12th Ncert Politics In India Since Independence Pdf Download In Hindi

[Jenniffer Trotter]

Since 2000 Uttar Pradesh's "Religious Buildings and Places Bill" requires a permit endorsed by the state government before construction of any religious building can begin. The bill's supporters stated that its aim was to curb the use of Muslim institutions by Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups, but the measure remains a controversial political issue among religious groups in the northern part of the country.
Most religious groups from all of the communities oppose restrictions on building religious structures and continue to view them as infringements upon religious freedom.
Legislation in West Bengal requires any person who plans to construct a place of worship to seek permission from the district magistrate; anyone intending to convert a personal place of worship into a public one is also required to obtain the district magistrate's permission. SomeMuslim groups report that they have not received permission to build new mosques,for example, in West Bengal. In March 2003, the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP),an offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), an organization that propagates a return to Hindu values and cultural norms, announced it would launch a nationwide campaign to "reclaim" 30,000 Hindu temples that it contends had been converted into mosques. The VHP's published list of such mosques includes the Gyan Vapi mosque in Varanasi, the Idgah mosque in Mathura, and the Ram temple grounds at the former Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. On September 20, 2003, the Special CBI court dismissed charges against then Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, but not against seven other defendants accused of involvement in the destruction of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in 1992;opposition parties charged that the dismissal was a political move.
The "trishul" or trident distribution program, which was popularized by the VHP during the last reporting period, has subsided. However, the symbolism of the three-pronged Hindu symbols, which were sometimes used as weapons, was discussed in a ceremony in Indore, Madhya Pradeshon
March 1. While 700 persons participated in the rally organized by the Hindu extremist group Bajrang Dal,no tridents were distributed. In April 2003, the Rajasthan state government banned the distribution of trishuls in the state, but clarified that the order would not affect the use of trishuls in religious places and functions. On April 13, 2003, VHP General Secretary Togadia distributed the trishuls in defiance of the ban and was arrested. On April 21, 2003,he was released on bail,and no charges have been filed. There were no further trishul distributions in Rajasthan state during the period covered by this report.
The BJP, which led two coalition national governments from 1998 until May, is one of a number of offshoots of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). Most BJP leaders, including former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, also are RSS members. Members of the BJP, the RSS, and other affiliated organizations (collectively known as the Sangh Parivar) have been implicated in incidents of violence and discrimination against Christians and Muslims.
The BJP and RSS claim to respect and tolerate other religions; however, the RSS in particular opposes conversions from Hinduism and believes that all citizens regardless of their religious affiliation should adhere to Hindu cultural values. The BJP officially states that the caste system should be eradicated, but many of its members are ambivalent about this objective. The BJP political platform calls for the construction of a Hindu temple on the site of a mosque in Ayodhya destroyed by a Hindu mob in 1992; for the repeal of Article 370 of the Constitution, which grants special rights to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the country's only Muslim majority state; and for the enactment of a Uniform Civil Code that would apply to members of all religions.
The BJP did not include these RSS goals in the program of the coalition Government it led until May; however, some minority religious groups noted that the coming to power of the BJP coincided with an increase in complaints of discrimination against minority religious communities. These groups also claimed that BJP officials at state and local levels increasingly became unresponsive in investigating charges of religious discrimination and in prosecuting those persons responsible. Others note that during the election campaign, the BJP reached out to Muslims in swing districts and accentuated the Government's peace initiative with Pakistan.

The degree to which the BJP's nationalist Hindu agenda affected the country with respect to religious minorities during its rule varies depending on the region. State governments continue to attach a high priority to maintaining law and order and monitoring intercommunity relations at the district level. As a result, the central Government often is not the most important player in determining the character of relationships of various religious communities between each other and with the state.
Anti-conversion laws have been in effect in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa since the 1960s, and laws against forcible conversions exist also in Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh. Chhattisgarh retained the anti-conversion law from Madhya Pradesh when it separated from that state. In 2002-03 the states of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat passed "anti-conversion" laws. Under both laws, those "forcing" or "alluring" individuals to convert are subject to criminal action. However, the Gujarat state government did not promulgate the rules and regulations necessary for implementation until May. As of the end of the period covered by this report, the law had not yet been used. During the period covered by this report, no new anti-conversion laws were passed. A proposal to introduce a national anti-conversion law lapsed in 2002,and the new UPA Government has not promoted such a law.
Since what constitutes forced conversions or allurement is not specified, human rights groups, Christian religious leaders, and Dalits have expressed concern that authorities will use these laws selectively in the future to shut down educational, medical, and other social services provided by Christian groups to Dalits and "tribals" (members of indigenous groups historically outside the caste system). However, the federal government can prevent states from taking action if there is a threat to national integrity and communal harmony, or if the law violates the basic spirit of the Constitution as written in its preamble.
The Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion Act of October 2002 was initially declared by governor ordinance, which does not require approval by the state legislature. However, it was later ratified by the state legislature in December 2002. According to the act, those who attempt to convert individuals or groups from one religion to another using "false promises" and "allurements" are subject to prosecution, and all persons who "[take] part directly or indirectly in [a conversion] ceremony" must report the ceremony to the District Magistrate. Mandated punishments are greater for converting women, scheduled castes, and "tribals." As of the end of the period covered by this report, a petition questioning the constitutional validity of the act was under review by the state's high court. An ordinance repealing the law, issued on May 18, stopped its operation; however, the state legislature must approve the ordinance to turn the repeal into an act within 6 months from the date of issue, or the law will again come into effect. The Tamil Nadu legislative assembly has yet to give its formal approval for the repeal. As of May, no cases had been filed under the law, and following the poor performance of the governing party in the state in national parliamentary elections, the Chief Minister announced in Mayher intention to repeal the act;however, there had been no action by the end of the period covered by this report.
In March 2003, the state assembly of Gujarat passed the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act. The act requires those involved with a conversion to seek the permission, both before and after the conversion ceremony, of the district collector, who is the sole arbiter of the validity of each conversion. This act also requires the police to investigate cases of forced or induced religious conversions. As with the Tamil Nadu anti-conversion law, punishments are greater for women, scheduled castes, and "tribals." In April 2003, one Christian and one Buddhist organization filed a case in Ahmedabad High Court against the act; the court dismissed the petition as premature, since the rules and regulations for the act had not yet been published. The rules stillhad not been published by the end of the period covered by this report. In April 2003, a contingent of Dalits asked permission of the Vadodara Collector to convert to Buddhism under the new act; the collector had not given permission by the end of the period covered by this report. At the end of the period covered by this report, the law could not be implemented because the rules and regulations had not been drafted. State officials made no attempts to implement it in the absence of formal regulations.
In Punjab the Union Minister and General Secretary called for the state government to pass a law completely banning religious conversions. The move followed reports of large-scale conversions of Sikh Dalits. During the period covered by this report, the General Secretary took no further action.
In Chhattisgarh an anti-conversion law has been in force since the 1970s (at which time Chhattisgarh was a part of Madhya Pradesh). On July 18, 2003, in the first conviction under the law, Sister Brishi Ekka was sentenced to 6 months in jail for not reporting the 1996 conversion of 95 families to Christianity. Sister Ekka appealed the decision in the Chhattisgarh High Court, and later she was released on bail. During the period covered by this report, the high court had still not heard the case, and Sister Ekka remained free on bail.
In 2000, the Orissa government notified churches that religious conversions could not occur without the permission of the local police and district magistrate. Although the rule does not appear to have been enforced during the period covered by this report, it has not been withdrawn.
The Orissa Freedom of Religion Act of 1967 contains a provision requiring a monthly report from the state on the number of conversions. Before a conversion takes place, the district magistrate must be informed and the local police officer will conduct an inquiry. The report is then forwarded to the state authorities. The police officer can recommend in favor of or against the intended conversion, and often is the sole arbitrator. There were no reports that the district magistrate denied permission for any conversions during the period covered by this report.
In the south, religious groups allege that under the BJP government, some local officials enforced laws selectively to the detriment of religious minorities. The groups cite numerous examples of discrimination, such as biased interpretations of postal regulations, including removal of postal subsidies; refusals to allocate land for the building of churches; and heightened scrutiny of NGOs to ensure that foreign contributions are made according to the law.
The Gujarat State Higher Secondary Board, to which nearly 98 percent of schools in Gujarat belong, requires the use of certain textbooks in which Nazism is condoned. In the Standard 10 social studies textbook, the "charismatic personality" of "Hitler the Supremo" and the "achievements of Nazism" are described at length. The textbook does not acknowledge Nazi extermination policies or concentration camps except for a passing reference to "a policy of opposition towards the Jewish people and [advocacy for] the supremacy of the German race." The Standard 9 social studies textbook implies that Muslims, Christians, Parsees, and Jews are "foreigners."
On May 24, a Tamil Nadu Government unilateral order issued by the Registrar of the Dr. M.G.R. Medical University to the leading Christian missionary hospital in South Asia, Christian Medical College (CMC) of Vellore, directed the CMC to accept government-sponsored candidates into 40 percent of its school seats, in violation of the constitutional Special Minority Status guarantees given to unaided institutions. The Supreme Court directed the Government of Tamil Nadu on August 14, 2003,to form a committee to look into the question of admissions procedures followed by minority education institutions. In the interim, The Supreme Court permitted the CMC to follow the admissions policy that it followed in the past, until the committee provided recommendations. The Tamil Nadu Government constituted a committee on March 19, which currently is debating the issue. The Tamil Nadu state government also has worked actively to strengthen Hindu institutions. For example, in March 2002, the Government initiated renovation of 200 Hindu temples throughout the state and sponsored spiritual classes in 63 shrines. Such state sponsorship was not available to other religious groups; however, in May Chief Minister Jayalalitha announced her intention to halt all such support.
Other southern states, which have had a history of support for their religious minorities, continued to demonstrate evidence of support for the Hindutva message. In addition to Tamil Nadu's anti-conversion laws, inclusion of BJP membership in Andhra Pradesh's ruling coalition, Karnataka's complacency in investigating crimes of religious violence, "antiminority" remarks of Kerala's Chief Minister Antony, and five instances of communal violence in Kerala since January 2002 signaled a growing acquiescence to the Hindutva agenda. In Karnataka Christian leaders recorded 50 incidents in 2002-03, ranging from destruction of church properties to physical abuse of ministers and converts, reportedly perpetrated by members of the Sangh Parivar. Although reported to the police, none of the incidents were investigated. State authorities did not deny that violence had occurred, but claimed these incidents did not represent any organized effort to deter evangelists.
The Sangh Parivar's attemptsover the past decade to take control of the Sufi syncretic (Hindu-Muslim) shrine known as Guru Dattatreya Baba Budan Swami Dargah at Chikmagalur in Karnataka continued to raise protests from secular groups. The centuries old dargah is believed to have been one of the earliest centers of Sufism in the southern part of the country. In recent years, Hindus have held many festivals at the site, which have alienated the local Muslim community.
Despite concerns expressed by religious minorities in the northern area of the country following attacks on them in Gujarat and Orissa, there were only a few isolated incidents of communal violence in this region during the period covered by this report (see Section III). The appeal of Hindu nationalism appeared to decrease in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP-led state government was defeated in elections in early 2002, and replaced by a secular regional party.
In June 2002, the NHRC investigated the Gujarat February to May 2002 violence and concluded that the attacks, "were a comprehensive failure on the part of the state government to control the persistent violation of rights of life, liberty, equality, and dignity of the people of the state." During the May to June 2003 trial of 21 Hindus accused of burning 12 Muslims and 2 Hindu workers alive in the Best Bakery, 41 of the 73 witnesses recanted their stories. On June 18, 2003, the 21 defendants were acquitted. The key eyewitness, Zahira Sheikh, a 19-year-old woman, claimed in July 2003, during a press conference in Mumbai, that she had testified falsely after BJP leaders repeatedly threatened her family. The NHRC dispatched its team to study the Best Bakery judgment in July 2003 and filed a petition for retrial outside Gujarat in the Supreme Court in August 2003. Subsequently, on April 12, the Supreme Court ordered a new investigation and trial outside of Gujarat in the Best Bakery case, following the state government's submission of an affidavit to the Supreme Court on January 28.
In other cases, the police reportedly downgraded charges against Hindu defendants, filed false charges to cover up their own role in the violence, deleted the names of the accused, and failed to pursue rape cases. According to the Government of Gujarat's January 28 affidavit to the Supreme Court, 2,108 of the 4,256 cases registered in connection with the post-Godhra train burning violence have been filed as a "summary report," which means that the crime happened, but remains undeclared. In 2,130 cases, police have filed charges. The Government of Gujarat claimed in its affidavit to the Supreme Court that police have launched prosecutions against 5,384 persons in Ahmedabad city and 24,683 persons in the state as a whole, for cases related to the 2002 riots.
At the end of the period covered by this report, only 4 of these 2,130 cases completed trial in the lower level courts: the Best Bakery and 3 others. Two cases resulted in acquittals and two in convictions. In the two acquittals (Best Bakery and Mod) the Hindu offenders were exonerated in June and July 2003; while in two other cases, lower courts ruled in November 2003 and January to convict and sentence 13 Hindu offenders (after the Supreme Court's heard the Best Bakery case).
All of these cases are likely to be appealed to the Gujarat High Court and later to the Supreme Court. Final judgments may not be available for several years, and human rights activists and minority groups are skeptical that those guilty of the post-Godhra violence will be punished appropriately.
In March 2003, Gujarat BJP leader and former state Home Minister Haren Pandya was killed. In September 2003, Ahmedabad police charged approximately 80 Muslims including a local Muslim cleric with the murder. The case is scheduled for hearing in a Gujarat fast track POTA court in August. Police have not been able to locate 44 of the accused.
From February through May 2003, the Gujarat state government aggressively surveyed Christian families and agencies. The survey included questions about the number of converts in the household or parish, the circumstances of conversion, and the sources of funding received from abroad. The surveys were carried out by police, often in the middle of the night, although the Gujarat High Court ruled in March 2003 that the survey was illegal. The surveys reportedly ceased during the period covered by this report.
On October 21, 2003, the Gujarat Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Karsan Patel, instructed 400 Dang tribal children, who were boarders at a Christian school in Subir run by the Navjyot Social Service Society, "to decide whether they want to live as Hindus or die as Christians." Patel made this statement at the "Ram Kartha" convention in Subir, which was attended by over 15,000 devotees of Ram, a popular incarnation of a Hindu god. Hindus were asked to reclaim the territory of their god in pamphlets circulated by the VHP at the convention.
There is no national law that bars a citizen or foreigner from professing or propagating his or her religious beliefs; however, speaking publicly against other beliefs is considered dangerous to public order and is prohibited by India's Foreigners Act. This act strictly prohibits visitors who are in the country on tourist visas from engaging in religious preaching without first obtaining permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Given this context, the Government discourages foreign missionaries from entering the country and has a policy of expelling foreigners who perform missionary work without the correct visa.
Long-established foreign missionaries generally can renew their visas, but since the mid-1960s, the government has refused to admit new resident foreign missionaries. During the period covered by this report, there were press reports documenting the activities of Christian missionaries who entered the country on tourist visas and illegally proselytized. This activity led to a public outcry and calls for the government to enforce existing laws more rigidly. U.S. citizens accused of religious preaching while visiting India as tourists have faced difficulties obtaining permission to return to the country for up to a decade after the event.
During the period covered by this report, no foreign missionaries were attacked. However, in April Father Jim Borst, a priest at the Mill Hill Mission in Srinagar, who had worked in India since 1963, was given a "Leave India Notice" from the Foreigner's Registration Office in Kashmir. Borst had served as the principal of St. Joseph's school in Baramulla and Burn Hall School in Srinagar throughout most of that time and engaged in other educational activities. The local authorities notified him that his visa would not be renewed, but did not offer any explanation; some Christian groups concluded the action was religiously motivated harassment. However, Borst remained in Srinagar during the period covered by this report, and his visa renewal request was still being processed.
In January 2003, a group of militant Hindus attacked U.S. missionary Joseph Cooper in Kerala. The police arrested nine suspects in the case; however, as of the end of the period covered by this report, charges had not been filed. The suspects were released after a few days of imprisonment; their leader and principal suspect in the case was not arrested, and the police claimed that he had left their jurisdiction. The state police ordered Joseph Cooper to leave the country in January 2003, on the day he was discharged from the hospital, reportedlybecause his tourist visa was incompatible with his missionary work. The Human Rights groups CHRO and Peoples Watch of Tamil Nadu in a joint fact-finding report on January 30, 2003, quoted then Minister of State for Home AffairsCh. Vidya Sagar Rao, as saying that, "the action taken by the Kerala Police asking Cooper to leave the country within a week would send the right signal." The report, in its findings, also quoted then-Minister of State for Urban Development, O. Rajagopal, as saying, "missionaries were making despicable remarks about Hindu deities," and, "the people will be forced to react if such actions go unchecked."
On June 30, 2003, Gujarat police detained for questioning nine foreigners (eight Saudis and one Sudanese) for misusing their visas by preaching Islam in Gujarat. All were released without charge after a day in custody; reportedly they were in the country on tourist visas. There were no reports during the period covered by this report of Islamic preachers being detained.
Several Christian relief organizations also have been hampered by bureaucratic obstacles in getting visas renewed for foreign relief work. Missionaries and foreign religious organizations must comply with the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, which limits overseas assistance to certain NGOs, including religiously affiliated groups.
The personal status laws of the religious communities sometimes discriminate against women. Under Islamic law, a Muslim husband may divorce his wife spontaneously and unilaterally; there is no such provision for women. However, the Mumbai High Court ruled in 2002 that divorces of Muslim couples must be proven in court. Previously, a Muslim male's assertion of a divorce was sufficient. Islamic law also allows a man to have up to four wives but prohibits polyandry. Under the Indian Divorce Act of 1869, a Christian woman could demand divorce only in the case of spousal abuse and certain categories of adultery; for a Christian man, a wife's adultery alone was sufficient. However, in 2001 this law was amended by Parliament to allow Christian women to file for divorce for the same reasons as men.
The Indian Divorce Act of 2001 places limitations on interfaith marriages and specifies penalties, such as 10 years' imprisonment, for clergymen who contravene its provisions. Under the act, no marriage in which one party is a non-Christian may be celebrated in a church. However, the Indian Divorce Act does not bar interfaith marriages in other places of worship.
Abuses of Religious Freedom
While the central Government has not been implicated in abuses of religious freedom, human rights activists have criticized the Government for indifference and inaction in the face of abuses committed by state and local authorities, as well as private citizens.
Weak enforcement of laws protecting religious freedom partly is due to an over-burdened and corrupt judiciary. The legal system has many years of backlog, and all but the most prominent cases move slowly. Official failure to deal adequately with intra-group and intergroup conflict and with local disturbances in some places has abridged the right to religious freedom. A federal political system in which state governments hold jurisdiction over law and order contributed to the government's ineffectiveness in combating religiously based violence. The country's only national law enforcement agency, the CBI, is required to ask state government permission before investigating a crime in the affected state. States often delay or refuse to grant such permission.
During the period covered by this report, no foreign missionaries were attacked. However, in April Father Jim Borst, a priest at the Mill Hill Mission in Srinagar, who had worked in India since 1963, was given a "Leave India Notice" from the Foreigner's Registration Office in Kashmir. In January 2003, a group of militant Hindus attacked American missionary Joseph Cooper in Kerala and in September 2002, youth members of the Bajrang Dal Party attacked South Koreans suspected of performing missionary work in Orissa.
The eastern part of the country presented a varied picture with regard to religious freedom during the period covered by this report. Sporadic attacks continued but were not concentrated in one geographical area. In Orissa, which has been known for violence against religious minorities (particularly after the killings of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young children in 1999), the communal situation remained relatively unchanged during the period covered by this report, despite the installation of a BJP-Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government which assumed power in 2000 and was re-elected this year. On September 9, 2003, a Hindu mob attacked construction workers building a church and looted construction material in Sudusudia village, Mayurbhanj district. Following a local inquiry, the magistrate found the construction to be illegal because it was purportedly on agricultural land. No official action was taken against those who destroyed the structure and stole material, and no arrests were made.
On December 6, 2003, a peaceful Muslim protest in Hyderabad on the eve of the anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid turned violent when the group encountered a Hindu mob celebrating the mosque's destruction. Two Hindus were stabbed to death; police arrested approximately 35 persons from both communities, but charges had not been laid at the end of the period covered by this report.
In 2003the Minorities Commission of the Delhi stateissued its annual report that claimed that the Christian community had become the target of a sustained misinformation and intimidation campaign. In the Balmikinagar jungles bordering Nepal, police and the RSS have accused missionaries and Oraon tribal Christians of having "links" with the Maoist Communist Center (MCC), an insurgent group on the State Department's "Other Terrorist Organizations" list, and as a result, priests have been detained and asked to leave the area. The commission also reported that adequate space for Christian worship and burial of the dead was not provided by the Government. The commission did not issue a report during the period covered by this report.
In 2002, after Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat, Muslims and human rights activists alleged that the state reserve police sided with the attackers rather than with the victims (see Section III). Human rights activists reported that the Gujarat police received specific instructions not to take action to prevent a possible violent reaction to the February 2002, attack by Muslims on a train in Godhra carrying Hindus (see Section III). In some instances of Hindu aggression against Muslims, police and government officials abetted the violence, and at times security forces were responsible for abuses. Police sometimes assisted Hindu fundamentalists in committing violent acts.
The press and human rights activists have reported widely that police refused to come to the aid of Muslim victims, and in some cases even participated in attacks on Muslims and Muslim-owned businesses. Following the 2002 attack on the train in Godhra, the police reportedly told Muslim victims, "We don't have orders to help you." It was reported that assailants frequently chanted, "the police are with us."
In 2002, the National Election Commission banned all religious processions in the state of Gujarat in connection with the December 12 election. The BJP party with its Hindutva brand of politics won the Gujarat election in a landslide with 126 of 181 assembly seats, winning those constituencies in the central part of the state that were most affected by the rioting. There were minor Hindu-Muslim skirmishes in Gujarat in Vadodara (September 2003 and February), Viramgam (November 2003), Ahmedabad (November 2003 and