SACW | 8-9 Jan 2004
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Thu Jan 8 12:35:08 CST 2004
South Asia Citizens Wire | 8-9 January, 2004
via: www.sacw.net
[ANNOUNCEMENT: Please note, SACW dispatches are
going to be interrupted now (after an unplanned
one day extension) <this is a final dispatch
before the interruption>, from January 8/9 and
are not likely to resume before February 22,
2004. ]
[1] A Citizens' Memorial Service in memory of
Salma Sobhan (Dhaka, January 9, 2004)
[2] Declaration of 4th South Asian People's
Summit (2-4 January 2004, Islamabad)
[3] 'Jihadi' groups still enjoy strong support
[4] Comments from Gail Omvedt re attack on the
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune
[5] Hindutva on the beach (Sagarika Ghose)
[6] An interview with Madhu Prasad from Sahmat (Yoginder Sikand)
--------------
[1]
A Citizens' Memorial Service in memory of Salma
Sobhan, will be held on January 9, 2004 at 2:30
p.m. at the Central Shahid Minar, Dhaka. This is
open to all. All friends, acquaintances, and well
wishers are invited to attend.
_____
[2]
Declaration of 4th South Asian People's Summit
2-4 January 2004, Islamabad
This representative assembly of civil society
organizations and networks of South Asian
countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the
Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka)
reiterates the pledge to promote people's
struggle for a peaceful, democratic and
prosperous South Asia; and commits itself to
actively oppose all actions and policies of state
and non-state actors that increase poverty,
militarization, intolerance, extremism,
patriarchy and exploitation.
Realizing that regional cooperation is the most
important prerequisite for the progress of the
people of South Asia - especially in the face of
increasing globalization and imposition of
destructive policies of the World Bank, the IMF
and WTO - this assembly welcomes the convening of
the XII SAARC Summit, and the opening up of
communication and travel links between India and
Pakistan, thereby facilitating travel between all
SAARC countries.
This assembly welcomes agreement on SAFTA and
believe that its implementation will lead to
enhanced interaction and cooperation that will
benefit the peoples of the entire region. It is
imperative that the member states should ensure
free mobility and guaranteed basic labour rights
to all workers in the region. It is also
essential that citizens' freedom of movement
within the region be ensured to enable them to
benefit from the fruits of free trade. A
civilized and liberal visa regime be established
in all the SAARC countries.
Although the governments in the region have taken
some positive steps with regard to granting visas
to visitors from other countries, this assembly
calls upon these governments to allow all
citizens of SAARC countries visas at the port of
entry, as is currently practiced by Sri Lanka and
Nepal.
This assembly condemns the rise of religious
extremism in the region and its patronage by the
states through fanning religious and communal
hatred, and jingoism. It demands immediate
disarming and disbanding of the extremist
religious, quasi-religious and other militant
groups. It demands inclusion of secular subjects
into the curricula of religious and parochial
schools and madrassahs inside mosques, temples
and churches.
All member states should institute comprehensive
peace education programs and set up a joint
commission to scrutinize all textbooks and
curricula and related practices in the
educational systems that create stereotypes,
hatred, prejudices and intolerance on any
grounds, and eventually purge all such materials
from the educational system.
This assembly takes serious note of the
increasing use of repressive measures by the
South Asian states against rights-based people's
movements (such as the eviction of tenant
farmers), and calls upon them to initiate
dialogue with these movements and set up
political processes for the solution of
intra-state conflicts in the region.
For South Asian cooperation to fully materialize
and sustain in the long run, it is imperative to
create lasting peaceful conditions in the region
that requires comprehensive demilitarization and
denuclearization. This assembly therefore
demands that South Asia should forthwith enter
into a collective No-War Pact and these
governments should declare South Asia a Nuclear
Weapons Free Zone. In the interim both India and
Pakistan should agree to put a freeze on their
nuclear and missile programs.
This assembly demands that the governments of the South Asian states:
ß Reduce existing military expenditures by at
least 10% annually, diverting the savings to
creation of Social Security Funds, to be used
primarily for gender equality and youth
empowerment programs.
ß Include a clause on non-proliferation of small
arms and light weapons as an additional Protocol
to SAARC Convention on Suppression of Terrorism,
1987.
ß Should withdraw all reservations and
declarations, such as those made on CEDAW, and
fully implement and enforce all international
conventions and treaties signed and ratified by
these states through statutory means; sign and
ratify Optional Protocols added to Conventions
and Treaties; and a SAARC Commission should be
set up to monitor implementation, with the
inclusion of civil society members.
ß Should commit themselves to spend at least 10%
of their GDP to basic minimum needs and social
sector development, especially gender equality,
education, health, safe drinking water,
sanitation and environment.
ß Come out with clear checks on governance
ensuring decentralization of power at various
levels and democratic participation of women in
the decision-making process and protection of
human rights. The participation of all
disadvantaged and marginalized groups must be
ensured.
ß Should desist from implementing anti-poor
conditionalities, such as withdrawal of subsidies
on basic needs, imposed by international
financial institutions and other lenders. They
should restore subsidies in agriculture, water,
food security and on the delivery of basic social
services.
ß Should take immediate steps to eliminate child
labor and its route causes and should ensure core
children rights including right to live in a
healthy and cleaner environment, health care and
education;
ß Should take more steps towards an independent
fair, free media and ensure complete rights of
information, right of self-expression of the
people of the region;
ß The well-documented feminization of poverty
must be addressed through concrete measures,
including, but not limited to the following:
o title deeds of state lands given to landless
farmers must be handed over jointly in the name
of both women and men in the family;
o women farmers and livestock managers must be
paid wages for their labour and produce, rather
than the current practice of handing over a lump
sum payment to the male household head;
o women must have access to low-interest
micro-credit through group guarantees and similar
mechanisms, without the need for collateral;
o enact legislation ensuring adequate
availability of staple food and dairy products to
indigenous people, poor peasantry, agricultural
workers with effective support price mechanisms
before permitting exports and allowing free trade;
o address on priority basis the negative impact
of mechanization and Corporatization on rural
agricultural women's livelihoods.
ß Enact legislation ensuring adequate
availability of staple food and dairy products at
reasonable prices before permitting exports and
allowing free trade.
ß Recognize core labour rights of all workers in
all sectors of economies including agriculture
and ensure strict compliance of ILO Conventions.
ß Should adopt the SAARC Charter on labour rights
and guarantee free mobility for labour within
SAARC countries.
ß Ratify the Ninth SAARC Convention and
amendments should be made in the Convention
(according to the definition of UN Protocol 2000)
in coordination with SAARC Special Reporteur on
trafficking of women and children and
establishment of SAARC Task Force for these
amendments, proposals, policies and
implementation of ninth Convention. It must have
representation from civil society and the
government. There must be mechanisms for treaty
observation and border monitoring involving
surveillance by the Governments and NGOs. Working
of existing monitoring and implementation
systems, mechanisms, state institutions and
forces should be made efficient, effective and
transparent.
ß Declare a clear timeframe for resolution of
inter- and intra-state conflicts through
participation of victims and the civil society
actors.
ß A methodology should be formulated for the
repatriation of prisoners, refugees and victims
of trafficking.
ß Stop glorification of nuclear capabilities and
weapons through state media and display of war
toys and replicas at public places.
ß NGOs, media, academia and other civil society
groups and organizations should be actively
involved in the SAARC process and invited to the
official SAARC Summits as observers
ß should protect and promote the rights of
religious, sectarian and ethnic minorities by
repealing all discriminatory laws against
minorities, dalits and indigenous people;
ß All national resources, human and natural
(including land, water and forest) be allocated,
protected and managed in the interest of local
communities, protecting property rights of the
indigenous people, with a pro-poor and right
based approach.
The summit also demands establishment of a South
Asian Commission, with the full representation
and participation of civil society in its
membership, empowered to adjudicate cases of
violation of fundamental rights of citizens.
4 January 2004,
Islamabad
_____
[3]
Gulf News
January 17, 2002
'Jihadi' groups still enjoy strong support
Karachi |By Salahuddin Haider | 17-01-2002
Pakistani security officials say that while
unemployed semi-educated youth form the core
support of 'jihadi' groups, hundreds of educated
Pakistani citizens, including doctors, engineers,
government workers and those working in sensitive
federal government organisations, have also
supported these groups.
Close relatives of a deputy director of Pakistan'
Federal Investigation Agency ( FIA) confirmed
that the deputy director took leave from office
in November to join Taliban in their battle for
Kunduz.
After the fall of Kunduz, the FIA official made a
safe return to Pakistan and rejoined the service,
his relatives said, requesting the officer not be
named.
In another case, a respectable Karachi
businessman disclosed that his real brother - a
mid-level official in a ministry of defence
organisation - took three months' leave last year
to secretly join Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and headed for
jihad in occupied Kashmir.
Until September 11 this year there were no
restrictions on private Pakistani citizens taking
part in such activities. On the contrary, senior
Sindh police officials acknowledged, the police
were under instructions to let the militant
groups in Karachi recruit people for guerrilla
training and to solicit funds for holy wars in
Kashmir and Afghanistan.
"It is too difficult for us to adjust to the new
guidelines," said a senior Karachi police
official who received orders to launch a
crackdown against all 'Jihadi' activities in
Karachi.
Several other Pakistani police officials echoed
the same theme, fearing a militant
anti-government campaign by the Islamic
extremists.
"A new underground army of 5,000 armed and
trained religious extremists will revolt against
this about-turn in government's posture," said a
senior Pakistani official.
"They would pose the greatest threat to law and
order in Pakistan in weeks and months to come. It
is going to be a long torturous battle in this
deeply religious Islamic country."
But added: "The outcome is most difficult to predict."
Since the launching of a police action against
the militants that started with the surrender of
Masood Azhar of Jaish-e-Muhammed and Hafiz Saeed
of Lashkar-e-Taiba to authorities early this
month, senior police officials in Punjab said
thousands of supporters of the five militant
groups have responded to the orders from their
high command to go into hiding.
"We have learned lessons from the blunders made
by Al Qaida and Taliban, those will never be
repeated in Pakistan," said a 22-year-old former
Karachi University student who would give his
name as Abu Hafsa. "In future each one of our
registered activists would use a cover name."
Abu Hafsa said he belonged to Jaish and took part
in five guerrilla operations against the Indian
army in Baramulla and Aathmuqam districts of
occupied Kashmir. His parents had moved to
Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir from the other side
of the border about 15 years ago.
Abu Hafsa said: "I have seen my Pakistani and
Kashmiri friends giving their lives in Kashmir.
Who is President Musharraf to stop me from waging
jihad against India."
Supporters of most militant Islamic groups in
Pakistan reckoned that Al Qaida and Taliban's
defences collapsed mainly due to weak
communication network hence there was a strong
need to build a formidable communication network
for the new underground militant outfits.
"In Afghanistan it was not possible, but here we
use all means of communication, including short
messaging service on mobile phone, chatting
through internet, central messaging through
bulletin boards on the net and electronic paging
are some of the means that can't be tapped
easily," said Abu Nisar of Lashkar.
He added: "A lot of us have a separate web based
e-mail address, so we don't have to communicate
through fixed or mobile telephones."
Abu Nisar says that most trained computer savvy
manpower was available with
Jamaat-e-Islami-backed Hizbul Mujahideen.
Pakistani intelligence services have enough
equipment to intercept fixed and cellular phones,
but they lack equipment and trained manpower to
tap modern means of communication.
Pakistani intelligence officials confess that it
would be impossible to track down the financial
assets and movements of any of the militant
groups as most of them have deposited their money
in Pakistan in the names of legitimate Muslim
businessmen in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar, who
also make regular contributions to such
organisations.
For this reason, no money was available in the
bank accounts of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba,
Jaish-e-Muhammed and Harkatul Mujahideen when the
State Bank of Pakistan responded to the U.S. ban
against these groups by freezing accounts in
Pakistan. "Frankly, there was nothing in those
accounts to freeze," said a Pakistani central
banker.
Sources in the militant organisations here said
most groups have also invested their money in
legal business such as commodity trading, real
estate dealing and production of consumer items
besides farming.
"The custodians of our money are the big
Pakistani tax-payers with absolutely no record of
involvement in financial or moral corruption,"
according to Khalid Raja, who once worked closely
with the banned Harkatul Mujahideen organisation.
Pakistani security officials said the supporters
of the key militant groups generally don't keep
their weapons in Pakistan as most of their secret
weapons depots were located in the high mountains
and caves of Kashmir, but they conceded that many
of them keep small arms such as Kalashnikovs at
their bases in Pakistan.
"We were under strict instruction not to carry or
use weapons anywhere in Pakistan, but the
situation has taken a dramatic turn where all of
a sudden our existence has been threatened,"
observed Rashid Ahmed, a 30-year-old clerk who
took leave from his job with the Sindh government
last year to fight against Indian army in Kashmir.
"We are now fully prepared to face them on Pakistani soil," he said.
There is no dearth of illegal weapons in
Pakistan, where the arms manufacturing is the
main business in the federally administered
semi-autonomous tribal areas, bordering
Afghanistan.
Though estimates vary, the country's interior
ministry estimates that some 1.2 million
unregistered Kalashnikovs were available with
various militant, political and criminal groups
in Pakistan.
Militants attached with militant groups insist
that the insurgency in Kashmir would remain
central to their mission and they would not be
interested in opening a front with Pakistani
authorities.
"As a matter of fact we still don't believe that
any group entering occupied Kashmir from the
Pakistani side to continue the freedom struggle
would receive fire from the Pakistani side," said
Abu Hafsa of Jaish-e-Mohammed.
_____
[4]
[Comments from Gail Omvedt, the radical Indian
public intellectual and scholar, re attack on the
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune
and also on related editorial from Hindustan
Times that was carried in yesterdays SACW]
o o o
Date: 7 Jan 2004 11:28:07 -0000
From: Gail Omvedt [address protected]
Dear H and friends,
Below is what I had sent to a couple of
yahoogroups and friends about this incident.
I would add: it's not correct, as the Hindustan
Times editorial does, to simply blame goondas.
All groups have to seriously think about what
thsi means. Maratha=Kunbis may be dominant in
politics in Maharashtra today, but educationally
and intellectually they are far behind -- it's
hard to think of an English-speaking and writing
Maratha intellectual. In this they're like OBCs
throughout India. The kids today face
unemployment and all kinds of problems, and are
getting a steady diet of chauvinism poured into
their minds. Upper castes can in appearance be
more liberal because they're more comfortable;
some are genuinely so but many are not.
my original comments follow:
It is sad to hear that members of the Sambhaji
Brigade of the Maratha Seva Sangh – which was
supposed to be the more progressive breakaway
from the Maratha Mashasangh – have attacked and
destroyed manuscripts at the Bhandarkar Institute
in Pune. Sad because it is Kunbi-Marathas
themselves who are defamed by this act of
goondaism.
The traditional saying – bahmanancya ghari dnyan,
kunbincya ghari dan, maharancya ghari gan – has
been broken in the case of Dalits, who are moving
into all kinds of fields. Unfortunately it seems
to remain true in the case of Kunbi-Marathas, who
are less able to read and by this act – and by
the support some of their intellectuals have
shown for banning Jim Blaine’s book – that they
don’t read and don’t want to read.
Unfortunately they are only playing into the hands of Hindu chauvinists.
The book by James Laine, Shivaji: Hindu King in
Islamic India (OUP), was written by a professor
religion whose main concern is the formation of
“Hindu” and ‘Muslim” identities. The book is not
a history of Shivaji, but a depiction of the way
legends and stories ABOUT Shivaji have been
formed and used in the course of Maharashtrian
history. As he concludes his introduction,
“The Shivaji legend is a glorious story. Good
guys, though often outnumbered and outgunned, win
in the end. Shivaji is brave, fair and
compassionate. He loves his mother. He is
pious. He is patriotic. It is no wonder that
the Shivaji of these stories is held up to the
children of Maharashtra today as a hero of whom
they can be proud. What is problematic, though,
is the fact that good history is rarely about
good guys and bad guys, and that the simplistic
reading of history in these terms leaves
Maharashtrians with a history in which Muslims
(12% of the current population of Maharashtra)
can only play the role of aggressors, usurpers
and oppressors. The modern descendents of those
Muslims are thus vilified as outsiders to a
society which, though founded on secular
principles, is easily swayed by the rhetoric of
Hindu chauvinism. In reviewing in these pages
the growth of the legend of Shivaji, I hope that
I can contribute in some way to a richer
understanding of this great man, and rescue his
biography from the grasp of those who see India
as a Hindu nation at war with its Muslim
neighbors” (6).
This is what Laine tries to do – and this I think
is the REAL reason that the high castes who claim
possession of the legend of Shivaji object to the
book.
The various chapters of the book cover:
ONE: Shivaji and Maharashtrian Hindu Identity
TWO: The Epic Hero: Seventeenth Century Sources
for the Heroic Legends of Shivaji
THREE: The Hindu Hero: Shivaji and the Saints, 1780-1810.
FOUR: The Patriot: Political Readings of Hindu
Identity in the Tales of Shivaji, 1869-2001
FIVE: Cracks in the Narrative
SIX: The Construction of Hindu and Muslim Identities in Maharashtra
Chapter Five is the most controversial. Let me
first give the passage that was shown to me as
the highly objectionable one: (Would you let
people write like that about your mother? was the
qeustion put by a retired Maratha history
professor when I argued about banning books):
“The repressed awareness that Shivaji had an
absentee father is also revealed by the fact that
Maharashtrians tell jokes naughtily suggesting
that his guardian Dadaji Konddev was his
biological father. In a sense, because Shivaji’s
father had little influence on his son, for many
narrators it was important to supply him with
father replacement. Dadaji and later Ramdas.
But perhaps we read the story of his life as
governed by motivations buried deep in his psyche
by a mother rejected by her husband
.” (p. 91).
[this may, to Maharashtrians and especially
Marathas, be something like saying that Jesus was
fathered by a wandering Roman soldier. This is
the kind of thing that does get said in the U.S.
which does not have “blasphemy” laws]
I would say here Blaine’s mistake is that
he does not give his sources. Undoubtedly they
were Pune Brahmans, who were most of his
informants, and who would have been likely to say
that Dadaji must have been his father.
Anyway, what Chapter Five actually does is
important to take account of. Llaine wants to
question some of the pro-Hindu and widely
accepted interpretations of Shivaji. Thus he
writes,
“What, then, are some of the unthinkable
thoughts, carefully held at bay by the narrators
who have shaped the Shivaji legend into a
familiar tale? Can one imagine a narrative of
Shivaji’s life in which, for example:
Shivaji had an unhappy family life?
Shivaji had a harem?
Shivaji was uninterested in the religion of the bhakti saints?
Shivaji’s personal ambition was to build a
kingdom, not liberate a nation?
Shivaji lived in a cosmopolitan Islamicate
world and did little to change that fact?” (p.
91).
Fear of raising questions like this can only help
the spread of Brahmanism and Hindutva.
"Time will submit to slavery
from illusion's bonds we'll be free
everyone will be
powerful and prosperous --
Brahman, Ksatriya, Vaishya, Shudra
and Chandala all have rights
women, children, male and female
and even prostitutes"
--Tuka (Tukaram), 17th cent. Marathi Sant of India
_____
[5]
The Indian Express
Thursday, January 08, 2004
Hindutva on the beach
Why tiny Goa is the poster state for a modern BJP
SAGARIKA GHOSE
New Year revellers are crawling back from the
beaches of BJP-ruled Goa, having cast off their
clothes and inhibitions for a few days of sandy
celebration. As the parties on the beach wind
down, another party is being fashioned not so far
away from the fun-worshippers gyrating nakedly in
their shacks. In an election year, with hope in
its heart and bijli sadak pani on its lips, the
BJP is desperately seeking a modern identity. It
is seeking an identity that is different from
that frightening backward-looking anti-woman,
anti-minority and anti-youth force known as
Hindutva. And, curiously enough, it is in tiny
Goa, where the BJP has somewhat succeeded in
becoming more modern than anywhere in north India.
Ten years ago, the BJP was invisible in Goa.
Congress and smaller regional parties like the
United Goan Democratic Party and the
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party dominated.
Defections were so astoundingly brazen that never
mind the 'Aya Rams' and 'Gaya Rams' of north
India, instead the 'Aya D'Souzas' and 'Gaya
D'Souzas' of Goa were responsible for as many as
13 governments in a decade. Since then there has
been a cataclysmic change: the BJP has entered
the political scene, after first allying with the
MGP and then swallowing it up. And two years ago,
Manohar Parrikar, IIT-educated RSS member, became
chief minister of what is fast becoming India's
party state.
The armies of rappers, ravers, grinning
Gujjubhais and screeching Bongs may not have
recognised a young moustachioed figure posing
alongside other BJP chief ministers in the prime
minister's birthday photo. Parrikar is not a
Hindu warrior like Uma Bharti or Narendra Modi,
nor is he royal like Vasundhara Raje. Although he
is as vulnerable to charges of saffronisation as
any sangh politician, he has, at the same time,
brought Goa to a point where its revenue coffers
and electricity are in surplus.
There are many reasons why Goa can be seen as the
poster-state for a 'modern' BJP. Parrikar may be
an RSS member, but he cannot, for fear of
perennial damage to Goa's international allure
and her 2 million seasonal tourists, ever forget
that he leads a republic of fiesta and susegado
(good living). RSS gerontocrats may be furious at
bikinis and five star hotels but they can never
forget that it is precisely this that brings in
massive revenue, jobs and tourism opportunities
for locals. So while Hindutva gangs in Mumbai can
set fire to posters of lesbian movies or disrupt
fashion shows in Nasik, in Goa, hindutva must
play second fiddle to the birdie dance.
Moreover, as every lover of Goa knows, the beach
parties are a myth. The reality is a traditional
and uniquely spiritual society where the romance
with god is far too varied to ever be exclusively
Hindu. This is perhaps the only state so far
where the BJP must contend with a large (thirty
per cent Catholic) minority which is
sophisticated, powerful and deeply rooted. Behind
the shuttered windows of the great mansions
belonging to the venerable old Catholic families
such as the Silva home in Margao or the Figueredo
home in Loutolim breathes the spirit of
"delicadeza" (delicacy) and "decencia" (decency).
Hindutva must coexist with the profoundly plural
Goan Hinduism of thousands of common customs.
Every wayside shrine, whether a hibiscus under a
crucifix or candle outside a shantadurga mandir
roars out its repudiation of bigotry. In villages
like Mashem Loliem, Dassehra processions stop at
the homes of only certain Brahmins and certain
Christians. In villages like Siolim (Remo
Fernandez' village), jagor (folk) music is played
by both communities and Hindus perform 'teatre',
drama traditionally associated with Christians.
Folk humanist Christianity and gentle festive
Hinduism have coexisted for so long that they
have formed their own canon. Sure, the two worlds
barely touch, there's hardly any inter-marriage
and a fair degree of competitiveness. Yet running
through the 'communidad' of every village,
surrounding the common kuladevatha (village
deity) shrines and rising upward to the palm
trees, is the whispered conviction: "Ami Bhau"
(We are brother).
Parrikar has been accused of saffronising primary
school education. Reports say that village
schools have been forced to close and then handed
over to RSS-backed organisations. There are
reports that he has also encouraged the
saffronisation of the school syllabus, that
textbooks written by the Goa examination board
are advancing an anti-Christian, anti-Muslim
mentality. The RSS is reportedly active among the
Kunbi Velip tribes through the Girivasi Sammelan
schemes. Yet there is also the inescapable fact
that any one seeking to win elections in Goa
simply cannot afford to play an anti-minority
card. This is because out of 40 assembly
constituencies, 9 are majority Christian
constituencies and are located in the Christian
heartland of Salcette as are several other
constituencies in north Goa, or Bardez, in the
Calangute Baga area. A shared history of
suffering under the Portuguese means that no
politician who pits communities against each
other can hope to win votes.
There is yet another reason why aggressive
Hindutva cannot succeed in Goa. And this is the
Konkani language. Konkani binds Hindu and
Christian in an irreversible bond. Konkani is
much more than just a language: it stands for the
Goan way of life and it is the language that the
Goans fought for against the waves of
Marathi-speakers from the north. The BJP's
"aryan" Hindutva is seen by many as a covert
attempt to impose Marathi and declare it as an
official language and any administrative agenda
that attacks Konkani is doomed to disaster. The
defence of Konkani, so dear to every Goan, is
also a defence of Goan plurality.
Manohar Parrikar may be an RSS cadre but Goa will
never let him become Narendra Modi. His people
are too scornful of narrow-mindedness, far too
close to each other's lives to be torn asunder by
vicious politics. No wonder Parrikar has turned
his attention to sound financial management,
roads, an excellent social security scheme for
the aged, agro-based industries and subsiding
exports. In Goa, the BJP has been made more
tolerant, more development-oriented, far more
careful about nasty rhetoric and thus more modern
than anywhere else in India. Of course, your
humble columnist still doesn't know whether the
sangh parivar will ever be cool enough to invite
to a beach party, but, hey, didn't Uma Bharti
recently say she wanted Madhya Pradesh to become
another Goa?
_____
[6]
[January 7, 2003]
Madhu Prasad teaches philosophy at Delhi
University. She is an active member of SAHMAT
(Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust), an organisation
working for inter-religious dialogue and
secularism, based in Delhi. Here she speaks to
Yoginder Sikand on her vision of communal harmony.
Q: How did you get involved in the work of SAHMAT?
A: I have been associated with SAHMAT right since
its inception. It was set up soon after Safdar
Hashmi, noted trade unionist and social activist,
was murdered in 1980. As you might know, he was
killed while staging a street play for factory
workers at Sahibabad, near Delhi. Safdar was a
close friend, and we were involved in the same
movement. He was really the beacon light whose
work and sacrifices inspired us to set up SAHMAT.
Following his murder, we, a group of individuals
who were closely involved with him in the same
sort of work, decided to form SAHMAT to carry on
his mission.
Q: Could you tell us something about Safdar Hashmi's work?
A: Safdar was mainly involved in cultural
activism. He set up the Jan Natya Manch, a
people's street theatre group, with the idea that
it should form the nucleus of a movement for
promoting a secular popular culture. In 1988 the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad organised what it called
the Ekatmata Yajna all over the country; spewing
venom against the Muslims, and we felt very
concerned about this. So, Safdar and his
co-workers began to make efforts to mobilise
people against communalism. We set up a committee
for communal harmony, through which we tried to
mobilize people from all walks of life,
particularly cultural activists, artistes and
people who were not necessarily involved in party
politics but felt strongly about the rise of
communalism. Safdar played a central role in this
committee.
Q: What work did this committee do?
A: The first thing that we did was to organise a
march for communal harmony through the streets of
01d Delhi. There must have been some 25,000
participants, including students' and women
activists, and we got a very enthusiastic
response from the people. Then, we organized an
auction of works of art to collect funds for our
activities. In the very first auction we earned
more than two lakh rupees, which was a very large
sum in those days. We a1so went about various
localities in Delhi collecting money for our
work. We got a lot of support from the people.
Nobody told us to go away, as they probably would
if we were to go to them today to ask for
contributions for promoting communal harmony. And
then, the Jan Natya Manch performed a number of
street plays on communalism, which were very well
appreciated. Safdar would take the group to
perform in colleges, working class areas,
government employees' colonies and to factory
gates.
Q: What are the main activities of SAHMAT today?
A: Our major emphasis is on cultural work for
promoting communal harmony and fighting against
religious fundamentalism. We have brought out
numerous cassettes and publications and also have
a regular Hindi monthly. We have been organising
a major cultural festival on 1st January every
year, the day Safdar was murdered, at which
musicians, dancers, painters and street theatre
groups perform, all for the cause of communal
harmony. And what is particularly remarkable
about this is that those who perform at our
concerts do so free of cost, simply for the sake
of the cause.
In the wake of the destruction of the Babri
Masiid in 1992, we organised a mobile exhibition
of photographs and pictures explaining the actual
history of Ayodhya, which was taken all over the
country to counter the claims of the
Hindutvawadis. On 15th August 1993 we went to
Ayodhya and held a concert for communal harmony
on the banks of the Saryu river, which we called
Muktnad or 'The Sound of Freedom'. One of our
most memorable concerts was the Anhad Garje
Bhakti-Sufi musical festival that we organised
less than a month after the destruction of the
Babri Masjid. This concert brought together
artistes from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and
Bangladesh. It was a resounding success, and we
took the concert to eight or nine cities all over
the country. The basic message of the concert was
that the mystics of all religions have pointed to
the same Ultimate Truth. That is true religion
and spirituality, not the sort of religion that
the Hindutva lobby or the Taliban are peddling
today.
Q: How do you think our Sufi and Bhakti
traditions can be used to counter communalism?
A: I don't know if the word 'use' is really
appropriate. The Sufi and Bhakti traditons are
themselves so deeply entrenched in the minds of
our people that an instrumentalist use of these
traditions is perhaps unnecessary. These
traditions, insofar as they are so open and
deeply humanistic, directly challenge the claims
of the Hindutva lobby or other communal forces.
Moreover, they are such an integral part of our
cultural heritage that they are easily accessible
and understood. You don't have to bring in
something from the outside and impose it on the
people. I mean, I don't have to force Brecht down
their throats to promote humanism, because we
have this very rich heritage to draw upon for the
same purpose. Now, we at SAHMAT have been trying
to promote this Sufi-Bhakti tradition because we
see it as a rich resource for countering the
claims of those who use religion for sinister
ends. But ours is not an instrumental use of
these traditions. Rather, we are simply trying to
give them space to articulate their voices.
Q: But is it not the case that with the rise of
religious militancy, these traditions are now
fast dying out?
A: I don't think so. We urban intellectuals may
have forgotten these traditions, but they are
still very much alive among the people. They
continue to play a very crucial role in promoting
communal harmony. Who can say that Bulleh Shah is
only a Muslim or a Pakistani mystic? He belongs
to all PunjabisóSikhs, Muslims, Hindus and
others. The same can be said of Kabir, Farid,
Nanak and so many others. As I see it, these
traditions, which are still the basis of a
vibrant popular culture, can playa very important
role in challenging and combatting those who are
employing religion for their own vested interests.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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
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