SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WIRE | 29 November, 2003
From the South Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net
_______
[1] India and Pakistan: Moving towards peace? (Abbas Rashid)
[2] Sri Lanka: Next phase of negotiations: Don't wait (Jayadeva Uyangoda)
[3] India: Pie in the Sky Growth Dreams for who:
Let them eat growth! (Praful Bidwai)
[4] India: Editorials re TV and Film Censorship Project
- Bubblegum universe (indian Express)
- Cartoon Network is all that you can watch
[5] India: Caste and Hinduism (Gail Omvedt)
[6] India: Matches, hatches and dispatches are
all made in heaven for India's millions (Maseeh
Rahman)
[7] India: A condolence meeting in memory of Delhi activist (Dec 2, New Delhi)
[8] India: Attempt at intimidation of secular activist in Gujarat
+ see note from SACW
--------------
[1]
The Daily Times
November 29, 2003
Moving towards peace?
by Abbas Rashid
1989 was election year in India and that more
than most things seems to have put paid to the
chances of an agreement on Siachin being
implemented. Now, another election year is coming
up. Hopefully, the Indian leadership can
demonstrate greater statesmanship this time around
On completing the first year of his government in
office Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali
addressed the nation on Sunday, November 23 and
announced a unilateral ceasefire along the Line
of Control in Kashmir. The response from India
was swift and positive: the cease-fire would be
reciprocated. It sought the extension of the
ceasefire to the Actual Ground Position Line
(AGPL) in Siachin. Pakistan's foreign minister
responded by saying that its initiative was
inclusive of this.
In another conciliatory gesture, Pakistan
indicated that it wanted to revive air links
immediately and would no longer insist on a
guarantee from India against any unilateral
disruption of traffic. This may also have to do
with encouraging the Indian Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee to attend the upcoming SAARC
summit in Islamabad. All of this has been
accompanied by some of the usual rhetoric by both
sides, more so on the part of India with Vajpayee
sounding upbeat and the Indian Deputy Prime
Minister L.K. Advani insisting that there has
been no let up in 'cross-border terrorism'. The
important thing, however, is not to dwell too
much on the reiteration of long-held positions
from either side but to focus on what may be new
in the equation.
Meanwhile, India is also moving ahead on the
parallel track of negotiating with the All
Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). The faction
led by Maulvi Abbas Ansari has accepted the
invitation of the Indian government to hold talks
without insisting that Pakistan be included in a
tripartite arrangement for deliberations,
simultaneously. This is not something for
Pakistan to worry about. In fact, it should
endorse all such negotiations with the
representatives of the people of Kashmiri and
avoid playing favourites, as it did to the
detriment of its interests in Afghanistan. It is
time in other words for Pakistan to review its
policy of recognizing Syed Ali Geelani as
representing, exclusively, the leadership of the
APHC.
Earlier, by way of an important
confidence-building measure, Pakistan took steps
to deal with a key reservation that India has
repeatedly expressed with regard to Pakistan's
efforts to check what it calls 'cross-border
terrorism'. It has often pointed to the lack of a
serious crackdown on groups that it blames for
terrorism in Kashmir. The government recently
declared that militant groups that had simply
re-named themselves after an earlier ban would
not be allowed to operate. Their offices were
sealed and some organisations were placed on a
watch list. More may need to be done, but India
should acknowledge the effort.
Pakistan would also do well to use India's stated
concern with Siachin to make it central to the
current peace initiative. It has been said often
enough that this is a particularly mindless
conflict with the dubious distinction of being
fought out on the highest battle-ground in the
world where at altitudes of 20,000 feet many more
soldiers perish as a result of the freezing cold
rather than as a consequence of enemy fire. It is
also a horrendously expensive operation.
According to one estimate India is spending over
Rs1000 crore on its Siachin operations every
year. Even if Pakistan is spending one-third of
that, it still translates roughly into over Rs1
crore a day. There is an urgent need to move on
this issue also because of its symbolic value. If
Pakistan and India can generate a momentum for
peace through disengagement on the heights of
Siachin, it can go a long way in changing the
atmospherics surrounding the Kashmir issue and
put the peace process more solidly on track.
Nearly a decade-and-half ago, an agreement on
Siachin was virtually in place. The joint
statement of June 17, 1989, after a meeting of
the defence secretaries of the two countries,
clearly sets forth the idea of a comprehensive
settlement on Siachin 'based on redeployment of
forces.' Due to domestic political considerations
India refused to pursue this. In 1992, it sought
to go ahead but with a caveat: troops would be
redeployed to agreed positions but only after
recording existing positions. A Zone of
Disengagement would thereby come into existence
and both sides would undertake not to occupy
vacated positions. In a major concession Pakistan
agreed to record existing positions, though in an
annexure and on the understanding that these
would not be used as a basis for negotiation.
This was understandable given that India was
occupying these positions as a result of
unilaterally altering the position on the ground
in violation of the Simla Agreement.
In 1994 Pakistan decided to play tough and
withdrew from its earlier position, going back,
in effect, to the 1989 understanding. According
to the well-known Indian lawyer AG Noorani, it
was George Fernandes, who after becoming defence
minister in 1998 and seeking to bolster his
credentials with the military and the BJP,
decided to scrap the fundamental principle of
disengagement based on mutual withdrawal.
'India,' he declared, 'needs to hold on to
Siachin, both for strategic reasons and wider
security in the region.'
It should be possible at this point when both
countries at least appear to be serious about a
sustained peace process, to go back to the
earlier agreement regarding redeployment of
forces and settle other issues such as how the
demarcation line is to proceed from NJ 9842. It
should be recalled that 1989 was an election year
in India and that more than most things seems to
have put paid to the chances of an agreement
being implemented. Now, another election year is
coming up. Hopefully, the Indian leadership can
demonstrate greater statesmanship this time
around. At the same time, those in Pakistan who
insist that the conflict is justified on the
grounds that that the costs for India are much
higher should by now be able to see the pointless
nature of this strategy.
Abbas Rashid is a freelance journalist and
political analyst whose career has included
editorial positions in various Pakistani newspaper
_____
[2]
The Daily Mirror
November 28, 2003
Next phase of negotiations: Don't wait
By Jayadeva Uyangoda
Is the Southern polity ready to do serious
political business with the LTTE? Unless the
Sinhalese political class makes up its mind in
the next few weeks to do pretty serious political
business with the LTTE in the coming months, the
paths of political change in the North and the
South may not perhaps intersect again for some
time to come. One needs to make this prognostic
assertion even at the risk of being branded as
alarmist.
There are indeed quite a lot of arguments still
being made in the political debate not to
maintain any political engagement with the LTTE.
The advocates of non-political engagement with
the LTTE occupy a wide political-ideological
spectrum ranging from extreme Sinhalese
nationalism to Tamil human rights activism in
Colombo. The Sinhalese extreme nationalists
advocate a line of primarily military engagement.
According to the Tamil human rights activists,
talks with the LTTE amounts to appeasement of
fascism. Such talks, as they argue, can only lead
to a 'totalitarian peace.'
Conditionality and Transformation
Meanwhile, there are two other perspectives that
present alternative approaches for political
engagement. One such perspective argues that
political dealings with the LTTE should be
conditional to the demonstration by the latter
that its behaviour concurs with the norms and
standards as set out by the international
community. In this 'conditionality approach', the
LTTE should rehabilitate itself and earn
recognition and respectability through its words
as well as deeds. The Tokyo donor conference of
June, which the LTTE boycotted, exemplified this
strategy of dealing with the LTTE. The second
argues that political engagement with the LTTE
should not be conditional, since it is the
political engagement alone that would build
capacities within the LTTE and Tamil society for
much the needed democratic transformation. In
this transformatory approach, there is emphasis
on the acknowledgement as well as recognition of
the major concessions made by the LTTE as
constituting an acceptable starting point for
political engagement. The LTTE's unilateral shift
from external to internal self-determination, its
declared commitment to federalism, and the
decision to engage with the Sri Lankan state
through internationally facilitated talks in a
background of a cease-fire agreement are the
major concessions which the transformationists
highlight.
Indeed, in Colombo donor and intellectual
circles, there still is a debate over the merits
and demerits of the conditionality and
transformatory approaches towards the LTTE. There
now seems to be some convergence of the two
emerging. When Chris Patten of the European Union
addressed a few days ago a gathering in Colombo
before he went to Kilinochchi, he was
articulating a particular, one may say hard,
version of the combined
conditionality-transformatory approach. The Sri
Lankan journalists who questioned him on the
validity of the very idea of his meeting with the
LTTE leader were obviously strong critics of the
political engagement approach. Their assumption
was that political engagement would only
legitimize a terrorist entity that has not yet
demonstrated any remorse of its past deeds or
even any serious evidence of self-reform. In
contrast, the EU Commissioner appeared to hold
the position that continuous political engagement
defined as furthering dialogue with
conditionality will facilitate possibilities for
changes in the LTTE in the direction of norms and
standards as set out by the international
community.
There is also a soft version of the
transformatory approach to the LTTE. It argues
that the desired process of transformation cannot
be externally imposed and that the change is most
likely to occur over a period of transition. The
key word here is 'Transition' in all sides to
post-civil war reform. The external agencies
should facilitate internal dynamics and
potentials for reform that may require a series
of interim phases. In contrast, the
conditionality approach seeks reforms only in the
LTTE. It has not yet seen the need for changes in
the Sinhalese polity or the state as a whole. It
also assumes that the changes in the North should
occur and be demonstrated rapidly, in accordance
with a timetable as set out by the external
actors. As the Japanese government learned
recently with some shock, that approach is not
the most productive one in dealing with the LTTE.
It appears that the donor community has been
re-examining this approach, although some
countries and agencies still prefer the
hard-conditionality strategy.
For the Southern political class also, a strategy
based on a transformatory perspective is needed
to deal with LTTE in the period ahead. This has
become particularly necessary in the context of
emerging consensus between the UNF and the SLFP
on a joint approach to the peace process. We may
note in passing that the UNF-SLFP talks have
generated much anxiety among minority parties.
Some of them see a pan-Sinhalese alliance
emerging threatening minority interests. Any
reconfiguration of political forces is bound to
create its own winners and losers. Those who
strategize the UNF-SLFP accommodation should take
steps to make that process inclusivist,
addressing the ethnic minority fears.
Shared, Yet Divergent
Although the President and the Prime Minister
have a generally shared understanding that the
peace process should continue, their strategic
approaches to the LTTE have been quite divergent.
The SLFP approach during the past two years has
been one of 'hard conditionality', backed up by
the military strength. In contrast, the UNF
approach has been one of 'soft conditionality'
backed by international support. In case the
President and Prime Minister agree to work
together in pursuing peace, what would be
necessary is not a combination of their two
contending approaches, but working out of a new
approach that will enable them to engage the LTTE
in a mutually-transformative framework. What it
means that if the next phase of the peace process
is to produce a significantly constructive
outcome, change and transformation should occur
in the North as well as in the South, and in
three main political actors who are based in
Colombo and Vanni. Peace processes should best be
seen as practices producing transformative
outcomes for all those who are engaged in them.
This backdrop makes it necessary for the
Sinhalese political leadership to quickly settle
their dispute over the power struggle and begin
to seriously examine the LTTE proposals for an
interim administration. It is a real pity that
their attention is not yet drawn for formulating
a constructive response to the LTTE's ISGA
proposals. The UNF had only one initial response
and that even failed to seriously examine the
constructive possibilities offered in the ISGA
framework. The SLFP presented an ideologically
informed negative response while some civil
society actors in Colombo have been excessively
legalistic in their understanding of the LTTE's
approach to transition from its secessionist
project. The limitations of liberal
constitutionalism, in its unitarist as well as
narrow devolutionist versions, are now quite
apparent. Incidentally, the only positive
development to emerge in this regard during the
past few weeks was the fact that both the
President and the Prime Minister had articulated
the position that the ISGA proposals constitute a
basis for future negotiations.
Renewed Engagement
Meanwhile, the general sentiment among the Tamil
people appears to be one of disappointment over
the inability demonstrated so far by the
Sinhalese leadership to offer a serious and
constructive response to the LTTE proposals. As I
have noticed in a recent visit to the North, they
even feel slighted. In political conversations
with Tamil people, one can see a sense of deep
disappointment and even the possibility of being
let down once again by the Sinhalese political
leadership. They feel that the MOU has not been
adequately implemented and that de-militarization
of civilian life in Jaffna has been conveniently
forgotten by the government. This mood of
disappointment was of course heightened by the
political uncertainty that suddenly erupted in
Colombo just a few days after the LTTE unveiled
its proposals. The government does not seem to
communicate with the Tamil people at all. They
don't get positive political messages from the
South. They get only negative signals. The
President and the Prime Minister as well as the
UNF government's chief negotiator need to realize
that any further delay in exploring constructive
engagement with the LTTE around the ISGA
proposals would undermine the confidence of the
Tamil people on the peace process well as the
capacity of the Sinhalese political leadership to
do serious politics with the North.
The negotiation process needs to be revived soon.
The exploration of the conditions under which the
next phase of talks might take place should not
be delayed under the pretext of either the
political negotiations between the UNF and SLFP
or the budget debate. If talks do not resume so
soon, there should be other forms of political
engagement between the LTTE leadership and the
government. Otherwise, as I noticed in the North,
a new process of estrangement between the
Sinhalese and Tamil polities might emerge under
the conditions of uncertainty created by the
present process of no war-no peace.
(The writer is Professor and Head of the
Department of Political Science, Colombo
University)
o o o
[Link towards relevant material]
Full Text of the LTTE Proposal
http://www.lttepeacesecretariat.com/mainpages/releases/proposal.pdf
_____
[3]
The Hindustan Times
November 28, 2003
Let them eat growth!
Praful Bidwai
It's so fashionable to tom-tom India's potential
for economic growth that many of our ministers,
policy-makers and opinion-shapers parrot
marketing formulas exactly the way talented
used-car salesmen do. The only difference is,
they make PowerPoint presentations.
Worse, they even believe in the shibboleths
invented by PR agencies. Take the latest Goldman
Sachs (GS) report on BRICs, or the possible
emergence by 2040 of Brazil, Russia, India and
China together as economies bigger than the US,
Japan, Germany, France, Britain and Italy
collectively. This has had such a euphoric
reception among our chattering classes that some
people have started believing that India has
already 'arrived' as an economic superpower!
Three sobering thoughts are in order.
Similar, wholly speculative, predictions were
made - and abandoned - by corporate client-driven
market analysts (not academic economists) about
other countries too, including South Korea,
Mexico and parts of Southeast Asia and Africa.
India may be no exception to the
euphoria-followed-by-despair pattern.
Second, such forecasts are based on questionable,
even dubious assumptions about hiccup-free growth
and exchange-rate management, thriving world
trade, favourable demography and abundant natural
resources. But many things assumed to "go right"
(GS's words) often don't. Third, GS entitles its
report 'Dreaming with BRICs' and exhorts
potential clients: "Are you ready?" Further
comment is unnecessary.
India's reality is better revealed by other
facts: appalling stagnation in health, nutrition
and education indicators - India now lags behind
Bangla-desh in primary education access - slide
in UN Human Development Index rank from 124 to
127, declining public spending and capital
investment, in-adequate recovery in critical
sectors, hideously skewed growth distribution
and, above all, growing unemployment.
Over three weeks, we have seen the (in)human face
of what unemployment really means and the
desperation that drives young job-seekers to kill
- in Assam, Maharashtra, Bihar and elsewhere.
The orgy of violence over recruitment of
Category-D employees by Indian Railways was
triggered by the denial of entry to 50 Bihari
students to examination halls in Assam. The
backlash was fierce: 50 people have died in
Assam, where the poorest of Biharis were targeted
by the extreme ethnic-chauvinist United
Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
There, the BJP is playing the ULFA's own
ethnic-xenophobic card by stoking exaggerated
fears about Bangladeshi 'infiltrators'. In
Maharashtra, its ally and admirer of fascism, the
Shiv Sena, has dragged Biharis out of trains and
terrorised them into missing recruitment tests.
Nothing could be a faster route to the triumph of
extremist-chauvinist forces in India than such
ethnic violence. Beneath it is desperate craving
to earn a living through a permanently
low-paying, sweatshop-level job for which you're
over-qualified. There were a mind-boggling 55
lakh [*] valid applicants for a mere 20,000
D-Category khalasis/gangmen, the meanest of all
railway jobs - a ratio of 275 candidates per job.
Compare this with the 120 candidates for each
seat in the Indian Institutes of Management, or
about 15 for all management schools together. The
competition for jobs is cut-throat at the lowest
end of the labour market.
The larger social pathology is jobless growth.
India may have moved into a 5-to-6 per cent GDP
growth trajectory over the last couple of
decades. But this is not producing nearly enough
jobs. The organised-sector work force has
actually shrunk during each of the last five
years. The sector shed 4.2 lakh [ * ] jobs in
2001-02, and now accounts for just 7 per cent of
total employment in India. Today, it has 9.1 lakh
fewer jobs than in 1997. So much for 'reform'!
The fall hasn't been made up by the
unorganised/informal sector, where total
employment has risen by a mere 1 per cent a year
over the last decade. The population growth rate
is almost double this. And we aren't talking
quality of employment for the 370 million who
labour here.
Over one-and-a-half decades, annual employment
growth in India has decreased from 2.7 per cent
to just 1.1 per cent. In the past, an additional
output of 10 per cent meant creating 6.8 per cent
more jobs. Today, it means only 1.6 new jobs - a
shocking 76 per cent decrease!
Rural unemployment is so high even in prosperous
Punjab that thousands of young kabootars (men and
women) try to smuggle themselves abroad, as the
Daler Mehndi scandal clearly shows.
When higher GDP means less employment and lower
income for most people, you have horrendous
social regression and discontent. This creates
precisely the cesspool of inequalities,
disparities and discontent in which extreme
Right-wing politics thrives. Nazism and Fascism
couldn't have triumphed in Europe without the
Great Depression's havoc. The Shiv Sena wouldn't
have grown so dramatically in the Sixties and
Seventies without the terminal decline of
Mumbai's textile industry and growing
unemployment.
We stand warned. The kabootars are coming home to roost.
[ * 1 Lakh = Hundred thousand]
_____
[4]
[India: Editorials re TV and Film Censorship Project]
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=36202
The Indian Express
November 29, 2003
Bubblegum universe
Must Anupam Kher take over our entire lives
before he sees there's no sense in censorship?
Censor Board chief Anupam Kher's empire has
expanded considerably. His predecessors had to
satisfy their scissor-happy instincts by snipping
away four-letter words in big screen releases.
Kher, in contrast, will preside over a larger
terrain. For, to him has fallen the task of
cocooning the country's television audiences in
perpetual innocence. The information and
broadcasting minister has decreed that henceforth
nothing that's inappropriate to be reeled before
18-year-old eyes shall be broadcast on the small
screen. Woe betide the cable operator providing a
channel carrying a film, music video or even a
promo unworthy of U certification.
Thank heavens! In this wicked new world of double
entendre lyrics and graphic depictions of
sexuality and violence, someone like Kher has
reinvented himself to uphold "Indian values"! No
longer shall an innocuous hour of surfing
channels carry the fear of unexpectedly chancing
upon a scantily clad teeny bopper, never mind
that we always have the option to skip on to
another network anyway. No longer shall our hours
of relaxation be imperilled by accidentally
tuning into a disturbing exploration of
fragmenting relationships in films like American
Beauty, never mind that they may have been
honoured with prestigious international awards
and radically changed our ways of seeing and
understanding the world around us. No, Anupam
Kher is around to stroll the dangerous outposts
of the visual imagination and protect us in our
bubblegum, U-certificate universe. Now if only he
would take this wonderful agenda to its logical
conclusion. If only he would secure this nanny
state of mind by sifting out all that explosive
"adult" stuff on the unwieldy World Wide Web. If
only he'd appoint his able lieutenants at our
video and DVD parlours to tell us what's
appropriate for our moral well-being. If only
he'd properly police our minds, if only he'd
certify all those classics on our children's
bookshelves driving them to rebellion against
family, religion and state.
Seriously, if only our moral police would
understand that censorship loses its value when
it's instead used to limit options, that its
potency lies in spare use in the most extreme of
cases. Censorship can be an enabling tool when it
is used to categorise creative projects, thereby
leaving it to parents and guardians to determine
what's appropriate for them and their wards. This
self-regulation by the viewer is especially
important amidst an information revolution where
data and entertainment are pouring in, non-stop
and often raw. Television is usually the first
source of news and entertainment for most people,
especially the young. By playing nanny to them
and denying them the opportunity to learn
discretion the censors could do them grave harm.
o o o
newindpress.com
November 29, 2003
Cartoon Network is all that you can watch
Saturday November 29 2003 00:49 IST
NEW DELHI: Seems like you may have to switch off
your television. For, if Information and
Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has his
way, you can only watch movies, previews of
movies, music videos or their promos that have
been categorised as 'U' (fit for people under 18)
by the Censor Board.
Prasad has sent a letter to all TV channels _
barring those that carry news and educational
programming _ asking them to implement these
instructions.
When contacted by this website's newspaper on
Friday night, Prasad confirmed he had sent the
letter. "We have directed the channels to show
films, trailers and music videos that have been
certified `U' by the Censor Board."
Prasad said he expects channels to abide by the
letter. "We will work within the ambit of the
Cable Act which requires the cable operator to
abide by the rules," he said.
When told that his directive would effectively
mean blacking out most movies shown on TV _
including Academy Award winning films for a
mature audience _ Prasad argued: "All the
butt-squeezing videos made in our country will
have to stop and no music videos or promos or
films will be shown without U certification."
As for movie channels beamed from outside, like
Star Movies, HBO or Zee MGM, Prasad said the
cable operator will be held responsible for what
is shown. "I am sure once the letter reaches the
channels, they will abide by the rules," he said.
For newly appointed Censor Board chairman Anupam
Kher, implementing the directive isn't a problem.
"Jab kaam liya hai to karna hi hai (When we have
taken up the job, we have to do it). If you want
to watch adult stuff, get it on video or DVD," he
said.
Incidentally, "cleaning up" of the airwaves
became an issue related to remix videos following
objections to the Kaanta Laga album by women's
groups. Since then, all remix music videos need
mandatory Censor Board clearance.
I&B Ministry sources said the Central Monitoring
Service, whose job is to track news on foreign TV
channels, will be asked to scan movie channels,
fashion channels and music channels. "We always
have the option of blocking out channels if they
(the cable operators) do not abide by our rules,"
officials said.
Senior Vice President (Corporate Communications)
at Star Yash Khanna said the channel has a
Standard and Practices Division which vets movies
and edits inappropriate programming even before
they are shown. "We do specify whether a film is
fit for General Viewing or whether it requires
Parental Guidance," said Khanna.
Others like Jawahar Goel of Zee, whose movie
channel ZEE MGM has been under the ministry's
scrutiny for showing movies like The Last Tango
in Paris, said the channel will follow all rules
if the Government spells them out.
Unlike the West, which has a complex rating
system of movies based on age _ general
audiences, parental guidance, parental guidance
for children up to 13, restricted to under 17 and
NC 17 where no child below 17 is admitted, India
classifies movies under categories U (under 18)
and A (18 and above.)
Even Prasad's predecessor Sushma Swaraj had only
summoned FTV officials asking them to abide by
the "cultural sensibilities" of the country.
After the meeting, FTV split its programming,
diverting all its adult shows to a pay, encrypted
channel while running general programming on
regular FTV.
_____
[5]
Economic and Political Weekly
November 22, 2003
Discussion
Caste and Hinduism
Gail Omvedt
M V Nadkarni's recent article "Is Caste System Intrinsic to Hinduism?:
Demolishing a Myth", (EPW, November 8, 2003) comes as a follow-up to his
earlier article "Ethics and Relevance of Conversions: A Critical
Assessment of Religious and Social Dimensions in a Gandhian Perspective"
(Januay 18). Both articles show the fundamental stamp of Hindutva
ideology, primary of which is shoddy methodology, selective quotation (for
example, his references to my work are to a 10-year old book and
selectively at that), and illogic.
The illogic in the 'Caste System' article begins with a basic, unexamined
premise: that there is some entity called 'Hinduism', a religion which has
lasted 4,000 years and which comprehends 'classical' as well as 'medieval'
and 'modern' forms. This is the most historically unjustified premise,
since the term 'Hindu' to refer to a religious belief was never used until
the establishment of Muslim regimes (and then only in some parts of India;
for instance, Tukaram - who Nadkarni takes as one of the 'Hindu' bhakti
sants, never in all his 4,700 abhangs used this word) and it never came
into generalised use throughout India until the 19th century. This has
been documented by numerous scholars and I will not cite them here. The
illogic is that Nadkarni assumes, and documents, changes in the caste as a
socio-historical structure (which I think is correct) but does not
question the supposedly unchanging character of an essential 'Hinduism'.
(Incidentally, Nadkarni is silent on whether Buddhism, Jainism and the
shramanic traditions should be considered as part of 'Hinduism').
Other mistakes pale before this basic point, but I will take up a few
issues.
First, he says that Ambedkar regards the Purush Sukta as an interpolation.
This is an opinion of many Sanskrit scholars, not only Ambedkar. That
different texts ('religious' or not) contain material from different
periods is a historical inevitability; looking at the text within the
framework of the social and material conditions of its time, determining
its time, is a major part of a scholarís task. The Purush Sukta, to my
knowledge, is taken to be a very late addition (whether we use the term
'interpolation' is a matter of definition) to the rest of the Rig Veda.
The dating of the Rig Veda (by most scholars to 1,500-1,000 BC) itself
does not justify the '4,000 year' claim. I have argued in my own recent
book, Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste (Sage India,
2003) that caste ('varnashrama dharma') emerged as a concept only in the
middle of the first millennium BCE - not at first as an actual social
structure but as an emerging prescription of what an ideal social
structure should be. For about a millennium there was a battle between the
brahmanic tradition (supporting varnashrama dharma) and the shramanic
traditions, especially Buddhism, over the nature of what society should
be. It is relatively meaningless to use the actual social situation in
this period as justifying what Nadkarni calls 'Hinduism' but what de facto
he takes as only the brahmanic scriptures.
A major problem of interpretation comes up as to whether the Gita's
justification of assigning varna categories is by birth or by 'merit'.
Nadkarni argues for merit as do all modern ideologies of Hindutva, as for
that matter Gandhi did at least at the end of his life. (Gandhi did
support 'swadharma', following the profession of oneís father, for a
lengthy period, but leave that aside). I do not think this is what the
ancient texts meant - but even if they did, the point remains that it is
profoundly undemocratic to assign people, at whatever age, to certain
tasks and responsibilities and rights according to some form of presumed
'merit' or 'guna' and then to treat them differentially. Could any
democratic society legislate that people who are primarily workers should
not be able to read or should not be able to read certain valued religious
texts and that they should be punished if they did so? Could any
democratic society legislate that people who are not primarily (by 'merit'
or not) something called 'brahmans' should be forbidden from teaching or
arguing about such texts? Varna by merit is as abominable a conception as
varna by birth. (Nadkarni does not of course mention women, because here
it is almost impossible to sustain any argument.)
Incidentally, the sections of the Gita that Nadkarni quotes (IV:13, II:31,
XVIII: 47) are not necessarily the most pro-varna, according to my
reading. I would refer to the entire sequence of XVIII: 41-47. Even worse
are the verses in I: 40-47, which state that varnasamkarna (mixture of
varnas) leads to destruction of the family and both lead to hell. It seems
to me that such verses cannot be 'explained away'; one must say whether
one agrees or disagrees with them. Nadkarni would apparently 'disagree'
with such sentiments of the brahmanic 'canon' - but why are there so many
of them and why are they so persistent?
How much of the Gita is left that cannot be found in the Dhammapada, or in
Samkhya philosophy? Why should the Gita be considered a particularly holy
book? And if not the Gita, which are the texts Nadkarni would recommend?
To take up the issue of bhakti as Nadkarni calls 'the most prominent
movement within the framework of Hinduism to fight against casteism'.
Again, we have to be on guard against the tendency to classify all bhakta
sants as within the same system, the same religion, the same framework.
There were orthodox institutionalised sects, many of which controlled a
good deal of money and power - the Vallabhaites in north India, the
Ramdasis in Maharashtra, to take two exmaples. Those whom I have been
calling the radical bhakta sants ñ Kabir, Ravidas, Mira, and in
Maharashtra Tukaram, Cokhamela, Namdev, Dnandev - were quite different.
Kabir clearly differentiated himself from both ëHindusí and 'Muslims'
(whom he usually called 'Turks'); so did Nanak, though Nadkarni does not
apparently consider him a part of 'Hinduism'. Tuka spoke primarily in
terms of Vithoba or Vitthal, but when he used the term 'Vishnudas' or
ëVaishnava virí for the varkaris, he used it in such a way as to include
many Muslims and to exclude pandits, followers of brahmanic rituals, and
advaita philosophy. Numerous abhangs take dharma and karma as referring to
'the others' and not to the varkaris. The fact is that Cokhamela died
young while carrying out his caste duty, which he could not escape; Tukaís
manuscripts were drowned because as a shudra he was not supposed to write
or teach, and there is good evidence that in the end he was murdered by
his orthodox opponents.1
The opposition to caste, untouchability, panditry, etc, by the radical
sants cannot be taken as a 'proof' of the progressive and reform qualities
of something called 'Hinduism'. Coming to the 'modern' period, Nadkarni
makes a serious error when he takes ezhavas and nadars as examples of
dalits who have raised their status by reformist policies. Ezhavas (also
known as tiyyas) and nadars were never untouchables in the sense that
pulayas and cherumans in Kerala, or paraiyas and pallars in Tamil Nadu.
They were lower OBCs. And while many among them have benefited by modern
changes, it is still apparently true that as social groups, that is, they
remain in the same place in the hierarchy as before - that is, above the
scheduled castes, and below the upper shudras and twice-born categories.
Finally, the point is not whether caste is dying away or not. Certainly it
can survive only with difficulty in a modern democratic age and, as a
historical form that came into existence at a certain time it is also
certain to vanish. At the same time it is clear that forms, or 'remnants'
or whatever Nadkarni or others would like to call them - he prefers terms
such as 'caste identities' and 'ghosts' implying lack of material reality
- remains. What is his position regarding these remnants or surviving
forms? Does he agree or not that programmes of affirmative action are
still needed in the economic sphere? Does he agree or not that the
continuing domination of a hereditary brahman priesthood in most 'Hindu'
temples - and especially in the very lucrative ones - is wrong and should
be abolished? In his January 18 article Nadkarni has justified opposition
to conversion with particular citations from Gandhi. There may be plenty
of reason to argue against conversion. This does not justify any law
banning it or discriminating against people who 'convert' (who choose to
follow a particular religion or a particular sect within a religion). Laws
may ban only those practices which infringe on the rights of others,
otherwise propagation of a religious point of view - just as propagation
of a political point of view - is a fundamental right.
Nadkarni has written that within Islam and Christianity there are
retrogressive as well as progressive and democratic tendencies. This is
true, and I (and most others) would support the democratic tradition
within these religions - and oppose retrogressive ones. I do not consider
'Hinduism' to be a religion in the same sense, but I would certainly
support Nadkarniís right to call himself a religious 'Hindu'. The rest
depends on what kind of stand he takes within what he considers to be
Hinduism: would he support affirmative action or diversity programmes at
all levels? Would he support the removal of hereditary priesthood from
temples? Would he support the right of people to choose which faith to
follow? I await his answer.
Time will submit to slavery
from illusionís bonds we'll be free
everyone will be
powerful and prosperous -
Brahman, Ksatriya, Vaishya, Shudra
and Chandala all have rights
women, children, male and female
and even prostitutes
-Tuka (Tukaram), 17th century Marathi Sant of India
Note
1 See the ongoing translations of Tuka which have been done by Bharat
Patankar and the author; for an early publication see 'Says Tuka .Songs of
a Radical Bhakta', Critical Asian Studies 35, 2, June 2003 (translations
from the Marathi with introduction).
_____
[6]
The Guardian
November 29, 2003
Matches, hatches and dispatches are all made in heaven for India's millions
Maseeh Rahman in New Delhi
A monsoon of weddings has hit India with
superstitious romantics pinning their hopes on
the stars. As many as 12,000 couples were married
on Thursday in Delhi as the power of astrology
gripped those set on nuptials.
The trigger came from astrologers who designated
the day as protected from Jupiter's "planetary
mischief". The frenzy will be repeated in the
coming weeks with more auspicious days coming up.
"Every 12 years Jupiter transits in Leo, and that
definitely brings ill luck to marital unions,"
said one astrologer, Arvind Kumar. "The bad
period will end only after January 15."
That warning spells bad news for India's
multibillion rupee wedding industry. Indians
spends an estimated 50bn rupees (£700m) on
weddings, excluding the cost of jewellery and
clothes. Too many problem days can be bad for
business.
The rush to get married on special dates is a
nightmare for parents, who arrange everything
from selecting the bride or groom, after
astrologers match individual horoscopes, to
paying for lavish feasts.
Priests, brass bands, wedding photographers, even
the grooms' ceremonial horses are in short
supply. But astrologers have a solution for this,
too. The ill-effects of a wedding on an
unsuitable day can be warded off by first
"marrying" the bride and groom to, say, a holy
tree.
"Astrologers basically assist by providing
direction," Mr Kumar said. "The rest is up to
man."
Influence
The success of astrologers like Mr Kumar who
specialises in "medical" predictions is evidence
that astrology influences almost every sphere of
life in India - politics, business, family,
healthcare, sports, entertainment, even crime.
Many candidates for next week's state assembly
elections filed their nominations at a time fixed
by astrologers. Most Bollywood films are released
after determining auspicious dates.
Many family events are dictated by the stars: an
entrepreneur from Mumbai recently hired a yacht
to ensure that his pregnant wife delivered his
son by caesarean section at the time and location
deemed lucky by an astrologer. And multibillion
rupee industrial projects are guided by planetary
conjunctions.
"Nobody in India does business any more without
looking at auspicious dates or determining the
best vaastu [India's version of feng shui]," said
an editor of a business newspaper. The more India
develops, the more people resort to superstitions
touted as "ancient sciences".
"Astrology hardly has any influence among the
illiterate and poor in rural India," said a
sociologist, Asish Nandy. "It's the urban
educated, grappling with an increasingly complex
and uncertain reality, who are in its thrall."
The idea of India may be secular, but astrology
played a role in the country's birth. The
transfer of power from Britain took place in New
Delhi in the early hours of August 15 1947, after
an inauspicious period had passed.
Pakistan took no such precaution and became
independent a day earlier. Indian astrologers say
it is paying the price. It split into two in
1971, with the creation of Bangladesh, and is
destined for further division.
Astrologers really came into prominence in the
Indian capital in the late 60s when the prime
minister Indira Gandhi began to turn to
soothsayers and holy men.
"When I predicted that her son Rajiv Gandhi, then
only an airline pilot, would one day become
India's prime minister, she immediately summoned
me for a consultation," said Lachhman Das Madan,
82, probably India's most famous astrologer. He
also claims to have also predicted Mr Gandhi's
assassination in 1991.
There is no reliable estimate of the number of
astrologers practising in India today. A
directory published by a New Delhi astrology
company lists 10,000 practitioners. But the
publisher acknowledges that "this probably
accounts for no more than 1% of India's
astrologers".
India's IT revolution has also popularised
astrology and related practices. Computers allow
for quick casting of horoscopes, and a variety of
astrological software is available.
After the rise of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata party, astrology has received the official
stamp of approval. There are government-funded
courses in astrology at universities. It has
acquired so much significance in India that it
had to be excluded from a draft anti-superstition
bill in the Maharashtra state assembly.
The bill, meant to protect people from charlatans
and cheats was tabled eight years ago, but is
awaiting New Delhi's approval. No one seriously
expects it to be passed in the near future. The
stars would not be in its favour.
_____
[7]
Dear Friends,
As many of you might be aware, trader union leader Hardwar Dube, former
worker of Sri Ram Food and Fertilisers and an activist of the Delhi Janwadi
Adhikar Manch, passed away recently. He had been suffering from abdomenal
cancer for some time and many of you may have contributed towards his
treatment.
A condolence meeting is being organised on 2 December, the details of which
are as follows:
Date: 2 December 2003
Time: 5.00 pm
Venue: Gandhi Peace Foundation
Please inform others who might like to attend.
PK Shahi, Aditya Nigam, Subhash Gatade, Nivedita Menon
Aditya Nigam
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road,
Delhi-110054
Tel: 2250 2784 (R), 2394 2199, 2395 1190 (O)
_____
[9]
COMPLAIN[T] OF PUCL REGARDING UNWARRANTED PHONE
CALL TO MR. ROHIT PRAJAPATI & TRUPTI SHAH BY AN
ALLEGED PRIVATE CRIME DETECTIVE AGENCY IN THE
NAME OF CRIME BRANCH STILL WAITING FOR THE
RESPONSE FORM THE POLICE DEPARTMENT OF GUJARAT.
People's Union for Civil Liberties, Vadodara
13, Pratap Kunj Society, Karelibaug, Vadodara - 390 018
Phone: +91-265-2464210 Fax No: +91-265-2340223
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: 13th October 2003
To,
Shri S K Sinha
Police Commissioner
Vadodara
Sub: Investigate in the matter of unwarranted
phone call to Mr. Rohit Prajapati by an alleged
private crime detective agency in the name of
Crime Branch.
Dear Sir,
This has reference to the telephonic
conversation that my colleague Mr. Rohit
Prajapati had with you on October 5, 2003
regarding the unwarranted phone call by an
alleged private crime detective agency
interfering in our totally peaceful and
democratic activities relating to human rights.
May be they hope to please their political or
vested interest?
We work for the human rights without fear and
favour, against exploitation and suppression of
rights of the ordinary people.
My colleague, Mr. Rohit Prajapati will provide
you all the details on supposedly anonymous phone
call with implied threat and blackmail in the
name of crime branch using name of the police
authority.
It was on 5th October 2003, Sunday night around
9.30 p.m., when a person, who called himself Mr
K. K. Sharma, passed on the phone to one Mr D. B.
Vyas, who with an authoritarian voice tried to
extract information about Mr. Rohit Prajapati and
Ms. Trupti Shahís profession, asking questions
like ìwhat kind of social work you do?"
When Mr Rohit Prajapati asked about the
credentials of the caller, the party on the phone
identified himself as 'Mr. D. B. Vyas' from Crime
Investigative Branch. My colleague could find out
that Mr. D. B. Vyas was calling from mobile phone
no. 9825504304 and he represent not the crime
investigative branch but from private detective
agency namely 'RCS Enterprise'. The other party
wanted to find out if Rohit Prajapati and Trupti
Shah passed on the matter relating to crime to
NHRC and also tell others about it. At this
stage, when asked, Mr. D. B. Vyas said he spoke
from the Crime Investigation Branch.
When my colleague Mr Rohit Prajapati retorted
asking about what authority, he had to ask such
questions, the caller with a loud and threatening
voice said, "you give straight answers about what
I ask you". He repeatedly said this in a menacing
voice, with the sole purpose of browbeating Mr
Rohit Prajapati.
When Mr Rohit Prajapati called him back on his
mobile within 5 minutes and asked "who are you",
he did not give a clear answer and disconnected
the phone after similar rhetoric.
Later, Mr Rohit Prajapati informed you about the
incident, and you asked for a written complaint
and referred the matter to P.I. Mr. D. M. Waghela
of PCB.
Hence, I am writing this and demand thorough
inquiry about the purpose of making such
malicious inquiry. Who has given a power to Mr.
D. B. Vyas to investigate the activity of Mr.
Rohit Prajapati & Ms. Trupti Shah?
If the members of PUCL are harassed or
interrupted like this it will be difficult to
function for protection of citizenís right
democratically and legally.
I am sure you will place such elements to book
soon and would inform us about your actions.
Thanks and regards
Kirit Bhatt
[Kirit Bhatt]
President
People's Union for Civil Liberties
o o o o o
[Note from the SACW - wala ]:
Re Intimidation of activists & citizens
This kind of intimidation and far worse, as
described above has become fairly regular fare by
now for many across India/ Pakistan and in other
countries in the region, people should share
stories with other rights activists and public at
large about strategies about how to protect our
privacy and to fend off by state agencies and
other private actors in the game (private
security agencies is big business in the
subcontinent and of course fundamentalist groups
are very good at using all kinds of intimidation
and scare tactics). SACW invites all those
interested to share stories and ideas on do's and
donts about issues of privacy and technology. . .
Tips and Ideas. A whole new strand and subsection
of the SACW web site [or a closed list area] is
being planned by middle of next year dealing with
some of these issues . . . more on this later ]
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, 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 http://www.sacw.net/ .
The complete SACW archive is available at:
http://bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
South Asia Counter Information Project a sister
initiative, provides a partial back -up and
archive for SACW. http://perso.wanadoo.fr/sacw/
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
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