SACW | 22-26 March 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 22-26 March,  2005
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Bangladesh:  Aroj Ali Matubbor, the rustic rebel (Mahfuzur Rahman)
[2] Pakistan:
(i) A 'small' retreat for Shaukat or a 'great' leap for Qazi? 
(Editorial, Daily Times)
(ii) The mullahs are coming (Shafqat Mahmood)
[3] India: A Debate Among Men - Is the uniform civil code about 
secularism or gender justice? (Nivedita Menon)
[4] India: Integrating the Nation - Challenges for National 
Integration Council (Ram Puniyani)
[5] Bhagat Singh's mystique (Nirupama Dutt)
[6] India: Course in astrology opposed


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

[1]

The Daily Star - March 26, 2005

AROJ ALI MATUBBOR, THE RUSTIC REBEL
Mahfuzur Rahman

With his scraggly beard, the dark, gaunt man, clad in rumpled punjabi 
and pyjama, a fountain pen sticking out of his breast pocket, could 
very well be a teacher of Islamic education at the village maktab; 
his roughly hewn, sunburnt face, would place him in any number of 
other rural callings. But Aroj Ali Matubbor, primarily a farmer who 
had done stints as a land surveyor, was no ordinary villager. Behind 
that rustic exterior lay an extraordinary intellect and a remarkable 
human being. He is barely known in his own country, except among a 
handful of liberal intellectuals. This is unsurprising in a society 
that is not overly fond of people who ask awkward questions on 
matters of faith --matters thought to have been settled for eternity.

The man probably loved nothing better than to ask why. It is unclear 
where he got that often discomfiting habit from, but a tragedy in his 
adolescent years must have turned him on. His mother had died and an 
all too human desire to preserve her memory led him to have her 
photographed before the burial. This, the religious leaders of the 
village community declared, was a great sin for which there was no 
requital. They therefore refused to perform the janaza, the 
obligatory congregational prayer for a Muslim deceased before his or 
her burial. Why? Aroj Ali asked. Why should his mother, a devout 
Muslim, be deprived of the last prayer that was her due? His 
entreaties were in vain. His mother was buried without the janaza.

In other circumstances and places, the matter would probably have 
been resolved and his mother would have been given the customary 
janaza. But the incident was real enough for Aroj Ali. And he soon 
realised what happened to his dead mother was only a small reflection 
of the irrationality and obscurantism that pervaded the society. The 
custodians of religion in his native village never answered the 
agonising question he asked. That did not prevent him from asking 
some more questions. In fact, his propensity to inquire grew and 
spread. As he put it, " For eighteen long years after my mother's 
death, I strove hard to melt down certain blind religious beliefs 
with the heat of philosophy, poured the contents in the mould of 
science, and came up with a list of questions". These question were 
later elaborated in his "In the Quest for Truth", his most important 
little work. His questioning was often met with hostility: he was 
summoned before a court of law, the publication of his book was 
prohibited, and he was threatened with physical violence. But, the 
rebel that he was, he went on asking questions.

The range of his inquiry was large. On the other hand, the man never 
seemed to worry about finessing the formulation of his inquiry, or of 
its results, with the intellectual sophistication that comes 
naturally to philosophers of the same genre as his -- the 
rationalist-humanists of the west. He was more interested in spelling 
out some truths, including home truths, and cared little about a 
label for his thinking. And you could smell rural Bangladesh, his 
home and audience, in much of what he expounded. Consider the 
metaphor he uses: "Just as a hungry ox tears his tether and gorges 
himself on crops growing on other's land, so does the mind of man 
transcend the bounds of religion and rush to philosophy and science 
to relieve its hunger." One only wishes the Bengali propensity to 
reason and inquire were as strong as that.

The themes that his critical mind probes range from simple religious 
beliefs to biology and the theory of evolution, to notions of 
creationism, to physics and astronomy. It is, however, religious 
concepts and beliefs that occupies him the most. Is it true, for 
example, he asks, that the land as well as human effort in Bangladesh 
is less fruitful today than before -- there was less barkat, in 
parlance of ignorance -- because people do not any longer have 
religious faith, or iman ? If the answer is yes, as many 
'God-fearing' people believe it is, one needs to ask why then nations 
who have no iman at all, the infidels, are far more productive? Or, 
if it is true that a particular angel of God has been assigned to 
control the wind and the rain, why then do cyclones ravage 
Chittagong, mostly inhabited by Muslims? Had Aroj Ali lived today he 
would have asked how was it that the recent Asian tsunami wreaked 
havoc mostly in the Aceh province of Indonesia, which was almost 
entirely Muslim, and home to resurgent Islamic fundamentalism?

These are hardly teasers. They deserve serious consideration because 
they touch what Aroj Ali considers the heart of the matter: these 
beliefs and notions fail the test of reason. He does not flinch from 
extending the test to beliefs far more fundamental to religion. These 
include questions as diverse as the nature of being of God; what 
distinguishes Him from humans; the nature of His will; His kindness; 
Heaven and Hell; predestination; the duties of the angels; the ascent 
(the meraj ) of the Prophet Muhammad (SM) to the high heavens to meet 
with God; the supposed virtue in slaughter of animals; and a host of 
other ideas. It appears that there are no sacred cows in his scheme 
of thinking.

He shows how orthodox thinking falls short of a good answer to the 
questions he raises; it is also ridden with contradictions. To pick a 
few examples: in Islam, as in other religions, God has no shape or 
form. The non-corporal nature God makes it impossible for Him to sit 
or stand in the sense in which we use those words. Yet, in the holy 
books He is sometimes depicted as one sitting on his throne. How is 
one to reconcile the two irreconcilables? I am not sure whether Aroj 
Ali was aware of the following riposte to that question by Malik Ibn 
Anas, founder of the Maliki school of Islamic thought: "The sitting 
[God's] is well-known, its modality is unknown, belief in it is 
obligatory and questioning it is a heresy". But he was well aware of 
the broad argument, which has been repeated many times, and which of 
course has nothing to do with reason. Similarly, he asks, if God is 
omnipresent, why was it necessary for the Prophet to ascend the high 
heavens to meet with Him?

The critical questions that Aroj Ali often raises on certain facets 
of religion are not meant to mock or "hurt the religious sentiments 
of pious Muslims", the kind of allegation that has largely been 
responsible for a lack of critical thinking on religion. He is only 
calling for honest answers to what he considers legitimate questions. 
He also takes a critical view of received wisdom in other religions, 
making forays into the tale of Bhagwan Indra, the Ramayanic tale of 
the struggle between Rama and Ravana , where he unreservedly sides 
with the latter, and the mythology of gods in various religions. And 
he examines issues picked from religious beliefs with the same 
instrument of logic and reason as when he discusses what causes tides 
or lightning and thunder, always juxtaposing the scientific reasons 
behind natural phenomena and popular notions.

Neither does his critical examination of religious beliefs distract 
him from the social ills of his time. His brief discussion on hila 
marriage brings out the innate social injustice of the system that is 
weighed heavily against women. His discussions on baseless popular 
religious notions are often motivated by an urge to rid society of 
superstitions that have hindered social and economic progress.

Born in a remote village of Barisal to a poor farming family, Aroj 
Ali had no formal education. A self-taught man, he bought books 
whenever he could and begged and borrowed them when he could not. The 
spirit of inquiry led him to read everything he could lay his hands 
on. A tremendous thirst for knowledge drove him, and that too in a 
society where book learning is a privilege of a few, and hankering 
after the truth is limited to fewer still. It was therefore a fitting 
that he donated just about all he owned at the end of his life to 
build a public library in his village. Characteristically, he 
declared: "In my view, a library is far superior to a mandir, a 
mosque or a church"

Aroj Ali proved by his art of living that it is quite possible for an 
individual to live an honest life without necessarily having to bind 
oneself with the trappings of ritual dominated faith. He was a 
totally honest man as well as a self-made one. His dealings with 
fellow human beings in financial matters were above reproach. But his 
honesty extended well beyond that. In the final analysis, I believe 
his honesty lay in the utter congruity between how he reasoned and 
how he lived.

In the matter of his own death too he strove for a rare consistency 
of reasoning. The thought of death rarely fails to concentrate the 
mind. Its approach would also enfeeble the thinking in the most 
rational of individuals. Not so with Aroj Ali. He donated his corpse 
to Barisal Medical College. He also gave his reasoning, which was 
primarily that the body would be useful to the college as a teaching 
institution, while, in any case, it was unlikely to receive much 
respect from the religious establishment, if it were to be buried.

Aroj Ali Matubbor died nineteen years ago this month. Sadly, the 
forces of obscurantism that he was so ready to battle, have only 
gained in strength in our society over these many years. In his last 
will and testament there was a small wish: that his death anniversary 
be commemorated, humbly, with expenses met from the tiny trust fund 
he had set up. We ourselves do not need to be humble about it.


[ Notes: The quotations from Aroj Ali are from Collected Works of 
Aroj Ali Matubbor, (in Bengali), Pathok Shomabesh. 1993. Translations 
are mine. The Malik quote is from Majid Fakhry, Averroes: Ibn Rushd, 
His Life, Works and Influence. Oneworld. Oxford. 2001.]

______


[2]


(i)

The Daily Times - March 25, 2005

Editorial: A 'SMALL' RETREAT FOR SHAUKAT OR A 'GREAT' LEAP FOR QAZI?

The cabinet of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has caved in to mullah 
pressure and agreed to insert the religion column in the new machine 
readable passports. It has done so after much prevarication and 
vacillation in the last six months. Clearly, the spirit of Zia ul Haq 
still haunts the establishment in Islamabad. His son Ijaz ul Haq must 
be a happy man. We are reminded of the time in 1974 when ZA Bhutto 
apostatised the Ahmedis to appease the mullahs. Having got an inch, 
they then demanded a yard in 1976. So he banned alcohol and made 
Friday the weekly holiday. But, of course, that still didn't save him 
from their wrath. They didn't rest until their conspiracy to hang him 
had succeeded.
We know how the argument must have gone in the cabinet. A small 
minority probably argued that the issue certainly wasn't about 
religion; nor was it about the passport at all. It was about holding 
out against the mullahs and proving that the government believed in 
enlightened moderation and wasn't being hypocritical before the whole 
world. But the majority would have pooh-pooed this approach as being 
"idealistic" and "bad politics". The mullahs are rampaging, they 
would have argued, because they've latched on to this "non-issue" - 
take out the "non-issue" and you take out their sting.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. The mullahs will not rest until they have seen 
the back of General Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz and the likes of them 
in and out of government. The day before yesterday it was the 
blasphemy law. Yesterday it was honour-killings. Today it's the 
religion column. Tomorrow it will be peace with India. The day after 
it will be allegations of "secularism". And the day after the day 
after it will be allegations of selling out on the bomb. And so on, 
ad nauseum. One would have imagined that by now this would have been 
clear to General Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz. But it seems not. They 
are still being guided by the PML-Q wallahs and intelligence advisers 
with beards in their stomachs instead of on their faces.
This is another sad day for Musharraf's Pakistan. It only looks like 
a small retreat for Shaukat Aziz. But in fact it is a great leap for 
Qazi Hussain Ahmad.

______

(ii)

The New International - March 25, 2005

THE MULLAHS ARE COMING

Shafqat Mahmood

Some would say they are already here. They rule the Frontier and 
share half the government in Balochistan. Their leader Fazalur Rehman 
heads the opposition in the National Assembly and another leader, 
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, is making waves on the streets.

Their agenda permeates the establishment. Witness the turnaround on 
the religion column issue in the passport. While Gen. Musharraf never 
tires of playing up something called enlightened moderation, we have 
chosen to give in to the mullahs' demand. Billions already spent on 
software and in printing passport copies has gone down the tubes. 
Millions who have already got the new passport are in a quandary 
because they don't know whether it is valid or not.

The mullahs' political star is on the rise. They won the last 
bye-election in Malakand, which is supposed to be a PPP stronghold. 
All indications are that they will do exceedingly well in the local 
government elections in the Frontier and in parts of Balochistan. If 
the recent MMA rally in Karachi is any indication, they should do 
well there too.

As rallies go, this one was a winner. The Sindh chief minister has 
acknowledged a gathering of twenty thousand. Multiply this by at 
least three, if not more. If the mullahs are able to gather 
fifty-sixty thousand people in Karachi, they have done well. 
Meanwhile, the rally was a red rag to the bull, the dominant party in 
the city, the MQM.

The MMA tried to repeat the Karachi rally's success in Lahore on 
March 23. The results were not as good, but it did gather a sizeable 
crowd. What is more important, the MMA is the only opposition 
coalition risking a demonstration of street power. The ARD cancelled 
its public meeting on the same date because supposedly the ground was 
waterlogged. This may be partially true, but one suspects it also had 
difficulty gathering a decent crowd.

The mullahs have shown the ability to mobilise. They may not have the 
largest vote bank, but thanks to the madrassahs, street power is 
always available to them. This is a huge asset, given the history of 
Pakistani politics. We have often been ruled by un-elected 
authoritarian governments backed by the might of the state. The only 
place to challenge them is on the streets. The MMA seems to be the 
only entity capable of doing this these days. Whether it is serious 
in challenging the current status quo is another question.

The MMA is playing clever politics. It keeps pitching itself as the 
principal opposition to Gen. Musharraf while it has as much interest 
as the general in keeping the current political arrangement intact. 
It has a greater share of power than ever before in our history and a 
central role in politics. With the departure of Benazir Bhutto and 
Nawaz Sharif, its leaders have greater prominence and visibility. Why 
should it want to change this?

It is for this reason that the MMA has no sympathy with the 
PPP-PML(N) demand for early elections. It would rather wait till 2007 
and use the political space to further build its strength. It also 
has little desire to topple Gen. Musharraf, even if it could do that. 
Anything that changes the status quo would be an anathema to it.

Yet, the MMA's rhetoric is bold, and it keeps threatening to bring 
this house of cards down. It is a clever game plan: run with the hare 
and hunt with the hounds. Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur 
Rehman are astute politicians. They would milk every situation of as 
much political advantage as they could, but without disturbing the 
status quo.

These million-man marches serve many purposes. They mobilise the MMA 
rank and file and keep them happy and charged. They give the 
impression to the public that this coalition is the only serious 
opposition. And the government gets intimidated enough to allow the 
mullahs to extract personal or policy concessions.

Our partnership with United States in the 'war against terror' is 
playing beautifully into their hands. With every atrocity in Iraq or 
Western pressure on Muslims in other parts of the world, the MMA star 
rises. It may tacitly collaborate with the government, or at least 
have some commonality of interest with it. Yet, its anti-American and 
anti-Musharraf rhetoric gives the impression that it is the only 
pro-Muslim and genuinely nationalistic political opposition in the 
country.

Let us face it; the Mullahs are the only ones who have a political 
issue that resonates with the people today. They articulate the anger 
of the ordinary Pakistanis against American aggression in Iraq or our 
disgust at the treatment of Palestinians by the Israelis. Both the 
mainstream parties, the PPP and PML(N), are careful not to antagonise 
the Americans. The MMA has no such compunctions. In fact, it relishes 
the opportunity to sock it to them, knowing full well that this 
enhances its political stature.

Every era has its core political issue and the party that captures it 
goes on to fame and fortune. The Sixties in Pakistan saw a sharpening 
of class distinction and a feeling that the few were getting rich at 
the expense of the many. Along came Bhutto and the PPP, talking of 
food, clothing and shelter for the poor and generally abusing the 
rich. It created a storm of political awakening and carried Bhutto to 
power.

Unlike the Sixties, when there was a political vacuum in the country, 
the situation now is different, because a great deal of political 
space is occupied by the PPP and the PML(N). Yet, these mainstream 
parties do not have an issue that turns the people on. They can abuse 
Gen. Musharraf, but that alone is not good enough. There has to be 
something that catches the imagination of the people.

The MMA articulates the frustration felt by ordinary Pakistanis, and 
not all of this may translate into votes, but there is little doubt 
that the mullahs have arrived. They are serious political players and 
may well be the principal contenders for power in the next election.

Gen. Musharraf and the military have done their bit in smoothening 
the terrain for the mullahs. Their anti-PPP and -PML(N) campaign has 
helped the mullahs enormously. Just one particular fact would 
demonstrate the government's bias. If the graduation clause had been 
strictly enforced, very few mullahs would have made it to the 
assemblies. This concession was specially given to bring them in.

Maybe the desire was to create a bogey to scare the Americans, but it 
has succeeded beyond anyone's imagination. The mullahs are now a 
genuine political force, and they mean business. If the general truly 
wants moderate and enlightened parties to come up in Pakistan, he 
should seriously consider allowing Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and 
Shahbaz Sharif back. Otherwise the mullahs have an open field to 
score as many goals as they want to. And they will.


______


[3]

The Telegraph - March 23, 2005

A DEBATE AMONG MEN
- Is the uniform civil code about secularism or gender justice?
Nivedita Menon

As a feminist, one should have lost the capacity to be even mildly 
surprised by the workings of the world, but I am glad to report that 
several things about the Telegraph debate managed to intrigue me. To 
begin with, the topic - "To be truly secular India needs a uniform 
civil code." Why? Is the issue of the uniform civil code about 
"secularism" (the relationship between religious communities and the 
state), or about "gender-injustice" (the constitutionally enshrined 
inequality between men and women)?

The fact is that all laws on marriage, inheritance and guardianship 
of children discriminate against women. They are discriminated 
against differently by the different religious laws, but every single 
one of the religious personal laws discriminates against women. 
Surely the issue of the uniform civil code should be debated as 
"India cannot claim to be truly gender-just as long as discriminatory 
personal laws exist"? Unless of course, the debate is conducted 
exclusively among men who define secularism as the equal right to 
discriminate against women - if we can't have four wives, then 
neither should they. (Feminists have, of course, long suspected this 
to be the case.)

Biologically speaking, it very nearly was a debate among men, 
Vasundhara Raje being the sole woman among eight participants. Along 
the lines of political affiliation, we get two voices from the 
Congress (Mani Shankar Aiyar and Salman Khurshid), four from the 
Bharatiya Janata Party (Vasundhara Raje, Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley 
and Seshadri Chari), one member of the All India Muslim Personal Law 
Board (Syed Shahabuddin) and one independent (Fali Nariman). Not a 
single voice from the women's movement, different strands of which 
have been raising this question, in different ways, for nearly sixty 
years, from as long ago as 1937.

Then, of course, the obsession with uniformity. Each religious 
community is a heterogeneous one, and "Hindu" and "Muslim" practices 
differ widely from region to region of India, from sect to sect. Some 
of these practices are better for women than others, and making them 
all "uniform" is not only not a solution to gender-based injustice, 
it is not even a viable option - what is the uniform standard that 
will be adopted? The attempt to bring about uniformity has never 
worked well for women. The Hindu code bills, passed in 1955 and 1956, 
did not reform Hindu personal laws, they merely codified them, that 
is, brought them into conformity with what was assumed to be the 
"Indian" norm - north Indian, upper-caste practices. Other practices 
were explicitly characterized during the debates in parliament as 
being un-Indian.

Several scholars have shown that ending the diversity of Hindu law as 
it was practised in different regions destroyed existing, more 
liberal provisions for women in many cases. Nor did this process give 
women equal rights to ancestral property. Four states have carried 
out legislation separately to ensure this, but the rest of the women 
of India are less equal than their brothers. When the possibility of 
equal property rights for women was being discussed in parliament 
during the passage of the Hindu Code, M.A. Ayyangar burst out with 
"May God save us from having an army of unmarried daughters." He had 
got it right of course - the only way to save patriarchal 
arrangements is by keeping women property-less and dependent on 
fathers, brothers and husbands. At least he was honest about it, 
unlike our suave 21st-century patriarchs.

Further, the Hindu Guardianship Act, one of the four acts that 
constitute the Hindu Code, introduced a new principle that was to 
apply to Hindus alone, despite the fact that there already existed a 
law of guardianship, the Guardians and Wards Act, that covered all 
communities. The principle was that, in the case of Hindus, the 
father was to be seen as the "natural" guardian, while the existing 
secular provision recognized as guardian the parent looking after the 
child. Later, another little lollipop for Hindu men - the only 
secular law on marriage, the Special Marriage Act, was amended to 
exclude Hindu men from its more gender-just property provisions, and 
to give them the protection of the Hindu Succession Act.

Narendra Modi holds that "secularism" in India means "appeasement of 
minorities". Pardon me for thinking it means "appeasement of men". 
(The report also tells us he drew applause from the audience for the 
astute observation that "the Muslim who goes to the United States of 
America must practise the civil code there". Yes of course, and the 
US-based Hindu funders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's anti-minority 
agenda in India make a very clear case for minority rights in the US 
- for the right to build Hindu temples, celebrate Hindu festivals and 
to contest elections. Strange are the ways of the diaspora!)

Let me reiterate that this is not a defence of the existing personal 
laws. There is nothing primordial or pristinely apolitical about 
these laws. The personal laws being defended in the name of religious 
freedom are colonial constructions of the 19th and 20th centuries. 
The Hindu Code in 1955 merely completed the process of congealing a 
"Hindu" identity, begun in the 19th century, by defining as "Hindu" 
anyone who is not Muslim, Christian or Parsi. That is the official 
definition of Hindu in this country - if you are not this, that or 
the other, you are Hindu, despite your protestations to the contrary. 
Similarly, the Shariat Act of 1937 fixed the boundaries of the 
"Muslim" community, while earlier, customary laws had been widely 
followed.

The following of heterogeneous practices need not be inherently 
unegalitarian, nor the imposition of a uniform law necessarily the 
opposite. The women's movement, since 1937, has evolved several 
different strategies and suggestions to bring about gender-justice. 
For one thing, ever since the hijacking of the demand for a uniform 
civil code by the Hindu right, the focus now is on gender-just laws. 
The women's movement supports initiatives within communities to bring 
about reforms, so that the rights of women do not become a casualty 
to the fear of minority communities that the reform of personal laws 
is only a pretext for eroding their identity in this sharply 
polarized polity. It is not a paradox that some Islamic states have 
managed to reform laws in the interests of women. When a minority 
community is threatened with annihilation, the obvious response is to 
close ranks. It is when a community is confident that it can afford 
to be self-critical.

Feminists point out that the term, uniform civil code, has become 
synonymous in the public mind with reform of what are understood to 
be barbaric Islamic customs. The focus is never on protection of 
economic rights of all women in marriage and upon divorce. Therefore, 
another women's movement strategy is to try to bring about 
legislation on matters not currently covered by personal laws, such 
as the right to matrimonial property and against domestic violence. 
There also exist several versions of an ideal common civil code, if 
such a code could be put in place as an option for Indian citizens 
who do not wish to be covered by religious personal laws.

The Telegraph motion was carried, we are told. But when the most 
vociferous proponents of a uniform civil code are the likes of 
Narendra Modi, who personally presided over the massacre of Muslims 
in Gujarat, and Arun Jaitley, who stoutly defended it in every forum, 
it does not take much political acumen to realize that it is not 
women's rights that are on the agenda.

The author is reader in political science, Delhi University


______


[4]

Issues in Secular Politics-March 2005

INTEGRATING THE NATION: CHALLENGES FOR NATIONAL INTEGRATION COUNCIL

Ram Puniyani

  One of the major positive steps taken by the current
  UPA Govt. (Feb.-March 2005) is its constitution of
  National Integration Council (NIC). This significant
  and major step is appreciable, more so due to the
  fact that the previous BJP led NDA did not bother to
  constitute it during its tenure. NIC was first
  constituted in the wake of 1961 Jabalpur communal
  riots. Coming in the aftermath of massive communal
  violence which took place due to the partition
  tragedy, the Jabalpur riots came as an eye opener
  that all is not well on the front of National integration
  and special efforts need to be put in to see the
  Nation, Indian nation, comes up as a Fraternity,
  (community), the essential part of the trio of
  democratic Nation states, Liberty, Equality and
  Fraternity, the slogan of French revolution, which
  became the core of democratic values and movements
  all over.

  That a nation state in modern times is based on a
  community, national community, needs a deeper
  understanding more so in the times when the religion
  based nationalism is rearing its head not only in
  different post colonial states but the streaks of it
  can be discerned in the older democracies like the
  one US itself. It is ironical that one has to talk
  about national community at a time when World is
  shrinking into a global village and the process of
  globalization is integrating the world community as
  never before. Ideally one should take the various
  identities of community as the ideal to celebrate.
  One can have communities on different mutually
  supplementary grounds. Most of these communities do
  overlap and bring in a mosaic, which is the ground
  for celebration in plural societies. These pluralities
  are also not rigid and do keep intermixing, unless of
  course vested political interests put spanners in
  the process and reverse this by perpetuating violence
  and  cause fractures in the concepts of intercommunity
  amity.

  India has been a plural society from times
  immemorial. pluralities have added richness to its life in
  all arenas of its life, be it food, music, attires,
  architecture, literature and to cap it all, the very
  arena of spirituality itself. One recalls that Dara
  Shikoh, the Prince who was killed by his brother
  Aurnagzeb, in the game of power, not unusual in the
  court of kings, wrote a beautiful book, Majma Ul
  Baharyn, which celebrated the interaction of Hindus
  and Muslims in all aspects of their lives. The
  British the seeds of communalism, as understood today,
  to use the religious identity for political
  mobilization of the elite. This communal politics
  creates the hysteria around religious symbolisms and
  that is the vehicle for the vested interests to
  wrest the power. The integrating identities started
  betting setbacks due to British machinations, well supported
  by the declining sections of society, landlords and
  clergy of both the religions. It is the British
  policy of divide and rule, which promoted the Hindu and
  Muslims communalisms, Muslim League and Hindu
  Mahsabha, RSS. Different ideologues did come up to
  provide the ideological base for a Muslim state or a
  Hindu nation. Of the two concepts of Nation hood,
  The first was the one based on geographical boundaries
  And  the notion of equal citizenship for all, the concept
  of composite nationalism, one nation theory. The
  second one asserted that being a part of a nation
  was due to one's religion, and people belonging to one
  religion constitute on nation, two nation theory
  followed by Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha, RSS.
  During freedom struggle the Indian people kept away
  from these elite political streams, which were
  back up by the British policies. These streams started
  pouring poison against the 'other', and this 'Hate
  other' went into take recourse of distorted
  presentation of History and most other facets of
  life to create animosity amongst people on the grounds of
  religion.

  These two kept clashing and finally the referee, the
  British did the goal for the religion based
  nationalisms and the partition tragedy drowned the
subcontinent in the rivers of blood. The memories of
  this trauma, which was to become the part of the
  conscience of the country kept haunting in a
  menace way. The victims of the violence resulting during
  that period, often started blaming the 'other' community'
  for a phenomenon which essentially was engineered by
  the vested interests. The progressing Indian nation
  carried its march and the process of building of the
  modern nation state did oppose the communalization
  of the society to some extent.


  The understanding that communal ideologies will die
  their natural death proved to be wrong many times
  over. Hate does transform in to violence and the
  violence breaks the intercommunity bonds. The
  teachings in schools did not help the matters much.
  The British mischief introduced through education
  continued and was duly supplemented by the
  propagande communal organizations. The dynamite lay on the
  streets; the lighting of this was easy enough.
  That's began with Jabalpur and kept going on. There
  were periods when it appeared as if it is reduced in
  intensity. After a lapse of time communal
  organizations started becoming assertive and
  powerful.
  Many an opportunist politicians used it for their
  narrow goals. Programmatic communalism of Sangh
  combine got indirect support from the opportunist
  pragmatic communalists. The overall result has been
  to create a gulf between religious communities, which
  now  is assuming dangerous proportions. Anti Sikh riots
  were anther sore point in this painful trajectory,
  which has also left undeliable scar on the body
  politic of the nation.

  National integration council did try some measures
  To assuage this pain, but seems it was not adequate
  enough. In a way the coming to power of BJP led
  coalition itself symbolized inadequacy and failure
  of the efforts of NIC in the times immediately
preceding. There was no question of BJP constituting the
  NIC as NIC stands for Indian Nation and BJP, this
  political child of RSS is striving for Hindu nation,
  which according to their ideology, has been polluted
  by the invasion of Muslims and Christians. These two
  have been regarded as foreigners. So the task of BJP
  was to purify the Nation for Hindus, to sanitize the
  country! The aim of this politics of Hindu nation
  has been to Indianize the Muslims, to co-opt them, for
  the project of Hindu nation where the position of those
  who are not Hindus, will be at best that of
  second-class citizens, where they will have to keep
  passing the loyalty test on regular basis.

  In a way the failures to promote the values of
  Indian nationhood at deep level is what has been the real
  cause of communal violence, violence using the
  identity of minority religions as the objects of
  hate and than their intimidation and extermination.
  Gujarat should not have been a surprise. If so much hatred
  Is  sowed, what do we expect out of that? If the
  volunteers called swaymasevaks are spreading the
  Hate ideology through the word of mouth, Ekal schools,
  And Saraswati Shishu mandirs and through the helpful
  section of media, what else can be the outcome?
  Gujarat in that sense cannot be called as an
  exception. All over the country there are numerous
  places where Gujarat is waiting to happen. Violence
  begins from the mind. Rumor Spreading Society is
  relentless in its work, supplemented by other
  mechanisms. Today the only lesson Gujarat has taught
  us is that in its logical trajectory, the hate
  ideology will lead to total physical and emotional
  separation of communities. The 'Mini Pakistan's',
  'borders'. 'Gaza strips' are mushrooming. In a
  cosmopolitan place like Mamba while the global IT is
  ruling the roost, a Muslim cannot buy a property in
  a 'Hindu housing colonies', getting a house on rent
  for the people belonging to 'wrong religion' is out of
  question. Situation is much worse in Gujarat and not
  much different in different parts of the country The
  six year rule of BJP at center made the matters
  worse, but what is being done to rectify the broader
emotional secessionism, what is being done to end
  the mentality which creates mini Pakistan's? Will a mere
  attempt to bring sanity to a section of textbooks
  will do? The question requires broader response and NIC
  has  to take the bull by the horns.

  What is the attitude of large sections of our civil
  servants in such situations? To sit back and side
  with  the perpetrators of violence, keeping the rulebooks
  in  the freezers? What is the section of teaching
  community doing? Is it aware that some times
  consciously sometimes unconsciously it is
  aggravating divide by sowing the wrong seeds in young minds?
  The author of these lines was pained to note that
  Even  one place which talks of Dalit empowerment the
  Muslims participants of a harmony workshop had to be
  lodged in rooms which were sufficiently distant from
  the rooms of women participants! And what about a
  section of our media? What does it keep dishing out
  as  regular fare, the hashed up myths and stereotypes,
  which boost the already prevalent community divides.

  It is not enough that the NIC has been constituted.
  It  has to address the issue in a holistic manner. All
  The  facets, which have a potential of discord need to be
  taken up in right earnest and the holes sealed to
  ensure not just that the communal riots do not take
  place, but to ensure that a national community in
  the global context comes up. Diversity becomes the point
  of celebration, and mostly the mosaic of pluralism
  gives birth to norms, which do not recognize the
  religious boundaries. Already one has been hearing
  about NIC being constituted, the need is that it
  announces its program of building of an 'Indian'
  Nation, taking care of all the nuisances, which have
  been resulting in Anti Sikh pogrom, Gujarat carnages
  and the likes. Only an Indian nation can surge
  forward  give social, economic and gender justice, the
  goal close to the aspirations of the suffering masses.

______


[6]

The Tribune - March 23, 2005


BHAGAT SINGH'S MYSTIQUE
by Nirupama Dutt

A given date in the unending cycle of time suddenly takes on the name 
and face of an event. The date March 23 has been significant at 
different times and at different places. On March 23, 1708, Patrick 
Henry, an advocate of the American Revolutionary War, delivered the 
famous speech "Give me liberty or give me death" in Williamsburg, 
Virginia. On March 23, 1903 Wright Brothers applied for a patent on 
their invention of the first successful airplane after much hard 
work. In India on March 23, 1931, patriots Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and 
Raj Guru went to the gallows in Lahore Central Jail for freedom of 
the country from British rule.

This year the martyrdom of these three revolutionaries enters its 
75th year and two years from now it will be the Bhagat Singh 
centenary. Among the many who laid down their lives for the freedom 
of the country, Bhagat Singh stands out as the unique hero whose life 
and image have always given strength to those fighting for justice 
across linguistic barriers.

His most famous photograph remains the one with the hat taken at a 
studio in Chandni Chowk 1929 where he is seen in the very garb that 
belonged to those whom he was fighting. Go to any corner of the 
country, be it down south, far east or west and, of course, in the 
North and this image still remains the most favourite of posters, 
calendars and other popular art.

So moving is this image that its magic always works. In fact, Bhagat 
Singh stands out from among his contemporaries because of his zest 
for life and the courage to lay it down for his ideals at the age of 
23. Also, it is rare to find someone so young thinking, writing and 
speaking with such clarity and vision.

This is a day when social and political activists all over the 
country gather to commemorate the martyrdom and seek strength to 
fight for just causes. While Left-wing activists in Punjab will 
gather at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of the patriot, to pay 
tributes, a mammoth rally takes place at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi 
on this day.

Theatre activist Shamsul Islam, who is participating in the rally 
with street plays based on the life of the martyr, says, "The 
favourite song of Bhagat Singh - Mera Rang de Basanti Chola - still 
has the power to bring tears to the eyes of the people. It is in his 
context that the slogan of Inqlab Zindabad does not sound hollow."

Even though the Lahore Central Jail has been demolished to make way 
for a colony, the love for Bhagat Singh is shared equally on the 
other side of the fence. It came as a surprise recently when Munib 
Sultan, a singer from Sanewal in West Punjab, broke into a ghodhi of 
Bhagat Singh at a concert in Delhi. Ghodhi is a Punjabi word for 
wedding songs sung from the boy's side and the ghodhis to this 
patriot were dirges that women of Punjab sang out in the streets to 
protest against his execution. These are still sung even in Pakistan.

A few months ago a young theatre director of the Punjab Lok Rah 
theatre group of Lahore, Shoaib Iqbal, was in Delhi with a play 
called Sidq that was based on the life of Bhagat Singh. Talking of 
the theme Shoaib said: "Bhagat Singh was a hero of the masses. For 
Pakistanis, he is no longer a hero. They have forgotten his legacy. 
We want to tell people that although he was a Sikh, he can still be a 
role model for the Muslim community.7"

The image of Bhagat Singh has always guarded the memory of courage 
struggle and sacrifice. Christopher Pinney, a senior lecturer in 
Material Culture, University College, London, says thus: "Bhagat 
Singh's popular appeal was, and still is, enormous and this is 
usually presented as an intriguing anomaly. Jawaharlal Nehru's is 
usually cited noting Bhagat's 'sudden and amazing' popularity." 
Bhagat Singh has been the subject of chromo-prints since 1931 and 
from 1954 to 2002 as many as seven popular films have been made on 
his life. The year 2002 saw the release of three films on this theme.

Jagmohan Singh, Ludhiana-based nephew of Bhagat Singh, who has 
preserved the legacy of the patriot on a website says, "I am 
currently gathering and reading the books that Bhagat Singh used to 
read to see what gave him strength. He was a voracious reader. His 
favourite authors were Upton Sinclair, Ema Goldman and Jack London."

And Bhagat Singh in a letter to his comrade B.K. Dutt, written from 
the Lahore Central Jail in November 1930, envisions the role that his 
comrades who escape death can play: "I will climb the gallows gladly 
and show to the world as to how bravely the revolutionaries can 
sacrifice themselves for the cause. I am condemned to death, but you 
are sentenced to transformation for life. You will live and, while 
living, you will have to show to the world that the revolutionaries 
not only die for their ideals but also live to face every calamity."

Such is the legacy of this young man that history has passed onto 
legend. He is not just a man but a metaphor for all that is pure, 
sacred, just and brave. And so he lives and will live on in the 
collective memory of a people.

______


The Hindu - March 24, 2005

Kerala - Kollam    
Course in astrology opposed

By Our Staff Reporter

KOLLAM, MARCH 23. The Bharathiya Rationalists Association has 
protested against the decision of the Sree Sankaracharya University 
of Sanskrit to start a postgraduate course in astrology. In a 
statement here, the general secretary of the association, Sreeni 
Pattathanam, said that such a course would only serve to lead the 
younger generation into the dark ages. He even wondered whether there 
was a conspiracy behind such a decision.


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