SACW | 19 Oct. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE   |  19 October,  2003

Announcements:
a)  The South Asia Citizens Web web site is down, 
users are invited to use Google cache till 
further notice. The web site is being redesigned 
and will be up soon on a new server
b) 'South Asia Counter Information Project' a 
back-up, archive area and sister site of SACW can 
be accessed at: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/sacw/
c) All  SACW and associated list members in India 
wanting to consult web sites being blocked at 
groups.yahoo.com   may try to bypass the 'ban' 
via:
http://www.proxify.com
http://www.multiproxy.org/multiproxy.htm  [a more detailed list is given below]

+++++

[1] Britain must act to stop the slide to all-out war in Nepal (Ian Porter)
[2] War in Kashmir: An Indian Muslim Perspective (Syed Mohammad Sadiq)
[3] Where is Indian democracy headed? (Ishtiaq Ahmed)
[4] Smiles all around, only VHP by wayside (Mahesh Rangarajan)
[5] P. Radhakrishnan on CNBC Asia TV  on developments in Ayodhya
[6] Ayodhya Diary : The Sankalp Sabha turns political (Raghuvanshmani)
[7] Upcoming seminar: Are Other Worlds Possible ? 
Cultures of Politics and the World Social Forum 
(October 21, New DelhI)
[8] Navayana: Publishing for Social Change

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

[1.]

The Guardian, October 18, 2003

Britain must act to stop the slide to all-out war in Nepal
Escalating conflict between Maoists and the army threatens catastrophe

Ian Porter

While world attention is focused on US and 
British military operations in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, just along the Himalayas a 
low-intensity conflict in Nepal is on the verge 
of becoming a disastrous all-out war. The Maoist 
insurgency which started in 1996 has led to a 
conflict that is likely to be unwinnable - or, as 
Tony Blair's special envoy, Sir Jeffrey James, 
put it, there is no "acceptable military 
solution".

The Maoists took up arms six years after Nepal's 
first democratic elections in 1990. Incoming 
governments were unable to dent the appalling 
levels of rural poverty and illiteracy, inherited 
from centuries of elitist rule based on the Hindu 
caste system. The historic inability of Nepal's 
rulers to bring roads, let alone electricity and 
development, to all but a tiny fraction of the 
rural population, together with its extremes of 
geography, helped pave the way for the guerrilla 
rebellion.

The British envoy's analysis cannot be lightly 
dismissed. Nepal's relationship with the UK goes 
back nearly two centuries and centres on the 
recruitment as Gurkhas of Nepalis from 
marginalised ethnic groups. Its longstanding 
cooperation with the royal Nepal army means that 
British intelligence is second to none in Nepal.

The Maoist war has led to the loss of more than 
7,000 lives since 1996. Much hope was generated 
by a ceasefire in January, particularly as both 
sides adopted positions with enough common ground 
to justify expectations of serious negotiation. 
But peace talks broke down in August, with the 
Maoists digging in their heels on their rather 
surprising key demand: the for mation of a 
constituent assembly which they hope will 
redefine the role of the king and the army.

Nepal is far from a normal civilian democracy. A 
year ago the king dismissed the elected 
government; he has now appointed two prime 
ministers from the pro-monarchy party, which 
enjoys little popular support. The aid community, 
which supplies more than half the government's 
income, is increasingly alarmed at the inability 
of the king's cabinets to take decisions. The 
king's own legitimacy has been questioned since 
the royal massacre of June 2001, which saw the 
deaths of his brother, the then king, and all his 
family.

The main reason for the government's paralysis is 
that all meaningful decision-making power lies 
with the army and the king. The army's role in 
politics has grown in step with increasing 
foreign military assistance. While Britain is 
withholding lethal military aid, the US is 
massively increasing its support, and US special 
forces have trained a quarter of the army in 
counter-insurgency operations. In an arms 
escalation which India fears could lead to new 
weapons ending up with its own Maoist insurgents, 
the US has provided 5,000 new M16s, with the same 
number reportedly in the pipeline. This is done 
in the name of combating international terrorism, 
though the Maoists have never been accused of 
operating outside Nepal and few doubt that there 
are plenty of genuine social grievances to fuel a 
popular insurgency.

For much of this year, the British government has 
appeared comfortable with these developments, 
happy to play the good cop to the bad cop role 
that the current US ambassador clearly relishes. 
But this diplomatic complacency was shattered by 
the killing of 21 people in the isolated eastern 
district of Ramechhap - attributed to the army - 
on August 17, just as much-delayed peace talks 
were resuming after a three-month break. The 
seven-month ceasefire collapsed just 10 days 
later.

Nepal's human rights commission published its 
inquiry into the killings last month, and placed 
responsibility firmly with the army. Its report 
stated that the villagers - mostly Maoist 
sympathisers - were detained by 80 soldiers 
dressed as civilians. After a three-hour march 
they were lined up and executed; almost all the 
bodies examined showed signs of being shot in the 
head at short range.

During the two months since the incident, the 
army has doggedly maintained the cover story it 
released within minutes of the killings - that 
Maoists had ambushed the army twice, with five 
killed in one attack and 12 in the other. The UN 
has now called for an independent official 
inquiry.

Amnesty International has long reported on the 
impunity which the Nepalese security forces have 
traditionally enjoyed, and the senior army 
official in charge of human rights issues has 
made it clear that prosecutions for human rights 
violations are out of the question during the 
conflict in order to maintain troop morale.

This bodes ill for the looming war. While the 
security forces seem to have greatly improved 
their capacity, due mainly to US support and 
Indian training (and probably the extensive use 
of landmines), the Maoists have amply 
demonstrated over the past month that they can 
carry out bank robberies, assassinations and 
destruction of government buildings at will 
throughout the country. Their activities have 
forced the government to withdraw nearly all 
rural police, giving the Maoists even more 
freedom of movement as they raise funds by a 
mixture of extortion and "taxes" (everyone, 
including employees of aid agencies, is obliged 
to cough up 5% of their salary if they want to 
work in Maoist areas).

There is every indication that Ramechhap is not a 
one-off incident. In its 2003 report, Amnesty 
International pointed out that "the security 
forces continued to carry out unlawful killings. 
It was estimated that of the more that 4,000 
'Maoists' officially declared as killed since 
November 2001, nearly half may have been 
unlawfully killed." In normal English that means 
that they were either murdered as non-combatants 
or that they were simply innocent bystanders shot 
down to make the army's figures look a little 
better. If 2,000 innocents were killed during the 
last round of fighting, prospects for this 
current round are not good. This week, Amnesty 
released a report on "disappearances" carried out 
by government forces, documenting 250 cases since 
the war began and 30 since the end of August.

Although no one is suggesting that they are being 
used in the current offensive, Britain provided 
two military helicopters to Nepal last year, 
reportedly another nail in the coffin of Clare 
Short's difficult relationship with the Foreign 
Office and Downing Street, as she fiercely 
opposed the move.

With the Nepalese army more and more obviously 
beyond any civilian control, British policy 
appears to be increasingly in disarray. Sir 
Jeffrey James was appointed to coordinate British 
policy with its three competing strands - the 
Foreign Office, the Department for International 
Development (DfID) and the Ministry of Defence - 
and then to provide a lead to the international 
community. The British ambassador and the senior 
DfID official in Kathmandu have now been recalled 
to London to try to sort out the mess. It seems 
Sir Jeffrey needs some help after the king 
refused him an audience during his recent visit.

Apart from anything else, the Ramechhap massacre 
has demonstrated that the UK's policy of gaining 
leverage though military cooperation and human 
rights training has been an abject failure. A 
new, clear and independent British policy 
emphasising negotiations over the one-dimensional 
military track could be the only initiative now 
able to halt the slide to war.

The main difference between the British and US 
positions seems to be that the US believes that 
one last military push could bring the Maoists 
back to the table in a weakened position. But 
most analysts agree that any military escalation 
now will send the conflict into an unstoppable 
spiral. As one Nepalese journalist put it, the 
country will be so destroyed that it won't matter 
who won.

· Ian Porter is a pseudonym for an official 
working with an international development 
organisation in Nepal.

____


[2.]   

Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 06:13:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: yogi sikand <ysikand at yahoo.com>

War in Kashmir: An Indian Muslim Perspective

Syed Mohammad Sadiq

The continuing conflict in Kashmir, that has 
taken a toll of several thousand lives, today 
still shows no sign of ending. India and Pakistan 
as well as the several self-styled jihadist 
groups active in the region appear completely 
unwilling to make any major compromise in their 
respective positions. As an Indian Muslim, a 
student of Islam, and as someone who is seriously 
trying to practise my faith and understand it 
objectively, I feel that because the conflict is 
often framed as an Islamic jihad it is necessary 
to examine it to see if this labeling is 
legitimate at all. If indeed it fits the case of 
an Islamic jihad there can, to my mind, be no 
question of not supporting it. On the other hand, 
if, despite the claims of various militant 
groups, the war cannot be considered an Islamic 
jihad, I personally believe that there can be no 
Islamic justification for it. It might well be 
considered to be a struggle for national 
self-determination, but cannot be said to be an 
Islamically legitimate jihad.

Scholars of Islam are unanimous in agreeing that 
jihad, understood here as physical battle against 
non-Muslim enemies, is possible only under 
certain circumstances. There are strict rules 
governing the declaration and conduct of jihad, 
and in order to judge whether or not the current 
militant movement in Kashmir is indeed an Islamic 
jihad, it is pertinent to examine it in the light 
of each these conditions.

1.	Many Muslim scholars hold that resort to 
armed jihad is not allowed against a state that 
grants its Muslim citizens the freedom to 
practise their faith. All other problems that 
Muslims might face by living in such a state have 
social or political causes, and hence must be 
solved through social and political means, and 
not through armed conflict wrongly labeled as 
jihad.

India, at least in theory, is a secular state, 
and its Constitution guarantees full freedom of 
religion, including of the practice and 
propagation of religion, to all its citizens. It 
is true that the rights of non-Hindus, 
particularly Muslims, in India are being trampled 
upon today and that the Indian Muslims are being 
actively persecuted by Hindutva groups, often in 
league with the state. However, no fair-minded 
person will deny that the growing popularity of 
the appeals of Hindutva groups in India owes, 
among other factors, to the widespread fear 
psychosis among many Hindus triggered off by 
self-styled jihadists in Kashmir. When groups 
like the Lashkar-i Tayyeba claim, as they 
repeatedly do, that their ultimate aim is to have 
the Islamic or Pakistani flag flying atop Delhiís 
Red Fort, and when such groups attack and kill 
Hindus in Kashmir and elsewhere with impunity, it 
is bound to have a reaction, and naturally this 
works to increase the support of right-wing 
anti-Muslim Hindutva groups among Hindus in 
India, leading, in turn, to increasing attacks on 
Muslims in the country. It cannot be denied that 
the violent rhetoric and actions of Hindutva 
groups and self-styled Islamist groups active in 
Kashmir feed on each other. In other words, true 
freedom of religion for Muslims (and for others) 
in India, which is what the aim of any legitimate 
jihad should be, can be secured only through 
active struggle against both right-wing Hindu as 
well as self-styled Islamist groups. The 
rhetorica and tactics of the self-styled 
jihadists in Kashmir, therefore, are completely 
counter-productive from the Muslim point of view 
itself.

In this regard, it must also be remembered that 
prior to the launching of the militant movement 
in Kashmir in 1989, and even today, for that 
matter, the Government of India has not placed 
any restriction on the freedom of religion of 
Muslims in Kashmir or elsewhere in India. In 
fact, it is a well-known fact that even prior to 
the outbreak of militancy in Kashmir, the region 
had hardly any Islamic institutions, despite 
Muslims being a majority. Students who wanted to 
go in for higher Islamic education would 
generally take admission in madrasas and 
universities in other parts of India. Almost no 
Islamic literature of note was produced in 
Kashmir, and even the Islamist Jamaat-i Islami of 
Kashmir, which has been in the forefront of the 
anti-Indian movement, was dependent almost 
entirely on the literature produced by the 
Jamaíat-i Islami Hind. Islamic bookshops in 
Srinagar and other towns stocked, as they still 
do, books almost entirely published by Muslim 
scholars from other parts of India, there being 
very few Kashmiri Islamic scholars who had 
devoted themselves to such literary pursuits. If 
at all the uprising in Kashmir was indeed 
motivated by purely religious concerns, one 
wonders why this was the case.

2.	Jihad must always be done ëfi sabil 
illahí or ëin the path of Godí. In other words, 
it must be undertaken simply for the sake of the 
faith. If it is launched for personal or worldly 
aims, such as for political independence, joining 
accession to another country or acquiring 
political power, it cannot be deemed to be a 
jihad.

The Kashmiri militant movement was launched not 
by Islamist groups, but, rather, by the secular 
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). It was 
only later that when Islamist groups such as the 
Jamaíat-i Islami felt that the JKLF was emerging 
as a major challenge to their own authority that 
they reluctantly decided to join the militant 
movement. Further, Pakistan also decided to lend 
armed and other forms of support to the 
Islamists, finding that their goal of getting 
Kashmir to join Pakistan worked more in its 
interest than the pro-independence JKLF. In other 
words, the militant movement was launched not ëin 
the path of Allahí (fi sabil illah), which is a 
precondition for a legitimate jihad, but simply 
for the sake of a particular political agenda. 
This means that the movement cannot be considered 
to be a jihad in the Islamic sense of the term.

3.	Jihad, as a rule, is a defensive war. The 
Qurían is replete with exhortations to the 
believers to desist from aggression against 
others. It allows for the taking up of arms only 
when Muslims are persecuted on account of their 
faith. On no account can Muslims attack 
non-Muslims who are not opposed to them. The 
Qurían explicitly states that God does not forbid 
Muslims from being kind and dealing justly with 
those who have not fought them because of their 
faith.

In the course of the war in Kashmir, militants 
(as well as, of course, the Indian army) are 
known to have committed considerable atrocities 
against innocent civilians, Muslims as well as 
others. This goes completely against the rules of 
Islamic jihad. In the case of some self-styled 
Islamist groups such atrocities have been no 
minor aberrations or exceptions. For instance, 
the Lashkar-i Tayyeba has consistently sought to 
present all Hindus as ëenemies of Islamí and 
hence as legitimate targets. This is completely 
un-Islamic, and one regrets that Islamic 
organizations have not had the courage to openly 
issue fatwas to condemn this as totally 
unacceptable and declare the Lashkar and similar 
groups as enemies of Islam.

4.	Islam gives the utmost importance to 
peace. In fact, Islam is the only religion whose 
very name means ëpeaceí (salaam). One of the 
names of the attributes of God is also al-Salaam 
or the very embodiment of Peace. The Qurían 
repeatedly tells the believers that if aggressive 
non-believers incline towards peace, they, too, 
should make every effort in the same direction. 
Jihad, in the sense of defensive war, is governed 
by strict codes of conduct. Thus, unarmed 
enemies, women, priests, children and the elderly 
are not to be harmed.

It is true that the Government of Indiaís 
proposals for dialogue with the militants have 
not been unconditional and that it has always 
insisted that the status of Kashmir as an 
ëintegral part of Indiaí is non-negotiable. That 
in itself is, of course, unacceptable. Yet, in 
accordance with the Quríanic dictate that if 
oneís enemies incline towards peace, Muslims, 
too, must do so, it was incumbent on the 
militants to actively work for peace, rather than 
creating even greater strife. The word ëIslamí 
means peace, as Muslims believe, the Prophet was 
sent as a  ëmercy (rahmat) to the worldí, but how 
far, if at all, we must ask, have the Kashmiri 
militants been able to abide by the commandments 
of Islam and the model of the Prophet in this 
regard? In actual fact, as will be readily 
admitted, they have done the gravest damage to 
the image of Islam. By their bloody actions they 
have only succeeded in convincing many 
non-Muslims that Islam is a violent, bloodthirsty 
religion that has nothing to do with peace. In 
other words, they have done grievous harm to 
Islam rather than serving it.

5. Before launching a jihad, Muslims must make 
every effort to convey the message of Islam to 
those opposed to them. This is, what, in fact, 
the Prophet did when he and his early disciples 
had to suffer great persecution at the hands of 
the Quríaish in Mecca. In the absence of efforts 
to convey the message of Islam to their opponents 
before launching a defensive war, no armed 
struggle can be considered a legitimate jihad. 
Furthermore, in accordance with the tradition 
(sunnah) of the Prophet, Muslims must first seek 
to migrate from the land where they are being 
persecuted (hijrat), and only then, after all 
other efforts have failed, can they take up arms 
in self-defence.

As mentioned above, a precondition for declaring 
armed jihad is that first all efforts should be 
made to convey the message of Islam to oneís 
opponents. If they refuse to accept it and still 
carry on active persecution of Muslims on account 
of their faith then only is it allowed for 
Muslims to take up arms in their defence, and 
that too provided only if they continue to be 
oppressed. The Kashmiris have done nothing in 
this regard. No recent Kashmir ëalim or Muslim 
scholar or organization is known to have made any 
effort whatsoever in daíwah work among 
non-Muslims in Kashmir or elsewhere in India. 
None of the militants involved in any of the 
various self-styled Islamist outfits have ever 
made any such efforts. On the contrary, by their 
actions and rhetoric they have only made daíwah 
work even more difficult, having led many 
non-Muslims to believe that Islam is a religion 
of terror. This clearly suggests, then, that 
their struggle can in no way be considered a 
legitimate jihad.


6.	Muslim scholars are generally agreed that 
the jihad can only be launched when Muslims 
possess enough military strength to combat their 
opponents. If they lack this strength, war would 
cause even more damage to the Muslims, and 
therefore it cannot be considered a legitimate 
jihad. It is also argued that if war would create 
more problems for Muslims than it would solve it 
may not be legitimate.

It is readily apparent that the Kashmiri 
self-styled jihadists are no military match for 
the Indian army. In the course of the last almost 
two decades, most of the several thousand people 
who have lost their lives in Kashmir have been 
Muslims. Thousands of Muslim women have been 
widowed and many more Muslim children have been 
orphaned. The war has caused unimaginable damage 
to the Kashmiri Muslims while not bringing them 
any substantial gains. Further, it is also 
undeniable that the conflict in Kashmir has made 
life for the Muslims in the rest of India much 
more difficult and insecure. The activities of 
self-styled jihadists in Kashmir have given a 
tremendous boost to Hindu terror groups, who now 
attack Muslims with impunity. If Kashmir succeeds 
in separating from India the pressure on the 
Muslims remaining in the country would bound to 
increase. Their credentials would be held in even 
greater suspicion than now and demands would even 
be made that they should leave the country. The 
Muslims in the rest of India, taken together, 
number more than 10 times the Muslim population 
of Kashmir. Hence, from a strictly Islamic 
perspective, the interests of the former take 
precedence over the latter. Since it is in the 
interests of the Indian Muslims that Kashmir stay 
with India, the Kashmiri militants must recognize 
this if they are sincere about their commitment 
to Islam.

  It is high time concerned Muslims stand up and 
defend the fair name of their religion from being 
sullied by self-styled Islamists in Kashmir and 
elsewhere who are motivated simply by hatred of 
people of other faiths and who are using religion 
for their own base motives. It is tragic that 
Islamic organizations and Muslim ëulama choose to 
remain silent on the continued abuse of Islam by 
such groups. They are ever eager to pass fatwas 
of infidelity against anyone threatening their 
personal interests, but turn the other way when 
terrorists misuse the faith for their own 
political agendas. This is not to deny the 
equally culpable role of the Indian state and 
Hindu terrorist groups. They too are equally 
condemnable. However, as Muslims it is our duty 
to see that our actions are in accordance with 
the teachings of our faith. Others would be held 
responsible by Allah for their own actions.

These are just some random thoughts that emanate 
straight from the heart. I do not claim to be an 
Islamic scholar, and my understanding of Islam is 
indeed limited. May God forgive me if my views 
are incorrect. May Allah guide us to the right 
path. And Allah knows best. Ameen!


_____


[3]

The Daily Times, October 19, 2003 | Op-Ed.

Where is Indian democracy headed?
by Ishtiaq Ahmed
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_19-10-2003_pg3_3

_____


[4.]

The Telegraph, October 19, 2003

Smiles all around, only VHP by wayside

The Big Picture / Mahesh Rangarajan
The peaceful conclusion of the denouement at the 
temple town of Ayodhya has pleased all key 
players but one. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad stands 
isolated in the political landscape. The 
governments in both Lucknow and New Delhi have 
managed to avert crises.

A new precedent of co-operation between regimes 
of opposing political hues has been set in a 
troubled region of north India.

Ashok Singhal continues to breathe fire but there 
is little sign that the spark has spread. In 
sharp contrast to October 1990, when Mulayam 
Singh Yadav and the Sangh parivar were both on a 
warpath, there is little resonance in the vast 
Hindi heartland. The card has been played many a 
time and over and now yields sharply diminished 
returns.

The other possible explanation is more complex. 
For both Mulayam Singh and the BJP, the politics 
of polarisation is past the peak. The former is 
trying to put together a new social coalition 
that has space for all but the Dalits. This 
should explain why he has been so restrained and 
measured in his containment of the VHP cadre and 
volunteers.

In the early nineties, north India was just 
emerging into a post-Congress era. Both the 
claimants of majority and minority support wanted 
to up the ante. It was a means to garner and 
consolidate support.

The Hindutva groups succeeded beyond all their 
dreams and even came to power in 1991. Ram Lalla 
proved more powerful in the voter's mind than the 
magic of Mandal.

All that was long ago: the saffron party is now a 
shrinking force in Uttar Pradesh.

What was once a masterstroke now looks like a 
desperate gamble to hold together a constituency 
increasingly, perhaps, irretrievably fractured on 
the lines of caste.

The BJP's predicament is of a party leading the 
Union government. It is busy back-pedalling on 
the emotive temple issue. The Centre even helped 
the state government with central paramilitary 
forces.

The government is also mindful of the growing 
distaste in a significant part of the body 
politic for the ferocity of the Gujarat massacres 
last year. Any untoward developments at the 
disputed site in the temple town would only 
worsen matters for the Gujarat government. The 
latter already faces further Supreme Court 
strictures on tardy investigation of the 
massacres.

The party also put some distance from Praveen 
Togadia's comment that violence would follow if 
"the Ram bhakts were prevented from offering 
prayers at the disputed site". In a sense, this 
suits Vajpayee's team in its larger battle plan. 
The new stirrings of realignment within the NDA 
indicate the smaller parties will try demand a 
greater pound of flesh. Any new conflagration 
will only decrease the larger organisation's 
clout.

Conversely, a Vajpayee under attack from the 
firebrands of the VHP attracts centrist support. 
This only adds to his image as a man who stands 
above the fray. He did appeal that the Parishad 
be trusted and allowed free run of the town but 
it was a statement for the record. It was not 
followed up and there was no secret about where 
his sympathies lay in this instance.

All the more so, since it is the main challenger 
against Congress ministries in the four Hindi 
belt Assembly elections this December.

The Ayodhya card and its variants such as cow 
slaughter are simply not working. It is more 
prudent to focus on the shortcomings of the chief 
ministers. Riding a wave of anti-incumbency has 
worked more often than not in the past. All the 
more so in north India where the gap between 
promise and performance is all the greater.

Interestingly, both Mayavati and the Congress 
were left on the sidelines in the most recent 
round of the battle for Ayodhya. Both are out of 
power but trying to play up on the Samajwadi 
Party-led coalition's record. Neither made much 
headway. Mayavati alleged complicity of the Sangh 
and the Samajwadi Party and asked all trains with 
kar sevaks be stopped at the Uttar Pradesh border 
if possible.

The political implications are clear enough. The 
build-up by the VHP did not work wonders. Bereft 
of a sympathetic administration and faced with 
police batons and tear gas, the cadre are like 
paper tigers.

The larger implications are significant. The 
general elections are due a year from now. If the 
BJP and its allied organisations do not play the 
Hindutva card full tilt, it will deprive the 
Congress of a key rallying point for secular 
forces.

Few would have imagined a decade ago that Ayodhya 
could signal such realignment. The VHP's trial 
runs on the issue in the late eighties had 
convinced the BJP that the temple could be its 
electoral mascot. Whether the reverse will be the 
case is yet to be seen. But last Friday did 
provide a pointer in that very direction.

_____


[5.]

Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 19:08:19 +0530

Dear [...],

The manner in which the Uttar Pradesh Chief 
Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, foiled the Vishwa 
Hindu Parishad's bid to hold meet at 
Ramsevakpuram (Ayodhya) for its Sankalp Sabha 
(Assembly to take the pledge [guess for what!]) 
needs worldwide appreciation.

Mulayam Singh did not hold anything against the 
Centre. Stating that his Government had passed 
the 'agni pariksha' when it foiled the plans of 
"communal forces" to disrupt peace, he said the 
Centre's role in the entire episode was worthy of 
appreciation and exemplified the federal set up 
of the country, though the Commissioner, Faizabad 
division and receiver of the acquired land at 
Ayodhya, J.P. Sharma, claimed that had the 
Central Government stopped all the trains to 
Faizabad and Ayodhya, the situation could have 
been more peaceful.

Earlier in the day (at about 850 am Indian time), 
the Singapore-based CNBC-Asia TV channel had a 
telephonic interview with me as part of its news 
broadcast. As a prelude to the interview it had 
asked me certain questions by email. My answers 
are given below:

What is going on in Uttar Pradesh with the 
threatened rally today is nothing new. This is 
the essence of rabid Hindutva's INCREMENTAL 
POLITICS. It has full support of the BJP, the 
Hindutva’s political outfit, which is ruling at 
the Centre.

All possible security measures (other than using 
the army, which is rarely done in India) are in 
place to maintain law and order.

Given the firm stand taken by the Uttar Pradesh 
Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, to treat the 
issue as a LAW AND ORDER problem, and to crack 
down on the "activists" (read MISCREANTS or 
ANTI-SOCIAL ELEMENTS), the rally will fizzle out. 
Which is good for India.

Protesters of the type of organizations such as 
the VHP can stoop to any level, and their 
complaints of mis-treatment should not be taken 
seriously. In fact, they should all be hauled up 
and put in jail for disturbing peace and adding 
to the misery of ordinary people.

There is no issue to settle amicably. Rama is not 
a god of all Hindus. Rama is a deity of mainly 
the Vaishnavites (a section of the twice-born 
upper castes in north-west India, who practice 
Brahminic Hinduism). Vaishnavites may be about 
15-20 percent of the Hindu population of these 
regions.

The issue is that in a multi-religious secular 
democracy religion should not be allowed to be 
used for political gains and should not dominate 
the public space. That this is being allowed is 
the issue. Add to this the facts that in India 
(1) power now is in a weak political class; (2) 
judiciary is often hamstrung, not proactive in a 
secular and constitutional sense, (3) justice 
delivery systems are disgustingly slow, less 
inspiring (in a democratic sense); and (4) media 
is SENSATIONAL.

The solution is (discounting the political angle) 
India should have more Mulayam Singh Yadavs as in 
Uttar Pradesh, and Laloo Prasad Yadavs as in 
Bihar. They are capable of cracking down on 
anti-social, anti-democratic organizations.

If Mulayam Singh Yadav (or for that matter Laloo 
Prasad Yadav) were to be in power in Uttar 
Pradesh instead of the BJP stooge Kalyan Singh in 
December 1992, in all probability the demolition 
of the Babri-Masjid structure could have been 
avoided. But as the saying goes, in history the 
steps cannot be retraced.


P. Radhakrishnan

_____

[6]

AYODHYA DIARY
The Sankalp Sabha turns political

The so called Sankalp Sabha [vow making 
congregation] turned out be a blatant political 
statement of the ruling BJP.It became obvious 
that the aim of the whole exercise involving a 
number of complications was nothing but asking 
the people to vote the BJP.Ashok Singhal aimed 
his gun to the secular parties and made a clarion 
call to destroy them and vote for some Hindu 
party without the consideration of caste and 
creed. He was on a beaten track when he 
criticized and threatened the Muslims for 
creating hindrance in the way of building the Ram 
tample. Praveen Togaria, who could reach Faizabad 
after getting arrested and released by the 
administration in Lucknow, called the secular 
forces the cancer of the society. He also 
threatened the Muslims to let theVHP build the 
Ram temple lest every villege of India would turn 
into Ayodhya, as the VHP would then ask for 3000 
temples. The speakers kept their traditional VHP 
cliché of threatening and verbal bombshelling. 
They attacked the state government of Mulayam 
Singh Yadov for forbidding them from holding the 
program on the previous day.

While the VHP program continued in Ayodhya, the 
life went normal in Faizabad. People were not 
much interested in what was going on in Ayodhya 
as if aware of what the VHP leaders would say. 
The administration kept on the vigil and the 
program passed peacefully .To the great relief of 
the people the Bharat Bandh on 19th of the month 
was withdrawn by the Hinduttva brigade. But it 
was asserted that such programs will be organized 
again and again untill the Temple is constructed. 
Obviously neither the public nor the 
administration is pleased by this long-term 
design of the VHP leaders. It is remarkable that 
different sections of the people of Faizabad and 
Ayodhya have shown strong resentment on the 
organizing of such communal programs that disrupt 
the normal course of life.

This Sankalp Sabha was declared after the same 
program scheduled on 17th of this month was 
foiled by the state administration. The program 
was announced in great hurry keeping in mind the 
arrival of karsevaks in Ayodhya for the visit of 
the makeshift temple on the previous evening. But 
the karsevaks were on the move departing after 
the darshan of Ram lala in the morning. The 
program was delayed by eight hours.

The question that is asked by the general public 
here is how long this would continue? How many 
vow makings after all? Every year one or two 
occasions are selected for such activities. A 
datoonwalla tells with a grin that he could not 
sell a single datoon for two days. This is a 
general grudge made by the people in the 
different walks of life. But they laugh it away 
like all the good people in the world.

It is all over, at least for a time being, after 
a number of twist and turns. The intelligentsia 
must take into consideration the question whether 
the civil life should be left to the politicians 
who have only their political gains in their 
minds. The people of Faizabad and Ayodhya are of 
the view that the program of the VHP has made the 
festival of Dipavali tasteless by disturbing the 
life and business near the time of the festivity. 
The common public looked at it as a useless show 
of power and strength. They have it very clear in 
their minds that it is all political and has the 
occasion of the coming assembly elections in the 
background, But they feel helpless on such 
occasions that provide little space for the 
action of the peace loving public, specially when 
the danger lurks from the people coming from out 
side Such programs threaten the atmosphere of 
peace and harmony though the people of Faizabad 
and Ayodhya have shown good sense on all such 
occasions in the past. This time too they have 
exhibited extraordinary patience and goodwill in 
the face of provocations. No doubt humanity has 
come through again.

Raghuvanshmani/Faizabad/18.10.2003/10.00 pm

o o o


______

[6]

The Times of India, October 18, 2003
LEADER ARTICLE
Rough Diamonds | Caste in a Different Mould
JAWID LAIQ
[ SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2003 12:02:23 AM ]
Indians are among the most status and 
class-conscious people in the world. Under the 
veneer of our one-person-one-vote democracy, most 
of us harbour a deep contempt for those 
downtrodden groups whom we consider beneath our 
position in the hierarchy of caste and class. 
This consciousness of class and caste cuts across 
the ideological spectrum from the Hindutva right 
to the liberals to the leftists.

Sometimes, particular events and persons provoke 
a public outpouring of our class-ridden 
sentiments.

The recent CBI investigations into Ms Mayawati's 
activities in the Taj corridor scam have evoked 
derision in the liberal media and amusement among 
some of the most progressive among Indians. The 
scorn borders on disdain for a Dalit leader who 
is perceived to be a lower caste woman from whom 
corrupt practices are only to be expected. On the 
obverse side of the coin, there are comments 
about how disgusting it is to see the leadership 
of the underprivileged Dalits exploiting their 
own poor people.

There is a self-righteousness, particularly among 
armchair middle-class leftists, that is applied 
to the lower classes who are expected to be at 
the forefront of revolutionary change. The lower 
castes and classes are expected to be ho-nest, to 
show group solidarity and to be able to produce 
incorruptible and competent leaders â¤" all the 
qualities that are conspicuously absent among the 
upper caste middle classes.

The Hindutva advocates expect the lower castes to 
bolster Hindu solidarity while at the same time 
quietly continuing to suffer casteist insults and 
oppression. We will not accept the Dalits and the 
so-called backward castes as equals till we are 
willing to accept that, like in the rest of 
Indian society and politics, a goodly proportion 
of crooks and charlatans also have risen to the 
top from among the Dalits and the backward castes.

The desire for diamonds is as appa- rent in the 
soft-spoken, convent-educated Ms Jayalalithaa as 
it is in Ms Mayawati. If Ms Mayawati celebrated 
her birth- day bedecked in diamond jewellery, Ms 
Jayalalithaa and her friend Sasikala festooned 
themselves from head to toe with jewels for the 
former's foster son's wedding.

So, why judge them by different yardsticks? Laloo 
Yadav's recent visit to Pakistan has also 
highlighted these double standards. We proclaimed 
to the Pakistanis that Mr Yadav was an example of 
how grassroots leaders have emerged from the 
cradle of Indian democracy. But, within India, we 
constantly pillory him as a product of the 
grass-and-fodder scam and consider him something 
of a buffoon. Mr Yadav and Ms Mayawati have 
headed notoriously inept and corrupt governments. 
But so have Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane of the 
Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Prakash Singh Badal in 
Punjab and Prafulla Mahanta in Assam. Yet, the 
adjective notorious is generally reserved for the 
Laloos and Mayawatis.

Leave alone politicians, mega-crooks in the 
private enterprise sector are also gra-ded, not 
by the magnitude of their larceny, but by their 
class and caste origins. Harshad Mehta who 
purloined the savings and ruined the lives of 
thousands of households was regarded as a 
brilliant financial wizard by many among the 
middle class. Media portrayals of lower caste 
leaders are slyly slanted. Their photographs are 
often taken from angles which make them look 
faintly ridiculous. The same media shies away 
from entertaining us with the antics of the upper 
caste politicians. They are generally referred to 
as leaders, chieftains or satraps.

Vote-bank inevitably conjures up images of 
unthinking herds of Dalit, tribal and Muslim 
voters. Bloc votes by Brahmins, Banias and 
Rajputs are never dismissed as vote-banks. These 
are just a few instances of the casual put-downs 
which pain those at the receiving end and are 
probably not even noticed by upper crust viewers 
and readers. The backwardness, illiteracy and 
poverty of the lower castes and Muslims are 
mentioned repeatedly while their positive virtues 
are routinely ignored.

Tribal villages, despite their abject poverty, 
are sparklingly clean compared to urban middle 
class slums. Tribal people are community-minded 
and jointly endea-vour to keep their environment 
tidy. The urban middle classes expect the lower 
classes to clean up the heaps of garbage that 
they produce. It is also not recognised, for 
instance, that the relatively prosperous urban 
and rural upper castes of Punjab, Haryana and 
Gujarat are more prone to eliminating the girl 
child and brides than are the poverty-stricken 
tribals, Dalits and Muslims of Bihar, Jharkhand, 
Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and the north-eastern 
states.

Tribal people in remote hamlets practise greater 
gender equality than the middle class inhabitants 
of Mumbai and Delhi. This has been proved in many 
studies. No wonder the downtrodden groups turn to 
a Mayawati or a Laloo Yadav who provide an 
emotional salve, if nothing else, for the 
long-standing social slights and indig- nities 
visited daily upon their brethren.

Ms Mayawati and Mr Yadav may be greedy, 
self-seeking and incompetent, but they echo the 
hurts of millions of Dalits and OBCs. There is a 
fire in the belly of these leaders and an 
emotional commitment to battling social insults. 
When a fiery Mayawati as chief minister made UP's 
upper caste administrative and police officers 
quake with fear and loathing in their boots, the 
Dalits of UP smiled silently. They cannot yet 
laugh loudly.



______

[7]

Please feel free to circulate this message widely !
And please excuse cross-posting..

October 16 2003

Are Other Worlds Possible ?
Cultures of Politics and the World Social Forum

OCTOBER PROGRAMME

Dear friends

This is to remind / inform you of the programme of the ongoing 'Open Space
Seminar Series' for the month of OCTOBER :

October 21, Tuesday : Caste and Race : Questions of Identity and Exclusion

Venue : Room No.1, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics,
University of Delhi (North Campus)

Time : 1 : 15 Pm

Invited panellists :

V Geetha, Independent Researcher writing on Gender, History and Culture,

Kalpana Kannabiran, Feminist, Sociologist, teaching at the University of
Law, Hyderabad

Gail Omvedt, Sociologist and Activist working on Caste, Class and Gender

Representative, National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights

Please do come ! And feel free to circulate this message widely and to
encourage your associates and friends to also come.

As planned, we have now also published a Reader on the World Social Forum.
This will be available at each session, or you can write or phone in to us,
to request a copy.

With warm greetings once again in welcome,

Mukul Mangalik                                     Jai Sen                
                Madhuresh Kumar

Contact details for more information :

Madhuresh Kumar and/or Jai Sen

A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024

Ph 011/5155 1521, 2433 2451

Eml openspaceseries at hotmail.com cc jai.sen at vsnl.com

______


[8.]

Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 01:55:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: siriyavan anand <ands at ambedkar.org>
To: navayana at ambedkar.org
Subject: Navayana: Publishing for Social Change
Reply-To: ands at ambedkar.org
X-Originating-Ip: [219.65.112.119]

Dear friend,

My friend Ravikumar and I are launching a new, 
little publishing house, to be called 'Navayana'. 
Please find enclosed a note on ourselves; and a 
special offer for those who wish to buy books 
directly from us.

Navayana literally means the 'new vehicle', a 
term given to Dr. B.R.Ambedkar's socially and 
morally concerned, rationalistic, 
anti-metaphysical interpretation of Buddhism. 
This 'liberation theology' of Buddhism is also 
called 'engaged Buddhism'. As a publishing 
venture, Navayana will be a 'new vehicle' to take 
forward debates on issues neglected by mainstream 
publishers. To start with, Navayana will feature 
short tracts on a range of issues related to 
society, culture, literature, history and 
politics. The focus will be on identity politics, 
caste, the dalit movements, ambedkarism, 
critiques of brahmanism, hinduism and hindutva. 
Given that Siddhartha Gautama was perhaps the 
first to introduce the culture of dialogue and 
debate with people who held diverse views in the 
subcontinent, these books will encourage dialogue 
and debate on issues the mainstream does not wish 
to address.

The first Navayana book, TOUCHABLE TALES, will 
debate the publishing and reading of dalit 
literature in English, which has, of late, 
witnessed a spurt. Those on board the debate are:

1. Ravikumar, activist-theoretician of the Dalit 
movement whose nonfiction is being translated for 
Samya
2. Mini Krishnan, translations editor with Oxford University Press
3. Gail Omvedt, historian of the Dalit movement; 
translator of Vasant Moon's Vasti
4. K. Satyanarayana who teaches at the Central 
Institute of English and Foreign Languages, 
Hyderabad
5. Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things
6. Alok Mukherjee and Arun Prabha Mukherjee, who 
teach at York University, Toronto
7. Sivakami, Tamil dalit author whose translated 
work is forthcoming from Orient Longman
8. K.P. Singh who teaches South Asian Studies and 
Sociology at the Univ. of Washington
9. Mandira Sen of Samya-Stree, Kolkata
10. Narendra Jadhav, author of Outcaste: A Memoir (Aamcha Baap Aan Mahi)
11. Anand Teltumbde, chronicler of the dalit movement, based in Mumbai

These tracts of 40 to 60 pages will be printed in 
demy octavo size with four-color covers. The 
production values-design, editorial content-will 
be first-rate. Initially, we are planning to 
bring out 12 books in one year; that is, a set of 
four, every four months. The books will be priced 
in the range of Rs.40 to Rs.60 in India, 
depending on the pages (USD 6 per book for the 
international market). Initially, Ravikumar and I 
are putting in our money... Eventually, we plan 
to raise some money from interested, committed 
individuals; and of course through sales. We 
welcome suggestions on how we could make this a 
sustainable enterprise.

The three other books in the first set are:

'POSTMODERNISM AND RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM: A 
SCIENTIFIC REBUTTAL TO HINDU SCIENCE'-An essay by 
Meera Nanda, author of 'Breaking the Spell of 
Dharma and Other Essays' (Three Essays 
Collective, New Delhi); a review of the book; 
plus an interview with Nanda.

'AMBEDKAR: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES'-A series of 
six autobiographical sketches written by 
B.R.Ambedkar in 1935 under the title 'Waiting for 
a Visa' recounting his experiences of 
unotuchability in his childhood, youth and 
adulthood.

'BRAHMINS AND CRICKET: LAGAAN'S MILLENNIAL PURANA 
AND OTHER MYTHS'-Two articles written by S. Anand 
on the theme of 'cricket and caste': one on 
Lagaan, cricket nationalism and dalit exclusion 
published in Himal in March 2002; the responses 
to the essay by Sudhanva Deshpande, Luban Mariam 
and others; plus 'The Retreat of the Brahmin' 
featured in Outlook's cricket world cup special 
issue.

These books will be released on the evening of 5 
November 2003 in Chennai at Landmark by Narendra 
Jadhav. Jadhav's book Outcaste: A Memoir, will in 
turn be released by N.Ram, editor-in-chief of The 
Hindu. A panel discussion will follow in which 
Sivakami, writer, and Kanimozhi, poet, will 
participate. Narendra Jadhav will read from his 
work.

Seeking your support and cooperation in to launch this new vehicle,

Ravikumar and Anand

for Navayana
navayana at ambedkar.org

Ph: 0413-2253666

In Chennai: S. Anand - 044-24422199/ 24662316

SPECIAL OFFER:

Navayana offers you a special price on the set of 
four books. The cover price of this set of four 
is going to be around Rs.200. For those placing 
orders directly with Navayana, we are offering 
the set for Rs.170 -15 per cent less. This will 
include postage. (For outstation cheques, please 
add Rs.30 for collection charges.) Delivery time: 
One week (starting November 5).

Those placing bulk orders of more than 20 books 
(that is five sets of the four books) can avail a 
set of four at Rs.150 - 25 cent less.

For buyers abroad, a set of four books will cost USD 20.

Drafts/ cheques should be marked for "NAVAYANA" and addressed to:
Ravikumar
28, Veerabhadrasamy Koil Street
Lawspet
Pondicherry - 605008
Ph: 0413-2253666



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

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