SACW Feb 11-14 2011 | Faiz Ahmad Faiz centenary / Mubarak Ho ! Kudos to the Egyptian uprising 2011 / Afghan Curbs on Women’s Shelters / India: Khaki knickers In a twist; profit vs people / UK: Forced marriages

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire -  Dispatch No. 2709 - February 11-14, 2011
From: sacw.net

[0] South Asia celebrates the centenary of Faiz Ahmad Faiz: reports and commentary (sacw.net special compilation)
[1] Mubarak Ho ! Kudos to the Egyptian uprising 2011 (sacw.net special compilation)
[2] Bangladesh: Extra-Judicial Killings : High Time For Remedial Action
[3] India- Bangladesh: Connectivity: The India-Bangladesh land bridge (Kanak Mani Dixit)
[4] Afghanistan: Government Takeover of Shelters Threatens Women’s Safety (HRW)
    - Afghan Proposal Would Clamp Down on Women’s Shelters (Alissa J. Rubin)
[5] India: Hindutva Terror - Khaki knickers In a twist (Sopan Joshi)
[6] India - Profit over People: 
   - Indifference Of Big Men (Ramachandra Guha)
   - Chhattisgarhs Heart Of Darkness  (Supriya Sharma)
   - ‘India’s mineral wealth obtained by violating tribal rights’ (Sangeeth Sebastian)
[7] UK: The unpalatable truth about forced marriage (Yasmin Alibhai-brown)
[8] Announcements:
Genes and the Blasphemy Meme A Talk by Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy (Karachi, 17th February 2011)

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[0] South Asia:

sacw.net special

SOUTH ASIA CELEBRATES THE CENTENARY OF FAIZ AHMAD FAIZ: REPORTS AND COMMENTARY
    * 100th birth anniversary of Faiz Ahmed Faiz: Ceremonies being held to pay tributes to legendary poet (Daily Times, Report)
    * Delhi to pay Faiz tribute on birth centenary (Meenakshi Sinha)
    * The Light of tears: The life and poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz (Ali Madeeh Hashmi)
    * Faiz As Pak’s Lost Voice Of Reason (Najam Sethi)
    * A locomotive and a hearse (Jawed Naqvi)
    * Words for all seasons (Gopalkrishna Gandhi)
    * Celebrating the Idea of Revolution (Editorial, People’s Democracy)
    * India, whose love could have killed him (Jawed Naqvi)
    * No Valentines for Faiz (Mohammed Wajihuddin)
    * Dipped in the heart’s blood (Rakhshanda Jalil)
    * In other tongues (Vijay Prashad)
    * Subsumed by history and nation (Afsan Chowdhury)
    * From home to the world (Ali Mir and Raza Mir)
    * ‘Bol’, the Nepali people! (Gauri Nath Rimal)
    * In many dimensions (Sheel Kant Sharma)
    * Listening to Faiz is a subversive act (Gauhar Raza)

Full Text: http://www.sacw.net/article1944.html

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[1] Egypt:

sacw.net special

MUBARAK HO ! KUDOS TO THE EGYPTIAN UPRISING 2011
Select content on the protest movement that led to the departure of despotic Mubarak

1.  Photo from Daily Times
2. cartoon from nj.com
3. Glimpses of the protest in Cairo - Photos
4. Bye Bye Mubarak from Ramy Rizkallah on Vimeo.
5. “Our Hope Increases Day After Day”: Longtime Egyptian Human Rights Activist Nawal El Saadawi A video on Democracy Now
6. Nawal El-Saadawi: "50 Pounds and a Chicken to Beat Us"
7. The Egyptian Revolution engenders values and a new social decade (Nawal El Saadawi)
8. Cartoonist Patrick Blower on The tweeting Sphinx
9. Live from Cairo: Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Anjali Kamat on Egypt’s “Farewell Friday”
10. With peace Egyptians overthrow a dictator (Leila Fadel)
11. ’Revolution in Every Street of Egypt’ (Laila Al-Arian)
12. Deadlocked Revolution (Ashok Mitra)
13. Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood (Editorial, The Hindu) 
14. For Egypt, this is the miracle of Tahrir Square (Slavoj Žižek)
15. Egypt’s joy as Mubarak quits (Tariq Ali)
16. Egypt’s Military Industrial Complex (Ken Stier)

Full Text: http://www.sacw.net/article1939.html

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[2] Bangladesh:

The Daily Star, 11 February 2011

Editorial

EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS : HIGH TIME FOR REMEDIAL ACTION

The chairman of the National Human Rights Commission makes a valid point. If indeed the security forces have had to act to defend themselves in crossfires and in the process shoot alleged criminals dead, there must be ways of validating such claims. Professor Mizanur Rahman has suggested --- and one cannot but agree with him --- that only the judiciary can determine if the principle of self-defence is a cause for law enforcers to kill their would-be assailants in extra-judicial manner. No one argues that in a skirmish where the Rapid Action Battalion and the police must defend themselves from criminal elements, they will do all they can to save themselves.

But then comes the critical issue, which is that the extra-judicial killings that have so far occurred in the country have nowhere been proved to have been definitive accounts of battles between the law enforcers and criminal elements. We have been told over and over again that those losing their lives were leaders of gangs that had fired on the security personnel and so had to be repulsed. It is a refrain which by now has turned into a cliché, for the simple reason that there has hardly been an instance in these so-called crossfires of any member of the security forces being killed or wounded. More amazingly, apart from the man killed in so-called action, no other criminal element 'launching' the attacks has been nabbed or wounded or killed. That is where worries have regularly been expressed by individuals and human rights bodies. The public expectation was that under the present government extra-judicial killings would be brought to a swift end. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Worse, senior government figures have of late given the impression of justifying these sordid acts as being defensive on the part of the law enforcers.

Unless remedial action is taken, popular faith in the rule of law will take a slide. For the government, it is important that it go back to the policy of zero tolerance it had earlier iterated about all illegal acts. 


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[3] Bangladesh - India: 

CONNECTIVITY: THE INDIA-BANGLADESH LAND BRIDGE 
by Kanak Mani Dixit

HIMAL SOUTHASIAN
February 2011

Can a formal bilateral communiqué be a ‘game changer’, foretell a ‘paradigm shift’, in a Southasian relationship? If India and Bangladesh manage to follow through on promises to open up their economies for transit and trade as set out in a memorandum of January 2010, a new era could dawn across the land borders of Southasia. The challenges are bureaucratic inertia in New Delhi and ultra-nationalist politics in Dhaka.

The political partition of the Subcontinent in 1947 did not have to lead to economic partition, but that is ultimately what happened. This did not take place right away, and many had believed that the borders of India and Pakistan’s eastern and western flanks were demarcations that would allow for the movement of people and commerce. It was as late as the India-Pakistan war of 1965 that the veins and capillaries of trade were strangulated. In the east, in what was to become Bangladesh just a few years later, the river ferries and barges that connected Kolkata with the deltaic region, and as far up as Assam, were terminated. The metre-gauge railway lines now stopped at the frontier, and through-traffic of buses and trucks came to a halt. The latest act of separation was for India to put up an elaborate barbed-wire fence along much of the 4000 km border, a project that is nearly complete. Today, what mainly passes under these wires are Bangladeshi migrants seeking survival in the faraway metropolises of India – and contraband.

This half-century of distancing between what was previously one continuous region has resulted in incalculable loss of economic vitality, most of it hidden under nationalist bombast. Bangladesh lost a huge market and source of investment, even as the heretofore natural movement of people in search of livelihood suddenly came to be termed ‘illegal migration’. Bangladeshis were wounded by the unilateral construction of the Farakka Barrage on the Ganga/Padma, a mere 10 km upstream from the border, which deepened the anti-Indian insularity of Dhaka’s new nationalist establishment. Forced to chart its own course, Bangladesh concentrated on developing its own soil and society, uniquely building mega-NGOs such as Proshika, BRAC and Grameen, developing a healthy domestic industrial sector such as in garment manufacture, and learning to deal with disastrous floods and cyclones.

In India, the lack of contact and commerce led increasingly to an evaporation of empathy for Bangladesh, which became an alien state rather than a Bangla-speaking sister Southasian society. The opinion-makers of mainland India wilfully ignored the interests of the Indian Northeast, which they see as an appendage with no more than four percent of the national population. The seven states of the Northeast, meanwhile, became weakened economically with the denial of access to Bangladesh’s market and the proximate ports on the Bay of Bengal. Mainland India, of course, could easily afford to maintain its strategic and administrative control through the ‘chicken’s neck’ of the Siliguri corridor, but few considered the economic opportunities lost to the Northeast over five decades.

Distrust and xenophobia in Bangladesh, the imperial aloofness of New Delhi, and the Northeast’s lack of agency delivered a status quo in disequilibrium in the northeastern quadrant of Southasia that has lasted decades. Unexpectedly, there is a hint of change. A relatively little-remarked-upon memorandum between the prime ministers of Bangladesh and India holds out the possibility of erasing the anti-historical legacy of closed borders and rigid economies.

[. . .]

FULL TEXT AT : http://himalmag.com/component/content/article/3614-connectivity-the-india-bangladesh-land-bridge.html


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[4]  Afghanistan:

Human Rights Watch

AFGHANISTAN: GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF SHELTERS THREATENS WOMEN’S SAFETY
Conservative Forces Hostile to Women’s Rights Drive Proposed Regulation

February 13, 2011

(New York) - An Afghan government move to take over the operations of women's shelters threatens the safety of women and girls in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urged the government to support, rather than control, the work of shelter providers to ensure that women fleeing domestic violence are able to find safe and secure refuge.

The government is considering a draft regulation on Women's Protection Centers that would allow it to take over management of existing shelters for women, almost all of which are operated by nongovernmental organizations or the United Nations. Adoption of the regulation would result in the closure of some shelters, restrictions on women's freedom of movement, compulsory forensic examinations, a likely reduction in protection of shelter residents from abusers, and the possible expulsion of women still in need of safety, Human Rights Watch said.   

"The Afghan government claims that taking over the shelters would lead to sustainable funding and better management, but the real agenda is clear," said Rachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The government is increasingly dominated by hard-line conservatives who are hostile to the very idea of shelters, since they allow women some autonomy from abusive husbands and family members."

In January 2011, the Council of Ministers sent a letter to shelter providers ordering them to transfer control to the Women's Affairs Ministry within 45 days. To put the plan in effect, the Council of Ministers must approve the draft regulation. The council meets every Monday.

The regulation gives power to the Ministry of Women's Affairs to appoint female ministry employees as the director and deputy director of each shelter. It also creates a committee made up of government appointees that controls entry and dismissal from shelters. Shelter providers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they often face death threats from families demanding the return of women or girls in the shelters' care. Human Rights Watch has also documented cases in which women in NGO-run shelters who fear lethal retribution from their families have come under pressure to return home from government officials, including some in the Women's Affairs Ministry.   

"This government is full of misogynist warlords and wide open to corruption," Reid said. "A government shelter is far more likely to cave in to pressure from families and tribes to hand back the victims, which will put women's lives at risk."

The draft resolution contains a number of other deeply problematic provisions, Human Rights Watch said. One would require every woman admitted to a shelter to undergo a forensic examination. Women and girls fleeing abuse should not be assumed to require a forensic examination, or to have committed a crime, which the compulsory imposition of such an examination implies.

Such examinations can be traumatic for women, particularly in a country with limited numbers of female forensic medics. In cases where women have been subjected to violence, the UN World Health Organization specifies that doctors should respect the wishes of women survivors of violence and explain the advantages and disadvantages of a medical examination, giving women and girls the option to undergo a complete or partial medical examination or even to refuse to undergo the examination.

Forcing women to undergo forensic examinations violates their rights to privacy, dignity, and bodily integrity, Human Rights Watch said.

Another problematic provision states that residents can be evicted from the shelter if they are "accepted into the home of her family or another relative," or upon "marriage," but does not say that the woman's consent should be a precondition for such a decision. A woman or girl facing domestic abuse, which usually involves one or more members of her own family, should not be forcibly returned to her family or relatives.

The draft regulation also states that women would not be allowed to leave the shelter's compound. While there are strong grounds for concern about the safety of women, decisions about freedom of movement should be based solely on these security considerations, rather than imposing a prison-like ban on freedom of movement in violation of Afghan and international law.

"Today President Hamid Karzai calls the Taliban his brothers and seeks their support," Reid said. "He should think of the sisters, daughters, and mothers who are at risk, and take steps to protect them, including rejecting this regressive measure."

The need for shelters for women and girls in Afghanistan is acute, Human Rights Watch said. Violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape, is endemic. Forced and child marriage remain widespread and socially accepted. Though the data on the extent of the problem vary, all surveys indicate that well over half of the marriages in Afghanistan are forced or involve girls under age 16. Since violence and abuse often take place inside the family, there is a vital need for safe and secure places for women, Human Rights Watch said. 

Fewer than half of the 34 provinces in the country currently have shelters. Many women and girls are prosecuted for "running away from home" when they flee abuse, even though there is no such crime under Afghan law.

What underlies this punishment of victims is a failure by the police and other security officials to recognize forced and child marriage as a crime under Afghan law, Human Rights Watch said. This practice was recently codified by a Supreme Court directive in October 2010 (1497/1054), which said that women and girls were only permitted to seek refuge in the home of a relative or with the Security or Justice Departments, and that those who sought refuge elsewhere could be prosecuted. Research by Human Rights Watch and other organizations shows that many women are afraid to seek help from justice or security departments because they fear they will face further abuse or be forcibly returned home.

Women's shelters have long been controversial among hard-line religious factions, who have portrayed them as encouraging immorality or providing protection for "bad girls." This view was reflected in a series of programs broadcast by Noorin TV in mid-2010, which made unsubstantiated claims linking shelters with prostitution and other abuses of women residents. A conservative mullah who led a government inquiry into shelters, Nematullah Shahrani, told reporters that public complaints about shelters following the TV program influenced his investigation. Shahrani's commission fed into the proposed regulation. 

Selay Ghaffar, executive director of Humanitarian Assistance for Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA), which runs a shelter, told Human Rights Watch, "The real reason for this regulation is that all those conservatives in the supreme court, the cabinet, the parliament, the ministries, all want to close down shelters. They want to control women, to push women back into their houses, like under the Taliban regime."

The government has justified its move to take over shelters partly on the grounds that it can offer sustainable long-term funding. But while many nongovernmental organizations would welcome long-term funding from the government, shelter providers have told Human Rights Watch that they doubt the capacity of the Women's Affairs Ministry to manage the shelters. 

The proposed regulation contains some positive measures, such as setting out minimum standards of food and heating, requiring shelters to provide education and literacy services, and requiring that any police interviews with women or girls in shelters must be carried out by female officers.

"Since the fall of the Taliban, courageous Afghan women have created places of safety for women and girls who are most in need," Reid said. "It would be tragic if growing conservatism in the government unraveled their achievements."


o o o

The New York Times

AFGHAN PROPOSAL WOULD CLAMP DOWN ON WOMEN’S SHELTERS

Sharifa, 18, with her 42-day-old son Mansour, at the Family Guidance Center, where meetings are set up between abused women and their families in secret locations in Kabul.

By ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: February 10, 2011

KABUL, Afghanistan — After her parents threw her out of the house for refusing to marry a 52-year-old widower with five children, Sabra, 18, boarded a bus that dropped her, afraid and confused, in downtown Kabul. She slept in a mosque for days, barely eating, until a woman took pity on her and put her in touch with human rights workers, who escorted her to a women’s shelter.

That journey — terrifying enough for a young woman who had never ventured beyond the corner bazaar — would become harder still under new rules being drafted by the Afghan government that women’s advocates say will deter the most vulnerable women and girls from seeking refuge and are placing shelters under siege.

The new rules speak to the suspicions that women’s shelters still generate in this deeply conservative society, where the shelters have come to symbolize the competition between modern values and traditional Afghan ways. Many believe their very existence at best encourages girls to run away from home and at worst are fronts for brothels.

The changes in the law would require a woman like Sabra to justify her flight to an eight-member government panel, which would determine whether she needed to be in a shelter or should be sent to jail or back home, where she would be at risk of beating or even death. She would also have to undergo a physical exam that could include a virginity test.

While some are hopeful that the government may soften the provisions before final approval, women’s advocates see the effort as an example of government pandering to religious and social conservatives as President Hamid Karzai’s administration starts reconciliation efforts with insurgents. Women’s rights, they fear, will be the first area in which the government makes compromises.

“I’m not sure why they are doing it — maybe because the government is becoming more conservative and to appease the Taliban they are doing things like this,” said Manizha Naderi, the director of Women for Afghan Women, which runs three shelters and five family counseling centers around the country.

“Domestic violence is cultural and it takes time to change and it will change, but women need a safe place when they are a victim of violence,” she said.

A decade ago, shelters for abused women did not even exist in Afghanistan, where even now many of the worst practices associated with the Taliban era, like arranged marriages for child brides, public flogging and mutilation of women, continue in rural areas.

Today, about 14 women’s shelters exist, financed by a mix of international organizations, private donors and Western governments. The new rules, drafted by the Women’s Affairs Ministry, would place those shelters under direct government control.

The rules have alarmed women’s advocates, who say they fear a government-appointed panel will not be able to stand up to pressures from powerbrokers or others who may want their daughters sent home so that they can be punished in accord with Afghan customs. Even fleeing an abusive marriage is seen as bringing shame on a woman’s family.

“Many times, I have faced difficulties from the governor or district governor who are supporting the family of the girl, not the girl,” said Soraya Pakzad, who runs shelters in Herat and Badghis Provinces. “If her father is an ex-commander and the judge is a friend and they say, ‘You have to send the girl home,’ we are able to raise our voices, but I am afraid that courage will not be found in the Department of Women’s Affairs.”

The shelter directors say they are willing to be subject to close government monitoring and are ready to adhere to government-required operating procedures. Running the shelters, however, is not something that the Women’s Affairs Ministry has the budget, the staff or expertise to take on, according to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and shelter directors.

“The ministry cannot find staff for its offices in some of the provinces, so how will they find staff for the more sensitive job of running shelters?” said Soraya Sobhrang, a member of the human rights commission who focuses on women’s issues.

The Women’s Affairs Ministry has had a hard time recruiting women to work in its provincial offices in the Pashtun south and east of the country, where the insurgency remains strong. Local directors routinely face threats and assassination attempts.

The evolution of the new rules began in 2009 when Mr. Karzai set up a commission led by a senior religious figure, Mullah Nematullah Shahrani, to look into the shelters and prepare a report.

Senior officials at the Women’s Affairs Ministry insist that the new rules are for the good of the women and that they have no intention of taking over existing shelters. A copy of the draft rules obtained by The New York Times makes clear, however, that nongovernmental organizations would no longer run shelters.

“We want to have centers where women can feel safe and free of tension and seek help,” said Fawzia Amini, the chief of legal affairs for the ministry, who was involved in drafting the rules.

“We don’t want to assert control on the shelters or safe houses being run by the N.G.O.’s or other individual,” she said, adding, “We want to have our own shelters besides the shelters.”

The Afghan Cabinet, however, appears to have given a clear order that all shelters should be government run, according to people who are close to the administration. This may perhaps reflect the widespread sensitivity to the shelters by many in Mr. Karzai’s government and in Parliament, who particularly resent that they remind the public of how far Afghanistan has to go in combating violence against women.

A case in point is the minister of labor, social affairs, martyrs and the disabled, Amina Afzali, a member of the commission that visited the country’s shelters. In an interview, she agreed that there were cases where women needed protection, but was upset about the shelters’ high profile in discussing abuse.

Particularly grating, Ms. Afzali said, was the publicity over Bibi Aisha, a child bride whose nose was hacked off by her husband after she tried to run away from his home. She was photographed by Time magazine, which put her on its cover last year, while she was staying at a shelter run by Women for Afghan Women.

Such publicity “humiliates us in the eyes of the world,” Ms. Afzali said.

“Now Afghanistan is under a microscope, but if other counties were scrutinized the way Afghanistan has been, they too would have such exceptional cases as this one.”

Some conservative members of Parliament would like to have the shelters closed altogether. Hajji Neyaz Mohammed, a lawmaker from Ghazni Province, bluntly condemned shelters as “the official places for increasing perversion in our country.”

“These shelters create problems in families and homes, and they motivate girls to flee from their houses,” he said.

In 90 percent of cases when girls return from the shelters to their villages, they will not be accepted by the community and will be suspected of having committed adultery, he said.


Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting.


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[5] India:

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 7, Dated 19 Feb 2011
	  	
HINDUTVA TERROR

Khaki knickers In a twist. The RSS rift over terror charges

BY SOPAN JOSHI

Losing their grip The status-conscious RSS brass is in danger of losing touch with comfort-loving cadre

PHOTO: AP

BACK IN the day when Congressmen and RSS pracharaks could meet like honourable opponents, an anecdote doing the rounds went thus: In a discussion on how to tackle the socialists, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Dwarka Prasad Mishra, Congress’ ‘Chanakya’ and father of former National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, told RSS pracharak Dattopant Thengdi how to neutralise a political organisation.

“Make its cadre comfort loving and its leaders status conscious. The cadre will lose touch with the masses and the leaders with the cadre,” said Mishra. Thengdi, who was to later create the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, would often recall this advice as a warning. This was a time when the question among Sangh’s supporters and critics was: will the RSS stop interfering with the BJP and let it grow into a mass-based political party? Because it was the RSS cadre that formed the BJP’s backbone.

Those days are long gone. Now that the BJP has tasted power for six years at the Centre, and currently commands eight state governments, the question has come a full circle: Can the RSS free itself from the BJP’s influence? The RSS brass, reputed for its apathy to its public image and for doggedly pursuing its ideology, is now conscious of how it is perceived. The Sangh has accepted the politics of perception. And this is reflected sharply in the way it has handled charges of Hindutva terror.

On 10 January, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat refuted the charges, saying the RSS has always asked extremists to leave. It looked like he was in denial. He came across as a patriarch trying to distance himself from a rowdy youth. Had he first acknowledged the RSS links of some ex-pracharaks facing terror charges, and then detailed how the Sangh tried to stop them or sack them, he would have been more credible.

Insiders say there were several discussions among the RSS brass on how to counter the terror charges, and one section wanted to own up past associations with the likes of Sunil Joshi, a pracharak in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, who was asked to leave after a series of incidents in which he defied his superiors and bad-mouthed them openly, saying they were cowards.

MOHAN BHAGWAT SARSANGHACHALAK
Indecisive. Image conscious. Created his faction of Maharashtrian Brahmins
	
SURESH JOSHI SARKARYAVAH
The next chief. Apolitical, with a social agenda. Shrewd. Wants transparency on terror charges
	
SURESH SONI SAHSARKARYAVAH
BJP pointsman. Fond of power, money and chartered flights. Blamed for corrupting cadres
	
DATTATREYA HOSABALE SAHSARKARYAVAH
Young and dynamic intellectual. Tipped for the top job in future

“Most families know what it is like to deal with rebellious young men. In the public eye, we would have struck a sympathetic chord by accepting an uncomfortable truth. And we would have shown our cadre that we would never shy away from owning them,” says an RSS source. But the RSS has moved on the path of denial, and there is no return. It is the fear of disrepute, typical of the middle-class when the police comes knocking at the doors. The RSS faces a situation it has no experience in tackling. Reportedly, when the Anti-Terrorism Squad went to the RSS Kanpur office and identified itself as ATS, an office-bearer asked: “Yeh ATS kaun si company hai?” (What company is this ATS)?

In internal discussions, one faction favoured making a clean breast of it, and letting national executive member Indresh Kumar defend himself. If he is not guilty he would emerge unfazed; if he is, he should pay the price and not the entire organisation. Sources believe this faction includes Bhagwat’s trusted deputy and RSS general secretary Suresh ‘Bhaiyaji’ Joshi.

But Bhagwat has been indecisive, and he has made a prestige issue out of Indresh’s defence. Indresh’s rise is attributed to former chief K Sudarshan, who was careless in his choice of people, often backing unscrupulous ones. Bhagwat also took a liking for him. The need to defend Indresh is now driving the brass’ reactions — it is sure it did enough to expunge radicals like Joshi, and that it cannot be held accountable for their deeds. It is sure that Swami Asimananda’s confession came under duress. But it is not sure of how to make the bad publicity disappear.

Bhagwat, who cut a statuesque figure in his deft handling of the Sangh Parivar after the 30 November Ayodhya verdict — it was he who kept a tight leash on those who wanted to make political capital out of the verdict — has come up short this time around. Sources say he had got feet of clay just now because he is overly bothered about his image and that of the RSS.
			
MADAN DAS DEVI PRACHARAK PRAMUKH
A saintly presence. Was the BJP pointsman till 2004. Now marginalised by poor health
	

MG VAIDYA CORE GROUP MEMBER
Veteran. Staunch Maharashtrian Brahminist. Frustrated; feels that he has been denied his due
	
ASHOK SINGHAL CORE GROUP MEMBER
Trusted veteran. But poor health keeps him out now
	
MADHUBHAI KULKARNI CORE GROUP MEMBER
Bhagwat’s trusted lieutenant. Being groomed to take over BJP charge from Suresh Soni

On 10 November, Bhagwat became the first RSS chief to sit on a dharna — RSS bosses tend to behave like queen bees that stay deep inside the honeycomb and are seldom seen outside. In his first year at the helm, he gave so many interviews it became a problem for scribes to keep track of his statements. Sources close to the RSS sense that Bhagwat now has his own faction, something that a chief should never do. This has created confusion, and it is not just the Congress and its general secretary Digvijaya Singh who are waiting to capitalise on it. Some within the RSS also smell an opportunity.

Chief among them is RSS No. 3, joint secretary Suresh Soni, who is responsible for liaising with the BJP. He has not aligned with either side, playing a waiting game, not willing to risk anything by speaking his mind on how to tackle the terror allegations. He is from Madhya Pradesh and his rise is due to the patronage of Kushabhau Thakre and then Sudarshan. It is said that he literally runs Madhya Pradesh through the BJP state president Prabhat Jha and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who moved under Soni’s patronage after his mentor Pramod Mahajan died.

Bhagwat has got feet of clay now as he is too bothered about his image, say RSS sources

Soni commands political power and money. He has several critics within the Parivar who blame him for introducing the influence of money. “Earlier, nobody had heard of RSS pracharaks making money from transfers and postings of government officials. But this is a reality now,” says a source in Madhya Pradesh.

There is a caste angle too. Soni, a non- Brahmin from the Vaishya Sunar community, feels upstaged by the return of Maharashtrian Brahmins at the RSS helm in the form of Bhagwat. He believes Bhagwat should have chosen him as the secretary, and not Bhaiyaji Joshi, also a Maharashtrian Brahmin from Indore. While the Sangh has always stood against the caste system formally, its core is dominated by Maharashtrian Brahmins and their sensibility. Madan Das Devi, from whom Soni took the charge of handling BJP after the former had a brain haemorrhage in 2004, was also a non-Brahmin. Devi has an impeccable reputation and is said to have stayed out of factionalism. All this leaves the final and youngest member of the RSS brass, Dattatreya Hosabale, in a corner. He keeps a low profile and there is no loose talk or negative stories on him.

Factionalism is only to be expected in what is India’s biggest NGO, claiming 50,000 branches and a general participation of six million people. But the terror charges have made the cracks more visible. And the power and influence of the BJP in the RSS is now a greater reality than the ideological influence the RSS wields on the BJP.

Some of these changes are natural, given the BJP’s rise in the past two decades. Sangh sources recall how Atal Bihari Vajpayee would sit on the ground in front of former RSS chief MS Golwalkar out of respect. By the time it came to Sudarshan — who had grown up reciting Vajpayee’s poems — he would stand up when Vajpayee walked in. Bhagwat is 23 years junior to LK Advani.

The Sangh is also subject to wider social changes. Sources say the days are gone when pracharaks shied away from politics of power to a fault. When it was easy to find model pracharaks, embodying discipline and character building, the two themes declaimed ad nauseum in RSS Bauddhik sessions. People riding cycles to go meet the high and mighty, shunning the offer of a car because they didn’t want to be seen even in the car with the rich and powerful. Several in the RSS believe that the organisation had occupied the conservative space Mahatma Gandhi had created, which the Congress has abandoned.

BUT THOSE cliches are due for revision. Today, meeting a BJP minister is a matter of prestige for a pracharak. The love for comfort Thengdi warned about has set in. “I know pracharaks who puke at the idea of travelling second class in a train,” says a source. They want to sport the latest laptop and cell phones, whether they know how to use them or not. At RSS meetings, it is not surprising to see swanky cars now.

“In BJP-ruled states, RSS cadre are power drunk,” says a source. The RSS has become a lot more than an instrument of social change; it has become a career option. The RSS finds itself struggling to stay true to its idea of itself, which drew appreciation from even its staunchest critics. An organisation committed to social engineering finds itself in the midst of social changes that have the power to redefine it.

The influence of the BJP on RSS is now a greater reality, not the other way round

What fuels such talk is the RSS’ informal nature. It is not a registered body. A host of peripheral bodies handle its expenses and administrative costs. Trusts run by swayamsevaks usually own and maintain RSS offices, and the pracharak’s expenses are taken care of by a system of guru dakshina. But where the BJP is in power, it is not uncommon for the party to foot the bills of pracharaks. This means BJP leaders at the local level dictate the RSS agenda.

And this is why several in the RSS fear the terror charges. Having tasted power and become familiar with how a government can pursue a probe, they fear unwarranted surprises. For example, what if the sleuths inspect the pracharaks’ travel expenses and find unsavoury details? Which is why several in the RSS believe coming clean would have been best.
It would have allowed the outfit to defend itself aggressively in public. Instead, with its status-conscious leadership and comfort-loving cadre, it is now reduced to a passive entity in a trial by media that does not look like ending soon.


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[6] India: Primitive Accumulation

The Telegraph, 12 February 2011

INDIFFERENCE OF BIG MEN
- Justice is less important than holding on to power
POLITICS AND PLAY: Ramachandra Guha

I am presently embarked on an exercise that is both utterly exhausting as well as truly educative — the reading, line by line, of every volume of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. After several weeks of dogged work I have completed Volume XII; a mere 88 remain. I shall now take a (possibly extended) break, since Gandhi has now just left South Africa for good, and I need to distil all that I have read (and learnt) before moving with my subject to another country, another continent.

In a previous column I reported an early fruit of my research — an article speaking with admiration of the mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, whose disregard for monumental temples and mosques Gandhi shared, in a non- institutional spiritual ecumenism that might possibly show a way to resolve the destructive dispute in Ayodhya. Let me offer another illustration of the continuing relevance of Gandhi’s writings. In the late summer of 1909 he was in London, lobbying for the rights of Indians in South Africa. The lawyer-activist met with British journalists, members of parliament, senior officials, and cabinet ministers, urging them to press the governments of Natal and Transvaal to allow Indians the freedom to trade, the freedom of movement, and protection against laws and practices that discriminated against them on account of their race.

After a month of running around in London, Gandhi wrote in exasperation that, “The more experience I have of meeting so-called big men or even men who are really great, the more disgusted I feel after every such meeting. All such efforts are no better than pounding chaff. Everyone appears preoccupied with his own affairs. Those who occupy positions of power show little inclination to do justice. Their only concern is to hold on to their positions. We have to spend a whole day in arranging for an interview with one or two persons. Write a letter to the person concerned, wait for his reply, acknowledge it and then go to his place. One may be living in the north and another in the south [of London]. Even after all this fuss, one cannot be very hopeful about this outcome. If considerations of justice had any appeal, we would have got [what we wanted] long before now. The only possibility is that some concessions may be gained through fear. It can give no pleasure to a satyagrahi to have to work in such conditions.”

I knew exactly what Gandhi felt —and meant. Ninety-seven years after his fruitless exertions in London, I spent several weeks in New Delhi, seeking appointments with the most powerful men in the land. I was not alone — with me, indeed leading me, were the senior journalist, B.G. Verghese, and the brilliant anthropologist, Nandini Sundar. We had been part of a team of independent citizens who had recently returned from a trip through the district of Dantewada, in Chhattisgarh, where a bloody conflict raged between Maoist revolutionaries and a vigilante group promoted by the state government. Dozens of villages had been burnt, hundreds of people had been killed, and tens of thousands had been rendered homeless.

The Maoists are accountable to nobody, but we felt that the depredations of the vigilantes (who called themselves Salwa Judum, which roughly translated as ‘Peace Hunt’) had to be stopped by the state. When we found that the Chhattisgarh administration was complicit in these crimes, we decided to bring the matter to the attention of the Central government. After many phone calls, we were able to secure appointments with the then home minister, Shivraj Patil, and the then national security adviser, M.K. Narayanan. We acquainted them with what we had found — that is to say, with displaced tribal people living in pathetic camps along the road, their homes damaged or destroyed, their women violated by the vigilantes, all part of a general atmosphere of terror and intimidation that pervaded the district.

The NSA met our presentation of this firsthand evidence with indifference, the home minister with irritation. The NSA said condescendingly that as a former policemen he did not need lessons on how to deal with Naxalism. The home minister went a step further, accusing Nandini Sundar and the present writer of being Naxalite sympathizers ourselves.

Later, I was able to secure a one-on-one meeting with the prime minister, Manmohan Singh. He pleaded helplessness. To my recounting of the crimes of the vigilantes he replied that “they say that these methods are necessary”, without specifying whether “they” were his own advisers, or the Chhattisgarh state government.

Almost five years have passed since our meetings with these three big men. I did not write about them at the time, since these were private discussions, and I hoped that the advice of experienced and independent-minded Indian democrats would effect some slight changes in state policy. If I recall these meetings now, it is for two reasons: first, because I now find that the greatest of all Indians had a similar experience (albeit with firangi, rather than desi, big men), and second, because the sufferings of the tribal people in Dantewada still persist, in good part because of the unwillingness or inability of the Central government to hold the state government and its functionaries to account for their gross (and sometimes barbaric) violations of the law of the land.

Earlier this month, while hearing a petition filed in the public interest, the Supreme Court instructed the Chhattisgarh state government to disband Salwa Judum camps, restore villagers to their homes, and provide proper compensation for victims of violence. It also asked that schools and ashrams be vacated by security forces. In previous hearings, the Supreme Court has criticized the state government for distributing arms to untrained and frequently under-age men. Its strictures are wholly merited, but as things stand, the court has no powers to supervise matters on the ground. Its instructions have been ignored in the past by the state government, and it is unlikely that the Chhattisgarh government will work overtime to honour them now.

There are only two ways to tackle the menace of Naxalism: prompt and efficient policing by trained personnel, and sustained efforts to provide education, health, security of livelihood and mechanisms of self-governance to tribal communities. Instead, the Chhattisgarh government has promoted vigilantism on the one hand, and, on the other, shut down schools and clinics and handed over tribal land to mines and factories. As a consequence, the influence of Naxalism has actually increased, leading to an escalating spiral of violence and counter-violence, with the adivasis caught in the crossfire.

If the Central government had acted in 2006, on the basis of the massive evidence presented before it, the situation might yet have been retrieved and remedied. Reflecting on its inaction five years later, it seems to be that it stemmed from several causes. There was the fear that the Bharatiya Janata Party would charge it with being soft on extremism, and the further fear that since law and order was a state subject the Centre should be cautious in intervening. But the main reason, pace Gandhi, was the general indifference to the claims of justice of men in high places, whose “only concern”, in India now as in England a hundred years ago, was and is “to hold on to their positions” of power.

o o o

CHHATTISGARHS HEART OF DARKNESS 

The government is taking away farmers land citing public interest, but it is private power companies that profit 

Supriya Sharma | TNN 

Korba: Two years ago,Brijlal Kanwar,a farmer in Jhora,a tribal hamlet in Korba district,received a terse official notice.Please come and collect your compensation cheque, it said,specifying date,time and venue.It ended ominously: Or else,the money would be transferred to the state treasury.
As the distressed villager made enquiries,it emerged that,by an order dated August 28,2008,Korbas district collector had acquired Kanwars land,and that of 387 farmers,under Section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act 1894.
The most radical provision in the actSection 17gives the government the right to take possession of land against the wishes of its owner for a public purpose.It can do so within 15 days in an urgent situation.The act does not define public purpose or urgency but cites any dramatic instance,such as a sudden change in the channel of any navigable river.
In the case of five villages,including Kanwars,the district collector recorded the compelling circumstances requiring land acquisition in the following way: The need for electricity generation and employment. The irony of the situation is that Chhattisgarh has no shortage of electricity and the land that is ostensibly being taken for a public purpose is actually for a private company.
According to sources,a private company,Vandana Vidyut Limited,had decided to set up a 540 MW thermal plant.It needed 195 acres as per the terms of its environmental clearance.The government gave it more264 acreseven before it got the clearance.But this was at the expense of farmers in five villagesChurikala,Jhora,Darrabhanta,Salora and Gangpur.They were rendered landless overnight.
Vinod Pandey,who lives in Churikala,is bewildered and angry.How can our land be forcibly snatched under the false pretext of public purpose,when in reality,a private company will use it to make electricity and sell it for mega profits he asks.
Pandey and four others filed a petition in the high court,challenging the collectors order and describing it as the misuse of the enormous powers of eminent domain of the state for the benefit of a private party.
Sadly though,this misuse of power is said to be nothing new.In the last decade,Chhattisgarh has emerged as Indias power hub,attracting a horde of private companies,who are drawn to its ample coal reserves and the lure of profit.
Take for instance,Jindal Power and Steel,which is one of the first private companies to build a power plant in the state.In the first year of its operation,it had a quantum leap in profits,earning almost Rs 1500 crore half of it by selling power.
Today,nearly 60 companies are in various stages of setting up thermal power plants in Raigarh,Korba and Janjgir Champathree districts in north Chhattisgarh.While the companies stand to make massive profits,people in scores of villages fear they stand to lose both land and livelihood.All we gain is pollution, says Rajvardhan Singh,a resident of Churikala.
An old industrial cluster,Korba is already the fifth most polluted place in the country.It is also a tribal majority district,governed by the special provisions of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act,1996 (PESA).
Recognising the need to protect tribal lands,the act makes it mandatory for gram sabhas to be consulted prior to any land transfer.In Kanwars village,Jhora,no gram sabha was held.In Churikala,the gram sabha expressed unanimous disapproval.This was recorded in writing by the tehsil revenue official.And yet the collector transferred the land, fumes Pandey.This is neither constitutional nor democratic.Dinesh Srivastava,the states industry secretary,says land acquisition is done by district collectors and that his office did not instruct them to acquire land for industry under the emergency provisions of Section 17.He suggests any such case was an aberration.
And yet,the practice continues.Recently,in Dhanras village near Churikala,another patch of farmland was transferred to a private companyagain under Section 17.
Meanwhile,as a high cement wall encloses their land,and a skeletal industrial frame rises inside,some of Churikalas farmers have begun to accept defeatand the compensation money.All we want is that the compensation be increased as per revised rates, says Prabhu Yadav.
But 119 adivasi farmers in Jhora,Kanwars village,are still holding out.Perhaps this dogged resistance stems from experience : 40 years ago,these families lost their land to an irrigation project.Ram Prasad,an old man,says,We cant survive another round of displacement.
Incidentally,Korba has been free of the Maoist presence.But they have now begun cropping up in conversationoften,as a rather disturbing reference point.What else would you expect, says Ashok Agarwal,a rice mill owner,if the government continues to exercise power arbitrarily for the benefit of the powerful Its a question that those in power might do well to ponder.
But all may not be lost.Vinod Pandey intervenes in an eminently reasonable fashion : Ours is a peaceful struggle.We have a petition in the high court... if it could (only) be heard.For some reason,each time the hearing gets postponed.

SETTING TRIBAL AGAINST TRIBAL 

In the six months starting December 2007,Winsent Minj went on a buying spree.He purchased 3.424 hectares from 12 fellow adivasis in Churikala village for Rs 8.5 lakh Just a few months later,the same land was acquired for Rs 51 lakh by the district administration for Vandana Vidyut Limited.It was six times what Minj had spent.He made a neat profit Rs 42 lakh But Minj is no smart land dealer.He is simply Vandana Vidyuts security officer.How could Minj,a person of ordinary means,buy land worth lakhs,asks the petition in the high court.Was he simply a front for the company The petition also points out Minjs other contribution to the companys project.In October 2009,when villagers protested against the project,Minj filed an FIR against 84 villagers,under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,alleging that they had verbally abused him.How can 84 people abuse one man at one go asks Pandey.This was done to break (down) our resistance

http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/getpage.aspx?pageid=16&pagesize=&edid=&edlabel=TOIM&mydateHid=07-02-2011&pubname=&edname=&publabel=TOI

o o o

Mail Today, 7 February 2011

‘INDIA’S MINERAL WEALTH OBTAINED BY VIOLATING TRIBAL RIGHTS’

By Sangeeth Sebastian in New Delhi

THE ministries of environment and coal may still be bickering over the classification of ‘ go’ and ‘ no- go’ areas for mining, but an International Labour Organisation (ILO)- funded report on India’s indigenous population claims that more than half the country’s mineral wealth is obtained by violating the rights of tribals.

‘ India and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’, a report prepared by the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact with the ILO’s support, states that minerals found in adivasi or tribal areas reportedly contribute to more than half of the national mining production.

The geographical concentration of minerals in adivasi areas has often been noted. Yet, mining policies in India have overlooked the existence of adivasi communities and the constitutional provision for the protection of their land and resources, the report notes.

According to the report, Indian law automatically assumes that all minerals found underground are state property.

The rules framed under the Mining and Minerals ( Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, the main law on mining, while providing detailed procedures for a company or individual to obtain permission from the respective state government ( and in some cases central government) to search for minerals, does not talk about the victims of such activity.

The affected community is not required to be informed or consulted before mining leases are granted. There is no mention of adivasis ’ rights or protection in any of the procedures, observes the report.

Though a disaggregated data on the number of mines operating in the country or the number of people displaced by such projects does not officially exist as the information is deemed to be “ politically sensitive,” the report estimates that an overwhelming majority of mines are located in the adivasi areas. In 1991, out of the 4,175 mines in the country, 3,500 were in tribal areas.

Another estimate states that between 1950 and 1991 at least 2,600,000 people were displaced by mining projects of which only 25 per cent received any resettlement. Among those displaced 52 per cent belonged to the Scheduled Tribes, the report notes.

In the case of private lands, proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act 1894 are initiated in order to acquire the land.

The legislation also allows the government to acquire lands upon payment of cash compensation for any public purpose, including mining.

The report is also stridently critical of Jharkhand. The new state, instead of enforcing constitutional and protective rights of the indigenous communities and restoring their alienated lands and resources, has signed over 100 memorandums of understanding with the industry causing anger, it notes.


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[7] UK:

Daily Mail, 5 February 2011

THE UNPALATABLE TRUTH ABOUT FORCED MARRIAGE

By Yasmin Alibhai-brown

Britain's first Muslim peer has linked unhappy arranged marriages to the grooming of girls by Asian gangs. His courage to speak out should be applauded, not vilified.


This week, a Muslim peer broke the code of silence that pervades British-Asian communities and spoke out against the criminal practice of forced marriages.

He starkly stated that there was a connection between forced marriages and the Pakistani gangs in the north of England convicted last month of entrapping and grooming young, often white, girls for sex.

He said that British-born Pakistani men are too often forced into loveless marriages with cousins from abroad and suggested this encouraged them to seek out these young girls.

It was time, he told the British Muslim community, to look more closely at the underlying causes of the crimes committed by such grooming gangs. Time for Muslims to do more to promote UK-based marriages.

For giving an honest, informed and heartfelt opinion, Lord Ahmed of Rotherham has been assailed, abused and ripped apart by the religious and cultural guardians of those communities in a reaction that has been utterly disgraceful.

So let me say loud and clear that the coerced marriages Lord Ahmed is talking about are inhuman. Those parents who enforce them claim they are legitimate and say they provide the only way to ensure their young remain linked to extended family networks and prevent them becoming ‘westernised’. 

We have all heard the dreadful tales of young girls and women handed over to cousins in Pakistan or to men they have never seen in Bangladesh and India.

The problem is most widespread among Muslims, though a considerable number of Sikh families also believe their daughters should accept, without protest, husbands who are chosen for them. 
Courageous: Lord Ahmed has broken the silence surrounding arranged marriages but has been abused for his honesty

Courageous: Lord Ahmed has broken the silence surrounding arranged marriages but has been abused for his honesty

In these transactions, women are treated as mere goods or chattels. Inevitably, some try to escape; others kill themselves.

So common is the distress and anguish caused by these marriages that there is now a dedicated government-run Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) which intervenes and rescues the victims.

However, as Lord Ahmed points out, some young men are also caught up in this tragedy, though their plight barely ever merits attention and everyone presumes that they collude with the oppressive system.

Some undoubtedly do so. But there are many more who yearn to be free.

One man I met, called Taher, looks back with revulsion at his previous self, for he too used to prey on young white girls. Today he works for a charity and says he feels desperately sorry for the victims of arranged marriages.
 

Today, 14 per cent of cases dealt with by the FMU involve highly distressed men trying to flee from coerced marriages. There has been a 65 per cent increase in reported cases of this since 2008.

The consequences of this tradition of arranged marriages are appalling.

Some Asian husbands trapped in loveless, dead relationships become frustrated, their desires emotionally distorted. And yes, as Lord Ahmed says, they prey on young white girls for their perverse sexual satisfaction.

Sex, for them, is not reciprocal or an act of consent. It is taken as a right, regardless of what their wives — or indeed, those young girls they prey on — think.

I recently met a young Muslim woman called Munee, who told me she was brought over from Pakistan to marry her cousin when she was 17.

With brutal candour, she said to me: ‘It was like rape every time because he didn’t want me and I didn’t want him.’ She ran away. And, she told me, her husband now has a 13-year-old white ‘girlfriend’.

But her husband is far from acting alone in the Pakistani community. One man I met, called Taher, looks back with revulsion at his previous self, for he too used to prey on young white girls. Today he works for a charity and says he feels desperately sorry for the victims of arranged marriages. ‘I was crazy — a young man with sexual needs married off to a young virgin. She was very sweet, but there was nothing between us,’ he says.

‘I would not sleep with her, so I started cruising with these guys looking for easy sex with white girls.’ 

A Number of Asian men run off to get away from forced marriages. I know of stories of savage sexual and physical abuse and emotional persecution meted out to rebellious sons.

He continues: ‘There was one really sweet teenager — her mother was a drunk — who really got attached to me. She changed my attitude. Everybody had failed her, so I stopped behaving like that.

‘I still feel guilty and filthy for what I did in the past. And I now want to help these families.’

There are also many men in arranged marriages who fall in love with women out of their religion.

As this is deeply forbidden by their faith, most have to carry on secretly living, in effect, tormented, bigamous lives.

You might say what they do is unforgivable — indulging themselves with two women.

But most of the mistresses understand and put up with it.

Sandra, a teacher in Huddersfield, is the white mother of two little girls born out of wedlock. She is 38.

The girls’ father is Salman, the son of Kashmiri immigrants. He has been having an affair with Sandra since they were teenagers because he was forced by his parents to marry another woman. Sandra is philosophical. ‘I always knew that he couldn’t marry me,’ she says.

‘I couldn’t make him break up his family — I love him too much for that. So he has a wife he can’t communicate with really, but he treats her well. And with me it’s the real thing. He takes care of us. But most of the time he is unhappy and burdened with guilt.’

More Asian families need to understand what their cruelty is costing their children and society.
 

A Number of Asian men run off to get away from forced marriages. Imran Rehman, from Derby, tried that. He was found by his family and abducted. His legs were shackled and he was locked up for two weeks.

I know of other stories of savage sexual and physical abuse and emotional persecution meted out to rebellious sons. Imagine being treated in this way by those who claim to have your best interests at heart.

Jasvinder Sanghera, a brave woman who rejected a forced marriage and was made to suffer appallingly, runs Karma Nirvana, a helpline for victims of forced marriages.

In 2007 she decided to support male victims, too. ‘So many were calling us,’ she says. ‘They are told: “Marry the one we find and then play around, do what you want.” They are supposed to keep up the family name, to be strong. If they disobey, they are put under terrible pressure — physical and mental.’

Yet even in the most authoritarian families you find men who courageously defy conventions and prejudices and make independent choices.

The number of marriages between Asian men and white women increases year on year — and many of the wives freely choose to convert to the faith of the husband’s family and are embraced by them.

I knew Iqbal in Uganda, where I lived before I came to this country. Now living in a small town up north, he openly married his English girlfriend, who did not become a Muslim.

He tells me: ‘My mum, a widow, was dead against it — more worried about what other people would think rather than what her son would want.

‘My family never met her. They said I was blackening our name.’ The marriage has lasted more than 25 years.

Another man, Bashher, an Indian Muslim, rejected the chosen bride and married Nasrin, his Muslim girlfriend. Outraged, his family cut him off.

After their children were born there was an emotional reconciliation. Nasrin says their rebellion made her in-laws understand young people had rights and freedoms.

More Asian families need to understand what their cruelty is costing their children and society.

I am not hopeful. As the country gets more permissive and undisciplined, conservative ethnic communities seem even more determined to control the desires of their young and make them conform to callous, antiquated marriage rules.

Though his remarks were stark and sweeping, Lord Ahmed was brave — and right — to call for an honest debate on this vital issue.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1353512/Arranged-marriages-Muslim-peer-links-forced-unions-Asian-gang-grooming.html#ixzz1DqGiyGtP


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[8] ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Genes and the Blasphemy Meme
A Talk by Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy

Thursday, 17th February 2011 | 7:00 pm
  In this talk, Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy will apply Richard Dawkin’s marvelous insight, first articulated in “The Selfish Gene”, towards understanding how belief systems propagate themselves, and to analyzing the growth of religious extremism. The recent blasphemy controversy will be examined in the light of genes and memes.

Pervez HoodbhoyDr. Pervez Hoodbhoy has been a faculty member at the Quaid-e-Azam University since 1973. In 1984 he received the Abdus Salam Prize for mathematics and is the author of 65 scientific research papers. He is chairman of Mashal, a non-profit organization which publishes books in Urdu on women’s rights, education, environmental issues, philosophy, and modern thought.

Dr. Hoodbhoy has written and spoken extensively on topics ranging from science in Islam to education issues in Pakistan and nuclear disarmament. He produced a 13-part documentary series in Urdu for Pakistan Television on critical issues in education, and two series aimed at popularizing science. He is author of ‘Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality’, now in 5 languages. In 2003, Dr. Hoodbhoy was awarded UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for popularizing science in Pakistan with TV serials and his film ’The Bell Tolls for Planet Earth’ won honorable mention at the Paris Film Festival.

PeaceNiche | T2F | Faraar Gallery
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