SACW | 4-6 Dec. 2005

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 4-6 Dec, 2005 | Dispatch No. 2184


[1] Pakistan: HRCP demands role in decision-making for quake survivors
[2] India-Pakistan:
(i) Of myopic cultural exchanges (Jawed Naqvi)
(ii)Protest - Humiliation of Pakistani theatre group 'Tehrik-e-Niswan'
in India
[3] India: Revolt In The Shiv Sena: Death-knell for a fascist party?
(Praful Bidwai)
[4] India: There is egg on this Cake Court judgements against
non-vegetarianism (Imtiaz Ahmad)
[5] Tribute: Amrita Pritam - An alternative voice of history (Nonica Datta)
[6] Announcement: 'Some aspects of gender and sexuality in the age of US
imperialism' (volume 9 of Ghadar)

___


[1]

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
	
Press Releases 	

HRCP DEMANDS ROLE IN DECISION-MAKING FOR QUAKE SURVIVORS
Lahore, 5 December 2005 :

LAHORE: The exclusion of quake survivors from decision-making, the
concentration of policy planning in military hands, the lack of
transparency in distributing aid and the rapidly worsening conditions in
all affected areas due to cold weather are matters of grave concern to HRCP.

HRCP has completed a detailed report on the post-earthquake situation,
based on the assessments of four teams led by HRCP council members,
which visited earthquake-affected areas including Mansehra district,
Battagram district, Muzzafrabad district, Bagh district, Rawlakot
district, Shangla district and Kohistan district from November 18th to
November 20th.

The report will be released within a few days. A summary of some of its
findings follow:

Background: Since the earthquake of October 8th hit northern Pakistan,
HRCP has been engaged in a sustained process of monitoring and needs
assessment in terms of protection issues. Before this mission, HRCP
office-holders, staff and members had within the first two weeks of the
quake visited some of the worst affected areas to gain first-hand
knowledge of the situation. HRCP has remained engaged in very limited
relief work and on behalf of SAHR has organized the delivery of drugs
worth Rs 25 lakh from India. A set of guidelines on safeguarding rights
in disaster situations have been published, while HRCP base offices have
been operating in Muzzafrabad and Mansehra for the past few weeks to
monitor the protection needs of people and advise HRCP on its future
actions.

During its fact-finding mission, HRCP has been greatly encouraged to
find some improvement in terms of coordination and relief delivery as
compared to the chaos seen in the early days of the quake. However, the
onset of winter and reports of new deaths give rise to acute concerns
regarding the welfare of survivors over the coming weeks and months.

In terms of relief, the efforts of ordinary people and civil society
organizations were particularly commendable in the immediate aftermath
of the catastrophe. HRCP can also only express admiration for the
remarkable fortitude of people that have survived, despite the extremely
trying conditions they have faced since the quake.

It is however obvious that there are many problems linked to
compensation policies. The exclusion of people from decision-making and
the sidelining of local administrations have added to these. These
difficulties can only become worse as winter closes in, making the very
task of survival a still bigger challenge in all quake affected areas.

Conclusions: On the basis of its assessments and meetings in affected
areas, HRCP noted there were several important factors, relevant to the
conduct of the relief effort and to future policy planning.

In the first place, it is clear that the delayed start to rescue efforts
by the military had caused the loss of many lives that could have been
saved. This has meant that people are understandably extremely bitter
against the military, and also the government. The credibility of
authorities has as such suffered, and they lack the trust and support of
local people.

HRCP fears the situation may worsen further in the coming days due to
the winter conditions now prevailing in all quake-hit areas. The
increased hardships, sickness and new deaths caused by this are
unforgivable given that winter was never an unforeseen event, and quite
obviously, planning for it needed to be put in place well before the
first snows and rains of the season.

During its visit, HRCP noted that while relief efforts have improved
considerably over the early days of the quake, and planning by the
military in some locations at least is impressive in terms of
organization, people themselves are not being involved in
decision-making. They also have little information about the policies
being put in place or on future plans for affected areas.

No where is this more obvious than in the issue of the sum set as
compensation. The Rs. 25,000 initially allocated has been increased to
Rs 200,000, but, as with the previous sum, it is unclear on what
criteria this amount has been determined. The views of local people, who
believe allocation per roof is unjust as several families often live
under a single shelter, have not been taken into account.  The rules set
for the grant of compensation are also unfair, with the amount given
only in cases where the roof has fallen. This excludes people living in
badly damaged houses, which will need to be pulled down – and creates a
deep sense of unfair play among victims. Local people have been neither
consulted nor informed about the decisions regarding compensation, while
a lack of transparency adds to the problems.

The lack of accountability and transparency means people are not
confident about the fairness of the relief work. The new donations
announced for the quake relief effort for the international community
after the donor’s conference on November 19th, during HRCP’s mission to
affected areas, makes the need for transparency doubly irrefutable.

There is also a need to streamline and standardize data collection.
Local people have refuted figures compiled by the military in various
cases, while different NGOs and relief agencies have sometimes come up
with contradictory statistics.

Recommendations:

HRCP has made a set of recommendations, based on its findings, which are
intended for the international community including the UN, donors,
regional neighbours and relief organizations; the government of
Pakistan; the government of Azad Kashmir, NGOs; the population of
affected areas and military teams engaged in relief.

    1. The widespread allegations of corruption, pilferage and hoarding
are extremely worrying. It is essential to put in place an independent
system to track distribution of aid and compensation. The government of
Pakistan, in cooperation with donor countries, must find a monitoring
mechanism which is not solely in the hands of the military but
representative of the people of affected areas. Placing all data on a
web-site would also be enormously beneficial, making relief more
transparent and enabling errors to be pointed out quickly.
    2. The local community must not be excluded from processes of
decision making, and must be kept informed about the steps being taken.
While international relief agencies are attempting to ensure this
happens, through regular meetings and discussions, the effort needs to
be improved and made more effective. Information centres must be set up
in affected areas along with monitoring cells where complaints can be
reviewed by persons not affiliated to a state agency. Many survivors are
unaware about free medical services, schools or tent camps available
just a few kilometers away from their area. Setting up community-managed
FM radio stations would be one way to decimate information widely and
quickly.
    3. Given the almost uniform perception among both affected people
and agencies working on the ground that the distribution of compensation
on a per roof is deeply flawed given ground realities, the policy in
this regard needs to be urgently reviewed. [The compensation amount has
been raised to Rs 200,000 from the original sum of Rs 25,000 since the
fact-finding mission]. Several affected families frequently live under a
single roof, and per family distribution of the amount would be more
equitable. Compensation payments should not be restricted only to men.
Longer-term schemes, including loans, initially without interest, and
then with nominal interest, may be considered. Tenants, and other
affected people who do not own property, must not be excluded from
compensation. In some cases landlords are not willing to rebuild houses
occupied by tenants. Pending payments need to be made immediately, so
people can begin reconstructing homes.
    4. Registration and documentation of parentless children, single
women and others who have become vulnerable to abuse is urgently
required. Rehabilitation centres for orphans and women left on their own
should be located near their home areas. The government should
facilitate victims in the replacement of personal documents that have
been lost. Greater efforts must be made to reunite displaced people,
especially children, with their families. The media can be utilized for
this to a greater extent than is currently happening. Children who have
lost families in the disaster must have full rights to claim inheritable
property and receive compensation.
    5. The government must ensure free movement of people in affected
areas. People must not be put on the ECL, or intimidated through other
means, because of their political views. The freedom to express opinions
of all shades must be available to everyone.
    6. The State must initiate public work schemes and other projects
aimed at creating unemployment. Compensation for destroyed shops, lost
livestock and agricultural land must be a part of any package. Enabling
people to resume work and earn income is crucial to the rehabilitation
effort.
    7. It is essential aid be taken to women, the injured and the
elderly who are unable to themselves reach distribution centres or make
their needs known. Arrangements also need to be made to take aid to
people living away from main roads, and distribution must be equitable
and adequate.
    8. Information about human rights violations must be widely
circulated, so all organizations can plan efforts to alleviate the
situation. The information must not be restricted only to the Government
of Pakistan. When incidents are reported, they must not be covered up.
Police and other agencies must be sensitized to existing issues,
particularly those of women and children. They must also be trained to
cooperate with local administrations.
    9. Human rights bodies need to be urgently established in Azad Jammu
and Kashmir and in the NWFP, with the participation of local people.
   10. A policy must be put in place to ensure new construction is
safer, and does not use the same technologies that caused so many deaths
in the first place. The reason for the collapse of a large number of
public buildings, especially schools, must be ascertained and anyone
responsible for corruption penalized under the law.
   11. International standards must be adhered to by all groups in the
running of camps. Where possible, communities should be housed together.
   12. Coercion must not be used to force people down from high altitude
areas. This is all the more crucial in situations where there are
apprehensions land is being cleared to serve vested military or
political interests. The opinions of local communities must be sought
regarding all resettlement and housing issues, and given due respect by
decision-makers.
   13. Trauma centres are needed in affected areas, as well as more
female doctors to address the needs of women.
   14. Donations coming in for the quake relief effort must also be
utilized to strengthen civil society organizations, the physical
infrastructure and services such as health, education and sanitation in
all affected areas.


Asma Jahangir                                     Iqbal Haider

Chairperson                                         Secretary General

____



[2] Pakistan India People to People interaction

(i)

Dawn
November 5, 2005

OF MYOPIC CULTURAL EXCHANGES

by Jawed Naqvi

IT WAS perhaps easier to explain the fascistic attack on Fahmida Riaz
five years ago. After all she was a Pakistani poetess who was trying to
bring her message of peace in a badly poisoned atmosphere of post-Kargil
Delhi. Moreover, she was a liberal, progressive feminist who asked
difficult questions of religious bigots in both countries. The people
who attacked her at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, when she had barely
started reading her poem, were followers of the religious revivalist
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. The group, better known as RSS, is the
cultural equivalent of the right-wing Muslim groups in Pakistan or
Bangladesh that spew venom on progressive women and men. Remember in
Delhi in May 2000, it was the period of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s rightward
leaning government when Narendra Modi and Praveen Togadia, though yet to
acquire notoriety in Gujarat, were beginning to become the dominant
flavour of Indian culture.

To be fair to Indian audiences, even in those troubled times Ms. Riaz
was able to successfully recite the same poem earlier in the week in
Delhi that year, and to a wider group of more discerning listeners; but
she was unlucky the second time.

“Tum bilkul hum jaise nikle abtak kahaan chhupe thay bhai? (You Indians
have turned out to be as bigoted as us in Pakistan. Where have you been
hiding all this while brother?) went the opening lines of her poem that
mocked religious narrow-mindedness in both countries.

Almost on cue, a certain Major Sharma had whipped out his pistol. As he
threatened to stall the Mushaira, the army man and two of his equally
viciously hostile aides were overpowered by the largely secular
audience. They were packed off to a hospital in a hapless state.

The entire Vajpayee government and the ever so fickle media came down
like a ton of bricks on Ms. Riaz and JNU’s leftist students’ union, her
hosts.

The defence minister visited the dubious army officer in hospital to
express his sympathy for the great act of nationalism. The issue
generated heat in parliament and such was the effect of the Kargil
poison that there was no one left among the MPs from any ideological
corner to defend the poet and her poetry. It seemed to be the end of the
nascent cultural exchanges the two countries had only recently embarked
upon.

As a consequence of that incident, Fahmida Riaz would have to wait for
the entire government to change in New Delhi to be invited again for her
next poetry symposium here. And when she was in Delhi last month she was
still worrying about the rise of rightwing tendencies in Pakistan and
now in India too. It was a sad development for the Pakistani poet
because India was where she had once taken refuge from Gen. Zia-ul-Haq’s
fanatically narrow-minded interpretation of Islam in the late 1970s.

It was however relatively easy to understand the fascist assault on Ms
Riaz during the Vajpayee rule. There was little else that could be
expected from the cohorts of the Hindutva brand of cultural fascism.
However, when Sheema Kirmani and her troupe of young and talented actors
were stopped by their hosts in Lucknow last week from going ahead with
an anti-war play they were invited to stage, some of her Indian friends
were shocked.

Ms Kirmani and her Tehreek-i-Niswan group have been actively involved
since 1980s in the promotion of liberal ideals to receptive Pakistani
audiences who have ranged from rural schoolchildren in Sindh to urban
women’s groups across the country. The play — Zikr-i-Nashunida — that
was to be staged in Lucknow, Varanasi and Bhubaneshwar presents women’s
perspective against war in which American misadventures in Vietnam, Iraq
and Afghanistan are effectively highlighted as examples of contemporary
violence that dog the world.

Ms. Kirmani’s hosts in India were a group called Women’s Initiative for
Peace in South Asia (WIPSA). The group boasts of a formidable patronage
that includes India’s ace peace activists such as Nirmala Deshpande. How
could such a group take a narrow-minded stand so as to block a play
simply because it was critical of American militarism? Developed out of
a workshop conducted by Indian theatre director Prasanna Ramaswamy, the
play is truly a joint Indo-Pak venture. The Pakistani cast includes
Mahvish Faruqi, Shama Askari, Asma Mundrawala, Shazia Qamar, Saifi
Hasan, Mahmood Bhatti, Atif Siddiqui, and Saleem Jafri. It has been
translated into Urdu by Anwer Jafri. These are all well meaning and
genuinely progressive people. Why were they threatened and stopped from
performing the play in Varanasi and Bhubaneshwar by WIPSA? Is it because
WIPSA had taken money from Ford Foundation for the show, as we are told,
and thus there was a conflict of interest between the script of the play
and its Indian/American financiers?

After their return to Delhi, the humiliated and dejected troupe were
subjected to a further nightmarish ordeal. They were thrown out of the
guest-house where they were lodged by some friends in Delhi in what must
truly rank as the scariest mid-night knock they have experienced. All
this happened under a Congress party-ruled Delhi. Is that what makes it
more difficult to digest the cultural policing that Ms. Kirmani’s troupe
were subjected to? That would be hasty judgment to make. Remember it was
not the mullahs in Iran, but a Congress party government in Delhi that
had first banned the controversial book by Salman Rushdie.

There is something insidious about all the governments in India, whether
they come from the Hindutva stock or belong to Nehruvian-Fabian gene.
They would subsidise the annual Haj for Indian Muslims, they would
deploy an entire army to supervise the Hindu pilgrimage to Amarnath in
Kashmir, they will hold special talks with Pakistan to facilitate Sikh
pilgrims to visit the Nankana Sahib shrine across the border. But try to
go to them with a liberal agenda, bereft of religious content — say
against American imperialism, or to get humanitarian relief across the
Line of Control in Kashmir. The chances are you would meet the fate of
Sheema Kirmani and Fahmida Riaz.



o o o

(ii)

(Please send your protests to WIPSA at wipsaindia at eth.net)


     Humiliation of Pakistani theatre group 'Tehrik-e-Niswan' in India.

   We are shocked at the way Women‚s Initiative for Peace in South Asia
(WIPSA) has treated the theatre group Tehrik-e-Niswan from Pakistan in
its programme 'Staging Peace' in Lucknow on 27th November, 2005, forcing
them make a pre-mature departure.  WIPSA is accusing Tehrik-e-Niswan of
breaching the trust by going and performing at the Coalition for Nuclear
Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) convention a day earlier than the formal
event organized at I.T. College by them in Lucknow. It is also troubled
that the play 'Jikr-e-Nashunida'‚ a joint endeavour of Sheema Kermani,
the lead artist, and Prasanna Ramaswamy, the Director, and performed by
Tehrik-e-Niswan, is 'anti-American'. It is to be noted that the WIPSA
event is being funded by Ford Foundation India. The functionary incharge
of this programme from WIPSA, threatened the Pakistani group
Tehrik-e-Niswan on 28th November night to leave India in two days.
Otherwise, she said, their Visas would be cancelled and police would be in
  formed.
  This is the ultimate insult to Sheema Kermani, the leader of the
Pakistani group.
               Tehrik-e-Niswan is going back to Pakistan without being
able to perform according to the schedule at Varanasi and Bhubaneshwar.
It is a shame for us that we‚re not able to respect the talent of Sheema
Kermani and her group, which has very graciously handled the entire
situation, and have caused them much mental agony. We feel badly let
down by WIPSA and very strongly condemn its immature way of dealing with
the Pakistani group.
               Such an action on part of WIPSA makes mockery of the
right to freedom of expression guaranteed by Constitution of India and
also is a blot on the heritage of pluralism and inclusiveness that is
cherished for long on this sub-continent. Moreover, such a behaviour of
an organisation mandated to work for peace in South Asia is not only a
big setback to the people-to-people level confidence building process
but also an embarrassment to the peace process undergoing between the
governments of India and Pakistan. We would also like to raise two
crucial issues of censorship and control of discourse by supporting
bodies which in turn are doubling as facilitators of fascism besides
proving their subservience to the Nation State.
   SHEEMA KERMANI and her group consisting of 9 other people (MAHVASH
FARUQI, SHAMA ASKARI, ASMA MUNDRAWALA, SHAZIA QAMAR, SAIFE HASAN,
MAHMOOD BHATTI, ATIF SIDIQI, SALEEM MAIRAJ and ANWER JAFRI) have decided
to stay in this country till Monday, 5th December 2005. They have a
non-police reporting visa valid for one month. Yet, they were asked to
vacate the Chandiwala Estate Guest House, Kalkaji (near Nehru Place),
New Delhi on 1st December late night without any reason.
                           We the undersigned demand unconditional
public apology from Women‚s Initiative for Peace in South Asia (WIPSA)
for misconduct of such consequences by its important functionaries and
take immediate and exemplary action against them failing which we will
be forced to campaign within the peace movement in both the countries
and at international level for social boycott of WIPSA and the people
associated with it.

   Sandeep Pandey & Arundhati Dhuru, National Alliance of People's
Movement (NAPM)
   Anil Chaudhary, Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF)
   Anand Patwardhan, Peace Activist and Filmmaker
   Shabnam Hashmi, Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD)
   Achin Vanaik & Sukla Sen, Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace
(CNDP)
   Amerjeet Kaur, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)
   Praful Bidwai, Journalist and Columnist
   Sumit Chakravarty Editor, Mainstream
   Javed Naqvi, Journalist and Columnist
   Suhas Borker, Film Maker
   Shahid Jamal, Media Consultant
   Gautam Navlakha, Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy
   Surendra Mohan, Senior Socialist Leader


____



[3]


Kashmir Times
November 5, 2005

Revolt In The Shiv Sena:
Death-knell for a fascist party?
by Praful Bidwai

The banner of revolt raised by Mr Raj Thackerary against his cousin and
Mr Bal Thackeray's heir-apparent Uddhav signifies the gravest-ever
crisis in the Shiv Sena's 39 year-long history. Raj decided to resign
from all Sena posts within a few days of a crushing defeat inflicted on
the Sena candidate by former Chief Minister Narayan Rane in the Malvan
Assembly by-election. This isn't a mere coincidence. Until he joined the
Congress in July, Mr Rane was the Sena's most-rooted leader, with a
solid base in the Konkan coast. Nor is it trivial that the Sena's
candidate lost his deposit. Like Mr Raj Thackeray, Mr Rane too saw his
battle inside the Sena as one primarily directed against Uddhav.
Although Mr Raj Thackeray has not directly criticised his uncle-and says
he remains his "God"-the logic of his position pits him against Sena
leaders, including the Senapati himself. After all, it's Mr Bal
Thackeray who anointed his son as the Sena's "executive president" four
years ago-a never-before-heard-of post. He did this despite the fact
that Raj is senior to Uddhav as a Sainik and was always considered a
more able, hands-on organisation man. It's the Sena's founder-Fuehrer
who allowed Uddhav to marginalise Mr Rane, and later, Raj. Given this,
it's hard to see how there can be a patch-up with Raj.
In all probability, Mr Raj Thackeray will quit and set up some kind of
"parallel Sena" amidst the raucous celebrations typical of such outfits.
He will be the fifth major leader to quit the Sena-after former Bombay
mayor Hemchandra Gupte and senior leader Datta Pradhan (1977), Chhagan
Bhujbal (1991) and Rane (2005). The pattern is well-established. You
might be talented and fiercely loyal to the Sena. But if you don't get
on with the Fuehrer (or his son), you don't count.
However, there's a big difference between the quiet individual-centric
departures of Gupte and Pradhan from the Sena and the last three
leaders' public-political alienation. These three fomented revolts and
splits-of rising magnitude. The fact that Raj comes from the Thackeray
family can only magnify the most recent blow to the Sena. Soon, the two
groups will tend to clash and undermine each other. And it's probably
only a matter of time before the Shiv Sena ceases to exist as a
significant political force. This is likely to happen in Mr Bal
Thackeray's own life-time.
We must all rejoice in the Sena's political demise-unabashedly and
without feeling in any way embarrassed. The Sena was the nearest thing
to the European fascism of the first half of the 20th century which
India produced in the second half. For four decades, its goons played
havoc with politics, the law, culture, sports, and the courts. They
ruled India's largest-and wealthiest-city through manipulation,
blackmailing, coercion, fear and violence.
The Sena consciously fomented religious hatred and communalised
Maharashtra politics. It manufactured chauvinist prejudice against
non-Maharashtrians and instigated or committed hate-crimes. The Sena,
with its disgusting demagoguery, represents pure, unadulterated evil, a
political force that concentrates much that's negative and deplorable in
Indian society, including hierarchical authoritarianism, repression and
addiction to the use of force and bullying. The Sena's disintegration
will deprive the BJP of its sole ideological (Hindutva) ally. That
warrants a minor celebration, as does the BJP's own crisis, aggravated
by Ms Uma Bharati. Parties that reject India's multicultural,
multi-religious, multi-ethnic heritage and the bedrock Constitutional
value of secularism can only cause social retrogression and disarray.
The Shiv Sena was created in 1966 as an explicitly Marathi-chauvinist
party by some of Bombay's topmost industrialists. They used it as a
counterweight to the Communists, who were gaining political weight
especially through growing trade unionism in "sunrise" industries like
engineering, electricals, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Sena goons
would regularly break strikes, disrupt union meetings and beat up
worker-activists.
They especially targeted educated, skilled militant workers who had
newly migrated from the Southern states and had Left-wing sympathies.
These contemptuously termed "lungiwallahs" were the Sena's earliest
targets. Next came the Gujaratis and Muslims. Again, it was the South
Indians' turn. It's only with the anti-Babri campaign in the mid-1980s
that the Sena became rabidly anti-Muslim in a focussed way.
Early on, the Sena was a tool in the hands of the political Right. The
Bombay Congress boss, S.K. Patil, deployed its goons to disrupt the 1967
election campaign of the Left-leaning V.K. Krishna Menon. Menon was
forced to contest as an independent because Patil denied him the
Congress ticket. He lost the election. The greatest resistance to the
Sena's thuggery came from the Communists. Krishna Desai, CPI MLA from
Parel, organised Left-leaning youths and gave them self-defence
training. The police, he believed, couldn't be trusted to defend the
Left against the Sena.
In 1970, the Sena's thugs hacked Desai to death-Independent India's
first political murder. They got away lightly thanks to the deeply
compromised ruling Congress. The Sena's politics of blackmail, violence
and murder came to prevail. Unfortunately, the Communists' resistance
got subdued. The Sena had a field day.
In its anti-union activities, the Sena was supported by the police, the
state government and the Right-wing media. The government regarded
ensuring "industrial peace" a higher priority than defending fundamental
rights, even law-and-order. Without the support of petty short-sighted
leaders like V.P. Naik, the Sena couldn't have grown. The Congress
nurtured the monster. And later, the BJP shamelessly allied with it.
Equally reprehensible was the role of industrialists who financed and
mentored the Sena and formulated its political strategy. Mr Thackeray
had none. He was always a low-level demagogue who knew how to appeal to
the crassest, basest instincts of his audience. They manipulated him to
impose his own pro-employer Bharatiya Kamgar Sena on workers. They used
him to demand jobs exclusively for "sons-of-the-soil" and exploit the
sense of inferiority and identity-loss that the Maharashtrian middle
class in Bombay had long nursed. Unlike other Indian metropolises,
Bombay has never been strongly dominated by one ethnic-linguistic group.
Its Marathi-speaking population has been about 40 percent. So the slogan
of "neglect" of the "Marathi Manoos" evokes a strong response especially
when jobs become scarce and the middle class feels threatened.
The Shiv Sena's historic role has been fourfold: undermine and destroy
working class radicalism in India's most advanced industries, in Bombay;
infuse chauvinism and extreme intolerance into Maharashtra's society and
reverse the entire tradition of liberal social reform which began with
Jyotiba Phule; communalise politics and institutionalise lawlessness and
coercion; and, finally, push the terrain of mainstream politics to the
Right.
This is a deeply deplorable agenda. The Sena succeeded in implementing
its first half with the help of the Congress in the 1960s and 1970s. Its
cult of Shivaji helped consolidate Maratha power and rabid Maharashtrian
chauvinism, as well as deeply Islamophobic, illiberal, macho ideas. It
succeeded on the second half of the agenda through the able assistance
of the BJP after the 1980s.
The Sena's greatest political gains, ironically, came not through its
"sons-of-the-soil" appeal, which it pushed in Bombay and Konkan, but
through OBC support. In the mid-1980s, it extended its influence to
Marathwada and Vidarbha. The key here was not Mr Thackeray, but OBC
leader Chhagan Bhujbal. In 1995, the Sena came to power in Maharashtra
in alliance with the BJP. Crucial to this was the terrible post-Babri
demolition anti-Muslim violence of 1993, which it organised/instigated,
followed by the March bomb blasts. The Sena leveraged power to award
"crony capitalist" contracts, including tripling the size of the Enron
power project after winning elections on the promise of "drowning it in
the sea".
Soon, politics took the back seat in the Sena. By 1999, it was out of
power, but its leaders had accumulated enormous wealth. For instance, a
few months ago, Mr Raj Thackeray, in collaboration with former Lok Sabha
Speaker Manohar Joshi, bought the huge properties of Kohinoor Mills in
Central Bombay, worth over Rs 350 crores. Barring the Raj Thackeray-led
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, which claims five lakh members in
Maharashtra, the Sena's mobilisation stagnated. It had every opportunity
to outmanoeuvre the shaky Congress-Nationalist Congress government which
replaced it in 1999-2004, but failed to seize it. Its political appeal
shrank, as did the Senapati's always semi-manufactured charisma.
Eventually, Mr Thackeray went the way of all tinpot dictators and
third-rate demagogues. He became a prisoner of a small coterie, based
upon family loyalties, and a cult of himself and his wife. That
dependence undermined the Sena and led to one revolt after another. The
Sena is probably now at the end of the road. But the "Marathi Manoos"
sentiment it promoted, the sense of injury it cultivated, and the
chauvinist political space it occupied for four decades hasn't gone
away. It could well be exploited by other currents, including sections
of the NCP and the Congress. That would be a tragedy of historic
proportions. One can only hope that Ms Sonia Gandhi does not repeat the
blunders her mother-in-law made in the 1960s and 1970s, and that Mr
Sharad Pawar doesn't emulate V.P. Naik.


____


[4]


Tehelka
Dec 10 , 2005

THERE IS EGG ON THIS CAKE

Two recent judgements against non-vegetarianism back the sanskritisation
of Indian society and bring into sharp focus the double-edged nature of
secularism and democracy

By Imtiaz Ahmed

Last month India’s higher judiciary pronounced two judgements which have
a direct bearing on how secularism and democratic rights should be
interpreted.

One is the judgement pronounced by the Chhattisgarh High Court in a
public interest litigation wherein the petitioner had contended that the
sale of eggs in public places offended his sentiments as well as those
of other vegetarian Hindus who do not consider the egg as a vegetarian
food item. The court ruled that eggs should not be sold in public
places. It directed the state government to provide specific spaces for
the sale of eggs.

The other is the judgement of the Supreme Court upholding the Gujarat
Cow Slaughter Act, which banned the slaughter of buffaloes along with
cows, as constitutional. Since both the judgements relate to practices
on which there is no consensus in society (some sections favour them
while other sections consider them objectionable or offensive), they
involve the substantive question of when the objections of one section
should be sustainable and when they should be overruled. They also bring
into sharp focus the double-edged nature of secularism and democracy.

It will be generally agreed that democracy grants citizens the right to
live according to their visions of a good life. If someone considers
eating vegetarian diet to be a part of one’s vision of a good life, he
or she enjoys the right in a democracy to practice vegetarianism.
Likewise, if someone considers eating meat to be a part of one’s vision
of a good life, he or she too enjoys the right to practice
non-vegetarianism. No one can deny this right to a citizen in a
democracy. Perhaps, the only condition to which this or any other
similar right is subordinated is that it should not violate the
principles of equity, justice and good conscience. So long as this
condition is met, the claims of the citizen to live according to his or
her vision of a good life cannot be infringed.

The State and individual citizens are obliged under democracy to honour
and respect this right of the citizen. If either the State or individual
citizens were to interfere with this right of a citizen, the entire
edifice of a democratic State should spring into action and protect the
affected citizen’s right to live according to his vision of a good life.

Come Again, Next Year: Durga immersion in the Yamuna, Delhi
Photo Dharmender Ruhil
There is imminent danger in any democratic society that the thin line
that divides one’s own right vis-à-vis the rights of other citizens to
live according to their respective visions of a good life, founded on an
obligation to honour and respect other peoples’ rights as much as one
values one’s own, may easily be lost. Citizens may start seeking to
impose their vision of a good life upon others. If someone starts doing
so, the edifice of a democratic order would stand seriously challenged.

It would automatically lead to a situation where certain visions of a
good life would be privileged and other visions would be marginalised.
Not only would this open up the possibility of continuing play of power
in inter-citizen interactions as the less powerful (powerful in a wide
variety of ways) would be obliged to accept the visions of good life of
the more powerful without being able to impose their way of life upon
others or defending their democratic right to live according to their
vision of a good life. One of the dilemmas of nationalism is that it
propagates the idea that the culture of the dominant group would also
form the basis of building a national community. This undermines the
very basis of pluralism in society.

Pluralism can be defined as the co-existence with more or less tension
in the same social space of many systems of global convictions and of
the communities who produce them. Acceptance of pluralism as a credo of
everyday living carries two simultaneous implications. So far as
individual citizens are concerned, it demands toleration towards other
people’s beliefs, values and social practices even if they are offensive
to one’s sensibilities.

So far as the State is concerned, it imposes upon the State the
obligation to refrain from sitting in judgement over whether one group’s
beliefs, values or social practices are offending the sentiments of
another community, except where such dispute threatens public order. On
countless occasions in this country, festivals coincide and carry an
imminent threat of conflict and disturbance of public peace.

The State’s role on such occasions is limited to ensuring that public
order is not disturbed by the simultaneous celebration of festivals of
different sections of society. It is not open to the State to ban or
restrict the celebration of the festival of one section of society over
that of another section. Whether they should be held simultaneously or
staggered is something that is left to the groups to negotiate and the
State can only be a facilitator rather than an adjudicator. This is
truly the compulsion imposed upon the State by its commitment to
secularism, democracy and pluralism.

One would have expected that keeping these explicit principles of
secularism in mind, the Chhattisgarh High Court should have dismissed
the petition seeking a ban or restriction on the sale of eggs in public
places in limine. Quite to the contrary, the court not only accepted the
petition, but went on to pass an order directing the State to restrict
the sale of eggs at specified places. This action on the part of the
court can be faulted for the serious implications it has for the
principles of pluralism and secularism.

It opens up a Pandora’s Box as it creates the possibility for ever new
groups to come forward with pleas that social practices of sections of
society which they do not like should either be banned or subjected to
restrictions as it offends their sentiments. For example, what will
prevent a section of society (not necessarily Muslims or Christians but
Hindu atheists or agnostics) approaching the courts tomorrow that the
public display of idols at festival time should be banned or restricted
because it hurts their monotheistic or atheistic sensibilities? One
wonders what would be the court’s response to such a plea. This is not
merely a hypothetical question but a real one because if the court opens
itself up to such frivolous litigations, it would be hard put to close
doors for frivolous petitions for which it creates precedents.

Democracy grants citizens the right to live according to their visions
of a good life. If someone considers eating vegetarian diet to be a part
of one’s vision of a good life, he or she enjoys the right to practice
vegetarianism. Likewise with meat-eaters. The only condition to which
this right is subordinated is that it should not violate the principles
of equity, justice and good conscience
The second implication of the Chhattisgarh High Court judgement is even
more serious. The court, by its order, has appropriated to itself the
role of a sanskritising agent which is prohibited by the Constitution.
Sociologist MN Srinivas, who first introduced the word ‘sanskritisation’
in discussions of Indian society, argued that two tendencies had always
been implicit in Indian society. The first is the acceptance of the
existence of multiple cultures, including dietary. The other tendency is
the spread of the way of life of the higher castes among lower social
groups. Sanskritisation was used by Srinivas to denote the spread of the
more puritanical Brahmin way of life among lower castes and tribal groups.

The gradual emergence over the centuries of a puritanical style of life
as a dominant feature of Hinduism and the association of that style of
life with the Brahmins is itself a fascinating story. One must here note
that the early Brahmin way of life changed substantially during the
post-Vedic times. Beef-eating came to be tabooed. The slaying of cow,
common at the great festivals and family feasts, was looked down upon
with disfavour. The consumption of liquor, a feature of Vedic ritual as
well as a part of Brahmin diet, also disappeared in post-Vedic India. A
clear hierarchy was established in dietary practices: fish-eating came
to be superior to the consumption of flesh of sheep and goats, while
consumption of fowls and pigs was looked down upon and beef-eating came
to be treated with contempt.

There existed powerful barriers to sanskritisation in traditional India.
The higher castes acted as the watchdogs of a pluralistic way of life by
preventing lower social groups from indiscriminately taking on the
puritanical way of life by resisting attempts at sanskritisation by
lower social groups. A group had to be circumspect to inch its way.
Under the theocratic dispensations that characterised ancient and
medieval India, the ruler or the political authority of an area did
sometimes force or propagate the sanskritisation of lower groups, but
after the establishment of Pax Britannica the State ceased to play this
role.

The Chhattisgarh High Court judgement has the uncanny merit of taking us
back to the times when the State decreed sanskritisation as it
privileges sanskritised over non-sanskritised diet and that too in a
society which is overwhelmingly tribal and where poultry is the mainstay
of people’s diet. This is a serious matter that has implications not
only for the neutrality of the judiciary but also for the secular
credentials of the Indian State.


The writer is an eminent political sociologist

____


[5]

The Hindu
Dec 04, 2005  	
Literary Review

TRIBUTE:
(AMRITA PRITAM) AN ALTERNATIVE VOICE OF HISTORY

by Nonica Datta

Amrita Pritam's idea of cultural community and identity testifies to a
social history of Punjab's shared cultural symbols, motifs and landscapes.


Living with Tragedy: Partition played a crucial role in the formation of
Amrita Pritam's worldview. The Hindu Photo Library

AMRITA PRITAM (1919-2005) died on October 31, 2005. This brief note is
not meant as an obituary. Nor does it intend to evaluate her works.
Perhaps, her death is a moment to reflect on her long-standing
engagement with Punjab's culture and history. Significantly, her reading
of Partition and its invocation is a foray into the social history of
Punjab, even if it lacks the rigour of a historian's craft.

Quite often, Amrita Pritam's life history shows that Partition is a
crucial moment in defining her worldview; it enables her to forge a
kainaati rishta (fraternal relationship) with the universe, and create a
world in tune with Punjab's cultural landscape. Her childhood memory, as
evoked in her autobiography, Raseedi Ticket, goes back to her mother's
village in Gujranwala, where she notices water being hawked at the
railway platform as Hindu pani and Muslim pani. She questions her mother
— "Is water also Hindu-Mussalman?" All that her mother, Raj Kaur, could
say was: "It happens here, God knows what all happens next." Later, the
young Amrita raises her voice against her grandmother, who keeps the
utensils separately for her father's Muslim friends. This was "my first
baghavat (revolt) against religion", she writes.

Against politics of hate

As a witness to Punjab's Partition, Amrita Pritam writes: "In 1947,
Lahore was turned into a graveyard. It was the politics of hate that
engulfed Lahore in flames; at night one would see houses being swept in
flames, hear cries of pain, while the day would be spent witnessing long
hours of curfew." Thus began her journey as a Punjabi refugee. She was
28 years old then and pregnant. While travelling from Dehradun to Delhi,
in 1948, she wrote the nazm "Aj Ankha Waris Shah", on a scrap of paper.
The poem turned out to be her signature tune. But "there were those who
started abusing me in newspaper columns, castigating me on why I took up
a Mussalman Waris Shah? The ones of Sikh faith asserted I should have
written on Guru Nanak, while communists complained that I have ignored
Lenin."

In her genre, Amrita Pritam uses the qissa (story) tradition and is
influenced by Shah Hussain (1538-1599), Sultan Bahu (1629-1691), Waris
Shah (c. 1736-1790) and Bulle Shah (1680-1757). She thus reflects on
Punjab's cultural history and regional identity, and dwells on how
sectarian identities can be vanquished by the epiphany of love. In many
ways, Punjabi qissas enabled her to cope with the painful reality of
Partition, as they nurtured her emotional and creative self. At the time
of Partition and its ensuing violence, the Sufi poets became her
companions. Though by birth a Sikh, her "literary inheritance" was the
epitome of "fire of life" that "burnt in the love legends of Sohni,
Sassi and Heer". She writes in her autobiographical poem "Akhar"
(Words), "The fire lit by the poet Waris", "I have inherited the same
within me". And yet, she laments, "nobody nourishes fire in the city of
stones". The tragic death of the legendary lovers reflects her own
disenchantment with societal and political pressures, and her creative
rejection of assertive religious identities. And by using the love
legends of Sufi poets, she evokes the potentiality of a cultural
identity that questions the very historicity of Partition.

Festering wound

Amrita Pritam writes, "the Partition of India continued to become a
festered wound in the bosom of history. Nobody would ever know — that
the dreams of how many girls of this country were slaughtered... Then I
had written a long poem, "Tavarikh" (History), which echoes the voice of
a young girl, who like thousands of other such girls, got lost
somewhere." She presents a woman's experience of Partition as universal
and irreparable. "Who can sense the pain of such a girl — the youth of
whose body is forced into motherhood?" She describes the trauma of rape
through the metaphor of a mother's womb. The womb is a victim of
Partition's madness: "I am the symbol of that accident". The "evil in
the womb" manifests itself in the division of Punjab into two parts,
like the violent rending of the womb. This was a helpless womb like an
utterly helpless Punjab, and it bore "fruit", when, as she says, "the
trees of independence were in bud". The dream of "independence" was
shattered. The child that was born was in fact a "blackened spot". Her
Punjab was, in many ways, a belated scar of the wound, as she narrates
in her poem "Majboor".

Amrita Pritam expresses her disillusionment with Independence and the
newly drawn territorial boundaries, which destroyed the rhythm and
dreams of everyday life. In the poem, "Punjab di Kahani" (The Story of
Punjab), for instance, she writes, "From out of nowhere Fate came
galloping towards Punjab crushing Pothohar beneath the horses' hooves."
She mourns that "at year's end, a flourishing Punjab was cut down in its
green age". The poet transcends the tendency of indicting political
leaders and parties, and holds "fate" to be responsible for the
destruction of everyday life. By so doing, she not only expresses the
anguish of Punjab, but also makes a claim about how Punjab was not in
any way responsible for its vivisection.

Likewise in the poem, "Divided", Amrita Pritam conjures up the image of
a "common motherland", and once again mourns the mutilation of rural
Punjab. Written for her friend Sajjad Haider in Lahore, the poet laments
the loss of her "neighbour", who was separated from her due to
Partition. Amrita Pritam invokes many historically constructed pasts
embodied in Punjab's rich cultural history, and opposes the religiously
exclusive languages. In her poem "Junoon" (Frenzy), for example,
religion is likened to a serpent's bite, and she condemns the politics
of religious conversion and reconversion promoted by shuddhi and
sangathan, tabligh and tanzim.

This is what she had to say on August 15, 1947:

These were the people who dared to dream
When they wept, the eyes of the times wept too
When they sang, they sang of sacrifice
These were the people ready to give away their lives
These were the people who coloured their hands in the henna of their own
blood
These were the people who sang who drank the poison of slavery
These were the people who celebrated the hangings
These were the people who turned the reins of fate inside
These were the people who smashed the chains of their feet
These were the people who were the fulfilment of time
They are the paths, and the destinations
They are the ruins, and the foundations
Forever rooted/uprooted
O God of dreams, they are your lament, your complaint
They are something, and nothing
They are the question and the answer
They are patience, they are anger
They are something, they are nothing
They are the silence of the times
They are the revolution.
These ordinary people... These ordinary people... These ordinary people...

Lastly, her novel Pinjar (Skeleton) is a compelling account of her
deeply personal experience of Partition and Independence. Perhaps Pinjar
is Amrita's final testimony, as a witness, to Punjab's Partition. Here
Amrita's Pooru defies patriarchal and territorial boundaries, and
effectively uses her agency to critique the reality of Partition by
choosing to stay on in Pakistan. Indeed, in times when religious
identity became a brutal blueprint of territorial boundaries and
nationalism, Amrita and her female protagonist criticise the elision of
religious community with "nation", highlight patriarchal hypocrisy and
challenge the national obsession with borders.

Amrita Pritam's idea of cultural community and identity testifies to a
social history of Punjab's shared cultural symbols, motifs and
landscapes. As a "refugee" and Partition victim, she offers an
"alternative" voice of history, identity and Partition. Her life history
is a striking challenge to the dominant political histories of 1947.
Personally, there were many Amritas one had known. And yet her Partition
experience appears to represent her identity as a bold and dignified
survivor to many of us. The trauma of Partition acted as an impulse to
her poetical compositions.

Nonica Datta teaches History at Miranda House, Delhi University.

____


[6]

Announcing Volume 9 of GHADAR

We write to announce volume 9 of Ghadar [http://ghadar.insaf.net/] the
e-publication from the Forum of Inquilabi Leftists. This issue deals
with 'SOME ASPECTS OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN THE AGE OF US IMPERIALISM'.

Our next issue will focus on Coca-Colonization. We will document the
ongoing resistance against Coca-Cola in India and Colombia and the
emerging student activism against Coke on campuses around the world. So,
if you are agitated about corrupt corporate greed, then send in your
ideas, writings, posters, actions, songs and poetry to us at
[ghadar2004 at yahoo.com].

Table of contents of the current issue:

EDITORIAL:
Marriage is Unethical

ARTICLES:
* Standing My Ground: Reflections of a Queer Indian Immigrant Professor
in the U.S. Classroom: by Umeeta Sadarangini

* "Hardly your Queer as folk in shalwar kameez": Pakistani TV drama
takes a turn: by Ayaz Ahmed.

* Holy Matrimony: by Shivali Tukdeo

* Global Indian/Nubile Indian: Transnational circuits of desire and
conjugality by Shefali Chandra and Saadia Toor.

* Loving Capitalism? Gay marriage and the beast of assimilation: by
Manish Vaidya

* Pakistani Activists for Gender Equality on Musharraf, Mukhtaran Bibi
and US Imperialism: by Sahar Shafqat.

* On the Marriage question -- An upper-caste bourgeois perspective: By
Ra Ravishankar

* Statement to General Musharraf: by Saadia Toor

* When you and I Unite, my sister: Song by the Jana Natya Mandali.

* The sweet smell of gender trouble. Khushboo sniffs out the ticking
time bomb of cine patriarchy : By Ra Ravishankar

* What spring does with cherry trees: a poem by Aditi Thorat

ACTIVISM:

* Cease and DESIst An experiment in (re)claiming a revolutionary
anti-imperialist space in South Asian America: By Yasser Toor

* Cornell Migrant Program and the Struggle for Justice for Farmworkers:
By Brad Cordozo.

* Ivy Madness: "Still paving paradise for parking lots": By Elizabeth
Sanders.

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

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/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.