SACW | 27-29 March 2005

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   | 27-29 March,  2005
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] India-Pakistan: Marching to peace (Praful Bidwai)
[2] Pakistan: Struggle for provincial autonomy - 
Balochis fight back ( M B Naqvi)
[3] Pakistan: Judges putting religion above 
Constitution: Asma Jahangir (Waqar Gillani)
[4] Sangh Parivar's increasing belligerence 
towards minorities in BJP-ruled Rajasthan (T.K. 
Rajalakshmi)
[5] India: Soul of the Sangh - An interview with 
Christophe Jaffrelot (Ronojoy Sen)
[6]  Announcements: New Books and Upcoming events
(i)  "Survival and Emancipation: Notes from 
Indian Women's Struggles" by Brinda Karat
(ii)  "Are Other Worlds Possible? - Talking New 
Politics" Eds. Jai Sen and Mayuri Saini
(iii) Public Forum : The Gujarat Genocide - A 
barbaric and planned tragedy (London, 5 April 
2005)


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

[1]


The News International, March 26, 2005

MARCHING TO PEACE
New citizens' initiatives are afoot, which could 
significantly boost the India-Pakistan peace 
process

by Praful Bidwai

The past ten days have witnessed two events that 
could significantly transform the shape of the 
India-Pakistan peace process. The first was the 
inauguration in New Delhi on March 17 of an 
exhibition based on the Jammu & Kashmir 
Liberation Front's leader Mohammad Yasin Malik's 
two years-long campaign to demand the inclusion 
of the Kashmiri people in the India-Pakistan 
dialogue.

And the second was the flagging off on Wednesday 
of a citizens' joint march from Delhi to Multan 
to highlight the case for peace and celebrate the 
composite culture that India and Pakistan share 
via the Sufi tradition. The march retraces Hazrat 
Nizamuddin Aulia's journey circa 1257 from Delhi 
to Ajodhan and Multan to meet Baba Farid, the 
great Sufi saint-poet.

Both events have the potential to galvanise 
public opinion. At stake here is not just a 
limited concept of peace as the absence of war, 
but a durable peace based on a meeting of minds. 
The two developments must be welcomed without 
reservation.

Yasin Malik did something unusual, indeed unique, 
when he began a walking tour of major towns and 
some 5,000 villages in Indian Kashmir, with a 
one-point agenda: a signature campaign. The 
one-line statement demanded that "we, the 
Kashmiri people" must be seriously involved in 
the India-Pakistan dialogue, purportedly 
undertaken to resolve all disputes, including 
Kashmir.

Malik has collected some 1.5 million signatures 
or thumb impressions of people, with names and 
addresses -- something completely unprecedented 
in the state, which has long suffered a 
compression and distortion of the political 
process under the rule of the gun.

Malik's march, which covered all three regions of 
J&K, barring the districts which he wasn't 
allowed to visit for security-related reasons 
(like Uri and Poonch), succeeded in putting a 
positive agenda before the people, one that 
counters the negation-driven slogans that have 
dominated the Kashmir Valley for 15 years amidst 
violence both of the state and separatist jehadi 
militants once supported by Pakistan.

The affirmation of a Kashmiri identity cutting 
across religious, regional and ethnic divides is 
itself welcome. Even more welcome is the language 
of peace and the Gandhian mould of activism in 
which the march is embedded. However, two things 
impart Yasin Malik's initiative a very special 
significance. It comes just when India and 
Pakistan have for the first time ever seriously 
pledged themselves to discussing the Kashmir 
issue.

There is a sweet irony about the nature of this 
bilateral dialogue. The more progress India and 
Pakistan make in the dialogue, the weightier will 
the case become for taking the process beyond the 
bilateral framework! The absurdity of resolving 
the Kashmir issue without consultation with and 
participation of the Kashmiri people will become 
increasingly evident.

Democratic principle, as well as elementary 
requirements of fairness and justice --namely, 
voice and representation -- dictate that the 
Kashmiri people must be involved at some point of 
time in a discussion of their fate.

Yasin Malik, a former militant who announced a 
unilateral ceasefire a decade ago when the JKLF 
was being targeted by all other armed groups and 
state agencies, has had the foresight to see that 
the ground for the Kashmiri people's involvement 
must be prepared right now. The Kashmiris must 
assert themselves and start thinking creatively 
about a just and peaceful solution to the issue 
over which two and a half wars have been fought 
-- in their name. Only then will some imaginative 
solutions emerge, as well as rudimentary 
structures and forms of association, through 
which their involvement could be brought about.

The second worthy aspect of Malik's overall 
initiative is that it's not confined to Kashmir, 
although the march itself was. Rather, he wants 
to take the Kashmiri people's message to the 
Indian and Pakistani publics and policy-makers.

The two-day exhibition in Delhi was only the 
first step in the larger process. It was 
nevertheless important. Malik's audience included 
Pakistan's High Commissioner and his deputy, as 
well as a former Indian foreign secretary, 
numerous political leaders, civil society 
activists and intellectuals. The gathering also 
included P.N. Dhar, former top-ranking civil 
servant and Indira Gandhi's aide during the 
Shimla conference of 1972.

Malik's exhibition, and the activities organised 
around it, mark a major step forward in the 
growing, empathetic, interaction between Kashmiri 
civil society and political groups, and their 
counterparts in the rest of India.

This conversation is relatively recent. But its 
importance cannot be overemphasised. Nothing like 
it existed during the worst phase of violence in 
Kashmir, or even until a couple of years ago, 
when the first signs of a thaw appeared. Rather, 
mutual apathy, and even suspicion, dominated such 
limited civil society interaction as existed. The 
process must be extended to the rest of India and 
to Pakistan as well.

The effects of this new interaction are already 
becoming evident at the political level, with 
their focus on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus. 
While conservatives within the National 
Conference, led by Farooq Abdullah, have joined 
hands with the BJP in voicing reservations over 
the bus, the majority strongly roots for it.

Omar Abdullah, refuting his father, demands that 
India and Pakistan "should do a lot more to 
sustain the goodwill and the 'feel-good' 
atmosphere" the trans-LoC bus has generated: "It 
needs to be a big bus and a daily service. 
Travellers should not switch the buses and cross 
the LoC on foot. A big concrete bridge should be 
constructed ...let them ply a fortnightly service 
for six months but for God's sake, let them make 
a commitment of making it a daily-service, or 
otherwise it will boomerang."

The Delhi-Multan peace march is an excellent 
idea. But its success will depend on whether the 
two governments cooperate by granting visas to 
the marchers. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz 
recently received a delegation of them and 
offered to be generous in granting visas to the 
Indian contingent.

At the time of writing, New Delhi had still not 
acted on its promise to give visas to the 
proposed 40-strong Pakistani contingent. (Three 
of them are in Delhi: A.H. Nayyar, physicist, 
peace activist and able dissector of prejudice in 
Pakistani school textbooks, Irfan Mufti, and 
Muqtida Ali Khan.)

The Indian side is led by Sandeep Pandey, a 
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace 
activist, who was awarded the Magsaysay prize 
(which he returned). In 1999, Pandey led a peace 
march from Pokharan to Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh, 
where the Buddha delivered his first peace sermon.

The Delhi-Multan marchers are inspired by the 
Sufi tradition stretching from Bulley Shah, 
through Amir Khusro, to Kabir and Guru Nanak, as 
well as more contemporary figures in 
Hindustani/Urdu literature like Ghalib, Faiz, 
Krishan Chander, Manto, Rajinder Singh Bedi, and 
Ahmad Faraz. The emphasis in the marchers' 
message is not just on ridding the subcontinent 
of nuclear weapons and militarism, but on a 
meeting of minds through a celebration of our 
common culture and heritage.

It is no coincidence that the march began on 
Pakistan Day (also Bhagat Singh's death 
anniversary) and ends on the anniversary of the 
first Pokharan tests seven years ago. The Indian 
government must not drag its feet on visas. It 
will earn goodwill by showing exemplary 
broad-mindedness and generosity.


______

[2]

Deccan Herald - March 25, 2005

STRUGGLE FOR PROVINCIAL AUTONOMY - BALOCHIS FIGHT BACK
Balochi nationalists step up violence as their 
region is in danger of being swamped by outsiders
By M B Naqvi

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was still 
in Pakistan soil when the protest campaign in 
Balochistan exploded in a bloody battle. 
Balochistan's dissidents were sending a signal to 
the outside world.

A convoy of 40 paramilitary soldiers were going 
from Dera Bugti, a storm centre, to major gas 
installations in Sui when they were ambushed on 
March 17. They were fired upon from surrounding 
mountains soon after 10 am and the battle raged 
till 8 pm. Eight soldiers died and many were 
wounded. Figures of civilian casualties range 
from 25 to 60 and hundreds of injured, not to 
mention property losses. The forces brought up 
the helicopter gunships to bombard the tribesmen 
in the hills. Militants used modern small arms 
while soldiers used heavier weapons.

The government has called it a conspiracy, with 
the accusing fingers pointed at a foreign power. 
That foreign power is not specified but no one 
takes India to be implicated. The hush hush 
stories making the rounds point at Americans in 
Afghanistan who are thought to be putting 
pressure on Islamabad. The idea is said to be to 
make greater efforts to capture the Taliban in 
Balochistan.

What aggravates the situation is that the Army 
says that should the armed forces be targeted, 
they would respond with greater force. The 
Balochistan government, on the other hand, wants 
to employ political tactics also - probably under 
orders. The general idea seems to be to use 
greater forces against 'miscreants' while 
political incentives should be offered to end 
protests that are now in its second year, 
involving sabotage attempts, attacks on Army 
posts and ambushes.
Ms Rice mentioned more democratisation which has 
much significance for the Balochis. But what 
incensed Bugti tribesmen, close to Sui area, was 
an incident of gang rape of a lady doctor within 
the gas company's compound. She was a company 
doctor working and living in its hospital. Four 
members of the paramilitary forces, led by one 
Major Hammad, gang-raped her early in January. 
After that the tribesmen intensified their 
campaign; their leader Akbar Bugti made full 
political use of the incident to intensify the 
campaign including sabotage and ambushes.

Authorities first tried to hush up the case and 
did not let the doctor meet anyone. She was 
whisked away to Karachi where she was not 
available to give her side of the story. The 
government has given extraordinary explanations, 
that since the lady did not belong to the tribe 
and the incident took place outside tribal 
control how could tribal mores be applied and so 
on and so forth.

The protest campaign in fact is more political 
and widely based, though security forces and the 
government behaviour are fiercely opposed. 
Protests are aimed at big central projects, said 
to be vital for Balochistan's development. Among 
these is the Gawadar port that has aroused 
suspicion and anger among the Balochi 
nationalists because this central project will 
remain under central control. The Balochistan 
government has no share in either decision-making 
or in controlling the project. They fear the 
project would bring in thousands of workers and 
officers from outside, disturbing Balochistan's 
precarious demographic balance. The Balochi may 
become a minority in their own land. Another 
project is to establish four big cantonments in 
order to better control the situation. They note 
that cities grow around cantonments. Establishing 
military bases around the province sends an 
unfriendly signal to the nationalist leadership.

Within Balochistan not one but two nationalisms 
are in the forefront: Pushtoon nationalism is 
located in the Pushtoon belt along the border of 
Afghanistan that goes right up to largely 
Pushtoon NWFP. The other is Baloch nationalism. 
The Baloch is live in the rest of Balochistan - 
the largest and most arid of Pakistan's province. 
It is more than half of Pakistan territory with 
five per cent population. It is sparsely 
populated and Baloch people do not exceed 2.2 
million. The Balochi nationalists are extremely 
sensitive and do not want their area to be 
inundated with people from other provinces.

There are other grievances. The province is 
neglected; few have cared about its development. 
They are not their own masters. The centre 
manipulates the so called provincial government. 
It complains it does not receive its full share 
of resources. Some of the grievances, 
particularly the demand for more autonomy for the 
province, is common to all provinces other than 
smug Punjab. Thus Balochistan agrees with other 
smaller provinces that the centre takes far too 
much and the provinces get too little.

On the Indus River water the Baloch people, for 
political reasons, support Sindh and NWFP. They 
oppose the Kalabagh Dam and the Thal Canal like 
the Sindhis and NWFP people who fear that Punjab 
will siphon away more water. This serious dispute 
has not been approached with the spirit of 
conciliation. The thing that happens is 
postponement of a final decision. Meanwhile the 
tussle between those who want Thal Canal and the 
Kalabagh dam and those who oppose dominates the 
press and platform. There is a polarisation on 
this subject as also on other issues like the 
division of river waters, division of resources 
between the centre and the provinces, and over 
the powers of the central government. All 
regional nationalists demand that the centre 
should have only four subjects, the rest being 
left to the provinces.

The difficulty is that the Central Government for 
long has been run generally by one man, usually a 
General. Even during democracies, the 
establishment decides all important matters; 
democratic institutions merely rubber-stamp them. 
People complain of being ruled by an obscure 
permanent government. Struggle for provincial 
autonomy is provoked by the central authority 
being too powerful and lacking in legitimacy.

______


[3]

The Daily Times - March 29, 2005 

JUDGES PUTTING RELIGION ABOVE CONSTITUTION: ASMA JAHANGIR

* HRCP chairperson says religion column in 
passports contradicts govt claims of moderation
By Waqar Gillani

LAHORE: The judiciary appears to put religious 
concerns above the Constitution and basic 
fundamental rights, including freedom of 
expression, when judging blasphemy cases, said 
Asma Jahangir, the Human Rights Commission of 
Pakistan (HRCP) chairperson. She said that 
religion was still a major basis for 
discrimination in Pakistan.
A lecture on 'Minorities and their judicial 
experience in Pakistan' was held in the 
remembrance of Shahla Zia, a leading human rights 
activist who passed away recently, at HRCP's 
Dorab Patel Auditorium on Monday.
The HRCP chairperson said that the inclusion of a 
religion column in passports was in contradiction 
to the government's claims of moderation. She 
said that the move proved that religion still was 
a tool of politics and exploitation in Pakistan. 
She said that there was no reason to establish a 
Federal Shariah Court (FSC).
She said that misinterpretation of Islamic 
teachings and a lack of understanding of the 
difference between the role of religion and the 
state were the major reasons behind the worsening 
situation for minorities in Pakistan. She said 
that the Raj Pal case in 1927, which highlighted 
Ilm Din as a hero, had given rise to religion as 
a factor determining the rights of people in the 
subcontinent.
She said that the then British rulers treated 
this issue as an issue of governance. She said 
that the issue was dealt with introducing a law 
rather than trying to resolve it through 
political commitment. "At that time only the 
deputy district commissioner was authorised to 
lodge a case and the common man did not have this 
right," she said.
Reviewing various cases from 1950s till today, 
she said that the punishment for desecrating 
mosques was recommended to be increased. 
"However, one judgement protected Muslims when 
they desecrated temples," she said.
Jahangir quoted the Punjab Religion Book Society 
case in the 1960s, when the society was accused 
of publishing anti-religious minority material. 
She said that judges did not ban the books, 
claiming that they were 'valuable research 
material'. The judiciary asked people not to be 
so sensitive to religion and be tolerant enough 
to face criticism, she said.
Judicial rhetoric and vocabulary gradually 
changed between the 1960s and 1970s when religion 
was made more important than the Constitution and 
human rights, she said. An important turning 
point in judicial history was when the Ahmedis 
were declared non-Muslims in 1974. "Religion 
became a deciding factor in more judicial cases 
when religion-based legislation started in the 
1970s," she said. She said that the punishment 
for religious criticism was gradually increased 
and the judiciary started referring to Ummah 
verdicts in religion-based cases, she said. She 
said that "the most disgusting" laws were made 
during General Ziaul Haq's regime. She added that 
it was during this regime that the FSC declared 
any violation of Section 295 C of the Pakistan 
penal Code (relating to blasphemy) as punishable 
by death.
She also pointed out the case of Muhammad Asgher 
in 2002. The accused had become angry when his 
daughter was reciting the Quran. He, in a fit of 
rage, had burnt a page of the Quran. He was 
assaulted by family members and neighbours. 
Later, a policeman had shot him dead. The 
policeman was made a hero by the public and was 
never sentenced.
She said that religion was used as tool for 
exploitation by certain majority elements in 
Pakistan. She criticised the present 
"dictatorship" of General Pervez Musharraf and 
said that the inclusion of a religion column in 
passports, freeing the Sui rape case accused, and 
denying justice to Mukhtar Mai, were all examples 
of how the government had failed to act on its 
claims. She questioned why Mukhtar was being 
forced to beg for justice from the prime minister 
rather than the judiciary. She added there was no 
real concept of "enlightened moderation". She 
called for an independent judiciary, which was 
not possible without a democratic government.
Jahangir praised Shahla Zia's efforts and said 
that Pakistan was in dire need of human rights 
activists of her calibre.
IA Rehman, the HRCP director, gave the opening 
address and later delivered a note of thanks. 
Zaman Khan of the HRCP conducted the lecture.
The lecture was part of the 10-day Second South 
Asian Workshop on 'Combating racism, xenophobia 
and discrimination against ethnic minorities and 
indigenous people'. South Asians for Human Rights 
(SAFHR) and HRCP organised the workshop.


______


[4]

Frontline - Volume 22 - Issue 07, Mar. 12 - 25, 2005

COMMUNALISM
A saffron assault

T.K. Rajalakshmi
in Kota

The targeting of a convocation ceremony organised 
by a Christian missionary group in Kota shows the 
Sangh Parivar's increasing belligerence towards 
minorities in BJP-ruled Rajasthan.

By Special Arrangement

The school bus of the Emmanuel Mission 
International, which was damaged in the attack by 
Sangh Parivar activists at Kota railway station.


ON February 19 morning, an unsuspecting group of 
passengers from Andhra Pradesh who alighted at 
the Kota railway station in Rajasthan were in for 
a rude shock. Representatives of the Kota 
district administration and members of the 
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and the Bajrang 
Dal accosted them and prevailed upon them to 
return home.

The 270 visitors had arrived at Kota to partake 
in a graduation ceremony that was to be hosted by 
the Emmanuel Mission International (EMI). But the 
RSS activists alleged that the "graduation 
convention" was but a smokescreen and they were 
brought to Kota to be converted to Christianity.

The visitors, who could hardly understand Hindi, 
were told that "Hindus" among them should go back 
while Christians among them could stay back to 
attend the function. The EMI, which has its 
headquarters in Raipura on the outskirts of Kota 
town, had sent a bus to collect the passengers 
from the railway station. A scuffle ensued 
between the RSS activists and EMI members, and 
two members of the minority community, including 
one who had alighted from the train, were beaten 
up.

Mahendra Bharti, Vibhaag Pracharak of the RSS in 
Kota, said that the administration had been 
informed of the "bid" to convert. "One of our 
people travelling in the same train got to know 
about the programme and told us. We informed the 
administration and accompanied the police and 
other officials to the station to put a stop to 
the proposed conversion," he said. Asked how it 
was possible to ascertain who was Hindu and who 
was Christian, District Magistrate Tanmay Kumar 
said that some passengers had Hindu-sounding 
names. Besides, they could not explain what the 
graduation ceremony was all about. Neither had 
the EMI sought permission to hold the ceremony, 
said Tanmay Kumar. The administration was 
convinced that this was indeed a case of 
conversion using inducement, he said.

However, the matter did not end there. Three days 
later, hundreds of activists of Hindu 
organisations such as the Hindu Jagran Manch, the 
RSS, the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu 
Parishad (VHP), and local leaders of the 
Bharatiya Janata Party, approached the EMI campus 
shouting slogans and wielding sharp-edged 
weapons. The police resorted to a lathi-charge to 
disperse the mob. The mob wanted an assurance 
from the EMI administration that no conversion 
was going to take place. The EMI officials were 
baffled as they had been holding annual 
convocation ceremonies in Biblical courses for 
the past 31 years. Those who graduated worked as 
pastors in their native places. The EMI at Kota 
also runs an orphanage, which has around 2,000 
children.

Bishop Samuel Thomas, the president of the EMI, 
said that such attacks had been going on for some 
time. He said: "Till date, we have never sought 
permission to hold the convocation. But we have 
always informed the administration about any such 
mass event." He added: "We have around eight lakh 
votes in the entire country but we have never 
exhorted our people to vote for any particular 
party." He said that the police had refused to 
register a First Information Report (FIR) against 
those who had attacked the EMI members. Tanmay 
Kumar was vague when asked about the FIR. 
Following a complaint by Deputy Mayor of Kota 
Ravindra Nirbhay, a BJP leader, and Krishna Kumar 
Soni, a local BJP worker, cases were registered 
against the EMI under Sections 505, 505(2) and 
511 of the Indian Penal Code.

The attacks continued. A contingent coming from 
Udaipur was stopped at a bus stop, and harassed 
by Sangh activists. Samuel Thomas alleged that 22 
people, including a heavily pregnant woman called 
Christy Meena, were taken into custody. Mahendra 
Bharti said Christy Meena's husband was a tribal 
person and a non-Christian and that he was being 
brought to the Mission for forcible conversion. 
This correspondent met both Christy and her 
husband Valu Meena on the EMI campus and they did 
not speak of any coercion by the EMI authorities.

Bishop Thomas said: "The Chief Minister of Andhra 
Pradesh is a Christian. Do you think I need to 
import Hindus from there for conversion? It would 
be much easier for me to do it there." He also 
rebutted the charge that the Mission was offering 
cycles as inducement. "The bicycles are given 
only to our local members for better mobility. We 
give Rs.250 to each outstation participant to 
cover his or her travel expenses. We don't deny 
that conversions take place. Yes, they do, but in 
the hearts," he said candidly.


BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Victims P. Devid and Vinnakotta Emmanuel.


A two-member delegation of the National 
Commission for Minorities (NCM), which visited 
Kota, has found nothing wrong in the EMI's 
activities. V.V. Augustine, member, NCM, told 
Frontline that a lot of rumours had been spread 
about conversions taking place at the EMI. It 
was, in his opinion, a case of "misunderstanding" 
by the public. "Conversion is not illegal. In any 
case, why should they have brought them to Kota 
for conversion?" Augustine asked. He appreciated 
the work of the Mission in the field of education 
and said that it was doing a "very good job". He 
added that the administration had not anticipated 
this kind of a trouble. "As of now, they have 
done a good job and provided security to the 
Mission," he said.

Brahma Dutt, a Supreme Court advocate who is a 
member of the Central government's Programme 
Advisory Committee on Leprosy, is a regular 
visitor to the EMI as the Mission is also 
associated with work in colonies of leprosy 
patients. "This is the first time that I have 
seen the police and officials like the Additional 
District Magistrate (ADM) at the Mission," he 
said.

ARCHBISHOP M.A. Thomas, who started the EMI in 
1960, does not feel secure despite the assurances 
of the administration and the NCM. That he was 
awarded the Padma Shri in 2001 during the tenure 
of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) 
government does not make him feel less restless. 
"Even when I started my first church in a car 
shed, there was opposition. I was beaten up on 
the 14th day of my arrival in Kota by the then 
Member of Parliament from Kota, Daudayal. He 
later came for my wife's funeral," said the 
Archbishop. Today the Mission runs around 11,138 
churches, 23 Bible institutes, 103 orphanages, 
one hospital, 140 schools and one college, among 
other institutions. He says he has nothing 
against the anti-conversion Bill being proposed 
by Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria. "These are 
the same people who alleged in 2001 that I was 
selling the organs of young boys, running a 
prostitution racket and what not. There is no 
difference between then and now," he said.

When this correspondent visited the EMI campus on 
February 26, there was strong police presence. 
The Archbishop was told that a team of visiting 
foreign dignitaries would not be allowed to 
preach at the convocation. "If I have a church, I 
can preach. There is no law against anybody 
preaching. If I am preaching against anybody, 
yes, it is wrong," explained the Archbishop to 
the ADM and a police team.

Rakesh Pal Singh, the Station House Officer of 
Udyog Nagar, under whose jurisdiction the EMI 
campus falls, told the Archbishop in the presence 
of journalists and others that for the sake of 
peace in the city, he should refrain from 
preaching at the convocation. The Archbishop was 
informed that the administration had not given 
him permission to hold the convocation and that 
he would be held responsible for any untoward 
incident in case it was held. "On February 23, I 
was told to give in writing that no public 
meeting would be held. The Divisional 
Commissioner also said that I should specify that 
no conversion would take place at the meeting. I 
wrote clearly that no public baptism would take 
place. Then I was asked if I could allow 11 
persons from religions other than Christianity to 
attend the meeting. I had no problems with that 
either," he said.


T.K. RAJALAKSHMI

Archbishop M.A. Thomas.


But despite these assurances, the administration 
appeared reluctant to give permission to hold the 
ceremony. "It is not a normal graduation 
ceremony. Usually parents are present with the 
students. We asked for the list of students, 
details of enrolment and graduation and so on but 
none was furnished," argued Tanmay Kumar, not 
understanding that these were not regular 
undergraduate courses but Biblical courses of a 
very specific nature.

As for the Kota station incident, he said the 
group expressed a desire to go back. Asked why a 
written assurance was sought from the EMI 
regarding conversion, he said all that the 
administration wanted was to defuse trouble. "It 
should explain to the people of Kota about its 
foreign funding and activities," he said. When it 
was pointed out that this rule applied to every 
organisation, Tanmay Kumar said it was all the 
more necessary in the case of the EMI given the 
"background of cases against it". The five-day 
function was finally held from February 23 to 27 
amid high tension and police security. The 
Archbishop told Frontline that 4,300 students 
graduated.

THE attack on the EMI is not an isolated one. 
Last year, tribal people were incited to attack 
Muslims in Sarada tehsil of Udaipur. Homes and 
shops belonging to minorities were set on fire. 
Similarly, a group of tribal people going from 
Banswara to Ajmer were forcibly made to disembark 
at Chittorgarh by Bajrang Dal activists on the 
plea that they were being taken for conversion. 
Again, last year, the Udaipur-based Bharatiya Lok 
Kala Mandal director Bhanu Bharti and an artist 
were attacked by Bajrang Dal activists alleging 
that they had made vulgar depictions of the Hindu 
pantheon.

Kota is a Sangh Parivar stronghold. The Vasundra 
Raje Scindia government has taken a belligerent 
stand on conversions. While some of her Cabinet 
Ministers, such as Social Welfare Minister Madan 
Dilwar, have been regularly making provocative 
statements against minorities, the Chief Minister 
has remained silent. Rajasthan's BJP government 
has lifted the ban on trishul distribution, which 
was put in place by the previous Congress 
government.

Belligerency against minorities is not new here. 
Unless the State government takes serious 
cognisance of such attacks, there is every 
likelihood of it increasing in the future.



______



[5]

The Times of India - March 22, 2005 |  Interview

SOUL OF THE SANGH

Christophe Jaffrelot, director of the Paris-based 
Centre for International Studies and Research, is 
an expert on the politics of the sangh parivar. 
His latest publications are a reader on the sangh 
parivar and a biography of Ambedkar. He spoke to 
Ronojoy Sen on the future of saffron politics


Has the BJP increasingly begun to resemble the Congress?

The BJP is still different, to my mind, first of 
all because of its ideology. Certainly, the NDA 
implies political compulsions for the party: Its 
moderation today comes from coalition politics 
since most of its partners in the NDA do not 
share the Hindutva agenda. But it has not changed 
the BJP's ideology in Gujarat. There was no 
moderation partly because there were no partners 
to accommodate. Secondly, the BJP remains 
different because of its cadres coming from the 
RSS and its inclusion in the sangh parivar.

Will an out-of-power BJP return to its core Hindutva agenda?

The question is whether the BJP will succumb to 
the pressure of the VHP and RSS or whether the 
party will pursue a moderate policy. So long as 
the BJP is part of a coalition, there will be 
some moderation. The fact that the BJP did rather 
well in Jharkhand and Bihar, where it was in 
coalition with the JD(U), may strengthen the 
supporters of coalition politics within the party.

Is the sangh parivar still a coherent collective?

The links within the sangh parivar remain. The 
RSS is the reference point for this network, 
including for people like Atal Behari Vajpayee. 
All the top leaders have been trained and 
socialised in the RSS. Those who revolted, like 
Balraj Madhok, have been consigned to the 
wilderness. Within the parivar, of course, there 
might be differences. There are more moderate 
forces as well as more radical forces. But this 
is more a division of labour. And though there 
might be real conflicts between the BJP and 
organisations like the VHP, there is no break. 
The RSS remains the mediating body, the centre of 
the network.

Will there be any change in the BJP's position 
now that Vajpayee has taken a back seat?

If we agree about my division of labour 
hypothesis, then someone else will fill 
Vajpayee's shoes. Even L K Advani can be a 
moderate promoting coalition politics! He is a 
true practitioner of realpolitik. We must 
remember that the BJP is not a party based on 
personalities.

Has the BJP become a pan-Indian party?

The BJP still gets most of its support from the 
old Jan Sangh strongholds in the Hindi belt. In 
the last elections, too, the BJP did extremely 
well in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and 
Rajasthan. However, it has achieved some success 
in Karnataka and Kerala, where the RSS has a big 
network. Yet, the BJP has not become a pan-Indian 
party: It is still weak in the eastern coastal 
states where it remains below 10% of the valid 
votes.

How has the BJP adjusted to caste coalitions?

In the 1990s, the most significant political 
phenomenon for long-term politics was not 
Hindutva but the rise of the lower castes. 
Ayodhya was, in fact, over-determined by Mandal. 
It was largely meant to defuse the OBC 
mobilisation. In post-Mandal India, the BJP, like 
all mainstream parties, has to cope with the rise 
of the lower castes. It has to give tickets to 
the lower castes and the OBCs. In the BJP, 
leaders such as Kalyan Singh, Babulal Gaur and 
Uma Bharti are from the OBCs. But the party 
apparatus, from the bottom to the top, remains in 
the hands of the upper castes and most of its 
ministers at the state level today, like at the 
Centre, are also upper caste; hence some of the 
tensions we witnessed in the recent past. In 
Uttar Pradesh, when Kalyan Singh was appointed 
chief minister, the upper castes protested and 
had him removed.

Can the lower caste parties extend their reach beyond the Hindi belt?

In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, lower caste leaders 
like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav or 
Mayawati have actively taken part in the 
redistri-bution of power. These leaders may not 
survive politically, but they have given a sense 
of dignity to the lower castes. The social and 
psychological aspects of this transformation have 
major implications in terms of power equations. 
And there is no denying that power is changing 
hands in the Hindi belt; to my mind this is an 
irreversible change. The question is whether 
parties like the BSP or the SP can become 
pan-Indian. Maybe not, because caste systems are 
really region-specific. But some other lower 
caste party may take up that role beyond the 
Vindhyas and mainstream parties, like the 
Congress itself, may take over from low caste 
parties. However, I have doubts. I do not think 
that they will try hard to implement such a 
strategy because of their own social composition.

Your latest book is a biography of Ambedkar. How 
does he figure in the national imagination?

Ambedkar has become a pan-Indian figure, the 
first Dalit leader and the father of the Indian 
Constitution. As a symbol, Ambedkar has been 
useful for the nationa-lisation of the Dalit 
elites, those who have emerged from the 
reservation policy. And today upper caste 
dominated mainstream parties have to project him 
as their hero too!



______



[6]     [Announcements: ]

(i)

New title from *Three Essays Collective*:
(available from April 4)

*Brinda Karat*
*Survival and Emancipation: Notes from Indian Women's Struggles*
With a Foreword by Aijaz Ahmad

Contents:
The book is divided broadly in six sections:

1. Multiple Struggles
2. Globalisation and Survival Issues
3. On Political Participation
4. Communalism and Women
5. Violence against Women
6. A Personal Remembering

About the Book:

This is a comprehensive book on the wide ranging 
concerns of the women's movements in India from a 
left perspective. The author's active involvement 
in the women's struggles adds to the strength of 
her narrative. It weaves together experiences and 
critical observations to create a work of great 
theoretical and practical import. It should be of 
great value to those interested in women's 
studies and the general studies on South Asia.

Excerpt from the Foreword by *Aijaz Ahmad*:

"It is that rare book, wise and modest, which 
informs, instructs, inspires - but with the 
lightest of touch. Realistic enough to know that 
for the vast majority of women in India the 
struggle is for sheer survival against all odds; 
visionary enough to know that the battle for 
survival itself shall not be won without winning 
the battle for emancipation from all kinds of 
oppression and exploitation. At the heart of that 
battle for emancipation in our country are the 
women of our villages and our working classes. 
This book is written from their standpoint."

About the Author:

Brinda Karat belongs to the All India Democratic 
Women's Association (AIDWA), the largest women's 
organisation in India, with 8 million members. 
She has been its General Secretary from 1993 to 
2004 and is its most well-known spokesperson. 
Brinda Karat is a Central Committee Member of the 
Communist Party of India (Marxist).

20 + 284 pp., Demy 8vo

2005
81-88789-37-2 Hardcover Rs595
81-88789-36-4 Paperback Rs275

Three Essays Collective
P.O. Box 6 Palam Vihar
GURGAON (Haryana)
122 017
India
www.threeessays.com

______

(ii)

Are Other Worlds Possible?
Talking New Politics
Eds. Jai Sen and Mayuri Saini
ISBN 81 8901327 0

In the run-up to the fourth World Social Forum 
held in Mumbai, India in January 2004, civil 
activists and students organised a major series 
of seminars in Delhi University to discuss the 
Forum and its politics. The 'Open Space' seminar 
series, as it came to be called, picked up on the 
idea of the Forum as a relatively free space, 
where all kinds of ideas could meet and be 
discussed.

A set of three volumes based on this seminar will 
be published by Zubaan during 2005. The series 
was organised by Mukul Mangalik, Madhuresh Kumar, 
and Jai Sen.

The books – individually and as a set - are 
designed to lend themselves to the examination 
and explanation of larger contextual and 
structural issues that impact on our lives. The 
issues addressed in the books range from 
globalisation to authoritarianism, militarisation 
and nuclearisation to caste and race, 
fundamentalism, communalism and nationalism; from 
patriarchy, sexuality, and questions of openness 
to cultures of politics and the university as an 
open space. Also include the relationship of the 
World Social Forum to new internationalisms, and 
the culture and politics of cyberspace. By 
presenting multiple perspectives, they help the 
reader make examined choices.  The wide variety 
of views and ideas expressed, and the various 
graphic devices that are used, orient the reader 
towards facilitating a climate of critical 
reflection, enquiry, and discussion.

Each book will focus on a different aspect:

v      Book One Talking New Politics will 
introduce the World Social Forum and present an 
in-depth view of the cultures of politics facing 
both the Forum and the world today.

v      Book Two Empires will examine the effect 
on our lives of external forces like 
globalisation, militarisation, and 
fundamentalism, and of structural factors like 
caste, patriarchy, and sexuality.

v      Book Three Alternatives and Imagination 
will critically examine the levels and meanings 
of a more open world, including of the university 
as an open space and the new internationalisms 
that seem possible through cyberspace and its 
influence on the existing world.

The first volume Talking New Politics, edited by 
Jai Sen and Mayuri Saini was released in January 
2005. This book, the first in a series that 
explore the new ideas generated by the 
discussions that took place on all these issues, 
comprises chapters based on the transcripts of 
presentations made by academics and activists 
during the seminars, as well as discussions on 
questions arising from the presentations. Can the 
World Social Forum help us to conceptualise and 
actualise a new politics? Can this new politics 
be free from violence? Can the experience and 
knowledge of great movements such as the movement 
for the environment, and the women's movement, 
contribute to the creation of a new politics? How 
can such a politics be sustained?

The essays in this book, written in an easy and 
accessible style, are informed by these 
questions. They offer the reader different and 
complex ways of understanding the processes that 
have helped to shape the World Social Forum and 
the new politics that seems to be emerging, and 
what all this represents, for life, society, and 
politics more generally. The contributors to the 
first volume include Jai Sen, Nivedita Menon, 
Veena Das, Mary E. John, Kavita Srivastava, Vinod 
Raina, Aditya Nigam, Amar Kanwar, Urvashi 
Butalia, Deepak Mehta, Swapan Mukherjee, P V 
Rajagopal, Dilip Simeon, Ezequiel Adamovsky, 
Chloé Keraghel, and Lachlan Tan

The books are being published by Zubaan. Zubaan 
is an independent non-profit publishing house, 
established by Urvashi Butalia. It is an 
associate imprint of Kali for Women. The word 
‘Zubaan’ in Hindustani means, literally, tongue. 
But it has many other meanings, which work at 
different levels: it stands for voice, language, 
and speech.

For enquiries please contact:

Jaya Bhattacharji/ Satish Sharma
Zubaan,
An Associate of Kali for Women,
K-92, First Floor, Hauz Khas Enclave
New Delhi - 110016
INDIA
Tel: +91-11-26521008, 26514772 and 26864497
Email: <mailto:zubaanwbooks at vsnl.net>zubaanwbooks at vsnl.net

______


(iii)

Awaaz: South Asia Watch Announcement

The Gujarat Genocide: A barbaric and planned tragedy

PUBLIC FORUM

Tuesday 5th April 2005: From 3.30 pm to 6.30 pm

Moses Room, House of Lords,

Parliament, London SW1

Invited speakers include: Lord Adam Patel; MP's John McDonnell, Jeremy
Corbyn, Marsha Singh et al; Anand Grover (Lawyers Collective representing
the Dawood Family in India); Bilal Dawood; Purna Sen (Amnesty
International); Imran Khan (Civil Rights Lawyer); Chetan Bhatt (Awaaz and
Lecturer at Goldsmith College, London University); and Indian Muslim
Federation. Chair: Suresh Grover (Dawood Family Campaign and Director of
Awaaz and The Monitoring Group)

Over the last fourteen days the horror of the Gujarat tragedy has become
internationally recognised. Firstly, in an unprecedented action, the
American Government banned the Indian state's Chief Minister, Narendra Modi,
viewed as the chief architect of the Genocide against Muslims in 2002, from
entering the USA. Secondly, fearing large scale mass protests against him,
Modi decided to duck international opposition and scrutiny by cancelling his
much publicised opportunistic visit to the UK last week.

In our campaign to Stop Modi, we urged all progressive & human rights
organisations and individuals to protest at the presence of Modi in the UK
and mount peaceful demonstrations at places where he was scheduled to speak.
We made forceful representations to the British Government not allow him
into the United Kingdom and organised strong counter phone and email
campaigns aimed at those agencies financing or hosting his alleged meetings.
Awaaz - South Asia Watch congratulates all those who participated in this
tremendous and collective effort. Only international pressure and spotlight
on Modi can ensure some semblance of justice for the victims of the
pre-meditated carnage. WE URGE YOU TO MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO ATTEND THE
MEETING on 5th APRIL.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

What happened in Gujarat

Exactly three years ago, in February and March 2002, Gujarat witnessed
horrific incidents of unparalleled violence that can only be described as
genocide of innocent Muslim people. Over 2000 people, including British
Asians, were slaughtered with more than 100,000 people displaced in
under-resourced refugee camps. Houses were systematically looted, businesses
burnt down, hundreds women gang raped and many children murdered. .All the
evidence suggests that the Gujarat state government, led by the current
Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and the police orchestrated the violence and
were responsible for the carnage. Yet, despite domestic and international
public pressure, not a single prominent individual has been held to account
or brought to justice.

USA Bans Modi

On 18th March 2005 the US government revoked the visa earlier granted to
Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, for his role "in severe
violation of religious freedom". Modi was invited by the Asian American
Hotel Owner's Association (AAHOA) as chief guest for their annual convention
in Florida on March 24-26. This revocation of both diplomatic and business
visas has come about as a result of untiring effort of the US-based
Coalition against Genocide (CAG) which comprises of 38 organisations and 10
supporting groups alongside individual members from Canada and the US...

For further information, please contact: AWAAZ on: 02088432333 or visit
www.awaazsaw.org


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

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.