SACW | 28 Nov. 2005

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 28 Nov, 2005 | Dispatch No. 2180


[1] Bangladesh: Eureka,...the real culprit has been found! (Mahfuz Anam)
[2] Pakistan-India: A See-Through Wall (Mukul Dube)
[3] US: Hindutva move to distort California School Textbooks on India &
Hinduism
[4] India: Communal Violence and Minority-Majority Relations(Asghar Ali
Engineer)
[5] India: On Culture-policing in Tamil Nadu
     (i) The Woman Question (Rajashri Dasgupta)
    (ii) Smell The Kaapi (S. Anand)
    (iii) Chennai Churning (Vrinda Gopinath)
    (iv) A freedom at stake ... (Suresh Nambath)
     (v) Women speak out (Kalpana Sharma)
[6] Sri Lanka: Documentary Film on Rajani Thiranagama on Canadian TV
[7] India: Godhra to Goa: Film provokes, angers (Shubra Gupta) 	
[8] India: RSS threat to Goa culture festival
___


[1]


The Daily Star
November 27, 2005 	

EUREKA, . . . THE REAL CULPRIT HAS BEEN FOUND!
Nizami identifies the media as the cause for militants' rise
by Mahfuz Anam

At last the mystery of the sudden, dramatic and vicious rise of
religious extremism has been 'revealed', and that also by no less a
person than the Ameer of Jamaat himself. Guess who the real culprit is
-- but, of course the media. And who, in the media, is the vilest of
them all? You guessed it right again. It is The Daily Star.

Mr. Matiur Rahman Nizami on Friday 'revealed' over the ATN Bangla TV
news channel to the nation that the media, especially The Daily Star (he
singled us out), are principally responsible for -- no, not for damaging
the country's image, which we have been doing forever -- but for a far
more heinous crime -- helping the Islamic militants rise. What needs to
be done now, he implied, is to close down these newspapers and, like
magic, all militancy will disappear. Like the proverbial ostrich, all we
need to do is bury our heads in the sand and all our ills will vanish.
(Just a reminder for our readers. A few weeks back, our venerable
foreign minister suggested that the media were responsible for our image
as the 'most corrupt country', because we report on corruption. If there
were no reports, there would have been no image of corruption, and we
would have lived happily ever after).

The Jamaat Ameer's argument is that by giving prominent news coverage we
encourage more people to join the ranks of militants. According to him,
if the militancy stories were ignored or given only scant coverage then
the religious extremism would not have risen.

Let us examine the insidious and totally false nature of this argument.
By every intelligence agency account and on the basis of confessional
statements of those arrested after the recent bomb blasts, the
terrorists have been preparing over the last several years for the
recent bombings. The role of Afghan Mujahideen returnees, the extremism
funding from the Middle East and the secret training at numerous
madrasas in several districts have been going on over the past several
years, during which the media coverage was abysmally low, almost
non-existent. In fact, so clever were the militants in hiding their
terrorist activities and so deep they penetrated the high and the mighty
that the government and the ruling alliance went on a vigorous denial
when the media first started revealing the militants' activities. It was
only after the recent countrywide bombings that the government has taken
our recent vigorous reportage somewhat seriously.

Mr. Nizami has very good reasons to castigate the media for doing their
job well. How else would it have been revealed that many of the arrested
extremists have either confessed to being Jamaat members in the past or
being guided by those who hold leadership positions in that party or its
front organisations, especially Shibir, its student wing. The so-called
Bangla Bhai himself, in an interview published in this paper in May
2004, claimed, "I was a Shibir member until 1995." Another wanted
militant, Montezar, was the Jamaat chief of Bariatala union of Joypurhat
district when the police raided his house following a serious armed
encounter. Jamaat denied any link with him, but the police found out
from his diary that he had applied to be made a Rokon, a coveted post in
Jamaat. Sohel of Sunamgang Govt College, arrested in August 2003, was a
member of Shibir. His brother Selim told the press, "Shibir turned my
brother into an ultra-religious man and forced him to work for the JMB."
In November 2004 three militants were arrested with 124 electronic bomb
detonators from a Shantahar-bound train. All the three confessed to
being Shibir workers. In February 2004 militant Azizul was arrested in
Devigang upazila of Panchagarh district, who told the police that he had
formerly belonged to Shibir and was now working for the JMB. In February
2005 two JMB members, Samiul Al Siju and Fazlul Huq, arrested in
Gangachara upazilla of Rangpur district were listed as 'Jamaat
activists' in the police probe report. In July 2005, 11 people were
arrested at Puthiapara of Paba upazilla in Rajshahi district. Their team
leader, Enamul, confessed to having been a Shibir member only a year
ago. Two of them, Ibrahim Hossain and Golam Mustafa, students of the
Rajshahi University, told the police they belonged to Shibir. These are
just a few of a large number of similar cases.

It may be noted here that whenever any militant linked with Jamaat has
been arrested, the party either denied any relation with the arrestee or
said he was a former member. Many political analysts believe such
statements are but a part of Jamaat's tactics.

Nizami's own response, in the aforementioned ATN interview, to the
question whether he acknowledged the existence of Bangla Bhai or not is
quite revealing. He said, "I don't have any comments on whether he
exists or not. If a man really exists he won't disappear by my saying he
doesn't exist." Why such an evasive answer to a very simple question?
Can this be the answer of a cabinet minister of a government in genuine
search of Bangla Bhai? He seemed almost in pain to acknowledge that such
a man exists. He would have preferred the media to have ignored him and
allowed him to carry out his mission.

That is where we have fallen foul of the Jamaat's Ameer. His party's
desire to keep its militant connections under wrap has been put to
naught by the brave members of the media. The bogey of media coverage
contributing to the rise of the militants is nothing but a devious
attempt to stop the media from uncovering the dangerous activities the
militants have now embarked on.

In fact, the true fault of the media is that we have not done enough to
expose the leaders, the groups and the parties who have taken advantage
of our democracy, our tolerance and our forgiving attitude towards the
war criminals of 1971 to destroy the Bangladesh created through a
hard-fought Liberation War. As Jamaat professed to join our democratic
polity, we gave them a chance and literally forgot how they had
butchered our valiant freedom fighters, how they helped the Pakistan
army to destroy our people, our land and our future by conducting
genocide. Nothing revealed their viciousness more than the cold-blooded
and merciless killing of our intellectuals just three days before their
defeat.

The media will continue to do everything to defend democracy, freedom,
rule of law and our Constitution. We will fight extremism and terrorism,
notwithstanding Mr. Nizami's umbrage.

___


[2]

[To appear in 'Mainstream' weekly.]

A SEE-THROUGH WALL

by Mukul Dube

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it," George Santayana famously said. That is
certainly true of those obnoxiously inhuman features of
the past of humanity which in recent times we have been
seeing repeated, in different parts of the world and in
forms more monstrous than were known before. There have,
however, also been many good things in our past. Should
we not at least remember them? I am led to think that that
would now be a waste of time, for they are either
vanishing rapidly or else are vanished.

It was once axiomatic that a person would go to the aid
of another who was in trouble. This happened among kin, of
course, and among friends and in neighbourhoods: but
people would rush also to help complete strangers. Over
forty years ago, as some of us boys returned to school
late at night from a cinema theatre, the master with us
made us pick up and carry to hospital a man who was
lying, bleeding, in the middle of the road. I have seen
neighbours gather around households in distress, putting
vehicles, kitchens and so on at their disposal. On
occasion, people who did not know me went out of their
way to help me.

In the 1950s, countless stories were told of humanity
shown during recent battles and during Partition. There
were heart-warming instances of humanity later, during
communal riots. All this pointed us in one direction:
"Help the injured man. He is you and you are he."
It did not matter if the man came from the other end of
the country, if he subscribed to another religion, if he
earned in a month what you spent in a day.

Perhaps the spirit was not instilled in all, perhaps the
pressures of living have become too great. Whatever the
reason, almost none of that automatic, natural urge to
help is seen any longer. Kin are often considered
bothersome, so-called friendships are for good times
alone, neighbours do not even know one another, and
strangers might just as well be rusted tins of motor oil.

Kashmir was shaken as never before. There was much death
and destruction on the Indian side and a great deal more
on the other. A 12-year-old who can read a contour map
will tell you that the shortest route by which relief
materials can be moved is through the Valley.
"Intelligence" agencies on both sides, however,
cannot countenance this. Supplies for western Kashmir, or
POK [Pakistan Administered Kashmir], must therefore be taken by a long
road which goes over high mountains into another valley. Small children
have been dying because they sleep in the open and no one
knows when the blankets they need will arrive.

A village on the border was split in two because the
upheaval made a stream change course and run through it.
The stream marks the border, and two portions of one
village are now in different countries. Thus it was that
people on one side looked on as their children, spouses,
siblings, parents and friends were buried a bare fifty
yards away, in graves on the other side of an invisible
wall so strong that no cataclysm can pull it down or open
a passage through it.

We can see through the wall but we cannot see through it.

___


[3] HINDUTVA ATTEMPT TO DISTORT CALIFORNIA SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS ON INDIA &
HINDUISM

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Dear Fellow Californian,

The State of California is currently in the final stage of approving the
history/social science textbooks for grades 6-8 in California schools.
Textbooks have been submitted by multiple publishers for possible
approval and selection by the California Department of Education. Two
Hindu fundamentalist (Hindutva) organizations, Hindu Education
Foundation and Vedic Foundation, have submitted corrections to the
textbooks with a view to hide the true history of India and present a
sanitized and glorified view of Indian history and culture. In the
process, they have attempted to sweep under the rug the oppression
suffered by the lower castes and women.

Surprisingly, Shiva Bajpai, a Hindutva-leaning advisor to the California
Board of Education, approved virtually all the changes requested by the
Hindu fundamentalists. (See some of the Hindutva-recommended changes
approved by Shiva Bajpai at
http://www.safarmer.com/Indo-Eurasian/snippets.pdf ) However, in the
public hearing held on November 9, 2005, a letter from Prof. Michael
Witzel of Harvard University was submitted to the Board of Education
informing them of the motivations of the Hindutva efforts and requesting
them to reject the Hindutva-recommended changes. (See
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/witzelletter.pdf ) About 50
international scholars specializing in the study of Indian history and
culture endorsed the letter of Prof. Witzel. The Board accepted the
recommendations of the scholars and has been working with a panel of
reputed scholars of South Asia to incorporate those changes that are
required to meet the standards of objective scholarship.

The next step in the process is the adoption of the recommendation of
the Board of Education by the Curriculum Commission on December 1-2,
2005. Now Pranawa C. Deshmukh, a professor of physics at Indian
Institute of Technology has called for Hindutva forces to rally to the
support of the changes suggested by the Vedic Foundation and the
RSS-inspired Hindu Education Foundation.  We expect a number of Hindutva
supporters will either write to the Curriculum Commission or show up at
the public hearing. If you believe in teaching California's children
true history and culture of India, it is very important for you to
attend the public hearing on December 1 and 2 in Sacramento and voice
your opinion rejecting the Hindutva-recommended changes. Also, please
sign the following petition or something similar with your added
comments and send them  to Dr. Norma Baker, Curriculum Commission at:
norma.baker at lausd.net and cc to the following:
joconnell at cde.ca.gov   ; tadams at cde.ca.gov ;  Deborah.Keys at comcast.net;


***PLEASE COPY and EMAIL ONLY THE PETITION PORTION AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS
EMAIL****

For details regarding the public hearing see
http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/cc/cd/ccagenda120105.asp .

For details of the addresses of Curriculum Commission members, see:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/cc/cd/members.asp

Petition
======================================

sub: Reject Hindu Fundamentalist attempt to distort India History

To:

Dr. Norma Baker, Ed.D. norma.baker at lausd.net
Chair, Curriculum Commission
1430 N Street, Suite 3207
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Dr. Baker,

Re: Edits and Corrections for 2005 History-Social Science - India
culture and history

We have learned that the Curriculum Commission is reviewing the Ad Hoc
Committee Edits and Corrections for History-Social Science Instructional
Materials and welcomes public comments on these before it submits its
recommendation report to the State Board of Education on December 2, 2005.

While we agree that India history is not just Cows and Caste, we are
dismayed by the Hindu Education Foundation and CRP recommended edits
approved by the ad hoc committee on November 2, 2005.   Based on the
version of the document that is available to the public at
http://www.safarmer.com/Indo-Eurasian/snippets.pdf , it is obvious that
these recommendations have gone far beyond correcting errors and this is
an attempt to rewrite history with a Hindu fundamentalist perspective.

However, we take heart in the decision of the Board of Education on
November 9, 2005 to work with a panel of reputed scholars of South Asia
to incorporate those changes that are required to meet the standards of
objective scholarship.


We believe that the Children of California should have the opportunity
to learn of the great contributions of India to the world history and
culture.  However, the children also should learn that like all great
civilizations of antiquity, India also had its dark side.  This is
particularly important since millions of Indians continue to suffer
under an oppressive system that has its roots in ancient India.  In the
name of political correctness, one should not sweep under the rug such
oppressions and present a sanitized and glorified view of Indian history.

We request the California Department of Education to reject the changes
to the India sections of the history/social science textbooks of California
recommended by any organization other than the panel of scholars with
whom the Board of Education has been working since November 10, 2005.

Sincerely,

Name:
Address:

Email address:
cc:

Mr. Jack O' Connell  joconnell at cde.ca.gov
State Superintendent of Public Instruction and Director of Education
Thomas Adams   tadams at cde.ca.gov
Executive Director to the Curriculum Commission and Director of the
Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division (CFIR)

Dr. Deborah Keys, Ed.D. Deborah.Keys at comcast.net
Vice Chair, Curriculum Commission

___


[4] [The terms used in the below paper to describe the youth who burned
cars and rioted recently in France as 'North African youth',
'Algerian'are incorrect; The vast majority of partcipants in these riots
were French Nationals ]

o o o

Secular Perspective
November 16-30,2005

COMMUNAL VIOLENCE AND MINORITY-MAJORITY RELATIONS

by Asghar Ali Engineer

Often I face a question in various workshops and seminars on communalism
as to why majority is often blamed for violence and not minorities.
Those who ask this question often ask with genuine feelings and not
necessarily as a result of communal bias. It will also be wrong to
maintain that minorities are blameless and do nothing that is questionable.

First of all it is necessary to emphasise that one should not homogenise
whole community, be it majority or minority. Neither all are communal in
any community nor all are secular and peace loving. Also, there is no
single political trend in any religious community. Here it would be
interesting to give the example of partition in 1947. It would be wrong
to maintain that all Muslims supported partition and all Hindus opposed
it. Large number of Muslims including ulama (theologians) opposed
partition. Similarly, it is equally wrong to maintain that all Hindus
opposed partition. Many Hindus were of the view that partition was the
only solution. Not only that Hindu Mahasabha believed in Hindu Rashtra
and thus strengthened two-nation theory propounded by Jinnah but also
leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai supported partition of the Punjab in 1924
itself

In post partition period also in every community there are divergent
political trends. It is wrong to assume, as communal elements often do,
that all Muslims support the Congress. Large number of Muslims, for
example, in West Bengal and Kerala support the left parties and in Tamil
Nadu the DMK and AIDMK. Now Muslim vote also goes to different parties
in different regions. The Hindu vote, of course, is divided among
different political parties. Interestingly, all communal forces claim to
be champions of entire community. The Sangh Parivar claims to be
championing the cause of entire Hindu community. The Muslim League,
similarly, claimed to be sole representative of Muslims in pre-partition
days.

Thus when we talk in terms of majority-minority it creates an impression
as if entire majority or minority community supports one particular
point of view or one particular political trend. Large number of Hindus
fight against the Sangh Parivar and large number of Muslims opposed
Muslim League politics in pre-partition days. Thus while using the term
majority or minority we should be conscious of this fact.

Thus when we say Hindu-Muslim problem it is not between all Hindus and
all Muslims but between communal Hindus and communal Muslims. When we
say Hindu communalism we mean communal politics of the Sangh Parivar who
swear by Hindu Rashtra or incite Hindu feelings against Muslims. All
Hindus do not support the Sangh Parivar.

It is important to note that after partition Muslims have been reduced
to a small minority and cannot afford to be very aggressive. A section
of Muslim leadership took aggressive posture during the eighties on
questions like Shah Bano and Babri Masjid and launched aggressive
movements. The result was strengthening the Sangh Parivar, which began
to get more Hindu support. However, realisation about negative outfall
of aggressive postures by a section of minority leaders came after
demolition of Babri Masjid and consequent communal riots in Mumbai,
Surat, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bhopal and other places. Since then the Muslim
leaders have been sobered down.

It is also important to note that majority tends to be arrogant and
assertive not only in India but in all countries including those of the
West. The white majority in Europe and North America (including Canada)
tend to be racist and assertive vis-à-vis other Asian minorities. In
Muslim countries the Muslim majority behaves no differently. In Bangla
Desh Hindus are at receiving end and in Pakistan the Shia minority
suffers at the hands of Sunni majority. In Sri Lanka the Sinhala
majority tends to be quite aggressive vis-à-vis Tamil and Muslim minorities.

Thus Majority-minority conflict is almost universal. It is not specific
to India. Majority feels arrogant on account of number and political
power. In some countries minority may wield political power as the
Alawis in Syria over Sunni majority or Sunnis in Iraq over Shia
majority. But this is possible only under dictatorship and not in
democracy. In Iraq today it is Sunni minority, which is using violence
in protest against loss of power and prospects of Shias and Kurds ruling
over them under democracy.

In all these countries usually those who are supporters of democracy and
inclined towards left tend to be more sympathetic towards minorities.
Thus we see in India left parties are very sympathetic of Muslim
minority. It was left which consistently opposed the NDA rule and helped
Congress form the government to keep NDA led by the BJP out of power.
Also some caste -based parties like RJD, SP and BSP have taken
sympathetic vie of Muslims. But this is more on account of compulsions
of minority votes than on ideological grounds as in the case of the left.

But nevertheless such alliances, though not ideological, are
nevertheless important to keep communal peace. Thus Bihar has seen
communal peace in last 13 years largely because Lalu Prasad needs Muslim
votes. However, in West Bengal the left has maintained communal peace in
last 23 years not simply because of compulsions of vote but
ideologically it is against communalism. And this is an important
difference.

Besides arrogance of majority there are other factors like class, caste
and race at work. In this connection the example of communal and racial
violence, which has been going on for last 20 days is quite important.
The police in suburbs of Paris was chasing some North African youth and
two of them got electrocuted while running away from the police and the
violence against police and subsequently against others broke out.

The North African youth attacking police and burning down cars every
night belong to Algeria. Thus they are Muslims, black and poor. Thus
they are thrice removed from white, French and middle class majority.
These youth live in poor suburbs of Paris and other French cities, are
less educated and unemployed. They are totally frustrated in life and
have been victims of white racialism and economically downtrodden.

The police has so far failed to restore order. The fury of the youth is
unparalleled. Here it can be argued that Black Muslim minority is being
very aggressive. But it is not the whole truth. The white upper class
majority has been highly arrogant and unjust to the Black Muslim
Algerians. Violence results from victims of severe injustice as much as
from arrogance of power. The violence borne out of frustration and
continued injustices can at times be quite intense.

We can give example of Naxalite violence in India. The tribals and
dalits who belong to minority in Indian society, tends to be quite
intense as it is result of centuries of oppression and exploitation.
Similarly the LTTE also tends to be very vicious in its attacks though
Tamilians are in minority in Sri Lanka. Thus it will be seen that much
depends on concrete situation and it is very difficult to generalise. In
many cases minority can be very vicious in its attacks on majority
people or on government constituted by the majority community.

If the minority is poor and illiterate it may tend to be less aggressive
but if it is facing intense exploitation the situation might change. In
case of India its secular democratic political structure becomes a
cushion against more intense violence. The Muslim minority tends to
benefit from democratic secularism and hence it does not resort to
violence as minorities do in other authoritarian countries.

Indian Muslims were also traumatised by partition experience and soon
realised that democratic secularism is there for their benefit. In this
connection it is important to note that in India been most orthodox
ulama support secular democracy as against the ulama in Muslim majority
countries who denounce secularism as against Islam. The ulama feel
empowered in Muslim majority countries through assertion of religious
dogmas as majority of people follow Islam.

However in Muslim minority countries like India such assertion does not
bring political empowerment but arouses suspicion of majority and hence
such assertion for political empowerment is avoided and instead it is
acceptance of secularism which brings more acceptability and so the
ulama tend to support democratic secularism.

Thus to understand majority-minority dynamics one has to understand
political dynamics of the country. One cannot understand it in political
vacuum. It certainly cannot be understood only in terms of religion, as
usually we tend to do. It is not a religious but a political problem. If
it is a tiny minority like the Parsis it will not create any problem but
if it is a sizeable minority like Muslims, it will give rise to
majority-minority problem. The tiny minorities like that of Parsis
cannot influence power dynamics while sizeable minority like that of
Muslims can.

Thus when we discuss Hindu-Muslim problem we should be aware that all
Hindus are not communal but most of them tend to be peace loving and
democratic. It is only a tiny minority, which is aggressive and communal
as it invokes religious identity in order to come to power. The question
of blaming entire community does not arise at all. There would have been
no democracy, let alone secularism, if all Hindus had toed the communal
line.

(Centre for Study of Society and Secularism)

____


[5] [CULTURE-POLICING IN TAMIL NADU]

(i)

The Telegraph
November 28, 2005

THE WOMAN QUESTION
Not many women came forward to support Kushboo, but Rajashri Dasgupta
wonders if the media too should shoulder some blame

It is no coincidence that those who have been attacked for supporting
Kushboo are public figures, all women. Actress Suhasini Maniratnam was
among the first, showing rare courage when many in the film industry
remained silent spectators. Both Sania Mirza and Narain Karthikeyan
spoke at a function about the controversy. In fact, the Formula-I
driver’s words in support of Kushboo were more forthright than
Suhasini’s, but Sania Mirza has been hounded since. The political
parties spearheading the attacks, the Pattali Makkal Katchi and Dalit
Panther, have demanded an apology from Suhasini, failing which they
proposed to launch an agitation against her as well. In Andhra Pradesh,
both Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists have found common cause: the
Muslim clergy issued a veiled threat of excommunicating Sania Mirza for
her “outrageous stand” while the Vishwa Hindu Parishad accused the
19-year-old of bringing shame on Indian society by trying to break down
the institution of marriage.

Second,this kind of culture-policing and mob-censorship has serious
implications for the freedom of expression. People — including women —
have the right to express their opinion on issues which affect their
social and professional lives. Women’s World, a network of women
writers, had noted in its newsletter that women’s voice is generally
greeted with indifference. But those who have tried to have a public
voice, have met with hatred, contempt, suppression, exile, even death.
As long as Kushboo played the romantic heroine, she remained the darling
of the Tamil people, but the tables were turned when she dared to speak
out in public on the issue of sex and marriage.

Clearly, Kushboo has committed no sin or crime. Given the high incidence
of HIV/AIDS in the country, the importance of condoms and safe sex
cannot be overemphasized. Even the school education system has woken up
to this reality and introduced to ‘lifestyle education’ (a euphemism for
sex education) in the curriculum of adolescents. This proposal too met
with a great deal of resistance, mostly arising out of the refusal to
admit that young adolescents are aware and even curious about the
subject of sex.

The real issue in the Kushboo controversy is not sex before marriage; it
is all about control over women. Like the Victorians, Indians to this
day lay great store by sexual restraint and moral uprightness in women.
They feel that in the absence of a system of control, women’s sexual
appetite and powers would be dangerous to society. Hence the attack on
women’s speech, somewhat akin to attacks on women’s dress or on their
right to choose their husbands. Women have been, and continue to be,
killed in the name of protecting the community’s honour. Women have been
forced, often with legal help, to conform to dress codes formulated for
them by men.

In the eyes of her attackers, Kushboo, considered to be a genteel,
refined woman (as opposed to destitute women, whose ‘vulgarity’ is taken
for granted and excused), has sinned by overstepping the line and
speaking about women’s sexuality. Her sins were compounded manifold by
the fact that she chose not to chastise those who may have had, or
supported, sex before marriage, but to acknowledge that women are not
asexual, passive objects, but could be active participants in the sexual
act.

There is every reason to believe that the backlash against Kushboo is
political. It is the fear of women’s growing autonomy that has shaken up
the men who play politics in the region and the country. The silence
till now, for instance, of the South Indian Film Artistes Association,
the rebuke of the chief minister, J. Jayalalithaa, the threats, the
whispers and clucking of tongues show exactly what forces push women to
comply and punish those who do not conform.

But the most dangerous manifestation of this is seen in women who
internalize the rules and enforce them on themselves and on women around
them. The defamation cases filed by the women’s wing of the PMK against
Kushboo and the criminal cases initiated by five women advocates bear
ample proof of this. Hemmed in on all sides, a tearful Kushboo
apologized for her remarks, Sania Mirza issued a ‘clarification’ and
Suhasini tendered a public apology after being showcaused.

In the entire drama, the media’s role as a collaborator with the forces
of repression cannot be denied. These days, journalists are no longer
required to present the bare facts. Just as the culture police presented
their version of Kushboo’s comment, a section of the media was at hand
to help them with sensational headlines, hounding Sania Mirza for
quotes, scrounging backstage for fresh scoops, fanning the mob frenzy
all the while. Protests by organizations against the unreason of the
political activists were either ignored by the media or given a passing
mention. Few newspapers mentioned that the All India Democratic Women’s
Association had condemned the moral policing, Women’s World felt that
the whole campaign was an insult to the teachings of E.V. Ramaswamy
Naicker, a brilliant thinker forgotten today in Tamil politics. The
Network of Women in Media has urged that any pluralistic society in
transformation has to create space for varied views, and conflicting
opinions. The media, rather than sensationalizing the issue, must
provide the platform for democratic debate, said the network.

To blame Kushboo for corrupting all Tamil women is to entirely miss the
point. The fact that issues like free speech and women’s sexuality can
inflame such passions even today indicate that we have a long way to go.

o o o
(ii)

Outlook Magazine
December 5, 2005

TAMIL NADU
Smell The Kaapi
Liberal responses to the Khushboo issue touch a deeper, conservative
Tamil nerve
by S. Anand

It has simply ceased to be a discussion about the views expressed by an
actress on safe premarital sex. The Khushboo-Suhasini controversy is
also no more an issue of 'freedom of expression'. After quite a few
national icons and politicians—like Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, Narain
Karthikeyan, Aamir Khan, Sania Mirza and P. Chidambaram—expressed
support to Khushboo, the episode has lent itself to new dimensions: the
northern view of the Dravidian south, the English-speaking class versus
the Tamil public sphere, Tamil culture vis-a-vis foreign cultures, and
the future of Chennai's image as a preferred destination of global
capital (in the wake of vigilant moral policing).

The defenders of 'freedom of expression' within Tamil Nadu were quite
slow to react.
		
The upper middle class and the intelligentsia hardly backed the
beleaguered actress. The core conservative elements in society—cutting
across caste, community and class—seemingly lent support to the street
protesters. It was only after CPI(M) politburo members Prakash
and Brinda Karat came out in defence of the actress that the state's
Left leaders vocalised their stand. Even then, it had riders. "Those who
disagree with Khushboo should resort to healthy and democratic means of
protest though her views on pre-marital sex are not acceptable to the
party," CPI(M) state secretary N. Varadarajan said.

Writer-publisher and social activist Ravikumar notes that society and
religion in India have always supported both repression and sexual
excess simultaneously. "In the West, a Victorian mindset and prudishness
were encouraged by the church, till capitalistic values and the free
market took over and encouraged free sex and sexual freedom.
In merely talking of freedom of expression in the ongoing controversy,
we reinforce the classic Indian binary of freedom versus repression. To
understand the issues, we need to transcend this binary," he adds.
classes seems limited to whether the pubs, discotheques and other
centres of consumerist pleasure where they hang out would face the wrath
of the moral police, or if they would be allowed to dress as they
please. It's another matter that the developments in Chennai over the
last few months have not given any reason for panic on this front. But
for the Park Hotel incident, where it was the media that played moral
police, the ire of the protesters this time has been directed only at
Khushboo and Suhasini. "This class and the nation's opinion-makers are
anxious only over whether the developments in the economic realm—the IT
sector, call centres or the new MNCs setting shop in Chennai—would be
affected by the moral strictures in the cultural sphere," says
Ravikumar. Cultural consumption of the kind demanded by this class is
enabled by a certain economic freedom, he argues, adding "sex surveys
and aids awareness are part of this process".

According to A.R.Venkatachalapathy of the Madras Institute of
Development Studies, the general apathy of the upper class has much to
do with their ambivalence regarding morals in a fast-growing global
cultural world. "They are unable to give up the pleasures of
consumerism, at the same time they are unwilling to pay the moral price.
The threat to morals and the assertion of female sexuality—which seems
to be exemplified in the periodic opinion polls couched in a
pseudo-scientific methodolgy—panders to their voyeurism as well as plays
on their fears. Attacks such as those on Khushboo assuage these fears."

There is also a split public that the Tamil and English-language media
seem to be addressing. While the entire popular Tamil press and
television have positioned themselves against Khushboo and Suhasini, the
English-language media's 'freedom of expression' posturing has also come
in for criticism.

Says R.R. Gopal, editor of the Nakkheeran biweekly: "This is not an
issue of freedom of expression. By advocating safe pre-marital sex,
Khushboo has attacked family values. The family is the central
institution of Tamil society. An attack on family is an attack on Tamil
culture." He further says replacing 'Tamil' society and 'Tamil' family
in his lexicon with 'Indian/Hindu' will lead to taking positions similar
to those espoused by the Sangh parivar outfits. The only difference is
'Tamil culture' is being defined on the basis of language, not religion.

Khushboo's one-time co-star Sarath Kumar, who is secretary of the Tamil
Cine Actors Association senses a North-South, English-Tamil divide in
the episode. He recalls that Khushboo not only defended her initial
statements but wondered if all Tamils were chaste. "That hurt the
people. Sania Mirza or Aamir Khan do not know this context." The actor
also refers to the culture of the rural Tamil society. "Beyond Chennai,
we still have villages where panchayats punish people by making them
ride on donkeys. You have to be sensitive about how you address this
public." Such a feudal culture has in fact been valorised by Tamil
cinema, many of them starring Sarath and Khushboo.

V. Geetha, feminist and social historian, offers a nuanced reading into
the actions and silences of the Tamil and the English public. "The
so-called liberal support extended to Khushboo is limited. It reflects
both a genuine bewilderment at the intolerance that sections of the
Tamil media as well as politicians have shown towards views that appear
inimical to them. It also indicates an arrogant righteousness: it gives
the English-speaking classes a chance to get disdainful about Tamil
politicians and the Dravidian parties. It is also true they don't get
this involved over issues of free speech and dignity that affect poorer,
less visible and less articulate sections of society."

What has given legitimacy to the protests is that magistrates across
Tamil Nadu have eagerly admitted private complaints against Khushboo and
Suhasini. (Very few of these complaints have been filed by the DPI or
the PMK.) For instance, Chinnappa Thamizhar, owner of a publishing house
in Chennai, has filed a complaint with a city court, accusing Suhasini
of portraying Tamils in a bad light. More than 35 such cases have been
filed against the two actresses. Advocate P.V.S. Giridhar of Campaign
for Saner Chennai believes this is an abuse of the judicial process.
"When private complaints are filed directly without going to the police,
the magistrate has to dismiss it if there is no sufficient ground for
proceeding. We are planning to submit a citizen's petition to the chief
justice on this issue." Adds Geetha: "This is really sexual repression
trying to find for itself legal cause and action." After all, the lower
judiciary does not of course spring into similar action in more socially
significant cases.

Khushboo has somewhere hit close to home with her views: answering to
generalised male fears about unbridled female sexuality in times of
great change and uncertainty. And by being pragmatic about sex and its
aftermath, she has also shown up sexual hypocrisy for what it is.
Deliberately or inadvertently.

o o o

(Related Material)

(iii)
Indian Express - November 27, 2005

Chennai Churning
Cultured, genteel, open-minded—till the other week, Chennai had every
sensibility going for it. These days, it finds itself facing the
truncheon of the moral police. Vrinda Gopinath finds out why
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=82756

o o o

(iv)
Magazine Section - The Hindu, November 27, 2005

A freedom at stake ...
by Suresh Nambath
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2005/11/27/stories/2005112700360100.htm

o o o

(v)

Magazine Section - The Hindu, November 27, 2005

Women speak out
By Kalpana Sharma
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2005/11/27/stories/2005112700230300.htm

____

[6]

SRI LANKA: HUMAN RIGHTS FILM ON RAJANI THIRANAGAMA ON CANADIAN TV

a review of 'No More Tears Sister', a film on the life of Dr. Rajani
Thiranagama, shown on the Documentary Channel in Canada. The film will
be shown again on December 2nd, 3rd and December 16.

Further information about the film can be found at:
http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/nomoretearssister/

---

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=935d3626-7423-422f-b1d0-0774f6af01a1
The Montreal Gazette
November 21, 2005

The awful truth

Sri Lankan human-rights activist is the subject of a documentary that
explores the brutality of ethnic conflicts and gives voice to the silenced

DONNA NEBENZAHL

The filmmaker doesn't want to be recognized. The fearsome reach of the
ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, subject of a riveting documentary by
veteran filmmaker Helene Klodawsky, is such that she has asked that her
face not be shown in the photograph illustrating this story.

Her film, No More Tears Sister: Anatomy of Hope and Betrayal, focuses on
Rajani Thiranagama, a doctor and university teacher assassinated in 1989
for her human-rights work.

Since 1948 and the end of British colonial rule in Ceylon, as Sri Lanka
was then called, ethnic killing between the majority Sinhalese and
minority Tamils has claimed the lives of thousands.

A Christian Tamil herself, who had broken her earlier ties with the
Tamil separatist movement, Thiranagama - known as Rajani - was
considered a threat by the Tamil Tigers, an armed rebel group formed in
the 1970s to fight for an independent state in Sri Lanka.

In 1989, because she had founded University Teachers for Human Rights, a
group that recorded atrocities committed by all sides in the conflict,
Rajani was gunned down while riding her bicycle home from teaching at
the medical school in Jaffna. She was 35 years old.

No one was ever charged with her killing, although suspicion rests on
the Tigers.

More than a touch of serendipity led Klodawsky to tell Rajani's story.
For starters, Serendip was one of the names Sri Lanka has borne in its
long history.

The project began in 2003 when the National Film Board asked her to make
a film on women and war, a subject with which Klodawsky, a filmmaker for
20 years, had grown familiar, both professionally and personally.

"I had done other films on conflict situations," said the 50-year-old
filmmaker in a telephone interview from a Berlin conference she was
attending.

"Growing up with a mother who was in Auschwitz and among adults who were
concentration camp survivors, these themes are never far from one's
psyche."

She decided to focus on ethnic nationalism, to explore it from a woman's
perspective. She read up and discovered that a lot of Sri Lankan
feminists were writing about war.

Then Klodawsky found out about the University Teachers for Human Rights,
based in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. She inquired further, and was told the
founder, Rajani Thiranagama, had been assassinated 15 years before.

"I know it sounds a little flaky," she said, "but I just had an arrow of
inspiration in my heart and knew this would be my film."

She contacted Rajani's older sister, Nirmala, a Tamil militant in her
youth whose jailing by the Sri Lankan government had further politicized
Rajani. "We've been waiting for you for 15 years," Nirmala said.

"They felt, at last, they could be secure in telling this story,"
largely because the National Film Board has taken great care with the
security of the family, Klodawsky said. "The NFB has been fantastic, so
committed to fostering a dialogue on human rights."

Because the story could anger certain people, and the family could be
punished for that, "it has always been very much on our minds that the
film should be promoted and seen by many, so they could be protected."

No More Tears Sister premiered in April at the 2005 Hot Docs
International Film Festival in Toronto, and has been seen at the Seattle
Film Festival, the Human Rights Film Festival in New York and now is
travelling to 40 U.S. cities as part of the Human Rights Watch
travelling film festival. It has also been shown at human-rights film
festivals in South Africa and Spain, at women's events in South Korea
and Thailand, and has been bought by PBS in the United States and
Australian TV.

It's part of a wave of documentary filmmaking that seems to be catching
on with a public that has grown to feel short-changed by the mainstream
media, Klodawsky suspects.

"People want more depth, they want to hear a story from different points
of view," she said. "Documentary as a form is coming into its own."

Members of Rajani's family participated in the making of No More Tears
Sister at some risk to themselves, as did her ex-husband, Dayapala, who
had been a radical student leader from a Sinhala Buddhist background,
and is the father of their two daughters. To them, it was an act of
faith, Klodawsky said, almost an obligation.

"I think when people are unjustly removed or killed or silenced, those
who survive are obligated to not let that memory be lost," she said.

This sombre tale is an homage to those caught up in conflict who
struggle to survive the horrors of ethnic nationalism. In Rajani's case,
her courage and dedication to her country shine through.

It's fitting that Rajani's life as a young woman is re-enacted by her
youngest daughter, one of several re-creations the filmmaker had to
resort to because so many people were afraid to speak.

"They knew it would be too dangerous for them, and even when I proposed
filming them in shadow, they were too frightened."

This was the case not just in Sri Lanka but also in Toronto: members of
the Tamil diaspora who had worked with Rajani were still afraid.

"I did go to Jaffna, and in the end, people said it was impossible. It
would arouse too much suspicion."

Fear of the Tamil Tigers, fear of speaking out has rendered the
population silent. One man told Klodawksy: "It's not our houses but our
minds that are surrounded by barbed wire."

Filming took place in Sri Lanka, south of the Tiger-controlled areas.
"We re-created a lot with actual research and details of what really
happened," Klodawsky said.

"In order to tell the truth we had to fake it."

Rajani, she believes, was unable to turn her back on the conflict,
driven by her concern for the communities she saw falling apart.

"Most professionals fled the war, and she could have had a job anywhere,
but she was a passionate defender of her people," Klodawsky said. "She
really believed in them, and as much as she dreamed of running away -
many times she confesses this in her diary - she just could not."

Rajani's story fits many of the criteria the filmmaker uses to decide on
a project - a passionate story that needs to be told by people who are
driven to tell the story.

"This film is reaching people all over the world," she said, "not only
the Tamil diaspora. Whenever it's shown, people come and thank me for
giving voice to the silent majority.

"That's what I wanted the film to be, that place where people could be
open."

The world broadcast premiere of No More Tears Sister: Anatomy of Hope
and Betrayal, by Helene Klodawsky, airs on the Documentary Channel at 10
p.m. Wednesday.

The film has also been chosen as one of 15 to be broadcast in the United
States on PBS's POV next spring.

dnebenzahl at thegazette.canwest.com

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2005


____

[7]

The Indian Express
November 27, 2005

GODHRA TO GOA: FILM PROVOKES, ANGERS
by Shubra Gupta 	

GOA, NOVEMBER 26: Is India finally ready for cutting-edge political
cinema ? ‘Parzania’, a film "inspired by a true story," takes you away
from standard-issue Bollywood make-believe into the heart of real
darkness generated by the Godhra carnage. For those of us who have short
memories, it names names, and shows us the places where people were
"butchered and raped."

It says "these Muslims," and "these Hindus," and shows bloodshed without
flinching; it uses cuss words without blanching. It is full-on about the
violence, shockingly visceral but never gratuitous.

Advertisement
The importance of ‘Parzania’, premiered to a bursting house on the third
day of the 36th International Film Festival in Goa, lies not only in the
fact that it is earnest about what it wants to say about religious
fanaticism, and intolerance. It is also in the way director Rahul
Dholakia is completely fearless in the way he re-creates the
cold-blooded riots which led to the Gujarat riots, and the terrible days
during which more than a thousand people were killed and several
thousands were left without homes and hope.

The bloodletting is seen through the eyes of a Parsi household in
Ahmedabad. Cyrus, played by Naseerudin Shah, is a projectionist in a
local theatre, whose family is attacked by enraged Hindu activists. His
wife and daughter escape; his son, Parzan disappears. The little boy
becomes a chilling metaphor for the loss of innocence, and an aching
awareness that life will never be the same again.

‘Parzania’ goes the distance in the way Govind Nihalani’s ‘Dev’, also a
commercial Bollywood enterprise, also based on the Godhra riots, did
not. First off, it does not have the artifice caused by the presence of
such stars as Amitabh Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor.

The actors in Dholakia’s film are subsumed by their parts: keeping pace
with Naseer in a career-best performance, is Sarika, who plays Shernaz,
the devastated wife and mother with fine understatement. And the child
actors are absolutely first-rate.

So what you get is no trumpets, no fanfare, just plain, unvarnished
story-telling minus embellishments. The attacking Hindus, with their
menacing ‘trishuls’, and warcries of ‘Jai Sri Rams’ belong to the
‘Parishad’ ; the chief minister of Gujarat who goes live on TV promising
that the ‘guilty will not be spared’ sounds eerily like Narendra Modi,
and the National Human Rights Commission ( NHRC) so named, conducts
hearings just the way we were told it did, both in print, and in television.
____

[8]

Deccan Herald
November 26, 2005 	

RSS THREAT TO GOA CULTURE FESTIVAL

 From Devika Sequeira DH news Service Panaji
A quiet Latin quarter of Panjim that carries a distinct Iberian stamp to
it has become the target of right-wing fanaticism of the RSS brand.

Tying up with a motley group of freedom fighters under the Desh Premi
Nagrik Samiti (DPNS), RSS members have threatened to shut down a popular
art and culture festival scheduled to open on Saturday, because the
saffron group believes it “encourages and promotes Portuguese culture”.

A residential area of close-knit houses in the European style,
Fontainhas is being encouraged and promoted for conservation by heritage
lovers. A successful attempt to this end has been the Fontainhas
Festival of the Arts promoted every year by the Goa Heritage Action
Group and the city’s municipal corporation, which has rekindled an
interest in the distinct architectural and cultural identity of the area.

The organisers scheduled the festival to coincide with the ongoing
International Film Festival here, but many are worried about RSS
threats. Goa’s Deputy Inspector General of Police Ujjwal Mishra said
adequate security would be provided and the festival would go on.

The festival is “a blot on Goan society and encourages Portuguese
culture” RSS Goa chief Subhash Velingker’s son Rajendra Velingker told
the media.


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

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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