SACW | August 13-14, 2008 / Tamil Civilians and the War / Dr. Yunus's foray into politics / Crisis in Jammu and Kashmir
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Wed Aug 13 22:32:21 CDT 2008
South Asia Citizens Wire | August 13-14, 2008 |
Dispatch No. 2551 - Year 10 running
[1] Sri Lanka: Desperate plight of Tamil civilians (Ethirajan Anbarasan)
[2] Bangladesh: Lessons to be learned from Dr.
Yunus's brief foray into politics (Arif Syed)
[3] India: Kashmir Under Siege:
(i) Letter to the UN re Humanitarian Crisis in
Jammu and Kashmir (Concerned Citizens and
Scholars)
(ii) Don't fear for Jammu (Rekha Chowdhary)
(iii) The siege within (Kuldip Nayar)
(iv) Petty Politics (Sitaram Yechury)
(v) [Secularism Goes to Dogs: Now Sri Sri
Hindutva Swamy is Delhi's Emissary in Kashmir]
(vi) In scary calm, signs of gathering storm (Sankarshan Thakur)
[4] India: Q&A: 'Ahmedabad was a tragedy, Surat was farcical' (Jyoti Punwani)
[5] India: Taslima: A test case for India (Asian Age, Edit)
[6] Announcements:
(i) Discussion-Meeting On Communal Crimes Bill (Bangalore,14 August 2008)
(ii) Saneeya Hussain Week: Tribute to three
pioneering environmental journalists (Karachi,
17th August 2008)
(iii) Conference: 'The Character and Trajectory
of the Indian Economic Formation in an Era of
Globalisation' (Delhi, 26-28 November 2008)
______
[1]
BBC News
13 August 2008 18:20 UK
DESPERATE PLIGHT OF TAMIL CIVILIANS
by Ethirajan Anbarasan
BBC News
Displaced Tamil in Vavuniya
Many Tamil civilians are trapped between the warring sides
The claims and counter claims by Sri Lanka's
warring parties in the current fighting have
overshadowed civilian suffering and misery in the
northern region.
Trapped between the advancing Sri Lankan military
and Tamil Tiger rebels, who are fiercely
resisting the offensive, thousands of Tamils
living inside rebel-held territory have been made
homeless and are wandering from place to place in
search of safe havens.
No-one knows exactly how many civilians have been
displaced since the fighting began last year, but
it is estimated that more than 150,000 people are
depending on the government and aid agencies for
food and shelter in the north.
The UN refugee agency - UNHCR - last week warned
that thousands of displaced people are in danger
because of dwindling emergency aid stocks in the
north.
Displaced Tamil women
Aid workers fear human suffering could intensify
The agency estimates that more than 60,000 people
were displaced in July alone as a result of
intense battles between the army and the rebels.
According to the UNHCR, supplies of food, shelter
materials, water and fuel for transportation of
civilians are running "dangerously low" for those
attempting to escape the crossfire.
Stiff resistance
It is clear that the army has made significant gains in the last few months.
The Mannar district has now come under the
control of the security forces and the rebels are
in danger of losing strategically important naval
bases and towns in other districts as well.
Unless there is a military debacle, it is
possible that the government troops will
gradually claw their way into the key rebel-held
town of Kilinochchi sooner or later.
The strategy of the armed forces is clear. Heavy
artillery shelling, prior to an operation, drives
away the civilians and then they make their
advance.
The silence of the international community... is disturbing
Sri Lankan analyst DBS Jeyaraj
They have also opened many battle fronts to
spread out the rebel fighters. Naturally, their
air power and numerical superiority give them a
clear edge.
However, despite recent losses the Tamil Tigers
still hold considerable fighting ability to
launch surprise counter attacks.
Contrary to some military claims, their core
fighting formations are said to be still intact
and they can easily adapt themselves to
protracted guerrilla warfare.
That's why the Sri Lankan forces want to go after
the Tamil Tigers instead of capturing only the
territory.
"You can't just push them into the jungles and
wait. You have to search for them and completely
eradicate them. Only then peace can come," the
Sri Lankan Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapakse,
told a British newspaper recently.
Obviously, this would leave many Tamils in
rebel-controlled areas in further danger.
"The rebel military installations and civilian
areas are mixed. If the army advances further and
confines the rebels into a smaller region then
civilian vulnerability will increase," says Sri
Lankan analyst DBS Jeyaraj.
Civilian plight
The other option for the trapped civilians would
be to leave the rebel-held areas.
Tracctor carruing furniture of displaced people
Many people end up constantly on the move to escape the fighting
But there are hardly any avenues. The key roads
are blocked due to the conflict and passages
through interior roads are dangerous due to
possible roadside bombs and landmines. Also, it
is not clear whether the rebels would allow them
to leave.
With children, women, cattle and some belongings,
people are moving from one area to another in
large numbers, as there are no safe havens or
established refugee camps.
Likewise there are no toilets or bathing
facilities and people sleep in the open despite
the sweltering heat and mosquitoes.
The efforts by humanitarian agencies to deliver
more aid are hindered by strict restrictions on
the transport of goods into the region.
But the government says enough supplies are being
sent to the rebel-controlled territory.
"There are no restrictions and there is no
shortage. We send food and other essentials as
per the request of the senior government official
in those areas," says Sri Lankan army spokesman
Brig Udaya Nanayakkara.
No international support
No one knows when or how the conflict will end.
But Tamils feel that the international community
could have done more to help them.
"The silence of the international community,
especially by neighbouring India, over the
displacement and suffering of Tamils is
disturbing," says Mr Jeyaraj.
With no sign of a let up in the fighting, aid
workers and Tamils fear that human suffering is
set to increase in northern Sri Lanka.
______
[2]
Forum
August 2008
THE THIRD PLATFORM
Arif Syed reflects on the lessons to be learned
from Dr. Yunus's brief foray into politics
SINCE 1/11, and shortly prior to that, there had
been attempts to launch a third political
platform beyond the Awami League and BNP/Jamaat
coalition in Bangladesh politics. Long before the
end of the BNP government's five-year tenure,
there were murmurs about a "third force" taking
over as people could predict the upcoming impasse.
What did people mean when they talked about the
third force at that time? Was it: (a) an army
coup (like Thailand), (b) a national coalition
government heavily backed by civil/international
society, or (c) an Iranian-style Islamic
revolution?
As it turned out, a hybrid of (a) and (b)
happened, with promises of a massive cleanup of
corruption and holding of a free and fair
election. (I don't know why it's always called
"free and fair" -- free election should mean a
fair one -- but I guess reality of power struggle
is not that simple for us average citizens to
understand.)
So a hybrid government came (I'm calling this
government ''hybrid" for lack of a better term)
and started a kind of cleanup and reform. It
seemed they were going for the cleaning up of
corruption first. At some point it seemed that
the exit strategy of the hybrid government would
involve creating a political platform. There were
several new political groupings that started
during this time. One of the attempts to create a
political platform was taken by Dr. Muhammad
Yunus under the banner of Nagorik Shokti (NS)
but, after a couple of months of hectic and
seemingly unorganised activity, he decided not to
pursue it after all, and the whole initiative
fell apart.
The reasons behind its failure
The whole movement seemed to have been centred on
Dr. Yunus's public persona. The strategists (if
there were any) behind NS might have calculated
that they needed a public figure of national
scale to attract people's attention and jump
start this third platform.
Perhaps they didn't calculate the kind of attack
opponents would launch against Dr. Yunus as a
person. One of the criticisms of the existing
political parties is that they are centred on
public figures and are personality cults. The
strategy to launch the "one-man show" failed
because the criticism was centred on the same
"one man." It seemed like an attempt to create
yet another "personality" in our politics.
Over time, people have become aware of the
politics of these personality-based cults, and
perhaps they didn't see anything special here.
The "Yunus Somorthok Gosthi" (Yunus Support
Groups) raised the eyebrows of those who were
looking for a different brand of politics.
In his attempt to engage the people in the
process, Dr. Yunus invited and received thousands
of letters from all over the country supporting
his initiative.
While the brand value of Dr. Yunus's name in
politics was proving to be a momentum gathering
plus, the lack of discussion on ideology,
history, organisation, etc. meant it was going to
be another one-person show. In the Bangladeshi
context, personality-based politics may give the
third platform some early recognition and
momentum; however, the lack of ideology and
organisational structure made the new platform
very similar to the existing large political
forces.
What was Dr. Yunus's political ideology? Where
did he or his camp stand on the question of our
national identity or governance policy, or what
views did they have about guiding principles for
the society? Sure he was pro-democracy, pro-free
market, and ultimately pro-good relations with
the West. Fine.
However it is the "identity" related questions
that define political ideology in most people's
minds in Bangladesh. What did he think about the
"spirit of the Liberation War," or "Islamic
values," or "defending sovereignty" (representing
the Awami, Islamic, and BNP quarters
respectively)? The leftists seem to have
abandoned him from the beginning, and he never
cared for them either. But where did he fit in
the spectrum?
In my observation, which made me hopeful at
times, he seemed to have been talking about
people power, people's initiatives, etc. His
success with Grameen indicated that he was
someone who would rather encourage citizens to
solve their own problems without getting the
government bureaucracy involved.
This less-government, more-citizen initiative
approach could have been a great foundation for
future policy discussions. This libertarian
ideology could have set this movement apart from
the rest.
Unfortunately, this was not articulated well
enough. Dr. Yunus's life can be a great example
of liberal ideology, however, the movement failed
to understand the essence and promote this. The
name, Nagorik Shokti, was right, but the meaning
wasn't articulated to find the resonance with the
people. People didn't get to understand clearly
what his ideology would be. Lesson to learn --
failure to communicate the ideology can clearly
cause failure in creating a niche.
There were a lot of rumours that his platform was
being floated to become another King's Party,
like BNP or JP in the past. If the "king" floats
a new political party, some giddy politicians
will definitely start licking their lips at the
prospect of getting a piece of the "power."
Governmental positions, business deals,
contracts, tenders, relief distribution, and
photo ops are the matters that define power in
Bangladesh. This is a dream come true for
small-time politicians. Remember what happened to
the leftist politicians of the 50s and 60s? They
forgot their lifelong ideology and principles and
became ready fodder of the army generals in the
70s and 80s. It benefited both sides. Power
brought them riches that can only be acquired in
dreams.
People are aware of this situation. While these
turncoat politicians may draw some local votes,
opportunists don't fare well in national
politics. Was Dr. Yunus headed that way? It was
the sight of the opportunists in his camp that
made people uneasy.
It seemed like his platform was taking advantage
of the caretaker government's silent approval in
this bid to launch a third platform. When all
kinds of political activity were banned, his
activity seemed to have enjoyed a blind-eye from
the
authority. Ultimately, was this helpful in the
perception of his platform? His political
opponents capitalised on this.
For a successful campaign, you need a well
thought out strategy and a group of people who
can execute it efficiently. Even though it was an
inside matter, and little was revealed to the
public (understandably so), from outside it
seemed almost chaotic. So who were his
strategists? Who was advising him? At one point,
there were rumours that Sirajul Alam Khan was
advising him. There was his brother leading the
discussions with the media types. There were
rumours of foreign embassies influencing him.
There was news of him putting together a group of
advisers from the diaspora. Were there any
co-ordinated efforts to bind all these
enthusiasts together or to filter out the
opportunists?
Enthusiasts wanted him to don the superhero suit
and solve all the problems right then. However,
some small details went missing. What was the
strategy? How was he going to execute the
strategy? Was he getting too much advice from too
many people? It seemed he faltered in what seemed
to be his strength. For someone who has built a
mega-organisation like Grameen -- not to be able
to float a political organisation with so much
support amounted to a failure.
He floated several very practical ideas and was
talking against the crippling feuds between the
two major parties. People liked a voice of sanity
in the middle. Then again, he was drawing too
much from his experiences at Grameen. His
proposals, like giving the management of
Chittagong port to the Grameen women, were not
realistic in any sense. Did he think that a
Grameen model could be applied to solve all the
problems we face?
Even though Dr. Yunus went to Shaheed Minar and
Smritishoudho to pay homage to the liberation
struggle martyrs, he never spoke clearly about
the liberation war or Bangabandhu -- so suspicion
grew quickly in the Awami camp. They never got
the reassurance from him about the core values of
the Liberation War that make them different from
the others. It was surprising how effective
Sheikh Hasina's "shudkhor" labeling was.
Overnight, Dr. Yunus's Grameen became the target
of fair and unfair scrutiny of the press.
The Islamic camp had long been criticising the
NGO culture that Dr. Yunus and Grameen are
synonymous with. Grameen and other NGOs have been
targets of Islamist extremism and violence in the
rural areas for years. (Though they didn't miss
the photo op when he got the Nobel Prize. Chhatra
Shibir president met him the day after and the
Dainik Sangram didn't miss the opportunity to
publish a picture of their meeting). People
following BNP and JP were perhaps closer to Dr.
Yunus in terms of politics. He is strongly
pro-business and pro-Western and possibly
non-Awami. However, their spirit was dampened
when he talked about closer ties with India and a
visa-free sub-continent.
The buzz that the Nobel Prize was given to him by
the design of US interests started soon after he
was awarded. It was said that he was being
groomed for the eventual third force that was
going to take power if the stalemate didn't end.
This made an early dent in his popularity, and he
never made any effort to counter such negative
propaganda. The easy but paranoid equation being
dished out by the perpetual India-haters was that
India was implementing a grand US strategy (sic)
to destabilise Bangladesh in order to create a
pretext to invade.
Some people, such as the populist columnist
Farhad Mazhar, conveniently saw a grand-scale US,
Israeli, and Indian conspiracy to thwart Islam on
a global scale, and they portrayed Dr. Yunus as a
part of this grand imperial plot. Dr. Yunus and
his camp never really made any attempt to counter
these allegations. In Bangladesh, this
Islam-in-danger rhetoric, especially involving
India and Israel, is a surefire way of becoming
an authority on the country's sovereignty and
patriotism. Dr. Yunus and his team failed to
understand the potency of such propaganda.
His vision of creating a prosperous, free, open,
democratic country near two economic giants of
the 21st century was a good one to start with.
However, who was he looking for to join his
political party? His target seemed to be the
people who were tired of Awami League or
BNP/Jamaat politics. Fine. However, how do you
woo them to your platform? People may have been
fed up with the prevalent politics but they also
needed to go through some kind of political
process themselves to be associated with a new
platform.
Obviously, Dr. Yunus was vocal against the
traditional hartal/ andolon, etc; however, we
never got a clear picture of the alternatives.
Were large public meetings on the way if the
campaign got enough momentum? We heard a lot
about being an alternative to traditional
politics, but we never had anyone defining what
these alternative political processes were. Did
his success with Grameen lead him to think that
he could solve any and every problem in
Bangladesh?
There's a feeling in Bangladesh that politics has
gone to the goons, and if good citizens didn't
step up the country would go down the drain. This
is an oversimplification of a complex situation.
It is elitist thinking that only "good"
foreign-educated people can be the messiahs of
our country. Dr. Yunus's campaign got a lot of
momentum among the educated elite, the upper
class of the Bangladesh. His rhetoric of
eliminating poverty from Bangladesh resonated
well with the urban upper class. Why not, it
sounded like a perfect appeal to the wealthy
people with a bit of a social guilt. The
coffee-sipping "development" thinkers of the
green zones would like to see poverty gone from
the country, especially because of someone whose
method was hailed/approved by the West. Fine, the
super-rich of Bangladesh liked him, and there's
nothing wrong with that. And, obviously, his
strength in organising the poor of the villages
gave him good footing among the people at the
lower end of the economic pole. His strength in
creating huge networks among the poor and the
overall hope for the poor was almost a natural
advantage for him.
However, what was missing from this campaign was
an effort to reach the middle class. He probably
ignored the fact that the
identity-politics-obsessed middle class has been
the real opinion leader of the country. For some
reason, he or his campaign had no appeal for the
middle class psyche or values like ethnic or
religious or cultural identity. His strategists
had completely missed accounting for that.
Perhaps his team didn't know how to reach this
middle class and bring it into the fold.
Capturing the middle class will be the key to any
future attempts like this.
Power is a strange thing. We have been told that
absolute power corrupts absolutely, yet, we are
always lining up for it. When an accomplished
person like Dr. Yunus wanted to get into
politics, I, along with many others, wondered
why. The answer seemed to be obvious. Being
fed-up with the current political stalemate, and
being able to choose between only a few choices,
Bangladesh needed an alternative political
platform that could rise above the mud-slinging
and make substantial progress. So Dr. Yunus was
convinced that he could float a political party,
take power and save the nation. He made an
attempt. There are many among us who want to get
to power and fix the country. Nothing wrong with
that -- we call this politics. We have placed
enormous expectations around it. We have attached
such emotions as patriotism, serving the country,
love of the people, etc with it to glorify and
justify the politics for power. If Dr. Yunus's
achievement of empowering people can be
translated into politics, it will mean less
emphasis on "power of few."
Evaluating all the factors, it can be said that
the bid for becoming an alternative to the
existing political platforms is not a distant
dream. If an ideology provides overall guidance,
an unambiguous stand on history and the country's
founding ideals is taken, a clear strategy is
drawn and executed, and the right audience is
courted, a new political force is not so
unrealistic.
Photos: AZIZUR RAHIM PEU/ DRIKNEWS
Arif Syed lives and works in New York and is a
member of the Drishtipat Writers' Collective.
______
[3] KASHMIR UNDER SIEGE:
(i) CONCERNED CITIZENS LETTER TO THE UN RE
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR
http://www.sacw.net/peace/kashmir12Aug08.html
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/August 12, 2008
Justice Navanethem Pillay, High Commissioner
Dr. Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner
Ms. Gay McDougall, Independent Expert on minority issues
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Subject: Humanitarian Crisis in Jammu and Kashmir
August 12, 2008
Dear Justice Pillay, Dr. Kang, Ms. McDougall:
We write to bring to your attention the profound
humanitarian crisis continuing in the Kashmir
Valley due to the ongoing blockade of the
Srinagar-Jammu highway by religious nationalist
groups from India. This has resulted in severe
shortages in the Kashmir Valley of food and other
vital provisions. We are reliably informed that
petrol and essential medical rations, including
blood, are in critically short supply, as well as
newsprint, and that communication services and
infrastructure are severely disrupted.
The situation in Jammu, where the Muslim minority
is facing violence on a scale that can be
described as ethnic cleansing, is alarming. The
Government of India and the military and
paramilitary forces have shown themselves unable
and/or unwilling to take any effective action,
either to end the blockade or to stop the
violence against Muslims in Jammu. Meanwhile,
military and paramilitary forces have opened fire
on counter-demonstrators in Kashmir, using live
bullets and mortar. A communiqué from the Kashmir
Valley states that:
"The situation here on ground is that essential
commodities have started getting dried up, diesel
is already out of stock and petrol at its verge
of end. The people here are very much concerned
as if the same continues for next few days there
will be nothing left to eat with the people of
Kashmir. And on the other side the Army is
supporting the mobs who have allegedly beaten up
the drivers stranded on the national highway. The
drivers who were beaten up reported that they
asked Army to help them but all went in despair
and the Army people in return handed them over to
the mobs. The target is only the Kashmiri Muslims
and some sources from Jammu say that it is the
outsiders who have come to Jammu and are doing
such attacks on the Muslims and it is quite
evident that the Hindu fundamentalist groups viz.
BJP, RSS VHP, etc., are all sponsoring the
planned attacks onto the Kashmiris like it was
done in Gujarat. Here in Kashmir we feel the
history seems to be being repeated by the Hindu
fundamentalists who had earlier in 1947 killed
about 250,000 Muslims in Jammu."
On August 11, 2008, approximately 100,000
Kashmiris, including fruit growers and others
gravely affected by the blockade, marched toward
the Line of Control toward Pakistan markets in
protest. They were met with gunfire and tear gas
from the military and paramilitary forces, and
Sheik Abdul Aziz, an All Parties Hurriyat
Conference leader, was shot dead, intensifying
the situation. Police reports stated that three
others were killed and over 200 injured,
enervating health systems already low on
supplies. Other sources we contacted stated that
as many as 18 others may have been killed in
Kashmir on August 11. By early evening of August
12, as we write you, reports stated that as many
as twelve persons were killed in Kashmir on that
day as armed forces fired on demonstrators. Other
reports stated that civil society groups,
students, and labor unions participating in
non-violent civil disobedience and peaceful
protests are being targeted by the forces, as
curfew conditions prevail.
The Srinagar-Jammu highway is the only land route
linking the Kashmir Valley to India and the sole
conduit for essential supplies as well as for
exporting horticultural goods, which are among
the Valley's chief products. News updates on the
state of the blockade and situation can be found
from leading Kashmiri newspapers, which are
online at www.greaterkashmir.com;
www.kashmirtimes.com; www.risingkashmir.com;
www.etalaat.com/english/.
About 95-97 percent of the population of the
Valley is Muslim, while Muslims are a minority in
India. This has made Kashmir the target of
increasingly aggressive campaigns by Hindu
nationalist groups since 1947, despite guarantees
of autonomy written into the Indian Constitution.
The Government of India has failed to take
measures to prevent these campaigns, consisting
of marches and demonstrations, and culminating in
the current blockade. Since 1989 there has been
an armed pro-independence struggle in Kashmir,
together with other and non-violent movements for
self-determination. Indian counterinsurgency
operations have resulted in grave abuses of human
rights with social, economic, psychological,
political, and environmental consequences, which
meet the definition under international law of
crimes against humanity. To a population
suffering the effects of nineteen years of armed
conflict, the economic crisis caused by the
blockade comes as the last straw.
We urge that you respond expeditiously to this
situation in accordance with the mandate to
uphold human rights as enshrined in the charter
of the United Nations.
Recommendations:
1. The Government of India should immediately end
the economic blockade and ensure that goods and
services, including emergency medical and food
supplies, can move in both directions along the
Srinagar-Jammu border.
2. The Government of India should open the
Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, a promise repeatedly
reiterated by successive governments of India and
Pakistan, though never implemented. This would
ensure that the current crisis situation is not
repeated as well as mark a concrete step forward
in addressing injustices and the peace process.
3. Take immediate action to stop the violence
against the Muslim minority in Jammu and bring
those responsible to justice.
4. Put an end to ongoing human rights abuses by
Indian forces and pro-India militias as
repeatedly promised by the Indian Prime Minister
and expected of democratic governments.
5. Take steps for a long-term resolution of the
conflict by beginning talks with all sections of
the Kashmiri leadership and civil society.
6. Take steps to hold the Indian state
accountable under the provisions established by
the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir,
Constitution of India, the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, and International Laws and
Conventions.
We, the undersigned, are academics, social
activists, writers, filmmakers, artists, lawyers,
and concerned citizens. Our work and conscience
connects us to Kashmir and its people. We hold no
political affiliations. Please do not hesitate to
contact us if we may be of further use.
Contact persons:
Dr. Angana Chatterji, Associate Professor,
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology,
California Institute of Integral Studies, Office:
001-415.575.6119, Mobile: 001-415.640.4013,
E-mail: achatterji at ciis.edu.
Dr. Haley Duschinski, Assistant Professor,
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ohio
University, Office: 001-740.593.0823, E-mail:
duschins at ohio.edu.
Dr. Shubh Mathur, Visiting Assistant Professor,
Department of History, Richard Stockton College
of New Jersey, Office: 001-347.404.2238, E-mail:
Shubh.Mathur at stockton.edu.
Yours Sincerely,
Signed [Institutional information noted for affiliation purposes only]:
Dr. Angana Chatterji, Associate Professor,
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology,
California Institute of Integral Studies, San
Francisco
Dr. Haley Duschinski, Assistant Professor,
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ohio
University
Dr. Shubh Mathur, Visiting Assistant Professor,
Department of History, Richard Stockton College
of New Jersey
Dr. Paola Bacchetta, Associate Professor,
Department of Gender and Women's Studies, and
Director, Beatrice Bain Research Group,
University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Srimati Basu, Associate Professor, Department
of Gender and Women's Studies (and Anthropology),
University of Kentucky
Medea Benjamin, Cofounder, Global Exchange, San Francisco, and CODEPINK
Dr. Purnima Bose, Associate Professor, Department
of English, Indiana University
Dr. Jeff Brody, Professor, College of
Communications, California State University
Fullerton
Adem Carroll, Chair, Muslim Consultative Network,
New York Disaster Interfaith Services
Dr. Lubna Nazir Chaudhry, Assistant Professor,
School of Education and Human Development, State
University of New York, Binghamton
Huma Dar, Doctoral student, Department of South
and South East Asian Studies, University of
California, Berkeley
Dr. Geraldine Forbes, Distinguished Teaching
Professor, Department of History, State
University of New York Oswego
Dr. Sidney L. Greenblatt, President, Central New York Fulbright Association
Dr. Sondra Hale, Professor, Department of
Anthropology and Women's Studies, University of
California, Los Angeles
Dr. Lamia Karim, Assistant Professor, Department
of Anthropology, University of Oregon-Eugene
Professor Ali Kazimi, Department of Film, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University
Dr. Omar Khalidi, Aga Khan Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rafique A. Khan, Community Development Planner, CRA, City of Los Angeles
Tasneem F. Khan, Kashmir Relief, Los Angeles
Dr. Amitava Kumar, Writer and Professor, Department of English, Vassar College
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Chair, The Network of Spiritual Progressives, Berkeley
Barbara Lubin, Executive Director, Middle East Children's Alliance, Berkeley
Dr. Sunaina Maira, Associate Professor,
Department of Asian American Studies, University
of California, Davis
Dr. Lise McKean, Senior Research Specialist,
Learning Sciences Research Institute, University
of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Abdul R. JanMohamed, Professor, Department of
English, University California, Berkeley
Dr. Swapna Mukhopadhyay, Associate Professor,
Graduate School of Education, Portland State
University
Dr. Richa Nagar, Professor, Department of Gender,
Women, and Sexuality Studies, University of
Minnesota
Dr. Vijaya Nagarajan, Associate Professor,
Department of Theology and Religious Studies,
University of San Francisco
Annie Paradise, Doctoral student, Department of
Social and Cultural Anthropology, California
Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco
Dr. David Naguib Pellow, Professor, Department of
Sociology, University of Minnesota
Faisal Qadri, Human Rights Law Network
Dr. Mridu Rai, Associate Professor, Department of
History and Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center
for International and Area Studies, Yale
University
Dr. Cabeiri Robinson, Assistant Professor,
International Studies & South Asian Studies,
Jackson School of International Studies,
University of Washington, Seattle
Dr. Sabina Sawhney, Associate Professor,
Department of English, Hofstra University
Dr. Simona Sawhney, Associate Professor,
Department of Asian Languages and Literatures,
University of Minnesota
Dr. Kalpana Rahita Seshadri, Associate Professor,
Department of English, Boston College
Professor Richard Shapiro, Chair, Department of
Social and Cultural Anthropology, California
Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco
Murtaza Shibli, Editor, Kashmir Affairs, London
Dr. Magid Shihade, Visiting Scholar, Middle
East/South Asia Studies, University of
California, Davis
Snehal Shingavi, Doctoral student, Department of
English, University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Ajay Skaria, Associate Professor, Department
of History and Institute of Global Studies,
University of Minnesota
Dr. Nancy Snow, Associate Professor, S. I.
Newhouse School of Public Communications,
Syracuse University
Dr. Rachel Sturman, Assistant Professor,
Department of History & Asian Studies, Bowdoin
College
Dr. Fouzieyha Towghi, Visiting Professor,
Department of Ethnic Studies, University of
California, Berkeley
Sandeep Vaidya, India Solidarity Group (Ireland)
Saiba Varma, Doctoral student, Department of Anthropology, Cornell University
Feroz Ahmed Wani, Social activist
David Wolfe, Human security and conflict resolution specialist
Pei Wu, Doctoral student, Department of Social
and Cultural Anthropology, California Institute
of Integral Studies, San Francisco
Cc:
Ms. Helene Flautre,
Member, European Parliament
Chair of the European Parliament's Sub-committee on Human Rights
Mr. Geoffrey Harris
Head of Human Rights Unit, European Parliament
Ambassador Richard A. Boucher, Assistant Secretary
Timothy Fitzgibbons, India Desk
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs United States Department of State
Mr. David J. Kramer
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
United States Department of State
Ms. Felice D. Gaer
Chair, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
o o o
Indian Express
August 13, 2008
DON'T FEAR FOR JAMMU
by Rekha Chowdhary
Jammu's religious and ethnic harmony has roots
too deep for the Amarnath agitation to
permanently affect
In the images that are being flashed all over
the country and the world, Jammu is beginning to
be represented as communal and chauvinistic. This
tends to obscure the more recent past of Jammu,
the past twenty years of conflict when Jammu
stood for much more - for its plurality, for its
mixed life, for its inter-communal harmony, for
its shared social and political spaces. These
twenty years proved that there is a secular ethos
that has seen the people of Jammu through very
difficult phases of militancy and which has
frustrated all attempts to use religious
differences for creating communally divided
constituencies.
This has been a testing period for all of Jammu -
for Hindus and Muslims alike. Enough attempts
were made to polarise the people on a communal
basis during the period of militancy. There were
occasions when important public or religious
places were targeted by militants- there were
twice shoot-outs in the famous Raghunath temple,
and in the crowded railway station.
Fundamentalist organisations sought political
advantage out of these incidents, but the people
refused to fall prey to these provocations. There
were numerous occasions of selective killings of
minorities by the militants in far-flung parts of
the region, mainly aimed at provoking communal
backlash. But beyond generating tension for a few
days or months, these incidents did not succeed
in creating permanent divisions. During the last
such incident of selective killings in Kulhand,
in Doda district, Hindus and Muslims jointly
organised a peace march and restrained the
political parties from using the issue for their
own vested interests. During this period,
attempts were made to use militancy to generate
and perpetuate electoral politics, but these did
not succeed in the long run. Attempts were also
made to float the age-old formula for resolution
of conflict on the basis of a division of the
state on communal lines, whether under the name
of the Chenab formula or as a trifurcation of the
state. But such formulae did not appeal to
regional sensibilities and were clearly rejected.
The way the region has withstood the pressure of
militancy and maintained communal harmony during
the two decades of conflict, despite all the
provocations, should be noted and recognised.
Jammu, it needs to be emphasised, is more
heterogeneous than any other part of the state of
J&K. Unlike Kashmir which is homogeneous on
religious, linguistic and cultural lines, Jammu
is diverse on all these counts. Though it is a
Hindu-majority region, it has a strong Muslim
minority. Other than Kathua and Udhampur which
have a predominantly Hindu population, the
sub-regions of Doda, Poonch and Rajouri are
largely Muslim. Diversity is also defined by the
multiplicity of languages on the one hand (Dogri,
Punjabi, Pahari, Gojri), and tribal, cultural and
caste differentiations on the other (Gujjars,
Bakerwals, Gaddis, Paharis, caste Hindus and
Muslims, and Dalits). Since societal plurality
has political manifestations, politics therefore
is not defined merely in terms of the Hindu or
Muslim identity of people but also in terms of
their cultural, linguistic and caste identities.
Incidentally, one of the most competitive
politics in Jammu region is that between Paharis
and Gujjars, both predominantly Muslims.
Heterogeneity has contributed to the richness of
Jammu. Apart from the fact that different
religious and cultural groups live side by side,
there is much that has evolved as 'mixed living'
and 'shared spaces'. What has been particularly
striking is the level of comfort with which
people deal with each other's differences.
Distinctions of religion, culture or language do
not give them a sense of danger and do not invoke
a sense of suspicion about the 'other'.
The city of Jammu has been an example of
plurality to the rest of the region. For decades
now, it has been home to anyone seeking shelter
from troubled situations - refugees from Pakistan
and Pakistan-administered Kashmir; those living
on the border and displaced during various wars;
Kashmiri pandits, during their exodus in 1990;
the people displaced from various
militancy-infested parts of the region, and so on
and so forth. So welcoming has been this city to
these 'outsiders' that many Punjabis moved to
this city during the period when militancy was at
its peak in Punjab. Lots of Kashmiri Muslims have
made this city their second home and built houses
here. Jammu city has absorbed all kinds of people
and expanded in the process, not only physically
but also in its character - in its capacity of
accommodation and its tolerance of divergent
cultures and religions.
The vibrancy and strength apparent in Jammu
cannot disappear in a mere matter of days. The
secular ethos is ultimately going to assert
itself in the long term. Communally divisive
politics does not have the roots to sustain
itself.
The writer is a professor in the department of
political science at the University of Jammu
o o o
(iii)
The Daily Star
August 14, 2008
THE SIEGE WITHIN
by Kuldip Nayar writes from New Delhi
WHEN religion is mixed with politics, the result
is what has happened at Srinagar and Jammu.
Several people have been killed; property worth
crores has been burnt, and life in both the
regions has practically come to a standstill.
Leaders-turned-mobsters have pushed the allotment
of 100-acre land to the Amarnath shrine
management board and the cancellation to such an
extent that they have polarised the entire state
to the last person. The valley is separated from
Jammu by the Pirpanjal mountain range, but now a
wall of religious and regional jingoism has also
come up.
This is not the first time that such a situation
has arisen. Yet, every blow weakens the ties
between the two regions and lessens the space for
pluralism. Even liberal politicians in the valley
are wearing religion on their sleeves. They have
buried the Kashmeriyat, akin to Sufism, deep.
Still, the Kashmir Valley was one area in the
subcontinent where no communal incident took
place after the partition. Sheikh Mohammed
Abdullah was at the helm of affairs at Srinagar.
Many Hindus and Sikhs had taken shelter there
after travelling from Pakistan. Some among them
felt insecure. The Sheikh arranged their
transport by tongas to Jammu. However, it is a
matter of shame that when the refugees reached
safely on the Jammu side, the Muslim tonga
drivers were butchered.
This partly explains why the all-party
delegation, which went from Delhi to Jammu and
Srinagar to find a solution had to come back
empty-handed. Positions have hardened beyond
redemption. The delegation's hope that
communalism and regionalism would be ultimately
defeated is mere wishful thinking. The two
regions can continue to be yoked together. But
they have been cut asunder; emotionally, socially
and otherwise.
Yet, it would be an oversimplification of the
situation if one were to conclude that the
allotment of land or its cancellation was
responsible for the agitation. The wounds the two
regions have inflicted on each other over the
years have deepened. The land incident only
provided spark to the haystack of alienation,
which was there to burn.
The two regions have been going further from each
other for a long time. Separatists and
politicians in the Valley and Jammu have been
widening the gulf to see if they could become
separate states.
Some straws have been in the wind in the shape of
demand for autonomy for Jammu. Some Kashmiri
pandits who wanted to return to their homes in
the Valley have realised that there was no going
back.
What is disconcerting is to see the well-read
young Muslims participating in the agitation.
Some of them have worked in India in important
positions in the private sector. This is a
message far beyond the allotment of the land. It
reflects anger and desperation. It is clear that
the normalcy seen at Srinagar is far from real.
Once the chips are down, practically everyone is
on the streets. That religion has played a key
role in consolidating the Kashmir community is
something that should make the intelligentsia in
the country think that the status-quo in the
state cannot last indefinitely.
The BJP agenda is to bring about the separation
of Jammu and Kashmir. A few liberal Kashmiris,
who have contacted me, suspect such a design
because of the ferocity of the Jammu agitation.
The BJP has already created a situation where it
is difficult to imagine that the two regions can
ever be united.
Remarks made by leaders of political parties in
the Valley reflect a particular thinking. The
Amarnath pilgrims' huts were compared to the
Jewish settlements in Palestine. Some said the
land allotment was meant to change the
demography, to turn the Muslim majority state
into a Hindu one.
This allegation is not true because New Delhi,
even under the BJP-led government, has never
tried to put Hindus from other states into
Kashmir. The law prohibits non-Kashmiris from
purchasing land in the state. Jawaharlal Nehru,
India's first prime minister, was categorical in
his pronouncement that no outsider would be
allowed to settle down in the state.
I can understand the BJP exploiting the situation
for its Hindutva ends because it has no faith in
India's ethos of secularism. But I have been
greatly disappointed to find the Hurriyat leaders
and the Mufti People's Democratic Party vying
with the fundamentalists, to outdo them.
It is well known that Mehbooba Mufti talks
irresponsibly for the sake of effect. But this
time she has beaten all records. Her observations
on a channel TV reminded me of a jehadi who did
not mind setting Kashmir on fire so long as she
got applause from the fanatics of the community.
When religious frenzy takes over, people do not
think straight. India's politics is going to get
more vitiated because of the coming elections.
The central government is on its last legs, and
probably a long-term solution of Kashmir is not
possible.
But some exercise should begin. The Valley, Jammu
and Ladakh, should become a federation so that
each unit feels that it has an identity of its
own. The overall solution of the Kashmir problem
should follow.
The idea of blocking the Jammu-Srinagar road, the
only land link between the two regions, was that
of RSS, the BJP's mentor. Thousands of karsevaks
were brought from the different states to sustain
the road blockade.
It is another matter that the army was able to
pierce through the blockade and sustain supply of
essential goods to the Valley. For some reasons,
the inept government at Srinagar, and still more
inept at Delhi, did not think of measures to keep
the road open from the day one.
The threat of Kashmir fruit growers to cross the
Muzzafarabad border to take their produce to
Pakistan should have made the RSS realise the
repercussion of its bandhs and blockades.
Instead, the BJP threatened Chief Minister
Prakash Singh Badal that it would withdraw its
support to his government if he did not stop
trucks moving to Kashmir.
Correctly, he did not yield to the threat. Still
two BJP ministers in his cabinet were able to
disrupt the supply for some time.
The government once again woke up to threats of
going across to Muzzafarabad. When people took to
the streets, the police action began. The protest
was bound to spread to other places because,
after a long time, people had a chance to
ventilate their age-old grievances.
It is a bigger question of Kashmir, which has
unfortunately been reopened on religion lines.
The whole situation has a lesson for New Delhi.
Having opposed the two-nation theory, India has a
point that the Hindu majority Jammu and the
Muslim majority Kashmir cannot be separated
because it will tell upon India's secular polity.
However, after the recent happenings in the
Valley and Jammu, the whole thing becomes a
question mark.
Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.
o o o
(iv)
Hindustan Times
August 13, 2008
PETTY POLITICS
by Sitaram Yechury
As we prepare to celebrate independent India's
entry into its sixth decade, incendiary flames
engulf Jammu and Kashmir, grievously threatening
the unity and integrity of our country.
What is unfolding is like a Greek tragedy, where
apart from those who work for its success, all
other protagonists, fully conscious of the
impending tragedy, are unable to prevent it. For
the sake of India, this script has to be
rewritten urgently.
The lethal combination of communalism and
separatism has already claimed lives, disrupted
normalcy and is now threatening to spin out of
control. Inflammable passions continue to be
roused with communalism and separatism feeding
on each other. It is, indeed, a matter of shame
that the situation has been allowed to come to
such a pass. Worse, no tangible steps appear to
have been initiated even after an all-party
delegation held discussions with a cross section
of public opinion makers both in Jammu and
Kashmir.
The dispute centres round a widely circulated
belief that land allocated to the Amarnath Shrine
Board was withdrawn under pressure from the
extremists in the valley. The facts, however, are
to the contrary. Ownership of forest land cannot
be transferred under law.
However, the government can permit a change in
the pattern of land use. Earlier, the state
government had allocated some land to the Board
to provide facilities to the pilgrims. Since this
had become a controversy, the new Governor
withdrew his predecessor's decision seeking an
assurance from the state government that it would
undertake the responsibility for providing all
required facilities.
These are, indeed, being provided now and the
yatra continues. In fact, in 2005, a similar
situation occurred when the allocated land for
the Board, whose ex-officio chairman is the
Governor (if he is a Hindu), was rescinded. At
that time, the issue never became a controversy.
Today it has led to a raging agitation, first in
Jammu and now in the valley, shows that this has
been mounted keeping in view the forthcoming
assembly elections in October and the general
elections in 2009. Communal passions are being
sharply aroused. Rumours are spreading like
wildfire; Hindus are prevented from undertaking
the yatra while the Haj is subsidised.
Likewise, extremist elements in the valley are
whipping up passions, invoking parallel visions
of Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands: a
prelude for altering the demographic composition
of the valley.
In June, a Parliamentary Committee headed by me
had visited the state. In our report to the
Parliament, we spoke with a deep sense of
satisfaction of the return to normalcy and surge
in tourism. Alas, we had grossly underestimated
the fragility of such a peace. Clearly, there are
forces that continue to stoke divisive fires to
advance their agendas that are intrinsically
opposed to secularism.
Standing at the Parimahal, built by the tragic
Mughal Prince Dara Sikoh to study celestial
bodies - but intended for higher theological
discourses on the commonalties between Vedanta
and Islamic Sufism- one could not help but
reflect on the precariousness of such lofty
visions. Such syncretic civilisational ethos that
India is capable of scaling has unfortunately
been grounded, yet again, by fundamentalist
elements who seek to destroy this potential.
Such a conflagration , which has a very dangerous
potential for undermining the unity and integrity
of India, is being created in order to reap
electoral and political benefits. This has
serious implications threatening the very
security of our country and creating a fertile
ground for cross-border terrorism to raise its
ugly head. The RSS/BJP, who are spearheading the
agitation in Jammu, have called a three-day
all-India bandh. The brazen provocative
assertions of L.K. Advani at the BJP's yuva rally
the other day, declared unambiguously the
sharpening of communal passions to further
consolidate its 'Hindu votebank'.
This, in turn, feeds the extremist response in
the valley. They, thus, strengthen each other.
Recollect, on the eve of 1999 general elections
in India, the information secretary of the
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba said: "The BJP suits us. Within
a year they have made us into a nuclear and
missile power.
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba is getting a good response
because of the BJP's statements. It is much
better than before. We pray to God that they come
to power again. Then we will emerge even
stronger" (Hindustan Times, July 19, 1999).
Rewrite the script of this tragedy to douse these
incendiary flames. Immediately reconstitute the
Shrine Board in a manner that is acceptable to
all. The land under question, while remaining
under State ownership, must be used for creating
temporary facilities for the yatra in accordance
with the J&K High Court judgement.
However, if the dispute is only a mask for a
larger agenda for both the RSS and the Kashmiri
extremists, who invoke pent up feelings of
injustice and 'perceived' injustice, then these
must be met squarely. India's unity and integrity
are non-negotiable. With this as the basis, the
UPA government must invite, first separately,
then, together both the sides to hammer out an
acceptable solution.
Both sides must suspend the agitation to allow
this process to succeed. Failing this, the UPA,
fearless of electoral consequences, must
unhesitatingly uphold the Constitution and the
law of the land.
(Sitaram Yechury is CPI(M) Politburo member and a
Rajya Sabha MP. He was a member of the all-party
delegation to J&K)
o o o
(v) [SECULARISM GOES TO DOGS: NOW SRI SRI (Art of
Living with Hindutva) IS DELHI'S EMISSARY IN
KASHMIR]
The Hindu
August 14, 2008
Centre's emissary in J&K
by Praveen Swami
http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/14/stories/2008081457970100.htm
o o o
(vi)
The Telegraph
August 14 , 2008
IN SCARY CALM, SIGNS OF GATHERING STORM
by Sankarshan Thakur
A woman curses a policeman in Srinagar. (Reuters)
Srinagar, Aug. 13: The place is like a morgue,
rent with rage over its dead, wrapped in an
enforced postponement of portents.
You may have seen images rolling off television
all day of a Valley relieved of its recent
mayhem. The streets quiet, the inflamed
processions stilled, the strident cry of
insurrection suddenly silent.
A "relatively peaceful" day in the ledger of
Kashmir's law-keepers; and for reporters, thank
heavens, a break from the harried and bloody beat.
But that's what it is - a break.
This is a calm imposed by curfew and by the gun.
Perhaps also by the allocated four-day mourning
for Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz who was
shot dead with four others during the aborted
march to Muzaffarabad near the Line of Control on
Monday.
But beneath it, anger seethes unassuaged. Look
where television cameras don't often rove in
Srinagar and you would know. Cast an eye off the
high streets swept free of tumult by columns of
armoured personnel carriers. In the narrow lanes,
running off into the warren of Srinagar's
volatile downtown, in the mosques littered across
the city, in the swarming neighbourhoods recently
stained by death, an uneasy mood brews.
Groups of boys, their faces masked with
handkerchiefs, chanting incendiary slogans and
daring security men into confrontation, eyeball
to livid eyeball, women beating their breasts and
screaming unspoken atrocity. Imams discharging
passion to the faithful from their high seats -
"your freedoms are in peril, pray so you have the
strength to protect them in the face of this
aggression".
In Bemina, on the city's western outskirts, a mob
that torches two vehicles and is barely kept from
burning down a government facility. In Rainawari,
in the centre of town, angered processionists
shouting pro-Pakistan slogans that have to be
tear-gassed, then fired upon. In Zainakadal and
Habakadal, an hour-long fury of stone-pelting. In
Habak, a provocative posse that eventually draws
policemen into raiding and ransacking homes. Such
has been the menu of a "relatively peaceful" day.
This is a scary calm; it is waiting to boil over
into frenzy at a myriad locations in the Valley.
"And don't forget," a top state police official
said, "Independence Day is approaching. That is
an abnormal day in the Valley even at normal
times. I am not trying to be alarmist but be
prepared for the worst."
Arrangements to meet the ominous are rapidly
being summoned and put into place. Additional
army battalions and paramilitary troops are
pouring into the Valley ahead of the goods-laden
trucks stranded at Jawahar Tunnel. Srinagar looks
the canny ghost of a turbulent past it can't seem
to shed. Quite a return to the grimness of the
early 1990s. Swarming with troops, eddied in
barricades and bunkers, swelling with
frustrations that may require the uncorking of
more teargas and guns.
"We are under instructions to keep restraint,"
said a CRPF officer bunkered in downtown
Safakadal. "But our restraint will depend upon
how much restraint these boys keep." He was
pointing to a build-up of youngsters in the lane
across the wooden bridge over the Jhelum. "They
have been schooled in defiance all their lives,
this is sport for them."
The boys were cat-calling the jawans from the
safety of distance across the bridge: "Go home,
go home to India. Leave us alone!" One of them
was waving a green flag and held a brick in his
other hand.
Elsewhere in town, that brick was in more
restless hands today. It was thrown, and it was
returned by fire. On a day described as
"relatively peaceful", scores were injured and
many of them sent to hospital. The toll of the
past three days mounted by three, 23 dead now and
more than a 150 injured.
There have been desperate appeals for peace but
each of those has been superimposed with an
appeal to "carry on the struggle".
Informed by greater realism than today's calm
suggests, governor N.N. Vohra went live on local
cable network this evening exhorting the Valley
to "think deep and hard" about where the
"Muzaffarabad Chalo" call would leave them. He
denied there was any economic blockade of the
Valley, he urgently assured more than 5,000
trucks laden with essential goods were on their
way and he said India remained the biggest market
for Kashmiri fruit and handicraft.
Hinting at a conspiracy to drag the Valley back
into strife, he said: "You must think how and why
normality has suddenly been sabotaged and who is
responsible."
______
[4]
The Times of India - 13 August 2008
Q&A: 'AHMEDABAD WAS A TRAGEDY, SURAT WAS FARCICAL'
Jyoti Punwani
J S Bandukwala's name has always been associated
with reform and communal harmony. In the 2002
Gujarat violence, his home was burnt down, and no
one arrested. Bandukwala, the retired professor
of physics from Baroda University and currently
president of Gujarat PUCL, speaks to Jyoti
Punwani about the Ahmedabad blasts.
How have the blasts affected relations between Hindus and Muslims?
The blasts created a deep distrust and unease in
Hindu-Muslim relations. For Muslims, the fear of
a post-Godhra repeat was overpowering.
Fortunately, most Hindus have started realising
what happened after Godhra was wrong. They are
making attempts to bridge the gulf. This time,
even if Narendra Modi had wanted to stage a
''reaction'', he may not have found general Hindu
support, or even police support. The police have
seen what happened to officers who went too far
in 2002, like DIG Vanzara.
How are the police handling the investigation?
In 2002, the police were totally anti-Muslim.
This time there was a conscious attempt not to
hurt average Muslims. People were called for
interrogation, but not detained. However,
intelligence about Muslims is zero that the
police have to rely on bootleggers! Maybe the
blasts will make Modi change his policy of
keeping Muslims out of the administration.
What about Surat's bombs that never went off?
While Ahmedabad was a tragedy, Surat's 25 bombs
were farcical. None had a timer. None exploded.
One bomb was placed high on a tree, exactly
opposite a police station. And those who spotted
them were given gallantry and huge cash awards.
One can make one's own surmise.
Were the blasts a revenge for 2002?
I suspect the involvement of a small fanatical
band, deeply secretive, with a deep commitment to
revenge. There were many cases in 2002 of entire
families being wiped out, leaving just one
survivor. Hate is very deep among the 2002
victims. There has been hardly any expression of
remorse from the Gujarati leadership, whether
political, religious, business or intellectual.
I made repeated public appeals to prominent
religious figures, Pramukh Swami and Morari Bapu,
to recognise that Muslim women were raped using
trishuls and then murdered while shouting Jai
Shri Ram. That was blasphemous, an insult to Lord
Ram. It should be condemned. Their appeal for
forgiveness would have lowered the revenge level
of the riot survivors. Shockingly there was no
response. There is a vast difference between
religiosity and spirituality.
The blasts and their aftermath suggest that
Gujarat may finally come to terms with 2002.
Muslims and Hindus have to live together. The
consequences of a communal blow-up are too
frightening and long lasting. Gujarat just cannot
afford this madness.
______
[5]
Asian Age,
August 14, 2008
TASLIMA: A TEST CASE FOR INDIA
Taslima Nasreen, the Bangladeshi-origin writer
now forced to hold a Swedish passport due to
cultural intolerance in the land of her birth, is
back in India after a forced sojourn in Europe.
Will her return to this country after five months
once again throw the authorities in New Delhi and
Kolkata into confusion and despair, as it had
done not very long ago? Ms Nasreen's experience
of life in this country might have by now
provided her with a true measure of the worth of
India's much-vaunted liberal values and its love
of creativity and freedom. And yet she did not
hesitate to return. Perhaps her oft-repeated
articulation of the desire to live in Kolkata -
the nearest thing to living in Dhaka in terms of
linguistic and ethnic affinity, and the place she
now wants to call home - is no sham. Even before
the expiry of her visa six months ago, Ms Nasreen
had been bundled out first from Kolkata (of which
she had been a long-term resident) by the CPI(M)
and then from India by the Congress-led UPA
government, at the time only too keen to keep the
Left in good humour. It is indeed remarkable how
pathetic Indian officialdom can be in spite of
the professed national credo of secularism and
other grand values of an enlightened society. No
sooner had the Bengali writer landed in India
than external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee
was off the mark with conditionalities: Ms
Nasreen, he warned, must be mindful of local
susceptibilities and be careful of what she said
and wrote. Is this the official policy of the
proud democracy Mr Mukherjee represents in the
councils of the world?
Taslima Nasreen had left Bangladesh all those
years ago after her writings, exposing the
hypocrisies of the feudalistic and male-dominated
clericalism in Islam, brought upon her the wrath
of vested interests in a society where the
religious and secular establishment work in
tandem. In effect, she had to flee for her life.
Were the reasons for her departure from Kolkata,
which prides itself on its bhadralok culture, so
very different? The CPI(M), under pressure from
the minorities in West Bengal after Nandigram,
kowtowed to illiberal orthodoxy and its demand
for Ms Nasreen's expulsion from the state.
Cracking under the pressure of votebank politics,
the leading party of the Indian Left - to the
chagrin of some of its allies - met that demand
and on that day failed to live up to its espousal
of secular values in the public space. Back in
the 1930s, Rashid Jahan, a young Muslim woman of
Uttar Pradesh, like Ms Nasreen a doctor, had set
the Urdu literary scene afire with her short
stories questioning the male bastion that her
religion had begun, and its consequences for
Muslim women. She was closely associated with
India's early Communists. That tradition is
clearly no longer extant in the Indian Left. But
whatever the distortions of culture embraced by
political parties, organisations of Muslim women
in different parts of India - notably in Bhopal,
Mumbai and Kerala - have already begun to give
the hardliners a hard time.
______
[6] Announcements:
(i)
DISCUSSION-MEETING ON COMMUNAL CRIMES BILL
Date & day: 14 August 2008, Thursday Time: 4 p.m. - 6.30 p.m.
Venue: ALTERNATIVE LAW FORUM, 122/4 Infantry
Road, Opp. Infantry Wedding House, Near Bus Stop
- Shivajinagar Depot, Bangalore 560001
Phone: (080) 22865757 / 22868757 email: contact at altlawforum.org
The demand for a law on communal violence emerged
from a brutal record of recurring violence in our
country, the increasing occurrence of
gender-based crimes in communal attacks, and
complete impunity for mass crimes. The reasons
are many - lack of political will to prosecute
perpetrators, state complicity in communal
crimes, lack of impartial investigation and a
lack of sensitivity to victims' experiences. But
there is also, crucially, the glaring inadequacy
of the law. Today, despite huge strides in
international jurisprudence, India continues to
lack an adequate domestic legal framework, which
would allow survivors of communal violence to
seek and to secure justice.
The UPA government, in its National Common
Minimum Programme issued in May 2004, promised to
enact a comprehensive legislation on communal
violence. While the country does need a strong
law on communal violence, the Bill - named
Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and
Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill 2005 - drafted by
the government, is a dangerous piece of
legislation that would strengthen the shield of
protection enjoyed by the State, its political
leaders and its officials for their acts of
omission and commission in these crimes. After
intensive pressure on the present government
through delegations, public meetings, signature
campaigns and a successful media campaign that
reflected the civil society's lack support for
the Bill, the government shelved its version of
the Bill and asked for a new draft from members
of the civil society who have been active on the
issue. A new draft was submitted to the
government on 24 January 2008, incorporating
important international standards, new concepts
and procedures that are absent in Indian law, in
order to make accountability of perpetrators of
communal violence a reality. The UPA government
is determined to pass a law on the issue during
its tenure, and hence the Bill is likely to be
introduced in the Parliament shortly.
The meeting is intended to
* Disseminate information on the present
status of this law and the contents of the new
draft;
* Build consensus and support among
activists, women's groups and other human rights
groups to extend solidarity to the issue; and
* Discuss and share strategies for advocacy initiatives in future.
This discussion-meeting is co-organized by
Alternative Law Forum (ALF), South India Cell for
Human Rights Education & Monitoring (SICHREM),
PUCL-Karnataka and ICC-India campaign: an eight
year old campaign addressing issues of impunity
for mass crimes in India using standards set by
the International Criminal Court. The discussion
will be initiated by Ms. Saumya Uma, Advocate and
Coordinator of ICC-India campaign, who has been
closely involved with the advocacy initiatives on
the Bill for the past four years.
We look forward to your participation at this
discussion. Please note that the meeting will
commence at 4 p.m. sharp. Please email a line of
confirmation of your participation to
arvind at altlawforum.org.
In solidarity,
Arvind Narrain (Alternative Law Forum), Ramdas
Rao (PUCL - Karnataka), R. Manohar (SICHREM) &
Saumya Uma (ICC-India campaign)
Date & day: 14 August 2008, Thursday Time: 4 p.m. - 6.30 p.m.
Venue: ALTERNATIVE LAW FORUM, 122/4 Infantry
Road, Opp. Infantry Wedding House, Near Bus Stop
- Shivajinagar Depot, Bangalore 560001
Phone: (080) 22865757 / 22868757 email: contact at altlawforum.org
---
(ii)
Join us at T2F as we pay TRIBUTE TO THREE PIONEERING ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISTS
Date: 17th August 2008 | Time: 7:00 pm
This commemorative session on environmental
issues concludes the Saneeya Hussain Week, August
11-17, 2008. Please join friends and colleagues
of three pioneering environmental journalists to
talk about their work and experiences, where
environmental journalism in Pakistan stands
today, and 'the way ahead'.
Activities
1. Celebrating Saneeya: A Short Film
2. Reminiscences
Zulekha Ali: A Passion for Environment - Presented by Owais Tohid
Ameneh Azam Ali: Communities and Forests - Presented by Talat Aslam
Saneeya Hussain: The NCS Bulletin / The Way Ahead - Presented by Sahar Ali
3. Activism and Results
4. Unplugged Music featuring Flam, an emerging band
Speakers and panelists include Beena Sarwar,
Dhunmai Cowasjee, Bhagwandas, Isa Daudpota (via
Skype), Arif Belgaumi, Faisal Siddiqi, and Roland
deSouza.
This event has been organized by The Saneeya
Hussain Trust, Shehri, and PeaceNiche/T2F.
Date: Sunday, 17th August 2008
Time: 7:00 pm
Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
6-C, Prime Point Building, Phase 7, Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA, Karachi
538-9273 | 0300-823-0276 | info at t2f.biz
Map: http://www.t2f.biz/location
Seats are limited and will be available on a
'first come, first served' basis. No reservations.
---
(iii) Conference:
'The Character and Trajectory of the Indian
Economic Formation in an Era of Globalisation'
Wednesday 26th November to Friday 28th November 2008
University of Delhi, India
Contact: indian.formation at gmail.com
Web: arts.yorku.ca/neoliberalism
Context:
The inherent complexity of the present Indian
economic formation has underscored the inadequacy
of speculative and empiricist attempts to
conceptualise it. The gravity of the contemporary
human development situation in India demands an
appreciation of this. There is an increasing
recognition of the need to combine intellectual
forces, across disciplines, to theoretically
delineate the precise ways in which the myriad
elements of the Indian reality constitute an
articulated whole. This is the immediate
conjuncture. Intellectually, this conference
relates to two preceding theoretical attempts
within social science to understand the
specificity and dynamics of economic formations:
viz. the European transition debate, and the
Indian 'mode of production' debate. In the
former, it was observed that, despite the
expansion and commercialisation of the entire
European economy from the fifteenth century
onwards, in particular locales these changes did
not necessarily entail a qualitative
transformation in society. The latter debate
attempted, in a series of exchanges, to specify
the 'mode of production' in the Indian agrarian
sector.
The aim of this conference is to facilitate
discussion and clarification of the quantitative
and qualitative aspects of the trajectories
discernible in the Indian economic formation. The
focus is not to characterise processes in any one
sector alone. On the contrary, this conference
seeks to unravel the changing interrelationships
of various sectors of production and circulation,
as well as the linkages that exist with
metropolitan capital. In this regard, the actions
and reactions of the Indian state in reproducing
a totality must analytically be held as of
considerable import. The current moment in India
undeniably yields many contradictions. The
organisers of this conference consider that there
is a need for dialogue that appreciates how
social scientific analyses must necessarily
produce more nuanced and comprehensive studies of
the country.
Details:
The opening keynote will be given by eminent
University of Delhi historian Professor K.M.
Shrimali. Professor K.M. Shrimali will address
the conference on the theme of the mode of
production as a concept in Indian historiography,
and its salience for contemporary political
understandings. University scholars individually
representing 22 states of the Indian Union, have
already been confirmed to address the conference.
This conference has been initiated mostly by
Indian scholars. However, the participation of
researchers of economic formations in the wider
South Asian context is very much anticipated and
sought. Indeed, the conference expects much
discussion of inter-regional and inter-national
economic connections.
All interested scholars should submit their work
address, a provisional paper title and a one page
abstract to the organising committee at
indian.formation at gmail.com
The deadline for abstract submissions is 31st August 2008.
Note:
Scholars wishing to present wholly
conceptual/methodological reflections, or
theoretically illuminating non-South Asian
fieldwork, should write to
indian.formation at gmail.com outlining their
intentions, prior to submitting any abstract.
Proposals for organising relevant special
sessions within the conference will be considered
by the organising committee. Please submit the
well-developed details to
indian.formation at gmail.com ASAP.
A conference registration fee of 150 USD applies
to delegates employed or sponsored by
institutions/agencies outside of South Asia.
Concessions may be granted for certain sections.
All delegates with papers accepted by the
conference have the option of staying free of
cost November 26th to November 28th in clean and
comfortable guesthouse accommodation. Delegates
remain free, of course, to make their own
alternative arrangements.
An independent and professional audit of the
conference finances will be made available at the
close of proceedings.
The conference organising committee is:
Manjeet Baruah, Centre for Women's Studies, University of Delhi
Kavita Bhatia, Centre of Germanic Studies, School of Languages,
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Kuhu Chamana, Department of English, Swami Shraddhanand College,
University of Delhi
P.K. Chaudhary, Department of History, University of Delhi
Shalabh Chikara, Department of History, Swami Shraddhanand College,
University of Delhi
Debarshi Das, Department of Economics, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
Karen Gabriel, Department of English, St Stephen's College, University of Delhi
Saroj Giri, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi
Aditi Gupta, Department of History, Swami Shraddhanand College,
University of Delhi
Vikas Gupta, Department of History, University of Delhi
Laxman Jain, Department of History, Zakir Hussain College, University of Delhi
Nikhia Jain, Department of Political Science, Dayal Singh College,
University of Delhi
Konika, Department of English, Atma Ram Sannatan Dharma College,
University of Delhi
Alok Kumar, Ph.D. Scholar, Department of History, University of Delhi
Dharmendra Kumar, Department of Political Science, Madhya Pradesh
Naresh Kumar, Department of Political Science Kamla Nehru College,
University of Delhi
Ranjan Kumar, Department of History, Swami Shraddhanand College,
University of Delhi
Hemant Laskar, Department of Economics, Ramjas College, University of Delhi
Biswajeet Mohanty, Department of Political Science, Deshbandhu
College, University of Delhi
Bijoy Padhan, Department of English, Swami Shraddhanand College,
University of Delhi
Vepal Rana, Department of History, Swami Shraddhanand College,
University of Delhi
Sachin, Department of English, Dayal Singh College, University of Delhi
Sadashiva, Department of Botany, Dayal Singh College, University of Delhi
G.N. Sai Baba, Department of English, Ramlal Anand College, University of Delhi
Ghazi Shahmawaz, Department of Psychology, Jamia Milia Islamia University
Shaista, Department of English, Dayal Singh College, University of Delhi
Chandan Sharma, Department of Sociology, Tezpur University Assam
Manish Sharma, Department of History, Swami Shraddhanand College,
University of Delhi
K.M. Shrimali, Department of History, University of Delhi
Anshuman Singh, Department of English, Dayal Singh College, University of Delhi
Daljeet Singh, Department of Geography, Swami Shraddhanand College,
University of Delhi
Ishwar Singh Dost, Peoples Research Society, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
T.P. Sinha, Department of Economics, Swami Shraddhanand College,
University of Delhi
Fraser Sugden, Ph.D. Scholar, Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh
Nevisto Venuh, Department of History and Anthropology, Nagaland University
P.K. Vijayan, Department of English, Hindu College, University of Delhi
Rona Wilson, Ph.D. Scholar, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal
Nehru University
The conference executive organising committee is:
Simon Chilvers, Ph.D. Scholar, Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University
Rakesh Ranjan, Department of Economics, Sri Ram College of Commerce,
University of Delhi
Kumar Sanjay Singh, Department of History, Swami Shraddhanand College,
University of Delhi
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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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