SACW | Jan.24-26, 2007
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Thu Jan 25 18:34:10 CST 2007
South Asia Citizens Wire | January 24-26, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2353 - Year 8
[1] Sri Lanka: Government Complicit in Forced
Recruitment of Young Tamils (HRW Press Release)
[2] Pakistan: All ritual, nil spiritual (Razi Azmi)
[3] India - Madhya Pradesh: Hindutva at School
(i) Daily Ritual (Editorial, The Telegraph)
(ii) Sun salute can't be forced: High Court (News report)
[4] India: Gujarat Hang Your Head In Shame ! (Press Release, Prashant)
[5] India: Letter re Denial of visa by the India
to theatre group from Pakistan (Sandeep Pandey)
[6] India: Sign-On To Help Protect Access To Affordable Medicines!!
[7] UK: Anti-racism has to go beyond a facile
representation game (Priyamvada Gopal)
[8] Upcoming Events:
Workshop: Towards an All-India "Citizens
Campaign: Implement Sachar Committee's
Recommendations" (Bombay, 27-28 January 2007)
____
[1]
Human Rights Watch
24 January 2007
Press Release
SRI LANKA: KARUNA GROUP ABDUCTS CHILDREN FOR COMBAT
GOVERNMENT COMPLICIT IN FORCED RECRUITMENT OF YOUNG TAMILS
(New York, January 24, 2007) - With the
complicity or willful blindness of the Sri Lankan
government, the Karuna group has abducted and
forcibly recruited hundreds of children in
eastern Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said in a
report released today.
The Karuna group, led by V. Muralitharan, a.k.a.
Karuna, a former commander with the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), split from the
Tamil Tigers in 2004 and now cooperates with the
Sri Lankan military in their common fight against
the LTTE.
In the new 100-page report, "Complicit in Crime:
State Collusion in Abductions and Child
Recruitment by the Karuna Group," Human Rights
Watch documents a pattern of abductions and
forced recruitment by the Karuna group over the
past year. With case studies, maps and
photographs, it shows how Karuna cadres operate
with impunity in government-controlled areas,
abducting boys and young men, training them in
camps, and deploying them for combat.
"The Karuna group is abducting children in broad
daylight in areas firmly under government
control," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human
Rights Watch. "The government is fully aware of
the abductions but allows them to happen because
it's eager for an ally against the Tamil Tigers."
Based on research in Sri Lanka, including areas
where the Karuna group operates, the report
features testimony from two dozen family members
of boys and young men abducted by the Karuna
group. They described armed Karuna members
forcibly taking their brothers, nephews and sons
from their homes, workplaces, temples,
playgrounds, public roads, and even a wedding.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has
documented more than 200 cases of child
recruitment by the Karuna group in Sri Lanka's
eastern districts, where the group is active. But
the real number is certainly much higher due to
underreporting.
Children are not the only targets. Human Rights
Watch found that the Karuna group has abducted
and forcibly recruited hundreds of young men
between ages 18 and 30. Human Rights Watch knows
of only two cases in which the Karuna group
abducted girls. It generally targets poor
families, and often those who have already had a
child recruited by the Tamil Tigers.
At least since June 2006, and probably before,
the Sri Lankan government has known about the
Karuna abductions. The districts of the east
where they have taken place are firmly under
government control, with myriad military and
police checkpoints and security force camps.
"After years of condemning child recruitment by
the Tamil Tigers, the government is now complicit
in the same crimes," said Jo Becker, child rights
advocate at Human Rights Watch, who has written
extensively about the Tamil Tigers. "The
government's collusion on child abductions by the
Karuna group highlights its hypocrisy."
In one incident in June 2006, the Karuna group
abducted 13 boys and young men, holding some of
them for a while in a shop across the street from
an army post. Some of the parents pleaded with
the soldiers to intervene. Two soldiers spoke
with the Karuna group members, parents told Human
Rights Watch, but the soldiers did not stop the
abduction.
On the same day in another village, soldiers from
the Sri Lankan army gathered seven boys and young
men in a field, checked their IDs, and took their
photographs. Members of the Karuna group arrived
that night and abducted four of the seven,
although it remains unclear in this instance
whether the army forces were deliberately acting
in collusion with the Karuna group.
After abducting boys and young men, the Karuna
group often holds them temporarily in the nearest
office of its political party, the Tamil Makkal
Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), which are routinely
guarded by the Sri Lankan military or police.
Parents told Human Rights Watch that they either
saw their abducted sons in these offices or TMVP
officials confirmed to families that they had
been there.
After a few days, the Karuna group usually
transfers abductees to one of its camps in the
jungle about 10 kilometers northwest of Welikanda
town in the Polonnaruwa district, about 50
kilometers northwest of Batticaloa town.
Welikanda is where the Sri Lankan Army's 23rd
division has its base. The area is firmly under
government control, as is the main A11 road from
the eastern districts to the Welikanda area.
Travel through the area necessitates passing
through numerous army and police checkpoints, and
transporting abducted youth to the camps would
have been impossible without the complicity of
government security forces. The Karuna camp at
Mutugalla village is near a Sri Lankan army post.
"Not only do government forces fail to stop the
abductions, but they allow the Karuna group to
transport kidnapped children through checkpoints
on the way to their camps," Becker said.
Human Rights Watch said that the Sri Lankan
police are also complicit in their unwillingness
to seriously investigate complaints filed by the
parents of abducted boys and young men. In some
cases, the police reportedly refused to register
parents' complaints. In other cases, the police
registered the complaint but failed to undertake
what the family considered a proper
investigation. In no known case did the police
secure the child's release.
In a November interview with Human Rights Watch,
Karuna denied allegations that his forces were
abducting or recruiting children. He said his
forces had no members under age 20, and that they
would discipline any commander who tried to
recruit a person under that age. He subsequently
made commitments to the UN to issue policy
statements banning child recruitment, to release
any child found among the Karuna group's ranks,
and to provide UNICEF with access to his camps.
On January 2, 2007, the TMVP, Karuna's political
party, provided UNICEF with regulations for its
military wing, stating 18 as the minimum age for
recruitment, and specifying penalties for members
who conscript children.
There is no sign yet that these commitments are
being honored. Local human rights activists and
international agencies report that the Karuna
group continued to abduct boys and young men in
November and December 2006.
In November, after UN envoy Allan Rock raised
allegations of government complicity in Karuna
abductions, the Sri Lankan government promised an
investigation. Instead, government and military
officials launched attacks against Rock's
credibility.
"The government must stop making excuses and
launch a serious and impartial investigation of
government complicity in Karuna crimes," Adams
said. "If the government won't investigate, then
it must allow an independent, international
inquiry."
The LTTE has long abducted children into its
forces, and used them as infantry soldiers,
intelligence officers, medics, and even suicide
bombers. Human Rights Watch documented the
practice in a 2004 report, "Living in Fear: Child
Soldiers and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka."
The new report includes updated information on
Tamil Tiger child abductions and urges the UN to
impose targeted sanctions on the group because of
its status as a repeat offender. The UN should
insist that the Karuna group immediately adopt
and implement an action plan to end all
recruitment and use of child soldiers, and
consider targeted sanctions if it fails to do so,
Human Rights Watch said.
On February 9, a UN Security Council working
group on children and armed conflict is scheduled
to consider reported violations against children
by all parties to Sri Lanka's armed conflict. The
working group will make recommendations for
Security Council action.
In the meantime, Human Rights Watch called on the
Tamil Tigers, the Karuna group, and the Sri
Lankan government to stop the recruitment of
children. The Karuna group and the Tamil Tigers
should immediately release all children among
their ranks.
____
[2]
The Daily Times
January 25, 2007
ALL RITUAL, NIL SPIRITUAL
by Razi Azmi
My last week's column ("Ostentatious piety",
January 18) was one of the least thought out,
being written on the spur of the moment, that
spur being Ejaz Haider's "Piously uncivil"
(January 7). However, it has attracted some very
serious comments, a couple of which I feel I
should share with readers.
Here's one from a New Yorker: "Thank you for
putting in print something I've been saying to my
family and friends for years. I'm an
American-born Muslim woman of Pakistani descent.
My parents come from the pre-Zia generation of
which you speak, and they've managed to hang onto
much of the open-mindedness of that time. My life
as a professional and independent woman is a
testament to their willingness to be open-minded
by not stifling my aspirations, though they
disagreed with the path I chose at many points.
"Having said that though, they are not immune to
the effects of the all-ritual version of Islam
that everyone seems to practise. This is also
reinforced through a divide in my own generation
of siblings/cousins, of whom some are very
ritual-focused (though still worldly in most
aspects). The result is a long series of debates
on rituals vs. spirituality/ 'doing good work'.
Unfortunately, there is very little popular and
accessible interpretation or literature to
support the spirituality/good work side of the
argument."
A Muslim from Indonesia has written that, in his
country, blood supplies run critically low during
the fasting month of Ramzan. As a result, the Red
Cross is constrained to appeal to non-Muslims in
churches and temples to attract donors. In the
holy month, which should be characterised by
compassion and humanity, Muslims choose to
conserve rather than donate their blood to save
human lives. As to abstinence during the fasting
month, we all know that overall consumption of
foodstuff increases in this month throughout the
Muslim world.
The same writer also complains that, in the town
where he lives, there is a hospital called
Islamic Hospital, where only male nurses serve
male patients. Often, there are no nurses to
serve the patients as they disappear for their
five daily prayers or the Friday prayers. "No one
dares to question such predicaments; as the
excuse is religion, everyone bears this silently
and patiently." He asks, "Does Islam teach this
behaviour? As a layman I am really at a loss."
Speaking of rituals vs spirituality and 'good
work', the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) deserves
particular mention, as it puts the greatest
emphasis on rituals in the thin garb of
spirituality. TJ propagates and emphasises little
more than a highly ritualistic application of
Islam. After all, there is nothing spiritual
about repetitive group discussions on the
importance of faith and such of its
manifestations as the correct way to pray, fast,
eat, etc.
By far the most poignant example of a ritualistic
- and thoughtless - application of Islam today is
to be seen on Eid-ul-Azha. The columnist Ardeshir
Cowasjee writes from his native and beloved
Karachi:
"Since we cannot escape the live show of a city
converted into one vast slaughterhouse, one
wonders why sections of the press show
photographs of animals in their death throes, and
of rows of dead animals lined up along the inner
city streets? Is it to amuse and entertain, or to
shock, to make us think and do something about
it?"
The Eid-ul-Azha has been reduced to a great
gae-and-bakra (cow and goat) show. On this
occasion, an animal must be sacrificed, whether
the other stipulations of Islam are followed or
not, in either letter or spirit, and whether or
not one can really afford it. The higher one's
status in society, real or claimed, the bigger
and more handsome the sacrificial animal ought to
be. It must be paraded before envious neighbours
for as long as possible before the butcher gets
down to business. Newspapers publish photos of
the most expensive animals, which are colourfully
decorated.
The 'sacrifice' accomplished, a part of the meat
is distributed among relatives, neighbours and
friends, nearly all of whom have ample supplies
of their own anyway. Mostly it is a case of meat
being exchanged. Every home, save those of the
very poor, resembles a butcher's shop. The poor
and the needy get some handouts, too, but they
come last in terms of both the quantity and the
quality of the cuts received.
One reader of my last column has drawn my
attention to Surah Al-Ma'un (Alms: 107) in the
Quran: "Have you thought of him that denies the
Last Judgment? It is he who turns away the orphan
and has no urge to feed the destitute. Woe betide
those who pray but are heedless in their prayer;
who make a show of piety and forbid almsgiving"
(translation by NJ Dawood).
Pakistanis are extremely generous with their
money when it comes to the building of mosques
and madrassas, but very tight-fisted in making
donations for schools and clinics, funding
scholarships or promoting research. They supply
mounds of food to feed professional parasites at
religious shrines, but care little about the
shelters operated by NGOs for the handicapped,
the poor and the victims of domestic violence.
Pakistan's best-known social worker, Abdus Sattar
Edhi, writes in his autobiography that, speaking
to a group of Pakistanis in the US who had
invited him to inaugurate a newly-constructed
mosque, he said: "You have spent four and a half
million dollars towards a mosque when another
stands just one-and-a-half kilometres away.
Re-evaluate your priorities and your
responsibilities."
It is increasingly common these days for parents
to throw lavish parties when their children
commence the reading of the Quran and again when
they finish (Bismillah and Ameen). Many a woman's
very scarce spare time after endless household
chores is consumed in attending milads and Quran
reading-cum-prayer sessions for any number of
reasons, from curing the sick to wishing paradise
for the dead.
Every spoken sentence must now be interspersed
with insha'Allah, masha'Allah, alhamd-o-lillah,
subhan Allah, etc. Woe to anyone who says to
another as a compliment: "you live in a nice
house", or "you got a beautiful child", or
"that's a fine car you bought" without a
reference to Allah. It is feared that such a
grave omission on the part of the admirer will
invite Allah's wrath, not on him but on the
object of his or her compliment. A good example
of this trend is any press conference by our
cricket captain, the inimitable Inzamam-ul Haque.
In Russia in the second half of the 17th century,
certain innovations in rituals and practices
introduced by officials led to a schism in the
Orthodox Church. Many Russians refused to accept
these innovations, calling them heretical. Known
as Old Believers, they faced persecution, and
many fled to the forests. The new practices to
which they objected so strongly were the
introduction of three fingers for the cross
(instead of the traditional two), direction of
procession (counter-sunwise instead of sunwise),
the chanting of halleluja three times (instead of
two) and the slightly altered spelling (in
Russian) of Jesus.
Many Muslims of today only physically exist in
the 21st century. Mentally, they belong to the
17th century or earlier, putting ritual before
spiritual and form before substance in matters
concerning religion.
_____
[3] HINDUTVA AT SCHOOL
(i)
The Telegraph
January 26, 2007
Editorial
DAILY RITUAL
Cows and children's well-being have always
obsessively concerned the Bharatiya Janata Party
government in Madhya Pradesh. While the former
now invite less attention from the state,
following the fall from grace of their chief
advocate, the young have no such respite. It is
to assist the flowering of the patriotic fervour
in them that the government recently decided to
remove nursery rhymes written by 'foreigners'
from the school syllabi. The same thoughtfulness
on the part of the chief minister, Mr Shivraj
Singh Chauhan, has prompted his government to
include surya namaskar or the early-morning sun
salute as a mandatory part of the curriculum.
Large sections of the population in the state,
wary of the saffron government's intentions, have
naturally disputed the imposition of this
so-called health regimen. The high court, by
declaring in an interim order that the programme
could not be made compulsory for all, has only
taken cognizance of the directive's potential to
hurt religious sentiments and cause social
disruption.
The Madhya Pradesh government may refute
allegations of bias in its sudden motivation to
force children out of bed early, but it is
unlikely to have too many willing to buy that
claim. Its repeated directives to schools and
offices - making the singing of Vande Mataram
compulsory, the lifting of the ban on civil
servants' participation in sangh activities, its
recent anti-conversion drive - all point to its
single-minded agenda of Hinduization. Children in
Madhya Pradesh's schools do need the attention of
the government. But instead of manipulating the
syllabi, extending school holidays to accommodate
Hindu festivals or telling students what they
should sing and when, the government would serve
their interests better if it got them more
trained teachers and more classrooms to study in.
Perhaps the government should also consider if
education needs to be made a joyless chore of
ritual learning.
o o o
(ii)
The Telegraph
January 25, 2007
SUN SALUTE CAN'T BE FORCED: HC
Our Special Correspondent
Prayer Row
Bhopal, Jan. 24: Jabalpur High Court dealt a blow
to the BJP regime today when it ruled that
participation in mass surya namaskar should be
voluntary for students.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, however,
said his government would go ahead with the
controversial programme tomorrow, which is
expected to be attended by over three lakh school
and college students.
Muslim and Christian organisations, while
welcoming the high court's interim order, said
they would organise a protest in Bhopal at 11 am
to coincide with the official launch of the
programme in the state capital.
State education minister Narottam Mishra said
participation in the programme was "voluntary",
but that isn't what his ministry's communication
sent to all schools and colleges mentioned.
The missive threatened disciplinary action
against students playing truant. When this was
shown to Mishra, he brushed it off as "routine"
wording. Otherwise, no one would show up, the
minister said.
In the high court today, state advocate-general
Rabinandan Singh claimed that the circular issued
on January 18 had made it clear that the surya
namaskar programme would be voluntary and not
mandatory.
A division bench of Chief Justice A.K. Patnaik
and Justice R.S. Jha, hearing a petition filed by
some Muslim organisations, passed an interim
order that only those who want to should attend
the programme.
Arguing on behalf of the petitioners - the Jamait
Ulema-e-Hind and the Bharatiya Muslim Sangh -
their counsel contended that recital of mantras
during the programme would hurt the religious
feelings of minorities. Saying the programme was
against the spirit of the Constitution, they
alleged that it was aimed at promoting saffron
ideology.
The bench told the state government that no
individual or institution must be forced to take
part in the programme. It also issued a notice
asking the government to reply within four weeks
to the petitioners' arguments.
In Delhi, Chauhan said surya namaskar was part of
his government's "health for all" programme. He
added that soon a "yoga policy" would be
launched. His government has sought the services
of Baba Ramdev to promote yoga in the state.
The surya namaskar protest saw Christian
organisations joining hands with Muslim and
secular groups.
The Catholic Church in Bhopal has announced that
it will boycott the "Hindu religious practice".
Archbishop Pascal Topno has instructed all
missionary schools in Madhya Pradesh not to send
their students to the programme.
"Why should we send them there? I think it is
clearly a Hindu practice, and definitely not
secular, and it should not be imposed on other
communities. We are one with the Muslim community
on this issue," the archbishop said.
The spokesperson of the Madhya Pradesh Bishops'
Council, Father Anand Muttungal, echoed him. "We
welcome the high court order. The government's
move was aimed at dividing the community on the
basis of religion, and even the children would
have been affected by this," he said.
_____
[4]
Prashant
Post Box No. 4050, Navrangpura,
Ahmedabad 380 009, Gujarat, India
Tel. : +91 (079) 66522333, 2745 5913
. Fax : +91 (079) 2748 9018, 2630 1362
Mobile : 9824034536 . e-mail :
sjprashant at gmail.com .
www.humanrightsindia.in
PRESS NOTE
GUJARAT HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME !
We are given to understand that 'PARZANIA' the
highly emotional film of a young Parsee boy lost
during the Gujarat Carnage of 2002, and due to be
released all over the country on January 26th,
may not be screened in Ahmedabad and other cities
of Gujarat.
This is apparently because certain fascist and
fundamental forces have warned film distributors
and theatre owners of dire consequences if the
film is screened.
Rahul Dholakia, the film director, very
categorically states that the film is about
"anti-hate and compassion"....of a tragedy that
should not visit anyone, anytime, anywhere.
January 26th reminds us of our Constitutions. In
keeping with the Freedoms which are guaranteed in
the Constitutions, the Government of Gujarat is
duty-bound to ensure that the film is released
and citizens who wish to see it have a right to
do so.
Citizens from all walks of life must now openly
come out and protest against those fundamentalist
and fascist forces who continue to control our
lives.
An indicator of Gujarat's so-called "Vibrancy"
will be, if citizens are able to watch this film
without fear or hindrance.
If not, Gujarat must hang itself in shame !
Fr. Cedric Prakash sj
for and on behalf of several concerned citizens
and human rights activists
25th January 2007
_____
[5]
To: Shri Sriprakash Jaiswal
State Minister for Home Affairs
Government of India, New Delhi
Dated: 25th January, 2007
From: Dr Sandeep Pandey
Social Activist
A-893, Indira Nagar, Lucknow-226016
Telephone: 0522-2347365, Mobile: 9415022772
Email: ashaashram at yahoo.com
Re: Denial of visa by the India High Commission
in Islamabad to the Tehrik-e-Niswan theatre group
from Pakistan.
Respected Shri Sriprakash Jaiswal ji,
You may remember that Women’s Initiative for
Peace in South Asia (WIPSA) had invited
Tehrik-e-Niswan theatre group from Pakistan to
participate in a South Asia festival in November
2005 in Lucknow, Varanasi and Bhubneshwar. Two of
the organizers, Meera Khanna and Monisha
Bannerjee Gill humiliated this group in Lucknow
just because it went and performed at a
conference of Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament
and Peace – a group of Indian peace activists,
which happened to be going on at the same time in
Lucknow, accusing them of accepting money to
perform. The WIPSA organizers told
Tehrik-e-Niswan that they were in India on a
‘WIPSA Visa’ and did not have the freedom to
perform anywhere else. The WIPSA organizers were
also perturbed by the fact that the play
performed by Tehrik-e-Niswan was anti-American,
given the fact that their South Asia festival was
funded by the Ford Foundation.
Meera Khanna and Monisha Bannerjee
Gill ordered the group to go back to Pakistan and
did not invite them to Varanasi and Bhubneshwar.
When the group arrived in Delhi they were asked
by the Chandiwala Estate Guest House, where they
were staying, to move out in the middle of the
night because somebody had put pressure on the
Guest House. I had sought your help then for the
dignified exit of this group from India. Nirmala
Deshpande ji and Saeeda Hamid ji decided to
resign as President and Vice-President,
respectively, of WIPSA because of this
humiliation of Pakistani group by their
colleagues.
This group was invited recently by
Shri Asghar Ali Engineer to participate in a
Peace Festival in Mumbai. When they went to apply
for getting their visas, they were told by the
Indian High Commission in Islamabad that there
was a complaint against them by WIPSA and they
could not visit India again without a clearance
from the Home Ministry.
I'm amazed how much power these two
women - Meera Khanna and Monisha Bannerjee Gill -
are wielding that they have been able to
influence the Indian High Commission in Islamabad
to not allow Tehrik-e-Niswan, a cultural group,
entry into India. Instead of working for peace,
WIPSA seems to have an agenda of vendetta and
victimization.
Please intervene and remove any
restrictions placed on the following nine members
of Tehrik-e-Niswan, all citizens of Pakistan, so
that they may get to visit India. I know all of
them personally and Sheema Kermani has played a
very important role in strengthening the
people-to-people process of peace and friendship
between India and Pakistan both as an artist as
well as an activist.
S.N.
Name
Sex
Date of Birth
Passport No.
Date of Issue
Date of Expiry
1.
Sheema Kermani
F
16/1/1951
KE334208
7/9/04
26/9/07
2.
Shazia
F
22/2/1980
KC824172
12/11/03
11/11/08
3.
Muhammad Salim
M
23/1/1971
AD5758291
12/8/05
11/8/10
4.
Muhammad Saife
M
4/10/1969
AB6803051
10/2/05
9/2/10
5.
Asma Mundrawala
F
15/8/1965
AA0770001
10/2/05
9/2/10
6.
Mahvash Faruqi
F
1/12/1968
AN8968581
5/6/06
4/6/11
7.
Shama Askari
F
4/12/1966
AA1860081
24/11/04
23/11/09
8.
Anwer Hussain Jafri
M
1/12/1948
KB255666
2/12/02
1/12/07
9.
Atif
M
11/1/1967
KC522798
11/9/03
10/11/08
I hope the Indian High Commission
in Islamabad would not deny them a visa for
visitng India the next time they apply for it.
Thank You,
Sincerely,
(Sandeep Pandey)
_____
[7]
SIGN-ON TO HELP PROTECT ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE MEDICINES!!
Pharmaceutical company Novartis is taking the
Indian government to court. If the company wins,
millions of people across the globe could have
their sources of affordable medicines dry up.
Novartis was one of the 39 companies that took
the South African government to court five years
ago, in an effort to overturn the country's
medicines act that was designed to bring drug
prices down. Now Novartis is up to it again and
is targeting India.
India produces affordable medicines that are
vital to many people living in developing
countries. Over half the medicines currently used
for AIDS treatment in developing countries come
from India and such medicines are used to treat
over 80% of the 80,000 AIDS patients in Médecins
Sans Frontières projects.
If Novartis is successful in its challenge
against the Indian government and its patent law,
more medicines are likely to be patented in
India, making it very difficult for generic
producers to make affordable versions of them.
This could affect millions of people around the
world who depend on medicines produced in India.
Tell Novartis it has no business standing in the
way of people's right to access the medicines
they need. Sign on and urge Novartis to DROP THE
CASE against the Indian government.
LOG ONTO : <http://www.accessmed-msf.org>www.accessmed-msf.org
or
<http://www.msf.org>www.msf.org
______
[8]
The Guardian
January 25, 2007
ANTI-RACISM HAS TO GO BEYOND A FACILE REPRESENTATION GAME
A proud struggle has been co-opted by cultural
bullies. If we are to rescue it, we must
recognise our complicity in the process
by Priyamvada Gopal
A penitent Jade Goody is off to India to beg
forgiveness for the remarks she made on Celebrity
Big Brother, if yesterday's reports are to be
believed. But neither that, nor her tearful
eviction and encounter with a stern Davina
McCall, nor the weight of media condemnation, is
a triumph for anti-racism. But it does tell us
something about the trivialising of politics and
narrowing of political consciousness. What has
triumphed is an anaemic political correctness
that will eventually undermine real anti-racist
work.
The offensive remarks made on Big Brother
certainly reeked of playground racism and
xenophobia. During my teenage years an English
friend insisted that I smelled of curry. Perhaps
I did and still do. It's a rare Asian kid that
hasn't experienced some form of juvenile
nastiness and worse. Repeatedly referring to
someone as "the Indian" dehumanises them. Shilpa
"Fuckawallah" is not the innocent concoction of
someone straining to recall a surname. It stems
from the complacent carelessness of an ethnic
majority than doesn't need to learn anything
about the minorities in its midst. Many of us
routinely deal with variants of such behaviour in
our daily lives.
For British Asians, the public display of
familiar battles poked at raw wounds, inspiring
large numbers to protest. I would feel a lot more
excited about this apparent resurgence of
anti-racist awareness if recent years had shown
more evidence of a genuine activist spirit among
us. Where were these tens of thousands of
protesting voices when young Zahid Mubarak died
at the hands of a white racist cellmate with whom
he should not have been made to share a cell?
When a few hundred Sikh women protested alone at
discriminatory treatment by British Airways meal
supplier Gate Gourmet? When British Asian Muslims
are confined illegally and tortured in Guantánamo
Bay with the acquiescence of the Blair
government? Why did only a small minority of
British Asians speak up when "Hindu" criminals in
the Indian state of Gujarat, to which many are
linked by familial ties, raped and killed
thousands of Muslims in February 2002 in an
attempt at ethnic cleansing?
Too many of us have been busy unhooking ourselves
from the collective term "British Asians" and
dividing ourselves into Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims,
Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. The terms
"Asian" and "black" were rallying points in the
anti-racist organising of the 70s and 80s,
whereas "British Asians" as a category has been
largely absent from recent political discourse.
Few displayed the outrage CBB has elicited when
institutional racism in police forces was
exposed. I can't help wondering where these angry
voices were when a Sikh playwright, Gurpreet
Bhatti, was bullied by loud voices within her own
community and even subjected to death threats.
Why is racial profiling seen as a Muslim issue?
Where were the custodians of Asian dignity when
crews filming Monica Ali's eponymous novel were
hounded out of Brick Lane? When artist MF
Hussain's exhibition was shut down because of
vandalism by goons apparently representing hurt
Hindu sentiments?
A large part of the problem is that, apart from
the sterling work done by a few dedicated
individuals and organisations, anti-racist
politics has become a facile "representation"
game that involves appeasing the fragile
sensitivities of a vocal few claiming to
represent the whole community. It is about
harassing artists and writers, demanding that
they conform to "right" ways of representing the
community. Meanwhile, India's favourite cultural
pastime is "representing the nation", the very
task Shilpa announced for herself as she entered
the BB compound. As India anxiously finds its
place within the community of big global players
and tries to reconcile its economic successes
with the glaring (and often deepening)
inequalities that still mar its social landscape
and self-image, it is increasingly obsessed with
disseminating the myth of the nation as
fundamentally middle-class, professional and
successful. The task has partly fallen on the
feminine shoulders of India's flourishing glamour
industry.
This anxiety to belong to the global community of
the economically successful explains Shilpa's
repeated protests that she is not from the
"slums" and did not grow up on the "roadside".
For all her disagreements with Jade, they seem to
agree that economic disenfranchisement is a
personal failure. Shilpa understands her task
clearly: to show the world that India is really
about beauty and entrepreneurial success, not
slums and poverty. Losing neither time nor
opportunity, India Tourism brought out a
full-page ad last week in the form of an open
letter to Jade inviting her to experience its
"modern thriving culture", "bustling cosmopolitan
cities and quiet countryside", and "healing spas".
Even more disturbing is the way in which Jade and
her "chav" milieu provide grist for the mill of
self-congratulatory political correctness among
upper-and middle-class white Britons - as though
racism were an exclusively lower-class
phenomenon. If anything, it is even more
entrenched - because unacknowledged - in higher
social echelons, even if it sounds different
murmured over a glass of sherry. Gordon Brown
joined the Game of National Mythologies,
deploring the ways in which Jade and others did
not represent that hackneyed British mantra: a
"nation of tolerance and fairness".
Just as nauseating is the play-off between ugly
white slags and beautiful Indian princesses - a
familiar Orientalist male fantasy. An Independent
editorial described a contest between "the
low-life Ms Goody" and "a pampered Indian
megastar of singular beauty" (that Shilpa is
hardly a megastar is beside the point). Stuart
Jeffries in the Guardian deplored "ugly, thick,
white Britain" and "one imperturbably dignified
Indian woman [displaying] the supposed British
virtues of civility, articulacy and reserve".
Shilpa does deftly combine Orientalist fantasy
and Lord Macaulay's successfully realised
Anglicist project of creating "a class of
persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English"
in other ways.
A national debate on race relations needs to take
place. But it must be more complex than the
simple binaries and easy scapegoating provided by
such mud-wrestling idiocies. All of us must take
a good, hard look at racist practices and our own
complicity in them. Let's have done with the
bullying on all sides.
· Priyamvada Gopal teaches in the English faculty
at Cambridge University and is the author of
Literary Radicalism in India.
______
[7]
Muslims for Secular Democracy
P.O. Box 28253, Juhu Post Office, Mumbai- 400 049
India
YOU ARE INVITED
Two-Day National Workshop
Towards an All-India
"Citizens Campaign: Implement Sachar Committee's Recommendations"
Organised by
Muslims for Secular Democracy (MSD) and Communalism Combat
Venue: Islam Gymkhana, Marine Drive, Mumbai.
Dates: January 27 (Saturday) and January 28 (Sunday), 2007.
Ever since its release, the Sachar
Committee's Report on the socio-economic status
of the Muslim Community in India has generated a
lot of discussion within the community as also
among secular organisations and individuals.
In a nutshell, on the basis of voluminous
data collected by it, the Sachar Committee has
conclusively established that:
-- In the 60 years since Independence,
India's Muslims have been sliding down even as
other Socio-Religious Communities (SRCs) continue
to climb up the development ladder.
-- The community is falling behind not
because of some inherent resistance to
educational and economic progress on its part,
but because it is a victim of neglect and/or
in-built systemic bias both in governmental
institutions and in the private sector.
The Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Mr.
A. R. Antulay, has publicly stated that his
government is sincere in its intentions and
committed to act on the findings and implement
the recommendations of the Committee. Many
Muslims however remain skeptical. They believe
that with elections in the crucial state of UP
around the corner, this is just another political
ploy of the Congress to woo Muslim voters, that
once elections are over the government would
again do nothing. They rightly point out that
even parties that call themselves secular have
done next to nothing in the past in response to
the recommendations of earlier such committees
and commissions.
We too believe that left to itself
governments in fact would do little or nothing to
address the problem of gross neglect and bias.
But we also believe that an active citizenry
could force governmental action.
The success of Citizens for Justice and Peace
in bringing justice to the victims of the Gujarat
Genocide (2002), and the campaign of other social
activists that culminated in the Right to
Information Act are recent reminders that given
commitment and tenacity on the part of civil
society, remedial action is possible through
judicial intervention and/or
legislative/executive action.
MSD and Communalism Combat have two
objectives in mind in organising the proposed
Two-Day workshop:
-- The immediate objective is to increase
public awareness about and promote informed
discussion and debate on the findings and
recommendations of the Sachar Committee;
-- The broader objective is to make a modest
contribution towards the launch of a national
campaign for the implementation of the Sachar
Report.
Venue: Islam Gymkhana, Marine Drive, Mumbai.
Dates: January 27 (Saturday) and January 28 (Sunday).
Themes for the Workshop:
1. Affirmative Action:
The Sachar Report has made a strong case for
affirmative action (in the field of education,
employment, access to credit, infrastructural
facilities and political representation) as the
only means of improving the socio-economic
situation of Muslims. At the same time it points
out that Muslims are not a homogeneous community
but are stratified in three distinct groups:
ashraf, ajlaf and arzals. The Report argues for
the need for group-specific affirmative action
plans for the three socio-economic groups among
Muslims.
While the need for affirmative action is
widely recognised, opinion remains divided even
among Muslims over the forms it should take. Some
argue for religion-based reservation. Others are
strongly opposed to this both on grounds of
principle (you can't have religion-based
reservations in a secular state) as also on
strategic and tactical grounds (the
relatively-better placed ashraf would corner all
the benefits of reservation; religion-based
reservation will fuel the hate politics of the
sangh parivar wiping off any benefit that accrues
to the community).
What would be the most appropriate forms of
affirmative action given the Indian reality?
2. The Gender question:
It is unfortunate that there was no gender
representation in the high-level committee
appointed by the Prime Minister. For this reason
or otherwise, the fact is that the
gender-specific concerns of Muslim women are only
cursorily dealt with by the Sachar Committee. We,
therefore, propose to allot extra-time to this
issue during the consultation. We are happy to be
associated with Awaaz-e-Niswan, a Mumbai-based
Muslim women's group, in conducting this
particular session.
3. The Security Issue:
In its report Sachar Committee observes that
three issues dominate the concerns of a minority
community in any society: identity issues,
security issue, equity issues. While affirming
that the three issues are closely linked to each
other, the Committee has observed that given its
mandate it has remained focussed on equity issues.
Be that as it may, the fact is that
particularly after the Mumbai and Gujarat
carnage, security of life and property has
emerged as the core concern of India's Muslims
and other minorities. Should this not, therefore,
form an integral part of any Muslim/secular
initiative or campaign aimed at improving the lot
of Muslims?
4. Solutions Within:
There are several pointers in the findings
and recommendations of the Committee that could
be the starting point for discussions of
initiatives within the Muslim community itself
that could go a long way in improving the lot of
the community as a whole. We propose a special
session that will have intra-community initiative
as its focus.
5. Towards a National Campaign:
As stated above we believe that left to
themselves, central and state governments, or the
organised private sector are unlikely to
pro-actively implement the Committee's
recommendations. Citizens groups will have to
consider ways and means of launching a sustained
national campaign among other initiatives to see
that action is taken on the Sachar Report.
While a lot of groundwork would be needed
before any effective national campaign can be
launched, we see the proposed consultation as a
part of that process.
Workshop Schedule:
Day One (January 27, 2006): Morning Session:
Introduction
10.00- 10.30: Registration of Participants.
10.30 - 10.40: Welcome Speech, Mr. Gulam Mohd. Peshimam, Convenor, MSD.
10.40 - 10.50: Introductory Remarks, Mr. Javed Akhtar, President, MSD.
10.50 - 11.05: Highlights, Sachar Report, Mr.
Javed Anand, General Secretary, MSD.
11.05 - 11.30: Sachar Report: Vision and
Intent, Dr. T.K. Ooman, Member, Sachar Committee.
11.30 - 11.50: Comments and questions.
11.50 - 12.05: Tea Break
1. Affirmative Action: Education/Employment/Credit/Infrastructure
12.05 - 12.25: Affirmative Action, Diversity
Programmes: The American Experience, Aroosha Rana
& Saad Bukhari, US Consulate Mumbai/Chennai.
12.25 - 12.45: Comments and questions.
12.45 - 1.05: "Reservations for SCs/STs in
India: The Dalit Experience",
Mr. Rajshekhar Vundru, I.A.S.
1.05 - 1.25: Comments and questions.
1.25 - 2.10: Lunch Break
Day One (January 27, 2006): Afternoon Sessions
2.10 - 2.30: "Affirmative Action & Indian Muslims: The Caste Dimension",
Mr. Hasan Kamaal, Advisor, Muslim All Backward Classes (ABC) Association.
2.30 - 2.50: Comments and questions.
2. Leveraging Existing Institutional Provisions
2.50 - 3.10: Constitutional guarantees and
Indian Muslims: How the
National Commission for Minorities can help: Mr.
Syed Hamid Ansari, Chairman, National Commission
for Minorities.
3.10 - 3.30: Comments and questions.
3.30 - 3.45: Tea Break
3.45 - 4.05: Muslim Educational Backwardness
and Role of the State: Prof. Mushirul Hasan, V-C,
Jamia Millia, Delhi.
4.05 - 4.25: Comments and questions.
3. Right To Life and Property: Paper Promises
4.25 - 4.45: Violence (Mob/Bomb/State), Bill
on Communal Violence: Ms.Teesta Setalvad,
Co-editor, Communalism Combat, Secretary,
Citizens for Justice and Peace.
4.45 - 5.05: Wanted: An unbiased,
representative police, Mr. Suresh Khopade, Police
Commissioner (Railways), Mumbai, (Author and
architect of Bhiwandi' Mohalla Committees);
confirmation awaited from other senior police
officials.
5.05 - 5.30: Comments and questions.
5.30 - 6.00: Open Forum.
Day Two (January 28, 2006): Morning Sessions
4. Muslim Women: The Hidden Dimension
11.00 - 12.00: Sub-Themes:
State and Community: Seizing Citizenship;
Muslim Women in Development and Rights Discourse;
Participatory Solutions. Speakers (include): Ms. Azhra Razak,
Ms. Shama Dalwai, Ms. Teesta Setalvad, Dr.
Zeenat Shaukatali, Awaaz-e-Niswan.
12.00 - 12.15: Tea Break
12.15 - 1.45: Muslim Women: The Hidden Dimension (Cont).
1.45 - 2.05: Comments and questions.
2.05 - 2.45: Lunch Break
Day Two (January 28, 2006): Afternoon Sessions
5. Solutions Within
2.45 - 3.15: Muslim Education: Lessons from
South India, Dr. Syed Iqbal Hasnain, former V-C,
Calicut University.
3.15 - 3.35: Comments and questions.
3.35 - 4.00: Muslim Philanthropy (zakaat),
Wakf Boards: Wasted Resources,
Professor Imtiaz Ahmed.
4.00 - 4.20: Comments and questions.
4.20 - 4.35: Tea Break.
4.35 - 4.55: The Right to Information: A Tool to Combat Discrimination,
Mr. Shailesh Gandhi, Information Right activist.
4.50 - 5.00: Comments and questions.
5.00 - 5.10: Jihad Against Terrorism: Citizens Campaign Against Violence
(mob, bomb or state) Javed Anand, MSD.
5.10 - 5.20: Comments and questions.
6. Towards A National Citizens Campaign
5.20 - 6.00: Open Session
6.00 - 6.10: Concluding Remarks, Javed Akhtar, President, MSD.
6.10 - 6.15: Vote of Thanks, Asif Khan,
Secretary,
MSD.
For further information:
Javed Anand
(M) 09870402556; Ph/Fax: 022-2660 22 88.
e-mail: javedanand at gmail.com;
secularmuslim at gmail.com
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
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