[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 25 Oct. 00

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
25 October 2000
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

____________________________

#1. India: Where has secularism gone?
#2. India: Hate Quenches A Kindly Light
#3. India: VHP - followers of Ram or Ravan?
#4. Ekta - A South Asian Progressive Network
#5. Back to Life in India, Without Reincarnation

____________________________

#1.

samwonline.com
24 October 2000
Voices of South Asia

WHERE HAS SECULARISM GONE? 

By Kuldip Nayar 

NEW DELHI, Oct 19: Getting carried away by his emotions, Home Minister L.K. Advani has likened relations between the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)-RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) to those between the Nehru government and Mahatma Gandhi where the former derived inspiration from the latter. The RSS represents Hindu chauvinism. Gandhi and Nehru symbolized Indianness. How can fanaticism, man's darkest side, take the place of pluralism or tolerance? And it becomes a matter of concern when toadies are equated with freedom fighters. 

There is yet another point of concern. Advani has sung the praises of the RSS and is seen to be allied with its leaders at a time when he is India's home minister. He should realize that he is no more an RSS pracharak (preacher) or sanchalak (functionary). His actions-and words-purvey the government's thinking. The authorities, whether in the administration or the police, may well take their cue from the anti-minority crescendo raised by the RSS that is Advani's mentor. Meanwhile, what happens to law and order or, for that matter, the country? There are already numerous examples to indicate the creeping pro-Hindu bias in governance. Communal riots have turned into running battles between the Muslims and the police, not the Hindus. 

It is not understandable why Advani has chosen this time to affirm BJP's loyalty to the RSS. It suggests some inner contradictions or infighting. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and BJP chief Bangaru Laxman have been trying to project a different posture-that of liberalism. They have given the impression that they want the BJP to be non-committal so that Muslims too join it. Advani himself admitted during a recent television interview that his party had an image problem. Surely, the RSS cannot be acceptable to the minorities when it is pushing its Hindutva agenda all the time. Many regional parties joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on the understanding that the BJP would not allow the RSS to dictate the government on state matters. Now that Advani has made it clear that the BJP would rather break up the government than break with the RSS, leaders like Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party, Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress and Nitish!
Kumar of Samata Party should be able to see the BJP in its true colors. 

These parties would like to remain in office because power means a lot to them. But they should not have any illusions. In fact, Loknayak Jayaprakash Narain, who built up the Jana Sangh's credibility by allowing it to join the Janata Party, regretted that the Jana Sangh never fulfilled its obligations. It had promised to snap ties with the RSS. Advani is quite right when he says that the Jana Sangh left the Janata when asked to cut off relations with the RSS. But by the time the members of the erstwhile party did so, Jayaprakash had died and the party had lost the elan it had enjoyed after coming to power after the emergency. For the RSS, which constituted first the Jana Sangh and then the BJP, it is a matter of strategy. It does whatever suits it and whenever it wants. The destination is Hindu Rashtriya and any way is good enough as long as progress is made in that direction. It talks of one culture. Those who believe in a composite culture are labeled "traitor!
s". The RSS is determined to overturn Indian traditions. 

The tragedy is that many Hindu intellectuals have been taken in by the propaganda that nationalism is based on religious identity. The RSS has been clever enough to promote the interests of the majority community under the garb of universalistic values that constitute the pillars of a liberal democracy. These intellectuals have failed to see through a systematic campaign that aims to link hatred against the minorities with the compulsions of homogeneity and security. The result is that the minorities are feeling increasingly marginalized. They stay away from the mainstream because they do not have a sense of participation much less of equality. 

This can lead to desperation, with disastrous consequences. True, it serves the purpose of the RSS that may say that only Hindus are loyal to the country. But then which country are we talking about? Gandhi's country or that of Guru Golwalkar's? India's ethos is secularism and Muslim leaders like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Asif Ali made as many sacrifices as Gandhi, Nehru and Patel. Without pluralism, the country can neither sustain democracy nor unity. Hindu intellectuals in the country and abroad are being blinded by a wrong notion of entity. The entity is that of India, not of any particular community. Advani's reiteration of BJP-RSS ties may also be because of the forthcoming assembly elections in six states. With no cadre of its own, the BJP depends on the RSS. Its parivar (family) has the men and muscles to round up voters. Some years ago when the RSS wanted to discipline the BJP, it adopted a lukewarm attitude towards it during parliame!
ntary elections that had a hand in the party's defeat. 

Maybe, Advani is preparing the National Democratic Alliance partners for the Hindu card which the RSS appears to be playing. After the debacle in the local elections in Gujarat, the thinking in Nagpur is to win back the Hindu electorate at any cost. The BJP promised that it would not pursue its agenda of building a temple at the controversial Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site. But the RSS has asked the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to go ahead with it. Where do the NDA partners stand? What happens to the nation's ideal of secularism, the approach of tolerance, of feeling that perhaps others might also have some share of the truth? Gandhi said some 75 years ago: "When we are welded together by ardent feelings, we will embrace one another and cling so close that we should appear to be one though we are many." The same mantra holds good today.

______

#2.

The Telegraph
24 October 2000
Op-Ed.
FIFTH COLUMN 

HATE QUENCHES A KINDLY LIGHT 

BY AMBROSE PINTO

Christian institutions, missionaries, churches and anything vaguely Christian is increasingly becoming endangered in this country. Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party has come to power, its fraternal encouragements have allowed the forces of thesangh parivar to wage a hate campaign against the Christian minority. None of those involved in these acts is ever punished. New forms of this violence are emerging against the “forced conversions” conducted by the church.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, K.S. Sudarshan, while delivering the customary inaugural speech at the RSS national meet, accused foreign churches of instigating a political conspiracy to destabilize the nation. He urged Christians to set up swadesh churches emulating China. Those who know the working of fascist governments would easily understand the implications of Sudarshan’s statement. The RSS holds that religion is too dangerous to be left to individuals. The government must have the ultimate authority — even on the beliefs of communities. The RSS has even asked Muslims to Indianize. The objective is to use religion as the defining element of citizenship and to subjugate citizens to the will of the state. This is the way authoritarianism works.

Alien words

The use of the term Hindu as an identity has gained currency only after the 15th century. It was an invention of those who viewed the subcontinent from beyond the Indus. There is a historical continuity in the use of the world since it marks the people as coming from west and central Asia. The origin of the Hindutvawadi in this sense lies not within the country but outside. Of course, in recent days, the Hindutvawadis have been attempting to rewrite history by trying to prove that there was no Aryan invasion and that they are therefore the original inhabitants of the country. There are no serious historians who will back these claims.

On the other hand, the converts to Christianity, Islam and Buddhism for the most part have been people of this country and it is myopic to label them as foreigners. Their conversions to egalitarian religions were protests against the rigid caste system which categorized people on the basis of hierarchy — pure and impure, high and low, touchable and untouchable. By terming Christians and Muslims as foreigners, the Hindutvawadis are not defining an Indian identity for themselves. Religion alone cannot be an individual’s identity. And it certainly should not be coterminous with nationalism.

Various human rights commissions have clearly established the role of the sangh parivar in almost all the attacks on Christians. This can hardly be called patriotic. Moreover, at no other time in the history of the country has foreign capital played such an important role. The country has almost lost its economic sovereignty.

Essentially egalitarian

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund direct virtually all economic policy decisions. The structural adjustment programmes are thrust on the people while the economy remains dependent on foreign borrowing. Patriotism will be better displayed in attending to these ills rather than persecute innocent minorities.

The initiatives of missionaries have resulted in several backward communities receiving education. The Hindutvawadis have repeatedly said that “conversion” is the ulterior motive behind this. No data has been provided to back their claims. Even today, in the remotest corners of the country where there are no doctors and teachers, missionaries run educational and primary healthcare centres. Some of them may be non-Indians but they have made this country their own and provided a sense of dignity to social groups which had never had an identity of their own.

The greatest contribution of the Christian missions is perhaps the democratization of Indian society through a Westernized liberal discourse. Their educational institutions have instilled a value structure that is essentially egalitarian.

The campaign of vilification waged on Christians is convenient because it diverts attention from the real issues like inflation and poverty. The first round of reforms has widened the gap between the rich and the poor. Nationalism, without any concern for the weak, cannot go hand in hand with a religious ideology. 

______

#3.

Tehelka.com
24 October 2000
First Take

VHP - FOLLOWERS OF RAM OR RAVAN?

[By Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr.]

Illustration by Hidish

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is trying to appropriate the Ram tradition without realizing
that the hero of Valmiki's epic poem is a gentle hero

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is in many ways a strange organisation. It claims to represent two things. First, it has taken upon itself the mission of building a temple dedicated to Ram in Ayodhya. But it is quite unlikely to have any sanctity because temples in India are usually associated with saints and religious people. It is very difficult to find religious people in the VHP. Most of them are too worldly, too cantankerous, and militant. There is a great irony in all this because the Ram as portrayed by the poet Valmiki in his superb composition, Ramayana, was a gentleman, a man who gave up his right to the throne and went into exile for 14 years. So here we have people, who wear saffron and pretend to be religious, while speaking the language of confrontation and violence, wanting to build a temple for the gentlest of the heroes in the world's literature. The members of the VHP cannot even hope to measure up to the devotion of the ordinary Hindu who wors!
hips Ram across India. All of them try to imbibe the truthfulness and gentleness of their hero.
So why is it that the VHP is allowed to hijack Ram? Why is it everyone in the media and in the political class tacitly acquiesce that the VHP somehow represents Ram? The reason is a simple one: ignorance. Most middle class Hindus-those who think they are traditional as well those who think that they are modern-have no idea about the Ramayana. All that they know are the popular, distorted versions. Most of them do not even know the manner in which Tulsidas has described the hero, and the love that Ram inspires in all. Tulsi describes how the whole of Ayodhya cried when he was leaving the city. Now the mood that the VHP creates in the country when it drums the name of Ram is the sentiment of dissent, discord and hatred. The followers of the VHP appear to be more the followers of the demon king Ravan than that of Ram.
Secondly, the members of the VHP are certainly upstarts in terms of being the followers of the Ram cult. They certainly cannot claim to be greater devotees of Ram than Tulsi, and a person like Tulsi created another wonderful literary masterpiece, the Ramcharitmanas, which even today brings tears to the eyes of the people as they read its beautiful and emotional descriptions of Ram. The gentleness of the Hindu, which has been romanticised by the Orientalists, is largely due to the impact of Ram. 
The mood that the VHP creates in the country when it drums the name of Ram is the sentiment of dissent, discord and hatred. The followers of the VHP appear to be more the followers of the demon king Ravan than that of Ram
We will be reminded that Ram was a kshatriya hero, and that he fought battles against the demons. But what is forgotten is that he only fought for the righteous cause. Even during his stay in the forest, he fought the "demons" to protect the ordinary people there. And the followers of the VHP are sure to be imagining themselves to be fighting the demons without being aware of their own demonic tactics of terrorising people, especially the simple Hindus in the towns and villages 
by spreading a vicious campaign in the name of of Ram. 
The truth is a majority of poor people in India have no respect for these leaders of the VHP. They believe in Ram because they have done so for generations. And they are not really concerned about this silly temple which the VHP wants to raise in Ayodhya. For the poor, Ram is found in their own temple town, in the Ramayana, which they know very well despite being illiterate. And the VHP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should stop believing that it is the "Ram card" that brought them electoral dividends. People voted for the BJP because they were fed up with the Congress. And now they are realizing that the BJP is no better. If someone better comes along, they would have no hesitation in throwing out the BJP. And it almost appears to be a certainty that the BJP is in for a shock defeat in the UP Assembly elections early next year. No amount of talk about the Ram temple will save them.
If the ordinary people of India are not misled by the VHP, then how is it that the non-resident Indians (NRIs) have fallen for the VHP bait. How is it that people who have seen the modern world face-to-face are so naïve to believe in the VHP's demonology? It appears that the educated Hindu middle class is plagued by cultural insecurity. It believes it is modern but it is not so in its heart and mind. While enjoying the material and technological comforts of the Western world, it wants to find refuge in a false traditionality propagated by the VHP. It betrays a lack of intellectual sophistication. Had the NRIs really cared for Indian tradition, they should have done more for the collation of the texts of Ramayana written by Valmiki, and those by Tulsi and Kamban. And there should be a vigorous debate about the ideal man portrayed by the great poets. But then the materialist middle class is truly philistine, and it should come as no surprise that they care neither !
for culture nor religion. It has to be remembered that a truly religious person is also a cultured one. And that is what Ram is all about.

______

#4.

The Asian Studies WWW Monitor: late Oct 2000, Vol. 7, No. 126

23 Oct 2000 

EKTA - A SOUTH ASIAN PROGRESSIVE NETWORK 

Ekta - A South Asian Progressive Network, San Francisco, CA, USA 

Supplied note: Information and links on Art, Culture, History, Human
Rights, Media, Politics, People's Movements, Religion & Spirituality, and
Organizations related to South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora. 

URL http://www.ektaonline.org 

______

#5.

The New York Times
October 24, 2000

AZAMGARH JOURNAL
BACK TO LIFE IN INDIA, WITHOUT REINCARNATION

By BARRY BEARAK

AZAMGARH, India, Oct. 20 -- Lal Bihari, founder of the Association of Dead
People, first learned he was deceased when he applied for a bank loan in
1975.

Proof of identity was required for the transaction. But when Mr. Bihari
came here to Azamgarh, the district capital, he was told quite
peremptorily that he could no longer be who he said he was. Official
records now listed him as dead, something that had allowed his uncle to
inherit Mr. Bihari's share of the family's ancestral farmland.

"Take a look for yourself," insisted the lekhpal, the low-level bureaucrat
who kept the appropriate books, Mr. Bihari recalled. "It is all written
here in the registry."

Death was a disconcerting change of circumstance, and Mr. Bihari was
especially annoyed to hear of it from the lekhpal, a man he knew well and
with whom he had recently had tea. 

Indian bureaucrats often work in strange ways, when they work at all. If
they had certified his demise, Mr. Bihari might need a lifetime to prove
he was not dead.

Fortunately, his story has not turned out to be so dreary. His legal
resurrection was accomplished in a mere 19 years, and in the process, Mr.
Bihari, a poorly educated merchant, found his mission in life: championing
the cause of the similarly expunged.

In July, a High Court judge became aghast after learning that there were
dozens — and perhaps hundreds — of such cases of bogus mortality. He
ordered the government of Uttar Pradesh to publish ads, seeking out the
living dead, and then to revive them in the state's public records. The
National Human Rights Commission has also convened hearings on the matter.

"As the bureaucrats once feared the devil, they now fear the Association
of Dead People," said Mr. Bihari, 45, who clearly enjoys the stir caused
by his tireless agitation.

It is still too early to make an accurate estimate of how many of the
legally dead are biologically alive, but the known cases most often
involve intra-family fraud, and the reason for the infighting is a severe
shortage of land. 

India's population now tops one billion, and as property has gotten
subdivided repeatedly among ever more heirs, some farmers are now left to
eke out a living with plots no bigger than a tennis court.

Declaring someone dead to inherit his land may seem a preposterous ruse,
especially if the dearly departed is decidedly evident. But slippery deeds
often require nothing more than a greased palm. Corruption is rampant in
India, and while crooked politicians get most of the attention, the
dishonesty at the top is built on a solid foundation of dishonesty at the
bottom. Bribes are required to conduct almost any public business, whether
it is getting electricity turned on or filing a court case.

Mr. Bihari said he later learned that his phony demise had cost his uncle
about $25, not an inconsiderable sum. A hit man could have been hired for
half that. "I contacted lawyers, and they told me that that what had
happened was nothing unusual, but that to fight it in court would take a
long, long time," he said.

Mr. Bihari faced his predicament with a potent combination of outrage and
humor. He no longer lived in Khalilabad, his ancestral village, and his
income did not depend on the contested plot of land, which was less than
an acre. He added the Hindi word "mritak," or dead, to his name. He began
his "association" and printed up stationery.

But mostly, he schemed. Mr. Bihari believed that artifice could force the
government to acknowledge his continuing existence. He tried to get
arrested; he ran for office; he sued people — anything to get his real
name on the public record. In a bit of reverse psychology, he had his wife
apply for widow's benefits, but the same officials who insisted he was
dead refused to allow him to profit from his passing.

Finally, the preservation of his death simply became too much of a
nuisance for the powerful to maintain. Mr. Bihari was a prolific
pamphleteer. He and his loosely affiliated group even held a mock funeral
for themselves in Lucknow, the state capital. By 1994 officialdom took
steps to end this ankle-biting. The land revenue records were corrected,
and Mr. Bihari's good name was fetched from oblivion.

"In pursuing my battle, I had developed quite an identity," he recalls
proudly. "I became the leader of a movement. I knew I had other dead
people to save."

Mr. Bihari now lives in the village of Amilon, which like his native
Khalilabad is in the grassy flatlands of southeastern Uttar Pradesh. These
days, he can be quite an unusual tour guide, introducing visitors to the
spuriously dead throughout the area.

In Mubarakpur there is Bhagwan Prashad Mishra, a spry man at 80, who has
been officially deceased since 1979. Mr. Mishra said he had lost his land
to conniving nephews.

"In my case, I own five pieces of property, but I am only considered dead
on the records for one," he said testily. "After so much time, how can
this continue to be?"

Ansar Ahmed, 48, lives with his widowed mother in Madhnapar. He was
recorded as dead in 1982, when his brother took control of the family's
small rice paddy.

Madhnapar, home to 90 families, is a place of mud-brick dwellings
surrounded by open fields and scum- laden ponds. Villagers have been split
by this matter of life or death in their midst, with those favoring the
former position giving shelter to Mr. Ahmed and his mother and those
supporting the latter treating him as an invisible specter.

Recently, because of pressure from the High Court, a magistrate went to
Madhnapar and, after a quick inquiry, brought Mr. Ahmed back to life.
Criminal charges have been filed against his brother, Nabi Sarwar Khan,
who is quite grouchy about this change of fortune.

"These are only allegations," Mr. Khan said gruffly in his own defense.

As various cases are investigated, several treacherous relatives and the
venal officials who abetted them have likewise been charged.

The conspiratorial kinfolk of Mr. Bihari, though, have escaped
prosecution. His uncle is now dead, on paper and otherwise. And his
uncle's sons, who have been farming the disputed land, have been allowed
to keep it by Mr. Bihari, who says making them feel guilty provides him
with enough satisfaction.

One recent morning, Mr. Bihari returned to Khalilabad, where many of those
who long pretended he was dead now treat him with demonstrative respect.
The ancestral village is a long walk from the road through pathways of
brilliant green. His family's house is made of mud and straw, with a
sloping roof laid across branches of bamboo.

Pati Ram, Mr. Bihari's cousin, warmly greeted the man whose death was once
part of his family's mythology. "We have done him a great injustice," he
said meekly.

The two cousins sat on a cot under the shade of a tree. The sky above was
blue, the air sweet, the breezes serene. It was good to be alive. 

______________________________________________
SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WEB DISPATCH (SACW) is an
informal, independent & non-profit citizens wire service
run by South Asia Citizens Web (http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex)
since 1996. Dispatch archive from 1998 can be accessed
by joining the ACT list run by SACW. To subscribe send
a message to <act-subscribe@egroups.com>
////////////////////////////////////