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