SACW | March 20-22, 2007
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Tue Mar 20 22:38:30 CDT 2007
South Asia Citizens Wire | March 20-22, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2380 - Year 9
[1] Pakistan: The common enemy (Asma Jahangir)
[2] Bangladesh / India: Of bigotry, severed heads
and writers' rights (Syed Badrul Ahsan)
[3] India: Citizens Appeal for impartial
prosecution of Sajjan Kumar Congress (I) M.P.
[4] Mobilising and exposing the Far Right in India:
- Day 1 at peoples tribunal against fascism -
testimonies of Godhra victims (Smriti Kak
Ramachandran)
- Convention Against Communalism in Kushinagar, UP (Subhashini Ali)
[5] India: What Is Justice for Survivors of
Gujarat 2002? (Sheba George, Kalpana Kannabiran)
[6] India: Criticism of the dominant communist party
- Party games (Yogendra Yadav)
- CPM and the agrarian underclass (Anand Chakravarti, Uma Chakravarti)
[7] India: A Tribute to Bhagat Singh (B.B. Rawat)
[8] Book Review: Secularism Not yet a lost cause (K. N. Panikkar)
[9] Events: Lecture on "Women and War", (New Delhi, 22 March 2007)
____
[1]
Daily Times
March 21, 2007
THE COMMON ENEMY
by Asma Jahangir
The lawyers' movement has acquired a broader
agenda, addressing the survival of civil
institutions under the weight of militarisation
At every judicial crisis, the legal fraternity
finds itself in a snare. It has little choice but
to protest attempts to undermine the judiciary by
the executive. At the same time the actions of
the lawyers have often made unworthy heroes of
victimised judges. The present crisis is no
exception. Lawyers continue to complain that
judges balk at them when on the bench but bank on
them when on the mat. Yet the bar has no option
but to protect the feeble autonomy of a crumbling
institution even if its champions are created
undeservedly.
Lawyers crave a system where they receive a fair
hearing and an assured delivery of justice. They
have consistently urged the judiciary to stand
its ground, but found few instances to rejoice.
The immobilised chief justice of Pakistan was no
role model for the bar, but his act of defiance
in refusing to resign in the face of executive
oppression has made him an instant hero.
The contents of the reference filed by the
president are now irrelevant. The central issue
is the process adopted by the government in
making the chief justice 'non-functional' and the
subsequent violent attacks on the media and
lawyers. The lawyers' movement has acquired a
broader agenda, addressing the survival of civil
institutions under the weight of militarisation.
Their support has widened, not out of love for
the judiciary, but because of the shared
abhorrence of military rule.
Pakistanis have matured. They can clearly see
through hypocrisy. Ironically, the very
authorities that made a mockery of the
Constitution are now taking refuge behind it.
After having strangulated the spirit of the
Constitution the military government expects the
lawyers to follow the letter of a mutilated
document and abandon all protest as long as the
matter of the chief justice remains sub judice
The president and his ministers insist that the
reference against the chief justice
(non-functional) is a purely legal matter, that
his detention and manhandling was merely a
'tactical' error and therefore the matter should
not be politicised. But a planned removal of the
chief justice and his subsequent humiliation is
neither a mere legal issue nor can it be
explained away as a blunder. Over the years the
Musharraf government has become increasingly
unaccountable and deceitful.
The military action in Balochistan was twisted as
a bid by the government to restore its writ. The
cold-blooded murder of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was
painted as an accident and the state's refusal to
hand over his body to the bereaved family was
glossed over. All 'disappeared' persons are being
portrayed as 'jihadis' and suicide bombers who
have supposedly left their families voluntarily.
But according to the information collected by the
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a majority
of those reported to have been abducted by
government agents have no connection with
'jihadi' groups. Almost sixty percent are Baloch
and Sindhi nationalists. There is overwhelming
evidence that security and intelligence agencies
have violated human rights.
In the past those who wished to defend the
president believed that he was misguided. Others
took a less generous view and blamed him of
living in self-denial. However, Musharraf's
interview with Geo TV (on Monday, March 19, 2007)
gives the impression that the president has lost
his touch in being able to deceive skillfully.
According to him, the filing of the reference was
a matter of "routine" and there was no intrigue
or pre-planning. Yet all members of the Supreme
Judicial Council miraculously arrived in
Islamabad in a synchronised and timely manner.
Fortunately, the media brought the reality to
life. It was an eye-opener for all Pakistanis - a
rude shock and a chilling realisation that no one
was safe from the excesses of the rulers.
The fate of the government is at stake. It may
survive or perish, but fundamental lessons must
be learnt by the bar and bench. Judges must learn
to distance themselves from the executive and the
bar should remain united in promoting the
independence of the judiciary without demonising
or lauding individual judges. The process of
selection and accountability of judges to the
superior courts must be transparent. Judges
should not take over as acting governors or seek
office after retirement. Similarly, serving
judges must not be appointed as election
commissioners and they should stay away from
being members of law commissions. More
importantly, we have to realise that once the
military takes over, all civilian institutions
must resist in order to survive with dignity.
Asma Jilani Jahangir is a Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist
_____
[2]
The Daily Star
March 21, 2007
GROUND REALITIES
OF BIGOTRY, SEVERED HEADS AND WRITERS' RIGHTS
by Syed Badrul Ahsan
Somewhere in India, a Muslim bigot has decreed
that Taslima Nasrin be beheaded. The one who can
accomplish the deed, or misdeed, will be rewarded
with nothing less than a tidy sum of five hundred
thousand rupees.
When you sit back and reflect on the edict,
disturbing as it is, you cannot but wonder at the
temerity with which the so-called defenders of
the faith have regularly taken it upon themselves
to define the course of life for people who
happen to think of temporal existence in terms of
the literary and the philosophical.
It is quite another point whether or not you
agree with a writer. But it becomes a positive
threat to decency and human dignity when an
individual thinks nothing is remiss when he lets
the world know that a writer who has aroused his
ire must be dispatched with swiftness to the
grave.
Such a threat was held out back in 1989 to Salman
Rushdie when Ayatollah Khomeini, convinced that
he was the new guardian of Islamic religious
thought, ordered a bounty on the writer's head.
It was a bad move. It went against the principle
of liberal thinking. It made Muslims everywhere
shudder in unease.
History is, of course, replete with instances of
individuals and groups and governments persuading
themselves that they ought to be arbiters of the
moral parameters which underpin, or should
underpin, life. There is the story of Leni
Riefenstahl, the German film-maker and admirer of
Hitler (until the Third Reich collapsed in a
heap), for whom life after 1945 was essentially a
tale of unbridled vilification.
There has been nothing to suggest that she
collaborated with the Fuhrer in the latter's
nefarious attempts to reshape German society
according to Aryan specifications. Not a shred of
evidence has been found to implicate Riefenstahl
in any of the crimes the Nazis committed in their
twelve-year dominance of their country. But the
film-maker continues to be reviled.
In our times, the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk,
whose Nobel certainly ought to have come later,
is a man whose running battles with the state
convince us that the historical image of the
writer being at the receiving end of persecution
is a reality that has acquired permanence of a
definite kind.
Naguib Mahfouz was never in the good books of the
regime, any regime, in his native Egypt. And if
you remember the trauma that Boris Pasternak went
through once the Nobel for literature came to him
in 1960, you will have cause to comprehend anew
the many shades of darkness courageous writers
live under from day to day.
It is these shades of darkness Taslima Nasrin has
been living through for the past thirteen years.
There has been no official decree formalising her
exile abroad; and yet no government in Bangladesh
since 1994 has felt any compulsion of bringing
her back home.
There are the bigots who man the ramparts, here
in Bangladesh, intent on ensuring that Nasrin
does not make her way back to her country. In the
mid-1990s, with the Awami League holding
political authority in Bangladesh, the natural
expectation arose that conditions would be
facilitated for the writer to end her exile
abroad and come home. The expectation turned out
to have been misplaced, for the ruling classes
were afraid of the consequences should Nasrin
return to Bangladesh. The BNP-wallahs, of course,
were never expected to warm to Nasrin. And they
never did.
Today, it is our collective reputation as a
nation proud of its democratic sensibilities that
stands threatened through the hypocrisy defining
our attitude toward Taslima Nasrin. By every
measure, Nasrin is a good writer. In terms of
social commitment, she remains one of the
foremost defenders of courage as a weapon in the
war against obscurantism.
Yes, to be sure, there are times when something
of the worryingly judgmental comes into her
analyses of conditions around her. But judgment
ought never to be challenged through a brazen
display of ignorance. You do not finish off the
idea that is Federico Garcia Lorca by pumping
bullets into his head. You may find Ayaan Hirsi
Ali's views on the faith she has deserted
repugnant to the core, but when you decide that
she should die for her heresy, it is your
attitude which threatens to become a good deal
more reprehensible than hers.
Taslima Nasrin's thoughts have never been
repugnant. Writers, in the true spirit of a
formulation and dissemination of ideas, are
careful to state the truth. Any writer who
believes that treading a fine line between truth
and the lack of it is what the calling of writing
should be is making a dreadful mistake.
You are not a writer if you cannot, or will not,
write in all the boldness your heart can call
forth. That is where the difference between
politicians and writers lies. A politician, with
his sights on gaining power over the state, will
hedge his arguments; will compromise to reach the
top of the mountain. A writer has no such
compulsions, for it is not the peaks he aspires
to.
He is content with the open valley before him,
for in that valley he spots beauty he sings
praises of, and notes cacti he thinks ought to be
out of the way. There is Ahmad Faraz in Pakistan.
Courage in the face of adversity has been his
forte. In Bangladesh, Ahmad Sharif and Shaukat
Osman, all these years after their passing,
remain emblematic of the principles that once
underlined, and continue to denote, writing. Araj
Ali Matubbor was an iconoclast all his life. In
death, he remains an inspiration from whom men
and women given to thoughts of life and
nothingness draw a certain strength of will, a
form of sustenance as it were.
The bizarre spectacle of the severed head of
Taslima Nasrin on a platter is an image that
should bring men and women of conscience in India
together. The man who has issued that threat is a
grave danger to decency, to civilised life
everywhere, and ought to be dealt with as such.
For us, here in Bangladesh, it is time to ask
that the state move to reinstate the rights of a
woman who has been wronged for the past thirteen
years, through opening the door for her re-entry
into the country she was born in, and to which
her devotion has been as pronounced as ours.
And much of the shame our impotence puts us to
can be scratched away when, and only when, those
who dominate Bangladesh's literary ambience in
these times come together in a defence of Taslima
Nasrin's unquestioned right to be back where she
belongs. And she belongs here, whether or not you
like it.
Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star.
_____
[3]
www.sacw.net - March 20, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2nsqmv
Press release :
20th March, 2007
APPEAL FOR IMPARTIAL PROSECUTION OF SAJJAN KUMAR CONGRESS (I) M.P.
In November 1984, following the
assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,
almost 3,000 Sikhs were slaughtered and burnt to
death in Delhi,. Witnesses and survivors of these
killing categorically indicted the Delhi Police
and some leaders of the Congress (I) for
permitting the mobs to kill with impunity. 23
years later the families of the victims are still
awaiting justice.
The C.B.I. has filed an Appeal filed before the
Delhi High Court, against the acquittal of
Congress (I) M.P. Sajjan Kumar, in a case
pertaining to the murder of one Nevin Singh
husband of Anwar Kaur on 1st November, 1984 at
Sultanpuri in North - West Delhi. Senior Advocate
S.S. Gandhi appeared on behalf of the CBI to
argue the Appeal on 12th March, 2007.
It is pertinent to draw attention to the fact
that the same lawyer, Shri S.S. Gandhi, Senior
Advocate, had appeared on behalf of Delhi Police,
before the Justice Nanavati Commission of Inquiry
(1984 Anti - Sikh Riots). The Ranganath Misra
Commission, Kusum Mittal Committee, the Justice
Jain Aggarwal Committee, the Nanavati Commission
Report and court judgments have all pointed to
the unholy nexus between the Delhi Police and the
rioting mobs of 1984, during the carnage and in
the investigation of cases. The Nanavati Report
endorsed the findings of the Misra Commission and
the Kusum Mittal Committee that, either the
police "were negligent in the performance of
their duties or that they had directly or
indirectly helped the mobs in their violent
attacks on the Sikhs."(pg.183, Nanavati Report)
As many as 90 Delhi police officials were
indicted for lapses by these inquiries and
summary dismissal of 6 senior Delhi Police
officers was recommended.
While considering the evidence against Sajjan
Kumar, the Nanavati Report specifically states
that, "There is ample material to show that no
proper investigation was done by the police even
in those casesŠThere is also material to show
that police did not note down the names of some
of the assailants who were influential persons.
One witness has specifically stated that he had
named Shri Sajjan Kumar as one of the assailants
yet his name was not noted in his statement by
the police."(pg. 161 Nanavati Report). The
Nanavati Commission recommended to the
Government to examine those cases where the
witnesses have accused Shri Sajjan Kumar
specifically and yet no chargesheets were filed
against him and these cases were terminated as
untracedŠ" by the Delhi Police.
Advocate Vrinda Grover, had appeared as a witness
before the Nanavati Commission and shown through
her research study of court judgments that the
acquittals in the 1984 trials in Delhi, were a
direct consequence of the incompetent, casual and
partisan investigation by the Delhi Police. She
stated in her affidavit that "the police had
functioned not as an agent of the rule of law but
as an agent of the ruling party". After her
deposition before the Commission she had been
cross examined by Shri S.S. Gandhi, Sr. Advocate
on behalf of the Delhi Police.
According to Section 35 of the Advocates Act,
1961, the definition of professional misconduct
includes 'changing sides'. Having appeared for
the Delhi Police before the Justice Nanavati
Commission it is against professional etiquette
and ethics for Sr. Advocate S.S.Gandhi to now
represent the case of the victims through the
State, in the Delhi High Court. Although it is
Congress M.P. Sajjan Kumar who is being
prosecuted by the CBI, the negligence of the
Delhi Police in investigation and recording of
witness statements would be relevant issues
during the Appeal. It is apprehended that such
conflict of interests may compromise the
prosecution. The prosecution of a sitting M.P. of
the ruling Congress (I) party deserves to be
conducted in a fair and impartial manner, for
justice must not only be done but must also seem
to be done.
At stake are the secular claims of the UPA, the
institutional autonomy of the CBI and the faith
of the people who have sought justice for 23
years, in the legal system of Indian democracy.
We the undersigned appeal that Mr. S.S. Gandhi be
discharged and the CBI appoint a senior counsel
of high professional competence and impeccable
integrity as counsel in the Appeal pending in the
Delhi High Court against Sajjan Kumar.
Signatories:
- Pushkar Raj for Peoples Union for Civil Liberties ( PUCL Delhi)
- Sudha Bhardwaj for Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL Chhattisgarh)
- Nagraj Adve for Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)
- Mukul Sharma (Director, Amnesty International India)
- Dr. Uma Chakravorty (Historian)
- Javed Anand (Co-Editor Communalism Combat)
- Harsh Mandar (Columnist and social activist)
- Sadhana Arya for Saheli, Womens' Resource Centre
- Farah Naqvi (Journalist and Activist)
- Gautam Navlakha (Journalist and activist)
- Dr. Apoorvananad (Professor Department of Hindi, Delhi University)
- Aseem Srivastava (Columinst)
- Amit Sengupta (Journalist)
- Jamal Kidwai (Director AMAN Trust)
- Vrinda Grover (Advocate)
_____
[4] MOBILISING AND EXPOSING THE FAR RIGHT
Report on day one at Peoples Tribunal against the rise of Fascism
[http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/03/convention-against-communalism-in.html]
The Hindu
March 21, 2007
DOCUMENTING TESTIMONIES OF GODHRA VICTIMS
Smriti Kak Ramachandran
"Government shying away from recognising growth of fascism"
# Over 200 victims, activists testify before Independent People's Tribunal
# Concrete evidence of people's experiences
NEW DELHI: Yet to fathom the difference between a
prison and a cage, Mohammed Zaheer Iqbal's
five-year-old son thinks that his father lives in
a cage. Iqbal is one of the 221 people arrested
under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and
now languishing in jails in Gujarat.
"Whenever our son misses his father, I take him
to the jail where Iqbal is lodged. The little boy
thinks that we are visiting his father in a
cage," said Afrin, who has been fighting for the
release of her husband.
In the capital on Tuesday to narrate her story
that is being documented at the Independent
People's Tribunal (IPT), Ms. Afrin said: "My
husband was taken away for an inquiry by the
Crime Branch officers in 2003. When he was picked
up in the dead of night, we were assured that he
will return home in the morning. He never came
home, instead he was charged with the conspiracy
of carrying a tiffin bomb. When that case was
discharged, they promptly slapped another case,
this time he was accused of being an ISI agent."
Ms. Afrin alleged that the families were not even
allowed to be present at hearings.
Driven out of village
Another victim of the communal violence in
Gujarat, Niyaz Ben Malek, who now lives in Rahat
Colony, recalled how she was driven out of her
village Ognaj by people who grew up with her
sons. "I have filed a case against the people who
attacked us with tridents and swords, my houses
have been razed and all I have got is a
compensation of Rs. 2,500 against the loss of
property worth Rs. 10 lakh."
Harrowing experiences
Sharing their harrowing experiences during the
riots that followed the Godhra carnage, over 200
victims, activists and academicians from across
17 States have come together to testify before
the IPT.
Their testimonies on the rise of fascist forces
in India will later be released as a report.
"We are documenting the testimonies of these
people, trying to make sense of it and present it
as concrete evidence of people's experiences. We
will try to reflect on what happened and also
suggest what can be done," said Akoijam Bimol,
who, along with Subharanjan Dasgupta, Nikhil
Waghle and Sandeep Pandey, is a member of the
jury on Gujarat.
Accusing the Government of "shying away from
recognising the growth of fascism in the
country," Shabnam Hashmi of non-governmental
organisation Anhad said: "At this two-day event,
we are trying to show that fascism is on the rise
and not just in Gujarat. But surprisingly both
the civil society and the Government are refusing
to acknowledge it. These testimonies will help us
push for action."
Organised by the Human Rights Law Network and
Anhad, the IPT is being supported by
organisations such as Aman Samudaya, Antarik
Visthapit Hak Rakshak Samiti (Gujarat), Insaaf,
and People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).
o o o
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/03/convention-against-communalism-in.html
CPM CONVENTION AGAINST COMMUNALISM IN KUSHINAGAR
A report by Subhashini Ali
[March 20, 2007]
Padrauna, the headquarter of Kushinagar district
which adjoins Gorakhpur in Eastern U.P., was the
worst affected in the communal clashes organized
by the Gorakhpur M.P., Adityanath. A CPI(M) team
visited the affected areas at the end of February
and met with district officials for compensation
for those who had lost their homes and all their
belongings and to bring the guilty to book. Some
progress had been made since then. Also a
convention was held against communalism on the
18th March by the party in Kasia, a large town of
the district.
______
[5]
Economic and Political Weekly
March 17, 2007
WHAT IS JUSTICE FOR SURVIVORS OF GUJARAT 2002?
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women recently pulled
up the government of India for an inadequate
response on the 2002 Gujarat riots despite
specific queries by the committee on the issue.
The concluding comments of the CEDAW offer a
significant advocacy tool for human rights
organisations working to secure justice for the
riot victims.
by Sheba George, Kalpana Kannabiran
http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2007&leaf=03&filename=11186&filetype=pdf
______
[6] INDIA - PROGRESSIVES' CRITIQUE THE DOMINANT COMMUNIST PARTY:
o o o
Indian Express
March 21, 2007
PARTY GAMES
BETWEEN NANDIGRAM AND A PARTY THAT SWEARS BY
HUMAN RIGHTS AND LOFTY DEMOCRATIC IDEALS LIES
VAST HYPOCRISY
Yogendra Yadav
Nandigram did not surprise me. I was anguished
and angry but not surprised. I had heard the
story of Alipurduar from Jugal Kishore Raybir.
This dalit activist, a believer in Gandhian
non-violence, was the founder of UTJAS, (Uttar
Bango Tapsili Jati O Adibasi Sangathan) an
organisation of dalits and adivasis of north
Bengal. Through the 1980s it demanded greater
regional autonomy and justice for sons of the
soil. Not only did the government turn a deaf
ear, the ruling party launched an offensive
against them, branding them 'separatist' or
'bichhinatabadi'.
The story of Alipurduar goes back to January 10
1987, twenty years before Nandigram. On that day,
UTJAS had organised a rally of what they
estimated to be about 50,000 people in
Alipurduar, the headquarters of Cooch Behar
district. As the rally started, they noticed
something unusual: The police was nowhere in
sight. Soon the rallyists found themselves
surrounded by and under attack from the armed
cadre of the CPM. The rally was dispersed as
unarmed protesters were beaten and chased. The
police surfaced, only to arrest the victims, once
the party cadre had finished their job.
They say Jugal Raybir's commitment to
non-violence prevented a blood bath that day. But
that day also marked the end of the rise of UTJAS
as a political challenge to the Party. For the
next few months, the UTJAS cadre was hounded by
the police, attacked by the CPM and not allowed
to hold even indoor meetings. This dalit movement
wilted under the onslaught of the state, police
and Party. That prepared the ground for the rise
of militant outfits like the Kamtapur Liberation
Organisation. But that is a different story.
Note the parallels between Nandigram and
Alipurduar: The Party faces a political
challenge, decides to nip it in the bud and
executes an onslaught in sync with the police and
administration. The only difference this time was
that there was unexpected resistance. And that an
anti-SEZ movement makes more news today than a
dalit movement did twenty years ago. There were
no Gopal Gandhi or Tanika and Sumit Sarkar then
to point out that the emperor had no clothes.
Nandigram may not have been the worst case of
police firing. We have seen similar incidents in
Orissa, Rajasthan and UP in recent times. West
Bengal is certainly not the only state where the
ruling party uses the state machinery to crush
its political rivals. Om Prakash Chautala could
still teach the CPM a lesson or two in this game.
But there is one thing Chautala never did. He
never talked of human rights and lofty democratic
ideals. A Chautala could not have issued the
injured yet clinical statement that the CPM's
Politburo did after the Nandigram killings. The
cold-bloodedness of the statement reminds you of
the BJP top brass's reaction after Gujarat.
This gap between the CPM's preaching and practice
did not surprise me. I have been looking at
Christophe Jaffrelot's research on the social
profile of MLAs in India. His analysis shows that
the proportion of upper caste MLAs is on the
decline all over the country since the 1960s.
There is only one exception: In West Bengal the
proportion of upper castes has increased in the
state assembly after 1977, after the Left Front
came to power. A coincidence? Not if you
calculate the caste composition of successive
Left Front ministries: About two thirds of the
ministers come from the top three jatis (Brahman,
Boddis, Kayasthas). Perhaps you did not notice
that West Bengal was the last major state to come
out with an OBC list to implement Mandal. You
might say, the CPM believes in class, not caste.
Fair enough, but then why is the CPM in Delhi so
aggressive about championing Mandal? Why does it
present itself as more Mandalite than thou?
Or read the data supplied by the West Bengal
government to the Sachar Committee. With 25.2 per
cent of Muslim population, the state government
has provided just 2.1 per cent of the government
jobs to Muslims. West Bengal has the worst record
of all Indian states in this respect. Gujarat has
just 9.1 per cent Muslims and has 5.4 per cent
Muslims among government employees. The irony, of
course, is that the CPM was the first party to
come out with a statement demanding
implementation of the Sachar Report!
Will the CPM stop playing games? A few months ago
the Party held an unprecedented State Secretariat
meeting to discuss the Cricket Association of
Bengal elections. The CM was openly backing
Kolkata's police chief only to be opposed by his
own sports minister and Jyoti Basu. The Party
finally declared that the CPM will not play
politics with games, at least not with cricket.
But what about playing games with politics? Will
the CPM stop that as well?
Perhaps we should ask: Can the CPM stop playing
games? Or are these games essential for survival
for a party that has lost touch with the times,
has lost faith in its own ideology and has come
to fear its own cadre and election machine.
Satyajit Ray's Shatranj ke Khiladi was a
brilliant depiction of the games nobility played
at the time of its historic decline. Alimuddin
Street may not have time for such bourgeois
indulgence, but the point of this film would not
be lost on an avid cinema buff like Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee. Sometimes it is not the player who
plays the game; it is the game that consumes the
player.
The writer is a political scientist at the CSDS, New Delhi
o o o
Economic and Political Weekly
March 17, 2007
Letters
CPI(M) AND THE AGRARIAN UNDERCLASS
We would like to follow up on Sumanta Banerjee's
commentary 'Peasant Hares and Capitalist Hounds
of Singur' (December 30, 2006) and further the
argument that the Left Front government in West
Bengal is indulging in a massive betrayal of the
agrarian underclass in Singur. By agrarian
underclass we mean the categories at the bottom
of the spectrum of land control, who physically
labour on the land for their livelihood,
comprising landless agricultural labourers and
'bargadars' (sharecropping tenants who perform
the various tasks of cultivation themselves). Our
argument is based on three premises:
(i) the Left Front government is reversing the
spirit and substance of operation barga by
acquiring land in Singur for the Tata Motors
small car project; (ii) there is no valid reason
why the class interests of the agrarian
underclass should be sacrificed for the benefit
of industrial capital in a professedly
left-oriented state; and (iii) the conduct of the
state in West Bengal reflects its alienation from
the agrarian underclass - the very class that is
supposed to be its ideological foundation.
Operation barga (launched in 1978), the main
plank of the land reform programme of the Left
Front government in West Bengal, aimed at putting
into practice the fundamental socialist premise
that the tiller of the land should be given
control over the means of production. The
relevant legislation protected the bargadar, as
the de facto cultivator, from arbitrary eviction,
and thus assured "him" a secure livelihood from
the soil on which he and his family laboured.
Short of abolishing proprietary rights, or
ownership of the means of production, the
programme radically scaled down the power of
capital over the actual producer. In a
predominantly agrarian economy, this was
undoubtedly a progressive step that favoured the
labouring cultivators.
The acquisition of land in Singur by the
government for the benefit of the Tatas denies
the right of the agrarian underclass (the
bargadars, in this context) to an assured
livelihood from the soil on which they labour.
Implicitly, therefore, labouring on the land for
sustenance pales into insignificance in relation
to the generation of profit by an industrial
giant. Needless to say, by prioritising the
interests of a big industrial house, the Left
Front government is going against the grain of
social justice, thus epitomising the anti-thesis
of progressive, people-oriented policies.
Therefore, the statement of Communist Party of
India-Marxist (CPI(M)) general secretary Prakash
Karat that the party programme "sets out the task
of establishing a worker-peasant alliance that is
the moving force of the people's democratic
revolution" ('Karat Counters Charge of
Doublespeak', The Hindu, January 26, 2007) is
hypocritical, to say the least. It is
inconceivable to imagine that a people's
democratic revolution can be brought about by
dispossessing the agrarian underclass of its
control over the means of production, as in
Singur. It is indeed ironical that it is a
left-oriented state that is propelling the
depeasantisation of the bargadars. The
proletarianisation of the small producer,
typically associated with the development of
capitalism, is being achieved by capitalism
riding piggyback on communism! Clearly, then, the
CPI(M) by its actions shows that it is partial to
the very "ruling class" interests condemned by
Karat in his statement.
It is obvious, therefore, that the conduct of the
state in West Bengal strikingly displays
"doublespeak", inspite of the denial by Karat.
The violence unleashed by party cadres and the
police on those resisting the acquisition of land
in Singur is symptomatic of the state following a
logic conforming to the interests of capital, but
diametrically opposed to those of the "working
people and the poor" (Karat's words) for whom the
party now stands only in name.
Anand Chakravarti,
Uma Chakravarti
Delhi
______
[7] www.sacw.net
A Tribute to Bhagat Singh
by B.B. Rawat
On 23rd March 1931 the British government hanged
three Indian revolutionaries namely Bhagat Singh,
Rajguru and Sukhdev. All of them embraced death
in an entirely heroic way and therefore became
legend for the common Indian masses. None of the
youth leaders of India's independence movement
inspired a whole lot of generation as Bhagat
Singh. Unfortunately, the ruling elite of the
country reduced Bhagat Singh into a 'terrorist'.
The result was that these revolutionaries who
were non violent in their thought and process and
wanted to change India remain outside the purview
of college students, many of them liked Bhagat
Singh for being 'violent' and Gandhi for being
'non violent'. However, in the absence of
idealism and understanding of Indian situation,
revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh are grossly
under evaluated and misrepresented.
[. . .]
http://www.sacw.net/free/VBrawatMarch07.html
______
[8]
Book Review / The Hindu
March 20, 2007
NOT YET A LOST CAUSE
K. N. PANIKKAR
Secularism in Asia and Eastern Europe which have
histories of multiculturism and religious strife
THE FUTURE OF SECULARISM: T. N. Srinivasan -
Editor; Oxford University Press, YMCA Library
Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs.
595.
The recent literature on secularism has certain
predictability. It is either concerned with its
European origin and its consequent irrelevance to
societies like India or concentrates on the
inadequacies of secular practices of the state.
What happens at the ground level, particularly in
political practice and social relations is often
missing.
The essays, collected together in this volume,
substantially depart from this well-trodden path.
They are different in two significant ways.
Firstly, beginning with the editor himself who,
though very briefly, locates secularism as a
philosophical doctrine, the concept of secularism
receives critical consideration. Secondly, most
of the essays are detailed empirical enquiries
into secular political practice in different
countries in Asia and Europe, which affords a
comparative perspective. The latter form a
distinct contribution of this volume.
South Asia
The major part of the book deals with South Asia.
There are six essays on South Asia, five on India
and one on Pakistan. Among the rest two are on
Indonesia, one on Iran and one on Yugoslavia.
Collectively they offer considerable insight,
through empirically rich and theoretically
nuanced studies, into the complex relationship
between secularism, nationalism and religion, set
in different ideological and political contexts.
The implication of invoking religion in politics
has different possibilities and implications in
different systems. It may lead to entirely
different consequences in a democracy like India
or dictatorship like Pakistan or a controlled
polity like Indonesia. Yet, in all of them the
process of secularisation of polity and society
is likely to be adversely affected by the
intrusion of religion into politics. That is the
idea, either explicit or implicit, running
through all essays, which provides a unity for
the volume.
The first part of the book on South Asia has five
essays on India. The tone of the volume is set by
two excellent essays in this section by Rajiv
Bhargava and Romila Thapar. In a theoretically-
nuanced piece Rajiv Bhargava, while dismissing
that secularism is conceptually flawed argues
that it faces an internal threat due to the
failure to "realise the distinctive character of
Indian secularism." These distinctive
characteristics which he identifies are the
"full-blooded self-recognition of its multi-value
character" and the rejection of the claim that
"separation must mean strict exclusion and
neutrality." The distinctiveness of Indian
secularism, Bhargava argues, can be understood
only when the cultural background and social
context are properly understood.
In India
Romila Thapar's essay, "Is Secularism Alien to
Indian Civilisation", complements Rajiv
Bhargava's thesis in as much as it brings out the
proto-secular trends in Indian history. Thapar
views secularism as a process of "gradual change
affecting not just politics but the social and
cultural life of society." She suggests that the
"notion of secularisation of society is more
appropriate than the limited notion of the
ideology of secularism." Viewed in that light
Indian society, like all other societies, have
undergone a process of secularisation,
particularly as a part of modernisation. Although
she does not directly engage with the arguments
of "anti-secular secularists" like T. N. Madan
and Asish Nandy her essay is a powerful
refutation of their argument.
The commentator on Thapar's essay, Shyam Sunder,
points out that secularism is best seen not as a
state of affairs, but as a value, a structural
dimension, in human societies. The relationship
between caste and communalism is a relatively
unexplored and untheorised area. The recent
communal conflagrations like that of Gujarat in
which the lower castes had actively participated
adds urgency to a proper understanding of this
evolving connection.
In a brief but interesting essay Dilip Menon
argues that communalism is a "deflection of the
central, unaddressed issue of violence and
inegalitarianism within the Hindu religion" and
that communalism is the highest stage of
casteism. He also locates communal violence in
the context of lower caste mobility and
assertion. This is an attractive proposition
which however requires much more empirical
substantiation than what is marshalled in the
essay. Most of the ideas and arguments, in these
essays are tested in the remaining essays on
predominantly Muslim societies like that of
Pakistan and Indonesia. In them the relationship
between religion, nationalism and secularism form
the main focus.
In the Balkans
In a brief but excellent exposition of the
Yugoslovian situation Amila Buturovic
demonstrates the inter-relationship between the
three and examines its consequences as unfolded
in the Balkans. The essays in this volume
possibly do not provide a clear indication about
the future of secularism. What they all highlight
is the tension that secularism is facing in these
societies, particularly in the wake of the rise
of fundamentalism and militancy, and the efforts
to cope with it.
The editor rightly observes that secularism is
facing a serious threat in all these societies
under discussion. Hindu communal forces have made
considerable headway in India, Pakistan lost its
initial urge for secularism and religious
conservatives established their hold on the
state. Although Indonesia is not an Islamic
state, the radical conservative Islam has been on
the rise. Despite such tendencies secularism is a
powerful idea, which continues to engage the
political discourse in all these countries.
Secularism, both as an idea and as a practice has
considerable vitality and therefore is not a lost
cause. The essays provide enough proof for this
optimism.
______
[6] EVENTS:
Zubaan,
Italian Cultural Institute
&
India International Centre
Invite you to a lecture on
"Women and War"
by
Prof. Benedetta Bini
Conference Room I, India International Centre, 40 Max Mueller Marg
6:00 p.m.
Thursday , 22 March 2007
Chair: Dr. Shobhana Bhattacharji, Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi
Please join us for Tea @ 6.00pm
Benedetta Bini is Director of the Department of
Classical and Modern Languages and Civilizations
and teaches English Literature at the University
of Tuscia (Viterbo). Her work on the sentimental
novel of the XVIIIth century had led her to
devote special attention to the tradition of
women's writing: she was the first to introduce
to the Italian public the work of an important
writer like Elizabeth Bowen's, whose fiction on
the Second World War, together with that of
Virginia Woolf, has led her to study the diaries
and memoirs of Italian and Anglo-Italian women of
that same period. She has also written on
Elizabeth Gaskell, Vernon Lee, Edith Wharton, and
while working on gender and sexuality in
fin-de-siècle Britain she has discovered and
edited the work of Mary Cholmondeley.
She is currently researching on women's styles of
life in the Second World War, both in England and
Italy, and translating Vita Sackville West's All
Passion Spent. She has been for many years a
broadcaster for the cultural programs of Radio 3
Italy and she is a regular contributor to the
arts pages of Il Sole 24 ore where she reviews
mainly fiction in English. She was from 1996 to
2000 Director of the Italian Cultural Institute
in London and she has always been a keen observer
of the cross-cultural relations between Britain
and Italy .
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
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