South Asia Citizens Wire - Pack 1 | November 27-28, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2326 - Year 8
[1] Pakistan: Protection at the cost of freedom (Saad Sayeed) [2] India: Don't forget Gujarat 2006 (Editorial, Hindustan Times) [3] India on 20 cents a day (Aseem Shrivastava) [4] [Tahmima Anam] New fiction star taps Bangladeshi roots (Vanessa Thorpe and Mahtab Haider) [5] India - Book Review: Hindutva Nationalism and Agenda of RSS (Ram Puniyani) [6] India - Obscurantism: MP Assembly has Vaastu problem? (Milind Ghatwai) [7] UK: Dawkins takes fight against religion into the classroom (Sarah Cassidy) [8] Upcoming Events: (i) Forum on Historic Developments in Nepal (Vancouver, 10 December 2006) (ii) Fourth International Rationalist Conference (New Delhi, 26-29 December 2006) ____ [1] The News International November 28, 2006 PROTECTION AT THE COST OF FREEDOM by Saad Sayeed Finally, seven years into his rule, General Musharraf has changed one of the most repulsive laws enacted by Ziaul Haq. Women no longer need to produce four witnesses when filing rape charges or fear they might in turn be convicted of adultery. However, the Women's Protection Bill (WPB) has been accompanied by an anti-lewdness clause and there is the small matter of the Hudood Ordinance operating alongside the civil procedure. Despite the minimal changes, the MMA has been enraged by the immorality of the whole procedure, with Maulana Fazlur Rehman asserting that Pakistan will now be turned into a 'free-sex zone'. What a shame that we can no longer rape women and accuse them of adultery. Not in Pakistan! Don't worry, the MMA is here to safeguard our morality. They will tell us what to do, how to wear our trousers, trim our beards, and go after the infidels. The Bill that was passed by the Senate on November 24 is no more than a symbol of the lost freedoms that might be achieved and regained. Everything Pakistan lost in 1977 is still buried deep beneath the sand. Voices muted for over a decade have lost the ability to speak out, to reason, and are still recovering after being mentally crippled by General Ziaul Haq and his equally hegemonic legacy. It is obvious that people should not be subjected to religious law -- as it is civil law does not treat us equally. But when religion is interpreted by manipulative bigots such as the MMA and laws are enacted under regimes such as that of Ziaul Haq, his eerie chuckle still resonating throughout the corridors of power in this country, then the result will most certainly be the suppression of freedom and our private rights as human beings. The MMA want to enforce, not promote morality, there is a difference. As it is, universal judgements of morality are problematic. Who is to judge what version is correct. By enacting morality, we are subjecting ourselves to constant policing and scrutiny. This is why the WPB is little more than a farce. Musharraf could have repealed the Hudood Ordinance once and for all. But instead, through the anti-lewdness and remaining Hudood clauses, the law, alongside the military, will still govern our private lives. The question that needs to be asked if that why does the ruling party seem to be so earnest in wanting to meet the demands of the MMA? Is it because not doing so would further erode the government's write in Balochistan and the NWFP? We all know that this law was not passed to protect the women of Pakistan. Instead, it was a convenient way of propping up the country's international image. Nations are judged by the way they treat their women and Pakistan has long found itself at the bottom of the barrel. This scale has been produced through history and every eastern society has been hypocritically subjected to it. If the establishment really cared about the plight of Pakistan's women, or the people in general, symbolic laws such as these would not be the way to correct past mistakes. It is obvious that women are regarded as no more than property by the religious zealots that comprise the MMA and as political mileage by the military establishment. For its part, the MMA has succeeded in ensuring that it passed the Hasba Bill in the NWFP, which allows it to unleash the moral police on the residents of that province. How long before that moral police comes knocking on your door? Who needs freedom anyway, at least our GDP is rising. The writer has worked at the Herald previously. Currently he is a student based in Toronto. ______ [2] Hindustan Times November 27, 2006 EDITORIAL DON'T FORGET GUJARAT 2006 If the Gujarat government had its way, we should have forgotten about Gujarat 2002. Even if we discount the shameful role that the local administration played during the post-Godhra massacres and the fact that the culprits are yet to be brought to justice, we could argue the need to not dwell forever on the horrific events for the sake of Gujarat's future. But how can one 'move on' when there is the unfinished business of rehabilitating thousands of riot victims? Any talk of closure becomes absurd when these thousands continue to languish almost five years after the 'incident'. Following a report of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) that focused on the failure of existing rehabilitation policies in Gujarat, the central government has decided to review the policies determining the compensation and rehabilitation packages provided to massacre victims and their families. The Centre will pay Rs 7 lakh as compensation to the families of over 2,000 victims killed during the 2002 pogrom. Putting a price tag to human lives is incredibly difficult. But it is a much less philosophical exercise - and a much more urgent one - to provide monetary relief so that enforced hardships can be made to disappear. Over 5,000 families displaced by the 2002 riots continue to live in camps in 'sub-human conditions' that lack basic facilities like water, sewage, health and schools, approachable roads and streetlights. In the words of the NCM report prepared after a five-day visit to 16 of the 17 aid camps in October, these refugees, overwhelmingly Muslim, are 'marooned' from the rest of society. The Gujarat government insists that these families refuse to leave these camps and 'return home'. Unfortunately, the fact that only 7 per cent of compensation has been disbursed by the local authorities tell a different story. Till date, the state government has paid only Rs 41 crore in compensation, and actually returned Rs 19 crore to the Centre unspent. Local authorities cite problems in the implementation procedure (lack of ration cards, etc.). To ensure that the same 'implementational failure' does not recur with the central package, a monitoring mechanism to check rehabilitation measures should be immediately set up. Compensation schemes amount to nothing if the money does not reach its intended destination. And we must not forget that there are real people who continue to suffer every day even as we are tempted to treat Gujarat 2002 only as a mad, bad and dangerous memory. ______ [3] http://www.sacw.net/free/aseem25nov2006.html www.sacw.net | 25 November 2006 INDIA ON 20 CENTS A DAY The fine print in the reporting of global poverty estimates by Aseem Shrivastava The World Bank - which has to be applauded for having made the first such attempt - started making international comparisons of poverty only about two decades back. For obvious reasons of convenience it developed two simple notions of poverty. The US Treasury being the power behind the institution, and the dollar being the reserve currency by design, the lower poverty line was set at $1 a day per capita. Those below it were considered to be "the poorest of the poor". The upper poverty line was set at $2 a day. Those living on $1-2 a day were still poor, but not as badly off. The updated numbers today, corrected for inflation, are $1.08 and $2.15. The vagaries of purchasing power (dis)parities However, there was a problem. It was realized that $1 goes much farther in purchasing necessary items of consumption in a poor country compared to a rich one. (Moreover, exchange rates do not take into account non-traded goods.) Using prevailing exchange rates, Rs.45 can buy more in India than $1 can in America. So unless it was corrected for the lower cost of living in poor countries - enabling access to a bigger amount of real goods for the same amount of money - this measure of poverty was likely to give an overestimate of the number of poor people living in absolute poverty. To make purchasing power across countries comparable, economists developed what is known as the PPP (purchasing power parity) index. Taking into account the lower cost of living in impoverished countries, a conversion factor is now applied to market exchange rates to calculate what is minimally necessary to survive there. Using widely quoted World Bank numbers on GDP, this conversion factor for a country like India (2005) can be computed to be approximately 5.3. This means that $1.08 a day in India should effectively imply a purchasing power of about 20 cents a day to an American - or indeed anyone - unacquainted with the nuances of PPP calculations. However, given how the numbers are quoted everywhere, the dominant impression that is conveyed is that the poor are living on less than $1 or $2 a day when, in fact, it would be enormously more accurate, as far as everyday English is concerned, to say that the poor are living on less than $0.20 or $0.40 a day. The reason why this is not done is obvious: it would give an even more alarming picture of the scale and depth of poverty across this enormously wealthy world. Most decent people are shocked enough by the understated numbers in the form they are widely quoted. More reality would numb and paralyze even the grittiest of activists. "Humanity", T.S.Eliot wrote, "cannot bear much reality." He had the privileged in mind. The most recent World Bank estimates for India are based on household surveys carried out in 1999-2000. It was found that almost 80% of purported superpower India's population was surviving on less than $2.15 a day (in PPP terms). That is, about 800 million people were living on $0.40 a day or less. Nearly 35% (350 million) were found to be living on $0.20 a day or less. Even if the proportion of poor people has fallen somewhat during the past 5-6 years, the absolute numbers would not look too different today. I have asked several non-experts abroad who have traveled to India, and are thus somewhat familiar with market exchange rates, how they interpret the $1 a day or $2 a day figure. The answer is: literally. In other words, they think that really poor Indians (35% of the population) live on less than Rs.45 and less poor Indians (another 45% of the population) live on between Rs.45-90 a day. In their imagination that is bad enough for Western countries to send aid to poor countries. However, if their belief was in fact correct then (assuming Rs.20 a day to be the minimum needed to supply the 2200 calories of food intake - and minimal nutrition - that agricultural economists and the UN take to be the survival norm appropriately averaged across age groups, locations and kinds of labor) at least the additional 450-500 million who would be living in the Rs.45-90 a day range would be well out of poverty. In fact, a substantial proportion of the people living under the lower poverty line would be out of poverty too. There might perhaps remain some 50 to 100 million poor, malnourished Indians whose long-term welfare could easily be looked after by the prosperity all around. Not only would Indian politicians, government officials, businessmen and heir consultants be jumping out of their seats in sheer disbelief that their superpower fantasies may actually be realized, but if this state of affairs was representative of the impoverished world as a whole, the World Bank would be out of business, their achieved goal of a "world free of poverty" having ironically led them there! Sadly, the reality is closer to "a world free of the poor". Thanks to the subtleties of PPP calculations it may quite possibly be the case that the number of people across the world who are not able to meet the minimum standards for adequate nutrition is anywhere from 3 to 4 billion, rather than the officially estimated 2.7 billion who are estimated to be living under $2 a day. No one really knows. In other words, we could all be off by a whole continent! Some experts in the field, such as Sanjay Reddy of Columbia University or Robert Wade of the London School of Economics advise deep skepticism about prevailing official estimates, especially of alleged changes thereof on account of globalization. Wade advocates that "the political economy of statistics" is crucial and argues for greater competition in the market for the generation of international poverty data, so far a de facto monopoly of the World Bank. No free market there! There is intense debate among economists and policy-makers as to just how much poverty there is in the world and whether it is going up or down with globalization. According to one expert Angus Deaton, "it seems impossible to make statements about changes in world poverty when the ground underneath one's feet is changing in this way." Where do the World Bank experts go wrong? A few of them are even known to this writer, and are reliable people of otherwise unimpeachable integrity. Being a drop-out economist myself I appreciate the trials and tribulations of the economists and statisticians at the World Bank who compute the numbers on poverty. It is a harrowing mine-field of data they must negotiate on a daily basis in order to arrive at the sort of numbers the world and its policy-makers are interested in. The challenge of measuring poverty and the (changes thereof) accurately, in a world as diverse, complex and dynamic as ours, is immense. But after decades of effort by trained statisticians it should have become possible by now to arrive at somewhat reliable numbers. The problem is, at bottom, be political, rather than one of expertise. The very fact that when making comparisons between enriched and impoverished countries, all monetary magnitudes have to be inflated significantly to get a sense of real values in the poor world should have been a matter of great ethical concern to economists, something to make them wonder as to how things got to this point. In a world of markets stretched across mountainously uneven playing fields, pricing is determined not so much by the real costs (to human labor and to nature) incurred but by historically determined economic forces like the willingness and ability to pay. Typically, the latter are shaped in profound ways by legacies of inequalities in wealth and power which mainstream economists are trained to avoid taking into account while preparing their advocacy of "free" markets. In the real world, as against the general equilibrium models microeconomists are schooled in, few things are as politically shaped and formed as the structure of relative prices. In particular, the price of labor - wages - is almost entirely a matter of bargaining, as also, we are realizing, the price of utilizing nature. Moreover, in our increasingly packaged consumerist world even global poverty figures must ultimately arrive in a wrapping that is not unpalatably unattractive to the public. Trickle-down will ultimately work, we are repeatedly assured by growth economists. But like the late John Kenneth Galbraith is said to have remarked acerbically, faith in trickle-down is a bit like feeding race horses superior oats so that starving sparrows can forage in their dung. All indications, especially in parts of the world like rural India, are that a decade and a half of corporate globalization has left undernutrition and malnutrition all but intact, and might quite possibly have worsened the predicament for many millions. Numbed (by the numbers) In a world which has been brought up to regard numerical precision as a sign of scientific rigor, it easily gets forgotten (especially by mainstream economists) that poverty is not merely a matter of numbers. Numbers can only tell us about what the experts call "income poverty". Modern standards of living involve large amounts of intangibles and social consumption, known to economists as "public goods": drinking water, public sanitation, health and education are only some of the services which people in rich countries take for granted because they have been traditionally guaranteed by the state (though in recent years private corporations have queued up, often successfully - especially in impoverished countries - to take control and possession of these services). When these are taken into account it becomes clear that what the experts call the "poverty line" is actually more accurately labeled "starvation line", as some people will have it. Many Indian economists have been advocating a serious upward revision of the poverty line in order to get a better grasp of the economic reality. Economists have tried to remedy the situation by evolving during the last few decades the Human Development Index (HDI), calculated and issued by the UNDP every year. It tries to take into account life expectancy (as an indicator of health) and levels of adult literacy and enrolment (as indicators of education), apart from considering per capita incomes. It is certainly an improvement over raw numbers for poverty. And yet, if India's HDI is 0.63 and Norway's is 0.96, busy eyes will be tempted to conclude that Norwegians live only one and a half times as well as Indians! The crushing quality of human poverty in a cruel world simply cannot be captured by numbers like this. Nor can the enormity of the environmental damage from deregulated industrial growth be captured, as the World Bank tries to do, in its Little Green Data Book, by just offering estimates of greenhouse gas emissions, depletion of forest cover and a few other measurable magnitudes. The ecosystemic effects of runaway industrial growth - the damage done to climatic balances for instance - are possible to observe now, but not as easily quantified. There are exponential and synergetic changes taking place - for the worse - which might take the best informed experts by surprise. Perhaps, we would do well to remember Einstein's counsel: "Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted." The poverty measurement industry loses much sleep and sweat over details that do not matter much. The big picture, perhaps unsurprisingly, is inaccurately reported. The propaganda efforts of governments and corporations succeed in the end in keeping some of the more terrible effects of prevailing economic policies from clear public view, undermining democratic transparency and potential accountability. Rather than get drowned in swirling oceans of data, we might look for the prominent ridges on the gyrating currents of the monetized economy. However, it is then important to locate them precisely and, crucially, label and flag them accurately. Busy readers don't have time to interpret the fine print. And public patience with economists wears thin. We only count and measure what is useful, important or interesting. By measuring we indicate that we care about what is measured. The score on poverty, especially if it is shameful, is worth keeping, if only to remind us of the extent of the failure of globalization not merely to change the lives of the poor but perhaps in turning them for the worse. (If China has lifted tens of millions of families out of poverty, the secret of their success lies in the years and decades preceding globalization - in the early 1980s rural reforms were carried out, among other things, granting access to land to the rural poor. Besides, the strong foundations of the social infrastructure - education and health - were laid down in the era of communism. Globalization has only allowed the country to reap the harvest of pre-existing investments better.) If global poverty statistics are not disseminated accurately, the facts on the ground will only get worse - thanks to misinformed policy-making among other things - and will one day command dreadful obedience from one and all. The rulers of the day risk the implications of Colin Powell's faux pas a few years back - of boasting that the number of dead Iraqi civilians did not interest him very much. And the potential consequences across the globe could be as catastrophic as what Iraq is experiencing today. Aseem Shrivastava is an independent writer. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______ [4] The Observer November 26, 2006 NEW FICTION STAR TAPS BANGLADESHI ROOTS Novelist hailed as the next Monica Ali recalls the horrors of warfare Vanessa Thorpe and Mahtab Haider in Dhaka Great writing may be in the blood, but having a window seat on remarkable historical events can help to shape an author. A major new talent, Tahmima Anam, has the advantage of coming from a line of gifted Bangladeshi writers and thinkers, yet it is the damaging experience her family shared with thousands of others living around them that is to see her launched in Britain. Anam, a 31-year-old Londoner born in Bangladesh, is the author of a book that charts the personal impact of the violent upheaval which split a continent and drove a wedge between close relatives in the 1970s. The Golden Age, her debut novel, to be published early next year, has been hailed as a work to rival Brick Lane by Monica Ali and White Teeth by Zadie Smith. But, unlike both these award-winning novels, the author says that her story is not a saga of immigrant life in Britain. Instead she returns to the horror of the war in her homeland, formerly East Pakistan. 'As a child I was told many stories about the war that were all so interesting,' she said. Anam's father is Mahfuz Anam, the editor of the country's largest independent broadsheet, the Daily Star, while her paternal grandfather, Abul Mansur Ahmed, was a political figure in East Pakistan and a satirist widely read today. Anam now lives in West Hampstead, London, 5,000 miles from her parents. But this year, with literary guidance from Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, and inspiration from South Asian writers such as Arundhati Roy and Vikram Seth, her talent is set to be unveiled. The story of personal loss she tells in The Golden Age also draws on memories from her mother. 'Both of my parents were involved. Their entire generation was,' she said. Speaking in her Bangladesh home this weekend, Anam's mother, Shaheen, recalled: 'We often had freedom fighters stay the night at our place or bury weapons in our front yard. One night the army came to the house with a young freedom fighter they had tortured into giving away where the weapons were stored. They wanted to take away my younger brother, who was only 12. I think these stories made a strong impression on Tahmima.' Anam was tutored and encouraged by Motion when she took up a place as a student on his university creative writing course in London. 'I remember the first week on the course he told me I "didn't have to be so dutiful", and the phrase stuck in my mind. I had been feeling I had to tell the truth, and hearing that from him kind of liberated me,' she said. Anam's talent was spotted by the publishers John Murray when they came across her piece in a published anthology of the course work and she won an Arts Council grant. An extract from her novel will appear in the January edition of Granta, the literary magazine. The opening of The Golden Age Dear Husband, I lost our children today. Outside the courthouse Rehana bought two kites, one red and one blue, from Khan Brothers Variety Store and Confectioners. The man behind the counter wrapped them up in brown paper and jute ribbon. Rehana tucked the packets under her arm and hailed a rickshaw. As she was climbing in, she saw the lawyer running towards her. 'Mrs Haque, I am very sorry.' He sounded sincere. Rehana couldn't bring herself to say it was all right. 'You must find some money. That is the only way. Find some money, and then we will try again. These bastards don't move without a little grease.' Money. Rehana stepped into the rickshaw and lifted the hood over her head. 'Dhanmondi,' she said, her voice in a thin quiver. 'Road Number 5.' When she got home, the children were sitting together on the sofa with their knees lined up. Maya's feet hovered above the floor. Sohail was looking down at his palms and counting the very small lines. He saw Rehana and smiled, but did not rise from his chair, or call out, as Maya did, 'Ammoo! Why were you so long?' Rehana had decided it would not be wise to cry in front of the children, so she had done her crying in the rickshaw, in sobs that caused her to hold on to the narrow frame of the seat and open her mouth in a loud, wailing O. ______ [5] Book Review HINDUTVA NATIONALISM AND AGENDA OF RSS by Ram Puniyani (Book Reviewed: Shamsul Islam, 'Religious Dimensions of Indian Nationalism': A Study of RSS, Media House, Delhi 2006, Pages 383, Rs. 360) The obstacles to the path of Indian democracy look grave in their dimensions due to the slow rise of the politics spearhead by RSS. While RSS projects minorities as the major threat to Hindu nation, it itself by positing the concept of Hindu nation, poses serious threat to the values of secularism, democratic nationalism and the concepts of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (community). While putting forward the emotive nationalism around Hindu religion it is not only intimidating the religious minorities but as such attacking the very process of caste and gender transformation. Shamsul Islam hits the nail on the head when he picks up nationalism as the basic pivot of studying this organization, very much in the center of Indian politics from last two and half decades. The author's labor of research is very obvious from the formulations which he has been able to base on the original papers and documents collected by him over a period of last three decades. No mean job by any standards, as the RSS is generally inconspicuous, as it functions by resorting more to word of mouth propaganda and less to the ideological outpourings. Richard Bonney, a scholar of Indo Pak nationalisms, in his foreword takes the bull by the horns when he points out that RSS cannot be underestimated in the current times and that the outcomes required to deal with RSS are mammoth, either to ban it, or to drastically reform it from inside, or to build an equally powerful organization committed to the defense of Indian constitution and its pluralistic ethos. The obsession with the past glories is part of most of the fascistic ideologies, and RSS 'excels' in that by putting forward the ideal of greatness of the past. Forgetting that that past was the era of Manusmritit, the era of slavery of shudra and women, it recommends the past as it was as the future of the country. Last two decades has been the period of massive growth of RSS, jumping from 7500-8500 shakhas in 1975 to 30000 shakhas in 1993, with the number of trained swayamsevaks, running into millions. RSS has been modeled on secret functioning, with Sardar Patel, the first Home minister of India, fondly remembered even by RSS combine, warning in 1948 that "the activities of RSS constituted a clear threat to the existence of the Govt and the state. It goes without saying that this organization aiming at doing away with democratic norms, does not have democratic functioning itself. It abhors pluralism, federalism and diversity, knowing well that these liberal values are the sustaining ground for democracy. Richard Bonney's introduction places this work in the proper perspective. Bonney quotes extensively from RSS ideologues to remind us that RSS opposed the introduction of tricolor as national flag, as 'we' already have the saffron flag as our symbol, and we are of course a Hindu Rashtra. Islam makes a very important distinction between the type of nationalism as propounded by RSS and Congress, the former being aptly called as exclusionary and the latter as inclusionary. Muslim League's nationalism will fall in the type of RSS propounded nationalism. Later the two shared the same bracket in different classifications like the social base, the social and political agenda and the concepts of nationhood, Islamic Nation or Hindu nation, their role in freedom movement i.e. the absence of it and their attitude to caste and gender questions. Islam digs out a crucial reference from Organizer 30th Nov 1949, which says that "immediately after the Constituent Assembly of India finally passed the constitution of India on 26th Nov 1949, the RSS demanded that it should be replaced by codes of Manu. One of the strengths of the books is that in analyzing the RSS, author has relied on internal discourse of RSS itself. One may feel that Hindutva might have been the backbone of RSS ideologues like Golwalkar, the major RSS contributor to its ideology. But surprisingly one does not find the mention of this word in Golwalkars' writings. As such this word came to the fore in the aftermath of Babri demolition. The construction of Nationalism by Hindutva elements, not only excluded the Yavan Mlechhchas (a derogatory term for Muslims), but also picked up exclusive Brahiminical values as its base. While in this construction of selfhood history is selectively projected as ancient Golden Hindu period, irrespective of the fact the earlier rulers like Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Maurayas were not Hindus and the very word Hindus was also coined by Arabs to geographically describe the people living on the east of river Sindhu. The initial nationalism, which developed here in the aftermath of changes introduced by British, was Indian nationalism and the divisive, exclusionary nationalisms around Islamic or Hindu identity developed as a reaction to the inclusionary nationalism of Indian National Congress. Communal nationalism started constructing their self hoods around imagined medieval or ancient histories. It is from here that a section of Hindu elite, and later the ideologues started identifying Hindu nationalism with Indian nationalism, the whole notion being a modern one. Anandmath, which contains the controversial song Vande Matram, did reflect Hindu nationalism, most of the elements of this nationalism are contained in this novel, essentially opposing Muslims and eulogizing British. Aurobindo Ghose took this further and stood for essentially Hindu identity of Indian nationalism. Vivekanand, contributed to this concept further by projecting Hinduism as 'mother of religions', Hinduism being tutor and all other faiths as tutees. Madan Mohan Malaviya defined nationalism as Hindi, Hindu, and Hindustan, which also provided the material for cultural nationalism propounded by RSS. Today when the Christian Missionaries are being hauled to the coals on the grounds that they are proselytizing, when it is being said that Hinduism is superior since it does not proselytize, it will be interesting to note the glee of Hindutva ideologues during shuddhi movement, "Because of the foresight of Swami Dayanand and zeal of Shraddhanand, Hinduism is now full-fledged proselytizing religionthe conversion or the re-conversion of non Hindus has become a normal phase of Hindu life." ( p.129) Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak also were contributors to Hindu nationalism. Myth making is an essential part of imagined pasts and nationalisms, more so the exclusionary nationalism, "The Aryan myth, which was a copy of Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon myths, and was the Indian response to White racialist doctrines. This was the myth that Indian people were 'Aryans', and that 'pure' Indian culture and society were those of the Aryans, Vedic period [] interestingly, all three of them were borrowed from the west in spite of their claims of 'real' Indian ness". ( p.137) Growth of Muslim nationalism ran parallel to this, an ideal foil to the Hindu nationalism. Hindu nationalism resorted to four pillars, Golden past of Vedic period where Brahminical texts ruled, birth based hierarchical structure, anti-Muslim projection, non antagonistic relations with British rulers and the concept that Hindus form a separate nation. In this background of competing communal nationalistic ideologies and politics, RSS begins with the goal of Hindu Rashtra. British, very aware of the rising Nationalism, were quick to realize the need for divide and rule policy. Apart from subtly encouraging or at least tolerating the exclusionary nationalisms, they so planned the educational text books that the difference between religious communities should be further strengthened. While Gandhi's central dictum was Hindu Muslim unity, RSS founder Hedgewar disliked this and saw dangers in this unity so when he was asked by a prominent Congress leader as to why he left Congress, he answered in a forthright manner that, 'because Congress believed in Hindu Muslim unity'. While Hindu Mahasabha and RSS remained separate organizations there was good deal of collaboration and support to each other. Their ideas of nationalism totally matched; rather Golwalkar took it from where Savarkar left. The role of or the absence of, Hindutva in freedom struggles is well known by now. While Savarkar sent multiple mercy petitions to get released from Andmans, and promising that he will cooperate with the British, other RSS stalwarts not only kept aloof from national movement, they also discouraged others from participating in the same, Golwalkar explains the absence of RSS from freedom struggle, "We should remember that in our pledge we have talked of freedom of the country through defending religion and culture. There is no mention of departure of British in that." (p. 191) it is in keeping with the same ideology that RSS staunchly supported Hindu Princes. Islam's focus and concern has been the place of caste in the newly developing nationalism of RSS. Its not only today that RSS chief Sudarshan praises varna system and its role in preserving 'Hindu society', Savarkar already put this in his book Hindutva, the book which in a way is the Gita of RSS nationalism. As per this Hindu nation grew out of a superior race, it survived due to system of four varnas and was poised to rule over the World. Similarly Manusmriti, was eulogized by Savarkar, while Ambedkar chose to burn it. How the word Fundamental is uniformly used by a set of politics is well defined again by Savarkar, 'Mausmiritifor centuries has codified the spiritual and divine march of our nation. Even today the rules which are followed by crores of Hindus in their lives and practice are based on Manusmiriti. Today Manusmiriti is Hindu Law. That is Fundamental.' ( p.217) Golwalkar adds the five components of Hindutva, Country, race, religion, culture and language. The difficulty of explaining the rise of Buddhism and its being wiped out is justified on the basis of Buddhism's opposition to caste. They explain that wherever Buddhism survived the invaders succeeded in those areas. The obsession to Golden past is pathological with RSS. When Nehru said that RSS wants to take the country two hundred years back, RSS mouth piece Organizer, commented, 'we actually want to take he nation back, a thousand years back.' Golwalkar's upholding of Hitler's methods in building German nation, his treatment of minorities finds approval in Golwalkar who threatens that if minorities don't follow the Hindu dictates they will not deserve even citizenship rights. It is no wonder that this upholding of Nazism finds its echoes in the Hindu Rashtra (state) of Gujarat, where the school text books appreciate the role of Nazis in defending the country. The race pride and keeping the purity of race are serious concerns of Hindutva ideologues. Golwalkar's mantle as the theoretician of RSS is carried further by Deendayal Upadhyay, who upheld the caste system in the cloak of integral humanism. He describes caste system as the integral part of Hindu society, not only natural but also practical. Furthering the anti-minority ideas Madhok of Jan Sangh the progeny of RSS, went on to recommend the parishkar, change of Muslims into Hindu culture. Islam does well in providing a comprehensive list of RSS combine, different progenies of RSS, working in diverse walks of life, in carrying out the RSS agenda. Also the letter of a RSS swaymasevak, Nanaji Deshmukh, 'Moments of Soul searching', which was written in 1984, in the wake of Anti Sikh pogrom. in which Deshmukh blames the Sikh community for the murder of Indira Gandhi and advices Sikhs to keep patience and tolerance while they were being butchered. The book has strong merit in that it goes beyond the anti Muslim project of RSS to show that the core agenda of Hindutva and RSS is to uphold caste system in the newer language. One can infer from this that the basic target of Hindutva, and similar such ideologies, is to suppress the low caste, class and women. While the caste angel is brilliantly brought out by Islam, he does not much delve on the gender aspect. The social transformation process revolves around the equality of dalits and women in Indian context. The worth of the book would have been infinitely enhanced by bringing this out thread bear. Surely the gender angel is more subtle and hidden but it is equally important. Overall this is a valuable addition to the already existing work on Hindutva and RSS. The scholarship and painstaking labor of the author will definitively broaden the understanding of this major threat to Indian Democracy. _____ [6] ['India the super bazar of superstition, black magic, miracle peddlers': What has happened with ideal of promoting a 'scientific temper' in India's obscurantist society. It is a shame that elected legislators give credence to Astrologers, Fortune tellers or to Vaastu nonsense, choose dates of important public events on the basis of a certain religious calender or organise religious ritual on public space (see news report below on Madhya Pradesh). Secular activists need to actively expose pseudo scientific claim makers and god men - fraud men who are fanning the flames of the irrational; they need to also take on elected representatives and politicians who have made it perfectly 'normal' to go with all kinds of obscurantist practices to 'ward of evil'. Speak up for science, reason and secularism. Towards the end of the year, on 26-29 December 2006, fourth International Rationalist Conference is going to be held in New Delhi. Those interested may contact: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ] o o o Indian Express November 28, 2006 Front Page MP ASSEMBLY HAS VAASTU PROBLEM? Milind Ghatwai http://www.indianexpress.com/story/17448.html _____ [7] The Independent 27 November 2006 DAWKINS TAKES FIGHT AGAINST RELIGION INTO THE CLASSROOM by Sarah Cassidy Richard Dawkins, the Oxford geneticist, best-selling author and campaigning atheist, is to take his battle against God into Britain's schools after setting up a foundation to counter the religious indoctrination of young people. The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Science and Reason will subsidise books, pamphlets and DVDs for teachers to fight the "educational scandal" that has seen the growth in popularity of "pseudo science" and "irrational" ideas. The foundation will also conduct research into what makes some people more susceptible to religious ideas than others and whether young people are particularly vulnerable. And it will aim to "raise public consciousness" to make it unacceptable to refer to a "Catholic child" or a "Muslim child"; Professor Dawkins believes that "it is immoral to brand young children with the religion of their parents". The campaign comes after an increasingly bitter battle about the role of religion in public life. Controversial religious groups have also stepped up their efforts to spread their message to more young people. Truth in Science, a Christian group campaigning to have "intelligent design" - the belief that the universe was created by an intelligent designer rather than natural selection - included in science lessons recently sent DVDs and materials to every secondary school in the country. And earlier this month the leaders of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches in the UK attacked people who campaign for the removal of religion from public life - such as Professor Dawkins - arguing they are guilty of an "intolerant faith position". Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, leader of Catholics in England and Wales, believe that religiously inspired activity in public life can be "radically inclusive". During a recent visit to a bookshop in London, Professor Dawkins attacked what he saw as a penchant for irrational beliefs. Professor Dawkins, whose most recent book The God Delusion has become a best seller, was horrified, although not surprised, to find the shop's shelves packed with books on fairies, crystals and fortune telling - "pseudoscience" outnumbering science books by at least three to one. "The enlightenment is under threat," he said. "So is reason. So is truth. So is science, especially in the schools of America. I am one of those scientists who feels that it is no longer enough just to get on and do science. We have to devote a significant proportion of our time and resources to defending it from deliberate attack from organised ignorance. We even have to go out on the attack ourselves, for the sake of reason and sanity. But it must be a positive attack, for science and reason have so much to give." Secular groups supported the move, arguing that it was vital to counter the growing threat posed by religious groups targeting schools. Keith Porteous Wood, general secretary of the National Secular Society, welcomed the Dawkins foundation as an "absolutely wonderful idea" and warned that secular groups were "under threat" from religious groups in a way that was unprecedented. "I think people in science are getting very worried about the intrusion into science of fundamentally unscientific ideas," he said. Andrew Copson, of the British Humanist Association, said there was a dire shortage of resources for teachers wanting to give lessons about atheism. "As a high-profile humanist Richard Dawkins is in an ideal position to do something about this." But John Hall, dean of Westminster and the Church of England's head of education, said he was concerned that the new foundation was simply a new way for the outspoken atheist to "pick a fight" with the churches. "He is clearly looking for a fight," Mr Hall said. "His clear intention is to push his view that religion is dangerous and that to bring up a child in their parents' beliefs is a form of abuse. Obviously I am concerned about that. There are good grounds for thinking that this would just be a charitable vehicle for pushing Richard Dawkins' views." Richard Dawkins will be the subject of You Ask the Questions next Monday. Email your questions to: myquestion@ independent.co.uk His foundation's aims * The foundation will sponsor research into the "psychological basis of unreason" that will attempt to answer questions such as why people find astrology more appealing than astronomy, at what age young people are most vulnerable to unreason and what are the correlations between religiosity and superstition and intelligence and educational level. * It will support rational and scientific education for all ages, and oppose the "subversion of scientific education", for example by efforts to teach creationism in science classes. It will subsidise the publication of books, DVDs and other educational materials. * The foundation will keep a database of secular lecturers willing to address schools and colleges. * It will keep a list of secular charities. * Professor Dawkins wants to raise public consciousness to make it socially unacceptable to label children by the religion of their parents. _____ [8] Events: (i) Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2006 17:21:36 -0800 Subject: FORUM on Historic Developments in Nepal Dear Friends We in SANSAD proudly endorse and support the Public Forum organized by Canadian Network for Democratic Nepal, and urge our members and friends to come there. The Cafe has limited seating capacity. Kindly phone in advance to book your seat. SANSAD ************************************************** CANADIAN NETWORK FOR DEMOCRACTIC NEPAL 639 Madame Street, Mississauga, ON, L5W 1G6, CANADA A Public Forum Comprehensive Peace Agreement: Challenges and Possibilities in Nepal Sunday, December 10, 2006 2-4:30PM Cafe Kathmandu 2779 Commercial Drive ( corner of 12th Avenue), Vancouver, BC On November 21, 2006 a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed by the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) and the Government of Nepal bringing the 10 years old armed conflict to an end. This historic and unique agreement in 238-years old Nepali history presents a hope for social justice, peace and republican democracy in Nepal. In this changed context, Canadian Network for Democratic Nepal (CNDN) organizing a panel discussion to help understand the challenges and possibilities presented by this agreement. Please join us. Admission is free. Due to limited seats, kindly book your seat in advance. Panelists: Ramjee Parajulee, Ph.D. Faculty, Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia Hari Sharma, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Simon Fraser University Refreshments will be served For booking and more information please contact at (604)879-9909, (604)506-9259 *************************************** Program endorsed and Supported by SANSAD South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy o o o (ii) Towards the end of the year, on 26-29 December 2006, fourth International Rationalist Conference is going to be held in New Delhi. Those interested may contact: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ 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
