South Asia Citizens Wire | September 14, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2287
[1] Pakistan: -- Women activists deplore rape law compromise (Reuters)) -- Appeasing the Mullahs: Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2006 of Pakistan (ACHR) [2] Sri Lanka: V. Anadasangaree, awarded the 2006 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence [3] India: Hindutva Noise about Vande Mataram -- Loyalty test (Rajeev Dhavan) -- Wrong Chord (Seema Mustafa) -- The song and the non-singer (J Sri Raman) -- Garbled history and out of tune too (Jawed Naqvi) -- Song For The Nation - Vande Matram Controversy (Ram Puniyani) -- Five lives of Vande Mataram (Sabyasachi Bhattacharya) [4] India: Malegaon - An Unexploded Bomb (Smruti Koppikar) ___ [1] Gulf News 13 September 2006 PAKISTAN: WOMEN ACTIVISTS DEPLORE RAPE LAW COMPROMISE Reuters Islamabad: Pakistani women activists deplored yesterday a government decision to give in to religious conservatives opposed to the amendment of Islamic laws dealing with rape and adultery. The laws, which make a rape victim liable for prosecution for adultery if she cannot produce four male witnesses, were introduced in 1979 by military ruler Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq and have drawn widespread criticism both at home and abroad. Human rights campaigners have long pressed for the repeal of the laws, known as the Hudood Ordinances, but nevertheless welcomed government efforts to amend them, including taking rape out of the sphere of religious law. Threat But an opposition alliance of religious parties objected to the changes, saying they were a danger to society, and threatened to withdraw from the national and provincial parliaments if they were passed. In the face of the protests, the government said on Monday it was accepting three of the conservatives' demands, including one keeping rape under the Islamic law, although it will also be a crime under the penal code. Adultery The government also accepted adultery being made a crime under the penal code, subject to up to five years in prison. Rights activists said the concessions would water down the impact of the changes and would be confusing, with rape and adultery being crimes under both Islamic law and the penal code. Asma Jahangir, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said: "Last night was the nail in the coffin." "They have hoodwinked women into believing that this is a law for the protection of women. It is a law for the protection of religious extremists," she said. o o o Asian Centre for Human Rights APPEASING THE MULLAHS: Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2006 of Pakistan Today, 13th September 2006, the government of Pakistan is scheduled to present the revised draft of the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2006 before the Parliament. On 11 September 2006, the government had to defer a vote on the proposed bill, which seeks to amend the Offence of Zina (Enforcement Of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979 following stiff opposition from the hard-line Islamic lawmakers belonging to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz). The Hudood Ordinance introduced by then military general Zia-ul-Huq in 1979 to appease the fundamentalists in order to consolidate his rule has victimized thousands of women of Pakistan. Apart from vehement opposition from the MMA and the PML (Nawaz), President Pravez Musharraf did not have any intention to repeal the Hudood ordinance. The government only sought to amend the requirements under the Hudood Ordinance to prove rape, while silencing the likes of Mukthar Mai by making disclosure of the identity of any alleged raped woman or her family member a punishable offence under the proposed law. Therefore, it is not surprising that government has already given in to the MMA and the PML (Nawaz) and proposed to keep both the Hudood Ordinance and Penal Code to try rape and adultery cases. It is the judge, not the victim, who will decide whether to try the rape and adultery cases under Hudood Laws or Criminal Laws. Plight of women under Hudood Law: The Hudood Ordinance, among others, criminalizes adultery and non-marital sex, including rape. It further victimizes the women victims by providing virtual impunity to the rapists and prosecuting the victims instead. Under section 8 of the Ordinance, a rape victim is required to produce at least four adult male Muslim eyewitnesses, who have physically seen the act of rape against the victim, in order to prove her case. Section 8(b) further provides that in order to testify as witnesses, the Court must be satisfied that the witnesses are truthful persons and abstain from major sins (kabair). The four-witness requirement makes it virtually impossible to prosecute the rapists. It places the onus of proof on women in the most discriminatory manner. But if a woman who claims she was raped fails to prove her claims she can be convicted of adultery, which is punishable by death in the most stringent circumstances. The Hudood Ordinance also considers sexual intercourse as adultery whether it is with or without the consent of a woman, who is not married with the man. As a result, thousands of victimized women face conviction. According to the National Commission on the Status of Women, 80 % of the 6500 women prisoners in the jails are victims of the Hudood Ordinance. The Hudood Ordinance does not allow the women's release on bail. According to a 2002 report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a woman was raped every two hours and gang raped every eight hours. However, because of social taboos, discriminatory laws and victimisation of victims by police, many were not willing to reveal the crimes committed against them. Half hearted reforms: On 7 July 2006 President General Musharaff promulgated an ordinance called "Law Reform Ordinance 2006" to facilitate release of women detained on various charges, including violation of the Hudood laws. As many as 1,300 women prisoners out of the total 6,500 languishing in jails were expected to have been released. On 21 August 2006, the proposed Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2006 was tabled in the National Assembly. The Bill inter alia seeks to bring rape under the purview of the Pakistan Penal Code, to repeal the requirement of four-witnesses to prove a rape, and to make adultery a bailable offence. While these measures are welcome, Pakistan government also sought to silence Mukthar Mais. The proposed Bill introduced a new offence under Section 502 B of the Pakistan Penal Code which provides that "Whoever publicises any case of zina or rape whereby the identity of any woman or her family member is disclosed shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to six months or fine or with both". This has been opposed by Pakistan Peoples Party which proposed the victim must have the right to speak to the press. General caves in before the Mullahs: When the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2006 Bill was tabled in the National Assembly on 21 August 2006, it was promptly rejected by the opposition Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) joined the MMA which accused the government of "following a Western agenda to secularise Pakistan". The bill was then referred to a special committee of the National Assembly for a review and evolving a consensus before being debated. However, the MMA and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) boycotted the committee. On 4 September 2006, the parliamentary select committee approved the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2006 and presented it before the National Assembly. However, the MMA threatened to quit Parliament and provincial governments if the government did not withdraw the proposed bill. This forced the government to defer debate on the bill. But on 11 September 2006, the government virtually withdrew the original bill when it agreed to review and revise the bill. The government has reportedly reached an agreement with the MMA over the changes in the proposed bill. Under the agreement reached with the MMA, rape will remain under the purview of the Hudood Ordinance, but judges can also choose to use secular evidentiary procedures and standards such as DNA tests or other medical means, to establish rape under the Pakistan's Penal Code if the circumstances of evidence and witnesses call for it. President General Musharraf, who drew international condemnation by his remark that rape was a "money-making concern" in Pakistan in reference to gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, is unlikely to get any kudos for caving in to the fundamentalists. _____ [2] UNESCO UNESCOPRESS 7, Place de Fontenoy 75352 PARIS 07 SP, France V. ANADASANGAREE, WINNER OF THE 2006 UNESCO-MADANJEET SINGH PRIZE FOR THE PROMOTION OF TOLERANCE AND NON-VIOLENCE 12-09-2006 4:00 pm The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura has designated President of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Veerasingham Anadasangaree as the laureate of the 2006 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence. The Prize was attributed on the recommendation of an international jury. The members of the jury are: Andrés Pastrana Arango, former President of Colombia; Bahia Hariri, President of the Commission for Education, Science and Culture of the Lebanese Parliament; Inder Kumar Gujral, former Prime Minister of India; Sergei Markarov and Manu Dibango, both UNESCO Artists for Peace. Born in Sri Lanka in 1933, Mr Anadasangaree became the President of the Tamil United Liberation Front in 2002, after working as a teacher and lawyer. As an indefatigable advocate of democracy and peaceful conflict resolution, he has contributed to raising awareness of the Tamil cause in a spirit of dialogue, while seeking to promote non-violent solutions to Sri Lanka and opposing terrorism. The $100,000 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize was created in 1995 on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the birth of the Mahatma Gandhi, thanks to the generosity of the Indian writer and diplomat Madanjeet Singh, who is also a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. Dedicated to advancing the spirit of tolerance in the arts, education, culture, science and communication, the Prize is awarded every two years to an individual or an institution for exceptional contributions in the promotion of tolerance and non-violence. In 2004, the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence was attributed to the Bangladeshi writer and journalist Taslima Nasreen. The Prize-giving ceremony will be held on International Day for Tolerance celebrated every year on 16 November. ------------------------------ Source: Press Release N°2006-113 Author(s) UNESCOPRESS Updated: 12-09-2006 _____ [3] Hindutva Noise about Vande Mataram The Times of India 13 September 2006 LOYALTY TEST by Rajeev Dhavan Indians are being cajoled to fight for a song. Atal Bihari Vajpayee now wants the controversy closed. For him, the song is no more than a symbol of devotion. But, that is precisely what the controversy is about. The converse proposition is that those who do not sing Vande Mataram are not devoted to India. So, singing Vande Mataram is not a symbol, but emerges as a test. Those who do not agree to being forced to sing the song are branded as opposed to Bharat Mata. Devotion is a matter of inner feeling. You can persuade but not force people to have inner feelings. Symbolism is another matter. In our context, national symbols such as flags and songs were 19th century inventions to coalesce and promote what Benedict Anderson called 'imagined nations'. Perhaps, what the BJP is really saying is that their idea of India is only 'imagined' and they need to put it together through songs and appeals to Bharat Mata. The upshot is that I cannot love my India for what it is worth, but I must accept and propagate the BJP symbols of nationhood to prove my worth. But, why should a song like Vande Mataram, which was a song of liberation, be transformed into a song of oppression? Why should it become a devotional litmus test of Indian nationalism? That is what it has become. Its divisiveness is as prominent as the controversy that fuels it. Newspapers and magazines are full of news and pictures on Muslims agreeing to and singing the Vande Mataram with gusto. Do they have to be coerced into demonstrating their national fervour? Sonia Gandhi is attacked for missing a Vande Mataram function. Not to sing Vande Mataram may put us in peril. We may not be attacked, but we may be subjected to public obloquy. Equally, we may be socially targeted and challenged. The Constitution's guaranteed freedom of speech, which includes the right not to speak or sing, is based on the good common sense that restrictions to free speech must be (a) reasonable and (b) clearly related to certain aspects of public interest. Being forced to comply with the BJP's symbolism of India is not one of them. Although in the Jehovah's Witnesses case (1986), the Supreme Court struck down Kerala's compulsory order to sing the national anthem on technical grounds, there was much wisdom in not forcing singing the national anthem but simply ensuring that it was respected. Americans remain so even if they claim the right not to salute the national symbols of flag and anthem. Even during the Second World War their supreme court declared in 1943 that compulsory flag salutes were not necessary. In 1990, the court invalidated laws which punished the mere desecration of the American flag. India's Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 does not force compulsory honour but indicts deliberate dishonour. But why this fight over symbols now? Whose symbols are these? Who contrived them for contemporary consumption? Why exactly are they being forced down as loyalty tests? It is not necessary to get drawn into controversies over the historical or even historic role of Vande Mataram. The real question is the reason for the revival of Vande Mataram as a symbol and test for nationalist loyalty. The revival comes from the BJP and sangh parivar. Their goals are not the goals of a secular India. BJP's policy of revivalism is entirely political for the purpose of inciting social sentiments to create vote banks based on divisiveness. BJP's rise to power through the anti-Babri masjid movement and by directly and indirectly targeting minorities is well known even to a point of destroying libraries and paintings. But we must get to the root of what the sangh parivar is trying to do. What the BJP has tried to construct is a new pseudo-religion. The title of this faith is Hindutva. Its colour is saffron. Its credentials are aggressively coercive. But the BJP obviously feels that its newly devised Hindutva faith needs something more. For them, the faith needs a song. The revival of Vande Mataram now provides a song to support their new faith. Vande Mataram deserves better treatment than to become the instrument of communal politics. It does not seem to matter if Vande Mataram, which was meant to unite people, is now used to divide them. During colonial rule, Vande Mataram was appropriated as a counterblast to the British making 'God Save the Queen' compulsory. The effect of Vande Mataram was electric. The constituent assembly honoured the song. No one wants to dishonour Vande Mataram. It has its place in history. But advocating the compulsory singing of Vande Mataram is not to honour the song but to add fuel to a new Hindutva and to target minorities, especially Muslims, with a loyalty test. The parivar creates communal tension and then pretends to complain about its creation. To create provocative friction by coercive compulsion is destructive. It is targeting besieged minorities that is anti-national. The writer is a senior Supreme Court advocate. o o o Asian Age September 8, 2006 WRONG CHORD by Seema Mustafa I am not a Muslim, so while I will not pray in a mosque, I will respect the religion and those who practise it. I am not a Hindu, so while I will not visit a temple, I will certainly respect the religion and those who practise it. I am not a Christian but I will visit a church as it is so peaceful and spiritual, I will respect the religion and the believers. I am an atheist, but I am content not to thrust this on those who believe in God and their faith. I do not want to sing Vande Mataram, so I will not, but I will not take away the others' right to sing it with passion every day of the year. I will respect what they believe, but I will ask them not to try and force me to do something that is against my belief. I will not allow anyone to force me to do something against my will. I will resist those who try to convert me by force, and embrace those who have persuaded me to agree with logic and argument. I will fight those who question my patriotism on the basis of arguments they have forged and symbols they have created. I will fight those who insult our national anthem and defile the Constitution of India and the rule of law that is not just mine but the nation's Holy Book. And that includes those who are becoming ugly in their demand that every single citizen of India sing Vande Mataram to prove his patriotism, for this demand in itself is against the Indian Constitution that does not endorse force and bigotry. The BJP, a rudderless divided force, has no issues and hence seized upon Vande Mataram to create division and discord. Of course, as always these fanatics were helped by a bunch of Muslim clerics who jumped into the controversy with their stupid remarks and their regressive ideology. That was all the BJP leadership needed, and on Thursday they were all out wearing their brand of patriotism and nationalism on their sleeves as they sang Vande Mataram with the warning: if you do not you are not a patriot. The spotlights were placed effectively by the television channels and the Hindutva brigade on the Muslims for not being patriotic enough to sing Vande Mataram as a community. Muslim leaders never known for a progressive idea were brought out of the woodwork by the television anchors who grilled them incessantly on their patriotism as defined by Vande Mataram. Absurd. Totally absurd. And as if to highlight the differences, the Congress leadership, always confused and disoriented on such matters, organised a big rally in Delhi and all the worthies queued up to sing Vande Mataram. The result was predictable: the BJP immediately zeroed in on Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her failure to publicly mouth the words. The Congress reaction was defensive as always. She was not well, said her spokespersons, implying that if she was, she would not have hesitated to climb atop the dais set up by Arjun Singh and Ambika Soni and sing the song. But why? Why could they not say that while she has full respect for Vande Mataram, she did not see the need to stand on a public platform and sing it to convince the BJP of her nationalism? After all, the Left leaders, the regional leaders, scores of legislators, the Dalit organisations, the Christian organisations, the Muslims, the Sikhs did not see the sense of making a mockery of a belief. All respected the song, but many did not want to sing it. No one ridiculed those who decided to publicly demonstrate their so-called nationalism, but many made it clear - Sikhs included - that they reserved their right to sing or not sing Vande Mataram. For they know that nationalism has little to do with singing a song, but everything to do with respecting and maintaining India as a secular democracy. That can only be if we respect each other's freedoms, and while demanding our rights, perform our duties. So just as no one should usurp the mandate to compel others to sing a song that is not the national anthem, no one should prevail upon a community not to sing it either. It is an individual's choice and should be left to the citizens without interference from the maulanas or the Sangh Parivar. After all, A.R. Rehman sang Vande Mataram with passion, and I do not think he has received a message from his God that he is no longer a Muslim. Just as there are many in the BJP - one will not name them - who might find it difficult to enter Heaven's door despite standing for hours to sing all the patriotic songs they know! Of course I am not God, but then as an atheist I have given to myself the freedom to interpret God's will. The ringing of bells at the temples, and the sounding of azaan five times a day, become meaningless when the devout insist on placing signs outside their places of worship, "Dalits not allowed" and "Women not allowed" respectively, and then insist that this is true religion and true faith. What is the point of a patriotic song if it is used to divide and spread hate? What is the point of a religion if it kills and maims and seeks to establish the supposed superiority of one over the other? What is the point of a religion if it discriminates against castes and women and humanity at large? What is the point of a patriotism that divides the nation into a majority and a minority, and seeks to create second class citizens? The BJP is clearly a party without issues. It has spent days and weeks over Vande Mataram, with the singing or not singing of the song preoccupying its national executive at Dehra Dun, that should instead have been discussing a strategy to effectively address the plethora of problems facing the nation. It is so torn apart by factionalism that real issues have ceased to matter. For the maulanas, of course, these have never mattered. They cannot look beyond their limited constituency. The Congress, instead of opting out of an engineered controversy, again tried to compete with the BJP and ended up falling on its face. As it always does when it seeks to fight with the extreme right-wing parties for their platform of nationalism and communalism, instead of clearing its own mind of the gathered cobwebs, and speaking out for true secularism and pluralism. There are few countries as diverse and as rich in culture as India. There are few countries with such huge problems and difficulties either. In one state people are dying of drought, in another they have been consumed by floods. In one community an uncle can marry his niece, in another a cousin can marry cousin, in yet a third both relationships are taboo. Some tribals in Jharkhand eat rats, others do not touch meat, still others refuse to touch garlic and onions: the diversity of India is visible in her dialects, customs and food habits. And instead of soaring high on the ability of a nation to manage her contradictions, to tolerate and accommodate, we have political parties seeking to push the people into a monolithic structure of hate and intolerance. This is anti-nationalism, this has to be fought and countered. Left to themselves, the people will not spew hate and communalism. Vande Mataram would not have become such a gigantic issue if the politicians had left it to the people to take a decision to sing or not sing it. Rehman had secularised the song, others would have followed. But to force a view down peoples' throat, to ban a movie, to burn movie halls, to burn books, to attack people because they wear jeans, is to take on the role of a self-seeking cultural police force, to become the Taliban. This will invite resistance from democratic India that loves her freedom and will not easily allow anyone to take it away. o o o Daily Times September 05, 2006 THE SONG AND THE NON-SINGER by J Sri Raman http://communalism.blogspot.com/2006/09/vande-mataram-song-and-non-singer.html o o o Dawn September 4, 2006 GARBLED HISTORY AND OUT OF TUNE TOO by Jawed Naqvi TWO essential components of any song are its tune and words. Vande Mataram is a 19th century Sanskrit song that celebrates a utopian motherland which, to those who understand the meaning, is an allusion to India of their dream. There are references in an adapted version of the song to Durga, the Hindu goddess of power. Durga is a multi-faceted deity who excels in putting erring men-folk in their place, if necessary by violent means. In Gujarat and other parts of western India, Durga rides the lion but by the time she is deified in Bengalshe switches over to the tiger as her mythical vehicle. Her visage thus changes according to geography. The talents of the calendar artist also play a role in this calibrated mutation. There are a few other variants to Durga. She is known as Parvati, Shakti, Uma, Kaali, Mahishasura Mardini and by several other names. Some time after independence, the Indian parliament after considerable debate decided to make Vande Mataram a national song, nearly at par with the national anthem. That the national anthem was also written in the ancient Indian classical language of Sanskrit is perhaps a factor in the inability of a vast majority of Indians in failing to comprehend its meaning. At some point, however, during the anti-colonial movement, Vande Mataram became a battle-cry against British rule. It was used to campaign against the communal partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905. Some Indian Muslim leaders feel the decision to give the song parliamentary sanction was incorrect. The government of the day however decreed that the first two stanzas be accepted as the complete song since they contained no reference to Durga. Ever since it was adapted by the Bengali novelist Bankimchandra Chatterjee in the late 19th century, the song was understood mainly by the Brahminical elite. But today others in the Hindutva stable of the RSS, and some of their clones in the Congress, claim to be competent to speak and divine the essentially Sanskrit verses. Poet and secular activist Javed Akhtar spelled out a possible way out for himself from the moral quandary. "If a narrow-minded Muslim preacher asks me not to sing it, I will most certainly make sure that I sing the entire song to my heart's content. But if someone from the RSS presses me to sing it I will refuse to comply with even a single line." Historian Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, author of a book on the song, is incensed by a current controversy whereby the federal government wants that the song be sung in all schools on September 7. The order has given the votaries of Hindutva as well as orthodox Muslims a field day on TV. "I find it highly objectionable to see the song being used as a litmus test of one's patriotism," says Mr Bhattacharya. After the song was sung at the Congress party session in Varanasi in December, 1905 to protest the partition of Bengal, it became the front-runner to be India's national anthem. But it lost out to Rabindranath Tagore's more secular Jana Gana Mana following opposition from Muslim groups. There is another problem with the singing of Vande Mataram, particularly when the requirement is mandated by the state itself. Which tune of Vande Mataram is one to sing if sing it we must? The classiest composition was rendered in 1920 by a not so widely known Maharashtrian singer Vishnupant Pagnis. His Vande Mataram in Raag Miyan ki Sarang is by far the most captivating tune ever recorded. Only trained singers can attempt to make a worthwhile attempt to try it out. A 78 rpm version is still around, fortunately, for those who want to compare it with a tardier composition in Raag Desh played now a days in parliament. Or are we to sing the rabble-rousing Lata Mangeshkar version performed for the communal film, Anand Math? Or is the yuppy version the better choice, the one in which the Sanskrit mother is replaced by the more western Mama by Muslim composer A.R. Rahman? At any rate, why does a secular country like India, which boasts of a scientific temper and a liberal constitution allow itself to be caught in non-essential quarrels between religious groups? It is difficult to guess the answer straightaway. But it is curious that the country spends quite a lot of time and effort in cultivating religious constituencies by strange acts of omission and commission. The Indian army, for example, is deployed to help conduct a Hindu pilgrimage in strife-torn Kashmir every year. The country's foreign ministry is directly engaged in supporting pilgrims to visit Mansarovar and Mount Kailash in Tibet. The snow-clad mountain is the mythical abode of Shiva, the god of destruction, Durga's consort. The home ministry on its part spends a fortune in sending Muslim contingents for Haj to Saudi Arabia every year. It would be impossible to find another nation state in this age that colludes with religious groups with the taxpayer's money, to perpetuate its garbled sense of secularism. There is some garble also in the Indian state's perception of its own recent history. The ineptitude looms like a social menace as the country progresses to next year when 150 years of the 1857 uprising against British rule will be celebrated nationwide, in tandem perhaps with other South Asian countries. The problem presents itself in various layered and nuanced ways. In a subtle way, almost imperceptibly the essential difference is sought to be obliterated among the so-called national heroes. Ask a school child to name a few national heroes he or she is likely to throw up names like Shivaji, Rana Pratap, Rani of Jhansi and Bhagat Singh. If the school is very secular they would add the name of anti-British Ashfaqullah or even Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hamid, who the legend has it single-handedly destroyed Pakistani Patton tanks with an assault rifle and some hand grenades in 1965. Thus in one slide we are saddled with frames from idolised men and women who fought the British occupiers alongside those who fought the Mughals (read Muslims) and even those who fought Pakistan. This garble sometimes seems deliberate and is of a piece with the historiography patronised by both the Congress and the opposition Hindutva groups. Sometimes there are feeble protests, like the recent one against the chief minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje Scinida, a Hindutva activist. Her forebears sided with the British when the rebel Rani of Jhansi was being hunted by colonial troops. They declined to help the Rani. She was booed recently when she unveiled a statue of the rebel Rani. The great ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, was similarly let down by the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad alike when he single-handedly took on the British in epic battles. Tipu's heirs are today believed to be roaming the streets of Kolkata, unsung while the votaries of the Marathas and the erstwhile 'razakaar' supporters of the Nizam have found a place in parliament where they all sing -- occasionally out of tune -- Vande Mataram. o o o 31 August, 2006 SONG FOR THE NATION - VANDE MATRAM CONTROVERSY by Ram Puniyani After Arjun Singh, MHRD Minister clarified that singing of the (August 2006) of Vande Matram is voluntary, on 7th September, the supposed centenary year of this song, BJP went hammer and tongs blaming Congress for this 'appeasement' of minorities. In the meanwhile a section of Muslims had protested that the song is asking for worship of deities other than Allah, and that is something, which Islam does not permit. One could see the charged BJP members shouting Vande Matram in the upper house of the parliament, led by Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Various Hindutva ideologues gave a threat that those who do not want to sing this song should leave the country. BJP is planning to sing the song on its party head offices on that day. Chattisgarh has already issued the circular to all the schools, including the madrasas to sing this song on that day, and other BJP ruled states, MP, Gujarat, and Rajasthan are on the way to issue the same. In MP the singing of Vande Matram in the offices on every Monday has been implemented. One recalls that in the aftermath of the Mumbai riots, the Shiv Sainiks had asserted to the peace marchers that it is mandatory to sing Vande Matram. A section of Muslim clerics including Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, have raised the objection to it saying that Islam being monotheistic does not regard any other object as god or goddess. It is likely that same may be the opinion of followers of other monotheistic religions. For that matter all Muslims have not opposed it. Also it should be clear that the later parts of the song where the mother land is compared to Hindu goddesses was not accepted as the part of national song, by the committee, which said that only first two stanzas should be accepted as national song. This is what constitutional position is, and that too it was made clear that the singing of the first two stanzas of the song is voluntary, not a compulsory one. Hinduism being polytheistic, there is a plethora of gods and goddesses, though the traditional 33 crore of them may be difficult to name, motherland has been projected to be Durga in this song. One of the reasons for the section of Muslims' opposing the singing of the song may be the fact that so far Hindu right has been presenting the full song and not just the first two stanzas which has the recognition as the national song. It is noteworthy that all the Muslims may not hold similar opinion. Surely A. R. Rahman, the music maestro has got this song into a beautiful catchy and popular tune. Shahi Imam, who has opposed the move, has been very close to BJP and has been repeatedly wooed by this party for electoral purposes to the extent that in the last Lok Sabha elections, he went to issue the Fatwa for the Muslims to vote for BJP. There is a reasonable deal of argument not to accept to sing the full song by a section of Muslim population due to its Hindu imagery. But if the matters are clarified that the circular is only for the first two stanzas, the situation may be different. The double standards of Hindutva lobby are very clear in this controversy. In 1998, when UP Govt wanted to make it compulsory the then Prime minister, Mr. Vajpayee opined against this move of UP Government. RSS and the Hindutva family are strongly hung up on this song, more so than the Jana Gana Mana, the national anthem. After writing the first to stanzas of Vande matram, Bankim Chndra Chatterjee expanded it in his novel Anand Math. Large part of it is in Sanskrit, Devbhasha, and few stanzas are in Bengalee. This has strong anti British and also pro Hindu over tones, due to which it became popular in a section of population. The large secular movement looked at it as for its anti British sentiments, while Hindutva sections upheld it for the Hindu undertones and they used it as a battle cry against the Muslims in the communal violence, who in turn resorted to Allah-o-Akbar. It matched with the requirements of Hindutva movement as here the nation is projected as a monolithic being, in the image of Durga. The diversity and plurality, the core identity of the Indian nation is no where visible in the song. Jana Gana Mana, Vande matram and Saare Jahan Se Achchha were the three national songs in the running for the national anthem. Jana Gana Mana conveyed the rich diversity and was acceptable to most states, due to which it was selected as national anthem while Vande Matram, first two stanzas, was given the status of national song. RSS family is using it to browbeat the minorities. By now apart from its anti colonial stance it has been made as a weapon to convey the anti minority sentiments. It is because of this reason that RSS affiliates are pushing it with vehemence. It seems, after the fatigue, which temple issue has acquired, that Vande matram may be the major plank of RSS affiliates in their social and electoral battles. Here it does not matter that even the national anthem cannot be imposed on those who do not wish to sing that, as per the judgment of the court. But surely for BJP, which is built around the identity issues, Ram Temple, Civil code etc. it is a golden opportunity to latch on to Vande Matram to see that maximum electoral mileage is achieved by pushing it forward. Jana Gana Mana, which is more acceptable to all, is purposely pushed back by these elements. They are projecting it as having been written by Rabindranath Tagore in praise of George V. This myth was created by the English media. In 1911 when GeorgeV visited India, Congress wanted to thank him for retracting the British decision to partition Bengal. This was the first success of swadeshi movement, the first modern anti colonial movement, which had begun in 1905. On the same day two songs were sung, one written by Tagore, Jana Gana Mana and the other that of one Ramanuj Choudhary, who had composed the song especially for George V. The English media was neither accurate nor serious about properly reporting such events. So what got reported by the British media was that Tagore song was sung in praise of George V.! As such, the intent and meaning of what Rabindranth Tagore is referring to was correctly described by a commentator in vernacular press that his song was in "Praise of the Dispenser of human Destiny, who appears in every age." When Tagore was asked by a friend, who was loyal to British, to write a song in praise of George V, Tagore felt angered as he was opposed to the British rule. Instead of one for George he wrote a song devoted to the dispenser of Human destiny. When faced with/British media projection and RSS type criticism, Tagore wrote "That great Charioteer of man's destiny in age after age could not by any means be George V or George VI or any George. Even my 'loyal' friend realized this; because, however powerful his loyalty to the King, he was not wanting in intelligence." The song gained wide popularity all over and its English translation, 'Morning song of India' also picked in different parts. Netaji's Azad Hind Fauz adopted it as national anthem and Gandhiji went on to say, "the song has found a place in our national life." It is precisely for this reason that RSS affiliates are uncomfortable with Jana Gana Mana and want to assert Vande Matram in an aggressive way. o o o Indian Express August 24, 2006 FIVE LIVES OF VANDE MATARAM by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya The history of the national song has imbued it with diverse symbolism The appropriation of cultural creations for political purposes may be inevitable, but it should not happen in a state of arrogant ignorance. The low level of knowledge now on display in the statements and actions of many political parties in respect of the song, Vande Mataram, is surprising. It is surprising because the song has been part of the language of Indian politics for over a century. At this moment we see a rerun of an old series of actions and reactions intended to stage an enactment of identity assertions. The traditional appeal of the captivating lyric, celebrating the beauty of the motherland, remains as strong as ever so far as the general public is concerned. One evidence of this is its popularity set to music composed by A.R. Rahman. And yet political squabbles over the song continue. Coverage in the electronic media provides entertainment in juxtaposing the so-called Hindu and Muslim points of view, a mode of presentation which allows no other reading of the song. Actually the meanings read into the poem have differed widely in the 130 years since it was written. In terms of the meanings thus attributed there are about five different phases. In the beginning were just the words. Reportedly one of the leading defenders of the song and of Hindutva has said that the song was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee to honour those who sacrificed their lives for the country. To defend the truth about the song from such defenders it needs to be said that when Bankim first wrote it in the early 1870s it was just a beautiful hymn to the motherland, richly-watered, richly-fruited, dark with the crops of the harvests, sweet of laughter, sweet of speech, the giver of bliss. For several years these first two stanzas remained unpublished. In 1881 this poem was included by Bankim in the novel, Anandamath, and now it was expanded to endow the motherland with militant religious symbolism as the context of the narrative demanded. However, the icon of the motherland, "terrible with the clamour of seventy million throats", likened to "Durga holding ten weapons of war" etc, entered the public imagination much later. This was from the beginning of Bengal's Swadeshi agitation in 1905. It was sung in the Congress session in Benaras in 1905 (music composed by Tagore), in anti-Partition processions in Calcutta led by Tagore, in meetings addressed by Aurobindo Ghose. The latter hailed Bankim as the rishi of nationalism and translated the poem into English. Many translations were made, including one by Subramaniya Bharathi in 1905. Likewise, far away from Bengal, Mahatma Gandhi took note of the song as early as 1905. What is more, Vande Mataram became a slogan for the common man, to the extent he participated in anti-British agitations. Many of the militant nationalists faced bullets or the gallows with that slogan on their lips. Thus Vande Mataram became sanctified as an intrinsic part of the memories of the fight for freedom. A third phase in the life of the song began in the 1930s when objections began to be raised against the song on two grounds: first, its association with Anandamath, which depicted the Muslims of the Nawabi era of the 1770s in Bengal in a poor light; second, the religious imagery and idolatry implicit in the stanzas of the poem following the first two. (Today those innocent of any knowledge of the song and the novel probably mistake the part for the whole). M.A. Jinnah, as well as a number of Muslim legislators in the provincial assemblies elected in 1937, became vociferous against the recitation or singing of Vande Mataram, a practice introduced by provincial Congress governments. In response to this, as well as pressure of Congress members, Jawaharlal Nehru in October 1937 wrote to Tagore asking for his opinion regarding the suitability of the song as a national anthem. The judgement Nehru received was that the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram should be accepted; as for the later part of the verse, Tagore thought it might offend monotheists, but the song was inextricably associated with the freedom movement and "the sacrifices of the best of our youths" since 1905. Acting upon this advice the Congress Working Committee recommended that "wherever the Vande Mataram is sung at national gatherings, only the first two stanzas should be sung". Jinnah wrote to Nehru in March 1938 that the decision was not to his satisfaction but the Congress stuck to it; in any event, there was a proviso that any one who wished not to participate was free to do so. >From then on the song was a dividing line between those who doubted the wisdom of this compromise (C. Rajgopalachari) and those, led by Nehru, who were opposed to making the song obligatory. In 1939 some provincial governments - like Bihar and Central Provinces - issued specific instructions to education departments clarifying that the song was not obligatory. A fallout was that the slogan 'Vande Mataram' acquired special connotation to those who valued the Hindu symbolism in the song and by 1946-47 in some parts of India it became in inter-communal conflicts the battle cry of the Hindu community. The earliest instance of Hindu Mahasabha support to the sanctification of the song is perhaps the 'Vande Mataram Day' organised by the party in 1937. The fifth and most recent phase in the life of the song commenced in the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1950, when it was sung at the end of its deliberations. It was resolved that while Jana Gana Mana was identified as the national anthem, equally with it Vande Mataram was to be recognised. It was a motion from the chair, moved by Rajendra Prasad himself, and unlike other parts of the Constitution it was never debated upon in the Constituent Assembly. But the matter continues to be debated until today. This is not unexpected, given the eventful history of this song. Judging by various erroneous statements which are now being made, it is vitally important to bear in mind what happened in the past. That is because the memories of the past, rightly or wrongly, constitute our present. The writer, a former VC of Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, is the author of 'Vande Mataram: The Biography of a Song' (Penguin) _____ [4] Outlook - web only 13 September 2006 MALEGAON - AN UNEXPLODED BOMB The bomb-scare on Wednesday may have been defused, but Malegaon is a town waiting to explode as victims demand concrete clues about the identity of perpetrators. Updates by Smruti Koppikar Many in the law and order establishment both in Mumbai and New Delhi heaved a collective sigh of relief that Malegaon had not erupted into communal violence after four bombs went off near the Hamidiya Mosque-Bada Kabristan and at Mushavirat Chowk last Friday. The immediate 48 hours were crucial; if peace could be maintained in the immediate aftermath while families buried their dead and tended to the injured, there was hope. Six days on, Malegaon has kept its peace but only just. That a 'bomb' was found today at a busy shopping complex near the Mohammedia Madrasa Centre and mosque only underlined the fact that somebody for sure doesn't like this peace to prevail. News of the bomb sparked fresh panic, as the area was cordoned off and National Security Guard (NSG) bomb squad was immediately summoned to defuse the device that was inside an unclaimed red box found in a staircase. Police claim that the law and order situation in the town is under control - but the "anxiety level" among people has perceptibly gone up. The deployment of Rapid Action Force (RAF) wasn't enough to assuage these fears. Police kept people away from the shopping complex while the media too were advised to stay out. Residents were asked to switch off cell-phones to rule out the possibility of remote detonation of any explosive device. The box with the 'bomb' was taken to a nearby school ground where the experts worked to defuse the device. "The confusion increased as sniffer dogs which were rushed to the spot gave a positive indication after smelling the miniscule level of explosive in the box, Inspector General of Police (Nasik range) PK Jain was to state much later, when he clarified that the device found contained only "a miniscule amount of the explosive substance used in firecrackers mixed with soil and stones and a pair of batteries". It was clear, as he said, that "it was an attempt to create communal tension". Actually, it only exacerbated the already tense town as a large contingent of the RAF was deployed in the vicinity while police and religious leaders made announcements on the public address system, calling for calm as people ran in fear out of the shopping complex. But even before today's bomb-scare, you just had to scratch the surface to know that Malegaon is a town waiting to explode. A special company of the RAF comprising 150-odd jawans, backed by the Riot Control Police sent from Mumbai assist the local police in keeping order; lasting peace is a different ballgame. Locals in the powerloom town with 7.5 lakh population, 70 per cent of it Muslim, are filled with outrage and rage - outrage at the fact that someone could actually detonate RDX-laden bombs at the holiest of their places on a day of significance Shab-e-Barat when they gather to remember their dead, compounded by today's incident, and rage at the fact that the police seem not to have moved an inch in investigating the blasts that claimed 31 lives and left more than 200 injured. The average Malegaonkar has kept his counsel. In fact, when news of bombs going off had spread in the town, Hindus queued up at hospitals to donate blood, some of them were Shiv Sainiks led by local leader Dada Bhuse who had been previously charged with rioting against Muslims. The police failure now stares everyone in the face and may well be responsible for breaking the fragile peace. Since that fateful Friday afternoon, all that the police have got are some suspects (at the last count on Tuesday evening, there were ten) rounded up for questioning, sketches of three men based on eye-witness accounts, one of the two damaged cycles that were strapped with the deadly bombs, some statements from cycle dealers who sold the two bicycles earlier that day and a host of suspicions. "We have no made no concrete progress and do not any substantial clues yet," an officer told Outlook on Monday. Whatever little they chanced upon, they do not wish to share with citizens for fear of sparking a backlash. The dilemma for the police is doubled by the communal arithmetic in Malegaon. All investigations in the first few days did not help zero in on possible suspects, which is in stark contrast to the alacrity with which the needle of suspicion was pointed towards the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) barely hours after the Mumbai train blasts on July 11. "They may be doing their job but it's a fact that we are still not told who the perpetrators could possibly be. And this gives rise to our belief that the cops are hiding something," remarked a cloth merchant Mohammed Khan Ibrahim Khan, coming out of one of the many mass prayers for the departed held at various locations across the town on Monday and Tuesday. The unwillingness of the investigators - local police helped by the Anti Terrorist Squad of the Maharashtra police - to even offer routine guesses about the bombers' identity has not gone down well with citizens here. Some investigators offered a view that parallels could be drawn with the July 11 blasts in Mumbai and that Malegaon blasts "resembled the handiwork" of Islamic terrorist organizations like the LeT working with SIMI. It doesn't answer the question: why would Muslim terrorists want to harm Muslims and place bombs in and around a masjid? Point the finger of suspicion at right-wing Hindutva groups so as to trigger off a communal conflagration? But then security experts were too quick to rule out any involvement of Hindutva outfits like the Bajrang Dal whose members were found dead while handling explosives in an activists' home at Nanded earlier this year. If investigators suggest Muslim involvement in the blasts, they fear a backlash against the force itself. Already, two police jeeps were set on fire within hours of the blasts, the SP (Nashik) Mr Rajvardhan was almost beaten up when he reached the affected area the next day to calm a mob, and men in khakhi are treated with derision and taunts across the town. If investigators suggest Hindutva involvement, cops fear an eruption of communal violence against Hindus. So, suggestive references like the ones made in Mumbai or Varanasi or Delhi last Diwali cannot be hazarded, but there are no concrete clues to offer either. That the investigators should so blatantly rule out involvement of any Hindutva outfit is cause for concern. It's one thing for people like Bhuse and other Hindutva leaders to assert that "no one from this side of the river will go across and dare do something like this" but the fact remains that the cops are not chasing some clues. Take the case of "fake beard" as it has come to be known here. A tailor Aqeel Ahmed Ansari who works near the Bada Kabristan told cops and bystanders that he had picked up a body from near one of the bicycles and handed it over to volunteers in the ambulance, that this body did not have the lower part of the torso and it's beard had come off in the ambulance. The suggestion being that it was a fake beard and therefore the body of a perpetrator. Coincidentally, the two hospitals that conducted post-mortems said that they had together handled 30 bodies and none was without the lower half. Besides, this body could not be found in the morgue hours later that very day. The "fake beard" part perhaps reveals something, especially when against the backdrop of several fake beards, typical Muslim and Sikh clothes, and relevant headgear were recovered from the house of a Bajrang Dal activist in the Nanded blast case. Also significant is the Prime Minister's statement on Tuesday that the role of right-wing Hindutva organizations must also be probed. In Malegaon, it now takes two men to start off a debate on the blasts for a mob of 50-70 to gather in less than five minutes, then arguments get out of hand, tempers run high and there's the possibility of violence right there. "Some of my friends and I have been playing peace-keepers at so many nukkads all the time in the last four days," said a loom worker Ayaz Ahmed who calmed down a mob near Kapda Bazaar simply by shouting at them to disperse. There are people who believe that their children died so that Islam could be cleansed of the stain that it harbours terrorism and terrorists, in a sense making their dead into martyrs to a cause. Then, there are people like Shakeel Ahmed Mohammed Saleem and his brother Shafeeque Ahmed, each of who lost a teenage son in the Mushvirat Chowk blast, but who dared to return the compensation cheque back to Sonia Gandhi. Says Shakeel Ahmed: "Within 18 hours, they were handing out cheques calling the names of the deceased without a word of sympathy or condolence. What kind of behaviour was it? We are not beggars. Humne haath failaya nahin tha, humne haath badaya tha." The brothers offered to donate Rs 5 lakh each if it could help nab the terrorists. Their sense of insult and rage is finding support across Malegaon, a bustling town that was brought to near-collapse by machinations of politicians including JD's Nihal Ahmed, five-time MLA now touching 80 years. No one has a good word for Ahmed, many see him and the current MLA Sheikh Rashid (Congress) as self-serving politicians, taking advantage of communal polarization in the town. The town's demand for a fully-equipped civil hospital, okayed by the state government in 2001 after a round of riots, did not get the push until the brothers pointed it out that day to Gandhi. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has only excuses to offer. "This is a town that governments have hated, still hate, and brand as a communal pariah. Why should we then honour anyone who comes here, however big he or she may be? People of Malegaon have been branded and insulted, now is the time to rise and show the stuff we are made of. No one had refused to take a cheque from Gandhi," says Abdul Qayyum, former corporator. Even so, he counsels his people to keep peace. It is, indeed, a very fragile peace. Smruti Koppikar in Malegaon, with agency reports for today's unexploded bomb. _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ 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: www.sacw.net/ SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/ DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers. _______________________________________________ Sacw mailing list Sacw@insaf.net http://insaf.net/mailman/listinfo/sacw_insaf.net