South Asia Citizens Wire - 5 November 2014 - No. 2838 [since 1996] --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents: 1. Sri Lanka: Panic or Economic crisis | Ahilan Kadirgamar 2. Bangladesh: Ghulam Azam - Death of a War Criminal | Subhash Gatade 3. Terrorism a common threat for India and Pakistan - PIPFPD Condemns Attacks on The Wagah Border 4. The pernicious role of Pakistan's conservatives | Farzana Bari 5. Pakistan: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) reintroducing the doctrinaire Islamist content in textbooks 6. Pakistan: Curriculum concerns | Khadim Hussain 7. India: The Broken Middle | Dilip Simeon 8. India: Mixing up science with religio-mythical is done by evangelists / preachers and not by head of a secular state | AIFRTE statement 9. India: When everything came from India | Sruthi Radhakrishnan 10. India - Gujarat: Hindu Right rewriting Indian textbooks 11. India - 1984 Anti Sikh Pogrom: Justice not Compensation - Press release by People's Union for Democratic Rights 12. India:: Doctoring History for Political Goals: Origin of Caste System in India | Ram Puniyani 13. Video: The RSS has a bitter and narrow vision of Our Tradition: Mahesh Bhatt in conversation with Teesta Setalvad 14. India: Communal tension and violence in different parts of Delhi - Citizens Letter to the National Commission for Minorities 15. Video Recording: Sexual Violence in Indian Society: Uma Chakravarti - 6th Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Lecture 16. India: Was Sabarmati project truly about river restoration or a way for real estate developers to earn big bucks? 17. India: From 10th Nov 2014 Bhopal gas disaster survivors to sit on an indefinite water-less fast in Delhi on the issue of compensation 18. Posters for the First Sunil Memorial Lecture (7 November 2014) 19. India: The SOMO - ICN report on employment and labour conditions in the textile industry in the state of Tamil Nadu 20. India: Under Modi, RSS outfits want a Hindutva laced education system 21. Bangladesh: Waiting For Justice (English) - A documentary by Catherine Masud ++++From SACW Archives++++ ========================================= 22. 1968 CPI pamphlet ’Fight Back Communalism’ 23. Leszek Kolakowski "The Concept of the Left" (1968) 24. India: Adivasis of Jharkand and the RSS - Hindi pamphlet by Vir Bharat Talwar ++++++++++ 25. Recent posts on Communalism Watch: ::: URLs and FULL TEXT ::: 26. India: An Attack on Love | Sonia Faleiro 27. UK: Why British Sikhs must oppose this drive to ban inter-faith marriages at Gurdwaras | Sunny Hundal 28. UK: I’m Bengali and I’m black – in the same way that my parents were | Aditya Chakrabortty 29. Burma’s generals won’t stand down: Military still key to economics and administration | André Boucaud and Louis Boucaud ========================================= 1. SRI LANKA: PANIC OR ECONOMIC CRISIS | Ahilan Kadirgamar ========================================= There is a political rush in Sri Lanka. The Budget Speech was made a month ahead of schedule, the Pope is to visit in January, and now Presidential Elections may be jammed in before or after that. Is this a moment of panic? http://www.sacw.net/article9933.html ========================================= 2. BANGLADESH: GHULAM AZAM - DEATH OF A WAR CRIMINAL | Subhash Gatade ========================================= Ghulam Azam, the once all powerful leader of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, who died recently, might have brooded over this old dictum, in his last days in detention. It was only last year that he was sentenced to 90 years of imprisonment for his crimes against humanity which he committed when people of the then East Pakistan - todays Bangladesh - had risen up against the occupation army of Pakistan in the year 1971. http://www.sacw.net/article9918.html ========================================= 3. TERRORISM A COMMON THREAT FOR INDIA AND PAKISTAN - PIPFPD CONDEMNS ATTACKS ON THE WAGAH BORDER ========================================= Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD) has strongly condemned the dastardly terror attack at the Wagah border on the Pakistan side on Sunday late evening. More than 65 innocent people were killed and over 175 injured. We condole the loss of precious lives and convey our sympathies to the family members of those who have lost their near and dear ones. http://www.sacw.net/article9934.html ========================================= 4. THE PERNICIOUS ROLE OF PAKISTAN'S CONSERVATIVES | Dr Farzana Bari ========================================= The women of Pakistan have been suffering greatly due to this patriarchal mindset of our so-called religious scholars and conservative politico-religious politicians, who use faith as a tool to gain state power. http://www.sacw.net/article9914.html ========================================= 5. PAKISTAN: KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA (KP) REINTRODUCING THE DOCTRINAIRE ISLAMIST CONTENT IN TEXTBOOKS ========================================= (Editorial in Daily Times, 1 November 2014) Oblivious of the world's progress, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government appears to insist on taking society backwards by reintroducing the doctrinaire Islamist items in textbooks that Ziaul Haq fused into the national curriculum. Since the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) joined the coalition government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) in KP last year, education has been at the centre of its agenda to assert its conservative dogmatic mindset. Now it seems it has managed to implement its project, as KP school textbooks will now include jihad, eliminate pictures of unveiled women, and delineate a strong anti-India narrative. They have gone as far as depicting the 1971 parting of East Pakistan as an Indian conspiracy. http://www.sacw.net/article9913.html ========================================= 6. PAKISTAN: CURRICULUM CONCERNS | Khadim Hussain ========================================= Using curricula to indoctrinate students is nothing new in Pakistan. http://www.sacw.net/article9930.html ========================================= 7. INDIA: THE BROKEN MIDDLE | Dilip Simeon ========================================= The violent events of 1984 signify the breakdown of consensual politics and the ideal of composite Indian nationhood. When communal animosity spreads across society, it corrodes the social conscience and (directly or subliminally) produces a genocidal consensus. http://www.sacw.net/article9915.html ========================================= 8. INDIA: MIXING UP SCIENCE WITH RELIGIO-MYTHICAL IS DONE BY EVANGELISTS / PREACHERS AND NOT BY HEAD OF A SECULAR STATE | AIFRTE STATEMENT ========================================= Inaugurating Mukesh Ambani's new hospital in Mumbai on Saturday 25th October 2014, the Prime minister stunned the nation by claiming that the Mahabharat's story of Karna, who was not born of his mother's womb, was evidence of the fact that “genetic science” was prevalent at the time, and that worshippers of Lord Ganesh should reflect that there must have been some “plastic surgeon” who performed the “surgery” of affixing an elephant head on to a human body! http://www.sacw.net/article9919.html ========================================= 9. INDIA: WHEN EVERYTHING CAME FROM INDIA | Sruthi Radhakrishnan ========================================= There's seems to be a need to bring back a ‘glorious past', a call back to times gone by when India was on top of the world, so to speak. A character in BBC's 90s show Goodness Gracious Me is called Mr. Everything Comes From India — where he says everything from Cliff Richards, William Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, most English words, the British royal family, Superman and even Jesus came from India. The only notable exception was Prince Charles, whose ears “make him African”. http://www.sacw.net/article9938.html ========================================= 10. INDIA - GUJARAT: HINDU RIGHT REWRITING INDIAN TEXTBOOKS ========================================= The Gujarat government has introduced nine new books this academic year for classes 1 to 12. These books, written by Hindu nationalist ideologues, have been delivered to 42,000 elementary schools across the state free of cost. http://www.sacw.net/article9937.html ========================================= 11. INDIA - 1984 ANTI SIKH POGROM: JUSTICE NOT COMPENSATION - PRESS RELEASE BY PEOPLE'S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS ========================================= PUDR appeals to the victims and reminds them to be aware that successive governments have suppressed the real issue of justice, which can only be met through bringing perpetrators of the crime to justice, and not by doling higher blood money to the victims. http://www.sacw.net/article9936.html ========================================= 12. INDIA:: DOCTORING HISTORY FOR POLITICAL GOALS: ORIGIN OF CASTE SYSTEM IN INDIA | Ram Puniyani ========================================= Caste hierarchy is the major obstacle to the goal of social justice and it continues to be a major obstacle to social progress even today. There are many a theories, which have tried to understand its origin. The latest in the series is the attempt of RSS to show its genesis due to invasion of Muslim kings. Three books written by RSS ideologues argue that Islamic atrocities during medieval period resulted in emergence of untouchables and low castes. The books are "Hindu Charmakar Jati", "Hindu Khatik Jati" and "Hindu Valmiki Jati". http://www.sacw.net/article9928.html ========================================= 13. VIDEO: THE RSS HAS A BITTER AND NARROW VISION OF OUR TRADITION: MAHESH BHATT IN CONVERSATION WITH TEESTA SETALVAD ========================================= Don't narrow your band width to a bitter and hate ridden version of Hinduism as appropriated by the RSS, Mahesh Bhatt, award winning film maker exhorts the young Indian film maker in this Special Interview with Teesta Setalvad on Communalism Combat and Hillele TV; and use the creative medium to express dissent. http://www.sacw.net/article9925.html ========================================= 14. INDIA: COMMUNAL TENSION AND VIOLENCE IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF DELHI - CITIZENS LETTER TO THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR MINORITIES ========================================= We are writing to you to communicate our concern regarding recent spate of communal tension and violence in different areas and the rising sense of insecurity in the Muslim community of Delhi. At several instances, organized campaigns have been taken to spread hatred and create tension centering religious festivals. http://www.sacw.net/article9924.html ========================================= 15. VIDEO RECORDING: SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN INDIAN SOCIETY: UMA CHAKRAVARTI - 6TH ANURADHA GHANDY MEMORIAL LECTURE ========================================= Prof Uma Chakravarti delivered the Sixth Anuradha Ghandy Memorial Lecture on the 12th of July, 2014 on the topic "Nirbhaya, Muzaffarnagar, Badaun And Beyond: Sexual Violence In Contemporary Indian Society." The lecture was held at Karimi Library Hall, First Floor, Main Building, Anjuman-I-Islam, Opp Cst Station, Fort, Mumbai. http://www.sacw.net/article9922.html ========================================= 16. INDIA: WAS SABARMATI PROJECT TRULY ABOUT RIVER RESTORATION OR A WAY FOR REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS TO EARN BIG BUCKS? ========================================= To whom did the bulk of the Rs 1,200 crore of public money go? This is all information that should be in the public sphere but isn't- the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project is forbiddingly opaque. http://www.sacw.net/article9939.html ========================================= 17. INDIA: FROM 10TH NOV 2014 BHOPAL GAS DISASTER SURVIVORS TO SIT ON AN INDEFINITE WATER-LESS FAST IN DELHI ON THE ISSUE OF COMPENSATION ========================================= As you may know that this December will mark the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster. On 10th November Bhopal survivors are coming down to Delhi and 5 of them will sit on an indefinite water-less fast at Jantar mantar on the issue of compensation. We are demanding additional compensation for all survivors of the disaster and correction of figures of death and extent of injury in the curative petition filed in the Supreme Court. More than half a million gas victims have been denied compensation on an arbitary deciison taken by Group of Minister on Bhopal in 2010. There is no scientific and legal basis to deny additional compensation to 93% of the victims. http://www.sacw.net/article9932.html ========================================= 18. POSTERS FOR THE FIRST SUNIL MEMORIAL LECTURE (7 November 2014) ========================================= The First Sunil Memorial Lecture by Shekhar Pathak is being held in JNU, New Delhi on the 7th of November 2014. These two posters were designed highlighting the tradition of Gond tribal paintings still prevalent in the region of Madhya Pradesh. http://www.sacw.net/article9935.html ========================================= 19. INDIA: THE SOMO - ICN REPORT ON EMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR CONDITIONS IN THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY IN THE STATE OF TAMIL NADU ========================================= This report offers insights into the employment and labour conditions in the textile industry in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. http://www.sacw.net/article9916.html ========================================= 20. INDIA: UNDER MODI, RSS OUTFITS WANT A HINDUTVA LACED EDUCATION SYSTEM ========================================= A series of press reports indicating the attempts to influence the education ministry to re-set the textbooks and syllabi based on suggestions by the Hindutva circuit in India in the aftermath of the 2014 Modi govt. http://www.sacw.net/article9905.html ========================================= 21. BANGLADESH: WAITING FOR JUSTICE (English) - A documentary by Catherine Masud ========================================= http://www.sacw.net/article9909.html ++++From SACW Archives++++ ========================================= 22. 1968 CPI PAMPHLET ’FIGHT BACK COMMUNALISM’ ========================================= This pamphlet was published by The Communist Party of India in 1968. It has long been out of print and now been digitsed by sacw.net rare document archive for educational and non commercial use http://www.sacw.net/article9946.html ========================================= 23. LESZEK KOLAKOWSKI: "THE CONCEPT OF THE LEFT" (1968) ========================================= This 1968 paper by Polish Marxist by Leszek Kolakowski appeared in English via the The New Left Reader edited by Carl Oglesby in 1969. http://www.sacw.net/article9655.html ========================================= 24. INDIA: ADIVASIS OF JHARKAND AND THE RSS - HINDI PAMPHLET BY VIR BHARAT TALWAR ========================================= This is a pioneering (possibly the first such) pamphlet on the Tribals of Jharkand and the R.S.S. (the Hindutva right wing organisation). The author Vir Bharat Talwar is a Hindi scholar who has been active in left movements and has worked extensively among tribals in India. He has edited Philbal, Shalpatra and Jharkhand Varla, journals in Hindi. His published work includes research papers on labour, the national movement and the pamphlet, Jharkhand ke Adivasi aur R.S.S. [This document from the early 1980's has long been out of print and has been digitised for the sacw.net rare document archive] http://www.sacw.net/article9917.html ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ========================================= 25. RECENT ON COMMUNALISM WATCH: ========================================= available at: http://communalism.blogspot.in/ - Report on the RSS youth camp near Agra (Times of India, 4 Nov 2014) - NDTV programme: As Right wing groups go after those who organised the 'Kiss of Love' protest in Kerala - India: Police question top RSS functionary in Karnataka re mysterious death of relative of woman who had filed sexual assault case - India: Thirty Years After - The Trilokpuri Riots (Mukul Kesavan in: The Telegraph, 27 Oct 2014) - India: RSS plays opinion maker inside and outside government - India: Rajasthan university - RSS pracharaks on the varsity board have been seeking more control - Hyderabad 1948: India's hidden massacre ( Mike Thomson) - Love Jihad: RSS Unleashes Weapon of Hate (Shatarup Ghosh in People's Democracy, November 2, 2014) - Made in India - Violence-torn Trilokpuri is the latest victim of manufactured communal riots (Harsh Mander) - Photo of mahapanchayat in Bawana on 2 November 2014 against taziyas even after Muslims had agreed to keep to their streets - Stages Tensions Around Religious Events - Concerned Citizens Memo to the Minorities Commission and to the Police and the Lieutenant Governor - Text of Statement on Recent Disturbances in Trilokpuri by People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism - India: How The Far Right Fans The Flames - See inflamatory leaflet [hindi] circulated in the outskirts of Delhi calling to stop Tazia processions - Makeshift temple removed from Trilokpuri - Over 1,000 riot police and almost 30 police vans and water cannons were deputed for the Mata ki Chowki - India: The two faces of Mr. Modi (Karan Thapar) - India: Documentary video reportage 30 years on, scars of 1984 riots still afresh - India: 12 African women liable for damages; But Delhi tax payer will pay for racist actions of top minister in AAP govt - India: Kolkata theatre screens by skirt length ::: URL's and FULL TEXT ::: ========================================= 26. INDIA: AN ATTACK ON LOVE by Sonia Faleiro ========================================= (The New York Times, OCT. 31, 2014 | Sunday Review | Opinion) MUMBAI, India — IN 1975, Sita Iyer was a 19-year-old college junior with a secret she was desperate to keep from her conservative, middle-class parents. Ms. Iyer, a Hindu, was in love with a Muslim. To avoid detection, she would meet her boyfriend, a dashing 23-year-old business student named Ayub Khan, in downtown Bombay, where she was sure no one would know her. It was not quite 30 years after the Partition of India, a blood-soaked event that killed some one million people. India’s Muslims had been steadily ghettoized. When the truth came out, Ms. Iyer’s parents were furious. “He will have four wives,” her father warned. “You will end up on the street.” After she married Mr. Khan — and changed her given name to Salma — her family disowned her. But looking back, she says, it was easier being an interreligious couple in the 1970s than it is in India today. At least she felt safe. Now, in contrast, the news is filled with report of assaults on mixed couples. In several parts of the country, consenting adults who have broken no laws have been threatened, beaten up and, in a medieval twist, had their faces painted black by pumped-up bands of roving men who disapprove of Hindu women in relationships with Muslim men. There have been reports of women being forcibly shoved into cars and dragged to police stations, from which they are made to phone their parents. Adult women, treated like chattel, like criminals and like juveniles. Right-wing assailants have stopped weddings between interfaith couples from taking place. They have even forced married women to desert their Muslim husbands, and to marry Hindus instead. The men behind these attacks are no mere vigilantes; they represent extreme right-wing groups with great political clout, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Bajrang Dal, and even the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The violence coalesced around a supposed scheme known as love jihad — an oxymoronic term that first attracted media attention late in the last decade. In 2009, Silja Raj, an 18-year-old Hindu woman in the southern state of Karnataka, eloped with a Muslim. Her father enlisted the aid of local right-wing groups to force her to return. These groups promptly declared that the elopement was part of a conspiracy to seduce vulnerable young women and convert them. The implication was that Muslim men had embarked on a war to Islamicize the womb of Hindu India. An investigation commissioned by the High Court revealed that no coercion was involved. It also found no evidence of an organized plan to convert Hindu women. Ms. Raj, who had been made to return to her parents’ home for the duration of the investigation, promptly went back to her husband. In subsequent years, right-wing politicians have used the boogeyman of love jihad in states with sizable Muslim populations like Gujarat and Maharashtra to present themselves as the protectors of Hindu virtue and win Hindu votes. Their behavior fit the descriptions of a hate crime, although no charges have ever been filed against them. They act as though the actions of any one Hindu woman are a reflection of her culture — as defined by politicians — and that it is the responsibility and the right of Hindu men to monitor these women and to meddle, violently, if necessary. Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story Though some prominent celebrities, like the Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, are Muslim men married to Hindu women, the subject of interfaith marriage remains a sensitive one. But it has not, until now, resembled the debate around anti-miscegenation laws in America before 1967. It was this summer, in the course of a hard-fought campaign in legislative by-elections in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, that the phrase “love jihad” entered the national rhetoric. The person responsible was a hard-line B.J.P. member of Parliament named Yogi Adityanath. The state experienced clashes between Hindus and Muslims as recently as July, and Mr. Adityanath, a notorious rabble-rouser, fanned the communal flames. He spoke of the threat of love jihad in packed public forums with such urgency that it appeared he believed in this made-up term. In an interview on NDTV, a TV network, Mr. Adityanath said he would “not tolerate what is happening to Hindu women in the name of love jihad.” The Election Commission reprimanded Mr. Adityanath for hate speech, but the term quickly gained an electric currency. It thundered across India’s TV screens every day. On Twitter, the term was trending with two hashtags (#lovejihad and #lovejihadexposed). In September, the electorate rebuked Mr. Adityanath’s brand of politics, rejecting the B.J.P. in all but three of 11 contested seats in the state. But although he failed, his brand of poison has gained traction. Right-wing female demagogues have been reported as saying that Muslim men “force” women “to have two or three children,” that they “then leave her, or rape her, or throw acid on her if she resists, or murder her.” Pamphlets warning against love jihad have been found in college campuses and even at wedding venues. This cynical ploy, love jihad, could have been constructed around money, or land, and in a country with a recent history of communal unrest, even self-defense, but it invoked women because the idea that women “belong” — as opposed to simply being — is one that is embraced by men of all classes and religions in India. Even a poor man with few possessions feels he has something if he has a wife or a daughter whose destiny is his to control. Thus did a provocateur from the right-wing Vishva Hindu Parishad organization say, recently, that Muslim men “should leave our women and cows alone or be prepared for a massive retaliation.” In fact, love jihad is not only a hate crime against one vulnerable community, Muslims, but another: women. If the women need protection from anyone, it is from these men who break the law and try to break the spirit of the women they claim to protect. Ms. Iyer, now 57, and Mr. Khan, now 62, have two adult daughters who were brought up as Muslims. They are poster girls for a modern and liberal India. One of them lives in Munich with her German husband. The other, a journalist, lives in Bangalore with her Hindu husband. “Salma’s family only accepted us after our second daughter was born,” Mr. Khan told me. “But do you know something? Her parents have three sons-in-law, but once they got to know me they liked me the best.” His voice rumbled with laughter. “Her father used to be worried I would take four wives. It’s been 35 years, and I still have the one.” Sonia Faleiro is the author of “Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars.” ========================================= 27. UK: WHY BRITISH SIKHS MUST OPPOSE THIS DRIVE TO BAN INTER-FAITH MARRIAGES AT GURDWARAS by Sunny Hundal ========================================= (http://naujawani.com/) 30 Oct, 2014 A few weeks ago, a group of British Sikhs forcibly stopped an inter-faith marriage from taking place at a Gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Leicester. Organisers of the protest boasted: “On the weekend a outerfaith wedding where a Punjabi bimbo was marrying a non-Sikh (white Christian) was forcefully stopped by the Khalsa, Respect to these lads for standing up for whats right and standing up to a corrupt gurdwara commitee.” Note the usage of the words “bimbo” and “outerfaith”. A similar protest by the same group earlier in July this year in Bradford was unsuccessful; though a video of the protest shows one of protester saying on camera: “Are we from this mosque? I don’t think we’re from this mosque,” when denied entry by police. Apparently Sikhs who don’t abide by their rules become Muslims. Put their casual misogyny and bigotry aside for a minute (I’m sure Guru Nanak would have been proud), because this is more about how a group of hardliners are trying to terrorise Sikhs across the country and destroy people’s big day unless they adhere to their rules. Two years ago a group of 40 such hardliners (it may not be the same group) stopped the wedding of a Sikh woman and her (Christian) husband in Swindon and even posted a video of the incident to YouTube as a warning to others. A BBC Asian Network report last year found Sikhs afraid to speak out because of a continuing campaign of harassment and intimidation; people had their windows smashed and faced other forms of intimidation simply because they wanted a religious ceremony at a Gurdwara. This is relevant now because this week the Sikh Council UK published ‘guidelines’ on inter-faith marriages at Gurdwaras, reiterating that they shouldn’t be allowed unless the non-Sikh partner converts to Sikhism and undergoes a detailed test to ensure it was genuine. I’ve been inundated with private messages from Sikhs horrified that this form of extremism is gaining ground and being imposed on Sikh Gurdwaras. It’s time we spoke out. Imagine this scenario. A Sikh man falls in love with a non-Sikh woman and they want to get married. Both agree to a religious ceremony at a Gurdwara. This gives her an opportunity to learn more about the Sikh religion and understand the basic tenets of this progressive religion. It gives her a sense of familiarity and the couple may decide to raise their children as Sikhs. But what if no Gurdwara is willing to host the religious ceremony? The couple will undoubtedly feel that the Sikh community has ex-communicated them. ‘Married out of the religion? We don’t want to know you’. What are the chances they will now bring up their children as Sikhs? Who wants to be associated with a bunch of narrow-minded bigots? This is discrimination against non-Sikhs and unadulterated bigotry. I’m perfectly aware that other religious groups do the same. That alone should make some Sikhs think twice: why be as narrow-minded as them? Why not embrace non-Sikhs, as we do when they enter a Gurdwara for langar? Keep in mind that allowing mixed-couple to marry at a Gurdwara wouldn’t hurt anyone. It wouldn’t destroy anything. It would make Sikhs look open and welcoming of people of other faiths. I’m aware of the counter-argument. If the Sikh wedding ceremony – the Anand Karaj – is interpreted in strict, literalist form, it is aimed only at two Sikhs. But that misses the point. It doesn’t have to be interpreted in that way – Sikhism is also a state of mind and way of life. Plus, most British Sikhs who currently get married in Gurdwaras cut their hair straight after the ceremony and celebrate by drinking alcohol. Will they be forced to go through tests too? The unsaid truth is that groups such as the Sikh Council UK and many Gurdwaras across the UK are pushing these strict, literalist guidelines not because Sikhism is being destroyed. They are doing it because they’re unwilling to challenge these hardliners. If they wanted strict adherence to the Anand Karaj guidelines, they would call for a ban on most Sikh weddings in the UK. But of course, they would much rather protest against women they call “bimbos” and stop them from marrying a white or black guy at a Gurdwara. The narrow-mindedness behind such mentality is depressing for a growing number of secular Britons from Sikh families like myself. We may not go to the Gurdwara on a regular basis but we still identify as cultural Sikhs. But this strand of thinking would rather excommunicate and expel all those who don’t follow their strict interpretations, until just their kind are left. A once powerful and progressive ideology is being ruined by the bigotry of hardliners who want everyone to follow their narrow interpretations. This is a recipe for turning Sikhism from a global inclusive religion into a narrow cult. (Sunny Hundal, journalist and author of ‘India Dishonoured’. He tweets at: @sunny_hundal) ========================================= 28. UK: I’M BENGALI AND I’M BLACK – IN THE SAME WAY THAT MY PARENTS WERE by Aditya Chakrabortty ========================================= (The Guardian, 30 October 2014) Although we fixate on our differences, ethnic minorities are bound together by the injustices and frustrations of racism Before I was Asian, I was black. No, I haven’t since undergone some Jacko-style operation, or doused myself in Fair & Lovely. Rather, black was one of the terms my family and I used to describe ourselves. I grew up in 80s London, which still echoed with the Anti-Nazi League’s chant of “We are black, we are white, together we are dynamite”. At her primary school, my sari-wearing mother was a member of the local NUT black teachers’ caucus. As late as university in the mid-90s, I was handed a black prospectus, featuring action shots of a Punjabi pointing at a noticeboard (sadly, this was to prove an all-too-accurate guide to student entz). Discussing that period, those terms and the politics with which they were freighted, feels like remembering the era before email: so recent, so different. True, my mother’s old union branch still runs its black teachers section for “all teachers who face racism”. But the notion that someone of my background growing up today would refer to themselves as black is, frankly, fantastical. Now you are black, or you are Asian – a categorical wall has been put up. And on either side of that wall other divisions are hurriedly being erected: you are a Gujarati Hindu from Leicester; he is a Bangladeshi Muslim from Whitechapel; they are Nigerian Christians from Lewisham. And so endlessly on, until you end up with what a sprawl of what A Sivanadan terms “cultural enclaves and feuding nationalisms”. Isn’t this just the inevitable flowering of minor differences in an ever more diverse society? Quite the opposite. “Black” and “Asian” identities are just as badly bolted together as anything else. Take that cosy, cliched history of black Britain that begins with the Pathe newsreel of Empire Windrush docking at Tilbury. On which decks would have been the arrivals from Nairobi or Accra? Similarly Britain’s black history month, which ends today, takes its lead from the US – where the celebration began in 1926. But despite being an “Asian”, I might have as much in common with a black Trinidadian Hindu whose ancestors came from Uttar Pradesh as with a “fellow-Asian” whose parents hail from Multan, via Luton. When someone like my late father responded to the term “black”, it was not because he’d forgotten his Tagore, or the films of Satyajit Ray. He carried that history with greater care and affection than those who today boast of their Bengali-ness. But “black” wasn’t about pigment or some flatpack identity. It was primarily a political term, borne of a recognition among those who’d recently arrived in Britain that they faced obstacles in common and would try and beat them together. One wore “black” not instead of “Jamaican” or “Sikh” but alongside all those other labels of cultural and historical identity, as an anti-racist affiliation. Our parents were black because when they tried to get digs, they’d all see those signs saying “No black, no Irish, no dogs”. They were black because they’d all struggle to get the jobs, the pay and the promotions they deserved. And they were black because they all faced racial abuse and violence. Of course, one could be black and Indian; one inevitably was black and leftwing. In his new book Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider, Satnam Virdee charts how groups such as the Indian Workers Association, or Jayaben Desai and the heroic women strikers at the Grunwick film processing plant, were constantly building alliances with others on the left, whether in the trade unions or the Socialist Workers party. Contrast that with what we have now: a host of ethnic identities all competing with one another for recognition and government funding for their own pet projects – not on the grounds of what they do but on who they claim to represent. This has been encouraged by Whitehall – which doled out money to the Muslim Council of Britain in the name of preventing terrorism. And it has certainly been fuelled by local councils. In his book The End of Tolerance, Arun Kundnani notes how throughout the 80s, Bradford city council encouraged and funded local mosques to group together and “provide an alternative voice” for Muslims in the area. The hope was “they would become allies in a process of absorbing opposition, at the expense of the younger militants”. It goes without saying that the “militants” were aggressively secular. The effect of all this, as Manchester University’s Claire Alexander observes, has been to encourage the creation of “closed-down community identities” – and to shift power and money from an openly political, progressive anti-racist politics to older, conservative ethnic politicians – the activist gives way to the community leader. This move has bestowed power and money on certain figures within these ethnic communities – but it has also enabled successive governments to pretend that racism is no longer the problem. Instead, if you can’t get on in today’s Britain today, it’s because of some cultural factors that you and your community really need to sort out, pronto. This is the same sleight of hand that you see in discussions of sex and class, too: covering up the systemic issues and pretending that the problems can be solved by the individual. Lovely women: lean in! Oi, proles: get off Benefits Street! And you Bangladeshis: shave off those beards! Don’t worry about whether the game is rigged, or the rules are wrong: just play up. Where this ends up is with David Cameron, that community leader for Old Etonians, speechifying in Munich about “state multiculturalism”. “When a white person holds racist views, we rightly condemn them,” said the prime minister who put on London streets vans reading “Go Home”. “But when equally unacceptable views or practices come from some who isn’t white, we’ve been too cautious, frankly, even fearful, to stand up to them.” Except that racism hasn’t gone away. It may have got more nuanced, as you’d expect over time. But in work, it still pays to be a white man. On the streets, the police in England and Wales record over 100 racist “incidents” every day, and the Institute of Race Relations has tallied up 106 racial murders between 1993 and 2013. Meanwhile, to be black or Asian is to be far more likely to be stopped and searched – up to 29 times more likely in the West Midlands. The obstacles remain, racism is still with us. Even after decades of fixating on our differences, ethnic minorities in this country are bound together by many of the same injustices and frustrations. My identity comes in many parts: Bengali, Londoner and the rest. But I am also black, in the same way my parents were. And if you feel the pinch of the same constraints, you’re black too. ========================================= 29. BURMA’S GENERALS WON’T STAND DOWN: MILITARY STILL KEY TO ECONOMICS AND ADMINISTRATION by André Boucaud and Louis Boucaud ========================================= (Le Monde diplomatique, November 2014) An apparent victory for democracy at the 2015 presidential election in Burma could mean the end of hope for the country’s ethnic minorities, in armed dispute with the government’s forces. Military ceremonies rarely surprise, but at last year’s annual commemoration by Burma’s armed forces of the 1945 uprising against the Japanese occupation, Aung San Suu Kyi sat in the front row of the grandstand, among the men who were once her jailers. These former generals, who make up most of President Thein Sein’s government, hailed her presence as a symbol of reconciliation and recognition of the role of the Tatmadaw (armed forces). Since being freed in 2010, she has repeatedly signalled her willingness to cooperate with the military, without whose support she cannot hope for a future in politics. She was elected to the lower house of the Burmese parliament in 2012 and has clearly stated that she plans to stand for president at the 2015 election — though the 2008 constitution, written by the military, forbids it (1). The president of Burma is currently elected by an electoral college chosen by members of the upper and lower houses of the parliament at a joint sitting. A quarter of the seats in both houses are reserved for members of the Tatmadaw. The speaker of the lower house, Thura Shwe Mann, who has the support of the reformist Union Solidarity and Development Party, currently in government (2), and a reputation for pragmatism, has apparently moved closer to Suu Kyi in anticipation of the presidential election. In March 2013 he tried to get the constitution amended to allow her to stand, and to reduce the control exercised by the armed forces. But the commander-in-chief, General Min Aung Hlaing, pointed out that the Tatmadaw plays a key role in the running of the country, and in guaranteeing the constitution. Thein Sein has not been inactive. Important changes have been made on budgetary and economic issues (including the creation of special economic zones, a relaxation of rules on foreign direct investment, the opening of Burma’s banking sector to foreign financial institutions and a devaluation of the kyat), and there has been progress on freedom of the press, with a partial lifting of censorship. But this year, a number of journalists have been arrested and imprisoned, as the government is clearly wary of their potential influence on the coming election. Nevertheless, the government has shown a will for reform by freeing many political prisoners. These measures were intended to help Burma escape its pariah status internationally, and to get political and economic sanctions lifted. Yet US diplomatic pressure — which increased after then secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s visit in December 2011 and President Barack Obama’s visit in November 2012 (he is due to make another visit this November) — has not been enough to resolve Burma’s serious failings on peace and human rights issues, the chief victims of which are the ethnic minorities. The action taken by the US has failed to meet initial expectations: many minority leaders believe the US’s main concern is to contain Chinese influence and cut the Burmese regime’s links with North Korea. Multitude of ethnic groups Burma has 135 officially recognised ethnic groups, some of which have been fighting for recognition of their rights since the country achieved independence in 1948 (3). Thein Sein’s political masterstroke has been to start a ceasefire negotiation process, which has persuaded the major armed groups to set out on the (bumpy) road to reconciliation. The armed forces, although represented at every meeting and signatories to the draft ceasefire agreement, do not consider themselves committed to the process, which they regard as a political gesture by the government. They point out that their role under the constitution includes “defending Burma’s interests” — which seem to coincide with their own: the Tatmadaw is responsible for allocating licenses to exploit natural resources, ensures the security of projects and investments, and shares the profits with the heads of businesses in which it is involved, whether directly or via the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings. This conglomerate, founded in 1990 and run by the Tatmadaw ever since, is involved in a wide range of business activities. Economic reasons (including the planned hydroelectric dams in Kachin and Shan states) were behind the resumption of hostilities in June 2011, after a 17-year ceasefire, between the Tatmadaw and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), founded in 1960. The Tatmadaw has engaged in a new direct confrontation with the northern branch of the Shan State Army (SSA) (4), ordering it to vacate territories that it has occupied since the 1989 ceasefire, on the west bank of the River Salween, which runs through the middle of Shan State. The pretext is to ensure the security of an area where there are plans to build several hydroelectric dams. Thousands of civilians have also been expelled, creating instability and tension. Minority representatives also see in this a threat to the Wa of the UWSA (5). The SSA (North and South) reports dozens of clashes with the Tatmadaw, and has made repeated appeals to President Thein Sein. However, a key meeting between Burmese negotiators and Shan leader, Yord Serk, in Kengtun in late 2012 was attended by the deputy commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw. The Kachin people, the only ethnic minority to have signed a written ceasefire agreement, in 1994, are reluctant to sign a new treaty, since the Burmese government has not kept its promises under the first one. Sceptics among other ethnic minorities, who do not believe in a future political settlement with the Burmese majority, cite their example. The Karen of the Karen National Union (KNU) came near to a new split over the matter; Yord Serk has managed to impose his wish for a ceasefire on the young officers of the Shan State Army, who wanted to carry on fighting, by means of a large-scale information programme and opinion polls among the Shan population — the majority of whom wanted peace, not just a ceasefire. Thein Sein has twice declared a unilateral ceasefire with the Kachin, though his own commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, has disregarded these. Though fighting against the KNU and the Karenni of the Karenni National Progress Party has almost ceased, their leaders complain of a considerable increase in the Tatmadaw presence in their territories. In Kachin State, where clashes are the most violent, several hundred guerrilla fighters have been killed since June 2011 (6), and Tatmadaw losses in the thousands are reported. But the civilian population is paying the highest price, with more than 100,000 displaced people, and countless abuses by the Tatmadaw. Beijing and the refugees For China, which had believed the areas on its borders were now stabilised, this is a serious problem. Large-scale investment projects are at risk, or even threatened, by the fighting. China must once more contend with a flow of refugees that is hard to contain and is having political repercussions, leading in particular to demonstrations by members of the Kachin community on its own territory, in the towns of Yunnan Province. In an attempt to make the Burmese generals understand there is a line they must not cross, China has renewed its support of the UWSA, which fears it may be the next target if the KIA collapses. China is helping to strengthen the UWSA’s deterrent capability with arms shipments, mostly through Laos. But China officially denies supplying any arms, insisting that no armoured vehicles have crossed the border of Yunnan Province into Wa territory, and that it does not want to interfere. Yet Kachin leaders claim that, to their amazement and that of the Burmese, Chinese leaders intervened in the negotiations of February 2013 at Ruili (a border town in Yunnan Province) — the choice of venue was a compromise with the Kachin who wanted the negotiations to take place on “neutral” ground and had suggested a town in Thailand, rejected by the Burmese. China refused to sign the initial text accepted by the Burmese parties, objecting to the stationing of foreign observers on the Burmese-Chinese border and the provision of humanitarian aid to Kachin refugees in China by international organisations. The civilian population fear fresh fighting. Many cannot understand Suu Kyi’s silence. Some of the ethnic Burmese fail to comprehend her attitude, especially on expulsions linked to investment projects, and she is totally rejected by the ethnic minorities, who condemn her neutrality on abuses by the Tatmadaw. She is also silent on the situation in Rakhine (formerly Arakan) State, where there is ethnic conflict between the Rakhine Buddhist majority and the Bengali Muslim minority. Suu Kyi knows that much of the Burmese population is deeply hostile towards this Muslim minority; the Rakhine Buddhists, usually highly critical of the Burmese military, have sided with the regime over their repression. Yet in the past the regime has used the Bengali Muslims to block the separatist ambitions of the ethnic Rakhine. The Muslims want recognition as an ethnic minority group under the name Rohingya, but the regime refuses this, claiming that they are illegal immigrants, though they have been living in Burma for more than 200 years. They became stateless after the adoption of the Citizenship Law of 1982, but the origins of their situation can be traced back to the British colonial authorities, which allowed them to settle freely in Rakhine State, on the principle of dividing to rule. Though negotiations between the Burmese government and the armed groups are progressing, the prospect of a final accord is receding. President Thein Sein has made its signature a national objective, but for the ethnic minorities it will only be the start of a very long political settlement process. The ethnic minorities fear that the Tatmadaw has not abandoned its goal of forcing them into unconditional surrender. If a coalition between the supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi and lower chamber speaker Thura Shwe Mann were to win the 2015 election in an apparent victory for democracy, nothing would change without a constitutional amendment to take away the absolute power of the generals. For the ethnic minorities, that would extinguish all hope. Translated by Charles Goulden More from André Boucaud and Louis Boucaud André and Louis Boucaud are journalists (1) The provisions of article 59 are aimed at Suu Kyi. (2) A political party founded by General Than Shwe in 2010. (3) See André and Louis Boucaud, “Burma’s ethnic patchwork”, Le Monde diplomatique, English edition, December 2009. (4) The Shan State Army is made up of the SSA-North, which agreed to a ceasefire in 1989, and has only a few thousand men; and the SSA-South, which has more than 10,000 men, occupies a large part of Shan territory and entered into negotiations in September 2011. (5) An armed movement founded in 1989 by the Wa who had been members of the former Communist Party of Burma. (6) More than 900, according to the latest KIA communiqué, in March 2013. _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ South Asia Citizens Wire Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on matters of peace and democratisation in South Asia. Newsletter of South Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/ ##### #### _\_ ________ ##=-[.].]| \ \ #( _\ | |------| # __| | |||||||| \ _/ | |||||||| .--'--'-. | | ____ | / __ `|__|[o__o]| _(____nm_______ /____\____ DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers. ===================================== _______________________________________________ SACW mailing list SACW@insaf.net http://insaf.net/mailman/listinfo/sacw_insaf.net
