SACW | 19 Aug 2004
sacw
aiindex at mnet.fr
Wed Aug 18 21:15:30 CDT 2004
South Asia Citizens Wire | 19 August, 2004
via: www.sacw.net
[1] War on history (J Sri Raman)
[2] The Civilised Family (Mukul Dube)
[3] Online Petition in Defence of Prof D'Mello
fired for questioning Hindutva influence in
Management school (Raza Mir)
[4] India - Justice in Gujarat:
- Letter to the editor (Ram Puniyani)
- Editorials in 4 newspapers on Indian Supreme
Court order to re-open 2000+ closed cases
[5] India: Dalit-Muslim Dialogue (Asghar Ali Engineer)
Announcements:
[6] India: public meeting: "Marginalization,
Sexuality and Human Rights" (New Delhi, 24th Aug
2004)
[7] India: Book Launch : One hundred Years, One
hundred Voices, The Millworkers of Mumbai by
meena menon and neera adarkar (Bombay, Aug 26,
2004)
--------------
[1]
The Daily Times - August 19, 2004
WAR ON HISTORY
by J Sri Raman
A leading Indian television channel recently had
two sets of interviews in its prime-time news.
One was what the presenter called an "ideological
battle over India's history" and the other a
blending of South Asian musical notes. He
suggested that, while the latter united, the
former only divided.
He was only half right. The fact is that an
ideological battle - above all, on history and
its interpretation - is necessary to save and
strengthen the cultural harmony that the two
singers brought home to their listeners. It is
needed also to translate this harmony into not
only peace but also a partnership between the
peoples of the subcontinent.
The battle was a continuation of the ideological
war that has now been waged for years over
history textbooks for schools. The 'news peg' for
the debate was Human Resources Development
Minister Arjun Singh's launch of an official
initiative to "detoxify" the books prescribed by
the previous government with all the passion of
the parivar (the far-Right 'family') and its
political front, the Bharatiya Janata Party.
One of the participants was my friend Arjun Dev,
author of one of the textbooks that had ruffled
fascist feathers and leading campaigner against
the BJP assault on history and academic freedom.
The other was Seshadri Chari, an ideologue from
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is the
parivar patriarch. While Chari assailed the term
"detoxification", saying it showed a lack of
tolerance, Arjun found it a clinically correct
description of an attempt to cleanse textbooks of
the poison of "communal hatred" they preached.
The parivar and its pundits have never made any
secret of the religious-communal rationale behind
their relentless attempts to rewrite history.
Their main objection to "pseudo-secular history"
is about its refusal to treat medieval Indian
history as a justification for minority bashing.
They also resent objective historians for not
projecting India's ancient past as a valid
premise for a virulent warmongering
ultra-nationalism today. This, however, does not
mean that they desist from trying to distort
modern Indian history.
It seemed a pity to me that the debate was closed
abruptly. For, Chari had just warmed to make a
point about modern Indian history that
illustrated the madness of parivar as well as the
method behind it. On the presenter asking him for
instances of the "anomalies" in the textbooks
that the BJP-led regime sought to correct, he
cited a passage in one of them that identified
Bal Gangadhar Tilak and some other leaders of the
early independence movement as "Extremists".
Fumed an indignant Chari: "Must we teach our
children that these leaders were extremists?"
The righteous indignation did not quite conceal
ridiculous, rank ignorance of modern Indian
history. Even a schoolchild, as thy say, knows
that the early Indian freedom movement was
divided into two groups known as Extremists and
Moderates, the former symbolised by Tilak and the
latter by Gopal Krishna Gokhale. The Extremists
were for mass action and against petitioning the
colonial rulers and the Moderates were for
gradualism and stressed the need for reforms to
prepare the Indians for freedom. Tilak and
associates were not "extremists" in the sense of
"terrorists". The labels had a historical context.
And that, precisely, is the point. Ignoring the
context is their method of misreading,
misinterpreting and misrepresenting history. It
is by de-contextualising history that they
distort it. It is by rewriting history without
its contexts kept in clear view that they make it
serve the cause of revanchism. One of its best
examples is the half-baked Indian history (both
ancient and medieval) that fuelled the
blood-soaked Ayodhya movement leading to the
Babri Masjid demolition.
The parivar tirade on the textbooks - as the
Ayodhya movement showed - is not addressed to, or
concerned with, schools and students alone. It is
one of the many strands in the parivar discourse
on history, intended to distort it in the
consciousness of the people of the majority
religious community. It is not merely, or even
mainly, the illiterate population that the
fascist purveyors of false history seek to
influence. They have been more successful, in
fact, with some sections of the middle class.
The TV presenter was relieved to pass on to the
next conversation with and between Pakistan's
Salman Ahmed and India's Shubha Mudgal. And, with
snatches from Ghoom Taanaa, their video album
(along with Nandita Das), they did illustrate the
music the two countries could make together. If
only hate-peddlers would allow the creation of
such harmony. It is not ignorance of a common
culture alone that ignites conflicts in this
country and in the subcontinent.
People-to-people relations are important. Even
more so, however, are political and ideological
battles against forces seeking to thwart new
history. And, as partisans of peace in Pakistan
will agree, not only in India.
The writer is a journalist and peace activist based in Chennai, India
______
[2]
Available at URL:
communalism.blogspot.com/2004/08/civilised-family-mukul-dube.html
Mainstream, Independence Day issue, 14 August 2004
THE CIVILISED FAMILY
by Mukul Dube
In a recent lecture, the historian K.N. Panikkar
said that what had kept the Hindu Right busy
during the past five years was nothing less than
an attack on Indian civilisation. If indeed
Indian civilisation was so attacked, and I for
one agree that it was, then the attack on it came
from those who had arrogated to themselves the
right to interpret it-which always involved a
radical re-moulding to make it fit concocted
untruths-to defend it, and to propagate the holy
tripe which they called its values as a means of
making themselves the leaders of the entire
world, which presumably would be expressed
through their continued sucking up to several
wealthy nations and of course to the most
powerful one. This mauling of a child by its
guardian has to have been among the staggering
ironies of our times.
I shall not attempt to discuss what is a
civilisation, because I am not qualified to do
that. I also dread a shrieking attack from those
tens of thousands of semi-literate *lathi*
wielders in khaki shorts and saffron head-bands
who are convinced that they alone know all about
this and all about every other subject under the
sun-and that this blindly ingested "knowledge"
gives them the right to vandalise libraries and
threaten writers. I shall speak here only of how
these fellows-and I use this word to include
members of parliament and former ministers-are
daily showing us what they mean by civilisation:
specifically, that Indian civilisation is built
on a foundation of personal rowdiness.
When, after the recent general election, the rout
of the BJP and its allies rapidly became clear,
the country went into a state of shocked
euphoria. Many people told me that their
reaction, like mine, was relief at being able to
breathe again, relief at not feeling a constant
hostile gaze upon the back, relief at not living
in fear of yet another mindless attack on
someone's personal or intellectual freedom
somewhere in the country. Too soon, though, the
euphoria wore off and we began to see the harsh
reality.
The thought that simultaneously struck nearly all
of us was that the National Democratic Alliance-a
singularly inapt name for an assortment of
undemocratic, power-hungry people to whom the
nation meant nothing-would no longer pervert
democracy as it had done because it had lost the
power to do that. But it would do something
almost as bad-quite simply, it would keep Indian
democracy from functioning. Evidence from the
past pointed clearly to the future. During the
Vajpayee years, non-issues had dominated
parliament. Both the luminaries and the
rough-necks of the NDA had behaved throughout
like badly brought up, uncouth, rowdy adolescents
who used only their voices and their muscles.
Finger-pointing and name-calling became the order
of the day. Possibly the most revolting feature
of that long phase was the unspeakable pettiness
which drove those whose numbers shored up the
Vajpayee government and who were, nominally,
representatives of the people and the makers of
the nation's laws.
Somnath Chatterjee, who through his efforts to be
impartial had not only antagonised MPs of the
party of which he had been a member for decades
but had gone out of his way to make concessions
to the Opposition, specially to its leader L.K.
Advani, seems to have been reduced virtually to
tears by the outrageous accusations that were
made against him. He appealed, he explained, and
quite unnecessarily he even defended himself.
There was not a whisper of an apology for the
wrong which had been done to him personally, to
the institution of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha,
and to the very dignity of that house.
But then it is foolish to expect those who incite
their faithful goons to divinely ordained
vandalism, rape and murder to understand what is
meant by good manners, decency, principles and
dignity. The only form of social organisation
they understand is that which has at its head a
divine or semi-divine king. The mythical Ayodhya
and the tragically very real Nagpur are the chief
examples of such kingdoms. The king must be
blindly obeyed. The king may not be questioned.
The king, or god-king, is absolute. We cannot
expect people who have never been permitted to
speak their minds-if those organs, rigidly
conditioned not to think for themselves, can be
called minds-to understand what is meant by
democracy or to respect any institution that is
based on that idea.
As we had anticipated, the non-issues have been
coming thick and fast. The "tainted ministers"
business has been much written about and I shall
not repeat all that here. Nor will I re- tell the
story of the change of governors. Let us look,
instead, at certain later absurdities.
Arun Jaitley, who speaks with so many tongues
that no one has yet been able to count them, said
that the removal of the pictures of A.B. Vajpayee
from the sky boards on the national highways that
are being built made it clear that the government
was on "a confrontationist path". Those whose
thinking is low take it for granted that the
thinking of all others must also be as low.
Jaitley, so fine a lawyer that he is miles above
such mundane matters as evidence and reasoning,
took it for granted that Vajpayee's pictures were
to be replaced by pictures of Manmohan Singh. He
must have had in his mind the excellent example
of Sushma Swaraj, who turned the Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting inside out and
upside down immediately on getting her hands on
it. Her being seen so often with film stars
probably indicated no more than a star-struck
girl's desire to be associated with fame and
beauty: but in her zeal to leave her mark on
history she even changed the names of AIR's radio
channels; and, of course, she declared
advertisements for condoms *verboten*, presumably
because none of the characters in the *Ramayana*
was known to be afflicted with AIDS-although,
like everything else in the modern world, AIDS
too must have been a creation of the genius of
Vedic India.
Poor Jaitley was made to fall silent when the
Prime Minister's Office rapidly and unambiguously
made it known that Manmohan Singh had given
strict instructions that no picture of his would
be put up anywhere, not even in a government
office. It becomes clear that Jaitley was
incensed at the sheer waste which the decision
would cause. The NDA government had spent an
estimated Rs.48 crores on putting up the pictures
of Vajpayee (*Hindu*, 27 July 2004). To remove so
much beauty with a stroke of the pen, to throw
into the gutter the priceless works of art which
the NDA government had given to the nation at the
expense of its own blood, sweat and tears, must
have seemed obscene to him. How, he must have
worried, would people survive the now colourless
road journey from Dwarka to Faizabad?
In a classic instance of "should we laugh or
should we cry", parliament was the scene of
pandemonium on account of something that had
never existed and words that had never been
uttered. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram spoke of
brushing the dust off a 1991 scheme named after
Rajiv Gandhi. The BJP, most ably led by L.K.
Advani, promptly accused him of insulting their
icon, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, by calling him dust.
Chidambaram's statement that he had not taken
Upadhyaya's name had no effect. Later, neither
Advani nor the voluble V.K. Malhotra could
identify any scheme which was named after
Upadhyaya. But a terrific din had been made, a
walk-out had been staged, the press had been
rendered unable to figure out what on Earth had
gone wrong-in short, the BJP had achieved its
noble objectives. Chidambaram will have learnt
that figures of speech are sometimes not so
harmless as they might seem to be. Perhaps India
will show the world what is meant by clear
speech: there will be nothing more complicated
than the "louse ate mouse" type of construction,
in which the role of the BJP will be pre-eminent.
Central to the functioning of parliament are its
several standing committees. For no rationally
comprehensible reason, the BJP-led Opposition has
chosen to boycott these committees-although the
redoubtable Jaitley will conjure up a dozen
reasons why this does not represent the adoption
of a "confrontationist path" by his team, even
when the whole of that team is figuratively off
side. Efforts are now on to somehow coax the
petulant and contrary child to eat its food so
that the household can get on with its business.
This is the new domestic reality of India's
politics. One component of today's child is of
course yesterday's paterfamilias. Gone are the
prawns, on is the bib streaked with saffron egg
yolk-and barely has one tantrum ended before the
nation is deafened by the next. Just after their
electoral defeat, these people had promised to
function as a vigilant but responsible
opposition. What happened? First they fell from
grace, then even the pretence of grace fell from
them.
In parliament, the leaders of those who claim to
represent Indian civilisation are L.K. Advani and
A.B. Vajpayee. The Muslims of the country are
said to have been "appeased" over the decades,
but they have gained nothing from that-indeed,
they have fallen lower in terms of nearly every
socio-economic indicator. Advani, who in
parliament has been favoured by the Speaker far
more than he needed to be, has not only kicked
his appeaser in the teeth but has kept on making
more demands. And what of the poet-statesman
Vajpayee? He just sits there, in the House of the
People, benignly looking on as his followers-if
indeed they are still his followers-show
themselves to be hooligans of the purest
pedigree. But is he silent everywhere or only in
the Lok Sabha?
To return to the point with which I started.
Indian civilisation as it was known for centuries
has been badly battered. We now see, every day,
in parliament and in the media, the deformed and
malignant version sought to be imposed on us by
the Hindu Right and its allies. It can be simply
expressed thus: Indian Civilisation Equals
Hooliganism. This is in a way fitting. When the
world is dominated by a bully not inclined to
listen to reason and unwilling to accept that
other nations and other peoples too have rights,
why should India not be overwhelmed by hooligans?
After all, it is only political power that these
hooligans have lost.
______
[3]
[18 August 2004]
ONLINE PETITION RE PROTECTION OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN INDIA
To: Union Minister for HRD, Union Minister of Finance [India]
Dr. Bernard D'Mello, a professor of management
and economics at MDI-Gurgaon has been targeted by
the institute's administration for removal
because of his opposition to the administration's
promotion of a communal agenda and its
underhanded ways. In an EPW article of November
1999 he had critiqued Hindutva influences in
management education and also challenged MDI's
attempt to invite RSS ideologues to the MDI
campus.
We, the undersigned, appeal to the Union Minister
for HRD and the Union Minister for Finance to
intervene in this case and deliver justice to dr.
D'Mello. Purges like this are artifacts of the
anti-intellectual HRD policies of the erstwhile
BJP-led NDA government, and need to be addressed
in the spirit of fairness and protection of
academic freedom.
http://www.petitiononline.com/dmello1/petition.html
______
[4] [Gujarat]
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004
Subject: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
From
Dr. Ram Puniyani
1102/5 MHADA Powai Mumbai 400076 [...].
Madam/Sir
The affidavit filed by Additional Director General of Police R.B.Sreekumar
before the judicial commission investigating Post Godhra riots confirms
beyond any shadow of doubt that Mr. Narendra Modi has violated all the
democratic norms and violated the Indian constitution in a very serious way.
The recent rulings of the apex court in the case of Zaheera Sheikh and Bilkis
Bano also leaves no shadow of doubt that Mr. Modi has acted more as a
Swayamsevak of Sangh Parivar than as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He has
followed the hate ideology of Hindutva than the values of Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity. Modi has not only been responsible for the
carnage but also has done his best to shield the guilty of the riots,
including his own self. While welcoming the judgment that over two
thousand cases closed by Modi Govt. be investigated properly, one is
deeply disturbed by the fate of the society under the ruler ship of such a
person, driven by deep motives meant to break the deep bonding of Indian
society, the traditions and values of pluralism. Currently Gujarat is
witnessing a deepening fracture in the community bonds due to the handling
of post riot situation. On the top of this the open distribution of arms
in the guise of trishul diksha will worsen the scene to no end. It is high
time that the Central Govt. dismisses this Hitler reincarnate and that he
is tried for his crimes in an honest way.
Ram Puniyani
o o o o
[See Also:
EDITORIALS IN FOUR MAJOR INDIAN DAILIES OF THE
RECENT SUPREME COURT ORDER SEEKING THE
RE-OPENING OF MORE THAN 2000 CASES THAT WERE
CLOSED THANKS TO THE GUJARAT ADMINISTRATION]
Profound Indictment (Editorial, The Hindu - August 19, 2004 )
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/08/19/stories/2004081901631000.htm
Justice, in Gujarat (Edit, Indian Express - August 19, 2004)
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=53340
Shut and open case (Edit., Hindustan Times -
August 19, 2004) reproduced at:
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2004/08/supreme-court-order-on-gujarat-cases.html
Just After ( Edit., The Telegraph - August 19, 2004)
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040819/asp/opinion/story_3641727.asp
______
[5]
Secular Perspective, Aug.16-31, 2004
DALIT-MUSLIM DIALOGUE
by Asghar Ali Engineer
The Gujarat carnage of 2002 once again showed
that Dalits and OBCs are widely used by the Sangh
Parivar to kill Muslims. In several localities
especially in Ahmedabad like Kalupur, Darapur
etc. Muslims and Dalits live side by side and
whenever communal violence breaks out attack each
other. It is unfortunate that the strategists of
Sangh Parivar easily win over poor Dalits to
attack poor Muslims. However, it will be wrong to
assume that all Dalits play the Sangh Parivar
game.
Dalit and Muslim leaders at the same time talk of
Dalit-Muslim unity to counter the Sangh
strategies. However, the ground realities are
very different. In all major communal riots it
has been observed that Dalits participate in
Hindu-Muslim riots on behalf of Hindus,
especially the Dalit youth. In North India the
Valmikis are invariably used against Muslims. In
Maharashtra of course Mahars who follow
Ambedkar’s ideology by and large resist the Shiv
Sena attempt to assume anti-Muslim posture.
However, in Mumbai riots of 1992-93 though
followers of Ambedkar kept away from supporting
the Shiv Sena engineered riots, the Dalits from
Gujarat in Tardeo and other areas attacked
Muslims. This clearly shows that ideology can
play major role. In Gujarat the Dalits have
repeatedly taken part in anti-Muslim violence.
When anti-Dalit riots had taken place in
Ahmedabad in 1981 on the question of reservation,
Walji Patel, one of the Dalit leaders had told us
that now Dalits have understood the Sangh game
and they will not become handle in their hands to
kill Muslims.
However, in 1985 riots in Ahmedabad again, the
Dalit youth were used by the Sangh Parivar to
attack Muslims. When I questioned Waljibhai about
it he expressed his helplessness and said that
these youth do not listen to us. We can hardly
influence them. This continued during subsequent
riots in Ahmedabad and in 2002 Gujarat carnage
Dalits were used in large numbers to attack
Muslims. Many people even told us during
investigation that Dalit youth were paid for this
and even supplied liquor to drink.
It was because of this repeated disturbing trend
that Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
decided to organise Dalit-Muslim dialogue to
understand as to why the Sangh Parivar every time
succeeds in using poorest of poor to kill poorest
of the poor from among the Muslims. It was quite
heartening that large number of Dalit
intellectuals and Muslims responded though Muslim
presence was rather not very encouraging. The
reason, Sophia Khan told me, was that she could
not get enough contacts of leading Muslim
intellectuals. Any way overall presence was more
than encouraging.
I threw light on the purpose of the dialogue and
also stressed the importance of Dalit-Muslim
unity and discussed some of the possible causes
of Dalit-Muslim hostility. One major cause is, I
said, poverty, backwardness and large-scale
unemployment both among Dalits and Muslims.
Another important cause is mutual rivalries as
any Muslims and Dalits are in illicit liquor and
gambling business, die again to poverty. These
rivalries get accentuated during outbreak of
communal violence. Sometimes these factors help
accentuate communal violence.
Mr. Chanderbhai Meheria, a Dalit writer, said
that such dialogues are highly necessary to
enhance understanding between the two
communities. It is mainly the RSS and the BJP who
have created serious misunderstandings between
the two communities. He felt that Muslims are
somewhat better in economic and educational
status and they should take initiative for
education of Dalits. Some Muslim communities in
Gujarat like the Bohras, Khojas and Memons are
well off and run many educational institutions
and they can reserve some seats for Dalits. It
will have very mollifying effect on relations
between two communities.
The Dalits are too poor to have such institution.
But the problem is that Bohras, Khojas and Memons
themselves are too inward looking and very
identity conscious and do not give place to other
Muslims in their institutions. Though the
suggestion was made in good spirit and really
could help.
Mr. P.K.Valera, a retired IAS officer, felt that
Muslims, like upper caste Hindus, have never
accepted the Dalits. Muslims have been rulers in
this country and do not consider them their
equals. He also felt that Dalits do not feel
secure among Muslims. Muslims should give Dalits
opportunities in jobs to win them over. Much of
this again is based on misconceptions. Muslims
themselves are divided in different biradaris, if
not castes. The social hierarchy very much exists
among Muslims too. Though it may not be as
intense like among Hindus, it nevertheless does
exist among Muslims. It may be true that upper
caste or upper class Muslims may not accept
Dalits, but low caste poor Muslims have no such
attitude. And in India by and large, Muslims have
accepted the idea of Dalit-Muslim unity and there
is certainly no rejection of Dalits even among
upper class Muslims. Like upper caste Hindus
Muslims would not treat Dalits as untouchables.
Also very few Muslims have means to offer jobs to
Dalits or educational opportunities. Most of the
Muslims in India today are almost on par with
Dalits. Whatever limited economic data is
available indicates that clearly.
Mr. J.V.Momin, on the other hand had a complaint
that Islam and Muslims are considered as jihadis.
Even in the Congress there are people with the
RSS mentality. They treat Muslims with hostility.
Mr. Afzal Memon of Gujarat Sarvajanik Welfare
Trust and who did lot of work during the riots
for re-habilitation of Muslims agreed that many
Muslims do not accept Dalits. He felt that the
Congress in Gujarat is also to be blamed for
communal situation. He even felt that the Dalit
elite who achieve high status also neglect poor
Dalit and hardly do anything for them.
Mr. Kannur Pillai, a retired I.G. police said
that Muslims are also Dalits. They are also
suppressed. A section of Dalits converted to
Islam because they were harassed by upper caste
Hindus. He felt that communal propaganda by the
Sangh Parivar affects Dalits too. The anti-Muslim
propaganda among Dalits by the Sangh Parivar is
to prevent Dalits from being converted to Islam.
They want to keep hostility alive between Dalits
and Muslims for variety of reasons, Mr. M.K.
Parmar felt that the RSS is creating hostility
between Dalits and Muslims on one hand, and
between Muslims and OBCs, on the other. All those
who attacked Gulbarga society in which 40 Muslims
along with Ehsan Jafery were killed were OBCs and
not Dalits. In fact OBCs (Other Backward Caste)
Hindus are far more hostile to Muslims. It is
true that OBC Hindus committed far more
atrocities against Muslims than Dalits. The RSS
is systematically working among both and is
trying to give them sense of being Hindu.
Mr. Mukesh Patel, an advocate felt that the
administration and judiciary both do injustice to
Dalits and Muslims. He also revealed that Dalits
were supplied weapons by upper caste Hindus to
kill Muslims and threatened that if they did not
kill Muslims they (Dalits) themselves will be
targeted. Many Dalits killed Muslims out of fear
for their own security. He laid stress on joint
committees and training the youth to counter
Hindu communalism.
Prof. Jafer Husain Laliwala, an economist said
that Dalits and Muslims have been divided since
independence and several Muslims themselves fall
in the category of Dalits. It is quite a complex
situation and Dalit-Muslim unity is a must to
counter upper caste communal forces. In history
too few instances of demolition of temples are
generalised by the Sangh Parivar to create
Hindu-Muslim hostility. The instances of
Hindu-Muslim cooperation are deliberately
ignored. In Shivaji’s army 35 per cent soldiers
were Muslims. This also needs to be projected.
Mr. Prakash Benkar a Dalit advocate pointed out
that Muslims also attacked Dalit houses and burnt
them. Raju Solanki, a young Dalit activist and a
poet maintained that in 20 mohallas where Dalits
and Muslims lived together, no Dalits are found
in them today. They migrated to other places as
they felt insecure in those mohallahs. They
feared attack by Muslims. The Dalit leadership,
it must be admitted, failed to stop Dalit youth
from going to RSS and VHP. It is Ambedkar’s
ideology alone which can forge unity between
Dalits and Muslims and this unity is needed to
stop communal violence.
In the later half session Dr. Engineer suggested
that in order to counter Sangh Parivar propaganda
among Dalits it is necessary to constitute
Dalit-Muslim Council on All Gujarat level to be
followed by such councils in every district.
There is great need to continue this dialogue to
remove various misunderstandings from each
other’s mind. A newsletter should also be
published on Dalit-Muslim problems. And, if
possible, a resource centre should be established
in Ahmedabad to provide research facilities on
this question.
It was also suggested that there is great need to
work among the youth of both the communities. The
Dalit youth are getting attracted by the RSS-VHP
ideology. This has to be stopped and older Dalit
leadership has lost all influence on the youth.
Thus they should go and make them aware of
Ambedkar’s ideology. In Gujarat there is no
Ambedkarite movement Mr. Irfan Engineer pointed
out. The Shiv Sena failed to attract Mahars
because of Ambedkar’s influence, he said. Gujarat
needs such a movement.
A decision was taken to constitute Dalit-Muslim
Council and work for spreading the Ambedkar’s
ideology in Gujarat. It is the only effective
weapon to counter RSS ideology.
--------------------------------------------
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai.
Website: <http://www.csss-isla.com/>www.csss-isla.com
______
[6]
"While some spaces have opened out, we are still
liable to be dismissed as advocating a personal
choice or a lifestyle issue at best or a
perversion or deviation at worst."
Rainbow Planet, at the WSF
Dear Friends,
Voices Against 377,a Delhi based coalition of
women's groups, child rights groups, human rights
groups and groups working for the rights of
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people;
would like to invite you to a public meeting:
"Marginalization, Sexuality and Human Rights" at
3 p.m. on 24th August 2004 at the Indian Social
Institute.
The coalition seeks to generate and deepen
dialogues relating to sexuality, including
marginalized sexualities, with struggles and
movements that represent the interests of other
marginalized and oppressed groups.
The Public Meeting will address the violations
faced by those who are marginalized on the basis
of their sexuality as well as how different
struggles waged by other oppressed groups like
Dalits, Women, Workers, and Children relate to
the struggle for sexual rights.
Speakers:
N.B. GOMATHI will present a study entitled
`Voicing the Invisible: Violence Faced by Lesbian
Women in India' that was conducted by her and
Bina Fernandez in Mumbai.
GAUTAM BHAN will make a presentation on the human
rights violations faced by same sex desiring men
and hijras.
The presentations will be followed by comments by:
Nivedita Menon
Rajni Tilak
Indu Prakash Singh
Pamela Philipose
Let's spend these few hours together to listen,
share, argue, respond, debate, and question
openly. Your responses as friends and fellow
travelers will generate a rich exchange of ideas
as well as identify ways in which we can attempt
to build bridges between movements.
In solidarity,
Voices against 377:
Amnesty International India, Anjuman,
Breakthrough, CREA, Jagori, Lawyers Collective -
HIV AIDS Unit, Nigah Media Collective, Nirantar,
Partners for Law in Development, PRISM, Saheli,
Sama and TARSHI
Contact us at voicesagainst377 at hotmail.com, 9810299223/ 9818869081
_____
[7]
Book Launch at Oxford Bookstore (Apeejay House,
3, Dinsha Vachha Road | Phone - +91 22 5636 4477)
Churchgate, Mumbai [Bombay]
on August 26th, 6.30 pm.
'One hundred Years, One hundred Voices, The
Millworkers of Mumbai: A Vanishing History
'
(Seagull books [ URL: www.seagullindia.com/index-books/index-books.html] )
by meena menon and neera adarkar
with an introductory essay by dr rajnarayan chandavarkar .
The program will include
Lauch by Datta Iswalkar, leading activist in the textile mill workers movement;
Chief Guest: novelist Kiran Nagarkar,
Discussion on the book, and readings - Darryl
D'Monte (author of 'Ripping the Fabric),
Paromita Vora (filmmaker and writer) and Smriti
Koppikar (journalist) and the authors.
This book comprises about a hundred testimonies
by the inhabitants of these districts, which are
a window into the history, culture and political
economy of a former colonial port city now
recasting itself as a global metropolis. While
following the major threads of national and
international events, it tries to render the
history of central Bombay through the narratives
and perceptions of the people, in the process
casting new light on the processes of history as
they were experienced by the working classes-the
contesting ideas of what a free India would be;
the growth of industry and labour movements; the
World Wars and their impact; the complex politics
of regional and linguistic identities in Bombay
and Maharashtra; the eclipse of the organized
Left and the rise of extremist sectarian politics.
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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
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