SACW | 18 Dec. 2003
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Wed Dec 17 17:38:14 CST 2003
South Asia Citizens Wire | 18 December, 2003
via: www.sacw.net
[1] Hindutva's dash for power (M B Naqvi)
[2] Publication Announcement : Taslima Nasrin's
banned books are now available online
[3] Book Review : 'When Bangladesh was born' (Reviewed by Sabih Mohsin)
[4] Book Review : 'Bhopal Gas Tragedy-A Book for
Young People' (Reviewed by Rex Rosario)
[5] Book Announcement : 'Across Time and
Continents: A Tribute to Victor G. Kiernan'
[6] Book Announcement : 'The Un-Gandhian
Gandhi-The Life and Afterlife of the Mahatma'
[7] Publication Announcement : Issue 16 of SAMAR magazine is online
[8] Book Announcement : 'The World Social Forum Challenging Empires'
[9] Book Review : 'Political Parties and Party
Systems' (Reviewed by Ashutosh Kumar)
[10] Book Review: 'India-Pakistan: Themes Beyond
Borders-Selections From Nikhil Chakravarty'
(Reviewed by M.J. Akbar)
[11] Film Screening: Anand Patwardhan's 'War and Peace' (Karachi, 19 December)
[12] Film Screening : Amar Kanwar's 3 films at Moma (New York, December 21)
[13] Public Discussion: "India's Muslims: Their
Prospects in Hindu Nationalist India" - Asghar
Ali Engineer and Paul R. Brass (Washington DC,
January 20, 2004)
--------------
[1]
The News International, December 10, 2003
Hindutva's dash for power
M B Naqvi
Last week's poll results in four key states of
India have belied the expectations of Indian
commentators. It was generally thought that
Congress will more or less easily retain three
states of Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan while
Madhya Pradesh had seemed wobbly. In the event,
BJP has been swept to power in the MP, Rajasthan
and Chhattisgarh, leaving only Delhi to Congress,
where CM Sheila Dixit's excellent stewardship of
the Capital area had paid off. What does this
portend?
There are some easy explanations, of course.
Incumbency factor can be cited; people had become
tired of Congress rule that could deliver so
little. This factor was known to all
commentators. How could they be so sanguine as to
go on holding that Congress was likely to retain
the Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, not to mention
Delhi, almost to the last? They obviously
under-estimated the attractiveness of BJP's stock
in trade: Hindutva.
Much has been made of so-called real issues for
the voters: "bijli, pani aur sarak" (electricity,
water and roads). Doubtless these are crucially
important to both rural and urban voters. But are
the results shaped mainly by this criterion? The
record of Congress' long rule almost everywhere
is known and has been largely lacklustre; the
party is known for its corruption, factionalism
and neglect of the common voters, though it has a
well-oiled election machine with more or less
enough resources. In comparison, BJP was an
outsider though it had much going for it in these
polls: a friendly government at the centre, the
steel framework of RSS organisation, claims of
being a different and clean party, abundance of
funds and above all the heady slogan of Hindutva
based on Hindu cultural nationalism.
Doubtless, the Congress defeats in Madhya Pradesh
and Rajasthan are significant. The former was
being run by ever-active Mr Digvijay Singh with
claims to personal charisma and the ambition of
making MP his redoubt from where he can rise to
power in Delhi in the fullness of time. All
observers thought he would trounce the BJP by his
responsiveness, good governance and his recent
metamorphosis from being an uncompromising
secularist into one who pedalled 'soft Hindutva'
- a sort of me-too-ism. He should now be a more
sober politician because the MP voter put his
trust mainly in BJP. In a house of 230, BJP has
captured 173 seats and Congress could retain only
38 of seats. Digvijay Singh's personal PR was at
least as good as his record of being alert in
listening to people's problems. And yet voters
deserted him and the Congress. Why?
On a somewhat lesser scale, the same holds for
Rajasthan. No serious Indian observer had any
misgiving of Congress not retaining this state,
the CM of which state remained firmly secular in
the face of concerted onslaught of the Sangh
Pariwar. Led by a reasonably efficient CM,
Rajasthan had seemed like a Congress fort. But it
too crumbled. Not that any BJP-ruled state could
show a better record in terms of bijlee, pani aur
sarak or better governing. Except Gujarat, where
Hindutva showed its militant face, and UP and
Bihar, no BJP-ruled state was able to resist
Congress in earlier state elections, although it
did deploy Hindutva everywhere. But this time the
BJP could trump whatever Congress could say.
Strange, isn't it?
Until recently, the Congress was the only show in
town for most of India. But it was a banyan tree
under which nothing else grew. What was its
historic role? It was always an ambiguous broad
church that accommodated all shades of ideologies
from soft left to hard right. Nehru, the Fabian
socialist, came to represent all non-Communist
left, and combining it with enlightened
nationalism; he had the foresight to see that all
communalisms, Hindu, Muslim or others, will be
destructive to India's unity and integrity. Hence
his insistence on secular as well as democratic
politics. Nehru ruled India for the initial 18
years and imparted his own image to both India
and Congress. But both needed qualifications.
At no time was Hindu communalism - or call it
today's nationalism - absent from India. Even in
the hey days of Nehru, the Hindu communalists or
nationalists always had a presence in politics -
parliament and on the platform. BJP is the recent
name of the party that was earlier known as Hindu
Mahasabha which later became Jana Sangh, always
shot through and through with persons owning
allegiance to Rashtrya Sewam Sevak Sangh (RSS).
It always polled a sizeable chunk of urban Hindu
vote even when Nehru's frame and power outshone
everyone else's. The Congress image remained
secular for some time after Nehru. But the six
years of Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1970s heavily
compromised it, though articulation of secular
identity continues. Even during Nehru's own day,
Babu Rajinder Prashad, Radhakrishnan, Sardar
Patel, even Rajaji and many others shared
secularism rather partially.
There is no reason why most Hindus should not
take pride in their ancient civilisation. But
making this a militant cultural nationalism and a
basis for seeking power, in preference to a
distinctive social, political and economic
programme, implies many things: it is a basic
ideological denial of the democratic idea; all
Indians might be equal in the inherited law but
Hindus are more equal - and more Indian - than
other Indians. Which is where Fascism, the
ideological retreat from the democratic idea,
rushes in. That, given the huge diversities that
is India, such a cultural nationalism necessarily
runs foul of democracy-without which there is no
way to keep the allegiance of all Indians intact.
The trouble with Hindutva, like its Islamic rough
counterpart - Nizam-i-Islam - is that the Hindu
has to be defined to be favoured and empowered by
the state. The moment you try to define a Hindu,
as is the case with the Musalmans, a thousand
smaller and more ethnic or realistic (caste)
identities of the Hindus begin clamouring for
primary allegiance. Just as a simple homogenised
Musalman gets pushed out by a Sunni or Shia or
the poverty stricken or a Sindhi, Baloch or
Pathan, similarly there may be no uncomplicated,
synthesised or homogenised Hindu. India is
chockfull of identities based on ethnicity, caste
or faith. Already Hindutva seems less attractive
to people with cultural heritages of their own in
peripheral regions while in 'central' or
Hindi-speaking areas Hindutva seems to have much
attraction, though at the cost of the political
rise of new caste identities, subverting simple
Hindutva of higher castes. The conclusion is
valid for India as well as Pakistan that
religion-based identities produce their own
Nemesis - and soon.
What has soft left, including Nehru's, achieved
is largely known. Nehru's land reforms laid the
foundations of India's true industrialisation.
Undoubted achievements in politics and economics
had left 50 per cent of Indians dirt poor.
Congress and BJP have the same economic programme
of implementing the globalisation agenda. While
the under-development of the society remained the
Achilles' heel of the Congress rule, BJP with its
communal Hindutva plank - conceived to deprive
the Muslims their privileges - now seems to be
poised to win power at the Centre on its own. The
stragglers of soft left, typified now by George
Fernandes and earlier by Ram Manohar Lohia, are
bag carriers of BJP. They can scarcely be
distinguished from other Hindu communalists.
Simple majoritarianism, conceived in religious
terms, is destructive of good governance and
equality. A majority can only be empowered or
favoured at the cost of minorities, religious as
well as others. It is based fundamentally on the
inequality of men, women and children. Its
determined pursuit can only be possible if
minorities are deprived of not only their rights
but the opportunities of protest.
Authoritarianism is thus woven into the warp and
woof of religion-based politics. If the
minorities fear BJP, it is only natural.
Rise of BJP in India underscores the fact that
the Left in India has not been able in 57 years
to make its presence felt in the huge
Hindi-speaking belt. It is not easy to understand
the complex and complicated mindsets that were
produced in areas in widening circles around the
centres of Medieval and colonial power; hard left
was too great a slave to what the Comintern
approved. They never evolved their own policies
and objectives based on objective realities on
the ground. Where they did succeed seems to be
where the general Comintern line happened to
coincide with the needs and sensitivities of
people in specific situations.
The big problem of Indian politics is that
Congress had grown politically flabby; the loss
of UP and Bihar should be taken to mean that it
is in a terminal decline. After a series of
setbacks it appeared that South and Central India
will remain in the Congress fold. Now no one can
be so sure about the chances of both BJP and
Congress next year as a result of complicated
interpenetration of the caste with Congress'
secular nationalist appeal as well as with
Hindutva. For some time after BJP's accession to
power, it seemed Congress might somehow stage a
come back - after all it still ruled 14 states.
Now, few can be too sure; Congress, historically
speaking, has played its role and should now
yield primacy to a new force. It does seem as if
BJP does not fit that bill despite its three
stunning victories in MP, Rajasthan and
Chhattisgarh.
India seems to need a substantially new political
force that can rise above religious and caste
divisions while meeting the real challenges made
sharper by the much-acclaimed recent economic
successes. Old communist left is more or less at
sea these days. Followers of Fourth
International, shorn of sound and fury, are not
much better in evolving new solutions to old
problems. There is need for a new Left - not like
Blair's New Labour - that studies concrete
problems of Indian society and produces solutions
to resolve concrete problems.
World Social Forum, with its all too diffused
focus, is soon meeting in Bombay. There is also
another Forum meeting there that wants to focus
more sharply at the concrete problems created by
the progress of globalisation. The two are said
to be complementary to each other. One would wish
all national chapters to grapple with the
concrete problems being aggravated by the
globalisation agenda. It is in this context that
new political forces in South Asia can be
conceived and hopefully grow.
_____
[2]
[Message from Taslima Nasrin]
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 16:42:33 -0500
My latest book Dwikhandita has now been banned by the Government of West
Bengal of India. It also has been banned by the High Court of West
Bengal.The same book, titled Ka in Bangladesh, also is banned by the
High Court of Bangladesh.
The banned books are now available in Bengali at
http://www.taslimanasrin.com
_____
[3]
Dawn
14 December 2003
REVIEW: When Bangladesh was born
Reviewed by Sabih Mohsin
Despite the famous alleged 'tilt' of the US
government in favour of Pakistan during the
Bangladesh crisis of 1971, many in Pakistan
believe that America, one of the two super powers
in those days, had played a role in the
separation of the eastern wing. The book under
review has been written by an American diplomat
and is an attempt at proving that the 'tilt' was
confined merely to the top and the sympathy for
Pakistan, if any, was too ineffectual to prevent
any US official from taking sides. Of course, one
reason for this was the mishandling of the
situation by the then president of Pakistan and
his military and political advisors.
Archer K. Blood, the author of The Cruel Birth of
Bangladesh, was the US Consul General in East
Pakistan from March 1970 to June 1971. The book
extensively quotes from the now de-classified
diplomatic cables between the US consulate in
Dhaka and the embassy in Islamabad or the State
Department in Washington. They describe and
comment on the situation in the area. As such it
reflects the perceptions of the author and his
colleagues in the US Foreign Service about the
events of that period.
Regarding the developments preceding the fateful
December 7 elections, the author writes that he
never considered the Six Points to be "a viable
programme". But the Awami League's strong
commitment to it and the vehement opposition to
some of these points from the West Pakistanis had
led him to believe that even if the Six Points
were adopted after some modifications, the
experiment would fail leading to the separation
of the two wings.
According to him, Mujib made several attempts,
before and after the elections, to involve the US
government in the matter but following the
official policy of neutrality both, the consul
general in Dhaka and the Ambassador in Islamabad,
did not respond to it. However, things began to
change after the indefinite postponement of the
March 3 session of the National Assembly.
When Yahya Khan announced his intention to go to
Dhaka for talks with Mujib, the latter sent a
representative to the consul general to request
him to advise his government to urge upon the
president to work for a "political solution" of
the crisis. Under the circumstances then
existing, this would have called for a
confederation of the two wings. Consul general
Blood obliged the Awami League leader. But the
suggestion was turned down by Washington as it
would have been considered an "unwarranted
interference in Pakistan's domestic affairs,
lending substance to suspicions in West Pakistan
that the US supports separatism".
Yahya arrived in Dhaka on March 15, which was, as
pointed out by the author, the Ides of March. By
March 23, an agreed plan for the transfer of
power seemed to be in sight. But the next day
Mujib sent word to Blood that being under
pressure from military hawks, Yahya might back
out and requested the US government to urge Yahya
to work for a 'political solution'. The consul
general informed Ambassador Farland of Mujib's
apprehensions but added that there was nothing to
substantiate his fears. Accordingly, the
ambassador did not take the action requested by
Mujib.
But Mujib's fears were not unfounded. Yahya,
opting for the military solution, left Dhaka in
the evening of March 25 and soon after, the army
crackdown began. That transformed the situation
for many, including the author. His reports
became so eloquent about the excesses of the army
that his own colleagues in the US Embassy in
Islamabad and many of them in the State
Department in Washington refused to believe them.
However, he continued to report with the same
tempo.
On April 6 a cable, sent on behalf of himself and
his officers, expressed strong dissent on the US
policy towards Pakistan and urged the US
government to give up appeasing the West Pakistan
dominated government in Islamabad and to
intervene to stop the "genocide" in the east
wing. Further, the consul general expressed the
opinion that since the struggle would result in
the establishment of an independent Bangladesh,
it would be foolish to continue supporting the
likely loser.
As the author learnt later, nine officers at the
State Department who had specialized in South
Asian affairs, sent a memorandum to the Secretary
of State supporting the views expressed in the
cable and asking for the suggested measures to be
taken immediately.
One curious aspect with respect to this cable was
that although its contents were of highly
sensitive nature, it was marked simply as
"confidential" with no distribution restriction.
As a result of this low classification, the
contents were leaked immediately creating a
furore in the US media. The dissent was also
reported elsewhere, including India. Blood was
accused by his superiors of "having deliberately
put a lower classification on the message with
the hope that it would be leaked". The author
accepts that he was at fault but maintains that
it was out of "carelessness, not malignance".
But it is hard to believe that Mr Blood, a
seasoned and highly efficient diplomat, could be
so careless, particularly when only a few days
earlier another incident of leakage of his report
had caused considerable embarrassment to his
government and to Ambassador Farland. On March
27, two days after the army's action in the east
wing, the BBC, All India Radio and the VOA had
reported, quoting the US consul general in Dhaka
as its source, heavy fighting in the city.
Farland was immediately called to the Pakistan
Foreign Office and an "emphatic perturbance" was
registered on the incident in which another US
government agency, the VOA, was also involved.
The Ambassador was doubly embarrassed because not
only was a US diplomat quoted as the source of a
highly damaging report but also because it
implied that the US consulate in Dhaka was using
an unauthorized transmitter link to send
messages, as all authorized links had been cut
off.
Perhaps it was this kind of reporting and its
persistent leakage that led to the author's
recall from Dhaka. But it also earned for him the
Herter Award instituted by the American Foreign
Service Association, for his "creative dissent".
The award was given personally by the Secretary
of State Rogers on June 24, 1971 while the crisis
in East Pakistan was still unresolved.
Given the subject of the book and the direct
involvement of the author in the crisis, what he
writes is of great importance to the readers in
Pakistan and Bangladesh. It certainly sheds light
on a significant aspect of our own political
history.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh: Memoirs of an American Diplomat
By Archer K. Blood
The University Press, Dhaka
For more info log on to www.uplbooks.com
Email: upl at bangla.net
Available with Oxford University Press, Plot #
38, Sector 15, Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi
Tel: 111-693-673
Email: ouppak at theoffice.net
Website: www.oup.com.pk
ISBN 984 05 1650 7
_____
[4]
EPW
December 6, 2003 | Book Reviews
Revisiting Bhopal: Alarm Call
Bhopal Gas Tragedy-A Book for Young People by
Suroopa Mukherjee (Photographs: Raghu Rai),
Tulika Books, Chennai; pp 48, Rs 50.
Rex Rosario
The controversy over pesticide residues in soft
drinks focused attention on two important aspects
of the modern world. First is the increasing
'chemicalisation' of our lives and the
overpowering dominance of transnational
corporations in the process. Second is the lack
of adequate legislation to keep a tighter rein on
the operations of these corporations and their
use of science and technology in society.
The fine irony is that one of the chemicals found
was chlorpyrifos, which is a constituent of
Dursban, an insecticide used to rid homes and
fields of termites and other pests. This product,
'withdrawn' from residential and commercial use
(in golf courses, etc) in the west, is
manufactured and widely marketed in India by Dow
Chemicals, the current proprietor of Union
Carbide, the parent company of the now defunct
Bhopal pesticides plant.
The connections and pathways to death and
destruction are, indeed, intricate. So attempting
to explain a complex issue like the Bhopal gas
tragedy to teenagers is a truly daunting task,
particularly in an age where market-driven
consumerism is the engine that influences values
and lifestyles. Somewhere along the line, issues
like Bhopal lose their interest and relevance to
the younger generation. That's why you've got to
admire Suroopa Mukherjee for treading difficult
ground.
Suroopa says the inspiration that triggered the
writing of the book under review was a casual
conversation with her daughter about a novel
she'd just read about children falling ill after
inhaling poisonous gas emanating from the bottom
of a lake. Apparently, it was a work of fiction.
Bhopal isn't fiction, not by a long stretch.
Though, tragically, there are elements of farce
in the story. Suroopa feels it's a tale that
needs telling to teenagers, warts and all, her
purpose being to reveal the interconnections -
how large corporations, social systems and
government agencies operate. She would like them
to understand the simple fact that accidents and
disasters, whether in a chemical factory or the
environment, don't just happen; the ground is
laid for them to happen. She would like them to
understand the implications and consequences of
the gas tragedy, because she feels this would
help sensitise them to their environment.
The narrative begins from the night the explosion
took place at the Carbide factory in Bhopal,
spreading a dense cloud of a cocktail of
poisonous gases (MIC and its breakdown products)
that enveloped thousands in its death-giving
embrace. She ends it on December 3, 2002, the
18th anniversary of the tragedy. The 18-year wake
is littered with death (current estimates put the
figure at 20,000), destruction and despair, but,
as Suroopa points out, not defeat. Because the
fight for the rights of the survivors continues.
As does the fight against corporate arrogance.
And this book is part of that struggle, as are
numerous little efforts by countless people that
eventually aggregate into the sledgehammer of
public opinion that helps reform policy and
direct the course of human existence.
Suroopa covers a lot of ground in this slim
volume, detailing most of the relevant issues and
questions this 'alarm call for mankind' confronts
human society with. These include the role of
transnationals in a globalising economy, in
particular corporate responsibility in a
developing country; the technological impact of
industrialisation, with a focus on the nature of
technology used and its implications for safety;
the medical impact of an industrial disaster; the
legal aspect of liability and culpability of
corporate bodies for accidents occurring in their
plants; and the role of the government, its
relationship to the corporate sector and its
response to the medical, compensation and
rehabilitation issues.
She devotes a lot of space to the technological
and safety aspects, repeatedly pointing out the
failure of safety systems in the Carbide plant on
that fateful night - six systems were either
dysfunctional or shut down to save on costs. She
draws the connection between falling profits and
withholding of investments to maintain and
upgrade plant and equipment. This is a character
trait of transnationals - they seek to maintain
the integrity of the bottomline. They cannot see
red.
The irony of the situation is that all safety
systems were activated and the residual MIC was
processed into pesticide by the regular
production route during Operation Faith, the
government initiative to rid the plant of its
stored MIC. As Suroopa points out, Operation
Faith helped the government send the right
signals to transnationals that, like Barkis, it
was willing. It did not want to scare investors
away.
Suppression of vital information is another theme
in the tragedy that has been repeated down the
years. Corporate doublespeak had dire
consequences in the medical tragedy that
followed. Suroopa points out that Carbide did not
disclose the physiological effects of the gases
and their breakdown products and the proper line
of treatment at a very critical time, when
hundreds of victims were gasping for breath and
dying. Again, it was the bottomline that dictated
policy. Revealing information on its technology
and its research studies on the chemicals it was
using would have had a direct bearing on the
company's liability and culpability for the
disaster. The government was equally guilty of
clamping down on information, although the
motivation is less clear in its case. While one
could admit that the scale and suddenness of the
disaster would have overwhelmed an even better
organised medical system than available in Bhopal
at the time, subsequent events paint a different
picture. For example, the government wound up its
studies on the impact of the Carbide gases within
10 years of the disaster, although there is clear
evidence that people are suffering long-term
effects, including permanent damage and secondary
diseases, 18 years later. It even had a
moratorium in place on sharing its research
findings with the public. The local medical
establishment is suspected to have been pliable,
as in the infamous case of using sodium
thiosulphate as an antidote, because that would
have established the presence of cyanide and the
long-term consequences of the Carbide gases on
the human system, to the discomfiture of the
transnational.
Perhaps, the government's response is best
exemplified in the fact that it has set up a slew
of hospitals in the city, giving Bhopal the
highest number of hospital beds per citizen in
the whole country. Yet, the gas victims have to
fight to get treated in these 'state-of-the-art'
hospitals because doctors consider them 'dirty'.
This is a point the book brings out sharply. The
victims of disasters and 'development' are
usually the poor and 'dirty'. Bastis flourished
around the Carbide plant, despite laws
prohibiting their existence so near a dangerous
chemical facility, because the poor had nowhere
else to go. Worse still, as Suroopa points out,
with the passage of time the general attitude
towards the victims becomes increasingly hostile.
They are made to look and feel like fortune
seekers, freeloaders and parasites out to exploit
the system with their claims. 'Compensation'
becomes an ugly word.
If teenagers could become more sensitive to the
fact that protecting a lifestyle in an unequal
world comes at a cost, and that cost is more
often than not disproportionately borne by the
dispossessed, half the battle would be won. They
would be all the wiser if they realise that there
are no free lunches anymore, anywhere. The
ethical component is important. Bhopal has shown
us that people and institutions tend to bend
their principles and hush the voice of
conscience, numbing themselves into an
insensitivity where they become less caring about
others ... and more ready to compromise, or
forget.
Legal Issues
Another minefield in the Bhopal saga was the
legal case against Carbide and the fight for
compensation. Suroopa points to a Wall Street
Journal report that says US business executives
have been following the Carbide case closely for
the last 18 years. It is the first test case of a
US corporation's liability in a developing
country. The government filed a case in the US
against Carbide, accusing it on four counts -
defective design, defective engineering,
defective training and oversight at the Bhopal
plant. Carbide, understandably, fought to have
the case transferred out of its home country,
knowing fully well how difficult it would be to
wriggle out unscathed there. The judge, too,
seemed to imply that India was responsible for
the damage because of its need for western
technology and the country would be better off
trying the case in its own courts. As Suroopa
says, the surprising aspect of the decision to
transfer the case to India was that it favoured
the 'private interest' of the company, rather
than the 'public interest' of a case with global
ramifications.
One other aspect the book touches upon is the
environmental baggage left behind by Carbide. The
now derelict factory had poisoned the groundwater
and drinking wells of local communities,
something the company had known for longer than a
decade, and long before Greenpeace came on the
scene to investigate. Yet the company issued no
warnings, took minimal action to prevent further
contamination and actually tried to hide the
danger, claiming the water was safe. The factory
site is still littered with dangerous chemicals.
Greenpeace estimates the cost of environmental
rehabilitation alone could be over $ 500 million.
The book does not discuss the legislative
fall-out of Bhopal around the world. In India,
Bhopal led to a relook at legislation governing
the functioning of industries, particularly in
the context of defining hazardous processes and
pinpointing responsibility in the event of an
accident. Legislative, legal, and administrative
changes in the Factories Act (1948), Water Act
(1974 and 1977), and Air Act (1981) sought to
improve institutional risk-management capacity.
Bhopal also contributed to the enactment of the
Environmental Protection Act of 1986, which
empowered governments and citizens to initiate
action against erring companies, and the Public
Liability Insurance Act in 1991, which mandated
'owners' of hazardous substances to take out
insurance policies to provide immediate relief in
the event of an accident. The ground for
determining compensation was laid in the National
Environment Tribunal Act in 1995.
Elsewhere in the world, the US developed industry
standards as well as environmental legislation
and regulations, including the creation of the US
Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.
In 1986, the US Congress passed the Emergency
Planning and Community Right to Know Act, which
facilitate state and local accident contingency
planning, public participation, and access by
individuals and communities to information
regarding hazardous materials in their locales.
However, the question of criminal liability still
remains an amorphous area both in India and
elsewhere. And, of course, the larger question
that remains is putting such legislation into
actual practice. This aspect is important, now
that Carbide no longer exists as a legal entity.
Some Indian and international activist groups
have been mobilising opinion within the US and
worldwide to force new owners Dow Chemicals to
accept liability, as it did in the case of
Carbide's asbestos operations. The struggle
continues, reflecting the point that there is a
growing global movement against the toxic empire
and the chemicalisation of life that cuts across
national boundaries.
Suroopa's book could prove useful in this area by
enhancing the learning curve of activists in the
non-governmental sector. That's an area where a
lot of learning needs to take place, given the
fact that emotion cannot be a substitute for
logic and reason based on hard data. Notions bred
from a rush of blood to the head have been the
bane of this sector and generally prove
counterproductive in the long run.
In conclusion, a word about production values.
The book is pleasing to the eye, its look
enhanced by Raghu Rai's inimitable photographs
and a simple layout. More important, though, is
Tulika's role in focusing on issues like the
Bhopal gas tragedy. The space for 'other'
or 'alternative' media in a sea of 'infotainment'
that tends to institutionalise the consumerist
values of globalisation needs to be assiduously
protected, nurtured and widened to put across the
message that alternatives are possible,
especially the alternative of placing people
before profits, of treating humans as individuals
who think and bleed, not as pawns or cogs in a
production system.
Tulika's 'In Focus' series is an attempt in this
direction and the group is doing it in style. And
style is necessary, because most activist
literature is shoddy in appearance, usually
because of a lack of resources, but also because
of a lack of expertise and professionalism in
this area. Tulika is one among a handful of
publishers that is professionalising and widening
the space for alternative media.
_____
[5]
Leftword.org
Across Time and Continents
A Tribute to Victor G. Kiernan
Edited By: Prakash Karat
81-87496-34-7, LeftWord, 2003, pp. viii+255
This volume is to honour Victor Kiernan, one of
the most distinguished Marxist historians alive -
a member, along with Eric Hobsbawm, of the famous
British Communist Party Historians' Group of the
1940s, consisting of E.P. Thompson, Christopher
Hill, Rodney Hilton, George Rudé, A.L. Morton and
others. Kiernan, as Christopher Hill observed,
'is one of the most versatile of British
historians', and his interests spread across time
and continents. Reproduced here is a selection of
Kiernan's historical writings on India, on the
Urdu poets Faiz and Iqbal, and his reminiscences
of his India years. The volume also contains an
appreciation of the historian and the man by Eric
Hobsbawm; a lengthy study of Kiernan's work by
Harvey J. Kaye; and an Introduction by the editor.
Across Time and Continents is a delightful
introduction to an outstanding historian of the
Marxist school, one of the finest writers of
English prose, and a fighter for a better world.
"In his career of enormous and, if anything,
accelerating productivity ranging over centuries
and continents [Victor Kiernan] has, so far as I
am aware, no parallel among twentieth-century
British historians."
Eric J. Hobsbawm
______
[6]
The Un-Gandhian Gandhi
The Life and Afterlife of the Mahatma
By Claude Markovits
Hardback / Rs 495.00 / ISBN 81-7824-057-2 / South
Asia Rights / To be copublished by Anthem Press,
London
Although there have been many biographical
accounts of Mahatma Gandhi, much of the
literature on him is hagiographic. Keeping clear
of the twin pitfalls of hagiography and
hyper-criticism, this book seeks to throw new
light on Gandhi by looking simultaneously at his
legend and career. The Gandhian legend is
analysed through the corpus of texts and images
which helped spread it-through India and in the
West.
The gradual creation of Gandhi as an icon is
shown to be the result of Indian nationalistic
selectivity and Western Christian impoverishments
of the range and depth of representations of the
Mahatma. Markovits suggests that the growth of a
legend on the saint as politician, through these
iconic transformations, has obscured the facts of
Gandhi's specific public career in history.
Gandhi's actual professional role in the public
sphere, says Markovits, was marked by his long
and critical phase of maturation in South Africa,
a phase often glossed over, in laudatory
accounts, as a preparation for his famous work in
India. This later Indian career, Markovits points
out, was really the consequence of Gandhi having
to radically reinvent himself, even as he worked
his way through political ground realities to
create what we now know as the quintessence of
Gandhian politics.
The attempt made here is thus to revaluate some
crucial points within Gandhi's career and
sometimes ambivalent ideological positions.
Markovits argues that the disjunctions between
the early and later Gandhi cannot be wished away
or elided: they need to be squarely examined.
Rather than seeing Gandhi as an upholder of
traditional Indian values, Markovits stresses the
paradoxical modernity of Gandhi's
anti-modernism.What comes out strongly, in the
end, is Gandhi as a polysemic figure, open to
different, even contradictory, interpretations,
whose peculiar modernity and susceptibility to
varying appropriations makes him of enduring
contemporary value.
CLAUDE MARKOVITS is Directeur de Recherche
(Senior Research Fellow) at the Centre National
de la Recherche Scientifique (National Centre for
Scientific Research), Paris. He is the author of
Indian Business and Nationalist Politics (1985)
and The Global World of Indian Merchants (2000).
He has edited Histoire de l'Inde Moderne (Paris,
1994, English translation, London, 2002) and
co-edited Society and Circulation: Mobile People
and Itinerant Cultures in South Asia 1750-1950
(2003).
<perblack at vsnl.com>
Permanent Black, D-28 Oxford Apartments, 11, I.P. Extension Delhi 110092.
Phones: (011)-2272-1494 / (0)-98184-03242.
website: www.orientlongman.com
_____
[7]
With Issue 16, SAMAR continues its experiment in
online publication. Issue 16 is available
exclusively on the web. Please check out our
revamped website which includes discussion boards
for every article in this issue. Read, discuss
and spread the word!
ISSUE 16
SOUTH ASIANS AND THE POLITICS OF HEALTH
In the Forum:
* Sid Shah on Intervention Concepts for Civil Violence in Gujarat
* Sapna Desai on Sexual and Reproductive Health in South Asian Communities
* Satinath Sarangi and Krishnaveni Gundu on the Ongoing Fight
for Accountability in Bhopal
* Afsan Chowdhury and Sreekanth Chaguturu on HIV/AIDS in South Asia
* Rahul K. Gupta on Social Health Programs and South Asians in the US
Also:
* Biju Matthew on the Politics of Self-Absorption
* Naeem Mohaiemen on Indian Call Centers and
the Multimedia Piece 'Alladeen'
* Angana Chatterji on the Campaign To Stop Funding Hate
* Soumya Kidambi on MKSS, an Organization Championing
the "Right to Information" in Rural India
* Li Onesto's Photoessay on the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal
* Prerana Reddy Interviews Pakistani Digital Filmmaker Hasan Zaidi
* Sushma Joshi on Bonded Labor in Nepal
* Poetry by Julie Dalani and R. Parthasarathy
* Aparna Sindhoor's Vision of Contemporary Bharatanatyam Dance
* Saurav Sarkar on the Impact of INS Special Registration
* Raza Mir on Cricket and Nationalism
ABOUT SAMAR
SAMAR (South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection) is a
magazine/website with a South Asian focus based in the United
States. We choose to use the term "South Asian" because we feel
it is important to bring attention to the fact that South Asians
are a group of people with a shared history and that this history
provides a common basis for understanding our place in the
contemporary world. Whereas most other South Asian magazines are
based on differences of region, religion and nationality within
South Asia, we have chosen to base ours on a South Asian
collectivity that is now spread out across the globe. At SAMAR,
we hope to reflect the full complexity of "South Asian" in the
composition of the editorial collective, contributors and
readers.
[...].
____
[8]
The World Social Forum Challenging Empires
An anthology of essays on the theory and practice of the WSF
Edited by : JAI SEN, ANITA ANAND, ARTURO ESCOBAR, and PETER WATERMAN
Published by THE VIVEKA FOUNDATION
The Concept The World Social Forum is one of the
most significant civil and political initiatives
of the past several decades. Since the first WSF
was held in Porto Alegre in January 2001 in Porto
Alegre, Brazil, as a counterpoint to the World
Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, its
call for alternatives, "Another World is Possible
!" has been echoing in almost every part of the
world. Alternatives that challenge the hegemony
of the neoliberal capitalist paradigm of
globalisation that seems to have seized the world
and got it in its vice-like grip, with profoundly
negative effects for a diverse, plural planet.
WSF gatherings are increasingly seen as
significant social and political interventions in
world affairs, and along with other forms of
global civil action, are playing a profound role
in freeing people from the colonisation of the
mind-by empires both 'out there' and within us.
Above all, it is a coming together of thousands
of individuals and collectives in an 'open
space', in a spirit of an efflorescence of
solidarity and the celebration of choice.
The Book
On the eve of the critical fourth World Social
Forum gathering to be held in Mumbai, India, in
January 2004, The Viveka Foundation announces the
first book on the WSF to be published in English
from the South, The World Social Forum :
Challenging Empires. This committed but critical
collection attempts to both comprehensively
portray and analyse the richness and depth of the
initiative. It not only celebrates but also
interrogates the Forum.
The edited volume consists of essays from
international social movement thinkers as well as
protagonists and critics of the WSF, both from
the South and the North, coming from many
different persuasions but adding up to a core of
critical reflection. It includes essays on what
the Forum is, the larger historical and political
landscape within which it is taking shape, an
examination of one of the new crucibles where it
is taking shape, India, and the role of the Forum
in the practice and theory of building other
worlds.
The book will be formally launched at the World
Social Forum in January 2004 in Mumbai. The
Forewords to the book are by Irene Santiago of
the Philippines and Hilary Wainwright of the UK.
The Viveka Foundation 25-C DDA Flats, Shahpurjat
New Delhi 110 049, India Tel: 91-11-2649 2473 /
2649 7586
india at vivekafoundation.org
viveka4 at vsnl.com
_____
[9]
SEMINAR
#531
November 2003
POLITICAL PARTIES AND PARTY SYSTEMS edited by
Ajay K. Mehra, D.D. Khanna and Gert W. Kueck.
Sage, New Delhi, 2003.
THE book under review draws our attention to two
notable developments in the nature of the party
system and the polity in India over the last two
decades. First, there has been a dramatic change
in the social composition of voters and active
participants in politics in the sense we are
witness to a democratic participatory upsurge
among the peripheral masses, whether seen in
terms of caste hierarchy, economic class, gender
distinction or the rural-urban divide. Second,
party politics has undergone a process of
federalization at the national, state and local
levels. Among the related developments one can
refer to changes in the support bases of
'historic parties', an increase in the number of
both 'splinter parties' as well as 'relevant
parties', and so on. All these and other
developments have led to a cataclysmic change in
the nature of political parties - their ideology,
strategy, leadership and support base thereby
indicating not only a 'power shift, but also
assertions of a federal society over a
centralized polity.'
Among the above developments the essays in the
edited volume primarily focus on the
federalization of Indian politics at three
levels, namely, 'the status and strategies,
interaction patterns and processes of India's
innumerable political parties; the texture and
pattern of political alliances from the national
perspective - particularly, how alliances with
regional parties are viewed and made by national
parties; conversely, the perspective of the
regional parties in making these alliances.'
What have been the features of a federalizing
party system in India? Mehra refers to them as
follows: organizational and ideological decline
of Congress, introduction of conflictual mode of
politics, resembling of the national parties in
several respects, dramatic change in the social
composition of voters and active participants in
politics, the failure of the 'third front' to
consolidate in the face of a resurgent Hindutva
ultra rightist forces. The last, namely the rise
and fall of the third front, comes up for
critical examination in the papers by Bidyut
Chakrabarty and Muchkund Dubey.
While referring to the decline of the third front
and the emergence of BJP in recent years, Balveer
Arora argues that newly emergent 'bi-nodal' party
system is becoming highly competitive mainly due
to the democratization as well as fragmentation
of voters and political parties. He bases his
arguments on the official data of the 1996, 1998,
1999 Lok Sabha elections. In another empirical
study related to the nine Hindi speaking states,
Partha Ghosh traces the emergence of a 'bi-nodal'
party system to the decay in the Congress
organization as well as leadership, and also to
the challenge posed by a resurgent Hindu
nationalist Jana Sangh. It was compelled as early
as in the sixties to 'trip from the razor-edge
balancing' it had done to maintain the support of
a rainbow social coalition thus paving the way
for the BJP, successor of the Jan Sangh.
In a national election survey data based study of
the three elections mentioned above, sponsored by
CSDS, Amit Prakash attributes the decline of
Congress and the emergence of BJP in the newly
emergent bi-nodal system to 'a greater voter
preference for regionally based socio-culturally
located parties with mobilization base in a
distinct economic grouping in the society.' The
assertion of regional socio-cultural or economic
interests is evidenced in the form of the
emergence of coalition politics. Reflecting on
the regionalization of the Indian party system,
Pradeep Kumar refers to the misleading nature of
the often emphasized dichotomy between the
national and regional parties as 'not only are
the former regional in their support bases, even
the latter are sometimes non-regional in their
ideological or programmatic make up.' Both Pran
Chopra and Suhas Palshikar consider such
regionalization/federalization of party politics
as a positive development as long as it does not
lead to a politics of divisiveness and a 'weak
centre' respectively.
Showing concern with the working of the
procedural form of democracy, Madhav Godbole
suggests the incorporation of 'a proper
constitutional and legislative framework' for
ever-increasing number of political parties in
the face of the rising distortions both in the
electoral and organizational framework of the
parties. In this context he refers to the role of
money, crime, electoral manipulation and muscle
power on a massive scale. As for the lack of
democracy in its substantive form, S.K. Chaube
argues that it is reflected in an increasing
incongruence between the imperatives of power
politics and civilized social ethos.
The edited volume, consisting of original
articles especially written for the volume, is
welcome as academic writing illustrating the
effects of social and electoral change upon the
nature of parties and party systems in a
post-Congress Indian polity is not easily
available. It goes without saying that political
parties, unlike in the West, remain central to
Indian political life. On a personal note, the
volume is dedicated to the late Pradeep Kumar, a
colleague at Panjab University who, to recall
Paul Baran, was an intellectual in a true sense
and not merely an intellect worker that most of
us in the university systems are.
Ashutosh Kumar
_____
[10]
Outlook Magazine | Dec 22, 2003
REVIEW
The Warmth Of Cold Print
A man who had exemplary clarity on communalism and a realistic view on Pakistan
M.J. AKBAR
INDIA-PAKISTAN: THEMES BEYOND BORDERS-SELECTIONS FROM NIKHIL CHAKRAVARTTY
by Sumit Chakravartty
KONARK
RS 400; PAGES: 376
A long-distance call from Delhi to Calcutta in
April 1979 was not quite what it is today. It may
not have been the era of the mouthpiece and the
ear-horn, but hello-hello-operator-operator was
the norm. I was in Calcutta then, editing Sunday
and, with the talent of a remarkable young team,
exploring subjects that, by common if unwritten
consent, were considered outside the bounds of
candid journalism. In an age where print and
television have competed to take reportage of
communal riots to unprecedented depths, it
might seem strange that the best reporting on
riots then would go no further than to say that
an "incident" had taken place, and members of one
"community" had clashed with members of another
"community". The restraint was partly justified,
because on the other side of the spectrum were
regional papers which fomented communal hatred
with lies. However, we decided that the answer to
lies was not obfuscation, but the facts as best
as saw them.
The Janata government that came to power at the
end of the Emergency was as splendid in its
achievements as it was sordid in its decline. One
of the worst consequences of its disarray was the
rise in communal tension, and we made it a point
to cover the story, wherever it be.
The call was from Nikhil Chakravartty. He
congratulated us on a report from Jamshedpur in
which we had exposed precisely who, among both
Hindus and Muslims, had been responsible for the
riots. You have also killed the old shibboleths,
he added.
Later, in his cluttered, book-heavy apartment
where youngsters were always welcome, sometimes
for breakfast, sometimes for rum, he told me how
his own journalism was shaped by his experience
of the Calcutta killings of 1946, the savage
riots that made Partition inevitable. I was
looking forward, therefore, to reading some of
his pieces from that devastating moment of
history. But this incisive collection is really
about themes across borders.
Quite coincidentally, this makes the book
especially relevant now, because once again we
hear the stirrings of that dangerous siren called
hope. Dangerous because she seduces and betrays
in turns, and sometimes her song suggests that
there may not be much difference between the two.
Chakravartty had exemplary clarity about the
disease of communalism, and his conviction was
free from the luring chains of power that so
easily wrap journalists who spend their lives in
the capital. He was, like all leftists of his
generation, seduced only once-by the promise of
Indira Gandhi. When the betrayal came, he made
sure it would never be repeated.
This book, then, is not about the problem, but
about the solution. He was an idealist, of
course, but that did not make him woolly-headed.
He did not believe that Pakistan could be
frog-marched, or entranced, towards unity with
India. Nor, unlike, say, Jayaprakash Narayan, was
he ready to accept virtually every demand made by
Sheikh Abdullah on Jammu and Kashmir, simply
because Sheikh Sahab was a genius with
unimpeachable secular credentials. He knew that
the imperatives of the Indian state would demand
their own options.
The opening two pieces were written during that
brief summer of hope in 1964 when Nehru made a
bold effort to involve Sheikh Abdullah in a
tripartite effort to find an answer to the
Kashmir question that would satisfy all sides.
What a pity then that there is no follow-up.
Dramatic events followed, with the death of
Jawaharlal shattering the initiative, since there
was no one else with the will to tread the
delicate lines on such a difficult route map.
I was disappointed that there was no analysis of
Nehru's loss, a cataclysmic event in the context
of 1964. Instead we jump to August 1965, without
pausing at the Rann of Kutch where Pakistan
enjoyed some military success-leading her
country's establishment to believe that victory
was certain in a larger war. It is instructive to
learn that Pakistan's autumn adventure in 1965
began with the seizure of three posts in Kargil.
Then, as 25 years later, we took them back. An
informative piece like the one written on August
17, 1974, which breaks the news of an agreement
between Sheikh Abdullah and Indira Gandhi, only
goes to prove how invaluable the pieces that are
not in the book would have been.
In a sense, Kashmir is the heart of this book,
rather than India-Pakistan relations.
Chakravartty saw the problem with the heart of a
liberal and the mind of a realist, at a time when
so many of his contemporaries had the heart of a
sectarian and the mind of a fantasist. As we
enter another season of nervous optimism, these
remain the only qualities that justify some
measure of hope.
_____
[11]
Anand Patwardhan
will be present at the screening of his celebrated film
Jang aur Aman
(War and Peace)
at
City Press Film Club
on Friday, 19 December 2003
at 6:00 p.m.
Filmed over three tumultuous years in India,
Pakistan, Japan and the USA following nuclear
tests in the Indian sub-continent - WAR & PEACE /
JANG AUR AMAN is an epic documentary journey of
peace activism in the face of global militarism
and war.
For details:
City Press Bookshop
316 Madina City Mall
Abdullah Haroon Road
Saddar, Karachi 74400
Tel: (92-21) 5650623, 5213916
Entry fee: Rs.50
_____
[12]
The Museum of Modern Art, Department of Film and Media, New York
Presents
Documentary Fortnight
December 11-21, 2003
Three films by Amar Kanwar.
A Season Outside , 1997. India. English . 30 min.
A Night of Prophecy , 2002. India. English subtitles. 77 min.
To Remember , 2003. India. Silent. 8 min.
Program 115 min.
Sunday, December 21, 2003
Time : 1:00
[...]
Ticket Information
For information about ticket distribution and for confirmation of
screening schedules, please call 212-708-9480 or visit the Museum's Web
site at <http://www.moma.org/>www.moma.org. For
ticket availability and detailed program
information, please call The Gramercy Theatre during box office hours at
212-777-4900. Note: Ticket holders are not permitted to enter the theatre
later than fifteen minutes after the program begins.
Directions
Subway: 6 to 23 Street
Buses: M23 to Lexington Avenue; M1 to Park Avenue and 23 Street;
M101, M102, M103 to Third Avenue and 23 Street
For more information visit:
www.moma.org/visit_moma/momafilm/doc_fortnight.html
_____
[13]
"India's Muslims: Their Prospects in Hindu Nationalist India"
Tuesday, January 20, 2004, 12:00-2:30pm
South Asia Program
Ethics and Public Policy Center
1015 15th Street, NW Suite 900
Washington, DC 20005
Please join us for a discussion with Dr. Asghar
Ali Engineer and Dr. Paul R. Brass on the
position of the Muslim community in the world's
largest democracy. The second largest Muslim
population in the world, Indian Muslims form an
integral and significant part of India's social
and political life. However, with the political
rise of Hindu nationalist forces, Muslims in
India are an increasingly vulnerable and arguably
disenfranchised, as demonstrated most starkly by
the violence in Gujarat (2002), which left almost
two thousand Muslims dead. Furthermore, terrorist
bombings in Mumbai (Bombay) in August suggest
that elements of India's Muslim community are
being radicalized by this kind of political
pressure. The insecurity of India's Muslim
community has critical ramifications for the
condition of Indian democracy and secularism and
the stability of the region.
In light of the recent Mumbai bombings, it is
especially urgent to discuss the state of Indian
Islam (and its adherents) and the implications
for India's secular democracy. Is a serious
erosion of secularism under way, at the hands of
Hindu nationalists? Might this result in the
radicalization of India's Muslims, as Pankaj
Mishra (New York Times, September 15, 2003) and
others have suggested?
Some of the questions to be explored in the seminar include:
· What are the prospects for reform within
the Muslim community, particularly in the context
of rising communalism and religious tensions?
· How is the Muslim leadership in India
responding to this crisis in the state's
commitment to pluralism?
· How much does rising Hindu nationalism
threaten a normatively appropriate and
politically viable Indian secularism? Can India's
secular political traditions remain credible and
survive the challenge of Hindu extremism?
· If not, what will be the likely response
of India's religious minorities, especially its
Muslims? How credible is the danger of growing
internal Muslim insurgency?
· Do Indian Muslims still feel protected
by and invested in Indian democracy?
ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER is a renowned Indian scholar
and activist. In over forty years of exhaustive
fieldwork, he has investigated and documented
nearly every riot in post-independence India. Dr.
Engineer has written extensively on Indian
Muslims and Indian communalism in countless
articles, weekly newsletters and books. He has
forty-five books to his credit, both on
communalism and Islam, and is currently the
director of the Center for the Study of Society
and Secularism (CSSS) and the Institute of
Islamic Studies, both in Mumbai, India.
Paul R. Brass is Professor (Emeritus) of
Political Science and International Studies at
the University of Washington, Seattle. He has
published fourteen books and numerous articles on
comparative and South Asian politics, ethnic
politics, and collective violence. His work has
been based on extensive field research in India
during numerous visits since 1961. His most
recent books are The Production of Hindu-Muslim
Violence in Contemporary India (2003), Theft of
an Idol: Text and Context in the Representation
of Collective Violence (1997); Riots and Pogroms
(1996); and The Politics of India Since
Independence, 2nd ed. (1994).
We will begin at 12:00 pm on Tuesday, January
20th with a catered lunch at the Ethics and
Public Policy Center, 1015 Fifteenth Street, N.W.
Suite 900. Dr. Engineer and Dr. Brass will give
their presentations at approximately 12:30 pm,
with a discussion to follow.
RSVP to Sarah Mehta by phone, 202-216-0855 x226, or e-mail, smehta at eppc.org
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web (www.sacw.net/ )
The complete SACW archive is available at:
bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
South Asia Counter Information Project a sister
initiative, provides a partial back -up and
archive for SACW: perso.wanadoo.fr/sacw/
See also associated site: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
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