South Asia Citizens Wire | 31 October, 2004 via: www.sacw.net
[1] Sri Lanka: Remembering the Eviction and Recognizing the Rights of the Northern Muslims (SLDF)
[2] Bangladesh: Ahmadiyya mosque in ruins - Meet the bigotry with full force of law (Edit, The Daily Star)
[3] India: Anti Sikh Riots of 1984
(i) Prosecute Killers of Sikhs - End Two Decades of Impunity (Human Rights Watch)
(ii) 20 Years After 1984 (Sheela Barse)
(iii) Trauma revisited (Harish Khare)
[4] India: A Case for Sustainable Rhetoric - The Tower of Gabble (P. Sainath)
[5] Upcoming events :
(i) Larzish: 2nd Int. film festival on Sexuality and Gender Prularity (Bombay, November 4-7, 2004)
(ii) The Second Annual Promise of India Conference (Bombay, Jan 10, 2004)
(iii) Understanding Cinema - A Film Appreciation Course (New Delhi, November 2-14, 2004)
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[1]
Sri Lanka Democracy Forum (SLDF) 30 October 2004 For Immediate Release
REMEMBERING THE EVICTION AND RECOGNIZING THE RIGHTS OF THE NORTHERN MUSLIMS
On the 30th of October 1990, fourteen years ago to this day the forced eviction of the Northern Muslims tore apart the social fabric of Northern Sri Lanka, and brought grief and trauma to tens of thousands of Muslim families. As we remember that day, we voice our sorrow and outrage that fourteen years after that cruel act of ethnic cleansing, and two and a half years into the signing the Ceasefire Agreement, the Northern Muslims have still not been able to return home, have not featured significantly in the peace process and have not had their political rights substantively affirmed by any of the major actors.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Northern Muslims by the LTTE
In 1990, the LTTE expelled all Muslims from the five districts (Vavuniya, Mannar, Mullaithivu, Kilinochchi & Jaffna) of the Northern Province. Muslims represented about 7 percent of Sri Lanka�s total population, and had historically been concentrated in Northern Sri Lanka, Eastern Sri Lanka, and in the cities of Colombo, Kandy and Puttalam. In the Northern Province, substantial concentrations of Muslims resided in the Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mannar districts.
On that terrible day 75,000-80,000 Muslims were given just 24-48 hours to leave the Northern Province (some residents in Jaffna Town were forced out in only two hours), or meet the fate of Muslims in the Eastern Province who had been massacred in the hundreds in August and September of that year. They were stripped of their belongings and houses and permitted to take only Rupees 500 with them. The plundering of the possessions from their homes followed soon after their enforced departure. The physical, economic, social and psychological suffering to which the entire Northern Muslim population was subjected was immeasurable and continues to this day. Since then the majority of Northern Muslims have been living in a variety of refugee settlements in the Puttalam district.
This collective uprooting of tens of thousand of families was a cruel and calculated act directed against a group of people based purely on the fact that they were Muslims, from areas where Tamils and Muslims had lived together for centuries. It was also an act done without any popular support. Ordinary Tamil people were outraged and revolted, but they remained silent out of fear of LTTE retribution. The enforced evacuation of defenceless Muslim families was systematically carried out by LTTE cadres who went about in vehicles fitted with loud-hailers, ordering them to leave or face retribution. In the Jaffna town, Muslim males were ordered to gather at the grounds of the Mosque and told they and their families should �leave the boundaries of Eelam� within 24 hours. The movement of LTTE cadres from one local area to another, the way in which roads were blocked off to herd people through certain routes, and the systematic way in which people�s possessions were expropriated, sorted, and sold or distributed among the LTTE�s chosen followers, revealed that this was a premeditated and well-planned operation, executed with menacing military precision and ruthlessness.
The LTTE has never given an official reason for carrying out this enforced evacuation, leading us to conclude that it was purely an exercise in ethnic cleansing, driven by the bigotry of exclusivist Tamil nationalist militarism.
After the Eviction, the Northern Muslims have attempted to rebuild their lives, mainly in Puttalam. Even though they arrived with nothing, they have struggled to give their children education, they sought employment under hard conditions to support their families, and they have rebuilt mosques, new village settlements and maintained their sense of dignity. Even as a new generation has been born in exile that has no memory of their parents� homes or their relationship with the Tamil community, Northern Muslims have reached out to the Tamil community in their former homes. Their efforts to maintain relationships when possible with their former neighbours testify to their eagerness to rebuild Muslim Tamil relations.
Duty of the Tamils
The Tamil people have a responsibility to help and facilitate the return of the Northern Muslims to their homes. Civil society organizations including churches, schools, associations (fisher and agricultural and trader unions) among others must take the initiative in inviting Northern Muslims to visit their homes and engage in dialogue with a view to helping them to rebuild their lives there. Tamil people in the Diaspora, many of whom left the country due to violations of their own rights, must even belatedly recognise the predicament of the Northern Muslims, and champion their case for the restoration of their shattered lives. This includes their right to return to their own homes in the North, and their entitlement to substantial reparations for their inhuman and unlawful eviction, for the material losses they suffered in the process, and for the continuing suffering to which they have been subjected to all these years.
This outrage against the Muslim people, which was carried out by the LTTE in the name of Tamils will continue to remain one of the darkest episodes in the annals of our history. The Tamil people must call upon the LTTE and its leader Velupillai Pirpaharan in particular to make an unqualified public apology for the crime they have committed against the Muslim people.
The Muslim people, just as much as their Tamil compatriots, are entitled to representation that ensures that their legitimate and reasonable aspirations are satisfied, and their interests protected. Hence, the Tamil people must reject as deplorable any attempt by the LTTE to prevent separate representation for the Muslim community at peace talks aimed at finding a political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.
The LTTE
Just as majoritarian Sinhala nationalists sought to deny the legitimate rights of the Tamil people based on the spurious claim that Sri Lanka was the �homeland of Sinhala-Buddhists only�, the LTTE seeks to deny the legitimate rights of the Muslims based on the claim that the North and East is the �homeland of the Tamils only�. The LTTE must recognize that the North and East is the homeland of all people who have made it their home.
To this day, Vellupillai Pirapaharan has offered no apology or any guarantee that if the evicted Muslims were to return to their homes en masse they would not be evicted again. Muslims who have attempted to return to the North have been discouraged from doing so. Some who have taken the risk and returned to restart their business ventures have been taxed heavily and their freedom to operate has been severely curtailed. In some instances, these businesses have been taken over by the LTTE.
It is the height of hypocrisy on the part of the LTTE to demand that the displaced Tamils from the High Security Zones should be allowed to return to their homes, when they will not permit the return of Muslims they themselves forcibly evicted some 14 years ago.
It is high time that the LTTE acknowledged its responsibility, making a public apology for the crimes it has committed against the Muslim people and subjecting itself to a process by which reparations could be considered. It also should give a public guarantee that if and when the evicted Muslim people return to their homes, they would be allowed the right and freedom to occupy them without any fear of threats, harassment or violence in the future.
Government of Sri Lanka
The Government of Sri Lanka must offer the Northern Muslims who wish to return resources to enable them and their children born in exile to resettle in the North. It must ensure protection against further expulsions and provide constitutional guarantees for the political, economic and cultural rights of the Muslim community. The Northern Muslim question must be considered a significant part of the GOSL�s negotiation of any interim arrangement or permanent political solution.
The SLDF supports the call by the Muslim Peoples Action Front (Muslim Makkal Seyalani) for the appointment of a Special Presidential Commission with terms of reference to investigate the forcible eviction of the Northern Muslims and consider and assess all forms of damage that they have suffered during the intervening years and make appropriate recommendations including for the award of adequate compensation for the victims.
The Peace Talks
The Northern Muslims came up in the peace talks only as a humanitarian issue relating to the resettlement of internally displaced people. It was formally part of the mandate given to SIHRN (Sub Committee on Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs). SIHRN was confirmed in the fourth round of Peace talks to be the primary decision making body dealing with humanitarian and rehabilitation needs in the North and East. Subsequently, SIHRN virtually ceased functioning when the LTTE withdrew from the peace talks in April 2003. As a result even the Northern Muslims� humanitarian needs have been neglected, much less their political right to return. Because the major actors in the peace process have failed to support the Northern Muslims� political right to return home, Northern Muslims are placed in the position of having to individually negotiate their return home with local LTTE cadres. However, we note that in the fourth round of talks that �the parties agreed that a Muslim delegation will be invited to the peace talks at an appropriate time for deliberations on relevant substantive political issues�. SLDF demands a Muslim delegation including Northern Muslim representatives should be invited to any further peace talks. We demand that the substantive political rights of Northern Muslims to return to their homes and live without fear should be affirmed and incorporated into any peace process that aims for a just peace in Sri Lanka.
International Community
The International community has been playing a critical role in the Sri Lankan Peace Process. However, it has not engaged sufficiently with Northern Muslims on issues relating to their right to return, their right to be represented at the peace talks and their participation in rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The Norwegian Facilitators should ensure a Muslim delegation at the peace talks. This Muslim delegation should comprise representatives from the Northern Muslims. The SLMM should investigate and report ongoing violations against Northern Muslims attempting to return with the commitment to ending such atrocities.
The Sri Lanka Donor Co-chairs on 1 June 2004 noted �that a peace settlement can only be sustained if it respects the legitimate rights and involvement of all ethnic groups� The Co-chairs encouraged the parties to agree on the modalities to invite a Muslim delegation to the peace talks at an appropriate time for the deliberation on relevant substantive political issues�. SLDF demands that any donor assistance to the peace process must be conditional on addressing the political concerns of the Northern Muslims. Funds being dispersed to the North and East for reconstruction must be accessible by all minorities and particularly the Northern Muslims.
Towards a just peace
SLDF demands that the Northern Muslims be integrated into any negotiations for peace and a permanent political solution. It appears that Northern Muslims� political, economic and cultural rights have not been recognized as important enough to derail the peace process, and thus have been neglected. We say that it is precisely the political status of marginalised communities such as the Northern Muslims and their right to live in their homes free from harassment, extortion and eviction that the peace process if it is to committed to meaningful peace should address. SLDF calls on all of Sri Lanka�s citizens, Muslims, Tamils and Sinhalese to work towards the rights of and justice for the Northern Muslims.
-- Sri Lanka Democracy Forum www.lankademocracy.org
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[2]
The Daily Star - October 31, 2004
Editorial
Ahmadiyya mosque in ruins Meet the bigotry with full force of law
The attack on an Ahmadiyya mosque in Brahmanbaria just minutes before the call to Juma prayer on Friday during the holy month of Ramadan must be considered the height of ungodliness. The fact that the perpetrators could defile both themselves and the month of Ramadan by committing such a shameful act at such a time shows that they have little respect for the religion under whose banner they claim to be acting.
It has been reported that the attack consisted of hundreds of machete, axe, stick, and club-wielding fanatics storming the mosque, beating worshippers, and destroying the tin-roofed and bamboo-walled mosque. The hate-filled mob of around 1,000 then went on a rampage, vandalising and robbing Ahmadiyya houses, and injuring a dozen people, including women.
There are no words to describe our outrage at this act of predatory religious intolerance. The constitution and simple human decency mandate that people be secure in their right to worship.
This has gone too far. Anti-Ahmadiyya bigots have been active for the last twelve months, but this is the first time they have actually destroyed an Ahmadiyya mosque.
The government must not remain a mute spectator any more; it has a duty to protect the Ahmadiyya community. It must do everything in its power to prevent persecution taking place against them in any shape or form.
The government claimed that the ban on Ahmadiyya publications would help diminish anti-Ahmadiyya sentiments, but it is clear that this has emboldened the bigots and made the position of the Ahmadiyyas even more insecure.
Repealing the ban on their publications would be a good start, as would bringing to justice the perpetrators of Friday's attack. The government must make clear that violence against Ahmadiyyas will be countered with the full force of the law. Nothing less is good enough.
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[3] [Anti Sikh Riots of 1984]
(i)
Human Rights Watch - Press Release
INDIA: PROSECUTE KILLERS OF SIKHS End Two Decades of Impunity
(New York, November 30, 2004) � On the twentieth anniversary of the mass killings of Sikhs, the new Congress-led government should launch fresh investigations into and make a public commitment to prosecute the planners and implementers of the violence, Human Rights Watch said today.
In 1984, in retaliation for the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, angry mobs, some allegedly organized by members of the Congress party, attacked and killed thousands of Sikhs. From November 1 to November 4, gangs attacked the symbols and structures of the Sikh faith, the properties of Sikhs, and killed whole families by burning them alive. The residences and properties of Sikhs were identified through government-issued voter lists.
Victim groups, lawyers and activists have long alleged state complicity in the violence. For three days the police failed to act, as gangs carrying weapons and kerosene roamed the streets, exhorting non-Sikhs to kill Sikhs and loot and burn their properties.
�Seven government-appointed commissions have investigated these attacks,� said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. But the commissions were all either whitewashes or they were met with official stonewalling and obstruction.�
The report of the latest commission, the Nanavati Commission, was due November 1, but has been delayed for another two months. �The time for commissions that do not lead to prosecutions is over,� said Adams. �After two decades, the prosecutors and police should act. There is more than enough evidence to do so now.�
Human Rights Watch called for an end to political protection for organizers of the violence. Some of those allegedly involved in the pogrom currently occupy posts in the government or are members of parliament. Both the judiciary and administrative inquiry commissions have failed to hold these perpetrators accountable.
�For two decades high-ranking members of the Congress party have enjoyed political impunity for this violence,� said Adams. �The fact that many of the alleged planners of the violence were and are members of the Congress party should not be a barrier to justice for the victims.� Human Rights Watch commended ENSAAF (www.ensaaf.org), an organization dedicated to fighting impunity in India, for its 150-page report, Twenty Years of Impunity, analyzing the patterns of the pogroms and the attitudes and practices of impunity revealed by previously unpublished government documents and other materials.
�With many connected to the violence now enjoying prominent positions in public life, the ENSAAF report makes it clear that India continues to ignore this dark chapter of its modern history at its own risk,� said Adams. �Only a conscious exercise of political will on the part of the new government of Prime Minister Singh can bring about justice for the Sikhs.�
o o o o
(ii)
Indian Express, October 29, 2004
20 YEARS AFTER 1984 By Sheela Barse
The little boy with spiky hair who could not speak
The 20th anniversary of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 is approaching.
The highest riot death toll since Partition, not a single conviction, 1984 remains India's forgotten genocide
Thirty-six hours after more than 300 Sikhs in that basti had been lynched, burnt and flung down from upper floors in the presence of their families, pushing back the women and children who rushed to embrace the targeted men, Delhi police had found one bus to bring out the terrorised survivors from their looted homes with just their clothes on, to the police grounds.
A 12-year-old boy sat alone apart from his kin, on a large stone, brooding, head held firm on a straight spine. The knot of his kesh had been lopped off but the remaining hair, glued spiny stiff and erect in a bunch, proclaimed his continuing identity. ''He has not spoken a word since he saw his father and uncle being burnt to death and flung down from first floor,'' a relative informs.
A desultory conversation begins. A middle-aged sardarni, still dreaming of the gory killing of her husband, softly asks, ''Is it possible to rescue my brother-in-law? He is all burnt but there is still some breath in him. He is sitting in a chair for the last 40 hours.'' The woman withdraws into herself.
I ask for a guide to locate the house. A polio-affected youth moves closer. ''I will. The police left behind my wife. Her thigh and shoulder were scorched as she threw herself on my eldest brother when they set him on fire live. She is mute and young, childlike really...''
An athletic sardar, kesh cut, clean-shaven, accompanies me. Few hours ago, like many Sikhs in that colony, he had paid several hundred rupees to a barber to raze an integral part of his being. Since October 31, 'kesh' marked not a glorious inheritance but a victim to be torched alive.
With the doctor's team and first-aid, we enter the colony and pause by a wounded elderly man lying on a cot. He would need an ambulance. We do not have one. ''Now you come,'' screams a woman. ''After bodies have been thrown in the nullahs.'' A Sikh grabs my arm, ''Curfew laga dijiye." Our guide sprints into a lane. Mounds of junk placed across the road every few yards, the lynchers' barricades to prevent victims escaping in their taxis. The young doctors trail. The guide breaks into a run and leaps over front steps of a house. ''Anyone there?'' I call out a few times, then step in.
The house had been looted clean, no furniture, no utensils, no clothes. ''There is no one inside, I checked thoroughly,'' he says. Depressed, we stand still in the stark living room. A mob of 200 men and women has arched around the house while we are inside. They watch us silently. ''What have you done with him?'' I yell. ''Didn't burning him satisfy you? His bhabhi told me that Dilbara Singh is sitting in a chair. Where have you hidden him?''
''Oh Dilbara Singh!'' a man steps up saucily. ''Come here. This pile of ashes, that's him. His wife broke up the chair and gave him a live funeral, with flowers and everything.'' he grins wickedly.
The chowk is now blocked by a mob of 150. The news of a rescue team has travelled. I notice brass knuckles on a fist and cycle chain in a hand and discover that our guide is missing.''Where is the man who came with us?,'' I yell.''He was with us 2 minutes ago. What have you done with him?''
An armed sub-inspector comes running. ''He is safe. He was recognised. He ran for his life. He asked me to inform you.'' The officer was the sole policeman on duty for 48 hours.
The sun begins to set. Someone hails us. An elderly thick-set sardar in a wheelchair pushed by two youngsters. ''Take me out please,'' the sardar pleads. We walk away but a few steps later, I abruptly halt. The disabled Sikh is not safe, he's in danger. We turn and stride to the disabled man. ''Come,'' we say. But the three young men have their hands firm on his wheelchair. ''We'll take him. We are with Nandita Haksar.'' I believe them only after sighting Nandita 300 meters away.
That evening I hitch a ride in a press car. ''Fifty-nine Hindus killed, some pulled in gurdwaras.'' they tell me. ''But we are not printing that.''.
Police Commissioner Tandon refuses to see the press. PRO Panwar sniggers, ''Hundreds killed in one basti? How is it possible to burn people alive? We have not received any complaints.''
Reporters decide to gatecrash Tandon's office. ''Please order shoot at sight." He steps back into the unlit shield of his chamber. His subordinates and guards block the door.
Next day, I visit the morgue. A corpse wrapped in a bloodstained brilliant white sheet is laid outside the walled compound, in front of the gate. Not a soul around. I ask a policeman if I can pay for a few decent funerals.
In the compound, to my left, is an open shed with hundreds of bloated corpses stacked 6-7 deep like logs. In front of me, scores of rotting bodies heaped in a truck. Nearby a dump of swollen, decaying remains of men. Disconnected tufts of hair strewn around. The policeman returns, asks me to come over. I take a few steps over the bunches of kesh littering the compound and blown around my feet.
Outside, I stand for a while with an anonymous, unaccompanied body.
o o o o
(iii)
Magazine | The Hindu - Oct 31, 2004
Comment
TRAUMA REVISITED
The anti-Sikh riots in 1984 shattered a collective illusion. Till then we had believed in the notion of an all-powerful State, a super-efficient bureaucracy, and a professional police force. In the end, it has taken a toll on our capacity to sort out differences and disputes, reflects HARISH KHARE.
THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY
Collective loss as establishments, places of worship, localities and houses were the targets of mobs.
OCTOBER 31, 1984. No.1, Safdurjung Road. The early hours of the morning. Indira Gandhi is shot dead in her own house. The Prime Minister of India is assassinated. The killers are two security guards, both Sikhs, trained and trusted to protect her. But the killers' loyalty and professional conscience is suborned by those who traffic in un-religious ideas in the name of religion.
She had committed a sacrilege, according to them. Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister, was to be punished for daring to offend the Sikhs' most sacred religious symbol, the Golden Temple in Amritsar when she sent in troops to flush out the Khalistani-secessionist, "Sant" Bhindranwale who had converted the gurudwara into a terrorists' base camp and was out to declare "independence" from the holy sanctum sanctorum. Indira Gandhi had to die for "Operation Bluestar". She was made to pay the price for performing her duty to defend the country's integrity and unity.
The flashpoint
Indira Gandhi died on the spot. Even before a stunned nation could recover its breath, there were sporadic reports of a few Sikhs breaking out in celebrations. The collective nerves, dangerously strained over the last few years on account of Khalistani terror activities, were itching to find an outlet.
By evening, anti-Sikh violence broke out. For the next 72 hours, the capital was a possessed city. Blood-thirsty. Ugly. Violent. Unreasonable and unyielding in this unreasonableness. The Sikhs' establishments, places of worship, localities and houses were targeted by mobs. The violence did not begin to abate till the new prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi ordered the sacking of the Lt. Governor of Delhi, P.S. Gavai on the night of November 3. The Union Home Secretary, Madan Mohan Kishan Wali, was made the new Lt. Governor. The Army had to be called in to restore order as the Delhi Police was a disgrace with its incompetence, cowardice and complicity in the violence.
At last the madness subsided. The ritual of revenge was over. And the city began to comprehend - to its shame - the extent of its madness. Over 2,000 Sikh men, women and children had been killed. Mangolpuri, Trilokpuri, Sultanpuri, Shakarpur, Janakpuri - the localities of gruesome butchery - became names that continue to trouble the city's collective conscience.
The mob violence against innocent Sikhs created its own set of consequences. Bhindranwale was dead but he had now the satisfaction of creating enmity between the Sikhs and the rest of India, a schism cynically exploited by foreign powers. The Khalistan movement, with its various self-styled commanders - almost all of them financed by foreign money and agencies - continued to spill blood for a decade after Indira Gandhi's assassination.
Looking back
Now, two decades later, how do we look at that fateful morning of October 31, 1984? We have not come to terms with a defining moment in our post-Independence history.
As a society, India is not stranger to bloodshed on a mass scale. Before and after Independence there had been instances of communal violence. Yet 1984 was the first case of collective frenzy of a kind that the nation had never witnessed before. A murderous assault on the Prime Minister, symbol of the Indian State, became the provocation for the dormant ugliness to break out in bloody glory. This was the first time that a section of society unconsciously elevated itself as a partisan of the State and felt it had the licence to punish those who sought to challenge the Indian State.
Shattering the myths
The violence and its extent took us by surprise. The anti-Sikh riots shattered a collective illusion. Till then we had believed in the notion of an all-powerful State, a super-efficient bureaucracy, and a professional police force; these assumptions were unconsciously reinforced by the post-Independence political leadership that promised to cure us of our each and every ailment. Indira Gandhi in particular had sought to elevate herself to the status of an omnipresent and omnipotent ruler. Her earlier experiment with "Internal emergency" was precisely - for her as well as the public - an essay in unlimited and unrestricted powers of the Union government. She had come back to power on the slogan of providing the country a "government that works".
These pretensions came to haunt her as the government could not cope with the challenge posed by Bhindranwale. So dominant was her image of a superb politician that she was suspected of playing footsie with the extremist Bhindranwale in a cunning stratagem to outplay the Akalis, who had declared a dharmayudha. No one wanted to believe that the Bhindranwale issue was stoked by unfriendly foreign powers; Pakistan's complicity was obvious, but not too obvious was the traditional meddling by Western powers.
THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY
Demanding justice in Delhi.
Indira Gandhi's assassination by her own security guards not only mocked her pretensions of an omnipotent ruler. It also constituted the ultimate breakdown of the Indian State and its presumed pervasiveness; yet most Indians clung to the notion that even in that grave hour, the "system" should have "performed" and that the "law and order" machinery should have automatically displayed its professional nerves of steel. We refused to come to terms with the fact that the "law and order" machinery could have its limits. Instead, we preferred to believe that somehow the political leadership of the day was cold-blooded enough to allow the violence to go on for days. We chose to believe that our rulers - politicians and bureaucrats - had available to them infinite wisdom, flawless and complete information, as well as the tools and instruments of control, and all that was needed was for them to indicate that they wanted the situation to be controlled.
In particular, we assumed that if the "leadership" wanted to bring out the Army it could have done so within a few hours; no one wanted to know - or concede even now - that since Independence, the civilian leadership had seen to it that only a very token Army presence was maintained in the capital. The civilian-army relationship had come under strain only a couple of years earlier during the Asian Games when Army columns had moved into the capital much over the sanctioned strength. At the best of times, the civilian establishment was systematically allergic to the idea "calling in the army".
The violence shattered another myth. We thought we were a civilised society; schooled in Nehruvian decency and softened by our religious pieties; especially the Hindu collective mind-set that sees the community as genetically incapable of inflicting violence. But here we were demonstrating ourselves as being prepared, mentally and emotionally, to indulge in mass scale butchery and brutality and be blood-thirsty.
It was as if we had been transported back to the medieval ages; Hindu men, women and children came out to see gurudwaras go up in flames as a matter of public spectacle. Till then we had never cared to take note of the creeping element of lumpenisation and insensitivity that had blunted our collective thinking.
We were traumatised as a society; we coped with these two great disillusions by going into denial. We blamed insistently that Congress leaders had instigated and sustained anti-Sikh frenzy. This view had since congealed into an irrefutable mythology. Goon-like Congress leaders made the perfect fall guys. Our collective indignation, anger, shame, resentment, embarrassment over the mass outbreak of violence got neatly packaged into a politically correct `Congress-is-to-be-blamed-for-the-anti-Sikh- riots" attitude. Civil liberty groups rushed in with hasty indictments to confirm the first judgment. The young prime minister and his sophomoric advisers added insult to injury with their arrogant "you-asked-for-it, man" body-language. The Congress party's massive victory in the Lok Sabha two months later only added to the myth of culpability.
The terrible fallout
The catechism of guilt and blame fuelled Sikh anger and sustained the Khalistani movement for nearly a decade. It also deflected attention away from the root cause of the Punjab problem: the Akali Dal's unstated, but openly practised, demand for monopolistic political supremacy in Punjab because it claims (a la the Hurriyat leadership in Kashmir) to be sole custodian of the best interests of the Sikh community. Every time this undemocratic demand gets checkmated by other political parties through democratic means, the Akalis reserve the right to revert back to quasi-secessionist sentiment. The Akalis remain uncured of this claim, despite their decade long political association with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a party of self-proclaimed nationalists.
GAMMA
A victim after Delhi went up in flames.
The violence of 1984 and the majority's community capacity for hatred and antagonism were eye-openers for the Hindu right wing in the country. The Hindutva brigade realised that the Hindu was not a coward and that the Hindu "masses" were ready for a "renaissance" ; unapologetically the Hindutva mob decided to feed the Hindus' collective itch for settling a few scores. The BJP has not looked back since then.
"1984" was a moment of crisis for the Indian State, which precipitated a crisis of liberal India and deepened the Hindu community's sense of dis-empowerment. It took a toll on our capacity to sort out differences and disputes, and we continue to pay a price in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in the North-East. October 31 led to December 6, 1992, and Gujarat 2002.
We have not yet dared to draw the requisite conclusions. Sometimes it seems Indira Gandhi died in vain.
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[4]
Counterpunch.org Weekend Edition October 30 / 31, 2004
A CASE FOR SUSTAINABLE RHETORIC THE TOWER OF GABBLE
by P. Sainath
I have reflected in recent times on all the useful words that Development has taught me. It seems to me this is something Civil Society needs to ponder, right from the Grassroots to Emerging Leaders. At some point, a Knowledge-Based Society needs to learn something. What, I do not know, but hopefully something that demarcates us from all those ignorance-based societies of these past millennia. Perhaps we need to have a Consultation of NGOs, Action Groups, CSOs and all other Stakeholders to work out the Best Practices in this regard..
These groups could then work towards a Summit bringing together the best talent from amongst whom we create a Task Force which will then seek to Empower the Target Groups in each sector. The Summit itself will work out an overall Declaration to be translated into concrete Action Plans by Focus Groups. The Exploratory Sessions will be based on Interactive Communication (and Gender Equity).
Since by this time we might be running low on Sustainable Resources, we could initiate a number of Private-Public Partnerships to ensure that some share of the moolah goes to at least a few Beneficiaries. (The Livelihood Issues of the leaders of Non-Profits, for instance, are not unimportant.) These Micro-Credit Strategies could further be supplemented through Budgetary Allocations by other Facilitators (sometimes called governments). They could be roped in via a Plenary Session on Good Governance, Accountability and the importance of Networking.
Given the need to create an Alternative Dialogue with an Innovative Conceptual Framework, we could enlist the Traditional Knowledge of Development Consultants who would call Workshops to decide on how to Mainstream Development Issues in the Media. We must, after all, examine Paradigm Shifts in the Development Debate while strengthening Conscientization, Advocacy Outreach and Institution-Building.
We propose a Preparatory Meeting (at an Eco-Friendly locale) which can formulate a Mission Statement on how best to further the goals of Human Development and Natural Resource Management towards building a better Common Future. Realization of our Millennium Goals would undoubtedly require serious Capacity Building Ideas on how to ensure Food Security for the participants in the Pre-Summit Brainstorming are welcome. Undoubtedly, in this era of the Information Society, the first session will be on ICTs and Poverty Alleviation.
There will be, of course, a Focus Session on Resource Mobilization (Self-Help Groups are asked to show a little restraint at this point). Deliberations resume after a quick Participatory Research Lunch. Germane to the Fund-Raising focus will be the Study of Issue-Based development of Institutional Linkages to the right Donors. The whole area throws up several Challenges / Opportunities that call for Strategic Planning aimed at ensuring Control/Access over Resources.
The next session looks at Integrated Strategies that adopt a Holistic Approach in ensuring Local Participation and Community Control. Case studies of Successful Interventions amongst Marginalised Communities will be presented (by Subaltern Voices from the grassroots). A Core Group will do Environmental Impact Assessments of the radical new rhetoric. Our Documentation & Research Centre will preserve all relevant material in Gender-Sensitive Databases. (All irrelevant material goes into the Final Report of the Conference.)
Editors' note: Okay CounterPunchers, this is a breach of what we term the Ron Jacobs Rule, in memory of a satire by this same Jacobs which too many CounterPunchers took to be literally true. We swore we'd never publish another satire. But exceptions are there to prove (meaning test or assay) the rule. This is a parody, a very deft parody of a dialect, called NGO-Speak. We'll leave it to Noam Chomsky to decide how deeply this hideous argot is embedded in Man's (and Wo-Man's) neural circuitry, but it's now become the lingua franca of all grant applicants, conference planners and permanent itinerants to those Forums of Uplift inhabited by all who believe that the world's problems can be solved by nice people inspired by a trip to Porto Allegre and a (sustainable) grant from some major foundation.
We are very happy to have the author of this genial parody on our site, where we will be featuring his work from time to time. P. Sainath is a marvelous Indian journalist we' know and have long admired. His great achievement has been to disclose to respectable India the full extent and horrible realities of poverty there, not least in the thousands of suicides of small farmers driven to self destruction by neo-liberal policies.
After glittering years on Blitz and the Times of India Sainath quit the padded chair of editorial omniscience and started reporting on the situation of extremely poor people across India, spending most of his time in the remoter countryside, hitherto largely disdained by the Indian press. His collection Everybody Loves a Good Drought was a deserving best seller. Sainath has had a powerful impact, not only on Indian journalism, where there have been some efforts to follow his pioneering work, but on the lives of the people he writes about since he has provoked some political reaction to the terrible abuses and corruptions he exposed. These days Sainath is the rural affairs editor of The Hindu. AC/JSC
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[5] [UPCOMING EVENTS ]
(i)
Larzish welcomes you back in its second year!
This year we bring to you, new and diverse programs. Expect to catch about 90 films spread over four days from Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Canada, Columbia, France, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, USA, UK, Uruguay and Uganda.
Festival highlights include:
A RETROSPECTIVE OF FILMS BY FILMMAKER PRATIBHA PARMAR - Daily
The festival brings the first ever retrospective of Pratibha Parmar to India. She is an award winning independent director and producer. Her films have exhibited widely at international film festivals and broadcast on television in many countries. (Kindly refer to the festival catalogue for timings)
DISCIPLINING BHUPEN - SEXUAL TRANSGRESSIONS AND NORMATIVE VISUALITIES
A talk by Parul Dave Mukerjee - 4th November, 15:00 - 16:00hrs
Themes of homosexuality have either been anathema, viewed as transgressions to be contained or reductive modes of organizing Bhupen Khakhar's entire oeuvre by institutions of art. Art historian Parul Dave argues that the radicalism of his work lies elsewhere and that homosexuality emerges as one among several positions of marginality.
MARRIAGE, FAMILY & COMMUNITY - A PANEL DISCUSSION, 6th November, 17:00 - 19:00Hrs
Panelists: Anupama Rao, Mary John, Rinchin and Rohini Hensman
It is apparent that the institution of the 'natural family', as decreed through marriage, has remained a dominant organising principle. In what ways has feminism, dalit, queer or left politics attempted to transgress the familiar boundaries of family? The panel will address these issues and look at more fluid forms of family and community.
APPEARANCES & IDENTITY, A PANEL DISCUSSION, 7th November, 15:00 - 17:00hrs
Panelists: Kajol, Maya Sharma and Shohini Ghosh
The panelists will make linkages between gender and sexuality within a bi-gendered society. What happens when people's appearances seem to create fissures in the binary of 'male' and 'female'? What identity does one carry, and how is that perceived in the reading of our gender?
Venue: 4th-7th November, 2004, Rama Watumull Auditorium, KC College, Dinshaw Wachha Road, Churchgate, Bombay-20
Please check the web-site for further details: <http://www.larzish.org>http://www.larzish.org
For invitation passes to the festival, please contact: 23439651 or 23436692 or write to <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(ii)
A Unique Opportunity for NRIs/PIOs and Mumbaikars to Participate in a Public Debate on the Two Critical Issues That Dominated the Recent Historic Elections in India.
ANNOUNCING
The Second Annual Promise of India Conference Mumbai, India
Making Peace With Diversity and Development Monday, January 10, 2005, 9 AM to 4 PM At Patkar Hall, SNDT University, Churchgate (Following the Third Pravasi Bharatiya Divas) [Free Admission, by Prior Registration only]
A Debate with Expert Panelists and Audience Participation:
Panel 1: GDP Growth or Livelihoods?
Globalization with a Human Face: Rhetoric or Reality?
Rural Development: The Bumpy Road from Budgets to Panchayats
The Bottom of the Pyramid: Communities in Distress or Markets for Fair & Lovely?
Panel 2: Secularism: Elusive Ideal or Ground Reality? Past Wrongs, Future Rights: What Agitates the Fence Sitters? Re-Re-Writing History: Quick Fix or Opportunity to De-Politicize Education? Curbing Hate Speech: More Laws and Censorship, or Public Education and Action?
Also Introducing: Grassroots Workers from Gujarat Working for Justice and Communal Harmony and Joint NRI/NRP Peace Delegation to Pakistan and India
Please log on to <https://www.promiseofindia.org/Conference.cfm>https://www.promiseofindia.org/Conference.cfm
to pre-register today (seats are limited).
List of Panelists will be finalized soon and will be posted on the website.
o o o o
(iii)
UNDERSTANDING CINEMA
A Film Appreciation Course
Habitat Film Club [New Delhi]
2nd to 14th November, 2004
The Film Appreciation Course is an introductory series of lectures/discussions on Understanding Cinema. Moving images on the screen - how do we look at the images projected on the white surface before us. And more importantly, how do the images look at us, engaging us, enticing us, speaking to us with a language that can cut across or create borders and boundaries? What is the spell its narratives cast on us when the lights go down? What cultural forms and political intents do they draw sustenance from? And what fantasies/emotions/ideas do they give play to, and form for us? These are some of the questions that the Course will address.
The course has been designed to initiate students into viewing film texts critically. The participants will be introduced to the basic concepts of film language and film form and to some of the major movements and masters of world cinema. Indian cinema - the popular cinema and the New Wave - will also be dealt with. Theoretical questions related to realism, genre and melodrama will be discussed, and detailed analysis of selected film texts representative of different kinds of cinemas will be undertaken. All the lectures will use extensive film clips to illustrate the points being made. In addition there will also be one full-length film screening at the end of the evening. The course will begin on 2nd November with an introduction to the programme followed by a screening of Alejandro Innaritu�s 21 Grams. All the class lectures will begin at 6.30 p.m and there will be a film screening on every weekday at 9 p.m. On the weekends, the programme will run from 10 a.m onwards. The film screening on these days will be at 7.30 pm. Our special guest for the course, Anurag Kashyap will be present for the screening of his new film Black Friday which will be screened on the 13th of November at 7.15 pm. The interaction with the director is on the 14th November at 11 a.m. The detailed programme will be handed out on the 2nd with the Registration package that will also include a reader related to the issues that will be discussed in the course. 75% Attendance is mandatory for the Certificate.
The Faculty
Madan Gopal Singh Film Scholar, Scriptwriter, Singer-Musician Coordinator, Cinema Studies, School of Convergence, New Delhi Faculty, Department of English, Satyawati College, Delhi University
Ravi Vasudevan, Film Scholar, Co-Director, SARAI; Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSD
Shohini Ghosh Media Critic and Scholar, Faculty, Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia
Rashmi Doraiswamy Film Critic and Scholar, Fellow, Third World Academy, Jamia Millia Islamia
Ira Bhaskar Film Scholar, Faculty, Dept of English, Gargi College, Delhi University
Ranjani Mazumdar (Coordinator & Instructor)
Independent Filmmaker, Scholar & Visiting Faculty at the Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia
Our Special Guest for the Course: Anurag Kashyap with his new Film Black Friday
Students Course fee (Full Course) = Rs.1250/- (Weekend) = Rs.300/- (Dailies) = Rs.150/-
Others
Course fee (Full Course) = Rs.1750/- (Weekend) = Rs.500/- (Dailies) = Rs.150/-
(Registration on till 1st of November. For further details, please contact the Programme Desk, Convention Centre Lobby, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, Delhi � 110003).
Limited Seats - enrollment on first come first serve basis.
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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, 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/
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