South Asia Citizens Wire | November 25, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2324 [1] Open Letter to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (AHRC) [2] Sri Lanka: the politics of purity (Nira Wickramasinghe) [3] Pakistan: Protecting women (Asma Jahangir) [4] India: Sangh link singes BHU teachers [5] India - Gujarat: - Pleas against Modi: court decision on December 4 - Opposition to Modi's `unanimity' scheme - SC issues notices to Ashok Bhatt, Pathak in '85 riot case - SC pulls up Gujarat for lapses in '02 riot cases [6] India: To pee is to be (Amit Sengupta) [7] Books: (i) Uma Chakravarti's Everyday Lives, Everyday Histories (reviewed by Shonaleeka Kaul) (ii) Cornelia Sorabji: Champion of women's rights (reviewed by Geeta Ramaseshan) (iii) Ambedkar, Ayodhya aur Dalit Andolan [9] Upcoming Events: (i) Post-ISF reflection session on the World Social Forum (New Delhi, 29 Nov) (ii) Nandini Gooptu on Globalization, economic liberalization and the Indian bureaucracy (iii) Eleanor Newbigin's Women, personal law and property rights: notions of modern citizenship in late colonial India
____ [1] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 24, 2006 AHRC-OL-065-2006 An Open Letter to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority by the Asian Human Rights Commission Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Director General (Tech) Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) 6th Floor Green Trust Tower f-6/G-6, Jinnah Avenue Blue Area, Islamabad PAKISTAN Fax: +92 051 9207419 Dear Dr. Ahmed PAKISTAN: Serious issues remain over closure of radio station The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you concerning the closure of the Mast FM 103 radio station in Balakot, North West Frontier Province, in response to your letter of 6 November 2006 (Ref. No. F-10-4[109] Gen-2006) informing us that "the matter is closed". We beg to differ. You will recall that the radio station obtained a temporary licence to operate from Balakot after an earthquake struck the region in October 2005. The station operated on a non-commercial basis with the intention to assist in the recovery of the region. However, in August 2006 the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PERMA) declined to renew the licence. Your authority extended the temporary licences of other radio stations operating in Balakot; however, Mast FM was refused, without any reason being given. In our letter of September 27 and a further letter of October 9, we raised serious issues about the closure of the station. In particular, we pointed out that there is reason to believe that the refusal to issue a licence was due to the station reporting on alleged misuse of funds and corruption in rehabilitation programmes carried out by the government agencies, especially the Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority. We also noted that Mast FM had previously been targeted by your authority, in two raids conducted on its offices in Lahore and Karachi in 2004. On November 2 our staff person was contacted by Dr. Abdul Jabbar, the then Director General (Tech) of the PEMRA, who insisted that this is "not a human rights matter" but purely a domestic matter under his office's authority. Furthermore, he refused to give any clear explanation for the closure of the station. We therefore see no reason that the matter should be "closed", as stipulated in your letter of November 2, because none of the serious issues we raised previously have yet been clarified. Nor has the licence of the radio station been restored or an investigation been conducted into the persons responsible for its refusal. As to whether or not this is a human rights matter, may we remind you of article 19(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, that, "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice." This right shall be restricted only where provided by law for the purpose of respecting the rights and reputations of others or protecting national security. So far we see nothing to indicate that the closure of this radio station would fall into the latter categories. Perhaps it is not surprising to find that the PEMRA is ignorant of this article 19, given that the Government of Pakistan has not yet joined the Covenant. However, article 19 of the constitution of your country also holds that, "Every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression... subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, or incitement to an offence." Again, there is nothing in this to explain the failure of your agency to renew the licence to Mast FM. Your role is not purely administrative. Broadcast media is a matter of national interest. Please understand that the arbitrary delimiting of free expression is something with which millions throughout Asia are greatly concerned, and directly affected. It is for this reason that the Asian Human Rights Commission has taken a special interest in this case, and will continue to do so until in our opinion, not yours, "the matter is closed". We again recommend that you take the following steps: first, review the decision to not renew the licence to Mast FM in Balakot; second, conduct an investigation to determine the reasons for the arbitrary closure of the station; third, put in place adequate safeguards to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future. Yours sincerely Basil Fernando Executive Director Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong ______ [2] opendemocracy.net 17 November 2006 SRI LANKA: THE POLITICS OF PURITY by Nira Wickramasinghe [*] (This article draws on material in Nira Wickramasinghe's "Sri Lanka's conflict: culture and lineages of the past" (Journal of International Affairs, 60/1, 2007) The exclusivist politics and mindsets of those who have drowned Sri Lanka in civil war must be challenged by a creative recovery of the island's hybrid identities, says Nira Wickramasinghe. The delegations representing the Sri Lankan state and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) met on 28-29 October in Geneva for talks to thrash out a possible settlement to the civil war that has ravaged the island of Sri Lanka since 1983. They did so against the background of military operations raging on both sides in the country. It was sadly predictable that the politician-warriors at the talks remained entrenched in their mutually irreconcilable positions, and returned empty-handed to their wounded land of 75,000 war widows, 25,000 child soldiers, 220,000 internally displaced people, and 1,000 people killed since April 2006 alone. Yet had they stepped back from their political calculations for a moment, they would have found that they spoke the same language: a language of fear and difference, of force and exclusiveness; a language that could only end in insoluble contradiction. The mirage of peace Both sides attended the Geneva talks with ulterior intentions. The Colombo government was paying lip-service to an international community that had wanted the meeting as a sign of goodwill; the LTTE saw the event as an opportunity to highlight the humanitarian crisis in the north and east of Sri Lanka due to the closure by the government of the A9 highway. The civilians in Jaffna were once again sacrificed by the intransigent attitude of both parties. Since 2004, the governments of successive presidents, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapakse, have sought to undermine the ceasefire agreement reached in 2002 by Sri Lanka's then prime minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe. This created the room for a Sinhalese nationalist backlash. Rajapakse was elected on 17 November 2005 promising a just peace, but the overtone was that a military solution was the only option to save the Tamil people from the clutches of the "fascist" LTTE and to protect the integrity of the nation. In October 2006, government forces were badly hit in two attacks at Muhamalai and Habarana where more than 230 military personnel were killed. The government's response is a plan to double its defence expenditure in 2007 and prepare for a major assault against the Tamil Tigers. The LTTE too is busy rearming. Thus, exactly a year after the presidential election, and three weeks after the abortive Geneva talks, it is clear that for both sides, the preferred option is war in order to gain unilateral military advantage; establishing a dynamic for peace in the present grim context is a remote prospect. The only positive element in an otherwise depressing scenario is the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two main political parties: the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP), over working towards a political solution in the country that entails devolving power to the north and east. But by the time the military operations are over, it must be feared that the tired, battered and starved populations of the north and east will refuse even a reasonable offer put forward by a government that has shown little compassion for their suffering. A discourse of purity In Sri Lanka, where issues of history and territory have been at the heart of the claims and counter-claims of leaders of the Sinhalese and Tamil communities, it is useful to adopt a rhizomatic approach to history: that is, one where the future and past are constantly in the process of becoming each other. The understanding of culture in Sri Lanka - of statesmen, rebels and practitioners of "conflict resolution" - has predetermined the type of resolution to the civil war in the country and in a sense precluded other frameworks for reconciliation. Everyone in Sri Lanka - except those dismissed as "spoilers" and "un-liberal" forces - tends to accept that people "have" a culture with clear-cut boundaries and easily recognisable features. The way issues of inequity and difference have been addressed is deeply influenced by this approach. Furthermore, people forget that the distribution of communities varies from one region to another. While there are areas with a majority of over 80% (Tamil in the far north, or Sinhalese in the far south), there are also areas with approximately 25% minority populations, and areas with approximately equal representation between groups (such as the plantation district of Nuwara Eliya, and the Trincomalee and Amparai districts in the east). The dominant belief is, however, in purity of cultures compounded by territorial exclusivity: ideas that acquired hegemonic status with the growth of nationalism and anti-colonialism and which have been further entrenched in recent decades. Colonial rule helped propagate the idea that identities were fixed and stable and that one could not jump from one to another. For example, in the 1920s in his certificate of discharge YG Stephen, an engine-cleaner, had to state his race after his name, in this case Tamil. Nationalists did not contest the reading of society embodied in such requirements: one divided into well-defined and discrete communities. In the early 20th century the Sinhalese lay preacher Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) promoted a national dress for the Sinhalese that would be devoid of external cultural influences: the Sinhalese man should not "show the entire body like the Veddas who wear only a loin cloth, not wear a trouser like the fair Portuguese." There were of course subversive moments, which should be rekindled, where the power of definition was denied to the colonial power and the apparatus of value-coding displaced: many village tribunal presidents chose to wrap a sarong over their trousers, thus acknowledging both European and Ceylonese customs. There are many ways in which the order of progress and reason, the implacable dichotomies of colonial thought - east/west, traditional/modern, primitive/civilised - were undone. But nationalism never claimed hybridity and instead reiterated and reinforced the colonial discourse of purity. The state denies the option of straddling many identities. But in everyday life in border areas, and among coastal communities, men and women spoke (and still speak) two languages and continue to visit all places of worship - Catholic churches, Buddhist temples and Hindu devales. In the eastern province, Hindu and Muslim villages are commonly interspersed and there was probably a significant degree of intermarriage in the pre-colonial period. Until recently, Muslims participated in Hindu temple festivals, and some Hindu castes such as the Parayar drummers were given a customary role in the celebration of Muslim saints' festivals. Beyond the federal argument Colombo-based think-tanks, untouched by the complexity of the population distribution of Sri Lanka and by the overlapping of identities and cultural practices, continue to advocate a federal reorganisation of the state as the formula for solving the "ethnic problem". They are implicitly supported by aid donors and multilateral agencies. But the formation of cultural enclaves as a solution to the demands for justice by the Tamils of Sri Lanka is both troubling in itself, and inadequate or insufficient. Since more than half of the Tamil-speaking people live outside the would-be devolved regions (i.e. the north and east) it is the Sri Lanka state in its entirety that needs to undergo a drastic change. This would mean sapping the cultural exclusiveness of our schools - organised according to language/ethnic streams, offices, clubs, associations, and political parties. Unfortunately there seems to be no political formation capable of this type of innovative thinking. The possibility of a social-democratic, secular type of rule was closed from the mid-1950s; at that time, both main parties - the UNP and the SLFP - adopted policies that emphasised the majority culture and language, while the old left that harboured more secular values was decimated by the rise of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front [JVP]), a nationalist/populist new left. Since then, the dominant Sinhala and Buddhist culture and language permeate all institutions and the everyday life of citizens, while minority religions and languages are permitted to exist as cultural forms rather than as political options. Multiculturalism exists only in law; in practice government circulars are rarely written in both languages and police stations are aggressively monolingual. The president of the country addresses his citizens in Sinhala only, wears the Sinhala national dress and is regularly seen on state TV worshipping in Buddhist temples together with his Catholic wife. In 2006, as part of the Vesak festival that celebrates the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha, the state (for the first time in Sri Lanka) decreed an entire week of abstinence for all inhabitants and visitors to the country. Once again the stress was on preserving Buddhism in its purest form rather than accepting its modernity and allowing people to choose the life and mode of religious practice they wished. The way forward At a time when the state is openly and often aggressively promoting Sinhalese culture and Buddhism while paying lip-service to multiculturalism, the challenge today is to revitalise citizenship as an alternative to multiculturalism. Reconciliation is only possible within a state structure that recognises multiple identities through multiple acts of identification. Dividing territory according to "cultural identities" with the view to devolving powers should not be considered a panacea. Sri Lankans deserve better than two federal units, mirror images of each other, each practicing similarly exclusivist policies, each fostering dreams of authentic cultures and pure "races". A parallel strategy is needed, aiming at radically transforming the existing state to ensure that common values of equity and justice for all its citizens are respected. Autonomy for the other can only happen in a state that nurtures pride in cultural mélange and hybridity, rather than in the fantasy of the purity and authenticity of cultures. -- [*] Nira Wickramasinghe is a professor in the department of history and international relations, the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She grew up in Paris and studied at the Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne and at Oxford University, where she earned her doctorate. Among her books are Civil Society in Sri Lanka: New Circles of Power (New Delhi, Thousand Oaks/ Sage, 2001); Dressing the Colonised Body: Politics, Clothing and Identity in Colonial Sri Lanka (New Delhi, Orient Longman, 2003); and Sri Lanka in the Modern Age: A History of Contested Identities (C Hurst and University of Hawaii Press, 2006). ______ [3] Daily Times November 21, 2006 PROTECTING WOMEN by Asma Jahangir Zina remains an offence but the procedure for its complaint has been made stricter and those making an accusation of rape cannot be punished for zina. Thus, false accusations of zina will dramatically drop The myth that the Hudood Ordinances cannot be touched without the wrath of the mullahs tearing the country asunder has finally been laid to rest with the passage in the National Assembly of the Protection of Women Act, 2006. That's good news. The Bill has still to be passed by the Senate. The MMA has threatened to resign and the leader of the PMLQ has graciously offered to resign in case an un-Islamic element is discovered in the law. Meanwhile, the president of Pakistan is exhilarated. In his statement to the press, he has claimed to do away with the requirement for a victim of rape to bring four witnesses "otherwise she is imprisoned". In similar fashion, he has asserted in his book that under his rule the national assembly passed a law banning "honour killings". Such killings were always banned; but like all murders could be compromised unless the court specifically overruled it. The president is either misinformed or deliberately misleading his constituency. The Hudood laws did not require the evidence of four male adult Muslim witnesses to punish a rapist under tazir, which prescribes for punishment of a maximum 25 years of imprisonment. All trials of zina and rape are carried out under tazir with regular rules of evidence applying during trial. Medical evidence, the victim's testimony, and any other forms of proof are all taken into consideration. However, since zina (all sex outside marriage) is also an offence, the risk remained that during investigation if a woman were suspected of having consented to the rape the victim was arrested on charges of zina. This has largely been taken care of by the new amendments. Zina remains an offence but the procedure for its complaint has been made stricter and those making an accusation of rape cannot be punished for zina. Thus, false accusations of zina will dramatically drop. The Select Committee of the National Assembly and the President has taken a positive first step. At the same time it is critical to realise that a clear vision is needed while legislating. Laws cannot discriminate on the basis of sex or religion and the objective of criminal legal system is to enhance the principles of justice. Orthodox interpretation of Islamic law cannot come in the way of principled norms of justice. The remaining portions of the Hudood laws are discriminatory against religious minorities, women, and the poor. Islamisation of the criminal legal system has paved the way to serious forms of injustices. An important example is the law of qisas and diyat. Murder can be waived or compromised but zina can still be punished with stoning to death. A person who can pay his way out of death penalty or manoeuvre a compromise can be set free but lesser offences can beget imprisonment. The present Bill on the Protection of Women has made some amends and resisted the temptation of introducing a controversial clause bordering on censorship. Initially, it was recommended to punish anyone disclosing the identity of the victims or their families, involved in zina or rape cases. In most cases the press needs to exercise restraint but a number of victims want to be heard and it is their right to do so. Moreover, a number of incidents make news purely because of the identity of the actor. Indulgence in immoral acts by those who profess to act as its custodians is news worthy. The parliamentary debate in the national assembly on the Bill was quite revealing. All sides vowed to abide by Islamic norms, yet had different approaches in resolving the issue. The speakers from MMA including Saad Rafiq of the PMLN called the Bill - a fahashi Bill. In particular, the women parliamentarians of MMA were most disparaging of Pakistani society. In their view, a softer law on zina would open the floodgates to immorality. They argued that Pakistan was created to be a theocratic State. They often referred to the dreams of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and appealed for the Hudood Ordinances to remain intact. Their leaders lamented that like many Western countries people would start living out of wedlock and have illegitimate children. In addition, they asserted that there were fewer women arrested under zina than was being alleged. Those who are now convinced that Pakistan was designed to be a theocratic state were the very elements who opposed its creation precisely because they feared it was not to be so. The Quaid or any of his followers never promoted laws similar to the Hudood Ordinances. The level of morality in Pakistan was better prior to the promulgation of the Hudood laws in 1979. The temptation to commit immoral sexual acts is not dependant on penal sanctions but upon the leading values of the times. Figures on the number of reported cases show that there were only two cases of adultery before the promulgation of the Offence of Zina Ordinance. Since then there have been hundreds of such cases. As far as the numbers of affected women are concerned, it is vital to recall that these were far greater in the early days of the enforcement of the zina law and that hundreds are bailed out every week. The total exceeds the few hundred that were recently granted bail. The zeal with which the Jama'at women pleaded for morality is never expressed when scandals of people belonging to their own ideological beliefs appear so prominently in the press. The passage of the Women's Protection law is no victory for anyone. It is a great sense of relief that fewer women will end up being imprisoned on trumped up charges. The present amendments have virtually reduced the Zina Ordinance to only a few sections. At the same time a more fundamental issue has to be resolved - the fate of law making? Is it going to be based on principles of equality or politicized in the name of Islam? While there is respite in one area, there are dark clouds in another. The passage of the Hasba law has allowed the mullah a free hand in setting up a network of morality enforcers in the NWFP. There has hardly been any resistance to it by the government. It indicates that Pakistan is following a dual policy, a politics of give-and-take. A position based on principles is often seen as extreme, perhaps because it cannot be whimsical. Instead, politics of convenience has been the vogue in Pakistan, based as it is on pure opportunism. Such enterprise is bound to falter because it lacks clarity and sincerity. Asma Jilani Jahangir is a Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist ______ [4] The Telegraph November 25, 2006 SANGH LINK SINGES BHU TEACHERS Our Special Correspondent Lucknow, Nov. 24: Over 100 Banaras Hindu University (BHU) teachers have locked horns with Union HRD minister Arjun Singh after they were served a showcause notice for attending an RSS seminar in Varanasi. University sources said 116 teachers were asked to explain in two weeks why disciplinary action should not be taken against them. They are planning to contest the notice. The RSS had organised a seminar at Viswa Sanvad Kendra in Varanasi on cultural nationalism on November 11. A local newspaper reported that 116 BHU faculty members - the university has more than 1,000 teachers - had spoken at the meet. This morning, vice-chancellor P. Singh served notices to these teachers, quoting the reports. The notice said they had violated the Central Civil Service Conduct Rules of 1964. "Under the present circumstances of the country, teachers of a central university are supposed to have a secular attitude," it added. Professor Kaushal Kishore Mishra said he had received the notice. "I am shocked to see how a prestigious university is being run by the dictates of one politician (Arjun). I am a free man and I have the right to attend any seminar on any subject of my choice. I cannot be slapped a notice because I did not attend the seminar during class hours." Viswanath Pandey, the university's PRO, confirmed the notices were sent. "Serving notice does not mean taking action. We believe it is not in the best interest of the nation to fall in line with RSS theories. What will the teachers impart to the students if they show their bias?" BJP leaders in Lucknow were quick to protest. "It is not a crime to attend any RSS meet. It is highly condemnable the way the professors are being harassed," former chief minister Kalyan Singh said. _____ [5] Gujarat Pleas against Modi: court decision on December 4 http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/24/stories/2006112415711300.htm Opposition to Modi's `unanimity' scheme http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/23/stories/2006112319091400.htm SC issues notices to Ashok Bhatt, Pathak in '85 riot case http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=210770 SC pulls up Gujarat for lapses in '02 riot cases http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/534603.cms _____ [6] Hardnews November 2006 TO PEE IS TO BE That's what we are, Hoo Ha India, superpower nuclear India, floating on public spectacles of yellow swimming pools of male piss, with condemned rivers of chemicalised filth and tonnes of garbage scattered like testimonies of greatness Amit Sengupta Delhi So what was wrong when a Dutch embassy official said that Delhi looks like a garbage dump? Why did our patriotic instincts get so aroused that we almost condemned this frank, free speech? Delhi is a non-biodegradable, backward capitalist, semi-feudal, patriarchal, uncultured garbage dump, why shy away from that? Not only that, Delhi has turned into a vast, sprawling, ever, macho public urinal, a shit hole, a faceless ghetto, an architect's black-hole nemesis, an octopus without a soul or belonging or sensitivity or civic sense. So what is so Mera Bharat Mahan about Delhi being a damned garbage dump? Can't you see it all over the place, from the posh, palatial south zones to the twilight zones of the east and west, with the demolished slums in between? Surely, even tinted windows of swanky cars are transparent, aren't they? So why hide the gaze? And where do the women go? The mother, the housewife, the working women? On the streets, in marketplaces, public parks, public transport, long distance roadways buses, flyovers, national highways -why are they condemned to hold on while men are all over pissing in stark daylight as if it's a tide on a full-moon night. And where do you walk? The slimy, stagnant, fragrant pavements are full of pissers in full public glory. The roads and highways are full of pissers. Not only the nooks and corners, they are all over the ideal city-state. The entire city has become a virtual reality of a public urinal-the stench floating like a cliché. Except that the Delhi and central governments, the MPs, the MLAs, the opposition politicians, the ruling party politicians, the police, the mandarins in the municipalities, the Union ministers, the ex-ministers, the bureaucrats and babus, the elite- eyes wide shut, the page 3 party-types with colonial hangovers, the upwardly mobile and the middle mobile, the fourth estate, the real estate-no one is willing to see this masculine display of public patriotism. Mass urinals as a tourist delight-welcome to this machismo capital of the power elite, the special dirty zone of organised filth and muck and gaseous, fungus-ridden waste and dirty waters. When the masses are against hygiene and aesthetics, and when the men have no shame, and when the government wears a sanitised chastity belt of cold-blooded ignorance, who can stop this great pissing nationalism of our nationhood defined, even while we put pictures of gods on walls, stairs, pavements, residential areas to stop people peeing and spitting? And if you think this is because Delhi is flooded by the unwashed, the slum dweller, the landless poor and urban worker, the low-middle class uncultured vulture, and that it is a demographic paradigm shift that is polluting its geography, think again, and look back with originality, if not anger. That SUV, and not only with a UP or Haryana nameplate, its door half-open, its owner in a safari suit, doing it in the open courtyard of Pragati Maidan. Sometimes wife and daughter wait in the car till the man gives way to the basic looing instinct. This fascinating phenomena, truly, has broken all class barriers-the State has withered away and this philistine public piss joint is the only and ultimate utopia. That's why they are pissing on the Lodi crematorium walls even as the dead depart for their final journey, inside public parks post-Pranayam, outside schools even as children cross the footpath, on the Yamuna bridge, car and scooter waiting, as a mother walks away quickly with her daughter; outside the gates of the palatial homes of our MPs and ministers in Lutyens' Delhi, outside hospitals like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where harried patients and their equally harried relatives wait for buses on the road under the sun because the state has chosen to build no bus shelters here since the last 20 years, on flyovers, parking lots, pavements and bus stops, talking on cell phones, bang in front of thosewaiting for a bus, while the bus waits and the pissers zip it up and walk into the 'ladies only' seats, proud and ugly like pea-cocks. In any case, most clean, new pay-and-use toilets, barring a handful, are loaded in favour of advertisers in prime locations. Good planning, as they say. In any case, Delhi has no public space culture, no benches where you can write a letter, no open-air modest restaurants where you can read a book and drink a black coffee or beer, no footpaths or stairs where a young couple can hang out and smoke. Delhi hates its women, unlike Mumbai and Kolkata; women here are forever in danger of assault, physical, invisible, objectified, uncensored violence. Delhi is for the obscenely super rich, male and female, in affluent, sanitised, enclosed, air-conditioned, cocooned, protected zones, here they don't smell the stench; Delhi is also for the male masses, lower, middle, upwardly mobile, downwardly mobile, the poor, the migrant, the exiled, the conquerors of the golden city, the pissers of paradise. A swank car stops at Nizamuddin crossing. The door opens as a window rolls down, a prosperous man puts his chubby face out, and out flows from his mouth a huge chunk of red liquid, a paan's remnants, and runs like a Persian carpet on the road. They are spitting everywhere, from bus windows on bikers, from truck windows on cyclists, from cars on pedestrians. If they could, they would piss from the windows. They throw beer and coke cans, wafer packets, wrappers, plastic everywhere-the entire city is a bin. The city belongs to no one. No one belongs to the city. If you cheat me, I will cheat someone else. Me, mine, myself, who cares for Bhagidari? So why say, I love Delhi? Because Delhi is a sucked-up lollipop. Delhi is polythene, all over, on trees, dhabas, shops, inside the choked-up intestines of our homeless, holy cows eating polythene with glass, plastic, leather, shoes, tin, aluminium, metal, used crackers, matchboxes, gutka packs in the garbage dumps. Gai hamari mata hai-the cow is our mother! So who will ask the Hindutva Godse Genius, if this is not cow slaughter, what is? And where has the river gone? The pristine Yamuna at Yamunotri in the Himalayas, its magical origin, finds a magical metamorphosis at Wazirpur, in West Delhi, and becomes a divine nullah, a stagnant shitpot of millions, poisonous, full of effluents, garbage and chemicals. The river disappears, the dirty nullah resurrects everyday, even as Delhiites stop their cars and throw polythene packets full of ritualistic Hindu flowers into the abyss of this abysmal degradation. As I write this, thousands of Biharis are jumping into the half-white foam of this utterly filthy stagnation and celebrating Chatt in trans-Yamuna. So where did the crores of rupees spent on cleaning the river disappear? And what reflection can a narcissistic, consumerist, unaesthetic society find in the waters when it looks for its self-image? Shit. Our own shit. Inside the water. Inside the ground water. Inside earth. Inside the food cycle. Inside the drinking water. Inside the intestines. Inside the mind. Shit. Our own shit. Across Delhi, the new, green garbage containers designed by a genius dot the landscape like memorials. Except that dogs and pigs have found new homes, with the garbage spilling over and people jumping over them, like long jumpers in a nation with one Olympic bronze. So why spend crores on full-page ads asking people to protect themselves against the Aedes mosquito? The Aedes factory is right here, breeding, State-sponsored, all for free. That's what we are, Hoo Ha India, the superpower, nuclear power capital, floating on yellow swimming pools of male piss, with a condemned river of fossilised shit and chemicalised filth, and thousands of tonnes of garbage scattered everywhere, like grand testimonies of a clean, happy, healthy society. Like philistines becoming reformers. Like reformers becoming philistines. Welcome to the capital city of power and pelf. The ideal State's public urinal _____ [7] Books: Frontline Volume 23 - Issue 23 :: Nov. 18 - Dec. 01, 2006 PEOPLING HISTORY Shonaleeka Kaul A lively and insightful history of early India from the margins whose merit lies in the creative analysis of early Indian literature. Uma Chakravarti's EVERYDAY LIVES, EVERYDAY HISTORIES: BEYOND THE KINGS AND BRAHMANAS OF `ANCIENT' INDIA is a compilation of 14 essays from the author's considerable work on the history and historiography of early India. Though it brings together articles written by the historian-activist over two decades and published in various journals and collections, no element of staleness attaches to the book. [. . .]. http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20061201000307200.htm ___ (ii) Book Review / The Hindu 21 November 2006 Champion of women's rights Geeta Ramaseshan An insightful biography of the first woman to study law at Oxford and pursue the legal profession in India CORNELIA SORABJI - India's Pioneer Woman Lawyer, A Biography: Suparna Gooptu; Oxford University Press, YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs. 495. Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to study law at Oxford in 1889 and the first woman to practise at the Calcutta High Court was a pioneer in many ways. At a time when Cornelia received her training at Oxford, women students were treated as guests and denied the right to receive degrees. When she tried to practise as a `vakil' in Bombay, she was refused enrolment as she could not cite a precedence of a woman `vakil'. The chief justice told her that a woman should not have anything to do with law. The Allahabad High Court refused to permit her to practise law holding that it would be impertinent of an Indian high court to admit women on its rolls before England had given the lead. Pioneer woman lawyer Undeterred and wanting to prove that there was a need for a woman lawyer even outside the court room Cornelia presented a scheme for extending help to `purdahnashin' women who because of their social seclusion were deprived the benefits of law. The proposal met with severe objections and criticisms from men in the legal profession both Indian and British but it was approved in 1904 when Cornelia was permitted to provide legal assistance to the `purdahnashins' in Bengal. She started her practice as a lawyer only after 1920 at Allahabad and played a pioneering role in trying to open the legal profession to women. Displeased with the political and cultural transformation of Indian life in the 20th century, Cornelia became a defender of the Empire and Hindu orthodoxy. Her association with Katherine Mayo's Mother India contributed to her marginalisation from the mainstream of Indian political, social and professional life. She died in 1954 in England a lonely and distressed woman. Struggles Gooptu's biography skilfully draws a canvas of an individual who was in many ways ahead of her times and places Cornelia in the intersection of gender, class and racial politics. While tracing Cornelia's education, Gooptu narrates the complex way in which Oxford provided an ideological justification for the notion of the Empire. Gooptu argues that Cornelia's struggles were located within the matrix of imperial politics where the woman's question was also subsumed within the Tory imperial ideology. "Even when British women were provided a public space, they had to work within the parameters of the Empire." Exposed to this complex English political atmosphere of the late 19th century, Cornelia disagreed with Ramabai and felt that social change in India could not be brought through legislation because India was unprepared for it. Gooptu's analysis and case studies of Cornelia's interaction with `purdanashins' and Cornelia's fight against male bias in the legal profession makes fascinating reading drawing as it were from Cornelia's own struggles in establishing herself as a lawyer and the problems faced by `purdanashins'. `Purdahnashins' could not publicly participate in the management of their estates. Private self The male agent, who was her sole trustee, undertook the administration of the trust. Cases of abuses and betrayals of trust were in plenty. Even in such cases a `purdanashin' could complain only through her trustee due to her seclusion. If she was a guardian of a male heir to the estate she and her minor children became wards of the court in British India or the collector. Emphasising the denial of justice for such women Cornelia proposed the appointment of a lady legal adviser to the court of wards for each province who would be able to serve their needs. The book draws a lot of materials from Cornelia's private papers and correspondence that reveal crucial dimensions of her private self. The author places Cornelia in context while providing a rich analysis of the negotiations she chose in her professional life, the choices she made in her personal life and the ideological beliefs to which she held on. Gooptu provides an insightful biography of a remarkable woman who has remained neglected in studies on India's transition to modernity and also in the historiography of women and gender. ___ (iii) AMBEDKAR, AYODHYA AUR DALIT ANDOLAN Dear friends, A compilation of my articles in Hindi on various issues of Dalit rights during the past 15 years have been published by Daanhish Books, Delhi. After the demolition of Babari mosque in 1992 and later in 2002 when Gujarat burnt resulting in massacre of Muslims, the question of Hindutva in the Dalit Bahujan Discourse came prominently. There were charges by the upper castes including those claiming secular, against the Dalits for participating in these crimes. Those charges are not new as every time such charges takes place. Rather than maligning the entire community, we do not ponder over the situation as how this happen. Dalits have become important in the Hindutva discourse also. The 'Samarasata' principle of the Hindutva is to 'coopt' the Dalits into their fold without challenging the existing social order. The matter of fact is that the Hindutva and its ideolouges never ever made an effort to fight against the this social exclusion of Dalits. The book covers a large number of issues like separate electorate, fascism, idolatory, identity politics with in the Dalits,impact of the new economic policies on Dalits, issue of reservation, issues related to violence on Dalits including several case studies which the author has been actively involved in. It also travel to some unknown tarrain like issues of Mushahars, issue of Dalits in Bengal, issue of Dalits in Tsunduru, Andhra Pradesh who were brutally massacred. The book contain 148 pages and the paper back edition of it cost Rs 100/-. It could be useful for social activists who are keen to understand the Dalit issues and its linkages to communalism, economic globalisation and identity politics. You can order your book from M/s Daanish Publications by writing them at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] or Daannish Books, B-802, Taj Apartments, Gazipur, Delhi-110096 Tel : 011-65785559, 22230812 You can also contact us for the same. A discount could be given on the bulk sales. With regards, Vidya Bhushan Rawat Visit my blog at <http://www.manukhsi.blogspot.com/>www.manukhsi.blogspot.com [. . .]. _____ [9] EVENTS: For news, Views and reports on ISF visit <http://www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=WSF2006%3AISFArticles>http://www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=WSF2006%3AISFArticles Audio reports on <http://www.forumradio.cacim.net/>www.forumradio.cacim.net New Delhi, Monday, November 24, 2006 Post-ISF reflection session on the World Social Forum Wednesday, November 29, 3:30 - 6 pm @ India Social Institute 10 - Institutional Area, Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003 (INDIA) Phone:24622379/ 24625015 Come and join us ! Dear friends, I am writing on behalf of CACIM (India Institute for Critical Action : Centre in Movement), to cordially invite you to a post-ISF reflection session this coming Wednesday, November 29 2006, at ISI (India Social Institute), at 3:30 pm. The November 29, 2006 meeting We are calling this meeting to take full advantage of fresh memories on the part of those who attended the India Social Forum from November 9-13. This becomes even more important in view of the fact that the event was held in Delhi and a large number of us were closely involved with the organising the event itself or events at ISF in some way or the other. The meeting on November 24 2006 will have participation from those who were closely involved in the ISF process, have engaged with the process for long and continue to do so and come from a wide range of backgrounds and points of view to reflect on the ISF and on the World Social Forum process more generally and as an idea. We would also like to invite those who could not attend the ISF due to one reason or the other but are keen to know what happened at the Forum. We have planned the meeting not as a lot of speeches but as some brief presentations on the basis of which we will draw out certain particular issues and where all those present will then have a chance to take part in breakout groups (smaller group discussions). We want to make the meeting as common and participatory as possible. While we want anyone who is interested to come, once again we especially invite all those who have attended the ISF to please join us and to come prepared to briefly share with us your reflections on what took place there. And we also invite all those who may have been at any of the other world meetings this year, either Karachi, Bamako or Caracas, and all those who have been at other Social Forums, either the World Social Forum at Mumbai in January 2004 or the Asian Social Forum in Hyderabad in January 2003, or any of the other regional or national events over these past years. ISF at New Delhi is the third Social Forum in India after Hyderabad (2003) and Mumbai (2004) and the process would be entering in its 5th year. We hope it would be an interesting session on Wednesday. Please do come. We look forward very much to having you with us. With warm greetings Madhuresh For CACIM Some of the pointers for reflections : 1. What do you feel has been the value of the India Social Forum, and of the World Social Forum process in general, in contributing to strengthening a process of putting forward alternatives to neoliberal globalisation, war, patriarchy, casteism, and communalism ? 2. What has been the specific value of organising the India Social Forum in Delhi, the political centre of the country at this particular juncture when UPA government is in power in the name of aam aadmi agenda. 3. How has holding the WSF events in Hyderabad 2003, Mumbai in 2004 and now in Delhi 2006 strengthened social movements and civil processes in India, South Asia, and the region more generally ? How do you see this journey of WSF in India ? 4. What are the lessons we can learn from this edition of the Forum, for the forthcoming events and such initiatives and for work related to the World Social Forum process more generally ? 5. Do you agree with the observation made by some people who were at Delhi, and also in relation to Social Forums held elsewhere in the world, that the WSF is becoming just one big talk shop ? If so, why and how do you agree ? And if you do not agree, then why not ? And in either case, what future do you see for the WSF ? 6. How was attending the India Social Forum in Delhi important for the work that you do ? 7. Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi, WHAT NEXT ??? ********************************* CACIM - India Institute for Critical Action : Centre in Movement A-3, Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India Ph : 91 11 4155 1521 and 2433 2451 / Mobile 91 98 1890 5316 e-mail : <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] o o o Dr Nandini Gooptu Globalization, economic liberalization and the Indian bureaucracy 29 November 2006, 02:00 PM, Russell Room, Balliol College, University of Oxford o o o Ms Eleanor Newbigin Women, personal law and property rights: notions of modern citizenship in late colonial India South Asian Studies Seminar - 29 November 2006 at 5 p.m. in the Director's Room, Centre of South Asian Studies, Laundress Lane, Cambridge _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ 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/ SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/ DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers. _______________________________________________ SACW mailing list [email protected] http://insaf.net/mailman/listinfo/sacw_insaf.net
