SACW | 29 Aug 2004

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  29 August,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1]  [India - Pakistan] No peace without civil society  (Praful Bidwai)
[2]  Bangladesh:
   -  'Join movement to save country from fanatics' (Report, Daily Star)
   - Police thwart anti-Ahmadiyya plan : Government can be effective 
if it so chooses (Edit , Daily Star)
   - Upholding the rule of law (Edit, New Age)
[3] India: The chains of Pirana : A Gujarat village that follows a 
Sufi-inspired faith, in danger of being swamped by Hindu 
fundamentalism (Dionne Bunsha)
[4]  India:
   - Savarkar: Out of Kala Pani, Again  (Saba Naqvi Bhaumik, Smruti Koppikar)
   - The Mastermind?  [behind Gandhi's assassination] (Rajesh Ramachandran)
[5]  India:  Second attack on journalist in Maharsahtra  -  Press 
Release (Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand)
[6]  India:
  - Mosque blasts in Maharashtra
- IMC-USA condemns the bomb attacks on mosques in Maharashtra, 
demands immediate action


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

[1]

[India - Pakistan]

Frontline, Aug. 28 - Sep. 10, 2004

NO PEACE WITHOUT CIVIL SOCIETY

by Praful Bidwai

The `detente from below' launched exactly 10 years ago through an 
India-Pakistan people-to-people dialogue has been a critical, if 
unacknowledged, input into the peace process now under way. This 
vital civil society initiative must be sustained and expanded.


AFTER an estimated 140-plus exchange visits during the past year 
across the India-Pakistan border by parliamentarians and officials, 
artistes and musicians, scholars and social activists, and 
journalists and schoolchildren, many people have began to regard the 
current process of thaw and dialogue as something "natural" and 
"normal". But not many acknowledge, or are aware of, the role played 
by civil society groups of the two countries in pioneering a 
citizen-to-citizen dialogue in the 1990s. Today's thaw could hardly 
have come about without the people-to-people dialogue launched 
exactly 10 years ago by citizens' groups.

To recount, on the 47th anniversary of the Independence of the two 
neighbours, a motley group of activists gathered at the Wagah border 
to light candles to express friendship and solidarity with one 
another. Tens of thousands of Indian citizens participated under the 
banner of Hind-Pak Dosti Manch (India-Pakistan Friendship Forum), led 
by Kuldip Nayar and singer Hans Raj Hans. Reciprocating their festive 
celebration from across the border each year are different citizens' 
groups from Lahore and other Pakistani cities. The celebrations, 
which bear a marked contrast to the contrived display of ritual 
hostility at the retreat ceremony every evening, have drawn greater 
and greater popular participation and support. This past Independence 
Day, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram 
Yechury took part in them.

Just three weeks after the candle light ceremony of August 14/15, 
1994, a group of 15 Pakistanis and eight Indians met in Lahore and 
decided to launch a Pakistan-India People-to-People Dialogue on Peace 
and Democracy. The objective was to counter "threats to peace and 
democracy in the subcontinent by growing militarisation, 
nuclearisation, religious fanaticism, communal violence and policies 
of intolerance" practised by governments and major political parties 
in the two countries, and to begin a citizens' dialogue on "critical 
issues of peace and democracy". By early 1995, this took formal shape 
- the Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) 
- after a joint convention held in Delhi on February 24-25, attended 
by more than a hundred delegates from each country.

The forum has since held six conventions, alternately in India and 
Pakistan, with increasing participation in each meeting. It is 
without doubt one of the more successful citizen-level initiatives in 
any strife-torn region of the world. The PIPFPD has tried to grapple 
with contentious issues such as Kashmir, communal nationalism and 
religious intolerance. It has advocated peace and tranquillity across 
the Line of Control (LoC), restraint in military spending and nuclear 
preparations, and greater trade and economic cooperation. Despite 
flaws and setbacks, including stagnation at the level of ideas and 
bureaucratic or opaque methods of working, the forum survived and 
sustained itself with some panache through one of the ugliest phases 
in India-Pakistan relations. This phase was marked by intensified 
jehadi infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir, increased repression 
there by the state, the nuclear blasts of 1998, the Kargil War of 
1999, the failed Agra Summit of 2001, and the 20 month-long 
eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation of 2002.

It is thus altogether appropriate that Admiral L. Ramdas and I.A. 
Rehman, who have both been joint chairpersons of the PIPFPD, should 
have been given the Magsaysay Award for International Peace and 
Understanding. The award is not just an honour for two courageous 
individuals who chose to swim against the tide of national 
chauvinism. It is a rich tribute to the collective efforts of 
conscientious citizens in both countries to keep the hope of peace 
and reconciliation alive - years before Atal Bihari Vajpayee and 
Pervez Musharraf discussed the possibility of reconciliation and 
agreed to a ceasefire and a comprehensive dialogue.

THE Dosti Manch and the PIPFPD were not the only initiatives of their 
kind. Others, including the Women's Initiative for Peace in South 
Asia (WIPSA), the Association of the Peoples of South Asia, the South 
Asian Human Rights Association (SAHRS), the South Asia Free Media 
Association, and even the Soldiers for Peace, joined the same effort. 
Equally noteworthy were joint conferences of the Pakistan Peace 
Coalition (PPC), formed in February 1999 in Karachi, comprising a 
broad range of peace and nuclear disarmament activists, and the 
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), established at a 
convention in New Delhi in November 2000, attended by 700 Indian 
delegates and 50 Pakistani delegates.

A landmark event was the Pakistan-India People's Solidarity 
Conference of July 2001, jointly organised by the CNDP and the PPC in 
New Delhi. Its declaration called for nuclear weapons abolition, 
democratisation, defence of human rights, free movement of peoples, 
and for the transfer of resources "from bombs to books, from 
submarines to schools, from missiles to medicines, from frigates to 
food, from runways for bombers to railroads for people". The 
declaration was supported by over 250 citizens' groups and people's 
movement organisations in the two countries.

It is on this infrastructure of goodwill and hope for a better common 
future that many other organisations - literally dozens - 
representing varied social constituencies, from feminists and labour 
unionists, and diplomats and MPs, to mediapersons and film 
personalities, have been built over the past year. Suddenly, as the 
Noor case showed, and the bonhomie on the cricket ground so vividly 
demonstrated, many barriers, that seemed insuperable only some months 
ago, have fallen. The most important of these is the idea of the 
permanence and inevitability of India-Pakistan hostility.

THIS is perhaps the greatest contribution to the peace process from 
civil society initiatives. But it is not the only one. The view that 
mutual coexistence is possible, achievable and desirable, has 
permeated the mainstream public discourse of both countries (although 
there have been a few bumps on the road to dialogue). One only has to 
take a cursory glance at the Pakistani and Indian media to note 
commentators and analysts advocating confidence-building measures 
(CBMs) in place of moves by both states to stalk each other and score 
points. Although the number of journalists allowed to be posted in 
each other's countries is still shamefully limited to two each, an 
increasing number of Indian writers are now regularly published in 
the Pakistani press (including this writer), and to a lesser extent, 
the other way around. Joint articles by Indian and Pakistani 
activist-experts on nuclear issues have also been published - for the 
first time ever.

Bollywood formula films, in which vicious anti-Pakistan posturing 
became a whole new profitable genre in the late 1990s, is now 
inventing another formula: of cross-border romance and friendship. 
The language of confidence-building and peace has even intruded into 
the usually cynical minds of the "strategic communities" of the two 
countries. Talk of building a peace park or nature resort at Siachen, 
where India and Pakistan have fought the world's highest-altitude - 
and strategically its most preposterous - war, is no longer 
considered outlandish.

Had popular mindsets and perceptions not changed, the thaw of the 
past year could not have led to greater and more exuberant 
people-to-people interaction across the border. First-hand visits by 
citizens to each other's countries have in turn helped demolish 
prejudices and feelings of "otherness". You suddenly have Indian 
businessmen and traders, untouched by any liberal influence or by 
awareness of the connections between communalism, militarism and 
India-Pakistan hostility, singing the praises of ordinary Pakistanis 
who overwhelmed them with their hospitality during the Lahore cricket 
match. It was remarkable that an Indian Airlines pilot spontaneously 
diverted a Bangalore-bound flight to Hyderabad to save the life of a 
Pakistani child who developed a serious health problem on board.

These friendly sentiments have permeated through the otherwise 
over-cautious bureaucrats of the two countries, as they are bound to. 
Their diplomats, who would be routinely subjected to surveillance and 
harassment, now feel relaxed. Their social acceptability has grown. 
India-Pakistan official-level exchanges have not yet produced a 
breakthrough; they have largely restored the pre-2002 status quo. But 
they have been cordial and constructive. They have generally spurred 
forward movement. All this is bound to trickle up to the 
policy-making level. A vital input here is the growing recognition of 
the handsome potential for economic cooperation and trade between 
India and Pakistan, including transit of goods such as oil and gas.

MARVELLOUSLY welcome as this change is, it is not irreversible. 
Indeed, there is a distinct possibility of a slippage. If the current 
dialogue does not produce concrete progress, especially on Kashmir - 
where the Indian and Pakistani positions differ the most, and which 
issue Musharraf insistently says is "central" - then India and 
Pakistan could return to the earlier state of hot-cold war. There are 
signs of discomfort in Islamabad with the direction and pace of the 
talks. Pakistan wants to see some tangible progress on Kashmir before 
it agrees to any more CBMs, including the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus. 
Its policymakers feel that Manmohan Singh has not shown the same 
commitment to the peace process as Vajpayee. The Indian Army says 
that militant infiltration from across the border has increased in 
recent months.

Apart from a serious investment in the dialogue process from the 
topmost levels of policymaking, and tremendous flexibility on 
Kashmir, public opinion will play a vital role in ensuring that the 
official level talks succeed. Public opinion, the key to a desirable 
outcome from the dialogue, is itself linked to civil society 
intervention. But that intervention must also explicitly target 
policy makers in both countries on the same range of issues that the 
talks cover. This means that groups such as the PIPFPD, the WIPSA, 
the SAHRS, should launch a concerted effort at advocacy and lobbying, 
on nuclear risk-reduction, demilitarisation of India-Pakistan 
relations and reduction in their defence budgets, steps towards 
resolving the Kashmir problem, breaking the Siachen impasse and so on.

This will entail moving beyond generalities and "first principles" - 
for example, agreement on the evil character of nuclear weapons and 
the need for rolling back post-Pokhran-II developments. Civil society 
groups would have to make specific and concrete proposals of a 
transitional kind, which fall short of disarmament. For instance, 
Pakistan and India should immediately agree not to deploy nuclear 
weapons and not to conduct missile test-flights for a period such as 
two to three years - without compromising their security or closing 
the option of reaching other restraint, arms control and disarmament 
measures.

Similarly, on Kashmir, citizens' groups would do well to look at 
broadly similar problems involving rival territorial claims. An 
instance is the Trieste question, involving a long-standing dispute 
between Italy and Slovenia. (Italy and the former Yugoslavia reached 
an agreement to grant exceptional autonomy to the Trieste region and 
to guarantee it mutually.) There are other regions worth looking at, 
including South Tyrol, Corsica and Northern Ireland, for examples of 
both success and failure. None of these can be a model for resolving 
the Kashmir problem, but each has some lesson to offer.

Citizens' groups will have a good impact if they develop creative 
alternatives to jaded and conservative ways of thinking and 
passionately argue for these. They should use both the mass media and 
forms of intervention focussed on engaging with the establishment 
making and shaping policy. To do this, they must reach out, open up 
their membership and level of democratic participation, and set up 
working groups on specific issues, which can draw expertise from 
outside their own ranks.

They must proceed on the assumption that where ideas are concerned, 
they will play a role that very nearly substitutes for government. 
Officialdom, especially in South Asia, has rarely matched the 
originality and worth of good ideas and projects proposed by civil 
society organisations. Our governments function as closed, opaque and 
impermeable systems. They formulate policies without wide 
consultation and thrust them down our throats. Even Parliament does 
not debate policy in our system.

This is not how it should be in democracy. But that is the 
Indian/Pakistani reality. Here, we citizens are called upon to 
intervene, especially on the bilateral disputes that have sustained 
the two countries' ruinous rivalry for half a century. These issues 
are too important to be left to politicians and bureaucrats alone. 
Civil society initiatives acquire a new meaning in our context. They 
are part of the broader democratic agenda of bringing policy-making 
down to earth, by making it more responsive and accountable to the 
people.



______



[2]


The Daily Star - August 29, 2004
  	 
'JOIN MOVEMENT TO SAVE COUNTRY FROM FANATICS'
Staff Correspondent
Workers Party of Bangladesh (WPB) yesterday called on all to join the 
movement to dislodge the BNP-led four-party alliance government.
It also urged the Awami League, 11-party alliance, and the Jatiya 
Samajtantrik Dal to launch an anti-government agitation together to 
save the country from the fundamentalist forces.
If the government was not toppled immediately, the fanatics would 
seize the power gradually as the Jamaat-e-Islami, a partner of the 
ruling alliance, was now controlling everything from the back seat, 
said WPB President Rashed Khan Menon at a press conference.

The Islamist zealots were moving freely even after killing 
progressive people, including AL leader Ahasanullah Master, 
journalists Manik Saha and Humayn Kabir Balu and WPB leader Babulal 
Shil, but the government did not take any action against them, said 
general secretary Bimal Biswas.
According to police report, about 16 extremist outfits had been 
operating in the country, he said, adding that but the government 
remained indifferent.
The government also turned a blind eye when the fanatics burnt the 
copies of the daily Prothom Alo and vandalised the billboards of the 
Prothom Alo-The Daily Star-GrameenPhone news service, he said.

o o o


The Daily Star - August 29, 2004  |  Editorial

POLICE THWART ANTI-AHMADIYYA PLAN
GOVERNMENT CAN BE EFFECTIVE IF IT SO CHOOSES

A job well done. There can be no other words to describe the 
performance of the law enforcement authorities who, together with 
civil society members, foiled plans by religious extremists to 
capture the Ahmadiyya headquarters in Bakshibazar on Friday. The 
police and state minister for home affairs had pledged to ensure the 
security of the Ahmadiyyas in the face of the extremist threat, and 
through diligent work and firm action, they kept their word. We 
felicitate them.

It goes to show that when the government is determined to maintain 
law and order, and to protect the security of a community under 
threat, that it can do so. Previous agitations against the Ahmadiyyas 
have often been successful, with the police claiming that they were 
helpless to intervene or virtually taking the side of the extremists, 
all in the name of keeping the peace.

We hope that the government has now learned that to take steps to 
appease and accommodate extremists is no way to keep the peace. The 
government's primary responsibility is to uphold the law and to 
protect its citizens, and to permit lawlessness and violence is to 
invite disorder and chaos.

In addition to their repeated attempts to capture Ahmadiyya mosques 
and to harass members of the community, the anti-Ahmadiyya agitators 
have also often threatened dire consequences for the government and 
the country if their demands to have the Ahmadiyyas declared 
non-Muslim are not met. The government cannot tolerate this kind of 
anti-democratic dissent.

One of the reasons the government has been so slow to reign in the 
anti-Ahmadiyya extremists is their connection with parties aligned 
with the government. Indeed, astonishingly, some of the threats to 
law and order have come from those who are part of the ruling 
alliance.

The government can no longer brook this kind of rabble-rousing on the 
part of its coalition partners. The use of religion to foment trouble 
has gone on long enough. The government must deal with this kind of 
extremism with an iron fist -- we can no longer afford to tolerate 
either bigotry or lawlessness.

We hope that Friday's welcome police action is a sign that the 
government has come to the same conclusion.

o o o

New Age - August 29, 2004

UPHOLDING THE RULE OF LAW
The authorities have just demonstrated their ability to check 
lawlessness if they put their mind to it. On Friday, the police 
foiled a planned march by fanatics towards the Ahmadiyya headquarters 
in Bakshibazar (the fanatics were driven by the idea of occupying the 
place and offering their prayers there) and before that even took a 
few leaders of these rabid elements into custody. It is interesting 
to ask why the police have finally done what they should have done a 
long time ago. There are quite a few suggestions one can advance at 
this point. Firstly, the reaction generated by the 21 August tragedy, 
especially that of foreigners, galvanised the authorities into 
action. Secondly, the firm stand which a number of newspapers took 
about the need to rein in the anti-Ahmadiyya elements was a big 
reality the government could not afford to ignore. Finally, the 
determination of civil society groups to uphold the secular spirit of 
the country proved pivotal in letting all doubters know of the 
popular feeling about the anti-Ahmadiyya agitation.

    It should now be the job of the authorities to place a permanent 
check on anyone who seeks, by word or action, to propagate religious 
intolerance in the country. The leaders of the Amra Dhakabashi outfit 
taken into custody ought not to be let off without a proper inquiry 
and application of the due process of law into their activities. 
These elements have for months kept the country in a tense condition. 
Precisely why they did that and who their patrons are must now become 
the focus of public inquiry. It will be very dispiriting for the 
nation if these votaries of public disorder are allowed to walk free. 
Last but not the least, there remains the question of a lifting of 
the government ban on Ahmadiyya publications. The constitution and 
the provisions of globally accepted human rights have absolutely no 
room for a religious or any other peaceful community to be deprived 
of the right to express itself in black and white. As we have said on 
earlier occasions, Ahmadiyyas are citizens of Bangladesh and must 
enjoy all the rights granted to all citizens by the nation's 
constitution. Anyone who disputes this fact is actually undermining 
the very nature of the State. That cannot be allowed to go 
unchallenged.

______



[3]


Frontline,  Aug. 28 - Sep. 10, 2004

THE CHAINS OF PIRANA

by Dionne Bunsha
in Pirana

A Gujarat village that follows a Sufi-inspired faith, a blend of 
Islam and Hinduism, is in danger of being swamped by Hindu 
fundamentalism.

Pictures: By Special Arrangement

[Photo] The Pir Imam Shah Bawa dargah.

PIR IMAM SHAH BAWA's devotees are chained at the feet. They close 
their eyes and pray fervently while walking towards the Sufi saint's 
tomb, the Hajrat Pir Imam Shah Bawa Roza, in Pirana village, outside 
Ahmedabad. If the chain disentangles in the first few steps, it means 
that your prayer will be granted soon. If not, it is a sign that it 
will take some time. Today, the Pir's followers are entangled in a 
dispute that could threaten the existence of their faith.

Residents of Pirana still follow Imam Shah Bawa's teachings of love 
and harmony, a Sufi-inspired amalgam of Islam and Hinduism. But 
powerful religious heads close to the Sangh Parivar are trying to 
communalise their belief, reducing it to little more than a sect of 
Hinduism.

[Photo] Dholia, the "bedroom" of Imam, redecorated with pictures of Hindu gods.

In the heat of the conflict, the Koran, handwritten by the Pir, which 
used to lie near his tomb, mysteriously disappeared. Pir Imam Shah 
Bawa is believed to have founded the Satpanth (true path) faith 
around 600 years ago. He taught tolerance and the universality of 
religions.

The sect is an offshoot of Ismaili teachings, a liberal branch of 
Shiite Islam followed by the Aga Khani Khojas, and it attracted 
devotees from religions other than Hunduism and Islam too. All 18 
communities living in Pirana village, belonging to different castes 
and religions, are devotees of Imam Shah Bawa.

The shrine also attracts followers from different parts of India. 
Hindu followers, called `Satpanthis', comprise 85 per cent of the 
sect. Several of them are from the Kutchi Patel community. Muslim 
followers, called `Saiyeds', are considered to be the saint's direct 
descendents. The Pir's devotees did not define themselves as Hindu or 
Muslim until they were forced to do so by the British Census in the 
mid-19th century. The pressure of Islamic reforms and the rise of 
Hindu revivalist groups also made them adopt clearly defined 
religious identities.

[Photo] A barbed wire fence put up by the Satpanthi dargah 
administation to separate the Pir's tomb from the masjid.

After the death of the saint, a shrine was built over Imam Shah 
Bawa's tomb. Within the complex, they also built a Dholia at the spot 
where he used to sleep, a mosque and a graveyard. Until 1931, the 
complex was a private property belonging to the Saiyeds, and was 
administrated by the head of the Satpanthis called `Kaka', according 
to an article by researcher Dominique Sila-Khan. Some Satpanthis 
filed a case against the then Kaka Ramji Laxman (a Kutchi Patel) for 
misusing funds.

The court ordered that a public trust be set up to manage the 
property. The trust was to consist of seven Satpanthi and three 
Saiyed representatives elected every five years. But elections to the 
trust have not been held for the past 15 years. A conflict between 
the Satpanthis and the Saiyeds emerged when the last religious leader 
Karsan Das Kaka tried to Hinduise the belief. The dispute has 
resulted in a spate of legal battles.

IN the late 1980s, the Kaka made several changes to the literature, 
rituals and prayers, removing any hint of Islamic influence. When 
this writer visited the shrine, the guide appointed by the trust made 
it a point to keep telling her, "This is a Hindu samadhi mandir. It 
has no connection with Islam." "Our prayers had words like Om as well 
as Rehman and Rahim."

"The shrine administration has taken out the Islamic words. They are 
destroying the meaning of the philosophy," said Bharat Patel, a 
carpenter who lives in Pirana. He is also a Satpanthi, but resents 
the hijacking of the sect by a few powerful Kutchi Patels. "They are 
like a gang. It has become very political. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad 
(VHP), the Bajrang Dal and the police are with them. Anyone who 
questions them is taken to the police station. There is no meaning to 
the Satpanth anymore. It has become very casteist. In the gurukul, 
they only look after the children of Kutchi Patels, not others. I 
used to go to the shrine everyday. But since they have destroyed it 
all, I don't go there. We don't get any respect," says Bharat Patel.

In the post-Babri Masjid demolition fervour, the VHP allied with 
Karsan Kaka and the trustees to arrange a huge Sadhu Sammelan inside 
the dargah complex in 1993. They pledged to `re-convert' to Hinduism 
and change the shrine into a temple. The dargah was re-named `Prerna 
Pith' or `samadhi mandir'.

[Photo] The graveyard within the Pir Imam Shah Bawa dargah complex. 
Muslim devotees say that coconut trees have been planted at the spot 
to prevent them from using it as a burial site.

The Kaka discarded his old title and re-appointed himself `Maharaj' 
and `Acharya'. The trust cut off water and electricity supply to the 
masjid, saying that it was not part of the dargah complex. The `Om' 
symbol was painted all over the shrine. The Dholia was renovated with 
pictures of Hindu gods. The communal violence of 2002 further 
emboldened the VHP. Led by Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, an 
accused in the Naroda Patiya massacre (the worst mass murder in 
Gujarat), they stopped the traditional Tazia procession from the 
masjid to the dargah on the day of Moharram in January 2003.

Both Hindu and Muslim devotees participate in this procession. A 
barbed wire fence was built separating the masjid from the dargah. 
Two entrances to the dargah were sealed off. "In our village, there 
is no discrimination. Only they are creating it within the shrine," 
said Chandrakant Patel, a Pirana resident from the Kutchi Patel 
community. "We used to pray at both the masjid and the dargah. After 
they put up the fence, it has become difficult to walk across and 
pray in both. They blocked the route of the Tazia procession. Hindus 
and Muslims have not done Tazia for two years. They are doing this to 
harass us. They want to cut off the Saiyeds totally and gain full 
control."

Two copies of the Koran placed near the Pir's tomb mysteriously 
disappeared. One of them was handwritten by Imam Shah Bawa. Other 
Islamic books lying near the tomb were also removed. A wooden box 
with silver used during the Moharram procession also disappeared. 
Framed copies of a farman, a document from King Aurangzeb donating 45 
acres of land and money to the trust, also vanished. The original 
copy of this document is written on a silver plate, which is in the 
trust's possession. The 50-year-old tomb of Saiyed Taskdukhusain, a 
trustee, located near the dargah, was demolished completely.

[Photo] The religious head of Satpanthis, Nanakdas Kaka, who calls 
himself Guru Maharaj Jagatguru Satpanth Acharya.

Ironically, Saiyeds in Pirana who filed a case against the 
disappearance of these treasures were arrested for looting and sent 
to the Sabarmati Central Jail. What did they loot? Prasad from the 
temple - jaggery, sugar and coconuts. Every day, offerings from the 
dargah are supposed to be given to the Saiyeds. It is an old custom. 
But in 1998, the administration stopped the practice, in a move to 
further isolate the Saiyeds.

After an argument, they got the Saiyeds arrested for armed robbery. 
The present religious head, known as Nanakdas Kaka, who calls himself 
Guru Maharaj Jagatguru Satpant Acharya, denied that the missing 
documents or monuments ever existed. He told Frontline that the 
Satpanthi faith was a `Vedic religion', which had followers from 
various communities. When this writer asked him whether the shrine 
was a dargah or a mandir, he said, "Muslim followers call it dargah. 
It is a difference in language. But all donations are given by 
Hindus, not Muslims."

The dargah administration is adamant about discarding its 
600-year-old history. But many devotees would not let them forget the 
past. It would take a miracle to free the chains now binding Imam 
Shah Bawa's followers.



______



[3]

Outlook - Magazine | Sep 06, 2004

SAVARKAR
Out Of Kala Pani, Again
A controversial icon from the past has come to haunt the politics of 
to day. In Maharashtra, he may decide who rules in the coming 
elections.

by Saba Naqvi Bhaumik, Smruti Koppikar

"Hindustan must be looked upon both as a fatherland (pitribhu) and a 
holyland (punyabhu). Muslims and Christians cannot be incorporated 
into Hindutva because their holyland is in far off Arabia or 
Palestine. Their names and outlook smack of a foreign origin. Their 
love is divided."
-V.D. Savarkar in Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?, 1923

By the time Vinayak Damodar Savarkar died in his Shivaji Park home in 
Mumbai in 1966 at the ripe old age of 83, he had become something of 
a recluse, on the margins of Indian politics. In his lifetime, the 
Hindu Mahasabha leader could never live down the blot of being the 
main inspiration for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi.

But once the BJP captured power in Delhi in the late '90s, a 
systematic campaign began to give respectability to Savarkar, a 
brilliant but controversial figure, and place him on a pantheon of 
national icons equal to Gandhi, Nehru and Bose. The ongoing 
controversy over Savarkar stems from the fact that many Indians still 
refuse to hail him as a national hero.

But it's a statement on our times that Savarkar should be at the 
centre of a political storm that has led to repeated adjournments in 
Parliament and will cast a long shadow on the October 13 assembly 
elections in Maharashtra. The high-decibel battle between the 
BJP-Shiv Sena and the Congress is at its heart a tussle between 
competing ideas of Indian nationhood.

[...]
[Full text at URL: 
www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040906&fname=Cover+Story&sid=1

o o o


Outlook Magazine | Sep 06, 2004

THE MASTERMIND?
On January 30, '48, Godse went to Gandhi's prayer meet with 
Savarkar's blessings...
Rajesh Ramachandran

"Yashasvi hohun ya (Be successful and return)."
-V.D. Savarkar's parting shot, quoted in police records, to Gandhi 
assassin Nathuram Godse and co-conspirator Narayan Dattatreya Apte

Barely two km from Parliament House where the BJP has been stalling 
proceedings to defend Veer Savarkar's 'honour' is the newly built 
annexe of the National Archives of India. It contains hundreds of 
documents that link the Hindu right-wing icon to the country's most 
famous political murder. The dusty 'Gandhi murder trial papers' 
contain testimonies, police records and special branch reports which 
prove that Savarkar was not only close to Godse but also part of the 
conspiracy to kill the Mahatma.

In fact, he was among the eight accused who were tried for the 
Mahatma's assassination on January 30, 1948. Here is what the 
archival records, sourced by Outlook, reveal:

Savarkar was Godse's mentor:
Among the exhibits submitted to the special trial court is a letter 
Godse wrote to Savarkar on February 28, 1938. It clearly proves that 
the man who assassinated Gandhi knew Savarkar for years. Their 
guru-chela relationship was bonded by a common ideological belief in 
a Hindu rashtra.

Godse's lengthy missive was written after Savarkar became the Hindu 
Mahasabha president. To quote from Godse's letter: "Since the time 
you were released from your internment at Ratnagiri, a divine fire 
has kindled in the minds of those groups who profess that Hindustan 
is for the Hindus; and by reason of the pronouncement which you made 
upon accepting the presidentship of the Hindu Mahasabha confidence is 
felt that hope will materialise into a reality." Godse also mentioned 
that "we should have a National Volunteer Army" and 50,000 volunteers 
of the RSS were ready and waiting. Godse goes on to implore Savarkar 
to guide those fighting for the Hindu cause. Jamshed Nagarvala, 
deputy commissioner of police, special branch, Bombay, who conducted 
the investigations into the conspiracy, in his report noted, "Godse 
was devoted to Savarkar's political ideology since 1935.
He (Godse) opened the RSS branch in Ratnagiri in 1930."

Such was Godse's veneration for Savarkar that he put his portrait on 
his newspaper's masthead. Godse was the editor and the co-accused 
Apte was the manager of Hindu Rashtra Prakashan which brought out 
Agrani. Savarkar chipped in by "advancing" what was then a princely 
sum of Rs 15,000 to fund the paper.

Godse worked closely with Savarkar: A letter Godse wrote to Savarkar 
in 1946 establishes this. In it he talks of a Rs 1,000 cheque that 
Savarkar had got from Sheth Jugal Kishor Birla of Delhi. Savarkar had 
endorsed on it that the money be paid to Godse. The letter 
acknowledges the transaction.

According to police records, Godse and Apte were so close to Savarkar 
that both travelled with him on official tours. Their last trip 
together was in August 1947, five months before the murder. Though 
Savarkar strongly denied any hand in the conspiracy, he addressed the 
assassin respectfully as Pandit Nathuram in his statements to the 
police and during the trial.

Photocopy of the police crime report of the Gandhi killing case from 
the National Archives
[See URL: www.outlookindia.com/images/national_archives_docu_400_20040906.jpg ]

Savarkar knew of the plot to kill the Mahatma: DCP Nagarvala's crime 
report begins by recording the information passed on by Morarji 
Desai, the then home minister of Bombay Presidency. He had given 
Nagarvala details of the first attempt on the Mahatma's life on 
January 20. "I was told by the HM that he had received definite 
information that the attempt on the life of Mahatmaji on 20.1.48 was 
made by one Madanlal with his associates Karkare and others.... He 
also told me that Madanlal and Karkare had seen Savarkar immediately 
before their departure to Delhi to attempt on the life of Mahatmaji," 
Nagarvala says in his report.


The same day, Nagarvala got information that Savarkar was fully aware 
of the conspiracy.To quote from the report: "The source informed that 
it was at the direct instigation and instance of Savarkar that this 
conspiracy was hatched and plan prepared to take the life of 
Mahatmaji, and his pretense to be ill and out of politics was a mere 
cover.... Hence it was decided to immediately put a watch on the 
house of Savarkar."

Nagarvala also recorded that the chief conspirators had a "big 
following of disgruntled Punjabis and some followers of Savarkar 
belonging to a secret organisation in the RSS". This organisation, 
Hindu Rashtra Dal, was heavily influenced by Savarkar's ideology of 
militarisation of the Hindus. Savarkar in his statement to the court 
admitted that Apte, Godse and other conspirators were part of Dal. 
"There were several Hindu volunteer organisations to carry out the 
day-to-day programmes of the Hindu Sanghatan movement.... The Hindu 
Rashtra Dal is one of them". Savarkar stated he only "sympathised" 
with the Dal.

Savarkar's role in the assassination: The first attempt on the 
Mahatma was made on January 20 when Punjabi refugee Madanlal Pahwa 
exploded a gun cotton slab (an explosive) at Gandhi's prayer meeting 
at Birla House, New Delhi. He was arrested immediately. At 4 pm the 
next day, Dr Jagdish Chandra Jain of Ruia College, Bombay, who knew 
Madanlal, called on Bombay Presidency prime minister B.G. Kher. He in 
turn sent for home minister Morarji. "I went to his room. I saw there 
the hon'ble premier and a person who was introduced to me as Prof 
Jain.... He told us that he had read about the explosion incident in 
the newspapers as also the name of the person who had been arrested 
and that he had personal knowledge of the various matters relating to 
that person which he wanted to narrate to us," notes Morarji in his 
testimony.

According to Morarji, Jain knew about the plot: "He (Jain) then said 
that Madanlal had told him that he and his friends had decided to 
take the life of a great leader.... Madanlal then gave the name of 
Mahatma Gandhi.... He also told us that a friend of Madanlal with 
whom he was working at Ahmednagar had also been introduced by 
Madanlal to him as Karkare.... He then told us that Madanlal had told 
him that Karkare had taken him to Savarkar, that Savarkar had a talk 
with him for two hours and that Savarkar had praised him for what he 
had done...patted him on his back and...asked him to carry on his 
work."


Badge's crucial testimony: Nagarvala's investigations led to the 
arrest of Digamber Ramachandra Badge, the man who had supplied the 
gun cotton slab to Godse and others and which was used by Madanlal. 
Later, Bagde turned approver and became the prosecution's key 
witness. He told the court some startling facts about Savarkar's 
involvement in the assassination plot.

Badge was a Hindu Mahasabha worker who dealt in small arms. On 
January 9, Apte and Madanlal approached him for gun cotton slabs, 
hand-grenades and pistols. The next morning Apte took Badge to the 
Dal office to meet Godse. Orders were placed for two gun cotton 
slabs, five hand-grenades and two revolvers, and Badge was promised 
"any amount" on condition that he delivered the explosives in Bombay. 
Apte wanted delivery on January 14 at the Hindu Mahasabha office at 
Dadar. Badge told the police about the motive of the assassins. "Apte 
asked whether I was willing to accompany them to Delhi. I enquired 
for what purpose, whereupon Apte said that 'Tatyarao' meaning 
Savarkar decided that Gandhiji, Jawaharlal Nehru and Suhrawardhy 
should be finished and that this work had been entrusted to them."

Badge's next visit to Savarkar Sadan was on January 17. "Then Godse 
said that we all should go out and take a last darshan of Tatyarao.

Apte, Godse, Shankar and myself got into the taxi and drove to 
Savarkar Sadan at Shivaji Park.The taxi was made to stand at the 
junction of the road and the lane that leads to Savarkar Sadan, and 
we all four alighted and proceeded towards Savarkar Sadan, which is 
the second building from the junction.

"I was asked to remain downstairs where Appa Kasar and Damle were, 
and both of them, i.e., Apte and Godse went upstairs to take darshan 
of Savarkar. After five or 10 minutes, they both came down and as 
they were getting down the stairs, Savarkar followed them down the 
stairs and said to them 'Yeshasvi hohun ya (be successful and 
return)'. On the way back from Savarkar, Sadan Apte told Badge that, 
'Tatyarao had predicted that Gandhiji's 100 years were over.... ' 
This statement of Apte coupled with what I heard from Tatyarao 
confirmed my belief that what was being done had the approval and 
blessings of Savarkar." Godse and Apte flew to Delhi and Badge and 
Shankar, his help, reached Delhi on January 19 and went to the Hindu 
Mahasabha office where they met Gopal Godse, Karkare and Madanlal.

The plot was to ignite the gun cotton slab, create confusion, and 
then throw the grenades. Madanlal ignited the slab, but Badge and his 
help failed to throw the grenades. Now it appears that Godse and Apte 
might have first wanted to get the deed done by relatively unknown 
people. But the attempt failed, prompting Godse and Apte to do the 
job.

Why was Savarkar acquitted?: The first charge framed by the trial 
judge Atma Charan against all eight accused, including Savarkar, was 
that they had conspired to commit Gandhi's murder. Curiously, he 
convicted all others but let off Savarkar on the technical ground 
that there was no corroborative proof to confirm approver Badge's 
evidence.

Yet, the trial judge found Badge to be a trustworthy witness. He was 
examined and cross-examined for 10 days from July 20 to July 30, 
1948. "He gave his version of the facts in a direct and 
straightforward manner. He did not evade cross-examination or attempt 
to evade or fence any question." But, despite this, judge Atma Charan 
did not convict Savarkar because the prosecution case rested just on 
Badge's evidence.

That the conspirators had gone to Savarkar Sadan was well 
established. Film actress Shantabai Modak had deposed that she met 
Godse and Apte in the Poona Express and had dropped the duo opposite 
Savarkar Sadan on January 14. Similarly, taxi driver Aitappa Kotian 
told the court that on January 17, Godse and Apte got down from his 
taxi at Shivaji Park near Savarkar's house.

"The evidence of Miss Modak, which is supported by the admissions of 
the two prisoners, corroborates to an extent the statement of Badge," 
was how Justice G.D. Khosla, who wrote the judgement for the Simla 
High Court's full bench, confirming the conspiracy, put it. But the 
prosecution had not appealed against the trial judge's acquittal of 
Savarkar and hence that chapter was not reopened in the high court. 
Khosla had high praise for the approver who heard Savarkar wishing 
Godse success. "Badge has given a very full and detailed account of 
the circumstances leading to the occurrence and the occurrence 
itself.... I am of the opinion that the story narrated by him is 
substantially correct."

The Justice J.L. Kapur Commission findings: Twenty years after the 
assassination, the Justice Jivan Lal Kapur commission of inquiry 
found that Badge's evidence was being corroborated by Savarkar's 
bodyguard Appa Ramchandra Kasar and Gajanan Vishnu Damle. Justice 
Kapur's conclusion: "All these facts taken together were destructive 
of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his 
group."


______



[5]


Press Statement [by editors of Communalism Combat]

August 28, 2004 

[India] : Second attack on journalist in Maharsahtra

No action by the Maharashtra police
Editor of Aapla Mahanagar, Nikhil Wagle was Brutally attack today and 
narrowly escaped being burnt alive when a group of Shiv Saniks 
inspired by the Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Mr. Narayan Rane 
assaulted him and two others at Malvan in Konkan-the western cost of 
Maharashtra today August 28, 2004  

The attack took place at about 8.15 am. Mr. Wagle's colleague Mr. 
Yuvraj Mohite and Mr. Pramod Nigudkar were also seriously injured 
until the time we are releasing the statement (2 pm on Saturday) No 
action is been taken on the attackers by the Malvan Police. Mr. Wagle 
and his colleague were attack after conducting a workshop for local 
activists yesterday.

Mr. Wagle and his colleague have refused any treatment until those 
responsible for the attack have been apprehended.

The attack on Mr. Wagle is the second serious attempted on the lives 
of the journalist in Maharashtra. Only four days ago, on Tuesday 
August 24 Mr. Sajid Rashid, editor of Hamara Mahanagar was brutally 
attacked
Muslim fanatics attack editor, Sajid Rashid

Since early July, a notoriously communal Mumbai daily, Urdu Times, 
has been carrying out a hate campaign Against Mr. Rashid and repeated 
representation to the Mumbai Police Commission, Mr. A N Roy on July 
20, 2004 and then again on 17/18 August of 2004 no action is been 
action has been taken the Mumbai Police against those who attack Mr 
Sajid Rashid. Mr. Rashid was stabbed brutally on his back by two 
attackers around 10 p.m. on August 24, 2004. He is no recuperating in 
the hospital.

We urge you to protest strongly against the attack and put pressure 
on the Maharashtra government to arrest those guilty of the attack as 
well as those who insight persons into such violence.

MSD is being targeted because it has asked for an end to the 
obnoxious triple talaq (instant divorce) system and gender justice 
apart raising other issues for discussion within the Muslim community.

The office bearers of MSD include Javed Akhtar (poet and lyricist),

Hasan Kamal (former editor, Urdu Blitz, columnist and lyricist), 

Sajid Rashid (editor, Hindi eveninger, Hamara Mahanagar and 
chairperson, Maharashtra State Urdu Academy) and Javed Anand 
(co-editor, Communalism Combat).

While attacking MSD as an organisation, Urdu Times has made a special 
target of Sajid Rashid who is the most vulnerable as he lives in the 
heart of a Muslim predominant locality in Mumbai. Rashid as 
chairperson of the Urdu Academy has organised a seminar in Mumbai in 
June 2004 at which some issues raised were unnecessarily raked up to 
provide grounds for the instigation.

On July 20, 2004, a delegation of MSD members, journalists-cum-human 
rights activists like Teesta Setalvad and Nikhil Wagle and 
Maharashtra Urdu Writers Association, met the Mumbai police 
commissioner, AN Roy, to demand immediate action against Urdu Times 
for inciting violence.

A written memorandum handed over by the delegation clearly told the 
police commissioner that we had serious apprehensions of physical 
attack and therefore the police must initiate immediate action to 
restrain the police.

On August 16, 2004 Sajid Rashid filed a personal complaint with the 
Dongri police station, to say among other things that he feared he 
was being followed. On August 17, the police commissioner was 
apprised of the latest development and his intervention urged.

Its shocking, to say the least, that the Mumbai police did nothing to 
restrain the Urdu Times and on the night of August 24, a murderous 
attack was launched on Rashid. Fortunate to have survived, Rashid is 
recuperating at KEM Hospital in Mumbai. But the Mumbai police must 
account for its inaction and the license that it has given to the 
Urdu Times to preach murder.

For full details [...] Javed Anand [...] or Teesta Setalvad [...]
[E-mail: Sabrang at vsnl.com]


o o o o

[See News Report

Nikhil Wagle attacked in Malvan
Mid-Day India August 28,2004
URL: web.mid-day.com/news/city/2004/august/91074.htm

_____



[6]


[ Mosque blasts in Maharashtra | See URL:
www.telegraphindia.com/1040828/asp/nation/story_3687131.asp ]


o o o


IMC-USA condemns the bomb attacks on mosques in Maharashtra, demands 
immediate action

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 28, 2004

Indian Muslim Council-USA, an advocacy group of Indian Muslims in the 
United States dedicated to safeguarding the democratic and pluralist 
ethos of India, condemns the bomb attacks on mosques that has 
resulted in grievous injuries to many Muslim worshipers in Jalna and 
Poorna towns of central Maharashtra, India. IMC-USA is concerned over 
the news reports of negligence and anti-Muslim bias shown by the 
police after these bomb attacks.

IMC-USA praises the restraint shown by the Muslims of Marhatwada and 
appeals to all Muslims to continue to observe the Islamic principle 
of exercising restraint and patience in reaction to this incident and 
to avoid rushing to judgment.

Rasheed Ahmed, Vice President of IMC-USA, called on the Indian 
government to launch a full-scale investigation into this atrocity 
and to leave no stone unturned in bringing the perpetrators to 
justice. IMC-USA also demands monetary compensation for the victims 
of this violence. He pointed out that the bomb attacks seemed to be 
an attempt to start sectarian violence just before the elections to 
polarize the electorate as was done by Hindutva-fascists in the state 
of Gujarat in the recent past. He appealed to the religious and 
secular leadership in India to be vigilant against such nefarious 
attempts. "The moderate leadership of all religious communities must 
come forward to keep the situation calm as they did after last year's 
Bombay bomb blasts," said Ahmed.

The state of Maharashtra has experienced a frighteningly large amount 
of anti-minority violence in the past few decades. It has also 
frequently failed to take action against the perpetrators of such 
violence when it was directed against the minorities, and has been 
indifferent to their inducements. The most blatant example of such 
government inaction has been in ignoring the recommendations of the 
SriKrishna Commission report on the 1992-93 anti-Muslim pogroms in 
Mumbai. Indian media is now reporting the fact that 1358 riot-related 
cases were unlawfully closed and that the police department had 
passively permitted the violence and was involved in suppressing 
evidence and sabotaging investigation.

IMC-USA requests that the Indian government start looking into the 
proliferation of extremist and militant Hindutva groups like the 
Hindustani Suicide Squads. It should enforce control on the weapons 
(trishul) distribution campaigns by Hindutva militants.

IMC-USA calls on the Indian government to implement a long term plan 
to combat the growth of religious hatred. The plan should give top 
priority to cutting off the financial and human lifelines of the 
extremists. The Indian government should take up with the US 
government the issue of fundraising activities of the 
Hindutva-fascism fronts in the US. These funds are being used for 
running indoctrination camps for the youth and in sponsoring the 
violence against minorities. It is imperative for the Indian 
Government to recognize the potential of such groups in increasing 
communal violence. The recent Human Rights Watch report on India, the 
Foreign Exchange of Hate report and the US state department report 
have shed light on the ideological and financial contributions of 
these and similar groups in spreading hostility towards Indian 
minorities.

IMC-USA believes that a thorough investigation and strong action is 
required against those involved in this heinous act of bombing a 
place of worship during a religious gathering. This would demonstrate 
that the current Indian government intends to carry out its election 
promises about suppressing communalism.

CONTACT:

M. K. Rahman
Secretary General, IMC-USA
265 Sunrise Highway, #1-355
Rockville Center, NY 11570

[...].


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

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