[sacw] SACW | 5 June 02 (In the aftermath of the Gujarat Carnage....)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire Dispatch | 5 June 2002 (In the 
aftermath of the Gujarat Carnage)
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex

South Asians Against Nukes:
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/NoNukes.html
__________________________

#1. Reporting Gujarat: Selective Contextualisation & Editorial 
Amnesia (Dasu Krishnamoorty )
#2. The Politics of Gender in the Politics of Hate (Anuradha M. Chenoy)
#3. Human Rights in India and Lessons of Gujarat : An upcoming 
discussion at MIT
#4. Response to Malkani's letters to The Hindu and Hindustan Times 
(Ra Ravishankar)

__________________________

#1.

Source: The Hoot

REPORTING GUJARAT: SELECTIVE CONTEXTUALISATION AND EDITORIAL AMNESIA

Dasu Krishnamoorty

The texts of journalists sizzled like the fires of conflict in 
Gujarat, unloading on the readers miles of angry prose that is the 
envy of Arundhati Roy. Since reporting mainly concerns facts, it 
loses some of factualness when narrative is employed as the ballast 
of the text and facts as its handmaiden. Narrative has the quality of 
producing ideological closure denying the reader an alternative 
account. In the stampede for outdoing each other, reporters seem to 
have forgotten this aspect. Editors had to do a lot of explaining at 
seminars and in the columns of their own newspapers to live down the 
charge of bias. One crucial way in which reporting is distinguished 
from analyses and other forms of editorial exercises is agency-style 
writing that is clinical and neutral. It abjures passions and so does 
not arouse passions. In times of social strife, it becomes doubly 
necessary to respect this norm.

Narrative transforms the reporter from an observer of the event to an 
interpreter of the event and some times a prosecutor. Religious 
strife has always inspired reporters to scale the heights of free 
verse. Arty prose either edges out or embellishes facts. A 
fact-fiction partnership usurps the traditional story structuring of 
its functional role. Gujarat riots saw heavily structured and treated 
reports. The new tradition began with newsmen discovering the joys of 
creative journalism and affiliation to exotic ideologies. Once a 
reporter believes in some 'ism', he forfeits his credentials to be a 
reporter. The ideology of that 'ism' seeps into his reports too. He 
will be an asset for a party journal.

Loss of Perspective

Since someone has already written for The Hoot on this aspect of 
reporting, I will limit myself only to two aspects of our press in 
reporting and commenting on the Gujarat riots. One is 
decontextualisation or selective contextualisation. The other is 
editorial amnesia. The trouble began in Godhra when mobs set ablaze a 
train carrying kar sewaks returning from Ayodhya. Next day reprisals 
started and took more than two months to stop. Now, to attribute the 
violence to the goings-on in Ayodhya or the arson at Godhra or the 
reaction to it is to drown the real context. I do not deny that 
hundreds have been killed or do I deny it is a heinous crime. Those 
are facts but not all the facts. But the constant reference to 
Ayodhya to contextualise the Gujarat tragedy pushed to the background 
the original setting that informs all communal riots in the country.

The media tore the whole turmoil out of its context and, as Johann 
Galtung says, focussed on the irrational without looking at the 
reasons for the unresolved conflicts and polarization. It is the 
context of the event that helps the audience to accomplish a tenable 
perspective of the event. Neither the arson at Godhra nor the 
continuing riots in Ahmedabad are independent of a past or are sudden 
and unpredicted occurrences. They were waiting to happen. This past 
has been visiting the people repeatedly and ruthlessly: a past rooted 
in the partition of the country on the basis of religion. The 
founders of the Indian republic embraced secularism but enshrined 
religion in the Constitution. The problem started here and without 
this context all reporting tends to be one-sided.

Accepting partition on the basis of religion meant recognition of the 
thesis that religion could be the context for nation making. The 
Constitution sanctified religion by conferring privileges and 
safeguards on minorities, on the basis of their faith. This is the 
genesis of the communal divide. Several times, the Supreme Court of 
India tried to define the frontiers of religious privileges. Nearly 
every political party, mainly the Congress, thwarted such efforts. 
For instance, the bill to reserve seats for women in Parliament could 
not even be tabled because the Samajwadi Party demanded that the 
seats be distributed on a religious basis. As Jawaharlal Nehru said: 
If you seek to give special safeguards to a minority, you isolate it. 
Maybe, you protect it, but at what cost? At the cost of isolating it 
and keeping it away from the main current in which the majority is 
going, at the cost of forgetting that inner sympathy and fellow 
feeling with the majority.

Editorial Sleight

In the latest episode of Gujarat violence, the Muslims were the first 
to strike at Godhra. The media could not escape the compulsion of 
condemning the attack. Yet, they could not resist the temptation of 
blaming the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for providing provocation to the 
arsonist mob. Every newspaper blamed the VHP. As Vir Singhvi, editor 
of the Hindustan Times said 'Basically, they condemn the crime; blame 
the victims.' After a ritual condemnation of the arson, an Indian 
Express editorial refers to the activity of the VHP at Ayodhya for 
building a temple at the site of the demolished Babri mosque. Then 
follows this gem: "Many cautioned that the VHP's hate-filled campaign 
could provide latitude to other practitioners of a similarly bad and 
bigoted politics. The ghastly violence at Godhra would appear to be 
the embodiment of the worst of those fears coming true."
The Hindu waited for a whole day to look for an alibi for the 
arsonists. Luckily for the Hindu, reprisals came the day after the 
Godhra incident. The Hindu editorial says, "Impelled as the VHP and 
its allies in the sangh parivar are by atavistic passion and 
revanchism, their high-voltage protest are flashpoints, given the 
hate campaign aggressively mounted against the minority community in 
the pursuit of their political agenda." So, the blinkers both 
newspapers wore did not allow them to see the hate campaigns in the 
Urdu press and in the English press repeating the same litany of 
abuses the Muslim priests hurl at the majority community at their 
Friday prayer assemblies.
The Times of India editorial began with advising the government to 
see that " The call of the law and order is not allowed to degenerate 
into a witch hunt against any particular community. There is need to 
look at the larger political context, which might have provided the 
unfortunate spark for the attack. In the last few weeks, the VHP and 
its affiliates have upped the ante on the Ram Mandir (Ayodhya temple) 
issue, demanding that the Center unilaterally hand over the disputed 
Babri Masjid site to them so that they can begin construction of the 
temple." The Hindustan Times too succumbed to the temptation of 
blaming the VHP for supplying the spark for the Muslim attack. Later, 
its editor made amends by writing two articles in which he clearly 
stated that 'The secular establishment was not as vociferous in its 
condemnation of Godhra as it should have been.'

Far-fetched

Now let us see whether the attempt to build a temple at Ayodhya was 
the immediate cause and the Godhra arson its effect. The temple 
dispute is 52 years old. It reached a flash point when several 
thousand kar sevaks converged on Ayodhya in December 1992 and in a 
senseless frenzy brought down a structure the Muslims claim to be a 
mosque built by the first Muslim ruler Babur. The people who 
travelled in that train set afire on 27 February were returning from 
Ayodhya after visiting the site where the VHP plans to build a 
temple. Godhra is 2,000 miles away from Ayodhya and the mosque-temple 
row is half a century old. How could this be a sudden provocation to 
people so far away from the disputed site to burn a train?
The consequences of a one-way street in the long run are ominous for 
the interests of the country. The fallout of the accommodation at the 
time of the partition was a surge in secessionist claims by 
minorities on the basis of religion. The Christians in the northeast 
are still engaging the country's army in guerilla battles. In Punjab, 
it cost several thousand civilian lives before the Khalistan movement 
was put down. The Kashmir liberation movement is denting the 
country's defense armor. The country could have been spared of all 
this hatred and distrust and the consequent killings if the Congress 
party and the media had not distorted the concept of secularism into 
a selective worship of faith.
Read what Saeed Naqvi has to say of our kind of secularism: "The word 
secularism, let us face it, was profaned by the Congress. The word 
became a trick to keep the minority vote in its fold." Or for that 
matter, S.Nihal Singh: "The Congress is primarily to blame for 
keeping the communal politics alive, Nehru initially giving the 
Muslim League in Kerala respectability at a time when it was far from 
certain about its future. Since then Muslim parties have proliferated 
and gained strength, not in resolving their followers' problems but 
in extracting concessions for the leaders. Since the leaders of the 
Muslim political parties have an interest in nurturing communal 
passions and grievances to retain their hold and deliver votes to 
other parties for a price, the cauldron of communal politics must 
keep on simmering."
This is the history of Gujarat riots. Both the history and riots will 
repeat if we continue with our travesty of secularism, contrary to 
its consensual denotation.

Contact:
dasukrishnamoorty@h...

Posted May 30, 2002

____

#2.

Source: Aman Ekta Manch Digest no 3, 4 June 2002

The Politics of Gender in the Politics of Hate
By Anuradha M. Chenoy The politics of gender were integral in the 
making of a Hindutva militia that led and carried out the carnage 
throughout Gujarat State against the minority community. The use, 
abuse and control of women were a critical aspect of the pogroms 
conducted in Gujarat in March-April 2002. Simultaneous with this was 
the resurgence of a politics of masculinity and militarism that was 
asserted along with identity politics at both the civil society and 
state level. Given the increase of awareness on women's issues, 
women's experiences were documented by the media and human rights 
reports. But despite this, women were continuous targets and 
participants in this carnage that can be termed as ethnic cleansing. 
Can there be an explanation for the cruelty inflicted on women and 
their participation? Could the mass rape and crime be linked to the 
metaphoric uses of gender representation? And what meaning does this 
have for social experience and action? This paper attempts to analyze 
some aspects of this gendered pogrom. Women as Signifiers of the 
Conflict. One way to examine the structural roots of the gender 
system is to move beyond women's experiences and analyze the 
metaphoric uses of gender representation. Studies of nationalism and 
nation states have often shown how nations express their goals in 
sexual terms. The use of the mother image as metaphor for a nation 
has been part of nationalist discourse, including in India. This 
sexual representation of a nation/community impacts on social and 
personal experience. For women in India, this representation 
continues to impact on them long after the nationalist project. At 
times of every conflict this cultural definition is raised and the 
Hindu Right (Sangh Parivar) distorts it to suit its own agenda. 
National anxiety gets expressed as a crisis of masculinity. The 
notion of gender in cultural terms gets redefined. And the impact is 
on women and their bodies. The movement for women's change gets 
deflected, as notions of women's self-service and sacrifice attempt 
to come back. The episodes in the Gujarat carnage reflect this use of 
the gendered metaphor. We cite just some instances to show this. 
Reports have shown that the tragic communal killings in Godhra on 
February 27th were preceded by provocation of Muslim passengers by 
the kar sevaks who had been travelling to and from Ayodhya in 
connection with their Ram temple construction. This provocation had 
specific characteristics. It was directed towards those who bore 
ethnic/religious markings and especially if these were women. So men 
with beards and women with veils who appeared to be Muslims were 
singled out for abuse and humiliation. The initial fracas at the 
Godhra station on the 27th February involved the teasing of a young 
Muslim girl.The mob of Muslim miscreants that gathered on the Godhra 
station and subsequently set the two bogies on fire, had been 
incensensed by the rumour that kar sevaks had abducted and molested a 
Muslim woman. The kar sevaks were seen to have 'dishonoured' the 
Muslim community. After the reprehensible Godhra incident, where 58 
kar sevaks, of whom most were women and children were killed, the 
gruesome murder provoked widespread anger and grief. The regional 
press and papers like the Gujarati daily Sandesh, reported on 28th 
February in news headlines that stated: Religious fanatics kidnapped 
some 10-15 Hindu women by snatching them from the Railway coach. The 
paper said on March 1st, that two Hindu women had been abducted from 
the train by Muslims, gang raped, mutilated with their breasts cut 
off, then killed with their bodies dumped near Kalol near Godhra. The 
police investigated this story and found it to be baseless. But the 
very next day onwards Hindu mobs started attacking, burning, killing 
Muslims and raping and burning Muslim women. Newspapers like Gujarat 
Samachar printed mythical stories of Muslims raping Hindu women. On 
28th March this paper stated that 3-4 Hindu girls had been kidnapped. 
The VHP leader Kaushik Patel stated in this paper that 10 Hindu girls 
were kidnapped. Rumours of Muslims raping Hindu women preceded many 
instances of rape and violence in minority areas like Naroda Patia. 
Sandesh also continuously gave out false stories of Muslims raping 
Hindu and even tribal women, which led to violent responses from 
tribal adivasis. One of the slogans through out the carnage was one 
of avenging the rape of 'our women'. These papers called the kar 
sevaks "devotees" and areas with Muslim population within the city as 
'mini Pakistan'. Sandesh on 7 March alleged that Godhra had a 
'Karachi connection.' Critical aspects of the methodology of the 
pogrom that was to follow became clear: Evoking the symbols of women 
being abused at the hands of the enemy could rouse mass sentiments 
leading to violence. Rape of women was synonymous to dishonouring the 
community. It had to be avenged in kind. The Sangh Parivar and the 
communal press constructed a myth of rape and Hindu hurt by a 
community linked to an external enemy. This threat perception has 
been part of a long and sustained campaign of the Hindu right as we 
shall examine subsequently. But at this conjuncture, it sharpened the 
religious divide and made the citizen into a warrior and a mob into a 
militia. This enabled a response of revenge and genocide, that was 
then justified by theories ranging from action-reaction, to Godhra 
being an ISI (Pakistani) plot. Keeping alive these theories, Union 
Home Minister L.K.Advani described the Godhra incident as a 
"pre-meditated" attack. The Gujarat minister of state for home, 
Gordhan Zadaphiya stated it was a pre-planned incident and even 
sponsored by the ISI. At the local level, Pravin Togadia, 
international general secretary of the VHP called for the kind of 
action that was to follow: " Hindu Society will avenge the Godhra 
killings. Muslims should accept the fact that Hindus are not wearing 
bangles. We will respond vigorously to all such incidents." These 
statements reflect the basic tenets of Sangh philosophy. Veer 
Savarkar, revered as the progenitor of the RSS had twin ideas of 
Hindutava. One which talked of Hindutava and said that only those who 
regard India as both their pitribhu (fatherland) and punyabhu (holy 
land) can be Hindus. All others were thus excluded from citizenship. 
The other part of this theory can be explained in his words: "Our 
real national regeneration should start with the moulding of man, 
instilling in him the strength to overcome human frailties and stand 
him up as a real symbol of Hindu manhood." This combination has 
provided a basis for the Sangh to combine a homogeneous Hindu 
nationalism mixed with patriarchal politics of aggression. The RSS 
continues with this theory to emphasize that Muslims who remained in 
India after the Partition of the country were "internal enemies". 
Christians were also part of his list of adversaries. Others remain 
outsiders. Given the systematic spread of Sangh ideology in Gujarat, 
the enemy had been identified, the threat perception made clear, the 
response aroused. The terms of the carnage had been set. Women then, 
became easy victims of the conflict. In fact, as women activists 
showed through their reports, there was widespread the most extreme 
form of sexual and gendered violence against women and even young 
girls. The use of the myth and reality of rape is an old wartime 
tactic. It is the oldest method of dehumanizing the object. The 
'enemy other' would be best hurt if 'their women' were dishonoured 
through bodily abuse. As Susan Brownmiller noted about the Bosnian 
rapes: "In one act of aggressiveness, the collective spirit of women 
and the nation (in this case the community) is broken, leaving a 
reminder long after the troops depart." All these were steps for a 
militarized Hindutava agenda. Along with punishing the Muslims, men, 
women and children, those women who were found guilty of saving, or 
protecting Muslims were equally punished. The most famous case was 
that of Geetaben, married to a Muslim. Hindutva forces stripped her 
before stabbing her, since she had committed the crime of marrying 
and protecting a Muslim. This practice of stripping and shaming 
'erring' women has been followed quite often by fundamentalists as a 
lesson to women who have violated the set norms of the community. 
This shaming of one woman creates a fear amongst many others women 
who are warned of these consequences and serves the purpose of 
maintaining gender hierarchy while it controls the autonomy of women. 
In this instance, Geetaben became victim but also martyr. Others who 
opposed this genocide celebrated her as heroine, as symbol of 
communal amity and resistance: "In these troubled times when heroes 
are scarce and villains abound, Geetaben deserves to be worshipped. 
She is Gujarat's Jhansi-ki-Rani, its La Passionaria. I salute you 
Geetaben, from the bottom of my heart for your one brief moment of 
defiance." Also punished were those women who protested this 
violence. Newspapers reported that a man killed his wife since she 
tried to stop his joining a mob that was on a burning and rampaging 
mission. Extolling women as 'honoured' and elevating them as symbols 
of the community burdens them as carriers of culture and also imposes 
controls on them. Controlling the autonomy of women lies at the heart 
of the Hindu fundamentalist agenda (as in other fundamentalist 
ideologies.) Women were given the message that they should conform to 
the strict confines of womanhood within their religious codes. This 
was a condition for constructing the fundamentalist vision of a 
Hindutava society. Militarization was an integral part of this 
agenda. With action like these, the woman, and the man whose property 
she supposedly is, and the community she signifies was all 
humiliated. Moreover, this 'event' was used to maintain and 
strengthen difference between communities. Just as in wars, the 
politics of revenge, victory, honour, humiliation was signified on 
and with women. In fact as women caught in this conflict told 
activists; "Yaha to Yudh ho gaya" (Here, there has been a war.) 
People spoke of "borders" in localities separating the two 
communities. Fences between the houses and streets were put up to 
signify these 'borders'. In some areas the 'other' side was called 
Pakistan. Godhra itself was referred to as "mini Pakistan". This 
imagery and language it self became militarized and values like 
violent force as power and arbitrator, masculine hierarchy, gender 
difference permeated society. Femininity as the 'other' was also used 
as a signifier to contrast with masculinity. Newspaper and other 
reports told of how bangles and saris were distributed to villages 
that were peaceful and to men who did not participate in the carnage. 
This was central to the construction of masculinity linked to the 
warrior image. The focus was on women as weak, powerless, disarmed 
and men who did not take to arms as feminized. The message was also 
to degrade peace and women as a combine and emphasize in contrast the 
Hindu identity as warriors and enforcers of power as singular force. 
The binary 'other' of this feminine signifier, i.e. of masculinity as 
power and lust is an underlying theme of Sangh Parivar leaders and 
was sharpened during the conflict. In an interview Prof. Keshavram 
Kashiram Shastri, Chairman of the Gujarat unit of the Vishwa Hindu 
Parishad who justified the violence as necessary said: "Lust and 
Anger are blind." The natural connection between masculinity, power 
and lust were also drawn by him when he stated that this was after 
all done by "our" Hindu boys. And that: "Our boys were charged 
because in Godhra women and children were burnt alive." He further 
stated: "But we can't condemn it because they are our boys." Thus 
'boys will be boys' and boys as warriors were part of the 
justification. This stressed the fundamentalist belief in the natural 
order of society where power and identity was asserted and defined 
through acts of carnage. Women's Agency Women's role as supporter and 
looters has been a well reported aspect of the Gujarat carnage. RSS 
leaders cited this to show the spontaneity and 'mass character' of 
the movement. Women leaders of the BJP feigned ignorance of the 
atrocities of the carnage. The women's fact finding panel showed, 
that Maya Kodnani, BJP MLA from Naroda Patia who has been named in 
the First Information Report as an accused who participated and 
incited violence in the worst hit areas of Naroda Patia, justified 
the incidents as 'natural' anger against Muslims. She said housewives 
helped the mobs by giving them gas cylinders from their homes, which 
could be used to burn Muslim homes. In an interview with the team, 
the inter-relationship between rape and identity becomes clear. It is 
part of the same psyche that condones 'our boys' with their 'anger 
and lust'. It implies Muslim women are less worthy victims of rape. 
After all they are mothers of the enemy 'others'. The fact finding 
team was appalled by her casual attitude towards sexual crimes 
against women. A report in the Hindustan Times 6th May describes how 
young boys guided by a 'leader' set fire to a man after stripping him 
and burnt down houses of the minority community. "Almost in 
synchronization a huge crowd of women poured onto the streets and 
prevented the BSF jawans from getting any further ahead. They abused 
them in the filthiest language, shouting at them for not having the 
guts to open fire at the other community." This tactic distracted 
the para-military forces while the boys ran away home. The question 
is: Did the BJP women MLA along with the rest of the Parivar 
comprehend mass rape in terms of everyday violence that is 
considered legitimate? Was women's participation seen as increasing 
their empowerment? Or was it more than that? We would submit that the 
Sangh and their Bajrang Dal and VHP partners saw this as a war and 
part of the need to make a militia. For them, there are no rules in 
war of how to treat the enemy. The Muslims were not even considered 
citizens, and so not worthy of human rights. Women of the Hindu right 
were partners in this war. Participation would 'empower' them, give 
them agency in domestic affairs and raise their 'womanhood' in the 
eyes of the Hindu militia. This represented for them an aspiration 
for power. Through participation in violence, conflict and war women 
of the Hindu right showed evidence of their equality with men. They 
proved their 'sameness' and worth to their men. Whereas in reality 
they were only re-enforcing patriarchal and gender patterns based on 
hierarchical power structures that have been used to keep women and 
others down through history. The militarization of society is a 
gendered process. De-sensitization to violence and a dehumanization 
of the potential opponent are core processes in this project. For 
male recruits, it includes a process of overt masculinization where 
the feminine is rejected as unworthy or the other. Militarization for 
men also involves providing this proof of manhood, which can be shown 
through various ways, ranging from aggression; unmitigated violence, 
initiation through rape, etc. The main place for women in a 
militarized institution is defined within the confines of gender and 
women are fitted into service and support roles. The Making of a 
Militia? The gendered carnage was in step with long years of planning 
and propagation of Sangh ideology. The Sangh outfits have long used 
Gujarat as a test case for a Hindutava agenda and concentrated in the 
region. In 1998 the same forces had attacked Christian missionaries 
and nuns. Before and during the conflict the VHP openly distributed 
venomous leaflets that called economic and social boycott of Muslims. 
Gender tension was an underlying theme in almost all pamphlets 
whether they addressed commerce, building the Ram temple or security. 
These pamphlets continuously referred to 'thousands' of rapes by 
Muslim youth of Hindu women and Hindu women being deceived by Muslim 
men. They called upon Hindu men to unite and pay back the Muslims 
wrongs on the Hindu (from the Lodhis to the Mughals). Hindu men were 
told "to keep a watch on your girls." And 'save them' with the help 
of Hindu organizations. The most consistent theme underlying most of 
these pamphlets, whether it was on economic boycott, the construction 
of Ram temple was the sanctity of Hindu women and the threat posed to 
them by Muslim men. These lessons on commerce and sex do more than 
encourage discrimination and false sense of fear based on an imagined 
threat perception. The enemy in civil society can only be fought by 
rules of war within civil society. The next logical step is 
militarize civil society and create a male militia in every home. The 
VHP and the Bajrang Dal have worked at this for years. They have 
distributed trishuls (swords symbolic of a holy war) in the 
thousands, with the clear message that these were to be used for 
protection of religion. They have organized training camps in 
martial arts. Camps for women and children organized by women of the 
Hindu right for women and children have been openly advertised in 
newspapers. In fact after one such camp, women trained in these 
skills stated that they now "felt empowered". The meaning of 
empowerment was transformed from securing equal rights to being 
armed. This kind of propagation of a security threat creates a false 
consciousness. People in a conservative and segregated society are 
occupied and aroused with false issues instead of the real issues of 
development, equality and plurality. In 'protecting their women' 
from the enemy Hindu men are being asked not only to safeguard their 
own women as property but also to kill/humiliate/rape the 'other'. 
'The man as warrior' in them was constantly being roused. Also, the 
construction of the Hindutva identity was expressing its political 
goals in sexual terms, giving meaning to manliness primarily in 
physical terms. The crisis of identity here has been expressed as a 
crisis of masculinity. In this kind of militarization and in the 
current context when a militia gets formed, the tendency is to 
dehumanize women who become primarily sexual objects. 
Women/nation/religion all get welded together and are seen in terms 
of sexuality. These are basic ingredients for the making of a 
militia. Rape is like an initiation rite for the vigilante who 
becomes part of the militia. This is not a new phenomenon; it's a 
case of history repeating itself. Cynthia Enloe has examined the case 
of Bosnian Serb men in the militia and how they were simultaneously 
masculinized, militarized and ethnically politicized. In this case, 
Serb men learnt from their elders of how Muslims (their neighbours) 
had oppressed his ancestors. The militia also taught how the Muslims 
from the Ottoman past to the present Islamic believers were the ones 
to blame for current problems and lack of success. It was men like 
these who decided to form armed militia rather than trust civilian 
parties or the weak state. The warrior element was also central to 
the construction of the Serbian ideal of masculinity. Femininity was 
constructed to bolster masculinity. The Serbs had collectively 
managed to convince individual men that their manhood would be 
validated only if they perform as soldiers, either in the state army 
or in autonomous forces. This process undoubtedly assisted in 
militarizing ethnic nationalism and in the creation of the Serb 
militia that carried out the ethnic cleansing, genocide and mass 
rape. Striking similarities between the VHP/Bajrang Dal groups can be 
found not just with the Bosnian militia but also with a checklist of 
militia organizations of the 1930's in fascist Italy, like the 
Italian Balilla and Avanguardisti. These groups organized youth on 
para- military lines and were based on an ideology of cultural 
superiority that excluded other religious and ethnic minorities from 
the concept of the nation. They used symbols of past greatness and 
blamed minorities for historical wrongs seeking revenge for the past 
in the present. They placed women lower in their hierarchic 
organizations with the specific role as supporters and reproducers 
for the nation. The forces of the VHP, Bajrang Dal, RSS are parallels 
of such militarized politics. These organizations have a large cadre 
in Gujarat and follow a similar trajectory with their own specific 
variations. The construction of the masculine as warrior is a 
constant theme with them, from the highest to the local levels. The 
VHP and other Sangh outfits have taken long term systematic steps to 
militarize religion, society and women. The importance of arms and 
privileging the image of an armed Lord Ram with bow and arrow have 
been related to the systematic distribution of trishuls as weapons of 
a religious war. The threat perception and linking the Muslims within 
the country with the enemy Pakistan outside, is part of a long grass 
root campaign, which has been sharpened in Gujarat. Just like 
religion has been used by militants as a mobilizing ideology to 
enforce identity politics or anti-imperialism or ultra- nationalism, 
so also fundamentalist forces mix religion and militancy to mobilize 
within civil society. This has been characteristic of the Jihadi and 
Hindutva ideology. Women have very specific roles in this campaign 
whether it was the Ram Janam Bhoomi campaign and now Gujarati women 
are fixed as supporters to men in a variety of ways. For instance the 
Gujarat Samachar newspaper of 15th March 2002 exhibited a photograph 
of a woman karsevak, sword in hand while travelling from Jharkhand to 
Ayodhya as symbolic of the militarized Hindu woman. Under the cover 
of religiosity, the Hindutava fundamentalists have justified 
discrimination and injustice on the basis of religion and other 
differences. They have used temples and religious congregations, 
(amongst other things) to increase their political power by 
organizing young men and women in the guise of reforming society into 
a Hindutva 'Ram Rajya' which is in constant opposition to Islam. In 
Gujarat, since the BJP is in power they have been able to use state 
resources for this agenda. The existence of Islamic fundamentalist 
forces and militancy have helped the Hindutva forces, who have used 
examples of this militancy to create mass scale threat perceptions of 
their religion/nation/ women in threat. There is thus an unwritten 
partnership in this enterprise. The threat of multiple 
fundamentalisms has torn apart countries like Lebanon where 
fundamentalists forces fought each other. If the forces of Hindutva 
are allowed to continue, to flourish, we are likely to follow a 
similar fate. Conclusion The press, citizens groups, women's groups, 
political parties opposed to the politics of the BJP and Sangh 
Parivar, all expressed horror and anguish on the events in Gujarat. 
NGO's worked in the 103 makeshift camps which housed over a hundred 
and fifty thousand primarily Muslim displaced persons. Citizens 
groups carried out fact finding missions and set up a citizen's 
tribunal. All this was necessary because of the lack of an adequate 
government response and because the state attempted to cover up the 
genocide and even protect the guilty. Women's fact finding missions 
found that the crimes against women had been grossly under-reported 
and sexual violence had been made largely invisible by the media. 
Besides that, the police, the state and others have not reported or 
attempted to file FIRs or take any action against the perpetrators. 
The Gujarat Carnage has shown how the Hindutva forces distort 
cultural definitions of gender by using gender representations at 
times of conflict. As such cultural notions of gender differences get 
heightened, women as a category get dehumanized. The attempts and 
struggles of the women's movements that are engaged in making real 
changes for women get a set back as this retrogressive ideology which 
prevents real change in the name of 'honouring' women as 
nation/goddess. Before the Gujarat carnage and during it there has 
been a continuous subtext that points to the control of women'' 
sexuality and the simultaneous assertion of masculinity. The metaphor 
of mother/woman as nation/religious/ethnic symbol was closely linked 
to this distinction. The need to arouse masculinity to 
protect/control this identity was the basis of the making of the 
militia. Civil society in Gujarat as indeed civil society in all of 
India have become polarized and sharply contested. On the one side, 
is a pseudo-Hinduism under the guise of a Hindutva that threatens to 
devour not only the everything the Indian nation and constitution 
stand for, but also civil society and then Hinduism itself. On the 
other side are the secular, multi-ethnic urges and forces of Indian 
society. The Indian progressive women's movement is a critical part 
of the later. They have to take a lead in this contestation, not only 
for the sake of the women in the country and their movement but also 
for the very future of their existence.

____

#3.

Human Rights in India and Lessons of Gujarat
A Panel Discussion With
Prof.J.S. Bandukwala
Fr. Cedric Prakash

Friday June 7, 2002
7:00 PM
Room 4-231 MIT [ Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology]

Professor JS Bandukwala teaches nuclear physics at University of Baroda,
Gujarat.He is also a human rights activist and social worker. His house
was burnt down in the recent state sanctioned massacres. In an interview he
said," I'm staying in a Hindu-dominated area and they were the ones who
stayed next to me. There is no doubt that average people are very decent.
The only problem is that the sense of terror in them. I saw that the mob
was making a target of those Hindus who were trying to inculcate this
concept of harmony. There was special viciousness for those who were trying
to help me. This is what frightens me." Professor Bandukwala will discuss
the ramifications of this state organized ethnic cleansing for the future
of a multinational, multicultural and multireligious India and rights of
all its peoples.

Fr.Cedric Prakash is an activist for human rights, justice and peace. He
is a member of the Concerned Citizens Tribunal which is coducting an
independent investigation into Gujarat massacres. He is also involved in
relief work for the victims in rural Gujarat. He was awarded the Kabir
Puraskar - an award by the President of India in 1995 - for promotion of
Communal Peace and Harmony, The Anubhai Chimanlal Nagarika Puraskar - an
award by the Mayor of Ahmedabad in 1996 - for his contribution to the city
of Ahmedabad

Sponsored by:
Committee On Rights in South Asia
Association For India's Development
South Asian Center and others

Contact: Hardeep Mann 617-497-0316 manex@c...,
Rajesh Kasturirangan 617-258-7904 kasturi@m...,
Anand Sivaraman 617-253-7594 ansiv@m...

_____

#4.

This is in response to Malkani's letters to The Hindu
and Hindustan Times. the two are almost identical.

<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/06/03/stories/2002060300291006.htm>http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/06/03/stories/2002060300291006.htm

<http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/040602/detlet01.asp>http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/040602/detlet01.asp

-------------

Dear Editor,

This refers to Mr. Malkani's letter dated June 4,
2002. There's no denying that Savarkar was initially
involved in the revolutionary movement, but
transportation to Andamans broke his spirits. He was
sentenced in 1910, first appealed for clemency in
1911, and then again in 1913. He was also very
reluctant to join the other prisoners in their civil
disobedience movement (and has admitted this in his
autobiography). Conditions in the prison were no
doubt harsh, but a few of the prisoners did confront
them courageously, and Savarkar wasn't one of them.

An appeal for clemency per se doesn't make him any
less of a hero but in October 1939, he made a
stunning volte-face during his meeting with Lord
Linlithgow: "But now that our interests were so
closely bound together the essential thing was for
Hinduism and Great Britain to be friends; and
the old antagonism was no longer necessary. The Hindu
Mahasabha, he went on to say, favoured an unambiguous
undertaking of Dominion Status at the end of the
war." Furthermore, he vowed to make the
Montague-Chelmsford proposals of 1919, which fell way
short of the demands of the nationalists, "a success
in so far as I may be allowed to do so in future." In
1942, after the launch of the Quit India movement,
when Gandhiji asked people to renounce their
government jobs, Savarkar ordered: "I issue this
definite instruction to all Hindu Sanghathanists
in general holding any post or position of vantage in
the government services, should stick to them and
continue to perform their regular duties." Through
his virulent anti-Muslim propaganda, he also ended up
helping the British policy of "Divide and Rule".

Worse still was his staunch support of the Nazis. In
March 1939, he said: "Only a few socialists headed by
Pandit J. Nehru have created a bubble of resentment
against the present Government of Germany, but their
activities are far from having any significance in
India. The vain imprecations of Mahatma Gandhi
against Germany's indispensable vigour in matters of
internal policy obtain but little regard in so far as
they are uttered by a man who has always betrayed and
confused the country with an affected mysticism."

He strongly advocated Hindu nationality so as to
"render it impossible for others to betray her to or
subject her to unprovoked attack" and counselled that
the patriotism of Muslims is suspect for "Mecca to
them is a stronger reality than Delhi or Agra." His
support for the two-nation theory is confirmed by his
assertion: "I have no quarrel with Mr Jinnah's
two-nation theory. We, Hindus, are a nation by
ourselves and it is a historical fact that Hindus and
Muslims are two nations." A recent RSS declaration
passed after the Gujarat carnage, "Let the Muslims
understand that their real safety lies in the
goodwill of the majority", is an apt reminder of his
legacy. Do we want to honour such a person? And
comparing him with Bhagat Singh smacks of ignorance,
to say the least.

Ra Ravishankar

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