SACW | 6 Dec. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE   |  6 December,  2003
  www.sacw.net

[This issue of the dispatch is dedicated to the memory of Professor 
Hamza Alavi, the well known Pakistan radical intellectual who died on 
December 1, 2003 in Karachi. In the recent years he was deeply 
concerned with the dangerous rise of fundamentalism(s). ; Professor 
Alavi was also a subscriber to the SACW list for a long period and i 
would for long cherish the informal correspondence with him ...H.K]

_______

[1] Pakistan: Professor Hamza Alavi  Dies
+ web memorial call for obituaries, letters...
+ News reports from Pakistan
[2] India: [Join the Citizens March for Secularism in Delhi ]
- Justice for Harmony march - Insaf ke Bina Aman Nahin (Aman Ekta Manch, Delhi)
-  Films, poetry, songs against communalism  (Anhad, Delhi)
[3] India: RSS Volunteer to Desecrate Gandhi (I.K.Shukla)
[4] India: [Re the Hindu right victory in elections] What Went Wrong? 
(Gail Omvedt)
[5] India: Ethnic riots for jobs: Interview with Lalit Deshpande 
(SHASHI ASHIWAL)
[6] India Book review: Challenging Caste and Gender Ideologies (Veena Poonacha)
[7] Invitation to the Delhi Social Forum (8 December 2003)

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

[1]

Professor Hamza Alavi one of the subcontinents best known Marxist 
sociologists Dies

IN MEMORY OF HAMZA ALAVI
Reports, Tributes and obituaries
http://www.sacw.net/hamza_alavi/index.html
[A small independent web memorial web page has been set up in his 
memory. It contains reports some from the Pakistan press . . .
Scholars and non scholars, people on the left (also those left out by 
the left) citizens from the subcontinent or where ever are invited to 
send obituaries, letters, memories etc. for addition on this page. 
Please send your messages to   ->  <aiindex at mnet.fr>]

o o o o

[News reports from Pakistan]

Dawn, December 2, 2003

KARACHI: Hamza Alavi - a social scientist-cum-political activist
By Bhagwandas

KARACHI, Dec 1: Hamza Alavi, who died on Monday, aged
82, led a very active intellectual life. He became
famous in the academia when he wrote an article in the
newly-founded The Socialist Register in which he
propounded the thesis that middle peasants were
initially most militant elements of the peasantry and
could therefore be a powerful ally of the proletariat
movement in the countryside. Through this hypothesis
he reversed the sequence suggested in the Marxist
text.
His thesis labelled as Alavi-Wolf thesis (since it was
reiterated by Eric Wolf four years later) is still
alive and refuses to die, as through it he had made a
distinction between the Marxist theory and the
practical Mao.
His strength lay in going to the practicalities of
things, and when he got interested in peasantry as a
youngman, he left a coveted State Bank job to take up
farming in Tanzania where he lived among peasants.
Later, a serious illness took him to London where he
had time for reflection and changed his career.
That is how a social scientist-cum-political activist
was born. For 10 years he remained involved in
political activism in London: writing, lecturing and
holding seminars in universities. For five years he
edited Pakistan Today in which various issues were
analyzed from the Left's perspective and obviously it
was anathema to the Pakistani establishment. The
journal was circulated secretively in the country.
His curriculum vitae makes an impressive reading: from
the post of research officer in the Reserve Bank of
India in 1945 to readership in the University of
Manchester and the post-retirement life in Karachi
since 1997.
What is most significant about Mr Alavi is that his
research is not the kind that is conducted in the
air-conditioned seminar rooms and libraries.
Accompanied by his wife, he went and lived for 15
months in a Sahiwal (Punjab) village in 1968-69 to do
an anthropological field study. In 1981, he returned
to the same village to do a follow-up on the changes
that had taken place over the years.
His field-oriented research, to which he applied his
theoretical knowledge of anthropology and sociology,
made his papers full of insightful knowledge and
information on Pakistani society.
It seems intriguing that while abroad he was
acknowledged as a distinguished anthropologist whose
ideas had influenced a large number of social
scientists, and he was acclaimed as a foremost
theoretical thinker in South Asia; back home, his
views were anathema to the establishment which found
it difficult to swallow ideas that criticized foreign
aid, spoke of the emergence of military-bureaucratic
oligarchy which tries to mediate between the imperial
powers and landlords and the native bourgeoisie.
He had been studying the Holy Quran to understand the
rise of fundamentalism which concerned him deeply. He
thought rational intervention was necessary as there
was a pluralist view of Islam as had been advocated by
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan who had said that religion should
remain a private matter.
He had founded a number of organizations in his early
life like the Pakistan Youth League, which was a broad
liberal social forum, the Pakistan Socialist Society
and after Ayub Khan's coup, he set up a committee for
the Restoration of Democracy in Pakistan. He also
formed The Forum, Pakistan Welfare Association, etc.
Mr Alavi wrote a large number of research papers. His
writings are so diverse that it is difficult to
identify his area of specialization. Some of the
subjects of his papers were the class structure;
nature of colonial and post-colonial economies;
relations between colonial, post-colonial and
metropolitan elites; role of military and bureaucracy;
changing production relations and mode of production
and kinship in the political economy, etc.



Dawn, December 2, 2003

Hamza Alavi

In the death of Hamza Alavi, the country has lost an
eminent intellectual. Starved of minds which think
independently and rationally, our society - and
establishment - has not really appreciated the men of
scholarship who have refused to toe the conventional
line. Hence not surprisingly, Hamza Alavi spent most
of his active professional life in universities
abroad, mainly Manchester and Sussex. vBy training an
economist and sociologist, he made a profound
contribution to socio-political and economic thinking
by applying his deep and comprehensive knowledge of
Marxian theory to contemporary developments in
Pakistan. He won international recognition for his
thesis on peasant revolution.
In Pakistan, his ideas on feudalism, nationhood, the
salariat (a term he coined), the freedom movement, the
role of the bureaucracy and army in politics provided
considerable food for thought to rationally-minded
people.
Hamza Alavi will be remembered not just for his
scholarship but also for his activism and concern for
the state of Pakistani society which seems to be
driven by retrograde forces. Not an arm-chair scholar,
Alavi went and lived in a village in Punjab for 15
months to do field research on the biradari system.
While in England, he launched the committee for the
restoration of democracy (directed against Ayub Khan)
and mobilized Pakistanis to create awareness against
dictatorship. He edited Pakistan Today, which analyzed
problems from the Left's perspective and was
distributed clandestinely in Pakistan.
In England he became a founder-member of CARD
(Campaign against Racial Discrimination), a
multiracial organization formed to fight the rising
tide of racism. Even in his retirement in Karachi he
continued to be active in espousing the causes close
to his heart.
Ill-health and infirmity notwithstanding, he was a
much sought-after speaker at seminars and for
interviews because he had something meaningful to say.
He would also show up at protest demonstrations to
identify himself with democracy, peace and
non-violence. He will be missed sorely for he was one
of the few remaining voices of sanity and reason in
this country.

o o o


Dawn
December 3, 2003

KARACHI: Hamza Alavi's death condoled

KARACHI, Dec 2: The Irteqa Institute of Social Sciences, Progressive 
Writers Association and Awami Adbi Anjuman in a joint resolution 
expressed profound grief at the demise of noted intellectual and a 
social scientist of great eminence, Dr Hamza Alavi on Monday.
A patron of Irteqa, since the decade of 80s in the last century, Prof 
Alavi was equally generous in extending his support and patronage to 
other progressive organizations in the city.
In a country lagging behind in the area of education and social 
development, the soft spoken professor had always been a guide to all 
such bodies, which were working hard to infuse enlightenment and the 
spirit of tolerance in society.
Prof Alavi's researches in anthropology, sociology, and particularly 
in the Afro-Asian societies added immense knowledge to the human 
society, treasured by the academia in the universities the world over.
A democrat to the core, he was the founder of many democratic bodies 
and forums in the country and also abroad. The Pakistan Youth League, 
Pakistan Socialist Society and Pakistan Welfare Association, to note 
a few.
Dr Hamza Alavi's death is a great loss to all of us and will always 
be felt by the people in Pakistan and many other countries. - HA


o o o


The Daily Times, 3 December 2003

Hamza Alavi: greatness we rebuffed
Hamza Alavi, who died in Karachi Monday, was known as a leftwing 
intellectual to most of us. But in truth he was a rational 
philosopher in the tradition of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan who thought that 
Pakistan as a Muslim state could survive only if it read its 
Scripture rationally and interpreted it pluralistically. Mr Alavi 
therefore was a great supporter of the Quaid-e-Azam and wrote about 
him in his characteristic investigative manner, only to put off the 
religious establishment in Pakistan. His last great work was a series 
of articles on the impractical interpretation of the Quranic edict on 
interest (riba) by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. (Pakistan couldn't 
implement it.) Ever the man of reason, he demonstrated once again how 
a religious state may hurt itself by being literalist.
 From the Bohra community in Karachi, Mr Alavi in fact belonged to the 
world. That's how he was saved from the ostracism of a narrow-minded 
society of restricted vision. While he was farming in Tanzania, he 
advanced the Marxist method of analysis by empirically identifying 
the mid-level farmer as the link to the urban proletariat. He came to 
Pakistan in 1968 and studied the 'biradiri' system in the local 
electoral process in a district of the Punjab. That study remains a 
classic to this day. If he hadn't declined in health in recent years 
he could have been in the vanguard of the anti-capitalist movement 
whose importance we all recognise as we approach the year 2005 under 
the WTO. *



____


[2]


Justice for Harmony march - Insaf ke Bina Aman Nahin

Friends,
Please join in large numbers in the protest march organized by Aman 
Ekta Manch to mark the 11th anniversary of the demolition of the 
Babri Masjid. The theme for the march is "Justice for Harmony" (Insaf 
ke Bina Aman Nahin) - to highlight the need to bring to book the 
perpetrators of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the pogrom in 
Gujarat in 2002. All organizations are welcome to join with their 
banners and posters.

The march will start at 4.00 pm on December 6th, Saturday, at Mandi 
House circle (Safdar Hashmi Marg) we will march towards India Gate, 
where we will conclude with a cultural programme. All cultural 
groups, singers, plays, are welcome to bring their performances. The 
programme would be more easily manageable if each performance could 
be limited to not more than 20 minutes each.

We have attached a poster (English) that you can print out, photocopy 
and put up wherever you want.

Please mobilise widely.

In solidarity,
Aman Ekta Manch

o o o

Please join Us at 6 pm

December 6, 2003

Anhad, 4 Windsor Place, New Delhi

Film: Passengers by Akanksha Joshi and Nooh Nizami- on Gujarat
Poetry Recitation: Gauhar Raza
Movement Songs : Vagish Jha and all of us together

4.00-5.30 we will be joining the Aman Ekta March, the programme at 
Anhad would begin at 6 pm sharp

Shabnam Hashmi


_____


[3]

05 Dec 2003

RSS Volunteer to Desecrate Gandhi
I.K.Shukla

It is a screaming insult to the memory of Gandhi that Gandhi Smriti 
and Darshan Samiti, Delhi, invited a RSS volunteer to inaugurate the 
Global Convention on Peace and Nonviolence slated for Jan31 and Feb1, 
2004, in Delhi. It is shocking in the extreme that GSDS chose to be 
so insensitive and grossly blind to history and so egregiously 
contemptuous of civility.

How could a spiritual and ideological soulmate of the assassin Godse 
be invited to this convention on peace and nonviolence?  And that to 
inaugurate it?

How could a collaborator of the British and a pledged advocate of 
violent liquidation of minorities, Muslims in particular, be invited 
to this function?

How could Atom Bomb Vajpayee be invited to a function touted to be on 
global peace and nonviolence? GSDS forgot what Gandhi said about the 
nuclear bomb.

It is Atal's Darshan and Smriti of his association that GSDS seems 
more solicitous of than the Darshan or Smriti of Gandhi which RSS has 
done its meanest most to destroy and denigrate.

And, it seems, GSDS begged him, the RSS votary of violent extirpation 
of minorities, to inaugurate the Convention, seemingly because it 
could not find a Gandhian anywhere in the world, or it dreamed that 
Vajpayee had abandoned the fascistic RSS and mutated into a sworn 
Gandhian.

The GSDS is free to fantasize, and regress into infantile imbecility, 
but it certainly is not licensed to have the memory of Gandhi sullied 
and seared by the RSS man who did all he could for his Hindu Rashtra 
cult to have Gandhi wiped off Indian history and psyche and dumped in 
blood and fire as in Gujarat.

GSDS seems irreversibly amnesiac otherwise it should have remembered 
that RSS rulers dealt a death blow to Gandhi Institute in Varanasi. 
Not only it buried Gandhi there, it also battered its prime 
benefactor, JP Narayan, so closely associated with it for decades.

Is it for these criminal and barbaric tendencies, reeking of fascism 
and totalitarian terrorism, that GSDS chose to honour Vajpayee under 
the cover of the Convention?

GSDS should, in view of this, change its name.

If it did not beg him to favor it with his presence, how come he 
"kindly agreed to inaugurate"? Why did it beg a communal fascist to 
"honor" Gandhi, a seasoned sectarian-exclusivist like Vajpayee to 
"inaugurate" a pluralist-secular democrat like Gandhi?

He should have been, instead, turned down for this honor, if HE had 
dared beg the GSDS, or if those close to him had begged the GSDS for 
this blatant blasphemy and  savage sacrilege?

GSDS owes an immediate and unreserved apology to Gandhians, to the 
nation at large, as to the international community of Gandhi 
devotees, to have perpetrated this ignominy so brutally, and at such 
a time as this, when the world is rocked by violence, and India is 
shaken to its roots by the criminals in saffron, rampaging and 
stalking all over, torching and demolishing all that was dear to 
Gandhi more than his own life. END.

_____



[4]

['re the Assembly elections victory by the Hindu right' E-mail, 
posting by the well known progressive Indian sociologist, on foil.org 
reproduced here in the interest of public debate, 5 December 2003 ]

o o o

WHAT WENT WRONG?
I am devastated by the election results.  I was expecting a loss in 
MP because the BJP/RSS has been growing there for some time and 
clearly targeting Digvijay Singh (see Sudarshan's speech on 
Vijayadashmi) but I did not expect the losses in Rajasthan and 
Chattisgarh.

Three good CMs lost.  Digvijay Singh, tho a Thakur, has stood for 
Dalits and the protection of religious minorities; people in 
government service have been banned from being members of RSS in MP. 
He is the most hated politician of the RSS. His so-called "soft 
Hindutva" was at the level of rhetoric -- itself not desirable, but 
he has never said a word against Muslims (as for instance Antony did 
in Kerala). Gehlot, a Mali, is new in politics and has made some 
mistakes (for instance reservations for the economically backward 
among the threadwalas is a travesty of the whole idea of affirmative 
action) but many friends consider him a leader with potential.

Jogi, a Christian "tribal" has also been a target of very dirty 
attacks.  Though Hindutva forces have claimed he got a false 
certificate, I am told he comes from a Satnami family and while most 
Satnamis were Dalit (SC) some adivasis also joined it; such was 
Jogi's family.     Why did the Congress lose?  Anti-incumbncy and 
general disillusionment with politicians, along with the failure of 
Congress to present a clear political vision are important.

However, I do not think the socalled "developmental" issues (roads, 
electricity etc) are as significant as most commentators are saying 
now.  Both parties are at present more or less alike on these.  These 
have perhaps been made a talking point but if they were so important 
why did Gehlot lose?  He was the one being praised for having done a 
good job on development.  True, the Congress should learn to speak in 
a clear voice with a vision on these issues, but that is a different 
matter.

Three additional factors have to be noted.

One is the continual dominance of upper castes, mainly brahmans, in 
the bureaucracy.  There was a report about bureaucrats "guiding" 
villagers in using the new voting machines in Rajasthan.  this may 
have happened in many places.  In MP we found that after Lyndoh had 
said that Digvijay Singh could not forgive electricity bills for 
farmers, almost immediately people got bills, large bills.  Was this 
accidental?

Second is a simple technical factor, that of election mobilization. 
What is called in the US "getting out the vote.:  RSS is good at that 
sort of thing and they  undoubtedly worked during this election.  I 
don't think Congress has the cadre now to do this.

And third, as for the left and progressive forces who have had such 
cadre, they have been worse than useless in these elections.  Here I 
am most disappointed.  The CPI/CPM have little real base and cadre 
left in these states.  The nonparliamentary, anti-parliamentary left 
has had a negative effect by reducing Congress votes in the adivasi 
areas where it has some strength. (If I am wrong about this please 
inform me).  Even more, the "ultrarevolutionary" idea that nothing 
can be gained from parliamentary politics has spread far and wide and 
has affected so many activists of NGOs and other organizations (NBA, 
Ekalavya, NAPM connected groups and all the Adivasi Kisan Sanghathans 
floating around in MP) that most have simply remained silent, 
bemoaning the growth of RSS and sitting at home, or in some cases 
trying to float third parties which objectively aid the BJP by 
cutting Congress votes.  People like Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy 
might have had some influence in these states,but they have been 
silent, silent silent.

Their politics has becoe one of fighting globalization and the market 
economy and "neoliberalism" etc. while ignoring brahmanism/fascism in 
their own land.  I don't think fighting dams and development (this 
isanyway not a Marxist position) and helping Hindutva should be 
acceptable to us any longer.

with metta and salutes,

Gail Omvedt

_____


[5]

Frontline
Volume 20 - Issue 25, December 06 - 19, 2003

A question of uneven development
Interview with Lalit Deshpande.

SHASHI ASHIWAL

Professor Lalit Deshpande, former Director of the Department of 
Economics, University of Mumbai and currently a visiting honorary 
professor at the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, has had 
a distinguished academic career. He is an executive committee member 
of the Indian Society of Labour Economics. He has held numerous 
positions in the Indian government - chairman of the Committee on 
Labour Statistics, member of the Rest of Maharashtra Statutory 
Development Board and member of the Services Board of Reserve Bank of 
India, and so on. He has done research studies on labour market 
behaviour for the International Labour Organisation and the World 
Bank and has published books on Indian labour with a specific focus 
on the extent of labour flexibility in India. Deshpande spoke to Lyla 
Bavadam on the related issues of unemployment, labour and regional 
inequalities. Excerpts from the interview:

What would be the best way to tackle the recurring problem of Sena 
activists turning violent with the `sons-of-the-soil' slogan?

One way for the Railways to tackle the Sena is to make transparent 
all the facts and figures. What are the facts before us? We have been 
told that there were 2,000 posts and eight lakh applications. That is 
all that the public knows and since the Railways has not said 
anything about it we have to take the Sena's word about these 
details. This is the worst thing. Since there is no other 
information, people lap up whatever they receive and are convinced 
that an injustice is being done to them. When information is 
restricted, there is no transparency and ultimately there is a 
violent outburst. Modern India has to give out facts - palatable or 
unpalatable. Then people would understand the issue. In the absence 
of this there is a clientele waiting to buy whatever is being sold.

The Railways' employment policy is not known. The Shiv Sena says the 
jobs that were available were for khalasis [unskilled labourers]. The 
Shiv Sena asks: "Is there a shortage of unskilled labour in 
Maharashtra that it has to be brought in from other States?" They 
emphasise that they are referring to all those who are domiciled here 
and not to Marathi-speaking people. The Railways should counter this 
by providing information. How many people from Maharashtra applied 
for these jobs? How many failed, how many passed?

Then there is the other issue. I read that these jobs were not 
advertised in the Marathi language papers. True or false? Fears need 
to be allayed about the general policies of recruitment. All these 
questions are very legitimate and all debates are useless unless you 
know the facts. As an average Indian I do not know what is happening. 
It is essential that people know what is happening so that those who 
are making public causes of issues cannot misuse opportunities to 
further their own aims.

A bit of background is essential to understanding the issue. To the 
man on the street it is about jobs, but there is more to it than 
meets the eye. The Railways has not been contributing to the general 
tax revenue as it was doing earlier. It is in a dilemma too. If it 
starts operations in a profitable State it will make money, but the 
basic mandate of the Railways is to provide infrastructure to 
backward areas so as to raise the development levels. No doubt it 
will initially make losses but after that it will make profits.

Are you referring to taking a stand on regional inequalities?

Yes, there needs to be a principle of distribution. Larger shares of 
the development budget should be earmarked for States with low 
incomes. So, if we do not want Biharis to come here then we should be 
prepared to give Bihar a larger share of the development budget. Or 
we should provide employment to Biharis regardless of where they are 
located.

Maharashtra is among the fastest growing States. The annual rate of 
growth here is 6 per cent as compared to 3 per cent in Bihar. Since 
the levels of poverty and unemployment are higher in Bihar, it is 
natural for Biharis to migrate in search of jobs. If a State is 
mismanaged, as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are believed to be, then what 
is the Centre doing to make them perform? A situation is bound to 
come when other States will grudge the behaviours of the 
non-performing States. Our Constitution does not have any provisions 
for punishment for bad performances by States.

Bal Thackeray says that he is not against Biharis per se but against 
all people who take away unskilled jobs from local people. He says 
that all States, and not just Maharashta, should reserve unskilled 
jobs for local people and this would significantly reduce 
unemployment levels.

(Laughs) Take the Railways again, for example. If no investment is 
made by the Railways in Bihar then how can unskilled Biharis apply 
for jobs in Bihar? This is a serious responsibility of the public 
sector. It has to make investments, especially in backward areas, 
otherwise how will there be employment for the people of those areas?

Do we have any idea of the extent of unemployment? How would you 
define an unemployed person?

An unemployed person is not just a person who does not have a job. In 
developed countries the jobless get unemployment insurance. 
Therefore, the person is unemployed but yet has an income. Not so in 
India. So in India how do we measure unemployment? Take the example 
of a cobbler who sits on the footpath in his stall. He would come in 
the category of self-employed, but consider his earnings. He may get 
one customer or 10 customers a day. There has to be a minimum income 
per day to consider a person as employed.

Therefore, income measure is the best measure to judge 
employment/unemployment. These are also the reasons why it is 
difficult to get accurate figures of the unemployed. One can get 
numbers from employment exchanges but it is still not accurate. 
People who are looking for a better job, though they already have 
one, people who want to hold more than one jobs - all these people 
register with the exchange.

In cultural and demographic terms, is there any indication of an 
increase in the number of unemployed Maharashtrians in the State? 
Likewise, is there any indication of a trend in which more numbers of 
the so-called `outsiders' are getting employed in the State? There is 
a general belief that migrants come in and corner particular jobs.

Since employment and unemployment issues are not clearly defined, 
there are no definitive answers to this. However, one thing is true. 
Migrants find jobs easily because they will work for anyone and any 
wage. Look at some of the jobs in the city. Most of the rag-pickers 
are from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, most of the ship-breaking 
jobs are done by migrants. No Maharashtrian will do these jobs unless 
they are from very poor regions like Solapur. It is not correct to 
say that these people are cornering the jobs in these industries. It 
is just that no one else is willing to do them. This is a universal 
fact. A migrant is also usually a single mouth to feed - himself - 
since he leaves his family in the village.

There is another reason for this belief that migrants corner certain 
jobs. People from Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have local 
skills that are transmitted from father to son. For instance, diamond 
cutters, carpenters, polishwallahs and gawlis [milkmen]. Take the 
example of gawlis. They are mainly from western Uttar Pradesh, which 
is an area of many rivers and hence milch animals do well there. 
Gawlis are a traditional occupation there. Maharashtra, especially 
the interiors, is a dry area, so the profession of gawli is not so 
common. So when the Uttar Pradesh gawlis came here they filled a 
natural niche. Because these people have traditional skills it gives 
the impression that they are taking over a profession.

How about the non-skilled areas? For instance, jobs like taxi 
drivers, lift men, security guards. There is a popular perception 
that these are dominated by people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

One of the possible explanations is that migrant populations work 
much harder. At one time, vegetable markets were dominated by 
Maharashtrians, but that percentage has decreased. The migrant 
workers get up at 2 a.m. and begin the business of getting in fresh 
produce. Another reason is that Maharashtrians have not been broadly 
noted for their entrepreneurial spirit. They have more of a service 
nature, at least among the middle classes.

Are there any statistics that you can give to show the flow of 
migrants into Mumbai?

One very telling figure is from the 1961 Census, which says that 40 
per cent of migrants to Mumbai came from the rest of Maharashtra. 
However, more recent figures from the 1981-1991 Census show that the 
share of Gujarati migrants has dropped. From 16 per cent in 1961 it 
has come down to 12 per cent in 1991. For Uttar Pradesh-Bihar, the 
inflow into Mumbai has gone up from 12 per cent in 1961 to 20 per 
cent in 1991. You must remember that when the Census is taken if 
someone is born outside the State he is considered a migrant even if 
he has been living away from his place of birth for several years.

What was the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine's track record 
in providing employment when they were in power in Maharashtra? Sena 
leader Raj Thackeray had expressed concern about unemployed youth and 
had even started a sort of employment bureau.

In the totality of population in the State, it becomes difficult to 
claim success or failure. No figures will directly show you whether 
more Maharashtrians got employment though this can be inferred from 
the data.

Do you think the violence was an expression of the Sena's 
`sons-of-the-soil' policy or is there something more to it?

Let me put it this way. You need an issue to come to prominence in a 
State. Once you come to power your ambition looks to other States and 
you alter your ideas. From the cause of the Marathi manus to Hindutva 
to the Muslim vote, it is all the language of convenience. Professor 
Kaushik Basu, who used to be with the Delhi School of Economics, 
spoke of the hierarchy of ideologies and beliefs. He says that your 
basic ideology may conflict with your lesser ideologies. Each person 
has to come to terms with this. The basic ideology of the Shiv Sena 
is to promote the interests of the Marathi-speaking population, but 
their ambition is to go to the Hindi-speaking States now, especially 
since they have partnered with the BJP.

So what does the Sena do so as not to embarrass the BJP in the Hindi 
belt? That is their conflict right now. Full employment can only be 
assured if there is denial of Fundamental Rights of others, that is, 
Article 19 which guarantees freedom of movement. This is a political 
decision to be made and that is where the compromises in ideology are 
made.

A very common complaint by locals against migrants is that of 
integration. Even citizens who do not support the Sena's extreme 
views say that migrants do not integrate and, in fact, impose their 
culture on the older, more established culture.

`They don't integrate', `their habits are dirty'... these are the 
common prejudices that locals all over the world have against first 
generation migrants. I was talking to an Uttar Pradesh rickshawallah 
the other day and he was expressing his opinion about Biharis. He was 
talking about his neighbour who is a Bihari and who he says does not 
save any money to send back to his family. From this he came to the 
conclusion that Biharis are immoral and selfish people and that is 
why others do not like them.

I thought to myself that when he first came here he must have been 
looked down upon by others for similar things, but he has forgotten 
that. Our minds are prejudiced. I remember reading a letter in a 
Marathi paper some years ago in which a woman reader said Biharis and 
people from Uttar Pradesh are dirty and spit paan. Now paan is more 
of a north Indian habit, but what about the fact that Maharashtrians 
eat tobacco and spit that? The basic idea seems to be that we can 
spit but others cannot.

The other prejudiced accusation against migrants is that they tend to 
band together. A migrant is looking for security, so he will 
naturally stay with his own people for the sake of familiarity and 
convenience. This has happened in New York, in London... Just about 
everywhere. We have to remember that integration is a slow process. 
You now have Punjabi and Gujarati families taking out Ganesha idols 
for immersion. It is not a part of their original culture, but some 
families have been here so long that it has become part of their 
culture.

Or take the matter of the local language. In Mumbai you can get away 
with Bambaiya Hindi so many migrants do not feel the need to learn 
Marathi, but a great many still do. And if they send their children 
to school then they will learn Marathi because it is the second 
language.

In Amsterdam the migrants from Surinam, particularly women, are very 
reluctant to mix with the local people. So local volunteer groups 
formed clubs, which were initially only for women, and they used to 
go out on picnics, hold Dutch classes. Integration is a two-way 
process. You cannot put the responsibility entirely on the migrants. 
If we want them to integrate, then the question we have to ask 
ourselves is this: What are we doing to help them to achieve this?


_____


[6]

The Economic and Political Weekly
November 29, 2003
Book Reviews

Challenging Caste and Gender Ideologies

De-Eroticising Assault: Essays on Modesty, Honour and Power, by 
Kalpana Kannabiran and Vasanth Kannabiran; Stree, Kolkata 2002; pp 
267 (with index), price Rs 500.

Veena Poonacha

Written in the last decade of the 20th century, these essays reflect 
the agonising concerns of the women's movement when confronted with 
the dramatic changes of the period: For the era had witnessed the 
restructuring of the prevailing socio-economic structures - a process 
that was marked with greater state repressions, economic inequalities 
and ideological conservatism. The globalisation of the world economy 
and the entry of foreign capital into the country had created an 
illusion of prosperity for the middle classes; this unfortunately was 
achieved on the suffering of many who were dispossessed because of 
the current development policies or rendered unemployed by the 
closure of many factories and small manufacturing units. Exacerbating 
the economic hardships of the people was the growing communal 
tensions fostered by Right-winged ideologies and political agendas. 
These developments had serious implications for women. The rising 
cost of living and the shrinking employment markets were increasing 
women's economic burdens, at the same time encoded ideas of gender 
identities within the fundamentalist discourse were pushing women 
back into their homes.

Capturing the complexity and the dilemmas of the times, the essays 
give us insights into the theory and praxis of the women's movement 
from the south. Located in Andhra Pradesh - a state with a long 
history of radical politics - the essays delineate feminist politics 
through the experiences of those were in the forefront of the 
struggle. The introspective, first essay 'Looking at Ourselves: Stree 
Shakti Sanghatana' (pp 25-54), does not merely record the history of 
the organisation but goes on to explore the processes that shaped the 
consciousness of its members and re-defined their life course. In 
this sense, the essay is deeply autobiographical and represents an 
attempt made by the authors to theorise on their lives. It thus 
provides fresh insights into the trajectories of the women's 
movement. Stree Shakti Sanghatana (SSS) was formed after the 
emergency was lifted in 1977, when a group of 15 women came together 
in order to express their political concerns. Set against the 
backdrop of the radical politics in Andhra Pradesh, the essay 
describes the political moorings of the founder members of the SSS as 
radical and historically rooted in Telengana, a region known for its 
economic/cultural marginalisation and its tense relationship to the 
other parts of the state. All the founding members of the group had 
close connections with the Left politics.

Modes of Violence

Written over a period of time, the essays point to the evolution of 
thought of the two writers Kalpana and Vasanth. Nevertheless, despite 
the time lag, the essays develop as a cohesive whole to indicate the 
central concerns of feminist politics. Focusing on sexuality, rape, 
sexual harassment and domestic violence, the essays point out to the 
ways in which women are silenced through the use of violence. 
Violence is not limited to the physical use of force; it also 
operates at both the material and normative levels in society to 
maintain existing caste/gender hierarchies. The violation of even a 
seemingly simple dress code by a lower caste woman could prove to be 
potential tinderbox that could ignite a communal violence. A 
stalemate occurred in Orissa between the kshatriyas and the dalits 
because a dalit woman 'dressed up well' when she went to receive her 
wages. A sexist remark by the landlord made all the dalit women 
strike work. The tension between the two groups was finally mediated 
through an agreement between the men in the two communities that the 
women from both the communities would not step into each other's 
terrain (59-60). What the incident also poignantly brings home is the 
centrality of control over women to a group identity. This is 
precisely the reason why women become targets of attack in times of 
inter-community conflicts.

Discussing the use of gender based violence in inter-community 
rivalries, in the essay, 'Caste and Gender: Understanding Dynamics of 
Power and Violence' (pp 55-67), Kalpana and Vasanth argue that 
insofar as masculinity is tied up to the degree of control men 
(collectively and individually) exercise over women's sexuality, 
women from the other group are violated during inter-community 
conflicts. The aim of such violence is to demoralise the men from the 
other group. This important understanding of the underlying reasons 
for violence perpetrated by the upper castes against women from the 
lower castes has emerged from the experiences of dalit women. The 
National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW) in its draft declaration on 
Gender and Racisim asserted:

Descent-based discrimination based on caste results in the violent 
appropriation of and sexual control over dalit women by men of the 
dominant castes, evident in the systematic rape of dalit women and 
the perpetuation of forced prostitution in the name of religion 
through the devadasi system (p 9).

Further deconstructing various incidents of caste-based violence, 
they argue that there must be a distinction made between the violence 
perpetrated by men from the dominant groups to maintain the 
prevailing caste/gender domination and the violence that results from 
the legitimate anger of the downtrodden against the oppressors. They 
also point out that in understanding communal violence, it is also 
necessary to recognise women's roles in perpetuating violence. 
Failing to recognise that the intersecting ideologies of caste and 
gender controls are also enacted in their own lives, the women from 
the dominant groups often side with the men in their communities 
against the other.

The next three essays namely, 'Outrageous Modesty, Outraged Honour' 
(pp 68-95), 'Death for Rape?' (pp 96-103) and 'A Ravished Justice: 
Half a Century of Judicial Discourse on Rape' (pp 104-69) concentrate 
on the legal discourses on violence. The first of the three essays 
show that the supreme court guidelines issued in its judgment on 
Vishaka vs the State of Rajasthan has been framed from the standpoint 
of the vulnerability of a dalit woman. It seeks to protect working 
women from exploitation by the dominant castes and holds the state 
government responsible for their safety. It also points out the 
difficulty of getting the seriousness of the offense of sexual 
harassment accepted by society. This is evident from the attitude of 
politicians and bureaucrats to the complaint of sexual harassment 
filed by Rupan Bajaj against the super cop K P S Gill. It was as if 
the reputation of a fine officer was needlessly tarnished by a woman 
because of a petty misdemeanour. If an upper class woman faces such 
disbelief in getting her complaint taken seriously, what hope could 
ordinary women have that their complaints would be heard?

The second of the three essays examines the current debate on whether 
death penalty should be imposed in rape cases. Kalpana and Vasanth 
discuss the legal framework for the imposition of death penalty. 
Death penalty can only be imposed under Section 303 IPC. The sentence 
is only awarded in the rarest of rare cases and at the discretion of 
the judges. Given the difficulty of proving rape in a court of law, 
it is unlikely that death penalty would be awarded in a rape trial. 
The legal system in the country rests on the assumption of the 
innocence of the accused until proved guilty. Pointing to the 
difficulty of establishing criminal culpability of the accused, 
especially when the victim is not a minor and there are no signs of 
injuries on her body, they argue that the rate of conviction in rape 
trials is extremely low. No doubt this concern for the presumption of 
innocence has been set aside in rape cases in recent years. This is 
consequent to amendments of the IPC following feminist protests to 
the Supreme Court judgment in the Mathura rape case (Tukaram vs State 
of Maharashtra, 1979 scc[Cr ]381).

The third essay by Kalpana Kannabiran investigates the legal 
discourse on rape as enacted in the various judgments delivered in 
India since independence. Pointing to contradictions in the 
discourse, she says that although rape is legally described as a 
crime, it is also a product of the internalised values of 
hetro-sexuality in the larger society. Rape cases hinge on the notion 
of a woman's consent; the prevailing socio-cultural norms on 
sexuality, however, deny minors the right to consent and adult woman 
not to consent. These ambiguities therefore are present in the legal 
system to deny women justice. The essay goes on to show that the 
victims of rape (contrary to the stereotyped image of a seductress 
asking for it) could be a child or an adult woman from any age group. 
Likewise the accused (who enjoys the benefit of doubt within the 
legal framework) could be a teenager, an old man, a father, guardian, 
uncle, brother, servant, neighbours, government officials, or even a 
stranger. These rapists are not criminals; rather they are ordinary 
citizens. This indicates that the crime of rape is committed within 
the social norms defining heterosexuality.

Vain Search for Justice

After pointing to the failure of the prevailing legal system in 
ensuring justice for women, the authors indict the police for 
manipulating the system in 'Desecrating Graves, Defiled Bodies, 
Dispossessed Community' (pp 170-88). Deconstructing the official 
position in the Rameeza Bee case, they point to the erasure of the 
crime in official investigation process in order to exonerate the 
accused policemen. The process of erasure also makes evident the ways 
in which women's identities are constructed in society. Apart from 
dividing women into good and bad women, the stereotyping of women 
also occurs on the basis of their community identities. Women from 
the minority communities are, in the process, denied their rights to 
equal protection under the law.

The next essay, 'Crossing the Black Waters, Commemorating 150 years 
of Indian Arrival in Trinidad' (pp 189-207) by Kalpana does not seem 
to apparently fit into the mainframe of the book, for it focuses on 
the Indian diaspora in Trinidad. The text, however, conforms to the 
ideological positions of the author. By attempting to reconstruct the 
history of the early Indian settlers in Trinidad, Kalpana points to 
the insidious ways that the fundamentalist discourse from the mother 
country shapes the contours of their collective memories.

Subsequently reflecting on women's political participation in 'A Hen 
Crowing: Women and Political Power' (pp 208-41) Kalpana and Vasanth 
raise questions about women's political participation and 
consciousness. They point out that the prevailing dual gender 
classification forecloses political space for those who do not fit 
into the classification as seen in the story of Shabnam Mausi, a 
eunuch: although elected to the Madhya Pradesh legislative assembly 
in 2000 as an independent candidate, Shabnam Mausi was denied a 
ticket by the Congress Party. Subsequently reflecting on Lakshmi 
Parvathi's political career in Andhra Pradesh, they point that a 
woman with political ambitions has to conform to a predetermined 
script of appropriate gender/upper class norms to survive in 
politics. This construction of appropriate gender roles is also 
deeply ingrained even in progressive groups like the UCCRI (ML) 
groups. This, they suggest, is the reason why so many feminist groups 
quit radical Left parties. The essay also discusses the nature of 
women's political participation by describing the mass movement 
spearheaded by women against the liquor policies of the state. A 
lesson in an adult literacy primer triggered an apparently leaderless 
movement in Andhra Pradesh against the state government in the early 
1990s. The last part of the essay convincingly argue for affirmative 
action for women in electoral politics.

In 'Sharing the Fish Head' (pp 242-61), Vasanth passionately 
discusses the multi-layered dissemination strategies devised by 
feminists. The essay begins by describing the growth and development 
of feminist politics in the country since the 1970s. Subsequently 
indicating some of the important milestones of the women's movement, 
such as the entry of women's studies into the university system and 
the establishment of the Indian Association of Women's Studies in the 
first national conference of women's studies in Mumbai, it goes on to 
examining some of the on-going ideological debates on mainstreaming 
gender in development. The interest shown by international 
development agencies on gender issues has resulted in the mushrooming 
of gender training programmes. An examination of these programmes 
suggests that the differences between them are both ideological and 
theoretical. Vasanth defines programmes that seek to change 
socio-political and economic underpinnings of gender inequities as 
'women and empowerment programmes' and those that are undertaken with 
moderate goals as 'women and equity programmes'. The conceptual 
differences between these two kinds of programmes, however, needed to 
be elaborated. Subsequently, this discussion on gender training veers 
to the much-debated question within mass movements on the impact of 
international funding on the civil structures in society. Suggesting 
that the question is complex, Vasanth argues that the donor-driven 
label need not necessarily undermine the merits of the training 
programmes. While the aims of the programme may be influenced by the 
ideology of the donor agency, it may equally be affected by the 
ideology of the organisations undertaking the training programmes.

In conclusion, the book provides an insider's view of the growth of 
feminist politics in India. One appreciates the passion and clarity 
of their ideas as well as their commitment to feminist politics. 
However, as the essays have been written over a period of time, one 
wishes that the essays included brief notes on when each of them was 
written so that readers could appreciate the evolution of feminist 
ideas in India.

______


[7]

Delhi Social Forum
8 December 2003, Constitution Club, Rafi Marg
11.30 A.M. to 5.30 P.M.

Another World is Possible!
  	Another Asia is Possible!
	Another Delhi is Possible!
Let's Build It!

As the clock moves towards the first one-day programme of the  Delhi
Social Forum at Constitution Club in Delhi, we warmly  invite you to
take part in dialogue and design a blueprint for  building another
world and another Delhi - a just and shared  world and city which
accord equality, dignity and rights to all its  people.

				Some Speakers

Prabhat Patnaik		Prabhash Joshi	 Gopal  Guru
S P Shukla			Namwar Singh		 Rajendra Yadav
						Gita Hariharan 
Syeda Hamid Ali

Delhi, Deprivation and the World of Labour

Dalit and Dignity Forum

Child Rights and Globalisation

Media, Culture and Globalisation

Cultural Events

Anil Mishra, Prakash Louis, Mukul Sharma, Vijay Pratap,  Prabir
Purkayastha, Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Rajni Tilak,  Razia Ismail, Aditya
Nigam

Contacts: Anil Mishra (22753885, 9818220556), Prakas  Louis
(24694602, 24625015), Mukul Sharma (26854405,  26516695)




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

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