South Asia Citizens Wire | May 5-6, 2008 | Dispatch No. 2512 - Year 10 running
[1] Bangladesh: Fascists threaten mayhem against state policy on women
(i) Incitement for chaos : Govt must respond forcefully to
threats (Edit, The Daily Star)
(ii) A Contrived Controversy (Kajalie Shehreen Islam)
[2] Sri Lanka: Supreme Court bans eviction of Tamils from Colombo -
CPA welcome's the move
[3] Pakistan: Mob Solutions (I. A. Rehman)
[4] Sri Lanka: Supreme Court bans eviction of Tamils from Colombo (
[5] India: [The woman who used to say 'Goli Nahin, BoIi!' (Words,
Not Bullets !) ]
- Shanti, Nirmala Didi! (Beena Sarwar)
- Peace activists to immerse part Nirmala Deshpande's ashes in the Indus
[6] India: Meet Majaaz the Muslim - 'Urdu equals Muslims equals
mosques' (Jawed Naqvi)
[7] Human rights : Lessons from History (The Guardian)
[8] India: On Line Petition Against Water Wastage in Chennai to
Chief Minister, Government of Tamil Nadu
______
[1] Mullah's Threaten Bangladesh Over Women's Policy - Will the
authorities Act ?
(i)
The Daily Star
May 6, 2008 02:14 AM GMT+06:00
Editorial
INCITEMENT FOR CHAOS
GOVT MUST RESPOND FORCEFULLY TO THREATS
We are shocked and outraged that the leaders of the self-styled
Islamic Law Implementation Committee, headed by IOJ chief Fazlul Huq
Amini, would be so brazen and audacious as to throw a direct
challenge to the government of the day and to threaten the peace of
the nation if their agenda for withdrawing certain provisions of the
new 'Women Development Policy' is not enacted.
The only thing that would astonish us more would be if the government
failed to stand up to this blatant challenge to its authority and to
public order. Indeed, this is not the first time that Messrs Amini
and company have both threatened and fomented violence in order to
advance their dubious cause. So far, the government has treated them
with kid gloves. The result is that they have grown in their
impudence and audacity. The government must move against them
immediately and decisively if it does not wish to be seen as a mute
bystander and to run the risk of a social conflict that would
endanger the peace of the entire country.
The statements made by the committee leaders at the Engineers
Institute on Sunday were a direct threat to the nation and cannot go
unanswered. When speakers threaten to immobilise the nation, is it
not a threat to public order? When they vow to bring violent
demonstrations in the street, is it not a breach of the emergency
regulations? When they threaten violence if their narrow agenda is
not enacted, is it not a violation of all of our rights?
In fact, Mr. Amini went further still. His call to the armed forces
to withdraw their support for the government is tantamount to a call
for mutiny, and quite possibly could be considered seditious. Mr.
Amini has, in effect, incited violence and unrest with a view to
toppling the government. This is unacceptable and demands the
strongest possible response. No government can afford to tolerate
such contemptible and contemptuous behaviour.
In conclusion, we only point out the obvious that, as well as being
unlawful, the speakers' statements were also reprehensible. Who gives
them the right to speak on Islam as if they are the sole authority on
the beloved religion of the vast majority of Bangladeshis? That they
would dare to try to dignify their vile threats, incitement to
violence, and intimidation of the public in the name of this great
religion, makes their statements and conduct all the more
reprehensible.
(ii)
Star Weekend Magazine - The Daily Star
May 3, 2007 |
A CONTRIVED CONTROVERSY
by Kajalie Shehreen Islam
First violent protests and now a review committee's recommendations
brand the National Women Development Policy 2008 as "anti-Islamic".
But the controversy may be more political than religious, say legal
experts. Rights groups continue to demand cancellation of the
committee and implementation of the policy, but the government's
position does not seem to be clear either way.
The policy controversy continues. While women's rights activists are
pushing for the enactment and implementation of the much-awaited and
much-debated Women Development Policy 2008 announced on March 8, some
obscurantist groups continue their opposition to it using religion as
their basis. After some days of violence, they have been allowed by
the government to set up a committee to study the policy for clauses
that go against Islamic values. The committee, on April 17, came up
with 21 sections of the policy they deem to be against Muslim
religious sentiments and laws -- six of which they recommend should
be deleted and 15 others amended.
The ulema (Islamic scholars) committee has suggested that the terms
"equality" and "equal rights" for women in multiple sections of the
policy be replaced by "just rights" in light of the Quran and Sunnah
as interpreted by them. This applies to women's human rights and
fundamental freedoms, removing existing discrimination between women
and men, their equal rights in politics, administration and the
workplace, their socio-economic position, education, culture, sports
and family life. The committee has opposed the provision for a child
being identified by both the mother and father on the basis that this
will encourage sexual promiscuity and the fact that, in Islam,
children born out of wedlock are identified by the mother.
It has recommended that the provision require identification of
children by "legally married" parents. It has also proposed that the
phrase "child marriage" be done away with as, according to Islam, a
girl can be married as soon as she "comes of age" and the legal age
of 18 should not apply.
Students of Dhaka University form a human chain on campus demanding
establishment of women's rights. Photo: Zahedul I. Khan
Among the sections the committee has recommended should be cancelled
all together are sections 10.5, 10.6 and 10.7, which provide for the
increased participation of women in politics by reserving one-third
of parliamentary seats for them through direct election, and reserved
seats through direct election at the local government level. The
committee argues that such affirmative action goes against Islam,
democracy and the Constitution. It has also proposed the scrapping of
two provisions (6.2 and 6.3) by which women would be allowed to
participate in the establishment of peace and conflict resolution and
sent to peacekeeping missions abroad, saying that this would tarnish
the country's image. Finally, the committee has opposed section 3.2
of the policy which provides for the implementation of the Convention
on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) and proposed that Bangladesh withdraw from the treaty (signed
in 1984) all together as it is not in accordance with Islamic values,
spirit and culture.
According to lawyer and human rights activist Barrister Sara Hossain,
the objections made by the committee affect every aspect of women's
lives where they can make decisions for themselves. Some of the
objections, according to Hossain, are absurd. Child marriage, for
example, was abolished with a law passed in 1939. CEDAW was ratified
in 1984. "It would be absurd to retract from these now and reinvent
reservations about a law that was ratified 24 years ago," says
Hossain.
Women have proven themselves in every field including the
police and armed forces. The objections to the policy nullify
their achievements.
As for the committee's opposition to measures for increasing women's
political participation, she says it is neither unconstitutional nor
undemocratic. "Article 28(4) of the Constitution provides for
affirmative action," she says, "and this is not an ornamental
provision. Provisions are made in the Constitution on which measures
must be taken for their implementation. Quotas, reserved seats,
direct elections are a means for doing this in the case of political
participation."
"Though the policy is not law, it provides a way to interpret the
rights guaranteed in law," says Sara Hossain. "It contains the
commitments of the government and consequently frames government
action."
Hossain notes that for years there has been a consistent effort to
base the Constitution on Islam as the State religion, but no court
upholds this. "No court is going to rule for the cutting off of hands
or things of that sort. No one is protesting the bail issue as being
against Islamic law. Why should it apply only to women's rights?"
"The problem with saying 'just rights'," says Sara Hossain in
reference to the committee's proposals, "is that it is very
subjective. Who can determine what is just? 'Equal rights' have no
limitation."
Women at work -- at par -- with men.
Photo: Zahedul I. Khan
It is important to realise that these actions affect not only women
but a number of other relationships, says Hossain -- between women
and men, girls and boys, between classes, communities and religions.
"The Constitution is for everyone, and not everyone in Bangladesh is
Muslim and cannot be subjected to Muslim law. It will be absurd if
Muslim women are made to live under a certain set of laws while
Hindu, Christian or other women in the same country enjoy different
and, in some cases, even more rights."
According to Fahmida Farhana Khanam, coordinator of the women's
section of Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh, the Women Development Policy
2008 does not address the root cause of women's oppression, which,
she claims, is a capitalist system and the way women are viewed as
commodities and sex objects in such a system. Though unwilling to go
into the details of the policy and the objections raised against it,
saying that the ulemas know
Increasing women's participation in cultural activities is one of the
provisions of the policy. Photo: Zahedul I. Khan
better than her, Khanam notes that the section on women's equal
rights to movable and immovable property ultimately leads to
inheritance, for the latter is mainly inherited from parents. "Giving
women equal rights to this is going against Islamic law," says
Khanam, an architect by profession.
"The social system we live in, the laws that we have, have failed to
ensure the security and the existing rights of women, how will they
ensure even greater rights which are not even sanctioned by the Quran
in the first place, which were not and would not be needed in an
Islamic system where the equality of women was not even an issue
because, in Islam, women were always in a position of honour anyway.
What we need is not a policy but good governance, and this would be
ideal if in accordance with the rules of Islam."
The Quran, however, says that rulers must rule and make laws in
consultation with their people, says Yamin Chowdhury, a scholar of
the Holy Quran and a physics teacher by profession. "There can be
nothing more secular," says Chowdhury, "the Quran was the light of
secularism."
With regards to women's rights, says Chowdhury who has been studying
the Quran for many years, one must understand the social context in
which the Quran was revealed. "In pre-Islamic Arabia, girl children
were not valued. Women were bought and sold in the slave market. A
woman who could give her husband a son would become the favourite
wife and the others sold back in the market. Women were simply
commodities." During this time, says Chowdhury, women did not work,
they could not look after themselves and so the Quran put men in
charge of women. "Because they were responsible for their wives, men
would inherit more from their parents than women, who did not have to
look after their husbands. In the long run, it more or less balanced
out."
"Today, this inheritance law is meaningless," says Chowdhury. "Women
-- except for women in a transition period who are illiterate and
backward and cannot take care of themselves -- work and earn their
own living and do not depend on their husbands. Parents can decide
how they want to divide their property. The Quran does not say that
you cannot will otherwise."
Women garment workers constitute a large part of the labour force.
Photo: Zahedul I. Khan
With regard to marriage, says Chowdhury, the Quran never recommended
it before one was ready. "The material hazards had to be overcome
first, and men had to be financially stable and able to look after
their wives. Today we know that the hazards of marriage at a very
young age are many and the Quran would not recommend it."
As for women's participation in politics and peacekeeping missions,
says Chowdhury, we only have to look to the prophet's wife Ayesha who
mustered up an army of men to fight the existing ruler. "Women went
on the battlefield, nursing, cooking, even shooting arrows and
fighting when men fell short, never mind peacekeeping," says
Chowdhury.
Regarding the ratification of international treaties on women's
rights, Chowdhury says, "The liberation of women came from Islam. The
West was very anti-woman; the essence of these treaties came not from
the West but from Islam." So, obviously, ratifying these treaties
would not mean going against Islam.
Women's rights groups have been fighting for years for greater
political participation by increasing the number of reserved seats
through direct election for women. Photo: Star file
"The Quran has said that Allah wants good works from both men and
women," says Chowdhury. "There is no discrimination there. Thus men
and women are seen as equal."
"Islam recognises that reality is progressive," says Chowdhury. "The
Quran in many places talks about dawn or revolution, about
transformation. It stresses on rationality, asking people to apply
their conscience and not be superstitious. It is against all sorts of
inhibitions and develops free thinking."
Islam is an anti-ritualistic, anti-conservative religion, believes
Chowdhury. "The main theme of the Quran is not worldly life but
creation. Very little of it is dedicated to laws. This is what
bothers those who want to use religion to their own advantage," says
Chowdhury, "that there's nothing with which to control people."
Yamin Chowdhury believes that we must be wary of who, other than the
Quran, we follow. "The seal of prophethood in Islam is clear in
stating that no other human being will come as an authority after the
Prophet. Why should we believe or follow these or any other groups
who claim to be authorities on religion?" questions Chowdhury. "My
religion is my personal belief. The Quran states that there is no
compulsion in religion and that, henceforth, the right is clear from
the wrong. There is no scope to go running after anyone for religious
guidance. Whenever people turn to people for guidance, they are
exploited."
Seen in a broader context, however, the policy debate and the
motivations behind it are more complex than they seem. The sudden
formation of the review body with no representation from the main
stakeholders of the policy -- women -- and the absence of even the
Women and Children Affair's advisor on the board has brought the
committee itself into question. The violent protests against the
policy that took place at Baitul Mukarram on at least two Fridays
(and later in Chittagong) during a state of emergency has also
brought into question the stance of the government on the issue.
While rights groups continue their peaceful meetings and press
conferences demanding cancellation of the review committee and
implementation of the policy, the government is yet to commit to
either.
Police and activists collide during a protest against the National
Women Development Policy. Photo: Sk. Enamul Haque
According to Barrister Sara Hossain, the controversy surrounding the
policy is political and not religious. "When the original policy,
which even included a clause on inheritance, was passed in 1997,
these groups did not express the same level of outrage," says
Hossain. "What they are doing now is fighting for their own survival.
With the trial of war criminals being a burning issue now, it has
become apparent that theirs is a controversial position in society.
These movements are a part of a whole series of strategic moves in
which they are trying to create chaos, destabilise the situation and
de-legitimise the government."
"These groups are claiming authority over the Quran, assuming the
power to define what is in it and claiming legitimacy to define the
policy, an authority and a legitimacy they do not have. Now they are
saying the government cannot make the women development policy, next
they will say it cannot make a policy against war criminals. They are
simply trying to create an unstable situation to de-legitimise the
forces against them," says Hossain.
As far as the policy goes, she says one must follow an accepted
manner of doing politics. "The consultations should have taken place
prior to its formation. It should have been an open process. This
government is very handy with the internet, it should just have
posted it on their website and invited comments. After approving the
policy, it cannot be opened for debate, especially to a group who
have already made their position on it clear. And the process is not
democratic either, because as soon as you say something goes against
religion, you close off all debate."
"Some of the objections are also unconstitutional," says Hossain.
"These groups are just trying to create a massive crisis. There is a
political vacuum, where the movement against these groups is not
strong enough. There is still time for the government to stand strong
against them."
Laws cannot be frozen in time, says Hossain, their interpretation
must change along with changing times.
Women have had their victories in sports too Women work as hard as
men do but are paid less for their labour. Photo: Zahedul I. Khan
Indeed, times are changing, and with them the laws in several
countries around the world. Many Muslim nations, including
Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, have
ratified CEDAW. Turkey, a predominantly Muslim State has given equal
rights of inheritance to women and men. The Hudood Ordinance, enacted
to enforce punishment for zina (extramarital sex) was revised in
Pakistan in 2006 after it was found that the law was misused against
women subjected to rape. Women are being given more rights such as
increased child custody rights, etc., in Iran. Iraq's personal-status
law enacted as early as 1959, provided women with some of the
broadest legal rights, restricting polygamy, setting the marriage age
at 18 and prohibiting arbitrary divorce, and treating women and men
equally in terms of inheritance.
The National Women Development Policy 2008, the fruit of decades of
struggle of the women's rights movement in Bangladesh, is a guideline
to ensure equal rights of the sexes. If this set of largely
insignificant and partly unconstitutional recommendations by one
20-member ulema committee is accepted, the struggle will go in vain
and women will be pushed back into the darkness and into a world of
inequality, discrimination and oppression. If the government does not
stand strong on its position regarding the policy, it will set a bad
political precedent of being intimidated by a minority group into
retracting on a positive government move supported by the majority
population. This, together with the burden of failing to take the
first step to ensure women's equal rights and position in society,
putting the lives and rights of millions of women and girls and their
future generations at stake.
Copyright (R) thedailystar.net 2008
______
[2] Sri Lanka: CPA WELCOMES SUPREME COURT ORDER ON EVICTIONS
5th May 2008, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Centre for Policy Alternatives
(CPA) welcomes the Supreme Court order stating that future evictions
should not take place unless in accordance with the law and with a
judicial order. The order was by a three-member bench headed by the
Chief Justice in the fundamental rights application filed by the
Centre for Policy Alternatives and its Executive Director, Dr.
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu on the mass scale eviction of Tamils from
Colombo that took place on the 7th of June 2007.
An interim order had already been issued by the Supreme Court on the
8th June 2007 on the same matter, under Article 12(1) and (2) and
14(1)(h). Further leave to proceed was granted based on Article 11,
13(1) and (2) of the Constitution on the 27th July 2007. The court
further held that by issuing the interim order, the court recognized
that there was an infringement under Article 11, 12(1) and (2), 13(1)
and (2) and 14 (1)(h).
The petitioners argued that evicting Tamils from Colombo is wrongful,
unlawful and illegal and violates the fundamental rights of those
persons who were so evicted. CPA filed the case in response to the
mass eviction of Tamils that took place on the 7th June 2007. As
reported in the media, the operation commenced in the early hours of
the morning, with police and army officers visiting various lodges
occupied predominantly by Tamils in Colombo and forcibly them from
their lodgings. It was reported that people were given less than half
an hour to pack all their belongings and board buses. Newspaper
reports also raised the issue as to what the police considered as
being a valid reason, given that a patient undergoing treatment and a
woman who was to be married within a few days in Colombo were among
those evicted. The evictions were directly attributed to the
statement made by the IGP on 1st June 2007, claiming that Tamil
people cannot remain in Colombo without a valid reason. Subsequent to
the interim order of the Supreme Court, many of the people evicted
were brought back by the police to their lodging houses. On 10th June
2007 Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake expressed regrets to the
hundreds of Tamils for their eviction from the city, saying it was a
'big mistake' by the government.
The petition held that the evictions violate the fundamental rights
of those persons who were so evicted, guaranteed by Article 11, 12
(1), 12(2), 13(1), 13(2) and 14(1)(h) of the Constitution. Article 11
provides no person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 12 provides that all
citizens are equal before the law and ensures that no citizen shall
be discriminated against grounds specified in the Constitution.
Articles 13 (1) and (2) provide protection from arbitrary arrest and
detention. Article 14 (1)(h) provides for the freedom of movement and
the right to choose his residence within Sri Lanka.
Two other petitions filed by evicted persons were also taken up today
by the Supreme Court.
M A Sumanthiran with Viran Corea, Sharmaine Gunaratne, Bhavani
Fonseka, Hamsana Vamadeva and Ermiza Tegal Attorneys at Law appeared
for the Petitioners instructed by Mr. Moahan Balendra. Additional
Solicitor General Mr. Palitha Fernando, President's Counsel appeared
for the Respondents.
______
[3] PAKISTAN
The News on Sunday
May 4, 2008
MOB SOLUTIONS
Belief should be rescued from the clutches of the self-appointed
priests, force banished from common discourse, and the state
recovered from its illegitimate occupiers
by I. A. Rehman
Last month's killing of Jagdish Kumar in a Karachi factory and the
execution of a 'criminal' by the Taliban in Mohmand Agency, at the
other end of the country, dramatically represent the threat
legitimisation of violence in the name of belief presents to
Pakistan's integrity, its social fabric and its mental health.
Jagdish was killed in a factory, where the only identity workers are
supposed to have is that of sellers (at lowest possible rates) of
their labour. He was felled in Karachi, the metropolis that defies
its non-feudal character by promoting its cult of pre-industrial age
violence. And he was lynched in the presence of policemen who have so
consistently disgraced their calling that they have forgotten their
primary job is to save human life. All this because the state has not
had the courage to challenge the view that every Muslim has a licence
to kill a blasphemer.
In a Muslim society, even if the people do not follow the fundamental
tenets of their faith, much as respect for life, truthfulness, and
uprightness in public dealing, liberty can often be taken with God
but not with the Prophet (PBUH). That is the reason that in the
entire Muslim world there have been few cases of blasphemy ever. The
disease was almost unknown in Pakistan till Gen. Zia and his cohorts
conspired against Pakistan and Islam by making a law that is
blasphemous -- as it insinuates that the name of the Holy Prophet
(PBUH) can ever be defiled. This law has grievously undermined Muslim
people's tradition of tolerance for which they were once acclaimed
across the globe.
Not only the law is flawed its enforcement over the past decades has
revealed its extensive abuse. Yet the state has failed to protect
victims of indefensible violence. When Naemat Ahmar, a Christian
teacher, was killed by a young man, the latter was lionised in the
prison and the community outside. When Farooq Sattar, known as a
better Muslim than many others in his town, was lynched in
Gujranwala, nobody tried to ascertain the charge against him: burning
of the pages of the Holy Quran. The state condoned his murder. A man
was saved from the gallows because the Lahore High Court found out
that the subordinate judge, who had awarded the death penalty, had
ignored the medical certificate on record that the accused had been
suffering from mental disorder. Why blame illiterate zealots when an
honourable judge, apparently sane, is on record as having proclaimed
that a Muslim had a duty to kill a blasphemer when saw one.
If a brief digression may be allowed, there is a story worth telling.
A famous man killed his wife in a western capital and went to the
police. He was promptly dispatched to an asylum for ascertaining his
mental health. Unfortunately, many in the west have deemed it proper
to abandon that pedestal of sanity. However, that should be the
procedure in Pakistan if anybody is really found to have committed
blasphemy, or ordinary murder for that matter, for no one who takes
the life of a fellow being can be wholly sane.
The encouragement the killers of people accused of blasphemy has
wrought quite a havoc. A suspect was handed over to the police. The
constable chosen to take him to a police station killed him on the
way. Last year the Gujrat police arrested five men on the charge of
composing an allegedly objectionable book in a computer shop (the
author was abroad). A police constable shot one of the detainee dead
in the lock-up!
The state is responsible for all such cases of violence because it
has allowed the preachers of intolerance complete freedom, because it
has lacked firmness to check fanaticism. And, it does not compensate
victims of religious violence, while victims of riots are.
The Mohmand incident, too, should be seen in the context of the trend
in the tribal areas, and several settled areas in the NWFP, to
enforce Shariah through non-state agents. The state has been guilty
of promoting the fiction that an inanimate object can have a
religion, and has failed to inform the people how religious laws (and
which of the many versions) can be enforced. As a result there is
anarchy in a large northern part of the country and nobody can rule
out its spillover across the rest of the land. Many say it is only a
matter of time.
One of the factors attributed to our failure to curb belief-based
violence is the infantile interpretation of Muslim history in the
subcontinent. The Muslim dynasties are believed to have established
their rule with the help of their arms alone, through their superior
capacity for violence. When local commanders lacked the requisite
capacity for violence, help could be sought from a Babar or an
Abdali. The Muslim empire in the subcontinent fell because the
challengers possessed greater capacity to kill. Children are taught
that people rise by their belief and their arms. Those who argue that
nations become great by their knowledge and skill, by their sciences
and their arts, by their laws and tribunals of justice, by their
traditions of tolerance and compassion, are ridiculed as a minority
of heretics. One of the most serious indictments of the state
apparatus in Pakistan is that it has been training generation after
generation of blood thirsty blockheads who kill writers of unorthodox
tracts and worship ugly replicas of Chagi hills in their boulevards.
As if misinterpretation of belief and vulgarisation of history were
not enough to destroy the Pakistani people, the cult of
authoritarianism has completed our psyche of violence. Killing for
political dissent has always been accepted as legitimate.
Non-violence is shunned as being sinful and derided as the creed of
cowards. Whoever questions authoritarian rule -- be it a Bengali or a
Pakhtun or a Baloch -- will be gunned down, the continual replacement
of political argument with the gun has sown the seeds of insane
violence into the mindset of the Pakistani people.
Finally, all violence is not committed with the visible use of force.
All dissipations of constitutional life in Pakistan, glorified
through utterly fake slogans of 'bloodless revolution', have been
acts of gross and dehumanising violence. They have installed force as
the supreme deity in our pantheon.
The killing of Jagdish or that unnamed Mohmand (newspapers can't
agree on his name) are but symptoms of a fatal sickness that has
seized the Pakistan society. No cure is possible until belief is
rescued from the clutches of the self-appointed priests, force is
banished from common discourse, and the state is recovered from its
illegitimate occupiers.
______
[4] [ Nirmala Deshpande : the women who used to say "Goli Nahin,
BOLI ! (WORDS, Not Bullets!) ]
Dawn
3 May 2008
SHANTI, NIRMALA DIDI!
by Beena Sarwar
DURING the World Social Forum in Mumbai, or Bombay as some of the
lefties still prefer to call it, Jan 17-21, 2004, a loudspeaker
announcement in Hindi was often heard over the din of the crowd, the
beating of drums and other assorted noises that formed the backdrop
of the event: "Will any Pakistanis at this forum kindly come to
such-and-such corner, Nirmala Didi wants to meet them."
Those who paid heed to this announcement and made their way through
the international throngs to the grassy tree-lined nook around the
corner from a line of stalls along the dusty path (including Kishwar
Naheed's Hawwa Associates with its embroidered kurtas) found Dr
Nirmala Deshpande seated there, her diminutive, smiling, bespectacled
sari-clad figure crowned by her short-cropped hair hennaed a cheerful
orange. Didi, as she was widely known, wanted to personally welcome
the Pakistani delegates, many of whom were visiting India for the
first time.
Her warmth and down-to-earth manner belied her position as one of
India's senior-most politicians and a twice-nominated member of the
Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament). Among the numerous voluntary
offices she held was that of chairperson of the India-Pakistan Forum
of Parliamentarians.
A record number of Pakistanis, some 600, had been granted visas for
the WSF. Although a fraction of the 5,000 originally envisaged they
still formed probably the largest ever Pakistani delegation to India.
As a bonus, they had 'non-police reporting' visas, allowing them to
skip the normal procedure that requires Indians and Pakistanis
visiting each other's countries to report to the police within 24
hours of arrival and departure. Since the closure of its consulate in
Karachi, the Indian Embassy in Islamabad has been the sole
visa-granting authority here, just as the Pakistan Embassy in New
Delhi is the only visa-granting authority in India since the closure
of the Bombay consulate.
Nirmala Didi had long fought against such restrictions. Her very
personal welcome to the Pakistani delegates at the WSF in 2004 was
just one of the many ways she struggled for peace between India and
Pakistan. She was involved in the largest people-to-people peace
initiative between the two countries, the Pakistan-India People's
Forum for Peace and Democracy launched in February 1995, besides
being a founding trustee of Women's Initiative for Peace in South
Asia (WIPSA) and active with South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR).
Many remembered her from her leading role in initiating the historic
Women's Peace Bus to Lahore from Delhi in March 2000, cutting through
the tension that marked the post-Kargil months since that
misadventure of 1999. The peace bus involved several women's groups
under the umbrella of the newly formed WIPSA. The women "proved more
eager for peace, less worried about government positions and
policies", as Didi's friend and colleague in the peace movement, Asma
Jahangir, commented at the time, having been on the phone with her
several times during the planning stages.
Tensions between India and Pakistan ran so high at the time that the
Pakistani side initially planned to quietly ferry the Indians from
the Wagah border to the historic Falettis Hotel where they would be
staying. The decision later to make a public event out of the arrival
in order to make a statement about the people's demands for peace was
a courageous one in that tense atmosphere.
Asma Jahangir led the welcome delegation that greeted the Indian
women on their arrival at Falettis with flower garlands and music.
They also exchanged bangles, traditionally seen as symbols of
weakness, subverting the negative connotations to positive by using
them as symbols of peace. The colourful reception got a fair amount
of media attention. Given how high the nationalistic fervour ran in
those days, not all of it was positive (some reporters called it
'un-Islamic' and 'anti-Pakistan').
Always a visionary, in April 2008, Nirmala Deshpande had called for
setting up a South Asian Union on the lines of the European Union,
which she believed would lead to more peace in the region. "If the
countries in Europe which were fighting with one another on various
issues can come together to form a European Union with a common
currency, why can't we have a South Asian Union with a common
currency?" she asked.
As a long-time champion of workers' rights, Didi may have appreciated
the symbolism of passing away on Labour Day, May 1. She had not been
keeping well for the past few days and died in her sleep, aged 79,
depriving the peace lobby of one of its most vocal and influential
spokespersons. It says much for the wide acceptance she inspired that
she was also the recipient of some of India's highest awards, and a
nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Indian Vice President
Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and opposition leader
L.K. Advani were present at the mourning ceremony where they laid
wreaths and paid homage to this eminent Gandhian who had in her youth
taken a vow to remain single in order to devote her life to social
work.
Nirmala Deshpande headed the Indo-Pak Soldiers' Initiative for Peace
(IPSI), an organisation she had helped form, leading a delegation to
Pakistan in 2001. The joint convention of IPSI's India and Pakistan
chapters will be held on May 10-12 in Mumbai this year as scheduled
"as Didi would have liked it that way," wrote IPSI general secretary
Virendra Sahai Verma in an email informing friends of her passing
away. She will also be sorely missed at the upcoming PIPFPD
convention scheduled later this month in Peshawar.
The writer is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker
currently based in Karachi.
o o o
Dawn
May 05, 2008
Nirmala's ashes to be immersed in Indus
by Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, May 4: Pakistani peace activists said here on Sunday they
would carry the ashes of Gandhian icon Nirmala Deshpande to be
immersed in the Indus river to underscore her work to bring the two
countries together. Ms Deshpande, 79, died on Thursday.
Trade union leaders and peace workers B.M. Kutty and Karamat Ali of
the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy told Dawn
they would fly home with the ashes, possibly to Karachi first, on
Monday.
The immersion will be held after exploring the best site near the
Indus, in consultations with colleagues on both sides of the border,
so as to make it a memorable event.
In defiance of Hindu convention, in which male members of the family
perform the ceremony, Ms Deshpande's funeral at the Lodhi Colony
electric crematorium was led by an eleven year old daughter she had
adopted.
The Pakistani peace activists had flown in especially to be present
for the last rites.
______
[4]
Dawn
May 01, 2008
MEET MAJAAZ THE MUSLIM
by Jawed Naqvi
IN India's Brahminised concept of secularism it was inevitable that a
little noticed five-rupee postal stamp issued on March 28 to
celebrate the anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist Urdu poet Asraar ul
Haq Majaaz showed his handsome visage superimposed on the picture of
a mosque.
The fact is that Majaaz, a renowned romantic and agnostic, had as
little to do with a mosque as his contemporaries like Faiz and Josh
or Ghalib and Mir who preceded them by well over a century. But the
dominant semi-official formula - Urdu equals Muslims equals mosques -
is not unique to India alone.
Early protagonists of Pakistan fell into the trap until Bangladesh
happened and, at great cost, showed up their mistake. However, even
if for the wrong reason, Urdu has at least been saved in Pakistan
from the slow extinction it has been subjected to in India. Last
week, thanks to the rare effort of its scholarly vice-chancellor, the
Jamia Milia Islamia in Delhi unveiled a conference hall named after
Mir Taqi Mir.
The complex has a room dedicated to the memory of the matchless
marsia writer Mir Anis. What becomes of these facilities eventually
is for the future to tell. The last time I heard of it, the spot in
Lucknow where Mir's grave would be stands dissected by a railway
track.
It would be well nigh impossible for us to locate Ghalib's grave in
Delhi but for the efforts of filmmaker Sohrab Modi who built a simple
marble tomb over the place near the Hazrat Nizamuddin shrine,
rescuing it from the squatters and stray animals that defiled it. To
mark his centenary some years ago, Ghalib's famous haveli in Gali
Qasim Jaan of Old Delhi was cleared of the coal depot it had become.
Though a public telephone stall still operates from within its
precincts, at least his countless lovers can make their pilgrimage to
the fabled narrow lanes and an aesthetically restored haveli.
But perhaps I am complaining too much. After all, the modest
philatelic event for Majaaz was an uncommon official gesture in the
service of Urdu literature, a language shunned, I suspect, because it
embarrasses freed India's comprador administrators. After all, Urdu
encompassed a culture of resistance to man's enslavement by man,
intense love and passion, eclectic mysticism, full-blooded hedonism,
unrelenting anti-imperialism and a defiant conversation with God and
the mullahs, when necessary - mullahs who were more often than not
depicted as dishonest agents of religious lottery.
The new Indian state connived with the mullahs to throttle Urdu and
to turn it into a language of their prescriptive religious
seminaries. That's how the unstoppable Sahir Ludhianavi was compelled
to observe the state of affairs bluntly amid the official Ghalib
celebrations:
Ghalib jisey kehtey hain, Urdu hi ka shayer tha Urdu pe sitam dha ke
Ghalib pe karam kyun hai?
(Ghalib was an Urdu poet, his muse you've all but killed Celebrate
him but destroy his language? Is that what he willed?)
So 52 years after Majaaz was picked up on a freezing winter morning
from a country liquor shop in Lucknow, this full-blooded agnostic was
declared a religious Muslim in the Indian capital by sheer innuendo.
He possibly lived for a few hours more after being rescued by a
passerby but the end came soon enough (either of pneumonia or was it
cirrhosis) at Lucknow's Balrampur Hospital. The tragic news spread to
the far corners in an instant thanks to the sway that the Progressive
Writers' Association held over much of India those days. Majaaz was
the group's most beloved and most tragedy-prone member.
Showing Majaaz with a mosque is a metaphor not unique to him. The
Congress leaders had successfully belittled Mohammad Ali Jinnah when
they overlooked his impeccable liberal credentials and painted the
giant national leader as a smaller representative of Indian Muslims.
The dangerous ploy boomeranged hard when Jinnah did become a leader
of Indian Muslims. Would the government of India bring out a stamp on
its best-known icon of liberal ideals Jawaharlal Nehru with a Hindu
shrine in the background even if he may have visited the most
splendorous temples in southern India? I am pretty certain they dare
not. They know that images carry far more loaded meanings than words
can ever convey.
Aligarh University, where Majaaz studied, is not about mosques alone
as the stamp tries to suggest. It has the beautiful British-built
Strachey Hall and countless other secular symbols. The university
reminds me more of great historians like Irfan Habib, progressive
writers like Jazbi and Sardar Jaffri and of course Majaaz and more
recently Shahryaar, an excellent Urdu poet doomed to be known as the
fellow who wrote lyrics for a movie about a famous courtesan.
Let me quote a poem by Majaaz to illustrate why the mosque was the
wrong symbol for him. He wrote Khwaab-i-Sahar in 1939, the title of
hope suggesting that morning dreams often come true. The poem is
mostly about man's exploitation by vendors of religion. A few
relevant lines go thus:
Masjidon main maulvi khutbe sunate hi rahe,
Mandiron mein barhaman ashlok gatey hi rahey
Ik na ik dar par jabeen-i-shouq ghisti hi rahi
Aadamiyat zulm ki chakki mein pisti hi rahi
Rahbari jaari rahi, paighambari jaari rahi
Deen ke parde mein jang-i-zargari jaari rahi.
(The mullah and the pundit and their ceaseless sermon
Man bowed before each one of them but did he learn
The great messiahs came claiming divinity
Their religions, mostly ruses for plunder turn by turn.)
Its peculiar association with South Asia's Muslims has accompanied
the virtual dismemberment of Urdu in India. This shows
insensitivities on two counts. First, it is unfair to South Asian
Muslims of other hues such as Tamil, Malayali, Telugu, Konkani,
Gujarati, Bengali, Baloch, Punjabi and Pashtun among others.
Secondly, the approach insults the invaluable contribution of Hindu
and Sikh writers of Urdu such as Brijnarayan Chakbast, Prem Chand,
Firaq Gorakhpuri, Upendra Nath Ashk, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Krishan
Chander, Malik Ram and Ram Lal. There were notable Anglo-Indian Urdu
poets too.
Releasing the stamp, Indian Vice-President Hamid Ansari described
Majaaz as a revolutionary poet whose writings impacted an entire
generation. "His poems were full of romance and revolution." From the
corner of the stamp, Majaaz appeared to mock the proceedings where he
must have spotted nephew and film lyricist Javed Akhtar, and sister
Hameeda Salim. In a message scribbled in Urdu, the dying language of
India, Majaaz laughed:
Bakhshi hain humko ishq ne wo jurratein Majaaz
Dartey nahi siysat-i-ahl-i-jahaan se hum.
(Unalloyed love gives me a potent elixir that I can dare
The politics, the cunning intrigues of life everywhere.) n
The writer is Dawn's correspondent in Delhi.
______
[5] [Will the perpetrators of mass crimes in Pakistan, India,
Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan be ever brought to book ? ]
o o o
LESSONS FROM HISTORY
The Guardian,
May 2 2008
on p44 of the Leaders & reply section.
Operation Last Chance, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's final attempt to
bring to justice the surviving handful of alleged Nazi war criminals,
is more a dying echo than an opportunity. Some of their suspects,
like the camp doctor Aribert Heim, might already be dead; it is
unlikely that any of those named could live to hear a verdict
promounced against them. For even if they came to trial, any
evidence, any lingering witnesses, would not be held reliable 60
years on.
Yet to Google "Mauthausen", where Aribert Heim (now 93, if he
survives) once worked, and to be reminded of the scale and
organisation of what Hannah Arendt called an attempt to "eradicate
the concept of a human", distorts the images of doddery old men with
walking sticks with the memory of what they are alleged to have done.
Justice is much more than a formal system of personal vendetta, and
trial and punishment are merely the climax of a process that starts
with indictment and in which every stage is important. But there
comes a time when pulling the blankets off pensioners in small-town
America or the suburbs of Perth, even when they are known to be
guilty, is no way of memorialising the victims of the Holocaust.
What does survive from those years, despite long and shameful periods
in tactical abeyance, is the idea of global responsibility for human
rights, which led, finally, to an international criminal court. Five
years on, however, and the ICC and the UN tribunals that preceded its
foundation are in deep trouble. In Uganda the government ignores its
treaty obligations and refuses to observe ICC warrants. In Sudan
Ahman Harun, who with the Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb faces 51
charges of human rights abuse in Darfur, has been made minister in
charge of humanitarian affairs. The ICC appears powerless. Meanwhile
in Rwanda the tribunal set up to bring justice to the Hutu slayers of
nearly a million Tutsis in the 1994 genocide is coming to the end of
its term, having resolved 35 cases for a cost of $90m (equal to a
fifth of the foreign aid received annually by Rwanda), while perhaps
100,000 Hutus died awaiting trial in the indescribable conditions of
mass detention camps. In Sierra Leone millions more dollars have been
expended on a tribunal court building while the mutilated victims of
the civil war beg for alms outside. This absorption with the
paraphernalia as opposed to the purpose of justice excludes working
with local systems that aim at reconciliation rather than
retribution. That failing might yet pull down the entire edifice of
the ICC, and with it what should be the Holocaust's true memorial -
the fulfilment of the commitment that the victors of 1945 made at the
gates of places such as Mauthausen: never again.
______
[6]
http://www.petitiononline.com/waterH2O/petition.html
PETITION AGAINST WATER WASTAGE IN CHENNAI TO CHIEF MINISTER,
GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU
Against Water Wastage in Chennai by a Month-long Artificial Snow Field
To: Dr M Karunanidhi, Hon'ble Chief Minister, Government of Tamil Nadu
We are horrified to learn from news reports that in Chennai, a
perennially water starved city, the Government of Tamil Nadu is
partnering a massive luxury entertainment event at Island Grounds
using artificially generated snow during the height of summer, when
major parts of the city and surrounding areas face acute water
shortage. We fail to understand how the Government of Tamil Nadu
could back such a reckless entertainment complex, scheduled to run
for a full month from 1st May to 1st June, 2008, which carelessly
squanders water for the sake of luxury entertainment.
Have our Government and policy makers forgotten the bitter memories
of the water shortage of 2003 and 2004 when millions of Chennai
residents suffered terrible summer heat made worse by irregular water
supply? Have our policy makers forgotten the sight of distressed
Chennai-vasis fighting for water around water tankers even as the
official agencies desperately hunted for water to tap? We fail to
understand how official agencies like TWAD, Metrowater, Tamil Nadu
Tourism Board, TN Pollution Control Board and others could have given
permission for such a terribly damaging scheme of water use.
The water drought in 2004 was so severe that the Government was
forced to stop agricultural operations in areas around Chennai so
that the ground water could be used for drinking water purposes.
Well-fields like Poondi, Tamaraipakkam, Kannigaiper, Panjetty and
Minjur and Kosasthalayar, which had managed to meet the city's needs
in previous decades, were so badly exploited that the water aquifers
were almost totally destroyed. Good rains in later years have not
managed to adequately refill the badly affected water aquifers.
Water availability is a serious issue in Tamil Nadu, which is a rain
shadow region. The government's ground water data shows that in 1997,
of the 380+ blocks in Tamil Nadu, only 137 were "Safe Water" blocks
with adequate ground water availability. By 2003, this number had
come down to 97. Over-exploitation of ground water had reduced per
capita water availability in Tamil Nadu to 840 CUM (cubic metres)
whereas the national average was 1200 CUM. Internationally, less than
1000 CUM indicates a "Water Scarcity Area". Our state thus qualifies
for that status.
This situation will be worsened through wasteful luxury parks like
`Snow Ball'. The upcoming launch of 'Snow Ball' on 1st May at
Chennai's Island Grounds includes plans of 15,000 square feet of snow
area. Along with the snow arena, there are to be 150 air-conditioned
stalls with, presumably, exhibitions and sales by sponsors. Event
organizers also inform us of movie screenings, "fashion shows",
"amusement rides" and other forms of entertainment.
While we do not object to the idea of catering to entertainment needs
of Chennai residents, we cannot accept that this be brought about by
exploiting a precariously-poised, crisis-ridden resource like water.
Entertainment of some can never be justified when it comes at the
cost of the basic needs of others. A majority of Chennai-ites cannot
afford to spend 150 rupees per head for half a day's entertainment.
On the other hand, many do not get an adequate supply of water and
electricity to even experience a decent standard of living.
We would like to stress that good rains in the last two years may
perhaps have reduced the intensity of water shortage, but has not
solved it completely. Expert agencies have already sounded a warning
of a major water crisis hitting not just our state, but also many
regions of India. The spectre of climate change and changing weather
and monsoon patterns also makes the situation extremely serious and
not something which can be played with.
Thus, for an event such as Snow Ball, promoting the extravagant abuse
of our most precious resources - water and another equally
inadequately available resource, electricity - to not only be allowed
but also partnered by a government authority is unacceptable to us.
While multiple corporate brands are being promoted as part of 'the
good life' at Island Grounds during May, many parts of the city and
its outskirts will continue to suffer the grim water shortages of a
Chennai summer, without round-the-clock electricity to provide even
the vestige of relief.
We whole-heartedly condemn the blatant misuse of water and
electricity that is to accompany the production of snow scheduled to
take place at Island Grounds throughout May, 2008 as part of 'Snow
Ball'. We demand that the Government of Tamil Nadu direct that the
water based events be totally stopped. If this means putting an end
to the snow area, that is no tragedy compared to the bigger one that
will result if the event is allowed to go ahead as it stands.
Sincerely,
______
[7]
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
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: http://insaf.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
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