The Hindu
Chennai, March 29, 2011
A community scared of both Muslim and Hindu extremists
by Suresh Nambath
An informal survey conducted by the U.S. Embassy among the Muslims in the North India reveals that a majority of them are unhappy with the ‘weak response’ of Muslim leadership to the Mumbai attacks.
The Hindu Photo Library An informal survey conducted by the U.S. Embassy among the Muslims in the North India reveals that a majority of them are unhappy with the ‘weak response’ of Muslim leadership to the Mumbai attacks.
A 2006 cable talks about the Muslims of north India being nervous and fearful after the serial train blasts in Mumbai
In a cable sent after the 2006 Mumbai attacks, the United States Embassy reported that its contacts had little faith in the ability of Islamic leaders, political parties, security agencies or the Indian government to prevent a terrorist attack and the anti-Muslim backlash that could follow. “Extremists in Uttar Pradesh barely conceal their activities and seem to operate with impunity,” Charge d'Affaires Geoffrey Pyatt quoted the Embassy contacts as saying in a report on the situation of north Indian Muslims after the serial train blasts in Mumbai.
Mr. Pyatt, in the cable sent on July 13, 2006 (71263: confidential) said the Mumbai attacks had focussed attention on the fragile communal situation in the North Indian Hindi belt, most particularly in Uttar Pradesh. “While Indians are grateful that the Mumbai attacks have not yet set off a communal conflagration, North Indian Muslims remain nervous and fearful.”
Noting that Uttar Pradesh, with a 17 per cent Muslim population and a large concentration of Shias, has endured a string of terrorist attacks since 2001, including multiple bombings on moving trains similar to the Mumbai blasts, he pointed out that the Students Islamic Movement of India and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the two principal suspects in the Mumbai attacks, are both active in the State.
Maulana Arshad Madani, the president of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind, which is the political wing of the Deobandi sect, decried the Mumbai bombings as “barbaric acts calculated to disturb communal harmony.” But there were no similar statements from other prominent Muslim organisations or leaders, especially Wahhabi organisations such as the Jamaat-e-Islami.
“Less prominent Muslim organizations came forward, with generally anodyne statements, including the Muslim Political Council of India, whose President, Tasleem Rehmani rhetorically urged the GOI to declare all victims of the bombings as martyrs to national integrity,” he said.
Embassy's survey
The Embassy conducted an informal survey of Muslim contacts from Lucknow and other cities. “Respondents included several Maulvis (both Sunni and Shia), Urdu language journalists, political and community leaders, scholars and academics. Their responses revealed a remarkable unanimity on ‘Islamic terrorism.' All expressed disdain for what they characterized as the ‘weak response' of India's Muslim leadership to the Mumbai attacks, accusing such leaders of taking a ‘head in the sand' approach and denying stark realities. They pointed out that after a string of terrorist assaults by Muslim extremists throughout India, it is now common knowledge within the Muslim community that the terrorists have established a support system and sympathizers' network among Indian Muslims to help carry out attacks conceived and orchestrated by foreign Muslims.”
In his analysis, Mr. Pyatt wrote: “The Mumbai attacks cannot help but increase unease amongst North Indian Muslims, who have witnessed politically-engineered communal riots in several UP cities over the past six months. Muslim fears are compounded by the lack of governance in UP and Bihar.”
The police force in Uttar Pradesh, the Charge said, had been suborned and corrupted by the Samajwadi Party [the ruling party]: “We doubt that it would be able to maintain security if communal rioting gets out of hand.”
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, had begun to stage “anti-terrorism” rallies at various locations in the Hindi belt, including communal flashpoints with large Muslim populations. “In the Hindutva lexicon, ‘terrorism' is synonymous with Islam and most Muslims will see the BJP rallies and statements for a war against terrorism as provocative calls for a war against Islam,” the diplomat wrote.
“North India, and particularly UP remain stressful and the Mumbai attacks have exacerbated an already fragile communal situation. Our Muslim contacts have reported over the past six months that SIMI and other Islamic extremists, (including mysterious individuals they claim are ‘members of al Qaeda') have been active in the Muslim community, recruiting disaffected young men with offers of physical training, study of the Qu'ran, job opportunities and easy money. They are worried that these are nascent terrorist cells that could be activated to carry out attacks at the behest of foreign-based organizations,” he added in the cable.
A community besieged
Painting a picture of a community besieged by both Muslim and Hindu extremists, he said: “Muslims see signs that militant Hindutva organizations are also reviving and could use a terrorist attack as an excuse to mount reprisals. The silence of most North Indian Muslims is most telling, as it indicates a community scared of both Muslim and Hindu extremists and determined to keep a low profile at all costs.”
(This article is a part of the series "The India Cables" based on the US diplomatic cables accessed by The Hindu via Wikileaks.)
|
March 27, 2011
A sense of betrayal
Magazine / The Hindu - 27 March 2011
Barefoot
by HARSH MANDER
When communal pogroms are unleashed, all members of the community, irrespective of whether they were personally affected or not, internalise the suffering and the pain, and feel betrayed…
They suffer because the attack was to avenge, shame or break the spirit of the entire community.
Photo: AFP
Bitter memories...
In any communal carnage, there are direct victims: those whose properties are looted or destroyed, whose bodies suffer assault, or whose loved ones are attacked or killed. But sectarian conflict is also vicariously an assault on that entire community. Therefore, the entire targeted community are also vicarious victims of the communal pogrom. Even though they do not actually suffer any personal loss, of assaults on body or property, or the death of people they loved or even personally knew — and may well be protected by various levels of privilege from any realistic probability of such a direct attack in the future — they also suffer. They suffer because the attack was to avenge, shame or break the spirit of the entire community.
Many similarities
Even though these were separated by 18 years of history, there is, tragically, a great deal in common between the communal massacres that played out on the streets of Delhi in 1984, and in settlements and by-lanes across Gujarat in 2002. There is considerable consensus among credible and independent observers of both these massacres that these were not spontaneous conflicts between people of different religious identities; they were pogroms systematically and cynically enabled by acts of commission and omission of public agencies at all levels, including those in positions of command authority. State officials similarly stood by in both episodes, as mobs were allowed and even actively encouraged to loot and torch properties, desecrate places of worship, and gruesomely murder, often by burning alive, people of specified minority faiths: Sikh in one case and Muslim in another. In both instances, communal organisations and political leaders worked openly in tandem to stir and stoke communal hatred, and to organise the logistics of the slaughter, efficiently transporting men, weapons and inflammables to settlements and commercial establishments of the communities marked out for slaughter.
Both brutal pogroms against religious minorities were sought — by the political leadership and in wide sections of popular perceptions in the community of majority faith — to be rationalised as ‘ justified' or even ‘righteous' violence, because entire communities were deemed to be guilty merely by their shared identities with alleged killers. The attacks in both pogroms were on communities and not individuals; they built upon and further consolidated large and persisting social hostility prevailing at the time of the massacres against the communities. The two massacres also had in common the role of communal organisations in manufacturing and sustaining hatred; and underlying agendas of political power, riding on waves of engineered hatred. Ruling governments in both massacres reaped rich, even unprecedented, electoral harvests in elections that followed in the wake of the slaughters. Both massacres also share a common history of impunity, with the majority of the killers and marauders and all those in command positions of authority in government and the civil administration still unpunished.
Source of anguish
For the entire Sikh community, including those who were born after 1984, in India and anywhere in the world, the 1984 pogrom in Delhi and other parts of India endures in memory as a source of intense anguish and loss; it also fuels a dormant anger and alienation, even as the community typically prospers, and many of its members excel variously in business, politics, sports, the armed forces, the letters and the arts. Both anguish and anger were far more visible in the years immediately after the carnage, but these gradually subsided, even as suspicion and hate against Sikhs by members of the majority Hindu community dwindled.
Today, over 26 years after the carnage, there are few signs of actively perceived victimhood in the collective psyche of the Sikh community in most parts of India. The abject failures to bring to justice those who led and organised the crimes of 1984 still rankle most Sikhs. There is anger still against what is perceived by them to be the imperious insensitivity of Indira Gandhi in using brute military might in the Operation Bluestar, to crush insurgents who took refuge in the Golden Temple, because it desecrated this most revered place of worship of the Sikh people. But for the greater part, they seem to have pushed the trauma behind them.
I observe greater community anger in Sikh majority Punjab, but here the rage is not just for the crimes of 1984 or even for Operation Bluestar, but for the enormous human rights abuses and mass killings by security forces who felled thousands of Sikh militant youth during the late 80s and 90s. By contrast, a shrill and vastly exaggerated sense of victimhood is still actively fostered in non-resident Sikh settlements, such as in Canada, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
A similar sense of victimhood was experienced by Indian Muslims world-wide after the 2002 Gujarat carnage. The brutal assaults on Muslim men, women and children after 58 people tragically lost their lives in the train fire at Godhra on February 27, 2002 was intended as a punishment and a warning to the entire Indian Muslim community. More than at any moment in independent Indian history, Indian Muslims across India and even those who had taken citizenship in countries of the North or the Gulf, felt personally, intensely devastated by the violence. I have interacted with many gatherings of Muslim people — in cities, towns and villages across India and in many countries in the world after 2002 — and each time I have been struck by the extent to which they have internalised the suffering of the direct victims as if it was their own. The meta-narrative of the pregnant woman whose womb was slit open and the foetus set aflame is repeated and recalled as though it was experienced by a known loved one, as are numerous gruesome stories of rape, arson and murder. Each grieves with a personal sense of loss, each time a new mass grave is discovered, or when a Muslim is killed by the police in a faked encounter. I have met non-resident Indian Muslims who have not returned to India for years, but who slipped into clinical depression after the Gujarat carnage. Many weep and hold my hands, even years later, like people unable to come to terms with an enormous personal tragedy.
Intensely personal
More than anything else, I encounter in the hearts and minds of Indian Muslims after 2002, the anguish of intense betrayal. Each recounts his or her personal memories of childhood and youth, peopled by close Hindu friends, who they believed loved them without chauvinism: with whom they comfortably shared the spaces of home, play and school, and who were an intrinsic presence in moments of joy, celebration and sadness. But today they are variously wounded, by the open support of their childhood comrades for Hindutva ideologies, or by their rankling silences, their failures to condemn the injustice of holding them culpable only because of their separate religious identity. They wonder what has changed between them and the Hindu friends of their childhood, and agonise whether they were only fooling themselves that their bonds were untainted by prejudice.
The sense of personal betrayal is matched by the State's open partisanship. State authorities have been known to be biased against minorities in all communal riots, but the Indian Muslim still encounters an entirely new low when a government unrepentantly becomes complicit in abetting the most brutal mass assault on women and children in recent history, and yet is unpunished. Instead it is emphatically voted back to power, not once but twice, and the person perceived to be the chief architect of the slaughter is projected as a realistic contender for the position of Prime Minister of the country in the not-too-distant future, cheered on by most of the country's leading industrial leaders.
They wonder if the solemn pledge of the Constitution — that no person in this country is the child of a lesser god — was in the end a sham.
Barefoot
by HARSH MANDER
When communal pogroms are unleashed, all members of the community, irrespective of whether they were personally affected or not, internalise the suffering and the pain, and feel betrayed…
They suffer because the attack was to avenge, shame or break the spirit of the entire community.
Photo: AFP
Bitter memories...
In any communal carnage, there are direct victims: those whose properties are looted or destroyed, whose bodies suffer assault, or whose loved ones are attacked or killed. But sectarian conflict is also vicariously an assault on that entire community. Therefore, the entire targeted community are also vicarious victims of the communal pogrom. Even though they do not actually suffer any personal loss, of assaults on body or property, or the death of people they loved or even personally knew — and may well be protected by various levels of privilege from any realistic probability of such a direct attack in the future — they also suffer. They suffer because the attack was to avenge, shame or break the spirit of the entire community.
Many similarities
Even though these were separated by 18 years of history, there is, tragically, a great deal in common between the communal massacres that played out on the streets of Delhi in 1984, and in settlements and by-lanes across Gujarat in 2002. There is considerable consensus among credible and independent observers of both these massacres that these were not spontaneous conflicts between people of different religious identities; they were pogroms systematically and cynically enabled by acts of commission and omission of public agencies at all levels, including those in positions of command authority. State officials similarly stood by in both episodes, as mobs were allowed and even actively encouraged to loot and torch properties, desecrate places of worship, and gruesomely murder, often by burning alive, people of specified minority faiths: Sikh in one case and Muslim in another. In both instances, communal organisations and political leaders worked openly in tandem to stir and stoke communal hatred, and to organise the logistics of the slaughter, efficiently transporting men, weapons and inflammables to settlements and commercial establishments of the communities marked out for slaughter.
Both brutal pogroms against religious minorities were sought — by the political leadership and in wide sections of popular perceptions in the community of majority faith — to be rationalised as ‘ justified' or even ‘righteous' violence, because entire communities were deemed to be guilty merely by their shared identities with alleged killers. The attacks in both pogroms were on communities and not individuals; they built upon and further consolidated large and persisting social hostility prevailing at the time of the massacres against the communities. The two massacres also had in common the role of communal organisations in manufacturing and sustaining hatred; and underlying agendas of political power, riding on waves of engineered hatred. Ruling governments in both massacres reaped rich, even unprecedented, electoral harvests in elections that followed in the wake of the slaughters. Both massacres also share a common history of impunity, with the majority of the killers and marauders and all those in command positions of authority in government and the civil administration still unpunished.
Source of anguish
For the entire Sikh community, including those who were born after 1984, in India and anywhere in the world, the 1984 pogrom in Delhi and other parts of India endures in memory as a source of intense anguish and loss; it also fuels a dormant anger and alienation, even as the community typically prospers, and many of its members excel variously in business, politics, sports, the armed forces, the letters and the arts. Both anguish and anger were far more visible in the years immediately after the carnage, but these gradually subsided, even as suspicion and hate against Sikhs by members of the majority Hindu community dwindled.
Today, over 26 years after the carnage, there are few signs of actively perceived victimhood in the collective psyche of the Sikh community in most parts of India. The abject failures to bring to justice those who led and organised the crimes of 1984 still rankle most Sikhs. There is anger still against what is perceived by them to be the imperious insensitivity of Indira Gandhi in using brute military might in the Operation Bluestar, to crush insurgents who took refuge in the Golden Temple, because it desecrated this most revered place of worship of the Sikh people. But for the greater part, they seem to have pushed the trauma behind them.
I observe greater community anger in Sikh majority Punjab, but here the rage is not just for the crimes of 1984 or even for Operation Bluestar, but for the enormous human rights abuses and mass killings by security forces who felled thousands of Sikh militant youth during the late 80s and 90s. By contrast, a shrill and vastly exaggerated sense of victimhood is still actively fostered in non-resident Sikh settlements, such as in Canada, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
A similar sense of victimhood was experienced by Indian Muslims world-wide after the 2002 Gujarat carnage. The brutal assaults on Muslim men, women and children after 58 people tragically lost their lives in the train fire at Godhra on February 27, 2002 was intended as a punishment and a warning to the entire Indian Muslim community. More than at any moment in independent Indian history, Indian Muslims across India and even those who had taken citizenship in countries of the North or the Gulf, felt personally, intensely devastated by the violence. I have interacted with many gatherings of Muslim people — in cities, towns and villages across India and in many countries in the world after 2002 — and each time I have been struck by the extent to which they have internalised the suffering of the direct victims as if it was their own. The meta-narrative of the pregnant woman whose womb was slit open and the foetus set aflame is repeated and recalled as though it was experienced by a known loved one, as are numerous gruesome stories of rape, arson and murder. Each grieves with a personal sense of loss, each time a new mass grave is discovered, or when a Muslim is killed by the police in a faked encounter. I have met non-resident Indian Muslims who have not returned to India for years, but who slipped into clinical depression after the Gujarat carnage. Many weep and hold my hands, even years later, like people unable to come to terms with an enormous personal tragedy.
Intensely personal
More than anything else, I encounter in the hearts and minds of Indian Muslims after 2002, the anguish of intense betrayal. Each recounts his or her personal memories of childhood and youth, peopled by close Hindu friends, who they believed loved them without chauvinism: with whom they comfortably shared the spaces of home, play and school, and who were an intrinsic presence in moments of joy, celebration and sadness. But today they are variously wounded, by the open support of their childhood comrades for Hindutva ideologies, or by their rankling silences, their failures to condemn the injustice of holding them culpable only because of their separate religious identity. They wonder what has changed between them and the Hindu friends of their childhood, and agonise whether they were only fooling themselves that their bonds were untainted by prejudice.
The sense of personal betrayal is matched by the State's open partisanship. State authorities have been known to be biased against minorities in all communal riots, but the Indian Muslim still encounters an entirely new low when a government unrepentantly becomes complicit in abetting the most brutal mass assault on women and children in recent history, and yet is unpunished. Instead it is emphatically voted back to power, not once but twice, and the person perceived to be the chief architect of the slaughter is projected as a realistic contender for the position of Prime Minister of the country in the not-too-distant future, cheered on by most of the country's leading industrial leaders.
They wonder if the solemn pledge of the Constitution — that no person in this country is the child of a lesser god — was in the end a sham.
March 25, 2011
Baba Ramdev; Yogi or Commissar
Baba Ramdev: Yogi or Commissar?
Ram Puniyani
Baba Ramdev has been probably most successful of God men of recent times. He claims to have a following of over a billion people. There are an infinite number of people claiming that his yoga therapy and medicines work wonders for their health. Baba in a short span of time has built a multi million empire, his Trust is owning series of Ashrams, ayurvedic drug factories, yoga training centers and many such things, in India and abroad. Overall the medicines prescribed-marketed by him are selling like hot cakes. He himself adorns the divine status and his followers also regard him so, a saint, above the worldly matters. His saffron robes are a symbol of renunciation as such. All this is remarkable, good of both the Worlds, as he is not only wearing divine halo but is also presiding over the empire running into hundreds of crores of rupees built in last decade or so and now entering politics too.
In our country where currently rational thought and scientific thinking has been pushed to the back foot, the claims that his methods are scientific go unchallenged by and large. As per him he can cure Cancer, AIDS and what have you. He also states that homosexuality is a disease, something for which he has a yogic cure. Earlier he had a spat with Brinda Karat, on the issue of contents of the medicines, powder of animal bones in the samples from his factories and on the issue of wages for the workers. Baba claiming to base his Yoga on scientific ground angrily dismissed the issues raised by Brinda Karat, and one does not know what happened to the wage issue of the workers of his factory.
There are not many who can dare to raise legitimate question in the public domain about what is science? What is the method of science and whether mere reading and following of scriptures can be called as scientific? The issues related to the role of double blind trials, biochemical analysis, pharmaceutical composition and their side effects cannot be raised, as in doing so one can be easily labeled as anti Hindu-Anti religious deviant. The garb of Holy clothes is the best defense against all the legitimate questions. So what is projected to be working successfully can also be asserted to be a scientific practice. One would expect that the tall claims like curing cancer and AIDS, need to be questioned as many may get misled and loose the precious time which a medical intervention can play in a positive way.
One concedes that there must be some benefits due to things practiced by Baba and the likes of him, but these need to be regulated and peer reviewed to avoid their misuse in the society at large. Science is not a monopoly of anybody and peer review and evaluation is the best regulator for decisions about medications-practices for society. This is indispensable to avoid the harm, in short term or long term sense. Divinity should not be permitted to protect the real social issues involved.
Lately Baba has been in the news not for divine or yogic reasons, but for the profane issues related to corruption, and his forming a political party which will fight the elections. While the crusade against corruption is welcome as such, one observes that his sayings about corruption are restricted to one political party. This is a partisan view, an attempt to hide the corrupt practices of other political parties and other actors involved in the issue of corruption. He is scathing against Congress on the issue of corruption and is silent about BJP’s corruption. He is vocal about something and quiet about the corruption of rich who are equal partners in this social evil. This may indicate that the saffron clothes are being used for the goals of helping the communal party and the rich.
As such corruption has more to do with unbridled power, absence of transparency and lack of social audit on the economic transactions and policies. To link it with few political actors is an attempt to hide those who give the bribes to get their work done. A principled stand will also be to ensure that all the donations coming to the Ahsrams of Baba and his types belong to the category of what is ‘accounted money’! Hope Baba has already taken care of this point before starting his campaign against corruption.
Generally the ‘divine’ people have to be standing for peace and harmony. One recalls that in the wake of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, Baba had exhorted Indian Government to attack Pakistan, and that he will fund the war against Pakistan. One shudders to think of war mongers and that too with those having divine claims leading our political affairs. The current times have been the one where the politics has been wearing the clothes of religious identity. Baba is going one step ahead. He is trying to ride on two horses, the one of spirituality-religion and the other of entrepreneur-politician, at the same time. His association with those who have done politics by abusing religious identity, the communalists, is very clear. That may be the reason as to why he is creating hysteria around corruption by one political party rather than against corruption as a phenomenon related to our socio-political structure.
Ram Puniyani
Baba Ramdev has been probably most successful of God men of recent times. He claims to have a following of over a billion people. There are an infinite number of people claiming that his yoga therapy and medicines work wonders for their health. Baba in a short span of time has built a multi million empire, his Trust is owning series of Ashrams, ayurvedic drug factories, yoga training centers and many such things, in India and abroad. Overall the medicines prescribed-marketed by him are selling like hot cakes. He himself adorns the divine status and his followers also regard him so, a saint, above the worldly matters. His saffron robes are a symbol of renunciation as such. All this is remarkable, good of both the Worlds, as he is not only wearing divine halo but is also presiding over the empire running into hundreds of crores of rupees built in last decade or so and now entering politics too.
In our country where currently rational thought and scientific thinking has been pushed to the back foot, the claims that his methods are scientific go unchallenged by and large. As per him he can cure Cancer, AIDS and what have you. He also states that homosexuality is a disease, something for which he has a yogic cure. Earlier he had a spat with Brinda Karat, on the issue of contents of the medicines, powder of animal bones in the samples from his factories and on the issue of wages for the workers. Baba claiming to base his Yoga on scientific ground angrily dismissed the issues raised by Brinda Karat, and one does not know what happened to the wage issue of the workers of his factory.
There are not many who can dare to raise legitimate question in the public domain about what is science? What is the method of science and whether mere reading and following of scriptures can be called as scientific? The issues related to the role of double blind trials, biochemical analysis, pharmaceutical composition and their side effects cannot be raised, as in doing so one can be easily labeled as anti Hindu-Anti religious deviant. The garb of Holy clothes is the best defense against all the legitimate questions. So what is projected to be working successfully can also be asserted to be a scientific practice. One would expect that the tall claims like curing cancer and AIDS, need to be questioned as many may get misled and loose the precious time which a medical intervention can play in a positive way.
One concedes that there must be some benefits due to things practiced by Baba and the likes of him, but these need to be regulated and peer reviewed to avoid their misuse in the society at large. Science is not a monopoly of anybody and peer review and evaluation is the best regulator for decisions about medications-practices for society. This is indispensable to avoid the harm, in short term or long term sense. Divinity should not be permitted to protect the real social issues involved.
Lately Baba has been in the news not for divine or yogic reasons, but for the profane issues related to corruption, and his forming a political party which will fight the elections. While the crusade against corruption is welcome as such, one observes that his sayings about corruption are restricted to one political party. This is a partisan view, an attempt to hide the corrupt practices of other political parties and other actors involved in the issue of corruption. He is scathing against Congress on the issue of corruption and is silent about BJP’s corruption. He is vocal about something and quiet about the corruption of rich who are equal partners in this social evil. This may indicate that the saffron clothes are being used for the goals of helping the communal party and the rich.
As such corruption has more to do with unbridled power, absence of transparency and lack of social audit on the economic transactions and policies. To link it with few political actors is an attempt to hide those who give the bribes to get their work done. A principled stand will also be to ensure that all the donations coming to the Ahsrams of Baba and his types belong to the category of what is ‘accounted money’! Hope Baba has already taken care of this point before starting his campaign against corruption.
Generally the ‘divine’ people have to be standing for peace and harmony. One recalls that in the wake of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, Baba had exhorted Indian Government to attack Pakistan, and that he will fund the war against Pakistan. One shudders to think of war mongers and that too with those having divine claims leading our political affairs. The current times have been the one where the politics has been wearing the clothes of religious identity. Baba is going one step ahead. He is trying to ride on two horses, the one of spirituality-religion and the other of entrepreneur-politician, at the same time. His association with those who have done politics by abusing religious identity, the communalists, is very clear. That may be the reason as to why he is creating hysteria around corruption by one political party rather than against corruption as a phenomenon related to our socio-political structure.
March 24, 2011
Political Machinations Of Hindutva
Political Machinations Of Hindutva
By Ram Puniyani
Film Review
(Film: Saffron War by Rajiv Yadav, Shahanawaz Alam and Lakshman Prashad, Duration 61 Minutes, Contribution, Rs 95, Available from: 632/13, Shankarpuri, Kamta, Post: Chinhat, Lucknow, UP)
With the rise of Hindutva movement during last three decades there has also been an attempt to understand this phenomenon through analytic essays, articles and films. These films have also served the purpose of spreading the awareness about the rising threat of communal politics, and dangers to national integration due to the rising communal tide in the society. The Mumbai violence, Gujarat genocide, Kandhmal amongst others has been the object of serious study and analysis amongst the activists and scholars. ‘Saffron War: A War against nation’ is the latest in the series of the significant works, which have come out lately. This film is a unique combination of analysis of Hindutva ideology, its cooption of dalits in to communal politics and the gradual manipulation of the low caste movements from their struggle for social justice to their current mobilization in the fold of Hindutva where they are made to believe that the real problems of society are not due to the caste structure but the external one coming form Muslim minorities.
This film is made in the backdrop of Gorakhpur, where Yogi Adiyanath, A BJP MP has been spreading his tentacles in a very aggressive way. The film’s major contribution is to show as to how Gorakhnath Math has been gradually been shifted away from its struggle against caste oppression, how its focus on intercommunity amity has been shifted away to hatred for the minorities. The film through different interviews and visuals shows us the spread of venom against minorities. The language used by the Yogi and his followers comes under the category of ‘Hate Speech’, which is going on in the open fashion. All the prejudices and biases against minorities, Muslims in particular, are being openly asserted in the public meetings where not only are the Muslims presented in the negative light but also violence is openly propagated and promoted. The imaginary fear of minorities is projected and all the propagation of violence is done in the name of ‘Defense of Hindu religion’. The degree of aggression in the language is shocking to say the least. In many a meetings when these hateful speeches are being made, even the police is standing as the passive listeners, unmindful of the fact that such hate speech should invite strong legal action.
The major mobilization is done in the name of Yogi Adityanath and the majority of people who are mobilized and co-opted are dalits and OBCs. They begin with Savarkar’s definition of Hinduva and Hindu Rashtra is made the base of Hate other propaganda. This goes on to say that Muslims have to be relegated to second class citizenship. They cite the example of Pakistan to spread this hate. Yogi’s propaganda further adds that Muslims’ voting rights have to be taken away. Gorakhpur and surrounding areas must be one of the few places where Savarkar is quoted so blatantly in the anti minority tirade. The emphasis on converting UP in to Gujarat through Uttaranchal comes up regularly. On the lines of Bajrang Dal, there is formation of Arya Veer Sena and Hindu Yuva Vahini giving the training to youth in the use of arms, with Har Har Mahadev as the war cry.
The film brings out clearly as to how the earlier Bharat Milap procession in this area symbolized Hindu Muslim brother hood, but now it has been converted into the occasion where anti Muslim sentiments are invoked. This has seriously intimidated the Minorities in the area. The role of these forces in the Mau riots of 2005 is well brought out in this film.
While the film does well to focus on the core points of Savarkar ideology and cooption, Sanskrtisation of dalits, there is a need to link up this with the overall Hindutva politics of the country. The link between Savarkar and RSS ideology also should have been highlighted. The strong point of the film is to show the political dynamics of conversion of a low caste, syncretic space into the one dominated by Braminical ideology and Hindutva politics. The film does show in a forthright manner, the way in which Hindutva politics builds up. The history of Gorakhnath Math comes out very well along with the fact the communalization process has converted this syncretic spaces into exclusive Hindutva places. It is Gorakhnath Math where Muslims used to throng in large numbers and were welcome there. The scenario is dismal, there is need to develop political, ideological and cultural campaigns against this politics to bring back the issues of caste and gender in to the mainstream of social movements. The need to work for national integration needs to be highlighted in more ways than one.
While the film is a comprehensive study of communalism in Poorvanchal, Gorakhpur in particular, it should have connected a bit more with the National phenomenon. The film does need some technical improvisation.
By Ram Puniyani
Film Review
(Film: Saffron War by Rajiv Yadav, Shahanawaz Alam and Lakshman Prashad, Duration 61 Minutes, Contribution, Rs 95, Available from: 632/13, Shankarpuri, Kamta, Post: Chinhat, Lucknow, UP)
With the rise of Hindutva movement during last three decades there has also been an attempt to understand this phenomenon through analytic essays, articles and films. These films have also served the purpose of spreading the awareness about the rising threat of communal politics, and dangers to national integration due to the rising communal tide in the society. The Mumbai violence, Gujarat genocide, Kandhmal amongst others has been the object of serious study and analysis amongst the activists and scholars. ‘Saffron War: A War against nation’ is the latest in the series of the significant works, which have come out lately. This film is a unique combination of analysis of Hindutva ideology, its cooption of dalits in to communal politics and the gradual manipulation of the low caste movements from their struggle for social justice to their current mobilization in the fold of Hindutva where they are made to believe that the real problems of society are not due to the caste structure but the external one coming form Muslim minorities.
This film is made in the backdrop of Gorakhpur, where Yogi Adiyanath, A BJP MP has been spreading his tentacles in a very aggressive way. The film’s major contribution is to show as to how Gorakhnath Math has been gradually been shifted away from its struggle against caste oppression, how its focus on intercommunity amity has been shifted away to hatred for the minorities. The film through different interviews and visuals shows us the spread of venom against minorities. The language used by the Yogi and his followers comes under the category of ‘Hate Speech’, which is going on in the open fashion. All the prejudices and biases against minorities, Muslims in particular, are being openly asserted in the public meetings where not only are the Muslims presented in the negative light but also violence is openly propagated and promoted. The imaginary fear of minorities is projected and all the propagation of violence is done in the name of ‘Defense of Hindu religion’. The degree of aggression in the language is shocking to say the least. In many a meetings when these hateful speeches are being made, even the police is standing as the passive listeners, unmindful of the fact that such hate speech should invite strong legal action.
The major mobilization is done in the name of Yogi Adityanath and the majority of people who are mobilized and co-opted are dalits and OBCs. They begin with Savarkar’s definition of Hinduva and Hindu Rashtra is made the base of Hate other propaganda. This goes on to say that Muslims have to be relegated to second class citizenship. They cite the example of Pakistan to spread this hate. Yogi’s propaganda further adds that Muslims’ voting rights have to be taken away. Gorakhpur and surrounding areas must be one of the few places where Savarkar is quoted so blatantly in the anti minority tirade. The emphasis on converting UP in to Gujarat through Uttaranchal comes up regularly. On the lines of Bajrang Dal, there is formation of Arya Veer Sena and Hindu Yuva Vahini giving the training to youth in the use of arms, with Har Har Mahadev as the war cry.
The film brings out clearly as to how the earlier Bharat Milap procession in this area symbolized Hindu Muslim brother hood, but now it has been converted into the occasion where anti Muslim sentiments are invoked. This has seriously intimidated the Minorities in the area. The role of these forces in the Mau riots of 2005 is well brought out in this film.
While the film does well to focus on the core points of Savarkar ideology and cooption, Sanskrtisation of dalits, there is a need to link up this with the overall Hindutva politics of the country. The link between Savarkar and RSS ideology also should have been highlighted. The strong point of the film is to show the political dynamics of conversion of a low caste, syncretic space into the one dominated by Braminical ideology and Hindutva politics. The film does show in a forthright manner, the way in which Hindutva politics builds up. The history of Gorakhnath Math comes out very well along with the fact the communalization process has converted this syncretic spaces into exclusive Hindutva places. It is Gorakhnath Math where Muslims used to throng in large numbers and were welcome there. The scenario is dismal, there is need to develop political, ideological and cultural campaigns against this politics to bring back the issues of caste and gender in to the mainstream of social movements. The need to work for national integration needs to be highlighted in more ways than one.
While the film is a comprehensive study of communalism in Poorvanchal, Gorakhpur in particular, it should have connected a bit more with the National phenomenon. The film does need some technical improvisation.
March 22, 2011
Subhas Gatade to speak on Religion, Politics and Terrorism (Lucknow, 26 March 2011)
Dear Friends,
We live in troubled times. Terrorism and the consequent violence stare us square in the face today. Despite a lot of debate around this issue, some important aspects of the phenomenon are conveniently ignored. Why do we gloss over the role of religion in religion-based terrorisms? And why are most of us blind to the menace of Hindutva terror while being only too conscious of the ‘Jihadi’ terror? We need to throw light on a manifold of such blind-spots.
In the second lecture of the ‘Sandhan Lecture Series’ renowned writer, thinker and commentator Subhash Gatade will speak on the explosive mix of religion and politics and on the genesis of the religious terrorism including the Hindutva terror. Please do join us for the lecture followed by a discussion.
Topic: Religion, Politics and Terrorism
Place: U.P. Press Club, Lucknow
Date: March 26th, 2011
Time: 4 pm
Regards,
Prachee Sinha
(On behalf of the Sandhan team)
E-mail: sandhan2011@gmail.com
Phone: 9161220022
We live in troubled times. Terrorism and the consequent violence stare us square in the face today. Despite a lot of debate around this issue, some important aspects of the phenomenon are conveniently ignored. Why do we gloss over the role of religion in religion-based terrorisms? And why are most of us blind to the menace of Hindutva terror while being only too conscious of the ‘Jihadi’ terror? We need to throw light on a manifold of such blind-spots.
In the second lecture of the ‘Sandhan Lecture Series’ renowned writer, thinker and commentator Subhash Gatade will speak on the explosive mix of religion and politics and on the genesis of the religious terrorism including the Hindutva terror. Please do join us for the lecture followed by a discussion.
Topic: Religion, Politics and Terrorism
Place: U.P. Press Club, Lucknow
Date: March 26th, 2011
Time: 4 pm
Regards,
Prachee Sinha
(On behalf of the Sandhan team)
E-mail: sandhan2011@gmail.com
Phone: 9161220022
Nagpur the city with RSS headquarters sees no problem in glorification of Hitler
The Times of India
'Hitler's Den' angers Israeli embassy
Abhishek Choudhari, TNN | Mar 21, 2011, 10.31pm IST
NAGPUR: 'Hitler's Den', a pool parlour in Byramji Town, is ruffling feathers due to its name. The commercial establishment's sign board is replete with Nazi insignia, while the Black swastika in the white background is encircled in red with golden coloured eagles prominent in the logo. The only difference is that the swastika is not tilted as in the Nazi emblem. Given the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler, the use of the repulsive symbol has not gone down well with many. Officials at the embassy of Israel were shocked to hear of the parlour in Nagpur.
In an email to TOI, spokesman for the Israel embassy David Golfarb said, "We can only assume that the owners of this new establishment are unaware of the horrendous meaning of the usage of Nazi themes and insignia for commercial gain. We are convinced that once they are apprised of the significance of the Nazi massacre of six million innocent Jews and many others throughout Europe during World War II, they will immediately change the name and remove all symbolism related to this atrocious regime."
In Navi Mumbai, a restaurant named 'Hitler's Cross' had opened up four years ago. After objections were raised, its owner Satish Sabhlok decided to change the name.
However, the owners of Nagpur-based Hitler's Den are in no mood to relent. Speaking to TOI, owner Baljeet Ghosal, said "There is no way we will change the name. We have been operating under this name since 2006 and now opened another one in Laxmi Nagar under the same banner. It is our identity."
When asked why he chose such a controversial name, Ghosal replied, "I just wanted a different sounding name. Someone suggested 'Hitler' and I promptly agreed. Plus whatever you are saying about his atrocities on Jews, who in Nagpur knows all this? No one has raised any objection yet."
When informed that the Israel embassy had taken objection, Ghosal said he understood their sentiments but will not agree to their demand. Noted Pune-based history author Santosh Shintre said, "It's shocking to hear about this shop in Nagpur. Hitler is not just a name, but a thought, a philosophy which has had horrible effect on human and world history. Plus what has Hitler got to do with snooker? There's no justification for the name. I have seen a pub in Paris which is named after Gandhi! (La Mahatma)".
Shintre also added that crimes against humanity have been committed against other communities as well, but the media has failed to highlight it. He says in the west, Holocaust has got sustained media exposure as compared to other incidents.
Well known sociologist, and member of the Censor Board, Dr Nandini Sardesai says, "This is ignorance on the part of society. If there is negligible or no presence of Jews in Nagpur why can't the civil society as a whole stand up and protest? While censoring movies we have to watch out for every word so that sentiments are not hurt. So just because their (Jews) numbers are not huge you don't value their sentiments? This glorification of Hitler is shocking".
Anil Bobade, ACP, Special Branch told TOI that no one can use names which offend religious sentiments, and criminal case can be registered against the promoters. Bobade said, "We were not aware of this shop. Till now no one has filed a complaint, but we will surely check up."
The owner of Hitler's Den, Ghosal said, "It is unfair to ask us to change the name. If people feel bad about the name, we are sorry about it".
'Hitler's Den' angers Israeli embassy
Abhishek Choudhari, TNN | Mar 21, 2011, 10.31pm IST
NAGPUR: 'Hitler's Den', a pool parlour in Byramji Town, is ruffling feathers due to its name. The commercial establishment's sign board is replete with Nazi insignia, while the Black swastika in the white background is encircled in red with golden coloured eagles prominent in the logo. The only difference is that the swastika is not tilted as in the Nazi emblem. Given the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler, the use of the repulsive symbol has not gone down well with many. Officials at the embassy of Israel were shocked to hear of the parlour in Nagpur.
In an email to TOI, spokesman for the Israel embassy David Golfarb said, "We can only assume that the owners of this new establishment are unaware of the horrendous meaning of the usage of Nazi themes and insignia for commercial gain. We are convinced that once they are apprised of the significance of the Nazi massacre of six million innocent Jews and many others throughout Europe during World War II, they will immediately change the name and remove all symbolism related to this atrocious regime."
In Navi Mumbai, a restaurant named 'Hitler's Cross' had opened up four years ago. After objections were raised, its owner Satish Sabhlok decided to change the name.
However, the owners of Nagpur-based Hitler's Den are in no mood to relent. Speaking to TOI, owner Baljeet Ghosal, said "There is no way we will change the name. We have been operating under this name since 2006 and now opened another one in Laxmi Nagar under the same banner. It is our identity."
When asked why he chose such a controversial name, Ghosal replied, "I just wanted a different sounding name. Someone suggested 'Hitler' and I promptly agreed. Plus whatever you are saying about his atrocities on Jews, who in Nagpur knows all this? No one has raised any objection yet."
When informed that the Israel embassy had taken objection, Ghosal said he understood their sentiments but will not agree to their demand. Noted Pune-based history author Santosh Shintre said, "It's shocking to hear about this shop in Nagpur. Hitler is not just a name, but a thought, a philosophy which has had horrible effect on human and world history. Plus what has Hitler got to do with snooker? There's no justification for the name. I have seen a pub in Paris which is named after Gandhi! (La Mahatma)".
Shintre also added that crimes against humanity have been committed against other communities as well, but the media has failed to highlight it. He says in the west, Holocaust has got sustained media exposure as compared to other incidents.
Well known sociologist, and member of the Censor Board, Dr Nandini Sardesai says, "This is ignorance on the part of society. If there is negligible or no presence of Jews in Nagpur why can't the civil society as a whole stand up and protest? While censoring movies we have to watch out for every word so that sentiments are not hurt. So just because their (Jews) numbers are not huge you don't value their sentiments? This glorification of Hitler is shocking".
Anil Bobade, ACP, Special Branch told TOI that no one can use names which offend religious sentiments, and criminal case can be registered against the promoters. Bobade said, "We were not aware of this shop. Till now no one has filed a complaint, but we will surely check up."
The owner of Hitler's Den, Ghosal said, "It is unfair to ask us to change the name. If people feel bad about the name, we are sorry about it".
March 21, 2011
Jamia Milia Islamia Gaining Ghetto Ground ?
From: Samina Mishra
15 March 2011
GAINING GHETTO-GROUND?
by Samina Mishra
“My father always said adaab, throughout his life,” she said, adjusting the slipping dupatta on her head, “He worked in Jamia till he died and that was the culture of Jamia. That is what we learnt in our childhood. But it has changed now. It is only now that I have understood how adaab is not the correct greeting. It’s ok with non-Muslims. But to a Muslim, you must always say assalaam waleikum. You know what it means? Peace be upon you. That is a good thing to say, no?”
For someone with a Muslim name who had just walked in saying adaab, perhaps, this was meant as a chastisement. I, too, learnt to say adaab as a child. Adaab and khuda hafiz, and have held on to both, despite a growing popularity of assalaam waleikum and allah hafiz. As the discourse around identity gets increasingly overpowered by simplistic and uni-dimensional articulations, I hold on to them, more fiercely. Perhaps, these are but fragments of a nostalgic past but I believe that the weakening presence of these greetings in our midst is linked to the hardening of positions – the voices that speak of “minority appeasement” and those that that seek to preserve “minority character” and bestow “minority status” on individuals and institutions.
Recently, Jamia Millia Islamia was granted minority status, a first for a central university. As someone who studied there, who has lived cheek by jowl with the university and has produced and hopes to continue to produce work there, I see this labelling as another link in a sad and growing chain that seeks to corral people. It is part of the transformation that builds malls and gated residential colonies, that issues identity cards and gate passes for domestic help to enter, that makes women believe they are expressing agency when they choose to keep the karva chauth fast or wear the veil. The culture of Jamia, no less vulnerable to the larger economic, social and political forces than other spaces in this country, was bound to change. And it seems that the direction of change is also in keeping with these globalised, multi-cultural times in which new borders are erected to deal with the bewildering dissolution of old ones. And so, while some seek to corral, others seek to stay corralled. After all, it’s much neater to stack people in boxes than to allow the free-flow of intersecting, messy lines.
Let me say at the outset that I am a privileged Muslim. My great grand-father was one of Jamia’s founders. My family has studied in Delhi’s best colleges and is active in national level politics. So, yes, I will never need reservation. However, I am not opposed to reservation per se. I believe that in the context of centuries of oppression, it can be meaningless to use “merit” as a qualifying tool, regardless of context. I also firmly believe that affirmative action is necessary to redress the long history of violence perpetrated by the caste system. But is Jamia’s minority status the same thing? For me, the answer is a big, resounding No.
The aim of caste based reservations is to scale exclusionary walls and introduce diversity into spaces where access has been denied, either in institutionalised or in informal ways. But the granting of a minority status to Jamia actually operates to erect walls and to make the space the preserve of the minority community – on the ground, of course, this will translate to certain sections of the minority community. By allowing the university to reserve 50% of the seats for Muslims, educational prospects for young Muslims may see an improvement and certainly, there is no doubt that this needs improvement. But will those improved educational prospects actually help those young men and women to go on to lead non-ghettoised lives? Will it make available for them jobs - both in the public and private sector - that have for so long been denied? Will it open up housing opportunities for them? Will it make financial credit easier?
There is a complex web of reasons that creates the sorry state of education among Muslims today. It is true that ordinary Muslims face shocking levels of discrimination in our country today. But the answer to that is not to create a walled-in ghetto. Physically, Jamia is the focal point of a growing landscape of housing projects, testament to the fact that housing is simply unavailable for Muslims in most other parts of Delhi. There are people here who would choose to live elsewhere, there are people who could afford to live elsewhere. But they do not. They live in the densely populated colonies like Abul Fazal Enclave and Zakir Nagar, and justify to themselves that they are among their “own”. And while “own” could be a dynamic interplay of class, language, district and religion, the diversity of the Muslim communities in India ends up being articulated only in terms of a simplistic, monolithic religious identity.
It is this that those who look in from the outside see. A sense of ‘own’ that may be many things but is certainly, predominantly Muslim. Thus, the ghetto is perpetuated. With the granting of minority status to Jamia, the physical ghetto finds its equivalent in the educational space. If you’re Muslim, you will find a college seat here more easily than you could elsewhere. Just as you can find an apartment here that you can’t elsewhere. So, the immediate need is taken care of and in the process, a sense of community is constructed. But, what about those desires that seek other forms of community, those existences that don’t conform to the constructions, those imaginations that search for new landscapes?
If we want to question the ways of seeing by those who look in, surely we need to question the ways of being by those who reside within.
In my wanderings in the neighbourhoods that surround the university, I encountered a family whose 12 year old daughter studies in the Jamia school. In the course of our conversation, the father told me why he had chosen Jamia for his daughter – mainstream education with a Muslim culture. Was it necessary, I asked him, for the school space to deliver the Muslim culture part of it? Was the domestic domain not enough for that? “Of course, that is possible,” he said, wryly, “But which good school will give us admission?”
There are thousands of stories of rejection and so, while some continue to brave the admission process for the mainstream private schools in the city, many don’t even try. Even getting into the Jamia school is not easy because of the numbers trying for it, and the growing demand has led to the mushrooming of private schools that peddle this marketable combination of English medium education and Islamic values. Hundreds of children in Jamia’s neighbourhoods go to these schools. They will spend their 12 odd school years with others, more or less, from similar backgrounds, taught by teachers from similar backgrounds, play with neighbours from similar backgrounds. Their only exposure to “difference”, as opposed to what is their “own”, will be the media and the malls – twin arms of the giant marketplace of liberalised India. With Jamia’s minority status, they can continue living that life, with meagre opportunities for engaging with the “other”. Perhaps, that is what is being sought. The lines have to be kept in place, the boxes neatly stacked. So, when France votes to make the wearing of the veil illegal and when minarets get banned in Switzerland, there is a small pocket in my corner of the world that will resonate. The ghetto will be perpetuated. The “other” neatly boxed in.
As for me, with my easy privileges, I will continue to say adaab and khuda hafiz. Indeed, in the narrative of transformation from adaab to assalam waleikum, lies an ugly, twisted history - of the Babri Masjid, of Gujarat and of many other spaces. But raising our voice against one cannot drown out the silence on the other.
Samina Mishra / March 2011
**********
Samina Mishra is a documentary filmmaker and writer. Her film, The House On Gulmohar Avenue, is set in the neighbourhoods around Jamia Millia Islamia.
15 March 2011
GAINING GHETTO-GROUND?
by Samina Mishra
“My father always said adaab, throughout his life,” she said, adjusting the slipping dupatta on her head, “He worked in Jamia till he died and that was the culture of Jamia. That is what we learnt in our childhood. But it has changed now. It is only now that I have understood how adaab is not the correct greeting. It’s ok with non-Muslims. But to a Muslim, you must always say assalaam waleikum. You know what it means? Peace be upon you. That is a good thing to say, no?”
For someone with a Muslim name who had just walked in saying adaab, perhaps, this was meant as a chastisement. I, too, learnt to say adaab as a child. Adaab and khuda hafiz, and have held on to both, despite a growing popularity of assalaam waleikum and allah hafiz. As the discourse around identity gets increasingly overpowered by simplistic and uni-dimensional articulations, I hold on to them, more fiercely. Perhaps, these are but fragments of a nostalgic past but I believe that the weakening presence of these greetings in our midst is linked to the hardening of positions – the voices that speak of “minority appeasement” and those that that seek to preserve “minority character” and bestow “minority status” on individuals and institutions.
Recently, Jamia Millia Islamia was granted minority status, a first for a central university. As someone who studied there, who has lived cheek by jowl with the university and has produced and hopes to continue to produce work there, I see this labelling as another link in a sad and growing chain that seeks to corral people. It is part of the transformation that builds malls and gated residential colonies, that issues identity cards and gate passes for domestic help to enter, that makes women believe they are expressing agency when they choose to keep the karva chauth fast or wear the veil. The culture of Jamia, no less vulnerable to the larger economic, social and political forces than other spaces in this country, was bound to change. And it seems that the direction of change is also in keeping with these globalised, multi-cultural times in which new borders are erected to deal with the bewildering dissolution of old ones. And so, while some seek to corral, others seek to stay corralled. After all, it’s much neater to stack people in boxes than to allow the free-flow of intersecting, messy lines.
Let me say at the outset that I am a privileged Muslim. My great grand-father was one of Jamia’s founders. My family has studied in Delhi’s best colleges and is active in national level politics. So, yes, I will never need reservation. However, I am not opposed to reservation per se. I believe that in the context of centuries of oppression, it can be meaningless to use “merit” as a qualifying tool, regardless of context. I also firmly believe that affirmative action is necessary to redress the long history of violence perpetrated by the caste system. But is Jamia’s minority status the same thing? For me, the answer is a big, resounding No.
The aim of caste based reservations is to scale exclusionary walls and introduce diversity into spaces where access has been denied, either in institutionalised or in informal ways. But the granting of a minority status to Jamia actually operates to erect walls and to make the space the preserve of the minority community – on the ground, of course, this will translate to certain sections of the minority community. By allowing the university to reserve 50% of the seats for Muslims, educational prospects for young Muslims may see an improvement and certainly, there is no doubt that this needs improvement. But will those improved educational prospects actually help those young men and women to go on to lead non-ghettoised lives? Will it make available for them jobs - both in the public and private sector - that have for so long been denied? Will it open up housing opportunities for them? Will it make financial credit easier?
There is a complex web of reasons that creates the sorry state of education among Muslims today. It is true that ordinary Muslims face shocking levels of discrimination in our country today. But the answer to that is not to create a walled-in ghetto. Physically, Jamia is the focal point of a growing landscape of housing projects, testament to the fact that housing is simply unavailable for Muslims in most other parts of Delhi. There are people here who would choose to live elsewhere, there are people who could afford to live elsewhere. But they do not. They live in the densely populated colonies like Abul Fazal Enclave and Zakir Nagar, and justify to themselves that they are among their “own”. And while “own” could be a dynamic interplay of class, language, district and religion, the diversity of the Muslim communities in India ends up being articulated only in terms of a simplistic, monolithic religious identity.
It is this that those who look in from the outside see. A sense of ‘own’ that may be many things but is certainly, predominantly Muslim. Thus, the ghetto is perpetuated. With the granting of minority status to Jamia, the physical ghetto finds its equivalent in the educational space. If you’re Muslim, you will find a college seat here more easily than you could elsewhere. Just as you can find an apartment here that you can’t elsewhere. So, the immediate need is taken care of and in the process, a sense of community is constructed. But, what about those desires that seek other forms of community, those existences that don’t conform to the constructions, those imaginations that search for new landscapes?
If we want to question the ways of seeing by those who look in, surely we need to question the ways of being by those who reside within.
In my wanderings in the neighbourhoods that surround the university, I encountered a family whose 12 year old daughter studies in the Jamia school. In the course of our conversation, the father told me why he had chosen Jamia for his daughter – mainstream education with a Muslim culture. Was it necessary, I asked him, for the school space to deliver the Muslim culture part of it? Was the domestic domain not enough for that? “Of course, that is possible,” he said, wryly, “But which good school will give us admission?”
There are thousands of stories of rejection and so, while some continue to brave the admission process for the mainstream private schools in the city, many don’t even try. Even getting into the Jamia school is not easy because of the numbers trying for it, and the growing demand has led to the mushrooming of private schools that peddle this marketable combination of English medium education and Islamic values. Hundreds of children in Jamia’s neighbourhoods go to these schools. They will spend their 12 odd school years with others, more or less, from similar backgrounds, taught by teachers from similar backgrounds, play with neighbours from similar backgrounds. Their only exposure to “difference”, as opposed to what is their “own”, will be the media and the malls – twin arms of the giant marketplace of liberalised India. With Jamia’s minority status, they can continue living that life, with meagre opportunities for engaging with the “other”. Perhaps, that is what is being sought. The lines have to be kept in place, the boxes neatly stacked. So, when France votes to make the wearing of the veil illegal and when minarets get banned in Switzerland, there is a small pocket in my corner of the world that will resonate. The ghetto will be perpetuated. The “other” neatly boxed in.
As for me, with my easy privileges, I will continue to say adaab and khuda hafiz. Indeed, in the narrative of transformation from adaab to assalam waleikum, lies an ugly, twisted history - of the Babri Masjid, of Gujarat and of many other spaces. But raising our voice against one cannot drown out the silence on the other.
Samina Mishra / March 2011
**********
Samina Mishra is a documentary filmmaker and writer. Her film, The House On Gulmohar Avenue, is set in the neighbourhoods around Jamia Millia Islamia.
Ramdev-backed trust to take up issue of illegal mining in Goa
The Times of India
Ramdev-backed trust to take up issue of illegal mining in Goa
PTI | Mar 21, 2011, 01.11pm IST
Tags:Yoga guru Swami Ramdev|Bhartesh Ghullanawar|Bharat Swabhiman Trust
PANAJI: Bharat Swabhiman Trust (BST), supported by Yoga guru Swami Ramdev, has decided to take up the anti-mining campaign in Goa by bringing activists under one banner.
"Pan-India there is permission for only 200 mining leases but one lakh illegal mines are operational in the country," BST's North Goa Chief Bhartesh Ghullanawar today alleged.
He also said that Swami Ramdev will hold a public meeting here on March 25.
"Goa will have Japan-like crisis considering the current pace of mining, which is extensively polluting our water-bodies and converting paddy fields into mining pits," Ranu Prabhudesai, an anti-mining activist, said.
As per rough estimates, 18 per cent of the iron ore exported from Goa comes from illegal mines. The state has 100-odd (legal) mining leases.
Dattaram Desai, another activist, said they were only opposing illegal mining. "We are against irrational and illegal mining. But legal mines, too, should be regulated," said Desai, who earlier headed massive agitation against Thapar Du Pont Limited's project here.
Kalidas Sawaikar, an award-winning farmer, said the mining industry can be replaced by cashew cultivation, which can fetch equal amount of foreign exchange.
Other activists including Krishna Pednekar said some mines which were abandoned 57 years ago are being revived without proper clearances. "These mines should have been shut down permanently," he said.
Ramdev-backed trust to take up issue of illegal mining in Goa
PTI | Mar 21, 2011, 01.11pm IST
Tags:Yoga guru Swami Ramdev|Bhartesh Ghullanawar|Bharat Swabhiman Trust
PANAJI: Bharat Swabhiman Trust (BST), supported by Yoga guru Swami Ramdev, has decided to take up the anti-mining campaign in Goa by bringing activists under one banner.
"Pan-India there is permission for only 200 mining leases but one lakh illegal mines are operational in the country," BST's North Goa Chief Bhartesh Ghullanawar today alleged.
He also said that Swami Ramdev will hold a public meeting here on March 25.
"Goa will have Japan-like crisis considering the current pace of mining, which is extensively polluting our water-bodies and converting paddy fields into mining pits," Ranu Prabhudesai, an anti-mining activist, said.
As per rough estimates, 18 per cent of the iron ore exported from Goa comes from illegal mines. The state has 100-odd (legal) mining leases.
Dattaram Desai, another activist, said they were only opposing illegal mining. "We are against irrational and illegal mining. But legal mines, too, should be regulated," said Desai, who earlier headed massive agitation against Thapar Du Pont Limited's project here.
Kalidas Sawaikar, an award-winning farmer, said the mining industry can be replaced by cashew cultivation, which can fetch equal amount of foreign exchange.
Other activists including Krishna Pednekar said some mines which were abandoned 57 years ago are being revived without proper clearances. "These mines should have been shut down permanently," he said.
March 19, 2011
Hindu terrorism charges force India to reflect on prejudices against Muslims
By Simon Denyer and Rama Lakshmi (March 13, 2011, Washington Post)
In Dewas, India when a series of bomb attacks ripped through Muslim neighborhoods, mosques and shrines in India in recent years, suspicion fell firmly on a familiar culprit: Islamist terror. After each incident, scores of Indian Muslims were rounded up, and many were tortured. Confessions were extracted, the names of various militant "masterminds" leaked to the media and links with Pakistan widely alleged. Never mind that most of the victims were Muslims; it seemed natural to many people, from New Delhi to Washington, to assume the attacks were the work of extremist Pakistani militants and their Indian Muslim sympathizers, intent on fanning religious tensions in India and disrupting the peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals. But those investigations, and the assumptions behind them, were turned on their head early this year by the confession of a Hindu holy man. Swami Aseemanand told a magistrate that the bomb makers were neither Pakistani nor Muslim but Hindu radicals, bent on revenge for many earlier acts of terrorism across India that had been perpetrated by Muslims. His statement, subsequently leaked to the media, alleged that a network of radicals stretched right up to senior levels of the country's Hindu nationalist right wing. It also exposed deep-seated prejudices within the police against the country's minority Muslim population.
Ironically, the charges may also have helped India and Pakistan to get back to the negotiating table last month after relations broke down in the wake of the 2008 attacks on Mumbai. Like many Indians, Aseemanand was furious with terrorist attacks in the country carried out by Muslims. "We should answer bombs with bombs," he told a small group of Hindu extremists in June 2006, only to discover a plot was already well under way. In the ensuing 18 months, bombs were placed on bicycles in a Muslim cemetery in the western town of Malegaon, hidden under a granite slab in a mosque in Hyderabad and left in a tiffin lunchbox in an important Sufi shrine in Ajmer, all targets Aseemanand said he suggested. In another attack, 68 people, most of them Pakistanis, were killed when suitcases packed with explosives were placed next to gasoline bottles on a train headed from western India to Pakistan. Many of the victims were unable to escape the inferno because of bars on the train windows, and their bodies were burned beyond recognition. Evidence that radical Hindus, including an army colonel who is suspected of supplying the technical expertise and the explosives, were behind several of these bombings began to surface more than two years ago, and several people were arrested, including Aseemanand. But his statement is the first clear evidence that Indian Hindu terrorists were to blame for the deaths of Pakistani Muslim travelers on the Samjhauta, or Friendship, Express. …
In a sense, though, the episode provided the political cover at home for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to agree this month to do what he secretly wanted and restart the peace process with Pakistan, said Commodore Uday Bhaskar of the National Maritime Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. "Before, terrorism was projected in public opinion in black-and-white terms, that all terrorism was because of Muslims and because of Pakistan," he said. Aseemanand's confession "had an unintended positive kind of fallout and introduced a malleability into the India-Pakistan interaction." More damaging were Aseemanand's accusations against high-ranking members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, a religious group that spreads its Hindu revivalist ideology, known as Hindutva, through a network of schools, charities and clubs. The RSS, the ideological parent of the country's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, is also engaged in a sometimes violent contest with Christian missionary groups operating in India. According to Aseemanand, the main organizer of the attacks was an RSS worker called Sunil Joshi, in his mid-30s, from the town of Dewas in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Relatives describe Joshi as a conservative and deeply religious man of very few words, who spent most of his time in an ashram and visited the family only rarely. Nicknamed "monkey" by his older brother for his devotion to Lord Hanuman, Hinduism's mighty ape god, Joshi viewed Muslims as "worthless," his niece said.
Mysteriously, in late December 2007, after most of the bomb attacks had taken place, Joshi was gunned down in the street near his family home. Police think Joshi's gang turned on him, but some investigators and family members believe he was killed because he was about to turn himself in to the police. RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar, who is suspected of mentoring and financing the bomb-making gang, said in an interview that the accusations against him represented a "deep political conspiracy" by the ruling Congress party to defame him and the RSS. Certainly, some members of the secular Congress party have enjoyed and exploited the Hindu nationalist opposition's discomfort over the allegations. Rahul Gandhi, a leading member of Parliament and heir apparent to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, even told the U.S. ambassador in 2009 that radicalized Hindu groups were a bigger threat to India than support for Lashkar-i-Taiba, a militant group that is accused in the Mumbai attacks, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks. Gandhi was widely criticized for that assertion, but the RSS has found itself on the defensive. In a series of conversations with The Washington Post, the group's leaders portrayed the bomb makers as either paid agents of Pakistani military intelligence or simply as a violent splinter group of their peaceful movement.
Ajai Sahni, a terrorism expert who runs the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, said the militants were just "the fringe of a fringe" within the Hindu right. But "the sympathies may be deeper within the core of Hindutva," he said. Meanwhile, nine Muslims have languished in jail for more than four years, accused of carrying out the Malegaon bombings, in which 37 people were killed. They have been subjected, their attorney says, to horrific torture, their families reduced to poverty. But they hope Aseemanand's confession will soon persuade a judge to release them on bail. But Aseemanand's attorney now says his client's confession was obtained under duress and is not legally valid. In the confession, though, the holy man gave a different reason for wanting to come clean. In jail in Hyderabad, he apparently met a young Muslim named Kalim who was falsely accused of the bombing there and gradually warmed to him. "I was very moved by Kaleem's good conduct," Aseemanand said. "My conscience asked me to do penance by making a confessional statement, so that the real culprits can be punished and no innocent has to suffer."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/12/AR2011031204921_pf.html
In Dewas, India when a series of bomb attacks ripped through Muslim neighborhoods, mosques and shrines in India in recent years, suspicion fell firmly on a familiar culprit: Islamist terror. After each incident, scores of Indian Muslims were rounded up, and many were tortured. Confessions were extracted, the names of various militant "masterminds" leaked to the media and links with Pakistan widely alleged. Never mind that most of the victims were Muslims; it seemed natural to many people, from New Delhi to Washington, to assume the attacks were the work of extremist Pakistani militants and their Indian Muslim sympathizers, intent on fanning religious tensions in India and disrupting the peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals. But those investigations, and the assumptions behind them, were turned on their head early this year by the confession of a Hindu holy man. Swami Aseemanand told a magistrate that the bomb makers were neither Pakistani nor Muslim but Hindu radicals, bent on revenge for many earlier acts of terrorism across India that had been perpetrated by Muslims. His statement, subsequently leaked to the media, alleged that a network of radicals stretched right up to senior levels of the country's Hindu nationalist right wing. It also exposed deep-seated prejudices within the police against the country's minority Muslim population.
Ironically, the charges may also have helped India and Pakistan to get back to the negotiating table last month after relations broke down in the wake of the 2008 attacks on Mumbai. Like many Indians, Aseemanand was furious with terrorist attacks in the country carried out by Muslims. "We should answer bombs with bombs," he told a small group of Hindu extremists in June 2006, only to discover a plot was already well under way. In the ensuing 18 months, bombs were placed on bicycles in a Muslim cemetery in the western town of Malegaon, hidden under a granite slab in a mosque in Hyderabad and left in a tiffin lunchbox in an important Sufi shrine in Ajmer, all targets Aseemanand said he suggested. In another attack, 68 people, most of them Pakistanis, were killed when suitcases packed with explosives were placed next to gasoline bottles on a train headed from western India to Pakistan. Many of the victims were unable to escape the inferno because of bars on the train windows, and their bodies were burned beyond recognition. Evidence that radical Hindus, including an army colonel who is suspected of supplying the technical expertise and the explosives, were behind several of these bombings began to surface more than two years ago, and several people were arrested, including Aseemanand. But his statement is the first clear evidence that Indian Hindu terrorists were to blame for the deaths of Pakistani Muslim travelers on the Samjhauta, or Friendship, Express. …
In a sense, though, the episode provided the political cover at home for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to agree this month to do what he secretly wanted and restart the peace process with Pakistan, said Commodore Uday Bhaskar of the National Maritime Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. "Before, terrorism was projected in public opinion in black-and-white terms, that all terrorism was because of Muslims and because of Pakistan," he said. Aseemanand's confession "had an unintended positive kind of fallout and introduced a malleability into the India-Pakistan interaction." More damaging were Aseemanand's accusations against high-ranking members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, a religious group that spreads its Hindu revivalist ideology, known as Hindutva, through a network of schools, charities and clubs. The RSS, the ideological parent of the country's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, is also engaged in a sometimes violent contest with Christian missionary groups operating in India. According to Aseemanand, the main organizer of the attacks was an RSS worker called Sunil Joshi, in his mid-30s, from the town of Dewas in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Relatives describe Joshi as a conservative and deeply religious man of very few words, who spent most of his time in an ashram and visited the family only rarely. Nicknamed "monkey" by his older brother for his devotion to Lord Hanuman, Hinduism's mighty ape god, Joshi viewed Muslims as "worthless," his niece said.
Mysteriously, in late December 2007, after most of the bomb attacks had taken place, Joshi was gunned down in the street near his family home. Police think Joshi's gang turned on him, but some investigators and family members believe he was killed because he was about to turn himself in to the police. RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar, who is suspected of mentoring and financing the bomb-making gang, said in an interview that the accusations against him represented a "deep political conspiracy" by the ruling Congress party to defame him and the RSS. Certainly, some members of the secular Congress party have enjoyed and exploited the Hindu nationalist opposition's discomfort over the allegations. Rahul Gandhi, a leading member of Parliament and heir apparent to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, even told the U.S. ambassador in 2009 that radicalized Hindu groups were a bigger threat to India than support for Lashkar-i-Taiba, a militant group that is accused in the Mumbai attacks, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks. Gandhi was widely criticized for that assertion, but the RSS has found itself on the defensive. In a series of conversations with The Washington Post, the group's leaders portrayed the bomb makers as either paid agents of Pakistani military intelligence or simply as a violent splinter group of their peaceful movement.
Ajai Sahni, a terrorism expert who runs the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, said the militants were just "the fringe of a fringe" within the Hindu right. But "the sympathies may be deeper within the core of Hindutva," he said. Meanwhile, nine Muslims have languished in jail for more than four years, accused of carrying out the Malegaon bombings, in which 37 people were killed. They have been subjected, their attorney says, to horrific torture, their families reduced to poverty. But they hope Aseemanand's confession will soon persuade a judge to release them on bail. But Aseemanand's attorney now says his client's confession was obtained under duress and is not legally valid. In the confession, though, the holy man gave a different reason for wanting to come clean. In jail in Hyderabad, he apparently met a young Muslim named Kalim who was falsely accused of the bombing there and gradually warmed to him. "I was very moved by Kaleem's good conduct," Aseemanand said. "My conscience asked me to do penance by making a confessional statement, so that the real culprits can be punished and no innocent has to suffer."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/12/AR2011031204921_pf.html
Shiv Sena, MNS and ABVP hooliganism
Shiv Sena men attack Mumbai college (Mar 11, 2011, Indian Express)
Shiv Sena activists on Friday attacked a suburban college here as the authorities did not allow around 70 students to appear for the exams after declaring them as ineligible, police said. The incident took place around 7.30 am when the Sena men barged into Chinai College in Andheri and destroyed the window panes demanding entry to these students, who were barred from writing the exams by the administration due to various reasons, they said. The college has submitted a report to the Mumbai University, which has also stated that these students were not eligible to appear in the exams, scheduled to begin around 10 am, DCP Prakash Mutyal said.
The students had sought relief in the matter from Sena. Party MLA Abhijeet Adsul and 15 activists were arrested following the attack. Mutyal said the situation is presently under control and the exams are underway. Meanwhile, Adsul said the college management was being unjust to the students and therefore party activists had gone to meet the authorities.
"We wanted to meet the authorities requesting them to allow the students to appear for the exams. But we were locked by police in the college," he alleged. Mumbai University Vice-Chancellor Rajan Velukar has promised to appoint an official to look into the complaints of the students on March 17, Adsul said. He said the issue will be raised in the ensuing state Legislative Assembly session beginning from March 14 here.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/761071/
SEE ALSO:
* Yuva Sena, MNS activists arrested (Mar 12, 2011, Hindustan Times)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/672453.aspx
* Professor beaten up by ABVP activists (Mar 10, 2011, The Hindu)
http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/10/stories/2011031058480100.htm
Shiv Sena activists on Friday attacked a suburban college here as the authorities did not allow around 70 students to appear for the exams after declaring them as ineligible, police said. The incident took place around 7.30 am when the Sena men barged into Chinai College in Andheri and destroyed the window panes demanding entry to these students, who were barred from writing the exams by the administration due to various reasons, they said. The college has submitted a report to the Mumbai University, which has also stated that these students were not eligible to appear in the exams, scheduled to begin around 10 am, DCP Prakash Mutyal said.
The students had sought relief in the matter from Sena. Party MLA Abhijeet Adsul and 15 activists were arrested following the attack. Mutyal said the situation is presently under control and the exams are underway. Meanwhile, Adsul said the college management was being unjust to the students and therefore party activists had gone to meet the authorities.
"We wanted to meet the authorities requesting them to allow the students to appear for the exams. But we were locked by police in the college," he alleged. Mumbai University Vice-Chancellor Rajan Velukar has promised to appoint an official to look into the complaints of the students on March 17, Adsul said. He said the issue will be raised in the ensuing state Legislative Assembly session beginning from March 14 here.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/761071/
SEE ALSO:
* Yuva Sena, MNS activists arrested (Mar 12, 2011, Hindustan Times)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/672453.aspx
* Professor beaten up by ABVP activists (Mar 10, 2011, The Hindu)
http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/10/stories/2011031058480100.htm
Ban on Sanatan Sanstha mooted for terror acts
Daily News and Analysis, 11 March 2011
DNA / Surendra Gangan / Friday, March 11, 2011 0:31 IST
The Maharashtra state government has moved a proposal to ban the Sanathan Sanstha, a right-wing outfit, and all its affiliated organisations for their terrorist activities and allegedly proven involvement in bomb blasts at various places.
After home minister RR Patil signed the proposal two days ago, it will be endorsed by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan before being sent to the Union home department.
In the proposal moved by the state home department, it has been mentioned that the organisations have been involved in terrorist activities for the past few years and that their involvement has been established during investigations.
“Nine crimes have been registered against the organisations and the workers affiliated to them. Revolvers, timers, remote controls and other dreaded weapons were seized from the organisations. The then Anti-Terrorism Squad chief had recommended a ban on the outfit,” stated the proposal.
The letter has also mentioned that a daily newspaper and other publications related to the organisation have also been banned, as they have continuously been publishing inflammatory literature that creates unrest between communities. “We propose to declare the organisation an illegal and terrorist organisation,” it further stated.
Umeshchandra Sarangi, additional chief secretary, home, said, “I recall having seen a file related to the organisation but do not recall the content.”
The final decision of the Union home department about a ban on any organisation is based on the grounds of its involvement in anti-national and anti-social activities. The state government needs to forward a proposal to the central government.
An official from the home department said, “It becomes important to ban certain activities to maintain peace and tranquility in society which aspires for development and progress.”
The organisation was suspected of being involved in a bomb blast that took place in Goa on the eve of Diwali in 2009. Before that, the then ATS chief Hemant Karkare had sent a proposal to ban the Sanstha in the second half of 2008 after investigations pointed fingers at the Sanstha’s involvement in an explosion that took place at the Gadkari Rangayatan in Thane in June 2008.
URL of the article: http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_ban-on-sanatan-sanstha-mooted-for-terror-acts_1518397-all
SEE ALSO:
Sanatan was under scanner (Mar 11, 2011, Hindustan Times)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/671971.aspx
DNA / Surendra Gangan / Friday, March 11, 2011 0:31 IST
The Maharashtra state government has moved a proposal to ban the Sanathan Sanstha, a right-wing outfit, and all its affiliated organisations for their terrorist activities and allegedly proven involvement in bomb blasts at various places.
After home minister RR Patil signed the proposal two days ago, it will be endorsed by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan before being sent to the Union home department.
In the proposal moved by the state home department, it has been mentioned that the organisations have been involved in terrorist activities for the past few years and that their involvement has been established during investigations.
“Nine crimes have been registered against the organisations and the workers affiliated to them. Revolvers, timers, remote controls and other dreaded weapons were seized from the organisations. The then Anti-Terrorism Squad chief had recommended a ban on the outfit,” stated the proposal.
The letter has also mentioned that a daily newspaper and other publications related to the organisation have also been banned, as they have continuously been publishing inflammatory literature that creates unrest between communities. “We propose to declare the organisation an illegal and terrorist organisation,” it further stated.
Umeshchandra Sarangi, additional chief secretary, home, said, “I recall having seen a file related to the organisation but do not recall the content.”
The final decision of the Union home department about a ban on any organisation is based on the grounds of its involvement in anti-national and anti-social activities. The state government needs to forward a proposal to the central government.
An official from the home department said, “It becomes important to ban certain activities to maintain peace and tranquility in society which aspires for development and progress.”
The organisation was suspected of being involved in a bomb blast that took place in Goa on the eve of Diwali in 2009. Before that, the then ATS chief Hemant Karkare had sent a proposal to ban the Sanstha in the second half of 2008 after investigations pointed fingers at the Sanstha’s involvement in an explosion that took place at the Gadkari Rangayatan in Thane in June 2008.
URL of the article: http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_ban-on-sanatan-sanstha-mooted-for-terror-acts_1518397-all
SEE ALSO:
Sanatan was under scanner (Mar 11, 2011, Hindustan Times)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/671971.aspx
March 18, 2011
Stop the ABVP in its tracks, or ban it altogether
Letters to Editor
Vox Pop
Hindustan Times
March 16, 2011
Stop the ABVP in its tracks, or ban it altogether
The Sangh parivar is indeed responsible for the actions of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which takes pride in flouting rules (Lock the goons up, Our Take, March 15). The attack on a professor of the Government Agriculture College in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, by ABVP workers should be severely condemned.
The incident is not surprising, as the police didn't take any action against the ABVP in the HS Sabharwal case, which, in turn, emboldened the goons. The only way to teach them a lesson is by banning the political outfit.
Bal Govind, Noida
Vox Pop
Hindustan Times
March 16, 2011
Stop the ABVP in its tracks, or ban it altogether
The Sangh parivar is indeed responsible for the actions of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which takes pride in flouting rules (Lock the goons up, Our Take, March 15). The attack on a professor of the Government Agriculture College in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, by ABVP workers should be severely condemned.
The incident is not surprising, as the police didn't take any action against the ABVP in the HS Sabharwal case, which, in turn, emboldened the goons. The only way to teach them a lesson is by banning the political outfit.
Bal Govind, Noida
Jamiat-e-Ulma Hind Furrowing a communal line
The Daily Star
19 March 2011
Identities don't transcend unity
Kuldip Nayar
It is difficult to believe that the Jamiat-e-Ulma Hind should advise the Muslim youth not to watch television or hear music. I believe in Azamgarh district in UP, Muslims in villages do not watch TV because of the propaganda that it is un-Islamic to do so. The same Jamiat was deadly opposed to the creation of Pakistan because it did not want a separate country sought to be created on the basis of religion.
Pre-independence Muslim League was quite candid in its inference that after the departure of the British, the Muslims would be reduced to a hopeless minority and would be in no position to assert themselves to get their due. Therefore, the demand of the League was for an independent country to look after the affairs of the Muslim community. It is another matter that Pakistan did not follow the advice of its founder Quaide-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah not to mix religion with politics or state.
The Jamiat bravely stood by the side of the Congress which promised to set up a secular country after freedom. To raise the question of separate identity for Muslims after 10 years belies the Jamiat's original stand against partition. It was equally categorical in its stand that the Indian identity submerged all other identities -- Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian. Only the other day did it issue a fatwa against Jihad, a war the Taliban were waging in Afghanistan and the north western border districts of Pakistan to impose the true tenets of Islam.
For the same organisation to warn against TV or music is to more or less ditto what the Taliban demanded and implemented when they came to power in Afghanistan or when they temporarily ruled the Swat Valley in Pakistan. The approach of the Taliban has been rejected by a large majority of Pakistanis who may stay silent out of fear but support the government in its efforts to combat terrorism.
Civil society takes the cake. It is getting thinner day by day and less and less determined in upholding liberalism. The assassination of Salman Taseer and Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was not condemned by all the intelligentsia. Yet there is a determined lot which opposes the dictum of preferences and prejudices. Threats can drown the limited challenging voice, but cannot deny their existence.
Why the Jamiat is resiling from its original position may be because of the influence of Pakistani leader Fazal-Ur-Rehman who is said to be a constant advisor to Jamait-e-Ulma Hind. He did not like the views of liberal Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and parted company with it some time ago. He withdrew support at a time when the government needed him the most. His politics is according to what serves his own interests. Why should the Jamiat be under his spell just because both are Deobandis?
There is nothing wrong in Jamiat's exhortation to Muslims to preserve their way of living. But this should not come in the way of the composite culture which the country has sedulously built over hundreds of years. The Indian culture is an amalgamation of different cultures followed by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. The different communities pursue their way of living, beliefs and individuality. Yet the outcome is multi-cultural. This is what is called unity in diversity, the Indian culture transcending separate cultures. All identities draw strength from the Indian identity which is secular and democratic. This belief has kept the country together. The Jamiat should never forget that.
The revolt in the Arab World is all about defiance to religious fundamentalism or obscurantism. Old customs and traditions are not sacrosanct. They have to be reinterpreted to give space to new thinking. The youth have proved through their sacrifice that the modern is not bad just because it is new. It represents a fresh thinking. Yet it retains all that the religion demands.
The Jamiat has also announced to set up 'social reform committees' to promote Islamic rules and social values. By all means there should be committees. But they should ensure that every Muslim boy and girl goes to school. They should find out why there are drop-outs. Muslim states, including Pakistan, see to it that the youth is engaged in learning because that is going to help them overcome the economic backwardness and the perennial unemployment.
Reservation for Muslims, as enunciated by the Milli Council at its meeting in Jaipur, is understandable. It is justified to some extent. But reservations cannot be on the basis of religion. The criterion should be economic and backwardness. Poor Muslims and those from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) are being denied their due because the creamy layer in the Muslim community corners most of gains. It is a pity that the Union Ministry for minorities had done very little in this direction despite reports by Justice Rajinder Sachar and Chief Justice Ranganath Mishra.
The minority way of living is, indeed, threatened by the majority way of living. This cannot be met by the way the Jamiat is going about it. An average Hindu is not bigoted. He has proven this in the last two general elections by preferring the Congress to the BJP. And however contaminated policemen, there are quite a few who have defied the Hindutava government of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat. Sad, Hemant Karkare did not live but he saw to it that the blame of Malegaon blast was put at the door of saffron terrorists, the real culprits. The government took more time than necessary but established the link of Ajmer Sharif blast and the Samjhauta Express killings with Malegaon blast perpetrators.
Even in the Sangh Parivar, there is no cohesiveness. The RSS's strategy to establish a Hindu rashtriya does not tally with the BJP thinking which is focused on regaining power at the Centre as soon as possible. Even when L.K.Advani, who polarised the northern India through his yatra, admits that the demolition of the Babri Masjid dented the image of the BJP, he wants to atone for his mistake. By doing so, he may retrieve the alienated Muslim community, which commands some 15 per cent of votes in the country. How can a party come to power without them?
The line plugged by the Jamiat-e-Ulma Hind may consolidate the Hindu vote on the BJP side. This is suicidal. Muslims should secularise Hindus if and when they are found wanting. Furrowing a communal line or indulging in such thinking is against the interest of India, not just Muslims alone. A parochial approach can tell upon the country's secular and democratic structure. The Jamiat should know that.
The writer is an eminent Indian columnist.
Visit website: www.kuldipnayar.com
19 March 2011
Identities don't transcend unity
Kuldip Nayar
It is difficult to believe that the Jamiat-e-Ulma Hind should advise the Muslim youth not to watch television or hear music. I believe in Azamgarh district in UP, Muslims in villages do not watch TV because of the propaganda that it is un-Islamic to do so. The same Jamiat was deadly opposed to the creation of Pakistan because it did not want a separate country sought to be created on the basis of religion.
Pre-independence Muslim League was quite candid in its inference that after the departure of the British, the Muslims would be reduced to a hopeless minority and would be in no position to assert themselves to get their due. Therefore, the demand of the League was for an independent country to look after the affairs of the Muslim community. It is another matter that Pakistan did not follow the advice of its founder Quaide-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah not to mix religion with politics or state.
The Jamiat bravely stood by the side of the Congress which promised to set up a secular country after freedom. To raise the question of separate identity for Muslims after 10 years belies the Jamiat's original stand against partition. It was equally categorical in its stand that the Indian identity submerged all other identities -- Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian. Only the other day did it issue a fatwa against Jihad, a war the Taliban were waging in Afghanistan and the north western border districts of Pakistan to impose the true tenets of Islam.
For the same organisation to warn against TV or music is to more or less ditto what the Taliban demanded and implemented when they came to power in Afghanistan or when they temporarily ruled the Swat Valley in Pakistan. The approach of the Taliban has been rejected by a large majority of Pakistanis who may stay silent out of fear but support the government in its efforts to combat terrorism.
Civil society takes the cake. It is getting thinner day by day and less and less determined in upholding liberalism. The assassination of Salman Taseer and Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was not condemned by all the intelligentsia. Yet there is a determined lot which opposes the dictum of preferences and prejudices. Threats can drown the limited challenging voice, but cannot deny their existence.
Why the Jamiat is resiling from its original position may be because of the influence of Pakistani leader Fazal-Ur-Rehman who is said to be a constant advisor to Jamait-e-Ulma Hind. He did not like the views of liberal Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and parted company with it some time ago. He withdrew support at a time when the government needed him the most. His politics is according to what serves his own interests. Why should the Jamiat be under his spell just because both are Deobandis?
There is nothing wrong in Jamiat's exhortation to Muslims to preserve their way of living. But this should not come in the way of the composite culture which the country has sedulously built over hundreds of years. The Indian culture is an amalgamation of different cultures followed by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. The different communities pursue their way of living, beliefs and individuality. Yet the outcome is multi-cultural. This is what is called unity in diversity, the Indian culture transcending separate cultures. All identities draw strength from the Indian identity which is secular and democratic. This belief has kept the country together. The Jamiat should never forget that.
The revolt in the Arab World is all about defiance to religious fundamentalism or obscurantism. Old customs and traditions are not sacrosanct. They have to be reinterpreted to give space to new thinking. The youth have proved through their sacrifice that the modern is not bad just because it is new. It represents a fresh thinking. Yet it retains all that the religion demands.
The Jamiat has also announced to set up 'social reform committees' to promote Islamic rules and social values. By all means there should be committees. But they should ensure that every Muslim boy and girl goes to school. They should find out why there are drop-outs. Muslim states, including Pakistan, see to it that the youth is engaged in learning because that is going to help them overcome the economic backwardness and the perennial unemployment.
Reservation for Muslims, as enunciated by the Milli Council at its meeting in Jaipur, is understandable. It is justified to some extent. But reservations cannot be on the basis of religion. The criterion should be economic and backwardness. Poor Muslims and those from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) are being denied their due because the creamy layer in the Muslim community corners most of gains. It is a pity that the Union Ministry for minorities had done very little in this direction despite reports by Justice Rajinder Sachar and Chief Justice Ranganath Mishra.
The minority way of living is, indeed, threatened by the majority way of living. This cannot be met by the way the Jamiat is going about it. An average Hindu is not bigoted. He has proven this in the last two general elections by preferring the Congress to the BJP. And however contaminated policemen, there are quite a few who have defied the Hindutava government of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat. Sad, Hemant Karkare did not live but he saw to it that the blame of Malegaon blast was put at the door of saffron terrorists, the real culprits. The government took more time than necessary but established the link of Ajmer Sharif blast and the Samjhauta Express killings with Malegaon blast perpetrators.
Even in the Sangh Parivar, there is no cohesiveness. The RSS's strategy to establish a Hindu rashtriya does not tally with the BJP thinking which is focused on regaining power at the Centre as soon as possible. Even when L.K.Advani, who polarised the northern India through his yatra, admits that the demolition of the Babri Masjid dented the image of the BJP, he wants to atone for his mistake. By doing so, he may retrieve the alienated Muslim community, which commands some 15 per cent of votes in the country. How can a party come to power without them?
The line plugged by the Jamiat-e-Ulma Hind may consolidate the Hindu vote on the BJP side. This is suicidal. Muslims should secularise Hindus if and when they are found wanting. Furrowing a communal line or indulging in such thinking is against the interest of India, not just Muslims alone. A parochial approach can tell upon the country's secular and democratic structure. The Jamiat should know that.
The writer is an eminent Indian columnist.
Visit website: www.kuldipnayar.com
Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind's regressive calls to shun TV and not pay heed to precautions against the spread of HIV
The Hindu, 9 March 2011
Date:09/03/2011 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2011/03/09/stories/2011030954560802.htm Back
Letters to the Editor
On identity
The Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind's call (Mahmood Madani faction) to Muslims to don their Muslim identity is similar to that given by the VHP and the sangh parivar asking Hindus to maintain their separate identity (“Jamait asks Muslims to live by ‘Islamic rules and values',” March 8). Further, regressive calls to shun modern scientific devices like TV and not pay heed to precautions against the spread of HIV are disturbing. Rather than focussing on sections working towards removal of illiteracy, ill health and other inequalities, such sectarian calls, by communal organisations, to whichever religion they belong, should not be allowed to be propagated in a secular society. It was only because such organisations were allowed uncontrolled propagation of regressive ideas that uncontrollable anarchy has resulted in Pakistan. Should we not learn from its experience? There must also be steps towards reservation for Muslims, to address their problems highlighted by the Sachar Committee, and compensation for Muslim youth in bomb blast cases.
Kasim Sait,
Chennai
© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu
Date:09/03/2011 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2011/03/09/stories/2011030954560802.htm Back
Letters to the Editor
On identity
The Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind's call (Mahmood Madani faction) to Muslims to don their Muslim identity is similar to that given by the VHP and the sangh parivar asking Hindus to maintain their separate identity (“Jamait asks Muslims to live by ‘Islamic rules and values',” March 8). Further, regressive calls to shun modern scientific devices like TV and not pay heed to precautions against the spread of HIV are disturbing. Rather than focussing on sections working towards removal of illiteracy, ill health and other inequalities, such sectarian calls, by communal organisations, to whichever religion they belong, should not be allowed to be propagated in a secular society. It was only because such organisations were allowed uncontrolled propagation of regressive ideas that uncontrollable anarchy has resulted in Pakistan. Should we not learn from its experience? There must also be steps towards reservation for Muslims, to address their problems highlighted by the Sachar Committee, and compensation for Muslim youth in bomb blast cases.
Kasim Sait,
Chennai
© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu
Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind asks Muslims to live by "Islamic Rules and values"
The Hindu
8 March 2011
Jamiat asks Muslims to live by “Islamic rules and values”
Vidya Subrahmaniam
Organisation wants the community declared “most backward”
Social reform committees to be formed in villages and towns
“Crisis of Islamic identity due to impact of western culture”
NEW DELHI: The Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind (Mahmood Madani faction), has proposed setting up social reform committees in villages and towns to ensure that Muslim residents live by “Islamic rules and social values.”
“Muslims should be convinced for regular practice of namaz and keeping fasts during the month of Ramadan. Youths should be persuaded to practise salam, don their Islamic identity and create a religious atmosphere at home,” said a resolution passed by the JUH at a meeting of its managing committee held here on Monday.
‘Cultural malpractices'
The resolution said “cultural malpractices” had permeated Muslim society leading to “reckless avoidance of Islamic rules and social values.” The proposed committee would spread its message through programmes, meets and literature, the resolution said, adding that Muslims would be cautioned against “watching cinema, television and other moral-killing things.” They would also be advised to avoid the current solutions being propagated for AIDS and instead asked to follow Islamic teachings in matters concerning sexual morality.
Drug intake
“There is a growing tendency in youths towards drugs. Promiscuity and vulgarities are on the rise. The situation is very distressing. Muslims are being tempted towards western culture. This has created crisis of Islamic identity. These evils have to be fought against vigorously through campaigns…”
The JUH passed nine resolutions in all. These included: reservation in education and jobs; release of Muslim youths implicated on false charges of terrorism and compensation for them on the pattern adopted by the Australian government in the Mohammad Haneef case; resolving the problems of Haj pilgrims by providing for better air travel and facilities and through greater empowerment of the Haj committees; and stricter implementation of The Wakf Act, 1995, after suitable amendments, to prevent the misuse of Wakf properties valued at billions of rupees.
Poor representation
On reservation, the JUH said that though Muslims constituted about 13 per cent of the population, their representation in various public spheres was less than two per cent , resulting in extreme poverty and socio-educational backwardness — a fact highlighted by the Justice Rajinder Sachar committee which had placed the community lower than Dalits in some respects. The JUH demanded a separate quota over and above the existing reservation for Muslim OBCs, suggesting that the government name Muslims as a “most backward community” to overcome the Constitutional and legal hurdles in the path of providing a separate quota. The JUH also wanted Muslim labourer castes to be included among Dalits through amendments to Article 341 of the Constitution.
8 March 2011
Jamiat asks Muslims to live by “Islamic rules and values”
Vidya Subrahmaniam
Organisation wants the community declared “most backward”
Social reform committees to be formed in villages and towns
“Crisis of Islamic identity due to impact of western culture”
NEW DELHI: The Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind (Mahmood Madani faction), has proposed setting up social reform committees in villages and towns to ensure that Muslim residents live by “Islamic rules and social values.”
“Muslims should be convinced for regular practice of namaz and keeping fasts during the month of Ramadan. Youths should be persuaded to practise salam, don their Islamic identity and create a religious atmosphere at home,” said a resolution passed by the JUH at a meeting of its managing committee held here on Monday.
‘Cultural malpractices'
The resolution said “cultural malpractices” had permeated Muslim society leading to “reckless avoidance of Islamic rules and social values.” The proposed committee would spread its message through programmes, meets and literature, the resolution said, adding that Muslims would be cautioned against “watching cinema, television and other moral-killing things.” They would also be advised to avoid the current solutions being propagated for AIDS and instead asked to follow Islamic teachings in matters concerning sexual morality.
Drug intake
“There is a growing tendency in youths towards drugs. Promiscuity and vulgarities are on the rise. The situation is very distressing. Muslims are being tempted towards western culture. This has created crisis of Islamic identity. These evils have to be fought against vigorously through campaigns…”
The JUH passed nine resolutions in all. These included: reservation in education and jobs; release of Muslim youths implicated on false charges of terrorism and compensation for them on the pattern adopted by the Australian government in the Mohammad Haneef case; resolving the problems of Haj pilgrims by providing for better air travel and facilities and through greater empowerment of the Haj committees; and stricter implementation of The Wakf Act, 1995, after suitable amendments, to prevent the misuse of Wakf properties valued at billions of rupees.
Poor representation
On reservation, the JUH said that though Muslims constituted about 13 per cent of the population, their representation in various public spheres was less than two per cent , resulting in extreme poverty and socio-educational backwardness — a fact highlighted by the Justice Rajinder Sachar committee which had placed the community lower than Dalits in some respects. The JUH demanded a separate quota over and above the existing reservation for Muslim OBCs, suggesting that the government name Muslims as a “most backward community” to overcome the Constitutional and legal hurdles in the path of providing a separate quota. The JUH also wanted Muslim labourer castes to be included among Dalits through amendments to Article 341 of the Constitution.
March 17, 2011
Is Bhoomi Puja by state a Secular Act?
by Ram Puniyani
It is a common sight to see the statues, photos and symbols of Hindu Gods and Goddesses in different Government owned public places like police station and other buildings. Similarly state run buses also have the photos of Hindu Gods and Godesses. We have stopped thinking whether it is right. It is a common observation that most of the time Hindu rituals are performed while the construction of state projects, buildings etc are undertaken. The practice has become a sort of routine to which not many people give a thought. We remember that after independence serious scholars criticized the government for not being secular enough. Around that time when Pundit Nehru was the Prime Minister, the Central Cabinet not only turned down the proposal of building Somanth temple with state money but Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President was also advised not to inaugurate the temple in his capacity as the President of India. The visits of public functionaries to the holy places were a strictly private matter, away form the glare of media.
Times seem to have been changing. The politicians are competing with each other to seek the divine blessing through different well advertised visits, the inaugural ceremonies of state sponsored buildings have the Brahmin priest supervising laying of the foundation stone and undertaking a bhoomi puja (Worship of Earth) and doing his best to get the approval of the supernatural powers though the chanting of Mantras. In this scenario, the move by Rajesh Solanki, a dalit activist from Gujarat to file a Public Interest Litigation against the bhoomi pujan and chanting of mantras performed at the time of foundation stone laying ceremony for the new building for the High court, came as a move to set the things on secular grounds. The function was performed in the presence of the Governor of the State of Gujarat and the Chief Justice of the State amongst others. Solanki’s plea was that a secular state should not perform the religious rituals. Such an act of worship violates the basic principles of the Indian Constitution, which is secular and lays the boundaries between the state and the religion. Solanki argued that the puja and chanting of mantras by Brahmin priests would make the judiciary loose its secular credentials.
Rather than upholding his rational and secular plea, the court went on to dismiss the petition and also fined the petitioner Rs 20000, doubting his bona fides. The judges went onto say that the Bhoomi puja is meant to seek the pardon of the Earth to graciously bear the burden of the damage to make the construction, to make the construction successful. And since this is for the welfare of all it fits into the Hindu values of Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (All beings on the planet are one family) and Sarvajan Sukhino Bhavantu (For the good of all).
There is a lot of mix up in different arguments being put forward. To begin with to regard that for making a construction the Earth has to be worshipped is a purely Hindu concept. The people from other religions will do different things to start their construction work, like sprinkling Holy water by Christian priest for example. The atheists will be more concerned about the preservation of ecological balance and to see that the geological and architectural aspects have been fully taken care of. The legal defense of the practices of one religion for state function is nothing short of violating the basic principles of Indian Constitution, which ensures that state keep its distance from all religions and then treats them all on the equal ground, reaffirmed in S. R. Bommai case. Secularism, as understood in S.R. Bommai is that (1) the state has no religion (2) the state stands aloof from religion and (3) the state does not promote or identify with any religion.
.
It is true that moral values of many religions can be accepted by the society at large, like Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (Hinduism), or ‘all men are brother’ (Islam) or ‘Love thy neighbor’ (Christianity) but as far as rituals are concerned it is a different cup of tea. The core of religions is not rituals but moral values. In popular perception and practices it is the rituals which are identified with the religion. This is a matter of social understudying and different streams will go by different opinion on this. The core point is that the saints of the genre of Kabir, Nizamuddin Auliya, and Gandhi harped on the moral aspects of the religions. As far as practice of religion is concerned people have no restriction in following their social and personal practices, which are so diverse between different religions and even within the same religion as different sects follow different religious practices.
Such a judgment goes totally against the Article 51 (A) of the Constitution also, which directs us to promote the rational thought in the society. The promotion of rituals of one particular faith by the State is against the spirit of our Constitution. Again in many instances there is just a thin borderline between faith and blind faith. Blind faith will push the society in the retrograde direction. Today we know that unless the location for a construction is selected properly, geological and construction aspects are taken care of scientifically, accidents do happen. That’s why state has developed many a norms of construction which are necessary to be cleared and we have witnessed that violation of such norms have led to accidents. Our courts have to promote these aspects of Constitution rather than to prove in a convoluted way that practices of one religion should be accepted as the state practices. Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi had gone on to state that “In India, for whose fashioning I have worked all my life, every man enjoys equality of status, whatever his religion is. The state is bound to be wholly Secular" (Harijan August 31, 1947) and, "religion is not the test of nationality but is a personal matter between man and God, (ibid pg 90), and," religion is a personal affair of each Individual, it must not be mixed up with politics or national Affairs"(ibid pg 90).
Last few decades identification of Hindu religious practices has been accepted as the state norms and this needs to be given a rethinking.
It is a common sight to see the statues, photos and symbols of Hindu Gods and Goddesses in different Government owned public places like police station and other buildings. Similarly state run buses also have the photos of Hindu Gods and Godesses. We have stopped thinking whether it is right. It is a common observation that most of the time Hindu rituals are performed while the construction of state projects, buildings etc are undertaken. The practice has become a sort of routine to which not many people give a thought. We remember that after independence serious scholars criticized the government for not being secular enough. Around that time when Pundit Nehru was the Prime Minister, the Central Cabinet not only turned down the proposal of building Somanth temple with state money but Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President was also advised not to inaugurate the temple in his capacity as the President of India. The visits of public functionaries to the holy places were a strictly private matter, away form the glare of media.
Times seem to have been changing. The politicians are competing with each other to seek the divine blessing through different well advertised visits, the inaugural ceremonies of state sponsored buildings have the Brahmin priest supervising laying of the foundation stone and undertaking a bhoomi puja (Worship of Earth) and doing his best to get the approval of the supernatural powers though the chanting of Mantras. In this scenario, the move by Rajesh Solanki, a dalit activist from Gujarat to file a Public Interest Litigation against the bhoomi pujan and chanting of mantras performed at the time of foundation stone laying ceremony for the new building for the High court, came as a move to set the things on secular grounds. The function was performed in the presence of the Governor of the State of Gujarat and the Chief Justice of the State amongst others. Solanki’s plea was that a secular state should not perform the religious rituals. Such an act of worship violates the basic principles of the Indian Constitution, which is secular and lays the boundaries between the state and the religion. Solanki argued that the puja and chanting of mantras by Brahmin priests would make the judiciary loose its secular credentials.
Rather than upholding his rational and secular plea, the court went on to dismiss the petition and also fined the petitioner Rs 20000, doubting his bona fides. The judges went onto say that the Bhoomi puja is meant to seek the pardon of the Earth to graciously bear the burden of the damage to make the construction, to make the construction successful. And since this is for the welfare of all it fits into the Hindu values of Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (All beings on the planet are one family) and Sarvajan Sukhino Bhavantu (For the good of all).
There is a lot of mix up in different arguments being put forward. To begin with to regard that for making a construction the Earth has to be worshipped is a purely Hindu concept. The people from other religions will do different things to start their construction work, like sprinkling Holy water by Christian priest for example. The atheists will be more concerned about the preservation of ecological balance and to see that the geological and architectural aspects have been fully taken care of. The legal defense of the practices of one religion for state function is nothing short of violating the basic principles of Indian Constitution, which ensures that state keep its distance from all religions and then treats them all on the equal ground, reaffirmed in S. R. Bommai case. Secularism, as understood in S.R. Bommai is that (1) the state has no religion (2) the state stands aloof from religion and (3) the state does not promote or identify with any religion.
.
It is true that moral values of many religions can be accepted by the society at large, like Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (Hinduism), or ‘all men are brother’ (Islam) or ‘Love thy neighbor’ (Christianity) but as far as rituals are concerned it is a different cup of tea. The core of religions is not rituals but moral values. In popular perception and practices it is the rituals which are identified with the religion. This is a matter of social understudying and different streams will go by different opinion on this. The core point is that the saints of the genre of Kabir, Nizamuddin Auliya, and Gandhi harped on the moral aspects of the religions. As far as practice of religion is concerned people have no restriction in following their social and personal practices, which are so diverse between different religions and even within the same religion as different sects follow different religious practices.
Such a judgment goes totally against the Article 51 (A) of the Constitution also, which directs us to promote the rational thought in the society. The promotion of rituals of one particular faith by the State is against the spirit of our Constitution. Again in many instances there is just a thin borderline between faith and blind faith. Blind faith will push the society in the retrograde direction. Today we know that unless the location for a construction is selected properly, geological and construction aspects are taken care of scientifically, accidents do happen. That’s why state has developed many a norms of construction which are necessary to be cleared and we have witnessed that violation of such norms have led to accidents. Our courts have to promote these aspects of Constitution rather than to prove in a convoluted way that practices of one religion should be accepted as the state practices. Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi had gone on to state that “In India, for whose fashioning I have worked all my life, every man enjoys equality of status, whatever his religion is. The state is bound to be wholly Secular" (Harijan August 31, 1947) and, "religion is not the test of nationality but is a personal matter between man and God, (ibid pg 90), and," religion is a personal affair of each Individual, it must not be mixed up with politics or national Affairs"(ibid pg 90).
Last few decades identification of Hindu religious practices has been accepted as the state norms and this needs to be given a rethinking.
March 03, 2011
Godhra Verdict; Whither Justice
Godhra Verdict: Whither Justice?
Need for a CBI Investigation
Ram Puniyani
On 22rd February 2011, the session’s court gave its verdict on Godhra train burning of Sabarmati Express. It accepted the Gujarat state’s theory that the local Muslims had hatched a conspiracy to burn S-6 Coach of Sabaramati Express. At the same time of the 94 people being tried for this crime 63 were exonerated of the crime and 31 were held to be the guilty of planning to burn the Kar Sevaks. This conspiracy theory was initially put forward by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who within half hour of the burning of the train came to this conclusion. He had gone on to say that the conspiracy has been hatched by international terrorism, in collusion with the local Muslims through Pakistan’s ISI. At that time the Godhra collector Jayanti Ravi had ruled out the conspiracy theory.
In such ghastly Railway accidents it is mandatory to investigate them but the Railway Ministry sat quiet, as the then Raliway Minister Niteesh Kumar was part of BJP led NDA Government. This conspiracy theory was given wide currency and was used as a sort of justification for the post Godhra anti Muslim pogrom. The NDA Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee went on to say, Gujarat happened because Godhra took place. UP Chief Minister Mayawati, who was then allying with BJP, campaigned for Modi and in response to the question about Gujarat carnage, said that there was Godhra also! Later with change of Government Lalu Prasad Yadav who became Railways minister in UPA Government, initiated the much delayed obligation to investigate every major railway accident, and instituted Bannerjee Commission. This Commission opined that there is no evidence of a conspiracy by local Muslims.
To prove that it was a conspiracy the Gujarat police investigated the case in a manner in which many witnesses were made to confess of selling 140 liters petrol, carrying the same, cutting open the vestibule between S6 and S7, pouring petrol in the S6 coach and then burning it by throwing the fire balls into the train. The present judgment accepts the conspiracy theory but finds no evidence at all against the culprit-in-Chief, the chief conspirator as per the Gujarat Government, Haji Umarji and also no evidence against other major accused! The whole judgment seems to fall flat on this ground.
The mainstay of conspiracy theory has been the selling of loose petrol, throwing burning fire balls into the train, for all this there is no eye witness, and even those who initially confessed to having sold petrol did not stand the scrutiny and one of them said that he was paid Rs 50000, like the other person who is saying that they sold loose petrol, by Noel Parmar the Chief investigating officer. As such there have been many loose ends in the conspiracy theory. The point that Muslims wanted to take revenge by burning Kar Sevaks does not stand the scrutiny of logic due to multiple reasons. To begin with the Muslims and also the state officials did not know that Sabarmati Express is carrying Kar Sevaks. The only people who knew that Kar Sevaks are travelling in the train were VHP people. Secondly; the train that day was late by close to five hours; normally it comes to Godhra in the midnight. In case of planned conspiracy from outside it is difficult to plan for such circumstances. Thirdly; as vestibule was being cut open, what was being done by the Railway protection force? Cutting-open the vestibule and entering from that is not an easy job. Fourthly, if windows and doors were closed how can burning fireballs enter the train? It was initially propagated that train was stopped by Muslims, but investigations show that the first stoppage of train was due to chain pulling by kar sevaks and the second due to technical failure. There is a general impression that train was locked from outside. The very simple fact that train coach cannot be locked from outside was forgotten while propagating this falsehood.
So as the matters stand there are enough grounds to doubt the theory that it was a conspiracy by Muslims. Another dimension to the whole incident has been added by the latest issue of Tehelka (March 5, 2011). Ashsih Khetan in this path breaking investigation (http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne050311CoverStory.asp) shows that there is no substance at all in the theory that it was a conspiracy by Muslims. In a meticulously argued expose he shows that this whole theory is not only fallacious, it distracts attention from the truth of another conspiracy which was going on. As per him it was a conspiracy yes, but not by Muslims. He points out that:
* It’s important to recall that, in its 2007 sting investigation (The Truth about Gujarat 2002), TEHELKA had exposed that the nine BJP men who were cited as eyewitnesses were, in fact, not even present at the scene of crime. They had been asked to give false testimonies by the police to further the Modi government’s communal and political agenda, and they had gone along to “serve the cause of Hindutva”.
* Ajay Baria, a Hindu vendor, forced into the plot; saw it all, Judge Patel has relied hugely on Baria’s account. But why would Muslim conspirators pick a Hindu man at the last minute to help load the petrol and burn the train? TEHELKA tried to track him but failed. His mother said he had been coerced into becoming a police witness and lived under constant police surveillance.
* Two petrol pump attendants who claim they sold 140 liters of fuel to some Muslims on 26 Feb, Ranjitsinh and Pratapsinh Patel had first told the police that they had not sold any loose petrol that crucial night. In a shocking turnaround, six months later, they changed their version. However, TEHELKA caught Ranjitsinh admitting on camera that he and Pratap had been bribed Rs. 50,000 by police officer Noel Parmar to do that. He also tutored them to identify particular Muslims in court as being the buyers
* Jabir Bahera, a petty criminal, first named Maulvi Umarji as a mastermind. Bahera claimed it was Umarji who picked coach S-6 as the target, but also said Umarji was not present at any conspiracy meetings. He later retracted everything
* Sikandar Siddique, another petty criminal, had said Maulvi Punjabi had incited the mob. But Punjabi was not even in the country that day
Khetan’s path-breaking investigation makes it clear that the real conspiracy is not from the side of Muslims. Truth is many a times stranger than fiction. We have been made to believe from last many years that it is Muslims who are responsible for Malegaon, Samjhauta, Ajmer and many such blasts. Those writers and social activists who doubted this police-Hindutva version of the cause of terror were totally ignored by the investigating authorities and by the big media. Their investigations did show the involvement of Hindutva elements. These writers and social activists were criticized and intimidated for being anti Hindu and anti nationals. Now as the matters stand today, thanks to Hemant Karkare’s investigations and later Swami Aseemanand’s confessions, truth is that in all these cases of acts of terror, Hindutva groups were involved. Now by piecing together the observations from the one of Godhra Collector Jayanti Ravi to the Sting operations by Tehelka Khetan points out “That there was a conspiracy afoot in Gujarat those years is beyond doubt. But as this story shows, it was a conspiracy of a different kind. It was a conspiracy designed to rent the fabric of this country: a conspiracy by State machinery to blacken one community’s name. And declare them the enemy.”
In this case the nature of shoddy, biased investigation done by police is very obvious. We do need an impartial investigation; a CBI inquiry into the whole thing is called for. We are living in strange times. The sectarianism, the politics of religious identity has overtaken the better of us. What is aggressively propagated is far from truth, and the truth remains submerged in the din of hysteria created by politics in the name of religion. Be it terrorism, be it communal violence, we need to invoke our humane, rational faculties, honesty and professionalism, overcome our biases, investigate the acts of crime properly and punish the guilty, irrespective of their religion. So many innocents have lost their lives, 59 Kar Sevaks, over 2000 innocent Muslims! We do need to reject the politics of communalism and try to follow the path of justice, the path of peace and communal amity as shown by the greatest Gujarati-Indian of all the times, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
Need for a CBI Investigation
Ram Puniyani
On 22rd February 2011, the session’s court gave its verdict on Godhra train burning of Sabarmati Express. It accepted the Gujarat state’s theory that the local Muslims had hatched a conspiracy to burn S-6 Coach of Sabaramati Express. At the same time of the 94 people being tried for this crime 63 were exonerated of the crime and 31 were held to be the guilty of planning to burn the Kar Sevaks. This conspiracy theory was initially put forward by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who within half hour of the burning of the train came to this conclusion. He had gone on to say that the conspiracy has been hatched by international terrorism, in collusion with the local Muslims through Pakistan’s ISI. At that time the Godhra collector Jayanti Ravi had ruled out the conspiracy theory.
In such ghastly Railway accidents it is mandatory to investigate them but the Railway Ministry sat quiet, as the then Raliway Minister Niteesh Kumar was part of BJP led NDA Government. This conspiracy theory was given wide currency and was used as a sort of justification for the post Godhra anti Muslim pogrom. The NDA Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee went on to say, Gujarat happened because Godhra took place. UP Chief Minister Mayawati, who was then allying with BJP, campaigned for Modi and in response to the question about Gujarat carnage, said that there was Godhra also! Later with change of Government Lalu Prasad Yadav who became Railways minister in UPA Government, initiated the much delayed obligation to investigate every major railway accident, and instituted Bannerjee Commission. This Commission opined that there is no evidence of a conspiracy by local Muslims.
To prove that it was a conspiracy the Gujarat police investigated the case in a manner in which many witnesses were made to confess of selling 140 liters petrol, carrying the same, cutting open the vestibule between S6 and S7, pouring petrol in the S6 coach and then burning it by throwing the fire balls into the train. The present judgment accepts the conspiracy theory but finds no evidence at all against the culprit-in-Chief, the chief conspirator as per the Gujarat Government, Haji Umarji and also no evidence against other major accused! The whole judgment seems to fall flat on this ground.
The mainstay of conspiracy theory has been the selling of loose petrol, throwing burning fire balls into the train, for all this there is no eye witness, and even those who initially confessed to having sold petrol did not stand the scrutiny and one of them said that he was paid Rs 50000, like the other person who is saying that they sold loose petrol, by Noel Parmar the Chief investigating officer. As such there have been many loose ends in the conspiracy theory. The point that Muslims wanted to take revenge by burning Kar Sevaks does not stand the scrutiny of logic due to multiple reasons. To begin with the Muslims and also the state officials did not know that Sabarmati Express is carrying Kar Sevaks. The only people who knew that Kar Sevaks are travelling in the train were VHP people. Secondly; the train that day was late by close to five hours; normally it comes to Godhra in the midnight. In case of planned conspiracy from outside it is difficult to plan for such circumstances. Thirdly; as vestibule was being cut open, what was being done by the Railway protection force? Cutting-open the vestibule and entering from that is not an easy job. Fourthly, if windows and doors were closed how can burning fireballs enter the train? It was initially propagated that train was stopped by Muslims, but investigations show that the first stoppage of train was due to chain pulling by kar sevaks and the second due to technical failure. There is a general impression that train was locked from outside. The very simple fact that train coach cannot be locked from outside was forgotten while propagating this falsehood.
So as the matters stand there are enough grounds to doubt the theory that it was a conspiracy by Muslims. Another dimension to the whole incident has been added by the latest issue of Tehelka (March 5, 2011). Ashsih Khetan in this path breaking investigation (http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne050311CoverStory.asp) shows that there is no substance at all in the theory that it was a conspiracy by Muslims. In a meticulously argued expose he shows that this whole theory is not only fallacious, it distracts attention from the truth of another conspiracy which was going on. As per him it was a conspiracy yes, but not by Muslims. He points out that:
* It’s important to recall that, in its 2007 sting investigation (The Truth about Gujarat 2002), TEHELKA had exposed that the nine BJP men who were cited as eyewitnesses were, in fact, not even present at the scene of crime. They had been asked to give false testimonies by the police to further the Modi government’s communal and political agenda, and they had gone along to “serve the cause of Hindutva”.
* Ajay Baria, a Hindu vendor, forced into the plot; saw it all, Judge Patel has relied hugely on Baria’s account. But why would Muslim conspirators pick a Hindu man at the last minute to help load the petrol and burn the train? TEHELKA tried to track him but failed. His mother said he had been coerced into becoming a police witness and lived under constant police surveillance.
* Two petrol pump attendants who claim they sold 140 liters of fuel to some Muslims on 26 Feb, Ranjitsinh and Pratapsinh Patel had first told the police that they had not sold any loose petrol that crucial night. In a shocking turnaround, six months later, they changed their version. However, TEHELKA caught Ranjitsinh admitting on camera that he and Pratap had been bribed Rs. 50,000 by police officer Noel Parmar to do that. He also tutored them to identify particular Muslims in court as being the buyers
* Jabir Bahera, a petty criminal, first named Maulvi Umarji as a mastermind. Bahera claimed it was Umarji who picked coach S-6 as the target, but also said Umarji was not present at any conspiracy meetings. He later retracted everything
* Sikandar Siddique, another petty criminal, had said Maulvi Punjabi had incited the mob. But Punjabi was not even in the country that day
Khetan’s path-breaking investigation makes it clear that the real conspiracy is not from the side of Muslims. Truth is many a times stranger than fiction. We have been made to believe from last many years that it is Muslims who are responsible for Malegaon, Samjhauta, Ajmer and many such blasts. Those writers and social activists who doubted this police-Hindutva version of the cause of terror were totally ignored by the investigating authorities and by the big media. Their investigations did show the involvement of Hindutva elements. These writers and social activists were criticized and intimidated for being anti Hindu and anti nationals. Now as the matters stand today, thanks to Hemant Karkare’s investigations and later Swami Aseemanand’s confessions, truth is that in all these cases of acts of terror, Hindutva groups were involved. Now by piecing together the observations from the one of Godhra Collector Jayanti Ravi to the Sting operations by Tehelka Khetan points out “That there was a conspiracy afoot in Gujarat those years is beyond doubt. But as this story shows, it was a conspiracy of a different kind. It was a conspiracy designed to rent the fabric of this country: a conspiracy by State machinery to blacken one community’s name. And declare them the enemy.”
In this case the nature of shoddy, biased investigation done by police is very obvious. We do need an impartial investigation; a CBI inquiry into the whole thing is called for. We are living in strange times. The sectarianism, the politics of religious identity has overtaken the better of us. What is aggressively propagated is far from truth, and the truth remains submerged in the din of hysteria created by politics in the name of religion. Be it terrorism, be it communal violence, we need to invoke our humane, rational faculties, honesty and professionalism, overcome our biases, investigate the acts of crime properly and punish the guilty, irrespective of their religion. So many innocents have lost their lives, 59 Kar Sevaks, over 2000 innocent Muslims! We do need to reject the politics of communalism and try to follow the path of justice, the path of peace and communal amity as shown by the greatest Gujarati-Indian of all the times, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
