SACW | 14 Sep 2004
sacw
aiindex at mnet.fr
Mon Sep 13 20:46:02 CDT 2004
South Asia Citizens Wire Dispatch | 14 September, 2004
via: www.sacw.net
=======
[1] Pakistan: Campaign against Hudood Ordinance:
HR groups, NGOs want 'black laws' repealed (Waqar
Gillani)
[2] Bangladesh: Humayun Azad - A Truncated Life
(Mustafa Zaman and Ahmede Hussain)
[3] New Additions on www.sacw.net
India: Innovation in Media Censorship: Gujarat
Experiment of Mini Emergency (Digant Oza)
India: Mushhars: Tales of untold miseries (V.B.Rawat)
[India's National Anthem] Are we still singing
for the Empire? (Pradip Kumar Datta)
Veer of a Different Kind - Footsoldiers in Search of an Icon (Subhash Gatade)
[4] India : Religion Con-Census Statistics and Lies of the Hindu far right
- India: Manufacturing Hysteria - On
Census-Inspired 'Nationalism' (S. Subramainian
and S. Jayaraj)
- Of Figures and Indian Fascists (J. Sri Raman)
- Census Follies (Editorial, The Hindu)
- BJP's census itch: there's a 247 yr hitch (Shankar Raghuraman)
[5] India: Caught in historical cliches (Praful Bidwai)
[6] India: Letter to the Editor (Mukul Dube)
[7] India: Rajasthan: Hindu right inciting
violence by tribals against Muslims (T.k.
Rajalakshmi)
[8] India: Why Repeal POTA? (Mukul Dube)
[9] Upcoming Film Screenings and Lectures in Montreal
- Rakesh Sharma's Final Solution (26 Sept)
- Sumit Sarkar speaking on "Secularism in a
Globalizing India" (6 October) and "Democratic
Politics as Majoritarian Tyranny or Minority
Protection -- lessons from India's post-colonial
history" (7 October)
- Shireen Pasha's The Life And Times of A Lady From Awadh -- Hima Remembers
--------------
[1]
Daily Times - September 11, 2004
CAMPAIGN AGAINST HUDOOD ORDINANCE: HR GROUPS, NGOS WANT 'BLACK LAWS' REPEALED
* Demand govt repeal bill in assembly
* JAC plans more rallies in major cities
By Waqar Gillani
LAHORE: The Joint Action Committee (JAC) and the
Women's Action Forum (WAF) held a demonstration
on Tuesday demanding the government repeal all
discriminatory laws, especially the Hudood
Ordinance.
The demonstrators carried placards inscribed with
slogans 'Black laws should go', 'Repeal Hudood
Ordinance' and 'Mullah-ism Murdabad'. They
marched from Lakshmi Chowk and dispersed
peacefully near The Mall.
JAC leaders Hina Jilani, Tahseen Ahmed and Farooq
Tariq addressed the demonstration. They said the
unjustice being done in the name of the Hudood
Ordinance was unbearable. They said that the law
had badly affected society. "The Hudood Ordinance
and other discriminatory laws have not only given
a bad name to our religion, but defamed Pakistan
in the world," they said, declaring Hudood laws
"purely un-Islamic". They also demanded the
abolition of Qisas and Diat laws, the blasphemy
law and other discriminatory laws against women
and minorities. They said the JAC, the WAF and
other liberal and secular forums would not give
up these demands.
Ms Jilani told Daily Times that the JAC had
started a signature campaign against the laws.
"The government should not try to hide itself
behind the curtain of the Council of Islamic
Ideology and should move a Hudood Ordinance
repeal bill in the National Assembly
immediately," she said.
Ms Jilani said that 18 of 22 sections of the law
were complicated and vague. She said there was no
need to amend the law; it should be repealed. She
said that opposition and treasury
parliamentarians had admitted that the law should
go but their political ties were not allowing
them to say so openly. She said their struggle
would continue until the laws were repealed. She
said the Council of Islamic Ideology could not
decide the issue because the repeal of the laws
had become a public issue. "This law is so wrong
that no council can make it right."
Asma Jahangir, human rights activist and special
rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights,
predicted that the government would not keep its
word and debate the laws in the National
Assembly. "The person who believes General Pervez
Musharraf's words is a fool or mad," she said.
Ms Jahangir said their protest campaign would
continue until the repeal of the laws. She said
that the abuse of the Hudood Ordinance and its
negative points were being discussed openly in
society.
JAC Convener Shah Taj Qizilbash said many women
parliamentarians supported the JAC's cause. She
urged civil society and people to support the
empowerment of women by asking the government to
repeal the law. Peter Jacob of the National
Commission for Justice and Peace said the Hudood
and Blasphemy laws were harming minorities
because the laws were part of criminal laws.
Mr Jacob said that no minority judge, lawyer or
witness was eligible to hear, plead and speak
respectively for a person being tired under the
Hudood Ordinance. "The best solution according to
our opinion is to repeal the law altogether," he
said. He demanded a marriage law allowing people
of all religions to marry according to their will.
Neelam Hussain of Simorgh, an NGO, also called the Hudood Ordinance a bad law.
The JAC and the WAF also announced rallies and
demonstrations 18 Punjab districts in this month
to raise their demand of repealing the
discriminatory laws.
______
[2]
The Daily Star - Magazine - September 1, 2004
HUMAYUN AZAD - A TRUNCATED LIFE
by Mustafa Zaman and Ahmede Hussain
http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2004/09/01/cover.htm
______
[3]
New additions on www.sacw.net:
- INDIA: INNOVATION IN MEDIA CENSORSHIP: GUJARAT EXPERIMENT OF MINI EMERGENCY
by Digant Oza
http://www.sacw.net/Gujarat2002/DigantOzaSept2004.html
INDIA: MUSHHARS: TALES OF UNTOLD MISERIES
by V.B.Rawat (www.sacw.net | September 10, 2004)
http://www.sacw.net/Nation/vbrawat10sep2004.html
[INDIA'S NATIONAL ANTHEM] ARE WE STILL SINGING FOR THE EMPIRE?
by Pradip Kumar Datta (www.sacw.net | September 8, 2004)
http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/pkDatta092004.html
VEER OF A DIFFERENT KIND - FOOTSOLDIERS IN SEARCH OF AN ICON
by Subhash Gatade (www.sacw.net | September 6, 2004)
http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/gatade06092004.html
______
[4] [ India : Religion Con-Census Statistics and
Lies of the Hindu far right ]
http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/SubramaniumJayaraj9sept04.html
www.sacw.net | September 9, 2004
INDIA: MANUFACTURING HYSTERIA - ON CENSUS-INSPIRED 'NATIONALISM'
A Letter by S. Subramainian and S. Jayaraj
It only remains to hope that the damage can be
undone. In a matter of such extreme (and
misplaced) sensitivity as is routinely evoked by
statistics on the growth of population by
religious groups, it is amazing that the Census
of India should have gone out of its way to
present a wrong picture by including the Jammu
and Kashmir population figures for 2001 when that
state was excluded from the Census count of 1991.
When the necessary correction is made, the
spectre of a Hindu majority being swamped by a
Muslim minority looms (or should loom) less
menacingly on the horizon of 'nationalists' of a
certain persuasion. Between 1991 and 2001, the
share of Hindus in the national population has
declined from 82 per cent to 80.96 per cent (and
not 80.5 per cent as reported by the Census); the
proportion of Muslims has risen from 12.12 per
cent to 12.90 per cent (and not 13.4 per cent as
reported by the Census); and the proportion of
Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and those of
'other religions and persuasions' has risen from
5.88 per cent to 6.14 per cent (and these groups
must therefore, presumably, share a part of the
blame for edging the Hindus out of the picture by
all of 1.04 percentage points). Further, in
comparing rates of growth of the population over
the decadal periods 1981-91 and 1991-2001, the
state of Assam (where no census was conducted in
1981) should also be removed from the picture
across the board. With this correction, it
emerges that the rate of growth of the Hindu
population has declined from 22.77 per cent over
1981-91 to 20.02 per cent over 1991-2001 (in
contrast to the decline from 25.1 per cent to
20.4 per cent as reported in the Census); and the
corresponding rates of growth of the Muslim
population have been 32.86 per cent and 29.33 per
cent respectively (compatible with a decline
rather than an increase as reported by the
Census). This ought to comfort the
'nationalists', but will not, for one is here
dealing with a mentality that is never so unhappy
as when it cannot manufacture 'anti-national'
threats with which to hysterically whip itself
into action.
There is a much larger picture that deserves our
attention here. There is little in the Census (or
other official data sources) to provoke a
reaction that is either sanguine or sanguinary.
Yet, the recently vanquished authors of the
cheerful `India Shiningí campaign continue to be
optimistic about all the depressing information
which the Census and allied sources of
socio-economic data contain within their covers,
while apparently being prepared to be
blood-thirsty over wrongly recorded statistics on
a matter which, to begin with, is of
inconsequential significance in any reasoned
appraisal of the state of the nation. The media
-- or a substantial enough section of it -- must
take a large part of the responsibility for this
state of affairs. For the alacrity with which the
misleading statistics in the recent Census
publication has been seized upon, and broadcast,
and hammered home, serves as a remarkable
contrast to the equanimity with which
incalculably more pressing issues thrown up by
the Census and other data sources have been
ignored.
In this connection, it is not incompatible with a
proper concern for oneís country to occasionally
delve into the Census and other official sources
of data, whose contents should be a cause for
serious worry about the sex ratio and the reasons
for its secular decline (to what extent [if any]
could it be due to reduced pregnancy waste and to
what extent to sex-selective abortion?)
Nationalists should not feel apologetic about
submitting official statistics on poverty to
serious scrutiny, or about analyzing data which
suggest that this country has in recent times
been transformed into a 'Republic of Hunger', to
employ Utsa Patnaik's appellation. Nor is there
any dearth of information on the levels and
distribution of illfare occasioned by the
pathetic state of infrastructure development in
the matter of potable water, sanitation, energy
for fuel, electricity, roads, schools, public
health centers. Is the unemployment situation
such as to warrant complaisance ó any more, that
is, than what is afforded by neglect of the
agricultural sector, rural indebtedness, farmer
suicides, the incidence of child labour, the
prevalence of wasting and stunting among
children, and a host of related phenomena which
the Census and other sources should reveal to the
interested reader? Is it not more urgent for
nationalists, even if not for 'nationalists', to
display some concern for the changing age
structure of the Indian population, to take some
heart from improved longevity, to worry about
social security provisioning for a graying
population? Is there a case for looking at Census
data with a view to studying the patterns of
urbanization and migration which obtain and the
implications these have for livelihoods and
security? The point, one hopes, needs no further
labouring.
To return to the source of the present hysteria:
what if the Census data were correct? Would that
constitute any remote justification for the
vulgar fuss it has unleashed when there is so
much to worry about that does not even get a look
in? Is it necessary to state all over again that
fertility is an increasing function of
deprivation, and that lowering its level calls
for curing the condition of generalized poverty
rather than punishing the victim? Does it need
reiteration that group-related data -- whether
the partitioning of the population is on the
basis of age or gender or sector of residence or
caste or religion -- serve as a basis for
identifying which groups are lagging behind, and
by how much, so that targeted corrective
assistance may be provided to the affected
groups? How often must it be put out that
socio-economically relevant classificatory schema
are a means to integration, not divisiveness?
The unhappy fact is that illicit dramatizations
of misrepresented statistics today are compatible
with demands for ethnic cleansing tomorrow.
Intellectually, morally, and politically, this
sort of manufactured hysteria and diversionary
violence must be strongly and uncompromisingly
resisted. While expressing solidarity with them,
we also call upon the overwhelming majority of
persons and institutions who think thus, to rebut
the nonsense that is being sought to be thrust
upon the country in the name of love for it.
o o o o
www.truthout.org
12 September 2004
OF FIGURES AND INDIAN FASCISTS
By J. Sri Raman
We have heard of chemical warfare, the kind
witnessed in the U.S. defoliation campaign in
Vietnam. Of biological warfare, which the
U.S. Government waged by donating
smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans
long before the advent of anthrax terrorism. Not,
however, of population warfare.
It has been left to the fascists of India to
discover this new dimension to unconventional
warfare. And they see in it the cunning,
conspiratorial strategy of their main enemy - the
country's religious minorities. It has taken only
a single mis-statement of a census official to
revive this pet theme of "Hindu nationalists" (a
misleading, self-conferred title).
The Indian media have, for a week now, been
full of the cries of alarm raised by the far
Right over the alleged findings of the first ever
religion-based census report by the official
Census Commission of India. The Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), licking its wounds after losing the
general election four months ago, has pounced
upon the findings to launch a high-decibel
campaign in defense of an allegedly endangered
majority.
On September 6, Census Commissioner J. K.
Banthia released in New Delhi the Census 2001
report, along with a rank misinterpretation of
the findings. Almost instantly, all hell broke
loose. The allegation that the official was
striking a blow for the BJP may appear unfair. He
could not have done better, however, if he were.
The report put the growth rate of Muslims at
36 per cent in 1991-2001, a 1.5 per cent rise
over the previous 1991 census. The data indicated
the Muslims were multiplying faster than in any
decade since the country's independence in 1947
and more than any other community.
Correspondingly, said Banthia, the growth rate
for Hindus had come down by five per cent to 20.5
per cent. The growth rate for Christians had,
according to the report, gone up by over one per
cent to 22.6 per cent.
Cold figures? You must have seen them inflame
fascist passions. "This is a disturbing
development", declared BJP president Venkaiah
Naidu. "This imbalance is unhealthy for the unity
and integrity of the country." The rest of what
the far Right, in a mafia-like metaphor, calls
'parivar' ('family'), joined in. The Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the patriarch of the
'parivar', took a longer-term and larger view.
"The Hindus will be reduced to less than of the
subcontinent's population by 2050", said its
spokesperson Ram Madhav, making it clear that the
RSS was not happy with the Muslim growth rate in
neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh, either!
It was left, however, to the Vishwa Hindu
Parshad (VHP), the most vicious member the
'parivar', to spell out the peril they all saw in
the census findings. Chinubhai Patel, a VHP
leader in Gujarat (where the 'parivar' carried
out its famous anti-Muslim pogrom in 2002),
warned in all seriousness: "The (Muslim)
community is conspiring to convert Hindu 'rajya'
(state) into a Muslim country''!
The BJP-'parivar' scare campaign against a
Muslim "swamping" of the country is pre-dates by
at least two decades. The minority is supposed to
be advancing towards this objective by two
methods. The Muslims, in the first place, are
accused of breeding faster than the Hindus by
avoiding birth control under the influence of
Islamic laws and leadership. The second method is
what Naidu calls "demographic invasion" (which
comes pretty close to "population warfare"). The
Bangladeshi "infiltration" - never "illegal
immigration" or anything else of politically
innocent import - has intensified the threat of
numbers that the "Hindu nation" faces, screams
the entire BJP-led bloc.
The census figures even of the flawed set,
which the campaigners do not care to quote, show
up the ludicrousness of their logic. Of the total
Indian population of 1.028 billion at the time of
the census, the Hindus totaled 827 million and
80.5 of the population. The Muslims numbered 138
million, comprising 13.4 per cent of the
population. The next in size were the Christians
(24 million or 2.3 per cent). Census data since
1951, the year of the first Indian head-count,
suggest that the Muslim population increases by
about one per cent every decade.
Experts have pointed out that, at the same
rate, it will take three centuries for India to
become a Muslim-majority country! No grave
emergency for the 'Hindu nation', surely, as a
hysterical 'parivar' and hundreds of its websites
made it appear on the morrow of the report's
release.
The figures, in any case, have turned out to
be fudged. The commission was confronted with the
fact that the census 2001 included India's only
Muslim-majority State of Jammu and Kashmir,
excluded in the 1991 exercise, and the
Northeastern State of Assam, excluded in 1981.
After two days of mounting tensions, the
commission came out with "adjusted" figures,
which told a different story altogether.
They show that that the growth rate of the
Hindu population has declined from 22.77 per cent
over 1981-91 to 20.02 per cent over 1991-2001,
and that of the Muslim population from 32.86 per
cent to 29.33 per cent. In other words, the
decline in the population growth rate has been
greater for the much-maligned Indian Muslims.
The clarification should have ended the
controversy. But it could not have. The fascists
trying to force their way back into political
reckoning cannot do without the windfall issue.
BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley has objected to
exclusion of the Assam figures in the process of
"adjustment". He argues that the border State is
the main recipient of Bangladeshi infiltrators,
though the number of the immigrants here can make
no serious difference to the demographic picture.
Loudmouth VHP leader Praveen Togadia has
threatened to take the matter to the court.
Facts have not stopped fascist campaigns and
campaigners. Figures are not going to stop them,
either.
o o o o
The Hindu - September 13, 2004
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/09/13/stories/2004091302871000.htm
Editorials
CENSUS FOLLIES
FALSEHOODS AND TENDENTIOUS allegations are a dime
a dozen in politics. It is hardly surprising that
statistics - this time in the form of the First
Report on Religion Data of Census 2001 - have
become a weapon in the hands of political parties
with a divisive agenda. Naturally, the Bharatiya
Janata Party is not going to be mollified by the
explanation that the growth of the Muslim
population by 36 per cent over the last decade
was the function of a gross methodological
goof-up: Census 2001, unlike Census 1991,
included Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir but
the growth rates were released without making the
adjustments every numerate undergraduate knows is
elementary! The adjusted data (after leaving out
Assam also since it was not part of the 1981
Census) show that the growth of the Muslim
population has decelerated from 32.9 per cent
during 1981-1991 to 29.3 per cent during
1991-2001. But communal formations will still
point to the higher fertility rate of Indian
Muslims and try and conjure up over-the-top
scenarios of Hindus becoming a minority and
Muslims the majority in India at some point in
the future. Actually, demographers expect the
population to stabilise soon and the proportion
of Muslims in India to settle around 14 per cent
as fertility rates for all groups are on the
decline. Those who predict a Muslim-majority
India in about another 100 years on the basis of
the current growth rates of different groups fail
to mention that in such a scenario, the country
will have no standing space for its people.
At the centre of this debate is the salience and
usefulness of religion as a key category for
understanding demographic patterns. True, in the
mass of census data there are other linkages such
as those between female literacy and population
growth. The data establish a negative
relationship between an increase in female
literacy and population growth for all religious
groups. But the decision to release religion-wise
data without taking into consideration other
socio-economic parameters such as income
disparities and social backwardness unwisely
played into the hands of those who were waiting
to make a tendentious use of data to serve
disintegrative ends. Indeed the unseemly haste
shown in releasing the religion-wise data is in
contrast to the unexplained delay in providing
access to data relating to age, distribution of
workforce, and education levels (going beyond
literacy). The release of religion-wise growth
rates without making elementary adjustments for
the exclusion of Jammu and Kashmir in the 1991
Census speaks poorly of the competence and
professionalism of the Office of the Census
Commissioner.
This also raises questions whether such key
data-gathering institutions are beginning to lose
their autonomy and whether they are being
manipulated by vested interests. Another dubious
aspect of this episode is the attempt to present
the proportion of children in the 0 to 6 year age
group in the population of different religious
groups as a proxy for the fertility rate. Data on
the child-woman ratio, a much better measure of
the fertility rate, are readily available in the
census. It makes little sense for the proportion
of children in the population of religious groups
to be culled out as an indicator of the fertility
rate. Regional imbalances in development, rather
than religion-specific causes, might hold greater
explanatory value for demographic variations
among different religious groups. Surely,
religion is only one among several categories
that can aid in the understanding of demographic
patterns. By treating Hindus and Muslims as
monolithic groups, the Office of the Census
Commissioner has inexplicably sidelined
fundamental socio-economic categories and factors
that every demographer knows to be the key to a
study of demographic patterns and change.
o o o o
BJP'S CENSUS ITCH: THERE'S A 247 YR HITCH
By Shankar Raghuraman (Times of India - Sept 10 2004 )
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/845575.cms
______
[5]
Frontline, Volume 21 - Issue 19, Sept. 11 - 24, 2004
CAUGHT IN HISTORICAL CLICHES
Praful Bidwai
The Sangh Parivar's tirades against textbook
reform reek of obscurantist communalism and its
glorification of Savarkar legitimises his
pioneering of the Two-Nation theory and poisonous
Hindutva. History-writing cannot become a
handmaiden to such sectarian agendas; its
independence and dignity must be restored.
FULL TEXT at: URL: http://www.flonnet.com/fl2119/stories/20040924003210100.htm
______
[6] LETTER TO THE EDITOR
D-504 Purvasha
Mayur Vihar 1
Delhi 110091
10 September 2004
Truly the BJP shows wisdom befitting the upholder of ancient traditions,
undisturbed by matters which it knows to be petty and transient. Having
made a mockery of the country's democratic set-up by not debating the
Finance Bill in Parliament, it now calls for "a national debate" on
encouraging the two-child norm regardless of religious considerations.
Since we know which group reproduces wantonly -- recall Narendra Modi's
famous description of refugee camps as breeding factories -- we may
describe this as the party's Fifty-Year Plan to keep the country from
being swamped by Muslims.
The BJP also describes the inquiry ordered into the Godhra rail coach
fire as "malevolent". Nowhere do the terms of reference of the inquiry
indicate "a perverse motive to prove that the victims themselves set
the train on fire". Should we conclude, then, that the BJP bases this
accusation on its own suspicions, or perhaps on its own knowledge?
Arun Jaitley pops up to say that the moving of cases outside Gujarat
does not reflect on the administration of justice in that state - and
tells us how cases to do with Jayalalitha(a) were moved out of Tamil
Nadu. Will this eminence trouble to say whether anything in the past
has even come close to the stinging indictment which the Supreme
Court of India sent in the direction of Gujarat?
Mukul Dube
______
[7]
Frontline - Sept. 11 - 24, 2004
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2119/stories/20040924002903400.htm
[Rajasthan] A COMMUNAL PLOT
T.k. Rajalakshmi
in Udaipur
The violence by tribal people against Muslims in
Rajasthan, apparently at the instigation of Sangh
Parivar organisations, stops short of developing
into a full-fledged communal conflagration.
HISTORY has it that the tribal communities of the
Mewar region in Rajathan have mostly coexisted
peacefully with others barring the colonial
rulers and the feudal landlords. The exploits of
Motilal Tejawat (1886-1963), who first raised the
banner of rebellion against the economic and
social exploitation of the Bhil tribal people and
later took on the British and their feudal
vassals in the region, are legendary. He was
suspected to be a Bolshevik by the colonial
masters, who along with the feudal lords set up
the Mewar Bhil Sena to crush the rebellion led by
him. Unfortunately, Tejawat's battle cries
against feudalism and colonialism no longer echo
in the Mewar region, where a different kind of
mobilisation is under way - to pit the tribal
people against certain minority communities.
PICTURES: T.k. Rajalakshmi
Gaffar Mohammad's grocery shop which was
ransacked during the violent incidents on July 30.
About 70 km from the district centre of Udaipur
lies Sarada tehsil. Around 300 Muslim families
live in Sarada, apart from Hindus who form the
majority of the population. The Bhils live on the
hills surrounding Sarada. Importantly, the Bhils,
the Garasias and the Gametis were the original
landowners in Udaipur. Gradually they retreated
into the hills, to a life of hardship, after
their lands were taken over by non-tribal people,
mainly caste-Hindus.
On July 29, a quarrel between two persons in
Sarada, one a tribal person and the other a
Muslim, developed into a major crisis, which was
only solved with the intervention of the police.
Even the quarrel, between Ashfaq alias Guddu and
Shanti Lal Meena, was not a coincidence.
According to informed sources in the
administration, Meena had been provoking Guddu
for almost a month. He and a few others often
picked up quarrels with Guddu. Behind the
instigation of Meena lay the hand of some
influential traders belonging to the Jain
community. On July 29, too, Meena picked up a
quarrel with Guddu and beat him. Guddu chased
Meena, but failed to capture him. Later Guddu
confronted Madan Lal Jain, a diesel and petrol
dealer, who he thought was instigating Meena to
harm him. After a heated exchange, Guddu
allegedly set afire the barrels of diesel.
Retribution followed. A mob burnt down Guddu's
auto parts kiosk and three other cabins. It is
learnt that the police's attempts to arrest Meena
were foiled by the mob. That night and throughout
next morning drum beats sounded all around
Sarada. Meghraj Tawar, a former MLA and a
Communist Party of India leader, told Frontline
that the practice of "dhol bajana" was usually
done when the tribal people perceived that they
faced extreme danger. The notion that they were
in extreme danger was conveyed to the tribal
people in the interiors and rumours were spread
on the night of July 29 that bodies of Bhils were
lying in the bazaar. It was learnt that the
Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, a Rashtriya Swayamsewak
Sangh (RSS) outfit operating in the tribal areas,
was active in spreading the word. A full-fledged
attack was being prepared. The target was the 300
Muslim families in the tehsil.
Sattar Mohammad stands in front of his store which was looted and set on fire.
On the morning of July 30, a meeting, attended by
the Bharatiya Janata Party's district president
Tarachand Jain, was held in a hostel for tribal
students despite Section 144 being in force in
the area. According to informed sources in the
administration, Tarachand Jain did little to
pacify the crowd. The BJP Member of Parliament,
Mahaveer Bhagora, who belongs to a tribal
community, too did nothing to control the tribal
people. The police, in fact, requested the two
leaders to persuade the mob to leave. When this
correspondent spoke to Tarachand Jain later, he
feigned a loss of memory about the sequence of
events.
By noon, a 2,000-strong armed group had been
mobilised. Earlier, the police, under political
pressure, had confiscated all licensed weapons
with the minority community. Since it was a
Friday, Muslim men had gone to the mosque for the
jumah prayers when the mob gathered near the
locality. As the mob advanced, it burnt down some
shops owned by members of the minority community.
However, the police, led by Superintendent of
Police R.P. Meharda, was determined not to let
the mob enter the town. About eight persons
sustained minor injuries when the police opened
fire to disperse the crowd. Meanwhile, some
members of the Muslim community fired, in an act
of self-defence, at some people who managed to
enter their locality. Asks Tarachand Jain: "Where
was the need for self-defence when the police
were already there? And how come some firing
occurred from Muslim homes when the S.P. had
apparently confiscated all the weapons? Not one
single Muslim was killed."
Informed sources confirmed that a massacre had
been averted, thanks to the timely intervention
of the police. Even nature helped, as a heavy
downpour played a role in dispersing the mob. In
the mob were members of the Hindu Jagran Manch,
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang
Dal. While Tarachand Jain maintained that the mob
was armed with only sticks, informed sources in
the Police Department confirmed that it carried
all "kinds of weapons". According to Tarachand
Jain, there were not more than 500 people in the
mob; according to police sources, there were
around 2,000. In fact, it is believed that had
the BJP district president and the MP not held
the meeting at the hostel, the situation would
not have turned volatile. Administration
officials also believe that the tribal people
were systematically instigated as a group against
a "particular community" owing to economic and
other rivalries. "They are being used as a group
to fight the minorities," said an informed source.
On July 31, Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand
Kataria went to Sarada but did not visit the
Muslim homes. Sarada residents said that Kataria,
who represents the Udaipur Assembly constituency,
made provocative remarks while in Sarada. The
Opposition Congress legislator Raghuveer Singh
Meena, who represents the Sarada Assembly
constituency, accompanied the Home Minister, he
too did not bother to visit the members of the
minority community. The Muslim houses were
searched and police personnel allegedly threw out
household articles.
Soon after, Meharda was transferred to Jaipur and
posted as the Deputy Director of the Rajasthan
Police Academy. The government move demoralised
the police force and for two days police
personnel in the district reportedly observed a
silent protest by boycotting the mess. Said an
officer requesting anonymity: "If all the 30
Superintendents of Police in Gujarat had acted
the way Meharda did, not a single person would
have been killed in the post-Godhra violence."
A week after the incident, reports indicated that
attempts made to assemble people to discuss
"tribal" problems were thwarted by the
administration. Although no organisation claimed
responsibility for the event, influential members
of the Jain and Hindu communities in Sarada were
believed to be behind it.
In the wake of the incident, 200 families fled
Sarada. Several of them are yet to return. For
five days all shops in the area remained closed
and an economic boycott of Muslims was organised.
None of the shops owned by the majority community
members sold to Muslims; the few grocery shops
owned by the minority community were destroyed in
the violence. An informed source said: "There
have been only two victims - the Muslims and the
S.P."
In fact, it is a mystery how the tribal people
got involved in the violence, the immediate cause
of which was a tiff between two non-tribal
people, a Muslim and a Jain trader. It was Madan
Jain's shop that was burnt; Ashfaq did not harm
Shanti Meena. It is evident that Shanti Meena was
only a pawn used to provoke the violence. B.L.
Singhvi, the district secretary of the Communist
Party of India (Marxist), said that such
incidents drove a wedge between communities and
succeeded in deflecting attention from the real
exploiters of the self-respecting tribal
community.
A view of Sarada town. After the anti-minority
pogrom in Gujarat, which is not far away, the
sense of insecurity among its Muslim residents
has heightened.
Among the non-tribal people of Sarada, the Muslim
community is more or less educated and has some
retired government servants. Some of its members
own jeeps. A handful of them own land. The rest
of the population comprise caste-Hindus, Patels,
Meghwals (a Scheduled Caste community), Jains and
others. The trading community in Sarada largely
belongs to these caste groups.
Although Guddu was arrested on July 29 itself,
the people involved in the July 30 incidents were
arrested much later. When the latter were
arrested, a call for a bazaar bandh was given.
The police remained resolute and, a few hours
later, the shops opened. According to M.N.
Dinesh, the new S.P., several people were held in
preventive detention. Of the 31 persons arrested,
24 were Muslims and seven belonged to tribal
communities. Shanti Meena, who was arrested under
a non-bailable offence, secured bail and was
reportedly roaming freely in Sarada. There are
allegations that sections of the trading
community in Sarada sold in the black market
foodgrain and kerosene meant for the public
distribution system (PDS). Madan Lal Jain,
confirmed informed sources in the Police
Department, should have been booked under the
Essential Commodities Act for storing diesel
beyond the prescribed limit and for the illegal
distribution of petrol. Similarly, an inquiry
into the meeting on July 30 which aggravated the
situation is yet to be held.
Members of the minority community said that this
was the first time that the tribal people
attacked them. Keshu Lal Meena, who belongs to
the Bhil community, said that he was born and
bred in Sarada and he had never seen the
atmosphere so vitiated. But the amity between the
tribal people and Muslims is visible when Meena
goes and fetches Sattar Mohammad, whose shop was
looted and burnt on July 30. "We represent the
fourth or fifth generation of Muslims in Sarada,"
say Sattar and his brother Gaffar Mohammad. In
fact, Muslims were known to have served in the
paltan (platoon) of the Rajput rulers of Mewar.
"The tribal people are not to blame. They have
been instigated," say the brothers.
Alam Ara, a young girl doing her post-graduation
in Urdu, wonders why the administration has not
set up a peace committee. Her 70-year-old
grandmother Allahrakhi said that this was the
first time that she feared for her life. "As long
as there is no compromise or a settlement, how
can things get normal?" asks Allahrakhi. Muslim
elders said that the arms that were confiscated
were licensed weapons. The area was close to a
jungle and after the incidents in Gujarat - not
far away from Sarada - insecurity among the
minority community had heightened.
Adding to the minorities' feeling of insecurity
in the State are some controversial decisions of
the Vasundhara Raje government - the lifting of
the ban on the VHP's trishul diksha (trident
distribution) programme and the withdrawal of
more than 100 riot cases.
In the first week of August, some tribal people
going from Banswara to Ajmer for a programme
organised by a non-governmental organisation were
stopped by Bajrang Dal workers at Chittorgarh.
The Bajrang Dal activists forced them to alight
from a State Roadways Bus, alleging that the
people were being taken to be converted to
Christianity. Accompanying the activists were
mediapersons and police personnel. The tribal
people, along with the team leader Stephen Rawat,
head of the Banswara-based Sampoorna Jeewan Vikas
Samiti, were taken to the police station,
interrogated for hours and then sent back to
Banswara. Joseph Pathalil, the Roman Catholic
bishop of Udaipur, told Frontline that the tribal
people were going to attend a programme on health
care and development organised by the Catholic
Relief Services, an international body. He added
that the head of the organisation in India was
Hemant Tiwari, a Hindu. "Instead of giving
protection to the team for going ahead to Ajmer,
the police forced them to go back to Banswara,"
said the bishop. He wrote to the Chief Minister
and the Home Minister requesting an inquiry into
the incident, but none of them has replied so far.
Udaipur and Banswara are close to the Gujarat
border. In the post-Godhra violence, there were
attacks on Muslim shops and homes in Udaipur's
Kotara block, not far from the Gujarat border.
Timely intervention by the police prevented
matters from going out of control. But is this
the tip of the iceberg? Was Sarada a Hindutva
experiment to communalise the tribal people that
almost succeeded?
______
[8]
[SACW - September 3, 2004]
Why Repeal POTA?
Mukul Dube
In the very recent past, a good many things have
been turned on their heads in Gujarat. Narendra
Modi's thugs go on a killing, raping and burning
spree which is unprecedented and so bestial that
it cannot but bring a bad name to the state. But
Modi turns these very thugs into victims and
roars about how "five crore Gujaratis" are being
maligned the world over. He does this in such a
way that the people of the majority community see
him as their sole saviour and vote him back to
power. Does Modi tell us why the world has
suddenly gone mad and begun to attack his
innocent acolytes? No. Does it occur to anyone to
ask Modi why the entire world has suddenly turned
against Gujarat? No.
Modi, let us not forget, is the man who invoked
the name of Isaac Newton to justify the savagery
which his people showed against his own state's
Muslims, purportedly as a "reaction" to the
burning to death of "kar sevaks" in a rail coach
at Godhra. He knew about the Third Law at that
time. But when it came to accusing others of
thinking and speaking ill of Gujarat, he had
forgotten all about it. Those others did not do
what they did as a reaction. How could they, when
Modi's Gujarat had been a model of peace all
along? They had nothing to react to. They had --
and this will remain an enduring mystery for
psychologists for all time to come -- suddenly
and collectively, in their billions, developed a
hitherto unknown form of lunacy which caused them
to hurl abuse and baseless charges against
Gujarat.
Another revolutionary change that has been
wrought in Gujarat is the development of a new
mathematics and statistics specially for the use
of the machinery of justice, although this
description is singularly inapt for a mass of
rabidly communalised people who respect nothing
that can even remotely be called justice. Just
consider the figures. Even an approximate number
will probably never be known, but the estimates
are that over 2,000 Muslims lost their lives in
the post-Godhra violence. These were the people
who died. Add the women who were raped and the
people who were physically injured and you have a
much larger figure. Add the people whose
livelihoods and homes and other property were
snatched away from them or destroyed -- and you
are talking of a difference of orders of
magnitude.
And how many people from the majority community
were affected in any of these ways? A handful, no
more than a handful. Why is it, then, that all of
those -- yes, ALL - - arrested under POTA have
been Muslims? In Modi's Gujarat, only those who
suffer are terrorists who must be locked up. If
your father is killed, or your sister is raped,
by "ram bhaktas", or by their devoted followers,
the Gujarat Police, then it is you who will be
arrested for being a "terrorist". And why is
that? So that you can be made to suffer more
through being tortured. So that members of your
families can also be illegally detained. So that
your families can be kept in a state of continual
terror. And, of course, so that your families can
receive the only kind of justice that the
families of terrorists deserve -- slow
starvation. What else did you expect when you
dared to become a victim?
There is talk of POTA's being repealed. Why
should it be repealed? Because, people say, it is
Draconian and amenable to misuse. Have these
people stopped to consider if in fact it has been
misused? If indeed it has been misused, then does
it not follow that those who misused it,
functionaries of the State, committed illegal and
criminal acts? Does it not follow also that those
against whom it was misused deserve justice and
compensation rather than punishment under the
provisions of the very Act which was the tool for
snatching away their democratic and human rights?
Those who talk of repealing POTA were and are
critics of the NDA government. They were and are
critics of Narendra Modi. Or has their opposition
been no more than a pretence? Why do they speak
the same language as do those whom they
criticise? Why do they not see that their action
will only inflict further suffering on those who
have already suffered because of the brutal POTA?
If humanity if what guides them in repealing
POTA, can they not see that their not repealing
POTA retroactively is nothing other than
inhumanity?
This is like tying up the tiger while leaving the
tiger's prey in the tiger's jaws. Play-acting.
Utterly meaningless.
_____
[9]
film screening
RAKESH SHARMA's
award-winning film (Berlin, Hong Kong)
FINAL SOLUTION
The feature length documentary is about the
Gujarat massacres of 2002. The film has been
banned by the Indian Censor Board.
Sunday 26 September, 3pm
Cinema de Seve
Concordia University
McConnell Library Bldg.
1400 de Maisonneuve ouest
(metro Guy-Concordia
The filmmaker will be present for the screening.
Presented by CERAS, Teesri Duniya and Concordia Film Department
Info: 485-9192, 938-1854, 346- 9477
Indian historian SUMIT SARKAR
at CONCORDIA University
TWO LECTURES:
"Secularism in a Globalizing India"
Wednesday 6 October, 1:15-2:30pm
Room TBA
"Democratic Politics as Majoritarian Tyranny or
Minority Protection - lessons from India's
post-colonial history"
Thursday 7 October 7-9pm
DB Clarke Theatre
Concordia University, Hall Building
1455 de Maisonneuve ouest
Professor SUMIT SARKAR is one of India's most
eminent historians. Until his recent retirement,
he was Professor of History at Delhi University,
India. His most recent publication is Beyond
Nationalist Frames: Relocating Postmodernism,
Hindu Fundamentalism, History. His other works
include the classic Modern India 1885-1947,
Writing Social History and Swadeshi Movement in
India 1903-08. Professor Sarkar has been General
Secretary of the Indian History Congress and
Visiting Professor at Oxford, Canberra, Paris and
Hawaii.
presented by PEACE AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
SERIES, in conjunction with the Departments of
English, History, Political Science and Religion
and the South Asian Studies Program, CONCORDIA
UNIVERSITY
supported by the SHASTRI INDO-CANADIAN STUDIES
INSTITUTE (Celebrating its 35th anniversary) and
CERAS (Centre sur l'asie du sud)
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A LADY FROM AWADH -- HIMA REMEMBERS
A 2 hour 15 min documentary on 95 year old Hima
who recollects her life in Awadh, an
extraordinary kingdom, famous for its bold
historical position, exclusive socio cultural
values, a courtesan culture and unique norms.
This film brings out her relationship with
her renowned father, a Taluqadar/writer Mohammad
Ali Rudolvi whose prolific letters to her and
his short stories featurized for this film form
a parallel male narrative to an extraordinary
time period in the history of the sub
continent.
This is the latest film by SHIREEN PASHA
(Pakistan), who has to her credit many
award-winning films and documentaries. She is
renowned for her sensitive and creative
approaches to subjects of cultural and social
values.
South Asian Women's Community Centre will be organizing a screening.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
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necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
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