SACW | 17 March 2005
sacw
aiindex at mnet.fr
Thu Mar 17 02:57:43 CST 2005
South Asia Citizens Wire | 17 March, 2005
via: www.sacw.net
[1] Nepal: Press Release ( Committee to Protect Journalists )()
[2] Joint Indo-Pak Peace & Goodwill Mission
Celebrated by South Asians and their friends in
Vancouver
[3] India Second Day of Protests by
Dam-Affected & Slum Dwellers Against Displacement
(National Alliance of People's Movements)
[4] India: A Mussolini, a Hitler, and a Niemoeller (I.K.Shukla)
[5] India: Dandi trail leaves behind a tale of
neglect of both place and producer of salt
(Digant Oza)
[6] Letter to the Editor by Mukul Dube
[7] Book Review: Saffronisation and Indian Politics (Manjari Katju)
[8] Upcoming event:
Public Discussion : 'Sharia and women's rights -
What are the stakes? (Montreal, March 17, 2005)
--------------
[1]
Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh Avenue, New York,
NY 10001 USA Phone: (212) 465-1004
Fax: (212) 465-9568 Web: www.cpj.org
E-Mail: media at cpj.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
NEPAL: Police summon editor of country's largest newspaper
New York, March 16, 2005-Police delivered a
letter today to Narayan Wagle, editor of
Kantipur, Nepal's largest daily, ordering him to
present himself at the criminal investigation
branch of the Kathmandu police office tomorrow
morning. Wagle told CPJ that he has been asked
for "clarification" of news published earlier in
the week.
"The harassment of our colleague Narayan Wagle is
unacceptable," said CPJ Executive Director Ann
Cooper. "We call on authorities to ensure that
Wagle does not face further legal action, and to
stop intimidating journalists who challenge the
harsh restrictions placed on them."
The police order did not specify which news item
led to the summons. Sources speculated that the
order was linked to the newspaper's March 15
coverage of banned pro-democracy protests the day
before. The daily's extensive coverage included a
photo of Bal Bahadur Rai, the elderly former
acting prime minister who was arrested during the
demonstrations.
Editors of five Kathmandu weeklies were
previously summoned to the District
Administration Office after they ran blank
editorial pages to protest censorship.
The Federation of Nepalese Journalists yesterday
called for the government to restore press
freedom and to end censorship, harassment, and
arrests of journalists. Hundreds of radio
journalists across the country have lost their
jobs, and many newspapers have been forced to
stop publishing since King Gyanendra announced a
state of emergency and curtailed press freedom
last month.
______
[2]
SANSAD
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
Suite 435, 205 - 329 North Road, Coquitlam, BC, Canada. V3K 6Z8
phone : (604) 420-2972; FAX: (604) 420-2970
Electronic mail : sansad at sansad.org
website: www.sansad.org
2005-03-08
Joint IndoPak Peace & Goodwill Mission Celebrated
by South Asians and their friends in Vancouver
South Asians living in the Vancouver area
gathered at Collingwood Neighborhood House on
February 26, 2005 to celebrate the completion of
the first Joint India-Pakistan Peace and Goodwill
Mission. Captain Suleman Mahtab of Vancouver, and
Drs. Pritam Rohila and Kundan Rohila of Portland,
Oregon, who were members of this historic mission
gave a report on it to fifty writers and
activists of the South Asian community. The
meeting was organized by South Asian Network for
Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) and
co-sponsored by Canada Urdu Association, Hindi
Literary Society, Pakistan Canada Association,
Punjabi Writer's forum and Canpak Alliance of
Victoria.
The delegates, who recently returned from a
2-week trip to India and Pakistan to promote
peace, reported their meetings with high
government officials, political and religious
leaders, lawyers, journalists, businessmen, peace
activists, academics and representatives of labor
and women's groups in both countries. Their
objective was to demonstrate that Indians and
Pakistanis could work together for peace, in
spite of the differences in their professional
training, religious affiliations, cultural
background, national origin, political points of
view, and personal experiences.
Captain Mahtab thanked all the local media,
especially the Miracle, Asian Star, Voice, India
Abroad, and Al-Ameen, and all other organizations
and individuals who had supported the peace
efforts.
Captain Mahtab explained the challenges faced by
the delegation in the context of the historical
enmity between India and Pakistan. The main
objective of the goodwill mission, he said, was
"to help catalyse the level of people-to-people
contact between the citizens of India and
Pakistan regardless of the current state of
bilateral relations between their governments".
He reported that he witnessed a desire for peace
in both countries and was encouraged by people's
determination to not leave the promotion of peace
entirely in the hands of the governments.
Dr. Pritam Rohila, who had witnessed the horrors
of the partition of the subcontinent said that
the delegation of Indians and Pakistanis living
in the West carried the message that different
backgrounds and opinions had not prevented South
Asians abroad from living as good neighbours and
having cordial relations in our communities. Such
co-operation could also be achieved between
Indians and Pakistanis living on the subcontinent
and would yield development and economic
prosperity in South Asia.
Drs. Pritam Rohila and Kundan Rohila reported
that their organisation, the Association for
Communal Harmony, proposed the creation of a
joint Indo-Pak memorial on the Wagah border to
honour the innocent Hindu, Muslim and Sikh
victims of the 1947 partition and mark the
beginning of a new chapter of better relations
between the people. An Internet petition in
support of this proposal has been signed by
people from over 20 countries and handed over to
the top officials of Pakistan and India.
The three delegates informed the meeting that
they had lobbied for the following issues:
Divided families should be able to meet across
the border; the visa process should be
liberalized; the elderly and disabled should be
assisted at the Wagah border.
Indian fishermen who have been imprisoned in Pakistan should be released.
There should be an increase in travel
facilities, including re-starting the ferry
between Mumbai and Karachi.
Trade should increase between the two countries.
There should be a focus on improving the
economic and living conditions of the people.
There should be justice for human rights violations.
There should be a focus on the needs of the Kashmiri people.
Communal and hate propaganda should be removed
from school textbook and films.
The needs of refugees should be addressed.
Both countries should sign a 'no-war' treaty.
Following a lively discussion, Mohammad Rafiq
(president of the Canada Urdu Association)
presided over a session of poetry reading. Hardev
Ashk, Shams Jilani, Avtar Rehency, Ajmer Rode,
Mohammad Rafiq, Captain Suleman Mahtab, Naseer
Pirzada, Col. Shafat Ali, Gulcharan Rampuri and
H.E. Zile Singh (Deputy Consul of India) read
their poems on the theme of peace, friendship and
justice. In honour and appreciation to the peace
efforts, senior poet & writer Gulcharan Rampuri,
on behalf of all the attending writers and poets,
presented his books to the delegates as a 'Prize'
for their dedicated peace efforts.
______
[3]
National Alliance of People's Movements
Chemical Mazdur Sabha, Haji Habib Building, I
Floor, 182 Naigaon Cross Road, Dadar (E), Mumbai
– 400014.
Delhi Contact: Ph. 26680883/26680914 /9818147740/9818492340
Press Note/ March 16, 2005
SECOND DAY OF PROTESTS BY DAM-AFECTED & SLUM
DWELLERS AGAINST DISPLACEMENT; DEMAND TO STOP
EVICTION, PROTECT RIGHTS.
Camp Delhi: March 16:
Over 1000 displaced people from the Sardar
Sarovar Dam in the Narmada valley and evicted
slum dwellers from Mumbai continued their dharna
on the second day on March 16 (Wednesday) in
Delhi, in front of the Union Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment. The people made their
way through the gates of the Ministry on March 15
and are staying put there to protest against both
the unjust evictions and to demand stoppage of
all further displacement activities till proper,
just resettlement for all those hitherto evicted,
is rightfully given.
For the first time the displaced people from the
river valley and from the urban settlements had
come together for a joint struggle and asked the
government to restrain the continued ordeal of
submergence, demolition and asserted that there
should be no displacement without resettlement
acceptable to the people and which protects their
legal and human rights. The 400 people from
Narmada and 700 people from Mumbai are fighting a
common battle against displacement and right to
life, livelihood, resources and dignity. They
have already met the Union Minister of Social
Justice, Mrs. Meira Kumar and will be meeting the
Planning Commission members, National Human
Rights Commission and National Commission of
SC/ST, apart from other ministers.
Only Assurances
Mrs. Meira Kumar sympathized with the plight of
evicted slum dwellers in Mumbai, in a meeting
with the delegation of the Zopadpatti Bachao
Samyukta Kriti Samiti, on Tuesday. She assured to
take up the matter with other concerned
ministries and in the party forum also. In a
memorandum, the Samiti demanded immediate
stoppage of further demolition, compensation for
destruction of houses, allowing the people to
build the houses in the same place, providing
cheap alternative housing and amenities, along
with the preparing the development plan of the
area with the participation of the people and
their organizations. They have demanded a meeting
with the Union Minister for Urban Development
also.
The minister also met the Narmada Bachao Andolan
delegation on Wednesday (March 16). People
pointed out the serious lacunae in the
resettlement of already displaced people up to
110 meters of the height of the Sardar Sarovar
dam and the altogether totally false action taken
reports (ATRs) submitted to the Central
Government by all three governments to facilitate
further increase in the dam height, even when the
people even below the 80-90 meters are
languishing without resettlement and land. They
have also pointed out the latest Supreme Court
judgment of yesterday was a victory for the
affected people since the court has upheld the
right of major sons to 2 hectares land each and
of temporarily affected families who lose their
entire crops and livelihoods due to the temporary
submergence, to be rehabilitated right away.
The demands placed by the NBA before the Minister
of Social Justice and Empowerment, which were
accepted were that the Secretary, Mrs.Sarita
Prasad will soon visit all regions of the valley
including submergence zone, resettlement sites to
monitor the status of rehabilitation. They also
accepted the demands that illegal cash
compensation disbursement and illegal ex-parte
(one-side) land allotment should be stopped. It
was clearly stated by the NBA that no attempt
should presently be made to raise the height of
the dam to 121 metres, since at lease 25,000
families remain to be rehabilitated under this
height. The Narmada oustees will also meet the
Minister for Water Resources about this.
Various organizations from Delhi, particularly
the people from the Delhi slums supported the
dharna and demands of the displaced people.
Ramdas Athavale, the president of the Republica
Party of India and a Member for Parliament, the
leader of the Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha, C.K.
Janu, the president of PUCL Rajinder Sachar,
senior social worker Swami Agnivesh, former
Commissioner for SC and ST Dr. B.D. Sharma, noted
writer-crusader Arundhati Roy, filmmaker Sanjay
Kak, senior lawyer Sanjay Parikh joined in the
dharna and expressed their solidarity.
Narmada Embroglio
About the continued Narmada tragedy, village
representatives made it clear the Union
government should not agree to the attempts to
increase the height of the Sardar Sarovar up to
121 meters, while there is no possibility of
resettling over 11,000 families affected by the
present height of 110.64 meters. The intervention
by the PMO led to the decision to have the
Minister of Waters resources and the Secretary,
Social Justice and Empowerment visit the valley
and assess the situation, before any permission
is granted. That has not happened till date,
while there is also much work undertaken on
identifying, allocating land to those entitled
to. Meanwhile, however, the Ministry for
Environment and Forests has granted permission to
raise the dam height from 110.64 to 121.92 meters.
The continued submergence resulted in loss of
crops, river-silting. Yet the people re there in
villages against all odds, snake bites, to impact
on health with hardly any service by the
government working. The corruption is rampant
resulting in purchase of bad lands and allotment.
Recently 37 officials in the Narmada Valley
Development Department, in Badwani, M.P. were
suspended. In the light of above all, the people
demanded that -
The M.P. state government must IMMEDIATELY stop
the process of cash compensation, and instead to
give people cultivable land and a house plot in a
developed R&R site. As per the Prime Minister’s
orders, the Minister of Water Resources, Mr.
Dasmunshi and the Secretary of Social Justice and
Empowerment Ministry, Mrs. Sarita Prasad are to
visit the Narmada Valley to personally judge for
themselves the situation of rehabilitation,
before the dam height is raised to 121 metres.
Entire list of families claimed to have been
rehabilitated to be made available in the public
domain and to all affected families and their
organizations, for them to comment on the same.
And the dam height NOT to be raised at this
stage, when thousands of families remain to be
rehabilitated below the height of 110.64 metres.
Latest Court Ruling: The Supreme Court ruling on
March 15, 2005 is a slap in the face of such
irresponsibility. The Court has ordered that even
those affected temporarily by Sardar Sarovar
Project at 110 mts would be entitled to
alternative cultivable land allotment by all
three states. The Court also ruled that each
adult son of Project Affected Family (PAF) would
be entitled to separate land allotments at
alternative sites in addition to the land
allotted to the PAF.
Raju Bhise Rajendra Ravi
Kamla Yadav Medha Patkar
March 16, 2005
To
Mrs Meira Kumar
Minister, Social Justice & Empowerment
Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi
Sub: Points agreed on in the meeting on March 16, 2005
Dear Madam,
We would like to thank you for meeting with us
today, and would merely like to reiterate that
the points agreed on by us today at the meeting:
1. The Secretary, Mrs Sarita Prasad to
visit all regions of the Sardar Sarovar Project
(SSP) affected areas of Narmada valley, certainly
including sub-mergence zone, resettlement sites
in all three states. Her plan to be kindly
informed to us 4 days in advance and for us to be
a part of it.
2. The illegal process of cash
compensation to be stopped right away in Madhya
Pradesh for those who are entitled to land and
house plots as per Narmada Award.
3. The process of ex-parte (one-sided)
land allotment to be stopped right away.
4. For there to be a proper monitoring
of all rehabilitation in all three states, not on
the basis of false and misleading Action Taken
Reports (ATRs).
5. Since there are 25,000 families in
the submergence zone under 121 metres, the dam
height must not be raised until each of these
families is justly rehabilitated.
Thank you and please do take appropriate action immediately.
Medha Patkar Yogini Ashish Mandloi
Ranya Daya Devram Kanera Kamla Yadav
o o o o
The Hindu - March 16, 2005
Slum-dwellers 'storm' Shastri Bhavan
By Our Staff Correspondent
DEMAND JUSTICE: The Narmada Bachao Andolan
leader, Medha Patkar, and Swami Agnivesh staging
a protest in New Delhi on Tuesday against the
demolition of slums in Mumbai and demanding
compensation to Narmada Dam oustees. - Photo: V.
Sudershan
NEW DELHI, MARCH 15. Medha Patkar,
environmentalist and social activist, today came
down heavily on the Congress for "suffocating to
death'' the very same people on whose votes the
party came to power in Maharashtra by demolishing
their slums in Mumbai and other metropolitan
cities.
Talking to reporters after "storming'' Shastri
Bhavan which houses office of the Social Justice
and Empowerment Ministry on Tuesday morning, Ms.
Patkar said that to recognise these lakhs of
toiling people as voters and yet immediately
after elections, deny them a place and position
even as resident citizen was utter deception. In
a memorandum submitted to the Minister, the
slum-dwellers, under the banner of Zhopadi Bachao
Sayunkt Kriti Samiti, said the demolition of
slums was a violation of the national common
minimum programme announced by the Congress
president, Sonia Gandhi, soon after assuming
power. It said the Vision Mumbai Plan was against
the disadvantaged sections favouring the
builders, corporates and the rich to whom the
land was allotted.
The displaced people demanded the stopping of
demolitions and protection of all slums and
houses built prior to 2000 with facilities for
development, besides transferring ownership of
land on which these hutments stood to the names
of the dwellers and execution of a low cost
housing scheme for the affected people. Over
90,000 families had been displaced in the recent
demolitions in Mumbai city, rendering about four
lakh people homeless and forcing about a lakh of
children out of school.
Ms. Patkar said thousands of acres of land had
been fraudulently misappropriated by the
builders' lobby by taking exemptions under the
Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act.
But, instead of constructing flats for the weaker
sections as a pre-condition for the permission
granted by the competent authority, huge
luxurious apartments had come up. There had also
been a very large and open flouting of Coastal
Regulation Zone notification, and laws have been
openly breached, she pointed out.
Narmada Bachao Andolan activists have urged the
Madhya Pradesh Government to stop raising the
height of the Sardar Sarovar dam in the wake of
today's Supreme Court judgment directing that
each major son of a family must be given two
hectares of land. The height of the dam is to be
raised from the present 110.64 metres to 121.92
metres but according to Ms. Patkar, there are
still over 10,000 families living in the
submergence area who need to be rehabilitated and
compensated in the wake of the apex court's
directions.
______
[4]
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 05:13:10 +0000
A MUSSOLINI, A HITLER, AND A NIEMOELLER
I.K.Shukla
Let me enter two caveats. One, I would not quote
the well and widely known lament of the
Protestant parson of Berlin-Dahlem, Martin
Niemoeller, interned in a concentration camp by
Hitler from 1937 to 1945. And, I wish I had not
written this piece.
As extenuation, I must admit, I had never
imagined Benito and Adolf would meet in India to
trump a Martin. Their incarnations in Bharat
assumed names like Modi, Advani, and Narayanan.
What comes out of ex-President K.R.Narayanan's
recent exposure of Atal-Advani-Modi conspiracy in
Gujarat ethnocide of 2002 is far beyond and much
more than his tactical silence then and the
resultant brutalities visited upon the hapless
Muslim minority in Gujarat during his watch. Some
salient issues pertaining to the state-sponsored
holocaust have gone unnoticed as if by default.
Narayanan, by failing to exercise his prerogative
of sacking Atal and Modi governments, aided the
desecration and violation of the Constitution. By
this one act of remissness and dereliction of his
presidential duty in discharging his statutory
responsibility, he grievously impaired and
tragically eviscerated the Constitutional
provisions guaranteeing protection to Indian
citizens of all faiths without any
discrimination. It was his unfortunate, and not
so fortuitous, contribution to making Indian
democracy a shell in so far as the protection of
minorities is concerned. By this one cynical act
he damned himself as a crass self-seeker (second
term), unworthy of the Nehruvian legacy which he
would have done himself and the nation proud by
defending and vigorously upholding. History would
not absolve him.
He expediently ignored Nehru's ringing words: "I
will fight till the last breath of my life all
those forces who will raise their hands against
anybody in the name of religion."
It was not just the minorities that Narayanan
thus threw to the wolves in saffron, he also
whittled and ignominiously wrecked the
Constitution for the benefit of a fascist party
which had, through its wanton and unbridled
terrorism, long disavowed any pretence to honor
it. Perhaps unwittingly, Narayanan provided the
BJP with statutory cover for its abetment and
approval of the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat.
Thus he made the Indian state - the federal
government - an active agent in the Gujarat
pogrom against Muslims launched by Hindu fascists
of the RSS gang.
If these appear harsh words, they may be. And,
they should be. The nation ill affords forgetting
another such muddled accommodation of fascism in
the Indian polity. It was JP Narayan who had
legitimacy and respectability conferred on a
rabidly communal and irretrievably fascist
combine like RSS by having its volunteers like
Atal and Lal Kishenchand inducted in the central
government as ministers! Glory days of Morarji
Desai saw Indian democracy battered into a
permanent cripple, thanks to JP. BJP honors him
by including his initials in its name. It is
disdainful of the real concerns of any janata,
Bharatiya or whoever. It is a sectarian, status
quoist party guarding the interests of
the traditionally privileged.
We should recall that there existed a tension
between President Zail Singh and PM Rajiv Gandhi,
the latter fearing that the former might resort
to his constitutional powers in scuttling or
sacking him. This very power Narayanan chose to
abnegate. At the end of the day he neither gained
the favor he expected from BJP-NDA, nor served
the cause of minorities, nor upheld the majesty
of the Constitution on behalf of the Indian
citizenry.
It is for this reason that it behooves the nation
never again to let the state fall to BJP. It has
demonstrated in Gujarat and Rajasthan what it
will do all over if ever returned to power.
Gutting the Constitution as a matter of principle
is its ideological imperative. It sought to do so
under the insidious cover of constitutional
revision. Next time around it will overturn it
with alacrity, never losing a day.
What this belated whistle-blowing on the criminal
conspiracy of Modi-Atal-AdVani in the cause of
Hindu Rashtra through massive terror of blood and
fire, through the handmaiden law and order
machinery, through state autonomy subverting the
Constitution, through a thoroughly terrorized
electorate voting criminals into power, shows is
the extreme vulnerability and utter bankruptcy of
the system of governance and mode of polity we
self-delusively call Indian democracy. Hindu
fascists proved how well they can sabotage and
squelch it.
The point to ponder is: a president, statutorily
installed and sworn to defend and uphold the
Constitution, can choose through connivance,
acquiescence, or feigned ignorance, to facilitate
and join forces with an unscrupulous PM and his
ideological cronies in dishonoring and
overturning it.
Given another chance, the Hindu fascists, with
the advantage of experience, will certainly and
speedily stage a coup, and destroy not just the
Constitution and rewrite it as the manifesto of
Hindu Rashtra committed to ethnic cleansing, but
also legally, and with the power of the state,
mandate massacre, gang-rape, arson, demolition of
homes, shrines and properties, and declare any
clamor for justice and inquiry into the mayhem
and pillage as treason punishable with death.
That this is not a wild fantasy became clear once
more when our Hitler gave another commendation to
our Mussolini. Now the BJP MLAS of Gujarat,
roundly rebuked, will not squeak or bleak too
loudly too soon. Those who are aliens and
inimical to democracy in their own party cannot
be expected to respect it in the case of the
nation. Fascist are not groomed for democracy,
nor do they give it a tinker's damn.
It is this threat, besides the tragedy of Gujarat
Carnage of 2002, that looms large on the Indian
horizon. Unless the democrats and secularists
realize the enormity of the danger - Hindu
fascism spreading its talons on India and
relentlessly destroying it as a nation and a
culture, India would be difficult to snatch back
from the brink of an abyss.
14 March 05.
_______
[5]
10 Mar 2005
Dandi trail leaves behind a tale of neglect
of both place and producer of salt
By Digant Oza
With action-replay of re-enactment of the famous
Dandi march the all time bestsaler name of
Mahatma Gandhi is to be marketed again by Indian
National Congress. Earlier it was Rajeev and now
his wife Sonia repeating the Mahatma's march from
Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi where Bapu defied the
salt law 75 years ago. However, it is interesting
to note that Dandi, in South Gujarat with the
population of 1226 Gujaraties, does not produce
salt anymore.
Deep in the Little Rann of Kutch of migrant salt
workers manufacture 70 percent of India's table
salt. The dictionary meaning of "Rann" is desert.
But this desert is not a send desert. It is a
vast area of arid land. Salt pan is known as
"Agar" in Gujarati and the workers are known as
"Agaria". Agarias remain illiterate from
generation to generation, because the whole
family stays in the desert for 8 months where
there is no facility for education.
These Agarias are deprived of safe drinking
water, health services, Education and Residential
facilities, even 75 years after Bapu struggled
for them. Pending a PIL Supreme Court has
nominated NGO like Ganatar to moniter the
implementation of the schemes to improve the
living conditions of Agarias.
It were Mahatma's bold, brisk steps that had set
the tone for the great Dandi march, shook the
British empire, and inspired generations of his
followers. Seventy-five years later, as a strife
torn world looks up to him again for inspiration,
a retake would probably leave the Mahatma with
fractured limbs, writes Times News Network.
For, all along the way from here to Dandi, where
he defied the law by making salt in 1930 -- the
route that the Congress wishes to retrace as a
mark of respect - is a picture of neglect. Right
from where it began, the 'Dandi Pul' here, to
Dandi in South Gujarat, hardly any memorial has
come up along the way.
All that remain are ruins and fond memories in
the hearts of old-timers whose lives he touched
en route. The All-India Congress Committee has
decided to retrace the Dandi march route from
March 12, beginning from the Sabarmati Ashram and
concluding at Dandi on April 6, with Congress
president Sonia Gandhi its chief patron,
scheduled to flag it off.
The 'Dandi Pul' could have been the bridge that
Gandhi walked when he left the Sabarmati Ashram
with a handful of 'satyagrahis,' pledging not to
return till the country was independent.
But, it leaves no imprint on the minds of the
people, lying in a ramshackle condition, reeking
of dung and muck and slums coming up menacingly
close. While renovation work on the bridge was
last carried out in the mid-90s, plans to develop
it into a tourist attraction are gathering dust
for years. In Raas village in Anand district,
94-year-old Maujibhai Patel recalls how he had
got together with other school children to pave
the road that Gandhi and other 'satyagrahis' took
through their village.
"He had a night halt here. For us, it was a great
moment," says Patel, who cannot hold back tears
as he looks at the stretch, now riddled with
potholes. Successive governments have only made
promises to lay the Dandi Yatra Marg.
If it were tears for Patel, for a localite in
Surat, the historic footpath on the banks of
river Tapi near the Ashwin Kumar railway bridge
in Varachha, through which Gandhi had entered
Surat during the march, proved to be fatal.
"He tried to get onto the bridge, lost his
balance on the footpath and fell into the river,"
says Surat city Congress president Sunil
Bhukanwala.
The local Congress has now written to Union
minister of state for railways Narain Rathwa to
repair the footpath along the Tapi. Further
south, time has wiped out the footprints that the
Mahatma had left on the sands of Dandi, a coastal
village, where he created history. A statue is
all that Dandi has to show to the world today
about the epoch-making moment, reports Times of
India.
Supply of drinking water is a major problem faced
by the workers and their families, Either the
water is supplied through covered canals or by
the tankers. Self-employed people get water by
tankers. They have to pay Rs. 300/400 per barrel
(200 lt. Capacity) and in seven working months
Agarias buy water worth Rs. 3000 against net
income of Rs. 16000.
As Gujarat Institute of Analytical Research
found, the government has done little for the
welfare of the salt pan workers in Gujarat. In
contrast, during the British rule trains brought
drinking water to salt pans, and schools did
exist.
In Independent India, the trains stopped chugging
inside the Little Rann and the school shut down.
Post Independence, it became known more as the
last resort of the Indian wild ass. Spread over
5,000 sq. km, the sanctuary has a fringe of 600
villages of 10 lakh salt pan workers and
subsistence farmers. All of them have been
completely neglected by Government after
Government of the Party which is now parading on
the roads of Gujarat to exploit the Goodwill of
Dandi March.
_______
[6]
D-504 Purvasha
Mayur Vihar 1
Delhi 110091
16 March 2005
In Mangalore recently, ideologues of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi
Sabha objected to "reservation on the basis of religion",
saying that reservations should not be extended to people from
religions other than Hinduism. This is a calculated distortion.
First, reservations for Scheduled Castes never had anything to do with
religion: they have always been aimed (such has been the claim,
anyway) at counteracting centuries of discrimination and oppression.
The ABPS itself says this, but only when it seeks to invoke the
blessing of the Supreme Court, which it otherwise treats with
disdain. Second, in India (and elsewhere too, but that is not the
point) both Islam and Christianity have caste-like hierarchies. There
are differences -- for example, "high" Muslims can eat together
with "low" ones without becoming ritually polluted as Hindus
would become in the same circumstances -- but it is scarcely an
accident that in the Madurai region, for example, Dalit Christians
see themselves as distinct from "high caste" Christians.
Every religion, then, has its Dalits. The stand of the supreme body
of the RSS is an admission, or perhaps a proud claim, that the
religion which it claims to represent has created and maintained the
most foul and noxious discrimination in all of human history.
"Only our wretches are so wretched as to need reservations,"
says this truly great defender of truly great injustice.
Mukul Dube
______
[7]
The Economic and Political Weekly
March 12, 2005
Book Review
Saffronisation and Indian Politics
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: An Omnibus -
(1) The Emergence of Hindu Nationalism in India
by John Zavos, 2000;
(2) The Saffron Wave
by Thomas Blom Hansen, 1999;
(3) The BJP and the Compulsions of Politics in India
by Christophe Jaffrelot and Thomas Blom Hansen, 1998;
OUP, New Delhi, 2004;
pp xxiii + 393, Rs 695.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manjari Katju
The omnibus on Hindu nationalism brings together
three works published in 1998, 1999 and 2000 that
examine the emergence, ideological underpinnings,
politics and support base of the Hindu
nationalist movement. What links the books
together is situating Hindu nationalism as a
discourse of modernity and the centrality of the
middle classes in its ideological growth. While
Zavos examines the ideological developments in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries that led
to the emergence of Hindu nationalism, Hansen
looks at the developments of the 20th century
that fortified it and Jaffrelot-Hansen in their
edited work concentrate on the politics of the
BJP in 1990s. While Zavos attributes centrality
to what he calls the colonial discourse of
'organisation', Hansen sees 'governance' and the
'politics of representation' as shaping Hindu
nationalism. Jaffrelot-Hansen identify
certain socio-political developments in
contemporary India as constituting some
compulsions which have shaped BJP's approach to
politics when in power. The books look at the
ideas and processes at work that brought Hindu
nationalism from the margins of Indian society to
a position of decisiveness, and how attempts are
made to hold on to positions of power and
influence through ideological adjustments and
shifts.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta in his introduction to the
volume situates the themes of the three books in
the context of some large questions raised by the
presence of Hindu nationalism. Mention may be
made in particular of the 'politics of
benchmarks' or the attempt at benchmarking Indian
identity that Mehta talks about as one of the
narrative strategies of Hindu nationalism. He
discusses Savarkar's conception of Hindu nation
and identity to elucidate this point and argues
that the very question: What is India? and other
related questions constitute nothing but a trap.
He points out the incompleteness and also the
dangers involved in the range of answers that can
be made as responses to such questions. It is
this benchmarking politics, which gives Hindu
nationalism its insidious form and also, puts at
risk some or the other section of the citizenry.
He argues that what India needs is not a new
conception of identity that emphasises
compositeness, etc, but a social contract between
Indians to acknowledge differences and evolve
means to deal with these differences of identity.
The omnibus would be a useful addition to the
library of scholars of Hindu nationalism and
Indian politics and history. The three books
which form the collection stand out for their
richness of detail placed in comprehensively
analysed frameworks and a broader political
context, first of colonialism and then of
independent India. While saying this I would like
to engage with one of Zavos's major
arguments followed by a comment on Hansen's
thesis.
Zavos calls for a distinction between Hindu
nationalism and communalism. This is important
according to Zavos because communalism is a
simple structure defined by an antagonistic
alignment whereas nationalism is something
multi-layered and complex, and which can be
categorised as an ideology. Communalism on the
other hand is not an ideology but rides on other
ideologies to extend itself. Therefore, according
to him, the development of Hindu nationalism as
an ideology needs to be 'divorced' from the
process of communalisation. There is no causal
link between them. Here I wish to make three
points:
(1) This distinction can be sustained only when
communalism is seen only as a form of
socio-political practice, with or without
continuity, for material gains, but it
immediately collapses when communalism is taken
also as an ideology. And, it needs to be said
here that communalism evolved not merely as a
politics for socio-political and economic
dominance, but also took shape as a coherent
ideology, a belief system that imagined a
community of co-religionists whose interests were
diametrically opposed to another community of
co-religionists. Not only this, but it went
further in imagining and propagating that the two
opposed communities constitute two separate
nations aligned antagonistically while sharing
the geographical space. It is here that
communalism (or communalisation) and Hindu
nationalism cannot be divorced. They share their
ideological ground-space. Theoretically, thus,
Zavos's argument does not seem very convincing.
(2) The second point I wish to make is that the
organisations which embodied Hindu nationalism
and the individuals who enunciated it
contributed, in a lesser or larger degree, in
communalising social relations and communal
violence and mobilisations. This indulgence in
what one can call communal propaganda and
violence is something, which again makes it
nearly impossible to historically delink Hindu
nationalism from communalism as Zavos would have
liked.
(3) Even if for the sake of argument one
separates communalism and Hindu nationalism, it
does not further our understanding of the
structure, origins and the consequences of Hindu
nationalism. Zavos's thesis on the emergence of
Hindu nationalism as centred round the discourse
of 'organisation' would have stood its ground
even without this distinction. It does not add to
the argument and remains a stagnant formulation.
While reading his book one gets the impression
that Zavos is projecting back the organisational
strength and ideological spread of present day
Hindu nationalism, and that Indian nationalism
and Hindu nationalism while competing for a
foothold among the middle classes were comparable
competitors. What needs to be emphasised here is
that in the selected period of study, Hindu
nationalism was in its formative years and both
politically and ideologically still a limited
force as compared to the Congress led national
movement, which had acquired a grip over the
middle classes and was beginning to develop a
mass base (whatever the limitations in its
efforts). Alongside, the Left forces since the
1920s, were becoming another formidable political
force. This status continued even after
independence when during the 1951-52 elections
the three main Hindu parties (Jan Sangh, Hindu
Mahasabha, Ram Rajya Parishad) could manage only
10 seats and 6 million votes between them,
whereas the communists got 23 seats with as many
votes, and the socialists, together with
Kripalani's KMP, gathered 21 seats. It is only in
the late 1980s that things begin to change. Zavos
has argued out the middle classness of Hindu
nationalism, but the middle class at that point
of time was very small as compared to today, and
as far as a mass base of Hindu nationalism is
concerned it hardly existed unlike today. Matters
were however different regarding the Congress.
The book over-magnifies the strengths of Hindu
nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries,
something historically inaccurate.
Moving on to Hansen, he places the Hindu
nationalist movement in broader discursive
formations and broader issues of identity that
emerged in colonial and independent India.
According to him Hindu nationalism has emerged
and taken shape not in the political or religious
realms, but in the broader realm of public
culture - the public space in which a society and
its constituent individuals and communities
imagine, represent and recognise themselves
through political discourse, commercial and
cultural expressions, etc. He calls Hindu
nationalism a 'conservative revolution' premised
upon and yet reacting against a larger democratic
transformation in post-colonial India. But what
also needs to be pointed out besides the role of
democratisation in the growth of Hindu
nationalism is that the latter has been
successful in appropriating the language of
democracy as a rule of the majority. It is this
appropriation, which has helped Hindu nationalism
in making inroads into a polity, which would not
throw away democratic governance for any other
kind of rule. In the deepening politicisation,
which Hansen has referred to, authoritarianism
has to wear the garb of democracy to establish a
social base, and Hindu nationalism has been able
to do precisely that. So, while Hindu nationalism
has come up because of the deepening of
democracy, it has been able to use the democratic
discourse, though a doctored version of it, to
its advantage. It has overemphasised the
'numbers' side of democracy while deliberately
suppressing the 'rule of law' side. Likewise, it
has overemphasised the 'majority' dimension, but
suppressed the 'changing nature of majority'
character of democracy. It has emphasised the
protection of an 'endangered' culture in a
democracy, but only a single monolithic culture
to the suppression of others. These issues also
need to be taken into account besides those
pointed out by Hansen to get a comprehensive
understanding of the successes of Hindu
nationalism in present day India.
A few words also need to be said on the
production of the omnibus. Such collections are
very useful as they bring together three or four
books in a single volume at an affordable price,
but it seems that OUP did not spare much
attention to the quality of this particular
omnibus. The binding is loose with pages falling
out especially in the first portion of the
omnibus. The print has a photocopy-like quality
and a smudged look with tiny blotches of ink
spilling out of alphabets. One glaring error is
missing pages, which made this reviewer borrow
Zavos's book from her university library to
complete the review. Pages 7 to 22 of the first
book are missing. Page number 6 is followed by
page number 183, 184,Š. 198 followed by page
number 23 - in the first book. This is
unpardonable, especially when coming from a
production house known for its intellectual and
production standards.
_____
[8]
>Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 06:41:07 +0100 (CET)
>
>Dear guests,
>
>I invite you to a panel, organized by Women's
>Federation of Quebec (Federation des Femmes du Quebec
>- FFQ), about stakes triggered by Muslim Civil Justice
>System based on Sharia in Canada.
>
>You can find more informations in the communiqué, and
>in an attached file to this message. I kindly ask you
>to copy and circulate this mail and invitation within
>your network.
>
>Many thanks in advance.
>
>
> Victoria Barzi
> Organizer of panel
> Tel. : (514) 876-0166 # 239
> Tel. : (514) 739-9405
> Télécop. : (514) 876-0162
> vbarzi at yahoo.fr
>
>
> (English follows)
>
>
>
>Please circulate this invitation within your network.
>
>
> " Sharia "
> And women's rights
> What are the stakes?
>
>The Women's Federation of Quebec (Federation des
>Femmes du Quebec - FFQ) organizes an information panel
>about stake triggered by Muslim Civil Justice System
>based on Sharia in Canada
>
> March, 17th , 2005
> From 19:00 pm to 21:00 pm
> Room Marie Gérin Lajoie
> University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM)
>
> 405 Ste-Catherine East (corner of St-Denis)
> Exit : metro Berri-Uqam
>
>Four speakers will inform the public and in particular
>the women in Quebec about their insights and their
>analysis, concerning threats of institutionalization
>of the Civil Justice System based on Sharia relating
>to women's rights. The FFQ will take a stand against
>such tribunals and will suggest actions in that sense.
>
>The guests speakers are :
> Mrs. Alia Hogben, Executive Director of
> Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW) ;
> Mrs. Andrée Coté, Lawyer, National Association
> of Women and the Law ;
> Mrs. Homa Arjomand, social worker and founder
> of the International Campaign " No Sharia " ;
> Mrs. Pascale Fournier, lawyer and SJD
> candidate at Harvard Law School.
>
>Mrs. Michele Asselin, President of FFQ, will chair
>this panel. This activity will be also animated by
>Mrs. Monique Simard, President of Alternatives's board
>of directors.
>
>The discussions will be held in English and French
>with simultaneous translations.
>
>A contribution of 5.00$ or more will be greatly
>appreciate.
>
>______________________________________________________
>
>Supported by : Alternatives
> Solstice
> Service aux collectivités
> d'Université du Québec a Montréal
>
>For more information, you can visit our web site :
http://www.ffq.qc.ca or call the FFQ at (514) 876-0166
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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
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