SACW | 27-29 June 2006 | Britain: imperial apologists; Pakistan's Arms bazaars; Bangladesh: Democracy @ risk; India: BJP-ruled states defy Constitution; Vasant Rajab . . .

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 27-29 June, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2265


[1]  The story peddled by imperial apologists is 
a poisonous fairytale  (Priyamvada Gopal)
[2]  Pakistan's flourishing arms bazaar (Aamer Ahmed Khan)
[3]  Bangladesh's fraying democracy   (Liz Philipson)
[4]  Towards the endgame in Nepal (Siddharth Varadarajan)
[5]  India: Adoption of orphans by RSS outfit fraught with danger ()
[6]  India: BJP-ruled governments defy Centre and Constitution (John Dayal)
[7]  The Cartoon Controversy: Left Join the 
Islamists Against Freedom (Mahmood Ketabchi)
[8]  Upcoming Events:
  (i) Anhad seminar - cultural tribute to Vasant 
Rao and Rajab Ali  (Baroda, 30 June, 2006)
  (ii) World Summit on Free Information 
Infrastructures (Dharmsala, Oct 22- Nov 3, 2006)

___


[1]

The Guardian
June 28, 2006

THE STORY PEDDLED BY IMPERIAL APOLOGISTS IS A POISONOUS FAIRYTALE

Neocon ideologues are being given free rein by 
the media to rewrite the history of Britain's 
empire and whitewash its crimes

by Priyamvada Gopal

A resurrection is haunting the British media, the 
bizarre apparition of "benevolent empire". It 
takes the form of documentaries and discussions 
steered towards the conclusion that colonialism 
was not such a bad thing after all and that 
something of a celebration is in order. Trouble 
is, to get there, some creative reworking of the 
facts is needed. After a recent brouhaha about 
Britain's imperial history on Radio 4's Start the 
Week - in which I took part - the presenter 
Andrew Marr worried that the debate had been 
"pretty biased" against empire: there was a lot 
of enthusiasm and a "warm nostalgia" for empire, 
he suggested in the subsequent phone-in, even in 
former colonies, "still something there, 
absolutely".
Only the desire to recover some imaginary good 
from the tragedy that was empire can explain the 
elevation of the neoconservative ideologue Niall 
Ferguson to chief imperial historian on the BBC 
and now Channel 4. His aggressive rewriting of 
history, driven by the messianic fantasies of the 
American right, is being presented as a new 
revelation. In fact, Ferguson's "history" is a 
fairytale for our times which puts the white man 
and his burden back at the centre of heroic 
action. Colonialism - a tale of slavery, plunder, 
war, corruption, land-grabbing, famines, 
exploitation, indentured labour, impoverishment, 
massacres, genocide and forced resettlement - is 
rewritten into a benign developmental mission 
marred by a few unfortunate accidents and 
excesses.
Soundbite culture thrives on these simplistic 
grand narratives. Half-truths and fanciful 
speculation, shorn of academic protocols such as 
footnotes, can sound donnishly authoritative. The 
racism institutionalised by empire also seems to 
be back in fashion. The book accompanying 
Ferguson's current Channel 4 series on 
20th-century history, The War of the World, tells 
us that people "seem predisposed" to "trust 
members of their own race", "those who are drawn 
to 'the Other' may ... be atypical in their 
sexual predilections" and that "when a Chinese 
woman marries a European man, the chances are 
relatively high ... that only the first child 
they conceive will be viable." Not far from the 
pseudo-scientific nonsense that once made it 
possible to punish interracial relationships.
Behind such talk and the embrace of the 
broadcasters is the insistence that we are being 
offered gutsy truths that the "politically 
correct" establishment would love to suppress. 
This is the neo-conservative as spunky rebel 
against liberal tyranny. Yet Ferguson peddles 
nothing more than the most hackneyed, 
self-aggrandising myths of empire, canards once 
championed by old imperialists such as Macaulay 
and Mill and rehashed now by the Bush 
administration: western imperialism brings 
freedom, democracy and prosperity to primitive 
cultures. The myth decorates US and British 
foreign policy spin while trendier versions have 
also emerged in platforms such as the Euston 
Manifesto. By anointing Ferguson and his fellow 
imperial apologists such as Andrew Roberts as 
semi-official historians, the British media are 
colluding in a dangerous denial of the past and 
lending support to contemporary US imperial 
propaganda .
The evidence - researched by scholars such as 
Amartya Sen, Nicholas Dirks, Mike Davis and 
Mahmood Mamdani, Caroline Elkins and Walter 
Rodney - shows that European colonialism brought 
with it not good governance and freedom, but 
impoverishment, bloodshed, repression and misery. 
Joseph Conrad, no radical, described it as "a 
flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a 
rapacious and pitiless folly". Good governance? 
More famines were recorded in the first century 
of the British Raj than in the previous 2,000 
years, including 17-20 million deaths from 1896 
to 1900 alone. While a million Indians a year 
died from avoidable famines, taxation subsidising 
colonial wars, and relief often deliberately 
denied as surplus grain was shipped to England.
Tolerance? The British empire reinforced strict 
ethnic/religious identities and governed through 
these divisions. As with the partition of India 
when 10 million were displaced, arbitrarily drawn 
boundaries between "tribes" in Africa resulted in 
massive displacement and bloodshed. Freedom and 
fair play? In Kenya, a handful of white settlers 
appropriated 12,000 square miles and pushed 1.25 
million native Kikuyus to 2,000 restricted square 
miles. Resistance was brutally crushed through 
internment in detention camps, torture and 
massacres. Some 50,000 Kikuyus were massacred and 
300,000 interned to put down the Mau Mau 
rebellion by peasants who wanted to farm their 
own land. A thousand peaceful protesters were 
killed in the Amritsar massacre of 1919.
A collective failure of the imagination now makes 
it difficult for us to think about the globe 
before European and American domination. Greed 
and violence are hardly exclusive to one culture. 
But colonialism destroyed or strangled 
possibilities and potential for progress, such as 
Mughal Emperor Akbar's "sul-e-kul" or "universal 
good" which underpinned his governance. The scale 
of European imperialism inaugurated a new chapter 
in the history of greed which still shapes all 
our lives. Natural resources - cotton, sugar, 
teak, rubber, minerals - were plundered in 
gigantic quantities. The Indian textile industry 
was the most advanced in the world when the 
British arrived; within half a century it had 
been destroyed. The enslaved and indentured (at 
least 20 million Africans and 1.5 million 
Indians) were shipped across the globe to work on 
plantations, mines and railroads. The stupendous 
profits deriving from this enabled today's 
developed world to prosper.
The point isn't for Europeans to feel guilt, but 
a serious consideration of historical 
responsibility isn't the same thing as a blame 
game. Forgetting history is tempting but 
undermines a society's capacity for change.
Among the many facile assumptions encouraged by 
these imperial apologists is that those who 
criticise colonialism are absolving tyrants and 
bigots in Asia and Africa from responsibility for 
their crimes. Of course it is possible and 
absolutely necessary to condemn both. Indians 
must acknowledge their culpability for atrocities 
during the partition, for example. But that in no 
way exonerates the British Raj from its pivotal 
role in the tragedy that led to over a million 
deaths.
A wilful ignorance of other people's cultures and 
histories encourages the notion that freedom, 
democracy and tolerance are intrinsically 
western. As Amartya Sen has argued, the 
subcontinent has long been home to traditions of 
free-thinking and debate. Participatory 
governance was not Britain's gift (recall 
Gandhi's indigenous village republics), even if 
parliamentary democracy as an institutional form 
was adopted in some ex-colonies. Free trade is 
another mythical western contribution to world 
history. Amitav Ghosh has reconstructed the 
forgotten history of a vibrant trade culture 
between medieval India and Africa. When the 
Portuguese arrived, they demanded that the Hindu 
ruler of Calicut expel Muslims, "enemies of the 
Holy-Faith", from his kingdom. He refused and was 
subjected to two days of bombardment.
Indeed, one legacy of European colonialism that 
we all reckon with is the self-fulfilling 
prophecy of the "clash of civilisations". The 
claim that east and west are bound to come into 
conflict is merely an extension of imperial 
practice which found it useful to seal off porous 
cultures into fixed categories. This tragic "lie 
of the colonial situation", as Frantz Fanon 
called it, rebounds on us tragically in the 
terror unleashed in the name of Islam and Bush's 
"war on terror". If we are to undo the 
destructive legacies of empire, it won't do to 
invest celebratory falsifications with 
credibility. To make sense of a shared present 
and look towards a more humane future, we need to 
start with a little informed honesty about the 
past.
· Priyamvada Gopal teaches postcolonial studies 
at Cambridge University and is the author of 
Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and 
the Transition to Independence

_____


[2]


BBC
21 June 2006

PAKISTAN'S FLOURISHING ARMS BAZAAR

by Aamer Ahmed Khan
BBC News, Peshawar

Weapons in Darra Adam Khel
All kinds of weapon are on sale in Darra Adam Khel

"There is nothing we cannot copy," grins Haji 
Munawar Afridi, an arms trader at Darra Adam Khel 
near Pakistan's northern city of Peshawar.

"You bring us a Stinger missile and we will make 
you an imitation that would be difficult to tell 
apart from the original."

It is not uncommon to come across such swagger 
from Pashtun tribesmen populating the lawless 
tribal belt along the country's western border 
with Afghanistan.

But it would perhaps be unwise to dismiss it as sheer bluster.

The hot, dry and dusty little town of Darra Adam 
Khel, barely a half-hour drive from Peshawar, is 
one of the major suppliers of small arms to the 
residents of the tribal belt.


Master gunmaker Haji Alizai

In pictures: Deadly trade

From a distance, it looks no different from any 
suburban settlement in North-West Frontier 
Province.

The main road meanders into a market where few 
outlets are larger than a single room.
But the fare they flaunt is deadly: revolvers, 
automatic pistols, shotguns and Kalashnikovs line 
the shelves of a typical shop.
Only five years ago, the list would also have had 
items such as anti-personnel mines, sub-machine 
guns, small cannons and even rocket launchers.

Betrayal

"This farcical war on terror has been hard on us," says Haji Afridi.

"The government has forced us to stop 
manufacturing heavy arms. It says such weapons 
are used by terrorists."

For Darra tribesmen, the government's crackdown amounts to a betrayal of sorts.

They say it was the government itself that 
transferred heavy weapons technology to Darra in 
the late 1980s.
In April 1988, a major ammunition dump in 
Rawalpindi used for stockpiling US and 
Saudi-funded arms for the Afghan fighters blew up.
The entire dump, called the Ojhri camp, was 
gutted in a day-long inferno during which dozens 
of people were killed as unarmed missiles rained 
down on citizens living in the heavily-populated 
areas around.

Tribesmen say the government sold all the 
destroyed ammunition as scrap to arms dealers in 
Darra Adam Khel, a claim never quite denied by 
the authorities.
Haji Afridi, who has been a member of parliament 
and is an active player in the bazaar's politics, 
say it was a windfall for local manufacturers.

Arms trader
Arms traders continue to focus on local markets

"From those destroyed weapons, we overnight 
acquired the technology for manufacturing mines, 
machine guns, small cannons and even multi-barrel 
rocket launchers."
It made Darra a household name in neighbouring 
Afghanistan, where the Afghans had descended into 
factional infighting after the Soviet withdrawal.
Amid waning international interest in 
Afghanistan, Darra became the focal point for 
various antagonists engaged in the country.
Within a couple of years, it had outgrown other 
tribal arms bazaars such as those in Bajaur and 
Jundollah.

But the so-called war on terror seems to have put paid to the glory days.

Under threat

Analysts say these open arms markets were an 
invaluable asset for Pakistani policy-makers 
before 9/11.
Influential traders in Darra Adam Khel proudly 
talk about their role in arming the Islamist 
fighters engaged in Kashmir.

Arms trader Haji Afridi
Punjabis love small arms and Punjab is our major market
Arms trader Haji Afridi

Others recall the times when the Pakistani 
authorities would encourage them to supply more 
to one Afghan commander than the other.
This privileged status now seems to be under threat.
Senior military officials say open arms markets 
are contributing significantly to the conflict 
between Taleban fighters and Pakistani security 
forces in the tribal belt.
One official told the BBC News website that 
Pakistan's top army intelligence unit had 
recommended the immediate closure of all arms 
markets in the tribal belt soon after 9/11.
For several years now, the government has been 
seen encouraging the arms manufacturers in Darra 
to participate in international defence weapons 
exhibitions held annually in major Pakistani 
cities.
The idea is to introduce the tribesmen to the 
international arms market and create new, 
above-board relationships that are more easily 
regulated.
That was perhaps the thought behind the 
government's decision to route all export orders 
awarded to Darra arms manufacturers through the 
ministry of defence.
The move backfired, however, as most of the 
tradesmen started accusing the government of 
channelling international orders to their 
"favourites".
At present, only a handful of the 2,000-odd 
families involved in arms manufacturing in Darra 
are supplying clients abroad.

The rest continue to focus on local markets.

"Punjabis love small arms and Punjab is our major market," says Haji Afridi.

His claim is rubbished by intelligence officials, 
who say places such are Darra are critical in 
sustaining major conflicts in the region.
Whatever the reality, it is clear that the 
government will have to come up with a highly 
innovative and aggressive strategy to bring this 
lethal trade under control.

_____


[3] 

Opendemocracy.net
26 - 6 - 2006

BANGLADESH'S FRAYING DEMOCRACY
by Liz Philipson
http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/bangladesh_3681.jsp

_____


[4] 

The Hindu
June 29, 2006

Towards the endgame in Nepal

by Siddharth Varadarajan

The sooner a U.N. mission is in place to monitor 
the arms of the Nepal Army and Maoist PLA, the 
smoother will be the transition towards an 
interim government and Constituent Assembly 
elections.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/29/stories/2006062902871000.htm

_____

[5] 

Kashmir Times
June 27, 2006
Editorial

BENEVOLENCE WITH BIAS
ADOPTION OF ORPHANS BY RSS OUTFIT FRAUGHT WITH DANGER

The news report about adoption of 100 militancy 
affected children from Jammu and Kashmir by an 
NGO affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak 
Sangh (RSS) carries a mixed omen of both good and 
bad. The good things first. The unfortunate 
children, mostly said to be orphans, are being 
given an opportunity to get education upto higher 
secondary level which may make them fit for 
higher education or any desired vocation. This 
would have sounded like Beethoven's symphony to 
the ears had it not been for the saffron 
brigade's hidden agenda behind this gesture of 
benevolence. The RSS is known to operate 
politically in the grab of social work and 
starting indoctrination camps for the very young, 
invoking its hate-soaked Hindutava philosophy, 
which may not be healthy for anyone, much less 
the children from Jammu and Kashmir who have 
already borne the brunt of violence and grown up 
in an atmosphere of turmoil and insecurity, 
forbidding them to think liberally and logically. 
The act of charity may be appreciable if there 
were no exterior motive or hidden agenda. Whether 
the RSS contests this, the fact is that the 
organization carries a baggage of history, which 
may not sound too appeasing. The organization, in 
the name of social work and cultural promotion 
has been motivating youngsters to attend its run 
schools and imparting its own curriculum with 
distorted histories and untruths about India's 
history or politics. The saffron brigades brush 
with distortion of history during the BJP led NDA 
rule at the Centre is already too well known. The 
RSS goes a step further with its own curriculum 
of social history, which preaches nothing but 
hatred against most of Indian neighbours, 
particularly Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. 
It raises the perverted ideology of Hindutava to 
lofty heights and labels everybody who does not 
believe in this philosophy as anti-nationals.
If the news report about adoption of these 
children is to be believed, the army, through its 
Sadbhavana policy, has also facilitated the 
handing over of 57 children to this RSS 
affiliated NGO. This indeed is a cause for 
concern. The army, which is a visible face of the 
state could have done better than associating 
itself, at any level, with an NGO which has 
political designs and ambitions to fulfill. The 
needs of the orphaned children need to be 
fulfilled and this is important. Though primarily 
the task of the government, which has virtually 
done nothing for the state's growing number of 
orphans in the last sixteen years, the local NGOs 
and those from outside without a political design 
could have done a greater service. Unfortunately, 
while not many local NGOs have come forward to 
cater to the needs of the orphans, as these often 
lack funds and infrastructure; the government 
help is always wanting in this regard. Recently 
when the Centre had embarked on the course of 
sending a group of orphans, wrongly projected as 
earthquake victims, outside the state for 
studies, the move drew flak from various 
quarters. One of the points of argument against 
the move was that the children from the state 
should be looked after in the state itself as 
sending them outside would be an attempt to cut 
them from their roots. This is a plausible logic. 
And, though the basic education and basic needs 
of the orphans - quake victims, militancy 
affected or naturally orphaned children - should 
be a priority, it is also important to maintain 
that cultural and social link between the already 
victimized children and their original 
environment. Permitting NGOs with a bias to swoop 
in on the state's orphans and fulfill their evil 
designs by playing politics with the tragedy and 
grief of the children will be even more criminal. 
While the government needs to take steps in this 
regard to ensure that the orphans are not doubly 
victimized by any kind of petty politicking, this 
is essentially a task for the civil society, 
which can not only ensure safeguards against such 
a practice but also come forward to generously 
donate, in terms of money or time, for the cause 
and needs of the victimized children.


_____


[6]   [ The following article appears in the next 
issue [June July 2006] of the prestigious
journal Communalism Combat, edited by Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand]

o o o

PARALLEL STATES: BJP-RULED GOVERNMENTS DEFY CENTRE AND CONSTITUTION ON
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

by John Dayal

In an irony which will haunt and embarrass the government of India for
a long time to come, New Delhi's commitment to the International
Human Rights Council formed in Geneva this month, and also Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh's refining the 30 year old 15-Point Programme
for Minorities coincided with a major escalation in violence against
the minority Christian communities in the states of Orissa, Madhya
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
The situation has come to such a pass that senior Christian leaders
have with all gravity asked the Union Government if its writ still runs
in States which are ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party or its Allies.
Church leaders have in fact cautioned the Union Government that unless
urgent steps are taken, and seen to be taken, the impression will go
that there are two sets of laws operating in the country-one criminal
justice system  operating in areas ruled by the BJP and another
Constitutional law operative in the rest of India.
Needless to say this poses a serious threat not only to the secular
fabric of India, but indeed to the federal structure of its polity in
which while states have a wide range of freedom of action, they are
constitutionally bond to adhere to the basic tenets of our republican
democracy. These of course include such basic freedoms and human rights
as those of freedom to profess, practice and propagate one's faith or
religion.
Indicative of the BJP's defiance of both the Congress and the
Constitution is the recent three-pronged attack on the Christian
community. The first of this is repeated articulation by Chief
Ministers and regional BJP heads in the four or five central Indian
States that they would slam down with all severity on Christian
Missionary activity, calling it anti-national and disruptive of
national unity. The second is a heighten activity of conversion to
Hinduism, politically called Ghar Wapasi of the indigenous or Tribals
of Central India in which politicians such as the lumpen giant Judeo as
also the controversial Shankaracharya of Puri are involved. The final
blow is unabashed violence against poor and illiterate Tribals in
remote villages who profess the Christian faith or are even remotely
hospitable to a visiting pastor.
Violence is no longer confined to beating up the man or demolition the
family hut, but is now graduating to molesting of women, parading them
in the streets and finally subjecting them gang rape as a method of
teaching them a lesson. And illustrative case is of two Christian women
on 28th May 2006 in Nadia village of Bhagwanpura block of Khargone
district of South Western Madhya Pradesh of the night of 28th May. The
women and their families had earned the wrath of the BJP leadership in
the region for continuing to worship in a house church defying the
dictat of the local Sangh thugs.
On the 28th night a group of men lead by people now identified as
Lalla, Nandla, Kallu, Rewal Singh and Sakaram all from the same village
came and raided the house of the Christians beat up the men and then
gang raped the women. The women say they can identify the tormentors
(see box items for testimonies).
I fully realise that rape is endemic in many areas in India including
my home city of Delhi. We have police records which show the gravity of
the situation, where in India a women is raped every 30 minutes and
another is murdered every 75 minutes. National Police Crime Records
Bureau data says a third of these rapes take place in Delhi but a very
large number do take place in rural India, including the tribal parts
of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.
The Madhya Pradesh case is however different because of its religious
connotations and the fact that the victims were raped so they could be
"taught a lesson" for professing the Christian faith. This is
reminiscent of the gang rape of nuns in Jhabua not far away from
Khargone. Adding insult to the injury is the attitude of the district
authorities including the police. They have constantly refused to file
First Information Reports on behalf of the women or many eye witnesses.
Not only this, they went on to coerce the victims to remain quite. And
finally, as if to show their contempt to the rule of law, the police
filed a case against the families of the victims for encouraging
conversion to Christianity.
Under such a protective police umbrella, thugs of the Sangh Parivar
have created so much communal fear that even fact finding groups from
the State capital of Bhopal find it difficult to travel to the villages
of Khargone in the day time.
After persistence complaints to the Centre's National Minorities
Commission Chairperson Hamid Ansari sent two of his members to Madhya
Pradesh for an on the spot inquiry. Commission member Harcharan Singh
Josh later said that the situation in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh
was not safe for Christians. He said that Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu
Parishad and a new organisation called the Dharam Dal were terrorizing
the Christians even as the police forces closed their eyes to this
violence.
There is a very little left now for Christian groups and activists
other then to move the High Court at Jabalpur to direct the state
government to take action against the culprits. Another recourse
perhaps lies by moving a similar writ in the Supreme Court.
But moving the judiciary can be affective if the Union Government shows
any sign of being politically alive to the communalism being fanned by
the BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh and adjoining states. So far the
Union Home Ministry -- in spite of my several letters to Home Minister
Shivraj Patil and Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh in my capacity as
a President of All India Catholic Union, the biggest Christian
organisation in the country claiming to represent 1.8 Crore Catholic
laity, and also as a member of the Central Government's own National
Integration Council -- seems not to have elicited any response from the
mandarins of North Block.
Little wonder than that the Shankaracharya has openly organised mass
conversion of Christians to Hinduism in Orissa while the district
collectors look on. And in Rajasthan the State Home Minister and the
Chief Minister pursue their one-point programme of implementing an anti
conversion law in the face of almost universal condemnation.

             ---------------------------------------

THREE TESTIMONIES FROM NANDYA VILLAGE KHARGONE DISTRICT

Mrs Baysubai Ben narrates:

  "On 28th May, the village Mukhya's men came and took my husband
Gokhrya. They were beating him all through the way. They also beat him
in the gram Panchayat. But he refused to reject Jesus. Some one said
that these Christians don't drink alcohol. So if we will make them to
drink liquor, he will become a non-Christian.' So they forced the
liquor into his mouth. Then asked him to leave Jesus or give up his
land. He said, 'I will leave any thing but not Jesus.'
The village Patel Pandya was there. He said, 'you people can do
anything you want to with their women. There will not be any police
case. If there is any case, I will handle it.'
So some came to our village. I saw from my house two men molesting my
sister in law (brother's wife, Rekha Bai.) I knew that they could do
something to me also as my husband was not at home. I ran and took
shelter in the neighbouring house. It was around 10 in the evening.
They came and found me. They dragged me out and dropped me in the
agricultural land. They undressed me by force and threw the clothes on
the ground. They both repeatedly raped me.
My husband and his friend were walking to our home from the friend's
village. They heard my cry and came to rescue me. But there were a few
others standing as guards. They caught hold of my husband and his
friend. They started to beat the friend more than my husband. My
husband took me home but they were beating his friend taking him to the
Mukhya. There they bound him to a tree - and reported to the Mukhya,
Ram Singh Patel.
The people who raped me told my husband and me that if we will tell
this to any one - they will kill us. As we were really shocked and
frightened we did not do any thing. Next day came and warned that we
should not leave the village and should not be fools to report - and
it will cost our lives.
But on the second night we escaped to a neighbouring village and found
shelter in a neighbour's house who is a Christian.
I am afraid and frightened when I see those who beat my husband or
raped me. I feel so ashamed.


The witness of Mrs. Rekha Bai.

On May 28th some men came to our home after a meeting with the Mukhya.
They caught hold of me and started to molest me. I escaped but as I am
seven months pregnant I could not run far. So I ran to my father
in-laws house, which is 200 meters away. My father in law tried to save
me. They started to beat my father in law with firewood and the poor
man ran for his life. Three men came to the in-laws house and found me
hiding. They dragged me out and threw me on the cot that was put
outside the house for my father in law. They undressed me and raped me.
(One cot was broken which the police have taken away for evidence.}
Three men raped me. When my mother-in-law started to curse and save me,
one man took big firewood and hit her at the back. Wriggling with pain
she sat there abusing the men.
As they were going they warned us, "You tell this to any one try to
make a complaint - we will get rid of you for ever."
  My husband was in the next village. Next day when he came, the people
who raped me came and warned again - 'you dare to report this to
any one or try to go out of the village - we will not let you live."
This was on Sunday night. On Tuesday night we came out of the village
- as no one was seeing us. On Wednesday we went to the police
station. The Police inspector told me, "You are a prostitute and you
are trying to blame these innocent people. ' He was abusing us
continually.
The police sent us to the government hospital. The doctor gave Gudiya
an injection and some pills but did not do a check up on me. So one
police came with us to the Khargone district government hospital. The
doctor did a medical check up.


Gudiya, a villager, says:

My name is Gudiya. One day my friend Gokhariya from my nearby village
came to me. It was on 28th May and said that the people of the village
did beat him very badly for being a Christian. We discussed as what we
could do in the new wave of this persecution. We sat there till 9.45
pm. Then Gokhariya said that he is going home. I said that I will walk
with him. As we were walking by a hill, we heard the cry of a woman
from the filed. It was the wife of Gokhariya. We ran over there and
found two men raping her. But there were more men standing around. They
caught hold of us. They were angry as I came to help my friend. They
started to beat me on my back with a stick and there were deep wounds.
They took me to the Mukhya but then they bound me on a tree with my
hands bound to the back and left. I have the mark of the ropes even now
on my arms. They left me there like that and reported to the Mukhya. He
came and set me free.

[With thanks to Fr Anand of Bhopal and Pastor PG Vargis]

_____


[7]

THE CARTOON CONTROVERSY:
US LEFT NATIONALISTS ON THE SIDE OF ENEMIES OF FREEDOM

by Mahmood Ketabchi (March 1, 2006)

As the world witnessed the Islamists' reactionary 
campaign to impose their taboo on the progressive 
humanity, the US left nationalists, as expected, 
supported the Islamists. They talked of 
"Denmark's racist cartoons," praised the 
Islamists' protests, and tried to sell us the 
Islamist campaign as a "fight against racism, 
xenophobia, colonialism, and imperialism." They 
told the whole world that the "Muslims are right 
to be angry" and justified their savagery and 
hooliganism. They told us that the freedom of 
press and right to blasphemy was irrelevant and 
portray it as an imperialist conspiracy against 
Muslims. They called for protest in solidarity 
with the Islamist currents. They rushed and fell 
all over each other to raise hue and cry against 
"Islam-bashing," "the attack on the Muslim 
world," and "insults against Prophet Muhammad." 
They ignorantly conflated attack on religion with 
attack on people of color and claimed that it was 
racist xenophobic to attack on Islam. They tried 
to tell us that there is a great confrontation 
between imperialism and the Islamic forces.
[. . .].
FULL TEXT AT: http://www.ww4report.com/node/1686


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[8] [UPCOMING EVENTS]

(i)

Dear Friends,

ANHAD IS ORGANISING A DAY LONG SEMINAR AND A CULTURAL TRIBUTE TO
VASANT RAO AND RAJAB ALI ON THE EVE OF THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR
MARTYDOM. JUNE 30TH, 2006 AT VADODARA, GUJARAT. Please Join Us.

Shabnam Hashmi

o o o

60 Years of Martyrdom
Vasant Rajab : A Symbol of Communal Harmony

June 30th, 2006
CC Mehta Auditorium, MS University , Vadodara

It was the 1st of July, 1946 and the day of the RathYatra (Car
Festival) when communal riot flared up in Ahmedabad. The entire city
was engulfed in arson, looting , killings, burnings. The law and order
situation was in disarray. Vasant Rao and  Rajab Ali were engaged in
saving Hindu and Muslim Families and their houses and properties. The
news came from Jamalpur
in the evening to the Seva Dal workers in Congress office that at
Khand -ni- that a Dalit family was being surrounded by the frenzied
mob. It was evening. As soon as the news came, Vasant- Rajab rushed to
the spot. They reached the spot and tried their best to pacify the
mob. Vasant- Rajab tried their best to appeal to their conscience.
Instead, the mob threatened them of dire consequences. Vasant and
Rajab resisted the mob, many from the mob left but the die hards
attacked them and both of them were killed on the spot. Of course
their martyrdom saved the Dalit family and the Basti Their sacrifice
could finally put off the flame of communal fire.

Anhad, after its formation three years ago, declared July 1 as the
communal harmony day in memory of Vasant and Rajab and has been
observing it every year since 2002.

Anhad is organisng a day long seminar followed by an evening cultural
tribute to the martyrs on June 30th, 2006 in Vadodara on the eve of
the anniversary of their martydom.

SEMINAR
9.30am-5.30pm

June 30th, 2006
CC Mehta Auditorium, MS University , Vadodara

Reimagining the City, Reimagining the Nation

Session I

Reimagining the City

9.30am -1.00pm
Introducing the Seminar and Speakers- Adarsha Hegde

Chairperson: Ghanshyam Shah

Gujarat: Traditions of Composite Culture- Achyut Yagnik
Vadodara and Its Dalit Tribal Hinterland: Rift between the City and
the Countryside: Dr. Lancy Lobo
Vadodara as a Centre of Education: Past and Present- Prof. Iftikhar Ahmed Khan
Vadodara: Ghettoisation and Hate: The Rift between Religious
Communities- Beena  Srinivasan
Gender at the Faultlines of Conflict: Zakia Jowher
Vadodara and livelihoods and the rift between the rich and the poor -
Rohit Prajapati

Lunch Break 1.00pm -2pm

Session II

2.00pm- 5.30pm

Tea Break- 3.00-3.30pm

Reimagining the Nation

Chairperson: Prof. KN Panikkar

Rakesh Sharma
Siddharth Vardarajan
Harsh Mander
Ram Puniyani
Gagan Sethi

A Cultural Tribute to Vasant and Rajab
An Evening of Dance, Poetry and Music
7.30pm onwards

Dhruv Sangari
Gauhar Raza
Khalil Dhantejvi
Saba Azad Grewal and Mehneer Sudan

Dhruv Sangari did his masters in music from Delhi University. he
follows the tradition of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Dhruv learnt
from Ustad Miraj Nizami of Delhi and from Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
for three years.  He has performed all over India, US and UK.

Gauhar Raza is a scientist, documentary filmmaker and a poet. Gauhar's
first book of poetry got the Hindi Academy Award for creative Writing.
He was also awarded creative writing award from Urdu academy for
science writing for children. He has made more than 30 documentaries
on different social issues. He is at present working as the Director,
Jahangirabad Media Institute.

Khalil Dhantejvi is a Baroda based poet. He has written extensively on
issues related to harmony and peace. He is known for his stage
presence.

Mehneer Sudan was, in her words "born to dance". She is a contemporary
dancer, and has trained in many dance forms. She trained in Kathak for
ten years and has a junior diploma in the same from the Prayag Sangeet
Samiti (Allahabad). She has trained in jazz and ballet at Danceworx
(New Delhi) she has also trained in contemporary dance from the
Northern School of contemporary dance, Leeds. She has attended
workshops with international choreographers such as Jan Freeman, and
has choreographed and taught dance in London. She has performed all
over India as well as at Leeds. She was until recently teaching at the
British School Delhi.

Dance, for Saba Azad, is the most natural mode of _expression. She has
been training in Odissi for the past 15 years under the tutellage of
Padmashree Guru Smt. Kiran Segal. She has trained in ballet, jazz and
Latin dances from ballet master Fernando Aqilera and Danceworx Delhi.
She is currently training in contemporary dance.

She has performed all over Canada, England, Nepal and India. She has
done choreography for children's plays with Vivek Mansukhani. She has
taught at the American School Delhi

__

(ii)

WORLD SUMMIT ON FREE INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURES
  WSFII Memorandum Of Understanding

We declare, as an ongoing international process 
of multiple, local action oriented events which 
provide space for people to come together, to 
share experiences, present practical solutions, 
to learn and to build, all kinds of Free 
Information Infrastructures.

Infrastructures, are shared across language, 
cultural and other boundaries, and are natural 
meeting points for people. We want to promote 
affordable, non-bureaucratic, participatory, do 
it yourself, self-governing approaches in a wide 
variety of fields.

We offer:

     * An open space to represent your practice and validate your knowledge.
     * A network of international practicioners and vissionaries.
     * A series of regional events to be designed by the participants.
     * An international summit to take place in 
Dharamsala, India from 22nd of October until 3rd 
of November 2006.
     * and a support group, how-tos, and resources to make it happen.

The Wsfii coordinators commit to making this happen.

We invite you, your project, your initiative or 
your organization to join us. Come and 
participate at this years global WSFII workshop 
at Dharamsala end of October.

http://wsfii.org/


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

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.