SACW | 7 Jan 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 7 Jan.,  2005
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Reforming Pakistan's Universities -- I  and II (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
[2] India:   Wrong, Lord Desai & Prof Sen (T K Arun)
[3] India - Goa: Dangerous currents (Maria Aurora Couto)
[4] India: Amu, a film with promise
[5] India: Memorandum to demand for retrospective 
repeal of Section-32 of POTA (2002)
[7] India: International convention on secularism 
(Hyderabad , 14-15 January 2005)
[6] India: National Convention by People's Media 
Initiative (Bombay, 8-9 January 2005)



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

[1]

REFORMING PAKISTAN'S UNIVERSITIES -- I
by
Pervez Hoodbhoy
(Dawn 03 Jan 2005)


There is a severe and long-standing crisis in higher education. But, until
the present military government took the initiative, there was no
rehabilitation plan. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, appointed as chairman of the
Higher Education Commission, was the wonder-man charged by General
Musharraf with turning the situation around. He was quick to make a
powerful pitch for vast increases in funding.

Foreign donors, worried about the implications of Pakistan's sinking
educational system, obliged. The higher education budget zoomed by twelve
times (1,200 per cent) over three years, a world record. A number of new
and innovative utilization schemes were announced.

Some solid achievements did emerge. Internet connectivity in universities
has been substantially expanded; distance education is being seriously
pursued through the newly established Virtual University; a digital
library is in operation; some foreign faculty has been hired; students are
being sent abroad for PhD training (albeit largely to second rate
institutions); some links with foreign institutions now exist; and money
for scientific equipment is no longer a problem. No previous Pakistani
government can boast of comparable accomplishments, and the HEC chairman
deserves congratulations.

But the HEC is also setting into motion very dangerous, potentially
catastrophic, systemic changes. In this article I will look at the
problems in our higher education system and why the HEC reforms are set to
make a bad situation worse rather than better. In a subsequent article, I
will suggest some modest steps that may offer a way forward.

Pakistan has almost a hundred universities now. Not one of them is world
class. Truth be told, not even one of them is a real university, if by a
university one means a community of scholars engaged in free inquiry and
the creation of knowledge.

Take for example the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, reputed to be
Pakistan's best. Academic activities common in good universities around
the world are noticeably absent. Seminars and colloquia, where faculty
present for peer review the results of their on-going research, are few
and far between. Public lectures, debates, or discussions of contemporary
scientific, cultural, or political issues are almost non-existent.

The teaching at QAU is no better. Rote learning is common, students are
not encouraged to ask questions in class, and courses are rarely completed
by the end of the semester. This university has three mosques but no
bookstore. It is becoming more like a madressah in other ways too.

It was not always this way. The global intellectual ferment of the late
1960's and 70's had a stimulating impact on Pakistani campuses.
Intellectual, scientific, cultural and literary activity flourished. Young
Pakistani scholars gave up potential careers in the West to come to
Pakistani universities. But in November of 1981, just days after three QAU
teachers had been caught with anti-martial law and pro-democracy
pamphlets, General Ziaul Haq thundered on television that he would "purge
the country's universities of the cancer of politics". He succeeded.

A quarter century later, the faculty are more concerned with money and
promotions than research, teaching, or bringing their knowledge to bear on
the myriad issues facing our society. Among the students there are many
burqas and beards, but minuscule intellectual or creative activity. All
student unions are gone, and ideological disputes have evaporated into the
thin air. Instead of left vs right politics there is simple tribalism. Now
Punjabi students gang together against Pakhtoon students, Muhajirs versus
Sindhis, Shias versus Sunnis, etc.

Some campuses are run by gangs of hoodlums and harbour known criminals,
while others have Rangers with machine guns on continuous patrol. On
occasion, student wolf packs attack each other with sticks, stones,
pistols, and automatic weapons. There are many campus murders.  Most
students have not learned how to think; they cannot speak or write any
language well, rarely read newspapers, and cannot formulate a coherent
argument or manage any significant creative expression.

Dumbed down, this generation of Pakistanis is intellectually handicapped.
Like overgrown children, students of my university now kill time by making
colourful birthday posters for friends, do "istikhara" (fortune telling),
and wander aimlessly in Islamabad's bazaars.

Understanding the scale of the failure is important. Compare Pakistan's
premier university with those in its neighbours' capitals. First to the
east: Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the Indian Institute of Technology,
in Delhi.

Their facilities are simple and functional, nothing like the
air-conditioned and carpeted offices of most professors at QAU. And, more
important, every notice board is crammed with notices for seminars and
colloquia, visitors from the very best foreign universities lecture there,
research laboratories hum with activity, and pride and satisfaction are
written all around.

Conflict on campuses does exist - communist and socialist students battle
with Hindutva students over the Gujrat carnage, Iraq, Kashmir, and the BJP
doctoring of history. Angry words are exchanged and polemics are issued
against the other, but no heads are bashed. While lecturing at these
institutions during a recent visit, I was impressed by the fearlessness
and the informed, critical intelligence of the students who questioned and
challenged me. I cannot imagine an Indian professor having a similar
reception in Pakistan.

Now to the west: Teheran's Sharif University of Technology, and the
Institute for Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, are impressive
institutions filled with professional activity, workshops, and seminars.
Even as they maintain good academic standards, Iranian university students
are heavily political and today are spearheading the movement for freedom
and democracy. Iranian students make it to the best US graduate schools.
Although it is an Islamic republic, bookshops are more common than mosques
in Tehran. Translations into Farsi appear in just weeks or months after a
book is published in the western world.

Driven by the unfavourable comparison with neighbours, the need for
university reform finally became an issue. The first big idea was that
Pakistan needed more universities.  So today all it takes is a piece of
paper from the HEC and some paint. Some colleges have literally had their
signboards taken down for repainting, and been put back up changed into
"universities" the next day.

By such sleight of hand the current tally of public universities,
according to the HEC website, is now officially 47, up from the 23
officially listed in 1996. In addition, there are eight degree awarding
public sector institutes. Unfortunately, this is merely a numbers game.
All new public sector universities lack infrastructure, libraries,
laboratories, adequate faculty, or even a pool of students academically
prepared to study at the university level.

The HEC's "generosity" extends even into largely illiterate tribal areas.
There are so-called universities now in Malakand, Bannu, Kohat, Khuzdar,
Gujrat, Haripur, and in many other places where it is difficult to detect
the slightest potential for successfully establishing modern universities.

Another poorly thought-out, and dangerous, HEC scheme involves giving
massive cash awards to university teachers for publishing research papers
- Rs 60,000 per paper published in a foreign journal. Although these
stimulants are said to have increased the number of papers published in
international journals by a whopping 44 per cent, there is little evidence
that this increase in volume is the result of an increase in genuine
research activity.

The fact is only a slim minority of Pakistani academics possesses the
ethics, motivation, and capability needed for genuine scientific discovery
and research. For the majority, the HEC incentives are a powerful reason
to discover the art of publishing in research journals without doing
research, to find loopholes, and to learn how to cover up one's tracks.

Established practices of plagiarizing papers, multiple publications of
slightly different versions of the same paper in different research
journals, fabricating scientific data, and seeking out third-rate foreign
journals with only token referees are now even more common. The HEC has
broadcast the message: corruption pays.

The casual disregard for quality is most obvious in the HEC's massive PhD
production programme. This involves enrolling 1,000 students in Pakistani
universities every year for PhD degrees. Thereby Pakistan's "PhD deficit"
(it produces less than 50 PhDs per annum at present) will supposedly be
solved and it will soon be at par with India. In consequence, an army of
largely incapable and ignorant students, armed with hefty HEC fellowships,
has sallied forth to write PhD theses.

Although the HEC claims that it has checked the students through a "GRE
type test" (the American graduate school admission test), a glance at the
question papers reveals it to be only a shoddy literacy and numeric test.
In my department, advertised as the best physics department in the
country, the average PhD student now has trouble with high-school level
physics and even with reading English. Nevertheless there are as many as
18 PhD students registered with one supervisor! In the QAU biology
department, that number rises to 37 for one supervisor. HEC incentives
have helped dilute PhD qualifying exams to the point where it is difficult
for any student not to pass.

The implications of this mass-production of PhDs are dire. Very soon
hundreds and, in time, thousands of worthless PhDs will be cranked out.
They will train even less competent students. Eventually they will become
heads of departments and institutions. When appointed gatekeepers, they
will regard more competent individuals as threats to be kept locked out.
The degenerative spiral, long evident in any number of Pakistani
institutions, will worsen rapidly, and become infinitely more difficult to
break.



REFORMING PAKISTAN'S UNIVERSITIES -- II
by
Pervez Hoodbhoy
(Dawn 04 Jan 2005)

For three decades Pakistani education planners toyed with grand plans to
build MITs and Harvards in the country. Nothing materialized. But three
years ago the first serious effort to deal with Pakistan's chronically ill
universities was finally initiated. Unfortunately, this effort by the
Higher Education Commission has now become mired in an intense, growing
controversy.

The immediate cause centres on the award of fake degrees and the
flourishing of substandard higher education institutions, as well as on
the HEC's head, Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, having personally punished the
whistle-blower who brought this important issue to his (and the public's)
notice. While unpleasant, this controversy is important because it
addresses the deeper underlying question of the quality and credibility -
rather than just the quantity – of higher education.

In the previous article, I explained how badly the existing university
system has been broken and how the current university reform strategy is
compounding the problem by concentrating on glitzy things like internet
access, digital libraries, virtual learning, etc., while ignoring basic
problems.

Allowing these "reforms" to continue will destroy what little there is
today. On the other hand, it will be a tragedy for Pakistan if the current
HEC attempts collapse in a heap of dust. So, how to proceed if we are
serious in trying to improve our universities?

The policy don'ts are clear. Some have already been discussed earlier:
stop the creation of worthless new universities; stop funding and
rewarding research that really isn't research; stop dishing out useless
PhDs; stop playing the numbers game; and stop feeding academic corruption.

The do's are far more than can be discussed here. Broadly speaking, they
can be divided into two mutually distinct sets. One set must deal with
raising the level of general competence of teachers and students by
ensuring that they actually have an understanding of the subject they
teach or study, and with increasing the amount of research in specific
disciplines. Universities everywhere prepare engineers, doctors,
economists, business managers, and other professionals needed to fulfil
the stringent demands of a modern society. Pakistani universities
obviously need to do the same.

The second set relates to the broader function of universities - to create
thinking minds, pursue research in subjects that are important but are not
of immediate economic utility, to create and organize discourses on social
and political issues, and to raise the cultural and aesthetic level of
society. Whereas the Soviet and Chinese models concentrated exclusively on
the first set of goals, western universities - or at least the good ones
among them - successfully synthesized both sets and were far superior.

It is a mistake to believe that inadequate financial resources have
prevented Pakistani universities from achieving the goals of the first
set. In fact, the real need is for deep administrative and organizational
reforms, together with the strong political will needed to handle the
counter-reaction they would inevitably provoke.

First, there must be university entrance examinations at the national
level to separate individuals who can benefit from higher education from
those who cannot. No such system exists in Pakistan. Only local board
examinations - where rote memorization and massive cheating are rampant -
are used to select students.

But, on our borders, both Iran and India have centralized university
admissions systems that work very well. Although corruption in India is
perhaps as pervasive as in Pakistan, admissions to the IITs have
nevertheless retained their integrity and intensely competitive nature
over several decades. Honest examinations are presumably also possible in
Pakistan, provided extreme care is taken.

Having such university entrance examinations would be important for
another reason as well - they would set the goal posts for colleges and
high schools all over Pakistan. In the US, the Scholastic Aptitude Tests,
centrally administered by Princeton, are extremely useful for deciding
student aptitude for university education. The "A" level examinations in
Britain have similar importance.

At the PhD level, if the HEC is at all serious about standards, it should
make it mandatory for every Pakistani university to require that a PhD
candidate achieve a certain minimum in an international examination such
as the GRE. These exams are used by US universities for admission into PhD
programmes.

Given the state of student and teacher knowledge, and the quantity and
quality of research in Pakistani universities, selection through GRE
subject tests would have the welcome consequence of cutting down the
number enrolled in HEC indigenous PhD programmes from 1,000 per year to a
few dozen. The present safeguard of having "foreign experts" evaluate
theses is insufficient for a variety of reasons, including the
manipulations commonly made in the process of referee selection.

Second, we need to test those who would be university teachers. The system
has remained broken for so long that written entrance tests for junior
faculty, standardized at a central facility, are essential. Without them,
universities will continue to hire teachers who freely convey their
confusion and ignorance to students. Most teachers today never consult a
textbook, choosing to dictate from notes they saved from the time when
they were students in the same department. No teacher has ever been fired
for demonstrating incompetence in his/her subject.

Third, the recruitment of non-permanent foreign faculty, whether of
Pakistani origin or otherwise, is essential. Although this country is home
to 150 million people, there are perhaps fewer than 20 computer scientists
of sufficient calibre who could possibly get tenure-track positions at
some B-grade US university. In physics, even if one roped in every
competent physicist in the country, it would not be possible to staff even
one single good department of physics. As for mathematics: it is
impossible to find even five real mathematicians in Pakistan. The social
sciences are no better.

In this grim situation, it is fortunate that the Higher Education
Commission has initiated a programme for hiring foreign faculty with
attractive salaries. But the success of this programme is uncertain.
Jealousy at salary differentials, and a fear that local incompetence will
be exposed, have led local teachers and university administrations to
block the hiring of faculty from abroad.

There is another problem: Pakistan's image as a violent country deters
most foreigners from wanting to come and live in Pakistan for any
considerable period of time. Therefore, westerners are almost totally
absent from the list of those who have applied under the foreign faculty
hiring programme. Apart from Pakistani expatriates in the Middle East, the
bulk of applicants are Russian speakers from the former Soviet Union
countries.

One wishes it could be otherwise. It would be a major breakthrough if
Indian and Iranian teachers could be brought to Pakistan. Indians, in
particular, would find it much easier to adapt to local ways and customs
than others and also have smaller salary expectations. The huge pool of
strong Indian candidates could be used to Pakistan's advantage - it could
pick the best teachers and researchers, and those most likely to make a
positive impact on the system. In the present mood of rapprochement, it is
hard to think of a more meaningful confidence building measure.

Fourth, we need better, more transparent, and accountable ways to recruit
vice-chancellors and senior administrators. What we have now is a
patronage system that appoints unqualified and unsuitable bureaucrats or
generals as vice-chancellors, and that staffs universities with corrupt
and incompetent administrators.

While a tenure-track system for faculty is currently under discussion and
may allow for breaking with the system of life-long jobs independent of
performance, there is no corresponding system being contemplated for the
top leadership. But without good leadership, and people who can set an
example, no institution can be reformed.

Finally, it is crucial to bring back on to the campuses meaningful
discussions on social, cultural and political issues. To create the
culture of civilized debate, student unions must be restored, with
elections for student representatives. They will be the next generation of
political leaders.

Such a step will not be free from problems - religious vigilantes rule
many Pakistani campuses although all unions are banned. Extremists would
surely try to take advantage of the new opportunities offered once the ban
is lifted. Political parties have also been less than responsible.

But the reinstatement of unions - subject to their elected leaders making
a pledge to abjure violence and the disruption of academic activity - is
the only way forward towards creating a university culture on campus.
Ultimately, reasonable voices, too, will become heard.

To condemn Pakistani students as fundamentally incapable of responsible
behaviour amounts to a condemnation of the Pakistani nation itself. If
students in our neighbouring countries can successfully study, as well as
unionize and engage in larger issues, then surely Pakistan's can do so as
well.

The task of university reform has not yet seriously begun. Nor can it do
so until issues of the purpose and philosophy of higher education and of
the goal of the reforms are squarely confronted. It is time to decide
whether we are serious about education being something more than merely
giving out certificates. Do we want to build institutions for creating
knowledge and helping students to be informed, critical, active citizens?
Or not?

(The author is professor of physics at the Quaid-i-Azam University,
Islamabad.)

______


[2]

Economic Times
January 06, 2005

WRONG, LORD DESAI & PROF SEN
Cursor / T K Arun

Lord Meghnad Desai thinks India is a collection 
of nationalities. These, he says, find political 
articulation through regional or caste-based 
parties that together detract from India's 
potential for growth through exclusive focus on 
distribution.

He therefore advocates a grand coalition of the 
Congress and the BJP, both with a unitary vision 
of the Indian nation and therefore capable of 
focusing energies on stepping up the rate of 
economic growth, which will solve the problems 
that the smaller parties seek to solve through 
distribution.

Lord Desai aired his opinion at a dialogue with 
Prof Amartya Sen, organised by the Federation of 
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry at the 
Capital earlier this week.

Prof Sen disputed his friend's vision of Indian 
nationhood and commended a change in policy 
priorities to improve public health and education 
as the key to faster growth. Both the labour lord 
and the Nobel laureate are mistaken.

The strategy of industrialisation led by state 
ownership and machines that make machines, Desai 
argued, stunted economic growth but pandered to 
the incumbent elite.

The decision to leave traditional society alone 
was based on the presumption that growth and 
industrialisation would perform the job of 
modernisation in due course.

Aborted growth led the subaltern 'nationalities' 
to use the space offered by universal adult 
franchise to form their own political parties. In 
this fragmented polity, the Congress or the BJP 
can form a government only with the help of these 
parties, the primordial loyalty of whose members 
is to a caste/region/language/ethnic identity and 
not to India, unlike in the case of the major 
national parties.

This dependence on 'distribution-first' parties 
leads to a drain of national resources away from 
production enhancing investment. Therefore, the 
two parties with a unitary vision of Indian 
nationhood should come together at least for five 
years, to kick-start accelerated growth.

This Desai thesis has many holes in it. Desai 
tends to conflate all group identities with 
nationalities. As Sudipto Mundle pointed out, 
significant drain of public resources is effected 
by groups such as farmers and exporters, who 
cannot be identified as nations by any stretch of 
the imagination.

Besides, castes can even be defined only in terms 
the larger collective, India, and in relation to 
other castes. Brahmins, for example, are a 
pan-Indian group who would lose their specific 
identity if there were no hierarchy of other 
castes to dominate in ritual authority.

Similarly, Dalits would not be Dalits if there 
were no caste hierarchy to be at the bottom of. 
Now, nations define themselves of themselves, not 
in relation to one another.

Leaders like Lalu Yadav or Mayawati do not even 
represent all Yadavs or all Dalits. To be 
consistent with his definition of any group 
represented by a Third Front party as a nation, 
Desai would have to call the Yadavs of Bihar one 
nation, and the Yadavs of Uttar Pradesh, another, 
and recognise the Dalits represented by Paswan as 
a nation distinct from the nation of Dalits 
represented by Mayawati.

Nor are regional parties like the DMK or the 
AIADMK distribution-first profligates. Under 
their dispensation, Tamil Nadu has emerged as one 
of the best-governed, fastest growing states of 
the country.

Desai's biggest fallacy is the notion that BJP's 
idea of nationhood is pro-growth. Hindutva 
condemns minority religious communities to second 
class status, and is prepared to reinforce that 
subordination, if necessary, through 
state-sponsored violence as in Gujarat.

The distribution of political power, financial 
and communication channels and dispersal of 
potentially destructive technology in the modern 
world together offer the targets of such 
attempted subjugation assorted means of violent 
resistance. Hindutva is a prescription for 
schism, not prosperity.

If Desai is wrong, it does not mean that the 
'tossed salad' view of Indian nationhood is 
right. The good thing about this dish is that 
each individual element retains its separate 
identity while yielding a collective taste 
distinct from the individual flavours.

But it's a poor metaphor for the collective of 
multiple identities that constitute India, 
because India's multiple identities are dispersed 
in a hierarchy of power. The Thakur and the Dalit 
do not quite bond the way cucumber does with 
cabbage.

Prof Sen conceded this, even while harping on the 
ancient lineage of the idea of India as a union 
of diversities. However, his stress on health and 
education as the antidote to this inequality of 
power abstracts away the reality of oppression 
faced by the Dalits.

Such brahminism, too, impedes growth and welfare 
by blacking out another part of the remedy: 
empowerment of the subaltern through organisation 
and political representation. Political agency 
armed Keralites to acquire literacy, not benign 
enlightenment.



______

[3]


The Hindu
Jan 06, 2005

DANGEROUS CURRENTS

By Maria Aurora Couto

History and memory need to be recovered by both 
the Hindu and Catholic communities of Goa but not 
with crude productions that distort and telescope 
unrelated events to create divisive hatreds.

THE YEAR ended in Goa with a testament of faith 
by 2.2 million pilgrims during six weeks of the 
Exposition of St. Francis Xavier. This was 
preceded by the International Film Festival, 
which brought unprecedented national and 
international attention as also excitement and 
controversy within the State. Visitors were 
struck by the peace and harmony, the ready smile, 
the helpful hand, and an innate courtesy. A few 
paused to reflect on these qualities. Could it be 
the beauty of its environment or the 
centuries-old exposure to the major religions of 
the world that has cemented the unique humanism 
of this society?

Yet all is not as well as it appears to be, and 
Goans are well aware of the dangerous 
undercurrents that have begun to flow beneath 
this calm surface. A VCD, "Goa Freedom Struggle," 
produced by the Directorate of Education of the 
Government of Goa, is the most recent 
manifestation of the not-so-subtle attempt to 
disturb and distort the Goans' perception of self 
and society. Four decades after its liberation 
from Portuguese rule, there has been no proper 
study published on the freedom struggle. Very few 
young Goans are aware of this period or indeed of 
the complex past of the land they love so deeply, 
a history they need to understand if harmony is 
to prevail.

The theme of the documentary should have been 
welcome but its malicious perspective, which 
twists and distorts history to create communal 
hatred, has led to a condemnation of the VCD by 
Church authorities, by the Congress party, and by 
freedom fighters, activists, and writers 
including the poet, Manohar Rai Sardessai, and 
the writer, Uday Bhembre. There would have been a 
wider public expression of anger had the VCD been 
viewed widely.

The coarse bigotry of its perspective, which 
demonises Christianity, seeks to establish a link 
between the excesses of the early period of 
Portuguese rule in the 16th and 17th centuries 
and the freedom struggle of the modern period, 
and its lopsided account of the latter to invent 
a heroic role for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh 
which everyone knows had very little to do with 
the liberation of Goa or indeed with the Indian 
national movement, is truly an arrogant misuse of 
power to disseminate misinformation to young 
minds. The documentary was produced two years 
ago, and screened on the national channel of 
Doordarshan. No one seems to have paid much 
attention to it then. What has incensed most 
Goans is the fact that the VCD was sent to more 
than 400 schools with a directive that it be 
screened on December 19, Liberation Day, and that 
a report confirming screening be sent to the 
Directorate.

Goans are unwilling to face the troubled past - 
it is indeed another country where dreadful 
things happened that seared the psyche. Perhaps 
it is the institution of the ganvkari, 
communidade - the commune system of which the 
historian, Damodar Kosambi, has written so 
evocatively - that healed and restored 
cohesiveness, aided by the Christian spirit of 
many missionaries, including the much maligned 
Francis Xavier. Yet the Catholics of Goa need to 
understand that troubled country of the past, 
when atrocities were committed in the name of 
Christianity in a ruthless quest for power and 
souls, and not pretend it did not happen. It is 
only then that the reaching out to each other of 
their ancestors - which is the basis of the 
goodwill that prevails - will not get ruptured by 
recent attempts to indoctrinate young Hindu minds.

While it is true that knowledge of history has 
strengthened rather than undermined faith, there 
are voices that discourage the digging up of a 
violent past. Ignorance may be bliss, but it 
renders the faithful defenceless against the 
antagonisms that debase their religion. Although 
the faith of the Goan is a fact of identity and 
the rock of his life, questions about the past 
need to be asked so that we understand the past 
and live creatively in the present particularly 
at a time when religion is used to subvert 
political life in a ruthless quest for power. 
History and memory need to be recovered by both 
the Hindu and Catholic communities of Goa but not 
with crude productions such as the VCD that 
distort and telescope unrelated events to create 
divisive hatreds.

The script, which is in Hindi, elides recklessly 
in its account of Goan history, with a 
presumption that is breathtaking. It begins with 
a dream sequence of a rape scene and then a 
narrative that describes Goa as a holy place with 
"the innocence of a child" vandalised by the 
Portuguese. Recorded facts that prove the 
collaboration of local leaders, who in fact 
sought the help of Afonso de Albuquerque to end 
the rule of Yusuf Adil Shah, are left out. 
Instead there is a succession of exaggerated 
scenes of violence, destruction of temples, and a 
cross lurking in the background or dangling 
threateningly above hapless victims. 
Christianity, both in human and symbolic form, is 
portrayed to evoke fear and revulsion.

The fact that the first violence was against the 
Muslim population, that the women raped or 
converted were Muslim women, that there was an 
initial pact between the Hindu collaborators and 
the Portuguese that safeguarded the majority 
Hindu population - all these are carefully 
deleted, as is the fact that the drive for 
conversion began not on arrival of the Portuguese 
in 1510 as depicted but in 1540, that the 
Inquisition was established in 1560, and more 
seriously, that the main victims of the 
Inquisition were the early converts to 
Christianity who refused to give up their 
traditional customs and rituals.

The Maratha rulers, Shivaji and Sambhaji, are 
given a heroic role within Goan history. Yet 
historian P.S. Pissurlencar's Portuguese-Mahratta 
Relations (translated by T.V. Parvate, 1983) 
details their battles with the Portuguese and 
proves that they attacked Goa for their own ends 
and not to save the local population, that 
Shivaji distrusted the Portuguese but sought 
their help against the Moghuls. The theme of the 
freedom struggle is not revealed in all its 
complexity. If the intention was to encapsulate 
the centuries between 1510 and 1946 when Ram 
Manohar Lohia demanded civil rights for Goa 
trapped in Salazar's firm grasp, then the 
omissions are brazen. To bring in the Marathas 
and diminish or erase the long years of quiet or 
bloody battles fought by the Goan clergy against 
racist policies, the later polemics of an 
emerging elite, is political manipulation at its 
worst. Besides, freedom fighters have pointed out 
major errors in presenting the last phase of the 
struggle.

The Government will not be able to force the 
issue given the agitation from all quarters. The 
point is not that it may find itself compelled to 
withdraw but that it had the temerity to fund 
this shoddy piece of work (Rs. 40 lakh), produced 
by Ramesh Deo, a film actor from the Marathi film 
industry with no experience of direction.

I recall that when Atal Bihari Vajpayee made his 
astonishing endorsement of Narendra Modi in a 
speech in Goa before the 2002 Assembly election, 
absolving him of his complicity in the Gujarat 
massacre, it was widely felt that Goa was a test 
case to see how far the Sangh Parivar could go to 
force its agenda. These inroads in Goa continue 
to be made - with a young, intelligent, and 
energetic Chief Minister, skilfully manipulating 
his popularity with sops, improvements, and an 
active personal presence that is being severely 
tried with this last outrageous assault on the 
dignity of Goa.

(Maria Aurora Couto is the author of Goa: A 
Daughter's Story, Penguin Books India, New Delhi, 
2004.)


______


[4]

The Hindu
Jan 06, 2005

AMU, A FILM WITH PROMISE

MUMBAI, JAN. 5. Stressing that cinema has a role 
that goes beyond providing mere entertainment, 
director Shyam Benegal has appreciated the fact 
that a new crop of film-makers is concerned about 
environmental and other issues facing society.

Speaking last night after a special screening of 
the film, Amu, directed by Shonali Bose and set 
against the backdrop of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, 
Benegal said: "In the last decade, questions were 
being asked as to why the young generation of 
film-makers did not seem to be concerned about 
social issues. It's true that the prime objective 
of films is to entertain, but social concerns 
could also go with it. Psychological 
relationships could be explored."

Amu is fabulous and the script is extremely 
well-written, he said. Besides, the performances 
are excellent. "Considering this is Shonali's 
first film, she has to be complimented for 
tackling a subject that has been taboo for the 
last 20 years," Benegal added.

The director of the film, due to be released on 
January 7, expressed the confidence that her 
debut movie would appeal to a wide cross-section 
of people. "The issue handled in the film is 
still alive. Only the faces have changed. Nobody 
has been punished, the victims have not been 
rehabilitated."

The film is about a 21-year-old non-resident 
Indian, played by Konkana Sen Sharma of Mr and 
Mrs Iyer fame, who visits India and stumbles upon 
the secrets of her past.

Amu, with the social activist, Brinda Karat, and 
Ankur Khanna playing pivotal roles, will be 
screened in the competition section of the 7th 
International Film festival of Mumbai organised 
by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images, which 
begins here tomorrow.

The Los Angeles-based director said that even 
though she had fictionalised the story, it was 
true to reality. She recalled that as a 
first-year history student in Delhi University 
during the riots she had met several of the 
victims and interviewed them for a book by her 
Professor, Uma Chakravarty, The Delhi Riots.

The Central Board of Film Certification has 
granted the film an `A' certificate, with a few 
minor cuts, she added. - UNI


_______


[5]


MEMORANDUM
to demand for retrospective repeal of Section-32 of POTA (2002)

While we welcome the repeal of the Prevention of 
Terrorism Act 2002 with prospective effect from 
2004, we feel deeply disturbed and anguished by 
the refusal of the Central Government to repeal 
the Act with retrospective effect. We had in the 
past opposed the TADA and we also opposed the 
POTO(2001) and the POTA 2002 on the ground that 
the terrorist ACT was in fact and in principle ' 
a lawless law', meant to be used and abused 
against all those who dissent and resist the 
dominant ideology and politics in the name of " 
terrorism". The Act was, in our opinion, 
undemocratic, unconstitutional, unjust and 
inhuman, as it violated all principles of 
historically developed civilized and humanized 
criminal law, seeking to secure justice to the 
victims (both the society and the individuals) 
and the accused. The law was not only capable of 
being abused in some cases, but was in itself 'an 
abuse of law' and was doomed to be 
counter-productive. It was, in fact not 
Prevention of Terrorism Act, but Production of 
Terrorism Act and symbolized the worst form of 
state terrorism.

  After the prospective repeal of the POTA 2002, 
and enactment of new unlawful Criminal Activities 
law without the obnoxious provision of the POTA 
2002, the painful reality still remains, namely 
as the Act was invoked only against Muslims in 
post riot Gujarat and not against the Hindu 
fanatics who were responsible for the genocide of 
the Muslims, these hundreds of Muslims booked 
under the POTA 2002 will continue to suffer as 
being governed by the repealed POTA, with 
exposure to all its obnoxious provisions.

  One such provision of the POTA 2002 was S-32 
which provided that a confession made by a person 
before police officer in writing or any 
mechanical or electronic device shall be 
admissible in evidence under the POTA and may be 
used against that person or any co-accused. This 
Section 32 of the POTA 2002 is in complete 
derogation of the provision of the normal 
Criminal and Evidence Law which in clear terms 
denies its admissibility as evidence. It is a 
matter of common knowledge that the police is 
notorious for its unchecked and uninhibited use 
of third degree methods, known as police torture 
and custodial violence for extracting forced 
confessions from the persons in police custody. 
In fact and in popular parlance police remand is 
understood as police torture. This is nothing but 
grows violence of the basic human rights of the 
accused, particularly right to live with dignity 
and is consistently condemned by the supreme 
court of India, holding it to be direct contempt 
of court.

  It is also known to everybody in Gujarat that 
almost all POTA cases are based upon such forced 
confessions extracted from the persons arrested 
by the police officers, which confessions are 
used for arresting other persons named under 
POTA. All Muslims arrested under the POTA before 
its repeal will have to face trial on the bases 
of such forced confessions under S-32 of the POTA 
2002. It is worth nothing that the new law to 
replace the provisions of the POTA for dealing 
with the terrorists does not retain   S-32 of the 
POTA and makes the terrorist law almost similar 
to ordinary criminal law. Because of the 
obnoxious and unjust character of S-32 of the 
POTA, a curious result is that the new alleged 
terrorist accused will be tried without using the 
forced confessions before police officer, while 
the alleged terrorist accused under POTA will 
have to bear the harsh consequences of S-32. This 
is really grossly and unjustly discriminatory 
violative of Art. 14 of the constitution. 
Moreover with the retention of S-32 of the POTA 
2002 for those arrested before its repeal, the 
accused will not be in a position in get the real 
benefit of mandatory  review committee whose sole 
function is to examine and stop those cases of 
abuse of POTA. The review will be illusory, if it 
is to consider whether there is a prim facie case 
or the basis on the confessed statements under 
S-32.

  We believe that the Muslims in Gujarat have 
suffered terribly and irreparably during the 
'genocide' program of the Gujarat Government 
under Narendra Modi. They at least yearn  for 
justice - Justice for the Muslim victims and 
justice for the Muslim accused, and equality 
between Muslim accused and Hindu accused during 
riots of 2002. We believe that all these - Hindu 
and Muslims - who are found guilty according to 
the normal criminal law must be punished but we 
do not want and would never support the stand of 
the government that Muslim accused will be 
punished as per S-32, of the POTA, while others 
equally involved will be judged as per the normal 
Criminal law.

  We demand that Section 32 or the repealed POTA 
which would still govern the pending cases should 
be repealed with retrospective effect, for the 
sake of justice, non-discrimination and 
protection of the basic human rights of the 
accused in the riot cases. The Government should 
at least humanize the continuing operation of the 
repeated POTA for pending cases. We also appeal 
to all those who are committed to democracy, rule 
of Law equal justice secularism in human dignity 
to empower upon the Central Government to give 
retrospective effect to S-32 of the repealed 
POTA. This is very urgent because the Gujarat 
Government is bent upon finishing as namely POTA 
cases as possible and as early as possible and 
any delay will do great injustice to the POTA 
accused and even the little benefit assured to 
them by the Review committee will be lost.

(E-mail: ifieahdad1 at sancharnet.in)

Signatures:
Dr. Hanif Lakdawala
Girish Patel (Senior Advocate)
Indukumar Jani
Sheeba George
Dr. Shakil Ahmed
and others

______


[6]

The Hindu
Jan 07, 2005

INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON SECULARISM IN HYDERABAD
By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JAN. 6. An international convention on 
secularism will be held in Hyderabad on January 
14 and 15.

Organised by the Indian Radical Humanist 
Association under the aegis of the International 
Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), the convention 
would be attended by over 200 delegates from six 
countries apart from India.

K. Jayachandra Reddy, Chairman, Press Council of 
India; Shanta Sinha, Magsaysay Award winner and 
K. Kesava Rao, president, APCC, are among those 
who are expected to participate in the 
proceedings, according to G.R.R. Babu, executive 
director, IHEU.

Mr. Babu said the convention would recommend 
implementation of a universal civil code, 
thorough investigations into the funding and 
administration of religious bodies and strict 
punishment for those who incite communal hatred 
and violence.

He said that secularism had been misinterpreted 
by successive governments in India to mean equal 
respect for all religions and their 
superstitions, whereas true secularism implies 
separation of religion from State.

``The convention will help us compare the 
experiences of secularism from various countries 
and work out measures appropriate for us,'' 
explained N. Innaiah, convener, Federation of 
Atheist, Rationalist Humanist Associations, one 
of the sponsors.

______


[7]

PEOPLE’S MEDIA INITIATIVE
609, Golden Chamber, Opp. Citimall, Andheri (W), Mumbai – 400 053.
Email: <mailto:pmiright at yahoo.co.in>pmiright at yahoo.co.in

Press Note

Dear Sir/Madam,

People’s Media Initiative is holding a two days 
National Convention in Mumbai on 8th and 9th 
January 2005 and we are holding a press 
conference on 7th January 2005 at 5:30 p.m. at 
Press Club, Near Azad Maidan, V.T., Mumbai – 400 
001.

Senior journalist and ex - member of parliament 
Mr. Kuldip Nayyar will be addressing Press on 
issues of challenges before media and People’s 
Media Initiative , an initiative much needed 
today and on lessons of Gujarat Riots 2002 and 
Role of Media.

  Other speakers will be Rohit Prajapati of PUCL, 
Gujarat, Adv. P.A.Sebastian of Committee for the 
protection of Democratic Rights, Ramesh Pimple of 
People’s Media Initiative and Ms. Vidyottama.

On 8th January, 2005 [Saturday], People’s Media 
Initiative will be having open session from 10:30 
a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and press and media are 
requested to cover it and Mr. Kuldip Nayyar will 
be inaugurating it and many prominent Media and 
civil right activists will be speaking on various 
issues.

  You are requested to kindly send your reporter to cover it and do the needful.

For People’s Media Initiative

Ms. Rumana
022 - 26358301
People's Media Initiative
Golden Chamber, Opp. Citimall, Andheri (W), Mumbai - 400 053.


Dear Colleagues,

Sub: The first foundation conference of People's 
Media Initiative, which is to be established as 
an All India Body.

Today Media is playing a very strong role in 
shaping the mind - set of the people and heavily 
influence political-social-economical policies of 
India. We are aware that vernacular media of 
Gujarat was at great extent responsible for 
fuelling the Gujarat Communal Riots 2002, we have 
started hearing new coin word Media Trial, 
somewhere the voices of downtrodden, poor, 
dalits, minorities, workers, exploited class is 
lost completely and the divide between the have 
and have not has further widened up.

People's Media Initiative is basically a group of 
progressive filmmakers, journalists, and social 
and human right activists from Mumbai and 
Gujarat, who are active since the last 5 years. 
We are looking forward to take the shape of a 
formal organisation and form an All India Body of 
like-minded people who are active in media, civil 
liberties and human rights, journalism, film 
making (documentaries and feature films), 
academicians, intellectuals and persons engaged 
in diverse activities but somewhere keen to be a 
part of this process.

People's Media Initiative is keen to deal with 
cases of state repression, communal violence, 
illegal detention, encounter killings, custodial 
violence, death in police firing, the denial of 
democratic and civil liberties to any section of 
the population.

Today basic concept of fact-finding is changing 
rapidly and fact- finding is done today with 
camera in hand, so that it becomes more factual 
and fool- proof. PMI wishes to use audio-visual 
medium while doing probe, fact-finding, and 
intervention and while undertaking public 
awareness programmes.

People's Media Initiative is keen to become as a 
link body so that those who are active in the 
field or wish to be become active can join PMI be 
it from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Manipur to Mumbai 
and function as a Unitary body, draw the 
strategies, programmes and intervene successfully 
through probes, fact- finding, filling news 
reports, spot films, legal interventions and try 
to create place in mainstream print media, 
television and films.

People's Media Initiative is registered as 
Society under the Societies Registration Act 1860 
as well as under Bombay Public Trust Act 1950. 
First Foundation Conference will be held in 
Mumbai on 8th & 9th January 2005 [Saturday & 
Sunday], leading journalist of India, Mr. Kuldip 
Nayar will be inaugurating the meet, besides him 
there shall be many leading figures from media 
and human rights that are likely to attend the 
meet.

In this meet, PMI wishes to emerge as an 
organised body and new office bearers, working 
committee and general body will be formed during 
this two-day conference and the conference will 
conclude with a press conference.

Date of conference:		8th & 9th January 2005. [Saturday & Sunday]

Time:				10:00 a.m.onwards

Place:	Bio-Medical Centre, St. Pius College 
Complex, Aarey Road, Goregaon (E), Mumbai - 400 
063.
[It is 5 minutes distance from Goregaon Railway 
station on East side, Goregaon station is on the 
Western railway, those coming from Mumbai Central 
will have to take Borivali local train and get 
down at Goregaon Station. And those coming from 
Borivali will have to take Churchgate train.]


People's Media Initiative
Ramesh Pimple
Kirit Bhatt
Shyam Ranjankar
Geeta Chawda
Yusuf Mehta
Kunda P.N.  & others


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

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