SACW | 20 Jan 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 20 Jan.,  2005
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Pakistan:  Saadat Hasan Manto's 50th death 
anniversary observed: Ban on his writings on TV 
and radio condemned (Shoaib Ahmad)
[2] Tsunami:  Crime and (divine) punishment - I and II (Razi Azmi)
[3] Tsunami - India: A Sense of Perspective (Mukul Dube)
[4] India: Joint Statement of Women's Groups 
Against Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958
[5] The Fishing Community in India Protest 
Against Police Repression on Adivasis in Orissa
[6] India: ICHR book on Vedic civilisation : Govt 
should steer clear of glorifying the past


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

[1]


The Daily Times
January 19, 2005

MANTO'S 50TH DEATH ANNIVERSARY OBSERVED: BAN ON 
MANTO'S WRITINGS ON TV AND RADIO CONDEMNED

By Shoaib Ahmad
LAHORE: It is regrettable that Saadat Hasan 
Manto's writings are still banned on television 
and radio and he has not been given due respect 
in Pakistan, said speakers at a special gathering 
held at 'Lakshmi Mansion' in front of Manto's 
house on Tuesday to mark his 50th death 
anniversary.
Speaking on the occasion, which was organised by 
the Weekly Mazdoor Jido-Johad, Abid Hasan Manto 
said although life in Manto's days was simple his 
farsightedness made him write about the 
complexities of today. He came from a middle 
class family and associated with his economic 
strata, he said. He wrote about the hypocrisy of 
society, which people usually 'hate' to discuss 
like Sahiba Karamat and Mangoo, a character he 
sketched in his famous short-story Naiya Qanoon, 
he added. Throwing light on Manto's story Naiya 
Qanoon, he said the 17th amendment in Pakistan 
and imperial design behind globalisation were the 
examples of present times. He said Manto wanted 
an egalitarian society where the poor were not 
oppressed and women got equal rights and were 
accepted as equal partners in society.
Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan, a women's rights 
activist, said the 'so-called custodians of 
Pakistan's ideology' had never accepted Manto, 
but the people in Pakistan had accepted Manto in 
the 21st century. She said Manto was widely read 
in India and nearly all the bookstores carried 
his work.
She said Manto lived a respectable and happy life 
in Bombay but in Lahore he had to go through 
trouble and several cases were filed against him. 
Shujaat Hashmi, an actor, regretted that Manto 
was still banned from television and radio. 
Disagreeing with Ms Khan, he said those who loved 
Manto had accepted him even in the 20th century. 
He said Manto did not only belong to the 
sub-continent but to the whole world. In India, 
he said, Manto was celebrated but in Pakistan he 
was still banned.
Madeeha Gauhar said that she tried to convey 
Manto's ideas through theatrical performances. 
She said she had staged his two important plays 
in Pakistan, Toba Tek Singh and Naiya Qanoon. 
Manto's daughters Nighat Patail, Nuzhat Arshad 
and Nusrat Jalal were present on the occasion. Ms 
Arshad said she felt great being Manto's 
daughter. He was a sensitive writer, she added. 
Poet Munir Niazi presided over the gathering. He 
said the Pakistani nation had not learnt to 
respect its great people. Mr Niazi said he met 
Manto after partition.

______


[2]

Daily Times
January 19, 2005

CRIME AND (DIVINE) PUNISHMENT - I

by Razi Azmi

The deaths of about 150,000 people across half a 
dozen countries from the devastating Indian Ocean 
tsunami have evoked the most generous response in 
history from peoples and governments, 
particularly of Western countries. This owes not 
only to their feeling of compassion, but also to 
the power of television. The sight of the 
advancing sea, devouring all in its path, was as 
spectacular as the images of human suffering, 
which the sea left in its wake, were 
heart-wrenching.
Every catastrophe rekindles the debate on the 
role of God. Not surprisingly, given its nature 
and magnitude, this tsunami handed a licence to 
simpletons, obscurantists and bigots to theorise 
on the connection between human sin and natural 
calamity. While benefiting from the progress of 
science and technology, in fact basing their 
daily lives on them, believers in divine 
intervention are wont to explain this awesome, 
yet simple, geological event in terms that are 
antithetical to the very ABC of science.
The Anglican Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, said 
that disasters were part of God's warning that 
judgement was coming. However, his comments 
appeared to be so out of tune with the opinion of 
the Christian mainstream in the West that 
immediately he had to take refuge in the claim of 
having been quoted out of context.
Of course, there are the likes of the reverend 
Jerry Falwell in the US, renowned for their 
mendacity. He saw the hand of God even in the 
man-made catastrophe of 9/11. Rev Falwell had 
observed on that occasion: "The abortionists have 
got to bear some burden for this because God will 
not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million 
little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really 
believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, 
and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians 
who are actively trying to make that an 
alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the 
American Way, all of them who have tried to 
secularise America. I point the finger in their 
face and say 'you helped this happen'."
The reverend knows very well that secularism has 
given America and Western Europe the stability, 
harmony and peace that underpin their material 
progress. One needs only to read a bit of 
European history or look at the Muslim states of 
today to see the practical blessings of 
non-secular polities. Fortunately, Falwell's 
views are shared only by a very small section of 
the American population.
But, in sheer numbers and the quality of 
comments, Muslims stand in a class of their own 
when it comes to regarding catastrophes as divine 
punishment. Only Allah knows what the small-time 
maulvi is saying in the mosques of Gujranwala and 
Kohat after the South Asian tsunami, but let us 
look at the published comments emanating from 
more sophisticated sources.
An eminent Saudi scholar has said that 
homosexuality and fornication committed by 
residents and visitors of affected countries at 
Christmastime had earned Allah's wrath. In a 
television interview Sheik Fawzan Al Fawzan, a 
professor at the Al Imam University and a member 
of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia's 
highest religious body, said that "these great 
tragedies and collective punishments that are 
wiping out villages, towns, cities and even 
entire countries, are Allah's punishments of the 
people of these countries, even if they are 
Muslims". The professor singled out beach resorts 
as places of sexual sin.
On the Internet, one Dr Abu Ziyaad of Jordan has 
quoted chapter and verse from the Islamic 
scriptures not only to prove that the tsunami is 
a sure sign of Allah's anger, but has also 
described the sins which caused it, bringing such 
devastation to Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and 
Thailand. "Alongside the fact that these 
governments are actively fighting Islam and 
Muslims on a national and international scale, 
their peoples are also involved in wide-scale 
shirk. ... The whole South Asian region is 
characterised by shirk (polytheism). In Thailand, 
India, Sri Lanka, the shirk is in the form of 
setting up rivals (andaad) to Allah in his 
(ruboobiyyah) Lordship."
He continues, "We see the many Buddhist statues 
and idols that the people have created out of 
their own hands as illustration of this fact, 
e.g. the golden statues of Buddha, Hanuman, 
Ganesh, Gandhi etc, etc. In Indonesia, the shirk 
is more subtle, and takes the form of setting up 
laws and constitutions in parliament based on 
kufr. The shirk of ruling by man-made laws - as 
opposed to the sharee'ah - is in direct 
contradiction to the tawheed al uloohiyyah. No 
matter what the form of shirk, one thing is 
certain, the punishment of Allaah (swt) for this 
crime".
A Daily Times report (January 6) quoting Tarek 
Fatah, a community leader and television host 
based in Toronto, says that "the message being 
repeated ad nauseam in [Saudi and Kuwaiti] 
mosques and media [is] that the earthquake was a 
punishment from God for the sins of the people of 
South and South East Asia."
"Asia's earthquake, which hit the beaches of 
prostitution, tourism, immorality and nudity", 
one commentator said on an Islamist website, "is 
a sign that God is warning mankind from 
persisting in injustice and immorality before he 
destroys the ground beneath them". In mosques 
across the United States, more or less the same 
message is going out to the Muslim community. 
While appeals have been made for generous 
donations to relief funds, the congregations are 
also being told that the tsunami was azab-e-Ilahi 
or the wrath of God for the sins of those who 
were hit, according to the report.
And, finally, Mohammad Faizeen, manager of the 
Centre of Islamic Studies in Colombo, has claimed 
that the tsunami was not only the result of God's 
wrath, but that God even signed his name in the 
tsunami. The proof, according to him, is to be 
found in satellite pictures taken seconds after 
the tsunami smashed into Sri Lanka's coast near 
the town of Kalutara and as it was receding. 
"This clearly spells out the name Allah in 
Arabic."
Believers often forget that this practice of 
linking natural disasters and epidemics -indeed, 
even personal misfortunes including sicknesses - 
with individual and collective sin is not only 
baseless but also full of pitfalls. Since no 
individual, group or nation can ever claim total 
and permanent immunity from adversity, the 
attribution of suffering to sin will go in 
circles sparing none whomsoever.
Conversely, prosperity and success may be (and 
are) viewed as God's blessings, and this would 
mean that the West and the rich and corrupt elite 
of the Third Word are on the right side of God. 
Besides being diametrically opposed to scientific 
knowledge, such beliefs confound common sense, 
offend our sense of compassion and defy empirical 
evidence. It is an insult to both victims and 
survivors, and their relatives, to suggest that 
their travails were warranted by their sins.


The Daily Times, January 20, 2005

CRIME AND (DIVINE) PUNISHMENT - II

Razi Azmi

In 1755, a doomsday-like combination of 
earthquake, tsunami and fire killed 90,000 
people, a third of the population, and destroyed 
85 percent of the buildings of Lisbon, capital of 
Portugal, a bastion of Catholicism. About four 
centuries earlier, the plague ("Black Death") 
that hit the countries of western and central 
Europe had wiped out between one-fifth and 
two-fifths of their inhabitants, depopulating 
entire regions.
In both instances, people were overtaken by the 
belief that they had been punished for their 
sins. Flagellant groups arose in northern and 
central Europe as a result of "Black Death." 
Processions of devout Christians roamed the 
afflicted lands in campaigns of penance. They 
"would fall to their knees and scourge 
themselves, gesturing with their free hand to 
indicate their sin and striking themselves 
rhythmically to hymns until blood flowed. 
Sometimes the blood was soaked up in rags and 
treated as a holy relic."
Fortunately, when AIDS first hit the headlines in 
the US in the early 1980s, Americans reacted 
rationally, setting themselves the goals of 
finding prevention and cure. But Muslims regarded 
the deadly epidemic as divine punishment for the 
West's alleged moral turpitude, homosexuality in 
particular. However, the Western countries have 
brought AIDS under control without a 
corresponding decrease in promiscuity or 
"sinfulness". On the other hand, it is now 
devastating parts of Africa and Asia.
Contrary to common perceptions, AIDS is by far 
not the world's biggest killer, certainly not in 
the West. In 2003, according to WHO's World 
Health Report, it caused 4.9 percent of 
mortalities in the world, whereas cardiovascular 
diseases killed 29.3 percent, respiratory 
infections 6.9 percent, respiratory diseases 6.5 
percent and unintentional injuries 6.2 percent. 
Sexually-transmitted infections (excluding AIDS) 
were responsible for a mere 0.3 percent of 
deaths. Of the AIDS-related fatalities worldwide 
in 1999, a whopping 19 percent were in Africa, 
but a mere 1.8 percent in the Americas and 0.2 
percent in Europe.
It is instructive to look at the geographical 
distribution of "sin" and natural disasters. From 
the religio-moralist point of view, a presumption 
can be made that the rich Western countries are 
more sinful than poor countries, and within 
nations the cities are more prone to vice than 
rural areas.
Over two-thirds of the tsunami's victims were in 
Aceh, a stronghold of puritan Islam in Muslim 
Indonesia, far removed from the "infidel" 
government and the "dens of corruption and vice" 
in Jakarta and Bali. Incidentally, unlike the 
beaches of Phuket (Thailand), Galle (Sri Lanka) 
and the Maldives, Aceh was a closed military 
province with barely a foreigner in sight, let 
alone a "decadent" Western tourist. In India, the 
tsunami struck the coastal region of Tamil Nadu, 
devouring poor fishing communities, not the 
beaches of Goa and Kerala that are the haunt of 
"sinful" Western fornicators.
While the poor people of Aceh will take a decade 
to return to their earlier life of bare 
subsistence, the aid money pouring into the 
country is a godsend for its ruling elite. The 
rich and corrupt Indonesian bureaucrats and 
military officers will be laughing all the way to 
the ravaged region and thence to the bank!
Let us look at some other statistics. Earthquakes 
occur in certain areas, where there are 
geological fault lines in the earth. They are 
more likely to occur in Iran, Turkey and Japan 
than, say, in England, Germany or Vietnam. 
Cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons are an annual 
feature in Bangladesh, US and the Philippines, 
but never occur in Pakistan, Chad or Paraguay. In 
the US, a hurricane will almost always lash 
Florida but never Arizona.
An earthquake with an intensity of 6.5 on the 
Richter scale killed 30,000 people in the 
medieval city of Bam in 2003, whereas an 
earthquake with a greater intensity of 7.1 had 
killed only 67 persons in San Francisco in 1989. 
Surely, from the point of view of religious 
moralists, being the world's unofficial gay 
capital, San Francisco is more "sinful" than Bam, 
a small, medieval town in the Islamic Republic of 
Iran.
But far more people died in Bam simply because 
the houses there were flimsy, made of mud-clay, 
while the structures in San Francisco are made to 
withstand tremors. Similarly, thanks to better 
construction and early warning systems, 
hurricanes of great ferocity barely kill a dozen 
in Florida, the favourite abode of the West's 
rich and famous, while cyclones with lesser wind 
velocity kill tens of thousands in Bangladesh.
Not so long ago, epidemics like plague, cholera 
and smallpox scourged mankind and were regarded 
as divine punishment for man's sinfulness. But 
they have now been virtually wiped out, thanks to 
better hygiene, nutrition and health care. For 
the same reasons, infant mortality rates have 
drastically dropped worldwide in the last few 
decades. As a result, average life expectancy 
everywhere has increased significantly. In the 
US, it has risen from 47 years in 1900 to 77 in 
2000. Similarly, it is higher in the developed 
countries than in the poorer parts of the world. 
In 1999, life expectancy at birth was about 80 
years in Japan, Australia and Canada, but 60 
years in both Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Muslims attributed the survival of some mosques 
in Aceh to divine protection, rather than their 
sturdier structure. Owing to its distinct 
architecture, a standing mosque is conspicuous by 
its presence amid rubble, but one destroyed by a 
tsunami or an earthquake is indistinguishable 
from the surrounding rubble. Even a cursory 
survey will surely reveal that many 
poorly-constructed mosques were destroyed or 
damaged by the tsunami, while the solid mansions 
of a few rich and "sinful" Acehnese survived.
Catholics in the southern Sri Lankan town of 
Matara reportedly credited a "miracle statue" 
with keeping the sea at bay for 10 to 15 minutes 
after the first tsunami wave hit. One would 
expect a miracle statue to do better than block 
the waves for a mere 15 minutes! About 4,000 
fishermen from 20 Tamil Nadu villages in India 
survived because they had left that morning to 
attend an annual Hindu ritual. They attributed 
their good luck to "the grace of Siva Nataraja". 
"All of us owe our lives to him", said one of 
them. Surely, anyone who had left his coastal 
village for any reason whatsoever, even sinful 
pursuits in a nearby town, would also have 
survived the tsunami unscathed.
Even the biggest bigot will concede that any 
natural calamity kills people without 
discrimination. In fact, among the victims of 
epidemics, tsunamis, earthquakes, cyclones and 
floods, owing to their physical vulnerability and 
the frailty of their houses, children and poor 
people far outnumber young males and the rich, 
although the latter are much more likely to sin.
For every sinner who is supposedly targeted by 
God for his transgressions, there are numerous 
innocent victims who just happen to be at the 
wrong place at the wrong time. For every single 
homosexual, atheistic or adulterous Westerner who 
got killed in Phuket, one thousand God-fearing 
Acehnese Muslim villagers - men, women and 
children - died. If natural catastrosphes are 
divine punishment for sinners, then it must be 
accepted that they are inflicting massive 
collateral damage. If they are intended as 
warnings to evil-doers, then, I am afraid, these 
are mostly being delivered to the wrong addresses.


______


[3]

South Asia Citizens Web  |  20 January 2005
http://sacw.insaf.net/free/MDube14012005.html

[14 Jan 2005]

A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE

by Mukul Dube

A friend of nearly thirty years, until recently a professor of
physics at the university in Lahore, wrote last week to say that he
and his wife were consumed by worry because their grand-daughter
needed surgery for a hole in her heart. He said that this seemed a
petty concern when so many thousands had lost their lives to the
tsunami. True to his vocation, he spoke of the universe and of the
atoms of which it is made up. Clearly he was burdened by guilt.

I reminded him that he had become a purveyor of rationality decades
ago. There is no way in which a hole in one child's heart can wipe
out thousands of miles of coast-line. Nor can any under-sea
earthquake create holes in the hearts of people on a mass scale. He
had reacted as he did to the destruction caused by the tsunami because
he was that kind of person. There are countless millions, many of
whom are far closer to the sea than he is, who just couldn't be
bothered. But he is also a grandfather, so he reacted as one. Each
person is at once many things. Sociologists call this "role
theory": today one role is dominant, tomorrow another is. In the
matter of the little girl, all that my friend can do is ensure that
she gets good medical attention -- and at least pretend to be strong
so that her parents can draw strength from him. In the matter of the
tsunami, he can continue to appeal to his colleagues, students and
friends to contribute in one way or another -- he cannot reconstruct
ruined coast-lines and he cannot breathe life into the dead.
Powerless here, powerless there, yet feeling a futile guilt only for
one?

But I do not mean to write about a private exchange between friends.
What made me begin to write this was an expression he used: "a
sense of perspective". He meant, of course, one little girl versus
countless thousands across South-East Asia and South Asia. I shall
look only at India; and I shall speak only of thousands of
individuals, not of one little girl.

It happens that about a week back I wrote an article about stray
dogs. In it I cited the WHO's estimate that in 1998, somewhere
around 30,000 people had died of rabies in India. Just one year.
There is nothing to suggest that 1998 was an exceptional year: there
have always been deaths from rabies and it looks like there always
will be. Deaths in India caused by the recent tsunami are estimated
at 9,500 while another 500 people are missing. We pay little attention
to the 30,000 because they are spread out across 365 days and all
over the country, and we are panicked by a third of that number
because all is over in a matter of hours and is restricted to a part
of our coast-line and a small group of distant islands which we own.

No human agency can either cause a tsunami or stop one. What humans
can do, if they recognise such ideas as duty and responsibility, is
make arrangements to minimise the damage that is caused by a tsunami.
A tsunami is a natural occurrence, and it is not as if India has not
seen this class of phenomena and suffered on its account. I am
reminded of the havoc in Andhra Pradesh 27 years ago. I am reminded
of the quite recent cyclone in Orissa. Like all of us, I know about
the annual floods across large parts of our country but have become
inured to them.

What is the immediate aftermath, the stuff that fills the newspapers?
Ministers and other politicians make statements and take care to be
seen inspecting the damage, preferably from helicopters. Packages of
relief are announced by governments. Calls are made for aid from
other countries. And always, every single time, the "measures will
be put in place" flag is waved wildly.

Without doubt, action follows. Committees are constituted, deadlines
are set. Meetings are held in air-conditioned rooms, there is much
toing and froing in air-conditioned cars and railway carriages.
Aeroplanes too are air-conditioned: but the helicopter has a certain
romance about it and is a favourite with photographers and news
editors.

Nobody cares whether or not the reports and recommendations come out
when they should, because many other things have happened before then
to divert people's attention. The initial excitement having long
since died down, nobody cares about what happens on the ground
outside the air-conditioned spaces in which secret confabulations
have taken place. Here and there, favoured building contractors may
be paid to construct a few token shelters which are badly made and
are not maintained, and which soon fall down. The furies of nature
may come again to the same welcome.

On paper, though, "measures have been put in place". The members of
the committees, who are of course never themselves affected by the
natural disasters which they are appointed to guard against, have
received their remuneration and allowances and can go about with
bright new feathers in their caps.

And what of the 30,000 or so deaths each year from rabies? Rabies is
not carried by storms or on the surface of the ocean. In India,
rabies is enzootic in the canine population, and nearly every human
death from rabies is caused by the saliva of rabid dogs. Can this not
be remedied by human action? It has not been remedied so far because
of the powerful people who are concerned more with animals' rights
than with those of other humans who do not have veterinary surgeons
within driving distance, who cannot afford vaccine and immune
globulin or are miles away from them. These powerful people include,
of course, those at the top of the administration. Why should they
care when they are rarely if ever exposed to stray dogs? Small-pox was
another matter entirely, you see.

First, natural phenomena which cannot be prevented but from which
people can be protected but are not protected. Second, a fatal
disease with known vectors and known preventive measures which are,
however, not implemented. And the third?

I said I would speak of thousands, and I will. Who or what caused the
more than 2,000 deaths in Gujarat three years ago? A giant whirlpool
in the South Pacific, perhaps? Was it a mutant staphylococcus which
raped countless women and girls? Humans could have prevented that
blood-bath, but not those who were human in name only, not so-called
humans who had in them not a trace of humanity, not human jackals who
had tasted blood.

"A sense of perspective." Aid is pouring in from all over the
world for the victims of the tsunami. Ordinary people are giving sums
of money which, for them, are large. But the US and its appendage,
the UK, who took billions from their bottomless cash bags to buy the
bombs to fling at Iraq, are seemingly left only with pennies which
they send on fleets of war-ships.

"A sense of perspective." Who came to the aid of the hundreds
of thousands of Muslims of Gujarat who were literally left with
nothing but their lives? The government of that province, pledged to
protect all its people? No, since it had guided the butchers and
financed them, and since those who were butchered were anyway
enemies, "agents of Miyan Musharraf". The world community? No,
since it was afraid to "interfere in internal matters". Vajpayee
and Advani of the Central Government, aptly controlled from from
central India? No, since the "successful experiment of Hindutva"
was a matter of pride for them, and one maintained a sphinx-like
silence while the other told a dozen or two dozen lies each day.

This is the true meaning of "a sense of perspective". Humanity
can be the same as its own absence.

______


[4]

South Asia Citizens Web | 20 January 2005
http://sacw.insaf.net/Wmov/JointStatement20012005.html


[India] JOINT STATEMENT OF WOMEN'S GROUPS AGAINST 
ARMED FORCES (SPECIAL POWERS) ACT, 1958 (AFSPA)

17 January 2005

This is in response to the notice from the 
Committee to Review the Armed Forces (Special 
Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) that is reviewing the 
working of the Act to make recommendations for 
its amendment or replacement (your notification 
of 9 Dec 2004, Times of India, New Delhi).

At the very outset we wish to state that the 
Terms of Reference of the Committee are deeply 
problematic. The mandate of amendment/replacement 
given to the Committee will inevitably result in 
legislation (new or amended) with the same legal 
and human rights implications as the AFSPA; and 
hence should have, in the first place included 
the option to entirely repeal and strike the Act 
from the law books. For it is well-known and 
documented that for almost half a century, 
generations of people in the north-east have 
lived and died under the AFSPA, an Act that has 
aided, abetted and given impunity to human rights 
violations on a wide scale.

At the same time, the Committee cannot be unaware 
of the widespread human rights abuses by the 
security forces in Jammu and Kashmir - issues 
that have been of greater concern since the 
application of a variant of the AFSPA in the 
region in 1990. For too long, victims of 
arbitrary killings, torture, detention, 
molestation and rapes have been denied access to 
justice. The Committee must therefore extend its 
mandate to review the working of the law in Jammu 
Kashmir as well.

Yet, despite these reservations, we are placing 
our concerns before the Committee because heavy 
militarisation in the north east has taken its 
toll on the very notion of "normal civilian life" 
and led to innumerable instances of violations 
committed against civilian populations. Encounter 
deaths, extra judicial killings, disappearances, 
arbitrary arrests, rape and torture have been a 
regular feature among the relentless series of 
atrocities meted out to the people by the army 
with impunity, especially in areas where they are 
protected by legislation like AFSPA.

The most widely known incidents of such excesses 
are the horror of army torture and violence 
against the villagers of Oinam (Manipur) in 1987; 
the gang rape of the women of Ujanmaidan 
(Tripura) by security forces in 1988; the terror 
wreaked by the army in Assam during Operation 
Rhino in 1991; the shelling of the town of Ukhrul 
(Manipur) with mortars in May 1994; and December 
1994 on Mokokchung (Nagaland), indiscriminate 
firing on civilians by armed forces personnel 
when a tyre of their own jeep burst in the town 
of Kohima (Nagaland) in March 1995; torture of 
the villagers of Namtiram (Manipur) in 1995; the 
army's reign of terror in Jesami (Manipur) in 
January 1996; and the rampage of the village of 
Huishu (Manipur) in March 1996 and of course, 
most recently, the torture, rape and killing of 
Thangjam Manorama alias Henthoi (Manipur) 2004.

Needless to say, the impact on women over decades 
of militarisation has been particularly acute. 
Daily life has been routinely affected by the 
arbitrary house searches, body searches, 
questioning, threats and harassment of all sorts. 
What this has meant for entire families is a 
severe impact on their sense of safety and the 
freedom of mobility - which in turn has had a 
grave impact on their livelihoods, their safety 
in fields, their access to forest/forest produce 
and their ability to receive medical care. At the 
same time, children for generations have had to 
grow up without the concept of safety, regular 
education, easy access to basic facilities or 
even the freedom to live or play without fear. 
The psychological impact of such militarisation 
has been immeasurable, as of course, has been the 
sense of alienation that it engenders.

In most operations, be they cordon and search, 
combing, arrests, searches, or interrogation, the 
armed forces have, under the aegis of the AFSPA 
done away with the basic, minimal safeguards 
accorded to women suspects by the Criminal 
Procedure Code as well as the SC directives. 
Arrest by male security personnel, interrogation 
in army camps and police stations, torture and 
sexual abuse including rape by security personnel 
in custody has become routine.

Testimonies presented by survivors, women's 
groups (both from within and outside the region) 
of such violence and harassment at several 
National Conferences of the Women's Movement over 
the years have highlighted these and many other 
aspects of life under the rule of the gun. From 
Oinam to the Manorama case, we have seen how the 
impunity given to the armed forces under the 
AFSPA has sharply increased women's vulnerability 
to molestation, harassment, sexual assault and 
rape.

The use of rape as a tactic to terrorise a 
community into submission is nowhere more 
apparent than the north east and Kashmir. In 
fact, as we all know, instances of rape by 
security forces have been documented even after 
the ceasefire in Nagaland.

The AFSPA which grants armed forces personnel the 
power to shoot to kill, stands in clear violation 
of the several Constitutional rights of the 
citizens of this country, and contravenes both 
Indian and International law standards. The Act 
is a violation of the Right to Life enshrined in 
Article 21 of the Constitution of India which 
guarantees the right to life to all people. It 
violates the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights (ICCPR), signed by the 
government of India in 1978. In particular, the 
Act is in contravention of Article 6 of the ICCPR 
guaranteeing the right to life, which is a 
non-derogable right. This means no situation, or 
state of emergency, or internal disturbance, can 
justify the suspension of this right. It also 
violates Article 9 of the ICCPR which guarantees 
liberty and security of person.

Moreover, the AFSPA is an emergency legislation 
that Constitutionally requires to be reviewed 
every 6 months. That it should be continued to be 
imposed for years with only a nominal if any 
process at all, is unacceptable.

What the AFSPA has meant on the ground is that in 
case after case of every kind citizens have found 
it impossible to even get a fair hearing, much 
less access any kind of justice - be they 
encounter deaths, extra judicial killings, 
disappearances, arbitrary arrests, rape or 
torture. The examples abound.

The case of the illegal arrest, rape and torture 
of Thangjam Manorama alias Henthoi, in which the 
protest by 12 women activists in Imphal, standing 
naked in front of the headquarters of the Assam 
Rifles Headquarters at the historic Kangla Fort 
Camp in the centre of the city, shouting slogans 
and carrying a banner which said, 'Indian ARMY - 
RAPE US' on 16 July, 2004 is not just a sign of 
their anger, it is also a sign of the desperation 
of the people, a sign of their inability to 
prevent such violence and harassment by the armed 
forces, and/or have access to any justice or 
redressal.

Following the Ujanmaidan case in Tripura (1988) 
where 14 tribal women were gangraped by jawans of 
the 27 Assam Rifles, local action and petitions 
to the government failed to open any doors of 
justice. Finally, it took the investigation of an 
all-woman team and a petition to the Supreme 
Court by AIDWA (All India Democratic Women's 
Association) before the perpetrators were found 
guilty, and compensation granted to the victims.

As we all know, the Oinam incident (1987) during 
Operation Bluebird launched by the Assam Rifles 
were four months of vicious torture, rampage, 
slave labour of villagers and rampant sexual 
assault of women. A long national campaign 
against the disproportionate and unconstitutional 
powers of the AFSPA followed - struggle that is 
on until this day.

Yet the official response has been an adamant 
affirmation of the AFSPA. General Officer 
Commanding-in-Chief (Eastern Command) Lt Gen 
Arvind Sharma, commenting on incidents of 
molestation and rape by Army personnel in some 
states of the North-East, said, "in a large army 
like ours, such incidents are likely to occurŠ 
But we make sure those who are on the wrong side 
are punished." (Sangai Express, 03 Jan 2005).

The claim that the armed forces 'own mechanisms' 
are sufficient to mete out justice to the guilty 
has been long proven to be dubious. In case after 
case, the process of the armed forces remains 
inaccessible to victims, and the lack of 
transparency of court martial and intra army 
judicial processes has meant virtually blanket 
impunity to the guilty.

Even in cases where the armed forces claim to 
have followed "due process", the proceedings and 
the verdicts have been a travesty and mockery of 
justice and the Rule of Law. Two most recent 
verdicts on the crime of rape by Army personnel 
illustrate the point. According to Defence 
spokesman Lt. Col. A.K.Batra, one soldier has 
been dismissed for "breach of discipline", while 
another soldier has been dismissed and sentenced 
to one year's imprisonment for "indulging in 
misconduct"! Can the Review Committee stand by a 
law that offers army personnel immunity for rape, 
murder, torture and a host of other heinous 
crimes?

It is imperative that the Government of India :

· Immediately Repeal legislation such as the AFSPA

· Bring the armed forces within the democratic 
framework of accountability and justice without 
any further delay.

Only then can the people of the north-east, 
especially the women have any chance or hope to 
live with security and dignity.

Signed:

· Aawaz-e-Niswan, Mumbai
· Akshara, Mumbai
· Anweshi Women's Counselling Centre, Kerala
· Explorations, Mumbai
· Forum Against oppression of Women, Mumbai
· Jagori, New Delhi
· Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action, Mumbai
· Maati, Almora
· RAHI, New Delhi
· Saheli Women's Resource Centre, New Delhi
· Sama, New Delhi
· SANGRAM, Sangli, Maharashtra
· Stree Adhikar Sangathan, New Delhi
· Swayam, Kolkata
· Tamil Nadu Women's Collective, Chennai
· Vacha, Mumbai
· VAMP, Sangli
· Vimochana, Bangalore
· Women's Centre, Mumbai

______


[5]

THE FISHING COMMUNITY IN INDIA PROTEST AGAINST 
POLICE REPRESSION ON ADIVASIS IN ORISSA

The National Fishworkers Forum (a coalition of 
several fisherpeople’s unions all over India) 
along with the Kerala Independent Fishworkers 
Federation strongly condemns the brutal 
repression unleashed by the police and 
paramilitary forces aimed at crushing the 
democratic resistance of the people of Kashipur 
and surrounding areas in Orissa against the 
displacement by the bauxite mining companies.

For over a month, two police platoons with firing 
orders have been stationed near Kucheipadar – the 
hub of the bauxite mining resistance struggle for 
more than 10 years. 14 people arrested on 
different charges have been kept in jail and all 
efforts to release them on bail are proving 
useless. The moment some one is released on bail, 
he/she is again booked in another case and sent 
to jail again. Two tribal women agitators have 
been kept in jail since December 1,2004. The 
bailers from the tribal communities also have 
been threatened with dire consequences if they 
approach the court to release the arrested 
adivasis. Every night one or the other village is 
raided without any reason. We condemn the actions 
of the police force entering adivasi homes in the 
name of searching for activists to create terror 
so that the multinationals can have a free access 
to the adivasi lands. The active collusion of the 
bauxite mining lobby represented by the UAIL with 
the police force is clear from the fact that 
prominent UAIL representatives are also stationed 
with the police platoons.

This is not the first time the Orissa government 
is using brutal force on the democratic struggle 
of the adivasis in Kashipur. On 16th December 
2000, the Orissa police in an unprovoked firing 
killed three adivasis and injured thirty others 
in the village Maikanch. The fisherpeople’s 
unions in the country warn the Orissa government 
that if the police force in Orissa is let lose on 
the adivasis, the unions attached to NFF will do 
everything within their means to support and 
resist such injustice.

The fishing community in this country recognises 
that the fight of the fisherpeople against 
globalisation is same as that of the adivasis. 
Both fishing communities and adivasis face 
similar invasion of profit interests over the 
natural resources we depend upon for our 
survival.  We hereby express our solidarity with 
the struggle of adivasis in Kashipur against the 
corporate crimes in the name of development.

The National Fishworkers Forum and The Kerala 
Fishworkers Federation hereby demand:
1. an immediate withdrawal of all paramilitary 
and armed police force from Kashipur area
2. drop all charges against local adivasis and 
dalits who are part of the Kashipur movement and 
also activists who have gone there to support 
their cause
3. Initiate immediate criminal and other 
appropriate action against all persons who have 
been indicted in the P.K MIshra commission 
Inquiry Report ( On the Maikanch Firing of 
December 16, 2000).
4. an immediate halt to the invasion of bauxite 
companies over the lives, livelihood and life 
supporting natural resources of adivasis in the 
region

We call upon all democratic forces in this 
country to express solidarity and support to the 
struggling adivasis of Kashipur.

(Sd)
T. Peter(President)Kerala Fishworkers Federation, 
Valiathura,  Trivandrum – 695 008(Secretary) 
National Fisheworkers Forum Phone: 094472705239, 
0471-2705239

______


[6]

The Times of India
January 19, 2005
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/994229.cms


VIEW: ICHR releases book on Vedic civilisation

Govt should steer clear of glorifying the past

The recent release of an Indian Council of 
Historical Research-sponsored volume by historian 
Irfan Habib would not normally have caused a 
furore. Except for the fact that the book is a 
glorification of the Vedic period - a pet project 
of the sangh parivar. Whatever the reasons Habib 
had for releasing the book, extreme caution must 
be exercised by the state when it decides to 
sponsor projects that glorify India's 'Hindu' 
past. The practice of viewing the Vedic period as 
a 'golden age' has a long history. Indeed, this 
played a pivotal role in the formation of Hindu 
nationalism. During the NDA regime there was a 
concerted effort to celebrate India's 'Hindu' 
heritage. It is well known that Central academic 
institutions like the NCERT and ICHR were staffed 
by people close to the parivar. They pushed 
projects and texts that exalted Brahminical 
symbols and institutions. The flip side of this 
was a denigration of non-Brahminical symbols, 
especially India's Islamic heritage.

The need for treating projects extolling the 
greatness of India's 'Hindu' heritage with 
scepticism stems not only from restoring 
objectivity to state-funded history, but also in 
keeping intact the nation's pluralism. It is 
obvious that projects that view Indian history 
with a Hindu bias are not confined to academia. 
These projects often go on to influence state 
policy, considerably undermining the syncretistic 
and multicultural basis of the Indian nation. 
Hence, claims of Hindu supremacy go hand in hand 
with a central philosophy of Hindu 
fundamentalists - the idea of India as a Hindu 
nation. The present government has responded to 
the BJP efforts by undertaking a detoxification 
drive. It is essential to ensure that this drive 
does not degenerate into a meaningless 
witch-hunt. At the same time, there is an urgent 
need to ensure that there is no distortion of 
history.



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

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.