SACW - Sept 13 - 14, 2007 | Henk Slebos and AQ Khan / Religion Trouble

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire | September 13-14, 2007
Dispatch No. 2448 - Year 10 running

[1]  Sri Lanka: Results of deliberative poll reveal space for
peace
[2]  Pakistan - Holland: Henk Slebos and the A.Q.  Khan
nuclear network (F Slijper)
[3]  India: The growth of Hindutva; the demise of Hinduism
(Amit Chaudhuri)
[4]  Pakistan: 
    (i) Attack on giant Pakistan Buddha (BBC)
    (ii) Pakistan 'prostitutes' beheaded
    (iii) Tailor's shop blown up in Bajaur
    (iv) A reprehensible act (Editorial, The News)
    (v) Women: the new target (Editorial
    (vi) Pakistan faces the Taleban's tentacles (Barbara Plett)
[5]  Indian farmers oppose giant Buddha statue (Daniel Pepper)
[6]  India: Fundamentalists Hullabaloo over Adams Bridge and a
certain Lord Rama
 - 'No evidence to prove Ramar Sethu is man-made'
(Archeological Survey of India)
 - Parts of ASI affidavit to be withdrawn
 - For historians, Ram remains a myth
 - Not science territory
 -
 -  A Letter To India’s Prime Minister re Govt Affidavit in
the Sethusamudram case before the Supreme Court 

[8]  Announcements:
(i) Annual Dr Ramanatham Memorial Lecture (New Delhi, 15
September 200è)
(ii) Water Session, Independent People's Tribunal on the World
Bank in India (New Delhi, 21 Sept 2007)
(iii) Pakistan Workshop 2008 (Cumbria – UK, 9-11 May 2008)

_________


[1]

National Peace Council
of Sri Lanka
12/14 Purana Vihara Road
Colombo 6
Tel: 2818344, 2854127, 2819064
Tel/Fax:2819064
E Mail:npc at sltnet.lk
Internet: www.peace-srilanka.org

12.09.07

Media Release

RESULTS OF DELIBERATIVE POLL REVEAL SPACE FOR PEACE

A deliberative poll with a sample size of 1800 carried out by
the Marga Institute in collaboration with the National Peace
Council during May-June 2007 has brought out the people's
attitudes towards the LTTE, the ethnic conflict and its
solution, and also the potential for generating popular
support for a political solution. This poll, which was carried
out in 18 of the country's 25 administrative districts
(excluding the north and including only Ampara from the east)
would be primarily reflective of Sinhalese and Muslim opinion.
The deliberative poll seeks to ascertain how the public would
respond if they were better informed and had a better
understanding of the issues that are the subject of the
survey. It was carried out in several phases. In the first
phase the respondents were provided with a document that
informed them about the issues that they were to be questioned
on. In the second phase the respondents were requested to read
and deliberate on the material presented and discuss it with
others. In the third phase they were presented with a
structured questionnaire. Such deliberative polls have been
carried out in Northern Ireland to help with the peace process.

According to the Marga study, as many as 99 percent of the
respondents did not want the war to continue, agreeing that
the prevailing state of war should be ended as early as
possible and security restored in all parts of the country. On
the other hand, 77 percent of the respondents think that the
government needs to act on the basis that the LTTE will not
give up their aim of an independent state of Tamil Eelam, and
will not enter the democratic process. This leads as many as
84 percent of the respondents to agree that the government
should concentrate on militarily defeating the LTTE and
recapturing all the territory controlled by the LTTE. But an
even greater proportion amounting to 89 percent believe that
the LTTE will continue as a guerilla force and be a threat to
peace and security even after suffering a comprehensive
military defeat.
The bleak assessment of the vast majority of people in the
efficacy of a military solution leads most of them amounting
to 72 percent to conclude that the best guarantee of lasting
peace is a political solution that all communities can accept
and that includes the LTTE in a negotiated settlement in which
they give up their demand for Tamil Eelam and enter into a
multi-party democratic system. This would be the ideal
solution, and implies that the people expect the government to
put forward a political package to resolve the fundamentals of
the ethnic conflict.

It is noteworthy that only a small proportion, less than 10
percent, rejected any form of devolution, including the
existing provincial council system. The vast majority were in
support of some form of devolution of power. As many as 95
percent agreed that the political solution should be just and
fair to all communities and it should guarantee equal rights
to all citizens in all parts of the country regardless of
ethnicity or religion. An important finding of the survey was
that 70 percent of respondents were ready to accept devolution
close to a federal system if it was a three tier system and
brought government close to the people by giving adequate
power to the political institutions at the local (third) and
the community level.

The National Peace Council believes that the figures above
show that there is a large measure of agreement amongst the
people on what has to be done to lead to sustainable peace.
They are in agreement with a political solution that enables
the LTTE to be brought into a political solution.  This
imposes an obligation on the LTTE to commit itself to a
political solution within the framework of a united country.
It also imposes an obligation upon the government to speed up
its production of a political package that has broad
acceptance amongst the ethnic minority political parties.

In particular we see the readiness of 72 percent of the
Sinhalese and Muslim respondents to envisage a future in which
the LTTE is part and parcel of a restructured Sri Lankan
polity as revealing the space that is available for arriving
at a negotiated political settlement that has public backing.

Executive Director
On behalf of Governing Council

_____


[2]

South Asians Against Nukes
September 12, 2007
URL: groups.yahoo.com/group/SAAN_/message/1070

o o o o

SLEBOS CASE REVEALS FAILURE OF DUTCH AND EU NUCLEAR
NON-PROLIFERATION POLICIES

Amsterdam, 12 September 2007. For immediate release.

The case of nuclear trader Henk Slebos, which comes to the
Amsterdam Appeals court on 18 September, highlights the
failure of Dutch and EU nuclear proliferation policies,
according to a new report released today.
Project Butter Factory: Henk Slebos and the A.Q.  Khan nuclear
network is a comprehensive account of how the drive for
profit, competing political interests and weak regulations in
the Netherlands allowed the export of dual-use nuclear
components to continue over a 30 year period. The report
compiles publicly available data, including materials obtained
under the Dutch Freedom of Information Act, to reveal:

* The full story of Henk Slebos's role in the A.Q Khan nuclear
network. Khan is widely acknowledged to be the 'father of the
Pakistani nuclear bomb', with this same network implicated in
nuclear proliferation to Iran, Libya and North Korea.  Slebos
has been Khan's close friend and business partner for three
decades.
* The repeated failure of Dutch security services in stopping
Slebos's trading in nuclear components, and the inability of
Dutch authorities to prosecute these activities. The only
successful prosecution thus far has resulted in a minor fine.
Often action was undertaken only after foreign security
services or investigative journalists revealed sensitive
information.
* The trade in nuclear technology and components originating
from Dutch and multinational companies, including Philips and
Urenco.

With the current ease in exporting nuclear components across
European borders, the report recommends that firm action be
taken at EU level
to reform export controls.

"The Slebos case shows the EU and Dutch authorities´ lack of
urgency in tackling the trade in dual-use components that can
be used to produce weapons of mass destruction" says Frank
Slijper, author of the report. "The existing nuclear powers
should stop turning a blind eye to proliferation and start
serious disarmament."

Project Butter Factory: Henk Slebos and the A.Q.  Khan nuclear
network is published by the Transnational Institute and the
Campagne tegen Wapenhandel (Campaign Against Arms Trade). The
full report can be downloaded at:
http://tinyurl.com/2bfn65

______


[3]

Communalism Combat
August-September 2007
Year 14    No.125
Society

14 Anniversary Issue

Thoughts in a temple
The growth of Hindutva; the demise of Hinduism

by Amit Chaudhuri
Two weeks ago, I went for a walk with my daughter to the Birla
temple. It is not far from where I live and I have seen it
coming up for years, from a time when I did not actually live
in Calcutta but when, during long or short periods of transit,
would look at it from the balcony of this flat. It was built -
this plush Orientalist artefact - by the family after which it
is named: the Birlas, whose forefather moved from Rajasthan to
Calcutta and made his fortune here.
I can't say I unreservedly enjoy going to this temple; there
are, however, only so many places to walk about in Calcutta.
My daughter, though, does enjoy going there, without
reservation, and this was both her second visit and mine. The
first time must have been almost exactly a year ago. I
remember the warm marble floor under our bare feet from that
excursion, the floor that must have absorbed the heat all day
to give it out in the evening. I can also remember my
daughter, a year younger, running across the space before the
main shrine. On our second visit, the marble was warm again
beneath our feet.
On this visit, the precincts of the temple were more crowded
than the first time I went there. It was a site of recreation
- men and women, and some children, sat in the large space
before the steps that led to the sanctum in which the arti
(evening prayers offered to the deity) was being performed.
They looked content, like people at the seaside. My daughter,
easily frightened, was alarmed at the sound of the bell and
did not want to investigate the arti - the familiar tune,
which one can hear these days even when certain domestic water
filters are used, was being played on a tape - and so we
roamed around the premises.  A thought came to me: would these
people condone, or at least defend, what was happening in Gujarat?

The question was probably grossly unfair but impossible to
keep out of my head or leave unasked. In the last ten years,
gradually, the idea of the 'peace-loving Hindu' has been
turned inside out. The most innocent-seeming of activities
appear to be charged with unarticulated violence. To walk in
the Birla temple was to sense - perhaps to imagine, but to
imagine powerfully - that subterranean violence which Hinduism
is now charged with in its totality: because you cannot
isolate one kind of 'religious' activity from another.
Perhaps it was the location; perhaps I wouldn't have felt this
discomfort if these people had gathered at a more ancient,
less ostentatious, place of worship. I have never really cared
for the Birla temple, for its security guards who hover not
very far from you once you enter, its marble floor and
enormous chandelier, its expansive air of a lobby in a four
star hotel, its spotless, garish, unimpeachable idols.

This spectacle is part of the production of a version of
Hinduism that has been a steadily developing enterprise in
independent India:

Hinduism as a rich man's, a trader's, religion. Although
aggressive exhortations are made on behalf of Lord Ram, the
principal deities of this religion are Ganesh and Lakshmi: not
Ganesh, the wily and rapid transcriber of the Mahabharata, but
the bringer of good fortune to the black marketeer; not
Lakshmi, the agrarian goddess, but the goddess who presides
over the urban dowry
system. As ever, our divinities bless their devotees
indiscriminately.

I have heard Hinduism celebrated for the resilience with which
it, unlike other religions, has embraced capitalism, but
perhaps it has embraced capitalism a little too well. It has
left the Hindu with an importunate will to fit into the modern
world, and without a social conscience.

Hindutva - the BJP's frequently used ontologically and
culturally assertive term for 'Hinduness' - does not so much
promote religion as it does material success for the followers
of the Hindu religion. Success, in the nineties, has been its
keyword, but success for the majority only. It will not barter
or share it with anyone else; it will even pretend no one else
exists. If they do, it will see to it that they cease to. I
presume it is not a coincidence that the extreme measures of
ethnic cleansing in Gujarat should be undertaken by those who
have been the most effective proponents of the new Hinduism's
mantra of material well-being. Many of the sources that fund
our new kitsch Hinduism are also those that fund, or quietly
encourage, a government that has a chief minister who defends
and protects murderers, and a prime minister (Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, this piece was written in 2002) who defends and
protects that minister. Then there is the largesse that flows
in from overseas, from businessmen in London, from expatriates
in England and America. Does it only take an arti to keep our
gods happy?

Hinduism was never in the past (unlike Christianity) at the
heart of a revolutionary political movement precisely because
it was never an evangelical religion; it had no word, or
truth, to spread. The killings done in its name today are not
part of a jihad and nor are they the residue of a misguided
evangelism. They are a brutal and calculated exercise of power
in a moral vacuum: Hinduism as the punitive instrument of the
powerful.

Christianity has often had a quarrel with modernity and the
materialism it denotes in its eyes; Islam has a related
quarrel with the West, modernity's synecdoche. That is why
Islamic militancy, even at its worst, has the dimensions of an
ideology albeit a distorted one. Hindutva, on the other hand,
has no problem with modernity or with the West and it rushes
to embrace the latter's material benefits. This happy
concordance, in Hindutva, of cultural extremism and
materialism makes it less like a 'fundamentalist' religious
movement than like fascism.

'Hinduism' and the 'mainstream', how frequently are these
words juxtaposed and made synonymous with each other by the
ruling political party!  'Mainstream': the word that would
mean, in a democratic nation, the law-abiding democratic
polity, is cunningly conflated, in the newspeak of our present
government, with the religious majority and those who don't
belong to that majority become, by subconscious association
and suggestion, anti-democratic and breakers of the law.

Ironically, saffron is the colour of our mainstream. Saffron,
or 'gerua' in the Indian languages: its resonances are wholly
to do with that powerful undercurrent in Hinduism, 'vairagya',
the melancholy and romantic possibility of renunciation. At
what point, and how, did the colour of renunciation and
withdrawal from the world become the symbol of a militant and
materialistic majoritarianism? Gerua represents not what is
brahmanical and conservative but what is most radical about
the Hindu religion. It is the colour not of belonging, or
fitting in, but of exile, of the marginal man. Hindutva, while
rewriting our secular histories, has also rewritten the
language of Hinduism and purged it of these meanings; and
those of us who mourn the passing of secularism must also
believe we are witnessing the passing, and demise, of the
Hindu religion as we have known it.

We perhaps owe the politicisation of the colour saffron, its
recent use in India as a sign of national pride, to the Hindu
revivalist, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). We largely owe to
him too (more than we do to any other single person) the
notion of 'Hinduness'. Vivekananda is a curious figure and an
exemplary one; his story is inflected with the conflicts of
interest, the contradictions, of the emergence of Hinduism
into modernity.

Vivekananda's real name was Narendranath Datta.  He was a
graduate of Calcutta University and had studied European
religions carefully. Like many other middle class, educated
men of his generation in India and elsewhere, he was a seeker
after metaphysical and religious truth, but his search was
related to the self-awareness of a colonial subject. After
rejecting the major religions and philosophies he was
surrounded by, Datta finally found his master in a rustic
visionary and saint, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, who was a priest
in a town north of Calcutta, who spoke in parables and
homilies and claimed to have 'seen' Ma Kali. Ironically, and
characteristically of the time, he first heard of Ramakrishna
from an Englishman, Professor WW Hastie. And it was
Ramakrishna who reportedly identified Datta's spiritual
potential and named him Vivekananda - 'the one who exults in a
clear conscience and in discernment'.

Ramakrishna was an extraordinary man himself. He had
experimented, literally, in varieties of religious experience.
He could practise, for periods of time, faiths such as Islam
and Christianity. His immersion, during these trance-like
periods, in these alternative modes of worship was so complete
that he would begin to internalise the habits and customs of
other religions, to spend, for instance, long spells inside a
mosque and eat beef; he'd even experience a sort of revulsion
towards his beloved deity, Kali. His experiments led him to
conclude, influentially, that all paths led to god ('jata mat
tata path' - 'there are as many paths as there are faiths').

This, then, was part of Vivekananda's liberal inheritance but
it was an inheritance quite different from that of the liberal
humanism that had come to exist in Bengal by this time, and
which Vivekananda, as Narendranath Datta, would probably have
subscribed to had he not met Ramakrishna. It was a middle
class humanism that decreed tolerance towards all faiths
regardless of whether or not you adhered to one yourself.

Ramakrishna, on the other hand, located these various
religions not in the society or nation he lived in but in
himself. It was here they coexisted and competed with each
other, often annihilating each other temporarily. History
animated him from within.

The liberal humanism of the Bengal Renaissance formed the
basis of the secular Indian state. The experiments of
Ramakrishna, in which different ways of seeing existed in a
sort of tension within oneself, formed the basis of the
creativity of the modern Indian. It is no accident that every
significant Indian writer or artist has negotiated seemingly
antithetical world views or languages in his or her work.

But the relationship that the BJP and the new BJP-governed
middle class have with Hinduism is prescriptive, not creative.
For years now, the BJP's satellites of the far right have
imposed a violent if illegal ban on imagined offences to the
Hindu religion, and abused and harassed artists and writers
for their supposed transgressions. This is not only a failure
of secularism; it speaks to us of the imminent death of
Ramakrishna's inheritance: leaving us unable to negotiate any
more the different ways of seeing in a way that might create
rather than destroy.

In 1893, a penurious Vivekananda travelled to Chicago to
attend the Parliament of World Religions. By this time he had
abandoned the white apparel of the brahmachari, the celibate
devotee, for the saffron of the sanyasi, the wandering holy
mendicant. As a follower of Ramakrishna he had graduated from
brahmacharya to sanyas, from celibacy to renunciation, and yet
it was now that he and his religion would embrace the world,
not only in a metaphorical and metaphysical but in a new,
global, sense. His address in Chicago, in which he announced a
resurgent Hinduism to the West, made him famous and made, by
association and almost by chance, the colour he was wearing
the sign of that resurgence rather than of liminality.

We might think we see some of the lineaments of today's
Hindutva in Vivekananda's revived faith and while it is hard
to deny the lineage, it is important to distinguish between
the two.

Certainly, Vivekananda wanted Hinduism to stand on its own two
feet, to become less inward-looking, and exhorted it to become
a more 'manly' religion. Like other figures of the Bengal
Renaissance, he welcomed western rationalism, science and
materialism, and wanted Hinduism to enter into a transaction
with these things. Hindutva continues that journey westward
but the West itself has become a different entity from what it
was in the late 19th century.  Vivekananda could not have
foreseen a West that is synonymous, principally, with the
benefits of the free market, which the twice-born Hindutva now
rushes towards. Moreover, Ramakrishna, the rustic seer, was
important to Vivekananda as the vernacular root of Hinduism.
He couldn't have known that the religion he helped revive
would venture so far into the world that it would become, in
essence, a globalised urban faith, in Delhi and Bombay, London
and New York, divorced from the vernacular experience that
Ramakrishna represented. The followers of the postmodern
Hindutva still ritually, and piously, celebrate Vivekananda
but, a hundred years after his death, no longer exult in
conscience or discernment.

(Amit Chaudhuri is an award winning author and poet based in
Kolkata. This article appeared in The Times Literary
Supplement soon after the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat in 2002.)


________


[4]  FUNDAMENTALISTS UNDETERRED IN PAKISTAN

BBC News
12 September 2007

ATTACK ON GIANT PAKISTAN BUDDHA

Swat valley Buddha (file photo)
The Buddha at Swat was only slightly damaged
Suspected pro-Taleban militants have tried to
blow up an ancient carving of Buddha in
north-west Pakistan.

The statue, thought to date from the second century BC,
sustained only minimal damage in the attack near Manglore in
remote Swat district.
The area has seen a rise in attacks on "un-Islamic" targets in
recent months.
This is the first such attack in Pakistan and is reminiscent
of the Taleban's 2001 destruction of the giant Buddhas at
Bamiyan in Afghanistan.


Officials and witnesses in Swat said armed men arrived in the
area on Monday night.

We heard the sound of drilling twice and then early Tuesday
morning we heard two blasts
Villager Amir Khan

Afghan Buddha future unclear

"Militants drilled holes in the rock and filled them with
dynamite and blew it up," provincial archaeology department
official Aqleem Khan told Reuters news agency.
"The explosion damaged the upper part of the rock but there
was no damage to the image itself."

And eyewitness, Shahid Khan, told the BBC that because of its
location on a steep ridge the statue had been only slightly
damaged. It is carved into a 40m (130-foot) high rock.

Local archaeology expert Professor Pervaiz Shaheen told the
BBC that the Buddha statue in Swat valley was considered the
largest in Asia, after the two Bamiyan Buddhas.

He said it was 2,200 years old. Swat valley is a centre of the
ancient Gandhara civilization.

"They constructed similar smaller statues and figurines,
dozens of which are still present in the area," Prof Shaheen said.

Swat has seen increased pro-Taleban activity in recent months,
with the re-emergence of militant group
Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) under new leader,
Maulana Fazlullah.

Last week, militants blew up about 60 music, video and
cosmetics stalls at a market in the valley after stall owners
ignored warnings to close businesses deemed un-Islamic.
The world watched in shock in March 2001 as Afghanistan's then
rulers destroyed the 6th-Century Bamiyan Buddhas. The Taleban
said they were offensive to Islam.

o o o

[SEE ALSO:]

BBC News - Sep 7, 2007

PAKISTAN 'PROSTITUTES' BEHEADED

Suspected Islamic militants in north-western Pakistan have
beheaded two women they accused of
being prostitutes, police say. The bodies of the two women ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6983692.stm


Daily Times - Sep 6, 2007

TAILOR'S SHOP BLOWN UP IN BAJAUR

KHAR: Suspected militants blew up a tailor's shop on Thursday
in northwest Pakistan for making
Western clothes, an official said. ...
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C09%5C07%5Cstory_7-9-2007_pg7_20


[Editorials]

Editorial, The News - International

A REPREHENSIBLE ACT
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=71512

Dawn, September 09, 2007
Editorial

WOMEN: THE NEW TARGET

THE beheading of two women accused of 'immoral' activities in
Bannu has shocked us beyond belief. Apart from the
implications this episode has for the safety and esteem of
women in our society it also has a frightening dimension - in
respect of the war on terror. With Islamic militancy gathering
strength in the tribal areas and beyond, the kidnapping and
execution of security officials and 'informers' by the Taliban
no longer shocks people as such incidents previously did. Be
it the outcome of faulty government policies, the shaky morale
of the armed forces or even the zeal of the militants, such
incidents are taken as the natural corollary of a conflict
between government forces and armed men wedded to an extremist
ideology. But the case of the two women shows that the
religious extremists are actively expanding the arena of war
to arrogate to themselves the custodianship of public morality
as perceived by them. Beside the horror and savagery of the
deed itself, one feels rage and revulsion fuelled by frustration.

Unfortunately, the question - 'how dare they?' - can only be
answered upon close introspection of ourselves as a society
that wears religion on its sleeve, regards women as inferior
beings and whose ideas of "right" and "wrong" stem not from
the basic fundamentals of humanity but from sanctimonious
notions of individual and collective morality. Notwithstanding
all the talk about democracy that one hears nowadays, it is a
pity that there is no expression of public outrage when such
horrendous actions come to light. Clothed in the mantle of
faith, our leaders have chosen to discard the universal
principles of liberty and justice. Instead they have been
swamped by orthodox interpretations of faith, used as an
instrument of fear and political repression by the religious
lobby. It is no wonder that those reared, nurtured - and
brutalised - by the champions of a society based on religious
injunctions have taken on the role of judge and jury,
perceiving with contempt all those who do not share their views.
What is disturbing is that in this bizarre situation the
institutions of state have abrogated their responsibilities
vis-à-vis the citizens. Even a large section of society which
holds women in contempt, has shown no anger.  Where are our
politicians? Will they shake off their misogynist moorings and
chastise those who show utter lack of tolerance or will they
act as apologists for the criminals, calling into question the
issue of the victims' 'morality'?  Will any of them condemn
the act as a grave violation of the right to life and liberty
or will they maintain a stony silence as the public and media
debate the trivial question of whether or not the two women
were indulging in 'immoral' activities? Will the Supreme
Court, in keeping with its newfound trend of taking suo motu
notice, take note of the crime? Unfortunately, when we talk of
creeping Talibanisation in the country, we do not recognise
that it is our lack of courage to take a holistic and
humanistic view of reality that is leading us into a blind
alley, while providing a fertile ground for the seeds of
extremism. In other words, we have only ourselves to blame.

BBC News- 22 May 2007

PAKISTAN FACES THE TALEBAN'S TENTACLES by Barbara Plett

BBC News, Bannu, northern Pakistan
The Taleban say they are enforcing Islamic law In a remote
Pakistani town, a singer lives in fear.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6677967.stm


_______


[5]

The Christian Science Monitor
September 10, 2007

[PHOTO CAPTION:] Ram Prashad Gond says plans to build the
world's largest statue of Buddha in Kushinagar will evict him,
his wife, and their six children, from his land.
[Credits:] Daniel Pepper

INDIAN FARMERS OPPOSE GIANT BUDDHA STATUE

An international Buddhist organization's plans may displace
hundreds.
by Daniel Pepper | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

KUSHINAGAR, India - In the middle of a village square about a
mile from the northern Indian town of Kushinagar, where Buddha
died nearly 2,500 years ago, dozens of semiliterate, poor
villagers chanted in unison last week through the humid night.

"The common people will prevail; we will fight and we will
win," they cried, pumping their fists.
The object of their ire is an international Buddhist
organization's plan to build the world's largest statue of
Buddha near their village. Called the Maitreya Project
("Maitreya" comes from Sanskrit and means loving-kindness),
the statue and its vast surrounding parks will offer a
spiritual answer to the world's great " 'monuments' to
commercial interests: high-rise business buildings, airports,
shopping malls, theatres and theme parks," according to the
group's website.

But the plans are pitting devoted Buddhists against poor
villagers who make their living farming small plots of land
that have been in their families for generations.

"There's a 'hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil' attitude
manifest from the upper echelons of the project," says Jessica
Falcone, an American anthropologist of Tibetan Buddhism at
Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. "The willful negligence
shown by the leadership of the Maitreya Project calls into
question the ideological underpinnings of a project that is
trying to build a statue symbolizing 'loving-kindness.' "

Many of the farmers who occupy the roughly 750 acres of
fertile land proposed for the statue's surrounding parks and
facilities are angry, afraid, and adamantly opposed to the
construction of the giant symbol of love and compassion.

For their part, the statue's planners say it is the provincial
government of Uttar Pradesh, which supports the project, that
is planning to relocate the farmers. The tension surrounding
the statue follows a series of similar issues across India
where rural peasants have opposed plans by government and
industry to develop large-scale tourism or industrial projects.

Earlier this year in the state of West Bengal, where the
ruling Communist Party was hoping to acquire land for use in a
special economic zone, the police opened fire on protesting
local villagers, killing more than a dozen and causing an
uproar across the country.

Kushinagar has yet to see violence related to the Maitreya
Project, but anxiety over the plans remains.
"I will cut them if they come here," says Kalami Devi, the
demure, bespectacled head of the women's chapter of a local
Save Our Land organization, as she makes a slicing motion
across her neck to drive home her point.

"On paper, the state government has already taken the land,"
says P.P. Upadhyay, a district land acquisition officer, who
adds that seven villages and between 15,000 and 20,000 people
will be displaced. He says that if the farmers don't move, the
police will be forced to remove them. "It's a clash - I think
there will be a conflict."
But Linda Gatter, who works with the Maitreya Project's office
in Britain, says that it is the government of the state of
Uttar Pradesh, not the Maitreya Project organizers, who are
pursuing the construction of the Buddha and the development of
the area.

"The Matireya Project has no part whatsoever to play in the
acquisition process which is - and which by law can only be -
entirely the responsibility of the government of Uttar
Pradesh," says Ms. Gatter, who added that the Maitreya group
would like to reach an equitable resolution with the farmers.
"The project, which is planned to include significant
educational as well as healthcare programs, will bring
extensive benefit to the area and to India," she says.

Costing roughly $250 million and reaching three times the
height of the Statue of Liberty (without its base), the
500-foot-tall bronze statue of Buddha will be the world's
largest statue and the world's first so-called
"statue-skyscraper." It is being designed to last for more
than 1,000 years and has the backing of the Dalai Lama.

The Maitreya Project chose Kushinagar because it is considered
to be the fourth-holiest site in Buddhism - where the lord
Buddha took his last sip of water, delivered his last sermon,
died, and was cremated - to plant its beacon of compassion and
understanding.

Manicured parks and 100,000 stupas (small Buddhist devotional
structures) will surround the statue. The website of the
Maitreya Project describes eventually constructing a
world-class teaching hospital, museum, audiovisual center,
schools, libraries, and more. Maitreya Project funds come from
private donations as well as through individual or group
sponsorship of the Buddha's giant bronze limbs.

Local farmers have accused officials at the Maitreya Project
of attempting to seize their lands in a clandestine,
nontransparent manner.

"What is the price of your soul," asks Ram Prashad Gond, a
semiliterate farmer with a wife and six young children to
feed. "Our land is our life. We have courage - if we have to
die, then we die." Other villagers say they fast daily to call
attention to their struggle.

But not all area residents predict unhappy days ahead. On the
road adjacent to the current Buddhist shrines in Kushinagar,
T.K. Roy, a cafe owner who stands to profit from the increased
traffic from pilgrims and tourists, says that about half of
the people in the area are ready to give up their land, while
the other half are skeptical and may need to be forcibly
removed. "The whole of Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, and India
will benefit, undoubtedly," says Mr. Roy. But he adds
wistfully, "the tranquility of the place will be lost."
Some farmers, says Roy, are holding out for higher
compensation packages, but that the government cannot pay
those farmers a higher rate for their land without paying more
to those who have already moved.
"It's the illiterates - they are simply confined to their
religious, ancestral principles. Globalization can benefit
poor people, too," says Mahesh Sharma, a manager with a local
branch of the Punjab National Bank in Kushinagar. "The Buddha
left his kingdom; this is all about materialism; Now it's
become an industry."



_______


[6] INDIA: FUNDAMENTALISTS HULLABALOO OVER ADAMS BRIDGE AND A
CERTAIN LORD RAMA



'NO EVIDENCE TO PROVE RAMAR SETHU IS MAN-MADE'
http://tinyurl.com/2aouk8

PARTS OF ASI AFFIDAVIT TO BE WITHDRAWN
http://tinyurl.com/2bhf4d

FOR HISTORIANS, RAM REMAINS A MYTH
http://tinyurl.com/27z55p

o o o

The Telegraph - September 14, 2007 

NOT SCIENCE TERRITORY
Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, Sept. 13: Scientists have dubbed the government's
clarification on Ram a course correction driven by political
pragmatism. But rationalists have called it calculated cowardice.

Senior scientists who have long championed the cause of
scientific temper said that it was probably unwise on the part
of a government department to challenge Ram's existence
through a court affidavit.

"It should have confined itself to the lack of evidence for a
man-made bridge, rather than argue that there is no proof (for
Ram)," said Professor Yash Pal, a space scientist and former
chairman of the University Grants Commission.
"All they had to say was that there is no archaeological
evidence for the bridge... archaeologists should not even be
asked to get into this (the existence of Ram)," Yash Pal told
The Telegraph.

Scientists said the affidavit filed yesterday should have
taken into account the sensitivities involved. "This is an
emotional issue involving faith... to say that Ram was not a
historical figure was not necessary," said Kasturi Lal Chopra,
the former director of the Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur, and the president of the Society for Scientific Values.

The controversy is about whether Adam's Bridge is man-made or
natural. "They should not have gone beyond science," Chopra
said. "If they're going to submit a new affidavit, it'll be a
rectification of an error," he said.

The documents filed by the government also included results of
studies by geologists and space scientists that suggest that
Adam's Bridge is a natural chain of islets in a shallow sea
created by marine geological processes.
Law minister H.R. Bharadwaj, however, said he would not blame
any official.
Usually, the parent ministry (culture in this case) sends the
initial draft to the law ministry, which may or may not
suggest changes. If changes are recommended, the draft goes
back to the parent. Otherwise, the final document is passed on
to the law ministry's central agency for submission in the court.

Some scientists said mythology is valuable. "Mythology
involves imagination and important values, and we're grateful
that we have the Ramayan in this country, but it should not be
mixed with historicity," Yash Pal said.

But rationalists slammed the government. "This is like
rewriting history to suit public opinion," said Sanal
Edamaruku, the president of the Indian Rationalists
Association. "It's a kind of cowardice - avoiding reality for
the sake of political expediency," he said.


o o o

A LETTER TO INDIA’S PRIME MINISTER RE GOVT AFFIDAVIT IN THE
SETHUSAMUDRAM CASE BEFORE THE HONOURABLE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA


To

The Prime Minister of India
New Delhi
<manmohan at sansad.nic.in>
<pmosb at pmo.nic.in>

Cc:
	Mrs Sonia Gandhi
	The UPA Chairperson
	New Delhi
soniagandhi at sansad.nic.in

National Human Rights Commission of India
New Delhi
<nhrc at ren.nic.in>
<ionhrc at nic.in>

Sub:	GoI [Govt. of India] Affidavit in the Sethusamudram case
before the Honourable Supreme Court of India

Dear Mr. prime Minister,

I, as a citizen of modern India, feel totally disgusted that
the government of India is going to modify the affidavit filed
by it before the Honourable Supreme Court in the
"Sethusamudram" case as prepared by the Archaeological Survey
of India to the effect that "there is no scientific or
historical evidence to prove the existence of Lord Ram".  This
is being done, as is evident, under obscurantist threats.

If that is not shameful enough, the shamelessness of the Union
Law Minister is just mind-boggling. As reported by the media
he has observed that "Lord Ram is an integral part of Hindu
faith" and his existence can never be doubted.
The subject affidavit is evidently not dealing with any faith,
Hindu or otherwise, but scientific and historical facts and
evidences.

This grotesque episode cannot but bring to mind the cruel
persecution suffered by Galileo in seventeenth century Italy
at the hands of the Catholic Church establishment.

At this rate, the day is not very far when the scientific
theories regarding human evolution from lower primates or any
contradiction of the claim that the Earth rests on the back of
a tortoise or the assertion that the planetary bodies are no
gods and goddesses and so on and so forth will have to
banished from our school/college curriculum on the ground of
offending religious faiths and sensitivities.

This is just not a gross insult to our common sense but also
gravely endangers the prospect of cultural and spiritual
emancipation of one sixth of the humanity by drowning them in
the pits of dark obscurantism and thereby also blocking the
path of enlightened material progress.

So you are urged to reconsider the decision as regards
modifying the affidavit. And the Union Law Minster must be
given forthwith the order of the boot if the statement
attributed to him is found accurate.
Thanking you,

Yours sincerely
Sukla Sen
EKTA (Committee for Communal Amity)
Mumbai

P.S.: The relevant news clippings are appended below.

I/II.

http://tinyurl.com/2689v6

CNN-IBN

OH GOD! UPA RED FACED, SAYS LORD RAM EXISTED

New Delhi: The Centre will withdraw "offending remarks" from
an affidavit which said there is no scientific or historical
evidence to prove the existence of Lord Ram.

"Lord Ram is an integral part of Hindu faith" and his
existence can never be doubted, said Union Law Minister H R
Bharadwaj. He announced the Government would on Friday file a
supplementary affidavit on the Sethusamudram canal project
before the Supreme Court and the Archaeological Survey of
India's affidavit will be cleansed of offending remarks.  The
ASI affidavit, which was filed to explain the Government's
position on the Sethusamudram project, embarrassed the
Government and gave ammunition to its political rivals, as it
claimed that mythological texts cannot be regarded as
"historical record" and they don't prove the existence of
characters mentioned in those texts.
Sources tell CNN-IBN Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has sought a
clarification from the Government on the affidavit and take
"remedial measures".  The controversy has given the BJP a
chance to embarrass the government. Party president Rajnath
Singh on Thursday rejected the Government's explanation and
demanded an "unqualified" apology.

"Why is there a picture of Ram and Krishna in the Constitution
if Ram or Krishna did not exist ? And why did Gandhiji, the
Father of the Nation show us the dream of 'Ramrajya'? Were all
these fictitious ?" Singh said in Agartala.
Such an affidavit (filed by the ASI) directly hurts the
religious belief of the majority of the people of our country.
The affidavit may trigger inter-religious conflict in the
country," he said.

Unless the Centre apologises for the affidavit and withdraws
it, BJP would support the VHP-RSS demand for scrapping of the
Sethusamudram project in Rameswaram.

II.

http://tinyurl.com/2hvu3b

The Times of India

CENTRE UNDER DMK PRESSURE

13 Sep 2007, 0105 hrs IST,Dhananjay Mahapatra,TNN

NEW DELHI: The politically fraught stance of the Centre on
Ramayana and Lord Ram came up in the SC on a day when Vishwa
Hindu Parishad scaled up its opposition to the project, which
has raised the hackles of environmentalists as well.
In a huge mobilisation across several states, VHP cadre
blocked traffic. While the protest earned the wrath of
inconvenienced commuters, Sangh Parivar and BJP drew
vindication from the controversial argument put forward by the
Centre in the apex court.

BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad attacked the government's
stance, calling it a classic example of the politics of
appeasement. "It is an insult to our cultural heritage and
Hindu sentiments," he said even as he asked whether Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh could dare make similar assertions
with regard to other faiths. BJP also argued that the Centre,
while doubting the historicity of Ramayana, had itself
admitted that it had not carried out a study on the Ram Setu.

While the government is under tremendous pressure from DMK to
press ahead with the project in the face of resistance, doubts
were being expressed on whether the contents of the affidavit
had been politically vetted.  The surprise element being that
the Centre could very well have limited itself to just the Ram
Setu instead of venturing into an opinion on the epic itself.

Significantly, the Archealogical Survey of India said it was
aware of the deep religious importance attached to Valmiki
Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas. That said, it went on to argue
that it could use only scientific criteria to evaluate the
claim that Adam's Bridge is the same as that built by Lord
Ram. Recognising that it was treading on emotional ground, the
agency quoted the Constitution and cited professional ethics
to justify its views.

The government, which wants to demolish a part of the
purported Ram Setu to dredge an 83-km-long canal linking Palk
Bay and Gulf of Mannar, argues that the bridge is not a
man-made structure, but a natural formation. The Sethusamudram
project is expected to reduce travel time for ships moving
between the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal by a day.

Those who moved SC against the Rs 2,427-crore project have
quoted Valmiki Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas to back their stand
for the preservation of Adam's Bridge. The court, on its part,
has stayed dredging work, inaugurated by the PM in July 2005,
till further orders.


_______


[8] Announcements:


(i)

ANNUAL DR RAMANATHAM MEMORIAL LECTURE

Every year, People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), Delhi
organizes a
public meeting in memory and honour of Dr Ramanadham. Dr
Ramanadham was
vice-president of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee
(APCLC) and a
popular doctor in Warangal. He was killed by plain-clothes
policemen on 3
September 1985.

This year's meeting will be 'Narco-analysis as a form of
Torture, and
Democratic Rights', and will be delivered by Dr Amar Jesani,
Centre for
Studies in Ethics and Rights, Mumbai and editor of the Indian
Journal of
Medical Ethics. One activist from PUDR will also speak briefly.
The use of sodium pentothal and other so-called 'truth serums'
is gaining
ground in India, and is more commonly being (mis)used in police
investigations, an extremely dangerous trend. It directly
violates article
20 (3) of the Indian Constitution, which states that "No
person accused of
any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against
himself." The lack of
clear consent, the tendency of self-incrimination which is
unconstitutional,
the potential to incriminate others, the admission of such
'evidence' in
courts, and the damage to one's mind and body, raises a range
of very
serious legal, medical, professional and ethical questions.
The lecture will be followed by a discussion.

Please do attend, and also please circulate this mail and
information
widely.
Date:	15 September 2007, Saturday
	Time: 4 pm
	Venue: Indian Law Institute (opp Supreme Court gates) [New Delhi]


In solidarity,

Nagraj Adve, Shashi Saxena
Secretaries, PUDR


--

(ii)

1-	Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank in India
2-	SEMINAR ON THE STATE OF THE RIVERS IN INDIA
3-	NATIONAL GATHERING OF FRIENDS OF THE RIVERS


Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank in India
21 SEPTEMBER 2007

02:00 - 04:30 pm

Water Session


INSAF, Parivartan, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, South Asian Net
work for Dams, Rivers, and People


* Madhya Pradesh W-sector Reform

Rehmat, Basti activist (name to be confirmed)


* Karnataka - W-sector Reforms, Campaign against Water
Privatisation,

Basti/Panchayat activist (name to be confirmed)


* Mumbai K-east Privatisation Plans

Sitaram Shelar, K-east resident (name to be confirmed)


* Delhi Water Privatisation Plan

Arvind Kejriwal, DJB union/resident (name to be confirmed)


* Himachal Pradesh Allain Duhangan HEP

Himanshu Thakkar and others (name to be confirmed)


* Water supply - Swajal (Uttarakhand/Rajasthan)

Priti Sampat and others (name to be confirmed)


* Summary of Depositions and Overview of World Bank led
* Water Privatisation Efforts and their Impacts

Shripad Dharmadhikari

* Clarification from the Jury
* Response from Representatives of the Government of India /
World Bank

contact us at
(011) 2651 7814
C/O wbt, Flat No. 14, Supreme enclave,
mayur vihar phase 1, New Delhi 110091
secretariat at worldbanktribunal.com


<http://www.worldbanktribunal.org/WBT_Program%20Schedule_v1.pdf>
For All Programme plz Click

http://www.worldbanktribunal.org/

--

(iii)


Pakistan Workshop 2008
Spaces of Dialogue
May 9th-11th, 2008 - Rook How, The Lake District, Cumbria [UK]

The 22nd Pakistan workshop will take place at Rook How in the
Lake District from 9th to 11th May 2008. Each year a theme is
chosen for the Workshop. The theme is meant as a guide to help
participants select aspects of their research for presentation
but has never been intended to exclude people whose primary
interest may not happen to be that year's theme. This year's
theme is Spaces of Dialogue and it is hoped that papers will
deal with various forms of dialogue among Pakistanis, between
Pakistanis and other groups, and dialogue about Pakistanis,
both in the past and in the present, at home and abroad, and
the global and local contexts in which these dialogues take place.

This workshop was founded to bring together anthropologists
and sociologists whose research involved Pakistan, Pakistani
diaspora and South Asian Islam. However, this workshop has
also attracted scholars and researchers from a broad range of
disciplines including historians, political scientists,
economists and applied social scientists. In the recent years,
the themes have also included Gender studies, Health studies,
History, Literature, Religious studies and Management studies.
We particularly welcome postgraduates from UK and abroad who
are working in similar subject areas and wish to receive a
friendly feedback from our group of academics and
participants. This workshop has also emerged as a joint
platform for new (including postgraduate students) and
established scholars. It provides them the opportunity to get
acquainted with each other in order to motivate and inspire
people working in common fields of interest. This workshop is
therefore normally kept small and intimate with a group of 25
or less people.

The venue, Rook How, is one of the oldest Quaker Meeting
Houses in Britain and is an important location in the Quaker
world. The Rook How offers dormitory style sleeping
arrangements which are comfortable and affordable. For those
who prefer B&B accommodation, there are several nice places
around the area which can only be accessed if they have their
own car. The total cost of the Workshop will be £65-70
approximately for those staying at the Rook How (this includes
Workshop registration, reception, breakfasts, Pakistani
lunches, teas and coffees).

You can register by contacting Mwenza Blell
<m.t.blell at durham.ac.uk>. A registration fee £30 for the
Pakistan Workshop 2008 should be paid either by cheque
(payable to 'The Pakistan Workshop') posted to:

Stephen Lyon
Department of Anthropology
Durham University
43 Old Elvet
Durham DH1 3HN
UK


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

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:
http://insaf.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the
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