SACW | 23 Dec. 2005

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 23 Dec, 2005 | Dispatch No. 2190

[1] Bangladesh at Risk With The Rising Power of Fascists:
(i) Ahmadiyyas appeal for govt protection - Bigots plan to lay siege
(ii) Secular Activists To Form A Human Shield To Protect Ahmadiyyas
[2] Pakistan: Our ‘jihadi image’ in the quake-hit areas (Edit, Daily Times)
[3] Make Jammu and Kashmir a federation (M Y Tarigami)
[4] Appeal Prime Minister of India  (John Dayal)
[5] India: The proposed communal violence bill has too many loopholes
(Tarunabh Khaitan)
[6] Books:
(i) These Hills Called Home: Stories form a War Zone by Temsula Ao.
(ii) Book review - Broken Verses, Kamila Shamsie

___


[1]


The Daily Star
December 23, 2005 	
   	  	
Front Page

AHMADIYYAS APPEAL FOR GOVT PROTECTION
Bigots to besiege Bakshibazar complex today
Staff Correspondent

Ahmadiyya community has appealed to the government to stop the zealots
of Khatme Nabuwat Andolon Bangladesh (KNMB), which is scheduled to lay a
siege today to the Ahmadiyya headquarters in the city's Bakshibazar,
before they can do any harm.

The KNMB will hold a rally at the north gate of Baitul Mokarram National
Mosque after the Juma prayers today, take out a procession and then
march to besiege the Ahmadiyya base.

KNMB activists from 22 districts will join the siege programme, its
President Mufti Noor Hossain Nurani told The Daily Star, claiming,
"We'll do everything peacefully and will not violate the law."

The KNMB yesterday brought out a truck procession from the north gate to
drum up support for today's siege aimed at pressuring the government to
declare the Ahmadiyyas non-Muslims.

Simultaneously, another faction of the anti-Ahmadiyya fanatics under the
banner of International Khatme Nabuwat Movement, Bangladesh (IKNMB) will
hold a morning-to-Asr rally in the city's Muktangan today demanding
enactment of a law declaring the Ahmadiyyas non-Muslims. After the Asr
prayers, the religious zealots will march towards Dhaka Central Jail for
'voluntary imprisonment'.

The IKNMB last year announced a one-year programme to force the
government to declare Ahmadiyyas non-Muslims.

The panicky Ahmadiyyas, who have been suffering a hate campaign for
about two and a half years, said at a press conference on Monday such
'gherao' programmes are nothing but pretexts for attacking them, their
mosques and homes. They sought protection from the government.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner SM Mizanur Rahman said they have
already deployed forces at the Ahmadiyya base and will take adequate
security measures to check any violence today.

A number of rights watchdogs and civil society organisations also have
vowed to stop any fanatic attack on the minority Muslim sect.

The activists of Manobadhikar Bastobayan Parishad, Naripakkha and
Ain-O-Salish Kendra will take position at the Ahmadiyya headquarters in
the morning to stop any attack. The South Asian Peoples' Union against
Fundamentalism and Communalism, and the Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul
Committee have declared solidarity with them. The activists of the
organisations will gather at the Central Shaheed Minar at 10:30am and
then will march to Bakshibazar.

The IKNMB expelled Noor Hossain Nurani, who was then the Nayebe Amir, on
September 9 last, after he had suspended the anti-Ahmadiyya programme
due to the prevailing situation in the country. IKNMB President Mahmudul
Hasan Mamtazi and Secretary General Nazmul Haq alleged Noor took bribe
from the Ahmadiyyas for suspending the action programme against them.

Noor formed the KNMB in the third week of November.

o o o

Dear Friends and Human Rights Defenders,
INVITATION TO FORM A HUMAN SHIELD TO PROTECT AHMADIYYAS

A group of fanatic islamist group known as the International Khatme
Nabuat has declared that they would attack the ahmadiyya complex Baksi
Bazaar in Dhaka tomorrow 23 December 2005. This unlawful attempt is
totally against peace and communal harmony, violation of human rights
and a shame on our democracy. We must stand up on our feet and protest
against this criminal act and protect the rights of the Ahmadiyyas. We
have made appeals to the Honorable Prime Minister, the State Minister
for Home Affairs and the Police Chief to take necessary steps against
the fanatics and to ensure safety and security of the Ahmadiyyas.

In this connection, we on behalf og a group of human rights
organizations have planned to form a HUMAN SHIELD at the sensitive
points around the Ahmadiyya Complex to prevent the planned attack on the
Ahmadiyyas.

You all are invited to join us to form the HUMAN SHIELD at Baksi Bazaar
near the Ahmadiyya complex tomorrow 23 December 2005 at 10:30 am.

[Note: There will be "solidarity" events starting @ 10:30 from Shahid
Minar, proceeding to Baksi Bazar.  There will be programs there
followed by human chain around 12 or 1 PM.]

In solidarity and peace,

Sharif A. Kafi
Director
Bangladesh Development Partnership Centre (BDPC)
138Ka, Pisciculture, Shyamoli
Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh.


____


[2]

Daily Times
December 22, 2005 	

EDITORIAL: OUR 'JIHADI IMAGE' IN THE QUAKE-HIT AREAS

According to reports, Western relief agencies, including those run by
the United Nations and the United States government, have complained of
“perceptible harassment by ‘Jihadi elements’ working in the quake
hit-areas in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP”. There are some 20,000 workers
belonging to religious and jihadi NGOs carrying out relief activities
there, led by the most notorious “renamed” Lashkar-e-Tayba. A statement
to this effect was made by Hansjoerg Strohmeyer, chief of the Office of
the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, UN, at an Asia
Society function in New York recently. The UN official was worried about
the safety of Western relief workers at the hands of workers from
religious organisations. The report further indicates that if foreign
relief agencies faced actual violence, they might pack up and leave.

This was preceded by a statement by the US ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan
C Crocker, calling upon the government to monitor and, if necessary,
stop some jihadi organisations from continuing with their relief work.
 From the Pakistani side there have been reassurances only. It has been
stated that Pakistan’s “biggest relief agency working in the area, the
army, has made it absolutely clear to all the religious NGOs that any
political attempt to muddy the waters in Azad Kashmir, let alone provoke
violence, by the religious groups would lead to swift reprisals from the
state”. It has also been conceded in official circles that “any violence
in the relief areas would be cataclysmic for Pakistan in so many ways
and will not be tolerated”. A pledge has been given that no foreign
agency would be harassed by the jihadis. The truth is that the first
complaint about harassment has already been made, although perhaps not
directly to the government of Pakistan.

Needless to say, the religious NGOs led by Lashkar-e-Tayba (now Jamaat
ud Da’wa) deny that there is any tension between them and the
foreigners. (Anyone who reads the almost daily poison being spewed by
the leaders of some of these organisations about President Pervez
Musharraf being “a slave of the United States” will find it difficult to
believe this.) Sources in the religious groups do admit that there is
some presence of workers from several banned organisations like Hizb ul
Mujahideen and others in the area. Al Badr — known to be the richest
among the militias — is there in strength in the NWFP part of the
calamity-hit area. This outfit was for a long time under the wing of our
intelligence agencies after being weaned away from the Jamaat-e-Islami
and has been allowed a lot of influence in the Mansehra region. There is
Hizb ul Mujahideen, too, which used to be an adjunct of the same
religious party once upon a time. But the one big jihadi organisation
that the army has allowed into the field remains the Jamaat ud Da’wa
with 3,000 workers running 12 tent cities and four field hospitals
mainly in AJK.

The Jamaat-e-Islami has its own outfit in the field, too, under the name
of Al Khidmet Foundation, deploying 12,000 workers. It denies any
friction with Western agencies, although it has had a dangerous
confrontation with the relief groups run by the MQM in the AJK area, a
kind of extension of the battle that the two groups fought earlier in
Karachi. The aggression of the accused party is hardly concealed. A
spokesman of Al Khidmet has said that the Western-UN reaction to its
presence in the field was a sign of a “mean mentality” — hardly a thing
to say to foreigners who have come far afield to help us. The spokesman
made it clear that if an effort is made to remove Al Khidmet from the
area “we will strongly resist” it.

Pakistan’s bad image is getting in the way once again. That the jihadis
are “waiting in the wings” has become clear to everyone in the world.
Their ability to operate freely in the affected regions has emerged as
bad PR at a time when Pakistan needed the image of a helpless victim.
(Perhaps it was not possible in the first place to restrain the jihadi
outfits in areas where they had been allowed a free run for many years.)
But we could be approaching a point where bad PR might turn some of the
donors away. Indeed, many in Pakistan’s opposition circles are already
predicting that the Western world will not deliver on its pledges to
give money to Pakistan’s quake disaster. Is it possible that the delay
in the fulfilment of these pledges could be attributed to the jihadis
enhancing their image at the cost of the image of the country? It goes
without saying that should the Foreign Office start receiving
expressions of polite reservation from the West, it would be hard put to
play on the front foot.

Ominously, Barbara Stocking, the executive director of Oxfam, has said
in Islamabad that “thousands of people are helpless in mountainous
regions and the international community has still not responded with
urgently needed resources”. Given this “go-slow”, Islamabad has to guard
against some of the stereotypical reactions against “foreigners” noted
in calamity-hit areas elsewhere in the Third World. Some of it has
surfaced in Indonesia in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and
has definitely hampered relief and reconstruction. Unable to repress
fear and loathing of the “foreigner” winning the gratitude of the local
population, the Jakarta government has ordered away the NGOs from Banda
Aceh and its intelligence agencies, representing a paranoid pathology,
have played their role in arousing this reaction. Unlike Indonesia
Pakistan has still to receive the funds on the basis of which it has
announced its ambitious reconstruction plan. Therefore something must be
done urgently to prevent the religious and jihadi elements (around
20,000) from coming face to face with the Western NGOs that they have
been taught in the past to hate. *

         	

____


[3]

Daily Times
December 23, 2005 	

MAKE JAMMU AND KASHMIR A FEDERATION
by M Y Tarigami

We believe that proposals for political autonomy for both parts of
Kashmir, self-governance and joint India-Pakistan control over the state
should be discussed seriously. However we also believe that whatever
solution is evolved should respect the cultural, religious and regional
diversity of the state of Jammu and Kashmir

Natural calamities do not recognise the arbitrary lines drawn on the
map. Human suffering is identical everywhere and feelings of pain
similar. Shared grief calls for shared responses, as common adversity
envisages united efforts. In tackling the devastating impact of the
October 8 earthquake, India and Pakistan seem, more or less, to be
directing their efforts along these lines. This is highly gratifying.

In addition to the host of measures taken by the two countries, the five
points recently opened on the Line of Control to allow the divided
families to meet, share one another’s grief and concerns and help in
relief and rehabilitation, can go a long way in mitigating the suffering
of such families. We are of the opinion that more such points should be
opened to enable unhindered travel between the two parts of Jammu and
Kashmir — to render the LoC virtually irrelevant.

The tragic earthquake dramatically expanded the political space for
India and Pakistan for pro-active political intervention. It is
unfortunate that the two countries were unable to capitalise on it.
True, both India and Pakistan have observed restraint — militarily on
borders and diplomatically in the corridors of respective ministries —
but the situation demands pro-activism. The decision to initiate a
sustained peace process and a purposeful dialogue on Kashmir was long
overdue. While its results so far have not been entirely satisfactory,
they are not meagre either.

For substantial progress in Kashmir, India and Pakistan have to work out
a mechanism to abandon the insurgency and counter insurgency. For a
start, all sides must agree to discuss all options before excluding any
of them. Given the drawbacks of each proposal the discussion will help
improve the understanding of other parties’ positions.

My party is of the opinion that the time for tabling options and
proposals has come. The huge disaster has provided us with a unique
opportunity that should be used to build bridges of understanding and
friendly relations to strengthen the peace process and cooperation for
creating an atmosphere conducive to working out suitable strategies for
the peaceful settlement of Jammu and Kashmir. We believe that proposals
for political autonomy for both parts of Kashmir, self-governance and
joint India-Pakistan control over the state should be discussed seriously.

However we also believe that whatever solution is evolved should respect
the cultural, religious and regional diversity of the state of Jammu and
Kashmir. It is important to protect the federal character of the state
as well as its secular ethos. We believe that division or the state
should not be an option.

We are aware of powerful forces demanding a trifurcation of the state
into Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. While it appears to be an imaginative
solution, it can lead to violent social disruptions and cause communal
polarisation that would not just irretrievably destroy the cultural and
social fabric of the state, but also have perilous consequences for
communal relations in the rest of India. In addition, such division
would forever end the possibility of reviving the pluralist tradition of
communal harmony in the state.It is in this backdrop that broader
consultations with the political leadership in the state should be
initiated to accommodate the views and aspirations of various religious,
ethnic, racial and political groups. Inter-Kashmir and Intra -Kashmir
dialogue can eventually serve the purpose of re-unification of the
federal units of the state.

My party stresses goal-oriented measures based on ground realities.
Meaningful and visible efforts have to be undertaken for finding
concrete solutions. It needs to be stated here that a huge vested
interest, at almost every level, has come into existence, during the
past years to scuttle the peace and settlement moves at every step.
This, however, should not come in the way of the reconciliation process
and ways and means have to be found to overcome such hindrances.

We believe that external interference in Jammu and Kashmir is not
conducive to the on-going peace process. The parties concerned should
therefore exercise restraint in the best interest of the sovereignty and
integrity of the region. We also hold the opinion that the settlement
should be accompanied by large-scale economic inputs, enabling the
people of the state to enter an era of economic independence and to
improve the living conditions of the people who have suffered material
loses for decades.

Indeed tireless efforts are needed for improving the ground situation in
the state where violence is still a major threat to people’s involvement
in the peace process. A lot of Kashmir-specific measures are required to
end the turmoil that has engulfed the state for 16 years. In the
meantime a living society cannot be asked to stop growing. The people
need education, healthcare, jobs, development, infrastructure, rule of
law, equal opportunities and good governance. These certainly cannot
wait till the final settlement.

The state constitution — despite having provisions for adult franchise,
the separation of powers, checks and balances etc — remains unitary in
its essential characteristics. Ultimately, a solitary authority
exercises the power. This is bound to breed apprehensions of
discrimination — real or perceived. This, often, leads to
inter-regional, as well as intra-regional, conflicts that have the
potential to frustrate even the final solution of the Kashmir issue. The
remedy lies in the empowerment of people by making the state a true
federation. Political as well financial powers need to be devolved to
the regional, district and panchayat/ward level. At every level
democratically elected representatives of the people must exercise
these. The idea is to allow all Kashmiri groups to live together while
enjoying the opportunity to maintain its separate identity. We insist
that no solution of Kashmir can endure unless the state is constituted
into a true federation.

The author is secretary-general of the Jammu and Kashmir unit of
Communist Party of India (Marxist) and a member of the Jammu and Kashmir
Legislative Assembly


____


[4]


Dr. John Dayal
Member: National Integration Council, Government of India
National President:  All India Catholic Union (Founded 1919)
Secretary General: All India Christian Council (Founded 1999)
President: United Christian Action, Delhi (Founded 1992)


23d December, 2005

Dr Manmohan Singh
Hon'ble the Prime Minister of India
South Block, New Delhi

Re:

Dear Prime Minister

It is a privilege to greet you in this season of Advent and wish you a
Merry Christmas on behalf of Christian Community in India represented by
the All India Christian Council, the Catholic Union and UCA.
Trough you, we also wish our fellow Indians a prosperous New year 2006
with prayers that it bring Peace, Security and happiness to our land.

Dear Prime Minister, we however regret our joy in the approaching
Christmas, the festival that brings with it the promise of Freedom,
Liberation and Salvation in the birth of Christ, is diminished and
overshadowed by daily reports of violence against Churches, Priests and
the faithful, police atrocities and incidents of miscarriage of justice
in which the victims are the poorest of the poor Christians and their
fellow Dalits.

As we informed the Government of India in an earlier letter, we fear
that the total number of incidents of violence against Christians in
the country in the year 2005 may be as many as 200, a large number of
them in the Udaipur division of Rajasthan and in parts of Madhya
Pradesh, and Orissa. Our appeals to State governments have been in vain.
In many cases, local political leaders and officials are part of the
conspiracy of violence.  The National Commission for Minorities remains
a silent spectator and is Chairperson has given us cause to suspect his
own attitude towards Christians, a minority that his Commission is sworn
to protect.

Even in this dismal scenario, there are some incidents that stand out,
and that cry out for your sympathetic consideration and urgent action.

Christian Tribals of Jhabua still in Jail while their tormentors roam
free: 14 Christian members are in an  Madhya Pradesh jail for the past 2
years. They were arrested during the riots of 2004. They are all
innocent poor illiterate tribals and their families of all these people
are in pitiable state. At least three BJP MLAs are involved in the
violence together with some Sadhvis of the RSS who had come from Gujarat
and took part in the violence. They remain free.
Situation in Rajasthan: As far as Christians are concerned, there seems
to be a free season against them in this state. This is so both in the
tribal areas, and in urban places such as Ajmer, Kota and Jaipur. The
police and the political apparatus are entirely supportive of the RSS
aggressors.
Anti Dalit Violence: Christians have suffered as much as members
professing other faiths in the general sharp rise in caste violence
against the Dalit community. Even within a few kilometers of Delhi in
places such as Sonepat, Christian families have had their houses burnt.
The bureaucratic approach to relief, as in the case of the Tsunami
victims, leaves the double-disadvantaged out of reckoning
Dalit Christians:  We had great hopes that the return of the Congress at
the head of the UPA government would restore human dignity, civil rights
and protection of law to Christian converts from the Scheduled castes.
An earlier Congress government had in 1996 brought to Parliament a Bill
to restore to the Dalit Christians all rights enjoyed by Hindu, Buddhist
and Sikh Dalits. Our hopes have been belied.  While we thank you for
giving the Justice Mishra Commission the addition task of discussing
this issue, it falls far short of the demand of justice.
May we request you once again that your government reintroduces the Bill
in Parliament to give our people the rights snatched by the
Presidential order of 1950 without waiting for the Mishra commission
report. Assessing Economic Disempowerment of Christians. We have
requested you to establish a commission to asses the poverty and
economic status of Christians, especially the Dalit Christians so that
they are incorporate in Government's poverty alleviation and relief
plans. Such a Commission has been already set up for the Muslims under
Justice Sachchar.

Giving Christians the Right to Adopt Children. We continue to be
discriminated by the law in the case of adoptions. The tsunami and
other natural disasters, the death of young parents in terrorist
attacks such as the explosions in New Delhi, have left many orphans who
need to be adopted into loving families. The government must expedite
the law. The church has been campaigning for it for more than a decade.

Visa bias: Hundreds of wives of Christian NRIs are either denied visas
to come home with their families. In many cases that we have personally
investigated, wives married to Indians for two decades and with three or
four children and valid visas, have been turned away from Delhi and
Mumbai airports. This amo8unt so using the Visa as a form of religious
persecution, and sheds a shadow of bigotry on our regulations. I am sure
our government will look into this matter. These women are wives and
mothers, no anti-Indian terrorists. Nor are they persons out to forcibly
convert Indians to Christianity. Indian priests of all religions are of
course never refused a visa go enter any foreign country.

Dear Prime Minister, as Christians we want justice for all victims of
violence, discrimination and economic and social deprivation in the
country. The Church is itself involved deeply in this process. The
government from its side is apparently is doing much in these matters,
but in implementation and by default, Dalit and poor Christians are
always left out, as much as Church workers fail to get the protection of
the law.

May we humbly request that your government take urgent steps in the
above matters to make the New Year happier for the Christian community
and everyone else in the country.

With warm personal regards.

John Dayal


_____


[5]

The Telegraph
December 21, 2005

ALL BARK, NO BITE
The proposed communal violence bill has too many loopholes to
effectively curb religious conflicts, writes Tarunabh Khaitan

Taking part

The United Progressive Alliance government recently introduced the
communal violence (prevention, control and rehabilitation of victims)
bill in the parliament towards the fulfilment of another key promise in
the national common minimum programme. The goal of building an India
which does not kill you because of your religious affiliation is
unchallengeable. What needs to be examined, though, is whether the means
adopted to realize this goal will serve its purpose.

Section 19 of the bill defines communal violence as “any act of omission
or commission which constitutes a scheduled offence on such scale or in
such manner which tends to create internal disturbance within any part
of the State and threatens the secular fabric, unity, integrity or
internal security of the nation”. It has three broad goals in dealing
with communal violence — prevention, ensuring criminal justice and
providing relief and rehabilitation.

The goal of prevention of communal violence is perhaps the most crucial,
and yet the most ill-conceived, aspect of the bill. The bill empowers
the state government (and in cases it fails to act, the Centre) to
declare an area as ‘communally disturbed’. On such declaration, the
state government and its enforcement machinery is vested with powers of
frightening breadth. Section 3 declares that “it shall be lawful for the
State Government to take all measures, which may be necessary to deal
with the situation in such area”. It is also obliged to appoint a
“competent authority” in such area who, along with the district
magistrate, is given various preventive powers like regulating assembly
and confiscating arms. Vesting the same responsibility with multiple
authorities may be premised on the desperate hope that someone will act
— but in practice, this arrangement can only create confusion and an
excuse for abdication of responsibility.

The police is also vested with new powers. Section 8 grants search and
seizure powers to an officer without requiring any judicial warrant.
Special circumstances may justify this breach of privacy if one could be
assured that such power will not be used to harass minority groups or
gain access to their household. A simple test for the efficacy of the
bill in preventing communal violence is this — would it have made any
difference if it was in force in Gujarat 2002? The answer seems to be no
as the bill fails to locate the root of the problem. The malady was
never insufficient power with the authorities, but too much power. Riot
after riot has witnessed the partisan role of the police in targeting
minorities. An unreformed but empowered force which continues to take
directions from politicians can only mean that the new powers will also
be abused.

The bill does make an attempt towards accountability of individual
officers. Section 17 criminalizes a public servant for the mala fide
exercise or the wilful omission to exercise lawful authority. However,
in reiterating the requirement of a previous sanction of the state
government before any court can take cognizance of a complaint against a
public servant, it only strengthens the symbiotic relationship between
the police and the elected leadership.

The second part of the bill deals with the functioning of the criminal
justice system in the immediate aftermath of communal violence. It
prescribes enhanced punishment for communal violence and requires the
setting up of special courts to conduct daily hearings. To ensure
independence of the judges, the state government is required to obtain
the concurrence of the chief justice of the high court for their
appointment to the special courts. This is a useful idea. In politically
charged situations like communal violence, the need to establish the
sanctity of the rule of law is urgent. Speedy trial of those guilty of
crimes is very important for the health of the democracy.

However, there are four main aspects of criminal justice where the bill
is found wanting. One of the main problems indicated by investigations
into the incidents in Gujarat was the refusal by the police to register
first information reports and even destroy evidence. This is left
entirely unaddressed in the bill. Secondly, the bill makes patchy
attempts to ensure witness protection, by hiding their identity and
criminalizing threats to witnesses. However, harassment of witnesses is
a systemic problem that plagues the entire criminal justice system, even
though it is more acutely felt in cases of communal violence. A
comprehensive law catering to all aspects of witness protection is long
overdue.

Thirdly, the role of the prosecutor in ensuring free and fair trial
remains unaddressed. It required the intervention of the Supreme Court
in the Best Bakery case to see that sham prosecutors who ended up
defending the accused were removed. And yet, the bill gives the power to
appoint the prosecutors to the state government, without requiring the
concurrence of the court or the victims. Finally, there is no attempt to
implicate the political leadership for the violence. Those who
participate in the crime may well be covered, but a system which can
recognize the hierarchy of responsibility for the violence and indict
the top leadership is necessary.

The most useful aspect of the bill is the creation of institutional
arrangements for relief and rehabilitation of the victims of communal
violence. It envisages a three-tier permanent arrangement. At the top is
the Centrally appointed ‘National Communal Disturbance Relief and
Rehabilitation Council’ which would prepare guidelines on issues like
rehabilitation, compensation. At the state level, the government would
have to establish the ‘State Communal Disturbance Relief and
Rehabilitation Council’, which would advise it in matters relating to
relief and rehabilitation. If its advice is rejected by the government,
the latter has to state its reasons in writing and lay the Action Taken
Report in the state legislature. At the lowest level is the ‘District
Communal Disturbance Relief and Rehabilitation Council’ which would
assess compensation and review the implementation of relief and
rehabilitation.

All these bodies are heavily bureaucratic. The respective governments
are also required to appoint certain other representatives of civil
society and minority groups. In selecting the civil society
representatives, granting a consultative role to the leader of the
opposition will make the process more transparent.What is surprising is
the absence of the national and state human rights commissions, the
women’s commission and minorities commission which have special
knowledge and expertise in dealing with communal violence.

The bill thus leaves much to be desired. While some of its provisions
have been long overdue, it almost entirely misses the point on
prevention of communal violence. The age-old formula of ‘more power,
more crimes, more punishment’ has always failed to work — it was
unsuccessfully deployed against atrocities like dowry, untouchability,
terrorism and violence against women and minorities. It is bound to fail
for communal violence too. The administration has enough powers to
control and prevent communal violence under general law but lacks the
will to exercise them in good faith. The right course of action is to
grant the police professional independence and put in judicial
mechanisms to ensure institutional and personal accountability, without
which the bill will remain an eye-wash.

____


[6]

22 December 2005

Zubaan announces the third publication in its Zubaan-Penguin series - a
collection of short stories These Hills Called Home: Stories form a War
Zone by Temsula Ao.

THESE HILLS CALLED HOME: STORIES FROM A WAR ZONE
Temsula Ao

150pp Pb o Rs.195 o ISBN 81 89013 71 8 o All Rights Available
(Published in collaboration with Penguin Books India)

More than half a century of bloodshed has marked the history of the Naga
people who live in the troubled northeastern region of India. Their
struggle for an independent Nagaland and their continuing search for
identity provide the backdrop for the stories that make up this unusual
collection.

Describing how ordinary people cope with violence, how they negotiate
power and force, how they seek and find safe spaces and enjoyment in the
midst of terror, the author details a way of life under threat from the
forces of modernization and war. No one – the young, the old, the
militant with his gun, the ordinary housewife, the willing partner, the
young women who sings even as she is being raped – is left untouched by
the violence.

Economical and unadorned, these stories bring alive the poignant and
bewildering experiences of a people caught in a spiral of violence. In
doing so, they speak movingly of home, country, nation, nationality,
identity and direct the reader to the urgency of the issues that lie at
their heart.

Temsula Ao has contributed a number of articles on oral tradition, folk
songs, myths and cultural traditions of the Ao Nagas in various
journals. She has published four collections of poetry and is the author
of Ao-Naga Oral Tradition (2000). She is a Professor in the Department
of English, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong and also Dean,
School of Humanities and Education (NEHU).

For further enquiries, please contact:
Satish Sharma / Elsy
Zubaan,
An imprint of Kali for Women,
K-92, First Floor, Hauz Khas Enclave,
New Delhi – 110016 INDIA
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The Guardian
April 16, 2005

Trivial pursuits

Broken Verses, Kamila Shamsie's exploration of the disillusionment of
the Pakistani elite, is cut disappointingly short, says Rana Dasgupta


Broken Verses
by Kamila Shamsie
338pp, Bloomsbury, £15.99

Set in Karachi, and focused on the last three decades of Pakistani
society and politics, Kamila Shamsie's richly woven fourth novel
explores the relationship of a young and somewhat listless elite to a
previous age of grander spirit and vision. Aasmaani is assailed by
memories of the 1970s and 80s, when the nation could be made to buck and
rear at the sound of her mother's political speeches or the biting
allegories of the Poet, her mother's lover. Under the administrations of
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Zia ul-Haq, the unrepentant couple went through
police violence, imprisonment and exile, then the Poet was (if received
wisdom is to be believed) violently murdered - and yet poetry, politics
and love were grand, excessive and indispensable. Now, in times of less
confrontation and more TV channels, nothing is so significant or deeply
felt.

Aasmaani is expending her own intellectual and poetic gifts writing
questions for a TV quiz show. "Politics" is exported, and reduced to a
half-hearted consumer decision ("You really planning to boycott American
goods when they attack Iraq?" - "Hanh, well, we have to feel like we're
doing something, right?") and the Poet's erstwhile protege has become
fat and complacent, producing "verses to fit the occasion for anyone
willing to pay the price, regardless of their political affiliation".
Lesser times, all in all; and Aasmaani's torment at having been rudely
cut off from both her mother and her intellectual and literary mentor is
thus also the anguish of no longer knowing how to be - the bewilderment
of poverty after a rich tradition is exhausted.

Shamsie's exploration of this theme has moments of great power. The
delight in words and all their shades of meaning, characteristic of all
her writing, is here used as the linchpin of the plot, as dictionaries,
crosswords, fairy tales and poems become keys to the coded messages
whose authorship and purpose she is trying to understand. Aasmaani's
lifelong familiarity with intrigue has also made her paranoid: she looks
at everything with a hyper-aware suspicion - and this mixture of poetry
and paranoia results in a scintillating and ever-expanding semantic
universe, as she repeatedly re-examines the same set of facts and finds
each time another poetic archetype or Sufi paradox that lends them an
utterly new significance. The voice that guides us around this world
darts with wit and lightness in a way that is unique and often lovely.

Given its grand themes of nation, politics and art, however, this book's
philosophical arc is disappointingly constrained. When we finally leave
her, she is making a documentary about her mother and the women's
movement in Pakistan, still fixated on the grandeur of the past, and
still anxious about the trivialising influence of foreign places and
modern life. Ultimately, she remains inflexibly aristocratic, wistful
for courtly thought and expression, and unable to see in the Pakistan of
today, when the state's displeasure is focused on people very different
from her, anything worthy of the name "history". It would have been
gratifying to see this heroine's search open up newer and more
challenging terrain, and thus end slightly further away from where we began.

Bloomsbury's bougainvillea-strewn edition of this book is exquisite, and
there is a succulent pleasure to the narrative that draws you happily to
its end. But as the pages run out, you begin to realise that there's not
enough space left for the greater imaginative breakthrough you so hoped
it would deliver.

· Rana Dasgupta's Tokyo Cancelled is published by Fourth Estate.


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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
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