SACW | 23 Nov. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE   |  23 November,  2003
via South Asia Citizens Web:  www.sacw.net

_______

[1] Bangladesh: Ahmadias under attack (Edit., The Daily Star) +
Attacks on Ahmadias -  No move to arrest 
attackers, instigators (related report)
[2] Say no to India-Pak. cricket (C. Rammanohar Reddy) + (related report)
'Pakistani water polo team on a friendship match 
with Pune's Deccan Gymkhana Club was disrupted by 
a right-wing  group'
[3] India: Messages Protesting Hateful Remarks by 
Leader of the Hindu right VHP re Teesta Setalvad 
and and others seeking justice for victims of 
Gujarat massacres (New Socialisst Movement and 
Sahmat)
[4] Fear of the Foreigner:
- Bombay: Slaps and kicks for job-seekers in Sena land (Anand Soondas)
- Whose Language? Editorial in The [Assam] Sentinel
[5] Inventing genocide  (Praveen Swami) + 
RESPONSE by Pritam Singh and Arvind Narrain


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

[1]

The Daily Star (Dhaka)
November 23, 2003
Editorial

Ahmadias under attack
A blatant violation of people's religious rights
The attacks on police by around 500 people, who 
were planning to evict the members of Ahmadia 
sect from their own mosque at East Nakhalpara in 
the city on Friday, are but an example of 
religious intolerance finding expression in most 
unsavoury acts of violence.

The news is disquieting, not least because the 
attacks follow the Kushtia incidents that forced 
some Ahmadia families to flee their homes.

The plan to oust some people from their mosque 
was a blatant violation of citizens' right to 
have freedom in religious matters. It is also 
very likely to taint the country's image and send 
wrong signals to the outside world. Religious 
tolerance and attack on places of worship cannot 
simply go together.

If such acts are not nipped in the bud, religious 
obscurantism will continue to divide society and 
obstruct the emergence of a culture based on 
respect for the faiths of people, regardless of 
whoever they might be. The lesson to be learned 
from Friday's violence is quite clear: the 
fanatic elements are trying to disrupt social and 
religious harmony. We must not forget what 
happened in Pakistan after it failed to thwart 
the anti- Ahmadia campaign in the late forties, 
which saw the fanatics pouncing on the members of 
this small sect. We must also remember what 
Shia-Sunni sectarian violence has done, and is 
still doing, to Pakistan.

Bangladesh has traditionally been a moderate 
country with no record of such intimidating 
outburst of religious bigotry.

It has transpired that a section of religious 
leaders are trying to arouse people to frenzied 
action in the name of service to religion, 
instead of preaching peace and tolerance-- the 
real message of Islam. What they have 
conveniently forgotten is that divisiveness in 
any form will only add to social tension.

Friday's incidents also indicate that fanatic 
groups are working in an organised manner. Now, 
it is the duty of all sane elements in society to 
resist the disruptive forces. The government, for 
its part, should take a firm stand on the 
question of religious tolerance. It must not 
allow the bigots to decide who is a Muslim and 
who is not. The role of the Khatib of Rahim Metal 
Mosque in Tejgaon needs to be investigated by the 
authorities, as there is ample evidence that he 
instigated the mob.

Bangladesh is, and must remain, a country of religious tolerance and harmony.

o o o

The Daily Star
November 23, 2003

Attacks on Ahmadias
No move to arrest attackers, instigators
Staff Correspondent
Although fundamentalists openly attacked a mosque 
of the Ahmadia sect in Nakhalpara Friday noon and 
caused communal disturbance, the government has 
done nothing to arrest the culprits till 
yesterday.

All it did was to deploy police in the disturbed 
Nakhalpara area where over 60 people including 17 
cops were injured in the Friday's attacks.

Tejgaon Police Station sources said they did not 
receive 'any directives to arrest anyone'. No 
case or investigation has been initiated to book 
the attackers or the instigators who want the 
Ahmadias declared non-Muslims.

However, police recorded a case against 
unidentified persons for attacking cops on the 
spot.

Meanwhile, militant groups like Hifazate Khatme 
Nabuwat Andolan, Bangladesh brought out a 
demonstration in the city led by one Abdul Hannan 
and demanded that the Ahmadia be declared 
non-Muslims. The law-enforcers did not intercept 
the demonstration that made insinuating remarks 
against the Ahmadias.

The Ahmadias in Nakhalpara meanwhile remain 
confined to their area, specifically to their 
mosque in fear of further attacks. Some 60 
policemen were seen guarding the place.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is learnt to have 
directed the law-enforcers to ensure that no 
communal attacks on religious sects occur.

"We are neither involved in politics nor craving 
for any worldly gains. Then why are we being 
targeted?" Abdul Awwal, a spokesman of Ahmadia 
Muslim Jamaat, said.

"Our people across the country are now under 
attacks," Moulana Moazzem Hossain of the Ahmadia 
mosque at East Nakhalpara said.

"Under the banners of Khatme Nabuwat 
Co-ordination Commmittee, Jaise Mustafa, Imam 
Sanghati Parishad, Aamra Dhakabashi, Nabi Darodi 
and Darade Rasul, they are now united to unleash 
attacks to evict us from the land," he said.

The worst attack was made in Khulna on October 8, 
1999 during Juma prayers when a time bomb planted 
in a mosque exploded killing seven Ahmadias and 
injuring 27.

"Shah Alam, a follower of the Ahmadia sect, was 
killed at Roghunathpur in Jhikargachha, Jessore 
on October 31 and his wife filed a case accusing 
16 the same day. But the killers filed a false 
case on November 16 accusing four Ahmadias," said 
another top Ahmadia leader.

Some people attacked Bakshibazar Ahmadia mosque 
and vandalised it on October 29, 1992.

Besides, extremists confined some 13 Ahmadia 
families of Bhabanipur in Kushtia since the 
beginning of Ramadan and thratened to kill them 
on the Eid day.

Bigots in Ambarnagar of Laxmipur tortured many 
Ahmadias and vowed to drive them away before the 
Eid.

The Ahmadias of Fazilpur of Feni are also under 
threat and found no help of the law-enforcers 
despite requests.

Moazzem Hossain said the main difference between 
them and the other Muslims is that the Ahmadias 
believe Imam Mahdi, who according to the Muslim 
faith will appear to show the way to light, has 
already been born and died.



_____



[2]


Magazine / The Hindu
Nov 23, 2003
AGAINST THE GRAIN

Say no to India-Pak. cricket

C. RAMMANOHAR REDDY


IT is difficult to accept that you can have the 
same view as Bal Thackeray. But, yes, I am 
against the resumption of bilateral cricket 
contests between India and Pakistan.

The arguments in favour of regular and close 
cricketing contact between the two countries are 
familiar and they are made in many contexts. It 
is said that the only way relations between India 
and Pakistan can improve is if there is closer 
people-to-people contact. Today, there is so 
little interaction between the two neighbours 
that the two countries may well have been located 
in separate continents. Sport is one of the best 
avenues for facilitating people-to-people 
contact. And what better sport than cricket, the 
passion of more than one and a quarter billion 
people in the two countries, for bringing India 
and Pakistan together? Sadly, when it comes to 
cricket and when it is these two teams playing 
against each other, it does not work that way. 
Relations between the people of India and 
Pakistan seem to worsen and not improve, when the 
two countries are on the cricket field.

For the tens of thousands in the stadium and the 
millions in front of the TV, a game of passion 
turns into the ultimate battle between the two 
peoples. For far too many Indians, each game of 
cricket is an opportunity to teach Pakistan which 
is the greater nation. (Unfortunately, for every 
victory in a World Cup match there have been too 
many losses at Sharjah to forget. If we favour 
Sachin taking apart Shoaib in South Africa in 
2003, we still cannot erase the scar of Javed 
Miandad's last ball six against Chetan Sharma in 
Sharjah in 1985.) And for far too many 
Pakistanis, a cricket match can be a great 
leveller. It is an opportunity for the country to 
shake off its insecurity vis-a-vis its huge 
neighbour and prove who is better when it comes 
to 11 against 11. The cricket craze becomes an 
opportunity for people on both sides to express 
their anger about the other, dredge out their 
bitterness about Partition, the Bangladesh war 
and, tragically and increasingly, display their 
prejudices towards minorities.

"Normal" sporting contact is supposed to bring 
people together. But those who make this argument 
forget that there have been long spells of 
"normal" cricket ties between the two countries. 
These tours helped the players get to know each 
other, but they brought their followers to the 
barricades. In the 1950s, the two teams played 10 
Test matches against each other, in the 1960s, 
just five and in the 1990s, only three. However, 
between 1978 (when ties were revived after a gap 
of 17 years) and 1989, as many as 29 Tests were 
played during seven tours in 11 years. And even 
in one-day ties, during the 1980s, before Sharjah 
and Toronto took over, India and Pakistan played 
more one-day internationals in the two countries 
(18 versus 12) than in Sharjah. And did all those 
exchange tours "normalise" relations about 
cricket? No they did not. Here is one example of 
contact in sport not leading anywhere. The 1980s 
contests, one can even say, only laid the 
foundation for the intense anger that now seems 
to regularly pour out whenever the two countries 
contest a game of cricket. That "edge", everyone 
talks about when India meets Pakistan in cricket, 
turns into a mental bloody war.

Yes, everybody speaks about Chennai applauding 
the Pakistani team when it pulled off a Test win 
against Sachin Tendulkar in 1999. But we don't 
want to remember that within weeks, the 
"sporting" ground of Eden Gardens had to be 
emptied of spectators so that Pakistan could 
defeat India in silence in the inaugural Asian 
Test Championship match. Across the border, the 
Independence Golden Jubilee series in 1998 
between India and Pakistan had to be played under 
the supervision of heavily armed policemen.

I was in Kolkata in March this year, on the night 
India beat Pakistan in the World Cup. I was 
spending the night in a hotel on the borders of a 
ramshackle part of Park Circus, which was heavily 
populated by poor Muslims. As I made my way back 
to my hotel when the game in South Africa was 
coming to a close, the hawkers on the pavement 
were scooping up their wares as if a cyclone was 
going to hit the city soon. I foolishly asked one 
of them why the sudden rush to close shop. The 
look of anger was enough to make me cringe with 
shame. On another road, on the entrance to a lane 
a hastily scrawled banner had been put up 
("Congratulations, India") and at the entrance 
stood a small group of young men. This was their 
way of asserting their Indianness, and answering 
all those critics who say the minorities can only 
burst crackers whenever Pakistan beats India in a 
game of hockey. There was no violence that night 
when hordes honked their way through the streets 
of Kolkata. But there were sporadic incidents of 
violence in Bangalore.

Can one argue then that the people of India and 
Pakistan will come together if they did not play 
each other on the cricket field? That is a silly 
counter-argument. The people of the two countries 
have invested far too much pride in cricket to be 
able to accept that it is only a game played by 
22 highly-paid sportspersons. Cricket contests 
between India and Pakistan can become normal when 
we see each other as friendly neighbours. Until 
then, like the hawker on the Kolkata pavement we 
can only scurry for physical and mental safety 
when there is a clash on the cricket field.

o o o

[See related material]

The Times of India, NOVEMBER 23, 2003
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/297269.cms

City disappoints Pakistani youth
R. MICHAEL JOSEPH AND RAJESH KORDE
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2003 02:47:15 AM ]
PUNE: An eight-member Pakistani water polo team 
whose friendship match with Pune's Deccan 
Gymkhana Club was disrupted by a right-wing 
organisation, displayed considerable maturity, 
goodwill and optimism while reacting to the 
incident on Saturday.

Threats from the Patit Pawan Sanghatana on 
Saturday afternoon forced the Deccan Gymkhana 
Club to cancel an invitational water polo match 
with the visiting team of Lahore University of 
Management Sciences (LUMS) that was organised by 
the Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and 
Democracy.

And though the eight Pakistani sportsmen, all in 
their 20s, were whisked away to a safe, 
undisclosed destination, LUMS team captain Faraan 
Ahmed Irfan did not give up hope of better 
relations between the two nations in the 
not-too-distant future. "It's unfortunate, but we 
expected such things would happen as the 
antagonism between the two countries cannot be 
wiped out in a day. It will take time... However, 
we are very happy with the kind of support and 
warmth we received in the past few days," Irfan 
told TNN before leaving the city.

He said the boys were not upset with the incident 
as they were mentally prepared for such 
contingencies. Irfan added that the team learnt a 
lot in the two practice matches they played 
against Pune players.

The LUMS team, which came to India on November 
18, was scheduled to play a quadrangular 
round-robin water polo match at Lokmanya Tilak 
tank of the Deccan Gymkhana. They played practice 
matches on Friday and were scheduled to play two 
more matches on Saturday and Sunday, before 
leaving for Goa.

However, PPS general secretary Nitin Sontakke 
threatened that members of his organisation would 
disrupt the matches. Owing to the threats, Deccan 
Gymkhana secretary Anand Tulpule and trustee Ajit 
Sohoni later decided to call off the matches.

"We are not taking any chances which might cause 
damage to our property and injury to the players. 
Also, the security of the visiting Pakistani 
students was of prime concern," said Sohoni.

Sontakke said that his organisation was committed 
to oppose any sporting activity with Pakistani 
students. "We are opposed to playing with our 
enemy country. This tour was not official and 
these boys had come on a tourist visa," said 
Sontakke.

Asked why his organisation didn't object to 
former Pakistan Test star Wasim Akram's visit to 
the city last week, Sontakke said he had no idea 
of the visit â¤" even though all newspapers 
published the news.

The role of local police was ambiguous since any 
such friendly tours are cleared by ministries of 
home, defence and finance. Some of the policemen 
also pressed the organisers to call off the 
matches to avoid a law and order problem. City 
police commissioner A.N. Roy said his men had 
provided adequate security. "The organisers had 
asked for security, but there was no tournament," 
said Roy.

The Pakistan team will also visit Goa and Madhya 
Pradesh before proceeding to Agra.


_____



[3]

  [ Messages Protesting Hateful Remarks by Leader 
of the Hindu right VHP re Teesta Setalvad and and 
others seeking justice for victims of Gujarat 
massacres]


(i)

NEW SOCIALIST MOVEMENT
104, Maharanapratap Complex, Nr. Ellisbridge 
P.O., Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad.-380006.
e-mail: newsocialistmovement at yahoo.co.in Phone: 6577280

Dated: 19th November, 2003.
To,
The Prime Minister of India,
New Delhi.
Subject: Protest against the absolutely unbridled 
and unabashed utterances of Shri
Pravin Togadiya provoking communal passions and disparaging remarks
against Human Rights activists.
Honourable Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayji,
As you are aware the State of Gujarat has gone 
through the most pathetic period of its history
last year and is still suffering from the past 
agonies. At this delicate and crucial juncture of 
the State's
history, the effort of all peace loving, 
democratic and nationalist Indians should be to 
maintain
communal harmony at all cost in this state and 
reach justice to those who have suffered in the 
riots of
2002. This duty is perhaps more on the important 
public figures whose utterances influence the
masses.
Unfortunately however, the International 
Secretary of VHP, Shri Pravin Togadiya never loses
any opportunity to make highly communally 
provocative speeches and his sermons to the 
relatives of
the victims of the Godhra S6 coach burning 
(published in "SANDESH", a local Gujarati 
Newspaper,
Ahmedabad Edition, dated 17th November, 2003, 
page5) was once again extremely provocative and 
his
remarks against the Human Rights activists, Ms 
Teesta Setalvad was most disparaging and
defamatory.
Shri Togadiya has been reported to have said that 
large amounts of money is flowing in
from Muslims States of the Arab countries to get 
the killers of the Hindu Ramvaktas freed and
the wife of a muslim youth Javed, Teesta 
Setalvad, who is on a visit to Ahmedabad, has 
become
the medium of such activities. He also said that 
Teesta Setalvad , who after marrying a Muslim
is on a visit to Ahmedabad and she is conspiring 
to take away the BEST Bakery case outside
Gujarat such that the Hindu witness are not able to attend the trial etcŠ
The above remarks of Shri Togadiya are 
reprehensible and goes against the very 
foundation of
our constitutional values of peace, justice and 
secularism. Millions of people of Gujarat do not 
share this
venomous attitude of Shri Togadiya but are afraid 
to protest because of the threat perception. We, 
on
behalf of all such peace loving people of Gujarat 
would like to record our strongest protest 
against such
utterances and we would urge you to uphold the 
Raj Dharma of the Prime Minister. Restrain Shri
Togadiya from dividing the people and our beloved 
country before it is too late.
Yours sincerely,
Amrish Patel,
General Secretary, NSM.

o o o o

(ii)

SAHMAT
8, Vithalbhai Patel House
Rafi Marg, New Delhi-110001
Tel-23711276/ 23351424
e-mail: sahmat at vsnl.com

18.11.2003

PRESS STATEMENT

The report carried in the telegraph of 17th 
November 2003 of statements made by Praveen 
Togadia at a meeting in Ahmedabad is extremely 
disturbing. The irrational declarations of this 
fundamentalist constitute a grave and continuing 
threat to the democratic fabric of our society 
and nation.

Togadia viciously attack[ed] secular forces 
working for justice for victims of the Gujarat 
carnage and the families of those who perished in 
the Sabarmati Express at Godhra. He singled out 
Teesta Seetalwad as a prime target of his hate 
speech and declared that she should be prevented 
from entering gujarat.

SAHMAT strongly condemns this barely veiled call 
to the irrational following of the VHP/ Bajrang 
dal/ Sangh Parivar to take the law into their own 
hands and pursue individuals as the object of 
murderous hate campaign.

The 82 year old Mr. Rawal who lost his wife and 
son in the Godhra incident has repeatedly said 
that he is being pressurised and subjected to 
threat. SAHMAT demands that the Gujarat 
Government and administration ensure that 
protection is provided to him immediately.

SAHMAT demands that Praveen Togadia should be 
restrained from making offensive public 
statements targeting minority communities and 
individuals working for peace and justice. If he 
does not desist from his current hate campaign 
SAHMAT demands that action be taken against him 
according to the law of the land.


Issued by Ram Rahman
SAHMAT


_____

[4]  [FEAR OF THE FOREIGNER   !]


(4.1)
The Telegraph (Cklcutta)
November 23, 2003

Slaps and kicks for job-seekers in Sena land

ANAND SOONDAS
Mumbai, Nov. 22: Jitendra Shankar found out 
painfully that the Shiv Sena meant it when it 
warned that "north Indians" would not be allowed 
to sit for railway recruitment tests as they were 
snatching job opportunities from Maharashtrians.

A Sena threat to disrupt Sunday's examinations 
led the Railway Recruitment Board to put them 
off, but many like the 22-year-old Shankar, a 
Bihari from Chhapra, were unaware of this and 
landed here to appear for the tests.

But as Shankar got off the Lokmanya 
Tilak-Varanasi Express at Kalyan at 1.30 pm 
yesterday, he was set upon by a Sena mob lying in 
wait for him and other Biharis. His 
small-town-youth excitement on landing in a big 
city and his bright blue-and-red bag easily 
marked him out as an "outsider" hoping to find a 
way out of the poverty of Chhapra.

"Arre ye bhi Bihari lagta hai (He looks like a 
Bihari as well)," a woman activist shouted as 
Sena goons rushed towards Shankar, quickly 
surrounding him. The youth sensed trouble and 
abandoning any attempts at bravado, began weeping 
and tried to fall at the goons' knees.

But there was no space for Shankar to bend as the 
activists preferred him on his feet for it made 
it easier to slap and kick him. Accusing him of 
"stealing jobs from Maharashtrians'', the goons 
set upon him.

"Bihar se kyon aya, vahan kaam nahi hai kya? 
Khane ko nahi milta kya?'' someone taunted as 
another slapped him across his frightened face.

"Will you go back on your own or should we bundle 
you into a train to Tamil Nadu?'' a woman asked. 
"I will go back, sir, today itself,'' a hurt and 
humiliated Shankar, stripped of his dignity and 
self-respect, replied his eyes moist with pain 
and embarrassment.

Some distance away, five or six men were pulling 
another Bihari's hair as he cowered under a hail 
of lathis and expletives.

But Shankar did not scramble into just any train 
to flee Maharashtra, as countless others have 
been forced to. Instead, he took shelter in a Rs 
100-a-day motel along a dirty yard near the 
station.

"How can I go back. I thought I will take the 
exams and see if I get the railways' work,'' 
Shankar said. "My father is a tailor running a 
small shop and my mother cannot work because she 
has cataract in both eyes. I have two sisters. 
They have to be married off.''

The youth said he had no idea Maharashtrians were 
angry with Biharis. But those who roughed up 
Shankar and many others, are proud of their 
"achievement''.

On Tuesday, the Sena had ransacked the Railway 
Recruitment Board office at Mumbai Central, 
demanding that "outsiders' applications" be 
cancelled. Two days later, party chief Bal 
Thackeray wrote a stinging editorial in party 
mouthpiece Saamna that the dangers posed by 
outsiders snatching Maharashtrians' jobs were 
"unimaginable".

"Why is that north Indians are getting a better 
deal and local Maharashtrians are victimised in 
their own land," Thackeray asked. "The rules have 
to change and the Maharashtrian youth is willing 
to shed his blood for that," he said.

"If Biharis are as hardworking as Laloo Prasad 
Yadav says, why don't they work hard in Bihar,'' 
Thackeray asked.

His nephew Raj, a student leader, has threatened 
harsher action against "outsiders''.

'This is just the trailer, just see what happens 
to these Biharis and bhaiyyas (people from Uttar 
Pradesh) if they don't heed our warning,'' Ravi 
Kapote, the Kalyan Sena chief said.

The Sena has been emboldened by the failure of 
the Maharashtra government to act against it and 
the discomfiture of other parties over the 
emotive issue.

Kapote said the "movement'' to drive away 
outsiders - dubbed Bihari ani bhaiya bahar kada 
mohim - would continue. He said the Sena will 
later target all Biharis and bhaiyyas, who 
generally work as waiters, tea stall owners and 
taxi drivers.

Shankar may have decided to stick it out, but he 
doesn't know if he will be allowed to sit for the 
exams. "They (the Sena) took away my identity 
card and my hall permit,'' he said. "I will talk 
to the authorities and beg with them to at least 
let me give it a try. I will tell them my father 
is an old tailor and my mother is blind in both 
her eyes."

o o o o

(4.2)

The Sentinel, Guwahati, November 23, 2003

Editorial

Whose Language?

There are times when it hardly matters who 
inherited a language as mother tongue (or "father 
tongue" in Germany). As far as any language is 
concerned, the people who really matter are those 
who use it most and who contribute most to its 
development. In a sense, therefore, one can 
regard them as the ones who own the language, 
rather than those born into the language, but who 
have ceased to use it for one reason or the 
other. There are diverse reasons why people may 
no longer use their own language - their mother 
tongue. People born and brought up in another 
country or a State naturally tend to adopt the 
language of that country or State as their 
language. There are others in technical 
professions who prefer to use a language better 
suited to their profession than their mother 
tongue - a lot of scientists, engineers, doctors 
and lawyers prefer English to their own language. 
Some of them often forget their mother tongue 
through disuse. Others have an unstated 
inferiority complex about their language, and 
prefer to adopt a more widely used language like 
English. In doing this, they get encouragement 
from ill-informed parents who believe that the 
best way of acquiring 'good' English is to 
jettison the mother tongue altogether. Be that as 
it may, the fact remains that it is the users of 
a language who eventually become its rightful 
owners, not those who were merely born into the 
language, in other words, its inheritors.

One can look at three examples to posit this fact 
of life. It is interesting to look at the 
position of the Afrikaans language in South 
Africa. The language, which is also called Cape 
Dutch, is a West Germanic language of South 
Africa developed from 17th-century Netherlandic 
(Dutch) by the descendants of the Dutch, German 
and French colonists who settled in South Africa 
before the British occupation in 1806. And along 
with English, Afrikaans has been one of the two 
official languages of the Republic of South 
Africa since 1925. As such, Afrikaans and English 
have been the languages of apartheid in South 
Africa, seeking to replace the African languages. 
However, the situation today is that Afrikaans is 
spoken by the native Africans of South Africa in 
all the rural areas, and has become the link 
language for different South African ethnic 
groups at a time when the Whites of South Africa 
are rapidly switching over to English. Ironically 
enough, therefore, Afrikaans, a language of 
apartheid, is now owned by the very Africans that 
it managed to subjugate for centuries! Then look 
at the way the English language was used by our 
freedom fighters when they sought to free India 
from British rule. Our leaders used the English 
language as well as (or even better at times) 
than the British rulers to demand and secure 
independence and then to work out the modalities 
of the transfer of power. At that time, the 
ownership of the English language had temporarily 
passed to the hands of the freedom fighters as 
well. It is, therefore, in the fitness of things 
that English should continue to be an important 
Indian language.

The third example is Assamese, and what is likely 
to happen to it in the near future if the 
ownership of the language is permitted to pass to 
other hands in the coming years. What is 
happening now is that those who inherited the 
Assamese language have generally started to go 
only to English-medium schools and to give up 
Assamese altogether. Who are the ones going to 
the government-run Assamese-medium schools and 
learning Assamese very well? The Bangladeshi 
immigrants of course. So, what shall we have to 
say ten years from now when they not only speak 
the language better, but also become the Assamese 
writers of the future? Will they not then be the 
real owners of the language?


_____



[5]

Frontline (Chennai), Volume 20 - Issue 22, October 25 - November, 07, 2003

Inventing genocide

PRAVEEN SWAMI
in Amritsar

Reduced to Ashes, a compilation brought out by 
the Kathmandu-based South Asia Forum for Human 
Rights, claims to contain irrefutable evidence of 
the state having carried out genocide in Punjab. 
But investigations by Frontline reveal a 
different story.

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2022/stories/20031107003902500.htm


o o o

RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE REPORT

Punjab
The main flaw in Praveen Swami's story "Inventing 
genocide" (November 7, 2003) on the report 
Reduced to Ashes is his politically retrogressive 
approach towards human rights. There are broadly 
two approaches towards the human rights discourse 
and movement in India. The politically 
progressive approach locates the roots of human 
rights violations in States like Kashmir, Punjab, 
Nagaland and Mizoram in the Indian state's 
repressive treatment of minority dissent in these 
States. This approach recognises that the failure 
of the Indian political and legal system to 
provide adequate safeguards against the security 
forces' violations of human rights leads to a 
deepening of resentment among the 
religious/national minorities located in these 
States. The articulation of this resentment is 
then used by the rightwing forces of Hindu 
nationalism to legitimise the politics of 
aggressive majoritarian nationalism. The 
progressive approach sees a link between the rise 
of aggressive Hindu nationalism and the 
weaknesses of institutional structures against 
human rights violations in India. This approach, 
therefore, recognises the enormous moral and 
political significance of the human rights 
movement in India for strengthening democratic 
culture, secular federal politics and human 
development in India.
The politically retrogressive approach towards 
human rights condemns human rights investigations 
for damaging the morale, credibility and 
reputation of India's security forces. The 
critique of the security forces' actions is then 
portrayed as an attack on India's territorial 
integrity. The human rights activists are 
condemned as secessionists or friends of 
secessionists from an aggressive nationalist 
perspective. Such an approach provides a 
political environment conducive to the rise of 
authoritarian political tendencies like that of 
the Congress under Indira Gandhi and the Hindutva 
forces now. I have discussed, in some detail, 
these two diametrically opposite approaches in my 
paper "Sectarianism in the Human Rights 
Discourse: Politics of Human Rights in 
Post-Colonial Punjab" in Michael Anderson and 
Sumit Guha (eds.) Changing Concepts of Rights and 
Justice in South Asia, Oxford University Press, 
1998 which makes a case for enlarging the culture 
of respect for human rights.
Praveen Swami's passionate pro-security forces 
approach has landed him, perhaps unintentionally, 
in the trap of the politically retrogressive 
approach towards human rights. The logic of this 
approach leads him to a shortsighted condemnation 
of human rights investigations. From a long-term 
perspective, it is vital that even the security 
forces are retrained to respect and value human 
rights. The dehumanisation of security forces 
that takes place in the process of violation of 
human rights can only be rectified by a sensitive 
retraining of the forces in favour of valuing 
human rights.
We need to recognise that a systematic 
documentation of human rights violations and a 
nationwide campaign to establish a robust system 
of accountability for such violations is central 
to the building of a secular and democratic 
movement in India. The pioneering and painstaking 
work of Ram Narayan Kumar, Ashok Agrwaal and 
others in producing the report Reduced to Ashes 
needs to be seen and appreciated from this 
perspective.
Pritam Singh
Research Leader,
Department of Economics,
Oxford Brookes University,
Oxford, U.K.
* * *
Praveen Swami's article is in ideological 
continuity with the political tendency that 
refuses to acknowledge that there were serious 
human right violations committed by state 
authorities in Punjab. This tendency of 
collective amnesia is best documented by the 
Report itself, which notes the then Union Home 
Minister L.K. Advani calling for general amnesty 
and K.P.S. Gill noting that the cases against 
police officers were based on concocted evidence 
by the investigating agencies acting under undue 
and extraconstitutional pressures.
Praveen Swami's response skirts the key point 
made by the Report by seeking to question the 
veracity of around 10 of the testimonies. For the 
record, the Supreme Court of India has in its 
order disclosed 2,098 illegal cremations, 
including 582 fully identified, 278 partially 
identified and 1,238 unidentified, carried out by 
the state agencies at three crematoria in 
Amritsar district. Praveen Swami never bothers to 
ask the question as to what does it mean that 
there are 1,238 illegal cremations at three 
crematoria in one district in Punjab. Does this 
on the face of it disclose massive violation of 
human rights? The Supreme Court notes that the 
CBI report discloses flagrant violation of human 
rights on a massive scale. Justice Kuldip Singh 
noted that in case it was found that the facts 
stated in the press note were correct even 
partially, it would be a gory tale of human 
rights violations. It is horrifying to visualise 
that dead bodies of a large number of persons - 
allegedly in their thousands - could be cremated 
by the police unceremoniously, with a label 
`unidentified'.
What the Supreme Court takes on board, Praveen Swami denies.
Arvind Narrain
Received on email



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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
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