From: The Times of India
Mangalore prayer hall attacked
TNN | Dec 30, 2011, 05.55AM IST
MANGALORE: A group of about 10-15 miscreants barged into the compound of Hebron Assembly, Pentecostal Church of God at Haleyangady, about 40km from here, on Wednesday night, hurled stones and damaged its window panes. They also broke open the kitchen door of the pastor's house, adjacent to the hall, and damaged utensils.
Police commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh who visited the spot told TOI that a few persons were taken into custody on Thursday for questioning . He said no arrests have been made till now.
"None of the persons inside the house were assaulted as they had secured themselves in a room,'' said pastor ID Prasanna. The pastor came ten minutes after the incident. But his mother Deena Kamala , wife Sarah, their daughter Prerna and son Abhishek, his brother Harry Wilson and brother- in-law Anand Kumar were at the house at the time of the attack.
"As soon as the miscreants entered the prayer hall compound and pelted stones, the family members ran into the house and bolted the door. The miscreants tried to break open the front door but could not succeed,'' Prasanna said. "No prayer meeting was being held in the hall at the time of the attack,'' he said.
In 1996, the prayer hall had installed three CCTV cameras at the entrance, verandah and inside the hall _ after receiving threats. Police have taken the CCTV footage.
Crib torched
MANGALORE: A huge Christmas crib at Thumbe Darkhas near here was set on fire by miscreants on Wednesday. The crib was a collective effort by about 30 families in that area, and was put up before the house of Regina Lobo on land belonging to Valerian Fernandes at Darkhas on Thumbe-Benjanapadav Road. SP Labhu Ram said a complaint was registered and investigations are on.
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December 30, 2011
December 29, 2011
Tamil Nadu: Hindutva moral police threaten hotels offering free alcohol to women
From: The Times of India
Hindutva activists try to barge into star
Dec 29, 2011, 05.52AM IST
COIMBATORE: Activists of a local Hindutva brigade attempted to barge into a leading star hotel in the city on Wednesday demanding to stop its plan to hold New Year party in 'western style'. What provoked the Hindutva outfit was the announcement of the hotel that alcoholic beverages would be served free to women who accompany men to the New Year party. Police have arrested and removed 27 activists of the little-known Hindu Makkal Katchi (Tamizhagam).
A heavy posse of policemen prevented the activists who attempted to enter into the premises of Le Meridian Hotel on Avinashi Road near Neelambur. They told the management of the hotel not to engage in attempts to infuse Western values into Indian minds.
"The Le Meridian hotel has announced ballroom dance party on the occasion of New Year. By inviting couples to the party, the hotel is trying to popularise drinking culture among women. While the younger generation is already addicted to alcohol, the star hotel is now trying to spoil our culture and such parties are encouraging alcoholism among the youths," said Arjun Sampath, founder-president of Hindu Makkal Katchi (Tamizhagam).
"Some of the star hotels and clubs in the urban and rural areas are promoting western culture and spoiling our Indian culture in the garb of New Year parties. Our women's are the torchbearers of the society. But these kinds of parties will affect our nation's future,'' he added.
The Hindu Makkal Katchi (Tamizhagam) had given a petition to district collector M Karunagaran, requesting him to take action against the star hotels which may 'encourage alcoholism in women.'
"We have formed a saffron brigade to curb the New Year party excess. The brigade will conduct patrol on December 31 at the star hotel premises and those who found violating the rules will be handed over to the police," Arjun Sampath said. "If any woman was found consuming alcohol on the occasion, she would be subjected to awareness sessions,'' he said.
However, police are not ready to treat the moral policing of the outfit lightly. "We are enforcing strict night vigil on the New Year occasion and all those who found in mysterious circumstances would be nabbed. The Makkal Katchi activists have no right to become moral police. If they attempt to trouble those who enter hotels for celebrations, strict action would be taken,'' deputy police commissioner Hema Karunakaran said.
"Hotels are organizing private function and it would be the personal freedom of people to take part or not in the festivities. The organization can bring any anomaly to our notice. But they would be dealt with strictly if they attempt to take law into their hands,'' said E S Uma, Rural SP. She also warned that no unlawful assembly before hotels would be allowed.
Hindutva activists try to barge into star
Dec 29, 2011, 05.52AM IST
COIMBATORE: Activists of a local Hindutva brigade attempted to barge into a leading star hotel in the city on Wednesday demanding to stop its plan to hold New Year party in 'western style'. What provoked the Hindutva outfit was the announcement of the hotel that alcoholic beverages would be served free to women who accompany men to the New Year party. Police have arrested and removed 27 activists of the little-known Hindu Makkal Katchi (Tamizhagam).
A heavy posse of policemen prevented the activists who attempted to enter into the premises of Le Meridian Hotel on Avinashi Road near Neelambur. They told the management of the hotel not to engage in attempts to infuse Western values into Indian minds.
"The Le Meridian hotel has announced ballroom dance party on the occasion of New Year. By inviting couples to the party, the hotel is trying to popularise drinking culture among women. While the younger generation is already addicted to alcohol, the star hotel is now trying to spoil our culture and such parties are encouraging alcoholism among the youths," said Arjun Sampath, founder-president of Hindu Makkal Katchi (Tamizhagam).
"Some of the star hotels and clubs in the urban and rural areas are promoting western culture and spoiling our Indian culture in the garb of New Year parties. Our women's are the torchbearers of the society. But these kinds of parties will affect our nation's future,'' he added.
The Hindu Makkal Katchi (Tamizhagam) had given a petition to district collector M Karunagaran, requesting him to take action against the star hotels which may 'encourage alcoholism in women.'
"We have formed a saffron brigade to curb the New Year party excess. The brigade will conduct patrol on December 31 at the star hotel premises and those who found violating the rules will be handed over to the police," Arjun Sampath said. "If any woman was found consuming alcohol on the occasion, she would be subjected to awareness sessions,'' he said.
However, police are not ready to treat the moral policing of the outfit lightly. "We are enforcing strict night vigil on the New Year occasion and all those who found in mysterious circumstances would be nabbed. The Makkal Katchi activists have no right to become moral police. If they attempt to trouble those who enter hotels for celebrations, strict action would be taken,'' deputy police commissioner Hema Karunakaran said.
"Hotels are organizing private function and it would be the personal freedom of people to take part or not in the festivities. The organization can bring any anomaly to our notice. But they would be dealt with strictly if they attempt to take law into their hands,'' said E S Uma, Rural SP. She also warned that no unlawful assembly before hotels would be allowed.
December 28, 2011
Our politicians cause gory riots, not the Internet (Dipankar Gupta)
From: Mail Today, 28 December 2011
Our politicians cause gory riots, not the Internet
by Dipankar Gupta
THE DECISION to police the Internet, particularly Google and Facebook, and serve them notice for purveying material that might cause riots is based on motivated naïveté. It appears commonsensical to argue that people turn incendiary when they read inflammatory stuff, but the facts state otherwise. Our political sensors have not yet registered an ethnic violence that was caused solely by hate literature of any kind.
Earlier this month, Kapil Sibal argued that when the Internet carries derogatory and defamatory comments on religious leaders then it is bound to generate social unrest, even bloodshed. Though this hums along with popular construction of social reality, there are two strikes against it.
Violence
First, all riots, whether in Gujarat, Delhi, Meerut, Bhiwandi, Mumbai, or wherever, take place only when political parties get involved in the action. In fact, for a full blooded ethnic incident to hit the streets it requires the ruling administration to either sponsor, or connive at, their eruption. In other words, riots between religious groups do not occur spontaneously, but are carefully planned and plotted in political hothouses.
Second, we need to appreciate the boring detail that people may be prejudiced; probably everybody is, in one form or another, to a greater or lesser extent. But that does not mean that they are forever on a short fuse and waiting to explode. It actually takes a lot of cajoling and tempting to make that happen. Hooligans are organised and protected by political parties to attack, maim, kill and loot. Bigots are everywhere; they might actually outnumber non- bigots if a census on this subject is ever taken. But that still does not make for a ripe, riot situation.
Above all else, riots need political patronage and do not happen simply because some dirty literature is easily available. More than what comes out in Google or Facebook, there is a fair amount of insulting material regarding other communities in many mainstream religious texts. Will the government have the nerve to ban them too? The unrest following the Danish cartoons on Prophet Mohammed or Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses are often used to justify Kapil Sibal’s position. However, even in these test cases it required political mobilisation for people to get frothy and fatwa prone. The cartoons had been around for a while and so had Satanic Verses . But political actors required time to rehearse their roles and get hot and ready to kill for a cause.
While on this subject, one also needs to distinguish between those who are happy to kill for a cause and those who are willing to die for a cause. Most ethnicists are more than willing to kill but not get killed. This is why rioters need the protection of the administration.
This is also why there is a festive, picnic like atmosphere when killers set out on their mission.
The violence in all such cases is, predictably, one- sided.
It is probably for this reason that the National Advisory Council ( NAC) recommended a high powered authority be set up to try derelict officers when riots happen on their watch. To some extent this provision compensates for the NAC virtually disregarding the fact that political parties, especially the ruling combines, are actually responsible for most riots.
Against this background, it is rather crafty to lash out at Internet providers in the name of preserving inter faith harmony. Was it the Internet that roused anger in Tomsk against the Gita ? Far from it. Once again there were political interests involved in that incident, even though that particular controversy embarrassed the broad mass of the Russian population.
Politicos
When was the last time a race riot happened in America? Internet penetration in USA is five times that of India and yet nobody thinks of policing Google or Facebook out there. Hate stuff is dished out on a daily basis on Internet sites in USA yet there have been no riots in recent decades. Why should that be the case? After all, bigotry is alive and well in America ( think of the Tea Party activists when in doubt on this subject), yet no race riots! The conclusion is simple: riots happen not because bigoted people read bigoted texts, but because politicians are willing to play the ethnic card and set fire to peaceful homes. There was a time when such incidents happened in America, but that was then and this is now. So if the UPA led administration believes that Internet can spark a riot then they must either be innocent or cynical. Or do they think that everybody in India is a professional Hindu, Sikh, Muslim or Christian? In which case, they have a very poor opinion of their electorate.
It is hard to imagine that grown politicians do not really know how riots are manufactured. This leads us to believe that the Internet is being censored not for hate literature but for the ugly things that have been said about politicians on Google and Facebook.
Though many of us believe that members of the political class are thick skinned, they actually get very antsy and upset if they are upended in public view.
This was true in the case of the Wikileaks too. As long as Julian Assange was bringing out information that exposed America’s war manoeuvres in Iraq and Afghanistan, nothing really happened to him. He was ridiculed and sniggered at by Pentagon, but no real damage. All that changed once Assange began to disclose diplomatic cables. These dispatches did not disclose state secrets, but showed up Presidents and Secretaries of State to be petty people with small minds.
This is what set the political class everywhere against him. Within a week of releasing information of this kind, Assange’s bank accounts were frozen and his Domain Net Server disabled.
Much worse has happened to him since then.
Move
Back to India. Internet penetration here is less than 9 per cent of the population whereas it is about 50 per cent in OECD countries.
Under these circumstances, does it make sense to get worked up about a minor ripple in the ocean? Once the Internet is brought to heel, what next? What would happen to Awadhi couplets? So many of them make fun of clerics and fundamentalists.
Indeed, what would happen to history for they often show religious leaders to be men with feet of clay? Would we now start banning them all because they might offend somebody’s culture and sentiment? Cynics will obviously conclude that there is more to Internet policing than meets the eye. The government is not actually interested in protecting the minorities as it is in covering up for political bosses. Realists will conclude that the UPA has missed the point for bigotry does not create riots; they happen only when political masters have a stake in setting them up.
But democrats will be the sorriest of all. They know that the hard fought fundamental right to freedom of expression is being bartered away for narrow partisan interests.
The writer is a former professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University
Our politicians cause gory riots, not the Internet
by Dipankar Gupta
THE DECISION to police the Internet, particularly Google and Facebook, and serve them notice for purveying material that might cause riots is based on motivated naïveté. It appears commonsensical to argue that people turn incendiary when they read inflammatory stuff, but the facts state otherwise. Our political sensors have not yet registered an ethnic violence that was caused solely by hate literature of any kind.
Earlier this month, Kapil Sibal argued that when the Internet carries derogatory and defamatory comments on religious leaders then it is bound to generate social unrest, even bloodshed. Though this hums along with popular construction of social reality, there are two strikes against it.
Violence
First, all riots, whether in Gujarat, Delhi, Meerut, Bhiwandi, Mumbai, or wherever, take place only when political parties get involved in the action. In fact, for a full blooded ethnic incident to hit the streets it requires the ruling administration to either sponsor, or connive at, their eruption. In other words, riots between religious groups do not occur spontaneously, but are carefully planned and plotted in political hothouses.
Second, we need to appreciate the boring detail that people may be prejudiced; probably everybody is, in one form or another, to a greater or lesser extent. But that does not mean that they are forever on a short fuse and waiting to explode. It actually takes a lot of cajoling and tempting to make that happen. Hooligans are organised and protected by political parties to attack, maim, kill and loot. Bigots are everywhere; they might actually outnumber non- bigots if a census on this subject is ever taken. But that still does not make for a ripe, riot situation.
Above all else, riots need political patronage and do not happen simply because some dirty literature is easily available. More than what comes out in Google or Facebook, there is a fair amount of insulting material regarding other communities in many mainstream religious texts. Will the government have the nerve to ban them too? The unrest following the Danish cartoons on Prophet Mohammed or Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses are often used to justify Kapil Sibal’s position. However, even in these test cases it required political mobilisation for people to get frothy and fatwa prone. The cartoons had been around for a while and so had Satanic Verses . But political actors required time to rehearse their roles and get hot and ready to kill for a cause.
While on this subject, one also needs to distinguish between those who are happy to kill for a cause and those who are willing to die for a cause. Most ethnicists are more than willing to kill but not get killed. This is why rioters need the protection of the administration.
This is also why there is a festive, picnic like atmosphere when killers set out on their mission.
The violence in all such cases is, predictably, one- sided.
It is probably for this reason that the National Advisory Council ( NAC) recommended a high powered authority be set up to try derelict officers when riots happen on their watch. To some extent this provision compensates for the NAC virtually disregarding the fact that political parties, especially the ruling combines, are actually responsible for most riots.
Against this background, it is rather crafty to lash out at Internet providers in the name of preserving inter faith harmony. Was it the Internet that roused anger in Tomsk against the Gita ? Far from it. Once again there were political interests involved in that incident, even though that particular controversy embarrassed the broad mass of the Russian population.
Politicos
When was the last time a race riot happened in America? Internet penetration in USA is five times that of India and yet nobody thinks of policing Google or Facebook out there. Hate stuff is dished out on a daily basis on Internet sites in USA yet there have been no riots in recent decades. Why should that be the case? After all, bigotry is alive and well in America ( think of the Tea Party activists when in doubt on this subject), yet no race riots! The conclusion is simple: riots happen not because bigoted people read bigoted texts, but because politicians are willing to play the ethnic card and set fire to peaceful homes. There was a time when such incidents happened in America, but that was then and this is now. So if the UPA led administration believes that Internet can spark a riot then they must either be innocent or cynical. Or do they think that everybody in India is a professional Hindu, Sikh, Muslim or Christian? In which case, they have a very poor opinion of their electorate.
It is hard to imagine that grown politicians do not really know how riots are manufactured. This leads us to believe that the Internet is being censored not for hate literature but for the ugly things that have been said about politicians on Google and Facebook.
Though many of us believe that members of the political class are thick skinned, they actually get very antsy and upset if they are upended in public view.
This was true in the case of the Wikileaks too. As long as Julian Assange was bringing out information that exposed America’s war manoeuvres in Iraq and Afghanistan, nothing really happened to him. He was ridiculed and sniggered at by Pentagon, but no real damage. All that changed once Assange began to disclose diplomatic cables. These dispatches did not disclose state secrets, but showed up Presidents and Secretaries of State to be petty people with small minds.
This is what set the political class everywhere against him. Within a week of releasing information of this kind, Assange’s bank accounts were frozen and his Domain Net Server disabled.
Much worse has happened to him since then.
Move
Back to India. Internet penetration here is less than 9 per cent of the population whereas it is about 50 per cent in OECD countries.
Under these circumstances, does it make sense to get worked up about a minor ripple in the ocean? Once the Internet is brought to heel, what next? What would happen to Awadhi couplets? So many of them make fun of clerics and fundamentalists.
Indeed, what would happen to history for they often show religious leaders to be men with feet of clay? Would we now start banning them all because they might offend somebody’s culture and sentiment? Cynics will obviously conclude that there is more to Internet policing than meets the eye. The government is not actually interested in protecting the minorities as it is in covering up for political bosses. Realists will conclude that the UPA has missed the point for bigotry does not create riots; they happen only when political masters have a stake in setting them up.
But democrats will be the sorriest of all. They know that the hard fought fundamental right to freedom of expression is being bartered away for narrow partisan interests.
The writer is a former professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University
Ideological Convergences: Hindutva and the Norway Massacre (Meera Nanda
From Economic and Political Weekly, 31 December 2011
Anders Breivik, the man who carried out the July 2011 massacre in Norway, counts the sanatana dharma movements in India among his allies in Europe’s supposed war against Islam. His manifesto refers to Koenraad Elst, a well-known Belgian critic of Islam who is also a strong votary of Hindutva in India. In addition, many other Indian writers are also quoted by Breivik. This essay looks at the shared world view, agenda and history of this school of Hindutva, and the anti-Islamic European right.
FULL TEXT AT : http://beta.epw.in/static_media/PDF/archives_pdf/2011/12/SA_XLVI_53_311211_Meera_Nanda.pdf
Anders Breivik, the man who carried out the July 2011 massacre in Norway, counts the sanatana dharma movements in India among his allies in Europe’s supposed war against Islam. His manifesto refers to Koenraad Elst, a well-known Belgian critic of Islam who is also a strong votary of Hindutva in India. In addition, many other Indian writers are also quoted by Breivik. This essay looks at the shared world view, agenda and history of this school of Hindutva, and the anti-Islamic European right.
FULL TEXT AT : http://beta.epw.in/static_media/PDF/archives_pdf/2011/12/SA_XLVI_53_311211_Meera_Nanda.pdf
December 27, 2011
Communal politics and religionisation of urdu in India
. . . post-1980s, degree holders from dini madaris, the Islamic religious institutions, were declared eligible for university teaching in Urdu and Arabic. This gave Urdu teaching in universities an Islamic profile. With the Islamisation of the university teachers occurred the Islamisation of the political front of Urdu in free India. With students from religious institutions monopolising all those avenues, from Urdu institutions to Urdu newspapers, which had even the remotest connection with Urdu literature, the situation became worse.
[. . .]
Owing to their communal outlook, these university teachers of Urdu are equally ignorant about secular Urdu literature.
There are two major reasons behind this ignorance: first, the entire educational process in the dini madaris is dedicated to religious learning and, second, the only reason they studied Urdu or Urdu literature was to learn a language that could help them in Islamic studies. Since most of the Urdu teachers of university Departments are products of dini madaris, their perspective is mostly communal and archaic. For the alumni of dini madaris, Urdu literature is largely synonymous with profanity. Despite receiving big salaries in the name of Urdu, their hatred for the secular literary genre of Urdu is deeply ingrained. In sum, they do not have any interest in any activity other than the expansion of Islam; therefore, the Urdu Departments of universities have turned into arenas of politics of Muslim fanaticism and mediocrity. [...].
FULL TEXT AT: http://tinyurl.com/bwng7lq
[. . .]
Owing to their communal outlook, these university teachers of Urdu are equally ignorant about secular Urdu literature.
There are two major reasons behind this ignorance: first, the entire educational process in the dini madaris is dedicated to religious learning and, second, the only reason they studied Urdu or Urdu literature was to learn a language that could help them in Islamic studies. Since most of the Urdu teachers of university Departments are products of dini madaris, their perspective is mostly communal and archaic. For the alumni of dini madaris, Urdu literature is largely synonymous with profanity. Despite receiving big salaries in the name of Urdu, their hatred for the secular literary genre of Urdu is deeply ingrained. In sum, they do not have any interest in any activity other than the expansion of Islam; therefore, the Urdu Departments of universities have turned into arenas of politics of Muslim fanaticism and mediocrity. [...].
FULL TEXT AT: http://tinyurl.com/bwng7lq
December 26, 2011
On the Gita Controversy in Russia and New Friends of Iskcon ?
by Subhash Gatade
The issue related to proceedings in a court in Tomsk which supposedly had found portions of ’Gita’ objectionable and ’extremist’ and was contemplating to ban it. . . .
The tempers were down only when foreign minister S.M. Krishna gave a assurance to the parliament that the government is looking into the matter and would take all necessary steps. The Russian ambassador’s assurance also played a soothing role who said that nobody would be allowed to sabotage the long frienship between peoples of two great countries. In the meanwhile penpushers - or should one say ’bytemovers’ - had a fieldday explaining to the lesser mortals how Russians have always looked to ’Gita’ with respect and toleration and its first translation appeared way back in 1788 when Czars ruled the country. The saffrons who yearn to turn India into (what Jawaharlal Nehru use to say) ’Hindu Pakistan’ and who had found themselves on the wanting when the issue was raised in the Parliament, sensed a golden opportunity to mobilise their core constituency and organised demonstrations at few places. Sushma Swaraj, leader of the BJP in Lok Sabha, even demanded that ’Gita’ be declared a national book. In this melee nobody bothered to know whether the actual ’Gita’ was on the agenda of the Tomsk court or some other book which was based on it. Only when the dust settled one came to know that the book in question in the Tomsk court happened to be a Russian translation of Gita with detailed commentaries on it, titled ’Bhagwad-gita As It Is’ written by the founder of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada. In a briefing in Moscow Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said (Interfax, 23 Dec 2011) "As evident from the materials available, the admonitions of the law enforcement authorities are not so much about the text of the book proper, whose double translation is not without the sin of semantic distortion, as about the author’s comments which were classified as falling under Article 13 of the Russian Federation Federal Law ’On countering extremist activities’," he said.
FULL TEXT AT: http://www.sacw.net/article2468.html
The issue related to proceedings in a court in Tomsk which supposedly had found portions of ’Gita’ objectionable and ’extremist’ and was contemplating to ban it. . . .
The tempers were down only when foreign minister S.M. Krishna gave a assurance to the parliament that the government is looking into the matter and would take all necessary steps. The Russian ambassador’s assurance also played a soothing role who said that nobody would be allowed to sabotage the long frienship between peoples of two great countries. In the meanwhile penpushers - or should one say ’bytemovers’ - had a fieldday explaining to the lesser mortals how Russians have always looked to ’Gita’ with respect and toleration and its first translation appeared way back in 1788 when Czars ruled the country. The saffrons who yearn to turn India into (what Jawaharlal Nehru use to say) ’Hindu Pakistan’ and who had found themselves on the wanting when the issue was raised in the Parliament, sensed a golden opportunity to mobilise their core constituency and organised demonstrations at few places. Sushma Swaraj, leader of the BJP in Lok Sabha, even demanded that ’Gita’ be declared a national book. In this melee nobody bothered to know whether the actual ’Gita’ was on the agenda of the Tomsk court or some other book which was based on it. Only when the dust settled one came to know that the book in question in the Tomsk court happened to be a Russian translation of Gita with detailed commentaries on it, titled ’Bhagwad-gita As It Is’ written by the founder of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada. In a briefing in Moscow Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said (Interfax, 23 Dec 2011) "As evident from the materials available, the admonitions of the law enforcement authorities are not so much about the text of the book proper, whose double translation is not without the sin of semantic distortion, as about the author’s comments which were classified as falling under Article 13 of the Russian Federation Federal Law ’On countering extremist activities’," he said.
FULL TEXT AT: http://www.sacw.net/article2468.html
December 25, 2011
From Babri Demolition to participation in Anna Movement
From Babri Demolition to supporting Anna Hazare
Changing Strategies of RSS politics
Ram Puniyani
This December, Babri demolition act completed its 19years. On the occasion many a Muslim groups demanded the reconstruction of the masjid. This demand is just but is mired in many a complex legalities and is trapped in the politics in which there are many diverse players. One again needs to clarify that Hindutva is not a religion of Hindus. Religion of Hindus is Hinduism. Hindutva is the politics of RSS; it is a politics with sectarian vision. This is the vision of affluent upper caste- elite aiming to abolish democracy. Hindutva aims to bring a nation in the name of Hindu religion where the upper crust of society can rule as per the norms prevalent in feudal society. The trick involved here is that these norms of feudal society, the birth based hierarchy, is presented as a glorious tradition and in given the modern language and form.
Demolition of Babri Masjid was a demolition of a national monument; it was also the beginning of a phase of politics where the communal undercurrents of Indian politics menacingly came to the surface. It was a signal for the violence against minorities at a higher pitch. It was a blatant insult of whatever Indian Constitution stands for. It was also the first major step for communal parties to come to occupy the seats of power in the Centre.
After the initial sacking of the BJP Governments in the states where it was ruling, the polarization caused by demolition and post demolition violence went to frightening level and the communal party, BJP, which was at the margins of political structure, came to the fore as the major opposition party. Its parent organization, the real controller of Hindutva politics, RSS, started becoming more respectable and the social thinking was further vitiated with the biases against minorities. In due course the other minority the Christians were also brought under the firing range of the communalists leading to the ghastly burning of Pastor Graham Stains and later scattered attacks on Christian missionaries working in Adivasi areas, leading to massive Kandhmal carnage were witnessed.
For the first time BJP, the party inherently committed to the anti democratic notion of Hindu Rashtra, grabbed the power at the Centre in 1996, when all other parties correctly refused to ally with it to share the spoils of power. But that changed soon enough and other political parties, obsessed with power opportunistically started sharing power with those accused of Babri demolition, those whose affiliates incited not only the demolition but also the violence against minorities in different guises. The coming to power of BJP at centre opened the floodgates of the political space that goes with power, and the task of RSS progeny, VHP, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram got facilitated. The state apparatus, police bureaucracy got more communalized. The education was communalized more openly with a tinge of promoting faith based knowledge at the cost of the scientific temper and rational thought.
This also paved the way for further victories for BJP. The success of RSS propaganda is not merely that it targets the minorities; its bigger success is that it instils the fear in the mind of majority about the ‘threat’ of minority. There is a ripple effect of this process and then a section of ‘middle of the road elements’ also start turning over to support the Hindutva parties. Karnataka opened the floodgates of BJP for its entry into South. The political ideology of BJP and its group is gaining ascendance.
The Babri demolition led to multiple processes, denial of justice to victims of violence became structural, and the minorities started being relegated to second class citizenship. The demonization of minorities has by now gone to extreme levels. Christians are also being meted out the same treatment, particularly in Adivasi areas. This process of demonization of Muslim minorities later started being created around the issue related to terrorism. US propaganda after the 9/11, in which US created monster of Al Qaeda was the central force, brought immense disrepute to Islam and Muslims. US media coined the word Islamic terrorism, and the politics for control over oil resources was taken to absurd ideological manipulation and a religion and a religious community were subjected to immense targeting. In India also the propaganda against Muslims was taken to much worse levels with the global phenomenon of terror, falsely and cleverly attributed to teachings of Islam and Muslims.
Now the RSS-BJP politics is entering the new phase. Having reached the acme of anti minority polarization, it has found the Anna Hazare movement as the new vehicle for its politics of undermining democratic institutions to bring in a parallel authoritarian structure where the Lok Pal plays the big brother. Though this sounds innocuous and is presented as a step to solve the problems, this is likely to create a new institution, beyond the control of democratic norms. Few people and groups who are calling the shots and asserting that they are ‘The People’, ‘Anna is above Parliament’, will rule through proxies of various types. This Anna movement has polarized the social layers according to those who look at either identity issues (Ram Temple) or symptomatic issues (Corruption) as the major issues while undermining the problems of dalits, minorities and other deprived sections of society. Identity issues or issues focused around symptoms, which are meant to preserve the status quo of political dynamics, and that’s what politics in the name of religion is all about. That’s what Christian fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalism or Hindutva, wants.
Now since Ram Temple appeal is fading away, those for social-political ‘status quo’ have jumped to the bandwagon of Anti-corruption. This is a shrewd move. Marginalized sections do feel left out from such ‘I am Anna’, ‘We are the People’ type of assertions, the message is that only the ‘shining India’ will have the say in the shaping of the nation, while the deprived India, will be permanently on the margins.
In a sense the RSS-Hindutva politics is constantly changing its strategies to communalize, polarize the society and to distract social attention from core issues. While initially the Rath Yatras and communal violence have played their role in polarizing the nation along religious lines, now the social issue, corruption, is being used to further strengthen the hold of politics aimed at retaining social inequalities.
Changing Strategies of RSS politics
Ram Puniyani
This December, Babri demolition act completed its 19years. On the occasion many a Muslim groups demanded the reconstruction of the masjid. This demand is just but is mired in many a complex legalities and is trapped in the politics in which there are many diverse players. One again needs to clarify that Hindutva is not a religion of Hindus. Religion of Hindus is Hinduism. Hindutva is the politics of RSS; it is a politics with sectarian vision. This is the vision of affluent upper caste- elite aiming to abolish democracy. Hindutva aims to bring a nation in the name of Hindu religion where the upper crust of society can rule as per the norms prevalent in feudal society. The trick involved here is that these norms of feudal society, the birth based hierarchy, is presented as a glorious tradition and in given the modern language and form.
Demolition of Babri Masjid was a demolition of a national monument; it was also the beginning of a phase of politics where the communal undercurrents of Indian politics menacingly came to the surface. It was a signal for the violence against minorities at a higher pitch. It was a blatant insult of whatever Indian Constitution stands for. It was also the first major step for communal parties to come to occupy the seats of power in the Centre.
After the initial sacking of the BJP Governments in the states where it was ruling, the polarization caused by demolition and post demolition violence went to frightening level and the communal party, BJP, which was at the margins of political structure, came to the fore as the major opposition party. Its parent organization, the real controller of Hindutva politics, RSS, started becoming more respectable and the social thinking was further vitiated with the biases against minorities. In due course the other minority the Christians were also brought under the firing range of the communalists leading to the ghastly burning of Pastor Graham Stains and later scattered attacks on Christian missionaries working in Adivasi areas, leading to massive Kandhmal carnage were witnessed.
For the first time BJP, the party inherently committed to the anti democratic notion of Hindu Rashtra, grabbed the power at the Centre in 1996, when all other parties correctly refused to ally with it to share the spoils of power. But that changed soon enough and other political parties, obsessed with power opportunistically started sharing power with those accused of Babri demolition, those whose affiliates incited not only the demolition but also the violence against minorities in different guises. The coming to power of BJP at centre opened the floodgates of the political space that goes with power, and the task of RSS progeny, VHP, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram got facilitated. The state apparatus, police bureaucracy got more communalized. The education was communalized more openly with a tinge of promoting faith based knowledge at the cost of the scientific temper and rational thought.
This also paved the way for further victories for BJP. The success of RSS propaganda is not merely that it targets the minorities; its bigger success is that it instils the fear in the mind of majority about the ‘threat’ of minority. There is a ripple effect of this process and then a section of ‘middle of the road elements’ also start turning over to support the Hindutva parties. Karnataka opened the floodgates of BJP for its entry into South. The political ideology of BJP and its group is gaining ascendance.
The Babri demolition led to multiple processes, denial of justice to victims of violence became structural, and the minorities started being relegated to second class citizenship. The demonization of minorities has by now gone to extreme levels. Christians are also being meted out the same treatment, particularly in Adivasi areas. This process of demonization of Muslim minorities later started being created around the issue related to terrorism. US propaganda after the 9/11, in which US created monster of Al Qaeda was the central force, brought immense disrepute to Islam and Muslims. US media coined the word Islamic terrorism, and the politics for control over oil resources was taken to absurd ideological manipulation and a religion and a religious community were subjected to immense targeting. In India also the propaganda against Muslims was taken to much worse levels with the global phenomenon of terror, falsely and cleverly attributed to teachings of Islam and Muslims.
Now the RSS-BJP politics is entering the new phase. Having reached the acme of anti minority polarization, it has found the Anna Hazare movement as the new vehicle for its politics of undermining democratic institutions to bring in a parallel authoritarian structure where the Lok Pal plays the big brother. Though this sounds innocuous and is presented as a step to solve the problems, this is likely to create a new institution, beyond the control of democratic norms. Few people and groups who are calling the shots and asserting that they are ‘The People’, ‘Anna is above Parliament’, will rule through proxies of various types. This Anna movement has polarized the social layers according to those who look at either identity issues (Ram Temple) or symptomatic issues (Corruption) as the major issues while undermining the problems of dalits, minorities and other deprived sections of society. Identity issues or issues focused around symptoms, which are meant to preserve the status quo of political dynamics, and that’s what politics in the name of religion is all about. That’s what Christian fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalism or Hindutva, wants.
Now since Ram Temple appeal is fading away, those for social-political ‘status quo’ have jumped to the bandwagon of Anti-corruption. This is a shrewd move. Marginalized sections do feel left out from such ‘I am Anna’, ‘We are the People’ type of assertions, the message is that only the ‘shining India’ will have the say in the shaping of the nation, while the deprived India, will be permanently on the margins.
In a sense the RSS-Hindutva politics is constantly changing its strategies to communalize, polarize the society and to distract social attention from core issues. While initially the Rath Yatras and communal violence have played their role in polarizing the nation along religious lines, now the social issue, corruption, is being used to further strengthen the hold of politics aimed at retaining social inequalities.
December 23, 2011
Vishwa Hindu Parishad president Raghava Reddy to focus on 'service activities'
From: Indian Express
Andhra Pradesh | Posted on Dec 22, 2011 at 11:55am IST
Saffron bodies to focus on service activities
indianexpress Express News Service , The New Indian Express
HYDERABAD: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad will lay more emphasis on service activities across the country, its new international president G Raghava Reddy has announced.
Addressing his maiden press conference here on Wednesday after his elevation, Reddy said the Parishad was running 33,000 schools in the country and the number would be increased to 50,000 in three years. Full-time workers will be appointed to implement the new action plan and to create awareness on Hindutva and inculcate patriotism in people.
Raghava Reddy, who assumed the new responsibility, said permanent buildings would be provided for VHP offices in all blocks in the country by 2014.
Replying to a question, he said his organisation had not decided yet on supporting the BJP in the 2014 general election. "We have not yet taken any decision on whom the VHP should support in the coming elections. We will take a stand after discussing the issue in the organisation."
Responding to the ban on the Bhagavagadgita in a Russian region, he said the VHP would react only after the Russian court delivered its verdict on December 28. He said Russians decided to ban the Gita because they did not understand it. The VHP would convey Hindus' feelings to the Russian government through the Indian government, he said, adding that Indians were a very small community in Russia but they had conveyed their feelings to the Russian government. VHP vice-president Ashok Chawla was handling the issue, he said.
Reddy praised civil society leader Anna Hazare for the movement he launched against corruption and said the entire Indian youth was supporting him. The VHP was also supporting Hazare movement, he said.
On demands for smaller states, the VHP leader said it belonged to the political domain but the VHP would work to unite all the Hindus who were living in the entire world. "We don't have any objection if the government decides to divide the country into 100 states. In all the states, the VHP will be working to implement its agenda.''
Raghava Reddy said many problems of India would be solved if the Centre curbed ISI activities, terrorism and religious conversations. He took strong objection to political leaders describing Hindutva as one form of saffron terrorism and demanded that they tender an unconditionally apology.
The VHP leader accused the state government of failing totally to prevent cow slaughter in Hyderabad and other parts of the state.
Andhra Pradesh | Posted on Dec 22, 2011 at 11:55am IST
Saffron bodies to focus on service activities
indianexpress Express News Service , The New Indian Express
HYDERABAD: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad will lay more emphasis on service activities across the country, its new international president G Raghava Reddy has announced.
Addressing his maiden press conference here on Wednesday after his elevation, Reddy said the Parishad was running 33,000 schools in the country and the number would be increased to 50,000 in three years. Full-time workers will be appointed to implement the new action plan and to create awareness on Hindutva and inculcate patriotism in people.
Raghava Reddy, who assumed the new responsibility, said permanent buildings would be provided for VHP offices in all blocks in the country by 2014.
Replying to a question, he said his organisation had not decided yet on supporting the BJP in the 2014 general election. "We have not yet taken any decision on whom the VHP should support in the coming elections. We will take a stand after discussing the issue in the organisation."
Responding to the ban on the Bhagavagadgita in a Russian region, he said the VHP would react only after the Russian court delivered its verdict on December 28. He said Russians decided to ban the Gita because they did not understand it. The VHP would convey Hindus' feelings to the Russian government through the Indian government, he said, adding that Indians were a very small community in Russia but they had conveyed their feelings to the Russian government. VHP vice-president Ashok Chawla was handling the issue, he said.
Reddy praised civil society leader Anna Hazare for the movement he launched against corruption and said the entire Indian youth was supporting him. The VHP was also supporting Hazare movement, he said.
On demands for smaller states, the VHP leader said it belonged to the political domain but the VHP would work to unite all the Hindus who were living in the entire world. "We don't have any objection if the government decides to divide the country into 100 states. In all the states, the VHP will be working to implement its agenda.''
Raghava Reddy said many problems of India would be solved if the Centre curbed ISI activities, terrorism and religious conversations. He took strong objection to political leaders describing Hindutva as one form of saffron terrorism and demanded that they tender an unconditionally apology.
The VHP leader accused the state government of failing totally to prevent cow slaughter in Hyderabad and other parts of the state.
Why are madrasas and vedic schools out of purview of Right to Education Act ?
From: Indian Express
Keep madrasas out of RTE, Digvijaya tells PM
Express news service Posted online: Tue Dec 13 2011, 01:05 hrs
New Delhi : The All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Muslim clerics have sent several delegations to the Human Resource Development ministry and even threatened to start an agitation if madrasas are not kept out of the Right to Education Act’s provisions. That apart, a delegation of Congress leaders, led by Digvijaya Singh, today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to exempt minority education from the ambit of the Right to Education Act.
“There are some issues under the Right to Education where the formulation of the syllabus and other things are contentious. That can be resolved by discussions with the minority institutions,” Singh told reporters.
The delegation also requested the PM to release the payment of madrasa teachers.
“Modernisation of madrasa programme was started when Manmohan Singh was the finance minister. Now the payment of teachers for two-three years has been pending and there was no resolution despite our meeting with the HRD minister,” said the Congress general secretary.
He said the PM has given directions to HRD and Finance ministries to give payments immediately.
Taking a cue from the madrasa bodies, vedic schools — affiliated to the Kanchi Matha, Ahobila Matha and Andavan Ashram, among others — had raised a similar demand. The HRD ministry has moved an amendment to the RTE Act keeping both madrasas and vedic schools out of its purview.
Keep madrasas out of RTE, Digvijaya tells PM
Express news service Posted online: Tue Dec 13 2011, 01:05 hrs
New Delhi : The All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Muslim clerics have sent several delegations to the Human Resource Development ministry and even threatened to start an agitation if madrasas are not kept out of the Right to Education Act’s provisions. That apart, a delegation of Congress leaders, led by Digvijaya Singh, today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to exempt minority education from the ambit of the Right to Education Act.
“There are some issues under the Right to Education where the formulation of the syllabus and other things are contentious. That can be resolved by discussions with the minority institutions,” Singh told reporters.
The delegation also requested the PM to release the payment of madrasa teachers.
“Modernisation of madrasa programme was started when Manmohan Singh was the finance minister. Now the payment of teachers for two-three years has been pending and there was no resolution despite our meeting with the HRD minister,” said the Congress general secretary.
He said the PM has given directions to HRD and Finance ministries to give payments immediately.
Taking a cue from the madrasa bodies, vedic schools — affiliated to the Kanchi Matha, Ahobila Matha and Andavan Ashram, among others — had raised a similar demand. The HRD ministry has moved an amendment to the RTE Act keeping both madrasas and vedic schools out of its purview.
Swearing in the name of God
From: The Times of India
SC: Oath in Allah's name not against Constitution
TNN Dec 13, 2011, 04.51AM IST
NEW DELHI: Article 159 of the Constitution may mandate a governor to take oath of office by "swearing in the name of God" or "solemnly affirm" but the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Jharkhand governor Syed Ahmad did not breach the constitutional provision by taking oath in the name of "Allah".
In fact, a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya was critical of a student, Kamal Nayan Prabhakar, for attempting to link Ahmad's taking oath in the name of "Allah" to the constitution of Pakistan.
SC: Oath in Allah's name not against Constitution
TNN Dec 13, 2011, 04.51AM IST
NEW DELHI: Article 159 of the Constitution may mandate a governor to take oath of office by "swearing in the name of God" or "solemnly affirm" but the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Jharkhand governor Syed Ahmad did not breach the constitutional provision by taking oath in the name of "Allah".
In fact, a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya was critical of a student, Kamal Nayan Prabhakar, for attempting to link Ahmad's taking oath in the name of "Allah" to the constitution of Pakistan.
RSS holds the leash as Anna Hazare sets out to perform - cartoon in Mail Today
Cartoon in Mail Today by R Prasad
The new boss of VHP is a mithaiwallah from Andhra
From: The Telegraph, December 19 , 2011
Mithaiwallah to head VHP, old order goes
by Radhika Ramaseshan
New Delhi, Dec. 19: Ashok Singhal bowed out as the president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and made way for G Raghava Reddy, a businessman and philanthrophist of Andhra Pradesh.
Singhal, who is into its eighties, has been ill and immobile for some time. Mohanrao Bhagwat, the RSS sarsanghachalak--who, Sangh sources said, wanted to bring in a “generational change” in the VHP like he did in the BJP--picked the 50-year-old Reddy, who has inherited a family trade of a chain of mithai shops in Hyderabad and other
Andhra cities known as Pulla Reddy Sweets after his late father.
Reddy senior was a VHP member and closely associated with the Ram temple movement.
Reddy, said sources, was chosen not because he is relatively young but also because he is believed to be close to Bhagwat. Just as Nitin Gadkari was selected for the same reason as the BJP chief, sources said, Bhagwat now hopes to use Reddy to gain control of the VHP, which has autonomously raised a sizeable number of cadres throughout the country. As long as Singhal was around, Bhagwat was hands off.
Like his predecessor, Reddy was designated international president. He was previously the VHP’s chief treasurer.
In a series of changes that reflected the internal power dynamics within the saffron parivar, the fiesty Praveen Togadia, who had hoped to ascend to the top after Singhal, was “elevated” as the international working president. But VHP sources admitted it was an ornamental post. Togadia’s bitter relations with Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi were factored in when Bhagwat decided to sidestep his claims.
Although Modi has defanged the RSS and the VHP back in Gujarat, sources maintained he repaired the breach with Nagpur and was on “amicable” terms with Bhagwat and the other key players in the Sangh headquarter. On its part, the Sangh perceives Modi as the most “promising” of the BJP’s top leaders.
Champat Rai, an RSS “pracharak” of Uttar Pradesh and a key strategist of the temple “movement”, has been appointed as the international general secretary. Sources said he is expected to conceptualise and execute the organisation’s blueprints in consultation with the RSS chief.
Dinesh Chandra, also a Sangh “pracharak” and a VHP ofice-bearer, was expected to get Rai’s job. But he reportedly fell foul of a senior BJP leader after he indicted a protege of this leader in a probe he was asked to conduct on a corruption charge. A section of the BJP was supposed to have unleashed a counter campaign against Chandra. He was made the organisational general secretary.
Sources said the new office-bearers propose launching an “awareness” campaign against the Centre’s reported move to carve a quota for the minorities out of reservations for OBCs and Dalits.
Mithaiwallah to head VHP, old order goes
by Radhika Ramaseshan
New Delhi, Dec. 19: Ashok Singhal bowed out as the president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and made way for G Raghava Reddy, a businessman and philanthrophist of Andhra Pradesh.
Singhal, who is into its eighties, has been ill and immobile for some time. Mohanrao Bhagwat, the RSS sarsanghachalak--who, Sangh sources said, wanted to bring in a “generational change” in the VHP like he did in the BJP--picked the 50-year-old Reddy, who has inherited a family trade of a chain of mithai shops in Hyderabad and other
Andhra cities known as Pulla Reddy Sweets after his late father.
Reddy senior was a VHP member and closely associated with the Ram temple movement.
Reddy, said sources, was chosen not because he is relatively young but also because he is believed to be close to Bhagwat. Just as Nitin Gadkari was selected for the same reason as the BJP chief, sources said, Bhagwat now hopes to use Reddy to gain control of the VHP, which has autonomously raised a sizeable number of cadres throughout the country. As long as Singhal was around, Bhagwat was hands off.
Like his predecessor, Reddy was designated international president. He was previously the VHP’s chief treasurer.
In a series of changes that reflected the internal power dynamics within the saffron parivar, the fiesty Praveen Togadia, who had hoped to ascend to the top after Singhal, was “elevated” as the international working president. But VHP sources admitted it was an ornamental post. Togadia’s bitter relations with Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi were factored in when Bhagwat decided to sidestep his claims.
Although Modi has defanged the RSS and the VHP back in Gujarat, sources maintained he repaired the breach with Nagpur and was on “amicable” terms with Bhagwat and the other key players in the Sangh headquarter. On its part, the Sangh perceives Modi as the most “promising” of the BJP’s top leaders.
Champat Rai, an RSS “pracharak” of Uttar Pradesh and a key strategist of the temple “movement”, has been appointed as the international general secretary. Sources said he is expected to conceptualise and execute the organisation’s blueprints in consultation with the RSS chief.
Dinesh Chandra, also a Sangh “pracharak” and a VHP ofice-bearer, was expected to get Rai’s job. But he reportedly fell foul of a senior BJP leader after he indicted a protege of this leader in a probe he was asked to conduct on a corruption charge. A section of the BJP was supposed to have unleashed a counter campaign against Chandra. He was made the organisational general secretary.
Sources said the new office-bearers propose launching an “awareness” campaign against the Centre’s reported move to carve a quota for the minorities out of reservations for OBCs and Dalits.
A new shoulder for RSS and its tenets of Hindutva
by Ram Puniyani
[. . .]
NOW, RSS-BJP politics is entering the new phase. Having reached the acme of anti-minority polarisation, it has found the Hazare movement as the new vehicle for its politics of undermining democratic institutions to bring in a parallel authoritarian structure where the Lokpal plays the big brother. Though this sounds innocuous and is presented as a step to solve the problems, this is likely to create a new institution beyond the control of democratic norms. A few people and groups who are calling the shots and asserting that they are ‘The People’, ‘Anna is above parliament’, will rule through various proxies. This Hazare movement has polarised the social layers according to those who look at either identity issues (Ram Temple) or symptomatic issues (corruption) as the major issues while undermining the problems of Dalits, minorities and other deprived sections of society. Identity issues or matters focussed around symptoms, which are meant to preserve the status quo of political dynamics, is what politics in the name of religion desires.
Since the Ram Temple appeal is fading, those for sociopolitical status quo have jumped on the anti-corruption bandwagon. This is a shrewd move. Marginalised sections feel left out from ‘I am Anna’, ‘We are the People’ type of assertions, the message is that only ‘shining India’ will have say in the shaping of a nation, while the deprived India, will be permanently on the margins.
In a sense, the RSS-Hindutva politics is constantly changing its strategies to communalise, polarise the society and to distract social attention from core issues.
FULL TEXT AT : http://www.tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ws211211Ramped.asp
[. . .]
NOW, RSS-BJP politics is entering the new phase. Having reached the acme of anti-minority polarisation, it has found the Hazare movement as the new vehicle for its politics of undermining democratic institutions to bring in a parallel authoritarian structure where the Lokpal plays the big brother. Though this sounds innocuous and is presented as a step to solve the problems, this is likely to create a new institution beyond the control of democratic norms. A few people and groups who are calling the shots and asserting that they are ‘The People’, ‘Anna is above parliament’, will rule through various proxies. This Hazare movement has polarised the social layers according to those who look at either identity issues (Ram Temple) or symptomatic issues (corruption) as the major issues while undermining the problems of Dalits, minorities and other deprived sections of society. Identity issues or matters focussed around symptoms, which are meant to preserve the status quo of political dynamics, is what politics in the name of religion desires.
Since the Ram Temple appeal is fading, those for sociopolitical status quo have jumped on the anti-corruption bandwagon. This is a shrewd move. Marginalised sections feel left out from ‘I am Anna’, ‘We are the People’ type of assertions, the message is that only ‘shining India’ will have say in the shaping of a nation, while the deprived India, will be permanently on the margins.
In a sense, the RSS-Hindutva politics is constantly changing its strategies to communalise, polarise the society and to distract social attention from core issues.
FULL TEXT AT : http://www.tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Ws211211Ramped.asp
December 17, 2011
Remembering Kandhamal (Harsh Mander)
From: The Hindu, December 17, 2011
Barefoot: Remembering Kandhamal
by Harsh Mander
Remains of a church in Kandhamal district. File Photo: Lingaraj Panda
The Hindu Remains of a church in Kandhamal district. File Photo: Lingaraj Panda
Kandhamal was not a spontaneous outburst of mass anger. And the victims still await justice.
It was a terrifying Christmas in 2007 for tribal and dalit Christians who live in the second poorest, deeply forested district of Odisha, Kandhamal. Long-smouldering violence targeting them exploded, and was to continue to rage for another full year. During this time, 600 villages were ransacked, 5,600 houses were looted and burnt, 54,000 persons rendered homeless, 295 churches and places of worship destroyed, and 13 schools, colleges and orphanages were damaged. The official death toll was 39, although unofficially the figure is claimed to be closer to 100. 30,000 people were forced to live in relief camps, and it is estimated that nearly half are still unable to return home.
Four years later, many of the survivors gathered in Bhubaneshwar to remember and to mourn. In an exhibition organised by Anhad, some of the vandalised remains of churches and homes were displayed. In one corner, blurred, blown-up passport sized pictures of men and women who had been killed were pasted on bamboo sticks. Many stood there and wept quietly. The occasion was the release of the report of a National People's Tribunal on Kandhamal, aptly titled ‘Waiting for Justice'. The Tribunal was chaired by Justice A.P. Shah, and included among its members Syeda Hameed, Ruth Manorama, Mahesh Bhatt, Vinod Raina, Vrinda Grover, Miloon Kothari, P.S. Krishnan and Sukumar Muralidharan. I too was a member of the Tribunal.
Striking similarities
Although the states of Odisha and Gujarat are located at the furthest eastern and western corners of India, separated by several thousand kilometres, the mass-targeted hate violence in both states, in 2007-08 and 2002 respectively have many striking — and deeply troubling — similarities. Each was characterised by a long build-up of hatred against religious minority residents, there is evidence of systematic advance preparation, state authorities were openly complicit in enabling the violence to persist for weeks and months, the attacks were unusually brutal and targeted women, thousands were displaced and discouraged from returning to their homes, facing organised social and economic boycott. And in both, compensation was tight-fisted and justice systematically subverted.
There is evidence in both Gujarat and Odisha of systematic planning and organisation prior to and during the attacks, as though they were both only awaiting a flashpoint to let loose the terror and mass violence. These were not spontaneous outbursts of mass anger. They were planned attacks cynically facilitated and criminally abetted by the state administration in the two states. The Tribunal notes: ‘Victim-survivors testimonials repeatedly referred to the perpetrators wearing red head bands, carrying numerous weapons such as axes, daggers, swords, guns, crowbars, pickaxes, lathis, bows and arrows, lighted torches, bombs, petrol and kerosene barrels, trishuls, tangia, pharsa bhujali and bars'. They could have been speaking of Gujarat, where we heard literally hundreds of similar testimonials.
One survivor, Keshamati, recalls further: “It is ‘Sahukars' from the towns of different parts of Kandhamal who took the leadership in creating the violence, supplying weapons, arms and explosives like petrol and diesel to some of our people.” Another adds, “The rioters brought trucks from other villages and they carried away looted valuables from our villages in the trucks. Many speak of preparatory meetings in villages the night prior to the attacks.
In Odisha, once again like in Gujarat five years earlier, the attacks were marked by exceptional cruelty. Kanaka Nayak recalls the horrific mob slaughter of her husband when he refused to reconvert to Hinduism. “They spat on him and started to sing and dance around him; they paraded him, and dragged him. They told him ‘you sing your songs and let Jesus come and save you'. And they started attacking and cut his body into three pieces.” Many attacks were on women. Christodas recounts, “When we were fleeing to the relief camp, my wife was attacked with a sword by a violent mob..... I saw her palms being cut; she had a cut on her skull and her backbone.” An orphanage was destroyed. The body of the warden was burnt, the lower part of her body was completely burnt so as to destroy all evidence of alleged gang rape.
Women who suffered sexual violence in both massacres continue to live with the agony of memory and silences of shame. One said in confidence to the Tribunal, ‘The attackers removed their mask before they raped me. Earlier, they would respect me. I was shocked that they took revenge on me for my uncle's refusal to convert to Hinduism... Lots of things have changed in my life after that incident. I have been in hiding. I am traumatised, sad, depressed and struggling. I feel ashamed. I am unable to forget about the incident and carry on with life. But I feel I should be strong to get justice.”
Surprise element
Another surprising common feature in the two mass slaughters was the role played by women's organisations such as the Durga Vahini. The Tribunal records evidence of the mass mobilisation of women who formed violent mobs and perpetrated the attacks.
The two massacres are also linked by the open support to the violence by the state administrations, which permitted these to blaze for long weeks and months, reducing an entire religious community to fear and destitution. The Tribunal quotes the earlier report by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights: ‘The local government by and large not only stood by and silently watched, as the horrendous events were unfolding, but in several ways, according to the eye-witnesses, facilitated the gangs indulging destruction of human life and valuable property. What followed by way of administrative action — controlling the situation, relief measures for the afflicted and punishing the guilty — could only be described as formal-ritual motions to satisfy the letter of the law'.
State apathy
To take just two illustrations, survivor Premashila testifies to the Tribunal, “The police and the district administration were aware of strategies of the rioters before the incident took place, because these rioters were organising meetings, rallies in the presence of the police and district administration in many places.” Father Kullu describes their role in the destruction of the Madhupur Church: “...in front of the police and the deputed magistrate the rioters destroyed, burnt and ransacked everything whatever they could in two hours. Many valuables were stolen. They completely destroyed the church, priest residence, hostels, convent, dispensary and Maria grottos.”
In both hate carnages, people were openly attacked because of their adherence to what was incorrectly described as ‘foreign religions', in one case Islam and the other Christianity. The Tribunal notes, ‘Thousands of Christians being chased and herded in groups into Hindu temples and forced to undergo “reconversion” ceremonies with their heads tonsured. They were made to drink cow-dung water as a mark of “purification” and some of them forced to burn Bibles or damage churches to prove that they had forsaken the Christian faith. The “reconverted” Christians were forced to sign “voluntary declarations” stating that they were becoming Hindus voluntarily — a condition required by the anti-conversion law in Orissa'.
In my next column, I will trace the echoes of Gujarat in Kandhamal five years later, in ways that boycott was organised, reparation withheld and justice subverted.
Openly instigating violence, VHP leader Pravin Tagodia had a free passage across the state in the build-up to the protracted violence. He thundered, “There is no place for Christians. If Christians don't become Hindus, they have to go. We don't care where they go. They must leave Orissa.” The purpose of the violence was to punish and terrorise those adivasis and dalits who had converted to Christianity, some generations earlier. In Odisha, as in Gujarat before it, ultimately the aim of the violence was to reduce the religious minorities to permanent fearful submission to people of the majority faith, in destruction of the secular democratic Constitution of the land.
Barefoot: Remembering Kandhamal
by Harsh Mander
Remains of a church in Kandhamal district. File Photo: Lingaraj Panda
The Hindu Remains of a church in Kandhamal district. File Photo: Lingaraj Panda
Kandhamal was not a spontaneous outburst of mass anger. And the victims still await justice.
It was a terrifying Christmas in 2007 for tribal and dalit Christians who live in the second poorest, deeply forested district of Odisha, Kandhamal. Long-smouldering violence targeting them exploded, and was to continue to rage for another full year. During this time, 600 villages were ransacked, 5,600 houses were looted and burnt, 54,000 persons rendered homeless, 295 churches and places of worship destroyed, and 13 schools, colleges and orphanages were damaged. The official death toll was 39, although unofficially the figure is claimed to be closer to 100. 30,000 people were forced to live in relief camps, and it is estimated that nearly half are still unable to return home.
Four years later, many of the survivors gathered in Bhubaneshwar to remember and to mourn. In an exhibition organised by Anhad, some of the vandalised remains of churches and homes were displayed. In one corner, blurred, blown-up passport sized pictures of men and women who had been killed were pasted on bamboo sticks. Many stood there and wept quietly. The occasion was the release of the report of a National People's Tribunal on Kandhamal, aptly titled ‘Waiting for Justice'. The Tribunal was chaired by Justice A.P. Shah, and included among its members Syeda Hameed, Ruth Manorama, Mahesh Bhatt, Vinod Raina, Vrinda Grover, Miloon Kothari, P.S. Krishnan and Sukumar Muralidharan. I too was a member of the Tribunal.
Striking similarities
Although the states of Odisha and Gujarat are located at the furthest eastern and western corners of India, separated by several thousand kilometres, the mass-targeted hate violence in both states, in 2007-08 and 2002 respectively have many striking — and deeply troubling — similarities. Each was characterised by a long build-up of hatred against religious minority residents, there is evidence of systematic advance preparation, state authorities were openly complicit in enabling the violence to persist for weeks and months, the attacks were unusually brutal and targeted women, thousands were displaced and discouraged from returning to their homes, facing organised social and economic boycott. And in both, compensation was tight-fisted and justice systematically subverted.
There is evidence in both Gujarat and Odisha of systematic planning and organisation prior to and during the attacks, as though they were both only awaiting a flashpoint to let loose the terror and mass violence. These were not spontaneous outbursts of mass anger. They were planned attacks cynically facilitated and criminally abetted by the state administration in the two states. The Tribunal notes: ‘Victim-survivors testimonials repeatedly referred to the perpetrators wearing red head bands, carrying numerous weapons such as axes, daggers, swords, guns, crowbars, pickaxes, lathis, bows and arrows, lighted torches, bombs, petrol and kerosene barrels, trishuls, tangia, pharsa bhujali and bars'. They could have been speaking of Gujarat, where we heard literally hundreds of similar testimonials.
One survivor, Keshamati, recalls further: “It is ‘Sahukars' from the towns of different parts of Kandhamal who took the leadership in creating the violence, supplying weapons, arms and explosives like petrol and diesel to some of our people.” Another adds, “The rioters brought trucks from other villages and they carried away looted valuables from our villages in the trucks. Many speak of preparatory meetings in villages the night prior to the attacks.
In Odisha, once again like in Gujarat five years earlier, the attacks were marked by exceptional cruelty. Kanaka Nayak recalls the horrific mob slaughter of her husband when he refused to reconvert to Hinduism. “They spat on him and started to sing and dance around him; they paraded him, and dragged him. They told him ‘you sing your songs and let Jesus come and save you'. And they started attacking and cut his body into three pieces.” Many attacks were on women. Christodas recounts, “When we were fleeing to the relief camp, my wife was attacked with a sword by a violent mob..... I saw her palms being cut; she had a cut on her skull and her backbone.” An orphanage was destroyed. The body of the warden was burnt, the lower part of her body was completely burnt so as to destroy all evidence of alleged gang rape.
Women who suffered sexual violence in both massacres continue to live with the agony of memory and silences of shame. One said in confidence to the Tribunal, ‘The attackers removed their mask before they raped me. Earlier, they would respect me. I was shocked that they took revenge on me for my uncle's refusal to convert to Hinduism... Lots of things have changed in my life after that incident. I have been in hiding. I am traumatised, sad, depressed and struggling. I feel ashamed. I am unable to forget about the incident and carry on with life. But I feel I should be strong to get justice.”
Surprise element
Another surprising common feature in the two mass slaughters was the role played by women's organisations such as the Durga Vahini. The Tribunal records evidence of the mass mobilisation of women who formed violent mobs and perpetrated the attacks.
The two massacres are also linked by the open support to the violence by the state administrations, which permitted these to blaze for long weeks and months, reducing an entire religious community to fear and destitution. The Tribunal quotes the earlier report by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights: ‘The local government by and large not only stood by and silently watched, as the horrendous events were unfolding, but in several ways, according to the eye-witnesses, facilitated the gangs indulging destruction of human life and valuable property. What followed by way of administrative action — controlling the situation, relief measures for the afflicted and punishing the guilty — could only be described as formal-ritual motions to satisfy the letter of the law'.
State apathy
To take just two illustrations, survivor Premashila testifies to the Tribunal, “The police and the district administration were aware of strategies of the rioters before the incident took place, because these rioters were organising meetings, rallies in the presence of the police and district administration in many places.” Father Kullu describes their role in the destruction of the Madhupur Church: “...in front of the police and the deputed magistrate the rioters destroyed, burnt and ransacked everything whatever they could in two hours. Many valuables were stolen. They completely destroyed the church, priest residence, hostels, convent, dispensary and Maria grottos.”
In both hate carnages, people were openly attacked because of their adherence to what was incorrectly described as ‘foreign religions', in one case Islam and the other Christianity. The Tribunal notes, ‘Thousands of Christians being chased and herded in groups into Hindu temples and forced to undergo “reconversion” ceremonies with their heads tonsured. They were made to drink cow-dung water as a mark of “purification” and some of them forced to burn Bibles or damage churches to prove that they had forsaken the Christian faith. The “reconverted” Christians were forced to sign “voluntary declarations” stating that they were becoming Hindus voluntarily — a condition required by the anti-conversion law in Orissa'.
In my next column, I will trace the echoes of Gujarat in Kandhamal five years later, in ways that boycott was organised, reparation withheld and justice subverted.
Openly instigating violence, VHP leader Pravin Tagodia had a free passage across the state in the build-up to the protracted violence. He thundered, “There is no place for Christians. If Christians don't become Hindus, they have to go. We don't care where they go. They must leave Orissa.” The purpose of the violence was to punish and terrorise those adivasis and dalits who had converted to Christianity, some generations earlier. In Odisha, as in Gujarat before it, ultimately the aim of the violence was to reduce the religious minorities to permanent fearful submission to people of the majority faith, in destruction of the secular democratic Constitution of the land.
Karnataka govt’s bill on religion defeated
Deccan Chronicle, December 17, 2011
Ahead of the crucial by-election to the Legislative Council, the ruling BJP was outwitted by the Opposition which defeated the government’s move to get the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments (Second Amendment) Bill, 2011 passed in the Assembly.
The bill was defeated by a single vote. This is a record of sorts as no bill moved by the ruling party, has been defeated by the Opposition in recent years.
The incident happened after the Congress requested muzrai minister Dr V.S. Acharya to take up the same bill during the next session. However, the minister refused to give in following which leader of the Opposition, Siddaramaiah demanded a vote on the bill.
When Speaker K.G. Bopaiah put the bill to vote, 33 members rose in support while 34 Opposition members including five Independent legislators and JD(S) members opposed it. The bill was earlier passed by the Upper House.
Earlier, the Opposition insisted on a debate on the bill but Dr Acharya replied that the proposed amendments were minor in nature. As the bill had already been approved by the Council, it had to be passed on Friday, he said.
Mr Siddaramaiah however felt that a debate was needed as the government’s move to keep temples attached to maths out of the purview of legislation had far reaching consequences which needed to be studied in depth.
He claimed that the government had transferred the Sri Krishna temple in Udupi to Ashtamaths going against the Apex Court’s verdict. Similarly, the Mahabaleshwar temple in Gokarna in Uttara Kannada district too was given the same treatment after it was handed over to Ramachandrapura math, he said.
“For the sake of gods and goddesses, the bill should be discussed at length and can be taken up during the next session,” Dr Mahadevappa demanded. Chief Minister D. V. Sadananda Gowda was not present when the bill was defeated.
When Siddaramaiah demanded the resignation of the government on moral grounds as it had been defeated on the floor of the House, water resources minister Basavaraj Bommai intervened and said “Leave it sir, it is only an amendment bill.”
Ahead of the crucial by-election to the Legislative Council, the ruling BJP was outwitted by the Opposition which defeated the government’s move to get the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments (Second Amendment) Bill, 2011 passed in the Assembly.
The bill was defeated by a single vote. This is a record of sorts as no bill moved by the ruling party, has been defeated by the Opposition in recent years.
The incident happened after the Congress requested muzrai minister Dr V.S. Acharya to take up the same bill during the next session. However, the minister refused to give in following which leader of the Opposition, Siddaramaiah demanded a vote on the bill.
When Speaker K.G. Bopaiah put the bill to vote, 33 members rose in support while 34 Opposition members including five Independent legislators and JD(S) members opposed it. The bill was earlier passed by the Upper House.
Earlier, the Opposition insisted on a debate on the bill but Dr Acharya replied that the proposed amendments were minor in nature. As the bill had already been approved by the Council, it had to be passed on Friday, he said.
Mr Siddaramaiah however felt that a debate was needed as the government’s move to keep temples attached to maths out of the purview of legislation had far reaching consequences which needed to be studied in depth.
He claimed that the government had transferred the Sri Krishna temple in Udupi to Ashtamaths going against the Apex Court’s verdict. Similarly, the Mahabaleshwar temple in Gokarna in Uttara Kannada district too was given the same treatment after it was handed over to Ramachandrapura math, he said.
“For the sake of gods and goddesses, the bill should be discussed at length and can be taken up during the next session,” Dr Mahadevappa demanded. Chief Minister D. V. Sadananda Gowda was not present when the bill was defeated.
When Siddaramaiah demanded the resignation of the government on moral grounds as it had been defeated on the floor of the House, water resources minister Basavaraj Bommai intervened and said “Leave it sir, it is only an amendment bill.”
Only reacting, not acting
(To appear in Mainstream Weekly, end of 2011)
by Mukul Dube
This piece of writing is inspired by a long telephone conversation with Harsh Kapoor (South Asia Citizens’ Wire, Communalism Watch, etc.) which followed a public meeting of Champa – the Amiya and B.G. Rao Foundation – at which the speakers were Manisha Sethi and Kumar Ketkar. I shall focus on the implications of what I see as the main issues discussed. Sethi, who is perhaps best known for her work related to the
Batla House “encounter” of 2008, spoke of what has become the established pattern in dealing with “terror”: Muslims, mostly young males, are arrested and imprisoned – with the foul treatment that imprisonment has come to imply – and the business is given wide and completely uncritical publicity by the mass media. These unfortunates are often released, years later, after their lives and those of their families have been destroyed. There is an assumption that every explosion and every discharge of a gun must be the act of a Muslim, because don’t we know that all Muslims belong to SIMI or IM or another of the terror outfits that might just as well have been created by police and press, so convenient are they. We know now that many “encounters” have been imaginary, dreamt up by a few people in uniform. The corpses, though, are real – and as they cannot speak, the police have the last word.
Ketkar spoke chiefly of the quite rapid growth of Hindutva as a force in Parliament, and in the country’s politics generally, and of how Hindutva has managed to infiltrate every institution in the country, from the staffs of daily newspapers to the sarkari bureaucracy and even the State machinery of the police and the armed forces. He said a good many other things, but in this piece of writing I shall ignore them.
Kapoor said that Hindutva has become the done thing, while in the past it was at least subterranean if not actually despised. This is manifested in the symbols seen everywhere – the marks on the forehead, the thread tied around wrists. I pointed out that it is religiosity in general which has become a way of life: if the “Hindus” have their symbols, the Muslims have their skull caps – which I, a product of the 1950s and 1960s, associate with namaz and not with constant, public visibility.
There is a common thread here. The monetary compensation that is given to those unjustly imprisoned is not justice. Justice demands that the functionaries of the State – the police and others – who perpetrated the injustice be punished according to the rules under which they are employed and under the laws of the land. If the forces of Hindutva have infiltrated the country’s governmental institutions, they have done that against the rules which govern the functioning of those institutions. If Hindutva, as expressed in hatred towards other religions, has come to permeate the very thinking of the bulk of Indian society, that must be called at once the victory of unreason and the defeat of our humanity. The media, by and large, look to the saleability of what they produce and not to the principles of journalism or to the role of the mass media in society.
Kapoor also pressed home something which both speakers had touched upon, something which has been brought up repeatedly, in the years since 2002, by far more people than I can list here. This is that the agenda is set by the actions of Hindutva and the terms of discourse are defined by Hindutva, so that the rest of us can only react and are kept so busy putting out fires, metaphorically, that we have no time to do those positive, productive and creative things that should be done.
I belong to the old tradition, seen all over the world, which might be called the Phir Subah Hogi Tradition. The older among us speak constantly of the dawn that is around the corner, certainly to inspire the young and perhaps to give ourselves courage. But the problem, in the words of a friend whom I shall not name, is that those who are kept busy dousing innumerable large and small fires and trying to tackle the termites and worms and locusts that are all over, cannot take any of the steps that are needed to bring that dawn closer.
Do we live in hope or in despair? Usually we engage in just the sort of mechanical activity that serves as a substitute for accomplishment. Again in the words of Kapoor, people who see themselves as progressive and secular find themselves sharing the stage with essentially obscurantist individuals from both main religions. This must be called a victory of practicality over principles: and because it is fundamentally flawed, it leads to nothing beyond small items tucked away in some newspapers and a few posts on obscure web sites. We only think that we have done something.
by Mukul Dube
This piece of writing is inspired by a long telephone conversation with Harsh Kapoor (South Asia Citizens’ Wire, Communalism Watch, etc.) which followed a public meeting of Champa – the Amiya and B.G. Rao Foundation – at which the speakers were Manisha Sethi and Kumar Ketkar. I shall focus on the implications of what I see as the main issues discussed. Sethi, who is perhaps best known for her work related to the
Batla House “encounter” of 2008, spoke of what has become the established pattern in dealing with “terror”: Muslims, mostly young males, are arrested and imprisoned – with the foul treatment that imprisonment has come to imply – and the business is given wide and completely uncritical publicity by the mass media. These unfortunates are often released, years later, after their lives and those of their families have been destroyed. There is an assumption that every explosion and every discharge of a gun must be the act of a Muslim, because don’t we know that all Muslims belong to SIMI or IM or another of the terror outfits that might just as well have been created by police and press, so convenient are they. We know now that many “encounters” have been imaginary, dreamt up by a few people in uniform. The corpses, though, are real – and as they cannot speak, the police have the last word.
Ketkar spoke chiefly of the quite rapid growth of Hindutva as a force in Parliament, and in the country’s politics generally, and of how Hindutva has managed to infiltrate every institution in the country, from the staffs of daily newspapers to the sarkari bureaucracy and even the State machinery of the police and the armed forces. He said a good many other things, but in this piece of writing I shall ignore them.
Kapoor said that Hindutva has become the done thing, while in the past it was at least subterranean if not actually despised. This is manifested in the symbols seen everywhere – the marks on the forehead, the thread tied around wrists. I pointed out that it is religiosity in general which has become a way of life: if the “Hindus” have their symbols, the Muslims have their skull caps – which I, a product of the 1950s and 1960s, associate with namaz and not with constant, public visibility.
There is a common thread here. The monetary compensation that is given to those unjustly imprisoned is not justice. Justice demands that the functionaries of the State – the police and others – who perpetrated the injustice be punished according to the rules under which they are employed and under the laws of the land. If the forces of Hindutva have infiltrated the country’s governmental institutions, they have done that against the rules which govern the functioning of those institutions. If Hindutva, as expressed in hatred towards other religions, has come to permeate the very thinking of the bulk of Indian society, that must be called at once the victory of unreason and the defeat of our humanity. The media, by and large, look to the saleability of what they produce and not to the principles of journalism or to the role of the mass media in society.
Kapoor also pressed home something which both speakers had touched upon, something which has been brought up repeatedly, in the years since 2002, by far more people than I can list here. This is that the agenda is set by the actions of Hindutva and the terms of discourse are defined by Hindutva, so that the rest of us can only react and are kept so busy putting out fires, metaphorically, that we have no time to do those positive, productive and creative things that should be done.
I belong to the old tradition, seen all over the world, which might be called the Phir Subah Hogi Tradition. The older among us speak constantly of the dawn that is around the corner, certainly to inspire the young and perhaps to give ourselves courage. But the problem, in the words of a friend whom I shall not name, is that those who are kept busy dousing innumerable large and small fires and trying to tackle the termites and worms and locusts that are all over, cannot take any of the steps that are needed to bring that dawn closer.
Do we live in hope or in despair? Usually we engage in just the sort of mechanical activity that serves as a substitute for accomplishment. Again in the words of Kapoor, people who see themselves as progressive and secular find themselves sharing the stage with essentially obscurantist individuals from both main religions. This must be called a victory of practicality over principles: and because it is fundamentally flawed, it leads to nothing beyond small items tucked away in some newspapers and a few posts on obscure web sites. We only think that we have done something.
December 16, 2011
Upcoming seminar: V.D. Savarkar on Maps, Empires & History (21 December 2011, NMML, Delhi)
The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
cordially invites you to a Seminar
at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 21 December 2011
in the Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building
on
‘Hindutva Beyond the Borders: V.D. Savarkar on Maps, Empires & History’
by
Dr. Vinayak Chaturvedi, University of California, Irvine, USA
Abstract:
As one of the intellectual founders of Hindu nationalism, V.D. Savarkar provided a key discussion of the territorial boundaries of the Hindu nation in his seminal political treatise Essentials of Hindutva published in 1923. Hindutva is often cited as the most influential text in the Hindu nationalist cannon in defining a Hindu as a person who identifies the nation between the Indus River and the seas as both the ‘father-land’ and the ‘holy-land’. The purpose of this paper is to examine Savarkar’s later writings on cartography and mapping from the 1930s and 1940s to reconsider his own thinking of the Hindu nation beyond the boundaries he defined in the 1920s. It will also consider Savarkar’s interpretations of ‘Greater India’, ‘Asia’, and the ‘pan-Hindu-Buddhist alliance’ that expand his own arguments about the geography of the nation, while simultaneously providing out an agenda for the future of empires in world history.
Speaker:
Dr. Vinayak Chaturvedi is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Peasant Pasts: History and Memory in Western India (2007) and the editor of Mapping Subaltern Studies and the Postcolonial (2000). His articles have appeared in Past and Present, Social History, Modern Intellectual History, WerkstattGeschichte, Left History, and Historische Anthropologie. He is presently working on a book on the intellectual history of V.D. Savarkar and the making of political thought in India.
cordially invites you to a Seminar
at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 21 December 2011
in the Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building
on
‘Hindutva Beyond the Borders: V.D. Savarkar on Maps, Empires & History’
by
Dr. Vinayak Chaturvedi, University of California, Irvine, USA
Abstract:
As one of the intellectual founders of Hindu nationalism, V.D. Savarkar provided a key discussion of the territorial boundaries of the Hindu nation in his seminal political treatise Essentials of Hindutva published in 1923. Hindutva is often cited as the most influential text in the Hindu nationalist cannon in defining a Hindu as a person who identifies the nation between the Indus River and the seas as both the ‘father-land’ and the ‘holy-land’. The purpose of this paper is to examine Savarkar’s later writings on cartography and mapping from the 1930s and 1940s to reconsider his own thinking of the Hindu nation beyond the boundaries he defined in the 1920s. It will also consider Savarkar’s interpretations of ‘Greater India’, ‘Asia’, and the ‘pan-Hindu-Buddhist alliance’ that expand his own arguments about the geography of the nation, while simultaneously providing out an agenda for the future of empires in world history.
Speaker:
Dr. Vinayak Chaturvedi is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Peasant Pasts: History and Memory in Western India (2007) and the editor of Mapping Subaltern Studies and the Postcolonial (2000). His articles have appeared in Past and Present, Social History, Modern Intellectual History, WerkstattGeschichte, Left History, and Historische Anthropologie. He is presently working on a book on the intellectual history of V.D. Savarkar and the making of political thought in India.
BJP leaders from RSS pool in Karnataka
From: Bangalore Mirror
BJP dips into RSS pool for 'flawless' leaders
Niranjan Kaggere
Posted On Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 11:58:02 PM
Resisting the temptation to stay in power through ‘Operation Lotus’, the saffron party has begun to cleanse itself by turning to its ideological roots. According to sources in the party, the change is the outcome of the humiliating defeat in the recent by-poll to the Bellary Rural Assembly seat.
The party has been avoiding turncoats while assigning responsibilities and handpicking leaders with a strong Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) background.
Overlooking several heavyweights, the party chose law minister Suresh Kumar to shoulder the responsibility of leading the ruling party on the floor of the Assembly. In the Council, the role will be donned by education minister Visveswara Hegde Kageri, yet another staunch RSS man.
Prominent RSS leader from north Karnataka and cooperation minister Lakshman Savadi has been made chief whip in the Assembly after the post was vacated by Jeevaraj, a close confidant of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.
An office-bearer of the state BJP said, “The Bellary by-poll result was a warning to the party to focus on its network. Instead of building a support base
in Bellary district, the party relied entirely on the Reddy brothers and Sriramulu. While we trusted them completely, we were back-stabbed. The humiliating defeat of the party’s candidate despite the backing of top leaders was the result of poor networking capabilities. The Reddy brothers and Sriramulu turned out to be opportunists. Had we selected a grassroots BJP worker to build the party, we would have had a base in the district.”
However, there are fears that the move would result in further divisions within the party.
One leader tried to dispel the fears, saying, “The party is not keen on one community. It is just focusing on leaders who have been in the party since
its formative days. They want somebody with enough understanding of the BJP’s ideologies who does not ditch or embarrass the party. In this case, the leaders in the Assembly and Council are from the Brahmin community, Savadi is a Lingayat. A few leaders from the Vokkaliga community and OBCs will also be soon given the responsibility of building the party base.”
Even though the Assembly polls are more than a year away, the ruling party does not want to take a chance by relying completely on turncoats who may switch over to rival parties at the time of the hustings.
By handpicking true BJP leaders who have come up through the RSS, the party hopes to restore its reputation of a disciplined unit.
BJP dips into RSS pool for 'flawless' leaders
Niranjan Kaggere
Posted On Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 11:58:02 PM
Resisting the temptation to stay in power through ‘Operation Lotus’, the saffron party has begun to cleanse itself by turning to its ideological roots. According to sources in the party, the change is the outcome of the humiliating defeat in the recent by-poll to the Bellary Rural Assembly seat.
The party has been avoiding turncoats while assigning responsibilities and handpicking leaders with a strong Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) background.
Overlooking several heavyweights, the party chose law minister Suresh Kumar to shoulder the responsibility of leading the ruling party on the floor of the Assembly. In the Council, the role will be donned by education minister Visveswara Hegde Kageri, yet another staunch RSS man.
Prominent RSS leader from north Karnataka and cooperation minister Lakshman Savadi has been made chief whip in the Assembly after the post was vacated by Jeevaraj, a close confidant of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.
An office-bearer of the state BJP said, “The Bellary by-poll result was a warning to the party to focus on its network. Instead of building a support base
in Bellary district, the party relied entirely on the Reddy brothers and Sriramulu. While we trusted them completely, we were back-stabbed. The humiliating defeat of the party’s candidate despite the backing of top leaders was the result of poor networking capabilities. The Reddy brothers and Sriramulu turned out to be opportunists. Had we selected a grassroots BJP worker to build the party, we would have had a base in the district.”
However, there are fears that the move would result in further divisions within the party.
One leader tried to dispel the fears, saying, “The party is not keen on one community. It is just focusing on leaders who have been in the party since
its formative days. They want somebody with enough understanding of the BJP’s ideologies who does not ditch or embarrass the party. In this case, the leaders in the Assembly and Council are from the Brahmin community, Savadi is a Lingayat. A few leaders from the Vokkaliga community and OBCs will also be soon given the responsibility of building the party base.”
Even though the Assembly polls are more than a year away, the ruling party does not want to take a chance by relying completely on turncoats who may switch over to rival parties at the time of the hustings.
By handpicking true BJP leaders who have come up through the RSS, the party hopes to restore its reputation of a disciplined unit.
On Riot - Free India (Asghar Ali Engineer)
(Secular Perspective December 16-31, 2011)
I was invited by Jnana Prabodhini, an organization affiliated to RSS in Pune to speak on the Communal Violence Bill which is proposed to be tabled in Parliament sometimes in near future. Of course I did not know the background of this organization and since we have undertaken to talk about the bill in various places to remove misunderstandings against it, I immediately accepted the invitation. Later on my friend from Pune Mr. Anwar Rajan and social activist told me that it is RSS affiliated but you must come and speak. It was sound advice.
I went and spoke on the bill before a group of some 200 people including their top leaders and students. Jnana Probhodini is a huge organization which trains students, teachers and those who appear from various competitive examinations like IAS, IPS or entrance organizations etc. Thousands of candidates benefit from these trainings. It is true they have huge resources but Muslims should also make similar efforts though on smaller scale raising resources from within the community as well as taking help from government schemes.
I spoke candidly on the bill to remove misunderstandings about it in the BJP and RSS groups. They feel it is anti-Hindu bill meant to harass Hindus and as many dalits use untouchability law against upper caste Hindus this bill will be used by Muslims against Hindus. After my presentation there were host of questions and many points were raised. As Gujarat like riots had not taken place before this bill become necessary.
I narrated to them history of communal riots in post-independence India since Jabalpur riots of 1961 and told them in most of these riots guilty were generally not punished and no responsibility was fixed as to who engineered these riots. I also told them that I have personally investigated most of these riots in which more than 35 thousand innocent people were killed and found that with few exceptions administration and police were biased. Not only that I told them how in Hashimpura, Meerut in 1987 the PAC Commandant Tripathi and his cohorts pulled out 54 people from their houses , all between 20 to 25 years old, shot them dead in cold blood and threw their bodies into Hindon canal two of which survived to tell the tale. But not one of them has been so far punished.
But in all these riots state governments were not directly involved nor it played any role in instigating riots. But it was for the first time in Gujarat that the state government was directly involved in instigating the riots. And entire administration and police force, willingly or unwillingly, was involved in aiding and abetting these riots (with few honourable exceptions). Mr. Narendra Modi, as some VHP activists claimed in a sting operation done by Tehelka gave protection to them.
It was in this background that this bill became necessary. There are three objectives of this bill: first, to take preventive measures in time to stop communal violence breaking out; second, if communal violence breaks out to fix responsibility on the actors concerned and get them punished through due process of law and thirdly to fix proper compensation for the dead and fix recompense for properties destroyed.
Today this is all arbitrarily done. It is entirely dependent on Chief Minister how much he sanctions. In some cases only one or two lakhs are given for those who died and in some cases it may be 5 lakhs. Mr. Modi gave 5 lakhs to those who died in Sabarmati train fire and only two lakhs for those who dies in subsequent communal riots. It was blatant discrimination. And Modi government offered as little as Rs. 500 for houses destroyed. This Bill fixes compensation minimum at 15 lakhs for the dead and proposes that it will increase with price index. Similarly it takes care of relief and rehabilitation to be decided by Central or State authority comprising government as well as civil society representative with proper minority representation.
A long discussion followed and numbers of questions were raised saying the Bill is heavily biased against Hindus and in favour of Muslims. I tried to satisfy their doubts and said it is wrong to say it is against Hindus. In fact the Bill is directed against those who perpetrate violence (be they Hindus or Muslims or any other group for that matter) and for the first time this Bill will try to fix responsibility for perpetrators of violence in an unbiased manner through proper representation of minorities in the Central or state authority. Thus how can it be said to be anti-Hindu then? It is anti- all those who perpetrate or provoke violence.
However, all I can say that I gave answers to all their questions which were aplenty but cannot claim to have changed their views as after all they belonged to the RSS affiliated organization. Besides them there were many others too - Muslims as well as non-Muslims who were interested in the debate.
However, what followed after the lunch was of more interest to me. The organizers had requested me to spare two hours after lunch for discussion with a smaller group of people and I had consented. There were some 30 people in this group and idea was to discuss how one could ensure riot-free India. Mr. Arvind Bal a prominent member of Jnana Prabodhini, started discussion with few proposals which I found non-controversial.
One of his proposal related to cultural activities undertaken together like drama, musical performances and the like both Hindus and Muslims participating together. Two, to celebrate national festivals like 15th August and 26th January together. Thirdly, to ensure that in every housing society 5 to 10 percent Muslims be given accommodation so that there is better interaction between Hindus and Muslims
He also proposed that secularism requires that we undertake criticism of religion and religious practices as Hamid Dalwai did. He felt this is necessary to ensure consolidation of secularism. I responded by saying that I welcome the proposals made by my friend Arvind Bal except the one about criticism of orthodoxy like Hamid Dalwai did. Orthodoxy has nothing to do with communalism. Jinnah was quite liberal and even non-believer and yet he demanded Pakistan whereas Maulana Husain Ahmed Madani, President Jami'at-ul-'Ulama'-i-Hind was very orthodox and yet he opposed partition and justified united democratic secular India. We have to accept orthodoxy in a democratic spirit as everyone has right to practice religion the way one wants to and in true democratic spirit one has to accept the other as the other is and one cannot dictate to other how other should be. It would lead to intolerance and conflict.
However, it does not mean that one should accept orthodoxy and narrow mindedness. No certainly not but one has to struggle against it through persuasive means and through wisdom and proper strategy. One should also not worship reason though reason is very valuable gift of nature, Reason is a tool, very important tool but not goal.
To ensure riot-free India most important tool is education system. Today our education system is value-neutral and competitive and perpetuates casteism and communalism. It does not produce critical but conforming mind. It distorts history and perpetuates mandir-masjid controversy. We teach Auangzeb but never Darashikoh who was such a profound scholar of both Islam and Hinduism.
We still teach fight between Shivaji and Afzal Khan and project Shivaji as anti-Muslim and Aurangzeb as anti-Hindu. It is total distortion of truth. Sihvaji killed Afzal Khan not because he was Muslim but because he was political rival and when he realized that he has killed him fearing he (Afzalkhan) would kill him he gave a large plot of land to build his mazar (mausoleum) and one can prove this through land records of the government.
One should stop teaching such distorted history and there is much in history which proves Hindu-Muslim unity and mutual harmonious living. This is not the way to build a nation. Our country is so great, so diverse and so multi-cultural that only way to build nation is to emphasise harmonious living, inclusive living and in everything we should not go on speaking as Hindus and Muslims but also as Indian nationals, if India is a nation. In everything if we go on speaking only as Hindus and Muslims, it means we are not speaking India as a nation, we are not feeling proud of being India, Yes, there are areas in which we are also Hindus and Muslims but let us keep these two areas apart. These two areas should be co-centric, not cross-cutting.
There are many things which we have to discuss including whether Islam and Hinduism are mutually conflicting or have areas of commonality. Whether religions clash or our egos and our politics do. Sufi saints found much that is common between the two religions but all this requires much discussion and we can meet again for such discussions. As I have to rush back to Mumbai hope we will meet again to continue the talk in this spirit.
I was invited by Jnana Prabodhini, an organization affiliated to RSS in Pune to speak on the Communal Violence Bill which is proposed to be tabled in Parliament sometimes in near future. Of course I did not know the background of this organization and since we have undertaken to talk about the bill in various places to remove misunderstandings against it, I immediately accepted the invitation. Later on my friend from Pune Mr. Anwar Rajan and social activist told me that it is RSS affiliated but you must come and speak. It was sound advice.
I went and spoke on the bill before a group of some 200 people including their top leaders and students. Jnana Probhodini is a huge organization which trains students, teachers and those who appear from various competitive examinations like IAS, IPS or entrance organizations etc. Thousands of candidates benefit from these trainings. It is true they have huge resources but Muslims should also make similar efforts though on smaller scale raising resources from within the community as well as taking help from government schemes.
I spoke candidly on the bill to remove misunderstandings about it in the BJP and RSS groups. They feel it is anti-Hindu bill meant to harass Hindus and as many dalits use untouchability law against upper caste Hindus this bill will be used by Muslims against Hindus. After my presentation there were host of questions and many points were raised. As Gujarat like riots had not taken place before this bill become necessary.
I narrated to them history of communal riots in post-independence India since Jabalpur riots of 1961 and told them in most of these riots guilty were generally not punished and no responsibility was fixed as to who engineered these riots. I also told them that I have personally investigated most of these riots in which more than 35 thousand innocent people were killed and found that with few exceptions administration and police were biased. Not only that I told them how in Hashimpura, Meerut in 1987 the PAC Commandant Tripathi and his cohorts pulled out 54 people from their houses , all between 20 to 25 years old, shot them dead in cold blood and threw their bodies into Hindon canal two of which survived to tell the tale. But not one of them has been so far punished.
But in all these riots state governments were not directly involved nor it played any role in instigating riots. But it was for the first time in Gujarat that the state government was directly involved in instigating the riots. And entire administration and police force, willingly or unwillingly, was involved in aiding and abetting these riots (with few honourable exceptions). Mr. Narendra Modi, as some VHP activists claimed in a sting operation done by Tehelka gave protection to them.
It was in this background that this bill became necessary. There are three objectives of this bill: first, to take preventive measures in time to stop communal violence breaking out; second, if communal violence breaks out to fix responsibility on the actors concerned and get them punished through due process of law and thirdly to fix proper compensation for the dead and fix recompense for properties destroyed.
Today this is all arbitrarily done. It is entirely dependent on Chief Minister how much he sanctions. In some cases only one or two lakhs are given for those who died and in some cases it may be 5 lakhs. Mr. Modi gave 5 lakhs to those who died in Sabarmati train fire and only two lakhs for those who dies in subsequent communal riots. It was blatant discrimination. And Modi government offered as little as Rs. 500 for houses destroyed. This Bill fixes compensation minimum at 15 lakhs for the dead and proposes that it will increase with price index. Similarly it takes care of relief and rehabilitation to be decided by Central or State authority comprising government as well as civil society representative with proper minority representation.
A long discussion followed and numbers of questions were raised saying the Bill is heavily biased against Hindus and in favour of Muslims. I tried to satisfy their doubts and said it is wrong to say it is against Hindus. In fact the Bill is directed against those who perpetrate violence (be they Hindus or Muslims or any other group for that matter) and for the first time this Bill will try to fix responsibility for perpetrators of violence in an unbiased manner through proper representation of minorities in the Central or state authority. Thus how can it be said to be anti-Hindu then? It is anti- all those who perpetrate or provoke violence.
However, all I can say that I gave answers to all their questions which were aplenty but cannot claim to have changed their views as after all they belonged to the RSS affiliated organization. Besides them there were many others too - Muslims as well as non-Muslims who were interested in the debate.
However, what followed after the lunch was of more interest to me. The organizers had requested me to spare two hours after lunch for discussion with a smaller group of people and I had consented. There were some 30 people in this group and idea was to discuss how one could ensure riot-free India. Mr. Arvind Bal a prominent member of Jnana Prabodhini, started discussion with few proposals which I found non-controversial.
One of his proposal related to cultural activities undertaken together like drama, musical performances and the like both Hindus and Muslims participating together. Two, to celebrate national festivals like 15th August and 26th January together. Thirdly, to ensure that in every housing society 5 to 10 percent Muslims be given accommodation so that there is better interaction between Hindus and Muslims
He also proposed that secularism requires that we undertake criticism of religion and religious practices as Hamid Dalwai did. He felt this is necessary to ensure consolidation of secularism. I responded by saying that I welcome the proposals made by my friend Arvind Bal except the one about criticism of orthodoxy like Hamid Dalwai did. Orthodoxy has nothing to do with communalism. Jinnah was quite liberal and even non-believer and yet he demanded Pakistan whereas Maulana Husain Ahmed Madani, President Jami'at-ul-'Ulama'-i-Hind was very orthodox and yet he opposed partition and justified united democratic secular India. We have to accept orthodoxy in a democratic spirit as everyone has right to practice religion the way one wants to and in true democratic spirit one has to accept the other as the other is and one cannot dictate to other how other should be. It would lead to intolerance and conflict.
However, it does not mean that one should accept orthodoxy and narrow mindedness. No certainly not but one has to struggle against it through persuasive means and through wisdom and proper strategy. One should also not worship reason though reason is very valuable gift of nature, Reason is a tool, very important tool but not goal.
To ensure riot-free India most important tool is education system. Today our education system is value-neutral and competitive and perpetuates casteism and communalism. It does not produce critical but conforming mind. It distorts history and perpetuates mandir-masjid controversy. We teach Auangzeb but never Darashikoh who was such a profound scholar of both Islam and Hinduism.
We still teach fight between Shivaji and Afzal Khan and project Shivaji as anti-Muslim and Aurangzeb as anti-Hindu. It is total distortion of truth. Sihvaji killed Afzal Khan not because he was Muslim but because he was political rival and when he realized that he has killed him fearing he (Afzalkhan) would kill him he gave a large plot of land to build his mazar (mausoleum) and one can prove this through land records of the government.
One should stop teaching such distorted history and there is much in history which proves Hindu-Muslim unity and mutual harmonious living. This is not the way to build a nation. Our country is so great, so diverse and so multi-cultural that only way to build nation is to emphasise harmonious living, inclusive living and in everything we should not go on speaking as Hindus and Muslims but also as Indian nationals, if India is a nation. In everything if we go on speaking only as Hindus and Muslims, it means we are not speaking India as a nation, we are not feeling proud of being India, Yes, there are areas in which we are also Hindus and Muslims but let us keep these two areas apart. These two areas should be co-centric, not cross-cutting.
There are many things which we have to discuss including whether Islam and Hinduism are mutually conflicting or have areas of commonality. Whether religions clash or our egos and our politics do. Sufi saints found much that is common between the two religions but all this requires much discussion and we can meet again for such discussions. As I have to rush back to Mumbai hope we will meet again to continue the talk in this spirit.
December 15, 2011
Photos from public meeting Confronting Hindutva and its Strategies (15 December 2011)
Selected photos from the public meeting and film screening on 'Confronting Hindutva and its Strategies' organised in New Delhi by Champa - The Amiya and BG Rao Foundation. The event was held at the auditorium of the Indian Law Institute on the 15th of December 2011. Kumar Ketkar, veteran journalist from Bombay and Manisha Sethi, from Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association spoke at the event. A documentary film by Samrendra Das on communal violence against christian tribal communities in Orissa was screened. [ Photos below were taken by Mukul Dube]
Waiting for Justice: report of national people's tribunal on Kandhamal is available now - Press release
[10 December 2011]
PRESS RELEASE
A National People’s Tribunal (NPT) on Kandhamal was held in New Delhi on 22-24 August 2010, organized by the National Solidarity Forum - a countrywide solidarity platform of 56 civil society groups and concerned citizens aimed at assisting the victims and survivors of the Kandhamal violence 2008 to “seek justice, accountability and peace and to restore the victim-survivors’ right to a dignified life”. The tribunal report was made public People Convention for Justice, Peace and Secularism in Bhubaneswar on 2nd of December 2011.
The Jury Members
The jury of the NPT was headed by Justice A.P. Shah, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. Joining him as jury members were Harsh Mander (member of National Advisory Council), Mahesh Bhatt (film maker and activist), Miloon Kothari (former UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Housing), P.S.Krishnan (retired Secretary, Government of India), Rabi Das (senior journalist based in Bhubaneswar), Ruth Manorama (women and dalit rights activist), Sukumar Muralidharan (Delhi-based free lance journalist), Syeeda Hameed (member of Planning Commission, Government of India), Vahida Nainar (expert on international law, mass crimes and gender), Vinod Raina (scientist and social activist with a specific focus on right to education), Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat (former Chief of Naval Staff) and Vrinda Grover (advocate, Delhi High Court).
A unique feature of this NPT was that the testimonies and depositions by victim-survivors of the violence; were supplemented by 15 expert testimonies and fact findings besides an exhibition on the situations inaugurated by Javed Akhtar, writer, poet, and lyricist was put up to recreate the scene of communal violence.
The tribunal Report titled “Waiting for Justice” is divided into four parts; a. background and context of the violence, b. impact of the violence on women, children as well as human rights, c. processes of justice and accountability and the aspect of reparations, d. major observations and the recommendations.
Communal Violence in Orissa:
The tribunal is concerned on “the targeted violence against the adivasi and dalit Christian community in Orissa violates the fundamental right to life, liberty and equality guaranteed by the Indian Constitution, and affirmed by the international covenants such as ICCPR, ICESCR, CERD ; particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court”.
It is quite alarmed that the attacks “were widespread, and were executed with substantial planning and preparation. The violence meets all the elements of ‘crimes against humanity’. It notes, “Christians who refused to convert to Hinduism were brutally killed or injured. Human rights defenders have been deliberately targeted for their role in assisting victim-survivors”.
Gendered and Children Impact: “The jury observes, with deep concern, the silence that prevails in matters of sexual assaults at various violating constitutional guarantees and other international standards, including the CEDAW”. The special focus is on the impact of Children, “Many children have witnessed horrific violence to their close family members and suffer from acute trauma with no access to services of socio – psycho support and healing”.
Role of State Administration and Public Officials: The jury members coming heavily on the role of state actors say, we “observe, with grave concern, the deliberate dereliction of constitutionally mandated duties by public officials, their connivance with communal forces, participation in and support to the violence and a deliberate scuttling of processes of justice through acts of commission and omission”.
The jury comes heavy on the Justice Process, “we observe, with deep concern, that the criminal justice system has been rendered ineffective in protecting victim-survivors and witnesses, providing justice and ensuring accountability for the crimes perpetrated. The complicity of the police and their collusion with the perpetrators during the phase of investigation and prosecution, indicate an institutional bias against the targeted Christians”.
On the Reparations, it says, ‘through the issuance of a notification prohibiting non-profit organizations from conducting rescue and relief work, the state government abdicated its constitutionally-mandated duty to protect the lives and human rights. The dismal conditions in the government-run relief camps are clearly indicative of the indifference of the State government to the plight of victim-survivors. The absence of a comprehensive rehabilitation package has prevented the victim-survivors from being restored to a life of dignity”.
Sounding alarm for the sorry state affairs for minorities in the country, the report observes, “The victim-survivor community is unable to freely practise its faith and is thereby reduced to a state of secondary citizenship – an anathema in a democracy like India with a constitution that guarantees fundamental rights”.
Major Recommendations:
Legal and Judicial Processes are prioritised in the recommendations.
• Constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to re-examine the already registered FIRs for accuracy, examine registrations of fresh FIRs, the trials that resulted in acquittals due to intimidation and/or lack of evidence and recommend the trials that need be transferred or fresh trials be conducted outside Kandhamal.
• Identify unreported cases of sexual and gender-based violence and include the offence of sexual assault in First Information Reports (FIRs).
• Enquire into the acts of all public officials and pursue stringent disciplinary, administrative and other legal action against them for grave dereliction of duty, and for collusion and complicity in the crimes committed by the perpetrators.
• Appoint Special Public Prosecutors who discharge their duties with professional competence and integrity. At the appellate stage in the Orissa High Court a special panel of lawyers to represent the victims of Kandhamal violence should be constituted.
• State Legal Services Authorities to set up a legal cell to assist victims in their legal cases and interactions with the police and courts and provide protection to victims and witnesses before, during and after the trial processes.
• Accord special protection to human rights defenders and adequately compensate the damage to their residential and organizational properties so that there are no impediments to their work in assisting victim-survivors with processes of justice and reparations.
Giving Emphasis on Socio-economic and Religious-Cultural Rights, the tribunal calls for “Ensure that relief camps meet the minimum international standards of health, hygiene and privacy for Internally Displaced Persons; especially of children, lactating mothers, pregnant women in accordance with UN Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons”.
“Formulate a policy / programme to urgently address the issue of institutional bias against Christian community, through a combination of perspective-building and stringent action that is intended at upholding the rule of law”.
“Review Orissa Freedom of Religion Act to ensure that it does not violate the right to religious freedom as guaranteed by the Indian Constitution and international law”.
“Review the definition of the Scheduled Castes in The Presidential Order of 1950, on the basis of the discrimination experienced by members of schedule castes even after conversion”.
On Reparations, the tribunal for “adopting, at the very minimum, the 1984 anti Sikh and 2002 anti Muslim Gujarat compensation package to enhance the compensation already announced”.
1. Shabnam Hashmi
2. Vrinda Grover
3. Miloon Kothari
4. Father Ajay
5. Dr. Prasad Sirivilla
December 14, 2011
Thanks to RSS, a Hinduised curriculum in Madhya Pradesh schools
From: The Times of India
MP Board decides to include Gita in high school course
TNN Dec 3, 2011, 05.40PM IST
BHOPAL: Now it's official. A technical committee of the MP Board of Secondary Education has decided to include teachings of Bhagwad Gita in the curriculum of class 9th to 12 in schools run by the board.
At a meeting of the Pathyacharya Samiti, the committee that decides the curriculum, chaired by Kedar Sharma, secretary of the Board, finalised the textbooks of government schools for the next academic session. It passed a resolution on the inclusion of verses from the Gita and its teachings and philosophy in the school curriculum, a release from the Board informed here today.
The teachings of Gita would be incorporated in the Hindi syllabus in the form of essays on workmanship, art of living, unification of the mind, Gita and swadharma among others.
The move has already been seen as an attempt to saffronise education in the state. Last year, the government made it mandatory for students to recite bhojan mantra before having mid-day meals.
Recently in August, the state government's decision to make students of over 83,000 primary schools read Devputra, a children's magazine published by Saraswati Bal Kalyan Nyas brought the government under scanner again. The Trust which brings out the magazine is headed by Krishna Kumar Asthana who is a senior RSS functionary in-charge of its activities in the Malwa region.
The Congress had spewed fire over the move of sending the magazine to primary schools which was apparently aimed at teaching the RSS ideology to the young students.
Along with the Gita verses, practical knowledge on farming and agriculture, revenue land records, ill effects of alcohol and narcotics and RBI initiative on financial education would also be imparted in the school text books, the press release of the Board informed further.
The committee has also recommended inclusion of practical knowledge of farming and agriculture in the ninth and tenth standard science, social science and math subjects.
Ads by Google
MP Board decides to include Gita in high school course
TNN Dec 3, 2011, 05.40PM IST
BHOPAL: Now it's official. A technical committee of the MP Board of Secondary Education has decided to include teachings of Bhagwad Gita in the curriculum of class 9th to 12 in schools run by the board.
At a meeting of the Pathyacharya Samiti, the committee that decides the curriculum, chaired by Kedar Sharma, secretary of the Board, finalised the textbooks of government schools for the next academic session. It passed a resolution on the inclusion of verses from the Gita and its teachings and philosophy in the school curriculum, a release from the Board informed here today.
The teachings of Gita would be incorporated in the Hindi syllabus in the form of essays on workmanship, art of living, unification of the mind, Gita and swadharma among others.
The move has already been seen as an attempt to saffronise education in the state. Last year, the government made it mandatory for students to recite bhojan mantra before having mid-day meals.
Recently in August, the state government's decision to make students of over 83,000 primary schools read Devputra, a children's magazine published by Saraswati Bal Kalyan Nyas brought the government under scanner again. The Trust which brings out the magazine is headed by Krishna Kumar Asthana who is a senior RSS functionary in-charge of its activities in the Malwa region.
The Congress had spewed fire over the move of sending the magazine to primary schools which was apparently aimed at teaching the RSS ideology to the young students.
Along with the Gita verses, practical knowledge on farming and agriculture, revenue land records, ill effects of alcohol and narcotics and RBI initiative on financial education would also be imparted in the school text books, the press release of the Board informed further.
The committee has also recommended inclusion of practical knowledge of farming and agriculture in the ninth and tenth standard science, social science and math subjects.
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December 12, 2011
Karnataka: Hindutva groups attack journalist Shahina, K.K.
From: The Hindu
BANGALORE, December 11, 2011
Journalist attacked
Staff Reporter
Hindutva outfit blamed for the incident
Shahina K.K., a journalist from Kerala, who visited the Somwarpet tahsildar's office in Kodagu district on Friday in connection with a case, was allegedly attacked by a Hindutva organisation despite being under police protection.
According to Ms. Shahina, she was inside a van along with over a dozen policemen when activists of the Hindu Jagran Vedike stopped and surrounded the vehicle.
Shouting slogans
“Initially, they only shouted slogans. But, when the police did nothing to disperse them, they started throwing stones at the van,” she said.
Ms. Shahina, who is facing charges of criminal intimidation, interviewed K.K. Yogananda, one of the eye-witnesses in the Bangalore bomb blast case in which People's Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Maudany is an accused. After the interview was published, Mr. Yogananda accused Ms. Shahina of criminal intimidation.
She also alleged that the local police in Somwarpet refused to provide any protection earlier. “I had to call a senior police official in Bangalore to get protection,” she said.
Confirming that protection was provided to Ms. Shahina on his insistence, Deputy Superintendent of Police (CID) Mohan Das told presspersons that he could not comment on the attack as he was not at the spot.
Charges
Stating that the police had been treating Ms. Shahina badly ever since they filed the charges, her lawyer B.T. Venkatesh said: “We will lodge a complaint and also make the circle inspector a party in the case.”
The incident happened in Kodagu district
Police accused of inaction
BANGALORE, December 11, 2011
Journalist attacked
Staff Reporter
Hindutva outfit blamed for the incident
Shahina K.K., a journalist from Kerala, who visited the Somwarpet tahsildar's office in Kodagu district on Friday in connection with a case, was allegedly attacked by a Hindutva organisation despite being under police protection.
According to Ms. Shahina, she was inside a van along with over a dozen policemen when activists of the Hindu Jagran Vedike stopped and surrounded the vehicle.
Shouting slogans
“Initially, they only shouted slogans. But, when the police did nothing to disperse them, they started throwing stones at the van,” she said.
Ms. Shahina, who is facing charges of criminal intimidation, interviewed K.K. Yogananda, one of the eye-witnesses in the Bangalore bomb blast case in which People's Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Maudany is an accused. After the interview was published, Mr. Yogananda accused Ms. Shahina of criminal intimidation.
She also alleged that the local police in Somwarpet refused to provide any protection earlier. “I had to call a senior police official in Bangalore to get protection,” she said.
Confirming that protection was provided to Ms. Shahina on his insistence, Deputy Superintendent of Police (CID) Mohan Das told presspersons that he could not comment on the attack as he was not at the spot.
Charges
Stating that the police had been treating Ms. Shahina badly ever since they filed the charges, her lawyer B.T. Venkatesh said: “We will lodge a complaint and also make the circle inspector a party in the case.”
The incident happened in Kodagu district
Police accused of inaction
How BJP and Anna Hazare threaten parliamentary democracy (jyotirmaya Sharma)
Politics for the BJP and the likes of Hazare is nothing more than a religious crusade: get rid of the evil and evil-doers in society by having faith in us. In their universe, national unity can never be forged through reason, consensus, moderation, parliamentary democracy or even economic interest. It has to be based on either faith or in the construction of a myth.
Full Text here
Upcoming event Confronting Hindutva and its strategies (New Delhi, 15 Dec 2011)
PUBLIC MEETING & FILM SCREENING:
“CONFRONTING HINDUTVA AND ITS STRATEGIES”
Speakers :
(1) Kumar Ketkar ( Veteran journalist and commentator)
(2) Manisha Sethi (President, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association)
A documentary “Kandhamal 2008” directed by Samarendra Das (2011), 54 minutes, showing organized attacks on Christians and the methodology adopted by Hindu supremacist groups to instigate communal violence in 2008 in Kandhamal, Orrisa, will be shown.
4.30 pm, Thursday, 15TH Dec. 2011
Main Hall: Indian Law Institute (In front of Supreme Court)
Bhagwan Dass Road, New Delhi-110001
All Welcome: 15th Memorial Meeting of ‘CHAMPA –The Amiya and B.G.Rao Foundation (Ph:09811099532, 09717087535)
(Please see attachment)
12th Dec. 2011 N.D.Pancholi, Convenor
“CONFRONTING HINDUTVA AND ITS STRATEGIES”
Speakers :
(1) Kumar Ketkar ( Veteran journalist and commentator)
(2) Manisha Sethi (President, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association)
A documentary “Kandhamal 2008” directed by Samarendra Das (2011), 54 minutes, showing organized attacks on Christians and the methodology adopted by Hindu supremacist groups to instigate communal violence in 2008 in Kandhamal, Orrisa, will be shown.
4.30 pm, Thursday, 15TH Dec. 2011
Main Hall: Indian Law Institute (In front of Supreme Court)
Bhagwan Dass Road, New Delhi-110001
All Welcome: 15th Memorial Meeting of ‘CHAMPA –The Amiya and B.G.Rao Foundation (Ph:09811099532, 09717087535)
(Please see attachment)
12th Dec. 2011 N.D.Pancholi, Convenor
Multi Brand Sangh Parivar opposes Multi Brand Retail (Cartoon by Ninan)
From: Times of India, Ninan's World, 2 December 2011
[The above cartoon is reproduced here for non commercial and educational use]
December 11, 2011
Liberals and left wingers should not support Muslim Right opposition to liquor shops and cinema halls in Kashmir
[Surely the brutalised Kashmiri's massively need human rights, democracy and a de-militarised daily life but while they struggle for those objectives what's the problem with having access to liquor and cinema halls. A recent statement by the former chief minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah has drawn the expected criticism from the Muslim right, but why are liberal and left opinion makers lending their support to the moral police?. See below report in The Hindu and an Editorial in Kashmir Times.]
The Hindu
SRINAGAR, December 10, 2011
Mirwaiz, Geelani call for religious decree against Farooq
Shujaat Bukhari
“His statement will boost immoral acts in the Valley”
Union Minister Farooq Abdullah's statement favouring the reopening of liquor shops and cinema halls in the Valley continues to draw flak from political and religious groups, even as he has reiterated his stand saying that Jammu and Kashmir was a secular and not an Islamic state.
On Friday, All-Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq called for a religious decree against Dr. Abdullah for his “un-Islamic utterances.” Addressing the Friday congregation at the Jamia Masjid here, the Mirwaiz said Dr. Abdullah's statement was “aimed at boosting immoral acts in the Valley, and people should raise their voice against it.”
Supporting hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani's call for a religious decree against the former Chief Minister, the Mirwaiz said Dr. Abdullah had “lost his ability to distinguish between right and wrong”.
“Religious scholars should rise above their sectarian lines and give a tough fight to such elements who are bent upon eating the vitals of the society,” the Mirwaiz said.
The Mirwaiz, who heads the moderate faction of the Hurriyat, said it was true that Jammu and Kashmir was not an Islamic state but “that does not mean that you do not respect the sentiments of Muslims who are in majority in this State.” He said Quranic teachings prohibit liquor in society. He also maintained that tourists did not come to Kashmir for consuming liquor or indulging in any immoral activity. So the question of boosting tourism through these means did not arise.
Dr. Abdullah had on Monday said liquor shops and cinema halls in the State should be reopened as it would boost the economy and tourism in the Valley. Though a few shops and bars did operate, the alcohol business was mostly negligible. In the early 1990s, militant outfits banned liquor shops and cinema halls. Two cinema halls were later reopened, one of which closed down soon after, and the other musters little business.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary M.Y. Tarigami has said this was not the time to reopen liquor shops and cinemas. “Priority is to end corruption and restore honour and dignity of people.”
---
Kashmir Times, Editorial, 10 December 2011
A toast at Sher-i-Kashmir’s mazar
By: BY ANURADHA BHASIN JAMWAL
Farooq Abdullah decided to pay a unique tribute to his illustrious father, resting in his grave – a promise to souse the Kashmir valley he had fought for, and later compromised on, in bottles of liquor and paint it bright with reels of glamour from Bollywood. He chose the occasion of Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah’s birth anniversary to announce, soon after he had offered his fateh prayers, that Kashmir should now have liquor bars and cinema halls. Leave alone, whether the resting Sheikh would be flattered by this toast of flamboyance from his apple of the eye, there is much that remains fluidly unknown and undecipherable. The locals may or may not get titillated by the entry of this newfound glamour of inebriated splendour, atleast high spirited people around them, and full 72 MM cinema screens to enthrall them with the gyrating Munnis, Jalebis and Sheelas of the tinsel town. But it is sure a jackpot winner if it can keep tourists hooked on to Kashmir, inspite of and despite its lagging tourism infrastructure, is what the Abdullahs believe.
There is no statistical evidence to prove whether tourism in Kashmir can or cannot sustain with or without liquor and cinema. Neither is there any tabulated data of how many locals would welcome this change and how many would be opposed to it. Personally, gulping down beer mugs and sipping goblets of wine is a matter of personal choice, if the levels of decency are maintained. So is watching films – good or bad ones. There is nothing rather devilish about them, nor something that should make hearts go rocking.
What punctuates the announcement with flaws is not just the choice of timing and venue but also lack of grasp about ground realities it betrays. That a former chief minister, a serving union minister and head of a party that rules Jammu and Kashmir should deem this as a matter of top priority in a place like Kashmir springs an ugly surprise. It requires both a sense of the present and the history of Abdullahs to grasp the foolishness of what senior Abdullah indeed said on his father’s birth anniversary.
Forgiving him for his follies of his very remote past, of days of his motorcycle rides with film stars and his Disco image, let’s start at the fresh beginning he made about a decade and a half back when he was re-crowned as the Crown Prince after winning an election with absolute majority. His first tears, at the swearing-in ceremony, were shed for Indian security agencies fighting insurgency. His first real contribution, joining hands with BJP led NDA government, the first real toast to his dad, who fought all his life the Sangh Parivar and its influence. His second major contribution was introducing his son via backdoor into the Indian political map, not of Kashmir. The son, of course, never let his father down, by sticking on loyally with BJP, as per his father’s honourable word to the party, remaining a faithful minister in its government even as the Gujarat carnage went on shocking everybody including Kashmiris to the hilt. Unlike the father, however, son Omar had a belated realisation, sadly only after he was ousted out of power, both from centre and the state, and was belatedly quick in tendering an apology and being man enough to condemn, after two years, what happened in Gujarat.
In power, Omar or Farooq, they rarely ever have wasted much words for expressing sympathy with the people, caught in the crucible of a complex and military conflict, hit badly both physically and psychologically. But they have oodles of ideas about how they can keep the incoming tourists happy or how they can boost the morale of the security personnel, neither of whom are their subjects. Last year, when 130 youth were gunned down during a period of five months of street protests, the younger Abdullah had genuine lines of worries on his forehead, his concern: the sagging tourism, or at best the education of children, whose safety or psychological health was not something he needed to deal with as chief minister of the state.
Even now, when locals continue to brave unpredictable curfews, crackdowns, arrests, torture, fake encounters and other kinds of influences of heavy militarism, when voices for justice – whether it is in seeking human rights or basic amenities like paani, sadak, bijli - remain stonewalled, the merry Abdullahs feel that all will be well with either their cacophony of Rap performance on AFSPA or with more happy and high spirited tourists coming to the Valley. And this is what makes Farooq Abdullah’s words so tragic. They betray a complete indifference and apathy for the major issues that bog the people of Kashmir and an exaggerated concern for the things that even tourists may deem trivial.
This issue, however, should not merit much brouhaha, and should only galvanize our ticklish bone, keeping us amused with a son’s toast at the mazar of the Lion of Kashmir. Cinema or no cinema, we already have the entertainer Abdullahs to quench our thirst for entertainment and ensure that our sense of humour doesn’t perish in an unpredictable world, where life remains too vulnerable, so that the wittiest, if not the fittest, may survive in the end. Atleast, the ‘ungrateful’ Kashmiris, opposing liquor bars and cinema halls, can be gracious enough to thanks him for that!
The Hindu
SRINAGAR, December 10, 2011
Mirwaiz, Geelani call for religious decree against Farooq
Shujaat Bukhari
“His statement will boost immoral acts in the Valley”
Union Minister Farooq Abdullah's statement favouring the reopening of liquor shops and cinema halls in the Valley continues to draw flak from political and religious groups, even as he has reiterated his stand saying that Jammu and Kashmir was a secular and not an Islamic state.
On Friday, All-Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq called for a religious decree against Dr. Abdullah for his “un-Islamic utterances.” Addressing the Friday congregation at the Jamia Masjid here, the Mirwaiz said Dr. Abdullah's statement was “aimed at boosting immoral acts in the Valley, and people should raise their voice against it.”
Supporting hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Geelani's call for a religious decree against the former Chief Minister, the Mirwaiz said Dr. Abdullah had “lost his ability to distinguish between right and wrong”.
“Religious scholars should rise above their sectarian lines and give a tough fight to such elements who are bent upon eating the vitals of the society,” the Mirwaiz said.
The Mirwaiz, who heads the moderate faction of the Hurriyat, said it was true that Jammu and Kashmir was not an Islamic state but “that does not mean that you do not respect the sentiments of Muslims who are in majority in this State.” He said Quranic teachings prohibit liquor in society. He also maintained that tourists did not come to Kashmir for consuming liquor or indulging in any immoral activity. So the question of boosting tourism through these means did not arise.
Dr. Abdullah had on Monday said liquor shops and cinema halls in the State should be reopened as it would boost the economy and tourism in the Valley. Though a few shops and bars did operate, the alcohol business was mostly negligible. In the early 1990s, militant outfits banned liquor shops and cinema halls. Two cinema halls were later reopened, one of which closed down soon after, and the other musters little business.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary M.Y. Tarigami has said this was not the time to reopen liquor shops and cinemas. “Priority is to end corruption and restore honour and dignity of people.”
---
Kashmir Times, Editorial, 10 December 2011
A toast at Sher-i-Kashmir’s mazar
By: BY ANURADHA BHASIN JAMWAL
Farooq Abdullah decided to pay a unique tribute to his illustrious father, resting in his grave – a promise to souse the Kashmir valley he had fought for, and later compromised on, in bottles of liquor and paint it bright with reels of glamour from Bollywood. He chose the occasion of Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah’s birth anniversary to announce, soon after he had offered his fateh prayers, that Kashmir should now have liquor bars and cinema halls. Leave alone, whether the resting Sheikh would be flattered by this toast of flamboyance from his apple of the eye, there is much that remains fluidly unknown and undecipherable. The locals may or may not get titillated by the entry of this newfound glamour of inebriated splendour, atleast high spirited people around them, and full 72 MM cinema screens to enthrall them with the gyrating Munnis, Jalebis and Sheelas of the tinsel town. But it is sure a jackpot winner if it can keep tourists hooked on to Kashmir, inspite of and despite its lagging tourism infrastructure, is what the Abdullahs believe.
There is no statistical evidence to prove whether tourism in Kashmir can or cannot sustain with or without liquor and cinema. Neither is there any tabulated data of how many locals would welcome this change and how many would be opposed to it. Personally, gulping down beer mugs and sipping goblets of wine is a matter of personal choice, if the levels of decency are maintained. So is watching films – good or bad ones. There is nothing rather devilish about them, nor something that should make hearts go rocking.
What punctuates the announcement with flaws is not just the choice of timing and venue but also lack of grasp about ground realities it betrays. That a former chief minister, a serving union minister and head of a party that rules Jammu and Kashmir should deem this as a matter of top priority in a place like Kashmir springs an ugly surprise. It requires both a sense of the present and the history of Abdullahs to grasp the foolishness of what senior Abdullah indeed said on his father’s birth anniversary.
Forgiving him for his follies of his very remote past, of days of his motorcycle rides with film stars and his Disco image, let’s start at the fresh beginning he made about a decade and a half back when he was re-crowned as the Crown Prince after winning an election with absolute majority. His first tears, at the swearing-in ceremony, were shed for Indian security agencies fighting insurgency. His first real contribution, joining hands with BJP led NDA government, the first real toast to his dad, who fought all his life the Sangh Parivar and its influence. His second major contribution was introducing his son via backdoor into the Indian political map, not of Kashmir. The son, of course, never let his father down, by sticking on loyally with BJP, as per his father’s honourable word to the party, remaining a faithful minister in its government even as the Gujarat carnage went on shocking everybody including Kashmiris to the hilt. Unlike the father, however, son Omar had a belated realisation, sadly only after he was ousted out of power, both from centre and the state, and was belatedly quick in tendering an apology and being man enough to condemn, after two years, what happened in Gujarat.
In power, Omar or Farooq, they rarely ever have wasted much words for expressing sympathy with the people, caught in the crucible of a complex and military conflict, hit badly both physically and psychologically. But they have oodles of ideas about how they can keep the incoming tourists happy or how they can boost the morale of the security personnel, neither of whom are their subjects. Last year, when 130 youth were gunned down during a period of five months of street protests, the younger Abdullah had genuine lines of worries on his forehead, his concern: the sagging tourism, or at best the education of children, whose safety or psychological health was not something he needed to deal with as chief minister of the state.
Even now, when locals continue to brave unpredictable curfews, crackdowns, arrests, torture, fake encounters and other kinds of influences of heavy militarism, when voices for justice – whether it is in seeking human rights or basic amenities like paani, sadak, bijli - remain stonewalled, the merry Abdullahs feel that all will be well with either their cacophony of Rap performance on AFSPA or with more happy and high spirited tourists coming to the Valley. And this is what makes Farooq Abdullah’s words so tragic. They betray a complete indifference and apathy for the major issues that bog the people of Kashmir and an exaggerated concern for the things that even tourists may deem trivial.
This issue, however, should not merit much brouhaha, and should only galvanize our ticklish bone, keeping us amused with a son’s toast at the mazar of the Lion of Kashmir. Cinema or no cinema, we already have the entertainer Abdullahs to quench our thirst for entertainment and ensure that our sense of humour doesn’t perish in an unpredictable world, where life remains too vulnerable, so that the wittiest, if not the fittest, may survive in the end. Atleast, the ‘ungrateful’ Kashmiris, opposing liquor bars and cinema halls, can be gracious enough to thanks him for that!
December 10, 2011
Christian Council demands Government enact Communal Violence Prevention bill
Pune, December 9, 2011
ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCIL
Pune Chapter
Punya Dham Society, A/ 2/ 20 Wadgaonsheri, Pune 411014
[The following is the text of the Press Statement issued by Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council, at a Press conference at Patrakar Bhawan, Navi Peth, Pune, Maharashtra, on 9th December 2011. Other Christian leaders who addressed the press conference included Prof Indira Athawale, Dr Sanjay Kore, Pastor Peter Paul Geore and Mr Diego Almeida.]
The All India Christian Council [aicc], an apex Human Rights and Freedom of Faith forum, has urged the Government of India to urgently bring before Parliament and pass the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparation) Bill 2011. The Bill, commonly called the CV Prevention Bill, was drafted earlier this year by the National Advisory Council and is now with the Union government.
The Bill has been strongly supported by religious minorities as well as by most members of civil society as an effective means to curb communal violence which has plagued this country after Independence in 1947, and bring justice to the victims. In the last ten years there have been more than 6,000 incidents of communal violence, according to information provided by the government to Parliament.
Among the most heinous mass crimes against religious communities in India have been the anti Sikh violence of 1984 in New Delhi and other cities, the anti Muslim pogrom in Gujarat of 2002 and the anti Christian massacre and mass arson in Kandhamal in Orissa in which 56,000 persons were forced to flee to forests when over 5,600 houses in 400 villages were burnt down by Hindutva mobs. Over 100 persons were killed, Nuns and other women were raped and over 290 churches destroyed. In all cases, the police and officials stood by without acting. Many police and civil officers were guilty of involvement in all these acts of mass violence, and others were guilty of inaction and impunity. Kashmiri Pundits have also been subject of targeted violence.
Rehabilitation and resettlement in all cases has been tardy. The worst is the issue of justice. Most victims, including of murder, have been denied justice. In Kandhamal, for instance, not a single person has been convicted for murder. The proposed Bill seeks to secure justice for victims and end the climate of impunity by bringing the guilty officials to book. The proposed law maintains that minorities are denied justice because of the communal behaviour of a section of religious and political extremists and the apathy or involvement of the administration.
The Bill will also curb hate speech and similar actions. In recent months, VHP leader Dr Praveen Togadia has called for the beheading of missionaries in issues of conversion. Janata party leader Subramaniam Swamy has launched a slander campaign against the Christian and Muslim communities in general, and against the aicc in particular. The All India Christian Council also denounces conspiracies to scuttle the Bill. The government should take immediate steps and discuss the Bill with political parties to end the attempt of Hindutva groups to raise false alarms against the proposed law.
Dr John Dayal said Christian leaders in Mumbai had earlier filed a formal complaint demanding legal action against Dr Subramaniam Swamy for spreading hate and violating the Constitution when he wrote an article in a Mumbai newspaper advocating that Muslims should not be given voting rights. Complaints were also filed in New Delhi. Holding that communalism is as evil as corruption, the All India Christian Council has repeatedly called for strong laws to curb hate campaigns and similar activity which leads to the targetting of minorities and marginalised communities, including Muslims, Christians, Dalits and Tribals.
Referring to issues of development of Minorities in Maharashtra state and Pune City, the Council called for adequate and commensurate representation of the Christian community in all walks of life, government and public sector undertakings and in the political establishment. Political parties too must give the community substantial representation and opportunities. Many youth were underemployed. Christian students could not get scholarships because of bureaucratic red tape and lack of information because the Union and state governments had not taken adequate steps. This situation must be rectified.
The AICC called for an end to physical and hidden forms of communalism in the region which has seen burning of churches, harassment if priests and nuns and the attempted blackmailing and violence against schools at admission time. The state government must act in time to prevent such incidents.
All India Christian Council who can be contacted at aiccdelhi(at)gmail(dot)com
ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN COUNCIL
Pune Chapter
Punya Dham Society, A/ 2/ 20 Wadgaonsheri, Pune 411014
[The following is the text of the Press Statement issued by Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, All India Christian Council, at a Press conference at Patrakar Bhawan, Navi Peth, Pune, Maharashtra, on 9th December 2011. Other Christian leaders who addressed the press conference included Prof Indira Athawale, Dr Sanjay Kore, Pastor Peter Paul Geore and Mr Diego Almeida.]
The All India Christian Council [aicc], an apex Human Rights and Freedom of Faith forum, has urged the Government of India to urgently bring before Parliament and pass the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparation) Bill 2011. The Bill, commonly called the CV Prevention Bill, was drafted earlier this year by the National Advisory Council and is now with the Union government.
The Bill has been strongly supported by religious minorities as well as by most members of civil society as an effective means to curb communal violence which has plagued this country after Independence in 1947, and bring justice to the victims. In the last ten years there have been more than 6,000 incidents of communal violence, according to information provided by the government to Parliament.
Among the most heinous mass crimes against religious communities in India have been the anti Sikh violence of 1984 in New Delhi and other cities, the anti Muslim pogrom in Gujarat of 2002 and the anti Christian massacre and mass arson in Kandhamal in Orissa in which 56,000 persons were forced to flee to forests when over 5,600 houses in 400 villages were burnt down by Hindutva mobs. Over 100 persons were killed, Nuns and other women were raped and over 290 churches destroyed. In all cases, the police and officials stood by without acting. Many police and civil officers were guilty of involvement in all these acts of mass violence, and others were guilty of inaction and impunity. Kashmiri Pundits have also been subject of targeted violence.
Rehabilitation and resettlement in all cases has been tardy. The worst is the issue of justice. Most victims, including of murder, have been denied justice. In Kandhamal, for instance, not a single person has been convicted for murder. The proposed Bill seeks to secure justice for victims and end the climate of impunity by bringing the guilty officials to book. The proposed law maintains that minorities are denied justice because of the communal behaviour of a section of religious and political extremists and the apathy or involvement of the administration.
The Bill will also curb hate speech and similar actions. In recent months, VHP leader Dr Praveen Togadia has called for the beheading of missionaries in issues of conversion. Janata party leader Subramaniam Swamy has launched a slander campaign against the Christian and Muslim communities in general, and against the aicc in particular. The All India Christian Council also denounces conspiracies to scuttle the Bill. The government should take immediate steps and discuss the Bill with political parties to end the attempt of Hindutva groups to raise false alarms against the proposed law.
Dr John Dayal said Christian leaders in Mumbai had earlier filed a formal complaint demanding legal action against Dr Subramaniam Swamy for spreading hate and violating the Constitution when he wrote an article in a Mumbai newspaper advocating that Muslims should not be given voting rights. Complaints were also filed in New Delhi. Holding that communalism is as evil as corruption, the All India Christian Council has repeatedly called for strong laws to curb hate campaigns and similar activity which leads to the targetting of minorities and marginalised communities, including Muslims, Christians, Dalits and Tribals.
Referring to issues of development of Minorities in Maharashtra state and Pune City, the Council called for adequate and commensurate representation of the Christian community in all walks of life, government and public sector undertakings and in the political establishment. Political parties too must give the community substantial representation and opportunities. Many youth were underemployed. Christian students could not get scholarships because of bureaucratic red tape and lack of information because the Union and state governments had not taken adequate steps. This situation must be rectified.
The AICC called for an end to physical and hidden forms of communalism in the region which has seen burning of churches, harassment if priests and nuns and the attempted blackmailing and violence against schools at admission time. The state government must act in time to prevent such incidents.
All India Christian Council who can be contacted at aiccdelhi(at)gmail(dot)com
December 09, 2011
Verdict on Sardarpura massacre case: Interview with Teesta Setalvad
From: Frontline
‘Witnesses are still terrified'
ANUPAMA KATAKAM
Interview with Teesta Setalvad.
Teesta Setalvad: “Other cases need to be expedited and the guilty should be convicted as soon as possible.”
CITIZENS for Justice and Peace (CJP), led by activist Teesta Setalvad, has been fighting a protracted legal battle to ensure justice for the victims' families and survivors of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Often criticised and sometimes lauded for its efforts, the organisation has nonetheless carried on its campaign relentlessly. Teesta Setalvad spoke to Frontline soon after the special court's verdict in the Sardarpura massacre case. [...]
FULL TEXT HERE: http://www.frontline.in/stories/20111216282503000.htm
‘Witnesses are still terrified'
ANUPAMA KATAKAM
Interview with Teesta Setalvad.
Teesta Setalvad: “Other cases need to be expedited and the guilty should be convicted as soon as possible.”
CITIZENS for Justice and Peace (CJP), led by activist Teesta Setalvad, has been fighting a protracted legal battle to ensure justice for the victims' families and survivors of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Often criticised and sometimes lauded for its efforts, the organisation has nonetheless carried on its campaign relentlessly. Teesta Setalvad spoke to Frontline soon after the special court's verdict in the Sardarpura massacre case. [...]
FULL TEXT HERE: http://www.frontline.in/stories/20111216282503000.htm
Does RSS, BJP opposition to foreign investment in retail have to do with their trader base ?
From: The Telegraph, December 1 , 2011
Packaged in Nagpur, resold in BJP store
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
New Delhi, Nov. 30: Nagpur is running the backend operations of the BJP as far as retail is concerned, giving new shelf life to faces that were in cold storage during the Atal-Advani era.
One such figure was on display today when the BJP fielded Murli Manohar Joshi to address the media this afternoon. Joshi is not just the prime mover behind the party’s adjournment motion against FDI in multi-brand retail but he is also its most consistent “swadeshi” face that he often masked when the NDA was in power.
Today, Joshi drew his importance from the fact that had he not vetted the BJP’s 2009 manifesto, an “oversight” that “crept” into the NDA’s governance agenda before the 2004 elections might have haunted it now.
The physics professor — who drafted the BJP’s economic resolutions in the years before Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani accepted the reality of reforms — quoted from the 2009 manifesto to “prove” that the party was against retail FDI. He also referred to the NDA’s vision document of 2004 that waxed eloquent about “swadeshi”.
Asked about another 2004 document — the NDA’s development and governance agenda — Joshi feigned ignorance. It stated that if re-elected, the BJP and its allies intended to allow FDI in retail.
If Joshi’s advance to the forefront reflected the reach of the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, the statement of another BJP leader, so far considered pro-reform, suggested how retail has become a holy cow.
“I am for foreign investments even in touch-me-not areas like defence and media. But I will draw the line at retail because it is an idea whose time has not come,” the articulate leader said, playing on Victor Hugo’s line that Manmohan Singh had given wide currency to while pushing reforms.
The BJP leader cited the reasons: domestic manufacturing might be adversely impacted; self-employment will suffer; a consolidated market might restrict consumers’ choices; and “too much” was being made of the argument that only foreign retailers can develop cold chains.
However, this leader, like the others taking up cudgels against retail FDI, couldn’t back the objections with empirical evidence. After plodding for days, the only supporting study a BJP source dug out was titled “The cause and consequences of WalMart’s growth” by Emek Basker, an economics professor of Missouri University.
The RSS’s clout was in evidence elsewhere, too. BJP president Nitin Gadkari — he was bowled over by Pranab Mukherjee’s luncheon outreach to him before the winter session and felt that it was time to pursue reform-related legislation in a “spirit of consensus” — today extended the party’s “whole-hearted support” to a national bandh retail traders and trade unions have called on Thursday.
“There was pressure from Nagpur,” a source said. The Sangh directed its progenies like the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh to participate in the December 1 bandh and asked the BJP to support it “from the sidelines” if it didn’t wish to overtly associate itself with it.
Even then, the BMS chief Girish Awasthi suspected the BJP’s motives. “Their leaders are dodgy on reforms,” he said. “Watch, they’ll vote for the pension bill. This retail business, they are against it because they are on the side of the big domestic retail chains. Our heart bleeds for the kiosk vendors and the small shopkeepers.”
Deepak Pradeep Sharma, the SJM convener, boasted that if Joshi junked the retail bit from the 2009 manifesto, it was “because of our signature campaign”.
Not that the swadeshi lobby had dropped its posturing when Vajpayee was in power. A source said that when Vajpayee — backed by Jaswant Singh and Brajesh Mishra —flagged retail FDI at a cabinet meeting, the proposal was shouted down.
But the dispensation then tried to work around the obstacles. “Vajpayee suspended the decision but those with an appetite for reforms managed to place it in the 2004 manifesto,” the sources said.
The Sangh’s eagerness to stick by the trading community reflects its inability to reach out to new constituencies. Even at the Anna Hazare campaign in Delhi, many of the people who turned up at the fast venue were traders – a turnout that was immediately sought to be tied to the Sangh.
The BJP leadership also appears to be only too willing to ride piggyback on this support base. With the race to be the prime ministerial candidate still wide open, no one seems to be in a mood to take a stand that may not go down well with the Sangh, without whose support their hopes for the top job will be dashed.
“We cannot afford to lose the backing of the middle-level businessmen and the small traders, they are our backbone. Industry is not our core constituency,” a BJP leader said.
Six months ago, when the BJP’s economics cell had invited industry representatives to speak on retail FDI, the battlelines were visible. The younger members, especially a vocal and telegenic spokesperson, attacked the speakers when they spoke in favour of it.
The older ones associated closely with the Vajpayee dispensation had to quell tempers. “Later we told the hot-heads ‘what kind of a signal do you want to send about a party that positions itself as the Congress’s only national alternative? That the BJP is a dinosaur?’” a participant recalled.
The answer to that question will have to wait until the BJP figures out who runs its operations, both backend and frontend.
Packaged in Nagpur, resold in BJP store
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
New Delhi, Nov. 30: Nagpur is running the backend operations of the BJP as far as retail is concerned, giving new shelf life to faces that were in cold storage during the Atal-Advani era.
One such figure was on display today when the BJP fielded Murli Manohar Joshi to address the media this afternoon. Joshi is not just the prime mover behind the party’s adjournment motion against FDI in multi-brand retail but he is also its most consistent “swadeshi” face that he often masked when the NDA was in power.
Today, Joshi drew his importance from the fact that had he not vetted the BJP’s 2009 manifesto, an “oversight” that “crept” into the NDA’s governance agenda before the 2004 elections might have haunted it now.
The physics professor — who drafted the BJP’s economic resolutions in the years before Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani accepted the reality of reforms — quoted from the 2009 manifesto to “prove” that the party was against retail FDI. He also referred to the NDA’s vision document of 2004 that waxed eloquent about “swadeshi”.
Asked about another 2004 document — the NDA’s development and governance agenda — Joshi feigned ignorance. It stated that if re-elected, the BJP and its allies intended to allow FDI in retail.
If Joshi’s advance to the forefront reflected the reach of the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, the statement of another BJP leader, so far considered pro-reform, suggested how retail has become a holy cow.
“I am for foreign investments even in touch-me-not areas like defence and media. But I will draw the line at retail because it is an idea whose time has not come,” the articulate leader said, playing on Victor Hugo’s line that Manmohan Singh had given wide currency to while pushing reforms.
The BJP leader cited the reasons: domestic manufacturing might be adversely impacted; self-employment will suffer; a consolidated market might restrict consumers’ choices; and “too much” was being made of the argument that only foreign retailers can develop cold chains.
However, this leader, like the others taking up cudgels against retail FDI, couldn’t back the objections with empirical evidence. After plodding for days, the only supporting study a BJP source dug out was titled “The cause and consequences of WalMart’s growth” by Emek Basker, an economics professor of Missouri University.
The RSS’s clout was in evidence elsewhere, too. BJP president Nitin Gadkari — he was bowled over by Pranab Mukherjee’s luncheon outreach to him before the winter session and felt that it was time to pursue reform-related legislation in a “spirit of consensus” — today extended the party’s “whole-hearted support” to a national bandh retail traders and trade unions have called on Thursday.
“There was pressure from Nagpur,” a source said. The Sangh directed its progenies like the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh to participate in the December 1 bandh and asked the BJP to support it “from the sidelines” if it didn’t wish to overtly associate itself with it.
Even then, the BMS chief Girish Awasthi suspected the BJP’s motives. “Their leaders are dodgy on reforms,” he said. “Watch, they’ll vote for the pension bill. This retail business, they are against it because they are on the side of the big domestic retail chains. Our heart bleeds for the kiosk vendors and the small shopkeepers.”
Deepak Pradeep Sharma, the SJM convener, boasted that if Joshi junked the retail bit from the 2009 manifesto, it was “because of our signature campaign”.
Not that the swadeshi lobby had dropped its posturing when Vajpayee was in power. A source said that when Vajpayee — backed by Jaswant Singh and Brajesh Mishra —flagged retail FDI at a cabinet meeting, the proposal was shouted down.
But the dispensation then tried to work around the obstacles. “Vajpayee suspended the decision but those with an appetite for reforms managed to place it in the 2004 manifesto,” the sources said.
The Sangh’s eagerness to stick by the trading community reflects its inability to reach out to new constituencies. Even at the Anna Hazare campaign in Delhi, many of the people who turned up at the fast venue were traders – a turnout that was immediately sought to be tied to the Sangh.
The BJP leadership also appears to be only too willing to ride piggyback on this support base. With the race to be the prime ministerial candidate still wide open, no one seems to be in a mood to take a stand that may not go down well with the Sangh, without whose support their hopes for the top job will be dashed.
“We cannot afford to lose the backing of the middle-level businessmen and the small traders, they are our backbone. Industry is not our core constituency,” a BJP leader said.
Six months ago, when the BJP’s economics cell had invited industry representatives to speak on retail FDI, the battlelines were visible. The younger members, especially a vocal and telegenic spokesperson, attacked the speakers when they spoke in favour of it.
The older ones associated closely with the Vajpayee dispensation had to quell tempers. “Later we told the hot-heads ‘what kind of a signal do you want to send about a party that positions itself as the Congress’s only national alternative? That the BJP is a dinosaur?’” a participant recalled.
The answer to that question will have to wait until the BJP figures out who runs its operations, both backend and frontend.
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