South Asia Citizens Wire - 6 October 2014 - No. 2834 [since 1996] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SACW - 6 Oct 2014 |
Contents: 1. Myanmar's Rohingya plan a 'blueprint for segregation' 2. Afghanistan: The Difficult Road to Bamiyan | Jochen-Martin Gutsch 3. The Bangladesh we all long for | Uday Sankar Das 4. Sunila Abeysekera Commemoration 2014: Speech by Nimalka Fernando 5. Sri Lanka: Rajani Thiranagama Commemoration focuses on Democratisation 6. A Study of Online Hate Speech in Sri Lanka 7. Pakistan's TV channels love affair with terrorism has ended for the time being | Pervez Hoodbhoy 8. Pakistan: Pressure from civil society groups to act against culprits behind attacks on minorities 9. Marvi Sirmed: The anti-Pakistan sit-in 10. Compilation of News Reports On Sindh Labour Conference Held In Karachi (September 2014) 11. 2014 Sindh Labour Conference : Selected News Reports 12. India: Doordarshan's Explanation for Broadcasting RSS Speech is Just Plain Stupid (Brinda Karat) 13. India: The Right Not to Believe | Mihir Shah 14. India: Full Text of Bombay High Court Ruling - State Cant Compel Citizens to Declare Religion 15. India: 1984 - to 2012 riots - Thirty years of impunity | Manoj Mitta 16. India: Mr. Modi Preaches a Clean India, But His Record on Waste management and Pollution in Gujarat is Dirty 17. New York protests against Indian PM Modi: End suppression of minorities and desist from clamping down on civil society 18. India: 100 days Under the Modi Led Government: State of Minorities - A Report 19. Critique of the appropriation by Narendra Modi of Indian labor and science involved in the Indian Mars Mission | Amit Singh 20. India: Court Ruling on Encounter Deaths - Showing weak judgement | Colin Gonsalves 21. India - In Service of Big Business: For Modi Government ‘FDI’ means “First Develop Industries” | Rohit Prajapati 22. India: People’s struggle against proposed 6000 MW Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi | Krishnakant, Rohit Prajapati, Trupti Shah 23. Jihadis Hog the Media Limelight Not Those Challenging Them | Karima Bennoune 24. Ibrahim Ag Idbaltanat (Mali) and Francisco Javier Estevez Valencia (Chile) share the 2014 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence 25. Saral Sarkar / Bruno Kern: Eco-Socialism or Barbarism 26. Confrontation: Paris, 1968 A documentary by Seymour Drescher 27. Video: Politics of Communalism in India & How to Counter it? An interview with Subhas Gatade 28. Recent posts on Communalism Watch: ::: FULL TEXT ::: 29. Remember the Rohingya this Eid | Editorial, Dhaka Tribune 30. Myanmar’s Rohingya stuck in refugee limbo in India | Nita Bhalla 31. Nepal: Children of war | Kunda Dixit 32. India: Hindutva’s Head of State: Under Modi’s many hats is one basic ideology | Hartosh Singh Bal 33. ‘I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist’: More Burmese embracing anti-Muslim violence | Max Fisher 34. Video: Maina Kiai UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association interviewed by Teesta Setalvad 35. India: Northeast policy should dispense with archaic systems like the inner line | Sanjib Baruah 36. China - Hongkong: The Party and the People | Evan Osnos 37. A Beautifully Illustrated History of Nearly Two Centuries of Bicycle Design and Technology ========================================= 1. MYANMAR'S ROHINGYA PLAN A 'BLUEPRINT FOR SEGREGATION' ========================================= Myanmar has drafted plans that would offer the Rohingya minority the chance of citizenship if they change their ethnicity. http://sacw.net/article9694.html ========================================= 2. AFGHANISTAN: THE DIFFICULT ROAD TO BAMIYAN | Jochen-Martin Gutsch ========================================= It was to be a symbol of reconstructed Afghanistan: a paved highway from Kabul to the beautiful valley of Bamiyan. Construction has long been underway, but the project may never be completed — a victim of the realities in present-day Afghanistan. http://sacw.net/article9664.html ========================================= 3. THE BANGLADESH WE ALL LONG FOR | Uday Sankar Das ========================================= The scars inflicted on September 29, 2012 in Ramu will take a long time to heal. It has been two years now since a number of Buddhist monasteries and houses of Buddhists were razed to the ground in Ramu, Ukhia, Teknaf, and Cox’s Bazar on a night of mayhem on September 29, 2012. This carnage no doubt tarnished the image of Bangladesh both at home and abroad. The events, painful as they were and still are, still rekindled hopes about the kind of country we fought for and long for. http://sacw.net/article9651.html ========================================= 4. SUNILA ABEYSEKERA COMMEMORATION 2014: Speech by Nimalka Fernando ========================================= We as individual human rights activists, as well as the human rights community as a whole greatly miss Sunila today. As we struggle to grapple with myriads of contemporary challenges we miss her indomitable character, and energy. As we gather today to celebrate her life and work since she left us so suddenly – exactly an year ago, her memories still remain fresh in my mind. As I stated in my speech made in the first South Asian Sunila memorial lecture held in Dhaka organised last year by Sangat the South Asian Feminist, we will continue to remain in conversation with you Sunila. http://sacw.net/article9708.html ========================================= 5. SRI LANKA: RAJANI THIRANAGAMA COMMEMORATION FOCUSES ON DEMOCRATISATION ========================================= Following the assassination of Dr. Rajani Thiranagama on 21 September 1989 by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a well-attended commemoration and a peaceful march were held in Jaffna, in which large numbers of students, clergy, activists, both local and international, and ordinary people participated. Twenty-five years ago these events took place despite the very hostile and intimidating environment. http://sacw.net/article9631.html ========================================= 6. A STUDY OF ONLINE HATE SPEECH IN SRI LANKA ========================================= A considerable amount of social media hate speech in Sri Lanka occurs on Facebook. The ability to like, share and comment on posts allows forums for supporters to engage, to plan rallies and other events and keep all similar posts in one place. It also allows admins of pages to remove and ban dissenting voices, allowing a greater degree of control than platforms such as Twitter. This phenomenon is not only relevant to Sri Lanka. According to the Umati Project in Kenya “only 3% of (...) http://sacw.net/article9620.html ========================================= 7. PAKISTAN'S TV CHANNELS LOVE AFFAIR WITH TERRORISM HAS ENDED FOR THE TIME BEING | Pervez Hoodbhoy ========================================= For 10 years after 9/11, Pakistanis had lived in a delusionary bubble. A majority had been brainwashed into believing that terrorism in Pakistan was the work of some “foreign hand”. So, even when various militant groups angry at Pakistan proudly claimed suicide missions against military and civilian targets, they were ignored. No Muslim could kill another Muslim, was then the prevailing logic. Surely Pakistan's eternal enemies — India, Israel, America, or maybe even Afghanistan and Iran — were responsible. The foreign hand myth was nurtured by overpaid and wilfully ignorant TV anchors http://sacw.net/article9666.html ========================================= 8. PAKISTAN: PRESSURE FROM CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS TO ACT AGAINST CULPRITS BEHIND ATTACKS ON MINORITIES ========================================= a collection of news clippings from the Pakistan Media with reports about civil society efforts to pressure the state to act against culprits behind attacks on the Hindu minority in Pakistan http://sacw.net/article9642.html ========================================= 9. MARVI SIRMED: THE ANTI-PAKISTAN SIT-IN ========================================= While the revolution is still brewing on Constitution Avenue in Punjab’s kettle, with a spoonful of tea-leaves from Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and the steaming hot water of 7th Avenue, there is another Pakistan awaiting our courtesy. This ‘other’ Pakistan is never going to be, Insha-Allah, the adret anyway for its obvious lack of brusqueness and sonorousness that our very own revolutionaries have. Despite more important issues of a ‘stolen mandate’ at hand, we might still give a perfunctory and gracious look of ours to their unnecessary noise. http://sacw.net/article9654.html ========================================= 10. COMPILATION OF NEWS REPORTS ON SINDH LABOUR CONFERENCE HELD IN KARACHI (SEPTEMBER 2014) ========================================= Two PDF files posted here contain reports from the Pakistani press in Urdu and English (from 26 September - 30 September 2014) on the Sindh Labour Conference held in Karachi that was hosted by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research. http://sacw.net/article9678.html ========================================= 11. 2014 SINDH LABOUR CONFERENCE : SELECTED NEWS REPORTS ========================================= http://sacw.net/article9652.html ========================================= 12. INDIA: DOORDARSHAN'S EXPLANATION FOR BROADCASTING RSS SPEECH IS JUST PLAIN STUPID (Brinda Karat) ========================================= It is a reflection of dark times that the day after the country celebrated the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, an organisation which had been implicated in his assassination gets to have the speech of its leader broadcast, and that too, live, courtesy of the national broadcaster Doordarshan. This is a complete misuse of official machinery to promote the ideology and leadership of an organization which has no constitutional status. It also signals an ominous development that under the Modi Government, the RSS will have access to the institutions of the State. http://sacw.net/article9689.html ========================================= 13. INDIA: THE RIGHT NOT TO BELIEVE | Mihir Desai ========================================= Freedom of religion and conscience includes the freedom not to believe. And given the fundamental right to freedom of speech, a person is allowed to say she is an atheist. http://sacw.net/article9705.html ========================================= 14. INDIA: FULL TEXT OF BOMBAY HIGH COURT RULING - STATE CANT COMPEL CITIZENS TO DECLARE RELIGION ========================================= http://sacw.net/article9624.html ========================================= 15. INDIA: 1984 - TO 2012 RIOTS - THIRTY YEARS OF IMPUNITY | Manoj Mitta ========================================= Manoj Mitta's presentation at a Congressional briefing in the Capitol Hill complex organised by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on September 30, 2014. http://sacw.net/article9680.html ========================================= 16. INDIA: MR. MODI PREACHES A CLEAN INDIA, BUT HIS RECORD ON WASTE MANAGEMENT AND POLLUTION IN GUJARAT IS DIRTY | Rohit Prajapati ========================================= Mr. Modi launched the “Swachh Bharat Mission” on 2 October 2014 and in his message on his website, he says, “A clean India is the best tribute we can pay to Bapu when we celebrate his 150th birth anniversary in 2019. […] I want to remind Mr. Modi that earlier as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi had also launched similar campaign 'Nirmal Gujarat - 2007'[2] and made tall claims during that campaign. But reality is best seen in Ahmedabad at illegal solid waste dumping site, the ‘Gyaspur-Pirana Dumping Site' – a Waste Mountain near Sabarmati River adjacent to the main road. http://sacw.net/article9679.html ========================================= 17. NEW YORK PROTESTS SEND CLEAR DEMANDS TO INDIAN PM MODI: END SUPPRESSION OF MINORITIES AND DESIST FROM CLAMPING DOWN ON CIVIL SOCIETY INSTITUTIONS ========================================= Press release 28 September 2014: Alliance for Justice and Accountability, a broad coalition of organizations and individuals, announced that the rally this morning in New York City during Prime Minister Modi’s event at Madison Square Garden, was a huge success. Hundreds of people, including human rights activists, professionals, students and people from all walks of life attended the rally. Protesters were a large and spirited group of Indian Americans comprising of people of all faiths and ideological persuasions, with one thing in common: they were demanding justice and accountability in the case of Mr. Modi, and an end to repression of minorities and crony capitalism in India. http://sacw.net/article9649.html ========================================= 18. INDIA: 100 DAYS UNDER THE MODI LED GOVERNMENT: STATE OF MINORITIES - A Report ========================================= ’100 Days Under the New Regime The State of Minorities A Report Edited by John Dayal’ was released in New Delhi on the 27th of September 2014 at a public meeting held at Jantar Mantar New Delhi. Posted here is the full report along with a press release. http://sacw.net/article9648.html ========================================= 19. Whose achievements? Whose ’Purusharth’?: critique of the appropriation of Indian labor and science involved in the Indian Mars Mission by Narendra Modi by Amit Singh ========================================= This is indeed a great achievement of the whole Indian science establishment. But Mr Modi did not miss this chance and converted the whole thing into a show of cheap nationalism. He kept invoking the ’purusharth’ (manhood), presumably, of male scientists when his 2 inches wide eyes could have easily seen a large contingent of women scientists showing some big fingers to all the patriarchs. Instead Mr Modi, like sadakchaap (road loafer) self-help gurus who find immense pleasures in throwing a barrage of acronyms upon you and keep themselves busy in crass analogies, apparently helped the mummyji (MOM) of Mars to meet her daughter! http://sacw.net/article9625.html ========================================= 20. INDIA: COURT RULING ON ENCOUNTER DEATHS - SHOWING WEAK JUDGEMENT by Colin Gonsalves ========================================= The crux of the matter was the filing of an FIR against the police officer in all cases of encounter killings. The crux of the matter was the filing of an FIR against the police officer in all cases of encounter killings. http://sacw.net/article9633.html ========================================= 21. INDIA - IN SERVICE OF BIG BUSINESS: FOR MODI GOVERNMENT ‘FDI’ MEANS “FIRST DEVELOP INDUSTRIES”. by Rohit Prajapati ========================================= I strongly feel that Mr. Modi is trying to convert the Government of India into the Government of India Pvt. Ltd. and it is time for all people’s movements, trade unions and progressive people to fight back his “Make in India” mission. It is necessary to understand that talking only about the Hindutva agenda, while not addressing this agenda, enables the neoliberal push to go ahead. http://sacw.net/article9644.html ========================================= 22. INDIA: PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE AGAINST PROPOSED 6000 MW NUCLEAR POWER PLANT AT MITHI VIRDI (planned with American company -Westinghouse Electric Corporation) by Krishnakant, Rohit Prajapati, Trupti Shah ========================================= The affected villagers of proposed 6000 MW Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi – Jaspara are planning to organise a protest in their villages on 28 September 2014 during the USA visit of Mr. Modi, the Prime Minister of India. http://sacw.net/article9641.html ========================================= 23. JIHADIS HOG THE MEDIA LIMELIGHT NOT THOSE CHALLENGING THEM | Karima Bennoune ========================================= Unfortunately, jihadists make headlines while those who wage the anti-jihad rarely do. After all, everyone has heard of Osama bin Laden, but few know of those standing up to would-be bin Ladens across the globe. There is a long, untold history of brave individuals of Muslim heritage who have challenged extremists. http://sacw.net/article9667.html ========================================= 24. IBRAHIM AG IDBALTANAT (MALI) AND FRANCISCO JAVIER ESTEVEZ VALENCIA (CHILE) SHARE THE 2014 UNESCO-MADANJEET SINGH PRIZE FOR THE PROMOTION OF TOLERANCE AND NON-VIOLENCE ========================================= UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova has designated two grassroots peace-builders and human rights activists - Ibrahim Ag Idbaltanat from Mali and Francisco Javier Estevez Valencia from Chile - winners of the 2014 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence. http://sacw.net/article9623.html ========================================= 25. SARAL SARKAR / BRUNO KERN: ECO-SOCIALISM OR BARBARISM ========================================= The capitalistic and large-scale-industrial economic model and way of life, which have got the upper hand in the whole world, have accelerated a two-fold destruction process: the process of destruction of our natural basis of life and, simultaneously, the process of exclusion of ever larger sections of humanity from the economic and social bases of living. The two processes reinforce each other. http://sacw.net/article9653.html ========================================= 26. CONFRONTATION: PARIS, 1968 A DOCUMENTARY BY SEYMOUR DRESCHER ========================================= The film looks at the student and worker upheaval in France in May, 1968. http://sacw.net/article9622.html ========================================= 27. VIDEO: POLITICS OF COMMUNALISM IN INDIA & HOW TO COUNTER IT? An interview with Subhas Gatade ========================================= Newsclick Production, September 24, 2014: Nakul Singh Sawhney from Newsclick speaks to Subhash Gatade about the growing instances of communal assaults to analyse the politics of both majority and minority communalism and why secular forces have failed to curb them. http://sacw.net/article9621.html ========================================= 28. RECENT ON COMMUNALISM WATCH: ========================================= available at: http://communalism.blogspot.in/ - Bangladesh minister fired for Hajj remarks - Gujarat Vidyapeeth Opposes Reprinting of Gandhi's Books with Hindu Religious Symbols - Modi the Pracharak opens doors for RSS Boss to State Media - Cartoon in The Hindu, 4 October 2014 - Posters by Hindu Krantikari Sena that appeared in early october 2014 in the Bawana area of Delhi - RSS broadcast is only one indication of rising control over Doordarshan, insiders complain - Finaly Congresss Moves its Ass it is planning to do a sit in at Doordarshan over airing of Mohan Bhagwat speech - India: A dangerous line was crossed when Doordarshan telecast Bhagwat’s speech live (Chaitanya Kalbag) - India: Propping up RSS is a dangerous idea (Editorial in Deccan Chronicle) - India: Political impudence (Editorial in DNA on Broadcast of RSS chief Bhagwat's speech on Doordarshan News) - India: Are we legally bound to stand during the national anthem? (Saurav Datta) - India: Sena - BJP stalemate, There is more to drama than seat sharing (Kumar Ketkar) - India: VHP to set up beef 'checkpoints' in the wake of Eid - India: Gujarat Govt Denies nod to the SIT to challenge bail for - India: Nationalistic fervor of ruling party may foment further violence against minorities (John Dayal) - India: Left Parties Condemn RSS broadcast on State TV on 3 October 2014 - Text of speech by RSS chief on 3 October that was broadcast live on state funded TV in India - India: In Madhya Pradesh cops declare marriage of a Christian with a Hindu woman invalid - Breaking all rules Hindutva body the 'RSS''s chief's annual address broadcast live on Doordarshan India's Public Television 3 October 2014 - India: Banal Racism of Everyday - Lynch Mob Attacks on Three Africans in Delhi's Metro - India: Vadodara BJP’s ward chief among 90 arrested for violence - India: Tridents, sawstikas used on decorative pieces installed for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in New Delhi and removed soon after newspapers pointed these out - India: Ignorance, lies pose as truth in RSS' history books (Sitaram Yechury) ::: FULL TEXT ::: ========================================= 29. REMEMBER THE ROHINGYA THIS EID Editorial, Dhaka Tribune ========================================= (Tribune Editorial, october 5, 2014) The Myanmar government must end the institutional discrimination that forced so many to flee their homes Myanmar’s recent decision to demand Rohingyas in Myanmar register as “Bengali” in official records is a continuation of the discriminatory policies which created the unsafe climate that has forced so many Rohingya to flee their homes. The government of Myanmar does not include “Rohingya” as an ethnic group in its population census. By asking that they register as Bengali, the state is demanding that they be considered as “recent migrants” from Bengal, rather than be accepted as an ethnic community which has lived in Myanmar for centuries. Bangladeshis are fortunate to enjoy extended national celebrations this holiday period, thanks to the near convergence of Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja this year. As a time for piety, as well as relaxation and thanks-giving, these festivals should remind us of the need to end the discrimination endured by people in our neighbouring nation. It is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of undocumented Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Bangladesh. Bangladeshis should be proud of the fact that we have accepted so many more refugees from Myanmar than other richer countries, both officially and unofficially. Rohingya refugees deserve every possible sympathy. Nonetheless, Rohingya refugees were forced upon us by the apartheid regime and communal violence sponsored by the government of Myanmar. The Myanmar government must end its institutional discrimination and allow the safe repatriation of refugees who want to return to their homes. Otherwise, the international community may wish to rethink decisions to lift economic sanctions against the Myanmar military regime. - See more at: http://www.dhakatribune.com/editorial/2014/oct/05/remember-rohingya-eid ========================================= 30. MYANMAR’S ROHINGYA STUCK IN REFUGEE LIMBO IN INDIA by Nita Bhalla / Reuters, Delhi ========================================= Gulf Times, 18 September 2014 A woman, who says she belongs to the Rohingya community from Myanmar, cooks food outside her makeshift shelter in a camp in New Delhi. India, despite hosting some 30,000 registered refugees, has no legal recognition of asylum seekers, making it difficult for them to use essential services like schools and hospitals, human rights groups say - and the Rohingya community is among the most vulnerable. When Kohinoor, a stateless Rohingya Muslim, fled her home in Myanmar after a wave of attacks by majority Buddhists, she hoped for a chance to rebuild her life in a new country. She knew she would have to trek for days with little food and water and risk her life being smuggled across borders by traffickers. But she and her family did not imagine their present life of destitution and discrimination in India, the country they had chosen as their refuge. “We were chased out of Burma (Myanmar). We were chased out of Bangladesh. Now we are in India, the people here tell us that India is not our country. So where will we go?” asked Kohinoor, 20, sitting in a makeshift tent on a patch of wasteland in southern Delhi. “We don’t have any land of our own. Our children don’t go to the government schools as they refuse us admission. When we go to the hospital, they don’t admit people from our community,” said Kohinoor, who fled Myanmar two years ago with her two-year-old daughter and her sister’s family. Though the Rohingya minority have lived for generations in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, the largely Buddhist government passed a citizenship law in 1982 which excluded them, denying them the identity cards required for everything from schooling and marriage to finding a job and getting a birth or death certificate. They became stateless. Hundreds died in communal violence between Buddhists and Rohingya in 2012, worsening their plight, and in the last two years more than 86,000 Rohingya have left, fleeing to countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, India and Bangladesh. The Rohingya are among an estimated 10mn stateless people worldwide. Their plight is being discussed during the first global forum on statelessness in The Hague, ahead of an ambitious UN campaign starting in November to eradicate statelessness worldwide within a decade. India, despite hosting some 30,000 registered refugees, has no legal recognition of asylum seekers, making it difficult for them to use essential services like schools and hospitals, human rights groups say - and the Rohingya community is among the most vulnerable. According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), there are around 9,000 Rohingya registered in Delhi. Thousands more, unregistered, are living in other parts of the country such as Jammu and Hyderabad. In Delhi, most of them lead impoverished lives in tented settlements dotted around the city, eking out a meagre existence collecting and selling garbage or doing manual work for Indians, often underpaid and exploited. Because they have no identity documents, they cannot send their children to school or use health services at government hospitals. They cannot rent accommodation and face problems getting work. Many say they have been forced to sleep under plastic sheets on roadsides or patches of wasteland for weeks or months, before local residents or authorities move them on. “Our home is Myanmar but they chased us out,” said 21-year-old Abdul Sukur at a camp housing some 60 families in Delhi’s Okhla district. “Here also we don’t belong. People abuse us for living on the streets and say we are making the place dirty. We have to shift constantly. We need permanent land in India where we can settle and have proper identity documents which we can show,” he said. Considered a haven in a volatile region, India has for decades hosted refugees fleeing conflict or persecution in countries like Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Afghanistan, China and Myanmar. But its refugees have no legal status. Decisions about refugees are taken on an ad hoc basis and some groups, such as Sri Lankan Tamils and Tibetans, have been given certain rights and support. Others, such as the Rohingya, have been less fortunate. Dominik Bartsch, UNHCR India’s chief of mission, said the UNHCR identity cards given to registered refugees are often not recognised as they are not issued by the government. The agency is partnering with non-governmental organisations which are going into refugee communities to help them negotiate access to basic services, he added. “Overall if you look at how India looks after refugees, it is a functioning protection regime. There are no big violations of refugee rights, although there are lots of things that could improve,” Bartsch said. “There is differential treatment of refugees. You have to analyse the period when they arrived and also look at the bilateral relationship with the country of origin. These are the two factors that shape how India has treated refugees over time.” New Delhi has twice blocked draft laws on refugee recognition. Because of its porous borders, often hostile neighbours and external militancy, it wants a free hand to regulate the entry of foreigners without being tied down by any legal obligation, analysts said. UNHCR’s Bartsch said the inability of refugees to state their claim to asylum was actually driving them underground, making them more exposed to militancy. “Currently, there is no channel available to present a case to the government,” he said. “Anyone who runs away from their country is forced to go underground and that results in people being off the grid, bereft of any support and subject to criminal activity and, worst case, even fundamentalism.” For Kohinoor, little of this makes sense. “I don’t know about laws,” she said. “Every country is kicking us around like a football. From one country to another, people are playing with us. We want the world to make a decision about us. We want them to give us some land in any country which we can then call home.” source URL: http://tinyurl.com/mbhf2vo ========================================= 31. NEPAL: CHILDREN OF WAR by Kunda Dixit ========================================= (Nepali Times, 26 Sep - 2 Oct 2014 #726) The most vulnerable victims are still those who were children during the war. Purnima was 13 when the Maoists took her father, they tortured him by cutting off his leg, then they shot him. Her brother was also severely tortured, and is disabled. Purnima herself was forced to become a child soldier. Today 23-year-old, Purnima earns Rs 3,000 a month and supports her remaining family including her cancer-ridden mother. She didn’t get any support from the government.. Here she is holding a picture of her murdered father. The death this week of Nanda Prasad Adhikari after nearly a year-long hunger strike demanding justice for the torture and murder of his son in 2004 has thrown into sharp focus the violent legacy of the conflict. Adhikari’s death exposed the apathy of the state, the collusion between former enemies to forget past atrocities, and the unfinished business of setting up commissions to look at truth and reconciliation and enforced disappearances. The state, under successive governments since 2006, would like to conveniently forget gross violations of human rights during the war. Now, there is concern about the health of Nanda Prasad’s wife, Ganga Maya. Women and children witnessed unimaginable cruelty during the conflict, and they have been forgotten during the peace process. Many of the children are now young adults, and besides the physical wounds they also carry emotional scars. Some wounded got artificial limbs, but we largely forgot the psychological injuries suffered by children. The state now pretends the war is finished business. But as long as the physical and mental trauma of the survivors remain, it will not be over. The government says the emphasis is now on repairing bridges and building highways, it wants to move on. There are just too many loose ends to do that. All photos: Jan Møller Hansen Post-traumatic stress is still rife among women and children who witnessed and suffered brutal violence, and it afflicts young combatants too. Many lost their homes and property and haven’t been able to go back. Thousands of others were internally displaced, or migrated to India with their entire families, never to return. Many of them never received any support from the government. Resources earmarked by donors through the Peace Ministry and distributed through local Peace Committees have often been siphoned off by party faithful and fake victims. Among all the victims, the most vulnerable are still those who were children during the war: whole-timers who became child soldiers, students force-marched to reeducation camps, the wounded, and orphans. Many thousands of others were victims of gender-based violence, sexual abuse,unlawful recruitment by armed groups. Even after the war ended, it is the children who have been killed or have lost limbs to unexploded ordnances. Eight years after the war ended, at least 740 children are still residing in childcare homes across Nepal and waiting to be reintegrated with their families. No one knows the real figures, but it is accepted that the official statistics grossly underestimate the numbers of war-affected children in the country. After the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Accord, the emphasis was on identifying, reintegrating and supporting children associated with armed forces and groups. Some verified minors below 18 and late recruits got support for reintegration. The government endorsed a ‘National Plan of Action for Reintegration of Conflict Affected Children’ in 2010, but not much has happened. The international conventions on rights of children that Nepal has ratified do not make any difference for those who were minors during the war. ========================================= 32. INDIA: HINDUTVA’S HEAD OF STATE: UNDER MODI’S MANY HATS IS ONE BASIC IDEOLOGY by Hartosh Singh Bal ========================================= (The Caravan - 1 October 2014) During his election campaign and as prime minister, Narendra Modi has demonstrated a willingness to reach out to communities considered, even marginally, to be “Hindu” in the RSS’s ideological scheme. Muslims and christians do not come under this umbrella. LAST MONTH, in his first interview as prime minister, Narendra Modi told the CNN news show host Fareed Zakaria the blandest of truths: “Indian Muslims will live for India, they will die for India—they will not want anything bad for India.” Predictably, expectations from Modi on this score are so low that this made headlines. The pre-recorded interview left out an obvious follow-up question (somehow Modi’s interviewers always skip the obvious follow-ups): Your public life has largely been spent in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, to which you continue to owe allegiance—how do you respond to Muslims who are understandably alarmed by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s recent claim that India is a Hindu nation? On 17 August, Bhagwat, speaking in Mumbai, stated, “Hindustan is a Hindu nation. Hindutva is the identity of our nation. There are different communities in it. And such is its strength that it can incorporate these other communities in itself.” Commentators hoping this would prompt a rap on the knuckles from the prime minister expressed consternation. “Bhagwat statements last thing needed just after Modi’s pleasantly inclusive I-Day speech,” the editor Shekhar Gupta tweeted, “Anushasan needed.” Perhaps Gupta had forgotten that the Sangh is the dispenser of anushasan—discipline—and not Modi. After all, Bhagwat, in Mumbai for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s golden jubilee, was echoing an idea that has long reverberated through the rhetoric of the Hindu right. The problem is not that Bhagwat and Modi do not agree, but that they do. For the first time in independent India we have a government that believes exactly what its backers in the Sangh believe: that a set of citizens has the right to lay down terms of national identity that privilege them over others. Veer Savarkar, a self-professed atheist and revolutionary, first coined the term “Hindutva” in 1923. Perhaps his clearest articulation of the concept was in a speech he gave as the founding president of the Hindu Mahasabha, where he boiled down what it meant to be Hindu to two essential factors: “Everyone who regards and claims this bharatbhoomi from the Indus to the seas as his fatherland and holy land is a Hindu.” This position was inherently exclusionary, as Savarkar made clear: “Just as by the first constituent of Hindutva, the possession of a common holy land, the Indian Mohammedans, Jews, Christians, Parsis, etc. are excluded from claiming themselves as Hindus, which in reality also they do not … so also on the other hand the second constituent of the definition, that of possessing a common fatherland, excludes the Japanese, the Chinese and others from the Hindu fold… ” The leaders of the Sangh have always stood by this definition of belonging, highlighting certain parts of it according to their convenience. For example, it is difficult to understand how Indian-origin citizens of other countries, large numbers of whom support the RSS, qualify as “Hindus” when they can no longer list Hindustan as their “fatherland.” But then, while the definition of Hindutva was always a matter of selectivity, people of Hindu origin in other lands were not the targets of exclusion—some select inhabitants of India were. This was made explicit by MS Golwalkar, the second chief of the RSS, who is perhaps the most important figure in the history of Hindutva and a man Narendra Modi publicly acknowledges as his idol. “Bharatiya” would not suffice as a term for Hindus, Golwalkar argued in his 1966 Bunch of Thoughts, because “there is a misconception regarding that word. It is commonly used as a translation of the word ‘India’ which includes all the various communities like the Muslim, Christian etc., residing in this land. So, the word ‘Bharatiya’ is likely to mislead us when we want to denote our particular society. The word ‘Hindu’ alone connotes correctly and completely the meaning that we want to convey.” Why was it necessary for the RSS leadership to convey any particular meaning of “our particular society”? The answer is implicit: to keep Muslims and Christians out of it. Hindutva is often perceived as pitching the ideologues of the Hindu right against secularists. But to frame the debate in this manner is to ignore the larger fact that the RSS is essentially arguing against the very core of the Indian Constitution. The Constitution’s enshrining of individual rights extends well beyond the word “secular,” which was inserted into the preamble as late as 1976 through the controversial 42nd Amendment championed by Indira Gandhi. The Constitution begins by stating that India—that is, Bharat—shall be a Union of States. There is no recourse to history in drawing the boundaries of the republic. The document’s clear definition of citizenship is in stark contrast to the abstractions of Savarkar’s “Hindutva”: “At the commencement of the Constitution every person who has his dominion in the territory of India and—a) who was born in the territory of India; or b) either of whose parents was born in the territory of India; or c) who has been ordinarily resident in the territory of India for not less than five years immediately preceding such commencement—shall be a citizen of India.’’ The Constitution resolutely avoids giving any importance to history, mythology or ethnicity. It defines a geography shared by people who have adopted a set of values enshrined within its pages. Being Hindu has no special significance in this republic. For the RSS this is anathema. Golwalkar provided a good example of how the concept of the “Hindu Rashtra” derives legitimacy by overtly distancing itself from religion while implicitly drawing from a particular set of beliefs and practices. “The word Hindu is not merely ‘religious,’” he said in an interview. It denotes a “people” and their highest values of life. We, therefore, in our concept of nation, emphasize a few basic things: unqualified devotion to the motherland and our cultural ideals, pride in our history which is very ancient, respect for our great forefathers, and lastly, a determination in every one of us to build up a common life of prosperity and security. All this comes under the one caption: “Hindu Rashtra.” We are not concerned with an individual’s mode of worship. Here geography has been granted a sacredness, and mythology that poses as history made a determiner. The “variety of sects and sub-sects like Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakta, Vaidik, Bouddha, Jain, Sikh, Lingayat, Aryasamaj, etc” within this “Hindu” identity, Golwalkar claimed, only hide a deeper unity as “indivisible organs of one common dharma.” But not all these “sects” are willing to accept this classification within the “Hindu” fold. Groups such as the Dalits and tribals may fall within the theoretical embrace of the “Hindu Rashtra,” but find themselves excluded in practice. The battle over nomenclature in the Sangh’s decades-long efforts to co-opt tribals in parts of central India is revelatory. The Sangh prefers the term vanvasi, or “forest dweller,” over adivasi, or “original inhabitant,” even when most tribals today are not forest dwellers, because to accept the latter term would mean acknowledging that other groups could have an older claim to this land. (Organisations such as the Gondwana Gantantara Party, which espouses a Gond identity outside the Hindu fold, define themselves as adivasis precisely to bolster a sense of ownership.) Dalits have never seriously claimed an identity outside the Hindu fold, but have largely stayed away from association with the Sangh. The recent Uttar Pradesh by-elections, which were preceded by the Sangh’s attempts (still ongoing) to polarise Dalits and Muslims, may signal a new strategy for fostering an aggressive “Hindu” identity among “lower-caste” voters. But battles over loudspeakers at temples—one pretext for the polarisation—cannot obscure the fact that for most Dalits even access to temples remains a problem. While Dalits and tribals represent Hindutva’s largest set of dissenters, in theoretical terms the greatest challenge to the ideology is the Sikh assertion of a separate identity, which undermines the very construct of a “Hindu rashtra” from within. With both their fatherland and holy land firmly within the country’s geographical boundaries, the Sikhs of India satisfy Hindutva’s twin criteria for being “Hindus,” but they refuse to accept this nomenclature. On the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in 1986, in the midst of the violence in Punjab, the RSS made a bid to woo the community by floating a new outfit called the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat. Perhaps aware of the potential for controversy, this organisation’s aims continue to be shrouded in the same ambiguity that marks most of the Sangh’s efforts at garnering support from more marginalised “Hindu” communities. The website of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat lists ten “resolutions,” some of which are uncharacteristic as Sikh demands. One states that “in Pakistan, the Hindu shrines should be handed over to the Hindu community and it should be managed only by them. It should be opened for the Hindu devotees of India for Darshans.” Another articulates an RSS position that has few takers in the Sikh community: that “a magnificent temple of Shri Ram should be made.” Such attempts have attracted considerable resistance, providing fodder for only the most radical voices within the Sikh community. In a 2009 case that was underreported in the national media, the head of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, Rulda Singh, was shot in Patiala and died of his injuries two weeks later. Two suspects, allegedly members of the militant group Babbar Khalsa International, were arrested and put on trial. Such violence does not have sanction from much of the Sikh community, but the idea of a separate non-Hindu identity does. At the height of the so-called Modi wave, during the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party was still unable to get its candidate, Arun Jaitley, elected from the Sikh-dominated constituency of Amritsar. However, setting aside this aberration, which in numerical terms counts for little, the RSS does draw great satisfaction from Modi’s electoral victory, tending to see it as an affirmation of the logic that drives their view of India. The BJP has failed to garner support from Christians and Muslims, but it has effectively consolidated a “Hindu” vote cutting across caste. It is in this context that Modi’s rhetoric, which has been so endlessly and so pointlessly analysed, must be understood. Hindutva allows Modi to speak of inclusiveness without spelling out that Muslims and Christians are less than equal by definition. Exclusion is built into the term, and his record in Gujarat bears this out, as do his party’s first few months in power in Delhi. Only those commentators who have tried to project their own longings for an Indian inclusivity onto him have missed noting this consistency. Modi has spoken often about working within the Constitution—but as the prime minister he cannot do otherwise. While he may draw his legitimacy from constitutional values, he draws his core political support from the idea of Hindutva. These are not compatible ideas. Modi may talk of Indian Muslims dying for the country; he could never claim that they would die for Hindutva. Thus far, Modi has reconciled the two by outsourcing the Hindutva agenda to cohorts such as Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath. At some point he is likely to be forced to choose between the Constitution’s guarantees of equality and Hindutva’s implicit exclusivity. While Modi does not have, and is unlikely to get, the parliamentary numbers to fundamentally tamper with the Constitution, we can guess what his instinctive choice would be. We only have to remember that moment in Gujarat when the man who gamely sports headgear from any “Hindu” sect baulked when offered a skullcap. Hartosh Singh Bal is the political editor at The Caravan, and is the author of Waters Close Over Us: A Journey Along the Narmada. ========================================= 33. ‘I AM PROUD TO BE CALLED A RADICAL BUDDHIST’: MORE BURMESE EMBRACING ANTI-MUSLIM VIOLENCE | Max Fisher ========================================= (Washington Post - June 21, 2013) Extremist Ashin Wirathu speaks with fellow monks during a national Buddhist clergy assembly in Hmawbi, Burma. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe) Members of Burma's Buddhist majority, including some of its much-respected monks, are increasingly persecuting the country's long-suffering Muslim minority and adopting an ideology that encourages religious violence. It seems a far way from the Buddhism typically associated with stoic monks and the Lama – who has condemned the violence – and more akin to the sectarian extremism prevalent in troubled corners of the Middle East. The violence has already left nearly 250 Burmese Muslim civilians dead, forced 150,000 from their homes and is getting worse. "You can be full of kindness and love, but you cannot sleep next to a mad dog," Ashin Wirathu, a spiritual leader of the movement and very popular figure in Burma, said of the country's Muslims, whom he called "the enemy." He told the New York Times, "I am proud to be called a radical Buddhist." Wirathu calls himself "the Burmese bin Laden" and was recently labeled on the cover of Time magazine as "the face of Burmese terror." A prominent Burmese human rights activist, after a lifetime of fighting government oppression, now warns that Wirathu's movement is promoting an ideology akin to neo-Nazism. Already, the movement has expanded beyond this one self-styled radical Buddhist monk. It's now expanding across Burma (also known as Myanmar) according to the Times article. The anti-Muslim sentiment has spread with alarming speed over just the last year, as Burma – which is finally opening up after years of military dictatorship – loosened its strict speech laws. It has prompted boycotts and sermons that can sound an awful lot like calls for violence against Muslims. Monasteries associated with the movement have enrolled 60,000 Burmese children into Sunday school programs. By far the worst attack so far was in late March in the central Burmese city of Meiktila. Tellingly, the attack was not let by a single leader or religious figure but carried out by mobs of Buddhists, a worrying sign that Wirathu's violent ideas may have taken hold in the city. A minor dispute at an outdoor jewelry stall between a Buddhist customer and a Muslim vendor escalated rapidly out of control. Buddhist rioters razed entire Muslim neighborhoods, burned several civilians alive and killed up to 200 more Muslims until, after three long days in which the army was conspicuously absent, troops intervened to stop the killing. Here, from Human Rights Watch, is a set of before-and-after satellite images of one of the neighborhoods attacked, where Buddhist mobs destroyed a staggering 442 Muslim homes. Heightening the fear is that none of Burma's leaders has stepped in to end the bloodshed. The military rulers, though they once jailed Wirathu, have held back, perhaps reluctant to risk the backlash at a time when they are willingly abandoning much of their power. Aung San Suu Kyi, the longtime democracy activist who became an international cause as a political prisoner, is so beloved in Burma that she may well become its first democratically elected president. But the Nobel Prize winner has also failed to fully condemn the violence. This has been typically seen as a political choice, meant to avoid angering too many Burmese voters if she wants to maintain national support. As the Economist points out, many Burmese were angered when Suu Kyi criticized a draconian new law that forbids some Burmese Muslims from having more than two children. Unchecked, though, Burma's self-declared radical Buddhists may show no interest in ending their campaign against the country's Muslim minority. ========================================= 34. VIDEO: MAINA KIAI UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE RIGHTS TO FREEDOM OF PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY AND OF ASSOCIATION INTERVIEWED BY TEESTA SETALVAD ========================================= Press Release A true democracy is not about holding elections but how the right to peaceful assembly, protest and association is encouraged, what happens between elections 5.10.2014 United Nations Special Rapporteur, Maina Kiai Catch UN SR on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in an interview with Teesta Setalvad at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsjoqfpLXWU&feature=youtu.be Communalism Combat’s Third Interview, only on HILLELE TV and www.sabrang.com In a brief and candid interview the UN SR, Maina Kiai, explains this relatively new and recent mandate, established by the United Nations in 2010 created in recognition of the need to assert the basic democratic rights to peaceful assembly, protest and association, that were being curtailed by states across the world, north and south, democracies and dictatorships. He accepted that the United Nations label and mandate, with its historical background and some imbalances –even today the United Nations spends just 6 per cent of its budget on the promotion and protection of human rights – is a ‘work in progress’. However, it remains the one and only international body that is consistently evolving a framework to be able to speak to and with states on the evolution of standards for the protection of human rights in general and the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, protest and association in particular. The reports and commentaries by the Special Rapporteurs are thoroughly researched and credible and if and when questions are put to states, this is a movement towards general accountability. In this interview with Teesta Setalvad of Communalism Combat, taken after an Asia-wide interaction and consultation with activists and organisations, Maina Kiai spoke also of the further impact of this curtailing of this right to peaceful assembly and association across the world by the 10-15 year old phenomenon of ‘the dumbing down of the mainstream media”. This dumbing down has meant that the media was now more concerned with the glamorous and celebrity stories than any with deeper content. The media in a sense was betraying itself through this process, he opined, instead of keeping true and consistent with the basic ideals of democratic functioning, which is ‘Informing, Educating and Empowering.’ It is because of this abdication of the mainstream Media’s role worldwide that the fair amplification of human rights protests has been hampered. Elaborating on why and how the test of a real democracy was the basic and fundamental freedoms guaranteed to its peoples, Miana Kiai said that the test of democracy and freedoms is not regular holding and elections but how peaceably a state allows the freedom of assembly and of association and how freely people are allowed to express dissent. Whether a country is actually democratic or not is not reflected by whether it holds regular elections – but whether it allows, actually facilitates peaceful association and allows people to organize into associations without hindrance even if they are challenging government policies. The key word is peaceful. They must be allowed the space to operate even if they are questioning governments. That is their right. Maina Kiai, who’s four major reports as SR on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association have set elaborate international standards for states, since 2011, further elaborated that the role of governments during protests, even if a small section turns violent, ought to be to isolate those elements but allow the peaceful protest to continue. The only way a government can truly understand how its people are feelings is through peaceful assembly and protest and if this right is given space to operate. Through the consultation activists and organisations from Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal. Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India among others shared experiences of their countries. Indian representatives spoke of brute and repressive measures in Chhatisgarh and Jharkand through false and fabricated cases as documented by the Chhatisgarh Bachao Andolan, Chhatisgarh Mukti Morcha, Chhatisgarh PUCL and the Jharkand Mukti Morcha; the decade long anti POSCO agitation that had led to brute repressions against many women villagers in Orissa (represented by the Posco Protirodh Sangram Samitiand Chaasi Mulya Adivasi Sangh) and the over 1000 day on-going protest against the Koodankulum nuclear plant in the southern tip of India. The skewed use of Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code by authorities and administrations has been resulting on a severe curb of the right to free and peaceful assembly and association. Sections of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) applied in Manipur and other states in the north eastern part of India, virtually uninterruptedly since the mid-1950s and in Jammu and Kashmir since the 1990s creates a permanent bar against peaceful assembly and protest. In Mizoram certain amendments to the law are trying to prevent organisations from registration, too. The one sided action of governments, against activists who are vocal on political rights of all including other oppressed populations while right wing, supremacist and violent mob frenzy by groups affiliated to the central ruling dispensation were often allowed unchecked has created a further imbalance within Indian democracy. Finally, the SR said that mature and evolving states, especially representative democracies need to put into place systems and structures where peoples, movements and organisations can dialogue with states and governments to be heard. Peaceful means are a critical means to channelise dissent. It is when peaceful means are curtailed that non violent means are abandoned, Miana Kiai cautioned, Therefore governments must listen so that they become responsive. India, which is today the world’s largest democracy should also be at the vanguard for the protection and respecter of human rights in their every facet. When asked specifically about the issue of the speedy clearances being given to mega projects, often disregarding livelihood and environmental concerns, the Special rapporteur said that history had shown, especially during the frenetic phases of industrialization in the past that societies had paid huge costs in terms of human welfare and environmental protection. Smart and sustainable development demands that we show we have learnt from these bitter lessons from our collective past. UN SR Maina Kiai had hoped to visit India officially and is still hopeful that the government of India will soon encourage an official mission. The mandate and mission of this SR can be understood from http://freeassembly.net ========================================= 35. INDIA: DIVIDING LINE - NORTHEAST POLICY SHOULD DISPENSE WITH ARCHAIC SYSTEMS LIKE THE INNER LINE | Sanjib Baruah ========================================= (Indian Express, October 3, 2014) Northeast policy should dispense with archaic systems like the inner line There is a deep anachronism at the heart of India’s Northeast policy: the continuing reliance on archaic colonial-era institutions. The disconnect between the original rationale for those institutions and modern realities grows wider each day. The controversy over inner-line permits for passengers travelling on the proposed Rajdhani Express between Arunachal Pradesh and New Delhi brings home this contradiction. The decision to let the train reservations do the work of inner-line permits may make eminent practical sense. But the issue raises a deeper question: can the ideas that the Rajdhani symbolises — national connectivity, mobility, speed and economic dynamism — be reconciled with an archaic institution like the inner line? First introduced in 1873, the inner line can only be understood in the context of what Curzon described as the “frontier system” of the empire, which had a “threefold” frontier: an administrative border, a frontier of active protection and an outer or advanced strategic frontier. Only in the areas inside its “administrative” border did the British establish direct rule. Most of present-day Assam was the area within the administrative border of colonial Assam, where a promising new economy of tea, oil and coal production was taking shape in the latter half of the 19th century. Establishing modern property rights and a legal and administrative system in this enclave of global capitalism was a priority. Beyond the inner line were “tribal areas”, which Curzon described as a zone of “active protection”. The British had given away huge tracts of land to European tea planters using the fiction of Assam’s vast “wastelands”. But the process involved the subversion of old economic and social networks and property regimes. Thus in the early years, the tea plantations were frequently attacked by marauding “barbarians”. The inner line was a way of fencing in the tea plantations. The colonial government had little interest in extending modern institutions beyond the administrative border. Launching occasional military expeditions to teach the “primitive tribesmen” a lesson was considered enough. There was also a set of racial assumptions at work: the colonial habit of fixing peoples to their supposed natural habitats. Certain peoples beyond the inner line were described as “very primitive peoples”. Sometimes ,members of an ethnic group living in one location would be described as “a degraded, backward type”, contrasting them to members of the same group living in their “abode proper”, which supposedly had superior qualities. Thus it became necessary to distinguish between so-called pure and impure types, which in turn required fences to keep people in their assigned physical spaces. What explains the contemporary appeal of the inner line? Its appeal is not restricted to Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland, where the inner line has continued since colonial times. There have been campaigns demanding the inner line in Meghalaya and Manipur as well. Even ethnic activists in Assam have flirted with the idea. And successive generations of Indian policymakers have found the inner line to be a necessary condition for political stability. The economic heartland of colonial Assam, not surprisingly, comprised the plains districts located within the administrative border. By contrast, most of the sparsely populated hill areas — especially those beyond the inner line — became the economic backwaters. It is a curious stroke of fate that the inner line is now viewed so positively. It is seen primarily as a legal instrument for excluding outsiders — an unintended consequence of incremental policymaking that has created a number of de facto ethnic homelands in the Northeast. There is growing appeal for the idea among those who don’t yet have such exclusionary homelands. However, contemporary ethnic activists are not entirely unaware of the ambiguous legacy of the inner line. It is a factor in the border disputes between some Northeastern states and Assam. Ethnic activists in states beyond the inner line covet certain plains and foothill areas — located outside the inner line — partly because of the relative economic dynamism they exude. The inner line produces a major structural dilemma for the 21st century practice of citizenship. To borrow the words of Mahmood Mamdani, they penalise those that the commodity economy dynamises. Those that are mobile and find their way into areas beyond the inner line are defined as outsiders. Further, mobility on the part of those considered native to that zone is discouraged because preferences that go with native status are made specific to habitats to which particular groups are fixed. How long can such an institution be the basis for defining rights and entitlements in the Northeast? The task of breaking away from the ideas of race, ethnicity and territoriality on which colonial rule was founded cannot be postponed forever. A politics of the future must be based on understanding the ways in which people actually live their lives — transcending those colonial zones and enclaves — and a vision of a common tomorrow for all those who live in the region today. The writer is professor of political studies, Bard College, New York. ========================================= 36. CHINA AND HONG KONG: THE PARTY AND THE PEOPLE by Evan Osnos ========================================= (The New Yorker, October 13, 2014 Issue) When Hong Kong returned to Chinese control, in 1997, after a century and a half under British rule, the Communist Party rejoiced at recovering the jewel of the Crown Colonies, a tiny archipelago of two hundred and thirty-six islands and rocks, with more Rolls-Royces per capita than anywhere else in the world and a film industry that had produced more movies each year than Hollywood. But the people of Hong Kong feared that the Party would unwind the idiosyncratic combination of English and Cantonese culture that made the city so distinctive—with its independent barristers in wigs and its Triad bosses in Versace, all documented by a scandal-loving free press and set on a subtropical mountainscape that’s equal parts Manhattan and Hawaii. At the time of reunification, Beijing pledged to endow Hong Kong with a “high degree of autonomy” under a deal called “one country, two systems.” But it was a fragile conceit, and, this summer, it failed. The Communist Party had promised to give Hong Kong citizens the chance to vote for the territory’s top official in 2017, but, in August, Beijing released the details: only candidates acceptable to the central government would be permitted to run. On September 26th, after weeks of tension, a couple of hundred students occupied the forecourt of the Hong Kong government’s headquarters. The police arrested Joshua Wong, a seventeen-year-old student leader whose celebrity reflects the rise of young activists who are less apprehensive about challenging Beijing than recent generations have been. Wong was released two days later, but his arrest attracted sympathizers, and when police unleashed tear gas and pepper spray, demonstrators brandished umbrellas in self-defense, creating an instant symbol of resistance. Numbering at times up to a hundred thousand, they were staging the most high-profile protests against the Communist Party since the student-led uprising in Tiananmen Square, in June of 1989. By week’s end, students, who were calling for the resignation of Hong Kong’s leader, Leung Chun-ying, had agreed to talks with the local government but vowed to remain encamped in the streets. The dispute isn’t only about politics. The population of seven million has one of the highest levels of income inequality in the world, a gap that has widened since China regained sovereignty. University graduates, unable to afford apartments, sleep on their parents’ couches and blame local developers for coöperating with apparatchiks in Beijing to maximize real-estate prices. It had been hoped that open elections would hold leaders accountable and break up the concentration of economic power. The strain is also cultural: even though Hong Kong businesses have benefitted from China’s growth, locals resent the influx of wealthy mainlanders who feed the property boom. Last week, a student organizer named Lester Shum told a crowd that Hong Kong remains a colonial state. Resolving the crisis falls to President Xi Jinping, in Beijing. Eighteen months after taking office, the tall, phlegmatic son of the Communist aristocracy has swiftly consolidated control of the Party and the military, arresting thousands of officials in an anti-corruption campaign and promoting his personal brand of power. For years, Beijing has downplayed the importance of any single leader, for fear of creating another cult of personality. Xi is reversing that trend: he has already graced the pages of the People’s Daily more times than any leader since Chairman Mao; last week, the government issued a book of his quotations in nine languages. Xi sanctifies absolutism as a key to political survival. In a speech to Party members in 2012, he asked, “Why did the Soviet Communist Party collapse? An important reason was that its ideals and convictions wavered. Eventually, all it took was a quiet word from Gorbachev to declare the dissolution of the Soviet Communist Party, and the great Party was gone. In the end, nobody was man enough to come out and resist.” But the very strategy that Xi has adopted for safeguarding the government in Beijing has hastened the crisis in Hong Kong. He has staked his Presidency on a “great renewal” of China, a nationalist project that leaves little room for regional identities. Last year, when the Party faced mounting complaints over deadly air pollution, Internet censorship, and rampant graft, it arrested lawyers, activists, and journalists in the harshest such measure in decades, and circulated an internal directive to senior members. The notice identified seven “unmentionable” topics: Western-style democracy, “universal values,” civil society, pro-market liberalism, a free press, “nihilist” criticisms of Party history, and questions about the pace of China’s reforms. The list was, in retrospect, a near-perfect inventory of the liberties that distinguish life in Hong Kong. In the People’s Republic, reaction to the events ranges from quiet exhilaration among beleaguered activists to bemused indifference among ordinary Chinese, for whom both Hong Kong’s liberties and its demonstrations are too remote to be inspiring. So far, there appears little chance that the unrest, fed by intricate local grievances, will spread to the mainland. And yet the Party addressed it as a moral contagion: the filters and the human censors that constitute the Great Fire Wall removed images and comments from the Internet in what scholars who monitor Chinese digital life recorded as the sharpest spike in online censorship all year. In the official media, the events were portrayed as a disaster; an editorial in the People’s Daily published on October 1st warned that “a small number of people who insist on resisting the rule of law and on making trouble will reap what they have sown.” But the costs of a crackdown—diplomatic isolation, recession, another alienated generation—would be incalculably higher than they were in 1989. China’s economy today is twenty-four times the size it was then, and Beijing aspires to leadership in the world. The question is not whether Xi Jinping can summon the authority to resolve the crisis but whether he can begin to address the problem that awaits him when it’s over: an emerging generation that is ever less willing to be ruled without a voice. Shortly before Joshua Wong was arrested, he told a crowd of students, “Hong Kong’s future belongs to you, you, and you.” Evan Osnos joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2008, and covers politics and foreign affairs. =========== 37. A BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEARLY TWO CENTURIES OF BICYCLE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY By Tony Hadland and Hans-Erhard Lessing http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/07/22/bicycle_design_an_illustrated_history_by_tony_hadland_and_hans_erhard_lessing.html _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ South Asia Citizens Wire Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on matters of peace and democratisation in South Asia. Newsletter of South Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/ ##### #### _\_ ________ ##=-[.].]| \ \ #( _\ | |------| # __| | |||||||| \ _/ | |||||||| .--'--'-. | | ____ | / __ `|__|[o__o]| _(____nm_______ /____\____ 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
