SACW | June 8-10, 2009 / Books in the river / Salish Fatwa's / Violence Brew / Habib Tanvir / Secular state / education
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Tue Jun 9 21:16:11 CDT 2009
South Asia Citizens Wire | June 8-10, 2009 | Dispatch No. 2633 - Year
11 running
From: www.sacw.net
[ SACW Dispatches for 2009-2010 are dedicated to the memory of Dr.
Sudarshan Punhani (1933-2009), husband of Professor Tamara Zakon and
a comrade and friend of Daya Varma ]
____
[1] Afghanistan's war on books (Reza Mohammadi)
[2] Bangladesh:
- Another victim of lashing - The self-appointed arbiters must
be punished (Editorial, Daily Star)
- Home Ministry’s Probe Committee Report - Scapegoating the
media (Rahnuma Ahmed)
[3] India Administered Kashmir: No peace without justice (Warisha
Farasat)
[4] Why shun dialogue with Pak? (Editorial, Kashmir Times)
[5] India: Is a prosperous India spawning a street grammar of bias?
(Jawed Naqvi)
- 'Adivasis want to be left alone by Naxals and security
forces' (Sandeep Pandey interveiwed by Jyoti Punwani)
[6] India: Habib Tanvir (1923-2009) - A Tribute
[7] India: The Secular State and the Geography of Radicalism (Irfan
Ahmad)
[8] Any One for School Education That Open's Horizons
- [India] Sex studies in school? No, say Elders
- [Pakistan] Awaiting changes to a syllabus of hate (Nirupama
Subramanian)
[9] Miscellanea:
- Reality Check Special: Tariq Ali - New World Disorder
- 2008 Global military spending surges
- ‘‘There may have been no water, but the province was awash with
guns’’ (Mahmood Mamdani)
_____
[1] Afghanistan:
The Guardian, 8 June 2009
AFGHANISTAN'S WAR ON BOOKS
The Afghan government's destruction of tens of thousands of books is
another sign that the country's culture is under threat
by Reza Mohammadi
The Afghan government last week threw tens of thousands of books into
the Helmand river, in the south of the country. This peculiar story
of animosity towards books has a history in Afghanistan as well as in
its neighbouring countries.
Fourteen hundred years ago, when Arab Muslims first invaded the
regions populated by Persians, they encountered an impressive library
known as Jundi Shapur. The library was the largest of its kind and
was located in the biggest university of the time. The commander of
the Arab troops, Sa'ad Ibn Abi Waqas, wrote a letter to his superior,
asking what should be done with the books. The superior's answer was
to check whether the books' content complied with the Qur'an. If it
did comply, then there would be no need for the books because the
Qur'an itself was already available. If the books had nothing to do
with the Qur'an, then they would be useless anyway. So the commander
burned the library, including all its books.
Seven hundred years later, when the Mongol army invaded Baghdad, they
encountered a huge library, the biggest of its kind in the world at
the time. That day, the Tigris river was coloured red and black: red
with the blood of thousands massacred by Gengis Khan's army and black
with library books thrown into the river.
The battle against books was repeated yet again – and in a tragic
form – 700 years later. When al-Qaida and the Taliban ruled
Afghanistan, they destroyed all libraries throughout the country,
including the National Library and the library of Kabul university.
At the time, Wasef Bakhtary, a famous Afghan poet, wrote a poem that
said: "Salute to those who have discovered the fire, as today is the
first day of celebration for the book burners".
Now, seven years after the fall of the Taliban, when numerous
democratic countries are present in Afghanistan supporting freedom,
including freedom of speech, and the government is run by technocrats
rather than theocrats, the ministry of culture has made Helmand
river's water turn black after throwing tens of thousands books into
it. These books include history and philosophy as well as works of
literature and poetry and a sacred Shia book called Nahjulbalagha.
They were published abroad by one of the few Afghan publishers,
Ebrahim Shariati. This destruction has happened while the government
allows books on exorcism, magic and fortune-telling to be made
available to the people.
Three months ago, when the books arrived in the Nimruz border region,
the provincial governor asked his superiors what to do with them. The
ministry of culture ordered them to be thrown into the river. But the
irony is that, unlike seven years ago, half of Afghanistan's
population now has access to the internet and can read the same books
online. Of course the Afghan government cannot throw internet books
into the river. However, it can sentence to death those who, like
Parviz Kambakhsh, try to print books from the internet.
In Afghanistan today, there are more than 20 universities and various
media outlets and many poets and writers who need books for research.
The majority of writers, filmmakers and researchers do not have the
opportunity to publish their work in Afghanistan. Khaled Hosseini's
The Kite Runner, for example, is banned in his own homeland and the
movie based on his novel is not shown. Similarly, Earth and Ashes by
the Paris-based Afghan writer Atiq Rahimi (which became an instant
bestseller in Europe and South America) and the movie based on this
book (which won the Prix du Regard Vers l'Avenir at the Cannes film
festival in 2004) have also been banned at the order of the Afghan
culture ministry.
We can add to this list the arrest of writers and journalists and
people who change their religions as well as filmmakers, poets and
human rights activists who leave the country because of safety
concerns. This is happening while drug smugglers, mafia gangs and new
warlords are flourishing. Nowadays, the people of Afghanistan ask
themselves what is the point of having western troops and thousands
of NGOs in the country when intellectual freedom is curbed but crime
is flourishing. People in the west are also asking themselves this
same question. It's hard to find a clear answer.
_____
[2] Bangladesh:
The Daily Star
9 June 2009
Editorial
ANOTHER VICTIM OF LASHING - THE SELF-APPOINTED ARBITERS MUST BE PUNISHED
WITHIN less than two weeks of a Daudkandi woman having suffered 39
lashes by a so-called salish decree, here is now a rape victim in
Sirajganj whipped a hundred times with irreparable harm and trauma
inflicted on her. To add insult to injury, she was fined Tk 7,000 on
a seven-day notice and asked to withdraw the case she had filed, or
face expulsion from her village.
The quick succession in which the incidents took place is indicative
of a recurrence after a relative lull in fatwabaji, although nobody
can be too sure it didn't play out in some form or the other in the
perceived interregnum.
All this is multiple victimisation, once by rape, the other by
transfer guilt on to the victim, another by physical brutalisation
through an unlawful decree and yet another by ruining the future of
the girl. The acts of savagery were perpetrated taking full advantage
of the vulnerabilities of women. These got exploited by the rural
influential finding it expedient to use the services of village
zealots to hide their crime. This is no less a pointer, however, to
what should have been the role of the local administration, police
and lower judiciary to be quickly cognizant of the offences and
preempting them.
In the Daudkandi case, the woman appealed for a DNA test to establish
paternity of the child she bore, but this was ignored. But in the
Sirajganj instance, the victim had filed a case in the court
whereupon the judge ordered investigation. The police officer who
investigated the case submitted charges against the accused before
the court after ascertaining facts from the local people. Then,
apparently, a village influential who sheltered the offender taking
the plea for socially settling the dispute held a salish at his
residence under his chairmanship. That is how the atrocious ex-parte
judgement got delivered.
The matter should be fully gone into and the perpetrators
appropriately punished so that others are deterred from following in
their footsteps.
In this context, it is worthwhile to recall a High Court ruling to
the effect that in cases of sexual crimes there is no legal bar to
accepting the victim's testimony before the court, when no other
evidence is available, as the basis for prosecuting the accused.
o o o
New Age
June 9, 2009
HOME MINISTRY’S PROBE COMMITTEE REPORT
Scapegoating the media
by Rahnuma Ahmed
PRIVATE TV channels had, through its news reporting of the BDR
rebellion and its talk-shows, acted in an ‘uncontrolled,
irresponsible, and prejudiced’ manner. Thus says the report of the
twelve-member government enquiry committee, headed by former
additional secretary, Anisuzzaman Khan. A seven-page summary (of the
309-page report), which included criticism of the role of the
electronic media, was handed out at a press briefing on May 27.
Over a long telephone conversation last evening with Nurul Kabir,
the editor of this daily, I sought his response. Combative as ever,
Kabir replied, This is rubbish. Firstly, I don’t think that rebels
monitor the media to come up with justifications for rebelling. They
do so because objective conditions – in the case of the BDR soldiers,
long un-addressed grievances – prevail. Secondly, it was the media’s
responsibility to convey to the public the reasons for the massacre,
both by those who carried it out, and those who were subjected to it.
We, at New Age, had sought official responses for three consecutive
days, but no one, neither in the home ministry, nor in the ISPR
(Inter-Service Public Relations), was available. If we had received
the official version and had not published it, that’d have been
irresponsible. Those who blame the media are shirking their own
responsibility. And anyway, media-blaming is a universal phenomenon.
Rulers the world over do it. Whenever the media refuses to toe the
line. Whenever it says something the government wishes was left un-said.
Much earlier, in the first week of May, long before the
committee’s summary report had been made available to the press,
Gitiara Nasreen, professor, Department of Mass Communication and
Journalism, Dhaka University, and I, had sat with Munni Saha, well-
known and popular ATN news reporter. Munni, as most Bangladeshi
viewers know, had been the first to brave bullets and reach the
Pilkhana gates. Her interview of rebel soldiers had been transmitted
as breaking news at 3:00pm, on February 25. In our three-hour long
conversation, duly recorded and transcribed, Munni had detailed the
situation that had existed the morning the rebellion broke out.
People could see helicopters flying overhead. They could hear the
sound of gunshots. They could see that the army had surrounded the
BDR headquarters. There was tremendous anxiety, rumours were flying
wildly. There was a near-complete lack of factual information, this
was bound to make people more panicky, to feed grist into the rumour-
mill.
Munni went on, well, till 10 in the morning, we thought the
gunshots were due to the BDR parade. But after 11, that idea was
shattered. Rumours and SMS messages were flying around wildly. Each
new text message contradicted the previous one: Shakil (DG, BDR) has
been killed. No, the DG is alive. Two minutes later, another message:
Shakil’s dead. What were we to make of the situation? What was
happening? And, for god’s sake, why? In search of answers, Munni went
off to New Market, to the area adjacent to one of the BDR
headquarters’ gates.
What many Bangladeshi TV viewers probably know is that Nurul
Kabir, for his keen and sharp political analysis on TV talk-shows
during the emergency period (January 2007-December 2008), and Munni
Saha, because of her news reporting during the BDR rebellion, have
been at the forefront of hostility, from ruling circles. ‘They [the
army leadership] is angry at you, not for what you publish, but
because of what you say on talk-shows,’ had said a friend of his –
believed to have significantly close connections with powerful
people, and people behind those who hold power (Amader Shomoy, March
18, 2009) – in my presence. Kabir was embargoed many a time during
the emergency period. After the BDR rebellion, after speaking on a
talk-show on the 26th night, his car had been chased by armed
assailants. He had been blacklisted from talk-shows for nearly six
weeks.
Whereas Munni – disfavoured by ruling circles, reportedly, for
being blunt and forthright – had had her weekly political talk-show
banned during the emergency period. It continues. Even though the
military-installed Fakhruddin-led caretaker government has been
replaced by Sheikh Hasina’s elected government. The day after her
interview of BDR rebel soldiers had been aired, Munni was withdrawn
from live spot reporting. Whether anti-Hindu feelings fed into
forging hostility towards her is anyone’s guess.
But of course, the committee report, and that too, only a seven-
page summary, hardly tells the whole story of the media’s role. It
does not speak of the media’s 180-degree reversal, of the somersault
which had begun on the 26th night. Of the performers who still
remain, head down, legs up in the air. In our conversation, Gitiara
said, the wave of media blaming had reminded her of the Bangla Bhai
incident, of how government ministers had claimed that the JMB
leader, Bangla Bhai, was ‘a media creation’. She went on, ‘I remember
watching experts from all sectors – even those who belong to the
media – indulge in media-blaming. The media had not acted
responsibly. Individual journalists had not acted responsibly. ATN
Bangla had done it, Munni Saha had done it...’
Some of the seniors, belonging to the media, had forged ahead and
advanced apologies to the nation for ‘their’ irresponsible role. But,
said Munni, I’d have thought that the most important thing then, at
such a crucial moment – with the nation’s borders unprotected, news
of the rebellion having spread to other BDR units outside Dhaka,
bodies of army officers being recovered, we still didn’t know how
many had been killed, how many had survived, what had happened to
their family members – I’d have thought that the discussion would
have focused on the real issues. To do with ‘our national security,
our safety, and our intelligence failure.’
Our talk had then turned to whether scapegoating the media was a
diversionary tactic. To put the blame elsewhere. Not where it
belonged. Munni was not very convinced, from her own on-the-ground
experience. But why should the media get all the blame. Why? I mean,
if you are in charge of this house, you have employed guards to
ensure its security, you have all these towers, you have DGFI
(Directorate General of Forces Intelligence), you have NSI (National
Security Intelligence). I mean, why on earth, would anyone in their
right mind think of blaming, of all things, the media...? From where
I am positioned apa, it’s difficult to be entirely convinced about
that, that it was a mere diversionary tactic. I think, there was
something more to it.
At some point in our conversation, I had intervened to ask, ‘But
Munni, doesn’t a mutiny among the ranks against perceived injustices,
against longstanding grievances, one that is confronted by
institutional arrogance, undoubtedly very class-ed – you know, how
dare our servants revolt against us – doesn’t that explain the
sequence of events? Does there have to be something behind it?’
I think so, was her reply. I don’t think these things could have
happened so quickly. Someone must have told Naim bhai (Naimul Islam
Khan, editor, Amader Shomoy, a regular discussant on talk-shows) to
get into the act. Someone must have phoned all the others to jump in
and save the show. These things don’t happen automatically. There
were people who rang TV channel authorities, who yelled at them, who
SMS-ed us telling us what to do. This was not done by the BDR
soldiers, right? Someone must have suggested to Mahmudur Rahman that
he should write such-an-such things. Arranged talk-shows, that
discussed issues with a particular slant, that prevented other
questions being asked. It was conducted in a very organised manner.
And there was also a dis-information campaign, said Munni, it
accompanied the blame-the-media campaign. ‘Did the killings take
place at 11, or did they go on till 12.30?’ ‘Who was raped, what was
done to how many...’ Look at all the rumours that kept emerging one
after the other, where did they come from? We read of ‘crossfire’
stories, don’t we? We call these fill-in-the-blank stories. Each time
another crossfire happens, you just fill in the name, and the place.
It’s formatted, like a questionnaire. I think, these rumours were
‘manufactured’. They were ‘prepared’ and ‘planted’. There were many
anonymous phone calls, too. The callers would say so-and-so-many have
died, for instance, 75 officers have been killed. But of course, said
Munni, I couldn’t report un-verified figures, could I? I don’t know
who they were. Maybe they belonged to the intelligence agencies. But,
who knows?
So, who do you think was involved? Can you think of any names, or
any agencies that you suspect? I asked. She was unequivocal in her
reply. No, that I don’t know. I have no idea who it could have been,
but the symptoms are there. Since you are both researchers, why don’t
you and go ask them, these media personalities and academics. They
should be able to tell.
But one thing, something very significant, said Munni, is the
continuity in tactics of intimidating the media. Giving telephone
instructions over how news should be reported, the contents of the
programmes, creating white lists/black lists of panellists and
discussants, putting an embargo on those who speak ‘truth to power’.
This was similar to the period during the Fakhruddin-led government.
It is new, said Munni, to the media landscape in Bangladesh. This was
unknown during the 15-16 years of political party rule, in the pre-
emergency period.
I cannot help but wonder: which probe committee, chaired by who,
with which set of members, will be able to unearth the real truth
behind the events that led to, and followed, the BDR rebellion?
_____
[3] India Administered Kashmir:
Himal South Asian
June 2009
NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE
by Warisha Farasat
Following shelling by the security forces in Jammu & Kashmir, 11
people were killed on 18 September 1997 in Arin, in Bandipore of
Baramullah district. Eleven years later, the victims’ families in
this little hamlet are still awaiting justice. This is just one of
scores of such incidents to have taken place over the past two
decades of conflict in J & K, where the issue of human rights has
long occupied the centre of the political discourse.
Kashmiri separatists have always used rights abuses as a central
theme of their struggle against rule by New Delhi. Likewise, every
major ‘pro-India’ political party has also demanded greater
accountability for the armed forces, the repeal of draconian laws
such as the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, and justice for the
victims of abuse. During the recent election in J & K, both the
ruling National Conference and the opposition Peoples Democratic
Party again promised elaborate action plans to halt such violations.
Yet in practice, human-rights defenders and other civil-society
actors continue to be kept far from the negotiation table.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, in J & K the lack of accountability of
perpetrators and denial of justice to victims has become a norm. The
reason for this lies in the exclusion of human-rights and justice
agendas from both the wider peace process and negotiation mechanisms.
In fact, the peace process and the demand for justice have run
parallel courses, with little attempt being made by negotiators to
integrate calls for justice into official procedures. Meanwhile, the
government’s response to human-rights violations has been knee-jerk:
announcement of enquiries and compensation of INR 100,000 to victims’
families, rather than working to bring perpetrators to justice. Given
such a situation, the larger problem is the near-total breakdown of
trust in any official move to provide succour to victims, and the
fact that the human-rights debate has become mired amidst the complex
political dispute within J & K and with New Delhi.
Kashmiris often assert that the discourse on J & K has been shaped by
New Delhi, and that it is rarely based on the realities of Kupwara,
Anantnag or even Srinagar. Moreover, it is felt that the peace
process has failed to engage with a broad range of stakeholders in
the state itself. Foremost amongst those that have been marginalised
from these incipient attempts at carving out peace is the Kashmiri
civil society. In order to analyse the challenges that lie ahead for
achieving peace, it is important to understand the underpinnings of
the civil-society movement in J & K.
Wanchoo and Andrabi
Civil society continues to remain a potent force in Southasia
generally, where insurgencies reflect distrust and a crisis of
legitimacy with the formal institutions of politics and governance. A
survey conducted in 2005 by the Delhi-based Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies revealed that widespread dissatisfaction with
electoral politics has led to new forms of civil activism throughout
India in particular, while also concluding that these social
movements have helped to deepen democracy.
As elsewhere, however, the understanding of ‘civil society’ remains
nebulous in this region. After significant activism in and around the
Independence movement in India, by the 1960s the concept, which first
emanated from Western classical theory, was in decline. That was a
time when state-led modernisation dominated both liberal and Marxist
discourse on social transformation and development. However, as these
models collapsed during the 1970s and 1980s, the concept of civil
society again revived. Since then, civil society throughout the
region has come to be seen as essential to the building of an
accountable and just society, as well as offering a platform on which
to engage with public and representative forms of political power – a
means of establishing a more cohesive relationship between socialism
and democracy. This has been particularly crucial in pockets of India
such as J & K, where the government faces a serious crisis of
legitimacy.
Today, the J & K civil society is comprised of a diverse spectrum of
professional and other groupings. These include trade guilds;
associations of lawyers, doctors and journalists; academics; and
human-rights and victims’ groups. Nearly all have come under strident
attack from both state authorities and armed militants. Nonetheless,
the mainstay of Kashmiri civil society has been its advocacy in
national and international forums on human rights and accountability,
and it is this specific section of civil society that requires some
deeper exploration.
The human-rights movement in J & K was kick-started on 3 December
1992, with the killing of the noted activist Hridaynath Wanchoo. In
the following years, in response to growing human-rights violations
by the state security forces, several groups emerged in the Kashmir
Valley. While a few of these, such as the Jamaat-i-Islami-backed
Institute of Kashmir Studies, clearly had political affiliations,
others, such as the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons
(APDP), formed in 1994, were spearheaded by victims’ families and
lawyers. APDP anchored its advocacy in the language of international
human rights and humanitarian law. Similarly, individual lawyers
representing victims’ families greatly contributed to the
institutionalisation of the rights-based discourse. By employing
legal remedies of habeas corpus and invoking international
protections against violations of civil and political rights, they
sought to institutionalise human rights in Kashmir.
As the armed struggle continued, the state too intensified its
response. Demands for accountability and justice were labelled acts
of subversion, and all means, including brutal force, were used to
suppress human-rights groups. The extension of draconian laws, which
provided unbridled powers to the security forces, was subsequently
projected as a legitimate way by which not only to curb secessionism,
but also to eradicate political discontent. This led to widespread
suppression, making human-rights activism practically impossible – a
situation that was made more difficult by the fact that independent
campaigns were also not considered acceptable by the militant groups.
While the latter had no problems when the issue of security-force
high-handedness was questioned by human-rights defenders, they would
not tolerate any critique of their own actions. In this environment
of fear, it was a long time before the rights campaigns were able to
take on professional shape.
In 1996, the disappearance and subsequent killing of the well-known
activist Jalil Ahmad Andrabi by the security forces created an
international uproar, and brought renewed attention to the ongoing
serious violations in the state. On 8 March of that year, while
returning from work, Andrabi was illegally detained by the
paramilitary Rashtriya Rifles; his mutilated body was found three
weeks later on the banks of the Jhelum River. A half-decade earlier,
Andrabi had established the Kashmir Commission of Jurists, which
sought to protect Kashmiris’ human rights by using the guarantees
stipulated in the Indian Constitution. Between 1990 and 1996, Andrabi
filed several thousand habeas corpus petitions in the J & K High
Court on behalf of victims of summary arrests and detentions, while
also campaigning for the rights of those detained in prisons and the
state’s notorious interrogation centres. But while several such
petitions were accepted by the High Court, the court made no attempt
to punish the perpetrators.
Andrabi’s killing quickly became symbolic for the human-rights
movement in Kashmir. Given the continued disappearances of thousands
of individuals, victims’ families began to organise into a
collective, demanding that the government form an investigative
commission and announce the whereabouts of their loved ones.
Significantly, it was around this time, in the mid-1990s, that
international norms regarding enforced disappearances were
crystallising, and a UN working group was beginning to receive
complaints from several countries, including India. Moreover,
regional solidarity groups such as the Asian Federation against
Involuntary Disappearances were also coming together. It was also
during this time that J & K began to witness an increase in
extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances by the state. The
security forces, assisted by government-sponsored militia or
renegades (Ikhwans) and Special Police Officers, were focused on
weeding out any form of dissent.
Strategies of linking local rights groups with regional and
international advocacy networks were effective in challenging state
atrocities. While international groups such as Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International published intermittent reports and issued
urgent actions on J & K, the continued advocacy by Kashmiri rights
groups, lawyers and independent activists challenged the illegal,
arbitrary actions of the state. In the absence of rule of law,
continued documentation of violations ensured that the focus on human
rights remained.
Missed opportunities
Recent developments in Kashmir point to the reluctance of the Indian
state to concede space to individuals and groups working on issues of
human rights. In fact, it has missed several opportunities to engage
with these groups, perhaps most prominently following the devastating
earthquake of October 2005. The magnitude of that tragedy forced New
Delhi to relax travel restrictions across the Line of Control,
providing unprecedented access to Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris to
border areas and villages that had previously been closed to
‘outsiders’. For the first time, Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris alike
became familiar with the stories of immense suffering of those living
in border villages of Uri and other districts. After the initial few
weeks, however, New Delhi once again discontinued access to these
areas, thus preventing the strengthening of spaces for exchange and
dialogue within the districts of the Kashmir Valley.
In 2006, in furtherance of the peace process, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh facilitated the formation of five working groups on Kashmir.
Part of the mandate of the Working Group on Good Governance was
ensuring “zero tolerance” for human-rights violations. Other than
that, however, there was no mention of human rights or justice in the
mandate of any one of the other groups. Economic exchanges and
corruption dominated the agenda of these working groups, thus
deflecting much-needed attention from issues of truth, justice and
accountability. And, as usual, civil society – in particular
individuals and groups representing the human-rights community – were
wholly excluded from the discussions.
Most recently, the arm-twisting tactics of government authorities
have made it increasingly difficult for rights groups to operate in J
& K. Through a variety of methods, state officials have attempted
either to co-opt or pressure the human-rights community. As noted
previously, the hope seems to be that by providing compensation to
the next-of-kin, the demands for justice will be silenced.
Furthermore, intimidation and harassment of rights defenders by the
authorities has continued unabated. By refusing to issue passports to
many such activists, academics and journalists, the government has
successfully restricted the participation of these individuals in
international forums. In numerous instances, rights defenders,
journalists and others have been attacked and severely beaten up,
after which the police tend to refuse to register cases. For its
part, the rights movement in J & K must deal with internal challenges
such as a lack of systematic and exhaustive documentation on human
rights, the need to devise new strategies to advance the
accountability agenda, and the training of new entrants to the movement.
Learning from peace processes elsewhere, it is clear that reducing
the space available to civil society, or threatening human-rights
defenders, does not help the authorities in the search for
sustainable peace. Rather, it is important that their demands be
funnelled into ongoing negotiations. In this, examples from other
regions can be useful. One of the primary reasons cited for the
failure of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement brokered by the Norwegians in
Sri Lanka was the inability of the peace process to engage seriously
with issues of justice and accountability. Furthermore, it was seen
to be narrowly based on bringing an immediate end to the fighting,
rather than on incorporating the needs of a broad range of
stakeholders, including those who suffered human-rights violations.
Civil society was completely kept out of the peace process. On the
other hand, the Finnish-mediated peace accord in Aceh, Indonesia,
included mechanisms that promoted accountability for gross rights
violations. Indeed, the Acehnese civil society and human-rights NGOs
influenced the peace process in various ways, including several
meetings with the Finnish mediator, and ensured that issues of
justice would be reflected in the commitments of the negotiating
parties. It can be argued that the inclusion of mechanisms to address
past violations contributed in part to the success of the peace process.
Likewise, as the Nepali example shows, a proactive role by the civil
society, especially that of human-rights groups, can prove
significant in shaping peace. In Nepal, the peace process was
supported, in part, by several civil-society initiatives, such as the
Civic Solidarity for Peace and the Nepal Resource Center. Moreover,
since early 2000, much of the groundwork in developing a discourse on
human rights and challenging atrocities committed by both parties to
the conflict was led by Nepali civil-society activists. Through
effective advocacy, one of the early contributions of the Nepali
civil society was in ensuring the primacy of human rights (Point 8)
within the 12-point agreement of November 2005, the first formal
agreement between the mainstream political parties and the Maoist
rebels. By including this point, the Nepali civil society ensured
that a commitment to human rights and justice would be reflected in
subsequent agreements. Thereafter, five civil-society representatives
were officially appointed as observers for the duration of the peace
talks. Even though impunity remains a considerable challenge in
Nepal, the inclusion of mechanisms to address past human-rights
violations in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (signed in November
2006) has bolstered groups advocating for justice and accountability.
Meanwhile, there is a larger palette at work here as well. In the
peace process between India and Pakistan, representatives of civil
society and victim groups likewise remain excluded, despite their
contributions to the struggle for truth and justice. The inclusion of
civil society and victim representatives will invariably lead to a
peace process that is attentive to the demands of accountability for
serious rights violations. Several confidence-building measures have
been initiated between the two countries in recent years, but there
has been silence on agendas of justice and accountability. All the
while, the political leaderships – perceived by many to be complicit
in using human-rights issues for political gain – are still seen to
be representing the voice for justice.
If and when the peace process is resurrected in J & K, it must
involve not only the political leadership but also representatives
from civil society. With the recent advancement of criminal justice
at the international level, in particular the recent indictment of
the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal
Court, one message is indisputable: Without accounting for past
crimes and challenging structures that promote impunity, peace is
simply not a possibility. Instead of marginalising and threatening
the human-rights community in J & K, the government needs to create
conditions that facilitate engagement with the civil society. As
experiences elsewhere indicate, it is only by securing meaningful
commitments to justice and providing opportunity to civil-society
representatives to engage with the process can a real resolution to
the conflict in Kashmir emerge
Warisha Farasat is a lawyer working on human-rights issues, currently
based in Kathmandu.
_____
[4]
Kashmir Times, June 1, 2009
Editorial
WHY SHUN DIALOGUE WITH PAK?
Offer of friendship is meaningless without moving forward on the road
to peace
Paradoxically, while extending its hand of friendship to beleagured
Pakistan, New Delhi has expressed its unwillingness to resume the
process of composite dialogue for resolving all outstanding disputes
between the two neighbouring countries, disrupted in the wake of the
Mumbai terror attack. In an interview to a newsmagazine, S.M.Krishna,
India’s new minister for external affairs said that the “offer of
friendship comes from the new government that has just taken office
and it waits for the reaction of the Pakistan Government”. In the
same breath the minister stressed that the dialogue between the two
nuclear neighbours may not be forthcoming unless “Islamabad
dismantles terrorist camps and takes a more determined and credible
action against terrorist organizations”. The civilian government in
Pakistan has been repeatedly expressing its desire to mend fences
with India and enter into a new era of friendship and cooperation.
Islamabad has also been urging New Delhi through different channels
for the resumption of the dialogue process to resolve all issues for
peace in the region. After its initial reluctance Pakistan government
had also extended its full cooperation to India for bringing the
culprits involved in the Mumbai terror attack to book and had even
taken action against some suspects in this respect. Pakistan itself
is facing a serious threat from the terrorists and has launched an
offensive against Taliban. There are visible signs of Pakistani
rulers shedding their earlier duplicity and ambiguity in dealing with
terrorist menace that poses threat to the very survival of their
country. Terrorism is a common enemy of both India and Pakistan and
the two countries need to cooperate with each other and evolve a
joint mechanism to wipe it out from the region. In this hour of
crisis Pakistan needs both sympathy and support of India. There is
growing assertion in the Pakistani civil society for launching a
decisive battle against extremist forces and for ushering into an era
of peace and democracy.
New Delhi’s reluctance to resume the dialogue process was perhaps
dictated earlier by the political convenience of the ruling UPA,
which lacked stability and was also under pressure both from within
and from its communal and chauvinist political rivals for adopting a
hard posture against the neighbouring country. With the UPA,
particularly the Congress, emerging much stronger after the elections
and with the installation of the new government headed by Dr Manmohan
Singh it was hoped that New Delhi would revert to a flexible policy
in dealing with Pakistan and also with regard to the political
solution of the vexed Kashmir problem. It goes to Dr Singh’s credit
that he managed to resurrect the India-Pakistan dialogue process
after it was derailed following Pakistan’s Kargil misadventure. Now
that Pakistan in its war against terror, is taking all steps to
dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in the country, which has the
full support of the civil society, there is no reason for New Delhi
to stick to its negative stance on the resumption of dialogue
process. Apart from putting an end to decades old confrontation
between the two neighbours the resumption of dialogue will also
contribute in strengthening the democratic forces in Pakistan. It is
in India’s interest that Pakistan succeeds in its war against terror
and has a stable civilian government. New Delhi must respond
positively to the conciliatory posture of President Zardari and his
government and instead of pushing them to walls by adopting any
hawkish approach it must take early steps for resuming the disrupted
dialogue process. Such a dialogue must be meaningful and result-
oriented. At the same time there is need to relax the visa regime to
facilitate the visits of people from one country to the other for
strengthening people-to-people contacts which contribute
significantly in building the bridges of understanding and overcoming
trust-deficit.
The changed mood of the Pakistani establishment with growing
assertion by the democratic forces in that country against terrorism
and extremism and for political stability and democracy coupled with
the return of UPA to power with greater strength in India provides a
window of opportunity to New Delhi to not only resume composite
dialogue with Pakistan but also to provide a due place to the people
of Jammu and Kashmir at the conference table. A lasting and just
solution of Kashmir problem is imperative for India-Pakistan
friendship and cooperation and an era of peace in the region. Apart
from resuming the dialogue process with Pakistan New Delhi must also
initiate confidence building measures related to Jammu and Kashmir.
_____
[5] India: Is What is Happening in Chhattisgarh a Picture of What
Future Holds:
Dawn, 8 June, 2009
IS A PROSPEROUS INDIA SPAWNING A STREET GRAMMAR OF BIAS?
by Jawed Naqvi
That economic prowess spawns supremacist ideologies is a lesson best
learnt from 19th century colonialism in the Afro-Asian region and in
Europe’s conquest of the Americas. The Chinese on their part were
forever prone to believing that non-yellow races were barbarian.
Their recent economic prosperity has not brought any perceptible
shift in that belief. Has India’s chosen neo-liberal economic model
set it on a road to deepening social rifts with a matching new
grammar of bias?
In the Dantewada district, in India’s heartland state of Chhatisgarh,
the picturesque beauty of the Indrawati River is smeared with an
alien language of prejudice. The northern banks of the river have
come to be called Pakistan, not that they are home to Muslims but
because they shelter suspected Maoist guerrillas, known otherwise as
Naxalites. Whatever other religion they may profess, if they ever had
one, Naxalites are usually not Muslim.
There could be a few possible explanations for why or how the idiom
of hate came to be planted in a region that is safely couched in a
remote, inaccessibly dense forests, that too thousands of miles from
any foreign border, by land or sea. It is probable that some
paramilitary men who carried with them the notion of the “enemy
within” when they migrated from their punishing duty in Kashmir
brought the idiom to the meandering banks of Indrawati.
Which of course would raise a set of parallel questions? It may be
asked, for example, why the paramilitary men who seemed to be able to
crush (though not tame) with relative ease a foreign-backed movement
against Indian rule found it difficult to curb the onslaught of
another set of rebels, who did not have the wherewithal that links
with a foreign government bring. Is there a different measure of
force that is allowed for each case depending on the native or
foreign quotient of the enterprise?
Let us assume for a moment that the reference to Pakistan that the
security forces use (and which seems to have found a grudging
acceptance among a section of the local people they claim to protect)
was not planted by them. Let us grant that the virus is just as
likely to have been injected into the everyday grammar of the
unsuspecting tribespeople by Hindutva ideologues that rule
Chhatisgarh. How would that help those that seek to foment the
implied hatred? The simple answer would be that it helps their
mentors – big Indian corporations and their multinational allies.
Communalism has proved to be a most used and effective weapon in the
state’s quiver to help dissipate, even pre-empt, any threat of
economically driven unrest. Such threats were initially understood to
emanate from the industrial workforce in urban hubs. Be it the Shiv
Sena in Mumbai or the BJP in Gujarat, they made excellent partners
with Indian business clubs to thwart industrial bargaining by diving
the workers into parochial rivals. However, the same antidote to
workers’ solidarity has found new use to dissipate rural strife.
Salwa Judum or “Purification Hunt” was begun in Chhatisgarh on the
model of the Ikhwan-uI-Muslimoon, Kashmir’s notorious vigilante
militia that were propped up by the state. In June 2005, a section of
the tribal elite, led by Congress Party leader Mahendra Karma, who
else, — Congress innovates, the BJP imitates — started organising the
Judum to eliminate Maoist influence from several villages. The state
government immediately threw its forces behind this effort to pit
tribals against each other, arming tribal youth as Special Police
Officers to conduct raids on villages that had been identified as
“Maoist-affected”. During these raids, villagers were ordered to
leave their homes, which were burned, and make long forced marches to
dozens of ‘resettlement’ camps.
The Frontline magazine made the following starling connection. “In an
instance of truly Orwellian coincidence, the Memorandum of
Understanding for the Tata steel plant was signed on June 4, 2005,
two days after the formal launch of the controversial Salwa Judum
programme in the Bastar and Dantewada districts, and marked, in the
eyes of many, the point of coalescence of the administration,
industry and the security agencies. The State government also signed
a MoU with the Essar group the same day.”
Meanwhile, the Tata proposal had kicked off a controversy in Raipur,
the state capital, with the issue being raised in the assembly too.
Soon after the deal was signed, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led
Chhatisgarh government refused to share the details, claiming that
disclosure was specifically prohibited by a clause in the MoU.
It refused to give copies of the MoU to members of the opposition in
the house. The MP for the constituency encompassing Lohandiguda – the
area earmarked for the project – went on record stating that he had
no detailed information about the project.
Copies of the MoU were leaked over a period of months and by the time
the documents became easily available a full-scale protest was under
way in the 10 villages earmarked for the project. While Europe became
prosperous by plundering distant lands, India, which prides itself as
never harbouring imperialist ambitions, seems to have turned upon its
own people.
Maoist guerrillas come with their own frequently compelling
worldview, one that is not always easy to challenge in secular terms.
The tribespeople of Chhatisgarh thus needed to be divided into
separate entities with an instilled notion that the two sides thus
formed harboured mutually hostile interests. Calling the Maoists
Pakistanis seems to do for the region what the description of
Gujarat’s Muslims as “children of Mian Musharraf” had done for
Narendra Modi.
However, the malaise no longer exists merely as a divisive strategy
to keep the normal troublemakers busy with a self-perpetuating
digression. The scourge presented itself most palpably in a new and
worrying avatar in the immediate aftermath of the Mumbai terror
attack, when the nation’s “thinking classes” turned into a mob,
calling variously for the destruction of Pakistan and also for the
surrender of India’s parliament to the military. They saw democracy
as weak-kneed and prone to indecisiveness, which was a hindrance to
fighting the menace of terror.
A perspective given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after a meeting
with Gen Pervez Musharraf in Havana would have been handy. He had
said that Pakistan was now (by its own suicidal policies) as much a
victim of terrorism as India was. There were no takers for that view
in Mumbai. TV channels that thrive on a middle class viewership are
given to routinely spewing hatred of Pakistan. There it goes, it’s
about to fall. That’s the kind of glee that comes with every terror
attack that takes place across the border.
Arrogance brings its own quandary though. The argument for not
starting talks with Pakistan until it stops terrorism against India
has proved to be a double-edged sword. If Pakistan is fomenting
terrorism in India, then an American travel advisory to its citizens
to take evasive action against lurking attackers in the country
should not be ignored. However, Indian officials believe that the US
embassy advice had overstated the fears. They insist that India is as
safe as any country for tourists to feel comfortable to visit.
Clearly both opinions can’t be right. Something’s got to give. And
hopefully it’s the prejudice.
o o o
'ADIVASIS WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE BY NAXALS AND SECURITY FORCES'
8 June 2009
The demolition of Gandhian Himanshu Kumar's 17-year-old Vanvasi
Chetna Ashram in Dantewada on May 17 shocked everyone acquainted with
its work in the backward tribal area of Chhattisgarh. Magsaysay Award
winner Sandeep Pandey, who led an all-India fact-finding team to
Dantewada, tells Jyoti Punwani what his team found:
Why was the Vanvasi Ashram demolished?
Himanshu had become an irritant for the Chhattisgarh government. He
was doing a lot of development work, which is really the job of the
government. In fact, the SP himself told us that they used to take
Himanshu's help on various occasions. But the ashram was also
providing legal aid to the adivasis oppressed by Salwa Judum. In the
last two years, Himanshu has filed 500 FIRs on their behalf. His most
recent activity was to help resettle in their original villages,
those adivasis who had been forcibly displaced by Salwa Judum.
What did the authorities tell your team?
The Chhattisgarh government is quite shameless. It's immune to
pressure otherwise the appeal by 22 Nobel laureates to free Binayak
Sen wouldn't have gone unheard. The SP told us Himanshu was using the
ashram for his personal work. The police claimed that there was a
prostitution racket being run there because during the demolition,
condoms were found! It appears that more than the chief minister, it
is the governor, E S L Narasimhan, a former IB chief, and the DGP,
Vishwa Ranjan, who decide strategy in Chhattisgarh. What's more
alarming is that they have the full support of the government of
India, obvious from home minister P Chidambaram's praise for Raman
Singh. The Chhattisgarh model is being projected as the successful
model to deal with Naxalites.
What can be done now?
The demolition was done on the ground that the ashram had encroached
on forest land. But the matter was already being heard in court.
There is a Gram Sabha resolution approving of the ashram using this
land. So we hope the ashram will win the case. We shall then ask the
government to rebuild it.
We have learnt that the government plans a Sri Lanka-type offensive
against the Maoists there. We were told they were going to 'reclaim'
the area. They definitely don't want any NGOs operating there. It is,
therefore, all the more crucial that Himanshu continue his work, for
in Dantewada, he is our only hope. His is the only voice that lets
people know what is happening there. There are plans to collect money
to rebuild the ashram. We have also planned an all-India solidarity
meeting in Dantewada.
What did the adivasis tell you?
They really want to be left alone, by the Naxalites on the one hand
and the security forces and Salwa Judum on the other, so that they
may lead normal, peaceful lives. Himanshu is playing an important
role in this. The villagers, who have come back to resettle after
three years, clearly gave credit to Himanshu for this.
_____
[6] INDIA: HABIB TANVIR (1923-2009) - A TRIBUTE
http://www.sacw.net/article952.html
SAHMAT
Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust
8 Vithalbhai Patel House
Rafi Marg, New Delhi
Tel: 2371 1276, 2335 1424
E mail: sahmat(at)vsnl.com
8.6.2009
Habib Tanvir, the legend of contemporary Indian theatre, was also a
writer, poet, actor, organiser of progressive writers and people’s
theatre - passed away on June 8, 2009 at Bhopal . Habib Tanvir, whose
plays make him a true citizen of the world will always be remembered
for his abiding commitment to the values of secularism and
progressive ideas.
For us at SAHMAT, Habib Saheb was an inspiring presence as its
founder trustee and its chairman after Bhisham Sahni’s passing away
in 2003. His was one of the most militant voices in the spontaneous
protest after Safdar Hashmi’s brutal murder in 1989. Habib Tanvir had
earlier collaborated with Safdar Hashmi in dramatizing Premchand’s story
"Mote Ram Ka Satyagraha". Habib was an important organizer and
participant in SAHMAT’s Hum Sab Ayodhya exhibition and the Mukt Naad
cultural sit-in in Ayodhya in 1993, after the Babri Masjid demolition.
Habib Tanvir was born on September 1923 at Raipur , Chattisgarh.
After initial education at Nagpur , he went to RADA in 1955 and
travelled in Europe during 1956-57. He became the organiser,
secretary, playwright and actor-director of IPTA during 1948-50.
In 1954 he had directed ‘Agra Bazar’ which he himself described as
“the first serious experiment integrating song with drama and rural
actors with urban” For the last 55 years ‘ Agra Bazar’ has been
performed all over the country countless number of times. He founded
Naya Theatre in 1958. Habib’s abiding contribution to contemporary
culture will be his remarkable incorporation of traditions of folk
and tribal theatre, music and language into his modern formal craft.
The power of his plays delighted and moved audiences cutting across
all class boundaries from the man on the street to the powerful elite.
During the last two decades Habib Tanvir had through his plays
invited the ire of the Sangh Parivar and the reactionary forces for
firmly standing against fundamentalism and obscurantism through plays
like "Ponga Pandit", "Zamadarin".
Habib Tanvir will be missed by progressive artists all over the
country. His passing marks the end of an era.
To Nagin and the artists of Naya Theatre we convey our heart-felt
condolences.
To celebrate the life, theatre, politics and creativity of Habib
Tanvir (1923-2009) join us at the memorial meeting at
6.00 p.m.
10 June 2009
Muktadhara Auditorium
Banga Sanskriti Bhavan
18-19 Bhai Veer Singh Marg, near Gol Market [New Delhi]
Jana Natya Manch
Sahmat
Janvadi Lekhak Sangh
o o o
HABIB TANVIR : HE BLENDED THEATRE, FOLK ART
Bhopal: Eminent playwright Habib Tanvir, one of the greatest
stalwarts of the Indian stage, was known for blending theatre, folk
art and poetry in his works, leaving an indelible mark on the minds
of the viewers.
[. . .]
http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/09/stories/2009060954940500.htm
_____
[7] India:
THE SECULAR STATE AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF RADICALISM
(Economic and Political Weekly, June 6, 2009)
by Irfan Ahmad
The burgeoning scholarship on Islamist radicalisation or terrorism -
both popular as well as academic - is mostly alarmist. Too often
Islamist radicalisation is understood as an offshoot of some deeply
entrenched values or that the culture of Islam is incompatible with
modernity. This article argues that Islamist radicalisation should be
seen as a political phenomenon and that it cannot be divorced from
the practices and the role of the State. It focuses on the Students
Islamic Movement of India and argues that its radicalisation,
manifest in its call for jihad, is largely a consequence of the
failure of the Indian secular State to stop the recurring violence
against Muslim minority. This article also examines the premises that
underpin the media's portrayal of Islam and Muslims and concludes by
raising the issue of vulnerability in writing about Islam and
radicalisation.
-
In recent times, the phenomenon of Islamist radicalisation or
"Islamic terrorism" has received considerable attention in the media
as well as in the a cademic arena. Begun in the wake of 11 September
2001, the subsequent horrendous killings and bomb explosions in
Madrid, London, Bali, Casablanca and elsewhere have further led to a
burgeon- ing interest in Islamist militancy. Most analyses are,
however, usually alarmist and informed by the logic of immediacy of
events. They are also predominantly coloured by what Pierre Bourdieu
(2003), in a different context, calls "the national scientific
field". One may add that "national interest" is an equally important
factor in the ways in which it influences, consciously or
unconsciously, the scholarly analyses of "Islamic threat" or "green
menace".
1 the Argument
Universities in general, the departments of anthropology seldom being
an exception, have usually been, to quote the Swedish anthropologist
Ulf Hannerz (2007), "propagators of knowledge useful to the modern
state". Most of such analyses verily tend to valorise the cultural-
theological factors at the heavy expense of the political ones,
especially the role of the state in fuelling myriad types of
radicalisation in different contexts. Thus in outlining the genealogy
of radical Islam, Quintan Wiktorowicz (2005), much like Emmanuel
Sivan (1985) delves deep into the evolution of puritan Salafi
theology (also known as "Wahabism") in the pre- modern era and links
contemporary forms of radicalism to the ideas of revivalist figures
such as Ibn Taymiyah (d 1328) and Abdul Wahab (d 1792). Islamist
militancy, so goes the argument, originates from the belief system of
Islam and that contemporary radicalisation is seemingly only a new
face (mutatis mutandis also a phase) of what had been recurring in
the past.
This article is preliminary to a more detailed exposition of the
phenomenon of "Islamic terrorism" I plan to do in the near future.
Here I have merely sought to lay bare some of its salient, albeit
often over- looked, dimensions in order to initiate a more informed,
critical discussion. In this article, I do not intend to elaborately
map out the consequences, traits, performance or symbolism of
radicalisation. Valuable though these issues are, my main objective
here is to explore the causes of Islamist radicalisation in India. In
so doing, I will focus on the factors, and context that went into the
radicalisation of the Students Islamic Movement of India (hereafter
SIMI). I will use the episode of SIMI's alleged involvement in a
series of recent bomb explosions in Ahmedabad, Jaipur and New Delhi,
as well as the serial bomb blasts that led to the ghastly killing of
about 200 people in Mumbai1 on 11 July 2006 as a window to shed light
on the larger issue of Islamist radicalisation so as to move beyond
the prevailing sensation- alism and develop a more nuanced, critical
understanding.
My main argument is that the reason for SIMI's radicalisation does
not lie in the so-called intolerant culture, values or theology
of Islam or its putative incompatibility with modernity. I thus call
into question Sivan's assertion that Islamist radicalisation is "...a
sort of holding operation against modernity" (Sivan 1985:3). I argue
that the reasons for SIMI's radicalisation lie in the field of
modern politics; it is intimately connected to the role of the state
in stopping the recurring violence against the Muslim minority. Put
differently, it is my contention that SIMI's radicalisation unfolded
as a desperate response to the ascendance of virulent, anti-Muslim
Hindu nationalism or Hindutva of which the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP)2 has been the chief protagonist from the mid-1980s onwards.
Central to the H indu nationalism has been the mobilisation and
formation of what Arjun Appadurai (2006) calls a "predatory" Hindu
identity which believes in the erasure of Muslims and other "foreign"
elements to secure a pure, authentic Hindu nation.
[. . .]
http://www.epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/13591.pdf
_____
[8] Any One for School Education That Open's Horizons
The Telegraph
June 10, 2009
[INDIA] SEX STUDIES IN SCHOOL? NO, SAY ELDERS
Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, June 9: No sex education, please, basic instincts don’t
require learning.
A Rajya Sabha panel today suggested that sex education was
unnecessary in schools as human instincts such as hunger, fear, greed
and sex were inborn and there was no need to “stimulate” them out of
turn.
Rather, the need was to groom schoolchildren on how to control the
instincts and teach them the importance of restraint.
“Basic human instincts like food, fear, greed, coitus etc need not be
taught; rather, control of these instincts should be the subject of
education,” the report submitted by the Rajya Sabha committee on
petitions said.
“But the present academic system incites stimulation of instincts,
which is detrimental to the society. To focus Indian education on
‘instinct control’ should be an important objective, and for that the
dignity of restraint has to be well entrenched in the education.”
The committee, headed by BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu, gave its
recommendations on a petition seeking a national debate to evolve a
consensus on whether sex studies should be introduced in CBSE-
affiliated schools from Class VI.
The petition, admitted by the Rajya Sabha on August 9, 2007, said
that such a proposal by the HRD ministry had “shocked the conscience
of all the culture-loving people of this country” and pleaded that
implementation be withheld till a consensus was evolved.
It is not clear whether schools have introduced sex education or what
stage of implementation the proposal is at. Reports said some schools
had introduced the lessons.
The committee on petitions today appeared to go along with the
petitioners, citing Indian culture and ethos as one more reason not
to introduce sex education in schools.
“Our country’s social and culture ethos are such that sex education
has no place in it,” the report said.
The HRD ministry had argued that the idea was “adolescence education”
and not “sex education”. Moreover, the lessons were not meant for
children of primary classes but for secondary and higher secondary-
level students (Classes IX-XII) between the ages of 15 and 18, it had
said.
Some other recommendations made by the panel are:
a) Schoolchildren should be given the “message” that sex before
marriage is immoral, unethical and unhealthy;
b) Chapters on “Physical and mental development in adolescents”, HIV/
AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases should be removed from
the school curriculum and included in biology textbooks at the Plus
Two stage;
c) The curriculum should include appropriate material on the lives
and teachings of saints, spiritual leaders, freedom fighters and
national heroes “to re-inculcate national ideals and values” in
children.
The report did not explain how schools proposed to teach children the
immorality of sex before marriage without having such studies in the
curriculum.
o o o
The Hindu, June 9, 2009
[PAKISTAN] AWAITING CHANGES TO A SYLLABUS OF HATE
by Nirupama Subramanian
All the focus is on madrasa reforms but Pakistan's schools are also
seen as encouraging extremism, while the government has shown little
urgency about implementing a revised curriculum.
On a recent weekday afternoon, a small group of youngsters gathered
at a meeting hall in Islamabad to discuss how to combat extremism,
militancy and terrorism in Pakistan. Listed were top-notch speakers,
including two members of Parliament and the well-known physicist,
Pervez Hoodbhoy.
Dr. Hoodbhoy, who teaches at the Quaid-e-Azam University in the
Pakistan capital, spoke passionately and at length, on a theme that
he has worked to highlight for years: the education imparted to
Pakistani children is flawed and encourages extremism, intolerance
and ignorance. He showed the group, mostly undergraduate students,
slides from an illustrated primer for the Urdu alphabet he picked
from a shop in Rawalpindi: alif for Allah; bay for bandook (gun); tay
for takrao (collision, shown by a plane crashing into the Twin
Towers); jeem for jihad; kay for khanjar (dagger); and hay for hijab.
This was not a prescribed textbook, but another set of slides he
showed had excerpts from a 1995 government-approved curriculum for
Social Studies, which stated that at the end of Class V, the child
should be able to acknowledge and identify forces that may be working
against Pakistan; demonstrate by actions a belief in the fear of
Allah; make speeches on jehad and shahadat (martyrdom); understand
Hindu-Muslim differences and the resultant need for Pakistan; India´s
evil designs against Pakistan; be safe from rumour-mongers who spread
false news; visit police stations; collect pictures of policemen,
soldiers, and National Guards; and demonstrate respect for the
leaders of Pakistan.
"Instead of teaching our children about the nice things in this world
like the colours of flowers, about the wonders of the universe, we
are teaching them to hate," he said. The school curriculum was one
reason, he said, why Pakistanis were in denial that the militants and
extremists now terrorising the entire country were home-grown
products, and why many tended to externalise the problem with
conspiracy theories about an "external" hand.
At the end of the discussion, which included a question-and-answer
session, the group was asked how many thought Pakistan´s present
problems were the consequence of an "Indian hand." A quarter of the
group put up its hands. Next, the students were asked how many
thought the problems were the result of an American conspiracy to
destabilise Pakistan and deprive it of its nuclear weapons: more than
three-fourths of the group sent their hands up without a moment´s
hesitation.
The irony was that this was the "youth group" of a non-governmental
organisation, the Liberal Forum of Pakistan. The students had
reserved their maximum applause for a speaker who projected the
widespread line that Pakistan´s problems began only after 2001, and
are the fallout of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
"Was there a single incident of terrorism before that? A single
suicide bombing? No." he said. The speaker was an official of the
Ministry of Youth Affairs.
In the search for solutions to the crisis sweeping Pakistan and
threatening to tear it apart, the international community has tended
to focus on madrasas as "terrorist factories." But for Dr. Hoodbhoy
and others who have been fighting a long battle for urgent changes in
Pakistan´s national school curriculum and the prescribed school
textbooks, children getting a government-approved education in the
public school system are at equal risk.
"Madrasas are not the only institutions breeding hate, intolerance, a
distorted world view. The educational material in government-run
schools do much more than madrasas. The textbooks tell lies, create
hatred, inculcate militancy..." This was the damning conclusion of a
landmark research project by the Islamabad-based Sustainable
Development Policy Institute.
For three years, 30 scholars commissioned by SDPI pored over
textbooks in four subjects taught for Classes 1 to 12: Social Studies/
Pakistan Studies, Urdu, English and Civics. The startling findings of
their labour came out in a 2004 publication, "The Subtle Subversion:
The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan."
The much-written about research unleashed a huge debate on what was
being taught in Pakistan´s schools, and became the basis for a major
revision of the national curriculum undertaken by the Musharraf
regime in 2006. The new curriculum has made several big changes.
There is a conscious move to teach tolerance and respect for
diversity, and the open vilification of India is absent. It also does
not insist on imposing Islamic religious teaching on non-Muslim
students. Religion is to be taught in focussed courses, rather than
being infused in Social Studies, Civics, Urdu and English.
Unfortunately, so far, no move has been made to introduce new
textbooks that reflect the changes.
"The revised curriculum is a huge departure from the earlier one. But
whether the changes it prescribes will be implemented at all is not
clear to us. The more it is delayed, the less and less we are sure it
is going to come," said A.H. Nayyar, research fellow at SDPI and one
of the initiators of the project.
The changes in the curriculum are up on the Internet site of the
Ministry of Education. For Grades 4 and 5 Social Studies, the
curriculum has dropped the learning outcomes prescribed by the 1995
and 2002 curricula, focussing instead on providing an "unbiased"
education that aims to build informed citizens equipped with
analytical skills and "values such as equality, social justice,
fairness, diversity, and respect for self and diverse opinions of
others."
The SDPI recommendation that history be taught as a separate subject
instead of being lumped into Pakistan Studies was accepted by the
framers of the revised curriculum. So, for the first time, a
curriculum has been framed for history as a separate subject from
Grades 6 to 8.
In contrast to the earlier approach in the Pakistan Studies
curriculum, in which the history of Pakistan begins with the day the
first Muslim set foot in India, the revised curriculum includes a
study of the Indus valley civilisation, of Hinduism, Buddhism and
Jainism, and of the ancient Maurya and Gupta dynasties.
The curriculum appears keen to emphasise a composite South Asian
history from which Pakistan took birth including the "joint Hindu-
Muslim" efforts in the struggle for independence. The Pakistan
Studies curriculum for Grades 9 and 10 wants children to learn about
the multicultural heritage of Pakistan and "get used to the idea of
unity in diversity," a big no-no earlier.
The revised curriculum also has a component on "peace studies" and
conflict resolution.
One reason new textbooks based on the revised curriculum have not
come out yet, Dr. Nayyar speculated, may be that the 1998 national
educational policy introduced by the shortlived Nawaz Sharif
government, remains in force till 2010. The Pakistan People´s Party-
led government could be waiting to introduce its own education
policy, and usher in the changes to the curriculum and the textbooks
along with this, he said.
Even the draft new education policy is ready, based on a two-year-old
White Paper. It too reflects a major shift from the 1998 policy,
which laid down that education should enable the citizens to lead
their lives as true practising Muslims according to the teachings of
Islam as prescribed in the Quran and Sunnah. It also made the
teaching of Nazra Quran a compulsory subject from Grades 1 to 8, and
the learning of selected verses from the Quran thereafter, in clear
violation of the Constitution that Islam will not be imposed on non-
Muslims.
By contrast, the draft new policy makes it clear that only Muslim
children will be provided instruction in Islamiyat, while minorities
will be provided an education in their own religion. The new policy
will provide the framework for the implementing the new curriculum
and introducing new textbooks.
The bad news is that in April, the federal Cabinet put off approving
the draft indefinitely. Only after the Cabinet approves the policy
can it be placed before Parliament. A report in Dawn newspaper said
the Cabinet wanted the Education Ministry to make the policy "more
comprehensive, covering every aspect of education sector which needs
improvement along with an implementable work plan." But no urgency is
visible in the Ministry to get cracking on this task. Another concern
is that the Education Minister is not known for his progressive
views, especially on gender issues.
"My fear," said Dr. Nayyar, a soft-spoken physicist who retired from
teaching at the Quaid-e-Azam University some years ago, "is that the
government may not have the political strength to bring in a
progressive education policy. They may succumb to pressures of
various kinds and end up bringing in a hopelessly muddled policy."
Yet the need for reforms in education has never been as urgent and
necessary as now. As Dr. Hoodbhoy has pointed out in several recent
articles, while a physical takeover of Pakistan by the Taliban may be
a far cry, extremist ideology has taken root in young minds across
the country, thanks to a flawed education system.
Compared to the 1.5 million who study in madrasas, an estimated 20
million children are enrolled in government schools. Dr. Nayyar
laments that in the five years since the publication of the SDPI
report, children who were 11 years old at the time have completed
their matriculation. They read the old textbooks, and learnt a way of
thinking about themselves and the world that will prove hard to change.
"Another generation has been lost because the process has taken too
long," he said. And until the new textbooks are introduced, millions
of children will continue to learn in their Urdu lessons in schools
about the differences between Hindus and Muslims in a hatred-
generating way, about "India´s evil designs against Pakistan" in
their Social Studies, and that Bangladesh was a result of a
conspiracy by India with assistance from "Hindus living in East
Pakistan."
_____
[9] MISCELLANEA:
http://fm4.orf.at
23. 5. 2009
REALITY CHECK SPECIAL: TARIQ ALI - NEW WORLD DISORDER
http://static2.orf.at/vietnam2/files/fm4/200921/
FM4_Reality_Check_090523_67550.mp3
o o o
2008 GLOBAL MILITARY SPENDING SURGES
Top ten arms buyers
1. US - $607bn
2. China - $84.9bn*
3. France $65.8bn
4. UK - $65.3bn
5. Russia - $58.6bn*
6. Germany - $48.6bn
7. Japan - $46.3bn
8. Italy - $40.6bn
9. Saudi Arabia - $38.2bn
10. India - $30bn
*Estimates
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri)
o o o
New Statesman
4 June 2009
‘‘THERE MAY HAVE BEEN NO WATER, BUT THE PROVINCE WAS AWASH WITH GUNS’’
by Mahmood Mamdani
Reporting of the conflict in Darfur in the western media reproduces
the spurious ethnic categories of British colonialism. The story of
the “Arab” presence in Sudan is much more complicated.
http://tinyurl.com/lq8mfx
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