SACW | Feb 25-26, 2007 | Bangladesh's secularism crisis ; UK: Family Honor and forced marriages; Police chief buys into Hindutva's myth making; India; Golwalkar and the RSS; Samjhauta express and Nanded blasts
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Sun Feb 25 21:44:43 CST 2007
South Asia Citizens Wire | February 25-26, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2366 - Year 9
[1] Bangladesh: Tattered blood-green flag:
Secularism in crisis (Naeem Mohaiemen)
[2] UK: The secret violence that challenges Britain's Asians (Sunny Hundal)
[3] UK: 'Forced Conversions' myth mongering by
British police (A letter by concerned citizens)
[4] Contorting Bharat [India] (Sitaram Yechury)
[5] India: Faith of The Bigot (Khushwant Singh)
[6] Book Review: Ricochets From An Old Gun (Lloyd Rudolph)
[7] India - Pakistan Cycle Expedition : An Appeal
[8] India, Pakistan, Samjauta express: Terrorism
and the quest for a colour blind cat (Jawed Naqvi)
[9] India: Both Nanded blasts linked: Citizen's group (Akshaya Mukul)
[10] Upcoming events:
(i) Violent Gods: Hindu Nationalism in India's
Present by Angana Chatterjee (Austin, Texas, Mar.
1, 2007)
(ii) Hindu Violence in Gandhi's Country by Arjun Appadurai ( Apr. 20, 2007)
____
[1]
Daily Star
February 26, 2007
TATTERED BLOOD-GREEN FLAG: SECULARISM IN CRISIS
by Naeem Mohaiemen
Last winter, I was filming a follow-up to an
earlier project, Muslims or Heretics. With the
first kuasha of the season had come, like
clockwork, a new program of anti-Ahmadiya
rallies. Khatme Nabuwat, now splintered into two
groups, had announced yet another gherao of the
Bokshibazaar mosque.
The anti-Ahmadiya rallies were on Friday (baad
jumma, a toxic mix of misinterpreted khutbas and
hate speech). The secularists announced a
counter-rally -- on Thursday. At the Thursday
rally, I found myself the lone cameraman; but on
Friday I was joined by scores of others:
stringers for AP, BBC, the usual suspects.
The footage from the two adjacent days were a
study in contrasts. The anti-Ahmadiya marchers
were stern young men dressed in kafon white --
steady gazes that express conviction, confusion,
or both. The rallies of the secularists are
gender-mixed, with women dominating the chants.
There is no uniform, but everyone is in colorful
saris and warm looking shawls. Inside the camera
frame was an inspiring (and cinematic) sight of
fluttering green and red flags, with marchers
chanting Ekatthur er Rajakar/Ajker Bomabaj and Al
Badar Rajaka /Ajkei Bangla Char.
But outside the frame was the startling fact that
the secular rally had drawn only a few dozen
people. As they marched through Dhaka University,
not a single student joined them. Perhaps they
didn't understand the chants. Or more likely,
they were busy thinking of shopping or taking a
phone call: "Ki Rejwan, nishchoy girlfriend
shathey? Good, good."
I thought of this footage again recently after
the Awamis cancelled the MOU with Khelafat that
(temporarily) legalized fatwas. Lost in the
scuffle of why AL did what they did, who was
betrayed, who was sidelined, blah blah blah, was
a much larger, looming issue.
Secularism today is in a deep free fall. This is
not just the crisis of betrayal and maneuvering
by political players. The deeper issue is that in
thirty five years, we have yet to articulate a
strong cultural, economic or political argument
for secularism beyond "this is why we fought in
1971." In our version, secularism stands for
nothing, only against something -- a mish-mosh of
opposition to Pakistan "ponthi," rajakar, hijab,
or Jamaat.
So ...
What do we do when 1971 is no longer enough?
Humayun Ahmed once had a TV serial where a parrot
was taught to say thui rajakar. In each episode,
the parrot would mouth the same line (well,
that's what parrots do..). These days, secular
arguments that invoke 1971 feel like that --
pretty to look at and easy to ignore. Over-use
has blunted all effectiveness.
Islam as a political force is taking over the
vacuum left by the global collapse of the
Soviet-aligned left (and the Latin American
resurgence has yet to touch Bangladesh). No
Bangiyya Muslim politician goes to elections
without going on umrah, invoking Allah in every
speech, and doing ghomta if they are women.
Non-Muslims? To hell with them, who else are they
going to vote for anyway?
1971 as the sole rationale for secularism hinges
on anger, memory, and villains. Jamaat's smart
response to this was to remove Golam Azam from
the leadership -- knowing that he was a lightning
rod for controversy. They still have Nizami,
Mujahid, Sayeedee and other liabilities -- but
increasingly you start to see the rise of new
"brands" within Jamaat.
Within a decade they will have a brand new
leadership, a majority of which will be of the
post-71 generation. At last week's midnight hour
at Shaheed Minar, we listened to a litany of
names of people giving tribute. First CTG, then
(reduced) BNP, then AL, then the rest. My friend
turned to me and said: "Any moment, we'll hear,
Jamaat er omuk coming forward with flowers!" A
joke right now, but how much longer before they
appropriate these symbols as well?
Sharp Islamist minds have already appropriated
many icons, while the tired figures of Ghadani,
Bangla Academy, et al recycle stale slogans and
photo ops. The man who was once "Kafir Nazrul
Islam" is now Jamaat's icon as a Muslim poet.
This year, Islamist-aligned newspapers touted a
slogan for Ekushey "Matri Bhasha Allahr Sreshtho
Daan." DVDs are being sold on a Jamaat history of
the language movement that has the logo with
Bengali calligraphy in Arabic style.
Gone is the Jamaat of murtad campaigns,
anti-Grameen slogans, and NGO-tree choppers.
Today's Jamaat occupies Industries Ministry and
negotiates with the "malauns" of Tata. Instead of
fighting NGOs, they form their own giant NGOs
with Arabist money. Slowly, always patiently,
Islamists are infiltrating the civil service,
banks, and all sectors of the national
infrastructure. All with an eye on the long-term,
and more integrity, consistency and ideological
honesty than any mainstream party.
As Khatme Nabuwat, Khelafat-e-Majlish, JMB,
occupy the loony right, mainstream Islamists like
Jamaat start to look moderate, rational and
normalized. Nor has it escaped collective
attention that there are very few Jamaat men
among the list of big crooks bring hunted by the
CTG. Expect even more "We want Allah's law/And
honest men's rule" slogans at the next election.
In the end, what are our arguments for separation
of mosque and state? "1971 er Pak hanadar" is
emotionally resonant but insufficient in 2007. As
time passes, historians will start looking at
1971 with a more analytic, non-melodramatic eye.
As with all national liberation struggles,
uncomfortable gray areas will emerge: including
how deep was AL's commitment to secularism even
in 1970. Afsan Chowdhury's forthcoming
comprehensive history of 1971 may be the first
attempt at uncomfortable history, warts and all.
Flaws and contradictions are expected in any
foundation mythology. A normal maturing process
leads to a more open discussion of these issues.
But along with that, the opening will weaken the
traditional argument for secularism. It's time,
really urgent, to support secularism for its own
sake, not for 1971.
Many of us have always been for class-based
politics that targets the incredible wealth
disparity, obscene money race, and insane,
unsustainable consumption that is poisoning the
globe. But secularism is the missing part of this
equation. We are not only a class elite, but also
a Muslim elite that ravages this country and
renders all others as shadow citizens. From the
Vested Property Act onwards, there are laws,
"understandings," social norms, politics and
quiet discrimination that have rendered our
Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Adivasi, and Pahari
citizens as sub-human -- frozen out of schools,
jobs, politics, culture, and lived life.
(But look, I'm busy right now, says my friend.
Writing a letter to Daily Star -- the situation
in Iraq-Palestine is intolerable, we must fight
injustice.)
Many of our crises are due to greed, power play
and discrimination impulses being played out on
the vulnerable second class. But in the absence
of real ideology (what exactly is AL/BNP/JP's
position on globalization? Structural adjustment?
Unionization?), religion is still a powerful
political cover for these agendas. If you try to
oppose it, the answer is always the same. This is
Allah's law as I choose to interpret it. If you
speak against me, you are a murtad.
Time to imagine a completely different movement,
one that is for class politics that also
incorporates secularism within a Muslim identity,
not the inadequate, irreligious fig leaf of "ek
shagoro" brand pseudo-secularism (easily bought
off with a parliament seat and Pajero). Many of
us are comfortable inside, and speak from, a
Muslim identity -- either as a religious/cultural
identity at home or as ethnicized shorthand for
"other" or "immigrant" in western diasporas. But
we can be inside that identity and still fight to
our dying breath to build a left-progressive,
equitable, and secular state.
This is a battle cry for secular Muslims. And we are legion.
Naeem Mohaiemen does film/art/text interventions in Dhaka and New York.
______
[2]
The Times
February 26, 2007
THE SECRET VIOLENCE THAT CHALLENGES BRITAIN'S ASIANS
This conspiracy of silence over immigrant brides must end
by Sunny Hundal
Last week a young bride was living in fear of her
life after managing to escape from a violent
husband and his family in Manchester. She had
suffered six months of domestic violence and
verbal abuse. She said that "family honour" made
it difficult for women in similar circumstances
to admit to domestic problems and feared that her
escape would bring shame on her own family.
"This is happening to many other Asian girls -
our lives are being destroyed. Something needs to
be done," she told the Manchester Evening News.
It is indeed happening to many other Asians girls
around the country. Today I will present a
documentary for the BBC Asian Network radio
station highlighting domestic violence against
women. It focuses on brides who have come over
from South Asia and their particularly difficult
position.
In 2005 the Government recorded just over 10,000
women coming from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
as part of a marriage. There is a discussion to
be had on why so many British Asian men feel the
need to marry someone from where their parents
were born. Being fairly libertarian in my
outlook, I'm not all that concerned about who
people choose to marry or from where. I don't
have anything against such transnational
marriages. After all, my brother found his bride
while travelling around India and I happily
attended his wedding in New Delhi.
But I am concerned about the attitudes that
underpin some of these marriages and the
consequences for the brides. The view of most
British Asian women we interviewed was that these
men simply wanted someone who was submissive and
willing to do their bidding. We even found men
who openly admitted such attitudes.
The more pressing problem is that women who come
here as brides are very vulnerable to the whims
of their husbands. What happens if the marriage
fails? What if she is beaten by her husband or
in-laws? One in four British women is a victim of
domestic violence within her lifetime but at
least most of them will have someone to turn to.
Overseas brides face problems unique to their
circumstances that make them more vulnerable.
First, there are legal issues. These women are
usually unsure of their nationality because they
have to rely on their husbands to apply for
citizenship. They frequently don't run away
because they fear deportation. They may even be
unwilling to contact the authorities, believing
the police may be as unsympathetic to their
plight as those in South Asia.
Then there are communication problems.
Transnational brides usually have nobody to turn
to for support; many don't speak English or know
much about British society; some are even
prevented by their husbands from meeting
outsiders.
One campaigner at a leading ethnic minority
women's group admitted that brides from South
Asia were overrepresented in cases referred to
them. This doesn't take into account those women
who are too afraid to run away. Unfortunately not
enough is said or done about gender-related
violence, while terrorism or racism continue to
dominate the news.
In many cases where ethnic minorities are
involved, social ills such as forced marriage,
so-called honour killings, domestic violence and
even rape are framed by self-appointed "community
leaders" and even by the Government as problems
of culture or religion. But the problem here
isn't culture or religion - it is the sexist
attitudes towards women that some people hold.
This Government, instead of making small noises
about deploring violence against women and not
tolerating so-called honour killings, needs to
take firm steps in fully supporting such women if
they face domestic abuse. At present most victims
face not only difficulty getting access to social
support but also have to go to extraordinary
lengths to prove they are genuine victims.
The legislation also needs to change to put the
naturalisation process into women's hands, rather
than that of their partners. One activist
described the Government's attitude as racist
because it discriminated against these victims on
the basis of their nationality.
Labour has also failed to take meaningful action
against forced marriages, which is part of the
broader problem.
There is also a need to ensure these women become
active British citizens. Last week the Commission
for Integration and Cohesion said that new
entrants to the UK should learn English. But
teaching English is not just about integration.
More important is that it is empowering.
Most campaigners I spoke to agreed that language
was a key barrier in learning more about British
society and getting help. Translation services
are part of this problem - taking away the
woman's incentive to learn English, whether or
not her husband lets her. Rather than funding
these services the Government should phase them
out while expanding ESOL (English for speakers of
foreign languages) classes, which have miserably
failed to keep up with demand.
In addition, we need greater self-reflection of
the attitudes of many Asians who not only use
culture or religion as a cover for controlling
women, but also invoke "family honour" as a means
to hide abuse underneath their very noses.
Activists who challenge these attitudes usually
invite howls of protest from some
government-appointed community leader or
accusations of being "a traitor" for airing dirty
laundry in public.
But highlighting such social problems is not
about tarring everyone with the same brush. It is
about highlighting misogynistic attitudes that
lead to many vulnerable women being abused or
abandoned every year.
Progressive voices from within the British Asian
community and outside need to help and empower
these brides as women, not simply ignore them as
unfortunate victims of cultural attitudes.
______
[3] 'FORCED CONVERSIONS' MYTH MONGERING BY BRITISH POLICE
25 February 2007
Letter to The Guardian (UK)
Dear Editor
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair's
recent announcement that the police and
universities are working together to target
'extremist Muslims who force vulnerable teenage
Hindu and Sikh girls to convert to Islam' is
disturbing. This statement has been made on the
basis of claims by the Hindu Forum of Britain who
have not presented any evidence that such 'forced
conversions' are taking place. In fact the notion
of 'forced conversions' of young Hindu women to
Islam is part of an arsenal of myths propagated
by right-wing Hindu supremacist organisations in
India and used to incite violence against
minorities. For example, inflammatory leaflets
referring to such 'conversions' were in
circulation before the massacres of the Muslim
minority in Gujarat exactly five years ago which
left approximately 2,000 dead and over 200,000
displaced.
It is highly irresponsible to treat such
allegations at face value or as representative of
the views of Hindus in general.
While we would condemn any type of pressure on
young women to conform to religious beliefs or
practices (whether of their own community or
another) we can only see Sir Ian Blair's
statement as contributing to the further
stigmatising of the Muslim community as a whole
and as a pretext for further assaults on civil
liberties in Britain.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Meena Dhanda, University of Wolverhampton, Dr
Subir Sinha SOAS, University of London, Dr
Rashmi Varma, University of Warwick, Dr Kalpana
Wilson, SOAS, University of London, Dr Anandi
Ramamurthy, University of Central Lancashire, Dr
Manali Desai, University of Kent, Dr Pritam Singh
Oxford Brookes University, Dr Sharad Chari,
London School of Economics.
______
[4]
HindustanTimes.com
February 21, 2007
CONTORTING BHARAT
by Sitaram Yechury
The culmination of the RSS's countrywide
celebrations marking the birth centenary of its
longest serving Sarsanghchalak, MS Golwalkar,
comes ominously close on the eve of the 5th
anniversary of the 2002 genocide in Gujarat.
These observations triggered the eruption of
communal violence in a number of places in recent
weeks. In Karnataka, the whipping up of communal
polarisation is being systematically undertaken.
Reports of clashes have come in from places like
Mangalore, Bangalore and Chikmangalore. In
various cities in Madhya Pradesh, also a
BJP-ruled state, similar reports are coming from
Indore, Jabalpur and Mandsaur. The latest are the
reports of widespread communal disturbances
coming from eastern Uttar Pradesh with violence
rocking Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Basti
and Azamgarh.
These centenary observations need to be seen in
the context of the recent Lucknow session of the
BJP where it adopted a strident communal pitch
calling for the propagation of prakhar
(aggressive) Hindutva. With the UP elections on
the cards and polls in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh and Delhi to follow soon, the
strategy of the RSS-BJP appears to be clear and
equally dangerous - to regain its lost political
base by sharpening communal polarisation.
This campaign has been hailed by the RSS as the
biggest ever national campaign for the
establishment of the Hindu Rashtra. It is
necessary to evaluate Golwalkar's contributions
- to ascertain the immediate impact this
pernicious concept has for our body politic as
well as to understand the long-term direction for
the consolidation of the secular, democratic,
modern Indian republic. Heading the RSS from 1940
to 1973 was not Golwalkar's only seminal
contribution. He continues to wield an abiding
influence on the RSS and not only provided it
with an ideological foundation but also
established its organisational structure to
achieve the aim of a Hindu Rashtra.
The ideological foundations are chillingly
detailed in his book, We or Our Nationhood
Defined, first published in 1939 and republished
in a fourth edition in 1947. Note the
organisational initiatives Golwalkar undertook to
create and sustain the Sangh parivar as it is
known today. Following the ban of the RSS after
the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Golwalkar
entered into an agreement with the government
seeking its withdrawal while assuring that the
RSS would not play any political role in the
future.
A clear strategy evolved: the RSS would, in the
public eye, confine itself to 'cultural activity'
while its affiliates would branch out into
various sections spreading the message of Hindu
Rashtra. These seemingly independent tentacles
were welded together by the RSS. Apart from the
various frontal organisations, two important
structures must be noted. The Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP) was established in the mid-1960s
seeking to unite various Hindu sects, "sink their
many differences" and establish contacts with
Hindus residing abroad. The other was to create a
political front under its leadership and control.
In 1951, Golwalkar sent cadres to help Shyama
Prasad Mukherjee to start the Bharatiya Jan
Sangh, whose later incarnate is today's BJP.
Among those sent were Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Atal
Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani.
This entire organisational structure was to
achieve the political goal which was
unambiguously articulated in Golwalkar's book.
This exercise was an attempt to establish the
RSS interpretation of 'swaraj' - 'swa' meaning
'we' and 'raj' meaning 'rule'. Accordingly,
Golwalkar proceeds to assert that we means
'Hindus' and, hence, swaraj means 'Hindu Raj' or
'Hindu Rashtra'.
Taking recourse to mythology instead of history,
theology instead of philosophy, Golwalkar
'established' that the Hindus were always, and
continue to remain, a nation. He proceeds to
assert the intolerant, theocratic content of such
a Hindu nation. "... the conclusion is
unquestionably forced upon us that... in
Hindusthan exists and must need exist the ancient
Hindu nation and nought else but the Hindu
nation. All those not belonging to the national
i.e. Hindu race, religion, culture and language
naturally fall out of the pale of real 'National'
life."
Consequently, only those movements are truly
'national' that aim at rebuilding, revitalising
and emancipating the Hindu nation from "its
present stupor". The only nationalist patriots
are those who, aspiring to glorify the Hindu race
and nation, are prompted into activity and strive
to achieve that goal. "All others are either
traitors and enemies to the national cause, or,
to take a charitable view, idiots" (page 43 and
44).
He continues, "So long... as they maintain their
racial, religious and cultural differences, they
cannot but be only foreigners". (page 45). And
further: "There are only two courses open to the
foreign elements - either to merge themselves in
the national race and adopt its culture, or to
live at its mercy so long as the national race
may allow them to do so and to quit the country
at the sweet will of the national race...
From this standpoint, sanctioned by the
experience of shrewd old nations, the foreign
races in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu
culture and language, must learn to respect and
hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain
no idea but those of the glorification of the
Hindu race and culture, i.e. of the Hindu nation,
and must lose their separate existence to merge
in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country,
wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming
nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any
preferential treatment - not even citizen's
rights. There is... no other course for them to
adopt. We are an old nation; let us deal, as old
nations ought to and do deal with the foreign
races who have chosen to live in our country".
(pages 47 and 48)
And how should such "old nations" deal with the
"foreign races"? The adulation of fascist
Germany could not have been more brazen. "To
keep up the purity of the race and its culture,
Germany shocked the world by her purging the
country of the semitic races - the Jews. Race
pride at its highest has been manifested here.
Germany has also shown how well nigh impossible
it is for races and cultures, having differences
going to the root, to be assimilated into one
united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan
to learn and profit by". (page 35)
Thus, clearly, this RSS vision of establishing a
fascistic Hindu Rashtra and the organisational
structure evolved by Golwalkar stand in absolute
antagonism to the very conception of a secular,
democratic, modern Indian republic enshrined in
the Indian Constitution. In a pluralistic
democracy, everybody has the right to propagate
their views and observe their occasions. While
they are welcome to exercise this right, it
enjoins upon all Indian patriots to make an
impassioned evaluation of what these constitute
for the future of our republic.
In the 60th year of our Independence, the effort
to consolidate the modern Indian republic based
on the foundations of secular democracy,
federalism, social justice and economic
self-reliance requires the democratic
ostracisation of such pernicious political
projects.
Sitaram Yechury is a Rajya Sabha MP and member, CPI(M) politburo.
______
[5]
The Telegraph
February 24, 2007
FAITH OF THE BIGOT
by Khushwant Singh
This year the RSS celebrates the birth centenary
of Golwalkar, known to his followers as Guruji.
He was the second-in-line after Hedgewar, who
founded the organization in 1925 and was
undoubtedly the principal formulator of its
creed. Golwalkar remained its head and chief
spokesman for 33 years, till he died in June 1973
at the age of 67. Amongst others paying homage to
him will be leaders of the VHP, Bajrang Dal and
the BJP. Not many of the tribute-payers will
bother to read what Guruji had to say about
India's past and future, but will, nevertheless,
vie with each other in praising him. No one can
deny that the BJP and other right-wing Hindu
parties acquired the status they enjoy today
because of Guru Golwalkar. We owe it to ourselves
to know more about him.
Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar was born in 1906 at
Ramtek near Nagpur in a Brahmin family.
Brahminism forms an important aspect of his
views, the leadership of the RSS and other
fundamentalist Hindu parties. All have been
Brahminically top-heavy. He was educated at the
Benaras Hindu University, where he came under the
influence of its founder, Pandit Madan Mohan
Malaviya (Brahmin), who was nominally a member of
the Congress, but effectively a right-wing Hindu.
For a while, Golwalkar toyed with the idea of
becoming a sanyasi scholar but was persuaded to
take active part in societal problems. He joined
the RSS in 1940 and was later nominated by
Hedgewar as his successor and second
sarsangchalak.
Golwalkar's thinking was much influenced by Veer
Savarkar (also a Brahmin). Both supported the
caste system, asserting the superiority of the
Brahmins over other castes and the need to keep
their lineage free of contamination by
inter-marriages with other castes. Both regarded
Islam and Christianity non-Indian because they
originated outside India, and believed that
unless Muslims and Christians recognized India as
their fatherland and holy land, they were to be
treated as second class citizens. Both believed
in the superiority of the Aryan race and approved
of Adolf Hitler's extermination of millions of
Jews in gas chambers. Nevertheless, they
supported Zionism and the Jewish state of Israel
for no other reason but that it was forever
waging wars against its Arab neighbours who were
Muslims. Islamophobia became an integral part of
Hindutva. L.K. Advani calls it a "noble concept".
He named the Port Blair airport after Savarkar.
They have a life-size portrait of him in
parliament. Najma Heptullah paid floral tribute
to him; Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shah Nawaz
Hussain are active members of the BJP. We are
never short of opportunists.
Returning to Golwalkar, I had read his Bunch of
Thoughts earlier and put it out of my mind. I
didn't know of his We or Our Nationhood Defined.
It was published in 1939 and carried by the RSS
journal, Organiser. It has been re-published with
the full text and a critique by Shamsul Islam by
Pharos Press. It substantiates all of what I have
said. Golwalkar's concept of a nation is as
follows: "Šthus applying the modern understanding
of 'Nation' to our present conditions, the
conclusion is unquestionably forced upon us that
in this country, Hindusthan, the Hindu Race with
its Hindu Religion, Hindu Culture and Hindu
Language (the natural family of Sanskrit and her
offsprings) complete the Nation conceptŠ"
Sanskrit was never the spoken language of the
people who used regional languages, some of them
like Tamil and Malayalam claim to be older than
it. Sanskrit remained largely a monopoly of the
Brahmins. There are other assertions of the
Indian Aryan's glorious past which are more
fanciful than historically factual. To me they
appear complete fabrications. You make your own
judgment.
______
[6]
Outlook Magazine | Mar 05, 2007
[BOOK ] REVIEW
Ricochets From An Old Gun
Tushar Gandhi's claim of Bapu's assassination as
conspiracy is naive rather than new, and
emotional ...
Lloyd Rudolph
LET'S KILL GANDHI! A CHRONICLE OF HIS LAST DAYS,
THE CONSPIRACY, MURDER, INVESTIGATION AND TRIAL
by Tushar A. Gandhi
Rupa
Pages: 1,012; Rs: 995
Books by Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of
the Mahatma, and Rajmohan Gandhi, Bapu's
grandson, are benefiting from the wave of Gandhi
consciousness generated by the hugely successful
film, Lage Raho Munnabhai. Both Gandhi heirs have
taken the great man off the pedestal on which
post-independence generations have placed him,
Rajmohan by giving us Mohandas: A True story of a
Man, His People, An Empire, Tushar by giving us
the story of Let's Kill Gandhi! A Chronicle of
His Last Days, the Conspiracy, Murder,
Investigation and Trial. Rajmohan, an established
scholar of contemporary India, broke new ground
in Gandhi scholarship by featuring Gandhi's
private life, including re-examining his
relationship with Rabindranath Tagore's niece,
Saraladevi. Rajmohan Gandhi has a well-deserved
reputation as a scholar of contemporary India and
his book enhances that reputation. The younger
Tushar has hitherto been known for gaining
possession of an urn containing the residue of
his great-grandfather's ashes and immersing them
in the Ganga at Allahabad, trying to use the
Gandhi image in a film advertisement for a credit
card company, and piggy-backing on the Congress's
re-enactment of Gandhi's 1930 salt march on its
75th anniversary with an 'International Walk for
Peace and Justice'.
Tushar Gandhi's 1,012-page book presents itself
as an expose of a conspiracy to murder Gandhi.
Gandhi, murdered? A murder is a private,
personal act. An assassination is an act with
public, political motives.
India's reading public should be grateful
to him and to his publisher for making available
to current generations the story and the
documents surrounding Gandhi's death at the hands
of Nathuram Godse on January 30, 1948. On the
other hand, his claims that he has exposed a
conspiracy
to murder Gandhi and that Gandhi's death was a
murder rather than an assassination are more
sensationalist than credible.
Tushar Gandhi thanks "writers (he mentions six)
who wrote on the subject before me" and tells us
that he has "internalised much of their writing",
an admission that casts doubt on the novelty of
his conspiracy story. The doubt gets more serious
with his failure to recognise or use the
extensive scholarship on the circumstances
surrounding Independence, Partition and Gandhi's
death. I mention only two, Sucheta Mahajan's
Independence and Partition: The Erosion of
Colonial Power in India [2000] and Ashis Nandy's
1980 essay, "Final Encounter: The Politics of the
Assassination of Gandhi", in At the Edge of
Psychology: Essays in Politics and Culture.
Nandy's essay opens with the sentence, "Every
political assassination is a joint communique. It
is a statement which the assassin and his victim
jointly work on and co-author.... No political
assassination is ever a single-handed job.... The
killer...represents larger historical and
psychological forces which connect him to the
victim." Nandy goes on to present a penetrating
and persuasive case for the symbiotic
relationship between Godse and Gandhi. Drawing on
Robert Payne's 1968 biography of Gandhi, Nandy
brings out "the element of collaboration in the
assassination of Gandhi", where "crucial roles
were played by Gandhi's protectors in the Indian
police and its intelligence branch, by the
bureaucracy, and by important parts of India's
political leadership including some of Gandhi's
dedicated followers".
Tushar Gandhi's charge that Brahmins,
particularly Pune Brahmins, killed Gandhi is a
pernicious version of communalism. It stereotypes
and holds collectively guilty an entire community
rather than identifying particular agents and
their motives. Blaming the Brahmins for Gandhi's
murder makes it clear that Tushar is innocent of
Nandy's detailed and penetrating analysis of
Godse's, Apte's and Savarkar's Chitpavan context.
Tushar speaks of Gandhi's murder.A murder is a
private and personal act. An assassination by
contrast is an act with public, political motives
and consequences. Godse and his collaborators
assassinated Gandhi in the context of the
struggle over the meaning of Indian national
identity and the circumstances and consequences
of Partition. Finally, it is sad that a Gandhi
descendant can write that "I felt extreme rage
inside me at that moment (of handling the 9 mm
Baretta automatic gun Godse had used). I could
have shot a Sanghi. This book is a result of that
rage that has been bottled up in me for far too
long. My great-grandfather said: 'Anger is an
acid which corrodes the vessel in which it is
stored'". And so it has.
Lloyd Rudolph is Professor Emeritus of Political
Science, University of Chicago, and co-author of
Postmodern Gandhi and Other Essays: Gandhi in the
World and at Home (OUP).
______
[7]
APPEAL
Panvel to Pakistan Cycle Expedition
An unique event will take place on 1st March,
2007 in Maharashtra. Nine youngsters including
two girls will proceed in cycle to Islamabad from
Panvel, near Mumbai. For the first time such kind
of event is taking place in the history of India
and Pakistan. They will cycle more than 3,000 km
in 38 days passing through many states like
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar pradesh,
Haryana, Delhi and Punjab before entering
Pakistan.
The blast that ripped through the train on
Samjhauta Express on 19th February has not shaken
their resolve. Infact, all of them are of the
opinion that it is all the more important to
continue cycle expedition to Pakistan and
propagating the ideas of friendship, peace with
the neighbouring country. The group will pedal
approximately 90 km a day.
On the way they will be sleeping in villages,
temples, mosques, dharamshalas. They will have
interaction with hundreds of people in India and
Pakistan. They will meet villagers, civil society
groups, media, political and social activists.
They will also be circulating peace
literatures.They will take message of peace from
India to Pakistan and bring message of peace from
Pakistan to India.
Pedaling more than 3,000 km is not easy. Anything
can happen in between. They are prepared for any
eventuality. They have taken this mission as a
challenge. It becomes the responsibility of
everybody to support the expedition. You can help
the expedition by contributing some money and /
or expressing solidarity with the expedition. We
are in a huge deficit. We require around five
lakh Rupees for the expedition. It will cover
lodging & boarding, travelling back to India,
visa & other expenses, insurance, communication
and contingency. As very few days remains, we
would request you to help sooner. Cheques should
be in the name of "Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum
for Peace and Democracy". Kindly contribute for
the cause at the following address:
Jatin Desai
11/71, Sangam
Link Road
Oshiwara
Jogeshwari (W)
Mumbai 400 102
INDIA.
As you are aware Pakistan - India Peoples' Forum
for Peace and Democracy is promoting
people-to-people contact between two countries
for last 14 years.
Thanking You,
Jatin Desai
Secretary
PIPFPD, Maharashtra
______
[8]
Dawn
February 26, 2007
TERRORISM AND THE QUEST FOR A COLOUR BLIND CAT
by Jawed Naqvi
First of all, it was not the Samjhota Express
that was bombed on the night of 18/19th February
but another train from Delhi, which connects with
the actual cross-border train at the Indian
border post of Attari that got hit. Had the
Samjhota Express been the target of the suspected
terrorists its implications would be far more
sinister and, in the context of India-Pakistan
mistrust, extremely ominous.
The actual Samjhota Express is the train agreed
by the two governments in 1976, which spends time
ferrying and loading passengers in both
countries. We can't even begin to imagine the
implications of that train being bombed. There
wouldn't be a moment's delay from either
Islamabad or New Delhi in telling us with rock
sure determination where the bombs were loaded
and who exploded them? So let's be very clear
about our sacred facts as opposed to casual
description by which the Delhi-Attari train has
come to be called in the media.
Second, and more importantly: who carried out the
bombings that killed 68 innocent men women and
children, and why? It seems unlikely that the
answers to any of these questions would be known
by March 6, when officials of the two countries
assemble in Islamabad to discuss this and similar
issues under the joint anti-terror mechanism. The
last report on the probe said Indian police had
twice changed the identikits of the suspects,
arresting people fitting both the pictures, plus
the madam of a brothel in Bikaner! The suspects
so far all seem to be Muslim. However, when
Pakistan's foreign minister said in Delhi that it
was time to catch the culprits and not to begin
guessing whether they were Hindu or Muslim, he
was giving a kind of tall order. In its spirit
Mr. Kasuri's plea for a fair probe came like a
departure from the famous aphorism of Deng
Xiaoping who proclaimed that "It doesn't matter
what colour the cat is as long as it catches the
mice." We guess Mr Kasuri's version was: "Any cat
would do be fine as long as it doesn't
discriminate on the colour of the mice."
In any case there are many in India who too have
expressed a well-founded fear on many occasions
that the colour of the mice does unfortunately
seem to blind the issue when it comes to catching
or naming perpetrators of terrorism. Former judge
of the Bombay High Court, Justice B.G.
Kolse-Patil, was in Delhi last week to share with
the media some of his findings in cases where
prima facie Hindu terrorists, as he called them,
were allowed to go scot-free in incidents in
which they were caught red-handed. Two of these
cases pertained to accidental explosions that
took place in the Maharashtra town of Nanded,
where rightwing Hindu groups such as the RSS and
the
Bajrang Dal were believed to be assembling bombs.
The blasts happened in April last year and again
on February 10. Justice Kolse-Patil and his team,
including the tireless rights acivists Teesta
Setalvad and Arvind Deshmukh, have raised
disturbing questions over both.
Since the Hindu right dismisses the exhaustive
research and scrupulous eye for detail as some
kind of prejudice displayed by pseudo secularists
of dubious intent, let's first take the report in
The Hindu newspaper about the April blasts. This
analysis clearly points to the compulsions of
India's domestic politics and how that deters a
fair investigation into acts of terror by the
resurgent Hindu right.
The Maharashtra government, the newspaper says in
its report on September 9 of last year, "has been
reluctant to take on the Bajrang Dal for fear of
providing political capital to organisations such
as the Shiv Sena". The Shiv Sena, as we know is
the neo-fascist arm of the Hindu right in
Maharashtra and it actually managed to trounce
two supposedly secular adversaries in recent
municipal polls, something that was not even
remotely expected by the Congress party and the
splinter Nationalist Congress Party. The two
parties have a shaky alliance in the state
government and also at the centre. Why did the
state government refuse to consider proscribing
the Bajrang Dal? The answer is attempted by the
newspaper itself.
"Politics underpins this paralysis. Both the
Congress and the NCP have run a successful
campaign of poaching directed at middle level
Shiv Sena leaders, and believe that action which
might be considered 'anti-Hindu' would give the
religious right a new lease of life. At the same
time, the decaying Hindu far right sees Islamist
terrorism, and the widespread anxieties it has
generated through India, as a means of stemming
the secular tide."
In other words, "each mosque bombing is, in this
vision, an act through which the frayed political
legitimacy of groups such as the Bajrang Dal will
be restored. Just how capable Hindu
fundamentalist groups are of executing such a
project is unclear, for already stretched police
forces have paid little attention to the emerging
threat. If a Hindu fundamentalist group did carry
out the Malegaon attack (a separate incident to
the Nanded blasts), it would demonstrate a
significant increase in their capabilities."
In their report on the April blasts in Nanded, an
independent fact-finding committee comprising
Secular Citizen's Forum and the People's Union of
Civil Liberties of Nagpur, shows how "a bomb
blast has unearthed a bomb-manufacturing centre
at the home of a prominent RSS activist in
Nanded".
Two youth died on the spot and three were badly
injured in the April incident. The body of one of
the deceased, Himanshu Panse, was blown into
pieces while another, Naresh Rajkondwar, had a
massive hole in his chest. Only the concrete
structure of the house was left intact,
everything else in the house was destroyed.
But, says the fact-finding committee's report:
"To the utter disbelief of residents, the police
said that one of those killed in the blast used
to sell 'crackers' during Diwali, he had stored
them in his bedroom, and since he was alone at
home he had invited his friends overŠ One of them
threw a cigarette, the 'crackers' caught fire and
blasted in a single explosion without leaving a
single piece of paper or other remnants of the
'crackers' at the site!"
In the meantime, according to the report, it
became clear beyond any doubt that the killed and
injured youth were activists of RSS-affiliated
groups. "Leaders of these outfits visited the
hospitals to see the injured and issued
condolence statements; they said that the men
were active workers of their organisations and
their deaths were a great loss to them."
The next day when along with senior police
officials, journalists, a few politicians and
many from the general public, the police was
searching the house, it found a live IED. "The
same day, special inspector general of police,
Suryapratap Gupta called a press conference and
declared that it was really a bomb blast. The
youth were trying to fabricate the pipe bomb and
due to erroneous handling of a remote control
device the explosion took place."
The inquiry recommends: "The central government
should keep a close watch and monitor the
increasing low intensity terror generating
activities being conducted by political outfits
that are misusing Hindu religion."
It also recommends "stringent action so that the
accused in the earlier Nanded blasts -- including
those never arrested despite evidence -- are
arrested or not released on bail, as the case may
be. Proceedings of these investigations must be
conducted in full public glare."
In the final analysis, however, the quest for a
colour blind cat would be essentially incomplete
if Pakistan doesn't heed its own call to pursue
mice of all hues. In that case, there is this
pending issue of terror camps which even the most
neutral observers say do exist in the territory
under Pakistan's control. It must now quickly
unleash the cat there to make the March 6 meeting
purposeful.
______
[9]
Times of India
25 Feb, 2007
BOTH NANDED BLASTS LINKED: CITIZEN'S GROUP
by Akshaya Mukul
NEW DELHI: Is there a link between the blast in
Nanded in February and the Nanded blast of 2006?
An investigation by the Concerned Citizens
Inquiry - led by Justice (retired) B G Kolse
Patil of Mumbai High Court, Teesta Setalvad,
Arvind Deshmukh and explosives experts - has
concluded that the two blasts are linked, besides
refuting claims that this month's explosion was
an accident.
The inquiry team - on the basis of narco-analysis
test of accused of the first Nanded blast, which
clearly revealed that they had links with RSS,
VHP and Bajrang Dal - has demanded an independent
probe since narco-analysis revealed a
questionable design on part of the investigating
authorities not to explore the root cause. The
Concerned Citizens Inquiry (CCI) thinks there is
a definite link between the two blasts as well as
those in Parbhani, Purna and Aurangabad.
After studying the February blast, the CCI
concluded that the severity of the explosion
proved it was due to unstable liquid and not
short-circuit as is being claimed. CCI also found
loopholes in the way complaint about the blast
was changed twice. It has also raised questions
about the haste with which police, without
waiting for the forensic report, ruled out
explosion due to liquid. If it was really a
short-circuit, Setalvad asked, how come the
police did not ask MSEB officials to find out the
reasons for it. Police inaction in the recent
blast and narco-analysis report of last year's
blast has made the CCI team question the working
of RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal in the area.
In the 2006 blast, even before narco-analysis,
forensic examination had found traces of liquid
explosives.
The bomb was a mixture of metallic aluminium,
elemental sulphur and potassium nitrate. Nineteen
accused were arrested while two died. According
to Setalvad, 11 of the accused have been freed
and the rest are in the process of getting
released. In all cases, state police has not
contested bail.
During narco-analysis, accused Sanjay alias
Bahurao Vithalrao Choudhari had said that he and
three other accused - Maroti Wagh, Rahul
Manoharao Pande and Yogesh Ravindra Vidholkar -
were trained in bomb-making at the Akash resort
at Sinhagad, Pune. He said that one Himanshu, who
died in the blast, was the brain behind the
conspiracy and wanted to take revenge as
"terrorists like Abu Salem had carried out blasts
at Gateway of India, Mumbai, killing lots of
innocent people".
Himanshu, Sanjay said, had "decided to take
revenge by carrying out blasts and killing at
least 300-400 Muslims". He added, "The bomb that
was kept at Naresh's (also killed) residence was
to be planted at Aurangabad Masjid near the
railway station on Id day. The plan to carry out
blasts in Aurangabad was triggered by the
Varanasi blasts. Himanshu was carrying out his
action after receiving orders over phone from a
senior leader... Himanshu had a separate SIM card
for receiving orders."
Sanjay said he had also received a call, "where
the caller said not to be afraid" and that he
would get him "released from jail at the
earliest". Sanjay said, "That caller was from
Bajrang Dal and he was Balaji Pakhare."
Narco-analysis of Rahul Manoharao Pande also
revealed that VHP leaders were helping them out.
______
[10] UPCOMING EVENTS
(i)
South Asia Seminar
Violent Gods: Hindu Nationalism in India's Present
Angana Chatterjee (California Institute of Integral Studies)
[venue] University of Texas at Austin, WCH 4.132 :: Austin, TX 78712
March 1, 2007
3:30 PM
Meyerson Conference Room, WCH 4.118
Angana P. Chatterji, Ph.D., is associate
professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at
California Institute of Integral Studies.
Professor Chatterji has integrated scholarship,
research, and activism in linking the roles of
citizen and intellectual. A rigorous and
passionate advocate for social justice, she has
been working with postcolonial social movements,
local communities, institutions and citizens
groups, government and donor agencies in India
and internationally, since 1984, toward enabling
participatory democracy for social and ecological
justice.
o o o
2006/2007 Christopher
Ondaatje Lecture on
South Asian Art
Hindu Violence in Gandhi's Country
Register online at:
http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?eventid=3417
Speaker: Arjun Appadurai (The New School for Social Research)
Friday, Apr. 20
4:00 PM-6:00 PM
Room 108
Koffler Institute for
Pharmacy Management
569 Spadina Avenue
University of Toronto
Centre for South Asian Studies
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
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