SACW | July 29-30, 2009 / Sri Lanka Camps ; JVP interview / Pakistan: Mind Damage by Taliban; Lost Dog / Pakistan India Parleys Despite Hawks / Sexuality, Rights / State of the CPI(M)
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Wed Jul 29 22:18:42 CDT 2009
South Asia Citizens Wire | July 29-30, 2009 | Dispatch No. 2651 -
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] Sri Lanka: Free Civilians From Detention Camps (Press Release -
Human Rights Watch)
+ Television interview with Somawansa Amarasinghe, the Leader of
JVP (Sanjana Hattotuwa)
[2] Pakistan: National ‘mind damage’ by Taliban (Editorial, Daily
Times)
[3] Ahu & Me: A Dog Is Lost, Hope Is Found In Pakistan (Pamela
Constable)
[4] Pakistan and India: Must Keep Talking Despite Pressure from
'Jang Parivar', Former Generals, Hawkish Diplomats and Spies
- A confident Manmohan opens space for flexible response
(Siddharth Varadarajan)
- Provinces of a debate (Mani Shankar Aiyar)
- Missing the wood for the trees (Siddharth Varadarajan)
- Concord at sharm el-sheikh (Editorial)
[5] India: On Sexuality, Rights, Freedom From Religion . . .
- We are adults only (Sanjay Srivastava)
- Q&A: "Every Work Form You Fill Asks Your Marital Status" (Ann
Ninan interviews Lesley Esteves)
- 'Parents impose their belief system on children' (Innaiah
Narisetti talks about the rationalist movement with Manoj Mitta)
[6] India: The State of the CPI(M) in West Bengal (AM)
[7] USA: Christian Right Aims to Change History Lessons in Texas
Schools (Chris McGreal)
[8] Books:
- Book Review: India’s past, revisited by Kesavan Veluthat
- Nothing for Nothing (Laura Shapiro)
[9] Announcements:
(i) Public meeting - Maternal Health, Human Rights and Law (New
Delhi, 1 August 2009)
(ii) Public Meeting - Stop! Militarization of Democratic
Processes and Space (New Delhi, 4 August 2009)
(iii) Workshop: Money and Wealth in South Asian History -
Meanings and Practices (London, 9-10 October 2009)
_____
[1] Sri Lanka:
Human Rights Watch hrw.org
SRI LANKA: FREE CIVILIANS FROM DETENTION CAMPS
Eventual Resettlement No Excuse for Holding 280,000 Displaced Tamils
July 28, 2009
(New York) – The Sri Lankan government should immediately release the
more than 280,000 internally displaced Tamil civilians held in
detention camps in northern Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said today.
The government, in violation of international law, has since March
2008 confined virtually all civilians displaced by the fighting
between government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in detention camps, euphemistically called
“welfare centers” by the government. Only a small number of camp
residents, mainly the elderly, have been released to host families
and institutions for the elderly.
“Keeping several hundred thousand civilians who had been caught in
the middle of a war penned in these camps is outrageous,” said Brad
Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Haven’t they been
through enough? They deserve their freedom, like all other Sri Lankans.”
The United Nations reported that as of July 17, 2009, the government
was detaining 281,621 people in 30 military-guarded camps in the four
northern districts of Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna, and Trincomalee. Camp
residents are allowed to leave only for emergency medical care, and
then frequently only with military escort. Inside the camps,
humanitarian workers are prohibited, on threat of being barred from
the camps, from discussing with residents the fighting in the final
months of the conflict or possible human rights abuses.
Premkumar, 44 years old, told Human Rights Watch that he, his wife,
and their 3-year-old daughter have been confined to a camp since they
escaped the war zone in mid-May. He has been allowed out only once,
when he managed to obtain a referral to a hospital.
“The way I see it, we are not internally displaced persons, we are
internally displaced prisoners,” Premkumar said. “We used to be in a
prison controlled by [LTTE leader] Prabhakaran. Now we are in a
prison controlled by the government.”
In Kalimoddai and Sirukandal camps in Mannar district, established
more than a year ago, some residents have been granted permission to
leave the camp for short periods during the day. In these camps, they
have to register with the military twice a day. Human Rights Watch
has received reports that if a person fails or is late to register,
the military may apply punitive measures, such as forcing the person
to stand still under the sun for a period of time or to perform
manual labor.
Sri Lanka’s policy of confining the displaced to detention camps has
been widely condemned. On May 15, for example, Walter Kälin, the UN
secretary-general’s representative on internally displaced persons,
said: “Prolonged internment of such persons would not only amount to
arbitrary detention but it also aggravates the humanitarian situation
needlessly.”
In response to domestic and international criticism, President
Mahinda Rajapaksa has tried to justify the detention policy by
claiming that anyone in the camps could be a security threat. The
government has sought to play down the situation, insisting that the
displaced civilians will be quickly resettled. In May, the government
said it would resettle 80 percent of them by the end of this year.
Now the Minister of Foreign Affairs says the goal is 60 percent. The
government has not provided any concrete resettlement plans, however,
and displaced persons have not received any information about when
they might be allowed to return home.
The military has reportedly removed several thousand camp residents
for alleged membership or support of the LTTE, and transferred them
to rehabilitation centers for LTTE fighters or to Colombo, the
capital, for further interrogation. In many cases, the authorities
have failed to inform relatives remaining in the camps about the fate
and whereabouts of those removed, raising concerns of possible ill-
treatment or enforced disappearance. The order to humanitarian
workers not to talk to camp residents limits their ability to protect
people from abuse.
While the Sri Lankan authorities are entitled to screen persons
leaving the war zone to identify Tamil Tiger combatants,
international law prohibits arbitrary detention and unnecessary
restrictions on the right to freedom of movement. This means that
anyone taken into custody must be promptly brought before a judge and
charged with a criminal offense or released. Although human rights
law permits restrictions on movement for security reasons, the
restrictions must have a clear legal basis, be limited to what is
necessary, and be proportionate to the threat.
“Vague promises about the future release of the people illegally
locked up in detention camps are no justification for keeping them
there,” said Adams. “Every day in the camp is another day that the
government is violating their rights.”
The situation of camp residents is aggravated by inadequate living
conditions in the camps. Many are overcrowded, some holding twice the
number recommended by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
According to the UN, there is a shortage of latrines and access to
water is inconsistent, causing hygiene problems. In June alone,
health officials recorded more than 8,000 cases of diarrhea, as well
as hundreds of cases of hepatitis, dysentery, and chickenpox.
Numerous reports indicate that camp residents are getting
increasingly frustrated with the inadequate food, overcrowding, and
inability to visit relatives in adjacent camps or elsewhere. In late
June, they held at least two protests in the camps, which were
dispersed by the security forces.
The government has effectively sealed off the detention camps from
outside scrutiny. Human rights organizations, journalists, and other
independent observers are not allowed inside, and humanitarian
organizations with access have been forced to sign a statement that
they will not disclose information about the conditions in the camps
without government permission. On several occasions, the government
expelled foreign journalists and aid workers who had collected and
publicized information about camp conditions, or did not renew their
visas.
On July 24, the executive board of the International Monetary Fund
approved a US$2.6 billion loan to Sri Lanka, granting the government
an “exceptional level of access to Fund resources.” Several countries
– including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and
Argentina – abstained from the vote, reflecting concern about human
rights violations during the conflict and continued abuses, including
mistreatment of internally displaced persons. Installments of the
loan will have to be approved every three months.
“The world recognizes that Sri Lanka needs money to rebuild the
country,” said Adams. “But the government’s treatment of its Tamil
population in recent months has drained much of the sympathy for the
challenges it faces. The government needs to change course or expect
greater international scrutiny in the future.”
o o o
TELEVISION INTERVIEW WITH SOMAWANSA AMARASINGHE, THE LEADER OF JVP
by Sanjana Hattotuwa (3 July 2009)
on Young Asia Television (http://www.yatv.net/)
http://vimeo.com/5434496
_____
[2] Pakistan:
Daily Times
29 July 2009
EDITORIAL: NATIONAL ‘MIND DAMAGE’ BY TALIBAN
The NWFP Senior Minister, Mr Bashir Ahmed Bilour, has revealed that
200 “completely brainwashed” children of ages 6 to 13 years have been
recovered from Malakand, ready to act as suicide-bombers for the
Taliban. Further details are quite unsettling: the children are so
completely transformed by their trainers that they refuse to
reintegrate into normal society and even threaten their parents with
death because they are “non-believers”.
We know that children were increasingly being used by the Taliban for
their terrorist attacks in recent times. The pattern even contained
the message that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were finding it
increasingly difficult to train grown-up individuals to do the job.
We also know that a child from Karachi is being prosecuted for being
a part of the plot that took the life of Ms Benazir Bhutto in
Rawalpindi in 2007. But new details about the use of suicide-bombing
coming to light establish a pattern of employing children rather than
men.
Our troops discovered suicide-factories in South Waziristan where
children brought in from all over Pakistan were kept and “trained” by
men who had become famous for their expertise at “converting” the
boys in “half an hour”. A cleric from South Punjab was actually
caught as he returned from South Waziristan after delivering the
latest batch of child bombs to Baitullah Mehsud. This is the worst
mind damage that the Taliban movement has done to Pakistan. It has
nothing to do with Islam directly but Islam is certainly being
misused as an instrument of brainwash.
The 200 child suicide-bombers now in army custody should be handled
with great care. They have to be put through a debriefing with a
psychologist who should grade them in accordance with the intensity
of their alienation from society. They should not be let out into
society after a “corrective” sermon from a cleric. That will not
work, as shown again and again by men who suffered punishment in
prisons, including Guantanamo Bay, and then went right back to
practising terrorism once they were released.
Generally speaking, Pakistani children are ripe for the plucking.
Poor and deprived, they are primed with religious instruction, as
embodied in our syllabi, and succumb to Taliban trainers willingly
because of the orthodox views inculcated in them by our school
system. While the instruction in state-owned schools is completely
benign, some of its elements are selectively employed by the trainers
to fashion a suicide-bomber out of the boy. The idea of “shahadat”
and the attainment of paradise are misapplied, and the Muslims that
he is supposed to kill through his suicide are first apostatised into
kafirs.
Unfortunately, a concordance between the orthodox clergy and the
Taliban trainers helps the evil process. For instance, the
condemnation of suicide-bombing through a collective fatwa issued by
the ulema of Pakistan recognises the phenomenon of suicide-bombers as
“fedayeen” and outlaws suicide-bombing only when it targets “innocent
Muslims”. From this legal base, the boys are easily convinced that
they are dying in the cause of Islam by killing those who have
rendered themselves non-believers by their acts.
The national consensus against the Taliban, and effective military
operations against them, have turned the tide of grown-up suicide
bombers. The conduct of the state too has helped in this. For
instance, Jamil and Khalique who tried to kill President Pervez
Musharraf in Rawalpindi in 2003 by ramming their explosive-laden car
into his cavalcade, were Jaish-e-Muhammad operatives who once fought
the covert war against India and were caught fighting against the
Americans in 2001 in Afghanistan. Thinking they would change their
ways, the agencies let them off, which was a mistake.
Now, of course, the illusions of covert war have been more or less
eliminated and the army is fighting against the jihadis that once
were its extended front rank. This has changed the trend. The jihadis
offer themselves less and less as suicide-bombers; and if they do,
they have proved less and less reliable. The new trend is to get
caught and start spilling the beans on their patrons, which is
actually a measure of success of the army in its war against the
Taliban. Ajmal Kasab had the option of suicide; he did not take it.
And he has spilled a lot of beans.
The “mind damage” at the national level is being gradually healed as
“intimidation” under the control of Taliban is less and less
possible. But those who have been roped into becoming suicide-bombers
are a special case. And if they are children they should be kept in
quarantine and reintegrated into a society that they should view as
benign. *
_____
[3] Pakistan:
Washington Post
AHU & ME: A DOG IS LOST, HOPE IS FOUND IN PAKISTAN
Lost and found: Pamela Constable with Ahu and some of the Pakistanis
who helped her locate the missing pet. (Courtesy Of The Author)
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- I almost missed her at first, a small dusty
dog curled up under a taxi in a crowded airport. But when I whistled,
she poked her head out and looked up with a faintly hopeful
expression. She had a slender face and huge brown eyes, like a doe.
I had just landed after a long flight from the States, tired and
harried, but I bought her a chicken sandwich near the taxi stand and
watched her gulp it down. As I started to walk away, pushing a
trolley full of luggage, she raced after me and clung to my legs like
a child. It was an act of rash, desperate trust I could not bear to
reject.
And so this tiny, graceful creature came out of the void and into my
life. Within a few days we were inseparable. She was a slim white-and-
brown hound, perhaps 2 years old. I named her Ahu, which means "deer"
in Afghan Dari.
I had rescued other dogs in other foreign lands, but Ahu seemed more
like a long-lost friend. She was grateful for a bath and unfazed by a
trip to the vet. When I came in the gate of my rented home, she leapt
up and pirouetted for joy. When I worked at my desk, she rested her
muzzle on my lap. When I went to bed, she curled up nearby.
Islamabad has long been an intermittent base for me between reporting
assignments in more volatile and impoverished places in South Asia.
It is an orderly, modern city, and over the years I had become
familiar with its ministerial offices and diplomatic compounds, its
political parlors and bookshops and fashionable restaurants. But it
had always been a safe and antiseptic way station, a place with ATMs
and hot showers. I had never engaged with it as a real city, with
real inhabitants who struggled to make ends meet. They appeared in
the manicured enclaves I frequented to cut grass or sell mangoes,
then retreated to a gritty world on the fringes of the capital that
seemed remote and invisible.
Until I lost Ahu. I was on another trip to Afghanistan and left the
dog in the care of my redoubtable housekeeper. I assumed Ahu would be
there waiting patiently, like Argus, when I returned. Instead, I
learned later, she had howled disconsolately in the yard all day. I
had seduced and abandoned her, and she had no way of knowing I would
be back. One morning when the gate was left open, she bolted down the
street. The guards chased her for almost a mile, but she vanished
into the city.
When a colleague called with the news, I was in a rural Afghan
province covering a rally for a presidential candidate. I felt sick
with guilt. I knew Ahu was looking for me, and I imagined her
wandering and lost and hungry.
ad_icon
The next morning I caught the daily flight to Islamabad, and that
afternoon I started out to search, accompanied by my housekeeper and
her husband. We began in the affluent neighborhood where Ahu had been
last seen. Uniformed guards were stationed outside every residence,
and we handed them fliers with her photograph, a reward offer of $100
and a phone number. Some greeted us with suspicious looks or
incredulous stares, but others seemed sympathetic. One older man was
sure Ahu had spent a night curled up next to his booth, but he said
she had moved on.
Islamabad is a city of many pet owners but few animal lovers.
Affluent families dote on imported Persian and Siamese cats and
retired officers walk their German shepherds or stout yellow labs,
but I have rarely seen anyone express concern or affection for a
street dog. The snobbery of the elite is passed down to the servant
class. Ahu looked like a hundred other homeless dogs, and the guards
and sweepers and drivers we met in our search regarded her as having
no value. If we were looking for a local stray, they told us with
looks of faint distaste, we should try the nearby "Christian Colony."
This turned out to be a warren of alleys and shacks, hidden behind a
wall and inhabited by several hundred families of garbage scavengers.
Christians are a small, mostly impoverished minority in Muslim
Pakistan, popularly disparaged as thieves and drunks. The colony
filled a designated economic niche, like a community of
"untouchables" in India. In every alley, boys delivered bulging sacks
and men weighed piles of glass and cardboard for resale.
The inhabitants were astonished and amused to see us, but they were
neither rude nor threatening. Dirt-streaked boys surrounded us and
eagerly took the fliers; shopkeepers listened politely to our story.
"Madam, do not worry, we find your dog," one old man selling a pile
of eggplants promised gallantly.
There were indeed many dogs living in the colony. The community had a
reputation for stealing them, but it seemed to me they were treated
more as co-inhabitants at the margins of society, neither pampered
nor shunned. After several visits, we recognized most of the
regulars, and they trotted up wagging their tails. As we broadened
our search, scouring parks and vacant lots and garbage pits, we came
to know the dogs that lived there, too. After dark they huddled in
groups of three or four near the Dumpsters, waiting their turn after
the crows and scavenger boys.
Several looked like Ahu, and I kept thinking sadly that they were no
less deserving of a better life.
On the second day, we peered into more corners of the city. We
marched into police stations, passing grimy prisoners in manacles,
where desk officers rolled their eyes but dutifully took notes and
promised to alert their patrols. We poked into smoky tea shops where
jobless men passed their days snoozing on string beds. We
crisscrossed overgrown parks where squatters slept in cardboard tents
or grazed a few goats. For the first time in more than a decade of
visiting this polished international capital, I discovered its human
soul.
As the hours passed, I began to lose hope. Back at the office I tried
to finish writing an overdue article, but the words would not come. I
had no appetite and I slept fitfully. I had to return to Afghanistan
in a few days, and I was beginning to believe I would never see Ahu
again.
But out in the city, word was spreading. Ahu's photograph was taped
on market stalls and utility poles and taxi windows, and strangers
started calling the number on the flier. Each time it turned out to
be a false alarm, but each time I met someone who cared. In a
bookshop window I saw a photo I thought was Ahu's, but it had been
put up by a woman seeking a home for another stray. A man called to
say he had found her, and he was cradling a similar little hound in
his arms when I arrived. We had a long talk and parted feeling like
kindred souls. My impression of Pakistani callousness toward animals
began to soften.
The search also led to unexpected reconnections in a city where I had
many professional acquaintances but no close friends. By
happenstance, a U.N. worker I had known a decade before e-mailed to
say hello, wondering if I was in the country. She turned out to live
in the precise neighborhood where Ahu had vanished, and promised to
be on the lookout.
Then I ran into a Pakistani journalist and former traveling companion
whom I had not seen in years. He instantly vowed to find her, re-
energizing my flagging hopes. Together we combed the city again,
passing out more photos and expanding the network of people who knew
about our search.
In the end, the crucial connection came from yet another obscure
subculture in the capital. My journalist friend knew an extended
family of clothes washers, men who laundered sheets and towels in
steamy outdoor baths each morning and delivered them on motorbikes to
guest houses and dry cleaners each evening. At 7 a.m. on the fourth
day of the search, my friend passed out fliers at the baths. At 6
p.m., two of the laundrymen called him from a tea shop. They had a
flier in their hands, and they were certain they had found Ahu.
Half an hour later, she was delivered to my door, dirty but unharmed,
and delirious to see me. I was overwhelmed with relief. I gave the
laundrymen the reward money and admonished the guards to be more
careful about leaving the gate open. But I was also grateful to this
little dog for leading me into the hidden human corners of a city
that had long seemed artificial and inhuman to me.
Blissfully unaware of the harrowing but instructive odyssey she had
launched, Ahu strolled into my room and curled up at the foot of the
bed for a good nap.
Constable reports from Pakistan and Afghanistan for The Post.
o o o
[some relevant links for south asians: ]
http://www.afghanstrayanimals.org
Pakistan Animal Welfare Society
http://pawspakistan.org/
In Defense of Animals
http://idaindia.org/
Veterinary clinic for animal refuge in Ooty
http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/25/stories/2006112500810200.htm
_____
[4] India: Let Pakistan and India Talk !
The Hindu
30 July 2009
A CONFIDENT MANMOHAN OPENS SPACE FOR FLEXIBLE RESPONSE
by Siddharth Varadarajan
New Delhi: The Prime Minister’s authoritative statement in Parliament
on relations with Pakistan accomplished the impossible: answering
hardline critics in India fearful of the resumption of dialogue while
not compromising the domestic credibility of his potential
interlocutors across the border or hurting the prospects for peace
between the two countries.
SEE FULL TEXT: http://www.hindu.com/2009/07/30/stories/
2009073061111200.htm
The Indian Express
29 July 2009
PROVINCES OF A DEBATE
by Mani Shankar Aiyar
In the hullabaloo over Pakistan Prime Minister Gilani having
“mentioned” at Sharm el-Sheikh that “Pakistan had some information on
threats (from whom, from where?) in Balochistan and (hold it) other
areas (emphasis added)”, there are some misled sections of our polity
who believe — in the manner of BJP Rajya Sabha MP Arun Shourie urging
in the wake of 26/11 that we take two eyes for every eye and an
entire jaw for any damaged tooth — that since Pakistan sponsors cross-
border terrorism in Kashmir (“and other areas”), we should be aiding
dissidence in Balochistan.
Nothing could be more damaging or counter-productive than any Indian
attempt to interfere in Balochistan’s internal affairs.
SEE FULL TEXT AT: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/provinces-of-a-
debate/495422/0
o o o
The Hindu
29 July 2009
July 29, 2009
MISSING THE WOOD FOR THE TREES
Siddharth Varadarajan
Pakistan’s response to Mumbai may not be good enough, but delaying
dialogue will not produce a better outcome for India.
When Manmohan Singh explains his government’s policy towards Pakistan
to Parliament on Wednesday, the worst thing he can do is to disown,
downplay, retract or resile from the joint statement he issued with
Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Sharm-el-Sheikh on July
17.
So irrational and poisonous has the Indian debate on the joint
statement become that the government is today under enormous
psychological pressure to declare Sharm-el-Sheikh a mistake. The
Congress party is tongue-tied and a junior Minister for External
Affairs unwisely sought refuge in the irrelevant plea that the text
the Prime Minister had agreed to is not a legal document. The
implication is clear: Sharm-el-Sheikh may be a sell-out, but the sale
deed is not legally binding so don’t worry.
What the opposition’s noise and government’s poor salesmanship have
done is reinforce the idea that the current Indian policy of not
talking to Pakistan — in place since the Mumbai terrorist attacks of
November 2008 — is working fine and that there is no need for any
change or adjustment. This is unfortunate. For, in the run up to
Sharm-el-Sheikh, Dr. Singh was bold enough to recognise the policy
had already yielded the most it could. And that it was time to
prepare the ground for change.
The idea that not talking is a good strategy is based on four myths,
all of which are deeply flawed.
Myth #1: The Composite Dialogue benefits Pakistan and is bad for India.
Four rounds of composite dialogue have been completed and the fifth
was under way when the Mumbai attacks happened. Progress has been
modest in some areas like trade and CBMs, negligible in others like
the Kashmir dispute and terrorism. But the achievements are not
insignificant: An MoU to increase the frequencies, designated
airlines and points of call in either country of air services; an
agreement for trucks from one side to cross the border up to
designated points on the other side at the Wagah-Attari border; an
increase in frequency of the Delhi-Lahore bus service; an MoU between
the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Securities and
Exchange Commission of Pakistan; completion of the Joint Survey of
Sir Creek and adjoining areas; agreement on consular access;
implementation of CBMs with a view to enhancing interaction and
cooperation across the LoC such as increased frequency of the
Muzaffarabad-Srinagar and Rawalkot-Poonch bus services, intra-Kashmir
trade and truck service.
Of these, Sir Creek and cross-LoC CBMs are especially significant.
Resumption of Composite Dialogue would lead to the Sir Creek issue
being settled quickly, allowing both India and Pakistan to finalise
their exclusive economic zone claims under the Law of the Seas
convention. And measures could be taken to increase bilateral and
cross-LoC trade. The Jammu Traders Association, for example, would
like the current weight restriction on trucks to be increased from
1.5 tonnes to 10 tonnes. Traders on both sides also want the two
governments to improve communications and banking facilities, which
are virtually non-existent. It is hard to imagine why India would
want to delay agreement on these kinds of issues.
Myth #2: Stopping the composite dialogue will protect India from
further terrorist attacks.
The biggest fear the Congress party and Prime Minister Singh have as
they move towards the resumption of dialogue with Pakistan is the
political consequences of another major terrorist strike. The fear is
justified. But not talking will hardly reduce the capability or
intention of Pakistan-based terrorists. And to the extent to which
talking may make Islamabad’s cooperation in fighting terror more
likely, dialogue may even reduce the chances of a major terrorist
strike. Of course, the truth is that the Pakistani government and
military are unable to prevent terrorist attacks on their own soil.
Even if India had full confidence in Islamabad, it would be foolish
for any Indian government to rely on anything other than homeland
security to protect itself. Too often in the past, a hardline stance
vis-À-vis Pakistan was seen as a substitute for toning up and
professionalising the Indian police, intelligence and security
apparatus. And the country paid a heavy price.
Myth #3: Stopping the Composite Dialogue helps India put pressure on
Pakistan to take action against terrorism.
Within the Pakistani establishment, the military and the ISI are
least enthusiastic about the resumption of composite dialogue; as are
the various terrorist groups and their sympathisers. Indeed,
hardliners in Pakistan are critical of the civilian government for
appearing as if it is desperate for talks with India. It is this
military-intelligence-jihadi nexus which has been the most vocal
about India’s alleged involvement in Balochistan. That is why Mr.
Gilani was anxious to take back from Sharm-el-Sheikh some proof of
the fact that he had raised the Balochistan issue with Dr. Singh.
Myth #4: Pakistan has “not done anything” to bring the perpetrators
of Mumbai to book
Time will tell how serious Islamabad is about prosecuting the Lashkar-
e-Taiba men it has charged for their role in the Mumbai case, and
whether the “big fish” like Zaki-ur-Lakhvi or Zarrar Shah are
convicted or just LeT foot-soldiers. But more than the fate of the
individuals involved, India has reason to feel satisfied Pakistan has
accepted in writing that the crime was hatched and executed from
Pakistani soil. This is more than any Pakistani government has ever
done in the past and it would be churlish to deny this reality. That
said, given the manner in which power in Pakistan is fragmented, it
is unlikely that the system there will go any further than it already
has in meeting India’s post-Mumbai concerns, at least for now. If the
consensus in India is that Pakistan has “not done enough”, then the
country should be prepared for a long period during which there will
be no dialogue, and bilateral relations will slowly deteriorate.
The joint statement
As far as the Sharm-el-Sheikh statement is concerned, there is no
doubt that better, more careful drafting was needed. A crucial
sentence therein — “Action on terrorism should not be linked to the
Composite Dialogue process and these should not be bracketed.” — can
be read two ways. But even if India now says this does not mean the
dialogue process should be delinked from Pakistani anti-terror
actions, the sentence’s second, more direct meaning — that those
actions should not depend on the dialogue process — is a definite
improvement over the Islamabad joint statement of January 6, 2004.
There, the operational paragraphs were: (i) India saying the
prevention of terrorism would take forward the dialogue process, (ii)
Pakistan assuring India it would not permit its territory to be used
for terrorism, and (iii) Pakistan emphasising that “a sustained and
productive dialogue addressing all issues would lead to positive
results”. It is clear that this reference to “positive results” was
in relation to Pakistan’s commitments on terrorism. In other words,
the Islamabad statement implicitly linked Pakistan’s actions on
terror to “a sustained and productive dialogue addressing all
issues”. To that extent, Sharm-el-Sheikh is an improvement, though
what matters at the end of the day are actions and not words.
On Balochistan, Sharm-el-Sheikh was not the first time the situation
in the Pakistani province became an issue in the bilateral
relationship. On December 27, 2005, the Ministry of External Affairs
made the internal situation there a foreign policy concern: “The
Government of India has been watching with concern the spiralling
violence in Balochistan and the heavy military action, including the
use of helicopter gunships and jet fighters by the Government of
Pakistan to quell it. We hope that the Government of Pakistan will
exercise restraint and take recourse to peaceful discussions to
address the grievances of the people of Balochistan,” it said.
Islamabad hit back the same day, with its Foreign Ministry
spokesperson rejecting the Indian statement as “unwarranted and
baseless”. The statement was “tantamount to meddling in internal
affairs,” the spokesperson said, adding, “India often shows an
unacceptable proclivity to interfere in internal affairs of its
neighbours”. Next, the Pakistani spokesperson made a comparison with
Kashmir: “The statement is all the more surprising from the spokesman
of India, a country that has long tried to suppress the freedom
struggle of the Kashmiri people…”
Having made Balochistan a bilateral issue in such a public manner,
India can hardly object to a Pakistani Prime Minister raising it in a
summit meeting or linking it to Kashmir. History will pass judgment
on the wisdom of allowing a reference to the rebellious province in
the joint statement. But what matters most is not the reference but
the reality. If Indian agencies are not involved, no “Kasabs” will
ever be found and Pakistan will get little traction from raising the
B-word in bilateral or international forums. But if an Indian Kasab
is ever found there, the absence of a reference will provide New
Delhi no protection from the charge of involvement. The Prime
Minister said India has nothing to hide. There is no reason to
imagine he was whistling in the dark.
o o o
The Economic and Political Weekly
25 July 2009
Editorial
CONCORD AT SHARM EL-SHEIKH
India and Pakistan decide to resume dialogue. Will domestic
opposition and the intelligence agencies allow them to?
Perhaps it is the environment of the Non-Aligned Summit that induces
mood swings of great amplitude in India’s top political leadership.
Perhaps there are other forces at work, quietly and unobtrusively,
compelling shifts of strategy and direction in the engagement between
India and her troubled western neighbour.
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Pakistan Presi-dent Asif Ali
Zardari in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on the sidelines of a regional
summit in June, he made little effort to be polite. All he had to
talk about was the use of Pakistan’s soil by militant groups engaged
in terrorist violence against India. This caused great consternation,
verging on outrage in Pakistan over his suspension of normal
diplomatic niceties.
Though expectations were low, Manmohan Singh managed to turn his mid-
July meeting with his Pakistani counterpart on the sidelines of the
Non-Aligned Summit in Egypt, into a virtual feast of concord. Landing
back in India, the prime minister has found the glow fading rapidly,
as he has confronted outraged cries of betrayal by the main
opposition party and a conspicuous lack of enthusiasm within his own
fold.
The art of diplomacy is built in part on turning a delicate phrase to
obscure the true intentions of both sides. But it has taken a special
clumsiness in language to make a good outcome appear a near disaster.
A key formulation of the Joint Statement that came out of the prime
ministerial meeting at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is the
supposed removal of the linkage between the “Composite Dialogue” the
two nations have been engaged in, and their own battles against
terrorism. The “Composite Dialogue” has so far failed to address even
the more tractable among the disputes that have bedevilled relations
between India and Pakistan. That it has nevertheless acquired a
mystique quite independent of its actual yield of political
dividends, is a consequence of a peculiar kind of mindset in Indian
thinking on Pakistan. Dialogue has become an end in itself and a
reward for Pakistan showing sufficient serious-ness in tackling
militant groups using its soil for attacks on India. The unstated
premise here is that terrorism is India’s special concern and
Pakistan’s special responsibility. And if Pakistan faced up to its
responsibilities, India would be magnanimous enough to talk, though
with little assurance of yielding any ground. With this spurious
linkage removed, Pakistan will now presumably continue to combat
terrorism even if the rewards it obtains in terms of the returns on
the composite dialogue are meagre. And the Sharm el-Sheikh statement
does record significant forward steps, as well as a convergence of
perceptions between the two countries in bringing to justice the
perpetrators of last November’s terrorist outrage in Mumbai.
There is, in other words, a perfectly reasonable construction that
can be placed on this aspect of the Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement,
which undermines all claims that it constitutes a betrayal of India’s
long-standing position. The political hysteria rather seems to be
born of a quite different cause, indeed, with an aspect of it that
mentions what has for long been unmentionable in Indian strategic
circles. An official statement issued after a high-level political
engagement between national governments cannot afford to leave stray
sentences around, unattached by either logic or syntax with its main
body. For this reason, it is difficult to give any credence to
editorial comment, which has tended to portray the reference to the
trouble in Balochistan province of Pakistan, as something devoid of
long-term consequence. Immediately after affirming that the two
governments would “share real time, credible and actionable
information on any future terrorist events”, the statement records
the Pakistan prime minister as having “mentioned” that certain
“threats” existed in Balochistan and other areas. The implication,
clearly, is that India could do something about these. To nobody’s
surprise, this one line in the statement has shocked and horrified
the Indian intelligence community. Beyond all the simulated outrage
over the supposed delinking of the composite dialogue from action
against terrorism, this is the line that could have fateful political
consequences in the years ahead. The template for high-level
political engagement between India and Pakistan has for years
seemingly been cast in stone. India has held fast to the course of
blaming Pakistan for every terrorist outrage that occurs on its soil.
And Pakistan has said quite simply that credible movement forward in
the “core issue” of Kashmir would bring about a miraculous cessation
of terrorist activity in India. Never before has the lethal political
contest between the countries’ intelligence agencies, seeking to
outdo each other in the pain it can inflict, been mentioned in a
political communiqué. The Sharm el-Sheikh declaration alters that
reality. When India and Pakistan agreed, on the sidelines of the
Havana Non-Aligned Summit of 2006, on a joint institutional mechanism
to combat terrorism, there were scarcely concealed grimaces with-in
the intelligence agencies, which saw the prospect of information
sharing with counterparts across the border, as a fatal infringement
of their autonomy. That mechanism has had, expectedly, a rather
dismal track record ever since. The Sharm el-Sheikh statement
resurrects that process and idea and explicitly acknowledges that
terrorism is both a shared concern and responsibility. That really is
its long-term significance. Whether long-term dividends will flow
from this new approach, however, depends decisively on how far
intelligence agencies on both sides of the bristling border can be
compelled to accept new norms of political accountability.
_____
[5]
Hindustan Times, July 28, 2009
http://tt.ly/1O
WE ARE ADULTS ONLY
by Sanjay Srivastava
Discussions of sexuality in India invariably centre on India’s
‘ancient’ past where public expressions of sexuality were not taboo.
This is the Kama Sutra narrative that is a product of colonial
history, nationalist aspirations and European theorising about a
‘free-flowing’ Orient that was different from a ‘repressed’ Occident.
The Kama Sutra narrative of Indian sexuality is largely irrelevant to
an understanding of its modern manifestations and is best confined to
expensive coffee table books of our ‘glorious’ past that was
supposedly destroyed by foreign invaders. The Government of India
recently blocking the offshore internet porn site savitabhabhi.com
should focus our attention to the extensive non-Kama Sutra history of
Indian sexuality that illustrates that the state often has little
idea about the culture it seeks to ‘protect’.
However, a qualification is in order: the Savitabhabhi comic strip is
hardly the paragon of ‘liberated’ thinking. In fact, it incorporates
the most conservative male fantasies about the ‘modern’ woman who is
forever willing to please a man. Given this, the issue is not
Savitabhabhi and her male originators’ fantasies of power. Rather, it
has to do with the curious case of a state that hardly knows its own
culture. And while on the one hand it parades Indian culture as one
with ancient and strong roots, on the other, it thinks it so fragile
as to be shattered by every gust of a ‘foreign’ cultural influence.
Let us begin with the curious case of Dr A.P. Pillay (1889-1956), one
of the leading lights behind the family planning movement and a
pioneering figure in the history of modern Indian sexology. Based in
Maharashtra, between 1934 and 1955, Dr Pillay published a slew of
popular books that discussed sexuality from a wide range of
perspectives. He was one of many such authors at that time, though
perhaps the best known among English language writers on the topic.
His publications included The Art of Love and Sane Sex Living and Sex
Knowledge for Girls and Adolescents.
Dr Pillay was a curious figure in as much as while — along with many
of his contemporaries — he subscribed to a ‘scientific view’ on
sexuality, he also foregrounded pleasure, women’s rights as sexual
beings, and ‘alternative’ sexual practices and behaviours. Our
minders of public morality might be shocked to read Dr Pillay’s
advice in a 1948 publication that masturbation, either as ‘auto-
eroticism’ or as heterosexual or homosexual practice, was a
‘harmless method of relief’. And this from someone who contributed to
the founding of the Family Planning Association of India!
In North India, a variety of Hindi language publications furthered
the dialogue initiated by Pillay. So, small-town magazines such as
Nar-Naari and Hum Dono were part of a semi-illicit circuit of debate
and discussion on sexuality, drawing participants from small towns
and qasbas that were not part of official discourses on sexuality and
‘sex-education’. Magazines such as these created a forum for non-
moralising discussions on desires, fantasies, anxieties and
intimacies. Of course, they sought to escape the wrath of the state’s
‘obscenity’ laws by presenting their discussions through detached
medicalised language.
Nowadays, the most explicit discussions of sexuality take place in a
variety of Hindi-language ‘women’s’ magazines such as Grhasobha and
Grhalakshmi. Indeed, for the past 20 years or so, there has barely
been an issue that does not include an article on sex and sexuality.
Most remarkably, women’s sexuality is the most frequently discussed
topic. Whereas in earlier publications such as Dharmayug, sexuality
was invariably discussed in the context of ‘nation-building’,
contemporary publications have decisively moved the focus to
sexuality-as-consumption.
So, ‘Grhasobha sexuality’ is about how women might explore their
sexual selves, rather than only serve the nation as ‘good’ citizens.
It is commonplace to find articles that ask whether ‘virginity is
necessary before marriage’ and ‘why there are no virginity tests for
men’, as well as others on ‘menopause and sex’. Savitabhabhi has come
home, and the Indian culture the state seeks to protect from evil
foreign influences has been ‘evil’ for quite some time. It’s grown
up actually.
The problem is that just like many sexologists, the state too
believes that there is something fundamental about our sexual selves,
and hence sexuality must be policed. So, we face minor embarrassment
if exposed as a bad cook. But to be revealed as someone who is ‘bad
at sex’ becomes an existential problem requiring the intervention of
many an ‘expert’. However, despite what we are constantly told, there
is no single truth to sexuality without which we remain incomplete
humans.
This belief may help in the marketing of cosmetic products and
‘advice’ books, but it also creates peculiar ideas about our sexual
selves and the threats to Indian culture from ‘bad’ sexuality. The
modern history of sexual cultures in India is one of great diversity
and one that shows that its participants have not suffered from the
fear of the decline-of-Indian-civilisation-as-we-know-it. The state
needs to learn from that.
Sanjay Srivastava is Professor of Sociology, Institute of Economic
Growth, Delhi, and author of Passionate Modernity: Sexuality, Class,
and Consumption in India.
o o o
Inter Press Service
29 July 2009
Q&A: "EVERY WORK FORM YOU FILL ASKS YOUR MARITAL STATUS"
Ann Ninan interviews LESLEY ESTEVES, a queer activist
NEW DELHI, Jul 29 (IPS) - When the New Delhi High Court amended
Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial-era law which was
used to criminalise consensual homosexual relationships, on Jul. 2,
it was a "life-changing moment for me," says Lesley Esteves, a
journalist and queer activist based in New Delhi.
For the first time, a constitutional authority spoke up "so
forcefully for my community," she asserts.
The ruling applies to New Delhi, but it sets a precedent for the
legal establishment across the country. Already, there are attempts
being made by the religious right-wing and political parties to
scuttle it.
IPS interviewed Esteves about being a queer woman, the judgement and
heterosexuality in India.
IPS: The judgement on Article 377 is a victory for basic rights to
privacy, non discrimination and liberty.
LESLEY ESTEVES: My community has lived under the shadow of
criminalisation for 150 years. The only ‘crimes’ (we) committed were
refusing to adhere to gender norms laid down by one section of our
society - be it in dress, speech, behaviour or choice of sexual partner.
These norms were for long claimed to be sanctified by religion, the
basis of their enforcement in law. These norms are nothing but
prejudices, which ultimately aim to create unequal societies.
The writers of the Constitution of India hoped to prevent the
prejudices of one set of the Indian people from oppressing another
set of people, and they wrote the protections into law through the
Fundamental Rights available to all Indians. The Delhi High Court
upheld that spirit of inclusiveness and tolerance for diversity, by
effectively agreeing that Section 377 could no longer be used as a
tool of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
IPS: What would you say about patriarchy and being queer in India?
LE: A queer person is quite simply defined as any person who falls
outside of, and foul of, the patriarchal notions of family and gender
roles.
That's why we use the word 'queer', which is a much broader term than
gay or LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender). This challenge
marginalises not only gay and transgender people, but also single
women, single men, straight couples who want to live together and not
get married, straight people who reject unequal marriage laws,
straight people who reject conventional gender roles, etc.
The way that conventional marriage operates, especially in the Indian
context, seems to be more about resource preservation and applying
privileges of citizenship to only one set of people, than about a
relationship.
This is seen in how most faiths, law and government regulations
recognise only one family system. Only a marriage involving one man
with one woman can be sanctified and accorded protection from social
or economic discrimination.
The queer struggle is to end this hegemony, and to enable equality
for all kinds of consensual relationships, family structures and
gender behaviours. It is a struggle closely reflected in the issues
the women's movement also grapples with. Therefore, in metro cities
like Delhi, Bombay, Lucknow and Calcutta, you notice partnerships
between queer rights and women's rights groups.
IPS: Can you tell me a little about yourself.
LE: I have been open about my sexual identity since the age of 15,
when my parents discovered I was gay. In the workplace, I wish I
could have chosen otherwise, but I never wanted to be counted as
heterosexual.
It’s not evident to most how much heterosexuality hegemonises the
discourse in the workplace. Every work form you fill asks your
marital status; every colleague you meet asks the same question.
And of course, some colleagues have access to facilities that I
don’t. I can’t claim medical benefits for my partner under company
schemes, the way they do for their spouses.
One of my very first jobs was that of a sales person for email in
Bombay. Those were the days when email was a product to be sold! They
asked me to leave after a couple of weeks because I refused to change
the way I dress. They wanted me to dress ‘more like a woman’. My
mother told me, let nobody ever tell you how you can and can’t dress.
So I chose to quit instead.
IPS: Will the ruling open a small window even for queer women outside
metro India, in less anonymous towns and smaller cities.
LE: Women from all social contexts and classes in India have been
trying to carve out queer existences, whether in the village or by
migrating towards the big cities where there are greater chances of
community support.
In Delhi and Mumbai, often we have had to support couples escaping
family pressure in interior Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,
Haryana. We fully expect such cases to rise, now that the court has
sent a message to queer Indians that the courts can and will uphold
their rights. (END/2009)
o o o
The Times of India
29 July 2009
'PARENTS IMPOSE THEIR BELIEF SYSTEM ON CHILDREN'
As president of the Indian chapter of the Centre for Inquiry, Innaiah
Narisetti has come up with the controversial thesis that
children's rights should include complete freedom from religious
belief or conditioning. He talks about the rationalist movement with
Manoj Mitta:
Your latest book, Forced into Faith, has a rather provocative
subtitle: 'How religion abuses children's rights.' How do you justify
that?
Child marriages are prohibited. Voting rights are denied to kids. The
same restraint is, however, not observed when it comes to stamping
children into religion. Parents treat their children as property and
impose their belief system. It's time parents refrained from
indoctrinating their children into their religious beliefs so that
they have the freedom to adopt or reject religion when they become
adults. The conditioning they suffer in their childhood renders them
incapable of exercising choice in the matter.
Why do you argue for a UN convention on what you describe as the
religious abuse of children?
The UN convention on children's rights adopted in 1989 is observed
more in the breach. Though the UN has come out against child abuses
like genital mutilation of girls and deploying children in wars, it
is shy of holding religion guilty of polluting the minds of children
with retrograde beliefs. Children accept without question whatever
the parents dictate. They carry that habit into their adulthood.
Leaders practising superstitions set a bad example. It was sad that
somebody like Abdul Kalam, when he was president, thought it fit to
touch the feet of Sathya Sai Baba. That to my mind was more
outrageous than his being frisked at an airport for security reasons
despite his former office.
Is a rationalist necessarily an atheist?
One need not declare that he or she is an atheist while thinking
rationally. Scientific temper demands proof and evidence. The god
proposition came from religious persons. The burden of proof lies
with the proposer. If they fail to prove, the rationalists question
the authenticity of the original proposal. All beliefs and
superstitions about god are nice stories but there is no proof. All
scientific rationality leads to atheism even if many do not actually
opt for that word.
"Pseudo sciences" like vaastu, feng shui, astrology and tarot card
reading seem to be growing in popularity. What explains the weakness
for irrationality despite the growth in scientific knowledge?
The reinforcement of belief systems from early childhood is the root
cause for the present-day behaviour. When we fail to reason, when we
face emotional problems, our weaknesses lead us to depend on unknown,
superstitious powers. Lack of self-reliance, and not tempering
emotion with reason leads us to blind beliefs. That is why we get
pulled into alternative unscientific systems and religious rituals.
_____
[6]
The Economic and Political Weekly, July 25 - July 31, 2009
THE STATE OF THE CPI(M) IN WEST BENGAL
by AM
The State leadership of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), in
its failure to maintain communion with the masses and the Party
cadre, is responsible for the crisis of the Party in West Bengal. Its
strategy of compulsory acquisition of even highly arable land to
facilitate industrialisation under private auspices was ill-founded,
and worse in its implementation. The 14 March 2007 killings in
Nandigram shocked the people of the State. How on earth could a Left
administration shoot down in cold blood women and children from
impoverished peasant families? The resulting widespread public
revulsion led to the erosion of the Party’s mass base. But all is not
lost, for the Party still has a dedicated band of workers who, if
given the call, will forthwith form the vanguard of radical activism.
http://www.epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/13743.pdf
_____
[7] MISCELLANEA:
The Guardian UK, 22 July 2009
CHRISTIAN RIGHT AIMS TO CHANGE HISTORY LESSONS IN TEXAS SCHOOLS
State's education board to consider adding Christianity's role in
American history to curriculum.
by Chris McGreal
The Christian right is making a fresh push to force religion onto the
school curriculum in Texas with the state's education board about to
consider recommendations that children be taught that there would be
no United States if it had not been for God.
Members of a panel of experts appointed by the board to revise
the state's history curriculum, who include a Christian
fundamentalist preacher who says he is fighting a war for America's
moral soul, want lessons to emphasise the part played by Christianity
in the founding of the US and that religion is a civic virtue.
Opponents have decried the move as an attempt to insert
religious teachings in to the classroom by stealth, similar to the
Christian right's partially successful attempt to limit the teaching
of evolution in biology lessons in Texas.
One of the panel, David Barton, founder of a Christian heritage
group called WallBuilders, argues that the curriculum should reflect
the fact that the US Constitution was written with God in mind
including that "there is a fixed moral law derived from God and
nature", that "there is a creator" and "government exists primarily
to protect God-given rights to every individual".
Barton says children should be taught that Christianity is the
key to "American exceptionalism" because the structure of its
democratic system is a recognition that human beings are fallible,
and that religion is at the heart of being a virtuous citizen.
Another of the experts is Reverend Peter Marshall, who heads his
own Christian ministry and preaches that Hurricane Katrina and defeat
in the Vietnam war were God's punishment for sexual promiscuity and
tolerance of homosexuals. Marshall recommended that children be
taught about the "motivational role" of the Bible and Christianity in
establishing the original colonies that later became the US.
"In light of the overwhelming historical evidence of the
influence of the Christian faith in the founding of America, it is
simply not up to acceptable academic standards that throughout the
social studies (curriculum standards) I could only find one reference
to the role of religion in America's past," Marshall wrote in his
submission.
Marshall later told the Wall Street Journal that the struggle
over the history curriculum is part of a wider battle. "We're in an
all-out moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of America, and
the record of American history is right at the heart of it," he said.
Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, which describes itself
as a "counter to the religious right", called the recommendations
"troubling".
"I don't think anyone disputes that faith played a role in our
history. But it's a stretch to say that it played the role described
by David Barton and Peter Marshall. They're absurdly unqualified to
be considered experts. It's a very deceptive and devious way to
distort the curriculum in our public schools," he said.
Quinn says that the issue is likely to lead to a heated
political battle similar to the one in which the religious right
tried to force creationism onto the curriculum. While it wasn't able
to inject religious theories in to the classroom, the Texas school
board did make changes to teaching designed to undermine lessons on
evolution such as introducing views that the eye is so complex an
organ it must have involved "intelligent design".
"I think, as there was with science, there's going to be a big
political battle," he said.
Social studies teachers will meet shortly to consider the panel's
views and make their own recommendations to the board of education
which has the final say. The board is dominated by conservatives who
appointed Barton and Marshall to the panel.
Other states will be watching what happens in Texas carefully as
the religious right campaign seeks new ways to insert God in to the
classroom after the courts limited the extent to which creationist
theories could intrude on the teaching of biology. But religion is
not kept out of schools entirely. Many children recite the pledge of
allegiance in class each morning which includes a reference to the US
as "one nation under God".
The panel made other recommendations.
Barton, a former vice-chairman of the state's Republican party,
said that Texas children should no longer be taught about democratic
values but republican ones. "We don't pledge allegiance to the flag
and the democracy for which it stands," he said.
And while God may be in, some of those he influenced are out.
According to a draft of guidelines for the new curriculum,
Washington, Lincoln and Stephen Fuller Austin, known as the Father of
Texas after helping to lead it to independence from Mexico, have been
removed from history lessons for younger children.
There's no doubt that history education needs a boost in Texas.
According to test results, one-third of students think the Magna
Carta was signed by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and 40% believe
Lincoln's 1863 emancipation proclamation was made nearly 90 years
earlier at the constitutional convention.
______
[8] BOOK REVIEWS AND BOOKS
Book Review / The Hindu
India’s past, revisited
by Kesavan Veluthat
This collection of seminal essays by the author deals with every
aspect of early Indian history
RETHINKING INDIA’S PAST: R. S. Sharma; Oxford University Press, YMCA
Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 695.
http://www.hindu.com/br/2009/06/30/stories/2009063050061300.htm
o o o
The New York Times
July 19, 2009
Nothing for Nothing
by Laura Shapiro http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/
Shapiro-t.html?_r=1
The High Cost of Discount Culture
By Ellen Ruppel Shell
296 pp. The Penguin Press. $25.95
______
[9] ANNOUNCEMENTS:
(i) Public meeting on Maternal Health, Human Rights and Law
Date and time: 9 am till 1 pm, August 1, 2009
Venue: Annexe, Conference Room 3 The India International Centre, New
Delhi
Maternal mortality and morbidity has grabbed headlines in recent
years, especially with the governmental push on the JSY. Though
average figures
have come down in recent years, the actual figures continue to be
exceptionally high especially with disadvantaged social groups. Even
today, nearly seventy five thousand women lose their lives due to
reasons connected to pregnancy and childbirth; many hundred thousands
more face live threatening complications.
The International Conference on Population and Development, in the
historic deliberations in Cairo in 1994 affirmed the right of women
to go through pregnancy and childbirth without fear of death or
disability. Later the Millennium Development Goals considered
reduction of Maternal Mortality as one of its eight important goals.
On the 15th Anniversary of ICPD, the UN Human Rights Council in its
11th session in June 2009 adopted a resolution recognizing
preventable maternal mortality as an issue of the human rights of
women and girls.
In relation to these precedents, and as a part of the nationwide ICPD
+15 Gain and Gaps review process, the national platform Healthwatch
Forum India, in collaboration with Center for Reproductive Rights
(New York) is organising a public meeting on *Maternal Health, Human
Rights and Law on August 1, 2009, from 9 am till 1 pm at the India
International Centre Annexe, Conference Room 3. During this meeting
Adv. Anand Grover, noted human rights lawyer and UN Special
Rapporteur on Right to Health will address the issue. The Centre for
Reproductive Rights will also launch their publication “*Maternal
Mortality in India: using International and Constitutional Law to
promote Accountability and Change”. Advocate Colin Gonsalves from the
Human Rights Law Network will be presenting cases pertaining to
maternal health being heard in various High Courts
o o o
(ii) Stop! Militarization of Democratic Processes and Space
A Public Meeting
04th August 2009, India Islamic Cultural Center, Lodi Road, New Delhi
3.00 pm to 7.30 pm
Dear friends,
According to newspaper reports, the Union Home Ministry is planning
to finish the Maoists in a military action after the monsoons, a move
which appears to have the support of all the state governments. This
military model is now being practiced all around in South Asia at
huge costs to civilian lives. We have seen this happen in the
recently concluded war in Sri Lanka. The operation in Lalgarh seems
to be a case of testing the waters. The Maoists for their part are
also increasingly resorting to major provocative strikes, in which
large numbers of police personnel have died.
While the government and the Maoists are engaged in militarism, the
real issues that concern the people have been lost. Apart from the
issue of land
acquisition and displacement, food security, education and health,
the right of people to live in peace and dignity has been denied
through this conflict. The Home Minister says that development will
follow security – this is against all the principles of citizenship
as well as most expert analysis of Naxalism. The police and security
view of Naxalism as purely a law and order problem, which needs more
security forces, more police stations and better weaponry ignores the
context which gave rise to Naxalism in the first place, including
corruption and harassment by the police, especially when it comes to
dalits and adivasis. The militaristic approach of the Government of
India and of the state governments to a situation which is an outcome
of their own systematic and criminal neglect over the years of
adivasi areas, cannot be allowed to take centre stage.
In the past similar militaristic approaches have boomeranged at heavy
cost to people. The Salwa Judum campaign, used both armed civilians
and security forces to burn villages and force people into camps. The
Maoists have used the State offensive to further militarization. This
massive militarization on the both sides has resulted in loss of
lives and has created huge problems for adivasi people. More than
1000 people were killed and many women were raped in the Salwa Judum
operations and hundreds of thousands still remain displaced five
years after the start of that disastrous
experiment. By appointing SPOs in Orissa and Manipur and transforming
the SPOs into Koya Commandos in Chhattisgarh, the government has
refused to learn from the failure of this policy. In continuing to
glorify Salwa Judum and refusing to compensate and rehabilitate
villagers even ten months after its admission in the Supreme Court,
the Chhattisgarh government is in contempt of the Supreme Court. The
BJP Government of Chhhattisgarh is not interested in health workers,
teachers or grain for its population – it only wants police and more
police. At the same time huge tracts of land and resources are being
handed over to corporate.
As concerned citizens of this country, who wish for a peaceful,
democratic and just resolution of conflicts, we invite you to discuss
these issues and help to craft a non-militaristic solution.
We call upon all sides to engage in dialogue, specifically putting
the interests of civilians and citizens as their top priority, as
against the interests of capitalists, the bureaucracy and the party.
In addition we demand that the Government of Chhattisgarh which has
been responsible for serious crimes against humanity, make good its
promise to the Supreme Court to rehabilitate and compensate people
who have been affected by Salwa Judum, and to move security forces
out of civilian spaces. We also demand a full enquiry into all extra-
judicial killings that have taken place in the former undivided
district of Bastar since 2005, and prosecution of all those guilty.
Group of organizations, movements and individuals have called for a
public meeting on 04th August 2009 at India Islamic Cultural Center
(Conference
Hall # 1, from 3.00 pm to 7.30 pm) Lodi Road, New Delhi. You are
requested to express your endorsement and be part of this as co-
organizer and also to support this assembly with minimum contribution
of Rs. 1000, which would be used to meet progarmme costs.
Endorsed & Co- organized by
Campaign for Peace and Justice in Chhattisgarh (CPJC)
People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Delhi Forum
The Other Media
Combat Law
Jamia Teacher’s Solidarity Group, New Delhi
Nandini Sunder
Vijay Pratap, Convenor, Socialist Front
Nivedita Menon, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Aditya Nigam, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi
Anhad, Shabnam Hashmi
Manoranjan Mohanty, Retired Professor, University of Delhi
Gautam Mody, NTUI, New Delhi
Rakesh Shukla, Advocate Supreme Court
Mamta Dash, National Forum of Forest People & Forest Workers
Subrat Sahu, Independent Film Maker
Sandeep Pandey, Asha
For information contact: Bipin Kumar (986828 0198), Nandini Sunder
(98680
76576) Mamata Dash (98682 59836) Madhuresh (98189 5316), Pravin Mote
(93138
79073)
--
Bipin Kumar
Campaign & Advocacy Desk
THE OTHER MEDIA
J 42, II Floor, South Extension , Part I
New Delhi 110049
Tel -+91-11- 2462 9372/ 73 Fax- +91-11- 2462 9371
o o o
(iii) Money and Wealth in South Asian History: Meanings and Practices
Date: 9 October 2009 Time: All Day
Finishes: 10 October 2009 Time: All Day
Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings Room: Room 116
Type of Event: Workshop
Money and wealth have been approached from a number of perspectives
in South Asian studies—from the numismatist’s focus on coins as
expressions of dynastic authority to the economic historian’s
analysis of imperial monetary policy and global precious metal flows,
from the anthropologist’s analysis of ritualised wealth exchange to
the social historian’s attention to cycles of debt among the
peasantry and the role of money lenders in rural society. This
workshop will bring scholars working with diverse types of evidence
and distinct disciplinary approaches together in a forum devoted to
the relationship between practices and meanings of money and wealth
in South Asian history and society.
Organised by: Centre of South Asian Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
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