SACW | June 23-24, 2008 / Lal Masjid 2 / intimidation in Kashmir / CNDP / Tribe, Caste / Hindu Far Right / Production of Difference etc
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Mon Jun 23 18:37:56 CDT 2008
South Asia Citizens Wire | June 23-24 , 2008 |
Dispatch No. 2529 - Year 10 running
[1] Pakistan:
(i) Myth of minorities' protection (Editorial, Daily Times)
(ii) Another Lal Masjid? (Ahmed Bilal)
[2] International People's Tribunal intimidated
and detained in Indian - administered Kashmir
(Press Release)
[3] India: CNDP Press Release, 23 June 2008
[4] India: Tribes And Castes - competition for backwardness (André Béteille)
[5] India: Hindu Far Right Terror Network - Is anybody taking note ?
- A New Source of Terror? (Vidyadhar Gadgil)
- Quietly, hardline Hindu outfits build a
network across Maharashtra, Goa (Kavitha Iyer)
[6] Production of Difference: Superiority and Separation (Priyamvada Gopal)
[7] Recently Published:
(i) UK: Domestic abuse within South Asian
communities : I can't tell people what is
happening at home By Shayma Izzidien
(ii) Review: Partisans of Allah - Jihad in South
Asia by Ayesha Jalal (reviewed by Kamila Shamsie)
[8] Announcements:
(i) National Convention On "State Repression &
Black Laws in India" (Raipur, 25-26 June 2008)
(ii) Anti-Emergency Day (New Delhi, 26 June 2008)
______
[1]
Daily Times
June 23, 2008
EDITORIAL: MYTH OF MINORITIES' PROTECTION
The ANP government is challenged by the outlaw
militants of the Tribal Areas and their followers
in Peshawar and has vowed to fight back to
protect the city. But while the resolve is still
in the process of being strengthened, a gang of
"bearded youth with long hair" has kidnapped
around 20 Christians of Banaras Town and savagely
beaten up the rest. The Christians were gathered
at a charity dinner and had no idea that they
would be accused of "bad behaviour". The Taliban
left a message behind: "Christian population
should mend its ways". This is a fresh reminder
for Pakistanis that Pakistan's dirt-poor
Christians have been killed in the past to avenge
the killings of Muslims at the hands of American
"Christians" elsewhere in the world.
Banaras Town or Banarasabad has 350 Christian
families that go back in history. Peshawar itself
is a kind of melting pot of nationalities and
Muslim sects. The act of attacking the poorest
section of the citizens of Pakistan was dastardly
in the extreme. The terrorists, arriving in half
a dozen brand new SUVs and as many pick-ups,
failed to see the moral contrast of what they
were doing. A fully armed gang had attacked the
most disadvantaged section of the city. It would
be a cruel joke if the 20 abductees are kept as
hostages to the demand that the Americans should
leave Afghanistan. Peshawar city has seen
maltreatment of its non-Muslims at the hands of
its "pious" extremists in the past, but this is
the most shameful example of how the city has
lost control over itself and finds itself in a
state of siege even as it parleys with the
Taliban for a "peace" deal.
But why should we single out the NWFP? Punjab has
had the dubious distinction of staging the most
gruesome attacks on the life and property of the
country's constitutionally protected citizens.
Under the jurisdiction of the last government,
Sangla Hill saw the wholesale destruction of the
places of worship of the local Christians after
one Christian was accused - you have guessed it -
of "desecrating the Quran and insulting the Holy
Prophet PBUH". As the government - which boasted
a mismatch of ideology with its patron President
Pervez Musharraf - acted against the vandals with
painful unwillingness, fire-breathing clerics
from Lahore swooped down on Sangla Hill and saved
the culprits from punishment under law.
Faisalabad has the distinction of being the scene
of the self-immolation of Bishop John Jacob after
the conviction for blasphemy of an innocent
Christian. It outdid itself again when on June 5,
2008, the principal of Punjab Medical College,
one Mr Randhava, rusticated 23 Ahmedi boy and
girl students from college and ordered them out
of the college hostel "with immediate effect".
His decision was triggered by the campaign of
some one thousand students of the college
demanding their expulsion. The zealots encircled
the principal's office and he, instead of calling
in the administration, got rid of the minority
students just because they were accused, falsely,
of trying to proselytise on the college premises.
The agitation came from students belonging to
organisations like Muslim Students Federation
(MSF), Islami Jamiat-e Tulaba (IJT) and Anjuman
Tulaba-e Islam (ATI). Some politically
"non-aligned" students joined the siege for the
sake of their own safety and also for the
"empowerment" which the weak enjoy by joining the
strong offenders these days. The rustication
order read: "Due to the religious dispute, hate
material distribution and on recommendation of
the college disciplinary committee, the following
students are rusticated from the college as well
as hostel roll under Rule III clause-V of the
college prospectus with immediate effect to
maintain the law and order situation in the
college and hostel premises".
The students clashed on the basis of religion.
The Ahmedi students tore down the Sunni poster
against their faith and were threatened. The
police arrived. Governor Punjab activated the
administration. A committee has been formed of
three teachers of the College to find out what
really happened. But everyone in the College says
it would be impossible to reinstate the expelled
Ahmedi students. According to a student, as
quoted in a newspaper report: "The College has a
very rich history (sic!) of curbing this fitna
(evil). In the 1974 movement against the Ahmedis,
the College played a very important role. Some of
our teachers, who were then students of the
College, took an active part in that movement. We
are once again ready to lead such a movement if
the Ahmedi students are allowed to come back to
the College".
Up in Peshawar, the state has lost most of its
writ; down in Faisalabad, the dominant sect wants
to finish off an apostatised minority. There are
very few who would like to prevent Pakistan from
violating its own Constitution that gives equal
rights to its minority communities. *
o o o
(ii)
The News,
June 23, 2008
ANOTHER LAL MASJID?
by Ahmed Bilal
In April I had to make an emergency trip to
Pakistan due to the declining health of my
father. It was after more than two years that I
was visiting Pakistan, most of the four weeks to
be spent in my hometown Bahawalpur. When I had
visited in 2005, it had been a visit after four
years, so new roads and cell phones in every hand
were a fresh sight. This time, little seemed to
have changed since my last trip. On my way home
from the airport, it looked like the same old
desert town with its date palms, the dust and the
desert wind.
However, as the car stopped at the main gate of
my parents' house, a poster pasted on the gate
caught my attention. The title of the poster was
"Azmat-e-Quran Conference," and the key speaker
was going to be someone named Masood Azhar. Why
did the name sound familiar? I thought about it
for a moment, but then as the car moved in, the
happy feeling of meeting my parents again
overwhelmed me and I quite forgot about it all.
The next few days were spent making courtesy
calls and getting over the jet lag.
Then came the day when I was fresh again to go
out and meet relatives and family friends in the
city. As I went out, I saw the same poster pasted
all over the city with a lot of white flags
hoisted on all major intersections. I wondered
what was going on, and the name Masood Azhar
brought some old memories of watching this man on
the news. Yes, this is the same Masood Azhar who
founded the Jaish-e-Muhammad organisation and
served time in Indian jails before getting freed
by hijacking an Indian Airlines jet.
Bahawalpur was always a laidback small town where
everyone knew everyone else. Masood Azhar was a
neighbour of my cousins and used to have a small
house which wasn't even visible from the road. I
remember when he was released. The BBC wanted to
film his return, from the terrace of my cousins'
house, but they refused due to privacy concerns.
Since then we heard little about him, in the news
or in local gossip. In general, people didn't
give him much credibility.
My attention was drawn to the graffiti around me.
Gone were the usual slogans of old times,
directing people to visit miraculous witchdoctors
for the solution of all their problems. The walls
were filled with anti-West hate slogans, with
"Al-Jihad al-Qital" (holy war, bloody battle)
written everywhere around the central mosque.
This was not the Bahawalpur I knew.
As we got closer to the mosque, I saw the
adjacent ground filled with bearded men in white
robes, with more of them reaching there in buses,
chanting the slogans written all over the city. A
number of men were uniformed, and they had closed
the road to facilitate the movement of the buses
into the place. The purpose of the conference was
to distribute a new book of Masood Azhar, which
had supposedly substantiated that the jihad these
men thought they were preparing for was actually
sanctioned by the verses of the Holy Quran, based
on their strict politically-motivated
interpretation.
We reached the house of our family friends with
mixed thoughts. Disturbed by these developments,
I asked them what was going on in the city. They
said it had been silently going on for a long
time. Over the years, Masood Azhar had converted
his small house into a multi-storied concrete
compound housing 700 armed men, who freely did
target practice there. All this was located in a
central part of the city, ironically called Model
Town. The police dared not touch these men, and
instead of putting pressure on them to stop their
activities, local politicians actually hired
these men as bodyguards during the elections.
After leaving their house, as we got closer to my
cousins' house, a strange tall building with the
same white flags on top was visible from a
distance. This was Masood Azhar's compound. A few
blocks away from my cousins' house our car got
stuck in a crowd of the same bearded men in white
robes who flocked outside the compound and
watched us suspiciously as we drove through them.
For a moment, I felt like a stranger in my own
hometown. Everyone at my cousins' house thought
of all this as something normal and didn't seem
to be bothered.
Talking to people about this, I had some
interesting conversations with some of the people
who were involved in local politics and the
internal politics of Islamabad. Their
understanding was that Masood Azhar was like
Abdur Rashid Ghazi of Lal Masjid. The way they
explained it, the CIA gets money channelled into
Pakistan through the ISI. Some of it goes to fund
extremists, some of it goes to eliminate them,
and most of it goes into shady bank accounts. The
agencies get their money, the US benefits from
the instability in the region to maintain a
military presence here, Musharraf gets to stay in
power by showing his performance in the war on
terror, and the bearded men in white robes think
they are doing some great service to religion by
dedicating their lives to militancy. So this was
clearly a win-win situation for all parties, at
the expense of the fabric of Pakistani society.
Although I took their explanation with a grain of
salt, I thought a lot of it did make sense. On my
way back home, a huge billboard at the heart of
the city grabbed my attention. It showed a
passenger plane on fire with a slogan on it:
"Another victory for Muslims." I had a flight
back to the US coming up, and the plane on the
billboard resembled the 777 I took to fly to
Pakistan. I wondered if the ones behind this
billboard actually realised what they were
portraying. Beneath the billboard, the cityscape
was filled with common Pakistanis going about
their everyday struggle for survival.
The writer works in the IT industry in the US.
Email: ahmad.bilal [AT] hotmail [dot] com
______
[2]
For Immediate Release/Press Statement
Srinagar, 21st June 2008
SUBJECT: INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE'S TRIBUNAL
INTIMIDATED AND DETAINED IN INDIAN - ADMINISTERED
KASHMIR
CONTACT: Khurram Parvez, Tribunal Liaison
+91-9419013553; +91-194-2482820;
khurramparvez[at]yahoo[dot]com; kparvez[at]kashmirprocess[dot]org
On June 20, the 'International Peoples Tribunal
on Human Rights and Justice in
Indian-administered Kashmir' visited the northern
district of Kupwara, a heavily militarized zone
about 95 kms from Srinagar, to conduct its
investigations in the area, as part of its
ongoing work to be conducted in 2008-2009.
The team comprised of Tribunal Conveners Dr.
Angana Chatterji and Advocate Parvez Imroz, with
a Tribunal staff member and camera crew. They
first visited a mass grave in Trehgam village and
interacted with inhabitants of the area. After
which the team reached Regipora around 3pm and
stopped at a hotel for lunch. After the team came
out of the hotel two persons were sitting on the
ladders, one in a blue check shirt and another in
a white shirt, introducing themselves as Special
Branch Kashmir (SBK) and Counter Intelligence
Kashmir (CIK) personnel. They questioned the
Tribunal staff member about the purpose of their
visit. After responding, Tribunal members
proceeded with the fact finding.
The Tribunal team then visited the martyrs'
graveyard in Regipora, after which they stopped
at a nearby tea stall to speak with local people
about the graves. Four persons, including the
previous two that introduced themselves as the
SBK, CIK personnel again questioned the members
of the team: Who are you?, What are you doing
here?, How many villages you visited from the
morning?, Who are the persons whom you
interviewed from the morning? Are you a foreign
national? (to Dr. Chatterji who is a citizen of
India and resident of the US). The team again
answered their questions without any argument.
After this episode ended another four persons
establishing themselves as SBK and CIK personnel
came to the scene. The personnel asked the
members, how many foreigners are there in the
team and are they carrying passports with them?
The personnel again asked, Who is the Lady? What
is she? Which are the places you visited from the
morning? And whom did you talk and interviewed
from the morning? Three more persons, who were at
different locations in the market, and seen
making phone calls constantly, again questioned
the Tribunal team: 'Did you take any footage and
pictures from the places you visited?' The team
again answered to their queries. In total, there
were 12 intelligence personnel. The questioning
by the personnel took around one hour. Then the
team proceeded towards Srinagar. While the team
rode back, a car started to follow the team. The
team detoured from the highway and went to
another mass grave in the area.
After the Tribunal team left the last site, they
were stopped at Shangargund, Sopore, at around
6:40 pm by three persons in civilian clothing.
The personnel ordered the driver of car to get
down and took him aside. The driver was asked,
'Which places you visited?' he replied them and
then the three persons without proving their
identity forcibly boarded the Tribunal car, which
was already filled to capacity. These personnel
without proving their credentials or offering
justification ordered the Tribunal team to Police
Station in Sopore. When the members asked for
identification, they responded that they would
introduce themselves at the police station.
Police Station Episode:
At the police station Advocate Imroz, Dr.
Chatterji, and the camerapersons were asked to
give details of their identity, the purpose of
their visit to Kupwara, and asked to hand over
the tapes which the police alleged contained
'dangerous' and 'objectionable' material. Dr.
Chatterji and Advocate Imroz stated that the
Tribunal, a publicly announced process, ongoing
since April 05, 2008, had been undertaking its
work peaceably, lawfully, with informed consent
of local people and that they had not visited
restricted areas, and stated that the police had
no lawful reason to demand the seizure of the
tapes. At the police station, where the Tribunal
members were detained for 16 minutes, the
Tribunal team received calls from presspersons
and other concerned citizens. After several calls
to senior police persons, the police released the
Tribunal team.
After the team left the police station a red
colored Indica car, which came out from the
Police Station Sopore, tailed the Tribunal team
again up to Sangrama. In addition, there are
Intelligence personnel stationed at Dr.
Chatterji's hotel. On June 21, she was followed
from her hotel by Intelligence to the Tribunal's
office in Lal Chowk, Srinagar, where about 8
personnel have been stationed the entire day
questioning any person that leaves or enters the
office.
The Tribunal is gravely concerned that team
members are being singled out for intimidation
and harassment by the government - Police,
intelligence, and other agencies. As well, Dr.
Chatterji was stopped and intimidated at
Immigration while leaving India for the US where
she is a professor of anthropology, in April
after announcing the Tribunal, and again on her
re-entry in June.
The Tribunal is extremely concerned at the
harassment and intimidation directed at the team
and how some of its members are surveilled. We
are concerned that such intimidation and
harassment makes further dangerous the work of
the Tribunal which remains daunting under the
best of circumstances. We remain gravely
concerned that such interventions stand in the
way of the Tribunal carrying out its
responsibilities to communities affected by the
culture of violence in Kashmir.
We hope and expect that the Tribunal will not be
harassed, intimidated or threatened and that its
members, as human rights defenders, can continue
their work. We call on our colleagues and allies
to support us in this crucial process and request
that they remain attentive to the tactics of
intimidation and violence in Kashmir.
______
[3]
CNDP Condemns Intransigence of Indian Prime
Minister on the Deplorable Indo-US Nuclear Deal
[23 June 2008]
The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP)
* a national coalition of organisations and
individuals for nuclear disarmament - notes with
great concern the Indian Prime Minister's
obstinate insistence on going ahead with
clinching of the India-specific agreement with
the IAEA. This will be a vital intermediate step
towards operationalising the Indo-US nuclear deal
in the teeth of strong opposition within India.
The Prime Minister wants to go ahead, trampling
upon democratic norms and values, regardless of
all rational considerations, let alone ethical
ones.
The CNDP reiterates its consistent and firm
opposition to the deal on the following grounds
as pointed out repeatedly in the past. The deal
severely undermines the prospects of global
nuclear disarmament by (selectively and
arbitrarily) "legitimising" India's nuclear
status and, in the process, the possession of
nuclear weapons by the existing nuclear weapon
states - both "recognised" and "unrecognised" -
and also the aspirations of other actual and
potential aspirants.The deal will promote the
cause of nuclear militarism and nuclear-weapon
build-up in India against the interests of peace
and the people in the region. It will further
intensify the arms race between India and
Pakistan - both nuclear and conventional.
Pakistan, in fact, made a strong plea for a
similar deal. And the brusque refusal by the US,
instead of dissuading it, would only further
inflame its passions and thereby turn the nuclear
mess in South Asia all the more dangerous. This
deal is also an utterly reprehensible move to
bring India closer to the US orbit as a regional
ally to facilitate the execution of its global
imperial ambitions.This deal is also an utterly
reprehensible move to bring India closer into the
US orbit as a regional ally to facilitate the
execution of its global imperial ambitions.
Furthermore, the consequent shift in focus in
favour of highly expensive nuclear power, if the
deal comes into operation, will significantly
distort India's energy options at the cost of
efforts to develop environmentally benign and
renewable sources of energy.
The CNDP, on this occasion, calls upon the Indian
people to rise in protest against the
intransigence of the Prime Minister and voice
their strongest opposition to the undemocratic
move to impose the deplorable deal on the
country.
Achin Vanaik Admiral L Ramdas J Sriraman ND
Jayaparakash Amarjeet Kaur Sukla Sen
______
[4]
Hindustan Times
June 24 , 2008
TRIBES AND CASTES
- Politics is being driven by the competition for backwardness
by André Béteille
Politics in India is coming to be driven
increasingly by the competition for backwardness.
The principal contenders in this competition are
not individuals, households, or even classes, but
castes and tribes. Even the religious minorities,
whose proud forbears once ruled much of the land,
are learning to recognize the advantages to be
gained from being designated as backward.
Sociologists of an earlier generation had drawn
attention to the wide prevalence of
'Sanskritization', whereby a caste of middle or
inferior social rank claimed a higher status by
adopting the habits, practices and rites of the
twice-born castes and calling themselves
Kshatriyas or even Brahmins. Today, such castes
are less eager to represent themselves as
Brahmins and Kshatriyas than to claim that they
are backward. It is in this way that the lists of
the scheduled tribes, the scheduled castes and
the other backward classes have become
progressively inflated in the last five or six
decades.
In a book entitled First We Are People, the
Swedish anthropologist, Stefan Molund, described
the changing social position of a caste called
the Koris in Uttar Pradesh. The Koris had, before
independence, been grouped with the SCs. This,
their leaders felt, compromised their dignity by
tainting them with the stigma of pollution. They
successfully petitioned the government to have
their name removed from the list. But shortly
after independence, their new leaders realized
that they had foregone the special benefits in
education and employment by asking for a change
of status. So they made another plea, again
successfully, to be re-included in the SC list.
The Koris are not the only community to have gone
through this kind of forward and backward
movement.
What was not widely recognized at first is that
the competition for backwardness would not stop
at the boundary between the advanced and the
backward communities. The Gujjars of Rajasthan,
who have enjoyed the benefits of inclusion among
the OBCs, have been agitating for being
reclassified as a scheduled tribe. They feel that
they will benefit from the reclassification
because the OBCs include powerful castes, such as
the Jats, with whose members they do not wish to
compete. But their inclusion among the STs is not
viewed with favour by the Meenas, who already
enjoy that status and do not wish to have fresh
competitors.
Leaving aside the rivalries among Meenas, Gujjars
and Jats, can the claims of the Gujjars, or any
community, to be designated as a scheduled tribe
be judged any longer on merit, or on objective
grounds? Does expert or professional opinion on
the subject count any more? The problem is not
simply that the subject itself is replete with
ambiguity, but that professional opinion on such
subjects bends so easily to the prevailing
political winds.
What was so striking about the claims and
counter-claims made over the designation of the
Gujjars as a scheduled tribe, was the absence of
any serious discussion of what we should mean by
the term 'tribe'. Does a tribe have any specific
features as a social formation, or can any social
formation be designated as a tribe because it
once had, or is presumed to have had, the
characteristics of a tribe even though its social
composition and organization have in the meantime
changed substantially?
Anthropologists have written about tribes for
well over a hundred years. It was, in fact, one
of the key concepts of their discipline in its
formative years. No one will claim that all
anthropologists have reached complete agreement
on the definition of tribe, but that does not
mean that no yardstick exists for deciding which
groups may be regarded as tribes. One reason why
anthropologists shifted their attention away from
tribes is that in the world as a whole there are
today fewer communities that can be reasonably
characterized as tribes than there were even a
hundred years ago.
In October 1960, that is, nearly 50 years ago,
the Seminar magazine brought out an issue on
'Tribal India'. In my contribution to that issue,
I had suggested criteria for the definition of
tribe, and, like several of the other
contributors, including N.K. Bose and Verrier
Elwin, had drawn attention to the many changes in
tribal life that had already become visible. The
criteria proposed by me were that a tribe should
be more or less self-contained as a community,
and that it should be relatively small and
compact, and relatively undifferentiated and
unstratified. Like the other contributors, I too
had pointed out that what we had in India were
not so much tribes in their pristine form as
tribes that were in transition to a different
mode of organization.
Significant changes have taken place in the
character and composition of many of the groups
that continue to be designated as tribes. Despite
the changes they have undergone since
independence, there is little prospect of any of
them being declassified and removed from the list
of STs. As a matter of fact, new groups have been
added to the list, so that the officially
designated tribal population increased
significantly as a proportion of the total
population between 1951 and 2001. It is said that
groups such as the Meenas and the Gujjars were
organized as tribes at some time in the past.
This is almost certainly true: the Burgundians
and the Lombards were also tribes at a certain
time, and the Germany about which the Roman
historian, Tacitus, wrote was inhabited mainly by
tribes. All this changed elsewhere in due course
of time: only in India, once a tribe, always a
tribe.
The larger tribes are now less self-contained and
more closely woven into the fabric of the wider
society than ever before. They have also become
progressively more differentiated and more
stratified. Their members now live in remote
villages, small towns and large cities. A study
by Christopher Lakra of the Oraons in Ranchi town
made about 20 years ago revealed the advance of
occupational differentiation and social
stratification among them. The Oraons may
justifiably continue to regard themselves as
Oraons, but for how many more decades should we
continue to regard them as a tribe?
The continuous economic, social and political
changes of the last 60 years have led to the
growth of a self-conscious and assertive middle
class among several of the larger and more
dominant tribes. They now include lawyers,
doctors, civil servants, schoolteachers, clerks
and many others in white collar occupations.
Reservations in education and employment have
contributed something to this process, but the
growth would have taken place even without
reservations, for the expansion of the middle
class is an all-India phenomenon which is
changing the character of Indian society as a
whole.
A tribe with an assertive and expanding middle
class is, from the sociological point of view, a
contradiction in terms. Such a phenomenon would
have perplexed the anthropologists of the 19th
century who first embarked on the systematic
study of tribes. But it is the educated middle
class, more than any other class or stratum, that
is most zealous in safeguarding the identity of
the community to which it belongs, and,
especially, in ensuring that it continues to be
designated as a scheduled tribe.
The author is Professor Emeritus of Sociology,
Delhi School of Economics and National Research
Professor
______
[5] [Hindutva's Terror Networking: Is any body listening ? ]
(i)
Herald, Panjim, 22 June 2008
A NEW SOURCE OF TERROR?
----
Four members of the Sanatan Sanstha have been
arrested in Mumbai for setting off bomb blasts in
Thane and Navi Mumbai. But the organisation says
it is not involved. The State Government needs to
look closely into the workings of this outfit,
especially since it is headquartered in Goa, says
Vidyadhar Gadgil.
----
The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) and the
Sanatan Sanstha (SS) have been quick to deny any
responsibility for the activities of the four
Sanatan Sanstha full-time activists who were
recently arrested in Panvel by the Anti-Terrorism
Squad (ATS) for setting off bomb blasts during
the screening of a play 'Amhi Pachpute' in Thane
on 4 June 2008. As news of the arrests spread,
the concerned organisations went into
damage-control mode, protesting their innocence
in the blasts, and condemning the incidents. They
have also turned around and accused the
government of persecuting them, saying that the
enquires by the ATS amount to 'exploitation of
innocent and nurturing of offenders'.
As the matter is investigated further, more and
more skeletons have begun to tumble out of the
closet. Police say the arrested activists were
also involved in earlier bomb blasts, during the
screening of 'Jodha Akbar' and allegedly planted
a bomb outside a mosque in Pen that failed to
explode. These events confirm that extremist
adherents of Hindutva have now begun adopting
terrorist tactics, something that has been clear
since the Nanded blasts in April 2006 in which
two Bajrang Dal militants were killed due to an
accidental explosion when they were allegedly
manufacturing bombs at the home of a prominent
RSS activist.
How much credence is one to give to the denials
of the HJS and SS regarding their involvement in
these attacks? The police have stated that at
least one of the bombs was manufactured on the
premises of the Sanatan Sanstha 'ashram' at
Panvel. The arrested activists are committed
'sevaks' of these organisations. Even if the HJS
and SS are granted the benefit of doubt with
regards to the actual preparation and execution
of the blasts -- and we assume that the activists
planned these terrorist attacks on their own
initiative -- we need to look carefully into what
motivated them.
The accused are reported to have told the police
that they have no regrets about their actions,
and are in fact 'proud of what they did to deter
those who were trying to show our gods and
goddesses in poor light'. In other words they
interpret their actions as defending their
religion.
...best form of defence?
Defence of Hinduism is one of the biggest themes
in the literature and meetings of the HJS and the
SS. In the massive 44-volume compilation titled
'Science of Spirituality', published by the
Sanatan Bharatiya Sanskruti Sanstha and
'compiled' by Dr. Jayant Athavale, founder of the
Sanatan Sanstha, Hinduism is consistently
portrayed as being under threat from the forces
of Christianity and Islam, aided and abetted by
the 'so-called secularists', who are seen as
traitors to Hinduism. The volumes have titles
like 'Protecting Seekers and Destroying
Evildoers' and 'Reinstatement of the Divine
Kingdom'. Defending the faith against the various
purported threats by allegedly anti-Hindu forces
is stated to be the primary duty of all true
believers.
The nature of this 'defence' is spelt out in
great detail. It involves identifying those who
work against 'dharm', making lists of such
people, and then moving to 'eliminate' them. It
is claimed that all this is part of 'spiritual
practice'.
The books even provide a timetable of this
spiritual practice. The period from 1997-99 was
meant for 'impressing upon the mind that
destruction of evildoers is part of the spiritual
practice'.
From 2000-2006 seekers are enjoined to engage in
'actual destruction of evildoers at physical,
psychological and spiritual levels'.
After that comes the preparation for the 'kingdom
of the Absolute Truth' and then the 'commencement
of the kingdom of Absolute Truth'.
There is also another series of publications
which deals with 'self-defence'. These manuals
contain detailed descriptions of various
'self-defence' techniques including training in
firing air rifles.
The 'Science of Spirituality' series also
contains various volumes which can be broadly
termed as 'religious'. They focus largely on
ritual aspects of religion and are full of
detailed instructions about 'correct' practice of
these rituals.
Believers are exhorted to guide offenders away
from the path of incorrect practice. The volumes
in the series support the regressive and
obscurantist practices of the past, including the
caste system, talking repeatedly about the proper
role of various castes in society.
One of the important themes which the series
takes up is the role of the disciple and of the
Guru. The Guru is projected as an essential aid
in following the path to God, and is set up as
infallible. The objective, quite clearly, is to
create a cult of unquestioning obedience to the
dictates of the Guru.
Insults: Give, but no take?
The Sanatan Sanstha also publishes a newspaper
called Sanatan Prabhat (as 'part of the spiritual
practice of seekers of the Sanatan Sanstha'),
which is widely circulated in its areas of
influence, mainly coastal Maharashtra and Goa.
The organisation has claimed in the past, though,
that it does not publish this paper (which is
owned by a trust) but is merely associated with
it.
For an organisation which is so ultra-sensitive
about the slightest imagined insult to Hinduism
-- imagined or real -- the literature of the
Sanatan Sanstha is rife with attacks on other
religions. Priests are depicted with horns,
indicating that they are devils. There are
frequent references to the Bible, alleging that
it promotes incest and other immoral practices.
In September 2004, 'Sanatan Prabhat' carried a
statement saying that the body of St. Francis
Xavier should be destroyed. It has also carried
other scurrilous articles about Goa's patron
saint. In November 2005, 'Sanatan Prabhat'
published an article, 'Mohd. Paigambar: An
incarnation of Tripurasur [an 'asur' or demon]',
which led to rioting in Miraj town of
Maharashtra, and the imprisonment of the editor
of 'Sanatan Prabhat'.
After having created an ideological framework
which creates a fundamentalist mindset and makes
it the 'duty' of the true seeker to defend the
faith against all those who are projected as
attacking it, it is disingenuous of the HJS and
the SS to disclaim responsibility for the acts
engaged in by their members. Ex-members of these
organisations talk about the cult-like atmosphere
that is created, with unquestioning obedience
being stressed. Members are then brainwashed into
believing that Hinduism is under siege. Against
this background, and with all the talk about
'defence' and 'elimination of evildoers', it is
hardly surprising that adherents begin to explore
ways of taking direct action to defend the faith.
In this regard, the philosophy of the HJS and the
SS is not all that different from the philosophy
of terrorists, whom they claim to oppose.
In the recent past, the SS and the HJS have
increased the tempo of their activities in Goa.
'Sanatan Prabhat' has been circulated in Goa for
some years now. The HJS has been conducting a
series of 'Dharma Jagruti Sabhas'. The rhetoric
in these meetings is provocative; speakers cite
supposed 'attacks' on Hinduism by the minority
communities and assert that they will not go
unpunished. In one meeting in Margao, an 'open
challenge' was thrown to the minority community.
In this way, the general atmosphere becomes
communalised and the audience becomes predisposed
to violence.
The HJS had also organised shows of an exhibition
on terrorism by Frenchman Francois Gautier. This
exhibition decontextualises the terrorism in
Kashmir and, worse, adds its own inflammatory
captions to the exhibition, telling the viewers
that if the scenes of Hindus killed by terrorists
'do not make their blood boil, they are not true
Hindus'. The HJS also circulates inflammatory
CDs, which were objected to by various
organisations when the National Commission for
Minorities visited Goa.
The rabble-rousing by the HJS and the SS has
already left a trail of violence in its wake.
There were bomb blasts and a stabbing in
Ratnagiri at the residence of a family which had
converted to Christianity. We have already
mentioned the rioting in Miraj due to an article
on the prophet of Islam in 'Sanatan Prabhat'. The
Karnataka police have also been investigating
into the recruitment by the HJS for an 'army'
called the 'Dharma Shakti Sena'. And now
activists of these organisations have been
arrested for engaging in terrorist activity....
We are fortunate that despite its activities,
there has been no overt violence in Goa as a
result of the activities of these organisations.
But the authorities need to investigate the
activities of these bodies thoroughly and impose
curbs on their defamation of other religions and
prevent them from rabble-rousing in the name of
'defence of Hinduism'. The ground is being
prepared for violence, and in the absence of firm
action, it will not be long before we see violent
incidents in Goa as well.
Can one realistically hope that the
administration will act firmly and take action in
the matter? The extremist right-wing votaries of
Hindutva have developed a feeling of impunity,
and of being above the law, due to the less than
even-handed approach of governments in India when
it comes to dealing with Muslim and Hindu
extremism.
A case in point is the Bombay bomb blasts and the
Shrikrishna Commission Report. While there have
been many convictions in the Bombay blasts, no
serious action has been taken on the Shrikrishna
Commission Report. The feeling of impunity this
results in can be seen from the recent editorial
in 'Saamna', the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, which says
that it is proud that Hindus are taking to
terrorism, and calls for a 'Hindu bomb' to
counter the 'Muslim bomb'.
Unless the authorities act firmly and decisively,
we are in for a bleak future indeed, where the
two varieties of extremism will feed into each
other, with innocent citizens of all religions
trapped in the middle.
o o o
(ii)
Indian Express, 23 June 2008
QUIETLY, HARDLINE HINDU OUTFITS BUILD A NETWORK ACROSS MAHARASHTRA, GOA
by Kavitha Iyer
MUMBAI, JUNE 22: Bal Thackeray may have called
their bombs "damp squibs" and their parent
organisations may have quickly disowned the five
men arrested by Maharashtra police last week in
connection with the crude explosives planted at
cultural venues outside Mumbai, but a closer look
at the groups and the people behind them reveal
an ominous, new network of Hindu hardliners in
western India.
The five men were members of the Sanatan Sanstha
(SS) and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS),
hitherto little-known groups operating in the
hinterland of Maharashtra and Goa. Two of them
are also members of another newly launched outfit
called the Dharmashakti Sena, pictures of whose
inaugural rally in April show young men dressed
in military fatigues.
These groups, which work like wheels within
wheels, have been quietly mobilising Hindus on a
cocktail of Ramrajya, Hindu dharma and
"dharmakranti" - religious revolution - in and
around Mumbai for a few years now, investigations
by The Indian Express have found.
While the SS and the HJS are both registered in
Goa as charitable organisations, the Dharmashakti
Sena was set up in 16 Maharashtra towns and
cities on Gudi Padwa day this April. Its stated
aim: establishing "Ramrajya" and to make Hindus
"capable of action".
Publications linked to the three groups say the
Dharmashakti Sena offers free training in
self-defence and the training involves
inculcating "mental courage". It also reminds
readers of the "armed battle of revolutionaries
and saints", RSS leader Golwalkar's work on
"protecting Hindus" and his teaching that
"weapons should be countered with weapons".
Conversions of Hindus, genocide, what they say is
the Congress government's poor track record
against Islamic terrorism, "persecution at the
hands of anti-Hindus", are recurrent themes,
alongside a call for Hindus and Hindu
organisations to unite.
Unlike leaders of the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal,
the men and women behind these new outfits are
low profile activists who have been quietly
chipping away at the mindset of Hindus in
Maharashtra and Goa. The founder of the SS, the
oldest of the three groups, is Dr Jayant
Athavale, a clinical hypnotherapist who practised
for two decades and also set up the Indian
Society of Clinical Hypnosis and Research.
But the man, estimated to be about 60 years old,
rarely emerges from his "writing work" and is no
longer active in the daily activities of the
group, activists said. "On account of the task of
writing books on spirituality as per the
direction of Guru, spiritual practice and
illness, H H Dr Jayant Balaji Athavale has kept
himself away from the activities of Sanatan
Sanstha and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti for the last
four years," SS Managing Trustee Virendra Marathe
told The Indian Express in an e-mail.
"His interaction with others is limited to the
extent of conveying his thoughts, if any"many of
the seekers who are associated with Sanatan
Sanstha from the beginning have not seen him for
many years, while new seekers have not seen him
at all," he added.
The clinical hypnosis research institute he set
up, in Sion, central Mumbai, is now a small
centre of the Sanstha, where occasional satsangs
are held. "He travels to all the centres," said
Abhay Vartak, the Mumbai spokesperson for the
Sanstha. "Unse milna mushkil hai (it's difficult
to meet him)."
HJS and SS leaders are also cagey talking about
Dharmashakti Sena chief Vinay Panvalkar, thought
to live in the Dadar area of central Mumbai and
who has travelled extensively across Maharashtra
after the outfit was launched. At a
'dharmajagruti sabha' (religious awakening
conference) in Pune in mid-May, Panvalkar is
quoted as saying, "Hindus are cornered from all
sides, but there is no retaliation from them." At
a later meeting in Thane, he says "The war in
future will be a dharma-yudh and Dharmashakti
Sena will be the guiding force."
Police say some of the arrested activists are
suspected to have had trysts with bombs and
violence in the past. Maharashtra's
Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare said,
"We will not simply accept the statements of the
accused that the blasts were their own
initiative. Various members of these
organisations are being questioned. If their role
is found in the planning or the execution of
these incidents, we will certainly write to the
Centre and seek that they be banned." - (With
inputs from Sagnik Chowdhury)
Spreading the word, Melbourne to New Jersey
*Outfits do not have formal memberships; ashrams
in Goa and Panvel near Mumbai, among others, hold
satsangs
* Active members offer time to spread the word;
some travel and are presently in Mauritius
*Funding is through donations. Groups also earn
from sale of literature, audio tapes, CDs
*Travel funded by members, stay sponsored by hosts
*Sanatan Sanstha has centres in New Jersey, Brisbane, Melbourne, Dubai
The leadership
*Dr Jayant Balaji Athavale, founder of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti
*Virendra Marathe, managing trustee of Sanatan Sanstha
*Vinay Panvalkar, chief of Dharmashakti Sena
*Dr Durgesh Samant, national spokesman of HJS
*Abhay Vartak, Mumbai spokesman of Sanatan Sanstha
*Shivaji Vatkar, Mumbai convenor of HJS
______
[6]
The Guardian/UK
June 19, 2008
SUPERIORITY AND SEPARATION
In a world divided and made unequal by economic
and military subjugation we need to think about
points of commonality
by Priyamvada Gopal
Is all enquiry into other cultures problematic?
Though Edward Said's original text of Orientalism
was evasive on this question, in a later preface,
Said made the clear distinction between knowledge
"that is the result of understanding, compassion,
careful study and analysis" and "knowledge that
is part of an overall campaign of
self-affirmation".
Self-affirmation of this kind is everywhere and
it is not harmless. Thirty years after
Orientalism identified this phenomenon as one
that was used to justify imperialism and
invasion, "liberal" white British commentators
still make magisterial pronouncements plucked
from nowhere on the plight of
Asian/Muslim/non-western women with no awareness
of or, indeed, the slightest interest in, the
history of women's activism in these regions.
Others call for war-ravaged societies to be
partitioned on religious lines, oblivious to
complex histories of co-existence, oblivious to
the ways that polarities get sharpened by
invasion and imperialism and, of course, the
disastrous consequences of partitions in various
former colonies. Then there are the endless
encomiums to freedom and progress as
distinctively "western" values to be protected as
such. (Why do they let residual political
correctness stop them short of making a genetic
case?)
Orientalism argued that uneven power relations
"between two unequal halves" distort knowledge.
Even in progressive milieus, non-EuroAmerican
cultures and peoples remain, for the most part,
objects of discussion rather than equal
participants in a global dialogue. If they are
heard at all, it is selectively, through their
loudest and most retrograde voices. This then
bolsters self-affirming claims that those
cultures are inherently
despotic/violent/intolerant (fill in the blanks).
The result is a near-total lack of awareness of
egalitarian and liberationist traditions in other
cultures. Let's say this again: the "west" did
not invent freedom and tolerance, far from it. In
suggesting otherwise, both the so-called liberal
commentator and the radical religious preacher
participate in a false and damaging codification
of inherently diverse cultures into homogeneous
and unchanging entities. This co-operative mutual
hostility does great disservice to real people
and actually existing cultures.
And that includes the heterogeneous cultures of
Britain, Europe and North America. A couple of
years ago, then Labour education minister Charles
Clarke attacked what he called the "medieval
concept of the university as a community of
scholars seeking truth" as well as non-productive
disciplines [ie the humanities] which didn't
benefit the economy in some obvious way. This
kind of emphasis on quantifiable productive
output at the expense of wide reading and
critical thinking was the larger problem
addressed by Orientalism. When knowledge is
whittled down to manageable bytes of information
and corporatised "applied" skills, both "our" and
"their" cultures get reduced to meaningless
generalisations that stress difference over
connectedness.
Such segregationist thinking - in a world divided
and made unequal by economic and military
subjugation - remains the biggest challenge for
our troubled times. We need to be thinking about
points of commonality and intersection instead of
endlessly reiterating differences. In a
non-Orientalist framework, knowledge would be a
shared enterprise rather than a weapon of
superiority and separation. Said himself remained
hopeful, arguing that "there was never a
misinterpretation that could not be revised,
improved or overturned".
Priyamvada Gopal teaches postcolonial studies at Cambridge University.
______
[7] ON RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
(i)
DOMESTIC ABUSE WITHIN SOUTH ASIAN COMMUNITIES:
THE SPECIFIC NEEDS OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND YOUNG
PEOPLE
I can't tell people what is happening at home By Shayma Izzidien (June 2008)
"I can't tell people what is happening at home"
examines the experiences and support needs of
South Asian women, children and young people who
have experienced domestic abuse, the barriers
that deter them from seeking help and the gaps in
current service provision.
It draws on the findings from existing literature
on the subject as well as interviews with service
providers in England and Wales and data from
NSPCC helpline services.
The findings of the report point to a need for a
more targeted and culturally-appropriate approach
to responding to the specific issues and barriers
that exist in these communities.
Full report:
I can't tell people what is happening at home -
domestic abuse within South Asian communities:
the specific needs of women, children and young
people (PDF, 672KB)
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/Findings/ICantTellFullReport_wdf57889.pdf
---
(ii)
Review: Jihad for peace
KAMILA SHAMSIE ENJOYS AYESHA JALAL'S STUDY OF
ISLAM AND POLITICS IN SOUTH ASIA, PARTISANS OF
ALLAH
Saturday June 21, 2008
The Guardian
Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia
by Ayesha Jalal
400pp, Harvard, £19.95
We are four-fifths of the way into Partisans of
Allah before we come to events in recent history,
and even then Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida merit
only passing mention. This is not a book that
takes the view that the war on terror must be
placed squarely at the forefront when considering
jihad. Instead, Ayesha Jalal chronicles the
shifting discourse on jihad in south Asia over
three centuries - placing poets, politicians,
educationalists, mystics and warriors all within
the frame. Central to Jalal's work is the belief
that most writing about jihad post-9/11 has
contributed to a one-dimensional view of a
concept "that historically has been deployed to
justify peace with nonbelievers quite as often as
it has been to justify war".
While discussion of Islam tends to focus on the
Arab world, Jalal makes a compelling case for
paying attention to south Asia, where a Muslim
minority has had a long and complex relationship
with other communities - each period of history
seeing a shift in ideas of jihad. While Muslim
rulers held sway in India, the Wajudi view was in
the ascendant, stressing the unity of creation
and encouraging interaction with non-Muslims. But
as Muslim rule faltered, than collapsed entirely,
other voices clamoured for attention.
One thing that Partisans of Allah makes clear is
that religious discourse within Islam fluctuates
widely, and is entwined with geopolitics. During
colonial rule, in the post-1857 period,
discussion of jihad was shaped around the need
for Indian Muslims to prove their status as loyal
citizens. Significant attention was paid to the
injunction that it could only be fought when
Muslims were prevented from freely practising
their religion. But in the 20th century's early
years, jihad was redefined to take its place
within anti-colonial nationalism. The two leading
figures who took up its banner during this period
were vastly different: Abul Kalam Azad was a
member of Gandhi and Nehru's secular Indian
National Congress, while Maulana Mawdudi was the
founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami, which went on to
play an important role in Pakistan's political
history.
It's particularly fascinating to read how
Mawdudi's hardline ideas developed from his
notion that Islam had been maligned as a
"religion of the sword" by an increasingly
influential and militaristic western world which
controlled the production of knowledge. Those who
view him as just a step or two away from the
militants of today miss one crucial distinction -
Mawdudi believed it was the duty of the state,
not the individual, to declare jihad. The
interpretation of contemporary radicals, in
declaring it a matter of individual conscience,
is "without parallel in the Islamic tradition".
But the drawback of a book with such a wide scope
is the limited opportunity for delving deeply
into any one character - it settles instead for a
broader but shallower look at a number of key
players.
Partisans of Allah is a dense read, and it
certainly helps to have some background in south
Asian history and Islamic thought before
embarking on it. But while it has some
frustrating omissions and elisions, it remains an
erudite and thought-provoking study of the
interplay of religion and politics, with some
particularly interesting things to say about the
history of south Asian Muslims' focus on the
"outer husk" of religion, often to the detriment
of "inner faith".
· Kamila Shamsie's most recent novel is Broken Verses (Bloomsbury)
______
[8] Announcements:
(i) National Convention On "State Repression & Black Laws in India"
25th & 26th June 2008
Gass Memorial Centre, Raipur (CG)
OUTLINE OF THE PROGRAMME
25th June 2008 (Wednesday)
10 to 10:30 am : Introduction - Context &
Purpose of the Convention - Rajendra K Sail,
President, Chhattisgarh PUCL
10:30 to 11:30 am : 1. Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005
-Sudha Bhardwaj, Advocate, Member, State EC, PUCL-CG
2. Attacks on the Human Rights Defenders
- Adv Henri Tiphagne, People's Watch (Madurai, T Nadu)
Moderator: Ms. Rashmi Diwedi, Vice-President, PUCL-CG
11:30 am to 1:30 pm : Theme Address:
"State Repression & Black Laws in India"
Main Speaker: Mr. Rajendar Sachar, Ex-Chief Justice, Delhi High Court
Moderator : Mr. Kanak Tiwari, Senior Advocate, Chhattisgarh High Court
03:00 pm : Rally (From Dharna Sthal, Burha Talab, Raipur)
04:00 pm : Public Meeting (At Burha Talab, Raipur)
07:00 pm : Film Show (Gass Memorial Centre Hall)
11:30 pm to 00:30 hrs : MIDNIGHT VIGIL
(At the occasion of Declaration of Emergency Rule in India in 1975)
26th June, 2008 (Thursday)
09:00 to 10:00 am : Socio-Economic Context of State Repression
& Black Laws
- Anil Chawdhary, Former National President, INSAF
- Gautam Naulakha, Delhi University
Moderator: Dr. Sandeep Pandey, Magsasay Award Winner
10:00 am : Tea
10:30 am to 12 Noon : Terror of Black Laws (Reports from States)
1. Rajasthan ( Kavita Srivastava, PUCL)
2. Uttar Pradesh ( Chittaranjan Singh, PUCL)
3. Jharkhand (Dayamani Barla, INSAF)
4. Bihar (Irfan, INSAF)
Moderator: Com. Janak Lal Thakur, President, Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha
12:30 to 1:30 pm : Terror of Black Laws (State Reports)
5. Chhattisgarh ( Himanshu,Vanvasi Chetna Ashram,Dantewara)
6. Madhya Pradesh ( Shyam Bahadur 'Namr')
7. Maharashtra 8. West Bengal
Moderator: Dr. A Raghwan, IAS
1:30 to 2:30 pm : Lunch
2:30 to 04:00 pm Strategies & Agenda for Future ( Open Session)
Moderator: Dr. Ilina Sen, Dean, Central University, Wardha
04:00 to 04:30 pm : Tea & Conclusion
PEOPLE'S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES-
CHHATTISGARH
Post Box No. 87, Main Post Office, Raipur - 492001: Chhattisgarh: India
E-mail: pucl.cg at gmail.com
(iii)
PEOPLE'S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES:DELHI
C-105, D.A. Flats, Sindhora Kalan, Delhi-110 052
Dear Friends,
As you are aware PUCL-Delhi organizes
Anti-Emergency Day meeting every year to take
stock of the prevailing human rights and civil
liberties situation in the country. As black laws
continue to exist in various parts of the
country, and misused by various governments,
arresting and putting behind the bars not only
innocent citizens but also human rights activists
whose efforts are the only hope of securing the
human rights of people. Guns continue to be used
in place of talks to resolve the differences
between people and governments. People like Dr.
Binayak Sen and T.G. Ajay, the leaders of human
rights movement, continue to face the ire of
governments for opposing/exposing their
anti-people policies. The situation does not seem
to be qualitatively much different from the black
days of Emergency as life and liberties of people
still continue to be threatened.
You are invited to come and share your views on these issues on
ANTI-EMERGENCY DAY
26th of June, 2008 at 5.00 p.m.
at GANDHI PEACE FOUNDATION
Deen Dayal Upadhaya Marg, ITO, New Delhi.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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://sacw.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
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