SACW | June 29-30, 2008 / Nepal's Maoists / India: Witch hunt against Bangladeshis ; Pilgrimage Politics ; Gay Pride

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | June 29-30 , 2008 | 
Dispatch No. 2532 - Year 10 running

[1]  Nepal's Maoists must forget the gun, 
remember free speech ... (Kanak Mani Dixit)
[2]  Immigrants from Bangladesh become fodder for 
the police after the Jaipur terror killings 
(Editorial, EPW)
[3]  Pilgrimage Business in India is bad for secularism
   (i) Sangh Parivar Out To Destroy Kashmiri Ethos
   (ii) Anatomy of the Shrine Board crisis (Praveen Swami)
  (iii) Chauvinism leveraged for political profit again (Praveen Swami)
(iv) Politics of pilgrimage (Sonia Jabbar)
(v) The Yatra's Wrong Turn (Muzamil Jaleel)
(vi) Shed Communal Glasses, See With An Open Mind (Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal)
[4] India & beyond: Religion and cholesterol (Jawed Naqvi)
[5] India: Behind masks or out and loud: gay 
marchers break new ground (Maseeh Rahman)
+ Gay Pride Delhi-Style  (Madhur Singh)
+ Sexuality minorities march with pride (The Hindu)
[6] Announcements:
"Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul"

______


[1]


Outlook
July 07, 2008

THE GATHERING HUSH
Nepal's Maoists must forget the gun, remember free speech ...

by Kanak Mani Dixit

After weeks of wrangling with the other political 
parties on the interim state structure, Pushpa 
Kamal Dahal ('Prachanda') is set to become prime 
minister of Nepal. He will be heading the first 
Maoist government anywhere to come to power 
through the vote, that too as the largest party 
by far in the 601-seat constituent assembly. The 
as-yet-incomplete peace process is now under the 
command of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), 
even as the intricate task of constitution-making 
looms.

There are many 'armchair Maobaadis' in New Delhi 
and elsewhere who would interpret the success of 
the Nepalese rebels to justify the revolutionary 
idealism of their own youth. But the Maoists did 
not become the largest party on the basis of 
their ideology of violent revolution; if 
anything, the ballot was a calibrated move by the 
electorate to entrap the former insurgents in 
government, to force them to give up their 
hard-hearted ways once and for all. Giving the 
CPN (Maoist) a 37 per cent presence in the 
constituent assembly (which also doubles as 
parliament) and 29 per cent of the popular vote, 
the public demands accountability from the 
ex-rebels.

The success at the elections did not 
retroactively justify the brutality of the 
insurgency, which together with the state's 
reaction took 14,000 lives. The 'people's war' 
paralysed Nepalese society with violence that 
will take much time and effort to reverse, and it 
devastated the economy for a full decade. With 
patience and fortitude, a social revolution would 
have helped the populace prosper, whereas the 
armed revolution essentially helped the CPN(M) 
achieve power amidst Nepal's peculiar 
contradictions.

For sure, the success of the Maoists marks a 
decisive demographic shift in Nepalese society, 
and a vote for change by an endlessly frustrated 
population. Members of historically marginalised 
communities all over were willing to test the 
ex-rebels, who devised a masterful election 
campaign replete with populist promises, from 
economic utopia to ethnic provincialism. Even 
though much of the socio-economic dislocation of 
the last decade was the Maoists' doing, the 
hapless Nepali Congress and CPN (United Marxist 
Leninist) were left holding the bag of blame.

Today, we have a situation where: a) the Maoists 
continue to deploy militant youths all over; b) 
their party has been legitimised by the 
elections, its democratic credentials as yet 
untested; and c) they are about to take control 
of the state security machinery. Together with 
Dahal as prime minister, the Maoists are expected 
to stake claim on home affairs, defence and 
finance, among others.

Having landed feet first, the goal of the Maoists 
will be to become an establishment party of 
Nepal, which is of course a good thing. Without a 
doubt, in power Dahal will jettison his 
ultra-nationalist rhetoric so that he can work 
with India, and wear a smile for the 
international community so that donor assistance 
continues to flow. The Maobaadi have already 
turned their back on India's Naxalbaadi, and find 
themselves in the fawning embrace of the cpi(m), 
which for its own purposes holds the CPN(M) aloft 
as the exemplar of responsible leftism.

But what matters for Nepal's citizens is not how 
the world sees the Maoists, but how rapidly the 
latter will evolve into a democratic party 
functioning within the bounds of non-violence. 
While showing leniency towards Kathmandu's civil 
society and the national media, the party could 
seek to establish total control in the districts 
and villages to ensure a long-term grip on power. 
Already, there is a developing culture of 
silence, as the aggressive cadres fan out across 
the landscape. Such intimidation will surely 
endanger the model of participatory development 
that has been the success story of Nepal's 
democracy since 1990.

If the Maoists take the low road, today's vibrant 
middle ground of multiparty politics will be 
flattened even as an extreme right wing rises to 
counter the radical left. The job of Nepal's 
public intellectuals will be to goad the Maoists 
to use their insurgency-era efficiency to 
transform from a politico-military organisation 
to a democratic political party.

The litmus test of this democratic evolution will 
be to see whether the ex-rebels will tolerate 
civil liberties and fundamental freedom in the 
countryside. When en masse the citizens brought 
down the autocracy of Gyanendra Shah, they were 
speaking in one voice for peaceful transformation 
and pluralism, also sending a message to the 
Maoists. When they voted in the April 2008 
elections, they were again asking the Maoists to 
lay down the gun and danda. Prime Minister Dahal 
must only take office with the public 
announcement that his party has abandoned the 
politics of violence for good.

(Kanak Mani Dixit is editor of the Kathmandu-based South Asian monthly, Himal)


______


[2]

Economic and Political Weekly
June 21, 2008

In the Name of Justice
IMMIGRANTS FROM BANGLADESH BECOME FODDER FOR THE 
POLICE AFTER THE JAIPUR TERROR KILLINGS.

The bomb blasts in Jaipur on May 13 are still 
under investigation, yet in the minds of the 
police the perpetrators are already known - from 
among the Bangladeshi immi?  grants in the city. 
Immediately after the blasts, the state gov? 
ernment officials and particularly the union 
minister of state for home, Jaiprakash Jaiswal, 
came out in front of the media and made some 
assertive comments on the purported culprits of 
the blasts and pointed the needle of suspicion to 
neighbouring countries, without any concrete 
proof. With claims of pos sessing evidence 
linking the blasts to the terrorist outfit Harkat 
ul Jihad al Islami Bangladesh (HuJIB), the state 
government has gone about identifying 
"Bangladeshi immigrants" as the actual culprits.

Many Bangladeshi immigrants have since been 
rounded up for detention in Rajasthan. The state 
police has used strong arm   tactics in detaining 
Bengali Muslims by terming them as "illegal 
settlers" in the state. In the name of 
investigation, a large number of people mostly 
from extremely poor back?  grounds have been 
subjected to traumatic interrogation methods of 
the state police. They include migrants from West 
Bengal, Bihar and others (as a recent People's 
Union for Civil Liberties report points out). 
Even those with voter identity and ration cards 
and other identification papers have been rounded 
up and subjected to police harassment. There have 
even been newspaper reports about lawyers of the 
bar in Jaipur passing resolutions to not plead 
for those who have been detained in the blasts 
case.

Many of those who were rounded up for detention 
were brought in from ghettos, termed "transit 
camps" for such migrants. People in these camps 
have been living in abysmal conditions with 
hardly any facility such as water supply or safe 
shelter. Many in these camps say they have 
migrated to India a long time ago or have moved 
from some other states.  The blasts case has been 
used as a ruse by the Bharatiya Janata Party 
(BJP)-led government to raise the bogey of 
"swarming immigrants" from Bangladesh into the 
state. It is well understood that large numbers 
of Bangladeshis cross the Indian border to seek 
livelihood due to extreme poverty and because of 
the frequent occurrence of disasters such as 
floods at home. There have also been reports 
linking extremist organisations such as the HuJIB 
with infiltration across the border.

But the BJP has seen it necessary to carp on the 
immigration problem as a major issue everywhere. 
In the name of stopping "illegal migration" into 
the states where the party has been in power, the 
BJP has been callous in its approach towards 
people belonging to the minority communities and 
those speaking Bengali. The current actions by 
the BJP government in Rajasthan remind us of 
similar moves by the BJP-Shiv Sena government in 
Maharashtra against Muslim workers in Mumbai 
city, branding many of them as illegal settlers 
and forcing them to be deported, before a high 
court in Kolkata stayed deportations.

The complete disregard of human rights and the 
lack of a due judicial overview of the process of 
identifying immigrants is one part of the 
problem. The other issue pertains to the 
callousness involved in investigation of a crime 
of the nature of the Jaipur blasts. A large 
number of poor labourers and unorganised workers 
have been targeted and subjected to harassment by 
linking them to the Jaipur blasts case. The 
statements made by the Rajasthan chief minister, 
Vasundhara Raje, have also hinted at enactment of 
new legislation, similar to the rescinded 
Prevention of Terrorism Act, which would further 
preclude any due process of law, and which has 
always been misused by parties such as the BJP 
when in power. As it is, the BJP has already 
tried to link the Jaipur blasts with the 
allegation that it has continually harped upon - 
that the central government has been lax on 
"national security", thus preparing the grounds 
for using this as a major issue for the 
forthcoming state assembly elections in Rajasthan.

A humanitarian way of handling the migration 
issue would involve the governments of both India 
and Bangladesh, with sufficient judicial 
safeguards to be provided to those whose 
residency is in question. The BJP's 
indiscriminate linking of the issue of 
immigration with terrorist attacks and the sub? 
sequent harassment of various people on the 
suspicion that they are "illegal immigrants" goes 
against the grain of such a humanitarian approach.


______


[3]  PILGRIMAGE BUSINESS IN INDIA IS BAD FOR SECULARISM

(i)

Kashmir Observer

  "SANGH PARIVAR OUT TO DESTROY KASHMIRI ETHOS"

Srinagar, June 24, KONS: Repeating their demand 
of revoking the land transfer to the Shri 
Amarnath Shrine Board and the sacking of the 
Board's chief executive officer, the CPI(M), the 
PDF and the JKDP, have condemned the killing of a 
protestor and the use of force against protestors 
in Srinagar, demanding a high level inquiry into 
the incident.

In a joint statement issued today, Muhammad 
Yousuf Tarigami of the CPI(M), Hakeem Muhammad 
Yaseen of the PDF and Ghulam Hassan Mir of the 
JKDP have also flayed the inflammatory statements 
of the BJP and VHP leaders, saying that Kashmiri 
Muslims have always facilitated the Amarnath 
yatra, not because of Togadias and Khajurias, but 
because of their firm faith in coexistence.

  "The loss of  a  precious life  and  injuries 
to scores of people  demonstrating against 
diversion   of forest land  to the S A  Shrine 
Board     for non-forestory  purposes is 
extremely   painful  as well as lamentable. In a 
democracy people reserve the right   to express 
themselves through peaceful protests. Use of 
force against any peaceful demonstration      is 
unwarranted and condemnable.    We demand a high 
level enquiry in to the unfortunate firing 
incident and     caution the State Government 
to desist from using    force  against people 
and allow peaceful dissent," the statement said.

       "We reiterate our  view   that the  order 
of  diversion of forest land  for non-forestory 
purposes be rescinded forthwith  and the erring 
official  removed and punished .   The 
derogatory incriminating  and highly provocative 
remarks   and the     venomous utterances by 
State  BJP Chief ; Ashok Khajuria and his cohorts 
deserve to be condemned  unequivocally  by 
every responsible citizen . It  hardly needs  to 
be said  that  Kashmiris, particularly  Muslims 
have been  voluntarily   aiding ,  helping   and 
facilitating Yatra  for centuries not out of any 
compulsion  or coercion but  as a matter of 
their  deep faith   in  multiculturalism, 
religious tolerance  and brotherhood of 
humankind.  Kashmiris have continued carrying 
physically weak and old pilgrims on their backs 
to the Cave at the risk of their own lives. They 
did not do this because of any compulsion or 
coercion or because of Togadias , Khujurias, 
Kumars, Shiv Saniks or VHP . They do it because 
of their firm faith in principle of co-existence 
and brotherhood," it said.
"The Sangh Parivar has been all through uneasy 
about this uniqueness of unity in diversity. The 
Parivar is hell bent on destroying this unity and 
divide people on communal lines; horizontally as 
well as vertically; for petty electoral politics. 
We appeal to people of the State to unitedly 
frustrate the evil designs of divisive forces," 
it said.

       "We also urge on the people of the State 
not to lose cool while expressing themselves   on 
this issue.  All of us should be vigilant against 
any drift in the situation and not to allow the 
vested interests to use this situation for petty 
electoral gains," it said.

o o o

(ii)
ANATOMY OF THE SHRINE BOARD CRISIS
How and why did the Jammu and Kashmir government 
allow the Board use of forest land?
by Praveen Swami (June 30, 2008)
http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/30/stories/2008063059891300.htm

(iii)

CHAUVINISM LEVERAGED FOR POLITICAL PROFIT AGAIN
by Praveen Swami (June 29, 2008)
http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/29/stories/2008062959790800.htm

o o o

(iv)

Hindustan Times
June 29, 2008

Politics of pilgrimage

by Sonia Jabbar,

Until two weeks ago, the annual Amarnath 
pilgrimage bore testimony to the symbiotic 
relationship between Kashmiri Muslims and Hindus 
of the plains.  The recent communal tension, mob 
protests and retaliatory fire by the CRPF and 
police that have claimed four young lives so far, 
threaten to overturn it. The credit for the 
chaos, which recalls the vitiated atmosphere of 
the 1990s, must be given to a few key players in 
the state who are trying to gain dubious 
advantage in an election year.

The first is the former head of state, Lt Gen SK 
Sinha (retd). He was due to retire on June 4  but 
insisted that the government illegally transfer 
100 acres of forest land to the Shri Amarnath 
Shrine Board (SASB) of which he was the 
president. This was done ostensibly to build 
permanent accommodation for the pilgrims en route 
to the cave.

Once this information was leaked, and the 
concerned Forest Minister, Qazi Afzal of the PDP 
questioned, his party backtracked and blamed the 
Congress. The Congress blackmailed the PDP into 
obliging the Governor and would have blocked 
construction of the Mughal Road linking the 
Muslim areas of Rajouri and Poonch with the 
Valley, as claimed by Deputy Chief Minister, 
Muzaffar Hussain Beig, whose party the PDP has 
now pulled out of the government. The Valley 
erupted. The Congress was accused of 
communalising the atmosphere.

The PDP's accusation turned out to be a hoax, but 
the Hurriyat, which had been unemployed the last 
few years because of Pakistan's internal 
problems, suddenly woke up and declared the land 
transfer as the first move towards a demographic 
change in Kashmir. Across the Pir Panjal in 
Jammu, the Bajrang Dal, the VHP and sundry Hindu 
groups organised a retaliatory strike to oppose 
the Kashmiris. With everyone out on the streets 
screaming blue murder, no one stopped to ask how 
the people of Jammu would be affected by the 
building of permanent structures and tents on the 
Amarnath route, or how many million Hindus would 
fit into 100 acres of land at an altitude of 
10,000 ft.

It takes a particularly diabolical genius to 
manufacture a crisis out of thin air. In a 
secular state the government has no business 
meddling in religious affairs whether it is 
providing a questionable Haj subsidy or meddling 
in Hindu pilgrimages.

The Amarnath pilgrimage is a fairly recent 
affair, following the discovery of the cave by a 
Muslim shepherd in the 1850s, whose descendants, 
together with Hindu sadhus, were involved in the 
organisation and logistics of the pilgrimage 
until 2001. From all accounts,the pilgrimage ran 
smoothly for 150 years, even at the height of the 
militancy, until the J&K government stepped in.

If there is a case of fixing something that ain't 
broke, it is this. Ever since the government took 
over, the SASB has been mired in controversy. In 
2004, the Governor extended the pilgrimage from 
one to two months, and a second 30 km shorter 
route, via Baltal, was regularised. Various new 
and improved facilities, including a helicopter 
service, were advertised, increasing traffic from 
a few thousand pilgrims to 400,000. The State 
Pollution Control Board complained about the 
sheer quantity of garbage and human waste. The 
SASB promised to build more toilets. In 2005, on 
a hike in the sylvan Betab valley soon after the 
yatra closed, I walked straight into the lies and 
realised to my horror, that the 400,000 preferred 
a lota and the woods.

In 2006, Deepender Giri, the mahant long involved 
in organising the yatra, resigned from the SASB 
in disgust, accusing the Governor of creating an 
artificial lingam, which had begun to melt 
earlier than normal due to unseasonal heat and 
increased pilgrim traffic. To stem the melting of 
the lingam and the protests that followed, the 
Governor, without consulting the Board, ordered 
dry ice to be placed around the lingam, leading 
to further protests.

In all this cacophony, the wise pilgrim should 
pause and consider the object of pilgrimage: 
Shiva. A Bengali babaji from Khir Bhavani shrine 
once reminded me, "Kashmir is always in ferment 
because it belongs to Bhairav." Shiva is the 
creator, preserver and destroyer. In the skandas 
he is constantly called upon to restore the 
balance of the universe, which he often does 
through the tandav, the dance of destruction. 
The wise pilgrim should ask why it is that the 
lingam has begun to melt.

Sonia Jabbar is an independent journalist

o o o

(v)

Indian Express
June 29, 2008

THE YATRA'S WRONG TURN

by Muzamil Jaleel

Ever since it was discovered by a Muslim shepherd 
in 1850, the Amarnath shrine and the annual 
pilgrimage to it signified a bond between Hindus 
and Muslims. Having survived the Valley's worst 
years of violence, a land transfer now threatens 
to polarise the state. MUZAMIL JALEEL charts the 
journey of a raging controversy.

One of the most revered Hindu shrines, Amarnath 
was discovered by a Muslim shepherd in 1850. Buta 
Malik and his family became the custodians of the 
cave shrine along with Hindu priests who came 
from two religious organisations-Dashnami Akhara 
and Purohit Sabha Mattan. This unique ensemble of 
faiths turned the pilgrimage spot into a symbol 
of Kashmir's centuries old communal harmony and 
composite culture.
In 2000, the J-K Government decided to intervene, 
ostensibly to help improve the facilities for the 
annual yatra and the then ruling National 
Conference enacted a legislation to form a shrine 
board, with the Governor of the state as its 
chairman.
As soon as the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board was 
formed, the Government evicted the Malik family 
as well as the Hindu organisations that were 
traditionally involved with the pilgrimage. The 
board did substantially streamline the pilgrimage 
but in the process completely destroyed the 
unique aspect of the yatra when they removed the 
Muslim custodians of the shrine.
In fact, the idea of a shrine board to provide 
better facilities to the pilgrims had taken shape 
following the recommendations of the Nitish 
Sengupta Committee in 1996, set up by the state 
Government to identify the causes behind the 
death of over 200 yatris who were caught in bad 
weather. The Shri Amarnath Shrine Board Act 
introduced by the then J-K tourism minister S.S. 
Salathia set up a board headed by the Governor to 
"administer, manage and govern the affairs of the 
cave shrine".
As per the Act, the board has to have 10 
members-two people who have distinguished 
themselves in service of Hindu religion and 
culture, two women with exemplary service to 
Hindu religion, culture or social work, specially 
in regard to advancement of women, and three 
persons with renown in administration, legal 
affairs or financial matters. The board, however, 
has "two eminent Hindus of the state" as its 
members while all others can be non-state 
subjects. Under the Act, if the Governor happened 
to be a non-Hindu, he can nominate any Hindu of 
the state to head the board.
The board's finances come from funds consisting 
of grant-in-aid from the state and Central 
Governments, contributions from philanthropic 
organisations or persons, NGOs, registration fee 
and others who initiate economic activity en 
route and the 'chadawa' (offerings made by 
pilgrims).

THE first signs of trouble surfaced soon after Lt 
Gen S.K. Sinha took over as the Governor of Jammu 
and Kashmir in 2003, succeeding Girish Chandra 
Saxena, an apolitical and non-controversial 
governor. The state had seen a major political 
upheaval with the defeat of National Conference 
in the 2002 assembly polls and the new coalition 
government led by the PDP's Mufti Mohammad Sayeed 
was at the peak of its enthusiasm. Sinha decided 
to be a proactive Governor, despite the 
controversies he created during his stint in 
Assam, where political parties had similar 
complaints against him.
In Jammu and Kashmir, Sinha began intervening, 
first with the counter-insurgency security grid. 
A retired general, his association with Kashmir 
had begun in October 1947, when as a young 
lieutenant he had fought against Pakistan. It 
seemed Sinha's entire discourse on Kashmir was 
caught in the trenches of the 1947 war in which 
he lost his close friend, Major Som Nath Sharma. 
He enjoyed a lot of clout in the Army, and at 
times officers would listen to him more than to 
the elected leadership of the state.
The Mufti government was upset when Sinha started 
seeking reports from deputy commissioners and 
superintendents of police. These steps of the 
Governor led to much bitterness. At one point of 
time, the acrimony reached such levels that 
Sayeed boycotted a Unified Command Headquarters 
meeting called by visiting Union Home Minister 
Shivraj Patel. The Chief Minister is the chairman 
of the Unified Command Headquarters, the 
counter-insurgency grid of the state that 
includes the Army, paramilitary, police and the 
intelligence agencies.
The rivalry between Sinha and the ruling PDP took 
an ugly turn when the Amarnath Shrine Board, of 
which Sinha was chairman, unilaterally extended 
the duration of the yatra to two months. 
Traditionally, the yatra was a 15-days affair, 
which had been extended to a month. Sayeed 
rejected the extension, pleading both the 
additional burden on the security forces and the 
administration as well as concerns about the 
weather. Sinha, however, took a confrontational 
route and soon four Congress ministers from Jammu 
resigned over the issue. The Congress party had 
come under severe pressure to part ways with PDP 
on the matter. The crisis subsided after the 
intervention of the Congress high command but the 
animosity grew.
Sinha steadily pushed his own ideas. His 
Principal Secretary, Arun Kumar, directly wrote 
to the then Forest Secretary, Sonali Kumar-who 
was also his wife-and managed to get around 4,000 
kanals of forestland transferred to the Shrine 
Board. This order was immediately struck down by 
the Government and a show-cause notice slapped on 
Sonali Kumar for making the transfer without 
following procedures, especially the compulsory 
cabinet approval.
However, when Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress 
took over as chief minister, the relations with 
Raj Bhavan improved. But Sinha harboured a larger 
idea of his own "solution to Kashmir problem". He 
followed his agenda till the day he left 
Srinagar. Sinha came up with several measures, 
thinking that promotion of the Hindu past of 
Kashmir would help increase pro-India sentiment 
in the Valley. He wanted to create avenues and 
institutions for a "patriotic" version of 
research into Kashmir's history, politics and 
conflict in the Kashmir and Jammu universities.
He also came up with the idea of Operation 
Sadbhavna in which the Army would help renovate 
Kashmir's Sufi shrines and mosques. Sinha, 
however, found himself in a controversy as the 
people started saying the step was aimed at 
creating a sectarian divide in Kashmir.
A few months ago, Sinha directly wrote to J-K 
Deputy Chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig 
seeking forest land in Nunwan, Pahalgam and 
Baltal and the setting up of an independent 
development authority run by Raj Bhavan. The 
Government didn't agree to the proposal for an 
independent development authority but did 
simultaneously diverted 800 kanals of forestland 
to the Shrine Board in May.

THE opposition to the Shrine Board acquisition of 
the land has its roots in a sense of insecurity 
about any land transfer in Kashmir. People also 
raised serious questions about timing and purpose 
of this land transfer. The Shrine Board was 
constituted as a body to provide and improve 
services for the pilgrims with the active help of 
the state Government, police, civilian 
administration, army, paramilitary forces and 
also the local Muslim population. This has been 
happening for past more than a century. Why does 
the Shrine Board want land to be transferred to 
them when they already are using this land for 
decades for the yatra? If the Shrine Board is 
working to make the yatra smoother for the 
pilgrims, what scope does it have to conduct 
massive Sufi festivals everywhere? Why does Raj 
Bhavan use the Shrine Board to define the 
cultural and religious ethos of Kashmir in one 
particular manner? These questions have fuelled 
the fire of controversy.
Raj Bhavan's desire to wrest control over land 
has dismayed many, especially since they see the 
Shrine Board as being an extra constitutional 
entity, outside legislative oversight. This has 
happened twice: the legislators asked questions 
about the functioning of the board and were told 
they could not ask questions to the 
constitutional head of the state. This means that 
whenever the elected legislators had queries 
about the functioning of the Shrine Board, its 
chairman took refuge in the constitutional 
privileges of the office of Governor.
When the new Governor N.N. Vohra took over on 
June 25, he had his job cut out for him. Kashmir 
has literally returned to the 1990s with hundreds 
of thousands of people out on the streets 
protesting about the land transfer. The situation 
is fast polarising the state along communal lines 
and if the crisis is not addressed immediately, 
it will cause the Government much harm, 
especially in an election year.

What is the importance of Amarnath?
Legend has it that when Shiva decided to tell 
Parvati the secret of his immortality (Amar 
Katha), he begun looking for a place where nobody 
could overhear him. He chose the Amarnath cave, 
3,888 m above sea level, in a gorge deep inside 
the Himalayas in south Kashmir that is accessible 
through Pahalgam and Baltal in Sonamarg. The cave 
can be reached only on foot or on ponies through 
a steep winding path, 46 km from Pahalgam and 16 
km from Baltal.

How was the Cave discovered?
According to lore, in 1850 a saint gave a Muslim 
shepherd, Buta Malik, a bag full of coal while he 
was with his herd high up in the mountains of 
South Kashmir. When he reached home, Malik opened 
the bag to find it full of gold. An ecstatic 
Malik ran to thank the saint but couldn't find 
him. Instead he found the cave and the ice 
lingam. He told the villagers about his discovery 
and that was the beginning of the pilgrimage.
Every year, lakhs of Hindu pilgrims walk up the 
mountain to reach the shrine. "Originally the 
yatra used to be for 15 days or a month," says 
the Purohit Sabha Mattan president. The sabha 
organised the yatra before the Shri Amarnathji 
Shrine Board took over in 2000. In 2005, the 
board decided to extend the pilgrimage to over 
two months. There is no official record though of 
when the yatra first began. The annual yatra ends 
when Mahant Deependira Giri, the custodian of the 
Holy Mace, carries it to the cave.

How is the lingam formed?
The lingam is formed by a trickle of water 
falling from a small cleft in the cave's roof. 
The water freezes as it drips slowly to form a 
tall, smooth cone of ice-the Shivlingam. It gets 
its full shape in May. Then it begins melting 
gradually and by August it is reduced to just a 
few feet in height. On the left side of the 
Shivlingam are two more ice stalagmites of Lord 
Ganesh and Parvati.

How did problems over the Yatra start?
n In 2000, the J-K State Legislative assembly 
passed Shri Amarnath Shrine Board Act, making the 
Governor the chairman of the board while his 
Principal Secretary became the Chief Executive 
Officer of the board. Till then the shrine was 
administered by Purohit Sabha, Mattan and 
Dashnami Akhara, Srinagar-two Hindu religious 
bodies.
In September 2003, the PDP led J-K Government 
took over the Muslim Auqaf Trust run by the 
National Conference and set up the J-K Muslim 
Waqf Board with the Chief Minister as its 
chairman. The government gave mismanagement as 
the reason but analysts saw a political angle in 
the issue as well: the PDP wanted to dislodge its 
arch rivals NC from the administration of the 
shrines and thus limit its influence.
In 2004, the J-K Government and Raj Bhavan locked 
horns on the issue of the duration of the 
Amarnath yatra. The Governor wanted the yatra to 
be extended to two months from the traditional 
month-long annual pilgrimage. The then Chief 
Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed declined, citing 
an additional burden on security and the state 
machinery besides weather.
The issue threatened to assume a communal and 
regional dimension as four Congress ministers 
from Jammu resigned. Then Congress's entire Jammu 
leadership along with BJP and other Hindu 
organisations openly came to Governor's support. 
The crisis subsided only after the Centre 
intervened.
In March 2005, the then Forest Secretary Sonali 
Kumar issued orders for the transfer of 3642 
kanals of forest land around the holy cave to the 
custody of the Shrine Board. The General 
Administration Department issued a show-cause 
notice to her, seeking explanation for violation 
of rules because the order didn't adhere to the 
Forest Conservation Act and needed prior cabinet 
approval. Sonali Kumar is the wife of the 
Principal Secretary to Governor and CEO, Amarnath 
Shrine Board, Arun Kumar.
In 2005, the Shrine Board decided to bring in 
commercial helicopter service to ferry pilgrims 
to Amarnath. J-K Tourism Corporation insisted on 
using state helicopters but the Shrine Board 
termed it interference in its work and roped in 
private companies. The issue was settled in the 
High Court.
In 2005, Chief Minister Sayeed stayed away from a 
high-level security review meeting of Unified 
Headquarters called by visiting Union Home 
Minister Shivraj Patil, which was a direct 
fallout of his power struggle with the Governor.
In 2007, a top PDP minister disallowed the Board 
from constructing a motorable road from Baltal to 
Amarnath, citing its disastrous environmental 
implications as the reason.
In 2008, the state Government rejected a report 
of an advisory committee which had recommended 
transfer of land in Baltal to the Shri Amarnathji 
Shrine Board for construction of road and raising 
hutments at various points. Forest Minister and 
PDP leader Qazi Afzal, however, constituted a 
committee to look into the issue.

What's the forest land controversy all about?
June 2, 2008: Conceding to Raj Bhavan's demands, 
the state Government sanctioned the transfer of 
around 40 hectares of forest land to the Shrine 
Board. The matter, at the centre of a controversy 
for the past four years involving Governor Sinha 
and the ruling People's Democratic Party, is fast 
turning into a poll issue.
In a statement issued by Raj Bhavan, the state 
Government has okayed the diversion of forest 
land measuring 39.88 hectares in the Sindh Forest 
Division. "The Amarnath Shrine Board is 
fulfilling all the conditions laid down for the 
transfer of the land at Baltal, which inter alia 
includes payment of over Rs 2.31 crore," it said.

o o o

(vi)

Kashmir Times
June 29, 2008

SHED COMMUNAL GLASSES, SEE WITH AN OPEN MIND

by Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal

The trouble maker has finally packed his bags and 
gone. That may be good news for all those who 
understood his machinations or lack of grasp over 
the political and social set up of Jammu and 
Kashmir of which he remained a constitutional 
head for five years. Unfortunately, much as 
everyone would wish, former governor of Jammu and 
Kashmir, Gen Sinha's departure will not undo the 
damage he was responsible for. Political 
analysts, intellectuals and academics had been 
warning since long of the communal and regional 
tensions Sinha was engineering, consciously or 
unwittingly, in Jammu and Kashmir. Finally, as he 
departs, their stand is vindicated and the entire 
state is left seething and boiling in rage, 
violence consuming people's lives and refreshing 
the dormant fear psychosis. As a new governor 
takes over, politicians get busy in shifting 
blame. Of course, one can owe the genesis of the 
Amarnath Shrine Board controversy to the 
governor, but what about the politicians creating 
divisive tendencies and blowing the entire issue 
out of context? And worse still are 
intellectuals, many of them calling Kashmir's 
violent agitation discouraging for return of 
Kashmiri Pandits or emancipated men like G 
Parthasarthy describing this as Pakistan's 
agenda. Media reports, without mentioning 
killings of youth in unprovoked firing, talked 
only of attacks on pilgrims by angry mobs, which 
is far from truth. One never heard of twisted 
tales like that.
The violence erupting on streets of the Valley is 
not the problem but a symptom of a disease that 
may not simply have been sparked by the land 
transfer deal but with the entire functioning of 
the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, which since its 
inception has been taking several steps that have 
gone against the interests of the locals. It has 
been days now since the people in Kashmir came 
out on the streets, first peacefully and then 
giving vent to their anger by pelting stones, 
provoked more violently by the brutal response of 
the police and the security personnel on the 
roads. And, finally it took shape of a political 
revolt, the latent 'azadi' sentiment having woken 
up from deep slumber again. Before one begins 
blaming the people, there is need to understand 
the anger, rather than categorising this entire 
anger as 'communal'. The agitation, as is being 
misconstrued was never against any particular 
community or even the yatra. It is simply against 
the communal policies of the Shrine Board and the 
latest deal of transfer of forest land to the 
Board. The people of Kashmir have not only 
allowed the yatra to take place year after year 
for over a century (even through all the years of 
turmoil), they have also been active 
participants, the shrine itself having been 
discovered by a Muslim family. The deliberate 
forced eclipse of the Muslims from the yatra 
scene, the yatra extension with all its fallout 
on environment and security of the Valley was 
already something that did not go down too well 
with the local population. But never before was 
the yatra challenged. It still is not. Even as 
the transfer of 800 kanals of forest land to the 
Shrine Board for construction is something that 
has sparked anger, no case is being made by the 
angry mobs spilling out on the roads, or by the 
leaders spearheading a campaign opposing the 
government decision, against the yatra, yatris or 
the tourists.
It would be unfair to both brand the seething 
anger as communal and to become absolutely 
passive over the issue. The government response 
is matched by petty politicking and also a lack 
of understanding of the issue, or at least a lack 
of will to grasp realities. The land transfer 
deal becomes an eyesore for the alienated people 
not because the land has to be used for 
pilgrimage but because of decades-long history of 
usurpation of state land, agricultural and forest 
land by agencies from outside. The latter seek to 
occupy land on temporary basis but not only do 
they become permanent fixtures but also lend 
legitimacy for enlarge base of such occupation, 
as has been the case with the cantonments and 
camps of the army and other para-military forces. 
This is what evokes fears of Indian state, 
through its agencies, being in a position to 
manipulate demographics. The opposition to the 
transfer of land for the Shrine Board has to be 
seen in this light.
So where really lies the remedy? Certainly, not 
in branding the entire campaign as 'communal'. If 
the government does that, through media or other 
forms of propaganda, it will only end up fanning 
communal fires. There is no other way out but to 
roll back the land transfer decision if it goes 
against the popular sentiment. In fact, the 
government's task should go beyond that in doing 
away with the Shrine Board that has only flared 
up communal passions. For years, the yatra was 
peacefully being conducted, in accordance with 
its spiritual essence and norms of environment, 
by the Dashnami Akhara. Time the latter is 
revived, or at least a Trust comprising elected 
persons is created. In fact, the same analogy 
should apply to all religious institutions and 
pilgrimages to allow locals to participate and 
regulate religious affairs and leave the State 
out of religious affairs of the people. The state 
should immediately step back whether it is the 
Vaishno Devi pilgrimage, Amarnath or the Auqaf. 
As far as the Amarnath yatra is concerned, it is 
important to revive the original flavour of the 
yatra without its extended period and the heavy 
influx of pilgrims. This would suit both 
environmental norms and the religious 
sensibilities of the pilgrims who have been 
robbed of the spiritual essence of the Amarnath 
yatra with a melting Shivlingam. It is naÐve to 
compare the Amarnath yatra to Vaishno Devi, the 
latter being a year round pilgrimage. It would be 
far better to take lessons, instead, from 
pilgrimages like Kailash Mansrovar where a quota 
system is never seen as an encroachment on the 
religious rights of the Hindus. Why should any 
such quota system and a fixed time period be 
tainted with a communal colour in this state? It 
is important to deal with the crisis without the 
unnecessary communal bias and allow things to 
cool down.


______


[4]


Dawn
June 19, 2008

RELIGION AND CHOLESTEROL

by Jawed Naqvi

A RECENT report in the Daily Mail says British 
Airways have taken beef off its menu for 
economy-class passengers on most international 
flights in a bid to avoid offending Hindus.

The carrier, whose second-biggest long-haul 
market is to India, has instead switched to a 
fish pie or a chicken portion, citing 'religious 
restrictions'.

And of course, true to form a group called the 
Hindu Council in the United Kingdom immediately 
welcomed the deletion of beef from economy-class 
menu of 'most' international flights. The 
council's spokesman also added, "It's good to see 
evidence of how (Hindus) are literally flying the 
British flag by choosing British Airways. Hindus 
are tolerant of beliefs of others and do not 
expect everyone to stop eating a food because 
they don't eat it."

If the claim were true it would be very good, but 
going by so much agitational politics traversing 
India about people's food habits, particularly 
surrounding beef, the council's claim doesn't 
hold. In any case, as the situation exists, 
roughly half of India permits eating beef while 
the other half has banned it. The northern Indian 
states are known as the cow belt because they 
were the first and for a long time the only ones 
to impose the rule.

Now that the Hindu religious groups have wrested 
power on their own strength for the first time in 
a southern state, there is every chance that a 
bit of the cow belt would be extended into 
Karnataka too.

It is not as though all the cows thus saved from 
the butcher's knife are put on a pedestal for 
worship, as many are led to believe. Take the 
Indian capital where the bovine population often 
spills onto precariously congested streets, 
holding up traffic and causing accidents. The 
callousness is only heightened when you see the 
stray cow chewing potentially fatal plastic bags 
they pick up from the open garbage bins. 
Elsewhere the surplus bovine population, despite 
claims to the contrary, is smuggled out of the 
country, miraculously through the heavily fenced 
borders, into Pakistan.

There is this delightful story from a Pakistani 
diplomat who used to have many friends in the 
Indian media during his tenure in Delhi. In one 
of their meetings that India's Border Security 
Force (BSF) and Pakistani Rangers had in 
Islamabad, the Indian side complained about how 
large volumes of heroin were being smuggled 
across the border.

How was that possible with the fence in place, 
they were asked by Rana Chander Singh, Pakistan's 
minister dealing with the smuggling issue. Why of 
course there was this occasional bag of heroin 
that was found stuck on the fence, which showed 
the drug was being tossed across the border, came 
the BSF's reply.

If so, then how come the Indians had never found 
a cow that got stuck on the fence, guffawed 
Chander Singh, or so the story goes. The 
implication was that if smuggling was happening - 
cattle, drugs or whisky - it could be possible 
only with the complicity of those who controlled 
the gates of the fence. In this situation the 
buck never seems to stop.

In any case, I wonder why we can't follow a 
simpler, less confrontational argument against 
beef-eating; one that has the objective wisdom of 
science to support the campaign and not a 
people's subjective beliefs? Red meat, the doctor 
says, is harmful for human beings because it 
plays havoc with the levels of bad cholesterol in 
the blood. Logically the world should listen to 
the Hindu sages and others who prescribe 
vegetarian eating as the pious way. Forget the 
pious bit if you are not religious, but who can 
deny that vegetarian food is easier to digest 
than meats? Any yoga teacher would explain this 
very simply.

There are of course a few laughable myths about 
meat-eating and even cricketer Navjot Singh 
Siddhu suggested that Indian bowlers were not as 
fast as Pakistanis because they didn't eat enough 
chicken. The logic of such an argument would take 
you to South

Korea. Its Olympic performances are infinitely 
better than what we can ever hope for. Is it 
because Koreans consider dog meat a delicacy?

A leading heart doctor at a specialist clinic in 
Delhi once swore to me that if he had his way he 
would add cholesterol-reducing statins to the 
city's municipal water supply - such is the 
tendency of the South Asian gene to accumulate 
lethal levels of lipid in the body. It is another 
matter that the dairy culture of milk, butter and 
ghee prevalent in the regions surrounding Delhi 
has been found to be just as harmful for its high 
cholesterol content. (Lord Krishna, born in 
neighbouring Mathura, as the legend goes, used to 
steal butter - and there is so much music, both 
thumris and bhajans, including a beautiful song 
by K.L. Saigal - celebrating this aspect of the 
deity when he was a child!)

Of course if they were to follow the doctor's 
instructions on healthy eating, most Indians 
would starve, as there is not enough of the good 
food going around. That's perhaps why former Lok 
Sabha Speaker G.G. Swell, an MP from the tribal 
state of Meghalaya, protested strongly when Prime 
Minister Vajpayee, during his 13-day tenure in 
1996, introduced a ban on cow slaughter as one of 
his government's priority objectives. It takes 
courage to question the axiom of the holy cow, 
but the alternative before Swell was to see his 
people starve to death.

The Daily Mail report raises several other 
questions, the obvious one being: What does 
British Airways have on offer for beef avoiders 
who may be travelling in a higher class? Or 
aren't there enough of them travelling Business 
or First for the airline to bother to craft a 
special menu? Here the point of view of a member 
of Sharjah's royal family presents a simpler, if 
also an amusing solution.

It so happened that the emirate of Sharjah, the 
third largest state of UAE, was losing its once 
flourishing hotel business to Dubai, which was 
ironical. Everyone who came to watch the popular 
cricket fixtures in Sharjah would be checking 
into hotels in the neighbouring emirate.

The reason soon became obvious. Sharjah, under 
heavy financial obligations to Saudi Arabia, had 
cracked down on alcohol and had banned its 
consumption even in five-star hotels. Yet the 
breakfast tables would be piled with cold meats 
including pork, ham and sausages, forbidden in 
Islam.

So I asked the ruler's close relative about the 
logic behind serving pork while banning alcohol 
in hotels, particularly when it was driving away 
customers. The answer would be of interest to 
British Airways. "The reason is very simple my 
friend," said the sheikh with a wink. "Pork is 
not as tempting as alcohol."

The writer is Dawn's correspondent in Delhi.


______


[5]


The Guardian,
June 30, 2008

BEHIND MASKS OR OUT AND LOUD: GAY MARCHERS BREAK NEW GROUND

Delhi holds first parade as campaigners seek to overturn 19th-century law

by Maseeh Rahman in Delhi

Hundreds of gay rights activists make history 
yesterday by taking part in the first Queer Pride 
March in Delhi. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
http://image.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/06/29/gay460x276.jpg

Yesterday was the biggest day in the life of one 
26-year-old insurance agent in Delhi, yet he came 
to the city's long-awaited first gay parade 
hiding behind a mask.

"I have to remain invisible," he said. "If my 
parents see me on TV, I won't be able to go home. 
And if my colleagues recognise me, there'll be 
hell to pay in the office."

The gay insurance agent is typical of millions of 
Indians condemned to lead a double life since, 
much like in Victorian Britain, they risk 
becoming social outcasts and even criminals if 
their sexual preferences are revealed.

Though the setting up of advocacy groups and 
helplines in recent years has given India's 
homosexuals a voice and some solace, they are 
still largely a hidden and persecuted community. 
But in a sign of changing times, India's gays, 
lesbians, bisexuals and the traditional hijra 
transsexual community came together for the 
first-ever Delhi Queer Pride Parade yesterday.

"We're not protesting, we're celebrating," said 
Leslie Esteves, a member of the newly formed 
Delhi Queer Pride committee. "This year for the 
first time we felt confident about organising a 
parade in the capital."

Many came in masks, but several who have 
partially "come out", such as a 35-year-old 
lesbian chef, joined the parade without any 
disguise. The chef's sexuality is known and 
accepted by her family and at work. Her 
"straight" family even marched in solidarity 
alongside her. Yet she remains cautious. "I'm not 
100% out," she said, not wanting to be named. 
"Let's face it, India is still a very, very 
conservative society. Moreover, the law sees us 
as criminals."

India does not explicitly outlaw homosexuality 
but under an 1861 penal code enacted by the 
British colonial government, "carnal intercourse 
against the order of nature between any man, 
woman or animal" is punishable by imprisonment up 
to life. The law is mainly used against 
paedophiles, but the high-profile arrest of four 
gay men in 2006 in Lucknow highlighted the fact 
that across India corrupt police sometimes 
utilise the law to blackmail and even rape 
homosexuals.

On Wednesday, a Delhi court will begin hearings 
on a petition by a gay advocacy group demanding 
that consensual adults be exempted from the 1861 
law. Prominent Indians, including novelist Vikram 
Seth and economist Amartya Sen, have also 
demanded a change in the law.

"Anybody who leads a double life doesn't feel 
good about it," the insurance agent said. "I feel 
like screaming at the top of my voice that I'm 
gay, but I don't have the courage. If I tell my 
parents, they'll force me to go for therapy or 
get married. And if I tell my office colleagues, 
I'll become a target of taunts and sexual 
harassment, and could even lose my job. A lesbian 
I know told her boss, and she was sacked. All my 
friends remain in the closet."

Gays and lesbians feel trapped between the law 
and social prejudice. For some, suicide becomes 
the only way out. Two married women discovered in 
a lesbian relationship by their families burned 
themselves to death last month in southern Tamil 
Nadu state.

"Many Indians still believe that homosexuality is 
deviant behaviour which can be cured," said 
clinical psychologist Radhika Chandiramani. 
"Several of my colleagues use aversion therapy to 
treat patients, sent by families, with electric 
shocks and drugs."

But yesterday's march gave many cause for hope. 
"I feel history is being created here," said the 
chef, as she marched arm in arm with her parents 
through the streets of Delhi.

o o o

Time
June 29, 2008

GAY PRIDE DELHI-STYLE

by Madhur Singh/Delhi

For a city of 14 million people, a gathering of a 
couple of hundred may seem miniscule. But for 
Delhi's gay community, the turnout at their 
first-ever Queer Pride this Sunday was beyond 
belief. Over 500 marchers carrying 
rainbow-colored flags and 'Queer Dilliwalla' 
banners marched to bhangra beats, breaking into 
Bollywood-style pelvic thrusts and bust-heaving 
from time to time. Starting from Barakhamba Road 
in the heart of the city's business district - at 
which point the media seemed to outnumber the 
marchers - they walked 2 km to Jantar Mantar, an 
18th century astronomical observatory that has 
become the unlikely hub of sundry protests in 
India's capital. Along the way, they were joined 
by NGO workers and advocates of all causes, 
droves of tourists and resident expatriates, and 
a handful of curious onlookers, all shouting 
"British Law Quit India!" They were evoking the 
famous slogan from India's freedom struggle, but 
referring here to Section 377 of the Indian Penal 
Code, which was introduced by the British to 
criminalize sexual acts "against the order of 
nature." Perhaps even more unexpectedly, few 
marchers wore masks - which the organizers had 
provided for those who haven't come out - and 
there were no protests from religious or socially 
conservative groups. "This is amazing," said 
Ranjit Monga, a public relations executive, "No 
one would've believed 10 years ago a gay parade 
was possible in Delhi."

Sunday's march was a landmark, especially for a 
city long accustomed to sexual repression, and 
now grappling with a newfound permissiveness 
brought about by economic liberalization, and 
aided in no small measure by satellite TV and the 
Internet. Other metro cities like Kolkata and 
Bangalore have been holding Queer Pride marches 
for a couple of years now but this was the first 
in Delhi, considered more conservative than some 
of its metro sisters. Unlike the mostly 
university-educated, urban crowd that marched in 
Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore's marches attract 
people from all classes as well as rural areas.

It took years of activism and advocacy - 
particularly fervent over the last few years - to 
make Delhi's Queer Pride possible. In 2004, 
Voices Against 377, an umbrella group of 12 NGOs 
working on a range of issues from women's rights 
to HIV/AIDS, was formed to file a case in the 
Delhi High Court against Section 377. (The case 
will have its final hearing on July 2 this year.) 
In 2006, celebrated author Vikram Seth wrote an 
open letter against Section 377, which was signed 
by the likes of Nobel-laureate Amartya Sen. "We 
just felt the time was right and Delhi was 
ready," says Gautam Bhan, a city planner and gay 
activist, "We have come a long way from the 
ridiculous attitude that there are no gays in 
India. With this march, we hope to move from 
saying 'Hey, we exist!' to issues like respect 
and dignity." A steady gay scene has slowly 
evolved in most metro cities including Delhi, and 
mainstream magazines like Time Out list gay 
socials. "Even smaller cities have a thriving gay 
scene today," says Monga, "It happens on the 
quiet, but it's there. Attitudes have definitely 
changed. If you don't wave your sexuality in 
people's faces, they let you be. There are jokes 
sometimes, but no organized anti-queer violence 
as in the West." But, as Bhan admits, there may 
be greater resistance in future as the movement 
becomes more widespread and successful.

On Sunday, though, the mood was euphoric. "It's 
been great fun," said Mather George, an 
anthropologist from San Francisco, "I missed the 
dykes on bikes, the naked people and the music, 
but I guess they'll get there!" There was much 
back-slapping and an ecstatic sense of 
accomplishment. "Delhi has come out and spoken 
about the kind of people we want to be," said 
Bhan, "This is not just about queer rights, it's 
about women's rights, about Dalits, about justice 
for everyone." But the enthusiasm wasn't shared 
by the passersby, many of whom looked on 
perplexed or peeved. Passengers in a bus that 
stopped near the marchers said they had no clue 
what the rainbow flags stood for or what the 
marchers were doing. Even the three men beating 
the bhangra drums for the marchers - Monu, Mahesh 
and Inder Bhat - said they had no clue what the 
march was about. "We came to play so everyone 
could dance and have a nice time. That's all we 
know." The march was clearly only a beginning.

o o o

The Hindu
June 30 2008


SEXUALITY MINORITIES MARCH WITH PRIDE

Special Correspondent

- Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Fighting for rights: Sexuality minorities taking 
out a" pride march' in Bangalore on Sunday.

Bangalore: In the first-ever event of its kind in 
Bangalore, the sexuality-minority community of 
the city came together for a "pride march" to 
celebrate their sexuality and demand repeal of 
laws that discriminate against them.

The march - which was at once a protest and a 
festival - started from National College grounds 
in Basavanagudi and culminated at the Town Hall.

The marchers shouted slogans against the system 
that criminalises them as they sang and danced 
all the way. Sporting T-shirts with messages like 
"I am the pink sheep of my family," and 
multi-coloured headgear and masks, they turned 
the occasion into a festival. Messages on 
placards read "Repeal IPC Section 377"; "Give us 
access to public distribution system"; "Love 
knows no gender" and "Nodi swami navirode heege" 
(Look sir, this is the way we are).

Speaking at the meeting in front of Town Hall, 
Arvind Narrain of Alternative Law Forum said that 
the archaic Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code 
criminalised all sexuality minorities, and the 
fight would continue until the law was revoked. 
Manohar of the NGO Suraksha said that sexuality 
minorities were harassed by the police in the 
name of preventing trafficking. He demanded that 
they get all their entitlements as citizens 
without discrimination.

The response of the onlookers along the march was 
varied, ranging from interest and curiosity to 
looks of disapproval. In fact, while some read 
the pamphlets distributed along the way, there 
were others who refused to even take the leaflet. 
But none of this diminished the spirit of the 
marchers.

The "pride march" has its origin in New York and 
it marks the day (June 29, 1969) police raided a 
bar frequented by sexuality minorities, which led 
to a protests. The first "pride march" in India 
was held in Kolkata in 1999, and the city has 
hosted this march every year since 2003.

______


[6] Announcements:

  "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul"
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/afghanistaninfo.shtm

The exhibit will move in September to the Asian 
Art Museum in San Francisco, then to Houston in 
February, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 
New York next June.


_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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/

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