SACW | 17 Dec. 2003 | Sri Lanka | India / Hindutva /
intolerance / religion on TV
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Tue Dec 16 19:33:36 CST 2003
South Asia Citizens Wire | 17 December, 2003
via: www.sacw.net
[1] Broadening the Perspectives for Peace in Sri Lanka (Asoka Bandarage)
[2] India: Another Ayodhya? It Was Babri In 1992,
A Decade Later It's A Sufi Shrine In The South
(B.R. Srikanth)
[3] India: Of Hindutva and governance (Pratap Bhanu Mehta)
[4] India: Goa Patriots Take Umbrage At Attempt To Saffronise Freedom Stir
[5] India: Rising religious and ethnic intolerance (Press Statement by AICU)
[6] India: Peddling Religion on TV (John Lancaster)
--------------
[1]
South Asia Citizens Web | December 16, 2003
URL: www.sacw.net/peace/bandarage10112003.html
Broadening the Perspectives for Peace in Sri Lanka
by Prof. Asoka Bandarage
(Transcript of a Talk given at the Elliot School
of International Affairs,George Washington
University, Washington D.C. on November 10, 2003)
The conflict in Sri Lanka is being portrayed in
the media as a power struggle between the Sri
Lankan President and the Prime Minister. There's
no doubt that there is an element of political
gamesmanship involved. However, I want to go
beyond the personality clash and look at the
background of the crisis and some of the
underlying issues. The actions by the government
that precipitated the crisis have not been
reported much in the global news. For instance,
the parliament had tried to impeach both the
President and the Chief Justice before the
President took her unexpected moves. A
five-member panel of judges of the Supreme Court
recently upheld the President's legal authority
under the Sri Lankan Constitution as the
commander in chief of the armed forces and the
chief executive. In other words, the conflict
between the President and the Prime Minister has
been brewing over a long period of time; it
wasn't a sudden thing that happened after the
Prime Minister arrived in Washington.
There has been much euphoria in the international
community over the Sri Lanka peace process.
Certainly, the cease fire which began two years
ago, in December 2001, has held. That has been
the most important achievement of the peace
process and I don't think anyone, except the most
irrational elements, want to resume war. This
needs to be underlined. An MOU was signed in
February 2002 between the government of Sri Lanka
and the LTTE and many rounds of talks were held
subsequent to that. There has been tremendous
international support for the peace process and
billions of dollars have been promised in
international aid for reconstruction and
rehabilitation of the war torn regions. Because
of all of that, most of the news reports have
been blaming the President, arguing that her
actions were totally irrational and uncalled for
and that she has scuttled the peace process.
While it is a time of crisis, it is also an
opportunity to look at what has been happening in
the name of peace in Sri Lanka over the last two
years. It is an opportunity to go beneath the
headlines and ask if this is a lasting peace and
if the cease fire really equates peace or is it
building up towards the establishment of a
terrorist state in the north and the east of the
island? This is not an easy question to address,
but, I think it is very important to do so
because peace and stability of the country and
the security of the people are at stake.
According to reports there have been some 3,000
violations of the MOU on the part of the LTTE. In
other words, there is a lot of evidence that they
have not respected law and order. They have not
given up arms and terrorism; instead, there has
been a massive military build-up and increased
troop recruitment over the last two years.
Illegal shipments of weapons have been brought in
during the cease-fire. According to the
President, six of nine of those apprehended by
the Sri Lankan navy were released under the
instructions of the Prime Minister and Defense
Minister. This is one of the charges that the
President has made in taking away the portfolios
of the defense, internal security and media
ministers. LTTE armed camps have been built
during the cease fire, 16 or 17 camps encircling
the strategic harbor of Trincomalee. [...]
There is tremendous concern in the country that
the Norwegian facilitators are turning a blind
eye to these violations. In addition, the
Norwegians have been blamed for leaking
information to the LTTE, for example, that they
have come in the way of the government
intercepting illegal weapons smuggled in by the
LTTE. This in particular had led to the
President asking the head of the SLMM,
(Scandinavian Monitoring Mission), to be removed.
All of this had happened before the eruption of
the crisis last week. Over the last many months
the President had been bringing these issues up
repeatedly with the government and the Norwegians.
[...]
I am sure many of you have seen the LTTE
proposals. They are a blue print for the creation
of a separate state administration, not just a
separate administrative unit. There is a call for
a separate armed forces, which includes an army,
navy and air force; a separate judiciary,
separate revenue and taxation system and also the
right to negotiate with foreign governments for
aid, trade and so forth. These institutions have
already been built up by the LTTE during the
cease fire. The proposals, if accepted, would
consolidate what has been happening over the last
two years. The proposals also provide a provision
that if, after five years, a negotiated
settlement is not agreed upon, then, the LTTE
would have the right to secede from Sri Lanka.
There is no recognition of the Sri Lankan
parliament in these proposals because the
agreement and the establishment of the interim
administration are to be done outside the Sri
Lankan constitution, outside the legal democratic
process. The
re is tremendous fear in Sri Lanka about what
this would entail, particularly because the
government has been giving in to each and every
demand of the LTTE up to now in order to keep
them in the peace process and to stop them from
resuming war. So, there is increasing fear that
this 'peace at any cost' approach will ultimately
lead to the creation of Eelam. The LTTE proposals
lie outside the fundamentals of the peace
process. At the Oslo peace meetings, the LTTE
announced that they had given up the demand for a
separate state and that they would agree to
devolution and a federal solution within the
confines of the Sri Lanka's constitution and
sovereignty.
Unfortunately, much of this background to the
current security crisis has not been reported in
the global media. The crisis has been reported
more or less as a personality issue and a power
struggle between the President and the Prime
Minister and it's very tempting to leave it at
that. But, it is important to make use of this
opportunity to broaden the discussion and see
what has been happening in the name of peace in
Sri Lanka.
My current work is on the origin and evolution of
the ethnic conflict, the discriminatory,
linguistic and other cultural policies of the
post independence era, the colonial history prior
to that and the unequal incorporation of
different ethnic groups into the political
economy that created the context for the
contemporary conflict. But if I get into that
here, I will not have enough time to consider the
current situation. If you would like some good
reading material on the background, I recommend a
book by Partha Ghosh, Ethnicity and Nationalism.
Ghosh is an Indian writer and he gives a very
objective and balanced discussion of the
historical background to the conflict. In my own
book, Colonialism in Sri Lanka, I have also
discussed the colonial political economy and the
plights of the Sinhala peasantry and the Tamil,
Indian plantation labor that was brought in by
the British. In my current work I am also
exploring how colonial economic and cultural
policies subordinated l
ocal cultures and how that led to the grievances
and resistance particularly by the Sinhala
Buddhist majority. But, right now, I would like
to share some maps on the contemporary
demographic and ethnic distribution which can
shed light on the crisis and some of the problems
in the current peace process.
(Map 1) ( Maps can be accessed in Power Point)
Sri Lanka is very close to India separated only
by about 18 miles of sea. In Tamil Nadu, there
are about 55 million Tamils, who have very close
cultural ties with the Tamil population in Sri
Lanka. The Indian Central government's support
for the Tamil nationalist movement and the LTTE
was not simply because of these cultural ties,
but, also the need for the Tamil votes in the
south of India. Moreover, India did not want any
other major power to play a dominant role in the
Indian Ocean region because India wanted to keep
things under her control. It is well known today
that the Indian government and particularly the
RAW wing were involved in the training of Sri
Lankan Tamil rebels on Indian soil. Indira Gandhi
is blamed for this. In 1987, the IPKF (Indian
Peace keeping force) were brought into Sri Lanka
to maintain peace in the north and the east. Very
soon they came to be hated by both the Sinhalese
and the Tamils and there was collusion between
them to get the IPKF out afte
r a lot of damage and thousands of lives had
already been lost. These events also led to the
assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in South India
which is attributed to the LTTE. Subsequently an
extradition treaty was signed between India and
Sri Lanka for extraditing Prabakharan, the leader
of the LTTE, to stand for charges in India.
Things have changed much since the late '80s and
early '90s, and today more and more groups in Sri
Lanka want India to play a central role in the
resolution of the current crisis. The Sri Lankan
government recently signed a defense treaty with
India and the LTTE does not want to involve
India. The LTTE is asking for the recognition of
its own naval forces in the northern seas around
Sri Lanka. This would lead to the operation of
three naval forces and it would be a very
complicated situation, which would threaten the
stability of the region. There have already been
conflicts over fishing rights between Indian and
Sri Lankan fishermen.
Map 2
Here you have 2 versions of the Tamil homelands
claimed by the LTTE. Recent maps claim even more
of the territory of Sri Lanka going all the way
down to Hambantota in the south and Chilaw in the
northwest. I am not going to take up the Tamil
homelands thesis here because it would take up
too much time, but simply mention that the
historical basis for this claim is derived from a
Tamil kingdom in the Jaffna peninsula that
existed for about 400 years. But, in the long
history of Sri Lanka, it is a relatively short
period of time. The Jaffna kingdom was restricted
to the northern peninsula and even today, there
are 276 Buddhist sacred sites in the eastern as
well as the northern province claimed as the
Tamil homelands. There was also a Muslim presence
in the north, perhaps even before the Tamil
kingdom came into being.The north and the east
are two provinces that were created by the
British in order to break up the old Kandyan
kingdom, which was the last of the Sinhalese kin
gdoms to resist foreign conquest.
Map 3
The British created an administrative system with
very strong central authority based in Colombo,
the capital. The outlying regions such as the
north and the east were relatively neglected
because much of the plantation economy was based
in the central highlands and the mercantile
activities around the capital of Colombo. A lot
of Tamils and others who wanted to make use of
the new opportunities came to the south during
the British period. So the neglect and the
relative uneven development had their origins in
the British colonial period, as I have discussed
in some of my writings.
Before we look at the ethnic distribution, I
would like to say a few words about the overall
demographic situation in Sri Lanka because I want
to move away from the historical issues to the
contemporary realities. Sri Lanka is one of the
most densely populated countries in the world
according to some reports the 10th most densely
populated country in the world. By that, what is
it meant is the south, particularly the southwest
of the island. The demographic explosion which
emerged under colonialism is one of the reasons
why resettlement of populations and so called
agricultural colonizing schemes were started in
the relatively under-populated dry zone including
the eastern province.
Out of about 20 million or so population, the Sri
Lankan Tamils are said to be about 8% of the
population today ( this is an estimate from the
London The Economist). And the Indian Tamils,
the descendents of those who were brought by the
British to work on the plantations, are about
5.1% ( according to the 2001 Sri Lankan Census).
The north and the east are relatively under
populated areas. The LTTE did not allow the
government to carry out the 2001 census in the
north and in certain areas of the east. So there
are no accurate census figures and these
projections are based on the 1981 census. The
north and the east may have about two million
people while the rest are all crowded in the
south. What is also overlooked often is that the
majority of the Tamils, about 58-60% live outside
of the north and the east which are being claimed
exclusively as the Tamil homeland. In the south,
especially the southwestern areas, Sinhalese,
Tamils and Muslims have been living side by s
ide for centuries. Ethnic riots especially the
1983 Sinhala riots against Tamils have
justifiably received international attention.
But, what has not received sufficient attention
are the long traditions of pluralism, democracy
and mutual co-existence The threats posed to
these traditions of relative harmony by the
current "peace at any cost" approach have not
received international attention.
Let us move on to the ethnic distribution. The
northern province, (which is indicated in the
dark green), is 100% Tamil today. But, in the
1981 Census, the population there were about 9.8%
Muslim, 7.7% Sinhalese, and 12.4% Indian Tamils,
although, today, the latter is counted with the
Sri Lankan Tamils as one group. There has been
ethnic cleansing during the course of the war.
In 1992, anywhere from 70-100,000 Muslims were
told to leave the northern province within 24
hours by the LTTE. And these people had to leave
everything behind and they became refugees in the
eastern and southern provinces, which is one of
the reasons for the Muslim distrust of the LTTE.
Then, if you go to the eastern province, the
situation is much more complex, the Sri Lankan
Tamils are not a majority in the eastern
province, but they are a plurality, that is, no
one group has more than 50% of the population.
(Map 4)
The eastern province is called the Balkans of Sri
Lanka. Roughly speaking, the Sri Lankan Tamils,
the Muslims and Sinhalese are about one-third
each in the eastern province. In Tincomalee
there is a Sinhalese plurality. In Batticoloa a
Tamil majority. In Ampara district as a whole, in
the 1981 Census, there were 38% Sinhalese and 42%
Muslim. Map 8 shows that the Muslims, like the
Tamils, in Ampara are concentrated in smaller
pockets on the coast and the Sinhalese are spread
out over a larger land area (Moor is a term used
by the British for the Muslims.) Sinhalese are
said to own over 55% of the land in the Eastern
Province.
(Map 5)
If you break the distribution down by Assistant
Government Agents districts, the situation is
even more complex. In these particular districts,
there are certain areas where one group has a
plurality over the other. The point is, the
homogeneity and contiguity that are necessary for
creating separate ethno-nationalist states don't
really exist. People of different ethno-religious
groups are living very close to each other. (Map
6)
You see the context for ethnic conflict here. The
Tamils are a majority in the Batticoloa district
and the northern province, but they are not a
majority in the Trincomalee and other areas in
the east. So, the merger of the north and the
east is going to be very problematic because
there is a Sinhala dominance in the Trincomalee
district and there are Muslim populations in
certain pockets that do not want to live under a
Tamil, LTTE dominated regime. The Sinhalese in
the east have become very powerless and
marginalized because they do not have any
spokesmen/ women and have not been represented in
the peace process.
Map 7, Map 8, Map 9 you see the ethnic break
downs in the three district of the Eastern
Province. So, you can see why creating ethnically
based territorial units in this pluralistic
setting would be a recipe for disaster. This also
shows where the Muslims are now talking about
having their own administrative unit. The Muslims
are supposed to come out with their own proposals
in two months time and it will be interesting to
see what their demands are.
Another potential and explosive development would
be the creation of a separate unit for Indian
plantation Tamils in the Nuwara Eliya and Baddula
districts in the central province. This is not
just an imaginary fear on the part of Sinhalese
people in that region. In Map 5, you can see that
in the Badulla and the Nuwara Eliya districts the
Indian Tamils, descendants of plantation laborers
brought by the British, are a plurality, today.
According to some news reports, the Community
Development Minister of the Sri Lankan
government, who is Indian Tamil, had asked the
Norwegians to join these two districts and bring
it under a LTTE dominated northeast council when
he was in Oslo recently. There was also a recent
report attributed to the LTTE that 35% of their
cadres come from the Indian Tamil population in
Sri Lanka. This raises a lot of questions about
the Tamil homeland because Indian Tamils do not
have a real claim on a traditional homeland they
being descendants of workers brought in by the
British during the 19th and 20th centuries.
If there is a balkanization of Sri Lanka, it is
unlikely to guarantee peace. If the current
peace process continues on this track of
appeasing terrorism and giving into each and
every demand, it's going to result in
balkanization as well as border wars. There will
be struggles over water because the rivers
originate in the central highlands and it could
lead to other kinds of political violence and
perhaps calls for population transfers. The
objective is not to engage in fear mongering, but
it's important to look at the real possibilities
of this happening. According to Paul Harris, 60%
of the land in Sri Lanka could be taken by LTTE.
They have already asked for two-thirds of the
coast. It's interesting that Paul Harris's visa
was not renewed by the Sri Lankan government.
Harris is a British journalist; his reports may
have been sensational, but he was one of the few
who was raising some of these difficult issues.
It's easy to get into the doom and gloom of
predictions. But, I would like to consider what
can be done to broaden the prospects for peace
even at this late stage. On one extreme is the
resumption of war. Some extremist Sinhala and
Tamil groups may want a resumption of war on the
ground that only military victory can assure
peace. But, the war was horrific. According to
the official count 65,000 people were killed when
in reality the numbers were higher. The war was
devastating; it affected every aspect of society.
A country that could have developed economically
was severely set back. It will be generations
before the psychological scars can be healed.
Some of the Sinhala nationalist groups that want
the MOU scrapped and the Norwegians to go home
have not put forward alternative solutions. Their
critical perspective are important, but they have
to come up with alternative strategies for peace.
The other extreme is the peace at any cost
approach the dangers of which have not been
sufficiently understood internationally. This is
also an extremist position because it has been
aiding the building up of a racist, totalitarian
regime under one leader in the north and the
east, a terrorist regime at that. So, that is not
going to bring about a lasting peace either.I am
going to read a piece here from an Indian
journalist Swapan Das Gupta, which was on the
internet today.
[...]
The Sri Lankan crisis is not just a local issue,
but a regional and international issue. That is
why we need to take this opportunity, to open up
for global discussion what has been happening in
Sri Lanka in the name of peace. Unlike outside
observers, people from the country cannot afford
to give into the pessimism. We have to keep
looking for solutions and a way out. We have to
try to find a middle ground between the two
extremes, war on the one hand and the peace at
any cost approach on the other hand which would
lead to further war.
Certainly, there has to be a negotiated political
settlement and there has got to be compromise and
creative efforts on the part of all of the groups
involved. Also, it's important to bring in the
many groups that have been marginalized in the
process, those who have been left out, the
Muslims, the Tamil moderate groups and many
Sinhalese groups, including the President and the
opposition parties, in order to broaden the peace
process. The global influence is very important
here and India and the U.S. have very important
roles to play in getting the LTTE to compromise,
to respect the rule of law and find a resolution
within the constitution and the democratic
process. Tamil expatriates and Sinhalese
expatriates, of the Sri Lankan diaspora also have
an important role to play. We must not give into
the ethnic polarization which has happened over
the last 20 or more years; we have to help
transcend it. Academics also have a great
responsibility in this. The dominant analysis in
the literature on Sri Lanka is highly biased. It
has not looked at things in a multi-faceted way.
Also the NGOs, especially the powerful
international NGOs need to move away from the
myopic peace at any cost approach and help bring
about a genuine peace with democracy and
pluralism.
[...]
I think one of the reasons that this is happening
is not simply the peculiar nature of the Sri
Lankan constitution and the bifurcation of power,
but also the existence of democracy. With all
of its shortcomings, there is still democracy and
differences of opinions and dissension in Sri
Lanka, that is in the south. The reason that the
Tamils seems to be speaking in one voice is
precisely because unfortunately there is no
democracy, because there is only totalitarianism.
This has got to be recognized. If there isn't a
recognition of that, we are going to see the loss
of democracy and pluralism in the south as well.
On that note, I will stop and simply say that
each one of us has a role to play in fighting for
peace with democracy and pluralism, not only in
Sri Lanka but around the world. Sri Lanka is a
microcosm of the world, we are facing the same
issues around the planet today.
Thank You.
[ Full Text at: www.sacw.net/peace/bandarage10112003.html]
_____
[2]
Outlook Magazine | Dec 22, 2003
KARNATAKA: Another Ayodhya?
It was Babri in 1992, a decade later it's a Sufi shrine in the south
B.R. SRIKANTH
A few years ago no one would have predicted that
the Guru Dattatreya Baba Budangiri Swamy dargah
near Chikmagalur, in Karnataka's tranquil and
picturesque Western Ghats, would become the
Ayodhya of south India. The shrine of Sufi saint
Dada Hayath Meer Qalandar, the Sangh parivar
claims, was originally a Hindu temple dedicated
to Lord Dattatreya (an incarnation of Brahma,
Vishnu and Shiva), his mother Devi Anasuya and
four disciples. While the VHP and Bajrang Dal
have in recent years been demanding the
"liberation" of the dargah, an overt political
twist has now been added with the BJP's Karnataka
unit joining the chorus for the first time.
Ironically, the dargah has always been a symbol
of communal harmony. It has an interesting blend
of rituals and festivities, interweaving Hindu
and Muslim. Thousands of pilgrims from all
communities turn up at the shrine twice a
year-once in December during the Datta Jayanti
celebrations and again in February-March for
Hayath Meer Qalandar's urs. During the rest of
the year, a trickle of devotees come to offer
prayers and receive a talisman and sacred ash
from the muzavar, the equivalent of a priest, at
the shrine.
The BJP's ploy of playing the communal card in
Karnataka became official when Union cabinet
discard and state unit chief Ananth Kumar
disclosed his party's intention of turning the
shrine issue into "another Ayodhya" at a press
conference in Chikmagalur. Ever since, the
parivar and the BJP have been vowing to "repeat
Gujarat". A rally was organised as part of the
Hindu Viraat Samajothsav in Bangalore which was
addressed by a number of seers of various maths
in Karnataka and Hindutva's fiery votary, VHP
general secretary Praveen Togadia. Similar
rallies were organised in Chikmagalur and other
parts of Karnataka. The date couldn't have been
better-December 6-anniversary of the Babri Masjid
demolition.
At the Bangalore Samajothsav, the seers lamented
the 'downslide' of Hinduism, spoke on the lack of
a ban on cow slaughter and on conversions. They
spoke up against the discrimination of Dalits and
the practice of untouchability. These discourses
were followed by Togadia's vituperative attack on
the minorities and on policies implemented by
various governments to retain their "votebanks".
Ayodhya seemed to have shifted to Bangalore and
Chikmagalur this December 6; both were awash with
saffron flags, banners and cutouts of Hindu
deities. Saffron T-shirts and bandanas too were
handed out to the youth at the rallies. At
Chikmagalur, Sadhvi Rithambara and other Bajrang
Dal and BJP figures made fiery speeches. "It's a
sacred spot where Lord Dattatreya performed
penance and which his mother Anasuyadevi declared
as a holy place. Muslim invaders overran it and
converted it into a dargah to suit their
religious needs," Rithambara thundered.
For the first time, BJP MP from Chikmagalur, D.C.
Srikantappa, and the leader of Opposition in the
legislative council, D.H. Shankara Murthy, used
the Dattatreya Jayanti celebrations atop the
windswept Baba Budan hills to demand that the
shrine be handed over to Hindus. The BJP and the
Sangh want a Dattatreya idol to be installed here
for regular worship.
The VHP-Bajrang Dal have vowed to keep the
pressure on the government with a new twist to
the controversy over the shrine-they have
extracted land records from the district
administration to buttress their claim that the
shrine belonged to the Hindus. These records
indicate that Datta Peetha and Baba Budan dargah
are two different shrines located one kilometre
apart in the region. In addition, they claim to
have secured a list of properties owned by Datta
Peetha and Baba Budan dargah as another piece of
evidence in support of their claim for the shrine.
The contentious turn in the shrine's story and
the various twists and turns in legal battles
over the control of the shrine in recent years
was set off in the mid-'60s.But at that point it
was more a tussle between two administrative
bodies-the Waqf Board and the Muzrai department
which manages temples in Karnataka. They
squabbled over a notification issued by the Waqf
Board that the shrine was under its jurisdiction.
Interestingly, the then sajjada nasheen (manager
of the shrine) backed the Muzrai department's
stand, arguing that the dargah was not
exclusively a Muslim shrine but venerated by
people of both communities.
The second round was fought in 1975 when the
state government ordered the shrine to be vested
with the Waqf Board. But the Chikmagalur district
court struck down this order in 1980. In 1991,
the Bangalore High Court dismissed an appeal by
the Waqf Board and ordered restoring the status
quo in terms of rituals and prayers as they
existed before June 1975, a verdict later upheld
by the apex court. Now, the Sangh parivar wants
the shrine to be entirely handed over to Hindus
and an archak (Hindu priest) to be appointed to
perform rituals. It has also objected to its
management by the sajjada nasheen. The 14th
generation sajjada nasheen, Syed Peer Mohamed
Shakadri, passed away in 1999. Now his son, Syed
Ghouse Mohiyuddin, manages the affairs of the
dargah.
For centuries, the shrine has been an exemplar of
Hindu-Muslim unity. The Hindus call the sanctum
as that of Dattatreya, the Muslims describe him
as Baba. A platform inside the shrine symbolises
the peetha where Dattatreya performed penance,
but it's also revered as the place were Baba
offered prayers. Hindus believe a stream inside
the shrine was used by Anasuya. To the Muslims,
the feminine presence is known as Mama Zigani.
Adding to the confusion are conflicting versions
about who Hazrat Dada Meer Qalandar and Baba
Budan were. Legend has it that Dada Meer
Qalandar, a close disciple of Prophet Mohammed,
arrived here in the sixth century. He brought
Baba Budan or Sayyed Shah Jamaluddin Maghribi
from Yemen in the 16th century to manage the
dargah. Baba Budan reportedly brought seven
coffee beans from Yemen and introduced coffee
cultivation in the region. Another section holds
Baba to be the grandson of Ismail Shakhadri, who
was originally sent by Hyder Ali in the 18th
century to collect cess and manage the daily
affairs of the dargah.
On its part, the Karnataka government handled the
rallies in Bangalore and Chikmagalur as well as
the annual Datta celebrations with great tact.
Wary of a Hindu backlash, it did not heed the
appeals by noted playwright Girish Karnad to ban
the entry of Togadia or clamp down on the
Chikmagalur rallies. Instead, the S.M. Krishna
government facilitated these rallies and
celebrations with the help of a large police
force (6,000 each in Bangalore and Chikmagalur).
The local administration was instructed to handle
them with caution and to ensure that peace was
not disturbed in the region.
That won't soften the BJP and the parivar's
determination to make this a political issue,
especially in view of the assembly elections next
year. Any surprise then that the Sangh parivar
has activated its cadres in Karnataka?
_____
[3]
The Hindu
Dec 15, 2003
Of Hindutva and governance
By Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Signs of Hindutva were unmistakable in the
elections... [But] we are so used to equating it
with belligerence that we do not notice it when
it takes subtler forms.
THE CONDUCT of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the
recent Assembly elections has led many observers
to argue that it has undergone a far-reaching
transformation. From the party of Hindutva, it
has become the party of governance, from an
organisation beholden to the Sangh Parivar, it
now is acting as a responsible ruling party,
instead of playing on an apocalyptic politics of
Hindu self- esteem, it is now occupying the space
of sensible policy. In many ways this assessment
is picking out a discernible trend: the BJP has
for some time looked more the natural governing
party than the Congress. It outclasses the
Congress in sheer political talent across the
board. It has the ability to set an agenda on
more fronts than one could list, from
infrastructure, foreign affairs, Kashmir to
economic reform. It is a party that, for better
or for worse, now defines the policy space on
almost every front, while other parties are
reduced to being mere respondents or naysayers.
It would be churlish to deny the fact that the
BJP is in many respects capable of governing at
least as well as any of its rivals. Any
opposition that does not acknowledge this reality
is premised on a pipe dream.
It is not surprising that the BJP should
capitalise on its governance capacities. Only its
opponents have made the mistake of supposing that
the BJP can expand its base on Hindutva alone;
the BJP itself has never been under this
illusion. The contrast between governance-based
elections and identity politics-based elections
is in any case overstated. Even Narendra Modi ran
on both issues of Gujarati pride and claimed to
have brought water to Gujarat. But equally it
would be a mistake to suppose that the BJP has
given up on Hindutva or that Hindutva does not
represent, in the long run, a profound and
insidious danger to the fundamental premises of a
liberal constitutional democracy. Far from this
election being a sidelining of Hindutva, the
results represent its increasing triumph.
Hindutva works as an explicit plank of
mobilisation when the following conditions
obtain. First, there has to be a framing context
or a specific event that generates anxiety that
the politics of Hindutva can tap. Such an anxiety
can be generated by terrorism, a narrative that
stitches together events such as Godhra and
Akshardham, or during the 1980s the fallout from
the Shah Bano case. The BJP then taps into this
anxiety. During the present elections, there was
no such framing context, no immediate event to
fuel a politics of anxiety and resentment. It was
thus intrinsically difficult to unleash the
energies of Hindutva. This lack of a framing
narrative also freed the media to cover a wide
variety of issues rather than focus insistently
on the secularism issue alone.
Secondly, what would be an issue around which
Hindutva politics would mobilise? In some ways it
has already become the dominant sentiment: on all
the issues, be it cow slaughter, conversion,
cultural transformation, expansion of its base
amongst tribals, the acceptance of religion in
politics, changes in the self-perception of
Indians, marginalisation of minorities, Hindutva
is already mainstream. It has already redefined
the public sphere in ways that cries of "Hinduism
in danger" no longer have quite the same appeal.
This is not because Hindutva does not have wide
support; it is because it has to a great degree
been successful.
The one major issue on which Hindutva politics
could mobilise would be Ayodhya. But this is a
tricky one to use. For one thing, any
mobilisation on this issue runs the risk of
inviting the question: what has the BJP been up
to on this issue for five years? It can now
mobilise on this issue only when one of two
conditions obtain. Either it is utterly
desperate, or there is a reasonable chance that
this mobilisation will result in the construction
of the temple. Given the current institutional
and legal constraints, the BJP cannot launch
another movement, because a movement without an
end result will simply yield diminishing returns.
It will take this issue up only when it is now in
a position to deliver on it. It is easier to
organise movements for the sake of it when you
are in Opposition, they are harder to justify
when a party holds the reins of power. And the
temple issue also gets sustenance from a larger
framing context that was unavailable this time.
Therefore it should not be surprising that
Hindutva was not, directly, a main plank. But
signs of it were unmistakable: Mr. Modi was not
an insignificant presence; in its own quiet way,
the Congress Government's banning of `trishuls'
in Rajasthan had an influence. We are so used to
equating Hindutva with belligerence that we do
not notice it when it takes subtler forms. The
BJP was not belligerent not because it has given
up on its core ideology, but because it feels
that the tides of history are with it. The
courts, based on the Archaeological Survey of
India report might rule in its favour; most
parties are behaving as if it is only a matter of
time when the temple in Ayodhya will be built.
The governance agenda has come to the fore on the
backs of Hindutva, but it will not entirely
supplant it. If the BJP Governments begin to run
into serious electoral trouble again, or if some
unfortunate events hand it a framing context on a
platter, the belligerent BJP will make a very
swift appearance again. Its cadres will not
simply melt away.
Any nation that is built on a politics of
resentment and the marginalisation of the
minorities, as Hindutva inevitably is, cannot
long endure and prosper. Hindutva has the
potential of creating a volatile politics that
can still plunge this country into chaos, and
jeopardise the project of creating a free society
where no individual is stigmatised for who they
are. The violence in Hyderabad, and the liturgy
surrounding Uma Bharti's swearing in, were brief
reminder of all that can still happen in this
country. The real lesson of these elections
however is that opponents of Hindutva cannot win
simply by opposing it and calling it names. They
have to do what the BJP has done, link an
ideology to an energetic and robust organisation
with some political imagination. The Congress
party, under Sonia Gandhi, is incapable of doing
that. It does not have leadership that can
translate public sentiment into a concrete
political programme or play craft politics. It
does not have a clear ideology or organisational
acumen. Most political parties that were in the
political wilderness like the Democrats in the
U.S. or Labour in Britain, made strenuous efforts
to reinvent themselves and defined themselves by
the adjective "new." Where is the "new" Congress?
If the Congress fights on its record of the last
two decades, it does not have a leg to stand on;
and Sonia Gandhi is a reminder of its grim past
rather than a harbinger of the future.
The BJP attracts more young political talent than
almost any other party. Underlying that move is
an attraction of the politics of the "new," a
politics that gets us over our own recent past.
Hindutva is a social movement that has produced
an enormous amount of social churning that a lot
of people feel empowered by. It has lodged itself
in the interstices of our psyche, while the
Congress looks positively conservative and closed
by comparison. The forces of Hindutva are now
confident enough to set their sights on
longer-term goals, of which governance is
inevitably a part. But governance is easier to
promise than deliver, and the BJP like any
political party will remain vulnerable on these
issues. Under those circumstances and in the
right context, belligerent Hindutva will be once
again on the agenda. But the current calm should
not lull anyone into the illusion that governance
will do away with Hindutva; if anything good
governance will only enhance the long-term appeal
of Hindutva. These elections should not be taken
complacently as a sign that the Indian electoral
system can inevitably tame all fanaticism; they
rather point to the fact that opponents of
fanaticism have their work cut out for them.
______
[4]
Herald, Goa 12/12/03
GOA PATRIOTS TAKE UMBRAGE AT ATTEMPT TO SAFFRONISE FREEDOM STIR
PANAJI (Goa), Dec 11: Prominent freedom fighters from Goa have urged the
Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee to reconsider the "arbitrary" decision
sanctioning Swantantra Sainik Samman Pension (SSSP) to 4000 persons merely
on the basis of their presumed participation or "dubious" willingness to
participate, in the satyagraha against the Portuguese in Goa in 1954-55.
Goa, a former Portuguese colony, won an end to overseas rule only in 1961.
But even though it's freedom fighters are younger than those in most of the
rest of India, it is seen as odd that pensions are being allotted even a
full four decades after Liberation, as the political changeover is termed
here.
In a representation sent to the prime minister, the freedom fighters have
pointed out that the decision of the Government of India is a "serious
transgression" of the rules of the scheme governing the award of the SSS
pension.
Under this, they said, only those freedom fighters who have made the
"exceptional sacrifices" and faced "extraordinary sufferings' are eligible
for the award of the pension.
On the contrary, the patriots said, none of the 4000 persons should be
considered eligible for the pension as none of them fulfill any condition.
Prominent among the signatories of the representation are: Sharda Savoikar,
poet-broadcaster and freedom fighter Nagesh Karmali, former Goa police chief
Prabhakar Sinari, Gurunath Kelekar, ex-editor Lambert Mascarenhas, Jose
Francis Martins, Alvaro Pereira, former PTI bureau chief Flaviano Dias,
Krishnarao Rane, Prabhakar K K Shankwalkar, Vasant Karapurkar, Armando S
Pereira, Roque Santan Fernandes, Fulgenio Moraes, Anand Thali, Bonifacio
Dias, Jose Manuel Viegas, and others.
The decision to grant a new batch pensions comes in the wake of the demand
of Ram Tupe, president of Akhil Bharatiya-Goa Swantantra Sangram Sangh, who
has also claimed that other than these 4000 from Maharashtra, there were
6000 more from other States whose cases for pension are pending.
But Goa's own veteran freedom fighters have lamented that the Manohar
Parrikar-led BJP government in Goa, which has proven to be fairly
controversy-prone, is supporting the "illegitimate stand" of Tupe.
It elaborated to note that the satyagrahis from Maharashtra and other States
were prevented from entering Goa due to the ban imposed by the then Bombay
state government on the instructions of the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru who was keen to observe international law.
This is the second time the BJP-led government at the Centre is engaged in
flouting the rules of SSSP, charged the freedom-fighters.
The first time, they said, was when pension was granted to 115 RSS workers,
who got the financial benefit on grounds of being liberators of another tiny
former Portuguese colony -- Dadra and Nagar Haveli close to Gujarat.
This too, the freedom-fighters said, had thus contradicted India's own stand
before the International Court at Hague, when New Delhi had claimed that
these territories had been liberated by Goans themselves of the
Portuguese-held Goa and not by nationals of India.
In its struggle to retain its colonial toehold in this part of India, the
Portuguese had appealed to the international court, seeking the vacation of
the conquest of these territories, decades ago.
"Well established facts and historical records show that it was the
underground (patriotic) organisations from Goa namely United Front of Goans,
Azad Gomantak Dal and Goan People's Party liberated the Portuguese
enclaves", said the protesting freedom fighters.
Only around 20 volunteers from the RSS had joined Azad Gomantak Dal, one of
the organisations then active, for a week or two. But they were removed from
Nagar Haveli following one incident in which they assaulted the priest of a
local church, the signatories have said. At the most, their participation
was marginal and symbolic, they added.
In a function held at Pune, presided over by the Deputy Prime Minister, L K
Advani and Petroleum Minister, Ram Naik, it was projected that the 115 RSS
beneficiaries of the Centre's largess were the only liberators of Dadra and
Nagar Haveli. The nucleus of the fighters from Goa and Daman who fought and
captured entire Portuguese forces in these erstwhile Portuguese enclaves
were totally ignored at the function, charged the patriots.
The latest decision of the Vajpayee government granting pension to over 4000
persons for one-day participation or willingness to participate in the
satyagraha will amount to a "mockery and insult to gallant freedom fighters
of Goa", the representation said while appealing to the prime minister to
re-examine the decision.
Two days ago, the All Goa Freedom Fighters Association has flayed the
government on the same issue.
_____
[5]
ALL INDIA CATHOLIC UNION
(Founded in 1919, Representing the 1.6 Crore Catholic Laity in India)
National President: Dr. Maria Emilia Menezes
National Vice President: Dr. John Dayal
3rd Floor, Dempo Trade Centre, Patto Plaza,
Panaji 403001 email: aicufile at goatelecom.com
Contact Dr John Dayal at 09811021072
Email: johndayal at vsnl.com
Camp: Catholic Church, Sector 19 A, Chandigarh
Rising religious and ethnic intolerance and
unabashed corruption in politics, police,
bureaucracy and subordinate judiciary threat to
Indian democracy
Catholic Union condemns anti-migrant violence in
Assam, Bihar, Maharashtra; says Anti Conversion
laws planned by Centre and Rajasthan spell doom
for religious freedom
PRESS STATEMENT
Chandigarh, 15 December, 2003
[The following statement was issued by All India
Catholic Union National President Dr M E Menezes,
and Vice President Dr. John Dayal at the end of a
three-day meeting in Chandigarh from 13th to 15th
December 2003 of the National Working Committee
of the AICU. This is the first time in the nine
decade history of the Union, Asia’s oldest and
biggest such organization representing 1.60
Catholics of India, that a Working Committee
meeting has been held in Chandigarh. Dr Menezes
and Dr John Dayal, who between them had toured
the elections where assembly elections were held
recently, as well as the North East, Maharashtra,
Gujarat, Orissa, Haryana, and Kerala, as well as
other office bearers briefed the Working
committee on the situation during and after the
election campaigns, as well as the status on the
rights of religious and other minorities in some
states.]
The All India Catholic Union congratulates Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for India’s peace
initiatives with Pakistan and welcomes the
bilateral ceasefire on the borders.
The Prime Minister must now take serious
initiatives to restore confidence within the
country, specially amongst religious minorities.
The All India Catholic Union expresses its deep
concern at the mounting intensity of religious
intolerance and violence against religious,
ethnic and linguistic minorities and migrant
populations in various parts of the country which
collectively pose a threat to the political
integrity, social unity and economic development
of India.
The Catholic Union condemns the violence against
migrant populations in Bihar, Assam and
Maharashtra, abetted by the political class and
official machinery in some places. Governments,
specially the Central government which controls
massive employment in the Railways, Postal and
Defence services, among other sectors, must take
great care to ensure that the aspirations of
regional unemployment youth are not brought into
a devious political clash with the right of every
Indian national to a job anywhere in the country.
This dimension of violence further aggravates the
already alarming religious intolerance and
violence against Dalits, Muslims and Christians.
The Catholic Union and other religious Freedom
and Human Rights organizations are still
recording over 200 cases every of physical
violence and official and political harassment
of Christian priests, evangelists and
institutions in various parts of the country.
This includes continued and illegal occupation of
graveyards in various parts of Haryana, for
instance, as well as assaults on nuns and
priests, burning of Bibles and Churches etc in
many states, particularly in Orissa and Tamil
Nadu. Gujarat continues to be among states where
the Christian community is under stress from the
administration and fundamentalist political
elements.
The recent elections saw anti Christian hate
campaigns peaking in states such as Chhatisgarh,
which is home to the criminal Ghar Wapsi
Programme of Judeo, a former Central minister.
Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and the entire tribal belt
extending across Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and
Rajasthan, has seen a massive campaign by the
Adivasi Kalyan Ashram, a member of the Sangh
Parivar, which is receiving massive dollar
funding from NRI and other sources. Judeo, caught
red-handed on television cameras taking a bribe,
has admitted he has received moneys for forming
his `army’ to convert Christian Tribals into his
faith.
The brazen Judeo incident, together with similar
incidents involving former Chhatisgarh chief
minister Ajit Jogi, former BJP president Bhandaru
Laxman and chief ministers and senior politicians
of parties which are members of the ruling
National Democratic alliance, are hideous
evidence of the extent that the rot of corruption
has penetrated the political system. Other recent
scams have shown that the other pillars of the
state, including the Executive – Bureaucracy and
Police – and the Judiciary, have often been
partners in the same corruption.
The common man feels betrayed, cheated and
exploited in this endless and seamless corruption
that envelops civil life. Civil Society,
including human rights groups find themselves
similarly helpless in the face of the mounting
religious and ethnic intolerance.
The Catholic Union condemns moves by the Central
and Rajasthan governments to enact new laws
against religious freedom under the guise of
stopping conversions. Tens of Thousands of Dalits
have converted in Gujarat to Buddhism this year
in protest against caste and caste subjugation.
Faith is a personal matter and freedom of faith.
The examples from Tamil Nadu show how communal
elements in government misuse existing black laws
to harass the minorities.
The All India Catholic Union and all other
Christian groups, vehemently oppose anti
conversion laws because such inhuman laws deprive
and rob the poor and the victims of caste
oppression from exercising their God-given
Freedom of faith. The United Nations recognizes
Freedom of faith, including the Freedom to change
once faith, as a major fundamental right of a
human being. There is no place for such laws that
attack human dignity. The Church has repeatedly
said that it does not believe in forced or
induced conversions, which are also against the
laws of the Church.
The Catholic Union demands from the Central and
state governments concrete welfare, educational
and training measures that will help religious
minorities, amongst the poorest of the poor, to
develop entrepreneurship and economic activity
amongst its people, who are also the major
victims of globalisation and the creation of
large internal monopolies in which they find
little employment and no social security.
In Punjab, the Catholic Union demands the setting
up of a State Minorities Commission and special
care for the Dalits amongst the Christian
community, who are in large numbers in districts
such as Gurdaspur. In all three states, Punjab,
Haryana and Chandigarh, there are almost no local
Christians in Gazetted posts, and only a handful
in other government jobs. This grievance must be
redressed.
The State governments must also act urgently to
ensure that there is no alienation of Cemetery
and other Church properties. Cemeteries in Rohtak
and other places now occupied illegally must be
restored to the community.
____
[6]
Washington Post
December 15, 2003; Page A26
The Airwaves of Enlightenment
India's Gurus Take to Television to Spread Their Message
By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
NEW DELHI -- In the plush, heavily marbled living
room of his 8,000-square-foot mansion, the
wealthy industrialist sat raptly in front of the
television at 7 a.m., a cup of tea in his hand
and a contented smile on his face.
On the screen in front of him, Yashpal Sudhanshu,
one of India's best-known gurus, chanted a prayer
in Sanskrit before launching into a soothing,
feel-good lecture on how to cope with stress.
"Begin each day with a pure thought," he advised.
"When you do breathing exercises, when you
control your anger, when you laugh, you're
actually prolonging your life."
The industrialist, Rajiv Malhotra, said he was
deeply grateful for such guidance. Listening to a
guru each morning helps him "get peace out of
this mechanical life," he said. "People have
become very conscious about material things."
Malhotra, 44, is not alone. As Indians move to
the cities and leave behind traditional,
village-level forms of Hindu worship, they
increasingly are turning to the airwaves in
search of spiritual sustenance. As a result,
religious programming is booming, making
celebrities out of gurus whose satellite-assisted
reach now extends to many parts of the globe.
"Spirituality was always part of the Indian
psyche, but now it has just found a new vehicle,
24-hour television," said Madhav Kant Mishra,
executive director of the seven-month-old Sadhna
religious channel. "Indians had started
disbelieving their own traditional knowledge
systems. The TV channels aim to reestablish that
system with modern analysis and in a modern
context."
The audience for such programs cuts across social
classes in India, where cable television costs as
little as $1.50 a month, and cable and satellite
services reach an estimated 42 million of 191
million households nationwide. By all accounts,
however, some of the most ardent viewers are
educated middle-class and wealthy Indians, who
tend to live in larger towns and cities and rely
on their daily dose of Hindu folk wisdom, prayers
and counseling as a powerful antidote to urban
angst.
"You walk through any neighborhood in Delhi at 6
or 7 a.m. and you will hear the sound of
religious TV coming out of most homes," Mishra
said. "People have gotten addicted to it."
Hinduism is deeply embedded in the fabric of
everyday life in India, where tens of thousands
travel the roads on yearly pilgrimages and
makeshift shrines grace the corners of the even
the humblest dirt-floored homes.
But the pressures of economic growth and
modernization -- manifest in a steady flow of
people from the countryside to the cities -- have
taken their toll on religious tradition as
observed by Hindus as well as the country's
Muslim and Christian minorities.
"Indian religions are very locality-specific,"
said Ashis Nandy, one of India's leading social
scientists. "You have family priests, family
gurus, personal gods, village gods and goddesses
-- this is what living Hinduism is -- and that is
truly in decline in urban areas. Therefore you
begin to search for substitutes."
One consequence, he said, is a more homogenized
and generic form of Hinduism. Another is the rise
of Hindu nationalism, whose politicians have made
enormous gains over the last decade in part by
trying to "exploit this sense of void" among the
increasingly transient urban masses, Nandy said.
But most of India's best-known gurus are
determinedly apolitical -- cultivating followers
in secular parties as well as the Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party at the head of
India's governing coalition.
The trend has set off fierce competition for
airtime among gurus who regard television as key
to enhancing their profile -- and bringing in the
financial contributions that sustain their
ashrams and lifestyles. Some of the programming
can be found on mainstream, India-based cable
channels such as Zee TV, which claims a worldwide
audience of 225 million, and Star Plus of the
Murdoch media empire. But the trend is most
visible in the emergence since 2000 of four
24-hour cable channels whose content consists
largely of gurus singing prayer songs (bajhans)
or delivering sermons.
"The religious business in India is very
lucrative," said an executive of a religious
channel who asked not to be identified. So fierce
is the competition for media exposure, the
executive added, that lesser-known gurus
typically pay religious channels for airtime;
some have been known to record their sermons in
private, "then insert shots of a crowd from
elsewhere and send us the tapes. Some of them are
such novices that they need teleprompters and
written scripts to give discourses. It's a big
commercial game."
Sudhanshu, however, is so popular that he does
not pay for airtime -- and commands a worldwide
following of 3 million on several channels, aides
say.
A Sanskrit scholar from the foothills of the
Himalayas, Sudhanshu, 48, is the founder and head
of the Universal Awakening Mission, which
operates 20 ashrams and a network of charitable
hospitals and schools across India; it also has
overseas branches in Chicago, Los Angeles and
elsewhere.
During an interview at his New Delhi temple
recently, Sudhanshu said one of his principal
goals is to enhance the "aura" -- a halo of
colored light -- that surrounds each human being
at a distance of three to six inches.
"That aura protects you from negative forces," he
said as he sat in the lotus position with bajhans
playing softly in the background. "When that aura
weakens, other people's words and actions have a
negative impact. My message is to strengthen that
aura around you by meditation, introspection and
worship, so you create heaven around you."
The organization's prosperity was evident during
a visit to its main ashram, which occupies 17
acres in a farming area outside New Delhi. A kind
of religious theme park, the ashram features
ornamental ponds stocked with swans, a fire
temple, a seminary for Hindu missionaries and a
60-foot high artificial mountain -- complete with
cascading waterfall -- ornamented with statues of
Hindu gods.
It also has an old-age home and a charitable
hospital whose treatment regimes range from
state-of-the-art laser eye surgery to
chromotherapy, which involves directing bands of
colored light on patients suffering from mental
conditions.
Taking a visitor on a tour recently, an executive
of the ashram acknowledged that for all the
guru's divinely inspired wisdom, he also had help
from another source in building his spiritual
empire. "Television has created this," the
executive said.
Special correspondent Rama Lakshmi contributed to this report.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
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