SACW | 30 Nov. 2003 | Taslima nasrin book ban | Gandhi in Gujarat | Assam

[Harsh Kapoor]

SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE   |  30 November,  2003

From the South Asia Citizens Web:  www.sacw.net

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[1] Taslima Nasrin Responds to her book ban in West Bengal
+ Outrage In Calcutta: Can We Ban All Bans? (Sundeep Dougal)
[2] The Old Man On The Flag - Perhaps Modi and 
co. will be forced to recall Gandhi in an 
unexpected way  (Ruchir Joshi)
[3] Media, reality and virtual reality (Sanjoy Hazarika)
[4] International Fortnight Protesting Violence 
Against Women And Girls  (25 Nov -10 Dec, Delhi)
[5] Global Day Of Action Against Corporate Crime
December 3, 2003: 19th Anniversary of Bhopal Gas Disaster (event in Baroda)

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[1]


taslimanasrin.com

Taslima Nasrin Responds to her book ban in West Bengal
[29 November 2003]

What do I feel when I hear that the most cultured 
and enlightend and intellectual place in Bengal, 
the West Bengal, has banned Dwinkhandita?

I could not believe that it had happened. My 
hopes and dreams, my strong feelings for, and my 
pride about West Bengal broke like glass-bangles. 
Could it possibly be that the state government of 
West Bengal so feared that my book would hurt the 
religious feelings of the people, that it would 
disturb the communal harmony in the state, that 
it would be necessary to ban it?

Many know that the banning of my books has to do 
with Muslim votes, votes to guarantee the 
survival of patriarchalism.  Yes, I have been 
outspoken against religions. And yes, the books 
with my comments on religion are available in 
West Bengal. Nobody asked to ban those books. Why 
now? The communal harmony would be disturbed? 
This is an admission that the ban is only to fool 
the people. The main reason for trying to shut me 
up is something else entirely.  The reality is 
that those who espouse patriarchy are the very 
ones who are adamant about not allowing women to 
talk about sex or about sexual freedom for women.

Male writers, who live in a patriarchal society 
that gives them advantages not available to 
women, became furious as soon as my books came 
out.  The media - male-controlled - spread 
unwarranted hatred against me, leading to libel 
suits now totaling $4,000,000.  They demanded 
that my books be banned and that I be punished. 
They called me a pornographer and a prostitute. 
What galls is that other writers and 
intellectuals have seemingly not rushed to my 
immediate defense. How could writers, whose fight 
is to protect their own right to the freedom of 
expression, logically take such a stand! What 
will disinterested critics surely say about their 
intellectual fragility!

What is the bottom line, and why the objections to my books?

         The line is that I am not supposed, as a 
writer of my own autobiography,
                 to include my political, social, 
economical, and personal history.

     Patriarchical minds object.
         I am not supposed to write about equality and justice for women.

     Patriarchical minds object.
         I must not talk about the enjoyment of 
sex, if what I write includes showing
                 the enjoyment of sex by women.

     Patriarchal minds object.

         I must not dare to challenge patriarchy.
                 For if it were to tumble down 
women would no longer be able to be treated
                 as slaves, as sexual commodities, 
and men would have to make a shift in
                 their viewpoints and actions.

If individuals in both East and West Bengal are 
not ready to hear such views, if their minds are 
stubbornly set against any new ideas, and if they 
are afraid of other of my ideas, then in the eyes 
of others it is they who are the authoritarians, 
the conformists, the perverted people with closed 
minds.

I am a proud nonconformist. I accept the good 
from the past and reject the bad. But I do not 
accept the view that it is bad to express oneself 
freely. Women are being oppressed everywhere, are 
they not? Well, this oppression simply has to 
stop!

o o o o


Outlook | Web [Feature]  | Nov 28, 2003
OUTRAGE IN CALCUTTA
SUNDEEP DOUGAL
Can We Ban All Bans?
Obviously not, as that would be a ban too, but 
the latest ban on Taslima Nasreen's book - no 
matter how offensive it is or is made out to be - 
is yet another precedent for spreading more 
communal disharmony, exactly what it avowedly 
seeks to prevent. Updates.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20031128&fname=taslima&sid=1



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[2]


The Telegraph
November 30, 2003
The Thin Edge [Column]

THE OLD MAN ON THE FLAG
- Perhaps Modi and co. will be forced to recall Gandhi in an unexpected way

Ruchir Joshi

A few days ago I was in Gujarat making a radio 
documentary for the BBC. On the last day of my 
visit, I found myself interviewing Anandi Patel, 
the state minister for education, and someone 
reputed to be very close to Narendra Modi. During 
the interview, the minister said something that 
almost knocked me off my chair. As she began 
listing her achievements, the minister mentioned 
a recent function held by the Gujarat government 
in Porbandar: "Why Porbandar?" Smt Patel 
rhetorically asked, the righteous light shining 
in her eyes, "Because people are beginning to 
forget Gandhi. They are beginning to forget 
Gandhi!"

The reason I was shocked was simple. I was 
meeting Anandi Patel after having spent a week 
talking to victims of the 2002 killings, talking 
to activists from differing backgrounds, talking 
to friends trying to lead a normal existence in a 
mind-numbingly abnormal society. Forget the 
newspaper and TV reports, leave aside the 
findings of various commissions, what I had come 
face to face with for the first time was a 
complete, naked, planned and sustained 
anti-Gandhi-ism, and this not only from the 
government - which of course leads the project of 
decimation - but also from ordinary middle-class 
Gujarati Hindus. "Gandhi", "Bapu", "ahimsa" and 
"satyagraha", were all now bad words that you 
avoided uttering in many circles of polite 
Ahmedabad society.

Given that Anandi Patel was a be-medalled general 
of the army carrying out this massacre of 
Gandhi's legacy, the very least I expected was a 
polite dismissal of old MKG, something to the 
tune of "yes, yes, those ideas are unpractical in 
the face of Muslim terrorism", or "yes, he was a 
great man of his time but that time has long 
passed". What I did not expect was the sheer 
effrontery of a statement akin to: yes, we will 
butcher people, and then terrorize them with 
POTA, but we also reserve the right to put the 
old man on our flag and wave it around.

Naïve of me, of course. It's not as though I 
haven't noticed the Congress, even at its violent 
worst, clinging on to the round spectacles, the 
stick and the charkha, nor, to the best of my 
knowledge, has a single October 2 passed without 
the chief minister of this cadre-deploying Left 
Front putting a flowery noose around Gandhi's 
statue, and nor have the many feudal satraps and 
small-time crooks leading segments of other 
parties left the old man alone. The difference 
this time, I imagined, was that finally an Indian 
political party had decided it could do without 
the fig-leaf of Gandhi's dhoti. And I couldn't 
have been more wrong.

The problem, of course, is that the brand is too 
strong, too ingrained in people's minds, both 
nationally and internationally, to be jettisoned 
so easily. The world over the equation is 
Gandhi=non-violence and peace, but also 
Gandhi=Gujarat, therefore Gujarat=non-violence 
and peace. Now, when you are looking to sweep 
both the massive mismanagement of the 
post-earthquake situation as well as the huge, 
evil, execution of the post-Godhra massacres 
under the carpet, when you are looking to save 
your political neck by trying to induce large 
foreign investments into a troubled state 
economy, then you need to put out some reassuring 
icons. Nothing is better for this purpose than 
big newspaper ads sporting the familiar 
silhouette of MKG next to a selective list of 
"Gandhian ideals", such as Vegetarianism and the 
support for Handicrafts, under the slogan: 
Gandhiji na pagey pagey ("In the footsteps of 
Gandhiji"). What gives it away, though, is the 
little, oval, portrait of a smiling Narendra 
"Aapdo Adolf" Modi in the top right corner of the 
spread.

Talking about Adolf, once you notice this 
inside-out conjurer's trick, then you see it 
everywhere. Two days ago, it was Ashok Singhal's 
advocate brother on TV accusing Mulayam Singh of 
"Hitlerian" tactics, never mind that the RSS-VHP 
have always loved and revered their Fuehrer. 
Before that it was Vajpayee being "Gandhian" in 
saying that we should all trust the VHP to 
maintain the peace in Ayodhya (Pray why, Atal-ji? 
Why should we trust these thugs, who've always 
run their chariot on wheels of violence and 
hatred, to maintain the peace?) and then, to top 
it all off, you have George Bush bringing out of 
his mouth the same foreign word - peace - while 
speaking about Iraq.

With Bush we know that if he was woken up from 
sleep and asked to spell "peace" he would come up 
with a four-letter construction ending with a 
double "s". But in the case of Anandi Patel I had 
no reason to suspect that her Gujarati wasn't 
equal to spelling "sahishnuta" or "sadbhavna" or 
any other useful Gandhian word that could be used 
as a smoke-screen. Another word I am sure she can 
spell is "balatkar" - rape - and she took great 
exception to my using it while asking her about 
what had happened to Muslim women in Gujarat.

"I would thank you not to use that word in my 
presence!" she snapped at me."But, Anandibehn, 
how can I not use it?" I asked, stunned yet again 
at the sheer gall. "Because there have been no 
rapes!"

"How can you say that?' I managed to get out.

"Because," said the lady, bringing her full 
authority to bear, "I am the minister for the 
welfare of women and children!"

Not being an Oriana Fallaci or a Jeremy Paxman, I 
was, at this point, more or less robbed of 
speech. The minister, however, continued: No 
rapes, none; And if some girl had indeed 
registered a case of rape then where was the 
proof? Had any doctor said she was raped? And it 
was nonsense that the police had not investigated 
properly; a canard spread by a massive conspiracy 
of the English media in the country; every single 
English-language newspaper and TV channel in 
cahoots to defame her honest government and her 
brave leader Narendra bhai.

I tried to point out to Smt Patel that never 
before, not even just after the Emergency, had 
the Indian English-language media been so 
completely of one voice about any issue. I tried 
to put to her that even pro-BJP journalists in 
Delhi were appalled by what had been carried out 
in Gujarat. I tried to suggest that if there had 
been even a sliver of doubt about the veracity of 
the testimonies of planned murders, rapes and 
precision-arson, someone, somewhere, in the 
national media would have gone to town about it, 
if only to be different, if only to increase 
circulation or viewership. But Smt Patel was 
having none of it: I am telling you it's all a 
string of lies!

At the end of the interview I was left wondering 
whether it was sheer arrogance or complete 
head-in-the-sand panic that had been on display. 
Whatever the case, it was only later I realized 
that Anandi Patel's model was not so much Joseph 
Goebbels as a more recent avatar. Remembering my 
encounter in Gandhinagar, I suddenly saw Donald 
Rumsfeld sitting there in a Gujarati-style sari, 
firing questions that he wanted to answer: did we 
protect the Muslims? Heck, you bet! Did Muslims 
start the violence in each and every riot in 
Gujarat since Independence? Too darn true, they 
did! Are the pending accusations against our MLAs 
and RSS-VHP members serious? Of course not, 
they're irrelevant, what's important is that we 
have arrested and jailed the perpetrators of the 
Godhra outrage! And so on and so forth. In this 
torrential question-plus-answer format, one of 
the things Anandi Patel threw at me with great 
vehemence was: why didn't the English media say 
anything about the innocent dead in carriage S6? 
Because they were Hindus, of course!

The difference between Gandhi and many social 
activists working today is that, when faced with 
Himalayan odds, MKG could fall back upon his 
faith. Even as I returned to Delhi, still reeling 
from the interview, the news broke that relatives 
of the Godhra victims - those very Hindus that 
Smt Patel was so concerned about - now wanted the 
investigations carried out from outside Gujarat. 
I am not much given to prayer, and my own faith 
is something that fluctuates a fair bit, but 
reading this bit of news I couldn't help 
imagining that some unexplainable power was 
beginning to get back to Anandibehn and her 
Fuehrer-bhai and that maybe they would be forced 
to remember Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in a way 
they hadn't planned.

_____


[3]

The Statesman, November 30, 2003

Media, reality and virtual reality

  Sanjoy Hazarika

Travellers, journalists and professionals who 
have been moving across Assam speak of the great 
gaps in reporting between the metro media (read 
in the notional "national" media there) and 
events in the state. Thus, while it is a tragic 
and ugly fact that Bihari and Hindi-speaking 
individuals have been targeted, especially the 
weakest and most vulnerable, what is not known is 
that across the state, from Guwahati to the 
troubled parts of Upper Assam, Assamese and other 
groups have rallied to the support of their 
neighbours, helped, housed, fed and protected 
them.
Just as the photograph of the injured boy, his 
body swathed in bandages and lying on a hospital 
cot, touches (and also angers) us, so does the 
picture of young children of different language 
and ethnic groups, gathered together and smiling, 
and helping to keep the peace. A journalist who 
travelled to the Upper Assam side speaks of how 
exaggerated reports have been filed by 
journalists for the metro press out of Guwahati, 
without visiting the sites or getting a sense of 
the reality.
We must also note that a lot of the print media 
tries to catch up with the visual media which 
fattens itself on exaggeration and virtual 
reality. The facts of the case in Assam are that 
there are complex factors behind the violence, 
not just one; there are a number of groups and 
interests behind the trouble, not just one. And I 
would draw the line at blaming outside elements 
such as Bangladesh and the ubiquitous ISI (which 
is blamed for every single problem in India that 
it's surprising that we haven't gotten to the 
stage of blaming it for the water and power 
shortages in some parts of the country!). We have 
to look within and examine the demons which exist 
within our societies. The threat to India is much 
more internal than external.
In addition, it should be stressed that although 
the media has this habit of lumping issues and 
problems together and thus creating a bigger 
"impact" - press rivalry and competition is as 
much responsible here as anything else - the 
facts remain that apart from a few incidents, 
most of the events in Assam were isolated and 
sporadic. The impact was greater on the reading 
and watching public because the events happened 
around the same time, in the same general 
geographical region - but the whole state was not 
repeat not burning as in 1983 when thousands of 
people, largely Bengali-speaking Muslim settlers, 
were slaughtered.
Another reality that has not been extensively 
spoken of or reported in these past days by the 
metro media or by scholars, officials and others 
outside of the North East is that local municipal 
elections are on across Assam. Campaigning is 
thundering forth in right earnest, with no 
quarter given or asked. The elections are still 
on, they haven't been postponed. So doesn't it 
make sense to ask if the violence is aimed at 
intimidating potential voters in staying away? I 
don't know the answer to that question, I raise 
it as a thought which occurred to me while 
writing this column.

********
Whatever the faults of the media, it has always 
been inconceivable to me how - whether in Gujarat 
or elsewhere, especially parts of the strife-torn 
North East where we proclaim our pride from the 
rooftops about the traditional dignity and honour 
accorded to women and families - children of 
different ethnic, religious and language groups 
become victims of violence. This shows that when 
thugs and others take over a movement or an 
issue, it is the innocent who suffers the most. 
The saying, "When elephants fight, the grass gets 
trampled" was never truer.
Thus, even in these difficult moments, we must 
recognise the courage of those who have stood up 
to violence. The Guwahati and Assam media has 
been extremely restrained and thoughtful, 
appealing for calm and deeply conscious of the 
way in which this hurts the state's image. The 
Bar Association and many other groups have spoken 
out clearly and unambiguously against violence 
and division based on parochial lines. The All 
Assam Students Union, which along with other 
groups called a bandh earlier this month (which 
officials say enabled disparate armed groups and 
gangs to take advantage of a temporary breakdown 
in civil society), has clarified its position and 
organised rallies and tried to play a role in 
calming situations.
Through this column, I would like to appeal to 
those with stories of such conviction and bravery 
to send it to us so that we can show that there 
is "another side" to the violence, a side not 
known well enough and certainly not reported 
extensively enough. The media has a duty to 
reflect reality, challenge standard thinking and 
disseminate information. On this page, we carry 
an appeal for healing and dialogue from different 
figures in Delhi, both well known and unknown.

********
Armed groups, from whichever ideological and 
ethnic persuasion, would do well to understand 
the public reprehension at the kind of violence 
that has been witnessed and that any involvement 
only diminishes what little support they were 
enjoying. Support does not grow out of fear; it 
develops from a shared commitment to a cause and 
a vision of the future, as much as practical 
realities of livelihoods and benefits.
It appears that after the organised armed groups 
realised the public reaction against the killing 
of innocents, some of the crimes were perpetrated 
by local thugs and gangs, in a bid to settle old 
scores perhaps. The district and state 
administration must act unhesitatingly and firmly 
in dealing with such elements. We should note 
that in many districts of Assam, where there are 
large mixed populations such as Kamrup, Darrang 
and Jorhat, there has been little large-scale 
violence. That shows the impact of effective 
management of situations, although one would 
still say that the state government failed to 
anticipate the fallout of the Bihar violence and 
the bandh.

______


[4]

THE INTERNATIONAL FORTNIGHT PROTESTING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

  25th November -10th December [2003]

SANGAT AND JAGORI

Invite You For A
Screening of South Asian Films

At: India Habitat Center   (Casuarina Hall) [New Delhi]
Time: 6:30 pm

29th Nov 2003

Women  & War
Director:  Catherine & Tariq Masud,
Duration: 25 minutes
Country: Bangladesh

Bangladesh emerged as a nation state from the war of liberation in 1971.
The war witnessed many brutalities against the civilian population by
Pakistani army and their collaborators. While many of these stories have
been told repeatedly, the details of the stories of women in towns and
villages, from different communities, who suffered rape and fought back
  the violence of the military is now presented in this documentary,
perhaps for the first time.

&

29th Nov 2003

Yet Another Five
Director: Anoma Rajakaruna
Duration: 30 minutes
Country: Sri Lanka

  As the name suggests, "Yet Another Five" is a film that presents the
  stories of five individuals who suffer sexual abuse. It touches the
lives of people who have been the victims of rape, sexual abuse within
the family and outside and abuse within family and intimate
  relationships. The film also highlights the callous attitude of the
society unto the se brutalities and the mental torture women face as
consequence of this.


To celebrate South Asian Women's Day for Peace, 
Justice, Human Rights and Democracy

30th November 2003

Autumn's Final Country
Director: Sonia Jabbar
Duration: 66 minutes
Country: India

Indu, Zarina, Shahnaz and Anju - four women who have suffered
displacement in the conflict-ridden state of Jammu and Kashmir. Recorded
   as testimonials, the film explores the lives of each woman as she
relates the circumstances leading to her rootlessness, and reveals an
  intimate dimension of the Kashmir conflict, raising questions about
patriarchal values and power, communal identities, patriotism and war.

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[5]

GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST CORPORATE CRIME

December 3, 2003: 19th Anniversary of Bhopal Gas Disaster

On the night of December 2nd-3rd 1984, 27 tons of 
methyl isocyanate, hydrogen cyanide, mono-methyl 
amine and other lethal gases began spewing from 
Union Carbide Corporation's pesticide factory in 
Bhopal. Severe cost-cutting meant that six safety 
systems designed to contain a leak were 
inadequate or in-operational. Nobody outside the 
factory was warned because the safety siren was 
turned off. Over half a million people were 
exposed to the deadly cocktail. The gases burned 
the tissues of the eyes and lungs, crossed into 
the bloodstream and damaged almost every system 
in the body. Nobody knows exactly how many died 
but in the next days more than 7,000 death 
shrouds were sold in Bhopal. With an estimated 
10-15 people continuing to die each month the 
number of deaths to date is put at over 20,000. 
And today, more than 120,000 people are still in 
need of urgent medical attention.
On the 19th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, 
the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal 
has declared December 3rd 2003 as the 'Global Day 
of Action Against Corporate Crime'. "It is a time 
for us to mourn for the dead but also to fight 
for the living" Rashida Bee, President, Bhopal 
Gas Affected Women Stationery Workers Association.

The Bhopal struggle epitomizes the worst abuses 
of globalization and the challenges involved in 
holding corporations accountable. Justice for 
Bhopal would set a towering precedent in 
international law that no corporate criminal 
could ignore. And for this reason, Bhopal is 
everybody's business.
To mark this important day, INTERDOC, Paryavaran 
Suraksha Samiti and Documentation And Study 
Centre for and Action is organizing a screening 
of the film Bhopal Express. A powerful film 
directed by Mahesh Mathai, featuring Naseeruddin 
Shah and Zeenat Aman, the tragedy is revealed 
through the experiences of newlyweds Verma (Kay 
Kay), a foreman at the Carbide plant, his wife 
Tara (Nethra Raghuraman) and their friend Bashir 
(Shah). The Screening will be followed by a panel 
discussion.

Film: Bhopal Express;
Featuring: Naseeruddin Shah, Zeenat Aman, Kay Kay, Nethra Raghuraman
Venue: Auditorium, History Department, M S University [Baroda]
Date: 3rd December 2003, Time: 3-6 pm.

For more detail, you can contact Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti,
Rohit Prajapati on Phone No: 0265-2320399
Madhumita Dutta on Phone No: 9898253486


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