SACW | 23-27 July 2006 | Pakistan Waits for Enlightenment; India Badly Needs to re-furbish the 'Secular'

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 23-27 July, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2277


[1]  Pakistan: Waiting For Enlightenment (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
[2]  Pakistan: Amendments to Hudood Ord finalised (Daily Times)
[3]  India: Amarnath yatra in Kashmir - State Patronage of Religion 
(Gautam Navlakha)
[4]  India: Quit India: Hindutva Goons (Subhash Gatade)
[5]  India: What Ails Gujarat? - a two part article (Teesta Setalvad)
[6]  Canada: CERAS statement on the war in Lebanon and Palestine
[7] Upcoming Events:  
   (i) Demo - Citizens Against Israeli Aggression (New Delhi, July 27, 2006)
   (ii) Antiwar rally (Karachi, July 28, 2006)
   (iii) Meeting to Celebrate those who helped victims of 7/11 Mumbai 
bomb blasts (Bombay, July 27, 2006)
   (iv) Panel Discussion - Human Rights in South Asia (New York, July 27, 2006)
     

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[1] 

www.sacw.net - July 24, 2006
http://www.sacw.net/peace/Hoodbhoy24072006.html

WAITING FOR ENLIGHTENMENT
by Pervez Hoodbhoy

The centrepiece of Pakistan's relationship with the West since 
September 11, 2001, has been dubbed "enlightened moderation" by its 
president and philosopher-general, Pervez Musharraf. Under his rule, 
Musharraf claims, Pakistan has rejected the orthodox, militant, 
violent  Islam imposed by the previous chief of army staff to seize 
power in Pakistan, General Zia ul-Haq (who ruled from 1977-1988), in 
favour of a more 'modern' and 'moderate' Islam. But Musharraf's 
actions, and those of his government and its allies, are often at 
odds with this. In fact, after almost five years of 'enlightened 
moderation,' it seems there is more continuity than change. And, with 
each passing day, it becomes harder to see how such a policy can hope 
to stem the tide of religious radicalism that is overwhelming 
Pakistani society.

No one doubts that there have been some changes for the good. There 
is a perceptible shift in institutional practices and inclinations. 
Heads of government organizations are no longer required to lead noon 
prayers as in the 1980's; female announcers with undraped heads 
freely appear on Pakistan Television; to the relief of many 
passengers thickly bearded stewards are disappearing from PIA 
flights; the first women fighter pilots have been inducted into the 
Pakistan Air Force. More importantly, in early July 2006, Musharraf 
directed the Council of Islamic Ideology to draft an amendment to the 
controversial Hudood Ordinance, put in place by General Zia-ul-Haq 
and not repealed by any of the civilian governments that ruled from 
1988 to 1999. This law gives women a lower legal status and punishes 
the victims of rape.  Repeal of these anti-women laws has been a long 
standing demand of Pakistani women's groups. A vastly overdue -- but 
nevertheless welcome -- action was taken by the government when it 
released in July hundreds of women prisoners arrested under the 
Hudood Ordinance, many of whom had spent years awaiting their trial.

But the force of these pluses cannot outweigh the many more weighty 
minuses. General Musharraf has formally banned some of many Jihadi 
groups that the Pakistan army has helped train and arm for over two 
decades, but they still operate quite freely. After the October 
earthquake, some of these extremist groups in Kashmir seized the 
opportunity of relief work to fully reestablish and expand their 
presence. Exploiting Musharraf's ambivalence, they openly flaunted 
their banners and weapons in all major towns of Azad Kashmir and 
fully advertised their strength. Some obtained relief materials from 
government stocks to pass off as their own, and used heavy vehicles 
that could only have been provided by the authorities. Many national 
and international relief organizations were left insecure by their 
overwhelming presence. Only recently have the jihadists moved out of 
full public view into more sheltered places.

Other Pakistani leaders send similar messages. Shaukat Aziz, a former 
Citibanker and now prime minister of Pakistan, made a call for 
nation-wide prayers for rain in a year of drought. This effort to 
improve his Islamic credentials became less laughable when, at an 
education conference in Islamabad, he proposed that Islamic religious 
education must start as soon as children enter school. This came in 
response to a suggestion by the moderate Islamic scholar, Javed 
Ghamdi, that only school children in their fifth year and above 
should be given formal Islamic education.  Otherwise, said Ghamdi, 
they would stand in danger of becoming rigid and doctrinaire. The 
government's 2006 education policy now requires Islamic studies to 
begin in the third year of school, a year earlier than in the 
previous policy.

Other ministers are no less determined to show Islamic zeal. The 
federal minister for religious affairs, Ijaz ul Haq, speaking at the 
launch of a book authored by a leading Islamic extremist leader on 
"Christian Terrorism and The Muslim World," argued that anyone who 
did not believe in jihad was neither a Muslim nor a Pakistani. He 
then declared that given the situation facing Muslims today, he was 
prepared to be a suicide bomber.

According to a newspaper report, Pakistani health minister, Mohammad 
Nasir Khan, assured the upper house of parliament that the government 
could consider banning female nurses looking after male patients at 
hospitals. This move arose from a motion moved by female 
parliamentary members of the MMA, the Islamist party that commands 
majorities in the provincial assemblies of  the Frontier and 
Baluchistan provinces and offered crucial support for Musharraf 
staying on as president. Women's bodies are of particular concern to 
these holy men: "We think that men could derive sexual pleasure from 
women's bodies while conducting ECG or ultrasound," proclaimed 
Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, provincial secretary of the MMA. In his 
opinion women would be able to lure men under the pretext of these 
medical procedures. Therefore, he said, "to save the supreme values 
of Islam and the message of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), the MMA has 
decided to impose the ban."  Destroyed or damaged billboards with 
women's faces can be seen in several cities of the Frontier because 
the MMA deems the exhibition of unveiled women as un-Islamic.

Total separation of the sexes is a central goal of the Islamists, the 
consequences of which have been catastrophic. For example, on April 
9, 2006, 21 women and 8 children were crushed to death, and scores 
injured, in a stampede inside a three-storey madrassa in Karachi 
where a large number of women had gathered for a weekly congregation. 
Male rescuers, who arrived in ambulances, were prevented from moving 
injured women to hospitals.

One cannot dismiss this as just one incident. Soon after the October 
2005 earthquake, as I walked through the destroyed city of Balakot, a 
student of the Frontier Medical College described to me how he and 
his male colleagues were stopped by religious elders from digging out 
injured girl students from under the rubble of their school building. 
The action of these elders was similar to that of Saudi Arabia's 
ubiquitous religious "mutaween" police who, in March 2002, had 
stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were 
not wearing their abayas.  In rare criticism, Saudi newspapers had 
blamed the mutaween for letting 15 girls burn to death.

The Saudiization of a once-vibrant Pakistani culture continues at a 
relentless pace. The drive to segregate is now also being found among 
educated women. Vigorous proselytizers bringing this message, such as 
Mrs.  Farhat Hashmi, have been catapulted to heights of fame and 
fortune. Their success is evident. Two decades ago the fully veiled 
student was a rarity on Pakistani university and college campuses. 
Now she outnumbers her sisters who still dare show their faces. This 
has had the effect of further enhancing passivity and unquestioning 
obedience to the teacher, and of decreasing the self-confidence of 
female students.

The intensification of religious feelings has had a myriad other more 
significant consequences.  Depoliticization and destruction of all 
non-religious organizations has lead to the absence of any noticeable 
public mobilization-even on specifically Muslim causes like US 
actions against Iraq, Palestine, or Iran. Events in these areas 
rarely bring more than a few dozen protesters on to the streets-if 
that.  Nevertheless large numbers of Pakistanis are driven to fury 
and violence when they perceive their faith has been maligned. Mobs 
set on fire the Punjab Assembly, as well as shops and cars in Lahore, 
for an act of blasphemy committed in Denmark. Even as religious 
fanaticism grips the population there is a curious, almost 
fatalistic, disconnection with the real world which suggests that 
fellow Muslims don't matter any more-only the Faith does.

Religious identity has also become increasingly sectarian. A suicide 
bomber, as yet unidentified, killed 57 people and eliminated the 
entire leadership of the "Sunni Movement" when he leapt on to the 
stage at a religious gathering in Karachi in April, 2006.  Months 
earlier, barely a mile down from my university, at the shrine of Bari 
Imam, 25 Shias were killed in similar attack. In the tribal areas, 
sectarian tensions have frequently exploded into open warfare: in the 
villages of Hangu district, Sunnis and Shias exchanged light 
artillery and rocket fire leaving scores dead.  Earlier this year, 
when I traveled for lecturing in the town of Gilgit, I saw soldiers 
crouched in bunkers behind mounted machine guns. It looked more like 
a town under siege than a tourist resort.

The clearest political expression of this shift towards a more 
violent and intolerant religious identity is the rise of the MMA as a 
national force, which on key issues both supports and is supported by 
General Musharraf's government. A measure of its power, and the 
threat it poses to society and the state, is the Pakistani Taliban 
movement that it has helped create, especially in the tribal areas 
bordering Afghanistan. Their success draws in large measure on the 
lessons they learned when working hand in the hand with the Pakistan 
army to create and sustain the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Unable to combat the toxic mix of religion with tribalism, the 
Pakistani government is rapidly losing what little authority it ever 
had in the tribal parts.  Under US pressure, the army has been 
mounting military offensives against Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters 
who fled Afghanistan. The convenient fiction that the army is merely 
combating "foreign militants" from the Arab and Central Asian 
countries is accepted by no one. Its assaults have taken a heavy 
civilian toll and local resistance has grown.

The local Taliban, as well as Al-Qaida, are popular and the army is 
not. In the tribal areas, the local Taliban now run a parallel 
administration that dispenses primitive justice according to tribal 
and Islamic principles. A widely available Taliban-made video that I 
saw shows the bodies of criminals dangling from electricity poles in 
the town of Miranshah while thousands of appreciative spectators look 
on. In Wana, a regional capital, about 20 miles from the Afghan 
border, Taliban supporters have decreed that men are forbidden to 
shave. A Pathan barber, who migrated to Islamabad, told me last month 
that many others like him are making their way to the big cities or 
abandoning their traditional occupation.

The Pakistani Taliban (like their brothers in Afghanistan) see 
education as insidious. Pakistani newspapers frequently carry news of 
schools in the tribal regions being attacked destroyed by the 
Taliban. But rarely are these incidents followed by angry editorials 
or letters-to-the editor. Implicit sympathy for the Taliban remains 
strong among urban middle-class Pakistanis because they are perceived 
as standing up to the Americans, while the government has caved in. 
In Waziristan, one of the locales of a growing insurgency, the state 
has essentially capitulated and accepted Talibanic rule over tribal 
society as long as the army is allowed to maintain a spectator 
presence.

Stepping back, the Islamist shift underway in Pakistan becomes yet 
more evident. According to the Pew Global Survey (2006), the 
percentage of Pakistanis who expressed confidence in Osama bin Laden 
as a world leader grew from 45% in 2003 to 51% in 2005. This 6 point 
increase must be compared against responses to an identical 
questionnaire in Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon, where bin Laden's 
popularity has sharply dropped by as much as 20 points.

It is worth asking what has changed Pakistan so and what makes it so 
different from other Muslim countries? What set one section of its 
people upon the other, created notions of morality centred on 
separating the sexes, and sapped the country's vitality? Some well 
meaning Pakistanis -- particularly those who live overseas -- think 
that it is best to avoid such difficult questions. These days they 
are venturing to "repackage Pakistan" for the media. They want to 
change negative perceptions of Pakistan in the West while, at the 
same time, hesitating to call for a change in the structure of the 
state and its outlook.

But at the heart of Pakistan's problems lies a truth -- one etched in 
stone--that when a state proclaims a religious identity and mission, 
it is bound to privilege those who organize religious life and 
interpret religious text. Since there are many models and 
interpretations within every religion, there is bound to be conflict 
between religious forces over whose model shall prevail. There is 
also the larger confrontation between religious principles and 
practices and what we now consider to be 'modern' ideas of society, 
which have emerged over the past several hundred years. This truth, 
for all its simplicity, escaped the attention of several generations 
of soldiers, politicians, and citizens of Pakistan. It is true that 
there has been some learning -- Musharraf's call for "enlightened 
moderation" is a tacit (and welcome) admission that a theocratic 
Pakistan cannot work. But his call conflicts with his other, more 
important, responsibility as chief of the Pakistan Army.

Pakistan is what it is because its army finds greater benefit in the 
status quo. Today the Pakistan Army is vast, and as an institution, 
has acquired enormous corporate interests that sprawl across real 
estate, manufacturing, and service sectors. It also receives large 
amounts of military aid, all of which would be threatened if it comes 
into direct conflict with the US. In the 1960s and 1980s, and again 
since 9/11, the army discovered its high rental value when serving 
the US. Each time the long-term costs to the society and state have 
been terrible.

The relationship between the army and religious radicals is today no 
longer as simple as in the 1980's. To maintain a positive image in 
the West, the Pakistani establishment must continue to decry Islamic 
radicalism, and display elements of liberalism that are deeply 
disliked by the orthodox. But hard actions will be taken only if the 
Islamists threaten the army's corporate and political interests, or 
if senior army commanders are targeted for assassination. The 
Islamists for their part hope for, and seek to incite, action by 
zealous officers to bring back the glory days of the military-mullah 
alliance led by General Zia ul Haq.

Musharraf and his corps commanders well know that they cannot afford 
to sleep too well. It is in the lower ranks that the Islamists are 
busily establishing bases. A mass of junior officers and low-ranking 
soldiers -- whose world view is similar to that of the Taliban in 
most respects -- feels resentful of being used as cannon fodder for 
fighting America's war. It is they who die, not their senior 
officers. So far, army discipline has successfully squelched dissent 
and forced it underground. But this sleeping giant can -- if and when 
it wakes up -- tear asunder the Pakistan Army, and shake the 
Pakistani state from its very foundations.

(The author is a professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, 
Islamabad. Comments may be directed to: pervezhoodbhoy at yahoo.com)

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[2] 


Daily Times 
July 24, 2006 

AMENDMENTS TO HUDOOD ORD FINALISED 

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to retain all Islamic 
punishments in the Hudood Ordinance, including stoning to death 
(rajam), lashing and amputation for various offences, but has 
proposed procedural amendments regarding their applicability. Daily 
Times has learned that the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights 
has almost finalised the draft of a bill for amendments to the Hudood 
Ordinance of 1979, with the objective of removing all "legal and 
procedural lacunae" in it. Sources in the ministry said that the bill 
was likely to be presented in the next session of the National 
Assembly. Sources privy to the process of drafting the amendments 
told Daily Times that hadd (Islamic punishment) would be applicable 
to all offences, including rape, adultery, theft, wrongful accusation 
and robbery. However, the procedure had been amended to alter the 
number of eyewitnesses required, the conditions of evidence and the 
procedure for executing sentences, they said.

The option of repentance is also being given legal validity, and a 
person who repents will not be liable to hadd. A new section will be 
inserted in the ordinance to give effect to this provision. A major 
amendment proposed suggests that the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd 
Ordinance) 1979, which deals with drinking liquor and other 
intoxicants, be excluded from hadd punishments and such cases be 
dealt with under the Control of Narcotics Substances Act 1997. With 
this amendment, cases regarding the use and sale of liquor would be 
registered under ordinary law instead of hadd.

Similarly, the bill proposes that laws concerning zina (adultery, 
rape) and qazf (wrongful accusation) be combined as one ordinance, as 
both offences are interlinked.

Section 17 of the Zina Ordinance regarding the mode of execution of 
the punishment of stoning to death will be amended. The condition of 
four eyewitnesses for the imposition of this hadd punishment will 
also be withdrawn. A new sub-section would be inserted in the 
ordinance, prescribing a mode for whipping and suggesting the 
material of which the whip should be made.

The bill proposes the deletion of Section 10 of the Zina Ordinance, 
so that a person accusing another of zina without proof would 
automatically be charged by the state for qazf (wrongful accusation).

Section 497 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) has already been amended 
to make all offences committed by women, except in special cases, 
bailable.

In theft cases under the Offence against Property (Enforcement of 
Hadd) Ordinance 1979, the value of the prescribed 'nisab' (worth of 
property) would be increased from 4.457 grams of gold. The hadd 
punishment of amputation of a hand will be applied if the stolen 
property is above the prescribed nisab. Similarly, theft cases below 
the nisab will be adjudicated at the judge's discretion.



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[3]

Economic and Political Weekly
July 8-15, 2006

JAMMU AND KASHMIR
PILGRIM'S PROGRESS CAUSES REGRESSION

One needs to question the propriety of official promotion of the 
Amarnath yatra, for the pilgrimage now involves the movement of over 
5,00,000 pilgrims in an ecologically fragile area. The Indian 
government views the yearning for moksha (salvation) that takes so 
many devotees to the challenging heights of Kashmir as "a fitting 
gesture of solidarity with our, valiant soldiers", elevating the 
pilgrimage to a patriotic enterprise. A bigger mess seems to be in 
the making even as secular concerns go unheeded.

by Gautam Navlakha

In "secular" India matters related to religious practices brook no 
inter-ference from reason or common sense.  Therefore, to question 
the propriety of promoting pilgrimage in an ecologically fragile area 
is considered tantamount to prohibiting devotees the right to free 
movement and worship. This question comes to mind when looking at the 
Amar-nath yatra. Those who sound the warning do not advocate 
prohibiting pilgrimage per se. Rather they caution against allowing 
increasing number of pilgrims. This in-crease is not of a few hundred 
or a few thousand, but a few hundred thousand.  There has been a 
doubling of the period for pilgrimage from one month to two this year 
as well as a  40-fold increase in the number of pilgrims, from 12,000 
in 1989 to 4,50,000 in 2005 (this year it is set to cross 5,00,000), 
which are a cause for concern. In fact the actual period is longer 
because a fortnight before the official yatra is reserved for 
servicemen and their fami-lies to visit the Amarnath cave through the 
ecologically more vulnerable Baltal route.  Moreover, in order to 
provide security for the pilgrims who come out in strength, security 
forces have to be deployed in large numbers. The current deployment 
will be in excess of 20,000 for the entire period.  Their presence 
and stay cannot but affect the rise in pollution levels. Inclement 
weather too is an issue because rains in the plain means snow in the 
higher reaches.  This results in crowding at the camps, straining 
services, including the disposal of waste. But worse things can 
happen, as in 1996 when unexpected heavy snowfall resulted in the 
death of 243 pilgrims and injuries to hundred more. However, both the 
danger posed by unpredictable weather as well as the threat of 
environmental damage can be reduced by restricting the number of 
pilgrims and shortening the period of pilgrimage.

Eco-System Overloaded

The State Pollution Control Board, in a recent report warns that 
generation of waste by pilgrims, absence of waste disposal sites, 
open dumping of garbage, air pol-lution, sewage generated by hotels, 
yatri camps and local residential areas makes its way into the Lidder 
river. The SPCB has warned that the waste generated by pil-grims 
primarily contains plastics, polythene and leftover food packets all 
along the route. According to their calculation, 55,000 kgs of 
plastic waste is generated every day during the pilgrimage. Besides, 
thousands of open toilets erected along the banks of the Lidder river 
ensures that effluents enter the river. Thousands of vehicles ply up 
and down the mountains around Pahalgam all the way up to Chandanwari, 
spewing carbon monoxide.  The Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), 
which came into existence on February 21, 2001, has been dismissive 
of such claims.  They assert that the 230 pre-fabricated toilets 
being raised in the Nunwan base camp and disposal of the human waste 
in leach pits with micro-organic technology using Bokaslin powder and 
other chemi-cals would take care of the problem.

However, the issue is more than the sup-posedly effective modern 
methods to manage waste. The sheer presence of a large mass of people 
is a cause for concern.  The department of science and technology 
(DST), through its principal investigator on glaciology, has argued 
that "the eco-logy, the environment and health of the glacier can be 
under severe threat in case the Baltal route to the Holy Cave was 
frequented by thousands of pilgrims". The DST further pointed out 
that "depletion and degradation (of glaciers) are the result of human 
breath, refuse and land erosion" (The Tribune, July 5, 2005).

It is disconcerting to note that the open-ing of the Baltal route for 
pilgrims on foot and  for those using helicopters has crossed several 
thousands every day. Apart from the DST of  the Jammu and Kashmir 
gov-ernment, even the Nitish Sengupta Com-mittee, which was 
constituted to look into the deaths of 243 pilgrims in 1996 due to 
the snowstorm, had recommended that the number of yatris be 
restricted to 5,000 per day for a period of one month and the total 
number of pilgrims be capped at 1.5 lakh.  The Baltal route should 
allow 1,500 pil-grims and Pahalgam 3,500 per day. How-ever, the 
general J R Mukherjee Commit-tee, which looked into the cause of 
death of 35 people, due to cross fire, during the 2000 yatra, focused 
on security arrange-ments and wanted the duration of the yatra to 
increase as the security scenario im-proved. But neither report 
looked at the environmental impact of the yatra. Thus, when the SASB 
invokes the recommen-dations of the two committees, what it does is 
to use them selectively and link the number of pilgrims to the issue 
of mana-ging security for them. In this sense they underplay the 
question whether the eco-system can bear a heavy influx of pilgrims. 
This emphasis on encouraging a larger number of pilgrims shows its 
impact on the environment in unexpected ways. The SASB is 
contemplating "air conditioning" to preserve the "shivalingam" from 
melt-ing. The recent controversy over pilgrims alleging that the SASB 
has been construct-ing the "snow lingam" is now being passed off as 
due to change in the course of the water channels after last year's 
earthquake and global warming. Without ruling this out, human 
contribution to this pheno-menon cannot be ignored when glaciers are 
rapidly receding. As a matter of fact, the yatra was never undertaken 
in June precisely because formation of the "shivalingam" does not 
always take place then. Incidentally, the local people speak of 
"human" intervention in restoring what is a natural phenomenon, as 
something that has happened in the past too. This apart, a  large 
number of pilgrims means that the going gets tough as one draws close 
to the cave with traffic jams being the order of the day. At times 
pilgrims have to wait for hours for their turn. Increase in dust in 
the atmosphere too is caused by the crowds of people as well as the 
helicopter service. The dust raised is visible from a long distance 
away. All this also means that ordinary pilgrims, that is, other than 
VIPs, are  not allowed to spend more than a few seconds inside the 
cave. Above all, carbon dioxide levels shoot up, warming the area all 
around.

Yatra as a Patriotic Enterprise

It cannot be that the SASB is unaware of the environmental concerns. 
If such concerns receive short shrift it is because the yatra has 
come to symbolise the Indian government's determination to promote 
its claim in J and K. The pilgrimage is being officially heralded as 
a victory against the movement demanding "azaadi" from India. The 
news portal hosted by the Press Information Bureau says that 
"yearning for moksha (salvation) can move the devo-tees to the 
challenging heights of Kashmir and will be a fitting gesture of 
solidarity with our valiant soldiers who have been fighting the enemy 
to defend our borders" (pib.nic.in/feature/feo799/f1507992.html). 
Thus, what is otherwise merely a religious pilgrimage of the Hindus 
has been elevated to represent a patriotic enterprise. Besides, the 
SASB is headed by the governor and his principal secretary is its 
CEO. Thus, the government of India is clearly in charge of organising 
the yatra. And it is the SASB that has been pushing for larger and 
larger numbers of pilgrims and challenging the right of the state 
government interfering with the schedule announced by the SASB.  It 
is true that not everyone who goes to Amarnath accepts this 
association ofreligion with patriotism. But the fact of the matter is 
that the official perception of the pilgrimage as a patriotic duty 
has allowed the communal fascist elements to join in organising their 
supporters. Little wonder that the frequency of conflict between a 
section of such "pilgrims" and the local population due to the 
former's obnoxious behaviour has shown anincrease. What is equally 
disconcerting is that the SASB presided over by the governor has also 
been engaged in contro-versial transactions. The present CEO's wife, 
in her capacity of principal secretary of the forest department 
granted permis-sion to SASB on May 29, 2005 to use forest land. But 
this provision was not in accor-dance with the provision of the J and 
K Forest Conservation Act 1997 and, there-fore, the state government 
withdrew the order. However, thanks to a stay order by a division 
bench of the J and K High Court the withdrawal of permission to 
occupy forest land, was suspended. Any visitor to Pahalgam can 
observe how this forest land is being cleared to set up camps for the 
yatris. In fact, now the SASB has asked the state government to give 
them land in the radius of five kms of the cave. This arouses local 
passions precisely because the Indian security forces and other 
entities have transferred large tracts of land to house camps for 
security force personnel, or for central projects, as well as for 
schools, which are run by the army, among others.  Even the National 
Conference Party has protested its resentment at such transfers of 
land since 1989. Not very far from the camp for the pilgrims in 
Pahalgam, in Lidru (opposite Kulan village) what locals describe as 
one of the finest meadows, spread over 550 kanals (one kanal is one 
eighth of acre) in area, has been given to the army to run a school! 
The local popu-lation feels helpless at being unable to stop this. 
Therefore, when the SASB wants large tracts of land transferred to it 
under the claim of providing accommodation for lakhs of pilgrims, it 
must be weighed against this local concern. Were the numbers of 
pilgrims to be brought down, the pressing need for transferring large 
areas to SASB or for providing carpet security, and thus deployment 
of force, can be reduced.

This apart the SASB has also been involved in other controversial 
acts. One such was the recent attempt by the SASB to bring down the 
involvement of local people in the yatra. When on June 5, 2006 the 
PDP claimed that the SASB was ignoring the livelihood of locals, the 
latter countered by claiming that such criticism would generate 
controversy and thus"jeopardise" tourism in Kashmir. The PDP then 
pointed out that if local porters and ponywallahs can strike work at 
Vaishno- devi shrine against the (mis)management of the Shri 
Vaishnodevi Shrine Board (SVDSB) and seek support from local Congress 
leaders, then what is wrong if local people from Pahalgam and Kangan 
areasseek their help to protest against thepractices of the SASB, 
which discrimi-nate against them. In fact, the Pithoo Workers Union 
at Katra has protested the suspension of six of their leaders, 
alleged manhandling by SVDSB officials and de-manded recall of its 
additional CEO. Neither the governor as head of SVDSB nor the Board 
issued any statement chas-tising the Congress Party!

State Patronage of Religion

Arguably, when yatra was halted bet-ween 1991 and 1996 due to threats 
from a section of the militants, it played into the hands of the 
extreme right wing elements in Indian society who have since then 
become an integral part of mobilising large numbers of pilgrims. 
Thus, a form of com-petitive communalism came into play.

When a section of the militants represented earlier by Harkatul Ansar 
and now Lashkar-e-Toiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed threaten to disrupt the 
pilgrimage it only provokes devout Hindus and draws them to the 
rabidly anti-Muslim VHP and Shiv Sena, and accentuates the communal 
divide.  However, it is equally important to note the actual fact 
that more people have died in the yatra due to inclement weather and 
cross fire than at the hands of the militants.  Besides, the main 
indigenous militant organisation, Hizbul Mujahideen has al-ways 
supported the yatra and has consis-tently demonstrated its opposition 
towards those who have tried to disrupt the yatra.  Moreover, prior 
to constituting the SASB, the state government, local people and 
social activists provided aid and assistance to the pilgrims. 
However, the threat of environmental damage has become a matter of 
utmost concern because the central gov-ernment, under the cover of 
SASB, re-mains unrelenting in its pursuit of ever larger numbers to 
come for the pilgrimage.  In a way the Amarnath yatra illustrates the 
manner in which the Indian govern-ment injects communalism in our 
body politic. It also illustrates how secularism in India has been 
perverted to mean state patronage of religion/s. This patronage is 
not equitably distributed, since Hindus outnumber others by more than 
eight times.  Which is to say that between unequals, equality ends up 
promoting Hindu religious practices. In the case of the Amarnath 
yatra, in fact, the Indian government has even discarded any 
pretension of neutral-ity by publicising the yatra as a patriotic 
duty! Consequently, the likelihood of the Amarnath pilgrimagegetting 
mired in controversy, over environmental damage and eventually 
feeding into further alineation of the local people because they can 
do little to prevent damage to their lived environment, has 
increased. The Indian government seems to be projecting the yatra as 
a patriotic enterprise to boost the morale of the Indian security 
forces, the very same force that the local population regards as 
symbolic of their oppression. A bigger mess seems to be in the making 
even as secular concerns go unheeded.

o o o

Available at:
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/07/jammu-and-kashmir-pilgrims-progress.html

_____


[4]


QUIT INDIA: HINDUTVA GOONS
by Subhash Gatade (sacw.net, July 24, 2006)
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/07/quit-india-hindutva-goons.html

_____


[5] 


WHAT AILS GUJARAT? - I
by Teesta Setalvad
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/07/what-ails-gujarat-ii.html

WHAT AILS GUJARAT? - II
by Teesta Setalvad
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/07/what-ails-gujarat-i.html

_____


[6]


July 24, 2006

CERAS STATEMENT ON THE WAR IN LEBANON AND PALESTINE


For more than a week there has been an escalation of the war in 
Palestine and a full-scale offensive against Lebanon by Israel.  We 
condemn the massacres and destruction that are taking place. This is 
an invasion and aggression with colonial and imperialist aims - the 
destruction of existing states, the prevention of the development of 
viable states, the creation of violence and turmoil. The huge human 
toll in terms of death and injury and the deliberate destruction of 
infrastructure, food production and distribution centres and homes 
are catastrophic.  This is a deliberate man-made humanitarian 
disaster of immense proportions. These are war crimes. No 
justification justifies these acts.  

CERAS is an organization dedicated to peace, secularism and 
democratic development in post-colonial South Asia. As human beings 
and world citizens we feel compelled to raise our voices in protest 
at this moment in history. We see the current attacks as acts of 
continued colonialism.  The discourse and analysis by dominant powers 
and the mainstream media is racist and imperialist, devoid of 
proportionality and ideologically compromised. It is a paradox that 
while the US is trying to ram down its version of 'democracy' in Iraq 
with the huge toll in human life that is a consequence of its 
efforts, it does nothing when another democratic state in the region, 
Lebanon, is being bombed into the Stone Age. 

Most countries of South Asia -Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, 
Nepal --  have large numbers of migrant workers in Lebanon and others 
areas of the Middle East.  They are among the victims of the attacks 
and some have died or been injured. Despite this,  these countries 
shrink from taking a strong stand against the war.  India wants to 
protect its international interests and is unwilling to play its 
non-aligned leadership role as in the past.  Within the country there 
is also the preoccupation with terrorists, most recently exacerbated 
by the dastardly bomb blasts on Mumbai trains. Pakistan is a regional 
ally of the US who see it as a bastion of support against jihadists, 
and President Musharraf needs the US to survive, so even though 
Pakistan does not have diplomatic relations with Israel it is 
hard-pressed to take a strong stand on this war. 

We demand an immediate end to this war by Israel. We demand that the 
United States and its allies intervene to bring an end to the 
aggression. We are dismayed and ashamed by the position of Canada 
which has lost all credibility as a peace broker, with Prime Minister 
Harper's wrong and immoral position on the issue. We echo the 
sentiments of the petition "Shame on you Mr. Harper" created by J. 
Bahlis and already signed by more than 2000 people (published as a 
letter in The Globe and Mail 24 July A-11). We demand that the South 
Asian countries take a strong principled stand against this war. 

We lend our voice to all those working to bring an end to the war, 
including peace activists in Israel, whose numbers include many army 
reservists.  We extend our solidarity to all embattled people of 
Palestine and Lebanon who are suffering terribly. We extend our 
sympathy to Israeli civilians who are suffering the direct 
consequences of their government's aggression.

It is a matter of life and death for thousands of people.
It is a matter of justice.
Stop the war! End the humanitarian disaster! Peace now!


CERAS (centre sur l'asie du sud), 
Montreal                                                                   
Tel. 514-485-9192; 514-346-9477
ceras at insaf.net

_____


[7]    UPCOMING EVENTS

(i)

CITIZENS AGAINST ISRAELI AGGRESSION
Massive Protest Demonstration
in front of Israeli Consulate

Assembly Point: Intersection of
India Gate Outer Circle and
Shahajahan Road, New Delhi

Date: 27 July 2006

Time: 11.45 a.m.

o o o

(ii)

Dear Friends/ Colleagues/ Antiwar - pro justice and peace 
campaigners/ Citizens of Karachi


THERE IS ANTIWAR RALLY ON FRIDAY, JULY 28, 2006 AT 3:30 P.M FROM 
REGAL CHOWK (SADDAR, KARACHI) to Fresco Chowk. The call is given by 
various antiwar groups and civil society organizations. Participating 
organizations and individuals can bring in their banners, placards, 
posters. The only condition is that slogans and messages must focus 
on US-Israel WAR ON LEBANON, and imperialist agenda aimed at 
colonizing the middle east.

the main banner could read like
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Stop the War - Israel Get out of Lebanon and Palestine!
" No Justice, No Peace - US out of the Middle East!"
"Occupation is a crime - from Afghanistan to Palestine!"
Bush Go Back - People are missing an idiot in Texas 
or may be more like
Israel Murdabad/ Israel and US war criminals/ STOP RACIST WARS and ALL WARS-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A meeting held on July 24 at PMA House, Karachi was attended by 
fairly a large number of people. We had approximately 125-150 
individuals and representatives of civil society organizations, NGOs, 
and other political groups. The objective of the meeting was to chalk 
out strategy for mobilisation and fund raising. The attendance showed 
that if all of us put some effort there is a strong possibility that 
we can mobilize couple of thousand people for the 28th rally. I don't 
know if other organizations are sending out the information or not. 
As far as I am concerned I have not received any information from 
anyone so far.

There was heated debate on the issue with various thesis coming from 
all corners of the hall. Finally, all present in the meeting agreed 
that the war on Lebanon is to serve the imperialist agenda of 
the United States of America and a possible vivisection of the middle 
east to ensure a more stable presence of and Israel in the area. Few 
participants did send alarming signals of a possible expansion of the 
war in other countries particularly Syria and Iran.

A few participants also raised objections on the legitimacy of the 
meeting and asserted that at a time when Pakistan army is bombing 
Balochistan and the Tribal areas in NWFP provinces why the meeting 
was shying away from discussing these issues? The members were of the 
view that first we should protest on the local issues and bombing in 
two provinces. No one opposed the idea of holding meetings on the 
local but the agitating participants were reminded both issues were 
equally important. A meeting has been fixed on July 31 (either at 
Karachi Press Club or PMA house at 4:00 p.m. and Yawar will inform 
the participants about the venue of the meeting). All of you are 
invited and requested to participate in the rally as well as meeting 
on Balochistan to show your solidarity with the on going struggle for 
justice in Balochistan where hundreds of people have been disappeared 
and killed in the army action.
------
In solidarity,

Shahid
Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy
Sindh, Pakistan


o o o

(iii)

Dear Friends,

Come join us, Citizens for Justice and Peace,

TO FELICITATE MUMBAIKARS WHO RUSHED TO THE AID OF VICTIMS OF THE 7/11 
MUMBAI BOMB BLASTS WITHOUT CONSIDERATION OF CASTE OR COMMUNITY.

Venue: KC College Hall (Near Churchgate station)

Date: Thursday 27th July, 2006

Time: 5.30 p.m.

The meeting will be presided by Dr Veer Bhadra Mishra, Mahant of the 
ancient Sankat Mochan Mandir, Varanasi, that was targeted by 
terrorists in early March.

Co-organisors:
Muslims for Secular Democracy
Mumbai Catholic Sabha
Muslim Front
Maharashtra Urdu Writers Guild
Democratic Citizens Committee, Mira Road
Khoja Samaj, Volunteers and Scouts, Mira Road

o o o

(iv)

International Institute for South Asian Affairs (INSAF)
and South Asian Journalists Association, New York Chapter (SAJA-NY)
present

a panel discussion on Human Rights in South Asia

with
Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the UN
Secretary-General for Violence Against Children

Malika Dutt, founder and Executive Director of Breakthrough

Sahr Muhammed Ally, Researcher in the Asia Division at Human Rights Watch

Moderated by Maya Chadda, Professor of Political Science at William
Paterson University in New Jersey
(bios below)

at Em Lee Concert Hall
Turtle Bay Music School
244 EAST 52nd Street, New York, NY

on Thursday, July 27, 2006
at 6.30pm

PROGRAM:
6.30-7.00 pm reception
7.00 pm- 8.30 panel discussion and q&a




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

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.