SACW | 22 Jan. 2006 | Demilitarising Kashmir; Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh; Vedic Creationism; Riots in India

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 22 January, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2205


[1] Demilitarization, a Distant Dream in Kashmir (J. Sri Raman)
[2] The people that Pakistan forgot (Ahmad Faruqui)
[3] Vedic creationism in America (Meera Nanda)
[4] India: Communal Riots - 2005 (Asghar Ali Engineer)
[5] India: Rajasthan govt set to withdraw trishul cases
[6] Announcements: Events
(i) Public Meeting: The Indo-Pak Peace Process & Kashmir Solution
(Bombay, 24 Jan)
(ii)International Seminar on Performances and Cults (Calcutta, 25-27 Jan)


____________________________________


[1]

truthout.org
19 January 2006

DEMILITARIZATION, A DISTANT DREAM IN KASHMIR
by J. Sri Raman

     De-nuclearization of the India-Pakistan sub-continent may appear a
distant dream, but how about a demilitarization of Kashmir, the main
bone of contention between the two countries? The common Kashmiris may
have hoped for this modest outcome from the "peace process" through its
two years of tortuous progress. The hope has once again proven unfounded.

     The demilitarization proposal has come up several times through the
process, but has never proceeded much beyond the stage of preliminary
discussion or merely a promise. The latest of the proposals from
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has fared no better.

     On January 7, in a media interview in Islamabad, Musharraf aired
the idea of a demilitarization of three "key towns" in Kashmir -
Srinagar, Kupwara and Baramullah - as the first step in a formula aimed
at solving the issue by placing the disputed area under joint control
and administration. Within two days, New Delhi made its rejection of the
proposal clear beyond mistake.

     The official ground cited for the rejection was that the deployment
of troops within a state of India could not be decided by or in
consultation with a foreign government. Unofficially, the President had
ensured the rejection of his own proposal with the rider he added to it.
Musharraf could not have been unaware of the consequences of his
statement that after the demilitarization he was demanding, Islamabad
would ensure freedom from violence for these towns.

     In India's media, this was immediately interpreted as amounting to
an admission of Pakistan's responsibility all along for the terrorist
violence in Kashmir. Even to others who might have a more charitable
interpretation, Musharraf only seemed to be suggesting that after
withdrawal of India's troops, Pakistan's could be sent in case of any need!

     This was not the first time Musharraf had proposed demilitarization
in Kashmir. He proposed it first way back in October 2004, though
without naming any town. At a state dinner for foreign diplomats in
Islamabad, he said: "I will leave a food for thought for you. Take
Kashmir in its entirety. It has seven regions. Two of the regions are in
Pakistan and five are in India.... Identify the region, demilitarize the
region forever and change its status."

     New Delhi rejected the proposal then on the ground that Musharraf
was attempting to make the "peace process" of recent initiation then
into a Kashmir-centric one instead of promoting it as a "composite
dialogue."

     About a year later, in November 2005, the President raised the
proposal again - this time in a conversation with US President George
Bush in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly
session. Now he identified two towns for demilitarization. Kupwara and
Baramullah. He suggested demilitarization as the first step - and no
less than the involvement of the US in the "peace process" as the second
stride.

     Suspicious critics of the proposal in India then saw more to the
suggested demilitarization sites than met the eye. They said: Kupwara
and Baramullah, unlike Srinagar and Anantnag, were border areas and
faced Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Demilitarization of these towns, they
argued, would in effect mean India's evacuation of the Line of Control
(LoC). Significantly, inclusion of Srinagar in Musharraf's list now has
not made it any more attractive to the same analysts.

     As for India, it promised the beginning of a demilitarization
process in November 2004. Proposed withdrawal of an unspecified number
of troops from Srinagar (capital of India-administered Jammu and
Kashmir) was announced ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to
the city. A gun battle between the security forces and a couple of
militants near the venue of Singh's public rally, however, upset all
plans. Troops were withdrawn eventually only from Anantnag - the
constituency of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, chief minister of Jammu and
Kashmir at that time - while they were only reinforced in Srinagar.

     A two-day meeting of foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan,
which ended on Wednesday, was expected to discuss Musharraf's proposal
despite its earlier rejection by New Delhi. There has been no word,
however, about such a discussion. India's foreign secretary, Shyam
Saran, has only asserted that India was, actually, for "a thin
deployment" along the entire border and not the LoC in Kashmir alone.

     No precise figures are available about the troops in Kashmir.
Around 400,000 Indian troops were reportedly present in the state in
1999. The number registered a sharp increase in 2002, which witnessed an
eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation between the Indian and Pakistani troops
along the entire border including Kashmir. Expert estimates put the
number of Indian troops then in Kashmir at 700,000. The number of troops
withdrawn in 2004 was placed between 1,000 and a few thousands.

     As far as the common Kashmiri people are concerned, the "peace
process" cannot make its presence felt without a significant reduction,
if not a total withdrawal, of the troops. No amount of official
propaganda, no media-hyped "healing touch" can convince them that they
are not living under an occupation army, so long as the presence of
troops, often accused of anti-people atrocities, remains all-pervasive.

     A freelance journalist and a peace activist of India, J. Sri Raman
is the author of Flashpoint (Common Courage Press, USA). He is a regular
contributor to t r u t h o u t.


____


[2]

Daily Times
Sunday, January 22, 2006 	


THE PEOPLE THAT PAKISTAN FORGOT
by Ahmad Faruqui

Those left behind in Bangladesh became stateless people because neither
Bangladesh nor Pakistan accepted them as citizens. The UN High
Commissioner on Refugees did not recognise them as refugees either,
since they have not fled from any nation. As one of these unfortunate
people put it, it is their nation that has fled from them

Since December 1971, about 250,000 Pakistanis have been stranded in
Bangladesh, confined to living in 66 camps spread across 13 districts –
in subhuman conditions. Their only crime was being on the losing side of
a political argument. When Bangladesh was born, thousands of these
people were killed, maimed, raped and looted. Their homes, businesses
and properties were confiscated and they lost their jobs. Even children
were expelled from schools. What befell them was nothing short of a
holocaust but history forgot them.

Ultimately, the survivors were moved to internment camps. More than a
generation later, they are still confined to these camps and consigned
to a life of grinding and abject poverty, as portrayed graphically on
www.strandedpakistani.org. They are economically exploited, with no
access to education, healthcare, or even clean drinking water. The
country whose citizenship they hold has abandoned them. The country in
which they reside has turned them into social outcasts. They live in a
twilight zone.

In common parlance, they are referred to as Biharis since most of them
are the descendents of about a million people who migrated to East
Pakistan in 1947 from the Indian province of Bihar. They lived happily
in East Pakistan until the civil war broke out in March 1971. After the
defeat of the Pakistan army in December, 535,000 of them registered with
the International Committee of the Red Cross and expressed a desire to
relocate to Pakistan. However, the Pakistani government accepted the
return of only 173,000.

Those left behind in Bangladesh became stateless people because neither
Bangladesh nor Pakistan accepted them as citizens. The UN High
Commissioner on Refugees did not recognise them as refugees either,
since they have not fled from any nation. As one of these unfortunate
people put it, it is their nation that has fled from them.

At one point, the Indian province of Bihar with a majority Hindu
population was ready to accept them back but this was overruled by
Indira Gandhi, then Indian prime minister. In the years that followed,
about 100,000 came to Pakistan, where they now live a stateless
existence without nationality or civil rights.

In 1978, the government of Pakistan through a questionable presidential
ordinance stripped all remaining stranded Pakistanis of their Pakistani
nationality. In 1992, the governments of Bangladesh and Pakistan signed
a joint declaration to resolve outstanding issues between the two
countries. In 1993, a batch of 321 Pakistanis representing 50 families
was repatriated on humanitarian grounds but the process stalled soon
afterwards.

The government of Bangladesh is anxious to repatriate these individuals
to Pakistan and has taken up the matter several times with the
government of Pakistan, most recently when General Musharraf visited
Bangladesh in 2002. However, there has been no movement on the issue.
Within Pakistan, five objections have been raised to their repatriation,
some officially and some unofficially.

The first objection is that Pakistan cannot absorb these individuals
because of economic constraints. But between 1971 and 2005, the
population of Pakistan grew by 88.5 million, or 2.6 million per year.
During the Afghan war, Pakistan absorbed an additional three million
refugees. Moreover, Pakistan has absorbed some one million Bangladeshis
as domestic help, even though most have no visa. So the argument that it
cannot accommodate another 250,000 individuals has no merit.

The second objection is that it would be very expensive to relocate them
across a thousand miles. In reality, many of them may be able to find
sponsors to finance their travel costs. Many groups in the Islamic world
have expressed their willingness to fund repatriation. According to Syed
Kemal, almost a billion rupees are sitting in a bank account solely for
this purpose since 1988.

The third objection is that they speak Urdu and their absorption will
disturb the ethnic balance in Pakistan. This objection was first raised
during the language riots in Sindh. It is specious, since there are some
15 million Urdu speaking people in Pakistan and adding another 1.7
percent will have no impact on the ethnic balance.

The fourth objection is that they will disturb the peace when they
arrive in Pakistan, because they have spent most of their lives in
camps. But they are unlikely to be troublemakers, since even while
living in camps they have not engaged in violence. Once they make a
transition to a normal economic environment, they are likely to become
productive members of society, as they were between 1947 and 1971.

The fifth objection is that after having lived for such a long time in
Bangladesh, they should apply for Bangladeshi citizenship. This is
easier said then done, since they are forever tarred with betrayal. They
have engaged in various protest measures, including hunger strikes and
demonstrations, to press for their return to Pakistan or alternatively,
for Bangladeshi citizenship.

In 2001, a small group filed a petition in the Bangladesh High Court
seeking the right to vote, which was granted in 2003. While this
represented the first time that the stranded Pakistanis were recognised
as citizens of Bangladesh, it is unlikely to establish a precedent.

None of the five objections stands up to scrutiny. They are based on
prejudice and not facts. Can anyone imagine the state of Israel turning
its back on the Jews who settled in Gaza or the West Bank and who wanted
to move back to Israel proper? But this is exactly what Pakistan is
doing to its citizens. Not only does Pakistan’s lack of interest in
repatriating these stranded people undermine its national identity, it
is also morally reprehensible.

Refugees International, based in Washington, DC, has called upon the
governments of Bangladesh, Pakistan and the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees to grant them citizenship in either country or make
arrangements for a third country to do so.

Islamabad should act on this request promptly. Pakistan needs to take
the high road on this issue, just as it does when it pleads the case of
human rights of the people living in Indian-administered Jammu and
Kashmir. It should accept with open arms all of its citizens who are
interested in coming back home. By so doing, it will end one of
history’s great injustices.

____


[3]


Frontline
Volume 23 - Issue 01, Jan. 14 - 27, 2006

VEDIC CREATIONISM IN AMERICA

by Meera Nanda

Vedic creationism is attracting friendly attention from both the
old-fashioned Biblical creationists and the new-fangled intelligent
design theorists. And Vedic creationists, in turn, are doing their best
to encourage and support all varieties of creationism.


The International Society of Krishna Consciousness, which propagates the
theory of Vedic creationism, is a big hit in the West. Here, Western
devotees at a religious gathering organised by ISKCON in Allahabad.

DARWIN is under attack in the United States yet again. Exactly 80 years
since the Scopes "monkey trial", the teaching of Darwin's theory of
evolution is facing legal challenges in many parts of the country. Even
though the court in Dover, Pennsylvania, recently ruled in favour of
teaching Darwinian evolution in schools, the fate of another trial is
awaited in Cobb County, Georgia. In all, 14 States are debating new
regulations on teaching evolution. Kansas has taken a lead by changing
the very definition of science to make room for supernatural
explanations of natural phenomena. President George W. Bush is in favour
of "equal treatment" for creationism in biology classes. It is open
season on Darwin.

This time around, the challenge comes from a new breed of sophisticated,
scientifically trained creationists who are pushing the theory of
"intelligent design" (I.D.). The `ID-ers' do not interpret the Bible
literally. They accept fossil record as evidence of the evolution of
human beings from apes, and they accept that the earth is about 4.6
billion years old (and not 6,000 years old, as the earlier generation of
Biblical creationists believed.) But they draw the line at natural
selection, the hallmark of Darwinian evolution. They insist that the
complexity in biological structures - the intricacy of the eye, for
example - could not have come about by natural causes alone. From this
they surmise that there must be an intelligent designer responsible for
the wondrous intricacy of life.

It is these I.D.-creationists who are leading the current barrage of
anti-evolution lawsuits. But they are not alone. They have found
enthusiastic allies among the Hare Krishnas, followers of the
International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), who have been
actively propagating their theory of "Vedic creationism", "Krishna
creationism", or "Hindu creationism", as it is sometimes called. Vedic
creationism is attracting friendly attention from both the old-fashioned
Biblical creationists and the new-fangled I.D.-creationists. And Vedic
creationists, in turn, are doing their best to encourage and support all
varieties of creationism.

Earlier this year, the Hare Krishnas filed an amicus curiae brief
supporting I.D.-creationists. The case in question involved a school
district in Cobb County, which wanted to put "warning stickers" on
biology textbooks, as if books teaching Darwin's theory were injurious
to the mental health of the students. The stickers warned the students
that "evolution was a theory, not a fact", and that students should
approach it with a "critical attitude". In January 2005, the court threw
out the stickers as a ruse for creationism. The court argued - correctly
- that all science is made up of theories and students should approach
all knowledge, not just Darwin's theory, with a critical attitude. But
the issue came back before the court on appeal. The final decision is
still awaited.

In the Cobb County case, the Hare Krishnas appealed to the court to keep
the anti-Darwinian warning stickers. As the stickers only attack Darwin
without endorsing a specifically Christian God, Hare Krishnas see them
as an opportunity to introduce Vedic creationism into American schools.
They know that once one religion gets its foot inside the door, all
others will automatically get equal time to bring in their own creation
stories and cosmologies into science classrooms in America.

If the Hare Krishnas hope to sneak into science classrooms through the
door opened by I.D. creationists, the IDers use the Hare Krishnas to
bolster their own image. `I.D.' is often accused of being a
scientific-sounding cover for Christian creationism. The ID-ers
conveniently use the support of Hare Krishnas to paint themselves in
multicultural colours. Prominent I.D. theorists (Philip Johnson, Michael
Behe) and some Catholic creationists have endorsed Vedic creationism.
Any enemy of Charles Darwin is their friend - that seems to be the
operating logic.

The intellectual force driving Vedic creationism is a pair of American
Hindus, Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson, both resident "scientists"
of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, the research wing of ISKCON. Cremo
recently published a huge book, Human Devolution: A Vedic Alternative to
Darwin's Theory, which ties together his (and Thompson's) previous and
even larger book, The Forbidden Archeology, with literature on
paranormal phenomena to argue for creationism from a spirit-centred,
Vedic-Hindu perspective. While Cremo insists he is offering a
"scientific" alternative to Darwin, almost all of his evidence comes
from paranormal phenomena, including studies of extra-sensory
perception, faith-healing, reincarnation and past-birth memories, UFOs
(unidentified flying objects) and alien abductions. (He needs the
paranormal to make a case that purely spiritual causes can modify the
DNA and create new life forms.)

WHAT are the Vedic creationists saying? They deny that different species
of living beings, including humans, have evolved, or risen up, from
simpler organisms, as Darwin claims. Instead, they claim that all
species, including humans, have "devolved", or come down, from a highly
evolved, super-intelligent being, which is pure consciousness itself.
Different species of plants and animals are simply material forms
adopted by pure consciousness, or Atman, as it transmigrates in endless
cycles of births and rebirths over billions and billions of years.
Spiritual growth is the driving force of evolution: higher species
emerge when Atman trapped in all matter takes on a higher (more "subtle"
and sattvic) life-form as a result of good karma, and lower species
result when Atman "forgets" its purity and indulges in "gross desires".

Vedic creationists claim to derive this picture from the "Vedas", in
which they include the Puranas as well, especially the Bhagvat Purana.
Here it must be added that theories of spiritual or "integral" evolution
have been proposed before, notably by Sri Aurobindo and Madame
Blavatsky, the founder of theosophy. But the Hare Krishnas are the first
to support their theory with "scientific" data - if data from psychics
and UFO sightings can be called scientific.

Like all fundamentalists, Vedic creationists take the Bhagvat Purana,
along with the Bhagvad Gita, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, to be
literally true. They then proceed to use the "facts" described in these
sacred texts to condemn Darwin and all of materialist science.

For example, Cremo and Thompson accept the notion of the "day of Brahma"
lasting some 4.32 billion years as literally true. They also accept as
fact the idea that the "current day of Brahma" began two billion (2,000,
000, 000) years ago. A literal reading of the Ramayana convinces them
that humans and monkey-like hominoid creatures coexisted. Putting the
two ideas together, they come up with the fantastic notion that the
ancestors of modern human beings have existed for two billion years.
They want us to believe that human beings walked the earth at a time
when fossil records show that only bacteria existed on the earth.

This completely contradicts the best scientific evidence from fossil
records and radiocarbon dating that show that the ancestors of modern
human beings only appeared around 200,000 to 100,000 years ago: that is,
after the appearance of fish, amphibians, and reptiles and other mammals
and hominoid species, from which humans have evolved. Vedic creationists
set aside all this evidence as a mere social construct of Western
archaeologists and palaeontologists who, they say, have been brainwashed
by an atheistic, materialistic worldview. Once you remove the "knowledge
filter" of Western-Christian materialism, they tell us, "spiritual
sciences" will become dominant again, just as they used to be before the
"reductionist" science of the West banished the gods from nature.

ON the face of it, Vedic creationism with its longer time spans looks
more "scientific" than the old-fashioned Bible literalists who insist
that the earth is only 6,000 years old. But what the two creationists
share is the belief - entirely unfounded on verifiable facts - that
human beings have been around since the beginning of life, and that they
have not descended from the apes. (In fact, A.C. Prabhupada, the founder
of ISKCON, used to describe Darwinians as "rascals" and "fools" for
believing in such "nonsense" as the evolution of humans from apes.
Prabhupada's spirit lives on in Vedic creationism.)

The shared ground extends into the more "advanced" I.D. as well.
Proponents of I.D. bring in a Designer God to explain the existence of
"irreducible complexity" of life, which they think cannot be explained
by natural causes alone. Proponents of Vedic creationism likewise, bring
in Atman because they think that the existence of consciousness cannot
be explained by natural causes alone. Just like the ID-ers completely
ignore the mass of studies showing how complex structures such as eyes
can arise out of natural causes, Vedic creationists completely ignore
the mass of studies showing that the phenomenon of consciousness can be
explained by purely natural causes. In both cases, there is the same
wilful neglect of scientific method and scientific evidence in order to
defend a religious conception of natural order.

Vedic creationism as an "ism", as a "scientific" challenge to Darwin,
has been more influential in America than it is in India. But the ideas
of Vedic creationism - the enormous time spans, the cyclical yugas, the
day and night of Brahma, the creation of new species as a result of
transmigration of the Atman - are obviously better known in India than
in America.

Indeed, most of what the Vedic creationists are talking about is part
and parcel of a common perception held by a majority of Indians. Even
well educated, scientifically trained Indians believe in
karma-transmigration as the force propelling evolution or devolution of
species. Many of us encounter Darwin in our schools and college
curricula. But thanks to the rote learning that goes on in most of our
science classes, Darwin hardly makes a dent on the Vedic creationist
ideas we absorb from our myths and religious discourses. For all intents
and purposes, Darwinism remains quite irrelevant to our picture of the
world. (Yes, most Americans, too, believe in their God over Darwin.
Perhaps that is one reason why America, among all advanced Western
countries, remains so hospitable to Christian fundamentalism. We surely
do not want to imitate the worst traits of American culture.)

Yet most educated Indians take pride in how receptive our religion and
culture is to scientific ideas. Many educated middle-class Indians
compare Hinduism favourably with Islam and Christianity on precisely
this issue of openness to new ideas. Muslims and Christians are often
put down as "illogical", "superstitious" and "fundamentalist" while we
see ourselves as enlightened and open to arguments and evidence.

But we remain receptive to science only by ignoring its substance. We
can keep celebrating the "argumentative Indian" who is supposedly open
to arguments and evidence, only by not really engaging with the content
of new ideas. An honest engagement with Darwinism would mean
acknowledging that if we actually believe that Darwin is right then
Vedic creationism cannot be right, and vice versa. Honest engagement
would involve revising our views in the light of more persuasive
evidence (from fossils and biology) that supports the Darwinian theory
of evolution. I do not see many signs of this kind of critical
engagement with science in India today.

The complicity of Vedic creationism with Christian creationism in
America will hopefully make us take a critical look at our beliefs. If
we are troubled and tickled by the creationist challenge to the
scientific understanding of evolution in America, it is time, perhaps,
to look at the anti-scientific creation stories that we ourselves
subscribe to. Can we, in all honesty, believe in Vedic creationism and
still think of ourselves as modern, scientific and enlightened?



____



[4]

Secular Perspective
Jan.16 to Feb.15, 2006

COMMUNAL RIOTS - 2005

Asghar Ali Engineer

Like 2004 the year 2005 was also comparatively less violent as far as
communal riots are concerned. In fact it is Gujarat, which takes the
cake. Perhaps for years to come nothing like Gujarat carnage is likely
to take place. Communal carnage of the kind, which took place in Gujarat
is not possible without active support of the state machinery. But that
does not mean communal violence does not take place at all. It does.

One can put communal violence under two categories: 1) Communal violence
which is carefully planned and executed with political or state support
or at least with subtle state connivance. Such violence results in great
losses of lives as well as properties. It goes on for a long period of
time and is deliberately not controlled unless the stated goal is
achieved. Anti-Sikh riots of 1984, Bhagalpur riots of 1989, Mumbai riots
of 1992-93 and Gujarat riots of 2002 are its obvious examples.

2) Those riots which spontaneously break out on minor causes like
dispute on land or money matters between two individuals or groups,
knocking out somebody accidentally by car or scooter or construction of
mosque or temple etc. Since these are unplanned and spontaneous clashes
can be easily controlled, given little determination on the part of
police. And in such riots few lives are lost or not much damage is done
to properties.

The second category of riots takes place as a result of constant
communal propaganda. It is important to note that absence of communal
violence does not mean absence of communal propaganda. Communal
propaganda goes on riots or no riots. Thus communal forces keep on
poisoning the minds of people and keep on promoting animosity between
the communities. And so skirmishes continue.

Communal Riots in 2005

It began with Vadodra, Gujarat on 4th February. Gujarat is highly
communalised state today in India, thanks to BJP rule and Narendra
Modi's open hostility to Muslims. Trouble began when people in a
marriage procession, accompanied by DJ and high power music system,
allegedly beat up an auto-rickshaw driver passing on the same rout when
he complained of traffic jam. The driver belonged to the minority
community, ran away after being beaten up. Soon thereafter a mob came
and pelted in stones. A posse of policemen rushed and lobbed four tear
gas shells. About a dozen people including a policeman were injured.
Four persons were arrested and police also seized the music system.

The rioting in Vadodra was followed by one in Jaunpur village Khetasarai
on 4th February. Here it was result of dispute about a cemetery land. In
this one woman was killed and 23 persons were injured. Communal tension
mounted in the area subsequent to this incident. Violence erupted when
some people hoisted saffron flag on the cemetery land when settlement
process was on. Then people of one community set fire to two houses of
another community. And in response to that people of another community
set fire to one shop. Then PAC reinforcements were brought. The people
of two communities gathered in large numbers and raised slogans against
each other. The police arrested 23 persons from both the communities.

On 8th February communal violence broke out in Rajnandgaon of
Chattisgarh. This was result of two girls having fled from their houses
and two groups fought on that. Then firing began and then first 144 was
clamped and then curfew in the area. There was no news, however, of any
death.

Then it was turn of Azamgarh district on 9th February when dispute on
distribution of kerosene in Diwali Khalsa village in which 12 persons
were injured. Some people belonging to another community tried to enter
the queue out of turn and situation went out of control. The police
rushed to the spot and controlled the situation.

Again a village in Vadodra district witnessed communal clashes on 11th
February when two cyclists belonging to different communities fought.
Fifteen persons were injured including a leader of VHP. Many houses were
also damaged. The police was keeping a vigil to keep control over the
situation.

Next we see communal rioting in Nagazmangala town of Mandya district in
Karnataka when an idol was taken from the temple and thrown on the road.
However, no one knows who was the culprit. After the rouble broke out
rioters, Hindus as well as Muslims went on a rampage in the town. It is
said properties worth crores of rupees were destroyed. The police lobbed
teargas shells and fired five rounds in the air.

Agra witnessed riots on 13th February in Tajganj near Tajmahal when
someone from one community teased a girl from another community. Many
houses were set afire after this incident and stoning on large scale
started. The police maintained that since police inspector of Tajganj
police station had gone out the rioting took such fierce form. He said
there was incidence of firing also between two communities. Many illegal
arms were found in the area.

Next it was Sanbhalnagar of Moradabad that communal violence erupted on
the occasion of Moharram on 19th February. These are communally highly
sensitive areas. Rioters resorted to firing in Sanbhalgarh. The police
arrested 100 persons from both the communities.

On the same day Lucknow witnessed rioting between Shias and Sunnis in
which 3 persons lost their lives and 40 were injured in the old city.
Government announced compensation of Rs. 5 lakhs for every person died.
10 shops were looted. The trouble started with Muslims of one sect threw
stones on Tazia procession of another sect. Many shops were set on fire.
The Shia and Sunni leaders have appealed for peace. Later on 22nd
February Banaras also saw sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis in
which 24 persons were injured and when dispute started on Tazia
procession due to falling of tree on the way. The curfew was imposed
which continued even on the third day of incidents.

Dhar in M.P. also witnessed communal disturbances on 22nd February after
an explosion and curfew was clamped. Curfew was clamped after stone
throwing and setting fire to properties. Ten persons were injured
including policemen. An auto rickshaw was set on fire near the bus stand.

Bhilwada, thanks to activities of Bajrang Dal and VHP, has become
extremely sensitive town. On 13th March town became very tense after
murder of a Bajrang Dal man. For three days curfew remained in force. In
Naseerabad in Ajmer District experienced communal tension when a
religious leader was injured in Chaprasi Mohallah.

In Mandal, in Bhilwada district more violence erupted on 8th April when
some miscreants hoisted saffron flag on a mosque. Muslims were agitated
and they filed FIR and the police promised to act against the culprits.
Muslims then took out a silent procession and submitted a memorandum.
Then in the evening a procession of Charbhujanath was taken out and it
stopped near Lakhara chowk and lot of gulal (a coloured powder) was
thrown around and at that time some stones were thrown by unknown
people. No one knows who threw stones. All those who live around this
chowk are Hindus and stones mainly came from the roofs of Hindu houses.
It could be the conspiracy of those who were involved in hoisting
saffron flag on mosque in the morning.

Immediately after this situation went out of control and 11 Muslim shops
and two houses were burnt to ashes and two mazars (mausoleums) were
uprooted and Madina Masjid was damaged and one motor cycle was set on
fire. Then curfew was imposed at 7-30 p.m. but before it a person called
Kanhaiyya Das, who was among the rioters was killed in police firing.
The miscreants put his dead body outside a temple and spread rumor that
some Muslims entered the temple and killed him.

The police who knew better registered an FIR under pressure from BJP,
VHP and even some Congress politicians and it arrested 25 Muslims and
beat them up mercilessly. In search operation for illicit arms in Muslim
houses many women were also beaten up. Thus Muslims had to suffer
financially and physically. In Mandal there were cordial relations
between Hindus and Muslims but BJP-VHP combine do not like Hindu-Muslim
unity.

Then in Kareda Tehsil suddenly one found flags on Hindu temples with 786
Muslim sacred symbol) inscribed on them and some animal bones. One can
well understand who must have done it. Kareda markets remained closed
for 72 hours. The Sangh Parivar fixed the responsibility of this on a
sufi saint of Kareda Sailani Baba and described his centre as centre of
Pak agents and smugglers and demanded his removal from there and
threatened that if administration did not act then it will be converted
into Gujarat. Communal tension continued there for many days.

Sailani Baba who has Hindu and Muslim disciples was subjected to
thorough search but nothing incriminating was found there. And one who
had desecrated the temples was nothing but a Shiv Sena activist Ramratan
Jhanvar. The whole conspiracy was exposed and Hindus were stunned by
such blatant act.

Holi is another occasion when communal skirmishes invariably take place
in some communally sensitive areas. Three persons were killed and
several others injured. In Balrampur U.P. people in Subhashnagar and
Gandhinagar clashed and set fire to several shops. When the procession
was passing through a religious place stoning began and clashes started.
The police imposed curfew. Police has filed FIR against 52 persons and
have arrested 35 so far.

In Rajasthan curfew had to be imposed in Sojat town in the Pali district
on 27th March following clashes between two communities during a dance
procession on the occasion of Holi. A dozen persons were injured in the
clash. According to the police sources, the incident occurred on
Saturday evening as a traditional Holi dance procession passed through a
Muslim locality and suddenly both side started pelting stones at each
other. Angry processionists went on rampage and shops in the area were
set on fire. Seventeen persons were injured and 20 shops were set ablaze.

On 27th March Faizabad in U.P. too experienced communal disturbances
when members of two communities clashed on the question of throwing
colour by Holi revellers. Members of both communities fired on each
other. Four persons were injured seriously and 12 shops were set ablaze.
It is reported that during Holi revelries about 6 persons died in
different parts of U.P. and 50 persons injured. Police said that in
Ferozpur one person was shot dead and one died of fire burns. In
Fatehgarh, Farrukhabad one person was shot dead.

On 31st March on the occasion of Rangpanchmi communal disturbances broke
out in Sarangpur in Rajgadh district in Rajasthan. In these disturbances
several people were injured in stone throwing and police has arrested 50
persons in this connection.

Bhilwara, Rajasthan, which has emerged as most sensitive town again
witnessed communal clashes on 8th April when communal rioting took place
in Mandal town of Bhilwada district. Muslims from villages in the
district began to flee for safety. Trouble began when a saffron flag was
hoisted on a mosque in Mandal on 8th April and violence broke out when a
religious procession was in progress. In Karjalia village of Bhilwada
district Muslims faced total boycott and they began to migrate from
there when a RSS activist was murdered on March 1. Hindu activists
fanned out in the area and called for a social boycott of Muslims. Some
19 families from the village migrated to other places. No one talks to
Muslims and if someone does he has to pay a fine of Rs. 11,000. No Hindu
shop sells them anything. Bhilwara has become Gujarat within Rajastan.

In these disturbances 10 persons were injured, 6 shops were set afire
and three religious places were burnt down. Kanahiyalal Beragi was
killed in police firing but police is trying to shift blame on someone
else saying he was killed in firing from unlicensed weapon. Beragi's
family maintains that he was killed in police firing and unless police
officer is arrested they will not perform last rites of Beragi.

On 19th April people of to communities clashed in Morshi Taluka of
Amravati district in Maharashra in which one person was killed and two
were injured. This was result of fight between two youths of two
communities on a shop. According to collector of Amravati district many
shops were set ablaze and looted. Two Autorickshaws and two motor cycles
were also burnt down.

On 7th May a Hindu a 50-60 strong mob presumably belonging to Sangh
Parivar attacked with lathis on Muslims who had gathered in Kamba in
Bhivandi gathered there to pray at Jannatshahwale Baba's mausoleum. Most
of the Muslims were injured. They also upturned a rickshaw and beat up
two motorcyclists. They claimed it is Samadhi of Nonathbaba and not
Jannatshah Baba's mausoleum. The dargah has 100 acre property and Sangh
Parivar wants to grab the land.

Next Surat came under spell of communal violence on 16th May.
Disturbances started after a minor collision between a Muslim Scooterist
and a Hindu Kahar Autorickshawwala. Nadeem alias Kaliyo, the Scooterist
was injured and shifted to civil hospital and his people came demanding
compensation from Autorickshaw owner. An argument began and stoning and
acid bulbs were thrown along with soda water bottles. Several people
were injured. 27 persons were arrested in this connection. The mob also
set fire to one rickshaw and two cycles. Rumours that Dhansukh Kahar was
kidnapped and killed began doing rounds until he was found sleeping near
the Tapti bank.

Dhar in M.P., another communally sensitive town came under bout of
communal violence after some dispute between persons of two communities
in which two persons died and 11 were injured. One Raju Bherivi was
killed in these skirmishes. Then a Hindu mob armed with swords and other
weapons went and killed one Muslim named Allah Noor. It was result of
fight between children of two families, which assumed such grave
proportions. Curfew had to be imposed on the town.

Badoda (Vadodra) witnessed another bout of communal violence in
Mughalwada and this happened, according to the police, due to gamblers.
It is gamblers who were interested in provoking violence to earn money.
One gambler has been arrested in this connection. Police had to do
lathicharge, had to throw teargas shells and open 8 rounds of fire in
the air. In this firing one person i.e. Mohammad Saeed was killed.
According to the police apart from gamblers, some politicians and media
people also might have been involved.

Major Riot in Mau (U.P.)

Mau, in U.P., again a highly sensitive town and went up in flame in
October on the occasion of Dasehra. Mau has significant population of
Muslim weavers. It is primarily a weavers' town. Unofficial figures of
casualties after proper investigation stand at 14 dead in all and
properties worth crores of rupees were reduced to ashes. Many shops were
looted. Hospitals, schools and other properties belonging to minority
community were totally destroyed.

The dispute started on the question of loudspeaker. Taravih prayers were
going on in the mosque nearby due to month of Ramzan and in nearby
Dasehra maidan loudspeaker was being used for songs. Some Muslims
requested to stop it and Hindus, including one BJP leader agreed to it.
But next day some activists of Hindu Yuva Vahini led by Yogi Aditya Nath
objected and started playing loudspeaker again and some Muslim youth
snatched the equipment. A Hindu Yuva Vahini leader fired and several
Muslims were injured. This incited some Muslims to attack Hindus and
loot their shops.

But next day the Hindu miscreants took over and killed, looted and set
fore to Muslim properties and police looked on. A high police officer
from Lucknow told me that it appears that Mulayam Singh government
deliberately allowed this mayhem and pillage to balance what happened to
Hindus on the first day to ward off BJP criticism. However, whatever the
truth fact remains that Muslims suffered great loss of properties
although casualties seem to be equal in both the communities.

The role of the media, particularly Hindi media, as usual, was far from
satisfactory. It published inflammatory headlines about massacre of
Hindus. One T.V. Channel also seems to have doctored a video about the
independent M.L.A. Mukhtar Ansari as if he was provoking riots in
presence of police bodyguards. The video clip showed only his gestures
but there was no sound. All this shows media remains a part of the
problem rather than part of solution. Unfortunately administration never
takes any action against the media for spreading rumours and hatred.

While disturbances were going on in Mau, Agra once again witnessed
communal skirmishes on 23rd October as a result of a small incident in
which one woman was accused of theft in a cloth shop and the servant of
the shop searched her bag under suspicion. This small incident led to
communal clashes when other shopkeepers also joined in. Many anti-social
elements suddenly appeared with firearms and began looting shops.
Hundreds of people went up on their roofs and began stoning from there.
  This area around Jami Masjid in Agra is communally very sensitive.

On 20th December communal clashes took place between Hindus and Muslims
in Vasundari village under Titwala police station. The clashes started
on the question of digging earth. While some Muslims were digging earth,
some Hindus attacked them with lathis, iron rods and pickaxes. Seven
persons were injured.  The injured were admitted to Sion Hospital,
Mumbai. One Rohidas Pandurang Jadhav succumbed to his injuries and this
led to further tension in the village. On hearing of Jadhav's death many
Muslim women fled from the village as many Muslim men had already been
arrested. There was ongoing dispute between Zamir Nazir Pawle and Ganesh
Haribhav Jadhav about digging the earth for brick kiln. His brick kiln
was also destroyed.

Thus it will be seen that except for Mau riots in October 2005 all other
riots were minor and result of small incidents here and there. Such
violence is also result of constant hate propaganda by communal forces
and regrettably governments of various states do not take any action
against hate propaganda. And this propaganda helps communalists for
planning major communal violence whenever needed as in Mau this year. It
is only vigilance by the people and committed members of civil society
that major clashes can be prevented.

---------------------------------
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Mumbai:- 400 055.
E-mail: csss at mtnl.net.in
Website: www.csss-isla.com


____


[5]


The Indian Express
January 21, 2006
	 	
RAJASTHAN GOVT SET TO WITHDRAW TRISHUL CASES

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE 	

JAIPUR, JANUARY 20: The BJP government in Rajasthan has decided to
withdraw cases against VHP workers who were booked under the Arms Act by
the previous government for distributing trishuls (tridents) at public
ceremonies.

‘‘The government has begun the withdrawal as files on cases against VHP
activists are increasingly being cleared. The case against VHP
international general secretary Praveen Togadia, however, has not been
withdrawn,’’ state Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said.

The Home Department has sought reports of such cases against VHP
activists from the district collectors.

‘‘We shall clear them in accordance with the law,’’ Kataria said,
adding, that the Law Department would finally endorse the papers. The
government has already withdrawn cases against six VHP activists who
were booked by the police in 2002-03 for conducting trishul diksha in Ajmer.

The Vasundhara Raje government had lifted the ban on trishul diksha a
few months after coming to power in the state.

____


[6] ANNOUNCEMENTS:

(i)

You are cordially invited to a public meeting to be addressed by two
retired Judges from Pakistan and Pakistan
Administered Kashmir on

"THE INDO-PAK PEACE PROCESS & KASHMIR SOLUTION"

Date:   January 24, 2006
Venue: Cultural Hall, 3rd floor, Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan,
General Jaganath Bhosale Marg, Mumbai 400021
Time: 6-8 p.m.

Javed Anand & Teesta Setalvad, Communalism Combat [SABRANG], Sushoba
Barve, Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation


Note:
Justice (retd.) Abdul Majeed Mallik, former Chief Justice of AJK High
Court is best known for his judgement that held that the separation of
the Gilgit/Baltistan areas from PAK and their addition to Pakistan, was
incorrect.

Justice (retd.) Sharif Husain Bokhari, is originally from Baramulla in
Kashmir and now lives in Lahore. He retired as the judge from the Pak
Punjab High Court.

RSVP
   Sabrang Communications, Mumbai
022-26602288/26603927
Email: sabrang at sabrang.com, sabrang at vsnl.com

  Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation, Delhi

o o o

(2)

Dear Colleague,

The Centre for European Studies, Jadavpur University, invites you to
participate in a two day seminar on performativity on January 25th and
27th 2006. The agenda and schedule are below. We look forward to your
presence.There is no charge for attending the seminar.

Coordinators: Kunal Chattopadhyay and Rila Mukherjee

INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON PERFORMANCES AND CULTS: Ontology, Translation
and Exchange,

Centre for European Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, in
association with Maulana Abdul Kalam Institute for Asian Studies,
Kolkata and supported by the

West Bengal Higher Education Department, Kolkata, Anita Banerjee
Memorial Hall, U.G. Arts Building, January 25th and 27th 2006.

Agenda: Performance is emerging as a key term in the critical vocabulary
of a range of disciplines including anthropology (Roy Wagner, Arjun
Appadurai), gender theory (Judith Butler), social theory (Bruno Latour,
Laurent Thevenot), political economy (Michel Callon, Philip Mirowski)
and linguistic theory (Chomsky, Austin). Today, we are also witnessing
what might be called a 'performative turn' in historical studies, as in
cultural studies - alongside so many other turns, linguistic, cultural,
visual and so on (Burke's 'dramaturgical' model (2005), Foucault's
'theatre of terror' (1975), de Certeau's 'spectacle' (1970), Gruzinski's
'laboratory'(2001), Subrahmanyam's state as theatre (2005), Victor
Turner's pilgrimage as performance (1978) etc.) Rather than the fixity
of a primordial presence, humans are increasingly shown as performing
themselves into being, through language, through rituals and through
politics, to name a few instances.

The deontologisation entailed in this gesture necessitates a radical
decoupling of agency and subjectivity. Hence, intentional acts
habitually categorized as performances (dance, theatre, musical
presentations, jaatra etc.), must now be reconfigured as performance in
the second degree while the performativity of rituals have to be
rethought through the mimetic as well as diegetic axes. This colloquium
seeks to problematize the various ramifications of performativity as
such (epistemological, phenomenological, social, historical etc.)
through the interrogation of specific performance traditions and
performative circumstances: their embeddedness in particular forms of
life as well as their entanglements and negotiations with other
traditions, temporalities and transformations.  Such an undertaking can
break down traditional distinctions between 'art' and 'life'.

SCHEDULE

Day 1 January 25 2006

Inaugural Session: 10.15-12.00 AM

Chair: Nupur Dasgupa, Head of the Department, History, Jadavpur University.

Speakers:

Prof. Biswajit Chatterjee Dean, Faculty of Arts, Jadavpur University.

Rila Mukherjee, Coordinator, CES, and member Department of History,
Jadavpur University.

Prof. Jayanta Kumar Ray, Chairman, Maulana Abdul Kalam Institute for
Asian Studies, Kolkata.

Keynote Address : 'Rites of Sacred Pain and Self Mortification' by Shri
Jawhar Sarkar, Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, Govt.
of West Bengal.

12.00-12.30 Coffee

Business Session 1 12.30-2.00 pm: Image

Chair: Gautam Sengupta, Director, Centre for Archaeological Studies and
Training.

Speaker: Christopher Pinney, Professor of Visual Anthropology, UCL,
London, 'The Curve of
Photography (an Adornite discussion of early photography in India)'.

Discussant: Sudeshna Banerjee, Department of History, J.U.

2.00-3.00 pm Lunch
Business session 2 3.00-5.00 pm Cults and Performances: Translation and
Negotiations

Chair: Ranjan Chakraborty, Department of History, J.U.

Speaker: Henry J. Drewal, Evjue-Bascom Professor of Art History, (joint
appointment

with the Department of Afro-American Studies), University of
Wisconsin-Madison 'The Art  History and Culture of Mami Wata in Africa'.

Film show on Mami Wata.

Discussant: Bhaskar Mukhopadhyay.


Day 2 January 26-Free Day to Explore the Visual Images of Kolkata
7.30 onwards- reception

Day 3 January 27 2006

Business Session 3 10.15-12.30 am: Interrogating Performativity

Chair: Anuradha Chanda, Department of History, J.U.

Speakers:

Abhijit Roy, Head, Department of Film Studies.

Anita Sengupta, Fellow, Makaias 'The State and Performative Traditions:
The Case of Uzbekistan'.

Nilanjana Deb, Department of English, 'Aboriginality and Performance' .

Discussant: Dr. Anirban Das, PhD. Student, Centre for Studies in Social
Science and Department of Philosophy, J.U., Kolkata.

Business Session 4 12.30-2.00 pm: Performance and embodimentative
Circumstances : From Yoruba to Kalinga

Chair: Ipshita Chanda Department of Comparative Literature and
Coordinator, Centre for African Studies, JU.

Speaker: Henry J. Drewal-'Performance Arts of the Yoruba: Masquerade for
Ancestors' and film show.

Discussant: Christopher Pinney.

Lunch 2.00-2.30
Business Session 5 2.30 -3.45 pm

Chairs: Coordinators of the seminar Kunal Chattopadhyay and Rila Mukherjee

Strategies for network and publication. Suggestions from speakers.

Business Session 6 3.45-4.30 pm Rapporteur's reporting

Rila Mukherjee
Faculty, Department of History and Coordinator
Centre for European Studies,
Jadavpur University
Calcutta
Ph/Fax: (O) 91 33 2414 6962


_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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