SACW | 5 Dec. 2003
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Thu Dec 4 20:19:48 CST 2003
SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE | 5 December, 2003
From the South Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net
_______
[1] The war within Islam (Zafar Sobhan)
[2] Pakistan: How Islam is used by us (Khaled Ahmed)
[3] India: The curse of ethno-nationalism hits Assam (Daya Varma)
[4] Book Announcement: Islam And Modernity -
Muslims in Europe and the United States by
Iftikhar H. Malik
[5] India: Trishul to darkness (Rahul Bose)
[6] BJP Sweeps the assemble elections in India
+ Election results figures
+ Analysis by Mahesh Rangarajan
[7] UK Launch of 'Threatened Existence - a feminist analysis of the genocide in
Gujarat'
[8] The Chemical Industry's Bhopal Legacy (Gary Cohen)
[9] The Battle of The Bones (Tiffany Jenkins)
--------------
[1]
The Daily Star
December 05, 2003 | Editorial
The war within Islam
Zafar Sobhan
Americans can be so obtuse sometimes. Thomas
Friedman's column in the New York Times last
week, entitled Letter from Tikrit, is a case in
point. The column is in the form of a rhetorical
device that Friedman frequently uses -- an
imaginary memo from one political personage to
another. Letter from Tikrit is an imaginary memo
from Saddam Hussein to President Bush.
The entire column was filled with Friedman's
typically annoying simplisticness, but what
really caught my eye was a paragraph near the end
of the column in which "Saddam" waxes
philosophical on "the war of ideas" that the US
is ostensibly waging in the Middle East:
"Yes, Bush, you and Blair have kicked off
something very big -- a war of ideas with, and
within Islam. It's as big as the cold war. But to
win, you have to mobilize your whole society, as
you did in the cold war. You are talking about
trying to change a whole civilization, whose
backward, fanatical elements -- when combined
with modern technology -- now threaten you."
Let's leave aside for the moment Friedman's
apparently Freudian slip in writing that Blair
and Bush have kicked off a war of ideas with
Islam. Friedman can usually be relied upon to
keep to the official line that the US is not at
war with Islam -- over ideas or anything else.
Perhaps he miswrote -- or perhaps he meant to say
that Saddam thinks that the US is waging a war
against Islam -- these imaginary memos to the
president Friedman ghost-writes can get confusing
that way.
My real point of contention with Friedman's
column is with the assumption contained in the
statement that the invasion of Iraq has kicked
off a war of ideas within Islam and that it can
thus bring about reform in the Muslim world.
Please bear in mind that Friedman won a Pulitzer
prize for his supposedly penetrating analysis of
the Muslim world following 9/11 and is generally
considered to be the pre-eminent Middle-Eastern
affairs commentator in the US.
But what his Letter to Tikrit demonstrates is how
utterly clueless Friedman is when it comes to
understanding the Muslim world.
This is a principal reason why Muslims around the
world are frustrated by US foreign policy and the
Bush administration's simplistic prescriptions
for peace and security.
It is the ignorance and the presumption that
people like Friedman bring to any political
discourse. The idea that the US and the UK --
that George Bush and Tony Blair of all people --
have kicked off a war of ideas within Islam.
I have news for Tom Friedman. The war of ideas
that is raging within Islam -- between moderate
progressive Islam and fanatical fundamentalist
Islam -- has been raging for a lot longer than
since the US and the UK invaded Iraq.
In Bangladesh we have been waging this war for
over 30 years, at least since the time of our
Liberation War, when religious extremists
assisted the Pakistani army in their genocidal
attack on the pop-ulation and formed
para-military death squads to terrorise the
countryside.
Thankfully, in Bangladesh I would say that the
forces of moderate Islam are winning the battle
for the hearts and minds of the Muslim majority.
We enshrined secularism in the constitution, and
religious fundamentalists have never enjoyed
widespread popular support, as evidenced by their
consistently poor showing in national elections.
This is not to say that we have no extremists or
that they are not dangerous or that they have not
caused serious damage to the nation. In recent
years there have been atrocities such as bomb
blasts killing dozens at a cultural event and who
can forget the bombing at Ramna Park on the first
day of the Bengali new year a few years ago?
There have been ferocious acts of carnage
committed against the Hindu minority in the
country -- the most recent being the atrocity in
Banhskhali where 11 members of a Hindu family
were burned alive by persons unknown.
And religious extremists have lately stepped up
their attacks on the country's Ahmadiya
population for following a heterodox strain of
Islam.
But, by and large, most Muslim Bangladeshis do
not support the intolerant actions and ideas of
the religious extremists, and subscribe to a more
tolerant and moderate interpretation of Islam.
The situation is far from perfect, but things are
going reasonably well on this front in the war
within Islam.
And Bangladesh is not the only Muslim country in
which this war for the soul of Islam is being
waged. From Indonesia to Pakistan to Turkey to
Algeria to Iran -- there is a war being waged for
the hearts and minds of the Muslim world that has
been going on for decades.
This war didn't start on September 11, 2001 and
it most certainly didn't start when George Bush
invaded Iraq nine months ago.
Americans may not have known much about
fundamentalist Islam before 9/11 -- except as a
staunch ally in the cold war -- but we in the
Muslim world sure did.
Bush and Blair didn't kick anything off -- they
have just now belatedly realized what has been
going on in the Muslim world for the past few
decades.
What America learned on 9/11 was what we in the
Muslim world have known for a long time. There is
a small but deadly minority within the Muslim
community who are dedicated to remaking the world
in their image of Islam and are willing to go to
any length of carnage to achieve their goals. And
they have been waging a bloody war on the rest of
us all these many years. Welcome to our world.
This understanding should be the context through
which Americans view the invasion of Iraq. If
people like Tom Friedman had even the slightest
insight into the Muslim world, they would be able
to understand just what the stakes are in Iraq --
for the West and for the Muslim world.
Far from kicking off something big, what Bush and
Blair have in reality done is to blunder into an
extremely delicate and finely-balanced political
situation and caused incalculable damage.
The fact is that that the US-led invasion of Iraq
has made things tremendously difficult for those
of us on the moderate side of the divide.
If Bush and Blair understood that the war within
Islam predated their invasion of Iraq, they might
be able to comprehend just how devastating the
invasion has been to moderates in this war.
They would have known that invading Iraq would
accomplish nothing beyond strengthening the hand
of the extremists and undermining the moderates.
They would have understood that they will never
be able to bring about the change they desire in
the Muslim world through force.
It is true that massive reform is needed in the
Muslim world -- but for this reform to take
place, it must come from within. It cannot be
imposed by the West.
The more they try to impose their ideas of reform
on the Muslim world, the more Bush and Blair
undermine the very reform they claim to seek.
It would be bad enough if the only casualties of
this misguided foreign policy were the US and the
UK. But the real long-term casualties are the
foot-soldiers in the war within Islam.
The invasion has done nothing more than to stoke
the anger and bitterness and resentment that
permeates the Muslim world, and the fury and
frustration that Muslims feel about the invasion
is breeding a new generation of fundamentalists.
The invasion of Iraq has been a disaster for the
war for the hearts and minds of the Muslim world.
Zafar Sobhan is an Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.
_____
[2]
The Daily Times
December 05, 2003
Second Opinion: How Islam is used by us -Khaled Ahmed's Urdu Press Review
The ironic footnote to Gujranwala's piety is that
among the latest wave of Pakistanis running away
from Pakistan - and returned after capture from
Oman, Sri Lanka and Turkey - the largest number
are from Gujranwala
We know that the parents who want to force their
daughters to marry men the daughters don't like
use the Islamic law of Hudood to get them into
trouble if they marry of their own choice. We
know that most so-called honour-killings are done
in the name of Islam, the murderer sprouting a
beard and taking shelter behind a religious
party. Unfortunately most dacoits who enter our
homes and subject us to physical torture - even
death - now sport flowing beards. Many terrorists
have been known to join the mammoth congregations
of the religious organisations to escape arrest
by state agencies. The latest trend is serial
killing. You assume that whatever Islam rejects
you have the right to remove with your own hands.
In many countries serial killing to cleanse
society of its ills has been attempted.
According to 'Jang' (6 November 2003), serial
killer of two dancing girls of Gujranwala, Maulvi
Muhammad Sarwar would go scot-free because
witnesses who had earlier deposed against him had
all recanted. He was now only wanted in one case
of injuring a dancing girl called Musarrat after
an attempt to murder her. Moved by religious
passion, Maulvi Sarwar went around catching
dancing girls outside cinema halls, theatres and
hotels and shot them to death. He shot Sajida
alias Dabbi outside a hotel with his pistol but
now the witnesses had recanted owing to Sarwar's
priestly status. He had also murdered Razia
Bilqis and in that case too the witness had
recanted because of the city's new moral drive.
According to 'Nawa-e-Waqt' he will now face two
cases in Lahore on the same charges.
It is a Gujranwala phenomenon and it first
started when the strongmen of the city began
preparing youths for jihad on payment of money
from various quarters. The first victims of this
armed Islamic revival appeared when the Sunni
Tehreek raised its head in the city. A family of
Christians was targeted under the Blasphemy Law.
Then other hardline Islamists got attracted to
the city. A local maulvi was responsible for
getting a 'hafiz' of Quran murdered by a mob by
instigating them on the mosque loudspeaker. The
latest trend is being unleashed by the magistracy
against the seven theatres that offer
entertainment to a city population that is sick
of excessive zealotry of those who control it.
The magistrates order the police stations to raid
the theatres and arrest female artistes singing
there. At least in one incident the actresses
were brought to the bedroom of the magistrate.
The ironic footnote to Gujranwala's piety is that
among the latest wave of Pakistanis running away
from Pakistan - and returned after capture from
Oman, Sri Lanka and Turkey - the largest number
are from Gujranwala. The maulvi who is being let
off for serial murder is riding on the immorality
of the city pretending to be Islamic. Nothing
good will come out of it. Let us hope that the
latest order from Lahore that all 'fahashi' cases
be referred to the Home Department will bring the
inferno of Gujranwala to an end.
According to 'Jang' (8 November 2003), nine
people accused of killing a Shia doctor in
Lahore, Dr Muhammad Ali Naqvi, were finally let
off at the sessions in Lahore because the
witnesses to murder did not come forward. The
accused were all from the banned Sipah Sahaba
militia. Out of the nine, three (Maulana Azam
Tariq, Saifullah, Tahir Kamboh) were themselves
murdered. The remaining six were allowed to walk.
The case was 'filed'.
The non-appearance of witnesses in acts of
terrorism is natural. No one in his right mind
will give evidence against a terrorist
organisation. It is a pity that a murderer has
been let off in Lahore. This news is not going to
attract a lot of foreigners to Pakistan. The
courts here are helpless in the face of sectarian
terror.
According to 'Jang' (6 November 2003), Muhammad
Shahid was caught by Race Course Lahore police
for stealing cable TV boosters and selling them.
When caught Shahid said he was doing it on the
basis of religion because at home his daughter
had run away from home after watching cable TV.
He said he stole the cable TV boosters then broke
them and threw them in the canal.
This is patently a lie and is a clear example of
how a criminal will arouse sympathy for himself
by making reference to Islam and piety.
Unfortunately half the time the TV cable is under
attack from the state and the religious parties
who otherwise don't mind the clergy appearing on
cable TV for the purpose of preaching. The
difficulty is that there is no universally
recognised yardstick of decency or obscenity on
TV.
Columnist Nusrat Mirza wrote in 'Nawa-e-Waqt' (6
November 2003) that Foreign Office had not
formulated Pakistan foreign policy on the basis
of its permanent self-interest but on short-term
advantage. It had done the right thing by siding
with the United States during the cold war and
then getting the US and China to unite, but was
not afterwards able to ensure Pakistan's
benefits. It got Pakistan into the big global
gambles where the country was used by others as a
pawn. The last great blunder was the adoption of
America's war against Al Qaeda as its own war.
This was the most dangerous gamble striking at
the very root of Pakistan's identity as a state.
Pakistan exploited America to confront India,
then got money and weapons out of America during
the Afghan war. In return, it gave heroin to
America and made its nuclear weapons in defiance
of American law. In short, all states look to
their self-interest. How is the Foreign Office
responsible for the anti-Al Qaeda policy? This
was made by General Musharraf when President Bush
rang him up.
According to daily 'Pakistan' (6 November 2003) a
Chichawatni 'panchayat' ruling over the gang-rape
of a small girl decided that the guilty men shall
do 'tabligh' for four months while the father of
the raped girl will not step out of the village.
The 'panchayat' then got the father to sign a
'sulahnama' (truce) between the two parties on
the basis of which the police let off the
rapists. 'Jang' reported later that when the
district officer reached Chichawatni the rapists
along with the 'panchayat' ran away and could not
be found.
The 'panchayat' ran away but the court of law
would not have been any different under the Zina
Ordinance where rape and fornication are treated
the same way. In fact the 'panchayat' did a
better job than the courts under hudood, that
keep thousands of innocent wronged women in
prisons.
According to 'Jang' (7 November 2003), the
federal shariat court converted the hudood case
against dacoits and freed them after converting
hudood to 'tazir' law. Four dacoits entered the
Habib Bank in Lahore and took away Rs 69,000
after holding the employees of the bank to a gun.
A sessions court in Lahore kept the case pending
for nine years then awarded the verdict under
hudood of cutting hands and feet of the four.
(Right hand and left foot.) The federal shariat
court converted the law to 'tazir' and stated
that the dacoits had done enough time already and
should be acquitted without cutting their hands
and feet.
So far Pakistan has not been able to cut any
hands and feet under the Hudood laws for
stealing. It has simply sent women to jail
because they reported rape. Muslims who live
under literalism of today's hardline Islam should
reflect over this.
According to daily 'Pakistan' (9 November 2003)
scholars Waheed Qureshi and Rafiuddin Hashmi said
that Allama Iqbal would have been disgusted with
his son Justice (Retd) Javid Iqbal for
misinterpreting his writings in secular terms.
Had Iqbal been in Pakistan today he would have
condemned America and got the Islamic world
together to confront the West. They said he
called the League of Nations a gang of thieves.
They said Pakistan had been established in
opposition to the views of Allama Iqbal.
The Allama would have got into trouble with the
religious parties had he been alive today. His
Sixth Lecture would have qualified him for a term
in jail for turning away from the 'nas' (hudood)
of the Holy Quran. His Lectures are still banned
in Saudi Arabia. *
_____
[3]
Insaf Bulletin | 5 december 2003
The curse of ethno-nationalism hits Assam
by Daya Varma
More than 50 Hindi-speaking people, almost all
of them from poor and migrant Bihari laborer
families, have been killed in Assam. The death
toll continues to rise. The feeling of insecurity
now runs deep among the Hindi-speaking people in
the North-East, especially Biharis in Assam.
After years and decades of hard toil, in the
course of which many had virtually made Assam
their home, the threat of forcible eviction now
suddenly stares them in the face. Fear has become
their constant companion.
Regional or ethnic violence has become a
recurrent feature of politics in Assam. In the
late 1970s and 1980s, deportation of 'foreigners'
was the central demand of the Assam movement.
Ironically, in the name of deporting illegal
Bangladeshi immigrants important ULFA (United
Liberation Front of Assam) operatives themselves
took refuge in Bangladesh. Now Biharis find
themselves at the receiving end of this parochial
'xenophobic' frenzy. The present spate of
ULFA-sponsored violence is directed against the
most vulnerable sections of any society, migrant
laborers.
In the 50's and 60's liberation movement were
anti-colonial and anti-imperialist. They were
guided by a definite politics and ideology, and
more importantly they were under the
organizational control of a political formation
with worthy goals. One did not see reactionary
form of nationalism directed against other
communities, rich or poor. Ethno-nationalism, on
the other hand, is first and foremost any ally of
imperialism and in the case of India an ally of
the US-India axis. Because most of these
reactionary, and quite frequently fascistic,
formations have labeled themselves "Liberation"
forces, even democratic and progressive sections
of the society sometimes get lured into
sympathizing with them. During a visit to
Bangladesh by one of the members of INSAF a few
years ago, a leader of one of the NGOs wanted to
arrange a meeting between him and ULFA leaders
who are always there. The meeting never
materialized and the idea was rejected but it
goes to show how these reactionaries have
infiltrated the ranks of democratic sections of
the society.
In all such "Liberation" upsurges, only two
things are obvious. On one hand, it allows the
government authorities unable or unwilling to
distinguish between a armed militant and innocent
citizen, to loose a reign of terror on the
general population, and on the other hand it
allows the self-proclaimed leaders of the people
to plunder and kill innocent people slightly
different from their breed, ethnically,
culturally or religiously. In Kashmir, Pundits
had to leave. In North-East Sri Lanka, any one
not a Tamil Hindu and sympathetic to Liberation
Tigers had to leave. During the Khalistan
movement, Bihari peasants had to go back to their
villages. In Assam, Bengalis were targeted in
the 80's and Biharis are now.
The government of India itself is based on
ethno-nationalism, pitting Hindus against
Muslims now and Hindus against some one else
tomorrow. Shiva Sena's wrath was against
non-Maharashtrians earlier; it is against Muslims
now. Consequently, nothing can be expected from
this government. Whether people can organize
themselves in time and numbers to put an end to
this regressive ethno-nationalism in all its
forms is central to Indian politics.
Ethno-nationalism must be defeated if India is to
survive. It is encouraging at this juncture to
see citizens rallying in Guwahati, Assam, for
unity and peace under the banner CPI(ML), CPI,
CPI(M), SUCI, RSP, JD(S) and Samajwadi Party. One
can hope that they will also rally for peace and
harmony in all of India. (Based on a report in
CPIML Update November 26, 2003)
_____
[4]
Pluto Press
www.plutobooks.com/
ISLAM AND MODERNITY
Muslims in Europe and the United States
Iftikhar H. Malik
£ 14.99 / US$ 19.95 PAPER
2003/11 / 272pp / DEMY (215x135mm)
ISBN: 0745316115 paper ISBN: 0 7453 1612 3 cloth
Series: Critical Studies on Islam
What's it like to be a Muslim living in
the West today? And how different is it to the
experiences of Muslims who lived in Western
countries many generations ago? Recent events
have given these questions a new importance. / It
is a difficult time right now for the Muslim
diaspora throughout the United States and Europe.
George W. Bush's 'war on terror' is seen through
much of the Muslim world as a war on Islam. This
has complex repercussions for Muslims living in
the West. Tensions and anxieties are running high
as many Muslims in America and Europe are caught
in a climate of social unrest, much of it
compounded by living in the spotlight of the
media. This book generates a fresh perspective on
the problematic relationships between Islam, the
West and so-called modernity -- in the light of
an increasingly vocal Muslim diaspora in Europe
and the United States. / This is not the first
time that conflict has arisen between Muslims in
the West and their other communities -- this book
examines a long history of volatile social
relations based on extensive travels and research
across four continents. Iftikhar H. Malik offers
a wealth of case studies ranging from Muslim
Spain and the Ottoman Empire to the present day;
from the eruptions of anti-Islamic feeling over
the Salman Rushdie affair to the demonisation of
Islam currently running high on the agenda of the
'war on terror'.
Iftikhar Malik is a lecturer in history
at Bath Spa University College, and a member of
the editorial board of Contemporary South Asia.
He has published a number of books, articles and
essays on aspects of Islam.
Preface / Glossary / 1. Modernity and
Political Islam: Contestants or Companions? / 2.
The Saga of Muslim Spain: Pluralism to
Elimination. / 3. Muslims in Spain: Beginning of
an End. / 4. Islam and Britain: Old Cultures, Odd
Encounters. / 5. Muslims in Britain:
Multiculturalism and Emerging Discourse. / 6.
Muslim in France, Germany and the European Union:
Aliens or Allies? / 7. Ireland and Islam: The
Green Twins or Worlds Apart? / 8. Islam and the
United States: New Friends or Old Enemies? /
Epilogue: Andalusia or Renaissance? / Bibliography
_____
[5]
Communalism Combat,
November 2003
Year 10 No.93
Trishul to darkness
India seems destined to pass through a dark tunnel before it sees light again
BY RAHUL BOSE
The last ten years or so of our country's history
have left secularists shell-shocked. How did this
happen? How did secular, pluralistic India become
an India threatened by a rabid minority of Hindus
clad, figuratively, in saffron?
I have watched, read and listened to this
question being debated at length in various fora
across the world and have arrived at a few
conclusions that I am sure will spark dissent and
debate. Be that as it may, here are my
observations. With one qualifier. I will be
playing the devil's advocate, but let there be no
ambiguity about where my politics lie. I believe
that this country is going through one of its
greatest trials by fire and I declare myself to
be on the side of any person, body or political
entity that believes in the progress of all, with
the exception of none, with no discrimination
based on caste, gender, religion or race.
Firstly, whom did our founding fathers ask before
they decided India should be a secular democracy?
Before they decided that the British model of
governance was what would serve India best? Was a
referendum carried across the new nation? Was an
exhaustive cross-section of people canvassed for
their opinions on what the shape of new India
should be? If that had been the case, I'll wager
that we might have had a substantially
differently complexioned polity.
Consider the facts as they stood then. The
radical political factions of both the Hindu and
Muslim communities (with the willing machinations
of the British) had got what they wanted. A
fractured country. One great soul could only look
on; mute with the horror of a million deaths,
stricken by the knowledge that his doctrine of
non-violence lay buried under the tangled mass of
dead bodies that every train carried to and from
the border of two new countries. In this climate,
was new India ready to be a new, secular India?
Hold that thought. Now let us look at the UK and
the United States. Two nations with a
predominantly Christian population. Both heads of
state attend church without paying lip service to
other religions. The Leader of the Free World
even goes so far as to invoke the Lord's name
when talking to his country folk. Christmas
remains the biggest festival in each nation.
Christian values as preached in the Bible
permeate across the length and breadth of both
countries.
So why can't this be the case with India, the
militant Hindu argues. Why can't religious
minorities accept the fact that India is a Hindu
nation, where Hindu values shall dominate, and
the name of a Hindu god shall be invoked? Who
said being secular means bending over backwards
for those in minority religions?
That is where this argument collapses. The
crucial difference between the USA and the UK and
where the sangh parivar wants to take India is
that in those two countries nobody bends
backwards for religious minorities. And while
there is hate and divisiveness on issues of race,
class and gender in both nations, when it comes
to religious discrimination, there has always
been space for the other. It is a different
matter that 9/11 has changed this perception, but
that has nothing to do with asserting the
nations' Christianness. It is against their laws
to discriminate on the basis of religion, and
barring the treatment of Black Muslims in the US
in the pre-9/11 era, this has been largely
implemented.
Not so in the sangh parivar's idea of Hindustan.
(I refrain from calling their version of this
country Bharat.) No matter what its leaders may
say when expounding their theories, in practice,
their idea of a Hindu Rashtra is a nation where
the right and might of Hindus prevail. And if you
don't like it, leave.
Which brings me back to my question. Would India
have chosen to be a secular, pluralistic
democracy if a referendum had been carried out in
1947? Debatable. But what is beyond debate is the
fact that the militant Hindu is out to assert
himself today. Out to prove this is his country.
And nobody else's. It is a sentiment exacerbated
and catalysed by the shocking politics played in
the name of religious minorities that has scarred
this nation in the past. The 1984 anti-Sikh
riots. The Shah Bano case. The rise of
Bhindranwale. The 1992-93 Bombay riots. Babri
Masjid. And imagine; in none of these cases was
the sangh parivar in power.
So now, when they are, can we expect anything
less? Events like the Shah Bano case have been
manna from heaven for the saffron brigade ever
since the Rath Yatra took off a decade ago. After
that, all the uneducated, frustrated Hindu needed
was a nudge to tip him off the edge. That nudge
was, and still is, the fear that Hindutva (I
differentiate between Hindutva and Hinduism) is
in "danger". The rest was easy. Gujarat. Graham
Staines. Prejudiced police forces. Textbooks
reducing Emperor Akbar to a footnote. Make no
mistake; there is more to come.
But I see hope at the end of this tunnel. (And
believe me, this tunnel is going to get darker
for the next few years). And it is this. Once
India is pushed by a bloodthirsty few to the
rabid Hindutva edge, and the hatred, bloodshed
and counter-bloodshed gets us nowhere, the
militant Hindu will realise that in all this
Hindutva-versus-the-rest flux, two persons have
paid the price. The Hindu in the village. And the
Hindu on the street.
True, she, or he, like all impoverished Indians,
has suffered through centuries. But it will be
evident that all the blood shed on the nation's
streets has not changed their prospects in the
slightest bit. They will realise that while
earlier they were poor and oppressed, at least
they had families, neighbours, parents. Now they
are poor, oppressed and alone. They will sit
alone and they will wonder. How much money will
the bricks from that shattered mosque bring? Who
will push up the sleeve of my saffron kurta and
tie me a raakhi? How much comfort will a trishul
provide in the cold, dark winter?
(Rahul Bose is a cine artiste).
_____
[6]
BJP Sweeps the assemble elections in India
Assembly Election Results
Chhattisgarh
(Total seats 90) BJP 50, Cong 36, BSP 2, NCP 1
Delhi
(Total seats 70) Cong 47, BJP 20, JD(S) 1, NCP 1, Ind. 1
Rajasthan
(Total seats 200) BJP 120, Cong. 56, BSP 2, CPM 1, Others 21
M.P.
(Total seats 230) BJP 172, Cong. 39, Others 19
Source: The Hindu
o o o
The Telegraph
December 05, 2003
Congress core crumbles
Mahesh Rangarajan
Barring Delhi, it was a saffron surge all the
way. Not only did the Opposition BJP manage to
wrest power from three Congress governments in a
single day, an unprecedented event in its
23-year-old history, it went one better.
The mantra of the 21st century is new social
combinations. But these have been played in a
subtle manner in an election campaign dominated
by issues of basic needs: power and water in
Madhya Pradesh, jobs and industrial closures in
Rajasthan. But in largely rural societies, the
social engineering was critical to electoral
success.
The Congress would have reason to be concerned
with the results. Its share of states has fallen
from 15 to 12, if Bihar is counted. But the BJPís
list of state leaders shows a degree of social
plurality. Two new incumbents are women: Uma
Bharti and Vasundhara Raje. Bharti also increases
the representation of other backward classes to
two out of eight, Narendra Modi being the other.
In addition, there are two adivasi chief
ministers, one each in Arunachal Pradesh and
Jharkhand.
What is missing is more significant. None of the
chief ministers is either a brahmin or a bania,
the two communities traditionally the core of the
party since the days of the Jan Sangh. In fact,
in Delhi, the city where such groups were its
backbone, it has been decisively defeated by the
Congress.
Detailed analysis indicates a major accretion for
the BJP in core, traditional Congress bastions,
including adivasi-dominated regions. In all,
Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan
account for as many as 99 reserved scheduled
tribe seats. The BJP took as many as 76 of them,
leaving the Congress a paltry 16.
Chief minister Digvijay Singh in Bhopal had
pinned hopes on adivasi voters sticking with the
Congress. But the party suffered serious erosion.
One factor may well have been the surge of the
Gondwana Gantantra Party of the numerically
significant Gond tribe. The party won as many as
eight seats, of which six were general
constituencies. In the process, it provided
tribal voters with an option to the BJP even as
it ate into the Congress vote share.
In other pockets, the Hindutva factor may well
have played a key role. In Jhabua, which abuts
the Gujarat border, of Madhya Pradesh, for
instance, and even more so in Chhattisgarh.
Contrary to Chhattisgarhís outgoing chief
minister Ajit Jogiís hopes of cashing in on a
tribal card, the promise of a cow and the
long-term social work of the RSS-linked ashrams
worked wonders. The BJP walked away with all but
eight of the 34 reserved seats.
Dalits have a longer history of association with
the BJP. But few had expected that in Rajasthan
it would win as many as 26 of the 33 scheduled
caste seats. The results here are less indicative
of a surge of Dalit support. Unlike STs, the
Dalits form a smaller proportion in the villages
they live in.
But, given that chief minister Ashok Gehlot
counted the creation of seven million labour days
as a major achievement, it is a blow.
For the Sangh parivar, Madhya Pradesh was the
key. The BJP ousted the Congress after a decade
there. This was the only state mentioned at
length in the Vijaya Dashami address of RSS chief
K.S. Sudarshan.
But Hindutva was at play in organisational terms
mainly in Madhya Pradesh and also Chhattisgarh.
For the BJP, this has been an election with a
difference. It has beaten the Congress on grounds
of the incumbent governmentsí non-performance,
rather than on the emotive slogan of Hindutva.
Unlike Uttar Pradesh in 1991 or Gujarat 2002,
this was a campaign centred on governance-related
issues. Whether the future will see a new kind of
governance or not, the campaign was built around
such promises.
On election day, speaking to a journalist,
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said there was no need for
her to campaign as the "good work" of the
Congress governments would see the party through.
Since that has not happened, the pressure on the
younger members of the clan to enter the ring
will only increase. But this has been a setback
to the gameplan of the Congress ó to capture and
retain the states and then take the Centre.
As everyone gears up for the big battle for the
Lok Sabha, it is the BJP that has a spring in its
step.
_____
[7]
UK launch of a new report by the International Initiative for
Justice in Gujarat
Threatened Existence - a feminist analysis of the genocide in
Gujarat
ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts)
The Mall, London, SW1
nearest tube: Picadilly Circus/Charing Cross
4.00pm, 13 and 14 December 2003
following the film Gujarat - a laboratory of Hindu Rashtra
(45 mins/Hindi with English Sub-titles)
dir. Suma Josson, 2003, India
Threatened Existence - a feminist analysis of the genocide in
Gujarat
is a comprehensive document based on hundreds of testimonies,
eye witness accounts and other relevant information. It makes
the following major points:
· Eighteen months after the massacres of February/March
2002 the violence continues 'in different and frightening
forms with long-term consequences on the lives of all members
of the Muslim community particularly womenŠ Not only were
Muslims the victims of vicious politically motivated attacks
in February/March 2002 but they continue to be so even today.'
· Sexual violence is central to the Hindutva project in
Gujarat. And in Gujarat it is clear that all events including
the use of rape and sexual assault occurred with the
knowledge of highly placed State actors and in many instances
were carried out with the full participation and support of
the police.
· The report gives detailed evidence to show that the
action of the state in Gujarat during the February/March 2002
attacks as well as the ongoing persecution of the Muslim
community constitutes a Crime against Humanity under
International Law. It urges people's organisations within
India as well as the international community to actively
counter the campaign of hatred and fear that is at the core
of such genocidal projects. It calls upon the international
community, at the level of the State, inter-governmental and
non-governmental organisations to condemn the advance of this
genocidal project, and pressurise the government to protect
human rights and democratic principles.
The report was produced by a panel of feminist jurists,
activists, lawyers, writers and academics from all
over the world: Anissa Helie, Algeria/France, Gabriela
Mischkowski, Germany, Nira Yuval-Davis, UK, Rhonda Copelon,
USA, Sunila Abeysekara, Sri Lanka, Farah Naqvi, India, Meera
Velayudan India, Uma Chakravarti, India and Vahida Nainar,
India.
The International Initiative for Justice in Gujarat and was
set up by: Citizen's Initiative (Ahmedabad), People's Union
for Civil Liberties (PUCL)- Shanti Abhiyan (Baroda),
Communalism Combat,
Aawaaz-e-Niswaan, Forum Against Oppression of Women (FAOW)
and Stree Sangam (Bombay), Saheli, Jagori, Sama, and Nirantar
(Delhi), Organised Lesbian Alliance for Visibility and Action
(OLAVA, Pune), and other women's organizations in India.
_____
[8]
AlterNet.org
December 3, 2003
The Chemical Industry's Bhopal Legacy
By Gary Cohen, AlterNet
Nineteen years ago this week, families in Bhopal,
India were awakened in the middle of the night by
terrible burning in their eyes and lungs. Within
minutes, children and mothers and fathers
staggered into the street, gasping for air and
blinded by the chemicals that seared their eyes.
As they ran in terror, someone shouted that the
Union Carbide pesticides factory had exploded,
spewing poisonous gas throughout the city.
Soon thousands of people lay dead in the city's
main roads. Every truck, taxi and ox cart was
weighted down with injured and terrified
refugees. No one in the emergency room at the
city hospital knew what the toxic gases were or
how to treat the thousands of patients that
flooded into the hallways.
By morning, more than 5,000 people were dead,
while a half million more were injured.
Bhopal has rightly been called the Hiroshima of
the chemical industry. It not only tells the
stark story of the human fall-out from a chemical
factory explosion born of supreme negligence but
offers up important lessons about the continuing
failure of the chemical industry and government
to address the security and public health threats
posed by dangerous chemicals.
The day after the disaster, Union Carbide's CEO
Warren Anderson flew to India to assess the
damage his company had visited upon its Indian
neighbors. He was promptly met at the airport and
arrested. After a few days he was released and
allowed to return to the United States. Anderson
has not returned to India since. There is an
outstanding warrant for his arrest and a pending
criminal homicide case against him and other
Carbide officials in the Bhopal courts. The
Indian government has even issued extradition
orders for Anderson, but the U.S. government has
so far ignored the extradition request. This
complete lack of respect for the law reinforces
the image of the chemical industry as a renegade
industry that is largely uncontrollable.
Nineteen years have passed, but today in Bhopal
thousands of people remain sick from chemical
exposure, while more than 50,000 are disabled due
to their injuries. The amount of compensation
Union Carbide paid to the survivors has not been
enough to cover basic medicines, let alone other
costs associated with various disabilities and
inability to work. The sad reality is that we
continue to learn about chemicals by exposing
large numbers of people to them.
We have learned about dioxin contamination by
poisoning American veterans and the entire
Vietnamese population with Agent Orange. We have
learned about asbestos by killing off thousands
of workers to lung disease. And we have learned
about the long-term effects of methyl-isocyanate
(MIC) by spewing it across an entire city in
India. There are many other examples of this kind
of uncontrolled chemical experimentation. In most
cases, the industry rarely pays the full cost of
the massive damage it has caused.
The abandoned factory site in Bhopal remains
essentially the same as the day that Carbide's
employees ran for their lives. Sacks of unused
pesticides lay strewn in storerooms; toxic waste
litters the grounds and continues to leak into
the neighborhood well water supply. The buildings
themselves are ghostly, a rotting monument to the
excesses of the pesticide revolution in India and
the lack of corporate responsibility for its
failures.
Officials at Dow Chemical, the new owners of
Union Carbide, claim they have nothing to do with
the ongoing disaster in Bhopal - neither the
pending criminal case, the environmental
contamination, nor the public health fall-out.
Yet Dow has set aside $2 billion to address
Carbide's asbestos liabilities, another public
health legacy of the former chemical giant.
The chemical industry has always viewed Bhopal
purely as a public relations disaster; a powerful
symbol that demonstrated the industry was a
menace and a threat to people's health and
safety. In order to head off further regulation,
the chemical manufacturers created a voluntary
program called "Responsible Care" with the logo,
"Don't Trust Us, Track Us." In this way, the
industry has avoided any serious restrictions on
its chemicals for nearly 20 years.
During this time lapse, we have continued to
learn more about the dark side of the chemical
revolution. We have learned that today we all
carry the chemical industry's toxic products in
our bodies. Every man, women and child in America
has a "body burden" of chemicals that are linked
to cancer, birth defects, asthma, learning
disabilities and other diseases. We are all
guinea pigs in an epic uncontrolled chemical
experiment run by Dow, Monsanto, DuPont and other
petrochemical companies.
If we woke up one morning and learned that this
chemical invasion was the work of foreign
terrorists, the federal government would be
completely mobilized to defend our citizens from
this chemical warfare threat. But because the
perpetrators are some of President Bush's most
generous contributors and ardent collaborators,
we are left defenseless as a nation against this
chemical security threat.
Recently, it's become even harder to track the
chemical industry, since it has been working with
the Bush Administration behind the veil of
homeland security to conceal information about
the "worst case disaster" for its facilities and
the health threat posed by its products. But the
picture that is emerging is a frightening one.
According to federal government sources, there
are 123 chemical facilities nationwide that could
kill at least one million people if they
accidentally exploded or were attacked by
terrorists. Some of these chemical factories are
located in major American cities and put as many
as 8 million lives at risk. Yet the chemical
industry continues to resist any meaningful
regulation that would require it to replace the
most dangerous chemicals with safer alternatives.
A recent "60 Minutes" expose vividly showed that
many facilities lack even the most basic security
protection, yet the government is spending
billions of our tax dollars looking for chemical
terrorists overseas.
We don't have to look in Iraq for weapons of mass
destruction. They are right here, in our
neighborhoods, in our food and in our bodies.
On this 19th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster,
survivors in Bhopal will march and make speeches
and demand their basic rights to be free of
chemical poisons, to be compensated for their
damages, and to hold the chemical industry
responsible for the world's worst industrial
disaster.
Despite their ongoing victimization, people in
Bhopal have not given up. Their protests are
testimony to the triumph of memory over
forgetting and the celebration of the human
spirit over the rationalized tyranny of corporate
profit margins and evasion of responsibility.
The Bhopal survivors are speaking for us as well.
In the last two decades, Bhopal has come much
closer to home. The chemical terror they
experienced and the lack of care and respect they
have received are a haunting reminder that we
also live under a similar poison cloud.
Gary Cohen is the executive director of the
Environmental Health Fund in Boston. He serves on
the international advisory board of the Sambhavna
Trust, which operates a free medical clinic for
the survivors in Bhopal.
____
[9]
Opendemocracy.net
THE BATTLE OF THE BONES
The return of human remains to indigenous
cultures represents a surrender of science to
superstition, says TIFFANY JENKINS
http://www.opendemocracy.net/themes/article-1-1623.jsp
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
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Asia Citizens Web http://www.sacw.net/ .
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