SACW | 12 Oct 2004

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  12 October,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Bangladesh:
- Living with terror: Minorities in Bangladesh ( Nurul Kabir)
- Who's to blame? (Dina Siddiqi)
[2] India: Communalism rising in Kerala - 
Hindutva Targets the Church (R. Krishnakumar)
[3] India: Gandhi And His Killers (Nalini Taneja)
[4] India: Erasing the Past for Present Political Agenda (Ram Puniyani)
[5] India:  RSS (Rashtriya Savages' Syndicate) 
Celebrates Gandhi Jayanti (I.K.Shukla) 
[6] India: Satya Satyagrah - Update on Appeal for 
Solidarity, Reform, Justice and Harmony
[7] Upcoming events:
-  Film screen and discussion - Kashmir: The 
Flashpoint of War and the Key to Peace 
(Vancouver, October 24)


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

[1]

Communalism Combat --  September 2004
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2004/sep04/cover.html

LIVING WITH TERROR:
MINORITIES IN BANGLADESH

By Nurul Kabir

[...]

A non-secular elite? The Islamisation of State, politics and education

After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the 
people's aspiration for a secular democracy 
apparently found adequate expression in the 
Constitution of the newly emerged State, 
formulated in 1972. It rightly proclaimed 
'secularism' as a 'fundamental principle' of the 
State and prohibited any political party based on 
religious ideals.

"ŠNo person shall have the right to form or be a 
member or otherwise take part in the activities 
of, any communal party or other association or 
union which in the name or on the basis of any 
religion has for its object, or pursues, a 
political purpose," said the 'proviso' of Article 
38 of the original Constitution.

But it proved to be a false dawn. Soon, the 
government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman introduced 
what turned out to be a somewhat problematic 
conception of secularism both at the political 
and ideological levels, in running the affairs of 
the State. It adopted 'the policy of equal 
opportunity for all religions' and ordered 
citations from the holy books of Islam, Hinduism, 
Buddhism and Christianity at the start of 
broadcasts by state-run electronic media.

This policy can be interpreted as being 
inconsistent with the principles of a secular 
democracy, if secularism is defined as the 
absolute separation of Church and State, rather 
than neutrality toward all religions. The former 
definition considers 'faith' to be a matter of 
personal 'belief' of the individual citizen, and 
subsequently forbids endorsement of or aid to any 
religious doctrine by the State or the government 
of a State.

The government of the Sheikh also failed to 
ensure 'separation of religion from education', 
although such separation is the sine qua non for 
the growth as well as perpetuation of secular 
values in a society, without which the 
construction and reproduction of a secular 
democratic State becomes an impossible 
proposition.

Bangladesh's first education commission, headed 
by Dr. Kudrat-e-Khuda, recommended that "instead 
of creating blind allegiance to the external 
aspects and formal rituals of religion, the 
curricula and textbooks should inculcate in the 
students a refined and well integrated system of 
secular ethics to produce a new generation of 
citizens for secular Bangladesh". The 
recommendation was fully compatible with the idea 
of secular democracy.

"Plants are fashioned by cultivation, man by 
education," observed French educationist Jean 
Jacques Rousseau. It is education, particularly 
primary and secondary education, that shapes the 
political and cultural future of a populace. A 
society aspiring to be democratic in its 
political and cultural psyche therefore needs to 
formulate its education curriculum in a way that 
helps shape the psyche of children in a 
democratic mould. Secularism is inherent in the 
concept of democracy, since democracy as an 
original idea had emerged in the West through 
political struggles against feudalism backed by 
religious ideologies. That which is not secular 
is not democratic.

But Dr. Khuda was to be disappointed, thanks 
primarily to the country's non-secular elite. 
Earlier, the Khuda Commission circulated among 
the members of the most educated section of the 
society - vice-chancellors and professors of the 
universities and degree colleges, principals and 
professors of the medical colleges, principals of 
the higher secondary colleges, headmasters of the 
high schools, members of the associations of 
school and college teachers, and superintendents 
of madrassas, educationists, essayists, poets, 
novelists, playwrights, newspaper editors, 
top-level civil servants and Members of 
Parliament - a set of identical questionnaires 
for eliciting their opinion on the nature of 
education necessary for Bangladesh.

As many as 2,869 persons responded, and 74.69 per 
cent of the respondents said that "religious 
education should be an integral part of general 
education". The numbers speak for themselves. It 
appears the educated elite did not ever embrace a 
secular system in which faith was purely a 
personal matter.

The Khuda Commission gave up its secular 
approach, while the government of Sheikh Mujibur 
Rahman gave in to the desire of the non-secular 
elite, leaving behind the democratic aspirations 
of those who had brought about the nation's 
independence for, along with other things, a 
secular society and State.

Subsequently, the kind of religious syllabi that 
the Pakistani rulers had adopted for Muslim 
students at the primary and secondary levels, 
with a view to perpetuating Islamic cultural 
hegemony in society, remained almost intact, as 
did the religious syllabi for Hindu students. 
Moreover, the government adopted the policy of 
financially supporting hundreds of madrassas - 
the educational institutions that continue to 
reproduce a religious world-view, which is bound 
to ideologically strengthen, and perpetuate, a 
political culture devoid of secularism. Thus, the 
cultural stage for the pervasive growth of a 
non-secular political culture in society was set 
in the early days of Bangladesh's independence.

The government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was 
overthrown by a military putsch in 1975, and all 
governments that followed his, with the exception 
of the one headed by Sheikh Hasina between 1996 
and 2001, harshly criticised Mujibur Rahman for 
his various actions. Nevertheless, all these 
successive governments, including that of Sheikh 
Hasina, religiously followed, rather carried 
forward vigorously, Mujib's programmes, giving a 
fillip to the process of backward movement of 
society in general.

To begin with, Ziaur Rahman, through a martial 
law proclamation in 1976, overturned a 
constitutional provision that prohibited use of 
religion for political purposes. Then came 
another proclamation in 1977, which replaced 
"secularism" as a fundamental principle of the 
State with "absolute trust and faith in the 
Almighty Allah" and announced that "absolute 
trust and faith in the Almighty Allah shall be 
the basis of all actions" of the State.

The same proclamation inserted 
Bismillah-ar-Rahman-ar-Rahim on the top of the 
Constitution. Later, all these political 
misdeeds, from the point of view of secular 
democratic values, were 'ratified' by the 
erstwhile Parliament in 1979, with Lieutenant 
General Ziaur Rahman at the helm of the 
undemocratic State machinery.

Such negative changes in State principles found 
full expression in the entire education system as 
well. The new Committee on Curricula and Syllabi 
under Zia's administration stated in one of their 
documents: "Islam is a complete code of life, not 
just a sum of rituals. A Muslim has to live his 
personal, social, economic and international life 
in accordance with Islam from childhood to death. 
So acquiring knowledge of Islam is compulsory for 
all Muslim men and women." Lieutenant General HM 
Ershad, in 1982, drove the last nail into the 
coffin of secular ideals at the state level. His 
regime got the Constitution amended in 1998 to 
declare that "the state religion of the Republic 
is IslamŠ," virtually degrading the members of 
minority religious communities to second-class 
citizenry.

The height of insensitivity of the elite to the 
rights and dignity of religious minority 
communities became evident, once again, when an 
influential group of the elite went to court 
against "decentralisation of the High Court", 
which was a part of the autocratic constitutional 
amendment in question, ignoring the other part 
that relegated members of the minority religious 
communities to the status of second-grade 
citizens.

After the fall of General Ershad in 1990, 
following some eight years of movement for 
democracy, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of 
Khaleda Zia came to power through a general 
election in 1991. Notably, one of the central 
focuses of BNP's electoral campaign was Islam - 
the "need of defending Islam" from "un-Islamic" 
political forces. The propaganda infected the 
electoral campaign of other power contending 
parties. Sheikh Hasina, chief of the Awami 
League, which occasionally claims itself to be a 
secular party, presided over her party's entire 
electoral campaign wearing a hijab over her head 
with rosary in her hand.

The government of Khaleda Zia adopted and 
implemented a policy for primary education in 
2000, and the first of its 22 objectives was 
"indoctrination of students in the loyalty to and 
belief in the Almighty Allah, so that the belief 
inspires the students in their thought and work, 
and helps shape their spiritual, moral, social 
and human values".

Indoctrination of a "belief system" of any kind 
is irrational in the first place. Indoctrination 
of any belief system obstructs believers from 
questioning the status quo - be it political or 
ideological, virtually degrading thinking human 
beings into non-thinking animal entities. And 
such a situation always helps the establishment 
perpetuate the existing reality, which is, in the 
present case, a non-secular Bangladesh.

Then came the turn of Sheikh Hasina's Awami 
League, which came to power in 1996. The AL 
government formed another education commission in 
1997, headed by Professor Shamsul Haque, which 
recognised "madrassa education as an integral 
part of the national education system". The 
commission recommended modernising the curriculum 
by introducing science and English but did not 
usher in changes in madrassa syllabi. The 
existing curriculum manufactures in hundreds of 
poor young boys a "medieval" world outlook, 
plagued by a deep sense of intolerance for 
opposing ideologies - political or religious. One 
of the major political agendas of the government 
of Sheikh Hasina was to prove, by means of 
patronising, both politically and financially, 
various Islamic organisations/institutions, that 
the party in no way lags behind the BNP in terms 
of its allegiance to Islamic ideals.

Before the last general elections in 2001, the 
power contending political parties shed the last 
vestige of secular ideals. The BNP's election 
manifesto proclaimed that the party, if voted to 
power, "will not enact any law in contrary to 
Islam". The Jatiya Party, headed by HM Ershad, 
went a step further. "Shariah laws will be 
followed, existing laws will be brought in line 
with the principles of the Qur'an and Sunnah, 
special laws will be made for punishing those 
making derogatory remarks against God, the 
prophet and Shariah, while religious education 
will be made compulsory at all levels," said the 
JP's manifesto.

The Jamaat-e-Islami announced in unambiguous 
terms that the party, if voted to power, "will 
convert the People's Republic of Bangladesh into 
an Islamic Republic". Sheikh Hasina's Awami 
League did not lag behind, at least, in relation 
to the BNP. "If returned to power," the AL 
announced in its election manifesto, "no law will 
be enacted, which will be inconsistent with the 
dictates of the Qur'an and Hadith". The AL's 
announcement reminded some people of the 
historical fact that the party was born with the 
name of Awami Muslim League. Only the 11-party 
alliance, a conglomeration of the left and 
liberal democratic parties, pledged that they, if 
voted to power, would work for restoring secular 
ideals.

Eventually, Khaleda's BNP, which had forged an 
electoral alliance with some Islamist 
fundamentalist parties and groups, including the 
Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islami Oikkya Jote, which 
has overtly been working to have a theocratic 
state in the country, won the polls.

An unhappy Hasina now complains, as reported by 
The New Age on September 12, 2003, that "the 
BNP-Jamaat came to power in the name of religion" 
but the coalition "has so far ignored Islam a 
lot". "It is an irony that the Awami League was 
branded as an anti-Islamic party although my 
government worked tirelessly to establish 
religion in the country," she was quoted to have 
said while addressing a group of mullahs at her 
residential office on September 11.

This brief almanac of the non-secular - rather 
anti-secular - legal, political, ideological and 
economic schemes implemented so far by the 
country's political elite, assembled under 
various political platforms at different points 
of time, provides some clues to why the once 
secular Muslim population of Bangladesh is 
becoming indifferent to the exploitation of 
minority religious communities by politically 
backed vested quarters.

On a more positive note, there are still 
instances in which ordinary Muslims resist the 
repression of minorities, even when the 
perpetrators are law enforcers. A 'fact file', 
carried by The Daily Star on August 17, 2003 
shows that local Muslims, led by a sub-inspector 
of Tomaltala police camp, carried out an attack 
on several of the homes belonging to Hindus on 
June 2, 2003. The attack was instigated by a 
highly provocative rumour deliberately spread by 
the concerned sub-inspector that Bishwambar Das 
Babajee, a priest of a local Ashram, had 
defecated on the Holy Koran.

At some point during the rampage, someone in the 
crowd asked the sub-inspector to produce evidence 
of the charge against Bishwambar Das. The 
policeman failed to do so. Eventually, it was 
discovered that the SI engineered the attack 
against Hindu families in the locality because he 
was refused bribes from some local Hindus the 
previous day. "Then the agitated (Muslim) mob, 
being repentant of their own misdeeds, cordoned 
the police camp and demanded punishment of the 
sub-inspector," Bishwambar was quoted to have 
said to a Dhaka-based human rights organisation, 
as reported eventually in The Daily Star.

If the Islamisation of the country's State 
machinery and education system continues without 
the immediate political, ideological and cultural 
intervention of truly democratic forces, one can 
safely predict that the general Muslim population 
will be 'indoctrinated' to a degree that voices 
against intimidation, exploitation and oppression 
of minority communities will be subdued, if not 
entirely muted.

Future to be created

As events in 2003 show, religious minorities in 
Bangladesh are exploited in multiple ways. Their 
land and their property may be appropriated at 
any time, their lives are never completely safe 
and their recourse to justice is limited. 
Moreover, they are always vulnerable to 
exploitation as politicians of various hues play 
the religion card to further their own agendas. 
As such the future of minorities in Bangladesh 
seems bleak.

However, the future is not merely to be 
predicted, it is also to be created. The 
construction and maintenance of a secular 
democratic society calls for a series of 
politically conscious actions at different 
levels, especially including education and 
culture; this is in addition to the obvious need 
for organising constant protests against the 
formulation and implementation of non-secular 
policies and programmes by the communal elite.

As regards democratic interventions at the 
cultural and ideological level, fighting for the 
formulation and implementation of secular 
democratic curricula remains one of the most 
important responsibilities. A secular and 
scientific education generates in children, or 
future citizens for that matter, a sense of 
demystification of the universe, which 
automatically encourages the questioning of all 
structures, processes, institutions and 
situations of society. And now is the time for 
democratic forces to take up the gigantic task, 
accomplishment of which could help stop 
oppression of the minority communities of the 
country.

o o o o

Communalism Combat --  September 2004 
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2004/sep04/cover3.html

WHO'S TO BLAME?

BY Dina Siddiqi

Typical of the situation in Bangladesh, public 
opinion is deeply divided on the "facts". Some 
people (mainly but not only from the ruling 
coalition of BNP/Jamaat) claim the death threats 
are manufactured by the professors, etc. 
themselves, either to bring national or 
international attention on themselves or as a 
ploy to discredit the government, either way 
taking advantage of international anti-Islamic 
hysteria. Others (usually supporters of the 
supposedly more secular opposition party, the 
Awami League) are convinced that creeping 
fundamentalism is the most serious problem facing 
Bangladesh today.

Assessing the situation with any degree of 
accuracy is a treacherous task if one wants to 
avoid the minefield of highly polarised partisan 
politics. While one does not wish to overstate 
the case, the current government's coalition 
partnership with Islamist parties does have a 
bearing on its rhetoric and responses. The 
stabbing of Humayun Azad was not imagined or 
self-manufactured. Typically, by refusing to act 
until the very last minute (if at all), at the 
least, the government is complicit if not 
directly responsible for the current environment 
of fear and insecurity.

Difficulties in analysing the course of events 
are compounded by the increasingly blurred lines 
between criminalisation and communalisation, in 
the context of a weak and corrupt State complicit 
in the criminalisation of politics, and a 
coalition government unwilling to defend basic 
human rights if that means offending Islamist 
coalition partners.

The overnight emergence of the vigilante group, 
the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), and 
the rumours swirling around their origins is a 
case in point. The JMJB has been terrorising 
communities in the areas under its control. Its 
stated aim is to rid the northern districts of 
left wing extremist groups known for their own 
terrorising tactics and extortionary practices. 
It is common knowledge that these smaller groups 
all have godfathers in the two main opposition 
parties, without whose support they would easily 
be captured and jailed by now. Presumably, the 
same holds for the JMJB.

The main rumours are 1) this is a turf war in 
which a new 'gang' is trying to establish 
supremacy in the locality 2) the group has been 
created/nurtured by some members of the ruling 
coalition who are using it to eliminate their 
political rivals by labelling the latter as left 
wing extremists. 3) the JMJB is an 'organic' 
organisation with ties to international Islamist 
groups, especially the Taliban. None of these are 
mutually exclusive explanations.

JMJB atrocities have been carried out in the name 
of establishing an Islamic State. Their leader 
claims to be inspired by the Taliban.

______



[2]

Frontline - Volume 21 - Issue 21, Oct. 09 - 22, 2004

TARGETING MISSIONARIES [IN KERALA]

R. Krishnakumar
in Thiruvananthapuram

A criminal assault on nuns of the Missionaries of 
Charity in Kerala, the first such incident 
involving the organisation in the country, raises 
concerns about the spread of communalism in the 
State.


THE political furore that followed the attack on 
the members of the Missionaries of Charity at a 
Dalit colony in Kozhikode, Kerala, perhaps 
drowned a significant statement made by a 
bewildered victim, Sister Kusumum. "We want the 
police to find out who the culprits are, not to 
seek revenge, but to understand why they attacked 
us," she told mediapersons who visited Sneha 
Bhavan, the local office of the organisation 
founded by Nobel laureate Mother Teresa. Sneha 
Bhavan provides shelter to over 50 inmates, 
Hindus, Muslims and Christians, all of them poor, 
sick or old.


BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Sister Kusumum at a hospital in Kozhikode.


On September 25, a small gang of men assaulted 
two nuns from Sneha Bhavan and the driver of 
their vehicle as soon as they reached the 
`Four-Cent Harijan Colony', at Mampuzhakkadu near 
Pantheerankavu in Olavanna panchayat. The gang 
accused them of preparing the ground for 
religious conversion in the Dalit colony. The 
nuns were reportedly invited to the colony by a 
woman who had been receiving rice and essential 
provisions as charity from them for over a year 
and who wanted some of her neighbours too to get 
such help. The assailants told the nuns that they 
would be burnt alive if they came to the colony 
again. Finally, when the women of the colony 
formed a cordon around the nuns, the assailants 
left the scene threatening that they would wait 
for the nuns at a nearby location.

The terrified nuns ran to a house nearby to call 
the police and to inform their colleagues at 
Sneha Bhavan. Then they took refuge in the 
nearest police station, at Nallalam. Meanwhile, 
on hearing the news of the attack, another group 
from Sneha Bhavan, including Mother Superior 
Kusumum, Brother Varghese and a visiting member 
of the Missionaries of Charity from Kenya, 
Brother Bernard, reached the colony. While they 
were about to return, a mob, allegedly raising 
the slogans `BJP-RSS zindabad' and `Bharat Mata 
Ki Jai', surrounded their vehicle. The mob pushed 
the outnumbered police personnel aside, smashed 
the windowpanes of the vehicle and brutally 
attacked the group members. The mob threw mud at 
them, hit them on the head and neck with iron 
rods and metal bangles, and tore their clothes. 
The group was eventually rescued by the police 
and admitted to hospital. Although there were 
initial indications that the first group of 
assailants were from the locality, residents of 
the colony later said that "outsiders" carried 
out the attacks. The nuns also said that the 
attackers were "outsiders".

Close on the heels of the attack on the nuns, on 
September 29, "unidentified assailants" broke 
into the St. Thomas Mar Thoma Church in 
Thiruvananthapuram city. The altar, curtains and 
furniture were damaged when the assailants set 
them on fire, which was contained only because a 
priest detected it early.

UNLIKE several other States, Kerala had been 
relatively free of such attacks. But in January 
2003, J.W. Cooper, a bishop in a Pentecostal 
church based in Ohio, the United States, became 
the target of a communal mob in rural 
Thiruvananthapuram (Frontline, February 28, 
2003). Importantly, the attack came at a time 
when the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh-Bharatiya 
Janata Party-Vishwa Hindu Parishad combine was 
launching a fresh offensive on the religious, 
social, cultural and political fronts in the 
State. The incident highlighted the growing 
intolerance of the Hindutva forces, but it also 
put the spotlight on the activities of a variety 
of Pentecostal groups and growing competition 
among them to win over "human souls" following, 
especially, the (continuing) power struggles 
within prominent Churches in the State.

Simultaneously, Kerala also witnessed a large 
section of the general laity turning to Christian 
meditation and charismatic centres and small 
churches and Pentecostal initiatives that 
sprouted in all parts of the State. In a State 
where Christians form a substantial section of 
the population, the mushrooming of such religious 
centres and activities was viewed with 
apprehension by the RSS, the BJP and the VHP and 
they used it effectively to spread their own 
influence in the name of guarding "faithfuls in 
the Hindu fold" and protecting them from the 
"threat of missionary activity". Although the 
Sangh Parivar's target initially had been the 
Pentecostal programmes, over the years, charity 
work and religious activity by a majority of 
Christian organisations too fell under their 
suspicious eye, especially after, in the words of 
Sangh Parivar leaders, "the controversial 
statement of Pope John Paul II at the turn of the 
century calling for religious conversions all 
over Asia".


S. MAHINSHA

In Thiruvananthapuram, a march by Left activists 
with an effigy of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in 
protest against the attack on the nuns.


The editorial published by the BJP's Malayalam 
daily, Janmabhoomi, two days after the attack on 
the nuns is a window to the Sangh Parivar's 
thinking. Titled "The Olavanna incident: Let all 
the facts come out", the editorial says: "It has 
become the practice of many Christian Churches 
today to indulge in religious activity and forced 
religious conversions in the name of charity 
work. Many would find it difficult to deny that 
the main agenda of the Catholic Church and others 
is forced conversions. In this context we must 
also take into consideration the call given by 
Pope John Paul II when he visited India a few 
years ago. He called for the Christianisation of 
Asia. On whom does the onus lie to prove that 
when the Pope's smiling faithfuls descend on the 
members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled 
Tribes with wheat, clothes and milk powder, they 
are not trying to implement the Pope's call? 
Activities that cast doubts naturally lead to 
criticism. Such activities may work well among 
illiterate tribal people and others. But it is 
not surprising if such activities create 
suspicion in a colony near Kozhikode city. Maybe 
it is this suspicion that led to the tension... "

The attack at Olavanna is the first such incident 
against the members of the Missionaries of 
Charity anywhere in India. Sangh Parivar leaders 
have repeatedly denied any role in the incident 
but, at the same time, they also used the 
opportunity to cast doubts on the charity work 
initiated by the nuns. The presence of the Kenyan 
national, Brother Bernard, in the second group 
that went to the colony has come in handy for the 
critics. The Hindutva organisations have been 
trying hard to portray it as a case similar to 
the Cooper incident, wherein the U.S. citizen was 
accused of indulging in "illegal missionary 
activity" while he was "overstaying" in the 
country after the expiry of his tourist visa. 
Soon after the attack on Cooper, even while 
shrill demands were being made for his arrest, 
the State police controversially ordered him to 
leave the country.

According to the volunteers of the Missionaries 
of Charity, Brother Bernard was on a brief visit 
to Kerala and he had a valid visa that permitted 
him to stay in the country for one year and 
undergo training with the organisation. His 
presence at the colony on September 25 was 
accidental, according to them, though he 
reportedly registered himself with the State 
police only after the incident occurred, a slip, 
perhaps, that has now come in handy for his 
tormentors.

WITH hardly a few months to go before the 
elections to the local bodies in the State, the 
ruling United Democratic Front (UDF), troubled as 
it was by factional wars in the State unit of the 
Congress and the serious differences with the 
minority communities that its previous Chief 
Minister A.K. Antony ran into, had barely managed 
to start afresh on a "clean slate" under the new 
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his team of 
Ministers.

The Opposition Left Democratic Front termed the 
attack as the handiwork of the Sangh Parivar. It 
also alleged that it proved the failure of the 
State police under Oommen Chandy. The Dalit 
colony is generally considered a pro-Communist 
Party of India (Marxist) area coming under the 
LDF-ruled Olavanna panchayat. Of late, however, 
the RSS had intensified its activity in the 
locality, the latest instance being a mega Hindu 
ritual held near the colony a few days before the 
attack occurred. The Sangh Parivar had since then 
claimed that its "growing influence" had rattled 
its opponents, both political and religious, and 
that the first group of attackers included "those 
from a local club" (known to be run by CPI(M) 
supporters).

Although Chief Minister Oommen Chandy announced 
that the police had identified 13 of the 
assailants, only one person has been arrested so 
far. Chandy refused to divulge the political 
affiliation of the assailants or to give further 
information on the inquiry "prematurely". 
However, his political compulsions became clear 
when he sought to use the event to score points 
with the Opposition at a media conference in 
Thiruvananthapuram on September 29, soon after 
his high-visibility visit to the colony and 
meeting with the victims of the attack.

He said that along with the combined police-Crime 
Branch inquiry into the attack, the government 
had decided to conduct a detailed inquiry by a 
senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) 
officer into the "circumstances that led to the 
nuns' visit to the colony". This, he added, was 
"the extreme and continuing poverty in the 
colony", which had "no reliable water or power 
supply or even a pucca road link" with the rest 
of the panchayat. He also said pointedly that 
"Olavanna panchayat had for long been a 
CPI(M)-ruled panchayat" and that "the panchayat 
member from the particular area had been elected 
on the CPI(M) ticket". The IAS officer was asked 
to inquire why "even after several years under 
the decentralised local body system in the State 
and people's planning initiatives, a [CPI-M] 
panchayat like Olavanna, showcased for its 
grassroots development achievements, had failed 
the people of the Dalit colony, though mechanisms 
like the grama sabhas were still supposed to be 
working well within the panchayat system". The 
inquiry report would help the government find out 
"what had gone wrong with the decentralisation 
experiment in Kerala" (launched by the previous 
LDF government) and take "corrective measures" 
elsewhere in the State, the Chief Minister said.

Oommen Chandy also announced a list of relief 
measures for the households in the colony, 
including free ration for a month, pucca houses 
and jobs for women under the Kudumbashree 
(poverty eradication) Mission. With barely a few 
months to go for the panchayat elactions, the 
attack has, obviously, come in handy for the 
ruling UDF.


______



[3]


Peoples Democracy - October 10, 2004

GANDHI AND HIS KILLERS
 Nalini Taneja
 
IT tells something about the crisis of our 
nationhood that even on Gandhi Jayanti, this 
year, one saw more references to Savarkar than 
Gandhi in the national and regional newspapers. 
In the days preceding Gandhi's birthday, Gandhi's 
killers occupied more space in newspapers and 
popular magazines than Gandhi was given, if one 
discounts the routine advertisements. There have 
been letters and write ups defending and 
eulogising Savarkar, who was involved in Gandhi's 
murder. Now there is evidence that show 
Savarkar's links with Nathuram Godse, the one who 
did the actual shooting.
 
What is more, people, and the political 
leadership in this country, have not only allowed 
this to happen, they have let it pass by without 
comment. Some Congressmen are now willing to 
vouch that Savarkar was a "patriot", even if his 
ideology and vision for India are not desirable. 
It is a sad realisation, and one that needs some 
reflection.
 
For years now one has noticed that there is 
little about Gandhi in the popular media apart 
from a few official advertisements timed for 
Gandhi Jayanti; and most people have become used 
to such tokenness. It is part of the general 
decline in political culture and of the distance 
the nation has travelled from the first heady 
days of independence. Few people from that 
generation survive today, and the sacrifices for 
freedom are hardly a part of popular 
consciousness. Freedom is taken for granted and 
nationhood for the vocal middle class means 
essentially fulfillment of goals of consumerism. 
Yet what has happened this year is unprecedented. 
We are today debating and trying to find 
'evidence' for something that was publicly 
recognised, and evoked mass repulsion in the 
years after independence and Gandhi's murder.
 
SAVARKAR'S IDEOLOGY
 
It is a matter of legal and historical record 
that Savarkar was part of the conspiracy to 
murder Gandhi and that he stood firmly opposed to 
the idea of a secular-composite nationhood. All 
accounts of the aftermath of Gandhi's murder, 
emanating from the RSS as much as from the 
secular publications, testify to the role of 
Savarkar in Gandhi's murder. His ideas of Hindus 
and Muslims as constituting separate nations and 
of India as a potential Hindu rashtra are also 
freely circulated. The point to ponder over is: 
why is all this not a part of mass consciousness 
today? 
 
The government of the newly independent India was 
forced to ban the RSS because of the widespread 
public grief and anger that Gandhi's murder 
evoked among all sections of the Indian people. 
Prior to his murder there was tremendous response 
to his last hunger strike undertaken to bring 
some sanity into political life. In many places 
communal killings actually stopped with Gandhi's 
appeal for peace. Gandhi himself evolved in his 
thinking during the turmoil of independence and 
partition to emphasise on separation of state and 
religion, and a secular polity that went beyond 
religious harmony between the two communities. It 
is not for nothing that the right wing RSS saw in 
him their greatest enemy. He was one force within 
the nationalist leadership firmly opposed to 
partition on religious grounds and religion as 
basis for nationhood, despite his roots in 
religion as basis of individual and social ethics.
 
LEFT ALTERNATIVE
 
The Communists won more seats in the first 
parliament than any other political formation 
barring the Congress, and Left mass organisations 
greatly inspired the youth. There was a 
widespread desire to achieve the goals of freedom 
for the majority of the Indian people, and a Left 
alternative seemed viable and desirable. During 
the sixties and seventies it was still normal to 
publicly point towards the compromises made by 
Gandhi with the bourgeois leadership, to 
criticise him bitterly for his failure to raise 
the issue of Bhagat Singh during the Gandhi-Irwin 
pact, to publicly disown Chandra Singh Garhwali, 
and for his parochial views in the Hind Swaraj . 
The criticism of Gandhi was from the Left 
perspective, and it was taken seriously-far more 
seriously than the RSS calumny against him.
 
In the years to follow this great political 
advantage was allowed to erode. The leadership of 
secular India failed to keep alive the spirit of 
the popular struggles of the national-liberation 
struggle. It failed to take seriously the RSS 
until it began to impinge on parliamentary 
politics and win parliamentary seats. It failed 
to carry on the relentless propaganda against 
these dangerous divisive forces, whose version of 
nationhood and its history continued to permeate 
the cultural institutions and dominate the 
educational system outside the small circle of 
NCERT. It is the Hindutva forces that gained from 
the struggles against the emergency, despite the 
secret overtures of the RSS leadership to Mrs 
Gandhi, and it is they who gained most from the 
Janta party post-emergency experiment riding 
piggy back on the fierce popular opposition to 
the Emergency, and taking advantage of the 
political activism and defense of civil rights 
during those years. Media, educational 
institutions, the administration and police 
forces were infiltrated by their cadres, and the 
secular leadership still did not recognise the 
danger signs. The parallel resurgence of middle 
caste based parties after the green revolution 
could not meet this danger, sharing as they did, 
most of the parochial prerogatives of the 
communal forces, and the vocal middle classes 
were already setting their sights on the 
anticipated consumer gains from new economic 
policies. We lost a lot during those years, far 
more than we realised then.
 
GLORIFYING THE KILLERS
 
Even as the communal forces try to appropriate 
Gandhi's legacy, assassin Nathuram Godse's 
admirers in Maharashtra and Gujarat continue 
their campaign to vilify Gandhi and glorify the 
villain. The play, Mee Nathuram Boltoye (I am 
Nathuram Godse speaking), by Pradip Dalvi, which 
had earlier been banned in Maharashtra, was taken 
out of cold storage in 1995 after the Shiv 
Sena-BJP coalition came to power. While it still 
caused uproar in Maharastra, in Gujarat it 
completed over 60 shows, running to packed 
houses. This is a state that has spawned over 
2,000 institutions in Gandhi's name. A senior 
Gandhian and Gujarati writer, Manubhai Pancholi, 
conceded: "We are ashamed that we could not even 
protest and put the true facts before the 
people." (Quoted in Communalism Combat, October 
2000). It was the same during the 2002 genocide 
of the Muslims in Gujarat. The legacy of Gandhi 
is weakest in Gujarat, for many reasons, starting 
the rebuilding of the Somnath temple (with 
Patel's cooperation) in the years immediately 
after independence. If the Hindutva texts and the 
RSS shakhas give their own version of our history 
and nationhood, excluding the role of the working 
people and of minorities, women and dalits, and 
vilify Communists and leaders like Gandhi and 
Nehru, we have been guilty of not keeping alive 
the role of the right wing Hindutva communal 
forces in our political propaganda till the BJP 
became a force to reckon with in parliament. 
Therefore it is part of popular belief today that 
Jinnah was no good, he caused partition, and is 
projected as villain, but anti-national elements 
like Godse and Savarkar still vie for space in 
the pantheon of nationalist leadership. The 
Congress, in all this, was not committed  to idea 
of projecting a secular heritage. It preferred 
ultimately to share a common cultural space with 
the communal forces, than to stand by its own 
resolutions of the national liberation days.   
 
LOST OPPORTUNITY
 
Today we are faced with a serious political and 
economic offensive. In the bargain, we have lost 
an opportunity to talk about Gandhi as we would 
like to-as democrats and from the perspective of 
the working people of this country. The 
ascendancy of the Hindutva right wing politics 
since the 1980s has robbed us of the right to 
really evaluate and critically comment on 
Gandhi's role in our national life.
 
One remembers that today the Left has more 
members in Parliament than at any time since the 
first national elections after independence; it 
constitutes the second largest political bloc as 
then. But there is a sea change in the political 
and social ethos. The Left is not as strong a 
force as it should have been, despite the 
tremendous growth in our mass organisations and 
the political bases in West Bengal, Kerala and 
Tripura.  From being the leaders in the early 50s 
of campaigns voicing the betrayal of workers and 
peasants by the nationalist bourgeois leadership 
and the limitations of the Constitution of the 
new Republic, the Left is now the best guarantee 
for the defense of this same Constitution and of 
bourgeois democracy in the country. 
 
Savarkar's photo in the Parliament alongside 
Gandhi's is a reflection of this political 
juncture in the history of our nationhood, as is 
the recurrence of a debate that should have been 
closed long ago because there are no two sides on 
the matter. Savarkar is no patriot, while Gandhi 
died for the unity of this country.


______


[4]

sacw.net > Communalism Repository | October 11, 2004
http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/puniyani11102004.html

ERASING THE PAST FOR PRESENT POLITICAL AGENDA

by Ram Puniyani

Come elections and some emotional issues are brought on. The recent
campaign by BJP associate, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has come at a very
crucial time. While the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is groping for victory, it
could not have thought of better issue, Afzal Khans tomb, to whip up
emotional hysteria to garner more votes. This time both parties are
planning their strategy in a slightly different fashion. While BJP is
harping on Tiranga (Tri color) agitation of Uma Bharati and are trying to
demolish Afzal Khans tomb, Shiv Sena is taking up the issue of Savarkar in
full steam. Needless to say all these issues have nothing to do with the
problems of daily lives of people but are meant for bringing in
polarization of votes for the electoral purposes.

The demolition of Afzal Khans tomb is a very complex issue. In this case
the attempt is not to prove that there was a temple, which was demolished
to build this tomb but that the tomb is a blot on Maharashtrian self
pride, since Afzal Khan was against Hindus etc. Not many knew that none
other than Shivaji himself, who had slain Khan in an encounter, built this
tomb. This encounter was planned as a negotiation meeting, which was
called on the understanding that both Shivaji and Khan will come to meet
without arms. Violating this Shivaji carried the iron claws. Interestingly
it was Shivajis spy Rustam-e-Jaman who advised him to carry this secret
weapon. In the scuffle, which followed their meeting, Shivaji killed Afzal
Khan. Following Shivajis attack on Khan, Khans private secretary,
Krishnaji Bhaskar Kulkarni attacked Shivaji with his sword. Shivaji
survived the attack.

Following the death of Afzal Khan, Shivaji with his magnanimonious
attitude got the tomb of Khan made from his funds. Pure and simple it was
a battle between two kings for power and religion had nothing to do with
this. RSS in its agenda of spreading hatred through concocted history is
trying to pick up all these scattered events and giving them the communal
color. This view totally forgets that Kings were not aligned along
religious lines. Shivajis initial battles were against the Chandra Rao
More another Maratha chief who was ruler of Javali, a nearby Kingdom.
Similarly it was Raja Jaisingh who represented Auranzeb in his
confrontation against the Mughal rule of Delhi. Can one forget that most
of the mughal Emperors had Hindu kings as in charge of their revenue
departments, or the likes of Raja Mansingh who was the Commander in Chief
of Akbar? Instances abound, loyalty was the central marker for the Kings,
kings employees and the subjects of the kingdom.

One cannot forget Hakim Khan Sur who was on the side of Rana Pratap and
laid down his life for him in the battle of Haldi Ghati. Shivaji himself
had Maulana Hyder Ali as his confidential secretary and many a Muslim
generals in his army, more particularly in the cannon and naval divisions.
Auranzeb, who is regarded as the most bigoted Muslim king had around 34%
court officials in high places that were Hindus. Bahadur Shah Jafar went
on to lead a section of Indian Kings, Hindus and Muslims, against the
British in the 1857 revolt. Many other kings kept aloof from this anti
British battle and sided with British during this.

The British initiated most of the lopsided presentation of History. As
they came here and gradually usurped the power, they had to rule, for
which they had to win over the loyalty of the people away from the Muslim
Kings. Through two of their books, James Mill, History of British India,
and Elliot and Dawsons eight volume History of India as told by her
Historians, saw the whole past as a conflict between Hindus and Muslims.
Also to demonize the Muslim Kings they propagated that Muslim Kings
destroyed Hindu temples, spread Islam on the strength of sword and heaped
atrocities on Hindus. They (British) claimed that they have come here on
the mission from the God himself to civilize the barbarians here, white
mans burden, and also that they wanted to save the Hindus from the
atrocities of Muslim Kings. One is struck by the similarity of the
language of the colonial powers. Not very long ago our own George W Bush
also claimed that he is attacking Iraq to save the Iraqis from the
atrocities of Saddam Hussein. And the rest, like his liberating actions in
Abu Graib prison and other tortures heaped on Iraqis is too well-known to
be recounted again.

This communal view of History was picked up the Communalists, both Muslim
and Hindus and modifies in their own way for their own political gains.
The Togadias and Modis merrily project the murder of Afzal Khan as the
victory of Hindus over the Muslims. And in their effort to break the
Indian community into warring religious communities the offsprings of RSS
are on the hunt to discover the so-called contentious spots. Having got a
major break through the demolition of Babri Masjid, they feel such
discoveries of History can bring them in power. So they went in to create
problem in Baba Budan Giri dargah (Datta Pitham), Idgah Maidan (Rani
Chennama ground), Maula Masjid (Bhojashala), Haji Malaang (Malanggadh) and
so on. Their Hate department is working overtime to discover the spots
which can create problems, which can create violence and in turn give them
power which they are desperately seeking to maul the democratic and
liberal space, which is the prerequisite for social transformation.

The response to post Babri spots shows that RSS may not succeed in its
designs. Though emotive issues make the people blind, there  a limit to
which they can be blinded. It seems the formula, which RSS progeny thinks
is sure to work for breaking the unity of Indian society, may not work
beyond a point. Thanks to the enlightened people that RSS offsprings are
biting dust one after the other. One waits with baited breath as to what
other gimmick Advanis and Togadias have in store to attack the plural and
syncretic values of Indian society.

______


[5]

http://communalism.blogspot.com/2004/10/rss-rashtriya-savages-syndicate.html
South Asia Citizens Wire | October 12, 2004

RSS (Rashtriya Savages' Syndicate) CELEBRATES GANDHI JAYANTI
by I.K.Shukla 

We took a solemn pledge long long ago
To kill that MG every day in every way
From Syn duty and Hindutva we won't stray
Our right to pre-empt and prevail we won't forego.
Unless we purge the Bharat of our dreams of all
That Muslims, Christians, Dalits, Tribals, Women, plan
To soil us with by dotting Bharat with their offal
We'd be seen as void of brains as we were of brawn.
We're the "cowards and Quislings of Indian history".
True. Why the hell should we give a damn for India
We did so much to break, not make, as devil's tapestry,
That failing to trash or trump we cried culpa mea?
We purged Bharat with our swindles and scams
With robbery, rape, butchery, and blaze of non-Hindus
Sowing terror and tyranny with black-capped whams
Scaring qualms of conscience with our bans and boos.
The world knows: As cultural nationalists we didn't fail
We're famous as founders of "Crime: Our Religion"
Our treason and terror all Bharat would hail
As divine, tho' drenched in blood, but draped in saffron.

______


[6]   Satya Satyagrah - Update on Appeal for 
Solidarity, Reform, Justice and Harmony

SPRAT
Society for the Promotion of Rational Thinking
SF-8, Rajnagar Complex, Narayan Nagar Road,
Paldi, AHMEDABAD 380 007
Tel: +79-2663 46 55 /66 /77  M [Sudha] 9825457065 Fax: +79-2661 20 49
Web: www.mysprat.org  e-mail: satyagrah at mysprat.org
11-Oct-04

Dear Madam / Sir,

The People of India resoundingly rejected 
communalism in the last general elections.
The Government at the Centre was changed.
But has the situation changed for the victims of Gujarat's 2002 riots?


From 2nd October 04
[Gandhi
Jayanti]
Satya Satyagrah
A Humble Reminder for Reform, Justice and Harmony
24-hr
Sit-in on Liquid Diet [Rasaahar Dharna]
In front of NENSEY NAWABKHAN CARAVAN,
Baug-e-Nawab Complex, Nr Shalimar Cinema,
Shah Alam, Ahmedabad

[Full Text at:
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2004/10/satya-satyagrah-update-on-appeal-for.html 
]

______


[7]

  [Upcoming Events:]

A documentary film
And an Open Discussion

KASHMIR: THE FLASHPOINT OF WAR AND THE KEY TO PEACE

SANSAD invites you to a viewing of
Kashmir, Pakistan, India: Crossing the Lines of Control
  a video documentary
by Dr. Parvez Hoodbhoy
followed by an open discussion.

Location: Video In
1965 Main Street
Vancouver

Sunday, October 24, 2004, 2-5 pm




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

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matters of peace and democratisation in South 
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit 
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