SACW | 13 June 2004 [Sri Lanka / Pakistan /Bangladesh / India]

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at mnet.fr
Sat Jun 12 22:14:55 CDT 2004


South Asia Citizens Wire   |  13 June,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] The Sri Lankan Peace Process (Asoka Bandarage)
[2] Pakistan: Remembering Zamir Niazi (Beena Sarwar)
[3] Pakistan:  The challenge is real; the danger 
clear and present (edit., The Daily Times)
[4] Pakistan: Seen obscene (Sarwat Ali)
[5] Sri Lanka: Buddha Bar music seized in Sri Lanka (BBC)
[6] Bangladesh: In Bangla Bhai's Emirate Of Terror (Hena Khan)
[7] India - Gujarat: CID questions Gujarat human rights activist (news Report)
+ Text of Press Statement by  activists  on 
police harassment of human rights defenders
[8] India: SAHMAT convention  to withdraw Saffronised NCERT Textbooks
+ Reverse `Joshi legacy,' say academics (News Report)
[9] India: Press Release - Coalition for Nuclear 
Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India, considers
the latest UN Resolution 1546  (June 8, 2004) a 
shameful capitulation to the US.


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


[1]

[SACW Special, June 13, 2004]

THE SRI LANKAN PEACE PROCESS

by Prof. Asoka Bandarage


  (Text of a Talk given at the Conference of the 
National Advisory Council on South Asian Affairs, 
The Cosmos Club, Washington D.C. in May 2004)

Mass discontent with the handling of the peace 
process led to the defeat of the UNP (United 
National Party) led government in Sri Lanka at 
the snap elections held on April 2 this year. 
Appeasement of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of 
Tamil Eelam), the partiality of the Norwegian 
facilitators towards the LTTE and the threats to 
the country's sovereignty were some of the 
reasons for the opposition to the UNP. The 
current SLFP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party) led 
government came into power promising to make 
substantial changes in the peace negotiations. It 
promised to make the peace process inclusive and 
transparent and to fine-tune the role of the 
facilitator.  

Since the elections, however, the Sri Lankan 
political situation seems to be even more chaotic 
and fragile than it was previously. The SLFP led 
coalition does not have a clear majority of votes 
in the parliament. Like its predecessor, the UNP 
led coalition, the current government may become 
dependent on the votes of the TNA (Tamil National 
Alliance) for its political survival. As the TNA 
is a proxy of the LTTE, it allows the latter to 
exercise undue pressure on the ruling coalition. 
The new government has accepted the LTTE as 'the 
sole representative of Tamils'. It has also 
allowed the Norwegian facilitators to return and 
be involved in the affairs of the country, 
seemingly without new conditions and guidelines. 

The LTTE has warned that the war could resume if 
its conditions are not met. An LTTE spokesman has 
told Japan, the biggest donor, that all 
international aid to Sri Lanka must be stopped if 
the LTTE proposal for an Interim Self Governing 
Authority (ISGA) in the North and the East of the 
island is not accepted. The LTTE has also made 
overtures to India asking for 'better 
understanding' from Congress Party leader, Sonia 
Gandhi. The ISGA proposal presented last year is 
a blue print for a separate state. It does not 
come within the framework of the cease fire which 
began in December 2001 and the MOU signed between 
the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE in 
February 2002.  

During the course of the cease fire, the LTTE has 
been politically and militarily strengthened 
while the government of Sri Lanka has been 
weakened. The LTTE is said to have killed 44 
intelligence operatives of the Sri Lankan 
government during this period. The LTTE has 
brought in illegal ship loads of weapons and 
built up its arms base, continued forcible 
recruitment of child soldiers, engaged in 
extortion, abductions, silencing and killing of 
political dissidents. Relatives of Tamil victims 
have attributed 38 political killings to the LTTE 
during the cease fire up to September 2003. These 
are documented, for example, in the recently 
published Report of the Human Rights Commission 
which is represented by legal experts from the 
Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities.

The April 2004 elections in Sri Lanka were 
exceptionally peaceful, but, the elections in the 
Northern and Eastern Provinces dominated by the 
LTTE were ridden with violence and fraud. It is 
reported that even the head of the TULF (Tamil 
United Liberation Front) did not cast his vote 
due to threats on his life. There are several 
pending court cases calling for the annulment of 
the elections in the north and the east. Despite 
widespread intimidation, killings and rigging, 
the TNA got only 41.4% of the votes in the 
Eastern Province.

Not all Tamil political parties and organizations 
accept the LTTE as the 'sole representative of 
Tamils'. The emergence of a break-away LTTE 
organization in the Eastern Province, under the 
renegade leader Karuna, further challenges the 
LTTE's claim to sole representation. Apparently, 
a pamphlet being distributed in the 
Batticola-Ampara region in the East blames the 
'autocratic and dictatorial tendencies' of the 
LTTE leader in the North for the killing of LTTE 
cadres in the East in the on-going battle between 
the two factions. The pamphlet warns the public 
to refrain from upholding the LTTE leader 
Prabahkaran as the 'Tamil national 
leader'.        
    
The discontent is not limited to dissident 
Tamils. Muslims, especially those in the East who 
have suffered human rights violations under the 
LTTE may get drawn into violence and may 
intensify demand for a separate administrative 
unit of their own in the East. The Sinhalese who 
hold 50% of the land in the East have also 
experienced massive human rights violations and 
ethnic cleansing. Neither the Muslims nor the 
Sinhalese, who, together constitute over two 
thirds of the population in the contentious 
Eastern Province, have representation in the 
peace process, as it is currently conceived. 
There is a growing concern among the majority 
population that successive Sri Lankan 
governments' dependence on minority electoral 
blocs has led to the neglect of Sinhala Buddhist 
rights throughout the country. This concern was 
reflected in the loss of votes by both the UNP 
and the SLFP at the last elections and the 
massive expansion of the electoral strength of 
the leftist JVP (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) and 
the emergence of the JHU (Jathika Hela Urumaya).

The JVP, a member of the ruling coalition 
government, opposed the MOU, the ISGA proposal of 
the LTTE and Norwegian facilitation of the peace 
process. Perhaps, even more importantly, the JVP 
promised to attend to the much neglected economic 
concerns of the masses. The JHU came into being 
just one week prior to the April elections as the 
first-ever party of Buddhist monks and it brought 
nine saffron-robed monks into the Parliament. The 
JHU represents a desperate move on the part of 
Buddhists who have felt marginalized by the peace 
process, the international NGOs and widespread 
Christian evangelical conversions to bring 
attention to their survival.

Violence and threats to peace are on the increase 
in Sri Lanka. Fighting between the LTTE northern 
and eastern wings and skirmishes between Tamils 
and Muslims continue in the Eastern Province. In 
addition, there have been disturbances in the 
plantation areas in the Central Province 
recently. If opportunistic Tamil and Sinhala 
politicians are allowed to mobilize discontent 
along ethnic lines, there could be massive 
upheavals in that region in the future. Large 
caches of arms have been found in the capital, 
Colombo, and the Norwegian ambassador's residence 
was stone-pelted during the Norwegian 
independence celebrations recently. Unless, the 
underlying grievances of all communities are 
addressed, new forms of political extremism are 
likely to emerge aggravating the already unstable 
political situation.

Practically everyone in Sri Lanka desires peace 
and wants the cease fire to hold. There is a 
consensus that the solution does not lie in a 
return to armed conflict. There is also a common 
understanding that it is necessary to work with 
the LTTE in order to avert war. Yet, at the same 
time, the vast majority of people in the country, 
Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims do not want 
appeasement of terrorism in the name of peace. 
They want a sustainable peace, a peace that 
upholds human rights, political pluralism and 
democracy.  

The United States has maintained a consistent 
policy condemning LTTE human rights violations 
and upholding the ban on the LTTE as an 
international terrorist organization.  Recently, 
the United States also called the LTTE to give up 
arms. The new government in India has also taken 
a firm stand to continue the proscription of the 
LTTE.  Pressure must also be put on the LTTE by 
other members of the international donor 
community, Japan, Europe and Australia, to 
respect democratic norms, human rights and 
political and cultural pluralism. Sri Lanka 
stands to lose not only her sovereignty but her 
heritage of ethnic pluralism and democracy. If a 
mono-ethnic, totalitarian regime is installed in 
the north and the east and if Sri Lanka descends 
into anarchy and becomes another 'failed state', 
the loss will not be hers alone. It will have 
significant regional and international 
repercussions.
             
(Asoka Bandarage, (Yale, Ph.D.) is a professor of 
Asian Studies at Mount Holyoke College and 
Visiting Scholar at the Elliott School for 
International Affairs at George Washington 
University. She is the author of Colonialism in 
Sri Lanka (Mouton) and many other publication on 
Sri Lanka and global peace and development. She 
is currently writing a book on the conflict and 
the peace process in Sri Lanka.) 


_____


[2]


The News International [Pakistan]
June 13, 2004

Our 'Zamir'

Beena Sarwar

'Zamir' in Urdu means 'conscience', and that is 
what Zamir Niazi, that great chronicler of media 
freedoms and censorships was to so many of us - 
our conscience. His death on June 11, 2004 is a 
huge blow to those struggling for freedom and 
justice in Pakistan.

His frail, white-clad figure belied the steel 
within, and the formidable will power that kept 
him going long past his doctors' predictions. 
Till the last, he was working, perched at the 
edge of his bed, over-sized glasses dominating 
his thin, broad-browed face framed by long hair, 
surrounded by books, papers and other references, 
a telephone set handy by his side.

Uncharacteristically for a man of his generation, 
he had no hesitation in picking up that telephone 
to call a younger colleague in appreciation of a 
recently published article, to share outrage at, 
yet, another violation of media freedom and ask 
what the journalists' community was doing about 
it. Each successive blow to media freedom in 
Pakistan saddened him, but you could almost see 
the gleam in his eyes as he rose to the 
challenges these restrictions posed, even as you 
strained to hear his soft voice over the phone.

Or he would call to seek information - usually, 
references for something he had read or heard 
about. A meticulous indexer, he sought the 
original source. He never took such help for 
granted, often ringing again later to voice his 
thanks.

Zamir Niazi was a symbol of the fight for a free 
media and freedom of expression. A voracious 
reader, he was totally un-acquisitive in the 
material sense - except when it came to his 
passion, books and journals. His trailblazing 
first book, 'Press in Chains', 1986, published by 
the Karachi Press Club, ran to several editions. 
The Zia regime still enforced press censorship in 
a crude and heavy-handed way - very different 
from the subtler, hidden constraints and 
pressures of the present day dominated, by what 
Zamir Sahib deridingly called 'presstitutes', 
controlled by the corporate sector and 
self-censorship.

'Press under Siege' (1992) and 'The Web of 
Censorship' (1994) firmly established him as a 
one-man institution on media rights and 
responsibilities. He was awarded the HRCP's Nisar 
Osmani Award for Courage in Journalism, 1997, 
named after another outstanding and courageous 
journalist, who like him was a not just a man of 
words, but deeds.

When the government banned six newspapers at one 
go in 1995, Zamir Niazi demonstrated the moral 
fibre that few possess, by returning his 
prestigious Pride of Performance award, along 
with its accompanying Rs50,000, to President 
Farooq Leghari. His letter to Leghari was 
unrelenting in its condemnation in a letter to 
the President: "Never in the bleak history of 
Pakistan, not even under the tyrants who have 
ruled over us, have six newspapers been banned by 
the stroke of a single pen, using the cover of 
the draconian Maintenance of Public Order 
Ordinance 1960. This was done by the government 
of the State you head, without it having assigned 
any justifiable specific reason. An appeal 
against an order passed under the MPO Ordinance 
lies only (with) the government. This is 
tantamount to appealing to Nero for relief 
against a death sentence handed down by Nero."

When Nawaz Sharif's government persecuted the 
Jang group in 1998, ostensibly over tax returns 
but actually because of plans to launch a 
television news channel, Zamir Niazi, was at the 
demonstrations despite ill health.

The nuclear explosions of 1998 pushed him into 
editing 'Zameen ka Nauha' (Elegy for the Earth), 
an Urdu anthology of anti-nuclear poems and 
essays, published on the second anniversary of 
Pakistan's tests (Scherezade, Karachi, 2000).

Even when ill health made him almost house bound, 
he never complained. "We must meet," he 
good-humouredly told my father, "but we old 
people now have to be carried around everywhere!"

Always happy to receive visitors, he was an 
entertaining host, with his incisive analyses of 
the present political situation, laced with 
gentle humour. "Aray, how could you go to my city 
alone, you should have taken me along in your 
suitcase," he joked when I returned from Bombay 
after attending the World Social Forum there. It 
turned out that his mother had just passed away 
there - typically, he conveyed the information 
without sentimentality.

Young at heart and forward-looking, he lived in 
the present and for the future, taking on in his 
last years a project that a younger person would 
have quailed at - censorship worldwide, through 
the ages. His anger at the destruction of 
precious records in Iraq catalysed him into even 
more feverish activity towards completing the 
book, to be titled, 'Books in Chains, Libraries 
in Flames' - a culmination of his life's works 
that he knew was a race against time.

Zamir Niazi lost that race, but someone should 
pick up the material he so painstakingly 
collected, and complete it. That would be a 
fitting tribute to our Zamir.


_____


[3]

The Daily Times
11 June 2004
EDITORIAL:

  The challenge is real; the danger clear and present

The deadly morning ambush in Karachi on the 
motorcade of the Karachi corps commander 
Lieutenant-General Ahsan Saleem Hayat which left 
six soldiers, three policemen and a civilian dead 
shows some facts clearly: the terrorists are 
alive and well, they have the means, resources 
and the motivation to mount attacks on high-value 
targets, and from now onwards top commanders of 
the army will be on their hit list. But the 
attack itself is important only in the larger 
context in which the state has operated and 
continues to do so on the one hand and the 
terrorists have responded to state actions on the 
other hand. What does this mean?

We have repeatedly said in this space that the 
state is responsible for putting itself in the 
belly of the beast. Today’s events can be traced 
back to a concerted effort at multiple levels by 
the state to pursue certain policies and, in 
doing so, create a certain kind of ‘Pakistani’. 
That ‘Pakistani’, now come of age, denotes not 
just a fanatic but also a mindset. Now that the 
state purportedly is trying to reform itself, the 
‘Pakistani’ it has created wants to have none of 
that. He is striking back. And of course he is 
allied with international terrorism, much of 
which is emanating from Pakistan for much the 
same reasons of state policy in the past.

The irony should not be lost on anyone. The 
hotbed of Muslim extremism was the Middle East, 
primarily Egypt and Algeria. Syria tackled the 
problem of Muslim Brotherhood in February 1982 
when Hafiz Asad crushed the uprising in Hama and 
razed the city to the ground. Egypt and Algeria 
too had to take stringent measures to put down 
the Gama’, Al-Jihad, the FIS and the GIA. But 
Pakistan did not have such an ‘extremist’ 
problem. For all its political uncertainties, it 
allowed the religious parties to play a role. And 
despite their social conservatism and 
retrogressive attitude towards women and 
minorities, their cadres were not radicalised 
into terrorism. But all this began to change 
after the Afghan war when we ‘handled’ the jihad 
in Afghanistan. Later, we meddled in Afghanistan 
and created an unholy linkage between our 
Afghanistan and Kashmir policies.

For many years independent observers continued to 
point to the fallout of these flawed policies. 
But the state had its own calculus to determine 
costs and benefits. Laws were Islamised on the 
basis of a literalist exegesis, syllabi were 
tempered with and distorted, the official media 
were used to project a certain kind of worldview, 
the ‘independent’ newspapers were either coerced 
or co-opted to do the same...in short, an 
environment was created in which free thinking, 
inquiry and rationalism was put to the sword. The 
point is that the state not only supported 
certain groups to push its policies outside but 
created an environment inside which could get 
willing recruits for these groups to keep 
operating.

The events of September 11, 2001, have forced the 
state to change its orientation. But the 
‘Pakistani’ it has created does not want to 
change. He considers it a great betrayal to 
change as required after 9/11. So the state is 
not only up against society, it also has within 
itself cliques of people who do not accept 
General Pervez Musharraf’s policy turnarounds. 
But even as General Musharraf has effected his 
volte-face externally, he remains unconvinced of 
the requirement to pursue that policy internally. 
This has created major contradictions; worse it 
has stirred a hornet’s nest and not prepared 
itself to face the consequences. The army still 
thinks it can run with the hare and hunt with the 
hounds. Well, it can’t.

General Musharraf had an opportunity to get this 
country out of the morass into which his 
predecessor General Zia-ul Haq had pushed it. He 
could have used his unfettered power to that end. 
Instead, he chose to pursue the unholy alliance 
with the religious elements and jihadi-sectarian 
groups for purely opportunistic and personal 
reasons. The sad part is that even after the 
bloodshed and after General Musharraf himself has 
been attacked and faced the threat of 
elimination, there does not appear to be any 
understanding among his advisors of the 
contradictions built into the system he has put 
in place. The biggest indication of internal 
threat to a country comes when its army is 
attacked. We have seen that happen in South 
Waziristan; we have now seen it happen in Karachi.

It is no coincidence that the two states that 
today face the gravest danger from extremist 
terrorism are Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Both 
have been allies in the cloak-and-dagger stuff 
that started with the Soviet invasion of 
Afghanistan. The House of Saud thought it could 
bribe its way out of its troubles; the Pakistan 
army always thought it could not be threatened by 
its own creation. Both were clearly wrong. Both, 
therefore, need to change their own orientation.

If General Musharraf wants things to improve, he 
will have to get out of his one-step forward, 
two-steps backwards approach. For starters, he 
will have to abandon his political alliance with 
the mullahs. Then he will have to broaden his 
domestic political support base by co-opting 
those political forces that can identify with his 
secular agenda. The threat to Pakistan is clear 
and present. Now that he has taken the plunge, he 
cannot cross the chasm in two leaps. He needs to 
review his operational as well as political 
strategy to tackle elements who are very clear 
about what they want to do. They want to remove 
him and turn Pakistan into a state that can 
challenge the world on the basis of its nuclear 
weapons. This he must prevent at all costs. At 
the very least, it demands of him to look at the 
national interest rather than the perceived 
corporate interests of the military or his own 
personal ones.

_____


[4]

The News on Sunday  [Pakistan]
June 13, 2004

Seen obscene

What are the limits of official interference in 
the functioning of a society? Why do we need new 
laws in the presence of the old ones? It is 
question time as the Punjab Assembly threatens to 
make immorality in art a more punishable offence 
than before

By Sarwat Ali

It appears that the Punjab government is finally 
being influenced enough by its counterpart in the 
North-West-Frontier-Province. It has referred a 
bill, which calls for 'making the indulgence in 
eroticism, indecency, immorality and obscenity in 
the name of art and culture' a punishable 
offence, to a standing committee. The proposed 
law prescribes a jail term of three months or a 
fine of Rs 100,000 or both for the violators.

A work of art considered to be obscene is already 
covered by law and is an offence. The existing 
law disallows indecency in art and culture, but 
does not provide a penalty for the violators. It 
seems that the penalizing clauses present in the 
country's code of laws are not being considered 
harsh enough and so the need has arisen for the 
tabling of this new bill by Punjab Assembly 
members belonging to the Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal 
(MMA) which, if anything, will only end up 
stifling the freedom of expression.

That the bill has been tabled by the MMA should 
come as no surprise. The alliance's agenda is 
driven by the clear demarcation of black and 
white. That what is not good is evil and the grey 
areas need to be eliminated. Since all art is 
constantly preoccupied with the challenges 
embedded in these grey areas, this activity has 
always been viewed with suspicion and fear. 
History is full of instances where artists were 
held responsible for exceeding the prescribed 
limits set by society, both in their imagination 
and lifestyle. The MMA, true to its agenda, is 
striving to re-set the limit. What is worrisome, 
though, is that the other members belonging to 
various political parties have not expressed 
their reservation on the effects that such 
legislation will trigger.

The legislators perhaps want to appear to be 
doing their work seriously when they pass laws 
which are more stringent than the laws that 
already exist. At times one gets the impression 
that making the laws more stringent is an act 
that is seen to exonerate the lawmakers from all 
blame, including their lack of purposeful 
activity as members of an elected assembly.

Perhaps it is also an effort to hit at soft 
targets. The people against whom these laws have 
been passed can do little to hit back. They are 
not as powerful and influential as to demand a 
tooth for a tooth and eye for an eye. It is far 
easier to pass bills against people who cannot 
retaliate in any substantial way -- to offset the 
fine balancing act that goes into the formation 
and running of a government.

It betrays, though, the thinking of the 
government and its approach towards the society 
that it wants to create. By passing punishable 
clauses, signals are sent that the government 
wants to rule by stringent legislation rather 
than by creating a society where the state is not 
required to breathe down the necks of its 
citizens.

The moot point is whether the rulers are 
confident enough to offer to society greater 
freedoms in the sense of not passing such 
stringent laws that make the freedom of 
expression only possible through a loophole. Or 
to pass one legislation after another that 
creates an atmosphere of terror and fortifies the 
need for self censorship to the extent that it 
becomes impossible to think and express freely. A 
government can function within the framework of 
good governance by offering incentives, building 
platforms and sponsoring artistic activity that 
encourages creative expression rather than taking 
steps to limit and curtail it.

This is also a replay of an endemic problem. Laws 
about everything and anything are present in the 
country, yet more laws are passed on the same 
subject to cover up for the lack of 
implementation of the existing laws. The real 
problem that the existing laws are not 
implemented is sidetracked.

Where art is concerned, it is well neigh 
impossible to set the limits of decency. Some of 
the great writers of the world -- Manto being one 
of them, have not only been accused of obscenity, 
but also sentenced for their writings. The 
earlier works of Zola were considered to be too 
obscene to be seen in the homes of the 
respectable in Paris and not sold in shops 
openly. They had to be bought under the counter. 
D. H Lawrence, too, was seen to be very vulgar 
and in the times that he lived, had to keep 
moving around the continent to avoid persecution.

And the films were also very harshly judged by 
the then prevalent ethical code. When Clarke 
Gable uttered the word 'damn' in 'Gone with the 
Wind' all hell broke loose for it was considered 
to be too vulgar by the moral standards of those 
times. Compared to the language that is used and 
the exposure of the human flesh in films these 
days, all that was extremely tame and not even 
worthy of being mentioned was objectionable in 
those times.

In Pakistan when the first pop music programme, 
Music 89, was to be televised by the state run 
Pakistan Television Corporation, the stations 
were picketed by zealots to stop the programme 
from being aired in the name of upholding the 
eastern moral values.

Now what we see on all the channels is nothing 
but music videos and so much more daring than 
Music 89 that it seems as tame as the utterance 
of the word damn and not even worthy of being 
mentioned.

The world is changing very fast and what was held 
reprehensible in the past is commonplace now. The 
change is manifest here as well. In the desire to 
retain purity of values the society can be both 
isolated from the international community and 
subjected to harsh penalizing set of legislation 
at home. The example of the Taliban is too close 
and vivid for us to realise that such policies 
can lead a society to a dead end. There are other 
countries in the world where stringent do's and 
don'ts have left no space for artistic activity. 
Some of these countries consider art and culture 
to be frivolous and some import art and culture 
for entertainment on specific occasions.

Another basic problem with such legislation is 
that it is most likely to be used selectively. 
The state keeps churning out laws which in any 
case are contrary to the spirit of the times. The 
emphasis now is on making the role of the 
government circumscribed. The smaller governments 
compared to the bigger and larger governments of 
the past is the catchphrase these days and what 
all that goes with, is not only limited to 
privatisation, disinvestment and pulling the 
government out of economic activity, but of 
genuinely reducing the role of the government in 
all spheres including that of the arts.

The government once had a major role to play in 
the promotion of culture and education. In the 
communist and socialistic societies the 
responsibility fully fell on the shoulders of the 
government and was enshrined in the constitution 
while in the social democratic states the main 
burden was shifted on to the shoulders of the 
state funded institutions. But the accusation 
that it hampered the freedom so very essential 
for the creation of art could not be escaped. The 
governments were accused and at times rightly so 
for promoting writers, poets and artists who 
favoured the point of view advanced by the 
government in power.

The move to limit the role of the government 
becomes a very sensitive subject when it grates 
on areas like freedom of expression and 
censorship. It is so very tempting to sound self 
righteous and frame policies that are more in the 
crusading sense of cleansing societies of evil 
and faithlessness. In this zeal, the government 
always encroaches upon the rights of its 
citizens. It should not remain the only standard 
of right and wrong, the only arbiter of what is 
good intellectually and morally -- this has to 
evolve from pluralism reflective of the diversity 
of the people's views.

Art police

Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has been involved 
in several similar drives earlier, especially in 
the Frontier where it has a government of its 
own. A brief mention of the few moves made in the 
recent times explains what goes on in the minds 
of those who assigned themselves the task of 
'purging the society of its ills.'

Soon after coming into power in the province, the 
Majlis passed a resolution for the enforcement of 
'shariah'. It was also at the same time that the 
federal information ministry issued a circular 
declaring a 'crusade against obscenity in print 
and electronic advertisements'. The circular 
aimed at ensuring that advertisements were 
"reflective of our values, culture and religion". 
It was, in fact, issued to enforce an earlier 
recommendation by the Council of Islamic Ideology 
(CII) -- a constitutional body that advises the 
government on Islamisation of laws, rules and 
regulations.

After passing the 'shariah' resolution, MMA 
government embarked on a crackdown against 
cinemas screening what the religious alliance 
thought were vulgar movies and 'immoral' 
billboards. In another MMA-inspired drive, 
thousands of videocassettes and compact discs 
(CDs) were collected from almost 400 shops in 
Peshawar and destroyed. Then came the campaign to 
smear billboards with paint because they showed 
women models. Even the image of a well-covered 
Pakistani woman promoting a brand of soap, 
washing powder or soft drink was considered 
enough to provoke 'negative' feelings and hence 
the wrath against it.

In November 2003, activists of Jamiat 
Ulema-e-Islam (Fazal) seized posters and greeting 
cards with women's pictures on them, particularly 
those of Indian actresses, from shopkeepers in 
Peshawar. They tore apart posters displayed at 
several music centres in gross violation of the 
orders passed by the provincial government which 
clearly prohibited them from taking the law into 
their hands.

The last but not the least is MMA's drive to put 
a ban on the activities of the artistes working 
in Peshawar's Dabgari Bazaar. Though the 
government had to relent later in the face of 
intense criticism by national and international 
media, it still imposed some restrictions on the 
musicians before allowing them to resume their 
work. But the damage had been done, encouraged by 
the government action, some residents of Peshawar 
organised into a group Tehrik Nijat-e-Fahashi 
(Anti-obscenity Movement) with the support of 
local politicians. The members of the group 
accuse the artistes of promoting immorality.

But the march against 'obscenity' does not stop 
on the western side of the Indus. It was Lahore's 
turn next. A crackdown was launched by the 
district government against dances in theatrical 
performances. Many stage artistes, playwrights 
and producers under the leadership of actor 
Sohail Ahmed also supported the government drive.

-- TNS report

_____


[5]

BBC News
10 June, 2004, 17:40 GMT 18:40 UK 

Sri Lanka bans offensive images

Buddha is revered by most of the Sri Lankan population

Customs officials and police and customs in Sri 
Lanka have been told to seize Buddha Bar music 
and bikinis with Buddha images, officials say.

The music - which originates from a nightclub in 
Paris - and the swimwear have been deemed by the 
authorities as potentially offensive to Buddhists.

Some Buddhists have called for a strict 
enforcement of laws that stop the commercial use 
of religious symbols.

Buddhists comprise nearly 70% of the island's population of 19m people.

Commercial exploitation

The attorney-general ordered the seizures after 
Buddhist monk Daranaagama Kusaladhamma petitioned 
the Supreme Court to ban bikinis with Buddha 
images.

The monk argued that prohibitions should also be 
placed on candles in the shape of the Buddha and 
Buddha Bar albums which carry pictures of the 
Buddha.

Buddha Bar music is mostly instrumental lounge 
music which originates from a Paris night club 
that has become so popular that similar 
establishments have opened up all over the world.

Mr Kusaladhamma argued in court that the 
commercial exploitation of the Buddha's image 
hurt the sentiments of most of Sri Lanka's 
population.

The court on Tuesday said no new ban was needed. 
But it accepted the attorney-general's arguments 
that police and customs should strictly enforce 
existing laws which prevent the exploitation of 
religious symbols.

Pirated CDs of the Paris Buddha Bar are sold in 
Sri Lanka for just over a dollar.

_____


[6]

Outlook
June 21, 2004    

BANGLADESH
In Bangla Bhai's Emirate Of Terror
A rabid Mullah Omar clone wreaks havoc on the 
country's 'moderate Islamic' image
HENA KHAN

REAL NAME: SIDDIQUL ISLAM Guilty of torturing, 
killing eight Left activists ; Member of the 
Jamaat-e-Islami till '98; quit courtesy its 
decision to accept women leaders; Joined Jagroto 
Muslim Janata Bangladesh, which wants to 
establish a Taliban-type state ; He is its 
operations chief and member of its highest 
policymaking body

He is Bangladesh's Mullah Omar, intolerant, 
fanatical and, yes, charismatic. Like the 
erstwhile Taliban supremo, his avowed goal is to 
establish a society based on the Islamic model 
laid out in the Quran and the Hadith (tradition) 
of Prophet Mohammad. Quite worryingly, he isn't 
averse to killing his opponents in cold blood. 
That's Siddiqul Islam aka Bangla Bhai, leader of 
the Jagroto Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), who 
thrust himself into the country's popular 
consciousness-and in media headlines-through the 
grisly torture and killing of eight members of 
the banned Leftist group, Sarbahara (Have-Nots) 
Party, over the past few months.

The emergence of Bangla Bhai underlines the 
concerted challenge a clutch of Islamic militant 
groups pose to Bangladesh's reputation as a 
"moderate Muslim country". Prime Minister Khaleda 
Zia was alarmed enough to issue orders of arrest 
against the Mullah Omar clone. But the nation's 
woes have continued to mount. A bomb explosion at 
the holy shrine of Hazrat Shah Jalai in Sylhet in 
May killed four people and injured 
Bangladesh-born British high commissioner Anwar 
Choudhury and 80 others. In April, a huge cache 
of sophisticated arms was seized in raids on two 
militant hideouts at Satikthhari village, 
Chittagong district. Add to these the 
intermittent threats the militant outfits have 
been issuing against the minority Ahmadiya sect 
countrywide and the picture you have is of 
impoverished Bangladesh struggling to keep at bay 
the radical Islamism nibbling at its soul.

No wonder, Christina Rocca, the US assistant 
secretary of state for South Asia, flew into 
Dhaka last month, much to the chagrin of the Zia 
government. Rocca met the leaders of the 
beleaguered 1,00,000-strong Ahmadiya community 
and told reporters, "This country (Bangladesh) 
has a long tradition as a moderate and tolerant 
place.... The problems faced by the Ahmadiya sect 
have made us concerned because it looks like if 
things might be getting off tract a little."

About her visit, a western diplomat said, 
"Rocca's visit was different from her earlier 
visits, as things are changing in Bangladesh. It 
is the first alert buzz of that fact." Dhaka, 
however, reiterated that these were stray 
incidents, and that it would tackle such militant 
groups with a tough hand. But Rocca's statement 
did embarrass the four-party alliance government, 
which includes religious parties like the 
Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islami Oikkya Jote.

And now it is the turn of the Indian government 
to ring alarm bells. Opposition leader Sheikh 
Hasina raised the issue of Islamic militancy with 
Veena Sikri, the Indian high commissioner in 
Dhaka. Sikri did not express her own views but a 
source in the Indian high commission told 
Outlook, "Obviously, security matters in 
Bangladesh concern India as a neighbouring 
country." Especially the cache of sophisticated 
weapons found in Chittagong. Says the source, "We 
have asked during border talks and at other 
levels about the origins of weapons and their 
destination. Such cache of weapons could land in 
the hands of separatist elements in India. We are 
constantly monitoring these developments."


The growing strength of militant groups and their 
attempts to push Bangladesh to rightwing 
extremism is a worry for India because of its 
recent history. Islamic radicals and their 
slogans of jehad have created havoc on India's 
northern borders.
New Delhi wouldn't want a new flank to open in 
the east, already riven by secessionism.

The disquiet in foreign missions is also because 
of the general perception, often articulated in 
the media here, about the fundamentalist 
Jamaat-e-Islami's links to the militants groups, 
some of which are in turn purportedly linked to 
Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda. Jamaat 
secretary-general and social welfare minister Ali 
Ahsan Mujaheed has a tame defence: "It is unfair 
to implicate Jamaat in the activities of Bangla 
Bhai, Mujahideen, Harkatul Jehad or other 
groups.Our party preaches Islam to rear honest 
people."

As foreign missions anxiously keep an eye on 
bloody militant activities, the nation is in 
thrall of Bangla Bhai. Who is he? What's his 
organisation, JMJB, all about? In his mid-40s, 
black-bearded and turbaned, he hails from the 
northwestern Bogra district and was initially a 
member of the Jamaat. "My actual name is Siddiqul 
Islam, and I do not have any other names which 
appear in the media. It's my journalist-friends 
who created the confusion," he once said in 
response to queries as to why he was called 
Bangla Bhai. Siddiqul apparently earned that 
sobriquet because he used to teach Bengali in a 
Dhaka school. He also claims to have studied in 
Dhaka University.

In 1998, Bangla Bhai quit the Jamaat in protest 
against its decision to accept the woman 
leadership of Bangladesh. "We don't believe in 
the present political trend," he had then fumed. 
"We want to build a society based on the Islamic 
model laid out in the Holy Quran and the Hadith." 
He then joined the JMJB, which could have been 
operating under a different nomenclature till 
then. Bangla Bhai worked underground for six 
years and rose to become a member of its highest 
policy-making body, the Majlis-e-Shura, as also 
its operations chief.

JMJB's principal goal is to turn Bangladesh into 
a Taliban-like state. But its spiritual leader 
Maulana Abdur Rahman claims the JMJB is involved 
in social welfare activities. Maulana Rahman, 
like Bangla Bhai, was also a member of the Jamaat 
and, incidentally, collaborated with the 
Pakistani army during Bangladesh's 1971 
India-backed liberation war.

The JMJB is believed to have 10,000 militants 
operating in at least 17 Bangladeshi districts. 
The organisation is well structured: its top tier 
is called Ehsar which comprises full-time members 
working on orders of the leadership; its second 
tier is Gayeri Ehsar, which consists of 1,00,000 
part-time activists; at the bottom are those who 
work for the organisation indirectly. Its 
principal sources of funding are disguised 
business including cold storage and shrimp 
cultivation.

Last month, Dhaka-based newspaper The Daily Star 
claimed it had obtained video discs, including 
one chillingly titled, The Solution, The 
Preparation. These videos shown to JMJB recruits 
contained visuals of training imparted at the 
erstwhile al-Farooq training camp in Afghanistan. 
The newspaper quoted JMJB sources as saying that 
20 of their comrades who had worked with bin 
Laden were now assisting Bangla Bhai.

Bangla Bhai shot into notoriety because of 
killings and tortures allegedly carried out at 
his behest. The most grisly of these occurred in 
Bamongram village, Naogaon district, last month. 
JMJB activists nabbed three Sarbahara Party 
activists and tortured them, their chilling 
screams transmitted over the microphone across 
the village. The following morning the villagers 
woke up to find the body of a man, labelled as a 
Sarbahara Party member, hanging upside down from 
a tree. Another mutilated body was found at a 
temporary camp of the JMJB.

JMJB men deny their role in the grisly killings, 
claiming the villagers acted against the 
Sarbahara Party because of its propensity to 
extort money from people. But there are no takers 
for these explanations.The police, in fact, claim 
the victims were innocent villagers and not 
associated with the banned Leftist outfits.

Wherever Bangla Bhai and his men go, the people 
live in complete terror.Like in Vittigram village 
in Naogaon, for instance. Here the JMJB members 
would pick up pretty girls and confine them in 
Siddiqia Fazil Madrassa, where they would be 
allegedly raped. Normalcy returned to the village 
only after JMJB moved out to other pastures to 
preach their own version of Islamic society.

That Bangla Bhai earned his spurs in the Jamaat 
has embarrassed the government deeply.But Jamaat 
chief has his own spin, "There may be a move 
nationally or internationally to rear some 
adventurers or splinter groups to check Islamic 
uprising." Or, the Jamaat cadres are deliberately 
being groomed to give Islamic ideology a bad 
name. Either way, as in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 
Bangladesh too may have to pay a heavy price for 
flirting with the fundamentalists.

_____


[7]

[CID questions Gujarat human rights activist:
An e-mail alleged his role in anti-national activities
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
Friday, June 11, 2004

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=48749 ]


o o o

[11 June  2004]

PRESS   NOTE

A meeting of Human Rights Activists, concerned 
citizens and representatives of various NGOs held 
at PRASHANT today strongly condemned the 
highhanded action of various departments of the 
State like Police and Charity Commissioner 
against Human Rights Activists and NGOs.

There have been several instances of this 
intimidation and harassment all over the State. 
Some of the instances are:

On 1st June, several Human Rights and Social 
Activists ( many of who were deeply involved in 
responding to the Gujarat Carnage) had a meeting 
at "Prashant" office in Ahmedabad and made a 
Charter of Demands to the newly elected UPA 
Government in Delhi. The Charity Commissioner of 
Ahmedabad ( through their inspectors) have been 
visiting these NGOs and Human Rights Activists 
and making all kinds of enquiries regarding their 
works, objects, etc.

The way well-known dancer, artiste Mallika 
Sarabhai has been harassed by the Modi government 
is well known.

On April 11th, a group of Youth Activists who 
were addressing a Press Conference in Vadodara 
under the banner of Youth Aman Karwan lead by 
Shabnam Hashmi, was physically attacked.

On April 12th, Teesta Setalvad a co-petitioner in 
the Best Bakery Case was threatened with dire 
consequences by accused in the Gulbarg Society 
case here in Ahmedabad.

Well known Human Rights Activist and the Director 
of "Prashant" , Father Cedric Prakash, has been 
constantly harassed by the State authorities and 
even on the basis of a mysterious email sent by 
an RSS functionary.  Enquiries are being 
conducted to prove that he is anti-national and 
to have his passport impounded.

The Police have been visiting several NGOs 
including Christian and Muslim Institutions 
across the State and making all kinds of 
enquiries about the receipt of foreign funds, 
activities of the organizations, etc.  This, it 
is understood, is under the direct supervision of 
the State’s Home Ministry.

The participants in the meeting were of the 
opinion that the action of the police against Fr. 
Cedric Prakash violated all the norms of 
democracy and revealed the fascist character of 
the State.

To protest against the onslaught of the State 
against Human Rights Activists, the meeting 
resolved to mobilize public by holding massive 
Demonstration / Dharna  on 25th June 2004, at 
Ahmedabad.  The meeting also resolved to send a 
delegation to the Central Government and submit a 
memorandum appraising the Government about the 
State of affairs prevailing in the State of 
Gujarat and demanding appropriate action on the 
Charter of Demands.

The meeting decided to hold group meetings at 
various places like Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, etc. 
on 23rd and 24th June which will be attended by 
eminent Human Rights Activists.


The meeting was attended by :                


Amar Jyot [Action Aid]
Anwar Tirmizi, [Sanchetna]
Batuk Vora [JCF]
Bhavna Ramrakhiani [ACF]
Chunilal Vaidya  [Guj. Lokh Samiti]
Digant Oza [Satyajit Trust]
Dwarikanath N. Rath [MSD]
Fr.Cedric Prakash [Prashant]
Gagan Sethi [Centre for Social Justice]
Girish Patel [Sr. Advocate]
Hanif Lakdawala
Harinesh [Janpath]
Harinesh [Janpath]
Harsh Mander [Anhad]
Hiren Gandhi [Samvedan]
I.S. Lal [WREU]
J. V. Momin
Justice (Retd.) A. P. Ravani
Jyotsna Macwan  [BSC]
Mahadev Vidrohi
Mallika Sarabhai [Darpana Academy]
Meenakshi Ganguly [Human Rights Watch]
Mukul Sinha [Jan Sangarsh Manch]
P. K. Valera [AJCC]
Panki Jog [Janpath]
Parthiv Shah [CMAC]
Prasad Chacko [Behavioral Science Centre]
Prof.  J. S. Bandukwala
Rafi Malek [CfD]
Rafi Mallik [Centre for Development]
Roopa Rathnam [Oxfam]
S. Amalraj [BSC]
S. H. Iyre, Advocate [JSM]
Sajid irmizi [Samvedan]
Salma  [Oxfam]
Saumya Joshi [Fade-in Theatre]
Shabnam Hashmi [Anhad]
Sheba George [Sahr-Waru]
Sophia Khan
Stalin K. [Drishti Media Collective]
Swarup Dhruv [Samvedan]
Tanveer Jafri
Vandana Bhatt [Janhit]
Varghese Paul [CISS]
Wilfred D’Souza [INSAF]
Zakia Jowher [Aman Samuday]


_______


[8]

SAHMAT
8, Vithalbhai Patel House, Rafi Marg,New
Delhi-110001


  7.6.2004

Withdraw Saffronised NCERT Textbooks

A convention on Friday, 11th June 2004, at 3 pm. to
  Withdraw Saffronised NCERT Textbooks

  Dear Friend,

A month after the people of India gave an unambious
mandate in favour of a secular polity, government
  and
educational system, the new government that is in
  place at the centre is yet to take the decision to
withdraw the highly biased, communal and substandard
textbooks produced by the NCERT for use in our
schools. To demand immediate withdrawal of these
textbooks, especially those pertaining to the social
sciences, we are holding a convention on Friday,
11th June 2004, at 3 pm. at the Deputy Speaker's Hall,
Constitution Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi.

Speakers at the convention will include Professors
Irfan Habib, D.N.Jha, Aditya Mukherjee, Arjun Dev,
Prabhat Patnaik.

Please try your best to attend.

  M.K.Raina


o o o


The Hindu
June 12, 2004

REVERSE `JOSHI LEGACY,' SAY ACADEMICS

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 11. Unhappy with the United 
Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government for not 
beginning the task of ``de-saffronising'' 
educational institutions and withdrawing the 
controversial textbooks introduced by the 
National Democratic Alliance (NDA), academics 
today demanded early reversal of the ``Murli 
Manohar Joshi legacy''.

The academics, in particular, demanded the 
withdrawal of the history textbooks introduced by 
the National Council of Educational Research & 
Training (NCERT) at the earliest so that they are 
not in circulation for another year.

With a view to mounting pressure in this regard 
on the new Human Resource Development Minister, 
Arjun Singh, academics, historians and lawyers 
came together this afternoon under the SAHMAT 
banner.

Prabhat Patnaik of Jawaharlal Nehru University 
said what the academics were demanding was not 
just a question of overturning the decision of a 
Government they did not agree with.

``These books were not written professionally and 
not based on the basic values of the 
Constitution,'' he said, adding that there was a 
need to free academic activity, including 
textbook writing from political interference.

Historian Aditya Mukherjee said that while there 
were many errors in the textbooks, a matter of 
equal concern was the bias that had been brought 
in the presentation. ``Communalism is not just 
another bias. But it is like racism or 
anti-Semitism. Removal of the communal bias is 
the civilisational and Constitutional imperative 
of the Government.''

`Misinformation campaign'

Arjun Dev, who has authored one of the textbooks 
which were withdrawn under the NDA rule, said: 
``A misinformation campaign had been unleashed to 
make it appear that it was mandatory for the 
Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE) to be 
convened to withdraw the textbooks. Such 
propaganda is aimed at delaying the withdrawal of 
the textbooks. Why should CABE be called to 
withdraw the textbooks when it was not consulted 
in the first place? If these books are not 
withdrawn in the coming days, there is every 
danger that they will be in circulation for 
another year.''

Eminent lawyer Rajeev Dhawan said: ``If the 
Ministry takes a leisurely attitude to the 
textbook issue, then the books will continue to 
be used. This would be insulting to secular 
democracy and the mandate that has put the UPA in 
office.''

Later, in a statement, all present said: ``Not a 
day should be lost in withdrawing the Curriculum 
Framework of 2000 and recalling the textbooks, 
especially those of history and social sciences. 
The older National Curriculum Framework of 1988 
should be restored and the earlier textbooks, 
with necessary updating, should be reissued. 
These changes ought to be given effect to from 
the current academic session. `The Indian people 
have surely not changed their Government to 
merely continue the status quo. The Government 
should not allow procedural or bureaucratic 
delays to hamper action.''


o o o

[RELATED MATERIAL]

The Hindu
June 13, 2004
Authors `shocked' at BJP remarks

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JUNE 12. Reacting strongly to the 
remarks of the Delhi unit president of the 
Bharatiya Janata Party, Harsh Vardhan, on the 
recently released textbooks for government 
schools in the Capital, the team of authors 
involved in writing the books today urged 
individuals to pick up the books and judge for 
themselves.

"The books would be available in shops across the 
city within a week and interested individuals can 
make up their minds whether they `falsify' facts 
and `rubbish India's ancient glory'," said a 
release signed by authors including Delhi 
University professors Krishna Kumar, Amitabh 
Mukherjee, Ramakant Agnihotri, Savitri Singh, 
Mukul Priyadarshini and Jamia Milia Islamia 
professor, Narayani Gupta.

Expressing shock at the "slanderous'' language 
used in the BJP statement against Muslims, the 
team of authors further stated that they see "all 
people in India as equal and deplore attempts to 
valorise one community above the others''.

Responding to an accusation by the BJP, the 
statement asserted that attention had been paid 
to facts and chronology. Because the 
chronological sequence had been respected, the 
"later Cholas'' had been added to the syllabus of 
Class VII and not Class VI. The `importance' of a 
person or movement or State is not measured in 
lines or pages, it said.

"The books are not meant to be encyclopaedia 
because our concern is to explain to the children 
the methods of history-writing, not to overwhelm 
them with details,'' added the statement.

It was also clarified that the material had not 
been prepared by individual authors but through a 
process of discussion at all stages and effort 
had been made to establish links between 
different subjects.


______


[9]

Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 11:42:17 +0500


Press Release

The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India, considers
the latest UN Resolution 1546  (June 8, 2004) a shameful capitulation to
the US.

·	It recognises as "sovereign" an interim government set up after June 30
that, like the Governing Council, is established effectively by the US and
not the UN.
·	It legitimises an illegal, US-dominated 
occupation force as a UN-mandated
"multinational" force.
·	It endorses this occupation at least until December 31, 2005 when an
elected "transitional government" is to be established. Any removal of
troops before then by the interim Iraqi government is subject to Security
Council authorization where the US can exercise its veto to ensure its
continuing presence.
·	It endorses ultimate US (not Iraqi or UN) 
control over deployment/use of
the occupying "multinational" forces.
·	Article 27 of this Resolution allows all US-organised contracts for oil
companies before June 30, 2004 to continue to have immunity afterwards.

Any endorsement of this Resolution by the Indian government, let alone
sending of troops, represents a betrayal of the Iraqi people, of elementary
principles of justice, and of an independent Indian foreign policy.

Achin Vanaik, Prabir Purukayastha
CNDP, India.

____


[10]


The Times of India
JUNE 12, 2004
Bonding without bigotry
TALKING TERMS/DILEEP PADGAONKAR

Port Louis : Nowhere do developments in India 
affect people of Indian origin as dramatically as 
they do here in Mauritius . Part of the reason is 
demographic. Close to 70 per cent of the 1.2 
million strong population of this divinely 
endowed island-nation traces its roots to Bihar , 
Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat , Andhra Pradesh, Tamil 
Nadu and Maharashtra . The languages, cultures 
and religious practices prevalent in these states 
are kept alive in homes and through a network of 
caste and community-based associations.

Another reason for the strong presence of India 
relates to the official and non-official ties 
that link Mauritius with the mother country. 
Governments may come and go in Port Louis and New 
Delhi but the ties, especially in defence 
matters, are left untouched. This is increasingly 
true of economic relations too. Add to this the 
many cultural and scientific undertakings of the 
Indian government.

Outside the government sphere Mauritians are 
exposed to India through films and television, 
itinerant spiritual gurus and now more and more 
thanks to Indian enterprises operating in the 
country. The latest Bollywood films are screened 
in cinema halls often before they are released in 
India . Their DVDs are also on sale at every 
other street corner. Many Indian TV channels can 
be accessed on cable. The second channel of the 
state-owned television network almost entirely 
broadcasts Indian programmes.

This explains in large measure the very high 
interest in Indian politics and indeed in any 
issue of national significance in India . That 
level of interest is also to be found in India 's 
economic advances in recent years. The growing 
stature of India in the world instils a sense of 
pride and perhaps also enhances the community's 
self-esteem in this multi-ethnic, religious and 
cultural environment.

There is however another, less rosy side to this 
picture. The elite in the Indo-Mauritian 
community look to Britain , France and the United 
States rather than to India to advance their 
professional interests. French remains the 
dominant language of education, culture and even 
commerce. The tiny Franco-Mauritian community 
controls a major chunk of the economy. 
Sino-Mauritians and Muslim Mauritians of Indian 
descent more or less monopolise retail trade.

Until not too long ago, the Hindus held the keys 
to political and administrative power. But their 
innate divisiveness, which non-Hindi Mauritians 
are said to have exploited to the hilt, got the 
better of them. Caste, religious and regional 
identities were brought into full play.

The accumulating frustrations found expression in 
the radicalisation of the Hindu community. The 
ascendancy of Hindutva in the mother country 
throughout the 1990s and in the early part of the 
new century contributed to this trend. A static, 
exclusivist idea of Indian culture with strong 
authoritarian undertones began to strike roots. 
This, in turn, accounts in part for the emergence 
of fundamentalist tendencies in the Muslim 
community too.

The fact remains however that an overwhelming 
majority of Hindus and Muslims treat religious 
extremism with the disdain it deserves. The 
younger generation in particular is attached to 
religion and culture. But it is in no mood to 
allow that attachment to be harnessed to 
political or ideological goals.

Here is an opportunity for India . For too long 
New Delhi thought it fit to focus its attention 
on Hindi-speaking, Hindu Mauritians. It must now 
reach out to other sections of the population as 
well. For, the appeal of a modernizing India 
which celebrates diversity and tolerance cuts 
across all these communities. Such an appeal 
alone can help to tame the demons of divisiveness 
which threaten to overwhelm this fascinating land 
whose inhabitants are proud to call as chota 
Bharat.


______



[11]


The Economic and Political Weekly
June 05, 2004

Viability of Islamic Science
Some Insights from 19th Century India

Science flowered in Islam during the liberal 
Muslim Abbasid and later Ottoman kings. This was 
possible because the Abbasids welcomed scientists 
and translators from other cultures who willingly 
became sincere participants in the project called 
Islamic civilisation. The 19th century 
interlocutors, a few of whom are discussed in 
this paper, were aware of the 
cross-civilisational character of science in 
Islamic civilisation and modern science for them 
was a culmination of the perpetually shifting 
centres of science in history. This plurality of 
vision and cross-cultural perspective is much in 
contrast to what is being propounded today in the 
name of Islamic science.

S Irfan Habib

[The full text of above article is available to 
all interested and can be obtained by sending in 
a request to <aiindex at mnet.fr> ]


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

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.

-- 



More information about the Sacw mailing list