SACW | 12-14 Nov 2004

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  12-14 November,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Pakistan:   State and religion -- Punjab CM 
has done the right thing (Edit., Daily Times)
[2] India / Kashmir:  Protests Rage But So Does 
Unending Shame Marginalia (Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal)
[3] India - Hindutva: The Ramjanmabhumi Drama: 
The Post-Demolition Scene (S. P. Udayakumar)
[4] India - Hindutva: A New Mask ... (Ram Puniyani)
[5] India - Assam:
- Govt stalls seminar on Nellie massacre
- Last-minute hitch for seminar
[6] India: The Sankaracharya's Arrest (Edit., The Hindu)
[7] India - Gujarat Riots Cases etc.:  Hunter becomes the hunted (Kuldip Nayar)
[8] India - Gujarat Riots: Letter to the editor (Mukul Dube)
[9] Resources and events :
(i) Denizens of Alien Worlds: A Study of 
Education, Inequality and Polarization in Pakistan
By Tariq Rahman
(ii) [Theater Review] An Indian Father Courage, 
Using and Losing Women (Jonathan Kalb)


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

[1]


Daily Times
November 14, 2004   |  Editorial

STATE AND RELIGION -- PUNJAB CM HAS DONE THE RIGHT THING

Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi's 
decision to put in place a separate 
administrative set-up for the protection of 
minority rights and, in pursuing this objective, 
to establish a provincial minorities board is 
very welcome. The board will be supervised by 
Minorities Minister Joyce Rufin Julius. Mr Elahi 
has also approved the post of an additional 
secretary for the maintenance of worship places 
of minorities.
These steps are commendable and we would like 
other provincial governments to emulate them. 
However, they also indicate what has gone wrong 
with this country. This is not an exercise in 
nitpicking but we would be remiss in our duty if 
we did not point out that the reason Mr Elahi, 
representing the state, has had to intervene in 
this manner to protect the minorities is 
precisely because the state decided at an early 
stage to make religion a public matter. 
Therefore, the good that Mr Elahi has done, and 
we believe it is important at this stage, is also 
begotten of the same mindset that created the 
problem in the first place.
This is how it goes. States have no business 
interfering in matters of faith. But the state of 
Pakistan decided in March 1949 that it was its 
duty to promote "Islam" in the country because 
Pakistan was an "Islamic" country even though at 
the time nearly 30 percent of its population was 
non-Muslim. This emphasis on religion in the 
public sphere led to the marginalisation of 
non-Muslims and also threw up the term 
'minorities'. This approach was bound to lead to 
problems and it did within a few years of the 
passing of the Objectives Resolution when in 1953 
the anti-Ahmediyya movement led by a combination 
of unscrupulous politicians in the Punjab and the 
Ahrar reached its violent zenith and Lahore had 
to be placed under martial law to stem the tide 
of killings.
Then, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, that secular 
politician, decided to play the religion card to 
upstage the rightwing elements. He thus prepared 
the ground for that military dictator, General 
Ziaul Haq, who undertook the systematic task of 
"Islamising" Pakistan. Since 1977, this country 
has slid down to the nadir and now we need people 
like Mr Elahi and his boss in Islamabad to 
reverse that tide. But the irony is, as we have 
mentioned above, that this tide cannot be 
reversed without the active involvement of the 
state. Nonetheless, it is better to involve the 
state to roll back the momentum of religion than 
to have it push it on the public agenda. What is 
dangerous, however, is the claim that the Punjab 
government is doing it because that is in keeping 
with the so-called "teachings of Islam". There 
are two things wrong with this claim: one, the 
minorities problem is created by the state's 
undue emphasis on Islam in the public domain; 
two, by referring to Islam, the state is 
indicating that it is still not convinced that it 
has no role to play in matters of faith. This is 
why we still have the term 'minorities' thrown 
around. There are no Muslims or non-Muslims in 
Pakistan, there are only Pakistanis. That was the 
message of the founder of this nation, Mohammad 
Ali Jinnah, and it is the essence of that message 
which makes him the Quaid-e-Azam (Great Leader).
The reference point in this case is Mr Jinnah's 
August 11, 1947, speech. We should not politicise 
Islam because by so doing we will always end up 
creating an essentialism that a modern state 
cannot sustain if it wants to maintain its 
integrity and internal harmony. Therefore, while 
we commend Mr Elahi once again for taking a good 
step, we would like to suggest that he should be 
upfront about it rather than skirt the issue by 
referring to the so-called teachings of Islam. *

______


[2]


Kashmir Times
November 14, 2004  | Editorial

PROTESTS RAGE BUT SO DOES UNENDING SHAME
MARGINALIA
By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal

What can be a graver tragedy than women being 
used as tools of vengeance in an armed conflict? 
And what could be more shameful than the fact 
that security forces usurping every inch of space 
in troubled Kashmir in the name of protection of 
people are involved in gang rapes? The only 
bigger crime is forgetting the victims and allow 
themselves to slip into a mould of shame, 
unjustified and unmerited guilt, and an endless 
stigma. This is what makes the crime of security 
forces, the so-called law abiding forces governed 
by the law of the land, so heinous. Not many 
rapes in the Valley or other conflict zones of 
Jammu and Kashmir are reported by victims. Those 
that become prey to machinations of petty 
politicking. The government stand on rapes 
committed by anyone from the security forces is 
often a bid to shield the culprits. To quell the 
noise of protests against rapes, it is often that 
administration orders probe and initiates enquiry 
into the allegations. Only some of these probes 
are handed to independent agencies, though their 
independence again becomes questionable. Most of 
the allegations are probed by one or the other 
wing of the security forces, getting trapped in 
the paradigm of 'tumhi mujrim, tumhi munsiff 
there; mere akarban kisse karoon mere khoon ka 
daawa'. The enquiry reports add credence to this 
cruel fate of victims who 'dare' to come out with 
allegations of rapes. Most reports give a clean 
chit to the accused men in uniform on pretexts 
that are absurdly tragic - from victims being 
kins of militants to justifying rapes on the 
basis that there are designs behind protests that 
put the security forces in poor light.

In one such case of rapes of four women in two 
different homes of a locality in Shopian during a 
crackdown, the official version at the end of 
probe was: "the residents of seven houses 
identified and confirmed that the same 3 army 
persons had entered and searched each house and 
hence it is difficult to believe that the same 
persons could have indulged in acts of rape in 
different houses within an hour and 35 minutes. 
.. Two of the women who are alleged to have been 
raped were wives of terrorists of 
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen." According to an Asia Watch 
report on rapes in Kashmir, "one of the ways 
security forces in Kashmir use rape is a weapon 
against women suspected of being sympathetic to 
or related to alleged militants. It is not known 
whether such suspicions motivated the soldiers 
responsible for the rapes of these women, it is 
clear that the authorities intend to use the 
accusation that the women associated with 
"terrorists" both to discredit the women's 
testimony and implicitly at least-shirk 
responsibility for the abuse. Moreover, even if 
the women were affiliated with any militant 
group, that in no way justifies the use of rape 
by security personnel. After Asia Watch published 
this case in the report, Rape in Kashmir: A Crime 
of War, the government of India came out a 
statement claiming that:- The case was enquired 
into by a senior officer of the army as well as 
by an officer of the level of Senior 
Superintendent of Police who concluded that the 
complaints and the evidence were both unreliable 
and the allegations could not be sustained. Two 
independent enquiries thus came to the same 
conclusion, exposing the efforts of the militants 
to make false charges and terrorise or otherwise 
use innocent citizens to discredit the security 
forces.

This statement provides no explanation for the 
claim that the evidence-presumably including the 
medical report-was "unreliable". Neither of the 
two investigations were "independent", since they 
were conducted by the army and the police. Under 
Indian law, the government could have ensured 
that the investigation was conducted by a 
judicial magistrate. The Handwara case may not 
bring any different results, though large scale 
protests against the backdrop of talks for peace 
and dialogue may prompt the army to act 
otherwise. The accused may get some punishment 
eventually, if that happens. But what about the 
victims? Would that bring justice?

The usual routine response after rape cases is 
protests against security forces. In case the 
guilty men are from militants ranks, the response 
may be a silent anger. But the victims, of both 
the militants or security forces, both exercising 
their own revengeful 'manhood' by such acts, are 
doomed to the prolonged trauma of being 
stigmatized and being abandoned - if not by the 
family, by the society. Those who seek to rake up 
the cause of justice, talk about the biased 
probes and the injustice, they remember the case 
histories that form a part of the history of 
atrocities in Valley. But the victims are 
forgotten. Everybody conveniently forgets, not 
only the news of the guilty being brought to book 
but also the path to a dignified life. This is 
often denied. Many of them, often abandoned by 
family members, are forced to a life of penury, 
and there is no system in place to get them 
rehabilitated. There is nomechanism of giving 
them any kind of psychological healing. Instead, 
their isolation and stigma perform the job of 
rubbing salt over their wounds, while at the same 
time, making them more and more vulnerable to 
similar kind of victimisation. Shehnaz Kouser's 
tragic tale is an apt case in point.
Shahnaz Kouser was abducted by militants in the 
early years of militancy for six months - raped, 
tortured and drugged - and also began to work for 
them. When she handed over one of the militants 
to the police, the latter rescued her and handed 
her over to Intelligence Bureau who whisked her 
to Delhi. For two years she not only worked for 
them but was subjected to the same treatment that 
militants meted out to her. Finally she came to 
Jammu and got married. But the nightmare followed 
her. When her husband got to know that she had 
been raped by both the militants and the IB men, 
he abandoned her, also leaving behind two 
children. Interestingly, when she was rescued 
from militants, the police and the Hindu right 
wing in Jammu region, including the RSS-sponsored 
Nari Jagran Manch took great pains to highlight 
the issue in their bid to demonise

the militants and talk about how 'Muslim women 
suffer due to Islam or Muslims'. But later 
abandoned her and allowed her to suffer a 
repeated fate at the hands of the IB men. Today 
she lives a doomed existence, forgotten by the 
security forces and the Hindu right wing. The 
victims of security forces suffer no different 
fate. Their supporters vanish soon after the 
protests are over. The infamous gang rapes of 
Konanposhpora in 1991 are a tragic evidence. That 
attitudes have not changed, more than thirteen 
years since, is demonstrated by a piece of 
rhetoric that unfortunately comes from a woman. 
But going by the belief that some women adhere 
more strictly to masculine attitudes, it should 
have not come as a surprise when Dukhataran-e- 
Millat chief raked up the issue of Handwara 
rapes. She protested against the incident and in 
the same breath asked the women of the Valley to 
ensure that they protect themselves against such 
acts by security forces. The victimisation is 
negated in just a few words by holding the 
victims responsible, to whatever extent, for such 
acts at gun point. It should also not have come 
as a surprise again that it was again a woman, 
leader of the ruling party, who sought to use the 
occasion of her visit to the victims for her own 
projection by getting herself photographed with 
the victims. Will we ever learn to resist reaping 
the rich harvest of someone's bitter tragedy?


______


[3]

www.sacw.net  |  November 12, 2004

THE RAMJANMABHUMI DRAMA: THE POST-DEMOLITION SCENE
by S. P. Udayakumar

With their morale so low after the electoral rout 
in the 2004 general election and the recent 
Maharashtra state election, the BJP is 
desperately trying to breathe some fresh life 
into their cataleptic politics. The parliamentary 
hooliganism, the tri-color yatra-trick and the 
Savarkar gimmicks have blown up on their faces. 
As it is clear that the minority communities and 
the dalits have taken a clear stand against the 
BJP, the party has decided to change tacks. When 
the bigoted going gets tough, the tough always go 
for more bigotry, preferably entrenched in piety. 
L. K. Advani assuming the party mantle is the 
first step. Hindutva (l.k.a. -lately known as- 
nationalism) is rearing its ugly head in the form 
of the Ram temple drama once again.

According to Organiser (November 7, 2004), the 
RSS mouthpiece, the BJP cadres "finally got the 
leader who has led them through many a crisis. 
Scars of innumerable battles constituted his 
shining armour. He had led his people from 
darkness to light. The furious ocean had given 
way to him for leading his people." This Moses of 
the "Hindus" announced at the BJP National 
Council at Delhi on October 27, 2004: "The nation 
eagerly looks forward to the day the makeshift 
temple at Ram Janmabhoomi is replaced by a 
structure befitting the greatness of Lord Rama. 
At the same time, we must be candid enough to 
recognize that the Hindu anger that exploded on 
the streets in the early nineties has given way 
to a patient wait for the new temple whose 
construction is, I feel, inevitable." It is a 
matter of conjecture if Advani merely 
acknowledged the transformation of the once 
powerful Ram temple drama into an uninteresting 
farce or he tried to please his parivar brothers 
by warning that the "patient wait" would explode 
as "Hindu anger" once again on the streets. After 
all, Singhals and Togadias are lying just around 
the corner. And the all India national executive 
of the RSS met in Haridwar on November 4-6, 2004 
and asserted that the Ram temple would be built 
in accordance with the wishes of the people under 
the leadership of the VHP.

So the stage has been set. With the RSS lurking 
behind the screen and reading out the script, the 
belligerent VHP would play the lead role in the 
Ayodhya movement. The politically bankrupt BJP 
would play along to regain the confidence of 
their brothers on the stage and the larger 
audience off the stage. In the melee, southern 
Naidus and somber Mahajans would be booed and 
booted out. And the cow-belt sanyasins and 
saffronites would be cheered. The avowed 
swayamsevaks such as Atals and Advanis would fall 
in line quickly and retain their prominence until 
the sun sets on them. The next scene of the Ram 
temple drama begins now! Giving up the 
inhibitions on the rule of law and court verdict 
that they had to put up with as the ruling 
combine, and realizing the impossibility of 
bringing in any favorable legislation in the 
Parliament, the BJP as much as the Sangh Parivar 
will start insisting on negotiated settlement and 
try to push the Muslim community to a defensive 
position.
The Indian civil society and the state need to be 
prepared for this resurgent campaign of bigotry 
and should evolve a strategy to call the 
Parivar's bluff. Before we turn to the best 
possible solution to this persisting dispute, let 
us see what has transpired ever since the 
demolition of the Babri Masjid. [...].

[FULL TEXT AT:
URL: 
http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/spuk13112004.html 
]



______


[4]


A NEW MASK ...

Ram Puniyani

The humiliating defeat of BJP in the 
parliamentary elections followed by Maharashtra 
Assembly elections has created a crisis in the 
party. One of the measures taken to offset this 
demoralization and despondency has been to 
appoint, once again, Mr. L.K. Advani as the 
president of the party. Since so far the party 
has been operating on the plank of Hindutva and 
it seems this slogan has lost its sheen along 
with the issues which have been identified with it

Ram Temple, Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code. 
This Hindutva has got politically and socially 
manifested in a rabid anti-minoritism as seen in 
the burning of Pastor Graham Staines and the 
state-sponsored carnage in Gujarat. The party 
which catapulted itself to power by using these 
issues is at the receiving end. These emotive 
issues have failed to get them sufficient number 
of votes to come to power. Along with the 
organizational modifications, the political 
agenda is being recast under new slogans. The new 
words, which the new President Advani has put 
forward are Bharatiyata or Nationalism, and 
Integral Humanism from the ideology of Deendayal 
Upadhayay, who has been a hindutva ideologue.

What is new about Bharatiyata or Nationalism? 
Essentially it is an attempt to bring back a 
notion of Hindu Nationalism with a new label, old 
wine in a new bottle. BJPs Hindutva was an 
alternative to Indian Nationalism, the one based 
on Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (Community), 
the founding principles of Indias freedom 
movement and the basic premise of Independent 
India. BJP necessarily has to bypass the values 
that have made the modern India. In a way the 
Nationalism in the name of religion began in the 
nineteenth century, in opposition to the evolving 
concept of India as a Nation in the making, 
meaning that the new nation is coming into being 
through a mass movement and this nation opposes 
the caste and gender hierarchies, then prevalent. 
The Hindu Nationalism threw up Punjab Hindu 
Sabha, Hindu Mahsabha, and RSS at different 
points of time. What was common among these 
formations was the concept of Hindu Rashtra, 
opposition to changes of caste and gender 
equations and hostility to Muslims. These were 
matching exactly with the principles of Muslim 
League. What they shared in common was their 
opposition to freedom movement, and the 
accompanying social changes.

The other word was cultural nationalism, which 
again is apparently appealing but essentially 
derives itself from Brahminical values of Ram, 
Gita and authority of Hindu clergy. So with the 
failure of Hindutva in the popular perceptions, 
the opposition to the principles of Indian Nation 
has to be expressed in some other form. The 
closest word which can give the hidden message is 
being searched and it seems the waters are being 
tested by using the word Bharatiyata. The basic 
point is to avoid the word Indian Nationalism. As 
that word gives the potential of the values which 
got identified with freedom struggle. So this 
exercise is for the search of a new bottle, which 
can contain the Hindutva agenda, and also appeal 
to the people at large. The aim is to avoid using 
the discredited word Hindutva but at the same 
time to give the political message of RSS 
politics.

Since it is likely that Bhartiyata may not convey 
the message and RSS agenda fully, the dust from 
the books of Deendayal Upadhayay is being removed 
to bring forward a new supplementary word, which 
sounds appealing enough while giving the message 
of RSS Hindu Rashtra.

Another word which has been put forward by Mr. 
Advani as the agenda of BJP is Integral Humanism. 
Sounds appealing! What does it really mean? Mr. 
Upadhyay is essentially talking against the 
process of social change, the social 
transformation of caste and gender. According to 
him the communities are self-born organic 
entities, having an equilibrium which should not 
be disturbed to preserve the culture and values 
of those societies as they are. In this case it 
means that changes in caste and gender equations 
will be against the Hindu culture as being 
promoted, imposed by RSS. This is also the hidden 
message of cultural nationalism. Upadhayay also 
rejects Social contract theory, the basis of 
modern democracies, the basis of Liberty, 
Equality and Fraternity. He writes, "In our 
concept of four castes [varna], they are thought 
of as analogous to different limbs of Virat 
Purush (Primeval man). These limbs are not only 
complimentary to one another but even further 
there is individuality, unity. There is complete 
identity of interest, identity of belonging [Š] 
if this idea is not kept alive, the castes 
instead of being complimentary, can produce 
conflict." (D.Upadhyaya, Integral Humanism, New 
Delhi Bharatiya Jan Sangh 1965, p. 4)

The real intent of this humanism is more than 
clear the way Mr. Upadhayay defines it. It is the 
ideology of RSS to preserve the status quo, to 
give sops and crumbs to the downtrodden while 
preserving the caste hierarchy. It stands for 
agreeing to cosmetic reforms while preserving the 
core inequality. This should not be surprising. 
One can see the whole RSS onslaught as a response 
to the deeper societal changes, the changes which 
eroded the caste-gender hierarchy, and the 
changes which threatened status quo. The rise of 
RSS can definitely be traced to the societal 
changes where the Shudras and women started 
asserting, where the privileged position of the 
entrenched caste elite felt threatened, where the 
authority of male over the female got questioned. 
RSS did begin as a response to non-Brahman 
movement, which was aiming to challenge the 
authority of Brahminical system and thereby the 
hierarchies inherent in those values.

The Gujarat riots of earlier decades were 
targeted against dalits around reservations for 
admissions to engineering colleges, around their 
promotions in jobs. After the riots of 80s, the 
RSS did change its strategy, instead of targeting 
dalits it aimed its guns more against minorities. 
At the same time, it undertook the process of 
social engineering to co-opt dalits and adivasis 
through Samajik Samrasta Manch and Vanvasi Kalyan 
Ashram, respectively. The RSS changed the line of 
attack, unleashed a section of dalits and 
adivisis to beat up the outer enemy, the Muslims, 
the Christians. Instead of directly suppressing 
the upcoming dalit-adivasi assertion, the section 
of this group is made to focus on the non-issues 
around Hindu identity. The trick worked for some 
time. Mandal and post-Mandal changes showed the 
ascendancy of BJP and it also came to fill a 
social space which was left by the dwindling 
Congress. As for these deprived sections, how far 
they can go with the engineered status is yet to 
be seen.

One is not sure whether the same old Hindutva 
agenda repacked in the new bottle of Bharatiyata 
and Integral Humanism will work. One must realize 
that despite the apparent debacle the vote share 
of BJP is quiet substantial. The RSS cadres, 
committed to its agenda are scattered all around, 
working under different guises and different 
banners and spreading the hate ideology in a 
ceaseless manner. The myths and biases against 
minorities will not vanish just because BJP has 
lost power. You scratch a liberal-looking person, 
the anti-minority biases will be exposed. The 
global situation is not making the matters any 
better. The U.S. crusade against the jehadis, 
against Islam, particularly in the Middle East, 
is worsening the matters.

The hate mines laid all around by RSS and its 
progeny, the social common sense which has been 
drilled through different mechanism is creating 
ghettoes in city after city. It is also the 
fertile ground for the violence as and when it 
erupts to assume a communal colour. One has to 
wait and watch the strategy to be adopted by BJP. 
It has to be something based on raw emotions. 
Whether Ram temple will work or whether Godhra 
will be re-enacted only time will tell. But one 
must compliment Mr. Advanis ingenuity in locating 
new bottles from Hindutva store.


______


[5]

http://www.assamtribune.com/

The Assam Tribune
Guwahati, Thursday, November 11, 2004

GOVT STALLS SEMINAR ON NELLIE MASSACRE
By A Staff Reporter
  GUWAHATI, Nov 10- A State Government Home Department's urgent order not
to hold a seminar on 1983 Nellie massacre 'without consultation of the
State Government' created a row in the academic circles here over the
issue of independence of the academia. The seminar was organised by the
Centre For Northeast India, South And Southeast Asia Studies (CENISEAS) of
the Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development (OKD
Institute). Japanese social scientist Makiko Kimura was to deliver the
main speech in the seminar on-memories of the Nellie massacre and the
competing narratives. The seminar was scheduled for this afternoon. But
smelling trouble, the Special Branch of the State Police sent an officer
to the OKD Institute to enquire about the seminar about three days back.
The officer talked to the Head of the CENISEAS Sanjib Baruah. Yesterday,
Home Department officials again talked to the OKD Institute Director ANS
Ahmed over phone on the issue. The urgent order of the Home Department
asking the OKD Institute authorities to cancel the seminar reached the
Institute around 2-30 pm today, just 30 minutes before the scheduled time
for the commencement of the seminar.

According to the Director of the Institute, the Home Department officials
were anticipating some serious developments in case the Japanese scholar
making some startling revelations on the 1983 Nellie episode. It may be
recalled here that the 1983 developments in Nellie area in today's
Morigaon district, led to a sharp polarisation in State politics on ethnic
lines. The Union Government had also to face embarrassment at diplomatic
levels following shocking incidents at Nellie. The Home Department
officials told the Director of the OKD Institute that they should have
been consulted before holding the seminar on the issue. For, they said, in
the event of any 'explosive' revelation from the Japanese scholar the
situation might go beyond control of the authorities, as, the media
persons were also invited to the seminar. The Director of the Institute
also said that he was not aware of the developments concerning the
seminar.

Head of the CENISEAS Sanjib Baruah described the Home Department order as
an onslaught on the independence of the academia. The incident is the
first of its type in the State, he said. As to what made him select the
theme for the seminar, Baruah said that as the lady scholar from Japan had
been working on the subject for a long time now, hence it was found to be
more convenient to ask to deliver a talk on the subject. Her academic
independence should not be interfered with by asking her to talk on any
other subject alien to her, he said.

Confronted with the question from the media as to what made her select the
above subject for research, Kimura said that she was interested to know as
to how the people of the Nellie areas narrate the incident after a long
period. She also said in reply to another query that she visited the
Nellie areas on two occasions in 2001 and 2002 and she spent about one and
a half month's time with the people of six or seven villages there. She
said that the Muslim people of the areas did not nurture any hatred
against the assailants who attacked them during the 1983 incidents. She
also met the SP and Additional SP of Morigaon district during her visits
to the areas, she said.

Baruah said that Kimura was granted all the necessary permissions by the
Indian Ministries of External Affairs and Home Affairs for conducting her
study. Noted social scientist Dr Amalendu Guha said that though he was
against any interference by the administration in matters related to
academic activities, the topic selected for the seminar was very sensitive
and the time of the seminar was also sensitive. Moreover, a scholar from a
foreign land was delivering the main talk. Academic seminars should not be
opened to the press, he said.

However, Dr Guha said that there was nothing wrong in discussing the
incidents like the ones, which took place in the Nellie areas. When
pointed out to the fact that OKD Institute is an autonomous institute for
academic exercises, he said that the Institute as he knew was not directly
connected with the seminar and moreover, the funding pattern of the
Institute was such that the State Government shouldered 50 per cent of its
expenditure.

o o o

The Telegraph
Thursday, November 11, 2004 |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041111/asp/guwahati/story_3990459.asp

LAST-MINUTE HITCH FOR SEMINAR
A STAFF REPORTER

Nov. 10: A seminar on the 1983 Nellie massacre was called off by the state
government minutes before its commencement today, as a "preventive
measure".The Centre for Northeast India, South and Southeast Asia Studies
of the Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development was to
organise the seminar from 3 pm. At 2.30 pm, Dispur intervened and directed
the institute not to hold the seminar on the subject without consulting
the state government.Home commissioner and secretary B.M. Mazumdar in a
letter to the director of the institute, Abu Ahmed, urged him not to hold
the seminar without "consulting" Dispur. The letter, however, did not cite
any reason for the same."It is learnt that Omeo Kumar Das Institute of
Social Change is organising a seminar on the topic - Memories of a
Massacre: Competing Narratives on 1983 Nellie Incident on 10.11.04. You
are requested not to hold the seminar without consultation of the state
government," the home department in a brief letter said.Mazumdar said the
decision was taken as a preventive measure to block any communal flare-up.
He said the department had learnt from intelligence sources that the
seminar might create tension.He clarified that it did not ask the
institute to put off the seminar. "The Nellie massacre is a sensitive
subject and the OKD Institute receives all financial grants from the state
government. So we thought it is imperative for the government to examine
the pros and cons before holding any discussion on such a sensitive
subject," he added. Sanjib Baruah of the centre said that a discussion on
how various people recall the massacre would not have harmed anybody.Over
1,800 people were massacred on February 18, 1983, at Nellie in Morigaon
district at the peak of the anti-foreigner movement in the state.He said
the aim of the paper to be submitted by a Japanese researcher, Makiko
Kimura, in the seminar was to analyse three different narratives of the
cause of the Nellie massacre. He said by asking the institute not to hold
the seminar just 30 minutes before its commencement, the government did
not give any time to it for consultation."How can I have consultation with
the government on the subject within those few minutes?" he asked, adding
that the institute has decided to cancel the seminar as the speaker would
not be able to come again for the same.Kimura, who had extensively visited
Nellie during her research on the subject since 2001, said she was
surprised by the decision.http://www.sentinelassam.com/  Govt cancels
Japanese scholar's lecture on Nellie By a Staff ReporterGUWAHATI, Nov 10:
The State Government has asked the Centre for North-East India South-East
Asia Studies (CENISEAS) not to go ahead with its lecture on the Nellie
massacre, which was scheduled to be delivered at Dispur today by a
Japanese scholar. The Government has not shown any reason behind its move
to stop the lecture barely half an hour before its scheduled beginning.
The lecture was scheduled to be delivered by Ms Makiko Kimura, a
post-doctoral fellow, Japan Society for Promotion of Science.According to
the senior fellow and head of CENISEAS, Prof. Sanjib Baruah, Assam Home
Commissioner BM Mazumdar sent a faxed message to the CENISEAS, barely half
an hour before the start of the lecture, requesting it not to hold any
lectures of this sorts without prior discussion with the State Government.
The fax message, according to Prof. Baruah, cited no reason for its move
to cancel the lecture.Talking to The Sentinel, Prof. Baruah said that the
State Government could have prevented them from holding the lecture as
soon as the reports of the lecture had come out in the local media. "We
have brought a foreign scholar for the lecture, and its cancellation at
the eleventh hour does not send a good message to the outside world,"
Prof. Baruah said, and added, "Such lectures are generally attended by
very few people, that too, only intellectuals, and such, I don't think the
lecture will disturb the communal harmony in the State." 


______


[6]

The Hindu
November 13, 2004 |  Editorial

THE SANKARACHARYA'S ARREST

THE DRAMATIC ARREST and incarceration of the Kanchi
Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi — the most high profile of all
contemporary Hindu religious leaders — as the prime accused in a
brutal contract killing of a humble adversary is a first in the annals of
the rule of law. The message sent out by this action taken by the
Tamil Nadu police, evidently with prior approval from Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa, is that nobody, however high in religious or temporal
matters, shall be above the law. The charges against the
Sankaracharya, who fairly recently made national headlines through
repeated but failed attempts to find a mediated solution to the
Ayodhya dispute, include murder, criminal conspiracy, and causing
evidence to disappear. The Tamil Nadu police officials in charge of
the investigation as well as the Public Prosecutor have claimed they
have solid evidence against Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, with the
prosecutor using strong language in open court to contrast his alleged
criminality with his venerated spiritual position.

It must be remembered of course that no public presumption of guilt
should be made at this stage, considering that the filing of a First
Information Report (FIR) sets the ball of criminal investigation in
motion, and that charges can be laid, or the case against the accused
closed, only after an investigation is concluded. Nevertheless, the
facts investigated and reported by the press, notably the Tamil
magazine, Nakkeeran, speak to a brutal and motivated murder; a
crude attempt to cover up; and what seemed initially to be non-serious
investigation. The combination proved explosive, triggering a decision
by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to launch a major agitation
demanding action as required by the law. Consider these facts. A.
Sankararaman, a highly orthodox acolyte of the Kanchi Mutt who had
been close to the Paramacharya but turned bitterly inimical to his
successor, bombarded him and the Mutt with letters, written
pseudonymously and in his own name. He made allegations of
financial malfeasance, nepotism and worse against the pontiff; he
went to court accusing him of going against holy tradition by planning
a visit to China, and so forth. He complained of threats to his life from
Kanchi Mutt circles but was given no protection. Two years before
Sankararaman met his gory end within the precincts of the
Varadarajaperumal Temple of which he was the manager, S.
Radhakrishnan, another ex-acolyte of the Kanchi Mutt who had
become disenchanted with Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, had been
subjected to a murderous knife attack by hired killers at his home in
Chennai and survived, along with his injured wife, to tell the tale. But
the police investigation into that case seemed to run into a political
wall after gaining initial clues.

This time, after the core facts were brought to light, the police made
investigative breakthroughs that, according to them, led straight up to
the pontiff. From what has been revealed in this early phase of
investigation, bank transactions, mobile phone calls, letters, and
confessional statements form a crucial part of the case material being
assembled against the accused. Devotees of the Kanchi Mutt are
understandably upset. But they should realise that while there should
be no public presumption of guilt against the Sankaracharya or indeed
against any of the other accused, it would be absurd for them to
believe communal allegations that he has been framed by the State
Government to `appease minorities after the general election debacle'
or for other devious political reasons. In fact, this is an extremely rare
case of the two bitter antagonists, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and
DMK president M. Karunanidhi, agreeing on an issue, namely that the
law must be allowed to take its course in a highly sensitive case that
has no precedent.

______


[7]

Deccan Herald
November 13, 2004

HUNTER BECOMES THE HUNTED
The people are helpless in the face of 
Zaheera-like cases where the activists themselves 
become targets
BY Kuldip Nayar

The cat is out of the bag. I was at pains to know 
why Zaheera Sheikh had changed her statement on 
the Best Bakery case, which covered the burning 
of people alive. Her earlier disclosure that the 
witnesses did not testify because of police 
pressure was so telling that the Supreme Court 
had to reopen the cases which it had closed. 
While commenting on Zaheera's retraction, Gujarat 
Chief Minister Narendra Modi's statement gave him 
out. He said that the country should find out the 
role of human rights activists. As expected, his 
ardent supporter Arun Jaitley has questioned the 
very role of NGOs.

The anger of Modi and Jaitley is understandable. 
Human rights activists put the Gujarat carnage on 
the map of the country and the world. They 
pursued the matter in law courts and elsewhere. 
They made the BJP say that its head bowed in 
shame. However, it has taken the BJP 
establishment seven months to bring Zaheera 
around. Hers is the key evidence although it does 
not mean that the case will fall because of her 
retraction. What kind of pressure worked and who 
were behind it may come to be known if and when 
the CBI makes an inquiry, a demand made by human 
rights activists.

Zaheera also targeted the human rights activists. 
She fired her first salvo by attacking Teesta 
Setlvad, a leading human rights activist, and 
said that Teesta had threatened her to keep 
quiet. Teesta is responsible for a threadbare 
discussion on the killings and other excesses 
committed in Gujarat. She is the one who 
constituted a committee of citizens, including 
two former Supreme Court judges, to go into what 
happened in Gujarat. The committee submitted a 
two-volume report, which indicted Modi by name. 
Zaheera's statement cannot be taken even with a 
pinch of salt because if she wanted to speak out, 
she could have done so long ago. She could have 
sent her petition to the Minorities Commission 
then as she has done now. Zaheera visited the 
Supreme Court at least 15 times and had several 
opportunities to talk to the media. If she was 
under pressure, she could have indicated to the 
court or somebody in the media.

Points of interest

In fact, it would be interesting to know who 
arranged Zaheera's press conference and what was 
the Baroda police commissioner doing when she was 
retracting her statement which attacked the state 
police. It is quite revealing that the public 
prosecutor has said that Zaheera's mother 
approached members of the prosecution to give the 
family a flat and set up a bakery in Mumbai.

I do not think that those who have followed 
Teesta's career will be taken in by Zaheera's 
allegation. Teesta is a byword for the protection 
of human rights. Her contribution in the field of 
Hindu-Muslim riots is outstanding. She is the one 
who pursued the Mumbai blasts before Justice Sri 
Krishna. No wonder, organisations like Hindu 
Chetna Vahini burnt her effigy at Vadodara the 
other day. Human rights activists are mote in the 
eyes of any government.

Indira Gandhi appointed an inquiry commission 
against them when she returned to power after the 
Janata Party's defeat at the polls. The Kudal 
Commission harassed literally every human rights 
activist, particularly the Gandhians, because 
they put up the stiffest resistance during the 
emergency. Not even a shred of evidence against 
them was found. Still the report raised every 
type of doubt about the working of human rights 
activists without evidence.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remark that 
people should "ponder and reflect" over Zaheera's 
retraction is neither here nor there. True, he 
cannot go into the merits of the case since it is 
sub judice. But he could have at least commented 
on the system where the pressure by police could 
make Zaheera go back on what she had said. 
Zaheera's case has brought such tactics of 
authorities to the fore. People have raised their 
voice against similar incidents earlier. If the 
Prime Minister had only mentioned the 
helplessness of public in the face of 
Zaheera-like cases, the police and the 
administration would have got the warning and 
might have improved themselves.

Nothing new

The police involvement in cases is nothing new. 
The force gets away with anything because there 
is no proper follow-up and punishment. So many 
inquiry commissions have pointed out how the 
police are a party to cover up crime. No concrete 
step has been taken so far to improve the 
situation. Once again, the army is in the dock in 
Kashmir. True, an inquiry has been ordered into 
the allegation of rape of an 11-year-old girl and 
her mother in a remote village of Kupwara 
district. A major has reportedly been taken into 
custody. Such incidents only alienate people. 
Thousands of them took to the streets in the 
valley to demonstrate against the incident. Even 
human rights organisations are angry. But what do 
they do when so many of their inquiry reports 
remain unacknowledged and unimplemented?

In the meantime, the bureau of South Asians for 
Human Rights (SAHR), which met the other day at 
Lahore under the chairmanship of former Prime 
Minister I K Gujral, underlined the extent to 
which political leaders go to harass people. The 
bureau noted with alarm "the deteriorating law 
and order situation in South Asia, with 
particular reference to the rising religious 
extremism in the region, threatening life and 
security of citizens." SAHR regretted that even 
secular political figures were resorting to "the 
exhibition of religiosity to further their own 
political agenda."


______


[8]


LETTER TO THE EDITOR

D-504 Purvasha
Mayur Vihar 1
Delhi 110091

12 November 2004

Every scientific enquiry involves the formulation of a hypothesis
which is then tested against facts. In the matter of Zahira Sheikh,
one hypothesis is that the young woman, perhaps neither well educated
nor particularly intelligent nor acquainted with the ways of the
world, was placed in a position of weakness by the horrors that she
had witnessed, in particular the killings of members of her family.
She would have become fearful and easy to manipulate, specially by
those whom she knew to have been involved in or associated with the
brutality. The lure of wealth beyond her wildest dreams may also have
been a factor. Whatever may have been the reasons for her having
become a malleable puppet, Zahira changed her stand twice, first
before the fast track court and, some days ago, while under the
protection or control of Gujarat's administrators and police -
who, as has been pointed out by a commentator, are in theory
prosecuting those against whom she was to testify.

People from the Chief Minister of Gujarat downwards have said that an
NGO used precisely this combination of fear and cupidity to make
Zahira change her stand after the fast track court had acquitted the
twenty-one persons accused in the Best Bakery case. This is perfectly
plausible and must therefore be part of the hypothesis. It should not
be difficult to establish whether a motley bunch of people was
stronger than the entire police force of Gujarat state. Zahira has
already told us, in words as expressive as those of a law enforcement
agency, of the knife or knives with which the NGO's members compelled
her to travel to Mumbai.

The girl is completely out of her depth and has been buffeted by a
wind of immense strength, with only the shakiest of anchors to hold
on to. The hypothesis must be tested, for there is far more at stake
than just Zahira.


Mukul Dube

______


[9]   [Resources and Events :]


(i) [Important New Book]

DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS: A STUDY OF EDUCATION, 
INEQUALITY AND POLARIZATION IN PAKISTAN
By Tariq Rahman
Oxford University Press,
Plot # 38, Sector 15, Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi
Tel: 111-693-673.
Email: ouppak at theoffice.net
Website: www.oup.com.pk
ISBN 0-19-597863-3
210pp. Rs325


(ii)

New York Times
November 3, 2004
THEATER REVIEW | 'SAKHARAM BINDER'

An Indian Father Courage, Using and Losing Women
By Jonathan Kalb

Carol Rosegg
Sarita Choudhury and Bernard White in Vijay Tendulkar's play.

Sakharam Binder thinks he has the system by the 
tail. That system is the de facto enslavement of 
women in postcolonial India, despite the promises 
of democracy and modernity. Sakharam, a 
bookbinder, picks up other men's discarded women 
- castoff wives who would otherwise be homeless, 
destitute or murdered with impunity - and takes 
them in as domestic servants and sex partners.

He rules his home like a tin-pot tyrant, yet each 
woman is told that she is free to leave whenever 
she likes. He will even give her a sari, 50 
rupees and a ticket to wherever she wants to go. 
"Everything good and proper, where Sakharam 
Binder is concerned," he says. "He's no husband 
to forget common decency." What he doesn't 
anticipate are the moral and emotional 
complications of this arrangement, which prove 
heartbreakingly ruinous to everyone involved.

Banned in India after its 1974 premiere, 
"Sakharam Binder'' is the most famous and 
influential drama by Vijay Tendulkar, India's 
foremost living playwright. The wonderfully clear 
and superbly acted production by the Play Company 
of this excruciating yet absorbing work is the 
culmination of the monthlong Tendulkar Festival 
sponsored by the Indo-American Arts Council. (The 
festival has included readings, workshops, public 
discussions and film screenings.)

Mr. Tendulkar, 76, has often been embroiled in 
controversies during his 40 years as a prominent 
playwright, screenwriter and essayist. Last year, 
effigies of him were burned in six cities after 
he spoke out against Narendra Modi, the Hindu 
chief minister of Gujarat state, where 
anti-Muslim riots killed more than 2,000 people 
in 2002. Despite his reputation as a fearless 
social critic, his plays are not polemical. They 
are based on merciless character observation and 
could be described as hypernaturalistic, though 
some employ nonrealistic conventions.

"Sakharam Binder,'' directed by Maria Mileaf, 
tells the story of Sakharam's seventh and eighth 
"birds" (as his envious friend Dawood calls 
Sakharam's women). Laxmi (Anna George) is shy, 
submissive and pious, whereas Champa (Sarita 
Choudhury), her successor, is brash, voluptuous 
and spoiled. Their very different reactions to 
Sakharam's lordly manner and modest circumstances 
are sharply and poignantly delineated by Ms. 
George and Ms. Choudhury.

Ms. George projects a steely and oddly moving 
brittleness as she putters around Sakharam's 
cramped house, which has no modern amenities and 
only a single, thin rollup mat for sleeping. Ms. 
Choudhury radiates a proud, willful acuity that 
reads as desperate indignation as Champa shirks, 
malingers and turns to alcohol to blunt her 
disgust at Sakharam's sexual demands.

No one comes off as wholly innocent here. Even 
the victims prove capable of selfishness and 
self-deception when their survival is on the 
line. The play's main conflict is set in motion 
when Laxmi returns after Sakharam sent her 
packing, and convinces Champa to let her stay.

It's not the plot, however, but the depth and the 
subtlety of Bernard White's portrayal of Sakharam 
that injects variety, surprise and fascination 
into this almost three-hour play. Mr. White 
vividly captures the strange and complex 
pathology of Sakharam, who seems to want to 
please his "birds" even as he bullies them and 
who speaks like a freethinking crusader for 
women's rights one minute and like an philistine 
scornful of their devotion to him the next.

Sakharam's tragedy turns out to hinge on his 
budding social consciousness, his arrested 
enlightenment. He can see - almost - an idea of 
equality and shared humanity that transcends 
individual appetite, but nothing in his life 
(including the women) ever encourages him to 
follow its logic. Like Brecht's Mother Courage, 
he exploits a corrupt system for personal 
advantage, then discovers that the price of 
playing the game is everything he hoped to 
protect. Unlike Brecht, though, Mr. Tendulkar 
never judges his protagonist but concentrates 
instead on painting him with unsettling 
compassion, perceptiveness and thoroughness. His 
play deserves to be much better known in the 
United States than it is.

Performances through Nov. 14 at 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street. [New York]

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

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
matters of peace and democratisation in South 
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit 
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South 
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at:  bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

Sister initiatives :
South Asia Counter Information Project :  snipurl.com/sacip
South Asians Against Nukes: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org
Communalism Watch: communalism.blogspot.com/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.