SACW | 18-19 June 2004
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Fri Jun 18 18:52:42 CDT 2004
South Asia Citizens Wire | 18-19 June, 2004
via: www.sacw.net
[1] Pakistan: The diabolical nexus (Editorial, The Daily Times)
[2] How the Holy Warriors Learned to Hate (Waleed Ziad)
[3] India When three Kashmirs met in London - Part's I to VII (Bashir Manzar)
[4] India: Truth about Godhra: Case for a Fresh
Commission of Inquiry (Siddharth Varadarajan)
[5] India: Options before the BJP (Valson Thampu)
[6] India: Vintage Vajpayee (J Sri Raman)
[7] India: Letters to the Editor 'leadership change in Gujarat' (Mukul Dube)
[8] Sai Baba: God-man or con man? (Tanya Datta)
[9] Book Review: 'The Emergence of Bangladesh -
Class Stuggles in East Pakistan (1947-1958)
by Badruddin Uma' (Reviewed by AM Shah)
[10] Remembering Pradyumna Kaul (friends colleagues and the NAPM)
[11] Call For Papers: First Conference of Kartini
Network On Asian Women's/Gender Studies
Dalian University, Dalian, North East China (21 - 24 September 2004)
--------------
[1]
The Daily Times
June 18, 2004
Editorial
THE DIABOLICAL NEXUS
This newspaper has reported in its June 17 issue
that the maulvi of a mosque in Green Town, a
locality in Lahore, sexually assaulted a
six-year-old boy Talha. As generally happens in
such cases, the boy was sent to the mosque by his
parents to learn the Holy Quran. The news makes
clear that while the police has apprehended the
maulvi, the parents of the unfortunate victim are
facing pressure from some religious outfits to
drop the case and not press charges. We are not
surprised either by the incident or the fact that
some religious groups should deem fit to come out
in support of a criminal. Such sorts are
notorious for committing acts of buggery to a
point where bawdy jokes about them are quite
common. Similarly, to think that such groups or
personages are inclined to act more morally than
us mortals is laughable.
So why should we be writing about it if we are
not surprised by the incident and its aftermath?
Clearly, just because something wrong happens
frequently does not make it right. It is the
responsibility of the state and society to ensure
that non-consensual sex (as opposed to consensual
sex) and paedophilia must be treated as crimes
and their perpetrators punished. So if there is
evidence against this fellow, he must get what he
deserves under the law. It is ridiculous that in
a country where consensual sex is treated as a
crime because it is deemed a sin or where two
consenting adults cannot even marry each other
without being killed or arrested, religious
groups should come out in support of a paedophile.
But there are a few other aspects of this problem
also. Does the government have any data on the
number of mosques in various cities and across
the country? The answer is no. There are
guesstimates but no real verifiable data. Why?
Because mosque-building remains an unregulated
business. We know how the element of sanctity
linked with the mosque is utilised by charlatans
to grab land and how it is important for
'graduates' of madrassahs to find mosques because
they are otherwise unemployable. The problem is
that just like the mosques are unregulated, so
the government is unaware of who occupies them
and to what purpose. Police officers in Karachi
know that religious gangs fight over possession
of mosques and use these places to brainwash
people, generate funds and hide terrorists, and
even to make illegal commercial use of them.
There is a diabolical nexus among these elements:
the fundamentalist preaching madrassah and
sectarian mosque, and other acts of bigotry and
terrorism. In fact, what the maulvi has done in
Green Town is a criminal act at the low end of
this murky spectrum. Can something be done?
Yes. Given clear evidence that many mosques and
madrassahs are involved in sectarian and other
terrorism, the state needs to firmly decide to
regulate their affairs. It must legislate to
decide the optimum number of mosques required for
purely religious purposes determined by the
population of a locality, acceptable noise and
congestion levels, and the capacity of each
mosque. Mosque-building must be regulated and no
one should be allowed to construct a mosque
anywhere he likes. Sectarian sermons should be
declared a crime. The sub-literature in Islam is
overflowing with sectarianism. It is the modern
state's responsibility to keep the lid firmly on
it. The state must ensure that all mosques are
listed with the religious ministry and all
khateebs are vetted by the ministry. Religious
circles of course are likely to fall, ironically,
on the liberal argument and say it is not the
state's responsibility to regulate religion.
True, but only if it can be proved that religion
is not translating itself into societal strife
and violence. The evidence here is that it is. It
then becomes the responsibility of the state to
secure the life and property of its citizens and
ensure that no harm comes to them on the basis of
their beliefs.
But none of this can happen if the state has
someone like Ijaz-ul Haq manning the religious
ministry and writing op-eds in newspapers that
clearly show where his bias resides. A good step
taken by the government is to nominate
enlightened members to the Council of Islamic
Ideology, a body that had almost become comic
because it was stuffed previously by literalists.
Now the government needs to do the same with the
religious ministry. *
_____
[2]
The New York Times, June 18, 2004
HOW THE HOLY WARRIORS LEARNED TO HATE
By Waleed Ziad
WASHINGTON
Afghanistan is no longer a terrorist factory
sending thousands of killers into the world,"
President Bush announced on Tuesday, as he stood
in the White House Rose Garden next to his Afghan
counterpart, Hamid Karzai. And, true, Afghanistan
has been a success story, at least compared with
Iraq. Still, the offensive against militants who
fled into northwestern Pakistan continues, and
Osama bin Laden remains on the lam. Achieving
lasting peace and democracy in this trouble spot
will take more than Special Operations troops -
we must gain a far better understanding of the
militants and their motivations.
A good place to start is a hand-scrawled
inscription I saw on a crumbling wall in a border
town in northern Pakistan that read, "Jihad of
the sword, like prayer, is a religious
obligation." Most Westerners probably assume that
this is an ancient dictum - and I bet the man who
wrote it did, too. But the fact is, the slogan
was conjured up no more than 25 years ago.
Here's the point: contrary to popular theories,
the fight against militant religious groups in
South Asia is not a clash of age-old
civilizations or a conflict between
traditionalism and modernism. Rather, it is a
more recent story of political ineptitude and
corruption, and of a postcolonial class struggle
between the disenfranchised poor and these
countries' elites.
The story begins early in the 19th century, in
the religious schools called madrasas. For
centuries under India's Muslim rulers, madrasas
were centers of learning, open to all classes,
concerned with teaching law, the sciences and
administrative subjects. As British rule grew
stronger, however, a system of colonial education
was established for wealthier, urban children.
Its purpose, as Lord Macaulay put it in 1835, was
to create "a class of persons Indian in blood and
color but English in taste, in opinions, in
morals and intellect."
The madrasas were sidelined and many leading
scholars, or ulema, were persecuted. In Delhi,
madrasas were razed. It was left to the urban and
rural poor, neglected by the colonial schools, to
support the increasingly decrepit madrasas. The
curriculum shrunk, and by the mid-20th century
most taught only the rote learning of scripture
and a dogmatic version of Islam.
During this period of degeneration, several
schools of thought aimed at educational revival
emerged, the largest being the Deobandi school,
in 1867, and the Barelvi school later that
century. Over time, these apolitical movements
not only established madrasas but became de facto
representatives of self-declared religious
groups. Various factions - representing Sunnis,
Shiites and radical Wahhabists - began to enter
politics. Still, there was no real concept of a
"religious" political party.
Throughout the 20th century, the leaders of these
groups desperately tried to enter the political
mainstream by jumping onto any ideological
bandwagon, but none ever secured more than a
handful of National Assembly seats. When India
was partitioned in 1947, the major Deobandi party
in Pakistan, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, began to call
for "Islamization" (a mysterious term no one
quite knew how to define at the time).
The party initially demanded new laws - based on
false scriptural readings - covering superfluous
issues like women's dress, and bans on interest
and popular entertainment. In the 1950's, its
catch phrase was "Islamic Constitutionalism"; by
the 1960's, it was "Islamic Democracy"; and in
the early 1970's "Islamic Socialism." By the end
of that decade, it was back to "Islamic
Democracy." In any case, no slogan translated
into a mass following. The leadership engaged in
occasional diatribes against rivals religious
sects or alcohol, but foreign politics and
militancy barely entered the ideological equation.
So where did the "Islamic" political parties and their militants emerge from?
The turning point was the 1979 Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan. The West and its allies decided the
best resistance to Moscow would come through
presenting the war as a religious struggle. While
Pakistani religious leaders had little political
power, they did have considerable influence over
the madrasas in Pakistan's northwestern frontier
region and in Afghanistan. Even the most benign
found this to be an opportunity to finally win
recognition (and a fortune), and they set up
their own militant subsidiaries. Madrasas were
converted overnight into training grounds for
mujahedeen. In exchange for political power and
global recognition, these impoverished students
readily became cannon fodder in Afghanistan.
Of course, the eventual Soviet withdrawal meant
an end to all that Western attention and money.
The mujahedeen needed a new cause. International
events - including the Persian Gulf war and the
Palestinian intifada - provided one: hatred of
America. An ethnic Pashtun militia, which
metamorphosed into the Taliban, provided a
rallying point for the unemployed mujahedeen. The
rest is history.
Today, Western politicians, academics and
intelligence experts continue to search through
the annals of history to determine the sources of
this jihadist mindset. But the truth is, it is
just another ideology adopted by so-called
religious parties in the former British Empire
for short-term political gains, and fueled by the
frustrations of a disaffected lower class.
To battle this phenomenon, then, we need to open
a new front on the war on terrorism. Permanently
dislodging these extremists calls for
educational, economic and cultural development. A
first step should be working with Afghanistan and
Pakistan to move the focus of the madrasas away
from holy war. Equally important is providing
more Western money for new schools to provide
functional education, coupled with real economic
opportunities for graduates. Education and jobs,
not rooting out some faux-religious doctrine, are
the means by which the disenfranchised may be
brought back into the fold.
Considering the vast populations of the
underclasses in these countries, changing their
lot may take longer than war, but it would be
cheaper and is the only long-term solution. And
in doing so, America would be seen not as an
occupier but as a purveyor of prosperity, winning
the hearts and minds of generations to come.
Waleed Ziad, an economist consultant, contributes
to The News, a Pakistani daily.
_____
[3]
SACW | June 18, 2004
When three Kashmirs met in London - Part's I to VII
by Bashir Manzar
[Full text is available at:
www.sacw.net/peace/BManzarJune2004.html ]
_____
[4]
The Times of India
June 19, 2004
Op-Ed.
TRUTH ABOUT GODHRA: CASE FOR A FRESH COMMISSION OF INQUIRY
by Siddharth Varadarajan
In his essays on leadership, Thomas Carlyle
defined the true hero as one who, though morally
imperfect and perhaps even a villain by some
other yardstick, has the ability to use a sudden
crisis to his immediate advantage. How would
Carlyle have judged Narendra Modi? Doubts about
the Gujarat CM's moral qualities need not detain
us here but what is undeniable is his political
skill in transcending crises: For example, his
ability to attract terrorists who are determined
to assassinate him precisely at a time of great
personal political difficulty. That his police
force manages to eliminate the assassins in the
nick of time is also testimony to the singular
leadership he provides.
Earlier too, we've seen such heroic qualities in
this one-time RSS pracharak. On February 27,
2002, a crisis of monumental proportions
confronted him when the Sabarmati Express was
attacked at Godhra. Mr Modi, who has perhaps
never heard of Carlyle even though he has of
Newton, used the death of 59 train passengers -
all of them Hindu, most of them VHP supporters -
to great advantage: By getting his administration
to turn a blind eye to the killing of hundreds of
Muslims immediately after, he managed to ward off
criticism for his inability to protect the Godhra
passengers and consolidate the BJP's hold over
Gujarat.
For the past two years, every BJP leader - from
Atal Behari Vajpayee down to the 'intellectuals'
who populate the lower rungs of the saffron food
chain - has sought to deflect criticism of the
Gujarat riots by invoking Godhra. But what is
surprising is the paucity of investigative
resources they chose to deploy to unravel a case,
which by their own admission, held the key to the
blood-letting which followed subsequently.
Two years on, the investigation into Godhra has
led nowhere and the country still remains
clueless about how coach S-6 of the Sabarmati
Express caught fire. No comprehensive
investigation has been conducted into whether the
incident was deliberate or an accident, what
flammable material caused the fire and what
implications the forensic evidence and witness
statements have.
The Gujarat police has arrested more than 100
Muslims under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and
charged them with involvement. But the police
case is flimsy. No evidence has emerged to
suggest there was a pre-planned conspiracy other
than a questionable confession by one of the
accused. With the Forensic Science Laboratory
concluding that the flammable liquid could not
have been thrown inside S-6 by a mob from the
outside, the police has not been able to answer
the central question of how the fire broke out.
Railway officials and passengers present at the
scene have testified before the Nanavati
commission that they saw no Muslim enter S-6
during the fracas which erupted at Godhra
station, let alone pour more than 60 litres of
petrol as the police alleges. And then there is
the second forensic report which states that
samples lifted from S-6 contained no traces of
petroleum hydrocarbons.
Getting to the bottom of Godhra is important not
just in order to punish the perpetrators but also
to draw lessons about the fire safety of railway
coaches in general. Here, the problem is that the
Railways, which should have launched their own
immediate investigation into the cause of the
fire under Section 114 of the Railways Act, chose
not to act. Nitish Kumar, who was rail minister
at the time, was more than happy to let the BJP
play politics with the tragedy.
Unfortunately, the Modi government, which
appointed the Nanavati commission, deliberately
gave the inquiry restricted terms of reference:
"To go into the facts, circumstances and course
of events of the incidents that led to the
setting on fire some of the coaches of the
Sabarmati Express train". The TOR more or less
preclude an inquiry into whether the fire was an
accident and whether enhanced railway safety
measures might have prevented the fire from
breaking out and spreading.
After a series of incidents in which trains in
shunting yards near Delhi myste-riously caught
fire, the Ahmedabad-based Jansangharsh Morcha has
suggested that the combustibility of the rubber
vestibules connecting rail coaches be
investigated. Many of the S-6 passengers have
spoken of being engulfed by thick, acrid smoke of
the kind generated by burning rubber. Only
professional forensics, devoid of a political
agenda, can help get to the truth.
The Congress and its allies have criticised the
Modi government for failing to provide justice to
the victims of the anti-Muslim riots. But Mr
Modi's lackadaisical and politicised approach to
Godhra is also coming in the way of justice being
done to the VHP supporters and other Hindu
passengers who died on board the Sabarmati
Express.
Now that the UPA government is in power, it
should speed up the investigations into the
Godhra tragedy. For one, it should consider
constituting a new inquiry commission with a
wider remit, invoking the Supreme Court's 1978
ruling in Karnataka vs Union of India (the
'Devraj Urs case'). It should also actively
support the NHRC's demands, now pending before
the Supreme Court, that the CBI be tasked with
investigating Godhra and that the case be
transferred out of Gujarat. Solving the case and
delivering justice to its victims should be a top
priority for the Centre.
______
[5]
Deccan Herald
June 18, 2004
OPTIONS BEFORE THE BJP
It would be a mistake if the BJP assumes that a
return to militant Hindutva can revive its
political fortunes
By Valson Thampu
General Election 2004 seems to have infected the
BJP with a crisis in confidence. Given the smug
self-confidence it entertained and the massive
jolt it received, this is understandable. But the
BJP is still the second largest single party in
the country and it is necessary for the health of
our democracy that it plays a constructive role
as the leading Opposition party. Crisis is part
of electoral politics. The mettle of a party is
proved by the way it responds to the given crisis
and turns it into long-term profit.
If the truth of the crisis is not heeded, there
is every chance that irrelevant, even suicidal,
remedies are resorted to. This happens in panic
reactions. L K Advani's apparently composed press
conference, in which he reaffirmed the party's
commitment to the Hindutva core, came through as
such a reaction. He is right in saying that
Hindutva is the heartbeat of the Sangh Parivar.
But he is wrong in assuming that Hindutva as
cultural nationalism, equated with Ram temple and
minority bashing, can rejuvenate the party or
endear it to the masses in this day and age.
Surely, Advani knows that in UP the BJP lost in
all constituencies of Hindu religious
significance.
The strategies the party evolves for the days
ahead must pay heed to the most significant fact
revealed by Verdict 2004. And that fact has a
double focus. On the one hand, people throughout
the country have rejected communal politics and
voted for secular and liberative ideologies, such
as they are. No matter how loudly Laloo is
decried, in the eyes of the masses he is the most
daring votary of secularism. To a majority of
voters, besides, communalism is a greater problem
than corruption. That was what a taxi driver said
in Chennai soon after Jayalalitha's landslide
victory in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections,
when she was seen to be the BJP's adversary.
Explaining why he preferred her to Karunanidhi,
he said: "Corruption cuts my pocket, but
communalism cuts my throat." For most citizens,
the subversion of the rule of law by communalism
is a trauma that they are no longer willing to
accept.
Secular masses
The rising popular preference for secularism over
communalism is not an accident. It results from
the secularisation of our society and individual
outlook that is in progress now. Prior to
globalisation, the rural masses would have seen
their suffering due to drought and famine as
supernatural afflictions for which the
politicians were not to be directly held
responsible. They would have counted their
destitution and misery as their fate. Clearly,
this is no longer the case. They have shifted
from a religious to a secular reading of their
plight. Consequently, they hold governments
responsible and punish them for their failures.
Communal diversionary tactics will not persuade
them to the contrary. The secularisation of our
social imagination, in the wake of globalisation,
has expectedly escalated the "anti-incumbency"
factor.
A factor the BJP needs to note is that the
aggressive pursuit of Hindutva as tried out in
Gujarat will have at least two adverse
consequences: one for the party and the other for
the country. Post-elections, the Modi Experiment
of Hindutva has turned the BJP into a coalition
pariah. From Jayalalitha to Mamata, from Naidu to
Chautala, all of them have come to grief by
aligning themselves with the BJP. The party that
prided itself on its genius to cobble up and run
a coalition now stands exposed as a party with
which others are unwilling to do business. It is
hard to see how the BJP can lift itself out of
this quagmire by harping on Hindutva.
The second danger of belligerent Hindutva is its
potential to accelerate and aggravate the upper
caste vs. lower caste polarisation. From 1993,
there has been a clear correlation between the
rise of Hindutva and the Dalit political ferment
in this country. The more aggressively the Sangh
Parivar - seen by the Dalits and OBCs as an upper
caste conglomerate - pursues its agenda, the more
it will provoke the thirst of the oppressed
classes and castes for power. As of now, the
merchants of Dalit political aspirations remain
bitterly disunited. That will not be the case
forever. Any violent pursuit of the Hindutva
agenda on a larger scale, seen as a conspiracy to
perpetuate upper caste hegemony, is sure to
polarise our society as never before. The fallout
of this could be highly detrimental not only to
the BJP but also for the country as a whole.
Jaded appeal
The think-tank of the BJP will be wide off the
mark if they assume that "cultural nationalism" -
an ideology of foreign origin - can keep the
masses excited for any length of time. Indeed,
the very fact that Advani had to re-cast this
agnostic ideology into an emotive cocktail of
communal sentiments tells its own story. Cultural
nationalism has, and can have, nothing to do with
religion. Too much should not be read into the
fact that the Advani brand of Hindutva swayed a
section of the people in the '80s and '90s. Much
water has flowed under the bridge since then.
Communalism is quaintly anachronistic in a
globalising world. If Hindutva is to appeal to
the masses at all, it has to take on a new spirit
and substance altogether.
There are enough indications in the pattern of
the electoral outcome as to what that new avatar
should be. It is not one more temple that we
need. India has 2.4 million places of worship
already. Gods have enough real estate in this
country; it is people who are homeless and
hungry. The Hindutva of the future - if it is to
have a future at all - must be predicated on the
pride of India. This calls for an all-out war on
the hydra-headed monster of under-development:
poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, exploitation
and injustice.
______
[6]
The Daily Times,
June 17, 2004
VINTAGE VAJPAYEE
by J Sri Raman
There have been several theories to explain the
enigma of Vajpayee. The best to date, however,
remains BJP ideologue Goindacharya's candid
description of the leader as a "mask"
("mukhota"). It was fascism with a Vajpayee face
that the BJP set out to sell. It may have found
too few buyers this time, but it can be trusted
to keep trying
The periodical surprises former Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee is supposed to spring upon a
bemused media are like the ones the Bollywood
films pack for its addicted audience. The real
surprise in both the cases is that anyone is
surprised at all. The scripts can hardly be more
familiar to fatigued but still fascinated
spectators.
The variations in Vajpayee's lines on the subject
of communalism and secularism have been a
particularly predictable feature of India's
political theatre over the past several years. No
one, for example, has been able to pin him down
on the Ayodhya issue. Long ago, when life-long
comrade and competitor L K Advani was marching at
the head of a lumpen army on an unprotected
Mughal monument, Vajpayee distanced himself from
the 'movement' and even declared himself a
'deshbhakt' (patriot) as distinct from a
'Rambhakt' (devotee of Hindu deity Rama). The
same leader, in his prime ministerial avatar, had
no hesitation in hailing the "nationalist
movement" that had led to the Babri Masjid
demolition.
When the attacks on Christians began in the Dangs
region of Gujarat, which were to lead on to the
grisly killing of missionary Graham Steines in
Orissa, the former prime minister seemed stricken
with shame and grief. A single visit to the
state, however, sufficed to convince him that a
"national debate on conversions" was the need of
the hour. More recently, Vajpayee's image-keepers
dropped discreet hints that the sage politician
was distressed at the ugly and obscurantist forms
taken by the BJP's opposition to the very idea of
Italy-born Sonia Gandhi as India's prime
minister. When he opened his mouth on the
subject, however, it was only to identify himself
with the opposition.
I have kept the best - and the most topical - of
the illustrations for last. The state-aided
anti-minority pogrom in Gujarat through the early
months of 2002 brought out the versatility of
Vajpayee's politics once again. He broke a long
initial silence on the massacre of thousands to
bemoan the tragedy from distant New Delhi. He,
however, did not stand in the way of Gujarat
Chief Minister and BJP strongman Narendra Modi,
as he went ahead to make political capital of the
communal polarisation wrought by the carnage. The
then prime minister, in fact, campaigned in the
state for Modi and his murderous hordes.
After the elections to the Lok Sabha (Lower House
of India's Parliament) lost by the BJP, he
refused to blame Modi and the massacre for the
results. He told the media categorically "there
was no connection between the results and the
riots". Within days, he went back upon that
statement. In the salubrious clime of
summer-resort Manali over the weekend, he had
scorching observations to make about Modi. He
confided to the media that he had always been for
Modi's ouster from power, but that others had
prevailed upon him against the dismissal of the
chief minister. He now cited the carnage as one
of the causes of the BJP's electoral debacle and
promised discussion of the issue in the
forthcoming session of the party's national
executive.
The media has since then been full of stories and
speculations about Vajpayee in the eye of an
inner-BJP storm. It has, of course, been a
strange spectacle. The object of a personality
cult in the party until the other day appears
isolated. Those who projected him as a permanent
prime minister were now denouncing his stand on
Modi as "anti-democratic". Pundits are,
meanwhile, looking for more signs of a power
struggle inside the party. What needs to be
noticed more, however, is what the episode can do
to the wider image of Vajpayee. Does it distance
him from a crime for which, among other things,
the people of India have punished the party?
The 'parivar', the far-Right 'family', of which
the BJP is the political front, has been at pains
to stress that the party had lost its original
constituency of communalism in the quest for a
wider base. The party may, therefore, return to
its riot-mongering roots, but the Lok Sabha
results have once again confirmed the limitations
of its original line.
There have been several theories to explain the
enigma of Vajpayee. The best to date, however,
remains BJP ideologue Goindacharya's candid
description of the leader as a "mask"
("mukhota"). As "our mask", to put it more
precisely. It was fascism with a Vajpayee face
that the BJP set out to sell. It may have found
too few buyers this time, but it can be trusted
to keep trying.
The Congress leadership is striving pathetically
to see strains within the BJP. But the
second-rung Congress leader, who told a TV
channel that all this might have more to do with
the coming round of State Assembly elections, had
a point for the leadership and the media to
ponder.
The writer is a journalist and peace activist based in Chennai, India
______
[7]
D-504 Purvasha
Mayur Vihar 1
Delhi 110091
18 June 2004
Dear Editor,
According to a report in the *Hindu* of 17 June 2004, the RSS
has said to the BJP that "on the issue of a leadership change in
Gujarat [it] has no role to play and it [is] for the BJP to take
a decision." It has also said that "the two things, leadership
change and the defeat in the Lok Sabha, should not be taken
together."
In sum, the RSS will keep out of the BJP's affairs provided that
the BJP does not mess with RSS business. This is only proper: as
the RSS saw to the "riots", so the BJP may now see to the
unrelated matter of Modi's removal.
It is a coincidence that the BJP is one of the offspring of the
RSS and shows great filial piety. It is also a coincidence that
the RSS too wants Modi out. Perhaps enough Muslims were not
butchered in Gujarat in 2002 and the RSS is no place for a
failed *pracharak*.
Mukul Dube
______
[8]
BBC News
17 June, 2004
Sai Baba: God-man or con man?
By Tanya Datta
Reporter, Secret Swami
Basava Premanand is India's leading guru-buster.
He believes that the country's biggest spiritual
leader, Sri Satya Sai Baba, is a charlatan and
must be exposed.
Basava Premanand says Sai Baba's 'miracles' are just magic tricks
Basava Premanand has been burgled... again.
It is the third time in just one month. But he is
in no doubt of the thieves' motives.
He suspects they were looking for evidence that
he has collected for over 30 years against
India's leading spiritual guru, Sri Satya Sai
Baba.
Mr Premanand believes this evidence proves the
self-proclaimed "God-man", Sai Baba, is not just
a fraud, but a dangerous sexual abuser.
"Sai Baba is nothing but a mafia man, conning the
people and making himself rich", he says of his
bete noire.
As India's leading guru-buster, Basava Premanand
is the scourge of all miracle-makers.
He is the founder of the Federation of Indian
Rationalist Associations and the editor of a
monthly periodical called The Indian Sceptic.
He believes that it is his duty to dispel the
"curse of gullibility blighting his country in
the form of myth and superstition", and replace
it instead with the "gospel of pure, scientific
understanding".
Since 1976, he has waged a bitter war against Sai
Baba, a man who commands a following of millions
both in India and abroad. His devotees believe
him to be an Avatar, or incarnation of God in
human form.
But to Mr Premanand, this God is anything but holy.
Sexual abuse
Rumours about Sai Baba sexually abusing young
male devotees have been circulating for years.
He took me aside, put the oil on his hands, told
me to drop my pants and rubbed my genitals with
the oil
Fomer devotee Alaya Rahm
In 1976 a former American follower,Tal Brooke,
wrote a book called Avatar of the Night: The
Hidden Side of Sai Baba. In it, he referred to
the guru's sexual exploits.
But Brooke's allegations were dismissed out of
hand by the tightly controlled Sai Baba
Organisation.
Dr Michael Goldstein, chairman of the
international Sai Baba organisation, admitted he
had heard rumours, but told us that he did not
believe them. He said: "My heart and my
conscience tell me that it is not possible."
But in the last four years, and with the growth
of the internet, the tide of claims against Sai
Baba has become a groundswell.
Former devotees such as Alaya Rahm and Mark
Roche, featured in the the BBC film Secret Swami,
are coming forward with increasingly graphic
stories of the guru's serious sexual exploitation.
The attacks on Sai Baba are wild, reckless and concocted
Former Indian PM Vajpayee
Their own experiences bear an uncanny
resemblance, yet span a time frame of almost 30
years.
Both had been subjected to Sai Baba rubbing oil on their genitals.
"He took me aside", said Alaya Rahm, "put the oil
on his hands, told me to drop my pants and rubbed
my genitals with the oil. I was really taken
aback."
All the allegations against Sai Baba so far have been made by Westerners.
But Mr Premanand says that there are many Indians
who also claim to have been abused but are too
afraid to speak out.
Well-connected
It is no surprise that Indian victims are scared
of reprisals. Sai Baba's influence among the
power elite of India is impressive.
Prime ministers, presidents, judges and generals,
have all come to the ashram (religious retreat)
in Puttaparthi in southern India, to pay their
respects.
Sai Baba often performs 'miracles' for his devotees in the ashram
The previous prime minister of India, Mr Atal
Vajpayee, once issued a letter on his official
notepaper calling the attacks on Sai Baba "wild,
reckless and concocted."
Sai Baba also enjoys a close relationship with
the state police. A former head of police once
acted as his personal chauffeur.
None of this, however, deters Mr Premanand who
has doggedly pursued Sai Baba over the years
through the courts, the media and several
embarrassing books and exposures.
Little wonder that his campaign has enraged some of the holy man's supporters.
To date, Basava Premanand has survived four
murder attempts and bears the scars from several
savage beatings.
In 1986, he was arrested by the police for
marching to Puttaparthi with 500 volunteers for a
well-publicised confrontation with Sai Baba.
Four male devotees broke into Sai Baba's private
quarters late at night armed with knives
Later that year, he took Sai Baba to court for
violating the Gold Control Act by producing gold
necklaces out of thin air without the permission
of a Gold Control Administrator.
When his case was dismissed, he Mr Premanand
appealed on the grounds that spiritual power is
not a defence recognised in law.
Break-in
In June 1993, the peace of the ashram was
shattered when a gruesome incident took place.
Four male devotees, who were close to Sai Baba,
broke into their guru's private quarters late at
night armed with knives
Their motives are unclear. Some say they were
going to warn their guru about corruption among
the higher echelons of the ashram. Others say
they were going to kidnap or even kill Sai Baba.
They were stopped by Sai Baba's personal
attendants and in the violent struggle that
ensued, two of the attendants were killed and two
left seriously wounded.
Mr Premanand is determined to continue with his lone crusade
Sai Baba managed to escape through a secret
flight of stairs and raise the alarm.
Just before the police arrived, the four men
escaped to Sai Baba's bedroom. It was there, the
police claim, they shot the intruders dead out of
self defence.
Mr Premanand claimed a cover up and went to court.
He says: "The central government stopped the
investigation, because if the investigation takes
place, a lot of things will come out like
economic offences and sex offences."
He was outraged that Sai Baba - one of the key
witnesses to the events of that night - had not
been questioned.
Over the next three years, he took his case all
the way to the Supreme Court, before he was
eventually defeated.
Today, this sprightly septuagenarian is as busy
as ever, collecting and collating more
information. Mr Premanand is preparing for
another battle.
"This", he says mischievously, "is going to be the greatest fight of my life."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Secret Swami will be broadcast on Thursday, 17
June, 2004 in the UK at 2100 on BBC Two.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
______
[9]
DAWN
13 June 2004
REVIEW: The great split
Reviewed by A.M. Shah
"More brain, O Lord, more brain! Or we shall mar
utterly this fair garden we might win." - Anon
Innumerable books have been written on the 1971
break-up of Jinnah's Pakistan. While many deal
with the immediate causes of this great divide,
few have delved into the deeper, much earlier
causes behind the mass alienation felt by the
former east wing masses for the western half,
which ultimately led to the two wings splitting
up into separate countries. One wonders, how many
remain who realize that this event rent asunder
the very basis of the two-nation theory forming
the premise for a separate homeland for the
Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. The East
Pakistan debacle was the wanton bloodletting
amongst the people of one 'nation' and one
religion - Muslim against Muslim. And the world
saw and must no doubt have wondered: what
happened to the brotherhood?
What indeed did happen, the book under review -
The Emergence of Bangladesh - sets out to
explain. The author, Badruddin Umar, a scholar
with a Tripos in philosophy, political science
and economics from Oxford, wrote a series of
articles for an English daily in Bangladesh on
the various factors leading to the emergence of
the Bengali homeland. Himself an eyewitness to
most of the events, Mr Umar was prompted to write
a factual history of Bangladesh when he noticed
the massive campaign by the second Awami League
government in 1996, to grossly distort the
history of the political struggles of the Bengali
people. These articles form the chapters of this
book, which is the first of a two-volume effort
beginning from 1947 to the Ayub Khan coup d'etat
of 1958. The second will be carrying on from
there to 1971 and to the emergence of Bangladesh.
The author contends that from the very beginning,
Pakistan was an unstable state. The physical
distance between the eastern and western wings,
coupled with a considerable difference in social,
cultural and political life and traditions made
precarious footing. And the imbalance in the
power structure prompted the great slip!
The book attempts to describe the relations
between the two wings since the very beginning.
The struggles waged by the various classes in
Bengali society for self-preservation and
improved quality of life have been described in
detail and backed by record. The workers, the
peasants, the teachers, the students and
intellectuals all agitated in their respective
spheres towards the common goal of equality with
the western wing of the country, throughout the
three decades of United Pakistan. Hence the
subtitle of the book "Class struggles in East
Pakistan".
The issues upon which these various classes
agitated were by no means minor. The great famine
that ravaged East Pakistan right after 1947 was
callously handled by the West Pakistan dominated
central government. The after effects continued
to agonize not just the peasants but all other
lower and middle class segments of Bengali
society for the next decade or so. It was at this
very early juncture that disillusionment with the
western wing set in. It steadily spread to the
other classes as the economic pressure of upward
spiralling prices of staple foods, in the face of
rock-bottom buying-power of the majority, had
made life generally oppressive. This
disillusionment was further compounded with the
imposition by the western dominated central
government of what was generally taken by
Bengalis as discriminatory policies. These
included the state language issue and the
economic manipulation of the western wing
entrepreneurship over the eastern wing's industry.
Politically, East Pakistan was handled like a
colony or so the chapters of the book infer. To
maintain an upper hand at the provincial level
and to pursue their vested policies, the ruling
Muslim League - top-heavy with the West Pakistan
political leadership - sponsored the Bengali
landed aristocracy and a few 'loyal' business
houses.
What the rulers obviously failed to realize was
that the Bengali landed gentry had ceased to be a
powerful entity in Bengal even before the advent
of Pakistan. Bengal under the British Raj had
politically matured much earlier than the other
provinces of India and the influence of the
Bengali feudal had already played out its role
with the establishment of the Muslim League in
1906 in Dhaka under the aegis of Nawab Salimullah
Khan.
Thereafter, as the date for Pakistan drew near,
the movement in Bengal was basically lower and
middle class oriented, including only the small
progressive feudal element led by Sher-i-Bengal
A. K. Fazlul Haq. Thus the political imbalance
between the east and west had already matured by
1947. It was thereafter retained to the detriment
of Jinnah's Pakistan.
A most interesting issue dealt with in the book
is the question of the minorities collectively in
British India and the author has actually begun
the book with this chapter. It points out a lack
of vision in the founding fathers, who did not
really gauge the real value of minority
representation. If the All India Muslim League
had provided leadership not just to the Muslim
minority of India, but also to other religions in
a minority - the Dalits, the untouchables and the
Sikhs among others - it would have changed the
complexion of the division of the subcontinent
altogether and would have provided the new state
a more stable and stronger position vis-a-vis the
Hindu majority whose intrusive rule initially led
to the idea of two nations.
Mr Umar has addressed this critical subject
academically, supporting his arguments and
assessments with factual details. The book
presents a fresh aspect of one of the greatest
historical tragedies of the 20th century, giving
scholars of Pakistan history something more to
think about.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Emergence of Bangladesh - Class Stuggles in East Pakistan (1947-1958)
By Badruddin Umar
Oxford University Press, Plot # 38, Sector 15, Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi
Tel: 111-693-673
Email: ouppak at theoffice.net
Website: www.oup.com.pk
ISBN 0-19-579571-7
389pp. Rs695
____
[10]
Remembering Pradyumna Kaul
Condolence Meeting on
June 18, Friday at 6.00 pm
At, Mumbai Marathi Granthalaya, Dadar(E), Mumbai-14
Behind Asiad bus stop
Kaul - a passionate fighter and comrade.
That was his popular name; even friends would
call him by that surname. Mr. Pradyumna Kaul, the
committed expert-activist a and a close friend of
people's movements in Maharashtra, has passed
away on June 14, 2004, near Delhi. It is a deep
shock for all those who knew Kaul -an intense and
committed friend, who could not stand
exploitation, dishonesty and untruth. His role in
the anti-Enron movement has been exemplary. He
unearthed the evidences of misdemeanours of the
multinational company, analyzed it and put forth
it in a forceful manner. He exposed the
fraudulent practices of the MNC, the nexus
between the Indian powerholders and MNCs and the
consequent liquidation of public sector and
social services. He has been the mainstay of
Narmada Bachao Andolan in Mumbai and his office
has been an meeting place for all sorts of
activities. His knowledge of financial and market
matters enabled him to analyse the Narmada and
Enron matters ably. He has been a dependable and
creditable source of information, documentation
and news for many journalists covering the issues
like Enron and Narmada. He was a member of the
Committee to Assess Cost-Benefits Sardar Sarovar,
appointed by Maharashtra government.
Hardly anyone would realize that Kaul was a
Kashmiri Pandit, so pan-Indian was his
personality. He was a Maharashtrian, a Gujarati,
a Hindi, and a perfect English-speaking financial
analyst. The issue of persecution, human rights
of Kashmiri Pandit was dear to his heart. He
complained that human rights and other people's
organizations have neglected the woes of Kashmiri
Pandits.
Many would remember Kaul for his piercing
analysis, forthright style without mincing a word
and his passionate arguements. He could take on
the ministers, bureaucrats and any powerholder
and expose them in the presence of all. Even
activists - who have been his comrades were not
spared! However, despite some differences, Kaul
was valued and respected in the activists’ circle
in Maharashtra and elsewhere for his unswerving
commitment, erudition and clear analysis - and a
commitment to work for the movements. He was
ready to all type of errands for a dharna or mass
action in Mumbai, despite his heart trouble.
There was tender and intense mind in his rather
coarse exterior. One found an affectionate and
concerned individual caring for the activists and
organizations and a large-hearted person full
with wit and warmth. He was comrade of every
movement and activist struggling for justice and
sustainable development. Knowing the meaning of
the word 'Kaul’ in Marathi language as 'divine
decision', he had once declared that he was
'people's 'kaul'. The people's movements need
such committed and dependable Kauls, the
committed and intense fellow travellers or
sahayogis.
As the Enron and other multilateral companies
eyeing for India in the era of Globalization, we
will miss a comrade like Pradyumna Kaul who will
strengthen the struggle against them by his
expertise, commitment and passion. We fondly
remember this friend today.
Friends and Colleagues
National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM
and other number of organizations, groups and individuals.
_____
[11]
CALL FOR PAPERS
FIRST CONFERENCE OF KARTINI NETWORK ON ASIAN WOMEN'S/GENDER STUDIES
ASIAN WOMEN'S/GENDER STUDIES IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
DALIAN UNIVERSITY, DALIAN, NORTH EAST CHINA
21 - 24 SEPTEMBER 2004
The Kartini Network for Women's/Gender Studies in
Asia was formally established in Manila in May
2003 after two years of preparation. Kartini,
named after the Indonesian pioneering feminist
writer and activist, aims to create synergy
between women's/gender studies and feminist
activism in the region. Kartini members are
women's/gender studies centres or institutes and
feminist organizations in Asia and elsewhere. A
major objective of the Kartini network is to
enhance the knowledge base to increase women's
capability for organizing for gender justice.
Kartini will strive to make Asian women's voices
better heard in processes of nation-building and
socio-economic development. The network also aims
to incorporate women' s rights in cultural and
religious institutions and movements.
Kartini members have identified five major themes
of particular interest to the Asian region. These
themes will also be the topics for the First
Kartini Network Conference in Dalian. In addition
to the conference Kartini members are engaged in
particular research topics on the themes
identified. Tailor-made advanced training courses
will be organized both in research methodologies
and in women's theories around these themes. The
approach of Kartini research and activism is
cross-cultural and comparative within the Asian
context, incorporating both empirical work and
theoretical reflection.
At present the Kartini Network consists of
thirteen member institutes, both academic centres
or institutes for women's/gender studies and
activist women's organizations, as well as
founding members. Several other member institutes
are in the process of joining the network. It is
co ordinated by an elected steering committee
that is regionally based. This committee is
chaired by two co coordinators. Present
co-coordinators of the Kartini Network are Dr
MaryJohn Mananzan, Institute of Women's Studies,
Manila, the Philippines and Dr Saskia E.
Wieringa, University of Amsterdam, The
Netherlands.
Secretariat: iws at ssc.edu.ph
Website: www.kartininetwork.org
The conference will be hosted by the Centre for
Gender Studies at Dalian University which is a
major centre of higher learning in North Eastern
China.
You are invited to submit a paper on any of the following conference themes:
1) Women's/Gender Studies, -Historical
Perspectives and Future Challenges. This
overarching theme will explore questions
pertaining to studying women/gender in different
contexts in Asia. The focus will be on the
different modes in which the significance of
"women", "gender", "feminism" and so on emerged
in specific contexts, how work on these issues
has been institutionalised, theories and
methodologies used, and the kinds of
possibilities and problems that have been
encountered. The aim of this theme will be to
critically reflect on the diversity of women's
studies and encourage comparisons and connections
within Asian contexts. A central concern is: What
are the distinctive issues about women/gender
studies in different Asian contexts and what
contributions
theoretical/methodological/political) have been
made to the corpus of feminist knowledge and
action?
Possible sub-themes:
a) Mapping country profiles and herstories:
Histories of women/gender studies/women, gender
and development studies; institutional
structures; issues of research, methodology,
pedagogy and training.
b) Global and local influences: neo-liberal
market orientation, restructuring of
universities, resource crunch, local ideological
re-orientations (eg. attempt by the state to
relocate women's studies in India as family
studies), pressures encountered from social
movements, especially women's movements, as well
as major institutions such as academia, the
state, NGOs and international agencies. The
effects of historical change. Conflicting
pressures - such as between activism and
academics, between "women's/gender studies" as a
distinct field of study or discipline and
questions/strategies and forms of
"mainstreaming", and so on.
c) Explorations and debates related to issues of
epistemologies, theories and methodologies: the
use of "women's studies" or "gender studies" or
"women, gender and development", the use of the
term "feminism", disciplinary paradigms (eg.
political economy, cultural studies), the
legacies of theoretical ideologies (eg. liberal,
socialist, postmodern, indigenist), and so on. Of
special interest here are questions of
translation, perceptions of women's studies and
feminism as western, and the creation of local
vocabularies.
d) Sub-regional (South Asian, South-East Asian,
East Asian etc) links, commonalities, conflicts
and debates.
e) Critiques levelled at existing paradigms for
the study of women/gender based on issues of
class, caste, nation, ethnicity, religion,
sexuality and so on.
Theme convenor: Women's Studies Programme,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India,
attention Mary John, mas01 at vsnl.net
2) Fundamentalisms and Feminisms
This theme addresses issues that challenge the
singular equation of
'fundamentalism/terrorism/islam' which has gained
hegemony after 9/11 and aims to highlight the
emergence of different kinds of religious
fundamentalisms/identity politics in the Asian
region, their linkage with similar
movements/organisations world-wide and the
strategies and struggles of social movements, in
particular the women's movement in confronting
this phenomena. Theme papers would address all or
some of the following aspects:
a. Context/History/Text: the emergence of
specific fundamentalist movements and the crisis
of modernity, identifying the configuration of
local and global political, social, economic and
other forces and the constituencies which sustain
these movements. The papers will explore issues
related to the distinctions between
state-sponsored religious fundamentalism and
civil society based fundamentalisms or their
collusion; their political/ ideological agendas
and characterisation
(fundamentalist/nationalist/fascist, right wing,
Islamist); and linkages with 'diaspora
nationalisms' and international organisations
from a feminist lens.
b. Feminisms and Fundamentalisms: these two
movements have been posed as homogenous
antinomies particularly given the fundamentalist
agenda to re-assert control over women's bodies,
minds and public spaces. Papers will explore both
-fundamentalists and diverse feminist discourses
and practices in Asia which seek to reconfigure
gender ideologies: the constructions of
masculinity and femininity; of new
cultural/religious identities; contestation
between multiple identities and a singular
politicised religious identity; support,
complicity, collaboration, mobilisation and its
implications for understanding women's individual
and collective agency.
c. Strategies and struggles against
fundamentalisms intersect with questions around
citizenship, secularism and reform within
religion. Papers will critically assess the
diverse strategies and struggles deployed by
women's movements in the Asian region. Issues
relating to confrontation and engagement with
'fundamentalist' women and organisations will be
explored. Another area of inquiry is the
implication of a suspension of human rights and
expanded purview of anti-terrorist legislation
for the process of democratisation in the region
and globally.
Theme convener: Institute of Social Studies, The
Hague, The Netherlands, attention Amrita
Chhachhi, chhachhi at iss.nl
3.Conflicts and Violence. Conflicts, wars and
social tensions in Asia are gendered in all
respects: who are the perpetrators; who bear the
consequences of conflict; and who negotiate
peace. From domestic violence to ethnic,
communal, religious and national conflicts and
wars, women experience a continuum of escalating
violence impacting their lives. Theme papers will
include comparative research on communal
ideologies and practices, the impact of
continuing ethnic conflicts and wars, the nature
and extent of sexual violence as well as women's
participation in peace processes. The theme will
also include the sexual politics of various
contexts that result in gendered violence.
Theme convener: Inform, Colombia, Sri Lanka,
attention Sunila Abeyesekere, inform at slt.lk,
4) Sexual Rights. In Asia, issues related to
sexualities have emerged in significant ways in
recent years. A number of regional and
international developments-such as heightened
media attention, gay and lesbian movements,
struggles and demands of sex workers, and
HIV/AIDS agendas-- have opened up new visibility.
New discourses differ from prior discourses on
the control of women's bodies and women's
desires, posing new challenges to women's studies
and women's movements. Marginalized and
stigmatized groups have been brought center
stage. As a result, normative institutions for
the regulation of women's sexuality have been
questioned and even destabilized. This theme will
include comparative research, new training
methodologies, strategies of consciousness
raising, policy initiatives and public debate, as
well as testimonies of violations of sexual
rights.
Theme convener: Jagori, New Delhi, India,
attention Abha Bhaiya, abha.jagori at spectranet.com
5. Globalization, Economic Reforms, Mobility and Livelihoods in Asia.
Processes of globalization in Asia have had
diverse and far-reaching effects on its social
and political structures and have further eroded
the fragile ecology of the region. The drive of
global capitalism to increase economic
productivity in order to expand international
markets has had implications on poor women and
men's livelihoods. Economic reforms, new labor
regimes, introduction of new technologies and
infrastructure, types of agricultural
intensification, massive resources extraction and
increasing industrialization have shaped gendered
patterns in population movements and have
increasingly diversified opportunities and
constraints on women's livelihoods. Globalization
processes have transformed gender ideologies and
power relations at different sites (state,
households, farms, firms) and places cities,
villages), producing heterogeneous patterns of
identity formation, consciousness and agency.
Noteworthy is China's entry into the WTO where,
economic and trade reforms may reinforce or
discontinue gendered labor regimes, affect
mobility decisions of women and men and generate
new types of gender cooperation and conflict.
This panel will include papers on how women and
men respond to institutional changes triggered by
globalization processes on the changing gendered
patterns of livelihood and mobility strategies in
Asia and their implications for policy and
women's organizations in the region.
Please submit a 300 word abstract on your chosen
theme and send it to the respective convener by
the 25 of June, 2004. The conveners will then
communicate with you directly. The conference
conveners will work in close collaboration with
the other theme conveners of the Kartini Network.
Completed papers will be expected by 15 August,
2004. They will have to be sent to the Dalian
organizing committee, attention Shqiqi at 263.net.
Selected papers will be considered for publication after the conference.
Registration fees:
Foreign participants US $100
Asian participants 50
Chinese nationals 30
Students 20
Staying in campus hotel would cost around
US$20-25 per night. Meal tickets for four days
will cost US$100.
Arrival date 20 September, date of departure 25 September 2004.
A limited number of scholarships are available.
Please apply to the organizing committee. The
head of the organizing committee at Dalian
University is Dr Qiqi Shen, Center for Gender
Studies, Dalian University, Dalian Economic Zone
116622, PR China, shqiqi at 263.net..
After January 2004 you can visit the website of
the Kartini Network for more information on our
members and activities.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
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