhaps, you would 
not believe that they have been fighting against each other at Kargil 
a couple of years back.

If we take our cue from this friendship, the enemy syndrome will go 
away for all time to come. To do that, we will have to ask ourselves 
this: What is the right design for living? Is it strife, hostility, 
enmity or hate? Or, is it peace, friendship, trust and affection? The 
fate of this vast subcontinent will depend on the answer.

A journalist friend once went to Meerut, a so-called sensitive area, 
on an assignment. When he came back, he told me that he had the 
biggest surprise of his life. There was a street in the town where a 
temple, a mosque, a gurudwara and a church stood side by side. That 
street in Meerut is my image of India. I hope that for my friends 
across the border, this will be the image of Pakistan too.

Even after 56 years of hostility, I found in Pakistan a deep yearning 
to be friends. I recall when I said at a public meeting in Karachi, 
'You are our blood', there was loud weeping in the audience. I 
narrated to them the visit of Pakistan's founder, Mohammed Ali 
Jinnah, to the Law College at Lahore where I studied before 
Partition. Jinnah said: "Some nations have killed millions of each 
other's and yet an enemy of today is a friend of tomorrow. That is 
history."

If the government on both sides were to allow people-to-people 
contact, the prejudice and the bias crusted over years would be 
broken. Fazl-ur-Rehman, chief of the amalgam of six religious 
parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), in Pakistan National 
Assembly, told me at Islamabad that Track Two was all right, but 
without Track One, the fauj (the army), anything could be stymied. 
"We should ponder over that". A top intellectual whispered to me at 
Lahore that the core problem was not Kashmir, but the corps 
commanders.

True, the fauj in Pakistan and the fundamentalists in India can 
frustrate the efforts towards normalcy. Can people on both sides 
build a movement which can go over the heads of governments to be 
friends?


_____

[6.]

[If you agree that justice should be done, please sign this and send it
to <chairnhrc at nic.in>
MD]
______________________________________________________________________

                                         22 July 2003

The Chairman
National Human Rights Commission
Sardar Patel Bhavan
New Delhi, [India]

Dear Sir,

Your Commission came out strongly against the criminal farce enacted
in the trial of the Best Bakery case at Vadodara. Some have argued, on
the ground that preventing a miscarriage of justice is better than
attempts to set it right, that the NHRC should have acted earlier than
it did.
      Other cases pertaining to the post-Godhra violence are to come up
for trial soon. Will not your Commission take steps to ensure that
they are not repetitions of the Best Bakery affair? I suggest that it
is your duty to prevent what you would otherwise merely criticise
after the fact.
      Yours is one constitutional body to have shown  responsibility in
these times in which so many other institutions have been rendered
irrelevant. For this reason the nation expects much of you.

                                    Yours truly,

______


[7.]

http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-binu180703.htm

Antony-Kerala's Terminator Seed?

By Binu Mathew

The last time I wrote an article on the communalisation of Kerala, I 
titiled the article "In Memory Of Kerala".(1) Some criticised the 
title as too alarmist and naive. It was in January, when the American 
missionary James Cooper was attacked near Trivandrum by Sangh Parivar 
goons, and he was unceremoniously given deportation orders by the 
government of kerala even before recovering from the severe injuries 
he sustained, a la Gujarat, the victim being victimised again with 
the connivance of the state machinery.

I was appalled that such a thing could happen in Kerala, which prides 
itself in its great tradition of multi–culturalism and secular, 
democratic politics. But the events that followed only proved that 
our worst nightmares are coming true.

Muthanga Police Firing

It was on the 19 th of February that the unthinkable happened in 
Kerala.(2) On that day a police force of around 1000 men surrounded a 
group of agitating tribals inside the Muthanga forest reserve and 
fired indiscriminately at the virtually unarmed people. One tribal 
died, and a police man who was being held hostage by the tribals also 
lost his life in the altercation. What followed was even worse. 
Hundreds of tribals including women and children were hunted down and 
mercilessly beaten up. Some of the tribals who went missing on the 19 
th and the days of police brutality still havent turned up. Women 
were sexually abused in police camps.

The way the government handled the issue crossed all levels of 
democratic decency. The government manufactured news stories in 
mainstream news papers linking tribal agitation with Peoples War 
Group , without any evidence. They even went so far as to say that 
the tribals were plotting to kidnap two of the Kerala cabinet 
ministers, that too with no evidence to support.

It was the worst police atrocity that occured in post independent 
Kerala. It was led from the front by the then Director General of 
Police, K.J. Joseph, a former military man who found it hard to 
differentiate between the police force and the military. The 
'operation' that occured in Muthanga and what followed was truly 
militarist in nature. After the police firing, the police flushed out 
the media present at the forest and removed all traces of evidence. 
There were accusations of more tribal deaths, but they are not 
confirmed yet. The language the DGP used in his press conferences 
were shame to a democratic society. When a reporter pointed out that 
even pregnant women were beaten up by the police, pat came his reply, 
" Should the police ask, Madam, are you five months pregnant?" That 
tells the man, his force, and his political masters.

Idukki VHP Temple

The Temple that is being built in the Idukki reservoir (3) is another 
instant were the administration is dragging its foot to draw Kerala 
into the quagmire of communalism. On April 30, the Vishwa Hindu 
Parishad conducted the "idol installation ceremony" at the "Ayyappa 
temple" while the government looked the other way. The case filed by 
the Kerala Electricity Board (KSEB) to remove the structure from its 
land is still pending in Kerala High Court.

The KSEB claim that eight acres of land and Rs. One lakh resettlement 
amount was allotted by the Government in 1974 for relocating the 
temple which existed before the dam was constructed. As per then High 
Court order in 1976, the original idol was installed at the newly 
constructed temple at Thoppippala.

Pujas were not performed in the old temple from 1985 as the entire 
area got submerged in the reservoir.Recently the VHP activists 
trespassed into the 30-cent land where the old temple stood and 
started renovating it.

As all these things were going on, and as VHP went ahead and built 
the temple, the government of A.K. Antony looked on condescendingly 
with its soft Hindutwa eyes.

Trishul Distribution

On April 26 VHP supremo Ashok Singhal came to Kerala and launched the 
"Thrishul Diksha" ceremony at Alwaye. There were calls from several 
quarters to ban the Trishul Diksha. But it did not reach the 'soft 
hindutwa' ears of the Chief Minister. What the Kerala public got 
instead was a tirade against minorities by Singhal threatening to 
"eliminate" the entire minorities, communists and secularists. 
Singhal also demanded to oust Dewaswom Minister G. Karthikeyan from 
the State Cabinet for his comment that Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple, 
where people of all religions worship, is not a temple of Hindus 
alone. Here again, the paragon of all virtues and Hindutwa's darling 
Chief Minister looked the other way.

Minority Survey

Early this month came the report of clandestine survey of christians 
and muslims (4) in Kerala. The hugely secretive survey which was 
being conducted by the Home department of the central government, 
employed the revenue authorities as opposed to the general census 
which is conducted by the Census department. The survey is restricted 
to two communities of Kerala,Christians and Muslims,their 
churches,mosques and the related institutions like schools or 
orphanages. With experience of Gujarat in mind there was a huge 
public outcry and the survey was halted temporarily.

Maradu

And then happened the unfortunate incidents at Marad (5). At around 
6.30 p.m. on May 2, 2003, a group of Muslim extremists who formed 
four groups, armed with lethal weapons attacked a group of 
unsuspecting fishermen belonging to Araya community. Within just 
half– an–hour, when the police came on the scene, there were nine 
dead bodies and over a score severely injured men and women on the 
beach.

This is the second time Marad has become the centre of communal 
clashes after the AK Antony led United Democratic Front government 
came to power in Kerala. Last year, on January 3, 2002, communal 
clashes between Hindu and Muslim extremists started in the afternoon 
and by morning there were five dead, and several injured.

It is too early to pass a judgment on the nature of the conspiracy 
behind this incident; the Kerala DGP said that it was a retaliatory 
attack carried out by the kith and kin of a person who was killed in 
the last conflict. But there are other indications too. It is now 
evident that the mosque and the mosque committee was involved, since 
discussions on how to retaliate for last year's losses took place 
there and the biggest cache of weapons seized by the police came from 
the mosque premises, showing a wider communal conspiracy.

The Hidutwa forces which were trying desperately to find a foothold 
in the state decided to make the most out of it. They unleashed the 
technology made perfect in the communal laboratory of Gujarat in 
Marad also, ethnic cleansing. The 500–odd Muslim families who lived 
side by side with their Hindu neighbours in this small area have all 
left and there is no immediate likelihood of their returning home. 
And the Hindutwa forces had been playing every card in the pack to 
prevent their return.

Two families which were rehabilitated by the government under heavy 
police protection were forced to leave the area after sustained 
verbal abuse and physical destruction of their properties by the BJP 
activists. And the BJP and the RSS are not turning up for the several 
all party meetings held to seek a negotiated solution to the 
rehabilitation issue.

To add insult to the injury Viswa Hindu Parishat international 
secretary general, Pravin Togadia, visited Marad and warned of "Marad 
III" if muslims were rehabilitated. He said that the entire muslim 
families who fled the massacre were "criminals". He also threatened 
to pull down the Juma Masjid at Marad. As Togadia was seething such 
venom the police looked on. In fact he was escorted every where by 
the Kerala police inspite of the calls from the opposition and 
several organisations to prevent Togadia from visiting Marad and to 
arrest him. But in a farce, the police booked a case against the 
organisers of Togadia's meeting in Calicut for using loud speaker 
without police permission!!!!!!!

The day after Togadia left Kerala, A. K. Antony returned from 
Congress leaders meeting in Shimla. Listening to the pronouncemenst 
he made at the Trivandrum airport made one wonder whether Togadia 
never left Kerala soil at all !!! Both sounded the same. When 
reporters queried about the Muslim League demand, a coalition partner 
in the United Democratic Front(UDF) ministry, that the refugees of 
Marad should be rehabilitated before July 15,the Chief Minister 
dismissed the demand and accused the minorities of armtwisting the 
goverment with their organised strength. He also said, quite out of 
context, that the minorities who migrated to Europe and the Gulf 
states are better off in Kerala, and this is creating resentment 
among the majority community. Such statements coming from a Chief 
Minister shocked the Kerala society. Public outrage is pouring in 
from all quarters. But Antony is holding on steadfastly to his 
comments.

Antony's irresponsible statement has done irreparable damage to the 
social fabric of Kerala. What he has done is to divide the Kerala 
society with a huge wall of suspicion between the majority and the 
minority community which no peace loving Keralite ever wanted. His 
observations about the financial status of minority communities was 
all the more damaging. His wild allegations were not supported by any 
facts. He should have checked the census report which was readily 
available at his disposal. It would have shown that Muslims are one 
of the most backward communities in Kerala, either in financial 
status or in educational achievement. As about the Gulf money, Antony 
should have known that nobody would leave his/her native land for the 
harsh weather and insecurity of an alien nation, if the governments 
were able to provide employment. It is a well known fact that people 
of all religion have migrated to the Gulf/Europe/USA and the money 
the migrants send home is the life blood of the economically ravaged 
Kerala society.

The accusations that Antony made were not his new findings. These are 
the key arguments of the Sangh Parivar's hate campaign in the state. 
Antony was merely parroting the Sangh language.The Chief Minister was 
legitimising the Sangh parivar hatred of the better off minorities. 
Giving them a meaning for their hatred.

Not long time back, such accusations about the financial polarisation 
were made by another Chief Minister as well. It was none other than 
Narendra Modi of Gujarat, the Prince of Indian fascism. What a 
splendind harvest he reaped with his seeds of hatred is history. What 
is Antony out their to achieve with his brand hatred? Will he be a 
terminator seed for Kerala?

( Binu Mathew is the editor of www.countercurrents.org)

1.In Memory Of Kerala By Binu Mathew 
http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-binu200103.htm

2.The Unthinkable Is Happening In Kerala By V. Muhammad Sharif

http://www.countercurrents.org/hr-sharif.htm

3 VHP Builds A Temple In Idukki Dam By Mukundan C. Menon 
http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-menon110503.htm

4 Clandestine Survey Of Christians And Muslims In Kerala 
http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-survey030703.htm

5. Massacre In Marad By N.P. Chekkutty

http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-chekkutty150703.htm

______

[8.]

Gallerie: A journey of ideas

Gallerie, the arts & ideas journal,
in collaboration with Sakshi Gallery presents

RAIN

An exhibition of 33 contemporary artists
at the release of Gallerie's July 2003 issue.
Gulzar will be releasing the issue and reading his rain poems on July 26
On view from July 27 till August 5, 2003.
11 am to 7 pm. Sunday 12 pm to 6 pm
Public holidays by appointment

SAKSHI GALLERY. Synergy Art Foundation Ltd. 39 A/1 Shriram Mills 
Compound. G.K. Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400 013. India. Tel:022 2491 
0728/29, 24918218  Fax: 24910730. Email: sakshigallery at vsnl.com 
Website:sakshigallery.com
Gallerie Publishers. 208 Om Chambers, Kemps Corner, Mumbai 400 036, 
India. Tel: 022 2367 3366/9820050864  Fax: 022 2363 3928  Email: 
gallerie at vsnl.com  Website: gallerie.net

_____


[9.]

Last month a panel discussion was organized in Calcutta on: "Do we 
need a movement on sexual preferences?" What was interesting that 
this is the FIRST TIME lesbians (and bisexual women) of Calcutta 
organized a 'PUBLIC' event to highlight their issues and concerns. 
Sappho [see <http://sappho.shoe.org>http://sappho.shoe.org] was 
formed about four years ago and still in its formative years and are 
quite willing to interact for pushing the issue of sexual identity of 
bisexual and homosexual women. They also need support in the form of 
ideas, contacts, funds etc. to carry on their political activities. 
For example Maitree, an umbrella organisation of NGOs working on 
women and gender issues has made SAPPHO a member (when the civil 
rights organizations in Calcutta, which are male dominated, did not 
support even the male homosexual groups fighting for their rights!). 
Another interesting feature about Sappho is that, it is a non-elite, 
middle class women's effort having broader issues in their agenda. 
Contacts: <mailto:sappho1999 at rediffmail.com>sappho1999 at rediffmail.com 
or <http://sappho.shoe.org>http://sappho.shoe.org

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

SACW is an informal, independent & non-profit citizens wire service 
run since 1998 by
South Asia Citizens Web (www.mnet.fr/aiindex).
The complete SACW archive is available at: http://sacw.insaf.net

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.

--