SACW | Oct 3-5, 2009 / Journalists in the service of power / Families of detained fishermen seek justice / Hindutva Culture Police / Bizenjo's autobiography / Deep Democracy
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Sun Oct 4 20:07:02 CDT 2009
South Asia Citizens Wire | October 3-5, 2009 | Dispatch No. 2657 -
Year 12 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: Biriani, arrack and kassipu for some journalists
(Basil Fernando)
[2] The terror of a just peace (Jawed Naqvi)
[3] Pakistan's Swat valley - The law in whose hands? (The Economist)
+ Importing Intolerance (Salam Dharejo)
[4] India - Pakistan: Who Benefits From Blocking Peace Talks?
- BBC Video reports on Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum Protest in
Islamabad
- Families of detained fishermen seek justice (Jan Khaskheli)
- Release of fishermen from Pakistani, Indian jails sought
(Dawn)
- The road ahead for India and Pakistan (Siddharth Varadarajan)
[5] India: Resources For Secular Activists - Commentary
- Out Of Tune (Editorial, The Times of India)
- Photos of deities should be disallowed in govt offices
(Editorial The Canara Times)
- Thackeray Usurps State’s Role (Rajeev Dhavan)
[6] Book Review: Setting the record straight (I.A.Rehman)
[7] Miscellenea:
- When Freud Came to America (Russell Jacoby)
- What is Democracy? Directed by Sílvia Leindecker & Michael Fox
[8] Announcements:
Public Meeting / Film Screening: Corporate murder, environmental
crimes: Vedanta plc, DfID and the Indian State (London,17 October 2009)
_____
[1] Sri Lanka
New Age
October 5, 2009
BIRIANI, ARRACK AND KASSIPU FOR SOME JOURNALISTS
It is those in the lower ranks of journalism who may go to police
stations for favours. But, the luckier ones have better places to go.
The house of a politician is always a place of entertainment for some
selected journalists. Most politicians have their own thugs and
journalists, writes Basil Fernando from Colombo
‘Go To any police station in the evening. You will find several
journalists there. They come on their way home, to have a drink of
kassipu, from the stash that the police have collected from raids
that day,’ says Raju (a fictitious name adopted for security
reasons), a lifetime civil society activist.
They get not only kassipu but also their news from the police.
Let me give you an example. Two people are killed at a police
station. The next day, the heading of a news item in big letters
reads, Pathalayan Dennek Maruta, meaning two persons from the
underworld have been killed. The heading makes police officers who
had done an extrajudicial killing appear as heroes who have
eliminated two underworld figures. The free gift of kassipu has not
been in vain.
This kind of behaviour is explained away by such excuses as the
low salaries of local reporters. It is said that these reporters have
to travel at their own expense and that they are paid a paltry sum
for news items they manage to get published. Publication, it is said,
will require the giving of gifts by way of drinks, cigarettes and
even cash.
Other places to gather news is the hospitals. There is always
some misfortune that ends up in a hospital. With a good contact, such
as an attendant, nurse or even sweeper at the hospital, a journalist
may find access to such a story. Such trade requires special skills
in maintaining contacts and a willingness to give necessary
santhosam. However, at police stations, the news, which means the
police version of events, is given freely and even with a gift such
as a drink of kassipu. Even when an innocent man is arrested, the
report in the news paper will read: ‘Rapist Arrested’, ‘Kudukaraya
arrested’, and the like. Even if the arrested person is released
later, no correction of the story is ever made.
It is those in the lower ranks of journalism who may go to police
stations for favours. But, the luckier ones have better places to go.
The house of a politician is always a place of entertainment for some
selected journalists. Most politicians have their own thugs and
journalists. The manner in which electorates are managed in Sri Lanka
would present interesting material for sociological studies in social
degeneration.
The benefits are, of course, higher for journalists who have
managed to get closer to small ruling cliques. The ones that do well
are those who undertake the task of mudslinging, particularly those
who prepare the way for attacks on opponents. Before every political
assassination or a serious attack, there is much ‘journalistic’ work
to be done. Both before and after the assassination of Lasantha
Wickrematunga and the attack on Poddala Jayantha, some journalists
worked for a long time preparing the background for these attacks and
then creating misimpressions after the attack, both in print and
electronic media. Before and after every political event, there are
many journalists who play their role and get their share.
The crazier the political situation becomes the opportunities for
the cynic acting as a journalist becomes much greater. When the
situation degenerates over several years, the idea of the maintenance
of standards in journalism begins to disappear in the same way that
the people are made to disappear after abductions. The way
journalists conduct their business becomes no different to the way a
member of parliament like Minister Mervyn Silva often behaves in
parliament. There are journalists who will say anything in any manner
they chose without any facts to substantiate what they write. The
more they ignore their professional ethics the more benefits they get
from their patrons.
The very essence and goal of democracy is to tighten the hands of
governments. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Power, therefore, needs to be bound. The wires that tie the rulers
are called laws. That no one is above the law explicitly refers to
the fact that that rulers are not above the law. Charles I argued
that no one had the right to judge him because he was the king. He
relied on a rule that was well-established then. He failed to
understand that the views of his the people of his country had
changed. He lost his head. No British king or queen ever since has
made the same argument.
Then power passed to elected rulers. But the problem still
remained. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. New
rulers also had to be bound. They also had to obey laws. They were
not above the law. Then there were some difficult problems. How, for
example, to deal with a war? Your enemy obeys no law. Should you obey
law? That even in war there are laws to be obeyed is a rule that
evolved over a long period. Finally the Geneva conventions laid down
some basic laws of war.
From time to time there are challenges to this principle. George
W Bush, for example, wanted some such laws to be ignored. One law was
the international law against torture. Some of his countrymen agreed,
at least for sometime. Then, faced with the actual experiences, many
were horrified. The voting of the people showed the change in favour
of the old rule against torture. Thus, in countries where laws
relating to war are accepted, there is a renewed interest in the
debates which crated these laws.
Charles the First still may have had some admirers. George W Bush
had some also during Bush era, and many got rich by being
‘journalists’. By supporting rulers that abuse power, it is possible
to get very rich. Today, a political stooge that calls himself a
journalist can be assured that their biriani and arrack is served
through the backdoor. Such journalist hacks say that the rulers can
do whatever they like. The fundamental rule is that hands of rulers
must be kept bound if citizens are to live safely. People no longer
want monsters to rule over them.
Sri Lanka may be considered the second most dangerous place for
journalists. That is for those journalists who take their job
seriously. Which is something that the cynics in their profession
think only fools should do. Some are assassinated, others have fled
the country and one has been jailed for 20 years of rigorous
imprisonment. However, to those cynics who want to earn their
biriani, arrack and kassipu, Sri Lanka is indeed a paradise.
Basil Fernando is a Sri Lanka journalist
_____
[2] THE TERROR OF A JUST PEACE
by Jawed Naqvi
(dawn.com, 24 September, 2009)
Prof Marc Gopin and Rajmohan Gandhi among other contemporary
pacifists belong to the tradition of Martin Luther King, Mohandas
Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu et al. Gopin is an American
rabbi and a university teacher.
In his extensive work on the Middle East conundrum, he has argued
that Yasser Arafat would have been a successful leader had he not put
emphasis on the pistol in his holster. In other words, a Gandhian
resistance to Israeli racism or colonial-imperialist machinations
would have got him greater Jewish and American support, which would
really count for a lot for the Palestinian cause, than the bloodshed
that has been produced.
It is, of course, debatable as to how much really the pacifists of
yore managed to succeed in implementing their agenda of a peaceful
transition from an unequal society, fraught with racism and colonial
habits, to an approximate world of their dream.
From South Africa to the United States to India, their liberating
contribution to society has spawned scrutiny and research.
Unremitting racism in the US, persistent social inequality in South
Africa and the brutalised state that India is hurtling towards have
all put a big question mark on the durability of the pacifist
experiment.
However, the alternate armed route to resistance has invited even
more bloodcurdling repression both by imperialism and its comprador
allies who rule the tributary states. Pacifism has another image
handicap to overcome to appeal to victims of state violence.
Increasingly unleashed on the exploited citizens in India is the
nation state’s mindless quest for lucre often on suicidal terms.
Comprador states are not averse to advocating cola factories for
people parched with drought and water scarcity.
Gandhian pacifism is seen as a status quo worldview in this regard.
In its zeal to bring rapprochement it is often said to underplay, if
not entirely ignore, the reasons for the origins of a specific
strife. These may include economic deprivation of large swathes of
people and the forcible violation of their dignified plea to be
spared economic development so often a euphemism to uproot lives and
the homes of the already dispossessed.
It may not be a coincidence that a satellite view of South Asia would
show up the neo-con models of ‘development’ sharply and
unambiguously. From Balochistan in the west to Nagaland in the east,
it is the tribespeople – the native inhabitants of the regions who
had largely remained unaffected by any discourse of nationhood, its
success and failures – that are being hunted. The response too is a
violent one.
What if we take out violence from the equation and see if a peaceful
petition can deliver the message of their protest to their tormentors?
Take India. Among the most brutal campaigns taking shape in South
Asia is the one about to be unleashed on the so-called Maoists in
Chhattisgarh, a predominantly tribal region, which is rich in
untapped mineral resources. Its people are struggling to stall
mineral-hungry multinational companies from uprooting their lives.
Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram represents lobbies that have a
huge stake in tapping the region’s resources.
The Maoists live in a time warp. Their brutal and excessively violent
methods of resistance have isolated them from mainstream democratic
politics. Suppose we take away their guns. Let us defuse their
claymore landmines and woo them with the promise of a fair
transparent democratic dialogue between the state and India’s
impoverished people.
In other words, let us bring in the Rajmohan Gandhis and Marc Gopins
to pre-empt a massacre that could otherwise make the anti-Taliban
campaign look like a picnic.
What are the Maoists saying they should not be saying? The Indian
Express recently carried excerpts from their pamphlet, which quoted
the prime minister and the home minister as declaring them as the
biggest threat to India’s security.
Said the pamphlet: ‘This is a very important point to note since the
stress is on police action and military solution. The so-called
development is to be done only after establishing [the] peace of the
graveyard. Chidambaram also said some of the paramilitary forces from
Kashmir would be withdrawn and redeployed in our areas.
‘We have to understand that our revolutionary war is a cruel class
war. The reactionary forces can go to any extent, committing mass
murders, tortures, arrests, abductions, illegal detention, mass rape
of women, use of private armed militias and vigilante squads,
rendering lakhs homeless and carrying out a psychological war.’
Let us assume for a moment that the Maoists have been disarmed. Would
that change the nature of the problem they rather accurately describe?
The Maoist pamphlet lauded ‘militant uprisings’ in Pakistan, Sri
Lanka and Nepal. ‘The reactionaries led by [the] US have unleashed
[a] brutal fascist offensive in the economic, political, social and
cultural spheres using brute force. West Asia resembles a burning
volcano with Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine engulfed in [the] flames
of national liberation. The fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan are
inflicting heavy losses on imperialists.’
Surely the unexpected solidarity with fighters in Iraq and
Afghanistan ‘inflicting a heavy loss on imperialists’ cannot but be a
reference to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Their affinity with
reactionary religious zealots makes for strange bedfellows and it
does not bode well for the region. On the other hand, their Marxian
view could be looking at the AfPak strife through a more rational prism.
One of the Maoist critiques is well grounded in history and logic.
After all before the advent of foreign intervention in Afghanistan,
for centuries its Muslim rulers and Muslim citizens had preserved the
Bamiyan statues, even flaunted them to visitors. At some point
dynamiting the Buddhist statues became a symbolic retribution for the
foreign inroads into an otherwise placid, traditional, slowly waking-
up conservative society.
After all, the regressive features of the neo-fanatics, be they of
the Al Qaeda or the Taliban, were originally enshrined in the state
of Saudi Arabia. Who can deny that women were and to an extent still
are treated as second-class citizens there? The idea of secular
education is far-fetched, as it would seem to be in Swat. Beheading,
blinding, maiming, torturing of convicts, traits common to Al Qaeda
and Taliban, were carried out routinely in the state of Saudi Arabia.
Yet, it was embraced by the world as a moderate Muslim state.
This duplicity legitimately instills the familiar doubt that there is
perhaps something other than their fanaticism that makes the Taliban–
Al Qaeda duo the target of the world’s most powerful military machine.
Suppose some day, by a miracle, the pacifists of the world succeed in
disarming the residual militants in Palestine, the Taliban surrender
their arms, Al Qaeda is disbanded and the Maoists in India adopt
Gandhian methods. My hunch is that nothing could unnerve the
Netanyahus, the Chidambarams and the assorted AfPak ideologues more
than the terror of a just peace.
The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
_____
[3] Pakistan:
(i)
PAKISTAN'S SWAT VALLEY - THE LAW IN WHOSE HANDS?
Oct 1st 2009 | Matta, Swat
From The Economist print edition
The army’s triumph over the Taliban in the valley risks turning sour
THE mayor of Swat, a pretty valley in north-west Pakistan that the
army has just wrested back from the Taliban, has now returned to
work. But instead of overseeing the rebuilding of the schools and
roads, he has gathered his own lashkar, or traditional tribal
militia, 2,500-men strong, to defend his village and nearby areas.
In late September Jamal Nasir, who used to feature near the top of a
Taliban hit-list, returned to the Matta area of Swat two years after
militants burned his house. He says that repairing infrastructure and
damaged buildings can wait. Organising anti-Taliban forces comes
first. “You have to involve the people in their own defence,” he
says. “The army won’t stay here forever.”
Armed lashkars, or “village-defence committees” to employ the less
aggressive term now in vogue, are being set up across Swat as unpaid
private armies to guard individual districts. Swat was a relatively
developed area, so the lashkar tradition is having to be relearnt.
Such militias did not exist when the Taliban staged a near-complete
takeover of the huge valley with ease in the autumn of 2007.
Militia members bring their own firearms. The better-off have
Kalashnikovs; others have old shotguns or rusty pistols. Some white-
bearded old men turn up with an axe or just a stick. At the airport
outside Swat’s main town, Mingora, a lashkar about 10,000-strong
rallied on September 24th (see picture), and was addressed by an army
brigadier. This was a sign of the sanction the lashkars enjoy from
the army and the government. Some see this as a dangerous abdication
of authority that could spell trouble in the longer run.
More worrying for the time being is another development outside the
law: extra-judicial killings. An estimated 300 to 400 corpses of
suspected Taliban have turned up in Swat, dumped on street corners,
bridges or outside homes. Last month Pakistani newspapers gave a
figure of 251 bodies. Most show signs of severe torture. Some were
killed with a single shot to the head, hands tied behind their backs.
Often the dead were last seen alive being taken away by soldiers. The
army claims they were killed in combat or by lashkars or others
taking revenge on former tormentors.
Most of those who joined the Swat chapter of Pakistan’s fearsome
Taliban movement were locals, from a Pushtun society that sets great
store by vengeance. Swatis believe that most of the dead were
genuinely involved in the Taliban, and so deserved their punishment.
“Speaking not as a lawyer but as a citizen, I’d say that human rights
are for human beings,” says Farid Ullah, a lawyer in Mingora. The
Taliban he says, were not human. “Their acts were barbaric. They used
to slit peoples’ throats with a knife.”
In early August the army dragged Ayub Khan away from his home in
Mingora. Nine days later his body turned up on a nearby bridge. The
42-year-old newspaper hawker and father of five had been shot in the
side of his head. He appeared to have been beaten all over including
on the soles of his feet, with something like a belt. Several locals
say that he had been a minor informer for the Taliban, spying on
government offices on his paper rounds.
No official general investigation into the killings has been ordered
and locals are terrified to speak about them. If the army is
responsible, the purpose seems to be to show the people of Swat that
the dreaded Taliban really have been eliminated. After several half-
hearted operations in the past, Swatis were highly sceptical. This
time however, the operation has been serious and remarkably
successful. Some 2m people displaced in May were back in their homes
by August, the Taliban routed.
Even locals tolerant of the torture and extra-judicial execution of
Taliban members, however, are uneasy that some innocents have
perished horribly. Akhtar Ali, for example, was picked up from the
street at around 4pm on September 1st at a checkpoint in Mingora.
Many passers-by saw the 28-year-old, who ran a popular electrical
repair store, being taken away. His family were assured later that
day that he would be released. But at 6am on September 5th his corpse
was dumped on the doorstep of the family home, where many in the
neighbourhood saw it. Every inch of his body showed signs of abuse,
including burns made with an iron and the marks of merciless
beatings. He was not shot, but tortured to death. It seems that he
may have been a case of mistaken identity.
Asma Jahangir, chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
(HRCP), an independent organisation, argues that even if the killings
are being carried out by the militias, “these lashkars have been
formed by the government.” The military spokesman in Swat, Colonel
Akhtar Abbas, insists that there have been no killings in custody by
the army, which is a “disciplined organisation”. However, in the one
case of Akhtar Ali, an internal probe is under way, headed by a
brigadier, the results of which may or may not be made public.
The HRCP says there is evidence of at least two mass graves in Swat.
The army claims that retreating militants killed their own injured co-
fighters, to prevent them passing any information to the authorities.
Pakistan’s Western allies, though glad at the evidence of new vigour
in Pakistan’s fight against the Taliban, are privately concerned
about the killings, which risk sullying the army’s recent gains.
o o o
(ii)
Newsline, October 2009
IMPORTING INTOLERANCE
The proliferation of madrassas is posing a threat to Sindh’s non-
violent Sufi landscape.
by Salam Dharejo
"I have had nothing to eat since last night; Ghazi Baba has stopped
feeding us and deprived us by closing his doors,” says a 60-year-old
woman who has been living at the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi for
the last 20 years. The shrine was shut down by the police on June 18,
2009, after it received a terrorist threat.
This marks the first time that a shrine in Sindh has been
closed due to the fear of an extremist attack. Shrines of various
Sufi saints have been under threat ever since the Taliban began
targeting places of pilgrimage, forcibly trying to impose their own
religious agenda upon the masses that have been living in peace and
harmony for centuries. Due to the deep-rooted influence of Sufism,
fanaticism has never flourished in Sindh. However, the proliferation
of extremist elements is posing a potential threat to what has been a
liberal Sindhi society for many years.
An increasing number of young worshippers in mosques and
the trend of growing beards indicate the visible impact of religious
preaching. The majority of religiously inclined people seem to live
in the urban areas of the province. Abdul Wahab, the peshimam of the
Babul Majeed Mosque in Sukkur, is happy to note the increasing number
of worshippers: “I have noticed that in the past few years many
young, educated persons have been visiting mosques to pray five times
a day. It’s worth noting that people do not only come to pray here;
most of them help organise religious ceremonies and collect
contributions for the expansion and construction of mosques,” Wahab
tells me.
The growing inclination towards religion can be gauged
through different indicators. The practice of azadari (maatam) for
example, has dramatically increased in both urban and rural areas.
Today, religious festivals are gaining in popularity; besides Eid,
many other religious days are being celebrated all over the country.
Modern techniques of celebrating such festivals or days have become
an effective tool to engage young people in religious-cum-
entertainment activities. For example, Awais Qadris’s style of
singing naats has brought significant changes to the age-old form.
Consequently, naats have become more popular and younger people now
excitedly take part in naat competitions.
Singing has always been a popular form of entertainment in
Sindh. Throughout history, singers and poets have enjoyed the
patronage of rulers and the monetary support of the public. Today,
however, even in the semi-urban areas of the province, extremists are
trying to discourage the practice. Just recently in 2008, in Sujawal,
a small town in the Thatta district, organisers were warned not to
organise a musical function in the town. “Some students from a local
madrassa interrupted the show and warned us that they would not allow
anti-religious activities and said, ‘If you do not heed us, we will
forcibly stop the event,’” poet Akash Ansari, organiser of the
musical programme, tells Newsline.
Ishaque Mangrio, a writer and social reformer, is not
concerned. “I don’t believe in exceptions; the people of Sindh are
liberal in their lifestyle,” he says. “If you look at their culture,
you will find that Sufi traditions of tolerance and non-violence form
an essential part of their nature. People have a great attachment to
their saints: every year, hundreds of Urs are held all over the
province and the numbers of devotees are increasing with the passage
of time. In interior Sindh, not a single incident of suicide bombing
has occurred, and people do not fear going to the shrines of famous
Sufi saints.”
On the contrary, Mohammad Ali Manjhi, a local
intellectual of Thatta, believes that the preaching of extremist
groups is gradually affecting traditional Sufism. “In urban and semi-
urban areas, unchallenged religious intolerance and violence is
gaining ground. In Sanghar, an addict was killed in front of the
police on charges of blasphemy. Not a single protest was carried out
by the citizens against the culprits, even though many people knew
that the person had not committed any blasphemous act.”
Evidence of a religious tilt in interior Sindh includes
the increased number of madrassas in the province. A rapid growth in
the construction of madrassas has been witnessed in both the upper
and lower parts of Sindh in the last few years. In Sukkur district,
the Panno Aqil taluka is famous for religious education – a madrassa
is to be found in almost every village. Similarly, in Umerkot
district, there are more than 400 madrassas, which proves the all-
pervasive religious influence in the area. Growing extremism has
played a pivotal role in destabilising religious harmony in the area.
Recently, in March, Hindus – who comprise half of the total
population of Umerkot – were attacked by Muslims on the day of
Diwali, on charges of blasphemy.
The forced conversion of Hindus to Islam has never been a
widespread practice in Sindh, but in recent years, thousands of Hindu
girls have been forcibly converted. Many Hindu girls in upper Sindh
have also been encouraged to marry Muslims. Amrot Sharif in Shikarpur
district has become a shelter of sorts for converted Hindu women and,
Aziz Shah, the sajjada nasheen, provides all kinds of support and
legal aid to the converts. In the past, he has even ensured that
their weddings were celebrated and highlighted in the media to help
spread the practice.
Similarly, Gulzar-e-Khalil, the village of Pir Ayub Jan
Sarhandi in Umerkot, is home to several Hindu women who have been
converted to Islam. Pir Ayub Jan Sarhandi claims that he has seen
more than 10,000 such conversions. These practices, which threaten
the secular fabric of society, have never been publicly condemned by
any local organisation or civil society institution, while the
religious parties and institutions have actively extended their moral
and monetary support for the continuation of such practices.
Although there is no concrete evidence of the involvement
of Sindhis in suicide bombings in Pakistan or abroad, many people
belonging to interior Sindh have, in the past, participated in jihad.
“A lot of people belonging to the Brohvi and Memon communities of
Shikarpur took part in the jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Many of
them were killed during the war, and their coffins were brought to
their ancestral graveyards,” says Paryal Marri, a Shikarpur-based
human rights activist.
Earlier, Sufi thought and practices received political and
public support. Gaining the support of local pirs and the sajjada
nasheen was used by rulers as a means of strengthening their
political power. At the time, business communities in Sindh mainly
consisted of Hindus, who spent money on the development of shrines
and charities. However, business communities are now overwhelmingly
Muslim and are thus more likely to extend money to Islamic welfare
institutions and madrassas. Additionally, the political patronage of
religious forces has increased their influence. Arbab Ghulam Rahim,
the former chief minister of Sindh, was actively involved in
consolidating Wahhabi institutions in Sindh by providing state
support. Furthermore, in upper Sindh, Abdul Haq, the sajjada nasheen
of the Pir of Bharchoondi Sharif, Abdul Samad Halejvi of Panno Aqil,
Mufti Abdul Wahab Chacher of Rohri and Aziz Shah of Amrot Sharif, are
all staunch supporters of Wahhabism and have an immense influence on
local politics.
Mazhar Laghari, a political analyst, is of the view that
in the absence of any progressive movement and ideology, the growing
inclination of the youth towards religion is only to be expected. “I
have grown up in the village of Kunri in district Umekot, where my
grandfather, Ghulam Mohammad Leghari, the leader of the Hari Tahreek
(a farmers’ movement in the late ’70s) turned the village into a camp
of revolutionaries. The same village is now nurturing jihadis. The
decorated graves of two young persons from the village, who were
killed during the jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan, fascinate the
young minds as they are considered to be shaheed.”
Tolerance, equality and non-violence – the fundamentals of
Sufism – are rapidly vanishing from Sindhi society, while
institutionalised violence, as preached by religious forces, is
swiftly proliferating in the province. Shrines have failed to become
institutions from where an effective message of non-violence and
tolerance can be passed on to the masses. “They (the shrines) are
becoming places of rituals that merely provide entertainment to
people,” says Manzur Kohyar, a member of the executive committee of
Sufi International. So what will be the end result? “Obviously,
violence and intolerance will destabilise the social harmony in a
society that is already fragile,” Kohyar concludes.
_____
[4] Pakistan - India: Who Benefits From Blocking Peace Talks?
BBC VIDEO REPORTS ON PAKISTAN FISHERFOLK FORUM PROTEST IN ISLAMABAD
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/multimedia/
2009/10/091002_mm_fishermen_protest.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/
2009/09/090930_fishermen_suffering.shtml?s
o o
FAMILIES OF DETAINED FISHERMEN SEEK JUSTICE
by Jan Khaskheli (The News, October 02, 2009)
Karachi
The families of five fishermen will stage a protest demonstration on
Thursday (today) in Islamabad for the release of the detained fishermen.
The victims were caught by the Indian border force in 1994 under an
alleged smuggling case and were later awarded 14 years rigorous
imprisonment, according to the Indian law. Now despite the fact that
they have completed the imprisonment period, the authorities
concerned are delaying their release.
The wife of Hussain Walri is one of many family members who are in
Islamabad to knock the doors of higher authorities to get their
people released from Indian jails. The ill-fated boat Al-Anwer (No.
7766B), carrying a crew of five was on routine travel to catch fish
in the open sea when the Indian border force seized it, brought it to
the Kotisar coast and put all the fishermen in the Ahmedabad jail.
The five men, identified as Siddique, Achar Mallah, Meenhn Wassayo,
Hussain Walri and Mohammed Hanif, were charged with smuggling,
activists said.
All five fishermen — sole breadwinners of their respective families —
belong to the Shahbunder coast, district Thatta. After the arrests,
the women of the families set up makeshift homes outside the village
and visited influential people for help, but in vain.
Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) Chairperson Mohammed Ali Shah rejects
the charges the Indian forces have lodged against the fishermen and
termed them fake because no evidence has been recovered as yet. Shah
said that they had received information about the victims’ families
moving to Karachi’s coastal locality and that now the families were
fighting for the release of the five men.
Shah said the families of the five prisoners are living in deplorable
conditions and they have no backing from the provincial government or
other organizations such as the Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS).
The official also said that a boat from Balochistan (No. BFD-1397),
carrying 11 people, had also gone missing recently and there was no
news about its whereabouts. Similarly, a Karachi-based boat,
Mashallah (No.17793-B), with 10 people from the island community,
went missing in January 2009. Relatives of the missing people claim
that their people must be under Indian custody.
The PFF spokesman alleged that the Indian authorities had changed
their mind and were reluctant to confirm the arrests of fishermen and
their boats.
An FSC official told The News that as usual they had provided all the
details of the fishermen languishing in Indian jails to officials
concerned to keep them updated for secretary-level talks. He said
that at present there were 87 Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails.
Apart from the five crew members who have completed imprisonment but
are still in jails, there are 44 others who have been in Indian jails
since 1990 but Indian officials have not confirmed their arrest.
o o o
RELEASE OF FISHERMEN FROM PAKISTANI, INDIAN JAILS SOUGHT
By A Reporter
(Dawn.com, 02 Oct, 2009)
ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: Fishermen belonging to Sindh took out a protest
rally from the National Press Club to F-6 Supermarket demanding
release of hundreds of fishermen languishing in Indian and Pakistani
jails.
The protest rally was organised by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum
(PFF), the organisers said.
They said India and Pakistan were using innocent fishermen as
political tools and ‘bargaining chip’ to meet the number game of
prisoners between the two countries.
Speaking on the occasion, PFF chairperson Mohammad Ali Shah said the
coastal fishing communities of the subcontinent had been living
peacefully for centuries before the creation of modern nation-states.
He said: “But after the 1965 war the fishermen have been subjected to
inhuman arrests and tortures.”
There were no marked boundaries in the water, but Indian and
Pakistani coastal authorities had been arresting fisherfolk for
‘trespassing’, he added.
He said there were around 200 Pakistanis in Indian jails and 600
Indians in Pakistani jails, adding some of them had been detained for
more than a decade even though they had committed no crime under
international law.
The PFF chief demanded of the authorities concerned an immediate and
unconditional release of fishermen and an end to political games by
both Indian and Pakistani authorities.
The demonstrators were joined by activists of the People’s Rights
Movement (PRM), National Students Federation (NSF) as well as PML-Q
MNA Marvi Memon.
Ms Memon said she would raise the issue of detained fishermen in the
National Assembly. She condemned the brutality of security forces on
both sides of the border and said democratic forces had not been able
to provide justice to the fishing communities residing in bordering
areas.
Aasim Sajjad of the PRM said the ‘enmity’ between India and Pakistan
was a myth that had been deliberately cultivated by the security
establishments on both sides.
o o o
The Hindu, October 4, 2009
THE ROAD AHEAD FOR INDIA AND PAKISTAN
by Siddharth Varadarajan
There is a story senior journalist A.S. Panneerselvan tells of the
experience of the first group of Tamil Tigers who were brought to a
remote camp in Uttar Pradesh for arms training by the Indian
government in the early 1980s. Every evening, the camp’s Tibetan cook
would look at the group of Sri Lankan Tamils and start laughing.
Eventually, one of the Tamils learnt enough Hindi to ask the cook
what was so funny. “Thirty years ago,” the old man said, “I was in
this camp with other Tibetans getting trained and there was somebody
else to cook for us. Now you are here and I am cooking for you!”
“That may be so,” the LTTE man said, “but I still don’t see what’s so
funny.” Prompt came the reply: “You see, I’m wondering who you will
be cooking for 20 years from now ? I think it may be the Chakmas!”
Unfortunately for the Indian establishment, the LTTE story did not
end so tamely, over cooking pots and a camp fire. Well before the
terrorist group eventually met its end in the Vanni earlier this
year, the Tigers assassinated a former Prime Minister of India and
were responsible for the death of countless Indian soldiers.
I am recalling this story in an article about India and Pakistan
because it reminds us of three processes that are an essential part
of modern South Asian statecraft and which help define the contours
of the current crisis in the bilateral relationship. First, that
every state in the region has, at one time or another, patronised
extremist groups or tolerated their violent activities in order to
advance its domestic political or regional strategic interests.
Second, the activities of these groups invariably “overshoot” their
target and begin to undermine the core interests of their original
patrons. Third, there comes a time in the life of all such groups
when the nature and extent of their violence reach a “tipping point”
as far as the same state is concerned.
A mature, well-developed state is one which is able to read the early
warning signs and effect a course correction in official policy well
before that tipping point is reached. In the absence of this
maturity, states respond in one of two ways. States with a tendency
to stability are at least able to recognise when a tipping point has
been reached and act accordingly. But states which are unable to
recognise either the early warning signs or the tipping point itself
and which continue to pretend that the non-state actors they have
patronised can be subordinated to an official command structure
despite evidence to the contrary run the risk of destabilising
themselves.
The Congress party leader in Bombay, S.K. Patil, encouraged the rise
of the Shiv Sena in the 1960s in order to undermine the city’s
communist-led trade union movement. The Sena overshot its target and
eventually became a political rival to the Congress. By the time the
Sena revealed its true self in the communal violence it helped
orchestrate in Bombay in 1992, it was too late for anyone to act
against it. The Sena had already become a part of the establishment,
its violence normalised, its leaders insulated from police action and
proper judicial sanction.
A second example of the same phenomenon, but with a different ending,
emerged in Punjab in the 1980s. Indira Gandhi welcomed the rise of
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his extremist politics because she saw
in him an effective counter to the Akali Dal in Punjab. The
Khalistani ideologue’s violence was tolerated for some time; the
tipping point for the establishment should arguably have come when a
senior police officer, A.S. Atwal, was gunned down by Bhindranwale’s
men in April 1983. But New Delhi waited and waited, acting against
the ‘Sant’ only in June 1984.
The trouble with acting against extremist groups after the tipping
point is reached is that the process can be long drawn out and
costly, especially in terms of human life. Successive governments at
the Centre pacified Punjab but not before nearly 20,000 people lost
their lives in Operation Bluestar, the November 1984 massacres, and
the brutal police campaigns in the Punjab.
In Pakistan, the military-cum-intelligence establishment has had a
long-term policy of creating, cultivating and using extremist groups
both as a lever against mainstream political parties within the
country and as a tool of foreign and military policy against India
and Afghanistan. Some of these groups very rapidly ‘overshot’ their
initial targets, especially domestically. The state responded by
targeting particularly wayward terrorist leaders but did not abandon
the overall structures of official permissiveness. External pressure
following 9/11 led to the temporary course correction of abandoning
the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Lal Masjid situation in Islamabad was
another potential tipping point but its lessons were ignored, leading
to the growth of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Then came Benazir
Bhutto’s assassination, but the nexus between extremism and a
military establishment keen to subvert the return of democracy
muddied the waters. Sufi Mohammad’s folly in openly defying the
Pakistani state soon after the Nizam-e-Adl fiasco in Swat brought
about a more decisive point of inflection, which is today still being
played out in the Malakand division.
But even if the Pakistani army has joined the battle against
terrorism in the frontier regions bordering Afghanistan in earnest,
there is no question of the military establishment recognising the
danger that anti-India terrorist groups have started to pose to
Pakistan itself. A section of the Pakistani political leadership saw
in the terrorist attack on Mumbai in November 2008 the grave threat
that groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba pose to the stability of the
region. Nudged along by the United States and by a non-
confrontationist Indian approach, an unprecedented criminal
investigation was launched against a section of LeT operatives. Since
the LeT has never launched a terrorist attack inside Pakistan,
however, it is easy for sceptics there to argue that the group does
not pose a threat. That is why the establishment there is reluctant
to act against Lashkar chief Hafiz Saeed. But wise statecraft is
about recognising the early warning signs, not waiting for the
tipping point. Imtiaz Gul’s book, The Al-Qaeda Connection, provides
plenty of evidence on the deep links which exist between the LeT, the
Jaish-e-Mohammed and even the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, on the one hand,
and the TTP in Pakistan’s tribal areas, on the other.
Given these political realities, what can India do to encourage
Pakistan to recognise that the terrorist groups operating on its soil
are an undifferentiated syndicate and pose a common threat to both
countries? Of all the forms of encouragement, refusing to talk is the
least effective. It is not a coincidence that those sections of the
Pakistani establishment which continue to see the jihadi terror
groups as future assets are the very sections least anxious to see
the resumption of the bilateral dialogue. Exchanging rhetoric and
putting pressure via public statements are also not likely to pay
dividends. Nor is there any point in messing up the strong case India
has in Mumbai with overkill. Pakistani officials have pointed out,
for example, that the salutation “Major General sahab” — one of the
co-conspirators allegedly identified by Ajmal ‘Kasab’ and seen by the
Indians as proof of Islamabad’s official complicity in 26/11 — is
never used in the subcontinent; the preferred greeting is ‘General
sahab’.
At a recent Track-II meeting of Indian and Pakistani analysts, former
ambassadors, military officers and intelligence chiefs organised by
the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in Bangkok, there was
consensus on the grave threat terrorism poses to Pakistan and to
India. Specifically, the need for India and Pakistan to open a back
channel on counter-terrorism was recognised, with the participation
of intelligence agencies from the two countries. This would
supplement the back channel on Jammu and Kashmir which worked
effectively till 2006 and which, the Track-II meeting felt, needs to
be revived at an early date. The Composite Dialogue process, too, was
seen as having served a useful purpose in the past.
With last month’s meeting in New York between the Foreign Ministers
of India and Pakistan yielding little in terms of forward movement by
either side, there is a danger of the bilateral relationship getting
stuck into one of those ruts that finally require the mediation of
extra hands in order to be rescued. Rather than wait for that, the
first available improvement in optics — the start of the Mumbai trial
in Pakistan, for example — should be seized upon to move ahead on the
back channel, with the front channel being revived in a calibrated
manner as confidence increases. Indefinitely postponing talks will
not help protect India from future terrorist attacks. And talking
will not make it more vulnerable. India should stop confusing hard
line diplomatic strategy for effective counter-terrorism.
If terrorism will not compel India to settle outstanding disputes
with Pakistan, keeping the dialogue process suspended indefinitely is
not going to force Islamabad to be more mindful of New Delhi’s
concerns either. Both strategies have failed; it is time the two
countries moved beyond them.
_____
[5] India: Resources Secular Activists
(i)
The Times of India, 5 October 2009
Editorial
OUT OF TUNE
The BJP manifesto for the Haryana elections reflects the confusion in
party ranks about what it is and what it wants to be. Hardly in a
position
to influence the political outcome none of the major regional outfits
wanted an alliance with the BJP the party has adopted an agenda to
please the most conservative sections of the population.
Besides a few populist measures, the manifesto promises to "ban
western music and obscenity on display in the name of culture by
enacting a law". And, yes, the party will encourage and rejuvenate
ancient Haryanvi culture, festivals, sports and melas. No doubt,
Haryanvi culture needs to be encouraged even though culture is most
likely to flourish when it is free of governmental interference.
But that apart, why does the BJP want a ban on western music? And how
does the party plan to define "obscenity in the name of culture"
against which it is hell-bent on enacting a law? If we go by the
recent activities of fraternal saffron organisations like Sri Rama
Sene and Bajrang Dal, the implications of the BJP's vision for
Haryana are ominous. These groups believe that all activities, public
and private, presumed to be of "western" origin ought to be opposed.
So, pubs should be closed down, Valentine's Day celebrations must be
attacked and unfamiliar music banned.
Can the BJP, a political party that aspires to gain office, support
such a view of culture? Not many in today's India are likely to
identify with the sangh parivar's vision of the West as the
fountainhead of evil. Ours is a young country and Indian youth don't
share the parivar's fear of or disdain for western influences. They
welcome all forms of entertainment, irrespective of their origin, and
prefer celebration to disruption. Unlike their elders, they are far
less concerned about the 'purity' of their Indianness. If the BJP
wants to tap the youth it needs to recognise their likings and
aspirations, which are anything but those championed by parivar groups.
Any study of the influence of western music or western popular
culture on its Indian counterparts is bound to show up how vain the
search for cultural purity is. Is the BJP, then, going to take a leaf
out of the Taliban's book and ban all music, or at least all popular
forms of music? It needs to rethink its ideas of culture and
nationalism if it wants to expand beyond a narrow conservative
section of the electorate.
o o o
(ii)
PHOTOS OF DEITIES SHOULD BE DISALLOWED IN GOVT OFFICES
Editorial in The Canara Times (Mangalore)
http://tt.ly/2Y
(23 September 2009)
Karnataka Chief Justice Dinakeran’s order banning photos of deities
and performing of religious rituals in court premises, has come to
light two months later. People who believe in secular ideologies
would welcome this decision. In fact the government which should be
secular and above religious affiliations and which should consider
all citizens equal irrespective of their religious affiliations,
should have issued such an order banning religious symbols or rituals
in all government offices including courts and also public places and
should have taken steps to ensure the rule was strictly adhered to.
But ever since independence no government has taken any step in this
direction. As per constitution India is a secular nation. This being
the case, any symbol depicting the superiority of any religion or any
ritual should have been naturally banned in government offices,
courts, and educational institutions where people of all faiths
converge and which runs with taxpayers’ money. This is the underlying
need of the secular system which we have accepted and are practicing.
We do not know to what extent Justice Dinakeran’s order has been
implemented in courts. The Chief Justice should have brought
government offices and schools and colleges too within the purview of
this order. The public should send their views on this to Justice
Dinakeran.
There is no hope that the present BJP government which came to power
on the basis of religious sentiment would issue such a circular. In
this backdrop, the Union Government should issue suitable
instructions to all state governments and take steps to ensure that
the rule was strictly adhered to within the next one month.
The governments which have used religions only for their vote bank
politics, backtracking to adhere to secular ideologies is not in
accordance to the needs to the time. The BJP government’s action of
announcing hundreds of crores of grants for different mutts during
the past one year period, is not just an act of drilling a hole into
the state treasury, but also non-secular. It is nothing but gross
misuse of valuable resources which otherwise ought to have been used
for public welfare.
Even political leaders who come to power with the help of the votes
of people belonging to all faiths, participating in religious
functions is as good as tying the horse behind the cart. We cannot
say that only BJP men are deeply religious. There are such people in
all parties. Just try to recollect as to the number of homas and
havanas in which the Cognress and JD(S) CMs and ministers have openly
participated.
It is not suffice if the system is secular. We can say we are living
in a secular system only when people who control the system
(Including leaders and bureaucrats) are secular in the true sense.
o o o
(iii)
Mail Today
October 5, 2009
THACKERAY USURPS STATE’S ROLE
by Rajeev Dhavan
The state government is guilty of grave dereliction of duty in
letting a small- minded chauvinist decide on the issue
HOW LONG will this continue? To what extent will the Thackeray family
usurp and function like the Censorship Board? In the present milieu,
why did it become necessary for Karan Johar to seek and agree to
follow the censorious advice of Raj ‘Censorship’ Thackeray? Is this
the real state of affairs in India? Does ‘social censorship’ override
legal censorship?
In the past apologies had come from Amitabh Bachchan. Michael Jackson
paid a visit to Bal Thackeray, Deepa Mehta’s Water found a watery
grave even before filming in Varanasi. After release, film theatres
have been targeted in Gujarat over films Narendra Modi did not agree
with. Social censorship has become easier and more dominating than
legal censorship.
The latest addition to social censorship is over Karan Johar’s Wake
Up Sid. At places, the film described the famous city by its old name
(Bombay) instead of the new one (Mumbai). The new one is ostensibly
the name of the old village of centuries ago. The actual new city of
Bombay has known no other name than Bombay until now. A statement
made by Raj Thackeray objected that the film used the word
“Bombay” (which it has been for several recent centuries or decades)
instead of Mumbai (which was, allegedly, the name of a pre-Bombay
village) to describe the city.
The film itself has nothing whatsoever to do with the Bombay/Mumbai
controversy. It is not a political statement. It is the story of a
rich person’s son who finds himself out of favour for insolence to
the family and looks to find a job of his choice. But, the use of the
word ‘Bombay’ enraged Raj Thackeray, the Sena and their friends. May
be, it didn’t enrage them. Divisive politics has become emotionless
in the hands of its patrons. But Raj Thackeray made sure that until
he was appeased by apology and compliance, the film was in jeopardy.
Law
It was not Thackeray who went to Johar’s house for making a request
for removing the word ‘ Bombay’ from the film. It is Johar who came
in the contrite proverbial sack cloth and ashes to seek forgiveness
and leave pre- censorial justice to Raj. The latter was insistent,
uncompromising and self satisfied that a great wrong had been committed.
The solution was a disclaimer apologising for the use of Bombay
instead of Mumbai. Thackeray so ordered, Johar had no choice but to
obey. If he had not followed these prescriptions, protests would have
been organised in Mumbai — even elsewhere in Maharashtra.
He was the selfappointed custodian of Maharashtrian rage. Film
theatres would have been picketed, the post- release prospects of the
film would have been blighted. The loans on the film would have
mounted. Pirated versions would have finished off the commercial
prospects of the film.
State censorship is bad enough, but politicised social censorship is
‘ nasty, brutish and short’. In India, various legal forms of
censorship exist — under the Indian Penal Code, Customs Act, Criminal
Procedure Code ( which has ban provisions), local statutes and so on.
The incidence of censorship is high. The list is endless: Salman
Rushdie’s book, Taslima Nasreen’s novels, the film Black Friday . The
celebrated Raj Kapoor was taken to court for the film Satyam Shivam
Sundaram . Many TV films were liberated into broadcast or circulation
by the Supreme Court and other courts including Aakrosh on Gujarat
violence, Chand Bujh Gaya on rioting, Anand Patwardhan’s Ram Ke Nam
and his documentary In memory of Friends on Bhagat Singh, the TV
serial Tamas by Bhishma Sawhney, Ore Ore Gramathile on casteism and
many more.
The courts have been vigilant for free speech — including cinema and
TV speech.
Earlier, the Supreme Court in the celebrated Romesh Thapar case
( 1950) suggested that precensorship was prima facie invasive of free
speech. We are concerned here with speech before publication,
distribution or circulation.
However in KA Abbas’s case ( 1971), the court allowed pre- censorship
in cinema because of the nature of the medium. The only form of legal
censorship permissible is by, and under, a law which is reasonable
and within the constitutional categories of public order, the
sovereignty and integrity of India, defamation, decency, morality,
contempt of court and incitement of offence.
But the exercise of this power has not been given to Raj Thackeray,
but to the film Censorship Board set up under the Cinematograph Act
1952 which was upheld in the Abbas case.
The principles to guide the board are the very same as the
limitations that are in the Constitution.
The film is reviewed by experts under the Cinematograph
( Certification) Rules 1983. The process is rigorous including
viewing. There have been misgivings that the board has been over-
bearing, angular and conservative.
But, the complaint is that it goes over the top.
The view of the board is final. It can be challenged as it was in the
case of Bandit Queen and other films. But some deference has to be
shown to the board.
Responsibility
The Supreme Court went one step further. In Shankarappa’s case
( 2001), an argument was made that if the film was released there
would be a law and order problem. The court rejected this facile
objection.
Such factors were taken into account by the board. It was the duty of
all authorities to follow the board’s decision.
The court went on to say: “ It is for the State Government concerned
to see that law and order is maintained.
In any democratic society there are bound to be divergent views.
Merely because a small section of the society has a different view,
from that taken by the Tribunal, and choose to express their views by
unlawful means would be no ground for the executive to review or
revise a decision of the Tribunal. In such a case, the clear duty of
the Government is to ensure that law and order is maintained by
taking appropriate actions against persons who choose to breach the
law.”
Bombay
The government could review the decision of the board. But it could
not disobey it. There can always be protests about a film, but not
threatening violence.
Criticism is maximally permitted.
But it can never be blackmail. Don’t see the film if you do not want to.
The legal censor is the Censor Board, not Raj Thackeray.
Or any one else. To allow Raj Thackeray the right to pre- censorship
defies both democracy and the rule of law and signals the end of
governance.
So far, our Constitution has been India’s framework of governance.
Unlike other new constitutions, India’s constitutionally directed
governance has succeeded where others have failed.
Social attitudes and pressures will always exist. But for social
censorship to topple legal governance is an invitation to chaos.
A curious tail piece: The High Courts of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras
are chartered and not amenable to simple statutory changes. So, even
after Mumbai replaced Bombay for all other purposes, the High Court
of Maharashtra is still called the “ High Court of Bombay”. Beyond
that, if this is how constitutional governance is gazumped in what
was Bombay, and is now Mumbai — I cry for you.
The writer is a Supreme Court lawyer
_____
[6] Book Review:
The News on Sunday
4 October 2009
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
While Bizenjo's account of 1947-1964 will help the readers gain
essential information on the beginning of Balochistan's alienation
from Pakistan it also starts putting quite a few twists of history in
a correct perspective
By I.A.Rehman
In search of solutions: An autobiography of Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo
Edited by B. M. Kutty
Publisher: Pakistan Study Centre of the University of Karachi and
Pakistan Labour Trust
Pages: 270
Price: Rs 400
By editing and preparing for publication Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo's
autobiographical notes, B. M. Kutty has made a significant
contribution to Pakistan's political literature. Bizenjo, one of the
most clear-headed politicians that Pakistan has had, occupied for
many years a prominent place among the nation's leaders and his life
and work offer a great deal of valuable material to students of
Pakistan's political history. Besides, he was a witness to and often
an important player in events that determined Pakistan's course
during 1947-1989. His account should contribute to a better
understanding of some of the most controversial developments
especially those that made a deep impact on the Baloch's political
outlook.
After a difficult childhood and a brief stint as a keen footballer,
Bizenjo was claimed by politics while still young, as an important
member first of a radical Kalat party and then of the All-India State
Peoples' Conference. Although his views on Kalat state's right to
independence were quite clear, contrary to a common impression he
could not get along with the Khan of Kalat, mainly because of the
latter's antipathy towards the democratic elements in the state. But
from the day he started taking part in Pakistan's national politics,
Bizenjo became a tireless advocate of a democratic federation and of
Balochistan's dignified place in it.
While Bizenjo's account of developments during 1947-1964 will help
the readers gain essential information on the beginning of
Balochistan's alienation from Pakistan, it is with the presidential
election of January 1965 that his narrative starts putting quite a
few twists of history in a correct perspective.
Bizenjo adds to the already sizeable material on Maulana Bhashani's
support to Ayub Khan in his bid for re-election as president although
he was a member of the opposition alliance that had put up Miss
Fatima Jinnah as its presidential candidate. The matter is important
because it touches on one of Pakistani political analysts' common
errors -- the use of a dictator's policy as an argument to justify or
at least defend his regime. Bhashani was misted into backing Ayub on
the ground of his policy of befriending China. The echoes of his
fallacious plea continue to be heard till today, e.g., support to or
praise of Musharraf for this policy or that.
Bizenjo's election to the National Assembly from Karachi's Lyari
constituency, throws light on a classic fight within the Ayub camp.
Ayub Khan wanted Habibullah Pracha to win this election but Governor
Kalabagh and Mahmud Haroon (a West Pakistan minister then) decided
that Paracha must lose, and they made sure that he did.
This affair brought the rift between Ayub and Kalabagh into the open.
More significantly it revealed the feudal class's refusal to allow an
outsider's bid to dislodge them from their hereditary constituencies.
In 1971, Bizenjo and Wali Khan were in Dhaka while Yahya-Mujib talks
were going on but they were not in a position to do anything.
Bizenjo's account of those days only confirms the view that over a
decade of military rule had made Pakistan's disintegration unavoidable.
It is the chapter on the NAP government in Balochistan, its dismissal
and the trial of NAP leaders at Hyderabad that has the greatest
relevance today. On the one hand it attempts to set the record on
several issues straight and on the other hand it reveals Bizenjo's
commitment to a federal Pakistan even when his comrades of long years
had started thinking differently.
The accord the PPP signed with NAP and JUI leaders in March 1972
offered possibilities of strengthening a democratic federation but it
was not honoured by the central government and Bizenjo is bitterly
critical of Bhutto. Bizenjo's account of the reforms carried out by
his party's government is no doubt a statement in self-defence but it
cannot be brushed aside on that count alone. It was not an ordinary
matter that Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri moved a resolution in the
provincial assembly recommending abolition of the sardari system but
the centre did not perform its part of the job.
Similarly, Bizenjo's explanation of the shishak levy, the Pat Feeder
issue and the showdown between the provincial government and the
rebellious elements of Lasbela throw much useful light on the growth
of Balochistan's grievances, besides demonstrating the advantage the
centre has enjoyed by virtue of its hold over the means of
communication.
Finally, Bizenjo recalls the discussions the Balochistan leaders had
in the Hyderabad jail on the issue whether they should seek salvation
within Pakistan or whether this had become impossible. His colleagues
had come to the latter conclusion and Bizenjo attributes this to
their "subjectivism." Bizenjo himself believed that the "aim of our
(Balochistan's) mobilisation should not be predicated on Punjab-
bashing and secession. On the contrary, we should unite and fight for
the political and economic rights of different nationalities within
the framework of Pakistan." One wonders whether Bizenjo would have
upheld this view even after what has been done to Balochistan since
his death in 1989.
Valuable though this book as an aide to understanding Balochistan's
mood today is, it is only a fragment of Bizenjo's life story. Quite
in keeping with his character, he has refrained from referring to his
wounds caused by his own party colleagues. Not a word has been said
aloud the party's rejection of the Bizenjo-Bhutto understanding or
about the young extremists who derisively called him "Baba-i-
Mazakrat." One wishes Bizenjo had had time to explain his differences
with NDP (NAP's successor-party), his views on PNA's and his
colleagues' decision to prefer the military to Bhutto, his decision
to form the Pakistan National Party (PNP) and his theory about
Pakistan being in a pre-party stage.
Nevertheless this publication should enable the readers to recognise
Bizenjo as one of Pakistan's mature statesmen whom the powers that be
chose to persecute instead of benefiting from their talent and
experience. In Bizenjo's case too by not heeding his counsel Pakistan
lost more than him
_____
[7] Miscellanea :
(i)
http://chronicle.com/article/Freuds-Visit-to-Clark-U/48424/
September 21, 2009
WHEN FREUD CAME TO AMERICA
by Russell Jacoby
One hundred years ago, Sigmund Freud arrived in the United States on
his first and only visit. As the George Washington pulled into New
York Harbor, he supposedly remarked to Carl Jung, who accompanied
him, "They don't realize that we are bringing them the plague." His
more vociferous contemporary critics would probably agree.
Freud came to deliver five lectures over five days in September 1909
at Clark University. Its president, G. Stanley Hall, had invited a
number of leading thinkers to celebrate the 20th anniversary of
Clark. Clark? For our rank-obsessed society, that might seem
surprising. Not Chicago or Princeton or Columbia but a small
Massachusetts university with just 16 faculty members had invited one
of the pivotal thinkers of the 20th century. Indeed, William James
came over from Harvard to listen to the lectures. Perhaps we overlook
the role of the smaller and less flashy schools in American cultural
life. Twenty-four years later a small outfit on West 12th Street in
Manhattan hired many more refugees from Nazism than more celebrated
institutions. In its housing of exiled scholars, the New School far
eclipsed grander universities.
Perhaps the balance of wealth in the early part of the century was
not as skewed as it is nowadays; or at least Hall's invitation to
Freud opens a small window into a neglected question of the economics
of writing and lecturing. Hall first offered Freud an "honorarium" of
$400 to cover expenses to lecture in July. Freud declined because he
would lose too much income by canceling three weeks of private
consultations. Hall upped the honorarium to $750, and the lectures
were shifted to September, when Freud had no appointments.
An honorarium of $750 is roughly in the league of what might be paid
a professor nowadays to fly across the country and give a lecture, if
he or she is lucky. Of course a 1909 greenback is not a 2009
greenback. Various indexes exist to update past prices. Readjusted in
current dollars, $750 in 1909 computes out to something between
$18,000 and $36,000 in 2009—not a bad piece of change! Few writers or
professors would turn down an offer nowadays to give some lectures if
the invitation came with a $20,000 honorarium. The amount not only
suggests the relative wealth of Clark—Hall had $10,000, or half a
million in current dollars, to spend on the anniversary—but the
generous remuneration for independent lectures in the early part of
the 20th century.
Freud spoke off the cuff from notes to a good crowd. Yet contemporary
observers of the Clark lectures did not mention what today would be
extraordinary. Freud spoke in German with no translation provided.
Today if Jürgen Habermas lectured in German at an American
university, the audience could comfortably sit around a small table.
But a century ago, a series of lectures in German neither diminished
the audience nor elicited disapproval. In 1909 advanced study usually
meant study in Germany. It was assumed the professoriate knew German.
Today the opposite is true. That might not be a reason for dismay, if
other languages have replaced German, but that has not happened. The
din about globalization evades the reality of the decline of serious
language study among American students. Globalization spells "English
Spoken Here."
Freud suspected that American prudishness would curtail the reception
of his ideas. I think, he wrote to Jung before they departed, that
once the Americans "discover the sexual core of our psychological
theories they will drop us." Later critics of Freud, especially
feminist critics, forget to what extent he showed up as a militant
sexual reformer. He wanted to be able to talk about sexual desire and
liberalize sexual practices. He made no effort to mute that message.
Freud's five lectures closed with a call to allow greater sexual
freedom. He said civilization demands "excessive" sexual repression.
"We ought not to aim so high that we completely neglect the original
animality of our nature." He cautioned that it was not possible to
"sublimate" all sexual impulses into cultural accomplishments.
To drive his point home, Freud closed with an analogy and recounted a
folk tale about the foolish residents of Schilda. They owned a strong
and productive horse with one flaw, its need for expensive oats. The
thrifty citizens decided to gradually cut down its ration until the
horse grew accustomed to "complete abstinence." The plan of action
went well until one day the townspeople woke up and found the horse
had died. This perplexed them. Freud closed his last lecture and
formal visit to the United States with the following sentence: "We
are inclined to believe that the horse had died of starvation and
that without a certain ration of oats, no work can indeed be expected
from an animal."
In the first rows of the audience sat Emma Goldman, the anarchist and
sexual reformer, with her lover Ben Reitman. She was "deeply
impressed" by Freud's "lucidity" and "the simplicity of his
delivery." (She did not comment that he lectured in German.) She also
attended the ceremony where Freud received an honorary degree. The
other professors appeared "stiff and important in their university
caps and gowns," but Freud looked "unassuming" in his ordinary
attire. She called him a "giant among pygmies."
If he needed it, a reference from Emma Goldman could burnish Freud's
credentials as a sexual reformer. Yet an opening and incidental
sentence to his five lectures may prove more prescient than his last:
"I have discovered with satisfaction that the majority of my audience
are not of the medical profession." The observation seems trivial,
but much turned on it. With virtually no success in the United
States, Freud fought what might be called the monopolization of
psychoanalysis by medical doctors. He wanted nonmedical or lay people
to practice psychoanalysis, if they were properly trained. This was
no minor issue to Freud. He distrusted the medical profession. He
feared that doctors would turn psychoanalysis into a subfield, a
narrow therapy. I do not "consider it at all desirable for
psychoanalysis to be swallowed up by medicine," he wrote, "and to
find its last resting place in a textbook of psychiatry under the
heading, 'Methods of Treatment.'"
In fact, that more or less happened. American doctors banished lay
practition-ers and made psychoanalysis into a medical speciality. For
decades psychoanalysis prospered as psychiatrists embraced it, but
more recently the doctors have moved on. Psychoanalysis was too slow,
too expensive, too uncertain, and too unscientific. Along with
academic psychologists, psychiatrists adopted chemical, behavioral,
and pharmaceutical approaches.
But Freud did not defend psychoanalysis on the basis of its
therapeutic effectiveness; he had other, perhaps more imperial
ambitions. ("Somewhere in my soul," he admitted, "I am a fanatical
Jew.") He wanted psychoanalysis to contribute to literature and
culture, even reform society. He invoked the possibility of
"combating the neuroses of civilization." He wrote smaller and
smaller books on bigger and bigger subjects, such as The Future of an
Illusion (on religion) and Civilization and Its Discontents (on
happiness and aggression).
This may be the "plague" that Freud brought to the New World:
uninhibited thinking. To be sure, the molecular, genetic, or chemical
perspective may be perfectly suitable for treating many ailments or
behaviors. Yet the clamorous effort to rid the world of Freud is
misguided. Psychology departments may relegate psychoanalysis to
phrenology and other quackeries as they seek testable results, but
Freud's thought lives on in the humanities—or wherever scholars and
students contemplate the vagaries of desire, morality, and religion.
In the name of reason, Freud challenged the veneer of reason. He dug
to uncover the forces that make us not only loving but also odd,
hateful, and violent. Even when he was wrong, a boldness infused his
thinking. He remains a tonic for a cautious age. The epigram that
Freud chose for The Interpretation of Dreams—a line from Virgil—has
not lost its appeal: "If I cannot bend the higher powers, I shall
stir up hell."
Russell Jacoby is a professor in residence in the history department
at the University of California at Los Angeles. A columnist for The
Chronicle Review, he is author, most recently, of Picture Imperfect:
Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age (Columbia University Press,
2005).
o o o
(ii)
WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? Directed by Sílvia Leindecker & Michael Fox.
Estreito Meios Productions, 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=YJkajOPgkhw&feature=PlayList&p=F08E81711A0D23B1&index=0&playnext=1
____
[8] Announcements:
Corporate murder, environmental crimes: Vedanta plc, DfID and the
Indian State
PUBLIC MEETING AND FILM SCREENING
Saturday, 17 October, 2.00pm – 4.00pm
Rm 302 Clement House, London School of Economics, The Aldwych, London
WC2
(Map of LSE at http://www2.lse.ac.uk/mapsAndDirections/
findingYourWayAroundLSE.aspx)
· What is it like for those most directly affected by this
British- registered and Indian- owned multinational company?
· What are its links to powerful interests in India, Britain
and internationally?
· What are its connections to India’s Hindu fascists and those
trying to set up the first Hindu secondary school in Britain?
Samarendra Das activist, film-maker and researcher will discuss these
and related issues at a screening of extracts from his remarkable
film Wira Pdika (Earthworm and Company Man) in which people from the
Adivasi Dongria Kondh and Majhi Kondh communities, activists, singers
and dancers, forest dwellers and fisher people speak about their
lives and their struggles against ‘the company’.
Samarendra has been an activist for the past 16 years with the
Kondh communities, and his research includes extensive studies of
transnational companies, NGOs and the institutional architecture of
the global elite.
Vedanta’s record
On the 23 September, more than a hundred people lost their lives in
one of the worst accidents in India's recent construction history at
a power plant being commissioned by the Vedanta-controlled Bharat
Aluminium Company (Balco) in Chhattisgarh state. In India, health and
safety rules are routinely flouted, even so, this was one of the
worst accidents in recent history. While a state-level inquiry was
launched, Balco officials fled Chhattisgarh leaving local people
rescuing the survivors. Meanwhile Vedanta officials in London
ascribed it all to ‘bad weather’. In fact, Vedanta and its
subsidiaries are routinely implicated in death and destruction in
other parts of India too, most notably in the state of Orissa state
where their mining activities are causing:
*The drying up of streams and major rivers, which are the lifeline
for tens of thousands of people leading to unprecedented
environmental disasters in drought and famine prone districts
* The pollution of fertile agricultural lands and contamination of
drinking water sources in vast areas
*The destruction of the Niyamgiri hills – known as the most beautiful
mountains in India - which will wipe out the ancient civilization of
the Dongria Kondh adivasi community who regard the Niyam Dongar
mountain and forests of the area as their Gods.
*Mass Unemployment and Destitution as farmers, fishing communities
and forest dwellers are being displaced and abandoned in shanty-towns.
*The destruction of the social structure in the areas where the
company and its subsidiaries are involved leading to a sharp rise in
illegal liquor shops, fraudulent money-lenders, domestic abuse and
suicides.
Organised by South Asia Solidarity Group
For further details contact sasg at southasiasolidarity.org , tel.
07846873341
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
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