SACW | 21 Oct. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE   |  21 October,  2003

Announcements:
a)  The South Asia Citizens Web web site is down, 
users are invited to use Google cache till 
further notice.  'South Asia Counter Information 
Project' a back-up, archive area and sister site 
of SACW can be accessed at: 
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/sacw/
b) 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] Pakistan: These four years (M.B. Naqvi)
[2] Pakistan: Barbers down razors in [NWFP town]
[3] India: Appeal to NHRC by The Delhi University 
Teachers in Defence of SAR Geelani
[4] India: VHP activists heckle Godhra filmmaker
[5] India: Renaming The Women's Studies Centres (Nalini Taneja)
[6] India: Call for meeting of Delhi Social Forum (Delhi, 23 Oct.)
[7] India: Guilty Punished (Ram Puniyani)
[8] India: A Talk With Mahasweta Devi (Ahmedabad, 23 Oct.)
[9] India: Censorship of internet  (editorial, The Hindu)

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

[1.]

These four years

By M.B. Naqvi

It was four years ago that a constitutional 
government was overthrown by the Generals of the 
Army who chose to put Gen. Pervez Musharraf on 
the throne and called him the Chief Executive of 
Pakistan. There was nothing unique about the coup 
d'etat, except that there was no declaration of 
Martial Law and the naming of the top job as CE. 
It was a military takeover nonetheless.

It is true that the press has remained free; it 
has been even critical of the regime and 
occasionally of the CE's, or later President's, 
person. Some new TV and radio channels have also 
been allowed, though they are not as free as the 
press, perhaps by choice. But a disturbing 
pattern of beating up, threatening --- sometime 
indirectly --- of the more critical journalists 
has emerged. It includes patronage of those who 
support. At any rate, the unexplained secret 
expenditures by the Ministries and the socalled 
agencies go on. These detract from the tall 
claims of all media being totally free. The Oct 
10 letter of Human Rights Watch to the President 
is not without a basis.

The government of President Musharraf also claims 
the turning around of the economy. There is no 
doubt that the external viability of the State of 
Pakistan had been under threat in the year the 
military again, for the fourth time, seized 
power. Pakistan faced the prospect of finally 
defaulting in the payment of its debt liabilities 
to other institutions at a later date than 1999. 
Mr. Iqbal Ahsan has claimed that Nawaz government 
had already arranged for a short-term 
rescheduling of debt repayments and servicing and 
was in the process of rescheduling of high 
interest short-term loans, taken from 
international money market. He says there was no 
threat of immediate default. But the situation, 
on the then trends, would have been exceedingly 
dangerous few years hence because the process of 
financing external expenditures by borrowing 
short was continuing. There is therefore some 
merit in what Mr. Shaukat Aziz claims.

But how successful the Musharraf regime has been 
in the economic sphere? Here we see two 
situations: the one as it obtained from Oct 12, 
1999 to September 10, 2001, almost two years 
after the takeover, when future macro-economic 
vulnerabilities, after the rescheduling was to 
end, looked quite menacing despite the tendency 
of the regime not to go on borrowing from private 
international banks. The second is the situation 
after Sept 11, 2001. It has been vastly 
different. Up to $ 2 billion may have come in 
grants in the last two years. More of aid has 
been received. There are two improvements, one 
quite incidental to the change in the banking 
sector after 9/11, and the other for which credit 
can be given to the regime. The former was the 
increase in home remittances and the latter was 
an increase in exports; after all Pakistan never 
went above the earlier ceiling of $ 8 to 9 
billion and is now earning exports worth over $ 
11 billion. This performance is to be assessed as 
good show.

The loudest claim of the regime about building up 
Monetary Reserves of more than $ 11 billion --- 
clearly an all time high --- is not as impressive 
as it looks on the surface. In them up to $ 4 or 
have been attributed to remittances. The rest 
have been purchased from the market place. It is 
doubtful if this practice of buying dollars from 
the kerb market was available to civilian 
governments for fear of IMF-WB objecting to the 
source of these dollars which were not earned by 
Pakistan and were not a part of remittances. 
International objections can be visualised. But 
the political acceptability of the regime has 
made all the difference. It is to preserve this 
cosy relationship with IFIs that Dr. Ishrat 
Hussain has kept all his up to $ 12 billion in 
dollar assets --- and inside the US. This is an 
imprudent thing to do. Dollar is a currency under 
pressure from both the Yen and Euro, while 
keeping one's only assets in the US is giving a 
hostage to Uncle Sam. Ask Iranians and others 
about the risks.

Let's revert to larger questions. How will this 
regime be remembered in future? What has it done 
to Pakistan --- and also what it will do to it 
when and if it goes? No none democratic regime is 
permanent; what goes up comes down. So it is 
necessary to have an idea whether this intrusion 
by Men on White Chargers have helped Pakistan to 
become more stable and at peace with itself? Is 
it more democratic? Are the people better off? 
Are the people more free and secure in their 
homes? Is Pakistan more safe today than it was in 
the days of Nawaz Sharif or Benazir Bhutto? How 
bright is its future now that the Musharraf 
regime holds sway over the country?

Let's take the people's freedoms first. On what 
do these freedoms rest? All the freedoms that a 
Pakistani enjoys today are privileges granted by 
Gen. Pervez Musharraf. If he had chosen to clamp 
down, as his military predecessors had done three 
times, all Pakistanis would have been in a bind. 
Freedoms granted by one man can be taken away by 
him. After all, they have not been won by the 
people after a struggle. A Briton, French man or 
American is free because his Constitution 
guarantees his freedoms and no one dares to 
tamper with their Constitution. Look at 
Pakistan's Constitutions. They have been violated 
with impunity so many times. One does not know if 
there is another country which has had nearly 
five or six constitutions in the space of 56 
years; each time it was tampered, abrogated or 
'put in abeyance' --- ah! that wonderful phrase 
which enables a dictator to eat his cake and have 
it too. The simple fact is that people are no 
longer citizens (of Pakistan) today; they are 
subjects of one man who, in his wisdom, has given 
them some privileges.

How better off are the Pakistanis? Every 
independent economist says that not only the new 
prosperity --- whatever its true quantum --- has 
not reached 80 per cent of Pakistanis, their 
actual situation has deteriorated. IFIs have been 
constrained to ask the Musharraf regime: why are 
the HDIs of Pakistanis so abysmally low; please 
do something about them. There is so much in 
print about the march of poverty in the last four 
years that Mr. Shaukat Aziz has stopped 
contradicting them as he did in his third year. 
Eighty per cent of Pakistanis never had it so 
bad, although the top 5 to 7 per cent continue 
getting richer and richer. Look at the statistics 
and compare the per capita consumption of food 
and cloth today with that of 1947; that will 
yield a perspective.

Pakistan is known for its succession of Men on 
Horseback --- four of them in 50 years. Democracy 
never flourished here. It collapsed initially in 
the space of seven years. A compromise 
constitution was made in 1956. It was abrogated 
two years later. A pockmarked democracy was tried 
between 1972 to 1977. Both the people and a 
general overthrew it. Another hybrid democracy 
--- authoritarians holding the reins of true 
power with a façade of democratic institutions 
--- was in office between 1986 and 1999. During 
these 13 years five Prime Ministers were 
dismissed before completing their tenure under 
the signatures of men who could not be elected to 
the chairmanship of a municipality. This sham 
democracy was destroyed by Musharraf, as he 
himself put it.

The country would be racked today in an intense 
popular protest movement if only the people had 
any hope or confidence in themselves. They are 
apathetic because every time they struggled for 
democracy and as they neared victory, a General 
came in from a side room and snatched the prize. 
This happened in 1969. It happened in 1977. The 
struggles in 1964 and 1983-84 failed and were 
more or less suppressed --- by military 
dictators. So they are hesitating today, though 
they might yet surprise the pessimists.

The country had never seen such lawlessness as 
today. Kidnapping for ransom, that scared away 
foreign investors, is still there. Car snatching 
or stealing are common and a widespread network 
of recycling the snatched cars exists. Authority 
is unable to put an end to it. Physical 
infrastructure in cities, other than Islamabad 
and Lahore, is in an awful condition. Everything 
is in short supply: potable water, electricity, 
roads, means of mass transportation, houses, 
hospitals, schools and even clean unpolluted air. 
No one has thought of a large enough network of 
training/teaching arrangements for imparting 
necessary skills required for progress.

Among the seven goals that Gen. Musharraf set for 
himself when he took upon himself the task of 
running the country, there was one promoting 
provincial harmony for strengthening the 
federation. How fares this harmony? Pakistanis 
were never so divided as today; Sindh, 
Balochistan and NWFP tend to unite on many 
important issues against Punjab: Kalabagh Dam, 
Greater Thal Canal, distribution of funds from 
the Divisible Pool, provincial shares of Indus 
Waters and of course jobs.

Sectarianism is an admitted menace. Has it grown 
or become less of a clear and present danger to 
national unity and solidarity? Who commits these 
crimes ought to be known to the government that 
has so many sources of intelligence. Does it 
know? Or perhaps it utilises these criminals for 
political purposes. Traditionally, the 
intelligence services always had liaison with 
sectarian parties, some of which were formed with 
Gen. Ziaul Haq's help. Or have these creatures 
grown so big and powerful as to have overgrown 
the official influence.

Is the country more stable or secure requires 
deep thought. As for stability, the whole world 
regards the absence of a truly operative and 
commonly respected constitution under which 
governments come and go according to popular 
wishes as a sign of instability. Evidence of 
regular marching in of Generals and marching out 
of elected Prime Ministers confirms that 
impression. As for security, well, a war with 
India is being postponed since 1980s --- 
reportedly through US mediation. There is a 
threat of nuclear exchange and Mr. Musharraf 
himself had made not a few threats of an 
'unconventional' war. Pakistan has just seen a 
year-long military confrontation with the massing 
of a million troops on international frontiers. 
None of the issues from which the threat of war 
arose has gone away or resolved. The war threat 
was real and it remains. And if there is the use 
of atomic weapons, well, it means disaster no 
matter what happens to or in the other country. 
That threat is clear and present.

Moreover, Pakistan is isolated from most of its 
neighbours. Iran, despite US' quasi-accusations 
of Pakistan having helped it with nuclear 
knowhow, is wary and unhappy with Musharraf 
regime's Afghan policies. China continues to help 
not because it likes Pakistan's policies; it has 
its own purposes. The Gulf's Arabs, despite their 
strategic aid to Pakistan's rulers, find no 
reason to side with Pakistan or annoy India. And 
it stands to reason. Other Arabs hate Pakistan. 
The only friends Islamabad can count on, to an 
extent, is Bangladesh --- again for its own 
schizophrenic reasons. Pakistan security is 
supposedly based on support and friendship with 
the US. Bush Administration does not tire of 
supporting Musharraf, to be sure. But can the 
latter or his country depend solely on the US? 
What is the exact nature of US-Pakistan 
relations? To guage or assess the true American 
attitudes and purposes vis-à-vis Pakistan a 
commission of inquiry is not really needed.



____


[2.]

BBC News, 20 October, 2003
Barbers down razors in Pakistan
By Haroon Rashid
BBC correspondent in Peshawar

Barbers in a mountainous Pakistani town have 
banded together to ban the shaving of beards.

A Pashtun chieftain: Beards are the norm for those who can grow them

Travellers to scenic Bisham who ask for a 
refreshing shave will now find all 17 of the 
town's barbers refuse to use the razor.
Signs freshly installed in the town's barber 
shops tell customers not to ask for any existing 
beards or stubble to be removed.
The decision was taken after a committee of 
barbers decided it was un-Islamic to shave beards.
According to the barbers' ruling, anyone 
violating the ban will face a fine of 20,000 
rupees, or around $350, and the closure of his 
business.
Islamic sentiment runs high in the town, which is 
in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, a 
belt of land bordering Afghanistan and ruled by 
Pashtun tribes.
Bisham is a stronghold of militant group Tehrik 
Nifaze Shariat Mohammadi, which was banned by 
President Musharraf in February 2002.

Tainted earnings

The ban on shaving beards is not expected to 
affect the locals in a town where almost all men 
can boast bushy facial hair.
But Bisham has also been a popular stopping-point 
for tourists from Pakistan's cities, who come 
seeking the mountain air.
The clean-shaven amongst them may now have 
trouble maintaining a stubble-free appearance, 
according to Jehanzada, a local man.
Sher Ali of the Bisham Barbers' Association says 
the ban is the result of "an ongoing debate about 
our work".
"There were concerns that our earnings from 
shaving beards were un-Islamic and tainted - so 
we have decided to stop."
The town's barbers will continue to trim men's 
hair, massage scalps and groom those who use the 
public baths.
They are reportedly considering a further ban on "Western-style" haircuts.
The puritanical former Taleban movement in 
neighbouring Afghanistan also banned men from 
shaving beards and sporting Westernised haircuts.
The fall of the Taleban in 2001 was followed by a 
barber shop boom in the Afghan capital, Kabul, as 
thousands of men flocked to be shorn of their 
regulation facial hair.

____


[3.]

Delhi University Teachers in Defence of SAR Geelani
5B Imperial Avenue
University Enclave, Delhi 110007

FOR FAVOUR OF PUBLICATION

PRESS RELEASE
October 17, 2003

The Delhi University Teachers in Defence of SAR 
Geelani has made an appeal to the NHRC to 
intervene in the case of the lecturer from Delhi 
University who has been sentenced to death by the 
Designated Special Court for POTA in the case 
regarding the attack on Parliament on December 
13, 2001.

The Committee has submitted 241 signatures from 
teachers and students of Delhi University in 
support of the appeal.

Tripta Wahi						Neeraj Malik
                               (Convenors)

o o o

Delhi University Teachers in Defence of SAR Geelani
5B Imperial Avenue
University Enclave, Delhi 110007


To
The Chairman
National Human Rights Commission,
New Delhi.

October 16, 2003

Sub: Denial of Fair Trial to Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani

Dear Sir,

This is to bring to your attention the denial of 
fair trial to a colleague of ours at Delhi 
University, SAR Geelani, an accused in the case 
concerning the attack on Parliament on December 
13, 2001. There have been a large number of 
irregularities in his trial, and he has been 
sentenced to death by the Designated Special 
Court for POTA, on the basis only of a telephonic 
conversation in Kashmiri with his brother. The 
defence has argued that the use of this 
conversation by the prosecution is seriously 
flawed in terms of legal procedure, and that the 
translation from Kashmiri to English is erroneous.
The former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani in his 
submission to the High Court has said - "The 
investigation is riddled with illegality. The 
evidence discloses concoction and fabricationŠand 
have resulted in a grave miscarriage of justice."
In the High Court, the prosecution has now 
shifted emphasis to some unrecorded calls with 
the co-accused, which Geelani has never denied. 
Geelani made a written application to the Court 
asking for an opportunity to explain these calls, 
but this basic legal right has been denied to him.
We are enclosing 241 signatures from the Delhi 
University community, to express our concern in 
this matter and to seek your intervention.
An innocent man's life is at stake, as also the 
reputation of Indian democracy. We appeal to you 
to intervene in the case in an appropriate manner 
in order to ensure that justice is done.

Yours sincerely,

Neeraj Malik  					Tripta Wahi
(Convenors, Delhi University Teachers in Defence of SAR Geelani)

Annexures: 1. Signatures from University Community

_____


[4.]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com:80/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=243440
The Times of India, October 20, 2003

VHP activists heckle Godhra filmmaker

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2003 08:07:54 PM ]
AHMEDABAD: Delhi-based filmmaker, Shubradeep 
Chakravorty, was heckled by alleged VHP 
supporters at the venue of the screening on 
Monday afternoon.

Shubradeep was here for a press-screening of his 
film Godhra Tak. The film is based on the Godhra 
train carnage.

The screening had already been shifted from its 
scheduled venue at a city hotel citing 'political 
pressures' to the more inconspicuous 'Khet 
Bhavan' near the Gandhi Ashram.

The 62-minute documentary which has been screened 
at the Film South Asia festival in Kathmandu 
recently, is claimed to be an investigative film 
on the Godhra carnage and concludes with a 
defence against the alleged conspiracy theory.

Even as the film was being screened on the first 
floor of Khet Bhavan, some 10 persons waited 
downstairs and said, "what is all this when there 
is peace in Gujarat". Later, when the screening 
was done with, they marched into the room during 
the press conference and heckled Chakravorty.

They insisted that he say 'sorry' for what he had 
done which they alleged could 'disrupt peace in 
Gujarat'.

When Chakravorty tried saying that his film had 
interviews of VHP leader Jaideep Patel, the 
miscreants dialled a number and appeared to talk 
to Patel. They even forced Chakravorty to speak 
to the person at the other end of the line.

Chakravorty, who is a former journalist told 
reporters that this was his first independent 
venture in film-making and said 'he had tried to 
make a balanced film and give the right 
information to the public'.

Asked why he chose the subject, Chakravorty said, 
"I thought the official version on the carnage 
was rubbish".

The film has interviews of international general 
secretary Pravin Togadia, Jaideep Patel, BJP MP 
Vinay Katiyar, the survivors of the S-6 coach, 
victims allegedly assaulted at Rudauli in UP by 
kar sevaks in the same trip of the Sabarmati 
express on its journey to Ahmedabad, and comments 
by former director of Central Forensic Science 
Laboratory V N Sehgal.

_____


[5]

Peoples Democracy, Vol. XXVII, No. 42
October 19, 2003

  Renaming The Women's Studies Centres
  Nalini Taneja

SOONER or later the Sangh Parivar was bound to 
take note that some educational grants also find 
their way into Women's Studies, and that much of 
the research that goes on in them is at variance 
with the prerogatives of the Hindutva agenda. 
This has now happened, and the Parivar has moved 
in to stake claim on these institutions and 
departments. This has been done through a game of 
renaming and making the usual committees, which 
could influence what grants get used for.

The UGC has taken a decision to reorganise and 
rename the twenty odd women's studies centres 
across India as "Women and Family Studies 
Centres" (report in Times Of India, August 24, 
2003), and instructions to this effect have been 
sent to the Universities concerned. As women 
academics have pointed out, this is a way of 
equating women with family, while one purpose of 
setting up these centres was precisely to look at 
the role and contributions made by women in 
fields like politics, economy, agriculture, 
industry and so on. The new focus and 
nomenclature obviously denies and works against 
an appreciation of this varied and equal role of 
women in the development of economy and society.

ROLE OF WOMEN'S STUDIES

It must be remembered that women's studies 
emerged as an important and necessary component 
of social science studies/ research as part of 
women's struggle for equality the world over, and 
the concern in social science for the search and 
enumeration of the role and contribution to 
history and society by those who have been 
marginalised. Among the 'people without history', 
if one were to go by traditional history writing 
and sociology, and the textbooks that abound in 
the school curricula the world over, are whole 
sections of people --- the blacks, the American 
Indians, the working people, and in our country 
the tribals and dalits --- including women, who 
constitute fifty per cent of the world's 
population, but have not had the privilege of 
being the object of enquiry in social sciences. 
As scholars' women have constituted an even 
smaller percentage as in most societies they do 
not have equal access to higher education, or at 
least have not overcome gender bias, in the field 
of education as much as in other fields.

Women's knowledge and knowledge about women has 
been hard to come by in as much as knowledge 
about other oppressed and marginalised groups has 
been. Impetus for women' studies came from two 
related developments: one within the social 
sciences, and the other from the radicalising 
potential of the women's movements. Women's 
studies became a valid and viable field of 
enquiry and women's studies departments were 
established not as a gift from the existing 
systems of governance but as a by product of the 
women's assertion of identity all over the world 
as equal citizens with claims to equal rights, 
including political rights, more specifically the 
vote. Their role in the formation of nations and 
in the freedom struggles in the Third World, and 
their assertion of equality within these 
struggles were clearly bound up with their 
citizenship rights, their roles as political 
activists, teachers, students, peasants and 
workers --- the entire gamut of identities that 
men claimed for themselves. The expansion of 
women's movements to include workers and 
peasants, and to encompass their demands as 
legitimate demands of the women's movements 
constituted the historical legacy of women's 
studies. To be a woman no longer implied asking 
for better status in families, although that was 
part of the struggles as well.

RADICAL AGENDA

The women's studies departments, therefore, began 
with the radical agenda of providing the 
intellectual armoury for women's political 
activism, but in the process also became linked 
with all progressive political movements, 
including the left movements whose agenda 
incorporated women's equality. This live link 
with the left oriented mass movements, in 
particular the left oriented women's movements, 
gave to this intellectual endeavour a radical 
stance. A vast body of research aimed at exposing 
gender discrimination and in linking up with the 
concerns of the women's movement. As such their 
heritage is revolutionary as well as truly 
international.

Developments within social sciences, particularly 
the assertions for a people's history of nations, 
responded to this need to include all sections of 
society until then left outside history, and 
women's studies found a place in almost all 
universities and academic institutions, except 
where there was general academic backwardness.

In India the struggles against dowry and for laws 
sensitive to women provided the backdrop for the 
emergence of women's studies, whose agenda 
included gender discrimination. In 1975 a report 
(Towards Equality), published eventually by the 
government of India, enumerated the various 
aspects of a woman's everyday existence, and the 
low status this implied, following which a number 
of research units were established all over India 
from the 1970s onwards.

CO-OPTION BY THE RIGHT WING

But even as women's studies became recognised as 
valid and necessary, they also became mainstream 
like all endeavours funded by the government, and 
have largely, although not wholly, lost their 
earlier live link with the women's movements. For 
many middle class women women's studies has 
become a substitute for political activism, and 
activism has become synonymous with studies and 
an exaggerated importance of its role in relation 
to the expressions of women from the unprivileged 
strata of society. It is no longer an accepted 
reality that there is an affinity between women's 
concerns and a left political perspective. A 
political autonomy is being consciously sought, 
which as much as the government's moves, is 
likely to make these centres vulnerable to 
co-option by the right wing.

It is being felt by many in these centres that 
women's studies are somehow autonomous from the 
political process and that it is possible to 
continue with a radical agenda in women's studies 
even as middle class women withdraw from the 
domain of politics to a third round of feminism 
where all expressions of women's power assume an 
automatic radical identity ---whether it is the 
figure of Kali or Maitreyi, or Gargi. In response 
to the current political situation a need is felt 
to 'discover' the radical potential of 
traditional figures, and to rescue them from the 
communalists rather than arm themselves against 
the right wing resurgence. It suits agenda of 
liberalisation as well as the religious 
fundamentalists to eliminate women from the 
terrain of work into the family, and to promote a 
version of women's identity that is embedded in 
the family, even as her agency is reduced within 
it as a result of being confined to it.

Family has been a subject of primary research in 
women's studies, but as an agency that women have 
to contend with, changes within which impinge on 
women's condition even as women work to transform 
it in keeping with their own aspirations as human 
beings. It is an agency whose mediating role has 
been recognised by women. All women specific 
forms of oppression ---from dowry and female 
infanticide to rape and inheritance rights and 
unequal laws --- are perpetrated within families 
and through the changing forms of the family in 
an even otherwise inequality ridden society. Yet 
to equate their aspirations and condition as 
synonymous with family, as the government is 
doing, is a step backwards and a reversal of the 
gains made by women through a century of 
struggles. It is also a clear regression in the 
field of women's research, which has continued to 
expand in terms of the subject matter covered 
and, in the past, also in terms of the objectives 
that underline the research.

THE GOVT INTERVENTION

The UGC proposals also emphasise that each 
women's studies centre is to be headed by an 
advisory committee, which must include 
representatives from the Department of Women and 
Child Development and Social Welfare Boards. This 
move is indicative of the government's attitudes 
towards women, and the patronising and social 
work approach to issues of women's equality and 
political participation, which characterise the 
government's approach. Such approaches exclude a 
genuine appraisal of gender discrimination or a 
real appreciation of issues concerned with 
women's emancipation. But in this recent move we 
may well see a definite direction that fits in 
with the Hindutva agenda as well. The presence of 
representatives from the Departments of Women and 
Child Development and Social Welfare Boards will 
certainly create pressure for a conservative 
curriculum in these centres and narrow the scope 
of the projects for which grants would be 
available. The proposals also impinge on the 
autonomy of the Universities and the rights of 
the statuary bodies in these Universities, and 
facilitate their takeover by the Hindutva forces.

Women's studies may well remain a valid subject 
in higher education under the BJP government's 
onslaught on education, but its content would 
have changed. There are already many feminists 
willing to fall in line with the view that women 
enjoyed a great position in the Vedic society, 
losing out only with the coming of foreigners --- 
of the Muslim and Christian-British variety.

Women's studies centres can save themselves from 
being co-opted by this right wing, communal 
resurgence only by asserting their identity of 
interests with the ongoing women's movement in 
this country.

______


[6]

Delhi Social Forum

A Civil Society Initiative in Search for Alternatives

Subject: Meeting on 23rd October at Indian Social Institute for
Delhi Social Forum Process

Dear Friend,

You are aware of the forthcoming Fourth World 
Social Forum (WSF) to be organized in Mumbai from 
16th to 21st January 2004. Some of the members of 
Delhi civil society are either in the General 
Council, Working Committee or Organising 
Committee. Various efforts are made to ensure 
that the  WSF is truly an open space and a forum 
for alternatives.

A small group of members of Delhi civil society 
met on 15th October at Rajendra Bhavan to explore 
the possibilities of organizing Delhi Social 
Forum and other related issues. The following 
reasons were identified for this initiative:
ÿ Expand the base of the World Social Forum (WSF) 
by involving those who are interested in the 
proceedings of WSF but do not have a platform for 
this;
ÿ Bring in new faces into the civil society forums;
ÿ Continue the process initiated at the Asia 
Social Forum and work towards meaningful 
participation in the WSF Mumbai;
ÿ Provide a platform for highlighting many of the 
issues that will be discussed in the WSF;
ÿ Provide open space for some of the debates that are going on about WSF.

A broader planning meeting of more of the members 
of civil society has been planed for October 
23rd, [Thursday] at 3.00 pm at Indian Social 
Institute. We request you to participate in this 
planning meeting and contribute in this civil 
society initiative. Please inform others also to 
participate in the same.

In the 15th October meeting, following suggestions were considered:
ÿ Keeping the above issues it would be proper to organize Delhi Social Forum;
ÿ The tentative date is December 4th [Friday] 
2003. Since on 6th December there are other 
activities which have been going on for a decade, 
it would be better to hold the Delhi Social Forum 
on 4th December around that time depending on the 
availability of halls, etc.
ÿ The possible venue could be Constitutional 
Club. Prior to 4th December, some programmes 
related to WSF would be organized in JNU and 
Jamia. In Delhi University this process is going 
on. Since Constitutional Club is a central 
location, this was preferred to other venues.

Keeping the above proposals, a whole day 
programme was envisaged. The framework of the 
programme is as follows:
  9.30 to 11.00 Plenary Session - Main Hall
11.00 Tea Break
11.30 to 1.00 Parallel Sessions on 3 themes in 3 halls in Constitutional Club
1.0 Lunch Break
2.0 To 4.00 Parallel Sessions on 3 themes in 3 halls in Constitutional Club
4.00 Tea Break
4.30 Cultural Programmes - Constitutional Club lawns

The Theme for the Plenary: WSF: the Objectives, the Process and the Outcome
The Themes for the Parallel Sessions:
1. Alternative Media: Prospects and Constrains
2. Nationalism, Communalism and Globalisation
3. Social Movements, Political Parties and NGOs
4. Dignity: Tribals, Dalits and Other Marginalised Communities
5. Delhi, Development and the Deprived
6. WSF and Open Space

A rough calculation projected the budget to the 
tune of Rs. 50,000/- for the entire event.

These were some of the points of discussion that 
took place in the brainstorming meeting. We are 
circulating this information to you to request 
you to respond to these proposals and join in 
this Delhi Civil Society Initiatives to ensure 
the mobilization and organisation of Delhi Social 
Forum on 23rd October. These proposals are only 
to initiate the discussions and are only some 
preliminary suggestions for the 23rd October 
[Thursday] meeting at 3.00 pm at Indian Social 
Institute.

Thanking you in anticipation

Anil Misra, Prabir Purkayastha, Mukul Sharma, 
Aditya Nigam, Nivedita Menon, Subodh Verma, 
Rajani Tilak, Amitabh Behar, Prakash Louis, H. 
Mahadevan,Vijay Pratap, Ashok Bharti, Rajendra 
Ravi, Somya Dutta, Soni Thangamam, Arun Kumar, 
Amit Sen Gupta, Dinesh Abrol, Bulu Sareen, 
Sanjeev Kaura, Kamal Mitra Chenoy, W.R. Varadarajan.

17.10.2003

______


[7]

(From Milligazette 16 Oct.-31 Oct.)

Guilty Punished

Ram Puniyani

Conviction of Dara Singh in the murder of Pastor
Graham Stewart Stains (September, 2003) and his two
minor children comes as a small respite in the present
scenario where the perpetrators of communal violence
generally do not get punished. It is rare that the
prosecution makes the case properly and then deterrent
punishment is awarded. It is worth recalling here that
Dara Singh instigated the village youth and led their
mob to torch the Pastor and his two sons who were
sleeping in a jeep out in the open on the night of
22nd Jan 1999.

This act shook the nation so much that when the then
President Dr. K.R. Narayanan said that this is an act
from the ëworldís inventory of black deedsí and that
ëit is a monumental aberration which went against the
traditions cherished by all Indianí, he was
articulating the shock and anguish of average Indians.
Since Dara Singh was associated with Bajrang Dal, none
other than Madanlal Khurana a cabinet minister
resigned in disgust saying that there is enough proof
that the murderer was from Bajrang Dal. At the same
time in an operation cover up, Mr.L.K. Advani, the BJP
supreme, Home minister, asserted that he knows the
Bajarang dal too well and they cannot indulge in any
violence. The major attempt to put a lid on this act
came from the delegation of ministers comprising of
M.M. Joshi, Biju Patanaik and George Fernandes. This
trio visited the site for two hours and declared that
the murder is part of the international conspiracy to
destabilize the BJP led NDA Govt. At the same time
VHPís Ashok Chowgule stated that Stains invited this
act due to his activities of conversion which the
natives resented and have done him to death. This was
the thinking of most of the segments of RSS
affiliates.

In the wake of this episode Wadhava commission was
appointed to investigate this crime. Though the brief
of this commission was very narrow still it did come
to the conclusion that Pastor Stains was not involved
in the acts of conversion. He was mainly a leprosy
worker. The population of Christians in the area where
he was working did not show any significant rise. It
was 0.27% in 1971 and was 0.31 in 19991. Again from
1991 to 1998 the rise in population was a biological
one rather than due to conversions. This is in
contrast to the claims of RSS ideologues who maintain
that Pastor was doing the conversion work. It is
laudable that the widow of Pastor Stains, Gladys
Stains, has forgiven the culprits of her husband and
childrenís murder and has dedicated herself to carry
on the anti-leprosy work which her husband had
initiated.

This single episode demonstrates the deeper designs of
those pursuing communal politics and agenda for their
vested interests. It has been popularized from last
many a decades and more so during the last few years
that Christian missionaries are converting the
gullible, poor adivasis to Christianity, that this is
supported by the international funding, that this
conversion is the cause of secessionist activities in
the North East. One is struck by the timing of
beginning of anti-Christian violence from 1998. During
this year alone there were 116 attacks on Christians,
which is more than the number of attacks which took
place in all the previous years put together. This was
the year when BJP led NDA coalition was ruling in the
center. Since then the number of such attacks went up
for next three years or so. The accusations against
Christian missionaries have come up during last few
decades only. As such in a democratic country, since
religion is the private matter of the individual, it
is immaterial whether people from different religions
are trying to spread their religion to others or not.
As such it is ironical that Christianity, which is
older in India than in many a countries in the west,
is being called a foreign religion. As such the
percentage of Christian community in India has been
formed over a period of around fifteen centuries and
in the year 2001 their population stood at 2.18%. Also
there has been constant decline in their population
during last four decades, 2.60 (1971), 2.44 (1981),
2.32 (1991). While this core statastics is questioned
on the ground that there are many crypto Christians, a
new innovative term, who ëhideí their religion to
avail of social facilities. One is aghast at this
argument. How many privileges and other reservations
are available for low caste now? Can so many
Christians not declare their religion to take benefit
of reservation? Since when did they start hiding their
religion? This argument defies all the logic.

The statistics of North Eastern regions is flashed
regularly. Here the overall population being low, it
has no bearing on the total number of Christians in
the country. In the total population of close to 21
million Christians it is less than 2 millions, and
they are being projected as a danger in the North
Eastern region. Their adopting Christianity from the
tribal cults is a matter of their own choice. The
north eastern ethnic issue is deliberately being
projected as the one related to religion.
Interestingly, the major terrorist outfit ULFA, one of
the militant groups of NE, is not a Christian outfit.
The state of Manipur which has the Hindu majority is
also the state which has the highest militancy in that
region. India is a Nation in the making and faced with
many ethnic challenges. Confusing ethnicity and
religion is another ploy which the dominant political
streams are indulging in. A very low level propaganda
is being indulged in to demonize the Christian
missionaries about their methods, miracles etc. While
demonizing the Christian missions in far flung areas
the Christian activities in cities around educational
institutions and health related work are being totally
ignored. Are all the Christian missionaries of the
same mould? There are many sects amongst Christians,
like any other religion, and their practical
activities are not uniform.  Surely some of them might
be doing the conversion work, bur so far as their work
is done in the framework of Indian constitution it
should not worry us. Even in states where the
anti-conversion laws have been brought in hardly any
cases have been registered against the Christian
priests for doing illegal conversion work.

One must reiterate that working in the constitutional
limits is as much the right of Christian missionaries
as of any other preacher. The campaign of Gharvapasi
in which tribal are converted to Hinduism is as much a
conversion. It is looked up as a laudable act as it is
presumed that adivisis are Hindus. To regard them as
Hindus is the cleverest ploy of RSS politics. If
religion is determined by oneís holy books, prophets,
festivals, places of pilgrimage, and the clergy,
Adivasis by no stretch of imagination can be called as
Hindus. But again their taking to Hinduism is their
right as much as it is their right to take the
Christianity or Islam or any other religion for that
matter. The issues around conversion are political
issues and have nothing whatsoever to do with religion
or Nationality. In democratic set up to assert that
only people belonging to a particular religion or
religions are nationalists is the biggest insult to
our constitution. Hindutva after getting emboldened by
post babri demolition surge has undertaken anti
Christian attacks and attack on conversions in order
to consolidate it own self by projecting Christians as
threat to the Hindu Nation. Surely the contribution of
Christians, Muslims in freedom struggle and Nation
building is as much as that of Hindus. To cast
aspersions on any particular religion for secessionism
or for being anti-national is the act which will
weaken the unity of the nation. It is time we wake up
to the false propaganda being spread by RSS and its
affiliates and bring the national agenda back to
solving the unresolved issues facing the country be
they ethnic, or the oneís related to the dignified
survival in the society.

______


[8]

-----MOVEMENT FOR SECULAR DEMOCRACY
C/o Narmad Meghani Library, Opposite Natraj 
Railway Crossing, Mithakhali, Ellisbridge 
Ahmedabad 380 006 | Tel/ Fax : (079) 6404418. 
<mailto:email-dnrad1 at sancharnet.in><dnrad1 at sancharnet.in>

23rd.October
A   TALK WITH
  Ms. MAHASWETA DEVI
Day-Thursday,Time- 6 P.M. to7.30 P.M. only
Place- NARMAD -MEGHANI  LIBRARY
All are requested to come by 5. 45. P.M. sharp.
Ms. MAHASWETA DEVI will leave for Baroda at 7. 30 P. M.
Please join and invite other friends to attend and circulate this mail widely
From MSD.

______


[9]

http://www.thehindu.com/2003/10/21/stories/2003102101231000.htm
The Hindu, Oct 21, 2003 Editorial

Censorship of internet

THE BLOCKING OF an internet discussion group of a 
little-known Meghalaya separatist organisation 
has exposed mindless official ineptitude. The 
Government of India's directive to all internet 
service providers (ISPs) in the country to block 
access to the Yahoo! discussion group of the 
Hunniewrtep National Liberation Council of 
Meghalaya has had all the negative consequences 
usually associated with bumbling censorship. It 
has drawn attention to an obscure separatist 
outfit and simultaneously blocked access to all 
discussion groups on Yahoo!. Ironically, at the 
end of it all, those keen on knowing what the 
Meghalaya separatists are discussing can very 
easily circumvent the Government ban.

The internet has become a public space for the 
expression of a plurality of views the likes of 
which cannot be seen in any other media. While 
the net is rightly celebrated for the 
"cyber-democracy" it fosters, the libertarian 
arguments about the need to protect an absolute 
freedom of expression on the internet are 
indefensible. The right to espouse child 
pornography or spew hate at particular 
communities cannot be defended. Governments do 
have a duty and a right to block or ban such 
web-sites, although internet technology is such 
that the authors of such sites are always a step 
ahead of the regulators. Bans on political groups 
are a different matter: there is always a 
temptation to use charges of sedition to justify 
a muzzling of dissent. The Indian Government has 
been relatively open when it comes to imposing 
political censorship on the net. But it is a 
mystery why it chose to pick on the discussion 
group of the Meghalaya separatists. The 
Lashkar-e-Taiba and the ULFA have discussion 
groups on Yahoo!, and so do fundamentalists of 
all hues. But none of them has attracted official 
attention. The Government action has seen 
membership of the Meghalaya web discussion list 
increase from 20 to over 300 within a fortnight. 
Few had heard earlier of the Hunniewrtep National 
Liberation Council of Meghalaya. The Government 
ban has bestowed on the separatists a degree of 
attention they could not have hoped for earlier. 
Moreover, it is easy to become a member of this 
particular internet group. It is also possible, 
using one of a huge number of "proxy" servers, to 
visit the Yahoo! web-site sought to be blocked. 
The ban has clearly been counter-productive.

The most unfortunate outcome is that the ISPs, in 
their haste to comply with the Government 
directive, have blocked access to all Yahoo! 
discussion groups. These lists are some of the 
most open fora of exchange on the internet. They 
cover a range of issues and meet a variety of 
interests. From the most simple communication 
like e-mail exchanges among members of a family 
to the most professional such as discussions on 
technology issues, the Yahoo! lists provide 
invaluable services to users of the internet. 
Hundreds of thousands of such Yahoo! groups - 
including 12,000-plus with an India focus - are 
now inaccessible to users in India. The reason is 
that the ISPs, in what is supposed to be an IT 
superpower, do not have the software to block 
access to individual sites on Yahoo!. If the 
Government has been clumsy in its targeting, the 
ISPs have let their subscribers down by imposing 
an indiscriminate ban. The Government must go 
deep into the issue and the practical 
consequences and implications of internet 
censorship. The ISPs must immediately upgrade 
what it takes to avoid wholesale inconvenience to 
the growing number of Indian internet users in 
the event of an extreme case attracting official 
censorship.


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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
matters of peace and democratisation in South 
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit 
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South 
Asia Citizens Web (www.mnet.fr/aiindex). [Please 
note the SACW web site has gone down, you will 
have to for the time being search google cache 
for materials]
The complete SACW archive is available at: http://sacw.insaf.net
South Asia Counter Information Project a sister 
initiative provides a partial back -up and 
archive for SACW. http://perso.wanadoo.fr/sacw/

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

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