SACW | 22 Dec. 2005

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 22 Dec, 2005 | Dispatch No. 2189


[1] Pakistan: The death of science (Zubeida Mustafa)
[2] Sri Lanka: Govt and LTTE need to resume local level meetings to stem
escalation of violence (National Peace Council)
[3] Bangladesh: Religious bigotry needs firm handling (Edit., New Age)
[4] Kashmir, Pakistan, India: A solution, anyone? (A.G. Noorani)
[5] India: When "Security" Looms Larger Than Tsunami (J. Sri Raman)
[6] Case for a Commission on the Missing of Kashmir (Uma Chakravarti)
[7] India's Discriminitory ways of granting citizenship (Vikram Rautela)
[8] India: Delhi Report on The Celebrations of Day For Women's Dignity
[9] Book Review by Visalakshmi Menon: Persisting inequalities (Exploring
Gender Equations:  edited by Shakti Kak and Biswamoy Pati)
[10] India Pakistan Arms Race and Militarisation Watch No. 160 (21 Dec,
  2005)

___


[1]

DAWN
December 21, 2005

THE DEATH OF SCIENCE

By Zubeida Mustafa

IT IS a pity that science which is the antidote to irrational thinking
and obscurantist behaviour is being slowly strangled to death in
Pakistan, that is if we presume that it had a modestly glorious
existence in the past in this country.

One cannot brush aside the giants this country has produced in the years
bygone — the names of Nobel laureate Prof Abdus Salam and our genius of
chemistry Prof Salimuzzaman Siddiqui come to mind immediately. As the
grip of religion tightens on society, science is receding further and
further in the backwaters.

A number of recent events confirm this sorry phenomenon to any objective
observer. A fortnight ago, the inter-provincial conference of education
ministers took a very important decision that was hardly noted by many
people. The education ministers observed that the facilities for
laboratories in schools in the rural areas were “largely insufficient”
so the weightage given to practical examinations had been reduced.

Hence the ratio of marks for theory paper and practicals in the science
subjects has been revised from 75 per cent-25 per cent to 85 per cent-15
per cent. Now anyone with a minimal knowledge of science knows that
practical demonstrations and exercises teach a young mind more physics,
chemistry and biology than pages and pages of theoretical texts.

If the labs are in a bad shape, should not the honourable ministers have
decided to work to improve them? It is criminal to deny science
education to children just because they live in the rural areas where
the government has failed to equip schools with good laboratories.

Another instance of the negligence of science was demonstrated recently
when a colleague who had been assigned the task of checking up on the
performance of the PIA planetarium in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi, informed
me that the shows had been discontinued ages ago and a land dispute
between the Expo Centre and the planetarium had put paid to all hopes
that the planetarium would flourish again.

Another shocking news item was carried by this newspaper of Dec 13.
Datelined Lahore, it stated that the federal education ministry had
decided to “unburden” the minds of children at present studying in
classes I to III by dropping science from their course of studies. So
our children are to be denied the thrill of learning about the wonders
of science from an early age.

It is not at all clear how a child’s mind is burdened by watching water
boiling and steam being formed, or the germination of the seed which
everyone of my generation had learnt about as a child as we eagerly
jumped out of bed every morning to go and see how the bean and the newly
emerging shoot were doing.

The final blow came when I watched Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, a professor of
physics at Quaid-i-Azam University, valiantly fight a losing battle with
three religious scholars on a television channel trying to prove that
natural phenomena have scientific rather than divine causes. I knew it
was a losing battle however convincing Dr Hoodbhoy sounded because a few
days earlier I had listened to him give his keynote address at a school
conference pleading the case of science. As he had lucidly explained the
natural phenomena that cause an earthquake, I had been forced to listen
concurrently to a running commentary from a teacher sitting next to me
who kept contradicting him softly for my benefit. Her final statement
that left me baffled was that it was God who created the mysteries of
science and to Him they should be left. Man should not be interfering
with them.

One hopes that some intelligent policymaker in Islamabad who enjoyed
studying science in school will understand the utility of teaching
science to our children. Science forms the foundation of technology and
if society has to progress it will have to teach science to its students
so that they are equipped to create technology for the benefit of
industry, agriculture and much more. While this is important in itself,
the most important aspect of science is that its study involves a spirit
of enquiry and its strength depends on the questioning of every
traditionally held belief. By studying science, whole generations learn
to think logically and rationally.

Dr Viqar Zaman, a professor of microbiology, writes in his book, Life
Sciences for the Non-Scientist, “We must not think that science has only
provided material benefits to mankind. Science has been a powerful ally
in the struggle against racism, social injustice and religious bigotry.
It has drawn people away from superstition, quackery witchcraft, black
magic, demons and devils.”

This would also explain why science has always clashed with traditional
thinking. Remember Socrates who was forced to drink hemlock. He was
punished for saying that wisdom consists of knowing how little we know
and the world can be best served by truth and virtue. Then there was
Galileo who challenged the commonly held belief of the day that the sun
goes round the earth. For that he was pronounced guilty of heresy. He
had to retract his theory. But that didnt change the truth.

Are our policymakers afraid of teaching science to our students because
they fear that it will encourage the youngsters to ask questions in
their quest for the truth? We hope not. Intellectual freedom should be
allowed to flourish for thus alone can man question the veracity of
matters. The need is therefore not so much to teach science in a manner
that students will understand the natural phenomenon. It is the need to
train the thinking process of students that is important, and science
alone can do it.

To create a science-friendly society in Pakistan it is important that
science is made accessible and easily understandable. While the subject
should be introduced as early as possible in school, science should be
made interesting. As a start, the planetarium should be revived
immediately. It is also important that a small science museum be
inaugurated at the premises of the planetarium to get the Karachiites
interested in science.

That is the need of the hour. And let every person who has a scientist
within him take the “Scientist’s Oath” (quoted in Dr Viqar Zaman’s book)
that says, “I vow to strive to apply my professional skills only to
projects which, after conscientious examinations, I believe to
contribute to the goal of coexistence of all human beings in peace,
human dignity and self-fulfilment.

“I believe that this goal requires the provision of an adequate supply
of the necessities of life (good food, air, water and housing, access to
natural and man-made beauty) education and the opportunities to enable
each person to work out for himself his life objectives and to develop
creativeness and skill in the use of hands as well as head.

“I vow to struggle through my work to minimize danger. Noise strain or
invasion of privacy of the individual, pollution of earth, air or water,
destruction of natural beauty, mineral resources and wildlife.”

______


[2]

National Peace Council of Sri Lanka
12/14 Purana Vihara Road
Colombo 6, Sri Lanka


21.12.05

Media Release

GOVERNMENT AND LTTE NEED TO RESUME LOCAL LEVEL MEETINGS TO STEM
ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE

_
The assault on the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna, Prof.
Mohandas, the Dean of Arts Prof. Sivachandran and senior faculty members
of the university staff while leading a student march in Jaffna is a
tragic and worrisome sign of the continuing deterioration in the
situation that prevails in the north east.
The students and faculty were on their way to the office of the
international monitors of the SLMM to non-violently hand over a petition
protesting against the conduct of the military in recent times. While a
state of Emergency prevails in the country, the National Peace Council
affirms that civilian protests must not be dealt with in a violent
manner in a society that upholds democratic values and seeks to reject
violent alternatives.

The deterioration in conditions of peaceful life in Jaffna follows
several acts of violence that have led to serious loss of life in the
last few weeks. These include the killing of two civilians associated
with the LTTE’s Heroes Day celebrations, several incidents of grenade
throwing targeting Sri Lankan security personnel, the killing of 15
soldiers through landmines and the recent brutal rape and murder of a
young woman in close proximity to a navy camp in Jaffna. These incidents
have contributed to and fed into the escalation of tension in Jaffna.
The National Peace Council condemns these acts of violence, rape and
killings and calls on the government and LTTE to ensure that such
actions by their members are stopped forthwith and not tolerated any
more. We welcome President Mahinda Rajapakse’s appointment of a
committee of inquiry to provide a report on the most recent incident,
which needs to be followed up and the perpetrators brought to justice
expeditiously.

There is an immediate need for the government and LTTE to take steps to
defuse and de-escalate the growing crisis that is making life harsh,
fearful and alienating to the civilian population and to the security
forces. We note that the Sri Lankan security forces have entered the
University of Jaffna where there have been further clashes and yet
another soldier has been shot dead in Jaffna.
We urge the government and LTTE to recommence local level meetings that
deal with security issues on the ground, with inclusion of other
affected parties under the supervision of the international monitors. It
is important to work out a system that ensures peaceful life at the
community level while the peace process remains on hold. Without such a
mechanism there can only be a rise in violence and tensions in the north
east, which may lead to renewed armed hostilities that is to the
detriment of everyone. A continuation on the present path will only
bring more suffering and erode the gains achieved by all Sri Lankans
since the 2002 ceasefire agreement.



______


[3]

New Age (Bangladesh)
December 22, 2005

Editorial
RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY NEEDS FIRM HANDLING

The advocates of sectarian disorder have once again served notice on the
government about the need to hound the Ahmadiyya community into a
corner. These elements have for months now been engaged in a wilful and
well-organised campaign to push the country to a situation where an
unnecessary conflict can be the only consequence. One would have thought
that by now the authorities would have come down hard on the programme
of hatred that such fanatical organisations as the Khatme Nabuwat have
been peddling over a long period of time. The unfortunate fact is that
the government has chosen to look the other way every time the
Ahmadiyyas have come under a fresh new threat. To be sure, the prime
minister has expressed her concern about the problem, through appealing
to religious figures to use their influence in containing the moves made
by the bigots. While one appreciates such concern, one cannot at the
same time avoid suggesting that the absence of concrete administrative
measures to ensure the security of the Ahmadiyyas and deal firmly with
the fanatics has already affected our standing in the outside world.
    The religious bigots, having already appropriated the Islamic faith
for themselves, have now warned the government that it must declare the
Ahmadiyya community non-Muslim by next Friday. That is a clear challenge
to the authority of the government and the constitutional basis of the
state. It is the moral responsibility of the government to respond to
the challenge through going after the patently unlawful activities of
the anti-Ahmadiyya individuals and organisations. And it is the job of
the state to ensure that the foundations on which it shaped itself,
namely, secularism and democracy, are not in any way allowed to be
tampered with. Which means that the longer the fanatics are allowed to
get away with their parochialism, indeed their misplaced zeal about
maintaining the ‘purity’ of their version of faith, the bigger will be
the threat that the country will be expected to cope with. The danger
here is that unless the government is willing to move against such
designs against religious and sectarian harmony in the country soon, the
nation could well be facing a situation similar to what it happens to be
experiencing over the issue of the Jama’atul Mujahideen and Bangla Bhai.
For far too long, the ruling circles went on denying the existence of
any fundamentalist threat to democratic order. Such an attitude only led
us to a condition where fundamentalism simply turned into a worse thing:
it became religious terrorism. We are all, at this dark point in our
national history, engaged in an uphill battle to uproot and then
eliminate these dangerous men who have pushed us into circumstances that
are as sinister as those we confronted during the War of Liberation. It
could be a similar case with the anti-Ahmadiyya situation. It is not
enough for the police to help the community put up the signboards on
their mosques after they have been torn down by bigots. What is called
for is a clear demonstration of firmness on the part of the government.
That means a hauling up of anyone involved in inciting people to hatred
of the Ahmadiyyas and dealing with them in terms of the established laws
relating to a maintenance of civil order.
    There is little place for the timorous in governance. And there can
be no happiness in seeing a band of bigots, parading around so
outrageously with what may well be encouragement from outside the
country, make a whole nation look foolish by its inability to protest
their dark campaign of fury and hate. We as a people are absolutely
unwilling to exchange our secular decency for communal or sectarian
medievalism.

_____


[4]

Hindustan Times
December 19, 2005

A SOLUTION, ANYONE?

by A.G. Noorani

‘The BJP alone can find a solution to our problems with Pakistan,
because Hindus will never think whatever we have done is a sell-off,’
L.K. Advani said on March 13, 2004. Ousted from power, the BJP has done
its best to obstruct the peace process. A.B. Vajpayee wrote to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, on June 16, 2005, criticising the government’s
halting steps towards a rapprochement. It would be a great pity if the
PM were to allow himself to be deflected from course by the BJP.

The two-year-old peace process has reached a deadlock; but the Kashmir
issue has reached a stage from which, with skill and good will, it can
be brought to a finale fully consistent with the criteria which the PM
propounded in May 2004. He told Jonathan Power that “the Kashmir dispute
is stopping us from realising our potential” and “we have an obligation
to ourselves to solve the problem”. The correspondent reported: “I
pushed him on how far he himself would accept compromise with Pakistan
over Kashmir. ‘Short of secession, short of redrawing boundaries, the
Indian establishment can live with anything’.”

President Pervez Musharraf’s proposal for ‘self-governance’ ensures just
that. It marks abandonment of the 58-year-old demand for
‘self-determination’, which implies change of status, unlike
self-governance. The contrast is so glaring. Its nuances emerge clearly
when the record is recalled. Two years ago, on December 18, 2003,
Musharraf said, “We are for the UN Security Council resolutions,
whatever that stands for. However, now we have left that aside. We keep
saying that if we want to resolve this issue, both sides need to talk to
each other with flexibility… going beyond stated positions… and meeting
halfway.” This was said on the eve of the Saarc summit in Islamabad
where he met Prime Minister Vajpayee. The dialogue process was resumed
on January 6, 2004.

On October 25, 2004, he suggested a precise, if debatable, formula as “a
food for thought for you (the editors). Take Kashmir in its entirety. It
has seven regions. Two of the regions are in Pakistan and five are in
India... identify a region, whether it is the whole of seven or part. I
do not know. Identify the region forever and change its status.” Three
features stand out — tentativeness, tacit acceptance of the partition of
J&K and change of status, which India could not possibly accept.

A major step was taken this year on April 18 when the president said:
“The LoC cannot be permanent. Borders must be made irrelevant and
boundaries cannot be altered. Take the three together, and now discuss
the solution.” This was amplified on May 20 when ‘self-government’ was
first aired. “We need to find a via media where Kashmiris who may be
demanding independence, even their concerns are addressed.
Self-government must be allowed to the people of Kashmir.” More to the
point: “We do understand India’s sensitivity over their secular
credentials” and, therefore, “it cannot be, may be on a religious
basis”. On demilitarisation, he left open the question whether it
“should precede or follow cessation of militancy”. It was like “the egg
and the chicken conundrum”. Significantly, he suggested a regional basis
as part of which “maximum self-governance must be allowed and borders
rendered irrelevant”.

He was perceptibly inching towards acceptance of the status quo.  The
Rubicon was crossed with an interview at Canberra on June 14 in which he
said: “Autonomous Kashmir is my earnest desire, but its complete
independence will not be acceptable to both Pakistan and India.” If
plebiscite under the UN’s resolutions is ruled out, as it was on
December 18, 2003, and so is independence, what else remained but
acceptance of the status quo — subject to negotiations on the
consequences of the accord? What more can Pakistan possibly concede? Do
we expect it simply to accept the LoC, and cry quits?

The interview was published just as the APHC leaders were set to return
to Srinagar from their trip to Pakistan. It is unlikely that the
president did not give them any inkling of his ideas. It was during this
promising phase that Vajpayee decided to throw a spanner in the works.
He did not want anyone but the BJP to receive credit for such a historic
accord.

Against this background, stretching over two years, the president’s
latest offer acquires particular significance. He told the BBC on
October 21 that it was necessary to identify exactly “what is Kashmir”;
demilitarise the identified region and then give self-government to the
people there. “I have always believed there is an opportunity of a
lifetime to solve the dispute,” adding. “Let’s make the LoC irrelevant.
Let’s open it out.”

He did not demand either abrogation of the LoC or a change in status of
any region as he had on October 25, 2004. He used the terms
self-government and autonomy synonymously. They both imply tacit
acceptance of the sovereignty of the State that administered the
territory. That on November 13, during the Saarc summit at Dhaka, Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz mooted the proposal to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh suggests that Pakistan is in earnest about it.

Musharraf’s proposal must be read in the context of his strong, repeated
encouragement to the APHC to parley with India, in total contrast to
Pakistan’s opposition to such talks in the past. In Kashmir, the
proposal has been welcomed by the APHC, the PDP and the NC. The Urdu
weekly, Chattan, published from Srinagar and edited by an upright
journalist, Tahir Mohiuddin, has over the past years been sharply
critical of all — Pakistan, India, the APHC, the NC, the PDP and the
militants. Its banner headlines on November 28 reflected some dismay in
Kashmir: ‘Is Musharraf trying to wash his hands off (Kashmir)?’ Most
unlikely. But he has been desperately seeking a solution, honourable to
all, so that he can concentrate on pressing problems at home.

The trend since July 16, 2001 is unmistakable. At the Agra breakfast, he
pleaded that each side should exclude extreme proposals. One concession
followed another thereafter.

Not churlish indifference but constructive exploration should be India’s
response. Ten questions are inescapable: will self-governance extend to
POK as well as the northern territories? With whom will Pakistan
negotiate its quantum? Will such an accord be subject to India’s
approval as well? Will India concede to Pakistan a voice in the quantum
of self-governance it accords to Kashmir? With whom will India negotiate
the quantum of autonomy? After a fresh poll?

Will this be part of an Indo-Pak agreement on the lines of the Aaland
and South Tyrol accords — bilateral accords whereby a State agrees with
its neighbour to respect the autonomy of a territory under its
sovereignty? Will the LoC be rationalised? And recognised as an
international boundary with free access to Kashmiris on both sides of
the divide? What mechanism will be set up to oversee this? Finally, if
Pakistan accepts the status quo, what concessions has India to offer to
it and to Kashmiris?

This is the most promising overture India has ever received from
Pakistan. The peace dividend will be enormous. It will be arrogant folly
to let such an opportunity slip from our hands.

______


[5]

truthout.org
19 December 2005

WHEN "SECURITY" LOOMS LARGER THAN TSUNAMI
By J. Sri Raman

     To some, this may sound like just the kind of drivel to be expected
of a cranky peace activist. But, believe me, I am not the one to be
talking of "security concerns" making it impossible for India to
cooperate in an essential disaster prevention project for the Indian
Ocean region.

     Come December 26, it will be a year since the unforgettable tsunami
disaster that hit India and ten other countries of the region. On the
eve of the anniversary, India's rulers have announced their resolve not
to share seismic data with other countries in order to facilitate the
installation of a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean.

     The seismic data had "security implications, as seabed terrain
could be mapped, possibly helping others learn about the nation's
submarines and warships." This was reportedly the argument of Indian
seismologists at a United Nations tsunami conference on Friday in
Hyderabad, India.

     The statement, which caused unconcealed resentment among other
countries represented at the conference, has gone almost unnoticed in
the Indian media. No one has asked whether this will set back action on
New Delhi's promise of September to put a warning system in place in
less than a year at the remarkably low cost of 1.25 billion Indian rupees.

     "Security concerns," again, have apparently prevented even official
consideration of another major issue raised by the tsunami. In these
columns, at that time, we had talked about the double peril that India
had survived - the tidal havoc and a nuclear holocaust. The anti-nuclear
movement raised several uncomfortable questions about the damage done to
a nuclear complex in Kalpakkam, close to Chennai (formerly Madras). The
main question posed was whether it was not time to consider re-location
of India's nuclear plants in coastal areas vulnerable to such calamities.

     The questions have been treated with contempt that they did not
deserve in a democracy. The only token action taken to date was to raise
the raft of the under-construction fast breeder reactor at the complex
by a height of 1.4 meters, so that the fast breeder plant has now been
elevated five meters "above the water level encountered at site during
the tsunami." As though the giant waves, which varied from 15 to 40
meters in height last year, can never climb higher!

     No "security concerns" have been cited as the reason for the
extreme official reluctance to act on the most important environmental
lesson from the disaster. The country's "defense" would not have been at
stake in a program to undo the serious damage done to India's coastline
over the years.

     Experts were quick to point out, in the wake of the tsunami, the
deep coastal erosion caused by a political-corporate nexus of corruption
and a callous disregard for the lives and livelihoods of the coastal
communities. But for the "development" of the coastline with a concrete
chain of posh residential colonies, star hotels and holiday resorts,
accompanied by a destruction of natural barriers like mangroves and
reefs, the tsunami disaster would have acquired less dire proportions.

     The inaction on this count, however, illustrates a "development
strategy" that has very little place for people's concerns, such as
public health, but a prominent one for cash-spinning coastal industries
and shiny nuclear reactors of hushed secrecy and holy "strategic"
importance.

     Neither would "security concerns" seem to be linked to the major
disasters that hit two metropolitan cities in a calamity-filled year.
After unprecedented heavy rains, Mumbai (formerly Bombay, India's
financial capital) went under floods in August. So did Chennai in
November, and it is yet to recover fully from the fury of the waters. In
both cases, the disasters would not have acquired the dimensions they
did, had the cities been equipped with elementary civic infrastructure,
including drainage.

     Floods recede, but the fact remains that damage they wreak is also
related to a "development strategy" that stints no money for "defense"
and "security" purposes, but gives a very low priority to the living
needs of citizens, especially in the ghettos of India's ever-growing cities.

     The country's defense budget for 2004-2005 amounted to 770 billion
Indian rupees, or almost 15 per cent of the total budgetary outlay.
Among other major headings of expenditure, the share of education for
the whole country, in contrast, hovered above two per cent. Not hard to
imagine is the insignificant place of basic amenities like drainage in
such a scheme of things.

     The latest of the disasters to visit India and (Pakistan) was the
terrible Kashmir earthquake of October. "Security concerns," once again,
prevented the governments of both the countries, supposed to be engaged
in a "peace process," from cooperating in relief and rehabilitation
efforts. The quake victims, as noted in these columns before, also faced
a hate campaign aimed at preventing substantial Indian assistance to them.

     It took a long time, and laborious negotiations, for the two sides
to allow a few points on the 1,700-km Line of Control for passage of
Kashmiri people divided by a conflict of political creation. Right now,
the victims are roughing it out through a cruel winter, with no major
joint-India-Pakistan initiative to mitigate it.

     Nature may prove kinder to India and South Asia in the coming year.
There is no reason for hope, however, that the rulers of the region
weighed down with "security concerns" will.

     A freelance journalist and a peace activist of India, J. Sri Raman
is the author of Flashpoint (Common Courage Press, USA). He is a regular
contributor to truthout.



____


[6]

Economic and Political Weekly - Letters
December 10, 2005

CASE FOR A COMMISSION ON THE MISSING OF KASHMIR

This is to draw the attention of the readers of the EPW to the flagrant
violation of the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, who have
since 1990 been ruled by the armed forces of the union, with the help of
the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act 1990 (AFSPA
1990). Section 4 of this Act gives “Any commissioned officer, warrant
officer, non-commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank
in the armed forces” the authority to shoot to kill, “if he is of the
opinion that it is necessary to do so for the maintenance of public
order...” This power to kill is coupled with a prohibition, in Section
7, against prosecution of persons acting in exercise of powers conferred
by the AFSPA 1990 without the prior sanction of the central government.
Though the Supreme Court has made it clear in a number of decisions that
the protection conferred by provisions of this kind does not cover
criminal acts, the central government has been routinely rejecting
permission to prosecute officers even in cases where there is strong
evidence to support the allegations against state agencies. The result
is to make the AFSPA 1990 a code for impunity, complete in itself.

Extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearances, at the hands of the
security forces, are rampant. At the same time, all accountability
mechanisms have been made non-functional. The police and the criminal
law enforcement machinery of the state government exist only as
accomplices of the central security forces: to shield their crimes and
impart a patina of legality to their actions. The disappearances are so
numerous that even the state government of J and K has admitted in the
state assembly that up to June 2003 the number of persons who have
disappeared is 3,931; the Jammu and Kashmir Association of Parents of
the Disappeared (APDP) has claimed that over 8,000 persons have
disappeared since 1990. Irrespective of the precise numbers, there is no
doubt that the allegations require to be thoroughly investigated.
Despite repeated calls for such an investigation by the APDP, and
various other human rights bodies, nothing has been done in this regard
till date.

The impunity prevailing in Kashmir is not an accident or an aberration.
All aspects of accountability and redress have been systematically
subverted and destroyed as the AFSPA has been used to provide a cover
for the illegal actions of the central security forces and the high
court has been unable to enforce its authority to do justice. The
responses of the security forces to the habeas corpus petitions filed
before the high court are an example of this failure as the security
forces blandly deny arrest even when there are eyewitness testimonies to
prove the same. They also stymie the court’s process at every step,
using delay as an effective tool of attrition. The failure to file a
reply or to participate in the inquiry ordered by the high court is
deliberate as in several cases the accused unit of the armed forces has
chosen to vehemently object to the inquiry report of the high court
which upheld charges against them.

That this position of watchful disregard for the court and its processes
has the sanction of the central government becomes clear when the
context is widened to include the response of the government to cases
where the state government has requested grant of sanction to prosecute
officers of the central security forces who had been charged with penal
offences. As of now the central government has granted sanction to
prosecute in only one of the over 150 cases in which such sanction was
sought. In this case, the mother of the disappeared person, Parveena
Ahangar, had to fight a heartrending and harrowing 14-year battle for
justice going from one authority to another before sanction was recently
granted. But the security forces continue to find ways of delaying the
proceedings and no one has been punished as yet for her son’s enforced
disappearance.

The struggle of the APDP is the longest non-violent struggle in J and K
for state accountability; it is against the de facto impunity given to
the security forces by the state and the consequent denial of judicial
redress to the families of victims who have been made to disappear. As
the mother of one disappeared person in J and K despairingly said, “when
we go to the courts we get no ‘insaf’ (justice) – only new dates”. This
is an unacceptable situation in any state claiming to be under
democratic rule and not under military rule. An independent inquiry
commission to look into the cases of enforced disappearances in J and K
is necessary to ensure justice to the victims.

Uma Chakravarti
(For the support group in Delhi for the APDP, J and K) New Delhi


____



[7]

The Times of India
21 December 2005

A LONG WAIT FOR CITIZENSHIP
by Vikram Rautela
[ Tuesday, December 20, 2005 10:02:13 pm TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

AHMEDABAD: Pakistani national Shamimbanu, 55, has been living with her
husband Abdullah Vohra and three children at Astodia Chakla in Ahmedabad
since 1976. She is one of those seeking Indian citizenship, but her wait
will now become even longer.

The Gujarat government recently welcomed applications from Pakistani
Hindus to acquire Indian citizenship under the amended rules by the
ministry of home affairs, empowering district collectors of bordering
states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, to dispose off such applications.

Shamimbanu, born and brought up in Karachi, despite her 30 years of stay
here, can not avail this facility as she is a Pakistani Muslim and the
rule specifically mentions 'minority Hindu community' from Pakistan.

She has to get her visa extended every year to evade deportation. "I
have to apply for an extension in October every year, else they will
send me to border," she says. She is awaiting news from the collectorate.

  "We have been to Delhi thrice for the same, but only God knows when
will she be called an Indian," says Abdullah.

Minister of state for home Amit Shah, acknowledging that a large number
of Pakistani Muslims also live in Gujarat, says, "Gujarat is a bordering
state and there are several Pakistani Hindus as well as Muslims living here.

We are only enforcing the Central government orders which specifically
mention Pakistani Hindus." The Ahmedabad district collectorate granted
Indian citizenship to 863 Pakistanis Hindus last year under this rule of
2004.

However, in one instance, Zohrabibi Shaikh, 65, from Gomtipur,
Ahmedabad, acquired Indian citizenship on December 15 this year against
an application filed in the year 2000. It took her five years to get an
Indian citizenship.

Among the pending applications is that of Rukhsana Parween, born and
brought up in Karachi and married to an Indian in 1988. She had applied
for an Indian citizenry in May, 2004, after her husband Mohammed Yousuf.

Rukhsana stays with her three children in Shama Flats at Astodia. She
says, "If I am not buried beside my husband after my death, my soul will
be restless."

While Pakistani Hindus are granted citizenship under section 5 (1) of
the Indian Citizenship (amendment) Act of 2003, their Muslim
counterpartsget it under section 6 (1) of the same Act, which requires
endorsement by the Centre.


____


[8]

REPORT OF THE CELEBRATIONS OF'STREE SAMMAN DIVAS' (DAY FOR WOMEN'S DIGNITY)

'Stree Samman Divas' ( Day for Women's Dignity) was celebrated here in
Delhi University campus under the auspices of Stree Adhikar Sangathan,
an organisation active in the women's liberation movement for the last
couple of years. The focus of this year's programme was on 'Women
Workers in Unorganised Sector'.

As part of the celebrations Baby Haldar, who has received critical
acclaim for her autobiographical account 'Alo Andhari' and who works as
domestic help herself, was felicitated jointly by poor women coming from
Holambi Kalan, Shahbad dairy, Nangloi and other areas associated with
the organisation. Leading feminist writer and activist Ms Ilina Sen,
writer and democratic rigths activist Gautam Navlakha and radical
scholar -activist Dr Sanjay Kumar shared their ideas on the occasion.
'The Players' a cultural team associated with Kirorimal College, Delhi
University presented two plays 'Hawalat' and 'Nazarandaz' at the end of
the programme.

It is known that for the last three years ‘Stree Adhikar Sangathan’, has
been celebrating Stree Samman Divas to commemorate the burning of
Manusmriti under the leadership of Dr B.R.Ambedkar. History tells us
that thousands of people came together at Mahad, Maharashtra in 1927 on
25th December where this ‘holy book’ was publicly burnt for its
legitimisation of caste discrimination and oppression of women. It is
also important to know this action was a sequel to a protest organised
in the same year on March 20, where dalits and other people drew water
from a lake Chavdar Talaab which was prohibited to them by the upper
caste people.

The very first year of the celebrations saw the public felicitation of
Ms Bhanwari Devi, the indomitable women from Rajsthan who is still
struggling to bring her rapists to book. The next year a few of those
couples were publicly felicitated who had challenged the barriers of
caste and religion to live together. Last year the Sangathan had invited
Ms Teesta Setalvad who has been a leading light of the anti communal
struggle.

Discussing the situation of the women workers in the unorganised sector
the speakers explained the plight of the women workers in this sector,
the double shift which they have to endure by working within the house
as part of domestic chores as well as working for survival and the
challenges in organising such a scattered workforce. It came out that
around 93 per cent of the labour force in this country is concentrated
in this sector. It is an area where the working conditions are very bad
: there is neither security of employment nor a healthy environment to
work in. As far as women are concerned they constitute around 50 per
cent of this total force, whose condition is worse as compared to male
workers. They are paid less for the same work and are also subjected to
sexual as well as other harassment.


____


[9]

Literary Review - The Hindu
Nov 06, 2005  	


GENDER STUDIES

Persisting inequalities

Visalakshi Menon

The problem with this rather impressive collection is that it contains
far too many articles for one volume.

Exploring Gender Equations: Colonial and Post-Colonial India, edited by
Shakti Kak and Biswamoy Pati, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, 2005,
p.494, Rs.600.

THE Nehru Memorial Museum and Library has brought out several
anthologies on gender in the last three decades. The first collection,
titled Indian Women: From Purdah to Modernity, edited by the then
Director and Gandhian scholar, B.R. Nanda, was a pioneering volume,
containing articles by stalwarts like Vina Mazumdar, Aparna Basu, Zarina
Bhatty, Rama Mehta, Veena Das and Ashis Nandy. More volumes followed,
edited by Karuna Chanana, Meenakshi Thapan and others, reflecting the
new dimensions in gender studies that were unfolding. The present
volume, like its predecessors, is also the outcome of a seminar held in
October 2003 by Shakti Kak and Biswamoy Pati, the editors of this volume.

A random exercise?

The problem with this rather impressive collection is that it contains
far too many articles for one volume. There are 18 in all, each
accompanied by a reading list, which is a welcome insertion. The
articles could have been grouped together thematically and arranged in
different sections. Yes, the articles of Anshu Malhotra and Charu Gupta
at the beginning of the collection are thematically linked, critically
examining prescriptive reformist tracts of social reformers and
advocates of education for women. This is followed by three articles
which again form a fairly cosy group: Waltraud Ernst on Madness, Gender
and Colonialism in British India, Maina Chawla Singh on Gender, Medicine
and Empire and Samiksha Sehrawat on The Founding of the Lady Hardinge
Medical College and Hospital for Women at Delhi. Thereafter, the
collection becomes a random exercise. Shashank Shekhar Sinha's piece on
Adivasi Women in Transition should have been arranged along with Archana
Prasad's article on Tribal Women and Breadwinners in Central India,
especially since both vehemently deny the notion propounded by many
anthropologists that prior to colonial rule tribal women enjoyed more
freedom and egalitarianism.

At the workplace

The articles by Samita Sen and Shobhana Warrier on Labouring Women in
Bengal in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries and Women
and the Workplace (with special reference to women workers in the
textile mills of Madras, Madurai and Coimbatore) respectively have some
common concerns. Both look at how extra economic factors have a bearing
on labour relations. Sen brings out the tension between the married
woman worker's right to "consent" to labour contracts and the so-called
sanctity of marriage and family authority. In 1873, the Inspector
General of Police, Assam, had stated that "a married woman may be said
to have entered into a contract with her husband which precludes her
from engaging in services to another party for a term of years without
his consent"! Warrier shows that while, on the one hand, the factory
"constituted a cultural space entirely different from that of agrarian
society", there was nevertheless a tendency to bring old cultural
practices into the workplace. Thus the custom of segregating a woman
during the days of her menstrual period was sought to be perpetuated by
a union demand that women should be given three days leave in a month
for that period. On the other hand there were markers of a break from
tradition as well. "Women imbibed the work ethics and discipline of the
mills and got used to the scheduling of their lives by the mill siren
that signalled the time to go to work, the time for recess as also the
conclusion of work hours for the day." In Madurai, she tells us, the
workers never dared to eat food at their new workplace, because if they
were found eating inside the mill, sand was thrown on their faces by way
of punishment.

Patriarchy and communalism

Papiya Ghosh looks at the relationship between communalism and
patriarchies. She has studied the activities of two Muslim women's
organisations in Bihar: the Tehrik-e-Niswan, an ultra left group
affiliated to the CPI-ML (Liberation) and the Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, a
backward and dalit formation, in relation to issues of personal law,
reservation and electoral politics. She finds that while the
"left-communitarian feminism" of the former is monolithic, ignoring
lower caste politics and caste patriarchies, the latter does not
directly address the issue of gender. The pasmanda Muslim women resent
having to be in purdah while the ashraf women went about with "bob cuts
aur lipstick". Nasima Bharati's words: "Jab bahar mein haq mill jayega
toh ghar mein haq lene mein koi time nahi lagega" (when we get our
rights outside, then it will take little time to get our rights within
the home) are significant. Ghosh could have provided English equivalents
of the quotes, however.

There are many more interesting pieces in this collection: Rama Baru on
the gendering of the health services; Lata Singh on theatre and the
space given to women; Brigitte Schultze on her project with dalit and
adivasi women in Kerala and their engagement with cinema; Shakti Kak on
Women in Colonial and Post-Colonial Kashmir; Fumiko Oshikawa on Being a
Middle Class Housewife in India and Japan and Miriam Sharma on the
impact of globalisation on women in South Asia. The lone male voices are
those of Biswamoy Pati on the violence of contemporary Oriya society
vis-à-vis women and the relationship between dowry, patriarchy and
caste, and Amit Prakash on Women, Development and Governance in the
context of Uttar Pradesh.

Negligible change

Broadly, what emerges is that gender equations continue to be unequal,
though in some cases, as in theatre and even in local governance
(Panchayati Raj Institutions) the trajectory from the colonial to the
post-colonial period has been an encouraging one. On the other hand, we
have Archana Prasad's finding that even as the tribal woman emerges as
the main breadwinner of her family, her status and decision-making power
is not improved. "The only area where women seem to have the dominant
power to make a decision seems to be in the area of what to cook for
their families." As for working conditions, the words at the end of
Miriam Sharma's article regarding the attitude of employers towards
women: "the women themselves are happy to take the employment and if
they did not have this, they would have nothing at all," says it all.

Though the introduction does refer to the nationalist movement and the
political participation of women in the freedom struggle as being
"mostly under the hegemony of men and male-dominated organisations",
there are no articles which engage with this theme. This begs the
question: when discussing gender equations from the colonial to the
post-colonial period, does the long trajectory of anti-imperialist
struggle not figure anywhere at all?

_____


10

INDIA PAKISTAN ARMS RACE AND MILITARISATION WATCH COMPILATION # 160
(21 Dec,  2005)

Contents:

1 Pakistan Navy Set To Receive American Spruance Class Destroyer
+ Text of Naval Vessels Transfer Act of 2005 (Considered and Passed by
US Senate Oct 2005)
2 Pakistan: 'Spend funds from sale of military land on quake victims' --
say senators
3 Pakistan: State, Military and Social Transition (S. Akbar Zaidi)
4 Pakistan: Aid, not weapons  -- Long exchange in letters to Editor - DAWN
5 Pakistan: Land of the army (Kamran Shafi)
6 Pakistan: US to Sell  M109A5 155mm Self-propelled Howitzers
7 Pakistan-Saudi naval exercise concludes
8 Pakistan - France reiterate desire for strengthening defense cooperation
9 Pakistan: More cricket, more security! (Nusrat Nasarullah)
10 India: Make NATO compatible arms: House panel recommendation
11 India-US defence cooperation is now on a take-off course (Josy Joseph)
12 Indian Navy strives for regional dominance (Rahul Bedi)
13 Indo-Israel defence ties get a boost (Rajat Pandit)
14 India's national ID scheme is 'on schedule' (Aman Sethi)
15 India to set up new missile base in Haldia
16 India Buys $400M Worth of Russia Missile Systems
17 Kashmir - India, Pakistan: Fidayeen - meeting a would-be suicide
bomber (Muzamil Jaleel)
+ Ferocious father of the fidayeen  (Muzamil Jaleel)
18 Indo-US Nuclear Deal: Myths and Realities (Sukla Sen)

URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IPARMW/message/171

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

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.