SACW | 21-22 May 2006 | Jirga justice in Pakistan; India - Beyond Caste; RSS in Golwalkaristan

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 21-22 May, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2249

[1]  Pakistan: Get rid of these customary jirga tribunals
         A Jirga's Rash Edict (Editorial, Dawn)
         Tribal Approval for Honour Killings Decried (Ashfaq Yusufzai)
[2]   India: Beyond Caste  (Purushottam Agrawal)
[3]   India's RSS: Trapped in the Golwalkarian past (Subhash Gatade)
[4]   Book Review of 'Blood Brothers by M.J. 
Akbar':  Home Again - Remembering Telinipara 
(Ashok Mitra)

___


[1]

Dawn
April 16, 2006

A JIRGA'S RASH EDICT
http://www.dawn.com/2006/04/16/ed.htm#2

o o o

Inter Press Service
RIGHTS-PAKISTAN:
TRIBAL APPROVAL FOR HONOUR KILLINGS DECRIED
Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR, May 12 (IPS) - In a remote valley that 
rises high in the Hindu Kush mountains, a jirga 
(grand council of village elders) has decided 
that anybody reporting so-called 'honour' 
killings or filing a police complaint must also 
be put to death.

The jirga, held in Nehag Dara in the Upper Dir 
district three weeks ago, not only endorsed the 
centuries-old custom of putting to death a woman 
that the family considers dishonourable, but 
declared that those responsible were not liable 
for punishment.

Political parties and non-government 
organisations (NGOs) have slammed the 
controversial decree. At a meeting on Apr 30, 
organised by Aurat Foundation, an NGO working 
with women, they approved a resolution demanding 
that the federal, provincial and district 
governments take strict action against jirga 
members.

''We strongly condemn the jirga's decision and 
ask the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo 
motu action against the members of the so-called 
jirga," the joint resolution stated. A second 
jirga in Nehag Dara on Apr. 28 had again declared 
honour killings permissible.

Crimes of honour are a pre-Islamic practice 
deeply rooted in the tribal societies of the 
North West Frontier Province (NWFP) where Upper 
Dir is located, Balochistan province, as well as 
those of Sindh and Punjab where they are called 
"karo kari" (literally black man and black woman).

In these rigidly patriarchal communities, wives, 
daughters, sisters and mothers are killed for the 
least sexual indiscretion and upon the slightest 
suspicion of adultery.

Last year, relatives in Dir killed Zubaida Bibi, 
a councillor, and her daughter because she 
allegedly brought a bad name upon the family. The 
police arrested the main accused in the first 
information report (FIR), but he was soon 
released.

''The menace is so deep-rooted in society that 
campaigns, such as holding seminars and 
workshops, have made no difference at all,'' 
lamented Yasmin Begum of Shirkat Gah,

The federal government has asked the NWFP 
government to order an inquiry into the jirga 
verdict.

According to the independent Human Rights 
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 1,339 cases of 
honour killings were registered between 1998 and 
2002. Of these, 659 killed were married women and 
the remaining were single. These were only the 
reported cases; most go unreported.

The perpetrators included brothers, husbands, 
fathers, sons, in-laws, the HRCP said. Of these, 
only 202 were arrested. The rest went scot-free.

Murders in the name of honour fall under the 
purview of the customary 'qisas and diyat' law. 
Riddled with flaws, it makes prosecution 
extremely difficult.

Activists have been urging the government to 
reform the law but a bill seeking to bolster 
secular law against honour killings, presented in 
parliament last year, was defeated as un-Islamic.

"Drastic changes are needed," Rakshanda Naz, 
resident director of Aurat Foundation told IPS. 
"The social mind-set, specially the attitude of 
the courts, needs to change. Often the courts 
adopt a lenient view towards an accused on the 
grounds of "grave and sudden provocation" which 
is nowhere in the law," she added.

Sections of the qisas and diyat law work to the 
advantage of the accused in the trial and 
appellate stages.

Under section 309 of the law, an adult wali 
(legal heir) of a deceased could use his right of 
qisas (to forgive the accused). Similarly, under 
section 310, the offence of murder is made a 
compoundable offence and any heir of a deceased 
could forgive an accused by compounding his right 
of qisas after receiving compensation.

Since in most honour-related murders, either a 
husband or parents are the heirs of the slain 
woman and as the murder takes place in connivance 
with almost all the family members, they prefer 
to waive their right of qisas and pardon the 
accused.

Each time, the judicial response has appeared to 
violate the basic principles of justice, 
activists observed.

Uzma Mehboob, a women's rights activist, said no 
FIR was registered in a recent case in a remote 
hamlet in NWFP's Mardan district where a powerful 
landowner sprayed his daughter and driver, who 
had eloped together, with bullets.

A month ago, the Peshawar High Court set aside 
the death penalty awarded to Gul Zaman for the 
murder of his wife and three daughters for 
venturing out of their house without his 
permission. A local judge had convicted Zaman on 
Jan 31, 2005. But the high court set him free 
after his three sons and a daughter, who were 
also the legal heirs of the deceased, forgave 
their father.

The same court commuted the death sentence of 
Wakeel Saeed to seven-years imprisonment for the 
murder of his daughter, and a cleric in the local 
mosque in 2002. His counsel argued that under 
section 306 of the qisas and diyat law, an 
offender could not be sentenced to death for 
killing his child.

Naeema Kishwar, member of the NWFP Assembly from 
the Jamiat Ulemai Islam (a religious party), is 
blunt in her criticism. ''It's un-Islamic to kill 
a woman or man in the name of honour. We will 
fight the dirty tradition,'' she told IPS.

Zahira Khattak, vice president of the Awami 
National Party, has warned her partymen that they 
would be expelled if found to be involved in 
honour crimes. But the ultimate responsibility 
lies with the government, she warned. "The 
government has so far utterly failed to apply 
brakes on it (the custom)," she observed. 
(END/2006)


____


[2]

Tehelka
May 13 , 2006


BEYOND CASTE

Why only caste? Reserve seats in educational 
institutions on the basis of schooling, gender 
and family income. That is the affirmative way to 
ensure social justice. Purushottam Agrawal opens 
a critical discussion


The Indian government's intention of introducing 
caste based quotas for the "Other Backward 
Classes" in centrally funded institutions of 
higher learning and the prime minister's 
suggestion to the private sector to 'voluntarily 
go in for reservation', has once again sparked 
off a debate on the merits and demerits of 
caste-based reservations. Unfortunately, the 
predictable divide between the votaries of 
"social justice" on one hand and those advocating 
"merit" on the other seems to have once again 
camouflaged the real issues. It is necessary to 
take a holistic and non-partisan view of the 
issues involved.

The hue and cry about "sacrificing merit" is 
untenable simply because merit is after all a 
social construct and it cannot be determined 
objectively in a historically unjust and unequal 
context. The idea of competitive merit will be 
worthy of serious attention only in a broadly 
egalitarian context. But then, caste is not the 
only obstacle in the way of an egalitarian order.

After all, economic conditions, educational 
opportunities and discrimination on the basis of 
gender also contribute to the denial of 
opportunity to express one's true merit and 
worth. It is interesting to note that in the 
ongoing debate, one side refuses to see the 
socially constructed nature of the notion of 
merit, while the other side refuses to recognise 
the multiplicity of the mechanisms of exclusion 
with equal vehemence.

The idea of caste-based reservations is justified 
by the logic of social justice. This implies the 
conscious attempt to restructure a given social 
order in such a way that individuals belonging to 
the traditionally and structurally marginalised 
social groups get adequate opportunities to 
actualise their potential and realise their due 
share in the resources available.

In any society, particularly in one as diverse 
and complex as the Indian society, this is going 
to be a gigantic exercise and must not be reduced 
to just one aspect of state policy. Seen in this 
light, caste-based reservation has to work in 
tandem with other policies ensuring the 
elimination of the structures of social 
marginalisation and denial of access. It has to 
be seen as a means of achieving social justice 
and not an end in itself. By the same logic it 
must be assessed and audited from time to time 
like any other social policy and economic 
strategy.

Can we say that a pupil from a panchayat school 
in Bihar is equipped to compete with an alumnus 
of Doon School on an equal footing, even if both 
of them belong to the same caste?
Hence, it is important, to discuss reservation in 
the holistic context of much required social 
restructuring and not to convert it into a fetish 
of 'political correctness'. Admittedly, caste 
remains a social reality and a mechanism of 
oppression in Indian society. But can we say that 
caste is the only mechanism of oppression? Can we 
say with absolute certainty that poverty amongst 
the so-called upper castes has been eradicated? 
Can we say that the regions of Northeast, 
Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh are on par with the 
glittering metros of Delhi and Mumbai? Can we say 
that a pupil from a panchayat school in Bihar is 
equipped to compete with an alumnus of Doon 
School on an equal footing, even if both of them 
belong to the same caste group? One of my 
students once remarked that he was regularly 
compelled to swim across a rivulet in order to 
reach his school, and the rivulet in question did 
not distinguish between Brahmins and dalits. 
Incidentally, this young man happens to be a 
Brahmin by birth! Can we also say that gender 
plays no role in denial of social opportunities? 
After all, this society discriminates against 
girls even before they are born. What to talk of 
access or opportunities, they're denied birth 
itself. Such discrimination exists across 
religious and caste lines.

Moreover, the question is: do we want to 
eliminate caste as a factor of social relations 
and political processes or do we want to 
perpetuate it forever? Is it not true that by 
treating caste as the only medium of oppression 
and hence by focusing all remedial measures on 
caste alone, we have only added to the longevity 
of caste as the determining factor of social 
identity? Individuals have been virtually turned 
into the epitomes of the caste of their birth - 
denying the multiple identities that every 
individual perforce carries. This also helps the 
powerful amongst the generally disempowered 
sections to corner most of the benefits of 
caste-based reservation. Caste, which in reality 
is only one of the features of identity at the 
individual level and the manifestation of an 
abhorrent social order at the social and 
structural level, has been turned into the 
essential identity of individual citizens. Such a 
situation helps only those politicians who are in 
search of shortcuts to power. It is harmful for 
the cause of a modern social democracy as well as 
to the cause of individuals in need of social 
justice and related affirmative action.

There seems to be a deliberate attempt to mislead 
public opinion by projecting caste-based 
reservation as the only form of affirmative 
action. Affirmative action has to "affirm" the 
social will to rectify unjust structures and 
practices in existence. Any society has a 
multiplicity of such structures and practices. 
Any programme of affirmative action has to tackle 
all these factors and not elevate any one factor 
to the level of a political "fetish".

I hereby propose a model of affirmative action 
that I will call miraa - Multiple Index Related 
Affirmative Action. As the name suggests, this 
model will take into account several factors when 
a candidate is considered for admission or 
employment.

In the specific situation of our country, miraa 
will consist of the following indices:

1. Caste/Tribe
2. Gender
3. Economic status of family
4. Kind of schooling received
5. Region where candidate spent his/her formative years
6. Status as a first generation learner/educational achievement in the family

Let me explain how this system will work. There 
will be no pre-fixed quotas. miraa will be 
operative on hundred percent of the available 
seats for education or employment. Suppose there 
is a 100-mark scale for entry to a 
college/organisation. These 100 marks can be 
distributed amongst entrance test, interview, and 
academic performance as per the wishes of the 
institution in question. First and foremost, all 
candidates would be ranked on this hundred mark 
scale, depending on their performance in the 
entrance test, interview etc. Then miraa would be 
applied and each candidate irrespective of their 
caste can potentially benefit from it, due to the 
different indices, which make up the system.

The maximum points a person can get under miraa 
are 30 and the minimum is 0. Now the candidate's 
miraa subscore is added to the score s/he 
achieved in the admission process described 
above. This will be the total score. The 
candidates whose total score clears the cut-off 
for a particular subject/job will then be offered 
the position. (see boxes on facing page)

Hence, this system does take into account both 
the qualification of the individual as well as 
the demands of social and economic justice. 
Unlike the quota/percentage system which confines 
the social justice mechanism only to a fraction 
of the available vacancies, miraa brings each and 
every seat under the ambit of social and economic 
justice.

This proposal doesn't take into account the 
religion of the applicant, as it is based upon 
the realisation the ubiquitous nature of the 
institution of caste in Indian society. Hence, 
the members of marginalised and disempowered 
communities across the religious spectrum will 
get due benefits.

For example, a Kidwai or Raza Muslim will not be 
awarded any points under caste index while an 
Ansari or a Salmani will get points in accordance 
with obc status. The same logic applies to 
Christians and others as well. I request the 
reader to think, consider and react to miraa.

The writer teaches at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi


____


[3]

Himal
May June 2006

TRAPPED IN THE GOLWALKARIAN PAST

As RSS followers in India celebrate M S 
Golwalkar's birth centenary this year, it is not 
clear whether they are celebrating the Second 
Supremo himself or a cleaned up version.

by  Subhash Gatade

Golwalkar in 1940, the year he became Second Supremo

'Social change' is an ongoing, continuous 
process, uniquely affected by both progressive 
and regressive forces. The cumulative impact of 
these forces determines both the direction and 
intensity of subsequent changes. Such an 
understanding certainly colours any objective 
assessment of Independent India. After the most 
prominent names have found mention - ranging from 
the Nehrus and Patels, to the Ambedkars or 
Jayprakash Narayan - is it possible to avoid that 
of Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, the second 
Sarsanghchalak (Supremo) of the Hindu nationalist 
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)?

Founded in 1925 by a Telugu Brahmin, Keshav 
Baliram Hedgewar, over the next three-quarters of 
a century the RSS (translated as 'national 
volunteer corps') succeeded in expanding its 
influence into much of India's civil society and 
state organs. Its leadership, however, continues 
to call it a 'cultural' organisation. The central 
figure who helped to achieve this success was 
undeniably Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar - 'Golwalkar 
Guruji' to his followers, for his brief stint in 
the early 1930s as a zoology teacher at Benares 
Hindu University. Golwalkar led the fledgling RSS 
for 33 years, from 1940 until 1973, providing not 
only the theoretical foundation for the Hindu 
rashtra project, but expanding its influence 
through a plethora of affiliated organisations. 
These 'anushangik' partners today range from the 
parliamentary Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to 
extra-parliamentary units such as the Bajrang 
Dal, which has a record of affiliation with many 
unsavoury incidents. A BJP-led coalition 
government did hold power at the Centre for an 
uninterrupted six years, a unique feat for any 
non-Congress government. But overall, the 
political record of the wings of the RSS parivar 
as it gained national prominence was geared 
towards destruction of the social fabric. These 
encompass the demolition of the Babri Mosque in 
1992 and the subsequent communal conflagration, 
and a decade later the genocide of minorities in 
Gujarat in 2002.

Golwalkar was born on 19 February 1906, and 2006 
is being celebrated across India to mark his 
centenary. The commemoration started near his 
birth town on 24 February, with a large gathering 
in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The festivities are 
scheduled to culminate in February 2007 with a 
large programme in Delhi. Organisers say that 
samajik samrasta, or 'social harmony', is the 
commemorative year's central theme, and 'Hindu 
rallies' are to be organised at the block level 
throughout the country. Says a RSS document, 
"Meetings of caste and religious leaders will 
also be held with the objective of promoting 
social harmony. Seminars, symposia, lectures, 
etcetera, will also be organised to propagate the 
ideas and vision of Shri Guruji."

The anniversary activities have opened up 
uncomfortable questions for Golwalkar's many 
detractors, in particular in comprehending the 
undeniable 'success' of his Hindutva project. How 
was it that such a worldview, which reached back 
to medieval supremacist Brahminism and glorified 
the Fascist experiments in Western Europe, was 
able to achieve such an advance in the latter 
decades of the 20th century?

Hindu rashtra
According to his biographers, young Madhav was 
keen to follow a spiritual journey and initially 
studied under Swami Akhandanand at the 
Ramakrishna Mission in West Bengal. The Swami's 
sudden death in 1937, however, prompted Golwalkar 
to return home and rejoin his work as a 
swayamsevak (volunteer) with the RSS, an 
organisation preaching 'Hindu resurgence' founded 
by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. Although a latecomer 
to the organisation, Golwalkar quickly earned 
Hedgewar's confidence due to his quick mind, and 
the following year was appointed the group's 
sarkaryavah (general secretary). That same year, 
his long essay entitled "We or Our Nationhood 
Defined" was published in book form, a work that 
demonstrated Golwalkar's theoretical acumen.

Golwalkar emerged as one of a triumvirate of 
Hindu nationalists - together with Indian 
nationalists Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Keshav 
Baliram Hedgewar - which actively sought a Hindu 
rashtra based on 'Hindutva', a term coined by 
Savarkar in or around 1923. When Hedgewar 
breathed his last in 1940, he left a note asking 
his followers to make Golwalkar the next Supremo, 
a post that he held until his passing in 1973.

The period when Golwalkar was anointed Supremo 
was marked by three worldwide currents: the 
ascendance of the forces of Nazism and Fascism; 
the surge in anti-colonial struggle; and the 
emergence of militant socialist movements in 
several countries, with help and support from 
Soviet Russia. Upon arrival in India, the 
anti-colonial movement and the rising communist 
movement mediated their paths through the 
existing socio-cultural movements that were 
challenging caste and gender hierarchy. This was 
also the first time in Southasia that new bonds 
of solidarity - cutting across caste, community 
and regional loyalties - were being forged in 
opposition to the British colonialists. 
Meanwhile, Golwalkar's project of Hindu unity 
took inspiration from the social engineering 
experiments undertaken by Adolf Hitler and Benito 
Mussolini. In seeking refuge in the discredited 
Hitlerian scheme, he failed miserably in 
understanding the march of history. In the 
controversial We or Our Nationhood Defined, he 
wrote: "To keep up the purity of Race and its 
culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging 
the country of the Semitic races - the Jews. Race 
pride at its highest has been manifested here. 
Germany has also shown how well nigh impossible 
it is for Races and cultures, having differences 
going to the root, to be assimilated into one 
united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan 
to learn and profit by."

On the domestic front, this 'nation-building' 
project not only hinged on opposing Islam and 
Christianity, but also countering the parallel 
challenge posed by anti-Brahminical struggles. It 
was also a time when the cultural revolts led by 
activists like Babasaheb Ambedkar and Periyar 
Ramaswami Naicker had already made significant 
headway. Meanwhile, Golwalkar had no qualms in 
keeping himself and the RSS aloof from the 
anti-colonial movement, and he opposed the 
demands for equality of Dalit and tribal 
communities. He derided the anti-imperialist 
struggle as one for 'territorial nationalism', as 
opposed to his fight for 'cultural nationalism'. 
It would be more than 30 years before a RSS 
leader, Nanaji Deshmuk, would raise the crucial 
question: Why did the RSS not take part in the 
liberation struggle?

With Partition and the bloody riots that 
followed, Golwalkar and the RSS were suddenly 
catapulted to the centre stage of Indian polity. 
Even while working to provide assistance to the 
Hindu refugees from Pakistan, the RSS took 
advantage of the communalised environment to 
strengthen its ranks. The RSS was blamed for the 
assassination of Mohandas Gandhi in 1948. Home 
Minister Vallabhbhai Patel, in a letter to his 
Hindu Mahasabha colleague Shyama Prasad 
Mukherjee, wrote:

Our reports do confirm that, as a result of the 
activities of these two bodies particularly the 
former [the RSS], an atmosphere was created in 
the country in which such a ghastly tragedy 
[Gandhi's assassination] became possible Š The 
activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat 
to the existence of the government and the state. 
Our reports show that those activities, despite 
the ban, have not died down. Indeed, as time has 
marched on, the RSS circles are becoming more 
defiant and are indulging in their subversive 
activities in an increasing measure.

As the post-Partition riots subsided, and with 
the new approaches being followed by India's new 
leaders, Golwalkar and the RSS found themselves 
out on a limb. The Hindutva forces were 
stigmatised for their ignoble alleged 
participation in Gandhi's death, as well as for 
staying out of the anti-colonial struggle. As his 
organisation faced marginalisation, Golwalkar 
sought to devise new ways and means to sustain 
the project of building a Hindu rashtra.

Throughout those attempts at reviving the 
fortunes of the RSS, Golwalkar courted 
controversy. He created one final uproar towards 
the end of his life, in an interview to a Marathi 
daily, Navakal, when he extolled the virtues of 
Chaturvarnya (the division of the Hindus into 
four Varnas) and glorified Manusmriti, the 
ancient edicts that sanctify a structured 
hierarchy based on caste and gender. Similar 
views had gotten him into trouble decades 
earlier, as well. While leaders of the newly 
independent India were struggling to create a 
constitution premised on the inviolability of 
individual rights, Golwalkar was advocating 
Manusmriti as the country's sole constitution. 
The RSS mouthpiece, The Organiser, complained in 
November 1949: "Š in our constitution there is no 
mention of the unique constitutional developments 
in ancient Bharat. Manu's laws were written long 
before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To 
this day laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti 
excite the admiration of the world and elicit 
spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our 
constitutional pundits that means nothing."

When in the 1940s, under the stewardship of 
Jawaharlal Nehru and Dalit leader B R Ambedkar, 
attempts were made to give limited rights to 
Hindu women in property and inheritance, 
Golwalkar and his associates launched a movement 
opposing the historic Hindu Code Bill. Their 
contention was simple: such a step would be 
inimical to Hindu traditions and culture.

Revisionist project
Despite the feverish preparations to celebrate 
the anniversary of their departed mentor, it is 
clear that some of Golwalkar's followers are 
uncomfortable with his legacy. Even while he is 
being lionised for his 'contributions', they are 
surreptitiously sanitising the man's image, 
presenting him with a more humane, publicly 
acceptable face. Such attempts are particularly 
prominent in a new publication, as noted in a 
recent media account:

In a major ideological shift, RSS has for the 
first time officially disowned M S Golwalkar's 
book We or Our Nationhood Defined published in 
1939 as "neither representing the views of the 
grown Guruji nor of the RSS Š The booklet Shri 
Guruji and Indian Muslims, authored by Delhi 
University lecturer Rakesh Sinha and published by 
RSS' Suruchi Prakashan Š argues that in his 
lifetime Golwalkar had revealed that the book 
carried not his own views but was an abridged 
version of G D Savarkar's Rashtra Mimansa."

Other elements of this sanitising project 
include: attempts by RSS members to show that 
Golwalkar was not even the author but merely the 
translator of the controversial book; the 
concocted 'proofs' that have been made public to 
show that the Hindutva lobby did indeed 
participate in the Independence movement; and the 
dedication of the year-long celebrations in 
Golwalkar's honour to the cause of 'social 
harmony'. Despite such attempts at revisionism, 
however, it is important to remember that 
Golwalkar's current followers do not have any 
second thoughts about his exclusivist vision - 
they are only concerned about how to present that 
vision less problematically. Despite this year's 
attempts to update the Second Supremo for a 
modern audience, the RSS appears to remain 
trapped in the past.



____


[4]

The Telegraph
May 12, 2006


HOME AGAIN
- Remembering Telinipara

As a young man

Blood Brothers By M.J. Akbar, Roli, Rs 395

Heart-rending, heart-warming fiction, or hard 
history? Telinipara, around which this moving 
family chronicle unfolds, is of course no 
imaginary spot. It is in West Bengal, a couple of 
miles off Chandernagore, abutting the river 
Hooghly. The story begins with the famine in 
Bihar in the 1870s. It wipes off an entire 
village. A teenager, Prayaag, somehow survives 
the blight and takes an east-bound train. He 
lands in Telinipara, mostly consisting of ragged 
dwellings of workers employed by the Victoria 
Jute Mills. The workers, mostly from Bihar and 
the United Provinces, belong to both communities. 
The boy is taken in by Wali Mohammad, who runs a 
small eatery-cum-tea stall. Wali's wife is 
childless, and mothers the orphan; she becomes 
Mai to him. Wali's business looks up, Prayaag 
learns the tricks of the trade, he is diligent 
and loyal. When Wali dies, Prayaag assumes charge 
of the business, expands it and gradually 
discovers prosperity. Mai has chosen a Muslim 
girl for him. Prayaag agrees to conversion and 
marriage. He is now Rahmatullah.

Rahmat quietly takes to Muslim religiosity. It 
could be because of his growing affluence, or his 
piety, that he draws around him friends and 
admirers from both communities. As the narrative 
proceeds, characters jostle for attention. Rahmat 
is intensely devoted to a wisdom-laden ascetic, 
who emerges as a sort of guardian angel for 
Telinipara. Others in Rahmat's circle include a 
gatekeeper, a coolie sardar, a greengrocer, a 
school teacher, a part-time intellectual who is a 
great lover of poetry too, the owner of a sweet 
shop, a milkman, similar types who are attracted 
to goodness because they themselves are of innate 
good nature.

Blood Brothers leads us through the late decades 
of the 19th century and the early decades of the 
20th: the plague of 1890, the First World War, 
the Khilafat movement and Gandhiji's arrival on 
the scene, the hopes and frustrations over the 
Gandhi-Jinnah parleys. The ripples of big events 
reach Telinipara in slow motion but fail to 
disturb its equilibrium. Evil elements from both 
communities are on the prowl; Rahmatullah and his 
group, ever on the alert, fight back, more or 
less successfully. Things look hunky-dory till 
the late Forties. Mai's adopted son has meanwhile 
become a substantial man of property, and builds 
the first pucca structure in Telinipara. His son, 
Akbar Ali - the answer, Rahmat firmly believes, 
to his prayer at Nizamuddin Aulia's shrine - 
learns English, is fond of English clothes and is 
friendly with the young Scot sahibs working for 
the jute mill. The narrative is a little vague 
regarding Akbar Ali's professional interests; his 
father, one has to assume, grooms him in the 
family business. A police superintendent of 
Kashmiri stock finds a beautiful Kashmiri bride 
from Punjab for Akbar Ali. Level-headed 
Rahmatullah and his god-fearing friends try hard 
to ensure that Telinipara remains an abode of 
peace. But rough times arrive, Rahmatullah and 
his family go through a series of nightmarish 
experiences. The mill is sold to a Marwari. Akbar 
Ali's Scot friends return home and their 
concubines go their separate ways; one of them is 
given shelter by Rahmatullah's wife. Communal 
passion rises to a crescendo, close friends, 
belonging to both communities, get murdered; 
Muslim blood is spilled to save Hindu lives, and 
Hindu blood spilled to save Muslim lives. At a 
point of time, the family is forced to flee to 
East Pakistan. But Rahmat and his son do not give 
up their faith in India. As madness recedes, they 
return to Telinipara. Akbar Ali's son, Mubasher, 
enjoys kindergarten life in convent school and is 
admitted to Calcutta Boys' School, where he 
learns to play pranks and develops a love for 
English literature. His occasional visits to 
Pakistan, where he meets relatives on the 
mother's side, cause a further broadening of 
experience. He proceeds to Calcutta's Presidency 
College, and from there to celebrity status as 
journalist and author. M.J. Akbar is Sheikh 
Rahmatullah's grandson.

Akbar's prose is crisp and sparkling. He has, 
besides, the knack of injecting dynamics into the 
narrative at appropriate moments so that the 
tension does not sag. A moral flows from the 
story, belonging to the we-shall-overcome genre: 
living and toiling under the humble sky of 
Telinipara, a pious converted Muslim preserves 
and prospers in life, he grows influential in the 
neighbourhood. Malevolent characters attempt to 
tear asunder the texture of daily routine of the 
simple, god-fearing residents of the area. Akbar 
describes some of these cruel, scheming people 
bent on mischief. But they cannot kill the soul 
of Telinipara; the dream of an integrated India 
bathed in communal harmony survives the arson and 
killings.

Considered as a fictional paradigm of economic 
development, social mobility and Hindu-Muslim 
relations, Blood Brothers cannot but induce 
empathy. Akbar crafts his tale with impressive 
skill and throws in references to passages from 
both the Quran and Hindu puranas to explain the 
psyche of particular characters - or perhaps to 
slyly make fun of them.

There is a problem, however. Akbar would perhaps 
like to claim Blood Brothers to be an authentic 
biography of three generations of his family 
ending with himself. To sustain that claim, the 
narrative should not have strayed from facts. It 
has. For example, the person Akbar regards as the 
principal malefactor of his family was not ever 
elected to the state assembly on a Congress 
ticket; his affiliation was always with another 
party. The sub-story of how Atulya Ghosh wangled 
a ticket for him is, it follows, pure fiction. If 
liberty is taken with facts in one instance, 
might it not have been taken, the query is 
inevitable, in some other instances too? Blood 
Brothers therefore does not quite qualify as 
contemporary history; it is at most a 
romanticized version of it.

The caveat notwithstanding, this family saga is 
outstandingly marvellous stuff. It also helps to 
explain much about the genealogy of the man M.J. 
Akbar is: brilliant and naughty, a hint of steel 
inside, yet generous to a fault.
ASHOK MITRA


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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
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/

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