SACW | 6-7 March 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 6-7 March,  2005
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Pakistan: Acquittals in the Mukhtran Mai rape 
case - Press Release - by NGO's and rights groups
[2] Jammu and Kashmir: Prejudices In Paradise - 
Manipulated and over-politicized history  (Gul 
Mohammad Wani)
[3]  India: RSS In Action In Rajasthan (Nalini Taneja)
[4]  India: Letter to the Editor re -report: 
"Communal harmony bill to tackle rioters .. 
(Mukul Dube)
[5]  Excerpts and Book Reviews:
(i)  Excerpts: "Women on the peace front" by Ritu 
Menon in: Peace Work: Women, Armed Conflict and 
Negotiation By Radhika Coomaraswamy & Dilrukshi 
Fonseka
(ii)  Book Review:  'The Perfidies of Power' by P Radhakrishnan  (M Rama Rao)
[6]  Announcements:
(i)  "SAKHIRI" an electro acoustic performance, crossing genders and mixing
sounds, images, video and poetry in music. 
(Bangalore - Pune - Bombay | 19, 24 March ; 1-2 
April, 2005)
(ii) Upcoming lecture: 'Fundamentalism and the 
Seductions of Virtue: Politics, Absolutism and 
South Asia' by Dr Chetan Bhatt (London, 14 March)
(iii) INSAF Bulletin [35]   March 1, 2005
(iv) Saffron Dollar - January-February 2005
(v) Radiation Monitoring Around Madras Atomic 
Power Station [An independent investigation]
by VT Padmanabhan and NP Nakul (@ South Asians Against Nukes | March 5, 2005)


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

[1]  [PAKISTAN: ACQUITTALS IN THE MUKHTRAN MAI 
RAPE CASE - PRESS RELEASE - BY NGO'S AND RIGHTS 
GROUPS]


PRESS RELEASE

Islamabad (5th March 2005)

The Lahore High Court decision to acquit five of 
the accused in the gangrape case of Mukhtaran Mai 
has sent shock waves over the entire country. 
Human rights organizations and activists in 
Pakistan are stunned over the decision of the 
high court and wonder about the meaning of 
justice in the country. Despite the wide coverage 
of the crime committed against her nationally and 
internationally, the recent verdict has shattered 
her confidence in the criminal justice system.

We, salute Mukharan's courage and bravery to 
fight for her rights. She has become a symbol of 
strength, pride and honor for all of us. Despite 
the heinous crime committed against her she rises 
not only to claim her own right to live 
honorably, she has also been working hard to 
improve the lives of girls and boys in her 
village by starting and successfully running 
schools for them. We would like to express our 
resolve that we will stand by her and would not 
let the system to let her down once again

We would like to inform the media that on our 
request, Chaudhary Etizaz Ahsen has very kindly 
consented to be her lawyer. He will file her case 
and will represent her in the Supreme Court.

We would like to share our concern over the 
physical and mental safety and security of 
Mukhtaran while five out of six convicted are 
released now who could potentially threaten her 
life in her own village. Therefore we demand that 
the government should immediately issue orders 
under the preventive dentention law and detain 
them.

We appeal to the press and electronic media 
community to keep her case alive, otherwise 
justice may not be dispensed in her case as she 
is fighting a battle against the most influential 
people of her community. We should all ensure 
that she is not left alone in her struggle.

We believe one of the main reasons for increasing 
incidence of violence against women is the fact 
that the persons guilty of assaulting women are 
hardly punished. Legal provisions such as Qisas 
and Diyat and male biases in the judiciary and 
law enforcement agencies work against women and 
deny them justice when crimes are committed 
against them. We demand that all discriminatory 
legislation should immediately be removed from 
our statute book and a gender based system of 
monitoring and assessing the performance of 
judiciary and law enforcement agencies should be 
developed and implemented.

This is a joint statement by Pattan Development 
Organization, Action Aid, Aurat Foundation, 
Bedari, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan 
(HRCP), Islamabad Rozgar Mahaz, PODA, Progressive 
Women Association, Rozan, Sachet, Sach, 
Sustainable Devlopment Policy Institute, Sungi 
Development Foundation, Women Action Forum (WAF), 
International Human Rights Volunteers, 
Strengthening Participatory Organization, UKS 
research centre and IWWA.



______


[2]


Kashmir Times - 6 March 2005

PREJUDICES IN PARADISE
Manipulated and over-politicized history

Dr. Gul Mohammad Wani

In her bold and path-breaking style Anuradha 
Bhasin Jamwal has exposed the limits of "abnormal 
history" in her three-piece article in Kashmir 
Times February (2,3,4,2005) entitled, "Prejudice 
in Paradise. A baggage of distorted histories and 
divisive myths have made the Kashmir conflict 
messier, murkier" She is essentially making a 
case for peoples history so that lies and 
distortions in official and elitist accounts are 
done away with.
Some of the points that I shall discuss are in 
reality complementary to what Anuradha makes us 
to understand. First, there is a greater scope 
now than at any time in the history of the 
sub-continent that a peoples history be recorded 
notwithstanding some laudable attempts made so 
far in this direction by some scholars. Partition 
which Aloke Bhalla believes is so deeply branded 
in our souls is now increasingly being seen as 
"division of hearts", as what Urvashi Butalia 
believes as the experience of "human beings, real 
flesh and blood figures". It is important that 
opening of the Srinagar Muzzafarabad road is 
being looked as reunion of divided families.
In much of what has happened in Jammu and Kashmir 
in 1947 and after peoples perspective has not 
been sufficiently explored. It is tragic that in 
1947 Maharaja of Kashmir as quoted by Anuradha, 
"set upon a course of action whereby 237,000 
Muslims were systematically exterminated". She 
has also on basis of solid evidence proved that 
there was a state sponsored bid to change 
demographics in 1947. Contrary to it in the 
valley of Kashmir top level political leadership 
led by Sheikh Mohammad Abduallah ensured that 
Hindus in the Kashmir valley remain safe. Granted 
that as Sisir Gupta wrote in his book, "Kashmir: 
A study in India Pakistan Relations" that, 
"Communal feeling was always strong in Jammu 
thanks to its proximity to the Punjab", there is 
still a case for looking into what would have 
been the Jammu behaviour towards Muslims had 
there been no instigation at the top.
In the post 1947 period manipulations of various 
hues continued from the top. The Praj Parishad 
agitation in Jammu got its support not only from 
S.P. Mukherjee and Sardar Patel but also from 
Achrya Kriplani. Sheikh Abdullah believed that, 
"Nehru and Mulana Azad were interested in the 
preposition but did not agree with the strategy". 
About the transfer of power and impact of land 
reforms on new political alignments, Sisir Gupta 
writes, "the outlook of the feudal Dogra Rajputs 
was historically imperialist in regard to 
Kashmir. The ruling dynasty had created a social 
base for it self in Jammu and a large number of 
people were dependent upon it socially and 
economically. A large concentration grew up which 
reduced the cultivator to the status of serfdom. 
There were also the moneylenders who bled the 
villagers, increasing their backwardness and 
economic dependence. Consequently any tilting of 
the balance was bound to produce passionate 
resistance from them".
The point to be noted is that the charges on 
which Praj Parishad agitation was organized viz. 
that there had been totalitarianism under Sheikh 
Abdullah after 1948, that civil liberties had 
been attacked, that steps had been taken towards 
the creation of an independent Kashmir etc., were 
having the same impact on Kashmir as on Jammu. 
Further as Shyma Prashad Mukherjee said that the 
whole agitation was based on doubts and 
suspicions lends support to the argument that but 
for the politics of vested interests Jammu and 
Kashmir would have stabilized as normal limbs of 
the body politic with the growth of modern 
democratic institutions. Moreover, drifting away 
of Jammu would not have given the excuse to 
successive central government to manipulate the 
politics of the State.
Years later in 1986 the peoples perspective of 
the events when some temples were damaged in 
Anantnag District of Kashmir valley was overtaken 
by official-cum-elitist exaggeration of the event.
The second important issue raised by Anuradha is 
how central government policies have contributed 
to the crisis of leadership in Kashmir. She 
writes: "it was obvious that New Delhi could not 
implicitly trust any leader with a mass following 
in Kashmir, especially if he questioned the 
policies and actions of New Delhi". This trend 
was set in motion in 1953 when Sheikh Mohammad 
Abdullah demonstrated his "Kashmir First" 
preference in his policies and programmes. There 
can be no greater tribute to Late Syed Mir Qasim 
than to account his views about this particular 
issue. He writes in his "My life and Times": "I 
must inform my readers that whenever New Delhi 
feels a leader in Kashmir getting too big for his 
shoes, it employs Machiavellian methods to cut 
him to size". He further writes, "walk has always 
been out of question, crawl you try to scuttle. 
You expect the leadership here to remain always 
in the cradle. When you apprehend 'Crawl' 
immediately ropes that the center holds are cut". 
Syed Mir Qasim lamented. "I was asked to quit in 
national interest and I thought the center, 
particularly Indraji was sincere in mending 
fences with Sheikh Sahib. But I was wrong. 
Withdrawal of support to his government in 1977 
perhaps is much more outrageous. Today I am 
repenting. We should have not stabbed once again 
the great legendary of our time". The central 
manipulations latter convinced Dr. Farooq 
Abdullah, particularly after his dismissal in 
1984, about a hard political reality that, "If I 
want to implement programmes to fight poverty and 
run a government, I will have to stay on the 
right side of the center. Farooq had decided to 
accept that Kashmir's right to a modicum of 
representative government was conditional on the 
whims and agenda of all powerful New Delhi 
authorities".
The crisis in leadership in Kashmir has deepened 
over the years. The emerging leadership pattern 
in Kashmir both in mainstream and separatist 
camps is one of fragmentation along with mushroom 
growth of leaders. One may argue that growth of 
democratic and participatory politics has 
resulted in fragmentation of party system in 
India in general but one fails to understand as 
to how in the absence of normal, open competitive 
politics, party system and leadership pattern has 
developed fissures in Kashmir. I was recently 
told by a Jammu University academic that Kashmir 
may go the Jammu way as far as leadership pattern 
is concerned. He believed that after 1947 there 
was a crisis of leadership in the Jammu region to 
match that of Kashmir. The crisis in the 
leadership in Kashmir over the years has revealed 
as to how the state-backed counter insurgents are 
in a race to attract legitimacy in the valley.
Gautum Navlakha wrote in EPW on July 20, 1996 
that, "encouraged by State administration, army 
and a section of the Indian National press these 
so-called reformed militants formed political 
parties and put up candidates for the elections. 
Kukka Parray was projected by the official media 
as the next hope of Kashmir". Earlier another 
counter insurgent Pappa Kishtawari told K. 
Balagopal of Andhra Pradesh civil liberties 
committee with embarrassing innocence that "it is 
my gun that will make democracy possible in 
Kashmir".
The quality of political leadership in Kashmir is 
another issue which should engage the attention 
of concerned people. The internationally renowned 
historian Paul Kennedy identified education, role 
of women and quality of political leadership as 
the three determinants of success in 1993 for 
21st century. History is repeating itself in 
Kashmir at least thrice as far as division of the 
society in two hostile compartments is concerned. 
The first division between Muslim Conference and 
National Conference, second between Plebiscite 
Front politics and that of puppet-regime 
politics, and third between mainstream and 
Hurriyat Politics. Kashmir's salvation 
essentially lies in a more cohesive pragmatic and 
futuristic leadership.
The third and the very important issue 
extensively examined by Anuradha is that of 
Kashmiri pandits. The issue has assumed 
criticality not only because their migration is 
interpreted as virtual split of Kashmiri identity 
but also because what L. K. Advani lately told 
Kashmiri Samiti a nodal agency for displaced 
pandits that: one of the main benchmarks of 
restoration of normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir 
besides end of violence and good India-Pak ties 
is restoration of secular fabric of the state. 
That would happen when the pandits return to the 
state". Although at one time L. K. Advani 
referred to major role played by issues of 
Ayodha, Kashmir and Swadeshi: in extending 
Party's social base and consolidating its popular 
support". Anuradha has a point while she refers 
to "Baramulla" affair as being central to Kashmir 
Pandit mythology about Kashmir and its likely 
impact on shaping the psyche of the Kashmiri 
Pandits in years to come" but she has somehow not 
taken into account as to how the psyche of 
Kashmiri Muslims was shaped by "Parmashwari" 
episode wherein in the words of Syed Mir Qasim 
"Pandits lost the confidence of majority 
community".
There are several issues, which need fuller 
exploration as far as identity, politics and 
future of Kashmiri Pandits is concerned and all 
these should factor in any attempt at recovering 
the lost social capital in Jammu and Kashmir 
State. First. Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims share 
a common ethnicity and language. They differ only 
in religion, politics and historically in class. 
However, it is only politics which has as in past 
so at present created the wedge among the two 
communities. The distance became visible during 
the period of freedom movement between 1920 and 
1947. With the exception of few, the majority of 
pandits were indifferent to the political 
movement and opposed it. They perceived the 
movement to be aimed against their interests. The 
power structure evolved in the aftermath of Dogra 
takeover of Kashmir in 1846 saw Kashmiri Pandits 
into state bureaucracy, and along with the Dogra 
Hindus gained much of the "Choice agricultural 
lands". In the post 1947 period though some 
pandit leaders viz., D.P Dhar, P.N. Bazaz and 
R.C. Raina supported land reforms - the community 
as a whole perceived the politico-economic change 
to the advantage of Muslims and against their 
interests.
Kashmiri Pandits since 1947 have generally been 
Congress supporters mainly because of Pandit 
Nehru. But congress party in the eyes of Muslims 
was primarily responsible for erosion of 
'Kashmirayat'. It is revealing that one of the 
founders of congress party in Kashmir Syed Mir 
Qasim confessed that congress party became a 
"conduit for the flow of all country's political 
dirt into Kashmir". Though many pandits were 
involved in mainstream politics, some were very 
active in National Conference, while a few were 
involved in the separatist Plebiscite Front and 
also took part in State People's Convention 
convened by Shiekh Abdullah in 1968 for finding a 
durable solution to Kashmir problem. Further, 
politico-economic empowerment of Muslims due to 
land reforms and free education resulted in the 
emergence of Muslim middle class thereby 
generating more pressure on the resource base of 
the state, and increasing competition among the 
communities.
Second, 70's and early 80's saw increased strain 
in the inter-community relations in Kashmir. Both 
communities were for different reasons reeling 
under a minority syndrome. Increased competition 
and control of government jobs sharpened the 
communal consciousness. While pandits felt 
dispossession and blamed the Muslims and state 
government for that. The Muslims on the other 
hand found pandits as disproportionately dominant 
on the political chessboard of Kashmir. Even the 
Shimla Agreement came to be interpreted as 
agreement between Pakistan and Pandits (Indira 
Gandhi, P.N. Haksar, T.N. Koul and P. N. Dhar, 
all pandits present during Shimla talks from 
Indian side).
Third, while after their migration Pandits have 
felt a renewed sense of their identity there is 
very little inter-community introspection on how 
bridges of understanding can be build up between 
the communities. Kashmiri pandits who have 
developed their own indigenous philosophies and 
created their own traditions started identifying 
themselves with larger Hindu-religious majority 
of India. It is unfortunate that in much of 
Pandit literature generated after the migration 
pandits are referred as Kashmiri Hindus. Earlier 
regional rather than religious qualities were the 
salient components of identity but now it is 
other way round.
Fourth, one wonders in retrospect as to why 
pandits being an intellectual community did not 
take head on the happenings at Anantnag in 1986 
and did not ask for a probe into it, when some 
temples were damaged. After all some people in 
Jammu fought for probing the 1989 anti-Sikh 
riots-and lately the report of the enquiry 
commission has been submitted to the state 
government.
In retrospect it is important to know that how 
manipulations from the top have also resulted in 
straining the relations between the Pandits and 
Muslims. About the Anantnag episode one of the 
separatist leaders Yasin Malik writes in his book 
"Our Real Crime", "a rumour was spread in Kashmir 
that a riot has broken out in Jammu and hundreds 
of Kashmiris have been either murdered or injured 
by a particular community at Jammu. The rumour 
was spread from the area which was at that time 
the constituency and native land of then 
president of Pradesh Congress Committee, Mufti 
Mohd Syed. As already mentioned the people of 
Kashmir are prone to rumours. Therefore, people 
felt to it and became restless and anxious to 
know about the welfare of their near and dear 
ones. This passion of people was exploited by 
vested interests and few minor and stray 
incidents occurred which were led by congressmen. 
Active workers were participating in immoral acts 
wherein some temples were subjected to stoning 
but due to inheritance of synthesized and 
harmonious identity, people smelt rat before it 
went out of bag. The incidents were restricted to 
Anantnag and Sopore (Area were Gh. Rasool Kar, 
President of Congress has his hold)". A good will 
team led by Balraj Puri found that at many places 
in Anantnag while "accusing fingers were raised 
against some members of secular parties, we found 
no evidence of the involvement of the 
Jamait-i-Islam". The Anantnag happenings later 
conditioned and shaped the mind-sets of people of 
both communities in various ways.
Fifth, the Anantnag fall out years after 
automatically gave credence to the conspiracy 
theory that Kashmiri Pandits were deliberately 
removed from the valley by the Indian government 
who wanted a free hand to deal with Kashmiri 
Muslim militants. The then Governor (Jag Mohan) 
was held squarely responsible for it. While it is 
possible only through an objective and impartial 
probe to unearth the circumstances and the 
reasons leading to the exodus it is nevertheless 
important as Balraj Puri writes in his "Kashmir 
Towards Insurgency" that Jag Mohan's lack of 
empathy with the Kashmiri identity was perhaps 
his major handicap. Jag Mohan believed that as 
long as Kashmiri identity existed, Pakistan and 
America would continue to exploit it. It is an 
irony of history that while Jag Mohan was out to 
communalize Kashmir the present Governor S.K. 
Sinha is out to roll back Jag Mohan by talking 
day-in and day-out about restoration of 
Kashmiriyat.
Lastly, what is the present status of Kashmiri 
Pandits and what is the residue of Kashmiriyat? 
It is ugly, as the State Government has recently 
revealed that since the inception of militancy 
pandits have disposed off around 85% of their 
property. In spite of lot of sufferings of the 
Kashmiri Muslims there still is a huge goodwill 
available towards the pandits but on the contrary 
after migration pandits are attracted to a more 
communal politics. As a result of migration, a 
new pandit organisation was formed "Panun 
Kashmir". It asked for a separate homeland for 
Kashmir pandits in Kashmir. In addition 'Panun 
Kashmir' wants the Indian constitution to be 
extended in its entirety to Kashmir. A British 
scholar Alexander Evans thus comments, "as a 
consequence of migration a change has taken place 
in pandit self-definition as the events of 1990's 
have become inter-woven with a political history 
that emphasis pandit differences from the Muslim 
majority in the valley. Finally, after the shock 
of cultural and political fragmentation that 
followed the pandit exodus a new political 
activism is developing amongst pandits. This 
activist agenda can be interpreted as a cultural 
self-defence mechanism, an attempt to protect a 
Kashmiri pandit identity by cloaking it in the 
discourse of nationhood. On the other hand, it 
could well allow for a hijacking of pandit 
politics by leaders keen to outflank each other 
by playing the communal card". It is on account 
of this apprehension and taste of the temper of 
pandit leadership that some separatist leaders 
like Shabir Shah and Yasin Malik (who have on 
several occasions visited migrant camps to invite 
pandits back to the valley) are now approaching 
the common pandits at the grassroots level 
directly so that they are able to bridge the 
communication gap. Moreover, the response of the 
pandit community to the two-track peace process 
is also far from satisfactory. There was no 
pandit response to Muzzafarabad governments 
invitation to Kashmiri pandits to visit the 
Sharda temple in Pakistan administered Kashmir. 
The government there has earmarked Rs.10 crore 
for the renovation of all these places of 
worship. However, divergence between elite and 
common Kashmiri pandit perception about political 
and inter-community issues becomes clear when one 
talks to people living in camps and more 
particularly people from rural areas of Kashmir 
valley. The common Kashmiri pandit largely speaks 
in a different tone. A letter recently written by 
a Kashmiri pandit T. N. Zutshi to Kashmir Times 
on 18.01.2005 reveals the common man's 
perception. Mr. Zutshi not only feels that people 
living in Kashmir valley have suffered so much 
because of brutal suppression but also suggested 
withdrawal of all types of forces from the valley 
and handing over of internal security of the 
Kashmir province to the state police. He writes 
that people should be allowed to live in peace 
and with dignity so that they are able to think 
clearly as to what they want". This perception is 
at variance with those pandith leaders who have a 
larger agenda on Kashmir.
To conclude the virtual absence of Kashmiri 
pandits in Kashmir valley today along with the 
rapid manner in which an extremist ethnic 
nationalism has gripped many pandits since 1990's 
bodes ill for any attempt to renew Kashmir as a 
multicultural and plural political entity. Sheikh 
Mohd. Abdullah's exhortation in April 1949 
shortly after the cessation of 14 months of 
fighting between India and Pakistan in and over 
Kashmir is still relevant. Abdullah spoke 
candidly in an interview with London Observer. He 
"lamented not only the division of Jammu and 
Kashmir through war but the prospect, 
unacceptable to a Kashmiri patriot, the territory 
would remain indefinitely trapped in the vortex 
of a bitter feud between the two countries. The 
people of the contested territory would never 
enjoy either peace or prosperity in such a 
context. Since because of its location as well as 
its fractured internal politics, J&K needed the 
goodwill, the tourists and the markets of both 
countries for its stability". The two-track peace 
process will definitely go a long way in 
restoring and respecting the people's 
perspective. Let us move the center to the 
location of the people. Let the focus shift as 
Ranabir Samadhar, says "not to partition but to 
partitioned not to migration but to migrants".
*(The author is a Reader in Political Science 
Department of Kashmir University).

______


[3]

People's Democracy - March 06, 2005

RSS IN ACTION IN RAJASTHAN
  Nalini Taneja 

IF anybody needs convincing that every election 
is important, they should look at the chain of 
events in Rajasthan since the BJP came to power 
in the state.  

The chief minister, Vasundhara Raje, is a 
committed member of the RSS, and has been doing 
at the state level pretty much what the BJP led 
government at the centre did with the state 
resources at its command. The administration and 
police postings have ensured that RSS people hold 
strategic decision making and 'law enforcing' 
positions in the state. A spate of appointments 
will ensure that the RSS remains a presence in 
state agencies should the BJP be defeated in the 
next elections. 'Trishul dikshas' organised by 
the Bajrang Dal became occasions for hate 
campaigns against Muslims, and tribals have been 
mobilised more than once against the Muslims by 
the Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad.

RSS OPERATIONS IN FASCIST MOULD

More recently the RSS has sprung into direct 
action: it has organised attacks against the 
Christians once again, sponsored spurious claims 
of support on behalf of Muslims for its agenda by 
setting up bogus organisations with disreputable 
people from among Muslims themselves, and has 
managed a university for itself through the good 
offices of Vasundhara Raje.

In Kota, on February 19, activists of the RSS, 
BJP and Bajrang Dal descended on a train and beat 
up workers of a Christian organisation, the 
Emmanuel Mission. A group of 250 youth who had 
come from Andhra to attend the Mission's 
programme were forcibly taken to the police 
station on the basis of the charge that the 
mission was trying to convert them to 
Christianity (The Asian Age, February 20, 2005). 
A BJP corporator, Krishan Soni, also lodged a 
case against Bishop MA Thomas to the same effect. 
Not to be left behind, the Rajasthan social 
welfare minister, Madan Dilawar, boasted that he 
had "asked his officers to constitute an inquiry" 
and send him a report "against the mission" as he 
had been receiving "complaints" (from the RSS?). 
He expected (wanted) the report to be "against" 
the organisation even before the "inquiry" was 
made. The deputy mayor, Ravindra Nirbhay, was 
actually present at the station during these 
goings on.

The incident has been, as is usual with fascists, 
turned against the victims themselves, who are 
facing harassment at the hands of the 
administration, and who now have to explain why 
they are interested in attending programmes 
organised by Christian organisations, while those 
who beat them up and threatened "further 
consequences", are roaming free. It has also 
become an occasion to demand that the law against 
religious conversions. This is a leaf from Atal 
Bihari Vajpayee's book who after attack on 
Christians in Gujarat had spoken in his 
'statesman-like' tone that there should be a 
national debate on religious conversions. The 
matter may well result in such a law if the BJP 
is allowed to have its way.

TEACHING CULTURAL NATIONALISM TO MUSLIMS

RSS has also funded a meet of Rashtrawadi Muslim 
Andolan, "My Hindustan", a bogus organisation 
floated by the RSS. There was an all-India 
conclave, organised by the Rajasthan Madrasa 
Board chief, in Jaipur, to teach Muslims the 
tenets of ''cultural nationalism''. Board 
chairman, MA Ansari said: the agenda is 
simple--Hindu-Muslim unity. ''We want Muslims to 
give up their current mindset and understand the 
realities of a multicultural India.'' ''Agar 
Bharatiya hain to wafadaar to hona hi padega (If 
we are Indians, we have to be loyal).'' And what 
exactly he meant by that is clear from the 
invitations sent out, in which the organisers 
expressed their desire to ensure Vande Mataram 
echoes throughout the country; and that cows are 
protected zealously. (The Indian Express, 
February 11, 2005).

There were of course protests by some members of 
the Muslim community which led to imposition of 
prohibitory orders around the venue, a few 
arrests and a whole force of policemen taking 
over the area. The media were kept away as 
Sudarshan himself addressed the meeting, perhaps 
following some negative reports of the event in 
local media. The coordinator of the Rashtrawadi 
Muslim Andolan, Muzzafar Hussain, said afterwords 
that "the convention had debated common civil 
code, specifically in respect to Muslim women, 
effective measures to prevent cow slaughter by 
the Centre, steps to lift the socio-economic 
status of Muslims, and the need for better 
management of Waqf Board properties in the 
states. Empowerment of Muslim women and talaq 
laws were also discussed at length." (Deccan 
Herald, February 14, 2005).

EXPANDING ITS TENTACLES IN EDUCATION

Now the RSS also has a University of its own, 
after setting up a number of educational 
institutions in Rajasthan. The government has 
issued a letter of intent for the self-financing 
university, to be located at Jandoli, on the 
outskirts of Jaipur. The RSS had already 
established an educational centre at Jandoli. The 
University has already been named as Keshav 
Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyalaya, and would be awarding 
postgraduate degrees. According to newspaper 
reports, the Rajasthan education minister, 
Ghanshyam Tiwari, has directed his department to 
provide all help needed for the project, and it 
will be a model university, dedicated to 
implementing the Sangh ideology (The Asian Age, 
February 27, 2005). The courses will be based on 
"cultural nationalism and sciences", Ayurveda, 
Vedic science, Yoga and medical science, and as 
the RSS officials put it, the idea is to 
propagate "our culture and sciences through the 
syllabi" (Hindustan Times, February 24, 2005). It 
will be on over 2,300 acres of land. After three 
years it is planned that it be replicated in 
other states. The dream of converting large 
tracts of public lands into RSS-controlled real 
estate is being turned into a reality in 
Rajasthan.

The Congress party simply does not wish to see 
the full portent of what the BJP is doing in the 
states where it rules. The party has a right wing 
economic programme, for which it needs the 
support of the BJP. It needs a tacit acceptance 
by the BJP of whatever the left will not be 
willing to support: in return the BJP is being 
allowed to get away with much that a secular 
government in the centre should not allow. Goa, 
Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and, of course, 
Gujarat are seeing the expansion of the RSS 
linked organisations even as we have a non BJP 
government in the centre. That is the tragedy of 
our times within which the Left has to do what it 
can.

______


[4]  [LETTERS TO THE EDITOR]

D-504 Purvasha
Mayur Vihar 1
Delhi 110091

5 March 2005

News report: "Communal harmony bill to tackle rioters ...
announced by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil."

The Indian Penal Code contains several sections which are aimed
expressly at maintaining communal harmony and preventing communally
motivated criminal violence. Despite them, such violence has taken
place over the decades. It has taken place because the agencies which
are supposed to enforce the law have themselves been communal. Every
single report on a "communal riot" has found the police guilty
at least of dereliction of duty. Since exemplary punishment has not
been awarded on any occasion, the police forces have remained happily
communal.

In most if not all instances, the RSS or its offshoots were also
found to be implicated. No action was taken against them either. I
speak not of when the BJP led the coalition at the Centre but of
earlier times.

Mr. Patil may have a dozen fine laws passed. But can he ensure that
they are enforced, that they do not remain just worthless paper? Can
he say honestly that the forces under his ministry are not communal,
that the party of which he is a member is not itself communal, never
mind its tall claims?

Actions speak, inaction speaks, words are hot air. Since before the
general election of 2004, Mr. Patil has given out vast quantities of
hot air -- and that is just what he is doing again.

Mukul Dube

______


[5]   [BOOK EXCERPTS AND BOOK REVIEWS]

(i)

Dawn - 06 March 2005

EXCERPTS: Women on the peace front
By Ritu Menon

Ritu Menon writes on how women's peace activism 
can play a positive mediatory role in 
conflict-torn areas.
The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that 
the 'state of emergency' in which we live is not 
the exception but the rule. - Walter Benjamin
The general failure of states across our region 
to reach politically negotiated, peaceful 
resolutions of the conflicts in their countries, 
has had one unexpected outcome. It has propelled 
NGOs, civil society groups (including businessmen 
and industrialists), professionals, academics, 
women's organizations and sundry peace activists 
into being more proactive on peace. Together they 
have initiated a range of activities, both within 
their countries and across borders, that include 
everything from research and dialogue to 
track-two diplomacy and actual relief work.
Men make war and women make peace. This has the 
kind of cliched associations that are difficult 
to shake off, perhaps because there is a kernel 
of truth in the statement. Women are generally 
supposed to be nurturing and caring, naturally 
maternal and therefore predisposed towards peace, 
just as men are supposed to be the opposite. 
Women are more open to mediation, to negotiation 
and compromise because, it has been suggested, 
they are obliged to carry on the business of 
survival and sustenance when all social and 
economic supports have broken down, and they are 
often obliged to do so in the absence of their 
menfolk.
So they are more likely to be found caring for 
the sick or wounded, in relief and rehabilitation 
and in rebuilding communities than carrying guns 
and going into combat. Because they are also 
among the worst sufferers in any situation of 
conflict, armed or otherwise, they are believed 
to be more inclined towards peace.
Feminist analysis has tried to move away from 
biological essentialist and culturalist arguments 
in favour of women's tolerance and non-violence, 
and suggested instead, that "if women have a 
distinctive angle in peace it is not due to their 
being 'nurturing' but more to do, perhaps, with 
knowing oppression". Their historical exclusion 
from structures of power, both in the private and 
public domains, as well as their experience of 
subjugation gives them a stake in working for 
peace and justice - or a just peace - as well as 
in keeping democracy alive, for it is only 
through social justice and democracy that they 
will be able to realize their right to equality.
According to this logic, a feminist culture of 
peace fundamentally criticizes unequal structures 
of domination and is built on learning to live 
with difference, without aggression.
I would like to suggest an additional factor that 
may be at work in women's peace activism, and 
this is their particular, gendered experience of 
violence, in war as well as in supposed peace. As 
recent empirical work the world over has shown, 
for women, weapons of war are much the same as 
weapons of peace; those who wield them in the 
battlefield or on the front often return home and 
turn the violence inwards. Women have first-hand 
knowledge of the connected forms of domestic, 
communal and political violence that stretches 
from the home to the street and into the 
battlefield.
I have already spoken of this with regard to 
partition violence in India in 1947. Similarly, 
studies of post-Yugoslavia, Bosnia, 
Israel-Palestine, Ireland and, closer home, 
Kashmir, Jaffna, Karachi, Dhaka and north-east 
India, demonstrate the links between 
militarization, misogyny and domestic violence. 
Rita Manchanda quotes Palestinian MP Dalal Salmeh 
as saying, "The violence used against Palestinian 
men has made them violent at home, in the work 
place and in their free time."
A number of testimonies by women from Kashmir and 
the north-east echo this observation as do those 
of women living in the crossfire of the MQM 
(Muhajir Qaumi Movement) conflict in Karachi.
It is the combined experience of oppression and 
violence, plus the responsibility for survival 
and sustenance during and in the aftermath of 
conflict that, I believe, provides the strongest 
impetus to women's peace-making. Parveena 
Ahangar's search for her missing son in Kashmir 
eventually led to the formation of the 
Association of the Parents of Disappeared Persons 
(APDP) and to a cry for collective justice. The 
refusal of the women of Kunan-Poshpora to remain 
silent about their rape by the Indian security 
forces led to the highlighting of military 
atrocities.
The public cursing of the Mothers' Front in Sri 
Lanka forced the government into acknowledging 
its role in the disappearance of thousands of 
young JVPers. The Women in Black, the Madres of 
the Plaza de Mayo, the Jaffna Mothers' Front take 
their private sorrow and make it public, thus not 
only radicalizing the personal, radicalizing even 
motherhood, but shaming the institutional and 
authoritarian.
As Rita Manchanda says, "Women's construction of 
the legitimacy or illegitimacy of conflict is a 
critical factor in women turning their backs on 
it. In Kashmir, a turning point in the armed 
struggle came when Kashmiri women began to shut 
the door on militants."
But is there such a thing as women's practice of 
peace activism? Do we 'do peace' differently from 
other peace activists, and if so, are these 
alternative practices effective in the long run? 
Can they, for instance, work across borders, 
national as well as regional?
As with economic activity in South Asia, in peace 
work too, women belong in the informal sector, 
the informal spaces of politics, which by its 
very nature affects our practice. The ritualized 
cursing of the Mothers' Front or the sustained 
protest by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, 
indeed the public mobilization of motherhood in 
the cause of peace and as a direct challenge to 
the state are quintessentially 'womanist' forms 
of peace activism.
Bearing witness, as happens in the World Courts 
on Violence Against Women and in various 
tribunals on violence or other crimes, is not 
womanist in the same way but it has radicalized 
the hitherto marginal and powerless, and forced 
public and institutional notice outside the 
traditional arenas of such activity - the court, 
the police station, the executive or the 
bureaucracy.
Dialogue and networking have been among the most 
effective strategies used by the global women's 
movement, in working for social change as well as 
in raising awareness. Dialogue that bridges 
difference and is predicated on respecting that 
difference is at the other end of the spectrum 
from what Ranabir Samaddar calls 'maximalist 
friendship'. "Such a friendship," he says, "like 
cold war friendship depends on maximum enmity, 
and then, maximum hostility." Far from being 
conducive to peace, it kills understanding; the 
alternative to this is accommodating difference 
which, more than solidarity, requires a politics 
of understanding; and it is this politics of 
understanding that I believe, women in the region 
are trying to forge.
Cynthia Cockburn, describing a few notable 
examples of cross-border peace initiatives by 
women in Ireland, Israel and Bosnia Herzegovina, 
identifies six characteristics that she believes 
made the difference between the women's efforts, 
and others. They are: (i) affirming difference; 
(ii) non-closure of identity; (iii) reducing 
polarization by emphasizing other differences; 
(iv) an acknowledgment of injustice; (v) defining 
the agenda; and (vi) group process. Again, these 
may not be essentially womanist ways of doing 
peace, but they have been worked at successfully 
by the three groups she studied, and they are 
clearly different from conventional CBMs, 
two-tracks, and other people-to-people dialogues. 
Cockburn also draws attention to the importance 
of recognizing what she calls "the space between 
us" in peace work - that social and political 
space in which we separately live and work in 
order to craft a politics of understanding.
It is not easy to do.
In Sri Lanka, for example, the Jaffna Mothers' 
Front and the Sinhala Mothers' Front were unable 
to cross the ethnic divide; nor could the Naga 
Mothers Association make common cause with the 
Watsu Mongdung in north-eastern India. 
Occasionally, groups may come together on 
specific issues, as national women's groups did 
in Bangladesh with the Hill Women's Federation, 
but they parted company on issues of national 
identity. One instance of successful 
bridge-building, however, is that of the MQM and 
the Women's Action Forum in Karachi.
But the crucial point is that women's fledgling 
attempts at making peace have highlighted the 
necessity of transparency and the democratic 
process in any peace accord or negotiation that 
will endure. The inclusion of 'marginal' and 
hitherto unheard voices in this process, 
painstaking and protracted though it may be, may 
actually have a better chance of succeeding than 
that reached throughforce or subjugation.
It may be, as Rita Manchanda says, what "makes 
the difference between the survival or collapse 
of otherwise binary and closeted peace processes 
between armed groups and the state".
Radhika Coomaraswamy is the chairperson of the 
Human Rights Commission, Sri Lanka, and director, 
International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo.
Dilrukshi Fonseka has been programme coordinator 
at the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies, 
Sri Lanka.
Ritu Menon is co-founder of Kali for Women and an 
independent scholar who has written widely on 
women.
This book discusses the experiences of women 
peacemakers in areas of conflicts and the role 
they can play in promoting peace.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted with permission from Peace Work: Women, 
Armed Conflict and Negotiation
By Radhika Coomaraswamy & Dilrukshi Fonseka
Women Unlimited an associate of Kali for Women, 
K-36 Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi-110016
Tel: 91-11-6864497, 6964947
Email: kaliw at del2.vsnl.net.in
ISBN 81-88965-08-1
278pp. Indian Rs375

o o o o o

(ii)

Asian Tribune - 05 March  2005

The perfidies of power in caste ridden hi-tech India
By M Rama Rao - from New Delhi for Asian Tribune

Prof P Radhakrishnan's book, 'The Perfidies of 
Power' India in the new millennium - is a welcome 
addition to the growing literature on the subject.

New Delhi, 02 March (Asiantribune.com): India, 
its caste ridden society and its tryst with 
democracy with the promise to empower the weaker 
and deprived sections makes a fascinating study 
since India is often described as anarchy in 
action or largest democracy at logger heads with 
itself.

So, in that sense, Prof P Radhakrishnan's book, 
'The Perfidies of Power - India in the new 
millennium' is a welcome addition to the growing 
literature on the subject. The author is a 
professor of Sociology at the Madras Institute of 
Development Studies, Chennai. His name and 
writings are familiar to the readers of The 
Hindu, which regularly feature his writings and 
to those who are familiar with The Hindu's sister 
publication The Frontline, to which he is a 
regular contributor.

The book under review is a compilation of his 
newspaper articles in recent years and the effort 
is, in the words of the author to "emphasise the 
need for redefining the contents and contours of 
Indian democracy for ushering in more inclusive, 
secular and pluralistic polity and society". 
Within that broad canvas, he seeks to identify in 
his own way the fault lines in governance. He 
also puts the lens on "the perfidies of 
governors, and the pitfalls of the governed" 
while making a critique of the system at 
provincial and federal level.

The learned professor asserts that he has tried 
to use the 'looking glasses' of the common man. 
Value judgement on this claim has to wait till 
such time till the reviewer has an occasion to 
read the book in full, unlike now when the 
comment is based on the note thoughtfully 
provided by the author.

In the entire book carries thirty articles. These 
were contributions, as already stated to The 
Hindu (between 1991 to 2002) as also to The 
Frontline, and The Hindu Business Line.

The Professor says that he had written these 
articles as a part of his social involvement in 
raising the quality of public awareness and 
debate. What prompted him to do so was his 
'increasing conviction' that as an academic and 
social critic he owes more to the masses (than to 
the classes) who have no easy access to 
'knowledge', especially 'critical knowledge'.

This is in fact a new and revised edition of the 
book that was originally offered three years ago 
in 2002 as 'INDIA, the Perfidies of Power: A 
Social Critique'.

Professor Radhakrishnan states in his preface 
that while going in for the reprint so early in 
the day he had taken ëliberty to change its title 
so as to bring it closer to the overall themeí of 
the book. He also effected some deletions and 
additions of articles to make it more topical for 
research student and political analyst alike. 
While so doing, he rearranged the essays 
thematically with new titles to deal with the 
recent socio-political concerns.

It is difficult to disagree with the author that 
his essay dealing with reservations in Tamil Nadu 
and the life history of Dr. Ambedkar still retain 
the dew they had at dawn. Like this comment, all 
other articles undoubtedly serve as a window to 
get a peep into the societal and political 
processes and trends in India, which reflect many 
current socio-political concerns.

A plus point, to quote the professor himself once 
again, the book doesnít lack historical 
sensitivity particularly while in the context of 
issues like Vaikom Satyagraha, and Ambedkarís 
Legacy. He does take care not to go into a 
theoretical straitjacket. The chapter headings, 
like for instance, Dalit oppression, exploiting 
the exploited, Dalit emancipation, political 
relevance of Ambedkar, caste and reservations and 
the Quota Conundrum clearly show the focus and 
direction of the writing.

The book has been brought out by T R Publications 
Pvt Limited ( PMG Complex, First Floor, 8, South 
Usman Road, T Nagar) Chennai. The price is not 
mentioned. The publisher can be reached on 
website 
<http://www.trpublications.com/>www.trpublications.com 
Orders for the book can be placed by e-mail.

The author promises to come up with a sequel to 
this book (in progress) that will be a critique 
of Hindutva and the BJP-Sangh Parivar politics 
which are no less matters of concern for 
sociologists and all those keen to see an early 
end to centuries of oppression of the deprived 
sections of India. Hopefully, the learned 
professor will offer a blue print to empowerment 
in a society which is still to get in to stride 
to truthfully claim that it indeed has entered 
the 21 century as an IT nation.

- Asian Tribune-

______


[6]  [Announcements]


(i)

"SAKHIRI"
on stage :
drfloy (France): Bass guitar and electronics
Sumathi (India): Vocal
Tejal Shah + Natasha Mendonca (India): Video art with live mix
Sakhi: Poetry

"SAKHIRI" is an electro acoustic performance, crossing genders and mixing
sounds, images, video and poetry in music.

A creation built out of a poetic research exploring gender issues, human rights
and sexual minorities' rights, making space for 
their multiple voices; exploring
pain, joy, love and celebrating their lives through poetry, video filmed
performances, songs and experimental compositions.

After collecting material through various meetings and workshops with women
activists and hijra groups and individuals for the time of a residency in
Bangalore, the artists will present different music compositions where live
electronics will treat and transfigure the collected sources, testimonies and
poems, while poetry will be performed and sung, interacting with video.

How can experimental soundscapes, treatments and 
classical vocals deal together?

How can music, poetry, and video reveal, attract or repel each other?

What kind of meaning or sensations appear through?

How is gender constructed by artists, art, music, electronics, visuals, poetry,
images, by people, by mainstream people?

What about people who transgress the borders?

Has Creation to do with creating one's own life, one's own gender?

What creative potential lies in being "in the margins"?

Addressing her female friend, "Sakhiri" is a creation in process.

Performance Tour:
BANGALORE March 19, Saturday, 6:30 pm onwards
The Auditorium, Alliance Francaise
108 Thimmaiah Road, Vasanth Nagar, Bangalore

PUNE
March 24, Thursday, 7 pm onwards
Open Air Theatre, Amgan Manch,
Centre for Performing Art, University of Pune

BOMBAY
April 1 & 2, Friday & Saturday, 6:30 pm onwards
The Auditorium, Alliance Francaise
Theosophy Hall, New Marine Lines
Bombay

All performances are non-ticketed.

DrFloy, a French artist, bass guitarist involved in the electronic and
experimental European scene, as well as in the female band Mafucage has been
touring over the world for the past 10 years; She produces and releases music
for diverse supports and in various art forms such as CDs, vinyl EPS, internet
web art, videos and installations.

Sumathi, a student of Hindustani classical vocal Music has been learning music
for 20 years under late Pandit Ramarao Naik, Pandit D.S Garud, Pandit Yaeshwant
Buva Joshi, and Smt Lalit Rao. She is mostly involved in experimental programs.
She is also a music composer working for documentary films and theatre.

Tejal Shah, a visual artist, works with video, 
photography and installation. Her
works have shown in museums, galleries and film festivals in India and
internationally.

Natasha Mendonca studied social communication media. She works with film and
video and lives in Bombay.

Natasha and Tejal co-founded India's premier International Film Festival of
Sexuality and Gender plurality, Larzish.

Among the prominent musician that have contributed to this creation is Anuradha
Pal, disciple of Ustad Zakir Hussein and one of the first and only professional
woman tabla player.


o o o o o


(ii)

CENTRE OF SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES, SOAS

ANNUAL LECTURE

Fundamentalism and the Seductions of Virtue: Politics, Absolutism and South
Asia

Dr Chetan Bhatt
Goldsmiths' College

5.30PM    MONDAY 14 MARCH    2005
Followed by Reception
Room B102, Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Russell Square, London

ALL WELCOME


o o o o o


(iii)

INSAF Bulletin [35]   March 1, 2005

contents:
Nepal: A king declares war against the people - Daya Varma
State Elections - Congress Sweeps Haryana, 
Outcome Indecisive in Bihar and Jharkhand - Vinod 
Mubayi
Protests Mount Against Narendra's Modi's Planned 
Visit to the U.S. - Vinod Mubayi
A Three Kings' January 6th 2005 Year of the 
Rooster Offering - Part 2 - Andre Gunder Frank
Hindu Code Bill: A case of collective amnesia - Anoop Kumar

[Now on the web at: http://www.insaf.net/central/bulletins/200503bull.html]

(iv)

Saffron Dollar - January-February 2005
Campaign to Stop Funding Hate
March 3, 2005

[Now on the web at: http://stopfundinghate.org/resources/Saff$/]


(v)

South Asians Against Nukes | March 5, 2005

Radiation Monitoring Around Madras Atomic Power Station
by VT Padmanabhan and NP Nakul

(An independent citizens investigative report released in Trivandrum, Kerala
on 5 March 2005)

[URL: 
http://www.s-asians-against-nukes.org/2005/radiation_monitoring_+chart.pdf]

See also -  Associated Charts and Pictures made 
while surveying the Tamil Nadu coast between 
10-20 February 2005.

[URL: 
http://www.s-asians-against-nukes.org/2005/MAPSrad_monitoring_pics-c.html]



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

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.