SACW | 9 Dec. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE   |  9 December,  2003
via:  www.sacw.net

[Interruption Notice: Please note there will be 
no SACW dispatches between 10 -15 December 2003]
_______

[1] Pakistan: Mullas meet and attack NGO's and do 
'umma making' with Tunisian Islamist
[2] Bangladesh: Merchants of hate: Following 
Pakistan's deadly example (Naeem Mohaiemen)
[3] India: Censorship: Unofficial might (Kalpana Sharma)
[4] Sri Lanka: Lines Magazine Nov issue + subscriptions appeal
[5] Press Note re the censored film Aakrosh is a 
short film on Gujarat communal violence
[6] Kashmir film "Paradise on a River of Hell" 
being screened at the Kara Film fest (Karachi)
[7] UK: [Asian women and domestic violence] 
Helping abused women rise from the ashes
(Helen Carter)
[8] India: photographic wall calendar on Women's Labour for 2004 (Alochana)
[9] India: Roza-Iftar at Hanuman Garhi: Ayodhya - 
Celebrating Intercommunity Relations
(Ram Puniyani)
[10] India: Bollywood's Paki-bashing Propagates 
Negative Images, Harms Hindu-Muslim Relations
(Sajeda Momin)
[11] India: election Lessons (Barun De)
[12] Fascist wants India be declared Hindu theocracy

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

[1]

The Daily Times (Pakistan)
December 08, 2003

Jamaat says NGOs spreading 'vulgarity'

Staff Report
LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Naib Ameer Prof 
Ghafoor Ahmad has warned against organised moves 
by certain western non-governmental organisations 
(NGOs) to spread "vulgarity" in the name of human 
and women's rights.
Speaking at the last session of a conference 
commemorating scholar Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi 
on Sunday, Mr Ahmad said that such moves were 
aimed at making Muslims stray from the right 
path. He said Islamic forces would not allow them 
to impose western values on Muslims.
Mr Ahmad said Maulana Maudoodi played a key role 
in preparing an "Islamic" constitution in 1973, 
which could serve as a guiding light for the 
Muslim world, but an individual (Ziaul Haq) 
suspended it and stopped the parliament from 
functioning independently. He said that Maulana 
Maudoodi and other scholars' writings would soon 
change the world, as numerous people were seeking 
guidance from them.
Many religious leaders and scholars from all over 
the Muslim world spoke on the occasion and asked 
the participants to pressure Islamic rulers to 
enforce Sharia and end slavery to America.
Nazrul Hassan from Nepal said Muslims in his 
country were only four percent of the total 
population and most of them were backward. He 
sought scholars' help for translation of the Holy 
Quran into the Nepalese language. He also called 
for the Muslim unity against nationalist 
ideologies.
Dr Kamal Ubaid, foreign affairs director of the 
ruling National Conference in Sudan, said that 
Islamic movements in the world must coordinate to 
fight challenges facing the Muslim world. He said 
the Islamic movements would succeed if Prophet 
Muhammad's (peace be upon him) teachings were 
spread in the world through a well-thought-out 
plan.
He said 9/11 was planned to destroy seven Muslim 
countries besides controlling Islamic movements. 
Afghanistan and Iraq had already been destroyed. 
He said that Islamic movements were bearing fruit 
in about 80 countries and this bothered 
capitalist countries.
Sheikh Rashid Al Ghannoshi, president of the Al 
Nehzat Movement in Tunisia, praised Muslim 
revolutionary leaders like Saiful Islam Ibne 
Hassan Al Banna Shaheed, Maulana Maudoodi and 
Imam Khomeini for fighting the West.
He warned Pakistanis of a conspiracy to take them 
to an age similar to the pre-Islamic era of 
ignorance. He alleged that President General 
Pervez Musharraf visited Tunisia to study the 
experiment to uproot Islam there.
He said former president Habib Bourgiba closed 
down Islamic universities, changed Islamic laws 
and Tunisian official language from Arabic to 
French, declared Heaven and Hell as mere 
illusions, banned polygamy, jailed women for 
covering their heads, promoted drinking in 
Ramazan and upheld that adultery was no crime.
He said Mr Bourgiba imprisoned about one million 
Muslims. He said hundreds of Islamic scholars 
were kept in jail for years without medical cover.
Mr Ghannoshi said US Secretary of State Colin 
Powell and French President Jacques Chirac 
visited Tunisia and declared it an ideal Islamic 
country, but the Tunisian Muslims were resisting 
the "worst suppression". Most women wore hijab on 
the streets, but were banned from wearing them at 
work places, universities and hospitals. He said 
the young thronged the mosques to offer prayers 
in Tunisia.
He praised Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), saying 
the party tried to check sectarianism and 
regionalism in Pakistan. He said the Jamaat's 
efforts to promote inter-Ummah unity could spread 
in the world. The Tunisian scholar stressed the 
need to take women along on the path to 
development. The Secretary General of the World 
Institute for Unity among Islamic Schools of 
Thought, Ayatollah Muhammad Ali Taskhiri, said 
the West was trying to divide Muslims.
He called upon Islamic movements and philosophers 
to frame a constitution applicable to every 
Islamic state in the wake of problems facing 
Afghanistan and Iraq in introducing a new 
governance system. He said the Western propaganda 
that Muslims were not united and so could not 
frame a common constitution was meaningless, as 
over 95 percent of beliefs in all Muslim sects 
were common. He alleged that the West had tried 
to divide the Ummah by promoting the Al Azhar 
University scholars.
"After Maudoodi and Imam Khomeini, supreme 
Iranian spiritual leader Khamenei is talking of 
bringing Muslim sects closer," he said. "But that 
does not mean that all sects will be eliminated." 
He said it meant that Muslims should also unite 
at a single platform like the western powers, 
which despite all their differences, were united 
against Islam. He said that the enemy that 
earlier attacked Muslims on economic, cultural 
and religious fronts, now wanted to make 
"immorality" legal in the name of human rights.


_____


[2]

The Daily Star
December 09, 2003

Merchants of hate: Following Pakistan's deadly example
Naeem Mohaiemen

"We don't want to take the law into our own 
hands, but we don't know what will happen to 
[Ahmadiyyas]," warned Mamtaji, imam of Rahim 
Metal Mosque. This was his latest salvo in the 
recent anti-Ahmadiyya campaign.

I grew up saying jumma prayers at Dhanmondi' 
Baitul Aman mosque. We had a tolerant, educated 
imam whose khutbas encouraged Muslims to educate 
themselves and uplift the community. If we wonder 
why the Muslim world is in crisis, we only have 
to look at frauds and illiterates like Mamtaji, 
busy distorting the true message of Islam and 
preaching fanaticism, hatred and backwardness.

By preaching hatred of Ahmadiyyas, we are 
following a blueprint carried out to deadly 
effect in Pakistan since the 1950s. With so many 
nations to emulate, why are we copying Pakistan 
-- a textbook case of failed state and banana 
republic?

On August 11, 1947, Jinnah gave a speech at 
Karachi Club where he said, "You are free; you 
are free to go to your temples, you are free to 
go to your mosques or to any other places of 
worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong 
to any religion or caste or creed -- that has 
nothing to do with the business of the State." 
Following this spirit, Pakistan's first foreign 
minister was Sir Zafrullah Khan, an Ahmadiyya. 
The 1956 constitution also gave citizens the 
right to practice, and propagate their religion 
(Article 20).

The Islamic parties had always been suspicious of 
Jinnah's motives in creating Pakistan, and now 
they were disappointed. This was not to be a 
theocratic state at all! In 1948, during a 
drafting session of the UN's Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights, representatives from 
Saudi Arabia clashed with Pakistan over Articles 
19: Freedom to change one's religion. The furious 
Saudi delegate had to listen to Zafrullah Khan 
describe the Article as consistent with Islam's 
denunciation of compulsion in religion.


This Saudi anger (and possibly money) soon found 
its way into Pakistan's domestic politics. One 
year after Zafrullah Khan's clash with the Saudis 
at the UN, a new group called 
Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam issued a demand that Khan 
be removed from the cabinet, and all Ahmadiyyas 
be declared non-Muslim. These agitations peaked 
in 1952 with riots in Punjab, and on May 18 Khan 
resigned from the Basic Principles Committee.

The campaign was then intensified by Maulana 
Maududi's Jama'at-i-Islami, which launched a 
project to declare Ahmadiyyas non-Muslim, linked 
to a larger demand for Shari'a law. Prior to the 
1958 military coup, the Muslim League and other 
ruling forces strongly opposed creating a 
theocratic state. The government therefore fought 
back aggressively against the anti-Ahmadiyya 
campaigns, arresting many Jama'at activists.

Following the 1958 coup, the "Islamization" of 
Pakistan's constitution began. The process often 
focused on anti-Ahmadiyya laws. In 1962, the 
Advisory Council for Islamic Ideology added a 
clause to the constitution: "No law shall be 
repugnant to the teachings and requirements of 
Islam." The East Pakistan politicians always 
acted as a brake on overt Islamicization, as the 
Bengali population was not (at that time) 
interested in passing Shari'a laws. However, 
following the independence of Bangladesh, 
Pakistan approved a new constitution in 1973, 
parts of which began implementing the legal 
machinery of the Shari'a.

Following a new wave of anti-Ahmadiyya protests 
inn 1974, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto introduced Articles 
260(3)(a) and (b) into the Constitution, which 
defined who was a "Muslim" and listed groups that 
were legally non-Muslim. Ahmadiyyas were now 
listed in this second group. The process of 
disenfranchising Ahmadiyyas now had a solid legal 
basis. Just as Islam was codified as "state 
religion" in Bangladesh during two military 
regimes (Zia & Ershad), the anti-Ahmadiyya 
legislation was solidified in Pakistan during the 
military regime of Zia-ul-Haq. In 1978, Haq 
passed laws creating separate electorate systems 
for Ahmadiyyas and other "non-Muslims." He then 
followed this by creating Federal Shari'a Court 
which helped legalize criminal ordinances 
targeting religious minorities -- specifically 
two laws restricting Ahmadiyya activities 
(Martial Law Ordinance XX, 1984). The final 
death-knell for Ahmadiyyas came with the Criminal 
Law Act of 1986 ("Blasphemy Law"), which raised 
the penalty for blasphemy from imprisonment to 
death. Because the Ahmadiyya belief in 
prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad can be defined 
as "blasphemous" by a Shari'a Court, this law 
legalized persecution and even execution of the 
entire Ahmadiyya population.

Khan's position as first foreign minister of 
Pakistan is now a distant memory. Today 
Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan cannot announce their 
faith, pray, build mosques, or give azaan. Even 
in death, there is no escape from the state -- 
the law prohibits putting the kolema on an 
Ahmadiyya's gravestone. Pakistan's only nobel 
prize winner, Professor Abdus Salam, was 
persecuted because of his Ahmadiyya faith. 
Ahmadiyyas are only 3% of Pakistan's population, 
but 20% of its literate population. In an age 
when Muslim nations are incredibly backwards in 
science, technology and education, the 
peresecution of Ahmadiyyas accelerates our 
intellectual bankruptcy. In the Prophet (PBUH)'s 
time, in cities that the Muslim armies took over, 
non-Muslim populations (including Jews) were 
treated humanely. How far we have traveled from 
that tolerant ideal can be seen in the Daily Star 
report (Dec 6): "They threatened the Ahmadiyyas 
with arson in symbolic imitation of the burning 
of the newspaper [Prothom Alo]."

If the anti-Ahmadiyya groups are allowed to 
continue their agitations and threats, Bangladesh 
will soon slide down the treacherous path 
Pakistan took with the forced resignation of 
Zafrullah Khan in 1952. Starting with Ahmadiyya 
persecution, it is very easy to see that these 
groups' eventual demand will be Shari'a law.

In the last two years, I have been to many 
rallies in America protesting the unfair 
targeting of Muslim immigrants in the post 9/11 
anti-terrorist campaign. At these rallies, I have 
seen many signs carrying the famous quote from 
anti-Nazi activist pastor Martin Niemoller:

"In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me -
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

If we protest the scapegoating of immigrants in 
America, we must also protest the persecution of 
minorities in Bangladesh. Otherwise, when the 
shadowy merchants of hate come for all of us, it 
will be too late. Pay attention to Pakistan's 
tragic path, and fight to protect Bangladesh from 
a similar fate!

Naeem Mohaiemen is Editor of Shobak.org and Associate Editor of AltMuslim.com

_____


[3]

Magazine  | The Hindu (December 7, 2003)

Censorship: Unofficial might
by Kalpana Sharma
www.hindu.com/mag/2003/12/07/stories/2003120700020100.htm


_____

[4]

From: Lines [lines_magazine at yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 3:45 PM
Subject: lines, Vol. 2, No. 3, November 2003

Dear Friends,

We would like to bring to your attention the 
recent launch of the November issue of lines - 
see www.lines-magazine.org; you can access the 
text version at www.lines-magazine.org/texthome.

Contributors to this issue engage the politics of 
citizenship and democratization from a range of 
different angles, and in a range of different 
contexts - one intervention looks at the 
precarious nature of 'Muslim' citizenship from 
Birmingham to Batticaloa, another looks at the 
politics of queer organizing and new models of 
citizenship and civil society engagement in Lanka 
and around the globe, and yet another analyzes 
citizenship in relation to the LTTE proposals for 
an interim administration in the North and East 
in Lanka.  Other interventions look at how 
citizenship is translated into day-to-day 
policies around fishing and livelihood in Jaffna 
or refugee policy and humanitarian rhetoric in 
Australia.  A few articles also foreground the 
gendered nature of citizenship and the role of 
violence against women in the public sphere - 
while one intervention (as well as our cover art) 
focuses attention on efforts to contest the idea 
that violence against women is a 'private' matter 
outside the 'public' sphere of citizenship, a 
complementary essay also looks at how violence 
against women was crassly exploited in debates in 
the public sphere by advocates of the death 
penalty.  Gender issues are also foregrounded in 
a discussion of feminist approach to economics; 
while another article looks at the relationship 
between economic and social rights and civil and 
political rights.  We are also excited about 
carrying a short story that is an advance preview 
of a chapter in the forthcoming novel, Playing 
Lions and Tigers, by Rohini Hensman.  

We would also like to remind you that the print 
issue of lines is distributed from Colombo by the 
Social Scientists Association.  It is available 
at bookstores in Colombo and Jaffna, as well as 
by subscription nationally and internationally. 
We continue to offer the print issue at heavily 
subsidized rates within Lanka.  However, if you 
live outside Sri Lanka and can afford an 
international subscription to the print issue, or 
are affiliated with universities and other 
institutions that could be persuaded to subscribe 
to the print issue of lines, we encourage you to 
get a subscription and help off-set at least some 
of the costs incurred in distributing within Sri 
Lanka.

The subscription form is attached below.

With warm regards,
Co-editors, lines
lines

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS
(including postage)
Sri Lanka: Rs. 250
By air mail:
Asia, Africa and Latin America US$ 30
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Please make cheques and Money Orders payable to Social Scientists Association.
Name ............................................................
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.....................................................................
lines Publications
Distributed by Social Scientists Association
425/15, Thimbirigasyaya RoadColombo 5, Sri Lanka.
Tel: 501339, Fax 595563 E-mail: subscribe at lines-magazine.org

_____

[5]

Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 04:20:39 -0800 (PST)
From: ramesh pimple <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Press Note

Aakrosh is a short film on Gujarat communal violence
2002, which has been denied Censor Certificate by
Censor Board Mumbai, subsequently an appeal was filed
with Film Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi which also
uphold decision of Censor Board against the decision
of Film Appellate Tribunal of I&B Ministry, Govt. of
India, the petition is filed through Adv. P.A.
Sebastian and petition will come for hearing before
Honíble Justice Radhakrishnan and Justice Kanade on
9th December 2003, Tuesday, for admission of the case.

People's Media Initiative team had started shooting
2nd March 2002 and covered the ongoing violence till
June 2002 amidst of killing and mindless violence,
which has hit Gujarat. The Editing was started in
November 2002 and the Film was ready in January 2003.

The Film has received wider appreciation as The Best
Peace Film on Gujarat Carnage, which has given voice
to the victims of the violence. The Film needed Censor
Certificate for Public Exhibition and to sell it to
the T.V. Channels. The Film had appealed for Censor
Certificate in February 2002 and Censor Board Mumbai
in March 2003 refused the Censor Certificate stating
the reason that ìthe Film deals with the aftermath of
one year old riot in Gujarat and shows the agony of
one particular communityî and banned the Film.

We made an appeal to the Revising Committee of the
Censor Board Mumbai in March 2003, the Revising
Committee gave its decision on April 2003 upholding
the ban on the Film but gave different reasons ì it
shows Government and Police in bad light and shows the
agony of the victims of the violenceî.

We are against the decision of the Revising Committee
of Censor Board- Mumbai and filed an appeal with Film
Appellate Tribunal of I&B Ministry -New Delhi. The
Tribunal heard us on 11th August 2003 and gave its
verdict upholding Total ban on the Film. They again
gave different reasons ìit shows scenes of violence,
sorrow and sufferings. Men and women mostly of one
community have been shown as victims as it is clear
from their languages, dress. etc., and it is a one
sided version of one particular communityî. We have to
move to the High Court Mumbai to get the Film cleared.

We believe that it is important that people of India
and the world must know what happened in Gujarat and
must not be repeated elsewhere. We also feel that
killing of innocent passengers in buses, trains is
also an act of mad fundamentalist group and we condemn
this barbaric act, we feel that basic problems of our
society is yet to be addressed and resolved i.e.
poverty, unemployment, hunger, discrimination,
mindless exploitation, etc. Instead of addressing to
these basic issues, religious jingoism is imposed on
the people so that they remain divided. The cry and
anguish of people will motivate film makers more and
more to make such films, writers, poetís artists, will
be inspired to write more on it. Government or Censor
Board cannot block our mind and heart, we will
continue to raise our voice and our endeavor to give
voice to the common man will continue.

Worldwide Aakrosh was viewed as Best Peace Film, it
was shown in Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland as the
Film of the year on Human Rights.

It is scheduled for screening in March 2004 at the
'Tongues on Fire' Film Festival in London, besides it
was selected in Indo-British Film Festival. It was
selected for Milano Film Festival, Italy and it has
also gone as an official entry in other four
prestigious Film Festivals.

Interestingly, our other film 'Chords on the Richter
Scale' on post earthquake 2001 situation in Kutch,
Gujarat which shows rampant planned discrimination in
rehabilitation and relief operation against Dalits and
Muslims and rampant corruption in rehabilitation
process, also has been totally banned by Censor Board
Mumbai and Film Appellate Tribunal has viewed the Film
in on November 28th Friday 2003 in presence of Anupam
Kher, present Censor Board Chief, and their verdict is
awaited.

Some of us are receiving continuous threats on phone
and we have to wind up Ahmedabad office due to
mounting pressure on the staff working there.

For People's Media Initiative
Ramesh Pimple
104, Accord, Lokhandwala,
Andheri (W),
Mumbai - 400 053.
Tel: 022 - 26358302
Mobile: 9821109295

_____

[6]

Our film on Kashmir "Paradise on a River of Hell" 
is being screened in Karachi on the 16th of 
December in the Kara Film Festival, which is 
taking place in Karachi from 11th to 21st 
December. The film is scheduled to be screened at 
10:45 AM on the 16th of December at the Pakistan 
Institute of International Affairs Auditorium, 
Strachen Road (next to YMCA and Press Club). 
Passes are available at Aghas Supermarket (Schon 
Circle), Object (Park Towers) and City Press 
(Medina Shopping Mall).

Thanks,
Abir Bazaz
Meenu Gaur

_____

[7]

The Guardian
December 8, 2003

Helping abused women rise from the ashes

Helen Carter

Her husband used to put her down, saying she was 
just an uneducated Indian village girl. He beat 
Mariam while she was pregnant and she miscarried.
The abuse escalated after she gave birth to their 
first child. On one occasion, he refused to give 
her money to buy formula milk for their 
six-month-old baby. Instead, she had to give the 
baby cow's milk.
Mariam contacted the Phoenix project in Bolton 18 
months ago, and is now divorced from her abusive 
partner.
The project is an advice centre which is open for 
Asian women and their children. It works with 
women while they are still with an abusive 
partner, and while they are seeking alternative 
accommodation during resettlement.
It is was set up by Barnardo's after research on 
homelessness in the north-west identified a need 
for a specific service for Asian women and 
children experiencing domestic violence.

"My husband used to beat me," Mariam says. "He 
would swear at me and be abusive. His mother and 
sister were constantly putting me down.
"It started after my first child was born. When 
we married I genuinely believed he loved me. But 
afterwards, any time I asked for anything, 
whether it be money for shopping or clothes, he 
would become abusive and the beatings and 
name-calling would start.
"Before I got divorced, I didn't even know you 
could claim money for child benefit. The abuse 
was on and off; I never knew when it would happen 
and I would try to stay out of his way. I knew if 
I said anything it would be likely to cause an 
argument.
"He was only affectionate to me when it was in 
his interests. His family idolised him. They 
thought he was good looking, educated and 
wealthy. They thought I was just a village girl 
from India."
A project worker has visited Mariam twice a week 
and assessed her needs, helping her to pay bills 
and fill in forms. It has given her the 
confidence to begin managing by herself.
"Phoenix has helped me with legal support and 
getting a solicitor through my divorce," she 
said. "I am much happier now - I can dress my 
children how I want to and I am able to provide 
for them."
Last year, the Phoenix project worked with 118 
women and 26 children; 70% were still living with 
violent partners. The project receives between 
five and six calls for help a week.
The women have taken part in a photography 
project which was launched at an exhibition at 
the Reebok stadium in Bolton in November. They 
have created images and messages to highlight the 
impact of domestic violence on Asian women.
One photograph has a women with a cut and stitch 
marks on her wrist. The caption reads: "My wounds 
tell one story, my eyes tell another." Another 
caption says: "If only my heart could speak." The 
exhibitors have been invited to present their 
work at an international conference in India.

The project is not able to support all the women 
and children it would like to. It has a £122,000 
budget - two-thirds of which comes directly from 
Barnardo's, and one third from the government's 
Sure Start programme - until 2005.
Teachers overheard Asiya's children discussing 
the abuse they had seen, and they contacted 
Phoenix.
"We were living in Pakistan and my husband came 
over here," Asiya says. "We eventually followed 
after he got the visas, but my husband had a 
girlfriend over here. He began to beat me up 
because he wanted to be with his girlfriend.
"The children were too frightened to go to school 
because they knew he would beat me up as soon as 
they had gone...
"I was asked to go into the school and they put me in touch with the Phoenix.
"Whenever I called the police out - on two 
occasions - because I couldn't speak much English 
he would tell them that everything was OK and 
they would believe him and leave.
"He threw me down the stairs a couple of times, 
and on one occasion he tried to strangle me. 
Another time, he picked up a coffee table and 
threw it at me. The police arrived and clearly 
saw I was distressed, the children were crying, 
yet they took his word."
She says the children were just learning to speak 
English and they were too scared to speak up.
Asiya says she relies heavily on the project: 
"They are just a telephone call away. There is 
always someone to speak to here. When the 
children go to school, they know I am not alone.
"My older three children are just supporting me 
and getting on with their education and trying to 
get decent jobs. They remember clearly everything 
that happened."
Usha's husband used to drink too much and gamble; 
then he began shouting at her. The rows would 
begin over food. "The first time he was violent 
towards me was one New Year's Day," she says. "I 
never look forward to Christmas or Diwali now 
because I think it might happen again.
"The first time he hit me, I wanted to call my 
mum," she says, sobbing gently. "My shoe came off 
and he hit me with it. I ran out of the door and 
called an ambulance. I wasn't even fully dressed.

"Sometimes it would happen when he was drunk, and 
other times when he was angry.
"If I knew he was going out, I wouldn't sleep and 
I would keep the keys with me.
"Before I left, he just wrecked the house. He 
went absolutely mad, and I left with my baby in 
the middle of the night, just wearing my 
slippers."

· Tomorrow in Education, Lucy Ward investigates 
how domestic violence is dealt with in the school 
curriculum.

The figures

· 81% of victims of domestic violence are women and 19% are men
· There were 635,000 reported incidents in England and Wales in 2001-02
· On one day in February 2000 there were 2,328 
women and 3,120 children in 258 refuges in 
England as a result of domestic violence
· 74% of women in refuges have children with them or are pregnant

_____

[8]

Aalochana Centre for Documentation and Research on Women
Pune, Maharashtra, India

Dear friends,

Greetings from Aalochana!

Aalochana is happy to announce a photographic 
wall calendar on Women's Labour for 2004 in 
Marathi and English.  This is in tune with our 
efforts to create publications on socially 
relevant themes. We, therefore, feel that 
photographic presentation of women's labour 
through a calendar would generate greater 
visibility and sensitivity towards this issue. 

In 1997 we brought out a photo calendar Glimpses 
from History, A History of Women's Education in 
Maharashtra. The response to the calendar was 
overwhelming.

The opportunity to bring out another calendar 
presented itself when we saw Vidya Kulkarni's 
excellent photo exhibiton  Priceless Labour on 
1st May 2003 in Pune. Vidya is a women's rights 
activist and photographer. The exhibition strives 
to give visibility to women's labour.  Currently 
the exhibition is being shown to various groups 
and educational institutions in Maharashtra.

The calendar will have 12 black and white photos 
from the exhibition. These powerful, telling 
photos focus on different aspects of women work 
in the informal sector. Though all the photos 
have been taken in Maharashtra they have a 
universal appeal and significance. One of the 
aims of bringing out this calendar was to create 
visual resource material for training and 
concentisation. It is with this in mind that we 
have an introductory essay on Women and Work by 
Wandana Sonalkar
(feminist economist and founder member of Aalochana).


Format: 12" x 18" on art paper
  12 black and white photos
  Dates and days for the month in Marathi and English.
Price: Rs.100  $3  (postage extra)
Concession on bulk orders
For booking contact: Aalochana,  'Kedar" 
Kanchangalli, Erandavana, Pune 411004, 
Maharashtra, India
email: alochana at vsnl.com
Phone: 91- 020-5444122 & 5440907

We do hope you will place your orders soon and 
join us in our efforts to once again refocus on 
this crucial issue.

With best wishes for the New Year.

Sincerely,

Simrita Gopal Singh
Coordinator
Aalochana

_____

[9]

Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003

Roza-Iftar at Hanuman Garhi: Ayodhya
Celebrating Intercommunity Relations

Ram Puniyani

Media has its own evaluation of newsworthiness of an
event. What is projected in the print and electronic
media is just is just a pick from the battery from
different social and political events occurring world
over. Many such events, which we may feel are
important, may not find a place in print or electronic
media. One such event was recently held Roza-Iftar at
Hanumangarhi at Ayodhya. Very few channels took a note
of it and the major section of print media preferred
to ignore it for reasons best known to the media
managers and those who determine the policies of
media.

On 20th November hundreds of Muslims came to the
biggest and most popular temple in Ayodhya, Hanuman
garhi. They offered Namaz and broke the fast in the
sacred precincts of this temple. Incidentally it is
one amongst many temples in Ayodhya whose mahants are
opposed to the politicization of temple mosque issue
and those who feel that solution to the Ram temple
Babri mosque should be left to the people of Ayodhya.
Incidentally Ayodhya has been the holy place not only
of Hindus but also of Buddhists, Muslims and Jains as
well. The Nawab of Awadh had many a Hindu courtiers,
one of whom got this temple built on the land donated
by the Nawab and even today this temple has a huge
landed estate donated by the Avadh Nawab. While VHP
and its cohorts are out to force a decision in favor
of the temple most of the people from Ayodhya are sick
of the Ram Temple campaign as it has affected the life
of all the residents of Ayodhya in an adverse manner.
Their business has come down, many business families
had to shift their work to nearby towns and overall
this prosperous town is faced with grim economic
situation. As one of the mahants put it, ’Äúwe have
lost our independence as the city has become a sort of
fortress with police regulating our movements at every
stage’Äù.

All the communal hate which has been poured out seems
to have eluded the psyche of people of Ayodhya who
seem to have seen the plot behind the attempt to force
a Ram temple at the disputed area. Before the event
planned for 17th October, the local Muslim community
was gripped by a great amount of fear, and it is at
that time that the local Mahants went to the Muslim
bastis assuring them that they are not alone. It is
also noteworthy that the turnout planned by VHP was
nowhere in sight and just the small number which came
out had very little percentage of local population. It
comprised mainly of those who came from Southern
states, the people from UP and places nearby to
Ayodhya were few and far between. It is in this
context that one sees the great relevance of local
intercommunity interaction. Mahant Gyandas of Hanuman
garhi and many other such Mahants talking the language
of peace and harmony, enjoy a great prestige amongst
Ayodhya people, those from all the communities. The
initiatives taken by such Mahants have a great healing
touch on the wounded psyche of intercommunity
relations. In a way this is the best way to bridge the
gap between communities, the gap which has been
consciously manufactured and widened by vested
elements to bake their electoral bread. In the current
scenario, the political events which have been shaped
during last two decades with Gujarat being the dump to
which hate campaign can stoop to achieve its political
goals, the hate towards minorities and suspicion
towards the majority community has worsened. The
incessant violence has led to the alienation of a
large section of minorities and this is leading to
ghettoisation at physical and psychology levels. The
existence of ’Äòmini Pakistans’Äô has gone up.
Practically every city has Muslim dominated areas,
addressed by this derogatory term. At the same time
borders have been erected between the areas inhabited
by one community vis a vis the other.

How does one work to unwind this situation? How can we
build the intercommunity relations afresh? One recalls
that Indian traditions had a rich intermix of
practices coming from all the religions inhabiting
this land. The cultural ingredients come from all the
sources, from all the streams which lived here. Be it
the music, literature, art craftsmanship, architecture
or the sartorial patterns one can clearly see the
influence of both the religions. At religious level
Bhakti and Sufi both were extremely popular and were
based on the available spiritual wealth irrespective
of from where it came. Kabir, Nanak, Bhakti and Sufi
saints are the high point of this. Classical
Hindustani music cannot be imagined without the
contributions of Hindu and Muslim stalwarts both. The
achievements in the literary world are no different.
In a way one can say the divide has not been along the
religious lines but across the elite and the average
people.

The average people thronging the Sufi shrines and
following Bhakti Saints came from both the religions.
The Shudras in particular found an escape by going to
Sufi shrines. It is only the elite Brahminical streams
which were exclusionist and kept the average people
out from the precincts, which they controlled.
Spirituality has a great bonding power, and
spirituality does not recognize the religious
boundaries outlined by the elite. Same applies to most
of the arenas of human life and discourse. Holi
festival beginning from the Muslim zamindars house in
the UP villages and Shudras participation in the
Moharrum falls in the same category. Love thy neighbor
has been the dictum in the life of the communities.
There are shrines of Christian saints thronged by
people of different religions. There still are
churches in the city of Mumbai, like the one in Mahim
where people from all religions go to pray and seek
the blessings. How long can they withstand the
pressures of the rising tide of politics which claims
to derive its legitimacy from a particular religion is
a matter of anybody’Äôs guesswork. Will this politics
start encroaching upon our food habits? Will it start
to influence our dance and music is again a matter of
conjecture, but those things are under a threat is
above any shadow of doubt with the lengthening shadows
of trishuls.

But now the neighbor belonging to the other community
has been sent packing to the distant ghetto, as the
communal violence instilled a mortal fear for safety
and security. The neighbor-hoods are now converging to
one community norm and in such situations the
retrograde religiosity replaces the librating
spirituality. In such situations the conservatives of
the community are dominant, be they Mullahs or Acharya
of different shades. The ghettoized community tries to
withdraw in a shell and the gradually increasing
physical distance creates more suspicions. These
suspicions further weaken the possibilities of
emotional bandings and the hate propaganda gets the
most fertile situations to perpetuate it. The vicious
circle sets itself.

No amount of demystification is as effective as the
efforts to bring the communities together on common
grounds, the physical closeness. Inter community
celebrations, the participation in each others
festivals is a powerful tool of creating the solid
bridges which are lasting and can withstand the venom
of hate propaganda. What happened in Hanuman Garhi,
right in the heart of the place which is being
battered by the politics of Hate, can be the glorious
example of proactive affirmative actions in promoting
National integration, which is a prerequisite of
democratic society. Similar experiments have also been
undertaken by various secular action groups, but
obviously there newsworthiness in sufficient to draw
the attention of media which sees that its circulation
graphs or viewer-ship ratings can go up more by
highlighting the events which are sensational, even if
they have a very negative impact on our national
psyche and social connectivity.

_____


[10]

The Statesman
December 8, 2003

Bollywood's Paki-bashing Propagates Negative 
Images, Harms Hindu-Muslim Relations

By SAJEDA MOMIN

A turban clad Sunny Deol, muscles rippling under 
a blood-stained kurta runs atop a running train 
shooting down with a single AK-47 helicopter 
after helicopter bearing the ubiquitous green 
star and crescent as the Pakistani train hurtles 
towards the Indian border - this is the climax 
scene of the box office hit Gadar, a love story 
set during Partition and its aftermath. Without 
paying too much attention to details like does 
India really need a huge army to take on Pakistan 
when Sunny Deol can do it all by himself, 
jingoistic and anti-Pakistan films have 
flourished in India in the last few years.

Animosity
Now as relations between the two warring nations 
begin to thaw the Pakistani foreign minister 
Khursheed Kasauri has made an intelligent appeal 
to Bollywood - lay off making films which depict 
Pakistan as the enemy. As he rightly says they 
serve no good purpose but simply spur anti-India 
films being made across the border and fuel 
animosity. Bollywood's own King Khan - Shahrukh, 
the heart-throb of millions and currently rated 
as the most powerful star along with Big B 
Amitabh Bachchan, echoed Kasuri's comments on the 
same day at a bash in Singapore. For the first 
time he had the guts to openly say "I detest 
Hindi films which depict Muslims, Islam or 
Pakistan in a bad light".
Whether it is Border, Hero, Mission Kashmir, 
Zameen or the yet to be released multi-starrer 
LOC, Pakistan - and the ISI - has become 
Bollywood's bogeyman, much like the Soviet Union 
was for Hollywood before the fall of Communism. 
Ever since relations with our neighbours on the 
western front deteriorated, Bollywood has been 
able to find the enemy, but unfortunately it has 
often blurred the line between Pakistan the 
nation-state, and Islam the religion.
Considering it is an industry which has a 
disproportionately high number of Indian Muslims 
working in it, lately many of the films have been 
insensitive to minority sentiments in their 
enthusiasm for Pakistan-bashing. While the 
jingoism in the "so very patriotic'' Gadar can be 
tolerated, stretching this to being anti-Islam is 
unpardonable.
A flagrant example of this is when the "brave'', 
but "sensitive'' hero Sunny is asked by the 
Pakistani villain, played by Amrish Puri, to 
convert to Islam if he wants his bride back. 
After much agonising Sunny agrees. But it is the 
depiction of this ceremony that is most 
offensive. Before a huge crowd of "Pakistanis'' 
(shot at the Bara Imambara in Lucknow) the hero 
is converted to Islam not by reciting the qalma 
(which is bearing testimony to Allah) as is the 
Islamic practice, but by chanting "Pakistan 
zindabad''. Sunny, who of course bears no ill 
towards anyone, obliges but it is when he is 
asked by the qazi to chant "Hindustan mordabad'' 
that our red-blooded Indian cannot hold back his 
anger and destroys everyone in sight.

Gift from heaven
Where the director or scriptwriter got this 
particular version of an Islamic conversion 
ceremony is anybody's guess, but it is certainly 
a gift from heaven for the likes of Praveen 
Togadia and Narendra Modi.
The Rs 4,000-crore industry churns out 800 films 
annually, twice as many as Hollywood, and it is 
estimated that 14 million Indians go to the 
movies every day, not taking into account the 
numbers who watch films in the comfort of their 
home. That gives Hindi films the capacity to 
brainwash at least 14 million people daily. The 
reach and impact of Bollywood is phenomenal. But 
with power comes great responsibility, and it is 
the latter which many directors are not showing 
lately.
Gone are the days of Amar, Akbar Anthony when 
Bollywood tried to spread the word of communal 
harmony. Up to the 1980s most Hindi films had the 
token kind, good-natured Rahim chacha or David 
uncle to depict the multi-religious nature of 
India. The character was often added even if the 
story line did not necessarily need it, but it 
was done for the cause of political correctness.
But in the changing political climate of the 90s 
with the rise of the BJP and when Hindutva began 
to be projected as being synonymous with Indian 
nationalism and culture these figures were 
discarded, probably when they were needed the 
most.
Unlike in the nationalistic films of yore like 
Upkaar, Kranti or Karma where a Muslim character 
was always present generally shown dying for 
Mother India, a runaway hit like JP Dutta's 
Border did not have a single Muslim soldier in 
the regiment fighting the Pakistanis. Released at 
a time when Hindu-Muslim relations in India were 
strained, it depicted Muslims on both sides of 
the border as cowards and traitors.
Almost 50 per cent of Bollywood's audience is 
Muslim whether it is the 150 million Muslims in 
India or their co-religionists across the border, 
in the Arab countries, Malaysia, Indonesia, and 
many other parts of the world where sub-titled 
copies of Hindi films flourish. That no Hindi 
blockbuster is released during the Islamic holy 
month of Ramazan when Muslims try to avoid films 
is testimony to the trade's appreciation of the 
importance of this segment of viewers. Then why 
the insensitivity to their feelings?
Ever since Independence it is Bollywood films 
which have thrived in Pakistan so much so that 
their own film industry has never taken off. 
Pakistan even banned Hindi films in order to 
protect its own fledgling film industry but it 
was unsuccessful. Whether it is homes in Pakistan 
or in those of its diaspora spread across the 
world, Pakistanis only watch Bollywood. They can 
reel off the names of Hindi film actors but won't 
be able to tell you the name of a single 
Pakistani actor, unless he or she appears in 
television plays.
It is not only in the interest of international 
relations that Bollywood stop Pakistan-bashing, 
but also for domestic communal harmony. 
Stereotypes of the Muslim terrorist add fuel to 
the fires started by organisations like the VHP.

Critical acclaim
The producer of noted Bengali film maker Mrinal 
Sen's comeback film Amar Bhuvan starring Nandita 
Das backed out at the last minute because he did 
not want to invest in a story line which had an 
all Muslim theme so soon after the Gujarat riots, 
even though the film had nothing to do with 
Hindu-Muslim relations. He believed it would make 
bad financial sense as it would not appeal to 
viewers. Sen and his team went on to make the 
film on a tiny budget as they believed in it, and 
the film received critical acclaim.
Hindi film producers and directors are no 
different. They too are affected by the current 
political climate. Karan Johar's hit film Kabhie 
Khushi Kabhie Gham originally had the Hindu hero 
falling in love with a Muslim girl from Delhi's 
Chandni Chowk. But he too did not want to take 
the risk of negative viewer-reaction and so 
converted it in to a typical rich versus poor 
love story, and raked in the money. Johar would 
have certainly been more daring as a director and 
done greater service to the cause of 
Hindu-Muslims relations if he had stuck to the 
original story line, though he may not have made 
as much money.
Considering the influence of Hindi films on 
society, it is in the greater good that the Rahim 
chachas and David uncles are brought back. Some 
may consider them caricatures of Muslims and 
Christians, but they served a very useful 
purpose; at least they gave a better image of 
minorities than the current trend.

The author is Assistant Editor, The Statesman

_____


[11]

The Telegraph
December 09, 2003

ELECTION LESSONS

The BJP's victory shows that the electorate, 
concerned with more immediate issues, has chosen 
a party of order over one of diffuse choices, 
argues Barun De

Decisive electoral results in parts of the Hindi 
heartland call for thinking about the campaigning 
that must inevitably begin for elections in 2004. 
Delhi has decisively delivered its mandate for 
good governance against the Bharatiya Janata 
Party that dominates the National Democratic 
Alliance. It has shown that a state government, 
at odds with the Central government, can still 
work with popular sanction.

Majorities in the other states were not satisfied 
merely with Ashok Gehlot's sincerity or with 
Digvijay Singh's vision or with Ajit Jogi's 
street-smart efficiency. People have been swayed 
by factors such as Jat casteism in north-west 
Rajasthan; the semi-feudal appeal of a maharani 
with the whole weight of the sangh parivar and 
its 200 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh cadre from 
Maharashtra. There was also the weakness of the 
Congress's "soft Hindutva" line googly, bowled - 
by Singh's own admission - against a redoubtable 
Hindutva campaigner, the present chief minister 
in Bhopal with her relentless harping on the 
other weaknesses of the Congress development 
programmes. In Chhattisgarh, voters were not 
persuaded by the electoral gimmicks of Jogi that 
earned him the election commission's censure, or 
by his sting of one BJP leader's corruption, 
which backfired.

Voters outside the more literate and thinking 
population of Delhi were swayed by a calibrated 
programme in which not Hindutva but "strategy" 
was needed to bring the incumbent authority to 
disrepute, whether it had governed well or not.

What was lacking was a unified Congress ideology, 
coordinated by a disciplined leadership working 
as a team and not merely on the reputation of 
separate pre-eminent figures, without a clear 
programme articulating what would follow if they 
won. The Congress could not project a national 
programme. The clear ideology of Hindutva, of 
chauvinist militarism, of subordination to the US 
superpower in international affairs, control over 
party cadre and a new stress on welfare economics 
as well as populist benefits is what the BJP has 
come to represent through a skilful working of 
the coalition system of government.

The results have been a sharp popular retort to 
Congress complacency that it could run the states 
while leaving the business of the nation to 
others. It is not yet clear indication that the 
BJP has anything better to offer beyond finishing 
the agenda of Asian regional power status, on the 
basis of liberalization and market-friendliness, 
which Rajiv Gandhi and P.V. Narasimha Rao began 
from 1984 till 1997. Atal Bihari Vajpayee has 
fulfilled his own dream, about which I was told 
by the late Professor Rashiduddin Khan, his 
fellow member of parliament. In an United Nations 
delegation in 1978, Vajpayee told Khan in New 
York, sitting in Nehru's chair, that he would be 
accepted as a statesman of Nehru's stature.

In the Nineties, the sangh parivar has dealt with 
the entire Congress in the way Sir Robert Peel's 
Tories dealt with the Whigs after the British 
Reform Act of 1832 - "they found the Whigs 
bathing and ran away with their clothes". Minus 
Hindutva, the BJP is merely what the Nehruvian 
Congress was in the Fifties and the Sixties - 
certainly not leftist, but with its rightwing 
firmly under control, centrist to the core. There 
will surely be an attempt to project this in the 
strategy for the elections of 2004.

History has to move forward or its flow becomes a 
stagnant cesspool. In the mid-twentieth century, 
with the Indian state in the throes of national 
infancy, truncated by Partition and coping with 
unfinished Transfer of Power, the compromises 
which Jawaharlal Nehru made between rightwing 
democracy and socialism were inevitable. They 
provided stability to India. The circumstances 
are different today. Non-alignment in diplomacy, 
a bargaining counter that gained India many 
allies during the Cold War, is no longer the easy 
negative way out for the Asian power that the 
Congress constructed after the Eighties, and on 
which the BJP now takes its posturing stance in 
foreign affairs. It is necessary to free the 
nation from its abject adulation of America's 
military power. A stand is necessary similar to 
that of other regional powers, such as China, 
France, Germany or even Iran, through far more 
proactive multilateral strategic dialogues with 
the forces of Eurasia, Africa and Latin America.

It is necessary to explicitly work out arenas of 
the public sphere in which private enterprise can 
work better than the sick industries of the 
public sector, and those in which social costs 
have to be borne for the benefit of the 
under-privileged and the lower-middle classes. 
Without a sharply defined programme of economic 
reforms, capitalist growth - which today burgeons 
for the benefit of mainly consumerism and the 
tertiary sector of merchandise and services - 
will roll into the predatory clutches of 
asset-strippers, building speculators and mafia 
politicians.

Clarification of ideology and strategy can only 
come from a party, or at least a front of 
like-minded politically conscious people, through 
adequate leadership at different levels - mass 
base, intermediate district and state levels and 
sufficient national leadership. The BJP appears 
to have developed this, though it is reputed to 
be too committed, whether under Narendra Modi in 
Gujarat or through Pramod Mahajan's and Arun 
Jaitley's election management from Delhi, in 
following what is believed to be the "CPI(M) 
model" of digging into the capillary arteries of 
civil society, local self-government, education, 
the legal profession and governing bodies of 
various public institutions with committed cadre 
who use these to keep party control of the entire 
civil system, thus obviating prospects of 
democratic defeat.

The Congress that is perceived as the only 
alternative, even to lead a coalition to unseat 
the NDA, has no such unified discipline. An 
obsolete dynasty is in nominal charge. There is a 
total incapacity to permeate civil society in the 
same way as the generation of the Mahatma, 
Panditji and the Sardar did through the freedom 
struggle. To an electorate concerned with issues 
of the moment, and of the immediate future, the 
choice appears to be between voting for a party 
of order as distinct from a party of diffuse 
choices. Sonia Gandhi did not have the heritage 
or the experience of making popular choices about 
public welfare.

Thus the BJP could don the robes of the party of 
order. To begin with, it did this in 1998, when 
it detonated a nuclear device developed by the 
Congress, and then proceeded to make chauvinistic 
capital out of the Kargil war. It continues to do 
this by going for peace with Pakistan under the 
US aegis, a policy devised by Rao's diplomacy, 
and then using feel-good factors in society and 
economics to swoop through the state elections.

The public mood is one of disgust with 
politicians as a professional group which is 
supposed to be venal, nepotistic, hooliganized 
and floating in black money. "Hang the lot" was 
the reaction of an interlocutor in a recent 
Bengali television chat show, castigating the 
role of all parties in the recent "Bihari kheda" 
riots in Assam. Short of putschism, the people 
never hang politicians. In nihilistic moods, they 
often vote against parties with decentralized 
authority in favour of the most orderly one 
available. We only have to read the electoral 
history of the last days of the Weimar Republic 
between 1929 and 1932, that is before Hitler 
turned Germany into the Nazi state, to see how 
this happens.


_____


[11]

The Hindu
December 8, 2003

India be declared Hindu Rashtra: Togadia

Bangalore, Dec. 8. (PTI): VHP leader Praveenbhai 
Togadia has demanded that the country be declared 
a "Hindu rashtra" and urged the Government to go 
to war with Pakistan to put a permanent end to 
terrorism in the country.
Addressing the 'Virat Hindu Samajotsav' here, 
Togadia alleged that political parties were not 
concerned with protection of rights of Hindus and 
accused them of appeasing Muslims.
Asserting that the root-cause of terrosism lay in 
Pakistan, he said only way to root-out the menace 
in India was by waging a war against Islamabad.
Togadia said construction of Ram temple at 
Ayodhya was the "religious right" of Hindus. "You 
cannot challenge Lord Ram". He also vowed to 
"free" temples in Kashi, Mathura and Ayodhya.


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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
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