Harsh Kapoor
Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:50:38 -0800
From: www.sacw.net [1] UN and the Peace Process in Nepal (Kanal Mani Dixit) [2] Bangladesh: No rationale to prolong emergency (Editorial, New Age) [3] India Administered Kashmir: A marriage is arranged (A.G. Noorani)[4] India: Sangh parivar's double talk: Beware perverse patriotism (B G Verghese)
[5] The discovery of America (Ananya Vajpeyi) [6] India: Violence cloud on job scheme (Rudra Biswas) [7] India’s election season: bad for minorities (Meenakshi Ganguly) [8] Censorship in India: State and Non State Actors(i) Film on North Indian's struggle in Mumbai canned in Maharashtra (Yogesh Naik & Bharati Dubey)
(ii) Stories of us (Indian Express) (iii) A fatwa against Madhushala (Manjari Mishra)[9] India: Andhra’s ‘healing touch’ to tortured, ‘innocent’ Muslims: Rs 30,000 each (Sreenivas Janyala) [10] 'Hinglish' Films: Translating India For U.S. Audiences (Bilal Qureshi)
[11] Diary (Sanjay Subrahmanyam)[12] Papers at International Association of Historians of Asia 20th Conference, JNU, New Delhi
[13] Announcement:Delhi International Ethnographic Film Festival (New Delhi, Nov 26 - 30, 2008)
----- [1] Nepali Times, 07 - 13 November 2008 THE UNITED NATIONS NOWThe interests of the UN and Nepalis coincide in making the peace process a success
by Kanal Mani DixitSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to Nepal was so short it is hard to remember when he came and when he left.
When he flew down to Bhairawa en route to Lumbini on his Bombardier jet, he was retracing the footsteps of Dag Hammarskjold , the second UN Secretary-General and the first to visit Nepal. On his outbound trip in March 1959, he made detour on King Mahendra’s DC-3 to take pictures of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri.
You could term this Nepal’s first ’mountain flight’, and Hammarskjold’s photographs and article were printed in the January 1961 issue of the National Geographic. In September 1961 Hammarskjold died in an air crash while on a peace mission to Congo- a country that is still ravaged by civil war.
Our own Rishikesh Shaha, a man of letters and a permanent representative to the UN, was asked to chair the crash investigation. Shaha had himself faced near-death when he was stabbed in Manhattan’s Central Park. The rumour mill in Kathmandu has it that Shaha was within striking distance of serving as Hammarskjold’s successor, but King Mahendra scuttled it.
It was Burma’s U-Thant who succeeded Hammarskjold, and he visited Nepal in April 1967. His famous tears at the sight of dilapidated Lumbini helped launch international interest in the site of the Sakyamuni’s nativity. The UN commissioned Japanese architect Kenzo Tange to develop the site as a spiritual centre dedicated to world peace. Tange was the designer of the Hiroshima memorial, but 50 years later, his Lumbini masterplan gathers dust while various sects compete in ostentatiousness.
There is a United Nations Committee on Lumbini, made up of Buddhistic nations and led by Nepal. Sadly, the committee has been allowed to lapse, primarily because those who ran the Kathmandu government through autocracy and democracy did not understand the value of this committee in maintaining the spiritual and meditative nature of Lumbini as well as in fund-raising.
The United Nations, of course, has been in Nepal right after the end of the Rana era. Toni Hagen, the Swiss geologist who was already here in 1949, evolved as a UN development expert. Various UN agencies have been active in Nepal since, and it is fair to say that the overwhelming peace focus of the Ban Ki-moon visit did not give enough importance to Nepal’s development arena in which the UN has been a central player.
It was during Kofi Annan’s tenure that the UN saw the departure from development work to conflict resolution. UNMIN was established by the Security Council in January 2007, responding to a request by the Nepal government after New Delhi was convinced this was the only way to get the Maoists to abandon their ’people’s war’. The verification process and election support have been completed by UNMIN, and its extended term is about to expire on 23 January. It is not likely that the ’integration’ and ’rehabilitation’ of Maoist combatants will be completed by then.
After their success in the April elections there is an attempt in some Maoist quarters to shift the goalposts when it comes to the incomplete peace process. The wholesale entry of politically trained cadre of one party into the national army would lead to crisis.
Simply put, the acceptable formula would be the free-choice entry of individual combatants into the NA based on accepted standards. In one stroke this would allow the Maoists to mollify their cadre, and address the practical necessity of partial integration, while ensuring genuine rehabilitation of the rest.
Nepali political actors will decide the nature of integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants, of course, but it would be good if the UN was on the same page. Today, the interests of United Nations and the citizens of Nepal coincide in making the peace process in Nepal a lasting success, where Nepalis can return to being a society where political violence is rejected absolutely.
Here, it was distressing that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was not heard to utter the words ’impunity’ and ’accountability’ during his Kathmandu stopover. There can be no lasting peace, nor democracy, without them.
A denoument which is respectful of the people’s desire to live without violence and in pluralism, and which responds to humanitarian needs of individual Maoist combatants, will leave Nepal at peace and the United Nations Secretary-General with the satisfaction of a job well done.
_____ [2] New Age 17 November 2008 Editorial NO RATIONALE TO PROLONG EMERGENCYThe commerce adviser, who is also the official spokesperson for the council of advisers, has asserted that the military-controlled interim government has completed all preparations to hold parliamentary polls on December 18. ‘The entire nation is now ready for the democratic transition through the December 18 elections to be participated by all the parties,’ Hossain Zillur Rahman said at a press briefing after meeting with the chief adviser. While we have no doubt that the nation is ready and eager for a democratic transition and has been for many months, we are not so sure about the state of preparation of the present regime and the Election Commission – let alone the major political parties. By preparation, we refer not only to administrative and logistical tasks, some of which are still ongoing, but also to the levelling of the electoral playing field and the creation of an environment that is conducive to free and fair polls. So, while we want elections to be held at the earliest, we would like all disputed issues between the political parties and the present regime to be resolved and for the commission to have actually completed all preparations, including the publishing of constituency- wise voters’ rolls that are still only half-done.
Also, we continue to stress on the need for the immediate withdrawal of the state of emergency so that the upcoming elections can be held in a free and unrestrictive atmosphere. While we have repeatedly stated that truly participatory and credible elections cannot be held under a state of emergency, and have commended the major political parties for making withdrawal of emergency prior to elections one of their principal demands, it is worth mentioning that the chief election commissioner himself made the same point on February 24. He had said, ‘I do not understand how the election can be held under a state of emergency, because the necessary scope for electioneering should be facilitated. Emergency means, from what I understand from my experience as a magistrate, that ten people cannot hold an assembly. Emergency is more serious than the imposition of Section 144. So emergency should be lifted. If it is not lifted, then how do you campaign? How do you address the voters, through the television? That is why we ask for the creation of an environment that will enable the people to move about freely and go for electioneering.’ We agree completely.
On Saturday, Hossain Zillur said, however, that the regime will consider the full lifting of the state of emergency if ‘the election environment develops smoothly’. First of all, the adviser must understand that the conditions that justify a state of emergency are enshrined in our constitution and that a not-so-smooth election environment is not a justification for emergency. Therefore, he must refrain from adding to the constitutional provisions nebulous conditions of his own. Also, the adviser should know by now that a qualitative change in the nature of politics can only be brought about through vibrant political activity by the democratically- oriented people, not by restricting the political process.
Hence, if the government wants to see a qualitative change in the nature of politics, the only route forward is through restoration of normal political process, holding of truly participatory and credible parliamentary elections and a peaceful transfer of power to a government elected by the people. In order to do so, the regime must withdraw in full the state of emergency and resolve all remaining disputes with the major political parties to bring them to the polls.
______ [3] Dawn, 15 November 2008 A MARRIAGE IS ARRANGED by A.G. NooraniTHE annals of rigged elections in Kashmir provide no precedent for the polls that will begin there on Nov 17. Even the Unionist parties, the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party, are opposed to them.
The Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami admitted on Oct 10 that “we have taken a risk”, adding, “If the political parties are not ready, then how can we conduct elections now?”
The right to advocate a boycott of elections is as integral a part of the democratic process as is the right to vote. He conceded that the political parties “can call a boycott” provided they did not use force. This right has been systematically denied by New Delhi through the arrests of leaders like Shabbir Shah, house arrests of Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and curfews and arrests of activists to prevent peaceful rallies and processions.
The president of the PDP, Mehbooba Mufti, said on Nov 10: “The polls have been thrust on the people and the PDP.” In the valley, which has 46 of the 87 seats, public opinion is inflamed after the upheaval there and in Jammu in August. “Public meetings cannot be held in the manner they used to. The people are not coming out.”
The NC’s president, Omar Abdullah, said: “The timing is not ideal for elections. We had said this to the Election Commission and in our statements”. Why then did the EC go ahead and why did the NC decide to participate in the polls?
The EC obeyed the wishes of elements in the Government of India who felt that a change was necessary. In 2002 the NC was ditched in favour of the PDP. In 2008 the roles are reversed. Farooq Abdullah, the NC’s patron, did not contest the polls then. He will do so now. But he revealed, on Oct 28, that “Omar will finally take over charge.” The confidence that he will, indeed, become chief minister is a giveaway.
The game plan was revealed on July 9 by A.S. Dulat, a former RAW chief and for long an adviser on Kashmir affairs. “If I have to bet on anybody as the next chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, then I will bet on Omar Abdullah, because only the mainstream parties are going to fight the elections and the National Conference has an edge.”
No wonder the PDP’s president Mehbooba Mufti said on Oct 28 “an impression is being created that New Delhi has decided to select the National Conference for governance”. She added: “We won’t give a free hand to the parties claiming victory in advance”.
The manifestos of the two parties on the state’s governance are revealing. Unprecedentedly Farooq Abdullah has asserted emphatically that the polls concern issues of governance alone. The solution to the Kashmir dispute lies in the dialogue between India and Pakistan, he said, while releasing the NC’s ‘Vision document’ on Oct 31.
The PDP published two documents on Oct 28. An ‘Election manifesto — 2008 make ‘self-rule’ happen’ and ‘Jammu & Kashmir: the self-rule framework for resolution’. The two overlap. The NC had spelled out its views in detail in 1999 in the ‘Report of the state autonomy committee’. As Kashmiri contributions to the debate, the rival documents on autonomy merit analysis later. We are here concerned with their views on governance.
The most striking thing about them is their studied restraint on some issues that vex the people, e.g. discrimination in the services. “No commissioner or secretary in the state government is a Muslim,” The Hindustan Times reported on Aug 17. “There have been only two Muslim DGPs — ever.” Most top police posts are with non-Muslims. Most senior civil servants and police officers are Hindu. Here is an issue on which the PDP and the NC could have gone to town legitimately without compromising their stand on Kashmir’s accession to India. But neither risks annoying New Delhi. The same holds good for torture, release of detainees, withdrawal of the army from prized lands, including orchards, etc.
Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah consistently wrecked the centre’s moves for a rapprochement with the Hurriyat made by three successive prime ministers as Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed supported them. The PDP seeks to balance support to the Union with espousal of some Kashmiri causes.
The NC’s vision document makes promises on panchayati raj, rehabilitation of militancy affected people, planning, unemployment, power, tourism, agriculture, horticulture, women empowerment, and ‘balanced development’. Its emphasis is on ‘good governance’. Much the same ground is covered in the PDP’s manifesto. Its emphasis is on its ‘governance and development agenda’; but in the context of ‘self- rule’.
Elections are little affected by words alone. Perceptions are decisive. On May 2, 2003 the state’s former deputy chief minister, Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, belonging to the PDP, revealed that he had told the centre’s interlocutor N.N. Vohra that “the Government of India has always been purchasing the leaders of the State. That can be done even today.” A former governor B.K. Nehru noted in his memoirs Nice Guys Finish Second that the CMs “had been nominees of Delhi” who won power “by the holding of farcical and totally rigged elections”.
Today N.N. Vohra is governor. For the Abdullahs it is now or never. Defeat spells oblivion. Yet, victory will earn added disrepute. New Delhi will have to talk the Hurriyat and to Pakistan. The impact on the peace process of this farce can well be imagined.
The writer is a lawyer and an author. _____ [4] Deccan Herald, November 12, 2008 SANGH PARIVAR'S DOUBLE TALK: BEWARE PERVERSE PATRIOTISM by B G VergheseIt causes deep concern that the armed forces may have been penetrated by ideologically driven groups.
One must beware of perverse patriotism, disturbing signs of which have been recently manifest. The arrest of an Army officer on suspicion of having assisted alleged Hindu right extremist terror bombings in Malegaon and possibly elsewhere appears sinister. At the moment here are only allegations that must be thoroughly investigated before definitive conclusions are reached.
Nevertheless, enough has been established to cause deep concern that the armed forces may have been penetrated by dangerous, ideologically driven groups. The civil and, specially, uniformed services are non-political servants of the people acting under the directions of the government of the day, owning allegiance to the Constitution and not to any extraneous ideology or group.
The defence minister has taken note of whatever has happened and intends to get to the root of the matter so that incipient mischief is nipped in the bud. Meanwhile, the single incident that has come to light should not be considered a trend but an aberration.
What is surprising, however, is the response of the spokesmen of the Parivar. They disown any association with sadhvi Pragya and other civil suspects held for the Malegaon bombing. Yet they take the line that Hindus cannot be terrorists and that the armed forces are a part of Indian society which has been horrified by the pusillanimous and apologetic approach of the UPA government to terror attacks and cannot therefore be blamed for patriotic reactions.
This apologia comes close to showing sympathy for and indirectly condoning what is undoubtedly a grave dereliction of duty and rank indiscipline. It echoes the chorus from across the border in praise of “freedom fighters” as opposed to terrorists, “our” boys versus the dreadful “other”. Such pernicious double talk is scarcely in keeping with the Parivar’s insistent demand for “strong” action against terror.
The same attitude of “patriotic anger” was revealed in the disgraceful conduct of young ABVP hoodlums who broke up a Delhi University meeting on Democracy and Fascism last week and spat on one of the invited speakers, SAR Geelani, who was discharged by the Supreme Court in the parliament bombing case. What was witnessed was fascism in action, made worse by two comments by the saffron fraternity. ABVP president, Nupur Sharma said that the offenders were not ABVP members but “outsiders” and then went on to state in a TV discussion that she would have done much the same thing in patriotic anger against the government’s poor record in fighting terror.
The BJP spokesman, Ravi Pratap Rudy’s comment was that the protest against Geelani could have been “more hygienic” but was nevertheless an expression of “patriotic emotion” on the part of students with regard to what was perceived as Geelani’s mistrial. VHP’s Pravin Togadia repeated the same mantra as senior RSS spokesmen and other saffronites that a Hindu by definition cannot be a terrorist. He warned that persisting with such “false charges” against a Sadhvi and army personnel would evoke a “political backlash.”
In another episode last August, BJP-backed protesters in Jammu rioted and vandalised property during the Amarnath Yatra Board land agitation. Here again the commentary extolled demonstrations by “patriotic Indians” holding aloft the tricolour, as against Valley separatists brazenly marching to Muzaffarabad. The national flag must be honoured but cannot be used as a shield against riot police.
Perverse patriotism feeding on false notions of jingoistic nationalism must be squarely fought as it manifests a malignant fascism. Terrorism is terrorism, irrespective of community, and can find no place in a democratic society that offers many avenues for grievance redressal. Even if poor or partisan governance, political bias in policing and a creaking criminal justice system have closed many doors, wrong means cannot be justified in the name of seeking right ends.
The Delhi High Court has sternly admonished police officials to stop rushing to hold press conferences to leak premature and fallible “leads” that disclose their line of investigation and instead get on with their job of bringing criminals to justice. Warped notions of public interest and press freedom have made nonsense of good reporting and a growingly irresponsible section of the media is becoming a social menace rather than performing its proper role of mediation.
Two other straws merit comment. Though Chaat Puja passed off peacefully, one must be wary of the tendency to use festivals for political and electoral mobilisation and to overawe “the other” whosoever that other might be.
The second relates to a parliamentary committee recommendation that would make a non-official chairman of the Central Wakf Board rather than a Joint Secretary as at present. But why on earth should government enter this constitutionally forbidden territory and, likewise, fund Haj, Kailash-Mansarovar and other pilgrimages at the taxpayers’ expense? This is to dilute secularism, court trouble and invite competitive religiosity to garner votes.
Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind clerics have just met in Hyderabad to reinforce their previous Deoband fatwa denouncing terror masquerading as jihad. This is a positive move and should the starting point for further efforts in the direction of national integration. Bhutan and the Maldives are happily marching towards democracy and Barack Obama has set an inspiring example by going beyond narrow identity politics to set himself larger and higher goals for the United States and the world. These are beacon lights to follow.
_____ [5] Economic Times 15 Nov 2008 THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA by Ananya VajpeyiOn Tuesday November 4, in my classroom in Boston, I taught the opening chapters of Jawaharlal Nehru’s The Discovery of India. My students, Americans all, sat spellbound by words that fell into place in a moment of uncanny historical echo that would be hard to re-create.
About half of them had voted in the morning; the rest were headed to the polls after class. “Whether we were foolish or not, the historians of the future will judge. We aimed high and looked far”, Nehru wrote in Ahmadnagar jail, April 1944. In our minds, we heard his words rendered in the unmistakable voice of the man who 12 hours later would become America’s new President-elect, Barack Obama: “We aimed high and looked far.”
Watching Obama head into victory late in the evening, surrounded by a dozen good friends in a house in firmly Democratic Massachusetts, I forgot I am not a citizen of the United States. I remembered instead that I am a citizen of the world’s largest democracy, India. After we had popped the champagne cork, clapped, shouted, called home, texted friends and made wisecracks, we fell into pin-drop silence, rivetted by Obama’s presidential acceptance speech on television. There wasn’t one person in the room full of men and women, citizens and non- citizens, who was not moved. Shots of the surging crowd in Chicago’s Grant Park reflected our emotions: faces came into focus, some known — Reverend Jesse Jackson, Oprah Winfrey — others unknown, each one bathed in tears, like us.
We knew we were in the midst of history. In chapter III of Discovery of India, Nehru describes his hectic travelling in late 1936 and early 1937, in the lead-up to the general elections for the provincial assemblies in the final decade of British rule. His working days were often 18-20 hours long; crowds of 20,000 were par for the course, and occasionally 100,000 people would gather to hear him speak.
He estimates he addressed 10 million people, while many more millions were indirectly touched by his passage through India. He slept in snatches in the car, sometimes just half an hour. Eight years later he writes: “How I managed to carry on in this way without physical collapse, I cannot understand now, for it was a prodigious feat of physical endurance... But what kept me up and filled me with vitality was the vast enthusiasm and affection that surrounded me and met me everywhere I went.”
Two students leading the class discussion, both male, both Boston Irish, spoke about Nehru’s remarkable journeys: “Nehru wasn’t running for President in 1937, but it sounds like he was on the campaign trail — just like we’ve seen in the past few months”. The indefatigable campaigner Obama, with his signature mix of energetic and cool, calm and inspirational, wry and warm, animated the pages we read from another time, another country.
With Nehru as with Obama, the sheer intelligence of the man shines through every word written or uttered. Only occasionally does history throw up a figure who so perfectly embodies the ligature of democracy with language, who understands how political will and ethical promise meet in that most evanescent, yet most enduring of places: the word.
If there was anything George W Bush taught us, it was that one who cannot speak properly, cannot lead properly, for he lacks the fundamental qualification for democratic leadership, command over language. This capacity — a linguistic power that enhances political power — Nehru had, six decades ago, and Obama has, today, as he makes America’s tryst with destiny.
Nehru literally conjures up with his words the body politic — the “thousands of eyes”, the “forest of hands” — where each individual recognises an ineffable and yet deep and true bond with every other individual in the collective. In the presence of the great man, the “assembled multitude” is transformed into a nation.
Almost at the stroke of the midnight hour of November 4/5, 2008, we witnessed Obama stepping up before the thousands of eyes, the forest of hands, the smiling faces of the Americans gathered to celebrate his victory — and their own — in Chicago, enveloping him in their warm embrace, and murmuring after him, “Yes, we can”. The murmur became a mighty roar: “Yes, we can!”
After my class ended, one of my students, a black man in his 40s, came shyly up to me. He has been enthusiastic and vocal all semester, though not sophisticated in the way he speaks. Sessions on Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj, Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan and Tagore’s The Home and the World had elicited reactions from him, full of genuine feeling if not always astute or coherent. But I was not ready for what he told me this time: “I’m a barber,’ he said. ‘I wanted to say, this book has changed me forever.” His eyes shone.
“I’ll never be the same again,’ he continued, ‘now that I’ve read Nehru. I just wanted you to know that.” My student, Marlon Peters, knows the change he can believe in, and so does America.
_____ [6] The Telegraph November 10, 2008 VIOLENCE CLOUD ON JOB SCHEME by Rudra Biswas Economist Jean Dreze at the meeting in Ranchi. Telegraph pictureRanchi, Nov. 9: Two murders, two suicides, complete institutionalisation of corruption, exclusion of women, manipulation of records and absence of a grievance redressal system are some of the highlights of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Jharkhand.
To add to the woes, over the past two days, two NREGA activists at Manika in Latehar district made a narrow es- cape after they were tar- geted by contractors and their hired goons.
“In the absence of mass awareness against rampant corruption — both among people and the political leaders — there is little hope that the central scheme could provide jobs to the millions of im- poverished people in Jharkhand,” economist Jean Dreze told The Telegraph at the end of a three-day state-level convention that concluded at Ranchi today.
Meanwhile, the NREGA activists belonging to some 51 organisations conceded that there has been a marked improvement in the implementation of the scheme since the last few months .
A final statement issued today by NREGA Watch pointed out that no such incidence of deaths due to murders and suicides have been reported from any other state in the country in connection with the job guarantee implementation scheme.
“A sinister nexus of corruption and violence has grown around NREGA in Jharkhand,” the statement alleged. Field surveys and social audits of NREGA in Jharkhand show that there is massive fraud in the use of NREGA funds, perhaps more than anywhere else in the country. These investigations show that the chain of corruption extends very high in the state administration and political leadership. The administration has failed to take firm action in cases where fraud was exposed.
On the contrary, the administration often ended up protecting the culprits and indulging in cover up operations in the guise of official enquiries. Similarly, all political parties have been protecting private contractors and other corrupt elements involved in the embezzlement of NREGA funds, the final declaration noted.
“Jharkhand along with UP and Bihar rank amongst the lowest in terms of high rate of corruption and non implementation of the job guarantee scheme. In Rajasthan where 35 per cent of job card holders received jobs for 100 days in a year, in Jharkhand the figure is around 3 percent,” social activist Reetika Khera told The Telegraph.
Khera pointed out that women of the state were the worst affected. Though the Act provides that of the total work force deployed, at least one third should be women, in Jharkhand only such works like digging up of wells are being taken up where women cannot be deployed.
However, the lucky few who have been receiving minimum wages for the first time in their lives now have smile on their faces which gives us the motivation to work hard and expose the wrong practices in the state, Khera said.
_____ [7] open democracy.net 3 November 2008 INDIA’S ELECTION SEASON: BAD FOR MINORITIES by Meenakshi GangulyThe world's largest democracies are holding great election contests in 2008-09. There are intriguing parallels and contrasts in the way that prominent issues are discussed and managed by the respective political systems in Washington and New Delhi.
Meenakshi Ganguly is senior researcher on south Asia for Human Rights Watch
The United States presidential election, which reaches its climax on 4 November 2008, was dominated for a good part of its course by debates about race and gender; the result has been to make the prospects of a first black president and first woman president look far more normal than they once did. India's election (to be held by May 2009) will take place in a country which has had Sikh and female prime ministers, as well as Muslim, Sikh and Dalit presidents; today, a Dalit woman is a serious contender for the prime-minister's job (see KV Prasad, "Can Mayawati do a Barack Obama?", The Hindu, 4 November 2008). In this, India could try to claim that it has already successfully addressed the problems which the US is now only beginning to face.
But the reality is not so benign. India's experience also shows that access to a position of power does not of itself entail an end to rampant discrimination against minorities or marginalised groups. In 2008, some of India's largest political parties and their supporters have instigated or defended violence and hate against ethnic minorities - thus demonstrating that electing a woman or a Dalit is far from enough to guarantee equality and human rights. Rather, electing leaders from disadvantaged populations can - unless this is matched by coherent social action and education - come to be a shiny facade that conceals a vacuum where real commitment by the state to protect minority rights should be.
A turn inwardA number of recent events has focused attention on the wounded status of minorities in India. Since August 2008, Kandhamal district in Orissa state has been the scene of acts of religious violence following the murder on 23 August of an elderly leader of the extremist, rightwing Hindu group the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). In retaliation, mobs went on a protest rampage of killings, rape and arson. Initially, a Maoist insurgent group active in the region was held by many to be responsible for the death of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and his four aides - and even made a claim of responsibility itself. But the VHP and its youth wing, the Bajrang Dal - which are closely affiliated to India's main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - chose instead to blame and target the local Christian community.
For decades, Christian missionaries have offered health and education programs to marginalised tribal groups in Orissa and similar areas; this has led many residents subsequently to convert to Christianity. The Hindu groups have over the last decade demanded that they "reconvert" to Hindusim, in a campaign that often included force and intimidation. Thus, when the VHP leader was shot, they found it convenient immediately to assume that local Christians were responsible (see Jacob Ignatius, "India's Christians: politics of violence in Orissa", 1 September 2008).
One family described how they managed to flee into the nearby jungles when the mob arrived. But a relative, confined to a wheelchair, could not get away and was beaten and killed. Priests described how they suffered extensive beatings; one of those attacked, Father Bernard Digal, died in hospital on the night of 28-29 October. Two days later, on 31 October, five police officers were suspended for dereliction of duty after a nun recounted her rape. Nearly forty people were killed, scores injured and thousands displaced in the violence.
The perpetrators of this brutality show no remorse. Instead, they display a confident assertion of Hindu identity, no doubt in the hope that such aggression will be rewarded with Hindu votes for the BJP. The attacks on churches and Christians have even spread to other parts of India, including the states of Kerala and Karnataka. In Orissa, where the state government failed to anticipate and prevent the violence, villagers still report that they are allowed to return to their ravaged homes only after they have been through a "reconversion" ceremony.
The VHP and Bairang Dal have also sought to exacerbate tensions in the troubled state of Jammu & Kashmir. In an election-year there, a dispute exploded over the proposed transfer of land to build shelters during an annual Hindu pilgrimage into the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley; some parties (including separatist groups) mobilised to oppose this, and when the transfer was revoked the Hindu-majority areas of Jammu in turn erupted in protest (see Muzamil Jameel, "Kashmir's new generation", 13 October 2008). Some demonstrators attacked police officers and government property. There are persistent allegations that the violence was to a large degree instigated by vote-seekers.
In Mumbai (Bombay), the cosmopolitan capital of Maharashtra, the glorious bustle of emerging India is often disrupted by violence from supporters of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), a regional party that claims to speak for people native to the state. The supporters of the hardline MNS leader Raj Thackeray, regularly harass and assault migrants to the city from the poorer Hindi-speaking states of northern India.
The effect is to coarsen and politicise local discourse and social relations. Two incidents in October 2008 are emblematic. First, MNS activists broke into a railways-recruitment examination, insisting that such jobs should be reserved for locals, and beat up and chased away the candidates from other parts of the country. Second, around a quarter of the near-800 Jet Airline employees who were to lose their jobs appealed to Raj Thackeray for support and found a ready response, including threats to the airline.
From words to actionAfter a spate of terrorist bomb-attacks in several Indian cities in 2008, police arrested a number of alleged members of the group that claimed responsibility - which called itself the "Indian Mujaheddin" (believed by investigatoes to be affiiliated to the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami [HuJI] and Students Islamic Movement of India [Simi]). The true perpetrators of such indiscriminate attacks should indeed be brought to justice, though a long history of "rounding up the usual suspects" (which usually means Muslims) and failing to arrest the perpetrators mean that there is little faith in the Indian authorities' counter-terror efforts (see Ajai Sahni, "India's urban war: through the smoke", 17 September 2008).
Moreover, Indian politicians usually ignore demands for transparent and independent investigations into incidents of arbitrary arrests or deaths in custody. Now, however, elections are due: and suddenly, the issue of human rights finds itself at the centre of extraordinary attention in political debates. Some parties are demanding judicial investigations into allegations of police killings in New Delhi, while other parties oppose this; each accuses the other of base attempts to appeal to their Muslim or Hindu voters.
An election is supposed to be the cornerstone of a democracy, the event where its core principles of debate, plurality, tolerance, and free choice are displayed and celebrated. The electoral process in India is increasingly distant from this ideal (see Sumantra Bose, "Uttar Pradesh: India's democratic landslip", 29 May 2007). What it churns out is a lot of ugliness, a poisoning of societies with hate simply in an effort to gain votes.
India's political parties would serve citizens, the country and ultimately also themselves better if they remember that what voters want most is safety and security. These can be achieved only through respect for minorities - whether migrants from other parts of the country or people of different religious faiths.
India may have had a Dalit president, and the country has laws that outlaw descent-based caste discrimination; yet the practice remains all-pervasive and deeply rooted. The authorities do little to punish lawbreakers.
_____ [8] Censorship in India: State, Non-State (i)http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/ Film_on_N_Indians_struggle_in_Mumbai_canned_in_Maharashtra/ articleshow/3706463.cms
The Times of India 13 Nov 2008 FILM ON NORTH INDIAN'S STRUGGLE IN MUMBAI CANNED IN MAHARASHTRA by Yogesh Naik & Bharati Dubey, TNNMUMBAI: The state government on Wednesday banned the Hindi film `Deshdrohi', saying it would create a divide between north Indians and Marathis.
( Watch )The low-budget movie by Bhojpuri film-maker Kamal Khan, who also plays the lead, is about a north Indian migrant's struggle in Mumbai. It was banned under Section 6 of the Bombay Cinema Regulation Act, 1963, which empowers the state or police to suspend screening - even if the film is cleared by the censor board - if they think it can create a law-and-order problem.
Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Gafoor said, "We had found certain scenes in `Deshdrohi' objectionable and had informed the government about it.'' He confirmed on Wednesday night that he had received the ban order from the state government.
After the weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said the ban should not be viewed as "moral policing''. The initial idea was to ask the producer-director to remove the controversial scenes, but finally, the cabinet decided to ban the film, he said.
Additional chief secretary (home) Chitkala Zutshi told TOI that the film dwelt on issues which had created trouble between communities in the recent past. "The government felt it would inflame passions and emotions further, hence we decided to ban the film for 60 days.''
Last week, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena had asked for a ban on the film after watching its promos on TV but after Akhilesh Chaubey, MNS leader Raj Thackeray's lawyer, watched the film at a special screening, he said there was "nothing objectionable'' in it. "The promos are misleading.''
Soon after the government's announcement that it would ban the film, MNS spokesperson Shirish Parkar demanded legal action against Kamal Khan, the producer-director of `Deshdrohi'.
"The exhibition of this film should be stayed for some time. It should not be screened as long as the campaign to spread hatred between communities and Marathis and North Indians does not stop,'' Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Sanjay Nirupam said.
Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh said such films spreading hatred must be banned. In fact, they should not be made. He said that Marathi plays spreading hatred should also be banned. One such play is `Bhaiyya Haath Paay Pasari', which shows how a poor north Indian migrant comes to Mumbai and ends up buying the entire building in which he had rented a room.
Producer Kamal Khan said on Wednesday that he would challenge the ban in the high court. "It's a story about an unemployed youth who is used by politicians and eventually becomes a criminal. Maybe that's what some politicians didn't like in my film.''
However, someone who has seen the film told this paper, "There are some derogatory remarks against north Indian and Maharashtrians which may create problems. Had the film not got so much publicity, it would've gone unnoticed.''
It was not easy for Khan to get censor clearance. The executive committee of the Mumbai board had given ten cuts and an `A' certificate to the film. But the producer got his film cleared from the appellate tribunal in Delhi with five cuts and a UA certificate.
Vinayak Azad, regional officer of the Censor Board in Mumbai said, "We have certified the film for public exhibition but law and order is a state subject and the state can stop the exhibition of the film if it thinks it will create a law and order problem.''
Mahesh Bhatt said, "It's a shame that those who claim to be the crusaders of freedom have violated the rights of freedom of speech of the film-maker. They are no different from any repressive regime. You can't use the pretext of law and order to ban a film.''
o o o (ii) STORIES OF US The Indian Express, Nov 15, 2008: The lyricist Javed Akhtar famously described Bollywood as “one more state in this country”. He has a point. Bollywood, even when its sons and daughters dance around Swiss meadows, has given Indians a distinct culture, a common dream, one that is accessible to all. The state of Bollywood is largely a blue state. The progressive representation of Muslims for example, though a tad stereotypical, has stressed harmony rather than fissure. The zest that the Guru Dutt cinema of the ’50s put into social reform, finds utterance now through the financial freedom that multiplex movies enjoy. Bollywood has at its best been when engaging with India — warts and all.
This makes the Maharashtra government’s ban on Deshdrohi all the more ironic. The film centres around the problems faced by north Indian migrants to Mumbai. Evidently, the Maharashtra Government found this too close to reality and banned it. It couldn’t be anything else: the censor board cleared it, and the film is running everywhere else. More importantly, the fracas over migration into Mumbai is a very real one, and the need of the hour is a platform for sensible debate. Hindi cinema, by and large, is capable of providing that platform, and has in the past. In fact, as so many other times, this time too it seems to have attempted to weave stories around issues that civil society has not been able to discuss frankly enough. The ban also plays into regional faultlines. Already, the usual suspects have taken positions around state boundary lines: While Bihar’s Ram Vilas Paswan has condemned the ban, the Maharashtra Congress party supports censoring it. Even lawbreaker-in-chief Raj Thackeray has agreed with the ban, believing — a self-fulfilling prophecy? — that the film will give rise to law and order problems.
The Indian Constitution permits all Indians to move freely between its states. This right is at the very core of our federal structure, and that is why Thackeray’s anti-migrant rhetoric is so dangerous. The Maharashtra ban on Deshdrohi is just as insidious: it limits the free movement of ideas across different parts of India. The ban must go now.
o o o (iii) The Times of India 16 November 2008 A FATWA AGAINST MADHUSHALA Manjari Mishra, TNNLUCKNOW: It’s an indictment that came 73 years too late. Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s magnum opus Madhushala, which made him an overnight celebrity with its publication in 1935 has ruffled holy feathers here for “it’s potential for promoting moral depravity and licentiousness in society, particularly among youth”.
On Friday evening, Shahar Qazi Lucknow, Maulana Mufti Abul Irfan Ahmad Jaimul Aleem Qadiri who is also the president of Idara-e-Sharia issued a fatwa against Madhushala.
The book he decreed, “was anti Islamic and also unfit to be taught at any academic institute”. And even as the edict by the veteran cleric, generally regarded as a liberal, has invoked a passionate debate among literary circles, not to mention a feeble protest from his younger colleagues like Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangimahali, the mufti justifies his stance.Mufti Qadiri said that a Muslim organisation from Madhya Pradesh approached him on November 10 with a copy of Madhushala.
“They had sought my opinion over the wisdom of prescribing as text book in schools and colleges a book that eulogised alcohol and drunkenness in society.
The decree, said mufti, was passed after going through the contents which “turned out to be extremly hurtful to the setiments of devout, though this kind of writing has its own set of admirers”. Bachchan sahab may have been a good shair but artistic license can be allowed upto permissible limit which he obviously crossed in his writings, the fatwa maintained.
It categorically states that “paeans to alcohol can only pollute young and impressionable minds and bring about social ruination. Moreover, use of words like masjid, muazzin, Allatala, Eid, marsia, namazi etc along with sharab, sharabi and maykhana is truly blasphemous. The usage only signified mental bankruptcy.”
_____ [9] Indian Express November 14, 2008 ANDHRA’S ‘HEALING TOUCH’ TO TORTURED, ‘INNOCENT’ MUSLIMS: RS 30,000 EACH by Sreenivas Janyalahttp://www.indianexpress.com/news/andhras-healing-touch-to-tortured- innocent-muslims-rs-30-000-each/385496/1
_____ [10] 'HINGLISH' FILMS: TRANSLATING INDIA FOR U.S. AUDIENCES by Bilal Qureshi http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96914703 _____ [11] The London Review of Books 6 November 2008 DIARY Sanjay SubrahmanyamAnyone who has read the inside pages of Indian newspapers over the past few decades will be familiar with the recurring stories of violent urban crime. Some concern ‘crimes of passion’ and use a peculiar Indian English journalistic vocabulary, involving such terms as ‘eve-teasing’, ‘absconding’ and ‘paramour’. Some of the stories have to do with incest or close family relationships – say, between father-in-law and daughter-in-law – while others are tales of paedophilia and ‘child molestation’. Another popular subject of which Delhi residents will be well aware are the crimes committed by the ‘criminal castes’, often linked in the neocolonial imagination of the city’s bourgeoisie to the villages and smallholdings that are gradually being asphyxiated by Delhi’s expansion. It’s been an urban legend since the 1990s that people are being bludgeoned to death in their houses with blunt instruments even though they haven’t resisted; and that the intruders show their contempt for their victims by defecating in their living-rooms. Class elements are present in the reporting of crimes of passion, which the elite naturally associate with slum-dwellers and squatters: the second type of crime involves something approaching class warfare.
[. . .] http://tinyurl.com/6872xs _____ [12] International Association of Historians of Asia (IAHA) 20th Conference, JNU, New Delhi (14 -17 November 2008) Papers to be presented may be of interest to some. http://www.jnu.ac.in/conference/iaha/iaha%20booklet.pdf _____ [13] Announcement: Department of Sociology, University of Delhi Presents DELHI INTERNATIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM FESTIVAL Nov 26 - 30, 2008 http://sociology.du.ac.in/dieff/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ 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://sacw.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/ DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers. _______________________________________________ SACW mailing list SACW@insaf.net http://insaf.net/mailman/listinfo/sacw_insaf.net