SACW | 11-13 April 2004 | India: Communalism & Resistance

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  11-13 April,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] India:
- Youth for peace and Act Now for Harmony (Anhad) Activists attacked in Baroda
- Letter from supporters of Anhad and Youth for peace
- Letter from Mallika Sarabhai
[2] Book Review: "The Path of the Parivar: Articles on Gujarat and Hindutva"
and "Women and Communalism"  (Yogi Sikand)
[3] Book Review: The Babri Masjid Question, 1528-2003 - A Matter of 
National Honour ;2 Vols (Parvathi Menon)
[4] India: Stalkers hound bakery retrial spearhead
[5] India: Press Release by Defeat BJP Forum
[6] India: Wrath Over a Hindu God-U.S. Scholars' Writings Draw 
Threats From [Self-proclaimed] Faithful (Shankar Vedantam)
[7] India: Economist flays `India Shining' campaign
[8] India: What being Irfan means (Shashi Tharoor)
[9] India: Support Tehelka: The Peoples Weekly


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

[1]



The Hindu [India]
April 12, 2004


Peace campaigners attacked in Vadodara

By Our Special Correspondent


VADODARA, APRIL 11. About a dozen Bharatiya Janata Party and Vishwa 
Hindu Parishad activists attacked the young volunteers of "ANHAD" 
(Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) in Vadodara today. They were on a 
countrywide tour campaigning for peace and communal harmony.

The group leader, Shabnam Hashmi, the sister of the slain social 
activist, Safdar Hashmi, and some other volunteers, including girls, 
were manhandled, the shirts of some activists were torn and the 
windscreens of at least two of the vehicles used by the group were 
damaged in the attack.

On a complaint lodged by Ms. Hashmi with the Sayajiganj police 
station, two VHP and BJP workers, Mahesh Bhatt and Anant Anand, were 
arrested. They also lodged counter-complaints against the ANHAD. The 
ANHAD group later left for Surat.

The trouble apparently started at a media conference held by the 
ANHAD group which reached Vadodara this morning. A press release 
issued at the conference described the Sangh Parivar as the "killer 
of Mahatma Gandhi'' and as a divisive force out to destroy the social 
fabric of the country. It also called upon the youth to defeat the 
BJP at the hustings.

It is reported that there was an exchange of hot words at a press 
meet. Later, a dozen BJP and VHP activists reached the hotel and 
attacked the volunteers.

The attackers, reports said, abused the ANHAD volunteers and 
questioned why they were "spitting venom'' against Hindus and trying 
to "defame" Gujarat.

Fr. Cedric Prakash, director of Prashant, an Ahmedabad-based 
voluntary organisation, which is supporting the ANHAD movement in the 
State, while condemning the attack, said the incident showed the VHP 
and the BJP had become intolerant of criticism and were not prepared 
to give space to the people holding views different from their own 
ideology.

Our New Delhi Special Correspondent reports:

Speaking to The Hindu from Vadodara, Ms. Hashmi, said that a teenaged 
boy, Manan, was beaten up by VHP men - "his T-shirt was torn off his 
body and he was attacked viciously and left badly bruised," she said.

Her car was also attacked and its windowpanes and windshield were 
broken. "Fortunately, no one was seriously injured." "They pushed us, 
manhandled us, and abused us in the filthiest language possible, 
saying that we know how to deal with women like you. They threatened 
to rape the girls and women in the group,'' Ms. Hashmi said.

The group of 28 persons, aged between 15 and 20, was flagged off from 
Delhi on April 7 and the plan was to travel to 40 cities, Ms. Hashmi 
said.

In Gujarat, the group visited Ahmedabad, Nadiad and Godhra. "We got 
[a] tremendous response. The children who said that they did not want 
their country to be divided along communal lines addressed press 
conferences. We got very good coverage in the media, and there was no 
major problem at all. That is what possibly upset the VHP, the 
Bajrang Dal and other communal forces and they attacked us in 
Vadodara,'' Ms. Hashmi said.

o o o


  We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the murderous attack on the 
Youth for Peace Aman Carvan in Baroda by the V.H.P. goons at the 
behest of Narendra Modi and Praveen Togadia. The young children were 
attacked when they reached Baroda to address a press conference. As 
the children reached the venue of the press conference an organized 
attack was perpetrated on them by more than 50 VHP trained gonads. 
They damaged the vehicles in which the children were traveling, 
smashed the window panes, tore the clothes of the children and 
physically attacked them. They also misbehaved and attacked Shabnam 
hashmi of ANHAD who is traveling with the Carvan.

The VHP goons threatened to rape and burn alive the girls and, the 
renounned social activist, Shabnam Hashmi using the methods they have 
mastered during the Gujarat genocide two years ago. They looted the 
material including the campaign leaflets, booklets and personal 
belongings of the Carvan Members.

The Youth For Peace Aman  Carvan, which consists of 27 school going 
children from Tamil Nadu , Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Delhi, 
Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradseh had reached Baroda 
after having addressed meeting and press conferences at Jaipur, 
Ajmer, Chittorgadh, Ahmedabad, Nadiad and Godhra. The Carvan is to 
cover more than 8000 kms and address meetings at 40 cities.

It is matter of shame that the RSS led political forces are not even 
ready to give space to young children and students (Age Group 14-22 
yrs), who are trying to exercise their democratic right of freedom of 
speech to spread the message of peace and to educate the people of 
the dangers of the communal politics the present BJP led forces 
represent. The attack clearly demonstrates the real intent of the RSS 
led gangs who are out to stifle the voice of peace and love.  The 
attack is intended to send out a warning to all those who believe in 
democratic values enshrined in our Constitution. We strongly feel 
that there is an urgency to rise and face the danger of fascist 
threat and defeat the intolerant hate mongers. This attack is also an 
indicator of how these forces are going to stifle all voices of 
sanity in society.

  While condemning the attack in the strongest possible terms, we 
demand the immediate arrest of the guilty and a ban on the activities 
of the communal organisation spreading terror in the name of religion.

We are deeply concerned about the safety of the Carvan members, we 
believe that the goons have made bold to launch the attack in the 
face of the utter failure and active connivance of the state 
machinery. We appeal to the election commission to put in place 
mechanisms to ensure that no one is prevented from campaigning in 
support of their beliefs. We demand from the home minster, to, for 
once, rise above his petty politics ans ensure that these children 
are unharmed and that the caravan is allowed to proceed as per its 
announced plan without any hinderence.

We congratulate the brave children of the Carvan who are traveling 
across the nation in the scorching summer sun to reach out to the 
youth of the country to share with them  their deep concern for the 
future of the land they have inherited. That they chose their 
vacation to reach out to the first time voters across the length and 
breadth of the country to plead with them to exercise their right to 
vote with care, responsibility and wisdom shows that they want to 
participate in the democratic process, which gives space to the 
citizens to express themselves through the elections.

We demand an unconditional apology from the Prim Minister and the 
Home Minister of this country who have been directly and indirectly 
encouraging these forces.

A protest meeting of activists, writers, artists, scientists and 
people from all walks of life to condemn the attack on the young 
children is being held at ANHAD, 4, WINDSOR PLACE at 5 pm at 12 April 
(Monday).


o o o

April 12th 2004

My dear friends,

Several months now since  my last letter.

Kapil Sibal, senior advocate, represented my quashing on the 2nd of 
April in the Supreme Court. This was the plea to throw out Manushi 
Shah's case against me as a non-case. The Sc has stayed proceedings 
on the case in Gujarat but have set the hearing for the 21st of this 
month. The hearing on my original PIL and that of others in related 
Gujarat riot cases are also on the same day.

The Chief Justice retires at the end of the month. He has been brave 
and wonderfully proactive on the Gujarat issues. I prey that he will 
pass judgements before he retires.

Yesterday, close colleagues of ours, Shabnam Hashmi and students of 
ANHAD's youth wing who are on a national journey for peace were badly 
attacked and abused in Vadodara. Luckily they escaped without being 
badly hurt. But things haven't really changed here in Gujarat.

Warmly,

Mallika Sarabhai

______



[2]

Book Review

By Yoginder Sikand

Name of the Book: The Path of the Parivar: Articles on Gujarat and Hindutva
Author: Mukul Dube
Publisher: Three Essays, New Delhi
Year: 2003. Price: Rs. 140
Name of the Book: Women and Communalism
Author & Publisher: Mahila Jagruthi, Bangalore
Pages: 60. Price: Rs. 50
------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the next general elections draw closer, the Hindutva juggernaut 
rolls on, threatening to throw India into chaos and civil strife. 
With the economic crisis deepening, social inequalities mounting and 
India's ruling classes selling out the country to rapacious 
multinational corporations, there are every signs of a fascist 
take-over. Hindutva, India's unique brand of fascism, serves that 
agenda perfectly. In the name of an imagined unified Hindu community, 
it conveniently glosses over internal contradictions of caste, gender 
and class. By targetting marginalised groups like Muslims and 
Christians as the source of all of India's ills, it conveniently 
deflects attention from the root cause of the plight of the poor - 
ruling 'upper' caste/class hegemony in league with imperialism.

These two books serve as timely reminders of the growing threat of 
fascism looming above the horizon in India today. As both books make 
clear, in the name of 'Hindu' unity Hindutva poses the gravest threat 
to the vast majority of the 'Hindus' themselves-Dalits, Backward 
Castes, tribals, workers, peasants and women - marginalised groups 
that together form the overwhelming majority of the 'Hindu' 
population. In other words, they very pointedly suggest, Hindutva 
must be countered not simply by pointing out the very real dangers 
that it poses to its favourite scapegoats-Muslims and Christians-but, 
perhaps more importantly, by highlighting what a Hindu Rashtra would 
mean for the majority of the Hindus themselves.

Dube's book consists of a series of essays on Hindutva, focussing 
particularly on the recent state-sponsored genocide of Muslims in 
Gujarat. Dube argues that Hindutva, as the Gujarat experience so 
strikingly shows, is inherently fascist, stridently opposed to 
secularism and democracy. The brutal slaughter of thousands of 
Muslims in the state exposes much-touted Hindutva claims of tolerance 
and acceptance to be a complete farce. Dube argues that Hindutva is 
the modern, contemporary form of Brahminism. If Muslims are its most 
direct victims today, tomorrow the 'lower' castes and tribals, who 
form the majority of the 'Hindu' population can probably expect to be 
subjected to somewhat the same treatment at the hands of the 'upper' 
castes/class minority who form the backbone of the Hindutva movement.

The Mahila Jagruthi's book contains five provocative articles on 
various dimensions of Hindutva, again arguing that Hindutva is 
clearly a fascist ideology and must be countered both at the level of 
ideology as well as politically. In his piece, Bhanu Pratap Das, 
senior professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, 
makes a historical and political analysis of communalism in India. He 
traces the genesis of Hindutva in pre-Partition times, showing how 
the leading Hindutva ideologues such as Savarkar, founder of the 
Hindu Mahasabha, and Golwalkar, supremo of the RSS echoed the Muslim 
League's insistence that Hindus and Muslims were two separate, 
irreconcilable 'nations'. They believed that Muslims could be allowed 
to stay in India was either by agreeing to become virtual Hindus or 
else accepting a status of second-class, legally discriminated 
against, citizens. Naturally, this further alienated the Muslims, 
thus leading finally to the Partition of India in 1947. Hence, 
despite its shrill rhetoric of 'Indian unity', the Hindutva brigade 
proved to be a major cause of the division of the country. In 
addition, Das writes of the many open sympathisers of the Hindutva 
cause within the Congress Party, who likewise played a major role in 
the events that led to the Partition. Das rounds up his argument by 
insisting that today, too, Hindutva carries on with its destructive, 
divisive agenda, threatening to lead India down the fascist path. In 
a fascist India, he says, not just Muslims and Christians, but the 
vast majority of the Hindus themselves would find their rights 
sharply curtailed.

Ram Puniyani's brilliant essay focuses particularly on the issue of 
Hindutva and women. He shows how Hindutva is an extremely patriarchal 
ideology, no different from the brand of Islam that was sought to be 
forcibly imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Hindutvawadis, 
inspired by the vision of the Brahminical lawgiver Manu, regard the 
role of the ideal Hindu woman as simply to serve her husband and 
family. This explains why the Hindu Right was vehemently opposed to 
the Hindu Code Bill proposed by Dr. Ambedkar which sought to provide 
Hindu women with basic rights that classical Brahminical law had 
denied to them. This opposition was so stiff that Ambedkar (whom, 
incidentally, the RSS is today desperately seeking to co-opt as one 
of its icons in order to win over the Dalits) was forced to resign 
from his cabinet post. Decades later, the Hindu Right does not appear 
to have changed its position on women in any significant manner. 
Puniyani tells us that the VHP and other RSS-allied outfits generally 
insist that women should not go out of their homes to work, unless 
there is a dire need to do so. He quotes Mridula Sinha, president of 
the BJP's women's wing, the Mahila Morcha, as admitting that she 
received dowry for her son and paid dowry for her daughter (a 
flagrant violation of the law!), and as also condoning wife beating. 
He refers to the strident support lent by leading Hindutva activists 
and ideologues to the barbaric practice of sati (including Vijay Raje 
Sindhia, former vice-president of the BJP, a widow herself!) in the 
name of protecting Hindu 'tradition'. He quotes the supposedly 
'liberal' Atal Behari Vajpayee as saying that women who want to 
become equal to men are wrong! In other words, Puniyani insists, 
Hindutva, carrying on in the classical Brahminical tradition, poses 
an immense danger to women (including Hindu women), and that, 
therefore, the women's movement ought to be in the forefront of vocal 
opposition to it.

Irfan Engineer's piece reflects on the myths about Muslims that are 
so central to Hindutva discourse. One such myth is that Muslims as a 
community were responsible for the Partition of India. This thesis 
completely ignores the role of many Muslims who stridently opposed 
the Partition and the Muslim League. It also ignores the role of 
'upper' caste Hindu communalists in promoting a tremendous sense of 
insecurity among Muslims, which then caused the Muslim League to 
demand Partition. It also conveniently glosses over the fact that the 
League represented only a small, yet vocal and influential, minority 
among the Muslims, mainly feudal lords and middle class 
professionals, who feared 'upper' caste Hindu domination in an 
independent India. Another canard about Muslims is that they are ISI 
agents. Engineer remarks, in rebuttal, that most men caught for 
spying for America or Pakistan have actually been non-Muslims. 
Likewise, the argument that Muslims are an 'appeased' minority is 
also false. Muslims are in fact one of the poorest and least educated 
communities in the country. Equally wrong is the thesis that Muslims 
are polygamous and that this leads to a higher rate of population 
growth. Engineer quotes a survey that suggests that the incidence of 
polygamous marriages among Muslims is lower than among tribals, 
Buddhists, Jains and Hindus.

The book closes with a Mahila Jagruthi statement titled 'Communal 
Violence on Women and the Responsibility of Women's Movement'. It 
talks of how rape and murder of Muslim women as well as several 
Christian nuns have been resorted to by Hindutva goons as a means to 
generate what they call 'Hindu pride'. In this project, the Hindu 
Right has also succeeded in winning the active support of many 
middle-class Hindu women. In this way it provides these women with 
the illusion of 'empowerment' outside the home, while actually 
promoting a fiercely patriarchal agenda. At the same time as Muslim 
women are a principal target of Hindutva attack, 'low' caste women 
are not spared. Thus, the statement refers to the Shankaracharya of 
Puri 'upholding and reviving oppressive customs of traditional 
religious prostitution', referring to the practice of getting mainly 
'low' caste women 'married' to a 'god', but simply 'to serve as 
pleasure tools' for Hindu men. Two other such instances again 
strikingly suggest Hindutva hostility to Dalit women: the VHP's 
honouring of the rapists of Banwari Devi, a 'low' caste woman 
activist in Rajasthan, and the stripping naked and torturing of 
tribal women in Gujarat under the patronage of armed VHP men in the 
guise of driving away 'evil spirits'. Citing these and several other 
instances, the statement insists that the women's movement must 
urgently recognise the grave dangers that Hindutva poses to women of 
all communities, Muslim as well as Hindu, 'upper' caste as well as 
'low' caste. It appeals to women's groups to take the challenge to 
Hindutva seriously and to mobilise women's voices against it. At the 
same time, it also recognises that conservative and extremely 
patriarchal 'ulama among the Muslims are, like their Hindutva 
counterparts, also opposed to women's equality. Hence, it insists, 
the struggle against patriarchy must take an even-handed approach, 
critiquing anti-women religious authorities in all communities at the 
same time.  ?

______

[3]

Book Review | The Hindu [India]
April 06, 2004

A defining moment in history

THE BABRI MASJID QUESTION, 1528-2003 - A Matter of National Honour (2 
Volumes): A.G. Noorani - Editor; Tulika Books, 35A/1(Third Floor), 
Shahpur Jat, New Delhi-110049. Rs. 750 (Vol. 1),

Rs. 550 (Vol.2).


"WHAT IS the significance of December, 6, 1992?" was one of a set of 
questions that a leading national daily recently posed to a 
constellation of film stars and ex-beauty queens who joined politics 
this election season. Amongst the younger set, there was not one who 
knew the answer, despite the fact that a majority of them had joined 
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Their ignorance of a date and event that marked the ascent to 
political power of the very party they had joined is not just a 
measure of their ignorance of politics. It also signifies the slow 
erasure from public memory in general of the demolition of the Babri 
Masjid almost 12 years ago by the Sangh Parivar leaders and 
activists, and the political import of that event.

It would appear that the public outrage that followed this illegal 
and reprehensible act has dissipated over the years - and not just 
within the population subset of film stars. Amongst most sections of 
people whose views constitute public opinion, the rights and wrongs 
of the Ayodhya issue no longer appear to be as clear as they were. 
After all, the principal accused in the Babri Masjid demolition cases 
are in power, with the criminal cases against them stuck in the 
courts and seemingly going nowhere.

In a situation of systematic obfuscation by the Sangh Parivar of the 
historical background and goals of the Ayodhya movement, the task of 
placing the Babri Masjid question on record was one that urgently 
needed to be done. To A.G. Noorani, the well-known lawyer, historian 
and political commentator must go the credit for doing this. Noorani 
has marshalled the most important primary source material on the 
Babri Masjid question in this edited two-volume publication.

The book comprises an impressive archive of the relevant historical, 
archaeological, political and legal documents from the 19th Century 
to the present day on the Ayodhya controversy, an invaluable guide 
and reference book to the facts of what is arguably one of the 
foremost political issues of the day. The compilation will in time 
become an important contribution to Indian historiography as it lays 
a solid foundation of historical truth and objectivity for future 
historians to work with.

In his Introduction, Noorani draws the main contours of the 
two-decade long Ram temple movement. Building from the historical lie 
on which the Ram temple movement was built, namely that the Mughal 
Emperor Babar destroyed a temple at the exact birthplace of Lord Rama 
to build a mosque, he describes the process by which the Masjid was 
first forcibly converted into a Mandir and subsequently demolished.

He argues that "official support and judicial apathy" through this 
period allowed the tide of the Ram temple movement to swell, and the 
BJP to prosper politically. "There has not been a vestige of truth or 
morality in the entire movement from the very inception to this day" 
he writes. A charge sheet framed in September 1997 by the Additional 
Sessions Judge (Ayodhya case) against those accused of conspiracy to 
demolish the mosque included the names of Mr. L.K. Advani, Mr. Bal 
Thackeray, Mr. M.M. Joshi and Ms. Uma Bharati. However, the accused 
have successfully avoided facing the court for the last seven years.

The documents have been arranged chronologically and thematically. 
The first volume starts, most fittingly, with an excerpt from the 
will of Babar which he left for his son Humayun. Here lies the 
thoughtful articulation by a medieval ruler of the kernal of the 
modern concept of secularism. Bestowing upon his son a country "full 
of different religions", Babar urges Humayun to "wipe all religious 
prejudices off the tablet of your heart", "let the subjects of 
different beliefs harmonise... ", and "not ruin the temples and 
shrines of any community which is obeying the laws of government."

A major part of the first volume comprises documents that deal with 
the historicity of the Ramjanmabhoomi legend. Reprinted here are 
scholarly tracts on the history and archaeology of the Ayodhya 
region, excerpts from the writings of Hindutva historians on the 
issue and the rejoinders to them, and the report of the 
Archaeological Survey of India on the excavations conducted at the 
disputed site in 2003. It also contains documents - a large number of 
them drawn from sources that reflect the Sangh Parivar point of view 
- that provide a compelling picture of the run-up to the mosque's 
demolition.

The second volume presents documentation - primarily from 
journalistic writing and other eye-witness accounts - on the 
destruction itself, its pre-planned course, the foreknowledge that 
the police had of the event, and the implication of top leaders of 
the BJP and the RSS in its destruction.

There are many damning quotes by senior BJP leaders which they would 
perhaps not like to be reminded of today. Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi 
told a newspaper after the demolition that he was not repentant over 
what happened.

Mr. L.K. Advani reportedly said he was surprised at the criticism 
from the then Prime Minister, P. V. Narasimha Rao and the then 
President, Shankar Dayal Sharma on the demolition. After all it was 
an old structure built by Babar. Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave a 
press interview soon after the demolition in which he called the 
Babri Masjid a "symbol of shame" that "has been erased".

While the documents speak for themselves, Noorani's studied 
conclusion is that the Ayodhya movement's aim is the establishment of 
a Hindu Rashtra in which the constitutional structure will remain a 
formality, denuded of the principles of secularism, democracy and the 
rule of law. It is a compelling argument, fully supported by his 
meticulously compiled documentary evidence.

PARVATHI MENON

______



[4]

The Telegraph [ India]
April 13, 2004

Stalkers hound bakery retrial spearhead

OUR BUREAU
Ahmedabad/Mumbai, April 12: Within hours of the Supreme Court ruling 
for retrial in the Best Bakery case, there was high drama at a Jesuit 
institution in Memnagar, where activist Teesta Setalvad - whose 
organisation was the driving force behind the retrial demand - was 
present for a meeting.

Two men, moving around the meeting venue suspiciously, approached 
Father Cedric Prakash at Prashant, the Jesuit-run institution, around 
12.30 pm. They told him they wanted to meet Teesta. "Luckily, 
Teesta's colleague Rais Khan Pathan identified them as Atul Vaidya 
and Bharat Teli, two accused in another riot case (at Gulbarg 
Society) and we alerted the police," Father Cedric said.

A first information report was immediately filed with the Satellite 
police, stating that the two men, along with 15 more, had snooped 
into the meeting venue separately and were probably there to create 
trouble and harm Teesta and fellow activists of the NGO, Citizens for 
Justice and Peace.

When Father Cedric asked the duo why they wanted to meet the social 
activist, they said they wanted to "ask her why she was so dead 
against Hindus and was maligning the state of Gujarat", the Jesuit 
priest added.

Teesta, who was not given the usual security during her visit to 
Gujarat, spoke to director-general of police A. K. Bhargav. Later, a 
batch of policemen arrived on the spot, but the men lingered till the 
cops came. They left, but not before threatening the priest that they 
would "see him later".

Speaking later on the Supreme Court judgment for the bakery case 
retrial in Maharashtra, Teesta said she was "very happy and 
satisfied".

"This is the rarest of rare occasions when a riot case has been 
transferred outside the state. It is a moral victory for us as the 
apex court has set aside the Gujarat High Court strictures against 
activists, including me." Terming the judgment "historic", Teesta 
said it has given her organisation "tremendous hope".

She said she was now hopeful that the apex court may decide in favour 
of transferring 11 other Gujarat riot cases for which the Citizens 
for Justice and Peace has filed petitions.

Activist Javed Anand, a member of Teesta's NGO, said the judgment 
could set a precedent in the other riot cases. The Supreme Court 
hearing on the cases, including those involving the riots at Gulbarg 
Society and Naroda-Patia, is on April 21.

Briefing reporters on the judgment, Teesta said the ruling was 
apparently a long one. "From what I have learnt from our lawyers in 
Delhi, it is a speaking judgment, powerfully worded on the state of 
affairs in Gujarat."

She, however, declined to go into the judgment details, saying she 
was yet to see a copy of it. "We have to wait to see how the transfer 
of cases takes effect. We had sought the transfer under provisions 
173 (8) of the CrPC. Now, possibly, it should restart from scratch 
with the SC issuing a proviso to the DGP of Maharashtra to 
reinvestigate the case."

New public prosecutors would have to be appointed and the victims 
would have a watching advocate during the retrial, she said.

The activist emphasised it would be seen to that the Gujarat 
government bore the costs for witnesses if they had to travel out of 
Gujarat to depose. But she parried queries on what effect the 
judgment might have on the Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat on April 
20. "All I can say is there are some Hindus who would like to see 
justice being done to the victims of riots."

Asked if chief minister Narendra Modi should step down, Teesta said 
her stand on Modi was clear and she would not like to repeat it. "But 
legally speaking, we hope this judgment would be a trend-setter so 
far as the Gujarat riot cases go," she added.

In Mumbai, poet and film lyricist Javed Akhtar, who had also pressed 
for a retrial, said the ruling gave more strength to his "faith that 
justice and secularism can still be availed of in this country".

"We salute the Supreme Court," he said.

Advertising guru Alyque Padamsee, who, too, was part of the NGO's 
initiative like Akhtar, said: "It means that those with parochial, 
communal tendencies would have to think twice before embarking on a 
route," he said.


_____


[5]


DEFEAT BJP FORUM
38/2 Probyn Road,University of Delhi
New Delhi-110007
Telephone- 27666253/26691162
  somanshu at bol.net.in/
madhuchopra at hotmail.com

10.04.2004

                        P R E S S    R E L E A S E

Over a hundred academicians from Delhi University,
Jamia Milia Islamia, IGNOU, I.I.T and writers and
poets participated in the first pamphlet distribution
and contact programme launched by the Defeat BJP Forum
in the Chandni Chowk constituency. Starting out at
Ajmeri Gate, they made their way through Hauz Qazi,
Farashkhana, Lal Kuan, Fatehpuri, Chandni Chowk,
Dariba, Jama Masjid, Chitli Qabar and ended at Turkman
Gate. The programme took four hours.

The response to our initiative was extremely positive
and people engaged the participants in discussions all
along the route. At no point did we meet with either
indifference or hostility.

Those who participated included Prof. Asad Ali and
Prof. Jafri from Jamia Milia, Dr. Jabrimal Parekh,
writer from IGNOU, Dr. V.K. Tripathi from I.I.T.,
Prof. Nirmalangshu Mukherji, Prof. Amir Arfi, Nandita
Narain, Neeraj Malik, M.M.P. Singh, Madhu Prasad, Ali
Jawed, Badri Raina, M.A. Jawed from Delhi University,
writers Ajay Tiwari, Rekha Awasthi and Bali Singh, and
social activists O.K. Yadav and Thomas Mathew.


_____


[6]

[Its astonishing that reporter from Washington Post in this day and 
age still make out who the 'faithful' are; Hindutva's fundamentalist 
hot heads get referred to as faithful in the article below ]

o o o

The Washington Post [USA]
Saturday, April 10, 2004; Page A01

Wrath Over a Hindu God
U.S. Scholars' Writings Draw Threats From Faithful

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer

Folklore has it that elephants never forget, and Paul Courtright has 
reason to believe it. A professor of religion at Emory University, he 
immersed himself in the story of Ganesha, the beloved Hindu god with 
the head of an elephant. Detecting provocative Oedipal overtones in 
Ganesha's story -- and phallic symbolism in his trunk -- he wrote a 
book setting out his theories in 1985.

Nineteen years later, thanks to an Internet campaign, the world has 
rediscovered Courtright's book. After a scathing posting on a popular 
Indian Web site, he has received threats from Hindu militants who 
want him dead.

"Gopal from Singapore said, 'The professor bastard should be hanged,' 
" said Courtright, incredulous. "A guy from Germany said, 'Wish this 
person was next to me, I would have shot him in the head.' A man 
called Karodkar said, 'Kill the bastard. Whoever wrote this should 
not be spared.' Someone wanted to throw me into the Indian Ocean."

Other academics writing about Hinduism have encountered similar 
hostility, from tossed eggs to assaults to threats of extradition and 
prosecution in India.

The attacks against American scholars come as a powerful movement 
called Hindutva has gained political power in India, where most of 
the world's 828 million Hindus live. Its proponents assert that 
Hindus have long been denigrated and that Western authors are 
imposing a Eurocentric world view on a culture they do not understand.

That argument resonates among many of the roughly 1.4 million Hindus 
in North America as well.

In November, Wendy Doniger, a University of Chicago professor of the 
history of religion who has written 20 books about India and 
Hinduism, had an egg flung at her by an angry Hindu when she was 
lecturing in London. It missed.

In January, a book about the Hindu king Shivaji by Macalester College 
religious studies professor James W. Laine provoked violent 
outbursts: One of Laine's collaborators in India was assaulted, and a 
mob destroyed rare manuscripts at an institute in India where Laine 
had done research. The Indian edition was recalled, and India's prime 
minister warned Laine not to "play with our national pride." 
Officials said they want to extradite the Minnesota author to stand 
trial for defamation, and the controversy has become a campaign issue 
in upcoming parliamentary elections.

Doniger, a 63-year-old scholar at the center of many controversies, 
is distressed to see her field come under the sway of what she 
regards as zealots.

"The argument," she said, "is being fueled by a fanatical nationalism 
and Hindutva, which says no one has the right to make a mistake, and 
no one who is not a Hindu has the right to speak about Hinduism at 
all."

U.S. Cradle of Backlash

The recent controversy began not in New Delhi but in New Jersey.

In an essay posted on a Web site called Sulekha.com, New Jersey 
entrepreneur Rajiv Malhotra argued that Doniger and her students had 
eroticized and denigrated Hinduism, which was part of the reason "the 
American mainstream misunderstands India so pathologically."

Malhotra criticized in particular a book for which Doniger had 
written the foreword -- Courtright's "Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord 
of Beginnings." The book drew psychoanalytic inferences about 
Ganesha, also known as Ganesa or Ganpathi, the son of the Hindu god 
Shiva and his wife, Parvati.

According to Hindu scriptures, Parvati asked Ganesha to guard her 
privacy while she was bathing. Shiva, who had been absent, returned 
to find the boy blocking his way. A fight ensued, and Shiva beheaded 
Ganesha. When Parvati protested, Shiva repaired his hasty action by 
resuscitating the child and replacing the missing head with that of 
an elephant.

Courtright, drawing on the story of a conflict between a woman's 
husband and son, suggested that Shiva had chosen an elephant's head 
because the trunk represented a limp phallus. By contrast, he said, 
Shiva's power is represented in idols by a linga, or an erect phallus.

In his posting, Malhotra quoted passages from Courtright's book that 
offended him: "Although there seem to be no myths or folktales in 
which Ganesha explicitly performs oral sex, his insatiable appetite 
for sweets may be interpreted as an effort to satisfy a hunger that 
seems inappropriate in an otherwise ascetic disposition, a hunger 
having clear erotic overtones."

Malhotra's critique produced a swift and angry response from 
thousands of Hindus. An Atlanta group wrote to the president of Emory 
University asking that Courtright be fired.

"The implication," said Courtright, "was this was a filthy book and I 
had no business teaching anything." He said the quotes had been taken 
out of context and ignored the uplifting lessons he had drawn from 
Ganesha's story.

Salman Akhtar, an Indian American psychoanalyst, said the 
disagreement sprang from different worldviews. "Are religious stories 
facts or myths?" he asked. "Facts cannot be interpreted. Stories can 
be interpreted."

The book was withdrawn in India, where the local edition's book 
jacket, which Courtright had neither seen nor approved, depicted 
Ganesha as a child -- in the nude.

"It was very painful reading," said T.R.N. Rao, a computer science 
professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who advises the 
university's branch of the Hindu Student Council, a national group 
with Hindutva roots. "It makes Ganesha a eunuch . . . It was very 
vulgar."

Rao and the council started an Internet petition against the book. 
Seven thousand people signed within a week -- and among their 
comments were 60 threats of violence.

The petition was swiftly removed. "We condemn any threats to the 
author and the publisher," said Rao. "We wanted to get the book 
corrected and replaced. . . . We are not asking for banning the book. 
I am a professor and I know the value of academic freedom."

Insider vs. Outsider

Courtright was not the first to find Oedipal overtones in the Ganesha 
story. But his book became a rallying point for devout Hindus in the 
United States who say the academic study of their religion is 
completely at odds with the way they experience their faith.

"For the past five years, our field has been in turmoil," said Arvind 
Sharma, a professor of comparative religion at McGill University in 
Montreal, who sides with the critics even as he disavows the 
violence. "There may be a Hindutva connection in what happened in 
India and the death threats and the person who threw the egg, but 
there also is a Hindu response."

Sharma was asked to write an essay on Hinduism for Microsoft's 
Encarta encyclopedia to replace a previous essay written by Doniger. 
The switch came after a Hindu activist, a former Microsoft engineer 
named Sankrant Sanu, charged that Doniger's article perpetuated 
misleading stereotypes and asked for a rewrite by an "insider."

"For pretty much all the religious traditions in America, most of the 
people studying it are insiders," said Sanu. "They are people who are 
believers. This is true for Judaism, Islam, Christianity and 
Buddhism. This is not true for Hinduism."

In January, fresh controversy along the same lines erupted over a 
book by Macalester College's Laine, "Shivaji: A Hindu King in Islamic 
India," which explored the life of a 17th-century icon of the 
Hindutva movement.

After Laine suggested in his book that Shivaji's parents may have 
been estranged -- an assertion that upset Hindus who see them as 
nearly divine -- a history scholar in India who had collaborated with 
Laine was roughed up and smeared with tar by members of Shiv Sena, a 
Hindutva group. Another nationalist group called the Sambhaji Brigade 
stormed the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in the city of 
Pune, and destroyed priceless manuscripts. The reason? Laine had done 
research there .


"No one in Pune today will defend my book, not my friends, not my 
colleagues, because they are fearful," Laine said. "Oxford University 
Press pulled the book because they are fearful of physical violence. 
There will be a chilling effect on what topics you choose to do."

Many Indian scholars have rushed to the defense of the American 
authors. They say the controversy over the books is part of a larger 
pattern of political violence against scholars in India.

Doniger blames the Internet campaigns. "Malhotra's ignorant writings 
have stirred up more passionate emotions in Internet subscribers who 
know even less than Malhotra does, who do not read books at all," 
Doniger wrote in an e-mail. "And these people have reacted with 
violence. I therefore hold him indirectly responsible."

Dwarakanath Rao (no relation to T.R.N. Rao), a Hindu psychoanalyst in 
Ann Arbor, Mich., said Doniger had written moving interpretations of 
Hindu texts that made them accessible for the first time in North 
America.

"I just do not hear disrespect," he said. "I hear a woman who, 
frankly, is in love with India."

India Inc.

Malhotra said he began his campaign after visiting African American 
scholars at Princeton University, who told him that it had taken the 
civil rights movement before black scholars were allowed into schools 
to tell their own history.

Hindus were only following in the footsteps of blacks, Jews and the 
Irish, he said, likening his campaign to a consumer struggle: "It's 
no different than Ralph Nader saying we need a consumer voice against 
General Motors."

Malhotra disavowed the violence -- he called the attackers 
"hooligans." He said he has campaigned against the Hindutva agenda 
and opposed the Internet petition against Courtright. "I know I am 
championed by the Hindu right but there is nothing I can do about 
that," he said.

Indeed, Malhotra's critique seems to have less to do with religious 
nationalism than public relations. Doniger and other academics are 
"an inbred, incestuous group that control a vertically integrated 
industry," the former telecom entrepreneur said. Unlike other 
critics' objections, Malhotra's is not that outsiders have written 
about India -- he has himself encouraged many Americans to study 
India -- but that the books have harmed the image of what he calls 
"India Inc."

"In America," he said, "everything is negotiable -- you have to 
negotiate who you are and how they think of you." Previously, 
Malhotra waged a campaign against CNN for coverage that he charged 
was biased toward India's rival, Pakistan. A foundation he has 
launched is dedicated to "upgrade the portrayal of India's 
civilization in the American education system and media."

This approach does not go down well within the academy. "We are not 
in the business of marketing a nation state," said Vijay Prashad, an 
international studies scholar at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., 
in a recent Internet debate with Malhotra. "That is the job of the 
ambassador of India, not of a scholar."

McGill's Sharma, a practicing Hindu, countered that the academy had 
never been neutral, objective ground. Trends in academia have always 
been governed by shifts in public opinion: "The recalibration of a 
power equation is an untidy process."

But if the controversies are only about influence, Doniger said, 
there was little use in discussing the merits of the various books, 
or her Encarta essay on Hinduism. "It does not matter whether the 
article published under my name was right or wrong," she said in an 
e-mail. "The only important thing about it was that I wrote it and 
someone named Sharma did not."


_____


[7]

The Hindu [India]
April 11, 2004

Economist flays `India Shining' campaign

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 10. Casting a critical shadow on the "India Shining" 
campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party, eminent economist Utsa 
Patnaik today made an attempt to clear the "fog'' of misinformation 
being perpetuated by the media in the run-up to the upcoming 
elections. Noting that in the past five years the levels of per 
capita foodgrain absorption had been drastically low, much lower than 
they had been in the past 50 years, she said the only "achievement" 
of the National Democratic Alliance rule had been to take India back 
to the time of Independence on the issue of food availability.

Delivering a lecture titled "Republic of Hunger" organised by SAHMAT 
to mark the 50th birth anniversary of Safdar Hashmi, Ms. Patnaik 
said: "The position at Independence had been arrived at after a 
half-century of retrogression. Annual per capita foodgrain 
availability at the beginning of the 20th Century was around 200 kg; 
by Independence it had declined to around 150 kg. The "Reforms 
Decade" of the 1990s has seen stagnation and then a decline which has 
accentuated sharply during the NDA rule, the average figure for three 
years plummeting to 155 kg compared to 174 kg average during the 
three years ending in 1998.''

Pointing out the difference in food crisis in pre-Independent India 
and the present scenario, Ms. Patnaik remarked: "The pre-Independence 
crisis was caused by a decline in per capita foodgrain production. In 
the 1990s too there has been such a decline in per capita production, 
but superimposed upon this, there has been a sharper fall in the 
purchasing power in the hands of the people, especially in rural 
India. This has resulted in piling up of unsold foodstocks, even in 
the midst of growing hunger and declining calorie intake, despite a 
decline in per capita food production.''

The reason for the dwindling purchasing power in the hands of people 
is the sharp cut in government development expenditure in rural 
areas, she stated.

"While the NDA government handed out tax cuts to the rich, it 
drastically squeezed rural development expenditure that precipitated 
the deflation of demand,'' she added.

Rubbishing the "India Shining" campaign, Ms. Patnaik said: 
"Ironically, in order to get rid of the burgeoning foodstocks, the 
Government has gone to absurd lengths of exporting foodgrains to the 
unprecedented extent of 17 million tonnes in a severe drought year, 
at prices lower than what Below-Poverty-Line population has to pay 
within the country. This incredible spectacle, of food squeezed out 
of a population going hungrier by the day being sold at subsidised 
prices in the world market, is then cited as an India Shining 
example!''


_____


[8]

Magazine | The Hindu [India]
Apr 11, 2004


THE SHASHI THAROOR COLUMN

What being Irfan means

ONE of the occupational hazards of writing a fortnightly column is 
that the quest for topicality becomes a risky business. The sharp 
insight on today's news may look like the conventional wisdom by the 
time your piece appears in print; worse, it may be overtaken by the 
onrush of events, so that a celebratory column on, say, India's 
victory in the first Test match against Pakistan might appear just as 
your readers are mourning a shambolic performance in the second. No 
self-respecting columnist wants to sound either banal or foolish, and 
so the eponymous occupant of this precious space has tended 
(forgiveably, he hopes) to confine himself to broader issues which, 
while relevant to the times, are in no danger of perishing on the 
shelves before the Sunday Hindu is opened.

[...]

But since this is not a sports column, there is another aspect that 
thrills me about Irfan Pathan playing for India. And that lies in the 
simple fact that his very existence is a testament to the 
indestructible pluralism of our country. He hails from Gujarat, a 
State in which many - many with loud voices and great influence - 
have sought to redefine Indianness on their own terms. Neither his 
religion nor his ethnicity would have qualified him as Indian enough 
in their eyes. He is a Muslim, and not just a Muslim but the son of a 
muezzin, one whose waking hours are spent calling the Islamic 
faithful to prayer. Worse still, he is a Pathan, whose forebears 
belong to a slice of land that is no longer territorially part of 
India. To be a Gujarati Muslim Pathan might be thought of a triple 
disqualification in this Age of Togadia. Irfan Pathan has not just 
shrugged off his treble burden, he has broken triumphantly through it.

And he has done so without apology for his identity, or his faith. 
Interviewed after his three for 32 in the last one-day international 
clinched India the series, Pathan told Dean Jones of his happiness 
that India had won "after" (not "because of") his bowling, and 
attributed this success to his Maker. "God is with me. I knew with 
God's help I'll bowl well. I had that confidence in God." So the 
muezzin's son had invoked Allah's blessings on his team, oblivious to 
the fact that its opponents were playing under the green banner of an 
Islamic Republic. What a wonderful reinvention of Indian secularism.

So when Irfan Pathan beams that dazzling smile after taking yet 
another wicket for the India he so proudly represents, he fills my 
heart with more than cricketing pride. He reminds me that he 
represents a country where it is possible for a 19-year-old from a 
beleagured minority to ascend to the peak of the nation's sporting 
pantheon; and even more that he represents an idea, an immortal 
Indian idea, that our country is large enough and diverse enough to 
embrace everyone who chooses to belong to it, whatever be their 
caste, creed, colour, costume or custom. This is an idea that no one, 
however well-connected politically, has the right to deny. The 
pluralist palimpsest of Indianness can never be diminished by the 
killers of Gujarati Muslims and the evil men who incited them. Irfan 
Pathan is their standing, leaping, glorious repudiation.


______


[9]

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