SACW | Dec. 3-4, 2006 | Cuban Doctors in Pakistan / Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal 22 years on / Spreading Hindutva in Karnataka

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | December 3-4, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2331 - Year 8


[1]  Cuban Doctors In Pakistan (Aasim Sajjad Akhtar)
[2]  Linking school children across conflicts,and 
divides: Some schools in India-Pakistan link-up 
(BBC)
[3]  India: On the 22nd anniversary of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal:
  (i) Sambhava Exhibition Inaugurated (Press Release by Sambhavna Trust Clinic)
  (ii) 22 years of tearful remembrance (Central Chronicle)
[4]  India: Hindutva at work in Karnataka:
  - Is Chikamagalur turning into South India's Ayodhya? (Priyanjana Dutta)
  - Simmering Tension: The Sangh Parivar holds 
Shobha Yatra despite it being banned by HC.
  - VHP, Bajrang Dal take out Shoba Yatra
  - Komu Souharda Vedike activists arrested in Chikmagalur
  -  Action - Alert: Karnataka Komu Souharda 
Vedike activists arrested for fighting 
communalists in Karnataka
  - BJP carries out Shobha Yatra amid concerns (Maya Sharma)
  - BJP's Shobha yatra runs into controversy
  - Hindu Sena to hold Datta Jayanti on December 4
  - Ties between ruling JD(S), BJP in K'taka under strain (Shekhar Iyer)
  - JD (S) leaders plan meet against Gowda
  - Deve Gowda swears by secularism (Muralidhara Khajane and Laiqh A. Khan)
  - Communal Frenzy in Coastal Karnataka (Dr V.Lakshminarayana)
  - Mangalore 'Riots' (Nalini Taneja)
  - Saffron spread (Pamela Philipose)
[5]  India: The Hindu Rashtra and its exclusions (Jyotirmaya Sharma)

____


[1] 

Monthly Review
November 2006

CUBAN DOCTORS IN PAKISTAN: WHY CUBA STILL INSPIRES
by Aasim Sajjad Akhtar

(Aasim Sajjad Akhtar is a political activist 
associated with the People's Rights Movement 
(PRM), a confederation of working-class 
struggles. He also teaches colonial history and 
political economy at the Lahore University of 
Management Sciences.)

[. . .]

For all of the talk of Cuba being wedded to the 
failed communist experiment and the obsolete 
ideals of the Cold War period, it is mainstream 
America that still uses the language that was 
commonplace at the height of the superpower 
conflict. Cubans who come over to Miami are 
"defectors" and are treated as liberated 
prisoners of war by the exile community. Just how 
preposterous such portrayals actually are is 
reflected in the fact that Cuba's biggest 
income-earning industry is tourism-millions of 
Europeans, Asians, and Africans (and even a fair 
share of Americans) visit the island every year, 
none of whom are considered by their own 
governments to be "spies" or possible "defectors."

Cubans' remarkable commitment to internationalism 
is also down-played globally due to the smear 
campaign that Washington and the U.S. dominated 
corporate media spearheads. Cuba has sent its 
troops around the world in support of numerous 
liberation struggles, including many in Southern 
Africa and Asia. Perhaps even more significantly, 
Cuban doctors are found in the remotest of areas 
worldwide, serving populations that may never 
have seen doctors before. The most recent such 
episode was in the aftermath of the devastating 
earthquake in Pakistan's mountainous region in 
October 2005. The Bush administration has 
consistently referred to Pakistan as a 
"front-line state" in the post-September 11 
period, and one would think that the earthquake 
would have presented an opportunity to reward the 
military regime of General Pervez Musharraf for 
its extremely unpopular support for the "war on 
terror." But it was at this time of great 
suffering of the Pakistani people that 
imperialism's hollow slogans of neoliberal 
internationalism were exposed, while the virtues 
of socialist internationalism were plain for all 
to see.

Over 2,500 Cuban doctors lived and worked in the 
earthquake-hit zones for six months after 
arriving in late October 2005. For many of these 
doctors, this was the first time that they had 
been exposed to any kind of winter, let alone a 
relatively harsh one in an area with very little 
in the way of protection, particularly after the 
devastation of the earthquake. The Cubans 
developed intimate relationships with thousands 
of those they treated, even though they were very 
careful not to engage in too many discussions and 
debates on politics, particularly relating to the 
discontent that is rife against the army's 
domination of public life.

For many Pakistanis, the Cuban experience was a 
revelation. In the first instance, there was a 
stark sense of disbelief that these individuals 
came to Pakistan of their own free will and that 
they stayed well beyond the point that most 
global relief efforts had wound down. Pakistanis 
found it very hard to understand the picture that 
the Cubans painted of the dynamics of Cuban 
society. They could not relate to the idea that 
the majority of Cubans believed in and were 
committed to a profound sense of social equality, 
especially when they compared this to the 
deep-rooted hierarchies that permeate Pakistani 
society. Perhaps more unbelievable was the notion 
that the state actually promoted this shared 
solidarity-Pakistanis know the state to be 
committed only to undermining such processes.

The Cubans too found many aspects of what they 
saw around them to be somewhat unbelievable, 
perhaps most of all that so many of their 
patients were actually seeing a medical doctor 
for the first time in their lives. The Cubans 
also distinguished themselves from the rest of 
the relief effort by either living in tents under 
the same conditions as those displaced by the 
earthquake, or when in Islamabad, renting rooms 
at the most modest hotels that they could find. 
This was in stark contrast to the staff of most 
of the international aid agencies, who not only 
contributed to the creation of an extremely 
harmful and artificial parallel economy in the 
earthquake areas by paying for everything in 
foreign exchange and doling out huge amounts of 
money to meet their basic "subsistence" needs, 
but who also tended to spend an enormous amount 
of time in five star hotels in Islamabad and 
other big cities. As with all major donor funded 
operations, a healthy chunk of the monies 
committed to earthquake relief was channeled 
toward the overhead costs of the relief teams 
themselves. Not so with the Cubans who were 
provided a fairly meager allowance even by 
Pakistani standards and shopped and ate in the 
working-class areas of Islamabad (hidden as they 
are from view by a very sinister planning 
process), interacting extensively with ordinary 
people in these areas in a spirit of great 
camaraderie.

The Cubans have since committed to providing 
training services to Pakistani doctors for free, 
admitting Pakistani medical students to 
universities in Cuba, and continuing to send 
Cuban doctors to Pakistan to work in 
under-serviced areas, a practice that was much 
more common when the socialist bloc still 
existed, but is now slowly being experimented 
with again in friendly Latin American countries. 
In some cases, such as those of Venezuela and 
Bolivia, the Cubans are receiving cheap oil and 
gas in return for their medical expertise, but in 
the Pakistani case, the Cuban offer of assistance 
was made (and accepted) without demand for 
something in return. There has been talk of a 
broader preferential trade agreement between the 
two countries, although there has been no 
explicit progress on this initiative as yet, 
ostensibly because General Musharraf would rather 
not annoy his more prized ally ninety miles to 
the north of the little island.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Pakistanis who came into 
regular contact with the Cubans were kept under 
strict watch. In cases where there was a 
suspicion that the interaction had moved beyond 
basic conversation about health-related issues, 
and particularly when the Cubans met local 
political activists with even a slightly leftward 
tilt, the intelligence agencies wasted no time in 
asserting themselves. A number of people were 
questioned about their exchanges with the Cubans 
and implicitly warned not to meet them again. 
Pakistan has long been a bulwark against 
communism-and is now ostensibly a bulwark against 
terrorism-hence the tolerance for any "communist" 
influence is virtual nil. It is a testament to 
the nature of the Pakistani state that it 
constantly complained about its lack of capacity 
in dealing with the earthquake, particularly in 
terms of a shortage of civil servants, and yet 
still had enough state functionaries to collect 
intelligence on the activities of a team of Cuban 
(read: communist) doctors who were arguably the 
most effective of the many foreign relief teams 
that came to Pakistan after the earthquake. Like 
its patron the United States, the Pakistani state 
clearly has not moved beyond the hang- ups of the 
Cold War, while, to their credit, the Cubans 
avoided any controversy and dedicated themselves 
totally to their work, making sure to engage 
publicly only on matters related to their medical 
tasks.

U.S. involvement in the earthquake areas was also 
very conspicuous. Apache helicopters that were 
graciously excused from duty in Afghanistan made 
numerous daily trips with various aid supplies 
from air bases in Islamabad and Rawalpindi to the 
earthquake-affected areas. The helicopters were, 
without doubt, extremely valuable because the 
road network was badly disrupted: many roads were 
simply unusable while those that were intact had 
to deal with a massive increase in traffic that 
seriously undermined the relief effort, which 
effectively became a race against time. But what 
was not well known to the general public was the 
cost that was being incurred for limited use of 
the aircraft. It was initially reported that the 
Americans were "renting" the helicopters to the 
Pakistanis, their most prized of allies, although 
this was quickly denied and the original story 
discredited. A relatively small number of 
American troops were also sent over from 
Afghanistan to conduct sporadic missions to the 
remotest of peaks where it was impossible to 
transport medical help or supplies by road. On 
the whole the Bush administration committed $150 
million in congressional aid to Pakistan for the 
earthquake, in comparison to over five times that 
amount for the tsunami relief effort in 2004-05. 
As with most such aid however, only a fraction of 
it has been disbursed as of this time, and, as is 
also the common practice with foreign aid, the 
vast majority of the funds committed is in the 
form of loans-albeit low interest. This means 
that the interest owed will end up being greater 
than the value of the principal loaned. In fact, 
of the more than $6.5 billion committed to 
Pakistan by the international donor community, 
only a fraction was committed in grants. The 
government has actually received a little over $1 
billion.

What is remarkable about these amounts is how 
they actually compare to the tens of billions 
that the United States is spending annually in 
nearby Afghanistan, the first major front of the 
"war on terror." Further, the total U.S. defense 
budget for 2007 is $447 billion. It should be 
borne in mind that there are over two hundred 
Apache helicopters in Afghanistan of which only 
eleven were deemed expendable enough to be sent 
over to Pakistan. The U.S. strategy in 
Afghanistan is not improving things in that 
terribly unfortunate country. In fact it is 
further exacerbating an already dire situation. 
Meanwhile, the U.S. munitions industry continues 
to make billions of dollars by selling weapons to 
warring factions in Afghanistan and earns even 
more from its sale of F-16 aircraft and weapons 
technologies to Pakistan. On the whole, the 
United States has directly contributed to the 
militarization of Pakistani state and society, 
and it shares responsibility with the Pakistani 
military for the political process being a 
shambles. Even as the sheer magnitude of the 
devastation caused by the earthquake became 
clear, the American intervention remained dwarfed 
by its unending desire to dominate the region.

All in all, the differences between little, 
embargo-stricken Cuba's contribution to 
earthquake relief and that of the world's richest 
and most powerful country, the United States, 
were stark. Pakistanis have been bitterly opposed 
to the present government's naked policy of 
alignment with imperialism, yet they are 
typically only exposed to the hateful 
sloganeering of the religious right as an 
alternative to the Musharraf junta's adoption of 
a radical neoliberal policy framework. The 
religious right claims that it is the only 
principled opposition to the military's 
pro-imperialist stance even though it too has a 
very similar political philosophy (read: Islam 
vs. the infidel West) to the U.S. 
with-us-or-against-us war on terror. Since the 
religious right's takeover of power in the 
North-West Frontier Province and signing of the 
constitutional amendments package that 
legitimized the lame-duck arrangement that allows 
Musharraf to retain almost absolute power, the 
majority of the Pakistani people have had their 
long-held suspicions about the religious right 
confirmed-that it offers no alternative to 
neoliberal capitalism at all, and that, in fact, 
its politics mirror that of its alleged sworn 
enemy, the imperialist United States.

It was therefore very significant that 
Pakistanis-particularly working people, including 
those in serious need-were able to spend time 
with the Cubans and learn about a genuine 
alternative to the soulless and exploitative 
social order that exists in Pakistan and the vast 
majority of societies around the world. [. . .].

http://www.monthlyreview.org/1106akhtar.htm

______


[2]

Generation Next     Global link-up
The BBC will connect children and schools across 
conflicts, tensions and divides

School Day 24, taking place on 6 December, is all 
about linking schools across conflicts, tensions 
and divides.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6187034.stm

o o o

BBC News
28 November 2006, 19:39 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6192278.stm

SCHOOL DAY 24: INDIA-PAKISTAN
COMPOSITE OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN DELHI AND PAKISTAN TAKING PART IN THE LINK-UP

India and Pakistan

Indian students are linking up with pupils at a 
Pakistani school to share perspectives about 
their countries' past and look at the differences 
in their respective history textbooks about the 
period before 1947 when both nations were one.

India gained independence on 15 August, 1947. A 
new country, Pakistan, was also born on that day. 
Until 1947 they were one nation fighting together 
to end British rule. But this same freedom 
struggle is taught differently.

Although both countries share a common history, 
youngsters are reading it with different 
perspectives. The link-up will ask: how can 
citizens of both countries expect to be friends 
when books instill a sense of rivalry?

India and Pakistan have fought three full fledged 
wars in 1948, 1965 and 1971 and also had a direct 
conflict in 1999. Kashmir, a mountainous region, 
has been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan 
for more than five decades.


_____


[3]  ON THE 22ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNION CARBIDE DISASTER IN BHOPAL

PHOTO URL: http://www.centralchronicle.com/20061203/mah.jpg
PHOTO CAPTION: Members of Bhopal Gas Peedit 
Mahila Sangathan, an organization for the welfare 
of Bhopal gas victims, holding Mahatma Gandhi 
posters, during a demonstration in Bhopal, India, 
Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006.


o o o

[Press Release]
December 01, 2006

SAMBHAVA EXHIBITION INAUGURATED BY DOCTOR WHO 
PERFORMED BHOPAL AUTOPSIES AFTER THE 1984 DISASTER

Sambhavna Trust Clinic,
Bhopal, November 29, 2006

The Sambhavna Trust Clinic that provides free 
medical care to the people poisoned by Union 
Carbide in Bhopal will be holding a 4-day 
exhibition at the Swaraj Bhavan on the occasion 
of the 22nd anniversary of the worst industrial 
disaster in the world.

Viscera-specimens-450.jpg

The exhibition will be inaugurated by Dr D K 
Satpathy, Director, Medico Legal Institute at 5 
PM tomorrow and will continue till December 3rd 
the day of the anniversary. Specially aimed at 
children and those born after the disaster the 
exhibition presents photographs, documents and 
other artifacts in simple language. An on the 
spot painting competition will be held for school 
students in three categories on all days.

Dr Satpathy who carried out the largest number of 
autopsies following the disaster on December 3, 
1984 will be speaking on the contributions of 
forensic science in apprehending those 
responsible for the disaster. Journalist Mr 
Rajkumar Keshwani who had forewarned about and 
campaigned against the hazards of the Union 
Carbide factory will be speaking at the 
exhibition venue on December 2. Former operator 
of MIC plant in the factory and author of a book 
on the technical causes of the disaster Mr T R 
Chouhan will answer questions on the evening of 
December 1.

The Sambhavna Trust Clinic completed 10 years of 
its work this year. Nearly 18000 (17, 980) people 
are registered for long term care at the clinic 
through Allopathic, Ayurveda, Panchakarma and 
Yoga systems of healing. This year till November 
6608 people poisoned by Union Carbide [4524 
female, 2084 male] visited the clinic.

The members of the Sambhavna Trust Clinic said 
that this year they have started several new 
works in the face of adversity and loss due to 
the floods in the city in mid August. Facilities 
for eye care, large scale production of herbal 
medicines, microbiological tests in the pathology 
laboratory have been added to the clinic this 
year despite heavy financial losses due to damage 
to the walls and the herbal garden in the clinic. 
In addition several medicinal plant gardens were 
created in the affected communities.

The members stated that proper medical care that 
includes healing through Ayurvedic, Unani and 
Yoga systems of medicine, Clinics in every 
affected community, Gainful employment, Pensions, 
Safe drinking water, Clean up of contaminated 
soil and ground water, Medical research, Health 
education and Health surveillance are critically 
needed for the improvement of health of the 
people poisoned by Union Carbide.

Satinath Sarangi
Amita Gupta
Masarrat Jehan
Ritesh Kumar Pal

o o o o

Central Chronicle
December 3, 2006

22 YEARS OF TEARFUL REMEMBRANCE
By Our Staff Reporter

Bhopal, Dec 2: ''We do not have any sensational 
news for you, we have the sorrow and suffering of 
the Gas Tragedy victims and the documents linked 
with a long battle for justice. But is anyone 
still interested about those affected by the 
world's worst industrial disaster?'' When social 
activist Abdul Jabbar raises this poignant 
question his eyes reveal the fatigue and sadness 
of the past 22 years during which he has been 
involved with the case.

Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan Convenor 
Jabbar needs to wipe his clouded eyes repeatedly 
as he was also affected by the methyl isocyanate 
that leaked from the Union Carbide India Ltd 
(UCIL) factory here on the intervening night of 
December 2-3, 1984, immediately slew thousands 
and affected lakhs.

Responding to a query, he says, ''I am tired and 
also vexed but not disappointed. I will continue 
championing the cause of the victims' rights. 
Over the past 22 years, 34,000 persons died as a 
consequence of the inhalation exposure. One-lakh 
persons were either temporarily or permanently 
handicapped. To add insult to injury, those 
responsible are yet to be brought to book.''

Meanwhile, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and 
Rehabilitation Minister Babulal Gaur, also a 
former chief minister, told that the state 
government is extending all possible assistance 
and treatment to the victims. ''I was myself a 
witness to the tragedy and therefore the 
rehabilitation of those affected is my foremost 
priority. Time and again we have requested the 
Centre for aid and Union Human Resource 
Development Minister Arjun Singh's stance has 
been co-operative. The Centre should either help 
in securing more compensation from Union Carbide 
or sanction financial assistance itself,'' he 
feels.

Pointing out that Singh agreed in principle on 
the demand for doling out aid to the remaining 20 
wards of this city, the minister adds that the 
Centre has been urged for help in constructing an 
international-level memorial in front of the 
now-closed UCIL unit and safe removal of toxic 
substances in the soil of the premises.

''Treatment of victims is done free of cost at 
the Bhopal Memorial super-speciality hospital at 
Karond and related medical institutions. No 
complaint has been made to me in that regard,'' 
Gaur says while denying any proposal to wind up 
his department. On December 1, 1987, the Central 
Bureau of Investigation filed a charge sheet in 
the district court against a total of 12 accused 
including the then Union Carbide Corporation 
chairman Warren Anderson, the then UCIL chairman 
Keshav Mahindra, managing director Vijay Gokhale 
and Union Carbide Eastern, Hong Kong. The bench 
declared Anderson as an absconder.

Accused RB Roychoudhry, the then assistant works 
manager, is deceased. The case is being argued in 
the chief judicial magistrate's court for about 
two decades and in February Mahindra and eight 
others together appeared before the bench for the 
first time.

''Hearings ought to take place every day. When 
the fake passports case, in which (underworld don 
Abu Salem's starlet girlfriend) Monica Bedi is 
one of the accused, can be heard regularly why 
not the criminal case relating to the world's 
worst industrial disaster?'' feels Jabbar.

Mayor Sunil Sood paid homage to the victims of 
dreaded 'Gas Tragedy' on Saturday. Bihar 
Sanskritik Parishhad, BHEL has decided to 
organise a two minutes silence followed by homage 
to the gas victims on December 3 at Saraswati 
Aradhana Kendra, Berkhera. WCR Indian Scouts and 
Guides G.No.1 is going to offer a 'Flowery 
Wreath', followed by two minute silence and 
homage to the gas victims at Shaheed Smarak on 
December 3 at 8:30am. The 22nd anniversary of Gas 
Tragedy would be observed as 'Demand Day' by 
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila & Purush Sangharsh 
Morcha. Member of the Morcha would hang the 
effigy of Warren Anderson and would also present 
a memorandum to the governor, chief minister and 
gas relief minister. Gandhiwadi Jankalyan Samiti 
under the leadership of Kallu Pehlwan is going to 
burn the effigy of Warren Anderson at Itwara 
Square on December 3 at 11:00am. After paying 
homage to the gas victims, food would also be 
provided to the poor. Shiv Sena offered homage to 
the gas victims at Bhawani Chowk premises on 
Saturday. The party workers also burnt the effigy 
of Warren Anderson. Sena demanded that 22 years 
have passed and union government has not 
fulfilled its promises.



_____


[4]  Hindutva at work in Karnataka:

Turning Bababudangiri into Ayodhya
News and Reports


Is Chikamagalur turning into South India's Ayodhya?
Priyanjana Dutta (CNN-IBN , December 03, 2006)
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/12/is-chikamagalur-turning-into-s-indias.html

SIMMERING TENSION: The Sangh Parivar wants to 
hold a Shobha Yatra despite it being banned by HC.
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/27599/is-chikamagalur-turning-into-s-indias-ayodhya.html

VHP, Bajrang Dal take out Shoba Yatra
Komu Souharda Vedike activists arrested in Chikmagalur
http://www.hindu.com/2006/12/03/stories/2006120307440400.htm

  Action - Alert: Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike 
activists arrested for fighting communalists in 
Karnataka
Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2006 19:57:39 +0530
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/12/action-alert-karnataka-komu-souharda.html

BJP carries out Shobha Yatra amid concerns
Maya Sharma
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/12/bjp-carries-out-shobha-yatra-amid.html

BJP's Shobha yatra runs into controversy
NDTV Correspondent
Saturday, December 2, 2006 (Chikmagalur):
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/12/bjp-carries-out-shobha-yatra-amid.html

The Hindu, Nov 11, 2006
Hindu Sena to hold Datta Jayanti on December 4
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/11/karnataka-hindu-sena-to-hold-datta.html

HindustanTimes.com » States » Karnataka » Story
Ties between ruling JD(S), BJP in K'taka under strain
by Shekhar Iyer
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/10/ties-between-ruling-jds-bjp-in.html

JD (S) leaders plan meet against Gowda
http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/26/stories/2006112603840800.htm

Deve Gowda swears by secularism
by Muralidhara Khajane and Laiqh A. Khan
http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/26/stories/2006112603850800.htm

Liberation  November 2006
Communal Frenzy in Coastal Karnataka
by Dr V.Lakshminarayana
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/11/communal-frenzy-in-coastal-karnataka.html

Mangalore 'Riots'
by Nalini Taneja
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/10/mangalore-riots.html

o o o

The Indian Express
February 03, 2006
	 						 
Saffron spread
BJP has used its UP strategies to rise in Karnataka. Will it be different now?

by Pamela Philipose

Politics in Karnataka could be the script for a 
fine Yakshagana performance. The angst of a 
wronged father confronting a wayward son who 
threatens to squander a carefully constructed 
political legacy, has mythological resonances 
that will long echo through the capacious 
corridors of Bangalore's Vidhana Soudha. H.D. 
Deve Gowda knows well the price the Janata Dal - 
which flags the word 'secular' as part of its 
nomenclature - will have to pay for son H.D. 
Kumaraswamy's pact with the BJP. He sees it for 
what it is: political suicide.

The BJP's ascent to governance in Karnataka - if 
things go according to plan - will see the 
emergence of a bipolar polity in the state. It 
will also mean an end to the Janata Dal, as we 
know it, 12 short years after its big moment when 
various factions led by strongmen H.D. Deve 
Gowda, S.R. Bommai and R.K. Hedge fought 
elections together and gave the state its first 
Janata Dal government. For the BJP, breaking the 
south-of-the-Vindhyas barrier will come as a 
major psychological boost - the culmination of 16 
years of concerted labour.

While covering the 1991 General Election in the 
state, I could distinctly discern the saffron 
tint in the air. The Congress, which until then 
had enjoyed unchallenged suzerainty in the state, 
had trouble even in encashing politically the 
sympathy generated by Rajiv Gandhi's 
assassination. I remember speaking at that point 
to the erstwhile maharaja of Mysore, 
Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, who had 
deserted the Congress for the BJP. He believed 
that time was on the BJP's side: "The youth are 
the moving force today, and they are supportive 
of the Hindutva cause. The Rajmata may have 
invited me to join the party, but I am convinced 
about the BJP's politics. I am a practicing Hindu 
and the Congress Party's policy of minority 
appeasement was too much." He subsequently found 
it more advantageous to return to the Congress, 
but there was no denying the political frisson he 
had referred to. That election saw the BJP emerge 
with four seats in Karnataka - a first in the 
south - and, more significantly, 29 per cent of 
the votes. In '89, it could secure only 2.6 per 
cent of votes!

How did this happen in a state that had witnessed 
the Congress's one-party dominance ever since its 
birth? The cynical and corrupt politics of the 
Congress certainly helped, but without doubt 
Karnataka was the most receptive among the four 
southern states to the passions unleashed by the 
Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The Sangh Parivar's 
Rama Jyothi processions introduced a new dynamic 
into local politics as a string of riots, in 
towns like Ramnagaram, Channapatna, Kolar, 
Devangere, erupted in September-October '90. In 
Mangalore, Congress's Janardhana Poojary who won 
election after election by cleverly posing as the 
'Poojary of the poor', bit the dust in that 
election. The BJP's V. Dhananjaya Kumar, 
buttressed by vocal support from local temple 
trusts and pilgrim centres, like the influential 
Pejavar Mutt and the Shree Kshetra Dharmasthal, 
defeated him by 35,000 votes.

Over the next decade the BJP consolidated its 
hold in three pockets of the state: the coastal 
belt, the Bombay-Karnataka and the 
Hyderabad-Karnataka regions. There is a popular 
misconception that the BJP's politics in the 
south is markedly different to its north Indian 
variant. The fact is that the party's political 
strategy - the "exclusion-inclusion" paradigm - 
was essentially the same in Karnataka, as in UP. 
It played the Hindu card and deepened communal 
divides in the state, while working for a 
homogeneous Hindutva identity by melding together 
disparate caste groups.

To help in polarising the state along communal 
lines, the Karnataka BJP threw itself into the 
Idgah Maidan campaign in Hubli, with some help 
from national leaders. In 1992, during Murli 
Manohar Joshi's Ekta Yatra, local party workers 
attempted to hoist the flag in the Maidan to 
contest the ownership rights of the 
Anjuman-e-Islam. The party persisted with the 
campaign for the next two years, through episodes 
of rioting and deaths in police firing. Even 
after the Anjuman-e-Islam authorities defused the 
issue by themselves deciding to hoist the 
national flag, the Sangh Parivar continued to 
target the Idgah Maidan, making Hubli something 
of a communal hotspot. Its exertions saw a rise 
in local profile. By 2002, a party that had no 
presence in the Hubli corporation ten years 
earlier, had come to occupy 40 per cent of its 
seats. The conscious search for an Ayodhya-like 
flashpoint, also saw the Sangh Parivar home in on 
the Guru Dattatreya Baba Budangiri Swamy dargah, 
near Chikmagalur. In December 2003, the 
VHP-Bajrang Dal attempted to "liberate" the 
dargah with notables like Pravin Togadia and 
Sadhvi Ritambara providing the required 
soundbites. The state BJP participated in this 
campaign with great enthusiasm.

If "exclusion" required the services of the 
stormtroopers, "inclusion" demanded intense 
community networking. It was along the coastal 
belt that attempts to construct a homogeneous 
Hindutva identity proved most successful. Two 
factors worked in its favour there. The first was 
the presence of a disciplined RSS cadre. Ram 
Madhav, RSS spokesperson, is on record for having 
noted that the Dakshina Kannada district had 
become one of the strongholds of the RSS because 
in at least 300 places shakas have been running 
at least two programmes each. These included 
civic interventions like promoting village 
cleanliness, temple maintenance, water 
purification, the creation of self-help and 
knowledge dissemination groups. The powerful 
mutts and temples that dot the Mangalore-Udipi 
region were sites of community bonding around 
festivals, bhajan sessions, and locally convened 
Hindu Samajosavas. In these activities, the lower 
castes - which in an earlier era had been kept at 
a distance - were consciously wooed. Such 
activities and institutions worked as force 
multipliers for the BJP. At the political level 
the party kept itself open to anyone willing to 
do business with it. If Ramakrishna Hegde had 
helped it consolidate the Brahmin-Lingayat vote, 
winning over S. Bangarappa (albeit for a short 
spell), broadened its appeal among the Idigas.

This strategy of inclusion-exclusion has paid the 
party rich dividends in Karnataka, where surveys 
indicate that the party now enjoys considerable 
support from SC/STs and OBCs in the state. The 
BJP's biggest problem so far had been its 
inability to make that final leap to power and 
thus keep its restive flock intact. Kumaraswamy 
may have just solved that dilemma - for the time 
being, at least.

_____


[5]

Magazine Section / The Hindu
December 3, 2006

The Hindu Rashtra and its exclusions

Rejecting secularism: Celebrating Golwalkar's 
birth centenary in Bhopal. Photo: A.M. Faruqui

MADHAV SADASHIV GOLWALKAR, the chief mentor and 
ideologue of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh 
(RSS) for 33 years, believed that freedom in 1947 
had left two significant issues unresolved. The 
first was the question of the relations between 
various communities. The resolution of this 
problem, Golwalkar felt, was closely linked to a 
second question, namely, that of defining the 
idea of `pure' nationalism. For him, the idea of 
nationalism and nationhood had not even been born 
in this country.

Title of `ownership'

In sharp contrast to what Golwalkar and the RSS 
regarded as the prevailing misguided notions of 
the nation, the Sangh's founder, Dr. K.B. 
Hedgewar, had come to the conclusion that an 
ancient country like India with a unified past 
ought to be a nation. He realised, says 
Golwalkar, that from the very beginning this land 
was a Hindu nation, not the `patchwork quilt' 
that the Congress had envisioned. The nation had 
to be founded on the basis of reviving Hindu 
culture and forging unity on the basis of culture.

Having rejected the secular foundations of free 
India and ridiculed the substance of the freedom 
won in 1947, Golwalkar proceeds to establishing a 
clear title of `ownership' of the nation for the 
Hindus. He exhorted the Hindus to emphatically 
claim that they represented the very roots of 
this land, that they constituted its primary and 
only component. The very existence of this 
nation, he adds, is the responsibility of Hindu 
society.

Establishing the primacy of the Hindus was 
relatively simple. Golwalkar's story begins a 
thousand years ago, when, according to him, there 
was no one in this country other than Hindus. Of 
course, there were many sects, denominations, 
languages, castes and kingdoms, but all of these 
were Hindu. The Shakas, the Huns and the Greeks 
came, but they had to become Hindus. They failed 
to contaminate and corrupt Hindu society. Rather, 
Hindu society managed to absorb them completely. 
The situation was very different now. Hindus have 
had to share their land with other religions and 
communities.

Defining a `Hindu' was a far more complex task. A 
Hindu is one, Golwalkar explains, who believes in 
`our' historical tradition, who reveres `our' 
great men, and who has faith in `our' principles 
of life. Here, the possessive adjective `our' 
stands for Golwalkar's idea of a historically 
eternal, though momentarily fractured, Hindu 
society.

Acutely aware that confining the Hindu Rashtra to 
Hindus alone would invite charges of narrowness 
and communalism, Golwalkar rejects such charges 
as a sign of lack of clarity and residual 
slavishness. For him, there was one truth and 
this truth had to be announced to the world 
loudly and clearly: Hindus represent the idea of 
the national in this country. Whether other 
communities remained in the country or not was 
neither his concern nor that of the Sangh.

Clear exposition

In recent years, the Sangh and its affiliates 
have argued that the term `Hindu' indicates a 
civilisational sense rather than a religious one. 
This contradicts Golwalkar's clear exposition of 
Hindu Rashtra and its composition. He was 
emphatic that the word `Hindu' was not a generic 
term.

Savarkar had defined Hindutva in terms of 
fidelity to Pitrabhu (Fatherland), Matribhu 
(Motherland) and Punyabhu (Holy Land). Golwalkar 
incorporates the classification offered by 
Savarkar, and adds three more elements to it. For 
him, the Hindu Rashtra was punyabhoomi, 
matribhoomi, pitrubhoomi, dharmabhoomi or the 
land of one's pieties, karmabhoomi or the land of 
one's actions, and mokshabhoomi or the land of 
one's salvation. The Motherland was Bharatmata, 
and she was the mother of the Hindus. Anyone who 
forcibly enters her `house' cannot be a `son' of 
the Motherland. As such, Golwalkar insisted, it 
was important for Hindu society to understand 
that Muslims and Christians were enemies.

No friendship

Golwalkar's ire was usually directed towards the 
Muslims, but he often included Christians in his 
construction of a rogues' gallery. The question 
of treating them as friends did not arise. Only 
the Hindus, who were the progeny of this land, 
could be masters of this nation. Muslims and 
Christians could never be either children or 
masters of the nation because they were 
attackers. Those who have converted to Islam and 
Christianity, he asserts, have not merely altered 
their form of worship. They had also forsaken 
their religion, society and national life. The 
Muslims had even encroached on the territories of 
Hindustan and had cut the Motherland into pieces. 
For this reason alone, they could not even be 
considered `national'.

What if the Muslims and Christians were to reject 
Golwalkar's vision of the Hindu Rashtra and not 
call themselves Hindu? Golwalkar was categorical 
that all those Muslims and Christians, whose 
ancestors were Hindu, must abandon their newly 
acquired faiths and return to the Hindu fold. If 
they failed to comply, Hindus ought to follow the 
example of Vikramaditya. He avenged his father's 
murder by organising a formidable strength and 
drove the aliens out of this land. There were 
other inspirations to follow in the matter of 
dealing with desecration of the Motherland. 
Parashuram avenged his father's humiliation by 
offering him libations of blood of those who had 
insulted him. Likewise, the only way to worship 
the Motherland after she had been defiled, warns 
Golwalkar, would be to wash it with the blood of 
those who dared commit such an act.

JYOTIRMAYA SHARMA



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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
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