SACW | 8 Feb 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 8 Feb.,  2005
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Bad news from Bangladesh (Naeem Mohaiemen)
[2] 'I don't subscribe to the Hind-Sindh theory' 
- Interview with Romila Thapar (Zaman Khan)
[3] India: Citizens Appeal to Orissa Govt. Stop 
Human Rights Violations in Kashipur
[4] India: Dangerous Move (Rajindar Sachar)
[5] Book Reviews:
(i) Hymn and History (D.N. Jha)
(ii) The Scholar Who Irked the Hindu Puritans (Edward Rothstein)
[6] Announcements: events / films / publications
(i) Release of report 'Democracy, Citizens and 
Migrants' Citizen's Campaign for Preserving 
Democracy (New Delhi, 8 February 2005)
(ii) Telecast of 'History of Urdu' - 2 hour 
documentary (Discovery Channel / 19 and 26 
February)
(iii) Insaf Bulletin February 2005
(iv) Journal of Politics and Culture 2005, Issue 
2 - Special Issue: The Politics of Disaster


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

[1]

Daily Star
February 7, 2005

BAD NEWS FROM BANGLADESH

by Naeem Mohaiemen

Once again, bad news about Bangladesh is in the 
foreign media.  Eliza Griswold's New
York Times report "Bangladesh: The Next Islamist 
Revolution?" has Dhaka's chattering
classes up in arms.  To be fair to the Times, 
there was a positive story about Bangladesh a
month back. "Surviving to Export Another Day" was 
an article about how Bangladesh was
coping well with the end of MFA quotas in garments export. That glowing article
(accompanied by photos of working women, none 
wearing hijab) came out in the weekday
Business Section, which actually has a higher 
readership than the weekend magazine
where Griswold's article came out. But because of 
the government's furious reaction, the
negative "Islamist Revolution" story will get far more publicity.

What about Bangladeshi expatriates?  Shouldn't 
they play some role in publicizing good
news about Bangladesh?  This is a fair argument 
and one I faced repeatedly last year. 
Through most of 2004, I was in Bangladesh, first working on my film "MUSLIMS OR
HERETICS?", and then screening it at various 
venues.  The film is a documentary on
persecution of Ahmadiya Muslims, and ended with 
an appeal to withdraw the government
ban on Ahmadiya books.  In the course of the 
year, the film was screened at British
Council, Russian Cultural Center, BRAC Center, 
Goethe Center, Chittagong Press Club,
Prabarthana and many villages in Bangladesh.

One of the people I met during the screenings was 
musician Maqsud, who famously said,
"Ami BNP ba AL er dalal na, Ami Bangladesh'er 
dalal". (I'm not a stooge for either BNP or
AL, I'm a stooge for Bangladesh)." At my film 
screening, his first question was,  "I don't
understand you expatriates.  Isn't there anything 
good in Bangladesh for you to make films
about?"  Maqsud's question gave me pause.  Later 
we had a long discussion during an
interview for his website.  My response at that 
time is relevant again in the current
context.

Expatriates would love to publicize good news 
about Bangladesh.  Good news about
Bangladesh also helps us-- whether in business, 
socially or on an emotional level.  The
problem is that our governments (both AL and BNP) 
create a constant flow of bad news. 
One personal anecdote will illustrate the point. 
About a year back, I met Linda Duchin of
New Yorker Films.  "Oh, you're from Bangladesh!" 
she said, "You know, we have the most
wonderful film about your capital!"  What she 
referred to as "your capital" was the
Shangshad Bhavan, and the film in question was 
Nathaniel Kahn's documentary about
Louis Kahn, "My Architect."  According to Linda, 
the film was getting a lot of buzz and an
Oscar nomination was certain.

A few days later, I was walking in Soho, and was 
struck by a familiar image in unexpected
surroundings.  Among the posters for Prada, Apple 
iPod and Jay-Z, was the familiar
Shangshad Bhavan, with a skinny Bangali kid 
staring up at it.  "My Architect" had just been
released in New York's art-house theaters, and 
the posters were everywhere.  I was
euphoric, excited and above all, proud.  By then 
I had seen the film and was convinced
that, finally, this film would show something 
positive about Bangladesh.  People started
approaching me at parties to ask, "Have you seen 
My Architect?"  Not floods, cyclones,
fundamentalism, or grinding poverty-- finally a 
positive story!  I talked to Linda about the
possibility of inviting Nathaniel to come to 
Dhaka to screen the film.  Other opportunities
popped up at the same time.  The Metropolitan 
Museum of Art was building a "Timeline of
Art History."  I pushed for inclusion of Shishir 
Bhattacharya and they accepted.  George
Harrison's estate was belatedly talking about 
reissuing "Concert for Bangladesh."  For a
moment, expatriate Bengalis seemed able to 
leverage diaspora connections to promote
Bangladesh's image.

With visions of a glorious screening of "My 
Architect" (maybe inside the Shangshad
Bhavan?), I headed to India to complete a film 
project.  We were filming "Rumble In
Mumbai," a documentary about globalization for 
Free Speech TV.  Halfway through the
Mumbai shoot, I talked to my producer: "Look, we 
can't just be interviewing Indians.  We
need some Bangladeshis.  Farhad Mazhar is very 
prominent in this movement, I'm going to
Dhaka to interview him."  I also thought I would 
use this opportunity to set up a screening
of "My Architect"-- perhaps the government could 
be convinced to "officially" invite him.

I arrived in Dhaka and interviewed Mazhar, and 
then began research into a screening
inside the Parliament Building.  Suddenly, bad 
news intruded and pushed my plans aside. 
To everyone's surprise, the government announced 
a ban on Ahmadiya books in response
to street protests by radical Islamists.  Civil 
society was thrown into uproar, Jamaat e
Islami and its allies openly rejoiced and an 
emboldened Khatme Nabuwot began attacking
Ahmadiya mosques.  I had ties to the community 
(one of my St. Joseph classmates was
Ahmadiya) and was immediately drawn into the 
issue.  Human rights has always been my
first priority, so I had no choice but to start 
shooting interviews-- with the intention of
making a short film.  Propelled by events and a 
sense of looming crisis, I finished the film
quickly.  In the process, I saw that inside this 
crisis lay larger issues of religion and state. 
What sort of country would we have?  One where 
religion was a private matter, or one
where the government interfered in religious beliefs? 

What about screening "My Architect" and spreading 
good news about Bangladesh?  All
those positive, idealistic projects fell by the 
wayside-- a victim of the cloud of bad news
that the government had created with the book 
ban.  My final words to Maqsud were,
"Look we expatriates are the first to shout about 
good news from Bangladesh.  But the
problem is, there is too much bad news coming 
out, and too many things to be fixed, so
we never get a chance to talk about the good 
news."  Talking to a government employee at
the BRAC screening, I added,  "The Ahmadiya issue 
can be solved in one day.  All the
government has to do is withdraw the book ban. 
If my film becomes useless tomorrow
because the ban has been removed, I'll happily go 
back to my original project about My
Architect."

I said similar things at all my film screenings 
last year.  At that time I felt optimistic that
the government would do the sensible thing.  But 
a year later, the government has taken
very few positive steps.  Although police were 
sent to protect the Dhaka Ahmadiya
Mosque, the government ban on books is still in 
place.  Only the lawsuit filed with the
High Court has temporarily blocked the ban.

As long as there are Bangla Bhais, Ahmadiya book 
bans, mysterious arms shipments in
Chittagong, and unsolved bomb blasts, the 
newspapers of the world will continue to
report bad news about Bangladesh.  The government 
is now on the warpath-- attacking
the Times, sending intelligence officials to find 
out who spoke to reporters, threatening to
shut down websites like Drishtipat.org, and 
blaming expatriate Bangladeshis. Previously,
another Times reporter was in Dhaka and was 
tailed by Detective Branch the whole time
she was here.  Later she told a seminar in New 
York that not even in disputed Kashmir had
she seen these censorship tactics.  When Monica 
Ali's "Brick Lane" was the top seller in
England, the Bangladesh Embassy only saw 
"journalist" on her visa application and refused
her entry-- creating another media storm.  The 
more the government tries to crush
journalists, the more the world pays attention. 
Because of all this muzzling of press,
Committee to Protect Journalists called 
Bangladesh the "most dangerous place for
journalists".  Instead of wasting resources 
trying to squash reports about Bangladesh, why
not try to solve the problems these reporters have discovered?

Don't waste time looking for 'conspiracies." 
Start creating some good news-- expatriates
will be the first to publicize it.  It's that simple

______


[2]

News on Sunday
6 February 2005
interview

'I DON'T SUBSCRIBE TO THE HIND-SINDH THEORY'

By Zaman Khan

Professor Romila Thapar, 73, is an authority on 
ancient India. She is among the founders of the 
Department of Modern History at Jawaharlal Nehru 
University and is famous for 'deconstructing' 
myths. Her book on Somnath led to condemnation by 
Hindu bigots and groups of Hindus living in the 
United States opposed her appointment at the 
Smithsonian Institute, Washington.

Thapar is a committed anti-communalist and has 
also authored textbooks. A Punjabi, she has 
childhood memories of Lahore where her 
grandmother used to live in a big house near the 
Lawrence Gardens. It was her father, a doctor in 
the Indian Army, who made her go through old 
manuscripts, thus developing in her an interest 
for history.

Author of a book on the epic 'Shakuntla', Thapar 
says: "My attempt was to demonstrate how 
literature can be useful to the historian.... 
Literature reflects a certain moment in time and 
the historians are after all concerned with 
moments in time."

This interview with Prof Thapar was conducted in 
New Delhi before her decision to refuse the Padma 
Bhushan, India's highest civil award, for a 
second time. In a letter to President of India, 
she has stated, "I decided some years ago that I 
would only accept awards from academic 
institutions or those associated with my 
professional work, and not accept state awards. 
This is the reason why I declined the Padma 
Bhushan in 1992..."
--

TNS: You are a historian by accident or by planning?

Romila Thapar: History and literature were two of 
my favourite subjects in school. When I was in 
the school in the 1940s, the nationalist movement 
was at its peak and the youngsters were asking: 
Who are we and what are we going to do? In a 
sense people hoped to find the answers in history.

While I was young, my father, an army doctor, 
suddenly got interested in classical Indian 
sculptures, bronzes in particular. He used to 
come home with thick volumes and said to me I 
must read those books. I got more and more 
interested in the subject, until I was hooked.

TNS: Where did you study history?

RT: Strangely enough, in India. I finished my BA 
here and in 1953, I joined the School of African 
and Oriental Studies in London. I worked with 
Professor A. R. Bashom, the author of 'Wonders 
that was India'. So that is where I got a lot of 
my formal training in history. But my feeling for 
history really grew out of the nationalist 
movement and out of my father's initiative to 
make me read those old manuscripts.

TNS: Some scholars claim Hind and Sindh to be 
different civilizations. Do you subscribe to this 
view?

RT: I don't subscribe to this at all. I think the 
Indus civilization was very widespread. It spread 
out to many regions that are now part of Pakistan 
and India. I strongly object to this view because 
you can't push an event that took place in the 
twentieth century five thousand years back in 
history.

TNS: Why this insistence on two civilizations?

RT: This happens when religion gets politicised. 
When religious organisations begin to feel that 
they can assert political power, they have to 
have an identity -- a religious identity. And the 
easiest thing, of course is to say "we will take 
it as far back as goes the religion".

There is a movement that seeks to establish 
Hinduism as the religion of Indus valley 
civilization. This is not true. One can say there 
are some roots of the present day Hinduism that 
may go back deep in history, but we cannot say 
for sure because we cannot read the (Indus 
valley) script.

TNS: Has it been the failure of secular movement 
that led to the rise of the religious movements 
in India?

RT: I think various things did. Religious 
nationalism -- Hindu or Muslim -- started in the 
1920s. Both supported the two nation theory. Now 
they are trying to argue that if Pakistan is a 
Muslim state, why can't India be a Hindu state. 
They see the whole of pre-partition Indian 
society in terms of Hindus and Muslims. They 
don't see it in terms of communities with other 
kinds of identities. So it boils down to really a 
question of identity. Being defined as Hindus, 
the majority in India naturally wants to say that 
its power should be the greatest, and in order to 
do that it has to argue that it is the oldest 
community.

TNS: I was in Kurukshetra recently. Is there any 
historical proof that it is the site of the 
Mahabharata?

RT: No, there is no historical proof. 
Historically, a number of places start calling 
themselves by the names famous in the text or in 
the tradition. There is an Ayodhya in Thailand, 
which was once the capital of Thai kings. There's 
this tendency to appropriate geography.

TNS: On Ayodhya, how do you look at the Babri mosque issue?

RT: There is no evidence to support the claim 
that the mosque was built on the site of a 
mandir.The judgement seems to be based on the 
results of some excavation, though there hasn't 
been any official report released on this. Some 
of us have glanced at it (a report prepared by 
officials), but one has not studied it in detail. 
It is really a rather confused site with all 
kinds of structures and so on. There is no 
clear-cut evidence of a temple beneath the mosque.

TNS: For someone who has been demolishing myths, 
how much do you think can a historian rely on his 
or her source material?

RT: This is precisely the point I am trying to 
make in 'Somnath'. It is only an exercise in 
history, it just so happens that it ties in with 
the fact that there was a great theory about 
Hindu trauma and Muslim destruction, and it 
became the basis of Hindu-Muslim antagonism.

It is very interesting that the whole reading of 
Somnath was based on Persian chronicles. Until 
recently historians assumed that the sources in 
the court or among the rulers were reliable. Now 
we know that court chronicles can be as twisted 
as any other source. When you start questioning 
court chronicles, as I have done in my book, you 
realise the chronicles from one century to the 
next contradict each other. There isn't a 
sustained story and the 'facts' vary from 
chronicle to chronicle. One gets very suspicious 
of these Turko-Persian chronicles about Somnath.

Then you look at the other sources -- 
Sanskritian, Jain and so on. They give you a 
different story. So it isn't that every time the 
Sultan comes, he destroys the temple and converts 
it into a mosque. The second time he comes, he 
actually destroys the mosque.

One of my colleagues referred me to British 
sources. I found that the earliest reference to 
Somnath was a debate in the House of Commons over 
the issue of Governor-General Lord Eden having 
ordered his General to bring back what they 
called 'bricks of Somnat'. In the course of the 
debate the members of the House talk about this 
terrible Hindu trauma and how they had this 
terrible memory of a Mohammedan conquest they had 
been harbouring for eight hundred years. You then 
suddenly realise that this whole notion of how 
Somnath was key to the hostility between Muslims 
and the Hindus is fabricated by the colonial 
power. So I have been arguing that you really 
have to see it not in the Hindu-Muslim terms, but 
in terms of the politics of that time.

TNS: Modernism divided the people on the basis of 
religion and caste. How do you look at it as a 
historian?

R.T: Modernism and nationalism are linked 
together. Now you can have a situation in which 
nationalism realises the dangers of narrow 
nationalism and therefore expands itself to 
include everybody. In the Indian case you had 
Hindu and Muslim nationalism. There is trouble 
the moment you start to have sub-nationalisms 
within a national movement.

TNS: What do you think was the material basis of 
the rise of the RSS and religious bigotry in 
India?

RT: The political rise of RSS coincided with 
globalization. By 1980s, there was a change in 
the middle class, and the new middle class came 
from a different caste structure and was 
ambitious for power. It was then that the major 
recruitment of the RSS and BJP took place. What 
none of us fully appreciated was how well 
organised the RSS was. They started off the right 
way by setting up schools and training children. 
It was a huge mind control programme.

Interestingly, the top leaders of RSS in the 
early period were very close to the German and 
Italian fascists and were influenced by the 
fascist movement. To go with a rise of this 
ambitious new middle class which had RSS's 
organisation, you had globalization. 
Globalization changes society. It creates new 
communities. And you have this tension between 
wanting to be international and at the same time 
seeking to save your traditional culture. You 
draw at something which you define as tradition. 
No orthodox Hindu would accept Hindutva as 
Hinduism. They make a distinction. But the whole 
notion of Hindutva is not religious change, it is 
the use of religion for politics.

TNS: They opposed your appointment to Smithsonian Institute...

RT: The attack on me has gone on since the 
1960s... Somebody who is not a Brahmin, is a 
woman, is writing about ancient India and writing 
in a way that reflects analytical thinking... If 
I were writing in an orthodox way, they would do 
nothing about it. But since I was saying let us 
look analytically at these texts, they feel that 
the image of the past is being badly shaken.

History in the last 50 years is one field India 
can be very proud of. We have produced some 
absolutely superb historians, a fact which is 
recognised all over the world, but by the strong 
Hindutva lobby in the United Sates. It is a 
typical complex where migrant communities who 
feel alienated in the host country constantly 
think of their home culture and country. The 
Indian community is possibly the richest minority 
community in America. They are financing the BJP, 
VHP, RSS. They are financing this make-believe 
nationalism which they think should exist in 
India.

TNS: Will it be fair to say the basis of your 
analysis has been historical materialism?

RT: Well I would not put it as simply as that. I 
think anyone who wrote history in the twentieth 
century had to take historical materialism 
seriously. Whether you accept it or not is 
another matter. If you reject it, then you have 
to know why. My influence has been partly 
historical materialism, partly the French Annales 
school, interdisciplinary work and one's own 
ideas. The nice thing is that the debate in India 
between Marxists and others and among liberal 
historians has generated a lot of ideas. History 
has therefore changed.

TNS: How do you look at the peace process between 
India and Pakistan and the Kashmir issue?

RT: The peace process needs to be encouraged. 
From the economic point of view it will be very 
good. Culturally and emotionally, it is very 
important and not just for Punjabis, for 
everybody in terms of how these relationship, 
identities are balanced.

What I am curious about is that lot of new 
writings look at partition in terms of what the 
women at the time went through. This is very 
significant because it is not just an abstract 
process. You can bring it down to human terms -- 
and in many ways women did suffer much worse. If 
those sufferings could be brought to the surface, 
irrespective of whether it was on this side or 
that.

Kashmir issue, too, is very important. It will 
sort itself out once the various terrorist groups 
realise that sorting out the Kashmir issue is 
part of the peace process. Until the insurgency 
settles down, you can't have people going to 
Kashmir. It is very necessary that Indians go to 
Kashmir and mix and settle, not necessarily buy 
property, and it is treated like a normal part of 
the country. At the moment there is a big scare. 
The only way insurgency will reduce is if it 
becomes completely irrelevant and it will become 
irrelevant if India and Pakistan begin to open up 
the borders to the other side.


______


[3]

7 Feb 2005

AN APPEAL TO THE ORISSA STATE GOVERNMENT TO PUT 
AN IMMEDIATE END TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS’ ABUSE OF 
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF ORISSA

We, the undersigned, express our gravest concern 
at  the continuing spate of human rights abuse 
being inflicted by the Orissa state police on 
villagers  whose only ‘crime’ is that they have 
been peacefully resisting moves by bauxite-mining 
multi-national companies to displace them from 
their land of birth and sustenance.

Despite the fact that the Fifth Schedule of the 
constitution guarantees the right of land to 
indigenous people, adivasis in the bauxite-rich 
districts of Orissa face the imminent threat of 
displacement by aluminium companies. It is 
extremely disturbing that the state government of 
Orissa has consistently chosen to protect the 
interests of bauxite-mining multi-nationals 
rather than the interests of the people it is 
bound by the constitution to protect.

In 1993, in the wake of globalization, the Orissa 
government entered into contracts permitting 
bauxite mining, with the private company Utkal 
Alumina  International Ltd (UAIL), whose 
stakeholders included ALCAN of Canada, Hindalco 
of India, and originally  Norsk Hydro of Norway. 
Not a single contract took into account the 
consent of the original settlers of the  land, 
the adivasis, for whom the contracts implied 
certain displacement.

We are most concerned that the Orissa state 
police on December 01, 2004, launched a brutal 
lathi charge on  400 adivasis, mostly women, who 
had gathered to  peacefully protest against the 
inauguration of a new road to a proposed 
bauxite-mining site in Baphlimali owned by ALCAN. 
As a result, 16 people were critically injured 
and three women were beaten unconscious. Since 
this incident, we understand that Kashipur, a 
seat of  resistance against bauxite mining, has 
been in a state of virtual siege. Platoons of 
armed police with firing  orders have occupied 
Kucheipadar village – the centre of the struggle. 
18 activists of Prakrutik Sampad  Surakshya 
Parishad (PSSP), the umbrella organization  of 
adivasis spearheading the struggle against bauxite
mining, have been picked up from their villages 
mostly in the night in separate incidents and are 
now in jail  without access to any possibility of 
bail.

This is not the first time that adivasis of 
Kashipur have faced the threat of 
industrialization at gunpoint. On December 16, 
2000, three adivasis were  killed in Kashipur 
when police fired on unarmed villagers, 
associated with the people’s struggle  against 
bauxite mining. Following international  outrage 
at the incident, one of UAIL’s original 
stakeholders, Norsk Hydro of Norway, withdrew 
from the  project in a move that clearly 
implicated both the  UAIL and the Orissa 
government.

In this context, we urge the government of Orissa 
to  take every possible measure to put an 
immediate end to  the abuse of the human rights 
of the indigenous people  of Kashipur. We believe 
that development should not be  forced but rather 
should involve the participation of the people. 
In keeping with this, we urge the  government of 
Orissa to withdraw the police deployed in 
Kashipur and surrounding areas, and immediately 
release the arrested villagers.

Medha Patkar
Nandita Das
Dr. K.N. Panicker, Historian
Mahesh Dattani, Theatre Personality, 
Justice Daud
Dr. S. Parasuraman, Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Anand Patwardhan, Film Maker
Teesta Setelvad, Journalist/Activist
Javed Anand, Journalist/Activist
C.K. Chandrappan, M.P
K.P. Rajendran, MLA
Binoy Viswam, MLA
Fr. Thomas Kochery, National Fishworkers’ Forum
Shashi Kumar, Asian College of Journalism

______


[4]

January 9, 2005

DANGEROUS MOVE
by Rajindar Sachar

             A brazen faced tactic to bury  Lok 
Pal Bill has been  worked out by UPA Govt., if 
the press statement of Law Minister represents 
the view of the Govt.   I am referring to the 
outrageous proposal (which has never been put 
forward since 1968 when this topic is being 
discussed in the Parliament even by the extreme 
critics of judiciary, namely, that the Judges of 
High Court and Supreme Court should be included 
in the purview of Lok Pal.

             The Supreme Court itself has 
emphasized that the society's demand for honesty 
in a judge is exacting and absolute.      No 
excuse or no legal relativity can condone such 
betrayal.    A single dishonest Judge not only 
dishonours himself and disgraces his office but 
jeopardizes the integrity of the entire judicial 
system.

             A legislator or an administrator may 
be found guilty of corruption without apparently 
endangering the foundation of the State.  But a 
Judge must keep himself absolutely above 
suspicion,  to preserve the impartiality and 
independence of the judiciary and to have the 
public confidence thereof".

             Realising that independence of 
judiciary  being one of the basic features of our 
Constitution, a grave responsibility lies on it 
to see that no doubt is cast on its honest 
functioning.  But then Judges do not come from 
another planet - they come from the same stock as 
the rest of society and action of some of them do 
bring shame to us.  But no protection is sought 
for them - rather Supreme Court has ruled in 
Veeraswamy's case that High Court or Supreme 
Court judges can be prosecuted under Prevention 
of Corruption Act after obtaining sanction from 
the Chief Justice of India, just as for a civil 
servant sanction has to be obtained from his 
appointing authority.  But contrast this reaction 
with  a failed attempt made by members of 
Parliament some time back to pass a legislation 
to say that legislators are not public servants 
with a view to escape from the purview of 
Prevention of Corruption Act.

Independence  of judiciary is the most essential 
characteristic of a free society like ours.  It 
is the livewire of our judicial system. In order 
to effectuate this a methodology for appointing 
proper and fit candidate to a higher judiciary 
and also for removal is necessary.

             It is for that reason that there is 
now near unanimity  amongst legal and political 
circles that in the matter of appointments, 
transfers, removal, disciplinary matters of 
Higher Judiciary, the present position of Supreme 
Court alone being the exclusive mechanism  is no 
longer acceptable.  There is also near unanimity 
that National Judicial Commission (N.J.C)  should 
be constituted to deal with all these  matters. 
It is not a revolutionary suggestion - rather it 
is to be found in number of countries.

There is now insistent demand from the public 
that in matters dealing with  appointments and 
other misdemeanors by Higher Judiciary needs to 
be carried out by an Independent Body  using 
transparent criteria, instead of the present 
unsatisfactory mechanism shrouded in secrecy and 
controlled by a small cabal.   It is for this 
reason that National Commission to Review the 
Constitution headed by former Chief Justice of 
India Mr. Justice Venkatachallah has also advised 
the constitution of a National Judicial 
Commission.

The N.J.C.  should have C.J.I (Chairperson) two 
seniormost Supreme Court Judges, senior most 
Chief Justice of High Court, Minister nominated 
by the Prime Minister and  leaders of opposition 
in both houses and a senior member of Bar to be 
nominated by other members of the Commission.  A 
retired  judge of the Supreme Court could be the 
whole time member of the commission.

             A judge of a High Court is not like 
any incumbent in service.  A Judge of a High 
Court is not to be treated as one of the highest 
paid service in the country and the rules 
relevant for assessing the performance and 
capability of a Government Official cannot be 
made applicable to the Judges of the High Courts. 
Of course, this  in no way absolves then of then 
of their obligation, moral as well as 
constitutional to devote the best part of their 
time to their work and to keep up and uphold the 
best tradition of the judiciary in the matter of 
impartiality, objectivity and independence from 
any influence.  Judges themselves are now acutely 
aware of the public dissatisfaction with the 
judicial system.  This awareness, I am quite 
sure, is the biggest guarantee that serious 
efforts will be made by all.  But then everything 
is not all rosy.  So I am all for proceeding 
against those judges against whom even a 
reasonable suspicion exists.  It is not correct 
to say that the only remedy is impeachment.  A 
mechanism like a National Judicial Commission 
will be able to impress upon the concerned judge 
either to desist from such activities or remit 
that office in  disgrace.

             The Law Minister's snide that 
impeachment provision has failed is dubiously 
correct and he needs to be reminded that it was 
because of the opposition by his Congress Party 
motivated by extraneous  considerations that let 
the people down in that instance.

             Lok Pal Bill could become law 
immediately by Parliament passing it.  But if the 
weird suggestion of Law Minister is to be carried 
out, the Constitution will have to be amended, 
and approval  obtained from a majority of State 
Legislatures.  Such a time consuming process will 
necessarily take decades.  This, of course, is 
not a deterrence to the Law Minister, because the 
real and sole motive behind this dangerous 
suggestion (which trespasses on independence of 
judiciary) is to find  an excuse to  avoid 
passing Lok Pal Bill and to give relief to 100 
tainted MPs including some of the powerful 
Cabinet Ministers.

This exercise by Law Minister would make a 
mockery of the assurance given by Prime Minister 
as recently as September 2004 that `UPA Govt. 
would lose no time to enact the Lok Pal Bill and 
that the need for it is more urgent  than ever".

             A person in street will wonder whose 
word is to be accepted.  The Prime Minister or 
the self interest and safety of tainted Ministers 
speaking through Law Minister.

             When at his first press conference 
the Prime Minister resoundingly refuted the 
"insinuation that there are two power centres, it 
gave the assurance that Dr. Manmohan Singh had 
jumped successfully to land in Prime Minister's 
chair.  Is that hope to recede by the latest 
antic of his Law Minister - the people wait for 
an answer from the Prime Minister.


_______


[5]  [BOOK REVIEWS]

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(i)

Outlook Magazine | Feb 14, 2005

REVIEW
Hymn And History
Were the Aryans the original inhabitants of India 
from where they migrated to different parts of 
the world? Habib's own convictions remain as 
puissant as ever.
D.N. Jha


THE VEDIC AGE
by Irfan Habib and Vijay Kumar Thakur
Tulika Books
Rs 95; Pages: 100

	To get Irfan Habib to release a 
collection of papers by the Indian Council of 
Historical Research is hardly unusual. But when 
the collection consists of historians arguing 
that the Aryans were the original inhabitants of 
India from where they migrated to different parts 
of the world-the saffron view of India's past 
that Habib has consistently exposed as 
"absurd"-one wonders how they got Habib up there 
for the launch.
However, reading this book, it's clear that 
Habib's own convictions remain as puissant as 
ever.

Beginning with an overview of the Vedic corpus, 
Habib speaks of the migration of the Aryan 
communities from the localities to the west of 
the Indus where the horse and the chariot played 
a central role. He touches upon different aspects 
of early Aryan life and, despite "disappointingly 
meagre" data from the Rigveda (1500-1000 BC), 
portrays them as dominantly agricultural. But had 
agriculture been so important, the Rigveda would 
not reveal such "an essentially town-less 
environment". We are rightly told that the Aryan 
society consisted of tribes: thirty of them being 
mentioned in the Rigveda, each headed by a rajan, 
though the statement that he lived in 
"many-pillared palaces" and was "linked to a 
definite territory" implies an unacceptable 
possibility of the Aryans establishing 
territorial states in the very early phase of 
their expansion.

Habib recognises the patriarchal nature of the 
family and the establishment of the institution 
of marriage, but ignores the Rigvedic evidence of 
brother-sister incest. The deities of the Aryans 
were predominantly male and their religion was 
aniconic. Sacrifice occupied a central place in 
their religious life and tended to become 
increasingly elaborate during the later Vedic 
period. But it needs to be stressed that the 
beginnings of heresy in religious tradition is 
already in evidence. The later Vedic texts 
(1000-600 BC) indicate the shifting of the Aryan 
territorial horizons towards the east into the 
Gangetic valley and their references to kings and 
territorial states in the region begin to 
multiply, implying the colonisation of land and 
the emergence of stable settlements. The use of 
fire for extending the area of Aryan settlements 
is attested by the famous story of Videgha 
Mathava who helped the fire-god (Agni) cross the 
river Sadanira leading to the Aryanisation of the 
land of Videha. The iron axe could also have 
accelerated the process of forest clearance and 
the dispersal of agriculture. A separate section 
on the coming of iron in India adds to the book's 
merit.

The Rigvedic social stratification seems to have 
given way to the fourfold social division of the 
caste system, though the evidence of 
untouchability, Habib should have emphasised, is 
tenuous and became a visible feature of society 
only in subsequent times. However, he rightly 
punctures the tall claims often made by 
indigenists and chauvinists about the progress of 
science in the Vedic period. The Vedic Aryans did 
not even have full knowledge of calendar, and 
going by the later evidence of Varahamihira, the 
Vedic Brahmins did not practise astrology. 
Knowledge of medicine, similarly, was limited. 
So, despite the claims of Hindutva forces, the 
Vedas cannot be considered the source of all 
knowledge. The Vedic people didn't even have a 
script; their history is reconstructed mainly on 
the basis of orally transmitted texts coupled 
with archaeology.

Enriched by extracts from primary texts, Habib 
can clearly handle a wide variety of sources. Far 
from being a narrow specialist in medieval 
history, he works on a very wide canvas of time. 
In fact, those of us who've seen him present 
research papers on ancient Indian historical 
geography at the IHC may be puzzled to find a 
coauthor on the cover. Did he really need that?


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(ii)

New York Times
January 31, 2005

The Scholar Who Irked the Hindu Puritans
By Edward Rothstein

Look at the author's photo on the flap of "The 
Woman Who Pretended to Be Who She Was" (Oxford) 
and you get some idea of why in recent years this 
woman has had an egg thrown at her at a lecture 
and received threatening e-mail, and why just 
last week she was worrying about a student who 
was being ominously followed.

This woman, Wendy Doniger, is one of the foremost 
scholars of Hindu mythology, the author, editor 
or translator of 20 books, and a professor with 
multiple appointments at the University of 
Chicago, where she has taught since 1978. But her 
photograph is not the image of a typical Sanskrit 
scholar, exuding mastery of "The Mahabharata." It 
is the image of an ingénue, perhaps barely out of 
her teens, gazing into the distance with earnest, 
sensuous grace. As a footnote quietly points out, 
it shows the author in another era, as if Ms. 
Doniger, 64, was "pretending to be who she was 
almost half a century ago."

Such is the spirit of wry playfulness that can be 
found in Ms. Doniger's work, and certainly 
throughout this new book, which almost gleefully 
catalogs myths and movies and plots about 
characters who disguise themselves as themselves. 
There is Hermione in Shakespeare's "Winter's 
Tale," who pretends to be a dead woman pretending 
to be a live woman. There is Kim Novak's 
character in Hitchcock's "Vertigo," who is 
covered with so many self-reflexive masks that 
only at the end does James Stewart see the awful 
truth. And there are Indian stories of Shiva and 
his wife, Parvati, whose identities refract over 
multiple incarnations. Through it all are hints 
of sexuality misdirected and redirected, 
sexuality that tricks or reveals.

With Ms. Doniger's interest in archetype, her 
invocations of Freud, her postmodern playfulness 
and her interest in exploring Hinduism from 
multiple perspectives, it was perhaps only a 
matter of time before her approach would run 
afoul of some of the more solemn currents in 
contemporary Hinduism. Though sexual imagery is 
found throughout Hinduism's baroque mythology, 
many groups would like to minimize its 
importance. They have different concerns: some 
with purity, some with Hindu power, some with 
minimizing the influence of "Eurocentric" 
commentators.

In 2002, for example, Ms. Doniger and some former 
students were attacked in a 24,000-word essay on 
Sulekha.com, an "online community" for Indians. 
The essay, by Rajiv Malhotra, an entrepreneur 
whose foundation is devoted to improving the 
understanding of India in the United States, 
accused Ms. Doniger and her colleagues of Hindu 
bashing with their obsessive preoccupation with 
sexuality. That essay seems to have galvanized 
the opposition.

A Sulekha.com article posted in 2002 accused Ms. 
Doniger of denigrating Hinduism in her article 
written for the Encarta encyclopedia. Microsoft, 
the encyclopedia's publisher, ended up replacing 
Ms. Doniger's contribution. Meanwhile threatening 
e-mail messages were sent to Ms. Doniger and her 
colleagues. And in November 2003, an egg was 
lobbed at her at the University of London, after 
she lectured about monkey imagery in "The 
Ramayana."

In India things have become even more serious. 
Hindutva, a form of Hindu orthodoxy, was 
enshrined during the Bharatiya Janata Party's 
reign (from 1998 until this May). But even with 
that party's fall from power, violence from Hindu 
groups has grown along with violence from radical 
Muslims. Scholarship about Hinduism has also come 
under scrutiny. Books that explore lurid or 
embarrassing details about deities or saints have 
been banned. One Western scholar's Indian 
researcher was smeared with tar, and the 
institute in Pune where the scholar had done his 
research was destroyed. Ms. Doniger said one of 
her American pupils who was studying Christianity 
in India had her work disrupted and was being 
relentlessly followed.

In an interview Ms. Doniger explained that this 
kind of fundamentalism was not new to Hinduism: 
the strain has run through the religion for 
centuries, but now it has a political cast. In 
May, she addressed some of these issues in The 
Times Literary Supplement, reviewing "Kiss of the 
Yogini," a book by David Gordon White about the 
origins of tantric sex. Mr. White argues that 
Tantra's origins were in a South Asian sexual 
cult that required the consumption of all manner 
of bodily emissions, a hypothesis that Ms. 
Doniger found plausible, if overstated. But, she 
pointed out, the book also had "political 
importance" because it was "flying in the face" 
of a revisionist Hindu tradition that had led to 
intemperate attacks on European and American 
scholars.

These attacks are not just about particular 
interpretations, she said. Another kind of 
challenge is being raised. Ms. Doniger wrote: 
"Right-wing Hindu groups, in India and the 
diaspora, have increasingly asserted their wish, 
indeed their right, to control scholarship about 
Hinduism."

The objection is not just to an unflattering 
image of Hinduism, but to who shapes that image, 
who creates Hinduism's public mask. This 
complaint dominates many essays on Sulekha.com 
and, of course, it echoes the complaints of many 
Western groups that have not developed traditions 
of critical scholarship, but find themselves 
subject to what they consider outsider 
examination. In this, the Hindu right is echoing 
the Western left.

Unfortunately, the alternative offered is usually 
not scholarship but self-promotion. In this case, 
Ms. Doniger wrote in her review, the "righteous 
revolution" also threatens to become a "reign of 
terror." Moreover, the insistence on stripping 
away masks created by others may be an attempt to 
create a single rigid mask that presents a 
supposedly appropriate visage, an idea that flies 
in the face of the multifaceted Hindu traditions 
that Ms. Doniger explores. It makes Hinduism 
pretend to be what it only occasionally was.

The Connections column will appear every other Monday.


_______


[6]   [ANNOUNCEMENTS: Events / Film / Publications]

o o o

(i)

CITIZEN'S CAMPAIGN FOR PRESERVING DEMOCRACY

INVITATION

India's democratic institutions were 
painstakingly built by leaders and political 
activists during the long years of the national 
movement for independence. For over three decades 
these institutions survived as a framework within 
which working people could struggle for a better 
life. By the end of the 1970s, however, the 
dominant social classes and their representatives 
had begun to intervene. By the turn of the 
century, these vested interests had dismantled or 
distorted most democratic institutions in 
pursuance of their sectarian agenda. The rising 
tide of fundamentalist forces all over the world 
has contributed significantly to the erosion of 
democratic traditions in the name of 'freedom' 
and 'security'. We believe it to be the 
responsibility of citizens to resist the 
onslaught of reactionary and anti-democratic 
forces and to contribute what they can to 
preserve, protect, and strengthen democracy. The 
Citizen's Campaign for Preserving Democracy 
(CCPD) has been conceptualized as one of the many 
emergent initiatives in this direction within the 
Indian polity.

Recently, CCPD has tried to grapple with the 
question of the propensity of the state to 
declare certain sections of society as outside 
the pale of citizenship itself. Our 
investigations over the last few months in Delhi, 
into the issue of the purported "Bangladeshi" 
have revealed that there has been extensive 
violation of the rule of law in this matter. 
Right from round-up and arrest, to the supposed 
'hearing' and deportation, no lawful procedure is 
being followed by the authorities. The entire 
process contributes to and manifests the 
criminalisation and communalisation of the state 
and the corruption of its legal and juridical 
institutions. Based on our investigations we have 
prepared a report titled

"Democracy, Citizens and Migrants: Nationalism in the Era of Globalisation".

  We invite you to the release ceremony of the 
said report on February 8, 2004 at the Speaker's 
Hall, Constitution Club at 2.30 p.m. The report 
release will be followed by reflections on the 
issues of citizenship, democracy, nationalism, 
constitutional framework, trans-national 
migration and others by a panel comprising:

Rajendar Sachar, Chief Justice (Rtd.), Delhi High Court
Dr. Syeeda Hameed, Member, Planning Commission
Praful Bidwai, Noted Columnist

We request you to kindly take time out of your 
busy schedule and attend the programme.

In solidarity

Dunu Roy (Hazards Centre)
Vrinda Grover (Aman Trust)
Bharati Chaturvedi (Chintan)
Ram Kishan (Aashray Adhikar Abhiyan)
Bal Vikas Dhara

o o o

(ii)

A two hour documentary on the HISTORY OF URDU, 
made by Sohail Hashmi (Concept Research and 
Script), Subhash Kapoor (Direction) and Kaamna 
Prasad (Producer) is going to be telecast on 
Discovery Channel on 19th  of February (1 hour) 
and 26th  of February (1 hour) between 8.00 pm 
-9.00 pm (IST).

In case you get Discovery in Hindi please ask 
your cable operator to give you the English Feed. 
Discovery took the English version from us and 
got it dubbed in Hindi, the Hindi version  is 
most likely to destroy the series, because their 
Hindi Dubbing department is the pits. We had 
offered them the Hindustaani version but they 
took the English version and the dubbing 
department has, in all probability, killed the 
language.

Please watch the two one hours and send me your 
reactions. This is something that has been a 
labour of love and I would dearly like to have 
your reactions.

Sohail Hashmi
[...]
Delhi 110 092

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(iii)

Insaf Bulletin February 2005 is online at:

http:// insaf.net/central/bulletins/200502bull.html

Contents:

The Tsunami's Aftermath - Vinod Mubayi and Daya Varma
Communist legislator killed: Can India tolerate political murder? - Daya Varma
Godhra Fire - Truth Finally Emerges - Vinod Mubayi
Amnesty castigates Gujarat government for anti-Muslim pogrom - Tarek
Fatah
CPI (Maoists) declare truce with CPI (ML) - Verghese K. George
Pakistan: Violence against women - Shahnawaz Khan
Fundamentalists on a rampage in Bangladesh
A Three Kings' January 6th 2005 Year of the Rooster Offering - Andre
Gunder Frank
Obituary : Mahendra Singh (1954-2005)

o o o

(iv)

Journal of Politics and Culture
2005, Issue 2

Special Issue: The Politics of Disaster

Table Of Contents:

(LINK: http:// aspen.conncoll.edu/politicsandculture/arts.cfm?id=57)

1. The Politics of Disaster Putting Them To Work--Toby Miller and Rune Ottosen
2. The Politics of Help--Vinay Dharwadker Acheh: 
The Social Form of 'Natural' Disaster--Peter Hudis
3. Damages Inc.: Making the Sublime Matter--Asma Abbas To What End?--Ananya Roy
4. Tsunami, Mangroves and Market Economy--Devinder Sharma
5. Distribution of the Windfall After a Tsunami--Elisabeth Armstrong
6. No Humanity Please, We're Americans--Matt Ruben
7. Churning of the Ocean: The Tsunami and the Third World--Vijay Prashad
8. Talking Tsunami: To Dissent This Time--Angana Chatterji and Richard Shapiro

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

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.