SACW - 10 May 2012 | Pakistan: Culture of honour / Pakistan-India: Reform school books / India: Insult to religion industry / Lebanon: Secularists

[Harsh Kapoor]

    South Asia Citizens Wire - 10 May 2012 - No. 2748
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Contents:

1. Pakistan: Let us become - proudly - bayghairat (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
2. India - Pakistan: Peace demands an educated imagination (Krishna Kumar)
3. Memorandum to India’s Prime Minister on the eve of his upcoming visit to Burma 
4. India’s god laws fail the test of reason (Praveen Swami)
5. India : ‘Winning Hearts and Minds’: emotional wars and the construction of difference (Nandini Sundar)
6. India: recent content from Communalism Watch
- Pilgrims’ progress - Indian Express, Editorial on court ruling against Haj Subsidy 
- Tommaso Bobbio on Making Gujarat Vibrant: Hindutva, development and the rise of subnationalism in India
- VHP, Bajrang Dal men purify Osmania University campus
- Hindutva's 'Ram dhun' campaign to sabotage Muslims buying real estate in Hindu dominated areas
- Tripti Lahiri on India's Battle Over Beef
- Uttarakhand BJP MLA booked for inciting communal violence
- The dreadful afternoon of March 1, 2002
- Full Text of Amicus Curiae Raju Ramachandran's report on the 2002 Gujarat riots
- MP: Christian Names Deleted From The Voter List 
- The World Before Her: A documentary by Nisha Pahuj 
-  Kashmir cleric asks govt to declare Ahmadis 
 
7. Books of Note:
(i) Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India  by Aseem Shrivastava and Ashish Kothari
(ii) The Peacemakers: India And The Quest For One World by Manu Bhagavan

International: 
8. Will secularists be given recognition and rights in Lebanon? (Nay El Rahi)
9. The Long View: Migrant workers from the subcontinent often live eight to a room in slums – even in oil-rich Kuwait (Robert Fisk)
10. Announcements:  
(i) Invitation for a public meeting on the 14th Anniversary of the Pokharan nuclear tests (New Delhi, 11 May 2012)
(ii) Upcoming events at Studio Safdar and May Day Bookstore and Café (New Delhi, May 20102)
(iii) Invitation - book release and discussion on 'Churning the Earth' (19 May 2012)
(iv) Call for Nominations for the 2012 Meeto Memorial Award
(v) Call For Nominations 2012 Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award

  
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1. LET US BECOME - PROUDLY - BAYGHAIRAT
by Pervez Hoodbhoy
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(The Tribune, 7 May 2012)

Pakistan's current and aspiring political leaders can rarely give a public speech these days without invoking ghairat (honour) in some shape or form. Rather than present plans for reducing unemployment or providing electricity, they talk about shame and honour. The ultimate insult "bayghairat" (without honour) is sometimes hurled onto an opponent. Adrenalin levels shoot even higher when they speak of America and "breaking the chains of slavery". The more morally and intellectually bankrupt a leader, the louder he thunders about qaumi ghairat (national honour).

This time-tested formula has worked wherever a people have been dispirited and dejected. For example, Hitler's meteoric rise to power, culminating in the most destructive war of history, came from appealing to the collective ghairat of the German nation and to the alleged cowardice and corruption of its rulers.

Hitler's famous Munich beer hall speeches were followed up in Mein Kampf: "A nation without honour will sooner or later lose its freedom and independence - a generation of poltroons is not entitled to freedom. He who would be a slave cannot have honour."  Translated into Urdu, these lines are exactly what one hears on TV these days from men like Imran Khan and Hamid Gul.

The real implication of ghairat hit me for the first time some twenty years ago. A group of seven senior military officers, then studying operational matters at the National Defence College, had come to meet me at the physics department of Quaid-i-Azam University. Nuclear weapons were new at that time and, quite sensibly, they were keen to learn technical details from every available source. Although Pakistan did not officially acknowledge possessing such weapons then, the process of inducting them into the forces had already begun.

We had a good discussion on everything from blast radii and firestorms to electronic locks and PALS (Permissive Action Links). The officers took copious notes and appeared satisfied. As they prepared to leave I asked what circumstances, in their opinion,would warrant the use of nuclear weapons by Pakistan.

After some reflection one officer spoke up: "Professor," he assured me, "they shall be used only defensively if at all, and only if the Pakistan Army faces defeat. We cannot allow ourselves to be dishonoured." Around the table, heads nodded in agreement. Significantly, the calculus of destruction - that cities would be obliterated on both sides - was not what mattered. Ghairat did.

The same question put to Indian military officers would probably elicit the same answer. Historically, honour has driven armies to fight battles. Even as the officer spoke, my thoughts wandered to The Charge of the Light Brigade. During the Crimean War of 1854, wave after wave of honour-charged British soldiers rode their horses into the mouths of Russian guns which, of course, promptly mowed them down. Tennyson later immortalised the slain men in his famous poem: "All the world wonder'd. Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade."

The honour-driven Japanese samurai were even more extreme. As agents for various lords, shoguns, and the Emperor, their duties involved keeping peasants in line as well as fighting wars. Honest and dedicated, they were a model for ordinary Japanese. When a samurai lost honour, he could save his dignity only through hara-kiri (cutting open his belly).The last days of World War II turned samurais into suicide bombers who (unsuccessfully) flew planes into US aircraft carriers. Their actions ultimately brought the atom bomb to Japan.

A curse upon honour! It brings to a nation nought but militarisation, conquest, conflict, and the pain of war. On the other hand, where reason has defeated honour, the results have been spectacular. For example, in the ashes of WW II lay two thoroughly defeated and dishonoured nations: Germany and Japan. Had they remained stubbornly defiant, they would still be squatting there today. But, overcoming pride and honour, the vanquished accepted defeat and made peace with the victors. Today they are among the most advanced of nations, and major aid donors to Pakistan.

Vietnam is another amazing example. After 20 bitter years of war it won but was devastated. American B-52s had flattened its cities, while napalm and Agent Orange had devastated its villages and jungles. Yet, tossing aside honour and vengeance, Vietnam today reaches out to its former tormentors and invites their companies and investment. It is a country with a future.

Compare the bayghairat Vietnamese to Afghanistan's ghairat-obsessed people. Proud and unconquerable, they had earlier fought off the British and the Soviets; soon the Americans will too be gone. But, post-2014, what awaits them? Only more blood and sorrow, and yet another civil war.

Anthropologists tell us that honour is a concept that originated in herding societies because a tribal man's animals and women were protected from other tribesmen by a code of honour. But then, as tribes amalgamated and merged into the larger stream of civilisation, differing notions of honour led to strife. Traditional societies of the present era, in which honour plays a larger role, are relatively more violent than modern ones. The ease with which men kill their wives and daughters for sexual misconduct is but one example; there are scores of others.

Still, there are some in the West (see Sacred tribal values by J Gold & C Kammen, 1998), as well as here in Pakistan, who call for a return to tribal values. Perhaps one must hear them sympathetically because not all of what they say is bad. They hark back to the days when life was simple, good could easily be separated from bad, there was a spirit of community, and science had not made us into "One Dimensional Man" (in the words of the German philosopher Herbert Marcuse). They are nostalgic about what the world looked like centuries ago, all without having seen it or being aware of the downsides. Alas, they imagine false utopias.

A culture of honour is fine for the herders of goats and camels, or those who live in unpoliceable mountainous areas. But a culture of honour is disastrous for us, a nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people who want jobs, electricity, and the fruits of modernity.So, to hell with the fakery of meaningless honour! Instead, let us create a culture of law and reason, of compassion and tolerance. Let us become - proudly - bayghairat.

[The above article is also available at: http://www.sacw.net/article2675.html ]

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2. INDIA - PAKISTAN: PEACE DEMANDS AN EDUCATED IMAGINATION
by Krishna Kumar
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(The Hindu, May 7, 2012)

Reforming school textbooks will enable India and Pakistan to build a larger South Asian identity that does not threaten national identities.

The narrow, meandering path that India-Pakistan relations have followed since the early 1970s appears to have suddenly widened this summer. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's visit to the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and the luncheon meeting between him and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicated that the two countries need not wait for politically perfect moments to focus on sensible thoughts. Then, on Baisakhi day, an integrated checkpoint at Attari was inaugurated, marking a substantial step forward in trade relations. The significance of this modern facility at the border can now be enhanced by a decision to terminate the medieval display of mutual suspicion and disdain staged every evening by the armed forces guarding the gates on the two sides of the no-man's-land. Whose morale this ceremony boosts and for what purpose are questions that will not consume much time if anyone claiming to represent the two countries — either their people or the states — ponders on them from a peace perspective. The decision to discontinue the evening charade will potentially hurt the minor financial interests of the transporters who bring the jeering public from Amritsar and Lahore to the border gates at Wagah. Closing down this ugly routine show of animosity and stiffness will express a shared resolve of two mature nations to walk towards peaceful coexistence.

No small role

Improved ethos, trade and political relations are fine and necessary but they cannot substitute the role that a slow-acting medium like education alone can perform to ensure that pleasant weather patches come more frequently and last longer. Ironically, education has played no small role in making India-Pakistan relations so poor and brittle. A few years ago I had the opportunity to study the school textbooks used in the two countries for the teaching of history. My research presented in Prejudice and Pride (Viking, 2001) and Battle for Peace (Penguin, 2007) also enabled me to find out how children — in both countries — perceive the neighbourly hatred prevailing between the two countries. My textbook analysis was confined to the portrayal of the freedom struggle and the sample included textbooks of all kinds — those used in English-medium private schools as well as the ones used in government schools in different States. The idea was to trace the frames of perceptions that schools assiduously promote.

Officially approved history books shape collective imagination about the past. It is a shared past but the treatment it receives in the two countries is remarkably different. This need not startle us, for the two nation-states are built on contrasting visions. What alarmed me, however, was the extent to which consciousness of the “other” and deep-rooted conceptions of the self shape the narratives of the past. The choice of events and heroes opens a rare window to the collective mind the two nations wish to construct. Pakistani textbooks, for instance, did not dwell on the Quit India movement; Gandhi's portrayal in Pakistani textbooks and Iqbal's in Indian textbooks were quite problematic. The most important site of contrasting interpretations of the past was, of course, Partition. Indian textbooks viewed it as a tragedy, whereas Pakistani textbooks celebrated it as a moment of birth. Both displayed a reluctance to go into the details of the human misery that Partition had caused.

In India, recent years have witnessed a radical reform in all aspects of the school curriculum, both in perspective and structure. Freshly conceptualised syllabi and textbooks marking a sharp departure from old styles and content have been introduced at all levels. These reforms are particularly deep in history and politics. Instead of presenting flat narratives, the new history textbooks attempt to introduce children to the historian's task. Children learn how problems of interpretation arise, and why certain debates persist.

In the context of South Asia, the new approach means a wide and variegated representation of the nationalist movement and its aftermath. The new textbooks give children the opportunity to engage with ideas and movements, not just personalities. Partition is represented as people experienced it on both sides of the newly created border. No such reform has taken place in Pakistan. There, the teaching of history has remained the transmission of an allegory that allows only the official ideology to be transmitted.

How strong and lasting the impact of this approach can be was illustrated by a three-part documentary on Gandhi recently telecast by BBC. Mishal Husain, the presenter of this series, is a highly respected BBC journalist of Pakistani origin. The series shows her travelling through India, meeting people and experts as she attempts to make sense of Gandhi's politics and vision. Though made with sensitive curiosity, the trilogy fails to escape the grooves of thought and ideologised memory that my research had found in all Pakistani textbooks. For example, the third episode, which traces progress towards freedom from colonial rule, completely misses the Quit India movement. Gandhi's personal eccentricities take precedence over his committed efforts to avoid Partition. Of course the bias evident in the selection of content and its treatment may not be all attributable to the subtle impact that Pakistan's collective imagination might have had on the presenter; it may well be BBC's. The point is that the tendency to treat Partition as a mould to shape any discussion concerning India has stayed intact for a long time. Nor has the approach to Partition changed much: it remains stuck in the search for a cause, as if there was just one.

SAARC was expected to break this mould, but it hasn't. Nearly two decades after its birth, SAARC lacks the energy to pursue its own ideals. Among the many wise goals articulated at various SAARC summits is the goal of textbook review and reform. One had hoped that the South Asian University would pursue this goal but such a beginning is yet to be made. It is a bit surprising that this university has not considered setting up a school of teacher education. Quality of textbooks apart, both India and Pakistan — and the rest of the region too — are facing the challenge of overcoming teacher shortages at all levels and reforming the obsolete procedures used for the training of teachers. Not just schools but colleges and universities also require teachers who can appreciate futuristic visions of a South Asia in which nations and communities relate to each other in an open, friendly environment. Teachers play a vital role in shaping the social ethos in which the young develop their values and attitudes.

Psychological agenda

Indian and Pakistani leaders know only too well how tricky it usually is for them to make soft statements that might indicate a departure from the stated positions. One hopes that they are also aware of the importance of placing India-Pakistan concerns and sensitivity in a larger, regional and global context. The idea of South Asia provides that context, but so far that awareness has remained mainly theoretical. South Asia is slowly emerging as an economic agenda, and even more slowly as a political agenda, but it has yet to start emerging as a psychological agenda. The few attempts that have been made in that direction are in the domain of culture. It is typical of such attempts to take a sentimental line which offers little more than an evening of nostalgia for the past. Singing and drama are used to evoke the memory of an undivided subcontinent, conveying the message that culturally ‘we' are still one. This approach does perhaps serve some vague purpose and offers business to a handful of artists, but it does little to create a future vision.

That task calls for a bolder, purposive imagination. A key feature of such a vision is to enable a larger collective identity of South Asia to take shape without posing a threat to national identities. Ultimately, the roots of endemic conflict that we see in our region, both at international and sub-national levels, lie in the rigid, aggressive identities to which the unreformed systems of education actively and copiously contribute. No country in the region can be said to form a solid exception to this tendency even though efforts to reform the system of education have been initiated in limited ways in all the countries. A subtly articulated, collective strategy can help at this stage. Such a strategy will gain if the boundaries of SAARC are also revisited, so as to consider including Burma in it. At a point when that country is experiencing an impressive movement towards recognition of the urge for democracy, an educational endeavour aiming at the psychological construction of an inclusive South Asia will form a positive step forward.

(The writer is Professor of Education at Delhi University and a former Director of NCERT.) 

[The above article is also available at: http://www.sacw.net/article2673.html]

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3. MEMORANDUM TO INDIA’S PRIME MINISTER ON THE EVE OF HIS UPCOMING VISIT TO BURMA
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http://www.sacw.net/article2674.html

May 8, 2012 
To

Dr. Manmohan Singh
Hon’ble Prime Minister of India

Respected Prime Minister,

We heartily welcome your proposed landmark visit to Burma from 10-12 May 2012 which is taking place at a time when the country is going through political reforms and not long after the country witnessed the thumping victory of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy in the April 1 Parliamentary by-elections. You are also aware that these political developments are welcomed by other international communities as is evident from the series of visits made by prominent dignitaries from governments around the world including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Prime Minister David Cameron and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

This much-awaited political reform will enhance Burma’s engagement with other countries like EU, US and ASEAN. Thus, at this important turn of events in its immediate strategic neighbour, India should also take an opportunity and play a significant role by strengthening its historical relations and engage with pro-democracy groups led by Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy and other ethnic political parties.

As this landmark visit will strengthen bilateral ties between the two neighboring countries, it is pertinent for India to develop a fresh thinking in this new political scenario in Burma. Alongside its national interest, India must be sincerely committed to strengthen democracy and facilitate the process of national reconciliation in Burma.

We the Civil Society Groups and citizens of India would like to draw your kind attention before your upcoming landmark visit to Burma on the following crucial issues that urgently need your kind intervention and action.

1. The issue of ethnic nationalities remains a serious concern and must be made a priority while engaging with President Thein Sein’s government in order to secure a durable political settlement. India should also press for an end to atrocities targeting ethnic areas particularly in Kachin state, restoration of the civil and democratic rights of the Rohingya, end of atrocities in Arakan and safe repatriation of the Rohingya refugees.

2. The ongoing developmental joint ventures implemented by the two countries for which a standard Environmental Impact Assessment, implementation process such as public consultation should be conducted as envisaged in the project to ensure the desired vision is achieved. Project related documents should also be made public. That these developmental projects should not have undesired effect such as displacement of the communities in both the countries.

3. Construction of Tamanthi Hydroelectric Power Project (THPP) on the Chindwin River in northwest Burma’s Sagaing Division is another serious concern. The water current due to construction of this proposed Dam is estimated to wipe out an area of approximately 1,400 sq km. (the size of Delhi) displacing over 45,000 people living nearby. Over 2,400 villagers have already been forcibly evicted in 2007 from the Dam site, with a mere compensation of US $ 5 (Rs 500 INR).

4. The Kaladan Multi-Modal Project, developed by India in 2008 to improve connectivity between the two countries has raised several concerns in border areas of Burma and India. The project requires an estimated 196.75 hectares of forest land to be cleared. The development along the port and river will displace thousands of people from their homes and livelihood. While an environmental and Social Impact Assessments have not been conducted till date, the project implementation is already way behind its stipulated time frame of 2010. Communities specifically beneficiaries inhabiting border areas in Burma and India have no information about the proposed project.

We strongly urge the Honourable Prime Minister to take these matters into utmost importance while meeting with President Thein Sein.

We urged Hon’ble Prime Minister to ensure democratic process and people’s participation in the development process of the two countries, whereby developing strong ties and strengthening neighbourly relations.

We are confident that the visit of our Honorable Prime Minister to Burma will bring encouraging results and strengthen ties not only in trade and security but also enhance co-operation at the people-to-people level.

Sincerely,

Indian Civil Society Groups

Endorsed by:

1. Burma Centre Delhi
 2. Grassroot Development Network
 3. Zo Indigenous Forum
 4. MANUSHI
 5. Vinish Gupta
 6. Campaign for Peace & Democracy (Manipur)
 7. Arun Khote
 8. Peoples Media Advocacy & Resources Center- PMARC
 9. Dalits Media Watch
 10. Anand Bala – Bangalore
 11. Peoples’ Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR)
 12. Vidya Bhushan Rawat
 13. Journalists’ Forum Assam, Guwahati
 14. CACIM
 15. Dr. Vandana Shiva, Navdanya/Research Foundation for Science Technology & Ecology
 16. Himalayan Peoples Forum
 17. Uttarakhand Parivartan Party (UKPP)
 18. Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, Editor, The Milli Gazette, New Delhi
 19. Mahtab Alam, Civil Rights Activist and Journalist
 20. Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Human rights lawyer and activist, Mumbai
 21. Amar Kanwar
 22. Anjuman Ara Begum, Guwahati
 23. Pradeep Esteves, Context India, Bangalore
 24. Dr. Subash Mohapatra, Journalist
 25. Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF)
 26. Jharkhand Alternative Development Forum
 27. Hiren Gandhi and Saroop Dhruv, DARSHAN, Ahmedabad

Contact:
 Burma Centre Delhi
 Vikaspuri, New Delhi 110018
 Tele: +91 11 45660619
 Email: office at burmacentredelhi.org
 www.burmacentredelhi.org

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4. INDIA’S GOD LAWS FAIL THE TEST OF REASON
by Praveen Swami
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(The Hindu, May 7, 2012)

Police investigation of Sanal Edamaraku for debunking a “miracle” at a church is a crime against the Constitution.

Early in March, little drops of water began to drip from the feet of the statue of Jesus nailed to the cross on the church of Our Lady of Velankanni, down on to Mumbai’s unlovely Irla Road. Hundreds began to flock to the church to collect the holy water in little plastic bottles, hoping the tears of the son of god would sanctify their homes and heal their beloved.

Sanal Edamaruku, the eminent rationalist thinker, arrived at the church a fortnight after the miracle began drawing crowds. It took him less than half an hour to discover the source of the divine tears: a filthy puddle formed by a blocked drain, from where water was being pushed up through a phenomenon all high-school physics students are familiar with, called capillary action.

For his discovery, Mr. Edamaruku now faces the prospect of three years in prison — and the absolute certainty that he will spend several more years hopping between lawyers’ offices and courtrooms. In the wake of Mr. Edamaruku’s miracle-busting Mumbai visit, three police stations in the capital received complaints against him for inciting religious hatred. First information reports were filed, and investigations initiated with exemplary — if unusual — alacrity.

Real courage

Mr. Edamaruku isn’t the kind to be frightened. It takes real courage, in a piety-obsessed society, to expose the chicanery of Satya Sai Baba and packs of lesser miracle-peddlers who prey on the insecurities of the desperate and gullible. These actions have brought threats in their wake — but never from the state.

India’s Constitution obliges all citizens to develop “scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform”. India’s laws, though, are being used to persecute a man who has devoted his life to doing precisely that.

Like dozens of other intellectuals and artists, Mr. Edamaraku is a victim of India’s god laws — colonial-era legislation obliging the state to punish those who offend the faith of others. Section 295 of the Indian Penal Code criminalises the actions of “whoever destroys, damages or defiles any place of worship, or any object held sacred by any class of persons”. Its sibling, Section 295A, outlaws “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class”. Section 153B goes further, proscribing “any act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities”. Alarmingly, given the sweeping generalities in which these laws are written, truth is not an admissible defence.

In the decades since independence, these laws have been regularly used to hound intellectuals and artists who questioned religious beliefs. In 1993, the New Delhi-based progressive cultural organisation, Sahmat, organised an exhibition demonstrating that there were multiple versions of the Ramayana in Indian culture. Panels in the exhibition recorded that in one Buddhist tradition, Sita was Ram’s sister; in a Jain version, she was the daughter of Ravan. Even though the exhibits drew on historian Romila Thapar’s authoritative work, criminal cases were filed against Sahmat for offending the sentiments of traditionalist Hindus.

Punjab has seen a rash of god-related cases, mainly involving Dalit-led heterodoxies challenging the high traditions of the Akal Takht. In 2007, police filed cases against Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the head of the syncretic Saccha Sauda sect, for his purportedly blasphemous use of Sikh iconography. Earlier, in 2001, similar charges were brought against Piara Singh Bhaniarawala, after he released the Bhavsagar Granth, a religious text suffused with miracle stories.

Islamic chauvinists have shown the same enthusiasm for the secular state’s god laws as their Sikh and Hindu counterparts. Earlier this year, FIRs were filed against four writers who read out passages from Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses — a book that is wholly legal in India. Fear of Islamic neo-fundamentalists is pervasive, shaping cultural discourse even when its outcomes are not as dramatic as Mr. Rushdie’s case. In 1995, writer Khalid Alvi reissued Angaarey — a path-breaking collection of Urdu short works banned in 1933 for its attacks on god. The collection’s most-incendiary passages were censored out. India’s feisty media didn’t even murmur in protest after the magazine India Today was proscribed by Jammu and Kashmir in 2006 for carrying a cartoon with an image of the Kaaba as one among a metaphorical pack of political cards.

Even religious belief, ironically enough, can invite prosecution by the pious. Last year, the Kannada movie actress, Jayamala, was summoned before a Kerala court, along with astrologer P. Unnikrishna and his assistant Reghupathy, to face police charges that she had violated a taboo against women in the menstruating age from entering the Sabrimala temple.

For the most part, judges have shied away from condoning criticism of the pious, perhaps fearful of being held responsible for public disorder. In 1958, the Supreme Court heard litigation that grew out of the radical politician, E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker’s decision to break a clay idol of Ganesha. Lower courts had held, in essence, that the idol was not a sanctified object. The Supreme Court differed, urging the lower judiciary “to pay due regard to the feelings and religious emotions of different classes of persons with different beliefs, irrespective … of whether they are rational or otherwise”.

‘Insult to religion’

Earlier, in 1957, the Supreme Court placed some limits on 295A saying it “does not penalise any and every act of insult to or attempt to insult the religion”. Instead, it “only punishes the aggravated form of insult to religion perpetrated with deliberate and malicious intention” (emphasis added). The court shied away, though, from the key question, of what an insult to religion actually was.

Hearing an appeal against the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to confiscate Naicker’s contentious Ramayana, the Supreme Court again ducked this issue. In 1976, it simply said “the law fixes the mind of the Administration to the obligation to reflect on the need to restrict and to state the grounds which ignite its action”. “That is about all”, the judges concluded.

That hasn’t, however, been all. In 1998, the Supreme Court upheld Karnataka’s decision to ban P.V. Narayanna’s Dharmakaarana, an award-winning re-reading of the Hindu saint, Basaveshwara. In 2007, the Bombay High Court similarly allowed Maharashtra to ban R.L. Bhasin’s Islam, an aggressive attack on the faith. There have been several other similar cases. In some, the works involved were scurrilous, even inflammatory — but the principles established by courts have allowed State governments to stamp out critical works of scholarship and art.

Dangers ahead

Indians have grappled with these issues since at least 1924, when Arya Samaj activist Mahashe Rajpal published the pamphlet that led the state to enact several of the god laws. Rangila Rasul — in Urdu, ‘the colourful prophet’ —was a frank, anti-Islam polemic. Lower courts condemned Rajpal to prison. In the Lahore High Court, though, Justice Dalip Singh argued that public outrage could not be the basis for legal proscription: “if the fact that Musalmans resent attacks on the Prophet was to be the measure [of legal sanction]”, he reasoned, “then an historical work in which the life of the prophet was considered and judgment passed on his character by a serious historian might [also] come within the definition”.

In 1927, when pre-independence India’s central legislative assembly debated the Rangila Rasul affair, some endorsed Justice Singh’s message. M.R. Jayakar likened religious fanaticism to a form of mental illness, and suggested that those who suffer from it be segregated “from the rest of the community”. This eminently sane suggestion wasn’t, however, the consensus: the god laws were expanded to expressly punish works like Rangila Rasul.

Perhaps Indians can congratulate themselves that the god laws have not been used to persecute and kill religious dissenters, as the ever-expanding blasphemy laws which sprang up in Pakistan. Mr. Edamaruku’s case ought to make clear, though, just where things are inexorably headed. If Indians wish to avoid the fate of the dystopia to the country’s west, its citizens desperately need to accept the right of critics to attack, even insult, what they hold dear.

In 864 CE, the great physician, Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakaria al-Razi, wrote: “The miracles of the prophets are imposters or belong to the domain of pious legend. The teachings of religions are contrary to the one truth: the proof of this is that they contradict one another. It is tradition and lazy custom that have led men to trust their religious leaders. Religions are the sole cause of the wars which ravage humanity; they are hostile to philosophical speculation and to scientific research. The alleged holy scriptures are books without values”.

Following a rich scholarly life, and a tenure as director of the hospital in Baghdad patronised by the caliph Abu al-Qasim Abd ’Allah, al-Razi died quietly at his home in Rey, surrounded by his students. In modern India, his thoughts would have led him to a somewhat less pleasant end.

[The above article is also available at: http://www.sacw.net/article2668.html ]

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5. INDIA : ‘WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS’: EMOTIONAL WARS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF DIFFERENCE
by Nandini Sundar
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Third World Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2012, pp 701–717

ABSTRACT	Exploring an ongoing civil war between Maoist guerrillas and the Indian government, this article looks at how emotions are mobilised, conscripted and engendered by both sides. The focus is, however, on the state’s performance of emotion, including outrage, hurt and fear-inducing domination, as part of its battle for legitimacy. Intrinsic to this is the privileging of certain kinds of emotions—fear, anger, grief—and the emotions of certain kinds of people over others. Subject populations are distinguished from citizens by the differential public acknowledgement of their emotional claims.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2012.657428

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6. INDIA: RECENT CONTENT FROM COMMUNALISM WATCH
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Pilgrims’ progress - Indian Express, Editorial on court ruling against Haj Subsidy 
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/05/pilgrims-progress-indian-express.html

Tommaso Bobbio on Making Gujarat Vibrant: Hindutva, development and the rise of subnationalism in India
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/05/on-hindutva-development-and-rise-of.html

VHP, Bajrang Dal men purify Osmania University campus
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/05/vhp-bajrang-dal-men-purify-osmania.html

Hindutva's 'Ram dhun' campaign to sabotage Muslims buying real estate in Hindu dominated areas
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/05/hindutvas-ram-dhun-campaign-to-sabotage.html

Tripti Lahiri on India's Battle Over Beef
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/05/tripti-lahiri-on-indias-battle-over.html

Uttarakhand BJP MLA booked for inciting communal violence
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/05/uttarakhand-bjp-mla-booked-for-inciting.html

The dreadful afternoon of March 1, 2002
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/05/dreadful-afternoon-of-march-1-2002.html

Full Text of Amicus Curiae Raju Ramachandran's report on the 2002 Gujarat riots
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/05/full-text-of-amicus-curiae-raju.html
	
MP: Christian Names Deleted From The Voter List 
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/05/mp-christian-names-deleted-from-voter.html

The World Before Her: A documentary by Nisha Pahuj 
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/05/world-before-her-documentary-by-nisha.html
	
India: Kashmir cleric asks govt to declare Ahmadis 
http://communalism.blogspot.in/2012/05/india-kashmir-cleric-asks-govt-to.html

=======================================
7. BOOKS OF NOTE
=======================================
(i) Penguin Books India

CHURNING THE EARTH: THE MAKING OF GLOBAL INDIA

by Aseem Shrivastava and Ashish Kothari

"The world stands so dazzled by India’s meteoric economic rise that we hesitate to acknowledge its consequences to the people and the environment. In Churning the Earth, Aseem Shrivastava and Ashish Kothari engage in a timely enquiry of this impressive growth story. They present incontrovertible evidence on how the nature of this recent growth has been predatory and question its sustainability. Unfettered development has damaged the ecological basis that makes life possible for hundreds of millions resulting in conflicts over water, land and natural resources, and increasing the chasm between the rich and the poor, threatening the future of India as a civilization. Rich with data and stories, this eye-opening critique of India’s development strategy argues for a radical ecological democracy based on the principles of environmental sustainability, social equity and livelihood security. Shrivastava and Kothari urge a fundamental shift towards such alternatives—already emerging from a range of grassroots movements—if we are to forestall the descent into socio-ecological chaos. Churning the Earth is unique in presenting not only what is going wrong in India, but also the ways out of the crises that globalised growth has precipitated. 

‘A majestic work on society’s future’
Ashis Nandy

‘Cuts through the hype to tell you what is going on’
Amitav Ghosh

http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/en/content/churning-earth

o o o

(ii) THE PEACEMAKERS: INDIA AND THE QUEST FOR ONE WORLD
by: Manu Bhagavan
published by HarperCollins India, 2012
http://manubhagavan.wordpress.com
http://facebook.com/HistorianManuBhagavan
http://www.harpercollins.co.in/BookDetail.asp?Book_Code=3179

Explore the extraordinary passion with which a remarkable group of men and women dared to dream of ‘One World’!

‘A compelling challenge to sterile consensus about the kind of ideas that guide India’s world view’—C. Raja Mohan

•       Uncovers India's original grand strategy in foreign relations
•       Changes our thinking about Gandhi and Nehru
•       Dramatically alters India's role in the Cold War
•       Speaks to current world events, from Libya and Syria and the Arab Spring,
to climate change and global health pandemics

The Peacemakers: India and the Quest for One World is the gripping story of India’s effort to create a common destiny for all people across the globe based on the concept of human rights. In the years leading up to its independence from Great Britain, and more than a decade after, in a world torn asunder by unchecked colonial expansions and two world wars, Jawaharlal Nehru had a radical vision: bridging the ideological differences of the East and the West, healing the growing rift between capitalist and communist, and creating ‘One World’ that would be free of empire, exploitation and war.

Madame Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Nehru’s sister, would lead the fight in and through the United Nations to turn all this into a reality. An electric orator and outstanding diplomat, she travelled across continents speaking in the voice of the oppressed and garnering support for her cause. The aim was to lay the foundation for global governance that would check uncontrolled state power, address the question of minorities and migrant peoples, and put an end to endemic poverty. Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy would go global. All that stood between the Indians and success was their own fallibility, diplomatic intrigue, and the blinding haze of mistrust and fear engendered by the Cold War.

As Manu Bhagavan recounts the story of this quest, iconic figures are seen through new eyes as they challenge all of us to imagine a better future. Based on seven years of research, across three continents, and written in a crisp and riveting style, this is the first truly international history of newly independent India.

‘The book combines dramatic flair with rigorous and path-breaking scholarship. It is a must read for anyone interested in India’s role in global affairs’—Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President and Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

‘In this vividly written page-turner, Manu Bhagavan recovers a moment of extraordinary possibilities … [and] renews the study of how human rights norms were put on paper, with great consequences for their revival today’—Samuel Moyn, Author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History

‘[A] book that should be required reading for all who care about the potential of India to advance human rights and international justice’—Jonathan Fanton, Emeritus Chair of the Board of Human Rights Watch and President Emeritus of the MacArthur Foundation

‘Brilliantly researched and vividly written, Manu Bhagavan’s study of India’s role in the ongoing quest for human rights is a life-enhancing book urgently needed now … As we contemplate this moment of violent insanity on every continent, alternative paths toward peace in a world united for justice are herein profoundly illuminated’—Blanche Wiesen Cook, Author of Eleanor Roosevelt, vols 1–3

Manu Bhagavan is a historian and the author or (co-) editor of 5 books, most recently THE PEACEMAKERS: INDIA AND THE QUEST FOR ONE WORLD (HarperCollins India, 2012). He teaches at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, The City University of New York, where he is an Associate Professor. Manu has been a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies and President of the Society for Advancing the History of South Asia. He lives in New York with his wife and daughter.


THE PEACEMAKERS: INDIA AND THE QUEST FOR ONE WORLD
By:     Manu Bhagavan
ISBN:   9789350292273
Cover Price:     Rs. 499.00
Format: Demy Hard Back
Extent:  256  pages
Category:       Non-fiction
On Sale:         February 2012

http://manubhagavan.wordpress.com
http://facebook.com/HistorianManuBhagavan
http://www.harpercollins.co.in/BookDetail.asp?Book_Code=3179


INTERNATIONAL
=======================================
8. WILL SECULARISTS BE GIVEN RECOGNITION AND RIGHTS IN LEBANON?
=======================================
(guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 May 2012)

Activists are marching again today for citizenship and law changes on domestic violence, rape and censorship

by Nay El Rahi

In Lebanon, marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance and citizenship are all governed by membership of religious groups. Photograph: Ramzi Haidar/AFP/Getty

You don't become a Lebanese citizen by being born in Lebanon. Nor is having a Lebanese mother enough – or even living in the country for your whole life. In fact, you're only recognised as a Lebanese citizen if you belong to one of the country's 18 legally recognised religious groups. Without belonging to one, you can't get married or divorced, or resolve child custody or inheritance issues.

Back in 2010, a group of Lebanese friends who wished, they said on the group's Facebook page, to "live in dignity and equality with other co-citizens", decided they had had enough. They called on fellow secularists from across the country to take to the streets, to "make their voices heard and put faces behind demands", say the organisers on Facebook, but most important to celebrate secularism with joy, music and colours bright enough for everyone to notice.

Thus was created Lebanese Laique Pride, a movement that sought to gather the different shades of Lebanon's secular fabric. The 2010 march marked the start of a campaign for a secular civil state founded on citizenship, that guarantees the expression of the country's diversity and secures social justice. Their demands included a unified civil personal status law, a non-confessional electoral law and the abolition of institutional sectarianism.

On Sunday secular Lebanese will take to the streets for the third consecutive year, marching from Hamra, a main street in Beirut, to Ain el Mraisse for a rally by the sea where they will discuss the changes they want to see. "It will be an open citizen space dedicated to the practice of free speech, fearless listening, nonviolence, mutual respect and tolerance," says Yalda Younes, one of the organisers.

"Confessionalism" – a power-sharing measure that distributes government appointments among different religious groups and allows communities to be governed by their own religious laws – runs deep in Lebanon's history. When the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 delineated the borders of what is now called the Lebanese Republic (mostly without the will of its citizens), it distributed power equally among the different confessional groups, planting the seeds of modern-day Lebanon: a constitutional republic with 18 legally recognised groups, an elected and (supposedly) representative parliament and government, and an independent judiciary.

Decades later, when Lebanon gained independence in 1943, confessionalism endured, remaining the basic principle of Lebanese life. In practice, it means the president has always been and always will be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim. This also means that seats in parliament are apportioned between Christians and Muslims, and civil service posts follow similar sectarian formulas.

But it also means chronic instability, flagrant inequalities, and a weak, corrupt and dysfunctional central government continuously failing to provide basic services and security to citizens – and incessantly failing to assert sovereignty over its own territories. Yet, furtive attempts to abolish political sectarianism by leftist and secular political parties and activists in the 1950s and 1960s have fallen on deaf ears.

So has the explicit call in the Taif agreement (which brought an end to Lebanon's 15-year civil war in 1989) to "abolish the sectarian representation base and rely on capability and specialisation in public jobs". But while most political parties in the country have acknowledged the benefits of a merit-based system of governance, none has proposed a workable alternative system.

The Laique Pride activists, on the other hand, know exactly what they want: first and foremost, a unified civil personal status law. This year's march is also demanding stronger protection of women from domestic violence, the abolition of article 522 of the penal code (which exempts rapists from punishment if they marry their victims), amendment of the nationality law to grant Lebanese women the right to pass their nationality to children and spouses, the enactment of the draft law against prior censorship on cinema and theatre, and withdrawal of the draft law regulating cyberspace, the Lebanese internet regulation act proposed by the information ministry.

It remains to be seen if the movement will become Lebanon's new hope for a better tomorrow. Yalda Younes, for instance, would be satisfied to have her children and grandchildren say, 20 or 30 years from now, that "there were secularists who demonstrated in Lebanon every year … that they were there, every single year, nothing stopped them". Resistance is mostly needed when it's dark, she says, and that's why she's marching.


=======================================
9. THE LONG VIEW: MIGRANT WORKERS FROM THE SUBCONTINENT OFTEN LIVE EIGHT TO A ROOM IN SLUMS – EVEN IN OIL-RICH KUWAIT
by Robert Fisk
=======================================
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-arab-spring-has-washed-the-regions-appalling-racism-out-of-the-news-7718707.html
Robert Fisk: Arab Spring has washed the region's appalling racism out of the news
The Long View: Migrant workers from the subcontinent often live eight to a room in slums – even in oil-rich Kuwait

Monday 07 May 2012

How many tracts, books, documentaries, speeches and doctoral theses have been written and produced about Islamophobia? How many denunciations have been made against the Sarkozys and the Le Pens and the Wilders for their anti-immigration (for which, read largely anti-Muslim) policies or – let us go down far darker paths – against the plague of Breivik-style racism?

The problem with all this is that Muslim societies – or shall we whittle this down to Middle Eastern societies? – are allowed to appear squeaky-clean in the face of such trash, and innocent of any racism themselves.

A health warning, therefore, to all Arab readers of this column: you may not like this week's rant from yours truly. Because I fear very much that the video of Alem Dechasa's recent torment in Beirut is all too typical of the treatment meted out to foreign domestic workers across the Arab world (there are 200,000 in Lebanon alone).

Many hundreds of thousands have now seen the footage of 33-year-old Ms Dechasa being abused and humiliated and pushed into a taxi by Ali Mahfouz, the Lebanese agent who brought her to Lebanon as a domestic worker. Ms Dechasa was transported to hospital where she was placed in the psychiatric wing and where, on 14 March, she hanged herself. She was a mother of two and could not stand the thought of being deported back to her native Ethiopia. That may not have been the only reason for her mental agony.

Lebanese women protested in the centre of Beirut, the UN protested, everyone protested. Ali Mahfouz has been formally accused of contributing to her death. But that's it.

The Syrian revolt, the Bahraini revolution, the Arab Awakening, have simply washed Alem Dechasa's tragedy out of the news. How many readers know – for example – that not long before Ms Dechasa's death, a Bengali domestic worker was raped by a policeman guarding her at a courthouse in the south Lebanese town of Nabatieh, after she had been caught fleeing an allegedly abusive employer?

As the Lebanese journalist Anne-Marie El-Hage has eloquently written, Ms Dechasa belonged to "those who submit in silence to the injustice of a Lebanese system that ignores their human rights, a system which literally closes its eyes to conditions of hiring and work often close to slavery". All too true.

How well I recall the Sri Lankan girl who turned up in Commodore Street at the height of the Israeli siege and shelling of West Beirut in 1982, pleading for help and protection. Like tens of thousands of other domestic workers from the sub-continent, her passport had been taken from her the moment she began her work as a domestic "slave" in the city; and her employers had then fled abroad to safety – taking the girl's passport with them so she could not leave herself. She was rescued by a hotel proprietor when he discovered that local taxi drivers were offering her a "bed" in their vehicles in return for sex.

Everyone who lives in Lebanon or Jordan or Egypt or Syria, for that matter, or – especially – the Gulf, is well aware of this outrage, albeit cloaked in a pious silence by the politicians and prelates and businessmen of these societies.

In Cairo, I once remarked to the Egyptian hosts at a dinner on the awful scars on the face of the young woman serving food to us. I was ostracised for the rest of the meal and – thankfully – never invited again.

Arab societies are dependent on servants. Twenty-five per cent of Lebanese families have a live-in migrant worker, according to Professor Ray Jureidini of the Lebanese American University in Beirut. They are essential not only for the social lives of their employers (housework and caring for children) but for the broader Lebanese economy.

Yet in the Arab Gulf, the treatment of migrant labour – male as well as female – has long been a scandal. Men from the subcontinent often live eight to a room in slums – even in the billionaires' paradise of Kuwait – and are consistently harassed, treated as third-class citizens, and arrested on the meanest of charges.

Saudi Arabia long ago fell into the habit of chopping off the heads of migrant workers who were accused of assault or murder or drug-running, after trials that bore no relation to international justice. In 1993, for example, a Christian Filipino woman accused of killing her employer and his family was dragged into a public square in Dammam and forced to kneel on the ground where her executioner pulled her scarf from her head before decapitating her with a sword.

Then there was 19-year old Sithi Farouq, a Sri Lankan housemaid accused of killing her employer's four-year-old daughter in 1994. She claimed her employer's aunt had accidentally killed the girl. On 13 April, 1995, she was led from her prison cell in the United Arab Emirates to stand in a courtyard in a white abaya gown, crying uncontrollably, before a nine-man firing squad which shot her down. It was her 20th birthday. God's mercy, enshrined in the first words of the Koran, could not be extended to her, it seems, in her hour of need.

o o o 
[SEE ALSO]

THE DARK SIDE OF DUBAI
Dubai was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging. Johann Hari reports

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

o o o 

London Review of Books, Vol. 34 No. 9 · 10 May 2012
pages 13-14 | 2531 words

THE RUMOUR MACHINE: WANG HUI ON THE DISMISSAL OF BO XILAI

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n09/-wanghui/the-rumour-machine

=======================================
10. ANNOUNCEMENTS:  
=======================================
(I) INVITATION FOR A PUBLIC MEETING ON THE 14TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE POKHARAN NUCLEAR TESTS (NEW DELHI, 11 MAY 2012)

Dear Friends,

The Pokharan-II nuclear tests of 1998 remain a black mark on our democracy and traditions of peace and independent foreign policy. The vulgar jingoism associated with nuclear weaponisation is a dangerous form of right-wing militarism and chauvinism.  India’s nuclearisation is a setback to the cause of global nuclear disarmament and will impede India from playing an active role in promoting the total elimination of nuclear weapons from the world.

Millions of non-combatant civilians in India and Pakistan have become vulnerable to attacks by fast-flying missiles carrying nuclear warheads, against which there is no defence. Nuclearisation has further destabilised South Asia and ignited a nuclear and missile arms race in the region. The recent long-range nuclear-capable missile test by India, followed by Pakistan in the same week, is yet another sign of this.

Growing political instability, and deeper penetration and increasing militancy of right-wing forces in our societies, enlarge the risks of accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons in our region. A recent international report on nuclear modernization has also highlighted increased nuclear risks in South Asia.
The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) is holding a seminar on the 14th anniversary of the Pokharan-II nuclear tests, on May 11, 2012, at the Indian Social Institute (Lodhi Road, New Delhi) starting 5.30 pm.

The speakers are:

Mani Shankar Aiyar, Member of Parliament, Head, Advisory Group on Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan for a nuclear-free world order
Nilotpal Basu, Member, Central Secretariat, CPI(M)
Amarjeet Kaur, National Secretary, CPI
Praful Bidwai, Columnist and Nuclear Affairs Analysts
Achin Vanaik, Political Scientist and Peace Activist

We hope you will be able to attend and we look forward to meeting with you at the seminar.

With best regards,
Achin Vanaik,
Anil Chaudhary
P K Sundaram (9810556134)

Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP)
A 124/6 Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi-16
Telefax: 011-26517814
Web : www.cndpindia.org

----------

(ii) UPCOMING EVENTS AT STUDIO SAFDAR AND MAY DAY BOOKSTORE AND CAFÉ 

Saturday 12th, 6.00 p.m. ‘Meetings in Music’, performance by Moushumi Bhowmik (vocals; Kolkata), Satyaki Banerjee (vocals, dotara, oud; Kolkata), Rosalind Acton (cello; London), members of the larger Anglo Bengali band Parapar, www.parapar.co.uk. The repertoire in this event will include Moushumi’s own compositions in Bangla, other forms of Bengali art and folk music, cello solos by Rosalind, and Satyaki’s repertoire of the mystical poetry of Bengal and beyond. Approx. 70 mins.

Sunday 13th, 6.00 p.m. Ek Mulaqat Manto Se, a one-actor piece conceived and performed by Ashwath Bhatt, on the occasion of Saadat Hasan Manto’s birth centenary. A Theatre Garage production. 70 mins. Closed door.*

Middle of the Month at May Day. The third weekend of every month, and the Thursday-Friday preceding it. The bookstore will offer special discounts on all books during these 4 days.
Thursday 17th, 6.00 p.m. Screening of Mera Apna Sheher (‘My Own City’) by Sameera Jain. The film explores whether there is a sense of belonging, of ownership of the city. Can a woman in the city, as she continuously negotiates the polarities of anxiety and comfort – be free? English subtitles; approx. 70 mins. Filmmaker will be present for discussion. Presented by the Magic Lantern Foundation.
Friday 18th, 6.30 p.m. Poetry for Palestine. Ujle Safed Kabootar: Kuchh Nazmein Philisteen ke Naam, read by Janam actors, accompanied by a visual essay by Sherna Dastur. 45 mins. 
Saturday 19th, 4 p.m. ‘Women at Work’. A series of conversations with women workers, conceived and conducted by Albeena Shakil. In the opening conversation in this series, Albeena will speak with Sonia Verma (b. 1955) who worked as a child domestic help; as an agricultural worker; and in her school canteen; all along supporting her schooling. Subsequently, she worked as a nursery school teacher; domestic help; worker in a hosiery factory; home-based worker stitching clothes; as a hand-pump mechanic; in the Saksharta Mission; as a milk delivery person; and doing picot and interlocking of clothes. A resident of Kusumpur Pahadi, Sonia joined the Janwadi Mahila Samiti in 1990, and is currently its Delhi State President.  
Sunday 20th, 9.30 a.m.-12 noon. Breakfast at May Day. Buffet with an eat-all-you-can menu. Limited seats. Advance booking recommended. Email cafemayday at gmail.com.
Sunday 20th, 12 noon. ‘Coffee’s Many Pasts’: Mukul Mangalik in conversation with K.K. Mukherjee, Assistant Secretary of the Coffee Board of India. The conversation will explore the social relations and struggles that have shaped the long history of coffee, and in particular the struggle of coffee board workers, under the leadership of A.K. Gopalan, to take over and run the Coffee Houses as cooperatives.

Thursday 31st, 6.30 p.m. Govind Deshpande’s Satyashodhak, produced and acted by the Pune Safai Karmacharis’ Union, directed by Atul Pethe. This is a landmark production, and has created waves in Maharashtra. 90 mins, followed by 30 mins discussion with the cast and director. Closed door.

* ‘Closed door’ means you cannot enter after the event begins, unless there is a break. We give a grace time of precisely 15 mins after the scheduled time. In any case, both Studio Safdar and May Day are small spaces with limited seating, so best to arrive early.
None of the events are ticketed. We are unable to pay anything to the artists who enrich our lives, unless you contribute. We’ll spread the chadar at the end of the performance. These contributions will be shared 50:50 with the artists.
Studio Safdar has been made possible by hundreds of voluntary donations from across the country and beyond. Please consider making a donation that will help us equip and maintain the space better.
And if you can’t make it for any of these events, do still drop in for books and coffee. The bookstore opens Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. — but note that the café will begin serving only at 3.

Studio Safdar and May Day Bookstore and Café 
2254/2A Shadi Khampur, New Ranjit Nagar, New Delhi 110008
For directions, mail cafemayday at gmail.com or studiosafdar at gmail.com, or call (only on event days) 011 2570 9456.

(iii) Penguin Books India and India Habitat Centre

cordially invite you to the book release and discussion on Churning the Earth by Aseem Shrivastava and Ashish Kothari

on Saturday 19 May, 2012 at 7.00 p.m.
at Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre
(Entry from Gate No. 3), Lodhi Road, New Delhi

The panel comprises of Ashis Nandy, Amita Baviskar and Ramaswamy Iyer

RSVP: Priyanka Sharma 011 4613 1413

(IV) CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2012 MEETO MEMORIAL AWARD
ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) and Sangat, a South Asian feminist network, are now inviting nominations for the Meeto Memorial Award for the year 2012.

The Award comprises of Indian Rupees one lakh, a citation and a memento. If more than one person is selected, the money will be shared. The recipients will be invited to present their work at the award ceremony. The Award will be announced in October every year. The recipients of the Award will be chosen by a selection committee whose decision will be final.

To be eligible, nominees must be:

* Under the age of 40
* Citizens of a South Asian country (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka)
* Working on issues of communal harmony, peace, justice and/or human rights, broadly conceived; the nominee may be working anywhere in the world, but the focus of the work should be on South Asia as defined above
* Working in any capacity in the field of activism, advocacy, academia, and journalism, and in any medium such as writing, art, dance, music, film, and theatre.

Individuals can nominate themselves or other eligible people.

Nominations must be sent in writing, and accompanied by a detailed CV of the nominated person, a note on reasons for nomination and a duly filled form 
Nominations must be received before 30 June 2012 and should be sent to:

Email : contact at meetomemorialaward.org

or be posted at
Meeto Memorial Award Secretariat
C/o ANHAD
23, Caning Lane, New Delhi 110001 (India)

For more information see: http://meetomemorialaward.org/article33.html

(v)  2012 ASIA DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

Each year, the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award is awarded to one individual or organization that has made significant contributions to the advancement of democracy or human rights in Asia through peaceful means. As the first national democracy assistance foundation in Asia, the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy is committed to supporting courageous individuals and groups who build democracy, stand up for justice and defend human rights, especially those in our home region.

The Award consists of a sculpture and a US$100,000 grant from the TFD to support the ongoing work of the laureate, to be presented at an official ceremony in Taipei on December 10th, International Human Rights Day.

Nominations are open to the public from April 1st, and TFD Chairman Wang Jin-pyng invites you to send us your nomination for the 2012 Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award.

To submit a nomination, please download [http://www.tfd.org.tw/docs/ADHRA%202012%20nomination%20form.doc] the official 2012 ADHRA Nomination Form and refer to the enclosed instructions. All nomination materials are due no later than June 30, 2012.

For more information, please contact the TFD at award at tfd.org.tw or +886-2-2708-0100 ext. 218.


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South Asia Citizens Wire
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. Newsletter of South Asia Citizens Web: 
www.sacw.net/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
=====================================