South Asia Citizens Wire | April 18-19, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2390 - Year 9
[1] Campus Organization Linked to the Hindu Far
Right in the US and India (CSFH)
[2] Pakistan: Net losses - traditional fishing
communities are facing ruin (Annie Kelly)
[3] Pakistan: Saahil Bacaho - Save Karachi's Beaches - A Citizens Petition
[4] India's huge military presence in Kashmir
does far more harm than good (The Economist)
[5] India: Act of vigilantism [communalists
oppose inter-faith marriages ] (Coomi Kapoor)
+ Muscling In (Editorial, The Telegraph)
[6] India: Should BJP be derecognized? (Ram Puniyani)
[7] India: In The Name of Faith (Yoginder Sikand)
[8] India: Report on All India Secular Forum
Convention, in Bhopal (Newsletter AISF)
[9] Upcoming Events:
Protest against religious extremism (Karachi, 19th April , 2007)
____
[1] CAMPUS ORGANIZATION LINKED TO THE HINDU FAR RIGHT IN THE US AND INDIA
The "Hindu Students Council" which operates on
many US University campuses is the subject of a
new report by the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate.
The whole report is available at:
http://hsctruthout.stopfundinghate.org
from Prologue:
"The Hindu Students Council (HSC) is a North
America based organization that publicly claims
to provide a space to learn about Hindu heritage
and culture and draws its membership primarily
from the Indian American student community. HSC
is headquartered in Houston, Texas, and is
registered as a non-profit, tax-exempt
organization. On its website (www.hscnet.org),
HSC claims to have more than 75 chapters, most of
them located on university campuses across the
United States and Canada. The website also states
that HSC was formed to assist Hindu students in
their spiritual, emotional, and identity needs,
including sorting out confusions and alienation
arising from being brought up Hindu in a
predominantly Judeo-Christian culture. Many
Indian American youth join HSC chapter on their
campus and participate in its activities because
of HSC's claim to be a cultural and spiritual
organization providing an independent, apolitical
space to learn about Hinduism through activities,
such as celebration of Hindu festivals,
discussion of sacred texts, religious rituals and
community service (see
www.hscnet.org/aboutus.php).
This report challenges the above claims of HSC
and provides comprehensive evidence to the
contrary. It documents the findings of an
investigation into the history, organization, and
political links of HSC and demonstrates that it
is part of the Sangh Parivar (literally, the
Sangh Family), the extended network of affiliates
of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the
creators of Hindutva.1 These findings sharply
contradict the public face HSC presents in the
U.S. as a spiritual and religious body. The
information presented in this report locates and
documents the origins and institutional links of
HSC, and throws light on the concealed purpose
behind the creation of such an organization. This
report shows that HSC has deep-rooted connections
- institutional, personal, and political - with
the Sangh Parivar."
[CSFH is a collective of academics and
professionals who work on monitoring the
fundraising activities of the Hindutva movement
in the U.S. See
http://stopfundinghate.org/resources/FAQ.htm for
more details.]
o o o
Campaign to Stop Funding Hate
17362 Boston Road, Hayward, CA 94541 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Campus Hindu Organization Conclusively Linked to the Sangh Parivar
in North America and India
"Desi-American Students Deceived by the Hindu Student Council"
says New Report
For More Info call 512 786 1862 or 917 232 8437 or email:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
New York , Friday, April 13, 2007: The Campaign
to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) will release a new
report, Lying Religiously: The Hindu Students
Council and the Politics of Deception, on Sunday,
April 15, 2007. The report brings together
evidence from multiple sources to demonstrate a
web of connections between the Hindu Students
Council (HSC) and the violent, hindu ultra-right
Sangh Parivar, and exposes the deliberate
efforts of the HSC leadership to conceal its
links with the Sangh Parivar in order to deceive
Hindu-American college students. The report
provides the first comprehensive documentation of
the origins, methods and practices of the HSC.
Similar to " The Foreign Exchange of Hate," the
2003 report documenting the flow of money from
the United States into the coffers of the Sangh
Parivar in India, almost all of the documentation
used to construct the current report comes from
the archives of the HSC itself and from the
publications of the Sangh Parivar in North
America and elsewhere. Starting with the origin
of the HSC in 1991, when Ajay Shah, the first
president of the HSC, proudly declared that the
HSC was part of the VHP of America, the report
documents the rise of early HSC leaders into the
ranks of Sangh Parivar leadership in North
America, the detailed family connections between
a significant section of the HSC leadership and
the Sangh Parivar, and the central role played by
the HSC in the creation and maintenance of the
Sangh Parivar's internet infrastructure,
including the web infrastructure of the Sangh
Parivar's parent organization, the RSS.
"Most of the young desi Americans who join the
HSC have no clue as to the connections between
the HSC and the militant and violent Hindu right
wing in India" says Samip Mallick, one of the
campaign coordinators for CSFH. "We fully support
the creation and existence of Hindu student
organizations on college campuses, but we are
unable to condone the Hindu Student Council's
continued misleading of college students
regarding its ties to the Sangh Parivar," he
continued. With the launch of the report, CSFH
announces its six-month " Truth Out on HSCs"
information campaign aimed at informing every
desi American student of the two-faced methods of
the HSC and the Sangh Parivar.
The report will be released on Sunday, April 15
at 3:30 PM at a press conference hosted by the
Youth Solidarity Summer at 451 West Street (@
Bank), New York, NY 10014. For more information
on the press conference write to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or call 917 232 8437.
Summary and full versions of the report will be
available at the press conference. The report
will also be available online at
www.stopfundinghate.org after 3 PM on Sunday
April 15.
end-
--------
LYING RELIGIOUSLY:
THE HINDU STUDENTS COUNCIL AND THE POLITICS OF DECEPTION
A report by Campaign to stop funding hate (15 April 2007)
Table of Contents:
* PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1: THE PUBLIC FAÇADE OF THE HINDU STUDENTS COUNCIL
o 1.1 "LIBERAL" HINDUISM?
o 1.2 SOME REASONABLE CONCLUSIONS
* CHAPTER 2: THE HIDDEN BODY
o 2.1 OF WELL-DEFINED LINEAGE
+ 2.1.1 The Birth of HSC
+ 2.1.2 Entanglements Without Escape
o 2.2 DECEPTIVE "FREEDOM"
+ 2.2.1 A Façade of Autonomy?
+ 2.2.2 Crisis, Celebration and Unity
o 2.3 HSC LEADERSHIP: A GROOMING SPACE?
+ 2.3.1 Early Leaders, Later Patriarchs
+ 2.3.2 All in the Family
o 2.4 INCOMPLETE ERASURES: FLIPPING THE LOOKING GLASS
+ 2.4.1 HSC Ten Years Later: Still Very Much a VHPA Project
+ 2.4.2 Fundraising and Networking
+ 2.4.3 HSC's Role in Building Sangh Electronic Infrastructure
* CHAPTER 3: CONCLUSION - HSC AS A FULL MEMBER OF THE SANGH
o 3.1 THE ELECTRONIC INFRASTRUCTURE
o 3.2 THE REALIGNED INSTITUTIONS
* APPENDIX A: KEY TO THE IP MAP
o SECTION 1 - CATEGORIZED BY TYPE OF ORGANIZATION AND/OR AFFILIATION
o SECTION 2 - LIST OF SELECTED SANGH
WEBSITES ON THIS NETWORK WITH BRIEF DESCRIPTION
OF THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
o SECTION 3 - FULL LIST OF WEBSITES ON THE HINDUNET NETWORK
* APPENDIX B: RASHTRIYA SWAYAMSEVAK SANGH: A PRIMER
o ORIGINS & IDEOLOGY
o THE SANGH AND VIOLENCE
o THE INSTITUTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF HINDUTVA
* APPENDIX C: THE SANGH ON DHARMA, CASTE, GENDER AND SEXUALITY
o DHARMA: ANOTHER WORD TO UNIVERSALIZE HINDUTVA
+ Step One: Approaching a Concept That Sounds Universal
+ Step Two: Owning the Universal
+ Step Three: Universalizing Hindutva
o CASTE AND THE HINDUTVA MOVEMENT
+ The Sangh and Caste - 1925-1980
+ Post-1980s Hindutva: A New Approach to Caste?
o SANGH AND WOMEN
+ Role of Women in Hindu Society
+ HSCs and Women
+ The Sangh's Position on Feminism
+ The Coming of the Muslims
o SANGH ON FAMILY AND SEXUALITY
+ Notions of love and marriage:
Attacks on Valentine's Day celebrations
+ Homosexuality as an abnormality/disability
+ Evils of Hindu society: the
attacks on Deepa Mehta's film 'Water'
© THE CAMPAIGN TO STOP FUNDING HATE
o o o
Download pdf version of Lying Religiously (751Kb)
http://hsctruthout.stopfundinghate.org/pdf/HSC_Report.pdf
_______
[2]
The Guardian
April 11, 2007
NET LOSSES
While Pakistan encourages foreign trawlers to
fish in its seas, its traditional fishing
communities are facing ruin. Now there are
warnings that other countries are being pressured
to follow its lead. Annie Kelly reports
There is an old proverb, beloved of fisherfolk in
Pakistan, that says when all else fails the sea
will provide. Now, after centuries of surviving
on fish such as the tuna and shrimp that thrive
in Pakistan's coastal waters, many traditional
fishing communities are facing ruin as the sea is
stripped bare by foreign trawler fleets and
industrial overfishing.
According to trade campaigners, it is a story
that is being replicated in poor fishing
communities in developing countries across the
world. And as the current round of World Trade
Organisation (WTO) negotiations splutter back to
life, the demise of Pakistan's fishing
communities is being held up as a warning of the
impact that the moves to further liberalise
global fishing could have on some of the world's
most deprived communities.
Article continues
The Pakistani Maritime Security Agency (MSA),
which polices fishing along Pakistan's coastline,
says there are currently 23 mid-size trawling
boats and 21 trans-national trawlers operating
with licences in Pakistani waters.
Local fishermen in Ibrahim Hydri, a small fishing
town in the sparse Sindh coastal province, unload
their fishing boats just yards from half-a-dozen
trawlers with Chinese insignia in the town
harbour. Many dispute the official figures,
insisting that around 100 foreign ships have been
spotted in local waters in the last 12 months.
"Since the government has let these foreign ships
into our waters, our stocks have depleted and
there is nothing left," says local fisherman
Abbas Ali. "For hundreds of years, our
forefathers have fished these waters, but our
children are going to end up beggars."
He says the town's small wooden fishing boats are
no match for the trawlers. "It's like trying to
race a truck with a bicycle," he says. "In just a
few years, these people have come here, destroyed
the sea, and stolen our livelihoods from us."
In recent years, Pakistan has steadily been
stepping up its efforts to exploit what it terms
the "untapped potential" of its fish stock. In
1982, the government opened its waters to
international fishing fleets, and in 2003-04
alone more than 90,255 tonnes of fish and fishery
products were exported from Pakistan, to
countries including the UK, Japan and Sri Lanka.
Pakistan's 2001 deep-sea policy set out a plan to
further increase foreign exchange earnings from
the increased export of fisheries and fishing
products. The same policy relaxed regulations
that restricted trawler activity to a zone
35km-200km from shore after pressure from
"friendly" trading partners, such as China and
Taiwan. Licensed medium-sized trawlers are now
allowed to fish 20km from shore, an area
previously reserved exclusively to protect the
livelihood of local fisherfolk.
Men scrubbing down their boats at Ibrahim Hydri
say the impact trawling and overfishing has had
on their livelihoods and on the marine
environment has been devastating. They estimate
that the daily catch has declined by 70%-80% in
the last decade. Five years ago, it took Ali 36
hours to catch 1,000kg of fish that fed and
supported his family. Now he and seven other men
return after 15 days at sea with a catch that
weighs in at just under 500kg.
As he hauls his nets to shore, Ali reels off the
names of more than a dozen fish species no longer
found in the surrounding waters. Reports by the
Pakistani Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), a environmental
campaigning group set up to protect the rights of
local fishing communities, says more than 50% of
local marine species have been almost wiped out
by intensive fishing of Pakistan's sovereign
waters.
According to its research, only 10% of the fish
caught by the trawlers' nets can be sold on the
international markets, leading to the other 90%
being pumped back into the sea and increasing
marine pollution in shallow waters.
"Tonnes of fish that could have been used to
sustain the livelihoods of local fisherman have
been needlessly destroyed through foreign
trawling," says Mohammad Ali Shah, chairman of
PFF. Foreign trawlers, he says, are the "last
straw" for fishermen who have seen their
livelihoods destroyed in the name of progress.
Pollution from the trawlers joins 300 million
gallons of urban sewage and 270 tonnes of
industrial waste that is pumped into the sea from
multiple channels every day. Dams and barrages
built with World Bank loans along the delta of
the Indus, Pakistan's longest river, have starved
marine channels of fresh water, resulting in many
inland fishing communities migrating to the
coastal waters in search of fish. Pollution and
over-population have contributed to the demise of
the mangroves that provided breeding grounds for
shrimps that previously provided the backbone for
much of the local economy.
There is repeated criticism from environmental
campaigners that, despite pressure from the UN's
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Pakistan
has yet to undertake an up-to-date fish stock
survey. This means that licences to foreign
trawling fleets could be issued without the
government having a clear idea of how many fish
are left in Pakistan's waters.
In a new report, entitled Taking the Fish,
ActionAid, one of the international
non-governmental organisations working with PFF,
says the exploitation of Pakistan's marine
environment is being done with no regard for the
environmental or social impact on communities or
resources. It is now calling on Pakistan's
government to ban foreign trawlers and
institutionalise in its fishing policy the FAO's
code of conduct for responsible fisheries.
Moazzam Khan, deputy director of the Marine
Fisheries Department (MFD) in Karachi, admits
that Pakistan's fish stocks are fast depleting,
but insists that the government has not issued
licences to foreign trawlers since 2005, saying
that the declining fish stock and rising fuel
prices have made it uneconomical for foreign
fleets to operate in Pakistan's waters. "We
always heavily regulated the trawling activity,"
he says. "Although we are in talks about issuing
further licences, we would not do so without
assurances from the trawlers that they would fish
in a sustainable manner."
Khan believes the real problem lies in the
growing number of people entering the fishing
industry, and says the government is planning to
institute no-fishing zones in an attempt to help
stocks recover.
But many fishermen dismiss the government's
claims, saying they have never been visited by
anyone from the MFD, and that they have seen no
evidence of any moves to regulate fishing. "The
government has no idea what is happening here,"
says Mohammad Ali, a fisherman living in a
makeshift tarpaulin hut in the village of Dabla
Mohalla Rarri, a fishing community 15km from
Ibrahim Hydri.
"There are many trawlers operating illegally in
our waters. They stay away when the MSA comes,
but when it leaves they come back. They come in
so close they are nearly colliding with our
fishing boats."
Trade campaigners argue that even though
three-quarters of the world's fish stocks are
deemed to be fully exploited, countries including
those in the EU, and the US and Japan, continue
to subsidise their fishing industries by an
estimated $6.3bn (£3.2bn) a year.
On top of this, the current round of WTO
negotiations on subsidies and non-agricultural
market access could lead to an elimination or
significant reduction of all tariffs in the fish
and fish products sector. Already five WTO
members, including Brazil and India, have made
offers to liberalise parts of their fishing
services.
Alex Wijeratna, author of Taking the Fish, and
trade policy campaigner at ActionAid UK, says
that since Pakistan joined the WTO in 1995 it has
independently pursued a significantly more
liberalised fish trade regime.
"If what is happening to poor fishing communities
in Pakistan is already happening through
bilateral trading agreements outside the WTO, we
can only imagine the global impact it would have
if liberalisation is locked in by the WTO,"
Wijeratna says. "It's nothing short of mad
short-termism."
In Ibrahim Hydri, there is growing anger about
the loss of its traditional livelihood. The
community claims it has been duped by false
promises of financial assistance, and that no
effort has been made to provide alternative
livelihoods. "We are not against development, but
what is happening here is not development - we
are going backwards," says Shah.
· More information at actionaid.org.uk/takingthefish
_______
[3]
SAAHIL BACAHO - SAVE KARACHI'S BEACHES - PETITION
http://www.petitiononline.com/KHIBEACH/petition.html
TEXT OF SAAHIL BACHAO PETITION:
To: City District Government - Karachi
"The entire beach and its back waters from
Hawksbay to Manora is to be developed as real
estate. The Hawksbay Sandspit area as Sugar Land
City and the Manora ridge as a 20 storey five
star hotel. Manora is to be linked to Keamari
with a bridge and the development is to continue
along the coast upto the golf club. There is
nothing wrong with development but this will
deprive millions of Karachiites and people from
outside of Karachi, who visit the beach for
recreational and entertainment purposes, access
to the bach. I feel the Karachi "elite" must do
something about this. " - Arif Hasan, Architect
WE, THE CITIZENS GROUP OF KARACHI FOR
PROTECTION OF THE BEACH FRONT DEMAND AN END TO
DHA's BEACH DEVELOPMENT PLAN:
1. We, the undersigned citizens of Karachi
oppose DHA's Beach Development Plan and demand an
immediate end to its implementation as it
prevents the common person's free access to the
beach, contravenes the law, and will cause
immense environmental damage.
2. Land grabbers have planned to deprive once
again the citizens of Pakistan, of their only sea
front asset shared by millions of citizens. Their
Development Plan consists of developing the area
between the coastal road and the sea which at
present is mostly undeveloped making access to
the Beach possible. This development plan
consists of seven zones in the 14 km strip
between MacDonald's and Creek Club.
3. All 14 kilometres of beach will eventually
consist of commercial complexes, office blocks,
multi-storey car parks, posh restaurants,
amusement and theme parks (for which an entrance
fee will be charged), a tramway track along the
beach (whose fare has been estimates at Rs. 90
per trip, an expo centre complex, vocational
dwellings, elite clubs, expensive hotels,
high-rise condominiums, a water sports stadium,
and a marina.
4. This development will destroy the natural
environment of the coast and will make almost the
entire beach inaccessible to the citizens of
Pakistan, especially to the low and lower middle
income communities who will not be able to afford
the cost of the expensive entertainment being
proposed and will be excluded simply by the
nature of developments that are to be implemented
5. No one can take away the right of the
citizens of Pakistan to access their beach. Under
international and domestic law, the beach area is
for public use and everyone, regardless of
income, has the right to free access to the beach
without obstacles or interference. This is a
principle enshrined in the public trust doctrine.
6. We strongly oppose a development plan that
will finish off the only natural multi-class
recreational space available to Karachites and as
a result will further socially fragment an
already fragmented city. The beach is a public
spot we share with the many hundreds of thousands
of our countrymen who visit Clifton Beach every
week and belong to all classes and ethnic groups.
A plan that shuts out a majority of Pakistan's
population is unacceptable.
7. We have already seen the "gentrification"
of the beach by the imposition of a fee of Rs 10
per person as entry to Beach front Park. This
Park controls access to the beach and therefore
prevents low and lower middle income citizens
from enjoying the beach. We can not allow any
further such developments.
8. We are not against theme parks, marinas,
expo centres and expensive hotels and
condominiums, but it is our considered opinion
that for environmental and social reasons the
area between the coastal road and the high water
mark should be unencroached, construction free
and accessible to the public free of cost as is
the case in other South and South-East Asian
countries and in the developed world.
9. The Karachi Coastal Management Plan,
prepared in 1989 by the KDA Master Plan
Department with UN assistance, as part of the
Karachi Development Plan 2000, had recommended a
50 metre construction free accessible zone beyond
the high water mark. We feel that this Coastal
Management Plan should be followed.
10. As children we have had free and
unrestricted access to Clifton Beach as did our
parents. Our children (in some cases our grand
children) should also enjoy the same benefit.
11. We derive strength from the fact that
4,665 persons belonging to 73 CBOs and NGOs from
all over Pakistan and individuals belonging to 89
low and lower middle income areas of Karachi have
supported concerns of the Sahil Bachao Movement
whose concerns are similar to ours.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
______
[4]
The Economist
April 4th 2007
Kashmir
Time to go
INDIA'S HUGE MILITARY PRESENCE IN KASHMIR DOES FAR MORE HARM THAN GOOD
LOOK at the houseboats lolling on the placid
waters of the Dal Lake in Srinagar, summer
capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, and it is
hard to remember that this is still a war-zone of
sorts. An insurgency against Indian rule has
dragged on for 17 years and still claims an
average of three lives each day. At intervals
around the lake stand sentries bearing rifles,
some of the estimated 600,000 soldiers and
paramilitary police India has stationed in its
state of Jammu & Kashmir. A debate has been
raging in both Kashmir and Delhi about whether
such a massive military presence is a good idea.
It is not, and it is encouraging that prime
minister Manmohan Singh, , has not ruled out
"demilitarisation" of the state. But it is
depressing that, instead of running with this
ball, he has kicked it into the long grass:
consideration by committees of experts.
There are at least three good reasons for cutting
troop levels in Kashmir. First, present numbers
are not needed. It is too late for the army to
offer protection to the 300,000 Hindus displaced
in the Muslim-majority state. And a ceasefire
along the "line of control" that, in the absence
of an agreed international border, separates
Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani-controlled
part, has been largely honoured for more than
three years. Infiltration of militants from
Pakistani-held Kashmir has tapered off. It does
when winter snow blocks the mountain passes. But
an Indian-built fence and a tighter Pakistani
rein on the jihadist groups on its side of the
line are also making a difference. The number of
militants fighting Indian rule has dwindled to
perhaps 1,000-1,200. At best, the Indian military
presence is disproportionate.
Withdrawing soldiers would be hugely popular in
Kashmir, where alienation from Indian rule runs
deep. The demand for demilitarisation comes not
just from separatists who boycott Indian-run
state elections, but also from mainstream
political parties that contest and win them. Many
in Kashmir resent and fear the militants; but
most feel the same about the army. When it was
revealed earlier this year that, in order to
boost their chances of promotion, Indian soldiers
had been executing innocent civilians and
claiming they were militants, the reaction was
one of fury, but not of surprise. Hundreds of
Kashmiris-thousands, say some human-rights
activists-have vanished, into what many assume
are the clutches of the security forces. The
withdrawal of the army would be widely seen not
as the removal of a protective shield, but as the
lifting of an oppressive curse.
Third, withdrawing troops from Kashmir would be a
great boost to the painstaking rapprochement
between India and Pakistan. As Pakistan's prime
minister, Shaukat Aziz, repeated at a regional
summit in Delhi last week, a settlement in
Kashmir is "the cornerstone of a sustainable,
expanded relationship". It is also, if the leaks
from back-channel contacts between the two
countries are to be believed, tantalisingly
close. Their positions, informally at least, are
converging on a solution not so different from
the status quo. India would drop its claim to the
Pakistani-held part of Kashmir. Pakistan would
make the far harder concession, dropping both its
claim to Indian-held Kashmir and its demand for a
plebiscite on the territory's future. This would
be very like a Pakistani admission of defeat.
Turning the Kashmir Valley into something less
like a land under Indian military occupation
would go a long way towards smoothing out that
dent in Pakistan's pride.
© The Economist Newspaper Limited 2007
______
[5]
Indian Express
April 18, 2007
ACT OF VIGILANTISM
When the law for inter-faith marriages is so
reluctant, how can the government fight orthodoxy?
by Coomi Kapoor
The recent marriage of a Sindhi girl with a
Muslim boy against the wishes of their families
has created a storm in Bhopal. The Sindhi
panchayat pronounced a fatwa which would do the
Taliban proud. The nervous Muslims of Madhya
Pradesh are treading on eggshells. The secretary
of the Majlis-e-Shura emphasised that when the
couple came to the Shura for the girl to convert
they were turned away, and he advised the boy,
who had converted to Hinduism, to remain loyal to
his new faith.
Earlier this week Surat was brought to a
standstill because of a bandh called to protest a
Hindu trader's daughter fleeing to Bombay with
her Muslim lover. The Star News television
channel which acted as saviour to the beleaguered
couple - less, one suspects, due to altruism than
an attempt to hike its viewership rating -
attracted the ire of vigilantes. Lathi-wielding
members of a group styling itself as the Hindu
Rashtra Sena went on a rampage, ransacked the
channel's office, beat up employees and generally
created mayhem.
In a conservative society like ours mixed
marriages generally raise hackles and bring out
society's bestial side. Primeval passions are
aroused when people are led to believe that one
religion is asserting hegemony over another.
Every now and then one reads about eloping
couples who opt for conversion in order get
married, leading to heightened communal tensions.
The way it works in our country is that if a
marriage has to be solemnised speedily and
without red tape, both bride and groom have to be
of the same religion. Conversion is an easy way
out. At times, for convenience, both even convert
to a third religion.
So why don't couples from different religions
apply to get married under the Special Marriage
Act 1954, which was specifically drafted with
people like them in mind? I am something of an
expert on the way the legislation works, having
gone through the cumbersome procedure twice for
my two daughters, who chose partners from
different faiths. Even in the national capital,
the act is administered in a manner so that as
many obstacles as possible are placed in the way.
You either end up hiring a lawyer familiar with
the working of the marriage office or muster
enough determination, time and patience to go
through the lengthy rigmarole.
Just a few months back a JNU professor swore to
me proudly that his daughter would be married
only under the act - although she and her fiancé
were both Hindus, they did not believe in
religious ritual. After a few trips to the
marriage office in South Delhi, and his
enthusiasm for a secular ceremony waned. The
couple got married with the traditional Hindu
rites.
At the marriage offices in Delhi it is usually
the clerks who interpret the law since they have
been at the desk much longer than the young IAS
officers who are additional district magistrates
and burdened with numerous other duties, from
riot control to elections. The trick in getting
your way is not to be intimidated by the clerk,
but to out-shout and out-reason him, quoting the
relevant law. When I presented the forms of my
would-be son-in-law, duly filled out and attested
by the New York consul general's office, I was
told they would have to be sent back and attested
by a notary in New York. My daughter quoted the
law - I still have no idea whether correctly or
incorrectly - to say it was illegal for an Indian
document to be attested in a foreign country. The
clerk, who spoon-fed the officer, struck a
compromise allowing the forms to be attested by
the notary public on the pavement outside. For a
fee, the notary made no fuss about attesting a
document datelined New York when she had not even
seen the face of the signatory. A retired senior
diplomat's wife was less fortunate. She was
informed firmly that she would have to fly her
daughter and her foreign fiancé to India a month
prior to the wedding to complete the formalities.
In addition, the fiancé had to procure an
affidavit from his embassy to confirm that he had
not been married previously.
When applying for permission to get married under
the act, you have to work against a deadline, so
that the considerable paper work is completed in
at least a month, and not more than three months,
before the scheduled date of the wedding. Be
prepared to be scrutinised and sneered at by
sceptical clerks and marriage officers who
believe that there has to be something dubious
about your intentions or you would not be in
their office in the first place. A colleague
recalls how minutes before her wedding the
marriage officer called her aside, bolted the
door and told her she was making a terrible
mistake. He laboured under the delusion that his
role was that of a marriage counselor, not a
marriage officer. When I presented my daughter's
fiancé's documents with the column for religion
left blank, the marriage officer took great
offence and snapped that he had never heard of
anyone doing such a thing in all his years.
One of the most retrograde provisions of the act
is the column enquiring about religious
affiliation. Since the entire form - with
addresses, photographs and religious affiliation
of the couple - is pinned on the notice board for
a month, couples from different religions become
easy prey for fundamentalist outfits who
demonstrate outside their homes shouting slogans.
The need for publicising the details a month in
advance is so that anyone can voice objection to
the marriage. In contrast, for a religious
ceremony no notice whatsoever is required. And no
elementary verification is considered necessary
of the pundits, maulvis and granthis who
officiate. The provision (19) in the Special
Marriage Act, which states that those who marry
under it, whether Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist or Jain,
will effectively be severed from their families,
implies that they are to be penalised for
marrying outside their religion.
Bigotry and religious prejudice can be eradicated
from society only when the government leads the
way. But when the guardians of the law themselves
have ambivalent feelings on the subject, is it
any wonder that eloping couples almost invariably
keep their distance from the marriage office and
the Special Marriage Act?
o o o
The Telegraph
18 April 2007
Editorial
MUSCLING IN
The more India changes, the more it remains the
same. Days after the media expounded on the
changing face of the country by highlighting the
increase in inter-community marriages - and, in
the course of it, extolling young people's
newly-acquired confidence in exercising their
right of choice - conservative India hit back
hard. The Star News office in Mumbai was badly
damaged and its employees heckled for bringing to
light the travails of a minor Hindu girl from
Surat and her Muslim lover. The two had fled
their neighbourhood and arrived in Mumbai. Like
scores of others who defy religious strictures
and the rigid, unwritten codes of social
behaviour to follow their heart, the two risk
losing their lives. It may even be argued that it
is their brief moment of fame that has earned
them a temporary reprieve. Elsewhere in India,
couples are burnt or butchered for the same
crime, without the nation batting an eyelid. The
news channel, which intended to tell the tale of
this victimhood, has been accused of "glorifying"
transgressive behaviour. Such a blame may as well
be apportioned to the judiciary, which regularly
solemnizes inter-caste and inter-community
marriages. It has done so recently in Bhopal,
which is fast becoming the storm centre of
another conservative backlash.
The juvenility at display in the attack on Star
News betrays a cardinal truth about India -its
refusal to grow up. The young are considered to
be old enough to choose between brands, but they
are never seen to grow into their right to choose
their life-partners, especially from among those
who belong to a different class, caste or
community. The venom of the traditionalists,
presently directed against Muslims, flows equally
when caste-or class-divides are broken within the
Hindu community itself. And just as in several of
the present cases, the police and the State's
other organs for dispensing justice become
acquiescing parties to the zeal of society's
self-appointed moral guardians. It is not without
reason that the little-known Hindu Rashtra Sena
wields the same muscle in such matters as the
Shiv Sena or Vishwa Hindu Parishad does while
flailing against the perceived threat to the
other endangered Indian virtues. The media have
little to defend themselves against this
hooliganism. Nor do those Indians who do not wish
to stand by such bigotry.
______
[6]
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/04/should-bjp-be-derecognized.html
Communalism Watch,
18 April 2007
SHOULD BJP BE DERECOGNIZED?
by Ram Puniyani
Election Commission is in the process of hearing
(April 2007) the response of BJP leadership to
the compliant filed by V.P. Singh about the
communal CD released by BJP state leadership,
Lalji Tandon and others. Election Commission has
asked as to why BJP should not be derecognized?
The clauses which it can attract are 153A, 153B
and 505 of the Indian Penal Code, and Clauses (3)
and (3A) of Section 123 and Section 125 of the
Representation of the People Act, 1951. The pack
of CDs is titled Bharat ki Pukar. The TV Channels
showed prominently the release of the same by BJP
leadership and also the interview of the CD maker
who said that he was given the theme around which
he developed the script.
In nutshell the CD contains the demonization of
Muslims in the most blatant fashion. All the
myths which RSS combine has been spreading about
the Muslim minority are scripted in this, in the
most glaring form. These myths pertain to Muslims
loyalty to Pakistan, they killing cow, who is
'mother' of Hindus, they being terrorists, and
producing litters of dogs, threatening to convert
this Hindu nation into Islamic state. It goes on
to repeat the scenes of Babri demolition and
Godhra violence, projects Muslim as the uniform
monolith. It contains material which states that
integrity of Muslims is suspect, Muslim youth are
behind elopement of Hindu girls, and in this they
get support from their parents and clerics. Hindu
girls are then forced to convert to Islam,
Madrassa teachers are engaged in anti national
activities, if Muslims have first right to
resources, then what should Hindus do? Each and
every myth has been showed to be false to the
core, and acts to polarize the communities along
religious lines. BJP is resorting to this
divisive politics, after a gap of some time. In
some previous elections like the one in MP,
Rajasthan 'development' was projected as the
issue of some consequence. In UP the blatant
communal tool is being used to the hilt. One
recalls there are nearly three methods along
which the RSS vote bank has been consolidated.
The first one is the propaganda through its
shakhas which began with its formation in 1925
and went on rising slowly first, and
exponentially later. Its infiltration in the
media and educational arena strengthened the same
to higher order. The second one, which began
around violence of Jabalpur, Meerut, Malayana and
Bhaglapur was implementation of what was being
propagated, the violence. Most of the inquiry
commission reports, Jagmohan Reddy, Vithyathil,
Bhagalpur, Madon, and Shrikrishna have
demonstrated the hand of RSS progeny or affiliate
in planning and executing the violence. The
analysis shows the rise in the electoral support
of RSS electoral wing in these areas in the
aftermath of violence. Later came in the massive,
large scale violence, more like genocide or
pogrom, in the aftermath of Babri demolition and
then post Godhra Gujarat genocide. The latter
pogroms were able to raise the level of
communalization many notches higher and their
impact was in the country as a whole.
Whenever these pogroms are organized, the level
of communalization of minds goes so high that it
is difficult to respond to them by facts, reason
and logic. The type of communalization is mixed
with emotive appeal. The biggest success of RSS
propaganda has been to 'successfully' instill the
fear in the minds of section of majority
community from the community which not only is
very low in the scale of social and economic
scales but itself has been gripped by phobia, and
forced to ghettoize.
The 'success' of RSS strategy in splitting the
country along religious lines is very visible
lately with the rise in ghettoization in
different cities across the country. The work of
RSS shakhas has been outsourced to a large
section of media, and different state run
schemes, more so after the BJP was in power in
the center for six long years and also in the
states ruled by BJP governments, which
essentially are the conduits for RSS shakha
program and propaganda.
It goes without saying that BJP gave varied
response to the notice by the Election
commission. While some sections of leadership
said there is nothing wrong in what the CD
contains, the official line adopted by the
leadership with the Election Commission was to
disown the CD. It was said that some fringe
elements produced and distributed and the
'responsible' top leadership has nothing to do
with it. And that now it is being withdrawn.
Where does one place the likes of Lalji Tandon in
this scheme of things, Fringe element or a
mainline leader? BJP is capable of dumping its
leaders for the sake of long term goal. This line
of defense continues to say that since the CD has
been withdrawn, where is the case for action
against the party? It wants others to believe
that there are no duplicate CDs being distributed
in lakhs if not more. Also to back up the
material contained in CD, one advertisement
endorsed with BJP symbol has come to light and
that openly talks of anti Muslim sentiments.
It is more than clear that BJP wants to spread
hate to consolidate its vote bank, without
inviting censure of the due process of law. There
is nothing surprising about that. BJP knows that
it cannot come to power without the politics of
hate against weaker sections of society, the
religious minorities. Its 'glorious' run to power
has always been preceded by such hate propaganda.
It is very clear that only by pursuing identity
politics and by opposing affirmative action for
dalit, OBC and Muslims it can retain the support
base required for winning elections. Once the
elections are won than to use the existing
mechanisms to further drive a wedge between
people of different religious communities, to
break the concept of Fraternity (Community)
One is witnessing the wily 'genius' of communal
politics in full operation. After the Gujarat
carnage there is a definite change in its
strategy. It is now resorting to low intensity,
sustained, violence in different places. The
advantage of this is that it does not invite
serious reprimand from the official legal
mechanisms and social-world opinion at large.
Last two years we have seen the violence being
orchestrated in Mau, Indore and many other places
and to keep the issues like Baba Budan Giri on
the boil.
In a way the CD has just showed what BJP really
stands for. The withdrawal of CD and sacking of
the small fry who made the CD is just a face
saving devise, as that will just put the Hate
propaganda on 'vibrate/silent mode'. The response
of BJP Muslim Leaders Shahnawaj Hussein etc.
shows the mindset of those totally blinded by
power. He states that BJP is a secular party and
that this CD is an aberration, so the withdrawal
of CD and sacking of its maker is good enough.
Interestingly all the 'top' Muslim leadership of
BJP has Hindu wives! Don't they feel ashamed that
their own party is demonizing such inter
religious marriages by putting the blame on
Muslim youth? These Muslim leaders sitting in the
lap of BJP deliberately want to overlook that
this CD is merely an uncensored expression of
what BJP and its parent organization are doing
continuously. The propaganda is on any way.
Where does one go from here? Should Election
Commission accept the false explanation, which
BJP top brass is giving? The dissemination of the
CD will go on unabated and the violation of the
legal clauses will go on irrespective of what BJP
will state in its reply. Election Commission
needs to stand up and protect the clauses related
to people's representation act, by derecognizing
BJP, as such there are no other democratic
options.
In a democracy it is a difficult choice to
ban/derecognize parties or organizations. What
does one do with the organizations which pay lip
service to democracy but are tied to apron
strings of those organizations which stand
opposed to democracy and Indian constitution? It
is no secret that RSS chief just six years ago
called for scrapping of Indian constitution and
bringing in one based in India holy books. It is
no secret that RSS combine is working for Hindu
Nation. By implication though BJP takes oath for
preserving Indian constitution, it has no qualms
in violating the same when the time comes.
One also has to remember that Hitler also came to
power by using democratic means, by taking the
oath to preserve democratic constitution in
Germany. Once having come to power how he
abolished democracy and brought in fascism is a
history written with the blood of over a million
Germans. Will we learn from history, as to how to
nurture and protect the values of freedom
struggle, the values of Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity, (Community)? By constructing and
demonizing the 'other', this political stream is
breaking the concept of fraternity. One hopes we
have mechanisms to ensure that those parties
wedded to extra electoral non democratic outfits
are not permitted to be part of electoral
system.
_____
[7]
The Times of India
April 19, 2007
IN THE NAME OF FAITH
by Yoginder Sikand
At the theoretical level, religions are often
understood in strictly scripturalist terms.
Each religion comes to be regarded as a
self-contained, monolithic and neatly bounded
entity, completely apart, if not mutually opposed
to, other religions.
In contrast, lived religious traditions often
defy neat categorisations and allow for a
considerable sharing as well as blurring of
boundaries between religious communities.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of
the popular Sufi traditions in north India. Some
years before the demolition of the Babri masjid,
I visited Ayodhya on a project to document Sufi
traditions in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
By this time, Hindu right-wing forces had
established a strong foothold there. One of their
particular concerns was to erase all traces of
the centuries-old Muslim presence in the town.
Yet, the remnants of history spoke louder than
the shrill rhetoric of the Hindu supremacists.
Besides the Babri masjid and numerous old ancient
mosques that dotted Ayodhya were scores of Sufi
shrines, big and small, that testified to a rich
local tradition of popular religion that defied
the sternly Brahminical Hinduism that the
Hindutva forces were so ardently seeking to
impose on the country.
Muslims formed less than a tenth of the town's
population, and a sizeable number of those who
visited Ayodhya's Sufi shrines were Hindus.
This, of course, was not a unique phenomenon. All
across Uttar Pradesh, and, in most parts of
India, Hindus still flock to Sufi shrines in
large numbers, out of devotion to buried Muslim
saints and in the belief that they are able to
intervene with God to seek His blessings.
A number of Sufis made Ayodhya their centre for
spiritual teaching and instruction from as early
as the 12th century - much before Babar, as is
said by some, visited the town.
One of the first was Qazi Qidwatuddin Awadhi, who
came to Ayodhya from Central Asia. He is said to
have been a disciple of Hazrat Usman Haruni, the
spiritual preceptor of India's most famous Sufi
saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer.
Another great Muslim mystic of Ayodhya of
pre-Mughal times was Shaikh Jamal 'Gujjari', of
the Firdausiya Sufi order.
According to popular legend, the Shaikh would
regularly step out of his house carrying a large
pot of rice on his head, as the men of the Gujjar
milkmen caste did, which he would distribute
among the poor and the destitute of Ayodhya.
Ayodhya was home to a number of spiritual
successors of the renowned 14th century Sufi of
Delhi, Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya.
The most important of these was the famous Sufi
Shaikh Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dilli, who lies
buried in New Delhi.
Shaikh Nasiruddin was born in Ayodhya and at the
age of 40 left the town for Delhi to live with
Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya.
Yet, he would often return to Ayodhya to visit
his relatives, and made disciples who emerged as
great Sufis. These included people such as Shaikh
Zainuddin Ali Awadhi, Shaikh Fatehullah Awadhi
and Allama Kamaluddin Awadhi.
Ayodhya is also home to the shrine of a female
Sufi saint, Badi Bua or Badi Bibi, sister of
Shaikh Nasiruddin Chiragh-i Dilli.
She was particularly beautiful, but she remained
single throughout her life and devoted herself to
serving God and the poor. When she was asked why
she refused to marry she would answer, 'I only
love God and nothing else'.
She is said to have been greatly troubled by the
local clerics, perhaps because of her refusal to
marry.
The kotwal, the chief police officer of the town,
asked for Badi Bua's hand in marriage, saying
that he was in love with her eyes. Without a
moment's hesitation, so the story goes, she
plucked out her eyes and gave them to him.
The shocked Kotwal, realising that Badi Bua was
no ordinary woman, but a true devotee of God,
repented at once and begged her for mercy.
There is an attempt to erase from public memory
stories of these and other Sufis of the town, as
Hindu chauvinist forces cannot brook any
association of Hindus with Islam and Muslims.
There are now hardly any Muslims left in the
town, almost all of Ayodhya's Muslim families
having fled in the wake of the destruction of the
Babri masjid.
However, visible signs of centuries-old Muslim
presence continue to dot the town - crumbling
minarets of ancient mosques, neglected graveyards
rapidly slipping under a dense cover of weeds,
broken walls of what must have once been grand
Sufi lodges.
Some of these structures came down along with the
Babri mosque. In the violence, the dargahs of
Shah Muhammad Ibrahim, Bijli Shah Shahid, Makhdum
Shah Fatehullah, Sayyed Shah Muqaddas Quddus-i
Ruh and the Teen Darvesh, were attacked.
Today, some Sufi shrines still survive in
Ayodhya, continuing to be visited by local
devotees in search of solace.
Strikingly, and despite the almost total takeover
of the town by votaries of Hindutva, several of
them are carefully tended to by local Hindus,
particularly 'low' castes - a silent reminder of
a past now rapidly being forgotten and one that
perhaps can never be relived again.
The writer works with the Centre for Jawaharlal
Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
_____
[8]
(Excerpted from: Newsletter of All India Secular Forum
Vol.II, No.4, April 2007)
REPORT Of THE ALL INDIA SECULAR FORUM
National Convention, 18th March 2007 in AICUF Ashram in Bhopal.
The All India Secular Forum was set up to
preserve the plural character of our polity and
to confront the threat posed by sectarian
politics a need was felt by various human rights
groups to build a national forum, which could be
a platform for common campaigns and efforts, to
thwart the dangers posed by those imposing
sectarian politics in the garb of religion.
Mr. L S Hardenia spoke of the activities
of groups working on Secular Issues in Bhopal
which aimed at projection of secular ideology and
Principle of Secularism. Some of the activities
mentioned by him were Raksha Bandhan Samarohs
where Muslim children tied rakhees on Hindu
children. Condemning the activities such as the
Suryanamaskar, Jalabhishek, and the Upanayanam
Ceremony he said that they were instruments to
further divide the country and ought to be faced
with firm resistance.
Dr Engineer spoke on ' Communalism Today'.
He said that the political problem is that no
single party can rule in the Centre much less in
the States. Congress Secularism has weakened
since the 80s and the BJP has become strong in
the whole country. BJP feels that the only way to
resume power is to spread Communalism.
Communal forces are overactive where there is no
communal violence. It is in this interregnum when
there is no communal violence we should be
active to counter propaganda communalism. BJPs
control on education has become a medium of
spreading communalism today. He gave the example
of ' fascism is being the best solution'
mentioned in one of the history books This was in
violation of our constitution. He said that it
was a pity nothing much was being done about it.
He also criticized Mulayam Singh Yadav giving
two and half crore to VHP to hold Hindu Sammelan.
He questioned this act and said that in a
Sammelan where a resolution is passed that Ram
Mandir should be constructed how can money be
given?
He advised that we should now take our commitment
to secularism seriously. He urged the civil
society to come forward to strengthen secular
forces . He ended by narrating success
stories of the secular groups working all over.
Participants from various states then shared on the said topic.
Following future programs were planned
· To organize poster exhibitions which has
to be displayed from time to time. (this shall
include photographs of communal violence ,
appealing verses of Kabir etc)
· Intensive training programme for people
with good understanding. Target group to be 20
maximum. This will enable them to train other
cadets.
· Investigation of the communal violence to
be done objectively and impartially.
· To float a branch of the organization
· Promote value education in schools.
· Setting up of resource centers in as many groups as possible.
· Cultural groups to propagate Secularism
Secular Action
1. Perzania Screening in Gujarat
Anhad held a contest for Gujarat students, with
the theme whether Perzania, a feature film bases
on the true story during the Gujarat carnage,
should be screened in Gujarat or not. There was
an overwhelming response from amongst the youth,
calling for its screening. This is a strong
indictment of the rising intolerance amongst the
section of Gujarat community.
2. Peace and Conflict resolution Workshop
CSSS is holding a weeklong workshop on Peace and
conflict resolution workshop, in Raipur from 9th
to 15th April. Nearly 50 youth and others
including social workers and teachers have
registered for the same. These workshops a
regular feature of CSSS activity.
______
[9] EVENTS:
PROTEST AGAINST 'RELIGIOUS' EXTREMISM:
Venue: main gate - The Mazar-e-Quaid [Karachi] 4 Pm on 19th April , 2007
"Come and join a peaceful protest, organised by
WAF and JAC to say No to religious extremism."
Organised by Women's Action Forum (WAF) and Joint
Action Committee (JAC).
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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.
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