SACW | 31 Oct 2004

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  31 October,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Sri Lanka: Remembering the Eviction and 
Recognizing the Rights of the Northern Muslims 
(SLDF)
[2] Bangladesh:  Ahmadiyya mosque in ruins - Meet 
the bigotry with full force of law (Edit, The 
Daily Star)
[3] India: Anti  Sikh Riots of 1984
(i) Prosecute Killers of Sikhs - End Two Decades 
of Impunity (Human Rights Watch)
(ii)  20 Years After 1984 (Sheela Barse)
(iii) Trauma revisited (Harish Khare)
[4] India: A Case for Sustainable Rhetoric - The Tower of Gabble (P. Sainath)
[5]  Upcoming events :
(i)  Larzish: 2nd Int. film festival on Sexuality 
and Gender Prularity (Bombay, November 4-7, 2004)
(ii) The Second Annual Promise of India Conference (Bombay, Jan 10, 2004)
(iii) Understanding Cinema - A Film Appreciation 
Course (New Delhi, November 2-14, 2004)


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

[1]

Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF)
30 October 2004
For Immediate Release

REMEMBERING THE EVICTION AND RECOGNIZING THE RIGHTS OF THE NORTHERN MUSLIMS


On the 30th of October 1990, fourteen years ago to this day the forced
eviction of the Northern Muslims tore apart the social fabric of Northern
Sri Lanka, and brought grief and trauma to tens of thousands of Muslim
families.   As we remember that day, we voice our sorrow and outrage that
fourteen years after that cruel act of ethnic cleansing, and two and a
half years into the signing the Ceasefire Agreement, the Northern Muslims
have still not been able to return home, have not featured significantly
in the peace process and have not had their political rights substantively
affirmed by any of the major actors.

The Ethnic Cleansing of Northern Muslims by the LTTE

In 1990, the LTTE expelled all Muslims from the five districts (Vavuniya,
Mannar, Mullaithivu, Kilinochchi & Jaffna) of the Northern Province.
Muslims represented about 7 percent of Sri Lanka’s total population, and
had historically been concentrated in Northern Sri Lanka, Eastern Sri
Lanka, and in the cities of Colombo, Kandy and Puttalam.  In the Northern
Province, substantial concentrations of Muslims resided in the Jaffna,
Kilinochchi and Mannar districts.

On that terrible day 75,000-80,000 Muslims were given just 24-48 hours to
leave the Northern Province (some residents in Jaffna Town were forced out
in only two hours), or meet the fate of Muslims in the Eastern Province
who had been massacred in the hundreds in August and September of that
year.  They were stripped of their belongings and houses and permitted to
take only Rupees 500 with them.  The plundering of the possessions from
their homes followed soon after their enforced departure.  The physical,
economic, social and psychological suffering to which the entire Northern
Muslim population was subjected was immeasurable and continues to this
day.  Since then the majority of Northern Muslims have been living in a
variety of refugee settlements in the Puttalam district.

This collective uprooting of tens of thousand of families was a cruel and
calculated act directed against a group of people based purely on the fact
that they were Muslims, from areas where Tamils and Muslims had lived
together for centuries.  It was also an act done without any popular
support.  Ordinary Tamil people were outraged and revolted, but they
remained silent out of fear of LTTE retribution.  The enforced evacuation
of defenceless Muslim families was systematically carried out by LTTE
cadres who went about in vehicles fitted with loud-hailers, ordering them
to leave or face retribution.  In the Jaffna town, Muslim males were
ordered to gather at the grounds of the Mosque and told they and their
families should ‘leave the boundaries of Eelam’ within 24 hours. The
movement of LTTE cadres from one local area to another, the way in which
roads were blocked off to herd people through certain routes, and the
systematic way in which people’s possessions were expropriated, sorted,
and sold or distributed among the LTTE’s chosen followers, revealed that
this was a premeditated and well-planned operation, executed with menacing
military precision and ruthlessness.

The LTTE has never given an official reason for carrying out this enforced
evacuation, leading us to conclude that it was purely an exercise in
ethnic cleansing, driven by the bigotry of exclusivist Tamil nationalist
militarism.

After the Eviction, the Northern Muslims have attempted to rebuild their
lives, mainly in Puttalam.  Even though they arrived with nothing, they
have struggled to give their children education, they sought employment
under hard conditions to support their families, and they have rebuilt
mosques, new village settlements and maintained their sense of dignity.
Even as a new generation has been born in exile that has no memory of
their parents’ homes or their relationship with the Tamil community,
Northern Muslims have reached out to the Tamil community in their former
homes.  Their efforts to maintain relationships when possible with their
former neighbours testify to their eagerness to rebuild Muslim Tamil
relations.

Duty of the Tamils

The Tamil people have a responsibility to help and facilitate the return
of the Northern Muslims to their homes.  Civil society organizations
including churches, schools, associations (fisher and agricultural and
trader unions) among others must take the initiative in inviting Northern
Muslims to visit their homes and engage in dialogue with a view to helping
them to rebuild their lives there.  Tamil people in the Diaspora, many of
whom left the country due to violations of their own rights, must even
belatedly recognise the predicament of the Northern Muslims, and champion
their case for the restoration of their shattered lives.  This includes
their right to return to their own homes in the North, and their
entitlement to substantial reparations for their inhuman and unlawful
eviction, for the material losses they suffered in the process, and for
the continuing suffering to which they have been subjected to all these
years.

This outrage against the Muslim people, which was carried out by the LTTE
in the name of Tamils will continue to remain one of the darkest episodes
in the annals of our history.  The Tamil people must call upon the LTTE
and its leader Velupillai Pirpaharan in particular to make an unqualified
public apology for the crime they have committed against the Muslim
people.

The Muslim people, just as much as their Tamil compatriots, are entitled
to representation that ensures that their legitimate and reasonable
aspirations are satisfied, and their interests protected.  Hence, the
Tamil people must reject as deplorable any attempt by the LTTE to prevent
separate representation for the Muslim community at peace talks aimed at
finding a political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

The LTTE

Just as majoritarian Sinhala nationalists sought to deny the legitimate
rights of the Tamil people based on the spurious claim that Sri Lanka was
the ‘homeland of Sinhala-Buddhists only’, the LTTE seeks to deny the
legitimate rights of the Muslims based on the claim that the North and
East is the ‘homeland of the Tamils only’.  The LTTE must recognize that
the North and East is the homeland of all people who have made it their
home.

To this day, Vellupillai Pirapaharan has offered no apology or any
guarantee that if the evicted Muslims were to return to their homes en
masse they would not be evicted again.  Muslims who have attempted to
return to the North have been discouraged from doing so.  Some who have
taken the risk and returned to restart their business ventures have been
taxed heavily and their freedom to operate has been severely curtailed.
In some instances, these businesses have been taken over by the LTTE.

It is the height of hypocrisy on the part of the LTTE to demand that the
displaced Tamils from the High Security Zones should be allowed to return
to their homes, when they will not permit the return of Muslims they
themselves forcibly evicted some 14 years ago.

It is high time that the LTTE acknowledged its responsibility, making a
public apology for the crimes it has committed against the Muslim people
and subjecting itself to a process by which reparations could be
considered.  It also should give a public guarantee that if and when the
evicted Muslim people return to their homes, they would be allowed the
right and freedom to occupy them without any fear of threats, harassment
or violence in the future.

Government of Sri Lanka

The Government of Sri Lanka must offer the Northern Muslims who wish to
return resources to enable them and their children born in exile to
resettle in the North.  It must ensure protection against further
expulsions and provide constitutional guarantees for the political,
economic and cultural rights of the Muslim community.  The Northern Muslim
question must be considered a significant part of the GOSL’s negotiation
of any interim arrangement or permanent political solution.

The SLDF supports the call by the Muslim Peoples Action Front (Muslim
Makkal Seyalani) for the appointment of a Special Presidential Commission
with terms of reference to investigate the forcible eviction of the
Northern Muslims and consider and assess all forms of damage that they
have suffered during the intervening years and make appropriate
recommendations including for the award of adequate compensation for the
victims.

The Peace Talks

The Northern Muslims came up in the peace talks only as a humanitarian
issue relating to the resettlement of internally displaced people.  It was
formally part of the mandate given to SIHRN (Sub Committee on Immediate
Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs).  SIHRN was confirmed in the fourth
round of Peace talks to be the primary decision making body dealing with
humanitarian and rehabilitation needs in the North and East. Subsequently,
SIHRN virtually ceased functioning when the LTTE withdrew from the peace
talks in April 2003.  As a result even the Northern Muslims’ humanitarian
needs have been neglected, much less their political right to return.
Because the major actors in the peace process have failed to support the
Northern Muslims’ political right to return home, Northern Muslims are
placed in the position of having to individually negotiate their return
home with local LTTE cadres.  However, we note that in the fourth round of
talks that ‘the parties agreed that a Muslim delegation will be invited to
the peace talks at an appropriate time for deliberations on relevant
substantive political issues’.  SLDF demands a Muslim delegation including
Northern Muslim representatives should be invited to any further peace
talks.  We demand that the substantive political rights of Northern
Muslims to return to their homes and live without fear should be affirmed
and incorporated into any peace process that aims for a just peace in Sri
Lanka.

International Community

The International community has been playing a critical role in the Sri
Lankan Peace Process.  However, it has not engaged sufficiently with
Northern Muslims on issues relating to their right to return, their right
to be represented at the peace talks and their participation in
rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The Norwegian Facilitators should ensure a Muslim delegation at the peace
talks.  This Muslim delegation should comprise representatives from the
Northern Muslims.  The SLMM should investigate and report ongoing
violations against Northern Muslims attempting to return with the
commitment to ending such atrocities.

The Sri Lanka Donor Co-chairs on 1 June 2004 noted ‘that a peace
settlement can only be sustained if it respects the legitimate rights and
involvement of all ethnic groups
 The Co-chairs encouraged the parties to
agree on the modalities to invite a Muslim delegation to the peace talks
at an appropriate time for the deliberation on relevant substantive
political issues’.  SLDF demands that any donor assistance to the peace
process must be conditional on addressing the political concerns of the
Northern Muslims.  Funds being dispersed to the North and East for
reconstruction must be accessible by all minorities and particularly the
Northern Muslims.

Towards a just peace

SLDF demands that the Northern Muslims be integrated into any negotiations
for peace and a permanent political solution.  It appears that Northern
Muslims’ political, economic and cultural rights have not been recognized
as important enough to derail the peace process, and thus have been
neglected.  We say that it is precisely the political status of
marginalised communities such as the Northern Muslims and their right to
live in their homes free from harassment, extortion and eviction that the
peace process if it is to committed to meaningful peace should address.
SLDF calls on all of Sri Lanka’s citizens, Muslims, Tamils and Sinhalese
to work towards the rights of and justice for the Northern Muslims.


--
Sri Lanka Democracy Forum
www.lankademocracy.org

_____


[2]

The Daily Star - October 31, 2004

Editorial

Ahmadiyya mosque in ruins
Meet the bigotry with full force of law

The attack on an Ahmadiyya mosque in Brahmanbaria 
just minutes before the call to Juma prayer on 
Friday during the holy month of Ramadan must be 
considered the height of ungodliness. The fact 
that the perpetrators could defile both 
themselves and the month of Ramadan by committing 
such a shameful act at such a time shows that 
they have little respect for the religion under 
whose banner they claim to be acting.

It has been reported that the attack consisted of 
hundreds of machete, axe, stick, and 
club-wielding fanatics storming the mosque, 
beating worshippers, and destroying the 
tin-roofed and bamboo-walled mosque. The 
hate-filled mob of around 1,000 then went on a 
rampage, vandalising and robbing Ahmadiyya 
houses, and injuring a dozen people, including 
women.

There are no words to describe our outrage at 
this act of predatory religious intolerance. The 
constitution and simple human decency mandate 
that people be secure in their right to worship.

This has gone too far. Anti-Ahmadiyya bigots have 
been active for the last twelve months, but this 
is the first time they have actually destroyed an 
Ahmadiyya mosque.

The government must not remain a mute spectator 
any more; it has a duty to protect the Ahmadiyya 
community. It must do everything in its power to 
prevent persecution taking place against them in 
any shape or form.

The government claimed that the ban on Ahmadiyya 
publications would help diminish anti-Ahmadiyya 
sentiments, but it is clear that this has 
emboldened the bigots and made the position of 
the Ahmadiyyas even more insecure.

Repealing the ban on their publications would be 
a good start, as would bringing to justice the 
perpetrators of Friday's attack. The government 
must make clear that violence against Ahmadiyyas 
will be countered with the full force of the law. 
Nothing less is good enough.

_____


[3]  [Anti Sikh Riots of 1984]


(i)

Human Rights Watch - Press Release

INDIA: PROSECUTE KILLERS OF SIKHS
End Two Decades of Impunity

(New York, November 30, 2004) – On the twentieth anniversary of the
mass killings of Sikhs, the new Congress-led government should launch
fresh investigations into and make a public commitment to prosecute the
planners and implementers of the violence, Human Rights Watch said
today.

In 1984, in retaliation for the assassination of Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, angry mobs, some
allegedly organized by members of the Congress party, attacked and killed
thousands of Sikhs. From November 1 to November 4, gangs attacked the
symbols and structures of the Sikh faith, the properties of Sikhs, and killed
whole families by burning them alive. The residences and properties of
Sikhs were identified through government-issued voter lists.

Victim groups, lawyers and activists have long alleged state complicity in
the violence. For three days the police failed to act, as gangs carrying
weapons and kerosene roamed the streets, exhorting non-Sikhs to kill
Sikhs and loot and burn their properties.

“Seven government-appointed commissions have investigated these
attacks,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. But the
commissions were all either whitewashes or they were met with official
stonewalling and obstruction.”

The report of the latest commission, the Nanavati Commission, was due
November 1, but has been delayed for another two months.
“The time for commissions that do not lead to prosecutions is over,” said
Adams. “After two decades, the prosecutors and police should act. There
is more than enough evidence to do so now.”

Human Rights Watch called for an end to political protection for
organizers of the violence. Some of those allegedly involved in the
pogrom currently occupy posts in the government or are members of
parliament. Both the judiciary and administrative inquiry commissions
have failed to hold these perpetrators accountable.

“For two decades high-ranking members of the Congress party have
enjoyed political impunity for this violence,” said Adams. “The fact that
many of the alleged planners of the violence were and are members of the
Congress party should not be a barrier to justice for the victims.”
Human Rights Watch commended ENSAAF (www.ensaaf.org), an
organization dedicated to fighting impunity in India, for its 150-page
report, Twenty Years of Impunity, analyzing the patterns of the pogroms
and the attitudes and practices of impunity revealed by previously
unpublished government documents and other materials.

“With many connected to the violence now enjoying prominent positions
in public life, the ENSAAF report makes it clear that India continues to
ignore this dark chapter of its modern history at its own risk,” said Adams.
“Only a conscious exercise of political will on the part of the new
government of Prime Minister Singh can bring about justice for the
Sikhs.”

o o o o


(ii)


Indian Express, October 29, 2004

20 YEARS AFTER 1984
By Sheela Barse

The little boy with spiky hair who could not speak

The 20th anniversary of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 is approaching.

The highest riot death toll since Partition, not 
a single conviction, 1984 remains India's 
forgotten genocide

Thirty-six hours after more than 300 Sikhs in 
that basti had been lynched, burnt and flung down 
from upper floors in the presence of their 
families, pushing back the women and children who 
rushed to embrace the targeted men, Delhi police 
had found one bus to bring out the terrorised 
survivors from their looted homes with just their 
clothes on, to the police grounds.

A 12-year-old boy sat alone apart from his kin, 
on a large stone, brooding, head held firm on a 
straight spine. The knot of his kesh had been 
lopped off but the remaining hair, glued spiny 
stiff and erect in a bunch, proclaimed his 
continuing identity. ''He has not spoken a word 
since he saw his father and uncle being burnt to 
death and flung down from first floor,'' a 
relative informs.

A desultory conversation begins. A middle-aged 
sardarni, still dreaming of the gory killing of 
her husband, softly asks, ''Is it possible to 
rescue my brother-in-law? He is all burnt but 
there is still some breath in him. He is sitting 
in a chair for the last 40 hours.'' The woman 
withdraws into herself.

I ask for a guide to locate the house. A 
polio-affected youth moves closer. ''I will. The 
police left behind my wife. Her thigh and 
shoulder were scorched as she threw herself on my 
eldest brother when they set him on fire live. 
She is mute and young, childlike really...''

An athletic sardar, kesh cut, clean-shaven, 
accompanies me. Few hours ago, like many Sikhs in 
that colony, he had paid several hundred rupees 
to a barber to raze an integral part of his 
being. Since October 31, 'kesh' marked not a 
glorious inheritance but a victim to be torched 
alive.

With the doctor's team and first-aid, we enter 
the colony and pause by a wounded elderly man 
lying on a cot. He would need an ambulance. We do 
not have one. ''Now you come,'' screams a woman. 
''After bodies have been thrown in the nullahs.'' 
A Sikh grabs my arm, ''Curfew laga dijiye." Our 
guide sprints into a lane. Mounds of junk placed 
across the road every few yards, the lynchers' 
barricades to prevent victims escaping in their 
taxis. The young doctors trail. The guide breaks 
into a run and leaps over front steps of a house. 
''Anyone there?'' I call out a few times, then 
step in.

The house had been looted clean, no furniture, no 
utensils, no clothes. ''There is no one inside, I 
checked thoroughly,'' he says. Depressed, we 
stand still in the stark living room. A mob of 
200 men and women has arched around the house 
while we are inside. They watch us silently. 
''What have you done with him?'' I yell. ''Didn't 
burning him satisfy you? His bhabhi told me that 
Dilbara Singh is sitting in a chair. Where have 
you hidden him?''

''Oh Dilbara Singh!'' a man steps up saucily. 
''Come here. This pile of ashes, that's him. His 
wife broke up the chair and gave him a live 
funeral, with flowers and everything.'' he grins 
wickedly.

The chowk is now blocked by a mob of 150. The 
news of a rescue team has travelled. I notice 
brass knuckles on a fist and cycle chain in a 
hand and discover that our guide is 
missing.''Where is the man who came with us?,'' I 
yell.''He was with us 2 minutes ago. What have 
you done with him?''

An armed sub-inspector comes running. ''He is 
safe. He was recognised. He ran for his life. He 
asked me to inform you.'' The officer was the 
sole policeman on duty for 48 hours.

The sun begins to set. Someone hails us. An 
elderly thick-set sardar in a wheelchair pushed 
by two youngsters. ''Take me out please,'' the 
sardar pleads. We walk away but a few steps 
later, I abruptly halt. The disabled Sikh is not 
safe, he's in danger. We turn and stride to the 
disabled man. ''Come,'' we say. But the three 
young men have their hands firm on his 
wheelchair. ''We'll take him. We are with Nandita 
Haksar.'' I believe them only after sighting 
Nandita 300 meters away.

That evening I hitch a ride in a press car. 
''Fifty-nine Hindus killed, some pulled in 
gurdwaras.'' they tell me. ''But we are not 
printing that.''.

Police Commissioner Tandon refuses to see the 
press. PRO Panwar sniggers, ''Hundreds killed in 
one basti? How is it possible to burn people 
alive? We have not received any complaints.''

Reporters decide to gatecrash Tandon's office. 
''Please order shoot at sight." He steps back 
into the unlit shield of his chamber. His 
subordinates and guards block the door.

Next day, I visit the morgue. A corpse wrapped in 
a bloodstained brilliant white sheet is laid 
outside the walled compound, in front of the 
gate. Not a soul around. I ask a policeman if I 
can pay for a few decent funerals.

In the compound, to my left, is an open shed with 
hundreds of bloated corpses stacked 6-7 deep like 
logs. In front of me, scores of rotting bodies 
heaped in a truck. Nearby a dump of swollen, 
decaying remains of men. Disconnected tufts of 
hair strewn around. The policeman returns, asks 
me to come over. I take a few steps over the 
bunches of kesh littering the compound and blown 
around my feet.

Outside, I stand for a while with an anonymous, unaccompanied body.


o o o o

(iii)

Magazine  |   The Hindu - Oct 31, 2004

Comment

TRAUMA REVISITED

The anti-Sikh riots in 1984 shattered a 
collective illusion. Till then we had believed in 
the notion of an all-powerful State, a 
super-efficient bureaucracy, and a professional 
police force. In the end, it has taken a toll on 
our capacity to sort out differences and 
disputes, reflects HARISH KHARE.


THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY

Collective loss as establishments, places of 
worship, localities and houses were the targets 
of mobs.


OCTOBER 31, 1984. No.1, Safdurjung Road. The 
early hours of the morning. Indira Gandhi is shot 
dead in her own house. The Prime Minister of 
India is assassinated. The killers are two 
security guards, both Sikhs, trained and trusted 
to protect her. But the killers' loyalty and 
professional conscience is suborned by those who 
traffic in un-religious ideas in the name of 
religion.

She had committed a sacrilege, according to them. 
Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister, was to be 
punished for daring to offend the Sikhs' most 
sacred religious symbol, the Golden Temple in 
Amritsar when she sent in troops to flush out the 
Khalistani-secessionist, "Sant" Bhindranwale who 
had converted the gurudwara into a terrorists' 
base camp and was out to declare "independence" 
from the holy sanctum sanctorum. Indira Gandhi 
had to die for "Operation Bluestar". She was made 
to pay the price for performing her duty to 
defend the country's integrity and unity.

The flashpoint


Indira Gandhi died on the spot. Even before a 
stunned nation could recover its breath, there 
were sporadic reports of a few Sikhs breaking out 
in celebrations. The collective nerves, 
dangerously strained over the last few years on 
account of Khalistani terror activities, were 
itching to find an outlet.

By evening, anti-Sikh violence broke out. For the 
next 72 hours, the capital was a possessed city. 
Blood-thirsty. Ugly. Violent. Unreasonable and 
unyielding in this unreasonableness. The Sikhs' 
establishments, places of worship, localities and 
houses were targeted by mobs. The violence did 
not begin to abate till the new prime minister, 
Rajiv Gandhi ordered the sacking of the Lt. 
Governor of Delhi, P.S. Gavai on the night of 
November 3. The Union Home Secretary, Madan Mohan 
Kishan Wali, was made the new Lt. Governor. The 
Army had to be called in to restore order as the 
Delhi Police was a disgrace with its 
incompetence, cowardice and complicity in the 
violence.

At last the madness subsided. The ritual of 
revenge was over. And the city began to 
comprehend - to its shame - the extent of its 
madness. Over 2,000 Sikh men, women and children 
had been killed. Mangolpuri, Trilokpuri, 
Sultanpuri, Shakarpur, Janakpuri - the localities 
of gruesome butchery - became names that continue 
to trouble the city's collective conscience.

The mob violence against innocent Sikhs created 
its own set of consequences. Bhindranwale was 
dead but he had now the satisfaction of creating 
enmity between the Sikhs and the rest of India, a 
schism cynically exploited by foreign powers. The 
Khalistan movement, with its various self-styled 
commanders - almost all of them financed by 
foreign money and agencies - continued to spill 
blood for a decade after Indira Gandhi's 
assassination.

Looking back


Now, two decades later, how do we look at that 
fateful morning of October 31, 1984? We have not 
come to terms with a defining moment in our 
post-Independence history.

As a society, India is not stranger to bloodshed 
on a mass scale. Before and after Independence 
there had been instances of communal violence. 
Yet 1984 was the first case of collective frenzy 
of a kind that the nation had never witnessed 
before. A murderous assault on the Prime 
Minister, symbol of the Indian State, became the 
provocation for the dormant ugliness to break out 
in bloody glory. This was the first time that a 
section of society unconsciously elevated itself 
as a partisan of the State and felt it had the 
licence to punish those who sought to challenge 
the Indian State.

Shattering the myths


The violence and its extent took us by surprise. 
The anti-Sikh riots shattered a collective 
illusion. Till then we had believed in the notion 
of an all-powerful State, a super-efficient 
bureaucracy, and a professional police force; 
these assumptions were unconsciously reinforced 
by the post-Independence political leadership 
that promised to cure us of our each and every 
ailment. Indira Gandhi in particular had sought 
to elevate herself to the status of an 
omnipresent and omnipotent ruler. Her earlier 
experiment with "Internal emergency" was 
precisely - for her as well as the public - an 
essay in unlimited and unrestricted powers of the 
Union government. She had come back to power on 
the slogan of providing the country a "government 
that works".

These pretensions came to haunt her as the 
government could not cope with the challenge 
posed by Bhindranwale. So dominant was her image 
of a superb politician that she was suspected of 
playing footsie with the extremist Bhindranwale 
in a cunning stratagem to outplay the Akalis, who 
had declared a dharmayudha. No one wanted to 
believe that the Bhindranwale issue was stoked by 
unfriendly foreign powers; Pakistan's complicity 
was obvious, but not too obvious was the 
traditional meddling by Western powers.


THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY

Demanding justice in Delhi.


Indira Gandhi's assassination by her own security 
guards not only mocked her pretensions of an 
omnipotent ruler. It also constituted the 
ultimate breakdown of the Indian State and its 
presumed pervasiveness; yet most Indians clung to 
the notion that even in that grave hour, the 
"system" should have "performed" and that the 
"law and order" machinery should have 
automatically displayed its professional nerves 
of steel. We refused to come to terms with the 
fact that the "law and order" machinery could 
have its limits. Instead, we preferred to believe 
that somehow the political leadership of the day 
was cold-blooded enough to allow the violence to 
go on for days. We chose to believe that our 
rulers - politicians and bureaucrats - had 
available to them infinite wisdom, flawless and 
complete information, as well as the tools and 
instruments of control, and all that was needed 
was for them to indicate that they wanted the 
situation to be controlled.

In particular, we assumed that if the 
"leadership" wanted to bring out the Army it 
could have done so within a few hours; no one 
wanted to know - or concede even now - that since 
Independence, the civilian leadership had seen to 
it that only a very token Army presence was 
maintained in the capital. The civilian-army 
relationship had come under strain only a couple 
of years earlier during the Asian Games when Army 
columns had moved into the capital much over the 
sanctioned strength. At the best of times, the 
civilian establishment was systematically 
allergic to the idea "calling in the army".

The violence shattered another myth. We thought 
we were a civilised society; schooled in 
Nehruvian decency and softened by our religious 
pieties; especially the Hindu collective mind-set 
that sees the community as genetically incapable 
of inflicting violence. But here we were 
demonstrating ourselves as being prepared, 
mentally and emotionally, to indulge in mass 
scale butchery and brutality and be blood-thirsty.

It was as if we had been transported back to the 
medieval ages; Hindu men, women and children came 
out to see gurudwaras go up in flames as a matter 
of public spectacle. Till then we had never cared 
to take note of the creeping element of 
lumpenisation and insensitivity that had blunted 
our collective thinking.

We were traumatised as a society; we coped with 
these two great disillusions by going into 
denial. We blamed insistently that Congress 
leaders had instigated and sustained anti-Sikh 
frenzy. This view had since congealed into an 
irrefutable mythology. Goon-like Congress leaders 
made the perfect fall guys. Our collective 
indignation, anger, shame, resentment, 
embarrassment over the mass outbreak of violence 
got neatly packaged into a politically correct 
`Congress-is-to-be-blamed-for-the-anti-Sikh- 
riots" attitude. Civil liberty groups rushed in 
with hasty indictments to confirm the first 
judgment. The young prime minister and his 
sophomoric advisers added insult to injury with 
their arrogant "you-asked-for-it, man" 
body-language. The Congress party's massive 
victory in the Lok Sabha two months later only 
added to the myth of culpability.

The terrible fallout

The catechism of guilt and blame fuelled Sikh 
anger and sustained the Khalistani movement for 
nearly a decade. It also deflected attention away 
from the root cause of the Punjab problem: the 
Akali Dal's unstated, but openly practised, 
demand for monopolistic political supremacy in 
Punjab because it claims (a la the Hurriyat 
leadership in Kashmir) to be sole custodian of 
the best interests of the Sikh community. Every 
time this undemocratic demand gets checkmated by 
other political parties through democratic means, 
the Akalis reserve the right to revert back to 
quasi-secessionist sentiment. The Akalis remain 
uncured of this claim, despite their decade long 
political association with the Bharatiya Janata 
Party (BJP), a party of self-proclaimed 
nationalists.


GAMMA

A victim after Delhi went up in flames.

The violence of 1984 and the majority's community 
capacity for hatred and antagonism were 
eye-openers for the Hindu right wing in the 
country. The Hindutva brigade realised that the 
Hindu was not a coward and that the Hindu 
"masses" were ready for a "renaissance" ; 
unapologetically the Hindutva mob decided to feed 
the Hindus' collective itch for settling a few 
scores. The BJP has not looked back since then.

"1984" was a moment of crisis for the Indian 
State, which precipitated a crisis of liberal 
India and deepened the Hindu community's sense of 
dis-empowerment. It took a toll on our capacity 
to sort out differences and disputes, and we 
continue to pay a price in Jammu and Kashmir as 
well as in the North-East. October 31 led to 
December 6, 1992, and Gujarat 2002.

We have not yet dared to draw the requisite 
conclusions. Sometimes it seems Indira Gandhi 
died in vain.

_____


[4]

Counterpunch.org
Weekend Edition
October 30 / 31, 2004

A CASE FOR SUSTAINABLE RHETORIC
THE TOWER OF GABBLE

by P. Sainath

I have reflected in recent times on all the 
useful words that Development has taught me. It 
seems to me this is something Civil Society needs 
to ponder, right from the Grassroots to Emerging 
Leaders. At some point, a Knowledge-Based Society 
needs to learn something. What, I do not know, 
but hopefully something that demarcates us from 
all those ignorance-based societies of these past 
millennia. Perhaps we need to have a Consultation 
of NGOs, Action Groups, CSOs and all other 
Stakeholders to work out the Best Practices in 
this regard..

These groups could then work towards a Summit 
bringing together the best talent from amongst 
whom we create a Task Force which will then seek 
to Empower the Target Groups in each sector. The 
Summit itself will work out an overall 
Declaration to be translated into concrete Action 
Plans by Focus Groups. The Exploratory Sessions 
will be based on Interactive Communication (and 
Gender Equity).

Since by this time we might be running low on 
Sustainable Resources, we could initiate a number 
of Private-Public Partnerships to ensure that 
some share of the moolah goes to at least a few 
Beneficiaries. (The Livelihood Issues of the 
leaders of Non-Profits, for instance, are not 
unimportant.) These Micro-Credit Strategies could 
further be supplemented through Budgetary 
Allocations by other Facilitators (sometimes 
called governments). They could be roped in via a 
Plenary Session on Good Governance, 
Accountability and the importance of Networking.

Given the need to create an Alternative Dialogue 
with an Innovative Conceptual Framework, we could 
enlist the Traditional Knowledge of Development 
Consultants who would call Workshops to decide on 
how to Mainstream Development Issues in the 
Media. We must, after all, examine Paradigm 
Shifts in the Development Debate while 
strengthening Conscientization, Advocacy Outreach 
and Institution-Building.

We propose a Preparatory Meeting (at an 
Eco-Friendly locale) which can formulate a 
Mission Statement on how best to further the 
goals of Human Development and Natural Resource 
Management towards building a better Common 
Future. Realization of our Millennium Goals would 
undoubtedly require serious Capacity Building 
Ideas on how to ensure Food Security for the 
participants in the Pre-Summit Brainstorming are 
welcome. Undoubtedly, in this era of the 
Information Society, the first session will be on 
ICTs and Poverty Alleviation.

There will be, of course, a Focus Session on 
Resource Mobilization (Self-Help Groups are asked 
to show a little restraint at this point). 
Deliberations resume after a quick Participatory 
Research Lunch. Germane to the Fund-Raising focus 
will be the Study of Issue-Based development of 
Institutional Linkages to the right Donors. The 
whole area throws up several Challenges / 
Opportunities that call for Strategic Planning 
aimed at ensuring Control/Access over Resources.

The next session looks at Integrated Strategies 
that adopt a Holistic Approach in ensuring Local 
Participation and Community Control. Case studies 
of Successful Interventions amongst Marginalised 
Communities will be presented (by Subaltern 
Voices from the grassroots). A Core Group will do 
Environmental Impact Assessments of the radical 
new rhetoric. Our Documentation & Research Centre 
will preserve all relevant material in 
Gender-Sensitive Databases. (All irrelevant 
material goes into the Final Report of the 
Conference.)


Editors' note: Okay CounterPunchers, this is a 
breach of what we term the Ron Jacobs Rule, in 
memory of a satire by this same Jacobs which too 
many CounterPunchers took to be literally true. 
We swore we'd never publish another satire. But 
exceptions are there to prove (meaning test or 
assay) the rule. This is a parody, a very deft 
parody of a dialect, called NGO-Speak. We'll 
leave it to Noam Chomsky to decide how deeply 
this hideous argot is embedded in Man's (and 
Wo-Man's) neural circuitry, but it's now become 
the lingua franca of all grant applicants, 
conference planners and permanent itinerants to 
those Forums of Uplift inhabited by all who 
believe that the world's problems can be solved 
by nice people inspired by a trip to Porto 
Allegre and a (sustainable) grant from some major 
foundation.

We are very happy to have the author of this 
genial parody on our site, where we will be 
featuring his work from time to time. P. Sainath 
is a marvelous Indian journalist we' know and 
have long admired. His great achievement has been 
to disclose to respectable India the full extent 
and horrible realities of poverty there, not 
least in the thousands of suicides of small 
farmers driven to self destruction by neo-liberal 
policies.

After glittering years on Blitz and the Times of 
India Sainath quit the padded chair of editorial 
omniscience and started reporting on the 
situation of extremely poor people across India, 
spending most of his time in the remoter 
countryside, hitherto largely disdained by the 
Indian press. His collection Everybody Loves a 
Good Drought was a deserving best seller. Sainath 
has had a powerful impact, not only on Indian 
journalism, where there have been some efforts to 
follow his pioneering work, but on the lives of 
the people he writes about since he has provoked 
some political reaction to the terrible abuses 
and corruptions he exposed. These days Sainath is 
the rural affairs editor of The Hindu. AC/JSC




______


[5]   [UPCOMING EVENTS ]

(i)

Larzish welcomes you back in its second year!

This year we bring to you, new and diverse 
programs. Expect to catch about 90 films spread 
over four days from Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, 
Canada, Columbia, France, Hong Kong, India, 
Israel, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Spain, Sweden, 
Thailand, USA, UK, Uruguay and Uganda.

Festival highlights include: 

A RETROSPECTIVE OF FILMS BY FILMMAKER PRATIBHA PARMAR - Daily
The festival brings the first ever retrospective 
of Pratibha Parmar to India. She is an award 
winning independent director and producer. Her 
films have exhibited widely at international film 
festivals and broadcast on television in many 
countries. (Kindly refer to the festival 
catalogue for timings)

DISCIPLINING BHUPEN - SEXUAL TRANSGRESSIONS AND NORMATIVE VISUALITIES
A talk by Parul Dave Mukerjee - 4th November, 15:00 - 16:00hrs
Themes of homosexuality have either been 
anathema, viewed as transgressions to be 
contained or reductive modes of organizing Bhupen 
Khakhar's entire oeuvre by institutions of art. 
Art historian Parul Dave argues that the 
radicalism of his work lies elsewhere and that 
homosexuality emerges as one among several 
positions of marginality.

MARRIAGE, FAMILY & COMMUNITY - A PANEL 
DISCUSSION, 6th November, 17:00 - 19:00Hrs
Panelists: Anupama Rao, Mary John, Rinchin and Rohini Hensman
It is apparent that the institution of the 
'natural family', as decreed through marriage, 
has remained a dominant organising principle. In 
what ways has feminism, dalit, queer or left 
politics attempted to transgress the familiar 
boundaries of family? The panel will address 
these issues and look at more fluid forms of 
family and community.

APPEARANCES & IDENTITY, A PANEL DISCUSSION, 7th November, 15:00 - 17:00hrs
Panelists: Kajol, Maya Sharma and Shohini Ghosh
The panelists will make linkages between gender 
and sexuality within a bi-gendered society. What 
happens when people's appearances seem to create 
fissures in the binary of 'male' and 'female'? 
What identity does one carry, and how is that 
perceived in the reading of our gender?

Venue: 4th-7th November, 2004, Rama Watumull 
Auditorium, KC College, Dinshaw Wachha Road, 
Churchgate, Bombay-20

Please check the web-site for further 
details: <http://www.larzish.org>http://www.larzish.org

For invitation passes to the festival, please 
contact: 23439651 or 23436692 or write to 
<mailto:larzish_india at yahoo.com>larzish_india at yahoo.com



(ii)

A Unique Opportunity for NRIs/PIOs and Mumbaikars 
to Participate in a Public Debate on the Two 
Critical Issues That Dominated the Recent 
Historic Elections in India.

ANNOUNCING


The Second Annual
Promise of India Conference
  Mumbai, India


Making Peace With Diversity and Development
Monday, January 10, 2005, 9 AM to 4 PM
At Patkar Hall, SNDT University, Churchgate
  (Following the Third Pravasi Bharatiya Divas)
[Free Admission, by Prior Registration only]

A Debate with Expert Panelists and Audience Participation:

Panel 1: GDP Growth or Livelihoods?

Globalization with a Human Face: Rhetoric or Reality?
Rural Development: The Bumpy Road from Budgets to Panchayats
The Bottom of the Pyramid: Communities in 
Distress or Markets for Fair & Lovely?

Panel 2: Secularism: Elusive Ideal or Ground Reality?
Past Wrongs, Future Rights: What Agitates the Fence Sitters?
Re-Re-Writing History: Quick Fix or Opportunity to De-Politicize Education?
Curbing Hate Speech: More Laws and Censorship, or Public Education and Action?


Also Introducing:
Grassroots Workers from Gujarat Working for Justice and Communal Harmony
and
Joint NRI/NRP Peace Delegation to Pakistan and India

Please log on to 
<https://www.promiseofindia.org/Conference.cfm>https://www.promiseofindia.org/Conference.cfm
to pre-register today (seats are limited).
List of Panelists will be finalized soon and will be posted on the website.

o o o o

(iii)

UNDERSTANDING CINEMA

A Film Appreciation Course

Habitat Film Club [New Delhi]

2nd to 14th November, 2004

The Film Appreciation Course is an introductory 
series of lectures/discussions on Understanding 
Cinema. Moving images on the screen - how do we 
look at the images projected on the white surface 
before us. And more importantly, how do the 
images look at us, engaging us, enticing us, 
speaking to us with a language that can cut 
across or create borders and boundaries? What is 
the spell its narratives cast on us when the 
lights go down? What cultural forms and political 
intents do they draw sustenance from? And what 
fantasies/emotions/ideas do they give play to, 
and form for us? These are some of the questions 
that the Course will address.

             The course has been designed to 
initiate students into viewing film texts 
critically. The participants will be introduced 
to the basic concepts of film language and film 
form and to some of the major movements and 
masters of world cinema. Indian cinema - the 
popular cinema and the New Wave - will also be 
dealt with. Theoretical questions related to 
realism, genre and melodrama will be discussed, 
and detailed analysis of selected film texts 
representative of different kinds of cinemas will 
be undertaken. All the lectures will use 
extensive film clips to illustrate the points 
being made. In addition there will also be one 
full-length film screening at the end of the 
evening. The course will begin on 2nd November 
with an introduction to the programme followed by 
a screening of Alejandro Innaritu’s 21 Grams. All 
the class lectures will begin at 6.30 p.m and 
there will be a film screening on every weekday 
at 9 p.m. On the weekends, the programme will run 
from 10 a.m onwards. The film screening on these 
days will be at 7.30 pm. Our special guest for 
the course, Anurag Kashyap will be present for 
the screening of his new film Black Friday which 
will be screened on the 13th of November at 7.15 
pm. The interaction with the director is on the 
14th November at 11 a.m. The detailed programme 
will be handed out on the 2nd with the 
Registration package that will also include a 
reader related to the issues that will be 
discussed in the course. 75% Attendance is 
mandatory for the Certificate.


The Faculty

Madan Gopal Singh
Film Scholar, Scriptwriter, Singer-Musician
Coordinator, Cinema Studies, School of Convergence, New Delhi
Faculty, Department of English, Satyawati College, Delhi University

Ravi Vasudevan,
Film Scholar,
Co-Director, SARAI; Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSD

Shohini Ghosh
Media Critic and Scholar,
Faculty, Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia

Rashmi Doraiswamy
Film Critic  and Scholar,
Fellow, Third World Academy, Jamia Millia Islamia

Ira Bhaskar  Film Scholar,
Faculty, Dept of English, Gargi College, Delhi University

Ranjani Mazumdar (Coordinator & Instructor)
Independent Filmmaker, Scholar & Visiting Faculty 
at the Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia 
Millia Islamia


Our Special Guest for the Course:
Anurag Kashyap with his new Film Black Friday

Students
Course fee (Full Course)  = Rs.1250/- (Weekend) = Rs.300/- (Dailies) = Rs.150/-

Others
Course fee  (Full Course)  = Rs.1750/- (Weekend) 
= Rs.500/- (Dailies) = Rs.150/-


(Registration on till 1st of November. For 
further details, please contact the Programme 
Desk, Convention Centre Lobby, India Habitat 
Centre, Lodhi Road, Delhi – 110003).
Limited Seats - enrollment on first come first serve basis.

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

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