SACW | May 7-8, 2008 / Pakistan: 'Peace' With Taliban / Sri Lanka: a split JVP / India: Conversions; regional chauvinism; weekend with Sangh ; Bhopal ; Lawyers as Judges; Philosophy of Coca Cola / Alert for Sentenced Iranian activists

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | May 7-8, 2008 | Dispatch No. 2513 - Year 10 running

[1] Pakistan: This Business of Making Peace 
'Deals' With Fascists (Irfan Husain)
[2] Sri Lanka: The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Split (Jayadeva Uyangoda)
[3] India: Religious Conversion - a political weapon (Ram Puniyani)
[4] India: Local regional chauvinism vs cosmopolitan urban space
     (i) City of dreadful knights (Sagarika Ghose)
    (ii) Letter to Bal Thackeray: Gunning for culture (Jawed Naqvi)
[5] India: Hindutva Networking
      - Crystal gazing Hindutva boss and his 
scientist friends party with OM made coconuts
      - Hindutva merry-go-rounds for Bangalore techies
[6] India: Bhopal - hundreds of new victims are born each year (Randeep Ramesh)
[7] India: When Lawyers Masquerade As Judges ! (Subhash Gatade)
[8] The Philosophy of Coca Cola (Ashis Nandy)
[9] Iran: Very Urgent ! Alert for Sentenced Iranian activists
[10] Announcements:
   - Citizens protests for judges in Karachi, 
Lahore and Islamabad on Thursday, 8 May 2008
   - An evening of readings and recollections on 1971 (Karachi, 11 May 2008)

______


[1]

Dawn
May 03, 2008  

MAKING PEACE WITH MILITANTS

by Irfan Husain

AS cracks appear in the newly formed ruling 
coalition in Islamabad, there are other ominous 
signs on the horizon. The attempts to negotiate a 
truce with Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the 
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have far more 
serious implications for Pakistan than political 
hiccups in the capital.

When the firebrand Maulana Mohammad Sufi was 
released from jail recently, he said he would not 
return to his terrorist ways, but would continue 
fighting for the imposition of the Sharia in 
Malakand and Swat. This, incidentally, is the 
same cleric whose fiery rhetoric sent thousands 
of young Pakistanis to Afghanistan on the eve of 
the American attack after 9/11. Hundreds did not 
return, and angry, grieving parents would have 
vented their fury against him had he not begged 
the authorities to jail him.

His son-in-law is Maulana Fazlullah, the cleric 
who has been waging war against the state in Swat 
in order to impose a Taliban-like system in that 
lovely valley. Hundreds have been killed, and 
scores of families have sought refuge elsewhere. 
The army has imposed an uneasy calm on the area.

On the face of it, there appears nothing wrong 
with making peace with these militants, and 
others of their ilk. After all, the argument 
goes, they are Pakistanis, and we should not be 
fighting them at America's behest. And as recent 
bloody events have proved, these terrorists have 
the means and the motivation to strike hard and 
deep at targets across Pakistan.

Another reason that is advanced to justify 
negotiations is that force has already been 
tried, but to little avail. Under Musharraf, the 
army proved unable to defeat the militants, 
losing nearly 1,000 soldiers in fierce battles. 
Hundreds more have surrendered. Finally, this 
undeclared civil war has resulted in many deaths 
among the civilians who shelter and conceal the 
jihadis.

For all these reasons, the policy of 
confrontation, adopted by Musharraf with 
Washington's prodding, has been condemned across 
the political spectrum. While we need to review 
the policy, we must understand what we are being 
asked to accept in exchange for a temporary truce.

Firstly, even though the militants may not hit 
targets within Pakistan, they will certainly 
launch cross-border attacks into Afghanistan. 
Secondly, while they have promised to expel 
foreign terrorists from the tribal areas, there 
is no way to ensure this has actually been done. 
And once the army withdraws from these lawless 
lands, a key TTP demand, who will monitor the 
movements and activities of Mehsud and his 
henchmen?

It should be clear that these holy warriors are 
driven by utopian dreams and hard cash: greater 
freedom of movement and a respite from army 
action will allow them to move arms, heroin and 
fighters more easily. They have already imposed 
their own brand of Islamic law upon the hapless 
tribals who live here. And the menace is 
spreading.

Those who advocate Sharia law should think long 
and hard about the implications. We saw the 
Taliban impose their version in Afghanistan when 
women were lashed for the slightest infringement 
of barbaric laws; ancient statues were destroyed; 
and music was banned. Is this the kind of 
Pakistan we would like to live in?

There are those who say the Taliban went too far, 
and advocate the Saudi model instead. Having 
struggled for democracy for so long, do we really 
want to be ruled by ignorant mullahs? In 
Pakistan, a number of women have distinguished 
themselves by excelling in their chosen fiel ds. 
Benazir Bhutto, Fatima Jinnah and Asma Jehangir 
are only some of the better-known figures. There 
are many more who have carved out formidable 
reputations in the face of heavy odds. In Saudi 
Arabia, women are not allowed to even drive cars 
or travel without permission from their mahrams. 
Is this the kind of Pakistan we would like to 
live in?

When people speak glibly of 'Islam being a 
complete way of life for all times', they forget 
the crucial role of ijtihad. This concept of 
change and evolution through consensus is at the 
heart of adapting the system to new 
circumstances. Clearly, tribal laws from the 
medieval era were never intended to be applied in 
a period of massive social and political change. 
I am no Islamic scholar, but I am a student of 
history, a discipline that teaches us that unless 
systems and species adapt, they die.

The basic reason why most mullahs reject the 
central concept of ijtihad is that a rigid, 
literal interpretation of holy texts gives them 
an authority they would not enjoy if a modern, 
rational approach was taken towards understanding 
the spirit of religion. More learned Islamic 
scholars fear a multiplicity of opinions might 
take the faith away from its origins. But this is 
a risk we will have to take if we do not want the 
Muslim world to be left further behind. 
Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves what Muslims 
have contributed to world civilisation over the 
last 500 years.

These are some of the questions we need to pose 
when we talk of appeasing the militants who 
threaten not only Pakistan, but the region and 
countries far away. People like Baitullah Mehsud, 
Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar thrive in 
conditions of anarchy. Angry young men flock to 
their banners when they are poor and uneducated. 
Others see them as romantic revolutionaries who 
want to change the world. But what they seek is 
power, and unable to win it through the ballot 
box, they use terror to push their agenda.

Judged objectively, the wars we have fought thus 
far have been largely of our own making. None of 
them was the result of existential threats to 
Pakistan. But the war imposed on us by militants 
such as Baitullah Mehsud and Mullah Fazlullah 
threatens our freedom and our way of life. It is 
not a conflict of our choosing, but it is one we 
will have to fight unless we want to end up like 
Afghanistan under the Taliban, or as a poor 
version of Saudi Arabia. Ultimately, we have to 
decide what kind of country we want to live in.

______


[2]

Economic and Political Weekly
May 03, 2008

THE JANATHA VIMUKTHI PERAMUNA SPLIT
by  Jayadeva Uyangoda

The radical, Sinhalese nationalist Janatha 
Vimukthi Peramuna has split, the real reasons for 
which are not yet clear. Among the various 
possible reasons are the mainstream jvp's unease 
with a breakaway faction's Sinhalese-Buddhist 
nationalist project and the collision of the 
Sinhalese nationalist and class struggle lines 
within the party. It is also a dispute about 
coalition strategies that has spilled on to the 
domain of personal relations. For now, the 
Rajapakse administration is the beneficiary.
[. . .].
FULL TEXT: http://www.epw.org.in/epw//uploads/articles/12204.pdf

______


[3]

CONVERSION: A POLITICAL WEAPON IN INDIA

by Ram Puniyani (May 6, 2008)

These days one has been hearing a lot about the 
conversion activities of Christian missionaries. 
That there is a threat to Hindu nation due to 
Adivasis converting to a 'foreign religion' is 
becoming part of 'social common sense' by now. 
Yes conversions are going on, but the real face 
of the conversion came to fore when the attack on 
nuns in Alibaug near Mumbai (March 2008) was 
followed by a massive conversion of Adivasis to 
Hinduism, Shuddhi ritual (April 27, 2008) in 
Mumbai. The person involved in both these has 
been the same. In the attack on the Adivasis, the 
followers of Sadguru Narendra Maharaj of 
Ramanandcharya Peeth were involved and in the 
elaborate Shuddhi ritual the Guru himself led the 
conversion. Talking on the occasion he said the 
Hindus are being reduced to a pitiable minority 
in the country because of the activities of 
Christian missionaries. He also came down heavily 
on the central Government for not pushing through 
the anti conversion bill and criticized the 
Maharashtra Government for passing the anti 
Superstition bill. According to him both these 
steps are anti Hindu.

His claim that Hindus are being reduced to 
minority is a stuff of make believe world as 
demographically India's Hindu population is 
fairly stable. Also though there is a marginal 
decline in the population of Christians, this 
again is close to negligible. If we consider the 
occasional change in the logistics of conducting 
the census one can explain the marginal 
rise/decline of one or the other community and 
this has not much to do with proselytizing by any 
religious group. The example of this is the 
inclusion of Kashmir in 2001 census due to which 
the overall percentage of Muslim population 
seemed to have gone up and the total population 
of Hindus seemed to dip slightly.

The criticism by Guru, Narendra Maharaj, is 
against the grain of Indian constitution, goals 
of enlightenment and progress of rationalism in 
the society. The anti conversion bills which many 
state Governments have passed/are passing are 
totally against several articles of our 
constitution. Our constitution encourages the 
promotion of rational thought, in pursuance of 
which Maharashtra Government has done the 
laudable job of passing anti superstition bill. 
Those opposing this bill surely want the 
persistence of blind faith in society, it is this 
which strengthens their social and political 
clout and Guru is forthright as far as that is 
concerned. The same Guru's followers are adept to 
violence off and on. In Alibaug the people had 
assembled to hear a lecture on AIDS awareness 
when his followers assaulted the nuns. Again his 
followers were earlier involved in an act of 
rampage following the airport security staff not 
permitting his holy dandam (Staff) to be carried 
on the flight along with him.

How does one understand the rising incidence of 
violence in Adivasi areas? One recalls just 
around the Christmas time, massive violence was 
unleashed in Kandhmal and Phulbani districts of 
Orissa. In most of the Adivasi areas Dangs, 
Gujarat, Jhabua Madhya Pradesh, areas of Orissa, 
there has been a recurrent violence. It is these 
areas which have seen the conversion of Adivasis 
into Hindu fold. One must clarify that Adivasis 
are Animists, neither Christians nor Hindus. 
While some conversions to Christianity have been 
occurring they are not new as Christianity has 
been here from centuries. These conversions are 
due to many reason, missionaries work in the area 
of education being the main ones. This is nothing 
new. Also it is a slow process. In recent times 
on the contrary the overall population of 
Christians has been declining marginally 
(1991-2.60%, 1981-2.44%, 1991-2.34, 2001-2.30%) 
Part of the conversion surly is due to some 
groups amongst Christian missionaries who do 
believe in aggressive proselytization. The 
Adivasi areas have invited the wrath of RSS 
combine from last two decades in particular since 
Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an RSS affiliate 
intensified its activities in Adivasi areas.

The pattern of RSS affiliate activities is fairly 
uniform in the Adivasi belt spread from Dangs in 
Gujarat to Kandhmal in Orissa. There is the EKAL 
Vidyalaya, a single teacher school to give very 
elementary education. Then there is a vicious 
anti Christian propaganda leading to violence. 
This violence is low intensity and recurrent and 
lately it is orchestrated more around the 
Christmas time. Since this takes place in remote 
places the culprits can get away easily and on 
the top of that a communalized state apparatus is 
very helpful to those RSS affiliates who unleash 
the violence. In these areas various Godmen with 
RSS affiliation, direct or indirect, have been 
setting up their Ashrams, Aseemanand; Dangs and 
Lakshmananand in Orissa are amongst the two major 
such, who are working for these conversions in 
various ways. In MP, Jhabua, the followers of 
Asaram Bapu have been taking to violence and now 
we witness that in the anti Christian violence in 
Maharashtra, the followers of Narendra Maharaj 
are active.

There are multiple processes through which these 
conversions have been undertaken. Usually 
violence and intimidation is accompanied by 
cultural cooption. This latter has been done by 
holding huge Hindu Sangams (Congregations) like 
in Jhabua, and in Rajasthan and by holding Shabri 
kumbh (religious congregation in the name of the 
destitute adivasi woman Shabri, e.g. in Dangs. 
The conversion has been the major political tool 
of Dilip Singh Judeo, one who was caught taking 
bribe while he was forest minister, who has been 
doing this in Adivasi areas of Madhya Pradesh 
from last several years. The term Sanskritzation 
can also help us understand these conversions, an 
expectation of upward mobility in social 
hierarchy. The process of conversion to Hinduism 
has been called Ghar Vapsi or Shuddhikaran on the 
premise that Adivasis are Hindus. Here the 
definition of Hindu is not a religious one but a 
political one. Theologically religion is defined 
according to holy book, the revered deity and the 
clergy. Since Hinduism is not a prophet based 
religion its latest definition was constructed in 
early 20th century as religion of all those who 
regard this land as their father land and holy 
land (Savarkar). This is unmindful of the fact 
that Advasis are primarily animists and do not 
fall in the category of religion as a social 
phenomenon applicable to Hindus, Muslims, 
Christians etc.

Adivasis are the most deprived lot of the society 
and RSS combine has targeted them for political 
reasons, not for their own welfare. As during the 
early 1920s, to consolidate the communal 
politics, Shuddhi movement (Hindu Communalism) 
was unleashed in parallel to Tanzim (Muslim 
communalism), now again the Shuddhi is back to 
strengthen the communal politics. The only 
difference is that during the twentieth century 
it was parallel to Tanzim, now it has been 
constructed around the fear of Christians to 
consolidate its social base and practice. 
Interestingly the concept of purity and pollution 
of Brahminical tradition are displayed very 
prominently in this process. Brahminical 
rigidities have a clearly defined pure and 
polluted. While some right wing politicians 
assert that many other religions look down upon 
other religions, we the Hindus recognize all to 
be equal. As per this word Shuddhi, those who are 
not Hindus are regarded as polluted and so this 
purification ritual for bringing them into the 
fold of Hinduism, which by implication is pure. 
Various types of baths given at the time of 
conversion signify this purification, external 
cleansing signifying total purity, which makes 
one fit enough to be Hindu. Interestingly after 
the Chavdar Talao and Mahad agitation by Dr. 
Ambedkar, the lake, which was polluted due to 
Shudras touching it, was purified by mixing cow 
dung in the same.

Ghar Vapasi word has been cleverly coined. While 
browbeating Christian missionaries for 
conversions, to say that 'we' are also converting 
Adivasis will sound as if 'we' are also doing 
similar thing. So while what others do is 
despicable conversion, what 'we' do is to bring 
them to their original home! The propaganda 
behind this says that Adivasis are essentially 
those Hindus who ran away to forests to escape 
the conversions by Muslim kings. In forests they 
kept living for long because of which they kept 
sliding down on the scale of social hierarchy. 
This concoction serves two purposes. One, it 
feeds into the misconception that Islam spread by 
sword. Second, if Adivasis are original 
inhabitants then Aryans/Hindus who came from 
outside, are also akin to 'foreigner' Muslim and 
Christians. This in turn will weaken the Hindu 
nation's claim as first comers and so the sole 
proprietors of this land, country or whatever. 
Accordingly Adivasis are called Vanvasis and the 
claim of this land being Hindu nation, the one 
belonging to first comers, Aryans-Hindus holds 
the ground. This way Hindu nation's claim on the 
country becomes stronger, as they can also claim 
to be its original inhabitants.

The attention to Adivasis, to throw away 
Christian Missionaries from those areas and to 
co-opt Adivasis to Hindu fold, became overt from 
the decade of 1980, coinciding with the rise of 
Ram Janm bhumi campaign, coinciding with global 
rise of identity politics and local rise of 
communal politics. This came with RSS combine's 
realization that to impose Hindu rashtra in this 
country the electoral majority is needed as a 
starting point. And this 8% population can be the 
wonderful electoral base for the right wing 
politics. The second advantage is that by 
indoctrinating them they can be unleashed against 
the 'other enemies' of Hindu nation, like 
Muslims, as witnessed in Gujarat, where they were 
used as ideal foot soldiers for the agenda of 
Hindu Rashtra.

While one has no problems with the peaceful 
missionary work of Ramakrishna mission or 
Christian missionaries one is aghast at this new 
phenomenon, violence followed by conversions, in 
our society whose primary focus is political, 
though couched in the language of religion. More 
human welfare activities in these areas, more 
emphasis on human rights concerns of this 
marginalized section of society are what are 
needed. By emphasizing on blind faith, by 
spreading hate against other section of society, 
this phenomenon started by the ilk of Gurus is 
very dangerous to national Integration and 
country's progress.


______


[4]  LOCAL REGIONAL CHAUVINISM VS COSMOPOLITAN URBAN SPACE

(i)

Hindustan Times
May 06, 2008

CITY OF DREADFUL KNIGHTS

by Sagarika Ghose

Ah, the great Indian city! The lack of urban 
infrastructure destroying the infrastructure of 
the human soul. By 2020 Mumbai will have a 
population of 20 million. Bangalore, already with 
6.5 million inhabitants has seen phenomenal 
growth. Three hundred million Indians live in 
urban areas; the figure will spurt by 40 per cent 
in the next 11 years. Whatever the rural 
romantics may say, India's future is irreversibly 
urban. Mumbai and Bangalore are symbols of the 
urban Indian dream, the first, whose present 
chief minister claims will be a new Shanghai, the 
second, which a former cm wanted to make into 
another Singapore.

But forget Shanghai and Singapore, which instead 
are the voices that are speaking the loudest for 
the Indian city? The new voices that are yelling 
into the urban skyline are anything but urbane or 
metropolitan. In Mumbai, the Maharashtra 
Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray has 
declared war on north Indians, mimicking what he 
calls their strange accents, noisy pujas, nasty 
civic manners and demanding preferential 
treatment in jobs for local Maharashtrians. Raj 
Thackeray wants north Indians out of Mumbai. In 
Bangalore, as the campaign for the forthcoming 
assembly elections gathers momentum, another 'son 
of the soil' is also demanding reservations for 
locals. H.D. Deve Gowda's political manifesto 
demands 30 per cent reservation of jobs in the 
infotech and biotech sectors for local Kannadigas.

What do Raj Thackeray and Deve Gowda have in 
common? In a fast-changing urban milieu, as 
cities and their enterprises turn global, 
Thackeray and Deve Gowda have turned aggressively 
local. In a modernising economy, they have found 
the shortest possible political ticket to the 
largest possible grievance - the ever growing 
grievance of being left out of new jobs that are 
on offer in a growing economy. Mumbai has always 
attracted ambitious outsiders. The stock market, 
Bollywood, organised crime, the vast informal 
sector, the corporate sector, and the rags to 
riches possibilities were heady. The singing 
Johnny Walker was the embodiment of the 
happy-go-lucky urbanism of Mumbai. Bangalore was 
once a sleepy pensioner's paradise with its 
splendid old rain trees shading the streets from 
sun, yet has always been a city of strategic and 
intellectual significance. From the 1950s, the 
Nehruvian vision dreamt Bangalore's 'modern' 
identity into existence. Around the parks and 
bungalows, rose Isro, DRDO, HAL, NAL, giant 
public bodies that provided the city with the 
research institutions and industrial growth that 
created a professional educated middle-class, 
spurring the subsequent achievements in infotech 
and biotechnology.

Sixty per cent of Maharashtra's industrial 
production comes from the Mumbai-Thane belt. In 
2001-02, Bangalore alone contributed 22 per cent 
of the state's income. As economist Vinod Vyasulu 
puts it, Bangalore is a neighbour of San Jose not 
of Tumkur. Mumbai dreams that it is neighbour to 
Manhattan. But now Tumkur is demanding its pound 
of flesh from Bangalore. And the Konkan belt is 
demanding its share of the prosperity of Mumbai. 
The provinces are beating at the doors of the 
rich metropolis, saying we will break this door 
if you don't let us in.

Two years ago when Raj Thackeray broke away from 
the Shiv Sena and launched MNS, he promised to 
create a modern version of the Sena. Three years 
after being in the political wilderness, after 
being wiped out in the Mumbai municipal polls, 
Thackeray has realised that modern politics is 
hardly ever successful in a modern economy. 
Instead, the best way to win votes in a reforming 
economy is not to join hands with the forces of 
change but with regionalists and cultural 
chauvinists, who are unwilling to compete in the 
open economy, but instead want the benefit of 
other people's hard work by securing the 
privileges of their birth in a particular state.

For the first time in Karnataka, the 'Kannadiga' 
identity is an important factor. From Deve Gowda 
to Congress leaders like Siddharamaiah all are 
united in demanding reservations for Kannadigas 
in the new economy ('IT-BT' as it's called). 
There is protest against non-Kannada films, 
English medium schools, even clubs, bars, live 
bands which represent the 'outsider'. Karnataka 
is trying to reclaim Bangalore. Never mind that 
Infosys on its Bangalore campus alone, employs 
18,000 Indians from all over India, many from 
Bihar and UP. Never mind that Mumbai, a city 
built by migrants over centuries, has always 
counted among its loyal 'citizens', not just 
Maharashtrians, but communities from every part 
of the country, all proudly classified as 
'Mumbaikars'.

Tragically, this important cosmopolitan identity 
has no political face. As cities become diverse, 
the politicians who control the cities are 
insisting on chauvinistic identities, simply 
because their voters are not in the city.

There is a battle, therefore, about who will 
manage and control our cities. Should it be the 
politicians whose vote-banks are not urban? If a 
CM tries to create urban bodies to manage civic 
affairs by inducting qualified urban citizens, 
then he is, like S.M. Krishna, branded as hi-tech 
and elitist. Yet, the fact is that cities like 
Mumbai cannot be managed by sugar chieftains of 
Maharashtra who see the city simply as a 
collection of real estate to be used for funding 
political campaigns. Nor can the city of 
Bangalore be managed by Vokkaliga village 
potentates whose economic vision only begins with 
the word 'reservations'.

Cities like Mumbai and Bangalore need efficient 
managers and public representatives who will 
invest in their social and physical futures, by 
making them as inclusive as possible, creating 
areas of 'common space' between locals and 
outsiders and creating conditions for wealth 
generation. Wealth that can then be spent to 
overcome inequalities between town and provinces. 
Sadly, the post of a sheriff or mayor is not just 
undervalued but rendered irrelevant when it is 
most needed. There is no urban agency that can 
nurture new identities for our cities. Instead 
the politicians entrusted with Mumbai and 
Bangalore are only using the city's hard earned 
prosperity (prosperity which can be a great 
resource for the entire state) to attack the city 
and its unique ethos.

Delhi, by contrast, belongs to everyone and no 
one, the reason why regional chauvinism has no 
place in the politics of the national capital. 
Because Delhi has statehood, its rulers have a 
stake in Delhi's development. Any demand for 
similar city state status or 'statehood' for 
Mumbai or Bangalore will be violently opposed by 
the hinterland chieftains.

Delimitation of constituencies has led to great 
increase in urban voting power in Karnataka this 
time. In Bangalore alone, the number of seats 
have gone up from 16 to 28. The rise in urban 
educated voters is an enormous opportunity for 
the political needs of a city to be addressed. 
Once vote-banks change from only rural to urban, 
urban concerns will necessarily have to be 
addressed. On the flip side, if urban seats rise, 
politicians might be even more tempted to whip up 
urban anger against that caricature enemy, 
'IT-BT'.

But till the status quo is broken, the 
'outsider', both in Bangalore and in Mumbai, will 
be the favourite whipping boy, whether they are 
'English speaking outsiders' who are 'ruining' 
the city with a yuppie culture, or the poor 
migrant outsiders who are taking up the lower 
rung jobs. As facilities collapse and the economy 
becomes more competitive, local jealousy and 
anger is on the rise. If a city is only abused 
and exploited instead of being nurtured and used 
to fund other parts of the state, then India's 
centres of new economy will only become sites for 
ancient conflicts of language and identity.

Sagarika Ghose is senior editor, CNN-IBN


(ii)

Hard News
April 2008

LETTER TO BAL THACKERAY: GUNNING FOR CULTURE

by Jawed Naqvi


Dear Mr. Bal Thackeray,

I was in Mumbai for a day last weekend and yet 
again enjoyed the few conversations in Marathi 
that I overheard in shops and cafes, always a 
lively experience even though it's not my 
language and I have very little knowledge of it.

Whenever I walk on the Marine Drive, except for a 
few times in 1993 when the air was filled with 
fanatical anger and grief, I never fail to think 
of Johnny Walker in his western attire wooing 
pretty Kum Kum, cavorting in her nauvari, the 
still enticing nine-yard sari of old Maharashtra, 
singing that foot-tapping number from the movie 
CID. Ye hai Bombay meri jaan neatly summed up the 
bourgeois metropolis, but with its wondrous gift 
of home and hearth to a ceaseless tide of 
immigrants from across the country and beyond.

Of course, the song also took potshots at 
Mumbai's seamier face and its deep social 
inequities. Also, if you recall, sir, how Sahir 
Ludhianavi effectively parodied Allama Iqbal's 
song of maudlin nationalism - Saarey jahaan se 
achha Hindostaa'n hamara - in a moving film from 
the 1950s. Phir Subha Hogi was loosely based on 
Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment if I remember 
right.

The forceful song mocked the ideals of 
nationalism and internationalism alike because 
the poor mostly felt used and isolated in both 
the situations. Cheen o Arab hamara, Hindostaa'n 
hamara, rehne ko ghar nahi hai, sara jehaa'n 
hamara was picturised on the unforgettable Raj 
Kapoor. Jitni bhi buildingei'n thee'n, setho'n ne 
baat li hai'n, footpath Bambai ke hai'n aashiya'n 
hamara, he sang from the heart. The rich, the 
song lamented, had cornered the nice buildings, 
but the footpaths of Mumbai were always there for 
us.

Did you notice, Mr. Thackeray, how the Urdu 
lyricists (for that is what they were though they 
are always supposed to have written Hindi songs 
for Hindi movies, including the Persianised 
dialogues of Mughal-i-Azam!) how they used the 
common description for Mumbai and how both Bambai 
and Bombay fitted so well with the metre and the 
cadence of those songs? Remember also Saeed 
Mirza's gripping tale on celluloid in the 1980s 
about an old Maharashtrian Brahmin's struggle to 
get his house back from Mumbai's real estate 
crooks in Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho. Just listen to 
the song Amchi hai Mumbai tumchi Mumbai, jiyo 
mazey se karo naka ghai.

If Mumbai was left out from the old Urdu/Hindi 
lyrics, Saeed set it right more recently. So what 
went wrong? Why did you suddenly draw an angry 
line between Mumbai and its other two lovely 
names, which were and still are just as soothing 
to the ears for anyone having a sense of music? 
And if you did have to insist on Mumbai because 
of some higher expediency, why did you not go all 
the way and change the name of the Bombay Stock 
Exchange too? The impression we get is that you 
find yourself weak and helpless before the 
powerful conglomerates that run the stock 
exchange and perhaps this country.

But returning to culture, Saeed Mirza should be 
credited for blending Marathi with Urdu to grab 
the right flavour for his Joshi story. But tarry 
a little, for there's a problem in this. The 
Marathi language itself has a large number of 
modified Persian and Arabic words. This came 
about because, for a significant period, Marathi 
came under the influence of Arab traders and 
Turko-Persian-speaking rulers.

Maharashtra's Brahmin and Maratha rulers used 
words from these languages to good effect. 
Marathi has thus borrowed words from Sanskrit, 
Kannada, Tamil, Arabic, Persian, and even 
Portuguese. As you know quite well, sir, you sit 
in your khurchee (chair), which is derived from 
the Arabic kursi. You address your jaahir sabha, 
a public meeting, but the word zaahir meaning 
obvious or public is of Arabic origin. You can 
hardly have a conversation without using the word 
fakta derived from Arabic faqat, meaning only. 
The delightful stage song Dilruba madhur ha 
dilacha addresses the sweetheart in chaste 
Persian.

I am addressing this letter to you as your many 
followers regard you as a big leader of 
Maharashtra who takes pride in Marathi culture. 
In your pursuit of this culture, an intensely 
beautiful cornucopia of language, music, theatre, 
attire, wit and valour, you remind me of an 
analogy with Islam, which Bernard Shaw described 
as the world's best religion with the worst 
followers. The Shiv Sena - abbreviated as SS, and 
you know what that reminds us of - which you have 
created in pursuit of an ostensibly lofty vision 
of Maharashtra and its Marathi fragrance are 
mostly exemplary in their ignorance of the 
subject matter at hand.

To prove your Maratha exclusivity, you have 
turned your ire against practically everyone, 
including fellow Maharashtrians. But the SS was 
not really about Marathi culture or even Marathi 
pride. It was set up by the Congress party at the 
behest of its corporate patrons to break the 
workers' strikes most of them being 
Maharashtrians anyway. Remember that it was a 
fellow Maharashtrian S.A. Dange who led the 
formidable Girni Kaamgar Union of cotton mill 
workers. He became the head of the powerful 
communist party and you allowed yourself to be 
used as its rightwing opponent.

Where is any room in this for a discourse on 
Marathi versus non-Marathi? Your men targeted 
south Indians first and now they are fuming at 
migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. On other 
occasions, they exude hatred of Muslims, calling 
them landya whatever that means. Where is the 
Marathi culture in this?

Last week in Mumbai, sir, I went looking for 
vintage natya sangeet recordings, which I 
consider to be a robust form of north Indian 
classical music. A Muslim owner of an old shop, 
Rhythm House, helped me locate some really golden 
recordings of Pandit Snehal Bhatkar and Jayamala 
Shiledar but missing in the repertoire were songs 
of Karim
Khan and Manje Khan, two north Indians and 
landyas, in your language. They came to your 
patch, fell in love with it, learnt its language 
and culture and sang its songs and founded two of 
the main schools of music that Maharashtrian 
musicians are still attached to - the Alladia 
Khan Gharana of Jaipur Atrauli and Karim Khan's 
Kirana Gharana.

It's a difficult ask, but if you can by any 
chance locate Karim Khan's Marathi songs, since 
you are the sentinel of Marathi culture, you 
should prescribe them as mandatory for your Shiv 
Sainiks - Chandrika hi janu in Raag Devgandhar, 
Ugich ka kanta in Anand Bhairavi and Prem sewa 
sharan in Bhimpalasi. It would help them 
understand that culture and languages evolve from 
the mingling of people and don't flow from the 
barrel of the gun or arson that your men are 
usually associated with.

The writer is India correspondent of Dawn, Pakistan's leading daily

______


[5] From Communalism watch :

CRYSTAL GAZING HINDUTVA BOSS AND HIS SCIENTIST 
FRIENDS DO IT WITH OM MADE COCONUTS
[Amazing, how big guns of the India's space 
programme, and also the celebrated Feminist Queen 
bee of the ecologist alternative circuit (a 
regular contributor to 'The Organiser' - the 
Hindu right weekly ) feel like fish in water with 
a Hindutva ideologue who markets Astrology and 
'Vedic Maths', and defends a war against India's 
minorities, among other things. Posted below is a 
report of a book release party where the happy 
extended family played ball -CW]


AT HIS BOOK RELEASE, JOSHI ENFORCES HIS IMAGE OF 
A 'SWAYAMSEVAK-SCHOLAR' (Indian Express, May 08, 
2008)
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2008/05/hindutva-boss-and-his-scientist-friends.html


RICH TECHIES ON WEEKEND 'GUILT' TRIPS TO SANGH
by Radhika Ramaseshan (The Telegraph, May 8 , 2008)
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2008/05/hindutva-merry-go-rounds-for-bangalore.html

______


[6]

The Guardian
April 30 2008

BHOPAL: HUNDREDS OF NEW VICTIMS ARE BORN EACH YEAR

· Children of victims suffer but have no health cover
· 23 years after disaster, site has still not been cleaned

by Randeep Ramesh in Delhi


Nida, 17 months old Bhopali girl with a 
congenital birth defect. Photograph: Money 
Sharma/EPA

Hundreds of children are still being born with 
birth defects as a result of the world's worst 
industrial disaster 23 years ago in the central 
Indian town of Bhopal, say campaigners. They are 
demanding that the Indian government provide 
immediate medical care and research the "hidden" 
health impacts.

More than two decades ago, white clouds of toxic 
gas escaped from American multinational Union 
Carbide's pesticide plant. The gas killed 5,000 
people that night and 15,000 more in the 
following weeks - and doctors say that a new 
generation is being affected.

The true legacy of the disaster is only now 
coming to light. The Indian government stopped 
all research on the medical effects of the gas 
cloud 14 years ago, without explanation. Despite 
the country's supreme court ordering that the 
children of victims receive insurance, more than 
100,000 remain without cover.

Satinath Sarangi of the Sambhavna Trust, which 
helps to rehabilitate victims, said that the 
Bhopal victims' penury and low social status 
meant few are prepared to help.

No one, he says, has taken responsibility for 
cleaning up the site and paying the high cost of 
medical bills.

"Because these people are poor or from a minority 
or lower caste no one seems to care. Their lives 
and their children are being sacrificed for the 
cause of industrial progress," Sarangi said.

Medical experts who had studied the effects of 
the gas on children born in communities affected 
by the gas cloud said there was now "no doubt of 
increased chance of the negative effects in 
children".

A 2003 study by the American Medical Association 
found that boys who were either exposed as 
toddlers to gases from the Bhopal pesticide plant 
or born to exposed parents were prone to "growth 
retardation".

Yesterday campaigners, who marched the 500 miles 
from Bhopal last month and vow to sit in protest 
in Delhi until the government acts, held a press 
conference to highlight a new fight for 
compensation for families whose children have 
been born with "congenital birth defects".

One of the mothers, Kesar Bhai, held her 
12-year-old son Suraj in her arms. She had 
inhaled the noxious fumes in 1984 and was 
hospitalised but recovered. Her son, Suraj, was 
born brain damaged and cannot sit or talk.

"My husband is a labourer. We have no money to 
spend on our son. He cannot even eat on his own. 
I get free medical care for my breathing 
difficulties because I am a gas victim. My child 
does not get any help but he has been affected," 
she said.

Other children's growth had been stunted, said 
campaigners, because there has been still no 
clean-up of the Bhopal plant despite a promise 
from the prime minister in 2006. So far, less 
than 20% of the funds set aside to dismantle and 
make safe the plant have been spent.

The disused Union Carbide factory contains about 
8,000 tonnes of carcinogenic chemicals which 
continue to leach out and contaminate water 
supplies used by 30,000 local people. The 
clean-up has been stalled by a mixture of 
bureaucratic indifference, legal actions and rows 
over corporate responsibility.

Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide in 
2001, says it is not responsible, arguing that 
because the plant is on government land it is up 
to the state to clean it up. However, the Indian 
government's chemicals and fertilisers ministry 
has said in court that Dow should pay 1 billion 
rupees, or £13m, to dismantle the factory and 
restore the fields.

Backstory

On December 2 1984, the sleeping citizens of 
Bhopal were enveloped by a lethal fog of 
poisonous gas spewing from a pesticide plant 
owned by American multinational Union Carbide. 
The gas was methyl isocyanate, which when inhaled 
produces an extremely acidic reaction attacking 
the internal organs, especially the lungs. This 
stops oxygen entering the blood, and victims 
drown in their own body fluids. The Indian 
government is still pursuing Warren Anderson, the 
former chief executive of Union Carbide, who 
keeps a low profile in retirement in New York and 
Florida. Union Carbide paid a lump sum of $470m 
in an out-of-court settlement with the Indian 
government in 1989. When the money was 
distributed among 570,000 people in 2005, most 
recipients got little more than £600. Dow, one of 
the world's largest chemical companies, purchased 
Union Carbide in 2001. Campaigners then covered 
its Mumbai offices with red paint, saying it was 
the "blood of Bhopal". Dow says it never owned or 
operated the Bhopal plant and it has no 
responsibility for the events in 1984.

______


[7]

WHEN LAWYERS MASQUERADE AS JUDGES !

by Subhash Gatade

         Those who can make you believe 
absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.

         - Voltaire

Ismail Jalagir, a senior counsel from Hubli 
(Karnataka) and Mohammad Shoaib, a senior 
advocate from Lucknow (U.P.) might not have heard 
about each other. But even their strongest 
critics would admit that they are made of the 
same mettle.If there are rewards meant for 
lawyers who are ready to go the extra mile to 
defend rigths granted to citizens under the 
constitution then both these worthy citizens of 
the country would be the first on the list.

What they have done and achieved - without 
bothering about the dangers to personal security 
and wellbeing - is really stupendous. They not 
only defied the unethical ban imposed by their 
fellow 'brethren' from their profession about not 
taking up specific cases but also exposed the 
manner in which a particular community is being 
'stigmatised and terrorised' with due connivance 
of the police, media and a pliant legal 
fraternity.

It is for everyone to see that but for the 
efforts of Mohammad Shoaib, Aftab Alam Ansari 
from Kolkatta would have been languishing in jail 
as being a 'Lashkar-e-Toiba' operative supposedly 
involved in the bomb blasts in UP courts.

And there would have been no counsel for people 
like Asadullah Abubaker, Riyazuddin Nasir, 
Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Shakeel from Hubli and 
adjoining areas if Ismail Jalagir had not decided 
to take the plunge.In fact when Karnataka police 
arrested this foursome under charges of 
'terrorism' there was no one to argue their case. 
Looking at the fact that nobody was ready to take 
up the cases of these people after the unanimous 
resolution by the Hubli bar association (12 th 
February) which had resolved not to fight cases 
on behalf of persons charged with 'anti-national' 
activities, Ismail Jalagir decided to act. It 
need be emphasised that for such courageous act 
he faced wrath of Sangh Parivar. Miscreants tried 
to set fire to his office and even his junior's 
house was stoned. (Ref : Justice Can' See, Won't 
Hear, Suresh Bhatt, Letters, Tehelka, 10 May 
2008) The role of the media in the whole case was 
also biased from day one. Despite senior police 
officers contention that the accused had no 
specific targets in Karnataka and there was no 
definite information, the local media had mounted 
a cacophonic campaign of misinformation.

As of now Mohammad Shoiab is handling many such 
cases in different courts of UP. Of course, there 
is no denying fact that much like Ismail Jalagir 
he is still facing the consequences of taking 
such a principled stand.  He has come under 
direct physical attack at many places and in one 
latest incident in Faizabad courts he had to be 
literally 'cordoned' by a police team to save him 
from getting badly thrashed by fellow lawyers.

It is a different matter none of them have 
refused to be cowed down by such threats and 
intimidatory tactics.

A disturbing aspect of the whole scenario is that 
neither Hubli nor Lucknow are exceptions.

Today one after the other bar associations are 
coming forward and passing resolutions about not 
taking up cases of specific nature which 
according to them have 'anti-national' motives. 
And the latest to join the bandwagon is bar 
associations in Madhya Pradesh who have declared 
that they would not take up any cases where 
alleged operatives of a Islamic organisation were 
nabbed by the police. We know that the M.P. 
police arrested many people including ex-Chief of 
a particular organisation, claiming that they 
were associated with it. ( Let me make it very 
clear at this juncture that I do not hold any 
brief for sectarian organisations who have a very 
bigoted view of history - may they claim 
allegiance to any of the religions.)

The vehemence with which these bar associations 
have come forward to declare and implement their 
resolve, it is becoming clear that for them it is 
another name for wearing patriotism on their 
sleeves. And they have not limited themselves to 
passing resolutions, they have exhibited their 
'readiness' to implement it also. At places they 
have not even hesitated in physically 
assaulting/intimidating anyone who opposed such a 
move or tried to take up cudgels on behalf of the 
accused who were charged with 'terrorism' by the 
police.

The case of Khalid and Tariq who are languishing 
in jail since last four months supposedly ( 
according to the police) for 'executing the 
serial blasts in courts of UP which left 14 
people dead' presents a representative picture of 
the whole situation.

If one searches the record of the Jamia 
Tul-Salahat Madarsa in Jaunpur where Khalid use 
to teach, it tells us that not only he was 
present on the day (23 Nov) in the Madarsa but 
had also checked the copies of the students.The 
judge has been asked to cross-check the UP police 
story which says that Khalid landed in Lucknow in 
a bus on November 23 morning, met other 
accomplices, bought new cycles, planted bombs in 
Lucknow court premises and returned immediately 
to Jaunpur.

The recent decision of the UP government asking a 
retired judge to ascertain whether both these 
persons arrested for the court blasts in state 
are indeed terrorists or not, is an indicator of 
the pressure governments are facing over repeated 
complaints that the state police is implicating 
Muslims as terrorists.

STF - Special Task Force or Special Terrorist Force ?

According to an investigation done by 'People's 
Union for Human Rights' (PUHR) whose extracts 
have appeared in different publications ( Re : 
'Samayantar' - hindi magazine, April 2008)It 
tells us that Khalid was literally kidnapped by 
STF from a snacks shop on 16 th evening ( 
Mariyahu - Jaunpur) by people in civil dress who 
had come in a Tata Sumo which did not carry any 
number plate. Hundreds of people were mute 
witness to the kidnapping drama. Despite Khalid's 
family's best efforts no case of kidnapping was 
registered. On 19 th Decemeber police reached 
Khalid's house and interrogated his family 
members for hours together. Khalid's uncle Zaheer 
told the PUHR team that the police took with it 
Quran and a book on Hadees which was later 
claimed as part of 'terrorist literature'

Tariq was kidnapped by a similar team on 12 th 
December from Rani ke Sarai, Azamgarh at 12 noon. 
The police registered a case of 'missing' (not 
'kidnapping') on 14 th December. The kidnapping 
case gave rise to lot of consternation in the 
area with political and social organisations 
coming forward to protest police inaction. On 17 
th night around three dozen police personnel 
reached Tariq's house, interrogated his family 
members, took their signatures on blank papers 
and also carried with them some books in Tariq's 
possession ( which was later declared as 
'terrorist literature).

Sixteen witnesses of Tariq's kidnapping ( which 
includes 12 Hindus and 4 Muslims) have filed an 
affidavit that Tariq was kidnapped before their 
eyes. Hundreds of residents of Mariyahu did a 
signature campaign and have presented a 'video 
recording' to the administration to tell it that 
Khalid was similary kidnapped before their eyes.

If one were to believe the STF version Khalid 
Mujahid and Tariq, are members of 
Harkat-Ul-Jehadi (HUJI) and were 'involved in the 
serial blasts that left 14 people dead.' it would 
nothing but a mockery of justice itself.

Denying Legal Hearing 'Democratically'

If earlier the 'boycott' by bar associations, 
seemed to be a spontaneous reaction of the 
lawyers to any individual gory act which created 
revulsion in wider populace, now it seems to be 
more organised affair where vested interests 
owing allegiance to one of the sectarian 
ideologies seem to have taken over. These forces 
have tried to manipulate/orchestrate people's 
anger over 'violent acts' in such a manner that 
it has created 'us' versus 'them' like situation 
culminating in the stigmatisation of a particular 
minority community. Much on the lines of the law 
and order people, who are ready with an 
explanation after every such act with names and 
addresses of the miscreants 'from across the 
border', the vocal minority among the lawyer 
community have no qualms in fixing responsibility 
for the violent/terrorist act.

In fact the complete absence of the lawyers from 
the courts in addressing particular cases which 
have/had 'terrorist' bearings has led to a 
situation where many innocent persons are 
languishing in jails for no fault of theirs and 
it has become impossible to get them released 
even on bail.

It would not be incorrect to say that Uttar 
Pradesh is the 'birth-place' of this phenomenon. 
It all started in 2005 when there was a terrorist 
attack on the temporary structure at the disputed 
site. Faizabad bar association took a lead and 
declared that it would not take up cases of 
accused in the particular case. When a team of 
lawyers from outside the city ventured to reach 
the Faizabad courts to take up bail applications 
of the accused, it literally came under attack 
and had to leave the city under police 
protection. When legal proceedings in the 
Varanasi case started ( 2006) where there were 
terrorist incidents in Sankatmochan temple and 
railway station, one was witness to a similar 
action by the Varanasi lawyers. November 2007 
witnessed bomb blasts in the courts of Varanasi, 
Lucknow and Faizabad and then the bar 
associations in Lucknow and Barabanki also joined 
the boycott of 'terrorist' cases.

Mr K.G. Kannabiran, Vice president of People's 
Union for Civil Liberties and a famous human 
rights activist, who is himself an advocate by 
profession, recently issued an appeal to fellow 
lawyers to reconsider and rescind their decision 
of boycott of particular cases. In his well 
publicised appeal he rightly said :

The Bar Resolution stifles right of the accused 
to defend himself at the trial. Our right to 
practice this profession is part of our 
fundamental rights. The accused has a right under 
Article 21 of the Constitution. Article 22 (1) 
gives the right to a suspect to have a lawyer 
present at the time of arrest and interrogation. 
The lawyers right to practice a profession or 
calling is directly concerned with these 
fundamental rights of a citizen who is an 
accused. Article 21 right includes the right of 
the accused to have lawyer for the defense. A 
lawyer's freedom of choice while practicing his 
calling has limitations. We are not here 
concerned with the preferences available to a 
lawyer for practicing his calling. We are, 
Respected Members, concerned here with 
collectively imposing a ban on  lawyers making 
themselves available to defend a particular 
accused? Have the professional members such 
freedom to practice their calling? Can the 
members of the Bar negate the right of the 
accused available to him under Article 21?  The 
position taken by the Resolution is not morally 
or constitutionally justified. An emotional 
response is not a moral response. Arguing for a 
fair trial cannot be equated with or confused 
with asking to exonerate the guilty of his crime. 
Emotional indignation should not degenerate into 
pharisaical self-righteousness. There is no 
dichotomy between "morality" and the Constitution 
if one learns to do a moral reading of the 
Constitution. Let us not proceed on the facile 
assumption that there is no affinity between law 
and justice and law and morality.  

Over-lawyered But Unrepresented !

When there are too many policemen, there can be no liberty.

When there are too many soldiers, there can be no peace.

When there are too many lawyers, there can be no justice.

    - Lin Yutang (1895-1976), Chinese-American writer, translator, and editor.

One does not know the context in which the 
Chinese-American writer, translator and editor 
Lin Yutang mentioned the absence of justice when 
one has too many lawyers. Perhaps he was 
observing  ( to quote Jimmy Carter) the 
'over-lawyered and under-represented' US society 
which had 'heaviest concentration of lawyers on 
Earth' where 'legal skills seem to be unfairly 
distributed with ninety percent of the lawyers 
serving mere 10 per cent of the people.'

Definitely he was not contemplating the situation 
as it exists in many courts of h India at the fag 
end of 21 st century's first decade where one is 
witness to lawyers collectively refusing their 
services to accused in specific cases and thus 
facilitating denial of justice to them.

One can just hope that wiser sense prevail among 
the legal community and they would decide to 
rescind their earlier resolve to boycott such 
cases. In case it does not happen then it is 
"..[u]pto the  Bar Council of India which is a 
regulatory body to take serious note of the 
resolutions passed by the bar associations (a 
forum of  lawyers) which amount to not merely 
professional misconduct but  are  an 
infringement  of  the  constitutional  and  human 
rights of the accused." (Accused, Presumed 
Guilty, april 26, 2008, Economic and Political 
Weekly)


______


[8]

Mutiversity - US chapter

THE PHILOSOPHY OF COCA COLA

by Ashis Nandy

Mr. George Fernandes, who as the Minister of 
Industries threw Coca Cola out of India in the 
late 1970s, has launched a new movement against 
the drink. He still seems unaware that the first 
principle of the philosophy of Coca Cola is that 
it is substitutable only by another cola. For 
once exposed to the world of cola, life in a 
community never remains the same; the spectrum of 
human needs in it expands permanently. Everything 
else about Coca Cola is negotiable, but not this. 
A cola can never be replaced by tea, coffee, 
beer, wine or water. That is why, in the global 
scene, Coca Cola's prototypical competitor is 
Pepsi Cola.

Some of my friends like to flaunt their autonomy 
from the cola culture. They do not drink colas; 
they even force their children to be abstemious. 
Proud of their dissent from mass culture, they 
talk of Coca Cola the same way others talk of 
McDonalds and Woolworth, or red meat, hard liquor 
and tobacco. Their attitude to the cola drinks is 
a mix of contempt (towards an aspect of 'low' 
culture and fear (of a caffeine-based drink 
'injurious' to health).

Yet, the very fact that they have to flaunt such 
dissent and that their skepticism does not cover 
other items of useless consumption, tells us 
something. It tells us that Coca Cola is a 
worldview within which there is ample scope for 
diversity and dissent. Thus, when Fernandes 
banished Coca Cola from India, he thought he was 
being true to his socialism and the principle of 
self-reliance. Actually, he was being faithful to 
the philosophy of Coca Cola. For Coca Cola was 
duly substituted by Campa Cola, a native product, 
and Thumbs Up, launched by another multinational. 
And now, fifteen years afterwards, to spite the 
likes of Fernandes, Coca Cola has re-entered 
India triumphantly. It is even competing here 
with its global counter-player, Pepsi Cola, to 
provide the model of market competition that will 
supposedly be the salvation of Mother India.

It cannot be otherwise because Coca Cola is the 
ultimate symbol of the market. You can have 
orange juice, tea or beer without a global 
market. Theoretically, you can grow oranges or at 
least squeeze them at home. You can make your own 
tea or coffee or brew your own beer, if you have 
the patience. None of these is possible with Coca 
Cola. You have to have it in some ready-made 
form-you need a franchise to produce it and a 
global market to have access to it.

The secret formula of Coca Cola-closely guarded 
by the company and an object of greedy curiosity 
of its competitors-also constitutes a 
paradigmatic puzzle of our times. Some companies 
have come close to the formula, to judge by the 
tastes of their products. Others have 
deliberately chosen not to duplicate it; they 
seek a niche for themselves in the cola market 
not occupied by Coca Cola. But that only deepens 
the mystery-the code still waiting to be cracked, 
the standard yet to be approximated. Local or 
national differences do not affect the mystery, 
as shown by the failure of cola drinks with a 
touch of cinnamon and cardamom to cater to Indian 
taste. Nor does levels of economic activity and 
political preferences. Some isolated cultures may 
find Coca Cola strange, some economies may not be 
able to sustain its production or import, and the 
politicians may try to 'clean' a society of its 
cola-philes. But remove the external compulsions 
and the love for Coca Cola among the moderns 
returns in its pure form.

Air India, which woos its Indian passengers in 
competition with other airlines, has understood 
this perfectly well. Undaunted by slogans of 
self-reliance of its owner, the Government of 
India, the airlines has never encouraged Indian 
cola, not even during the heydays of bureaucratic 
socialism.
Coca Cola touches something deep in human 
existence. Like other elements of the global mass 
culture-pop music, denims and hamburgers-it 
reminds its consumer of the simple, innocent joys 
of living which the modern world has lost but 
which survive symbolically in selected artifacts 
of modernity. Hence both the difficulty of giving 
up Coca Cola and the fanaticism of those fighting 
it.

The philosophy of Coca Cola colours many areas of 
life and the votaries of the philosophy would 
like it to inform all areas of life. They do not 
have to work hard for that, because the 
philosophy is phagocytic; it eats up other 
adjacent philosophies or turns them into 
ornamental dissents within its universe.
One example is liberal-democratic politics. 
Gradually in the democracies, elections are 
getting depoliticised. They are increasingly 
media battles, with advertisement spots and 
droves of media experts and public relations 
consultants remote-controlling the battle from 
sidelines. The voters are given the choice 
between two images, both sold as alternatives to 
the other, while being usually the flip-sides of 
the other.

The candidates think the needs of the electorate 
are created by media experts. The experts believe 
that all candidates are edited versions of each 
other; only their public images differ. For both, 
the ultimate model of 'political' contests is the 
advertisement war among the colas, each 
representing unessential, artificially created 
needs. The aim is to ensure that the electorate, 
seen as mass of consumers, do not get a chance to 
stop and think before deciding their own fate. 
The philosophy of Coca Cola insists that you 
never question the rules of the game, that far 
worse than loosing is to opt out or admit that 
the game bores you.

The philosophy of Coca Cola is the archetypal 
social philosophy of our times. Those who talk 
glibly of the Coca Cola culture subverting other 
'superior' cultures know nothing of its appeal. 
Coca Cola happily grants such superiority when 
the market or advertisement requires it, for its 
appeal is nothing less than an invitation to 
worsen it at its own game. Japan, which can be 
called the Pepsi Cola of the world economy, has 
shown that Coca Cola can be 'defeated' if one 
joins the game sincerely and retools one self to 
fight Coca Cola on its own terrain.
Academician Primakov, the Russian social 
scientist, seemed surprised in 1980s that in 
Dusseldorf, McDonalds employed more people than 
the steel industry and Coca Cola paid more tax 
than Krupps. He failed to appreciate that mass 
culture was not only sane politics, but also 
rational economics, that the defiance of mass 
culture was already the defiance of sanity and 
rationality. To have the luxury of that defiance, 
you have to take on not merely the world of 
mega-consumption but also the concepts of 
normality and rational knowledge.

Decades ago, when as a cultural innovation Coca 
Cola began its journey through the corridors of 
time, it allegedly included cocaine as an 
ingredient. If true, it shows how little the Coca 
Cola company understood its own product. The 
corporation, true to nineteenth-century 
capitalism, sold something addictive and 
injurious to health, to make the demand for its 
product artificially inelastic. It had no idea 
that it was a pioneer selling a worldview and a 
lifestyle, that even without an addictive 
ingredient, it had an addictive brew that could 
ensure as inelastic a demand as any bootlegger or 
drug peddler might want.

Mr Fernandes will not agree, but in the mass 
culture that has begun to engulf urban, 
media-exposed India, Coca Cola is already away of 
thinking rather than a thought.


______


[9]

Iran: Very Urgent ! Alert for Sentenced Iranian activists

forwarded by siawi.org / 8 May 2008

[(Our Iranian friends have been condemned to 
being whip lashed by the Iranian authorities for 
having spoken up for women's rights activists. A 
big campaign is needed to get the Iranians to 
annul the sentence. Send your letters of protest 
at the earliest possible. Thanks.
-Marieme

    -------------

Dear all,

This last month has seen a spate of Iranian 
friends and activists sentenced to harsh - albeit 
suspended - sentences of whipping as well as 
prison terms.

The suspended sentence means that for the 
duration 6 months to 2-3 years, anything they do 
the authorities are unhappy with will make the 
sentence applicable.

The intention seems to be to intimidate women 
activists into silence - who remain one of the 
few vocal groups after the disruption of the 
teachers and students' movements.

Amongst those sentenced is Nasrin, a WLUML 
networker, many of you met in Penang last year, 
as well as others. Nasrin is not intimidated and 
has given interviews condemning the actions by 
the authorities (We still await the sentencing of 
Shaadi and Mahboobeh)

Can you please all circulate to as wide a network 
as possible. Please see attached a sample letter, 
here pasted below. Many thanks

women living under muslim laws

His Excellency, Ayatolah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi 
Head of Ministry of Justice, Jaam Street, 
Vali-e-Asr Avenue, Tehran, Islamic Republic of 
Iran

Your Excellency,

I/we write to express my/our deep concern at the 
news of the revolutionary court in Tehran 
sentencing numerous women to harsh sentences. 
Four women's rights activists, Nasrin Afzali, 
Nahid Jafari, Zeinab Peighambar-zadeh, and Minou 
Mortazi, have been given suspended sentences of 
whipping (10 lashes) and six months imprisonment. 
They have been given this harsh sentence for 
having been part of a small group of people who 
gathered outside the Revolutionary Court in 
March, 2007 to register their objections to the 
trial of five other women activists earlier 
charged for taking part in a peaceful 
demonstration in 2006 to demand the removal of 
laws discriminating against women. Subsequently, 
Parvin Ardalan has also been given a suspended 
sentence of 10 lashes and 2 years imprisonment 
and on May 1st 2008 the 13th Branch of the 
Revolutionary Court sentenced Rezvan Moghadam to 
a 6 months prison term and 10 lashes, suspended 
for 2 years.

We are alarmed at the new trend of handing down 
sentences of whipping for women activists, which 
seems a deliberate attempt to humiliate since the 
sentence places them in the same category as 
criminals and those carrying out vandalism. Women 
activists have been sentenced for "acting against 
national security, disrupting public order, and 
refusing to follow police orders."

It is a matter of grave concern that although the 
Iranian constitution grants the freedom of 
peaceful demonstration, police forces often use 
violent means to disrupt peaceful assemblies and 
arrest women demonstrators who are subsequently 
handed down harsh sentences. We are worried that 
through such treatment of their citizens and 
women activists, the Iranian authorities are 
attempting to ensure that women remain silent and 
give up their basic democratic rights as citizens 
of Iran.

We call upon Your Excellency, as the Head of the 
Iranian Judiciary, to take appropriate steps that 
would enable the authorities to withdraw these 
cases and to ensure that citizens are enabled to 
exercise the right to express their opinions as 
provided for under the constitution.

Yours Sincerely

______


[7]



______



[8] Announcements:

(i)

There will be protests in Karachi, Lahore and 
Islamabad on Thursday, May 8th 2008 for the 
immediate restoration of the deposed judges and 
for purging the judiciary free from the PCO 
inductees and conspirators of the Nov 3rd coup. 
Please come to the protest in whichever city you 
are based in and also inform all your friends in 
Pakistan.

The battle for the judiciary will go on. AZAAD ADLIYA KO BAHAAL KERO!

Karachi
Parking area in front of Rahat Milk Corner, Khadda Market
6:15 - 7: 30 pm
Walk to the legal CJ of SHC, Justice Sabiuddin's house

Lahore
Outside the PPP Secretariat, 25-A, Faisal Town (near FAST)
6:30 - 7:30 pm
Candlelight vigil and peaceful protest.

Islamabad
Outside the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Constitution Avenue
5:30 - 6: 30 pm
Candlelight vigil and peaceful protest.


OUR DEMANDS

1. We demand the complete restitution of the 
pre-Nov. 3rd judiciary with all its powers and 
members.
2. We believe a simple executive order is enough 
to overrule the illegal actions of Musharraf. The 
delay is becoming unbearable.
3. We do not accept those judges who were inducted after the PCO.

Our stance is in line with the opinion of all of 
the lawyers and bar councils of Pakistan, 21 
former judges of the Supreme Court, 5 former 
Chief Justices of the Supreme Court and the vast 
majority of Pakistanis.


Looking forward to your wholehearted participation:
People's Resistance
Student Action Committee
Awami Jamhoori Itehad
Insani Haqooq Itehad
FAST Rising
Young Professionals Lahore
Concerned Citizens of Pakistan
and many other groups of concerned Pakistanis across the country.


(ii)

Join us for an evening of readings and recollections on 1971
Date: 11th May 2008  |  Time: 6:00 pm

Pakistan, just 24 years old, was plunged into a 
major war in 1971. Do we really know what led to 
its dismemberment and what the "other half" was 
going through? If textbooks of history in the 
schools are silent or gloss over the events, can 
we turn to Pakistan's writers and poets to 
discover the truth? While literature focusing on 
that period abounds from Bangladesh, only a 
handful of our fiction writers addressed these 
issues in their works, depicting their versions 
of the "truth". But many questions still remain: 
What do their depictions add up to? How different 
is their view from what the writers in Bangladesh 
chose to write about? What can we learn from 
these stories?

To mark the first birthday of The Second Floor 
(T2F), a special session of readings and 
discussion will focus on this critical juncture 
in the country's history, which also marks an 
important and unrecognized crisis in Pakistan's 
literature. Intizar Hussain, one of Pakistan's 
leading fiction writers and Asad Muhammed Khan, 
the innovative grandmaster of fiction, will share 
their experiences and writings about living 
through and remembering 1971. 

Joining them will be Niaz Zaman, Asif Farrukhi, 
and Saima Hussain. Asif and Niaz have recently 
published Fault Lines, an anthology in which the 
two sides - Bangladesh and Pakistan - are brought 
together, along with writers from India, the USA 
and the UK, through stories related to the events 
of 1971. Niaz Zaman is a writer and editor based 
in Dhaka and Asif Farrukhi writes Karachi and 
lives in fiction. Saima Hussain is the editor of 
DAWN's Books & Authors.

We are grateful to Herbion for making this event possible. Thank You!

Date: Sunday, 11th May 2008

Time: 6:00 pm

Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
6-C, Prime Point Building, Phase 7, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA, Karachi
538-9273 | 0300-823-0276 | info at t2f.biz

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(iii)


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(iii)




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Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), 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: http://insaf.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.