SACW | Aug 13-23, 2006

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | August 13-23, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2281


[1]  Bangladesh: Secularism and this "moderate Muslim" state (Syed 
Badrul Ahsan)
[2]  Pakistan: Defining civil society (S. Akbar Zaidi)
[3]  India:  Targeting of Muslim Minorities in the wake of Mumbai 
Blasts July 11 (All India Secular Forum)
[4]  India's Tryst with Secular Democracy (Ram Puniyani)
[5]  India: [Film on Big Hindutva Creep] 'Karmayogi' Golwalkar  (Subhah Gatade)
[6]  India: Furore at Hindutva presence at Government seminar on Minorities
[8] Upcoming Events: Iconography Now (New Delhi, September 2, 2006)

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[1] 

The Daily Star
August 23, 2006
  	 
SECULARISM AND THIS "MODERATE MUSLIM" STATE
by Syed Badrul Ahsan

Law Minister Moudud Ahmed surprised us the other day when he informed 
the country that the people of Bangladesh had never accepted 
secularism as a principle of state. And then he surprised us even 
more. The secularism practised in Bangladesh in the early years of 
freedom was, said he, a negation of religion.

Now, while we remain quite aware of the niche Moudud Ahmed has carved 
for himself in national politics since the time of General Ziaur 
Rahman through some of his swift changes in political loyalty, we 
surely did not expect him to do, or say, certain things that are 
simply not true.

The minister, in his younger days, was close to the Awami League 
leadership of the time. And he was one of the millions of people in 
this country who watched the evolution of Bengali politics through 
the 1960s and well into the 1970s. It is, of course, quite normal for 
a political being to part company with his political peers and go 
looking for new places in the sun. Moudud Ahmed has done that. But 
when such changes in position lead to a total repudiation of history 
it is a whole society that goes through indescribable pain.

But let us stay away from that for now and go searching for reality 
as it prevailed in the years between 1972 and 1975. Moudud Ahmed has 
mocked secularism as it used to be in those times. He implies that 
secularism was an assault on the religious feelings of people (and 
such feelings applied, without his having to say so, to the Muslim 
population of the country). Observe, now, the facts.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all his colleagues in the Awami 
League were devout Muslims and prayed as any Muslim would pray. That 
was surely not a negation of faith, was it? In those days, Ramadan 
and Eid and all other religious occasions were observed by 
Bangladesh's Muslims. The state did not clamp any restrictions on 
religious activities of any kind, or of any denomination or sect. And 
if the minister and his friends would care to recall, it was 
Bangabandhu's government which put an end to the quite un-Islamic act 
of horse racing at what was then known as the Race Course.

Surely such acts were not the activities of men dedicated to a 
sidelining of Islam in the lives of the majority of the people of 
this country? In the early 1970s, when true and proper secularism 
formed the core of our political existence, Hindus, Christians and 
Buddhists for the first time were able to practise their faiths 
without fear or inhibition of any kind. And this they were able to do 
because Bangladesh was a people's republic based on Bengali 
nationalism, which again was a dissemination of the thought that the 
state was for all Bengalis, that it had not been created as a 
homeland for the followers of a particular faith. In other words, 
Bangladesh was a rejection of the pernicious two-nation theory the 
Muslim League had propagated in the 1940s as a justification for the 
creation of Pakistan, with such horrendous results.

But, of course, Moudud Ahmed and a whole lot of other people in this 
country today hold forth on the queer idea of "Bangladeshi 
nationalism." What such an idea implies is not hard to guess. When 
you remember how ruthlessly, and without any regard for legality, 
General Ziaur Rahman brought Allah into the constitution, and how 
crassly General Hussein Muhammad Ershad added flesh to the idea 
through imposing Islam on the country as a state religion, you can 
quite understand what the larger objective behind "Bangladeshi 
nationalism" was.

Briefly, it was a roundabout way of taking the people of this country 
back to the old idea of communalism that we had struggled against, 
long and hard, in our years with Pakistan. Mercifully, though, the 
idea has not taken hold. We still sing Tagore songs, we yet dance to 
the music of Nazrul and, judging by the way in which we said farewell 
to Shamsur Rahman last week, we remain committed to the principle 
that this is a land for Bengalis, that religious and sectarian 
obsessions of the kind which divided India in the 1940s, and then 
sent Pakistan packing from our land, are not part of our collective 
life. But, of course, there have regularly been the men who have 
periodically made attempts on this secular ethos in Bangladesh.

Maulana Bhashani, otherwise an outstanding if peripatetic politician 
in the history of this country, threw the first stone at our secular 
edifice soon after liberation when he launched his Muslim Bangla 
movement. That was a frontal assault on a state whose freedom he had 
only years earlier so steadfastly espoused. Bhashani did not stop 
there. At a public rally in 1974, he launched a below the belt attack 
on the respected Phani Bhushan Majumdar by ascribing the on-going 
food crisis to the presence of the Hindu minister in the government.

And that was how secularism began to be ripped apart. The nationalism 
that had developed throughout the 1960s, one that envisaged a purely 
Bengali landscape, was under attack from some rather unexpected 
quarters. Do not forget that even leftists of the pro-Beijing brand 
were doing all they could to undermine the cause of the state. Men 
like Abdul Haq solicited, in 1974, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's assistance 
in overthrowing the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It was 
through these men, these elements, that the deconstruction and 
destruction of secular politics truly began. It served as a natural 
corollary to what was to follow. But let the point not be missed that 
when secularism lay flat on its face in Bangladesh, it was not the 
Bengalis who pushed it into the mud. That came by way of the coup 
makers of August 1975. The damage done on August 15 was nowhere more 
intense than in the return of the "Zindabad" factor in national 
politics.

To this day, the inability, or reluctance, of the votaries of 
"Bangladeshi nationalism" to accept Joi Bangla as the authentic 
national slogan has only confirmed the wider plan behind the program 
of banishing Bengali nationalism, and with it secularism, to the 
woods. When Air Vice Marshal MG Tawab, in his double role as chief of 
air staff and deputy chief martial law administrator, addressed a 
"Seerat" conference in Dhaka in 1976, he merely reaffirmed the 
creeping success of what was clearly revealing itself to be an 
anti-Bengali trend in this Bengali-speaking country. It was a moment 
of deep shame for every one of us.

A manifest move was under way to deprive the people of Bangladesh of 
their heritage. And the heritage was based on a simple fact of 
history -- that Bengali nationalism was based on language, that this 
nationalism was not so much rooted in geography as it was in culture. 
There was a certain malign purpose to this war on Bengali 
nationalism, as we were to comprehend soon enough. On the one hand, 
it was a subtle move to take us away from ourselves without informing 
us overtly that we were indeed returning to the discredited 
two-nation theory. On the other, it provided a secret passage through 
which the very elements uncomfortable with Bengali success in the 
1971 war could come back into politics and eventually take centre 
stage.

The Jamaat, the Muslim League and such ragtag elements as those 
belonging to the Islami Oikya Jote should not have been doing 
politics in secular, Bengali Bangladesh. But "Bangladeshi 
nationalism" made sure that they did. We, as a people, have been 
bleeding since the day Zia and his acolytes welcomed them to national 
politics in 1979. Ershad went many steps further. He had Islamic 
motifs painted on the walls of what today constitutes the Prime 
Minister's Office. And he patronized so-called "pirs" and assorted 
traders in faith.

But none of that, or anything that happened later, has yanked the 
Bengali away from his fundamental cultural roots. Moudud Ahmed has 
certainly the privilege of letting us know that secularism has never 
been accepted by us. We do not have to agree with him, and we do not. 
He and his friends in the rightwing coalition government may enthuse 
over repetitive American happiness about the "moderate Muslim state" 
that Bangladesh has become. We do not take kindly to such sinister 
redefinitions of ourselves as a people. Besides, whoever has told 
these Americans that we have actually mutated from secularism to 
creeping communalism? We are not amused. It does not make us happy 
that Hindu, Christian and Buddhist Bengalis are referred to as 
minorities. It is not exactly thrilling to have a ministry of 
religious affairs whose preoccupation appears to be helping a 
political process whereby the secular foundations of the state can be 
whittled away.

Religion is a matter of the individual soul. That is where the beauty 
of secularism lies -- in its ability to make people remember God 
without having Him descend to the worldly level of dealing with 
everyday politics. Foreign envoys stationed in this country can cheer 
as much as they wish the "imam training programs" in Bangladesh. But 
someone should be telling them that long-term orientations on secular 
politics would be an infinitely better enterprise to undertake.

Syed Badrul Ahsan is Executive Editor, Dhaka Courier.



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[2] 

Dawn
August 18, 2006

DEFINING CIVIL SOCIETY

by S. Akbar Zaidi

THE term 'civil society' is a complicated term which means different 
things to different people and is used in different contexts. Even in 
the more settled western societies, it has a changing meaning: 
late-20th century events have made the category more fluid, with 
civil society actors and constituents, moving in and out of the realm 
of civil society over a period of time.

In the countries of the East and the South, the location of the term 
'civil society' and its meaning becomes even more complex. While 
there are different notions and contexts about what civil society is 
and is not, there is at least some broad agreement about what it must 
necessarily be. Civil society is supposed to be outside, and perhaps 
preferably in opposition to, or in contradiction with, the state.

In order to define civil society, it is a requirement that the 
organisations and actors of civil society not be controlled by the 
institutions or actors of the state. This 'autonomous' requirement is 
a necessary condition to distinguish civil society from the state.

For some more radical thinkers, the stricter requirement is that 
civil society must stand against both state and market, and 
particularly against economic liberalism. For them the 'state, market 
and civil society are rival channels for the exercise of power'. For 
other theorists, civil society must necessarily be a democratising 
force. Howsoever one defines civil society and its constituents, the 
Pakistani case offers interesting (and contradictory) insights about 
the nature and form, and location, of civil society. It also shows 
the large number of contradictions which constitute the political 
settlement that is Pakistan.

Despite the fact that General Musharraf in October 1999 overthrew an 
elected prime minister, albeit an incompetent one, the largest and 
most public support for him came from the socially and culturally 
liberal and westernised sections of Pakistan's elite, who embraced 
Musharraf as one of their own, which he very much was. Activists in 
the NGO movement in Pakistan were also vociferous in their support 
for Musharraf, precisely because he was seen as a liberal and 
westernised man.

Some prominent members of the NGO movement who had struggled for a 
democratic order in Pakistan when it was under General Ziaul Haq, 
actually joined Musharraf's cabinet. Employers associations, trade 
bodies, women's groups, and other such groupings which are all part 
of some acceptable notion of civil society, also welcomed the coup 
because General Musharraf was seen as a modernising man. Some 
intellectuals and peace and anti-nuclear activists also celebrated 
the arrival of a liberal head of state.

Clearly, for the westernised sections of civil society in Pakistan, 
the military general who had overthrown a democratically elected 
prime minister, was Pakistan's latest saviour. Musharraf's earliest 
critics and opponents included, what for lack of a more appropriate 
term one can call, the Islamic civil society, which did not like his 
liberalism and westernisation. Classical and western literature on 
civil society suggests that by being 'against the state' in some 
ways, and especially by being against the autocratic undemocratic 
state, civil society is necessarily on the side of some form of a 
democratic dispensation. Not so in Pakistan.

For civil society in Pakistan, whether of the westernising, 
modernising kind, or of the more fundamentalist Islamic kind, the 
question has not been one of democracy versus non-democratic norms, 
but of liberalism against perceived and variously interpreted Islamic 
symbols and values. Unlike the traditional notion of civil society, 
the pursuit of democratic ideals is not a necessary and defining 
condition. Not only is this a fundamental difference, but so too is 
the necessary distinction of autonomy from the state, so integral to 
the meaning of civil society.

If sections of civil society are expected to challenge the state, in 
Pakistan, there are many who are the state's partners. For instance, 
development groups which have emerged as a result of government 
failure in Pakistan and have become contractors in the form of NGOs 
in their own right, are often coopted by institutions of the state to 
become the latter's 'advisers,' winning lucrative contracts and 
getting the publicity they need to further their credentials.

Human rights activists and advocacy groups, too, become partners with 
other stakeholders, particularly government, and try to redress 
problems created by the very institutions of the state that they are 
now partnering. The essence of Pakistan's politics ' very broadly 
defined ' is one of compromise not confrontation, and of cooptation. 
Civil society in Pakistan is very much part of that political 
tradition.

Linked to this relationship with politics, and perhaps determining 
it, is the relationship of civil society and of NGOs with money, 
particularly donor funding. If, for example, the most prominent and 
potentially radical civil society organisations in Pakistan receive 
funding from donors who have specific interests or agendas, the 
'politicalness' of these organisations gets muted. With the British 
and American governments amongst the biggest donors of civil society 
in Pakistan, one does not see much protest against them for their 
role in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. After all, these 
governments are imposing their liberal social agenda on the two 
countries, an agenda which the westernised sections of Pakistani 
civil society endorse.

Moreover, the requirement that civil society be autonomous of the 
state is also undone since many of these NGOs, are highly dependent 
on foreign donor state. It is the broader westernised, 'liberal', 
modern (but in the case of Pakistan, non-democratic) vision, which 
western governments share with the elite and the westernised sections 
of those who constitute civil society in Pakistan ' not with the 
Islamic elements or sections of civil society.

The greatest opposition to the foreign presence in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, and to Israel has come from the political and 
non-political sections of the 'Islamic' civil society. Unlike their 
westernised Pakistani cousins, this is an anti-imperialist political 
grouping, which is also against the agenda of the World Bank, the 
IMF, and economic liberalism, something that westernised civil 
society supports very enthusiastically. For both, however, democracy 
is less important.

Most definitions of civil society do not stretch themselves to 
include film societies, debating clubs or puppet and theatre 
festivals. Yet, because these entities have a political and radical 
cultural presence in the context of an Islamicised (and violently so) 
society like Pakistan, they can be included in a non-western context 
as belonging to civil society.

Even such benign civil society organisations seek patronage from the 
chief of the army staff, who is also the president of Pakistan, to 
further their cause: General Musharraf was the chief guest at the 
inaugural and closing ceremony of a puppet festival and a film 
festival, respectively, some months ago. While these cultural 
preferences may be the redeeming feature of Pakistan's military coup 
maker, one should not forget that Beethoven and Goethe were claimed 
as the cultural ancestors of a certain group of Germans not six 
decades ago.

One is not stating that Pakistan's experience is in any way unique, 
but one will argue that perhaps civil society ought to be defined by 
the conditions in which it exists so that one can understand its 
functioning and politics better. While Pakistan's civil society is an 
outcome of its particular history and the way its institutions and 
politics have evolved, it is, nevertheless, essential to apply some 
minimum acceptable norms of civil society behaviour, to be able to 
evaluate its role and performance.

In the context of Pakistan, one is likely to find that civil society 
(its western wing), aspires to only a few of the necessary 
requisites. For it, a westernised, socially and culturally liberal 
agenda, is far more important and preferable than the messy 
indigenous politics essential for democracy. In fact, one of the main 
consequences of this ideology has been the depoliticisation of public 
life in Pakistan. Under such circumstances, where the main 
representatives of the uncivil society are perceived to be 
westernised and socially and culturally liberal, where civil society 
actors work for the emancipation of women and for human rights, and 
military generals support the same agenda, both civil society and 
'uncivil society' make consenting bedfellows.


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[3]

All India Secular Forum
C/o. Centre for Study of Society and Secularism 9B, Himalaya Apts., 
1st Floor, 6th Road, Santacruz (E), Mumbai:- 400 055.
E-mail: csss at mtnl.net.in, ram.puniyani at gmail.com

AN APPEAL FROM ALL INDIA SECULAR FORUM

The Mumbai blasts shook the nation and killed over 200 innocent 
people. This act is highly condemnable and the perpetrators of this 
ghastly crime need to be punished with all severity.

In the wake of horrific bomb blasts the police is blindly operating 
on the formula that all Muslims are suspects and has been arresting 
and harassing innumerable innocent Muslims. Right the day next police 
arrested nearly three hundred youth and released most of them after 
the public protest.  Muslims at different social levels, including 
executives and others, are being investigated as such and more so 
about their travel abroad and other routine involvements, related to 
work and leisure.  While police has totally failed to prevent this 
incident, while it has not made any headway in the investigation, it 
is arresting, interrogating and intimidating people without much 
evidence, barring the fact that they bear a Muslim identity.

Terrorism is an insane and tragic phenomenon of our times having its 
roots in multiple factors, starting from the US/Israel policies in 
the West Asia, to the unresolved issue of Kashmir, the plight of 
Kashmiri people, to the communal violence coming up in stronger and 
stronger form all around and being presented as the 'glory of 
religion'. As far as the apprehending the suspects is concerned a 
reckless communal attitude is displayed due to which all and sundry 
Muslim youth are nabbed and made to rot in jails, and many others are 
being questioned and intimidated. The social common sense is being 
vitiated through the word of mouth propaganda and by a section of 
communalized media to demonize a section of population. The community 
divides along religious lines are widening and posing a threat to 
national integration. Those claiming to be the patriots in turn are 
creating a situation where the intercommunity relations are 
worsening, threatening the harmony and amity which are the 
prerequisites of any nation.

All this has created an extreme sense of fear and intimidation in 
large parts of the Muslim minority.  Irrespective of the social 
standing of the person, the Muslims in general are being pushed to 
the brink. Many a delegations have met the state Government and 
pleaded for exercise of reason in apprehending the 'suspects' of 
blasts. Even the delegation have met the Prime Minister, who himself 
conceded that this attitude of police will worsen the situation 
rather than solving it. Surely those understanding human psychology, 
social psychology can easily see that from innocents rotting in jail, 
some will surely fall pray to the bait of terror merchants. We can 
perceive that an average person when seen as suspect will have a deep 
disgust and few of them can tread the unwanted and undesired path. 
Instead of solving the problem this will aggravate the same, putting 
to risk the life of average citizen of the state/country. This 
reckless attitude of police is fraught with dangers. Sadly even the 
Prime Minister seems to be watching helplessly.

On the other hand the Maharashtra Government, whose Anti Terrorist 
squad came to conclude that Bajarag Dal activists are involve in bomb 
making as in Nanded, has been sleeping over the issue. In the same 
state a Citizens fact finding committee headed by a retired high 
court judge has pointed out serious flaws in the police version of 
encounter of 'terrorists' near the RSS head quarters in Nagpur. The 
Maharashtra Government has chosen to push the Nanded and Nagpur 
episodes under the carpet. Presently in many states like Maharashtra, 
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and other, police administrations are over 
enthusiastic in intimidating the innocent Muslims. This betrays the 
poor quality of professional conduct. Some of these arrests are meant 
to hide the failure of their own 'intelligence'. All in all, we are 
witnessing a situation where the innocents are being harassed and the 
civic life of large sections is coming under the stifling scanner of 
the state officials.

We urge the President to intervene and advise the central/state 
governments to wake up and act with reason and justice in 
investigating/handling these cases.
We Urge the Chairperson of the UPA to ensure that such a gross 
violation of the human rights is stopped right away and minorities 
are assured that they will not be treated in such a shabby manner as 
they are being at present.
We urge upon the Prime Minister to be guided by his wisdom and to 
take up the present problem, to instruct the Govt to see that legal, 
social and human norms are respected while dealing with the 
investigation of episodes of terror. As the leader of the country it 
is his paramount duty to see that all citizens are able to live 
without fear and intimidation.  We urge upon the upon the home 
minister to advise the state Governments, and Maharashtra Government 
in particular, that the present senseless methods resorted to in 
dealing with the minorities will be counterproductive and that they 
should employ professional and intelligent methods in dealing with 
the situation. While guilty should not be spared in any case the 
innocents should be given all the feeling of security.
We urge upon the Government of Maharashtra in particular and other 
states like Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat in general, to wake up to 
their responsibility of treating all the citizens on par irrespective 
of their religion, that's what our constitution advises us. While 
taking the strictest action against those who are involved in the 
illegal activities, the acts of terror: Mumbai blasts, Nanded bomb 
makers and their affiliates etc., while trying to honestly 
investigate the suspects of Mumbai blasts, they should forthwith stop 
the high handed methods being resorted to against the minority 
community.
We appeal to fellow citizens to reject the propaganda being carried 
on by vested organizations, to come forward with warmth and amity 
towards the fellow citizens, irrespective of their religion, and to 
strengthen the integration of the nation. The feeling of 'Hate other' 
perpetuated by some, may sound appealing in the short run, but they 
will be divisive to the country in the long run.
We are sure that with a balanced approach to the issue we can 
overcome this issue of terrorism as we could overcome the terrorism 
resorted to by Khalistanis not too long ago.


Yours sincerely
Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer
(Patron)
L.S. Hardenia
(Convenor)
Ram Puniyani
(Secretary)


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[4]

Issues in Secular Politics
August 2006

INDIA'S TRYST WITH SECULAR DEMOCRACY

by Ram Puniyani

This 15th August, India completed 59 years of its independence. Today 
where do we stand in our resolve to have a secular democratic India? 
It is a tragedy that conditions have so shaped during last couple of 
decades that one is forced to think about the very future of the 
democratic foundation of the country.

Right from the 1960s, communal violence began and was on at the low 
and medium pitch till the decade of 1980s Communal violence is a 
superficial manifestation of the deeper process of communal politics, 
the very anathema of democracy. Starting with the decade of 80s, 
Meenakshipuram conversions of dalits to Islam and the Shah Bano case 
fiasco, were used as pretexts by the Hindutva politics to go on the 
high offensive and shift the social debate to non issues like the 
Ramjanmbhoomi, Baba Budan giri and the Kamal Maula Masjid (Bhoj 
Shala). Using the double level of communal propaganda, through the 
section of media, and through the word of mouth, fear was instilled 
amongst the Hindus that despite being in majority, they are in danger 
due to the minorities, Muslim and Christians. Winning over of the 
social space and common sense by the Sangh combine went on getting 
strengthened after every episode of communal violence, it peaked with 
post demolition riots and the Gujarat carnage. With the Mumbai blasts 
of 11thJuly, the picture is close to complete and now the 
demonization of Muslims has become excruciatingly painful. It has 
gone to target the very precepts of Koran, the one's related to Jihad 
and Kafir. Christians, have been targeted for their work in the 
Adivasi areas, and the bogey of conversions has been so firmly 
planted by now that truth and census statistics don't matter any 
longer with the average understanding in the social arena.

The RSS propaganda has not been effectively countered by the 
democratic elements, many of them themselves coming under the spell 
of the same. Case of Chunibhai Vaidya, a renowned Gandhian, alleging 
the missionaries of conversion, is a case in point. He is not alone, 
there are lots and lots of people seriously committed to non violence 
and democracy who have partly or fully come under the grip of RSS 
propaganda even without realizing he same. RSS dictum is that your 
success is not just in coming to power, but to see that your 
opponents start talking in your language. This has occurred to the 
extent that many a gullible Muslims and Christians have started 
talking the RSS language in a holier than thou fashion. It is quite 
likely that some of them have surrendered to the ideology which aims 
to suppress their community, out of opportunistic reasons, but all 
the same such elements also do exist.

The index of degree of democracy lies in the assessment as to how 
secure the minorities feel in the country. If that be the litmus 
test, it is a stark fact that the minorities are feeling insecure and 
intimidated all over. And the insecurity is going up with every 
adverse event happening in the country and the World. It is very 
interesting that while the LTTE's rampage is either bypassed or 
justified, those insane acts of a terrorist violence, in which a 
Muslim is involved, intensifies the anti Muslim mindset. While this 
was there since decades, now there seems to be a qualitative 
transformation in the same.

Harsh Mander, the indefatigable fighter for human tights, points out 
that in the after math of Gujarat carnage, now the Muslim community 
there, has been reduced to the status of second class citizenship. 
Their boycott in the commercial activities, bypassing them in the 
welfare programs, and keeping them isolated at the social level, even 
in the villages, reminds one of the ?creation of new ghettoes of 
untouchables?, maharwadas (untouchables bastis in village). They can 
neither get the housing in Hindu areas, nor is there the possibility 
of social interaction with others in the Hindu Rashtra of Gujarat. It 
seems, Golwalkar's, prescription that Muslims, "...may stay in this 
country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation claiming nothing, 
deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment, not 
even citizen's rights." (We or Our nationhood defined, 1938, nagpur, 
p.52), is being actualized there.

Post Mumbai blasts (July 11 2006) the police has been highly active. 
It has gone to the extent of reversing the dictum that you are 
innocent till proved guilty. For Muslims it is following that 'every 
Muslim is guilty till proved other wise'. Golwalkar could not have 
been happier. Whatever he was prescribing has become a norm even for 
those who are not a direct part of RSS combine. Cases after cases in 
Mumbai, the innocent or suspected Muslims are being hauled to the 
coals, and are being intimidated and tortured by the police. Nothing 
seems to be working in their favor. Many a delegations have met the 
state leadership, Central leadership, but things continue to be what 
they are  "On the face of it the leaders/police officials say that 
Muslims are not being targeted" but that's purely at the level of 
saying only.

The plight of Christians living in the far areas is no better. Under 
the attack from Bajrang dal and Vanvasi Kalyan Ahsram, the RSS 
progenies, the Christians in general and missionaries in particular 
have been subjected to attacks. Not a day passes when the news of 
such attack does not come forth. Pastor Stain's burning by the Dara 
Singh, who now is given the epithet of Hindu Dharma Rakshak, was not 
a one isolated incident. In many a states the state administration is 
behaving as if it has been trained in Golwalkars thought rather than 
in the values of Indian constitution. The training institutes for 
these officials are either sleeping or giving the training, which 
violates the basic norms of democracy. In the BJP ruled states, MP, 
Rajasthan, and in state ruled by BJP affiliate, Orissa, the plight of 
minorities is pitiable. One wonders what is being done by Minorities 
commission, and the central home ministry. At the time of Gujarat 
carnage the chain of command from the Gujarat home minister to the 
central home minister, were all RSS trained volunteers. But what of 
now? With the 'secular' Congress in the saddle what is the state of 
affairs? Is it that they have also been indoctrinated unconsciously 
into believing in the dominant social common sense?

RSS has combined the methods of German Nazis as far as the propaganda 
is concerned and has picked up from Italy's fascism, from Mussolini, 
to infiltrate the state apparatus. The result is an all round 
stifling of democratic space and the effort to abolish the democratic 
and human rights of minorities. It is another matter that the pot of 
communal nationalism which has been kept on the low temperature till 
two decades ago now seems to be coming close to the boiling point. 
Dr. Ambedker in his revised edition of the book Thoughts on Pakistan 
wrote that formation of Pakistan will be an unmitigated disaster for 
the dalits, as that may pave the way for Hindu rashtra in India. Are 
we witnessing the trailer of that phenomenon? It is for the nation to 
look back and remind itself of the resolve to nurture democracy; to 
weed out communal nationalism, which is strangulating the concept of 
India. Even at the times when BJP seems to be in the weak and 
humiliated state, the politics and propaganda of RSS is thriving. The 
time is overripe for us to take the resolve to protect the Indian 
constitution in letter and spirit. The time is overripe for all those 
committed to the values of freedom to sit up and see that India 
continues with a resolve to give all its citizens their due, with the 
resolve to promote the values of India's freedom movement, with a 
resolve to strengthen the concept of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity!


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[5]


www.sacw.net > Communalism Repository
August 15, 2006

'KARMAYOGI' GOLWALKAR GURUJI
COMING SOON TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU
by Subhah Gatade

True or false !
- RSS had participated in freedom struggle ?
- Congress had demanded help from RSS for Gandhi's protection ?
- Godse had never been a member of RSS ?

Well, for laypersons like you and me who have the 'misfortune' of 
attending any normal school, the answers to these queries would be in 
the negative. But if you happen to see the yet to be released 
film/docu-feature titled 'Karmayogi' you would be enlightened with a 
different set of answers.

You would be told that it is a myth to say that RSS kept itself away 
from freedom struggle and in fact it had decided in its high level 
meeting to participate wholeheartedly in the struggle. (It is a 
different matter that till date one has not yet discovered a single 
freedom fighter who owed allegiance to RSS brand of Hindutva). If one 
goes by this bollywoodian version of Sangh trajectory, you would know 
that Congress government led by Nehru had made frantic calls to the 
Sangh bosses for Gandhi's safety and a team of Swayamsevaks in fact 
happened to be brave enough to volunteer for his security.
[. . .]
http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/gatade15Aug06.html


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[6] 


Urgent Press Statement

FURORE AT HINDUTVA PRESENCE AT GOVERNMENT SEMINAR ON MINORITIES
SINISTER DESIGN, SAY SCHOLARS, MINORITY GROUPS

Mumbai, August 18th, 2006

The presence of certain vocal supporters of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and
its sister groups caused a furore at the National Workshop organized by
the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities and the
Tata Institute for Social Sciences, Mumbai, on Conferment of Scheduled
Caste Status on Converts to Islam and Christianity. This seems a
sinister design by some one to divert the issues, said former JNU
professor Imtiaz Ahmed. Other scholars and activists also took umbrage
at the presence of the Hindutva brigade some of whose members
continuously heckled speakers representing minority groups.

Christian Bishops, Priests and social activists issued a joint
statement at the seminar questioning its methodology and expressing
their distress at the apparent effort to coerce the minorities and
divide communities.

The statement said: "We are surprised at the adversarial structure of
the Workshop based on participation of elements that are extraneous to
the issue and have no locus standi

"We reaffirm that the demand for justice under the Constitution by
the Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims is addressed to the Government
of India and not to political or religious groups. Our appeals and
arguments and directed towards the National Commission which is an
instrument of Government of India.

"We are surprised at the confrontation sought to be generated in the
Workshop between communities, between elements of a community, and by
certain political elements who seem to have been specially invited for
this purpose." The signatories included Bishop Deva Sahayam, Church
of South India, Chennai, Rev Father Lourdusamy, former Exec Secretary
for Dalit Affairs, Catholic Bishops Conference of India (Vellore), Rev
Fr Philomen Raj, Exec Sec, CBCI, Dr John Dayal, Member, National
Integration Council, [National President, All India Catholic Union and
Secretary General All India Christian Council], New Delhi, Advocate
Edward Arokiadoss, National Secretary, All India Catholic Union
[Madurai], Fr J X Bosco, Former Provincial, Society of Jesus,
Hyderabad, and Dr M Ezaz Ali, [AIUMM]

A representative of the Tata Institute, who wished to remain anonymous,
said the Institute was under tremendous pressure to invite the Hindutva
groups.

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[7] 


Kharghar eatery hails Hitler

<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1906370.cms>http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1906370.cms

NAVI MUMBAI: A new restaurant at Kharghar has actually been named as 
Hitler's Cross and it was inaugurated by the who's who of Navi Mumbai 
on Friday evening.

A huge poster of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was put at the inauguration 
function of the restaurant in sector 4 of Kharghar, much to the 
surprise of the invitees.

Actor Murli Sharma, who has featured in films like Apharan and Teesri 
Ankh, was one of the guests present at the inauguration. "I found the 
huge posters of Hitler at the restaurant amusing. That's all I can 
say," he told TOI over phone.

When asked if he felt disturbed by the name of the restaurant, Sharma 
said: "I am not really agitated as I have not read much about the man 
(Hitler). However, from what I know about Hitler, I find this name 
rather amusing."

Important dignitaries such as Navi Mumbai mayor Manisha Bhoir and 
former mayor Sanjeev Naik were also invited as chief guests to the 
restaurant by one Sablok Builders group, who are reportedly behind 
the management of Hitlers Cross.

During the Nazi regime, a Christian cross used to be given to German 
mothers. Hitler reportedly encouraged several programs for the growth 
of a strong German Nazi Volk.

These programs encouraged the virtues of German motherhood for the 
purpose of increasing the size of their families and the abolition of 
abortions (except for the mentally ill).

In 1938, Hitler instituted a new award to honor German Nazi 
motherhood, especially for large families. He awarded such mothers 
the cross of Honor of the German Mother (Ehrenkreuz der deutschen 
Mutter).

o o o

BBC News

Row over Hitler-themed restaurant
by Monica Chadha
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5275866.stm

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[8]  Upcoming Event:


ICONOGRAPHY NOW

Saturday September 2, 2006, 10 AM - 6PM
At the ICHR (Indian Council for Historical Research)  3rd Floor
35 Ferozeshah Road, Mandi House [New Delhi]
at the rear of and next to Rabindra Bhavan, Mandi House

RE-WRITING ART HISTORY ?
Sahmat invites you to a day long symposium with prominent 
specialists, scholars and legal experts on an area of great concern 
to artists today. We are also releasing an in-depth reader containing 
relevant articles by art historians, theorists and lawyers which is 
aimed at artists, students, historians and critics, providing a 
historical and theoretical overview of recent scholarship in the 
field.

Tapati Guha-Thakurta, Geeta Kapur, Parul Dave Mukherjee, Naman Ahuja, 
Mihir Bhattacharya, Geetanjali Shree, Rajeev Dhavan, Akhil Sibal and 
others.

In the wake of the controversy over the last many years on the 
re-writing of history text books for schools and universities, Sahmat 
proposes to expand the debate into the area of art history and 
art-historical research. The interpretation of references of iconic 
art-historical sources in the work of many contemporary practitioners 
in the visual and plastic arts is much harder to critique without a 
solid understanding of the source material. Many contemporary artists 
are facing attacks on their work which rake up public controversies 
with sensational charges and are even facing defamation cases in the 
courts with possible police action. Other exhibitions and 
performances have been shut down or cancelled under threats of 
violence.

We believe it is important to have a serious discussion on the 
question of iconography in tradition and history and also the role of 
the contemporary practitioner in accessing, understanding and 
re-interpreting this history. This process has always been a part of 
any living cultural tradition, and our aim is to understand whether 
this is still open to us as a culture, or are we allowing a 
censorship to develop without fully understanding its implications 
for our future ?

The symposium will collect eminent specialists in classical 
iconography, as well as contemporary artists and art historians to 
present specific papers. We also propose to understand the legal 
issues involved on both the national and state levels, and present 
these in a clear manner to the creative community in a major 
publication to appear in conjunction with the symposium. The target 
audience is the artists community, cultural studies scholars and 
students.

* Iconography in the sphere of the sacred. How it has changed over 
history as well as varied in its geographical spread. Are they 
universally accepted across time and space ?

* Is the 'sacred' out-of bounds for a contemporary artist ? Would it 
be as easy for Satyajit Ray to make a film like 'Devi' today ?

* Popular culture and its visualising of both the 'secular' and the 
'sacred' in the form of posters, calendars, cinema and cinema 
ephemera has been a source of inspiration for many artists. Can we go 
beyond that to earlier periods of our art production ? Or is that 
going to be less possible in the near future ?

* What is the law regarding 'National Symbols' - The Flag, the Ashoka 
Chakra, The Sarnath Lion Capitol, currency, stamps or figures 
associated with the National Movement ?

* Are we entering perhaps an area of self-censorship because of the 
fear of consequences?

* What is the role of the 'sacred' in Indian contemporary art. What 
has been the role of the sensual in contemporary art ?

* Freedom of Expression, as a cornerstone of any democracy, obviously 
implies a certain maturity and self-confidence in a society. Has the 
quality of the debate on these issues changed in our society in the 
last 100 years ? And in what way ?

* How does the state respond to issues of censorship ? What is the 
responsibility of the state and what does our constitution specify on 
these issues which directly affect culture and cultural production?

* How has mass-media and the Global media impacted on these issues..?

Please join us. Do confirm your participation by e mail or Phone to 
enable us to plan lunch. E Mail: sahmat at vsnl.com
Telephone: 2371 1276, 2335 1424.

Regards, Ram Rahman

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