SACW | 23 Sept. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  |  23 September,  2003

[1] What's US doing in S. Asia (M.B. Naqvi)
[2] Bomb Blast, Communal Violence and Secular India (Asghar Ali Engineer)
[3] India: Just the facts in S. A. R. Gilani case (Nirmalangshu Mukherji)
[4] Syncretic Bengal:  Living in the Fringes to Worship (Barnita Bagchi)
[5] India: Inter-faith Harmony: Where Nehru and Gandhi Meet (Ramachandra Guha)
[6] India: Solidarity Appeal Demands Rehabilitation of Kolkata Evictees
[7] India: Internet Censorship at work - news reports


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

[1.]

[22 September 2003, Karachi]

What's US doing in S. Asia

By M.B. Naqvi

The US appears to have made a breakthrough with 
regard to India. A strategic partnership is 
developing between them and a third dimension to 
it is the inclusion of the 'natural alley': 
Israel. Brajesh Mishra had called it a natural 
axis, which seems to have been all but formalized 
by the Israeli PM Ariel Sharon's recent India 
visit. In the current US visit of the Indian 
Premier AB Vajpayee, he is expected to sign a 
major agreement with the US, probably over the 
"trinity of issues" --- high tech trade, civilian 
nuclear energy and cooperation in space programme 
--- that may be expected to give substance to the 
growing "strategic partnership" between the two.

The US role in the Subcontinent cannot be 
understood without reference to the old US-Pak 
relationship. It has seen many ups and downs. 
What is its current status? Probably an 
international commission of inquiry would be 
needed to do justice to the subject. For one's 
part, one takes Ambassador Nicholas Platt's, the 
Chief of New York's Asia Society's, recent 
enunciation of the major US concerns vis-à-vis 
Pakistan as the text. These are four: (a) Taliban 
remnants trying to undermine Afghanistan's 
reconstruction; (b) the possibility of Indo-Pak 
nuclear conflict; (c) the danger of Pakistan 
succumbing on political and economic fronts; and 
(d) the rising tide of Islamic extremism.

Platt's is a succinct summing up of the US view 
of this country. Many would agree with the 
prognosis, though not necessarily with what the 
Bush Administration proposes to do. The question 
arises that in view of the long sorry story of 
Pak-India relations, with many quasi and full 
wars and a year-long military eyeball-to-eyeball 
confrontation, with frequent exchange of threats 
of the use of nuclear weapons, what does the US 
propose to do in the region? Apart from 
persuading both sides not to go to war and 
advising them to talk --- a sort of fire fighting 
--- what are the concrete US actions?

It can be briefly summed up, if we ignore the 
currently urgent US worries about al-Qaeda, 
Afghanistan and Iraq, as the effort to firm up a 
strategic alliance among itself, Israel and India 
--- and to help India 'arrive', both economically 
and militarily. The expected major agreement 
between the US and India ---- mainly to permit 
Israel sell some of the high tech military 
equipment and its own policy regarding sales of 
dual use technology --- gives enough indication 
of the US desire to see India emerge as a major 
power in the region.

Vis-à-vis Pakistan, the recent US munificence --- 
a package of $ 3 billion in military and 
military-related economic assistance programmes, 
permission to help Pakistan spend $ 9 billion of 
its own money in American arms Bazaar and the 
declaration that the US intends to help maintain 
a balance of power between Pakistan and India --- 
is noteworthy. Doubtless the US values Pakistan's 
cooperation in catching the major al-Qaeda and 
Taliban fugitives. It probably expects that 
Pakistan would, out of gratitude, find a way of 
sending troops to Iraq, if not recognize Israel.

Let's relate the major US worries regarding 
Pakistan with the action it promises. Would the 
latter promote the achievement of what the US 
desires with reference to the four factors that 
constitute Pakistan's vulnerabilities? India does 
not need money from the US; it only needs US 
technology. The Bush Administration looks like 
obliging India very substantially. As for 
Pakistan, it needs American money as well as a 
resumption of old military relationship with the 
US. The latter involved permissions to buy 
military hardware, purchase of spares, training 
of personnel and American help in the maintenance 
of US-given equipment. The US, in pursuit of its 
balance of power design, is again giving Pakistan 
some money and permission to buy military 
equipment --- so long as India does not cry foul 
i.e. that it will disturb the balance of power.

The really serious concerns of the US are that 
Pakistan should not collapse for political or 
economic reasons; there should be no nuclear 
exchange on the Subcontinent; and of course the 
more imprecise and difficult task of saving 
Pakistan from Islamic extremism. Take the first: 
Why is Pakistan so brittle, unstable and 
politically divided? A few reasons are: its 
elites adopted a militarist view of Kashmir, 
thought it necessary and feasible to wrest it 
from India by military means. That led to the 
rise of the military and eventually it inherited 
the Pakistan state as a whole. That in turn 
caused multiple polarizations. The military 
elites reliance on Islamic rhetoric and alliance 
with the religious bigots led successively to 
ideological confusion, identity crisis, collapse 
of democracy, adoption of a militarist course of 
action and of course Islamic extremism 
flourished, a manifestation of which was the 
Taliban regime and the general fascination with 
terrorism by segments of society.

The question is would Pakistan's buying military 
equipment and training worth $ 10.8 billion help 
counter any of the foregoing tendencies? Remember 
that India in any case is embarked on a programme 
of military greatness and the signs are that it 
will now go for the cutting edge of technology. 
The Indian reaction to what the US is doing for 
Pakistan will be to render it ineffective by a 
greater and speedier build up. Which in turn will 
force Pakistan military to push for even greater 
acquisitions. Would its possible implosion not 
come nearer?

In plain words, the US permission to Pakistan to 
buy military goodies worth $ 9 billion in 
addition to $ 1.8 billion military aid is, in 
conjunction with what it is going to do for 
India, is the surest way to intensify the various 
arms races between these two states. It is 
optional to regard the American friendliness to 
Pakistan as a two-in-one strategy: while buying 
gratitude of Pakistani generals, Pakistan's 
unusual Monetary Reserves at $ 11 billion can be 
recycled to the profit of American arms 
manufacturers. One can be sure that if Pakistan 
were to spend $ 10 to 11 billion on arms, India 
will devote $ 50 [billion] or more to offset 
Pakistan's perceived gain --- all to the benefit 
of American arms Bazaar.

Let's ignore India. After noting that fires of 
the arms races are being stoked strongly and 
deliberately, there is the proposition: how this 
balance of power strategy will affect the 
likelihood or otherwise of Pakistan's going belly 
up for political or economic reasons? If 
militarism and arms build up, along with empty 
Islamic sloganeering, has brought Pakistan to the 
present pass, how can such a heavy military build 
up and support to the Musharraf regime can 
normalize, democratize and strengthen Pakistan? 
Pakistan economy's health is not robust enough; 
the present praises for its supposed 
stabilization hide an ugly reality: shorn of 
western largesse and if debt payment 
reschedulings do not remain available, Islamabad 
will be back to 1998 conditions. The possibility 
of default and worse may come closer.

How will the US goal of preventing an atomic war 
in South Asia be served by its plan to intensify 
Indo-Pak cold war and arms races? If it is true 
that civilian nuclear power generation is vitally 
linked to the country's plans for military uses 
of nuclear technology, if any, how then the 
American-Indian cooperation on that "trinity of 
issues" make the two countries move toward 
nuclear disengagement? Indeed, ordinary citizens 
are more likely to suspect that the US is moving 
toward filling the gaps in India's nuclear 
programmes with new dual use technology without 
directly assisting it in its purely military 
programmes. The US may end up giving impetus to 
nuclear arms races, as Pakistan will beg, borrow 
or steal to get similar technology.

Insofar as countering Islamic extremism is 
concerned, the course the US has adopted in South 
Asia can only worsen the situation. The 
short-term purpose of the Americans is to elicit 
stronger cooperation from Musharraf government in 
both fighting the Taliban remnants in 
Afghanistan, arresting the fugitive Taliban and 
al-Qaeda notables and to get him to adopt a more 
secular approach. The political course that 
Musharraf may be forced to adopt in sending 
troops to Iraq and possibly recognizing Israel 
will almost be like a lighted match near a powder 
dump. The Islamic extremists will cry 'sell out' 
and there will be echoes of these denunciations. 
Pakistan's greater integration into American 
schemes is sure to backfire and intensify its 
many divisive and debilitating trends. The US 
cannot do a greater disservice than to intensify 
the arms races between India and Pakistan.

______


[2.]

BOMB BLAST, COMMUNAL VIOLENCE AND SECULAR INDIA
Asghar Ali Engineer

(Secular Perspective Sept. 16-30, 2003)

The recent bomb blast in Mumbai on 25th August 
2003 is a wake up call, if we care. It should 
shake us up into deep reflection as to what is 
happening to our country which gave birth to 
doctrine of non-violence hundreds of years before 
Christ and also during our freedom struggle in 
last century. Why so much violence in 
contemporary India whether it is communal 
violence or such retaliatory violence in the form 
of bomb blast. Such sectarian and arbitrary 
violence seriously compromises with our doctrines 
of non-violence and secularism. We cannot build 
modern India without these doctrines.

First we would like to throw some light on the 
recent bomb blast. The police maintains that one 
Sayyad Mohammad, his wife and daughter were 
involved in these bomb blasts in Mumbai on black 
Monday i.e. on 25th August. The police also says 
that this was organised by an organisation called 
the Gujarat Muslim Revenge Force backed by 
Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-i-Tayyaba of 
Pakistan. Also we read news about suicide bombing 
regularly in Kashmir as well as in Palestine and 
other places.

Let me say here with all the emphasis at my 
command that any form of violence, much less in 
revenge, can be justified in the name of Islam. 
The names like Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, 
Jaish-e-Muhammad (the army of Muhammad the 
Prophet) are highly misleading. Such names are 
adopted only to provide religious gloss over 
heinous acts of violence. Muslims should not be 
misled by such pious sounding names. Muhammad has 
been described in the Qur'an as "Mercy to the 
nations". Can anyone kill ruthlessly in his name?

Suicide bombing promoted by these Pak-based 
organisations, to say the least, is totally 
prohibited by Islam. The Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, 
Cairo, also said in his lecture in Malaysia that 
suicide is haram (prohibited) in Islam. And 
suicide bombing is doubly prohibited as it takes 
lives of innocent people and often they happen to 
be children, women and old persons. There is no 
way that such acts can at all be justified.

The Qur'an says that killing one person without 
justification amounts to killing whole humanity 
and saving one life amounts to saving whole 
humanity (5:32). Thus the Qur'an has very 
rigorous standards about respecting the right to 
live and no one has right to deprive others of 
this right to take revenge or otherwise except 
through due process of law. Also, no one has 
right to kill non-combatants even if one has 
waging jihad. Shari'ah law strictly prohibits 
killing non-combatants, children, women and old 
people. And in such bomb blasts or suicide 
bombing only such people get killed.

Jiash-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-i-Tayyaba etc. are 
working against the express rules of Shari'ah. 
Their high sounding and pious names should not 
deceive anyone. The bomb blasts in Mumbai on 25th 
August killed more than 50 persons all of whom 
were totally innocent. So many children were 
orphaned and many women were widowed. Can it be 
called an Islamic act even remotely? It is so 
shocking that two Muslim women were involved in 
this brutal act. It should really deeply concern 
all of us that all communal organisations are 
using women for their selfish ends.

Women who give birth to life should never be 
involved in any act, which leads to extinguishing 
life. And one who is truly religious can never 
indulge in revenge killing in the name of Islam. 
The Qur'an requires Muslims to suppress their 
anger rather than kill in retaliation. Thus we 
find in the Qur'an among virtues of the believers 
"Those who spend in ease as well as in adversity 
and those who restrain (their); anger and pardon 
men. And Allah loves the doers of good." (3:133).

In view of this verse there should be no doubt 
that acts of retaliation has absolutely no place 
as far as the Qur'an is concerned. A true 
believer has to restrain his/her anger and should 
pardon rather than kill in revenge and should be 
doer of good. Thus all these religious sounding 
armies should wind themselves up if they at all 
believe in Islam and should devote themselves to 
promote peace and security for innocent people. 
This bloodshed is most irreligious act. Mohammad 
Sayyad, his wife Fahmida and daughter Farhin are 
not the real culprits. It is these organisations 
like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-i-Tayyaba who 
are brainwashing these semi-literate people. They 
are Muslims but have no knowledge of Islam.

Indian Secular Democracy

As there is no place for violence and revenge 
killing in Islam there is no place for it in a 
secular democracy. Had there been no Gujarat 
carnage in post-Godhra phase there would have 
been no attack on Akshardham temple in 
Gandhinagar and these five bomb blasts in Mumbai 
since December 2002 in which many innocent lives 
were lost. There is no doubt that violence breeds 
violence.

The private armies like Lashkar-i-Tayyaba are no 
responsible to anyone and no one has elected 
them. For violence they perpetrate, howsoever 
strongly condemnable it may be, they are not 
responsible to anyone. But this cannot be said of 
Gujarat
Government which was directly responsible for 
horrible violence perpetrated against innocent 
Muslim citizens of Gujarat after Godhra incident, 
which is equally condemnable. One must say the 
Godhra incident was perpetrated by some Muslims 
but what happened thereafter in Gujarat the 
Narendra Modi led government was directly 
responsible for it.

Can a government elected by people of a secular 
democratic country be pardoned for what it did to 
those innocent citizens who lost their lives, 
homes and other properties? Certainly not. Even 
the Central government, which is equally 
responsible for maintaining secular democratic 
values, did nothing to stop such violence in a 
state, which put whole country to shame in the 
eyes of the world.

If organisations like Lashkar-i-Tayyaba are a 
blot on the fair name of Islam government led by 
Narendra Modi in Gujarat is a blot on the fair 
name of secular democracy like India. We rejected 
the idea and ideology of Pakistan as it was 
against our commitment to secular democracy. It 
is thus our collective duty to keep secular 
democracy going in our country. Those who use 
religion for appealing for votes cannot be 
friends of this country, as those who invoke 
Islam for acts of retaliation cannot be believers 
in Islam.

Fifty-five years after our independence won on 
the basis of ideals of secular democracy we see 
more and more communal violence and still 
minorities are feeling insecure on one hand and 
deprived of their right to honourable and 
dignified existence. In fact our leaders of 
freedom struggle like Gandhi, Nehru and Abul 
Kalam Azad had expected that with the passage of 
time communal rancour will be forgotten and all 
citizens, as propounded in our Constitution, will 
be able to lead an honourable secure life 
enjoying all fundamental rights. But not only 
that this goal has not been realised it is 
receding ever further.

It is for all of us to reflect seriously why are 
we continuously receding from our goal. Is 
democracy a means for best form of governance or 
clever means to realise ambitions of some 
unscrupulous politicians by manoeuvring religious 
sentiments of innocent people? Can a democratic 
country afford blatantly communal organisations 
promoting hatred against minorities and branding 
them as enemies of the country?

Can we provide security even to the majority 
community if such hate politics is blatantly 
resorted to by these rank communal organisations? 
When these bomb blasts take place innocent 
citizens belonging to majority community get 
killed. Is government not then responsible for 
these deaths? Can we prevent this severe danger 
to our internal security only through policing? 
Our police force is also corrupt, communal and 
inefficient with a few honourable exceptions. How 
can we rely on such police force to protect 
innocent citizens?

And can even best kind of policing guarantee full 
security? It cannot if hate-politics is not kept 
under cheque. Today America is also chasing 
terrorists all over the world with no success. 
Terror attacks, if one goes by what is happening 
in Iraq and where America had gone to put and end 
to terror, are increasing and America is totally 
helpless. You cannot solve such problems by 
employing mighty armies and efficient policing 
but by providing people justice and living with 
dignity.

Today it is a fact that Indian Muslims are 
feeling alienated and insecure and are facing a 
ballast of communal propaganda. In such a 
situation it will not be wise to believe that 
every Muslim will keep his/her cool and will not 
be fragile enough to be brainwashed and misled by 
terrorist organisations operating from across the 
border. Unless we give a sense of security and 
dignity to Indian Muslims it will be very 
difficult to guarantee internal security.

Today we face much greater danger in the form of 
terrorist attacks as number of terrorist 
organisations have come into existence after 1990 
when the Kashmiri youth took to violence. Earlier 
during the eighties and before number of major 
communal riots had taken place but no such bomb 
explosions took place right up to the period 
Babri Masjid was demolished by the Sangh Parivar 
activists by inciting some Hindus to grab their 
votes to come to power. It is since then that 
Sangh Parivar intensified its hate campaign 
beyond all limits and we are experiencing such 
bomb explosions in various parts of India.

We must learn a lesson and leave behind communal 
hatred and instil true patriotism in the minds of 
our youth. Patriotism does not lie in loving only 
territory but all the people of the country as 
well and respecting their right to dignified 
existence. If we want to be proud of our past let 
us be proud of philosophy of Upanishads, 
compassion of Buddha, love from the Bible and 
justice and benevolence from the Qur'an. Let us 
bury the hatchet of Mandir-Masjid conflicts 
forever.                                                                                       

*************************
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Website: <http://www.csss-isla.com/>www.csss-isla.com

______


[3.]

Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003

JUST THE FACTS

In the context of the current campaign by the 
teachers of Delhi University to seek fair trial 
and fair media coverage for S. A. R. Gilani (See 
the web[page] 
<http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/new/indefenceofJilani092003.html>http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/new/indefenceofJilani092003.html), 
a question that is often asked both by persons in 
the media covering the story, and the general 
public is, 'why did the Indian law enforcing 
system target Syed Gilani in particular?' In this 
note I will not attempt to answer this question. 
In fact, I will suggest that such questions, even 
if well-meaning, are not significant for 
determining issues of civil and human rights.

It is important to note that the very asking of 
this question signals a refreshing change of 
attitude towards the case. The question shows 
that doubts have already been sown in the mind of 
the questioner as to whether the judicial system 
has a factual case against Gilani. If the police/ 
judicial system had presented a convincing case 
for Gilani's alleged crime, the question of the 
motivation of the system does not arise. On the 
one hand, the shift to the inquiry into the 
motivation suggests that, despite virulent 
campaign by the media to condemn Gilani before he 
is found guilty in a fair trial, the questioner 
remains unconvinced. On the other hand, given the 
understandable faith of the general public in the 
law-enforcing systems that govern them, the 
questioner is puzzled as to why the system then 
targetted Gilani. Isn't the very fact of 
condemnation by the agencies of the state a 
pointer to Gilani's possible guilt, 
notwithstanding the untenability of the facts 
presented to establish it?

This shift to 'subjectivism,' in the face of 
facts to the contrary, brings out a disturbing 
aspect of the functioning of democratic states. 
In an undemocratic state, the people know that 
they have no role in the functioning of the 
state; hence, the actions of the state are 
generally interpreted as ill-motivated even if 
people are unable to intervene. In a democratic 
state, people entertain, other things being 
equal, some responsibility for the actions of the 
state they have helped establish by popular 
franchise. Thus, in matters of critical 
significance such as the Gilani case, where all 
the agencies of the state appear to be singing in 
unison, citizens allow themselves to be trapped 
in a moral dilemma.

Agencies of the state often exploit this helpless 
dilemma to the hilt. To illustrate the point, 
consider a closely-related analogy currently 
playing out elsewhere in the world. Much of the 
Western world is by now convinced that the 
Bush-Blair pair had no credible evidence for 
attacking Iraq: no WMD, no links with al-queda, 
no terror network. Yet, for a long time, poll 
after poll suggested that people believed that 
the states concerned must have had something in 
their hands for, otherwise, it is too incredible 
to conclude that their states decimated a 
population without any moral justification at all.

Sensing the mood, there is a discernible shift in 
the mainstream media from documenting the 
"crimes" of Iraq to the good intentions of the 
political leadership in US and UK. George Bush 
and Tony Blair, it is now argued, sincerely 
believed that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a 
danger to the rest of mankind. It is unfortunate 
that they formed this belief on the basis of 
'incomplete' evidence supplied in haste by some 
overzealous, unelected individuals. So, the hope 
is that some evidence will ultimately be found 
just because the leaders "sincerely believe" so. 
Once the shift is successfully made to the minds 
of the agents of elected oppressors, the notion 
of (objective) evidence becomes inscrutable, and 
faith takes over.

As noted, citizens adopt the faith in the 
helpless belief that their leaders and the 
agencies they command cannot be accused of 
deliberate crime since such criminality partly 
reflects on the citizens' own moral failure. As a 
matter of fact, the current democratic states, 
almost without exception, exploit this faith 
rather than obeying them, especially in critical 
matters of civil rights under discussion here. 
Atrocious crimes against humanity are thus 
committed for reasons of state, although in the 
name of people.

The stated dilemma gives rise to the questions 
under discussion, and poses a difficult situation 
for civil rights campaigns. If you are not 
answering these questions, you do not have a 
sufficient justification for the campaign; if you 
do produce an answer, you would be charged with 
promoting "conspiracy theories." Civil and human 
rights groups thus face the arduous task of 
convincing the people not only about the patent 
falsehoods propagated by the state, but also that 
these falsehoods are enough justification for the 
campaign.

This is not to deny that there could be 
political/ institutional analysis of the 
motivations of the agents of the state. But such 
analysis ought to be based on verifiable facts of 
interest, association, pronouncements, secret 
decisions, profit-sharing, and the like; not an 
easy task. When done properly and with radical 
enthusiasm, such factual analysis often raise the 
facts to a higher level, thus enabling people to 
obtain a more comprehensive grasp of how the 
world around them works. For example, a whole 
range of such analysis is now available as to why 
the US attacked Iraq. However, such analysis does 
not include the sincerity of Bush's beliefs or 
the upbringing of Donald Rumsfeld. The point is, 
the force of the anti-war movement is not 
diminished even if such analysis could not be 
reached. Irrespective of the motivations of the 
military-industrial complex, the invasion of Iraq 
became illegitimate once the facts stated by the 
complex itself fell apart.

By parity of reason, the charge of unfair trial 
in the Gilani case remains valid once the factual 
arguments of the prosecution collapsed, even if 
we cannot decipher the motivations of the state.

NIRMALANGSHU MUKHERJI
Department of Philosophy
Delhi University

______


[4.]

Living in the Fringes to Worship

Barnita Bagchi

[This had appeared in Lest We Forget, a booklet 
released on the occasion of 'India Sabka', a 
youth festival celebrating Indian 
multiculturalism organized by Majlis and Open 
Circle, in December 2002 in Mumbai.]

Sudhanya and Kaushalya sit in one corner of the 
station.  Sudhanya sings with  the two-stringed 
'dotara' in hand.
'amar apon khobor aponar hoi na,
ekbar aponare chinle pore achenare jae chena'.
'my self doesn't have any news or knowledge of itself,
it's only once you know your self that you can get to know the  unknown.'
  There's quite a crowd. The song by Lalan Shah, 
the most famous of Bengal's syncretic songmakers, 
ends. Kaushalya takes Sudhanya by the hand and 
helps him get up. He is blind. He is also a 
'baul', and a singer. She has come from a lower 
middle-class family in the suburban town of 
Ranaghat, and has defied social strictures to 
marry this singer. 'Aul, baul, fakir, pir', 
performers and singers, practitioners of 
mysticism and syncretism, householders and 
mendicants, all these form a rich spectrum in 
what we might call the bhakti movement in Bengal, 
current even today.
The songs of bauls are some of the most powerful 
mystical works of art found in  the world. The 
term 'manush' or 'human being' recurs in Bengali 
syncretic songs, as a condition to be attained by 
men and women by being humane, loving, actively 
altruistic towards other humans. Fairs and 
village festivals, masjids and mandirs, all in 
turn host the song performances which are the 
most visible expression of Bengal's syncretism. 
These performances are only the tip of  some very 
complex, rich, earthy, philosophical ways of life.
Bengali syncretic songs express a spiritual and 
esoteric worldview which is written in 
'sandhyabhasa', or 'twilight language'. But this 
metaphorical twilight language is deeply rooted 
in earthiness. The marvels of the human body, a 
vision of the bodily union between men and women 
as the acme of synthesis, unraveling the 
metaphors of the body to get a sense of the 
mysterious workings of the universe- such themes 
are central to 'baul' lore. As is syncretism, a 
commingling of sufi and vaishnav and their own 
distinctive beliefs.
Not all bauls sing, though. And while some bauls 
wear a sufi-like habit of saffron cloth, many 
consider this merely an upstart, trendy fashion. 
Many bauls live ordinary lives of householders, 
like many other members of important Bengali 
syncretic sects, such as the Shahebdhanis, the 
Balaharis, and the Kartabhajas. Pirs and fakirs, 
like sants and gurus, are a part of this 
syncretic world. Created mainly by lower-caste 
Hindus and poor Muslims, these sects have members 
whose identities aren't readily discernible as 
different from the mainstream religions. 
Sometimes also practicing more traditional 
religious customs, they identify others who know 
their lore by terms in their twilight language. 
Non-singing bauls, like other members of 
religious sects, usually have a powerful hidden 
life of spiritual practices, which in a major way 
involve their learning to make the body an 
instrument of spiritual attainment and ecstasy.
Initiates into syncretic life and lore say report 
that the glamourization of the 'baul' has 
inevitably often led to the glitziest and 
cheapest and shallowest forms of baul performance 
and practices being peddled to an urban and 
Western audience. But faced with terrible 
poverty, an already hard to maintain regimen of 
inner control and discipline, and the lure of 
mike and francs, it is no wonder that many 
succumb to the lure of bright lights, often 
facing brief careers in limelight that end in 
tragedy.
Meanwhile, singers like Sudhanya sing Miyajan 
Fakir's song, at once about the transience of 
pleasure and about the processes of fertility and 
the conception of new life:
'Once every month, a flower blooms in the ghats of pleasure;
If it is not the auspicious moment, the flower fades and goes.
It comes and it floats away, and no one can find it thenŠ'


______


[5.]

The Times of India, September 23, 2003

Inter-faith Harmony: Where Nehru and Gandhi Meet
RAMACHANDRA GUHA

"Secularism" is a word that in the Indian context 
is like a red rag to a (saffron) bull. It has 
been so abused and misunderstood that perhaps it 
is time for us to think of an alternative. Let me 
propose the uncontro- versial term, "inter-faith 
harmony".

Inter-faith harmony requires that there is both 
trust and respect among religions. It requires 
that the daily business of social life, of making 
a living and raising a family, is not disturbed 
by bursts of communal violence. In a 
multi-religious society, this can only happen 
when no faith sees itself as superior to another, 
when no faith sees itself as victimised by 
another.

In modern India, the most spectacular instances 
of the breakdown of inter-faith harmony were the 
Hindu-Sikh violence in north India in the 1980s, 
and the Hindu- Muslim violence in Gujarat last 
year. There are some striking similarities 
between the two.

Consider their origins. Some Sikhs in the Punjab 
and some Muslims in Gujarat felt victimised, 
under threat from what they perceived as the 
majority Hindu community. Both acted upon this 
insecurity by taking recourse to violence. And in 
each case, the violence started by the "minority" 
brought about savage retribution by the 
"majority". Finally, in both instances the party 
in power tacitly encouraged the rioting.

Only two episodes in the history of 
post-Partition India can properly be called 
pogroms: that directed against the Sikhs of Delhi 
following the assassination of the prime 
minister, and that directed against the Muslims 
of Gujarat after the burning of the Sabarmati 
Express in Godhra.

These pogroms were made possible by the breakdown 
of the rule of law. The Sikhs who were butchered 
were in no way connected to the Sikhs who killed 
Mrs Gandhi. The Muslims who were killed by Hindu 
mobs were completely innocent of the Godhra 
crime. Contrast these Indian cases with what 
happened in the United States after the events of 
September 11, 2001, when the administration 
ensured that there would be no generalised 
persecution of Muslims. One study calculated that 
there were about half-a-dozen attacks on 
minorities in the US, only one of them fatal.

To maintain or restore inter-faith harmony 
requires simultaneous action by the state and by 
civil society. The state must ensure that the 
rule of law prevails. Civil society must work to 
inculcate respect among religions. This is where 
we need to consider afresh the examples of 
Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.

Their perspectives on faith and religion are 
usually seen as opposed and contradictory. 
However, in the context of our current social 
crisis they are more appropriately regarded as 
complementary.

Nehru's ideas on inter-faith harmony can be 
summed up in four words: India is not Pakistan. 
To quote: "The moment you talk of a Hindu rashtra 
you speak in a language which no other country 
except one can comprehend and that country is 
Pakistan... They can immediately justify their 
creation of an Islamic nation by pointing out to 
the world that we are doing something similar." 
Nehru was himself an agnostic. For him religion 
was above all a practical question; as head of a 
new state he had to deal with it politically.

Gandhi, on the other hand, was a deeply religious 
man. His ideas on religion were rich and complex: 
one cannot easily summarise them in a quote or 
two. (The interested reader may wish to consult 
the valuable books on the subject by Margaret 
Chatterjee and J T F Jordens.) For a believer, 
and a self-described Sanatani Hindu, Gandhi had 
an unusual interest in faiths other than his own. 
His best friend was a Christian priest, C F 
Andrews. Among his followers were numerous Sikhs, 
Christians, Parsis, Jews, Muslims, and, of 
course, Hindus. But Gandhi also took care to 
acquaint himself with the formal texts and 
precepts of their different faiths.

What did Gandhi conclude from his life-long study 
of religion? For our purposes, this may be boiled 
down to a seven-word maxim: No religion is 
superior to any other. Hence his implacable 
opposition to conversion. One must stay with the 
faith one was born into, but one can always try 
to improve it.

Thus his injunction that "we can only pray, if we 
are Hindus, or if we are Mussalmans, not that a 
Hindu or a Christian should become a Mussalman, 
nor should we even secretly pray that anyone 
should be converted, but our innermost prayer 
should be that a Hindu should be a better Hindu, 
a Muslim a better Muslim and a Christian a better 
Christian".

To be a better Hindu meant to work for the 
abolition of untouchability. To be a better 
Muslim implied the emancipation of women. To be a 
better Christian required one to take heart from 
the passages in the Bible that mandated 
non-violence, rather than the reverse. But in 
each case to be "better" also meant cultivating 
love and respect for people of other faiths.

To oppose "Gandhian syncretism" to "Nehruvian 
secularism", as some scholars have done, is in my 
view a mistake. Contemporary India needs both. It 
needs a state which will be scrupulously 
impartial between faiths, and work honestly to 
maintain the rule of law. It also needs popular 
initiatives in inter-faith harmony, whether 
multicultural ashrams or the mohalla committees 
of our own day.


______


[6.]

Solidarity Appeal Letter
22nd September 2001
Observing the second eviction anniversary

DEMAND: REHABILITATE KOLKATA EVICTEES
REQUEST: Read, Act and Forward to as many people as you can...

Appeal: Forced eviction without any alternative is a gross human rights
violation under national and international laws. Kolkata is the only city in
India, which evicts their city inhabitants without providing any alternative
rehabilitation. No families have been rehabilitated after carrying brutal
evictions by the authorities in the distant or recent past.
If you believe strongly, that forced eviction is a crime against humanity
and no family or individual should be evicted or made homeless without any
alternative provisions, then extend your solidarity support email campaign
by doing the following:

A. Write a strong letter to West Bengal authorities appealing to immediately
rehabilitate Kolkata evictees      with subject line "Rehabilite Kolkata
Evictees"

B. Anyone you think might be able to make a timely intervention please
forward this e-mail to the                 concerned person immediately.

C. Suggest your idea for giving justice to Kolkata evictees and send it to
us urgently.

Attach CC copy of your e-mail to:

<mailto:rajeevjohn at vsnl.com>rajeevjohn at vsnl.com
or
<mailto:hrln_cal at hotmail.com>hrln_cal at hotmail.com

In solidarity
Rajeev John George
Convenor
National Forum for Housing Rights, India
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Extend your Solidarity Support for Rehabilitating Kolkata Evictees
Uchchhed Birodhi Sangrama Committee is commemorating the second anniversary
of Tolly Nalla evictions in Kolkata-city. On 22nd September 2001 around 1400
households were brutally evicted from the southern skirts of the canal side
in Kolkata. Invincibly, the maverick West Bengal government till date has
not taken any action to rehabilitate even a single family. Though the Left
Front claims to be pro-poor regime, piously committed for the cause of the
poor sections. But contrarily, since last two years large number of poor
inhabitants have been rendered homeless and pushed into pavements through
forced eviction drives without any relocation alternative. The modus
operandi of forced eviction operation by Kolkata Municipal Corporation is
not only notorious, but also shocking. There are many more evictions to be
carried out in the same manner in the near future.

For the Tolly Nalla struggle, Uchchhed Birodhi Sangrama had played a leading
role in consolidating solidarity to the victims through running community
kitchen where around 200 people have their daily meals since last two years.
These community leaders have formed a committee for demanding rehabilitation
named - "Tolly Nalla Punar Vasan Awasan Samabhai Sammitti". The Sammitti
members has also prepared I-cards for families to remind Kolkata authorities
that they were once removed from their homes, but they still have not
received any alternative relocation and are determined and united for their
just cause.
Major evictions in Kolkata:
21st September 2001

1400 families displaced at Tolly Nala, Rapid Action Force were used to
remove the inhabitants who were residing since last 40 years;
10th December 2002
On International Human Rights Day 4000 households at Beliaghata were
demolished and more then 200 houses were burned down before executing the
operation;
2nd February 2003
From Bellilious park around 700 dalit Scavenger families were mercilessly
uprooted without any prior notice and without any rehabilitation programme.
Most of the inhabitants were working at Howarh Municipal Corporation. HMC
had rehabilitated these scavenger communities in the park land used as
dumping ground hundred years ago by constructing quarters.

Modus operandi of evictions:
Tolly Nalla evictions were carried out during monsoons.
No alternative accommodations or sites are made available to evicted
victims.
Large scale complains were reported that state machinery were engaged in
arson and looting of household belongings during the operation.
Displaced families were even denied to collect their belongings before
demolition drive.
For operation Black commandos were deployed against peaceful civilians.
Local urban authorities intend to use these lands for commercial
exploitation.

According to the preliminary finding by Association for Peoples Initiatives
for Liberation (APIL) a local civil rights group the number of homeless in
streets have increased sharply. Out of the total homeless around 18% are
those who had been added as homeless on the streets of Kolkata are victims
of forced evictions without relocation in the past two years.
Last year People's Commission on Eviction and Displacement held an
independent inquiry which was headed by Justice Rajindar Sachar, former
Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court on 21st and 22nd September 2002. The
Commission found that not a single family were rehabilitated, the panel
members were shocked to find the evicted victims were staying on railway
platforms, pavements and under-bridges in inhuman conditions.
Appeal for action:
We earnestly appeal to the national, international human rights bodies and
financial institutions to put pressure on West Bengal government for
providing rehabilitation to Tolly Nalla, Beliaghata and Belillious Park
evicted families.
The West Bengal state should abide by international and national laws which
makes mandatory to any evictees for an alternative provision. Such policies
and provisions are consistently practiced in all other states in India.
Example: Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore and Ahemdabad
provides alternative relocation to the victims immediately if they are
evicted.
On the second anniversary of Tolly Nalla evictions we would appeal to all
civil rights groups and concerned citizens for extending their solidarity
through posting mass protest letters to West Bengal authorities for their
immediate rehabilitation.
Our demands:
That no more evictions must be carried out in Kolkata-city without
resettling all evicted families...
That all evictees of Tolly Nalla, Beliaghata and Belillious Park must be
given rehabilitation immediately...
That a dialogue should be held between Kolkata ULB and the affected families
including the support of civil society groups to find adequate solutions
acceptable to the affected families...

That all international lending agencies like Asian Development Bank (ADB)
and the World Bank must seize all loans till the West Bengal government
provides adequate rehabilitation to all the victims...
That the West Bengal state must come out with stated official policy on
rehabilitation as practice in other states in India...

We appeal to all civil society and human rights groups to incorporate the
above demands in the solidarity appeal letter to:

Budhadev Bhattacharya
Chief Minister,
Govt. of West Bengal.
Writers' Buildings, Kolkata-1
Fax :- 91-33-2214 5480
Tel: 91 33 214 5555
Email: cm at wb.gov.in
Email: cpimwb at cal3.vsnl.net.in
Email: prsecycm at wb.nic.in

Ashoke Bhattacharya
Minister In-charge of Urban Affairs & Urban Development
Municipal Affairs Department,
Govt. of West Bengal.
Writers' Buildings,
Kolkata-1
Tel:91 33 214 5497
Fax : 91-33-2214 3853
Email: cpimwb at cal3.vsnl.net.in
Email: micma at wb.gov.in

Amalendu Roy
Minister In charge of Irrigation & Water Ways
Tel: 91 33 214 3612
Fax: 91 33 321 5210

Subrata Mukherjee
Mayor
Kolkata Municipal Corporation
Tel: 91 33 244 7519
Fax: 91 33 2442578
Email: cmcmayor at vsnl.net

The President : pressecy at alpha.nic.in /
pressecy at sansad.nic.in

The Prime Minister : pmosb at pmo.nic.in

The National Human Rights Commission :
Email: chairnhrc at nic.in / nhrc at ren.nic.in

______


[7]      [INTERNET CENSORSHIP AT WORK IN INDIA: 3 news reports]

The Hindu,September 23, 2003

Bid to block anti-India website affects users
By Sandeep Dikshit
http://www.thehindu.com/2003/09/23/stories/2003092312761100.htm

o o o

The Hindustan Times, September 23, 2003

Govt blocks e-group but can't prevent access
Siddharth Zarabi
(New Delhi, September 22)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printedition/230903/detFRO04.shtml

o o o

Business Line, September 20, 2003

Govt issues orders to ISPs - `Block separatist outfit's e-group'
Gaurav Raghuvanshi
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/09/20/stories/2003092002890100.htm

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

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