SACW | Nov 13, 2008 / Bigots vs Bangladesh / Sri Lanka: TV Curbs / Taliban in Lahore / India: Husain's exile, Hindutva fascists / Obama's Advisor from the Hindu Right
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Wed Nov 12 23:20:22 CST 2008
South Asia Citizens Wire | October 10 - November 13, 2008 | Dispatch
No. 2579 - Year 11 running
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[1] Bangladesh : The Battle Over Culture - Fundamentalist threats and
secular response :: The Baul statues episode
[2] Sri Lanka: Recent regulations concerning TV broadcasting
challenged (CPA)
[3] Pakistan, Indian govts urged to avoid arresting fishermen
[4] Pakistan: In City of Tolerance, Shadow of the Taliban (Salman
Masood)
[5] The blasphemy case against Afghan journalist Parwiz Kambakhsh
(Coordinamento Italiano Sostegno Donne Afghane)
[6] An Artist in Exile Tests India’s Democratic Ideals (Somini
Sengupta)
[7] India: Terror Has No Religion (Brinda Karat)
[8] India: An appeal for peace in South Bastar (Ilina Sen)
[9] India: Old fears and bitterness now resurface in Assam (Sanjoy
Hazarika)
[10] India: Letter from Feminists to Orissa's Chief Minister
[11] USA: Obama’s Indian - The Many Faces of Sonal Shah
[12] India: Book Review: Unfolding the communal agenda (Ranjona Banerji)
[13] Announcements:
(i) QUEER AZADI MUMBAI invites you to an important public protest and
public meeting (Bombay, 13 November 2008)
(ii) Shubha Mudgal sings for SAHMAT (New Delhi, 22 November 2008)
______
[1] THE BATTLE OVER CULTURE : FUNDAMENTALIST THREATS AND SECULAR
RESPONSE IN BANGLADESH
The Baul statues episode
A compilation of reports and opinions
assembled by Harsh Kapoor / sacw.net | 12 November 2008
http://www.sacw.net/article156.html
______
[2] The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA)
CPA CHALLENGES VALIDITY OF RECENT REGULATIONS CONCERNING TV
BROADCASTING IN SRI LANKA
5th November 2008, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Centre for Policy
Alternatives (CPA) this week filed action in the Supreme Court by way
of a fundamental rights petition, challenging the validity of recent
regulations concerning television broadcasting.
The Minister of Mass Media and Information promulgated a new set of
regulations on 10th October 2008, cited as the Private Television
Broadcasting Station Regulations, under powers conferred by the Sri
Lanka Rupavahini Act, No.6 of 1982. These new regulations seek to
regulate all aspects of private television broadcasting, including
classification of stations and services; issue, revocation, and
duration of licenses; fee structure; territorial coverage; ownership;
duties and responsibilities of private television broadcasters;
extended powers of the Ministry; and content controls.
CPA is of the view that the regulatory regime imposed by the new
regulations violates the fundamental right to freedom of expression
recognised by the Constitution, balanced against the legitimate aim
of reasonable regulation. In particular, the wide areas of discretion
conferred on the Minister in respect of the grant, suspension, or
cancellation of television broadcasting licenses lead us to believe
that the new regime would be seriously susceptible to abuse, both in
respect of the freedoms of expression and information, as well as the
independence and integrity of the Sri Lankan media. Moreover, we do
think that the power to make regulations conferred on the Minister by
the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation Act, extends to such a broad
area as the new regulation seek to cover.
We also note that the new regulations are an attempt to introduce
wide-ranging controls and regulation of the televisual broadcasting
sphere without adequate regard or reflection about the implications
of technological advances of the last decade or so, especially in
respect of internet and telephony based communications. Furthermore,
it is our firm belief that the necessary regulatory regime in this
field is a matter that is more properly to be dealt with by
legislation enacted by Parliament, rather than by executive fiat and
subordinate rule-making.
CPA hopes that the Supreme Court would be pleased to grant leave to
proceed with its application, and further, that the Court would use
the opportunity afforded by this case to further develop its
jurisprudence in securing, protecting, and advancing the freedom of
speech and expression in Sri Lanka.
______
[3]
The News, October 21, 2008
PAKISTAN, INDIAN GOVTS URGED TO AVOID ARRESTING FISHERMEN
By our correspondent
Karachi
Speakers on Monday urged the Pakistan and Indian governments to find
a permanent solution to avoid arresting fishermen from the open sea,
while they are engaged in fishing near the controversial Sir Creek.
The Sir Creek divides sea boundaries between the neighbouring
countries, Pakistan and India. The speakers in a seminar on Detained
Fishermen, organised by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), pointed
out that there is no visible demarcation in the sea. Therefore,
fishermen of both sides mistakenly violate the boundary. In return,
the border security forces of both the countries, arrest them
instantly, dealing with the boat crew as ‘prisoners of war’, they said.
Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Jail Affairs, Gul Mohammed
Jakhrani, presided over the seminar, while Pakistan Institute of
Labour Education and Research (PILER) Director, Karamat Ali, head of
the Indian fishermen’s delegation Velji K Masani, Haji Wali Mohammed,
representing the Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS), PFF
Chairperson, Mohammed Ali Shah, Sami Memon, Mai Bhagi, Ali Walri and
Mai Assi spoke on the occasion.
Mai Bhagi and Mai Assi, the poor fisherwomen, whose sons are
languishing in Indian jails, portrayed the picture of their families’
lives, in the absence of their bread winners. They said since their
bread winners were in jails abroad they were facing hardships to run
their family affairs.
The poor fisherwomen demanded of the government to ensure release of
their sons or extend help to them in this difficult time as they are
facing problems. Velji K Masani said there was the same situation
facing the mothers, wives and sisters of those Indian fishermen,
languishing in the Pakistani jails. This is the same kind of pain
facing the parents of fishermen on both the sides. “I receive a large
number of poor women daily complaining about their plight as their
sons and husbands have been caught by the Pakistani coastal
authorities.”
“I dislike the exchange of fishermen by both the countries, because
it is a human rights issue. They should be released unconditionally,
because they are innocent and not criminals,” he said.
The speakers also pointed out that while the fishermen are released
they have to travel for one week to reach their destination. There
are 434 Indian fishermen in Pakistani jails, besides 379 boats.
However, 55 Pakistani fishermen are in Indian jails along with 87
fishing boats caught by the border security forces there.
Karamat Ali said being neighbouring countries, Pakistan or India
should take the first step to release fishermen unconditionally so
that the other country could realise the fact and respond positively.
He said this might be the only solution to bring happiness in the
life of disturbed families, whose loved ones were in jails.
PFF Chairperson, Mohammed Ali Shah, said 100 nautical miles should be
declared special zone for fishermen of both the sides to enjoy their
livelihood activity without any fear. Shah also urged close
coordination between the community representatives of both the sides
to help each other to fight the same war.
He said the fishermen organisations, representing the community
should have access to visit jails on both the sides and meet their
community people. Shah claims that the fishermen families of Thatta
coastal villages had received letters, which showed that the boat
crew members, who had gone missing after the cyclone hit the wide
Sindh coast on May 19, 1999, are alive and have been in Indian jails.
He said the community people released from Indian jails recently have
confirmed the presence of Pakistani fishermen there. Shah allegedly
said the Indian authorities were denying confirming the actual number
of Pakistani fishermen languishing in their jails.
Gul Mohammed Jakhrani said since the matter was related with the
federal government he could not announce any help for the poor people
on this forum. But he assured to convey the suggestions of this
seminar to the concerned authorities in Islamabad so that they could
use diplomatic sources to find any solution.
_____
[4]
The New York Times
November 2, 2008
Lahore Journal
IN CITY OF TOLERANCE, SHADOW OF THE TALIBAN
by Salman Masood
LAHORE, Pakistan — This city has long been regarded as the cultural,
intellectual and artistic heart of Pakistan, famous for its poets and
writers, its gardens and historic sites left over from the Mughal
Empire.
Salman Masood for The New York Times
In Lahore, Pakistan, sellers of CDs and DVDs complained of slumping
business after threats.
The New York Times
Panic over an insurgency has found its way to Lahore.
The turmoil sown by militancy may have reached into the capital,
Islamabad, but it rarely seemed to intrude here among the leafy
boulevards that are home to many of Pakistan’s secular-minded elite.
But in recent weeks, panic has found its way even here, with a series
of small bombs and other threats that offer a measure of just how
deeply the fear of militant groups like the Taliban has penetrated
Pakistani society.
On Oct. 7, three small bombs exploded in juice shops in a sprawling,
congested neighborhood called Garhi Shahu. The shops, which had
gained a reputation as “dating points,” offering enclosed booths for
young couples to cuddle, were gutted in the blasts. One person was
killed, and several others were wounded.
An unknown group called Tehreek-ul Haya, or Movement for Decency,
claimed responsibility and warned of more attacks against “centers of
immorality” in the city.
On Oct. 9, Shabbir Labha, the president of the local traders
association, received an unsigned handwritten letter that threatened
to bomb Lahore’s biggest video and music market.
The next day, he got an anonymous phone call asking him if he could
do something about the sale of the pornographic CDs and DVDs there.
“I assured the caller that I can,” Mr. Labha recalled, sitting in his
basement office on a recent afternoon.
Within a day, the traders had handed over more than 60,000
pornographic videos and burned them in a bonfire as the city’s top
government officials, the police and a large crowd looked on.
“We were not sure if the threats were made by the Taliban or not,”
Mr. Labha said. “But the bomb blasts in Garhi Shahu had made us
apprehensive. We didn’t want to take any chances.”
The fact that a single, anonymous letter could inspire such a
spectacle surprised many people here. Some voiced alarm that the
tolerant, liberal outlook of Lahore was under attack from Taliban-
style moral policing, usually found only in more restive corners of
the country, like the North-West Frontier Province. There, in cities
much closer to the tribal areas where many militant groups are based,
music stores have been attacked repeatedly by the Taliban.
But in Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province, the music and video
market on Hall Road was famous for the sale of English and Indian
movies, as well as a thriving underground trade in pornographic
movies, which are illegal here. The small stores in dingy, clustered
plazas had attracted buyers for more than two decades.
Despite repeated crackdowns and warnings, the police had been unable
to stop the trade in pornography. But the specter of the Taliban
achieved in a day what the police had been unable to do in years.
Ahmad Rafay Alam, a columnist for The News, one of the country’s
leading daily publications, wrote afterward that the “Talibanization
of Lahore has begun.”
“I was very surprised,” said Moonis Elahi, a member of the provincial
assembly, referring to the response of the traders, who he said were
less concerned about making a stand than about saving their livelihoods.
“The traders wanted to pacify the extremists,” he said.
Since then, the lingering threat of bomb blasts and suicide attacks
continues to sow fear, though many of the letters and the calls have
proved to be hoaxes. Mr. Elahi said a close friend was so fed up with
threats to a school that his child attended that he was contemplating
a move to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
Police officials, however, dismissed the concerns of “Talibanization”
as overblown and played down the threats. “In our assessment the
letter was a hoax,” said Pervez Rathore, the police chief of Lahore.
“It was a local mischief.”
In addition to fear, the Hall Road episode has exposed fissures in
society in Lahore, between the city’s liberal elite and the
conservative impulses of its working and middle classes, some of whom
have excused or supported the threats and the traders’ response.
Ejaz Haider, an editor at Daily Times, one of the leading English
newspapers, said the burning of the CDs did not necessarily mean that
the Hall Road traders had become reformed Muslims overnight. “It just
showed the pragmatism of the traders,” he said.
Khalil Rehman Chugtai, the secretary of the traders’ union of Hall
Road, said the threats were in fact a blessing. “We had been trying
to eliminate the sales of porn movies for long with no luck,” he
said. “The letter helped us to get rid of them.”
Mr. Chugtai said there would now be no tolerance for the sale of such
“immoral movies.” A few days after the bonfire, he said, one video
store owner was found selling pornography again. “We apprehended him,
blackened his face and paraded him through the market,” he said.
Saeed Ahmad, who owns a juice shop near the three juice shops that
were attacked last month, even defended the bomb blasts.
“What happened was for the better,” he said. “They didn’t just serve
juices there. Immoral acts were going on inside the cabins set up by
the owners, who took money from couples.”
Still, Raza Ahmad Rumi, a writer and blogger who takes great pride in
his city, insisted that “Islamic extremism has had very little appeal
here.” The cultural life of Lahore goes on, as it has for centuries.
He said that a recent stage play, “Hotel Moenjodaro,” whose theme was
against religious fundamentalism, drew a packed audience. “It was
very encouraging,” Mr. Ahmad said.
Nonetheless, he said, the Hall Road incident and the juice store
blasts were alarming. “If the traders, the merchant class, which
forms the bulk of the middle class of Lahore, becomes Talibanized,
then the whole complexion of the city will change,” he said. “That’s
a fear amongst the secular intelligentsia and elite of Lahore.”
A version of this article appeared in print on November 3, 2008, on
page A8 of the New York edition.
_____
[5] http://www.sacw.net/article157.html
THE BLASPHEMY CASE AGAINST AFGHAN JOURNALIST PARWIZ KAMBAKHSH
by Coordinamento Italiano Sostegno Donne Afghane, 23 October 2008
The outcomes of the “judicial reform programme” run by the Italian
government in Afghanistan:
The case of journalist Parwiz Kambakhsh
Last October 2007 the criminals who are sitting in the Afghan
government put in jail young journalist Parwiz Kambakhsh, in Balhk
province (Northern Afghanistan). Parwiz was charged with blasphemy
for having circulated an article downloaded from the Internet. This
article focused on the women’s rights in Islamic countries.
Parwiz was sentenced to death by the obscurantist Council of the
Elders from Balkh province. After that, Parwiz spent a year in jail
waiting for the court of appeal to attend his sentence. Now, his
sentence to death has been turned into ten years’ imprisonment. His
lawyers want to file an appeal to the Supreme Court, but Parwiz’s
conviction is likely to be upheld, if there is no mobilization from
the international community supporting Parwiz.
The defamatory accusations against Parwiz by the Afghan religious
courts show that the freedom of speech is still totally denied in
Afghanistan seven years after the US invasion, and that no justice is
actually enforced.
A similar case was that of brave journalist Naseer Fayyaz, who dared
to speak up against the Aghan government and was therefore threatened
to death by well known criminals such as Ismail Khan and Qasim Fahim,
who are currently holding higher government offices. Moreover, he has
been prosecuted by the Afghan intelligence (KHAD) so that he had to
leave his country.
Today the law of the strongest is the only law ruling in Afghanistan.
Whoever dares to oppose the fundamentalists in power and the
religious authorities is punished with harsh sentences, threatened,
pushed to leave the country, killed, prosecuted by the secret
intelligence.
Italy right wing government (2005-2006) set up a very expensive
programme to help rebuild the judicial system in Afghanistan,
following the 2001 Bonn conference and the 2006 London Conference on
Afghanistan. This programme worth about 50 million euro, paid by the
Italian taxpayers, involved hundreds of Italian law experts.
The ridiculous sentence against Parwiz Kambakhsh shows that the
justice programme designed and run by the Italian government has
completely failed. This failure looks even worse if we consider the
huge amount of money spent. In addition, this is also a defeat for
Karzai and for Western governments that have dressed some well-known
criminals with jacket and tie, named them "democratic" and put them
in power.
We call for international support to Parwiz Kambakhsh by all possible
means. Particularly, we are addressing all truly democratic people to
speak up and take action. We count on those people who do not believe
that there are two justices: one first-class justice for the
Westerns, and one second-class justice for the others. We struggle
for freedom for Parwiz Kambakhsh, and we ask for freedom of speech to
all Afghan journalists and to the democratic people of Afghanistan.
CISDA – Coordinamento Italiano Sostegno Donne Afghane
October 22nd, 2008
_____
[6]
The New York Times, November 8, 2008
AN ARTIST IN EXILE TESTS INDIA’S DEMOCRATIC IDEALS
Maqbool Fida Husain, India’s most famous painter, in one of his homes
in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he now lives.
by Somini Sengupta
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Maqbool Fida Husain, India’s most
famous painter, is afraid to go home.
Mr. Husain is a Muslim who is fond of painting Hindu goddesses,
sometimes portraying them nude. That obsession has earned him the ire
of a small but organized cadre of Hindu nationalists. They have
attacked galleries that exhibit his work, accused him in court of
“promoting enmity” among faiths and, on one occasion, offered an $11
million reward for his head.
In September, the country’s highest court offered him an unexpected
reprieve, dismissing one of the cases against him with the blunt
reminder that Hindu iconography, including ancient temples, is
replete with nudity. Still, the artist, 93 and increasingly frail, is
not taking any chances. For two years, he has lived here in self-
imposed exile, amid opulently sterile skyscrapers. He intends to
remain, at least for now. “They can put me in a jungle,” Mr. Husain
said gamely. “Still, I can create.”
Freedom of expression has frequently, and by some accounts,
increasingly, come under fire in India, as the country tries to
balance the dictates of its secular democracy with the easily
inflamed religious and ethnic passions of its multitudes.
The result is a strange anomaly in a nation known for its vibrant,
freewheeling political culture. The government is compelled to ensure
respect for India’s diversity and at the same time prevent one group
from pouncing on another for a perceived offense. Ramachandra Guha, a
historian, calls it “perhaps the fundamental challenge of governance
in India.”
The rise of an intense brand of identity politics, with India’s many
communities mobilizing for political power, has intensified the
problem. An accusation that a piece of art or writing is offensive is
an easy way to whip up the sentiments of a particular caste, faith or
tribe, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, an Indian political scientist, points out.
He calls it “offense mongering.”
There have been isolated episodes of violence, and many more threats,
often prompting the government to invoke British-era laws that allow
it to ban works of art and literature. India was among the first
countries to ban Salman Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses.”
In March, Taslima Nasreen, a Bangladeshi novelist living in exile in
the Communist-controlled state of West Bengal, was forced to leave
for several months after a Muslim political party objected to her work.
Meanwhile, in the western state of Gujarat, controlled by the Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, a political psychologist, Ashis
Nandy, was charged with “promoting enmity between different groups.”
His offense was to write an opinion article in The Times of India
criticizing the victory of the Hindu nationalists in state elections;
the case is pending.
“That politics has gotten out of hand,” Mr. Mehta, the political
scientist, argued. “It puts liberal democracy at risk. If we want
social stability we need a consensus on what our freedoms are.”
Even threats of violence from offended parties are a powerful
deterrent. In Mumbai, formerly Bombay, where Mr. Husain lived for
most of his life, a recent exhibition on Indian masters did not
include his work. Nor did India’s first modern art fair, held in New
Delhi in August. The same week in the same city, a small show
featuring reproductions of Mr. Husain’s work was vandalized.
Of Mr. Husain’s exceptionally large body of work — at least 20,000
pieces, he guesses — there are three that have angered his foes. Two
are highly stylized pencil drawings of Durga, the mother goddess, and
Saraswati, the goddess of the arts, both faceless and nude. The third
is a map of India rendered as a female nude, her head in the
Himalayas, a breast jutting out into the Arabian Sea. Mr. Husain
insists that nudity symbolizes purity. He has repeatedly said that he
had not meant to offend any faith. But one of his paintings, showing
a donkey — to the artist, a symbol of nonviolence — at Mecca, created
a ruckus among his fellow Muslims.
Harsh Goenka, a Mumbai-based industrialist and one of the country’s
most important collectors, has a similar Husain nude, an oil painting
of the goddess Saraswati. As “an average normal Hindu,” he says he is
appalled that Mr. Husain is not safe in his country.
“Keeping him away is, in a way, showing the weakness of the system,
that we cannot protect the rights of the citizen,” Mr. Goenka said.
“If he has done a crime, punish him. If he hasn’t, let him live here
with dignity and peace of mind.”
Mr. Husain calls the current Congress Party-led government too weak-
kneed to offer him protection from those who might harm him. Mostly,
though, he cautions against making too much of his case. India, he
insists, is fundamentally “tolerant.”
Not least, he said, he has always been a vagabond, sleeping on the
Mumbai streets during his impoverished youth, wandering through
Europe to study Rembrandt, or bouncing, as he does now, among several
lavish apartments and villas here in Dubai — or rather, cruising
among them, in one of his five costly thrill machines, including a
lipstick-red Ferrari, his current favorite. Mr. Husain is India’s
best-paid artist. Last March, at a Christie’s auction, his “Battle of
Ganga and Jamuna,” part of a 27-canvas series on the Mahabharata, the
Hindu epic, fetched $1.6 million.
“I am working, it’s O.K.,” he said. “If things get all right, I’ll
go. If they don’t, so be it. What can I do?”
And then he quoted the poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a Pakistani who went
into exile in the late 1970s during President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq’s
regime and who wrote about missing the animosity of his enemies as
much as the affection of friends. “Of course,” he conceded, “the
heart is there.”
On the morning of Id al-Fitr, Islam’s holiest day, Mr. Husain sat in
the back seat of his Bentley as it whizzed past a row of construction
sites, taking calls from Mumbai on his new iPhone.
Back home on the same day, his granddaughter Rakshanda was getting
engaged. It was the first major family function he had missed since
his exile. “Such an auspicious day,” he murmured. “Anyway, we will
have a ceremony here again.”
In Mumbai, it had been his custom to host an annual Id al-Fitr
breakfast for his community, a Shiite subsect that calls itself
Suleimanis. This morning, he hosted one here, too, at a community
hall with steaming plates of mutton and flatbread. A stream of people
came to pay their respects, taking his gnarled right hand, placing it
above their eyes, one after the other, then to their lips. Mr.
Husain, a master of flamboyance, stood beaming in a green silk jacket
embroidered with motifs from his paintings, including several
voluptuous, scantily clad women.
He is now working on two ambitious series: one on Indian
civilization, to be mounted in London, the second on Arab
civilization, which will be exhibited in Qatar.
Here in Dubai, he is at work on a whimsical installation titled “Form
Meets Function,” which will incorporate his five luxury cars,
including a sound piece he intends to create using their engines.
At sundown, he climbed into the passenger seat of the Ferrari,
pounded the dashboard and instructed his driver to hit the gas pedal.
The engine revved, and he squealed in delight. He said he had stopped
driving several years ago, after cataract surgery.
He does not have a studio in Dubai. There are easels in each of the
homes he has bought for his extended clan. He spends a night here, a
night there.
One of them is an 11th-floor apartment with spectacular, south-facing
views of jagged skyscrapers under construction. It is filled with
dozens of small canvases from the 1950s that he had given to a Czech
woman he had once intended to marry, though she turned him down.
She found him recently and returned his paintings. “They belong to
India,” she told him.
This afternoon, recalling the story, Mr. Husain said he would
eventually have to take them home. “Temporarily,” he mused, “they are
here.”
_____
[7]
The Times of India
11 Nov 2008
TERROR HAS NO RELIGION
by Brinda Karat
The aggressive defence by the Shiv Sena of the terrorist activities
of people acting in the name of Hindutva, combined with the BJP's
refusal to
condemn these activities, represent a danger mark in the political
response to the rising tide of bomb attacks and violence against
innocents. Any effort to give terrorism a communal colour will surely
spell disaster for our country.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad once ascribed India's "inner vitality and
resilience" to a "confluence of cultures, faiths and beliefs that has
gone into the making of a composite India". In the Assam serial bomb
blasts, Hindus, Muslims, and tribals were equally victims. It is our
country's tragedy that we have before us another type of
"confluence", the confluence of the blood of innocent victims,
regardless of community, religion, sex or age. The death of five-year-
old Morromi, her beautiful face and little body burnt beyond
recognition, symbolises the helplessness of the innocent victim.
Between 2004 and 2008, India has been the victim of at least 25 major
bomb blasts in which 717 people were killed and hundreds injured.
Earlier, after every such attack, investigating agencies would point
to the involvement of Pakistan-based terrorist networks. In some
cases such terrorists were identified, and many shot dead. A feature
of recent terrorist attacks, however, is the involvement of a network
of groups drawn from a small section of Indian Muslim youth, revealed
in investigations.
The failure of the state to ensure justice to the victims of communal
attacks and to punish those guilty of serious crimes against the
minorities is indeed attracting a few elements among Muslim youth to
the extremist cause. Such feelings of alienation get exacerbated when
Muslim youth in various localities are rounded up, harassed and
tortured even when there is not a shred of evidence against them.
We require the widest possible secular mobilisation against the
profiling and demonisation of a whole community. Prominent Muslim
organisations have condemned those involved in terrorist attacks. It
is essential to isolate and fight back those extremist forces within
the community who seek to exploit the genuine grievances of Muslims.
These extremists are the enemies of the Muslim people at large and
seek a social order that denies ordinary Muslims their fundamental
human rights. Groups and individuals who are in a state of denial
about the involvement of such elements, regardless of their
intentions, can hardly be considered friends of the victimised
minority community.
Strong action must be taken against the guilty established through
legal, transparent procedures and must apply to terror groups
regardless of what religion they claim to represent. On the basis of
the evidence it has, the Centre has pleaded before the Supreme Court
for a continuation of the ban on SIMI. It is wrong for some parties
to demand that the ban be lifted. The list of 32 organisations that
are proscribed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act also
includes terrorist organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-
Mohammad, Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen, Khalistan Zindabad Force, International
Sikh Youth Federation and Babbar Khalsa International. Yet today when
there is mounting evidence of involvement in terrorist attacks
against the Bajrang Dal and other such organisations, the government
has not taken action against them. It is such double standards that
deeply compromise, if not put to question, the secular character of
the state.
Particularly disturbing is the report of the possible involvement of
a serving army officer along with two ex-army officers, both of whom
are linked to the Bhonsala Military School run by an RSS-founded
trust in Nashik. This is the first time that a serving army officer
is suspected to be involved in a terrorist crime of this nature. It
is known that army recruitment is disallowed for anyone with
political affiliations. But is the screening applied to all
affiliations, including those who may have direct or indirect
contacts with the RSS or affiliated organisations?
The Bhonsala school was already on the radar of the Anti-Terrorist
Squad (ATS) in Maharashtra in the 2006 Nanded bomb blast case. The
ATS unearthed a conspiracy by the Bajrang Dal in 2006 after a bomb
they were making exploded and killed two of them. Two of the accused
confessed that they underwent training at the branch in Nagpur. One
of the accused stated that he attended a training camp organised
there by the RSS in which two retired ex-servicemen and a retired
officer of the Intelligence Bureau were present. Three dozen more,
mainly Bajrang Dal activists, were also named. Shockingly, nothing
came of this investigation. The cases were handed over to the CBI
where the entire matter was given a quiet burial.
Maharashtra is run by a Congress-led government. Why did it not act
on the earlier ATS investigation? Who was responsible for the CBI's
weakening of the case? Why has the Bhonsala school been allowed to
function even after its links with the accused in the earlier Nanded
case were established? Has any enquiry been conducted into its
activities and if not, why so? What is the extent of penetration of
such elements into our security forces?
India's fight against terror is as much a political fight as an
administrative one. Although extremist groups act in the name of
religion, the vast majority of believers, whether Muslim or Hindu,
abhor violence that kills innocent people. This is the abiding
strength of our country. Terrorism cannot be ascribed to any one
religion. The politics of secularism is the only means to ensure the
unity of India in the fight against terror.
The writer is a CPM Rajya Sabha MP.
_____
[8] [visit: www.freebinayaksen.org]
The Hindu, 21 October 2008
AN APPEAL FOR PEACE IN SOUTH BASTAR
by Ilina Sen
Dr. Ilina Sen presents certain proposals made by Dr. Binayak Sen,
medical practitioner and leading member of the People’s Union for
Civil Liberties, Chhattisgarh. She has written this based on
discussions with him during recent visits to the Raipur Jail where he
is since May 14, 2007.
The present situation in South Bastar is characterised by an
infinitude of chronic deprivation, along with a complete absence of
political discourse. On the one hand we have the Salwa Judum, which
the government dishonestly tries to characterise as a “people’s
response to Maoism.” On the other hand, there is a purely military
engagement between the state-based forces and the Maoists, which act
as a proxy to a political discourse. Both parties to this enga gement
deliberately ignore the fact that a purely military solution, imposed
by either party, even if it were possible, would be neither valid nor
sustainable.
Phase 1
Any quest for a resolution of this situation cannot start by
addressing the humanitarian problem on the ground alone, catastrophic
as that no doubt is. The humanitarian situation in South Bastar today
is both the end product as well as the precipitating factor behind
the current impasse. Any standard appeal for peace would begin with
an agenda for the resolution of the humanitarian situation, but given
the total breakdown of societal mechanisms in the area, this might
have limited possibilities for success. Instead, the first and most
urgent necessity is the establishment of an institutional forum for
political engagement without preconditions. The purpose of this forum
will not be to search for solutions, but rather to concentrate on the
identification and recognition of participants in the forum, and the
elaboration of an agenda as well as the guarantees necessary for the
forum to conduct its business, that is, talks about talks.
Essentially this proposal resembles that suggested on certain
occasions for the resolution of the current situation in Jammu and
Kashmir. The identification of members of the forum must be an
inclusive process. This must include, apart from the government and
the Maoists, representatives of political parties as well as civil
society in the area of South Bastar.
Phase 2
Once this institutional mechanism is in place, it would undertake,
within its overall supervision, a specific series of measures
directed at relieving the humanitarian situation on the ground. As an
immediate priority, the problems to be addressed will include Food
and Water, Shelter and Livelihood, Health Care, and Transport and
Infrastructure.
Education is a more contentious subject and may be addressed once we
move beyond the preliminary stages.
Food and Water: For all intents and purposes, the entire region is
famine-stricken and should be treated as such. The indigenous systems
of food production and livelihood have been destroyed. A universal
public distribution system (PDS), at zero cost to the identified card-
bearing consumers, should be put in place as an immediate priority.
The identification of consumer households should be through
electronic ration cards that can be redeemed at any geographical
location in the affected area. This will leave the option open for
households and household members to either return to their villages
or continue to reside at whichever camp or other place they may have
relocated to. The PDS should supply, in addition to cereals, pulses
and oil. Adequate locally relevant measures to obtain potable, safe
drinking water should be put in place.
Shelter: Village homes, which have remained unoccupied for months,
will need repair and reconditioning to make them habitable. Help
should be at hand to enable returning families to rebuild their homes.
Livelihoods: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act should be
extensively deployed over the entire area to secure a minimum
livelihood for all returning families. Only when guaranteed
livelihoods are effectively put in place will people enjoy some
degree of autonomous control over their own lives. The issue of
pattas to revenue lands abandoned for lengths of time, and
cultivation of what are technically forest lands, are extremely
complex. In view of the new Act for granting land rights to families
cultivating these lands, the matter should be handled with extreme
sensitivity. Pending the reclamation and recording of people’s land
rights, implementation of all decisions for land acquisition must be
put in abeyance.
Health Care: Adequate and accessible health care facilities,
universally accessible to all on a cashless basis, must be put in
place as soon as possible. This should include supplies of drugs and
other necessary equipment. No discrimination should obtain between
different population groups with respect to access to basic health
facilities. In case state-based facilities are not available, non-
state providers who fulfil these criteria should be welcomed.
Transport and Infrastructure: The network of weekly markets must be
restored on a priority basis. The minimum infrastructure for
resumption of agriculture, including animal husbandry, should be put
in place.
Citizenship records and voter rights: Widespread displacement and
population dislocation have made citizenship records and voter rights
critical issues at this particular time. Transparent mechanisms must
be put in place to ensure that citizenship rights are preserved and
entitlements to democratic decision-making are ensured.
Demilitarisation: It will not be possible or practicable to wait
until full normalcy is restored in all these parameters. However,
significant progress that demonstrates the bona fides of all parties
as far as their commitment to peace and political discourse is
concerned will have to precede the negotiations and a move for full
demilitarisation. It is our belief that significant progress towards
a ceasefire and eventual demilitarisation can only take place when
the ordinary people have a stake in the maintenance of the peace.
______
[9]
Asian Age
October 21, 2008
OLD FEARS AND BITTERNESS NOW RESURFACE IN ASSAM
by Sanjoy Hazarika
The girl from a television channel in New Delhi was extremely
enthusiastic on the phone. She wanted me to go on air the next
evening on a live interview with another panelist on the situation in
Assam — conveniently called the "Bodo-Muslim clashes". I debated the
issue internally and finally decided that it was not appropriate to
do so because the situation was so complex and difficult. Scholars
and media who have visited the area, not armchair pundits sitting in
New Delhi and Guwahati, say that it is clear that whatever triggered
the violence earlier this month, the roots of the suspicion and
bitterness are still untouched.
A complex maze of factors have emerged at the heart of the problem,
ranging from disputes over land and concerns about land alienation by
different ethnic and religious groups, as well as fears of being
driven out from their own villages. Muslim settlers, many of whom are
originally Bengali-speaking but now have adopted Assamese as their
language, are embittered by the fact that they are categorised as
Bangladeshis despite having lived in the region for decades and
remained poor and marginalised all this time.
These groups have kept a social and cultural distance from the other
ethnic communities living in western Assam, unlike the "Assamese
Muslims" who converted to Islam centuries ago, who maintain Assamese
customs and a folklorish approach to the faith and have close
relations with Hindus and those of other faiths. The result of the
distance of the settlers is an enduring divide that has increased
with the changing demographic profile of the region as the Muslim
population began to grow and the influx from Bangladeshi became a
real issue, even if media reports of their involvement in the recent
riots are pretty fanciful.
The perception of the problem is as much a critical component of the
tragedy that has unfolded these past weeks in Assam. Thus, the view
of the "other" has been fuelled by some wild media reporting (for
example, leave aside the local vernacular or English media, an
international news agency has proclaimed, without attribution, that
the clashes were between the Bodos and "Bangladeshi settlers", that
the Indian government bestowed "citizenship in 1985 to millions of
settlers from former East Pakistan who arrived before 1971.") If ever
there is a case of turning facts on their head, this is one. Under
the Assam Accord, which ended the six-year student-led agitation
against illegal migration — although the issue is still volatile, a
total of about nine lakh settlers, largely Hindus who had come from
East Pakistan from 1966 to 71, were to be given citizenship after 10
years of the accord; and they were not even supposed to cast their
votes during that period.
Assam has a total population of 30 million, of which the Muslim
population is about 30 per cent. There are two clear groups of
Muslims, those of Assamese stock, who number about 350,000, while the
others, of Bengali stock, make up the balance of about 8.2 million.
Many Bengali settlers have reported Assamese as their mother tongue
as part of a complex political pact with the Congress which dates
back to the 1960s. Although Islamic, the Assamese Muslims are far
more liberal and open than the settler group and their identity is
inexorably connected with the Asomiya language and the state of
Assam. Today, Muslims are a decisive factor in at least 30 of the
state’s 126 Assembly segments and are a majority in six of 27
districts. A court ruling also appears to have aggravated the
tension; a judge described the influx of migrants as a "cancerous
growth" and called for "political will" and "public activism" to
fight it.
Vigilantism and pressure tactics followed, from groups wanting to
detect and push out "Bangladeshis" while the state administration
behaved like a disinterested spectator.
The confrontation in these areas is not new, although the recent bout
was sparked by an attack on Bodo youth during a bandh called in
August by a little-known Muslim organisation. Clashes between
settlers and "local" groups goes back decades and many hark to the
massacres of 1983, when over 3,000 persons, mostly Muslim and of
Bengali origin (not Bangladeshi), died in clashes in Assam,
especially on the killing fields around a little town called Nellie.
A number of us reported on those riots and the recent incidents spark
a sense of deja vu.
A senior minister has declared that a Bodo armed group, currently
locked in peace talks with New Delhi, is behind some of the killings,
although the organisation, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland,
has denied it. There are reports of Pakistani or Jaqmaat flags flying
in some areas.
While these are important points, they are no longer the issue — the
heart of the matter is that if Assam is to survive, trust and
security must be restored to these areas. But how? How can dialogue
be initiated and promoted between the communities, at the village,
district and state level? There are disturbing voices who say they no
longer can live with the other groups and want separate habitations.
If this happens, then whatever remains of Assam’s composite culture,
devastated by years of confrontation, ethnic divides, suspicion and
assaults by the State and non-state actors, would be wiped out.
It is critical that civil society groups, scholars and activists who
have worked here — and even those who have not — go to the area,
especially the relief camps, to help the resumption of a basic
dialogue and conversation among the groups. One learns that there is
an understanding among some settler groups that their deliberate
distance and social customs have created misunderstanding. The
government must enable such processes to take place for only these
can bring long-term peace.
The government cannot be seen as supine: it has to bring a set of
governance tools to bear on the situation, for without that no
dialogue or process of reconciliation can last. For such
conversations to have any meaning there must be justice: justice for
those who have suffered by punishing the attackers and protecting the
weak and sufferers, from whichever community. While it is obvious
that the government cannot provide protection to all at risk, it must
marshal its resources competently and strategically so that such
incidents are quickly quashed.
Should governments, at the state and Central levels, go about
business as usual and sleep over these issues and hope that the
problem will just go away, then they will be guilty of criminal
conduct; unless the media and extremist politics are reined in, Assam
could be, in for another bloodletting during the Lok Sabha elections.
Illegal migration cannot be accepted but rhetoric, which has spawned
frustration and deep anger over these decades, does not solve the
problem. Fences and laws do not keep migrants out.
Better border management and identity cards for all Indian citizens
must be part of a better border management policy. But even more
critical, keep the doors open for dialogue among the communities, the
conversations going and the media hype down.
Sanjoy Hazarika is an author, journalist and filmmaker
______
[10]
http://www.sacw.net/article229.html
Mumbai, 4th November, 2008
From: Ammu Abraham
Women's Centre, 104B Sunrise Apts; Nehru Rd,
Vakola, Santacruz (E), Mumbai - 400 055
tele: 91-22- 2668 0403
To:
Shri Navin Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa
Navin Nivas, Aerodrome Rd, Bhubaneshwar, Dist. Khurda,
Orissa - 751 001
Sub: State complicity in further oppression of the Catholic nun
raped during the attacks on Christians in K Nuagaon, Orissa
Dear Chief Minister,
We have been informed by the media that you have 'suspended' 5
policemen on duty during the rape of a Catholic nun in K Nuagaon,
Kandhamal, Orissa on August 25th, 2008. Apparently they have been
suspended for 'misconduct and negligence of duty'.
As women's rights activists, and women in human rights and civil
liberties, people's rights activists, members of NGOs, civil society
groups, activists for democracy and a secular India, we are enraged
by your serial suspensions of your police personnel, and your
absolute refusal to face upto the genocide of Christians in Kandhamal
district of the state of which you are the Chief Minister.
It took you more than a month to admit that this 28 year old sister
of a religious order was raped during an attack by an armed mob of 40
to 50 Hindutavadi men on her and a priest, Fr Chellan. When you
finally did, you called it a 'shameful and savage act' and promised
'stringent' action. Then you 'stringently' suspended the inspector -
in - charge of the Baliguda police station. This was a month ago, in
the first week of October.
Dear Chief Minister, it has taken you a further whole month to
realize and to admit to the public that another five Orissa policemen
were guilty of dereliction of duty when the sister was raped and when
she was paraded in a barely clothed state along a public road to a
market place in the afternoon.
Through September and October, you have allowed this derelict police
force to harass this rape survivor by demanding that she co-operates
with them in their "investigations" into her rape. Some of them have
landed in Delhi and rushed about looking for her in odd places. She
has also been intimidated by the women's wing of the RSS, the
Rashtriya Sevika Samiti who were calling for her arrest if she did
not surrender herself to the investigations of the Orissa police.
Sir, we consider this a grave dereliction of duty on your part as the
Chief Minister of Orissa. And who shall suspend you? Sir, are we all
to accept once and for all, that not only is there discrimination
against religious minorities in our country, but that their right to
life can be violated with impunity? The violated nun had requested a
CBI investigation, instead of one by the state police. She had
expressed not only her lack of faith in the Orissa police as the
investigating agency, she has expressed her fear of vidictiveness on
their part.
After sister was brutally beaten, stripped, raped and paraded half
naked, her statement says, that they reached a market place where
there were about a dozen Orissa State Armed Police. (Please note,
about a dozen and not five; and why should anyone have faith that of
the five suspended now, any are from the dozen at the market?) This
desparate woman tried to sit between two of them and asked them for
protection from the mob which had been assaulting her and parading
her. But these policemen sat stone faced and allowed the mob to
recapture her and to parade her again till the Nuagaon police post.
At this place too, a member of the mob stayed behind talking in a
friendly manner to the police. The sister has no faith in them or
their colleagues as investigators.
Now we find that these same would-be investigators have been busy
trying to discredit the sister. According to them, she did not record
their handing over her to the mob in her First Information Report and
this proves that her statement to that effect is untrue. But it is
definitely not uncommon for the police to try to sheild their
colleagues and fail to note such episodes in the FIR. The Orissa
police have also tried to say the FIR was lodged the day after the
rape, insinuating delay. Sister has stated that she tried to give a
full account in the FIR, but that the police warned her first of the
'consequences of filing an FIR' and also asked her to restrict it to
one page. She was raped in the afternoon, her medical examination was
done in the evening; the police took her for registration of the FIR
the next day, according to the sister. She was also abandoned by them
halfway to Bhubaneshwar and asked to take public transport the rest
of the way.
After that it took them nearly 40 days to collect the medical report,
despite the doctor telephoning them to do so, and to start the
'investigations' . Their conduct thereafter has not been that
befitting a state investigating agency; they have conducted
themselves instead as a force trying to clear their colleagues by
discrediting and harassing a rape victim.
It is not surprising then that the sister refuses to 'cooperate' in
this process of investigation. But she must be empowered to fight
this case. It is not unprecedented for a state government to agree to
ask for a CBI investigation in such situations. The murders of all
but one of a Dalit family in Khairlanji in Maharashtra is a relevant
example, though the decision came rather late.
Dear Chief Minsiter, it is within your power to ask for and engage
the C.B.I. in the investigations into this case; to help this sister
to seek justice in the courts; to make it more probable that justice
may be done in this case.
We request you, on behalf of this rape survivor, to do so
immediately. We really hope that you will accept our request and act
on it.
sincerely yours,
1. Ammu Abraham, Women's Centre, Mumbai
2. Sandhya Gokhale, Forum Against Oppression of Women, Mumbai
3. Soma Marik, Nari Nirjatan Pratirodh Manch, Kolkatta
4. Madhuchanda Basu Karlekar, Sachetna, Kolkatta
5. Deepti Sharma, Saheli, Delhi
6. Sheba George, SahrWaru, Ahmedabad
7. N. B. Sarojini, S.A.M.A., Delhi
8. Chayanika Shah, Labia, Mumbai
9. Trupti Shah, Sahiyar, Vadodara
10.Aleyamma Vijayan, Sakhi, Kerala
11. Kerala Streevedi (network of 35 women's organizations)
12. Sudha Verghese, Nari Gunjan, Madhya Pradesh
_____
[11]
OBAMA’S INDIAN: THE MANY FACES OF SONAL SHAH
by Vijay Prashad, 7 November 2008
http://www.sacw.net/article257.html
______
[12]
Daily News and Analysis, November 09, 2008
BOOK REVIEW: UNFOLDING THE COMMUNAL AGENDA
by Ranjona Banerji
RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi
Aditya Mukherjee, Mridula Mukherjee and Sucheta Mahajan
Sage Publications, Paperback, 112 pages. Rs 195
A potted history of Hindutva sectarianism that reminds people of the
pitfalls of an ideology based on hatred and violence
In the beginning, the problems: This is a book written to and for the
converted. That is, someone who already knows about the doings of the
Hindutva organisations. It is also written by "the usual suspects",
that is, names and institutions that are associated with the anti-
Hindutva movement. The second is a problem to the extent that the
battle lines are so strongly drawn in this debate that any mention of
Jawaharlal Nehru University and the other side tends to go up in
flames. However the writers do have the scholarship and credentials
to take on such a subject and do justice to it.
The first problem is the larger one. This is a thin book which
appears to have been put together in a hurry. While it could not have
come at a more opportune moment, as everyday brings headlines of a
"Hindu" terror network spreading across the country, a littler more
heft would not have hurt. It makes sense then to examine how this
communal thinking is engendered and the effects it has had on
Independent India.
The first part of the book looks at the history textbooks used in the
schools run by the RSS and its affiliate organisations, which are
full of invectives and distortion of facts. It examines how the BJP
government, when it was in power at the Centre, attempted to change
NCERT textbooks to suit their Hindu supremacist agenda. One 10th
standard textbook on contemporary India did not even mention Mahatma
Gandhi's assassination. After objections were made, a bald statement
of the fact of his death — with no mention that it was the Hindu
rightwing which had killed him — was introduced.
However, while the absurd assertions made by RSS textbooks are
mentioned - India brought civilisation to China and so on - no
attempts are made to counter these claims. Instead, it is assumed
that everyone would know that they are absurd. But if one contention
of this book is that the communal virus has spread enormously over
the past 20 years through this network of schools, it would greatly
help the lay reader if the statements made are effectively proved to
be false.
This book should serve as a real eye-opener when it comes to the
assassination of Gandhi, especially for those who are unaware or have
forgotten that it was the efforts of all the Hindu rightwing
organisations which inspired Nathuram Godse to kill Gandhi. Over the
years, VD Savarkar's role in the conspiracy has been ignored or
glossed over.
As it happens, Nathuram Godse expressed his deep hurt at the way
Savarkar ignored him during the trial.
The assassination of Gandhi is India's most shocking event as a
nation. Yet today, as this book reiterates, after years of Gandhi
being vilified by a sustained campaign carried out by the Hindutva
lobby, a portrait of Savarkar hangs in Parliament, opposite his own.
This is not irony: this is the theatre of the absurd where a man who
played a key role in the plot to assassinate him is portrayed as a hero.
But the plot to kill Gandhi once and then kill his reputation again
has been at work since 1948, which this book clearly puts down.
Contrary to claims by the rightwing that Sardar Patel was somehow one
of them, his disapproval at the communal agenda of the RSS was
complete and clearly stated and is shown here. The role of Shyama
Prasad Mukherjee has also been outlined.
The RSS agenda — and to this can be added the Hindu Mahasabha — was
always to inculcate a sort of "Hindu" nationalism and to put down
religious minorities, particularly Muslims. Gandhi had to be killed
because he did not believe in either and his influence over India and
the world was great. While the admiration of the RSS for Hitler and
his assault on the Jews is well-known, sometimes it is worthwhile to
repeat it so that the extent of the organisation's hate philosophy is
understood. As this book makes clear, as long as India was under the
influence of a "Nehruvian view" for want of a better expression, the
RSS had limited underground appeal. The last 20 years has seen a
substantial change in that view, perhaps to our detriment as a nation.
This book, part of The Hindu Communal Project with a foreword by
renowned historian Bipan Chandra, is a worthwhile read as a sort of
potted history of Hindutva-inspired hatred and to remind those who
may want a refresher course in the context of recent happenings.
_____
[13] ANNOUNCEMENTS:
(i)
QUEER AZADI MUMBAI invites you to an important public protest and
public meeting on Thursday 13 November
Dear Friends,
These are stirring times for the LGBTI communities in India.
Queer Azadi on 16 August was an empowering day for us in Mumbai. So
many individuals and groups worked together to make it happen, and
marched together with such a sense of affirmation. Bangalore, Delhi
and Kolkata had already had Pride marches, well covered by the media,
and these inspired all of us here.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has concluded its hearings around the
petition (filed by various activist groups) seeking to have Sec. 377
of the IPC read down, because it criminalises sexual acts between
consenting adults of the same sex. Even as we await the Court’s
ruling, there is room for cautious optimism because of the
progressive stance of the Bench throughout, and the contradictory
positions taken by the Govt. of India, with the Home Ministry
opposing the petition and the Health Ministry supporting it.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people are making
their presence felt, on the streets and in the media, and there is a
lot more discussion today about our long-denied human and civil
rights. Yet this did not prevent the horrific arrests, abuse and
torture by the police of hijras and activists of Sangama in
Bangalore recently. This was not an isolated incident: as public,
media and legal sympathy for the right of queer people to live with
dignity builds, we may expect, and must be prepared with strategies
to resist, such right wing and state-sponsored backlash.
If stirring things have been happening here, a revolution has been
cooking across the border in Nepal! Sunil Pant of the Blue Diamond
Society, a queer rights organisation, is the country’s first openly
gay elected MP. The new Nepali Constitution that is even now being
written includes committees working on same sex marriage rights and
protection of LGBTI people, no mean achievement.
We have planned an afternoon that brings all these issues into focus.
7 November was observed in many places as a National Day of Protest
against the Bangalore incident. We are holding our public protest in
Mumbai on 13 November, along with a public meeting to coincide with
Sunil Pant’s visit to the city.
Please make yourselves free and attend in large numbers! We have to
keep up the momentum of Pride and Azadi.
In solidarity,
Queer Azadi Mumbai
Programme
2 – 4:00 pm: Public meeting at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh Hall
on the 1st floor
This will be addressed by:
· Sumathi from Sangama talks about the incidents in Bangalore
and the protests and struggle happening there.
· Sunil Pant from Nepal shares some of the salient aspects of
the struggle for sexual minorities in Nepal, the achievements so far
and the road ahead.
· Lawyers Collective provides an update on the ongoing case
asking for reading down of section 377 in the Delhi High Court.
4 – 6:00 pm: Public protest at Azad Maidan against the violence in
Bangalore and the continuing violence faced by hijras and other
marginalised genders all over the country.
- - -
(ii)
Shubha Mudgal sings for SAHMAT
Saturday, 22 November 2008
Vithalbhai Patel House lawns, Rafi Marg
5.30 pm onwards
Shubha Mudgal, one of the most versatile and prominent performers of
the new generation of Hindustani musicians, sings for the Safdar
Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) which completes twenty years of its
activities this year.
Shubha sang for SAHMAT for the first time in 1991 during a 17-hour
non-stop performance of music and dance on 1 January 1991: 'Artists
Against Communalism'. Since then, she has been actively involved with
the activities of SAHMAT in defence of our secular tradition, and has
composed and sung, at times especially for SAHMAT, on innumerable
occasions. A few notable instances are: 'Anhad Garje', a Sufi-Bhakti
concert on 1 January 1993 soon after the demolition of the Babri
Masjid; celebration of the 140th anniversary of the 1857 Great Revolt
in 1997; and Relief for Gujarat riot victims in 2002.
Shubha's repertoire of medieval mystic and Sufi poetry includes
rarely heard texts from the Vaishnava Pushti-marg poets, as well as
Nirguna Sufiana poetry. As a result of years of studying and setting
to music this poetry, she presents concerts on themes ranging from
the works of Meerabai and Tulsidas, to the medieval texts of Mallik
Mohammad Jaysi's Padmavat. Shubha has also composed and sung the
poetry of Faiz Ahmad Faiz and of the 1857 Revolt.
Her concert for SAHMAT on Saturday, 22 November 2008 at Vithalbhai
Patel House lawns will commence at 5.30 pm. She will sing a selection
from the rich repertoire of what she has sung for SAHMAT over all
these years.
All SAHMAT programmes are free and open to all.
Please do join us !
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
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