SACW | 22 Aug 2004

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  22 August,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1]   Domination by 'think-tanks': Teaching and 
research on India in Pakistan - II (S. Akbar 
Zaidi)
[2]   India: Gujarat: the wheels of justice get moving (Jyotirmaya Sharma)
[3]   India: Crime and Punishment: Courts Using 
Marriage to Legitimise Rape (Kalyani Menon-Sen)
[4]   Instead of cinema tickets, condoms, 
Peddling religion  via ATMs in 'secular' India

Announcements:
[5]  India: Human Rights Law Network and Anhad Workshop on Communalism and Law
(Bhubaneshwar, Aug 28-29, 2004)
[6]  India: Public Meeting on Manipur (Bombay, 26 Aug 2004)
[7]  India: seminar/screenings/performances on 
censorship and resistance (New Delhi, 2-4, Sept. 
2004)
[8] India:  Workshop on Gender, Media and Human 
Rights from 22 to 25 Jan, 2005 (Mahanirban 
Calcutta Research Group (CRG))


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

[1]

Dawn, 22 August 2004

DOMINATION BY 'THINK-TANKS': TEACHING AND RESEARCH ON INDIA IN PAKISTAN - II

by S. Akbar Zaidi

In terms of the five social sciences considered, 
there are none in which any research or teaching 
related to India takes place. However, there is 
one large and buoyant research industry in which 
India is central. In most security related 
studies and publications, comparisons are made 
of/with India, and in fact, almost the entire 
discipline, with a few exceptions focuses 
squarely on some aspect of India which threatens 
or affects Pakistan.
In fact, it is probably true to say, that most of 
Pakistan's research and publications that take 
place in the broad social sciences with the 
exception of economics, increasingly take place 
in the very broad arena of security/strategic 
studies. Many social scientists trained in 
political science and international relations, as 
well as some physicists in the anti-nuclear 
movement, now write largely on India in the 
context of security and related issues, as do 
numerous journalists and columnists.
However, despite the presence of a number of 
independently-minded well-known and highly 
prolific social scientists trained in different 
disciplines, perhaps the monopoly of all wisdom 
relating to security and strategic studies 
(especially with regard to India), rests with 
institutes and personnel who speak for and on 
behalf of government.
The Institute of Regional Studies, supposedly an 
'independent, non-profit research centre devoted 
to the region around Pakistan', and the more 
overtly partisan Institute of Strategic Studies, 
both in Islamabad, are at the apex of the 
government's institutions where some nature of 
social science (but more specifically, 
security/strategic studies) research takes place. 
While there are other academic departments where 
such research also takes place, the importance in 
government circles of these two institutes is 
particularly relevant.
While the Institute of Regional Studies claims 
that it studies the region around Pakistan, 
'South Asia, Southwest Asia (Iran, Afghanistan), 
China, Central Asia as well as the Indian Ocean 
region', its research output is predominantly on 
issues of a strategic and security nature related 
to India. In its numerous series of publications 
including books, reports and a journal, India 
features far more frequently than all the other 
areas combined.
However, while there is a security/strategy 
focus, there are a number of publications which 
do deal with issues specific and internal to 
India rather than in a comparative perspective or 
related to Pakistan. It may not be wrong in 
suggesting that the output from the Institute of 
Regional Studies in terms of quantity far exceeds 
that of many organizations in the private, public 
or non-governmental sector.
The reasons for this overabundance of output in 
this sector are believed to be based on the 
nature of Pakistan's security driven state 
policy, and its national security state 
apparatus. Pakistan's state has been obsessed 
with security concerns and with its various 
Kashmir policies. Sections of what is called the 
'Establishment' have propagated research often 
with an overtly propagandist viewpoint. Hence, 
while it might be stretching the point to label 
official security/strategic studies as 
'research', their emphasis is less academic and 
more of a policy-oriented nature.
Although it would be unwise to make sweeping 
statements about all the research that takes 
place in government 'think tanks', it would be no 
exaggeration to state that most of the output is 
jingoistic, pro-military and partisan. The term 
'scholarly research' seems to gain a dubious 
definition in the hands of official researchers 
and analysts.
While government institutes fulfil the numerous 
needs of government itself, there is also a 
vibrant, well-published and highly respected 
academic community working in the field of 
strategic and security studies in Pakistan. Many 
physicists and those trained in some component of 
the social sciences continue to publish in 
Pakistan and abroad, are well-cited, have 
received international honours and awards, and 
are involved in doing academic and scholarly work 
in the true sense of the terms.
These scholars have a public presence - far more 
than do most economists, sociologists or 
historians - and are frequent and important 
contributors to the national and international 
press. They are usually also members of advocacy 
and civil society groups and movements and are 
active in the public arena as well. In fact, it 
would be correct to say that along with a few 
economists who are involved in public debates, 
these independent academics and scholars in the 
security/strategy field, are the only other group 
mildly related to the social sciences, who are 
also in the public arena, debating official 
public statements and policy.
The re are two broad explanations which might 
account for the fact that there is non-existent 
research and teaching on India in Pakistan. The 
first is based on the dismal state of the social 
sciences in Pakistan and the other on the nature 
of Pakistan's militarized, national security 
state apparatus and institutions.
The first premise argues that overall, the state 
of teaching and of research in the social 
sciences in Pakistan is very poor. Both the 
quality and the quantity are rather limited. Most 
social scientists agree that the state of the 
social sciences in Pakistan is in a depressingly 
decrepit state.
They all agree that not much research of any 
quality takes place in Pakistan, and the little 
that is undertaken by Pakistani social scientists 
is by those who live and work in the West. 
Moreover, they may cite the cases of a few of 
their colleagues who have produced good quality 
research in Pakistan while being based here, but 
will add that this is largely individual 
endeavour, and that the contribution by the 
institution where they are located is incidental.
Reasons
While there is wide agreement for the way things 
are, there is also considerable consensus on the 
reasons. Many argue that patronage at the private 
and at the state level has distorted the 
environment under which research in the social 
sciences takes place, developing a conformist, if 
not sycophantic, toady-ist, mindset. Others feel 
that there is a bias against a culture of 
dissent, debate and discovery, brought upon, 
perhaps, due to state authoritarianism and due to 
the over-developed nature of the bureaucratic arm 
of the state.
Other, more simpler reasons, include the fact 
that the incentive and salary structure in public 
sector institutions is dwarfed by the visible 
freedom and economic incentives in the vibrant 
private, donor and NGO-supported sectors, where 
many of the best graduates head. For some of the 
reasons mentioned above, many of the best 
Pakistani social scientists have left for other 
countries causing a haemorrhaging brain drain.
There is hence no community of academics or 
scholars left to interact with and to discuss and 
share ideas with. Moreover, many Pakistani social 
scientists feel that the western social 
scientists who work on Pakistan "are second-rate 
scholars at third-rate universities", something 
which does not help the Pakistani social science 
cause, either.
The fact that there is so little scholarly and 
academic research on India in Pakistan, is a 
consequence of overall poor research and teaching 
in Pakistan. There is not a sufficiently vibrant 
academic environment in Pakistan to allow for 
research on less controversial and problematic 
areas than India to take place let alone India 
itself. Moreover, there is also no tradition of 
doing comparative research on countries, 
societies, economies and institutions, in 
academia in Pakistan. This is a consequence of 
the way the overall research and academic 
environment has developed in Pakistan and is not 
specific to India.
Moreover, there are other academic reasons why it 
is not worthwhile to do research on India. Some 
academics feel that it is 'not rewarding enough 
in scholarly terms' to do research on India; that 
there is a dearth of scholarly literature 
available in Pakistan on India; and, the question 
of doing interviews, leave alone serious field 
work, does not even arise.
Besides, the military, which forms the most 
formidable component of the state, sees itself as 
being against all things Indian. With its hold 
over government and numerous other economic and 
educational actors and institutions, it restricts 
the feasibility and possibility of doing research 
on India, except through its own institutions and 
for its own purposes.
Scholars who work on strategic issues and also on 
India, feel that there is a very 'assertive' 
attitude of Pakistan's security agencies and its 
Foreign Office, who wish to monopolize all ideas, 
views and impressions on India. The 
'Establishment' wants to project its own notion 
of what India is according to its political and 
militaristic designs, and hence non-official 
research, specifically on India, is thwarted and 
discouraged.
In the Pakistani tradition of research and 
academics, scholarly output is expected to be 
'policy oriented', purposeful, relevant, with 
lots of recommendations. 'Irrelevant', 
theoretical, academic work is not much 
appreciated in any of the disciplines in Pakistan 
and the entire purpose of producing academics and 
teaching students in the Pakistani tradition of 
research and scholarship, is to 'solve Pakistan's 
problems'.
In the case of doing research on India, this 
becomes problematic. The military and its 
establishment does not welcome the advice of 
citizens in what it considers to be its domain, 
in this case foreign policy and that too 
particularly on India. Other than the group of 
policy analysts who are considered hawkish 
towards India, and are usually quite bellicose 
and belligerent about their largely anti-India 
views, many independent academics are considered 
'soft on India', which given Pakistan's security 
state apparatus, in its eyes, delegitimizes their 
work.
In this context, it is worthwhile reproducing in 
full a confidential University Grants Commission 
circular (No. D 1783/2001-IC.V) dated October 12, 
2001. The subject of the circular is: 'Pakistani 
students in correspondence with Indians for 
academic assistance': "I am directed to say that 
one of the security agencies has observed a 
growing tendency among the staff members/students 
of various professional institutions of India and 
Pakistan to communicate in different fields of 
mutual interest. For instance, a student of 
department of crop physiology, University of 
Agriculture, Faisalabad, has established illegal 
links with Indian experts/organizations.
It is requested that all the public/private 
sector universities/educational institutions 
affiliated, registered or recognized by the 
University Grants Commission may kindly be 
advised to instruct their staff members/students 
to follow the government directions and 
immediately dispense with all illegal links with 
foreign experts/educational institutions. It may 
also be ensured that material to be exchanged be 
first got cleared from the ministry and no links 
with any foreign experts/educational institutions 
should be established without prior approval of 
UGC/Government of Pakistan."
Such cases would be particularly troublesome if 
the academic or scholar is perceived to be a 
'liberal' and is pro-democratic; these 
credentials only add to the state's suspicion of 
the individual undermining Pakistan's interests. 
If a scholar has an intention of studying India 
seriously, s/he is asking for trouble by coming 
to the notice of the Establishment.
While liberal and secular scholars, the few that 
they are, tend to be pro-India, their scholarship 
is not backed up by thorough research or by 
facts, and is largely rhetoric based on an 
imagined India, an image which avoids looking at 
weaknesses in Indian society. Worse still, is the 
inability of left-leaning Pakistani writers to 
actually criticize India. Just as the right in 
Pakistan has created its Indian images and straw 
men, so have left-leaning academics and liberals. 
These images exist in the minds, based on wishful 
thinking, not on fact or scholarship.
Despite these restrictions and limitations - both 
institutional and ideological - there are some 
areas where there is a growing exchange of ideas 
about each other's societies and countries, where 
social scientists, along with activists, have 
been playing a role. Many actors in the large NGO 
sector in Pakistan have made extensive inroads 
and connections with their Indian counterparts.
This has led to mutual exchanges of activists and 
researchers from one country going to the other 
and working with local communities. This has 
given rise to independent, as well as to 
collaborative, research in subjects related to 
oral histories about partition, women, 
nuclear/security issues, on the curriculum at 
schools in both countries, on issues related to 
labour, etc.
While the quality and standard of this research 
varies and may not necessarily be 'academic' or 
'scholarly' - but then nor is much of the other, 
non-NGO research - it is at least useful and much 
of it is available in the wider public domain. In 
addition to the presence of NGOs in Pakistan's 
public life, so too is there a large presence of 
the media. Due to the dismal state of the social 
sciences in Pakistan, the media has filled the 
gaps which ought to have belonged to social 
scientists, and like most other issues and 
topics, there is a lively debate taking place in 
the media on different aspects of India as well.
Institutes such as the Mahbubul Haq Human 
Development Centre, with their annual 
publications on issues related to South Asia, 
also allow for greater understanding. Many 
international NGOs, donors and research 
organizations have also used the idea of South 
Asia as a means to conduct comparative studies of 
India and Pakistan. This has allowed greater 
information and facts about India to filter into 
one (very small) section of Pakistani society.
The somewhat easier mood present in South Asia 
between India and Pakistan post-April 2003 has 
also allowed an increased exchange between 
citizens of both countries. This newspaper's 
weekly Books & Authors section, for example, 
carries more reviews of books published in India 
than books published in Pakistan. While this 
reflects rather poorly on the Pakistani 
publication and writing/academic scene, it also 
shows that at the end of South Asia's Cold War, 
some ditente has allowed some ideas to cross the 
border much more easily.
Another avenue which allows for the greater 
learning and understanding of India is Pakistan's 
growing intellectual/academic and student 
diaspora. Although numbers are difficult to come 
by, there is large and growing anecdotal evidence 
which shows that many Pakistani students going 
abroad are moving away from the more traditional 
field of economics and are moving into more 
interesting disciplines such as cultural 
anthropology and other non-traditional subjects.
In addition, some of these scholars, not hampered 
or hassled by Pakistan's intelligence agencies, 
are able to look at partition, nationalism, 
ethnic identity across the divide, and other 
issues pertaining to India. As a second 
generation of migrant Pakistanis grows up in the 
West and constraints such as passports and visas 
are removed by acquiring other nationalities, 
access to India has become less difficult. For 
those interested in research and academic 
careers, particularly with regard to and with 
interest specifically in India, this offers 
unique opportunities.
Counter-questions
In the form of counter-questions, a number of 
questions were asked by the many Pakistani 
scholars interviewed during the course of this 
study. For example, many asked some of the 
following questions: Does India study Pakistan at 
all? Are there any research centres where 
appropriate work on Pakistan takes place? Most 
felt that while Pakistanis have not been able to 
study India, India too has not studied Pakistan. 
Some felt that India has not produced any quality 
research on any country except India itself.
Indian scholarship was thought to be preoccupied 
with Indian domestic politics, not comparative 
country studies. There was consensus amongst all 
the scholars interviewed, that Pakistan was 
ill-equipped to undertake research on most 
issues. In fact, one can turn the question around 
which this investigation started out and ask: How 
is Pakistan taught and researched in Pakistan? Is 
this any different from the way India is taught 
and researched in Pakistan?
With Pakistan itself poorly and under-researched 
and badly taught, perhaps there needs to be a 
level of 'research affluence' to allow the number 
of scholars to be able to look at other 
countries. While there is no doubt that India is 
central to Pakistan's existence, perhaps there is 
a greater need for Pakistanis to first increase 
the quality and quantity of research on Pakistan 
itself.
This is the second instalment of an article 
adapted from a paper presented by the author at a 
workshop in New Delhi in July. Dr Zaidi is 
currently a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins 
University in the US.

______


[2]

The Hindu  - Aug 22, 2004 | Opinion - News Analysis
GUJARAT: THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE GET MOVING

Faced with a hostile Centre, a determined Supreme 
Court, and an unforgiving set of liberal 
activists, the Narendra Modi regime will not have 
it easy in the weeks ahead, says Jyotirmaya 
Sharma. Some of the affidavits filed in the riot 
cases too show up the Gujarat Government.


"Muslims are repeating history. Their main aim is 
not to destroy maximum possible Hindu Temples, 
but to destroy Hindu Religion and Hindu culture 
and to rape Hindu ladies ... If Hindus won't 
awake with these incidents, Hindu religion and 
Hindu culture would be finished ... Hindu Youth, 
now it is time to test your courage and strength. 
Prepare bombs, Dharias, Sticks, prepare bows to 
throw burning missiles. Leave defensive policy 
and attack now. Arise to avenge insult to our 
temples and ladies, and rush to Muslim areas with 
weapons and finish them."

THOSE FAMILIAR with the highly charged communal 
rhetoric of the Sangh Parivar will find nothing 
startling or new in the above quote. The reason 
for its recall is to illustrate that its genesis 
shares little with Godhra 2002 and its bloody 
aftermath, though the sentiment evoked is very 
much part of the jihadi Hindutva prescribed by 
the Sangh Parivar and its affiliates. These 
lines, in fact, are taken from a leaflet titled 
"Awake Hindus - Awake Youths," distributed by the 
Hindu Sangram Samiti during and after the 
communal riots in Gujarat in September 1969.

Despite a long history of communal riots in 
Gujarat, why is it, then, that Narendra Modi and 
his Government have come to represent the most 
diabolical form of communalism in independent 
India's history?

The difference

Jan Breman, the sociologist, writing in April 
2002, succinctly describes the distinctiveness of 
the riots of February-March 2002: "In Spring 
2002, the religious cleansing operation has been 
more severe, larger in scale and longer lasting 
than on earlier occasions, mainly because the 
state apparatus - both the leading political 
party and government agencies - condoned or even 
facilitated the pogrom, rather than stopped it, 
while it was taking place in late February and 
early March."

More than two years after the Godhra incident and 
the riots that followed, a process of making the 
State Government and Sangh Parivar politicians 
accountable has ensued, entirely as a result of 
the tenacity of civil and human rights groups, 
NGOs, and, most significantly, the Supreme Court 
of India. [....]

Full Text at: www.hindu.com/2004/08/22/stories/2004082200621400.htm

______


[3]

The Times of India - August 21, 2004  |  Leader Article

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: COURTS USING MARRIAGE TO LEGITIMISE RAPE

Kalyani Menon-Sen

Imagine this situation: One person attacks 
another with vicious force, seriously injuring 
the body and scarring the mind of the other. Yet, 
a few 'responsible' individuals step in to decree 
that the two people be bound to live together for 
the rest of their lives, with the attacker being 
given legal authority and total control over the 
body, labour and property of the victim. Threats 
of further violence, social ostracism and 
emotional blackmail from family and friends are 
applied to pressurise the victim into accepting 
this arrangement.

Does this seem too far-fetched in this time and 
age, where 'modern' institutions are supposed to 
take care of gross cruelty and abuse? Not 
exactly. Recently, the superintendent of 
Jharsuguda jail in Orissa arranged a marriage 
between a prisoner in his charge, a man awaiting 
trial on a charge of rape, and the woman he was 
accused of raping.

The relatives of the accused contacted the girl's 
parents and persuaded them to agree to the 
alliance. Bail was sought so that the marriage 
could be solemnised. When it was refused (on the 
grounds that the marriage certificate was not 
attached to the application) the jail 
superintendent himself obtained special 
permission from the ADGP (Prisons) for this 
'reformative step' -- arranging the marriage 
ceremony inside the jail. One supposes that bail 
will now be granted, since the application will 
be supported with the marriage certificate, and a 
statement from the police, saying the man is a 
'reformed' character.

The sympathetic judge, the responsive ADGP, the 
reformist jailer, the compliant parents -- none 
of them perhaps understand that their actions 
amount to a mockery of justice and human dignity.

They would argue: After all, this is how hundreds 
of complaints of rape are resolved by caste 
panchayats, by community leaders, relatives, or 
family counsellors. All of them would agree that 
they acted in the best interests of the 
aggressor, the victim, their families and society 
at large. As for the argument that the victim has 
a lowly place in this kind of marital 
arrangement, they would argue -- how many girls 
in India have a choice when it comes to getting 
married?

The Jharsuguda approach to rape is no aberration. 
Indeed, this approach seems to inform the actions 
of the judiciary in other parts of the country, 
too. A Kolkata daily (The Telegraph, August 17) 
reports that the high court granted bail to a 
young man who was charged with rape after 
refusing to marry a girl with whom he had 
"physical relations". The bail was granted on the 
condition that the 21-year-old man would produce, 
by September 17, documentary proof of having 
married the 18-year-old girl.

Precisely because the Jharsuguda incident is not 
an isolated one, it is important to look coldly 
at the assumptions about crime and punishment 
that underlie it: First, that rape is a crime 
primarily because the individuals involved are 
not married and therefore not authorised to have 
sex with each other; second, that marriage 
between aggressor and victim can accord post 
facto sanction to rape and render it less of a 
crime or better still, not a crime at all; third, 
that a single act of sexual intercourse, with or 
without consent, can provide a sufficient 
foundation for a lifelong relationship; fourth, 
that "making an honest woman" out of the victim 
is a desirable social goal that justifies 
subversion of the due process of law by those 
charged with enforcing it. How unjust and 
unjustifiable are these assumptions? Are they so 
very different from the unwritten principles that 
underlie our
legal framework on rape?

How different would things have been if none of 
this had happened and the case had come to court? 
Would the victim have got "justice"? Would she 
have been able to stick to her demand for justice 
over the years it would have taken for the case 
to come before a judge? Would her parents and 
friends have supported her through the brutal and 
humiliating process of depositions and 
cross-questioning? The law would require her to 
prove that she resisted her rapist -- would she 
have been able to display more than the odd 
scratch or bruise which could be argued to be 
accidental or self-inflicted?

If she could not, it would be assumed that she 
was a consenting partner in the act of 
intercourse. The defence counsel would have made 
great play, had the alleged rape taken place on 
Valentine's Day -- "Your honour, no woman of good 
character would go out of the house on such a 
day". Her caste origins and the family's economic 
status may have been cited to prove she was 
programmed to be promiscuous, litigious, or 
untruthful.

Evidence of a previous relationship between the 
rapist and the victim, or the victim and anyone 
else, would have been used to prove she was not a 
virgin -- and what is rape to a woman who has 
already been defiled?

Did any of these questions exercise the mind of 
the superintendent of Jharsuguda jail? We do not 
yet know how the Jharsuguda story will end. Will 
the young woman in question live happily ever 
after with her rapist? Would the jailer, the 
policeman and the judge notice or care if she 
does not?

(Women's Feature Service)


______


[4]

Hindustan Times - August 22, 2004
Delhi Edition  Pg 7: Nation

ANYTIME BLESSINGS ON ATMS
Ashok Das
Hyderabad, August 22

If anytime banking took care of your material 
needs, banking institutions haave gone a step 
further in trying to take care of your spiritual 
needs.

Many banks now offer the 'anytime' customer the 
choice of getting divine blessings 'anytime' just 
by the click of a few buttons. So you can make an 
offering to Lord Venkateshwara at Tirupati, Lord 
Jagannath at Puri, Mata Vaishnodevi or any of the 
big temples in the country through conventional 
ATMs.

The Anytime Blessings (ATB) service comes in a 
customer friendly package which you can access 
from the options menu of your friendly 
neighborhood ATM.

You can select the temple of your choice from 
there and thereafter click the option indicating 
the service you want to perform. Then click to 
send in your remittances.

"You do not have to wait till you visit the 
shrine to make an offering. You can send money 
anytime to any of the big temples in the country 
for conducting sevas or as a fulfillment of your 
prayers and secure your favourite deity's 
blessings," said an ICICI Bank official.

"Not many are aware that they can donate to 
temples and even book their darshan tickets in 
advance through ATMs. While it will take some 
time for people get to know about it, it's 
already picking up with tech-savvy devotees and 
people using Internet banking," the official 
added.

"It's a good idea. I wasn't aware that such a 
facility is available," said Sharath, a techie 
working with an MNC, whose busy work schedule has 
not permitted him to make a pilgrimage to his 
favourite shrine for two years.

Officials at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthnam say ATB 
services would reduce the workload on temple 
staff and improve their services. They hoped that 
it would catch up soon as people shed their 
initial fears about online transactions.

______

================
ANNOUNCEMENTS
================


[5]


HUMAN RIGHTS LAW NETWORK AND ANHAD WORKSHOP ON COMMUNALISM AND LAW

AUGUST 28, 29, 2004
VENUE: YATRI NIWAS, CUTTACK ROAD, BHUBANESHWAR


Schedule for August 28, 2004- ANHAD -FOR 
participation and second day's schedule contact 
Bibhu Prasad- aoylf at yahoo.co.in/ 
bibhuprasad at hotmail.com

9.00-9.30- Introduction of Anhad and HRLN
9.30-10.00- IDENTITY, SELF AND THE OTHER-GAUHAR RAZA
10.00-10.15- Fifteen minutes from Docu-lecture by Sohail Hashmi
10.15-10.30- Discussion
10.30-11.00- FREEDOM STRUGGLE AND FORMATION OF INDIA-GAUHAR RAZA
11.00-11.15- Fifteen minutes from Docu-lecture by Prof. Mridula Mukherjee
11.15-11.30- Discussion
11.30-12.00- TEA BREAK
12.00-12.20- In Dark Times- Documentary by Gauhar Raza
12.20- 12.50- FASCISM -GAUHAR RAZA
12.50-1.15- discussion
1.15-2.00- LUNCH
2.00-2.40- HISTORY AND IDEOLOGY OF THE SANGH PARIVAR -PRALAYA KANUNGO
2.40-3.00- Ten mnts each from Lalit Vachani's 
documentary 'Men in the Tree', Nivedita Menon's 
lecture Docu -lecture and Prof. SK Thorat's 
docu-lecture
3.00-3.15- Discussion
WHAT IS SECULARISM/ ASSAULT ON SECULARISM: Education/ History
3.15-3.45- Fifteen minutes from Prof. Bipin 
Chandra and Fifteen mnts from Rizwan Qaiser's 
docu-lecture
3.45-4.15- DISCUSSION INITIATED BY PRALAYA KANUNGO
4.15-4.30- TEA BREAK
MYTHS
4.30-5.00- Ram Puniyani's docu-lecture
5.15-5.30- DISCUSSION INITIATED BY PRALAYA KANUNGO
DEFENCE OF SECULARISM AND CONSTITUTION
5.30-6.00- Fifteen mnts from Harsh Mander's 
docu-lecture and fifteen mnts from Mihir Desai's 
lecture
6.00-6.30- DISCUSSION INITIATED BY PRALAYA KANUNGO
6.30-7.30- TEA BREAK/ INFORMAL DISCUSSION CONTINUES
7.30 ONWARDS- DOCUMENTARY FILM-FOLLOWED BY DINNER AND DISCUSSION
ANHAD'S Docu-lectures: In Defence of Our Dreams. 
You can order a set by sending a draft to ANHAD 
for Rs 1050. Address: ANHAD, 4, Windsor Place, 
New Delhi-110001, Tel- 23327366/ 67
  'In Defence of Our Dreams' has been produced by 
Gauhar Raza. It contains the following 
docu-lectures:

Pralay Kanungo		History of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh	Done
Harsh Mander		Civil Society and State: Lessons from Gujarat
SK Thorat		Caste, Dalits and Fascism
Nivedita Menon		Gender - Issues, Movement 
& Interrelation with Communal Politics
Mridula Mukherjee	Legacy of the Freedom Movement
Mihir Desai		Secularism as a constitutional Right
Bipin Chandra,		The Urgency to Resist Fascist Forces
Rajdeep Sardesai		Media: an Arena for Struggle
Rizwan Qaisar		Communalisation of Education and History
K.M. Shrimali		Is Ayodhya Just a Physical Site
K.N. Panikkar,		Cultural Roots of Communalism
Ram Punyani		Facts & Myths
Sohail Hashmi		Formation of Indian Identity
Digant Oza		Gujarat before and after Carnage
Praful Bidwai		Communalism, Nationalist 
Chauvinism & India - Pakistan Hostility
Rakesh Sharma		Final Solution
Gauhar Raza		Zulmaton ke Daur Main and Junoon ke Badhte Qadam
Saeed Mirza	                           Unheard Voices


_____


[6]

Subject: Public Meeting on Manipur, 26 August 
2004, Vanmalli Hall, Dadar, Mumbai

Dear Friends,

Manipur - "A jeweled land" has been under 
undeclared emergency under the draconian Armed 
Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958 since 
September 1980.  The state continues to be 
ignored by policy makers, the government and the 
larger Indian public despite daily abuses of 
human rights.

The protest was sparked by the death of 
32-year-old Thangjam Manorama whose bullet ridden 
body was found on July 10 after soldiers of the 
paramilitary Assam Rifles picked her up from her 
home on the charge of alleged links with 
separatist rebels. Protests led by a coalition of 
women's organisations in Manipur have since been 
escalating, primarily demanding the repeal of the 
Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Specials Powers 
Act. This legislation gives sweeping powers to 
the army of detaining any person for months 
without legal redressal on suspicion of being a 
militant or a supporter to the militant cause.

To express support and solidarity to the people 
in Manipur a larger public meeting is being 
organized.

  Speakers: Dr. Roy Laifungbam, CORE (Guwhati) and
Atrex Shimrey, NESO (Assam)
Date: August 26, 2004
Venue: Vanmalli Hall, Dadar (W), Mumbai

Time: 3.00 to 5.00 p.m.

We appeal to all organisations to support this 
cause and join in this effort. Organisations 
interested in joining this effort please e-mail 
to or write to us at India Centre for Human 
Rights & Law, CVOD Jain High School, 4th Floor, 
84, Samuel Street, Dongri, Mumbai – 400 009. 
Tel.: 2343 9651 / 2343 6692. Email: 
huright at vsnl.com


Aawaaz - e - Niswan
Bombay Sarvodaya Friendship Centre
Ekta
Forum
India Centre for Human Rights and Law
Justice & Accountability Matter, Program of WRAG
Lok Raj Sangatan
Maharashtra Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti
Maharashtra Sarvodaya Mandal
Mumbai Jilla Sarvodaya Mandal
Mumbai Lok Samiti
Narmada Bachao Andolan
Nirbhay Bano Andolan


______


[7]

Please find below details regarding a seminar being organised by Films For
Freedom on censorship at the Indian Social Institute from 2 to 4
September, 2004. A detailed schedule will be available soon.

FILMS FOR FREEDOM

seminar/screenings/performances on censorship and resistance - 2- 4
September, 2004

Films For Freedom is an action platform of over 300 Indian documentary
filmmakers who came together in August 2003 to work on issues of free
speech by promoting the screening of documentaries and generating
discussions on the form, politics and aesthetics of documentaries.

All over the world, as channels of the mass media become a part of the
corporate structure, television and image-making have increasingly
withdrawn into an artificial world of make-believe and propaganda, and it
has increasingly been left to documentary films to tell the other stories.

Documentary films have the ability to enter the real lives of people, and
the inner spaces of peoples struggles, their triumphs and setbacks. They
have ripped apart the facades created by the propaganda machines of
industrial and political empires, they document important social events
and present reflective journeys that question, disturb and inspire. And
since they challenge, and seek to free, it is obvious that attempts will
be made to control them, bind them and prevent their dissemination.

The Delhi chapter of the Films For Freedom has announced that September
2004 will be the Month of Free Speech. Beginning with a seminar at the
Indian Social Institute, the screenings will run through the month in
collaboration with Academic Departments and Student Bodies in the three
Universities (Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Jawahar Lal Nehru
University), ANHAD, Nigah Media Collective, School of Arts and
Aesthetics(JNU), Pravah, AISA, with activist and voluntary groups, as well
as at schools in collaboration with Spic-Macay.

2-4 September,2004/ 10 AM to 7:30 PM/ Indian Social Institute (Behind Sai
Mandir, near Lodi Road):

Celebrating Resistance-- Seminar/screenings/Performances on censorship.
Speakers include - Lawrence Liang on Censorship and the Law, Sudhir
Patnaik on peoples movements and the media, Digant Oza on Censorship and
the Gujarati Press, Siddharth Vardarajan on censorship and the Press,
Rajendra Yadav (TBC) on Emergency and Censorship,Lakshmi Murthy from
Saheli on the women's movements and censorship, Dr. Tanika Sarkar and
Shuddhabrata Sengupta on censorship and hate speech, Prashant Bhushan on
privatisation, censorship and the judiciary, Shohini Ghosh on censorship
and the complexities of looking, Nandinee Bandhopadhyaya on struggles for
the rights of the sex workers and the women's movement, Haseena from Awaz
e Niswan, Mumbai, on the reform in laws for muslim women and censorship ,
Akshay Khanna and Ponni from Prism and Nigah Media Collective on
Censorship from a queer perspective, Charu Gupta on sexuality, identity
and censorship, Dunu Roy on demolitions, urban poverty and censorship,
Vrinda Grover on Lying for the sake of the Nation, Hiren Gandhi on
censorship and theatre, Sudhanwa Deshpande on marathi theatre and
censorship, Soe Myint on resisting censorship in Burma, Anjali Monterio
and Jaysankar on documentary and censorship.

Readings from proscribed poetry and prose. Sufi singing from Bikaner. Film
screenings

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: delhi_fest2 at yahoo.com

______



[8]

Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG) will 
hold a four-day Creative Media WORKSHOP ON 
GENDER, MEDIA AND HUMAN RIGHTS from 22 to 25 
January, 2005.

The workshop is intended for gender and media 
activists, peace activists, journalists, creative 
non-fiction writers, creative communicators and 
young academics.

The participants will deliberate on ways and 
means to develop gender sensitive media 
activities, provide an alternative approach to 
media representations of violence that neither 
sensationalise nor trivialise women's 
negotiations in conflict situations and will 
align several forms of work on peace, gender 
justice and rights. Each of the participants will 
be expected to present at the workshop a 
1,000-word article, a short documentary, script, 
an audio track, a photo exhibit or any other 
appropriate form of creative communication and 
interact with the resource persons and other 
participants for working towards effective 
networking.

Applications are invited on plane paper along 
with a) the applicant's bio-data, b) a write-up 
within 500 words on the relevance of the workshop 
to the candidate's work and how she or he can 
contribute to it and c) a letter of 
recommendation commenting specifically on the 
candidate's work.

Selected candidate candidates will have to pay a 
registration fee of Rs 1,000. They will be 
provided a resource kit and full hospitality 
during the workshop. CRG, however, is unable to 
provide travel grants.
Complete applications (hard copy or e-mail) must 
reach by 15 September, 2004 at Mahanirban 
Calcutta Research Group, FE 390 Salt Lake, 
Kolkata 700 016; e-mail: mcrg at mcrg.ac.in.




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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
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