SACW - 29 April 2015 | Nepal: Earthquake exodus / Bangladesh: freedom of expression / Pakistan: Rise for Sabeen Mahmud / Sri Lanka: win the peace / India: Do we need a communist party? / Ann Oakley's Book Father and Daughter / Liberation of Europe during WW2

Tue Apr 28 20:30:58 EDT 2015

South Asia Citizens Wire - 29 April 2015 - No. 2855 
[since 1996]
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[This issue of SACW is dedicated to the memory of Sabeen Mahmud, Daya Varma and Chris Bayly who passed away recently; all of them were longstanding readers and friends of the sacw dispatches]

Contents:
1. Nepal: Earthquake exodus
2. Pakistan: Murdered on the streets of Karachi: my friend who dared to believe in free speech | Kamila Shamsie
3. Pakistan: “I stand up for what I believe in, but I can't fight guns” - Sabeen Mahmud interview by Karima Bennoune
4. Pakistan: Crushing voices of dissent | Manan Ahmed Asif
5. South Asians for Human Rights Statement on the Killing of Sabeen Mahmud 
6. #Rise4Sabeen: Keep the dialogue going | Beena Sarwar
7. Video Tribute to Sabeen Mahmud
8. Pakistan #Intellecticide: Vigils for Sabeen – who was she and why did she die? | Beena Sarwar
9. Sri Lanka: Statement on the continued harassment of Ms. Sharmila Seyyid and her family
10. Sri Lanka: Start talking of demilitarisation, To win the peace | Nirupama Subramanian
11. India: Reimagining Strategy, Returning To Grassroots: Challenges before Yechury | Praful Bidwai
12. Do we need a communist party? / Colour of the mice to catch | Jawed Naqvi
13. The parochial Indian | Nissim Mannathukkaren
14. India: Yakub Menon – A Question of Life and Death - Statement by PUDR
15. Video Recordings from the Nov. 2013 Conference on “Abolishing Nuclear Weapons: Relevance for South Asia and the World” (CNDP and ICAN)
16. India: When a great city dies | Tasneem Zakaria Mehta
17. India: Why PM hates some NGOs | Bharat Bhushan
18. C.A. Bayly, 1945-2015 - a tribute by Mukul Kesavan
19. Charlie Hebdo Deserves the PEN Honour and Why the Critics are Wrong | Karthick Ram Manoharan
20. Recent On Communalism Watch:
 - India: Anti-Hindu accusation false propaganda: Goa convent schools
 - India: RSS launches Rashtriya Vichar Abhiyan a new ideological campaign
 - India: Strategy to Quash Dissent (Editorial, EPW, April 25, 2015)
 - Bangladesh’s secularist tradition is being subverted by Salafism
 - India: Before Delhi gang-rape, Graham Staines murder case had changed the course of India’s juvenile justice
 - For all the Shah Banos (Tahir Mahmood)
 - VHP leader links Nepal earthquake to ‘beef eating’
 - Salman Rushdie on Charlie Hebdo: freedom of speech can only be absolute
 - India: Population by religion in Times to come (Ram Puniyani)
 - Nepali earthquake April 2015: Senior RSS office bearer, Hosabele, to coordinating with Nepal RSS
 - India: As BJP completes a year at the Centre, RSS grows exponentially
 - India: The RSS won’t be able to internalize Ambedkar - Raosaheb Kasbe
 - India: VHP fences ancient site in Kaithal, Congress protests
 - India in the grip of Hindutva Madness (Deepa Philip / Tehelka, 25 april 2015)
 - The frightening corporate/Christian alliance that invented “In God We Trust” and “One Nation Under God”
 - UK: Tower Hamlets - how a dictatorship flourished in the East End (Nick Cohen)
 - RSS outfit sewa Bharti appeals for Quake aid in Nepal
 - Bangladesh’s Good Fight Against Islamism (Sadanand Dhume, April 22, 2015 WSJ)
 - A PIL in the Supreme Court asking for the renaming of India to Bharat raises questions about the idea of India
 - India: Zakir Naik, Radical Islamist Video Evangelist
 - The U.S. Muslim Honor Brigade Strikes Again | Asra Q. Nomani

::: FULL TEXT :::
21. Pakistan: Another voice silenced | Editorial, DAWN
22. Pakistan: Fallen hero, Editorial, The Express Tribune
23. Bangladesh: Where 'blogger' has become a word worthy of death | Mahmud Rahman 
24. Book Review: Father and Daughter: Patriarchy, gender and social science by Ann Oakley
25. John Berger: ‘Writing is an off-shoot of something deeper’
26. Perverted history: Europeans think US army liberated continent during WW2 
27. Appeal Of The Initiative Group For Democracy And Internationalism In Ukraine

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1. NEPAL: EARTHQUAKE EXODUS
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(Nepali Times - 28 April 2015)

Thousands of people are leaving Kathmandu Valley in the aftermath of a powerful earthquake that struck central Nepal on Saturday.

Apart from the damage caused by Saturday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake and a series of aftershocks: fear of a disease outbreak is also driving thousands of people out of the devastated valley.

In Kalanki, hundreds of people, carrying bags stuffed with clothes, are seen waiting for buses to reach their homes. They are getting on any vehicles they can find, paying double the actual price.

Sita Pokhrel, 35, was waiting for a bus to reach Trishuli of Nuwakot district on Tuesday, carrying a newborn baby on her back. “I am ready to pay more but there is no bus to go home,” she said.

By 11 o’clock Tuesday, Sita had already spent two hours but she was still struggling to catch a ride. “A couple of micro buses left for Trishuli,” she said. “But I could not get on because they were overcrowded.”

Many transport entrepreneurs have not resumed their services, making it easy for a few others to fleece the panicked people. Kalanki area looked chaotic with people struggling to get on any vehicle they would get on.

Dhiraj Aryal, a teacher working in Kirtipur, also left Kathmandu on Tuesday. He said, “More than fear of aftershocks, it is the fear of outbreak that I am worried about.”

According to Baburam Marasini, Director of Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD), no outbreak has been reported so far in the valley but its possibility cannot be ruled out.

“Water-borne disease could spread in situations like this,” he said. “So, I would request everyone to drink safe water. If there is no safe water, boiling water before drinking is advisable.”

The death toll from the earthquake has reached 4,347 by Tuesday morning. Authorities say the death toll could go up as rescue workers continue to dig out bodies from under the debris of collapsed houses.

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2. PAKISTAN: MURDERED ON THE STREETS OF KARACHI: MY FRIEND WHO DARED TO BELIEVE IN FREE SPEECH | Kamila Shamsie
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Sabeen Mahmud singlehandedly created a counter-cultural haven for artists, writers and thinkers in her home city. And she paid for it with her life. Those of us left behind can only ask why
http://sacw.net/article11133.html

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3. PAKISTAN: “I STAND UP FOR WHAT I BELIEVE IN, BUT I CAN'T FIGHT GUNS” - Sabeen Mahmud interview by Karima Bennoune
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Sabeen Mahmud alleviated intellectual poverty until the day she was murdered, 24 April 2015. In an interview with Karima Bennoune in 2010 Mahmud explained why she founded a politico-cultural space in Karachi.
Sabeen Mahmud, founder of the NGO Peace Niche and director of Karachi's cultural institution, T2F, was assassinated on Friday night while leaving the centre with her mother, who was also gravely injured in the attack. T2F had just hosted an event about human rights in Balochistan, and Sabeen had reportedly been receiving threats.
http://sacw.net/article11117.html

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4. PAKISTAN: CRUSHING VOICES OF DISSENT | Manan Ahmed Asif
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Activist Sabeen Mahmud's assassination in Pakistan proves that the state sees in intellectuals a threat to its unitary vision of nationalism.
http://sacw.net/article11131.html

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5. SOUTH ASIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS STATEMENT ON THE KILLING OF SABEEN MAHMUD 
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South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) a regional human rights organization strongly condemns the killing of Sabeen Mahmud a Pakistani human rights activist and Director of T2F and Peace Niche and calls out to the government of Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure those responsible are brought to justice.
http://www.sacw.net/article11137.html

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6. #RISE4SABEEN: KEEP THE DIALOGUE GOING | Beena Sarwar
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http://www.sacw.net/article11136.html

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7. VIDEO TRIBUTE TO SABEEN MAHMUD
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Credits: Madiha Tahir, Misha Rezvi, Fahad Desmukh, Alia Chughtai - Tributes and Remembrances / Pakistan, Audio / Video
http://sacw.net/article11128.html

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8. PAKISTAN #INTELLECTICIDE: VIGILS FOR SABEEN – WHO WAS SHE AND WHY DID SHE DIE? | Beena Sarwar
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Vigils and protests for our slain comrade and friend Sabeen Mahmud are taking place in different cities of Pakistan and around the world.
http://sacw.net/article11129.html

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9. SRI LANKA: STATEMENT ON THE CONTINUED HARASSMENT OF MS. SHARMILA SEYYID AND HER FAMILY
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We, the undersigned would like to express our extreme distress and dismay at the incidents of harassment against Ms. Sharmila Seyyid and her family through a variety of means including social media.
http://sacw.net/article11130.html

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10. SRI LANKA: START TALKING OF DEMILITARISATION, TO WIN THE PEACE | Nirupama Subramanian
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Demilitarisation is key to addressing the issue of alleged war crimes in a less charged atmosphere. It will hasten post-war reconciliation and ensure the country's political stability.
http://sacw.net/article11119.html

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11. India: 2015 Congress of the CPI(M) - Selected Commentary
REIMAGINING STRATEGY, RETURNING TO GRASSROOTS: CHALLENGES BEFORE YECHURY
by Praful Bidwai
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http://www.sacw.net/article11138.html

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12. India: 2015 Congress of the CPI(M) - Selected Commentary
DO WE NEED A COMMUNIST PARTY? / COLOUR OF THE MICE TO CATCH
by Jawed Naqvi
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http://www.sacw.net/article11139.html

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13. THE PAROCHIAL INDIAN | Nissim Mannathukkaren
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This is the great paradox of India that persists into the 21st century: when communities do not find it fit to mingle with each other socially, leave alone enter into marriage relationships, what kind of a nation are we talking about? 
http://sacw.net/article11122.html

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14. INDIA: YAKUB MENON – A QUESTION OF LIFE AND DEATH - STATEMENT BY PUDR
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PUDR notes with extreme concern the Supreme Court's decision on the 9th of April 2015, to reject Yakub Memon's petition seeking review of his death sentence.
http://sacw.net/article11134.html

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15. VIDEO RECORDINGS FROM THE NOV. 2013 CONFERENCE ON “ABOLISHING NUCLEAR WEAPONS: RELEVANCE FOR SOUTH ASIA AND THE WORLD” (CNDP AND ICAN)
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http://sacw.net/article11121.html

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16. INDIA: WHEN A GREAT CITY DIES | Tasneem Zakaria Mehta
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The recent rash of illiberal incidents that has erupted in Mumbai threatens to further tarnish this already beleaguered city.
http://sacw.net/article11120.html

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17. INDIA: WHY PM HATES SOME NGOS | Bharat Bhushan
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Mr Modi's dislike of ‘five-star NGOs' stems from his experience of activists taking up the cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots... Also, since he came on a pro-corporate platform, he may not want ‘people-centric issues' to hamper development.
http://sacw.net/article11118.html

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18. C.A. BAYLY, 1945-2015 - a tribute by Mukul Kesavan
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When he died in Chicago last Sunday, C.A. Bayly had been for a generation the most important interpreter of India’s modern history. From The Local Roots of Indian Politics to Recovering Liberties, he produced a series of revisionist books and essays that changed the way in which historians addressed the great themes of India’s colonial modernity.
http://sacw.net/article11095.html

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19. CHARLIE HEBDO DESERVES THE PEN HONOUR AND WHY THE CRITICS ARE WRONG | Karthick Ram Manoharan
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PEN American Center has decided to give Charlie Hebdo a long overdue recognition - its Freedom of Expression Courage award. On its website, PEN justified its decision arguing, quite legitimately, that "Only a handful of people are willing to put themselves in peril to build a world in which we are all free to say what we believe" and that the journalists of Charlie Hebdo belonged to this category.
http://sacw.net/article11135.html

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20. RECENT ON COMMUNALISM WATCH:
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available at: http://communalism.blogspot.in/

 - India: Anti-Hindu accusation false propaganda: Goa convent schools
 - India: RSS launches Rashtriya Vichar Abhiyan a new ideological campaign
 - India: Strategy to Quash Dissent (Editorial, EPW, April 25, 2015)
 - Bangladesh’s secularist tradition is being subverted by Salafism
 - India: Before Delhi gang-rape, Graham Staines murder case had changed the course of India’s juvenile justice
 - For all the Shah Banos (Tahir Mahmood)
 - VHP leader links Nepal earthquake to ‘beef eating’
 - Salman Rushdie on Charlie Hebdo: freedom of speech can only be absolute
 - India: Population by religion in Times to come (Ram Puniyani)
 - Nepali earthquake April 2015: Senior RSS office bearer, Hosabele, to coordinating with Nepal RSS
 - India: As BJP completes a year at the Centre, RSS grows exponentially
 - India: The RSS won’t be able to internalize Ambedkar - Raosaheb Kasbe
 - India: VHP fences ancient site in Kaithal, Congress protests
 - India in the grip of Hindutva Madness (Deepa Philip / Tehelka, 25 april 2015)
 - The frightening corporate/Christian alliance that invented “In God We Trust” and “One Nation Under God”
 - UK: Tower Hamlets - how a dictatorship flourished in the East End (Nick Cohen)
 - RSS outfit sewa Bharti appeals for Quake aid in Nepal
 - Bangladesh’s Good Fight Against Islamism (Sadanand Dhume, April 22, 2015 WSJ)
 - A PIL in the Supreme Court asking for the renaming of India to Bharat raises questions about the idea of India
 - India: Zakir Naik, Radical Islamist Video Evangelist
 - The U.S. Muslim Honor Brigade Strikes Again | Asra Q. Nomani
 - India: Modi Media Mystery (Mihir Sharma)
 - India: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mulls building 120 cow homes connected to residential colonies and to hold cow knowledge tests 

and More ...
available at: http://communalism.blogspot.in/

::: FULL TEXT :::
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21. PAKISTAN: ANOTHER VOICE SILENCED
Editorial, DAWN
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(Dawn, April 26th, 2015)

THE assassination of Sabeen Mahmud, director of T2F, a self-described community space for open dialogue in Karachi, is a desperate, tragic confirmation that Pakistan’s long slide towards intolerance and violence is continuing, and even quickening. Profoundly troubling too are the circumstances surrounding Ms Mahmud’s murder. On Friday, T2F hosted the Baloch missing-persons activist Mama Qadeer, after the Lahore University of Management Sciences cancelled an event with Mr Qadeer earlier this month under pressure from the intelligence agencies. Mr Qadeer’s activism has been consistently opposed by the security establishment, to the point where few in the media or the activist community choose to interact with him now. Those who do engage with him often report threats. But clearly, in the tumultuous city of Karachi and given the variety of causes Ms Mahmud championed, the security agencies are not the only ones perceived as suspects in her assassination. Ms Mahmud’s work had attracted criticism and threats in the past, particularly from sections of the religious right, which viewed her promotion of the arts, music and culture with great hostility.

While only a thorough investigation can get to the root of the matter, what is clear is that there is not so much a war between ideas in Pakistan as a war on ideas. Free speech, robust debate, academic inquiry, the promotion of individual rights — anything that promotes a healthy, inclusive and vibrant society is seemingly under attack. Before Sabeen Mahmud there was Rashid Rehman, the lawyer and rights activist who was murdered for defending a college lecturer accused of blasphemy. Before Rashid Rehman there was Perween Rahman, director of the Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute, murdered in Karachi apparently for her work on behalf of poor people against the city’s land mafia. Before Perween Rehman there was Malala Yousafzai, shot in the head as a young teenager by the Taliban for championing the cause of female education. Before Malala, there were Shahbaz Bhatti and Salmaan Taseer, murdered for daring to question the misuse of the blasphemy laws. Each one of those victims may have been attacked for different reasons and by different groups, but all of them have one thing in common: they were fighting for a better, kinder, gentler Pakistan. And all of them used words and ideas, never weapons, to champion their causes. Pakistan is a poorer place for being without them — and in Malala’s case, for her being unable to return home.

Tragically, the state seems to have all but surrendered to the forces of darkness — that is when sections of the state themselves are not seen as complicit. Dialogue, ideas, debate, nothing practised and promoted peacefully is safe anymore. Instead, it is those with weapons and hateful ideologies who seem to be the safest now. Sabeen Mahmud is dead because she chose the right side in the wrong times.

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22. PAKISTAN: FALLEN HERO, EDITORIAL, THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE
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(The Express Tribune - April 26, 2015)

There are others but few have achieved what she did, establishing a space where her own values found a comfortable home and where those of a similar ilk were encouraged to flourish as well. PHOTO: PUBLICITY

Sabeen Mahmud, murdered on April 24 as she drove to her home accompanied by her mother, was a woman who wanted to make a difference. She was the founder of The Second Floor (T2F), a cafe-cum-library-cum-performance space and gallery in Karachi. Over the last seven years T2F, as it was affectionately known, has quietly established a reputation as a venue where challenging ideas may get aired, boxes were there to be thought out of and music and dance were for the enjoyment of all. She was a high-profile social activist and champion of human rights, and some of her causes are unlikely to have found favour with powerful quarters. It is reported that she had received threats recently.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has expressed his condolences at the killing of Sabeen Mahmud and vowed that her killers will be tracked down and caught. Desirable as this is, it is highly unlikely that they will ever be identified or punished. No organisation has claimed her murder and apart from her many friends around the world — she was a woman with an international profile — her death will quickly fade from public awareness.

There will be vigils attended by the dwindling band of liberals who are increasingly corralled in an ever-shrinking space, and she will become just another number in a wider statistic.

To be liberal and outspoken in the Pakistan of today is tantamount to painting a target in the middle of your forehead. Sabeen Mahmud was one of those who rose above the crowd, who may well have been afraid for her life but was undeterred, a woman of courage and principle. There are others but few have achieved what she did, establishing a space where her own values found a comfortable home and where those of a similar ilk were encouraged to flourish as well. It is to be hoped that somebody will pick up the baton she carried for the last decade and ensure that T2F continues as her legacy. Because there has to be somewhere in the looming gloom where we can rage against the dying of the light.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26th, 2015.

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23. BANGLADESH: WHERE 'BLOGGER' HAS BECOME A WORD WORTHY OF DEATH
by Mahmud Rahman 
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(scroll.in - 26 april 2015)

In the drive to squelch expression, the institutions of the state themselves are failing society as the societal consensus on the importance of free speech weakens.
Mahmud Rahman is a writer and translator from Bangladesh who lives in California. He is one of 23 persons  who are facing possible contempt of court charges from the International Crimes Tribunal 2 in Dhaka for having signed a statement expressing concern over the same tribunal’s contempt of court sentence on the journalist David Bergman for some of his blog posts.

When I think about the state of free speech in the land of my birth, my memories take me back to 1970-71 when I was a higher secondary student in Dhaka, a time of upheaval when East Pakistan was making its way towards independent Bangladesh. Officially we were still under martial law, Ayub’s decade-long dictatorship deposed in favour of Yahya’s rule that came with the promise of elections. Political parties could organise, detainees were set free, the press could publish with fewer restrictions, and people began to launch new magazines and newspapers.

Spring of freedom

Every stripe of opinion found expression in print. Pushing aside the go-slow conservatism of existing newspapers, new ones emerged. Bengali nationalism, socialism, communism of various hues – all found expression in print. The main Islamist party’s paper acquired a modern press. Books were not that widespread, but you could easily get your hands on Russell and English socialists, and Marx, Engels, Lenin, or Mao. I remember engaging in a mix of agnostic, atheist, socialist, and liberal discussions.

There is something in that sort of  "spring" that beckons the young to amplify their voice. Two friends and I wanted to publish a magazine. We came up with a name – The Rebel – and of course, a logo. We split the writing among us. I can’t remember much other than we were inclined towards independence for East Bengal. Our perspective was no doubt seditious but we couched our language with a bit of caution. Did we even know that British-era laws required that publications be registered? In that climate, we felt the state wasn’t looking all that carefully.

That spring of freedom came crashing down with the onslaught of the Pakistani military. Overnight, newspapers were suppressed, with several having their offices burned down. Journalists were killed or brought in line. Many fled. Print shops destroyed books or magazines that had been in embryo. Our magazine never made it into ink.

It was a time of silence backed up with mass murder. Dissent retreated into other forms:  underground publications, verbal channels, or through the broadcasts of the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. I recall walking the streets of Dhaka and wondering, upon passing military checkpoints, could the soldiers tell that you hated them? Could they read your treasonous thoughts?

Nine months later, Bangladesh won freedom. We would shortly ratify a constitution assuring citizens of freedom of speech and expression. Once again, despite the devastation, there was a spring of freedom. New publications emerged. That space too would not be stable, falling victim to a one-party state declared by the ruling Awami League, and later, through much blood and terror, the era of military dictatorships lasting over 15 years.

Each tyranny imposed new restrictions, but they also had at their disposal the old standbys: censorship and publications regulation laws inherited from the British, and from the Pakistani legacy, enhanced state control of radio, TV, and newspapers, bolstered by intervention from the intelligence agencies.

Every so often though, some type of spring has returned in Bangladesh, pressed on by upheavals against tyranny. The end of the Ershad dictatorship saw an outpouring of new magazines and newspapers. As soon as some were banned, others took their place. From 1991, elected civilian regimes followed but these also periodically placed restrictions on expression. And if the state lagged behind, thugs connected to ruling parties, Maoist remnants, or militants of political Islam would complete the circle. Taslima Nasrin was driven out in exile, blades were brought out to assault writers like Humayun Azad and Shamsur Rahman, and journalists were injured or killed for not bowing down.

Social media

Late in 2006, I returned to Dhaka for an extended stay to work on a novel. A year earlier when I was still in California, I had begun an irregular blog. Soon after my arrival, a military regime came to power, though this one had its khaki masked by a cabinet of suit and sari wearing civilians. With a state of emergency in place, censorship was re-imposed, politicians were thrown in jail, and during a brief rebellion, students and professors were tortured and imprisoned.

In the summer of 2007, Bangladesh had its own ‘cartoon crisis’ as Islamists were outraged by a mild cartoon that mocked a certain kind of believer.  Alpin, the cartoon magazine associated with the daily Prothom Alo, was shut down, the newspaper editor went on his knees before the imam of the main mosque in Dhaka, and the cartoonist, a young man by the name of Arifur Rahman, was tossed into jail. Soon afterwards the government banned the Eid supplement of Shaptahik 2000 for carrying a personal essay by Daud Haider who had been exiled in the mid-70s for writing that offended Islamic zealots.

I remember writing a few blog posts commenting on these issues. I remember going over my words carefully, weighing the implications of every sentence. The climate forced extreme caution. One did not know who might come knocking: the police or Islamists. Thankfully no one did.

The military made a mess of things and soon bowed out. Politicians were freed, newspapers again found their voice, and a new election was held. Talk shows erupted. New blogging platforms emerged, and hundreds of people wrote posts. Then came an eruption of people joining social media: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.

Stifling dissent

There are more people in Bangladesh today expressing themselves publicly, whether it be with blogs, newspaper articles, or posts and comments on social media. What used to be simply talked about has now found their way into print and video. Those inclined to policing mentalities – and our society is rampant with this – are horrified. Isn’t this Anarchy and License? But the reality is that no one can control anything.

For example, Islamic preachers have long sermonised against Jews, Hindus, atheists, and women. Despite the law saying you cannot offend religious sensibilities, the authorities have not  cared about minority sensibilities. You can find these rants now on YouTube.

Atheists too have found a platform in a society that tends to be hostile to unbelievers. Some among them provide reasoned arguments if they are inclined to argue and educate, others rant or mock. Some voices counsel that this might not be the wisest of strategies in this society, but in the current era of technologically raised voices, who’s to decide anything? Youthful bloggers, incensed by Islamist-instigated crimes, whether in Bangladesh or worldwide, are often inclined to use sharp words. And sometimes be offensive.

There are plenty of offensive words coming from all directions. But only the Islamists respond with murder.

To them, "blogger" has become a word worthy of death. In 2013, Rajib Haider was murdered in the streets, other bloggers assaulted, and news emerged of a hit list. In the last few months, Avijit Roy and Washiqur Rahman were hacked to death in the streets of Dhaka. On social media, fundamentalists openly applaud such murders. Others who are not willing to openly support freelance murder believe the state should carry out executions: Islamist forces demand the death penalty for blasphemy.

Ultimately, though, it is the state that has to ensure a free environment. But instead of setting an example, unfortunately it is the state itself that’s taking significant steps to curb freedom of expression.

There is a new instrument in its hands: Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, 2006. Using this law, the government has imposed bans on YouTube, ordered blogging platforms to remove posts, and jailed people for Facebook posts, such as some that insulted the Prime Minister. The law is written broadly, people can be arrested without warrant, and it’s a non-bailable offense.

In other instances, TV channels have been pressured, talk shows on TV have been warned not to bring in certain guests, and a climate of self-censorship has descended among writers and journalists. People are afraid.

Once you encourage such an atmosphere, everyone wants to get in on the act and impose new kinds of censorship.

Courts have brought contempt of court charges against journalists, bloggers, and even mere signatories to a petition. And recently the police issued an order that any TV play or movie that portrayed police will have to get permission.

What’s next? Orders against portrayals in stories and novels? In my fiction I have portrayed police. Should I worry? Never had I dreamed that imaginative depictions would require permission.

Free speech

In today’s tech-enabled world, how much silencing is realistic? Unless you cut off the internet or have resources to control it like China, what can Bangladesh do? True, the state is investing a lot of money on hi-tech surveillance, but surely they cannot imprison everyone. People can still find their ways to platforms outside the control of the state. You might ban a physical book, or force the publisher to take it back. But what’s to prevent the text from becoming available online? How many sites can be blocked? Then people will find ways to email attachments. Word will inevitably spread.

There is another worrying concern. During times of unified opposition to military regimes, Bangladeshis have rallied around a consensus that recognizes the importance of free speech. In other times, such as now, when politics is fractured along major and minor divides, this consensus weakens considerably. When the ruling party bans opposition papers or suppresses opposition editors or journalists, their supporters applaud, justify, or go silent. Should the opposition come to power, they would act similarly and it is their supporters who would support their decrees. Meanwhile, Islamist forces demand blasphemy laws to silence certain kinds of people, and secular nationalists believe religion-based politics can be defeated with bans.

Murderers must be brought to justice and more killings thwarted, but extremism is the far end of the spectrum. So much more needs to be done than mere law enforcement. In the drive to squelch expression, the institutions of the state themselves are failing society. It is unclear how this will change until a new ‘spring’ emerges again. Under the pressures of today, voices in favor of justice, tolerance, fairness, and truth must refuse to be stilled. Restrictive laws and legacies inherited from the past – colonial, Pakistani, our own home-grown tyrannies – need to be challenged.

The country must not allow itself to be cowed into silence.

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24. BOOK REVIEW: FATHER AND DAUGHTER: PATRIARCHY, GENDER AND SOCIAL SCIENCE BY ANN OAKLEY
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(LSE Review of Book - 12 February 2015)

For many aspiring young female sociologists, Ann Oakley’s writing has been inspirational and reassuring. Her new book explores her own life and that of her father, Richard Titmuss, a well-known policy analyst and defender of the welfare state, to offer an absorbing view of the connections between private lives and public work. Essential reading, finds Sally Brown.

Father and Daughter: Patriarchy, gender and social science. Ann Oakley. Policy Press. 2014.

Father and Daughter, is, according to its author, “this awkward book” (p3); as a combination of biography, autobiography, social history, and social science, it may be awkward but it is certainly compelling. Ann Oakley has written a fascinating and at times alarmingly honest book about her father, Richard Titmuss, but this book is much, much more than a conventional biography. Showing how he became the man he was – “the Professor”, revered by his circle of admirers at LSE – she also explores her own life and how she also became a world famous sociologist, although a very different one to her father. She also illuminates what is sometimes out of sight or hidden in the biographies of “great men”: the toll it takes on those not in the spotlight.

The book begins with a visit to the author’s childhood home, which is being given a blue plaque to honour her father. The Blue Plaque House, as Oakley refers to it throughout, was where her parents lived for the majority of their married life, and where she grew up. It sounds like a cold, austere house, where rather austere meals were served in a somewhat strained atmosphere much of the time. It comes as something of a surprise, then, to read of Brian Abel-Smith telling Ann Oakley that her father “appeared to be madly in love” (p.97) with her whenever he visited the Blue Plaque House. Oakley’s mother Kay, meanwhile, was very much a 1950s housewife, taking on the role of running the home having given up voluntary social work when she married. The frustration and at times despair that she seemed to feel is inescapable as the book proceeds, indeed her depression seems to worsen as she becomes isolated after her husband’s death. Despite all this, Oakley describes how her mother worked hard to construct and maintain the myth of who Richard Titmuss was and where he had come from. A significant amount of the book is constructed from letters and diaries that Kay Titmuss chose not to give to LSE, thus safeguarding “the legend of her husband as a saintly man” (p247). Instead, the papers came to Oakley; she describes at one point how Nigel Nicolson must have agonised over the writing of certain sections of his biography of his parents, Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West, and she too must have had moments when she wondered whether to reveal that in fact the saintly man had skeletons in his cupboard.

One of the most shocking sections of the book is where Oakley describes in candid detail her father’s battles in his early days at LSE with the “difficult womee” – the women who had been running social work courses, led by Eileen Younghusband. Taking on a Chair of Social Administration, created by Titmuss’ predecessor in the department, T H Marshall, so he could concentrate on sociology, Titmuss appears to have set out to take over her projects and thus eject Younghusband from her post. Caught up in the “LSE Affair” and coming off worst were the women who worked with Younghusband; what is shocking about this part of the story is how completely an avowed socialist like Titmuss could disregard women and ensure he was surrounded by men, who were, naturally, paid more and were on more secure contracts. The gender blindness, and the maleness, of sociology, seems astonishing now, but it is largely due to the work of Oakley and others, pioneers in making sociology take notice of gender, that looking back at a relatively recent time when it simply wasn’t mentioned can seem so strange. What is heartwarming, and fascinating, about these central sections of the book, are the stories about the connections that many of the women in the story had, both in terms of academic networks and deep and enduring friendships.

Gender plays a large part in Oakley’s exploration of the development of her own career, both as a factor influencing her career, and as a topic. Her early interests and publications on housework, the family, sex, and childbirth, were very different to her father’s interests, and seem to have contributed to a feeling on her part that she had disappointed her parents by not being conventional enough for them. However, for many aspiring young female sociologists, her writing has been inspirational and reassuring. Reading her chapter on interviewing women, in Helen Roberts’ Doing Feminist Research, felt like a light bulb going on when I was doing my PhD – a sense that here was someone who had experienced and then related the realities of interviewing; it was OK when an interview didn’t follow the recipe set out in textbooks because an interview is a conversation, not just a data gathering exercise. What a sense of relief for a struggling PhD student to read that!

The other aspect of Oakley’s writing which is touched upon in this book is her novel writing career. Indeed, my first encounter with her writing was The Men’s Room, and I can remember being puzzled when I then read Doing Feminist Research – was this the same Ann Oakley? Yes it was, and it is the combination of her skill as an incisive and critical social scientist and her talent as a novelist that makes this fascinating book so readable.

It must have been very hard to write, in some places, but its exploration of how the public and the private intersect, as illustrated in the lives of a famous man and his equally famous daughter, is powerful and unique.

Sally Brown is a Research Fellow in the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health at Durham University. Her research interests include young people and sexual health, men’s health, and lay knowledge and understanding about diagnosis, risk and decision-making. 

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25.  JOHN BERGER: ‘WRITING IS AN OFF-SHOOT OF SOMETHING DEEPER’
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(The Guardian - 12 December 2014)
Language can’t be reduced to a stock of words. Most political discourse is inert and ruthlessly complacent

I have been writing for about 80 years. First letters then poems and speeches, later stories and articles and books, now notes. The activity of writing has been a vital one for me; it helps me to make sense and continue. Writing, however, is an off-shoot of something deeper and more general – our relationship with language as such. And the subject of these few notes is language.

Let’s begin by examining the activity of translating from one language to another. Most translations today are technological, whereas I’m referring to literary translations: the translation of texts that concern individual experience.

The conventional view of what this involves proposes that the translator or translators study the words on one page in one language and then render them into another language on another page. This involves a so-called word-for-word translation, and then an adaptation to respect and incorporate the linguistic tradition and rules of the second language, and finally another working-over to recreate the equivalent of the “voice” of the original text. Many – perhaps most – translations follow this procedure and the results are worthy, but second-rate.

Why? Because true translation is not a binary affair between two languages but a triangular affair. The third point of the triangle being what lay behind the words of the original text before it was written. True translation demands a return to the pre-verbal. One reads and rereads the words of the original text in order to penetrate through them to reach, to touch, the vision or experience that prompted them. One then gathers up what one has found there and takes this quivering almost wordless “thing” and places it behind the language it needs to be translated into. And now the principal task is to persuade the host language to take in and welcome the “thing” that is waiting to be articulated.

This practice reminds us that a language cannot be reduced to a dictionary or stock of words and phrases. Nor can it be reduced to a warehouse of the works written in it. A spoken language is a body, a living creature, whose physiognomy is verbal and whose visceral functions are linguistic. And this creature’s home is the inarticulate as well as the articulate.

Consider the term “mother tongue”. In Russian it is rodnoy-yazik, which means “nearest” or “dearest tongue”. At a pinch one could call it “darling tongue”. Mother tongue is one’s first language, first heard as an infant.

And within one mother tongue are all mother tongues. Or to put it another way – every mother tongue is universal. Noam Chomsky has brilliantly demonstrated that all languages – not only verbal ones – have certain structures and procedures in common. And so a mother tongue is related to (rhymes with?) non-verbal languages – such as the languages of signs, of behaviour, of spatial accommodation. When I’m drawing, I try to unravel and transcribe a text of appearances, which already has, I know, its indescribable but assured place in my mother tongue.
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Words, terms, phrases can be separated from the creature of their language and used as mere labels. They then become inert and empty. The repetitive use of acronyms is a simple example of this. Most mainstream political discourse today is composed of words that, separated from any creature of language, are inert. And such dead “word-mongering” wipes out memory and breeds a ruthless complacency.

What has prompted me to write over the years is the hunch that something needs to be told, and that if I don’t try to tell it, it risks not being told. I picture myself as a stop-gap man rather than a consequential, professional writer.

After I’ve written a few lines I let the words slip back into the creature of their language. And there, they are instantly recognised and greeted by a host of other words, with whom they have an affinity of meaning, or of opposition, or of metaphor or alliteration or rhythm. I listen to their confabulation. Together they are contesting the use to which I put the words I chose. They are questioning the roles I allotted them.

So I modify the lines, change a word or two, and submit them again. Another confabulation begins. And it goes on like this until there is a low murmur of provisional consent. Then I proceed to the next paragraph.

Another confabulation begins ...

Others can place me as they like as a writer. For myself, I’m the son of a bitch – and you can guess who the bitch is, no?

John Berger’s many books include Ways of Seeing, From A to X and Collected Poems.

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26. PERVERTED HISTORY: EUROPEANS THINK US ARMY LIBERATED CONTINENT DURING WW2 
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http://rt.com: April 28, 2015 16:47

As little as 13 percent of Europeans think the Soviet Army played the leading role in liberating Europe from Nazism during WW2, a recent poll targeting over 3,000 people in France, Germany and the UK reveals.

The majority of respondents – 43 percent – said the US Army played the main role in liberating Europe. The survey, carried out from March 20 to April 9, 2015, was conducted by the British ICM Research agency for Sputnik News.

Over 50 percent of Germans and over 61 percent of French citizens believe their ancestors were liberated by the Americans. Nearly fifty percent of Britons think British forces actually played the key role in ending the Second World War. Only 8 percent of respondents in France and 13 percent in Germany credited the Soviet Army for the victory.

WW2 lasted from 1939 to 1945 and involved over 80 countries and regions. Up to 70 million people are believed to have lost their lives. However, the USSR suffered the biggest losses. At least 27 million Soviet citizens died during the war.

The US hoped to stay out, not taking part in WW2. Between 1935 and 1939 the US Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts meant to prevent Americans becoming involved. President Harry S. Truman was quoted as saying by the New York Times in June 24, 1941: “If we see that Germany is winning, we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word.”

Various estimates say the Soviet Red Army liberated nearly half of Europe's territory, which comprise 16 modern European countries. Allied forces liberated nine countries, while six more were freed by the Soviets and the Allies together, according to RIA Novosti’s count. The combined population of the territories, in which the Red Army beat back Hitler's forces, was about 120 million people.

The Red Army also had to face the lion's share of Nazi forces on the Eastern Front - about five million soldiers. The vast majority of Hitler's military hardware was also concentrated in the East: 5,400 artillery pieces, 54,600 mortars and over 3,000 warplanes. Combined, it amounted to three-fourths of the heavy weapons at Hitler's disposal. By the end of the war, the Soviets had destroyed over 70 percent of the enemy’s forces.

The Eastern Front was the widest, spanning four to six thousand kilometers, which is four times more than the North African, Italian and Western European frontlines combined. It was also the hottest, seeing 1,320 days of combat compared to North Africa's 309 and Italy's 49.

In mid-April 1945, the Soviet Army started the final offensive against the German capital, and on April 21, they entered Berlin. On April 27, the Red Army linked up with American troops at the River Elbe, cutting the German army in two. At the time, the commander of the US 12th Army Group, General Omar Bradley, praised the Soviet troops for their resolve in forcing the Germans out of Russia. On 2 May 1945, the Berlin garrison finally surrendered to the Soviet army. On 4 July 1945, US Independence Day, American troops officially took charge of their occupation sector in southwest Berlin.

In January, 1945, the Soviet Army liberated the Nazis' biggest concentration camp at Auschwitz, in southwestern Poland, which was seen as a symbolic landmark.

Earlier this year, in January, Polish foreign minister Grzegorz Schetyna bluntly dismissed Russia's role in the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, claiming it was liberated by Ukrainians.

“Maybe it’s better to say … the First Ukrainian Front and Ukrainians liberated [Auschwitz], because Ukrainian soldiers were there, on that January day, and they opened the gates of the camp and they liberated the camp,” Schetyna said in an interview with Polskie Radio.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called his comments “sacrilegious and cynical.”

“Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army, which included Russians, Ukrainians, Chechens, Tatars and Georgians, among others,” Lavrov emphasized, calling Schetyna’s words a “mockery of history [that] needs to be stopped.” 

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27. APPEAL OF THE INITIATIVE GROUP FOR DEMOCRACY AND INTERNATIONALISM IN UKRAINE
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Ukrainian anti-fascists are calling on people around the world to mark May 2 as a day of commemoration of those who were killed in the trade union building in Odessa.?

On May 2, 2014 there was a bloody massacre in Odessa where, though data is incomplete, at least 48 people were killed. Some of them were burned alive in the House of Trade Unions. The organizers of the massacre were radical Ukrainian nationalists and fascists who support the regime established in the Kiev after the coup in February 2014. Their opponents were the participants of the Antimaydan movement opposed to Ukrainian fascism. They belonged to different political tendencies, but opposition to Ukrainian fascism united them. It was they who were the main victims of the massacre on the May 2. Fleeing from the crowd of aggressive and armed fascists which greatly outnumbered them, the Antimaydan activists tried to take refuge in the House of Trade Unions located near their camp. They were largely without weapons, as they consistently preferred peaceful forms of protest. The enemy attacked the House of Trade Unions with Molotov cocktails, igniting a fire that caused many of those inside the building to flee outside. There, angry Ukrainian fascists beat and killed them. Others who observed this remained inside until they either burned to death, suffocated or jumped out of windows to their deaths. Others who remained inside were hunted down and murdered in cold blood. Local fire service deliberately did not go to the assistance of the desperate people and when it finally arrived, the fascists did not let the fire trucks or firefighters approach the burning building.

The ruling government of Ukraine is doing everything to hide and distort the truth about this crime. The official list of dead people has not been published yet. The results of forensic examination of the causes of deaths are classified and were not disclosed until recently. None of the perpetrators of the massacre has been arrested; the state prosecutor's office deliberately ignores numerous videos proving their guilt. Instead, people who tried to defend the House of Trade Unions have been arrested and put on trial. Though the investigation found no evidence of their guilt, the court refuses to set them free. Official propaganda since the day of tragedy has spread lies like ?the House of Trade Unions was not protected by people from Odessa but by citizens of Transnistria and Russian saboteurs?, calls these people terrorists and separatists even though the leaders of the Odessa?s "Antimaydan" never called for the separation of the Odessa region from Ukraine. But various supporters of this Kiev regime replicate this lie all over the world.

The Odessa tragedy is just one act in the civil war the Kiev fascists launched last spring against its own people that. This is not the only event of its kind. The atrocities of the fascists on May 9, 2014 in Mariupol, massive bloodshed in the Donbass, sadistic treatment of war prisoners, deliberate destruction of vital facilities in the Donbass, the recent excesses of Ukrainian soldiers in Konstantinovka (Kostyantynivka) - all of them are the links of the same chain. This is a manifestation of the bloody totalitarian nature of the regime in Kiev, established in the heart of Europe with the blessing of western political leaders. But the Odessa massacre became a symbol of these atrocities. In Odessa, the Kiev regime's political opponents asserted their own rights without weapons, by peaceful means and they were ruthlessly suppressed with astonishing cruelty and cynicism. The task of all progressive forces of the world is to demonstrate their condemnation and rejection of such methods.

The Kiev regime wants to forcibly impose on the entire population of Ukraine its system of values which totally rejects the Soviet period in the history of Ukraine. It is based on the traditions of Ukrainian integral nationalism, which is the local Ukrainian variant of fascist ideology. These ideas of integral nationalism inspired such figures as Stepan Bandera. For a significant part of Ukrainian society, such attitudes are unacceptable. That is why opposition appeared. Despite all the repression, people have been fighting against the reactionaries and actively looking for an alternative. But the forces of resistance in Ukraine are split, and some of them are not guided by consistently democratic principles. Some of them receive help from Russian nationalists and therefore think that the alternative to Ukrainian fascism is Russian nationalism. But this is wrong and a dead end road. Therefore, the solidarity of international left forces with the liberation struggle against the Kiev regime will help the people of see they have friends and strengthen the democratic tendencies in the camp of resistance.

Finally, solidarity of leftist and internationalist forces is important not only for Ukraine. Now we see the rise of right-wing reactionary movements around the world. In many European countries, neo-fascists are growing in popularity, the youth are joining their parties, and they are gaining more and more votes. Totalitarianism has intensified everywhere and gone on the offensive. The civil war in Ukraine is just one of many episodes of offensive of international reaction forces. But this episode is very revealing. Ukraine is a European country and it in this European country that for the first time in the 21st century that fascists have entered a government while fascist paramilitaries have received legal status in the army and other state authorities. We can resist this attack on our principles and values together, combining our efforts all round the world.

Therefore, we propose to make May 2 a day of international solidarity in defense of democracy and internationalism in Ukraine. To this end, we urge the leftist forces around the world to hold in early May actions of solidarity with the liberation struggle of the working masses of Ukraine. This can be a picket, a march, a meeting, a round table and any other action which would be considered appropriate by activists not indifferent to the problems of Ukraine. From our side, our initiative group will contribute to the dissemination of information about these actions in the media.

Ivan Melekhov
Jeanne Camus
Yefim Mironov
Stanislav Yushchenko

Contact address akalderon at yandex.ru
New York Contact: manny.ness at gmail.com

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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/

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