SACW | 27-28 July, 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  27-28 July,  2003

[1.] Pakistan needs social science (Ishtiaq Ahmed)
[2.] Afghans will never forgive us easily (Mohammad Shehzad)
[3.] Sri Lanka:
- Neelan: The Tamil tragedy  (D.B.S. Jeyaraj)
- A tribute to Neelan Thiruchelvam  (Kethesh Loganathan)
[4.] Pakistan: A sitting in memory of the late Khadeeja Ali Gauhar 
(Shoaib Ahmed)
[5.] India:
- Personal laws and common sense  (edit., The Hindu)
- What's a uniform civil code? (The Economic Times)
[6.] India: Soldiers' God : Guruparab of the Christians  (Col. Neeraj Bali)
[7.] India: Gujarat
- Concern over acquittals in 'Best Bakery' case
- Best Bakery case calls for retrial in a free environment
[8.] A response to Ananya Kabir's 'Partition of 1947...' (Barnita Bagchi)
[9.] India: Coming Out in India (Georgina L Maddox)
[10.] Book Review of Shards of Memory: Woven Lives in Four 
Generations by Parita Mukta: Nurture of Family (Gabriele Dietrich)
[11.] Book Announcement: India: A National Culture? Edited by Geeti Sen

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

[1.]

The Daily Times [Pakistan] 27 July 2003
Op-ed.

Pakistan needs social science
Ishtiaq Ahmed
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_27-7-2003_pg3_2

_____


[2.]

Dawn [Pakistan]
27 July 2003

Afghans will never forgive us easily
By Mohammad Shehzad

'For our repeated attempts to re-write Afghan history, the Afghans 
now hate us. They feel what we would have felt if the Indians started 
re-writing our history,' argues Ahmed Rashid.

Ahmed Rashid, who has written extensively on issues related to 
Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Central Asia, believes Pakistan in the 
past has repeatedly tried to rewrite Afghan history for the Afghans, 
and that is now causing a reaction from the other side. "Afghans will 
not forgive us easily," says Ahmed Rashid, who is the author of the 
bestseller, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in 
Central Asia, which is now used as a course book in 220 American 
universities and has sold more than 750,000 copies.
In an interview with Dawn Magazine, Rashid strongly criticized what 
he called the wrongdoing of successive Pakistani establishments. The 
following are excerpts:
Q. Why anti-Pakistan sentiments run so high in Afghanistan?
A. There was a cell within the intelligence agency not long ago that 
was working to justify Pakistan's support to the Taliban in an 
academic and intellectual sense. It had retired brigadiers and 
colonels justifying the Taliban rule: that this was the norm - the 
Afghans were always brutal to women, the Afghans have always been 
indulging in sectarian and ethnic conflicts, the Taliban behaviour is 
the normal Afghan behaviour!
We, in fact, re-wrote Afghan history for the Afghans. At several 
instances, these retired officers had taken words from my writing to 
support their policies. I had written that Dostum was a brute. So, to 
them, it meant that all Uzbeks in Afghanistan were brute and, thus, 
what the Taliban did to the Uzbeks in Mazar-i-Sharif was justified. I 
was quite horrified by this.
The re-writing of the history in the last six years by the military 
and the establishment in Pakistan has put us at odds with the Afghan 
nation for many years to come. They will not forgive us easily. 
Afghans do not trust Pakistan - the government, the ISI or the 
foreign office. And even today, we are not prepared to offer any kind 
of apology to them. How would we feel if Indians start re-writing our 
history?
Q. The Time magazine wrote that Hamid Karzai is the only Afghan 
leader with vision. Do you agree?
A. No. There are other Afghan leaders with vision. There are a lot of 
Afghans outside Afghanistan who are not coming back, who also have a 
vision.
Q. What challenges the Karzai administration and the Afghan society 
is facing today?
A. Uniting the warring factions and bringing peace to the country are 
probably the most arduous challenges to the Karazai administration. 
Lack of funds for reconstruction is the biggest disaster for his 
government. The injection of money and reconstruction is 
indispensable to empower his very weak government and extend its writ 
in the interior of Afghanistan.
The Afghan society has this issue of warlordism. There is anarchy and 
disarray in the Pashtoon area because of the lack of a good 
leadership among them. There is the very disturbing factor of the 
growing power of the Panjshiri faction in Kabul.
Afghanistan may face a situation where disparate Pashtoon forces may 
unite with other minorities - Uzbeks, Turkmens, Hazaras, Heratis - 
against the Tajiks. So they could have the reverse of what went in 
the Taliban period. This will be very tragic.
Q. Have Afghans succeeded on any front under Karzai's leadership?
A. Yes. The most important element is, at present, none of the 
warlords are prepared to take on the central government. The Afghans 
are trying to institutionalize the traditions of democracy. This is 
the process that 90 per cent of the population supports. Some 
warlords and other elements don't support it. To institutionalize the 
legitimate traditions of democracy, to rebuild them from scratch and 
enthrone them as the legitimate mechanism of the relationship between 
the ruler and the ruled; this is what the Afghans are trying to do.
I think it will work because the population is fed up with war. 
People are exhausted and they want to see the fruits of peace and 
stability. The really interesting aspect is the speed with which they 
have dropped the Taliban politics and culture. As many as 1.5 million 
children were back to schools and 50,000 women were back to work soon 
after the Taliban's fall. The enthusiasm for education is so 
momentous that Karzai believes Afghanistan will attain 80 per cent 
literacy rate in the next five years.
Q. You have recently written that Pakistan, Afghanistan and the 
Central Asian countries are in a state of political turmoil. Why do 
you think so?
A. They all share a crisis of legitimacy, which emerged in the 
Central Asia after the breakup of the Soviet Union; in Afghanistan 
after Daud's coup de'tat, and Pakistan is facing it since Ayub's coup 
de grace in 1958. The crisis of legitimacy that exists between the 
state, government and the people is something pronounced right across 
the region.
It is the most underlined theme that is going to affect the future 
stability of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the five Central Asian states. 
This crisis is due to the lack of an intrinsic institutional 
relationship between the peoples and their governments. This is so 
because the governments have not addressed the issues that people are 
most concerned about.
This crisis had come to its climax in the region after the events of 
9/11 where these regimes were trying to extract another bout of 
long-term survival in the hope that they can use the international 
attention as a means to limit the reforms that are needed to change 
their ways.
Q. Which Central Asian country is most vulnerable to fundamentalism?
A. I think it is Uzbekistan. It is the largest Central Asian country. 
It has perhaps the most suppressive regimes. It has carried out the 
least amount of reforms, either political or economic. It has a 
tradition of revolt and rebellion in the Farzana Valley.
The Uzbek democratic opposition is in exile - in Europe and 
Scandinavia. Uzbekistan also faces the most militant Islamic 
movements in the shape of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan which 
has been destroyed in Afghanistan, but still has a powerful 
underground network.
Q. Do you, then, think Central Asia is going to be a haven for terrorists?
A. No. What I'm saying is that the Central Asia is going to go 
through a very serious and heavy social, political and economic 
crisis. It needs a lot of support and at the same time it needs a lot 
of pressure on these regimes to change that behaviour.
Q. Why most Muslim regimes are not democratic?
A. This is the legacy of the Cold War where the regimes were tied in 
with either the Soviet Union or the US. It was very easy to remain in 
power and not carry out any reforms. After the end of Cold War, a new 
era has evolved in the wake of which the Muslim regimes have to open 
up their societies that they are still refusing to do. It is very 
important to have greater democratization in the Muslim societies. I 
don't think it is part of the psyche of the Muslims to be autocratic 
or that the Muslims want kings or emperors.
Q. Is it the erstwhile USSR or the US that radicalized Muslims?
A. I think both have. The greater player is probably the US because 
the Americans backed all these jihadi groups in 1979 and then 
abandoned Afghanistan. It backed many such groups in Pakistan which 
were anti-communist, and then abandoned Pakistan. The US had a very 
short-term interest in this part of the world which allowed giving 
support to these groups, but not understanding the consequences of 
this.
Q. Looking back, was the breakup of the Soviet Union in the interest 
of Pakistan?
A. It was certainly in the interest of Pakistan. But then we also 
wasted some good opportunities that came in the wake of that event. 
For instance, we failed to forge closer ties with the Central Asia; 
to end the war in Afghanistan; to build a new relationship with 
Russia. I think we lost all these opportunities because we supported 
the Taliban and we continued to support one faction that continued 
the civil war in Afghanistan.
Q. What should be the role of an intellectual in society?
A. An intellectual should stand for honesty and truth, which is 
incredibly missing in Pakistan among the intellectual community. 
Honesty and truth where you don't serve the state. It is not the role 
of the intellectuals to serve the state. It is the role of the 
intellectuals to remind the state of its mistakes and follies.
Unfortunately, some Pakistani intellectuals have been the lackeys of 
the state. They have been serving the strategies set out by the 
military. They need to serve their particular discipline, serve 
honestly and truthfully the objective realities around them.
An intellectual should have an enormous integrity, which should not 
be bought with naive ideas simply because powerful men are selling 
it. We, as intellectuals, are very easily bought by the powerful 
men's unrealistic ideas.
We talk about the corruption of army, politicians and bureaucracy, 
utterly ignoring the corruption of the intellectuals. An intellectual 
will not indulge in any kind of double talk or corruption. An 
intellectual must be courageous. He should stand by his convictions 
in the midst of coups, wars, civil wars, martial laws, harassment and 
all sorts of other things.
Courage means you are not willing to take a U-turn because the state 
has taken a U-turn. We have a plethora of intellectuals that have 
been supporting the Taliban, but the moment General Musharraf took a 
U-turn, their views became anti-Taliban. An intellectual must not be 
justifying the mistakes of the state whether it is the Dhaka debacle, 
the Kargil misadventure, the support to the Taliban or the jihadis.
Q. How do you view the Pakistani media? How does it compare with its 
Indian counterpart?
A. Pakistani media has emerged in the last ten years as a very strong 
pillar of the state. It has become very free, very independent. It is 
very highly thought of internationally and domestically. It is 
playing a very important role at the moment to support the democratic 
process.
I really don't know much about the Indian media. But my impression is 
that the Indian media is much more introspective, at least on foreign 
policy. Pakistani media is much freer, is much more critical. The 
Indian media has always been very supportive of government policies, 
whereas the Pakistani media is much freer as far as foreign policy 
issues are concerned.
Q. Why has secularism become a dirty word in Pakistan?
A. I don't think secularism generally has become a dirty word. It 
might have become a dirty word in certain sections or circles of 
society. In my opinion, a large majority of the people wants to see a 
democratic system in Pakistan and for the religion to remain a 
private matter.
Q. Why has Islam become a word of 'suspicion' in the West?
A. Well, obviously the 9/11 events have made the West very paranoid 
about Islam. There is a lot of ignorance about Islam in the West. And 
that is not helped by the actions of the Muslim regimes that are 
mostly authoritarian or dictatorial and where people's rights are not 
respected. While the West needs to be educated about Islam, the 
Muslim world also needs to make serious changes in the system by 
which they govern the people.
Q. Without the jihadis, it is said, Pakistan won't be in a good 
negotiating position with India. Is it true?
A. On the contrary, the jihadis have undermined Pakistan's position 
on Kashmir. We would have been in a much stronger position if we had 
supported the Kashmiri people's national struggle morally instead of 
injecting the Pakistani militants into the situation, and we would 
have got much more attention from the international community.
Q. You recently said Gen Musharraf was not serious about clipping the 
jihadis' wings. What's really hampering him?
A. Lack of will. The linkages between the military and the jihadis, 
the umbilical cord is not broken yet. It needs to be broken at some 
stage. The fact is that the military has sponsored many of these 
groups for many reasons. But we are now at a stage where the military 
needs to break this cord.
Q. You also seem to have portrayed Pakistan as a 'failed state'. Is that so?
A. I don't think Pakistan is a failed state at all. Pakistan is a 
very viable state. I think it has huge problems. The ruling elite has 
not faced up to its problems. The moment the elite faces up to the 
reality of the situation, many of its problems will be solved.

_____


#3.

The Sunday Leader [Sri Lanka]
July 27, 2003

Neelan: The Tamil tragedy
"We cannot glorify death whether in the battlefield or otherwise. We, 
on the other hand, must celebrate life, and are fiercely committed to 
protecting and securing the sanctity of life, which is the most 
fundamental value without which all other rights and freedoms become 
meaningless."
-  Neelan Tiruchelvam  (Emergency debate of June 15, 1999)

By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

Four years ago on the morning of July 29, an unknown  'human bomb' 
blew  up at the  Rosemead Place-Kynsey Road junction. The suicide 
attack resulted in the homicide of Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam. In a few 
seconds of madness the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had 
murdered the foremost intellectual in contemporary Tamil politics. 
The void created is yet to be filled.
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20030727/issues-more.htm


o o o

The Daily News [Sri Lanka]
July 28, 2003

A tribute to Neelan Thiruchelvam : "Do not glorify death... celebrate life"
by Kethesh Loganathan
http://www.dailynews.lk/2003/07/28/fea02.html


_____


#4.

The Daily Times [Pakistan]
July 28, 2003 

A sitting in memory of the late Khadeeja Ali Gauhar
Tulips, violin and Bulleh Shah
By Shoaib Ahmed
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_28-7-2003_pg7_14

_____


#5.

The Hindu [India]
July 28, 2003
Editorial  

Personal laws and common sense

THE SUPREME COURT of India has yet again turned the spotlight, 
fleetingly, on the issue of evolving a uniform or common civil code. 
It has regretted that Article 44 of the Constitution "has not been 
given effect to" by Parliament. Everyone knows that there is nothing 
binding about the apex court's observations on this particular issue 
since the matter falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of 
Parliament, which represents social and political India. The latest 
homily comes in a series of apex court exhortations over the years on 
this sensitive and contentious issue. This time the appeal to 
Parliament has come in the course of striking down as 
unconstitutional a section of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, which 
relates to Christians exclusively, on the ground that it was 
arbitrary, irrational and violative of the fundamental right to 
equality before the law guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution. 
What is clear is that the issue has all but fallen off the political 
map. No political party of national significance other the Bharatiya 
Janata Party is willing to line up behind the demand for a uniform 
civil code. With the compulsions of coalition politics having 
prevailed over the canons of ideology, the BJP itself has decided to 
place the issue on the backburner. It is, therefore, more or less 
irrelevant that the ruling party has greeted the court's homily with 
a smug welcome and that some parties in the Opposition, notably the 
Congress, have reacted to it with a perplexed silence.

So do we need a uniform civil code? The Constitution says we do, but 
only in a manner of speaking - in the soft part labelled "Directive 
Principles of State Policy," which include such tall promises as the 
"right to work [and] education," "free and compulsory education for 
all children," and so forth. Article 44 "directs," non-bindingly of 
course, that "the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a 
uniform civil code throughout the territory of India." In the latest 
case, the Chief Justice of India, V.N. Khare, appealed to the cause 
of "national integration" as requiring the removal of "the 
contradictions based on ideologies." This is precisely what another 
Chief Justice, Y.V. Chandrachud, stressed in the Shah Bano case in 
1985, when he asserted that such a code would "remove disparate 
loyalties to laws which have conflicting ideologies." A decade after 
Shah Bano, Justices Kuldip Singh and R.M. Sahai of the Supreme Court 
exhorted the then Government of P. V. Narasimha Rao to take a "fresh 
look" at Article 44, rebuking in the process "successive governments" 
for being "wholly remiss in their duty of implementing the 
constitutional mandate." That case related to four deserted Hindu 
women whose husbands had converted to Islam. In all these cases, the 
apex court ruled justly and progressively on such personal law 
matters as came up before it, upholding the secular and democratic 
values of the Indian Constitution. News editors duly front-paged 
these Supreme Court exhortations and editorialists fell into the 
habit of characterising them as `historic' and `far-reaching' before 
moving on to other, less lofty but more practical subjects. The theme 
of the common civil code and its impact on national integration 
naturally figured in the recommendations of the National Commission 
to Review the Working of the Constitution. What all this suggests is 
the existence of a substantial exhortatory `consensus' - without 
teeth - on the desirability of working towards such a code. In 
essence, this is no different from the socio-political situation in 
which Article 44 was framed - more than half a century ago.

There often exists between an idea and its implementation a chasm. 
The historical background in which the idea of a uniform civil code 
arose and was compromised on is crucial to understanding why the gulf 
remains as wide today as it was in the late 1940s. Anyone who cares 
to go through the Constituent Assembly debates will discover that 
there was a considerable degree of apprehension, among the Muslim 
members in particular, about the introduction of Article 44 (then 
Article 35) as a Directive Principle. Arguments that personal law was 
intimately tied up with religion and that such law would be 
undermined with the introduction of a common civil code resulted in 
the moving of amendments to dilute the Article. However, the 
amendments, which were voted out, failed to elicit any sympathy from 
one of the Constitution's chief architects, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. He 
stood his ground and argued elegantly that for almost every aspect 
that governed human relationships, a uniform code of laws already 
existed in the country. "The only little corner" that the law has 
"not been able to invade so far," he observed, related to such things 
as marriage and succession. "It is the intention of those who desire 
to have Article 35 as part of the Constitution to bring about this 
change," he declared. Thus the underlying assumption behind declaring 
the need for a uniform civil code was that there could not be 
extensive links between religion and personal law in a secular and 
modern society. The larger positive objective behind its introduction 
as a Directive Principle was national integration and social 
consolidation.

It is ironic that a constitutional provision intended to bring people 
closer in a secular order has become an object of divisive, often 
acrimonious debate. The challenge today is to separate the core 
issues from the dross and the reactionary. Personal laws relate to 
marriage, divorce, maintenance, succession, and adoption; they also 
have tax and other implications. While the domain of these laws 
should not be exaggerated, self-evidently a secular and democratic 
society requires the common law to "invade" all aspects of human 
relationships. However, the matter is not as simple as it sounds. As 
democratic women's organisations have been pointing out, the concept 
of a uniform civil code has two dimensions - uniformity, or rather 
equality, between communities and equality within communities, that 
is, between men and women. The unsavoury truth is that personal laws, 
as they exist in India, tend stubbornly to discriminate against girls 
and women. This is not to deny the gains made by various attempts at 
reforming these laws and the progressive contributions made over the 
long term by the higher judiciary in moderating or lessening the 
iniquitous impact of the personal laws. It cannot also be denied 
that, for a complexity of reasons, the personal laws of some 
religious communities have undergone less reform than the counterpart 
laws of other communities. Muslim women are about the worst off, but 
the essential problem does not concern Muslim women alone. Women - 
Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and so on - are invariably the losers 
under the personal law regime. The embryo of a common civil code is 
seen in such progressive enactments as the Special Marriage Act, 1954 
but such instances are few and far between. Gender discrimination is 
the critical issue. Pious advocacy of a uniform civil code as an 
instrument for ushering in "national integration" and communal 
campaigns that use Article 44 as a stick to intimidate minorities 
with fail to address this issue. The democratic women's movement is 
absolutely right when it proposes that the call for a uniform civil 
code, which must eventually be put in place by any society that calls 
itself secular and democratic, must be "preceded" by the demand for 
equal rights and equal laws that ensure gender justice. The task is 
well cut out.

o o o

[See also]
What's a uniform civil code?
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=98057

_____


#6.

Rediff.com [India]
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/jul/22diary.htm

Soldiers' God : Guruparab of the Christians -

By Col. Neeraj Bali

As a serving army officer, I never stop marvelling at the gullibility of
our countrymen to be provoked with alacrity into virulence in the name of
religion. I have never heard the word 'secular' during all my service --
and yet, the simple things that are done simply in the army make it appear
like an island of sanity in a sea of hatred.

In the army, each officer identifies with the religion of his troops. In
regiments where the soldiers are from more than one religion, the officers
-- and indeed all jawans attend the weekly religious prayers of all the
faiths. How many times have I trooped out of the battalion mandir and,
having worn my shoes, entered the battalion church next door? A few years
ago it all became simpler -- mandirs, masjids, gurudwars and churches
began to share premises all over the army. It saved us the walk.

Perhaps it is so because the army genuinely believes in two central
'truths' -- oneness of god and victory in operations. Both are so sacred
we cannot nitpick and question the basics.

In fact, sometimes the army mixes up the two! On a visit to the holy cave
at Amarnath a few years ago I saw a plaque mounted on the side of the hill
by a battalion that had once guarded the annual Yatra. It said, 'Best
wishes from -- battalion. Deployed for Operation Amarnath.'

On another instance, I remember a commanding officer ordered the battalion
maulaviji to conduct the proceedings of Janamashtmi prayers because the
panditji had to proceed on leave on compassionate grounds. No eyebrows
were raised. It was the most rousing and best- prepared sermon on Lord
Krishna I have ever had the pleasure of listening to.

On the Line of Control, a company of Khemkhani Muslim soldiers replaced a
Dogra battalion. Over the next few days, the post was shelled heavily by
Pakistanis, and there were a few non-fatal casualties.

One day, the junior commissioned officer of the company, Subedar Sarwar
Khan walked up to the company commander Major Sharma and said, "Sahib,
ever since the Dogras left, the mandir has been shut. Why don't you open
it once every evening and do aarti? Why are we displeasing the gods?"

Major Sharma shamefacedly confessed he did not know all the words of the
aarti. Subedar Sarwar Khan went away and that night, huddled over the
radio set under a weak lantern light, painstakingly took down the words of
the aarti from the post of another battalion!

How many of us know that along the entire border with Pakistan, our troops
abstain from alcohol and non-vegetarian food on all Thursdays? The reason:
It is called the Peer day -- essentially a day of religious significance
for the Muslims.

In 1984, after Operation Bluestar there was anguish in the Sikh community
over the desecration of the holiest of their shrines. Some of this anger
and hurt was visible in the army too.

I remember the first Sikh festival days after the event -- the number of
army personnel of every religious denomination that thronged the
regimental gurudwara of the nearest Sikh battalion was the largest I had
seen. I distinctly remember each officer and soldier who put his forehead
to the ground to pay obeisance appeared to linger just a wee bit longer
than usual. Was I imagining this? I do not think so. There was that
empathy and caring implicit in the quality of the gesture that appeared to
say, "You are hurt and we all understand."

We were deployed on the Line of Control those days. Soon after the news of
disaffection among a small section of Sikh troops was broadcast on the
BBC, Pakistani troops deployed opposite the Sikh battalion yelled across
to express their 'solidarity' with the Sikhs.

The Sikh havildar shouted back that the Pakistanis had better not harbour
any wrong notions. "If you dare move towards this post, we will mow you
down."

Finally, a real -- and true -- gem. Two boys of a Sikh regiment battalion
were overheard discussing this a day before Christmas.

"Why are we having a holiday tomorrow?" asked Sepoy Singh.

"It is Christmas," replied the wiser Naik Singh.

"But what is Christmas?"

"Christmas," replied Naik Singh, with his eyes half shut in reverence and
hands in a spontaneous prayer-clasp, "is the guruparb of the Christians."

_____


[7.]

The Hindu [India]  July 27, 2003

Concern over acquittals in 'Best Bakery' case
By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JULY 26. Expressing deep concern over the acquittal of all 
21 accused in the "Best Bakery" case, a group of civil liberty 
activists, scribes, lawyers and academicians today appealed to the 
Supreme Court to exercise its power and order reinvestigation of such 
cases by Central agencies.

Gathered here under the banner of "Jan Hastakshep,'' they also 
demanded that "retrials" in the Gujarat communal riot cases be 
conducted outside the State by special courts whose presiding judges 
and prosecutors be appointed by the Supreme Court.

Appealing to the people of Gujarat and all secular, progressive and 
democratic forces of the country to build a broadbased movement 
against communalism and the growing "fascist tendencies," the 
participants called upon the people to come forward in defence of the 
victims of the Gujarat genocide and provide them all possible support.

Civil liberty activist, N.D. Pancholi, expressed concern that the 
judgments as in the Best Bakery case could arouse fear and insecurity 
in the minds of the minorities.

Prem Shankar Jha, journalist, criticised the Gujarat Government and 
the State police and for applying what he called "double standards" 
in dealing with cases involving Hindus and Muslims.

He alleged that while Muslims were being tried under POTA, Hindus 
were either going scot-free or being booked under normal charges.

Increasing unemployment among Muslims due to globalisation and their 
"sectarian treatment'' at the hands of police would only increase 
terrorism.

Shamshul Islam, eminent scholar, alleged that the Rashtriya 
Swayamsevak Sangh was turning Gujarat into a "laboratory of fascist 
designs to create a Hindu rashtra."

Prashant Bhushan, lawyer, said the power of contempt of court was 
being misused.

o o o

The Deccan Herald [India]
July 9, 2003

Best Bakery case calls for retrial in a free environment

Zahira Shaikh's public admission that fear prompted her to lie before 
the court in the Best Bakery case reinforces the need for a retrial 
of the case related to the Gujarat riots in an environment wherein 
witnesses would be able to speak up without fear for their lives. The 
special court in Vadodara acquitted 21 people who were accused of 
massacring 14 persons in the Best Bakery carnage during the Gujarat 
riots last year. Eight of the victims were Zahira's relatives. In 
court, Zahira said that she was not able to recognise those who 
attacked her family. The subsequent acquittal of all the accused was 
widely condemned as a denial of justice and as an alarming precursor 
of the kind of verdicts that could be anticipated in other cases 
relating to the riots. It is well-known that the Gujarat police had 
colluded with members of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal in perpetrating 
violence against the minorities. In this context, few expected the 
investigations by the State police to be fair.

Zahira has now said that the local BJP MLA and the Congress 
councillor threatened her. She has now demanded a retrial of the case 
in Mumbai.
A National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team is in Gujarat to 
assess what happened in the Best Bakery case. The testimonies of the 
witnesses to the NHRC and other human rights groups last year were 
quite different from what they said before the court. It appears that 
many of them, like Zahira, were intimidated and therefore turned 
hostile. The NHRC's assessment could result in the case being 
re-opened.

However, justice would not be served merely by re-opening the case. 
Equally important is the provision of an environment where witnesses 
can speak up without fear. That clearly does not exist today in 
Gujarat. But even if the case were to be re-tried outside the State, 
it would be incumbent on the Government to ensure that witnesses and 
their families are given full security. What is at stake is the faith 
of millions of people in the integrity and credibility of the Indian 
judiciary. That faith was undermined considerably by the manner in 
which the trial was conducted. A re-trial under conditions where 
witnesses can speak fearlessly would give the Indian State an 
opportunity to restore the people's confidence in the rule of law.

______


[8.]

[Another response on Ananya Kabir's 'Partition of 1947: The Necessity 
of Anti-Sentimentalism' published in the SACW bulletin of July 23, 
2003.]

o o o

Date: 26 Jul 2003
From: "Barnita Bagchi"

I too enjoyed Ananya Jahanara Kabir's
  piece on Partition in Eastern India, and wanted to bring to the attention
of this group and you, in case she and you have missed it, a major work of
Third World collective feminist scholarship on gender and Partition in
Eastern India, a major contribution to the much-needed enterprise of
unsentimental but humane and analytical scholarship on partition in eastern
India: a book, 'The Trauma  and the Triumph: Gender and Partition in
Eastern India', edited by Jasodhara Bagchi and Subhoranjan Dasgupta,
published by Stree Books, 2003.

This is the first in a three, possibly
four-volume publication series, the fruit of an ambitious research project
housed for some years now at the School of Women's Studies, Jadavpur
University, led by by two scholar-activists. It is a rich collection, and
has a strong anti-fundamentalist, universalist, feminist methodology.
Subhoranjan, a frequent visitor to Bangladesh, who has written the first
book in English on that genius, Akhtaruzzaman Elias ('Elegy and Dream -
Akhtaruzzaman Elias' Creative Commitment'), has
written in this volume on Elias's unequalled, universalist, unsectarian, and
Marxian perspective on the Partition of India. There are interviews with
refugee women, like  Sukumari Chaudhuri, now very old, in Bengal, a
translation of Selina Hossain's creative version of Ila Mitra's torture, Ila
Mitra's own account of her experience, Meghna Guha Thakurta writing on (her
own) family narrative of Partition, translations of excerpts from Ghatak's
post-Partition film  masterpeiece Meghe Dhaka Tara, translation of Santosh
Ghosh's masterpiece 'Hoina' (by the writer of this e-mail), a fine piece by
Rachel Weber on rethinking 'ghor' and 'bahir' in the context of refugee
women in Kolkata, writing by Renuka Roy and Ashoka Gupta, activists working
with refugees at the time, Urvashi Butalia writing on the chhit-mahal people
of the 'nowhere lands', a chapter on how Partition affected women in the
neglected state of Tripura, a long scholarly introduction by Jasodhara and
Subhoranjan, and much more.

The book was released in March in the presence of some of the women whose
trauma and triumph were recorded in the interviews, women in their eighties
and more, who had much to say. It is dedicated to Ashoka Gupta, (daughter of
the searing Partition novelist Jyotirmoyee Devi) who worked with Gandhi
after Noakhali, and whose own memoirs will soon be published by Stree.

A major component of the book is its look at the intersection of gender and
left progressive movements after Partition in the two Bengals, particularly
West Bengal, sometimes working with, sometimes against each other, but
together creating a counterblast to unhealthy cultural nationalism inspired
by religion.

Part of the contents of the book appeared in the February 2002 issue of
Seminar, titled 'Porous Borders, Divided Selves':
http://www.india-seminar.com/2002/510.htm

Incidentally, Jasodhara (mother to this writer, also a feminist academic, at
Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai), currently
chairperson of the West Bengal Women's Commission and formerly
founder-director of the School of Women's Studies at
Jadavpur,  travelled to Bangladesh earlier this year on the Women's
Initiative for Peace in South Asia bus, and brought back a wealth of happy
memories and learning experiences.

o o o

[ Ananya Kabir's article 'Partition of 1947: The Necessity of 
Anti-Sentimentalism' which was carried in SACW 23 July, 2003, 
originally appeared at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uttorshuri/message/881 ]

______


[9.]

The Indian Express
July 27, 2003
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=28237

Coming Out
No more queer pressure, only gay abandon. This movement is gaining 
support, finds our correspondent
Georgina L Maddox

A GORGEOUS young sardar dressed in tight lycra shorts, leather boots 
and a black tank top, displays his taut midriff. A diaphanous beaded 
chunni, attached to his pagdi, sways with him to Kaanta Laga. His 
buff friend (he could well be a promising catch for any Punjabi kudi) 
encircles his waist and whispers something that draws peals of 
laughter from our queen.

>Meanwhile, a cute butch-dyke, dressed in the 'traditional' black 
>shirt and trousers, has convinced her ultra-fem girlfriend to dance. 
>As they move to the music, one forgets that this party is bang in 
>the heart of Mumbai's conservative Lower Parel mill area. 
>Unimaginable perhaps a few years ago, today it's very real. Pubs and 
>discotheques in Delhi and Kolkata are not far behind. Many have 'gay 
>nights' at least once a week.

The lycra leg-shaking is of course the more flamboyant side of gay 
visibility. The more down-to-earth picture includes years of public 
demonstrations, lobbying and seminars by the community, which is 
estimated to make up four per cent of the population.

'Mother figure' Ashok Row Kavi, founder member of Mumbai's Humsafar 
Trust, the first queer organisation recognised by the government, 
reasons: "It's not like the gay population has increased! We're just 
more visible now. We will always be a minority." But it's now a 
minority with a louder voice. Many have chosen to break their silence 
and have taken to the streets to demonstrate for their rights, like 
last month's Walk On The Rainbow march in Kolkata, to commemorate 
Stonewall, the pathbreaking 1969 protest in the US.

No longer camera shy, marching drag queens posed happily for the 
media. Others, like Mumbai journalist Nitin Karani, have come out 
several times on TV and in mainstream publications.

''The overall language has changed from being just about sexual 
minorities to talking about sexuality rights,'' says Delhi-based 
Pramada Menon of CREA, an NGO working on sexual rights issues.

Of course, it's still illegal to be gay in India-Section 377 of the 
Indian Penal Code says 'unnatural intercourse' is a punishable 
offence. We are obviously far from pathbreaking legislation like the 
recent Lawrence vs Texas ruling, affirming gay privacy.

But the media has been foregrounding queer visibility a lot recently. 
Be it a serial on TV, like Will & Grace, or films like Fire, Mango 
Souffle, Summer In My Veins, Ashq, Gulabi Aaina or even a front-page 
news item on Goa-based designer Wendell Rodrick's commitment ceremony 
after 20 years with his partner Jerome, all reaffirm a queer presence.

The Internet is another tool that has opened up new spaces for sexual 
minorities. A virtual space that lends itself to networking, it has 
been a boon to the queer community. Just the number of websites 
itself is a sign of encouragement-www.gaydelhi.com, www.gaybombay.cc, 
www.bombay-dost.com, www.sangini.org and humjinsi at hotmail.com-to name 
a few.

These websites balance serious issues with trivia, art, agony aunt 
columns and chat groups on everything from films to lingerie. They 
serve the purpose of a virtual community that gives newcomers 
anonymity until they're ready to come out.

If one were to go by the recent launch of author R Raj Rao's book, 
The Boyfriend, one would say that even mainstream spaces are opening 
up to the queer crowd. The event, at Mumbai's trendy Oxford 
Bookstore, was attended by the likes of top model Milind Soman (who 
got many hugs from doting gay boys) and theatre person Dolly Thakore 
who expressed their support for Rao both as a writer and a gay 
activist. The book itself-a frank and unpretentious narrative of a 
gay man's life in Mumbai-is a breakthrough for gay literature. ''It 
could be a day in the life of any one of us,'' said Mohammed Yunus, 
co-ordinator at Humsafar.

Pune's Rao has Saturday afternoons reserved for the Queer Studies 
Circle where friends gather to discuss gay literature. Often members 
travel all over the country and abroad for seminars and discussions 
on gay issues.

''We've had Thomas Waugh, who is a professor of film studies at 
Concordia University, Montreal, Canada give us a 'queer' 
interpretation on Ketan Mehta's Holi, about a boy who was sexually 
different,'' says Rao, adding that Indian critics who'd analysed the 
film had glossed over the fact that the boy, who takes his life in 
the end, was ragged because he was different.

Delhi-based Sangini Trust has also made its initiation into films, 
its latest venture being the financing of Kashish, a queer film made 
by directors Meenakshi and Vinay Rai. The movie deals with the 
discovery, denial, and finally, acceptance of love between two women, 
played by Deepti and Meenakshi Rai. The film will soon be screened in 
Mumbai and Pune.

Activist Shalini, one of the founder members of Stree Sangam, 
believes that politically, the film Fire was a break-point for the 
queer movement in India. "When the Shiv Sena banned the film in 1998, 
it generated much debate all of which was well reported in the 
media," says Shalini, who has actively lobbied for gay rights since 
she came out to her parents in '93.

"Importantly, it was not just people from within the community who 
were registering their dissent but everyday, middle-class folk,'' she 
adds.

Alok Gupta, a lawyer and activist, points out that so far the dissent 
that has been registered is mainly of a privileged class. ''India can 
no longer assert rights with a handful in the open speaking on behalf 
of hundreds. We have to take that extra step towards exposure,'' he 
says.

And Sangini has been making that extra effort by spreading the 
message to the south and the east.

"Kolkata's historical and political context seems to have created a 
more conducive environment for sexual identities. In fact, the oldest 
gay group in India-the Counsel Club-is based in Kolkata," says Maya 
Shanker, co-ordinator for Sangini. "Lesbian organisation Sappho, 
active since '99, has a strong membership. They even advertise 
themselves as a support group for lesbians," says Betu Singh, 
honorary director of Sangini.

Some educational institutes are now open to talk about sexual 
politics, but they're still cautious about homosexuality. Prof P G 
Jogdand, head of department of Sociology, University of Mumbai, 
believes ''one shouldn't barricade homosexuals from coming out''. He 
adds, "Our society only accepts things that are convenient and suit 
its way of thinking and functioning." Others like M G Shirhatti, 
principal, Lala Lajpatrai College of Commerce and Economics, Haji 
Ali, Mumbai, go further. ''If someone comes to me with a dilemma 
regarding coming out, I'd explain the pros and cons but leave the 
final decision to him/her,'' says Shirhatti.

Retired Pune-based Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sharad Awasthee, 
would beg to differ. ''Homosexuality is 100 per cent against nature. 
It is a momentary pleasure-seeking device and there is no need for 
it.''

Still others like Nazrul Islam, (DIG, West Bengal police), who take a 
more neutral stand say, ''According to the law, it is a punishable 
offence. As a policeman, if I get a complaint against a couple of 
people indulging in gay activity I'll have to take action. But 
personally, I am not anti-gay. If two people reside somewhere 
together and do not create a law and order problem, why should the 
police disturb them? It's a decision made by two consenting adults 
and society should not interfere in it.''

While non-interference is a desirable reaction, denial isn't. Despite 
'coming out' several times in the media, including on a show on Sony 
TV called Open House and despite being featured in a Mumbai tabloid, 
Karani finds, "Until now, my parents pretend no one really understood 
what I said on TV or in the news. None of my relatives are dying to 
tell me how they read about me being gay-it's like don't ask, don't 
tell. But I won't let people sweep the issue under the carpet.''

Twenty-seven-year old Sabha faced a different kind of denial. ''It 
took me a long time to admit that I'd fallen in love with a woman. 
I've been in love with men and never really thought about the 
possibility of being bisexual,'' she says. But that was until she met 
Chatura Patil, her partner who currently runs the Hamjinsi helpline 
at the Human Rights Centre in South Mumbai. Now though she doesn't 
talk about it, it's a relief to know her parents are aware of her 
choice.

As part of a Hamjinsi and GayBombay outreach programme, Chatura went 
to leading universities in Mumbai to speak to students about the 
diverse ways in which love is experienced and expressed. "We went 
with pamphlets, postcards and badges and the response was amazing! 
Most of the students felt everyone was entitled to be themselves, as 
long as they did not violate anybody else's rights,'' she says.

Artist-activist Tejal Shah, who has based much of her work on her 
experiences of being queer, believes that while 'mainstreamising' is 
important for the community, ''Queer relations don't fall into the 
center of heterosexual binaries. Our lifestyles are different and one 
has to keep that in mind when lobbying for rights. We don't need to 
duplicate mainstream acts like marriage.''

(With inputs from Suman Mishra/Delhi, Sabyasachi
Bandhopadhyay/Kolkata, Sweta
Ramanujan/Mumbai and Preeti
Raghunathan/Pune)


______


[10.]

Economic and Political Weekly [India]
July 19, 2003
Book Review

Nurture of Family

Shards of Memory: Woven Lives in Four Generations by Parita Mukta; 
Waidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 2002; pp 214, £ 16.99.

Gabriele Dietrich


This is a luminous, moving book, "upholding the common life" (as the 
author's earlier book on Mirabai was titled), piecing together the 
shards of memory of four generations. It is a story of migration, 
hunger and bonding which is at once extremely personal and intimate, 
while at the same time opening up vast historical and anthropological 
reference material to place this family history in context in India, 
East Africa and England. It is also a very Gujarati book and this, at 
the moment where Narendra Modi's Gujarat post-Godhra has become the 
nightmare of anyone interested in upholding human rights and 
secularism, is of special significance. It is, in a way, the 
antithesis to every possible 'gaurav-yatra', by establishing a 
dignity which comes from within, which needs no external proof.

The centrepiece of this family history is Ba (Muktaben), the 
grandmother of the author, who married at 13, migrated to Nairobi as 
a young woman of 15 with her husband Himmatlal and got widowed after 
bearing him nine children, at the age of 33. It is here that the 
family history of hunger, 'bhakhri roti', bonding and silent dignity 
has its root, the attitude of austerity: "Do not go out and eat this 
world". Ba becomes the archetype of the 'dosima', the old woman 
banished to the moon by an uncaring society and yet prevails as the 
image of infinite compassion and generosity. Her white 'sadlo' a 
symbol of comfort and healing, affording consolation to generations 
of children who huddle around her in painful awareness of her 
vulnerability. Ba sustains herself through Mira bhakti and nurtures 
the young in it. The author branches out into contrasting, more 
assertive histories of widowhood, but always gravitates back to Ba's 
ungrudging generosity, tenacity in self-denial and sustenance. This 
puts into perspective the progressive attempts of the reformers, 
advocating and practising widow remarriage.

The book is evenly distributed between female and male characters. In 
Ba's life story, the affectionate relationship with her progressive 
husband, who groomed her into a fulfilling companionship becomes 
tangible. But the fabric of the family history is kept together by 
the female characters, Ba's daughters and grand-daughters. Harshad, 
the father of the author, had to give up his studies to look after 
the family when his father died and comes to symbolise the family 
history of hunger, bhakhri and salt.

This leads to reflections on food and famine, relationships between 
Europeans, Asians and Africans in Kenya and on marginalisation within 
the own community due to poverty. A family identity of frugality is 
forged, sustained by a pride of belonging to the East African 
railways. This identity is contrasted with the experiences of the 
younger generations who have migrated into different countries and 
climbed up the social ladder, leaving hunger behind and at times 
rationalising consumerism with its past existence. The hunger 
narrative is interwoven with childhood stories of dosimas conjuring 
up food for starving little girls, breaking the harshness of the 
memory.

The other prominent male character in the book, Raj, the uncle who 
first migrated to England and step by step settled the whole family 
in, is another symbol of marginalisation and generosity, 
self-effacing and nurturing, sustaining the brightness of life by 
singing.

The final part, Sonpari, closes the circle opened by Ba. This part, 
which focuses on the experiences of the author and her daughter 
Sonpari, is captured in the symbolic language of the painting by 
Khodisbhai Parmar: 'Sonbai alone in the forest' and a sculpture in 
the Khajurao temples, 'A Woman Writing'. This encompasses the tension 
between the 'ladli', a girl child well-loved and the inimical forces 
of society which threaten her destruction. Beyond this dichotomy, 'a 
woman writing' - the attempts to create a world of one's own by 
expressing the own perception. This part is most delicately written, 
as it encompasses the most personal of experiences. It is here that 
the author's involvements as an activist in the women's movement and 
her commitment to fight racism and communalism become most clearly 
visible. She also expresses the pain encountered when choosing a 
life partner who is rejected at the beginning by her father as a 
member of the "colonial race".

As the author spans the distances from Kathiawar in western India 
(now Gujarat) to the Kenyan colony and from there to London, 
Ahmedabad, Miami and Toronto, she touches upon a world situation of 
famines, war and communal violence. Vis-à-vis this world scenario she 
affirms the family bonds of nurture and compassion without 
smoothening the rough edges of conflict or romanticising the 
affinities.

One cannot help but be reminded of another family history which has 
shot into the limelight, Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things. 
However, this is an affinity of contrast. Where Arundhati's flights 
of fancy celebrate the breaking of boundaries and transform her 
characters in audacious fiction, Shards of Memory draws its strength 
from the limitations of historical authenticity and loyalty to 
concrete human relationships. In a way this book is a rare 
feminist ode to the nurture of family life and the magic of smallness 
transformed. In this humanist content it is the antithesis to the 
pettiness of communal self-aggrandisement. Yet, it leaves me at a 
loss regarding the question why we know of so many family situations 
in which nurture has been subverted by indifference and bitterness.

______


[11.]

India: A National Culture?
Edited by Geeti Sen

ISBN 0-7619-9831-4
294pp.

Sage Publications, B-42, Panchsheel Enclave, Post Box 4109, New 
Delhi-110017, India.
Tel: 91-11-2649 1290-7
Email: marketing at indiasage.com
Website: www.indiasage.com

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DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
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