SACW | Nov. 22, 2006 | Abdus Salam, Music and Mullahs, Human rights Sri Lanka, Communalising Memory, Malegaon, Sachar Report, Mangalore, Domestic violence, People's foreign policy
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Wed Nov 22 06:36:57 CST 2006
South Asia Citizens Wire | November 22, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2321
[1] Pakistan: The tragedy of our treatment of Dr
Abdus Salam (Edit., Daily Times)
[2] Pakistan: Mullahs and Music - Music hits
some controversial keys (Nirupama Subramanian)
[3] Sri Lanka: Positive Action is Required in
Both Humanitarian and Human Rights Spheres (NPC)
[4] India: Democracy Besieged (Ram Puniyani)
[5] India: Memories, Saffronising Statues and
Constructing Communal Politics (Badri Narayan)
[6] USA - India: Future of the right wing, there and over here (Harish Khare)
[7] India: Discuss Mangalore violence in Parliament
[8] India: Domestic Violence Act - A ray of hope (Ratna Kapur)
[9] India: Upcoming Events:
(i) Conference Right to Food and Right to Life (Lucknow, 26 November 2006)
(ii) Conference on People's Foreign Policy (Bombay, 7-8 December 2006)
____
[1]
Daily Times
November 22, 2006
EDITORIAL: The tragedy of our treatment of Dr Abdus Salam
Dr Abdus Salam (1926-1996) died ten years ago. He
was the first Pakistani to get a Nobel Prize in
1979. But he might be the last if we continue to
allow our state to evolve in a way that frightens
the rest of the world. Our collective psyche runs
more to accepted 'wisdom' than to scientific
inquiry; and even if we were to display an
uncharacteristic outcropping of individual genius
the world may be so frightened of it that it
might not give us our deserts.
We are scared of honouring Dr Salam because of
our constitution which we have amended to declare
his community as 'non-Muslim'. When Dr Salam died
in 1996 he had to be buried in Pakistan because
he refused to give up his Pakistani nationality
and acquire another that respected him more. But
the Pakistani state was afraid of touching his
dead body. He was therefore buried in Rabwa, the
home town of his Ahmedi community whose name is
also unacceptable to us and has been changed to
Chenab Nagar by a state proclamation. But that
was not the end of the story. After he was
buried, the pious, law-abiding and
constitution-loving people of Jhang, which is
nearby, went over to Chenab Nagar to see if all
had been done according to the constitutional
provisions regarding the Ahmedi community to
which he belonged.
And what did the constitution say? It said that
the Ahmedis are not Muslims, that they may not
call themselves Muslims, nor say the kalima or
use any of the symbols of Islam. The original
amendments to the constitution were passed by Z A
Bhutto, a 'liberal socialist-democrat', and
subsequent tightening of the law was done by the
great patriot General Zia-ul Haq. Thus both the
civilians and the khakis had connived in the
great betrayal of Dr Salam.
After the great scientist was buried in Chenab
Nagar, his tombstone said 'Abdus Salam the First
Muslim Nobel Laureate'. Needless to say, the
police arrived with a magistrate and rubbed off
the 'Muslim' part of the katba. Now the tombstone
says: Abdus Salam the First Nobel Laureate. The
magistrate remained unfazed by what he had done
but Dr Salam's grave is actually the tombstone of
a Muslim culture that Pakistan had inherited from
the founder of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad
Ali Jinnah. But ironies fly thick in Pakistan. In
Jhang, for example, where Dr Salam grew up as a
precocious child, the schools that he endowed
with scholarships and grants now teach communal
hatred rather than the love that he had in mind
when he gave them his money.
Meanwhile, the Ahmedi community is under daily
pressure and anyone with a twisted mind is free
to persecute them.
Abdus Salam was born in Jhang in 1926. At the age
of 14, he got the highest marks ever recorded for
the Matriculation Examination in Punjab. The
whole town turned out to welcome him. He won a
scholarship to Government College, Lahore, and
took his MA in 1946. In the same year he was
awarded a scholarship to St. John's College,
Cambridge, where he took a BA (honours) with a
double First in mathematics and physics in 1949.
In 1950 he received the Smith's Prize from
Cambridge University for the most outstanding
pre-doctoral contribution to physics. He also
obtained a PhD in theoretical physics at
Cambridge; his thesis, published in 1951,
contained fundamental work in quantum
electrodynamics which had already gained him an
international reputation.
In 1954 Dr Salam left his native country for a
lectureship at Cambridge University. Before the
Pakistani politicians apostatised him, he was a
member of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission,
a member of the Scientific Commission of Pakistan
and Chief Scientific Adviser to the President
from 1961 to 1974. Pakistan's space research
agency Suparco was created by him and it is only
symbolic that a group of Shia workers of Suparco
were put to death in Karachi in 2004 by sectarian
terrorists. Like Dr Salam, a lot of gifted Shia
doctors have had to leave Pakistan because of the
state's twisted policies.
Dr Abdus Salam got his Nobel Prize for Physics in
1979. It was a most embarrassing moment for
General Zia who had 'supplemented' the Second
Amendment to the constitution with further comic
disabilities against the Ahmedis. He had to
welcome the great scientist and had to be seen
with him on TV. Since the clerical part of his
government was already bristling, he took care to
clip those sections of Dr Salam's speech where he
had said the kalima or otherwise used an Islamic
expression. It was Dr Salam's good luck that one
of the believers did not go to court under Zia's
own laws to get the country's only Nobel laureate
sent to prison for six months of rigorous
imprisonment. Dr Salam then went to India where
he was received with great fanfare. He had gone
there to simply meet his primary school
mathematics teacher who was still alive. When the
two met, Dr Salam took off his Nobel medal and
put it around the neck of his teacher.
Let us admit in a whisper that Pakistan did issue
a stamp commemorating Dr Salam years ago - lest
the government come under pressure to remove it
from circulation. It is also true that his alma
mater, Government College Lahore, now a
university, has named certain ancillary
departments and academic sessions after him
following a long period of obscurantist
domination. But Pakistan needs to feel guilty
about what it has done to the greatest scientist
it ever produced in comparison to the lionisation
of Dr AQ Khan who has brought ignominy and the
label of 'rogue state' to Pakistan by selling the
country's nuclear technology for personal gain.
Can we redeem ourselves by doing something in Dr
Salam's memory on this 10th anniversary of his
passing that would please his soul and cleanse
ours? *
______
[2]
The Hindu
November 22, 2006
MUSIC HITS SOME CONTROVERSIAL KEYS
by Nirupama Subramanian
The introduction of a Master's course in music at
the University of Punjab in Lahore is seen by
many, despite the protests by the Islami
Jameeiat-e-Taleba, as a "big victory."
IN A basement room at the Alhamra cultural centre
in Lahore, a few men and one woman are seated on
a dhurrie, deep in discussion. Hands poised on a
harmonium, one of them is making a point about
the music styles of different ghazal singers.
"It is important for a singer to develop his own
style. When someone tries to copy a great like
Mehdi Hassan, no matter how good you are, you
will be caught short," says the man at the
harmonium, Jamsehd Azam. He teaches the Light
Music section of the Master's music programme at
the University of Punjab in Lahore, and his class
is not very different from music classes anywhere
in the subcontinent. Except that this is the
first time ever music is being formally taught at
the University of Punjab, a move that has pitted
University officials against students affiliated
to an Islamic party.
Activists of the Islami Jameeiat-e-Taleba, the
students' wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, took to
the streets of Lahore, describing the course as
anti-Islamic and demanding that it be scrapped.
But the University, apparently determined to
battle a wave of orthodoxy and conservatism
sweeping through its student body in recent
times, refused to back down. With 11 students and
a faculty of five, the M.A. music course began in
late September. All the students have previous
training in music.
"The idea is not to turn out first-rate singers
but people who can appreciate and relate to their
cultural heritage and that of others," says Asrar
Chishti, one of the faculty members. Included in
the degree is a course on Western music
appreciation, taught by a Westerner. Classes have
begun in right earnest, and it seems that the IJT
has withdrawn defeated.
"Music in Pakistan is not taboo. It's everywhere,
it's on the radio, it's on television. Even the
leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami uses music in his
election campaign, the Jameeiat students also use
music when they go on a fund-raising campaign. So
the opposition did not make sense to anyone, and
the IJT was obviously on a weak wicket," said
Hasan Shahnawaz Zaidi, principal of the College
of Arts and Design, which offers the music degree
programme.
But as Mr. Zaidi said, the protests against the
introduction of a department of music were only
part of the larger battle the IJT is fighting to
assert its clout in the University. In many ways,
it is a mirror of the larger political battle
between those who want Pakistan to be an Islamic
theocratic state and those who want a modern
Islamic republic, brought to the fore recently
with the adoption by Pakistan's Lower House of
the Women's Protection Bill.
The IJT considers Punjab University its
stronghold. Indeed, the IJT won the annual
students' union election every year from 1971
until 1983, when the Zia-ul-Haq regime banned
students' unions. But the IJT survived, thanks to
Pakistan's jihad project in Afghanistan. In 1989,
the only year students' elections were held after
that, the IJT triumphed.
In the last few years, despite the continuing bar
on students' politics, the IJT appears to have
been strengthened for a number of reasons. Some
faculty members cite the "indefensible" policies
of the United States that is radicalising Muslim
youth everywhere. Some say it is still powerful
because in its heyday, it influenced appointments
to the administration and faculty. Many of those
people are still in their jobs, and function as
the IJT's "eyes and ears" on the campus. Some
point to the scholarships the IJT gives to needy
students, subsidising tuition, hostel, and
canteen fees.
Considerable street power
The IJT's street power became apparent when it
responded to the rustication of some of its
activists on a variety of charges including arson
- many of them were involved in the protest
against the music course - by blocking traffic
and paralysing Lahore for most of a day. In the
last few weeks, the IJT, which claims to have
60,000 affiliated students in 50 universities and
colleges nationwide, has been working towards
holding November-end protests across Pakistan.
Its demands: restore students' unions, Islamise
education, and roll back the "secularisation" of
the syllabus.
"Music is only the thin edge of the wedge," said
Khalid Waqas, national assistant
secretary-general of the IJT. The students' party
has an office with a generous compound on
Ferozepur Road, a prime commercial district of
Lahore. "The education policy of the government
should reflect and promote the values and culture
of Islam, and music has no place in it. The
government has launched some educational policies
in order to subvert Islam, the main reason for
which we fought for and won this country," said
Mr. Waqas.
His colleague, the party information secretary
Abdul Wadood, said it was a victory for the IJT
that the University could not start the music
classes on campus, but had to hire a room at the
Alhamra. But teachers said the music course would
move to the campus as soon as a new building,
complete with sound-proof rooms and studios, was
ready.
Last month, the IJT conducted a nation-wide
"referendum" of students and professionals, in
which it posed the question: "Do you want a
secular education?" Ballot boxes were placed in
colleges, universities, courts, and also at
places such as bus-stops and market squares.
According to Mr. Wadood, out of 2.1 million
responses, only 1,000 said yes.
Aside from the important issue of the syllabus,
the party seeks to exert influence in other areas
too. The IJT runs a parallel admissions
counselling regime, in an attempt to win over
students right at the start. It also seeks to
control how students conduct themselves. At the
University's new campus alongside Lahore's leafy
Canal Road, a bamboo screen came up recently in
one of the canteens to separate the women
students from the men.
In the College of Arts and Design, housed in the
stately red-brick buildings of the old campus,
such segregation is not yet visible. Girls and
boys are chatting away together, sitting - like
students anywhere - on the floors of the
corridor. But on the new campus, where the IJT is
most active, women wearing veils are more
visible, and boys have been thrashed for talking
to girls, in one instance, for taking a group
photo with them. In the hostels, the IJT runs
classes on Islam and the Koran, attended by
students who benefit from its largesse.
The IJT denies beating up anyone for interacting
with women students or enforcing segregation of
the sexes and a dress code for women on campus.
But, said Mr. Waqas, "we are an Islamic party,
and it is natural that we will encourage
practices that are in keeping with the religion
and discourage those that go against it."
According to him, parents are secure in the
knowledge that the IJT will ensure the security
of their daughters and the "good behaviour" of
their sons while they pursue their studies.
The violent incidents on campus, Mr. Waqas said,
were not a consequence of the IJT's activities
but of the absence of a platform for students to
express themselves after the ban on students'
unions.
But in this ongoing battle, many faculty and
students view the introduction of the music
course as a "big victory" for Vice-Chancellor
Ershad Mahmud, a retired army general handpicked
by President Pervez Musharraf to enforce
discipline on campus.
At the Alhamra centre, the students in Jamshed
Azam's music class are unruffled at all the
controversy, convinced it is all an exaggeration
of the media, and are more concerned with hitting
the right notes.
______
[3]
National Peace Council
of Sri Lanka
12/14 Purana Vihara Road
Colombo 6
Tel: 2818344, 2854127, 2819064
Tel/Fax: 2819064
E Mail: peace2 at sri.lanka.net
Internet: www.peace-srilanka.org
21.11.06
Media Release
POSITIVE ACTION IS REQUIRED IN BOTH HUMANITARIAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS SPHERES
President Mahinda Rajapaksa's decision to open
the A9 Highway to Jaffna as a one-time measure to
send humanitarian supplies to Jaffna has come as
a positive response to the prevailing
humanitarian crisis in the north east. For weeks
humanitarian organisations have been urging the
government and LTTE to open the highway as it is
an obligation under the Ceasefire Agreement, to
which both the parties affirm they are still
committed. The National Peace Council welcomes
the President's decision, which demonstrates that
the government is prepared to take the
humanitarian needs of all people into
consideration. We hope that the LTTE responds
positively and that this one-time measure will
transformed into a permanent one in keeping with
the Ceasefire Agreement.
In a similar vein, there is a need for the
government to take positive action with regard to
the human rights crisis in the country. Where
internal processes fail to provide justice to the
people, it is incumbent on the international
community to ensure that a satisfactory solution
is given to those who complain that they are
being deprived of the protection of the rule of
law. Actions such as the recent killing of five
students in Vavuniya after a military patrol was
ambushed is totally unacceptable, but those
guilty are seldom if ever brought to justice.
A continuing human rights problem that needs
serious attention by the government is with
regard to the issues highlighted after the recent
visit to Sri Lanka of Allan Rock, the special
advisor to the UN's Rapporteur on Violence
against Children. Among his findings, Mr Rock
reported that forcible child recruitment today
was not limited to the LTTE, but that the
breakaway Karuna group was engaging in similar
practices with the support of some elements of
the Sri Lankan military. This is a position that
has been confirmed by the Sri Lankan Monitoring
Mission, but it has been contested by the
government.
The National Peace Council condemns the practice
of recruitment of child soldiers whether by the
LTTE or by the Karuna group. One of the reasons
for the international bans on the LTTE has been
its continued recruitment of child soldiers
against internationally accepted norms. It is the
responsibility of the government to ensure that
the actions of its military are consistent with
internationally accepted norms. We call on the
government and LTTE to agree to appoint an
independent commission of inquiry with UN
observers to look into the problem of child
recruitment in all areas of the country,
including LTTE-held areas.
Executive Director
On behalf of the Governing Council
______
[4]
Issues in Secular Politics
November 2006 II
DEMOCRACY BESIEGED
Ram Puniyani
There may be various parameters to judge the
prevalence of democratic spirit in a country. One
of them may be how well the minorities are doing,
how safe they feel, how aligned they feel, how
much at home they feel. Whatever was the answer
to these questions couple of decades earlier,
today it seems the answer to these questions is
becoming more and more negative and the
quantitative worsening of these parameters is
leading to the qualitative transformation of
social scene towards abysmal social scenario.
One has been hearing the aggressive propaganda
that minorities are being appeased in this
country for the vote bank politics. This was
being ‘successfully' injected to the societal
consciousness despite Gopal Singh Commission,
which portrayed the grim picture of the socio
economic condition of the Muslim minority. Close
to two decades later Rajinder Sachar Committee,
on the basis of thorough inquiry has not only
confirmed what Gopal Singh Commission found but
also that trends are in the direction of further
worsening of the socio-political indices of
Muslim minorities. The data shows that Muslim
community is at the bottom of economic indices,
being worse than even the SCs, STs. They are
worse off in education, and are far behind OBCs
in employment. Their representation in judiciary,
bureaucracy is very poor compared to their
percentage in population, and more so in class I
and II jobs, they are very low down in
landholdings, and much worse in employment in
private sector. The number of MLAs and MPs coming
from this community has also been declining over
a period of time. Of course there is one place
where they are over-over represented and that's
in prisons. One may add there is other data which
tells us that their representation amongst the
riot victims is also very heavy, more than 80%
riot victims being Muslims and not to be left
behind most of the POTA detainees also happen to
be Muslims!
The biases against them abound in all spheres;
the police machinery in particular is the biggest
victim of these biases and prejudices. This
becomes apparent in their role during the riots
and after the riots. The latest in the series is
of course the pattern of investigations followed
by them. By now most of those in the police
machinery have come to firmly believe, and this
is the basis of their ‘professional conduct',
that Muslims are criminals. The propaganda
emerging from some rumor manufacturing factory
that ‘all Muslims are not terrorists but all
terrorists are Muslims' is not only becoming part
of social common sense but also the core guiding
principle of investigation authorities. This
makes their complex job also very easy. Recently
the investigation of Mumbai bomb blasts and later
Malegaon blast investigation has seen the
targeting of Muslims through and through. Right
on day next of Mumbai blasts Muslim youth were
detained in hordes, to be released only when a
section of the community went on protest. But the
pattern remains the same.
While someone from top leadership of police
issued a formal appeal that they want to play a
fair game and are open to listen to the innocents
if approached. Some social workers of repute
were also taken in by these formal appeals and
narrated through newspaper columns as to how
approaching police authorities is ‘working' in
getting the innocents released. What levels of
democracy we have reached that police will nab
the innocents for the crime not committed by
them, than they will ring up the top police
officials or the reputed social worker/s to get
themselves released. What if the immediate
havladar decides that you cannot use the mobile
now, what if you are intimidated beyond your wits
to be able to contact these worthies? The
question remains how many from the community can
have access to these socials workers, whatever be
the levels of their accessibility. How many from
community can contact the top leadership of the
police which makes these claims? In the face of
such massive goofs, which have been committed in
such cases, mostly due to biased and prejudiced
approach of authorities is there not a need for
training the police in the lessons of pluralism
removing their biases and prejudices if that be
possible. Does a help line exist for an average
person? Does not a need exist for creating an
effective help line?
There are media reports telling us how innocents
are being trapped in different ways during
interrogation, what do we do for that? Do the
people know their rights in the face of being
apprehended by the Khaki uniforms? Is it not the
responsibility of the state to let the people
know their rights also when they are being booted
and tortured to extract ‘confessions from them?
Do we not need to have provisions that without
the legal help to the one arrested the arresting
authorities will not proceed with their various
‘degree' methods of increasing levels of torture
to force the accused speak what Khaki uniformed
one's want to hear to make their job easy.
Incidentally that also fits in to the scheme of
their line of preformed opinions?
The system is so insular, and by now becoming so
self righteous that the appeal from Prime
Minister, not to target the particular community
fell on deaf years of the hardened stiff collared
khaki machinery. In Malegaon the limits of police
bias are openly apparent. And being disgusted
with that the local Muslim community had to
resort to day long peaceful bandh to vent out
their frustration and anguish. The partisanship
of the investigation is crystal clear to those
who have been following the incidents in
Maharashtra. The Bajrang Dal, whose activists
died while making bomb in Nanded, is totally
protected by the other type of bias, ‘affirmative
bias' to be applied to some sections and
political streams of society. The bomb shells and
RDX which were found in Shanker Shelke shop in
Ahmadnagar seems to be of no relevance and it
does not give any clues to our professionals in
uniforms. The sketch of the person who bought
the cycle on which bombs were kept has been
relegated to the background and the thesis that
SIMI activists have done this to kill exclusive
Muslim crowd near Bada Kabristan seems to be the
central point of investigation as far as our
agencies are concerned.
Is it that the sectarian ideology has already
completed its task of ensuring that the half
truths, half lies spread by it are the core
operating principles of the large section of
bureaucracy and police? The insecurity of other
minority, the Christians, especially in Adivasi
areas knows no bounds and through organizations
like Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram the divisive and
intimidating role is being carried to the full
extent in remote places. The news of attacks on
Christian nuns ad missionaries have become a
matter of routine and no more has any ‘news
value' as per the parameters of our media. At
social and cultural level the Freedom of Religion
Bills in various BJP ruled states are an open
threat to the Christian missionaries working in
the area of education and health in deep
interiors. Madhya Pradesh government like other
BJP governments has been manipulating the things
at cultural level. It has been naming most of the
social schemes in Hindu imageries, like water
irrigation projects as Jalabhishek, marriage
support to the poor as Kanyadan and so on.
Gujarat as a Hindu Rashtra has already relegated
the Muslims out into refugee camps away from the
main areas. Is it a return of old untouchable
ghettoes?
It seems the democratic ethos is under severe
threat and the state of alienation of minorities
is a pointer to that. It seems that even without
being in power, the BJP-RSS agenda of Hindu
Nation is already unfolding itself in a
threatening manner in BJP ruled states and in a
subtle and overt fashion in other states where
BJP is not in power. In those states due to the
communal attitude of some of those in power and
the communalization of state apparatus, police
and bureaucracy, the restrictions on liberal
democratic spaces are mounting. Is it time for
celebration in RSS headquarters or is there time
still for it to be taken as a warning signal by
those who wish to preserve and strengthen
democracy. A lip service to minority welfare and
security will not do. Those in leadership who are
committed to the values of Liberty, Equality and
Community (national) need to wake up and take
stock of the all round intimidation and
alienation of minorities. If Rajinder Sachar
Committee report and Malegaon bandh does not wake
them up, what will?
______
[5]
Communalism Watch
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/11/memories-saffronising-statues-and.html
MEMORIES, SAFFRONISING STATUES AND CONSTRUCTING COMMUNAL POLITICS
by Badri Narayan (Economic and Political Weekly, November 11, 2006)
Managing the memories of different communities
and reinterpreting them at the local level to
suit the logic of a particular political group,
is an oft-observed phenomenon in the ongoing
political processes of the country. Lesser known
historical events associated with particular
communities are searched out and converted into
popular memory in a way that suits the political
agenda of the concerned political forces. The
article is focused on one such attempt of the
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and Bharatiya Janata
Party to search for space among the dalits of
Uttar Pradesh by looking for heroes of their
communities, creating warring identities against
Muslim invaders, and relocating them in their
broader project of constructing communal memories
among Hindus as a whole, including the dalit
castes.
http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2006&leaf=11&filename=10743&filetype=pdf
______
[6]
Communalism Watch
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/11/future-of-right-wing-there-and-over.html
FUTURE OF THE RIGHT WING, THERE AND OVER HERE
by Harish Khare
http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/22/stories/2006112205171000.htm
______
[7]
Mangalorean.com
Nov 20, 2006
DISCUSS MANGALORE VIOLENCE IN PARLIAMENT - TEESTHA SETHALVAD
November 19, Mangalore: The central leadership
should be intimated about the communal violence
that rocked Dakshina Kannada recently. The issue
should be discussed in winter session of the
parliament and progressive organisations should
play active role in this regard, said human
rights activist and 'Communalism Combat' editor
Teesta Setalvad.
She was speaking after inaugurating Sadbhavana
Samavesha, a convention for communal harmony,
organized by Komu Souharda Vedike in the City on
Saturday.
Indians have cherished secularism as way of life
and is enshrined in our Constitution also.
Unfortunately politicians chant the mantra of
secularism only during elections. In the absence
of genuine political resistance, communal forces
are adding to their strength. Though political
power is one of the aim of Sangh Parivar, their
real objective is to transform the life style and
mind set of Indians by damaging the secular
fabric of the Society.
With this agenda, Sangh Parivar elements began to
infiltrate into bureaucracy, education, media and
other realms.
Flaying the alleged police atrocity against
innocents during the Dakshina Kannada communal
violence, she alleged that police which enjoys
nexus with communal elements unleashed great
horror on women and children.
Referring to the provoking reports carried by
some section of press during the communal
violence, she said that public should boycott the
newspapers having jaundiced views and lodge
complaint with Press Council against newspapers
carrying non-objective reports which disturbs
social harmony.
Youths from Dalit and Backward Communities are
falling prey to the diabolic plots of communal
elements.
In Panchmahal district of Gujarat also vested
interests used Backward Community youths to
realize their ends.
Backward and Dalit communities in Karnataka have
a rich progressive tradition and attempts to
identify with communal elements is a betrayed to
this rich tradition, she opined.
Speaking on the occasion Prof M Dattatreya of
Kuvempu University hailed the entrepreneurial
skills of Backward Communities from Coastal
Karnataka. Communal elements are trying to lure
these emerging communities into their trap and
social awareness should be created in this
regard, he added.
Komu Souharda Vedike will conduct siminar
conventions at various district and taluk head
quarters in the State and valedictory will be
held in Bangalore on November 26.
A book and documentary on Mangalore communal
violence was released on the occasion. Former MP
Vinay Kumar Sorake, K M Sharief of Karnataka
Forum for Dignity and others were present.
_____
[8]
The Times of India
21 November 2006
A RAY OF HOPE
by Ratna Kapur
In Maharashtra, a domestic worker files a case of
domestic violence against her husband who
brutally beat her up with a steel rod and a
brick. A government school teacher in Tamil Nadu
files a case against her husband, a peon employed
in the Tamil Nadu water board.
He is charged for beating up his wife with a
stick and umbrella after a quarrel at night.
Within days of the Protection of Women from
Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (DVA) coming into
force, women are taking recourse to its
provisions.
DVA represents a landmark in the achievement of
gender equality for Indian women in two
fundamental ways. First, it rubbishes the myth
that the Indian family is a safe haven for all
its members. This fact is evidenced by the broad
range of harms covered under the new law,
including abuse of the elderly, child sexual
abuse, and violence against divorced or widowed
women.
Empirical evidence of the widespread existence of
these brutalities in the home has been available
for years and finally found expression in law.
Second, the law delinks domestic violence from
the confinements of dowry harassment and dowry
murders. Until now, victims of domestic violence
were invariably forced to link the violence to a
demand for dowry in order to access legal
remedies under the Indian Penal Code.
The only other option was divorce on grounds of
cruelty. DVA provides civil law relief for
domestic violence which is recognised as
occurring for all sorts of reasons, across every
class, religion and caste, in rural areas and
urban centres.
The law has some fairly revolutionary features.
For the first time, marital rape is legally
recognised as a form of domestic violence. While
cri-minal law has still not been amended to
enable a woman to file a rape case against her
husband or domestic sexual partner, she is now
given access to new civil remedies, including
securing a protection order or injunction against
her abuser.
DVA recognises child sexual abuse as an offence,
and hence for the first time offers some space in
law for the recognition of a child's rights to be
free from violence in the home.
Domestic violence is not confined to wives, but
includes mothers, daughters, sisters, widows,
divorced women living in the home, as well as
those who are in an informal relationship with
the accused, including a bigamous relationship.
It covers all domestic relationships in a 'shared
household'.
A shared household is very broadly defined to
include one where the abused person lives singly
or with the abuser. Presumably, the Act would
also cover a man who abuses or beats up a sex
worker with whom he has had a long-standing
relationship, such as a pimp, or an ongoing
sexual relationship, though the scope of this
provision would need to be tested in the courts.
A case can be filed against any male adult person
as well as other relatives of the husband or male
partner. Women are not just considered victims,
but also can be perpetrators of violence against
other members of the household, including
children, the elderly and daughters-in-law.
The Act is not confined to physical violence but
also includes verbal, emotional and economic
violence. Verbal violence includes accusations
against a woman's character or conduct, or
preventing her from taking up a job or forcing
her to leave a job, or taking away her income.
Arguably complaining against attacks on a woman's
character would be a right equally available to a
married woman, mistress or sex worker, if they
fall within the definition of 'domestic
relationship'. Insults for not having a male
child, bringing dowry are extremely significant
protections.
Acts that constitute emotional violence include
not providing food, clothes, and medicines for
one's children, preventing a child from attending
school, college or any other educatio-nal
institution, forcing a person to get married when
he or she does not want to, or preventing a
person from marrying the person of his or her
choice.
The fact that these acts are categorically
described as acts of violence in the law is
pro-bably more important in terms of their
educative impact, than the actual prosecutions
that will take place under these specific
provisions.
Complaints of domestic violence can be filed by
neighbours, social workers, or relatives on
behalf of the victim. And the magistrate is given
a broad array of powers, including issuing
protection or injunction orders, providing
monetary relief or payment maintenance.
While the penal provisions dealing with dowry
focus on incarceration, the DVA gives women an
opportunity to keep the perpetrator at a
distance, but not in jail.
Women can no longer be evicted from their homes
by the abuser, and can seek an order to reside in
the same house or be allotted a part of it for
her personal use even if she has no legal claim
or share in the property. The abuser can also be
prohibited from entering the aggrieved person's
place of work or, if that person is a child, the
school.
DVA covers acts that are violative of a woman's
dignity or any other unwelcome conduct of a
sexual nature.
In a country where sex, not just sexual violence,
is considered bad, indecent, and something in
which 'good people' do not indulge or talk about,
the courts may find themselves determining
dignity or sexuality along highly puritanical
lines, that would neither benefit women nor be
conducive to promoting healthy adult sexual
relationships.
Protection from sexual wrongs needs to be
accompanied with education about sexual rights.
The writer is director, Centre for Feminist Legal Research.
_____
[9] UPCOMING EVENTS
(i)
Invitation
This is to bring to your kind notice that one day
national conference is being organized on the
issue of "RIGHT TO FOOD AND RIGHT TO LIFE"
mentioned in Indian constitution Art 21.
As you know that in spite of the buffer stock of
food grains and available system like PDS (Public
Distribution System), incidence of starvation
deaths are reported from many parts of the U.P.
and India. According to the UN Information
Centre, New Delhi, estimated 214 million food
insecure populations live in India, 50 million
reside in the state of Uttar Pradesh and 50% of
the children everywhere are undernourished and
stunted. Infant Mortality Rate for whole of
India is 68 and is 72 for the state of UP that is
primarily caused due to malnutrition and
subsequent diseases due to micronutrient
deficiencies. Though reports of starvation deaths
in UP, MP, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Orrisa and
Bihar and suicides by farmers and other
low-income population in UP, Karnataka and
Maharashtra have become a regular feature in the
newspapers. Governments are not recognizing
starvation and hunger. The reason can partially
be the lack of a proper definition of starvation
and partially the lack of maintenance of records
or data regarding starvation.
Even after intervention of the Hon' able Supreme
Court, the situation has not much improved. In
this regard a case is already pending in the apex
court .The apex court has also issued interim
orders to check the starvation deaths and
effectively implementation of all welfare schemes
for the poor. In this regard FIAN Norway and
FIAN- UP are jointly organizing a conference on
"Right to Food and Right to Life". In this
context, you are requested at the conference as
guest of honour.We have received confirmation
from many distinguished guests such as Ms.Kristin
Kjaeret and Mr.Trond from Norway,Mr.Ravi P
Verma,MP,Loksabha,Dr.EMS Natchiappan,MP Rajya
Sabha and Chairman Parlimetary Standing Commettee
on Public Grievances,Law and Justice. A line
regarding your participation would be highly
appreciated the venue and time of the conference
is as follows:
Venue- Ravindralaya
Opposite Lucknow Railway Station,
Charbagh, Lucknow.
Date: 26th November.
Time: 10 am to 2 pm.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
With kind regards,!
Anuj Tiwari
Programme In charge
FIAN-Uttar Pradesh
12/597,Indira Nagar
Lucknow-226016,Tel. 0522 2349556
___
(ii)
CONFERENCE ON PEOPLE'S FOREIGN POLICY: 7 - 8 DECEMBER 2006
Cama Hall, Fort, Mumbai, India
The perceptible shift in India's Foreign Policy
over the recent years towards closer strategic
ties with the US and Israel, has created an
urgent need for all progressive forces to come
together to examine, critique and counter the
sinister dimensions of such a shift and also work
out and offer an alternative people's foreign
policy geared towards the goal of creating a just
and peaceful world.
The Indo-US nuclear deal, India's stand vis-à-vis
Iran's nuclear programme, its increasing
cooperation with the apartheid state of Israel,
together with the consequent abandonment of the
long-standing support to the Palestinian quest
for an independent nation, epitomise a betrayal
of India's claims of having a sovereign and
independent foreign policy.
India's increasing military ties with the USA,
joint military exercises, its emergence as the
biggest arms purchaser from Israel and its
ill-concealed ambitions to emerge as a regional
hegemon basking in the reflected glory of the
global hegemon, will have serious ramifications
not only on India's independent and sovereign
status but also for all of Asia in terms of its
security, trade and development. Last but not the
least, this is a setback to the process of both
regional and global disarmament.
Hence, there is a strong need to take stock of
the evolution of India's Foreign Policy so far
and also to demystify and decode the concept of
"Foreign Policy" so as to bring it into the
domain of "people's politics".
It bears reiteration that the Foreign Policy of a
country impacts the lives of ordinary people in a
number of ways. 'War' is of course the most
evident and extreme example. But then,
immigration policy, international trade treaties,
defence deals in the global market and even
nuclear policy are all closely intertwined with
the Foreign Policy, and seriously impact the
lives of common people. So there is an immediate
need for a wider engagement and debate on the
issues concerned.
It is precisely in this context, that the
Citizens Against War and Occupation - an
all-India body, has decided to have an
international conference on "People's Foreign
Policy" in Mumbai from 7 - 8 December 2006 .
The main themes of the conference will include
opposition to US hegemony (including discussions
on WMDs and the 'Global War on Terror'), crises
in West and Central Asia, South Asian issues like
nuclearisation, militarisation and ongoing
conflicts, economic dimensions of the Foreign
Policy, evolution of India's Foreign Policy, etc.
This conference is meant to be not an end in
itself but a launching pad for a sustained
nationwide campaign. The idea is to have a series
of meetings in many more cities and regions
capitalising on the momentum generated by the
conference. Participants are expected from India
and its neighbours and as well as from West Asia,
including resource persons like Kalpana Sharma,
Aijaz Ahmed, Bhadrakumar, Chaudhury Manzoor
Ahmed, M.V. Ramana, Farhad Mazhar, Arjun Karki,
Achin Vanaik, Anuradha Chenoy, Kamal Chenoy,
Karamat Ali, Asim Roy, Pallab Sen Gupta, Mazher
Hussain, Christopher Fonseca, Gautam Navlakha and
others
All those activists, individuals, political
parties, socio-political movements, civil society
organisations and groups that are in opposition
to India's strategic alliance with Israel and the
United States and therefore support their
unconditional and immediate withdrawal from
Central and West Asia are invited to attend and
be a part of this conference and collective
endeavour .
We expect that that this conference will be a
landmark attempt on the part of the people's
movements and progressive political forces to
forge a meaningful alliance to stake their
rightful claim in formulating a people-oriented
foreign policy for our country. We hope to have
you amongst us on both the days and actively
participate in the debates that ensue, thus
providing the necessary intellectual and
political impetus to the anti-war movement world
over.
A limited number of accommodations will be
available to the delegates on the first come
first served basis.
For further information on programme and venue
please contact on the below mentioned address or
email id.
-----------------------------------------------------
Citizens against war and occupation
All India Federation for Trade Union, All India
Peace & Solidarity Organisation, All India Trade
Union Congress, All India Youth Federation,
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament & Peace, COVA,
Delhi Science Forum, Development Research &
Action, Focus on the Global South, Henrich Boll
Foundation, Indian Social Action Forum, Indian
Social Institute, Lok Raj Sangathan, NAPM,
National Federation of Indian Women, Nirantar,
People's Union for Civil Liberties, Popular
Education & Action Centre, SAMA (Resource Centre
for Women & Health), SEEDS, SEWA, Third World
Studies Centre, VISION, NTUI, PEACE MUMBAI
Local Hosts: PEACE MUMBAI
AIPSO, BUILD, New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI),
PEACE, COVA, Yuva Bharat, CEHAT, Salokha ,
Vidrohi, Action Aid International, Shodhan
Weekly, , Peoples' Media Initiative, Communist
Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India
Marxist (CPM), Jan Morcha,Coalition for Nuclear
Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), National Alliance
of Peoples Movements (NAPM), India Center for
Human Rights and Law (ICHRL), Asia South Pacific
Bureau for Adult Education (ASPBAE), Youth for
Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), National Youth
Federation (NYF), Pakistan-India Peoples Forum
for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), Bombay Urban
Industrial League for Development (BUILD), Focus
on the Global South, India, Indo-Pak Youth Forum
for Peace, Media for People, Vikas Adhyayan
Kendra (VAK), Akshara, Documentation Research and
Training Center (DRTC), Explorations, Initiative,
Institute For Community Organization and Research
(ICOR), Movement for Peace and Justice (MPJ),
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Bombay Aman Committee.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citizens Against War and Occupation, C/o. Focus
on the Global South, India, A - 201, Kailash
Apartments, Juhu Church Road, Juhu,, Mumbai - 400
049. India
Tel : +91-22-6592 1141 / 51, Telefax :
+91-22-2625 4347 , Email : peacemumbai at gmail.com
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
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