SACW | 27 Dec. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  |  27 December,  2003
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Pakistan: Appeasement is Musharraf's worst enemy (Ahmed Rashid)
[2] India-Pakistan: Nuclear chickens come home (Praful Bidwai)
[3] Pakistan-India: One big peace party (Beena Sarwar)
[4] Who Is Afraid Of India? - Pakistan's officialdom can no longer 
rely entirely on the Indian bogey
(Ashok Mitra)
[5] India: Girish Karnad to take on Sangh Parivar (Bhaskar Hegde)
[6] India - Gujarat: Anti-Christian pamphlets raise fears
[7] India's multiple Hinduisms (C P Bhambhri)

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

[1]


The Telegraph (UK)
27 December 2003

Appeasement is Musharraf's worst enemy
By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore
(Filed: 26/12/2003)

Human body parts and fragments of car engines littered a major 
highway between Islamabad and Rawalpindi yesterday after President 
Pervaiz Musharraf escaped a second attempt on his life in 11 days.

Bloodied and badly wounded civilians and policemen were in shock 
after two vans loaded with explosives tried to ram into Gen 
Musharraf's convoy in an attack that stunned Pakistan and let loose a 
flood of conspiracy theories.

Gen Musharraf's bodyguards were recently trained by the US State 
Department's special protection service and the CIA had provided him 
with the latest high-tech jamming devices. But these were not enough 
to stop determined suicide bombers.

The attack, and the Dec 14 attempt to kill him by blowing up a bridge 
over which his convoy crossed, both took place in Pakistan's highest 
security area. Within a few hundred yards of the two sites are the 
general headquarters of the Pakistan army and Army House, Gen 
Musharraf's official residence.

Gen Musharraf's security is so tight that only a handful of military 
officers know the route and timings of his travel plans.

Retired military officers ominously point to the fact that these 
assassination attempts could not have taken place without inside 
information from disaffected army officers linked to extremist 
Islamic groups and possibly al-Qa'eda.

In September, al-Qa'eda issued a death threat to Gen Musharraf, 
blaming him for the arrest over the past two years of some 500 of its 
members, who have been handed over to the US.

Al-Qa'eda increasingly operates within Pakistan with the help of 
Pakistani extremist groups who want their country to continue the 
jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan where they back groups fighting the 
Indian army, as well as the Taliban who are trying to unseat 
President Hamid Karzai and his new government in Kabul.

In recent weeks the extremists have been infuriated by Islamabad's 
rapprochement with India. After intense American pressure, a major 
summit next week between Gen Musharraf and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the 
Indian prime minister, was expected to lead to serious negotiations 
on resolving the Kashmir dispute.

The extremists, and the fundamentalist nuclear scientists who 
dominate Pakistan's nuclear programme, are also furious at Gen 
Musharraf for accepting demands by the US and the International 
Atomic Energy Agency to investigate the sale of Pakistani nuclear 
technology to Iran and North Korea.

Fundamentalism is also growing in the army. After a tip-off by the 
CIA, at least five army officers were arrested in October for helping 
al-Qa'eda members in Pakistan's border regions with Afghanistan.

Despite all these threats, Gen Musharraf has always tried to appease 
the Islamic parties and his half-hearted crackdowns on extremist 
groups have only been carried out because of inordinate pressure from 
the Americans.

Until recently the army has allowed extremist groups to continue 
crossing into Indian Kashmir to battle Indian troops, while the 
intelligence agencies are turning a blind eye to the resurgent 
Taliban.

Gen Musharraf has refused to talk to the mainstream non-religious 
parties, who would be his natural allies in any genuine battle 
against the Islamic extremists. These parties are demanding that the 
army give up power and return to the barracks, which Gen Musharraf 
has refused to do.

The result is that he is seriously isolated, trusted by none of the 
political forces in the country - secular or religious - and 
increasingly disliked by a public frustrated by his fluctuating 
policies and the lack of economic development and investment.

Until now Gen Musharraf has kept his one constituency - the army - 
happy by giving them hundreds of jobs in the civilian sector and 
other perks and privileges, which have infuriated the public, civil 
servants and the police.

He has also done little to root out fundamentalists in the army's 
officer corps. His unwillingness to take the fundamentalists 
seriously is now proving to be a direct threat to his life.

o o o


[Related material:
The Daily Times EDITORIAL: Better late than never
www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_27-12-2003_pg3_1 ]


_____

[2]

The Hindustan Times (India)
December 26, 2003  
  	 
Nuclear chickens come home
Praful Bidwai

When the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government detonated a series of 
nuclear explosions five-and-a-half years ago, supporters of the Bomb 
celebrated. They rationalised the sudden reversal of India's policy 
of 50 years' standing - decided upon in dark secrecy in coordination 
with the RSS and without the promised strategic review. They also 
devoutly prayed that Pakistan would follow suit. Their perverse logic 
- Pakistan's blasts would 'rationalise' India's tests.

Home Minister L.K. Advani, to the strategic hawks' chorus, taunted, 
teased and chided Pakistan into demonstrating its nuclear prowess. On 
May 18, he belligerently threatened it with a 'pro-active' Kashmir 
policy in the changed 'geo-strategic' environment. On May 28, 
Islamabad obliged him. The strategic hawks' apologia and 
rationalisations duly followed. Pakistan 'needs' nukes for 
'security'. It already had the capability; it only brought it out. 
(So the 'capability' moved from the laboratory to the battlefield, 
with likelihood of use.) Nuclear weapons would induce 'stability', 
'maturity' and sobriety into India-Pakistan's volatile relations. (So 
that's why Kargil happened!)

This dream scenario left no room for proliferation, leaks, strategic 
miscalculation, for deterrence breaking down in crises. Reality 
repeatedly dented these rosy assumptions: witness the nuclear 
brinkmanship and threat-mongering in 1999 and, more scarily, in the 
10-month-long eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation last year. There 
isn't, can't be, a stable India-Pakistan nuclear-deterrent equation. 
A holocaust here is likelier than anywhere else in the world.

Now we know 'mature' Pakistan is deeply implicated in selling its 
nuclear secrets. In the Nineties, it exchanged its uranium centrifuge 
know-how for North Korea's Nodong missile. Pakistan's stamp is marked 
on Iran's search for nuclear capability and Libya's attempt to 
acquire the Bomb. According to well-documented reports in The New 
York Times and the Washington Post, at the centre of these shady 
transactions is the Father of the Pakistani Bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, 
who heads Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) and his close aides, 
Mohammed Farooq, Yasin Chohan and Sayeed Ahmad.

These revelations follow Iran's disclosures about its uranium 
enrichment programme to the International Atomic Energy Agency and 
Libya's talks with US and British officials before declaring that it 
would abandon its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programme. Under 
western pressure, Pakistan detained these scientists and allowed them 
to be interrogated by US and European officials. Khan's interrogation 
reportedly uncovered evidence linking KRL with Iran's 1987 purchase 
of centrifuge designs from Pakistan. Libya's primitive nuclear 
programme too had 'common elements' with past patterns of technology 
leaks from Pakistan.

Confronted with this evidence, the Pakistani government itself began 
interrogating Farooq and Chohan five weeks ago. It confirms they are 
being 'debriefed', but denies Khan has been interrogated: he "is too 
eminent a scientist..." Khan is a national hero - whom our Ramannas, 
Chidambarams and Kakodkars must envy. But that didn't prevent Pervez 
Musharraf from sacking him from KRL three years ago - under US 
pressure.

Deeply embarrassed, Islamabad is trying to make a distinction between 
the official nuclear programme and "certain individual scientists", 
"who may have breached... strict export control procedures by making 
unauthorised... contacts" with foreigners. For the moment, Washington 
is playing along, saying it believes Pakistan's denials - despite new 
disclosures. The pretence is that all clandestine transactions took 
place before Musharraf's 1999 coup.

The real issue is much larger - and worrisome. All manner of shady 
operators and jehadi fanatics have penetrated the core of the 
Pakistani State: its institutions' integrity has eroded. It's not 
established that Khan, Farooq & Co. have jehadi sympathies like 
fellow-scientist Bashiruddin, who ran a pro-Taliban charity. But they 
could well do.

It's easy to predict our hawks' holier-than-thou response to this. 
India is different. Pakistan stole its nuclear technology. Ours is 
totally indigenous. Their proliferation record is dark. Ours is 
impeccable. There is a difference between India and Pakistan. But 
it's narrower than believed. Pakistan undoubtedly thieved centrifuge 
designs. But India too has bought, borrowed or stolen nuclear 
technology and materials from sources as diverse as the US, Norway, 
China, Canada, Britain, France, the Soviet Union. We cheated Canada 
and America when we reprocessed spent fuel from the CIRUS reactor 
which they designed, built and furnished with heavy water. This was 
the source of our 'indigenous', 'peaceful' 1974 test!

On WMD proliferation too, India's record is smudged. An Indian firm, 
NEC Engineers Pvt. Ltd, supplied chemical-weapon precursors to Iraq. 
And this paper reported (Oct. 23) that Y.S.R. Prasad, the former 
chairman of the Nuclear Power Corporation, took up a post-retirement 
assignment in Iran in 2000 to help build its atomic infrastructure.

Pakistan's nuclear jehadis are doubtless evil. But what of our 
Hindutva warriors, including some in the scientific, defence and 
information technology establishments? Let's face it. Nuclear weapons 
are a hideous liability. We must abolish them to become secure.

_____


[3]

The News International
December 21, 2003
TNS ENCORE SECTION

people

One big peace party

The most encouraging aspect of the sixth joint
convention of Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for
Peace and Democracy was the huge participation of
first-timers and young people

By Beena Sarwar

"Defy the divide, unite for peace," declares the
huge theme banner on the stage at the end of the
lawn, venue of the opening and closing plenary
sessions of the sixth joint convention of
Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and
Democracy, held in Karachi recently. The open
sessions are attended by some 500 Indian and
Pakistani delegates and hundreds of local people.
Banners and flags from a joint exhibition flutter
in the cool sea breeze.

The main hall buzzes with animated discussion
following presentations on de-militarisation and
nuclearisation (Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy), intolerance
(I A Rehman), globalisation (Sushil Khanna) and
Kashmir (Gautam Navlakha), followed by group
discussions on all these issues. But this
convention is not just about speeches and
position papers. It's also about reunions,
discoveries and questions, ranging from a
desperate inquiry about coffee, to what the next
agenda item is, to where can one go to exchange
money or buy gifts. It's about meeting and
getting to know each other, about people
desperate for the simple personal interaction
that their governments deny them. Perhaps the
most commonly heard question on the first day is,
"Are you Indian?" as Karachiites throng the venue
to try and meet people from across the border.

Upstairs, the hall is full of schoolchildren
watching a screening of the hit film 'Makri',
organised by the Human Rights Education Programme
-- followed by an impromptu screening of
'Brothers from Chichibabba', a 12-minute
animation based on the children's book by
scientist D P Sengupta.

Dedicated to 'the Kargil orphans of India and
Pakistan', the film is produced by Kolkata-based
Indrani Roy and Debasish Sarkar. It tells the
story of the right-handed Guruk and left-handed
Turuk, who allow their differences to overcome
their love. A wall comes up between them, and
they grow up to rule their own kingdoms, amass
armies and buy increasingly lethal weapons. But
children from both sides start to meet each other
as a hole develops in the wall. "I'm hungry,"
says one. "I want to go to school," says another.
"We don't want to fight." "If the bombs fall, we
will all be dead anyway," adds another, scared at
the prospect of "melting like butter". Guruk and
Turuk then see each other for the first time and
remember the love they used to share, and to the
cheers of the watching children, they embrace.

The children watching the film also cheer. But as
they file out, one little boy is overheard
muttering, "India murdabad". Embarrassed when
caught by a teacher, he quickly pretends he was
saying something else.

Perhaps the student's bravado only reflects what
he has been hearing all his little life, rather
than any deep-rooted conviction. But personal
interactions can overturn even strong
convictions, as a young engineering student
found, after volunteering at a seminar of Indian
and Pakistani women in Lahore three years ago. "I
had always thought of India as the enemy," he had
said, explaining that he volunteered because he
had never met an Indian before, and was curious.
"Now I know they are people, just like us."

In December 2000, when post-Kargil tensions were
at their peak, a group of history students from
Delhi came to Lahore by train. One student from
Kargil confessed to feeling "hatred towards
Pakistan" before. What brought him was curiosity,
"to see what these people are like, who have
inflicted such suffering on us." Like the
engineering student, he too left with the
realisation that people on either side are human
beings, and that peace is the only option between
India and Pakistan.

It is this realisation, this conviction, and this
curiosity, along with the opportunity for
reunions, which drives the participants of these
joint conventions, these large people-to-people
exchanges between India and Pakistan.
Particularly encouraging about the sixth
convention in Karachi is the huge participation
of first-timers and young people. "We need
agricultural cooperation," says Akram Khan, a
young farmer from Layyah, inspired to attend by
the continuing participation of his father in
previous conventions.

A young representative of the Pakistan Fisherfolk
Forum rushes about trying to organise what must
have been the largest sectoral group meeting,
between fishermen from both countries, who are
routinely arrested and imprisoned for violating
territorial waters. "We're arranging a grand
reception for our leader, Father Thomas
Kocherry," he explains, referring to the
legendary organiser from Bombay. "This is the
first time he has come to Pakistan." Some 1,500
fisherfolk, including women and children, waited
over two hours for the Forum delegates to meet
them at the Ibrahim Haidery wharf.

Other sectoral groups included trade unions,
women, media, doctors, youth and students,
environment and displacement, and artists.

The Karachi convention on December 12-14, 2003,
was postponed from its original 2001 date -- and
not just because of continuing tensions
exacerbated by post-Kargil hostilities, the 9-11
attacks, and the attack on the Indian Parliament.
Joint conventions have previously taken place in
times of tension (which in any case are more
frequent than times of peaceful co-existence).
But the suspension of the road, rail and air
links dealt a huge blow to these interactions.
Forum participants include fishermen, trade union
workers, students, farmers, journalists,
filmmakers, women and human rights activists, who
pay for their own transport and cannot afford the
inflated cost of reaching across the border via
Abu Dhabi or Dhaka.

Special permission is needed -- as it was this
year -- to allow them to cross the border on foot
when the train is not running. Within the country
too, they take third-class trains to the joint
convention venues, which have included Delhi (Feb
1995). This was followed by Lahore (Nov 1995),
Kolkata (Dec 1996), Peshawar (Dec 1998), and
Bangalore (2000). Karachi 2003 has been the
largest joint convention so far, with almost 250
participants from India and roughly as many from
Pakistan.

Right from the start, the joint declarations have
been pressing for a resolution of all issues
through dialogue between the two governments, a
peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue based on
the aspirations of the Kashmiri people (rather
than as a territorial dispute between India and
Pakistan), reduction of defence budgets, more
people-to-people contacts and an end to religious
intolerance and violence.

And yet, unlike Guruk and Turuk of Chichibabba,
the leaders of India and Pakistan are unlikely to
embrace with open arms when they next meet, as
expected at the SAARC summit in a few weeks.
There are few illusions that the people's
pressure will affect government policy. But, as
founding member I A Rehman says, "As the pressure
of the people increases, it does limit the
options of the governments."

In any case, "Peace is too important a business
to be left to governments," quips Forum Chair
from Pakistan, Afrasiab Khattak. "The people are
the real stakeholders and they have to keep up
the pressure."

That, this huge joint convention undoubtedly did.

_____


[4]

The Telegraph
  December 26, 2003

WHO IS AFRAID OF INDIA?
- Pakistan's officialdom can no longer rely entirely on the Indian bogey
Cutting Corners / Ashok Mitra

Three days in Karachi and two in Lahore do not provide sufficient 
credentials for a summary statement on Pakistan. One impression is 
still overwhelming. Men and women at practically all levels could not 
be friendlier. Gestures of affection spilled over: it was as if 
long-lost relatives, for whom the pining had gone on for decades on 
end, have suddenly chosen to call, and the hosts were grateful beyond 
measure. A visit to a fishermen's village on the fringe of the 
Karachi port was quite some experience. There was a mad rush, of not 
just the fishmongers but also the women and children in the 
households, to sneak up next to the venerable guests and have their 
pictures taken; each of them then pounced upon the photographer, 
wheedling out a promise that they would receive copies of the 
photographs. The intensity of the ardour went further. Many insisted 
on the visitors sharing a meal, however modest, with them.

At the other end of the spectrum, glamorous banquets on the sprawling 
lawns of palatial houses belonging to hoary old Sindhi families such 
as the Khuros and the Talpurs. Nostalgia is never a one-way street. A 
migrant from Bulandshahr or Shimoga or Bhagalpur would inquire fondly 
of the current goings-on in their former habitats; visiting Indians 
would shoot back similar questions about old friends from Larkana or 
Faisalabad with whom they went to school, or ask what happened to 
those two teenage beauties who were the talk of the town in Multan 
sixty years ago.

At Lahore the visitors did the standard sightseeing, throwing in 
Anarkali, Shalimar Gardens and the singer Noorjehan's abode. A few of 
them preferred other spots of pilgrimage, such as the Lahore 
Government College (now a university), the Forman Christian College 
and Saadat Hasan Manto's tomb at Niami Sahab. Yet others marvelled at 
the majesty of the masonry and the elegance of the Urdu: after all, 
Lahore is the city of both Mohammed Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. 
Everywhere, the visitors were the epicentre of near-frenzied 
adulation - and of course never-ending photo sessions. A resounding 
vote for aman.

Kashmir remains the sore issue, and the outcome of India's recent 
state assembly elections has naturally generated nervousness. But the 
welcoming brigades were more than ready to shove such thoughts aside 
for the occasion. The ambience was of courtesy and understanding, 
embraces were instant conductors of not just warmth but empathy, 
guile of any kind was out of the question. The folly of heads of both 
nations has claimed as victims two-and-a-half generations on either 
side. The Pakistanis that one met were certainly - and one is 
prepared to lay a wager on this - prepared to reverse the situation. 
Altruism is as altruism does. Even so, the fact that Pervez Musharraf 
is singing a particular song at this moment need not be a mere 
diplomatic gambit. Some pressure from the populace too is conceivably 
influencing his mood.

One realization seems to have percolated into the psyche of many 
constituents of the Pakistani middle class: the war lobby could never 
be their saviour. Ordinary people prefer to go about in their quiet 
ordinary ways, they worry over the level of market prices, over 
problems of admitting children to school, over the travails of daily 
living. They are increasingly aware of the infructuousness of 
mounting defence expenditure, even when largely financed by foreign 
sources. Not just funds raised domestically, but external assistance 
too, could be channelled to education, public health and other social 
services once the defence budget got slashed. That ruling juntas 
everywhere have a vested interest in spending less on public 
education is also slowly sinking in: the longer the time horizon of 
illiteracy and lack of social awareness, the easier it is for the 
rulers to put it over the masses the fable that all their woes are on 
account of the wretched Indians. True, these are views not explicitly 
discussed. But university dons and the young set of journalists are 
forthcoming enough; lawyers and members of other liberal professions 
have been steadily swelling their ranks. The India bogey, in other 
words, is no longer a comfortable legal tender for Pakistan 
officialdom.

Strike the iron while it is still hot. The problem, however, lies at 
the Indian end, or such is the apprehension in some quarters. It is 
time to ask ourselves; are we ready to reciprocate, or are we to rest 
on the assumption that the feelers from Islamabad are exclusively 
America-inspired - when the season ends, it will subside? Judging by 
the experience at the Wagah border, coming and going both times, the 
Indians' response till now is primly cool. The Pakistani customs and 
immigration officials behaved as civilized human beings and the 
formalities were completed in less than a minute for each passenger, 
with the standard examination of papers and documents concentrated at 
a single point. On the Indian side of the border, rudeness was the 
order of the day; passengers, incoming as well as outgoing, were 
intercepted at half-a-dozen different spots, the general atmosphere 
was one of chaos, and each passenger was presumed to be a terrorist 
whose purpose of travel must be of the vilest kind.

Maybe this is too harsh and hasty a conclusion to reach. The iron of 
security has nevertheless entered the soul of the Indian 
strategy-carvers. Perhaps, alongside the military lobby, a parallel 
security lobby has also taken over in New Delhi. Entrenched lobbies 
of this genre are permanent enemies of peace and normalcy, since any 
lowering of temperature will rob them of their profession - and their 
prosperity. In both countries, the encounter in the final analysis is 
between those who want to live under a tranquil sky and those who 
love the two nations to be hostage for ever to the whims of 
authoritarian cabals. The cabals play to the gallery, or try to. They 
also play to cheap emotions. The week's travels across Pakistan have 
armed one with the feeling that, at least in that country, the much 
derided peaceniks have been able to make a dent in the protected 
territory hitherto jealously protected by the sectarian opportunists.

The other conviction this fleeting visit to Pakistan helped to foster 
should not surprise. Sub-nationalism dies hard and excessive 
centralization of power and resources is bound to face rising 
resistance in the countries of the subcontinent. In mid-December, 
finance minister of Pakistan's four provincial governments - Punjab, 
Sindh, North-Western Frontier Province and Baluchistan - had a 
confrontation with the national finance commission and the federal 
finance minister. The principal issue to be decided, the provincial 
representatives told the Centre, is the proportion of the total tax 
revenue collected by the federal government that should devolve to 
the provinces together. Once the quantum of this kitty has been 
settled, its inter se distribution among the states is a matter that 
must be left to the provinces, the Centre must not meddle.

At the moment, this proportion of Central tax collections going to 
the provinces is only 37 per cent. Since the provincial governments 
are primarily responsible for such areas of public concern as health, 
education, irrigation, drainage, roads, power supply and so on, they 
must have - the finance minister of the provinces could not be more 
forthright - at least 50 per cent of the total revenue accruing to 
the Centre. In India, what the states at present receive from Central 
tax collection is not even 30 per cent. And India's state governments 
are still to develop the kind of unity of purpose their counterparts 
in Pakistan are demonstrating.

On the face of it, despite the military regime, public finances are 
more decentralized in Pakistan than over here. The states in India 
are lagging behind in another respect as well: they have failed to 
present a common front in the fiscal war against the Centre. Some of 
them actually play the role of Uncle Tom in the hope of getting a 
little extra favour from the Centre at the expense of other states.

India has, no doubt, a smarter set of economists and smarter fiscal 
experts. But they are presumably ashamed of harbouring sub-national 
passions. Success in snatching away funds from the Centre, which 
effective sub-nationalism implies, could however be a blow for peace 
and tranquillity. The less money the Centre has, the less will be 
available for the jingo lobbies led by army and security brass. Who 
knows, Pakistan might well set an example for India in this area.


_____


[5]

The Asian  Age, December 26, 2003
Girish Karnad to take on Sangh Parivar
- By Bhaskar Hegde

Bangalore, Dec. 25: The Sangh Parivar in Karnataka is up against a 
new adversary in the form of noted playwright and film personality 
Girish Karnad. Mr Karnad has joined the ranks of playwrights and 
intellectuals like Vijay Tendulkar in taking on the saffron brigade.

While Mr Karnad has not gone as far as the Maharashtrian playwright 
who was recently quoted as saying he would shoot Gujarat chief 
minister Narendra Modi if he had a pistol, he makes no bones about 
his opposition to the Sangh Parivar. In the forefront recently of an 
agitation opposing the Sangh Parivar's moves to take over a disputed 
Sufi shrine in Chikmagalur, he has been labelled anti-national and a 
Naxal sympathiser by the BJP. The playwright is, however, unfazed by 
the criticism. In an interview with The Asian Age, he said, "I don't 
want to react to these people. No one has the right to say that so 
and so is a nationalist and so and so is an anti-national."

About Vijay Tendulkar's criticism of Mr Modi, he said, "I have great 
respect for Mr Tendulkar. He has done research on communal clashes 
and knows what he is speaking about. I empathise with him." The 
spotlight turned on Mr Karnad when he got involved earlier this month 
in the Bababudangiri Souharda Vedike which was formed to counter the 
VHP's plans to convert the Bababudangiri-Datta Peeth dispute into a 
mini-Ayodhya. The controversy over the dargah of a Muslim saint in 
Bababudangiri, Chikmagalur, which the Sangh Parivar claims is 
actually the birthplace of a Hindu deity, Dattatreya, has been 
simmering over the past five years. The Sangh Parivar roped in the 
likes of VHP general secretary Praveen Togadia to rake up the issue 
on the eve of the Datta Jayanthi, held to celebrate the birthday of 
Dattatreya in Bangalore in early December. About his involvement in 
the anti-VHP vedike Mr Karnad said he had joined in, as he felt it 
was neccessary to combat the Sangh Parivar when even the Congress and 
the Janata Dal in Karnataka were giving "tacit support" to the 
Sangh's activities. "When there is no opposition to the Sangh Parivar 
from political parties, it is writers and intellectuals like us who 
have to take up cudgels," he maintained.

The playwright thinks the Sangh Parivar will try to foment trouble in 
Karnataka in the run-up to the general elections. "These people 
always take up sensitive issues like Ayodhya and Bababudangiri before 
the polls," he said.


_____


[6]

The Australian, December 24, 2003
Anti-Christian pamphlets raise fears
 From correspondents in Ahmadabad, India
December 24, 2003

THOUSANDS of anti-Christian pamphlets have been mailed to or slipped 
under the doors of Hindu and Christian homes in western India, 
raising fears of attacks during Christmas celebrations, a Christian 
leader said today.
The pamphlets accuse Christians of forcibly converting impoverished 
Hindus, a charge denied by Christian leaders.

It wasn't immediately clear who was distributing the pamphlets in 
Gujarat state, where Hindu-Muslim clashes last year left more than 
1000 people dead, mostly Muslim.

"We have found these pamphlets being circulated openly all over the 
state. But the government is not taking (action against) this vicious 
propaganda," said Father Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit priest and human 
rights activist.

K Nityanandam, the state's home secretary, said he knew of the pamphlets.

"But nobody has lodged a complaint with police so far," he said from 
Gujarat's state capital of Gandhinagar.

Prompted by the pamphlets, a Christian group - the All India 
Christian Council - filed a petition today in the Gujarat High Court 
seeking protection during Christmas celebrations. Judge C K Butch 
asked the state government to respond to the concerns.

One pamphlet accuses Christians of destroying 200 Hindu temples in 
western Goa state. Another pamphlet was titled: "A conspiracy to make 
India a Christian country."

Christians comprise only around 2 per cent of India's more than 1.2 
billion people.

The pamphlets printed telephone numbers, but calls to those numbers 
by The AP were unanswered.

Similar pamphlets were distributed in 1998, days before attacks by 
Hindu nationalists on Christian prayer halls in southern Gujarat.

Hindu nationalists have targeted Christians and their organisations 
in Gujarat and other states since they came to power in 1998. One of 
the most gruesome attacks was in 1999, when a Hindu mob torched the 
vehicle of an Australian missionary, burning him and his two young 
sons alive in eastern Orissa state.

Muslims, another minority in predominantly Hindu India, have also 
been targeted by Hindu extremists, though typically Hindus, 
Christians and Muslims have lived together peacefully for centuries 
in India.

Jiwajibhai, a Christian living in southern Gujarat who uses one name, 
said an activist of the right-wing Bajrang Dal group gave him some 
pamphlets last week and said: "Look what your missionaries have been 
doing."

Sailesh Christie, a Christian resident of Gujurat's main commercial 
hub, Ahmadabad, said he had also received some pamphlets.

"When I read them, I got scared because this really is mischievous 
propaganda," he said.


______


[7]


Business Standard
India's multiple Hinduisms

C P Bhambhri
Published : December 22, 2003

Dark clouds are hovering over Hinduism because the Sangh Parivar is 
promoting a Brahmanical version of the religion not only against 
other religious believers but to homogenise a religion that has a 
million internal diversities.

Sullivan's dictionary on Hinduism has come at an appropriate time 
because it showcases the richness and varieties of Hinduism even as 
it exposes the fraudulence of the Sangh Parivar's claims on the Hindu 
religion.

In this context, it is worth quoting the author : "Hinduism is a 
religious tradition of remarkable diversity, .... The time span in 
which it has flourished, not to mention the creativity of India's 
thinkers, has given Hinduism a wonderful array of ideas and 
practices."

How can Hinduism be a monolithic religion, its rich linguistic 
diversity itself a proof of its many faces, shapes and forms? 
Sullivan focuses his attention on this basic fact by observing that, 
"Multiple streams of tradition have merged to create Hinduism."

The A To Z Of Hinduism
Bruce M. Sullivan
Vision Books Pvt. Ltd, 2003
Pages: 255
Price: Rs 190

This fact about Hinduism has led many serious historians of the Hindu 
religion to maintain that Hinduism is not one religion with several 
sects, but a plurality of religions.

India's historians along with many other scholars maintain that there 
are Hinduisms because the many guruparamparas, or line of teachers, 
the worship of different deities and recitation of different prayers 
constitute the essence of these many Hindu religions.

The myth that is being propagated is that true Hinduism is Vedic and 
Aryan, and on the basis of this Aryan race theory it is claimed that 
Hindus are indigenous inhabitants and Muslims and Christians, 
belonging to other religious traditions, are foreigners and outsiders.

What about the Indus Valley Civilisation and urban cities like 
Mohenjodaro and Harrappa which preceded the Vedic culture? It must be 
mentioned that Indian civilisation, starting with the Indus Valley, 
was 'urban' while the later Vedic civilisation developed around 
settled agriculture and this is why as an 'agriculture society' 
animals like the cow, goat and horse emerge as important for early 
Aryan Indians.

This rich dictionary serves as a sharp reminder to the self-appointed 
guardians of political Hinduism that a religious tradition that has 
evolved over 5,000 years should never lose sight of the historical 
context of a tradition.

Since banning cow slaughter is the agenda of political Hindutva, 
Sullivan's dictionary refers to Vedic verses and tells us, "The cow 
and goat were the primary animals sacrificed, but the horse also was 
offered in certain rituals" and because of Vedic rituals, Brahmans 
became the leaders of religious believers.

The caste system is also a legacy of the Aryans who characterised the 
indigenous population of India as sudra (serfs). Many movements to 
reform the caste system emerged within Hinduism. As early as the 
twelfth century C E Basava, a Brahmin, rejected caste and preached 
the equality of all people. "He led a movement that sought to reform 
Saivism and became in time the Lingayat or Virasaiva sect," the 
dictionary says.

Further the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedic revelation (Sruti), is 
'authorless and timeless.' Even the great books of Hinduism have a 
different status and deal with different themes and belief systems. 
Hindu mythology is based on "numerous myths of creation, in part due 
to the cyclic world view that has dominated Hindu thought for over 
two millennia".

The very specificity of Hindu religious traditions is their regional 
variation and territorial flavour like Kashmir Saivism. The 
Mahabharata and Ramayana or Tulsidas's Ram Charit Manas are great 
imaginative works of poets and representative of the social history 
of specific periods and they have to be rescued from Brahmans and 
priests who at the behest of self-appointed guardians of Hindu 
religion are trying to convert literature into the Bible and the 
Quran.

Similarly, Ravana, the Demon king of Lanka is a villain of the 
Ramayana but is seen in "a more positive light by political activists 
in South India as a tragic hero and a defender of Southern Dravadian 
culture against Brahmanical culture from the north." Saivism, the 
worship of Siva represents "the confluence of several streams of 
tradition" beginning with Indus Valley civilisation to the Vedic 
Aryans, and Lord Siva is mentioned in later literature like 'the 
Mahabharata, Ramayana, Puranas' et al.

Further, "sects devoted to the worship of Siva began to appear about 
the second century CE and spread to South India in the seventh 
through ninth centuries CE."

Similarly, Sanskrit, the classical language of ancient India, was 
codified by Panini in about 400 BCE and there have been modifications 
in the use of the Sanskrit language because, "there is a vast 
literature in Sanskrit produced during the last four millennia" and 
it is maintained by scholars that a close relationship exists among 
the classical languages like Greek, Latin and Sanskrit - the 
Indo-European language family.

The Maurya dynasty (323-180 BCE) "was less supportive of Hindu 
religious traditions than non-Hindu movements (Buddhism, Jainism, 
Ajivikas)".

The Sunga dynasty and the Gupta Empire (320 to 500 CE) extended great 
support to Hinduism and also began the tradition of temple 
construction. But the Gupta emperors supported all sorts of religious 
beliefs as well. The author tells us that, "while they personally may 
have been devotees of Vishnu and, in their office as emperor 
performed the Asvamedha (horse sacrifice) they also donated to the 
support of the Buddhist and Jain monks and nuns."

State patronage of religion is central to the understanding of the 
history of any religion in ancient and medieval ages and modernity is 
a break with this tradition because it believes in "the wall of 
separation between religion and the state".

Richness and diversity clearly emerges from a dictionary of 255 pages 
on Hinduisms and it is a fraud on history to present Brahmanical 
Hinduism as the Hinduism of India. This dictionary is evidence of the 
richness of linguistic, religious and cultural multiple traditions of 
a culturally diverse rich society of India.


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