SACW | 2 April 2004

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at mnet.fr
Thu Apr 1 19:32:10 CST 2004


South Asia Citizens Wire   |  2 April,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Is there hope for South Asia? (Zulfiqar 
Bhutta, Samiran Nundy, Kamran Abbasi)
[2] Pakistan:
- Women's commission recommends Qisas law be amended (Waqar Gillani)
- Religious fervour blocking moves against gender discrimination (Raja Asghar)
- Pakistan: Islamic scholars have failed to cope with modern times: Asma
[3] India: Secularism Alerts by Sahmat
Alert 1: Huntington's New Thesis and India (Girish Mishra)
Alert 2: Can a BJP Government Make Tribal India Shine? (Archana Prasad)
[4] South Asia: Often a voice in a snatch of 
poetry can reach places where no politician can go
(Syeda Hameed)
[5] India: Joining hands against communalism
[6] India: Interview - Camera Conscience (Anand Patwardhan)
[7] USA: Upcoming Talks in April by Ram Puniyani 
in California (LA, San Diego and Laguna Niguel)
[8] India: Important Correction re letter to the 
editor carried in SACW 22-23 March 2004 (Mukul 
Dube)


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

[1]

British Medical Journal [Theme Issue 'Health in South Asia']
(3 April) 2004; 328:777-778

Editorial

IS THERE HOPE FOR SOUTH ASIA?
YES, IF WE CAN REPLICATE THE MODELS OF KERALA AND SRI LANKA

Two years turned the Indian subcontinent into 
South Asia. Between 14 August 1947 and 4 February 
1948, India, Pakistan (its eastern part would 
later become Bangladesh), and Sri Lanka all 
gained independence from the British Empire. Amid 
the optimism of independence, the new states were 
comparable in population health and development 
indicators. Their progress since has been 
different.

This issue of the BMJ maps out the extent of the 
region's myriad difficulties. Non-communicable 
and communicable diseases ravage South Asia (see 
pp 781, 794, 807, 811). Tobacco and 
pharmaceutical industries are exploiting weak 
legislation to nurture new markets (pp 778, 780, 
801). There is little pride in the progress of 
surgery (p 782), health research (p 826), or 
postgraduate education (p 779). Yet one challenge 
dwarfs all these: the desperate state of maternal 
and child health. Several articles reinforce the 
message that the scale of morbidity and mortality 
caused by neglect of mothers and children is 
driving the region to disaster (pp 791, 816, 820, 
823). And unless regional priorities switch from 
nuclear weapons to maternal and child health the 
progress that is being made in community 
development (p 830), by integrating care in 
refugee camps (p 834), by the creators of the 
Jaipur foot (p 789) and the Karachi ambulance 
service (p 790), and on cricket fields (pp 800, 
843) will count for nothing.

The answers to the region's problems may already 
be with us. Despite a civil war, Sri Lanka has 
the best health indicators in the region (also 
beating those of most other countries with 
comparable incomes), with average life expectancy 
at 73 years, infant mortality at 16 per 1000, and 
maternal mortality at 30 per 100 000 live 
births.1 India's Kerala state has achieved health 
and demographic indicators far ahead of Indian 
national averages, with similar levels to Sri 
Lanka2; over 80% of infants receive all routine 
vaccines by 1 year, use of family planning 
services is high, and population growth is steady 
at replacement levels.3 4

The genesis of this success is an object lesson 
for the entire region. Soon after independence 
Sri Lanka decided to invest heavily in education 
and health as a cornerstone of socioeconomic 
development. Gains in education have been 
impressive, with literacy rates for both sexes 
exceeding 90%.5 Similarly, Kerala has the highest 
literacy rates among all Indian states.3 Both 
have maintained policies to achieve gender and 
social equity, reflected in outstanding health 
and economic indicators for women.6 In Sri Lanka, 
women constitute over half the work force.7

Political will and grassroots support have 
stimulated development, underpinning largely 
consistent health and investment strategies. Soon 
after independence, both governments introduced 
agrarian reform that ended feudal land holdings, 
thus alleviating poverty and promoting equity. An 
important policy plank has been a focus on 
primary care-especially maternal and child 
health-through a multilayered health system with 
adequate provision of basic services at community 
level. Sri Lanka does not have a single magnetic 
resonance scanner in the public sector, 
epitomising a deliberate public focus on primary 
and secondary care. By contrast, many other 
countries in South Asia boast expensive tertiary 
care institutions (where sophisticated imaging is 
to be found), with low funding of primary and 
rural care.

This progress has not gone unchecked. 
Improvements in socioeconomic conditions prompted 
growth of the private sector in Kerala, as public 
institutions failed to keep up with the 
population's demand for quality care. A recent 
review of community health workers found gaps in 
their ability to adapt from implementing vertical 
national programmes to problem solving at local 
level.8 Others have criticised health in Kerala 
as "low mortality high morbidity," with little 
attention paid to diseases of transition.9 Local 
communities, in typical fashion, have assumed the 
responsibility for resolving these issues.10

What can the rest of South Asia learn from Kerala 
and Sri Lanka? Firstly, given leadership, 
investments in education and primary care can 
provide a framework for human development. 
Secondly, gains have been achieved against a 
background of participatory democracy; indeed, 
social consciousness is crucial in overcoming the 
menace of corruption.11 Thirdly, maternal and 
child health is critical to development.

Can the rest of South Asia follow this lead? Yes, 
but doing so requires setting aside political 
differences, resolving regional conflicts, and 
creating an atmosphere that reduces spending on 
defence and nuclear arsenals. This may sound like 
wishful thinking but how else will we create hope 
from the despair of untold child death, wanton 
neglect of girls and women, and a rich elite 
feasting on the misery of millions in poverty? 
Health professionals in the region have an 
opportunity to join hands across national 
boundaries, cast aside historic divisions that 
suffocate progress, and begin to realise this 
vision of something better-a vision crystal clear 
in the heady days of independence, since lost in 
the intervening years of poverty, conflict, and 
nationalism.

We hope this issue of the BMJ will stimulate 
similar intiatives, promoting a dialogue about 
health throughout the region.

Zulfiqar Bhutta, Husein Lalji Dewraj professor of paediatrics and child health
Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Pakistan (zulfiqar.bhutta at aku.edu)
Samiran Nundy, consultant gastrointestinal surgeon
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi 110016, India (snundy at hotmail.com)
Kamran Abbasi, deputy editor BMJ, London WC1H 9JR (kabbasi at bmj.com)

References

1.	The World Bank. Sri Lanka's health 
sector: achievements and challenges. Washington, 
DC: World Bank, 1998.
2.	Rani M, Shah S. Worlds apart: why are 
Kerala and Uttar Pradesh so different in their 
human development outcomes? World development 
report 2004. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004. 
www.econ.worldbank.org/files/31147_33.pdf 
(accessed 18 Mar 2004).
3.	Zachariab KC. Models of development and 
demographic change: a case study of Kerala. 
Demography India 1998;27: 71-89.
4.	Demographic and Health Survey 2000. 
Colombo: Sri Lanka, Department of Census and 
Statistics, Ministry of Finance and Planning, 
2001.
5.	Rannan-Eliya RP, Berman P, Eltigani EE, 
de Silva I, Somanathan A, Sumathiratne V. 
Expenditures for reproductive health and family 
planning services in Egypt and Sri Lanka. 
Washington, DC: Policy Project, 2000.
6.	Pathmanathan I, Liljestrand J, Martins 
JM. Rajapaksa LC, Lissner C, Silva AD, et al. 
Investing in maternal health: learning from 
Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Health Nutrition and 
Population Series. Washington, DC: World Bank, 
2003.
7.	Sustainable Development Department, Food 
and Agriculture Organization of the United 
Nations. Asia's women in agriculture, environment 
and rural production. Sri Lanka. 
www.fao.org/sd/wpdirect/WPre0112.htm (accessed 18 
Mar 2004).
8.	Nair VM, Thankappan KR, Sarma PS, Vasan 
RS. Changing role of grassroot health workers in 
Kerala, India. Health Policy Plann 2001;16: 171-9.
9.	Panikar PGK, Soman CR. Health status of 
Kerala. Trivandrum: Center for Development 
Studies, 1984.
10.	Franke RF, Chasin BH. The Kerala 
decentralisation experiment: achievements, 
origins, and implications. May 23-28, 2000. 
International Conference on Democratic 
Decentralisation, May 2000. 
http://chss2.montclair.edu/anthropology/keralaexperiment.htm 
(accessed 30 Mar 2004).
11.	Bhutta ZA. Beyond Bellagio: addressing 
the issue of sustainable child health in 
developing countries. Arch Dis Child 2004 (in 
press).

_____


[2]

The Daily Times [Pakistan]
April 01, 2004

WOMEN'S COMMISSION RECOMMENDS QISAS LAW BE AMENDED

By Waqar Gillani
LAHORE: The National Commission on the Status of 
Women (NCSW), at its three-day final consultation 
reviewing the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance (Act II 
of 1997) and the concept of justice in Islam, 
declared that honour killings and all other sorts 
of victimisation of women have no link with Islam.
A consultative workshop, concluded a day ago, 
also stressed the need to change the Islamic 
definition of a 'wali' and asked the government 
to properly compensate women victims of domestic 
violence, who were not being treated well by the 
government. The workshop suggested the government 
try the accused for violence against women under 
the Islamic term 'Tazeer'.
According to NCSW officials, the workshop 
participants urged the government to take strict 
measures to end violence against women. They also 
suggested the government stop the application and 
misuse of the Qisas and Diyat laws and declare 
the offence "non-compoundable". "In such cases 
the offenders must be given exemplary 
punishments," the participants said.
It was noted that "there is no provision in the 
Quran and Sunnah that a killer of his wife be 
exempted from Qisas in cases where minor children 
are left behind as legal heirs. As such the 
prevalent law must be amended accordingly," the 
workshop recommended.
The participants said that 'vani/swara' and 
'watta satta' (exchange marriages) are 
pre-Islamic traditions and have no scope in 
Islam. "They must be condemned and strict 
punishment must be awarded to the accused," they 
said. They also said the term 'not valid' in the 
proviso to Section 310 of the Pakistan Penal Code 
(PPC) - giving of women in marriage shall not be 
a valid badl-e-sulh (a compounding agreement) - 
is not enough and that the term 'void ab initio' 
or 'illegal' should be used instead. They 
recommended a punitive clause be provided in this 
respect.
The participants also agreed that offences under 
the Qisas and Diyat laws were directed against 
the legal order of the state, because the state 
is responsible for the lives and property of its 
people. "However, the legal heirs of a victim are 
vested with the right to demand Qisas or compound 
the offence by accepting Diyat. But this does not 
stop the state from trying the offence and 
punishing the offender," they said.
They suggested that no offence under Qisas and 
Diyat be compounded until and unless the trial is 
completed, after which the legal heirs of the 
victim might demand Qisas or compound the 
offence. "However, the state retains its right to 
punish the offender even if the offence is 
compounded," they said.
The participants argued that circumstantial 
evidence must not be rejected even if the 
witnesses turns hostile. "The Qanoon-e-Shahadat 
Ordinance 1984 (Law of Evidence) provides clear 
provisions to this effect, but unfortunately the 
law has not been enforced in its true spirit," 
said former chief justice Abdul Karim Kundi.
Others said that provision 313 of the PPC was 
"discriminatory" and required amendment. Dr 
Farooq Khan and Dr Aslam Khaki said this 
provision has "no justification" in Islam.
The participants also recommended Section 304 of 
the PPC be amended. The participants stressed 
that the Diyat amount should be treated as 
"compensation and not inheritance". Mr Khaki and 
SA Rehman quoted Verse 92 of Surah Nisa in which 
the word 'Ahl' is used for the right to Diyat. 
According to them, 'Ahl' means dependant and not 
necessarily the legal heirs.
They said that the definition of 'wali', as given 
in the prevalent law, should be re-defined in the 
true spirit of Islamic injunctions. The majority 
were of the view that the parameters should be 
prescribed in Section 338 of the PPC and that the 
judiciary must be trained in Sharia law.
NCSW Chairperson former justice Majida Rizvi, who 
chaired all the sessions, gave a detailed 
briefing of the objectives, functions and 
activities of the commission. She also 
highlighted an extensive review of the Hudood 
Ordinance of 1979.
Syeda Viquarun Nisa Hashmi, a research associate 
of the NCSW, gave a presentation of her research 
on the topic.
Ms Hashmi, highlighting salient features of her 
research, spoke about the impact of loopholes in 
the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance (Act II of 1997) 
and leniency of the judiciary in dealing with 
such social evils, citing provisions of the 
prevalent laws in the light of the Quran and 
Sunnah. She explained the gravity of crimes being 
committed for honour, substantiating her 
contention by presenting statistics of honour 
killings in Pakistan from 1997 to May 30 2003.
The acquittal ratio for people accused in honour 
killing cases, according to Ms Hashmi, is 43.13 
percent in Balochistan, 71.97 percent in Punjab, 
91.4 percent in Sindh and 92.9 percent in the 
North West Frontier Province. She also presented 
a detailed analysis of the judgments on the 
subject from 1977 to date.
The meeting was held from March 25 to 27 at 
Islamabad. The participants were religious 
scholars, political leaders, former judges, 
prominent lawyers and the heads of religious 
institutions. They included Professor Dr Khaled 
Masud, Dr Murtuza from the Council of Islamic 
Ideology, Safwanullah, Member of the National 
Assembly MP Bhandara, MNA Dr Farid Ahmed Piracha, 
MNA Yaqoot Jamilur Rehman, Shehla Zia, Professor 
Dr Iftikhar N Hassan, Farzana Bari, Muhammad 
Bilal, Sardar Muhammad Ghazi and others.
Similar consultation meetings have already been 
conducted in the Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and 
the NWFP. The NCSW will formulate its report and 
recommendations after the completion of the 
consultative process.

o o o o

The Daily Times [Pakistan]
April 01, 2004

ISLAMIC SCHOLARS HAVE FAILED TO COPE WITH MODERN TIMES: ASMA
Daily Times Monitor

LONDON: Islamic scholars in Pakistan don't know 
what they're talking about and cannot relate 
their religion to the country's changing society, 
award-winning human rights campaigner, said Asma 
Jehangir on BBC World's Hardtalk on Wednesday.
"They were the ones who said that television is 
banned and now they come on television. They 
don't know what they are talking about. They 
don't know how they have to relate religion to 
the growing times of society," she said.
Ms Jehangir who opposes laws against blasphemy 
and also the Hudood Ordinance, said adultery 
should not be punishable in this way.
When Mahreen Khan, the presenter of HARDtalk, put 
it to her that many scholars insist that Islamic 
law required adultery to be punishable, the 
lawyer replied: "Well, many scholars would have 
to see what the effects have been. Thousands of 
women have gone to jail and thousands of women 
that have gone to jail have been exploited, they 
have been raped in police stations. Would Islamic 
scholars want these women raped in police 
stations and then, after four years, the court 
decides mercifully that they are acquitted? What 
would they [say] about that? They are living in a 
very different system." [...].

o o o o 

Dawn [ Pakistan]
31 March 2004

RELIGIOUS FERVOUR BLOCKING MOVES AGAINST GENDER DISCRIMINATION
By Raja Asghar

ISLAMABAD, March 30: Religious fervour broke 
through political alliances in the National 
Assembly on Tuesday to confront moves for more 
rights for women and protection from customs such 
as honour killings.
Scenes like opposition clerics cheering a 
government move to dismiss an honour killing 
complaint from its own coalition members or PML-N 
conservatives defending the Hudood laws seemed 
ominous as regards the fate of a bill moved by 
the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) to 
eliminate gender discrimination.
Tuesday's developments in the lower house made it 
clear that the PPP's Protection and Empowerment 
of Women Bill, which seeks more rights for women 
and repeal of the Hudood ordinances, will meet a 
stiff - and possibly overwhelming - resistance 
from both friends and foes.
A further discussion over the admissibility of 
the bill was put off until the next private 
members' day after support for the move by two 
PPP women members was countered by strong 
opposition by one speaker each from the Muttahida 
Majlis-i-Amal and the Pakistan Muslim 
League-Nawaz.
Parliamentary sources said opposition from the 
ruling coalition as well as two major opposition 
parties seemed to seal the fate of the bill to be 
rendered as a mere publicity exercise for women's 
rights rather than standing any chance of its 
passage, which needed a simple majority in the 
342-seat house.
The bill moved by PPP MNA Sherry Rehman and eight 
co-sponsors on March 24 also seeks compulsory 
primary education for children under 10 years' 
age, equal participation of women in all walks of 
life, equal pay for equal work, prohibition of 
violence against women and honour killings, 
freedom for every woman to marry a man of her 
choice and one-third representation for women at 
the Council of Islamic Ideology and boards of 
autonomous bodies.

_____


[3]

SAHMAT
8, Vithalbhai Patel House, Rafi Marg,New Delhi-110001
Telephone- 3711276/ 3351424
E-mail: sahmat at vs vsnl.com, sahmat8 at yahoo.com

1. 4. 2004

Secularism Alert-1

HUNTINGTON'S NEW THESIS AND INDIA

by Girish Mishra

Once again Samuel Huntington, professor and 
chairman of the Harvard Academy for International 
and Area Studies has come out with a new thesis, 
which underlines the danger posed to the unity, 
identity and culture of the United States of 
America by the continuing immigration of Hispanic 
people. The basic contours of this thesis have 
been presented in a longish article "The Hispanic 
Challenge" (Foreign Policy, March-April 2004), 
though its full elaboration will be available in 
his forthcoming book Who Are We to be published 
by Simon & Schuster.

He thinks America is facing a grave challenge to 
its traditional identity, culture and unity. It 
comes from migrants from Latin America in general 
and Mexico in particular. In his own words: "The 
persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants 
threatens to divide the United States into two 
peoples, two cultures, and two languages. Unlike 
past immigrant groups, Mexicans and Latinos have 
not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, 
forming instead their own political and 
linguistic enclavesófrom Los Angeles to Miamióand 
rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built 
the American dream. The United States ignores 
this challenge at its peril."The fertility rates 
of these

immigrants are much higher. Thus if preventive 
measures are not taken forthwith, the Hispanic 
immigrants may, in the course of time, tilt the 
demographic balance in their favour. He obviously 
wants the country to rethink its policy of 
welcoming foreigners, especially the Hispanic 
people. To quote: "Americans like to boast of 
their past success in assimilating millions of 
immigrants into their society, culture, and 
politics. But Americans have tended to generalize 
about immigrants without distinguishing among 
them and focused on the economic costs and 
benefits of immigration, ignoring its social and 
cultural consequences.

As a result they have overlooked the unique 
characteristics and problems posed by 
contemporary Hispanic immigration. The extent and 
nature of this immigration differ fundamentally 
from those of previous immigration and 
assimilation successes of the past are unlikely 
to be duplicated with the contemporary flood of 
immigrants from Latin America. The reality poses 
a fundamental question: Will the United States 
remain a country with a single national language 
and a core Anglo-Protestant culture? By ignoring 
this question, Americans acquiesce to their 
eventual transformation into two peoples with two 
cultures (Anglo and Hispanic) and two languages 
(English and Spanish)."

Another point of concern for Huntington is that 
Hispanic immigrants are concentrated in the 
southwest areas of the USA, which are in 
geographical proximity of the country of their 
origin, Mexico. It may, in the future, pose a 
threat to Americaís security. Unlike them, the 
early waves of immigrants came from far off lands 
and once they reached the shores of America, they 
tried their best to adopt the language, culture 
and way of living of their host country. The 
overwhelming majority of them belonged to the 
Anglican Church and the Protestant sect of 
Christianity. Even those whose mother tongue was 
not English learnt it very quickly. They got 
scattered throughout the country, depending on 
the availability of economic 
opportunities.Factually, Huntington is wrong on 
several counts. First, like the 17th-19th century 
immigrants from Germany, Italy and the countries 
of Southern and Eastern Europe, Hispanic 
immigrants from Mexico have also been fast 
learners of English. The first generation 
Hispanic immigrants may not be fluent in English, 
but the same cannot be said of their descendants. 
Richard Alba and Victor Nee in their study 
Remaking the American Mainstream have pointed out 
that as many as 60 per cent of third-generation 
Mexican-American children speak only English at 
home. Other researchers have also corroborated 
this. Thus every succeeding generation adopts 
English as its first language.

On the question of regional concentration too, 
Huntington is wrong. Data reveal that during the 
last decade of the 20th century Hispanic 
immigrants moved out of their traditional 
enclaves and went to other places mainly in 
search of better opportunities. As far as 
retaining ties with countries of origin is 
concerned, there is nothing unusual. History 
testifies that every ethnic group continues to 
have some sort of affinity with the place, region 
or country of its origin, but this does not mean 
that it is not loyal to the country where it is 
settled. One may refer to Indian-Americans in 
this regard. Their love for India and Indian 
culture does not come in their way of performing 
their duties as American citizens. In the recent 
war in Iraq, people of Hispanic origin have not 
lagged behind others in doing their duties as 
both combatants and non-combatants. One of the 
topmost commanders of the American forces in Iraq 
is a Latino.

Let us turn our attention to India. Among the 
Hindu communalists, there is quite a sizable 
section that has been influenced by the ideas of 
Samuel Huntington from the time he came out with 
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of 
World Order. Its influence could be easily 
discerned in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Even a 
person like our Prime Minister Vajpayee who is 
supposed to be a liberal could not keep himself 
immune from the virus spread by Huntington. It 
was obvious from his speech as at a BJP conclave 
in Goa soon after the Gujarat massacres. There 
has been a systematic campaign against the 
illegal immigrants from Bangladesh has been going 
for decades. They have been blamed for all sorts 
of ills from growing incidence of crimes and 
higher rates of fertility to mushrooming of slums 
and smuggling. They

are supposed to snatch away jobs from the poor 
inhabitants of our country. They are regarded as 
a big threat to India's security because their 
loyalty to India is always in doubt. It is 
whispered but broadcast loudly by the VHP and 
others that they may tilt the demographic balance 
against the Hindus in the long run.

The present dispensation in India, led by the NDA 
has been trying to identify and deport these 
Bangladeshi immigrants. It is an open secret that 
this has led to harassment and extortion by the 
police.It needs to be noted that there is a big 
element of communalism involved in this exercise 
being carried out at the behest of the Home 
Ministry. The ire is directed only against Muslim 
immigrants from Bangladesh. The Hindus coming 
from Bangladesh are given sympathy

and succour because they are supposed to be 
fleeing from oppression from their country. The 
immigrants from Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and 
Burma are not frowned upon because they are 
Hindus. The recent thesis of Huntington may not 
cut much ice in the United States because as the 
reports

indicate it has not be taken seriously by 
intellectuals, policy makers and public at large. 
Nor has it become an issue in the ongoing 
presidential election campaign. The New Republic 
in a recent article has dismissed it as a sign of 
muddled thinking. In India, however, communal 
elements may use it prop up their pernicious 
campaign.

o o o o

Secularism Alert-2

CAN A BJP GOVERNMENT MAKE TRIBAL INDIA SHINE?

by Archana Prasad
(Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library)

The release of the NDA government's Draft 
National Tribal Policy on the eve of the 
announcement of elections is not a coincident. 
With tribal Central India going the BJP way in 
the assembly elections of 2003, the BJP has only 
seized the moment to consolidate its tribal base. 
The outfits of the Sangh Parivar have been active 
in these regions since the 1930s and have built 
up an infrastructure that largely consist of 
shishu mandirs and vanvasi kalyan ashrams, the 
vehicles of Hindutva ideology in these areas. The 
Sangh Parivar has also been stressing that the 
tribals or ëadivasis were always a part of the 
Hindu society and were therefore to be protected 
from the conversion activities of the Christian 
Missions in these areas. In this regard it is 
particularly important to note that the first 
anti-conversion laws were enacted by Dilip Singh 
Judeoís ancestors in the state of Jashpur in the 
early 1930s. Thus the BJPís effort in pushing its 
Hindutva agenda amongst the tribals is not a new 
one, but has acquired a fresh thrust in the last 
five years since the BJP has come into power at 
the Centre. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs and 
Khadi and Village Industries Commission have been 
used by the government to dole out grants to 
those NGOs and voluntary sector organisations 
that are steadily implementing the BJP agenda in 
these regions. More than 85% of the funds of the 
Schedule Castes and Tribes Commission was given 
to NGOs associated with the Sangh Parivar in 
Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. Thus it is not 
surprising to note that Draft Tribal Policy has 
identified the NGOs as major partners in 
implementing government programmes for tribal 
development.

The BJP's draft policy attempts to underline its 
differences with the Congress policy of the post 
independence era. The Congressís vision of tribal 
development was guided by Nehruvian principles 
that were embedded in a respect for cultural 
pluralism and a commitment to solve the problems 
of exploitation and underdevelopment in tribal 
areas. The Draft policy attacks this framework as 
being "long on generalities and short on 
specifics". In order to solve this problem the 
NDA government set up the Ministry of tribal 
affairs in 1999 with the flag bearer of the 
recoversion campaign, Dilip Sigh Judeo at its 
helm. But the creation of this ministry hardly 
solved any problems of the tribal people and they 
continued "to live below the poverty line and 
have poor literacy rates, suffer from 
malnutrition and disease and are vulnerable to 
displacement" as underscored by the policy 
itself. That the ministry and more specifically 
the minister himself was more interested in 
funding Hindutva activities and less in solving 
the real problems of the tribal India, was seen 
in the tape that showed him taking money for 
giving mining leases to a foreign company in 
tribal areas. The row that followed forced the 
minister to resign, but was significant as it 
reflected the real character of the BJP policy 
and politics in tribal dominated areas.

The aggressive Hindu nationalism of the Sangh 
Parivar is quite compatible with the BJPís policy 
of opening up the tribal economy. In the last 
five years most of this opening up has taken 
place for the benefit of the traders, big 
companies and foreign money who fund the 
activities of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and 
Saraswati Shiksha Sansthan (an umbrella 
organization of all Parivar educational 
institutions). It is no coincidence then that the 
Shishu Mandir Trust is headed by one of the 
largest Marwari traders of Calcutta and its local 
branches are patronized by influential 
landholders and traders. Thus the activities of 
the Sangh Parivar have ended up strengthening, 
rather than dismantling the very forces that have 
been exploiting the tribal people since the 
advent of the British rulers in these areas. The 
policies of the NDA government in the last five 
years have only strengthened and aided this 
process. Disinvestment of industries like BALCO 
and the privatization of land, water and forest 
resources as in the case of the Sheonath River, 
will only lead to the further deprivation, and 
unemployment of tribal people. The withdrawal of 
the state from key sectors has led to the 
reduction of state investment in infrastructure 
development. In this context, all attempts at the 
decentralized management of forests and forest 
produce collection have only strengthened the 
traders, industrialists and multi national 
companies who are appropriating the knowledge, 
labour and resources of tribal people for their 
own profits. The Draft Tribal Policy not only 
ignores these developments but is also an attempt 
to hide the real BJP agenda in tribal areas. A 
vote for the BJP is thus a vote against the 
interests of the tribal people, whereas a vote in 
favour of the secular forces will strengthen 
their ongoing struggles and movements.



______


[4]

Indian Express
March 31, 2004

NOW, IN SOUTH ASIA
OFTEN A VOICE IN A SNATCH OF POETRY CAN REACH PLACES WHERE NO POLITICIAN CAN GO
by Syeda Hameed
	 		 
Thirty writers, five countries, three days, six 
sessions. Last week, the Women's Initiative for 
Peace in South Asia (WIPSA) had organised a 
Dialogue of South Asian Women Writers. What did 
it mean? What difference did 30 women sitting 
together on the outskirts of Delhi, make? Will 
their voices ever reach places where decisions on 
war and peace are made? My contention as one of 
the organisers of this dialogue is that they 
will; it's a matter of time.

Zehra Nigah of Pakistan, who really belongs to 
all of South Asia, inaugurated the event with her 
poem, 'The Story of Gul Badshah', about a 
13-year-old boy caught in the war against terror 
in Afghanistan and 'Suna Hai' (I have heard about 
the law of the jungle which is more humane than 
the law of human civilisation). The words of her 
poem surprisingly became the thread on which all 
the sessions were strung. The sessions ranged 
from "women writing peace" to "women writing 
identities" to "women writing freedom". The 
concluding theme posed the question: Can women 
make another world possible?

Clearly, the idea of the writer as an activist 
was the predominant one. Take Pratibha Ray from 
Orissa. Her story, 'Is the colour of religion 
Black?', is a protest against the ban on 
light-skinned people entering the Jagannath 
temple on suspicion that they are not Hindus. Or 
Mari Marcel Thekakara of Karnataka, on the 
subject of 'Endless Filth', which is also the 
title of her book about manual scavenging. Or 
Faustina Bama of Tamil Nadu, talking of the 
'peace of the graveyard' when it comes to the 
subalterns of society.

There were writers against war, with Niaz Zaman 
of Bangladesh tracing women's activism against 
war to the Aristophanes' play Lysistrata. Writers 
like Naseem Shafai from Kashmir, Mitra Phukan 
from Assam, Sugatha Kumari from Kerala, all 
wanted to know why their "beautiful land" has 
been rendered unrecognisable. Zahida Hina of 
Pakistan in her story, 'Kumkum bahut aaraam se 
hai' (Kumkum is very well), sketched the horrors 
of the Afghan war, linking it to Tagore's 
Kabuliwalla. Manjushree Thapa of Nepal spoke of 
young girls conscripted by the Maoists, high up 
in the mountains of her country.

Atiya Dawood of Pakistan spoke about her fear of 
the Mohajirs during the deadly Sindhi-Mohajir 
conflict in Karachi. Sumathy Sivamohan, Tamil 
writer from Sri Lanka, read her poems on her 
conflict-torn land. Gujarat was recalled through 
the voices of Sarup Dhruv and Gitanjali Shree, 
while young writers from Pakistan - Uzma Aslam 
Khan and Kamila Shamsie - reminded listeners of 
the police lathis being wielded on the streets of 
Lahore against women protesting the Hudood 
Ordinances.

All these voices from South Asia were part of a 
far larger community of women writers from the 
world over who have together decided to deploy 
their pen for peace in their times and in their 
regions.



______



[5]

The Hindu, April 1, 2004

JOINING HANDS AGAINST COMMUNALISM
By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 31. In an attempt to reach out 
to the "hearts and minds of people" to fight the 
forces of communalism and hatred, ANHAD (Act Now 
For Harmony and Democracy), a non-government 
organisation released a series of docu-lectures 
titled "In Defence of Our Dreams" in the Capital 
today. Bringing together experts, artists and 
activists on a common platform to talk about the 
various aspects of communalism, "In Defence of 
Our Dreams" is a result of 18 five-day political 
training camps held in different parts of the 
country.

Releasing the docu-lecture series, eminent 
film-maker Saeed Mirza stated: "This particular 
phrase "In Defence of Our Dreams" means a lot to 
me. Just after the Gujarat carnage, Harsh Mander 
asked me to travel around India to find out what 
ordinary Indian feels. I travelled 35,000 km 
around the country to film "Unheard Voices". What 
I saw was that the ordinary citizens have the 
same beliefs as these scholars sitting in the 
cities. They had the same dreams of a just, 
compassionate, humane and equitable India. These 
scholars have put historicity, but they both 
voice the same beliefs."

While "In Defence of Our Dreams" is aimed to 
multiply the positive effects of the political 
training camps organised by ANHAD last year, it 
is also hoped that this series will serve as an 
important resource material for training 
activists, political workers and politicians. "We 
hope that this series will be an ally for 
organisations involved in fighting against 
communalism. The kit also includes the short 
films made by Saeed Mirza . A battle is being 
fought in the minds and hearts of people and I 
think we need to engage with this space. Since 
the last 20 years the movement of Ayodhya has 
created an alternate vision for India and has 
succeeded in demonising Islam. These beliefs have 
taken root in the minds of the middle class as 
also with the disadvantaged groups of Dalits, 
tribals and even women, which is even more 
worrying," said activist Harsh Mander.

"In Defence of Our Dreams" includes lectures by 
eminent historians Bipan Chandra, Mriduala 
Mukherjee, K.N. Panikkar as well as a lecture by 
senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai among others.


____


[6]

Times of India
Wednesday, March 31, 2004  |  INTERVIEW
CAMERA CONSCIENCE

Anand Patwardhan' s documentary, Father, Son and 
Holy War, which explores the relationship between 
communal violence and patriarchy, won national 
awards for Best Investigative Film and Best Film 
on Social Issues almost a decade ago. Yet, like 
his previous award-winning films, it needed a 
long-drawn-out legal battle, which ended a few 
days ago, to force Doordarshan to telecast it. 
Jyoti Punwani spoke to the activist-filmmaker 
about the value of such victories and censorship 
under different governments :

When do you expect your film to be screened?

The court gave Doordarshan three months time, so 
DD will probably avoid the elections as our film 
does not favour those who use religion for 
political gain.

Can you recount your previous victories against DD?

All five cases involved the broadcast of national 
award-winning documentaries. The first was Bombay 
Our City , on the plight of slum-dwellers. The 
case went all the way to the Supreme Court and 
after we won, DD broadcast the film at midnight! 
So the next few times we went to court, my lawyer 
P A Sebastian made the judges aware of this 
travesty and we won the right to be broadcast at 
prime time. This time, however, because part II 
of Father, Son and Holy War has an 'A' 
certificate, the judges gave DD some leeway in 
terms of time slots.

Advani's present rath yatra has a new theme. Does it make your film outdated?

Unfortunately not. Communal appeals are still 
being made, sometimes subtly, often blatantly. 
The Narendra Modi model has not been discarded. 
Women and minorities are still the targets of 
fundamentalism.

In your experience, does "India's shining" 
reflect the general mood among the 
English-speaking classes?

Paying lip service to the needs of the poor is no 
longer necessary. Conspicuous consumption is no 
longer embarrassing and the elite flaunts its 
incredible wealth. Even Bollywood has stopped 
making films that speak of economic and social 
justice. Who cares if farmers commit suicide and 
slum-dwellers and adivasis are thrown out from 
their homes? We are told ad nauseum that our 
economy is in great shape and all we have to do 
is wait for the trickle down. Many are still in 
this credulous stage but sooner or later the 
penny will drop. People will realise that their 
sacrifice did not buy them a future but went to 
pay for somebody's Rolex or Ferrari. In a world 
where basic resources like water, air and land 
are limited, when a small class uses these 
resources purely for recreation, it can only be 
at the expense of others. The one effective way 
of keeping the poor from understanding all this 
is to occupy their minds with religion and other 
forms of identity politics. My films are an 
attempt to cut through this propaganda.

As an activist-filmmaker, do you see any role for 
yourself in the forthcoming elections?

If there was a way to get millions to watch films 
like mine, I would say yes. A Doordarshan 
broadcast would be one way. Running documentaries 
like these in cinema halls could be another. The 
next best thing is to do what we are already 
trying, which is to show the films in classrooms, 
community centres.

From 1985, every film of yours has faced 
censorship regardless of the party in power.

Unfortunately, no government has been genuinely 
secular or supportive of the underclass. And 
Doordarshan has always been subservient to the 
party in power. But it should be understood that 
opposition to my films has increased with the 
coming of the BJP to power. The Censor Board in 
2003, for instance, wanted me to cut 21 scenes 
from War and Peace , including reference to the 
fact that Nathuram Godse killed Gandhiji! State 
interventionism was seen again when censorship 
was introduced for the first time at the Mumbai 
International Film Festival, 2004.

Does that make you cynical ?

No. Repression breeds resistance and we 
filmmakers organised Vikalp, an alternate, 
uncensored festival. Fighting incessantly in 
court does become exhausting, but the fact that 
we have won consistently speaks well of the 
safeguards provided by our Constitution.

Given your experience, is the judiciary our only hope?

In the US, the right-wing under Ronald Reagan and 
George Bush Sr were in power when the time came 
to appoint Supreme Court judges. These very 
judges then went on to anoint George Bush Jr when 
he lacked sufficient votes to become president. 
Given that precedent, the longer the religious 
right stays in power, the worse it will be for 
our democratic system.

You are active in the Indo-Pak friendship forum. 
Beyond the bonhomie, is there not the reality of 
a generation brought up in both countries who 
view the other country as the enemy?

When we visited Pakistan, I was surprised at the 
warmth that came from ordinary people we met by 
accident. There seems to be a genuine desire for 
peace and a skepticism about the military and 
politicians in general. The reason is that in a 
military dictatorship people learn to distrust 
propaganda while in democracies with 
fundamentalists in power, consent can be 
manufactured in the short run. Pakistanis do envy 
us for our democratic advantage; they see us as 
an example worth emulating.

____


[7]

CHALLENGES TO INDIAN DEMOCRACY

Monday, April 5, 2004 

7:00 PM 

University Hall, Room 1000
Loyola Marymount University
1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles, California 90045


Speaker:  Dr. RAM PUNIYANI

Social Activist & Author


Dr. RAM PUNIYANI is a well-known social activist, 
author and crusader for secularism and justice. 
He is a member of EKTA - Committee for Communal 
Amity, Mumbai and has worked directly among 
people affected by communal extremism. He has 
contributed articles in different magazines and 
journals and written books on themes around this. 
Some of his written works include, 'Post-Gujarat 
Reflections on Tasks for the Human Rights 
Movement', 'The Other Cheek' and ' Communal 
Politics-An Illustrated Primer'.  He has traveled 
extensively in Gujarat and written a number of 
books on the conditions there.

Dr. Puniyani teaches at the Indian Institute of 
Technology, Mumbai, and is currently engaged in 
conducting workshops for social activists, 
teachers and students.  With his experience in 
thought, ACTION and teaching, his talk is bound 
to bring a unique perspective to the challenges 
of the upcoming general election and longer-term 
challenges to democracy in India.

Sponsors: South Asia Forum, South Asian Network & 
Coalition for an Egalitarian & Pluralistic India
This event is free to the public and plenty of parking is available.
Directions:
From Valley:  Take San Diego (405) Freeway south. 
Exit on Manchester Blvd (W) and turn right 
towards the beach.
From Orange County: Take San Diego (405) Freeway 
North. Exit on Manchester Blvd (W) and turn left 
towards the beach.
From Downtown: Take I-10 West Freeway north and 
merge on to the San Diego (405) south. Exit on 
Manchester Blvd (W) and turn right towards the 
beach.
After following the above, turn right on Lincoln 
Blvd and make another right on LMU Drive. 
University Hall will be the first Bldg on the 
right, enter the underground parking structure 
from the second entrance and take the elevator to 
Room 1000.

For more information please contact:
Robin Khundkar (714) 895-5048; Asha Shahed 
310-377-8472; John Ishvaradas-Abdallah (310) 
748-9369 ; Asad Zaidi (714) 313-2703

April 7th Venues
Expert on Human Rights in India to Speak at Joan 
B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice

Dr. Ram Puniyani, author, social activist, and 
professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, 
Mumbai in Mumbai, India, will speak on 
"Religion-Based Nationalism and Human Rights" at 
the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at 
the University of San Diego on Wednesday, April 7 
from 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m. The lecture is 
cosponsored by the Joan B. Kroc Institute for 
Peace & Justice, Amnesty International, and the 
University of San Diego's Department of Theology 
and Religious Studies.

Dr. Puniyani will address the connections between 
religious fundamentalism and communal violence, 
the myth and reality of communal propaganda, and 
the impact of religion-based nationalism on human 
rights. He will discuss the causes for increasing 
communal violence, such as the massacre of over 
2000 Muslims in Gujarat, India in February and 
March, 2002, and violence against targeted 
segments of society, including women. The Scripps 
Ranch Amnesty International Group 461 has been 
working on the Gujarat case action file for last 
6 years.

The brown-bag lecture is free and open to the 
public. For more information or directions, call 
the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at 
(619) 260-7509 or see http://peace.sandiego.edu.


SOCIAL ACTIVIST PUNIYANI DISCUSSES INDIAN DEMOCRACY AT SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS
Justice Crusader Talk Open to the Public

WHO:             Dr. Ram Puniyani is a well-known 
social activist, author and crusader for
                         secularism and justice. 
He is a member of EKTA - Committee for
communal amity, teaches at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai
And conducts workshops for social activists, teachers and students.

WHAT:           Puniyani lecture and group 
discussion on how Indian democracy can
                         effect  global peace and 
economic conditions.  Talk sponsored by
                         Shepherd of the Hills in 
Laguna Niguel, The South Asia Forum and
                         The Coalition for an Egalitarian and Pluralistic India.

WHERE:       Shepherd of the Hills (SOTH), 30121 
Niguel Rd., Laguna Niguel, CA 92677.  (949) 
495-1310  www.shepherdofthehills.net

WHEN:          Wednesday, April 7, 2004,  7:00 p.m.


_____


[8]

IMPORTANT CORRECTION

A friend has drawn my attention to the fact that 
in my letter (see SACW 22-23 March 2004) about 
Mr. Vajpayee's statement that the central 
government could take action against the "foreign 
author" of a "controversial book", I failed to 
point out that the same Mr. Vajpayee had earlier 
spoken out against the attack on the Bhandarkar 
Institute by the Sambhaji Brigade. Here is what 
the *Telegraph* of Monday, 19 January 2004 said:

"On a visit to Mumbai on Friday, Prime Minister 
Atal Bihari Vajpayee condemned the attack and the 
ban on the book announced by the Congress-led 
coalition of Maharashtra."

Truly, the only kind of consistency we can expect 
from these people is that of porridge.

Mukul Dube
D-504 Purvasha Anand Lok .. Mayur Vihar 1 .. Delhi 110091


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

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:  snipurl.com/sacip
See also associated site: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.

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